The chaos generated by Father Martin Luther, O.S.A.'s revolt against the Divine Plan that God Himself institute to effect man's return to Him through the Catholic Church, aided and abetted by the new ecclesiology and the false ecumenism of the "Second" Vatican Council, continues to spiral uncontrollably in these days, which some believe could be on the cusp of the last days themselves. The proliferation of Protestant sects, which number over 33,000 at the present time, has made it possible for all manner of doctrinal errors about Our Lord, Divine Revelation, Ecclesiology, Mariology, Sacramental Theology, Moral Theology, and Eschatology to be disseminated far and wide, including infiltrating the bosom of the Catholic Church prior in the century or so leading up to the false "Second" Vatican Council.
The heresy of "civil liberty" has permitted disseminators of Protestant heresies and errors to speak unimpeded by the civil state, which has the obligation before God Himself to promote the true religion and to do everything possible to prevent anything that undermines the good of souls from being propagated openly in society. This has been especially the case in the prototype of pluralism and religious indifferentism that is the United States of America and the First Amendment to its Constitution, which was and remains an important harbinger of conciliarism's enshrinement of "religious liberty" in Dignitatis Humanae, December 7, 1965, and in the many statements made on the subject by the late Karol Wojtyla and his successor in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, Joseph Ratzinger. Many Protestant preachers, whom one should refuse to call an evangelist (which refers to one who promotes the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself exclusively through the Catholic Church), roam far and wide to spread their Protestant heresies and errors, taking more than a handful of Catholics out of the true Church, even long before the days of conciliarism, and making them into fire-breathing anti-Catholic Protestant fundamentalists.
Oh, I know that is from first-hand experience. My late father's brother, who is still alive and will turn ninety years of age on October 4, 2007, went to a Protestant preacher's "crusade" around 1940 or so when he was about to graduate from the Veterinary College of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (referred to these days as Texas A & M University) in College, Station, Texas. My uncle. who was dating the Baptist woman whom he married in 1943, had been trained by the Jesuit Fathers at Brooklyn Preparatory High School (which closed in 1968) and spent some time at Fordham University (and Hofstra University) before he decided upon a career in veterinary medicine. Despite the training he had had in the Catholic Faith, however, my uncle made his "altar call" at the "crusade" and walked out of the Catholic Church, eventually changing even his last name to complete the change of identity that had begun with his act of apostasy (and which is why I can use his real last name publicly; he has not been known by his real last name since 1950).
I am sure that my uncle is, shall we say, not the only Catholic who was taken out of the Church by the "preaching" of such Protestant fundamentalist preachers. There are thousands upon thousands of others who were taken out of the Church long before the advent of new ecclesiology and the false ecumenism of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. The ethos of Americanism is such that Catholics in the United States have long been "open" not merely to a toleration of false religious beliefs and ideas but to an acceptance of them as being from God Himself. This is why the false ecumenism of conciliarism, which has many of its preconciliar roots right here in the United States of America, had such a ready reception in the ranks of Catholics, clergy and laity alike, in the wake of the false "Second" Vatican Council. The false ecumenism of conciliarism helped to create a supreme irony: the leaders of the counterfeit church of conciliarism told Catholics that "proselytism" of Protestants and Jews and the Orthodox was forbidden while the leaders of fundamentalist Protestant sects refused to go along with this precept of "inter-religious dialogue," seizing upon the poor catechesis Catholics in the conciliar structures were getting to snatch them from one set of wolves and to lead them into their own den of wolves.
The devil, therefore, has used the slogans of "civil liberty" and "religious liberty" to propagate the most odious naturalistic "philosophies" imaginable as well as to make it possible for the propagators of the false religions that took their inspiration from his own demonic promptings to confuse the minds of people about the Sacred Truths revealed by Our Lord exclusively to the Catholic Church to be safeguarded and taught infallibly by her until the end of time. God does not want people confused about what He has revealed. Error has no rights. God wants the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross to pray the Act of Faith every day without any shadow of doubt whatsoever:
O my God! I firmly believe that Thou art one God, in three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost: I believe that Thy Divine Son became Man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.
The Catholic Church is the one and only true Church. She is founded by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the Holy Ghost, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope. She is the sole teacher of the totality of Divine Revelation, which consists of Sacred (or Apostolic) Tradition and Sacred Scripture. No heretic or schismatic has any authority to teach in the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer as they are outside of the true Church and do not understand Divine Revelation as it has been entrusted to that true Church and taught infallibly by her through the centuries as she is guided by the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost.
There is no need, therefore, to look to a Billy Graham or to a James Dobson or to a Pat Robertson or to any other Protestant "preacher" (or to any Protestant "home-schooling" material or to any Protestant "video," such as "Veggie Tales") to know anything about Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and what He has taught. Indeed, the First Commandment teaches us that we must not listen to Protestants or other quintessential American ethnocentric falsehoods as Mormons or Seventh Day Adventists or to the ancient enemies of the Faith from Talmudic Judaism or to the crusading infidels of Mohammedanism or to bevy of various sects such as the Jehovah's Witnesses or to Buddhists or Hindus or to any other heretic, schismatic or infidel, including naturalists in the "conservative" and "liberal" camps, on any point concerning God whatsoever.
Pope Gregory XVI explained this in Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832:
This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.
Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again?
Catholics must not look to non-Catholics for any "explanations" of the Faith. While Holy Mother Church teaches us that the civil state may tolerate the private holding of false religious beliefs so as not to do injury to the consciences of others or to coerce them into accepting the truths of the Faith, she teaches that the civil state has an obligation to prevent the dissemination of false beliefs publicly in order to protect the Deposit of Faith as entrusted to and taught by her as it is the sole foundation of order in the soul and thus for order in society. Anything that is contrary to the good of souls has no right to be promoted publicly. One of the many rotten fruits of the naturalism of Judeo-Masonry and the heresies of Protestantism is the blithe acceptance of the proliferation of various errors about God and man without regard for the fact that Our Lord created His Holy Catholic Church to be the exclusive teacher of that which He had revealed to her.
Pope Pius IX explained this very carefully in Iam Vos Omnes, September 13, 1868, which was an Apostolic Letter addressed specifically to Protestants in anticipation of the [First] Vatican Council, 1869-1870, to exhort them to leave their state that does not assure them of their salvation, recognizing that Protestants are in grave jeopardy of losing their souls and need to convert with urgency to the true Faith:
Whoever thus gives proper attention and reflection to the situation which surrounds the various religious societies, divided amongst themselves and separated from the Catholic Church - which, without interruption, from the time of Christ the Lord and of His Apostles, by means of her legitimate sacred Shepherds, has always exercised, and exercises still, the divine power conferred upon Her by the Lord - it will be easy to convince [them] that in none of these societies, and not even in all of them taken together, can in some way be seen the one and Catholic Church which Christ the Lord built, constituted, and willed to exist. Neither will it ever be able to be said that they are members and part of that Church as long as they remain visibly separated from Catholic unity. It follows that such societies, lacking that living authority established by God, which instructs men in the things of the faith and in the discipline of the customs, directing and governing them in all that concerns eternal salvation, they continuously mutate in their doctrines without that mobility and the instability they find one end. Everyone therefore can easily comprehend and fully reckon that this is absolutely in contrast with the Church instituted by Christ the Lord, in which the truth must always remain constant and never subject to change whatsoever, deposited as if it were into a warehouse, entrusted to be guarded perfectly whole. To this purpose, it has received the promise of the perpetual presence and the aid of the Holy Ghost. No one then ignores that from these dissentions [disagreements] in doctrines and opinions derive social divisions, which find their origin in these innumerable communions and which are always and increasingly diffused with grave damage[s] to the Christian and civil society.
Therefore, whoever recognizes that religion is the foundation of human society must be moved to confess what great violence has been wrought in civil society by the discrepancy of principles and the division of religious societies which fight amongst themselves, and with what force the refusal of the authority willed by God for governing the convictions of the intellect of men through the direction of the actions of men, as much in private life as in social life, has provoked, promoted and fed the lamentable of the things and of the times which agitate and plague [afflict] in this way nearly all peoples.
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 recognized that he had the solemn Apostolic duty to seek with urgency the conversion of all men to the one, true Church. He told Protestants that their state "does not guarantee for them the security of salvation," recognizing the judgment rendered on any soul at the moment of death is known to God alone and to no one less unless the Catholic Church (not the counterfeit church of conciliarism) canonizes that soul, which is an infallible act of hers. Those in Protestant sects, not "ecclesial communities" as termed recently by William Levada, do not have the Eucharist and they do not have the sacramental forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of Penance. They do not have an understanding of the Deposit of Faith as it has been entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church, thus resulting in an endless series of reinterpretation of various passages from Sacred Scripture, which is what they believe is the sole source of Divine Revelation, and the concomitant rise of endless varieties of sects, now numbering over 33,000 as a result of "private interpretation" of the Bible. And, very importantly, most Protestants, with a few exceptions here and there, do not have any devotion to the Mother of God while others are blasphemously hostile to her, ignoring these plain words recorded in the Gospel According to Saint Luke:
And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.
And Mary said: 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. (Luke 1: 41-50)
There is a very good commentary on the lines "shall call be blessed" found in the Douay-Rheims Bible:
"Shall call me blessed"... These words are a prediction of that honour which the church in all ages should pay to the Blessed Virgin. Let Protestants examine whether they are any way concerned in this prophecy.
No one, therefore, should exalt the ability of Protestant "preachers" to "proclaim" the "Word of God" or to defend the Ten Commandments, which are numbered by most Protestants differently (separating the First Commandment into different commandments and combining Ninth and Tenth Commandments into one), precisely because no one can understand anything about the Deposit of Faith authentically absent a complete and total subordination of one's mind and will to the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church. Naturalism and pluralism have convinced even a lot of traditionally-minded Catholics across the ecclesiastical divide that we should not be on guard at all times against the pernicious influences of Protestant "experts" on any subject, including child-rearing and family life in general. We must adhere to Catholic truth at all times without making any concessions to Protestantism in the slightest.
Obviously, Catholic truth is of no concern to William Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of [Conciliar] Faith, who is still trying convince Catholics that Lumen Gentium is not a contradiction of the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church about the nature of her Divine Constitution. Although William Levada asserts in this new document, Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church, that Lumen Gentium "neither changed nor intended to change this doctrine, rather it developed, deepened and more fully explained it," one must remember that William Levada has a slightly different understanding of what constitutes a "development of doctrine" than that taught by the Catholic Church perennially:
We believe that the apostles and their successors received the mission to interpret revelation in new circumstances and in the light of new challenges. That creates a living tradition that is much larger than the simple and strict passing of existing answers, insights and convictions from one generation to another.
But at the end of the day there has to be an instance that can decide whether a specific lifestyle is coherent with the principles and values of our faith, that can judge whether our actions are in accordance with the commandment to love your neighbor. The mission of the Church is not to prohibit people from thinking, investigate different hypotheses, or collect knowledge. Its mission is to give those processes orientation.
The Modernist mind believes that truth is only perceived in the mind imperfectly at any given time, subject to a variety of historical circumstances that may need modification in light of the allegedly changing "needs" of the mythical entity of modern man. Pope Saint Pius X dissected this perfectly in Pascendi Dominci Gregis, September 8, 1907:
Hence it is quite impossible to maintain that they absolutely contain the truth: for, in so far as they are symbols, they are the images of truth, and so must be adapted to the religious sense in its relation to man; and as instruments, they are the vehicles of truth, and must therefore in their turn be adapted to man in his relation to the religious sense. But the object of the religious sense, as something contained in the absolute, possesses an infinite variety of aspects, of which now one, now another, may present itself. In like manner he who believes can avail himself of varying conditions. Consequently, the formulas which we call dogma must be subject to these vicissitudes, and are, therefore, liable to change. Thus the way is open to the intrinsic evolution of dogma. Here we have an immense structure of sophisms which ruin and wreck all religion.
Dogma is not only able, but ought to evolve and to be changed. This is strongly affirmed by the Modernists, and clearly flows from their principles. For among the chief points of their teaching is the following, which they deduce from the principle of vital immanence, namely, that religious formulas if they are to be really religious and not merely intellectual speculations, ought to be living and to live the life of the religious sense. This is not to be understood to mean that these formulas, especially if merely imaginative, were to be invented for the religious sense. Their origin matters nothing, any more than their number or quality. What is necessary is that the religious sense -- with some modification when needful -- should vitally assimilate them. In other words, it is necessary that the primitive formula be accepted and sanctioned by the heart; and similarly the subsequent work from which are brought forth the secondary formulas must proceed under the guidance of the heart. Hence it comes that these formulas, in order to be living, should be, and should remain, adapted to the faith and to him who believes. Wherefore, if for any reason this adaptation should cease to exist, they lose their first meaning and accordingly need to be changed. In view of the fact that the character and lot of dogmatic formulas are so unstable, it is no wonder that Modernists should regard them so lightly and in such open disrespect, and have no consideration or praise for anything but the religious sense and for the religious life. In this way, with consummate audacity, they criticize the Church, as having strayed from the true path by failing to distinguish between the religious and moral sense of formulas and their surface meaning, and by clinging vainly and tenaciously to meaningless formulas, while religion itself is allowed to go to ruin. "Blind'- they are, and "leaders of the blind" puffed up with the proud name of science, they have reached that pitch of folly at which they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true meaning of religion; in introducing a new system in which "they are seen to be under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at all of finding some solid foundation of truth, but despising the holy and apostolic traditions, they embrace other and vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, unapproved by the Church, on which, in the height of their vanity, they think they can base and maintain truth itself."
No legitimate development of doctrine can contradict anything that has preceded it. Popes Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII would not have recognized the following answer as having anything to do with the integrity of the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church:
Third Question: Why was the expression "subsists in" adopted instead of the simple word "is"?
Response: The use of this expression, which indicates the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church, does not change the doctrine on the Church. Rather, it comes from and brings out more clearly the fact that there are "numerous elements of sanctification and of truth" which are found outside her structure, but which "as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic Unity"
"It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church"
How has the constant proliferation of Protestant sects over the course of nearly 500 year impelled "towards Catholic Unity?" A good Bible-thumping Protestant would be outraged to learn that his sect is impelling him "towards Catholic Unity." Those crooks in Montgomery County, Texas, who sold us the flatbed with dry rotted boards and dry rotted tires back on September 21, 2005, would be amazed to learn that their local Protestant pastor is helping to impel them towards "Catholic Unity." Is this impelling "towards Catholic Unity" meant to refer to the World Council of Churches, with which the conciliar Vatican has become friendly on Joseph Ratzinger's watch, an organization that promotes abortion and contraception? Is this impelling "towards Catholic Unity" meant to refer to Protestant sects that support and promote perversity and which deny, say, the historicity of the Gospels? How can sects that are founded on a rejection of the Divine Plan God Himself instituted to effect man's return to Him through the Catholic Church have "gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ"?
Bishop Donald Sanborn, who is one of the best theologians of our day (and I am very honored to stand with Bishops Sanborn, Dolan, McKenna, and Pivarunas in their defense of the Catholic Faith in this time of apostasy and betrayal), had this to say about the New Ecclesiology of the "Second" Vatican Council that William Levada's new document seeks to defend, apparently in response to Bishop Sanborn's and Father Anthony Cekada's withering critiques on the new ecclesiology, also known as Frankenchurch:
There is but one Church of Christ, and it is the Roman Catholic Church. It is the one true Church outside of which there is no salvation.
They are members of the Roman Catholic Church who are validly baptized, and who have not been alienated from it by (a) the sin of heresy, (2) the sin of schism, (3) the censure of excommunication. Those who are validly baptized in non-Catholic sects are presumed by Church law to participate in and assent to the sins of heresy and/or schism of their respective sects. Privately, however, they may be not guilty of these sins, owing to invincible ignorance of the true Faith, in which case they may belong to the Catholic Church by desire, provided they fulfill other conditions. In these cases, their adherence to the Roman Catholic Church by desire is sufficient for salvation.
The Roman Catholic Church is absolutely and exclusively identified with the Mystical Body of Christ. They are one and the same thing. There is no distinction to make. The Mystical Body is the Roman Catholic Church considered as a comparison to Christ’s physical body, where He is the Head and we the members.
Absolute requirements for belonging to the Roman Catholic Church and the Mystical Body of Christ are (1) that one profess all the truths which are taught by the Church as pertaining to faith, and (2) that one be submitted to the Roman Pontiff as the visible head of the Church. If either of these conditions is failing, one cannot be a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
Because the Roman Catholic Church is the unique Church of Christ, it is the unique means of salvation. No other church has the means to bring people to heaven. While it is true that they may have certain elements of the truth, both natural and supernatural, and in some cases valid sacraments, these elements are insufficient to lead people to heaven. For they are mixed with poisonous false doctrines which, if they are believed with pride and stubbornness, will necessarily lead to hell. All of the “elements of truth” in the world a true religion do not make, nor a means of salvation. By analogy, to have many elements of an automobile does not make a working vehicle which will bring you to your destination. An aircraft which has only certain “elements” of what an aircraft should have will necessarily crash and burn at the end of the runway, together with all of the people in it. The only way in which people who adhere to these false religions can avoid the inevitable result of being on a ship which is going to the bottom, is if they adhere to the true Faith by desire, at least implicit, and adhere to the false religion through no fault of their own. But they must fulfill many other conditions in order to achieve the justification of their souls and persevere in grace.
In contrast to this simple and logical doctrine concerning the nature of the Catholic Church, and the obligation to belong to it, the Modernists have concocted a new doctrine, a novelty, a heresy.
The new ecclesiology is, as I have said, a product of ecumenism. You cannot do ecumenism with the ecclesiology I have just described, in which all non-Catholic religions are perceived as death-ships, Titanics bound for the mud below. The mania for ecumenism drove the progressive theologians even in the 1930’s toward a theology whereby all religions had a certain value, to the extent that they all possessed some religious truth.
A pioneer in this thinking was Dom Beauduin, a Benedictine. Most prominent however, was Henri de Lubac, whose theology was condemned under Pius XII, but which later became the very teaching of the Council under Montini. De Lubac was later made a “cardinal” by Wojtyla. Yves Congar, a Dominican, was also influential. Ratzinger has become the most notable of all of the promoters of the new ecclesiology, writing two major documents which describe it, his 1992 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion, and his 2000 Dominus Jesus. Both of these were approved and signed by Wojtyla. Both contain explicit heresies concerning the Church.
What is the new ecclesiology? Here it is in summary:
· The Church of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are not one and the same thing, since non-Catholic churches belong to the Church of Christ, but not to the Catholic Church.
· The Church of Christ “subsists in” the Roman Catholic Church, inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church has the “fullness” of all of the elements of the Church of Christ.
· The Church of Christ, although it does not subsist in non-Catholic churches, because they lack the “fullness,” is nevertheless found in these non-Catholic churches in an imperfect way.
· Non-Catholic churches are therefore truly “particular churches” which make up, together with the Roman Catholic Church, the one Church of Christ.
· The Roman Catholic Church is in “partial communion” with these non-Catholic churches, to the extent that they have elements of the Church of Christ, such as valid sacraments and true doctrines.
· Non-Catholic churches are “means of salvation” to the extent that they preserve the genuine elements of the Church of Christ.
· In those non-Catholic churches that have a valid Eucharist (e.g., Greek Orthodox), the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church becomes present every time they offer a valid Eucharist.
- Non-Catholic churches which are not subject to the Roman Pontiff (which means all of them) are “wounded” because of this lack of subjection. Yet they continue, despite their repudiation of the Roman primacy, to be “particular Churches,” i.e., member-churches of the big Church of Christ.
The new ecclesiology reduces the Church of Christ to an amalgam of many different churches with different and opposing doctrines, disciplines, and hierarchies. Membership in this great and broad Church of Christ is subject to degrees. The more elements you have, the better off you are, and the closer you are to the “fullness,” which is found in the Roman Catholic Church.
