Excuse Me, Father, While I Look For My New Paperwork From Rome

by Thomas A. Droleskey

One of the banes of my existence as a "conservative" Catholic in the structures of what I now recognize to be the counterfeit church of conciliarism was to wave pieces of paper in the faces of conciliar priests and presbyters who committed "liturgical abuses" that violated the few rules that govern the liturgical abuse par excellence, the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service. The usual response that I got to my attempts at presbyteral correction was something along the lines of a variation of the late William Claude Dukenfeld's "Get away from me kid, you're bothering me." I engaged in vain, fruitless exercises that had nothing to do defending the Catholic Faith, although I did not realize it at the time.

Yes, I really thought that the "next" document from Rome would give us in the pews "ammunition" to "fight within the structures" to help "Pope" John Paul II to restore the Church, to save her from the hands of the revolutionaries, never understanding for a moment that Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II was one of the leading revolutionaries at the "Second" Vatican Council. I must make reparation for my stupidity and my blindness in this regard. I was wrong not to have done my due diligence, especially after Catholics assisting at Holy Mass offered by priests of the Society of Saint Pius X and the Society of Saint Pius V had explained to me just how wrong I was to believe in the ecclesiastical equivalent of the tooth fairy. However, I did listen to those who were remonstrating with me. I remembered what they said. They were right. I was wrong. Remember, I followed the New York Mets for a very long time. My lifetime batting average is pretty low in comparison to those who responded to the graces that were sent to them through Our Lady's loving hands as the Mediatrix of All Graces to reject conciliarism en toto.

All things do work out in God's Holy Providence, however. Those of us who were slackers on the true state of the Church in this time of apostasy and betrayal may not have been able to figure things out if the pioneers who cleared the path ahead of us had not given us a body of work for us to study and reflect upon over the course of time. I, for one, am very grateful for the work that these pioneers did, work that I began to review as early as 2004 but did not really start to study in a sustained manner until late 2005 into early 2006.

Our personal history is what it is, though. And it is with my own personal history in mind that brief commentary will be made on the "exciting" news coming out of Motu land concerning what some traditionally-minded Catholics will be a "permanent" ban on the use of altar girls in offerings or stagings of the modernized version of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition in a some diocesan venues here and there around the world when they had started to make an appearance in recent years. There joy in Mudville, excuse me, Motuville, at least for the moment. To borrow a phrase from the late Bob Murphy, who broadcast games for the New York Mets from their inception in 1962 to the end of the 2003 season, which was just about ten months before his own death on August 3, 2004, here is the "happy recap" for those who live in the fantasy world of Motuville where all is considered to be well as long a there is a decorous liturgy no matter the fact that their "pope" offends God by personally esteeming the symbols of false religions and calling places of false worship as sacred and advancing one proposition after another that has been condemned by the authority of the Catholic Church:

The Instruction on the application of the provisions of Summorum Pontificum, entitled Universae Ecclesiae, in paragraph 28, says in an English version:

 

 

 

Furthermore, by virtue of its character of special law, within its own area, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum derogates from those provisions of law, connected with the sacred Rites, promulgated from 1962 onwards and incompatible with the rubrics of the liturgical books in effect in 1962.

So, if there is a conflict of law between what is found in the 1962 books and what was issued subsequent to the 1962, the what was issued subsequent does not apply for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form.  That would include such post-Conciliar innovations as female service at the altar.

UE 28 clarified that females are not permitted to act as servers for the Extraordinary Form.

You may recall that at the University of Cambridge in England, even before Universae Ecclesiae was issued, the Catholic chaplain, who had also celebrated there the older form of Mass, made a decision that his male, female integrated team of servers, should serve also at the older form of Mass.  That meant that he employed altar girls, women, to serve at the Extraordinary Form. When Universae Ecclesiae was issued, he continued with this practice.

This situation generated claims on both sides regarding UE 28, some people claiming that that paragraph did not bar females from serving.

I have now a copy of a letter sent by the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesiae Dei” and signed by the Secretary Msgr. Guido Pozzo, which clarifies that UE 28 in fact does say that females cannot serve at the altar in the Extraordinary Form.

The letter essentially quotes UE 28 and then states:

 

 

 

In this regard, the Circular Letter of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments of 1994 (cf. Notitiae 30 [1994] 333-335) permitted female altar servers, does not apply to the Extraordinary Form.

Bottom line: females may not serve at the altar in the Extraordinary Form.

However, I understand as well that, though the chaplain at Cambridge has also had this clarification from the PCED for some time, as recently as Saturday 5 June he continued to have females serve at the altar for the Extraordinary Form.

This all goes beyond the single issue of the sex of the person serving at the altar.  There are other innovations subsequent to 1962 to which UE 28 applies.  It is important that, early on, the meaning of UE 28 be clear and also be accepted.  It is important that, early on, the PCED get involved when Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae are misinterpreted. (Altar Girls and the Extraordinary Form.)

 

Perhaps Father John Zuhlsdorf ought to start a separate blog entitled something along the lines of "What Does the PCED Clarification Really Mean to Say?" Traditionally-minded Catholics in the conciliar structures now have new "paperwork" to present in the event some nasty priest or presbyter sneaks those altar girls into some Motu Mass someplace. That's progress, huh?

I know all about this. As I have noted a number of times on this site, I attempted to "fight within the structures" against altar girls in the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service. I even wrote an "open letter to 'Pope' John Paul II" that appeared in The Wanderer in April of 1994 after the Vatican announced that women could serve at the altar, thus giving "official" conciliar approval to a practice that was widespread in the conciliar structures, including in Rome itself, where I had seen "altar girls" serve at a staging of the Novus Ordo service at the North American church in the Eternal City, Santa Susanna, as early as 1984. (See also Without Fear of God and Ho Hum Yet Again.)

The same battle is now going to be fought in the Motu world with Vatican "clarifications"?

Incredible.

Amazing.

Stupendous. People are already fighting about the "proper" interpretation of a provision found in Universae Ecclesiae, April 30, 2011, whose text can be found in its entirety in an appendix at the end of As the Conciliar Fowler Lays More Snares, part three. Let the Universae Ecclesiae interpretation battles begin!

There are two little problems with this alleged "victory" for the forces of a "strict" interpretation of Universae Ecclesiae.

First, as noted in text quoted above from the "WDTPRS" blogspot, a chaplain at Cambridge University in England is already thumbing his nose at the letter from "Monsignor" Guido Pozzo's letter.

Second, "UE 28" conflicts with UE 25:

25. New saints and certain of the new prefaces can and ought to be inserted into the 1962 Missal, according to provisions which will be indicated subsequently.

 

How can it be said that "UE 28" guarantees that stagings of the so-called "extraordinary form of the Roman Rite" in the conciliar church derogate " from those provisions of law, connected with the sacred Rites, promulgated from 1962 onwards and incompatible with the rubrics of the liturgical books in effect in 1962" when "UE 25" envisions the gradual insertion of the new "saints" and "new" prefaces into the 1962 Missal? Oh, well, it's better to let the folks who think that they "getting somewhere now" fight out these battles as they ignore the simple fact that Universae Ecclesiae is itself a "clarification" of Summorum Pontificum that is already in need of its first "clarification.

Incredible. Amazing. Stupendous.

Sure, I used to waste my time with such things in my "conservative" days (see the appendix below that contains the text of my first article in The Remnant in December of 2002, a short time after we had withdrawn from any involvement on a daily basis with the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service; the appended article contains a link to an earlier commentary on the futility represented by the "clarification" issued by the then named Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to "straighten out" things in the Novus Ordo, Inaestimabile Donum.) Been there, done that. It doesn't work. It can't work. Why? It's real, real simple: there can never be true order and discipline in a false church with false liturgical rites and invalidly ordained priests. It is really that simple.

There is also the nasty little fact that all of this is truly much ado about nothing as the "1962 Missal" of the man who "abolished religion" (see Quite Right), Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII, is on conciliar "life support" until it is supplanted with a "reform of the reform." What? Have you forgotten so soon? Or have you been reading these thrilling articles at all? Here's a little reminder:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's easing of restrictions on use of the 1962 Roman Missal, known as the Tridentine rite, is just the first step in a "reform of the reform" in liturgy, the Vatican's top ecumenist said.

The pope's long-term aim is not simply to allow the old and new rites to coexist, but to move toward a "common rite" that is shaped by the mutual enrichment of the two Mass forms, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said May 14.

In effect, the pope is launching a new liturgical reform movement, the cardinal said. Those who resist it, including "rigid" progressives, mistakenly view the Second Vatican Council as a rupture with the church's liturgical tradition, he said.

Cardinal Koch made the remarks at a Rome conference on "Summorum Pontificum," Pope Benedict's 2007 apostolic letter that offered wider latitude for use of the Tridentine rite. The cardinal's text was published the same day by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

Cardinal Koch said Pope Benedict thinks the post-Vatican II liturgical changes have brought "many positive fruits" but also problems, including a focus on purely practical matters and a neglect of the paschal mystery in the Eucharistic celebration. The cardinal said it was legitimate to ask whether liturgical innovators had intentionally gone beyond the council's stated intentions.

He said this explains why Pope Benedict has introduced a new reform movement, beginning with "Summorum Pontificum." The aim, he said, is to revisit Vatican II's teachings in liturgy and strengthen certain elements, including the Christological and sacrificial dimensions of the Mass.

Cardinal Koch said "Summorum Pontificum" is "only the beginning of this new liturgical movement."

"In fact, Pope Benedict knows well that, in the long term, we cannot stop at a coexistence between the ordinary form and the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, but that in the future the church naturally will once again need a common rite," he said.

"However, because a new liturgical reform cannot be decided theoretically, but requires a process of growth and purification, the pope for the moment is underlining above all that the two forms of the Roman rite can and should enrich each other," he said.

Cardinal Koch said those who oppose this new reform movement and see it as a step back from Vatican II lack a proper understanding of the post-Vatican II liturgical changes. As the pope has emphasized, Vatican II was not a break or rupture with tradition but part of an organic process of growth, he said.

On the final day of the conference, participants attended a Mass celebrated according to the Tridentine rite at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica. Cardinal Walter Brandmuller presided over the liturgy. It was the first time in several decades that the old rite was celebrated at the altar. (Benedict's 'reform of the reform' in liturgy to continue, cardinal says; see also As the Conciliar Fowler Lays More Snares, part four.)

 

The modernized Mass of Tradition that is authorized for use in the Motu world is not meant to last over the course of time under is name as the "extraordinary form of the Roman Rite" any more than when it was issued by Roncalli/John XXIII in 1961 (being revised in 1962 with the insertion of the name of Saint Joseph into the Roman Canon). The "1962" Missal was supplanted on a universal basis in the conciliar church by the Ordo Missae of Giovanni Montini/Paul VI on November 29, 1964, the First Sunday of Advent. The "1962 Missal" will be supplanted by a "new and improved" Novus Ordo at some point in the future as the "theoretical" moves into the realm of the "practical," representing the "zenith," the "apex" of "a new liturgical reform."

There must be new liturgies for a new religion as the old liturgy is both protective and expressive of a Faith that has been abandoned in favor of one Modernist proposition after another.

As the traditionally-minded folks rejoice in the "victory" represented by the "clarification" issued by "Monsignor" Guido Pozzo of "Pontifical" Commission Ecclesia Dei that has "stopped" altar girls in the Motu Mass--except, at least thus far, at Cambridge University in England, their "pope" is still busy at work institutionalizing his revolution against the Catholic Faith, continue to play his own, unique, inimitable role, whether witting or unwitting, in the construction of the One World Ecumenical Church, believing that "religions" can play a role in curbing "irreligion" in the world in spite of the fact that adherents of false religions, including Talmudism and Mohammedanism, are willing to dictate the "terms" of "engagement" with others, which sometimes means the employment of violence:

That's Qur'an 3:85, hung near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, as reported here. Such banners are nothing new; nor is the supremacist menacing. And the world largely continues to look the other way. "Bishop Concerned Over Survival of Christian Community in Nazareth," from Voice of America, June 1:

A senior Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land says the Christian Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo says the emigration of Christians from the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth is endangering the survival of the Christian community in a place of biblical importance to Christianity.

The bishop says the main cause of that emigration is a campaign by Islamists to boost their political power in Nazareth at the expense of Christians and moderate Muslims.

"Our problem is not religious, but it's the political situation of insecurity, of non-peace, of non-justice, of non-equality among the people," said Marcuzzo.

Insecurity, non-peace, non-justice, and non-equality among the people. For non-Muslims, that's really life under Sharia in a nutshell. (Bishop Fears for Survival of Christians in Nazareth.)

 

What does Ratzinger/Benedict believe about false religions? He believe that they can "coexist" with Christians to "build" the "better world;"

At the heart of all religious traditions is the conviction that peace itself is a gift from God, yet it cannot be achieved without human endeavor. Lasting peace flows from the recognition that the world is ultimately not our own, but rather the horizon within which we are invited to participate in God’s love and cooperate in guiding the world and history under his inspiration. We cannot do whatever we please with the world; rather, we are called to conform our choices to the subtle yet nonetheless perceptible laws inscribed by the Creator upon the universe and pattern our actions after the divine goodness that pervades the created realm.

Galilee, a land known for its religious and ethnic diversity, is home to a people who know well the efforts required to live in harmonious coexistence. Our different religious traditions have a powerful potential to promote a culture of peace, especially through teaching and preaching the deeper spiritual values of our common humanity. By molding the hearts of the young, we mold the future of humanity itself. Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze, and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence while preparing them to be builders of a better world. (Meeting with the religious leaders of Galilee in the Auditorium of the Shrine of the Annunciation in Nazareth, May 14, 2009.)

 

This is kind of, sort of, pretty much at odds with these words of Pope Saint Pius X, contained in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910, which I will never tire of quoting for the very few people who read these articles:

Here we have, founded by Catholics, an inter-denominational association that is to work for the reform of civilization, an undertaking which is above all religious in character; for there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact. The new Sillonists cannot pretend that they are merely working on “the ground of practical realities” where differences of belief do not matter. Their leader is so conscious of the influence which the convictions of the mind have upon the result of the action, that he invites them, whatever religion they may belong to, “to provide on the ground of practical realities, the proof of the excellence of their personal convictions.” And with good reason: indeed, all practical results reflect the nature of one’s religious convictions, just as the limbs of a man down to his finger-tips, owe their very shape to the principle of life that dwells in his body. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

 

The voices of traditionally-minded priests and presbyters in the counterfeit church of conciliarism must be silent about the outrages of the "pope" whose name they mention in the modernized Roman Canon. They must make great efforts to insulate their minds from even thinking about the consequences of these defections from the Faith by calling them "nonbinding" or "minor matters." Saint Teresa of Avila has a little reminder for such men who do not have the Gift of Fortitude to defend the Holy Faith in all of Its integrity and purity:

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

 

The list of Ratzinger/Benedict's defections from the Holy Faith is long. It is exhaustive. There are indeed men in Motu communities and even in a few dioceses in the conciliar structures who understand this to be the case but who, for whatever reason, prefer comfort and security and "recognition" as the pride themselves in being "obedient" to men who are figures of Antichrist and are thus enemies of the souls redeemed by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday. These men stand condemned by the following words of Pope Pius VI, contained in his first encyclical letter, Inscrutabile, December 25, 1775:

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.)

 

Why hide in silence, Fathers? Why retreat in order to keep this silence? For what? For the "right" of having a modernized version of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition that is meant to be supplanted at some point in the future? For what? For what? For Wales?

Modernists have a contempt for the Holy Faith in all things, including the traditions that have been passed down over the course of nearly two millennia concerning the exact location of Our Lord's Ascension into Heaven. A priest in the Congregation of the Mission who is the president of the Association of the Miraculous Medal, write the following in a computer program generated form letter sent to my dear, dear wife in a box containing Miraculous Medals that are in need of an actual priestly blessing:

We begin June with the feast of the Ascension. We visit the Church of the Ascension on our recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Tradition says there there are "footprints" on the floor left by Jesus as he ascended into heaven.

I am not too concerned about that tradition. However, the "footprints" do remind us that once Jesus ascended to his Father, he left the work of the Church to you and me. Where do our feet take us as we do the work of the Lord? (Father James Ward, C.M., June 3, 2011.)

 

Please notice that Father Ward put quotation marks around the word footprints, signifying that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did not leave those footprints Himself, that is nothing other than a "legend" that He did so. How does Father Ward know this to be so? Was he not concerned enough about the hallowed nature of those footprints to tremble in awe? Then again, he is not "concerned" about capitalizing the pronounce he to refer to the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity made Man in His Most Blessed Mother's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of God the Holy Ghost. A mere legend? My, my, we can't have anything of that sort in our modern age. And those footprints do indeed have symbolic significance as they remind us that Our Lord really did Ascend into Heaven, that we must do hard work to save our souls as members of the Catholic Church. Anyone who would publicly place their authenticity into doubt might be in for just a little bit of rude awakening at the Particular Judgment.

Father Ward, though, is not alone in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Another visitor to a church, one located on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, said pretty much the same thing about footprints left by Our Lord and His first pope, Saint Peter, in that church, named the Church of Quo Vadis, Domine. Here is my account of an excerpt from that visitor's address in 1983:

The Church of Domine, Quo Vadis? is magnificent. There is a portrait of Saint Peter being crucified upside down on one side of the church and a portrait of Our Lord's Crucifixion on the other side. At the back of the church is a stone slab on which are two footprints, one belonging to Our Lord and one belonging to Saint Peter. A pamphlet about the church states that skeptics might dismiss a claim that one of those footprints belongs to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man except for the fact that the footprint matches exactly the dimensions of the corresponding foot on the Holy Shroud of Turin. Although some may try to dismiss the meeting of the first Pope and Our Lord outside of the walls of Rome as a legend, as did Pope John Paul II when he visited the church in 1982 (saying that "it is a legend that is true because we have taken it into our hearts"; in other words, it is true because we feel it is so), I had no doubt at all about the fact that I was venerating an actual footprint of the Divine Redeemer. I told Lucy Mary Norma Whose footprint I was kissing. She made sure to kiss it several times. I had always wanted to visit the Church of Domine, Quo Vadis? (A Roman Pilgrimage in Honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, written a little less than a year before I began to explore the possibility of the truth of sedevacantism in articles on this site.)

 

What if these "legends" are true? Then again, the men who esteem false religions and embrace one condemned proposition another make of the doctrine of the Church but mere "legends" whose authenticity is in doubt and/or may be in need of "adjustments" over the course of time.

Let those in the Motu world rejoice in their "victory" over stopping altar girls at the Motu Mass. It is temporary. The Faith itself is under attack and those who pose as priests in the Motu communities are not permitted to speak up in Its defense? Well, enjoy the "victory" as it represents nothing other than a concession made by revolutionaries to keep traditionally-minded Catholics from leaving the conciliar "reservation" as they give "thanks" for being "permitted" to have access to a modernized version of the Mass of all ages without being able--or even willing--to defend the Holy Faith without compromise.

May we take seriously Our Lady's Fatima Message, especially by praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.

We must pray during this month of June to offer up all of the sufferings of the moment--whether ecclesiastical, civil or personal--to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for our sins and those of the world and, of course, for the conversion of our conciliar revolutionaries and their lapdogs and apparatchiks and flacks and henchmen and henchwomen to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

 

Saint Joseph, Patron of Departing Souls, 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.

See also: A Litany of Saints

Appendix

Excuse Me, Father, While I Look for my Paperwork from Rome. December 2002

(as found on The Daily Catholic website; also printed in Christ or Chaos and The Remnant)

 

Ah, Rome has come to the "rescue" of Catholics who have been denied Holy Communion because they attempted to kneel on their knees. A letter to some unnamed diocesan bishop, dated July 1, 2002, from Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estevez, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, reaffirms the right of Catholics to receive Holy Communion on their knees. Whew! Order has been restored in the Novus Ordo. I thought it would never happen. Just shows you how wrong a man can be, huh? Everything is all right once more. Catholics can receive Holy Communion on their knees.    Cardinal Medina Estevez wrote as follows to the unnamed bishop:

 

 

 

"This Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has recently received reports of members of the faithful in your Diocese being refused Holy Communion unless while standing to receive, as opposed to kneeling. the reports state that such a policy has been announced to parishioners. There were possible indications that such a phenomenon might be somewhat more widespread in the Diocese, but the Congregation is unable to verify whether such is the case. This Dicastery is confident that Your Excellency will be in a position to make a more reliable determination of the matter, and these complaints in any event provide an occasion for the Congregation to communicate the manner in which it habitually addresses this matter, with a request that you make this position known to any priests who may be in need of being thus informed.

"The Congregation in fact is concerned at the number of similar complaints that it has received in recent months from various places, and considers any refusal of Holy Communion to a member of the faithful on the basis of his or her kneeling posture to be a grave violation of one of the most basic rights of the Christian faithful, namely that of being assisted by their Pastors by means of the Sacraments (Codex Iuris Canonici, canon 213). In view of the law that "sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who opportunely ask for them, are properly disposed and are not prohibited by law from receiving them" (canon 843 1), there should be no such refusal to any Catholic who presents himself for Holy Communion at Mass, except in cases presenting a danger of grave scandal to other believers arising out of the person's unrepented public sin or obstinate heresy or schism, publicly professed or declared. Even where the Congregation has approved of legislation denoting standing as the posture for Holy Communion, in accordance with the adaptations permitted to the Conferences of Bishops by the Institution Generalis Missalis Romani n. 160, paragraph 2, it has done so with the stipulation that communicants who choose to kneel are not to be denied Holy Communion on these grounds.    "In fact, as His Eminence, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has recently emphasized, the practice of kneeling for Holy Communion has in its favor a centuries-old tradition, and it is a particularly expressive sign of adoration, completely appropriate in light of the true, real and substantial presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the consecrated species.   

"Given the importance of this matter, the Congregation would request that Your Excellency inquire specifically whether this priest in fact has a regular practice of refusing Holy Communion to any member of the faithful in the circumstances described above and - if the complaint is verified - that you also firmly instruct him and any other priests who may have had such a practice to refrain from acting thus in the future. Priests should understand that the Congregation will regard future complaints of this nature with great seriousness, and if they are verified, it intends to seek disciplinary action consonant with the gravity of the pastoral abuse.    "Thanking Your Excellency for your attention to this matter and relying on your kind collaboration in its regard, Sincerely yours in Christ,

 

Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estévez."

 

   This is really what Cardinal Medina Estevez is saying:

"Yes, Your Excellency, Rome gave permission to the American bishops to make standing for Holy Communion the norm in your country after they applied for an indult from this Congregation based upon Paragraph 160 of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal. However, we did not think in our wildest imagination that you good bishops would look the other way as your priests denied Holy Communion to those who attempted to kneel. Please, please, pretty please, don't make us look bad here in Rome. Cardinal Ratzinger says kneeling is sort of like a Catholic thing to do. It's rather old. Let the people who want to kneel do so without badgering them. Please? We'll really be hurt and upset if we hear of any other cases."

Cardinal Medina Estevez does indeed appear to be genuinely concerned about the gravity of the situation brought to his attention. What he is unwilling to realize or to admit, however, is that the new Mass itself and all of its wide variety of permutations and adaptations found in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal gives rise to one abuse after another. Rome granted permission for Communion in the hand after many bishops looked the other way as their priests permitted this sacrilege to occur. One of the last things Pope Paul VI did before he died on August 6, 1978, was to decry the abuses that resulted from the permission he gave for Communion in the hand. Pope John Paul II had to remind the world's bishops and priests in Dominicae Cenae, his Holy Thursday letter of 1980, that the faithful have the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, mindful of the fact at the time that some of the faithful were being more or less coerced to receive Holy Communion in the hand. Despite Papal mea culpas and protestations notwithstanding, it is almost universally the case around the world that First Communicants and converts to the Faith are instructed that there is only one way to receive Holy Communion: in the hand. People can whip out all of the Papal and Vatican documents that have been produced in the last twenty-five years. The plain fact of the matter is that the bishops and priests have done - and will continue to do - exactly as they want without regard for any Papal pronouncement or Vatican decree.   

As I noted recently in Roadblocks on the Path to Eternity, I used to wave copies of Inaestimabile Donum, issued as a follow up to Dominicae Cenae by the then name Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship in 1980 in the face of priests who had engaged in some liturgical abuse during the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Wanderer printed thousands of copies, replete with an explanation of it by Monsignor Richard Schuler, the pastor of the Church of Saint Agnes in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Armed with that ammunition, part of my preparation to attend Daily Mass was to be on the "hunt," to so speak, for this or that abuse. It was no way to attend Mas, let me tell you. And it would not be until the late 1980s that I began to learn the error of my ways as I became more exposed to the stability and permanency that are the bedrock of the Traditional Latin Mass. One doesn't have to carry a briefcase full of Vatican documents and Papal pronouncements when attending the Mass of our fathers.   

Cardinal Medina Estevez's letter, although certainly well-intentioned, overlooks the simple fact, however, that the number of the faithful attending Novus Ordo Masses who desire to kneel are relatively few. His letter does not address the thorough-going indoctrination that is taking place in one diocese after another, especially out on the West Coast and in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, to browbeat the faithful into standing for the reception of Holy Communion. His letter can't address that as the bishops have received permission from the Holy See to mandate that standing is the norm. Cardinal Medina Estevez's letter is simply a rear-guard effort to try to help Catholics who want to kneel for the reception of Holy Communion to do so without being humiliated. It will do absolutely nothing to stop the indoctrination in favor of standing. It will do nothing to stop the rush to remove altar rails in the diocesan churches that have not yet been "wreckovated." It will do nothing to stop the flood of the scores of other abuses that pop up here and there in one Novus Ordo Mass after another. The new Mass is so dependent on the celebrant and the place and the whims of liturgists and planners and congregational "needs" that it is impossible to predict with certainty what one will experience if he enters a church other than the one he attends regularly (and it may not even be possible to predict with certainty what will happen in any one church at all times). This is simply not the case with the Traditional Latin Mass.

What does Cardinal Medina Estevez think is going to happen when a person is denied Holy Communion while attempting to kneel even after the distribution of his letter? Does he think that a person is going to say to the priest, "Excuse me, Father, while I look for my letter from Rome telling me that I can kneel for Holy Communion"? It should not be the case that a Catholic should have to be au courant with every jot and tittle of the ins and outs of Vatican decrees and letters published in Notitiae (and most likely reprinted in Adoremus Bulletin and The Wanderer). A Catholic has the right to attend Holy Mass in peace, something that is next to impossible to do in most instance in the Novus Ordo. (Remember, this was written about three years before I began to sit down at my computer and take a second and third and fourth hard, hard look at the evidence supporting the sedevacantist doctrine and that it applies in these times of apostasy and betrayal. I had much to learn. I still do!)