Conciliar Cowardice on Full Display in the Capitol Rotunda

As noted on the home page, so much was done by former President in Name Only Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and so much was said by President Donald John Trump on Monday, January 20, 2025, the Feast of Saints Fabian and Sebastian, to say nothing of how much President Trump has done and is doing after having begun his second term as President of the United States of America, that it is going to take several articles to cover everything in the depth that I believe is necessary to put those words and actions into a coherent Catholic perspective.

Thus, this brief commentary is going to focus on the fact that the conciliar “archbishop” of New York, Timothy Michael “Cardinal” Dolan and a retired presbyter from the Diocese of Brooklyn (which encompasses the counties of Kings and Queens within the City of New York, both of which are located geographically on Long Island but, as the Borough of Brooklyn and the Borough of Queens, are political subdivisions of the City of New York, New York; just a little state and local politics for you, good readers as counties are subdivisions of state governments while municipalities have subdivisions of their own in many places), Reverend Frank Mann, prayed at the inaugurations of President Donald John Trump and Vice President James Davd Vance in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington, District of Columbia, at noon on Monday, January 20, 2025, without mentioning the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ even once. No, not once on a day in January, the month of the Holy Name of Jesus.

Two Protestants, William Franklin Graham IV of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Lorenzo Sewell of the nondenominational Protestant 180 Church in Detroit, Michigan, did so mention Our Lord’s Holy Name at the end of their own respective orations, although Mr. Sewell’s text included a very lethal dose of old-fashioned American religious indifferentism as made sure to include Jews, Mohammedans, Catholics, and Protestants in the quite obviously sincerely held belief that no one religion has any claim of truth over the other.

There was, of course, another person who joined with the Reverend Mann to give one of the two “benedictions” and that was a Talmudic rabbi named Ari Berman, who made absolutely no pretense about what he believed as one who disbelieves in the Most Holy Trinity and in the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Just a little something for everyone in this melting pot of universal salvation and every philosophical and theological error imaginable.

Let us begin with the Judeo-Masonic prayer read by the very slimmed down Timothy Michael Dolan, who will have to submit his conciliar code of canon law’s mandated resignation letter when he turns seventy-five years of age on February 6, 2025, the Feast of Saint Titus and the Commemoration of Saint Dorothy, a letter that Jorge Mario Bergoglio will accept with ready gladness, of course:

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Supreme among the nations, supreme on the earth, [making the Sign of the Cross] let us pray:

Remembering General George Washington on his knees at Valley Forge, recalling Abraham Lincoln at his second inaugural, “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,” remembering Gen. George Patton’s instructions to his soldiers as they began the Battle of the Bulge eight decades ago:

Observing the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King who warned, “Without God our efforts turn to ashes.”

We, blessed citizens of this one nation under God, humbled by our claim that “In God We Trust,” gather indeed this Inauguration Day to pray: for our president Donald J. Trump, his family, his advisers, his Cabinet, his aspirations, his vice president; for the Lord’s blessings upon Joseph Biden, for our men and women in uniform, for each other, whose hopes are stoked this new year, this Inauguration Day, we cannot err in relying upon that prayer from the Bible, upon which our president will soon place his hand in oath, as we make our own the supplications of King Solomon for wisdom as he began his governance.

God of our fathers, in your wisdom you set man to govern your creatures, to govern in holiness and justice, to render justice with integrity: Give our leader wisdom, for he is your servant aware of his own weakness and brevity of life, if wisdom, which comes from you be not with him he shall be held in no esteem. Send wisdom from Heavens that she may be with him, that he may know your designs.

Please, God bless America, please mend her every flaw. You are the God in whom we trust, who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen! (Cardinal Dolan’s Prayer For President Trump on Inauguration Day.)

Before commenting on this religious indifferentist prayer that made no mention of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, noting that “Cardinal” Dolan did make the Sign of the Cross silently so as, I suppose, not to disturb the religious sensibilities of non-Catholics (which is a standard conciliar practice on occasions of this sort), I will turn now to the text of the Reverend Frank Mann, the retired conciliar presbyter from the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, who befriended President Trump when he, Mann, saw that the graves of the president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, had become overgrown with weeds at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, during Trump’s first term as president and then bought a weed whacker to clear up the overgrowth before sending a photograph to the then forty-fifth president, who then thanked him in a phone call for doing so. Here is Mr. Mann’s prayer:

“We gather here today in reverence, joined in our shared hopes and dreams for our beloved nation. In this sacred moment of the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, we turn our hearts to You, seeking Your Divine assistance and abundant blessings upon this pivotal moment in history. We come before You with profound gratitude to the many gifts You have bestowed upon our land. Thank you for the freedoms we cherish, for the strength of our communities, and for the resilience of our spirit.

As our president and vice president embrace their newly appointed roles, we humbly implore that Your everlasting love and wisdom will envelop them. Grant them the clarity of mind to navigate the challenges that lie ahead, and the compassion to serve all citizens with fairness and integrity. May their hearts be filled with a giving spirit and sincere understanding for those whom they represent. May they be beacons of hope in times of uncertainty, and prophetic voices in defending the dignity of all created life.

We pray for a spirit of collaboration to flourish in our government and across our nation, fostering an environment where dialogue and heartfelt listening will prevail over division or discord. May each decision made by our president and vice president reflect the values of justice and peace. As we embark on this new chapter, we also seek your comfort, oh God, for those who feel lost or disheartened. In this time of transition, may your light shine upon them, reaffirming their belief in a brighter tomorrow.

May we all strive to lift one another, supporting our fellow citizens with kindness and empathy, recognizing that together we can overcome any adversity. Grant us the strength to endure, the courage to face our fears, and the clarity to see the light that remains even when clouds of uncertainty may gather. Inspire our new leaders to be champions for the vulnerable and advocates for those whose voices are often silenced. May they pursue policies that promote the well-being of all, seeking to build bridges that will foster unity and belonging.

As we stand witness to this inauguration, we hold fast to the faith, to our faith in the goodness of each of us, and the possibility of change. We trust that, with your guidance, oh God, our nation can move forward to a future filled with promise, prosperity, and understanding.

And finally, we lift our hearts in gratitude for the beloved parents of President Trump. Without Mary and Fred Trump, this day would never be the miracle that has just begun. From their place in Heaven, may they shield their son from all harm by their loving protection, and give him the strength to guide our nation along the path that will make America great again.

Let us go forth now with these words of President Trump’s, emblazoned on our hearts: ‘As long as we have pride in our beliefs, courage in our convictions, and faith in our God, then we will not fail.’ ‘We stand tall, we stand proud, because we are Americans. And Americans kneel to God, and to God Alone.’ Amen.” (Catholic clergy offer prayers for Trump, Vance at inauguration.)

There are several observations to be made about these prayers offered by putative Catholic clergymen, including one is considered to a Prince of the Church, although I will start with “Father” Mann first before discussing “Cardinal” Dolan.

First, what stands out about “Father” Mann’s oration other than his scandalous omission of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ from its text is that it is replete with the same kind of Pelagianism (the belief that human beings can stir up in themselves whatever graces they need to do what they set their minds and wills to accomplishing, a heresy that is at the foundation of all secular political ideologies, starting with Lockean liberalism right on through Bolshevik and Maoist Communism) that has characterized almost every presidential inaugural address dating back to George Washington’s first inaugural address in Federal Hall, New York City, on April 30, 1789 and including, of course, Donald John Trump’s own inaugural address on Monday, January 20, 2025.

Second, related to “Father Mann’s religious indifferentism is his abject Americanism, which

Pride in our beliefs?

Whose beliefs?

What beliefs?

Whose God?

Americans kneel to God?

Really?

The so-called “Make America Great Again” movement has become a quasi-religion in itself. As I have noted repeatedly over the years, no country can be make either again for the first time unless its people confess the one, true Faith and are united in their efforts to pursue sanctity as befits redeemed creatures who seek to cooperate with the ineffable graces that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ won for them during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces. Personal sanctity is the necessary precondition for order within the soul, which even the pagan philosopher Plato said was the foundation for a just order within societies even though he died some three hundred fifty years before the birth of Christ the King. Thus, fortified by Sanctifying Grace men can better cooperate with the Actual Graces that flow out of every true offering of Holy Mass to pursue the common temporal good in light of man’s last end, the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost for all eternity in Heaven.

Here is a reminder of Pope Saint Pius X’s injunction in this regard:

That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. It limits the action of the State to the pursuit of public prosperity during this life only, which is but the proximate object of political societies; and it occupies itself in no fashion (on the plea that this is foreign to it) with their ultimate object which is man’s eternal happiness after this short life shall have run its course. But as the present order of things is temporary and subordinated to the conquest of man’s supreme and absolute welfare, it follows that the civil power must not only place no obstacle in the way of this conquest, but must aid us in effecting it. (Pope Saint Pius X, Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906.)

The civil state has a duty to help to foster those conditions wherein men can best sanctify and thus save their immortal souls as members of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order. There can be no true reform of societies without the reform of men, and the reform of men is made possible only by the Sanctifying Graces administered exclusively by the true Church that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope. The best summary of this can be found in Pope Pius XI’s condemnation of Nazism, Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937, that was issued two days before his condemnation of Marxist Communism in Divini Redemptoris, March 19, 1937:

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.)

As we know so very well, most men alive today live for base pleasures without any thought of the supernatural. Men are thus prone to believe in the nonexistent “salvific” power of this or that political ideology du jour (the “woke” movement of “progressivism, which is but another name for Bolshevism) and/or in the equally nonexistent “salvific” powers of this or that political figure, whether of the false opposite of the naturalist “left” or “right,” which leads to nothing other than endless agitation and utterly needless divisions on matters that exist in the nature of things and are thus not subject to human debate, “revision” or “rejection.”

Anyhow, the diabolical electoral system that creates such agitation and division, which is the exact opposite of the peace and unity that is produced by the Catholic Faith, has been rigged from its beginning to be an instrument of disorder and chaos. This is so because the men who founded the United States of America had a contempt for the “old ways” of Catholic Europe in the Middle Ages, believing themselves to be the evangelists, if you will, of what the gnostic political scientist Leo Strauss called “the new science of politics.” This “new science” was designed to blunt the force of the true Faith in public life by convincing one and all that it is “enough” to be “Americans” and that it is possible to pursue the common temporal good without reference to the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law as they are explicated by Holy Mother Church in all that pertains to the good of souls, upon which rests the very fate of nations.

The Protestant convert turned Catholic apologist Orestes Brownson understood these facts in the first phase of life as a Catholic following his conversion and thus wrote his famous essay, National Greatness, to amplify truths that every Catholic, but especially those who believe themselves to be a priest or a bishop, should understand thoroughly:

In order, then, to determine in what true national greatness consists, we must determine in what consists true individual greatness; and in order to determine in what true individual greatness consists, we must determine what is the true end of man; that is, what is the end to which Almighty God has appointed man, and which he is while here to labor to secure. What, then, is the end of man? For what has our Maker placed us here? To what has he bidden us aspire? Were we placed here merely to be born and to die,-to live for a moment, continue our species, toil, suffer, drop into the grave to rot, and be no more for ever? If this be our end, true greatness will consist in living for this life only, and in being great in that which pertains to this life. The greatest man will be he who succeeds best in amassing the goods of this world, in securing its honors and luxuries, or simply in multiplying for himself the means of sensual enjoyment. In a word, the greatest man will be he who most abounds in wealth and luxury.

We mean not to say, that, in point of fact, wealth and luxury, worldly honors and sensual gratifications, are the chief goods of even this life; but simply that they would be, if this were our only life, if our destiny were a destiny to be accomplished in this world. It is because this world is not our home, because we are merely travellers through it, and our destination is a world beyond it, that the life of justice and sanctity yields us even here our truest and most substantial pleasure. But confine man to this life, let it be true that he has no destiny beyond it, and nothing could, relatively to him, be called great or good, not included under the heads of wealth and luxury. Nothing could be counted or conceived of as of the least value to him that does not directly or indirectly minister to his sensual enjoyment. No infidel moralist has ever been able, without going out of his own system, or want of system, to conceive of any thing higher, nobler, more valuable, than sensual pleasure.

But this life is not our only life, and our destiny is not accomplished here. The grave is not our final doom; this world is not our home; we were not created for this world alone; and there is for us a life beyond this life. But even this, if we stop with it, does not answer our question. We may conceive of a future life as the simple continuation of our present natural life, and such the future life is conceived to be by not a few among us, who nevertheless flatter themselves that they are firm believers in the life and immortality brought to light through the Gospel. Every being may be said to have a natural destiny or end, which its nature is fitted and intended to gain. The Creator, in creating a being with a given nature, has given that being a pledge of the means and conditions of fulfilling it, of attaining to its natural end. Man has evidently been created with a nature that does not and cannot find its complete fulfilment in this life. He has a natural capacity for more than is actually attainable here. In this capacity he has the promise or pledge of his Maker that he shall live again. (Orestes Brownson, National Greatness.)

