Answering to the Enemies of Christ

by Thomas A. Droleskey

"It won't happen! It won't happen! He'll never do such a thing! A pope won't answer to the Jews. Are you serious?"

 

Thus wrote one of the many dissatisfied (which is a nice word for really angry and belligerent) correspondents who send me "fan me" now and again.

Perhaps this correspondent, who wrote to me in July following the issuance of Summorum Pontificum by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, will be proved right. Perhaps "he," Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, will "never do such a thing." What such a thing? Well, read the story from the Catholic News Service that was forwarded to me today by a friendly reader of this site:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has decided to reformulate a Good Friday prayer in the 1962 Roman Missal that was offensive to Jews, according to an Italian newspaper.

The new prayer will drop all reference to the "blindness" of the Jews in refusing Christ as savior, the newspaper, Il Giornale, reported Jan. 18.

The Vatican did not officially confirm the report, but sources said privately that a rewriting of the prayer was likely and could be made public soon.

The issue arose last year when the pope liberalized use of the 1962 missal, known popularly as the Tridentine rite. The missal contains a prayer for the conversion of Jews, recited on Good Friday.

While the prayer would not be recited in most parishes, particular Catholic communities devoted to the old rite could use it in Good Friday liturgies.

The prayer for Jews in the 1962 missal is part of a series of prayers for the conversion of non-Christians. It reads:

"Let us pray also for the Jews that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness."

Although the 1962 missal no longer contains a reference to "perfidious Jews," which was dropped in 1959, the text of the Good Friday prayer and the possibility of its wider use brought objections from Jewish leaders.

The chief rabbis of Israel sent a letter of concern about the prayer to the pope, and Abraham H. Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it was disappointing and offensive to see "anti-Jewish language" return to the liturgy after its removal nearly 40 years ago.

Even as the pope issued his document on the Tridentine Mass, Vatican officials were suggesting that the Good Friday prayer could be revised.

Later, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said the problem might be resolved by simply substituting the current missal's version of the prayer. That text describes the Jewish people as "the first to hear the word of God" and prays that they "may arrive at the fullness of redemption."

But Pope Benedict, according to the Italian newspaper report, opted to completely reformulate the prayer for the 1962 missal. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0800325.htm

 

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is not only known for his Hegelian, Modernist belief that truth can contradict itself over the course of time. He is quite an expert at contradicting himself. This report, although it appears pretty definite (Good Friday is just eight weeks, six days away, believe it or not), might be true at this particular moment, as it appears to be. A lot can change within the mind of Joseph Ratzinger in a period of sixty-two days. One must necessarily qualify any commentary on what Joseph Ratzinger is reported to be ready to do with a reminder that what appears to be the case now might not be the case later, which is very similar to how he views that part of the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church he does not "like."

What can be said with certainty at this point, however, is that the subject of the ancient enemies of the Catholic Church is one that demonstrates how Joseph Ratzinger has long sought to use murkiness and ambiguity and outright contradiction to deal with the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church as expressed by Pope Eugene IV in the Papal Bull Cantate Domino, 1442:

It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.

 

This is one of those "things of the past" that Joseph Ratzinger does not "like." He does not believe himself to be bound by this whatsoever, as can be demonstrated from the text of an out-of-print book that dealt quite cogently with Ratzinger's beliefs about the ability of the sons and daughters of the Talmud to save their souls by means of persisting in a false, superseded religion that has the power to save no one:

Cardinal Ratzinger himself began backpedaling almost immediately at the September 5 [2000] press conference itself. According to the Italian bishops' newspaper Avvenire, when asked whether DI [Dominus Iesus] taught that the Jews could not be saved without faith in Christ, Ratzinger offered the following non-answer: "Every Catholic theologian recognizes the salvific role of that people." Granted that "salvation is of the Jews," as our Lord taught us (John 4:22), but as He says immediately afterward: "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth"--that is, the Messiah has arrived and shall be adored by those who worship truly. Having rejected the Messiah, however, what "salvific role" does modern Israel play today? When pressed on whether an individual Jew could be saved without recognizing Christ, the Cardinal replied that "it is not necessary that he recognize Christ the savior, and it is not given to us to explore how salvation, the gift of God, can come even for him." Ratzinger went on to say that "Christ is a reality that changes history, even for those who do not recognize him." Are we to take from this that Christ saves the Jews whether they recognize him or not, simply because His existence "changes history"?

However, it appears that at the same press conference Ratzinger gave a more nuanced answer, apparently in response to another questioner:

"[We]e are in agreement that a Jew, and this is true for believers of other religions, does not need to know or acknowledge Christ as the Son of God in order to be saved, if there are insurmountable impediments, of which he is not blameworthy, to preclude it. However...Christian history affects us all, even those who are opposed or cannot encounter Christ. This is a reality that transforms history; it is something important for others, without violating their conscience."

Now, which is it--that a Jew need not recognize Christ in order to be saved, or that a Jew need not recognize Christ if there is an "insurmountable impediment"? Note also that Cardinal Ratzinger here repeats the suggestion that the mere presence of Christ in history "affects" Jews who reject him. What does this mean? One thing all these remarks mean is a diminution of the impact of DI's teaching that Christ is the sole mediator of the only way of salvation for all men--a teaching DI itself nuances nearly to the point of irrelevance.

