"Connecting" With Betrayal

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Pride fills the minds and hearts of us fallen men, one of the many vestigial after-effects of Original Sin. Pride is, of course, one of the Seven Capital or Deadly Sins. It is pride that caused our first parents, Adam and Eve, to fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden, thereby subjecting each one of us to the ravages of the after-effects of Original Sin. Pride puffs us up, inflates our view of ourselves, convincing us that we are not like other men, that the deceptions to which others have subjected themselves would never ensnare us, that we, although not  entirely impeccable or infallible in our various judgments, are nevertheless "pretty good" and that we are on most occasions "pretty accurate" in our judgments.

This is, of course one gigantic delusion.

As Father "X," whose wonderful parish mission for families given in 1973 can be listened to at the following links on the Traditional Catholic Sermons website (Retreat Part I, Retreat Part II, Retreat Part III, Retreat Part IV, Retreat Part V, Retreat Part VI, Retreat Part VII, Retreat Part VIII, Retreat Part IX), explained some thirty-five years ago now, our Guardian Angels view us as lovable, bumbling idiots, and this is, after all, what we are, although sometimes we are lovable only to the Most Holy Trinity, Our Lady and our Guardian Angels, proving ourselves to be absolutely insufferable to those around us. Bumbling idiots, however, is most assuredly what most of us are most of the time, including the bumbling, stumbling idiot writing this commentary.

It is sometimes the case that our bumbling and stumbling comes in a prideful, stubborn resistance to accepting the truth about ourselves or about those in whom we have invested a good deal of emotional energy. As I have note any number of times on this site, I was deceived by what I thought was the appearance of Catholicity on the part of the Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II after his "election on October 16, 1978, believing that the Catholic Church had been rescued from the dark nights of the wretched "pontificate" of Giovanni Montini/Paul VI. I was deceived very badly,

John Paul II called for priests to return to their clerical garb and for women religious to wear their habits. He desired to "clamp down" on abuses in the Novus Ordo service. What I thought were stirring defenses of the Catholic Faith were given in his first visit to the United States of America from October 1-7, 1979. He helped to give birth to the Solidarity movement in Poland. He was shot and nearly killed on the sixty-fourth anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, by a Catholic-hating Mohammedan from Turkey, Mehmet Ali Agca, who had escaped from a Turkish prison in late-1978 vowing to the kill the "pope," traveling in Bulgaria and East Germany, countries that were not exactly open to foreign visitors in those days, especially to escaped convicted murderers, prior to making his way to Rome. I had a great sense of emotional connection with Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II, whom I projected to be a great defender of the Catholic Faith.

I permitted myself to be badly deceived.

Take a look at Cornelia Ferreira and John Vennari's extensively footnoted description of the Modernist/New Age influences that led a young Karol Wojtyla away from the Catholic Faith, keeping in mind that both of these excellent researchers do not believe that the conciliar "pontiffs" have disqualified themselves from holding the papacy legitimately:

Like Focolare, other syncretic sects have received, or are in the process of receiving, canonical status, allowing them to masquerade as Catholic religious orders, complete with Statutes, community life, vows and even seminaries. The Neocatechumenate alone, founded by a lay man and ex-nun, has produced 196 priests from its Redemptoris Mater diocesan seminar in Rome and more than 1,000 from its 50 seminaries across the world. Besides the priests being developed by this and other sects, many other clergy live their spirituality. Bishops have already come from their heretical ranks, ordained by John Paul II and favoured with privileged positions, some within the Roman Curia and on Pontifical Councils. It is only logical to assume that they could produce a pope, loyal only to his particular "church" or movement. The ecclesial movements comprises priests, religious, single and married laity--each movement a parallel or an anti-Church within the bosom of the Catholic Church

But we don't have to look to the future for a pope produced by a lay movement. Pope John Paul himself was the "product" and progenitor of dynamic lay groups." In 1940, Karol Wojtyla, aged 19, fell under the sway of a Polish rationalist and self-taught psychologist, Jan Tyranowski, who had "developed his own spirituality" and had the reputation of a "mystic." Quite in line with Deweyite and Jungian adult church principles, Tyranowski preached a gnostic experiential religion; "inner liberation from the faith," i.e., from Catholicism; and "transformation of personality from within," i.e., spiritual growth, through the "friendship" of a community. He also preached a life of service, especially to those of one's community, as the fruit of the "practice and the presence of God." "To bring young people into this same faith"--not Catholicism--he led weekly discussion meetings for young men he recruited, "in which theological questions were argued." (Questioning the Faith is called "critical thinking" today.)

Tyranowski formed the Living Rosary, which shared many of the characteristics of modern lay movements. Its weekly meetings were run by lay people in homes, not by priests in parish halls. By 1943, there were 60 "animates" who reported to Tyranowski. One of these group leaders was Karol Wojtyla.

 

It is strange that Chiara Lubich also termed her group "the living Rosary." Did she get the idea from Bishop Wojtyla, whom Focolare got to know in Poland? "The Living Rosary as created by Jan Tyranowski consisted of groups of fifteen young men, each of which was led b a more mature youngster who received personal spiritual direction ... from the mystically gifted tailor." The difference between the two "living" Rosaries is that Tyranowoski's groups represented the decades of the Rosary, whilst Lubitch's members were Hail Marys.

The inner transformation taught by Tyranowski is what New Agers today call a change in consciousness or paradigm shift, in which one synthesizes two opposing ideas, such as believing one is a good Catholic even if holding superstitious or occult beliefs. It is similar to Dewey's merger of nature and grace or Jung's "wholeness." It is an occult, gnostic, kabbalistic method of producing a personal shift in values that engenders social transformation. Inner transformation led to religious orders abandoning the supernatural focus of Catholicism for naturalistic and social activism after Vatican II.

Pope John Paul II's acceptance of the gnostic philosophy of the sects is also the product of the theatrical experiences of his youth. Theatre for Karol was "an experience of community"; but more than that, it was a serious training in gnostic transformation by Mieczyslaw Kotlarczyk, director of the Rhapsodic Theatre, which he co-founded with Karol. This Theatre, with its "theme of consciousness," provided Wojtyla's "initiation to phenomenology." Kotlarczyk, who lived for some time in the Wojtyla home, tutored Karol in his method from the time Karol was sixteen until he joined the seminary six years later. He created a "theater of the inner world" to present "universal truths and universal moral values, which . . . offered the world the possibility of authentic transformation." Plot, costumes and props were not important. Instead, speech--the "word"--was his focus, the goal being to use it to transform the consciousness of the audience (and actor). Hence Kotlarczyk, insisted on every word being pronounced just so.

That this was a training in the kabbalistic, occult use of words became clear when Kotlarczyk's book, The Art of the Living Word: Diction, Expression, Magic, was published in 1975 by the Papal Gregorian University in Rome. Cardinal Wojtyla penned the preface to this book in which Kotlarczyk listed the sources of his ideas. The included the writings of several occultists and theosophists, amongst them some of the foremost kabbalists and occultists of modern times: Russian Mason Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society and the New Age Movement; French occultist Eliphas Levi (who influenced Blavatsky, Albert Pike, Grand Commander of Scottish Rite Masonry, and sorcerer Aleister Crowley, long-time head of the high Masonic Ordo Templi Orientis or OTO); and Rudolph Steiner. Illuminatus, Rosicrucian, theosophist, OTO member, Communist and founder of the Anthroposophical Society and Waldorf Schools. Theosophy had been condemned by the Church in 1919, the Holy Office stating one could not "read [theosophists'] books, daily papers, journals and writings.

Kotlarczyk believed he was an "archpriest of drama," his living word method being a religion and "vocation," with the actor as priest. As with theosophists who use the title "Master" for highly evolved humans who guide humanist, he called himself "Master of the Word." He saw theater "as ritual" and "understood the liturgical character of theatrical action, . .. offering the possibility of entering into a new dimension. . . ." Theater could be "a way of perfection" if "the word" had absolute priority" over "externals and spectacles."

Compare Kotlarczyk's ideas with Anthroposophy or "Christian Illuminism," which is a Luciferian initiation" that forms the enlightened or "deified" man with occult abilities. Anthroposophy teaches that occult knowledge, or the "inner meaning" of realities can be obtained through a "disciplined use of the arts, words, colour, music and eurhythmic ("universal harmony"), a way of dance that Steiner (1861-1925) created to express the inner meanings of sound. The explosion in the Church today of theatrics, "creative liturgy," and eurhthmic-style"liturgical dance" (even at Papal Masses) as an experiential means of teaching the Faith, denotes both a Jungian and Steinerian influence. (Steiner's techniques are actually a "subversive" form of hypnosis applied to religious, political and educational groups to make them tools for effecting the Masonic Universal Republic. Destroying rational thought, they produce the "false idealist" and "soft peacemonger" who lives by feelings, finds goodness and beauty in ugliness and evil, does not criticized error, gives up his personality, and blends with another. He is then easily controlled and even obsessed.)

Karol and his friends committed themselves to "the dramatic exploration of the interior life" under Kotlarczyk. Amongst his man roles, Karol was the "Seer John" in Steiner's arrangement of the Apocalypse. Other esoteric works in which he acted or which had "significance in his spiritual formation" included productions by Juliusz Slowacki (1809-49) and Adam Mickiewicz (1789-1855). Slowacki was an evolutionist and reincarnationalist who believed Poland's political sufferings were "karma." Mickiewicz was a kabbalist and Martinist (a form of occultism). Both men subscribed to Polish Messianism, which was intertwined with Jewish Messianism and occultism. Their ideas were incorporated into other plays. To "rebuke" Pius IX, who did not support Polish nationalism and the Masonic revolution in Italy, Slowacki also composed a poem about a future "Slavic Pope" who would head a "reformed papacy," and would be tough, but "a brother of the people." As Pope John Paul II, Karol would later apply this poem to himself.

The following comment by Father Wojtyla (under a pseudonym) in 1958 shows how the Rhapsodic Theatre solidified his rejection of individualism in favour of the one mind enforced in the new ecclesial sects:

This theater ... defends the young actors against developing a destructive individualism, because it will not let them impose on the text anything of their own; it gives them inner discipline. A group of people, collectively, somehow unanimously, subordinated to the great poetic word, evoke ethical associations; this solidarity of people in the word reveals particularly strongly and accentuates the reverence that is the point of departure of the rhapsodists' word and the secret of their style.

 

After his ordination, Father Wojtyla created his own youth group, "Little Family," whose members called him "Uncle." Little Family became the core of a larger community known as Srodowisko or "milieu," which he led until elected Pope. The seeds for World Youth Day lay in the co-ed hiking across Poland, sleeping in barns, discussing anything, singing, praying, and attending his outdoor Masses. His good friend, Fr. Mieczyslaw Malinski, another Tyranowski graduate, admiringly referred to him as "Wojtyla the revolutionary," who shocked "the entire Cracow diocese." He was also the type of priest Focolare likes, "wholly devoid of clericalism." Tyranowski's training taught him to highly value the laity, and he tested his philosophical ideas on Srodowisko friends and his Lublin University doctoral students, encouraging a "mutual exchange" of ideas, happy to learn from them.

Having gone from lay leader to Pope, it is no surprise that John Paul became the greatest promoter and protector of the lay movements, starting with gaining them official recognition at Vatican II. Furthermore, Focolare, Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation and Light-Life (for Oasis) were well-established in Communist Poland, where Karol Wojtyla got to know them; and he championed them since his days as Archbishop of Cracow. He saw the movements as crucial "for achieving his vision": they are "privileged channels for the formation and promotion of an active laity ..." The following statement he made to Communion and Liberation in 1979 encapsulates the continuity of thought between his Tyranowski days and the modern sects: "the true liberation of man comes about, therefore, in the experience of ecclesial  communion. . . ."

Pope John Paul's Apostolic Letter for the Year of the Eucharist (October 2004-October 2005) shows that Vatican II was a bridge for this continuity. Citing Vatican II's Lumen Gentium, Pope John Paul says the Eucharist is a sign and instrument of "the unity of the whole human race"--i.e., it is meant to bring about the pantheistic Masonic one-world community! It should inspire Christians to "become promoters [sic] of dialogue and communion," and communities to "building a more just and fraternal society." (Cornelia Ferreira and John Vennari, World Youth Day: From Catholicism to Counterchurch, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Canisius Books, 2005, pp. 126-133.)

 

Leaving aside the authors' acceptance of the legitimacy of the "pontificate" of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and their belief that the Catholic Church had or was even capable of endorsing the sects described so well and with such thorough documentation, I can say in all candor that I was fool for believing that Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II had the mind of a Catholic. A fool. That is what I was for projecting into the very warped, Modernist and New Age mind of Karol Wojtyla a commitment to the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church. I permitted myself to be deceived.

Oh, the evidence was there. I had heard about the "Lublin School," and was even given a book by the late Father Francis Lescoe, about the indecipherable phenomenology it taught when I was taking courses at Holy Apostles Seminary in the 1983-1984 academic year (as I was teaching a graduate course on the weekends at Saint John's University in Jamaica, Queens). I looked at it, deemed to be thoroughly un-Catholic, refusing, however, to question the Catholicity of the man who was the Lublin School's chief propagandist, the then currently reigning "pontiff." I had built up a illusion about a man based on my own willingness to suspend rationality and my willingness to accept a delusion as reality.

No person who believes in what Wojtyla came to believe under the tutelage of Jan Tyranowski is a member of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIII made it clear in Satis Cognitum that anyone who believes in things condemned by the Catholic falls from the Faith no matter how much, if even a great preponderance, of other truths of the Faith they hold, putting the lie, of course, to the "minimal beliefs" standard that has been fabricated entirely out of whole cloth by some apologists in behalf of the nonexistent legitimacy of the conciliar "popes:"

The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine: they abandoned only a certain portion of it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos).

The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. "No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).

The need of this divinely instituted means for the preservation of unity, about which we speak is urged by St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians. In this he first admonishes them to preserve with every care concord of minds: "Solicitous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. iv., 3, et seq.). And as souls cannot be perfectly united in charity unless minds agree in faith, he wishes all to hold the same faith: "One Lord, one faith," and this so perfectly one as to prevent all danger of error: "that henceforth we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive" (Eph. iv., 14): and this he teaches is to be observed, not for a time only - "but until we all meet in the unity of faith...unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ" (13). But, in what has Christ placed the primary principle, and the means of preserving this unity? In that - "He gave some Apostles - and other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (11-12).

 

Karol Wojtyla was plainly a revolutionary, not a Catholic, one whose background as a student of Jan Tyranowski was on full display at the "Second" Vatican Council, as was noted by Fathers Francisco and Dominic Radecki in Tumultuous Times:

His [Wojtyla's] stand on atheism puzzled many of the bishops, especially those from Communist countries. Archbishop Wojtyla believed that the human person should find the truth on their own and that conversion was unnecessary:

"Wojtyla was deeply convinced that personalist ethics--which stresses the uniqueness and inviolability of the human personality--would never allow the imposing of ideas on anyone. He took the same line when the council discussed the problems of atheism--a question that vexed the Council Fathers almost from the beginning to the end of Vatican II. 'It is not the Church's role to lecture unbelievers,' Wojtyla declared on taking the floor on October 21, 1964. 'We are involved a quest along with our fellow men. ...Let us avoid moralizing or suggesting that we have a monopoly on the truth.' ...Talk at the council of actual 'relations with atheism' meant dialogue with Marxists." (Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi, His Holiness, pp. 102-103, quoted in Tumultuous Times, p. 540.)

These were revolutionary ideas, especially at a time when the West braced for nuclear war and when much of the world was held captive under Communist tyranny. He further expressed his ecumenical and Modernist persuasions a week later.

"He began with several previously expressed comments on the Church and the world and the president of the session was on the point of stopping him, when he quickly and skillfully captivated his audience and silenced all the noise in the auditorium. In a loud and distinct voice, he clearly explained that the Church should no longer pose as the sole dispenser of Truth and Goodness... She should, he went on, be in the world but not above it. ...The Church must alter her teaching; she should encourage Revelation and no longer dictate it." (Catherine and Jacques Legrand, John Paul II, p. 68.)

"Although he was only forty-two when the council opened, Wojtyla made eight oral interventions in the council hall, a rather high number, and often spoke in the name of large groups of bishops from Eastern Europe. (Altogether he made 22 interventions, oral and written.) He was an unusually active member of various drafting groups for Gaudium et Spes, and even a chief author of what was called the 'Polish draft.' His voice as crucial to the passage of the document on religious liberty.''"(William Madges and Michael Daly, Vatican II: Forty Personal Stories, p. 33)

The Modernists Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac and Jean Danielou worked closely with Archbishop Wojtyla to draft the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes]. In his speeches of September 23 and 28, 1965, Wojtyla championed the heresy of religious liberty and encouraged dialogue with atheists.

"Archbishop Wojtyla then took up the question of atheism as a pastoral issue, as part of the Church's 'dialogue with everyone.' ...The Church's dialogue with atheism should begin not with arguments or proofs about the existence of God, but with a conversation about the human person's interior liberty." (Tumultuous Times, pp. 540-541.)

 

How ironic is it that two trained actors, Karol Wojtyla and Ronald Reagan, were on the world stage together during most of the 1980s? Both used style and image--and carefully staged events--to communicate a sense of "connectedness" to the public. Wojtyla did so even more effectively than Reagan, conveying the impression to so many of us "in the pew" that he was going to come to our "rescue," that all we had to do was to be "patient" and to "fight in our parishes for the Faith," that our "Holy Father" would send us "good bishops" to undo the harm of the "bad bishops." The mass communications media provided Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II with the perfect stage for many of us to "connect" with him on an emotional level as our spiritual "father," making many of us inclined to overlook some of the things he said and did (constant support for ecumenism and religious liberty, the Assisi event, the "papal" extravaganza"Masses" replete with the incorporation of pagan rituals of one sort or another) for a very long period of time.

The influences of Modernism and the New Theology on the mind of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI were much more evident prior to his "ascension" to the head of the counterfeit church of conciliarism three years ago, which is why many of us who had not as of then accepted the illegitimacy of the conciliar "pontiffs" blanched when we heard his name being announced from the balcony of the Basilica of Saint Peter. (See, The Memories of a Destructive Mind: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Milestones, part 1 , and The Memories of a Destructive Mind: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Milestones, part 2.) Not even this plain evidence was enough to overcome the pull of the emotionalism of sentimentality as many chose to suspend quite willingly rationality in order overlook the harm that this nefarious man has done to the Faith throughout the course of his priesthood, harm that was on full display during his visit to the United States of America.

It is, therefore, a work of absolute self-deception to believe that we would be able to "spot" the Antichrist when if he could come during our own lifetimes. Precursors of the Antichrist have walked amongst us. We have "connected" with them on an emotional level as they have betrayed the Faith and mixed bits of Catholicism in with lots of Modernism and the New Theology and related errors (the ones into which Wojtyla was plunged as a young man) in their words and, perhaps even more importantly, their actions. We have "connected" with them on an emotional level as they have pulled at our most natural and fondest Catholic longings to have a true spiritual father, a true Holy Father, and to feel a close personal bond with that father, convinced that this emotional tie, created by the illusion of images and words and the sheer force of personal charisma, would be enough to mask their real agenda.

That so few people have seen through the mask of the conciliar agenda, which has nothing to do with the Catholic Faith, is a testament to the success that the adversary has had in using his conciliar minions to stage really "good shows" that convey the messages of "respect for all religions" and "universal tolerance," things that were specifically condemned by one pope after another in the Nineteenth Century, quite succinctly by Pope Leo XIII in Custodi Di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892:

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

 

This one passage from Custodi Di Quella Fede, among so many others written by the popes of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, summarizes the nature of the apostasy that has been spread by the well-liked, well-regarded, much-applauded precursors of the Antichrist in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, starting with the two most recent conciliar "pontiffs," who have used staged productions and events to carefully craft an "image" that will lull the unsuspecting to sleep and keep those who have been slumbering for a long time deep in their slumber.

Remember, ladies and gentlemen, that the recent visit of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, which contained numerous offenses against God and His Most Blessed Mother, conveying a de facto, if not a de jure message, of "universal tolerance" and a "respect for all religions," ceding ground to Judeo-Masonic "world body" as an agency of peace, was "produced" with the help and guidance of pro-abortion Hollywood producers and pro-abortion political advance teams. What need does the Catholic Church have of communicating the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by giving money to the devil's minions to "stage" events as God Himself is blasphemed and souls are reaffirmed in the Judeo-Masonic lie of religious indifferentism and "respect" for all religions? The Catholic Church has the infallible guidance of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, to evangelize the truths of the Holy Faith. The counterfeit church of conciliarism needs the help of the devil's minions to convey its man-made religion in order to wrap up and to present it neatly in the cloak of Catholicism.

Some are counseling a self-justifying "silence" in the midst of these outrages against God and the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross. This silence permits the precursors of the Antichrist to continue their work against the Faith unmolested. Forty years of silence from most Catholics who have assisted at the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service have produced acceptance of such things as false ecumenism and "inter-religious" prayer as both appeal deep, deep into fallen man's emotionalism and sentimentality, convincing him that there is no need to be unpopular in the midst of a pluralistic society, that God will not send anyone to Hell.

Silence as the precursors of the Antichrist offend God and His Most Blessed Mother? Silence?

Consider these words of Pope Leo the Great:

But it is vain for them to adopt the name of catholic, as they do not oppose these blasphemies: they must believe them, if they can listen so patiently to such words. (Pope Saint Leo the Great, Epistle XIV, To Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, St. Leo the Great | Letters 1-59 )

 

Silence as the precursors of the Antichrist offend God and His Most Blessed Mother? Silence?

You yourselves, established as scouts in the house of Israel, see clearly the many victories claimed by a philosophy full of deceit. You see the ease with which it attracts to itself a great host of peoples, concealing its impiety with the honorable name of philosophy. Who could express in words or call to mind the wickedness of the tenets and evil madness which it imparts? While such men apparently intend to search out wisdom, "they fail because they do not search in the proper way. . . and they fall into errors which lead them astray from ordinary wisdom." They have come to such a height of impiety that they make out that God does not exist, or if He does that He is idle and uncaring, making no revelation to men. Consequently it is not surprising that they assert that everything holy and divine is the product of the minds of inexperienced men smitten with empty fear of the future and seduced by a vain hope of immortality. But those deceitful sages soften and conceal the wickedness of their doctrine with seductive words and statements; in this way, they attract and wretchedly ensnare many of the weak into rejecting their faith or allowing it to be greatly shaken. While they pursue a remarkable knowledge, they open their eyes to behold a false light which is worse than the very darkness. Naturally our enemy, desirous of harming us and skilled in doing so, just as he made use of the serpent to deceive the first human beings, has armed the tongues of those men with the poison of his deceitfulness in order to lead astray the minds of the faithful. The prophet prays that his soul may be delivered from such deceitful tongues. In this way these men by their speech "enter in lowliness, capture mildly, softly bind and kill in secret." This results in great moral corruption, in license of thought and speech, in arrogance and rashness in every enterprise.

When they have spread this darkness abroad and torn religion out of men's hearts, these accursed philosophers proceed to destroy the bonds of union among men, both those which unite them to their rulers, and those which urge them to their duty. They keep proclaiming that man is born free and subject to no one, that society accordingly is a crowd of foolish men who stupidly yield to priests who deceive them and to kings who oppress them, so that the harmony of priest and ruler is only a monstrous conspiracy against the innate liberty of man.

Everyone must understand that such ravings and others like them, concealed in many deceitful guises, cause greater ruin to public calm the longer their impious originators are unrestrained. They cause a serious loss of souls redeemed by Christ's blood wherever their teaching spreads, like a cancer; it forces its way into public academies, into the houses of the great, into the palaces of kings, and even enters the sanctuary, shocking as it is to say so.

Consequently, you who are the salt of the earth, guardians and shepherds of the Lord's flock, whose business it is to fight the battles of the Lord, arise and gird on your sword, which is the word of God, and expel this foul contagion from your lands. How long are we to ignore the common insult to faith and Church? Let the words of Bernard arouse us like a lament of the spouse of Christ: "Of old was it foretold and the time of fulfillment is now at hand: Behold, in peace is my sorrow most sorrowful. It was sorrowful first when the martyrs died; afterwards it was more sorrowful in the fight with the heretics and now it is most sorrowful in the conduct of the members of the household.... The Church is struck within and so in peace is my sorrow most sorrowful. But what peace? There is peace and there is no peace. There is peace from the pagans and peace from the heretics, but no peace from the children. At that time the voice will lament: Sons did I rear and exalt, but they despised me. They despised me and defiled me by a bad life, base gain, evil traffic, and business conducted in the dark." Who can hear these tearful complaints of our most holy mother without feeling a strong urge to devote all his energy and effort to the Church, as he has promised? Therefore cast out the old leaven, remove the evil from your midst. Forcefully and carefully banish poisonous books from the eyes of your flock, and at once courageously set apart those who have been infected, to prevent them harming the rest. The holy Pope Leo used to say, "We can rule those entrusted to us only by pursuing with zeal for the Lord's faith those who destroy and those who are destroyed and by cutting them off from sound minds with the utmost severity to prevent the plague spreading." In doing this We exhort and advise you to be all of one mind and in harmony as you strive for the same object, just as the Church has one faith, one baptism, and one spirit. As you are joined together in the hierarchy, so you should unite equally with virtue and desire.

The affair is of the greatest importance since it concerns the Catholic faith, the purity of the Church, the teaching of the saints, the peace of the empire, and the safety of nations. Since it concerns the entire body of the Church, it is a special concern of yours because you are called to share in Our pastoral concern, and the purity of the faith is particularly entrusted to your watchfulness. "Now therefore, Brothers, since you are overseers among God's people and their soul depends on you, raise their hearts to your utterance," that they may stand fast in faith and achieve the rest which is prepared for believers only. Beseech, accuse, correct, rebuke and fear not: for ill-judged silence leaves in their error those who could be taught, and this is most harmful both to them and to you who should have dispelled the error. The holy Church is powerfully refreshed in the truth as it struggles zealously for the truth. In this divine work you should not fear either the force or favor of your enemies. The bishop should not fear since the anointing of the Holy Spirit has strengthened him: the shepherd should not be afraid since the prince of pastors has taught him by his own example to despise life itself for the safety of his flock: the cowardice and depression of the hireling should not dwell in a bishop's heart. Our great predecessor Gregory, in instructing the heads of the churches, said with his usual excellence: "Often imprudent guides in their fear of losing human favor are afraid to speak the right freely. As the word of truth has it, they guard their flock not with a shepherd's zeal but as hirelings do, since they flee when the wolf approaches by hiding themselves in silence.... A shepherd fearing to speak the right is simply a man retreating by keeping silent." But if the wicked enemy of the human race, the better to frustrate your efforts, ever brings it about that a plague of epidemic proportions is hidden from the religious powers of the world, please do not be terrified but walk in God's house in harmony, with prayer, and in truth, the three arms of our service. Remember that when the people of Juda were defiled, the best means of purification was the public reading to all, from the least to the greatest, of the book of the law lately found by the priest Helcias in the Lord's temple; at once the whole people agreed to destroy the abominations and seal a covenant in the Lord's presence to follow after the Lord and observe His precepts, testimonies and ceremonies with their whole heart and soul." For the same reason Josaphat sent priests and Levites to bring the book of the law throughout the cities of Juda and to teach the people. The proclamation of the divine word has been entrusted to your faith by divine, not human, authority. So assemble your people and preach to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. From that divine source and heavenly teaching draw draughts of true philosophy for your flock. Persuade them that subjects ought to keep faith and show obedience to those who by God's ordering lead and rule them. To those who are devoted to the ministry of the Church, give proofs of faith, continence, sobriety, knowledge, and liberality, that they may please Him to whom they have proved themselves and boast only of what is serious, moderate, and religious. But above all kindle in the minds of everyone that love for one another which Christ the Lord so often and so specifically praised. For this is the one sign of Christians and the bond of perfection. (Pope Pius VI, Inscrutabile, December 25, 1775.)

You know now what causes Our present grief. There are also other things, no less serious, which it would take too long to recount here, but which you know well. Shall We hold back Our voice when the Christian cause is in such great need? Shall We be restrained by human arguments? Shall We suffer in silence the rending of the seamless robe of Christ the Savior, which even the soldiers who crucified Him did not dare to rend? Let it never happen that We be found lacking in zealous pastoral care for Our flock, beset as it is by serious dangers. We know you will do even more than We ask, and that you will cherish, augment, and defend the faith by means of teachings, counsel, work, and zeal. (Pope Pius VIII, Traditi Humilitati Nostrae,, May 24, 1829.)

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace. (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)

 

The Arian heresy just did not "go away." True, cowards were silent in the face of the Arian heresy, believing that it was "prudent" to do so as they sought to protect their own lives and reputations and property. Saint Jerome? Was he silent? Saint Nicholas? Was he silent? Saint Athanasius? Was he silent?

The Albigensian heresy just did not "go away." Our Lady herself gave Saint Dominic her Most Holy Rosary to fight this heresy, both in prayer and by the force of preaching.

The Protestant Revolt did not go unanswered by the Catholic Church. The very saint whom we honor tomorrow, Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, gave up his life at the hands of those truly miserable and wretched  Calvinist fiends (whose heresies are actually exalted by many Americanist Catholics across the ecclesiastical divide!) to seek the conversion of those steeped in errors. Was he silent?

Were Popes Pius VI, VII, VIII IX and Gregory XVI and Leo XIII silent about the errors of Modernity (religious liberty, religious indifferentism, the separation of Church and State)?

Was Pope Saint Pius X silent about Modernism?

Was Pope Pius XI silent about the Social Reign of Christ the King?

Were the Cristeros in Mexico and the stalwart champions of Christ the King in Spain silent in the face of attacks against the Faith as were some of their Catholic confreres?

The great saint we celebrate today, Saint George, refused to be silent about the worship of false gods and refused to be silent about the true Faith:

Now, realizing that he was getting nowhere with threats and torments, Dacian thought he might bring the saint around with soft speech. "George,  son," he said, "you see how long-suffering our gods are; the put up with your blasphemies so patiently yet are read to forgive you if ou consent to be converted. Follow my advice, then, dearest son. Give up your superstition, sacrifice to our gods, and win great honors from them and from ourselves." George smiled and replied: "Why did you not say kind words to be before, instead of trying to overcome me by torture? So be it: I am read to do as you say." Dacian, deluded, was glad to hear this and ordered the herald to call the whole populace together to see George, who had resisted so long, finally yield and worship the gods. The city was strung with garlands and filled with rejoicing, and all stood by as George came into the temple to offer sacrifice. He fell to his knees and prayed the Lord to destroy the temple with its idols so completely that, for the glory of God and the conversion of the people, nothing would be left of it. Immediately fire came down from heaven and consumed the temple, the idols and the priests, and the earth opened up and swallowed up anything that was left. Saint Ambrose says in his Preface for Saint George: "While Christianity was professed only under cover of silence. George, most loyal solider of Christ, alone and intrepid among Christians, openly professed his faith in the Son of God; and the grace of God, in return, gave him such fortitude that he could scorn the commands of tyrants and face the pain of innumerable torments. O blessed and noble fighter for the Lord! Not only was he not won over b the flattering promise of earthly power, but he fooled his persecutor and cast the images of his false gods into the abyss." Thus Ambrose. (Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, Volume I, translated by William Granger, Ryan, Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 241.)

 

In the midst of the deception made possible in large measure by the use of the mass media by the conciliar revolutionaries to stage events to appeal to the emotionalism of sentimentality, we must give thanks to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Most Blessed Mother for sending us true bishops and true priests in this time of apostasy and betrayal who have not kept their silence, who spoke out against conciliarism and who acted decisively to protect their flocks from making even one little concessions to its falsehoods, recognizing that a "prudent silence" could leave unanswered a whole host of errors, each of which offends God and can never be minimized in the slightest.

Thank you, Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., for not remaining silent in the midst of apostasy and betrayal. How sad it is that people to whom you, a trained Catholic scholar, have written to correct their errors keep their silence and do not do you the courtesy of a responding to a priest who will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for sixty-seven years next month, on May 22. Thank you for embodying the very spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi as you give God so much glory in the Masses you offer with such exquisite perfection and in the care to which you attend the array of flowers in your garden, so symbolic of the array of the flowers of souls that Our Lord has sought to cultivate by means of your own priestly hands.

Thank you, Your Excellency Bishop Robert F. McKenna, O.P., for not remaining silent in the midst of apostasy and betrayal. How sad it is that people to whom you, a trained Dominican scholar, have written to correct their errors keep their silence and do not do you, a priest who will celebrate his fiftieth anniversary of priestly ordination in June, the courtesy of even acknowledging your wisdom and your genuine pastoral concern for souls. Thank you for your deep love of Our Lady and your promotion of her Most Holy Rosary as a true son of Saint Dominic.

Thank you, Your Excellency Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas and the priests of the Congregation of Mar Immaculate Queen for not remaining silent in the midst of apostasy and betrayal, for your great love of the Mother of God and her Fatima Message, for your zeal for souls, for your doing all for the greater honor and glory of God through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in the midst of poverty.

Thank you, Your Excellency Bishop Daniel Dolan and Your Excellency Bishop Donald Sanborn and your Excellency Bishop Clarence Kelly and Fathers Anthony Cekada, Thomas Zapp, Eugene Berry, Joseph Collins, William Jenkins and Martin Skierka for not being silent in the midst of apostasy and betrayal twenty-five years ago, for refusing to countenance any compromise with any aspect of the conciliar revolution, for being willing to be have your priestly dignity disparaged summarily by being thrown out into streets without any provision made for your care, for the total trust you showed in the Provident care of God and the loving intercession of His Most Blessed Mother in order to defend the Faith without being "una cum" veritable precursors of the Antichrist. The "nine" stood up against a false notion of the Church's infallibility that has eaten away insidious at the very root of the nature of the papacy itself.

These priests, along with so many others, saw the fullness of the problems facing us during this era of the Mystical Passion Death and Burial of the Church, which must go through each of the phases of the life of her Divine Bridegroom and Invisible Head, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They refused be swayed by the emotionalism of sentimentality. They cooperated with the graces sent to them through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, to resist being "connected" with betrayal.

Mark this, and mark it well as it will probably not be too long before displaced anger is directed at those who attempt to point out that the conciliar "pontiffs" have been doing the bidding of the Antichrist:

No sedevacantist, priest or layman, entered into a mosque and treated it as a holy place by taking off his shoes and assuming the Mohammedan prayer position as he turned in the direction of Mecca.

No sedevacantist, priest or layman, twice entered into Talmudic synagogues to show signs of respect and esteem for a dead religion that is the militant foe of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His true Church.

No sedevacantist, priest or layman, received the symbols of false religions with respect and esteem and equanimity and joy.

No sedevacantist, priest or layman, prayed with Protestant and Orthodox heretics as the "virtues" of inter-religious "dialogue" were praised yet again without one mention of the necessity of those outside of the true Church to convert with urgency and unconditionally to her maternal bosom.

No sedevacantist, priest or layman, dishonored the Mother of God by refusing to speak of her publicly before thousands upon thousands of people in various events.

No sedevacantist bishop or priest distributed what purports to be Holy Communion in the hand or has countenanced the reception of what purports to be Holy Communion to thorough-going pro-aborts, each of whom remains in perfectly "good standing" in the conciliar structures.

Sedevacantists have not invented these things. The conciliar "pontiffs," manifesting their contempt for the Faith in their brazen displays of apostasy and sacrilege and blasphemy, have done these things, knowing that most Catholics will applaud them for having done them and that there are others who will be silent as they "strategize" about how to "fight for the Faith" when the fight is right before their very eyes and before the eyes of everyone else in the world.

To return to the words of Pope Leo XIII in Sapientiae Christianae:

But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good.

 

No one can be forced to "see" the truth of our situation for what it is, that the conciliar revolutionaries are not Catholic and that they belong to a counterfeit church bereft of Holy Orders and of the graces that flow therefrom. That any of the bishops and priests, among so many others, listed above saw it so clearly so long ago, right in the midst of a most diabolically clever use of the media to convey images of Catholicism and Catholicity, is the working of the graces won for us by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that flowed into their hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces. We must remember that it is very easy to go "back," to refuse to "kick against the goad," to "conform" to what the "mainstream" believes is "respectable" and "prudent."

The "mainstream" is not to be followed.

God permitted one hundred percent of the human race to be deceived in the Garden of Eden.

God permitted all but eight members of the human race to be deceived and deluded prior to the Great Flood.

Almost all of the Chosen People who had been led out of their bondage to the slavery of the Egyptian Pharaoh by Moses built and worshiped a molten calf whilst Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai.

All but a handful of people stood by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as He suffered and died for us on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday.

All but one bishop, Saint John Fisher of Rochester, England, defected from the Faith at the time of the Protestant Revolt in England when King Henry VIII took this thoroughly Catholic country out of the Church.

All but thirty bishops defected from the Faith at the time Queen Elizabeth I took England out of the Church once again in the 1660s following the brief restoration that took place under the reign of her half-sister, Queen Mary, from 1553 to 1558.

The "mainstream" is not be followed. We need apostolic courage in these times of apostasy and betrayal. God's greater honor and glory must be defended against the against of men who have proved themselves to be precursors of the Antichrist.

How do we think that we are going to recognize, no less resist and reject, the Antichrist when he comes we are so complacent and smug in the face of the groundwork that is being laid by his conciliar minions for his coming? Will the emotionalism of sentimentality and the delusion of positivism not prevail then in the minds and hearts of most men?

Turning, as always, to Our Lady, we continue to pray our Rosaries of reparation for the offenses given to her in the Name of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, confident in her loving care for us, ever faithful to our Total Consecration to her Divine Son through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, considering to be our privilege to give Him through her whatever merit we earn each day.

Our Lady will help us to remain faithful to the truths of the true Faith if only we ask for her help. She will lead us, as she us led so many already, to place themselves under the pastoral guide of truly consecrated bishops and truly ordained priests who make absolutely no compromises to conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of its false shepherds who think nothing of openly and brazenly offend God as they dishonor her in the process.

We should continue to pray the Salve Regina and the Magnificat in reparation for the offenses of the past forty to fifty years, which were on such bold display in the United States of America in the past week:

Salve Regina

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. ad te clemamus exsules filii Evae, ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte; et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

Ora pro nobis sancta Dei Genetrix. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. Amen.

Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante praeparasti: da, ut cujus commemoratione laetamur; ejus pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis, et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

 

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us;
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Let us pray. Almighty, everlasting God, who by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin-Mother Mary to become a dwelling-place meet for thy Son: grant that as we rejoice in her commemoration; so by her fervent intercession we may be delivered from present evils and from everlasting death. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Magnificat

My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy: As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

 

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

 

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

 

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

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

Saint George, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints