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                 June 14, 2007

Complacency in the Face of Evil

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The daily slaughter of the preborn by means of surgical abortion has been used by the devil in many and varied ways to mask the source of this evil and to make it appear as though there is some "piecemeal, "incremental," naturalistic or inter-denominational way to retard this evil. The devil does not want people, especially Catholics, to recognize and to understand that the daily slaughter of the innocent preborn under cover of law is the result his own very well planned and complex scheme to overthrow the Social Reign of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen that began to be implemented in the early phases of the naturalistic, humanistic "Renaissance" in the latter part of the Fourteenth Century. That naturalistic, humanistic "Renaissance" would provide a fertile seed ground for the chaos generated Martin Luther's revolt against the Divine Plan instituted by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to effect man's return to Him through the Catholic Church. The Protestant Revolt, in turn, having effected the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King in many places in Europe, thus made it possible for the unchecked rise of naturalistic, anti-Incarnational, semi-Pelagian political ideologies and Judeo-Masonry itself to come to the foreground as the means to realize "improvement" in social conditions in a non-denominational or interdenominational manner.

It is not for nothing, therefore, that the Catholic Church placed the writings of the following propagators of these errors on its Index of forbidden authors and publications:

Francois Arouet (Voltaire), Francis Bacon, Honore de Balzac, John Calvin, Auguste Comte, Daniel Defoe, Rene Descartes, Denis Diderot, Gustave Flaubert, Anatole France, Galileo Galilei, Edward Gibbon, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Martin Luther, Niccolo Machiavelli, Maimonides, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, Montesquieu, Blaise Pascal, Francois Rabelais, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Baruch de Spinoza and Ulrich Zwingli.

 

A world poisoned by the devil's blinding potions, however, recoils in the face of attempts to censor erroneous ideas from circulation, claiming "freedom of speech" and "freedom of press" and 'freedom of religion" to justify the spread of errors that blaspheme God and poison the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross. Indiscriminate access to false ideas, most of which appeal the disordered pride of fallen man and to his own narcissism, leads even Catholics in many instances into accepting the basic naturalistic premises of Modernity, causing them either to adopt those premises as their own or to come to believe that the evils generated by those premises can be opposed on merely naturalistic grounds without seeking to restore the Social Reign of Christ the King. The doctrinal truth of the Social Reign of Christ the King has been so obscured by the blithe acceptance of Modernity's false naturalistic premises that even those Catholics who are opposed, at least ostensibly, to various social evils do not even realize that the proximate cause of the evils they oppose is the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King and that the only way to attenuate these evils is to seek the restoration of that same Reign of Christ the King, as Pope Leo XIII noted in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900, and as Pope Saint Pius X noted in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910, and Pope Pius XI noted in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922, and Quas Primas, December 11, 1925:

It is surely unnecessary to prove, what experience constantly shows and what each individual feels in himself, even in the very midst of all temporal prosperity-that in God alone can the human will find absolute and perfect peace. God is the only end of man. All our life on earth is the truthful and exact image of a pilgrimage. Now Christ is the "Way," for we can never reach God, the supreme and ultimate good, by this toilsome and doubtful road of mortal life, except with Christ as our leader and guide. How so? Firstly and chiefly by His grace; but this would remain "void" in man if the precepts of His law were neglected. For, as was necessarily the case after Jesus Christ had won our salvation, He left behind Him His Law for the protection and welfare of the human race, under the guidance of which men, converted from evil life, might safely tend towards God. "Going, teach ye all nations . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew xxviii., 19-20). "Keep my commandments" john xiv., 15). Hence it will be understood that in the Christian religion the first and most necessary condition is docility to the precepts of Jesus Christ, absolute loyalty of will towards Him as Lord and King. A serious duty, and one which oftentimes calls for strenuous labour, earnest endeavour, and perseverance! For although by Our Redeemer's grace human nature hath been regenerated, still there remains in each individual a certain debility and tendency to evil. Various natural appetites attract man on one side and the other; the allurements of the material world impel his soul to follow after what is pleasant rather than the law of Christ. Still we must strive our best and resist our natural inclinations with all our strength "unto the obedience of Christ." For unless they obey reason they become our masters, and carrying the whole man away from Christ, make him their slave. "Men of corrupt mind, who have made shipwreck of the faith, cannot help being slaves. . . They are slaves to a threefold concupiscence: of will, of pride, or of outward show" (St. Augustine, De Vera Religione, 37). In this contest every man must be prepared to undergo hard ships and troubles for Christ's sake. It is difficult to reject what so powerfully entices and delights. It is hard and painful to despise the supposed goods of the senses and of fortune for the will and precepts of Christ our Lord. But the Christian is absolutely obliged to be firm, and patient in suffering, if he wish to lead a Christian life. Have we forgotten of what Body and of what Head we are the members? "Having joy set before Him, He endured the Cross," and He bade us deny ourselves. The very dignity of human nature depends upon this disposition of mind. For, as even the ancient Pagan philosophy perceived, to be master of oneself and to make the lower part of the soul, obey the superior part, is so far from being a weakness of will that it is really a noble power, in consonance with right reason and most worthy of a man. Moreover, to bear and to suffer is the ordinary condition of man. Man can no more create for himself a life free from suffering and filled with all happiness that he can abrogate the decrees of his Divine Maker, who has willed that the consequences of original sin should be perpetual. It is reasonable, therefore, not to expect an end to troubles in this world, but rather to steel one's soul to bear troubles, by which we are taught to look forward with certainty to supreme happiness. Christ has not promised eternal bliss in heaven to riches, nor to a life of ease, to honours or to power, but to longsuffering and to tears, to the love of justice and to cleanness of heart.

From this it may clearly be seen what con sequences 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.

Just as it is the height of misfortune to go astray from the "Way," so is it to abandon the "Truth." Christ Himself is the first, absolute and essential "Truth," inasmuch as He is the Word of God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, He and the Father being One. "I am the Way and the Truth." Wherefore if the Truth be sought by the human intellect, it must first of all submit it to Jesus Christ, and securely rest upon His teaching, since therein Truth itself speaketh. There are innumerable and extensive fields of thought, properly belonging to the human mind, in which it may have free scope for its investigations and speculations, and that not only agreeably to its nature, but even by a necessity of its nature. But what is unlawful and unnatural is that the human mind should refuse to be restricted within its proper limits, and, throwing aside its becoming modesty, should refuse to acknowledge Christ's teaching. This teaching, upon which our salvation depends, is almost entirely about God and the things of God. No human wisdom has invented it, but the Son of God hath received and drunk it in entirely from His Father: "The words which thou gavest me, I have given to them" john xvii., 8). Hence this teaching necessarily embraces many subjects which are not indeed contrary to reasonfor that would be an impossibility-but so exalted that we can no more attain them by our own reasoning than we can comprehend God as He is in Himself. If there be so many things hidden and veiled by nature, which no human ingenuity can explain, and yet which no man in his senses can doubt, it would be an abuse of liberty to refuse to accept those which are entirely above nature, because their essence cannot be discovered. To reject dogma is simply to deny Christianity. Our intellect must bow humbly and reverently "unto the obedience of Christ," so that it be held captive by His divinity and authority: "bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians x., 5). Such obedience Christ requires, and justly so. For He is God, and as such holds supreme dominion over man's intellect as well as over his will. By obeying Christ with his intellect man by no means acts in a servile manner, but in complete accordance with his reason and his natural dignity. For by his will he yields, not to the authority of any man, but to that of God, the author of his being, and the first principle to Whom he is subject by the very law of his nature. He does not suffer himself to be forced by the theories of any human teacher, but by the eternal and unchangeable truth. Hence he attains at one and the same time the natural good of the intellect and his own liberty. For the truth which proceeds from the teaching of Christ clearly demonstrates the real nature and value of every being; and man, being endowed with this knowledge, if he but obey the truth as perceived, will make all things subject to himself, not himself to them; his appetites to his reason, not his reason to his appetites. Thus the slavery of sin and falsehood will be shaken off, and the most perfect liberty attained: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" john viii., 32). It is, then, evident that those whose intellect rejects the yoke of Christ are obstinately striving against God. Having shaken off God's authority, they are by no means freer, for they will fall beneath some human sway. They are sure to choose someone whom they will listen to, obey, and follow as their guide. Moreover, they withdraw their intellect from the communication of divine truths, and thus limit it within a narrower circle of knowledge, so that they are less fitted to succeed in the pursuit even of natural science. For there are in nature very many things whose apprehension or explanation is greatly aided by the light of divine truth. Not unfrequently, too, God, in order to chastise their pride, does not permit men to see the truth, and thus they are punished in the things wherein they sin. This is why we often see men of great intellectual power and erudition making the grossest blunders even in natural science. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)

We know well that they flatter themselves with the idea of raising human dignity and the discredited condition of the working class. We know that they wish to render just and perfect the labor laws and the relations between employers and employees, thus causing a more complete justice and a greater measure of charity to prevail upon earth, and causing also a profound and fruitful transformation in society by which mankind would make an undreamed-of progress. Certainly, We do not blame these efforts; they would be excellent in every respect if the Sillonist did not forget that a person’s progress consists in developing his natural abilities by fresh motivations; that it consists also in permitting these motivations to operate within the frame of, and in conformity with, the laws of human nature. But, on the contrary, by ignoring the laws governing human nature and by breaking the bounds within which they operate, the human person is lead, not toward progress, but towards death. This, nevertheless, is what they want to do with human society; they dream of changing its natural and traditional foundations; they dream of a Future City built on different principles, and they dare to proclaim these more fruitful and more beneficial than the principles upon which the present Christian City rests.

No, Venerable Brethren, We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker - the City cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization, it is the Catholic City. It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants. omnia instaurare in Christo. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

Since the Church is the safe and sure guide to conscience, for to her safe-keeping alone there has been confided the doctrines and the promise of the assistance of Christ, she is able not only to bring about at the present hour a peace that is truly the peace of Christ, but can, better than any other agency which We know of, contribute greatly to the securing of the same peace for the future, to the making impossible of war in the future. For the Church teaches (she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority) that not only our acts as individuals but also as groups and as nations must conform to the eternal law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a nation follow God's law, since on the nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequences of its acts than on the individual.

When, therefore, governments and nations follow in all their activities, whether they be national or international, the dictates of conscience grounded in the teachings, precepts, and example of Jesus Christ, and which are binding on each and every individual, then only can we have faith in one another's word and trust in the peaceful solution of the difficulties and controversies which may grow out of differences in point of view or from clash of interests. An attempt in this direction has already and is now being made; its results, however, are almost negligible and, especially so, as far as they can be said to affect those major questions which divide seriously and serve to arouse nations one against the other. No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. Our Lord's regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance; it ennobles the citizen's duty of obedience. It is for this reason that St. Paul, while bidding wives revere Christ in their husbands, and slaves respect Christ in their masters, warns them to give obedience to them not as men, but as the vicegerents of Christ; for it is not meet that men redeemed by Christ should serve their fellow-men. "You are bought with a price; be not made the bond-slaves of men." If princes and magistrates duly elected are filled with the persuasion that they rule, not by their own right, but by the mandate and in the place of the Divine King, they will exercise their authority piously and wisely, and they will make laws and administer them, having in view the common good and also the human dignity of their subjects. The result will be a stable peace and tranquillity, for there will be no longer any cause of discontent. Men will see in their king or in their rulers men like themselves, perhaps unworthy or open to criticism, but they will not on that account refuse obedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extent of the kingdom of Christ men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will be either prevented entirely or at least their bitterness will be diminished. (Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, December 11, 1925.)

 

The immutable teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the Social Reign of Christ the King has been attacked by Modernity in the world and has been rejected by Modernism, the synthesis of all heresies that is the prevailing force in the counterfeit church of conciliarism that represents itself to most people in the world as the "Catholic" Church. The overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King and the obliteration of this immutable doctrine of the Catholic Church from the minds of baptized Catholics, especially in the minds of the false "bishops" of conciliarism, makes it almost impossible for there to be any rational discussion of the necessity of excluding false ideas, whether theological or philosophical or "scientific," from being disseminated in public. Most of those who consider themselves Catholics in "good standing" in the conciliar structures, as well as the lion's share, I am afraid to say, of those in sedevacantist communities and chapels, think in the naturalistic terms of Americanism, recoiling, for example, at these simple words of Pope Gregory XVI, contained in 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.

