Apostasy Continues To Have Consequences

by Thomas A. Droleskey

 

Beware, Venerable Brethren, of that growing abuse, in speech as in writing, of the name of God as though it were a meaningless label, to be affixed to any creation, more or less arbitrary, of human speculation. Use your influence on the Faithful, that they refuse to yield to this aberration. Our God is the Personal God, supernatural, omnipotent, infinitely perfect, one in the Trinity of Persons, tri-personal in the unity of divine essence, the Creator of all existence. Lord, King and ultimate Consummator of the history of the world, who will not, and cannot, tolerate a rival God by His side. . . .

No faith in God can for long survive pure and unalloyed without the support of faith in Christ. "No one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father: and who the Father is, but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal Him" (Luke x. 22). "Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent" (John xvii. 3). Nobody, therefore, can say: "I believe in God, and that is enough religion for me," for the Savior's words brook no evasion: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also" (1 John ii. 23). . . .

Faith in Christ cannot maintain itself pure and unalloyed without the support of faith in the Church, "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. iii. 15); for Christ Himself, God eternally blessed, raised this pillar of the Faith. His command to hear the Church (Matt. xviii. 15), to welcome in the words and commands of the Church His own words and His own commands (Luke x. 16), is addressed to all men, of all times and of all countries. The Church founded by the Redeemer is one, the same for all races and all nations. Beneath her dome, as beneath the vault of heaven, there is but one country for all nations and tongues; there is room for the development of every quality, advantage, task and vocation which God the Creator and Savior has allotted to individuals as well as to ethnical communities. The Church's maternal heart is big enough to see in the God-appointed development of individual characteristics and gifts, more than a mere danger of divergency. She rejoices at the spiritual superiorities among individuals and nations. In their successes she sees with maternal joy and pride fruits of education and progress, which she can only bless and encourage, whenever she can conscientiously do so. But she also knows that to this freedom limits have been set by the majesty of the divine command, which founded that Church one and indivisible. Whoever tampers with that unity and that indivisibility wrenches from the Spouse of Christ one of the diadems with which God Himself crowned her; he subjects a divine structure, which stands on eternal foundations, to criticism and transformation by architects whom the Father of Heaven never authorized to interfere.  (Pope Pius XI, Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937.)

 

Is it any accident that the rally of social and political ecumenism that took place in Washington, District of Columbia, on Saturday, August 28, 2010, featured its organizer and master of ceremonies, Glenn Beck, and the former Governor of Alaska turned political king maker (well, at least in Republican primaries), Sarah Heath Palin? Both are baptized Catholics. Both have fallen away from the true Faith. Glenn Beck has embraced the diabolical cult that is Mormonism (see Pure, Unadulterated Americanism). Sarah Heath Palin, who was taken out of the true Church by her father, Charles Heath, when she was twelve years old, subscribes to a kind of "non-denominational" brand of Protestantism after having spent a number of years in the anti-Catholic Pentecostalist cult that goes by the name of the "Assemblies of God," whose particular contribution to the multitudinous errors of Protestantism was to popularize what became known in conciliar circles as "the charismatic movement."

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, steeped as they are in so many errors and falsehoods of theology and philosophy, are poster children for the long term effects of the Americanist heresy that has become the cornerstone of the apostate world view of the counterfeit church of concilairism. They are also poster children from the very tangible effects of conciliarism in the lives of ordinary Catholics as so many of them, not having heard moral truth preached in their local parishes under conciliar captivity at this time, have fled what they have thought to be the Catholic Church to become Protestants of one stripe or another or to join sects such as the Mormons or to become unreconstructed participants in our culture of atavistic consumer materialism and naturalism.

Yet it is that these two fallen away Catholics, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, each of whom makes fistfuls of money from their television and radio appearances and their books and endorsements, are seen by so many millions of Americans as providing "hope" when the truth of the matter is that these two individuals are absolutely clueless about First and Last Things and that their "answers" simply worsen the difficulties of the present moment as they do not understand or accept the fact that the totality of the life of every person and ever nation must revolve around the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted exclusively to His Catholic Church for Its eternal safekeeping and infallible explication.

That Glenn Beck and Sarah Louise Heath Palin are seen by many millions of ordinary Americans, including a lot of Catholics, as "leaders" to "restore America" speaks  volumes about the absolute dereliction of duty on the part of many, although certainly far from all, of the true bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States of America long, long, long before the dawning of the age of concilairism with the "election" of Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII on October 28, 1958. Many of these true bishops operated on the false presupposition that everything about the American founding was perfectly compatible with the Catholic Faith, a view that I subscribed to until I was challenged at a professional conference in the mid-1980s to start reading the papal encyclical letters about the proper relationship between the Catholic Church and the civil state, that it was perfectly acceptable for Catholics to have a "place" in a "free" society along with other "believers" as long as there was some "general agreement" as to what constituted "good citizenship" and an adherence to some generic concept of religiosity and public morality.

It was precisely this blithe acceptance of the Americanist spirit of a social and political ecumenism that was nothing other than a practical expression of religious indifferentism (that it does not not make any difference what religion one belongs to as long as he is a "good" person) that lulled many Catholics to sleep as some, possessed of the notions of the false opposite of the naturalist"left," embraced the power of the civil state to "change" concepts of morality and as others, "possessed of the notions of the false opposite of the naturalist "right," subscribed to an interdenominational or nondenominational means to "restore" the country to the "constitutional" principles of the men who had a founding hatred for Christ the King), something that I have explained in great detail on this site on many occasions, including in Dialectical Americanism. What can be more "American" that exalting the "right" of people to worship as they please as though the true God of Divine Revelation Himself is indifferent to the matter and as though a just social order can be established on the false foundation of a Judeo-Masonic concept of "God" and "brotherhood"?

These false concepts were on full display in Washington, District of Columbia, five days ago. A report written by Jonah Goldberg, lauded the spirit of social and political ecumenism that was exalted by Glenn Beck and Sarah Louise Heath Palin:

One striking feature of Saturday's rally was how deeply religious and ecumenical it was. It seems like just yesterday that everyone was talking about how Christian evangelicals were too bigoted to vote for upright and uptight Mormon Mitt Romney. Yet Christian activists saw no problem cheering for - and praying with - the equally Mormon but far less uptight Beck, who asked citizens to go to "your churches, synagogues and mosques!"  (Beck's Ecumenical Moment.)

 

How can any Catholic who is attached to the ecumenical falsehoods of conciliarism object to such a message as it is essentially, admitting a difference or two here and there, the same one that has been preached by the conciliar "popes," including Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI (see, for example,Witness Against Benedict XVI: The Oath Against Modernism)? Conciliar "bishops" in the United States of America, including the late John Raymond McGann, who presided over a revolution of epic proportions in the Diocese of Rockville Centre during his twenty-three and one-half year reign of terror there from June 24, 1976, to January 4, 2000, have encouraged Catholics to attend the "crusades" of the Fuller Brush Man, Billy Graham, who has taken many Catholics out of the true Church over the course of his diabolical "preaching." Conciliar "bishops" in the United States have permitted Protestants to have "ordination" ceremonies in some of their churches now and again and have aped their conciliar "popes" by participating personally in some of the most egregious outages imaginable against the honor and glory and majesty of the Most Blessed Trinity as they have adhered to the ecumaniac exercise known as "inter-religious prayer services." How can any Catholic attached to the ecumaniacal falsehoods of conciliarism object to Glenn Beck's absolute insanity--and it is nothing other than absolute insanity--of encouraging people to go "to your churches, synagogues and mosques!"

One of the most tragic aspects to all of this is that there are traditionally-minded Catholics who buy into this blasphemy, accepting Glenn Beck and Sarah Louise Heath Palin, fallen away Catholics mind you, as "leaders" when they are absolute ignoramuses concerning how we are to please God as members of His Catholic Church, and if you do not know how to please God as a member of His Catholic Church, my good and very few readers, then you have zero--as in zilch and the doughnut hole--to offer anyone other than more confusion and disarray and chaos.

Please, "good intentions" mean nothing. False ideas lead always to bad consequences. Why is it so difficult for even traditionally-minded Catholics to see this, to accept this, and to reject once and for all each and every expression of naturalism as being nothing other than a smokescreen and an illusion used by the devil to convince Catholics that there is something short of Catholicism that can serve, at the very least, as a "stop gap" to retard the evils of our present day, including statism and chemical and surgical baby-killing (Sarah Louise Health Palin, just by the way, you understand, supports contraception entirely and enthusiastically; no one who supports this evil as a matter of principle is any kind of spokesman for moral truth, and the fact that so many Catholics cannot see this is truly saddening) and the advance of the agenda of moral perversity, to name just a few. Alas, there is no just "short-cut." Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

Even traditionally-minded Catholics would be well-advised to stop paying any attention to these confused individuals who promote a brand of social and political ecumenism that is repugnant to God, Who hates all false religions and wants them eradicated from the face of this earth by the conversion of each of their adherents to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order. Look at the wisdom of our true popes contained in the appendices below. Sure, I have used these quotes many times before. I will keep using them to remind Catholics who are, quite understandably, looking for the sort of "leadership" in these troubling times that should be coming from the Catholic Church, which is undergoing her mystical burial at the time as she lives out the Passion, Death, and Burial of her Invisible Head, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that there is nothing short of Catholicism that is going to regard a single, solitary evil extant in the world today. Nothing means nothing. Our time is better spent praying more Rosaries and reading about the lives of the saints and the interior life of the soul than it is by listening to or watching the nattering nabobs of naturalism at any time for any reason whatsoever.

Herein lies the rub of the matter, however: the true bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States of America in the decades leading up to the dawning of the age of conciliarism rarely provided the sort of leadership that people are hungering for today, the sort of leadership that they believe, albeit falsely, can be provided

 by fallen-away Catholics who mouth naturalist platitudes and encourage a social and political ecumenism that is just as offensive to the true God of Divine Revelation as theological ecumenism as they are but one and the same thing. Various strands of the true bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States of America enabled statists such as the thoroughly anti-Catholic named Thomas Woodrow Wilson and the thirty-third degree Mason named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Their apostate successors in the counterfeit church of conciliarism have bifurcated largely along lines of partisan politics as some of their number support statism and others of their number want a "restoration" of "constitutional" principles and the flourishing of the heresy known as "religious liberty." (This has been explained in numerous articles on this site, including in Dialectical Americanism and Cut From the Same Cloth.)

The myth-making in behalf of the complete compatibility of the false, naturalistic, anti-Incarnational, religiously indifferentist and semi-Pelagian principles of the American founding with the Catholic Faith has been such in this country that a 1913 book published by the Christian Brothers stated flatly (in a passage that described the martyrdom of Saint Felicitas and her seven sons) that "religious liberty" was a "guarantee" that Catholics could never be persecuted in this country as they had been under the Roman emperors:

"In this country of ours we will not be called upon, like these seven noble boys to give up our life for our Faith. The children of American are living in a land of civil and religious liberty, and not in Rome under pagan emperors. There is not here, and there never will be, any law to hinder us from making open profession of what we believe, to prevent us from declaring our belief in God, the Father, Creator, of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord."

 

Never? Ever? At any time? Can you see the influence of the mythology produced by Americanism? Never? Exalting the concepts of "civil and religious liberty" that had been condemned by Popes Pius VII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, and St. Pius X, to name just a few. Were the Christian Brothers (whose book quoted the thirty-third degree Freemason Theodore Roosevelt, who was speaking in purely naturalistic terms, to amplify a point made by Saint Paul!) responsible for this book ignorant of these words contained in Pope Pius VII's Post Tam Diuturnas, April 29, 1814:

For when the liberty of all "religions" is indiscriminately asserted, by this very fact truth is confounded with error and the holy and immaculate Spouse of Christ, the Church, outside of which there can be no salvation, is set on a par with the sects of heretics and with Judaic perfidy itself. For when favour and patronage is promised even to the sects of heretics and their ministers, not only their persons, but also their very errors, are tolerated and fostered: a system of errors in which is contained that fatal and never sufficiently to be deplored HERESY which, as St. Augustine says (de Haeresibus, no.72), "asserts that all heretics proceed correctly and tell the truth: which is so absurd that it seems incredible to me." (Pope Pius VII, Post Tam Diuturnas, April 29, 1814:

 

Were the Christian Brothers ignorant of these words contained in Pope Gregory XVI's Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832?

