.....
this missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely,
without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment or
censure, and may freely and lawfully be used ..... Nor are superiors, administrators, canons,
chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title
designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. ..... Accordingly,
no one whatsoever is permitted to infringe or rashly contravene this notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant,
direction, will, decree and prohibition. Should any person venture to do so,
let him understand he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed
Apostles Peter and Paul.
Pope
St. Pius V, Papal Bull, QUO PRIMUM,
Tridentine Codification of the traditional Roman Rite
of the Mass.
Fourth Sunday after
Pentecost
St. Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr
Within the Octave of St.
John the Baptist
June 28, 2020
The leading thought in today’s liturgy is
again that of trust in God in the midst of struggles and trials. This thought springs from the reading of the
story of David in the Breviary as well as from an incident in the life of St.
Peter, these being the two elements very different in themselves, from which
are drawn the various parts of the Mass.
When almighty God had rejected Saul because
of his pride, He told Samuel to anoint as king, the youngest son of Jesse,
still a young boy. Samuel anointed him
in the midst of his family, while from that day the spirit of God departed from
Saul and descended upon David.
Soon after, the Philistines wishing to
renew the war, assembled their army on the slope of a mountain while Saul drew
up his in a similar position, in such a way that they were separated only be a
valley with a mountain stream. From out
of the Philistines’ camp came the giant, Goliath, having “a helmet of brass
upon his head and he was clothed with a coat of mail. And he had greaves of brass on his legs and a
buckler of brass covered his shoulders.
And the stall of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his
spear weighed six hundred sicles of iron.
And standing he cried out to the bands of Israel and said to them: ‘Am I
not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul?
Choose one a man of you and let him come down and fight hand to
hand. If he be able to fight with me and
kill me we will be servants to you; but if I prevail against him, and kill him,
you shall be servants, and shall serve us.’
And Saul and all the Israelites hearing these words of the Philistines
were dismayed and greatly afraid.”
For forty days the Philistine came forward
morning and evening, renewing his challenge which not one had the courage to
accept. At this juncture young David
visited Saul’s camp, where his brothers were, and hearing Goliath and
witnessing the terror of Israel cried out full of faith: “Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine, who hath dared to curse the army of the living
God? Let not any man’s heart be dismayed
in him. I, thy servant, will go and will
fight against the Philistine.” And Saul
said to David: “Go, and the Lord be with thee.”
Then David, taking his staff and sling,
crossed the bed of the stream and choosing five smooth stones went boldly
forward to meet the Philistine Goliath, who seeing a mere lad coming towards
him exclaimed with great contempt: “Am I a dog that thou comest to me with a
staff?” And the Philistine cursed David
by his gods. And David said to the
Philistine: “I came to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel which thou hast defied.
And all this assembly shall know, that the Lord
saveth not with sword and spear; for it is His battle and He will deliver you
into our hands.”
“The Children of Israel,” says St. Augustine, “had been for forty days face to face with the
enemy. By these forty days, because of
the four seasons and four quarters of the world, is represented this present
life during which the Lord’s people are never without the necessity of fighting
a Goliath and his army, that is the devil and his
angels. Nonetheless, they would never
gain the victory, if Christ, the true David, had not come down to earth with
His staff, that is the mystery of His Cross. For David, a type of Christ, stepped from the
ranks, took his staff in his hand and went forth against the giant so that in
his person we see prefigured what came to pass later on in the case of our Lord
Himself. For Christ, the true David, who
came to fight the spiritual Goliath, that is the devil, Himself carried His
cross. Observe the precise spot where
Goliath was struck by David. It was on
his forehead where he had not the sign of the cross. In the same way that the staff represented
the cross, so the stone which struck Goliath was a figure of Christ, our Lord
(2nd Nocturn).
The army of Israel is the Church who
endured the humiliations inflicted upon her by her enemies. She groans while waiting for her deliverance
(Epistle). She asks the Lord who is “a
refuge of the poor in tribulation” (Alleluia). And who is “a refuge” and
“deliverer” (Communion) to come to her assistance, lest the enemy say: “I have
prevailed against her” (Offertory). With
confidence she cries: “Help us O Lord our Savior, and for the honor of Thy
name, O Lord, deliver us” (Gradual).
“The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom
shall I Fear? The Lord is the protector
of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not
fear. My enemies that trouble me have
themselves been weakened and have fallen” (Introit).
It is that under the guidance of
Providence, that the Church renders “glad service” to God “in peace” (Collect).
This is also clear from the Gospel, chosen because of the nearness of the feast
kept on the 29th of June; in fact a Gospel book (Evangeliarium) of
Wurtzburg actually calls this Doininica ante natalem Apostolorum (Sunday
before the heavenly birthday of the Apostles).
It was from Peter’s boat that our Lord
chose to preach; it was Simon Peter that He told to launch out into the deep,
and it was he who, at the Master’s word of command, laid down the nets which
became so full that they broke. Finally,
it was Peter who overcome with astonishment and fear, adored His Master and was
chosen by Him as a fisher of men.
“St. Matthew,” St. Ambrose tells us,
“describes this boat as tossed by the waves, while St. Luke describes it as
full of fish; here we have a picture of the Church’s vicissitudes in her early
days and of her wonderful prosperity later on.
The vessel which carries divine Wisdom and which is wafted by the wind
of Faith runs no danger. What indeed can
it fear, when for its pilot it has Him who is the very strength of the
Church? Peril is encountered when Faith
is rare; but here there is safety since love is perfect (3rd
Nocturn).
Commenting on a Gospel which is very
similar to this, in which St. John records a miraculous drought of fishes which
took place after our Lord’s resurrection, St. Gregory writes: “What does the
sea represent, if not the present age in which the changes and chances of this
mortal life are like waves which unceasingly dash and break against each other? Of what is the firm ground of the shore a
figure if not the permanence of eternal rest?
Because the disciples were still surrounded by the waves of this mortal
life, they toiled on the sea; and as our Redeemer had put off the corruptibility
of the flesh after His resurrection, He stood on the shore.”
Again in St. Matthew, our Lord compares the
Kingdom of heaven to “a net cast into the sea and gathering together all kinds
of fishes. Which, when it was filled
they drew out; and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good fishes but the
bad they cast forth.”
In the same way Baptism was represented in
the Catacombs by a fisher drawing a fish out of the water. Here then, is the function of the Church
whose head is Peter, “to fish for men”, to free souls from the dangers they
encounter in the world represented by the sea.
“Certainly a new method of fishing,” says St. John Chrysostom. “For fishers drew their fish from the water
to kill them, but we cast our nets into the water and those whom we take are
made alive.” And St. Gregory says, in
today’s homily: “The apostles’ net do not destroy those whom they catch, but
preserve them, bringing them from the bottom of the abyss to the light; raising
to the heights those who are tossed about in the lower depths.”
In St. Peter’s bark, tossed by the angry
waves and the storms of the world, let us put all our trust in Christ. Through His Church He will save us from the
attacks of “the strong man armed,” who is the devil, and as by David He saved
the hosts of Israel, when they defied the giant Goliath.
INTROIT:
Ps. 26. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the protector
of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
My enemies that trouble me have themselves been weakened and have
fallen.
Ps. If armies in camp should stand together
against me, my heart shall not fear.
Glory be, etc.
The Lord etc.
COLLECT:
Grant, O Lord, we pray, both that the course of this world
may be peaceably ordered by Thy governance, and that Thy Church may joyfully
serve Thee in tranquil devotion. Through
our Lord, etc.
O God, who enabled blessed Irenaeus, Thy Martyr and Bishop,
to overcome heresies by the truth of his teaching and happily to establish
peace in the Church, give to Thy people, we pray, steadfastness in holy
religion, and grant us Thy peace in our days.
Through our Lord, etc.
O God, Who hast made this day
honorable to us on account of the birth of blessed John, grant Thy people the
grace of spiritual joys, and direct the minds of all the faithful in the way of
everlasting salvation. Through the same Jesus Christ, etc.
EPISTLE: Rom. 8, 18-23.
Brethren, I reckon that the
sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us. For the expectation of
the creature waiteth for the revelation of the Sons of God. For the creature
was made the subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made
it subject in hope; because the creature also itself shall be delivered from
the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God. For we know that every creature groaneth, and travaileth in pain, even
till now; and not only it, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, even as we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
of the sons of God, the redemption of our body; in Christ Jesus Our Lord.
Brief Lessons:
There is
no better consolation under crosses and afflictions than the thought that all
the troubles of this world are not to be compared with the glory to come, and
"that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh
for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4,
17). And, therefore, St. Bede says: "If we had to bear for awhile the
pains of hell, it would not appear so hard, if thereby we might merit to see
Christ in His glory, and to be added to His saints."
GRADUAL:
Ps 78. Forgive us our sins, O Lord, lest the Gentiles
should at any time say, where is their God?
Help us, O God our Savior; and for the honor of Thy name, O Lord,
deliver us. Alleluia, alleluia.
Ps.9, 10. O God, who sitteth upon the
throne, and judgeth justice, be Thou the refuge of the
poor in tribulation. Alleluia.
GOSPEL: Luke 5, 1-11.
At that time, when the multitude
pressed upon Jesus to hear the word of God, He stood by the lake of Genesareth.
And He saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of
them, and were washing their nets; and going up into one of the ships that was
Simon's, He desired him to draw back a little from the land: and sitting He
taught the multitudes out of the ship. Now when He had ceased to speak, He said
to Simon: Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And
Simon, answering, said to Him: Master, we have labored all the night, and have
taken nothing, but at Thy word I will let down the net. And when they had done
this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes; and their net broke: and
they beckoned to their partners that were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them; and they came, and filled both the
ships, so that they were almost sinking. Which when Simon Peter saw, he fell
down at Jesus' knees, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of
fishes which they had taken: and so were also James and John the sons of
Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not, from
henceforth thou shalt catch men. And having brought their ships to land,
leaving all things, they followed Him.
What may we learn from the
multitudes who pressed on Jesus to hear the word of God?
That we, also, should hear the word of God with great
zeal, since it conveys to men the life of the soul and eternal happiness.
Why did Our Saviour teach the
multitude out of the ship of St. Peter?
That, as the ship is the figure of the Church, so we
can receive the true doctrine from that Church only of which Peter was the head
(John 21, 15-17). Amid all storms Jesus has preserved, and will preserve, this
ship of His Church, till the end of time (Matt. 16, 18). Peter yet stands at
the helm, in the unbroken line of his successors; Jesus yet teaches from the
ship the same doctrines as before, by the mouth of bishops and priests, the
assistants of St. Peter's successors, and whoever hears them hears Him. Hear
them, therefore, with willingness and docility.
What was signified by the
great draught of fishes which the apostles took, by the command of Jesus, after
they had labored the whole night in vain?
To the disciples it was a type of their vocation, a pledge
of their successful labors, and at the same time a
lesson how to labor so as to gain fruits. The exceeding and wonderful abundance
of the draught of fishes was to assure them that their zealous labors to save
souls should, in like manner, be crowned with rich success. That, after
laboring all the night in vain, they should at once take so many fish, when
they let down their nets at the word of Jesus, was to be to them a lesson never
to be forgotten, that they could work with blessing and success only by
relying, not on their own skill and painstaking, but only on the might and
blessing of the Lord.
What other lessons are to be
drawn from this gospel?
We learn that nothing has any value before God which is
done from mere natural inclination and human respect, that
our labors are without merit if not undertaken in the name of God, but that He
does not permit the least work to be in vain when undertaken without
hesitation, relying on His assistance and for His sake. That the disciples
obeyed so quickly, teaches us to obey God at once, to spare no sacrifice, to
leave all quickly, and not to put off till tomorrow what is to be done today.
Finally, we may learn not to be proud of the success of our labor, but, like
Peter, to give glory to God, Who does such great things, by cheerfully leaving
all earthly things to follow Him.
OFFERTORY:
Ps.12. Enlighten my eyes,
that I may never sleep in death; lest at any time my enemy say, I have
prevailed against him.
SECRET:
Receive, we pray, O Lord, our
offerings, and even though our wills rebel, mercifully compel them to follow
the behests of Thy will. Through our
Lord, etc.
O God, who sufferest not the
nations who believe in Thee to be shaken by any terror, vouchsafe to receive
the prayers and offerings of the people dedicated to Thee, that in Thy mercy
Thou wouldst grant peace to Christendom, and make it secure against all its
enemies. Through our Lord, etc.
We heap Thine altars with gifts,
O Lord, celebrating with fitting honor the nativity of him who heralded the
coming of the Saviour, and pointed Him out when He had come, Our Lord Jesus
Christ, Thy Son. Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, etc
COMMUNION:
Ps. 17. The Lord is my strength, and my refuge, and
my deliverer; my God is my helper.
POSTCOMMUNION:
May the mysteries we have received,
O Lord, purify us, and guard us as befits such a gift. Through our Lord, etc.
O God, the author and lover of
peace, to know whom is to live, to serve whom is to reign, shield Thy
suppliants from all assaults, that, we who put our trust in Thy protection may
have the intercession of blessed Irenaues, Thy Martyr and Bishop, and fear no
foe. Through our Lord, etc.
May Thy
Church, O God, be joyful at the birth of blessed John the Baptist, through whom
she knew the Author of her regeneration, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son. Who with livest and reignest, etc.
When Simon Peter saw, he
fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O
Lord… And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
And... leaving all things,
they followed Him.
PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR
THE WEEK OF JUNE 28th:
|
28
|
Sun
|
4th Sunday
after Pentecost
St. Irenaeus, BpM
Within the Octave
|
sd
|
G
|
|
9:00 AM; Members Ss.
Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM
|
|
29
|
Mon
|
Ss. Peter & Paul,
App
Within the Octave
|
d1cl
|
R
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary
of Reparation before Mass
|
|
30
|
Tue
|
Commemoration of St.
Paul, Ap
St. Peter, Ap
Within the Octave
|
dm
|
W
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary
of Reparation before Mass
|
|
1
|
Wed
|
The Most Precious
Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Octave day of St. John the Baptist
Within the Octave of Ss. P & P
|
d1cl
|
R
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary
of Reparation before Mass
|
|
2
|
Thu
|
Visitation of the
Virgin Mary
Ss. Processus & Marinian, Mm
Within the Octave of Ss. P & P
|
d2cl
|
W
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary
of Reparation before Mass
|
|
3
|
Fri
|
St. Leo II, PC
Within the Octave of Ss. P & P
First
Friday
|
sd
|
W
|
A
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary
of Reparation before Mass; Benediction & Holy Hour of Reparation after
Mass
|
|
4
|
Sat
|
Within the Octave of
Ss. P & P
First
Saturday
|
sd
|
W
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM, Confessions
8:30 AM; Holy Hour & Benediction with Rosary of Reparation after Mass
|
|
5
|
Sun
|
5th Sunday
after Pentecost
St. Anthony Mary
Zaccaria, C
Within the Octave of
Ss. P & P
|
sd
|
G
|
|
9:00 AM; Members Ss.
Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM
|
“Father,” said He, “sanctify in the truth them whom Thou gavest Me;
sanctify them in the truth which is Thy Word; for it is for them that I do sanctify
Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” What means this, that
Jesus, who is sanctity itself, and is the source of sanctity to all creatures,
should speak of sanctifying Himself? The
fathers of the Church explain it as being the consecration of the sacrifice, by
which Jesus, who is the great High Priest, gives to God, in the name of the
whole world, the infinite homage which is due to infinite Majesty. In human language, as also in the inspired Scriptures
(Acts 3, 14), justice and sanctity are one and the same. If, then, infinite sanctity is one with
infinite justice, is not the essentially sanctified and sanctifying act that
sacrifice of the Son of Man which so loudly proclaims, and so amply, yea so
infinitely, satisfies the right of God, the eternal right, whence all other
rights derive their existence, the right which is the origin of all
justice? Sacrifice, then, thus
sanctifying the Head and the members, is also the consummation of union between
Christ and His Church.
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year,
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
O
Florinus, this teaching is not that transmitted to us by the ancients, the
disciples of the apostles. I used to
behold thee at the side of Polycarp; though shining at court thou didst none
the less seek to be pleasing unto him. I
was then but a child, yet the things that happened at that time are more vivid
in my recollection than those of yesterday; for indeed childhood’s memories
form, as it were, a part of the very soul; they grow with her. I could point out the very spot where sat
blessed Polycarp while he conversed with us; I could describe exactly his
bearing, his address, his manner of life, his every feature, and the discourses
he made to the crows. Thou rememberest
how he used to tell us of his intercourse with John (the Apostle) and the rest
of those that had seen the Lord, and with what a faithful memory he repeated
their words; what he had learnt from them respecting our Lord, his miracles,
his doctrine, all these things Polycarp transmitted to us, as having himself
received them from the very men that had beheld with their eyes the Word of
life; all of what he told us was conformable to the Scriptures. What a grace from God were these conversations
of his! I used to listen so eagerly,
noting everything down, not on parchment, but on my very heart; and now, by the
grace of God, I still live on it all.
Hence, I can attest before God, if the blessed apostolic old man had
heard discourses such as thine he would have stopped his ears, saying, as was
his wont: “O God most good, to what sort of times hast thou reserved us!” Then would he have got up quickly, and would
have fled from that place of blasphemy.
St.
Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr, in a letter written to win Florinus from heresy to
the true Faith
The loss of faith being
the most radical and the deepest of all causes of estrangement from God, it is
not surprising to observe the horror which heresy inspired in those day, when union with God was the one treasure longed
for by all conditions and ages of life.
The name Irenaeus signifies peace; … Nevertheless, Irenaeus
himself relates with regard to his master Polycarp, how, when being asked by
the heretic Marcion if he knew him, he replied: ‘I know thee to be the
first-born of Satan.’ He also tells us
that St. John, hearing that Cerinthus was in the same public edifice into which
he had just entered, fled precipitately, for fear, as he said, that because of
this enemy of truth the wall of the building would crumble down upon them all:
‘so great,’ remarks the bishop of Lyons, ‘was the fear the apostles and their
disciples had of communicating, even by word, with any one of those who altered
truth.’
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Irenaeus,
Bishop, Martyr, Father of the Church
The tribute of death
was unknown to Levi; this dower of blood was never exacted of Aaron by Jehovah:
for who is it that would die for a slave? The Synagogue was no bride! Love is the sign which distinguishes this age
of the new dispensation from the law of servitude. Powerless, sunk in cringing fear, the Jewish
priest could but sprinkle with the blood of victims substituted for himself the horns of the figurative altar. At once both Priest and Victim, Jesus expects
more of those whom he calls to a participation in the scared prerogative which
makes him Pontiff for ever according to the order of Melchisesech. “I will not now call you servants: for the
servant knoweth not what his lord doth.” Thus saith he to these men whom he
raised above angels at the Last Supper; “but I have called you friends, because
all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. As the Father hath loved me, I also have
loved you. Abide in my love.”
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of Ss. Peter and
Paul
Our Lady of Fatima, through
her Immaculate Heart,
has promised the conversion of
the Russian people to the Catholic Church
The Slavonic race spreads ever
strong, ever indomitable to the influence of invasion, maintaining, in the
midst of the empires that by force of arms have at last prevailed over it, a
dualism which the conquering nation must be resigned to endure through the
course of centuries as a living menace with her, a very thorn in her side, such
an unparalleled phenomenon is but the product of the powerful demarcation
effected a thousand years ago between this race and the rest of the world, by
the introduction of its national language into the liturgy by Saints Cyril and
Methodius with the approval of Rome.
Having thus become sacred, the primitive Slavonic tongue has undergone
none of those variations incident to the idiom of every other nation; whilst
giving birth to the various dialects of the different peoples issuing from the
common stock, it has itself remained the same, following the most insignificant
Slavonic tribes through every phase of their history, and continuing, in the
case of the greater number of them, to group them apart from all other
nationalities at the foot of their own altars.
Beautiful indeed such unity as this, a very glory for holy Church, had
but the desire and the hope of the two saints who based it on the immutable
rock (of Peter) been able to keep it ever fixed thereon!
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, regarding the Slavonic
peoples
Fortitude needs
direction. The gift of knowledge is not
the guide of fortitude, and for this reason: knowledge teaches the soul her
last end, and gives her general rules for her conduct; but it does not bring
her light sufficient for the special application of God’s law to particular
cases, and for the practical doing of her duty.
The Holy Ghost through the gift of counsel will tell us what we must do
and what we must not do, what we must say and what we must not say, what we may
keep and what we must give up.
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year
The
“Spirit of Vatican II” dissolving - Correcting the error that pastoral care and
doctrine are only accidentally related.
The practice of the Church always comes from what She
receives and contemplates in Revelation. Pastoral care cannot be disconnected
from doctrine.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, L’Osservatore Romano, June 12, 2015
O Holy Ghost…be Thou our counsel unreservedly and forever! Show me, O Lord, Thy ways, and teach me: for
Thou art the God who canst save me; therefore have I waited on Thee, all the
day long (Ps. 34).
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year on the Gift of Counsel
It is by as great a
fraud...that these enemies of divine revelation, who bestow the highest praises
on human progress, wish, with a truly reckless and sacrilegious audacity, to
bring it [the progressist error] into the Catholic religion, as if religion was
not the work of God, but that of men, or was some philosophic discovery that
human methods could perfect.
Blessed Pope Pius IX, Qui
pluribus
Such is the admirable
harmony between God’s approach to His creature and its advance towards
Him. God is not found save in Jesus; nor
Jesus save in the Church; nor the Church save in Peter. “If you had known me,” said Christ, “you
would without doubt have known my Father also,” but the Jews sought God outside
Jesus, and their efforts were vain.
Since then others have come, wanting to find Jesus whilst setting aside
His Church; but that which God has joined, what man shall put asunder?
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, During the Octave of Ss.
Peter and Paul
OF THE POPE
What is the Pope to the
Catholic?
The
representative of Jesus Christ, and the visible head, appointed by Him, for the
government of His Church.
Did Christ actually appoint
such a supreme head?
Yes, and that in the person of
Saint Peter. He gave him the significant name Peter - the rock, distinguished
him always above the other apostles, and laid upon him the charge to feed His
lambs, that is, the faithful, and His sheep, that is, the bishops themselves;
and this power Peter uniformly exercised.
Why did Christ appoint a
visible head for the Church?
Because the
Church is an outward, visible society, united together not only by inward faith
in Christ, but also by outward, visible signs. Such a visible head is as
necessary for the Church as for a body, a family, a society, a state, to
prevent disunion, confusion, and the consequent destruction of the whole; this
supreme head is the center of the whole, the final judge, the authoritative
teacher.
Who is now this supreme head?
The Bishop of
Rome, or the Pope. It is undeniable that Peter occupied the bishop’s see
at Rome, and that he died there. Equally indisputable is it that the successor
of Saint Peter entered upon possession of his rights, and, together with the
episcopal see of Rome, inherited also the office possessed by him. From the
first centuries this has ever been acknowledged by the faithful, who have
accordingly called the Bishop of Rome Pope - that is, the father of the
faithful. And how clearly does history show that Peter and his successors are
the rock upon which the Lord has immovably founded His Church! What storms have
not broken upon the Church! Persecutions from without and within, heresies and
schisms without number, and infidelity in its most hideous form, have raged
against the Church, and what has been the consequence? Nations have often
fallen away from the Church, single bishops have proved betrayers of their
flocks, the sees of the apostles themselves have been
subject to the vicissitudes of time. And amid all these storms Rome alone has,
for over eighteen hundred years, stood firm. She has come out of every contest
victorious, has remained the center of faith and discipline, and has preserved
the unbroken succession of bishops from Peter. Who does not see herein the
assistance of Him Who forever fulfils that promise of His, “Upon this rock I
will build My Church, and the gates I of hell shall
not prevail against it”? The Pope is, therefore, the visible supreme head of
the Church, appointed by Christ for all time; the invisible, all-governing head
is Christ Himself.
Prayer
O Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who hast built Thy Church on Saint Peter,
as on a rock, Who hast confided to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
constituted him and his successors Thy representatives upon earth, grant us Thy
grace, that in all the laws we may obey them as Thyself, that, resting upon the
rock of truth, we may be immovable in all storms, and steadfastly persevere in
the way of good works.
The Second Vatican
Council has not been treated as a part of the entire living Tradition of the
Church, but as an end of Tradition, a new start from zero. The truth is that
this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to
remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it
as though it had made itself into a sort of superdogma which takes away the
importance of all the rest.
Pope Benedict XVI, as
Cardinal Ratzinger, to the Bishops of Chile
All the faithful in the
state of grace are united with one another by charity. They are all members of
one sole body, that is, of the Church. Now in an organism each member is aided
by all others. Thus every Christian is aided by the merits of all other
Christians.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Whoever makes a habit
of prayer should think only of doing everything to conform his will to
God’s. Be assured that in this
conformity consists the highest perfection we can attain, and those who
practice it with the greatest care will be favored by God’s greatest gift and
will make the quickest progress in the interior life. Do not imagine there are other secrets. All our good consists in this.
St. Teresa of Avila
“Brother, one
single Mass is of greater value than all the treasures which the world
contains!”
St. Leonard of Port Maurice, a few days before his death, in a weakened
state and having difficulty standing, to a lay brother who had advised him not
to say his Mass.
FIRM CONFIDENCE
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PRESENCE
OF GOD ‑
O Lord, make me understand that I am nothing, that I can do nothing by myself,
and that only in You can I accomplish anything.
MEDITATION:
I.
Two ideas dominate the liturgy of today’s Mass great confidence in God and an
acute awareness of human misery and insufficiency. These two ideas are closely
connected, for it is the consciousness of our nothingness which leads us to put
all our confidence in God, and the greater this confidence becomes in us, the
more convinced we are of our nothingness.
The
Mass begins with a cry of unshakable hope
“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?” (Introit). The Lord is with
me in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, the Lord comes to me in Holy
Communion. What can separate me from Him? What can make me fear?
Yet I know my weakness; I have ever before my
eyes the remembrance of my failures and infidelities. How great, then, is my
need to humbly repeat the beautiful prayer of the Gradual: “Save us, O Lord,
and pardon our sins .... Help us, O God, our Savior, for the glory of Your
Name.” Yes, in spite of the continual help of divine grace, in spite of so many
confessions and communions, I have to acknowledge new failures every day;
daily, I must begin anew. The struggle is arduous and painful, but in today’s
Epistle (Rom 8, 18‑23), St. Paul reminds us that “the sufferings
of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be
revealed in us.” This thought is one of consolation, hope and confidence; it
does not, however, prevent us from longing for freedom and complete redemption.
This is what the Apostle experienced when he said: “We also, who have the first
fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body in Christ Jesus.” The
more we suffer because of our wretchedness, the more we should run to Jesus,
with full confidence in the power of His Redemption.
2. Today’s Gospel (Lk 5,
1-11) is a practical demonstration of the words of Jesus: “Without Me, you can
do nothing” (Jn 15, 5). Simon and his companions had been fishing all
night and had caught nothing; that is all they had been able to do by
themselves. If we have had some little experience in the spiritual life, we
will recognize that this is often our situation too. How many efforts we have
made to rid our self of this or that attachment, to forget injuries, to adapt
our self to our neighbor’s way of doing things, to subject our will to
another’s! And yet, after all these attempts, we find our hands empty, like
Peter’s nets. Let us not be discouraged; if we can humbly acknowledge our
failure instead of feeling annoyance because of it, the failure itself will
turn into victory. So it happened to Peter after he had admitted publicly that
he had “taken nothing.” St. Therese of the Child Jesus comments: “Had the
Apostle caught some small fish, perhaps our divine Master would not have worked
a miracle; but he had caught nothing, and so through the power and
goodness of God his nets were soon filled with great fishes. Such is Our Lord’s
way. He gives as God, with divide generosity, but He insists on humility of
heart” (L ).
In spite of our good will to advance in
virtue, Our Lord will not permit us to have any success until He sees that we
are thoroughly convinced of our own weakness and inability; to give us this
conviction, He lets us, as He let Peter, “work all night without catching
anything.” But afterwards, as He sees our growing awareness of our poverty and
our willingness to admit it openly, He will come to our aid. We must, then,
have great faith in Him, never allowing ourselves to give up through lack of
success. Every day, relying “on His word,” we must begin anew. If we have
learned not to trust in our own strength, we must also learn to have complete
confidence in the divine aid. If we have caught nothing until now, perhaps it
is our lack of unshakable confidence that is the cause, and this deficiency,
besides being displeasing to Jesus, paralyzes our spiritual life. Then let us
repeat with Peter in a similar cry of confidence “in verbo tuo laxabo rete,”
Lord, at Thy word, I will let down the net. And let us repeat it every day,
every moment, without ever growing weary.
COLLOQUY:
“O Lord, You are my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear? You are the protector
of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ... If armies in camp should stand
together against me, my heart shall not fear. If a battle should rise up
against me, in this will I be confident. One thing do I ask of You, O Lord,
that I may dwell in Your house all the days of my life ....
Then, in the day of evils, You will protect me in the
secret place of Your tabernacle, You will exalt me upon a rock....
“Hear, O Lord, my voice with which I have
cried to You : have mercy on me and hear me.... Turn
not away Your face from me; decline not in Your wrath
from Your servant; be my helper, forsake me not; do not despise me, O God my
Savior. Although my father and my mother should abandon me, I am sure that You will never abandon me.... O my soul,
expect the Lord, do manfully, and let your heart take courage, and wait
for Him” (Ps 26).
“O Lord, You have done great things in me,
and the greatest of all is that you have shown me my littleness, and how of
myself I am incapable of anything good.
“Lord, You see how
often I fail, but I am never astonished at it... I enter into myself and say:
`Alas, I am once more at the first step as before!’ But I say this in great
peace without sadness, because I know that You know
perfectly how fragile is our nature and You are always ready to help us. What,
then, shall I fear? As soon as You see me fully
convinced of my nothingness, You stretch out Your hand to me; but if I should
try to do something great, even under the pretext of zeal, You desert me. So
all I have to do is to humble myself, to bear with meekness my imperfections.
Herein lies, for me, true holiness” (T.C.J. St, 9. NV ‑
C).
If we are guilty of pride let
us try and amend and not flatter ourselves that we possess the smallest degree
of humility, until by our good resolutions carefully carried out we have
mortified our evil tendency to speak ill of our neighbor. Let us hearken to the
Holy Ghost: “Where pride is there also shall be reproach, but where humility is
there also is wisdom” (Prov. 11, 2).
The proud man is scornful and
arrogant in his speech; and the humble alone knows how to speak well and
wisely. If there is humility in the heart it will be manifested in the speech,
because “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that
which is good” (Luke 6, 45).
Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, Humility of Heart
Feast of the
Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Seven Offerings of the Precious Blood
Eternal Father, I offer
You the merits of the Most Precious Blood of
Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for the propagation and exaltation of
my dear Mother the Holy Church, for the safety and prosperity of her visible
Head, the Holy Roman Pontiff, for the cardinals, bishops and pastors of souls
and for all the ministers of the sanctuary.
Glory be to the Father,
etc.; Blessed
and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer You the merits of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for the peace and
concord of nations, for the conversion of the enemies of our holy Faith, and
for the happiness of all Christian people.
Glory be... Blessed and praised...
Eternal Father, I offer You the merits of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for the repentance of
unbelievers, the extirpation of all heresies and the conversion of sinners.
Glory be... Blessed and praised...
Eternal Father, I offer
You the merits of the Most Precious Blood of
Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for all my relations, friends and
enemies, for the poor, the sick, and those in tribulation, and for all those
for whom You will that I should pray, or know that I ought to pray.
Glory be... Blessed and praised...
Eternal Father, I offer
You the merits of the Most Precious Blood of
Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for all those who shall this day pass
to another life that You may preserve them from the pains of Hell and admit
them the more readily to the possession of Your Glory.
Glory be... Blessed and praised...
Eternal Father, I offer
You the merits of the Most Precious Blood of
Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for all those who are lovers of this
Treasure of His Blood, and for all those who
join with me in adoring and honoring It, and for all those who try to spread
devotion to It.
Glory be... Blessed and praised...
Eternal Father, I offer
You the merits of the Most Precious Blood of
Jesus, Your Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for all my wants, spiritual and
temporal, for the holy souls in Purgatory and particularly for those who in
their lifetime were most devoted to this Price of our Redemption and to the
sorrows and pains of our dear Mother, Mary most holy.
Glory be... Blessed and praised...
Blessed and exalted be the Blood of Jesus, now
and always, and through all eternity! Amen
SKETCH OF THE
LIFE OF ST. PETER
PETER, formerly called Simon, from
Bethsaida in Galilee, was a son of Jonas and a brother of Andrew, by whom he was
brought to Christ. After the great draught of fishes, when our Lord said to him
and Andrew: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, Peter followed the
Saviour constantly, from whom he received the most tender
proofs of love. Peter was present when Christ appeared in His glory on Mount
Thabor, when He raised the daughter of Jairus to life, and when He sweat blood in the agony on Mount Olivet. Peter was also
present at the miraculous draught of fishes, which was a figure of the
multitudes which he was to bring, by means of the holy Gospel, to the kingdom
of God, for Christ called him a fisher of men, and afterwards, because Peter
recognized and professed Him to be the Son of the living God, Christ named him
Peter, made him the head of the apostles and of the entire Church, made him His
vicar and visible representative upon earth, promising to build His Church upon
him as upon a rock, gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and commanded
him to feed His lambs and His sheep. Peter loved our Lord above all things;
because of his love he wished to remain with Christ upon Mount Thabor to
prevent Him from suffering, and in his love desired to die with Christ. He
certainly showed the greatest courage when Christ was taken, following Him even
into the house of Caiphas. But alas, the instability of man! There Peter three
times denied the Lord. But the look of forgiving love which Jesus .east upon
him, forced from him tears of the deepest contrition. He atoned for his denial
by suffering much for Christ. Under the Emperor Nero he was crucified for his
faith at Rome, and by his own request with his head downwards, because he did
not consider himself worthy to die like Christ. Oh! that
all sinners would seek by such penance to turn their evil into good!
PRAYER TO ST.
PETER. O God, who from a poor fisherman hast
made St. Peter prince of the apostles and head of Thy Church, we beseech Thee
through his intercession to make us true lambs of Thy flock. Grant, that we may
hear his voice, follow his doctrine, and walk in his steps, until we reach that
happy pasture where the Good Shepherd, Thine only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ,
whom St. Peter represented on earth, reigns with Thee and the Holy Ghost
forever. Amen.
SKETCH OF THE
LIFE OF ST. PAUL
PAUL, before his conversion called
Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, and was a pupil
of Gamaliel. As he had the most zealous attachment for the Jewish law, he was
exasperated against the Christians. However, when hastening to Damascus to
persecute them, he was converted by the Lord on the way and called to be an
apostle. [See the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.] His unwearied labors in
the vineyard of the Lord after his conversion, the sufferings which he endured
upon his apostolic journeys, and the dangers and
persecutions through which he passed in different countries, cannot be
described. The zeal and constancy with which he confessed and preached the
faith, though in chains and fetters, though scourged and beaten, in hunger and
thirst, and through innumerable dangers, are almost incredible. He was so
humble that he regarded himself as the least of the apostles, and thanked God
fervently that He considered him worthy to suffer for His sake. After he had
fought a good fight and finished his course, having everywhere zealously
preached the faith, and still more zealously practiced it, he won the crown of
justice. On the same day and at the same place in Rome, in which Peter was
crucified, he was beheaded, by command of the Emperor Nero. Thus God tries and
rewards true virtue. Paul in his life, as after death, worked numberless
miracles; even his handkerchief, like St. Peter's shadow, healed sickness and
expelled devils. He had so deeply impressed the name of Jesus in his heart, that it was almost continually on his lips, for
"out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh." Would that we
loved Jesus as St. Paul loved Him, then we would, like St. Paul, be ready to do
and suffer much for Him.
PRAYER TO ST.
PAUL. O St. Paul, chosen vessel of the Lord, who didst carry the
name of Jesus to kings and heathens, who didst suffer so much for Christ, and
wast never allured from the love of Him: like a brave soldier of Christ, thou
hast fought a good battle, a zealous teacher, thou hast preached far and wide
the true faith, and the just and merciful God has, therefore, rewarded thee
with the crown of justice: pray to God for me, that I who because of my sins am
an instrument of wrath, may become an instrument of honor, adorned with the
Christian virtues, with which thou art already decorated. Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Feast of the
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The angel Gabriel had
announced to Mary that God would soon give a son to Elizabeth. The Virgin at once betook herself to Hebron,
where her cousin resided. The Feast of
the Visitation was established by Urban VI, 6 April 1389 (Decree published by
Boniface IX, 9 Nov., 1389) to invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin
Mary for the purpose of restoring peace to the Church during the Western
Schism, which rent the seamless garment of Christ. It was celebrated on the day following the
Octave Day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, July 2nd for a
specific reason. The Octave Day of the
Nativity of St. John is the anniversary of his circumcision on which day St.
Zachary’s tongue was loosened and his canticle pronounced ending with these
words, “the Orient from on high hath visited us: To enlighten them that sit in
darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of
peace.” It was this “peace” brought
through the Virgin Mary that the Church sought.
It was also on July 2nd that Blessed Pius IX returned to Rome
in 1849 after his forced exile during the Masonic revolutions in Europe, again
restoring peace to the Church. In
thanksgiving, Blessed Pius IX raised the dignity of the feast to a double of
the second class. Our Lady, the true Ark
of the Covenant, bearing within her the Emmanuel, the living testimony of a
true reconciliation, of an alliance more sublime between earth and heaven, is
the source of all true peace.
In the 1962 Missal the
ranking of the Visitation was downgraded so that the Mass would never be
offered in place of the Mass of an ordinary Sunday. Further, the octave of St. John the Baptist,
one of the many octaves suppressed by Fr. Annibale Bugnini and his liturgical
commission was also suppressed. Without
the octave of St. John, it made no theological sense to have the Visitation to
be celebrated on July 2nd.
The Novus Ordo liturgists therefore translated the feast to May 31st
ignoring the purpose of its traditional establishment. Since then, there has been no peace for the
Church.
Why the Church
Requires Our Prayers for the Sovereign Pontiff
The Holy Ghost, who has
guaranteed the infallible purity of the doctrine taught officially from the
apostolic Chair, has not pledged himself to protect in a like degree from all
failure either the virtue, or the private judgment, or ever the administrative
acts of the Sovereign Pontiff…Our Lord has willed that to the prayers of all
should be confided the charge of completing His work by obtaining for the
successors of Peter such preservative graces as do not of themselves
necessarily spring from the divine constitution of the Church.
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Leo II
HISTORY
REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN, AND AGAIN
How was it the St. Leo
the Great’s (440-461) clear and complete exposition of the dogma and the anathemas
of Chalcedon in 451 did not succeed in silencing the arguments of that heresy
which refused to our nature its noblest title, by denying that it had been
assumed in its integrity by the divine Word (Monophysite heresy)? Because for truth to win the
day it suffices not merely to expose the lie uttered by error. More than once, history gives instances of
the most solemn anathemas ending in nothing but lulling the vigilance of the
guardians of the holy city. The struggle
seemed ended…yet error went on noiselessly, making profit of the silence which
ensued after its defeat. Then its
progress became all the more redoubtable at the very time it was pretending to
have disappeared without leaving a trace behind (referring to the Monotheilite
heresy which was a minor variation on the Monophysite heresy). Pope Honorius (625-638), placed on the
pinnacle of the Church, as Pope Leo II (682-683) said, “had
not made her shine with the splendour of apostolic doctrine, but by profane
treason had suffered the faith, which should be spotless to be exposed to
subversion.” Pope St. Martin I (649-655)
repaired by his own martyrdom the fault committed by Honorius and at the Sixth
Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in 680, Pope Leo II, sending forth
his thunders in unison with the assembled Church against the new Eutychians did
not spare even his own predecessor.
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Leo II
If such were the
horrors of the birth of Liberalism what must be said of its odious development
in our own day, when its infernal principles bask in the full light of the
world’s approbation? Never has an error been more severely castigated by the
condemnation of the Church, never more accurately have those condemnations been
borne out by the testimony of experience and history. When Protestantism is
fast losing its power, sinking into the abyss out of sheer impotence,
Liberalism, even more formidable and more dangerous, fills the ranks of the
decaying heresy with enemies still more resourceful, implacable and obstinate. Protestantism
is now a dead dog; Liberalism a living lion going about seeking whom he may
devour. Its dreadful doctrine is permeating society to the core; it has become
the modern political creed and threatens us with a second revolution to turn
the world once again over to paganism. Are there any good Catholics who do
not believe this? Let them but read the signs of the times, not with the eyes
of the world, but by the light of the faith, which Jesus Christ gave to them.
“I am the way, the truth and the life,” said our Divine Lord, “who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life” [John 8: 12]. Who follows the Church follows Him, for He
Himself said to the Apostles and their successors, “Who hears you, hears
Me.”
Don Felix Sarda Y
Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin
But you shall
receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall
be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and
even to the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8
Rise of the
Guayrà Missions, A.D. 1610-1628
It is a remarkable fact that all Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries
paid much respect to the tradition among the natives that St. Thomas the
Apostle had preached the Gospel in South America. Not alone in Paraguay, but in Brazil, we find
numerous traces of Pay Zuma or Pay Tuma, the equivalent in Guarani for “our
Father Thomas,” and among the mixed and fantastical creed of the tribes in
Guayrà there was a vague belief in a triple God, in a Saviour born of a virgin,
and now residing in the sun, and the tradition of a general deluge. May it not
he possible that St. Thomas passed from China into America, or that the
Guaranis had some intercourse with Chinese Christians? It is very curious that
the word “tea” is Chã in China, and Caã in Guarani, and that Chih-li, one of
the divisions of the Chinese empire, has almost the same name as the country
south of Peru.
Marion McMurrough Mulhall, New
World Before and After Columbas and the Story of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay
. . . it is clear that
the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their [non-Catholic]
assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for
such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false
Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We
suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely
revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth.
Pope Pius XI, Mortalium
Animos
The result is very plain-----namely, Though
God Almighty has been pleased to ordain that none shall be saved who have not
the True Faith of Jesus Christ, and are not in communion with His Holy Church,
yet this is no way inconsistent with the infinite goodness of God, because He
gives to all sufficient graces, by which they may, if they correspond with
them, be brought to the True faith and Church of Christ; and that, if any are
lost, it is not owing to any want of goodness in God, but to their own abuse of
the graces bestowed upon them. On some, indeed, He bestows these graces more
abundantly, giving them five talents-----to others He gave more sparingly, to some
two, and to some only one; but He gives to all sufficient for their present
wants, and will give more if those be improved, till at last He brings them to
the knowledge of His truth and to salvation.
Bishop George Hay, The
Sincere Christian
A
Cassandra for Our Age, A Man Who Could Have Cleaned
the “Augean Stables”
The clear indication of the increasing acceptance of homosexuality is
the openness with which more or less permanent homosexual partners declare
publicly the existence of their relationships.
The status such relationships are accorded by significant social
structures is also indicative that homosexuality enjoys an unprecedented degree
of recognition. Since the practice of
homosexuality has been traditionally rejected as sinful, irrational, and
criminal by the dominant segments of our society, the idea of homosexuals
living together in marriage-like unions has been particularly abhorrent. For a society that considers the nuclear
family its basic cell, homosexual “couples” appear to be a form of cancer.
Still, for the homosexual movement, the existence and acceptance of
such arrangements is most important.
This explains the relentless campaign waged during the White House
Conference on Families to have “alternative” families, including a variety of
homosexual liaisons, recognized as legitimate.
It also explains the existence of “gay union” rituals, parallel to
wedding ceremonies, which take place in homosexual and mainline churches alike. For the homosexual movement, any rejection of
the legitimacy of same-sex couple relationships is tantamount to oppression.
For Jennie Boyd Bull, writing in the The
Gay Christian, a homosexual theological journal, such oppression is similar
to the slavery to which black people were subjected in the past.
Fr. Enrique T. Rueda, The Homosexual Network,
published 1982. Fr. Enrique Rueda, whose
critical assistance was never wanting for the establishment of Ss. Peter &
Paul Roman Catholic Mission, was incardinated in the diocese of Havana but
ordained by and worked in the diocese of Rochester, NY.
Fr. Rueda last Mass offered at our chapel was Easter Sunday, March 23,
2008. Fr. Rueda died December 14,
2009. Fr. Timothy Hopkins’opinion was that
Fr. Rueda would have made an exemplary and effective Catholic bishop.
And
Yet, Not Another Word!
Pope talks to
CLAR about a “gay lobby” and corruption in the Vatican
The leaders of the Conference of Latin American Religious (CLAR) refer
to an audience in which Francis spoke of the existence of a “gay lobby” in the
Roman Curia. Lombardi issued no statement on the matter, saying the meeting was
of a private nature ANDREA TORNIELLI vatican city
06/11/2013
In the Curia…there are holy
people,” but there is also “a current of corruption”, Pope Francis allegedly
told the leadership of the Latin American Conference of Religious (CLAR) in a
private audience in the Apostolic Palace library on 6 June. A Chilean website
published a partial account of the conversation.
According to the Latin
American religious, the Pope also talked about a “gay lobby” existing in
the Vatican: “The “gay lobby” is mentioned, and it is true, it is there... We
need to see what we can do...,” the Pope was quoted saying. The director of the
Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi said he had “no statement to make
on the proceedings or on the content of the conversation” the content of which
was not therefore recorded or transcribed.
“Envy conceals itself under every possible pretext,
and takes pleasure in secret and treacherous schemes. Hinted slanders, calumnies, betrayal, every
kind of fraud and deceit, are its work and portion.”
Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
“The
True Challenge of the Pontiff is the Heresy of Homosexuality”
“The Holy Father has confirmed that which everyone had known for many
years. I think that the wall of omertà
that has existed for a long time is destroyed.
But now, how to demolish that other wall of omertà that exists inside
the seminaries? Who is concerned with the revolution of Benedict XVI who
forbade the ordination of homosexual priests?
The problem of the gay lobby in the Vatican is important, but
marginal. The true challenge of the
Pontiff is the heresy of homosexuality, what I call the ‘homoheresy’, that is,
the rejection of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, whose
defenders are in favor of priesthood for gays. The Holy Father must combat this
heresy that has spread throughout the Church.
Who, in Italy, is interested in the current situation of the
seminaries? And there is where the
future of the Church is decided! The only way forward is to continue the
revolution of Ratzinger, who wished to ‘free’ the seminaries from gay educators
and homosexual seminarians.” ...
Fr. Dariusz Oko, theology professor, Pontifical University John Paul
II, Krakow, who has denounced the gay lobby in the Vatican
“And a man’s enemies shall
be they of his own household” Mt. 10-36.
After the death of Cyril
in 869, Archbishop Methodius was summoned in 870 by King Louis and the German
bishops to a synod at Ratisbon. Here he was deposed and condemned to prison.
After three years he was liberated at the command of Pope John VIII and
reinstated as Archbishop of Moravia. He zealously endeavored to spread the
Faith among the Bohemians, and also among the Poles in Northern Moravia. Soon,
however, he was summoned to Rome again in consequence of the allegations of the
German priest Wiching, who impugned his orthodoxy, and objected to the use of
Slavonic in the liturgy. But Pope John VIII, after an inquiry, sanctioned the
Slavonic Liturgy, decreeing, however, that in the Mass the Gospel should be
read first in Latin and then in Slavonic. Wiching, in the meantime, had been
nominated one of the suffragan bishops of Methodius. He continued to oppose his
metropolitan, going so far as to produce spurious papal letters. The pope, however, assured Methodius that
they were false.
Catholic Encyclopedia
“Every act of the will is an act of
self-limitation. To desire action is to
desire limitation. In that sense every
act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you
choose anything, you reject everything else.”
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
The Love of God is Conditional Upon
Believing His Revealed Truth and Keeping His Commandments!
Everyone knows that John himself, the
Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers
the new commandment ‘Love one another,’ altogether forbade any intercourse with
those who professed a mutilated and corrupt form of Christ’s teaching: ‘If any
man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor
say to him: God speed you.’ (II John 10).
Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, Jan. 6,
1928
Feminism
Unmasked
It’s called ‘She Guardian,’ by Russian artist Dashi Namdakov who spent
the last two years sculpting the towering figure out of four massive tons of bronze.
The statue measures 36-feet high. Mr. Namdakov says the attention-grabbing
piece is intended to express a sense of “maternal protectiveness.” The feminist work is “symbolic of female
strength and a desire to care for the young.” But, with a mother like
this, it is not surprising that there are no pups being cared for in the
sculpture for the vast majority of feminists are sterile. The demonic statue by
an odd coincidence has been erected in a place of precedence at the Marble Arch
located opposite the North-East corner of Hyde Park in London (Buckingham
Palace opposite the South-East corner of the park). The Marble Arch is where
the infamous Tyburn gallows was located for the public execution of common
criminals along with faithful Catholics. It is to Tyburn that Catholic
recusants, such as St. Edmund Campion, Blessed Ralph Sherwin, Blessed Alexander
Briant, St. Oliver Plunkett, etc., etc., etc., were literally dragged from
Newgate Prison to be ‘hung, drawn and quartered.’ This rabid feminist bitch is directly
overlooking the hallowed ground of Catholic martyrs. It only needs a sign
warning the public not to pet or feed the animal.
Some
things never change. It is the immemorial Roman rite of Mass they hate above
all else!
I myself am convinced by the Petrine claims, nor looking around the world does
there seem much doubt which (if Christianity is true) is the True Church, the
temple of the Spirit dying but living, corrupt but holy, self-reforming and
re-arising. But for me that Church of which the Pope is the acknowledged head
on earth has as chief claim that it is the one that has (and still does) ever
defended the Blessed Sacrament, and given it most honor, and put it (as Christ
plainly intended) in the prime place. “Feed my
sheep” was His last charge to St. Peter; and since His words are always first
to be understood literally, I suppose them to refer primarily to the Bread of
Life. It was against this that the W. European revolt (or Reformation) was
really launched—”the blasphemous fable of the Mass”—and faith/works a mere red
herring.
J.R.R. Tolkien, Collected Letters, addressed to his son
Once
again, the Novus Order Regime in Rome endorses the United Nations call for One
World Government based upon a “Genuine and Profound Humanism”!
As Benedict XVI has affirmed in continuity with the social teaching of
the Church: “To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the
crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater
imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament,
food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to
regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world
political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years
ago.” […….] Here, continuity is
essential, because policies related to climate change and environmental
protection cannot be altered with every change of government. Results take time
and demand immediate outlays which may not produce tangible effects within any
one government’s term. That is why, in the absence of pressure from the public
and from civic institutions, political authorities will always be reluctant to
intervene, all the more when urgent needs must be met. To take up these responsibilities
and the costs they entail, politicians will inevitably clash with the mindset
of short-term gain and results which dominates present-day economics and
politics. But if they are courageous, they will attest to their God-given
dignity and leave behind a testimony of selfless responsibility. A healthy
politics is sorely needed, capable of reforming and coordinating institutions,
promoting best practices and overcoming undue pressure and bureaucratic
inertia. It should be added, though, that even the best mechanisms can break
down when there are no worthy goals and values, or a genuine and profound
humanism to serve as the basis of a noble and generous society.
Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, On earth
worship, global warming, etc.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which
you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle?
St. Paul, II Thessalonians 2:1
These “sacred symbols” are necessary attributes of the
Faith whereby it can be known & communicated!
In the actual life of the Church, most sacred symbols are not
understood by most believers in an explicit, intellectual way, but are
nonetheless apprehended as having meaning…. The total effect of these symbols
is to sustain a strong belief in God, even though specific symbols may not
always convey specific religious meanings.
James Hitchcock, The Recovery of the Sacred, 1974
“[People are] taken up with and love the victories over other men, and not
the victories over Satan and sin. All the great men of yesterday and today:
Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, etc., were taken up above all by these victories.
[But] the Legionary Movement is an exception in concerning itself also, however
insufficiently, with the Christian victory in man for his salvation. Yet not
enough! …. O Country! How you reward
your sons! Lord… Take my Life! Since for you, O Country, our life is not
required. It is our death that you desire…. We are sacrificing ourselves, we
are dying, blood gushing from breasts, to defend the churches, and the Church
denounces us as ‘a danger to the people,’ as ‘gone astray,’ as ‘alien to the
nation.’ What a tragedy in our souls! .... May God accept my suffering, for the
well-being and prosperity of our nation! Pain upon pain, suffering upon
suffering, agony upon agony, wound upon wound in our bodies and in our souls,
and fall after fall: thus shall we conquer.”
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Christian Romanian Nationalist, Founder of the
Legionnaire Movement (Iron Guard), The
Prison Notes, written before his state execution for treason
Liturgical
Philistines have been around for a long time!
“There is no higher act in the Christian religion,” says Father Le
Brun, “than the Sacrifice of the Mass; the greater portion of
the other sacraments, and nearly all the offices and ceremonies of the church,
are only the means or the preparation to celebrate or participate in it
worthily.” Such being the case, it is but natural that the place where this
most holy sacrifice is to he offered up, should be set apart and railed off
from less sacred portions of the church, and we find this to have been the case
in all ages, in all styles, and in all countries professing the Catholic faith
down to a comparatively very recent period, when in many places all feelings of
sanctity, tradition, and reverence, seemed to have been superseded by ignorant
innovation and love of change.
It will be shown in this work that the idea
of room-worship, and the all-seeing principles, is a perfect novelty. Those
indeed who would make the mass a sight,
are only to be compared to the innovators of the l6th century, who made it
essential to be heard; those who compiled the Book of Common Prayer converted
the mass into all-hearing service ;
this was the great object of the vernacular change, that people might hear the priest; they were to be edified
by what he said, more than what he did; the sacrificial act was merged into
the audible recitation of prayers and exhortations; for this reason the altars,
in the reign of Edward the Sixth, were to be moved down from their eastern
position to the entrance of the chancel, to enable the people to hear ; this
led to the demolition of stone altars and the substitution of tables. For this
reason the whole congregation crowd into the choirs of the cathedrals, leaving
the rest of the church deserted. For this reason, in large parochial churches,
the chancel has been often entirely cut off, and a portion of the nave glazed
in and reduced to such a size that the people could hear the clergyman; these
were all natural consequences of the change of principle consequent on the
translation of the mass, and the altered nature of its celebration. That
churches are now built after the old tradition for the service of the separated
portion of the English Church, is purely owing to an internal revival of
Catholic feelings and traditions in that body: the cause is a return to
Catholic truth and reverence; the effect is the erection of churches in
accordance with those feelings, it has been a charge and reproach made by
Catholics against their separated countrymen, that the old fabrics were
unsuited to their service, and unquestionably, on the principle that it was
essential for every one to hear, they
were so. But I will ask these new-fashioned men if it is indispensable for every one to see, how much better are
they adapted for modern Catholic rites? They become as unfit for one as the
other, for it is unquestionable, that comparatively very few persons in these
cruciform churches could obtain a view of the altar, and this independent of any screen-work, the
disposition of the pillars intersecting and shutting out all those who are
stationed in the aisles and transepts.
I have always imagined that one great
distinction between the Protestant and Catholic services was this, that the
former was essentially a hearing
service, at which only a comparatively few persons could assist, while at the
latter many thousands, or, indeed, hundreds of thousands could unite in one
great act of adoration and praise, concentrating their thoughts and intentions
with the priest who is offering at God’s altar, although he is far shut off
from their vision. [……]
Christians of the present time have
but little idea of the solemnity of the ancient worship of the Catholic church;
ordained ministers were alone permitted to fill the humblest offices about the
sanctuary, every object connected with the sacred rites were considered
deserving of the most loving care; even in the very early ages, the vessels of the
altar were usually of precious metals, and studded with jewels. The books of
the holy gospels were written in golden text on purple vellum, bound in plates
of silver encasing ivory diptychs, and deposited in portable shrines, like
relics. Though all this should fill us with admiration, there is nothing to
excite surprise, when we reflect on the very sacred nature of the Christian
mysteries—no sign typical and prophetic, as under the Mosaic law, but our
blessed Lord truly present and abiding in the temple in the holy sacrament of
the altar, - it is by no means wonderful that the Christian worship should
assume a form of solemnity formerly unknown, and we are only astounded that
with the perpetuation of the doctrine the practice of external solemnity should
have so lamentably become decayed in the latter times; indeed, so sacred, so
awful, so mysterious is the sacrifice of the mass, that if men were seriously
to reflect on what it really consists, so far from advocating mere rooms for
its celebration, they would hasten to restore the reverential arrangements of
Catholic antiquity, and instead of striving for front seats and first places,
they would hardly feel worthy to occupy
the remotest corner of the temple. The form and arrangement of the ancient
churches originated from the deepest feelings of reverence; the altar, or place
of sacrifice, was accessible only to those who ministered, it was enclosed by
pillars and veils; the sanctuary was veiled, the choir was enclosed, and the
faithful adored at a respectful distance.
All this, and the custom of every succeeding century, is in utter
opposition to the modern all-seeing principle, and which, if it is carried out,
ends in an absurd conclusion; for if it be essential for every worshipper to
see, even a level room would not
answer the purpose, and the floor must be raised like an amphitheatre to
elevate the receding spectators, for
unless the people be thus raised, they form a far greater barrier than any
screen-work; and even at St. Peter’s itself, when the Pope celebrates, there is
a living screen of Swiss troops and noble guards that effectually shuts out the
sight of what is going on, except to those taking part in the functions, or a
favoured few, who by means of gold or interest are seated in raised loggia. If
religious ceremonies are to be regarded as spectacles they should be celebrated
in regular theatres, which have been expressly invented for the purpose of
accommodating great assemblages of persons to hear and see well. It has been
most justly said, that there is no legitimate halting-place between Catholic
doctrine and positive infidelity, and I am quite certain that there is none
between a church built on Christian tradition and symbolism and Covent Garden
Theatre with its pit, boxes, and gallery. It is only by putting the question in
this forcible contrast that persons can really understand the danger of these
new notions, or the lengths to which they may eventually lead; and I trust it
may be the means of raising a feeling of the greatest repugnance to them in the
hearts of every true Catholic.
Augustus Welby Pugin, A Treatise on Chancel
Screens and Rood Lofts: Their Antiquity, Use, and Symbolic Signification,
1851
Modernists
are Deconstructionalists - the deny the intentionality
of words and thus destroy the ability of language to convey truth! They are our
modern "sophists." They attack the revelation of God at its very
source.
Plato's literary activity extended over fifty years, and time and again
he asked himself anew: What is it that makes the sophists so dangerous? Toward
the end he wrote one more dialogue, the Sophist,
in which he added a new element to his answer: "The sophists," he
says, "fabricate a fictitious reality." That the existential realm of
man could be taken over by pseudorealities whose fictitious nature threatens to
become indiscernible is truly a depressing thought. And yet this Platonic
nightmare, I hold, possesses an alarming contemporary relevance. For the
general public is being reduced to a state where people not only are unable to
find out about the truth but also become unable even to search for the truth because they are satisfied with deception and
trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied with a fictitious
reality created by design through the abuse of language. This, says Plato, is
the worst thing that the sophists are capable of wreaking upon mankind by their
corruption of the word.
Josef Pieper, Abuse of Language- Abuse of Power, 1974
Why Chinese
whistleblower may be right that Communists paid Vatican to ‘shut up’ about its
war on Catholics
Chinese
Billionaire Dissident Guo Wengui claims the Vatican was bribed into silence
LifeSiteNews | June 25, 2020 – Chinese dissident Guo Wengui claims that
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “allocates 
up to $2 billion a year” to buy the
Vatican's silence concerning the ongoing persecution of the Catholic Church in
China and other human rights abuses.
Mr. Guo made the allegation — without offering any
supporting evidence — in a June 20th interview on Steve
Bannon's The War Room. The explosive claim was made
in the context of a larger discussion of how the CCP is spending huge
sums of money to buy politicians, media, and influence in countries like
Australia and Italy.
“2014, the CPC, inside, made the decision: Every year, they want 2
billion dollars to pay to the Vatican, to influence the Vatican policy about
China/Vatican — and [regarding] the Christian and Catholic
[mistreatment], they wanted Vatican to shut up, to follow the CPC about religion,
you know the policy – that’s disaster,” Guo said.
These expenditures, according to previous statements by Guo, are
part of a larger strategy to achieve global hegemony that goes by
the initials “BGY.” The initials "BGY" stand for Blue (control
over the Internet), Gold (buying influence with money), and Yellow (seducing
key people with sex). [….]
Thou art who is not, I am He who am; if thy soul is deeply penetrated
with this truth, the enemy cannot deceive thee and thou wilt avoid all his
snares; thou wilt never consent to do anything against My commandments, and
thou wilt acquire, without difficulty, grace, truth, and peace.
Jesus Christ addressing St. Catherine of Siena, patroness of Third
Order Dominicans
Pope Francis
belittles as ‘adolescent’ priests who defied COVID lockdowns to give faithful
sacraments
'I admired the
apostolic spirit of many priests who visited by telephone, knocked on doors,
called by homes (saying): 'Do you need something? I will do your shopping.''
LifeSiteNews | Dorothy Cummings McLean | VATICAN CITY, June 25, 2020 —
Pope Francis has indicated that he was not impressed with priests who violated
coronavirus lockdown rules to minister to the laity.
In a speech he delivered Saturday to primarily bishops, doctors, nurses,
and other healthcare workers from the Italian region of Lombardy, Pope Francis
contrasted priests who violated the ban on public worship with priests who
ministered to their flock in “creative” ways, like buying their shopping.
“The pastoral zeal and creative solicitude of priests helped people to
follow the way of faith and not to remain alone before sorrow and fear,” he
said.
“This priestly
creativity ... overcame ... a few, ‘adolescent’ expressions against the
measures of the authority having the duty of protecting the health of the
people.”
Francis said most
priests were “obedient and creative.”
“I admired the
apostolic spirit of many priests who visited by telephone, knocked on doors,
called by homes (saying): ‘Do you need something? I will do your shopping,’” he
added.
“A thousand things. Closeness, creativity, without shame. ... They were a sign
of the consoling presence of God.”
He said these
priests were “fathers, not adolescents.” […..]
COMMENT: Pope Francis the Small and Timid belittles
those Catholic priests who were faithful to their duties during the recent
government imposed closing of Catholic churches. To the coward, all courageous
acts are regarded as “rash” and “imprudent.” In this little tantrum, Pope
Francis displays his own worthlessness for the world to see! The Catholic
priest’s vocation, if he is faithful to the “apostolic spirit,” is not to “do
your shopping” but rather to be “ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the
mysteries of God” (I Cor 4:1), that is, to bring the sacraments to the
faithful. St. Paul continues, “Here now it is required among the dispensers,
that a man be found faithful.” Pope Francis the Small
and Timid was not a “dispenser of the mysteries of God” because he is not
“found faithful.”
Remember the argument for
legalized abortion that the fetus at 14 weeks was only a “blob of tissue”?
Twin fetuses start
playing at 14 weeks
Examining 3D ultrasound images of five
pairs of in-utero twins, a team at the University of Padova,
Italy, found that fetuses started deliberately interacting at 14 weeks,
reaching out and touching each other through the uterine wall. By 18 weeks,
they spent more time stroking each other than themselves, and were equally
careful when touching their co-twin’s sensitive eye areas. The results are
“astonishing,” says Jean-Philippe Rivière at Doctissimo. At 14 weeks,
“they were already socializing with their sibling in the womb.”
A precious crown awaits those in Heaven who perform their actions with
all the care of which they capable, for it is not enough to do good works, we
also do them well.
St. Ignatius Loyola
“Only take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently” (Deut 4:9)
Remember in your
charity the following pray requests:
Remember the welfare of our
expectant mother: Vanessa LoStrocco,
Marieann Reuter, recovery of her health, Kathy Kepner, for her health, Shane Cox, for his health,
requests of Philip Thees,
Thomas Thees, recently hospitalized,
Thomas A. Nelson, long time faithful traditional Catholic
the founder and former owner of TAN Books & Publishing,
suffered a recent stroke,
The Joseph Cox Family, their spiritual welfare,
The Thomas Dube Family, for their conversion and spiritual
welfare,
Luis Rafael Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew, who is
seriously ill,
For the health of Kim Cochran, the daughter-in-law
of Joseph and Brenda Cochran, the wife of their son Joshua,
Louie Verrecchio, Catholic apologist, who has a health problem,
John Minidis, Jr. family, for help in their spiritual trial,
John and Joann DeMarco, for their health and spiritual welfare,
Regina (Manidis) Miller, her spiritual welfare and
health,
Melissa Elena Levitt, her health and conversion, and welfare
of her children,
For the grace of a holy death, Nancy Marie Claycomb,
The health and spiritual welfare
of Tom Grow, Amanda Gardner, and Alex
Estrada,
Conversion of Annette Murowski,
and her son Jimmy,
Brent Keith from Indiana has
petitioned our prayers for the Keith
Family,
The welfare of the Schmedes Family, and the Mike and Mariana Donohue Family,
The spiritual welfare Robert Holmes Family,
For the spiritual and temporal
welfare of Irwin Kwiat,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for Elvira Donaghy, who is recovering
from a stroke,
Kimberly Ann, the daughter of John and Joann DeMarco, for
her health and spiritual welfare,
Mufide Rende, a traditional Catholic from India has asked
our prayers for her welfare and he family members, living and deceased,
Mary and Bill Glatz, the welfare of their family,
Barbara Harmon, who is ill, and
still cares for her ailing parents,
Jason Green, a father of ten children who has been seriously
injured,
For the health and welfare of Kolinsky and Sorace families,
Fr. Waters asks
our prayers for the health and spiritual welfare of Brian Abramowitz,
Janine Mullen, for her health and help for her family,
Thomas Schiltz family, in grateful appreciation for their
contribution to the beauty of our chapel,
Carlo A. De Porto, who is in failing health,
Welfare of Bishop Richard Williamson, for strength and courage in the
greater battles to come,
John Rhoad, for his health and spiritual welfare,
Angelina Montesano family & Helen Snyder, for their
health and spiritual welfare,
Kathy Boyle, requests our prayers for her welfare,
Michael J. Brigg & his family, who have helped with the
needs of the Mission,
Nancy Deegan, her welfare and conversion to the Catholic
Church,
Francis Paul Diaz, who was baptized at Ss. Peter & Paul,
asks our prayers for his spiritual welfare,
The conversion of Rene
McFarland, Scott Osborn, Lori Kerr, Cary Shipman and family, David Bash,
Crystal and family, Larry Reinhart, and Costanzo Family, are the
petitions of Gene Peters,
The Drews ask your intercession
for the welfare of Brendan McGuire,
a young father of three, who has been diagnosed with cancer,
For the conversion of Ben & Tina Boettcher family, Karin
Fraessdorf, Eckhard Ebert, and Fahnauer family,
Fr. Waters requests
our prayers for Br. Rene,
SSPX who has been ill, and for Fr.
Thomas Blute,
For the health and welfare of Kathryn Lederhos, the aunt of
David Drew,
Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for Charles Valenti, and his wife, Julia,
For the welfare of Fr. Paul DaDamio and Fr. William T.
Welsh,
The Drew’s ask our prayers for the
welfare of Joe & Tracy Sentmanat
family, Keith & Robert Drew, Christy Koziol & her children, Fred Nesbit
and Michael Nesbit families,
and Gene Peters Family, the John Manidis Family, the Sal Messinio Family, Michael Proctor Family,
Ryan Boyle grandmother, Jane Boyle, who is failing
health,
Mel Gibson and his family, please remember in our prayers,
Rev. Timothy A. Hopkins, prayers
for his mother, the Mission of St.
Philomena in Miami, and the welfare of Fr Jean-Luc Lafitte,
Ebert’s request our prayers for
the Andreas & Jenna Ortner Family,
Joyce Paglia has asked prayers for
George Richard Moore Sr. & his
children, and her brother, George
Panell,
For the welfare of Anthony & Joyce Paglia, who are
responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,
Philip Thees asks our prayers for
his family, for McLaughlin Family,
the conversion of Bruce Heller, &
Janet Gardner, the welfare
of Dan Polly Weand, the
conversion of Sophia Herman,
Tony Rosky, and Carl Ropeter, the welfare Nancy Erdeck, the wife of
the late Deacon Erdeck, and
the welfare of Frank D’Agustino who is ill, the health of
Charles Kanaskie, and the health
of his brother, Thomas Thees,
John Calasanctis, Stephen Cagorski, Tony Rosky, John Bogda, Maryann Reutter, James Parvenski, Kathleen
Gorry, and Cecilia LeBow.
Pray for the
Repose of the Souls:
Hutton Gibson, died May 12,
Sr. Regina Cordis, Immaculate Heart of Mary religious for
sixty-five years, died May 12,
Victoria Zelaya, the sister-in-law of Claudia Drew, died
March 20,
Ricardo DeSilva, died November 16, our prayers requested by
his brother, Henry DeSilva,
Joyce Laughman and Robert Twist, for their conversions,
Roland H. Allard, a friend of the Drew’s, died September 28,
Rose Cuono, died Oct 23,
Sandra Peters, the wife of Gene Peters, who died June 10
receiving the sacraments and wearing our Lady’s scapular,
Rev. Francis Slupski, a priest who kept the Catholic faith
and its immemorial traditions, died May 14,
Martha Mochan, the sister of Philip Thees, died April 8,
George Kirsch, our good friend and supporter of this
Mission, died February 15,
For Fr. Paul J. Theisz, died October 17, is the petition of Fr.
Waters,
Fr. Mecurio Fregapane, died Jan 17, was not a traditional
priest but always charitable,
Fr. Casimir Peterson, a priest who often offered the Mass in
our chapel and provided us with sound advice, died December 4,
Fr. Constantine Bellasarius, a faithful and always
charitable Eastern Rite Catholic Melkite priest, who left the Roman rite, died
November 27,
Christian Villegas, a motor vehicle accident, his brother,
Michael, requests our prayers,
John Vennari, the former editor of Catholic Family News, and
for his family’s welfare,
Mary Butler, the aunt of Fr. Samuel Waters, died October 17,
Joseph DeMarco, the nephew of John DeMarco, died October 3,
John Fergale, died September 25 after receiving the
traditional sacramental rites of the Church wearing the brown scapular,
John Gabor, the brother of Donna Marbach, died September 9,
Fr. Eugene Dougherty, a faithful priest, fittingly died on
the Nativity of the BVM after receiving the traditional Catholic sacraments,
Phyllis Schlafly, died September 5,
Helen Mackewicz, died August 14,
Mark A. Wonderlin, who died August 2,
Fr. Carl Cebollero, a faithful priest to tradition who was a
friend of Fr. Waters and Fr. DeMaio,
Jessica Cortes, a young mother of ten who died June 12,
Frances Toriello, a life-long Catholic faithful to tradition,
died June3, the feast of the Sacred Heart, and her husband Dan, died in 1985,
John McLaughlin, a friend of the Drew’s, died May 22,
Angela Montesano, who died April 30, and her husband, Salvatore, who died in July 3,
2013,
Charles Schultz, died April 5, left behind nine children and
many grandchildren, all traditional Catholics,
Esperanza Lopez de Callejas, the aunt of Claudia Drew, died March 15,
Fr. Edgardo Suelo, a faithful priest defending our traditions
who was working with Fr. Francois Chazal in the Philippines, died February 19,
Conde McGinley, a long time laborer for the traditional
faith, died February 12, at 96 years,
The Drew family requests your prayers for Ida Fernandez and
Rita Kelley, parishioners at St. Jude,
Fr. Stephen Somerville, a traditional priest who repented
from his work with the Novus Ordo English translation, died December 12,
Fr. Arturo DeMaio, a priest that helped this Mission with
the sacraments and his invaluable advice, died December 2,
J. Paul Carswell, died October 15, 2015,
Solange Hertz, a great defender of our Catholic faith, died
October 3, the First Saturday of the month,
Paula Haigh, died October 21, a great defender of our
Catholic faith in philosophy and natural science,
Gabriella Whalin, the mother of Gabriella Schiltz, who died
August 25,
Mary Catherine Sick, 14 year old from a large traditional
Catholic family, died August 25,
Fr. Paul Trinchard, a traditional Catholic priest, died
August 25,
Stephen J. Melnick, Jr., died on August 21, a long-time
faithful traditional Catholic husband and father, from Philadelphia,
Patricia Estrada, died July 29, her son Alex petitions our
prayers for her soul,
Fr. Nicholas Gruner, a devoted priest & faithful
defender of Blessed Virgin Mary and her Fatima message, died April 29,
Sarah E. Shindle, the grandmother of Richard Shindle, died
April 26,
Madeline Vennari, the mother of John Vennari, died December
19,
Salvador Baca Callejas, the uncle of Claudia Drew, died
December 13,
Robert Gomez, who died in a motor vehicle accident November 29,
Catherine Dunn, died September 15,
Anthony Fraser, the son of Hamish Fraser, died August 28,
Jeannette Rhoad, the grandmother of Devin Rhoad, who died
August 24,
John Thees, the uncle of Philip Thees, died August 9,
Sarah Harkins, 32 year-old mother of four children, died
July 28,
Anita Lopez, the aunt of Claudia Drew,
Fr. Kenneth Walker, a young traditional priest of the FSSP
who was murdered in Phoenix June 11,
Fr. Waters petitions
our prayers for Gilberte Violette,
the mother of Fr. Violette, who died May 6,
Pete Hays petitions our prayers
for his brothers, Michael,
died May 9, and James, died
October 20, his sister, Rebecca, died March17, and his mother, Lorraine Hayes who died May 4,
Philip Marbach, the father of Paul Marbach who was the
coordinator at St. Jude in Philadelphia, died April 21,
Richard Slaughtery, the elderly sacristan for the SSPX
chapel in Kansas City, died April 13,
Bernedette Marie Evans nee Toriello, the daughter of Daniel Toriello , died March 31, a faithful Catholic who suffered
many years with MS,
Natalie Cagorski, died march 23,
Anita Lopez de Lacayo, the aunt of Claudia Drew, who died
March 21,
Mario Palmaro, Catholic lawyer, bioethicist and professor,
apologist, died March 9, welfare of his widow and children,
Daniel Boyle, the uncle of Ryan Boyle, died March 4,
Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died on January 25,
Arthur Harmon, died January 18,
Fr. Waters petitions
our prayers for the soul of Jeanne
DeRuyscher, who died January 17,
Joseph Proctor, died January 10,
Susan Scott, a devote traditional Catholic who made the
vestments for our Infant of Prague statue, died January 8,
Brother Leonard Mary, M.I.C.M., (Fred Farrell), an early
supporter and friend of Fr. Leonard Feeney, died November 23,
John Fergale, requests our prayers for his sister Connie,
who died December 19,
Jim Capaldi, died December 15,
Brinton Creager, the son of Elizabeth Carpenter, died
December 10,
Christopher Lussos, age 27, the father of one child with an
expecting wife, died November 15,
Jarett Ebeyer, 16 year old who died in his sleep, November
17, at the request of the Kolinsky’s,
Catherine Nienaber, the mother of nine children, the
youngest three years of age, killed in MVA after Mass, 10-29,
Nancy Aldera, the sister of Frances Toriello, died October
11, 2013 at 105 years of age,
Mary Rita Schiltz, the mother of Thomas Schiltz, who died
August 27,
William H. (Teddy) Kennedy, Catholic author of Lucifer’s Lodge,
died August 14, age 49, cause of death unknown,
Alfred Mercier, the father of David Mercier, who died August
12,
The Robert Kolinsky asks our
prayers for his friend, George
Curilla, who died August 23,
John Cuono, who had attended Mass at our Mission in the
past, died August 11,
Raymond Peterson, died July 28, and Paul Peterson, died February 19, the brothers of Fr. Casimir
Peterson,
Margaret Brillhart, who died July 20,
Msgr. Joseph J. McDonnell, a priest from the diocese of Des
Moines, who died June 8,
Patrick Henry Omlor, who wrote Questioning The Validity of the Masses using the New, All English Canon,
and for a series of newsletters which were published as The Robber Church, died
May 2, the feast of St Athanasius,
Bishop Joseph McFadden, died unexpectedly May 2,
Timothy Foley, the brother-in-law of Michelle Marbach
Folley, who died in April,
William Sanders, the uncle of Don Rhoad, who died April 2,
Gene Peters ask our prayers for
the repose of the soul of Mark
Polaschek, who died March 22,
Eduardo Gomez Lopez, the uncle of Claudia Drew, February 28,
Cecelia Thees, died February 24,
Elizabeth Marie Gerads, a nineteen year old, the
oldest of twelve children, who died February 6,
Michael Schwartz, the co-author with Fr. Enrique Rueda of
“Gays, Aids, and You,” died February 3,
Stanley W. Moore, passed away in December 16, and Gerard
(Jerry) R. Pitman, who died January 19, who attended this Mission in the
past,
Louis Fragale, who died December 25,
Fr. Luigi Villa, Th.D. author of Vatican II About Face! detailing the heresies
of Vatican II, died November 18 at the age of 95,
Rev. Michael Jarecki, a faithful traditional Catholic priest
who died October 22,and Rev. Hector Bolduc, who died September 10,
Jennie Salaneck, died September 19 at 95 years of age, a
devout and faithful Catholic all her life,
Dorothy Sabo, who died September 26,
Cynthia (Cindy) Montesano Reinhert, the mother of nine
children, four who are still at home, died August 19,
Stanley Spahalski, who died October 20, and his wife, Regina Spahalski, who died June
24, and for the soul of Francis
Lester, her son,
Julia Atkinson, who died April 30,
Antonio P. Garcia, who died January 6, 2012 and the welfare
of his teenage children, Andriana and Quentin,
Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who died February 27,
Fr. Timothy A. Hopkins, of the National Shrine of St.
Philomena, in Miami, November 2,
Frank Smith, who died February 7, and the welfare of his
wife, Delores,
Eduardo Cepeda, who died January 26,
Larry Young, the 47 year old father of twelve who died
December 10 and the welfare of his wife Katherine and their family,
Sister Mary Bernadette, M.I.C.M., a founding member of the
Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died December 16,
Joeseph Elias, who died on September 28,
William, the brother of Fr. Waters, who died September 7,
Donald Tonelli, died August 1,
Rev. Fr. Gregory Hesse, of Austria, a great defender of
Catholic Truth, died January 25, 2006,
Emma Colasanti, who died May 29,
Mary Dullesse, who died April 12, a Catholic convert who died wearing our Lady’s scapular,
Ruth Jantsch, the grandmother of Andre Ebert, who died April
7, Derrick and Denise Palengat, his godparents,
Philip D. Barr, died March 5, and the welfare of his
family,
Judith Irene Kenealy, the mother of Joyce Paglia, who died
February 23, and her son, George Richard Moore, who died May 14,
For Joe Sobran who died September 30,
Fr. Hector Bolduc, a great and faithful priest, died,
September 10, 2012,
John Vennari asks our prayers for Dr. Raphael Waters who died
August 26,
Stanley Bodalsky, the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June
25,
Mary Isabel Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and
friend of the Drew’s, who died June 6,
Rev. John Campion, who offered the traditional Mass for us
every first Friday until forbidden to do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,
Joseph Montagne, who died May 5,
For Margaret Vagedes, the aunt of Charles Zepeda, who died
January 6,
Fr. Michael Shear, a Byzantine rite Catholic priest, died
August 17, 2006,
Fr. James Francis Wather, died November 7, 2006, author of The Great Sacrilege and Who Shall Ascend?, a great defender of
dogma and liturgical purity,
Fr. Enrique Rueda, who died December 14, 2009, to whom our
Mission is indebted,
Fr. Peterson asks to remember, Leonard Edward Peterson, his
cousin, Wanda, Angelica
Franquelli,
and the six priests
ordained with him.
Philip Thees petitions our prayers
for Beverly Romanick, Deacon Michael
Erdeck, Henry J. Phillips, Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio, Elizabeth Thorhas,
Elizabeth Thees, Theresa Feraker, Hellen Pestrock, and James & Rose Gomata,
and Kathleen Heinbach,
Fr. Didier Bonneterre, the author of The Liturgical
Movement, and Fr. John Peek, both were traditional priests,
Brother Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, NH, who died September 5,
Rodolfo Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew, who
died May 24,
Rev. Francis Clifford, a devout and humble traditional
priest, who died on March 7,
Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonja Kolinsky.
Modernism vs.
Neo-Modernism: What is the Difference?
The overarching principle of post-conciliar theology is not modernism,
properly speaking. Let us get our terms straight.
Modernism is
the idea that there are no eternal truths, that truth is the correspondence of
the mind with one's lifestyle (adaequatio intellectus et
vitae), and that, therefore, old dogmas must be abandoned and new beliefs
must arise that meet 'the needs of modern man'. This is a radical denial of the
traditional and common sense notion of truth: the correspondence of the mind
with reality (adaequatio intellectus et
rei), which is the basis of the immutability of Catholic dogma.
No, the post-conciliar theological
principle is neo-modernism, and the
theology that is based on it is known as the nouvelle theologie.
It is the idea that old dogmas or beliefs must be retained,
yet not the traditional 'formulas': dogmas must be expressed and
interpreted in a new way in every age so as to meet the 'needs of modern man'.
This is still a denial of the traditional and common sense notion of
truth as adaequatio intellectus et rei (insofar as it is still an
attempt to make the terminology that expresses the faith correspond with
our modern lifestyle) and consequently of the immutability of
Catholic dogma, yet it is not as radical as modernism. It is more subtle
and much more deceptive than modernism because it claims that the faith
must be retained; it is only the 'formulas' of faith that must be
abandoned--they use the term 'formula' to distinguish the supposedly
mutable words of our creeds, dogmas, etc. from their
admittedly immutable meanings. Therefore,
neo-modernism can effectively slip under the radar of most pre-conciliar
condemnations (except
Humani Generis, which condemns it directly) insofar as
its practitioners claim that their new and unintelligible theological
terminology really expresses the same faith of all times. In other words,
neo-modernism is supposed to be 'dynamic orthodoxy': supposedly orthodox in
meaning, yet always changing in expression to adapt to modern life (cf.
Franciscan University of Steubenville's mission statement).
Take extra ecclesiam nulla salus as
a clear example of a dogma that has received a brutal neo-modernist
re-interpretation: they claim that the old 'formula' that ”there is no
salvation outside the Church” must be abandoned; rather it is more meaningful
to modern man to say that salvation is not in, but through, the
Church; people who are not in the Church may still be saved
through the Church; thus, to them the dogma that “there is no
salvation outside the Church” means that there is salvation outside
the Church. Hence see Ven. Pope Pius XII condemning those “reduce to a
meaningless formula the necessity of belonging to the true Church in order to
gain eternal salvation.” (Humani generis 27).
Yet this mentality of reinterpreting everything anew in order to 'meet
the needs of the times' is generally tends to be found in different degrees
among different post-conciliar sources:
It tends to be (1) rampant
in men like De Lubac, Von Balthasar, Congar, etc.: it is the ultimate goal of
their writings, teachings, and activities as churchmen. To achieve
this end, they employ the technique of 'resourcement', the neo-modernist
strategy of fishing for the few dubious, questionable, or idiosyncratic
teachings of some Fathers of the Church and other authoritative writers, and
gather them into a massive, heterodox theological argument against the
traditional understanding of the faith (which they like to relativize by giving
it names such as “Counter-Reformation” Theology, “Tridentine” Theology, or
“Scholastic” Theology, instead of just admitting that it is Catholic Theology
plain and simple). This technique accomplishes three things that go
hand-in-hand: (a) offers a refutation of traditional Catholicism, (b) defends
an interpretation that meets the needs of modern times, and (c) gives it a
semblance of being traditional, because it appears to be based in the Fathers
et al. This type of argument is used, for example, by Von Balthasar in
his nearly heretical book, Dare We Hope
that All Men be Saved? to 'prove', not that
Hell does not exist (that is a dogma), but that it is empty. But this
technique and its neo-modernistic underpinnings is not only practiced in
almost all of these men's writings; it is also defended in theory by
many of them, particularly in Von Balthasar's daring little book, Razing
the Bastions, where he demonstrates that “Tridentine” theology must be
rejected in our times because it is 'boring'.
It also tends to be (2) present
in a more moderate way in the non-binding statements by post-conciliar
popes, since they themselves were deeply involved in the developing of the nouvelle
theologie. Just to give one of a million possible examples, see Pope
Benedict's evolutionistic re-interpretation of the Resurrection of Our
Lord. Nothing here obviously contradicts the
dogma of the Resurrection (it may be interpreted as a simple analogy, even if a
bad one, and nothing more), but it is a novelty that can be easily understood
as claiming that the Resurrection is part of the natural development of nature
(thus giving credence to some of the nouvelle theologie's pet doctrines,
such as De Lubac's heterodox notion of the supernatural and De Chardin's
pantheistic evolutionism). This happens almost on a daily basis in what
comes out of the Vatican, not to mention what comes from local bishops.
And finally, neo-modernism tends to be present (3) mostly implicitly or behind-the-scenes in the Council,
the Catechism, etc., even though it seldom comes out more explicitly.
Things are done at this level under the pretext
of 'aggiornamento', a euphemism for neo-modernism. That is
usually all the justification provided since at this authoritative level, there
is no need to justify things theologically. Hence, Vatican II and the
Catechism are not outright neo-modernistic. Rather, they (like most of
post-conciliar doctrine) tend in that direction and/or are inspired
by that mentality. In other words, most of the time
these documents do not explicitly teach neo-modernist errors (the kind of
errors you hear explicitly from neo-modernist theologians and priests).
Rather, they are full of dangerous ambiguities: statements that in a
technical sense could be interpreted as being in harmony with the traditional
faith, but that, in their natural, non-forced, interpretation are heterodox.
One clear example of this is Dignitatis humanae, par. 2; entire
monographs have been written in order to prove that, despite appearances, this
document does not contradict previous teaching. Maybe in fact it
ultimately does not, but it is obvious that the prima facie meaning
does; otherwise there would be no need to write so many volumes to prove it.
It must be noted that these are
general tendencies, and that in some documents (cf. Gaudium et Spes) and every now and then in papal and episcopal
statements neo-modernist principles come out more explicitly.
For a more detailed philosophical and theological critique of
neo-modernism, and how it is nothing but a re-hashing of modernism, see
Garrigou-Lagrange's Where is the
New Theology Leading Us? and his The
Structure of the Encyclical Humani Generis.
Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and
Philosophy
“Vatican II was a
pastoral council by its teachings, that is, its doctrines. In a word, Vatican II was pastoral by being
doctrinal.”
Fr. John O’Malley, Jesuit “historian and theologian,” author of What Happened at Vatican II, speaking at
Caritas International Conference, “Vatican II, Remembering the Future:
Ecumenical, Interfaith and Secular Perspectives on the Council's Impact and
Promise.” The event was co-hosted by Georgetown, Marymount University in
Arlington, Va., and the Washington National Cathedral.
COMMENT: This is a remarkable admission of the
necessary relationship between Catholic doctrine and Catholic practice. It is a Truth of our Faith that has been
constantly denied by the Modernists since Vatican II because, if this Truth had
been admitted, no one would have accepted the Council’s novel teachings which
were imposed by a corruption of practice.
Ss. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Mission has affirmed that every
Catholic possesses a right to the immemorial traditions of our Church because
we have a duty imposed by God to profess our faith openly and publicly which
these traditions perfectly signify. And
thus, these immemorial traditions constitute necessary attributes of the Faith
because without them, the Faith cannot be known or communicated to others. And now, those who have foolishly adopted the
novel practices dictatorially imposed after Vatican II are to understand that
they in fact do signify a new doctrine, that “Vatican II was pastoral by being
doctrinal.” The Modernists want the new doctrines to be professed that the new
practices signify. No Catholic is bound
by any novel doctrine, therefore, no Catholic is bound
by any novel practice which signifies these new doctrines. The only reason that
Fr. O’Malley is now admitting this Catholic truth is to impose formally the
novel doctrines which the Novus Ordo practice signifies.
The
pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language
are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.....
An insincere stance of openness to the
other, as well as a corporatist attitude, which reserves salvation exclusively
to one’s own creed, is destructive of the same creed. In the parable of the
Good Samaritan, Jesus explained this to the inquiring lawyer. Love lived in any
religion pleases God. “Through an exchange of gifts, the Spirit can lead us
ever more fully into truth and goodness.”
Pope Francis approved Abu Dhabi document
COMMENT: “For
all the gods of the Gentiles are devils”
(Ps. 96:5). Pope Francis is affirming
that the worship of idols is “willed by God in His wisdom.” This is blasphemy but
not a surprising blasphemy from Francis the Blasphemer. What Pope Francis calls a “corporatist attitude, which reserves salvation exclusively
to one's own creed” is the denial of a revealed truth of God
that has been dogmatically defined by the Catholic Church on three separate
occasions. It is a dogma that there is “no salvation outside the Catholic Church.” The denial of this
dogma is heresy by definition and anyone holding this heresy cannot be
saved. Furthermore, membership in the
Catholic Church also dogmatically requires profession of the true faith and
reception of the sacrament of Baptism.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan,
Jesus may very well have had in mind a specific Samaritan man who received him
as the Messiah through the calling by the Samaritan Woman at the Well. Be that as it may, are good works alone
sufficient for salvation? Those that
affirm this are Pelagian heretics which is a favorite
calumny that Francis mindlessly smears Catholics faithful to tradition. But unlike Francis, who accuses traditional
Catholics of Pelagianism without a shred of evidence, our accusations are
supported with the bile that flows routinely from Francis' mouth. The recognition of Logos, “which enlighteneth every man that cometh
into this world” (John 1:9), leads
to the regulation of life according to the natural law and is an essential
prerequisite to receiving the truth of the Gospel and the sacrament of Baptism,
but of itself, it with all the good works in the world, insufficient for
salvation. Jesus' conversation with the
Samaritan Woman itself destroys this heretical claim of Francis. According to Francis, the Samaritan Woman
could have been saved in her idolatrous and adulterous state.
What every faithful Catholic must know is
that the faith is the necessary and sufficient cause of and the sign of unity
in the Catholic Church. The pope is only
secondarily and accidentally the cause and sign of unity in the Catholic
Church. When the pope falls from the
faith he is to be opposed to his face as St. Paul did to St. Peter (Galatians
2:11). Those who make the pope their
proximate rule of faith will follow Francis in his heresy and eventual
apostasy. Those who keep dogma as their proximate
rule of faith will save their souls.
“And you shall
be hated by all men for my name's sake: but he that shall persevere unto the
end, he shall be saved” (Matt. 10:22).
It pleased God that in order to the rescuing of man from the power of
the Devil, the Devil should be conquered, not by
might, but by righteousness.… What, then, is the righteousness by which the
Devil was conquered? What, except the righteousness of Christ? In this
redemption the blood of Christ was given, as it were, as a price for us, by
accepting which the Devil was not enriched, but bound, that we might be loosed
from his bonds.
St. Augustine, quoted by Fr. Joseph Pohle, Dogmatic Theology, vol. 5
How the
Supreme Court’s trans ruling will reshape federal law
and further marginalize Christians
The ruling
effectively passed much of the Democratic Party’s so-called Equality Act into
law.
LifeSiteNews | June 17, 2020 – In a devastating 6-3 ruling on
Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt religious liberty a brutal blow and handed the
LGBT movement a victory that stunned even them by deciding that both “sexual
orientation” and “gender identity” are protected under the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. Antonin Scalia’s replacement Neil Gorsuch authored the majority opinion,
and John Roberts joined him. President Donald Trump called it a “very powerful
decision,” and most of the top GOP senators greeted the ruling with a
collective shrug. Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley offered criticism, but for
the rest, it appears that Rod Dreher has been correct in his constant warnings
that much of the Republican Party is disinterested in doing the tough work
necessary to protect religious liberty.
To discuss the implications of the
ruling, I contacted Dr. Darel E. Paul, professor of political science at
Williams College and author of the essential book From Tolerance to Equality:
How the Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage, published by Baylor
University Press. He writes regularly for First Things, and I’ve had him on my
podcast several times to share his insights on the transformation of American
values. He was kind enough to share his perspective once again.
How would you explain this Supreme Court decision in layman’s terms?
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme
Court in Bostock v. Clayton County decided that the word “sex” in Title VII of
the famous 1964 Civil Rights Act—the section that deals with employment—must be
understood to include both sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).
President Trump’s first appointment to the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote
the majority opinion. This outcome was, suffice to say, quite a shock to
conservatives. While social conservatives now worry over its implications for
religious liberty and the state’s enforcement of progressive gender ideology,
many liberal conservatives such as Mitt Romney and David French quickly
reconciled themselves to the ruling.
What is the real-world impact of this Supreme Court decision for
Christians and social conservatives?
The immediate effect is to
effectively pass much of the Democratic Party’s Equality Act into law. This
bill was passed by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in 2019 but
never taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate. The Gorsuch majority in Bostock has thus
effectively made an end run around the Congress and the President. During oral
arguments in October 2019, Justice Alito proclaimed sarcastically to the
attorneys for the plaintiffs, “We might as well just take the Equality Act and
issue that as our opinion!” A prophetic statement indeed.
[….]
COMMENT: This decision represents a most serious
corruption of law. The first principle of legal interpretation relies on the
wording of the law itself. If this is not clear, then the proper understanding
of law is determined from how the law was objectively applied historically.
Lacking this help, the interpretation is sought by trying to understand the
mind of the lawgiver; what exactly was intended by those who gave the law. The
last method, the least in authority, is referred by modern legal scholars as textualism and originalism. This case examines the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the
Courts decision represents a raw abuse of judicial power by usurpation of
legislative powers. This is accomplished by redefining the meaning of the term
“sex” within the text of the law from identifying the natural order of
male-female to inclusively embrace homosexuals and any other sexual pervert
that the mind can imagine. The justification for this novelty is based upon a
real corruption of textualism and originalism. In 1964 every one of the
new categories included in the term “sex” was formally defined, without
exception, as specific types of psychiatric mental illnesses. The Court has
affirmed that the legislators who wrote and enacted 1964 Civil Rights Act
intended to grant equality of civil rights to the mentally and psychologically
impaired! Now a pedophile can claim a civil right to baby sit your children!
This cannot remain an isolated abuse of power but establishes a precedent that
can only lead to the overturning of all law. This game can be played with any
law where words can be assigned any meaning that fits the political ends
intended, and therefore marks the end of all law. The internal law of society
whose end is the just and proper ordering of society for a given end can only
lead to permanent social disorder and injustice. It is unsettling that this
decision was supported by the Donald Trump nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch who
was touted as possessing a great legal mind turns out to be just another clever
little liar.
Sen. Josh
Hawley reacts to SCOTUS trans ruling: ‘The end of the
conservative legal movement’
The junior
senator from Missouri called out the Republican Party for its treatment of
religious conservatives and conservative legal groups for attacking his
questioning of Trump judicial nominees.
LifeSiteNews | WASHINGTON, D.C., | June 17, 2020 – Senator Josh
Hawley, R-MO, decried “the end of the conservative legal
movement” in a fiery speech before the U.S. Senate yesterday. He also called
out the Republican Party for its treatment of religious conservatives.
Hawley made his remarks following
Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. The ruling
concluded that “sex discrimination” in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
should be interpreted to mean “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” in
addition to its original biological meaning.
“After Bostock,” the 40-year-old senator said, the effort
of the conservative legal movement, “as it has existed up to now, is over.”
Hawley referred to the legal philosophies of textualism and
originalism, which were supposed to essentially interpret legal texts based on
their ordinary meaning, as understood by regular citizens at the time the law
was made.
He said that “if you can invoke textualism and originalism
in order to reach such a decision—an outcome that fundamentally changes the
scope and meaning and application of statutory law—then textualism and
originalism and all of those phrases don’t mean much at all.”
“And if those are the things that we’ve been fighting
for—it’s what I thought we had been fighting for, those of us who call
ourselves legal conservatives—if we’ve been fighting for originalism and
textualism, and this is the result of that, then I have to say it turns out we
haven’t been fighting for very much,” Hawley pointed out.
[…..]
Now, however, it has become
evident that “the bargain that has been offered to religious conservatives for
years now is a bad one. It’s time to reject it.”
“The bargain has never been
explicitly articulated,” Hawley admitted, “but religious conservatives know
what it is. The bargain is that you go along with the party establishment, you
support their policies and priorities—or at least keep your mouth shut about
it—and, in return, the establishment will put some judges on the bench who
supposedly will protect your constitutional rights to freedom of worship, to
freedom of exercise.”
Hawley went on to recount some of
the policies pushed by the Republican Party that religious conservatives
accepted, hoping for a strong defense of the First Amendment in return:
We were told that we’re supposed to shut up while the
party establishment focuses more on cutting taxes and handing out favors for
corporations, multinational corporations who don’t share our values, who will
not stand up for American principles, who were only too happy to ship American
jobs overseas. But we’re supposed to say nothing about that. We’re supposed to
keep our mouths shut because maybe we’ll get a judge out of the deal. That was
the implicit bargain.
We’re supposed to keep our mouths shut while the party
establishment opens borders, while the party establishment pursues ruinous
trade policies.
We’re supposed to keep our mouths shut while those at the
upper end of the income bracket get all of the attention. While working families
and college students and those who don’t want to go to college but can’t get a
good job, while they get what? What attention?
Workers? Children?
What about parents looking for help with the cost of raising children? Looking
for help with the culture in which they have to raise children? Looking for
help with the communities, rebuilding the communities in which they must carry
out their family life?
What about college students trying to find an education that
isn’t ruinously expensive and then figure out some way to pay back that
enormous debt? What about those who don’t have a college degree and don’t want
one, but would like to get a good job? What about them?
Hawley also seemed to reference
his public disputes with the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal
group that backed President Trump’s nominees to the Supreme Court and lower
courts:
...the truth is, to those who have objected to my own
questioning of judicial nominees in this body, to those who said I was wrong to
question judges who came for the Judiciary Committee, to those who chided me
for asking tough questions even of nominees by a Republican president, for
those who said that I was slowing the process down, that I was out of line, for
the supposedly conservative groups who threatened to buy television time in my
own state to punish me for asking questions about conservative judges, I just
have this to say: this is why I asked questions. This is why I won’t stop. And
I wish some more people would ask some harder questions. Because,
this outcome is not acceptable. And the bargain which religious
conservatives have been offered is not tenable.
[….]
“Every judgment of conscience, be it right or
wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is
obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.”
St. Thomas Aquinas
Baptism alone unites the individual Faithful to
Christ
The death of Christ is the universal
cause of man’s salvation: but a universal cause has to be applied to particular
effects. Thus it was found necessary for certain remedies to be administered to
men by way of bringing Christ’s death into proximate connexion with them. Such
remedies are the Sacraments of the Church. And these remedies had to be
administered with certain visible signs: -- first, because God provides for
man, as for other beings, according to his condition; and it is the condition
of man’s nature to be led through sensible things to things spiritual and
intelligible: secondly, because instruments must be proportioned to the prime
cause; and the prime and universal cause of man’s salvation is the Word
Incarnate: it was convenient therefore that the remedies, through which that
universal cause reaches men, should resemble the cause in this, that divine
power works invisibly through visible signs.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa
contra gentiles, Book IV, Chap. 56.
Excerpts
from Archbishop Carlo Viganò’s article published on Marco Tosatti Blog
condemning Vatican II while offering his own humble and heartfelt apology for
coming to this truth so late in life. Redde Rationem is Latin
translated as, “to give an account,” which is taken from Luke 16:2 when the
rich man demands an accounting of the stewardship from the unjust steward.
“In standard Italian, it is used as a synonym for a showdown” (Wikipedia).
Question: What will he do now?
VIGANÒ WRITES
ON THE VATICAN II: WE ARE AT THE REDDE RATIONEM
Viganò:
“Vatican II Marked the Beginning of a False, Parallel Church”
[…..]I confess it with serenity and without controversy: I was
one of the many people who, despite many perplexities and fears which today
have proven to be absolutely legitimate, trusted the authority of the Hierarchy
with unconditional obedience. In reality, I think that many people,
including myself, did not initially consider the possibility that there could
be a conflict between obedience to an order of the Hierarchy and fidelity to
the Church herself. What made tangible this unnatural, indeed I would even
say perverse, separation between the Hierarchy and the Church,
between obedience and fidelity, was certainly this most recent
Pontificate. […..]
It is
no accident: what these men affirm with impunity, scandalizing moderates, is
what Catholics also believe, namely: that despite all the efforts of the hermeneutic of continuity which
shipwrecked miserably at the first confrontation with the reality of the
present crisis, it is undeniable that from Vatican II onwards a parallel
church was built, superimposed over and diametrically opposed to the
true Church of Christ. This parallel church progressively obscured the divine
institution founded by Our Lord in order to replace it with a spurious entity,
corresponding to the desired universal religion that was first
theorized by Masonry. Expressions like new humanism, universal
fraternity, dignity of man, are the watchwords of philanthropic
humanitarianism which denies the true God, of horizontal solidarity of vague
spiritualist inspiration and of ecumenical irenism that the Church
unequivocally condemns. “Nam et loquela tua manifestum te facit [Even
your speech gives you away]” (Mt 26, 73): this very frequent, even
obsessive recourse to the same vocabulary of the enemy betrays adherence to the
ideology he inspires; while on the other hand the systematic renunciation of
the clear, unequivocal and crystalline language of the Church confirms the
desire to detach itself not only from the Catholic form but
even from its substance. […..]
This operation of intellectual honesty requires a great
humility, first of all in recognizing that for decades we have been led into
error, in good faith, by people who, established in authority, have not known
how to watch over and guard the flock of Christ: some for the sake of living
quietly, some because of having too many commitments, some out of convenience,
and finally some in bad faith or even malicious intent. […..]
Just
as I honestly and serenely obeyed questionable orders sixty years ago,
believing that they represented the loving voice of the Church, so today with
equal serenity and honesty I recognize that I have been deceived.
Being coherent today by persevering in error would represent a
wretched choice and would make me an accomplice in this fraud. Claiming a
clarity of judgment from the beginning would not be honest: we all knew that
the Council would be more or less a revolution, but we could not
have imagined that it would prove to be so devastating, even for the work of
those who should have prevented it. [……]
The Abu Dhabi
Declaration is the ideological manifesto of an idea of peace and
cooperation between religions that could have some possibility of being tolerated
if it came from pagans who are deprived of the light of Faith and the fire of
Charity. But whoever has
the grace of being a Child of God in virtue of Holy Baptism should be horrified
at the idea of being able to construct a blasphemous modern version of the
Tower of Babel, seeking to bring together the one true Church of Christ, heir
to the promises made to the Chosen People, with those who deny the Messiah and
with those who consider the very idea of a Triune God to be blasphemous.
The love of God knows no measure and does not tolerate compromises, otherwise
it simply is not Charity, without which it is not possible to remain in
Him: qui manet in caritate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo [whoever
remains in love remains in God and God in him] (1 Jn 4:16). It matters little
whether it is a declaration or a Magisterial document:
we know well that the subversive mens of the innovators plays
games with these sort of quibbles in order to spread error. And we know well
that the purpose of these ecumenical and interreligious initiatives is
not to convert those who are far from the one Church to
Christ, but to divert and corrupt those who still hold the Catholic Faith,
leading them to believe that it is desirable to have a great universal religion
that brings together the three great Abrahamic religions “in
a single house”: this is the triumph of the Masonic plan in preparation for
the kingdom of the Antichrist! […..]
Last Sunday, the Church celebrated the Most Holy Trinity, and in the
Breviary it offers us the recitation of the Symbolum Athanasianum,
now outlawed by the conciliar liturgy and already reduced to only two occasions
in the liturgical reform of 1962. The first words of that now-disappeared Symbolum remain
inscribed in letters of gold: “Quicumque vult salvus esse, ante omnia
opus est ut teneat Catholicam fidem; quam nisi quisque integram inviolatamque
servaverit, absque dubio in aeternum peribit – Whosoever wishes to be saved, before all things it
is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith; For unless a person shall have
kept this faith whole and inviolate, without doubt he shall eternally perish.”
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, June 10, 2020, translated by Giuseppe
Pellegrino
Let nothing disturb thee, Nothing affright
thee;
All things are passing; God never changeth;
Patient endurance attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth in nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
Bookmark of St. Teresa of Jesus
How beauteous is the courage which we find,
with childlike confidence in God combined!
Who fears his God shall know no other fear -
He heeds not pitying smile, nor unkind sneer.
“The virtue of fortitude protects a person from
loving his life so much that he loses it.”
Josef Pieper, A Brief Reader on the Virtues
of the Human Heart
“Prayer draws
its merits from charity; but its imperative efficacy comes from faith and
confidence.”
St. Thomas
“Only take heed to yourself
and guard your soul diligently.” (Deut 4:9)
“It is a sin to
believe there is salvation outside the Catholic Church!”
Blessed
Pope Pius IX
PREVIOUS BULLETIN POSTS BELOW THAT REMAIN TIMELY:
When Pope Francis teaches that Catholics living in a state of adultery can
under certain circumstances receive Holy Communion without repenting of Sin, he
overturns the First Principle of Catholic Moral Theology and thus destroys all
Morality permitting any and every kind of sin.
St. Thomas lists the following as principles or sources of morality: 1)
the moral object, that is, that to which the action tends of its very nature primarily and necessarily; 2) the circumstances of the act; 3) the purpose of the
act.
FIRST PRINCIPLE:
The primary and essential morality of a human act is derived from the object
considered in its moral aspect.
The primary and essential morality of a human act is that which acts as
the invariable basis of any additional morality. Now it is the moral object which
provides such a foundation. This will be clear from an example. The moral
object of adultery is the transgression of another’s marriage rights. This moral object remains the
invariable basis of the moral character of the act, no matter what further circumstances
or motives accompany the act. It cannot be objected that in human acts
the first consideration should be given to the motive rather than to the object
of the act. For this motive is either the objective purpose of the act itself
which is identical with the moral object, or the subjective purpose (the end of
the agent) which presupposes moral goodness or evil in the object.
Rev. Dominic Prummer, O.P., Handbook
of Moral Theology
How
Far Modern Judaism is identified with Freemasonry
Although the Jewish role in Freemasonry is for many reasons difficult
to deal with, some acquaintance with that aspect of the subject is essential
for an intelligent grasp of the whole. It is a common belief among Catholics
and others that Freemasonry is somehow or other closely associated with modern
Judaism. Our present purpose is to discuss how far such a belief is
well-founded, and what is the nature of the relations between
the two. We may say at once that the available evidence points at least
to the following general conclusions: 1) That much of the external trappings of
Freemasonry, such as its ritual, its terminology, its legends, etc., are of
Jewish origin; 2) that the philosophy or religion of esoteric Freemasonry (that
is of the inner circles and controlling power) is practically identical with
the doctrines of the Jewish Cabala, which is the religion of philosophy of a
certain section of the Jews; 3) that a certain group, probably very few in
number, but of immense influence and power, are leading Freemasons; and 4) that
a somewhat larger group of very influential Jews pursue the same ends as
Freemasons, and use similar means, and are at least in close alliance with
them.
Rev. E. Cahill, S.J., Freemasonry and the anti-Christian Movement,
1930.
Pope
Francis and his inverted metaphor!
[Catholic] “fundamentalists,
have a nostalgia for returning to the ashes.... Tradition is the guarantee of the
future and not the container of the ashes,.... Tradition is like roots [of a
tree], which give us nutrition to grow,... You will
not become like the roots. You will flower, grow, give
fruit. And the seeds become roots for other people..... The tradition of the church is always
in movement....
The
tradition does not safeguard the ashes”
Pope Francis the
Destroyer, another high altitude, hypoxic babble on a flight to Rome.
COMMENT: Marion
Maréchal-Le Pen, the grand-daughter of the French National Front founder,
Jean-Marie Le Pen, applied a quotation of Gustav Mahler in a new context, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes but
the preservation of fire.” Using Francis' metaphor, tradition is not the “root” of the tree, it is the tree
itself, and trees are not “always in
movement.” They are in fact ‘rooted’ and stable.
Tradition is
firstly as a noun refers to content of divine revelation. This
content is incarnate in our immemorial Catholic traditions which are the
perfect images of the Catholic faith. These images are the means by which
the faith is known and communicated to others. The Neo-iconoclasts destroy
these images as the means to destroy the faith itself. For Francis, Tradition
is obstacle that must be overcome if he is to overthrow the Catholic
faith. He therefore considers how tradition has always been understood by
the Church as “ashes.”
The verb form of tradition
refers to the actual handing-on of the content of divine revelation to the next
generation of Catholics. As St. Paul said, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread”
(I Cor. 11:23). What St. Paul “delivered”
is exactly the same as what he first “received,”
and this is called Tradition.
“Have in mind
therefore in what manner thou hast received and heard: and observe, and do
penance. If then thou shalt not watch, I will come to thee as a thief,
and thou shalt not know at what hour I will come to thee” (Apoc. 3:3). This
is the warning to the Church in Sardis. What was their sin? They had
not kept the traditions they received and therefore St. John writes, “And to
the angel of the church of Sardis, write: These things saith he,
that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast the name
of being alive: and thou art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things that
remain, which are ready to die. For I find not thy works full before my God”
(Apoc. 3:1-2). The Catholics of Sardis were not faithful to what they had “received.” When the faith is corrupted by corrupting its
images, the corruption of morals necessarily follows, therefore, their “works” were “dead,” that is, they had fallen from the
grace of God.
By the light of Francis, tradition
received is not what is passed on. What is passed on is different and no longer
shares an identity between father and son with every generation. Francis is a
Neo-modernist Neo-iconoclast. Those that follow him will lose their souls
because “without faith, it is impossible
to please God” (Heb. 11:6). And without the images of the faith it is impossible to have the faith.
Therefore, faithful Catholics today, unlike those of
Sardis, must “watch” lest their traditions be trampled into ashes by Francis
the Destroyer.
Unjust
judgment: It is a grave sin to attribute an evil motive to an objectively good
and meritorious act!
DC archbishop
criticizes long-planned Trump visit to Catholic shrine as ‘reprehensible’
'I find it
baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be
so egregiously misused and 
manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles,' said
Archbishop Wilton Gregory.
LifeSiteNews | WASHINGTON, D.C. | JUNE 2, 2020– Washington, D.C.’s Archbishop
Wilton Gregory issued a stinging rebuke to the John Paul II National
Shrine for “allowing” President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to visit
today.
The president and Mrs. Trump
visited the shrine to both commemorate Pope John Paul II's 100th birthday two
weeks ago and the 41st anniversary of the modern day saint’s historic Mass at
Victory Square in Warsaw. Melania Trump is the first Catholic First Lady since
Jacqueline Kennedy.
After his visit to the shrine,
established and operated by the Knights of Columbus, President Trump planned to
return to the White House to sign an executive order on religious
freedom.
“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic
facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a
fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the
rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree,” said Gregory in a
statement released the very hour of Trump’s visit.
“Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the
rights and dignity of human beings,” continued Gregory. “His legacy bears
vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas
and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate
them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”
It turns out that Archbishop Gregory was wrong about the
deployment of tear gas against Monday night's protesters. It simply didn't
happen, despite major media's initial claims to the contrary. It
remains unclear if Archbishop Gregory plans to issue a correction to his
statement.
A spokesperson for the shrine indicated on Tuesday that
the White House had scheduled the president’s visit long before the recent
violent uprisings in cities across the nation, countering Gregory’s implication
that this was nothing more than a political photo op.
“This was fitting given St. John
Paul II was a tireless advocate of religious liberty throughout his
pontificate,” the Shrine said in a statement. “International religious freedom
receives widespread bipartisan support, including unanimous passage of legislation
in defense of persecuted Christians and religious minorities around the world.”
He added that “the shrine welcomes
all people to come and pray and learn about the legacy of St. John Paul II.”
In declaring that the shrine and the president are in “violation
of Catholic principles,” Archbishop Gregory chose to overlook Donald Trump’s
record as the most pro-life president in the history of the nation, and his
strong efforts to protect religious liberty.
Trump’s pro-life gains include
allowing states to defund Planned Parenthood of Title X and Medicaid funds;
defunding the United Nations Population Fund and very recently the pro-abortion
World Health Organization; reinstating and expanding the Mexico City Policy
preventing taxpayer money from funding abortions overseas; creating a new
office for conscience protection at the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services; and strengthening enforcement of federal laws protecting the
conscience rights of health care workers who do not want to participate in abortion.
Trump also declared churches
“essential” on May 22, telling state governors to allow them to reopen as
coronavirus lockdowns begin to loosen. All public Masses in Washington, D.C.
remain cancelled.
The president
has long been the object of criticism by many Catholic prelates because of his
strong stance on immigration and secure borders.
Last summer, in his first public statement following his
installation as Archbishop of Washington, Gregory accused the president of
“diminishing our national life.” [.....]
Gregory has a long record of supporting liberal causes.
During his tenure as Archbishop of Atlanta, Gregory did nothing to stop a
pro-LGBT parish from promoting, participating in, and hosting a booth at, the
Atlanta “Pride Parade.” Gregory also personally invited pro-gay priest Father
James Martin to give a speech at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception,
titled “Showing Welcome and Respect to LGBT Catholics,” in 2018.
He has made statements suggesting
support for allowing Catholics living in a state of adultery to receive Holy
Communion. [....]
PRAYER
BEFORE COMMUNION
I renounce myself and all my inner dispositions, no matter how good my
self-love may make them look. I’m all thine my dear Mistress with all that I have
and I take Thee for my all. Please give me thy heart O Mary that I might
receive thy Son here with the same dispositions as thine own. For it touches
thy Son’s glory to be put into a heart as sullied and inconstant as mine which
would not fail either to lessen his glory or to destroy it. But if thou will
come and dwell with me in order to receive thy Son, He will be well received by
thee without danger of being outraged or unnoticed for “God is in the midst of
her. She shall not be moved.” I know that of all the gifts that I have given
thee of my own goods I have given thee nothing worthy of thee, but with this
Gift I make thee the same Gift as the Eternal Father gave thee. And I know that
by giving thee this Gift I give thee more than if I gave thee all the gifts in
the entire world. And finally Jesus still desires to take His pleasure and
repose in thee even in my soul, though it be far filthier and poorer than the
stable where He did not hesitate to come simply because thou were there. I take
thee for my all, please give me thy heart O Mary.
St. Louis De Montfort, True
Devotion to Mary
CORONAVIRUS
DEATHS
DEMOCRAT STATES:
New York - 23,083 (Status
New Jersey — 10,843 (Status — CLOSED)
Pennsylvania — 4624 (Status — CLOSED)
Michigan — 5129 (Status — CLOSED)
Total Dead — 43,679
Total Population — 51.11 million
REPUBLICAN STATES:
Florida - 2144 (Status — OPEN)
Texas — 1369 (Status — OPEN)
Georgia — 1754 (Status — OPEN)
Ohio — 1720 — (Status — OPEN)
Total Dead — 6987
Total Population — 72.79 million
*More people have died of coronavirus in NY & NJ nursing homes than
all the people combined in FL, TX, GA, OH.
“With
them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spake unto them, they fought
against me without cause.” Ps. cxix
“Forty
years long was I nigh unto that generation, and said: They do always err in
their heart; and they have not known My ways to whom I
swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.” Ps. xciv
“In the later editions of the Talmud the allusions to Christianity are
few and cautious compared with the earlier or unexpurgated copies. The last of
these was published at Amsterdam in 1645. In them our Lord and Saviour is ‘that
One, ‘such a One,’ ‘a fool,’ ‘the leper,’ ‘the deceiver or Israel,’ &c.;
efforts are made to prove that He is the son of Joseph Pandira before his
marriage with Mary. His miracles are attributed to sorcery, the secret of which
He brought in a slit in his flesh out of Egypt. His teacher is said to have
been Joshua, the son of Perachlah. This Joshua is said to have afterwards
excommunicated Him to the sound of 800 rams’ horns, although he must have lived
seventy years before His time. Forty days before the death of Jesus a witness was
summoned by public proclamation to attest his innocence, but none appeared. He
is said to have been first stoned and then hanged on the eve of the Passover.
His disciples are called heretics, and opprobrious names. They are accused of
immoral practices; and the New Testament is called a sinful book. The references to these subjects
manifest the most bitter aversion and hate.”
Dr. Joseph Barclay, LL.D, Rector of Stapleford, Herts, London, The Talmud, 1878, from Introduction, p. 30
“Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify
terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us
the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of
laws in the world: ‘Ye shall blot them out to the last man.’”
Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli
Prime Minister 1986-1992, 1943 Quote taken from “Document: Shamir on Terrorism (1943)” Middle East Report 152
St.
John Eudes: “That there is a special contract made between God and man in
Baptism.”
THE name of contract is given to
any agreement entered into by two or more persons, in which the parties
contracting incur mutual obligations. This clearly shows that a contract. has been entered into by the most Blessed Trinity and you in
Baptism; since you have incurred many obligations towards the Blessed Trinity,
and the Blessed Trinity has also obliged itself in regard to you. What is the
nature of this contract? It is a reciprocal contract of gifts, the highest and
most entire that can “enter into the heart of man to conceive;” for in making
it you are obliged to give yourself entirely and forever to God; you have
renounced all things to be united to Him, and for Him, and God on his part has
given Himself entirely to you. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, come to
you and take up their abode in your soul, in order to confer honors and
benefits on you. They enrich you ‘with spiritual treasures to render you worthy
of their three divine Persons.
It is a contract of adoption,
since God the Father has taken you for his child, and has conferred on you the
right of his inheritance with his only Son, and you have taken God for your
Father, and have promised to entertain for him all the love and respect which a
child owes to a so good a parent. “Consider,” writes St. John the Evangelist,
“what love the Father has testified to you in wishing that you should be
called, and that you should, really, be his children.”
Behold the admirable effect of the
contract which you have made with God in Baptism, from being the child of wrath
and an heir of hell, you have become the child of God
and an heir to heaven! What you should not do to acknowledge the infinite
goodness of God in your regard?
It is a contract of alliance with
the Son of God, since in receiving Baptism you have united yourself to him as
to your head, your master, and your sovereign, and since the Son has taken you
for His servant and one of the members of his body, which is his Church. How
great is the goodness of God, says St. Paul to the
newly converted Christians of Corinth; “By whom you arc called unto the
fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
What were you before Baptism but
the unhappy slave of Satan, and subject like him to eternal punishment? But by
Baptism you have been delivered from this unhappy subjection, through the
divine alliance which you have contracted with Jesus Christ, which procures you
the enjoyment of eternal happiness, if you observe all its conditions.
Finally, it is a contract of
alliance with the Person of the Holy Ghost; for faith teaches us, that the Holy
Ghost takes the Christian soul as his spouse, and that the Christian
reciprocally takes the Holy Ghost for his spouse. In consequence of this sacred
alliance, the Holy Ghost calls you “his sister and his spouse,” and as, of
yourself, you are poor indeed, he adorns your soul with all the gifts necessary
to render it worthy of him, and he comes to take up his abode in it, and to
consecrate it as his temple and his sanctuary. […..]
When you had been presented to the
church to receive Baptism, you were treated as a person in the possession of
the devil, for the priest pronounced over you the exorcism of the church,
commanding the wicked spirit to depart from you, and to give place to the Holy
Ghost.
This ceremony teaches you that by
original sin you were really in possession of the devil, and that he abided in
you, but that, through Baptism, he has been cast out of you; that your soul has
been purified from the horrible stain which disfigured it, and that the Holy
Ghost, having sanctified and ornamented it with his grace, comes to take up his
abode in it. […..]
That Baptism imprints in your soul
a spiritual character, which no sin can efface. This character is a proof that
from this time you do not belong to yourself, but that you are the property of
Jesus Christ, who has purchased you by the infinite price of his blood and of
his death. You are not of yourself, but you are of Christ’s therefore, St. Paul
concludes, “that the Christian should no longer live for himself, but for Him
who died and rose again for him;” that is to say, that the Christian should
live a life of grace, and that he should consecrate to his Redeemer his spirit,
his heart, and all his actions. […..]
The Priest introduced you into the
Church, by saying, “Enter into the house of God, that you may have eternal
life.” This ceremony teaches you that Baptism enables you to enter into the
Society of Jesus Christ, and of all the faithful who compose the house or
family of God. By this entry, you begin to partake of all the good works of the
faithful and you acquire a right to the sacraments, to the prayers, and to all
the other good works which are done in the Church. Moreover, in entering into
the Church, you have become her child, and have been made a child of God, the
heir of God, and co-heir of Jesus Christ; you entered into society and
communion with the angels and all the blessed who are in Heaven. By this
ceremony you are likewise taught that, in order to be united to Jesus Christ, and
to have eternal life, it is necessary to be a member of the Church, and to
persevere therein to the end, believing all she teaches, obeying all she
commands.
St. John Eudes, excerpt from Man’s
Contract with God in Baptism
COMMENT: St. John Eudes makes clear what ever faithful Catholic should already
know, that is, it is by virtue of the sacrament of Baptism received with Faith
that makes a person a Child of God. The Neo-modernist popes since Vatican II
heretically teach that everyone is a child of God by virtue of the Incarnation
of the Logos, the Word becoming flesh, where the second Person of the Trinity,
by personally uniting Himself with our human nature, thereby elevated all
humanity to being children of God by virtue of this shared humanity. For them,
Baptism is only an outward sign acknowledging what has already taken place. It
reduces Baptism from a necessity of means
to a simple necessity of precept
which obligates only those who feel some inner compulsion to obey. It is this
fundamental corruption of revealed truth that makes modern ecumenism with such
events as the blasphemous “Prayer Meeting at Assisi” possible. For them the
“spiritual character” imprinted on the soul at Baptism is meaningless. The
“spiritual character” is both the sign of and cause of the adoption as Sons of
God. The character is like a receptacle that makes the reception of the
sacramental grace of adoption possible. Those who have the character of the
sacrament without the sanctifying grace of adoption will suffer the greatest torments
of all in hell.
It is an unfortunate fact that the many traditional Catholics and
conservative Catholics believe this tripe and profess that any “good-willed”
Protestant, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, etc., etc. can be a child of God, a
member of the Church, a temple of the Holy Ghost and an heir to heaven by
virtue of being a “good” Protestant, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, etc., etc.
We call this “salvation by implicit desire.” This error is derived essentially
from the more fundamental error of denying Dogma
as Dogma, by overturning Dogma in its
very nature. For these Neo-modernists, Dogma is not the revealed truth of God
but only a human axiom open to unending refinement and new
interpretations.
But the truth is that Dogma is divine revelation formally and
infallibly defined by the Magisterium of the Church. It is irreformable in both
the truth it declares and the words that it uses to define. It constitutes the formal object of divine and Catholic faith
and is the proximate rule of faith for every
faithful child of God. Not until every traditional Catholic recognizes and
defends this truth will any effective resistance to Neo-modernist error be
effectively mounted.
“The Jews are
enemies of God and foes of our holy religion.”
St. Pio of Pietrelicina
[American Jewish Committee’s interfaith affairs director Rabbi David]
Rosen said. “Those who said Benedict was the last pope who would be a pope that
lived through the Shoah, or that said there would not be another pope who had a
personal connection to the Jewish people, they were wrong,” Rosen said....
Israel Singer, the former head of the World Jewish Congress, said he spent time
working with Bergoglio when the two were distributing aid to the poor in Buenos
Aires in the early 2000s, part of a joint Jewish-Catholic program called
Tzedaka.... Bergoglio also wrote the foreward of a book by Rabbi Sergio
Bergman, a Buenos Aires legislator, and referred to him as “one of my
teachers.”.... Bergoglio attended Rosh Hashanah services at the Benei Tikva Slijot
synagogue in September 2007.... Last November, Bergoglio hosted a Kristallnacht
memorial event at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral with Rabbi Alejandro
Avruj from the NCI-Emanuel World Masorti congregation. He also has worked with the Latin American
Jewish Congress and held meetings with Jewish youth who participate in its New
Generations program.... In his visit to the Buenos Aires synagogue, according
to the Catholic Zenit news agency, Bergoglio told the congregation that he was
there to examine his heart “like a pilgrim, together with you, my elder
brothers.”....
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 13, 2015
Benedict/Ratzinger:
Claims to have resigned the Papacy while retaining a “spiritual dimension” of
the Office!
It is here that Pope Benedict then draws a comparison with the papacy.
For, such a retired bishop, he adds, “does not anymore
actively have an episcopal seat, but, still finds himself in a special
relationship of a former bishop to his seat.” This retired bishop, however,
thereby “does not become a second bishop of his diocese,” explains Benedict.
Such a bishop had “fully given up his office, yet the spiritual connection with
his former seat was now being acknowledged, also as a legal quality.” This “new
relationship with a seat” is “given as a reality, but lies outside of the
concrete legal substance of the episcopal office.” At the same time, adds the retired Pope, the
“spiritual connection” is being regarded as a “reality.”
“Thus,” he
continues, “there are not two bishops, but one with a spiritual mandate, whose
essence it is to serve his former diocese from within, from the Lord, by being
present and available in prayer.”
“It is not
conceivable why such a legal concept should not also be applied to the bishop
of Rome,” Pope Benedict explicitly states, thus making it clear that according
to his own ideas, he fully resigned his papal office while maintaining a
“spiritual dimension” of his office.
Peter Seewald, Excerpt from book length interview with the ever
talkative Benedict/Ratzinger to be published fall of 2020
COMMENT by Don Nicola Bux
“In my opinion, one of the most problematic aspects would be the idea,
implicit in Pope Ratzinger’s act, that the papacy is not a single and
indivisible office, but, on the contrary, a divisible office that can be
‘unpacked’, in the sense that a Pope may choose to give up some functions,
keeping for himself others, which would not then be passed on to his successor.
A clearly erroneous idea.” […]
“The comparison of the papal office with the episcopal office in what
regards the abdication of the papal office is not correct. The episcopal office
is conferred by episcopal ordination or consecration, imprinting an indelible
character on the soul of the bishop. Thus, while he may be relieved of a particular
pastoral responsibility, he remains always a bishop. The papal office is
conferred by the acceptance of the election to the See of Peter,
that is, by an act of the will of the person elected, accepting the call
to be the Vicar of Christ on earth. From the moment that the
person elected consents he has the full jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff.”
If the person elected is not a Bishop,” Monsignor Bux continued, “he
must be immediately consecrated a Bishop because the papacy entails the
exercise of the episcopal office, but he is Pope from the moment he consents to
the election. If the same person, at a certain point, declares that he can no
longer fulfill the call to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, he loses the papal
office and returns to the condition in which he was before giving the consent
to be the Vicar of Christ on earth.”
Don Nicola Bux, Vatican theologian and former consultor to Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith
COMMENT:
The Comment from Msgr. Bux is very good but insufficiently critical of
the imposter Benedict/Ratzinger’s running around in his white cassock
constantly looking for someone to uncritically publish his latest musings. The
very idea, the absurd notion, that he could retain a “spiritual dimension” of
the papacy while resigning the office evidences further insight into this
coward’s philosophical foundations which he has plainly expressed in his
voluminous writings. Benedict/Ratzinger is an apologist of the modernist
reductionist philosophy of scientism. He believes that the fundamental reality
consists of atoms and the void in
constant evolution. And since nothing is in a fixed state, he closes his mind
to the reality of substance. In place
of being, he affirms the process of becoming and makes the accident of relationship the foundation
of his reality. He denies that the papacy has a substantial
existence. This is heresy plain and simple. Why? Because it is a direct
denial of Dogma regarding the immutability of the papal office which will exist
as Jesus Christ established it until the end of time. It is indirect heresy
because the philosophical principle of substance,
and the principle of hylomorphism,
that is, that material substantial being is composed of form and matter, have
been incorporated in Dogmatic definitions and are therefore necessarily true
descriptions of reality as God Himself has created and revealed it. Any
separation of form and matter necessarily causes a substantial change. The substance ceases
to be what it was and becomes something else. By denying the truth of
substantial reality, it is impossible to believe the literal meaning of such
Dogmas as those regarding the consubstantial
relationship of the Father and the Son, as well as those dogmas regarding
transubstantiation and the True Presence. This blabber about the “spiritual
dimension” of the papacy existing apart from the actual office is just another
example of the same problem. He denies the substantial reality, drives a wedge
between the substantial form and the matter, destroys the substantial reality
and then pretends that he can reconstitute the evolving reality in his own
image. Benedict/Ratzinger, like all Modernists, is a Nominalist by default.
Nominalists believe that we can only know sense perceptions and not
intellectual perceptions. He becomes a Nominalist by default because he denies
there is any substantial essence to intellectually perceive. He denies that any
substantial reality can exist or if it does exist, that it can be known. He
believes that we can only know the accidents of anything by sense perception
and that these are in perpetual state of evolution in the reconstitution of atoms within the void.
Whether or not this is due to Benedict/Ratzinger’s vanity or his malice
makes no difference. The result is a direct denial and attack upon the Dogma of
the papacy and a scandal to all Catholics.
All
our Ecclesiastical Traditions are Signs, Images which signify a greater
Truth. It is this “Greater Truth” that
the Novus Ordo attacks.
“Whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.” St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18, 45
“The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow
delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God.”
St. John Damascene, De Imag 1, 27
More people have been imprisoned for Liberty, humiliated and tortured
for Equality, and slaughtered for Fraternity in this century, than for any less
hypocritical motives, during the Middle Ages.
Roy Campbell, poet, journalist, Catholic convert, footnote appended to
his poem Flowering Rifle.
THE ONE THING NECESSARY
As everyone can easily
understand, the interior life is an elevated form of intimate conversation
which everyone has with himself as soon as he is alone, even in the tumult of a
great city. From the moment he ceases to converse with his fellow men, man
converses interiorly with himself about what preoccupies him most. This
conversation varies greatly according to the different ages of life; that of an
old man is not that of a youth. It also varies greatly according as a man is
good or bad.
As soon as a man
seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by
little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or
less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything,
and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes
the interior life. No sincere man will have any difficulty in recognizing it.
The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in
hearing the word of God and living by it.
Rev. Reginald
Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Ages of
the Interior Life
Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity
Martin Luther:
“God does not save factious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and
rejoice in Christ every more boldly. No
sin will separate us form the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and
murder a thousand times a day.” Martin
Luther
When I awoke last night the Devil came and
wanted to debate with me arguing that I was a sinner. To this I replied, “Tell me something new,
Devil! I already know that perfectly well; I have committed many a solid and
real sin. Indeed there must be good honest sins not fabricated and invented
ones for God to forgive.” Martin Luther
In translating St. Paul, “We account a man
to be justified by faith” (Romans 3:28), Luther added the word, “alone.” In answer to those who objected to his
mutilating Sacred Scripture, he answered:
“If your Papist annoys you with the word (alone), tell him straightway:
Dr. Martin Luther will have it so. Whoever will not have my translation, let
him give it the go-by; the devil’s thanks to him who censures it without my
will and knowledge. Dr. Martin Luther will have it so, and he is a doctor above
all the doctors in Popedom.”
Pope Francis the Lutheran:
“I think that Marin Luther's intentions
were not mistaken. He was a reformer....
And today, Luther and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine
of justification. On this point which is very important, he did not err.”
Pope Francis, public interview, June 26,
2016
Catholic Faith:
Council of Trent: Selected Canons on Justification
CANON IX.-If any one saith, that by faith
alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is
required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and
that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the
movement of his own will; let him be anathema.
CANON XII.-If any one saith, that
justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which
remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby
we are justified; let him be anathema.
CANON XIV.-If any one saith, that man is
truly absolved from his sins and justified, because that he assuredly believed
himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who
believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and
justification are effected; let him be anathema.
CANON XV.-If any one saith, that a man, who
is born again and justified, is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly
in the number of the predestinate; let him be anathema.
CANON XII.-If any one saith, that
justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which
remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby
we are justified; let him be anathema.
CANON XIII.-If any one saith, that it is
necessary for every one, for the obtaining the remission of sins, that he
believe for certain, and without any wavering arising from his own infirmity
and disposition, that his sins are forgiven him; let him be anathema.
CANON XIV.-If any one saith, that man is
truly absolved from his sins and justified, because that he assuredly believed
himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who
believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and
justification are effected; let him be anathema.
CANON XV.-If any one saith, that a man, who
is born again and justified, is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly
in the number of the predestinate; let him be anathema.
CANON XIX.-If any one saith, that nothing
besides faith is commanded in the Gospel; that other things are indifferent,
neither commanded nor prohibited, but free; or, that the ten
commandments nowise appertain to Christians; let him be anathema.
CANON XXIX.-If any one saith, that he, who
has fallen after baptism, is not able by the grace of God to rise again; or,
that he is able indeed to recover the justice which he has lost, but by faith
alone without the sacrament of Penance, contrary to what the holy Roman and
universal Church-instructed by Christ and his Apostles-has hitherto professed,
observed, and taugh; let him be anathema.
CANON XXXIII.-If any one saith, that, by
the Catholic doctrine touching Justification, by this holy Synod inset forth in
this present decree, the glory of God, or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ
are in any way derogated from, and not rather that the truth of our faith, and
the glory in fine of God and of Jesus Christ are rendered (more) illustrious;
let him be anathema.
Amazing! Martyrdom is a barrier to ecumenical unity!
If you have a Church that considers martyrs, that sets them off against
the others, this in itself contains the pebbles of a
rocky road to disunity. Sure I appreciated [Cardinal Joseph Zen’s] concerns and
sufferings… You have to be proud of the Church that suffers, but also worried
that a Church that suffers allows that suffering to be a barrier to the common
union to which the Lord has called us.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick the Homosexual Pervert, criticizing
Cardinal Zen and the faithful Catholics of China for resisting a forced unity
with the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) founded by the communist
government.
Hermeneutics
of Continuity/Discontinuity
A Illustrative
Example of the Heresy of Neo-Modernism
It is not enough to find a new language in which to articulate our
perennial faith; it is also urgent, in the light of the new challenges and
prospects facing humanity, that the Church be able to express the ‘new things’
of Christ’s Gospel, that, albeit present in the word of God, have not yet come
to light. Pope Francis the Destroyer,
Address, October 11, 2018
A Illustrative
Example of the Catholic Faith
If there are any present-day teachers making every effort to produce
and develop new ideas, but not to repeat “that which has been handed down,” and
if this is their whole aim, they should reflect calmly on those words which
Benedict XV proposes for their consideration: “We wish this maxim of our elders
held in reverence: Nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum — let nothing new be introduced,
but only what has been handed down; it must be held as an inviolable law in
matters of faith, and should also control those points which allow of change,
though in these latter for the most part the rule holds: non nova sed noviter—not new
things but in a new way.”
Pope Pius XII,
Si Diligis, Allocution to
Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops on the Canonization of St Pius X, May 31,
1954.
But would it not be enough for
one to be a Catholic in heart only, without professing his religion publicly?
No, for Jesus Christ has solemnly declared that, “He who shall be
ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed when He
shall come in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels.”
(Luke 9:26) Fr. Michael Muller, C.SS.R,
Questions and Answers on Salvation
And since Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, morally obliges every Catholic the duty to profess his faith in
the public forum, every Catholic possesses by right the use of the
ecclesiastical traditions of our Church which constitute the perfect outward
expression of our holy faith.
Open Letter by “Papal
favorite” calling for End of Summorum
Pontificum
OPEN LETTER on the “State of Liturgical Exception” |
Andrea Grillo, April 29, 2020
To all
theologians, scholars, and students of theology:
The great
liturgical tradition, which has always accompanied and supported the Church in
her history of grace and sin, hears the groaning of individuals and nations in
this pandemic crisis, which brings suffering and affliction to those who are
sick, and fear, isolation and loneliness to everyone else. The ordinary
rhythm of the Lenten and Paschal journey is altered and subverted, in
solidarity with our common suffering. We would never have thought, however,
that a small but not marginal suffering would also come at the same time
through the exercise of ecclesial authority and through the decrees Quo
magis e Cum sanctissima, which the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith published on 25 March 2020.
It is no
surprise that This Congregation should devote its attention to the liturgy. But
special and singular is the fact that it modifies the ordines, introduces prefaces
and formularies for feasts, and modifies calendars and criteria of precedence.
And it does this on a 1962 missal. How is this possible? The Congregation, as is known,
in this case moves in the space of an exceptional authority, which dates
back 13 years, in accordance with motu proprio Summorum
pontificum. But
since time is greater than space, what is possible on the regulatory level is
not always appropriate. Therefore, it is crucial to engage in critical
reflection on the logic of this development.
Time, in fact,
has unveiled to us the paradox of a competence on the liturgy being taken away
from the Bishops and the Congregation of Worship: this was arranged, in Summorum
pontificum, with an intention of solemn pacification and generous
reconciliation, but soon it changed into a serious division, a widespread
conflict, and became the symbol of a “liturgical rejection” of the Second
Vatican Council. The greatest distortion of the initial intentions of the motu
proprio can be seen today in those diocesan seminaries where it is expected
that the future ministers will be trained at the same time in two different
rites: the conciliar rite and the one that denies it. All this reached its most
surreal point the day before yesterday, when the two Decrees were released.
They mark the culmination of a distortion which is no longer tolerable, and
which can be summed up as follows:
·
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acts as a
substitute in exercising competences conferred by the Second Vatican
Council on Bishops and the Congregation for Divine Worship;
·
it undertakes to elaborate ”liturgical
variants” of the ordines without having the
historical, textual, philological and pastoral competences;
·
it seems to
ignore, precisely on the dogmatic level, a grave conflict
between the lex orandi and the lex credendi,
since it is inevitable that a dual, conflictual ritual form will lead to a
significant division in the faith;
·
it seems to underestimate the
disruptive effect this “exception” will have on the ecclesial level,
by immunizing a part of the community from the “school of prayer” that the
Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reform have providentially given to
the common ecclesial journey.
A “state of
exception” is also happening today on the civil level, in its harsh necessity,
and this fact allows us greater ecclesial foresight. To return to an ecclesial
normality, we must overcome the state of liturgical exception established 13
years ago in another world, with other conditions and with other hopes, by Summorum pontificum. It
no longer makes sense to deprive diocesan bishops of their liturgical powers;
neither does it make sense to have an Ecclesia Dei Commission (which has in fact already been
suppressed), or a Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
which take away authority from diocesan Bishops and the Congregation of Divine
Worship; it no longer makes sense to enact decrees to “reform” a rite that is
closed in the historical past, inert and crystallized, lifeless and without
vigor. There can be no resuscitation for it. The double regime is over; the
noble intention of SP has waned; the Lefebvrians have raised the barhigher and
higher and then run away, insulting the Second Vatican Council and the present
pope along with all three of his predecessors. Continuing to nourish a
“state of liturgical exception” – one that was born to unite, but does nothing
but divide – only leads to the shattering, privatization, and distortion of the
worship of the Church. On the basis of these considerations, we
resolve together to request that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
immediately withdraw the two decrees of 25/03/2020 and restore all powers
concerning the liturgy to the diocesan Bishops and the Congregation for Divine
Worship.
Obviously, we ask this without prejudice to the powers that this Congregation
retains in doctrinal matters.
So let
us leave the “state of liturgical exception”. If not now, when?
With best
wishes to all colleagues and students, besieged but not conquered in life,
during these bitter yet still generous times.
COMMENT:
“Time is greater than space” – The ideological lynchpin of Pope Francis
the Great Equivocator
This liturgical OPEN LETTER structures its
argument around the phrase: Time is Greater Than Space.” This enigmatic slogan
of Pope Francis, “Time is greater than space” (TGTS), appeared in his first two
encyclicals, Lumen Fidei and Laudato Si’. It surfaced again in
the apostolic exhortations, Evangelii Gaudium and Amoris Laetitia.
From Lumen
Fidei:
“Let us refuse to be robbed of hope, or to allow our hope to be dimmed
by facile answers and solutions which block our progress, ‘fragmenting’ time
and changing it into space. Time is always much greater than space. Space
hardens processes, whereas time propels towards the future and encourages us to
go forward in hope.”
Evangelii Gaudium is more revealing as to the cryptic meaning
of this phrase:
222. A constant tension exists between fullness and limitation.
Fullness evokes the desire for complete possession, while limitation is a wall
set before us. Broadly speaking, “time” has to do with fullness as an
expression of the horizon which constantly opens before us, while each
individual moment has to do with limitation as an expression of enclosure.
People live poised between each individual moment and the greater, brighter
horizon of the utopian future as the final cause which draws us to itself. Here
we see a first principle for progress in building a people: time is greater
than space.
223. This principle enables us to work slowly but surely, without being
obsessed with immediate results. It helps us patiently to endure difficult and
adverse situations, or inevitable changes in our plans. It invites us to accept
the tension between fullness and limitation, and to give a priority to time.
One of the faults which we occasionally observe in sociopolitical activity is
that spaces and power are preferred to time and processes. Giving priority to
space means madly attempting to keep everything together in the present, trying
to possess all the spaces of power and of self-assertion; it is to crystallize
processes and presume to hold them back. Giving priority to
time means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing
spaces. Time governs spaces, illumines them and makes them links in a
constantly expanding chain, with no possibility of return. What we need, then,
is to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society and
engage other persons and groups who can develop them to the point where they
bear fruit in significant historical events. Without anxiety,
but with clear convictions and tenacity.
St. Pius X said in Pascendi that Evolution
is the fundamental principle of the heresy of Modernism. This error is
practically applied when Modernists embrace Becoming
and reject Being.
This neologism of Francis, TGTS, is just a repacking of this old philosophical
error of Modernism. Francis is trying to sound clever by putting a little
make-up and bow-tie on the pig. But the pig remains a pig because that is his Being. Fr. Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. explained this error in his great
essay, Where is the New Theology Leading
Us?, that was published in the Angelicum
in 1946.
It should be remembered that on December 1, 1924, the Holy Office
condemned 12 propositions taken from the philosophy of action, among which was
number 5, or the new definition of truth: “Truth is not found in any particular
act of the intellect wherein conformity with the object would be had, as the
Scholastics say, but rather truth is always in a state of becoming, and
consists in a progressive alignment of the understanding with life, indeed a
certain perpetual process, by which the intellect strives to develop and
explain that which experience presents or action requires: by which principle,
moreover, as in all progression, nothing is ever determined or fixed.” The last
of these condemned propositions is: “Even after Faith has been received, man
ought not to rest in the dogmas of religion, and hold fast to them fixedly and
immovably, but always solicitous to remain moving ahead toward a deeper truth
and even evolving into new notions, and even correcting that which he
believes.”
Many, who did not heed these warnings, have now reverted to these errors.
……
It revisits modernism. Because it accepted the proposition which was
intrinsic to modernism: that of substituting, as if it were illusory, the traditional
definition of truth: aequatio rei et intellectus (the
adequation of intellect and reality), for the subjective definition: adequatio
realis mentis et vitae (the adequation of intellect and life). That was more
explicitly stated in the already cited proposition, which emerged from the
philosophy of action, and was condemned by the Holy Office, December 1, 1924:
“Truth is not found in any particular act of the intellect wherein conformity
with the object would be had, as the Scholastics say, but rather truth is
always in a state of becoming, and consists in a progressive alignment of the
understanding with life, indeed a certain perpetual process, by which the
intellect strives to develop and explain that which experience presents or
action requires: by which principle, moreover, as in all progression, nothing
is ever determined or fixed” (v. Monitore ecclesiastico, 1925. t. I; p. 194.)
The truth is no longer the conformity (of judgment) to the intuitive
reality and its immutable laws but the conformity of judgment to the exigencies
of action, and of human life which continues to evolve. The philosophy of being
or ontology is substituted by the philosophy of action which defines truth as
no longer a function of being but of action.
Thus is modernism reprised: “Truth is no more immutable than man himself,
inasmuch as it is evolved with him, in him and through him.
As well, Pius X said of the modernists, “they pervert the eternal concept of
truth.”
……
The traditional definition truth is no longer for them the conformity of
judgment to intuitive being and the immutable laws of non-contradiction, of
causality, etc. For them, the truth is no longer that which is but that which is becoming — and is constantly and always
changing.
For the Modernist heretic, Pope Francis,
“Time is greater than space,” “Time” means the process of becoming through evolution
and “Space” is the limitation of static being.
They prefer the prusuit of truth over its actual possession. A library could be
filled with analyzing the implications of this error but suffice for the
present there are two obvious to everyone: Firstly, the very definition of
heresy is the rejection of DOGMA. For the faithful Catholic, DOGMA is
NECESSARILY the proximate rule of faith. This is directly rejected by the
Modernists. They replace Dogma with the person of the pope as the proximate
rule of faith and he is free to corrupt the revealed truth in whatever manner
he pleases. The second obvious error is that they deny the philosophical
meaning of substance. They follow
modern reductionist Scientism that resurrected the Greek philosopher
Democritus’ (460-370 B.C.) theory that the fundamental nature of all that
existed is “atoms and the void.” Since all reality is just the recombination of
atoms and the void between them, then there cannot be such thing as a fixed substance in which accidents adhere. Consequently, we have Benedict/Ratzinger denying substance altogether and, in its place,
making the accident of relationship the fundamental ground of
all reality. It is therefore not surprising when he denies the Dogma of
Transubstantiation. And what becomes of the Dogma that the Father and the Son
are Consubstantial? Francis follows in the same manner and never kneels before
the Blessed Sacrament. No argument can touch these blighted minds, if you call
a “mind” something that never thinks. It matters not what wreckage and ruin
that has followed since Vatican II because the being of the wreckage cannot overcome their ideological fantasy of becoming as Pope Francis looks to his “brighter horizon of the utopian
future.”
The truth is just the opposite, ‘Space is
Greater than Time.’ God revealed His name to Moses, “I AM.” Jesus applied this
name to Himself. God is perfect BEING; He is perfect ACT: “Every best gift, and
every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with
whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17). Ultimately
time will end in a changeless eternity where the faithful will be with God in a
space prepared by Him for each one of us. “In my Father's house there
are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be” (John
14:2-3).
Andrea Grillo
gives as a reason for the suppression of the Latin Mass granted to the Indult
crowd:
·
it seems to
ignore, precisely on the dogmatic level, a grave conflict
between the lex orandi and the lex credendi,
since it is inevitable that a dual, conflictual ritual form will lead to a
significant division in the faith;
He too believes with Francis that TGTS.
Latin Mass Catholics are stuck in space
while the Catholic Church is moving in time
to a new “dogmatic level.”
The two rites he says represent a “grave conflict between the lex
orandi and the lex credenda.”
Are to congratulate Grillo for this insight? Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani,
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith with his Interventionin in
1969 said the same thing! This is a truth that faithful Catholics have
known for more than 50 years! Yet Indultists publicly deny this truth
professing that both the Novus Ordo and the traditional Latin rite express an
identity of “lex orandi /lex credendi.”
This is the price they have paid for their Indult.
Ss. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic
Mission’s purpose is to make a public profession of the Catholic faith before
our local ordinary and Rome. Foundational to this purpose is that DOGMA is
divine revelation infallibly defined by the Magisterium of the Church and
irreformable in its terminology which becomes the “formal object of divine and
Catholic faith” and constitutes the proximate rule of faith. Furthermore, our
immemorial ecclesiastical traditions are necessary attributes of the faith by
which alone the faith can be known and communicated to others. Since God has
imposed a duty upon His faithful to profess their faith and worship Him in the
public forum, every Catholic possesses the inalienable right to our immemorial
traditions by which alone these duties can be fulfilled. Those who have
accepted the Latin Mass by virtue of Indult and/or grant of legal privilege
want a non-confrontational modus vivendi
with Modernist heretics. This has never worked in the past and it will not work
now. Being neither ‘cold nor hot’, they please no one and will soon learn that
having traded their birth right for bowl of pottage there is nothing left to
eat.
Neo-Modernism
Postulates the grave error that there exists a disjunction between DOGMA and
the Words used to formulate the dogmatic definition. This error became the
overarching theme of Vatican II!
[…..] In theology some (i.e., Neo-Modernists) want to reduce to a minimum the meaning
of dogmas; and to free dogma itself from terminology long established in the
Church and from philosophical concepts held by Catholic teachers, to
bring about a return in the explanation of Catholic doctrine to the way of
speaking used in Holy Scripture and by the Fathers of the Church. They cherish
the hope that when dogma is stripped of the elements which they hold to be
extrinsic to divine revelation, it will compare advantageously with the
dogmatic opinions of those who are separated from the unity of the Church and
that in this way they will gradually arrive at a mutual assimilation of
Catholic dogma with the tenets of the dissidents.
Moreover, they assert that when Catholic doctrine has been reduced to
this condition, a way will be found to satisfy modern needs,
that will permit of dogma being expressed also by the concepts of modern
philosophy, whether of immanentism or idealism or existentialism or any other
system. Some more audacious affirm that his can and must be done, because they
hold that the mysteries of faith are never expressed by truly adequate concepts
but only by approximate and ever changeable notions, in which the truth is to
some extent expressed, but is necessarily distorted. Wherefore they do not
consider it absurd, but altogether necessary, that theology should substitute
new concepts in place of the old ones in keeping with the various philosophies
which in the course of time it uses as its instruments, so that it should give
human expression to divine truths in various ways which are even somewhat
opposed, but still equivalent, as they say. They add that the history of dogmas
consists in the reporting of the various forms in which revealed truth has been
clothed, forms that have succeeded one another in accordance with the different
teachings and opinions that have arisen over the course of the centuries.
It is evident from what We have already said,
that such tentatives not only lead to what they call dogmatic relativism, but
that they actually contain it. The contempt of doctrine commonly taught and of
the terms in which it is expressed strongly favor it.
[…..]
Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis
Humility
in human relations:
In man, two things have to be considered: that which is of God, and
that which is of man. . . But humility in the strict sense means the awe in
virtue of which man subjects himself to God. Consequently man, with regard to
that which is of himself, must subject himself to his
neighbor with regard to that which is of God in him. But humility does not
require that one subject that which is of God in himself to that which seems to
be of God in the other. . . Humility likewise does not require that one subject
that which is of himself to that which is of man in
the other.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Novus
Ordo “Saint” John Paul II taught the novel doctrine that by the Incarnation,
when the “Word was made flesh,” all men became “Son(s) of the living God”
regardless of faith or reception of the sacraments. The Catholic Church teaches
that only by incorporation by grace with Jesus Christ through faith and
sacramental baptism does any individual person become an adopted child of God!
All of you who are still seeking God, all of you who already have the
inestimable good fortune to believe, and also you who are tormented by doubt:
please listen once again, today in this sacred place, to the words uttered by
Simon Peter. In those words is the faith of the Church. In those same words is the new truth,
indeed, the ultimate and definitive truth about man: the son of the living God—
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
John Paul II, first homily, October 27, 1978
The overthrow
of Christ the King and the enthronement of the kingship of Man
“Christ
is King in the sense that in Him, in the testimony that He rendered to the
truth, is manifested the ‘kingship’ of every human being, the expression of
every person’s transcendent character. Such is the Church’s proper
inheritance.” The kingship that Jesus claims before Pilate “is not
first of all to exercise authority over others; it is a manifestation of the
kingly character of man. This kingly
character is embedded within human nature, within the structure of the human
personality.”
Cardinal
Karol Wojtyla, Lenten Conference given to Pope Paul VI and the Vatican Curia,
1979
Satan’s Primary Target: The
Family
“The final battle between the Lord and the
reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family.”
Sr. Lucia, letter to Cardinal Carlo Caffara
It is no accident that this Heresy which
denies the Catholic doctrine concerning Supernatural Charity is to be found in
a document which purports to encapsulate the teaching of the Synod on the
Family.
Continuing the metaphor employed at the
beginning of this article, we may rightly say that, if the Catholic truth
concerning Charity is the “Hub” of the wheel of all true Catholic life, then
the family is the lynch-pin which holds this wheel in place as the foundational
institution incarnating this Charity in the life of both the Church and the
world. The family is the place where Charity is received through baptism. It is
the place where it is nourished through love. It is where it receives its
foundations and bulwarks through the educational process, and the place of
support and protection where it endures through the sufferings of this life. It
is the Family, and the question as to whether it is constituted as either a
place of Charity or its denial, which determines whether we live in a Christian
civilization, or a civilization turned away from God to the worship of Evil.
It is also therefore no accident that the
chapter of Amoris Laetitia (Chapter VIII) which attempts to enshrine this
heresy within its teaching on the family is called “Accompanying, discerning and
integrating weakness.” The “weaknesses” specifically addressed in this chapter
are Catholics couples living in objective mortal sin through cohabitation,
those in a civil marriage without the sacrament, and those who have gone
through the process of civil divorce and remarriage. Each of these are
designated as “weaknesses” in this document, but are in reality situations of
objective mortal sins which are primary attacks upon the family and the
institution of marriage upon which it is founded. To therefore speak of
integrating such sins into the Church is to speak of integrating evil into the
very lifeblood of the Church, thereby violating the entire Christian idea of
what constitutes Charity within the family.
The key to this satanic strategy is the
word “integration”. It is a word which is absolutely central, not only to the
agenda of a totally anti-Christian occult worldview which now worships the
evolutionary progress and “salvation” of the entire world through an “integral
ecology”, but also the theology now dominant within the Church through the
theology of Teilhard de Chardin and Pope Benedict, and which is now being
implemented through the words and pastoral policies of Pope Francis and his
supporters in the hierarchy. It views Christian Revelation not as immutable and
finished upon the death of the last Apostle, but rather as an ongoing
historical progression (containing no fixed absolutes,) toward the Omega point
of Teilhardian evolution in which the truth will be fully revealed and
incarnated.
James Larson, Excerpt from, A Love That Maketh a Lie: Amoris Laetitia and
the Teilhardian Agenda
Hermeneutics
of Continuity/Discontinuity
As Pope Pius XII explained in Humani
Generis, it is impossible to affirm the Catholic dogma of that “Lord Jesus
Christ... is consubstantial with the Father” or the Catholic dogma of
Transubstantiation if the concept of “substance” is rejected in the same sense used by scholastic
theologians found in the perennial realist philosophical tradition and fixed
forever by its usage in dogma.
Benedict/Ratzinger denies the meaning of “substance” and then, necessarily, denies the
dogma of the True Presence. Benedict/Ratzinger’s entire “hermeneutic of reform”
vs. the “hermeneutic of rupture” is predicated upon accepting his Neo-Modernist
philosophy. There is no philosophical difference between Benedict/Ratzinger and
his chosen replacement Francis who marks, as Benedict/Ratzinger predicted in
December before his abdication, the “beginning of the new Church and the end of
the old.” The only difference between the two, apart from superficial style, is
that Francis is wholly formed by the Novus Ordo Church and suffers no
misgivings of conscience about the direction he is dragging the Church because
he knows no other way. Those conservative Catholic who are nostalgic for a
return of Benedict/Ratzinger or John Paul II in the face of Francis’
infidelities are even more superficial than Francis!
Some even say that
the doctrine of transubstantiation, based on an antiquated philosophic notion
of substance, should be so modified that the real presence of Christ in the
Holy Eucharist be reduced to a kind of symbolism, whereby the consecrated
species would be merely efficacious signs of the spiritual presence of Christ
and of His intimate union with the faithful members of His Mystical Body.
Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis
“…the medieval concept of substance has long
since become inaccessible to us. In so far as we use the concept of
substance at all today we understand thereby the ultimate particles of matter,
and the chemically complex mixture that is bread certainly does not fall into
that category.”
Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the
Future, p. 14
“Eucharistic devotion such as is noted in the silent visit by the
devout in church must not be thought of as a conversation with God. This would
assume that God was present there locally and in a confined way. To justify
such an assertion shows a lack of understanding of the Christological mysteries
of the very concept of God. This is repugnant to the serious thinking of the
man who knows about the omnipresence of God. To go to church on the ground that
one can visit God who is present there is a senseless act which modern man
rightfully rejects.”
Joseph Ratzinger, Die
Sacramentale Begrundung Christliche Existenz
Our implacable enemy, Satan, and the mystery of iniquity:
“What though the field be lost?
All is not lost: the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And the courage never to submit or yield!”
John Milton, Paradise Lost
A necessary consequence of the absolute dependence of the world on its
Maker is that the world must be governed by God, and conducted by Him to its
final destination. He owes it to His wisdom so to govern the world as to attain
the end which He Himself has ordained for it. The government of the world by
God is the function of Divine Providence, inasmuch as it consists in conducting
all things to their end by providing for each and all of them the good to which
they ultimately tend. The existence of an all-governing Providence is a
fundamental article of Faith. Our reason, our conscience cannot separate the
idea of an all-penetrating Providence from the idea of God. Holy Writ speaks of
Providence almost on every page. The Vatican Council has also defined it in
outline: “God watcheth over and governeth by His Providence all things that He
hath made, reaching from end to end mightly and ordering all things sweetly.”….
The government of the world by God is both general and special; that is to say,
it affects the world as a whole as well as every creature in particular. It is not carried out by
intermediate agents: God Himself directly watches over, leads, and controls
every single thing and its every motion. He takes a special care of personal
beings whose end is supreme felicity and whose duration is everlasting.
Scheeben, Manual of Catholic Theology
Pope
Francis the Sophist: He believes in “Absolute Truth” but denies that it can be
know or communicated to other!
“We believers and of course above all we priests and we bishops believe
in the Absolute, but each in their own way because each one has his own head
and thought. So our absolute truth, shared by us all, is different from person
to person. We do not avoid discussions in the case where our different thoughts
confront each other. So there is a kind of relativism among us as well.”
Pope Francis, quoted by Eugenio Scalfari in La Repubblica, 10-10-17
Pope
Francis equates illegal immigrant crisis with the Sin of Abortion!
Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear,
firm and passionate. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those
already born, the destitute, the abandoned..... Some
Catholics consider it [migrants] a secondary issue compared to the 'grave'
bioethical questions. That a politician looking for votes might say such a
thing is understandable, but not a Christian, for whom the only proper attitude
is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their
lives to offer a future to their children.
Pope Francis, Gaudette et Exsultate, On a Call
to Holiness in Modern World
Those who "corrupt
dogmas" are "heretics"; Those who keep
dogma as there rule of faith are the faithful!
St.
Thomas (II-II:11:1) defines heresy: “a species of
infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its
dogmas.” The right Christian faith consists in giving one's voluntary assent to
Christ in all that truly belongs to His teaching. There are, therefore, two
ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ
Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to Pagans and Jews; the other
by restricting belief to certain points of Christ's doctrine selected and
fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics. The subject-matter of both faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit
of the faith, that is, the sum total of truths revealed in Scripture and
Tradition as proposed to our belief by the Church.
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907
Judas
who turned heretic and traitor when Jesus announced the doctrine of the True
Presence
(Judas is) one of you, in number not merit: in appearance, not in
virtue; in corporal union, not in spiritual bonds; one by a union of flesh, not
a oneness of heart; therefore not one associate who is of us, but one who is to
go out from us.... according to one consideration he is of us, according to
another he is not of us; according to the communion of sacraments, he is of us;
according to his own sins, he is not of us.....
I say that others are in the house in such a manner as not to belong to
the structure of the house, nor to the society of the fruitful and peaceful
justice; but as chaff is said to be in the wheat: for we cannot deny that they
also are in the house, the Apostle saying, “In a great house there are not only
vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some indeed
unto honor, but some unto dishonor.”
St. Augustine
“No
one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!”
Pope
Francis, Amoris Laetitia
While St. Francesco de Geronimo
(Francis Jerome), S.J. (1642-1716, feast day May 11) was preaching to
abandoned women in the streets of Naples, one of their number insulted him from
her window and ridiculed his discourse.
The Saint warned her that within eight days God would punish her, and on
the eighth day he invited his audience, who had assembled at the same place, to
visit the woman that had interrupted him.
She was found by them lying dead upon the floor of her room. 'Catherine,' said the Saint, addressing the
dead body, 'for the greater glory of God and the edification of those standing
by, answer me, Where are you?' The departed soul returned for an instant,
and gave an answer distinctly heard by all present - 'In hell, for eternity.'
Rev. Henry S. Bowden, St. Francesco
de Geronimo, The Apostle of Naples, Lives of
the Saints
The
Cardinal Virtue of Justice is now replaced by the Novus Ordo “virtue” of
Equality!
“Inequality is the root of social evil.”
Pope Francis, April 28, 2014
Pope dreams of post-virus world where inequalities
abolished
ASSOCIATED
PRESS | NICOLE WINFIELD | April 19, 2020
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is urging the
faithful to use the coronavirus pandemic’s “time of trial” to prepare for a future where inequalities are
abolished and the poorest are no longer left behind.
“This is not some ideology,” Francis said. “It is Christianity.”
Francis traveled a few blocks outside the
Vatican walls on Sunday to celebrate Mass at a nearby church to mark a special
feast day dedicated to mercy. Only a few priests were in the pews given Italy’s
strict virus lockdown.
In his homily, Francis said the grave,
global toll of the pandemic has reminded the world that there are no borders between those
who suffer, no differences in nationalities among
those who are struck or spared.
“We are all frail, all equal, all precious,” he said.
“May we be profoundly shaken by what is
happening all around us,” he said from the altar of the Santo Spirito church. “The time has come to eliminate
inequalities, to heal the injustice that is undermining the health of
the entire human family!”
While people infected with the coronavirus
often experience mild or moderate symptoms, possible complications like
pneumonia can put their lives at risk.
Francis has been using his daily
livestreamed Masses in the Vatican hotel where he lives to single out a
particular group of people for prayers during the pandemic: the elderly,
doctors and nurses, prisoners and those with disabilities.
On Sunday, he delivered a broader message about inequality and
the need for a post-virus world to rethink its priorities. It’s a theme that
echoes the pre-pandemic preaching of the world’s first Latin American pope, who
has constantly demanded greater solidarity among rich and poor.
In recent days, Francis has proposed the
creation of a universal basic wage to help those who have lost their jobs as a
result of the virus economic shutdown to survive. On Sunday, he said there is a
grave risk that while COVID-19 might eventually be tamed, the virus of
“selfishness indifference” could take its place.
To combat that risk, he said: “Let us
welcome this time of trial as an opportunity to prepare for our collective future. Because without an all-embracing vision, there will be no future
for anyone.”
COMMENT:
The inequality of God is evident everywhere in His creation.
“And he said to them that stood by: Take the pound away from him, and give it
to him that hath ten pounds. And they said to him: Lord, he hath ten pounds.
But I say to you, that to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall
abound: and from him that hath not, even that which he hath, shall be taken
from him. But as for those my enemies, who would not have me reign over them,
bring them hither, and kill them before me. And having said these things, he
went before, going up to Jerusalem” (Luke 19:24-28).
But
when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they
also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the
master of the house, Saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast
made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But
he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not
agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give
to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be
first, and the first last. For many are called, but few
chosen” (Matt. 20:10-16).
Pope
Francis is crude communist ideologue who views the gospel through the lens of
liberation theology. It was only a year ago in May 2019 that Pope Francis
called for a one-world government saying, “When a supranational common good is
clearly identified, there is need for a special legally constituted authority
capable of facilitating its implementation. Think of the great
contemporary challenges of climate change, new slavery and peace.” He censored
sharply the nation state saying that it leads to “excluding and hating others,
when it becomes conflictual nationalism that builds walls,
indeed even racism or anti-Semitism.” In this talk he supported the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals which includes abortion and, in its
earlier drafts, called for a world population of 500 million. He also censored
“ideological colonization” which was a code word for converting others to Jesus
Christ.
Pope
Francis is an apostate. Unless there is repentance, he will suffer the same
fate as those who refuse the rule of Jesus Christ. Even what he thinks he has
will be taken away.
WHO are the “many” and how do we insure
that we are not among them?
“Not every one that saith to me,
Lord, Lord,” says the Son of God, “shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father Who is in heaven”. “Many,”
continues our divine Master, “will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in Thy Name? and cast out devils in Thy Name? and done many miracles in Thy Name?” And He will say to
them in a loud voice: “I never knew you;
depart from me.” [….]
It would be well if we were thoroughly convinced that the love of Jesus
Christ, true devotion, Christian virtue, and solid piety properly consist in sincere humility,
universal and constant mortification, and perfect conformity of our will to the
will of God. If any one of these three virtues be wanting, all the rest is mere
deceit and affectation. There is no devotion. There can be no virtue.
This is the opinion of the Apostle, and of all the masters of the spiritual
life. Or rather, it is the opinion of all true Christians, for it is the
sentiment of Christ Himself. It must consequently be the sentiment of all who
have the true spirit of Jesus Christ. In our designs and undertakings, says a great servant of
God, it is better to propose to ourselves, to do the will of God, than to
procure the glory of God. For, by doing God’s will, we infallibly
procure His glory also. But, in proposing to ourselves the glory of God, as the
motive of our actions, we are sometimes deceived, and do our own will under the
specious pretext of the glory of God. This delusion is not uncommon in those
who employ themselves in good works and in ministering to the salvation of
souls. True perfection, which is open to no deception, is to fulfill in all
things the holy will of God. But there are very few souls sufficiently
enlightened to know the excellence of this perfection, as there are also few
who experience the happiness which results from it.
God has loved us too much, says a faithful friend of Jesus Christ, to
allow of our being niggardly towards Him. The mere thought of not being wholly
His should horrify us. Shall I not belong wholly to God, after the mercy He
daily shows me? Shall I refuse Him anything, seeing that I have received all
from Him? My heart will not allow it.
Father John
Croiset, S.J., Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
“Dearly
beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (I John 4:1)
“But let your
speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of
evil.” (Matt 5:37)
The
Spirit of Intended Ambiguity that animated Vatican II
It would be most inconvenient for the articles of our Constitution to
be rejected by the Central Commission or by the Council itself. That is why we
must tread carefully and discreetly. Carefully, so that proposals be …
formulated in such a way that much is said without seeming to say
anything: let many things be said in embryo and in this way let the door remain
open to legitimate and possible postconciliar deductions and applications:
let nothing be said that suggests excessive novelty and might invalidate all
the rest.
Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, L’Osservatore Romano, March 19, 1965
“They Are Trying to Establish a ‘Neo-Church’”
– New Interview with Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano
In a new interview, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano
criticizes the fact that a connubium of modernists and Freemasonry wants to
create a “neo-church”.
Benedict XVI also confirmed the topicality
of the message of the Virgin Mary, although according to the interpretation
spread by the Vatican, it is to be regarded as complete. (N.B.,
Benedict/Ratzinger with the CDF and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as Secretary of
State were the primary promoters of this Vatican
position that the Fatima message is to be regarded as an historical event.) Those who have read the Third
Secret said in all clarity that it concerns the apostasy of the Church, which
began at the very beginning of the 1960s and has now reached such an obvious
stage that it is recognized even by inexperienced observers. This almost
compulsive insistence on issues that the Church has always condemned, such as
relativism and religious indifferentism, false ecumenism, Malthusian ecology,
homoheresy and mass immigration, has found in the Abu Dhabi
Declaration the fulfilment of a plan conceived by
secret sects for more than two centuries. [….]
A church that presents itself as new in contrast to the
Church of Christ is simply not the Church of Christ! The Mosaic
religion, that is, the “Church of the Old Law”, which was wanted by God to lead
His people to the coming of the Messiah, has found its fulfillment and
completion in the New Covenant and was finally revoked on Calvary by the
sacrifice of Christ. From his open side came the New and Eternal Covenant, which replaced the synagogue. It seems that the post-Conciliar, modernist and
Freemason Church also aims to transform, overcome, and replace the Church of
Christ with a “neo-church”, a disfigured and monstrous creature that does not
come from God.
The purpose of this neo-church is not to
get the chosen people to recognize the Messiah, just as it is not the purpose
for the synagogue to convert and save all peoples from the second coming of
Christ, which is the purpose of the Catholic Church. Its purpose is rather to constitute itself as
the spiritual arm of the New World Order and to promote the
One World Religion. In this sense, the Council Revolution first
had to destroy the heritage of the Church, its thousand-year-old tradition from
which it drew its vitality and authority as the mystical body of Christ. Then
it was a matter of getting rid of the representative of the old hierarchy, and
only recently she began to show herself to be what she wants to be, without
pretense or camouflage.
What you call utopia is in fact a dystopia, because
it represents the concreteization of the plan of Freemasonry and prepares the
appearance of the Antichrist.
I am also convinced that the majority of my
confreres, and especially almost all priests and believers, are not fully aware
of this hellish plan, and that recent events have opened the eyes of many.
Their faith will enable our Lord to gather the pusillus grex, the small flock, before the final confrontation
around the true shepherd.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, excerpt from
new interview published April 22, 2020
COMMENT: A characteristic
attribute with all conservative Catholics is that they think the problems with
the Church began when they discovered them. Therefore, everyone that figured it
out before they did were precipitously rash, radical, acting without sufficient
evidence or motive, drawing conclusions without sufficient cause or reason.
They then recommend that they Church needs a restoration to the way everything
was before they became unsettled. This first cause of this is pride. Therefore
they do not trouble themselves for a deeper understanding of how and why the
Church has come to a condition of generalized apostasy. The second cause that
follows from the first is ingratitude and indifference toward those who have
been defending the faith for the last fifty-plus years. With all due respect,
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who is already a member of the ‘Neo-Church’, has
exhibited this same quality as other conservative Catholics, but there are
indications in these comments above that he is discovering Catholic tradition.
We are always pleased to see conservative Catholics begin to figure out that
things are not as they should be, but as a rule, when you are lost, you should
ask directions from others who know the lay of the land, who know where you
are, and who know how you can get to where you need to be going. That
apparently is what Archbishop Vigano is now doing.
Who
Owns Parish Property?
Should
we buy or rent?
And
just why do Indultists pay $6,889.00/week rental fees for the use of “stolen
property” to obtain services that are in fact the bishop’s duty to provide???
Bishop Ronald Gainer in Harrisburg is
tied up in bankruptcy court and apparently does not know why. In an effort to
exclude individual parish properties from creditors, his lawyers argue that the
bishop is only a trustee for the individual parishes acting in their best
interests and not the owner, and therefore parish assets should not be included
as part of the diocese’s. If that is true, then Bishop Gainer’s predecessors
were certainly guilty of theft when they closed 33 parishes in the diocese,
sold off their assets, and pocketed their bank accounts into the general
diocesan fund against the expressed wills of the parishioners which includes
the parish of St. Lawrence in Harrisburg. Normally, bankruptcy court requires
the business to submit a restructured business plan that demonstrates an
understanding as to why the business failed, that will correct previous
financial mismanagement, keep the business solvent, satisfy its creditors, and
still permit it to accomplish the ends for which it is constituted. Does anyone
think that Bishop Gainer will publically admit that it is the failure of his
predecessors to remove homosexual priests from the clergy and prohibit
homosexuals from entering Catholic seminaries that is responsible for the
crisis of pederasty that has cost faithful Catholics millions of dollars in
damages and injured countless souls? Poor Bishop Gainer does not even know what
the Mission of the Church is. If Indultists ever do the math, they might learn that they can buy
their Church from the bankruptcy court for far less than they are renting from
the diocese, but that is a dirty little secret that we are expected to be quiet
about.
“That’s the real Holy Water!”
Pope Francis/Bergoglio, to Scottish seminarians who presented him with
a bottle of Scotch Whiskey
The
Spirit of Vatican II smells just as bad as its rotting corpse!
In 1968, Canada’s justice minister was John Turner, a Catholic. The
Catholic Conference of Canadian Bishops (CCCB), citing the Vatican II document
on religious liberty, assured Mr. Turner that he did not have the right to
impose Catholic sexual morality as the basis of Canadian law, as this would be
“an unfair spirit of partisanship.” Under their pastoral guidance, Turner
joyfully passed laws such as the “Criminal Law Amendment Act” of 1968–69, which
allowed the culture of death to consume the country. Abortion, homosexuality,
divorce, prostitution, and pornography were all legalized under the country’s
“Catholic” justice, while the head of the CCCB remarked, “Gentlemen, I think
John has convinced us. Let’s have a drink”. This is not the mythical Spirit of
Vatican II. This is the legitimate pastoral implementation of Vatican II, and
it has deadly consequences.
Kenneth Dobbs, Vatican II Cannot Be Separated from Its ‘Spirit’
In his “Summa Theologiae,” in which St. Thomas treats this question (on
the infallibility of the pope) ex
professo, he lays it down as non-controvertible that the Pope cannot err,
provided that be teaches as the Head of the Church, with the intention to
oblige the faithful to believe. In any other case this special prerogative is
not necessary for the Unity of the Church, and, therefore, not necessary at
all, because it was not conferred on St. Peter for any personal advantage, but
for the benefit of the Church, whose very existence requires the strict Unity.
Rev. F. X. Weninger, D.D., On the Apostolical and Infallible Authority
of the Pope when Teaching the Faithful
“As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil,
then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to
destroy.”
Christopher H. Dawson, Catholic historian
Cardinals, bishops ask pope to dogmatically declare Mary ‘spiritual
Mother’ in face of pandemic
Mary should be declared 'Mother of all Peoples' to release grace on
humanity, they write.
LifeSiteNews | April 15, 2020 — Cardinals
and bishops representing each continent begged Pope Francis in an Easter 
letter to dogmatically proclaim Mary as “Spiritual Mother of all
Peoples” as the world faces the “historic” coronavirus pandemic.
The letter states that the signatories made
this same request of the Holy Father in August 2019, but felt the “pastoral and
moral imperative” to appeal to him again as the “world faces exponentially
greater disaster on personal, social, political, economic, and humanitarian
aspects” because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“[B]ehind all these external events, a
spiritual battle is taking place, more than ever, between good and evil, light
and darkness, in the hearts of humanity,” they state.
“Here, the real battle must be fought.
Humanity is in great need of conversion, and of supernatural help which can
only come from the Lord Jesus, and from his Mother.”
The two cardinals and six bishops who
signed the letter believe God is waiting for the Church “to dogmatically
proclaim Mary as the ‘Spiritual Mother of all Peoples’, in a solemn declaration
of her unique cooperation with Jesus in the Redemption, and her consequential
roles in the distribution of grace and intercession for humanity, for which he
will respond with a historic new outpouring of his Holy Spirit and the eventual
grace of world peace.” […..]
COMMENT: The Blessed
Virgin Mary gives God’s plan for “world peace” at Fatima and these clerics,
turning their back on God, come up with what they think to be a better idea.
What is just as bad, the Blessed Virgin Mary is not the “spiritual mother of
all peoples.” And this title of “mother
of all peoples” is not equivalent to or consequent from her titles as
“Co-Redemptrix” and “Mother of all Grace.” The Blessed Virgin Mary is the
Mother of all those who “have been baptized in Christ, (and have) have put on
Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Because she is the Mother of Jesus Christ, she is the
Mother of all those who by grace are united with her divine Son. She is the
Mother of all those “who keep the commandments of God,” as St. John so
perfectly said: “And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make
war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ” (Apoc. 12:17). The Church liturgically attributes to
her from the prophecy from Sirach: “Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy
inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect... And so was I established in Sion, and in the
holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. And I took root in
an honorable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode
is in the full assembly of saints.” These clerics could not be sufficiently
insulted because they are aggravating the problem for which they claim to be
offering a relief. As the Blessed Virgin Mary said at Fatima, “The good will
have much to suffer.”
I mean the monstrous wars about small points of theology, the
earthquakes of emotion about a gesture or a word. It was only a matter on an
inch; but an inch is everything when you are balancing….. The Church had to be
careful, if only that the world might be careless. This is the thrilling
romance of Orthodoxy. People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of
orthodoxy as something heavy, hum-drum, and safe. There never was anything so
perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It was sanity:
and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad. It was equilibrium of a man
behind madly rushing horses…. The orthodox Church
never took the tame course or accepted the conventions; the orthodox Church was
never respectable…. It is easy to be a
madman: it is easy to be a heretic. It is always easy to let the age have its
head; the difficult thing is to keep one’s own. It is always easy to be a
modernist; as it is easy to be a snob. To have fallen into any of those open
traps of error and exaggeration which fashion after fashion and sect after sect
set along the historic path of Christendom - that would indeed have been
simple. It is always simple to fall; there are an
infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have
fallen into any one of the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science (or
Modernism) would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them
all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot
flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate,
the wild truth reeling but erect.
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
The
Resurrection of Jesus Christ Is a Dogma
“The dogmas of
the faith are to be held only according to a practical sense, that is, as
preceptive norms for action, but not as norms for believing.” Condemned,
St. Pius X, Lamentabili
This condemned proposition distinguishes between “preceptive norms for action” and “norms for
believing.”
All
commands, laws, injunctions, admonitions, counsels, and other “perceptive norms for action,” are hierarchical, must
be reasonable, must be directed toward the common good, do not bind in cases of
necessity or impossibility, do not bind in cases of invincible ignorance, and
must be properly promulgated by competent authority. The science of moral theology guides us in
the formation of correct consciences to fulfill these “preceptive
norms for action.”
Dogmas
are primarily “norms for believing” and only
secondarily and indirectly, “preceptive norms for
action” in the sense that our actions must be conformable to truth. A dogma is that part of Divine Revelation
that has been infallibly defined and constitute a formal object of Divine and Catholic Faith.
Dogma expresses a truth that is universally true, that is, true for all
times, places, persons and circumstances.
Dogma in itself is sufficient for the faith. Dogma does not forbid elucidation but the
elucidation is not necessary to the faith.
A child can profess the Catholic Faith in the Trinity in a more perfect
manner that best theologian. We as
Catholics are required to believe in the Trinity for our salvation, no one has
to understand any theology about it. St.
Augustine said, “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that
you may understand”. We begin with the
dogma, which is simple; the understanding is not necessary but may be very
beneficial since we are rational creatures.
Understanding is the Gift of the Holy Ghost related to the virtue of
Faith and can be of great support to the faith.
Still, St. Teresa of Avila said regarding the dogma of the Holy Trinity
that she more gloried in dogmas of the faith where she understood very little
because the exercise of the faith was then far more meritorious.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili,
condemned the modernist practice of limiting dogmatic truth with the moral
restrictions that apply to commands, laws, injunctions, admonitions, counsels,
etc.
[Modernism is the] synthesis of all heresies
[whose] system means the destruction not of the Catholic religion alone, but of
all religion.... [Modernists] partisans
of error are to be sought not only among the Church’s open enemies; but what is
to be most dreaded and deplored, in her very bosom, and are all the more
mischievous the less they keep in the open.... They put themselves forward as
reformers of the Church [though they are] thoroughly imbued with the poisonous
doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church.... They assail all that is most sacred in the
work of Christ.... [They are] the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the
Church... They lay the axe not to the branches and shoots, but to the very
root, that is, to the Faith and its deepest fibers.... The most absurd tenet
of the Modernists, that every religion according to
the different aspect under which it is viewed, must be considered as both
natural and supernatural. It is thus
that they make consciousness and revelation synonymous. From this they derive the law laid down as
the universal standard, according to which religious consciousness is to be put
on an equal footing with revelation, and that to it all must submit, even the
supreme authority of the Church.
St. Pius X, Pascendi
Therefore: In
the Novus Ordo Church of Sweet Dreams where harshness is always frowned upon
harshly!
·
Religious Liberty is the doctrinal validation of
“Religious Consciousness.”
·
Ecumenism is the collectivization and synthesis through
dialogue of the individual’s “Religious Consciousness.”
·
“Faith” is the affirmation of the subjective “Religiousness
Consciousness” on the authority of the believer.
·
“Dogma” is the historical and transitory expression of
“Religiousness Consciousness” for a particular age.
·
“Tradition” is the historical experience from which the
present “Religious Consciousness” has evolved.
The Holy Office Letter of 1949 –
The Novel Doctrine of Salvation by
Implicit Desire
This Heretical Letter
Is the Doctrinal Foundation for Modernist Ecclesiology and Ecumenism
It is not always
required that one be actually incorporated as a member of the Church (for
salvation), but this at least is required: that one adhere
to it in wish and desire. It is not always necessary that this be explicit . .
. but when a man labors under invincible
ignorance, God accepts even an implicit will, called by that name because it is
contained in the good disposition of soul in which a man wills to conform his
will to the will of God.
Holy Office letter to
Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston, August 9, 1949, DS 3870
NOTE: The Holy Office letter of 1949 was never
entered into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis
and therefore it has no greater authority than a private letter from one bishop
to another. The quote provided authoritatively referenced a citation from the
encyclical of Pope Pius XII, Mystici
Corporis. The citation was
mistranslated to entirely corrupt the meaning of what Pope Pius XII said. The 1949 Letter was then published by
Cardinal Cushing of Boston, MA in 1952, one year after the death of its author,
Francesco Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani. The letter was included in the 1962
edition of Denzinger, not by virtue of the authority of the letter, but rather
by the modernist agenda of its editor, Rev. Karl Rahner. This letter has come
to be the doctrinal foundation for the new Ecumenical Ecclesiology being cited
in the decree Lumen Gentium at
Vatican II. The new Ecumenical
Ecclesiology has replaced St. Robert Bellarmine’s traditional definition that
the Catholic Church “is the society of Christian believers united in the
profession of the one Christian faith and the participation in the one
sacramental system under the government of the Roman Pontiff.” It is this new
Ecclesiology that is the underpinning for the Ecumenical transmutation of
nearly every Tradition in the Latin rite since Vatican II, the most important
of which is the traditional Roman rite of the Mass. The 1949 letter is the foundation of sand on
which John Paul II’s ecumenical prayer meeting at Assisi stands.
Around
four o’clock in the afternoon on January 3rd 1944, in the convent
chapel of Tuy, in front of the Tabernacle, Our Lady urged Sister Lucia to write
the text of the Third Secret and Sister Lucia recounts:
“I felt my spirit inundated by
a mystery of light that is God and in Him I saw and heard the point of a lance
like a flame that is detached touch the axis of the earth and it trembles:
mountains, cities, towns and villages with their inhabitants are buried. The
sea, the rivers and clouds exceed their boundaries, inundating and dragging with
them in a vortex, houses and people in a number that cannot be counted; it is
the purification of the world from the sin in which it is immersed. Hatred,
ambition, provoke the destructive war. After I felt my
heart racing and in my spirit a soft voice that said: ‘In time, one faith, one
baptism, one Church, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. In eternity,
Heaven!’ This word ‘Heaven’ filled my heart with peace and happiness in
such a way that, almost without being aware of it, I kept repeating to myself
for a long time: Heaven, Heaven!!”
Um Caminho
sob o olhar de Maria (A Path Under the Eyes of Mary), published in 2013 by the sisters of
the Carmel of Coimbra
Fr.
Waters - persecuted by those who hope that “true Liturgy shall become extinct.”
The holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of anti-Christ, and
of the prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know - and
they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the Latin
Church - all of them unanimously say that in the latter end of the world,
during the reign of anti-Christ, the Holy sacrifice of the Altar will
cease. In the work of the end of the
world ascribed to St. Hippolytus, after a long description of the afflictions
of the last days, we read as follows: “The Churches shall lament with a great
lamentation, for there shall be offered no more oblation nor worship acceptable
to God. The sacred buildings of the
churches shall be as hovels; and the precious Body and Blood of Christ shall
not be manifest in those days; the true Liturgy shall become extinct.... Such
is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early centuries.”
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning
Our Lady of Good Success to the Catholics of Today
My Beloved
Daughter, I am Mary of Good Success, your Mother and your Protectress, I carry
my most Holy Son in my left arm and the scepter of the world in my right arm…. The sanctuary lamp which
you just saw go out has several meanings.
Firstly, towards the end of the
nineteenth century and during a large part if the twentieth century there will
arise various errors and the whole universe will become Republican. The
precious light of faith will be going out following on the almost complete
destruction of morals; in that time there will be many tribulations, moral
tribulations also, both public and private. The little group of people who keep
the true worship of faith and the virtues will have to suffer cruelly and
indescribably. The constant martyrdom will bring many to an early death, they
will be counted amongst the martyrs, they have
sacrificed themselves for Church and country. In order to deliver oneself from
the slavery of these errors one will need great strength of will, perseverance,
courage and a great trust in God. These are gifts of the merciful love of my
Divine Son, He has provided them for the renewal. In
order to test the faith and the trust of the just and good men there will be
moments when everything seems to be lost and paralyzed but that is the moment
in which the happy beginning of the complete renewal starts.
Secondly, my communities will be
abandoned, sunk in an abyss, a deep ocean of bitterness and they will seem to
be satiated with sufferings and afflictions. How many good vocations are lost
because of lack of good and prudent spiritual direction; the Novice Mistresses
should take great care of the prayers of the novices and they should show
understanding of souls.
The Third reason for the
extinguishing of the sanctuary lamp is the spirit of impurity of those times, the air will be filled with this unclean spirit. A
flood of filth will overflow the streets, the squares, and all public places so
that there will be no virginal souls left in the world.
Fourthly, in all layers of society
errors will strive with great cunning to penetrate into the families in order
to corrupt the youth too; Satan will congratulate himself that he can feed
himself in the fouled way on the hearts of the children. The innocence of
children will hardly exist anymore. Priestly vocations will be lost. That will
be a true misfortune and priests will turn away from their holy duties and
enter upon a false, wrong course, and therefore the Church will go dark. No
prelate and father will be watching any longer with love, strength and prudence
over this flock, and many of the prelates will lose the spirit of God and bring
their own souls into danger. Pray constantly, call upon heaven without tiring,
and weep without ceasing inwardly in your heart and pray to the Heavenly Father
through the Eucharistic Heart of my Divine Son Who has nobly shed blood.
Out of the bitterness and pains of His
sufferings and death, pray that He will have compassion upon His servants, that
He will bring an end to this terrible scourge by sending to the Church a
prelate to renew the spirit of His priests. My Divine Son and I will surround
this beloved son with a special love, we shall pour out a heap of many graces
of humility of heart and docility towards God’s inspirations, and the strength
to defend the rights of the Church so that he will know how to defend the
rights of the Church with a heart which enables him to behave like another
Christ towards the mighty people of this world and the little people of this
world without despising the unfortunate ones. He will, with a divine
gentleness, lead into the convents and monasteries souls consecrated to God for
the service of God without making the yoke of the Lord heavy upon them. He
holds in his hands the scales of sanctity in order that everything happen according
to the weight and measure so that God be glorified.
This prelate and father will form a
counter-weight against the lukewarmness of priests and religious who are meant
to be dedicated to God. As a result of the guilt of these faithless men, Satan
will gain upon earth control of this world like a dark cloud which darkens the
sky and darkens all of the people who are consecrated to the Most Holy Heart of
my Divine Son. All will have to suffer chastisements because all kinds of
crimes have been allowed. They will suffer pestilence, hunger, civil strife, degeneration of morals and the loss of countless souls. In
order to blow away the black clouds which block the shining holiness and the
freedom of the Church there will be a fearful war in which much blood will flow
of priests and religious. This night will be so terrible that people will think
that wickedness is conquering. Then strikes my heart and in a most sudden way I
shall annihilate the pride of Satan, I shall assist and liberate the Church and
country from his cruel tyranny.
The Fifth reason why the sanctuary
lamp went out is that influential men will watch with indifference, uncaringly,
the oppression of the Church, the persecution of
virtue and the triumph of wickedness. Because these influential people will not
use their position of influence in order to combat evil or to renew the faith,
the people will gradually become indifferent to the demands of God, they will
take on an evil spirit and let themselves be swept away in all kinds of passion
and vice. My beloved daughter, were you to live that terrible time you would
die of pain or grief over the circumstances which I have described to you. The
love of my Holy Son and mine which we have for this world which is our property
demand from now on sacrifices and good works in order that the duration of this
terrible catastrophe will be shortened.
The Blessed and ever Virgin Mary, under the
title of Our Lady of Good Success, to Sister Maria Anna of Jesus, in the
Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Quito on the 2nd February,
1634. Sister was praying in front of the
Blessed Sacrament when suddenly the sanctuary lamp went out.
Unintended blessings from Pandemic
De Mattei: Is the Corona Virus “the black swan” of 2020?
Roberto de Mattei | Corrispondenza Romana | March 25, 2020
“Our Lady asked for something more: the specific consecration of
Russia, done by the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world. It is
this act, until now never done, that everyone is waiting for, before it is too
late.”
[……]The world’s interconnected economy is
proving itself to be a precarious system, but the impact of the Corona Virus is
not only economical and sanitary, it is also religious and ideological. The
Utopia of Globalization, which until September 2019, seemed to prevail, is
[now] undergoing an irremediable debacle. On September 12, 2019, Pope Francis
had invited the leaders of the major religions, and the international exponents
of the economic, political and cultural world, to participate in a solemn event
which was to take place in the Vatican on May 14, 2020: the Global Compact on
Education. Around the same time “the prophetess” of deep ecology, Greta
Thunberg, arrived in New York for the U.N. Climate Change Summit 2019, and Pope
Francis on the eve of the Amazon Synod, sent a video- message to her and the
participants at the summit, manifesting his full consonance with the globalist
aims.
On January 20, 2020, the Pope addressed a
message to Klaus Schwab, Executive President of the World Economic Forum (WEF),
of Davos, underlining the importance of an “integral ecology”, which takes into
account “the complexity of the interconnection of our common home”. But by then
a mysterious virus had already begun to inflict a deadly blow on “the global
village”.
A few months later, we find ourselves faced
with an absolutely unprecedented situation. Greta is forgotten, the Amazon
Synod a failure, the world’s political leaders reveal their incapacity in
dealing with the emergency, the Global Compact is off and St. Peter’s Square,
spiritual centre of the world, is empty. The ecclesiastical authorities conform
to (sometimes anticipating) the restrictive decrees from the civil authorities
who forbid Masses and religious ceremonies of any kind. The most symbolic and
paradoxical event is perhaps the closing of the Sanctuary in Lourdes, par
excellence place of physical and spiritual healing, that barred its doors, for
fear that someone might get ill there, praying to God for his health. Is it all a maneuver? Do we find ourselves
faced with a totalitarian power that is restricting the freedom of citizens and
is persecuting Christians? […..]
Fruits
of Feminism: The Catholic Historian, Christopher Dawson, says that no
matriarchal society has ever produced a high culture in the history of mankind!
In the U. S. 68% of all children are born to an unwed mother or to a
mother that will soon be divorced. The
Catholic family that was the building block for Catholic culture and thus
western civilization is gone and leaving only crumbling husk that cannot
continue.
The
true Catholic Faith: “Grounded and Settled, and Immovable”
Yet now he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and unspotted, and blameless before him: If so ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and
immoveable from the hope of the gospel which you have
heard… (Col 1:22-23).
St. Paul
Pope Francis – his “most gentle manner”!
They (our most holy
predecessors) knew the capacity of innovators in the art of deception. In order
not to shock the ears of Catholics, the innovators sought to hide the
subtleties of their tortuous maneuvers by the use of seemingly innocuous words
such as would allow them to insinuate error into souls in the most gentle manner. Once the truth had been compromised, they could, by means of slight
changes or additions in phraseology, distort the confession of the faith that
is necessary for our salvation, and lead the faithful by subtle errors to their
eternal damnation. This manner
of dissimulating and lying is vicious, regardless of the circumstances under
which it is used. For very good reasons it can never be tolerated in a synod of
which the principal glory consists above all in teaching the truth with clarity
and excluding all danger of error. Moreover,
if all this is sinful, it cannot be excused in the way that one sees it
being done, under the erroneous pretext that the seemingly shocking
affirmations in one place are further developed along orthodox lines in other
places, and even in yet other places corrected; as if
allowing for the possibility of either affirming or denying the statement, or
of leaving it up the personal inclinations of the individual – such has always
been the fraudulent and daring method used by innovators to establish error.
It allows for both the possibility of promoting error and of excusing it. It is
a most reprehensible technique for the insinuation of doctrinal errors and one
condemned long ago by our predecessor St. Celestine, who found it used in the
writings of Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, and which he exposed in order
to condemn it with the greatest possible severity. Once these texts were
examined carefully, the impostor was exposed and confounded, for he expressed
himself in a plethora of words, mixing
true things with others that were obscure; mixing at times one with
the other in such a way that he was also able to confess those things which
were denied while at the same time possessing a basis for denying those very
sentences which he confessed.
Pope Pius
VI, Auctorem Fidei, 1794 papal bull
addressed to all the faithful condemning 85 propositions from the Council of
Pistoia, 1786
The Sacrifice of the
Cross wrought the remission of sin in general; in Holy Mass the virtue of
Christ’s Blood is applied to this and that person individually. By His death and Passion Christ collected the
riches which in the Mass are dealt out to us.
His death is a treasury, Mass the key that unlocks it… Observe,
therefore, what it really means to say or to hear Mass. To do so is equivalent to causing God, who
once died for all mankind, to die over again in a mystical manner for me and
you, and for each one present, just as if He suffered death for the sake of each
one individually.
Paolo Segneri, SJ,
1624-1694, famous Jesuit preacher who was made the theologian of the Paenitentiaria by Pope Innocent XII.
That fabled (Judeo-Christian) tradition does not exist, nor does the
“Judeo-Christian ethic.” Though sharing a common origin in the Hebrew Scriptures,
the two faiths read the scriptural texts differently. They believe in God, but
view Him through different lenses. They each have a story, but they are not the
same. They each have a concept of man, but they are not the same. They are both
ethical religions, but with separate ideas of man’s nature, salvation and
destiny.
Raymond Apple, emeritus rabbi of the Great
Synagogue, Sydney, Australia.
Published in Jerusalem Post
Situation
Ethics: PEW POLL: 95% of Jewish
Leaders support abortion and “same-sex marriage” for the U.S. but not for
Israel!
The Jewish question of our time does not differ greatly from the one
which affected the Christian peoples of the Middle
Ages. In a foolish way it is said to arise from hatred towards the Jewish
tribe. Mosaism in itself could not become an object of hate for Christians,
since, until the coming of Christ, it was the only true religion, a
prefiguration of and preparation for Christianity, which, according to God’s
Will, was to be its successor. But the Judaism of the centuries [after Christ]
turned its back on the Mosaic law, replacing it with the Talmud (ii.), the very quintessence of that Pharisaism which in so
many ways has been shattered through its rejection by Christ, the Messiah and
Redeemer. And although Talmudism is an important element of the Jewish
question, it cannot be said, strictly speaking, to give that question a
religious character, because what the Christian nations despise in Talmudism is
not so much its virtually non-existent theological element, but rather, its
morals, which are at variance with the most elementary principles of natural
ethics.
On the Jewish Question in Europe; La
Civiltà Cattolica, Series XIV, Vol. VII, 23;10;
October 1890
He
preserved “the basic elements, the bread, the wine,” but so did every
Protestant sect. The question is, ‘Did
he preserve the Sacrifice? Did he
preserve the True Presence?
“Certainly, we will preserve the basic elements, the bread, the wine,
but all else will be changed according to local traditions: words, gestures,
colours, vestments, chants, architecture, decor. The
problem of liturgical reform is immense.”
Msgr. Mieczyslaw Malinksi, Mon
Ami: Karol Wojtyla, Le Centurion, 1980, p.220, quoting Cardinal Karol
Wojtyla during informal meeting with fellow Poles during the Vatican II Council
Planning
A Novel Church from the Top Down! It is a problem in that Western culture is
entirely the product of Catholic formation. The problem with the Church of the
New Advent is that it has adopted the destroying concept of Nominalism that has
been a destructive solvent of Catholic culture since the renaissance. They want faithful Catholics to turn their
backs on the faith and accept their fundamental errors of reductive scientism
to which all dogma must be reformulated.
They then impose the errors of pagan cultures to which the Catholic
faith is expected to conform itself!
This has nothing in common with legitimate cultural variations of
Catholic rites within the self-same faith, or the spirituality and works of
charity that differ between various religious orders within the Church.
Wojtyla’s presupposition is pure naturalism.
IT is nothing but modernist apostasy!
Question - What problems will be oriented differently
by the Council, Your Emminence?
Wojtyla’s Answer - Above all, it will serve to give more value
to the authority of each Bishop and to promote decentralization within the
Church, as well as to return to the principle of collegiality, re-evaluate pastoral methods in
force until now, and effectively introduce new methods and ways - at times most
audacious ones.
There is also the question of the
universal character of the Church; there is a change of attitude toward the
ancient cultures of the non-European peoples. It is necessary to de-Westernize
Christendom. The peoples possessing their own ancient cultures have
understandable psychological barriers against Christianism when it presents
itself in its European trappings! The Africanization, Indianization,
Japonization, etc. of Catholicism reveals itself necessary. This consists of
making Christian substances germinate in their cultures. We know that all this
is neither simple nor easy to accomplish.
It is the end of the Constantine
era, which was characterized by a strict accord between the Altar and the
Throne, between the Church and the State, illustrated in its highest point by
the birth of the Holy Roman Empire in the 9th century. We face a grave problem:
to elaborate new forms for relations between the Church and the State, the right
of the Church to religious liberty.
Going further, it is necessary to speak of giving new
importance to the lay people in the Church, and, finally, to develop ecumenical
ideas on a scale unknown until now in the History of the Church.
Msgr. Mieczyslaw Malinksi, Mon Ami: Karol
Wojtyla, Le Centurion, 1980, p.190-191, quoting Cardinal Karol Wojtyla
during informal meeting with fellow Poles during the Vatican II Council
The
Judgment of the Church against a Heretical Pope
“Further we declare that there are two wills and principles of action,
in accordance with what is proper to each of the natures in Christ, in the way
that the sixth synod, that at (6) Constantinople, proclaimed, when it also publicly rejected
Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus,
Pyrrhus, Macarius, those
uninterested in true holiness, and their like-minded followers.
“To summarize, we
declare that we defend free from any innovations all the—written and—unwritten
ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us.”
Seventh Ecumenical Council, reaffirming the condemnation of Monothelitism and the monothelite heretics by
the Sixth Ecumenical Council, including Pope Honorius
“Further, we accept the sixth, holy and universal synod (6
Constantinople III), which shares the same beliefs and is in harmony with the
previously mentioned synods in that it wisely laid down that in the two natures
of the one Christ there are, as a consequence, two principles of action and the
same number of wills. So, we anathematize Theodore who was bishop of Pharan,
Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, the unholy prelates of the church of
Constantinople, and with
these, Honorius of Rome, Cyrus of Alexandria as well as Macarius of
Antioch and his disciple Stephen, who followed the false teachings of the unholy heresiarchs
Apollinarius, Eutyches and Severus and proclaimed that the flesh of God, while
being animated by a rational and intellectual soul, was without a principle of
action and without a will, they themselves being impaired in their senses and
truly without reason.” [……]
Eight Ecumenical Council, reaffirming the condemnation of Monothelitism and the monothelite heretics by
the Sixth Ecumenical Council which included the Councils judgment and
condemnation of Pope Honorius
“On earth, no mortal should presume to reproach (redarguere) any
faults to the Pontiff, because he who has to judge (judicaturus) others,
should not be judged (judicandus) by anyone, unless he is found deviating from the Faith.”
Gratian, the ‘Father of Canon Law,’ Decree of Gratian, (Pars I, D 40, c. 6)
Pope Francis: An Eschatological Overview
The massive emphasis on mercy–giving and receiving–is the key to
understanding the eschatological dimension of his pontificate
Vatican Insider | Stephen Walford | February 8, 2020
[….]This teaching on divine mercy is one
example where a beautiful convergence between authentic private revelation and
the magisterium has enabled the faithful to grasp an essential element of what
it means to live an authentic Christian life. But there is more to it than
that. In the Diary of St Faustina Kowalska, there is a little talked of, but
undeniable theme running through it: the Lord makes clear the season of divine
mercy is for the end times. St Faustina herself was told she would prepare the
world for the Lord’s second coming, while St John Paul II in 2002 referred to
the promise of Jesus to St Faustina that “a spark from Poland will prepare the
world for my final coming” as binding.
It is surely the case that Pope Francis
has–with the prompting of the Holy Spirit–taken what was in part embryonic in
the pontificate of St John Paul II, and placed mercy as the absolute key for
the future of the Church and the world. Its salvific message is plastered
across almost every page of the Holy Father’s writings in one way or another,
as the antidote to the ever increasing evil that offers only death and
destruction.
Fr Spadaro in his essay also touches upon several
teachings and attitudes that I too have long considered as of having great
importance in understanding this Pope: Francis shuns a millenarian view of the future of
humanity where some golden age of peace within history rules; his focus rests
solely on the criteria for a blessed Final Judgement as found in the
Beatitudes. The criteria, therefore is Jesus himself, since the Beatitudes are
in essence, a portrait of the Lord. Furthermore, the Pope sees
opportunities everywhere to build bridges and to invite reconciliation. No
situation or soul is beyond help or redemption in the time God allows for
conversion.
This charism of the Pope is the great dividing line between those who
understand him and those who do not. How can he sting like St John the Baptist,
yet at other times appear far too generous? In reality, he is following the
criteria of Jesus to the letter–some may say even rigidly! He condemns
hypocrisy, narcissism, self- love, and a pharisaical attitude that divides
between “them” and “us.” He continually invites, even demands help for the poor
and marginalised. His constant criticisms in Santa Marta simply warn us
that we will be judged on love, and that no defence attorney will be present if
we live now as armchair Christians with a Jonah syndrome. No, the Holy Father
cares deeply, he knows Jesus recoils at hypocrisy and spiritual apathy and
therefore in his heart, he must give the Church some tough love. What Pope
Francis is obviously aware of, is the sad reality that for even many Catholics,
Jesus’ warning concerning “love growing cold” (cf. Matt 24:12) applies now more
than ever. How many refuse to forgive, to apologise, to give of themselves generously? How many create their own moral code,
with excuses and exemptions? How many prefer to look after their own interests
no matter how much suffering they leave in their wake? This in reality is apostasy from the central
Christian message: to love God and neighbour. And thus charity, repentance,
mercy are watered down to such an extent that they become meaningless.
In an eschatological sense, I see Francis trying to form a Church that
is far more conformed to Jesus himself; one that is authentically evangelical;
one that has its foundations in the dirt and dust of its precious flock; one in
which love and humility are never again overshadowed by the lust for prestige,
power and worldly success. In short, this is the vision of a Church that is
being prepared as the Bride fit for her meeting with the Bridegroom.
Many Traditionalists are right though: there is a war, there is a
powerful enemy, there is an apocalyptic battle being waged, but they are being
seduced by that same enemy. The enemy is Satan, not Pope Francis, or other
Catholics who they don’t agree with. Pope Francis, as a realist, knows the depth
of this spiritual war, but he also knows wounded souls (no matter how those
wounds came about) need love and mercy. They need salvation and are not to be
seen as enemies fighting for the other side. This attitude of mercy is entirely
in line with Jesus rebuking James and John, who suggested sending down fire
from heaven on those who did not welcome the Lord (Lk 9:54).
The division being caused by those opposed to the Holy Father, does
nothing other than serve the cause of Satan in creating confusion and doubt in
the hearts of ordinary Catholics. Satan, of course, does not care too much with
“the world” –he desires far more to destroy the Lord’s work in His Church; to
suffocate the sacramental life from souls and to present preaching as
hypocritical nonsense. He despises this Pope because Francis shines a
light on his deviousness, and because the Holy Father is willing to take risks
for the sake of the lost sheep.
Pope Francis has also contributed to the
Marian Era that began in the mid nineteenth century; a period of time
prophesied by St Louis de Montfort as preparation for the second coming of
Jesus. Not only his very personal Marian devotion, but his emphasis on the
church as Mother in imitation of Mary– including the new Feast of Mary Mother
of the Church– has enabled the Church to reflect ever more the Marian dimension
in its mission to bring the salvation of her Son to all. The Pope’s protection of
Medjugorje should also be seen in this context. This Marian dimension is
essential in the years ahead because it prepares for the Triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, when divine love will proclaim the final victory; it
moulds the faithful into humble souls who imitate Mary, and who follow her
command to “do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).
Of course, Pope Francis, like his
predecessors shuns idle speculation and sees a danger in spending time immersed
in apocalyptic literature especially from private revelation. What is important, is to keep an Advent spirit of watchfulness; to
continually discern the signs of the times, but always with a vision of hope
for eschatological glory, and not some intra historical era that will never
come. Faith tells us that we can see a dawn breaking on the horizon, from the
East; we can see the signs that summer is near (Matt 24:32), but we also know
that until that Day arrives, the spiritual war will become more intense. To remain loyal to the Pope and
his magisterium is to have a sure guide for what is still to come; it is to
help avoid the pitfalls that will inevitably hurt us, but above all, it will
keep us close to Jesus Christ.
In the magisterium and prophetic voice of Pope Francis, we are told to
strip ourselves of all that hinders a full adherence to the Gospel:
“Along this journey, the cultivation of all that is good, progress in the
spiritual life and growth in love are the best counterbalance to evil. Those
who choose to remain neutral, who are satisfied with little, who renounce the
ideal of giving themselves generously to the Lord, will never hold out. Even less
if they fall into defeatism, for “if we start without confidence, we have
already lost half the battle and we bury our talents… Christian triumph is
always a cross, yet a cross which is at the same time a victorious banner,
borne with aggressive tenderness against the assaults of evil”
Even if we do not know the day or the hour,
we do know how to keep our lamps lit; we know how to prepare. A revolution of love, tenderness
and mercy is Pope Francis’ answer to the reality of the Last Judgment, from
which no one can escape, and which in a very real sense is already in progress.
If holiness is grasped with both hands, then the apocalypse holds no fears; in
fact it presents a wealth of opportunities to serve the Lord.
Maranatha is the prayer that can and should live joyfully in the hearts
of the faithful in this season of mercy. We can take it to the poor, the sick,
the lonely, announcing that their liberation is near. And even if centuries are
still to pass by, the Church will live by a new evangelical urgency that will
ensure the torch of hope burns bright until the true light comes to illuminate
a transfigured creation. Pope Francis is playing a vital part in ensuring the
Church prepares well for whatever the Lords asks it to go through in the
future. Let us pray for him and his immensely important task.
COMMENTARY on
Overview of the Eschatology of Francis:
The
first problem with the theologian Stephen
Walford, and it is a huge problem, is that he makes the pope his
proximate rule of faith and not Dogma. He therefore cannot distinguish between
the pope’s personal magisterium based upon his grace of state and the
Magisterium of the Church based upon the attribute of Infallibility that Jesus
Christ endowed His Church. Whatever the current pope says or does becomes his
rule of faith and is necessarily, in his estimation, the work of the Holy
Ghost. Beginning with this colossal error, he works to build a bridge between
the teaching of a heretical pope and the Catholic faithful.
But
putting this error aside, he brings up a question that the Catholic faithful
must be able to answer clearly with the revealed truth of God. So what is wrong
with the modern popes emphasis of divine mercy? The
problem is essentially that they emphasize divine mercy in opposition to divine
justice and not as a different facet of the same jewel. Walford seems to be
correct in that the popes of the Church of the New Advent believe that we are
in the last age of the Church before the second coming of Jesus Christ. They
also believe that this age is the time of mercy (as if other ages were not) and
not justice (as if other ages were).
Benedict/Ratzinger held an interview with
Jacques Servais, S.J. conducted in October of 2015 on questions of Faith and
Justification. The interview was read by the Prefect of the Pontifical
Household, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, to a subsequent Conference in November
2015 on Justification and published in March of 2016. In this interview
Benedict/Ratzinger places in constant opposition the attributes of God’s mercy
and God’s justice repeatedly characterizing His justice as “cruelty.” He quotes
in support of his theology John Paul II who was “deeply impregnated with this
impulse,” and Pope Francis whom he praises for his “pastoral practice (that) is
expressed in the fact that he continually speaks to us of God’s mercy.” These
popes all point to the gospel description of the last judgment in which the
criteria for salvation or condemnation are the corporal works of mercy.
Therefore they conclude, what one believes is of no importance but rather what
one does for his fellow man. Thus, after dividing justice and mercy, they drive
a wedge between faith and charity. It is from this that the term
“evangelization” is redefined and distinguished from “proselytism,” heretofore
they have always been considered as necessary compliments as a cause is to its
direct effect. Proselytism, the traditional fruit of evangelization, converting
others to the true faith, is condemned as “solemn nonsense” and the new
evangelization becomes only dialogue to exchange opinions for the end of
promoting corporal works of mercy (which never materialize).
Wisdom
is the perfect knowledge of the most important things in their right order of
reference. Discounting malice, Pope Francis has no wisdom because he has no
right order of reference. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb
11:6). Charity, which is the friendship between God and man, is greater than
Faith, which is believing what God has revealed on the
authority of God, but without Faith, Charity is impossible. No one can have the
friendship of God who does not believe His Truth. Acts of Charity are an
extension of the virtue of Charity because they are entirely grounded upon
seeing the image of God in other men. There can be no Charity without Faith,
and although Charity is greater than Faith, Faith takes precedence in time. St.
Thomas considers sins against Faith as the greatest of all sins because they
radically separate the person from God. In the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles
began the work of evangelization by making proselytes out of the Jews and
pagans. When the Faithful of the Church grew from these labors, the obligation
for works of Charity correspondingly increased. What did the apostles do? They
established the deaconate to attend to works of Charity so that these works of
Charity would not impede the work of evangelization to make new
proselytes.
The
second coming of Jesus Christ will be characterized by the Great Apostasy from
the Faith as described by St. Paul: “Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first,
and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition...” (2 Thess. 2:3). Jesus
said, “Will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night: and will he
have patience in their regard? I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them.
But yet the Son of man,
when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth” (Luke 18:7-8)?
We are now in the Great Apostasy for at no time in history has the apostasy
been so generalized and extended to the summit of Church authority.
It
is impossible to drive a wedge between God’s justice and God’s mercy. God is
perfect Act and infinite Simplicity. He is present wherever He acts. There are
no distinguished parts in God. Mercy is only possible in the context of justice
and vice versa, otherwise the entire Passion of Jesus Christ becomes
meaningless. Jesus does not suffer the cruelty of His passion from the direct
will of the Father but from sinful men by the Father’s permissive will. It is not
the cruelty of God but cruelty of sinful men. Jesus as the Son of Man willingly
suffers His Passion firstly to give honor and glory to the Father in the name
of mankind to the end of redeeming man from sin.
“Without
faith it is impossible to please God.” It is only through Faith that Charity
can exist without which the merits of the redemptive suffering of Christ’s
passions cannot be personally gained. “Therefore I said to you, that you shall
die in your sins. For if
you believe not that I AM he, you shall die in your sin. They said
therefore to him: Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning (I AM), who
also speak unto you” (John 8:24-25).
In
the last judgment when God makes a radical public distinction between “them”
and “us,” Jesus Christ will say, “When I was thirsty and you gave me to drink”
(Matt 35:25). The faithful will ask,
“Lord, when did we see thee… thirsty and give thee to drink?” (37). Jesus will
say, “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren [that is, ‘As many
of you as have been baptized in Christ, (who) have put on Christ’ (Gal 3:27)
when they were ‘born again by water and the Holy Ghost’ (John 3:5),] you did it
to me.” Only the faithful can see the
image of God in the other and the
likeness restored by the grace of
Jesus Christ in the “brethren.”
Then
He will say to those on His left condemned to hell, “Amen I say to you, as long
as you did it not to one of these least (that is, the “brethren” of Christ),
neither did you do it to me” (45). Christ dwells in the souls of the faithful
by Charity. Those condemned did not see Christ in the faithful. Those who are
condemned may have given a drink to the thirsty but without faith, they did not
see the image of God in the other,
and therefore, they did not do it for Him. They were not works of Charity but
works of human philanthropy. Works of mercy do not profit for salvation without
Faith. While Faith can exist without Charity, Charity cannot exist without
Faith in this world. Faith will pass with death but Charity will remain. That
is why the last judgment is determined by acts of mercy and not articles of
Faith because at the Last Judgment everyone will believe.
The
modern Church of the New Advent is in true apostasy which is, by definition,
the actual denial of revealed truth. They do not do works of mercy that profit
for eternal salvation because they do not have faith. Yet Walford claims, in a
remarkable inversion of divine Wisdom, that apostasy is failure in works of mercy. The
rank hypocrisy in this claim is evident in that Catholic institutions doing
works of mercy have crumbled since Vatican II when the age of mercy supposedly
got underway. And still, the popes of the Church of the New Advent do not get
it. Only by preaching the faith will acts of mercy again abound. Jesus said to
St. John the Baptist who resisted baptizing Him, “For so it becometh us to
fulfill all justice” (Matt 3:15). The Church of the New Advent cannot have part
in the mercy of God because they have no part with Him to “fulfill all
justice.” The blasphemy is this: the modern popes believe they are more
merciful than God.
They
proclaim the era of mercy in opposition to God’s “cruel” justice while
essentially removing all penitential practices during Lent while accusing traditionalist
Catholics of being “seduced by Satan” and “serving the cause of Satan” by the
“division… creating confusion and doubt
in the hearts of ordinary Catholics” when they oppose the rank heresy of
Pope Francis. The implications of this division between justice-mercy and
charity-faith overturn the Catholic dogmas on justification. The Church of the
New Advent has a Lutheran conception of justification. In the Servais interview
Benedict/Ratzinger said:
“It seems to me that in the theme of divine mercy is
expressed in a new way what is meant by justification by faith. Starting from
the mercy of God, which everyone is looking for, it is
possible even today to interpret anew the fundamental nucleus of the doctrine
of justification, and have it appear again in all its relevance.”
Benedict/Ratzinger “interprets
anew” by mischaracterizing the Catholic dogmatic teaching on
justification as “the conceptuality of St. Anselm” which he says “has now
become for us incomprehensible” because it necessarily includes the justice of God. He then adds:
“Only where there is mercy does cruelty end, only with mercy do evil and
violence end. Pope Francis is totally in agreement with this line. His pastoral
practice is expressed in the fact that he continually speaks to us of God’s
mercy. It is mercy that moves us toward God, while justice frightens us before
Him.”
What is worse, Benedict/Ratzinger adds that God “simply cannot
leave 'as is' the mass of evil that comes from the freedom that he himself has
granted. Only He, coming to share in the world's suffering, can redeem the
world.” So God becomes responsible for the “mass of evil” in the world because He is responsible for
granting man “freedom” and is therefore compelled by
justice “to share in
the world's suffering” to “redeem the world”! The end of this is that God has
an obligation in justice for mercy. The corollary to this is that man has an
unconditional right to divine mercy.
God
is not compelled to anything outside Himself. He cannot positively will evil.
He can and does permit evil only because He and He alone is capable of bring
good out of evil. No man can earn God's mercy and eternal salvation on their
own merits.
“Charity is man’s friendship with God based on man’s share in the Divine
Life, in the happiness of God Himself. But man cannot naturally share in God’s
own life. Man’s participation in the Divine Life is a free supernatural gift
which God gives to man. Charity then cannot be acquired by any purely human
effort. It is a gift of God infused in man’s soul by God’s goodness and
generosity. Charity, like the other theological virtues, is a supernatural
virtue infused in the will by God Himself. Who can give man a share in the
Divine Love except God Himself?”
Rev. Walter Farrell, O. P., My Way
of Life, Pocket Edition of St. Thomas
A
faithful Catholic in the state of grace is able to merit eternal life and atone
for his sins because of his union by grace with Jesus Christ in Charity. This
is what gives value to his prayers, penances, and mortifications without which
they have no value at all. This union of Charity with Christ by grace permits
the faithful to not only atone for their own sins but also for the sins of
others as St. Paul said, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up
those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his
body, which is the church” (Col 1:24). And thus:
“The observance of Lent is the
very badge of the Christian warfare. By it, we prove ourselves not to be
enemies of the Cross of Christ. By it, we avert the scourges of divine justice.
By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with
heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would
be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a
danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted, but that such negligence
would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of
private woe.”
Pope Benedict XIV, encyclical, May 30, 1741
Without
the justice of God there could be no mercy. The faithful rejoice in the justice
of God for by it we are made children of God and can merit eternal life. Those
who divide God's mercy from His justice and believe that eternal life awaits
them without the necessity of Faith and penance are whistling in the wind.
There will not have any part with God in eternal life. May God in His mercy
keep us in the right Faith, a burning Charity and a penitential spirit until
our last breath.
Pope Francis never kneels before the Blessed Sacrament!
Why?
Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say
unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you
shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is
meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by
me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat
manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall
live for ever. John 6:54-59
For as often as you shall eat this bread,
and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come.
Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord
unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a
man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to
himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. 1 Cor 11:26-29
Because for
Francis, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?' (John 6:60)
And
if anyone would know, it would be Benedict!
“The greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies
without, but arises from sin within the Church.”
Pope Benedict XVI
As we suffer under the moral
and doctrinal Novelties of Pope Francis, it is evident why he wanted the
Novelty Master, Paul VI, to become another novel Novus Ordo saint. Montini is the man who defined the Spirit of
Vatican II in one word: NOVELTY in order to please men.
The Church Teaches:
“But though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be
anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach
to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. For
do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased
men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
St.
Paul, Galatians 1, 8-10
“Blind
that they are, and leaders of the
blind, inflated with a boastful science, they have reached that pitch of
folly where they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true nature of
the religious sentiment; with that new system of theirs they are seen to be
under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at all of finding some solid
foundation of truth, but despising the holy and apostolic traditions, they
embrace other vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, condemned by the Church, on
which, in the height of their vanity, they think they can rest and maintain
truth itself.”
St. Pius X, Pascendi
“A lamentable spectacle is that presented by
the aberrations of human reason when it yields to the spirit of novelty, when against the warning of the Apostle it
seeks to know beyond what it is meant to know, and when relying too much on
itself it thinks it can find the fruit outside the Church wherein truth is
found without the slightest shadow of error.”
Pope Gregory XVI, Singulari nos, 1834, quoted by St. Pius X in Pascendi
“It is impossible to approve in Catholic
publications of a style inspired by unsound novelty which seems to deride the
piety of the faithful and dwells on the introduction of a new order of
Christian life, on new
directions of the Church, on new aspirations of the modern soul, on a new
vocation of the clergy, on a new Christian civilisation.”
Leo
XIII, Jan 27, 1902, quoted by St. Pius X in Pascendi
Paul VI Replys:
“... We wish to make our own the important words employed by
the Council; those words which define its spirit, and, in a dynamical
synthesis, form the spirit of all those who refer to it, be they within or
without the Church. The word NOVELTY, simple, very dear to today’s men, is much
utilized; it is theirs... That word... it was given to us as an order, as a
program... It comes to us directly from the pages of the Holy Scripture:
For, behold (says the Lord), I create new heavens and a new earth. St. Paul
echoes these words of the prophet Isaiah; then, the Apocalypse: I am making
everything new. And Jesus, our Master, was not He, himself, an innovator? You
have heard that people were told in the past ... but now I tell you...–
Repeated in the Sermon on the Mount.
“It is precisely thus that the Council has come to us. Two terms
characterize it: RENOVATION and REVISION. We are particularly keen that this
spirit of renovation–
according to the expression of the Council – be understood and experienced by
everyone. It responds to the characteristic of our time, wholly engaged
in an enormous and rapid
transformation, and generating novelties in every sector of modern life. In
fact, one cannot shy away from this spontaneous reflection: if the whole world
is changing, will not religion change as well?
Between the reality of life and Christianity, Catholicism especially,
is not there reciprocal disagreement, indifference, misunderstanding, and
hostility? The former is leaping forward; the latter would not move. How
could they go along? How could Christianity claim to have, today, any influence
upon life?
“And it is for this reason that the Church has
undertaken some reforms, especially after the Council. The Episcopate is about to promote the renovation
that corresponds to our present needs; Religious Orders are reforming their
Statutes; Catholic laity is qualified and found its role within the life of the
Church; Liturgy is proceeding with a reform in which anyone knows the extension
and importance; Christian education reviews the methods of its pedagogy; all
the canonical legislations are about to be revised.
And how many other consoling and promising novelties we shall see
appearing in the Church! They attest to Her new
vitality, which shows that the Holy Spirit animates Her continually, even in
these years so crucial to religion. The development of ecumenism, guided by
Faith and Charity, itself says what progress, almost unforeseeable, has been
achieved during the course and life of the Church. The Church looks at the
future with Her heart brimming with hope, brimming
with fresh expectation in love... We can say... of the Council: It marks the
onset of a new era, of which no one can deny the new aspects that We have indicated to you.”
Paul
VI, General Audience, July 2, 1969
And we remember the “miracles” attributed to Paul VI that
provided “evidence” for the “sanctity” of this Novelty Master! Two cases where
the medical prognosis of morally degenerate abortionists proved to be incorrect
are regarded as a “miracles”!
“This second miracle attributed to Pope
Paul VI concerned the healing of an unborn in the fifth month of pregnancy.
According to the Catholic News Agency the mother, from Verona in Italy, had an
illness that risked her own life and the life of her unborn and was advised to
have an abortion.
A few days after the beatification of Paul
VI by Pope Francis in October 2014, the mother prayed to the now Blessed Paul
VI at a shrine in Lombardy and the baby girl was later born in good health.
The first miracle involving Pope Paul VI
took place in California in the 1990s. It also concerned an unborn which was
found to have a serious health problem that could mean brain damage. Doctors
advised that it be aborted, but the mother entrusted her pregnancy to Paul VI.
The child was born healthy. Irish Times,
Feb 6, 2018
Heretics
welcome for Novus Ordo Communion! What has been done sub rosa for years is now open practice.
At their spring conference in Ingolstadt, the German bishops conference
agreed that a Protestant partner of a Catholic can receive the Eucharist after
having made a serious examination of conscience with a priest or another person
with pastoral responsibilities, affirms the faith of the Catholic Church,
wishes to end serious spiritual distress, and has a longing to satisfy a hunger
for the Eucharist.
Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register
Pope Francis complains of Political Decay in the West – The
cause? The failure of the Catholic Church to teach Catholic doctrine and
Catholic morals!
Providence is the proper
instrument for change, and the test of a statesman is his cognizance of the
real tendency of providential social forces… it acts through the instincts
and intuitions of our feeble flesh, [demonstrating] that religion and politics
are inseparable, that the decay of one must produce the decay of the other.
Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind
Wisdom
is the most perfect knowledge, of the most important things, in their right
order of reference. Without the “right
order of reference”, Wisdom is impossible. Pope Francis has no Wisdom. He does not even know the “greatest
commandment in the law”!
Master, which is
the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole
mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.
Matt. 22:36-38
Along with the virtues, this means above all the new commandment, the first and the greatest of
the commandments, and the one that best identifies us as Christ’s disciples:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”
(Jn. 15:12).
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, (161) On the Proclamation of the
Gospel in Today’s World
COMMENT: In Mystici Corporis
Pope Pius XII said that “only those are to be included as members of the Church
who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so
unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been
excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.”
This definition of those who are members of
the Church founded by Jesus Christ, outside of which there is neither the
forgiveness of sins nor the possibility of salvation, authoritatively affirms
the definition formulated by St. Robert Bellarmine. This teaching guides the
practical implications of the three dogmas regarding salvation, that is: the
necessity of receiving the sacraments; the necessity of professing the true
faith (cannot be a heretic); and the necessity of being a subject of the Roman
pontiff (cannot be a schismatic). A necessary correlative of these dogmas
follows that the true obedience of those subject to the Roman pontiff is
conditional upon the Roman pontiff defending the true faith and the true
sacraments. Just as a child who disobeys the unjust command of a parent who
commands sin does not cease thereby to being a subject of his parent, no
Catholic who defends the true faith and the true sacraments when attacked by
the Roman pontiff ceases to being his subject.
What Cardinal Zen needs to do (but is
surely unable) is to affirm that Dogma is the proximate rule of faith, and
therefore, he cannot in conscience permit faithful Catholics in China to be
forced under the jurisdiction of the formally heretical bishops that make up
the Communist government Patriotic Catholic Church in China. He should then consecrate bishops for the
faithful Catholics in China without a papal mandate. He can even justify his actions by using the
same argument offered by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re in his open letter to
Cardinal Zen, that is, “the
expression independent Church can no
longer be interpreted in an absolute manner as ‘separation’ from the Pope, as
was the case in the past.” If this can be applied to the Communist
government Church, it can applied to the those who
profess the true faith in the underground Catholic Church.
Ss. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Mission
denies that we are an “independent” Church although this is what we are accused
of by the hierarchy and ‘devout’ members of the Church of the New Advent. It is
not an argument but a form of ad hominem
attack as a means to beg the real questions regarding our public defense of
Catholic truth. We can be grateful that Cardinal Re has scuttled their
hypocritical posturing. But
putting that aside, who do we think is telling the truth in this article posted
below? Did Benedict/Ratzinger really play the major role in this betrayal of
the Chinese Catholics as Cardinal Re claims and not Pope Francis? We expect
that soon everyone will learn that Cardinal Re is telling the truth and
Benedict/Ratzinger is perhaps a whole lot worse than Pope Francis.
Extra-ordinary Pope Benedict/Ratzinger will prove to be the Ringmaster of this
scandal; Ordinary Pope Francis will prove to be just another clown.
Vatican letter attacks Cardinal Zen, says Chinese 'patriotic' church is
no longer 'independent'
LifeSiteNews | Riccardo Cascioli | Feb 29,
2020 | Reprint from The Daily Compass
The Daily Compass has been
shown an explosive letter signed by the Dean of the College of Cardinals,
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, that fiercely attacks Cardinal Joseph Zen, the
Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, who has been critical of the secret agreement
between China and the Holy See that has resulted in the increased persecution
of Catholics. The letter contains misleading statements, affirming that there
is a continuity between the approach of this pontificate with that of previous
pontificates, when in fact no such continuity exists. Furthermore, it makes
very grave misrepresentations, attributing the authorship of the present secret
agreement to Benedict XVI and declaring a change in doctrine regarding the
possibility of independent Churches.
Cardinal Joseph Zen is an obstacle for the Church in China, and from
now on the Catholic Church can be formed by independent churches. This is
the essence of an explosive and incredible letter sent on February 26 to
all the cardinals by the Dean of the Sacred College, Cardinal Giovanni Battista
Re, that The Daily Compass has been shown
exclusively. It marks a fierce and unheard of frontal attack on the 88-year-old
archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong, the intrepid opponent of the secret agreement
between China and the Holy See signed in Beijing on September 22, 2018.
It is an unprecedented gesture, made even more significant by the
fact that is the first official act (protocol number 1/2020) of the new Dean of
the Sacred College. Re was appointed as Dean on January 18 as a result of the Motu Proprio by which Pope Francis
surprisingly made the deanship a position that now has a 5-year term limit, thereby
retiring Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
The letter is intended to be a response to
the letter that Cardinal Zen addressed to his brother cardinals last
September 27, but Cardinal Re also makes explicit reference to various other
interventions by Zen. The
cardinal is well-known for speaking out boldly on behalf of so-called
“clandestine” Chinese Catholics who are being humiliated and condemned by the
2018 agreement that still remains secret.
The first point of the letter declares the alleged
continuity between Pope Francis and his predecessors regarding possible
agreements with China: “In their approach to the situation of the
Catholic Church in China, there is a profound symphony of the thought and
action of the last three pontificates, which out of respect for the truth have
favored dialogue between the two parties, not opposition.” Thus it attributes
to Saint John Paul II “the idea of reaching a formal agreement with the
governmental authorities on the appointment of bishops,” recalling that he
“favored the return to full communion of bishops consecrated illicitly over the
years, beginning in 1958.”
Cardinal Re then launches into a direct attack on Cardinal Zen, whose
crime is that he has said many times that “it would be better to have no
agreement rather than a ‘bad agreement.’” According to Re, “the last three
popes did not share this position and supported and accompanied the drafting of
the agreement that, at the present time, seemed to be the only one possible.”
These affirmations made by Cardinal Re constitute
a grave distortion of reality, because it is obvious that Saint (sic) John
Paul II and Benedict XVI took an approach that is markedly different from that
of the present pontificate. If it is true that they had a great desire for
dialogue with China and dedicated many efforts to it, it is equally true that
this dialogue was exclusively a function of their goal of helping the Chinese
Church – divided between the “patriotic” church and the “clandestine” church –
to be reconciled.
At the same time, they consistently
reaffirmed the non-negotiable points for an agreement, which had to
respect religious freedom and the identity of the Church, including the freedom
to appoint bishops. The harsh responses of Saint (sic) John Paul II to Chinese
provocations over the appointment of bishops bears witness to this, as does his
decision to proceed with the canonizations of the Chinese martyrs on October 1,
2000, despite the harsh objections of Beijing, and also Benedict XVI’s May 27,
2007 Letter to Chinese Catholics, to cite only a few of the most egregious
examples.
Cardinal Re then goes on to deny a statement by Cardinal Zen that
the agreement signed in September 2018 could be “the same one that Pope
Benedict had at the time refused to sign.” The Dean assures his fellow
cardinals that he has verified this in the Archive of the Secretariat of State
and makes an astounding declaration: “Pope Benedict XVI had approved the draft
of the Agreement on the appointment of Bishops in China, which it was only
possible to sign in 2018.”
And so, according to Cardinal Re, the secret Agreement also
bears the signature of Benedict XVI, a sensational revelation that at this
point requires proof: the documents of the Secretariat of State cited by
Cardinal Re and the secret agreement of 2018 need to be made public so as to
verify such affirmations. If this were shown to be true, one could only
deduce that Pope Benedict XVI had reneged on everything he had publicly
written, such as for example in his famous already-mentioned May 2007 Letter
to Chinese Catholics, whose radical difference to the approach laid out by Re
we show in another article. Moreover, Re does not explain why, if Benedict XVI
had given his placet to the Agreement, it was not already signed ten
years ago.
Immediately after this, there is the passage that is most
pregnant with consequences for the universal Church: “The Agreement
provides for the intervention of the authority of the Pope in the process of
the appointment of Bishops in China. Even starting from this certain fact, the
expression independent Church can
no longer be interpreted in an absolute manner as “separation” from the Pope,
as was the case in the past.” These affirmations leave one speechless:
“independent Churches” can be simultaneously in communion with the Pope, a
declaration that has implications far beyond the Chinese Church and proposes a
new ecclesiology. But this is exactly what Pope Benedict XVI denied in
the Letter to Chinese Catholics, declaring the statutes of the
Patriotic Association to be “irreconcilable with Catholic doctrine.” And yet,
as far as we can tell, the secret Agreement has legitimized them.
Cardinal Re is clearly aware of the
implications of these statements, so much so that immediately afterwards
he explains that we are at a moment of “epochal change” which gives rise to
consequences “both on the doctrinal and practical level.” Thus he explicitly
says that doctrinal changes have been enacted in order to arrive at the
Agreement with the Chinese government. This is a very serious affirmation, as
one can easily guess: it is the exact opposite approach to the one expressed
publicly by Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
The rest of the letter goes on to cite the
harshest criticisms of the Agreement made by Cardinal Zen, declaring them
to be “objections” to the “pastoral guidance of the Holy Father toward
“clandestine” Catholics,” making a reference to the fact that the Pope has
repeatedly listened to Cardinal Zen’s reasoning and read “his many missives.”
Cardinal Zen thus becomes the easy scapegoat for the prolongation of “tensions
and painful situations” that divide the Chinese Church despite the efforts of
the pope and his collaborators.
In other words, the letter of Cardinal
Re – who obviously did not write on his own initiative – is truly a call
to his brother cardinals to isolate Cardinal Zen, even to the point of making
one think that the elimination of the Archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong is part
of the secret agreement. But Cardinal Re should explain to us why it is that
persecution against Catholics in China has intensified since the agreement was
signed while the Holy See has remained completely silent. And he should also
explain why the Patriotic Association, now recognized by the Holy See, has
never expressed so much as a desire for communion with Rome.
Archbishop Viganò responds to criticism of Cardinal Zen: Vatican has
delivered the Chinese Church to the enemy
Full text of letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to Cardinal Joseph
Zen
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò | LifeSiteNews
| Feb 29, 2020
Dearest Eminence,
This is Archbishop Carlo Maria
Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America.
I have followed deeply — sharing in prayer your suffering — your many heartfelt
appeals to Pope Bergoglio concerning the tragic situation of the Martyr Church
in China, which he himself has culpably aggravated through the treacherous and
wicked secret Agreement signed by Holy See with the Chinese Communist
Government.
Your heartfelt appeals, dear Brother in
Christ, have systematically been unheeded and even mocked in a hypocritical and
perverse way. As for Cardinal Parolin, he has acted as a mere reckless executor
of an evil order from above.
I read this morning the ignominious and shameful letter that Cardinal
Giovanni Battista Re has addressed to all the cardinals against you. I am
deeply saddened and indignant, and I wish to express to you all my affection,
prayer and fraternal solidarity in the episcopate.
You are a courageous Confessor of the Faith
and you have all my esteem and veneration!
Unfortunately, in the Vatican lying has been set into the system, truth
has been totally overturned, and the most perverse deception is shamelessly
practiced even by the most unsuspected figures, who have now given themselves
over to acting as accomplices of the Adversary. They have even gone so
far as to say that “Pope Benedict XVI had approved the draft Agreement” signed
in 2018, when instead we all know of his strenuous resistance and repeated
disapproval of the conditions imposed by a persecutory and bloody regime.
The Vatican has done everything and more to deliver the Chinese Martyr
Church into the hands of the Enemy: it did so by signing the Secret Pact; it
did so by legitimizing excommunicated “bishops” who are agents of the regime;
it did so by the deposition of legitimate bishops; it did so by forcing
faithful priests to register with a church that has succumbed to the Communist
dictatorship; it does so on a daily basis by keeping silent about the
persecutory fury that has gained unprecedented strength, precisely since the
signing of that unfortunate Agreement. It is now doing so with this ignoble
letter to all the cardinals, which is aimed at accusing you, denigrating you,
and isolating you.
Our Lord assures us that nothing and no one
will ever be able to snatch from His hands those who resist the infernal enemy
and his acolytes, conquering them “by the Blood of the Lamb” and by the
testimony of their martyrdom (cf. Rev. 12:11).
Your example, dear Cardinal, and the very
high price you are paying to defend the Cause of God and His Church, gives us a
salutary jolt, it rips us from the inertia and habituation with which we are
passively witnessing the surrender of the Catholic Church, at its highest
levels and in its hierarchy, to heresy and apostasy, by following the Prince of
this world, who is a liar and murderer from the beginning (cf. Jn 8:44).
Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo, quem
redemisti, Christe, sanguine tuo, ne in aeternum irascaris nobis.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò
Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana Apostolic Nuncio
How Queer! Secretary of the HomoLobby redefines Lenten
‘penitential’ practices for the Church of the New Advent. He makes fasting taste appetizing!
Pro-gay (sic) priest James Martin: ‘Lent is a time to engage more
deeply with LGBT people’
The Jesuit suggested that 'spiritual exercises' focus on 'LGBT people.'
LifeSiteNews | Doug Mainwaring | March 2,
2020 – Pro-homosexual Jesuit priest James Martin redefined the meaning of Lent
in an interview for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the powerhouse LGBT
lobbying organization in Washington, D.C.
Martin said that Lent is a time to prepare for Easter and to understand
the sufferings of Christ, but then quickly switched gears and suggested that
the lives of LGBT persons reflect the suffering of Christ.
“So one of the invitations for Catholics (during Lent) is to unite yourself with people who are suffering, including LGBT
people,” Martin said.
Lent is “a time for people to engage more deeply with LGBT people,” he
declared.
The remainder of the published interview
focused not on a Christocentric understanding of Lent but on how homosexual and
the gender-confused people can be made to feel more comfortable about
continuing their self-proclaimed sexual/gender identities and activities within
the Catholic Church.
The Jesuit suggested Lenten “spiritual
exercises” in the form of questions for Catholics, focusing not on their
relationship with Jesus Christ, but on their relationships with LGBT persons.
“Can you exercise humility, which is a virtue during Lent, and listen
to people that you might not understand?” said Martin, pushing the idea that
any negative impressions about the goodness of homosexuality and transgenderism
are nothing more than “misunderstanding” based on “old stereotypes.”
He also suggested that God might want to reveal himself to Catholics
through homosexuals.
“Can you be open to the fact that God may want to meet you through this
LGBT person?” asked Martin, adding, “the person you
thought was other is actually the person who reveals God to you.”
As for “LGBT Catholics,” Martin pointed out
that Jesus healed many people, and what he wants to do in the lives of
self-identified homosexuals and the transgendered today is not to heal their
proclivities or find God-given strength to master their same-sex inclinations,
which the Church teaches are “disordered,” but to have them feel like they are
no longer “on the margins” of the Church.
“I hope … that the LGBTQ community can feel welcome in their own
church,” he concluded. […..]
Pope Francis comments on the Resistance to his Heresy
“But when I realize that there is real
resistance, of course it displeases me. Some people tell me that resistance is normal
when someone wants to make changes. The famous ‘we’ve always done it this way’
reigns everywhere, it is a great temptation that we have all faced. … I cannot
deny that there is resistance. I see it and I am aware of it. There is
doctrinal resistance, which you all know better than I do. For the sake of
mental health, I do not read the websites of this so-called “resistance.” I
know who they are, I am familiar with the groups, but I do not read them,
simply for my mental health. If there is something very serious, they inform me
so that I know about it. You all know them … It is a displeasure, but we must
move ahead. Historians say that it takes a century before a Council puts down
roots. We are halfway there.
“When I perceive resistance, I try to
dialogue, when dialogue is possible. But some resistance comes from people who
believe they possess the true doctrine and accuse you of being a heretic. When
I do not find spiritual goodness in these people, because of what they say or
write, I simply pray for them. It pains me, but I do not dwell on this feeling
for the sake of mental hygiene.
Pope Francis the Destroyer, addressing a
private meeting with ninety fellow Jesuits, January 16, 2018, Santiago de
Chile. Their conversation was
transcribed by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, editor of La Civilta Cattolicà, and was published in Italian with the
Pope’s approval.”
COMMENT:
“True doctrine” is possessed by all faithful Catholics who hold DOGMA as their
rule of faith. Pope Francis does not. He believes that he is the rule
of faith. Whatever he says and does is what every Catholic must say and do.
Francis rejects DOGMA and that is why he is a heretic. He judges those who hold
DOGMA as their rule of faith as a sign that “these people” are without
“spiritual goodness.” What is evident is that Francis, who babbles that “time
is greater than space,” cannot be dissuaded from his commitment to destroy. He
will not listen to those who offer filial correction and he does not accept
evidence of the rotten fruits from Vatican II because it takes “a century
before a Council puts down roots.” We are supposed to believe that in another
fifty years we will really see the springtime of Vatican II? Unfortunately, at
the current rate of decline there will not be a Catholic Church in another fifty
years. God being God, this will not happen. Unfortunately for Francis, since he
cannot repent, he will pay awful price for all eternity.
The observance of Lent is the very badge of the Christian warfare. By
it, we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the Cross of Christ. By it, we
avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the
princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow
remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a
disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can
it be doubted, but that such negligence would become the source of misery to
the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.
Pope Benedict XIV, encyclical, May 30, 1741
“Liberalism is the belief that
any part of God's creation is not subject to His to domain.”
Fr. Denis Fahey
“Don’t get me wrong Sisters. I
am sure your hearts are in the right place.
OK, but you know, somebody has got to lift the scab, the festering scab
that is the Vatican.”
Jerry Fletcher, Conspiracy Theory,
addressing two nuns, 1997
If anyone says that baptism is optional, that is, not
necessary for salvation, ANATHAMA SIT.
Council of Trent, Canon 5, On the Sacrament of Baptism
St. Martin restores a Catechumen to Life so
that he may be Baptized
AS Hilarius had already gone away, so
Martin followed in his footsteps; and having been most joyously welcomed by
him, he established for himself a monastery not far from the town. At this time
a certain catechumen joined him, being desirous of becoming instructed in the
doctrines and habits of the most holy man. But, after the lapse only of a few
days, the catechumen, seized with a languor, began to suffer from a violent
fever. It so happened that Martin had then left home, and having remained away
three days, he found on his return that life had departed from the catechumen;
and so suddenly had death occurred, that he had left this world without
receiving baptism. The body being laid out in public was being honored by the
last sad offices on the part of the mourning brethren, when Martin hurries up
to them with tears and lamentations. But then laying hold; as it were, of the
Holy Spirit, with the whole powers of his mind, he orders the others to quit
the cell in which the body was lying; and bolting the door, he stretches
himself at full length on the dead limbs of the departed brother. Having given
himself for some time to earnest prayer, and perceiving by means of the Spirit
of God that power was present, he then rose up for a little, and gazing on the
countenance of the deceased, he waited without misgiving for the result of his
prayer and of the mercy of the Lord. And scarcely had the space of two hours
elapsed, when he saw the dead man begin to move a little in all his members,
and to tremble with his eyes opened for the practice of sight. Then indeed,
turning to the Lord with a loud voice and giving thanks, he filled the cell
with his ejaculations. Hearing the noise, those who had been standing at the
door immediately rush inside. And truly a marvelous spectacle met them, for
they beheld the man alive whom they had formerly left dead. Thus being restored
to life, and having immediately obtained baptism, he lived for many years
afterwards; and he was the first who offered himself to us both as a subject
that had experienced the virtues of Martin, and as a witness to their
existence. The same man was wont to relate that, when he left the body, he was
brought before the tribunal of the Judge, and being assigned to gloomy regions
and vulgar crowds, he received a severe sentence. Then, however, he added, it
was suggested by two angels of the Judge that he was the man for whom Martin
was praying; and that, on this account, he was ordered to be led back by the
same angels, and given up to Martin, and restored to his former life. From this
time forward, the name of the sainted man became illustrious, so that, as being
reckoned holy by all, he was also deemed powerful and truly apostolical.
SULPITIUS SEVERUS, ON THE LIFE OF ST.
MARTIN (note: Sulpitius Severus was a contemporary of St. Martin of Tours, knew
the Saint and obtained his information on the life of St. Martin entirely from
primary and reliable sources.)
Do penance:
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.[.....] Ye brood
of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth
therefore fruit worthy of penance.[.....] For now
the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not
yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize
you in the water unto penance, but he that shall come after me,
is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you
in the Holy Ghost and fire.
St. John the Baptist
Note: Do penance (Paenitentiam agite). Which word, according to the use of the
scriptures and the holy fathers, does not only signify repentance and amendment
of life, but also punishing past sins by fasting, and such like penitential
exercises.
Catholic
saints and the religious that have followed their examples have done more for
the poor, for children, for exploited women than all others throughout all of
history. We own no apology to anyone for
Catholic charity! Is Francis, the class
warior, begging for an apology because he was mistreated?
“I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who
is gay whom it has offended, but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited
women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having
blessed many weapons.”
Pope Francis
Friends
of Pope Francis claim, those who oppose sodomy are “corrosive and repugnant.”
“We have to face the fact that there is a group of people across all
religious views that are particularly antagonistic to LGBT people. That comes
from deep within the human soul, and it’s really corrosive and repugnant.”
The Jesuit trained and Pope Francis appointed San Diego Bishop Robert
McElroy, who endorsed the book by the Sodomophile James Martin. S.J., author of
the book, Building a Bridge, that
endorses the LGBT agenda claiming that God created homosexuals as they are and
that chastity is not required of them, that Catholics
should reverence gay (sic) marriages and support transgenderism in children. He
even endorses the aberrant displays of homosexuals kissing at the sign of peace
during Novus Ordo services.
Once Again, Pope Francis Corrupts the Literal Meaning of
Holy Scripture. This time to overthrow all Catholic Morality!
He set out from there and
went into the district of Judea [and] across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered
around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees
approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They
were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted him to
write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But
from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this
reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his
wife], and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but
one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must
separate.” In the house the disciples again questioned him about
this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she
divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Mark 10:1-12
Commentary of Pope Francis on
Mark 10, 1-12:
Jesus does not answer whether it (divorce)
is permitted or not. He does not enter into their (the Pharisees’) classic
casuistry. Because they (the Pharisees) thought of faith merely in the
framework of “one may not” or “one may” – up to which point one may, up to
which point one may not. Thus logic of casuistry: Jesus does not enter into it.
And He Himself poses a question: “Now, what did Moses command you? What is
written in your law?” And they explain the permission which Moses gave to write
a divorce certificate and to dismiss a woman from marriage; and it is they who
went into a trap, yes. Because Jesus calls them “hard hearted”: “only because
you are so hard hearted, he has given you this law,” and He spoke the truth. Without casuistry, without permissions. The
truth.
This is the way of Jesus – it is quite
clear – it is the path from casuistry to truth and mercy. Jesus leaves aside
the logic of casuistry. To those who wanted to test him, to those who thought
of this logic of ‘it is possible’, he termed them – not here, but in another
passage of the Gospel – hypocrites. Even with the fourth commandment, they
denied assistance to their relatives with the excuse that they had given a good
offer to the Church. Hypocrites. The casuistry is
hypocritical. It is a form of hypocrisy. ‘You can – you cannot’ … which then
becomes more subtle, more evil: I? I can up to this point but from here to
here, I cannot. This is the deception of casuistry.
Pope Francis, commentary on Mark 10:1-12
Commentary on Pope Francis’
Commentary on Mark 10, 1-12:
It is hardly possible to be this
ignorant. Even a
person without faith simply reading the words of this scripture passage and reporting
on the literal meaning would articulate a better understand than Pope
Francis. The only alternative possible is a willful corruption of the text to
bring it into the service of a perverse ideology.
Firstly, Jesus does not beg the question of
the Pharisees. He answers it directly
and forcefully on a much higher plane.
The simple answer is, “it is lawful in your law because Moses permitted it” because of the “hardness of
your hearts.” But the higher answer is
given by Jesus wherein He indirectly declares his divinity to the Pharisees by
asserting His authority to set aside the law of Moses
and reestablish the original intent of God for His creation. Only God can give this answer to the
Pharisees' question. The reason Francis
does not find an answer in Jesus' reply is because he does not believe that
Jesus is God any more than the Pharisees did.
Divorce was an indult granted by God through Moses to the Jews because
of their “hardness of hearts.” His
followers would by the grace of God rise above this “hardness of heart” and
will be able to keep the law of God.
Therefore, the indult granted by Moses is made void by the Word of
God. The final answer is divorce is not
permitted by the law of God and those who divorce and remarry are guilty of
adultery.
Secondly, the science of moral theology
concerns what one must do or not do to avoid sin. It is the science of limits which cannot be
crossed without offending God either venially or mortally. The science of mystical and aesthetical
theology deals with what one must do or not do to become a saint. Casuistry is a scholastic method of case
study to help understand and apply the actual principles of moral theology in
particular cases where conflicting obligations exist. Casuistry, like all human acts, can be
perverted from its proper end which is to avoid sin. When its
end become to permit sin it becomes the science of the Pharisees which can be
studied today in the Jewish Talmud.
Francis’ morality is Talmudic and not Catholic. The example provided by Francis of the
perverse Jewish casuistry that permitted the Jews to break the 4th commandment
by claiming that their personal wealth could not be used to support their needy
parents because it was set aside for the temple is analogous to what Francis has
done by permitting Catholics to live in unrepentant adultery and receive the
sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion.
In both cases, the law of God is overturned. The hypocrisy of Francis is oozing from his
every pore. That is what a perverted
casuistry is. Francis the Hypocrite is
characterizing all good and necessary moral inquiry as a perverted casuistry
which he opposes to “truth and mercy.”
He is making war on all morality.
There is no opposition between “truth and mercy” and its practical application
in moral theology. The very science of moral theology deals with what “one may
not” or “one may” do to keep the friendship of God. It was Jesus who said, “If you love me, keep
my commandments.” The sign of the love
of God is the keeping of His commandments.
Francis by trashing the entire field of moral theology is heaping
contempt on the law of God. He embodies
everything that Jesus condemned so severely in the Pharisees. The condemnations that Jesus leveled at the
Pharisees can be heaped upon this most perverse man.
Lastly, this is the morality of Martin
Luther and his sect. Luther taught that
it was impossible to keep the law of God and no one should even try. This was specifically condemned at the
Council of Trent.
"For all
the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens."
Psalm 95:5
IT
is blasphemy to attribute evil to the positive divine will of GOD!
“Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom
of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions,
colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which
He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the
rights, and saw that it was good also.”
Excerpt from document signed and endorsed by Pope Francis, “Human
Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” during his pilgrimage to the
United Arab Emirates
The
use of the “received and approved rites customarily used in the solemn
administration of the sacraments” for the worship of God is a DOGMA of Catholic
faith defined at the Council of Trent!
“Since, then,
no one is allowed to be remiss in the service due to God … we are bound
absolutely to worship God in that way which He has shown to be His will …. ”
Pope Leo XIII,
Immortale dei, On
the Christian Constitution of States
Just a reminder just to whom Pope Francis has betrayed
the Catholic faithful of China by placing them under the jurisdiction of the
CPCA!
Francis-approved communist parallel Chinese ‘church’ approves abortion,
contraception
The government-established 'church' cannot deviate from the Communist
Party's position, which includes support for forced abortion.
LifeSiteNews | Dorothy Cummings McLean |
BEIJING, China, February 20, 2020 ― The confusion around the Vatican’s
concordat with China and its
state-founded version of the Catholic Church has been compounded by the failure
of the so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) to transmit the
Gospel of Life.
According to expert Steven Mosher, the
Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is in lockstep with the pro-abortion,
pro-contraception Chinese Communist government when it comes to life
issues.
“The CPCA cannot deviate from the Party's
position, since it is controlled by the Party,” Mosher told LifeSiteNews
yesterday.
“Moreover, the CPCA has affirmed that
national laws supercede Church, or canon, law,” he added.
“And the Party's position is that
contraception, abortion and euthanasia are moral.”
An American consultant to the Vatican on
China, Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo, now 55, admitted to the National Catholic
Register early in 2018 that the government-appointed bishops of the CPCA
support China’s totalitarian two-child policy.
“I spoke with some of these bishops and some
of the officials at the bishops’ conference on issues such as abortion, the
two-child family policy; and certainly in those areas, and I won’t hide this,
they do back the government on those areas, because I think they feel they need
to,” Figueiredo said.
“They need to because they’re part of [the
Patriotic Association], there’s a loyalty to the government,” he continued.
[…..]
To
Conservative Catholics who are Enamored with Appearance and Indifferent to
Substance
They (Benedict XVI and Francis) are different, sometimes very
different, in expression. But they are united by substance, of content, to
proclaiming to propagation and defense of the deposit of faith.
Curial Archbishop George Gänswein, liaison cleric between the Ordinary and Extra-ordinary popes
Catholics progressively uncomfortable in the progressive
Church of the New Advent
Polish church silences Kazakhstan bishop
The Tablet | Johnathana Luxmoore | February
24, 2020
The former Archbishop of Karaganda in
Kazakhstan, Jan Lenga, has been banned from preaching and celebrating Mass by
the Polish Church for describing Pope Francis as the antichrist and refusing to
include him in prayers.
"Canon Law empowers the local diocesan
bishop to take disciplinary steps which might halt the spread of scandal among
the faithful," Fr Artur Niemira, chancellor of the central Wloclawek
diocese, said in a statement to Poland's Catholic Information Agency, KAI.
"Archbishop Lenga is to refrain from
delivering sermons and publicly conducting the liturgy. This same ban also
applies to contacts with the media."
The ruling was made public following a
series of declarations by the 69-year-old retired Ukrainian-born archbishop, a
member of the Marian order, who quit his Kazakhstan see in 2011 and now lives
in an order house at Lichen in central Poland, by arrangement with the Vatican.
The KAI agency said Lenga had "issued
controversial claims undermining the authority of the reigning Pope Francis,
and refusing to name him during Masses". It added that the ban on public
appearances had been imposed by Bishop Wieslaw Mering of Wloclawek and would
remain in place until further restrictions were announced by the Vatican.
In May 2019, Archbishop Lenga co-signed a
40-point "Declaration of Truths" opposing aspects of the Pope's
teaching, alongside the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, the Polish-born
Archbishop Tomasz Peta of Astana in Kazakhstan, and the retired Polish-speaking
Cardinal Janis Pujats of Latvia.
In a book-length interview, still circulating in Polish on YouTube, he
said he still recognised Benedict XVI as Pope and had dropped the name of the
"usurper and heretic" Francis from his Mass prayer intentions.
"Bergoglio has not confirmed himself in the faith and is not
passing that faith to others, he is leading the world astray," said the
archbishop, who trained secretly in Soviet-ruled Latvia and Lithuania and was
appointed Kazakhstan's first bishop in 1991 and Archbishop of Karaganda in
1999. "He proclaims untruths and sins, not the tradition which has endured
for 2000 years... He proclaims the truth of this world, which is precisely the
truth the devil".
“But
it did not last long.”
I saw many pastors cherishing dangerous ideas against the Church. . . .
They built a large, singular, extravagant church which was to embrace all
creeds with equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, and all denominations, a
true communion of the unholy with one shepherd and one flock. There was to be a
Pope, a salaried Pope, without possessions. All was made ready, many things
finished; but, in place of an altar, were only abomination and desolation. Such
was the new church to be, and it was for it that he had set fire to the old
one; but God designed otherwise.
Blessed Anna Katherine Emmerich
I saw also the relationship between the two popes.... I saw how baleful would
be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics
of every kind came into the city of Rome. The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I
saw a great darkness... Then, the vision seemed to extend on every side. Whole
Catholic communities were being oppressed, harassed, confined, and deprived of
their freedom. I saw many churches close down, great miseries everywhere, wars
and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob took to violent action. But it did not
last long.
Blessed Anna Katherine Emmerich, May 13, 1820
“From this definition it
can be easily gathered what men belong to the Church and what men do not. For there are three parts of
this definition: the profession of the true Faith, the communion of the
Sacraments, and the subjection to the legitimate Pastor, the Roman Pontiff.
By reason of the first part are excluded all infidels, as much those who have
never been in the Church, like the Jews, Turks and Pagans; as those who have
been and have fallen away, like heretics and apostates. By reason of the
second, are excluded catechumens and excommunicates, because the former are not
to be admitted to the communion of the sacraments, the latter have been cut off
from it. By reason of the third, are excluded schismatics, who have faith and
the sacraments, but are not subject to the lawful pastor, and therefore they
profess the Faith outside, and receive the Sacraments outside. However, all
others are included, even if they be reprobate, sinful and wicked.”
St. Robert Bellarmine
Necessity
of Baptism for Salvation and the Church Fathers
“We have to admit . . . that the
testimony of the Fathers, with regard to the possibility of salvation for
someone outside the Church, is very weak. Certainly even the ancient Church
knew that the grace of God can be found also outside the Church and even before
Faith. But the view that such divine grace can lead man to his final salvation
without leading him first into the visible Church, is
something, at any rate, which met with very little approval in the ancient
Church. For, with reference to the optimistic views on the salvation of
catechumens as found in many of the Fathers, it must be noted that such a
candidate for baptism was regarded in some sense or other as already
‘Christianus,’ and also that certain Fathers, such as Gregory Nazianzen and
Gregory of Nyssa deny altogether the justifying power of love or of the desire
for baptism. Hence it will be impossible to speak of a consensus dogmaticus in
the early Church regarding the possibility of salvation for the non-baptized,
and especially for someone who is not even a catechumen. In fact, even St.
Augustine, in his last (Anti-Pelagian) period, no longer maintained the
possibility of a baptism by desire.”
Rev. Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, Volume II, Man in the
Church
“In the Third Secret it is foretold,
among other things, that the Great Apostasy in the Church will begin at the
top.”
Cardinal Luigi Ciappi
The ‘Bergoglio Business Plan’! Now that “apologetics” is
nothing more than “subtle theoretical discussions” over “opinions” and
“proselytism is solemn nonsense,” how do they measure “strong Christian witness,” “effective
evangelization,” “fruitful ecumenical
spirit,” and “constructive dialogue”?
If the “Mission of the Church in the World” is the supreme law… the salus animarum, how does any of this
contribute towards fulfilling this “Mission”? It is never “easy to achieve such
a goal” under the best of conditions because to obtain salvation is to enter by
the “narrow gate.” Now that every material sign to measure success toward this
goal has been destroyed by the modern Church how can they possibly have any
idea what they are doing?
Today we will present a summary of the work done in recent months to
develop the new Apostolic Constitution for the reform of the Curia. The goal to
be reached is always that of promoting greater harmony in the work of the
various Dicasteries and Offices, in order to achieve a more effective
collaboration in that absolute transparency which builds authentic synodality
and collegiality.
The reform is not an end in itself, but a means to give a strong
Christian witness; to promote a more effective evangelization; to promote a
more fruitful ecumenical spirit; to encourage a more constructive dialogue with
all.
The reform, strongly advocated by the majority of the Cardinals in the
context of the general congregations before the conclave, will further perfect
the identity of the same Roman Curia, which is to assist the Successor of Peter
in the exercise of his supreme pastoral office for the good of and in the
service of the universal Church and the particular Churches. This exercise
serves to strengthen the unity of faith and communion of the people of God and
promote the mission of the Church in the world.
Certainly, it is not easy to achieve such a goal. It requires time,
determination and above all everyone’s cooperation. But to achieve this we must
first entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the true guide of the Church,
imploring the gift of authentic discernment in prayer.
It is in this spirit of collaboration that our meeting begins, which
will be fruitful thanks to the contribution which each of us can express with
parrhesía, fidelity to the Magisterium and the knowledge that all of this
contributes to the supreme law, that being the salus animarum. Thank You.
Pope Francis, on the agenda of the
Consistory for the Reform of the Roman Curia
St. Thomas for Lent: Ultimately, to know God
better to love God more perfectly
“This humility, therefore, combined with the purity of heart We have mentioned, and sedulous devotion to prayer, disposed
the mind of Thomas to docility in receiving the inspirations of the Holy Ghost
and following His illuminations, which are the first principles of
contemplation. To obtain them from above, he would frequently fast, spend whole
nights in prayer, lean his head in the fervor of his unaffected piety against
the tabernacle containing the august Sacrament, constantly turn his eyes and
mind in sorrow to the image of the crucified Jesus; and he confessed to his
intimate friend St. Bonaventura that it was from that Book especially that he
derived all his learning. it may, therefore, be truly
said of Thomas what is commonly reported of St. Dominic, Father and Lawgiver,
that in his conversation he never spoke but about God or with God.
…“The aim of the whole theology
of St. Thomas is to bring us into close living intimacy with God.”
Pope Pius XI, Sudiorum
Ducem
Modernists,
looking for their evolving god of ‘relationaltiy’, will not see the God ‘Who
is’, now, or forever!
On the contrary, It is written: In thy light we shall see light. (Ps. xxxv. 10).
I answer that: Everything which is raised up to what exceeds its
nature, must be prepared by some disposition above its nature; as, for example,
if air is to receive the form of fire, it must be prepared by some disposition
for such a form. But when
any created intellect sees the essence of God, the essence of God itself
becomes the intelligible form of the intellect. …And this is the light spoken
of in the Apocalypse (xxi. 23). The glory of God hath enlightened it – vis. the
society of the blessed who see God. By this light the blessed are made deiform
– that is, like to God, according to the saying: When He shall appear we shall
be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is. (1 John, ii.
2).
But the blessed possess these three things in God; because they
see Him, and in seeing Him, possess Him as present, having the power to see Him
always; and possessing Him, they enjoy Him as the ultimate fulfillment of
desire.
St. Thomas, Summa Theologica
Hermeneutics of
Continuity/Discontinuity
Explains why Novus Ordo Catholics
have dumped the season of Septuagesima and do not do penance for Lent – they
have dialogued themselves out of Original Sin!
Original Sin:
Benedict/Ratzinger
teaches:
The account (of Genesis 3) tells
us that sin begets sin, and that therefore all the sins of history are
interlinked. Theology refers to this state of affairs by the
certainly misleading and imprecise term ‘original sin’. What does this mean? Nothing
seems to us today to be stranger or, indeed, more absurd than to insist upon
original sin, since, according to our way of thinking, guilt can only be
something very personal, and since God does not run a concentration camp, in
which one’s relatives are imprisoned because he is a liberating God of love,
who calls each one by name. What does original sin mean, then, when we interpret it
correctly?
Finding an answer to
this requires nothing less than trying to understand the human person better. It must once again be stressed
that no human being is closed in upon himself or herself and that no one can
live of or for himself or herself alone. We receive our life not only at the
moment of birth but every day from without – from others who are not ourselves
but who nonetheless somehow pertain to us. Human beings have their selves not
only in themselves but also outside of themselves: they live in those whom they
love and in those who love them and to whom they are ‘present.’ Human beings
are relational, and they possess their lives –
themselves – only by way of relationship. I alone am not myself, but only
in and with you am I myself. To be truly a human being means to be related in love, to be of and for. But
sin means the damaging or the destruction of relationality. Sin is a rejection of relationality because it wants to make the
human being a god. Sin is loss of relationship, disturbance of relationship, and therefore it is not
restricted to the individual. When I destroy a relationship, then this event – sin – touches
the other person involved in the relationship. Consequently sin is always an
offense that touches others, that alters the world and damages it. To the
extent that this is true, when the network of human relationships is damaged from the very
beginning, then every human being enters into a world that is marked by relational damage. At the very moment that
a person begins human existence, which is a good, he or she is confronted by a
sin- damaged world. Each of us enters into a situation in which relationality has been hurt. Consequently