Feeding Caesar's Bloat

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Demonstrating his complete immersion in a world of his own creation, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is writing on encyclical letter to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Giovanni Montini/Paul VI's hideous attempt to give Marxism a "Christian face," Populorum Progressio, which discussed social problems without ever once admitting that these problems have arisen as a result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Mary Our Immaculate Queen, who was not mentioned at all in Montini's contradiction of Pope Saint Pius X's Notre Charge Apostolique.

Consider this telling passage from Populorum Progressio, March 26, 1967:

It is true that too frequently an accelerated demographic increase adds its own difficulties to the problems of development: the size of the population increases more rapidly than available resources, and things are found to have reached apparently an impasse. From that moment the temptation is great to check the demographic increase by means of radical measures. It is certain that public authorities can intervene, within the limit of their competence, by favoring the availability of appropriate information and by adopting suitable measures, provided that these be in conformity with the moral law and that they respect the rightful freedom of married couples. Where the inalienable right to marriage and procreation is lacking, human dignity has ceased to exist. Finally, it is for the parents to decide, with full knowledge of the matter, on the number of their children, taking into account their responsibilities towards God, themselves, the children they have already brought into the world, and the community to which they belong. In all this they must follow the demands of their own conscience enlightened by God's law authentically interpreted, and sustained by confidence in Him.

In the task of development, man, who finds his life's primary environment in the family, is often aided by professional organizations. If it is their objective to promote the interests of their members, their responsibility is also great with regard to the educative task which at the same time they can and ought to accomplish. By means of the information they provide and the formation they propose, they can do much to give to all a sense of the common good and of the consequent obligations that fall upon each person.

All social action involves a doctrine. The Christian cannot admit that which is based upon a materialistic and atheistic philosophy, which respects neither the religious orientation of life to its final end, nor human freedom and dignity. But, provided that these values are safeguarded, a pluralism of professional organizations and trade unions is admissible, and from certain points of view useful, if thereby liberty is protected and emulation stimulated. And We most willingly pay homage to all those who labor in them to give unselfish service to their brothers.

 

One will note that Giovanni Montini accepted uncritically the disinformation concerning an alleged disparity between "population increases" and the available food supply to justify what he termed to be morally licit methods for parents "to decide, with full knowledge of the matter," the number of children they decide to have. Montini thus encouraged parents in Third World countries to limit children on the basis of his own acceptance of a nonexistent population "crisis" and an equally nonexistent lack of food supply, oblivious to the Catholic truth that God wants parents to have as many children as He chooses to send them in order that the Holy Faith may be propagated in this world and that He would have more souls with Him in Heaven for all eternity to give Him honor and glory in the presence of His own Beatific Vision.

Montini, a believer in the disinformation disseminated by the Masonic (United) Nations and other population control agencies and organizations, used this exact reasoning in Humanae Vitae, July 25, 1968, to broaden the "acceptable" reasons to limit the size of families, taking into "psychological" factors, terming such limitations to be in accord with what he termed "responsible parenthood," a phrase lifted straight out of the propaganda of the International Federations of Planned Parenthood. Although the subject of a different commentary at different time, nowhere in Pope Pius XII's Address to Midwives on the Nature of Their Profession, October 29, 1951, is there such an acceptance of the need to limit the size of families for demographic reasons, leaving aside, at least for now, all other considerations of Pope Pius XII's address on this subject.

A Celebration of Pluralism, Not Catholicism

Also of interest in the passage above from Montini's Populorum Progressio is is acceptance of "pluralism of professional organizations and trade unions," coupled with a willingness to "pay homage to all those who labor in them to give unselfish service to their brothers," meaning that the common temporal good can be promoted regardless of whether man's Last End is kept uppermost in mind and without regard to promoting the restoration of the Catholic City, of Christendom. This stands in sharp contrast to Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891, which stated the necessity of forming Catholic associations so as to pursue the common temporal good in light of the eternal good of man, that is, the salvation of his immortal soul as a member of the Catholic Church:

Associations of every kind, and especially those of working men, are now far more common than heretofore. As regards many of these there is no need at present to inquire whence they spring, what are their objects, or what the means they imply. Now, there is a good deal of evidence in favor of the opinion that many of these societies are in the hands of secret leaders, and are managed on principles ill-according with Christianity and the public well-being; and that they do their utmost to get within their grasp the whole field of labor, and force working men either to join them or to starve. Under these circumstances Christian working men must do one of two things: either join associations in which their religion will be exposed to peril, or form associations among themselves and unite their forces so as to shake off courageously the yoke of so unrighteous and intolerable an oppression. No one who does not wish to expose man's chief good to extreme risk will for a moment hesitate to say that the second alternative should by all means be adopted.

Those Catholics are worthy of all praise -- and they are not a few -- who, understanding what the times require, have striven, by various undertakings and endeavors, to better the condition of the working class by rightful means. They have taken up the cause of the working man, and have spared no efforts to better the condition both of families and individuals; to infuse a spirit of equity into the mutual relations of employers and employed; to keep before the eyes of both classes the precepts of duty and the laws of the Gospel -- that Gospel which, by inculcating self-restraint, keeps men within the bounds of moderation, and tends to establish harmony among the divergent interests and the various classes which compose the body politic. It is with such ends in view that we see men of eminence, meeting together for discussion, for the promotion of concerted action, and for practical work. Others, again, strive to unite working men of various grades into associations, help them with their advice and means, and enable them to obtain fitting and profitable employment. The bishops, on their part, bestow their ready goodwill and support; and with their approval and guidance many members of the clergy, both secular and regular, labor assiduously in behalf of the spiritual interest of the members of such associations. And there are not wanting Catholics blessed with affluence, who have, as it were, cast in their lot with the wage-earners, and who have spent large sums in founding and widely spreading benefit and insurance societies, by means of which the working man may without difficulty acquire through his labor not only many present advantages, but also the certainty of honorable support in days to come. How greatly such manifold and earnest activity has benefited the community at large is too well known to require Us to dwell upon it. We find therein grounds for most cheering hope in the future, provided always that the associations We have described continue to grow and spread, and are well and wisely administered. The State should watch over these societies of citizens banded together in accordance with their rights, but it should not thrust itself into their peculiar concerns and their organization, for things move and live by the spirit inspiring them, and may be killed by the rough grasp of a hand from without.

In order that an association may be carried on with unity of purpose and harmony of action, its administration and government should be firm and wise. All such societies, being free to exist, have the further right to adopt such rules and organization as may best conduce to the attainment of their respective objects. We do not judge it possible to enter into minute particulars touching the subject of organization; this must depend on national character, on practice and experience, on the nature and aim of the work to be done, on the scope of the various trades and employments, and on other circumstances of fact and of time -- all of which should be carefully considered.

To sum up, then, We may lay it down as a general and lasting law that working men's associations should be so organized and governed as to furnish the best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to better his condition to the utmost in body, soul, and property. It is clear that they must pay special and chief attention to the duties of religion and morality, and that social betterment should have this chiefly in view; otherwise they would lose wholly their special character, and end by becoming little better than those societies which take no account whatever of religion. What advantage can it be to a working man to obtain by means of a society material well-being, if he endangers his soul for lack of spiritual food? "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?" This, as our Lord teaches, is the mark or character that distinguishes the Christian from the heathen. "After all these things do the heathen seek . . . Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice: and all these things shall be added unto you." Let our associations, then, look first and before all things to God; let religious instruction have therein the foremost place, each one being carefully taught what is his duty to God, what he has to believe, what to hope for, and how he is to work out his salvation; and let all be warned and strengthened with special care against wrong principles and false teaching. Let the working man be urged and led to the worship of God, to the earnest practice of religion, and, among other things, to the keeping holy of Sundays and holy days. Let him learn to reverence and love holy Church, the common Mother of us all; and hence to obey the precepts of the Church, and to frequent the sacraments, since they are the means ordained by God for obtaining forgiveness of sin and for leading a holy life.

 

Pope Saint Pius X examined in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 191the erroneous nature of the belief that the best way for Catholics to pursue "social justice" was in the context of interdenominational associations to promote the common temporal good:

The same applies to the notion of Fraternity which they found on the love of common interest or, beyond all philosophies and religions, on the mere notion of humanity, thus embracing with an equal love and tolerance all human beings and their miseries, whether these are intellectual, moral, or physical and temporal. But Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged, but in the zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement as well as for their material well-being. Catholic doctrine further tells us that love for our neighbor flows from our love for God, Who is Father to all, and goal of the whole human family; and in Jesus Christ whose members we are, to the point that in doing good to others we are doing good to Jesus Christ Himself. Any other kind of love is sheer illusion, sterile and fleeting.

Indeed, we have the human experience of pagan and secular societies of ages past to show that concern for common interests or affinities of nature weigh very little against the passions and wild desires of the heart. No, Venerable Brethren, there is no genuine fraternity outside Christian charity. Through the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour, Christian charity embraces all men, comforts all, and leads all to the same faith and same heavenly happiness.

By separating fraternity from Christian charity thus understood, Democracy, far from being a progress, would mean a disastrous step backwards for civilization. If, as We desire with all Our heart, the highest possible peak of well being for society and its members is to be attained through fraternity or, as it is also called, universal solidarity, all minds must be united in the knowledge of Truth, all wills united in morality, and all hearts in the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ. But this union is attainable only by Catholic charity, and that is why Catholic charity alone can lead the people in the march of progress towards the ideal civilization.

 

"But this union is attainable only by Catholic charity, and that is why Catholic charity alone can lead the people in the march of progress towards the ideal civilization." Go tell that to Giovanni Montini or Karol Wojtyla or Joseph Ratzinger, none of whom believed in the restoration of the Catholic City, being content to promote a "humanism" premised on the sort of interdenominational grounds condemned by Pope Saint Pius X:

Here we have, founded by Catholics, an inter-denominational association that is to work for the reform of civilization, an undertaking which is above all religious in character; for there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact. The new Sillonists cannot pretend that they are merely working on “the ground of practical realities” where differences of belief do not matter. Their leader is so conscious of the influence which the convictions of the mind have upon the result of the action, that he invites them, whatever religion they may belong to, “to provide on the ground of practical realities, the proof of the excellence of their personal convictions.” And with good reason: indeed, all practical results reflect the nature of one’s religious convictions, just as the limbs of a man down to his finger-tips, owe their very shape to the principle of life that dwells in his body.

This being said, what must be thought of the promiscuity in which young Catholics will be caught up with heterodox and unbelieving folk in a work of this nature? Is it not a thousand-fold more dangerous for them than a neutral association? What are we to think of this appeal to all the heterodox, and to all the unbelievers, to prove the excellence of their convictions in the social sphere in a sort of apologetic contest? Has not this contest lasted for nineteen centuries in conditions less dangerous for the faith of Catholics? And was it not all to the credit of the Catholic Church? What are we to think of this respect for all errors, and of this strange invitation made by a Catholic to all the dissidents to strengthen their convictions through study so that they may have more and more abundant sources of fresh forces? What are we to think of an association in which all religions and even Free-Thought may express themselves openly and in complete freedom? For the Sillonists who, in public lectures and elsewhere, proudly proclaim their personal faith, certainly do not intend to silence others nor do they intend to prevent a Protestant from asserting his Protestantism, and the skeptic from affirming his skepticism. Finally, what are we to think of a Catholic who, on entering his study group, leaves his Catholicism outside the door so as not to alarm his comrades who, “dreaming of disinterested social action, are not inclined to make it serve the triumph of interests, coteries and even convictions whatever they may be”? Such is the profession of faith of the New Democratic Committee for Social Action which has taken over the main objective of the previous organization and which, they say, “breaking the double meaning which surround the Greater Sillon both in reactionary and anti-clerical circles”, is now open to all men “who respect moral and religious forces and who are convinced that no genuine social emancipation is possible without the leaven of generous idealism.”

Alas! yes, the double meaning has been broken: the social action of the Sillon is no longer Catholic. The Sillonist, as such, does not work for a coterie, and “the Church”, he says, “cannot in any sense benefit from the sympathies that his action may stimulate.” A strange situation, indeed! They fear lest the Church should profit for a selfish and interested end by the social action of the Sillon, as if everything that benefited the Church did not benefit the whole human race! A curious reversal of notions! The Church might benefit from social action! As if the greatest economists had not recognized and proved that it is social action alone which, if serious and fruitful, must benefit the Church! But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, "the reign of love and justice" with workers coming from everywhere, of all religions and of no religion, with or without beliefs, so long as they forego what might divide them - their religious and philosophical convictions, and so long as they share what unites them - a "generous idealism and moral forces drawn from whence they can" When we consider the forces, knowledge, and supernatural virtues which are necessary to establish the Christian City, and the sufferings of millions of martyrs, and the light given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and the self-sacrifice of all the heroes of charity, and a powerful hierarchy ordained in heaven, and the streams of Divine Grace - the whole having been built up, bound together, and impregnated by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the Word made man - when we think, I say, of all this, it is frightening to behold new apostles eagerly attempting to do better by a common interchange of vague idealism and civic virtues. What are they going to produce? What is to come of this collaboration? A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we shall see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people. Yes, we can truly say that the Sillon, its eyes fixed on a chimera, brings Socialism in its train.

We fear that worse is to come: the end result of this developing promiscuousness, the beneficiary of this cosmopolitan social action, can only be a Democracy which will be neither Catholic, nor Protestant, nor Jewish. It will be a religion (for Sillonism, so the leaders have said, is a religion) more universal than the Catholic Church, uniting all men become brothers and comrades at last in the "Kingdom of God". - "We do not work for the Church, we work for mankind."

 

Interdenominational associations can, at best, be tolerated by the Church if it is difficult to form Catholic associations to defend the rights of workers. Pope Saint Pius X elaborated on this point in Singulari Quadam, September 24, 1912, stressing the Church's preference for Catholic associations to promote Catholic Social Teaching:

Accordingly, We first of all declare that all Catholics have a sacred and inviolable duty, both in private and public life, to obey and firmly adhere to and fearlessly profess the principles of Christian truth enunciated by the teaching office of the Catholic Church. In particular We mean those principles which Our Predecessor has most wisely laid down in the encyclical letter "Rerum Novarum." We know that the Bishops of Prussia followed these most faithfully in their deliberations at the Fulda Congress of 1900. You yourselves have summarized the fundamental ideas of these principles in your communications regarding this question.

These are fundamental principles: No matter what the Christian does, even in the realm of temporal goods, he cannot ignore the supernatural good. Rather, according to the dictates of Christian philosophy, he must order all things to the ultimate end, namely, the Highest Good. All his actions, insofar as they are morally either good or bad (that is to say, whether they agree or disagree with the natural and divine law), are subject to the judgment and judicial office of the Church. All who glory in the name of Christian, either individually or collectively, if they wish to remain true to their vocation, may not foster enmities and dissensions between the classes of civil society. On the contrary, they must promote mutual concord and charity. The social question and its associated controversies, such as the nature and duration of labor, the wages to be paid, and workingmen's strikes, are not simply economic in character. Therefore they cannot be numbered among those which can be settled apart from ecclesiastical authority. "The precise opposite is the truth. It is first of all moral and religious, and for that reason its solution is to be expected mainly from the moral law and the pronouncements of religion."

Now, concerning workingmen's associations, even though their purpose is to obtain earthly advantages for their members, nonetheless those associations are to be most approved and considered as most useful for the genuine and permanent advantage of their members which are established chiefly on the foundation of the Catholic religion and openly follow the directives of the Church. We have repeated this declaration on several previous occasions in answer to question from various countries. Consequently, such so-called confessional Catholic associations must certainly be established and promoted in every way in Catholic regions as well as in all other districts where it can be presumed that they can sufficiently assist the various needs of their members. However, when there is a question about associations which directly or indirectly touch upon the sphere of religion and morality, it would not be permitted to foster and spread mixed organizations, that is, associations composed of Catholics and non-Catholics, in the areas just mentioned. Over and above other matters, in such organizations there are or certainly can be for our people serious dangers to the integrity of their faith and the due obedience to the commandments and precepts of the Catholic Church. Venerable Brethren, you yourselves have also openly called attention to this question in several of your answers which We have read.

 

Pope Saint Pius X went on to write in Singulari Quadam that it might be necessary to tolerate some "intercredal" associations of workers in certain circumstances, laying down specific precautions so as to guarantee that the Catholics who joined such associations would safeguard their commitment to the Catholic Faith and be instruments of propagating Catholic Social Teaching amongst non-Catholics:

We therefore lavish praise upon each and every one of the strictly Catholic workingmen's associations existing in Germany. We wish them every success in all their endeavors on behalf of the laboring people, hoping they will enjoy a constant increase. However, in saying this We do not deny that Catholics, in their efforts to improve the workers' living conditions, more equitable distribution of wages, and other justified advantages, have a right, provided they exercise due caution, to collaborate with nonCatholics for the common good. For such a purpose, however, We would rather see Catholic and non-Catholic associations unite their forces through that new and timely institution known as the cartel.

Not a few of you, Venerable Brethren, have asked Us whether it is permissible to tolerate the so-called Christian Trade Unions that now exist in your dioceses, since, on the one hand, they have a considerably larger number of members than the purely Catholic associations and, on the other hand, if permission were denied serious disadvantages would result. In view of the particular circumstances of Catholic affairs in Germany, We believe that We should grant this petition. Furthermore, We declare that such mixed associations as now exist within your dioceses can be tolerated and Catholics may be permitted to join them, as long as such toleration does not cease to be appropriate or permissible by reason of new and changed conditions. Necessary precautions, however, must be adopted in order to avoid the dangers which, as has already been mentioned, follow upon such associations.

The following are the most important of these precautions: In the first place, provision should be made that Catholic workers who are members of the trade unions must also belong to those Catholic associations which are known as "Arbeitervereine." In the event that they must make some sacrifice for this cause, even in a monetary way, We are convinced that they will readily do so for the sake of safeguarding the integrity of their Faith. As has been happily demonstrated, the Catholic workingmen's associations, aided by the clergy and by its leadership and alert direction, are able to achieve very much toward preserving the truths of religion and the purity of morals among their members, and nourish the religious spirit through frequent practices of piety. Therefore, the leaders of such associations, clearly recognizing the needs of the age, are undoubtedly prepared to instruct the workers about their duties in justice and charity, especially regarding all those commandments and precepts in which an accurate knowledge is needed or useful in order to enable them to take an active part in their trade unions according to the principles of Catholic doctrine.

Furthermore, if Catholics are to be permitted to join the trade unions, these associations must avoid everything that is not in accord, either in principle or practice, with the teachings and commandments of the Church or the proper ecclesiastical authorities. Similarly, everything is to be avoided in their literature or public utterances or actions which in the above view would incur censure.

