Adhere to Catholic Realism, Not to the Cotton Candy of Worldly Victories

Although I have used the following passages from Pope Pius XI’s Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937, many times over the decades and, indeed, in Reviewing the Electoral College on a Step by Step Basis in 2024 just two days ago, I think that it is appropriate to cite them again as, despite the understandable relief and jubilation felt by the over seventy million Americans who voted to send former President Donald John Trump back to the White House following his loss four years ago, the savor of electoral victories is ephemeral. Such victories, no matter by what margins, are much like cotton candy that melts in the mouth and does not provide the body with any useful calories. Cotton candy may taste good, but it is simply a comfort food and nothing else.

Thus, here is a pertinent reminder from Pope Pius XI about how true social reform is realized:

And today we again repeat with all the insistency We can command: it is not enough to be a member of the Church of Christ, one needs to be a living member, in spirit and in truth, i.e., living in the state of grace and in the presence of God, either in innocence or in sincere repentance. If the Apostle of the nations, the vase of election, chastised his body and brought it into subjection: lest perhaps, when he had preached to others, he himself should become a castaway (1 Cor. ix. 27), could anybody responsible for the extension of the Kingdom of God claim any other method but personal sanctification? Only thus can we show to the present generation, and to the critics of the Church that "the salt of the earth," the leaven of Christianity has not decayed, but is ready to give the men of today -- prisoners of doubt and error, victims of indifference, tired of their Faith and straying from God -- the spiritual renewal they so much need. A Christianity which keeps a grip on itself, refuses every compromise with the world, takes the commands of God and the Church seriously, preserves its love of God and of men in all its freshness, such a Christianity can be, and will be, a model and a guide to a world which is sick to death and clamors for directions, unless it be condemned to a catastrophe that would baffle the imagination.

20. Every true and lasting reform has ultimately sprung from the sanctity of men who were driven by the love of God and of men. Generous, ready to stand to attention to any call from God, yet confident in themselves because confident in their vocation, they grew to the size of beacons and reformers. On the other hand, any reformatory zeal, which instead of springing from personal purity, flashes out of passion, has produced unrest instead of light, destruction instead of construction, and more than once set up evils worse than those it was out to remedy. No doubt "the Spirit breatheth where he will" (John iii. 8): "of stones He is able to raise men to prepare the way to his designs" (Matt. iii. 9). He chooses the instruments of His will according to His own plans, not those of men. But the Founder of the Church, who breathed her into existence at Pentecost, cannot disown the foundations as He laid them. Whoever is moved by the spirit of God, spontaneously adopts both outwardly and inwardly, the true attitude toward the Church, this sacred fruit from the tree of the cross, this gift from the Spirit of God, bestowed on Pentecost day to an erratic world.  (Pope Pius XI, Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937.)

The only path to personal salvation and true national greatness is by fidelity to Catholicism, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true justice within nations or peace among them.

With this supernatural reminder, therefore, upon which I will elaborate later, I will hereby provide readers with some general observations belonging to the natural order (personal and political) in as briefly possible.

Observations of the Natural Order

1. Former and Future President Trump and His Victory

First, as explained in the brief update I posted on this site’s home page about twenty-four hours ago, former and now, future President Donald John Trump possesses great courage on the natural level.

Donald John Trump is a man who made a reputation in the 1970s and 1980s as a vigorously self-promoting shaper of the skyline of Manhattan Island and, at the same time, as a headline grabbing womanizer who seemed to revel in each new scandal to the extent that even joked about with talk show hosts such as David Letterman and Larry King. Nothing seemed to faze him. Indeed, he flaunted his notoriety for self-effacing comedic effect.

Never lacking in self-confidence, Donald John Trump proudly proclaimed his adherence to liberal ideas and policies in various interviews and, famously, tried an unsuccessful effort to secure the Reform Party presidential nomination in 2000, during which quest he lambasted the man he sought to oppose, Patrick Joseph Buchanan, as a Nazi, something he himself would be called repeatedly by his former liberal, pro-abortion friends and associates from 2015 to the present time.

Trump turned his self-confidence from his “progressive” past to become the unlikely leader of a “populist” movement and, much to his own surprise, the President of the United States of America, which became the unpardonable “crime” that would bring down on him one false accusation and one unjustified and unjustifiable investigation after another, including two separate efforts to impeach one (one during his presidency and one after he had left office on January 20, 2021) and then four different criminal indictments with what became ninety-one different counts within those indictments after he had announced his intention to run for a second, non-consecutive term, and this is to say nothing about the two different civil lawsuits brought by the fascistic Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, meant to strip him of his right to do business within his native state and to have a contemptuous judge fine him in the amount of $455 million.

To withstand all these injustices and persecutions without the benefit of Sanctifying Grace is a testament to Donald John Trump’s personal resolve, although, it should be noted that, lacking any understanding of how to view these sufferings as Heaven-sent opportunities to make reparation for his sins, this natural courage, as certainly as admirable as it is—and it is very admirable indeed—are not meritorious for the salvation of his immortal soul. A man who possesses such natural courage can become a great saint, and to this end we must pray for his own conversion and that of his family members to the true Faith.

Second, unlike his campaigns in 2016 and 2020, former and future President John Trump delegate the responsibility for organizing and directing his campaign to “grownups,” that is to seasoned professionals who sought to map out a disciplined, targeted strategy to win the swing states, including hiring teams of attorneys within those states’ countries and assembling a veritable army of dedicated staffers to turn out the vote both for early voting and on election day itself. Assembling such a staff in 2020 might have resulted in different outcomes in states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. This time, however. Trump’s team also associated with professional pollsters and numbers crunching analysts that aided them in turning out the votes needed to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and North Carolina, noting that the states of Arizona and Nevada have yet to conclude the counting of their votes (Arizona, for example, is relying, it would appear, on the accounting team of Fred Flintstone and Barry Rubble with their abacuses to count the votes).

