A Personal Remembrance of Father Louis J. Campbell, R.I.P.

Pope Pius XI noted the following in Ad Catholici Sacerdotii, December 20, 1935, about the dignity of the priest, the one who channels the graces that the Divine Redeemer won on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday into the souls of the faithful:

The human race has always felt the need of a priesthood: of men, that is, who have the official charge to be mediators between God and humanity, men who should consecrate themselves entirely to this mediation, as to the very purpose of their lives, men set aside to offer to God public prayers and sacrifices in the name of human society. For human society as such is bound to offer to God public and social worship. It is bound to acknowledge in Him its Supreme Lord and first beginning, and to strive toward Him as to its last end, to give Him thanks and offer Him propitiation. In fact, priests are to be found among all peoples whose customs are known, except those compelled by violence to act against the most sacred laws of human nature. They may, indeed, be in the service of false divinities; but wherever religion is professed, wherever altars are built, there also is a priesthood surrounded by particular marks of honor and veneration.

Yet in the splendor of Divine Revelation the priest is seen invested with a dignity far greater still. This dignity was foreshadowed of old by the venerable and mysterious figure of Melchisedech, Priest and King, whom St. Paul recalls as prefiguring the Person and Priesthood of Christ Our Lord Himself.

The priest, according to the magnificent definition given by St. Paul is indeed a man Ex hominibus assumptus, “taken from amongst men,” yet pro hominibus constituitur in his quae sunt ad Deum, “ordained for men in the things that appertain to God”: his office is not for human things, and things that pass away, however lofty and valuable these may seem; but for things divine and enduring. These eternal things may, perhaps, through ignorance, be scorned and contemned, or even attacked with diabolical fury and malice, as sad experience has often proved, and proves even today; but they always continue to hold the first place in the aspirations, individual and social, of humanity, because the human heart feels irresistibly it is made for God and is restless till it rests in Him.

The Old Law, inspired by God and promulgated by Moses, set up a priesthood, which was, in this manner, of divine institution; and determined for it every detail of its duty, residence and rite. It would seem that God, in His great care for them, wished to impress upon the still primitive mind of the Jewish people one great central idea. This idea throughout the history of the chosen people, was to shed its light over all events, laws, ranks and offices: the idea of sacrifice and priesthood. These were to become, through faith in the future Messias, a source of hope, glory, power and spiritual liberation. The temple of Solomon, astonishing in richness and splendor, was still more wonderful in its rites and ordinances. Erected to the one true God as a tabernacle of the divine Majesty upon earth, it was also a sublime poem sung to that sacrifice and that priesthood, which, though type and symbol, was still so august, that the sacred figure of its High Priest moved the conqueror Alexander the Great, to bow in reverence; and God Himself visited His wrath upon the impious king Balthasar because he made revel with the sacred vessels of the temple. Yet that ancient priesthood derived its greatest majesty and glory from being a foretype of the Christian priesthood; the priesthood of the New and eternal Covenant sealed with the Blood of the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.

The Apostle of the Gentiles thus perfectly sums up what may be said of the greatness, the dignity and the duty of the Christian priesthood: Sic nos existimet homo Ut ministros Christi et dispensatores mysteriorum Dei — “Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God.” The priest is the minister of Christ, an instrument, that is to say, in the hands of the Divine Redeemer. He continues the work of the redemption in all its world-embracing universality and divine efficacy, that work that wrought so marvelous a transformation in the world. Thus the priest, as is said with good reason, is indeed “another Christ”; for, in some way, he is himself a continuation of Christ. “As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you,” is spoken to the priest, and hence the priest, like Christ, continues to give “glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.”

For, in the first place, as the Council of Trent teaches, Jesus Christ at the Last Supper instituted the sacrifice and the priesthood of the New Covenant: “our Lord and God, although once and for all, by means of His death on the altar of the cross, He was to offer Himself to God the Father, that thereon He might accomplish eternal Redemption; yet because death was not to put an end to his priesthood, at the Last Supper, the same night in which He was betrayed in order to leave to His beloved spouse the Church, a sacrifice which should be visible (as the nature of man requires), which should represent that bloody sacrifice, once and for all to be completed on the cross, which should perpetuate His memory to the end of time, and which should apply its saving power unto the remission of sins we daily commit, showing Himself made a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech, offered to God the Father, under the appearance of bread and wine, His Body and Blood, giving them to the apostles (whom He was then making priests of the New Covenant) to be consumed under the signs of these same things, and commanded the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood to offer them, by the words ‘Do this in commemoration of Me.’ “

And thenceforth, the Apostles, and their successors in the priesthood, began to lift to heaven that “clean oblation” foretold by Malachy, through which the name of God is great among the gentiles. And now, that same oblation in every part of the world and at every hour of the day and night, is offered and will continue to be offered without interruption till the end of time: a true sacrificial act, not merely symbolical, which has a real efficacy unto the reconciliation of sinners with the Divine Majesty.

“Appeased by this oblation, the Lord grants grace and the gift of repentance, and forgives iniquities and sins, however great.” The reason of this is given by the same Council in these words: “For there is one and the same Victim, there is present the same Christ who once offered Himself upon the Cross, who now offers Himself by the ministry of priests, only the manner of the offering being different.” (Pope Pius XI, Ad Catholici Sacerdotii, December 20, 1935.) 

Writing in his Epistle to the Philippians, Saint Paul the Apostle had the Holy Priesthood in mind as he wrote the following:

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of charity, if any society of the spirit, if any bowels of commiseration: Fulfill ye my joy, that you may be of one mind, having the same charity, being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment. Let nothing be done through contention, neither by vain glory: but in humility, let each esteem others better than themselves: Each one not considering the things that are his own, but those that are other men's. For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:

And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence,) with fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will. And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations; That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2: 1-11)

Although these words of Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians apply to all Catholics, they apply in a very particular way to priests, men whose immortal souls have been conformed to the Priesthood and Victimhood of the Chief Priest and Victim of every Mass, the Logos, the Word Who became Flesh in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate womb by the power of God the Holy Ghost, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A man ordained to the sacerdotal priesthood that Our Lord instituted at the Last Supper and conferred in all of its fullness, namely, the episcopate, upon the Apostles is called upon to be Christ at all times and in all circumstances.

A priest is ordained to be "bothered," if you will, when he least wants to be disturbed, to administer the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction to souls who ask for them at odd hours of the day and night. A priest is called to bear a visible witness to his priestly calling in public so that those who have strayed from the Faith and those who are outside of the true Sheepfold of Christ that is the Catholic Church might be inspired to respond to the Actual Graces being sent to them to seek out the sure path of salvation. There is no such thing as "time-off" for a priest. His rest is meant to be taken only in eternity after he has spent himself to the point of death in the service of the souls for whom the One to Whom he has been configured by means of his priestly ordination shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

Our priests make it possible for us to be fed with the true Manna Who came from Heaven to redeem us. The Chosen People ate the manna in the desert to feed their bodies. We, however, have the true Bread came down from Heaven to feed us, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Mass, the perfect prayer, which was consummated on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday, provides us with an opportunity every day of the year except on Good Friday to be present as His one Sacrifice to the Father in Spirit and in Truth as it is offered in an unbloody manner at the hands of an alter Christus. We are truly present at Calvary during each Mass we are privileged to hear.

Although each true priest’s immoral soul is conformed to the Priesthood and Victimhood of the Chief Priest and Victim Himself, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, each man who is validly ordained to the Catholic priesthood nevertheless retains his own distinctive personality, which Our Lord means to use by refining by perfecting him in the crucible of His ineffable selflessness in the pursuit of His own honor and glory and the good of souls in a particular manner that no one priest can do.

That is, each religious community within the Catholic Church has its own distinctive charism, its own mission, its own way of expressing the Holy Faith and to accomplish the universal mission of sanctifying and saving souls, and the same is true of each man who is ordained to the Holy Priesthood. Though having been given unto them the power of bringing Christ the King down on altars of sacrifice and of absolving the sins of men through no merits of their own, each priest bring is called upon to accomplish the same universal mission of the High Priest himself while using his natural gifts to reach those in a manner different from that of other priests. 

The late Father Louis J. Campbell, who was born on November 1, 1932, in Brooklyn, New York, to Nova Scotian parents who had met in the United States of America, and was ordained to the Holy Priesthood, on September 3, 1961, the Feast of Pope Saint Pius X, for the Order of Saint Augustine in Canada, fulfilled the mission of Christ the Eternal High Priest with a selfless zeal for souls and with a tender, filial devotion to the Mother of God throughout the course of his sixty-two years of his priesthood. Although he admitted to us on one occasion during one of the many times we visited with him and the associated pastor of Saint Jude Shrine in Stafford, Texas, either at Longhorn Steakhouse or Carabba’s Italian Grill in Sugar Land, Texas, that he was all on board with the revolution at first, Our Lady drew him back to the Catholic Tradition is his youth as he began to see how the revolution about which he was once so enthusiastic was a betrayal of the cause of Christ the King and of His Most Blessed Mother.

Indeed, although a very thorough biography of Father Campbell has been published on the Saint Jude Shrine website, an important fact about his name in religious life, Louis, was omitted, namely, that he took the name Louis from Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, the author of, among other works, True Devotion to Mary, The Secret of the Rosary, and Friends of the Cross. Father Campbell was always dedicated to the August Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, Our Lady, and always promoted Total Consecration to Our Lord Jesus Christ through her Immaculate Heart during his years with the Order of Saint Augustine before beginning his five year association with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter in 1996. Father Campbell was known for his devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Holy Rosary, and the Miraculous Medal, and one always saw him on the grounds of Saint Jude Shrine dressed in his cassock  and from which a large Rosary was draped around its cincture. Father Campbell, who wore a ribbon around his neck to which was attached a Miraculous Medal that was displayed on his chest, was quite indeed an Apostle of Our Lady and the sacramentals she has given us to sanctity and save our souls and those of others.

While I had probably crossed paths with Father Campbell several times in his five years of association with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (once at Saint Clement’s Church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, when I was there to speak at a regional Wanderer Forum, and perhaps several times at Saint Michael’s Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania), I only became familiar with his work when his inspirational and informative sermons began appearing on the Daily Catholic website in 2001 at around the same time that site’s co-founder, the late Michael Cain, invited me to have my own articles from the Christ or Chaos publication published online. Only those with a darkened mind and a hardened heart could refuse to be inspired and edified by Father Campbell’s sermons, many of which had been collected and placed into a hardback book by the end of the first decade of this current century. I always made it a point to read Father Campbell’s sermons whenever they appeared online at the Daily Catholic site, and it was through Mr. Michael Cain’s kindness that I was provided with Father Campbell’s phone number in Stafford, Texas, so that I could contact him in early-December of 2006 to ask permission to give a presentation to the parishioners of Saint Jude Shrine.

Thus, we met Father Campbell for the first time at Holy Mass in a side room of the parish hall on the morning of Tuesday, December 19, 2006, at a time when the Shrine was undergoing repairs. His offering of Holy Mass was exquisite, and it was a pleasure to introduce ourselves to him after Mass before we returned to a campground where we had parked our motor home.

However, it was a few hours later that we really began to get to know Father Louis J. Campbell and Father Thomas Dignan as we sat down to dinner with them at Carabba’s Italian Grill in Sugar Land, Texas, as were joined by two friends who had not up until that time known of Saint Jude Shrine but who started to attend Holy Mass there immediately thereafter. It was the first of at least twenty times we dined with Fathers Campbell and/or Dignan, who was sometimes away for his month in his native North Dakota in July each year, and we enjoyed each meeting tremendously as we knew we were in the presence of men whose unpretentious humility and love of the Holy Faith, coupled with their sense of priestly decorum, were manifestations of the depth of their priestly souls’ desire to manifest Christ the King with purity and devotion.

It was during that first dinner we had with Father Campbell that he told us that it was only after leaving the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter that he was able to think clearly for the first time in his life, that is, the first time that he could  focus on what was happening in this time of apostasy and betrayal without anyone telling him not to think about such things or to put them out of his mind altogether for fear of “rocking the boat” and endangering the Fraternity’s status.

Over the next thirteen years (Father Dignan, who was the physically stronger of the two men—it was not uncommon to see Father Dignan carrying lumber boards as he helped in the repair of Saint Jude Shrine’s roof after Hurricane Ike, died on September 25, 2017, at the age of eighty-seven and sixty years after his own priestly ordination), we got to know Father Campbell very well from the time we spent attending Holy Mass at Saint Jude Shrine during February and March of 2007 and almost for a great deal of 2009 and from the various visits we made down from rural Navarro County, Texas, to Stafford after we had moved to Texas in 2013.

It was during the course of those visits that we had in Sugar Land (and some at the House of Pies or Antoino’s Flying Pizza in Houston) that we learned some fascinating details of Father Campbell’s life, including his love of his native Nova Scotia and his early life there. Several vignettes stand out from all those visits, one of which took the good priests by surprise as they had completely forgotten that we were coming down the 240 miles for a scheduled visit, which concluded with Father Campbell thanking us for the "surprise,” to which I replied, “Yes, it was a surprise for us, too!” after we had arrived at Saint Jude Shrine to find the parking lot empty and the church’s doors locked. Fathers Campbell and Dignan, who had a good but not outwardly expressive sense of humor, roared with laughter.

Anyhow, Father Campbell, who was always kind to our beagle Chase and the other dogs who found their way to us, told us the story of the Campbell family’s pet dog when he, James Campbell, was but a lad. The dog, who was up in his canine years, went over to Father Campbell’s parents,Peter and Viola Campbell, his two brothers, Robert and Gerard, and himself to spend a few moments with each family member. The dog then laid down and died thereafter. Father Campbell cried. We cried. (Our Chase did this himself with us each time I took him to the late Dr. Brian Reeves in Tyler, Texas, when I thought that the dog, who had contracted a saracoma from a rabies vaccination in 2014, was ready to be euphemized, including when he was actually euthanized on December 27, 2018.)

As noted just above, Father Campbell was also humble enough to admit he was at first “all for” the liturgical “changes.” In his words, “We were young and ‘with it’.” He said that there was some “old kook” who continued to say the “old Mass” for some Catholics in Nova Scotia, before saying, “Look at me now! I am the old kook saying the ‘old Mass’!”

Neither the old Augustinian priest in Father Campbell’s early priestly days nor Father Campbell himself were “kooks.” Father Campbell exhibited the priestly virtues extolled by Pope Pius XI in Ad Catholici Sacerdotii and in Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard’s The Soul of the Apostolate, and his devotion to spending time in the Confessional to reconcile sinners unto their Divine Redeemer by means of administering the merits of His Most Precious Blood upon them souls likened Father Louis J. Campbell in so small measure to the Cure of Ars.

Everyone who was privileged to know Father Louis J. Campbell was impressed with the way in which he spent himself to the point of complete exhaustion as he spent time in the Confessional before each weekday Mass that he was scheduled to offer, and for a full ninety minutes before Holy Mass on Sundays. He spent much time during the week carefully preparing his Sunday sermons, which he sent out to anyone who asked to put on his extensive email list and was available at all hours to make hospital visits to the sick and to bring Holy Viaticum to the dying. He counseled the doubting and those with spiritual or personal crises of what sort or another, and he gave carefully crafted instructions to those who desired to convert to the Holy Faith, especially in those cases involving where a member of the parish was engaged to marriage a Protestant. Part of Father Campbell’s work involved spending much time writing to people from around the world who had received his sermons and who later sought spiritual advice from him because he wrote about the Faith with compelling devotion to and love of the Most Holy Trinity, one, true God.

Father Campbell was a very good and patient confessor whose kindness exhibited the tender mercies of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and who always encouraged those with a contrite heart to trust in Our Lord’s maternal intercession to save their souls while striving to living as befits redeemed creatures who were serious about their own sanctification and salvation. No one ever left Father Campbell’s confessional without feeling as though Our Lord Himself was directly speaking to them by means the direction Father Campbell gave from his own priestly heart, consecrated as it was to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why some parishioners would inveigh Father Campbell to hear their confessions after Holy Mass if they could not have them heard beforehand, and he willingly complied.

As the years progressed, of course, and the seventy-four-year-old priest we met seventeen years ago became an eighty-five and ninety-year-old priest, one could tell how the complex Holy Week services, which have been available via livestreaming for many years now, took their toll on him physically. Pushing himself with Our Lady’s graces as Our Lord Himself kept pushing onwards under the weight of our own sins as He carried His Holy Cross on the Via Dolorosa, the Via Crucis, to Calvary, though, Father Louis J. Campbell would go from go Holy Thursday to Good Friday to the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday without missing a step. He had been conformed to the Priesthood and Victimhood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on September 3, 1961, and he carried on as a priestly soldier in the Army of Christ in the Church Militant on the face of this earth all throughout those complex ceremonies and all throughout the last years of his priestly life until the point of the long and intensely painful sufferings that ended his life on Monday, December 18, 2023, the Feast of the Expectation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.

Father Campbell is said to have written and delivered over 1100 of his masterful two-page sermons during his twenty-two years as the pastor of Saint Jude Shrine. The last sermon he distributed for Holy Mass on Sunday, May 14, 2023, the Fifth Sunday after Easter:

The heart of every Christian should be filled with joy upon hearing the disciples address Jesus: “Now we know that you know all things, and do not need that anyone should question you. For this reason we believe that you came forth from God” (Jn.16:29,30). Their faith is ours, for it came down to us from them, the first believers, who went out to preach the Gospel to all nations. Those who hear the word must keep it, and hand it on unchanged.

But there are forgetful hearers who have heard the Gospel but have not kept it. They have been witnesses of the true Tradition, but they have not handed it on. Modernists, the faith of the Church has passed through their minds like documents through a shredder, and has ended up in bits and pieces. Reassembled according to their designs, it bears little resemblance to the “faith of our fathers.”  
 
Among the new doctrines of the Church of Vatican II is that of the two covenants. The Pontifical Biblical Commission released a document on May 24, 2001, entitled The Hebrew People in its Holy Scriptures and the Christian Bible, which stated that the Old Testament Scriptures may be interpreted by the Jews according to their own traditions, and that they need not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah in order to be saved, but may await another Messiah. The document was signed by then Cardinal Ratzinger, backed by papal authority. The Vatican spokesman, Joachin Navarro-Valls, announced that this blatant heresy, contradicting both Holy Tradition and the Sacred Scriptures, would henceforth be official Church teaching.

The document was seconded by another, Reflections on Covenant and Mission, sanctioned by the American Bishops:

“A deepening Catholic appreciation of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, together with a recognition of a divinely-given mission to Jews to witness to God’s faithful love, lead to the conclusion that campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church.”  
 
Was John Paul II a prisoner in the Vatican? Could it be that he did not really approve the new heretical teaching, but was unable to prevent its being taught? Alas, the contrary was indicated in a brief speech he gave on Thursday, May 22, 2003, to a delegation of Jews at the Vatican. The new doctrine is indeed being taught, and at the highest level of the Church of Vatican II. Speaking in English, the ‘pontiff’ declared:  

“It gives me great pleasure to welcome to the Vatican distinguished representatives of the World Jewish Congress and of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations… God’s word is a lamp and a light to our path; it keeps us alive and gives us new life (cf. Ps.119: 105,107). This word is given to our Jewish brothers and sisters especially in the Torah. To Christians this word finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Although we hold and interpret this heritage differently, we both feel bound to bear common witness to God’s fatherhood and his love for his creatures… Jews and Christians believe that our lives are a journey towards the fulfillment of God’s promises… In the light of the rich common religious heritage we share, we can consider the present as a challenging opportunity for joint endeavors of peace and justice in our world. The defense of the dignity of every human being made in the image and likeness of God, is a cause which must engage all believers…”

This speech, brief as it is, is pure sophistry. There is no suggestion that the salvation of the Jews hangs in the balance. Jews and Christians are grouped together as ‘believers,’ although they believe different things. In fact, their beliefs are contradictory. Jewish ‘faith’ rejects Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and is therefore infidelity to God’s word. To group Jews and Christians together as ‘believers’ is an insult and an affront to the Divine Messiah for Whom the first disciples laid down their lives and shed their blood as witnesses.

As for the fulfillment of God’s promises, St. Paul makes it clear that the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, whom he identifies as Jesus Christ. Mere natural descent from Abraham does not make one an heir to the promises. The heir is Jesus Christ, and those who believe in Him and belong to His Body, the Church, through Baptism (Gal.3:7-9).

John Paul states: “God’s word is a lamp and a light to our path; it keeps us alive and gives us new life… This word is given to our Jewish brothers and sisters especially in the Torah.” Here God’s written word in Sacred Scripture is separated from the Word made flesh – Jesus Christ. To do so makes it a dead letter which does not give life. It gives life only when it bears witness to Christ. St. John makes this clear in the prologue of his Gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God… He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But to as many as received him he gave the power of becoming sons of God… For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (Jn.1:1,2,11,12,17).

Again John Paul said: “Although we hold and interpret this heritage differently, we both feel bound to bear common witness to God’s fatherhood and his love for his creatures.”

But the Jews rejected God as Father when they rejected the Son, as Jesus makes clear:

“The Father himself, who has sent me, has borne witness to me. But you have never heard his voice, or seen his face. And you have not his word abiding in you, since you do not believe him whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because in them you think that you have life everlasting. And it is they that bear witness to me, yet you are not willing to come to me that you may have life” (Jn.5:37-40).

Though the ‘conciliar church’ now preaches a ‘gospel’ that allows its hearers to remain complacent in their unbelief, preaching the Gospel remains not a matter of choice but of divine command: “Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mk.16:15). We must, we will, continue to preach as the Lord Himself has commanded.  

Father Louis J. Campbell did indeed preach as Our Lord Himself had commandment, and I think that his most important sermon, which was delivered first in 2005 and then revised slightly and delivered again in 2011, is the one in which he proved the invalidity of the conciliar rite of episcopal consecration in a succinct but nevertheless theologically convincing manner that only those who do not permit themselves to think clearly about what is happening can ignore with impunity:

“Let no one lead you astray with empty words,” warns St. Paul in today’s Epistle (Eph.5:6). We must keep the faith, the faith of our fathers, handed on to us from the Apostles by saints and martyrs, the fathers and doctors of the Church, and holy popes and bishops. Now it is our turn to teach the faith, handing it on to the younger generation unchanged and untainted by heresy, lest the Church become the desolate kingdom spoken of by Our Lord in the Gospel. 

Many, “with empty words,” have tried to destroy the Catholic faith – Arius, Luther, Calvin and Cranmer, to name a few. Then came the Modernists, condemned by Pope St. Pius X, whose heresies lived on to be re-hatched at Vatican II by the liberal theologians, and canonized by the conciliar popes.

If one were to set out to destroy the Catholic faith, a good place to begin would be to tamper with the Sacraments, the Sacrament of Baptism, for instance. But every well instructed Catholic knows that the essential rite of Baptism requires the pouring of water upon the head of the person (or immersing the person in the water) while saying the words: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (or Holy Spirit).  

If the priest baptizing were to say, “I pour upon you the life-giving waters of salvation, that you may share the life of the Holy Trinity,” we would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Sacrament was invalid, and that the person would have to be re-baptized using the form that is required for validity. We would not have to wait for the theologians to debate the matter, or for the Holy See to issue a decree of nullity. Any Catholic in his right mind would know that the attempted Baptism was invalid. Any attempt by the “liturgical experts” to change the essentials of the Sacrament would not have been tolerated by the Catholic faithful.   

But consider some of the other sacraments. Most of us knew little of what was required, for instance, for the valid consecration of a bishop. In a ceremony rarely witnessed by most of the faithful, the Sacrament was administered in Latin amid mysterious and lengthy rites. Change the form of this Sacrament, and who would notice? Then what better way to destroy the Catholic Church than to render invalid the Sacrament of Holy Orders, since true bishops are absolutely necessary if the Church is to survive?    

The essential matter and form for the valid consecration of a bishop was determined by Pope Pius XII on November 30, 1947, in the Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 40, 1948, 5-7), a document which appears to have all the essential characteristics of infallibility. Even if it does not, it is certainly an authoritative document, which Pope Pius expected to be taken most seriously. With the laying on of hands, the consecrating bishop was to say the words of the Preface, “of which,” says the pope, “the following are essential and therefore necessary for validity: ‘Fill up in Thy priest the perfection of Thy ministry and sanctify him with the dew of Thy heavenly ointment, this thy servant decked out with the ornaments of all beauty’” (Comple in sacerdote tuo ministerii tui summum, et ornamentis totius glorificationis instructum coelestis unguenti rore sanctifica). 

At the end of the document Pope Pius XII states: “We teach, declare, and determine this, all persons not withstanding, no matter what special dignity they may have, and consequently we wish and order such in the Roman Pontifical... No one therefore is allowed to infringe upon this Constitution given by us, nor should anyone dare to have the audacity to contradict it...”

Pope Pius XII’s body had hardly begun “a-mouldering in the grave” when the agents of change began working in earnest to destroy the Catholic faith. Paul VI, once the confidant and trusted friend of Pope Pius XII, had that “audacity to contradict” when he published his own decree in 1968. In vain did Pope Pius XII “teach, declare, and determine” what was required for the validity of the Sacrament of Orders. Paul VI would introduce entirely new words, requiring them for validity, words which were never used for the consecration of a bishop in the Roman Rite: “So now pour out upon this chosen one that power which is from you, the governing Spirit whom you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Spirit given by him to the holy apostles, who founded the Church in every place to be your temple for the unceasing glory and praise of your name” (Pontificalis Romani, June 18, 1968).

As to why Paul VI found it necessary to discard the essential words of the traditional form of consecration and replace them with entirely different words, he says “…it was judged appropriate to take from ancient sources the consecratory prayer that is found in the document called the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, written at the beginning of the third century.”

Judged appropriate? By whom? None other than Archbishop Annibale Bugnini and his associates of the “Consilium,” who invented the Novus Ordo Mass. And who on earth was Hippolytus of Rome? He was an anti-pope of the third century who separated from Rome because of doctrinal differences and established a schismatic church, although he later returned to the Catholic Church and died a martyr. Who knows but that his “Apostolic Tradition” was drawn up for his schismatic sect? 

And whatever became of Pope Pius XII’s Apostolic Constitution, Sacramentum Ordinis?  The name Sacramentum Ordinis was even given to another document by John Paul II, probably as a red herring to throw us off the track.  

What conclusion does one draw? The Catechism of the Council of Trent states: “In our Sacraments… the form is so definite that any, even a casual deviation from it renders the Sacrament null.” We would never tolerate a change in the form of the Sacrament of Baptism. Never! Can we blithely accept a total deviation in the form of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a change which omits the part of the traditional form declared essential for validity by Pope Pius XII? I think not! Pope Pius XII changed nothing of the traditional form, but merely designated which part of the form was essential for validity. Paul VI omitted that essential part of the form and replaced it with something entirely new. Not even popes (certainly not would-be popes) can change the form of a Sacrament. Whom do we trust, Pope Pius XII who carefully guarded the traditional sacramental form handed down from ages past, or Paul VI? Paul VI, who on the flimsiest of pretexts changed the essential form of a Sacrament, thus rendering it invalid. The result is that we are left with a whole generation of pseudo-bishops attempting to govern the Church without the grace of office. A miter and a bishop’s ring do not a bishop make. And the Kingdom is brought to desolation (Lk.11:17).  

But even among traditionalists many refuse to consider the possibility of invalid sacramental rites. It’s more convenient to think that if the pope says so it’s got to be OK. But Paul VI told us the Novus Ordo Mass was OK, and look where that has brought us. The day must come when all awaken to the fact that the Church has been brought low by an apostasy more monstrous than we have been willing to admit. Only then will the true bishops emerge, a true pope will restore the hierarchy, and the Church will rise more glorious than ever. “And all mankind shall see the salvation of God” (Lk.3:6).  (Father Louis J. Campbell, "A Kingdom Brought to Desolation (Lk.11:17)," Third Sunday of Lent, March 27, 2011, Saint Jude Shrine, Stafford, Texas.)

Although I will append two other sermons that Father Campbell delivered during the course of his twenty-two years as the pastor of Saint Jude Shrine, it is important to note that Father Campbell’s sermons contained much solid advice about relying upon the twin pillars of Eucharistic piety and devotion to the Blessed Mother, especially by means of her Most Holy Rosary, her Brown Scapular, and the Miraculous Medal, and his razor-sharp mind always exploded the myths and sophistries of the Modernists dressed up to look like Catholic bishops and priests when the occasion necessitated his doing so.

Even though he was unstinting in his efforts to expose Modernism and the errors of Modernity in the world, Father Campbell also gave numerous sermons encouraging his worldwide flock not to lose heart in these times of such great tribulations.

One of the ways this multi-talented gave encouragement to his flock was through the musical compositions that he recorded. Perhaps the best illustration of the pastoral care and doctrinal exactitude of Father Campbell’s priestly life can be found in his poetically beautiful “Rose of Guadalupe”:

It was the time of Guadalupe

When roses bloomed in Mexico

Upon a day in dark December

A Lady said remember

God's truth and love to show

Upon the Lady Guadalupe

The light of Heaven softly fell

Hear God's ever Virgin Mother

Who loves us like no other

Her blessing who can tell

She was the Rose of Guadalupe

She came to bring Her children home

Like a mother She will find them

Their troubles put behind them

No more to cry alone

Believe the Lady Guadalupe

And love each tiny little one

For every child is made for Heaven

It's precious life God given

Til life on earth is done

Be like the Lady Guadalupe

In truth and goodness you must grow

Her sweet image will inspire us

No trial on earth can tire us

Where pilgrim candles glow.

Oh Holy Guadalupe

Her radiant glory like the sun

Every soul among us cherish

Don't let the sinner perish

Til Heaven's peace is won. (Please use this link to hear Father Campbell sing his composition: “Our Lady of Guadalupe," composed and sung by Father Louis Campbell. For a related song, please listen to: "Do You Remember Those Cristeros," composed and sung by Father Louis Campbell.)

I found these files on my site a few hours after we received news of Father Campbell’s death on Monday, December 18, 2023, and we cried as we heard Father’s voice once again. The poetry is superb. The doctrine is sound. The love for Our Lady is profoundly inspiring.

As noted just above, Father Louis J. Campbell did not preach on the problems of the day without giving his worldwide flock encouragement in the Holy Faith.

An illustration of this aspect of his preaching can be found in his sermon for the Third Sunday of Pentecost, June 30, 2019, which was just four days before he dined with him for the last time at Longhorn Steakhouse in Sugar Land:

Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 30, 2019

“The Beginnings of Sorrows” (Mt.24:8)

This world can be a confusing and frightening place. The Third World War, it seems, could break out at any time. But the Lord Himself told us we should not be alarmed:

“You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Take care that you do not be alarmed, for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are the beginnings of sorrows” (Mt.24:6-8).

Many enter this world and leave it, without ever knowing what life is all about. They are deceived by fables and lies, false philosophies and false religions. They may go on for years living their lives “in quiet desperation” as Thoreau says. The world lets them down. Even wealth and fame do not give them true happiness. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the rich man deciding what to do with his abundant crops:

“‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for many years; take thy ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Thou fool, this night do they demand thy soul of thee; and the things that thou hast provided, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich as regards God” (Mt.12:18-21).

Our Lord tells us our treasure must be in Heaven:

“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth consumes, nor thieves break in and steal. For where thy treasure is, there also will thy heart be” (Mt.6:20,21).

Our Catholic Faith is our treasure in these troubled times. There is nothing else, nothing at all, that gives such meaning and stability to our lives. It tells us that Jesus Christ is our Way, and our Truth, and our Life (Jn.14:6). So be “steadfast in the Faith,” as St. Peter says (1Pet.5:9). But we are witnessing a great falling away from the Faith. St. Paul speaks of the Apostasy and the Antichrist:

“Let no one deceive you in any way, for the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God, and gives himself out as if he were God” (2Thess.2:3,4).

We hear of the “wars and rumors of wars” of which we were warned by the Lord. It appears that we are on the brink of war with Iran, but it will probably begin in some other place that no one expects. Wherever it happens it will soon escalate into the Third World War, with great destruction taking place, especially in the Middle East. But are we really approaching the end times? Here are Our Savior’s words:

 “There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations bewildered by the roaring of sea and waves; men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things that are coming on the world; for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming upon a cloud with great power and majesty” (Lk.21:25-27).

What we call “natural disasters” are happening at a rate rarely seen. Disaster follows upon disaster – storms, fires and floods, severe hot spells, deep freezes, massive crop failures, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, and epidemics. A deadly heatwave is sweeping Europe. It seems we are the “the beginnings of sorrows” (Mt.24:8).

The fact that Jesus knew about these things two thousand years ago should give us confidence. He has everything under His control. And He is providing all that we need to find our way in the darkness of these times. We are the lambs of His flock, and even if we stray He goes looking for us. The purpose of the trials is to wake us up. We must return to the Lord now!   

Again, we are like children who must be taught to believe the truth, and to live by the truth. In these times when our Mother, the Church, is in almost total eclipse, He gives us His own Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to keep us safe from harm and protect us from the devil’s snares. This is why the Holy Rosary is so important in these times, and why it is so essential for us to turn to Mary, our Mother, and to consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart. We hear her speak to us in this passage from Proverbs: 

“So now, O children, listen to me; instruction and wisdom do not reject! Happy the man who obeys me, and happy those who keep my ways, happy the man watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts; for he who finds me finds life, and wins favor from the Lord; but he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death” (Prov.8:32-36).

We must not be disturbed with what appears to be happening to the Church. But this is not the true Church, but the false church spoken of by Our Lady at La Salette. The true Church is in eclipse until the mask falls from the false church of Vatican II. There are very few true bishops and priests left because the Sacrament of Orders was altered after Vatican II, and is no longer a valid sacrament. The worldly clergy of Vatican II are about to go into hiding to save their necks.   

Is the Catholic Church an evil institution? Certainly not! It is precisely because the Catholic Church is the one, true Church of Jesus Christ, that the devil and his earthly clones have been scheming day and night to infiltrate it and control it from the inside. The Church may be in eclipse at this time, but it will be purged of its faults and will shine more brightly than the sun.

“Do not be afraid, little flock,” says the Lord, “for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom” (Lk.12:32).

We are not afraid, Father Campbell. We are not afraid. You not only fed your flock with the Holy Eucharist, but you also fed your universal flock with comforting words of encouragement and support that could only have come from the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity Himself.

The last note I received from Father Campbell came shortly after I had emailed him following his ninetieth birthday on November 1, 2022, and it contained not only the sure knowledge that he was going to die soon but perhaps even the hope that he would be able to leave this passing, mortal vale of tears to receive a crown of glory that he richly earned after six decades of priestly service, untold toil on behalf of the honor and glory of God and the good of souls, and many years of hard physical suffering that endured until the very end as we was attended by his many of his flock, especially those who cared for him round the clock and prayed by his bedside constantly:

I really appreciate your kind remarks. Yes, I have been here for twenty-one years, and I am now ninety years old. I hardly thought about it, and then all of a sudden it is here. 

But don't be surprised if you find out some day soon that Fr. Campbell has gone to Heaven, or is on his way. At this stage the thought of leaving this world behind does not bother me at all.

Thank you so much for remembering me in your prayers,

Fr. Campbell

No, we do not presume the judgment of Christ the King upon any soul, which is why we always pray for those who have died marked with the sign of the Holy Faith, and we must do so as an exercise of the Spiritual Works of Mercy until we ourselves die. We must do so for Father Louis J. Campbell.

Nonetheless, however, I think that we, while praying for the repose of Father Campbell’s immortal soul,  can be fairly confident that this priest of God was purified of whatever needed to be cleansed during the final seven months of his life and that, whether in Purgatory of Heaven, Father Campbell, a faithful servant of Christ the King and devoted client of the Mother of God, is closer to us now than he ever was here on the face of this earth and stands ready to help us with his priestly prayers from eternity as he helped us all so much by means of his priestly life from September 3, 1961, to December 18, 2023.

Requiescat in pace. Amen.

Appendix A

Sermon for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Sunday, November 10, 2013

by Father Louis J. Campbell

The parable Jesus tells us today about the bad seed growing alongside the good may not surprise us, because we know very well that there are bad people in the world along with the good. But when we take a careful look we see that Jesus is not talking about the world, but about the Church. Within the field of the Church herself, the devil has planted his bad seed, of which Judas is the prototype: “And during the supper, the devil… already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him…” (Jn.13:2).  

Of course, Our Lord was not just talking about apostolic times, but about the Church in every age, until the harvest. But if the “weeds” have not yet been gathered into bundles to burn, that means they are still among us, plotting their evil schemes to ensnare the innocent, and provoking revolution.   

“How then does it have weeds?” There is a Revolution within the Church. A revolution is the complete overthrow of the former order and the establishment of a new one. Such was the French Revolution of 1789, which overthrew the monarchy and the Church in France, executing the innocent king and queen, thousands of bishops, priests, and religious, and hundreds of thousands of innocent French citizens. The Revolution was ultimately the work of Freemasonry, which had already been condemned by the Church half a century before. 

The Revolutionaries were not about to stop there. An apostate priest named Canon Roca was already saying at the end of the 1800s: “The liturgy, ceremonial, ritual and regulations of the Roman Church will shortly undergo a transformation at an ecumenical council... the Papacy will fall; it will die under the hallowed knife which the Fathers of the last Council will forge. The papal Caesar is a host (victim) crowned for the sacrifice” (Bishop Rudolph Graber, Athanasius and the Church of Our Time, p. 35). A prominent French Freemason (Yves Marsaudon, Ecumenism as Seen by a Traditional Freemason), wrote that as of 1908: “the goal is no longer the destruction of the Church but rather to make use of it by infiltrating it” (Bishop Graber, pp. 38-39). 

This had already been the plan of the Masonic secret societies for generations. They were to lay snares for the clergy in the sacristies, seminaries and monasteries, which would have them following “a revolution dressed in papal tiara and cope,” thinking they were following the banner of the Apostolic Keys. (Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita).    

Freemasonry being the “Mother”, as Pope Pius XII called it, Communism was a “spin-off” of what had happened earlier in France. In the year 1936 orders were issued from the Communist Party in Moscow that suitable young men be secretly prepared to enter seminaries and monasteries to be ordained as priests. Manning Johnson, a former official of the Communist Party in America gave the following testimony in 1953 to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC): 

“The Communist leadership in the United States realized that the infiltration tactic in this country would have to adapt itself to American conditions… In the earliest stages it was determined that with only small forces available to them, it would be necessary to concentrate Communist agents in the seminaries. The practical conclusion drawn by the Red leaders was that these institutions would make it possible for a small Communist minority to influence the ideology of future clergymen in the paths conducive to Communist purposes… This policy of infiltrating seminaries was successful beyond even our Communist expectations.” 

Mrs. Bella Dodd, also a prominent member of the Communist Party, was converted to Catholicism in 1952, and began to reveal the tactics of the Party: “In the 1930s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within… Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.” She said that in the future “you will not recognize the Catholic Church.” This was a dozen years before Vatican II began.  

“The whole idea,” according to someone who attended one of Dodd’s talks (Bro. Joseph Natale) “was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the Faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through promotion of a pseudo-religion: something that resembled Catholicism but was not the real thing. Once the Faith was destroyed, she explained that there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church… to label the ‘Church of the past’ as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary in order to shame the Church leaders into an ‘openness to the world,’ and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church.”

Have we not been witnesses? The implanted “weeds,” Masonic and/or Communist bishops and cardinals, made their way in 1961 to Rome for the opening of Vatican II, where they joined their fellow “weeds” in wresting control of the proceedings from the true bishops and cardinals, carrying out their program of destroying the faith of the people. Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens boasted that Vatican II was 1789 (the French Revolution) within the Church. After the Council, the Grand Orient (Masonic) Lodge in France reported a “gigantic revolution in the Church” calling it “a prelude to victory” (Bishop Graber, p. 71).  

Priests, bishops, and the papacy itself have been the primary victims of the Revolution. But their disastrous failure was foretold in Holy Scripture, and was known to the early Church. The great Cardinal Manning (1808-1892), writing of the teachings of the early Church Fathers, predicted:  

“Rome shall apostatize from the faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism… Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible, hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90). 

We can take some comfort in the fact that the “church” which we now see falling into ruin is not the true Church, but the false Masonic church. Our greatest defense against the devil and his false church is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But we also have the Holy Rosary, through which Our Lady becomes “as awe-inspiring as bannered troops.” May she, by the power of God, and with St. Michael and all the Holy Angels, and by our prayers, be victorious in the battle!

Appendix B

Father Louis J. Campbell on the Virtue of Modesty Once Again

Sermon for the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Sunday, July 1, 2012

by Father Louis J. Campbell

“When she is good, she is very, very good, but…”

One event in the history of the world gives human life its purpose and meaning – the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, on the hill of Calvary, in which He poured out His Precious Blood to take away the sins of the world. In this only perfect and acceptable Sacrifice to God the Father, He was both Priest and Victim, offering up His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity on the altar of the Cross. It is this same offering which is made present for us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which He first celebrated with His Apostles at the Last Supper, and which we celebrate whenever the true Mass is offered on our altars.

This Acceptable Sacrifice of the Son of God was an act of perfect obedience and submission to the will of the Father, even unto death on the Cross. It is therefore the perfect model for us of the obedience and the acceptance of the Father’s will that is required of every human being who wishes to live in a right relationship with God.

As St. Augustine comments, “Peace is the tranquility of order.” God tells us in His holy Word what that right order is. There is a structure and an order of obedience that unites all things under God, and without which there is chaos. Christ Himself is in obedience to His Father. If there was anything about Him that stood out, it was His obedience.

We can be related to God only according to the order that He wills. When we break that order then we create disunity, confusion and chaos, which do not reflect the nature of God. But there will be no peace where there is lack of the order intended by God. Everything created must be in its proper relationship with everything else, and all things must be rightly ordered to God through obedience and submission to His holy will. A world which has denied God and His Divine Son, Jesus Christ, can expect to be constantly at war. Our Lord, understanding the ways of the world as no other, said that there would be “wars and rumors of wars” (Mt.24:6).

There is a natural order of things which is willed by God. We once accepted that natural order and lived in a patriarchal society based on the Fatherhood of God and the Christian family, in which the father represents God. But the patriarchal structure of society is now crumbling, and a matriarchal system threatens to take its place, which would disintegrate in disorder and chaos.

Women and men represent God in different ways. A woman cannot well represent the fatherhood and authority of God. Women better represent the love and care of God for His people. Their leadership and sphere of influence should be mostly the spiritual. The most powerful woman in the history of the world was, is, the Blessed Virgin Mary, but she was no feminist, and her power, far greater than any earthly power, is spiritual. Some of the saints, like St. Monica, St. Bridget of Sweden, and St. Margaret of Scotland, had a great spiritual influence on their husbands, and numbered saints among their children.

But under normal circumstances women do not have the gift, the charism, that is necessary to play the role of societal leadership, except in a collaborative situation with men. If they are out of obedience to God’s plan, then they lack the grace to fulfill it. There are exceptions, of course, and God sometimes calls particular women to act or speak for Him, like St. Joan of Arc, or St. Catherine of Siena. But today the rise of aggressive feminism threatens to destroy God’s intended order. It is the devil’s trump card. Think of how he used Eve.

It is not an insult to women to expect them to be obedient to their husbands. A structure of authority and obedience exists for everyone. This is the way that women who are married fulfill their obligation to be obedient to God. Her husband must be obedient too, owing obedience to his employers, to governmental authorities at all levels, as well as to his local pastor, the bishop, the true pope, and ultimately to God. Unmarried women must also be in a state of obedience to God through a human authority structure. Children, of course, must be obedient to their parents and to others whom God has placed over them.

But the whole structure of human society is today under attack. The family is a prime target, so what better way to destroy the traditional family than through the woman. Women’s fashions have reached a point of being highly offensive and indecent, and the children are introduced to this from an early age. In many families today it is very difficult for children, both girls and boys, to learn what is expected of them. Disobedience is not corrected, and the example they need is not given them in matters of dress, language, and general behavior. They are allowed to view programs and videos that are deadly poison for the soul. It is no wonder that girls learn to dress and behave like the latest outrageous incarnation of Madonna or Lady Gaga.

The model many women look to today is not the Blessed Virgin Mary or the saints, and the noble women of history, but the Earth Goddess, and the goddess Diana, with her bow and arrow. In the 70s women were already singing with Helen Reddy, “I am woman! I am invincible!” Today the practice of witchcraft, especially among young girls, is spreading rapidly as a result of the popularity of books and movies like the Harry Potter series.

The rise of feminism affects not only secular society, but the Church as well. Many communities of sisters are in full revolt against Church authority and teaching, even on such matters as abortion, gay rights, and the ordination of women. Many of them, for all intents and purposes, have given up the Catholic Faith and are following the spiritual practices of other religions. We have not seen the end of it.

St. Paul tells us that in the end all things will be subject to God the Father through Jesus Christ:

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live. But each in his own turn, Christ as the first-fruits, then they who are Christ’s, who have believed, at his coming. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he does away with all sovereignty, authority and power. For he must reign, until ‘he has put all his enemies under his feet.’ And the last enemy to be destroyed will be death, for ‘he has put all things under his feet.’… And when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be made subject to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all” (1Cor.15:22-26;28).

[Thomas A. Droleskey afterword: Please pray for the repose of Father Louis J. Campbell’s immortal soul. Thank you.]

[Here's a bonus for you: A reprise of an article about the Virtue of Modesty that was written by the late Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., for The Remnant in 1972. One of our prayers is that those men who have been ordained to the priesthood during the time of papal vacancy will cease their concessions to the popular culture in order not to "scare" the people or because they cannot find any "specific" condemnation of a particular style of dress in an ethics manual or papal allocution. We are not Protestants. Not everything about the Faith is written down. We must use the sensus Catholicus to understand what is pleasing to God and what offends Him and is a threat to souls and disruptive of social order. How wonderful it is, therefore, that we can draw upon the wisdom of older priests who understood that we must indeed abide by truth, not by creatures.]

Appendix C

Father Martin Stepanich on the Virtue of Modesty

The Remnant, 1972

The avowed enemies of God are rejoicing--temporarily--at having brought about an almost total collapse of the virtue of modesty among once virtuous Christian womanhood, while those commissioned by God to teach and uphold this angelic virtue insist on cowardly silence and indifference about it and on gutless permissiveness in manner of dress everywhere.

Meanwhile, vast numbers of supposedly "good" people remain as if without a conscience, being morally blind and insensitive as to what has really happened to a God-given virtue that was once a distinctive trademark of theirs. This type of blindness seems to go hand in hand with a brazen contempt and a sassy resentfulness towards any attempt to revive and restore the missing sense of modesty.

The fact stands out clearly that the immodest fashions of this unchaste generation still offend Our Lord "very much," as Our Lady foretold it through the angelic little Jacinta.

Anyone who still cares about God's virtue of modesty, which He has made shine with such heavenly beauty in the Immaculate Virgin Mary, cannot forget how Our Lord suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane when He foresaw so many sinners, including the immodest and the impure, remaining unrepentant. And the sight of so many immodest creatures displaying crude flesh, like animals, brings vividly before our mind's eye the frightful vision of Our Divine Savior being mercilessly scourged at the pillar. We need not strain ourselves in trying to picture this scene, for we can plainly see the immodest, with their unchaste displays of flesh and figure, continually scourging Our Lord. And we can see them crowning Him with thorns and nailing Him to the Cross all over again.

And look what sorrow the immodest and the impure are causing their Sorrowful and Immaculate Mother, whom God has presented to them as the Perfect Model of Modesty and Purity!

But it has not all happened by accident. Satan planned it this way. As he has done with such evil movements as Communism and Socialism and Freemasonry, so also has he planned out a program of gradual, not sudden, destruction of the sense of modesty and purity. A mere look at the past 50 years or more shows us very plainly how gradually it was all done, first by apparently innocent abbreviations of garments and by slight revelations of bare flesh and by subtle little displays of the figure, and then, as protests died down, by more and more abbreviations and displays--until the crude immodesty of our day became a shocking reality.

Many living today have seen it all happen before their very eyes. They have lived through it and, if they have managed to retain their God-given moral sense, they find the barbarian immodesty of the this day intolerable and they look upon it as a sin crying to Heaven for the vengeance that must inevitably come if sinners continue to refuse to amend their ways.

Perhaps some 50 years ago or more, a publication known as The Frenchwoman presented the following satanic program for the destruction of the virtue of modesty: "Our children must realize the ideal of nakedness... Thus, the mentality of the child is rapidly transformed. To escape opposition, progress must be methodically graduated: first, feet and legs naked, then upturned sleeves; afterwards, the upper part of the chest; then, the back... n summer, they will go around almost naked."

Even if such a daring statement of the powers of darkness had never come to light--though "enlightened" liberals have tried to keep it in the dark--we would still know that it had to be planned that way and could not have happened by accident. And we would also know that such a program for immodesty could not have originated anywhere but in the dungeons of hell and in the mind of Satan.

The program of gradualism intended to lead eventually to the crude immodesty that we know so painfully well today was evidently drawn up, or at least made known, some time during the Fatima years, possibly a little before or after the 1917 Apparitions of Our Lady. (Maybe some well-informed person can provide a precise date.) Bearing this in mind, we can easily conclude that it was no accident that Our Lady insisted so strongly on modesty in her Fatima Message. She knew well of the evil program that would endanger so many immortal souls, and she came to Fatima to warn souls and to save them from the evil awaiting them.

As Sister Lucy has said, one of the things that Our Lady especially asked for was modesty in dress. And still better known, though disregarded, is Jacinta's prophecy: "Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much"--that little liked prophecy that leaves immodestly dressed "pious" women and girls callous and insensitive and cold.

Just as Our Lady was commissioned by God to oppose the rise of Russian Communism and all the other evils named in the Fatima Message, with God's own program of sanctification and salvation, so was part of her mission to warn souls of the dangers of immodesty and impurity that were to increase the unbelievable proportions in the years to come, and to turn them to modesty and and purity and amendment of life.

In connection with the timeliness of Our Lady's message of modesty in 1917, just when Satan's program of gradual nakedness was being put into effect, we must also mention the timeliness of the message of modesty of Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922). It is fairly well known how dynamic were his two successors, Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, in promoting modesty of dress, but it is not as well known that Pope Benedict XV was before them a strenuous defender and promoter of modesty at a time when we might imagine it was not so much of a problem.

We cannot believe that the statements of Our Lady of Fatima and those of Pope Benedict XV on modesty were disconnected or were merely a matter of coincidence. We can only believe that both Our Lady of Fatima and the Holy Father of that time were inspired and guided by God Himself to speak out on modesty in dress, so as to counteract the wicked program of gradual nudism that was being inspired and guided by hell's father of iniquity.

Let us quote an important statement of Pope Benedict XV--by no means his only one--so that we may see how immodesty in dress had already begun to cause moral ruin among women and girls of his day. In an Encyclical Letter (Sacra Propediem, 1921) commemorating the 7th centenary of the founding of the Franciscan Third Order, Pope Benedict wrote as follows:

"From this point of view one cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and condition; made foolish by desire to please, they do not see to what a degree the in decency of their clothing shocks every honest man, and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for those toilettes as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table where one receives the heavenly Author of purity. And We speak not of those exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty."

If we did not know that a Pope wrote this in 1921, we would surely think it was written, or should have been written by someone, in 1972!

After thus deploring the immodesty of his day, the Holy Father exhorted women with these words:

"In what concerns specially the Tertiary Sisters, We ask of them by their dress and manner of wearing it, to be models of holy modesty for other ladies and young girls; that they be thoroughly convinced that the best way for them to be of use to the Church and to Society is to labor for the improvement of morals."

Whose message, do you suppose, have women and girls accepted: the message of modesty of Our Lady of Fatima and of the Holy Father or, the message of immodesty of Lucifer?

Who has recommend to them short skirts, sleeveless dresses, pants, shorts, and clownish pants suits, and so on?

Not only did women and girls buy and buy and buy the clothing that through the years became gradually shorter and skimpier and tighter and ever more unladylike, thus making the whole program of gradual nakedness a huge success, but something else happened at the same time; the sense of modesty and propriety, which God has instilled into their souls, became gradually more blurred and dim and fuzzy, until in so many it became totally blacked out and dead. They did not, and do not, know what happened to them. By blindly and stupidly following the satanic program of gradual abbreviation of attire, they destroyed in themselves a precious God-given gift--the sense of modesty--so that they have now made themselves incapable of distinguishing between modesty and immodesty, nor do so many of them care to know.

And not only have women destroyed in themselves God's gift of modesty, but they have destroyed it in their children from their earliest years, so that a whole generation has been brought up without any real understanding of modesty without any desire to possess its beauty.

And, mind you, these have been "good" and "pious" women who have done this to their children! They have been the "Lord, Lord" type who have duly said their prayers, which all are obliged to do, but who have not done "the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven" (Mt. 7. 21) by obeying His law of modesty. (Emphases added.) (Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., The Remnant, 1972.)