Victor Manuel Fernandez's Anthropocentric Decree on Human Dignity, part four

Sophomorically shallow.

Sophomorically shallow.

Those are the only words by which one can describe Dignitatis Infinita’s treatment of war and other issues as affronts to “human dignity.” Denying the entire patrimony of Holy Mother Church, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Victor Manuel Fernandez reject the Just War theory that has provided kings, princes, emperors and, more recently, elected civil potentates with the moral guidance concerning the defense of a kingdom, principality, empire, or nation.

Although Giovanni Battista Enrico Antono Maria Montini/Paul VI exclaimed “War never again!” at the United Nations General Assembly on October 4, 1965, it was not until the anti-pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio that rejection of the just war theory manifested itself.

Not so Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Not so Victor Manuel Fernandez:

38. Another tragedy that denies human dignity, both in the past and today, is war: “War, terrorist attacks, racial or religious persecution, and many other affronts to human dignity […] ‘have become so common as to constitute a real ‘third world war’ fought piecemeal.’”[64] With its trail of destruction and suffering, war attacks human dignity in both the short and long term: “While reaffirming the inalienable right to self-defense and the responsibility to protect those whose lives are threatened, we must acknowledge that war is always a ‘defeat of humanity.’ No war is worth the tears of a mother who has seen her child mutilated or killed; no war is worth the loss of the life of even one human being, a sacred being created in the image and likeness of the Creator; no war is worth the poisoning of our common home; and no war is worth the despair of those who are forced to leave their homeland and are deprived, from one moment to the next, of their home and all the family, friendship, social and cultural ties that have been built up, sometimes over generations.”[65] All wars, by the mere fact that they contradict human dignity, are “conflicts that will not solve problems but only increase them.”[66] This point is even more critical in our time when it has become commonplace for so many innocent civilians to perish beyond the confines of a battlefield.

Interjection Number One:

Yes, even just wars do inevitably bring with them many foreseen but unintended evil consequences.

However, to shallowly assert that no war is ever worth a mother’s tears is to make a mockery of the fact that, although wars are to be avoid at all costs and can be undertaken only as a last and most regrettable resort to defend one’s own nation when it is legitimately threatened and only then to repair the wound to justice, this is the vale of tears and nothing, not even a mother who loses a son in warfare, suffers in this life is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross. To refrain from undertaking a just cause solely because people will suffer would embolden aggressors who have no compunction about causing others to suffer, something that we see today on both sides of the Russo-Ukrainian war and in the Middle East between the Israelis and her Mohammedan enemies. Men whose souls are captive to the devil by means of Original Sin and by the effects of their own Actual Sins even though they themselves may not be aware of the fact are fully capable of engaging in wars of conquest or retaliation without regard for who suffers as a consequence.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ told us that there would be wars and rumors of wars as warfare is a consequence of Original Sin and the Actual Sins of men:

And Jesus being come out of the temple, went away. And his disciples came to shew him the buildings of the temple. [2] And he answering, said to them: Do you see all these things? Amen I say to you there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed. [3] And when he was sitting on mount Olivet, the disciples came to him privately, saying: Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the world? [4] And Jesus answering, said to them: Take heed that no man seduce you: [5] For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ: and they will seduce many.

[6] And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places: [8] Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows. [9] Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name's sake. [10] And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another.

[11] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. [12] And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. [13] But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. [14] And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come. [15] When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.

[16] Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: [17] And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: [18] And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. [19] And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. [20] But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.

[21] For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. [22] And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. [23] Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. [24] For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. [25] Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.

[26] If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. [27] For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be. [28] Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together. [29] And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. (Matthew 24: 1-30.)

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ taught us to remain calm in every circumstance of our lives, explaining that there will be wars and rumors of wars but that the end is not yet to come. We must remain ever calm in the loving arms of Our Lady, who told Juan Diego the following as his uncle was suffering from an illness from which Juan Diego thought he was going to die:

"Listen and take heed, least of my sons," she said quietly. "There is nothing which thou needst dread. Let not thy heart be troubled. Do not fear this illness, neither any other illness or affliction. Am I not here beside thee; I, thy Merciful Mother? Am I not thy hope and salvation? Of what more dost thou have need? Let nothing distress or harass thee. As to the illness of thy uncle, he will not die of it. Indeed, I ask thee to accept as a certainty my assurance that he is already cured." (Frances Parkinson Keyes, The Grace of Guadalupe, published in 1941 by Julian Messner, Inc., pp. 47-48.)

We are not to fear any illness or affliction. There is no suffering, nor any world crisis, that we can bear in this life that is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His fearful Passion and Death as those Seven Swords of Sorrow were plunged through and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Need it be pointed that it will there will a battle between Antichrist and the forces of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Just Christ at the Armageddon?

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. In these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ; and shall reign with him a thousand years.  7 And when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth, and seduce the nations, which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, and shall gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.  8 And they came upon the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.  9 And there came down fire from God out of heaven, and devoured them; and the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast 10 And the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Apocalypse 20: 6-10.)

Only those who reject Original Sin in favor of a Rousseauean concept of inherent human goodness and the ability to avoid conflict can contend that wars are in of themselves offenses to human “dignity” even if, quite indeed, innocent human beings are targeted deliberately by unjust aggressors.

The fact that there is probably no world leader today who understands the principles of the Just War and thus who act according to the dictates of an amoral utilitarianism and that there have been few wars in more recent times that have been truly just in no way vitiates the fact that have been just wars in the past and will be just wars in the future, especially in the case of the war against Antichrist as mentioned above.

The following precepts of the Just War remain perfectly valid no matter the lack of truly just statesmen anywhere in the anti-Incarnational world of Modernity today:

1. There must be a wound to justice that poses a real and imminent threat to the good order of nations and/or to the territorial integrity or well-being of innocents by an aggressor.
2. All peaceful means to avoid armed hostilities must be exhausted. Diplomatic efforts to avert war must be genuine. It was the authority of the Vicar of Christ himself during the Middle Ages and various times thereafter who attempted to broker disputes in order to avoid war.
3. A duly constituted authority must make the determinations concerning the waging of war. This means that a legitimate governing authority guided by right intentions and right principles must be in charge of the decision-making process.
4. The goals of a war must be well-defined and have a reasonable chance of being realized. In other words, there must be a reasonable chance for success in the pursuit of narrowly defined goals. Goals are to be defined narrowly so as to limit the harm caused by a needlessly protracted war, yes, even when a nation is prosecuting a just cause.
5. The good end being sought must not be outweighed by the foreseen evil to be done. This is known as the Catholic principle of proportionality, which states that a good end can be rendered unjust to pursue if a judgment is made that the amount of the foreseen evil to be done in the prosecution of a just war will cause greater evils than the one the war is being waged to eradicate. Putin cares about none of this.
6. As far as is possible, noncombatants must never be deliberately targeted in warfare. The United States has a mixed record when it comes to the realization of this part of the Just War Theory. Our military forces have tried to use remarkable restraint in many instances. Other times, however, they have not. William Tecumseh Sherman used raw terrorism against civilian population centers as he cut a swath of fiery destruction from the Atlantic Ocean to Atlanta during the War between the States. The government of the United States of America aided the anti-Catholic Masonic revolutionaries in Mexico. Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki (the latter two of which were known to contain the highest concentrations of Catholics in Japan) were bombed during World War II. Something less than laser precision caused thousands of civilian casualties during the Gulf War and during our long and immoral presence in Afghanistan, which commenced on October 7, 2001, and during and after the American invasion and occupation of Iraq on March 20, 2003.
7. A just cessation to hostilities must be realized as soon as possible. Once again, the record of the United States’ own record in this regard is very mixed. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was done so as to force an unconditional surrender from Japan, something that the Soviets insisted on in the Potsdam Conference as their condition for entering the war against Japan (so that they could recover claims lost in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.) Japan was willing to surrender conditionally. Those who are convinced of their absolute moral and racial superiority over others, though, cannot consider ending hostilities even if it is possible to conclude a peace that is just without having humiliated one's enemies.

Amoral aggressors sometimes need to be stopped by the use of armed force when all else fails, and it is an entirely separate manner theoretically to acknowledge that no nation on the face of the earth today has leaders who take the principles outlined above seriously.

Returning to the sophomorically shallow text of Dignitatis Infinita on the subject of war:

39. Therefore, even today, the Church cannot but make her own the words of the Pontiffs, repeating with Pope St. Paul VI: “jamais plus la guerre, jamais plus la guerre!” [“never again war, never again war!”].[67] Moreover, together with Pope St. John Paul II, the Church pleas “in the name of God and in the name of man: Do not kill! Do not prepare destruction and extermination for people! Think of your brothers and sisters who are suffering hunger and misery! Respect each one’s dignity and freedom!”[68] As much now as ever, this is the cry of the Church and of all humanity. Pope Francis underscores this by stating, “We can no longer think of war as a solution because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits. In view of this, it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war.’ Never again war!”[69] Since humanity often falls back into the same mistakes of the past, “in order to make peace a reality, we must move away from the logic of the legitimacy of war.”[70] The intimate relationship between faith and human dignity means it would be contradictory for war to be based on religious convictions: “The one who calls upon God’s name to justify terrorism, violence, and war does not follow God’s path. War in the name of religion becomes a war against religion itself.”[71]

Interjection Number Two:

“War in the name of religion becomes a war against religion itself.”

This is not so.

The Book of the Apocalypse explains that a battle broke out in heaven between satan and Saint Michael the Archangel:

And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Apocalypse 12: 7-9.)

Saint Michael the Archangel is not a pacifist, thank you very much.

God Himself commanded wars be fought in His Holy Name as recorded in the Old Testament, and He has done so through His true popes, especially in the defense of the Holy Land. Consider the words of Blessed Pope Urban II when preaching the First Crusade:

"If among the churches scattered about over the whole world some, because of persons or location, deserve reverence above others (for persons, I say, since greater privileges are accorded to apostolic sees; for places, indeed, since the same dignity which is accorded to persons is also shown to regal cities, such as Constantinople), we owe most to that church from which we received the grace of redemption and the source of all Christianity. If what the Lord says namely, 'Salvation is from the Jews,' accords with the truth, and it is true that the Lord has left us Sabaoth as seed, that we may not become like Sodom and Gomorrah, and our seed is Christ, in whom is the salvation and benediction of all peoples, then, indeed, the very land and city in which He dwelt and suffered is, by witnesses of the Scriptures, holy. If this land is spoken of in the sacred writings of the prophets as the inheritance and the holy temple of God before ever the Lord walked about in it, or was revealed, what sanctity, what reverence has it not acquired since God in His majesty was there clothed in the flesh, nourished, grew up, and in bodily form there walked about, or was carried about; and, to compress in fitting brevity all that might be told in a long series of words, since there the blood of the Son of God, more holy than heaven and earth, was poured forth, and His body, its quivering members dead, rested in the tomb. What veneration do we think it deserves? If, when the Lord had but just been crucified and the city was still held by the Jews, it was called holy by the evangelist when he says, 'Many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many,' and by the prophet Isaiah when be says, 'It shall be His glorious sepulchre,' then, surely, with this sanctity placed upon it by God the Sanctifier Himself, no evil that may befall it can destroy it, and in the same way glory is indivisibly fixed to His Sepulchre. Most beloved brethren, if you reverence the source of that holiness and I . you cherish these shrines which are the marks of His footprints on earth, if you seek (the way), God leading you, God fighting in your behalf, you should strive with your utmost efforts to cleanse the Holy City and the glory of the Sepulchre, now polluted by the concourse of the Gentiles, as much as is in their power.