Material well-being is not the end of human existence. Holy Mother Church is not indifferent to material well-being, but its pursuit must a byproduct of using one’s God-given talents honestly for His greater honor and glory and with a sense of moderation and temperance. Pope Leo XIII explained this in Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891:

But the Church, with Jesus Christ as her Master and Guide, aims higher still. She lays down precepts yet more perfect, and tries to bind class to class in friendliness and good feeling. The things of earth cannot be understood or valued aright without taking into consideration the life to come, the life that will know no death. Exclude the idea of futurity, and forthwith the very notion of what is good and right would perish; nay, the whole scheme of the universe would become a dark and unfathomable mystery. The great truth which we learn from nature herself is also the grand Christian dogma on which religion rests as on its foundation -- that, when we have given up this present life, then shall we really begin to live. God has not created us for the perishable and transitory things of earth, but for things heavenly and everlasting; He has given us this world as a place of exile, and not as our abiding place. As for riches and the other things which men call good and desirable, whether we have them in abundance, or are lacking in them -- so far as eternal happiness is concerned -- it makes no difference; the only important thing is to use them aright. Jesus Christ, when He redeemed us with plentiful redemption, took not away the pains and sorrows which in such large proportion are woven together in the web of our mortal life. He transformed them into motives of virtue and occasions of merit; and no man can hope for eternal reward unless he follow in the blood-stained footprints of his Savior. "If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him."Christ's labors and sufferings, accepted of His own free will, have marvelously sweetened all suffering and all labor. And not only by His example, but by His grace and by the hope held forth of everlasting recompense, has He made pain and grief more easy to endure; "for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory."

Therefore, those whom fortune favors are warned that riches do not bring freedom from sorrow and are of no avail for eternal happiness, but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the threatenings of Jesus Christ -- threatenings so unwonted in the mouth of our Lord -- and that a most strict account must be given to the Supreme Judge for all we possess. The chief and most excellent rule for the right use of money is one the heathen philosophers hinted at, but which the Church has traced out clearly, and has not only made known to men's minds, but has impressed upon their lives. It rests on the principle that it is one thing to have a right to the possession of money and another to have a right to use money as one ills. Private ownership, as we have seen, is the natural right of man, and to exercise that right, especially as members of society, is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary. "It is lawful," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "for a man to hold private property; and it is also necessary for the carrying on of human existence.'' But if the question be asked: How must one's possessions be used? -- the Church replies without hesitation in the words of the same holy Doctor: "Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need. Whence the apostle saith, 'Command the rich of this world . . to offer with no stint, to apportion largely'." True, no one is commanded to distribute to others that which is required for his own needs and those of his household; nor even to give away what is reasonably required to keep up becomingly his condition in life, "for no one ought to live other than becomingly." But, when what necessity demands has been supplied, and one's standing fairly taken thought for, it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over. "Of that which remaineth, give alms." It is duty, not of justice (save in extreme cases), but of Christian charity -- a duty not enforced by human law. But the laws and judgments of men must yield place to the laws and judgments of Christ the true God, who in many ways urges on His followers the practice of almsgiving -- "It is more blessed to give than to receive"; and who will count a kindness done or refused to the poor as done or refused to Himself -- "As long as you did it to one of My least brethren you did it to Me." To sum up, then, what has been said: Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others. "He that hath a talent," said St. Gregory the Great, "let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility hereof with his neighbor."

As for those who possess not the gifts of fortune, they are taught by the Church that in God's sight poverty is no disgrace, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of in earning their bread by labor. This is enforced by what we see in Christ Himself, who, "whereas He was rich, for our sakes became poor''; and who, being the Son of God, and God Himself, chose to seem and to be considered the son of a carpenter -- nay, did not disdain to spend a great part of His life as a carpenter Himself. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?"

From contemplation of this divine Model, it is more easy to understand that the true worth and nobility of man lie in his moral qualities, that is, in virtue; that virtue is, moreover, the common inheritance of men, equally within the reach of high and low, rich and poor; and that virtue, and virtue alone, wherever found, will be followed by the rewards of everlasting happiness. Nay, God Himself seems to incline rather to those who suffer misfortune; for Jesus Christ calls the poor "blessed"; He lovingly invites those in labor and grief to come to Him for solace; and He displays the tenderest charity toward the lowly and the oppressed. These reflections cannot fail to keep down the pride of the well-to-do, and to give heart to the unfortunate; to move the former to be generous and the latter to be moderate in their desires. Thus, the separation which pride would set up tends to disappear, nor will it be difficult to make rich and poor join hands in friendly concord. (Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891.)

One can see that the recent convert Orestes Brownson had been given great graces by Our Lady to write so clearly on themes that our true popes themselves would elucidate at length several decades later as one secular political ideology after another rose to the surface to promise “salvation” (the “better world”) without the Cross of the Divine Redeemer, and I return herewith to “National Greatness”:

The promises of God cannot fail. Man therefore must and will live again. But this is only the pledge, so to speak, of a natural immortality, and reveals to us only a natural destiny. It is only a continuation of our natural life in another world. The end we are to labor for, and the means we are to adopt to gain it, must be precisely what they would be in case our life were to terminate at the grave. Our future life being still a natural life, what is wisest and best for that portion we are now living would be wisest and best for that portion we are hereafter to live. Hence, what is wisest and best for time would be wisest and best for eternity.

Hence it is that we find so many who, though professing belief in a future life, judge all things as if this life were our only life. They look to the future life only as the continuation of the present, and expect from it only the completion of their natural destiny. They agree in all their moral judgments, in all their estimates of the worth of things or of actions, with those who believe in no future life at all. They profess to hope for a future life, but live only for time; because their future life is to be only a continuation of time. Hence they say, as we ourselves were for years accustomed to say, He who lives wisely for time lives wisely for eternity; create a heaven here, and you will have done your best to secure your title to a heaven hereafter.

Hence it is that the morality of many who profess to be Christians is the same which is adopted and defended by infidels. This is so obviously the case, that we not unfrequently find men who call themselves Christians commending downright unbelievers in Christianity as good moral men, and who see no reason why the morality of the infidel should not be the same in kind as the morality of the Christian. Hence it is supposed that morality may be taught in our schools, without teaching any peculiar or distinctive doctrine of Christianity. Morality, we are told, is independent of religion, and not a few regard it as sufficient without religion. So common has this mode of thinking and speaking become amongst us, that we heard the other day a tolerably intelligent Catholic, who would by no means admit himself to be deficient in the understanding or practice of his Catholic duties, say, that, if a man were only a good moral man, he did not care what was his distinctive religious belief. Many who go further, and contend that religion is necessary to morality, contend for its necessity only as a sort of police establishment. It is necessary, be cause the natural sanctions of the moral law are not quite sufficient to secure obedience, and religion must be called in by its hopes and fears to strengthen them.