Third, this discipline appears to be carrying over into former and future President Trump’s transition team. Unlike eight years ago when neophyte president-elect Trump was unfamiliar with the structure of the Federal government nor the complexity of what it takes to staff the White House and to full the approximately three to four thousand political appointees at the sub-Cabinet level and even nominated people to Cabinet positions whom he did now and who, in many instances, were actually contemptuous of him and his stated policy positions and beliefs, President-elect Trump has committed himself to assuring that the people he nominates are on the “same page” with him and will not actively work against him and his policies as had the likes Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, John Kelly, John Bolton and so many others as part of the “Trump Resistance” from within during Trump's first term.

Fourth, now, as an American citizen who loves our country but who seeks her true good by praying and working for her Catholicization in every aspect of her national life, I have to admit that it is a wonderful thing on the purely natural level to see the members of the mainslime media throw histrionic fits of epic proportions to deny that half of the American public is sick and tired of their being disparaged by analysts, commentators, and alleged journalists who do not understand the magnitude of the material suffering that was imposed upon them by the ideologues who ran the Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr./Kamala Harris administration as Grandpa Joe sat on the Rehoboth Beach in Delaware eating ice cream under a beach umbrella. It is truly satisfying to see these high priests and priestesses who believe in their infallibility and invincibility melt down so emotionally as they conjure up horror stories of what they think will happen to them even though those stories are purely imaginary.

Fourth, to reiterate what I stated yesterday, the political comeback staged by the much maligned, much persecuted, much prosecuted and twice the target of would-be assassins Donald John Trump is one of most remarkable accomplishments in the history of American politics.

The only other man to be elected to two non-consecutive terms as President of the United States of America, Stephen Grover Cleveland, who had been elected to his first term from the governorship of the State of New York by defeating the virulent anti-Catholic James G. Blaine (R-Maine) in 1884 before losing the electoral college vote in 1888 to Indiana Governor Benjamin Harrison, who was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison (who served for exactly thirty one days—March 4, 1841-April 4, 1841), even though he won the national popular vote and defeated President Bejamin Harrison in a rematch in 1892, was never the hated figure that Donald John Trump has been ever since he announced in June of 2016 his candidacy to seek the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination and then wound up beating Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton on November 8, 2016. 

Fifth, moreover, this political comeback came with what no Republican presidential candidate had done since 2004, namely, to win a majority of the national popular vote, and this victory was made possible by a broad coalition of voters from coast to coast and from border to border.

Sixth, the hated outsider whose very persona launched the now extinct species known as “Never Trumpers” and the “Lincoln Project” who was barely tolerated by the Republican Party’s country club “we want more and more illegal immigration and more and more endless wars” establishment has entirely remade that party as a vessel of his “make America great again” movement, and no one aspiring to a Republican Congressional nomination any time soon will be able to claim independence from that movement and win primaries.

Mind you, I am not saying I agree with the “make America great again” movement as Catholicism is the only means to make nations great by making its citizens holy, but it is nevertheless a fact that the former and future president has consigned the statist likes of Addison Mitchell McConnell to the dustbin of history. This is not a bad thing as McConnell has never understood the suffering of those to whom Donald John Trump has appealed so successfully.

2. Former President Donald John Trump’s Next Administration

First, unfortunately, however, part of this remarkable comeback revolved around a concerted effort to “neutralize” the issue of the surgical killing of innocent preborn babies and to promote both contraception and in vitro fertilization. Here is a review of the harm that the forty-fifth and forty-seventh President of the United States of America has done in this regard:

1.  firmly stated belief that there must all legislation to restrict the surgical assassination of the innocent preborn must include “exceptions” even though the civil law can never justly permit the direct, intentional killing of any innocent human being.
2. A firmly stated belief that opposition to “exceptions” is “harsh” and “extreme.”
3. A firmly stated opposition to all “heartbeat bills,” which happen to be immoral for reasons discussed nearly three years ago in The Supreme Masters of Sophistry: Unable to Admit the Fifth Commandment Exists.
4. A firmly stated opposition to enforcing that part of the United States Code that prohibits the mailing of the human pesticide, abortion pills.
5. A firmly stated belief that the killing of the innocent preborn is a matter of the “Mutable Will of the People" and thus has nothing to do with rendering complete obedience to the immutable will of God.
6. A firmly stated support for in vitro fertilization (see Your "Pro-Life" President is At It Again) that he has repeated time and time again, not that it matters to Kamala Harris Emhoff or Timothy James Walz.
7. A firmly stated belief that the issue of the surgical execution of innocent preborn children is a “small” issue (see Baby Butchery is Not A "Small Issue" to Christ the King).
8. A firmly stated belief that “everyone” wanted the issue of surgical baby-killing to be “returned to the people,” a delusional falsehood as there would never have been any controversy at all over the Dobbs decision if “everyone” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned.

Donald John Trump has, by taking these positions, repositioned the “official” “conservative” position about baby butchery that is being adopted by many of his Congressional supporters, including the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives, James Jordan (R-Ohio). This "repositioning" was praised as follows by a commentator named David Sacks:

On the one issue where Democrats had an advantage, abortion, Trump deftly got ahead of the issue by rejecting a national ban and removing problematic language from the GOP platform. Harris wore out the issue by blatantly lying about Trump’s position and by exhibiting her own party’s extremism (nobody needed to see an abortion truck at the DNC). (As found at: David Sacks on X: "WHY TRUMP WON While the legacy media has a meltdown searching for hitherto undiagnosed psychoses in the electorate to explain its embrace of a Hitlerian strongman, the truth is much simpler than their fictions. This election is a reminder that after all the manufactured drama" / X)

• i. As noted in the past, Donald John Trump has thus accomplished what the likes of Lee Atwater (before his conversion to Catholicism), Richard Bond, Robert Joseph Dole, Jr., and many other Republicans sought and failed to accomplish: namely, the removal of the life issue from Republican campaigns as candidates show their fealty to the former president and not to Christ the King.

By taking these positions, therefore, President Donald John Trump has said, in effect, that he is done with the “cultural issues” and will focus on making America “great” while living quite comfortably with the daily slaughter of the innocent preborn, which his third  wife, Melania Knauss Trump, supports without restriction, reservation, or qualification.

This is not a matter of being “imperfect” as some would have us believe. This is a matter of supportimg the evil of willful murder in public law and a personal “choice” according to what the former and future president said earlier this year is the Mutable Will of the People". However, the “people” have no authority from the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Holy Trinity, to “permit” that which He has proscribed. Christ the King is sovereign, not the people, and anyone, priest or layman, who would minimize Trump’s support for this evil as being a “reflection” of “imperfection” has forgotten that the devil uses the very understandable fear that good people have of the “greater evil” to purchase silence from them as the so-called “lesser evil” does exactly what he wants done. Those of us who were aware of this support and objected to it strenuously were not demanding “perfection” but simply pointing that the devil does not care who does his bidding for him as long as it gets done, and I, for one, will continue to insist that what is morally permissible (that is, to vote for the “lesser of two evils”) can never be morally compulsory.

While I certainly understand and share in the relief that many feel about the defeat the truly repugnantly arrogant Kamala Haris Emhoff and the befuddled stooge of the Chinese Communist Party, Timothy James Walz, it would be tragic if those who voted for Trump as the “lesser evil” keep their mouths shut because of this relief. Good citizenship involves more than voting: it involves following what is done after an election and speaking out in opposition to those things that are opposed to the laws of God and the good of souls according to the marching orders given us by Pope Leo XIII in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:

But, if the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violate in the person of the supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime; a crime, moreover, combined with misdemeanor against the State itself, inasmuch as every offense leveled against religion is also a sin against the State. Here anew it becomes evident how unjust is the reproach of sedition; for the obedience due to rulers and legislators is not refused, but there is a deviation from their will in those precepts only which they have no power to enjoin. Commands that are issued adversely to the honor due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws. You are fully aware, venerable brothers, that this is the very contention of the Apostle St. Paul, who, in writing to Titus, after reminding Christians that they are "to be subject to princes and powers, and to obey at a word," at once adds: "And to be ready to every good work."Thereby he openly declares that, if laws of men contain injunctions contrary to the eternal law of God, it is right not to obey them. In like manner, the Prince of the Apostles gave this courageous and sublime answer to those who would have deprived him of the liberty of preaching the Gospel: "If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)

Pope Pius XII explained the necessity of resisting unjust laws throughout the course of his nineteen-year pontificate. Here are but two examples:

Everybody knows that the Catholic Church does not act through worldly motives, and that she accepts any and every form of civil government provided it not be inconsistent with divine and human rights. But when it does contradict these rights, Bishops and the faithful themselves are bound, by their own conscience to resist unjust laws. (Pope Pius XII, Allocution on the Cardinal Mindszenty Arrest, as found at: New York Times, February 15, 1949.)

26. We earnestly exhort “in the heart of Christ” (Phil. 1. 8) those faithful of whom We have mournfully written above to come back to the path of repentance and salvation. Let them remember that, when it is necessary, one must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and with greater reason, one must render to God what is God’s (Cf. Luke 20. 25). When men demand things contrary to the Divine Will, then it is necessary to put into practice the maxim of St. Peter: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5. 29). Let them also remember that it is impossible to serve two masters, if these order things opposed to one another (Cf. Matt. 6. 24). Also at times it is impossible to please both Jesus Christ and men (Cf. Gal. 1. 10). But if it sometimes happens that he who wishes to remain faithful to the Divine Redeemer even unto death must suffer great harm, let him bear it with a strong and serene soul.

27. On the other hand, We wish to congratulate repeatedly those who, suffering severe difficulties, have been outstanding in their loyalty to God and to the Catholic Church, and so have been “counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5. 41). With a paternal heart We encourage them to continue brave and intrepid along the road they have taken, keeping in mind the words of Jesus Christ: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell . . . But as for you, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not be afraid . . . Therefore everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I in turn will disown him before my Father in heaven” (Matt. 10. 28, 30-33). (Pope Pius XII, Ad Sinarum Gentes, October 7, 1954.)

Pope Pius XII also explained that nations not built upon the firm foundation of the Catholic Faith must wind up as places of injustice and iniquity:

4. If we weigh carefully the causes of today’s crises and those that are ahead, we shall soon find that human plans, human resources, and human endeavors are futile and will fail when Almighty God — He who enlightens, commands, and forbids; He who is the source and guarantor of justice, the fountainhead of truth, the basis of all laws — is esteemed but little, denied His proper place, or even completely disregarded. If a house is not built on a solid and sure foundation, it tumbles down; if a mind is not enlightened by the divine light, it strays more or less from the whole truth; if citizens, peoples, and nations are not animated by brotherly love, strife is born, waxes strong, and reaches full growth.

5. It is Christianity, above all others, which teaches the full truth, real justice, and that divine charity which drives away hatred, ill will, and enmity. Christianity has been given charge of these virtues by the Divine Redeemer, who is the way, the truth, and the life,[2] and she must do all in her power to put them to use. Anyone, therefore, who knowingly ignores Christianity — the Catholic Church — or tries to hinder, demean, or undo her, either weakens thereby the very bases of society, or tries to replace them with props not strong enough to support the edifice of human worth, freedom, and well-being.

6. There must, then, be a return to Christian principles if we are to establish a society that is strong, just, and equitable. It is a harmful and reckless policy to do battle with Christianity, for God guarantees, and history testifies, that she shall exist forever. Everyone should realize that a nation cannot be well organized or well ordered without religion. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

We would never be arguing about the inarguable (the inviolability of innocent human life, the fact that there are only two genders, that the sin of Sodom and its related vices are abhorrent and can never enjoy the favor of the civil law nor be celebrated within civil society, etc.) in a country that recognizes the Sovereignty of Christ the King and that acknowledges the authority of the Catholic Church to interpose herself with the civil authorities in all that pertains to the good of souls after exhausting her Indirect Powers of teaching, preaching, exhortation, and admonition to warn such authorities of the consequences for defying the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law.

As Pope Pius XII noted sixty-six years ago, “there must be a return to Christian principles if we are to establish a society that is strong, just, and equitable,” and no matter admirable is the extraordinary electoral victory won by President Donald John Trump on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, it will come to naught if he persists in a laissez-faire attitude about evils that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.

Second, Donald John Trump’s contentment in relinquishing any leadership to protect innocent human life while establishing his own false positions as the “gold standard” for Republican candidates will result in more injustices and disparities of the sort that were voted upon according to the “mutable will of the people” two days ago:

The 2024 election was a mixed bag for abortion rights.

Voters in seven states moved to protect abortion access by passing ballot initiatives that will amend their state constitutions to include protections for reproductive rights. But similar measures in three other states failed—a blow to abortion-rights supporters. And the country ultimately decided to reelect the man who has claimed credit for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade: former President Donald Trump.

Measures meant to protect abortion rights passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York, but failed in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota. This election saw the highest number of statewide abortion-related ballot measures in a single year, surpassing the previous record of six in 2022. The results break a previous trend—before this year, voters had sided with abortion rights every time the issue has been on state ballots since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision two years ago.

Many polls have shown that most Americans support abortion rights, but 21 states have either banned or restricted abortion since the Dobbs decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. As state lawmakers have taken steps to curtail abortion rights, advocates have turned to state ballot initiatives to try and protect access. The majority of the statewide abortion-related measures that appeared on the ballot this year were citizen-led initiatives.

Here are the results of the statewide abortion-related ballot measures in 2024.

Arizona

In the battleground state of Arizona, voters approved a measure that will establish “a fundamental right to abortion under Arizona’s constitution,” allowing abortions until fetal viability or later if an abortion is needed to protect the pregnant person’s life or health.

Nearly 62% of voters supported the measure, while about 38% voted against it, with about 60% of votes counted as of 9:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday. The Associated Press called the race at 3:31 a.m. ET on Wednesday. 

Currently in Arizona, abortion is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies. But the newly-passed amendment is expected to upend the state’s existing restrictions on abortion.

Colorado

Voters in Colorado supported a ballot measure that will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, with more than 61% voting in favor and nearly 39% voting against it, as of 5:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday when about 73% of votes were counted. The AP called the race at 10:26 p.m. on Tuesday.

The state already allows for abortion at any stage of pregnancy, but supporters of the measure have said that the amendment will ensure that future state lawmakers wouldn’t be able to roll back abortion rights. The amendment will also repeal a nearly 40-year-old ban on state and local government money being used to pay for abortion services.

Florida

In Florida, a measure that would have amended the state constitution to guarantee the right to abortion up until fetal viability or when necessary to protect the health of the pregnant person, failed. The measure needed the support of at least 60% of voters to pass, but fell short, with about 57% of Floridians voting in favor and nearly 43% voting against, as of 9:49 a.m. ET on Wednesday when about 99% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 9:06 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Florida has banned abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many people know they’re pregnant. The restriction carries some exceptions, such as when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. With the failure of the proposed amendment, the state’s existing six-week ban will remain in place.

The lead-up to Election Day was contentious for the ballot initiative. Those behind the measure launched an extensive campaign to reach voters, sharing the stories of many people who were unable to receive care because of the state’s restrictions. But state officials tried to keep the initiative off the ballot and repeatedly attacked the campaign.

Lauren Brenzel, director of the campaign behind the ballot measure, said at a press conference Tuesday night that the vote breakdown showed that the majority of Florida voters supported it, even though the measure ultimately failed. Brenzel called on Florida politicians to repeal the six-week ban, given the vote breakdown.

“They are tired of women dying because of abortion bans. They are tired of women being forced to give birth to children who died in their arms because of abortion bans,” Brenzel said. “A bipartisan group of voters today sent a clear message to the Florida legislature.”

Maryland

Maryland voters passed a measure that will enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. The AP called the race at 9:28 p.m. on Tuesday. About 74% of Maryland voters supported the measure and nearly 26% rejected it, as of 4:34 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 76% of votes were counted.

Unlike most of the other statewide abortion-rights measures this year, this initiative was placed on the ballot after a vote from Maryland’s Democratic-controlled legislature. Abortion is already legal in the state until fetal viability—or after that if necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health, or if the fetus has a serious abnormality—but, as with the initiative in Colorado, supporters have said that this amendment will prevent the possibility of state lawmakers restricting access in the future.