 

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

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

The Church has always taken action to destroy the plague of bad books. This was true even in apostolic times for we read that the apostles themselves burned a large number of books. It may be enough to consult the laws of the fifth Council of the Lateran on this matter and the Constitution which Leo X published afterwards lest "that which has been discovered advantageous for the increase of the faith and the spread of useful arts be converted to the contrary use and work harm for the salvation of the faithful." This also was of great concern to the fathers of Trent, who applied a remedy against this great evil by publishing that wholesome decree concerning the Index of books which contain false doctrine. "We must fight valiantly," Clement XIII says in an encyclical letter about the banning of bad books, "as much as the matter itself demands and must exterminate the deadly poison of so many books; for never will the material for error be withdrawn, unless the criminal sources of depravity perish in flames." Thus it is evident that this Holy See has always striven, throughout the ages, to condemn and to remove suspect and harmful books. The teaching of those who reject the censure of books as too heavy and onerous a burden causes immense harm to the Catholic people and to this See. They are even so depraved as to affirm that it is contrary to the principles of law, and they deny the Church the right to decree and to maintain it. (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

 

The Christian Brothers of the early-Twentieth Century, you see, like almost all other Catholics in the United States of America, believed that Protestants and Jews and Mohammedans and atheists and all others had the the "civil right" to propagate their heretical notions openly. They celebrated the false notions of civil and religious liberty, forgetting that these notions are founded in a mistaken belief that God endorses the propagation of false ideas under cover of the civil law. He does not. Such a propagation may have to be tolerated in a non-Catholic country. There is no "right" from God to do so. however.

The Christian Brothers of the early-Twentieth Century did not recognize the falsehoods of civil and religious liberty as as antithetical to the truths that God has entrusted solely to the Catholic Church and as harmful to the eternal good of souls upon which the whole foundation of social order depends. The Christian Brothers, much like the conciliarists of today, acted as though these words, written by Pope Pius IX in Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864, did not apply to the "enlightened": Catholics living in the United States of America:

 

But, although we have not omitted often to proscribe and reprobate the chief errors of this kind, yet the cause of the Catholic Church, and the salvation of souls entrusted to us by God, and the welfare of human society itself, altogether demand that we again stir up your pastoral solicitude to exterminate other evil opinions, which spring forth from the said errors as from a fountain. Which false and perverse opinions are on that ground the more to be detested, because they chiefly tend to this, that that salutary influence be impeded and (even) removed, which the Catholic Church, according to the institution and command of her Divine Author, should freely exercise even to the end of the world -- not only over private individuals, but over nations, peoples, and their sovereign princes; and (tend also) to take away that mutual fellowship and concord of counsels between Church and State which has ever proved itself propitious and salutary, both for religious and civil interests.

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

And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right." But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests? (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)

 

Some readers might exclaim, "Well, what are we going to do? Just sit back and do nothing?" Permit to clear my throat, heave a big, heavy sigh and roll my eyes again. Let me repeat what I wrote nearly eleven months ago now: No Christ the King? No Rosary? No Good Cause. It's really that simple.

Spending time in prayer before Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament is not doing "nothing."

Praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits is not doing "nothing." You drive to work? You drive to do errands? You drive to go the post offices? You get stuck in traffic? You've got time to pray more Rosaries rather than listen to the mindless blathering of naturalists on the radio.

Accept your daily crosses with joy and love and perfect equanimity as coming from the loving hand of God to crush us and to refine us so that we will be more emptied of self and more ready to serve Him through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary is not doing "nothing."