 

Pope Leo XIII amplified these same points in his Apostolic Constitution Officiorum ac Munerum, January 25, 1897 (a document that is not to be found at Papal Encyclicals Online but is found at Censorship):

Of all the Official Duties which We are bound most carefully and most diligently to fulfill in this Supreme Position of the Apostolate, the Chief and Principal Duty is to watch assiduously and earnestly to strive that the Integrity of Christian Faith and Morals may suffer no diminution.  And this, more than at any other times, is especially necessary in these days, when men's minds and characters are so unrestrained that almost every Doctrine which Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, has committed to the custody of His Church, for the welfare of the human race, is daily called into question and doubt.  In this warfare, many and varied are the stratagems and hurtful devices of the enemy; but most perilous of all is the uncurbed freedom of writing and publishing noxious literature.  Nothing can be conceived more pernicious, more apt to defile souls, through its contempt of Religion, and its manifold allurements to sin.  Wherefore the Church, who is the custodian and vindicator of the Integrity of Faith and Morals, fearful of so great an evil, has from an early date realized that remedies must be applied against this plague; and for this reason she has ever striven, as far as lay in her Power, to restrain men from the reading of bad books, as from a deadly poison.  The early days of the Church were witnesses to the earnest zeal of St. Paul in this respect; and every subsequent age has witnessed the vigilance of the Fathers, the commands of the Bishops, and the Decrees of Councils in a similar direction.


Historical Documents bear special witness to the care and diligence with which the Roman Pontiffs have vigilantly endeavored to prevent the unchecked spread of heretical writings detrimental to the public.  History is full of examples.  Anastasius I solemnly condemned the more dangerous writings of Origen, Innocent I those of Pelagius, Leo the Great all the works of the Manicheans.  The decretal letters, opportunely issued by Gelasius, concerning books to be received and rejected, are well known.  And so, in the course of centuries, the Holy See condemned the pestilent writings of the Monothelites, of Abelard, Marsilius Patavinus, Wycliff and Hus.


In the fifteenth century, after the invention of the art of printing, not only were bad publications which had already appeared condemned, but precautions began to be taken against the publication of similar works in the future.  These prudent measures were called for by no slight cause, but rather by the need of protecting the public Morals and welfare at the time; for too many had rapidly perverted into a mighty engine of destruction an art excellent in itself, productive of immense advantages, and naturally destined for the advancement of Christian culture.  Owing to the rapid process of publication, the great evil of bad books had been multiplied and accelerated.  Wherefore Our predecessors, Alexander VI and Leo X, most wisely promulgated certain definite Laws, well suited to the character of the times, in order to restrain printers and publishers within the limits of their duty.


The tempest soon became more violent, and it was necessary to check the contagion of heresy with still more vigilance and severity.  Hence Leo X, and afterwards Clement VII, severely prohibited the reading or retaining of the books of Luther.  But as, owing to the unhappy circumstances of that epoch, the foul flood of pernicious books had increased beyond measure and spread in all directions, there appeared to be need of a more complete and efficacious remedy.  This remedy Our predecessor, Paul IV, was the first to employ, by opportunely publishing a list of books and other writings against which the faithful should be warned.  A little later the Council of Trent took steps to restrain the ever-growing license of writing and reading by a new measure.  At its command and desire, certain chosen Prelates and Theologians not only applied themselves to increasing and perfecting the Index which Paul IV had published, but also drew up certain Rules to be observed in the publishing, reading, and use of books; to which Rules, Pius IV added the Sanction of his Apostolic Authority.


The interests of the public welfare, which had given rise to the Tridentine Rules, necessitated in the course of time certain alterations.  For which reason the Roman Pontiffs, especially Clement VIII, Alexander VII, and Benedict XIV, mindful of the circumstances of the period and the dictates of prudence, issued several Decrees calculated to elucidate these Rules and to accommodate them to the times.


The above facts clearly prove that the Chief Care of the Roman Pontiffs has always been to protect civil society from erroneous beliefs and corrupt morals, the twin causes of the decline and ruin of States, which commonly owes its origin and its progress to bad books. Their labors were not unfruitful, so long as the Divine Law regulated the commands and prohibitions of civil government, and the Rulers of States acted in unison with the Ecclesiastical Authority.


Every one is aware of the subsequent course of events.  As circumstances and men's minds gradually altered, the Church, with her wonted prudence, observing the character of the period, took those steps which appeared most expedient and best calculated to promote the salvation of men.  Several prescriptions of the Rules of the Index, which appeared to have lost their original opportuneness, she either abolished by Decree, or, with equal gentleness and Wisdom, permitted them to grow obsolete.  In recent times, Pius IX, in a Letter to the Archbishops and Bishops of the States of the Church, considerably mitigated Rule X.  Moreover, on the eve of the Vatican Council, he instructed the learned men of the Preparatory Commission to examine and revise all the Rules of the Index, and to advise how they should be dealt with.  They unanimously decided that the Rules required alteration; and several of the Fathers of the Council openly professed their agreement with this opinion and desire.  A Letter of the French Bishops exists urging the necessity of immediate action in "republishing the Rules and whole Scheme of the Index in an entirely new form, better suited to our times and easier to observe."  A similar opinion was expressed at the same time by the Bishops of Germany, who definitely petitioned that "the Rules of the Index might be submitted to a fresh revision and a rearrangement."  With these Bishops many Bishops of Italy and other countries have agreed.


Taking into account the circumstances of our times, the conditions of society, and popular customs, all these requests are certainly justified and in accordance with the maternal affection of Holy Church.  In the rapid race of intellect, there is no field of knowledge in which Literature has not run riot, hence the daily inundation of most pernicious books.  Worst of all, the civil laws not only connive at this serious evil but allow it the widest license.  Thus, on the one hand, many minds are in a state of anxiety; whilst, on the other, there is unlimited opportunity for every kind of reading.

 

Pope Leo XIII had made many of these points in but a single paragraph of Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885:

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

 

Having accepted the false premises of Modernity and of the Modern civil state, founded as it is in a rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King and an embrace of the Judeo-Masonic concept of the separation of Church and State, conciliarism is incapable of opposing the evils of the day. Conciliarists are incapable of saying that no one has the right to propagate false ideas, thus accepting the pluralist lie of  a veritable "free for all" in the "marketplace" of ideas. Indeed, the conciliar "archbishop" of Denver Colorado, Charles Chaput, noted three years ago, in an op-ed commentary in the October 22, 2004, edition of The New York Times, that those who support abortion have the civil right to make their ideas known in public:

People who support permissive abortion laws have no qualms about imposing their views on society. Often working against popular opinion, they have tried to block any effort to change permissive abortion laws since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. That's fair. That's their right. But why should the rules of engagement be different for citizens who oppose those laws?

 

Who cares about popular opinion? God does not. "Archbishop" Chaput is wrong. Those who support abortion do not have the "right" to promote their evil views in public. This is not the teaching of the Catholic Church. As noted by the popes above, error has no rights. Conciliarism thus makes it appear as though Catholics are supposed to be engaged in an endless series of debates about the evils of the day rather than seeking to convert men and their nations to the Catholic Church with a sense of profound urgency, doing so as the consecrated slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

The pernicious influence of the Americanist beliefs exemplified so clearly by the "conservative" "Archbishop" Chaput demonstrates why it is that so many Catholics, including those across the ecclesiastical divide in the various camps of tradition, do not understand that abortion, as horrible as it is as one of the four crimes that cry out to Heaven for vengeance, is but a symptom of the larger problem we face: the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King that has made possible the daily carnage of the innocent preborn by means of surgical abortion and the daily carnage of the innocent preborn by means of abortifacient contraceptive pills and devices. Not being able to see the root causes of these problems clearly, therefore, most Catholics leap (and that is but a milder understatement) for joy when they hear anyone in the ecclesiastical or civil realms who seems to be opposed to surgical abortion.

Such a person in the civil realm can support the slicing and dicing of little babies in certain "hard" cases and still be considered "pro-life." He can support the funding of the chemical assassination of preborn children by means of domestic and international "family planning" programs. Never mind, however. Such a person is "pro-life" because he appears to be better than others who are more fully committed to the evils of the day, an delusional approach to viewing the world that is of the essence of naturalism.

Such a person in the ecclesiastical realm of the false conciliar bishops can be silent about the support of so-called "pro-life" politicians who support the killing in the so-called "hard cases," confirming the false impression that those who make "exceptions" to the binding precepts of the Fifth Commandment are actually completely pro-life when they are not. (I am pretty conversant in this area. Perhaps someone can provide me with an example of a conciliar "bishop" who has criticized a Catholic public official for supporting surgical baby-killing in the so-called "hard" cases and has urged the members of his diocese to withhold their votes from said public official.) Such false shepherds can make an appearance now and again, perhaps even weekly, at an American killing center and be viewed as veritable "champions of life" when they offend God in the manner of the "worship" that is "offered" Him in the Novus Ordo Missae and by their embrace of the conciliarist ethos (religious liberty, ecumenism, separation of Church and State) that have reinforced and enabled the social evils spawned by the naturalist foundations of the Modern civil state. Empty "pro-life" rhetoric from these false shepherds is accepted as "proof" that at least some in the conciliar structures are "doing" "something" about abortion while these false shepherds participate in the abortion of souls, including the daily assault upon the innocence and the purity of the young by means of explicit classroom instruction in matters pertaining to the Sixth and Ninth Commandments.

Furthermore, you see, the false shepherds of conciliarism who make "pro-life" noises and who threaten to withhold what purports to be Holy Communion from pro-abortion Catholics in public life never talk about denying what purports to be Holy Communion to those Catholics in public life who support surgical baby-killing in the "hard cases." They never talk about denying what purports to be Holy Communion to those Catholics in public life who vote to fund domestic and international "family planning" programs, making it appear as though that one can deny the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity and the fecundity of marriage with impunity and still be considered a good servant of the common temporal good of society. This silence from the conciliar "bishops" concerning the surgical killing of children in the "hard" cases and of the public funding (both at the federal and state levels) enables Catholics in public life who are considered, quite wrongly, to be "pro-life" to vote for legislation permitting abortion in some cases and to vote for legislation that denies the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity of marriage and kills, in most cases, fertilized human beings by means of contraceptive pills and devices. The phrase "pro-life" becomes as empty a naturalistic slogan as the phrase "pro-choice."

The anti-life (both eternal and physical) enterprise known as Planned Parenthood can thus reap in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from the federal and state governments with only a few words of protest ever being uttered by a conciliar "bishop," most of whom do not even think that it is their duty to criticize ostensibly "pro-life" Catholics in public life who vote nevertheless for domestic and international "family planning" programs. The following report, issued by Mrs. Judie Brown, the foundress and president of the American Life League, on June 13, 2007, demonstrates how complacency in the face of evil winds up empowering the forces of evil with our own taxpayer dollars:

America’s deadliest baby-killer gets 34% of its budget from you! Please help us get this urgent news to as many pro-lifers as possible by forwarding it to your email list.

 

Last week, Planned Parenthood quietly issued its latest annual report http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/Annual_report.pdf. As always, the report was packed with lies about its “mission” to provide “quality health care” to women.

 

The one big truth in the 20-page report is that it got a total of $305,300,000 in free tax-funding last year. That’s a whopping 11.95% increase over the $272,700,000 it got the year before.

 

Let’s put that $305,300,000 in two equally important perspectives:

 

Perspective #1: Last year, Planned Parenthood surgically aborted over 264,943 preborn babies. As a ratio to the funds it gets on the government dole, that’s $1,152,323 for each baby torn apart in the womb!

 

Perspective #2: During the same year, the top five national pro-life organizations continued to receive exactly ZERO dollars in government funding. In the first six months of 2007, our own contributions are $160,000 behind the same point last year. And we’re the number one enemy of Planned Parenthood!

 

AN OVERVIEW OF THE REPORT’S MOST OUTRAGEOUS HEADLINES

 

I urge you and every pro-lifer to visit www.all.org and read our summary of Planned Parenthood’s annual report.

 

Until then, here are the key points every pro-lifer should know: 

  • n      Planned Parenthood had a total income of $902.8 million dollars. That’s a record and a 2.4% increase over last year.
  • n      For the 34th year in a row, Planned Parenthood reported “excess of revenue over expenses”, otherwise known as “profit.” Last year’s profit was a whopping $55,800,000 dollars.
  • n      Since 1973, Planned Parenthood’s total profits exceed $700,000,000 dollars.
  • n      It has amassed a treasure chest of assets worth $839,000,000 dollars.
  • n      It reported total “clinic” income of $354,000,000 dollars. We estimate that $112,600,000 of that came from abortions and $200,000,000 from the sale of contraception.
  • n      Every penny of the $32,000,000 increase it got in tax dollars effectively went into its $55,000,000 profit.

 

But Planned Parenthood wants even more of your taxes. As I write this, Planned Parenthood is fighting for increased Medi-Cal reimbursement rates so it can get more taxpayer money from every customer.

 

IT’S TIME TO PUT A STOP TO THIS

 

It’s clear that politicians aren’t going to cut off Planned Parenthood’s funding unless they feel the outrage from average American citizens like you and me. Here’s what you can do starting today: 

  • 1)      REGISTER your complaint now and often. We have to keep up the drumbeat, until elected officials stop this immoral use of our taxes.
  • 2)      If you haven’t already, SIGN our online petition – www.StopPlannedParenthoodTaxFunding.com – and urge your friends and family to do the same!
  • 3)      Since Planned Parenthood’s tax funding increased by 12%, please forward this message to at least 12 of your friends so that together we can put an end to Planned Parenthood’s tax funding.

 

It’s long past time that we all said NO! to Planned Parenthood.

 

Sincerely yours in the Lord Who IS Life, Judie Brown, President

 

As has been pointed out on this site (and in the printed pages of Christ or Chaos between August of 1996 and June of 2003), the "pro-life" administration of President George Walker Bush is funding domestic and international "family planning" programs by at least $10 million per year more than during the pro-death" administration of former President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. Who in the conciliar structures has pointed out the Bush administration's betrayal of the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law? Who in the conciliar structures has pointed out that the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law have been entrusted by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself exclusively to the Catholic Church for their safekeeping and infallible explication and that each and every civil state on the face of this earth, including the United States of America and each of its fifty state governments, has the obligation to subordinate its public policies in all that pertains to the good of souls to the totality of the Deposit of Faith kept whole and inviolate by the Catholic Church? Who in the conciliar structures has pointed out that organizations that promote evils contrary to God's Holy Laws and thus injurious to the good of souls have no "civil" right to exist or to propagate their false beliefs in society? No one, that's who. No one

Conciliarism, being bereft of the authentic sensus Catholicus, is incapable of opposing the evils of the day with the only antidote that comes from God: Catholicism. The exhortations quoted above from true popes, who were merely reiterating the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the fact that error has no rights and that it is the duty of the civil state to censor erroneous ideas and publications, have been flushed down the Orwellian "memory hole" in favor of conciliarism's accommodation and "reconciliation" with the "principles of 1789" (and those of 1787, it should be added once again). It is no wonder, therefore, that Catholics, fed a steady does of lies from the organized forces of naturalism in the world and from the allies of those forces of naturalism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, consider it to be a little account to them that the very people who they believe to be "pro-life" fund assaults against the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity and the fecundity of marriage and thus upon the souls for whom Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

The saint commemorated today, Saint Basil the Great, provides us an example of how it is that we must oppose error with vigor. Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., pointed this out in The Liturgical Year:

Basil's lifetime was cast in one of those periods exceptionally disastrous to the Church, when shipwrecks of faith are common, because darkness prevails to such an extent  as to cast its shades over the children of light; a period, in fact, when, as St. Jerome expresses it, 'the astonished world waked up, to find itself Arian.' Bishops were faltering in essentials of true belief and in questions of loyalty to the successor of Peter; so that the bewildered flock scarce knew whose voice to follow; for many of their pastors, some through perfidy and some through weakness, had subscribed at Rimini to the condemnation of the faith of Nicea. Basil himself was assuredly not one of those 'blind watchmen: dumb dogs not able to bark.' When a simple lector, he had not hesitated to sound the horn of alarm, by openly separating himself from his bishop, who had been caught in the meshes of the Arians; and now himself a bishop, he boldly showed that he was not such indeed. For when entreated for peace' sake to make some compromise with the Arians, vain was every supplication, every menace of confiscation, exile, or death. He used no measured terms in treating with the prefect Modestus, the tool of Valens; and when this vaunting official complained that none had ever dared to address him with such liberty, Basil intrepidly replied: 'Perhaps thou never yet hadst to deal with a bishop!'

 

Yes, Saint Basil made no compromise with the Arians. We must make no compromise with the spirit of the anti-Incarnational world of naturalism and pluralism. We must make no compromise with the ethos of conciliarism as we make no concessions whatsoever to the nonexistent "authority" of the false shepherds of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who are steeped in the errors of naturalism and pluralism. To this end, therefore, we must be steadfast in the pursuit of personal holiness, as Dom Gueranger discussed was the case with Saint Basil the Great:

Life's struggle, in his eyes, seemed a combat for truth alone. In himself, first of all, must divine Truth be victorious, by the defeat of nature and by the Holy Ghost's triumphant creation of the new man. Therefore, heedless to know, before God's own time, whether he might not be used in winning souls to God; never once suspecting how soon multitudes would indeed come pressing to receive the law of life from his lips, he turned his back upon all thins, and fled to the wilds of Pontus, there to be forgotten of men in his pursuit of holiness. Nor did the misery of those times cause him to fall into the error, so common nowadays, of wishing to devote himself to others before having first regulated his own soul. Such is not the true way of setting charity in order; such is not the conduct of the saints. It is thyself God wants of these before all things else; when thou hast become his, in the full measure he intends, he himself will know how to bestow thee upon other, unless perchance he prefer, for thy greater advantage, to keep the all to himself. But in any case, he is no lover of all that hurry to become useful; he does not bless these would-be utilitarians who are all eagerness to push themselves into the service of his Providence. Anthony of Padua showed us this truth yesterday; and here we have it given to us a second time. Mark it well: that which really tends to the extension of our Lord's glory is not the amount of time given to the works, but the holiness of the worker.

 

To be steadfast in opposition to error we must be steadfast in the pursuit of personal holiness, offering all of our daily actions to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary as her consecrated slaves. Our words will fade from view and be forgotten. What lasts, we must remember, are the efforts we make by means of prayer, sacrifice, penance, mortification, almsgiving, fasting and the daily performance of the duties required of our freely chosen states-in-life to scale the heights of sanctity as the consecrated slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, spending time before her Divine Son's Real Presence in prayer (today is the Octave Day of the Feast of Corpus Christi) and praying as many Rosaries as our states-in-life permit. Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, will send us the graces won for us by her Divine Son on the wood of the Holy Cross if we beseech her with confidence. These graces will help us to remain steadfast in the perennial truths of the Catholic Faith, including the immutable, irreformable doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King, in the face of all humiliations and rejections and wordily sufferings, each of which has been fashioned for us from all eternity by the very hand of God Himself and are but small price to endure for what our sins caused Him to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and how gravely they wounded His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with Seven Swords of Sorrow.

We can never surrender to discouragement or despair in these troubling times. We must have confidence in Our Lady as we seek out the Mercy of her Divine Son's Most Sacred Heart. There will be the restoration of Christendom in the world and the restoration of the Catholic Church in all of her glory. The age of apostasy and betrayal will come to an end. The organized forces of naturalism will be, at least for a time until the devil's final battle, vanquished. May it be our privilege to maintain lively sentiments of Faith, Hope and Charity in the midst of the apostasies of the moment, always maintaining and proclaiming the Catholic Faith by word, deed and action, especially by passing out blessed Miraculous Medals and Rosaries and Green Scapulars to those we meet on a daily basis.

The final victory belongs to Christ the King and to Mary our Immaculate Queen. Why do we doubt that they want us to be their champions in this era of naturalism and the complacency about evil that is engendered thereby?

Viva Cristo Rey!

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 Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, 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 Philip Neri, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, 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 Bernard of Clairvaux, 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 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.  

 




© Copyright 2007, Thomas A. Droleskey. All rights reserved.