Missouri

In a major win for abortion-rights supporters, Missouri voters decided to amend its state constitution to guarantee the right to abortion until fetal viability, with exceptions after that if the pregnant person’s life or physical or mental health is at risk. Nearly 52% of voters backed the measure, while 48% rejected it, with about 99% of the vote counted by 9:34 a.m. ET. on Wednesday. The AP called the race at 11:24 p.m. on Tuesday.

The newly-passed amendment is expected to invalidate Missouri’s existing near-total ban on abortion, which is one of the strictest in the country.

Montana

In Montana, more than 57% of voters supported amending the state constitution to guarantee the right to abortion until fetal viability, or after that if necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health. The measure passed, since it only needed a simple majority, with nearly 43% of voters rejecting it, as of 9:47 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 87% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 6:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Abortion is currently legal until fetal viability in Montana, and the Montana Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that abortion is protected under the state constitution. But state lawmakers have tried to restrict abortion in the past few years, and reproductive rights advocates have said that the measure would protect abortion rights if lawmakers continue those attempts in the future.

Montana voters previously weighed in on reproductive healthcare in 2022, when they rejected a legislative referendum that would have further restricted abortion by classifying an embryo or fetus as a legal person entitled to medical treatment if they are born prematurely or in the rare case that they survive an attempted abortion.

Nebraska

Unlike the other states voting on the issue this year, Nebraska had two competing abortion-related measures on the ballot.

Ultimately, voters backed the measure that will amend the state constitution to include a ban on abortion in the second and third trimesters, with exceptions for medical emergencies, rape, or incest. About 55% of Nebraskans voted in favor of the measure, while nearly 45% voted against it, as of 6:52 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 99% of votes were counted. The AP called the race at 1:02 a.m. on Wednesday.

The other initiative, which would have enshrined the right to abortion until fetal viability in the state constitution (with exceptions beyond that in situations when an abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health), failed, with more than 51% of voters rejecting it and nearly 49% supporting it, as of 6:52 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 99% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 3:27 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

In Nebraska, abortion is currently prohibited beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the pregnant person’s life. The failure of the abortion-rights initiative allows the state’s existing restriction to remain in place, and the passing of the anti-abortion amendment will enshrine the restriction into the state’s constitution.

Nevada

Voters in Nevada took the first step to enshrining the right to abortion until fetal viability, or later when necessary to protect the pregnant person’s life or health, in the state constitution. About 63% of voters supported the abortion-rights measure and about 37% rejected it, as of 5:09 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 84% of the votes were counted. The measure only needed a simple majority to pass, but voters will need to approve it again in 2026 in order to officially amend the state constitution. The AP called the race at 3:21 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Nevada currently allows abortions until the 24th week of pregnancy.

New York

New York will amend its state constitution to include equal rights protections, such as declaring that no one should be discriminated against because of “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Nearly 62% of people voted in favor of the measure, while almost 39% voted against it, as of 9:49 a.m. ET on Wednesday, with about 88% of the vote counted. The AP called the race at 9:31 p.m. ET on Tuesday. New York was the only other state, in addition to Maryland, that had a legislative abortion-related initiative on the ballot.

Abortion is allowed until fetal viability in New York. The New York initiative didn’t explicitly mention abortion, but was a broad equal rights amendment that included protections for reproductive healthcare, as well as factors like ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

South Dakota

South Dakota voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have guaranteed the right to abortion in the first trimester. The measure needed a simple majority to pass, but only about 40% voted in favor, while nearly 60% voted against it, as of 9:55 a.m. ET on Wednesday, when about 90% of the votes were counted. The AP called the race at 2:49 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

The initiative would have also amended the state constitution to allow the state to regulate abortion in the second trimester only if “reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman,” and permit the state to regulate or prohibit abortion in the third trimester except in situations where abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant person’s health or life.

Because the measure failed, South Dakota’s near-total abortion ban will remain in place. (How the 10 States’ Abortion Ballot Initiatives Fared.)

None of this should be subjected to any kind of vote, and some of the supposedly “pro-life” initiatives above had broad “exceptions” within their text. This is not of God.

God has commanded. We must obey.

Once again, those who continue to pose the old “do not let the perfect be the enemy of the merely good” canard fail to recognize that the direct, intentional taking of any innocent human life under the cover of the civil law is to evil under any circumstances, no matter who supports it, and evil must be opposed, not indemnified by silence and a false sense of relief as I do not think that the babies who will continue to be killed in the next four years are “relieved” that the “people” can decide their fate rather than the courts. Once God gives life, of course, it is forever.

Second, it is evidently the case that the former and future president of the United States of America is serious about mandating free funding for in vitro fertilization for those who want to make use of the baby-killing practice of artificial procreation:

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that if he's elected again, his administration would fund in vitro fertilization treatments.

“I was always for IVF. Right from the beginning, as soon as we heard about it,” the Republican nominee said in an interview with NBC News in Michigan.

Trump told NBC he’d support public funding for in vitro fertilization, or a mandate requiring insurance companies to cover it. He reiterated the proposal during a town hall in La Crosse, Wisc. Thursday evening, but he did not provide any details on how the plan would work.

The procedure to treat infertility can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

“We’re doing this because we just think it’s great. And we need great children, beautiful children in our country, we actually need them,” Trump told NBC.

Some anti-abortion activists want to restrict or ban IVF because the process typically involves discarding excess embryos. But most voters, including many Republicans, support access to the procedure.

An Alabama Supreme Court decision earlier this year temporarily cut off access to IVF until state lawmakers intervened, forcing many high-profile Republicans to weigh in on the issue.

Trump’s comments come as he appears to be trying to soften his image on reproductive rights ahead of the November election over concerns about voter backlash. Abortion is expected to be a key issue in the election, with Democrats warning voters that Republicans would further restrict access to reproductive healthcare if former Trump is elected. (Trump says he'll support free IVF treatments in a second term. A reader of this site sent me a video that is related to all this. The video makes the connection between population control Malthusianism and the homosexual agenda, most of which is supported wholeheartedly by former and future President Donald John Trump: INTERVIEW 1916 Project - History & Agenda of Planned Parenthood.)

Sadly, most Senate and House Republicans will “get in line” behind the forty-seventh president of the United States of America after his inauguration on January 20, 2025. Our loyalty, though, must be to Christ the King and not to the princes of this world in whom there is no hope of salvation.

Third, it must always be remembered that former and future President Donald John Trump is a firm supporter of most, although not all of the sodomite agenda, It is not for nothing, my friends, that his victory speech less than twenty-four hours ago ended with the Village People’s 1979 ode sodomy called “YMCA.”

Just an imperfection?

No, I dissent.

Fourth, turning to mundane matters, the new administration is only going to have a short window of approximately twenty-one months to accomplish its legislative agenda before the 2026 midterm elections on November 3, 2026. With Republicans controlling the United States Senate and, as it appears as of this writing, the United States House of Representatives, President Trump will have to move quickly to accomplish (a) genuine tax reform; (b) curb the scope of the administrative state and its crushing output of burdensome regulations, many of which are truly fascistic in character; (c) curb the power of the national security apparatus; (d) secure the border: (e) provide for the degree of energy independence he achieved during his first term; and (f) to let Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., do what is possible to clean out the insects who live within the nooks and crannies of the “public health community” and to limit the ability of Big Pharma and Big Agriculture to poison our bodies.

Fifth, it is entirely probable that the newly inaugurated President Donald John Trump will seek to convince Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, who is seventy-six years of age, and Samuel L. Alito, who is seventy-four years of age, to retire by the end of the Supreme Court of the United States of America’s 2025-2026 term to permit him to nominate “constitutionalist” successors while the Republican Party has a majority of seats in the United States Senate.

Sixth, the fact remains that, as a friend of mine wrote to me yesterday morning, that Donald John Trump is owned by the Synagogue. This is true.

Although the former and future president is genuinely concerned about preventing needless wars, he will also give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu everything the latter desires to continue his genocidal madness in Gaza, Lebanon in the belief that this genocide will so humiliate Israeli’s “enemies” that they will voluntarily subjugate themselves to Israeli domination in perpetuity.

There is no more I need to say about this than I have written in the past in  Jerusalem Belongs To Christ the King, part one, Jerusalem Belongs to Christ the King and His True Church, part two, Jerusalem Belongs to Christ the King and His True Church, part three,  Jerusalem Belongs to Christ the King and His True Church, part four, Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part two, "Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domnini, Hosanna in Excelsis," part three, No One Has Killed More Israelis Than the Israelis Themselves, Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part four, Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part five, and "Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini! Hosanna in Excelsis!", part six.

Seventh remains to be seen whether the former and future president will continue to attend the World Economic Forum meetings and/or send representatives of his to the Bilderberger meetings as both are instruments of the “global reset” and thus of the “new world order” that already exists in name if not in fact. One cannot claim to be opposed to Eurosocialism and cooperate with these meetings and the elitists who have long arrogated unto themselves the right to act as demigods to decide the fate of men and their nations in the name of “saving the planet.”

Eighth, the new president-elect promised last year to free pro-life prisoners of conscience who were prosecuted for violating the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act” (FACE) and charge with “violence” although they engaged in non-violent sit-ins. We must pray that he will follow through on this promise at the same time he is likely to pardon most, if not all, of those who were convicted and imprisoned of committing nonviolent offenses (such as trespassing) during the riots provoked in large measure by governmental agents provocateur on January 6, 2021.

There are doubtlessly other matters not listed here. However, the fact that Kamala Harris Emhoff and Timothy James Walz have been defeated very decisively does not mean all will be well in the next four years as the following truth enunciated by Silvio Cardinal Antoniano four and one-half centuries ago applies everywhere and in all circumstances:

The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society. This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity. (Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, quoted by Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929.) 

Governments that are “religiously neutral,” however, must end up awash in a sewer of evil as men, especially today given the paucity of a superabundance of Sanctifying and Actual Grace caused by the sacramentally barren liturgical rites of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, govern themselves and their nations by means of sentimentality or raw majoritarian impulses. Such governmental systems must place jurists who might know better into making one legal argument after another, no matter how constitutionally or statutorily sound, on a purely naturalistic basis, thus placing into straitjackets from which it is impossible to extricate themselves. One cannot fight naturalism/secularism/humanism with naturalism/secularism/humanism. One can only fight naturalism/secularism/humanism with Catholicism, nothing else.

All this having been noted, therefore, it is certainly true that all happens with the Providence of God, Who has provided us with what might be a respite from the crushing power of the leviathan state with all its censorship, over-taxation, over-regultion, vaccine mandates, endless mandates to control the manufacture and use of such things as toaster ovens, air conditioning units, washing machines and the like. 

Nevertheless, however, while can admire and the remarakble courage and tenacity that President-elect Donald John Trump has demonstrated during all that he has endured from those who believe that justice is defined by the old Soviet maxim ("you show me the man, I'll show you the crime"), we must ever remember that we are to yoke ourselves only to Christ the King and His Holy Catholic Church. 

We are required to pray for our national leaders and, as I stated before, we must pray for the conversion of the former and future president and his entire family so that he can govern more wisely, correct his errors on major moral issues and, most importantly, sanctify and save his immoral soul.

Still Divided by Error as We Say Good Riddance to Kamala Harris

Although Donald John Trump is only the third Republican to win a majority of the national popular vote since 1988 (George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988; George Walker Bush in 2004), the fact remains that the United States of America, which was founded upon a welter of Calvinist-Judeo-Masonic and Pelagian errors, remains divided by error as the socialist, militantly pro-death, pro-sodomite, pro-child mutilation duo of Kamala Harris Emhoff and Timothy Walz “Everybody is equal in China” Walz (yeah, Elmer, equally oppressed, monitored, and controlled) is receiving 47.5% of the national popular vote total with more votes to be counted in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

There is no need to belabor this point except to say, as I have said what seems like a billion times before, error divides, Catholicism unites.

Good riddance to Kamala Harris Emhoff and Timothy James Walz.

Good riddance to Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and his wife Edith Wilson Jill Jacobs Stevenson Biden.

Good riddance to Merrick H. Garland and Jack Smith, who can now return to The Netherlands, where he had been living for over a decade before being appointed unconstitutionally by Garland to engage in the sort of crippling lawfare against a former president that Smith had tried against former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (who was the dour Senator John Kerry's vice presidential running mate in 2004) and Commonealth of Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell but wound up failing spectacularly in both cases as he was rebuked by the Supreme Court of the United States of America for his manipulation of the law for poltical purposes.

Garland has distinguished himself by calling parents in Loudon County, Virginia, as "terrorists" for opposing the local school district's policy of permitting boys use girls' bathrooms, unleashed the full force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation against pro-life Americans such as Mark Houck, John Hinshaw, and among so many others, Joan Andrews Bell, and consistently shown his contempt of Congress by his refusing to provide documents that Congressional committees had subpoeaned and to which they were entitled under the exercise of their oversight responsibilities. 

Good riddance to Alejandro Mayorkas and his own contempt for the United States Code's laws against illegal immigration and for Congressional oversight of his illegal policies, and good riddance to his indiffrence to the grief caused families by the assaults and murders of their relatives by illegal immigrants. 

Good riddance to the weasely Christopher Wray and his refusal to rein in the transformation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from a legitimate arm of law enforcement to an arm of the deep state to persecute its oppoents, including labeling so-called "radical traditional" Catholic groups as "domestic terrorists."

Oh, by the way, and just as a reminder, folks: for those who criticize me for supposedly not being alarmed about the evils that would be done by Harris-Walz administration, I have been on the "to do list" for a while now. I would have faced more investigative scrutiny than in the past under such an administration, especially considering Kamal Harris Emhoff's own epic anti-Catholicism and the fact that Mao Tse Walz said that the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America does not protect "hate speech," which was (a) predicated on an outright falsehood about the amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States of America; and (b) based upon an ideological definition of "hate speech" to include defending the Catholic Faith, seeking with urgency the unconditionL conversion of all non-Catholics to that true Faith, and opposing the public promotion and legal protection afforded to the sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance. (Please see Believing Catholics Pose No Threat to a Just Social Order.)

Good riddance to the direct influence, if not control, of George and Alex Soros on the policies of the Federal government of the United States of America, although they will, no doubt, continue to engage in the subterfuge of American national security and the enforcement of criminal law while funding "community organizers" to try to restore one of their stooges to the White House.

All these scolding, pompous, and arrogantly divisive promoters of one abject evil after another must be the object of our prayers for their conversion as we remember that there are many replacements in the adversary’s supply of pro-aborts to take their place, and thus the battle between the false opposites of the naturalist “left” and the naturalist “right,” each of whom is forever seeking their “hope” in their own perspective “secular savior” to “solve” problem that are caused remotely by Original Sin and proximately by Actual Sins, will continue until everyone can say: “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis!

Concluding Observations

There has been much talk during the election cycle about restoring freedom.

However, contrary to what the former and future President Trump said in his victory speech less than twenty-four hours ago, American exceptionalism is not the guarantor of authentic human liberty.

The one and only standard of authentic human liberty is the Holy Cross of the Divine Redeemer, Christ the King, no matter who wins elections.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul, [12] Having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works, which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation. [13] Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake: whether it be to the king as excelling; [14] Or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good: [15] For so is the will of God, that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

[16] As free, and not as making liberty a cloak for malice, but as the servants of God. [17] Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. [18] Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. [19] For this is thankworthy, if for conscience towards God, a man endure sorrows, suffering wrongfully. [20] For what glory is it, if committing sin, and being buffeted for it, you endure? But if doing well you suffer patiently; this is thankworthy before God.

[21] For unto this are you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. [22] Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. [23] Who, when he was reviled, did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not: but delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly. [24] Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed. [25] For you were as sheep going astray; but you are now converted to the shepherd and bishop of your souls. (1 Peter 2: 11-25.)

Our true popes have remninded us that that human liberty is not a license to do or to say whatever one desires as their limits that exist in the nature of things and/or have been defined by Our Lord and His Holy Church beyond which men cannot transgress legitimately:

"This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again? (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling." (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)

So, too, the liberty of thinking, and of publishing, whatsoever each one likes, without any hindrance, is not in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. On the contrary, it is the fountain-head and origin of many evils. Liberty is a power perfecting man, and hence should have truth and goodness for its object. But the character of goodness and truth cannot be changed at option. These remain ever one and the same, and are no less unchangeable than nature itself. If the mind assents to false opinions, and the will chooses and follows after what is wrong, neither can attain its native fullness, but both must fall from their native dignity into an abyss of corruption. Whatever, therefore, is opposed to virtue and truth may not rightly be brought temptingly before the eye of man, much less sanctioned by the favor and protection of the law. A well-spent life is the only passport to heaven, whither all are bound, and on this account the State is acting against the laws and dictates of nature whenever it permits the license of opinion and of action to lead minds astray from truth and souls away from the practice of virtue. To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from the business of life, from the making of laws, from the education of youth, from domestic society is a grave and fatal error. A State from which religion is banished can never be well regulated; and already perhaps more than is desirable is known of the nature and tendency of the so-called civil philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. She it is who preserves in their purity the principles from which duties flow, and, by setting forth most urgent reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to turn away from wicked deeds, but even to curb all movements of the mind that are opposed to reason, even though they be not carried out in action. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

We place our hope only in Christ the King and His Most Blessed Mother, remembering that we can plant the seeds for the conversion of our fellow citizens and thus of the nation if we remain faithful to Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary and accept everything that happens to us, whether individually or socially, with equanimity as the consecrated slaves of Our King’s Most Sacred Heart through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Yes, my friends, it is the Rosary that is, after Holy Mass and Eucharistic piety, the chief means by which the evils of the present day will be retarded, and the seeds planted for the Triumph of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Pope Leo XIII, writing in Laetitiae Sanctae, September 8, 1893, noted:

The third evil for which a remedy is needed is one which is chiefly characteristic of the times in which we live. Men in former ages, although they loved the world, and loved it far too well, did not usually aggravate their sinful attachment to the things of earth by a contempt of the things of heaven. Even the right-thinking portion of the pagan world recognized that this life was not a home but a dwelling-place, not our destination, but a stage in the journey. But men of our day, albeit they have had the advantages of Christian instruction, pursue the false goods of this world in such wise that the thought of their true Fatherland of enduring happiness is not only set aside, but, to their shame be it said, banished and entirely erased from their memory, notwithstanding the warning of St. Paul, "We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one which is to come" (Heb. xiii., 4).

When We seek out the causes of this forgetfulness, We are met in the first place by the fact that many allow themselves to believe that the thought of a future life goes in some way to sap the love of our country, and thus militates against the prosperity of the commonwealth. No illusion could be more foolish or hateful. Our future hope is not of a kind which so monopolizes the minds of men as to withdraw their attention from the interests of this life. Christ commands us, it is true, to seek the Kingdom of God, and in the first place, but not in such a manner as to neglect all things else. For, the use of the goods of the present life, and the righteous enjoyment which they furnish, may serve both to strengthen virtue and to reward it. The splendor and beauty of our earthly habitation, by which human society is ennobled, may mirror the splendor and beauty of our dwelling which is above. Therein we see nothing that is not worthy of the reason of man and of the wisdom of God. For the same God who is the Author of Nature is the Author of Grace, and He willed not that one should collide or conflict with the other, but that they should act in friendly alliance, so that under the leadership of both we may the more easily arrive at that immortal happiness for which we mortal men were created.

But men of carnal mind, who love nothing but themselves, allow their thoughts to grovel upon things of earth until they are unable to lift them to that which is higher. For, far from using the goods of time as a help towards securing those which are eternal, they lose sight altogether of the world which is to come, and sink to the lowest depths of degradation. We may doubt if God could inflict upon man a more terrible punishment than to allow him to waste his whole life in the pursuit of earthly pleasures, and in forgetfulness of the happiness which alone lasts for ever.

It is from this danger that they will be happily rescued, who, in the pious practice of the Rosary, are wont, by frequent and fervent prayer, to keep before their minds the glorious mysteries. These mysteries are the means by which in the soul of a Christian a most clear light is shed upon the good things, hidden to sense, but visible to faith, "which God has prepared for those who love Him." From them we learn that death is not an annihilation which ends all things, but merely a migration and passage from life to life. By them we are taught that the path to Heaven lies open to all men, and as we behold Christ ascending thither, we recall the sweet words of His promise, "I go to prepare a place for you." By them we are reminded that a time will come when "God will wipe away every tear from our eyes," and that "neither mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow, shall be any more," and that "We shall be always with the Lord," and "like to the Lord, for we shall see Him as He is," and "drink of the torrent of His delight," as "fellow-citizens of the saints," in the blessed companionship of our glorious Queen and Mother. Dwelling upon such a prospect, our hearts are kindled with desire, and we exclaim, in the words of a great saint, "How vile grows the earth when I look up to heaven!" Then, too, shall we feel the solace of the assurance "that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. iv., 17).

Here alone we discover the true relation between time and eternity, between our life on earth and our life in heaven; and it is thus alone that are formed strong and noble characters. When such characters can be counted in large numbers, the dignity and well-being of society are assured. All that is beautiful, good, and true will flourish in the measure of its conformity to Him who is of all beauty, goodness, and truth the first Principle and the Eternal Source. (Pope Leo XIII, Laetitiae Sanctae, September 8, 1893.) 

I will never tire of reminding the readers of this site that Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

I will never tire of opposing the lies of naturalism and of documenting the various ways in which the naturalists of the false opposites of the "right" and of the "left" agree on the same basic anti-Incarnational and semi-Pelagian principles upon which the Modern state is based and with which conciliar revolutionaries have made their "official reconciliation" and even help to propagate by means of the "new evangelization."

And I will never tire of reminding readers of this site that we must, as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, use the shield of the Brown Scapular and the weapon of the Most Holy Rosary to combat the forces of the world, the flesh and the devil in our own lives so that we might be able to plant a few seeds for the glorious day when all men and all women everywhere will exclaim:

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

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 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 Balthasar, pray for us.

All the Saints, pray for us.