Eternally Grasping At Straws

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Eternally grasping at straws, a few of those seeking, especially in light of Summorum Pontificum, to minimize the consistent theological heterodoxy of Joseph Ratzinger, latch onto an isolated statement made by the man they recognize as the "pope" in order to try to prove that he is really, really, really, really a Catholic after all. Several "passive" readers (i.e. freeloaders) of this site have been quick to point out that a question and answer session that Ratzinger/Benedict XVI held with priests on July 24, 2007, reveals that he, Ratzinger, really does believe that "new believers" must be brought into the "Church," citing the following passage from a Catholic World News online report:

The Pontiff offered one lengthy response to a question on conflicts between faith and science, emphasizing that although scientific research can resolve many questions, it cannot answer existential questions about the meaning of life-- questions that man by nature finds himself asking. The Pope went on to suggest that scientists should be open to the possibilities offered by religious faith, and recognize that there is no conflict, but rather a complementarity, between the approaches taken by faith and reason. Pope Benedict reminded the priests that all Christians, and especially clerics, have a fundamental obligation to inform people about the faith. Their efforts, he continued, should be aimed not to win arguments but to win souls, bringing new believers into the Church. (Pope speaks with priests on faith, reason, and Vatican II)

 

It is utterly pointless to argue with those who believe that the last sentence in the quotation above represents a "course correction" from Joseph Ratzinger's rejection of the "ecumenism of the return," which he stated very openly in his address to Protestants in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005:

We all know there are numerous models of unity and you know that the Catholic Church also has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its various Documents (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 8, 13; Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.). This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 4); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.

On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return:  that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!

It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline. Unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity:  in my Homily for the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June last, I insisted that full unity and true catholicity in the original sense of the word go together. As a necessary condition for the achievement of this coexistence, the commitment to unity must be constantly purified and renewed; it must constantly grow and mature. [Ecumenical meeting at the Archbishopric of Cologne (August 19, 2005, found on the Vatican website itself.]

 

How can any sane human being reconcile Ratzinger's categorical rejection of the "ecumenism of the return" with a call to bring "new believers" into the Church? There will be some who will try, no doubt, perhaps making a distinction between the seeking of individual converts as opposed to insisting that all members of Protestant sects convert at once. Yes, this is a silly distinction, especially since the conciliar Vatican's PRINCIPLES AND NORMS ON ECUMENISM, March 25, 1993, discourages and/or disparages "proselytism." However, there will be those, eternally grasping at straws, who will attempt to make sense out of yet another apparent contradiction in the theological career of man who is steeped in Hegelian contradiction and paradox. Lots of luck to them!

Even those who are very much opposed to sedevacantism and who are now staunch defenders of Benedict XVI had, at least in the past, found it difficult to reconcile Ratzinger's frequently heterodox statements about ecumenism with each other, no less with the Catholic Faith. Here are some excerpts from The Great Facade that are being cited to indicate that the writings of Joseph Ratzinger have been consistent over the years. Indeed, the passage below is thoroughly consistent with his address to Protestants in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005.

By way of background on this issue, we note that when Cardinal Ratzinger was still Father Ratzinger, a former peritus at the Council, he provided in his Theological Highlights of Vatican II the following explanation of the Council's teaching on Christian unity and membership:

The new text describes the relationship between the Church and non-Catholic Christians without speaking of "membership." By shedding this terminological armor, the text acquired a much wider scope. . . . The Catholic has to recognize that his own Church is not yet prepared to accept the phenomenon of multiplicity in unity; he must orient himself toward this reality. . . . Meantime the Catholic Church has no right to absorb the other Churches. The Church has not yet prepared a place of their own, but this they are legitimately entitled to. . . . A basic unity--of Churches that remain Churches, yet become one Church--must replace the idea of conversion, even though conversion retains its meaningfulness for those in conscience motivated to seek it. (Joseph Ratzinger, Theological Highlights of Vatican II, pp. 61, 68, quoted in Christopher A. Ferrara and Thomas E. Woods, Jr., The Great Facade, The Remnant Press, 2002, at p. 349.)

 

This remarkable text, which Cardinal Ratzinger has never repudiated, declares that the Magisterium can "shed" its own established terminology on membership in the Church, that the Bride of Christ had neglected to "prepare" itself for acceptance of the "reality" of non-Catholic confessions, that organizations indisputably founded by mere men in a rebellion against divine authority have a positive right to exist and be given "a place" by the one true Church, and that Protestants need not convert to Catholicism unless they are "motivated" to do so. In all candor, we do not see how Father Ratzinger's opinions here could have avoided censure during the reign of any preconciliar Pope.

As we have already demonstrated abundantly, these opinions are quite in line with the current thinking of Cardinal Ratzinger's fellow German bishop, Cardinal Walker Kasper, the new head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. We have noted that in the Italian journal Adista, Kasper declared "today that we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would 'be converted' and return to being 'catholics.'  This was expressly abandoned by Vatican II." Any Catholic should be horrified to see the head of a pontifical council ostensible devoted to "Christian unity" placing contemptuous quotation marks around the very words converted and Catholics. According to Cardinal Kasper, Vatican II "abandoned" what the Holy Office in 1949 describe as "the teachings of the encyclicals o the Roman Pontiffs on the return of the dissidents to the one true Church" and "the Catholic truth regarding...the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church."

And yet the context of Kasper's remarks in Adista was a defense of DI [Dominus Iesus] against Protestant critics! Nor did Cardinal Ratzinger offer any correction of Kasper's opinion, which Kasper expressed within days of his elevation to the rank of cardinal. These finds do not inspire confidence that DI represents a major course correction in the Church's postconciliar drift from her prior clarity of teaching about the condition of the dissidents who need to return to the one true Church. (Christopher A. Ferrara and Thomas E. Woods, Jr., The Great Facade, The Remnant Press, 2002, pp. 348-350. It should be noted that Dr. Woods wrote in January of 2006 that he wanted to have his name dropped from all subsequent printings of The Great Facade. His name does appear, replete with an autograph, in the copy of the book from which the section above was transcribed.)

 

Joseph Ratzinger did not correct Walter Kasper because he, Ratzinger, similarly rejects the "ecumenism of the return." There is nothing in the July 24, 2007, question and answer session with Italian priests that indicates Ratzinger has abandoned his lifelong rejection of the "ecumenism of the return." Indeed, one could construe those remarks on July 24, 2007, to mean that any Christian cleric, including a Protestant "cleric," has the obligation to bring "new believers" into the "Church," which is not necessarily identifiable as the Catholic Church. After all, Joseph Ratzinger believes that the "Christ of Christ" "subsists" in the Catholic Church but that other "churches" and "ecclesial communities" have been "used by the Spirit of Christ" as means of salvation.  Deciphering contradiction leads to insanity.

Remember, it was Joseph Ratzinger who said in 2005 that his murdered friend, the Protestant syncretist named "Brother" Roger Schutz, had attained "eternal joy." Thus it is that a man who never converted to the Catholic Faith bypassed Purgatory and went straight to Heaven. Ratzinger invoked Schutz in his August 19, 2005, address to Protestants:

I would also like in this context to remember the great pioneer of unity, Bro. Roger Schutz, who was so tragically snatched from life. I had known him personally for a long time and had a cordial friendship with him.

He often came to visit me and, as I already said in Rome on the day of his assassination, I received a letter from him that moved my heart, because in it he underlined his adherence to my path and announced to me that he wanted to come and see me. He is now visiting us and speaking to us from on high. I think that we must listen to him, from within we must listen to his spiritually-lived ecumenism and allow ourselves to be led by his witness towards an interiorized and spiritualized ecumenism.

 

If Joseph Ratzinger wants conciliar priests to bring "new believers" into the Church, as reports of his July 24, 2007, question and answer session indicates, one can ask quite legitimately whether he ever sought to convert Roger Schutz. Why did not he not only invite Protestants in Cologne to convert but told them he rejected the "ecumenism of the return"? Why has he not sought the conversion of the Jewish rabbis and other Jewish representatives whom he has met since becoming a false claimant to the Throne of Saint Peter? Those whose minds work logically ask such questions. Those who want to believe in the absurdity of contradiction and paradox ignore such questions as they grasp at straws to attempt to prove a Modernist's true devotion to the Catholic Faith.

The Great Facade attempted to solve the paradox of then "Cardinal" Ratzinger's views concerning the ability of Jews to save their souls, asking some penetrating questions in the process:

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

Insofar as seeking the conversion of Jews is concerned, the authors of The Great Facade could have pointed out that Alphonse Ratisbonne was converted in 1842 by Our Lady herself, something which neither Karol Wojtyla or Joseph Ratzinger ever once used to invite Jews to convert to the Faith. (An excellent precise of Dominus Iesus was done by Bishop Donald Sanborn. See: Ratzinger's Dominus Jesus: A Critical Analysis.)

That having been noted, the purpose of quoting these passages from The Great Facade is not to stick a thumb in the eye of anyone whatsoever. It is merely to point out the fact that Joseph Ratzinger, as one who rejects the precision of Scholasticism and whose entire thought process is warped by Hegelian paradigm of contradiction and synthesis (with a few other elements added in for measure), refuses to use the perennial language of the Catholic Church in many areas, including that of the new ecclesiology and ecumenism, giving rise to ambiguity and confusion and uncertainty, none of which are hallmarks of the Catholic Faith. Ratzinger is no different now than he was seven years ago. He is still full of contradiction and paradox and ambiguity, each of which is, if you will pardon the use of the term, the antithesis of Catholicism.

There is no ambiguity, however, in Joseph Ratzinger's consistent rejection of the "ecumenism of the return" or in his own personal refusal to publicly encourage any Protestant or Jew to convert unconditionally to the Catholic Church. Ratzinger does not believe in unconditional conversion. Not only does he greet with "warmth" the pagan devil-worshipers known as Buddhists on occasion at his Wednesday General Audiences, as he did when we were in Rome on May 18, 2005, he has spoken in the following terms to Methodists:

I have been encouraged by the initiative which would bring the member churches of the World Methodist Council into association with the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, signed by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999. Should the World Methodist Council express its intent to associate itself with the Joint Declaration, it would assist in contributing to the healing and reconciliation we ardently desire, and would be a significant step toward the stated goal of full visible unity in faith.

Dear friends, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and mindful of God's great and abiding Mercy throughout the world, let us seek to foster a mutual commitment to the Word of God, to witness and to joint prayer. As we prepare our hearts and minds to welcome the Lord in this Advent season, I invoke God's abundant blessings upon all of you and on Methodists throughout the world. (December 9, 2005.)

 

No call for conversion here, only an invitation to the Methodists to become signatories to the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" that consigns a dogmatic decree of the Council of Trent to the Orwellian memory hole (see: Bishop Donald Sanborn's Critical Analysis of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification) as he invokes "God's abundant blessings" upon a group of heretics who support abortion and other moral crimes, including contraception. The proof of one's devotion to bringing "new believers" into "the Church" unconditionally starts with one's own work. There is no proof of any such a devotion in the work of Joseph Ratzinger.

As has been pointed out many times on this site, inviting those outside of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation, to return to her maternal bosom is the only sort of ecumenism that the Catholic Church, in stark contradistinction to the counterfeit church of conciliarism, has ever undertaken or authorized.

Pope Pius IX noted the following in Iam Vos Omnes, an apostolical letter, September 13, 1868, addressed specifically to Protestants prior to the [First] Vatican Council:

It is for this reason that so many who do not share “the communion and the truth of the Catholic Church” must make use of the occasion of the Council, by the means of the Catholic Church, which received in Her bosom their ancestors, proposes [further] demonstration of profound unity and of firm vital force; hear the requirements [demands] of her heart, they must engage themselves to leave this state that does not guarantee for them the security of salvation. She does not hesitate to raise to the Lord of mercy most fervent prayers to tear down of the walls of division, to dissipate the haze of errors, and lead them back within holy Mother Church, where their Ancestors found salutary pastures of life; where, in an exclusive way, is conserved and transmitted whole the doctrine of Jesus Christ and wherein is dispensed the mysteries of heavenly grace.

It is therefore by force of the right of Our supreme Apostolic ministry, entrusted to us by the same Christ the Lord, which, having to carry out with [supreme] participation all the duties of the good Shepherd and to follow and embrace with paternal love all the men of the world, we send this Letter of Ours to all the Christians from whom We are separated, with which we exhort them warmly and beseech them with insistence to hasten to return to the one fold of Christ; we desire in fact from the depths of the heart their salvation in Christ Jesus, and we fear having to render an account one day to Him, Our Judge, if, through some possibility, we have not pointed out and prepared the way for them to attain eternal salvation. In all Our prayers and supplications, with thankfulness, day and night we never omit to ask for them, with humble insistence, from the eternal Shepherd of souls the abundance of goods and heavenly graces. And since, if also, we fulfill in the earth the office of vicar, with all our heart we await with open arms the return of the wayward sons to the Catholic Church, in order to receive them with infinite fondness into the house of the Heavenly Father and to enrich them with its inexhaustible treasures. By our greatest wish for the return to the truth and the communion with the Catholic Church, upon which depends not only the salvation of all of them, but above all also of the whole Christian society: the entire world in fact cannot enjoy true peace if it is not of one fold and one shepherd.

 

Pope Pius IX feared for the salvation of his own immortal soul if he did not point out the way for Protestants to attain their own eternal salvation. Is there any such fear in the mind of man, Joseph Ratzinger, who was trained by the advocate of Universal Salvation, Father Hans Urs von Balthasar? A man who had such a fear would exhort with great urgency Protestants and Jews and the Orthodox--and everyone else on the face of this earth--to convert unconditionally to the true Church.

Pope Leo XIII, after exhorting in Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, June 20, 1894, the Orthodox to return to the true Church, pleaded with Protestants to do so:

With no less affection do We now look upon the nations who, at a more recent date, were separated from the Roman Church by an extraordinary revolution of things and circumstances.  Let them forget the various events of times gone by, let them raise their thoughts far above all that is human, and seeking only truth and salvation, reflect within their hearts upon the Church as it was constituted by Christ.  If they will but compare that Church with their own communions, and consider what the actual state of Religion is in these, they will easily acknowledge that, forgetful of their early history, they have drifted away, on many and important points, into the novelty of various errors; nor will they deny that of what may be called the Patrimony of Truth, which the authors of those innovations carried away with them in their desertion, there now scarcely remains to them any article of belief that is really certain and supported by Authority.

Nay, more, things have already come to such a pass that many do not even hesitate to root up the very Foundation upon which alone rests all Religion, and the hope of men, to wit, the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, Our Savior.  And again, whereas formerly they used to assert that the books of the Old and the New Testament were written under the inspiration of God, they now deny them that Authority; this, indeed, was an inevitable consequence when they granted to all the right of private interpretation.  Hence, too, the acceptance of individual conscience as the sole guide and rule of conduct to the exclusion of any other: hence those conflicting opinions and numerous sects that fall away so often into the doctrines of Naturalism and Rationalism.

Therefore it is, that having lost all hope of an agreement in their persuasions, they now proclaim and recommend a union of brotherly love.  And rightly, too, no doubt, for we should all be united by the bond of mutual Charity.  Our Lord Jesus Christ enjoined it most emphatically, and wished that this love of one another should be the mark of His Disciples.  But how can hearts be united in perfect Charity where minds do not agree in Faith?

It is on this account that many of those We allude to men of sound judgment and seeking after Truth, have looked to the Catholic Church for the sure way of salvation; for they clearly understand that they could never be united to Jesus Christ, as their Head if they were not members of His Body, which is the Church; nor really acquire the True Christian Faith if they rejected the Legitimate teaching confided to Peter and his Successors.  Such men as these have recognized in the Church of Rome the Form and Image of the True Church, which is clearly made manifest by the Marks that God, her Author, placed upon her: and not a few who were possessed with penetrating judgment and a special talent for historical research, have shown forth in their remarkable writings the uninterrupted succession of the Church. of Rome from the Apostles, the integrity of her Doctrine, and the consistency of her Rule and Discipline.

With the example of such men before you, Our heart appeals to you even more than Our words: to you, Our Brethren, who for three centuries and more differ from Us on Christian Faith; and to you all likewise, who in later times, for any reason whatsoever, have turned away from Us: Let us all meet in the Unity of Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God.  Suffer that We should invite you to the Unity which has ever existed in the Catholic Church and can never fail; suffer that We should lovingly hold out Our hand to you.  The Church, as the common mother of all, has long been calling you back to her; the Catholics of the world await you with brotherly love, that you may render Holy Worship to God together with us, united in perfect Charity Worship  to God together with us, united in perfect charity by the profession of one Gospel, One Faith and One Hope.

 

There is no such invitation being extend today, meaning that those in the Orthodox churches and Protestant "ecclesial communities" are more or less assured of their salvation despite being separated from the Catholic Church in both doctrinal and juridical terms. What should this matter, however, to the conciliar revolutionaries, who have separated themselves from the Catholic Church and reject and/or deconstruct her authentic teaching in any number of areas?

It must be remembered that Iam Vos Omnes and Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae and Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Animos are never cited in the documents of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Men who believe in the "evolution of dogma" feel free to ignore those dogmatic statements that conflict with their own bold and prideful novelties. Thus it is that Pope Pius XI's words fall on deaf ears in the halls of the Apostolic Palace in which walk pretenders to ecclesiastical power whose Modernism caused them to fall from the Faith long, long ago:

So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly." The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills." For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head.

Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors. Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in the errors of Photius and the reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the chief shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their fathers, but it did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for it was supported by God. Let them therefore return to their common Father, who, forgetting the insults previously heaped on the Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving fashion. For if, as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and ours, why do they not hasten to enter the Church, "the Mother and mistress of all Christ's faithful"? Let them hear Lactantius crying out: "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind."

Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is "the root and womb whence the Church of God springs," not with the intention and the hope that "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government. Would that it were Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our predecessors could not, to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose unhappy separation from Us We now bewail. Would that God our Savior, "Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," would hear us when We humbly beg that He would deign to recall all who stray to the unity of the Church! In this most important undertaking We ask and wish that others should ask the prayers of Blessed Mary the Virgin, Mother of divine grace, victorious over all heresies and Help of Christians, that She may implore for Us the speedy coming of the much hoped-for day, when all men shall hear the voice of Her divine Son, and shall be "careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

 

One can grasp at straws all he wants. The actual record of Joseph Ratzinger's entire priesthood is one that rejects the necessity of exhorting others to convert to the Catholic Church. Nothing has changed about this at all. Nothing. Have you ever heard Joseph Ratzinger exhort Catholics to distribute the Green Scapular to help people outside of the Church and/or away from the sacraments to save their immortal souls? Ratzinger is content to preside over a "church" where "bishops" and "priests" and consecrated religious and lay teachers can deny articles contained in the Deposit of Faith and remain in perfectly good canonical standing without ever once being subjected to any doctrinal scrutiny, no less censure or excommunication. Such a "church' may be many things. However, it is not the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

Our Lady stands by the tomb of Her Divine Son following His mystical death and burial at the hands of the conciliarists. We await His mystical Resurrection, no matter whether it occurs before or on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the Living and the Dead. We must beseech Our Lady, especially through her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart as her consecrated slaves, making sure to have our home enthroned to the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son and to that same Immaculate Heart.  The Rosaries we offer her will console her as she grieves over what our own sins--and those of others--have done to her Divine Son's Church Militant on earth. The Rosaries we offer her will help us to be more steadfast in the Faith as we refuse to have anything to do with conciliarism and its false shepherds, as we cleave to true bishops and true priests in the Catholic catacombs who teach only that which the Catholic Church has always taught and who worship God as He has been worshiped from time immemorial in her Roman Rite.

May we use this month of August, that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to live more penitentially and to offer our entire day's prayer and work and sufferings to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the very Heart of which It was formed, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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

Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Pope Saint Stephen I, pray for us.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.

Saint Christopher, pray for us.

Saint James the Greater, pray for us.

Simon Stock, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.

Saints Monica, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint 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 Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint 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.

Sister Teresa Benedicta, 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.