Pope Leo XIII wrote about a concept of morality divorced from supernatural faith in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:

God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved, that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is of course both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty, and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once remove all impediments and allow the Christian spirit to revive and grow strong in a nation, and that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realise that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established (by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictates respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Seditions and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without let or hindrance there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from whom we should never have gone astray; to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession. All elements of the national life must be made to drink in the Life which proceedeth from Him- legislation, political institutions, education, marriage and family life, capital and labour. Everyone must see that the very growth of civilisation which is so ardently desired depends greatly upon this, since it is fed and grows not so much by material wealth and prosperity, as by the spiritual qualities of morality and virtue. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)

There is no naturalistic, electoral, political, or legal way out of the mess in which we find ourselves. We are witnessing the manifestation of the perfection of the inherent degeneracy of the founding principles, a degeneration that includes social decadence and nihilism.

Our destiny is supernatural, not natural, and national greatness must be defined by the pursuit of personal holiness as befits redeemed creatures:

Now all this is perfectly consistent and right, if it be true that man has only a natural destiny. We ought, in such a case, to judge all things which concern us precisely as if this were our only life. Religion could be of no value further than it strengthened the police, kept people from picking one another's pockets or cutting one another's throats. But man's destiny is not natural, but supernatural. Almighty God created him with a specific nature, but not for an end in the order of that nature, or to be attained by its simple fulfilment. He created him to his own image and likeness, but appointed him to a supernatural destiny,-to an end above what is attainable by the fulfilment of his nature,- to an end not promised in his nature, and which is not be stowed as the reward of fulfilling it. This end is to know and love God; but in a sense far higher than we can know and love him by our natural powers, and as he is now beheld through a glass, darkly, or seen dimly through the medium of his works, as we see the cause in the effect. It is to see him face to face, and to know and love him with a knowledge and love the same in kind, though not in degree, with which God knows and loves himself ;-this is the end for which man was intended, and which it is made his duty and his high privilege to seek. But this end surpasses the utmost capacity of our nature, and requires not only a supernatural revelation of God, but the supernatural elevation of our nature itself. It consists in our being made partakers of the divine nature in an ineffable sense, and in a sense above that in which we partake of it in being created after the image and likeness of God. Hence, St. Peter says, "By whom [Jesus Christ] he hath given us very great and precious promises, that by these you may be made partakers of his divine nature." So also St. John :-" We are now the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; because we shall see him as he is."

This fact in these times is overlooked. Men have wished to rationalize the Gospel, to find a philosophic basis for the mysteries of faith. In attempting this, they have labored to bring the whole of divine revelation, within the domain of reason, and have been led to exclude, as no part of it whatever they found themselves unable to bring within that domain. Reason is necessarily restricted to the order of nature, and can in no instance, of itself, go out of that order. Hence, revelation has come very widely to be regarded as only a republication of the natural law, as at best 'only a running commentary on it, designed simply to explain the natural order, and not to reveal any thing above it.

Men who claim to be Christians, and even ministers of the Gospel, everywhere abound, who have no faith in the supernatural order, scarcely a conception of it. We spent nearly two hours the other day trying to enable a Protestant minister, and him by no means a weak or ignorant one, even to conceive of the supernatural; but in vain. So perverted had his mind become by the false theologies of modern times, that he could attach no meaning to the assertion, "There is a supernatural order." He could use the word supernatural, but it had no meaning for his mind not within the order of nature. Thousands are in the same sad condition. To them nature is all, and all is nature. Indeed, the word nature itself has no definite meaning for them. If a man by a word raise the dead, it is natural; if Moses smite the rock and living waters gush forth, it is natural,-all by a natural power, a natural law. Travelling in the same direction, they lose themselves in a wilderness of absurdities.

Yes, most men today have no faith in the supernatural order and scarcely a conception of it. Nature is indeed everything to most men, and, to call to man the quote from Father Faber’s The Precious Blood that I cited in part one of this commentary, “the very air we breathe is Pelagian.” Pelagianism is the essence of Lockean liberalism, and it is the essence of American conservativism. The belief that we can “do something” without Our Lord and His true Faith is nothing other than the old deception that the adversary used to convince Eve and Adam through her to disobey God and eat of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that He had forbidden them to eat, and this is why the American founding’s errors have brought us to the point of a not-so-soft totalitarianism that can never be fought with means merely natural.

I return now to “National Greatness”:

Natural laws cease to be laws imposed on nature, laws she must obey, and from which she cannot withdraw herself, and become forces, agents, creators. It is not strange, then that they lose sight of the supernatural destiny of man, and look only for a natura1 destiny, to be obtained not as a reward for obedience to grace, but as the natural consequence of the cultivation or development of our natural powers. Read the writings of the celebrated Dr. Channing, or of the school which he founded or to which he was attached, and you shall never find a single recognition of the supernatural order, properly so called,-any allusion to a supernatural destiny. The highest end you will find presented is that to which we may attain by the unfolding of our higher nature, of our natural sentiments of love and reverence. The school goes so far as to contend that our nature is susceptible of an unbounded good, and that our natural sentiments of love and reverence are capable of an infinite expansion. Yet these are rational Christians, and they boast of their reason! They talk of the absurdities of Catholic theology, and see no absurdity in supposing that a finite nature may be infinitely expanded, or that a nature can be something more than it is without any thing super-natural.

But this by the way. The true end for which man is to live is the supernatural end to which we are appointed, the beatitude which God hath promised to all that love and serve him here. His true end is not the fulfilment of nature, but what the sacred Scriptures term "eternal life"; and "This is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." We cannot know God, without loving him. Hence we say, the end of man is to know and love God. But to know him intuitively, as he knows himself; for we are to see him as he is, -not as he appears through the medium of his works, but as he is in himself. We cannot thus know him naturally, for thus to know him exceeds the power of the highest possible created intelligence. We must be like him, before we can see him as he is,-be made, in a supernatural sense, partakers of his divine nature. To know him intuitively as he is in himself, is, however, the glorious destiny to which we are appointed, and to which we may attain, if we will. A more glorious destiny we cannot desire. In it we possess God himself, who is the sovereign good. Even here we find our highest good in knowing the truth and loving goodness, dim as is our view of the one, and feeble as is our hold of the other. What must it be, then, when we come to behold, by the light of glory, our God face to face, with no cloud intervening to obscure his infinite beauty, no distance between us and his ineffable love? Well may it be said, "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what our God hath prepared for them that love him." He will reward them with no inferior, no created good; but will give them himself, will himself be their portion for ever.