The Bishops, therefore, should consider it their sacred duty to observe carefully the conduct of all these associations and to watch diligently that the Catholic members do not suffer any harm as a result of their participation. The Catholic members themselves, however, should never permit the unions, whether for the sake of material interests of their members or the union cause as such, to proclaim or support teachings or to engage in activities which would conflict in any way with the directives proclaimed by the supreme teaching authority of the Church, especially those mentioned above. Therefore, as often as problems arise concerning matters of justice or charity, the Bishops should take the greatest care to see that the faithful do not overlook Catholic moral teaching and do not depart from it even a finger's breadth.

We are convinced, Venerable Brethren, that you will diligently take care to see that all these directives of Ours are conscientiously and exactly fulfilled, carefully and constantly reporting to Us concerning this very serious problem. Since We have taken this matter under Our jurisdiction and, after hearing the views of the Bishops, since the decision rests with Us, We hereby command all Catholics of good will to desist from all disputes among themselves concerning this matter. We are confident that with fraternal charity and perfect obedience they will completely and gladly carry out Our command. If any further difficulty arises among them, they should seek its solution in the following manner: Let them first turn to their Bishops for counsel, and then submit the matter to the Apostolic See for its decision.

There is one more point to consider, and it was already implied in what has been said. On the one hand, no one could accuse of bad faith and, under such a pretext, bear ill will toward those who, while firmly defending the teachings and rights of the Church, nonetheless for good reasons have joined or wish to join mixed labor associations in those places where, under certain safeguards, ecclesiastical authority has permitted them in view of local conditions. On the other hand, it would likewise be most reprehensible to oppose or attack the purely Catholic associations (this type of association must, on the contrary, be supported and promoted in every possible manner), and to demand that the so-called intercredal associations be introduced and force their establishment on the grounds that all Catholic associations in every diocese ought to be set up along one and the same pattern.

 

This toleration of of interdenominational or nondenominational associations was explained also by Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931:

These counsels and instructions of Leo XIII were put into effect differently in different places according to varied local conditions. In some places one and the same association undertook to attain all the ends laid down by the Pontiff; in others, because circumstances suggested or required it, a division of work developed and separate associations were formed. Of these, some devoted themselves to the defense of the rights and legitimate interests of their members in the labor market; others took over the work of providing mutual economic aid; finally still others gave all their attention to the fulfillment of religious and moral duties and other obligations of like nature.

This second method has especially been adopted where either the laws of a country, or certain special economic institutions, or that deplorable dissension of minds and hearts so widespread in contemporary society and an urgent necessity of combating with united purpose and strength the massed ranks of revolutionarists, have prevented Catholics from founding purely Catholic labor unions. Under these conditions, Catholics seem almost forced to join secular labor unions. These unions, however, should always profess justice and equity and give Catholic members full freedom to care for their own conscience and obey the laws of the Church. It is clearly the office of bishops, when they know that these associations are on account of circumstances necessary and are not dangerous to religion, to approve of Catholic workers joining them, keeping before their eyes, however, the principles and precautions laid down by Our Predecessor, Pius X of holy memory. Among these precautions the first and chief is this: Side by side with these unions there should always be associations zealously engaged in imbuing and forming their members in the teaching of religion and morality so that they in turn may be able to permeate the unions with that good spirit which should direct them in all their activity. As a result, the religious associations will bear good fruit even beyond the circle of their own membership.

 

Rerum Novarum's call for avowedly Catholic associations and Singulari Quadam's and Quadragesimo Anno's recognition that circumstances might necessitate a toleration of Catholics joining secular or interdenominational association stand in sharp contrast to Populorum Progressio's celebration of pluralism, one of the recurring themes of the apostasy that is conciliarism in its entirety. Celebrate Populorum Progressio? I think not.

Feeding Caesar's Blot

Among the areas to be covered in Ratzinger's forthcoming encyclical letter celebrating Populorum Progressio is tax evasion, a subject that Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a pro-abortion Catholic who is in perfectly "good standing" in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, brought up in a meeting with the antipope. While we are indeed to give Caesar what belongs to him, Caesar uses what we give him to sustain bloated, needless bureaucracies at all levels of government and to fund programs that are inimical to the eternal good of souls and thus to the common good of society itself. Ratzinger has a conciliar bishop of Brada in The Netherlands, Martinus "Tiny" Muskens, who is calling upon all "Christians" to refer to God as "Allah" in the hopes of appeasing the Mohammedans. Lost in what he considers to be the ethereal joy of conciliarism, however, Ratzinger prefers to play his piano while the Faith of our fathers continues to be engulfed in the flames ignited by conciliarism's warfare against all that is authentically Catholic, including Christendom itself.

It is not tax evasion that should occupy the minds of those who think, albeit falsely, that they speak for the Catholic Church  It is the unjust growth of the civil state and the monstrous level of taxation, the proceeds from which are used principally to fund all manner of immoral projects, that should be denounced by anyone who considers himself to be a Catholic seeking to be faithful to Holy Mother Church's immutable, infallible Social Teaching. And while that Social Teaching must be applied in concrete circumstances, the exact details of which are subject to discussion and debate and interpretation, the principles contained in that Social Teaching are found in the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the Natural law that have been entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church. The principle of a just level of taxation is derived from the Fourth Commandment, which places limits on the unjust exercise of civil power, and Seventh Commandments, which protects the right of private property, a right of the Natural Law, and guards against its unjust confiscation, as can be seen in this passage from Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum:

These three important benefits, however, can be reckoned on only provided that a man's means be not drained and exhausted by excessive taxation. The right to possess private property is derived from nature, not from man; and the State has the right to control its use in the interests of the public good alone, but by no means to absorb it altogether. The State would therefore be unjust and cruel if under the name of taxation it were to deprive the private owner of more than is fair.

 

No sane human being who understands the reality of the world can assert with a straight face that we are not living at a time in human history when the average taxpayer is indeed oppressed by unjust and cruel levels of taxation, depriving him of far more than is fair. We are indeed living in such a time. So much so that a chap named William Jefferson Blyth Clinton said in a speech in Buffalo, New York, in 1998 that the leaders of the Federal government knew how to spend taxpayers' money better than the taxpayers themselves. This candid admission from the penultimate statist and collectivist was and remains a simple statement of fact in the anti-Incarnational civil state of Modernity: that citizens exist to aggrandize the state, which has, in this demonic view, no obligation to recognize the true Faith or to pursue the common temporal good in light of man's Last End.

Holy Mother Church teaches us that the first portion of whatever we make (whether it be the worthless pieces of paper known as "currency," to which is assigned artificial values by various government and banking officials and agencies, or grain or other crops, "real" goods--property or livestock, for example, precious metals, etc.) belongs to God by means of the support we give to the work of His Holy Church, not to us and not to the civil state. We must set aside about ten percent of what we make for the support of the work of Holy Mother Church (which does not mean, of course, that we support the local conciliar diocese or any other conciliar project in these days of apostasy and betrayal), being mindful of fulfilling the duties imposed by our own states-in-life. Rejecting this teaching and inverting it, the confiscatory taxation policy of the modern civil state is premised upon the belief that we are entitled to keep only a small portion of what we make, that it is to the various of government to which our income must be directed, thereby depriving individuals of the legitimate freedom to provide for the needs of their own families.

The fundamental safeguard against the growth of the civil state is the Social Reign of Christ the King. True, there were abuses in the imposition of taxation in the Middle Ages, some of which led to direct disputes between various civil potentates and local bishops, if not the Vicar of Christ Himself. There are no guarantors even in a Catholic world against the vagaries of fallen human nature that result in inspiring civil leaders to forget that they must reign according to the Mind of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and always hold the line of justice in their administration of the affairs of state. Saint Louis IX, King of France, whose feast we celebrate in but four days, was most explicit about this in his letter to his son, the future Philip III:

9. Dear son, have a tender pitiful heart for the poor, and for all those whom you believe to be in misery of heart or body, and, according to your ability, comfort and aid them with some alms.

10. Maintain the good customs of your realm, and put down the bad ones. Do not oppress your people and do not burden them with tolls or tailles, except under very great necessity. . . .

18. Dear son, if you come to the throne, strive to have that which befits a king, that is to say, that in justice and rectitude you hold yourself steadfast and loyal toward your subjects and your vassals, without turning either to the right or to the left, but always straight, whatever may happen. And if a poor man have a quarrel with a rich man, sustain the poor rather than the rich, until the truth is made clear, and when you know the truth, do justice to them.

19. If any one have entered into a suit against you (for any injury or wrong which he may believe that you have done to him), be always for him and against yourself in the presence of your council, without showing that you think much of your case (until the truth be made known concerning it); for those of your council might be backward in speaking against you, and this you should not wish; and command your judges that you be not in any way upheld more than any others, for thus will your councillors judge more boldly according to right and truth.

20. If you have anything belonging to another, either of yourself or through your predecessors, if the matter is certain, give it up without delay, however great it may be, either in land or money or otherwise. If the matter is doubtful, have it inquired into by wise men, promptly and diligently. And if the affair is so obscure that you cannot know the truth, make such a settlement, by the counsel of s of upright men, that your soul, and the soul your predecessors, may be wholly freed from the affair. And even if you hear some one say that your predecessors made restitution, make diligent inquiry to learn if anything remains to be restored; and if you find that such is the case, cause it to be delivered over at once, for the liberation of your soul and the souls of your predecessors.

21. You should seek earnestly how your vassals and your subjects may live in peace and rectitude beneath your sway; likewise, the good towns and the good cities of your kingdom. And preserve them in the estate and the liberty in which your predecessors kept them, redress it, and if there be anything to amend, amend and preserve their favor and their love. For it is by the strength and the riches of your good cities and your good towns that the native and the foreigner, especially your peers and your barons, are deterred from doing ill to you. I will remember that Paris and the good towns of my kingdom aided me against the barons, when I was newly crowned.

 

Remove the safeguards provided by the Social Reign of Christ the King, ladies and gentlemen, and the way is left open for the rise of open banditry in the form of the confiscatory taxation policies of the civil state, whether of the "democratic" or "totalitarian" variety, both of which are simply two sides of the same Judeo-Masonic, naturalist coin, which must be re-minted every now and again as Caesar becomes more bloated with increased governmental expenditures and the increased taxation necessary to fund such expenditures.

Indeed, the rise of permanently established political parties in the 1790s produced what many observers call one of the chief curses of Modernity: the professional, career politician, a creature who believes that we exist to enable his career by having him pick our pockets of our money and then telling us how much better off we are now that he has acquired it and is in its control. Government bureaucracies grew in the Nineteenth Century at the state and local levels, first by means of the patronage system, which sought to provide political workers with employment to make them and their families dependent upon the party leaders for their employment.

Government employment was seen in the era of unbridled patronage as a reward for political loyalty, thereby engendering sloth and incompetence as contracts were given to private sector contractors to build government buildings or roads or canals with the understanding that a certain portion of contract must be "kicked back" to the party leaders in power in that jurisdiction. The Democratic political party machine, Tammany Hall, that predominated in the City of New York from 1854 until the overthrow of leader Carmine DeSapio in 1961 (which was engineered in part by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, former New York Governor and United States Senator Herbert Lehman, future U.S. Representative and New York City Mayor Edward Irving Koch and attorney Edward Costikyan) was just one of many such organizations that thrived on the use of taxpayer dollars to keep itself in power.

Pope Leo XIII understood these developments. Consider, if you will, a brief passage from Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:

We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

 

Pope Pius XI amplified this point in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

Public life is so enveloped, even at the present hour, by the dense fog of mutual hatreds and grievances that it is almost impossible for the common people so much as freely to breathe therein. If the defeated nations continue to suffer most terribly, no less serious are the evils which afflict their conquerors. Small nations complain that they are being oppressed and exploited by great nations. The great powers, on their side, contend that they are being judged wrongly and circumvented by the smaller. All nations, great and small, suffer acutely from the sad effects of the late War. Neither can those nations which were neutral contend that they have escaped altogether the tremendous sufferings of the War or failed to experience its evil results almost equally with the actual belligerents. These evil results grow in volume from day to day because of the utter impossibility of finding anything like a safe remedy to cure the ills of society, and this in spite of all the efforts of politicians and statesmen whose work has come to naught if it has not unfortunately tended to aggravate the very evils they tried to overcome. Conditions have become increasingly worse because the fears of the people are being constantly played upon by the ever-present menace of new wars, likely to be more frightful and destructive than any which have preceded them. Whence it is that the nations of today live in a state of armed peace which is scarcely better than war itself, a condition which tends to exhaust national finances, to waste the flower of youth, to muddy and poison the very fountainheads of life, physical, intellectual, religious, and moral.

