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Tradition Saint Francis
Xavier Mission's Newsletter
The
Eternal Church During the past few months, Divine Providence granted us the joy to meet quite a good number of priests working in Sri Lanka, young and old, and these were the occasions for us to know them better, and know the Church of Sri Lanka better too. Most of the priests were very nice, even if they don't share all our points of view. This kind of contact is very good. They help one another to understand the needs of our Holy Mother Church and therefore strive to do our best to serve this self-same Church with all our hearts, love and strength. The doctrine of the two "sides" could be summarized as follows: -"Everything must evolve", say the parish priests. -"We must do what the Church has always done", say the SSPX priests. -"All the religions are worshipping the same God", say the parish priests. -"Jesus Christ is the only true God", say the SSPX priests. -"In today's world, all the believers must be united", say the parish priests. -"The previous popes have condemned false ecumenism", say the SSPX priests. -"The Church was not always right, She made mistakes" say the parish priests. -"The Church is the Bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, She is stainless, Immaculate", say the SSPX priests. -"Whatever is new is good", say the parish priests. -"Whatever is true is good", say the SSPX priests. Many priests speak about the necessity of being up-to-date, they have a thirst of novelties and despise what was done in the past. "Old-fashion", "good for a museum", "full of dust" are the expressions we hear when we talk about the Tradition of the Church. Everything is the object of a new interpretation . They make a choice between what to believe and what to reject. We, priests of the Tradition, prefer to take everything the Church gives us from the beginning up to the end. For example, when we read the life of a saint, we admire the work of God's grace in him. We will not allow ourselves to judge him. He acted under the command of God. Everything is worthy of enthusiastic praises in such a life. On the contrary, the new priests will make a selection and show only what can please the modern man. For instance, in Goa (India), some priests are preaching against St. Francis Xavier saying he should not have converted people to Christ. They dare to attack this most zealous missionary and his apostolic work. Is this not a tremendous injustice? We don't agree with that, and maintain that whatever St. Francis did must be praised because he was a great servant of God and has fulfilled the will of his Divine Master. So it is regarding the revealed truth. When we study the doctrine of the Church or the Holy Scripture we say: "This is beautiful, the word of God works wonders! What a grace to be a Catholic!" Today's priests will say: "There are some errors in the Bible. Moreover, the Church and the Church's creed of yesterday, today or tomorrow can't be the same forever. Life goes on, everything is changing". A priest who wants to defend the honor of the Church has the duty to reply that this is not true. It can't be true. The Church was created by God, She is divine as Her heavenly Spouse, Jesus Christ, is. The Church and what She believes can't change because God doesn't change. God is always the same, and so is the Church, which is God living among men. But basically, the priests who are saying that today's truth is no more the one of yesterday are condemning themselves. Because what they are teaching today, will not be true tomorrow, according to their own principles. All of this is not coherent at all, and is not the voice of the true Church. This is not the faithful teaching of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. We, priests of the Society of Saint Pius X, want to be faithful to the Church of all times: the everlasting Church. Because of this unwavering attachment to our Holy Mother Church, we are sure to be right, and we know that one day this nightmare will come to an end, and Rome will become Rome again spreading the unchangeable and apostolic faith over the surface of the Earth. The Voice of Eternal Rome Leo XIII On the only one Church "The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same forever; those who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ the Lord-leaving the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition. 'Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the Church, and he who leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ." Satis Cognitum. Pius IX About the keeping of the faith "For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter, that by His Revelation they might make known a new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith delivered through the Apostles". Council Vatican I. Saint Pius X On the Mission of the Church "Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the Church. Rightly does Chrysostom inculcate :'the Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge.' It was for this that Christ founded it, gaining it at the price of His Blood, and made it the depository of His doctrine and His laws, bestowing upon it at the same time an inexhaustible treasury of graces for the sanctification and salvation of men. You see, then, Venerable Brethren, the duty that has been imposed alike upon Us and upon you of bringing back to the discipline of the Church human society, now estranged from the wisdom of Christ; the Church will then subject it to Christ, and Christ to God". E Supremi Apostolatus. About Modernists "That We should act without delay in this matter is made imperative especially by the fact that the 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 the more mischievous the less they keep in the open. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, and, what is much more sad, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, animated by a false zeal for the Church, lacking the solid safeguards of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, put themselves forward as reformers of the Church... Indeed, Modernists do not deny, but actually maintain, some confusedly, others frankly, that all religions are true... Dogma is not only able, but ought to evolve and to be changed. This is strongly affirmed by the Modernists, and clearly flows from their principles... 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 and vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, unapproved by the Church, on which, in the height of their vanity, they think they can base and maintain truth itself". Pascendi Dominici Gregis. Pius XI On Ecumenism "It is clear that the Apostolic See can by no means take part in these (ecumenical) assemblies, nor is it in any way lawful for Catholics to give to such enterprises their encouragement or support. If they did so, they would be giving countenance to a false Christianity quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall we commit the iniquity of suffering the truth, the truth revealed by God, to be made a subject for compromise? For it is indeed a question of defending revealed truth." Mortalium Animos. Pius XII Against doctrinal Evolutionism "In theology some want to reduce to a minimum the meaning of dogmas; and to free dogma itself from terminology long established in the Church... 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". Humani Generis. Pope Pius IX to be Beatified Pius IX, the last Pope to hold temporal power, will be beatified in the year 2000. His dramatic reign occurred at the time of the birth of the Italian nation, and was marked by serious persecutions by the Freemasons. Pius IX's cause for beatification was one of the longest and most difficult in Church history. It was begun under Saint Pius X on February 11, 1907, and was re-launched by Benedict XV, without much success, and later by Pius XI. After the Second World War, the process was re-initiated by Pius XII on December 7, 1954. The cause advanced during Paul VI's pontificate. The collection of the acts of the canonical process (i.e. "positio") was completed, including the analysis of the candidate's life, questioning of the witnesses and evaluations by historians and theologians. The decree on the heroic exercise of theological and cardinal virtues was finally promulgated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on July 6, 1985, and approved by Pope John Paul II, allowing his proclamation as "Venerable." Among Pius IX's most outstanding virtues were his unconditional love for the Church, his charity, and his high regard for the priesthood and for missionaries. The miracle attributed to Pius IX, which was verified by the Medical Commission on January 15, 1986, and definitively proclaimed on the 20th December 1999, was the inexplicable cure of a French nun. Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti on May 13, 1792 in Senigallia, Italy, and was elected Pope on June 16, 1846. His election raised the hopes of patriotic and liberal circles of Catholics; one of his first acts was to promulgate an amnesty for all political prisoners. In addition, he supported several reforms in the Papal States, which included central Italy, and several outlying areas, such as Assisi. During his first two years in the Chair of Peter, he gained a reputation for being a liberal, patriotic, and reforming Pope. In April 1848, when it became obvious that International Masonry organizations were supporting attacks, revolutions and disorders against the Papacy and traditionally Catholic nations, Pius IX distanced himself from the more radical Italian patriotic factions. When insurrections broke out in Rome, Pius IX moved to Gaeta; shortly thereafter, in 1849, the Roman Republic was proclaimed in the Eternal City by Giuseppe Mazzini, Carlo Armellini and Aurelio Saffi (all Freemasons). Churches were pillaged, and Mazzini seized works of art, which were Church property, to repay British Freemasons the loans that helped to fund the capture of Rome. Thanks to the intervention of French troops, the Roman Republic fell and the Pope was able to return to the capital in 1850. But it was at this point that Pius IX began a non-compromise policy ("Non possumus") toward the secular power; the Pope had become the most formidable adversary of Masonry's anti-clerical wing. In 1854, Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and, during Vatican Council I (1869-70), the dogma of papal infallibility. In 1864 he promulgated the encyclical "Quanta Cura," with the "Syllabus" appended -- a list of prohibited doctrines, with which the Church condemned all liberal and Enlightenment thought. With the unification of Italy, the last Pope-King successively lost the regions of Romagna (1859), Umbria and the Marches (1860) and finally Rome itself in 1870, with the taking of the Porta Pia on September 20, marking the end of papal temporal power. Since then, Italian Freemasonry has celebrated its own annual feast on September 20, in memory of the victory against the Church. Throughout his pontificate, Pius IX wrote or approved some 124 documents against the Masons -- 11 encyclicals, 61 brief letters, 33 addresses andce a allocutions, and documents of various Curial offices. According to Pius IX, all the evils that fell on the Church and society at that time originated in the atheism and scientism of the17th century, articulated by Freemasonry and upheld by the French Revolution. In the encyclical "Qui Pluribus" (1849), Pius IX wrote about "men linked by an evil union" who corrupt customs and combat faith in God and Christ, postulating naturalism and rationalism and, above all, initiating the conflict between science and faith. Another error attributed to this circle of thinkers was their mythical appreciation of progress in opposition to faith. In face of these precise accusations, Masonry reacted with violent scorn. In the first instance, a "Masonic Anti-Council, Freethinkers Assembly" was convoked with the idea of leading an international movement dedicated to the ceaseless persecution of the Vatican. Among the writings that were distributed at this meeting, one stated: "The Anti-Council desires light and truth, science and reason, not blind faith, fanaticism, dogmas, or burning at the stake. Papal infallibility is a heresy. The Roman Catholic religion is a lie; its Kingdom is a crime." In this atmosphere of constant belligerence, Pius IX did not lose courage and continued his work of consolidating the Church on the principle of unity. He placed much emphasis on popular spirituality, relations with the saints, especially to the Blessed Virgin Mary through the recognition of the apparitions at La Salette and Lourdes. He supported processions, pilgrimages and all popular forms of devotion. In 1870 he established a new way of electing bishops and prelates, chosen no longer from among notables, but among ordinary priests, where pastoral merits were evident. His popularity grew enormously. He was firm in his determination not to come to an arrangement with the Italian Government which illegitimately occupied the Pontifical States. Pius IX died on February 7, 1878, but Freemasonry continued to persecute him even after his death. On the night of July 12-13, 1881, his casket was transferred from the Vatican to Rome's Verano cemetery. Masonry organized an irreverent protest, including blasphemies, vulgar and obscene songs, and throwing of stones against the funeral procession, which responded by praying the Rosary, reciting Psalms, the Office of the Dead, and pious ejaculations. The protest reached a climax when the funeral procession crossed the Tiber near Castel Sant'Angelo. To the cry, "Death to the Pope! Death to priests!" a group of protesters attempted to throw the corpse into the Tiber. Catholics, however, encircled the Pontiff's remains and managed to overcome the opposition. Thus the choir of the Blessed will gain a new voice during the Jubilee year, that of a man of great human depth and a great Pope, champion of the Immaculate Conception and the rights of the Church. The
situation in the Catholic Church Today: by His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X. I am going to give an overview of the current situation in the Catholic Church which will be loosely divided into three parts: 1) a description of the situation by an assembly of assorted facts, 2) my reflections on the causes of this situation, and 3) remedies to be sought. "The Church is in Anarchy." One of our faithful in France wrote a letter to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger describing the scandalous behavior of a particular French bishop. On behalf of the Cardinal, Msgr. Perl answered, "Yes, you're right. The situation in the Church is anarchy. If you expect that an order from Rome regarding the above will solve the situation, you are in total illusion." This point is very important to understand. It means Rome has lost control. Oftentimes we hear the solution to the crisis is to increase our fidelity to the pope and bishops. Yet, in his letter Msgr. Perl admits bishops don't obey and anarchy is the result. The answer is to be faithful to the bishops?! Illogical! The word to describe this insanity is "confusion." This confusion comes from way back and now touches everything in the life of the Church. It starts with confusion in doctrine. The Enemy Sows Its Seed In the 1950's, Rome condemned a large number of theologians. In his encyclical, Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII condemned the theory of Henri de Lubac, a Jesuit priest, that there is no difference between nature and grace, between the natural and supernatural levels. This condemnation required all Jesuits to stop teaching this theory or vacate their teaching positions. Two years later a Dominican, Yves Congar, was condemned for his book on true and false reform in the Church and was exiled to Jerusalem. At the same time, a Jesuit priest in the US, John Courtney Murray, began teaching a new theory about the relations between Church and State and was condemned by Rome. Just prior to Vatican II another Jesuit, Karl Rahner, was forced to submit all his writings to the Holy Office on suspicion of Modernism. A Benedictine, Dom Beaudoin, was made to do the same. On the eve of Vatican II, a meeting of the central commission of the Council prepared a list of the theologians who would assist the bishops during the Council. At this meeting, Archbishop Lefebvre, one of the members of the commission, spoke up, "There is something I do not understand. We have here a list of the proposed experts. We have a rule which prohibits us to put on the list any theologian who has been condemned by the Church. On one of the proposed lists there are three condemned theologians." After the meeting, Cardinal Bugnini took the Archbishop by the arm and said, "It's the Boss who wants it," that is to say, Pope John XXIII. He made the rule that condemned theologians not be on the list and also ordered that they be on the list! Around the same time, Pope John XXIII published an encyclical about the importance of Latin in the Catholic Church. Ten days after its release, a bishop speaking with Archbishop Lefebvre attacked the Latin. Archbishop Lefebvre asked, "How do you dare to attack the Latin after the pope has published a text on the defense of the Latin?"..."What I say is exactly what the Pope thinks," replied this bishop. To find out for himself, Archbishop Lefebvre was granted an audience with Pope John XXIII who demolished in an hour what he had written in his encyclical ten days before! The big intellectuals of the Council-de Lubac, Congar, Rahner, Murray-were all condemned because of their errors in the ten years preceding Vatican II! Today, what they taught is now considered the doctrine of the Church! Here's a story which shows the intellectual honesty of the condemned theologians. In the aftermath of Vatican II, Yves Congar was quoted: I had been given a very hard job during the Council. It was to prepare this part of the document in which I was to prove that religious liberty is found in Holy Scripture, which it is not! This is terrible! The contradiction in doctrine has given us the mess we are in. We have a state of confusion in the Church. Here are some more recent examples of contradictions and confusions. Cockle in the Papacy Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter to prepare for the Jubilee Year 2000 titled, Tertio Millennio Adveniente [On the Coming of the Third Milleniuml. The word "adveniente" refers to Advent, a literal concept of the Holy Fadher referring to the period of the Church from Vatican II to the Year 2000. This "Advent" is the time of preparation for a new era. Those who pretend the famous three zeroes of millennial years will usher in new eras have been condemned in former times. Practically speaking, thepope is a millenarist, but at the same time Rome says it's not millenarism. The Jubilee Year 2000 will sponsor inter-religious Christian and non-Christian meetings. At the same time Rome insists it will not tolerate syncretism. What is syncretism if not this kind of mixing of all religions? We worship the one Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. At Assisi the Vicar of Christ prayed with people praying to the Great Thumb, with others smoking the peace pipe, and others who adored Buddha. This syncretism is put into practice, but Rome protests, "No, no, it's not syncretism!" In his encyclical, Ut Unum Sint, Pope John Paul II explained and defended the primacy of the pope. Immediately after the correct teaching in the encyclical, he asks that new ways to exercise the primacy be researched. It is a demolition of the primacy. You mean the popes of the last 2000 years didn't know how to exercise their primacy?! Inconsistencies In the Hierarchy A few years ago Cardinal Ratzinger issued a text condemning the theology of liberation. The first text was a clear condemnation. The second text was announced and it was said that the second and the first had to be read in the light of the first and second respectively. But, in the second version you find phrases which justify the theology of liberation. So, liberation theology is simultaneously condemned and justified! Last year, a Sri Lankan priest, Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, O. M. I., was excommunicated because of the heresies he taught about the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Church. Less than one year later, his religious order had his excommunication lifted even though Fr. Tissa Balasuriya preferred to sign his own text of abjuration rather than the one given him by Rome. After his excommunication had been lifted, Fr. Balasuriya said he had absolutely no regrets, that he had not taken anything back. So he continues to be the same heretic, but now is no longer excommunicated! Two years ago there was a big movement in Austria to collect signatures establishing a new Church, a Church where priests can marry, where women can be priests and so on. It fomented a lot of turmoil, and so the bishops gathered delegates from the entire country to a meeting. What were the propositions on which votes were taken?-that laymen be consulted in the ordination of bishops; that women be present at all levels of the hierarchy which do not exercise the sacrament of Holy Orders; that married men be priests; that women be deacons; that "divorced and remarried" go to Communion, etc. The least majority vote was 75% approval. Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a letter to the German bishops telling them Communion could not be given to "divorced, remarried Catholics." All but three bishops rejected the order and defended their priests doing the same. By his own admission, Cardinal Ratzinger says "dialogue" is the only "obedience" remaining among the German bishops. The Pope wrote again this year (1998) to the German bishops about abortion. For a woman to have an abortion in Germany, she must first appear before a board of consultors for counselling and receive a certificate of proof she has done so before she can submit to the murder of her baby. By law, one third of the board of consultors are Catholic bishops. The Pope wrote to forbid the German bishops to grant this certificate under pain of direct cooperation in the abortion. In response, the German bishops held an extraordinary meeting and agreed that in a year's time they would obey the Pope's order! Two weeks later, the president of the German bishop's Conference said the papal disposition on the matter was not applicable and the German bishops met again. This time only two bishops favored obedience to the pope. All the others are directly cooperating in murder! Insanities At the end of November (1998), a Capuchin priest visited our seminary in Germany wanting to join the Society of Saint Pius X. He had been forbidden to hear confessions because he refused absolution to penitents who refused to avoid proximate occasions of mortal sin. Six months ago, he was forbidden to celebrate Mass because he insisted on using the (more traditional) First Eucharistic Prayer of the Canon of the New Mass! A 78-year-old sister has joined us to escape the convent where every Sunday she was obliged under obedience to watch television for two hours! In one of the important ecclesiastical magazines of Holland (July, 1998), a bishop wrote such scandalous things I had to check with the chancery who verified the words as his. In his article, this bishop began: "When I die, I will not go to heaven, neither will I go to hell, because these words are words which the Church has taken from the Middle Ages. They have nothing to do with the reality. Science has now seen the heavens with powerful telescopes, so these concepts are totally wrong and we can no longer speak of heaven and hell." He continues by approving euthanasia, relations outside of marriage, and contraception. Finally, he argues that 80% of Catholics are committing excommunicable offenses, but that since it would be impossible to excommunicate four out of five Catholics we are safe to believe whatever we want! Nothing happens to him! In his book, The Salt of the Earth, Cardinal Ratzinger makes a keen analysis of the situation in the Church and concludes that the Church as we have known it is finished! He says what will remain are little groups which, like "the salt of the earth" will give some savor to the earth, to the Catholic Church, otherwise it will be exterminated. Nevertheless the Cardinal is happy because certain ecclesiastical movements are giving life to the Church, for exemple, the charismatics. Though these movements are often controversial, he says, at least there's life. Sometisen is moving! There are true heretics amongst these ecclesiastical movements, but that doesn't matter to the Cardinal. A friend of ours in the Curia came to visit me recently. He told me a story that shows a little bit what the Pope does or can do. The Pope, he told me, wanted to go to Fatima on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the first apparition, but didn't attend because he was not invited! I didn't know the Pope needed to be invited to go somewhere! The Pope first asked the bishop of Leiria [the diocese where Fatima is located], and the bishop deferred to the bishops' conference and did not give an answer. The Pope sent off a letter to this bishop and asked that he be told to expect it. He never received it. The letter was intercepted by the Secretary of State. Our friend in the Curia gave me the impression that the Pope has lost control. He holds the office but has nothing important to say. He has big ideas about the Jubilee Year 2000, but the rest is in the control of the Secretary of State. I will give you some examples. One is about last year's anticipated condemnation of the Society of Saint Pius X. The Polish bishops are strongly prejudiced against our work in Poland which is very intense and has become the topic of discussion in all the media there. We have learned that a condemnation of the Society was motivated by the Polish bishops and that they suggested several points for this condemnation. The Holy Father agreed and he entrusted Msgr. Perl to draft the text which was completed and given to the Pope in June (1998). The Secretary of State also received a copy and judged it to be inopportune. He advised it be dropped because it would give us undue publicity. So, it was apparently dropped. False Remedies: Ecumenism and Trad-Ecumenism All is not well in Rome, that is for sure, and we should all be aware of it. In the circles of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, there is a euphoria which says, "Look, we have been received in Rome. Everything is fine. Cardinal Ratzinger has greeted us; the Pope has received us, he has greeted the seminarians, so everything is fine." Well... To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, the Fraternity of Saint Peter wanted a Pontifical High Mass and it asked Cardinal Ratzinger to celebrate it. The Cardinal refused and so the Fraternity approached the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Worship in charge of the questions of liturgy for the whole Church. This Cardinal agreed to celebrate the Mass, but the Secretary of State intervened and informed him the Tridentine Mass was not the Competence of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Worship! I think it's very important to understand this. It means that for the Secretary of State the Tridentine Mass is no longer the Mass of the Catholic Church. The Latin Mass is only granted to a very little group to which has been granted the freedom of a bird in a cage. I know an Armenian [Orthodox] priest who was received into the Catholic Church recently. The response he met in Rome when asking to be received into the Church was, "Do you have the permission of your bishop?" According to the Balamand Statement, you remember, Catholics must desist from proselytizing the Orthodox. Nevertheless, the Armenian priest was received in the Catholic Church, but Rome felt obliged to apologize to the Armenians, "We are sorry. We promise, it's only one case; it's not harmful to ecumenical relations." The concessions made in the name of ecumenism are all from the Catholic side. The Protestants are still Protestant, as are the Anglicans and so for the Orthodox. The only changes are among the Catholics, who are losing great numbers. Ecumenism is the practical destruction of the identity of the Church. The Society maintains that this ecumenism is not Catholic. Ecumenism is of Protestant origin, yet the Protestants are unable to arrive at any real unity! In 1950, two years after its founding, the Ecumenical Council for the Churches (ECC) determined that unity cannot be based on any concept of "Church." Some thought this unity could be acquired in a unity of hierarchy and doctrine, others thought it would be achieved by an umbrella agreement regarding faith, some thought it necessary only to agree on the fundamental points of faith, and the rest believed an agreement of any kind would foster more divisions! The Protestants have never known what kind of unity they want! They get together trying to put in practice something which they can never get! That the Orthodox threatened to boycott the ECC (December, 1998) clearly demonstrates the fluitlessness of this movement. On the other hand, the Catholic Church's prayers for Good Friday, which date from the second century, include a series of prayers for schismatics, for heretics, for Jews, etc. to return to the unity of the Church. This is what the Church has always sought for in its relations with those who have left Her. The Catholic Church has unity; it cannot lose it. It doesn't have to "invent" unity! It is one of the marks of the Catholic Church. True unity with the Orthodox or the Protestants will be achieved by their conversion, their return, to the Catholic Church. This is the common teaching of the Church throughout the centuries. False dialogue does nothing but destroy the Church. The Faith is Gutted There was a time when Catholics were at home with the liturgy anywhere in the world. It was your Mass. Now, every church is different. You don't know what's happening. Sometimes you don't even know if the Consecration was properly done. For those unsure of the crisis, they might get an education by attending one of these ceremonies! One of our priests recently celebrated the Latin Mass in a parish church in Belgium at which the parish priest assisted. It was the first time in his 30 years as a parish priest that he witnessed the Tridentine Mass. After the Mass, he said, "They have cheated us for 30 years!" He was so moved that when he celebrated the New Mass later that morning he stopped himself several times. All of a sudden, he departed the altar for the sacristy and returned wearing a traditional chasuble, showing that he wanted to have something more for the good Lord. At the end of this Mass, he confided to our priest, "I am the only priest in the whole diocese who believes in the Real Presence." I personally estimate that about half of the priests worldwide have lost faith in the Real Presence. I think two-thirds of the priests no longer believe the Mass is really the renewal of the Sacrifice of Our Lord on the cross. I know seminary rectors who teach the Mass is not the Sacrifice. Two of these left and lost the Faith. It is not a question of abuses. It is the New Mass itself which is to blame because it doesn't express clearly the idea of the Sacrifice and the Real Presence. There is a lot of little things in the New Mass which erode the belief of priests who end up thinking the way the N> During the papal Mass in New Zealand, this priest was shocked when one of his communicants took Holy Communion from him in his hand, broke the Host, and threw It to the ground in front of him. The priest bent to gather the particles of the Host and discontinued distributing Communion. He returned to the site of the ciboria and saw something there that sickened him more. He saw priests dumping unconsumed consecrated hosts in trash bags. He walked to his nearby convent, placed his ciborium in a tabernacle there, and left to join us. Naive Catholics say these are isolated abuses, that Vatican II is not responsible. Look around! I ask, "Where aren't there abuses?" What is done to protect the faithful?-to tell them to be faithful to unfaithful bishops as Msgr. Perl does?! The Faithful are Abandoned A poll of French Catholics who assist at Mass at least once a month was taken (Oct., 1998) on different issues in the Church. The majority favor use of contraception by Catholics by 72%; of a married priesthood by 66%; that divorced people should be able to "remarry" in the Church by 60%; 60% favor women-priests; 62% favor euthanasia. What are the causes of this disaster? In answering, we will have to look at philosophy, theology, morality, and politics. In Philosophy In Philosophy, the modern philosophers have given us the idea of evolution, that everything must change. It is in the name of changes that Vatican II was convened. "Everything must change because things must change!" It's not reasonable! Is the fact that what is done by foot, or by bicycle, or train, or plane is not travel anymore? Has the heart of man changed? A lie 2000 years ago is still a lie today! What was a sin is still sin; what was Truth is still Truth. These things have not changed! To argue that we have to change the Mass for the new technological age is crazy. Truth can't change! A famous French thinker, Maurice Blondel (1861-1949) is one of the grandfathers of Vatican II. He taught a new definition of truth. Directly contrary to the Church's perennial definition, he said truth is not the agreement of our intellect and objective reality. Let me give an example of why this is wrong and why truth is the conformity of our intellect with reality. If I hold a bird and tell you this is a bird, you will test the truth of my statement by comparing what I have said, what is supposed to be in my mind, and the objective reality. If these correspond, then my word is true and you must submit your intelligence to the reality of the bird. If these do not correspond, then my word is false. But modern thinkers say truth is the agreement between our intellect and life. Now, how do we recognize life? The first question we ask when we find someone lying in the road is, "Is he alive?" To see if he is, you will see if there is movement of his eyes, if his heart is beating, etc. Life means movement. If you say that truth is the conformity of our intellect with life, that is, of our intellect and movement, then truth must move! If truth must move, then we must keep changing it. If it stands still, then it's not truth. So, we have been ordered to change to show that the Church has life! Modern philosophies also deny that our intelligence can understand the essence of things-the deepest part of things-which can't change. You may have a boy named Paul who will change in height, weight, and age, but his essence as Paul will always be Paul. He will always be a man, always possess a human nature, and this will not change. The modern philosophers say you can't go that deep, that you are obliged to stay at the level of changing. This limits discussion to only the changing part of things and our personal opinions about them, which are no more or less important than anyone else's opinions. This is a world of total subjectivism, of opinions, which is clearly evident at the level of religions. All religions are equally good! But the essence of God is His existence. There is still only one God and this one God has to be worshipped as He commands. There can be no change here! But the modernists say we can no longer say that Our Lord has to reign on this earth; there are Buddhists, Muslims, this and that, and it is impossible to require them to worship a Jesus they don't know. But, don't try to convert them because their opinion is as good or bad as yours! The loss of the essential in the Catholic Church is to lose truth and conviction. In Theology Another disaster is perpetrated in theology by the refusal of bad theologians to distinguish between nature and grace. This leads to a failure to distinguish between body and soul. To refuse to distinguish between created nature and the grace of the Creator concludes to no distinction between creatures and the Creator, between man and God! What does Pope John Paul II himself say? Every man and every people, by the fact that Our Lord died on the cross and by the action of the Holy Ghost, every man is a child of God. He is a participant of divine life and is called to eternal happiness [Tertio Millennio Adveniente]. Every man! St. Paul says (Rom. 8:14) that those who are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God. The Spirit of God must be in them. He says very clearly that the Holy Ghost is not in everybody (Rom 8:13). But the present pope maintains that the Holy Ghost is dwelling mysteriously in everybody because of the failure to distinguish between nature and grace. In Morality At the level of morality we have seen adaptation to the world. In the name of changes, we are told, "Look, the Church is so far behind the world. Let's catch up." To close in on the world, you have to change so the broad way is proposed to us instead of the narrow stony way which leads to heaven. This broad way of Liberalism is compromise with the world. This Liberalism is all over the place in the Church. Cardinal Ratzinger himself says that the problem in the Church in the 1960's was the conflict of assimilating the "best values of two centuries of liberal culture," but now it has been done. That means that the Church has assimilated liberal culture. What is this liberal culture?-the French Revolution! In Politics We can't understand politics without admitting infiltration of the Catholic Church by Her enemies. There is evidence discovered by the Church which was published under Pope Pius IX of the plan by Freemasons to elect a pope who would evangelize their Masonic ideals. Its strategy emphasized the destruction of especially seminaries and of women. In an interview three years ago, a Mason from Mexico boasted of four Masonic lodges of the Scottish Rite within the Vatican. In further explanations he claimed that Freemasons have the power to reward cooperating priests with the episcopacy. A NATO report (1974) on the activities of the Communist Secret Service in the Eastern Bloc nations within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church estimated 3000 agents had successfully infiltrated the Catholic hierarchy. In 1984, just before the reunification of Germany, the Secret Service of East Germany was known to dramatically increase its number of agents with the aim of subverting Catholic and Protestant churches. Modernism Is Not so "Modern" There is also the infiltration by the Modernists into the Catholic Church. They hide in Her and it is our task to unmask them. The Modernists are very closely linked to Gnosticism, a strong tendency to which is ivisible in the Church today. There are subtle touches of it in Vatican II. An insightful priest who died in 1890 correctly forecasted that the Catholic Church would change its leadership through an ecumenical council and that a new liturgy would be composed to harmonize with the modern world. He predicted that priests would trash the cassock. He called them "progressives." Even the founders of the New Age Movement wrote that the Catholic Church of the end of the 20th century would adopt the principles of Freemasonry, but the Church would keep up a Catholic appearance so the faithful would not become alarmed. Such things are happening in front of us. Our problem is the enemy is dressed in the same uniform as those they attack. How do you know that someone in the same uniform as you is an enemy? You only know when he shoots you, and then, it's too late! It's quite a mess. It's a massive work of destruction at all levels. We cannot close our eyes and say, "Oh, it's fine, we're surviving," or, "It must be nice because the pope said it." Fear Not So what is our solution? Remember, we are not allowed to look at the Church with human reason alone. The Catholic Church is a supernatural society, not a natural society. The head of the Church is our Lord Himself and the Church is nothing else but our Lord Jesus Christ and the souls who make up His Mystical Body. The essential dimension of the Church is not human, which will not pass, which is holy, which is one; and the Head of the Church is almighty and eternal! His Wisdom is above all circumstance of times and events. The Church herself has these attributes of stability. Stay In the Boat In the Creed, we profess the Church is one, that the Church is holy, and it is! We must remember God is in control even though it can seem to us He's lost it. Remember the apostles in the little boat. They thought they were sinking. But Who was giving the wind its ferocity, giving the waves their strength to crash against the boat? It was Jesus, the One Who was sleeping there. When He said "Stop!" there was peace. Silence. When God wants this silence for His Church, it will be done in an instant; if not now, it's because He wants us of the Church Militant to share His sufferings and pains. The Church will triumph, but we must pray for that. We must stay with our Lord and that means to stay in the same Faith. Keeping Faith Faith is the door to the Holy Trinity, to God. Someone who sins against the Faith commits a mortal sin more grave than those against the sixth commandment. One who has lost the Faith has no way to go to God! Whoever rejects one part of the Faith, rejects all of it. The Catholic Faith is like a balloon filled with air. If you try to cut only a piece of the balloon with your knife, the whole balloon explodes. Some say Catholics and Protestants have the same Faith. No! The Protestants have exploded the balloon. There's nothing left to them but a little bit of rubber. It's no longer the Catholic Faith. We have the duty to know and keep this Faith in its totality. Catechism is for all ages, not only little children. Refresh your knowledge by reading the encyclicals of the good popes. Asking for Grace Pray for grace. St. Thomas Aquinas says that God does something greater than the creation of the universe when he pours grace into a soul at baptism. It means that the loss of this treasure by one mortal sin is more serious than the destruction of the whole universe. It is important we know the Catholic principles and establish Catholic standards in our lives. We have to take the means God provides. If we stay close to God, we have nothing to fear. God is above all the happenings of His creatures. He has won the victory and those who stay with God will have the victory with Him. Our Lord Himself said to seek for the kingdom of God and His justice, and all the rest will be given to you besides. Rallying to the Rosary The apparition of Our Lady of Fatima at the beginning of this century is significant. It is not hard to guess that her Third Secret has som ng to do with the disaster in which we live. Her remedies, however, are simple: pray the rosary daily and do penance. Console the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our heavenly Mother. To her has been entrusted the peace of the world. Having traveled the world over, I can testify that those who have kept the Faith, who have kept the traditions of the Catholic Church, are devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and pray the rosary. This friend of the Pope who came to visit me said the same. On the eve of the Year 2000, I would like to announce a new crusade of the rosary. In the Church's most desperate hours, the popes have always asked the faithful to pray the rosary. This always has been the victory for the Church: the time of St. Dominic, Lepanto, Budapest, Vienna, etc. Every time we see the rosary and the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us pray for the same victory. So, let's go! Thank you very much. (Conference given at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Kansas City, Missouri-USA-on 7th January 1999) Go to Saint Joseph by Father Gnana Pragash Suresh SSPX Of old it was said to the needy and suffering people in the kingdom of Egypt: "Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you."( Genesis 41:55). The chaste Joseph of the Old Testament was a prototype of St. Joseph, the foster father of Our Lord. Pharaoh raised him from his humble position in life to the highest dignity in the land and directed all his subjects to apply to Joseph in their needs, saying, Ite ad Joseph 3"> - "GO TO JOSEPH". In the same words the Holy Church and the Vicar of Christ direct the faithful to have recourse to St. Joseph in all their spiritual and temporal necessities saying , "GO TO ST. JOSEPH". What was truly said of the first Joseph, as to his future, and as to his goodness, his chastity, his patience, his wisdom, his influence with the king, his power over the people, and his love for his brethren, is verified much more perfectly, even to this day, in the second Joseph of Nazareth. Let us have a brief look at the development of the devotion to this great Patriarch, before moving on to see his greatness and the power of his intercession and protection. Development of the Devotion The public devotion to St. Joseph existed in the Church since the 4th century, but it existed only in the Eastern rites. The feast of St. Joseph was celebrated on 20 July in the Coptic rite and it was celebrated on 26 December in the Greek rite from as early as the beginning of the 4th century. In the West the name of the foster father of Our Lord (Nutritor Domini) appears in local martyrologies (i.e.book of Martyrs and Saints) of the 9th and 10th centuries, and we find in 1129, for the first time, a church dedicated to his honor at Bologna, Italy. The devotion, then merely private, gained a great impetus owing to the influence and zeal of the great Saints like St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Gertrude and St. Bridget of Sweden. His feast, introduced towards the end of the 14th century into the Franciscan and, shortly afterwards, into the Dominican Calendar, gradually gained a foothold in various dioceses of Western Europe. Only under the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1471-84) that the feast of St. Joseph was introduced into the Roman Calendar for 19th of March. From that time the devotion acquired greater and greater popularity, the dignity of the feast keeping pace with this steady growth. The feast, which was only a simple class in the 15th century, became a second class in the 18th century under the pontificate of Clement XI (1700-21). The reformed Order of Carmelites had a great part in this development, following the example of its founder, St. Theresa of Avila, who propagated the devotion to St. Joseph with great zeal. As time went on, the greatness of St. Joseph, especially the power of his intercession, became very popular and the devotion to him took an universal dimension towards the end of the 19th century and, still more, in the beginning of the 20th century. No devotion, of course after that towards Our Lady, has grown so universal, none seems to have appealed so forcibly to the heart of the Christian people, and particularly of the working classes, during the 19th century, as that of St. Joseph. This wonderful and unprecedented increase of popularity called for a new lustre to be added to the cult of the Saint. Accordingly, one of the first acts of the pontificate of pope Pius IX was to extend to the whole Church the feast of the Patronage, and in December 1870, acceding to the wishes of the bishops and of all the faithful, he solemnly declared the Holy Patriarch Joseph patron and protector of the Catholic Church, and enjoined that his feast on 19th of March should henceforth be celebrated as a first class feast in the entire world. In 1936, Pope Pius XI proclaimed, "We place the vast campaign of the Church against the world of Communism under the standard of St. Joseph, her mighty protector". Finally, in 1955, Pope Pius XII established May 1st as the feast of St. Joseph the Workman . The date was chosen to coincide with the date on which Labor Day is observed in many countries, thus to elevate and sanctify the observance. So, having been forgotten and ignored for a long time like the Joseph of the Old Testament, St. Joseph is eventually placed in the throne of honor and glory. His holiness is so great that the Church honored St. Joseph by making him "The Patron and Protector of the Universal Church". As he was once chosen by God to be the head and protector of the Holy Family, so now the Church has chosen him to be the Patron and Protector of the Mystical Body of his Foster Son that he may watch over it with a paternal care and protect it against all visible and invisible enemies. Greatness of Saint Joseph Why is St. Joseph a great Saint? What gives him this greatness? There are two basic reasons which make St. Joseph so great a Saint after Our Blessed Lady. Firstly, it is because of the mission for which he was chosen by God, that is, to be the Foster Father of Our Lord. As the greatness of Our Lady springs from her being the Mother of God, so also the greatness of St. Joseph springs from him being the Foster Father of Our Lord. As the title " Mother of God" is the most sublime that a creature could have, so also the title " Foster Father of God" is the most sublime title after that of the Mother of God and, whence spring all the greatness, extraordinary graces and divine favors of St. Joseph. Secondly, it is because of his heavenly glory. The Catholic theology teaches that a soul's glory in heaven is proportioned to the life of union with God that the soul had while living on earth. The more a soul lives close to God on earth, so much more it shall be glorified in heaven. Apart from Our Lady, who could have lived so close to God with full of divine charity and holy abandonment than St. Joseph?. He lived, spiritually and physically, so close to Our Lord, doing everything for Him. There are plenty of other reasons which explain why St. Joseph is a great saint, but the two basic reasons given above must inspire us to acknowledge the eminent sanctity of the Saint and bring us close to him. Power of Saint Joseph One of the best ways to understand the power of St. Joseph is to listen to the words of the Saints spoken of him. St. Thomas Aquinas says, "Some Saints are privileged to extend to us their patronage with particular efficacy in certain needs, but not in others; but our holy patron St. Joseph has the power to assist us in all cases, in every necessity and in every undertaking". St. Theresa of Avila says, "To other Saints Our Lord seems to have given power to succor us in some special necessity; but to this glorious Saint, I know by experience, He has given the power to help us in all needs". (Autobiography,VI, 9). St. Francis of Sales says, "How happy should we be, were we worthy to have a share in his intercessions, for our Blessed Lady and her glorious Son will refuse him nothing. If only we have confidence, we shall certainly obtain a great increase in every virtue". Blessed Brother André of Montreal says, " When you invoke St. Joseph, you don't have to speak much. Your know your Father in heaven knows what you need; well, so does His friend St. Joseph". All these words must inspire us to have a great confidence in the powerful intercession of this glorious Patriarch. It is hard to say that St. Joseph is the patron of such and such a thing. He has been known to be our father and advocate in all spiritual and temporal necessities. As the Foster Father of Our Lord and Spouse of the Virgin Mother, St. Joseph enjoys a unique splendor and a power of intercession far above that of every other Saint except Our Lady. Except for the Blessed Virgin, who can plead with Jesus more effectual than St. Joseph?. Inexpressibly great is St. Joseph's power of intercession in heaven; inexpressibly great is also his love for us and his charges here on earth. In the litany of St. Joseph the Church invokes him, "Terror of demons". His power is so great that all the attacks of the infernal enemies will never harm us, if we are really devoted to him. All catholic families must have a statue or a picture of St. Joseph in their homes for veneration. He is the protector of catholic families. Let us make a novena to him before 19th of March as to prepare ourselves for the feast. Let us honor him Wednesday of every week by saying prayers in his honor. We really need his assistance and protection in this troubled time of the crisis in the Church. We have to pray to him for our Holy Mother, the Church, that all her enemies be put into confusion. Let him terrorize those who dare to ensnare her. Finally, let us always go to him with confidence and filial love. Ite ad Ioseph - Go to St. Joseph!
The
Year 2000 Two thousand years ago, a small child was born in a little town of Palestine. He was a boy looking like the other boys of his age. He was even less than the others since his mother gave birth in a stable, no room being available for them in the inn. To the sight of the world, this birth was a very poor one, known by nobody, except by some shepherds of the neighborhood and three kings coming from far away. Such a common birth of such a common person. Who would have bothered about this insignificant event, who would have been interested in it? Nobody. But this child who was born two thousand years ago was not a common person and his birth was not a common one... The Year 2000 is the greatest event of our time and everyone on Earth is going to celebrate this date. So really, this birth was not a common one. Two thousand years ago, God came on Earth: God Himself, God the Almighty, God the Creator anth aster of the Universe came in the little town of Bethlehem and was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose Maternity was from the Holy Ghost. This baby sleeping in the crib was God, is God. Do we realize the greatness of this event? God, Immense, Eternal, Sovereign of everything, decides by the Incarnation to become a man. God decides to be one of us. What a wonderful thing! God decides to become a man in order to save men from the punishment due to sin, and first of all due to original sin. Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, men were enemies of God. The gate of Heaven was closed for them. They needed someb to be able to restore the friendship between God and men and to re-open this gate. But the punishment was impossible to be erased by men because God alone could pay the price required for such an offence he received from our first parents and from all men with them. Yes, God alone could do that. God alone could redeem men. And that is what happened with the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word of God, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became a small child two thousand years ago. And this Incarnation was the first step of the salvation of men which will be fully accomplished by Our Lord 33 years later by His death on the Cross. The Incarnation of the Son of God is the central point of the whole History. As Catholics we have the key of the celebration of the Year 2000. We, more than the others, fully know the meaning of this anniversary and this is a great grace. And what a wonderful thing it is for us to see that all men on Earth are obliged to take this event in consideration, even unwillingly, even if they are not Catholic. Yes indeed, every country on Earth has to use the Catholic Calendar even a non-Christian country, at least for its foreign relations with other States. All countries among the United Nations are using the Catholic Calendar acknowledging that the birth of Jesus Christ is truly the most important event ever seen. Let us fervently pray that This Year 2000 with the Jubilee granted by the Holy Father may be truly a Holy Year. A year of conversions. Conversions of non-Catholics to the Church, conversions of sinners to a new life in the grace of God, conversion of all hearts to the truth and the love of God who only can give a meaning to our existence and life, a life full of peace, true joy and charity united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary for our greatest happiness on Earth and eternal bliss in Heaven. Our Treasure, The Traditional Mass Our religious society has been founded for one main purpose: the defense of the Mass and the Priesthood. Both Mass and Priesthood are the heart of our holy religion. The Church is based on them. If you change the Mass and the Priesthood, you change the Church. In the Society of saint Pius X we are firmly attached to the Latin Mass canonized by Saint Pius V because this Mass has made people saints for countless generations: this Mass is the Mass of all times. And to make us better understand the greatness of the Mass, let us read those words of saints about this treasure: St.
Louis of France St.
Lawrence Justinian St.
Alphonsus St.
John Chrysostom St.
Bonaventure St.
Odon of Cluny St.
Gregory St.
Augustine St.
John Chrysostom
What beautiful words indeed!
The Mass is really the most important thing for the Church. Let
us remember the teaching of Our Holy Mother regarding the Mass
and we will immediately understand why saints were
so enthusiastic while talking about it. What
is the Mass? The
Mass is the sacrifice of the New Law in which Our Lord, through
the ministry of the priest, offers Himself to God in an unbloody
manner under the appearances of bread and wine.
The Mass is the very same sacrifice which was offered up at the
Last Supper and consummated on Calvary; it is the
living renewal of the sacrifice on the Cross.
The Mass is no mere remembrance or memorial of Calvary; it actually
renews, in separate consecrations of the bread
and wine, the death of the Lord, the separation of His Body and
Blood.
Yes indeed, the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrifice of Calvary
are the same, they have the same infinite value;
only the manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different:
on the Cross, Our Lord physically shed his Blood and was physically
slain, while in the Mass there is no physical shedding of blood
nor physical death, because Christ cannot dieany more; on the Cross,
Christ gained merit and satisfied for us, while in the Mass He applies
to us the merits and satisfaction of His death on the Cross. The
Fruits of the Mass
Those fruits are: spiritual improvement and sanctification of our
souls.
Saint Thomas Aquinas said that "the Mass obtains for sinners
in mortal sin the grace of repentance. For the just, it obtains
the remission of venial sins and the pardon of
pain due to sin. It obtains an increase of habitual (Sanctifying)
grace, as well as all the graces necessary for their special needs." The
Dignity of the Priesthood
If we know that there is nothing greater on Earth than the Mass,
we will understand how high is the dignity of the
priest who is the only man on Earth who can say Mass.
According to Saint Alphonsus, the entire Church cannot give God
as much honor, or obtain so many graces as a single
priest celebrating a single Mass. Thus, by the celebration of a
single Mass, in which he offers Jesus Christ in sacrifice, a priest
gives greater honor to the Lord than if all men. by dying for God,
offered Him the sacrifice of their lives.
St. Ignatius Martyr said that priests are the glory and the pillars
of the Church, the doors and doorkeepers of Heaven
and he said also that the priesthood is the most sublime of all
created dignities.
These lines should make our hearts burn of love towards Our Lord
Jesus Christ who granted us such a favor by giving
us the Mass and the Priesthood. Let us take the resolution to love
the Mass more and more and to go to Mass as much as possible. The
traditional Mass is our treasure and it is so scarcely said nowadays
that we must be attached to it above everything as a unique source
of divine life and infinite blessings. Martin
Luther, a Saint? It
has been done...
The Roman hierarchy signed an agreement with the Protestants last
October 31st despite the warning of Cardinal Cassidy
having noticed "errors and ambiguities" in the text some
weeks before the signature.
What is the aim of such an agreement?
The aim of this text, about which we spoke in our previous issues,
is to adapt,
teaching of the Catholic Church
to the Protestant teaching, for ecumenical reasons...
"Ecumenism, so many things are committed in your name!"
Ecumenism leads to many kinds of dangerous actions against our faith.
In fact, what will be the result of this signature?
Since it has been done only to loosen the catholic teaching in order
to please the Protestants, the Catholic Church will not receive
any benefit from it . With the signature of this text, the Church
renounced to tell the truth whereas the Protestant did not renounce
anything...
This is very sad...
As a contribution to the ecumenical debate, let us remember a few
words of the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther
himself. Nowadays some people in the Church are regarding Luther
as a great saint, unjustly condemned by Rome and do not despair
to see him being canonized very soon by the Pope.
Let us read those so "edifying" lines from the so-called
Reformer: Speaking
about some Doctors of the Church like St. Augustine or St. Thomas
Aquinas, Luther called them: "knaves, dolts, asses,
and infernal blasphemers", "knowing very
little about the gospel, easily deceived by the devil and deserving
to be in hell rather than in heaven".Speaking about the Church
he said: (The Church) "is corrupt in its very constitution".
(It has become) "a synagogue of Satan". "The Papacy
must be destroyed". Speaking
about the Pope he said: "We may also with a safe conscience
take to the closet his coat of arms with the Papal keys and his
crown, and use them for the relief of nature" .
"Nobody knew Christ...nobody knew anything that a Christian
ought to be familiar with. The Pope-asses obscured
and suppressed all knowledge of heavenly things". (They
were) "asses, big, rude, ignorant asses.
"Everything is allowed against the deception and depravity
of the Papacy." About
the commandments of God Luther said: "We must remove the Decalogue
out of sight and heart.". "If we allow them (the commandments)
any influence in our conscience, they become the cloak of all evil,
heresies and blasphemies.". About the Mass
he said: "The Mass is the far greatest impiety and abomination."
"Christ created The Eucharist as a memory of his Passion, To
adore it is idolatry." About
chastity: "As little as one is able to remove mountains, to
fly with the birds, to create new stars, or to bite off one's nose,
so little can one escape unchastity." About
mortification: "They are fools who attempt to overcome temptations
(temptations to lewdness) by fasting, prayer and chastisement. For
such temptations and immoral attacks are easily overcome when there
are plenty of maidens and women." About
his way of life: "I burn with a thousand flames in my unsubdued
flesh: I feel myself carried on with a rage towards women that approaches
madness. I, who ought to be fervent in spirit, am only fervent in
impurity."
Yes, very "edifying" indeed...
Regarding the matter which we are interested in now, that is Justification,
let us read this quotation taken from the book written by Msgr.
Patrick O'Hare about Luther (with Archbishop of New York's Imprimatur)
in 1916 (However shocking could be this excerpt, it is nevertheless
true and useful to be known):
"The cesspol seems to have been the garden that furnished his
(Luther) choicest flowers of rhetoric. To be plainer
still, 'It is a fact', Fr. Johnson says, 'that Luther's usual talk
took its imagery most often from the privy. In this connection,
perhaps, it is significant that Luther admitted that it was precisely
in the privy of the monastery that he received from God the revelation
ofhis famous doctrine about justification by faith alone. 'By the
grace of God, while thinking on one occasion in this tower over
those words, "the just man lives by faith alone," the
Holy Ghost revealed the Scripture to me in this tower'.
Protestant biographers have naively attempted to
show that this place was not the monastery toilet; but there is
no reasonable doubt ."
The doctrine of Justification of the Lutheran teaching has a very
strange origin, hasn't it?
And today, the Roman Catholic Church signs an agreement about it...No
need to be a great theologian to foresee the consequences of this
act which is one among many others... We
cannot willingly be silent about the truth and avoid preaching the
true faith, the true doctrine, the true God without plucking bitter
fruits... And those fruits are collapse, annihilation and
"auto-destruction" of the Church, as
Pope Paul VI said. The
Roman Catholic Church, because of the practice of the ecumenical
mania is losing everywhere and in many ways. Losing credibility,
losing strength, losing faithful. Where
and when will this suicidal practice cease? The
Truth of Hell by
Father Emerson Salvador SSPX
here is today an incredible unwillingness to preach on this subject,
and therefore people forget the revealed truth that is very salutary.
The dogma of hell helps us to appreciate by contrast the value
of salvation. Hell signifies principally the state of the damned
souls, of the demons, then of men who die in the
state of mortal sin and are consequently condemned to suffer
eternally. Secondly, it signifies also the place
where condemned souls are detained. Hell
Exists
This is a truth revealed by God and constantly proclaimed by the
Church's Magisterium. Holy Scriptures speak of hell about 70 times,
and Our Lord Himself who is the Merciful, the Meek and Humble of
Heart, very seriously refers to the existence of hell about 25 times.
He threatens sinners with the punishment of hell which He describes
as a place where the worm does not die and the
fire not extinguished (Mk. 9, 46 et seq.), everlasting pain (Mt.
25,46), unquenchable, everlasting, furnace of fire (Mt. 3,12;
13,42; 25,41; Mk 9,42). There will be darkness there, wailing
and gnashing of teeth (Lk. 13, 28).
The Fathers of the Church unanimously attest to the reality of hell.
The Athanasian Creed declares: "But those who have done evil
will go into eternal fire". And Pope Benedict
XII declared: "According to God's general ordinance, the souls
of those who die in personal grievous sin descend immediately into
hell where they will be tormented by the pains of hell". Nature
Of The Punishment Of Hell
Theologians distinguish a double element in the punishment of hell:
the poena damni (pain of loss) and the poena sensus (pain of sense).
The pain of loss, which corresponds to guilt as turning away from
God, is the privation of the Beatific vision,
whereas that of sense is the afflictive action of God, which corresponds
to g as turning toward something created. But no one
can adequately understand or describe the punishment of
hell, just as no one can realize the happiness of heaven.
The pain of loss. The wicked in hell know what they rejected and
lost: God who is the human soul's ultimate end
and Whose face to face vision in heaven , the supreme happiness
of man consists. It is theprivation of the possession
of God and of all good that flows therefrom: that is, the privation
of the love of God, of the immeasurable joys of heaven, of the company
of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
of the angels and the saints. The greater the value of what is
lost, the greater is the pain of loss. Since the wicked in hell
have lost the Infinite Good who is God, their pain of loss must
be proportionally infinite. This loss will cause
the impenitent sinner an immense void which will never be filled,
an eternal contradiction which is caused by their hatred
of God, despair and eternal remorse without repentance. They will
be filled with nothing but hatred and envy, because
they know that they can never obtain the one thing needed
for their happiness; they can never ever see God.
The pain of sense. Besides the pain of loss, the wicked suffer
the pain of sense in hell. In what does this pain consist? Holy
Scriptures describe hell as a place of weeping
and gnashing of teeth, a place of fire and sulfur.
The common doctrine is that fire of hell is a real fire as it is
obvious from the numerous text of the Scriptures. This fire, says
the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas, is a corporeal fire,
of the same nature as the fire on earth, differing from it only
accidentally (cf. supp. q. 97,a.5,6). It is dark, without flames,
lasts forever, burns the bodies without consuming them.
St. Thomas says, "the fire of hell does not actually cause
the pain of burning, but it does torment the devil and the souls
of the damned by the fact that it is constantly
present; the soul feels it is surrounded by the fire on every side,
as if it were, so to speak, in the burning house from which there
was no escape. This in itself is torment enough." He
and his best commentators hold that the fire of hell receives from
God the power to afflict the damned souls. And this subjection
to a corporeal element is a great humiliation for the immaterial
beings. This explanation is in harmony with the
text of the Holy Scriptures which describe hell as a prison. "O
My Jesus, Save Us From The Fires Of Hell.."
St Paul has warned us: "it is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10, 31), and Our Lord Himself
told: "what will it profit a man if he gains
the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul."
Let us therefore constantly guard ourselves from committing mortal
sin. It is truly the greatest evil and greatest folly since it
leads us to lose God our Ultimate end and our Supreme
Good and to deserve the unspeakable torments of hell. In
every mass, the Church prays these words just before
the consecration: "May God deliver us from eternal damnation
and number us among the flock of His elect." We also must
pray fervently for the conversion of the poor sinners
and offer sacrifices for them. Having shown to the three
little children the vision of hell, Our Lady of Fatima told them:
"You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go"
. Then later She said very sadly: "..many souls go to hell
because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices
for them." Enthronement
of the Sacred Heart What
is the Enthronement?
It is a crusade to establish the Social Reign of the Sacred Heart
in society through the family, the social cell.
It is based on Our Lord`s word to St.
Margaret Mary. "I will reign through My Heart!" It is
an organized campaign to restore Christ to the family and the family
to Christ. It is the answer to the question: "What can we do
to save the family?" Its
Origin
Even though there have been many practices of devotion to the
Sacred Heart during many centuries, this devotion of the enthronement
really began in the 20th century. Rev. Fr. MATEO, born in Chile,
was the founder of this great devotion. He was specially chosen
by God for this very important apostolate of establishing the
social reign of the Sacred Heart. When Fr. Mateo went to see
Pope Pius XI to ask his approval to go around the world for
spreading this devotion, the Pope told him: "I
do not approve, but I order you to do it!". We know how successful
was this world-wide campaign , since it enraged the Freemasons and
Communists globally, so much that they were looking to kill Fr.
Mateo. But they never succeeded! How
does the Enthronement restore Christ to the Family?
The Enthronement begins with a beautiful and impressive ceremony.
In the home itself, in the presence of the priest,
who presides at the ceremony. The family publicly and solemnly acknowledges
that Christ is the King and loving Master of its home. This is done
by having the head of the family install a blessed picture or statue
of the Sacred Heart in the place of honor, in the principal room
of the home as on a throne--whence comes the word "Enthronement".
After this solemn cknowledgment of the sovereign rights of
Christ the King over the family, the members consecrate themselves
to the Sacred Heart. Thereby they pledge themselves
to live as though the Sacred Heart were actually dwelling in their
midst as He did in Nazareth, treating Him as an intimate
member of the family. Is
that all about the Enthronement? No,
the ceremony is only the beginning of a new life, a life of love;
of loving obedience to all the commandments of Christ and the Church;
a life of prayer, especially family prayers before the image of
the Enthroned King, evening prayers and family
Rosary; an Eucharistic life: of frequent and even daily Mass and
Communion; finally a life of Christian penance, especially by refusing
to give in to worldly customs and ideas which are slowly destroying
the Christian home, and by making reparation for the terrible crimes
of divorce, birth control and sensuality. Why will the Enthronement
restore the family to Christ?
Because in the Enthronement the family is putting Our Lord and
His interests first. In return the Sacred Heart takes over the
interests of the family. Our Lord Himself has promised
that He will bless and sanctify those
families who Enthrone Him as King. He asked Saint Margaret Mary,
to whom He revealed His Sacred Heart, that He be allowed to reign
over the homes of the rich and the poor; that He be solemnly
received as King and Friend, and that His Sacred Heart be honored
and loved.
"I will establish peace in their homes;
I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of
life;
I will comfort them in all their afflictions;
I will bless all their undertakings". s. Hence we can
safely say that this is the means Our Lord Himself
has selected to restore His sovereign rights over the family, and
through the family, over the whole society itself. Is
there any Preparation for the Enthronement?
Yes, the better and more serious the preparation for the Enthronement
, the greater will be the blessings on the family coming from this
event. This preparation can be extended over three days (a triduum),
or over nine days (a novena). It consists of recitation
of the litany of the Sacred Heart, along with the special preparatory
prayer. To make this preparation more effective, the whole family
may attend the Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion on these
days. But, the family members should at least go to Confession
and receive Holy Communion at the Mass on the last day of preparation. If you haven't
done yet this ENTHRONEMENT, why don't you make a gift to Our dear
Lord for the 2000th anniversary of His Birthday by Enthroning
Him in your homes? WHY NOT?!
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