"If in olden times the Maccabees attained to the highest praise of piety because they fought for the ceremonies and the Temple, it is also justly granted you, Christian soldiers, to defend their liberty of your country by armed endeavor. If you, likewise, consider that the abode of the holy apostles and any other saints should be striven for with such effort, why do you refuse to rescue the Cross, the Blood, the Tomb? Why do you refuse to visit them, to spend the price of your lives in rescuing them? You have thus far waged unjust wars, at one time and another; you have brandished mad weapons to your mutual destruction, for no other reason than covetousness and pride, as a result of which you have deserved eternal death and sure damnation. We now hold out to you wars which contain the glorious reward of martyrdom, which will retain that title of praise now and forever.

"Let us suppose, for the moment, that Christ was not dead and buried, and had never lived any length of time in Jerusalem. Surely, if all this were lacking, this fact alone ought still to arouse you to go to the aid of the land and city -- the fact that 'Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem!' If all that there is of Christian preaching has flowed from the fountain of Jerusalem, its streams, whithersoever spread out over the whole world, encircle the hearts of the Catholic multitude, that they may consider wisely what they owe such a well-watered fountain. If rivers return to the place whence they have issued only to flow forth again, according to the saying of Solomon, it ought to seem glorious to you to be able to apply a new cleansing to this place, whence it is certain that you received the cleansing of baptism and the witness of your faith.

"And you ought, furthermore, to consider with the utmost deliberation, if by your labors, God working through you, it should occur that the Mother of churches should flourish anew to the worship of Christianity, whether, perchance, He may not wish other regions of the East to be restored to the faith against the approaching time of the Antichrist. For it is clear that Antichrist is to do battle not with the Jews, not with the Gentiles; but, according to the etymology of his name, He will attack Christians. And if Antichrist finds there no Christians (just as at present when scarcely any dwell there), no one will be there to oppose him, or whom he may rightly overcome. According to Daniel and Jerome, the interpreter of Daniel, he is to fix his tents on the Mount of Olives; and it is certain, for the apostle teaches it, that he will sit at Jerusalem in the Temple of the Lord, as though he were God. And according to the same prophet, he will first kill three kings of Egypt, Africa, and Ethiopia, without doubt for their Christian faith: This, indeed, could not at all be done unless Christianity was established where now is paganism. If, therefore, you are zealous in the practice of holy battles, in order that, just as you have received the seed of knowledge of God from Jerusalem, you may in the same way restore the borrowed grace, so that through you the Catholic name may be advanced to oppose the perfidy of the Antichrist and the Antichristians then, who can not conjecture that God, who has exceeded the hope of all, will consume, in the abundance of your courage and through you as the spark, such a thicket of paganism as to include within His law Egypt, Africa, and Ethiopia, which have withdrawn from the communion of our belief? And the man of sin, the son of perdition, will find some to oppose him. Behold, the Gospel cries out, 'Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.' 'Times of the Gentiles' can be understood in two ways: Either that they have ruled over the Christians at their pleasure, and have gladly frequented the sloughs of all baseness for the satisfaction of their lusts, and in all this have had no obstacle (for they who have everything according to their wish are said to have their time; there is that saying: 'My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready,' whence the lustful are wont to say 'you are having your time'). Or, again, 'the times of the Gentiles' are the fulness of time for those Gentiles who shall have entered secretly before Israel shall be saved. These times, most beloved brothers, will now, forsooth, be fulfilled, provided the might of the pagans be repulsed through You, with the cooperation of God. With the end of the world already near, even though the Gentiles fail to be converted to the Lord (since according to the apostle there must be a withdrawal from the faith), it is first necessary, according to their prophecy, that the Christian sway be renewed in those regions either through you, or others, whom it shall please God to send before the coming of Antichrist, so that the head of all evil, who is to occupy there the throne of the kingdom, shall find some support of the faith to fight against him.

"Consider, therefore, that the Almighty has provided you, perhaps, for this purpose, that through you He may restore Jerusalem from such debasement. Ponder, I beg you, how full of joy and delight our hearts will be when we shall see the Holy City restored with your little help, and the prophet's, nay divine, words fulfilled in our times. Let your memory be moved by what the Lord Himself says to the Church: 'I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the West.' God has already brought our, seed from the East, since in a double way that region of the East has given the first beginnings of the Church to us. But from the West He will also gather it, provided He repairs the wrongs of 1 Jerusalem through those who have begun the witness of the final faith, that is the people of the West. With God's assistance, we think this can be done through you.

"If neither the words of the Scriptures arouse you, nor our admonitions penetrate your minds, at least let the great suffering of those who desired to go to the holy places stir you up. Think of those who made the pilgrimage across the sea! Even if they were more wealthy, consider what taxes, what violence they underwent, since they were forced to make payments and tributes almost every mile, to purchase release at every gate of the city, at the entrance of the churches and temples, at every side journey from place to place: also, if any accusation whatsoever were made against them, they were compelled to purchase their release; but if they refused to pay money, the prefects of the Gentiles, according to their custom, urged them fiercely with blows. What shall we say of those who took up the journey without anything more than trust in their barren poverty, since they seemed to have nothing except their bodies to lose? They not only demanded money of them, which is not an unendurable punishment, but also examined the callouses of their heels, cutting them open and folding the skin back, lest, perchance, they had sewed something there. Their unspeakable cruelty was carried on even to the point of giving them scammony to drink until they vomited, or even burst their bowels, because they thought the wretches had swallowed gold or silver; or, horrible to say, they cut their bowels open with a sword and, spreading out the folds of the intestines, with frightful mutilation disclosed whatever nature held there in secret. Remember, I pray, the thousands who have perished vile deaths, and strive for the holy places from which the beginnings of your faith have come. Before you engage in His battles, believe without question that Christ will be your standard-bearer and inseparable forerunner."

The most excellent man concluded his oration and by the power of the blessed Peter. absolved all who vowed to go and confirmed those acts with apostolic blessing. He instituted a sign well suited t so honorable a profession by making the figure of the Cross, the stigma of the Lord's Passion, the emblem of the soldiery, or rather, of what was to be the soldiery of God. This, made of any kind of cloth, he ordered to be sewed upon the shirts, cloaks, and byrra of those who were about to go. He commanded that if anyone, after receiving this emblem, or after taking openly this vow, should shrink from his good intent through base change of heart, or any affection for his parents, he should be regarded an outlaw forever, unless he repented and again undertook whatever of his pledge he had omitted. Furthermore, the Pope condemned with a fearful anathema all those who dared to molest the wives, children, and possessions of these who were going on this journey for God. . . .  (Guibert de Nogent: Historia quae dicitur Gesta Dei per Francos.)

Blessed Pope Urban II’s call for the First Crusade a little over nine hundred nineteen years ago was premised upon a denunciation of the unjust wars that Christian soldiers had fought on behalf of territorial gain and/or the conquest of raw political power. Blessed Pope Urban II was calling upon these soldiers to put their military skills to use in a just war against the Mohammedans who were treating their coreligionists with barbaric cruelty and holding the shrines of the Holy Faith captive as part of their ill-gotten gains won by the spread of Mohammedanism at the point of the sword throughout northern Africa and the Near East at the beginning of the Seventh Century and thereafter.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of course, has apologized for the First Crusade, believing it to be a source of “embarrassment” and he refuses to admit the truths contained Pope Urban II’s meticulous description of the barbaric cruelty of Mohammedans, a cruelty that is endemic to this false religion.

It was four hundred seventy-nine years that Pope Saint Pius V called upon Catholics to pray Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary to win the victory for the combined Christian fleet against the Turks in the Bay of Lepanto against on October 5, 1571:

The Papal influence was all in favor of fighting, whatever the odds. The invincible spirit of the old saint in the Vatican was perhaps the decisive factor. When Bishop Odescalchi, his nuncio, came to bless the fleet and to give a large portion of the True Cross for distribution among the crews, each vessel having a grain of the Precious Wood, he also brought to Don Juan the solemn assurance of Pope Pius V that, if he offered battle, God would give him the victory. If they were defeated, the Pope promised "to go to war himself with his gray hairs, to put idle youth to shame." But with courage they could not fail. Had not several revelations, including two prophecies by Saint Isidore of Sevilla, described such a battle and victory as seemed imminent, won by a youth closely resembling Don Juan?

At the Holy Father's suggestion, Don Juan adopted a modus operandi seldom if ever taught in naval academies. No women were allowed aboard the ships. Blasphemy was to be punished with death. While waiting for a good wind and the return of his scouting squadron with news of where the Turks were, the Generalissimo fasted for three days. All his officers and crews did likewise. Contemporary accounts agree that not one of the 81,000 sailors and soldiers failed to confess and to receive Holy Communion. Even the galley slaves were unshackled from their long benches and led in droves ashore, to confess to the numerous priests who toiled day and night at the Jesuit College helping the chaplains of the galleys. . . .

As the sun sank over Cephalonia, Doria's right wing was still furiously engaged with the Algerians. Gianandrea was red from head to foot with blood, but escaped without a scratch. When Aluch Ali saw that the Moslem fleet was getting the worse of it, he skilfully withdrew between the right and the center of the Christians. In the rear of Doria's fleet he came upon a galley of the Knights of Malta, whom he especially hated. He pounced upon it from the stern, slew all the knights and the crew, and took possession of the vessel; but when Santa Cruz attacked him, he abandoned his prize, and fled with 40 of his best ships toward the open sea and the crimson sunset. Doria's fleet pursued him until night and the coming of a storm forced him to desist.

The Christians took refuge in the port of Petala, and there counted their casualties, which were comparatively light, and their booty, which was exceedingly rich. They had lost 8,000 slain, including 2,000 Spanish, 800 of the Pope's men, and 5,200 Venetians. The Turks had lost 224 vessels, 130 captured and more than 90 sunk or burned; at least 25,000 of their men had been slain, and 5,000 captured; 10,000 of their Christian captives were set free. 12 Don Juan at once sent ten galleys to Spain to inform the King, and dispatched the Count of Priego to Rome. But Pius V had speedier means of communication than galleys. On the afternoon of Sunday, October seventh, he was walking in the Vatican with his treasurer, Donato Cesis. The evening before he had sent out orders to all convents in Rome and nearby to double their prayers for the victory of the Christian fleet, but now he was listening to a recital of some of his financial difficulties. Suddenly he stepped aside, opened a window, and stood watching the sky as if astonished. Then, turning with a radiant face to the treasurer, he said, "Go with God. This is not the time for business, but to give thanks to Jesus Christ, for our fleet has just conquered."

He then hurried to his chapel to prostrate himself in thanksgiving. Afterwards he went out, and everybody noticed his youthful step and joyous countenance. The first news of the battle, through human agencies, reached Rome by way of Venice on the night of October twenty-first, just two weeks after the event. Saint Pius went to St. Peter's in a procession, singing the Te Deum Laudamus. There was great joy in Rome. The Holy Father commemorated the victory by designating October seventh as the Feast of the Holy Rosary, and by adding "Help of Christians" to the titles of Our Lady in the Litany of Loreto.  (William Thomas Walsh, Philip II, published originally in 1943 by the Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and republished by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, Illinois, 1987, pp. 513-525.)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s antipapal role model and direct ideological forefather, Giovanni Enrico Battista Antonio Maria Montini/Paul VI, mocked the great victory over the Mohammedan forces in the Battle of Lepanto that was wrought by Pope Saint Pius V’s plea to Catholics to pray Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary by returning the Mohammedan flag to the Turks in 1965:

Presumably “no one” does does not include God. Paul’s performance at the United Nations [on October 4, 1965], an organization long viewed with suspicion by the Church for the obvious reasons, sent many a Catholic reeling. So did another papal act just two months later, when Paul gave back to the Muslims the Standard of Lepanto. The history of the flag was venerable. It was taken from a turkish admiral during a great naval battle in 1571. While Pope St. Pius V fasted and prayed the Rosary, an out-numbered Christian fleet defeated a much larger Moslem navy, thus saving Christendom from the infidel. In honor of the miraculous victory, Pius V instituted the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary to commemorate Her intercession.

In one dramatic act Paul renounced not only a remarkable Christian victory, but the prayers and the sacrifices of a great Pope and saint. Worse, he appeared to be rejecting the intercession of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary–again. “The wars of religion are finished for good,” Paul told the Turks by way of explanation. Their immediate response was not recorded, but the rise of militant Islam in the last three decades indicates that yet another of Pope Paul’s prophesies had gone awry. The next give-away involved Paul’s Shepherd’s Crook and fisherman’s ring, which he gave to the Buddhist U Thant [United Nations Secretary General between November 30, 1971, and December 31, 1971]. Paul also abolished the anti-Modernist oath of St. Pius X, and the Profession of Faith of the Council of Trent. In 1968 the Index was abolished. The Holy Office was reformed: its primary function now was research, not defending the Faith. (Mark Fellows, Fatima in Twilight, Marmion Publications, 2003, p. 193.)

The conciliar “popes” have contempt for the courage exhibited by our true popes. The conciliar antipopes have been and continue to be effeminate wimps who believe that everything except Catholicism as it has been taught from time immemorial and that all words spoken and actions undertaken in its defense have been erroneous and, as such, are objects of shame for which endless apologies must be made.

Yes, modern war conducted by modern men, including the Trotskyites among the American neoconservative war hawks, Russian imperialists, Ukrainian nationalists, Zionists, Mohammedans (whether of Arbian, Asian, African, or Persian stock), Chinese Communists, or globalists is unjust. To be sure.

The just war is still a teaching of the Catholic Church, and its denial by the conciliar authorities is yet another denial of the Catholic Faith itself.

Even more sophomoric shallowness is to be found in Dignitatis Infinita’s sections on the “travailof migrants” and “human trafficking” as offenses to “human dignity”:

The Travail of Migrants

40. Migrants are among the first victims of multiple forms of poverty. Not only is their dignity denied in their home countries,[72] but also their lives are put at risk because they no longer have the means to start a family, to work, or to feed themselves.[73] Once they have arrived in countries that should be able to accept them, “migrants are not seen as entitled like others to participate in the life of society, and it is forgotten that they possess the same intrinsic dignity as any person. […] No one will ever openly deny that they are human beings; yet in practice, by our decisions and the way we treat them, we can show that we consider them less worthy, less important, less human.”[74] Therefore, it is urgent to remember that “every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.”[75] Receiving migrants is an important and meaningful way of defending “the inalienable dignity of each human person regardless of origin, race or religion.”[76]

Interjection Number Three:

This is naturalistic claptrap that does not address the simple fact that the proximate cause of vast migration from Central America and Africa is the endemic nature of the corruption extant in the countries of their birth.

Sure, no believing Catholic can or does deny the humanity of those who seek to a supposedly “better” life materially by leaving their native place. By the same token, however, there is no fundamental right found in the Natural Law to enter another country by violating its just laws to regulate migration in the name of legitimate national security, economic stability, and public health. Vast numbers of migrants even from Red China and parts of the Mohammedan world in Africa, Asia, and the Near East are entering the United States of America illegally on a daily basis, encouraged by the anti-Americans in charge of so-called “homeland security” and believe that their sworn constitutional duty to uphold the laws regulation immigration must be ignored in the name of “equity” and “diversity,” and at least some of these illegal immigrants have come and are coming here for nefarious purposes.

Indeed, Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Nicolas Maduro, is sending violent members of various gangs on their way north to the United States of America in the hope of producing the sort of violence and chaos that characterizes daily life in so many major cities. It was, after all, a Venezuelan gang member, Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is charged with the brutal of killing of young Laken Riley after he had been “greenlighted” to enter illegally thanks to the illegal policies of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the individual charged with the murder of Georgia student Laken Riley was paroled into the country illegally.

According to DHS, Jose Antonio Ibarra was granted “parole due to detention capacity at the Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas.”

Graham announced this at a Judiciary Committee hearing this morning.

• GRAHAM: “[Ibarra] wasn’t paroled because he had a [significant] benefit to the country or that he had a humanitarian need, as the law requires. He was paroled because of capacity problems.” https://youtu.be/2Wn66B2xjGs?si=v0QcrxOj_Ab1dYEy&t=198
• GRAHAM: “There is no effective detention when it comes to illegal immigrants coming to our border... The ‘catch and release’ program is one of the greatest pull factors… The price of this policy by the Biden Administration is pretty darn high.” https://youtu.be/5FhkSLBMAzw?si=S8YkTkskL_M5bXsC&t=45

Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, was paroled into the United States in September 2022, and was arrested for Riley’s murder in February 2024. Following her murder, Graham wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, requesting the justification for why Ibarra was paroled into the United States.

By law, immigration parole is only to be granted at the discretion of the DHS Secretary on a case-by-case basis, in instances of “urgent humanitarian reason or significant public benefit.”

The Biden Administration is breaking the law at the expense of innocent Americans. (DHS Confirms to Graham: Laken Riley Murd... | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.)

While not all of those who have entered the United States of America illegally are engaging in violent acts and stealing others’ property knowing full well that they will suffer no consequences for doing so in so-called “sanctuary cities,” most of the millions of illegal immigrants who have come here since January 20, 2021, are being treated quite well in “sanctuary cities.” New York City Mayor Eric Adams has proposed giving debit cards to illegal immigrants and officials in other cities are doing everything they can to give priority to the temporal needs of illegal immigrants while chastising native born citizens for being unwilling to house these immigrants and for complaining about the increased taxation that has been proposed to make illegal immigration more and more attractive to anyone anywhere in the world who wants to live la dolce vita on the public dole of some American state or city.

It is not always the case, as Dignitatis Infinita states, that everyone who is leaving their home countries is trapped in abject poverty as the mere fact that the government of the United States of America has had a de facto “open borders” policy since January 20, 2021, has itself provided an incentive for people to come here with the full knowledge that they will be fed and housed without any screening whatsoever. While all human beings must be treated as redeemed creatures, it is not so that those who break the just laws of other nations are entitled to enjoy special privileges, including being indemnified for having broken the law by entering a country illegally and, in the cases of those who shoplift, mug, or squat, indemnified from any consequences, including criminal prosecution and/or deportation, for their criminal activities.

“Human dignity”?

Please, illegal immigrants are being treated as welcomed “newcomers” who are entitled to goodies denied to the taxpayers who are subsidizing their presence here.

Moreover, Dignitatis Infinita entirely ignores the fact that illegal immigrants are being exploited by the government of the United States of America (and other countries around the world) to change the nation’s demographics so that, in time, these future citizens, who will be given amnesty one day of the sort that the Immigration Reform  and Control Act of 1986, which was signed into law by President Ronald Wilson Reagan on November 6, 1986, granted to several categories of those who had been in the country illegally up to that time, will become reliable voters in the camp of the organized crime family of the false opposite of the naturalist “left.”

Also left entirely unaddressed in Dignitatis Infinita are the spiritual needs of illegal immigrants, which is of itself another sign of how the conciliar revolutionaries are bereft of the Catholic Faith as befits those belonging to Holy Mother Church’s counterfeit ape, the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

One can contrast the naturalistic concerns of Dignitatis Infinita with the supernatural concerns of Pope Pius XII for refugees displaced by World War II and Communist takeovers in Eastern and Central Europe. His Holiness noted that the Catholic Church has given constant attention of the spiritual needs of migrants and delineated how that was done in his Apostolic Constitution, Exsul Familia, August 1, 1952. Here is but an excerpt from readers can see the difference between a document issued under the authority of a false “pope” and one issued by a true and legitimate Successor of Saint Peter:

Therefore, Holy Mother Church, compelled by the intense love of souls, strives to fulfill the parts of the universal salvific mandate entrusted to her by Christ, above all taking spiritual care also of strangers, immigrants, exiles, and emigrants. by the preaching of the divine word, they should earnestly confirm the faith of the faithful with the bond of charity.

Accordingly, it pleases me to touch briefly on what the Church has done in this matter in times far past. but let us discuss more fully what our times refer to.

First, therefore, we recall what St. Ambrose did and the words uttered by him, when that illustrious pastor of Milan, in order to redeem the wretched ones who had been led into captivity after the emperor Valens had fled to Hadrianopolis, broke the sacred vessels, and for this very reason moved to save the needy from material losses he would prevent them and rescue them from immediate spiritual dangers, certainly more serious ones. "But who is so hard - so Ambrose - merciless, iron, to whom it displeases that a man is redeemed from death, a woman from the impurities of barbarians, which are more serious than death; young women or boys or infants from the contagion of idols, by which they were defiled by the fear of death? Which cause, though we did not act without some reason, yet we pursued it in such a way among the people, that we confessed and that it was much more convenient that we should save souls for the Lord rather than gold" (4).

The ship is filled with the enthusiasm of pastors and priests, who endeavored to bring the benefit of the true faith and the commerce and customs of the people of the new regions to the inhabitants of the new regions, and to bring the association of the natives to the Christian religion and the humanity of the nations born at the same time.

He helped the uninitiated to recall the religious orders instituted for the redemption of captives, whose members, ardent in the love of Christ, were not disdained to endure no little inconveniences for their brothers in chains, in order to give the majority of them freedom, or at least to be able to afford it.

But when new territories were discovered on the opposite side of the world, there was no lack of priests of Christ who were industrious companions of those who were conducting colonies in those regions, either that they should not depart from Christian morals, or that there would be no bold approach from the acquired earthly goods, or that missionaries should arise in a suitable and prompt manner, those natives, still completely ignorant of the divine light, they would teach the Gospel and proclaim that they should be regarded as brothers.

Nor are the heralds of the Church to be passed over in silence, who endeavored to restore the Blacks, who had been wickedly removed from their homes and exposed to the impious trade in the ports of America and Europe, from their fallen condition and to make a profit for Christ (5). 

We also want to add a few things about the constant care provided by the pious groups of Christians everywhere in the world and especially the alma in the city, which they say was used in the middle of the passing age, provided for the convenience of pilgrims; from which innumerable hospices, xenodochias, churches, and national confraternities sprang up, traces of many of which still exist. Among them, the schools of the pilgrims, Saxons, Lombards, Franks and Frisians, are worthy of special mention, which already in the eighth century were established at the Vatican near the tomb of B. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, to help the newcomers who traveled from the transalpine regions of Rome to visit the threshold of the Apostles. In these schools, equipped with their own churches and cemeteries, the priests and clerics of the aforementioned nations were brought up to take care of the material and spiritual care of their citizens, especially the sick and the poor. But to them, in the following centuries, other monasteries were added, and pilgrims' hospitals were attached to them, that is to say, Ethiopians or Abyssinians, Hungarians and Armenians. All this happily reeks of the words of the Apostle Paul exclaiming: "... sharing the needs of the saints, following hospitality" (6).

And what custom had proved, namely, that the sacred ministry among newcomers and foreigners is more useful if it is performed by priests of the same nation or language, especially when it comes to those who are uneducated or barely trained in Christian catechism, was solemnly confirmed by the Fourth Lateran Council in the year 1325, correctly proclaiming: "Since in most parts within the same city and diocese, peoples of different languages ​​are mixed, having under one Me various rites and manners: I command the district that the Pontiffs of such cities or dioceses provide suitable men who, according to the diversity of rites and languages, will celebrate the Divine offices for them and administer the ecclesiastical sacraments, instructing them by word as well as by example" (7). Which the Church has kept sacred until the present day, especially in parishes founded for the diversity of speech or nationality, and indeed for the variety of rites sometimes in dioceses set up at the right time, as we shall soon explain.

But how much such parishes, most frequently requested by foreigners, have benefited dioceses and souls, everyone knows and honors them with a worthy esteem. Therefore, they did not fail to consult the Code of Canon Law, according to the provisions of canon 266, paragraph 4, so that, with the gradual approval of the Apostolic See, the most numerous national parishes were counted, especially in America, and by the decree of the Consistory of the Sacred Congregation, lest we bring other examples, parishes for the Chinese in the Philippine Islands (8) 

II

Although there have been absolutely no times in which the Church's cares for emigrants, exiles, and refugees have been absent, let us not dwell on them any longer, but we think that only the last century should be referred to.

But before we attack the matter, it is appropriate to mention here the fifty volumes "On the Charity of the Apostolic See towards the Gauls" (9) preserved in the Vatican archives - really excellent evidence of the constant interest of the Roman Pontiffs in the wretched affairs of public overthrows or extorting for the cause of war - in which Our Deceased Pius Pp. 6 and Pius Pp. VII is illustrated by his paternal concern for the French, who, driven from their country, were either received with great liberality in the territories of the Papal States, and especially in Rome, or took refuge elsewhere.

We would also like to mention with worthy mention the Blessed Vincent Pallotti, Founder of the Catholic Apostolate Society. For he—whom We ourselves made the "decoration and ornament of the Roman Clergy" and joyfully brought back in the glowing procession of the Beatitudes at the beginning of the recently celebrated universal Jubilee—compelled by the love of souls and inflamed by the desire to strengthen the Catholic faith of the Italians who emigrated to England, not any of the members who, the spiritual of their citizens to take care of them, he sent to London; Our predecessor Pius Pp. 9 He gives the ability to strengthen the stake, with which, for the benefit of the Italian emigrants in particular, a temple in London would be raised from its foundations, to be dedicated to God in honor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles (10). (Google Translation of Pope Pius XII, Exsula Familia, August 1, 1952. See Exsul famila, Constitutio apostolica Pii XXII de spirituali emigrantium cura, d. 1 m. Augusti a. 1952 | PIUS XII (vatican.va).)

Our last true pope thus far was concerned not only about temporal needs, many of which were provided by Catholic religious communities and Catholic relief agencies and organizations, but about the spiritual needs of migrants. Pope Pius XII outlined a number of mandatory measures to be undertaken to provide the Sacraments to displaced Catholics. There are no such considerations in Dignitatis Infinita.

Human Trafficking

41. Human trafficking must also be counted among the grave violations of human dignity.[77] While it is not a new phenomenon, it has taken on tragic dimensions before our eyes, which is why Pope Francis has denounced it in particularly emphatic terms: “I reaffirm here that the ‘trade in people’ is a vile activity, a disgrace to our societies that claim to be civilized! Exploiters and clients at all levels should make a serious examination of conscience both in the first person and before God! Today the Church is renewing her urgent appeal that the dignity and centrality of every individual always be safeguarded, with respect for fundamental rights, as her social teaching emphasizes. She asks that these rights really be extended for millions of men and women on every continent, wherever they are not recognized. In a world in which a lot is said about rights, how often is human dignity actually trampled upon! In a world in which so much is said about rights, it seems that the only thing that has any rights is money.”[78]

42. For these reasons, the Church and humanity must not cease fighting against such phenomena as “the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism, and international organized crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations, and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism that would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.”[79] Confronted with these varied and brutal denials of human dignity, we need to be increasingly aware that “human trafficking is a crime against humanity.”[80] It essentially denies human dignity in at least two ways: “Trafficking profoundly disfigures the humanity of the victim, offending his or her freedom and dignity. Yet, at the same time, it dehumanizes those who carry it out.”[81]

Interjection Number Four:

While Dignitatis Infinita is correct to condemn human trafficking, including the marketing of “human organs and tissues,” it fails to note in this instance that there would be no trafficking in the marketing of human organs and tissues if false criterion of death called “brain death” had not been invented by a committee at the Harvad University School of Medicine in 1968 to justify in a ex post facto manner what had been done by Drs. Christian and Adam Barnard in South Africa the year before and had not that this false standard of death been endorsed by Karol Joszef Wojtyla/John Paul II, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, and wholeheartedly by Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself.

Moreover, Dignitatis Infinita ignores the fact that most of the leaders of those countries who have an “open borders” policy are doing nothing to combat the human trafficking that their own irresponsible policies have helped to foster, maintain, and institutionalize.

While it is true human beings are suffering greatly at the hand of traffickers, Dignitatis Infinita makes no recognition of the Actual Sins being committed against God Himself by the traffickers in violation of Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Commandments. Indeed, there is not one reference to the Ten Commandments within the text of Dignitatis Infinita, only a reference to the “Deuteronomic Code of love.”

No, as is the case in the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical travesty, which is the liturgical abuse par excellence that can never be corrected as its invalid on its face and thus offensive to God and useless for the sanctification and salvation of souls, where there almost no references to sin, hell, or to a God who judges and condemns those who die in a state of final impenitence, Dignitatis Infinita emphasizes “human dignity” above any concern of offenses to the fact that those who are guilty of such offenses commit sins that must be Confessed and Absolved by a true priest.

Naturalism is a hallmark of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, which has nothing at all do with the supernatural truths revealed to and taught infallibly by the Catholic Church, she who is the virginal and spotless mystical spouse of her Divine Founder, Invisible Head, and Mystical Bridegroom, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

On the Octave Day of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph

Today, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, is the Octave Day of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph in those Catholic venues observing the General Roman Calendar of 1954 and it is also the Commemoration of the Protomartyr of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Saint Fidelis Sigmaringen, O.F.M, Cap.

The readings contained in Matins for today’s Divine Office include a sermon given by Saint Augustine of Hippo about Saint Joseph’ perfect fidelity to will of God and how His foster-Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, willingly submitted Himself to Saint Joseph’s paternal authority, thus giving us all an example to follow:

The Angel did not speak falsely when he said to Joseph: Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. She is called wife because of the mutual confidence established between them at the time of her espousal, although he had not known her carnally, nor was he ever so to do. And the name of wife was not lost or rendered untrue because there had not been any carnal intercourse, and would not be in the future. She was, in fact, The Virgin; and therefore she was holier and a more wonderful source of joy to her husband just because she became a mother without a man's intervention. Thus he knew her to be like unto himself in faithfulness, unlike him as regards her offspring. On account of his faithful union, both of them merited the name of Christ's parents. And not only is she called his Mother, but he also is called his father, as being the husband of his Mother, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. But even though he was a father only in spirit, whilst she was Mother according to the flesh, yet they both were the parents of his humility, not of his glory; of his infirmity, not of his divinity.

For the Gospel doth not lie, when it saith: And Joseph and his Mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And in another place: His parents went to Jerusalem every year. And a little further on: And his Mother said unto him; Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. But, to shew that, apart from them, he had a Father who begat him without a mother, he answered them: How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And, as a set-off to this, lest anyone might think that by these words he denied his parents, the Evangelist immediately addeth: And they understood not the saying which he spoke unto them; and he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. To whom was he subject but to his parents? And who was thus subject but Jesus Christ, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God?

Why therefore was he subject to them who were so far below the form of God, except that he humbled himself, taking upon himself the form of a servant, of which form they were the parents? But truly, neither of them would have attained unto the parenthood of this form of a servant, except they had become respectively husband and wife, albeit without any carnal intercourse. And hence, when the ancestors of Christ are recounted in direct line of succession, the genealogy was fittingly traced down to Joseph. Otherwise, it would have been a slur upon the male sex, which is wont to be accorded the greater dignity. At the same time the truth did not suffer, for both Joseph and Mary were of the seed of David, from which it was prophesied that Christ should come. Note how thus all the good things of marriage are found in these parents of Christ: offspring, fidelity, the marriage bond. The offspring we know, was the Lord Jesus himself; their fidelity is proved because there was no adultery; the marriage bond, because there was no divorce. (Matins, The Divine Office, Octave Day of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph.)

Saint Joseph is the Patron of the Universal Church and the Protector of the Faithful. We must fly unto his patronage every day of our lives to help us to do will of God and to rely upon the intercession of his virginal spouse, Our Lady, the very Mother of God, especially by praying her Most Holy Rosary, to help us to make reparation for our own many sins and to pray for the restoration of a true pope on the Throne of Saint Peter, who will proclaim the Catholic Faith and not a naturalistic view of man as the center of all things.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!