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Newsletter of the District of Asia Jan - June 2006 Editorial Dear Friends and Benefactors, Remember the words: “I shall put enmities between thee and the Woman, between thy seed and her seed” (Gen. 3, 15)? Well, by observing the latest news, it is clear that this enmity is still going on, as strong as ever, more than 6000 years later. Our Lord Jesus Christ bothers, annoys, pokes modern consciences and disturbs them. He is indeed a sign of contradiction. And the enemy, the Serpent, since the Garden, hasn’t fundamentally changed his methods of fighting the Redeemer. “He is a liar and the father thereof said Our Blessed Lord (Jo 8,44). That divine statement is still very true today.
In the fall of our first parents, the devil lied to Eve, deceived her, as many times as he spoke: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God made. And he said to the woman: ‘Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?’” First he: God said they could eat of all the fruits except one. “And the woman answered him, saying: ‘Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.’ And the serpent said to the woman: ‘No, you shall not die the death.’”
Second lie: God did say they would die. The devil is making God look bad, a mean God. “For God doth know that in what day so ever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.’” Third lie: God’s purpose in this prohibition was a test of their obedience and love, as Our Lord would say later: “If you love Me keep my commandments” (Jo 14, 15). The devil makes it appear as if God were simply trying to hide something from them, a secret knowledge. “And through these lies and deceptions, the woman’s curiosity was enkindled, she fell and led Adam to fall: And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat.” (Gen. 3,1-6) The strategy has not changed in 2006. Three books at least, which are at present among many worldwide bookstores bestsellers (one of them on the New York Times list), attack Our Blessed Lord’s Divinity using the same deceptive methods. Old errors are re-used to deceive the modern ignorant... For instance, one of these books, The Gospel of Judas, written in Egypt’s Coptic language, dates from the third or fourth century and is a copy of an earlier document, which was already spoken of, and condemned by St Irenaeus, back in the 2nd century. “They (some heretics of the time, the Marcionites) adduce an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish men, and of such as are ignorant of the Scriptures of truth. “Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. (...) They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.” (Adv. Haer, 1,20,1; 31,1) The latest worldwide fuss about the Da Vinci Code, book and movie, is a further proof of Our Blessed Lord’s divine words. The devil is the father of lies. Moreover, in today’s context of frightful ignorance on the part of Catholics, the devil is truly having a field day. How right was St Pius X in stating that “the ignorance of things divine is the main cause of all the evils in the world today” (Acerbonimis)! Here we have a man, one Dan Brown, unknown until about 10 years ago, but more so until 2003, coming out of nowhere and who, with an arrogance worthy of hell, pretends to sweep away 2000 years of Church History, under the pretext that the Church has kept its members in the dark, has maintained lies on the true Christ, the Gospels, great moments in history (such as about Constantine and the Council of Nicaea)! “In my book, I reveal a secret which is being murmured for centuries. I did not invent it. It is the first time that it is revealed to readers in a successful thriller” (from his web site: http://www.danbrown.com). Mixing fiction with a pseudo-science, a real punch of Gnostic-esoteric-New-Age legends, he pretends to have finally discovered the truth, which is: “A great part of what the Church has taught and still teaches on Jesus is simply false” (French ed. p. 294). He alleges “with scientific evidence, that the New Testament is false testimony” (English ed.p.34l). When one thinks about it carefully, by his lies, he is also attacking the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in eliminating the chalice of the Last Supper, therefore, the consecration. And by denying Our Lord’s divinity, is it not obvious that he is also attacking Our Lady’s divine Motherhood? In the Garden, the serpent accused God of lying to our first parents, hiding from them a secret knowledge. Now, the Church is being accused of having lied to the world for no less than 2000 years, under the same pretext: the fear of allowing people to know the real truth... “He is a liar and the father thereof Jo 8, 44). There is always some good coming out of evil. Hopefully such attack against our Blessed Lord will urge all who are asking answers to these lies to study the truth, to open Church history books and books of apologetics, and to have the courage to stand up and be counted to defend the Divinity of Christ and the honor of His Church. See for yourself (see on p. 32 Chronicle of the District of Asia, June 1, 2006) how the Filipino youth of our Apostles of Mary have beautifully risen for this fight for their Lord and Master. In contrast, to show how deep is the ignorance and weak the fighting spirit in the Conciliar Church, in at least one Asian diocese the local Catholic Church authorities have found nothing better than to utilize some Protestant booklet— ‘The Da Vinci Code, separating fact from Fiction, RBC Ministries’ — to fight the errors being disseminated by Dan Brown. 30,000 of these booklets have been distributed outside Catholic Churches. Of course, in such booklet, the argumentation, although partially true, is very incomplete, practically ignoring the role of the one true Church in being the only divinely appointed interpreter of the Sacred Texts, relying almost exclusively on arguments of Scripture, giving the false impression that the ‘church’ (always with a small ‘c’) of the first centuries is the same as any ‘Christian church’ of today... The author manages as well to blame the Church for bad behavior in the past in relation to the treatment of women, and to misrepresent the Inquisition (pp.14-15).
****** In the following pages, we give the third and last part of the booklet of Fr. Spicq O.P. on the beautiful relation between Jesus and Mary, ‘What Jesus owes His Mother’. On the matters relating to the SSPX, we found John Vennari’s and Michael Matt’s March 2006 Joint Statement worth publishing here as it expresses a very good understanding of the present situation in the fight for Tradition. As the General Chapter of the SSPX is also fast approaching (July 3 - 15), an extract from Fr. Angles’ May Letter explains briefly and well what this General Chapter is all about and how it will affect the SSPX. Finally some news of the fife of the District complete this issue of our Newsletter. We express our gratitude for your prayers and support in whatever kind it comes to us. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Immaculate Mother bless you all. |