Since the publication of DI was supposed to be the occasion for clarifying confusion about Christ and salvation, why not end a long period of postconciliar confusion by stating forthrightly what the Church always taught before the Council: "Yes, objectively speaking, a Jew must come to Christ and be baptized in order to be saved, just like everyone else in the human race; for Christ is God and He commissioned His Church to make disciples of all nations. This is what the Catholic Church has always taught and always will teach." Instead, Cardinal Ratzinger immediately focused on "insurmountable impediments." And what is an "insurmountable impediment" in the first place? Is this notion something even broader than the ever-expanding category of "invincible ignorance"? Cardinal Ratzinger gave no indications. However, if one of Rabbi Toaff's own predecessors as chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Israel Zolli, was able to follow God's grace into the Roman Catholic Church immediately after World War II, then why not Rabbi Toaff himself or any other Jew alive today--especially after thirty-five years of "Jewish-Christian" dialogue," which was supposed to engender greater understanding of the Church on the part of Jews?

Or is the mere fact of being a Jew, immersed in Jewish religion and culture, and facing ostracism if one converts, now to be considered an "insurmountable impediment" to conversion? If so, then no Jew from St. Paul to the present day has ever been subjectively obliged to join the Church; nor has anyone else in religious, emotional or cultural circumstances that would make conversion difficult. But this would mean that the only people obliged to become Catholics are those who would not find conversion unduly burdensome. Everyone else has an "insurmountable impediment." That is the very thesis being promoted by some of the more liberal exponents of "invincible ignorance," who speak of "unconscious psychological blocks" and other elaborate pseudo-scientific excuses for not becoming a Catholic that have proliferated since Vatican II. There is very little place for the power of God's grace in this kind of semi-Pelagian thinking. We are not here contending that Cardinal Ratzinger himself actually teaches anything like this, but in view of the veiled nature of his remarks it is difficult to know what he is teaching. A clarification of DI's "clarifications" is already urgently needed. (out of print book, pp. 369-372.)

 

Joseph Ratzinger believes, as did his predecessor as the head of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II, does not believe that the Mosaic Covenant has been superseded by the New and Eternal Covenant. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M., Cap., the preacher to the "papal" household, said on September 30, 2005, that the Catholic Church had "lost the right" to see the conversion of the Jews because of how "this was done in the past." Unlike a true pope, say, the first one, Saint Peter, whom we commemorated in yesterday's liturgy on the occasion of Feast of the Chair of Peter in Rome, who specifically exhorted Jews to convert, Joseph Ratzinger included no such plea in address to Talmudic Jews in the synagogue in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005:

Shalom lechem!  It has been my deep desire, during my first visit to Germany since my election as the Successor of the Apostle Peter, to meet the Jewish community of Cologne and the representatives of Judaism in Germany.  By this visit I would like to return in spirit to the meeting that took place in Mainz on 17 November 1980 between my venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II, then making his first visit to this country, and members of the Central Jewish Committee in Germany and the Rabbinic Conference.  Today too I wish to reaffirm that I intend to continue on the path towards improved relations and friendship with the Jewish People, following the decisive lead given by Pope John Paul II (cf. Address to the Delegation of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, 9 June 2005:  L’Osservatore Romano, 10 June 2005, p. 5).

 The Jewish community in Cologne can truly feel “at home” in this city.  Cologne is, in fact, the oldest site of a Jewish community on German soil, dating back to the Colonia of Roman times.  The history of relations between the Jewish and Christian communities has been complex and often painful.  There were times when the two lived together peacefully, but there was also the expulsion of the Jews from Cologne in the year 1424.  And in the twentieth century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neo-paganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry.  The result has passed into history as the Shoah.  The victims of this unspeakable and previously unimaginable crime amounted to seven thousand named individuals in Cologne alone; the real figure was surely much higher.  The holiness of God was no longer recognized, and consequently contempt was shown for the sacredness of human life.

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, in which millions of Jews – men, women and children – were put to death in the gas chambers and ovens.  I make my own the words written by my venerable Predecessor on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and I too say:  “I bow my head before all those who experienced this manifestation of the mysterium iniquitatis.”  The terrible events of that time must “never cease to rouse consciences, to resolve conflicts, to inspire the building of peace”  (Message for the Liberation of Auschwitz, 15 January 2005).  Together we must remember God and his wise plan for the world which he created.  As we read in the Book of Wisdom, he is the “lover of life” (11:26).

This year also marks the fortieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate, which opened up new prospects for Jewish-Christian relations in terms of dialogue and solidarity.  This Declaration, in the fourth chapter, recalls the common roots and the immensely rich spiritual heritage that Jews and Christians share.  Both Jews and Christians recognize in Abraham their father in faith (cf. Gal 3:7, Rom 4:11ff.) and they look to the teachings of Moses and the prophets.  Jewish spirituality, like its Christian counterpart, draws nourishment from the psalms.  With Saint Paul, Christians are convinced that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29, cf. 9:6,11;  11:1ff.).  In considering the Jewish roots of Christianity (cf. Rom 11:16-24), my venerable Predecessor, quoting a statement by the German Bishops, affirmed that: “whoever meets Jesus Christ meets Judaism” (Insegnamenti, vol. III/2, 1980, p. 1272).

The conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate therefore “deplores feelings of hatred, persecutions and demonstrations of antisemitism directed against the Jews at whatever time and by whomsoever” (No. 4).  God created us all “in his image” (cf. Gen 1:27) and thus honoured us with a transcendent dignity.  Before God, all men and women have the same dignity, whatever their nation, culture or religion.  Hence the Declaration Nostra Aetate also speaks with great esteem of Muslims (cf. No. 3) and of the followers of other religions (cf. No. 2).  On the basis of our shared human dignity the Catholic Church “condemns as foreign to the mind of Christ any kind of discrimination whatsoever between people, or harassment of them, done by reason of race or colour, class or religion” (No. 5).  The Church is conscious of her duty to transmit this teaching, in her catechesis and in every aspect of her life, to the younger generations which did not witness the terrible events that took place before and during the Second World War.  It is a particularly important task, since today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of antisemitism and various forms of a general hostility towards foreigners.  How can we fail to see in this a reason for concern and vigilance?  The Catholic Church is committed – I reaffirm this again today – to tolerance, respect, friendship and peace between all peoples, cultures and religions.

In the forty years that have passed since the conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, much progress has been made, in Germany and throughout the world, towards better and closer relations between Jews and Christians.  Alongside official relationships, due above all to cooperation between specialists in the biblical sciences, many friendships have been born.  In this regard, I would mention the various declarations by the German Episcopal Conference and the charitable work done by the “Society for Jewish-Christian Cooperation in Cologne”, which since 1945 have enabled the Jewish community to feel once again “at home” here in Cologne and to establish good relations with the Christian communities.  Yet much still remains to be done.  We must come to know one another much more and much better.  Consequently I would encourage sincere and trustful dialogue between Jews and Christians, for only in this way will it be possible to arrive at a shared interpretation of disputed historical questions, and, above all, to make progress towards a theological evaluation of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.  This dialogue, if it is to be sincere, must not gloss over or underestimate the existing differences: in those areas in which, due to our profound convictions in faith, we diverge, and indeed precisely in those areas, we need to show respect for one another.

Finally, our gaze should not only be directed to the past, but should also look forward to the tasks that await us today and tomorrow.  Our rich common heritage and our fraternal and more trusting relations call upon us to join in giving an ever more harmonious witness and to work together on the practical level for the defence and promotion of human rights and the sacredness of human life, for family values, for social justice and for peace in the world.  The Decalogue (cf. Ex 20; Dt 5) is for us a shared legacy and commitment.  The Ten Commandments are not a burden, but a sign-post showing the path leading to a successful life.  This is particularly the case for the young people whom I am meeting in these days and who are so dear to me.  My wish is that they may be able to recognize in the Decalogue a lamp for their steps, a light for their path (cf. Ps 119:105).  Adults have the responsibility of handing down to young people the torch of hope that God has given to Jews and to Christians, so that “never again” will the forces of evil come to power, and that future generations, with God’s help, may be able to build a more just and peaceful world, in which all people have equal rights and are equally at home.

 I conclude with the words of Psalm 29, which express both a wish and a prayer:  “May the Lord give strength to his people, may he bless his people with peace”. 

 May he hear our prayer!

 

In other words, there is no urgent necessity to seek the conversion of those in a false, superseded religion. There is no need to specifically and to categorically exhort them to convert to the Catholic Faith to save their immortal souls, which means that adherents of Talmudic Judaism, a false, superseded religion, are more or less assured of their salvation (as Ratzinger indicated in the excerpts taken from the out of print book that were quoted above). This is not Catholicism. This is a betrayal of the Catholic Faith, a dereliction of one's duty as a Catholic to seek the eternal good of those outside of the Barque of Peter by inviting them to find the one and only path to eternal salvation that is offered by the Catholic Church that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, founded precisely upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI could have held up the examples of Fathers Theodore and Alphonse Ratisbonne to inspire his Jewish audiences to convert to the true Faith. He could have quoted from Pope Saint Pius X's audience with Theodore Herzl, explaining to them that he, Ratzinger/Benedict, would seek to baptize them all by sending missionaries to convert them as soon as possible. Oh, no, the counterfeit church of conciliarism must make no "official" statements concerning the Fathers Ratisbonne, especially about how Father Alphonse Ratisbonne was converted when he saw an apparition of Our Lady as she appeared on the Miraculous Medal he had once mocked with such scorn and disbelief as a Jew on January 20, 1842 (166 years ago tomorrow, Septuagesima Sunday!), in the Church of San Andrea della Fratte in Rome, Italy.