But this supernatural destiny, since it is supernatural, is not naturally attainable. We may cultivate all our natural powers, we may fill up the highest and broadest capacities of our nature, realize the highest ideal, and yet be infinitely, -we use the word in its strict sense,-infinitely below it. It is not attained to by "self-culture," by the development and exercise of our highest natural powers, including even the boasted sentiments of love and reverence. It is nothing that is due, or ever can be due, to our nature. It is a gift, and can be obtained only as bestowed. But it will be bestowed only on the obedient, and is bestowed as the reward of obedience. Our destiny is eternal life, and the condition of obtaining it is obedience. Obedience is not, as some of the sects teach, the end for which we were made. We were made not that we might obey God, but that we might possess God, and we obey him as the condition of possessing him. (National Greatness. This was written when Orestes Brownson was fresh with enthusiasm for the Holy Faith. After his insistence that Holy Mother Church has primacy over the civil state got him in big trouble with the American bishops, he eventually became a supporter of the Americanist notions of religious liberty, freedom of conscience, and he also became a critic of The Syllabus of Errors. The early phase of Brownson’s Catholic years represented his best grasp of the Holy Faith, therefore.)

True national greatness requires an adherence to the Holy Faith. There are no shortcuts. None.

Nothing now is really substantially different than in the past except that we are only witnessing the manifestation of the perfection of inherent degeneracy of the American founding principles, which in themselves represent a rejection of Divine Revelation, the authority of Holy Mother Church and of the necessity for men to have their intellects truly enlightened and their wills strengthened by having belief in, access to and cooperation with Sanctifying Grace.

There is no secular, naturalistic or electoral means to hold back a tide of evil that has been gathering strength since the Renaissance and, most especially, after Martin Luther tacked those ninety-five theses onto the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.

Entire nations of men, including the United States of America, of course, cannot keep offending Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by continuing to kill the innocent preborn by surgical and chemical means, promote perversity and its multifaceted vices as "human rights," speak profanely and blasphemously, dress immodestly and indecently, and pursue one material pleasure after another without calling down upon themselves His Holy wrath.

There is not much to say about Timothy Michael Dolan’s “invocation” is concerned except that, as in the case of “Father” Frank Mann’s “”benediction,” the omission of the Holy Name of Jesus is just boilerplate conciliarism on occasions such as a presidential inauguration except that, following the example set by the conciliar “popes,” Dolan and Mann retreat into a cowardly refusal to do what the Apostles themselves did in all circumstances no matter who was listening to them: Proclaim the Holy Name of Jesus without fail:

A final point to make about “Father” Mann’s oration is that he placed lifelong, rock-ribbed Presbyterians Fred and Mary Trump in Heaven:

While I realize full well that the lords of conciliarism have “canonized” more people as saints than had been canonized by true popes prior to the dawning of the age of conciliarism, I do not believe that Fred and Mary Trump have been among those so “canonized.”

Perhaps it would be instructive for “Father” Mann to consider these words of our true popes:

It is therefore by force of the right of Our supreme Apostolic ministry, entrusted to us by the same Christ the Lord, which, having to carry out with [supreme] participation all the duties of the good Shepherd and to follow and embrace with paternal love all the men of the world, we send this Letter of Ours to all the Christians from whom We are separated, with which we exhort them warmly and beseech them with insistence to hasten to return to the one fold of Christ; we desire in fact from the depths of the heart their salvation in Christ Jesus, and we fear having to render an account one day to Him, Our Judge, if, through some possibility, we have not pointed out and prepared the way for them to attain eternal salvation. In all Our prayers and supplications, with thankfulness, day and night we never omit to ask for them, with humble insistence, from the eternal Shepherd of souls the abundance of goods and heavenly graces. And since, if also, we fulfill in the earth the office of vicar, with all our heart we await with open arms the return of the wayward sons to the Catholic Church, in order to receive them with infinite fondness into the house of the Heavenly Father and to enrich them with its inexhaustible treasures. By our greatest wish for the return to the truth and the communion with the Catholic Church, upon which depends not only the salvation of all of them, but above all also of the whole Christian society: the entire world in fact cannot enjoy true peace if it is not of one fold and one shepherd. (Pope Pius IX, Iam Vos Omnes, September 13, 1868)

So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: “The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly.” The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that “this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills.” For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. "For in one spirit" says the Apostle, "were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free." As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered - so the Lord commands - as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

No, “Father” Mann, we cannot say that Fred and Mary Trump are in Heaven any more than Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict could say twenty years ago that his friend named Roger Schutz, a Protestant syncretist who co-found the Taize Ecumenical Community had attained “eternal joy” after he had been stabbed to death by one of his. Schutz’s faithful followers:

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI expressed his sorrow at the murder of Brother Roger Schutz, saying the founder of the ecumenical Taizé Community is “in the hands of eternal goodness.”

Brother Roger, 90, was stabbed to death by a woman Tuesday at an evening prayer service attended by 2,500 people in the Burgundy region in France, authorities said. A 36-year-old Romanian woman was detained by witnesses and turned over to police, authorities said.

The Pope showed emotion as he expressed his grief, at the end of today’s general audience.

“This news has affected me even more because precisely yesterday I received a very moving, affectionate letter from Frère Roger,” the Pope said, addressing the pilgrims gathered in the patio of the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.

“In it he wrote that from the depth of his heart he wanted to tell me that ‘we are in communion with you and with those who have gathered in Cologne,’” the Holy Father said.

Hopes for Cologne

Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had known Brother Roger for a long time.

During Pope John Paul II’s funeral, Cardinal Ratzinger, the then dean of the College of Cardinals, surprised observers when he went up to Brother Roger, who was in a wheelchair, to give him Communion. Brother Roger was not Catholic.

In his letter, the founder of the ecumenical community explained to the new Pope that “because of his state of health, unfortunately he would not be able to come personally to Cologne, but that he would be present spiritually with his brothers.”

The letter, written in French, expressed Brother Roger’s desire “to come as soon as possible to Rome to meet with me and to tell me that ‘our Community of Taizé wants to go forward in communion with the Holy Father,’” according to Benedict XVI.

The letter ended with these words in Brother Roger’s own handwriting: “Holy Father, I assure you of my sentiments of profound communion. Frère Roger of Taizé.”

“At this moment of sadness,” the Pope said, “we can only commend to the Lord’s goodness the soul of this faithful servant of his.”

“Frère Schutz is in the hands of eternal goodness, of eternal love; he has attained eternal joy,” the Holy Father added. “He invites and exhorts us to be faithful laborers in the Lord’s vineyard, also in sad situations, certain that the Lord accompanies us and gives us his joy.” (Benedict Mourns Murder of Taizé’s Brother Roger.)

“He has attained eternal joy.”

Roger Schutz never converted to the Catholic Faith. He had no “mission” from God to sanctify and to save souls. He remained a heretic to the day of his death. This mattered not to Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.

To “canonize” Fred and Mary Trump may be boilerplate conciliarism, but it is not Catholicism.

[26] Then went the officer with the ministers, and brought them without violence; for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. [27] And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, [28] Saying: Commanding we commanded you, that you should not teach in this name; and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you have a mind to bring the blood of this man upon us. [29] But Peter and the apostles answering, said: We ought to obey God, rather than men. [30] The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom you put to death, hanging him upon a tree.

[31] Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. [32] And we are witnesses of these things and the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to all that obey him. [33] When they had heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they thought to put them to death. [34] But one in the council rising up, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, respected by all the people, commanded the men to be put forth a little while. [35] And he said to them: Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do, as touching these men.

[36] For before these days rose up Theodas, affirming himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all that believed him were scattered, and brought to nothing. [37] After this man, rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the enrolling, and drew away the people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as consented to him, were dispersed. [38] And now, therefore, I say to you, refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this council or this work be of men, it will come to nought; [39] But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God. And they consented to him. [40] And calling in the apostles, after they had scourged them, they charged them that they should not speak at all in the name of Jesus; and they dismissed them.

[41] And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. [42] And every day they ceased not in the temple, and from house to house, to teach and preach Christ Jesus. (Acts 5: 26-42.)

Far from the warped, twisted mind of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an anti-apostle who keeps silent about the Holy Name of Jesus in “mixed company,” the saint whose work preaching about the Name above all other Names was responsible for the feast we celebrated on Sunday, January 3, 2015, explained that the Holy Name of Jesus is the glory of preachers:

The name of Jesus is the glory of preachers, because the shining splendor of that name causes his word to be proclaimed and heard. And how do you think such an immense, sudden and dazzling light of faith came into the world, if not because Jesus was preached? Was it not through the brilliance and sweet savor of this name that God called us into his marvelous light? When we have been enlightened, and in that same light behold the light of heaven, rightly may the apostle Paul say to us: Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.

So this name must be proclaimed, that it may shine out and never be suppressed. But it must not be preached by someone with sullied mind or unclean lips, but stored up and poured out from a chosen vessel. That is why our Lord said of Saint Paul: He is a chosen instrument of mine, the vessel of my choice, to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. In this chosen vessel there was to be a drink more pleasing than earth ever knew, offered to all mankind for a price they could pay, so that they would be drawn to taste of it. Poured into other chosen vessels, it would grow and radiate splendor. For our Lord said: He is to Carry my name.

When a fire is lit to clear a field, it burns off all the dry and useless weeds and thorns. When the sun rises and darkness is dispelled, robbers, night-prowlers and burglars hide away. So when Paul's voice was raised to preach the Gospel to the nations, like a great clap of thunder in the sky, his preaching was a blazing fire carrying all before it. It was the sun rising in full glory. Infidelity was consumed by it, false beliefs fled away, and the truth appeared like a great candle lighting the whole world with its brilliant flame.

By word of mouth, by letters, by miracles and by the example of his own life, Saint Paul bore the name of Jesus wherever he went. He praised the name of Jesus at all times, but never more than when bearing witness to his faith. Moreover, the Apostle did indeed carry this name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel as a light to enlighten all nations. And this was his cry wherever he journeyed: The night is passing away, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves honorably as in the day. Paul himself showed forth the burning and shining light set upon a candlestick, everywhere proclaiming Jesus, and him crucified.

And so the Church, the bride of Christ strengthened by his testimony, rejoices with the psalmist, singing: 0 God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. The psalmist exhorts her to do this, as he says: Sing to the Lord, and bless his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. And this salvation is Jesus, her savior." (Saint Bernardine of Siena, (Sermo 49, De glorioso Nomine Iesu Christi, cap 2: Opera omnia, 4. 505-506)

The refusal of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his band of revolutionaries to utter the Holy Name of Jesus when the presence of those who do not believe in Our Lord’s Sacred Divinity stands in stark contrast to the examples provided us by millions of martyrs, many of whom died with the sweet Name of Jesus on their very lips as they died after refusing to disown the only Name given to men by which they can be saved.

What a scandal it is, therefore, that two Protestants whose false religions mock the integrity of the Sacred Deposit of Faith by omitting entire books from Holy Writ and using blasphemous and heretical translations from its text to suit their theological relativism and rationalism as well as making up a moral “theology” that has served as a template for Modernists such as Jorge Mario Bergoglio did what the did putative Catholic clergymen failed to do: mention the Holy Name of Jesus, although only at the end while engaging in their celebration of Americanism:

Mr. President, the last four years, there are times, I’m sure, you thought. It was pretty dark. But look what God has done. We praise him and give him glory.”

Prayer:
“Our Father and our God, thou hast said, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. As the prophet Daniel declared: ‘Blessed be the name of God, forever and ever. For wisdom and might are His. He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.’”

“Our Father, today, as President Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office once again, we come to say thank you, O Lord our God. Father, when Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out, You, and You alone, saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by Your mighty hand. We pray for President Trump that You’ll watch over, protect, guide, and direct him. Give him Your wisdom from Your throne on high. We ask that You would bless him and that our nation would be blessed through him.”

“We also ask that You would bless and protect Melania as First Lady. We thank You for the beauty, the warmth, and the grace that she shows, not only to this nation but to the whole world.”

“We thank You for Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and his wife, Lucia, and their young family. May he be a strength to President Trump, to stand beside him, to hold up his arms like Aaron held up the arms of Moses in the midst of battle.”

“The prophet Samuel reminded the people it was You that brought them up from the land of Egypt. And he said, ‘Now stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord.’ So, Father, we take this moment to stand still, to remember the great things that You have done for this nation. Thank You for the protection, the bounty, the freedoms that we so enjoy.”

“We remember to keep our eyes fixed on You, and may our hearts be inclined to Your voice. We know that America can never be great again if we turn our backs on You. We ask for Your help.”

“We pray all of this in the name of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Your Son, my Savior, and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.” (Rev. Franklin Graham's Inauguration Prayer.)

There is an interesting twist to Mr. Graham’s oration as the text above is what he is actually said in person before the assembled dignitaries on Monday, January 20, 2025, but there is a sanitized version of that omits Graham’s evidently off the cuff remarks to Trump before he began the oration and omits the last sentence wherein he invoked the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Even with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, therefore, there are those who are as ecumaniacally oriented as are the lords of conciliarism.

Lorenzo Sewell’s invocation, though spirited, was both a celebration of American and of religious indifferentism:

"Let us pray for our 47th president. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that you gave our 45th and now our 47th president a millimeter miracle. We are grateful that you are the one that have called him for such a time as this. That America would begin to dream again.

"We pray that we would fulfill the true meaning of our creed, that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. We pray that you use our president, that we will live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.

"Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we are so grateful today that you will use our 47th president so we will sing with new meaning, 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died. Land of the pilgrims' pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.' And because America is called to be a great nation, we believe that you will make this come true.

"From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. From the snowcap Rockies of Colorado, let freedom ring. From the curvaceous hilltops of California, but God, we're asking you not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill in Mississippi, from every state, every city, every village and every hamlet. And when we let freedom ring, we will be able to speed up that day where all of your children, Black men and white men, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and gentile will be able to sing in the meaning of that old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last, free at last. Thank you God almighty, we are free at last.' If you believe with the Spirit of the Lord, there is liberty. Come on, put your hands together and give your great God great glory." (Here's what Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell said at President Trump's inauguration.)

Yes, every error imaginable was on full display in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, January 20, 2025, including the Orthodox/Zionist Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman’s “benediction” that could have been delivered by Timothy Michael Dolan, Frank Mann, and, of course, Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself:

Almighty God,

your prophet Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem

and blessed its inhabitants with the Hebrew words

Barukh ha-Gever asher yiftaḥ ba-Hashem —

“Blessed is the one who trusts in God” (Jeremiah 17:7).

Thousands of years later, this great nation

which adopted these words as its motto:

“In God we trust,”[1]

stands at a moment of historic opportunity.

Americans are searching for meaning.

Our merciful father,

help us rise to meet this moment.

Bless president Donald J. Trump

and vice president J.D. Vance

with the strength and courage

to choose the right and the good.

Unite us around our foundational biblical values

of life and liberty

of service and sacrifice

and especially of faith and morality —

which George Washington called,

the indispensable supports of American prosperity.[2]

Guide our schools and college campuses

which have been experiencing such unrest

to inspire the next generation,

to pair progress with purpose,

knowledge with wisdom,

and truth with virtue.

Hear the cry of the hostages,

both American and Israeli,

whose pain our president so acutely feels.

We are so thankful

for the three young women

who yesterday returned home,

and pray that the next four years

brings peace to Israel

and throughout the Middle East.

Almighty God,

grant all Americans the opportunity

to realize our shared dream

of a life filled with peace and plenty,

health and happiness,

compassion and contribution.

Stir within us the confidence

to rise to this moment,

for while we trust in God,

God‘s trust is in us, the American people.

America is called to greatness —

to be a beacon of light

and a mover of history.

May our nation merit the fulfillment

of Jeremiah’s blessing:

that like a tree planted by water

we shall not cease to bear fruit.[3]

May all of humanity

experience your love

and your blessing.

May it be thy will,

and let us say: Amen. (Inauguration Day Prayer for Donald Trump, by Rabbi Ari Berman.)

Americanism is but an aspect of the “American exceptionalism” of Calvinism and Judeo-Masonry’s celebration of religious indifferentism, which is why, as William Thomas Walsh noted in The Characters of the Inquisition, that Jews have always celebrated the United States of America where it is considered “impolite” to seek to convert anyone to Christianity, no less the true Faith itself, Catholicism:

Admittedly (perhaps my wish is father to this thought) we may by some miracle escape that fate, here in America. Perhaps despite their affiliations, Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Wilkie, as political Catholic admirers of each will tell us, will be led in the right direction by a divine hand. Again, perhaps not. Only the future can reveal this. Meanwhile this much is certain: the United States, in a very few years, will be either a Catholic country (and therefore a free country) or a Socialist country, (and therefore a slave country). “He who is not with Me is against Me.” History demonstrates the unfailing truth of this dilemma.

Here on the last edge and in the twilight of the world, the stage is set for the reenactment of an ancient tragedy – or can it this time be a comedy? Here are all the actors who have appeared over and over again in that tragedy in Europe. Here we have most of the Freemasons of the world, the Jews, most of the gold and its masters; Parthians and Medes and Elamites – men gathered together from all nations under the sun, speaking one language, leading a common life; and among them heirs of all the isms and heresies that the Catholic Church has denounced throughout the centuries, and some millions of good bewildered folk who have ceased to believe much in anything, and do not know what they believe, or whether anything be worth believing; and, scattered among these millions with their roots in such movements of the past, some twenty-five millions of Catholics.

Now, either the Catholic body will come into sharp conflict with those about them, or they will not.

If they do not, it will be the first time in history that the Mystical Body of Christ (and American Catholics, like all others, are “cells” of that Body) has not aroused violent and unreasoning antagonism. This has been so uniformly a characteristic of the life of Christ and the life of the Catholic Church, that when persons calling themselves Christian or Catholic do not meet with oppositions, and strong opposition, one may well begin to wonder whether they are profoundly Christian and truly Catholic. Perhaps then it is a reflection upon us American Catholics that we have inspired so little antagonism (comparatively) thus far. Perhaps we have not been telling our neighbors the truth, the strong truth, the hard saying they will not like: that the real test of our republican experiment here must ultimately be whether it accepts or opposes the Church of Christ; that it must become either a Catholic state, or a slave state.

A great many Catholics, influenced by the Protestant or Liberal environments in which they have lived, have sincerely and deliberately set out to propagate Christianity in such ways as to never arouse antagonism. They have compromised with Socialism, they have compromised with the economy theory of history, they have emphasized the importance of various material elements. It is a sad evidence of the lack of unity into which we have been betrayed when a Catholic Justice of the Supreme Court [Frank Murphy] can publicly proclaim that “Democracy” is more important than religion; when a Catholic priest, who has taught for some years at the Catholic University at Washington and has filled our country with his disciples, openly goes to address a Jewish Masonic lodge (though Catholics are still forbidden by Canon 2335 to cooperate with or condone Masonry in any way)—and this, according to the press, not to remind his hearers of their true home in the Church Catholic, but to confirm them in their sense of injured innocence; or when a Catholic journalist burns a little incense on the altar of the economic theory of history, or a Catholic college professor condones usury, or defends the Communist cause in Spain.

Now all these gentlemen, these liberal broad-minded Catholics, many of whom are teaching the next generation of American Catholics no doubt think that they are doing a service to God in smoothing out our differences with others, and neglecting to utter the challenge which Christianity has uttered everywhere else in the world, until the opposed gnashed its teeth, and took up stones to cast. Perhaps they hope in this way to avert persecution, and gradually to bring about the conversion of the country they love to the true Faith. I do not impugn their motives or their sincerity; indeed, they are often animated by a great, if misguided charity. But if the history of Christianity teaches anything, it fairly cries out from the stones of desecrated and stolen churches that if they have their way, they will do just the opposite to what they intend, and even worse. They will lead us, if we are foolish enough, to follow them, to that abyss over which English Catholics fell, one by one and family by family, in the Sixteenth Century. The English Catholics, a huge majority, were kept comparatively silent and inactive in the face of an intolerable but gradual oppression by a small rich crafty minority, in the hope that if they ever compromised on this point and that point, they would ultimately prevail, since they were more numerous, and had truth on their side. The result was the almost complete extinction of Catholicism in England for centuries—perhaps forever. (William Thomas Walsh, Characters of the Inquisition, New York, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1940 pp. 281-294.)

That last paragraph summarized the theme that I have tried to hammer home in hundreds upon hundreds of lengthy commentaries on this site—and in countless hours of lectures around the country and online. William Thomas Walsh’s prophetic vision of what would happen to Catholicism in the United States of America has been accomplished by conciliar revolutionaries, many of whose American predecessors before the “Second” Vatican Council sought to pave the way for the triumph of Americanist “ideals.”

In conclusion, though, both Timothy Michael Dolan and Frank Mann are doing what comes their own false religion quite naturally as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is already busy denouncing President Donald John Trump’s deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes after four years of enabling Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi, a Buddhist “religious revival” in Mongolia on Monday, January 13, 2025, the Octave of the Epiphany of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without once mentioning His Holy Name:

A highlight of that visit was the interreligious gathering, in which we reflected on the profound spiritual yearning of all men and women, whom we can liken to a vast group of brothers and sisters journeying through life with eyes raised to heaven. I thus welcome you today “as a brother to all of you in the name of our shared religious quest” (Address to the Ecumenical and Interreligious Meeting, Ulaanbaatar, 3 September 2023).

Your country has undergone a profound religious renewal since the 1990s, for which I commend your dedication and contributions. By reviving traditional spiritual practices and integrating them into the nation’s development, Mongolia has reclaimed its rich religious heritage while demonstrating its dedication to a successful democratic transition. Moreover, your commitment to religious freedom and dialogue among the different religious denominations has cultivated a space of mutual respect for all traditions, fostering a society enriched not only by material prosperity but also by values essential to fraternal solidarity. In promoting these values, religions play a pivotal role in building a just and cohesive society.

Your own visit is taking place towards the beginning of this Jubilee Year. In the Christian tradition, this is a time of pilgrimage, reconciliation and hope. In a time marked by natural disasters and human conflicts, this Holy Year calls us to the shared goal of building a more peaceful world that fosters harmony among peoples and with our common home. The universal longing for peace challenges all of us to take concrete action. In a particular way, as religious leaders rooted in our respective teachings, we bear the responsibility of inspiring humanity to renounce violence and embrace a culture of peace.

It is my hope that your time in Rome will be both enjoyable and enriching, and that your meeting with the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue will serve as an opportunity for deepening cooperation in promoting a society founded on dialogue, fraternity, religious freedom, justice and social harmony. I encourage you to persevere in fostering these principles and in strengthening relations with the Catholic Church in Mongolia, for the sake of the peace and wellbeing of all.

To you and all those you represent in the Buddhist monasteries of Mongolia, I extend my prayerful good wishes. May you remain steadfast in your commitment, active in compassion and joyful in hope. Thank you! (To the Buddhist Delegation from Mongolia 13 January 2025.)

As Mrs. Randy Engel noted at a Wanderer Forum some years ago to the utter consternation of Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., “The fish stinks from the head down,” and she, who is not a sedevacantist, was referring to Karol Joszef Wojtyla/John Paul II.

Well, we know that a true pope cannot give us false doctrine and would never deny Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ before men. However, the conciliar “popes” have committed such utter acts of apostasy to avoid offending non-Catholics that their scandalous words and actions have given their “bishops” and “priests/presbyters” cover to their follow in their own cowardly footsteps and to so scandalize Protestants who might be thinking of converting to Catholicism that the orations uttered by Timothy Michael Dolan and Frank Mann have become an expected part of conciliar doctrine and rhetoric.

The silence about the Holy Name of Jesus as maintained by Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his conciliar revolutionaries has only emboldened the forces of Judeo-Masonry abroad in the world to step up their attacks on those who dare to profess the Holy Name of Jesus in public. Anyone among the relatively few Catholics who maintain that it is necessary to pray for the restoration of a true pontiff on the Throne of Saint Peter to consecrate Russia to His Most Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart with all of the world’s true bishops in order to fulfill her Fatima request and thus usher in her own reign and that of Our Divine King Himself.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is both the King of men and their nations whether or not He is acknowledged as such by the lords of the world or the lords of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Can it be any accident that the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus does not exist in the liturgical calendar of the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical service or that the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which was invoked—along with that of the Holy Name of Jesus Itself—by King Jan Sobieski as the Mohammedans were turned back at the Gates of Vienna on September 12, 1683, is but an “optional memorial” on September 12?

Unlike the conciliar “pontiffs,” including Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Pius XI explained in Quas Primas, December 11, 1925, that Catholics have an obligation to proclaim the Holy Name of Jesus in public assemblies:

Moreover, the annual and universal celebration of the feast of the Kingship of Christ will draw attention to the evils which anticlericalism has brought upon society in drawing men away from Christ, and will also do much to remedy them. While nations insult the beloved name of our Redeemer by suppressing all mention of it in their conferences and parliaments, we must all the more loudly proclaim his kingly dignity and power, all the more universally affirm his rights. (Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, December 11, 1925.)

We must make reparation for these shameful acts of cowardice by praying the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus and the Divine Praises every day of our lives as we pray the full fifteen decades of Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary, wherein the Holy Name of Jesus is uttered one hundred fifty-three times, and near fear to utter the Holy Name of Jesus nor to defend the Holy Faith to others when the opportunity presents itself. No Catholic can ever retreat into cowardice for fear of human respect.

We pray for the conversion of President Trump and his family to the Holy Faith and that James David Vance will come to realize that the conciliarism is not Catholicism, and we pray as well that the conciliar officials will abandon their own cowardice and return to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

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

Saints Vincent and Anastasius, pray for us.

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Conciliar Cowardice on Full Display in the Capitol Rotunda

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