We want the conversion of the United States of America to the Catholic Faith, not a "restoration" of "constitutional" principles that have made manifest the perfection of their inherent degeneracy over the course of time.  The conversion of the United States of America will be brought about by the conversion of the souls of its non-Catholic citizens and by our own daily conversion away from our sins and to a life of greater union with the Most Blessed Trinity as we yearn for the things of Heaven and seek to live more penitentially with each beat of our hearts, consecrated as they must be to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

It is the reformation of souls that will establish a just social order, not the injurious babbling of naturalists who might see particular problems well enough but who do not understand that the proximate root cause of those problems is the diabolically inspired warfare against the Social Reign of Christ the King that was waged by the Protestant Revolutionaries and has been carried on with great aplomb by the lords of naturalism who subscribe to the ethos of Judeo-Masonry even though they may not be members of any lodge or indeed aware of the naturalistic ethos with which their souls are infected.

Pope Pius XI noted this in the afore-cited Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937:

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.   . 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.

 

Glenn Beck and Sarah Louise Heath Palin do not understand this as they are, whether or not they realize it, attempting to fill a void created by the "reconciliation" that the true bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States of America made to the principles of Modernity in the many decades before the dawning of conciliarism and that this counterfeit church, which represents itself blasphemously as the Catholic Church, trumpets so loudly and so boastfully as the foundation of its phony "civilization of love." Even though there are some of our true bishops and true priests in this time of apostasy and betrayal who lead Rosary processions either monthly or occasionally, the devil knows that could country could have been converted long ago to the Catholic Faith had our true bishops organized Rosary processions every month to pray for the conversion of this nation to the true Faith.

What a shame it is that these true bishops of the past were content to have a "place at the table" with false religions in a land of civil and religious "liberty" rather than exhibit fidelity to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 so that all of the Americas would be converted to the true Faith by using the weapon of her Most Holy Rosary to lead Catholics into having the same kind of missionary zeal for souls that prompted the North American Martyrs to shed their very blood for the sake of Christ the King and His Holy Church.

You see, although even some traditionally-minded Catholics might like to delude themselves into thinking that Glenn Beck and Sarah Louise Heath Palin are at least defending some kind of "generic" Christianity, although how that conclusion can be reached when Glenn Beck urges people to go to synagogues and mosques is something that defies rational explanation, perhaps it is good for us to be reminded that even though some Protestants may be validly baptized Christians, Protestantism is no form of Christianity as it is a heresy which is hateful in the sight of God and is the proximate agent of the devil in letting loose the demonic forces that have brought us to the situation we find ourselves in at this time within the Providence of God:

 

"Where there is no Mass," writes one of the Fathers of the English Oratory, "there is no Christianity." The reason is plain. Christ's life was one of sacrifice--not merely of the figurative sacrifice of praise and prayer, but one of outward act, of suffering and of death. His religion must be like Himself: it must be the continuation of the divine human life that He led upon earth, representing and perpetuating, by some sacred rite, the sacrifice that began in the womb of Mary and ended upon the cross of Calvary. That rite is the holy Mass. Do we always realize it as such? Does the conviction sink deep into us, when offering, or assisting at the adorable sacrifice, that Jesus is re-enacting, in our presence, the mysteries of His life and death?

The altar of the Mass is the holy house of Nazareth, the city of Bethlehem, the Egyptian place of exile, the hill of Calvary, the garden-tomb in which Our Saviour's corpse reposed, and the Mount of Olives from which He ascended. The Passion, it is true, is that which is primarily represented and continued in the holy Mass; yet the prayers and rites of the sacrifice refer, at times, to other mysteries. Thus the dropping of a part of the sacred host into the chalice, before the Agnus Dei, represents the reunion of Christ's soul with His body and blood on the morning of the Resurrection. For a description of the many and beautiful analogies between the eucharistic life of Our Lord and His sacred Infancy, we refer the reader to Father Faber's Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament.

The Mass is truly a "hidden treasure," and, alas, our cold, dead faith allows it to remain so. If we valued it as we ought, we would hurry every morning to the church, ceaseless of the snows of winter and the heats of summer, in order to get a share of the riches of this treasure.

The saints knew the value of one Mass: that it was a dark day in their calendar on which they were deprived of the happy privilege of saying or hearing Mass. Although St. Francis de Sales was overburdened with apostolic work on the Mission of the Chablais, he made it a point never to miss his daily Mass. In order to keep his holy resolution, he had frequently to cross the river Drance, to the village of Marin, in which there was a Catholic church. It happened, in the winter of 1596, that a great freshet carried away a portion of the bridge over the stream, and the passengers were, in consequence, compelled to cross on a plank laid over those arches of the broken structure that had withstood the waters. Heavy falls of snow, followed by severe frosts, made this board very slippery, so that it became dangerous to attempt passing on on it; but St. Francis was not be deterred, for despite the remonstration of his friends, he made the perilous journey every morning, creeping over the icy plank on his hands and feet, thus daily risking his life rather than lose Mass.

Dear Christian reader! beg this glorious saint to obtain for you and me some portion of his burning love for the most holy and adorable sacrifice of the altar. (From the American preface to Saint Leonard of Port Maurice's The Hidden Treasure: Holy Mass.)

 

Protestants do not have the Mass. They do not have the true Faith. So it is also, of course, that although many Catholics within the conciliar structures have managed to retain a good deal of the sensus Catholicus (we know some traditionally-minded families in the conciliar structures who do a far, far better job of dressing their children modestly at all times without any compromises and who take great pains to protect them as far as is humanly possible from the harm of the popular culture than many families who reject the conciliar "hierarchy's" claim to legitimacy) the lion's share of Catholics in the false church of conciliarism have embraced the world and its false, naturalistic currents entirely in large measure because they do not have the Mass (see Taking The Obvious For Granted).

Never mistake any form of faux Christianity for the true Faith as we continue pray for the conversion of those steeped in some kind of false Christianity or any other kind of false religion. Got it?

We must enfold ourselves into the love of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus as we make reparation for our own many sins, which are so responsible for the worsening of the state of the Church Militant on earth and of the world-at-large, as we seek to restore all things in Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen.

The Rosary, the Rosary, the Rosary. Use it well. The enemies of Christ the King within in our souls and in the world-at-large will be defeated by Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary and the fulfillment of her Fatima Message.

This is all the more reason to unite ourselves as one this year as we continue to participate in Bishop Robert F. McKenna's Bishop McKenna's Rosary Crusade.

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

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 Stephen of Hungary, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints

Appendix A

Pope Pius IX on Modern Civilization

In truth, on the face of this earth there is but one true and holy Religion, founded and established by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself; this Religion – the fecund mother, the nurturer of all virtues, the enemy of vice, the liberator of souls and the mistress of true happiness – is called Catholic, Apostolic and Roman.

We have already spoken about what we should think of those who live outside of this ark of salvation in the consistory allocution of December 9, 1854, and here we confirm that same doctrine.

To those who, for the good of Religion, invite us to extend our hand to contemporary civilization, we ask whether the Vicar of Christ, divinely established by Christ to preserve the purity of His heavenly doctrine and to nourish and confirm His lambs and sheep in this same doctrine, could join forces with contemporary civilization without a very grave danger of conscience and causing the greatest of scandals. For it was this civilization that produced evils so numerous that we could never deplore them sufficiently, as well as so many poisonous opinions, errors and principles which are extremely opposed to the Catholic Religion and her doctrine. (Pius IX, Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, March 18, 1861, in Recueil des Allocutions consistoriales, encycliques et autres lettres apostoliques, Paris: Adrien Leclere, 1865, p. 435, found at  Pope Cannot Accept Modern Civilization.)

Appendix B

Pope Leo XIII on the Masonic Ethos of Toleration of False Religions

Everyone should avoid familiarity or friendship with anyone suspected of belonging to masonry or to affiliated groups. Know them by their fruits and avoid them. Every familiarity should be avoided, not only with those impious libertines who openly promote the character of the sect, but also with those who hide under the mask of universal tolerance, respect for all religions, and the craving to reconcile the maxims of the Gospel with those of the revolution. These men seek to reconcile Christ and Belial, the Church of God and the state without God. (Pope Leo XIII, Custodi di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892.)

Appendix C

Pope Leo XIII on the Duties of Catholics to Defend Catholic Truth in Public

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

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

Appendix D

Pope Leo XIII on the Degeneration of Nations Absent the Catholic Faith

From this it may clearly be seen what consequences are to be expected from that false pride which, rejecting our Saviour's Kingship, places man at the summit of all things and declares that human nature must rule supreme. And yet, this supreme rule can neither be attained nor even defined. The rule of Jesus Christ derives its form and its power from Divine Love: a holy and orderly charity is both its foundation and its crown. Its necessary consequences are the strict fulfilment of duty, respect of mutual rights, the estimation of the things of heaven above those of earth, the preference of the love of God to all things. But this supremacy of man, which openly rejects Christ, or at least ignores Him, is entirely founded upon selfishness, knowing neither charity nor selfdevotion. Man may indeed be king, through Jesus Christ: but only on condition that he first of all obey God, and diligently seek his rule of life in God's law. By the law of Christ we mean not only the natural precepts of morality and the Ancient Law, all of which Jesus Christ has perfected and crowned by His declaration, explanation and sanction; but also the rest of His doctrine and His own peculiar institutions. Of these the chief is His Church. Indeed whatsoever things Christ has instituted are most fully contained in His Church. Moreover, He willed to perpetuate the office assigned to Him by His Father by means of the ministry of the Church so gloriously founded by Himself. On the one hand He confided to her all the means of men's salvation, on the other He most solemnly commanded men to be subject to her and to obey her diligently, and to follow her even as Himself: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (Luke x, 16). Wherefore the law of Christ must be sought in the Church. Christ is man's "Way"; the Church also is his "Way"-Christ of Himself and by His very nature, the Church by His commission and the communication of His power. Hence all who would find salvation apart from the Church, are led astray and strive in vain.

As with individuals, so with nations. These, too, must necessarily tend to ruin if they go astray from "The Way." The Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, is King and Lord of the earth, and holds supreme dominion over men, both individually and collectively. "And He gave Him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him" (Daniel vii., 14). "I am appointed King by Him . . . I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalm ii., 6, 8). Therefore the law of Christ ought to prevail in human society and be the guide and teacher of public as well as of private life. Since this is so by divine decree, and no man may with impunity contravene it, it is an evil thing for the common weal wherever Christianity does not hold the place that belongs to it. When Jesus Christ is absent, human reason fails, being bereft of its chief protection and light, and the very end is lost sight of, for which, under God's providence, human society has been built up. This end is the obtaining by the members of society of natural good through the aid of civil unity, though always in harmony with the perfect and eternal good which is above nature. But when men's minds are clouded, both rulers and ruled go astray, for they have no safe line to follow nor end to aim at. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)

Appendix E

Pope Leo XIII: We Must Restore Catholicism

Just as Christianity cannot penetrate into the soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into public life without establishing order. With the idea of a God Who governs all, Who is infinitely wise, good, and just, the idea of duty seizes upon the consciences of men.  It assuages sorrow, it calms hatred, it engenders heroes. If it has transformed pagan society--and that transformation was a veritable resurrection--for barbarism disappeared in proportion as Christianity extended its sway, so, after the terrible shocks which unbelief has given to the world in our days, it will be able to put that world again on the true road, and bring back to order the states and peoples of modern times. But the return of Christianity will not be efficacious and complete if it does not restore the world to a sincere love of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption.  It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of its blood, and strong in the Divine assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, it makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which It has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. Legitimate dispenser of the teachings of the Gospel It does not reveal itself only as the consoler and Redeemer of souls, but It is still more the internal source of justice and charity, and the propagator as well as the guardian of true liberty, and of that equality which alone is possible here below. In applying the doctrine of its Divine Founder, It maintains a wise equilibrium and marks the true limits between the rights and privileges of society. The equality which it proclaims does not destroy the distinction between the different social classes  It keeps them intact, as nature itself demands, in order to oppose the anarchy of reason emancipated from Faith, and abandoned to its own devices. The liberty which it gives in no wise conflicts with the rights of truth, because those rights are superior to the demands of liberty.  Not does it infringe upon the rights of justice, because those rights are superior to the claims of mere numbers or power. Nor does it assail the rights of God because they are superior to the rights of humanity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)