A much more serious and lamentable evil than these threats of external aggression is the internal discord which menaces the welfare not only of nations but of human society itself. In the first place, we must take cognizance of the war between the classes, a chronic and mortal disease of present-day society, which like a cancer is eating away the vital forces of the social fabric, labor, industry, the arts, commerce, agriculture -- everything in fact which contributes to public and private welfare and to national prosperity. This conflict seems to resist every solution and grows worse because those who are never satisfied with the amount of their wealth contend with those who hold on most tenaciously to the riches which they have already acquired, while to both classes there is common the desire to rule the other and to assume control of the other's possessions. From this class war there result frequent interruptions of work, the causes for which most often can be laid to mutual provocations. There result, too, revolutions, riots, and forcible repression of one side or other by the government, all of which cannot but end in general discontent and in grave damage to the common welfare.

To these evils we must add the contests between political parties, many of which struggles do not originate in a real difference of opinion concerning the public good or in a laudable and disinterested search for what would best promote the common welfare, but in the desire for power and for the protection of some private interest which inevitably result in injury to the citizens as a whole. From this course there often arise robberies of what belongs rightly to the people, and even conspiracies against and attacks on the supreme authority of the state, as well as on its representatives. These political struggles also beget threats of popular action and, at times, eventuate in open rebellion and other disorders which are all the more deplorable and harmful since they come from a public to whom it has been given, in our modern democratic states, to participate in very large measure in public life and in the affairs of government. Now, these different forms of government are not of themselves contrary to the principles of the Catholic Faith, which can easily be reconciled with any reasonable and just system of government. Such governments, however, are the most exposed to the danger of being overthrown by one faction or another.

 

Although many factors contributed to the decline of the patronage system, including the rise of the civil service, especially at the Federal level, in the Nineteenth Century, and the influence of the media and money in statewide and national elections, making it possible for political neophytes to run for and to win major elected offices without having "worked their way through the ranks," it is still the case in many local areas around the United States of America where things have been arranged so as to permit the appointment of large numbers of "political appointees," bloating local budgets and circumventing the "hiring by [alleged] merit" of the patronage system.

I did, for example, a line-item analysis of the budget of the Town of Oyster Bay ten years ago when I was running for the position of Town Supervisor, the chief executive of that subdivision of the County of Nassau (which is divided into three towns, Oyster Bay, Hempstead, North Hempstead, and two cities, Glen Cove and Long Beach), discovering one unnecessary position after another. I made the point in a pamphlet produced for the campaign that those who work only for the advance of their own careers--or for advancement of the careers of those who hired them and upon whom their future livelihood depends--will not work in most instances for the honor and glory of God. (My expertise in this area is not only academic, having taught courses in State and Local Government, one of my major fields of study for the doctorate in political science, but from personal experience gained during a brief period as a government employee in 1987-1988.)

It is no wonder, therefore, that basic services are provided on a minimal level, so much so that what should be a rather basic service in this day of technological advances in the field of traffic planning and engineering, the synchronization of traffic lights on heavily traveled local thoroughfares, is not even considered to be important to improve the quality of daily living and thus to advance the common temporal good. Those who do not think supernaturally at all times, you see, become steeped in the morbidity of careerism and sloth, both of which place fallen men in a stupor of materialism and self-indulgence from which it is impossible to escape, barring the working of the graces won for us on Calvary by the shedding of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood and that flow into our hearts and souls by the working of the Holy Ghost in the sacraments through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces.

There is all manner of waste at the state and local levels of government, replete with political appointees, many of whom are paid hefty salaries, whose positions are totally unnecessary and advance the common good not one whit. The average citizen has been convinced, however, that the bloat of government at all levels, including those closest to him, is irreversible and might even think that the bloat does him such good, although he would be hard-pressed in most instances to name some of the elected officials in his own community. No, the average citizen is too diverted by the bread and circuses to see how the property and sales and income taxes and various "user-fees" imposed at the state and local levels is unjust and goes to enable the political careers of the thieves they have put into office quite willingly.

More than anything else, however, the bloat of the size of the civil state and the scope of its power, especially at the Federal level in the United States of America, has been made possible by the systematic, organized attack against the family by the organized forces of Judeo-Masonic naturalism, which has produced various evils in the world (including removing the father from the home during the work day and taking the family off of the land, a continuation of the process begun after King Henry VIII broke from Rome in the 1530s). The attack on the family, which was part and parcel of the so-called Industrial Revolution, became part of naturalism's cultural agenda in the years following the end of World War I. Immodesty of attire was promoted by Madison Avenue advertising firms and displayed in motion pictures in the 1920s. As noted in a recent commentary, the dawn of radio programming began to attack the regularity of prayer in the family and interrupting family patterns of meals, conversation and sleep. Contraception and divorce were promoted with abandon, although there was a bit of resistance to contraception even such a secular source as The Washington Post, which editorialized as follows on March 21, 1931, following the Anglican "Church's" Lambeth Committee's decision to permit the use of a certain type of contraceptive between married couples in "hard" cases:"

It is impossible to reconcile the doctrine of the divine institution of marriage with any modernistic plan for the mechanical regulation of human birth. The church must either reject the plain teachings of the Bible or reject schemes for the “scientific” production of human souls. Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee’s report if carried into effect would lead to the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution, by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be “careful and restrained” is preposterous.

 

The attack on the integrity of the family would continue throughout the years of the Depression as more and more people began to accept the false belief that government is the first resort, not the last, to resolve social problems, exculpating themselves for the care of their elderly parents and other family members in need. Government bureaucracies grew in number and increased the scope of their regulatory powers as the decades passed, doing so in large measure by the issuance of "rules" that have the binding force of Federal law and that are enforced by the very agency that writes them, which also has, at least in a great many instances, "administrative law judges" to sit in judgment on the rules written by the agencies that employ them. As bureaucrats do not want to see their programs scaled back or eliminated, which is one of the iron laws of bureaucracy, they actually lobby, sometimes behind the scenes, for the maintenance of their useless programs. Ask yourselves this question: is each of the approximately 2,700,000 civilian employees of the Federal government of the United States of America absolutely essential for the pursuit of the common temporal good?  Bureaucracies have become institutionalized, placing incredible tax and regulatory burdens on families, many of whom are oppressed as well by corporate greed and the usury that makes corporate wealth possible.

Consider also the following proposed expenditures, approved by the United States House of Representatives, that are to be used in the furtherance of the goals of Planned Parenthood and related organizations:

Subject: Historic vote in Congress … much work to be done

 

The United States Congress is currently on its summer break. It will return the first week of September. During this time, most members of congress spend time in their home districts and are anxious to hear from constituents on what concerns them. This is a great opportunity for you to let them know that you do not want any taxpayer money going to Planned Parenthood.

 

The top federal programs funding Planned Parenthood are

• Social Security Act Medicaid reimbursements (Title XIX)
• HHS family planning program (Title X)
• Social Security Act Social Services Block Grant (Title XX)
• Social Security Act Maternal and Child Services Block Grant (Title V)

 

Planned Parenthood funding vote

 

A few weeks ago we told you of an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriation bill that specifically called for Planned Parenthood to receive zero dollars from Title X of that bill. This was a historic vote as it was the first time in history congress was asked to vote up or down on the specific question of funding of Planned Parenthood. We are sorry to report that the amendment failed by a vote of 189-231.

 

While the amendment didn’t pass, it was actually an encouragement that it received 45 percent of the vote and, if 21 representatives had changed their votes, the amendment would have passed. It is important that you talk to your representative about this vote and let them know your position. Thank them if they voted in favor of the amendment and encourage them to reconsider if they voted against it.

 

You can see how your representative voted by going to: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll684.xml

 

Planned Parenthood scoring victories in Congress

 

The makeup of the new Congress that took office in January, 2007 is favorable to Planned Parenthood and it is pulling out all the stops to translate that into more money in its bank accounts.

 

Planned Parenthood itself lists many major victories over the last few months. These include: 

• $28 million increase for Title X. This is the third-largest increase in the program's history and the first increase in six years. This increase will result in an estimated $7 million more dollars going to Planned Parenthood.
  
  
• Creation of Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants — a new $10 million funding stream to support factually and medically accurate approaches to prevent teen pregnancy. These programs result in an increase in Planned Parenthood’s customer base.
  
  
• $99 million increase for the Ryan White AIDS/HIV prevention programs. Planned Parenthood uses these programs to get more money for AIDS testing.
  
  
• $200 million increase for Community Health Centers. This extra funding will allow an additional one million uninsured people to be served at one of these centers. This means more customers in Planned Parenthood facilities.
  
  
• $57 million increase for Maternal and Child Health Block Grants. Again, more money for Planned Parenthood.
  
  
• $18 million increase for the Healthy Start program. Planned Parenthood infiltrates these programs pushing its philosophies.
  
  
• $59 million increase for the Vaccines for Children program, which includes funding for the HPV vaccine, which can prevent the virus that causes cervical cancer. As the article in our May-June issue of Celebrate Life magazine shows, this whole HPV vaccine story fits in with Planned Parenthood’s long-term goals. (American Life League Update: From the Desk of Judie Brown.)
  
  

(I would have to disagree with Mrs. Brown that the vote in the House of Representatives to provide Planned Parenthood with zero funding represents "progress." Some of those who voted for the amendment did so, I am sure, to burnish their credentials with pro-life voters, knowing full well that the amendment has absolutely no chance of being passed by the United States Senate. Many of the representative who voted to defund Planned Parenthood also vote regularly to fund the very programs enumerated by Mrs. Brown. Some of this is simple, old-fashioned political gamesmanship.)

Leaving a discussion of what constitutes tax evasion to moral theologians and legal scholars versed in the constitutionality and legality of any kind of government taxation upon wages (which represents the means of one's livelihood, not a capital gain), Catholics need to be reminded of the fact that the growth of the size and power of all levels of government is a direct violation of the Natural Law principle of subsidiarity (that human problems are best addressed in the institution closest to the person in need, starting with the family) that was enunciated so clearly by Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno:

As history abundantly proves, it is true that on account of changed conditions many things which were done by small associations in former times cannot be done now save by large associations. Still, that most weighty principle, which cannot be set aside or changed, remains fixed and unshaken in social philosophy: Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.

The supreme authority of the State ought, therefore, to let subordinate groups handle matters and concerns of lesser importance, which would otherwise dissipate its efforts greatly. Thereby the State will more freely, powerfully, and effectively do all those things that belong to it alone because it alone can do them: directing, watching, urging, restraining, as occasion requires and necessity demands. Therefore, those in power should be sure that the more perfectly a graduated order is kept among the various associations, in observance of the principle of "subsidiary function," the stronger social authority and effectiveness will be the happier and more prosperous the condition of the State.

 

In other words, most of the social problems we face are the result of the promotion of the Actual Sins of men under cover of law, starting with the attack upon the size and the rights of the family, and will be ameliorated only by the right ordering of the family and the civil state according to truths contained in the Deposit of Faith. The civil state, it must be remembered, has an obligation to ordered according to this immutable teaching of the Catholic Church, reiterated by Pope Saint Pius X in Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906:

That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. It limits the action of the State to the pursuit of public prosperity during this life only, which is but the proximate object of political societies; and it occupies itself in no fashion (on the plea that this is foreign to it) with their ultimate object which is man's eternal happiness after this short life shall have run its course. But as the present order of things is temporary and subordinated to the conquest of man's supreme and absolute welfare, it follows that the civil power must not only place no obstacle in the way of this conquest, but must aid us in effecting it. The same thesis also upsets the order providentially established by God in the world, which demands a harmonious agreement between the two societies. Both of them, the civil and the religious society, although each exercises in its own sphere its authority over them. It follows necessarily that there are many things belonging to them in common in which both societies must have relations with one another. Remove the agreement between Church and State, and the result will be that from these common matters will spring the seeds of disputes which will become acute on both sides; it will become more difficult to see where the truth lies, and great confusion is certain to arise. Finally, this thesis inflicts great injury on society itself, for it cannot either prosper or last long when due place is not left for religion, which is the supreme rule and the sovereign mistress in all questions touching the rights and the duties of men. Hence the Roman Pontiffs have never ceased, as circumstances required, to refute and condemn the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. Our illustrious predecessor, Leo XIII, especially, has frequently and magnificently expounded Catholic teaching on the relations which should subsist between the two societies. "Between them," he says, "there must necessarily be a suitable union, which may not improperly be compared with that existing between body and soul.-"Quaedam intercedat necesse est ordinata colligatio (inter illas) quae quidem conjunctioni non immerito comparatur, per quam anima et corpus in homine copulantur." He proceeds: "Human societies cannot, without becoming criminal, act as if God did not exist or refuse to concern themselves with religion, as though it were something foreign to them, or of no purpose to them.... As for the Church, which has God Himself for its author, to exclude her from the active life of the nation, from the laws, the education of the young, the family, is to commit a great and pernicious error. -- "Civitates non possunt, citra scellus, gerere se tamquam si Deus omnino non esset, aut curam religionis velut alienam nihilque profuturam abjicere.... Ecclesiam vero, quam Deus ipse constituit, ab actione vitae excludere, a legibus, ab institutione adolescentium, a societate domestica, magnus et perniciousus est error."

 

The teaching enunciated so clearly by Pope Saint Pius X in Vehementer Nos is not the teaching of the counterfeit church of conciliarism or of the conciliar antipopes, which is one of the principal reasons that I began to investigate the sedevacantist thesis privately in late-2005. The lives of men, both individually and collectively in civil society, must be defined by the Catholic Faith. Although problems existed in the Christendom of the Middle Ages and will exist anew if it is God's will to restore Christendom again before His Second Coming in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead, an adherence to the Catholic Faith leads to peace and order within souls, which are inspired to carry their daily crosses for love of God and in reparation for their own sins, and to limited governments in the civil realm which seek to provide for the common temporal good in light of man's Last End, administering justice fairly and equitably, providing for the good ordering of public safety and morals in the process. Limited government, you see, which taxes citizens fairly and uses the proceeds of tax revenue only for that which is absolutely necessary and just for the common good and public safety and the legitimate defense of a nation, is of the essence of Catholic Social Teaching.

We must, as is noted constantly on this site, trust completely in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose feast we will celebrate tomorrow, August 22, 2007, the Octave Day of the Assumption. We must have the same trust in Our Lady that Lucia dos Santos did when she was ten years old and suffering imprisonment at the hands of the wicked Mayor of Ourem, Artur de Oliveira Santos:

Next the Administrator had Francis called. He was told that Jacinta was already dead, and that he too would meet the same fate if he did not reveal the secret. He, however, remained as silent as his sister. They questioned and threatened him in many ways and they finally closed him in the same room with Jacinta.

Then came Lucy's turn. Later she confessed that: "Even though I was convinced that the Administrator meant what he said, I was not afraid; I prayed to the Blessed Mother." (Father Galamba De Oliveira, A Flower of Fatima, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts: St. Paul Editions, 1957, p. 104.)

 

It is really that simple: total trust in Our Lady, giving to her Divine Son's Most Sacred Heart through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart all of the problems, both ecclesiastical and civil, of the present moment. There is no need to be afraid. Our Lord told us this Himself:

 

And when great multitudes stood about him, so that they trod one upon another, he began to say to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers, shall be preached on the housetops. And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him.

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. But he that shall deny me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but to him that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.

And when they shall bring you into the synagogues, and to magistrates and powers, be not solicitous how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say; For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you must say. And one of the multitude said to him: Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him: Man, who hath appointed me judge, or divider, over you? And he said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of things which he possesseth.

And he spoke a similitude to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer. But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. And he said to his disciples: Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? (Luke 12: 1-25.)

 

Do we really believe all of this as we should? Well, then, trust in Our Lady. This moment will pass. Pope Pius XI put it this way in Quas Primas, December 11, 1925, when explaining why he was instituting the liturgical feast of the Universal Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ:

History, in fact, tells us that in the course of ages these festivals have been instituted one after another according as the needs or the advantage of the people of Christ seemed to demand: as when they needed strength to face a common danger, when they were attacked by insidious heresies, when they needed to be urged to the pious consideration of some mystery of faith or of some divine blessing. Thus in the earliest days of the Christian era, when the people of Christ were suffering cruel persecution, the cult of the martyrs was begun in order, says St. Augustine, "that the feasts of the martyrs might incite men to martyrdom." The liturgical honors paid to confessors, virgins and widows produced wonderful results in an increased zest for virtue, necessary even in times of peace. But more fruitful still were the feasts instituted in honor of the Blessed Virgin. As a result of these men grew not only in their devotion to the Mother of God as an ever-present advocate, but also in their love of her as a mother bequeathed to them by their Redeemer. Not least among the blessings which have resulted from the public and legitimate honor paid to the Blessed Virgin and the saints is the perfect and perpetual immunity of the Church from error and heresy. We may well admire in this the admirable wisdom of the Providence of God, who, ever bringing good out of evil, has from time to time suffered the faith and piety of men to grow weak, and allowed Catholic truth to be attacked by false doctrines, but always with the result that truth has afterwards shone out with greater splendor, and that men's faith, aroused from its lethargy, has shown itself more vigorous than before.

The festivals that have been introduced into the liturgy in more recent years have had a similar origin, and have been attended with similar results. When reverence and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament had grown cold, the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted, so that by means of solemn processions and prayer of eight days' duration, men might be brought once more to render public homage to Christ. So, too, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was instituted at a time when men were oppressed by the sad and gloomy severity of Jansenism, which had made their hearts grow cold, and shut them out from the love of God and the hope of salvation.

If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of anti-clericalism, its errors and impious activities. This evil spirit, as you are well aware, Venerable Brethren, has not come into being in one day; it has long lurked beneath the surface. The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God's religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart. There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God. The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences. We lamented these in the Encyclical Ubi arcano; we lament them today: the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin. We firmly hope, however, that the feast of the Kingship of Christ, which in future will be yearly observed, may hasten the return of society to our loving Savior. It would be the duty of Catholics to do all they can to bring about this happy result. Many of these, however, have neither the station in society nor the authority which should belong to those who bear the torch of truth. This state of things may perhaps be attributed to a certain slowness and timidity in good people, who are reluctant to engage in conflict or oppose but a weak resistance; thus the enemies of the Church become bolder in their attacks. But if the faithful were generally to understand that it behooves them ever to fight courageously under the banner of Christ their King, then, fired with apostolic zeal, they would strive to win over to their Lord those hearts that are bitter and estranged from him, and would valiantly defend his rights.

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

 

We should not be feeding Caesar's bloat. We just be adding honor and glory to the Blessed Trinity through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially through her Most Holy Rosary, the chief weapon after Holy Mass itself against heresy and sin.

Isn't it time right now to pray at least five decades of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary?

Viva Cristo Rey!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and the hour of our death. Amen.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint John Eudes, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us, pray for us.

Saint Agapitus, pray for us.

Saint Helena, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saint Clare of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.

Saints Monica, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.

Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.