Consider how Joseph Ratzinger's Modernist belief in the "obscurity" of the words of the Old Testament, expressed in God and the World, contrasts with the Catholic truths contained within Saint John Chrysostom's Eight Homilies Against the Jews:

“It is of course possible to read the Old Testament so that it is not directed toward Christ; it does not point quite unequivocally to Christ.  And if Jews cannot see the promises as being fulfilled in him, this is not just ill will on their part, but genuinely because of the obscurity of the texts and the tension in the relationship between these texts and the figure of Jesus.  Jesus brings a new meaning to these texts – yet it is he who first gives them their proper coherence and relevance and significance.  There are perfectly good reasons, then, for denying that the Old Testament refers to Christ and for saying, No, that is not what he said.  And there are also good reasons for referring it to him – that is what the dispute between Jews and Christians is about.” (Joseph Ratzinger, God and the World, p. 209.)

Let that be your judgment about the synagogue, too. For they brought the books of Moses and the prophets along with them into the synagogue, not to honor them but to outrage them with dishonor. When they say that Moses and the prophets knew not Christ and said nothing about his coming, what greater outrage could they do to those holy men than to accuse them of failing to recognize their Master, than to say that those saintly prophets are partners of their impiety? And so it is that we must hate both them and their synagogue all the more because of their offensive treatment of those holy men." (Saint John Chrysostom, Fourth Century, A.D.)

 

His Excellency Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas, the Superior-General of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen, wrote the following about Joseph Ratzinger's blasphemy contained in God and the World:

 

What blasphemy! According to Ratzinger, divine revelation is obscure and there are perfectly good reasons for denying that the Old Testament refers to Christ! What he is saying in reality is that God has failed inasmuch as the divinely inspired prophecies aren't sufficiently clear enough. This is the reason that Pope St. Pius X, knowing this evil tenet of modernism, explicitly stated in the Oath Against Modernism that miracles and prophecies are the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion, and that they are well adapted to all eras and all men. (Adsum, December 2007.)

 

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, however, has demonstrated a more than ample willingness to do the bidding of the ancient enemies of the Catholic Church. As noted in For Fear of the Jews twenty-nine days ago now, the conciliar "canonization" process examining the "beatification" of Pope Pius XII has been slowed in order to appease the ancient enemies of the Church. When has a true pope ever attempted to appease the ancient enemies of the Catholic Church who have done so much throughout history, right up to and including our present day, to attempt to eradicate the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ from public view and to promote in public the sort of most vile blasphemes about Him and His Most Blessed Mother that are contained in their wretched, diabolical document called the Talmud, which was an object of admiration for Walter "Cardinal" Kasper two years ago when he visited a rabbinical "seminary" in the City of New York, New York?

It makes perfect sense, therefore, that Il Giornale (for those of you who read Italian) in Italy is reporting that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI indeed has decided to "rewrite" (so much for Tradition, huh?) the already revised Prayer for the Conversion of the Jews that is contained in the precursor of the Protestant and Masonic of the Novus Ordo Missae, the 1962 Missal issued (in 1961, actually) by Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII (a missal that was normative in the Roman Rite of the conciliar church for the grand sum of three years prior to its being replaced by the Ordo Missae of 1965 on the First Sunday in Advent, November 29, 1964).

One can see how the original prayer, contained in the Missale Romanum of Pope Saint Pius V and dating back to the earliest centuries of the Church, was changed substantially by the conciliar revolutionaries in the ten years between 1959, when the first revision of it was approved by Roncalli in 1959--the removal of the word "perfidious" or "faithless," and what it had become by the time of the Novus Ordo Missae's promulgation in 1969:

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that our God and Lord may remove the veil from their hearts; that they also may acknowledge Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and Eternal God, Who dost not exclude from Thy mercy even the faithless Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of Thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, through all endless ages. Amen.

Oremus et pro perfidis Judæis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Jesum Christum, Dominum nostrum.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui etiam Judaicam perfidiam a tua miscericordia non repellis: exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi obcaecatione deferimus; ut, agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, a suis tenebris eruantur. Per eumdem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen. (Missale Romanum of Pope Saint Pius V.)

Let us pray: and also for the Jews, may our God and Lord remove the veil from their hearts; so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Almighty and everlasting God, who drivest not away from Thy mercy even the Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people: that, acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be rescued from their darkness. (Missal of Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII, 1961-1962.)

Let us also pray that our God and Lord will look kindly on the Jews, so that they too may acknowledge the Redeemer of all, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and eternal God, you made the promises to Abraham and his descendants. In your goodness hear the prayers of your Church so that the people whom from of old you made your own may come to the fullness of redemption. (Ordo Missae of 1965.)

Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of His Name and in faithfulness to His covenant.

Almighty and eternal God, long ago You gave Your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to Your Church as we pray that the people You first made Your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption. We ask this through Christ our Lord Amen. (Novus Ordo Missae, 1969.)

 

Nothing matters to the conciliarists, not even these words from Saint Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians upon which much of the text of the ancient Prayer for the Jews in the Good Friday liturgy was based:

 

Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence: And not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on the face of that which is made void. But their senses were made dull. For, until this present day, the selfsame veil, in the reading of the old testament, remaineth not taken away (because in Christ it is made void). But even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. (2 Cor. 3: 12-16.)

One can see a logical progression away from Catholicism in the direction of conciliarism's to its Judeo-Masonic masters who have been "calling the shots," so to speak, in the conciliar Vatican for over forty years now. The very people whose spiritual ancestors persecuted the Church from the beginning and whose wretched "Talmud" blasphemes Our Lord and Our Lady and contains invitations to cheat and to kill Christians must be catered to at every turn. No true pope of the Catholic Church answers to anyone on the face of the earth, including the Talmudic Jews, the ancient and eternal enemies of Christ the King. . No true pope would given even the hint of an impression that those outside of the true Church, including Jews, do not have to convert to her maternal bosom to save their souls. No true pope would turn a blind eye to the harm being done by Talmudic Jews in the world, especially by means of their control of much of what passes for "popular culture.

Then again, why should we be surprised that the enemies of Christ the King in the counterfeit church of conciliarism are answering to the ancient enemies of Christ the King in Talmudic Judaism? They are both doing the bidding of the adversary. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not uttered a word of protest as "bishops" from his conciliar church have been barred from sites in the Holy Land because they were wearing Crucifixes, which are hated by the Talmudic Jews with a demonic fury. Ratzinger suffers these indignities quite well. The Talmudic Jews can do no wrong in his twisted, perverted and blasphemous view of things. The fact that Ratzinger is being enabled by the silence of many in the conciliar structures, including priests who know better but who prefer the creature comforts of their pastorates and their insurance plans and their pensions to defending the truth and fleeing from blasphemers, makes these scandals of selling out to the ancient enemies of Christ the King all the more reprehensible.

Pope Benedict XIV (as in fourteenth, not XVI, as in sixteenth, thank you) recognized the evil being done by the Talmudic Jews of his day and sought to protect Catholics from their pernicious influences while at the same time condemning in no uncertain terms all violent acts committed against them:

We esteem the glorious memory of Polish martyrs, confessors, virgins and holy men; their exemplary lives are recorded in the holy annals of the Church. We also recall the many successful councils and synods which gloriously defeated the Lutherans who tried tenaciously, using a variety of methods, to establish a foothold and welcome in this kingdom. At that time indeed the great council of Piotrkow met under Our great predecessor and fellow citizen Gregory XIII, with prelate Lippomano, bishop of Verona and Apostolic nuncio, as its president. To the great glory of God it prohibited the principle of freedom of conscience; adherents of this principle were seeking to introduce and establish it in Poland. Another threat to Christians has been the influence of Jewish faithlessness; this influence was strong because Christians and Jews were living in the same cities and towns. However their influence was minimized because the Polish bishops did all they could to aid the Poles in their resistance to the Jews. What the bishops did is recorded in the large tome which contains the constitutions of the synods of the province of Gniezno. These facts establish most clearly and plainly the great glory which the Polish nation has won for its zeal in preserving the holy religion embraced by its ancestors so many ages before.

In regard to the matter of the Jews We must express our concern, which causes Us to cry aloud: "the best color has been changed." Our credible experts in Polish affairs and the citizens of Poland itself who communicated with Us have informed Us that the number of Jews in that country has greatly increased. In fact, some cities and towns which had been predominantly Christian are now practically devoid of Christians.

The Jews have so replaced the Christians that some parishes are about to lose their ministers because their revenue has dwindled so drastically. Because the Jews control businesses selling liquor and even wine, they are therefore allowed to supervise the collection of public revenues. They have also gained control of inns, bankrupt estates, villages and public land by means of which they have subjugated poor Christian farmers. The Jews are cruel taskmasters, not only working the farmers harshly and forcing them to carry excessive loads, but also whipping them for punishment. So it has come about that those poor farmers are the subjects of the Jews, submissive to their will and power. Furthermore, although the power to punish lies with the Christian official, he must comply with the commands of the Jews and inflict the punishments they desire. If he doesn't, he would lose his post. Therefore the tyrannical orders of the Jews have to be carried out.

In addition to the harm done to Christians in these regards, other unreasonable matters can result in even greater loss and danger. The most serious is that some households of the great have employed a Jew as "Superintendent-of-the-Household"; in this capacity, they not only administer domestic and economic matters, but they also ceaselessly exhibit and flaunt authority over the Christians they are living with. It is now even commonplace for Christians and Jews to intermingle anywhere. But what is even less comprehensible is that Jews fearlessly keep Christians of both sexes in their houses as their domestics, bound to their service. Furthermore, by means of their particular practice of commerce, they amass a great store of money and then by an exorbitant rate of interest utterly destroy the wealth and inheritance of Christians. Even if they borrow money from Christians at heavy and undue interest with their synagogues as surety, it is obvious to anyone who thinks about it that they do so to employ the money borrowed from Christians in their commercial dealings; this enables them to make enough profit to pay the agreed interest and simultaneously increase their own store. At the same time, they gain as many defenders of their synagogues and themselves as they have creditors.

The famous monk, Radulph, inspired long ago by an excess of zeal, was so inflamed against the Jews that he traversed Germany and France in the twelfth century and, by preaching against the Jews as the enemies of our holy religion, incited Christians to destroy them. This resulted in the deaths of a very large number of Jews. What must we think his deeds or thoughts would be if he were now alive and saw what was happening in Poland? But the great St. Bernard opposed this immoderate and maddened zeal of Radulph, and wrote to the clergy and people of eastern France: "The Jews are not to be persecuted: they are not to be slaughtered: they are not even to be driven out. Examine the divine writings concerning them. We read in the psalm a new kind of prophecy concerning the Jews: God has shown me, says the Church, on the subject of my enemies, not to slay them in case they should ever forget my people. Alive, however, they are eminent reminders for us of the Lord's suffering. On this account they are scattered through all lands in order that they may be witnesses to Our redemption while they pay the just penalties for so great a crime" (epistle 363). And he writes this to Henry, Archbishop of Mainz: "Doesn't the Church every day triumph more fully over the Jews in convicting or converting them than if once and for all she destroyed them with the edge of the sword: Surely it is not in vain that the Church has established the universal prayer which is offered up for the faithless Jews from the rising of the sun to its setting, that the Lord God may remove the veil from their hearts, that they may be rescued from their darkness into the light of truth. For unless it hoped that those who do not believe would believe, it would obviously be futile and empty to pray for them." (epistle 365).

Peter, abbot of Cluny, likewise wrote against Radulph to King Louis of France, and urged him not to allow the destruction of the Jews. But at the same time he encouraged him to punish their excesses and to strip them of the property they had taken from Christians or had acquired by usury; he should then devote the value of this to the use and benefit of holy religion, as may be seen in the Annals of Venerable Cardinal Baronius (1146). In this matter, as in all others, We adopt the same norm of action as did the Roman Pontiffs who were Our venerable predecessors. Alexander III forbade Christians under heavy penalties to accept permanent domestic service under Jews. "Let them not continually devote themselves to the service of Jews for a wage." He sets out the reason for this in the decretal Ad haec, de Judaeis. "Because Jewish ways do not harmonize in any way with ours and they could easily turn the minds of the simple to their own superstitions and faithlessness through continual intercourse and unceasing acquaintance." Innocent III, after saying that Jews were being received by Christians into their cities, warns that the method and condition of this reception should guard against their repaying the benefit with evildoing. "They on being admitted to our acquaintance in a spirit of mercy, repay us, the popular proverb says, as the mouse in the wallet, the snake in the lap and fire in the bosom usually repay their host." The same Pope stated that it was fitting for Jews to serve Christians rather than vice versa and added: "Let not the sons of the free woman be servants of the sons of the handmaid; but as servants rejected by their lord for whose death they evilly conspired, let them realize that the result of this deed is to make them servants of those whom Christ's death made free," as we read in his decretal Etsi Judaeos. Likewise in the decretal Cum sit nimis under the same heading de Judaeis, et Saracenis, he forbids the promotion of Jews to public office: "forbidding Jews to be promoted to public offices since in such circumstances they may be very dangerous to Christians." Innocent IV, also, in writing to St. Louis, King of France, who intended to drive the Jews beyond the boundaries of his kingdom, approves of this plan since the Jews gave very little heed to the regulations made by the Apostolic See in their regard: "Since We strive with all Our heart for the salvation of souls, We grant you full power by the authority of this letter to expel the Jews, particularly since We have learned that they do not obey the said statutes issued by this See against them" (Raynaldus, Annals, A.D. 1253, no. 34).

But if it is asked what matters the Apostolic See forbids to Jews living in the same cities as Christians, We will say that all those activities which are now allowed in Poland are forbidden; these We recounted above. There is no need of much reading to understand that this is the clear truth of the matter. It is enough to peruse decretals with the heading de Judaeis, et Saracenis; the constitutions of Our predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs Nicholas IV, Paul IV, St. Pius V, Gregory XIII and Clement VIII are readily available in the Roman Bullarium. To understand these matters most clearly, Venerable Brothers, you do not even need to read those. You will recall the statutes and prescripts of the synods of your predecessors; they always entered in their constitutions every measure concerning the Jews which was sanctioned and ordained by the Roman Pontiffs.

The essence of the difficulty, however, is that either the sanctions of the synods are forgotten or they are not put into effect. To you then, Venerable Brothers, passes the task of renewing those sanctions. The nature of your office requires that you carefully encourage their implementation. In this matter begin with the clergy, as is fair and reasonable. These will have to show others the right way to act, and light the way for the rest by their example. For in God's mercy, We hope that the good example of the clergy will lead the straying laity back to the straight path. You will be able to give these orders and commands easily and confidently, in that neither your property nor your privileges are hired to Jews; furthermore you do no business with them and you neither lend them money nor borrow from them. Thus, you will be free from and unaffected by all dealings with them. (Pope Benedict XIV, A Quo Primum, June 14, 1751.)

 

I am not hereby suggesting that the specific sanctions outlined by Pope Benedict XIV 257 years ago are possible today, only pointing out that a true pope spelled out in specific detail the ways in which the Talmudic Jews were persecuting Catholics in the Eighteenth Century while at the same time condemning in no uncertain terms any and all persecution of them, quoting none other than the great Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to demonstrate that there was vocal contemporaneous condemnation of the persecutions of them that had been undertaken by Radulph in the Twelfth Century. The Catholic Church has always condemned the nonexistent salvific power of Judaism and warned Catholics about the dangers posed by its hideous practices while at the same time seeking their spiritual good, which is precisely what the matchless Saint Vincent Ferrer did in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Fourteenth and the beginning of the Fifteenth Centuries as he preached with such conviction about the true Faith that thousands upon thousands of Jews were baptized and became Catholics. This is a far cry from the the apostasy and betrayal of the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

The situation is so bad in the counterfeit church of conciliarism that a reader who lives in a diocese in the eastern half of the United States of America (and whose conciliar "ordinary's" mother might have had a cupboard) wrote to me to say that her daughter is being required to attend a Jewish synagogue "service" as part of her "confirmation" "preparation" program. It will be in vain to protest to "Rome" about this outrage. If Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI does not seek the conversion of the Jews and is indeed willing to rewrite prayers to appease them, does any rational person believe that "Rome" is going to stop a parish in the United States of America from mandating attendance at a Jewish synagogue "service" in order to receive what purports to be the Sacrament of Confirmation in the counterfeit church of conciliarism? If the chief wolf goes to the synagogue and goes to a mosque and takes his shoes off as a sign of "respect" for a false religion, even assuming the Mohammedan prayer position, you see, it stands to reason that members of the wolf's pack will require the sheep to follow suit. It is really that simple.

The solution here is quite simple: flee to the catacombs where one will find true bishops and true priests who make no concessions to conciliarism whatsoever or to the nonexistent legitimacy of its false shepherds.

The fact that so few people see the contrast between Catholicism and conciliarism leads many in the Motu world to say that "God would never permit so many people to be deceived all at once or for so long." Perhaps this will cause one a bit of a pause for reflection: God permitted one hundred percent of the human race to be deceived by the devil in the Garden of Eden. One hundred percent." Not possible for ninety-five to ninety-nine percent today to be deceived by the wolves in shepherds' clothing in the counterfeit church of conciliarism? Oh, it should be pointed out that Adam and Eve had Original Innocence, meaning that they had superior intellects and superior wills and possessed perfect Integrity, that is, a delicate balance between their higher rational faculties and their lower sensual passions. And they lost it all. They were deceived. One hundred percent of the human race was deceived. (How many were there in Noah's time? All but eight, thank you.)

Our Lord Himself spoke of such deception, which the constant tradition of the Catholic Church teaches us is part of the general apostasy that will occur before end times:

For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.(Matthew 24: 24.)

 

Saint Paul's Second Epistle to Saint Timothy provides us with a description of the very times in which we live:

I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: 2 Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. 3 For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: 4 And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. 5 But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober. (2 Tim. 4: 1-5.)

No mere mortal can put an end to the Catholic Church. No mere mortal can put an end to the papacy. No mere mortal can put an end to the perpetual successors of Saint Peter, as Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D. (that's Doctorate in Sacred Theology), age ninety-two and sixty-seven years a priest this year, 2008, wrote in two of his brilliant  and concise letters on this subject:

November 30, 2002

Dear Correspondent:

You quote the passage from Vatican Council I, Session IV, which states clearly that St. Peter, the first pope, has “perpetual successors in the primacy over the universal Church…”

You, understandably,  wonder how it could be that there are still “perpetual successors” of St. Peter if the men who have claimed to be popes in our times have been in reality public heretics, who therefore could not, as heretics, be the true successors of St. Peter.

The important thing here to understand just what kind of “perpetual succession” in the papacy Our Lord established.

Did Our Lord intend that there should be a pope on the Chair of Peter every single  moment  of the Church’s existence and every single moment of the papacy existence?

You will immediately realize that, no, Our Lord very obviously did not establish that kind of “perpetual succession” of popes.  You know that, all through the centuries of the Church’s existence, popes have been dying and that there then followed an interval, after the death of each pope, when there was no “perpetual successor,” no pope, occupying the Chair of Peter.  That Chair became vacant for a while whenever a pope died.  This has happened more than 260 times since the death of the first pope.

But you also know that the death of a pope did not mean the end of the “perpetual succession” of popes after Peter.

You understand now that “no pope” does not mean “no papacy.”  A vacant Chair of Peter after the death of a pope  does not mean a permanent vacancy of that Chair.  A temporary vacancy of the Chair of Peter does not mean the end of the “perpetual successors in the primacy over the universal Church.” 

  Even though Our Lord, had He so willed it, could have seen to it that, the moment one pope died, another man would automatically succeed him as pope, He nevertheless did not do it that way.

Our Lord did it the way we have always known it to be, that is, He allowed for an interval, or interruption, of undesignated duration, to follow upon the death of each pope.

That interruption of succession of popes has, most of the time, lasted several weeks, or a month or so, but there have been times when the interruption lasted longer than that, considerably longer.

Our Lord did not specify just how long that interruption was allowed to last before a new pope was to be elected.  And He did not declare that, if the delay in electing a new pope lasted too long, the “perpetual succession” was then terminated, so that it would then have to be said that “the papacy is no more.”

Nor did the Church ever specify the length or duration of the vacancy of the Chair of Peter to be allowed after the death of a pope.

So it is clear that the present vacancy of the Chair of Peter, brought on by public heresy, despite the fact that it has lasted some 40 years or so, does not mean that the “perpetual succession” of popes after St. Peter has come to an end.

  What we must realize here is that the papacy, and with it the “perpetual succession” of popes is a Divine institution, not a human institution.  Therefore, man cannot put an end to the papacy, no matter how long God may allow heresy to prevail at the papal headquarters in Rome.

Only God could, if He so willed, terminate the papacy.  But He willed not do so, because He has made His will known to His Church that there will be “perpetual successors” in the papal primacy that was first entrusted to St. Peter.

We naturally feel distressed that the vacancy of the Chair of Peter has lasted so long, and we are unable to see the end of that vacancy in sight.  But we do realize that the restoration of the Catholic Faith, and with it the return of a true Catholic Pope to the Papal Chair, will come when God wills it and in the way He wills it.

If it seems to us, as of now, that there are no qualified, genuinely Catholic electors, who could elect a new and truly Catholic Pope.  God can, for example, bring about the conversion of enough Cardinals to the traditional Catholic Faith, who would then proceed to elect a new Catholic Pope.

God can intervene in whatever way it may please Him, in order to restore everything as He originally willed it to be in His Holy Church.

Nothing is impossible with God. Father Martin Stépanich, O.F.M., S.T.D.

March 25, 2003

Dear Faithful Catholic:

Your letter of February 21, 2003, tells me about “doubting Thomases”  who say that they “just can’t believe” that the Chair of Peter could have been vacant for as much as 40 years, or even for only 25 years, without the “perpetual succession” of popes being thereby permanently broken.

Those “doubting Thomases” presumably grant that the “perpetual succession” of popes remains unbroken during the relatively short intervals that follow upon the deaths of popes, and you indicate that, at least for a while, they have even understood – to their credit – that a public and unrepentant heretic cannot possibly be a true Catholic Pope and that the Chair of St. Peter must necessarily become vacant if it is taken over by such a public heretic.

But, as you sadly say, those “doubting Thomases” changed their views after they read the Declaration of Ecumenical Council Vatican I (1870) which you quoted from Denzinger in your letter of November 8, 2002.  Vatican I declared that “the Blessed Peter has perpetual successors in the primacy over the Universal Church…”

Notice carefully that Vatican I says nothing more than that St. Peter shall have “perpetual successors” in the primacy, which obviously means that the “perpetual succession” of popes will last until the end of time.

Vatican I says nothing about how long Peter’s Chair may be vacant before the “perpetual succession” of popes would supposedly come to a final end.  Yet the “doubting Thomases” imagine they see in the Vatican I declaration something which just  isn’t there.  They presume to think that “perpetual successors in the primacy” means that there can never be an extra long vacancy of Peter’s Chair, but only those short vacancies that we have always known to occur after the deaths of popes.  But that isn’t the teaching of Vatican I.  It is the mistaken “teaching” of “doubting Thomases.”

Curiously enough, the “doubting Thomases” never suggest just how long a vacancy of Peter’s Chair would be needed to put a supposedly final end to the “perpetual succession” of popes.  Their imagination has gotten  them into an impossible  situation.  They “just can’t believe” that the vacancy of Peter’s Chair could last for 25 or 40 years or more, while, at the same time, they “just can’t believe” that a public heretic could possibly be a true Catholic Pope.  At one and the same time, they do have a Pope, yet they do not have a Pope.  They have a heretic “Pope,” but they do not have a true Catholic Pope.

Not being able to convince the “doubting Thomases” that they are all wrong and badly confused, you have hoped that some unknown “Church teaching” could be found in some book that would make the “doubting Thomases” see the light.

But you don’t need any additional “Church teaching” besides what you have already quoted from Vatican I.  You can plainly see that Vatican I did not say anything about how long a vacancy of Peter’s Chair may be.  You also know that Our Lord never said that the vacancy of the Papal Chair may last only so long and no longer.

Most important of all, never forget that men cannot put an end to the “perpetual succession” of popes, no matter how long public heretics may occupy Peter’s Chair.  The Catholic Papacy comes from God, not from man.  To put an end to the “perpetual succession” of popes, you would first have to put an end to God Himself. Father Martin Stépanich, O.F.M., S.T.D. An Objection to Sedevacantism: 'Perpetual Successors' to Peter (For another brilliant Father Stepanich letter, one that summarizes the sedevacantist case so very clearly, see: Father Stepanich Letter on Sedevacantism. )

 

The jaws of Hell will never prevail against the Catholic Church. This does not meant that the devil is not going to win a few battles now and again, yes, even in the larger life of the Mystical Body of Christ that is the Church Militant on earth as Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ undergoes His Passion and Death mystically at the hands of the conciliarists who have aped their Talmudic masters by scourging Him and crowning Him with thorns and Crucifying Him with the false doctrines and the profane liturgies of the "Second" Vatican Council and its aftermath. The final victory belongs to Christ the King. The path to that victory runs through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. To this end, you see, we must pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit, giving all our prayers and all we do each day to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Father Stepanich likes to cite the prayer recited by Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda and included in the latter's Mystical City of God (Coronation Volume, page 244). It is worth citing here. Indeed, we should pray this prayer every day!

O my Son, that Thou look upon the affliction of thy Church and that, like a loving Father, Thou hasten the relief of Thy children engendered by Thy most Precious Blood

 

Amen!

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, 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.

Saint Marius and Companions, pray for us.

Saint Canute, King of Denmark, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints