"Either The Faith Is Had Entirely, Or It Is Not Had At All"

One of the most singularly difficult things for me to do is to return to the muck of conciliarism after an absence of two weeks is returning to the muck of conciliarism after two weeks.

Yes, you read that sentence correctly. It is extremely difficult to work up any kind of enthusiasm to deal yet again with the conciliar wrecking crew’s business of making a mockery of Catholicism while reaffirming non-Catholics in their falsehoods and hardened sinners in their lives of eternal perdition. Thus, good readers, IF there are any left after the recent hiatus, this commentary will be relatively short as there is little “new” in the “news” about the counterfeit church of conciliarism, including “Archbishop” Carlo Maria Vigano’s third letter, which was a response to Marc “Cardinal” Ouellet’s angry non-refutation of Vigano’s first two letters.

As mentioned repeatedly in my five-part series (Another Front in the Conciliar Civil War, part one, Another Front in the Conciliar Civil War, part two, Another Front in the Conciliar Civil War, part three, Another Front in the Conciliar Civil War, part four, and Another Front in the Conciliar Civil War, part five), “Archbishop” Carlo Mario Vigano has certainly demonstrated a good deal of courage by revealing Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s mendacity and by focusing on the fact that sodomy is at the root of the clergy abuse scandals that have plagued the lords of conciliarism for the past several decades.  After all, “Pope Francis” continues to cater to the homosexual collective by doing such things as blaspheming the instrument of our redemption, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour’s Most Holy Cross, by making it a vessel to communicate an openness to perversity in the name of “diversity” and “accompaniment.” I mean, a “rainbow” cross for the recently-closed “youth synod,” no matter the official explanations, is meant to carry a message of “inclusiveness” for those steeped in the sin of Sodom.  Of course homosexuality is at the root of the conciliar clergy abuse crisis.

All well and good.

However, the well-meaning Vigano’s most recent call for Bergoglio to repent of his errors ignores that fact that he, Vigano, is a full-throated supporter of the “Second” Vatican Council’s whole agenda of heresy, apostasy, error and liturgical sacrilege. It is impossible to oppose Bergoglio’s licentiousness on matters pertaining to the Sixth and Ninth Commandments while supporting conciliarism’s warfare against the nature of dogmatic truth, the new ecclesiology, episcopal collegiality, false ecumenism, inter-religious prayer services, religious liberty, separation of Church and State and the 1983 conciliar code of canon law. It is furthermore preposterous to consider oneself a defender of the Catholic Faith while supporting conciliarism’s inversion of the ends proper to Holy Matrimony and “natural family planning,” which is nothing other than a natural means of contraception.  

One cannot be a member of the Catholic Church while defecting in any manner from her received teaching. This is a point that has been made repeatedly on this site. Many articles on this site have quoted Pope Leo XIII’s Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896, Pope Benedict XV’s Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914, and a Lenten sermon by Saint Francis de Sales to demonstrate that one must believe in everything taught by Holy Mother Church or one is simply not a Catholic. It is that simple. Neither Girondist/Menshevik conciliar “conservatives” such as Father Carlo Mario Vigano nor Jacobin/Boleshevik conciliar “progressives” such as Jorge Mario Bergoglio believe everything taught by the Catholic Church from time immemorial. Members of each group adhere to the errors summarized just above and enumerated on this site most recently in Jorge Keeps Moving the Goal Posts. There is nothing “optional” about the Catholic Faith, and the fact that “conservatives” and “resist-while-recognize” Catholics within the conciliar structures rally around the conciliar “prelate” du jour in the belief that whichever “champion” of the Catholic Faith holds their attention at a given time while ignoring their “champion’s” support of propositions that are offensive to God and injurious to souls demonstrates the extent to which the conciliar revolution has eviscerated any true understanding of what it is to be a Catholic in good standing with Holy Mother Church.

A note of profound gratitude, therefore, must be given to Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., who was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on July 26, 1960, and will turn eighty-nine years of age on November 12, 2018, for effort that it took for him to translate many of the works of Saint Robert Bellarmine into the English language for the first time. Among these works are the sermons that Saint Robert Bellarmine delivered at the University of Louvain in latter part of the Sixteenth Century. The following passage, contained in the saint’s sermon on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is particularly relevant to the contention that one can ignore some Catholic doctrines and not avoid falling into heresy:

Someone may say: Do the heretics not believe in Christ? And what else do they proclaim but the gospel? Therefore why do they not lay their foundation on Rock? All heretics, brethren, think that they are laying their foundation on Christ, but they are very much mistaken. In their opinion they are laying their foundation on Christ, but actually they are placing it on sand. Pay careful attention, please, to what I am saying: there are two rocks on which we must place our buildings: the first one is Christ, the second is Peter. The Apostle says about the first No other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. About the second the Lord says,  And I will tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. But if if no other foundation can any one lay,  how can we place Peter as another foundation? I will tell you, brethren: we do not make Christ and Peter foundations to an equal degree, but we place Christ as the first stone, and then we place Peter on top of this stone. Therefore Christ is not supported by Peter, but Peter is supported by Christ as part of the foundation. Therefore the first foundation, and the one which does not rest on another foundation, is Christ alone, so the Apostle says about him: No other foundation, that is, the first one, can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, if you please, we will explain briefly how both Christ and Peter are the foundations. Therefore Christ is the first and preeminent foundation of our faith, because we believe that all those things are true, which Christ, which the wisdom of God as the first truth who cannot lie, has revealed to us either through the Scriptures or in some other way. We believe that our God is one and triune; we believe that all of us will be raised from the dead on the last day. Why do we believe these things? Because Peter, because Paul, because John taught these things? Not at all. Why therefore? Because the first truth, namely God, in whom there cannot be a lie, has deigned to reveal these things. Therefore our faith is based on Christ, who is the truth, as on the most solid foundation. And up to this point, brothers, we do not disagree with the heretic, since they openly affirm that whatever Christ said must be believed absolutely. And if nothing else were required, no heretic would be found. Therefore, what is it that makes a heretic? Where is the disagreement to be found? What is called in question? Actually it is this: What is it that Christ revealed without any doubt? For they contend that many things were revealed by Christ, the first truth, which we say were revealed by the father of lies. On the other hand, they think that many things are fictional creations, the author of which we acknowledge to be God himself. Therefore, who will be the judge? Did Christ, the wisdom of God, leave no one in the Church to whom we can go to resolve doubtful matters? Certainly he did leave someone. For otherwise what kind of a community would we have? Therefore, who is he? All the heretics will complain, but it is no one other than Peter. For he established him as his vicar, and after himself he made him the rock and foundation of the Church. To him alone he said: I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren. He said to him Feed my lambs; feed my sheep, that is, you are the one who must feed mothers, and sons, and bishops, and the people with the doctrine and word of truth. We believe whatever Christ deigned to reveal; but what Christ reveals or did reveal we learn from Peter and his successors, who sit in the same chair as he did. Therefore, since all the heretics disdain to build on this second rock, and since they refuse to learn from Peter and his successors, and produce dogmas of faith for themselves out of their own heads, why is it surprising if they are totally in error and are building on sand, when they believe they are building on Christ? And these statements about the foundation of the house could be sufficient, unless some had to be warned by me, whom I understand have fallen into the greatest error.

There are some person, dear listeners, who hold almost everything with a firm faith that Catholics hold: but there is one thing or another, which they have not yet been able to accept completely, such as that purgatory exists, that sacred images are to be venerated, that the sovereign Pontiff is the vicar of Christ and the head of the whole Church. And since there are many things that they believe, and only one or two things that they do not believe and consider it is not important if taken together with the other articles, they think they are situated very well on the foundation of Christ. What is the difference, they say, even if I err in that one thing, which I still cannot believe, and at the judgment will the Lord be concerned about that? And will he not be mindful of the many difficult things I believe? Indeed, this is the way in which they flatter themselves; I serious rebuke them and say that they have fallen from grace and have laid their foundation on sand, and will have no part with Christ. Either the faith is had completely, or it is not had at all. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I ask you (to clarify the matter with a crass example), when you order a pair of shoes from a shoemaker, if when they are finally made you find they are an inch shorter than your feet, do you not put them on and wear them? Your will say “I cannot wear them” But they are only an inch too short, so why can't you wear them, since they are just a little bit short of the right measurement? As, therefore, your shoes are either the right size for your feet or they have no value at all, so also the faith is either integral, or it is not the faith. Therefore no one should deceive himself. If we want to build a house which cannot be moved by wind or rain, we must lay the foundation of both rocks, that is, on Christ and Peter. (Sermons of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J., Part II: Sermons 30-55, Including the Four Last Things and the Annunciation., translated from the Latin by Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., and published in 2017 by Keep the Faith, Inc., Ramsey, New Jersey, pp. 152-154.)

Saint Robert Bellarmine combined Scholasticism with his own brilliant and very practical explanations of theological points that made it possible for those listening to him to comprehend and to remember his teaching. How much more simple than “Either the faith is had completely, or it is not had at all” can it get?

Once again, Father Carlo Maria Vigano is certainly correct to point out Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s indemnification of the sodomite agenda and of sodomites within the conciliar clergy, it is nevertheless true that he himself is a revolutionary who accepts the basic premises of conciliarism as understood within the parameters of Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s philosophically absurd and dogmatically condemned “hermeneutic of continuity.” “Either the faith is had completely, or it is not had at all.”

Unfortunately, however, the reality that is lost on so many fully believing Catholics today is that the universe of Catholics who follow anything that Jorge Mario Bergoglio says or does is infinitesimally tiny. Most Catholics are busy with their own daily lives and/or are distracted/involved in the endless array of sideshows and the bread-and-circuses of these our days. Most react with a “ho-hum” attitude when told, for example, that the false “pontiff” used a symbol of the occult, a “stang” (not being versed in the occult, the only “stang” I had heard about until recently was the late actor Arnold Stang, who was the voice of Top Cat), or that he sported a “rainbow” pectoral cross that makes a mockery of the very instrument of our salvation, the Holy Cross of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We deceive ourselves if we think even L’Affaire Vigano is going to make a significant difference among ordinary Catholics as this is simply not the case.

We must pray every day for perseverance in the Holy Faith as we seek to avoid all contamination from the polluting influence of the conciliar revolution and its propagators and apologists. We need the help of Our Lady of the Rosary to help us to remain faithful while eschewing all human respect and being willing to embrace whatever suffering and mockery may come our way for having no part with heresy and those who make excuses for it.

Although I will continue to write on events in the counterfeit church of conciliarism as time permits, Father Baker’s description of the Catholicity of Saint Robert Bellarmine’s sermons contains an explanation as to why the saint rarely mentioned Martin Luther or John Calvin that applies to Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his band of revolutionaries as well:

“These sermons are one hundred percent Catholic. Often in passing he will refute an error of Luther and Calvin, but he does not spend a lot of time on that. For him they are simply heretics and so no longer members of the Church of Jesus Christ.” (Sermons of St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J., Part II: Sermons 30-55, Including the Four Last Things and the Annunciation., translated from the Latin by Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., and published in 2017 by Keep the Faith, Inc., Ramsey, New Jersey, p. 4.)

What am I doing spending my own time on the likes of Jorge Mario Bergoglio?!?

Actually, Saint Robert Bellarmine did spend a good deal of time going after Luther and Calvin and their heresies in his Controversies, which Father Baker translated into English in 2015. He just did not do so during his sermons. Oh well, just when I thought I was off the hook.

Nevertheless, after threatening to do so for over a year, it is time to concentrate on putting out selected articles in several volumes as, given the current cultural climate in this country and the world, I believe that the time is short for websites such as this one to be permitted to continue.

It is with an ever-reliant trust on the intercessory power of Our Lady, especially as we fly unto her through her Holy Rosary, and as we trust in the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart and the protection afford by her Brown Scapular that we can rise above the foul miasma of the interrelated worlds of Modernity and Modernism and thus to plant a few seeds for the restoration of all things in Christ the King.

Vivat Christus Rex!

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Andrew the Apostle, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, pray for us.