It is something like bingo. If your card has all the numbers, you have the “fullness” — you have bingo. But even if you miss bingo, your card could be half filled or a quarter filled. While you do not have bingo, your card nevertheless has value, since you have an imperfect collection of what makes up bingo.
Everything in this new ecclesiology is “partial” and “full.” You are partially Church of Christ if you are non-Catholic, but fully if you are Catholic. Catholics are in “partial communion” with non-Catholics, but wait for the day when they can be in “full communion,” i.e., when Modernism erodes the faith enough that people will not care anymore if they are Protestant, Orthodox, or Catholic. Likewise these non-Catholic churches are means of salvation to the extent that they possess valid sacraments and true doctrines. This is as silly as saying that an aircraft has the capacity to take you to Europe to the extent that it has a half a tank of fuel. The fact that it is lacking the other half of the fuel means that you and your fellow passengers are going to be food for the eyeless aquatic creatures that inhabit the dark depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
In other words, the true Church of Christ is not a collection of true elements, like a pile of rocks, but is a unified essence, a single thing, just as Christ, its head, is one Person. What is outside of Christ cannot be “partially Christ.” You cannot be partially a member of Christ, and partially not, any more than you could be partially someone’s son, and partially not. Essence does not admit of degrees or separable parts. Either the whole essence (nature) is there, or none of it is there. Imagine a gas station that advertised that it sold a product “with elements of true gasoline.” Imagine an airline that boasted of a fleet of aircraft which possessed “elements of true airplanes,” or bragged that its pilots had “elements of true pilot training.” Imagine if a waiter put a steak in front of you, and said that it came from an animal that had “elements of true cow.” I think the point is made.
“Elements” of the true Church of Christ do not constitute any false sect as a partial member of the Church of Christ. The “elements” are stolen, like so much booty, from the Catholic Church. They are false churches, sects, and their use of Catholic doctrine and Catholic sacraments is under false pretense and sacrilegious. They are involved in a shameful lie when they present themselves as true Christianity, and their lie should be exposed and condemned. (Bishop Donald Sanborn,
The New Ecclesiology: An Overview.)
This clear, concise contrast between Catholicism and conciliarism is amplified by His Excellency's
The New Ecclesiology: Documentation and should serve as an antidote to this latest effort on the part of the conciliarists to convince Catholics, especially those in traditional circles, that there is no contradiction between "subsists" and "is."
The second part of the "response" to question three in the new Levada document indicates that the "Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them [churches and "ecclesial communities] as instruments of salvation." How does he know this? Oh, yes, I remember now. Father Joseph Ratzinger had said that "Brother" Roger Schutz, the founder of the ecumenical Taize community who was murdered by a devoted follower nearly two years ago, had "attained eternal joy" after he, Ratzinger, had gotten word of his friend's murder. How did he, Joseph Ratzinger, know this?
No heretical or schismatic church is a means of salvation. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Pope Pius IX noted in Iam Vos Omnes that Protestants must leave the state that does not guarantee for them the security of salvation, There is no such expression in any of the documents of conciliarism, which forbids proselytism of Jews and Protestants and the Orthodox, making it clear that those in these false religions are absolutely assured of their salvation and that the missionary work that Our Lord gave to the Apostles on Ascension Thursday and was undertaken on Pentecost Sunday is no longer necessary, at least insofar as winning converts from these specific sets of false religions.
Joseph Ratzinger placed Roger Schutz in Heaven. Apart from the omniscient folks who seem to be able to tell where this or that soul has gone after death, we will not know until the General Judgment of the living and the dead on the Last Day who is in Heaven and who is in Hell, absent, as noted above, a declaration of canonization from the Catholic Church. That having been noted, however, it is more than a little presumptuous to place a Protestant syncretist in Heaven! Ratzinger's virtual "canonization" of Roger Schutz should tell us just how seriously Catholic doctrine is taken by the conciliarists. They really believe that heretical and schismatic churches are indeed instruments of salvation. They are not.
The Catholic Church has a mission to seek with urgency the unconditional conversion of all non-Catholics to her maternal bosom. Billions of people alive at the present moment have not a clue as to the purpose of human existence. Many of these people are steeped in all manner of degradation and moral squalor. Who is seeking to convert these people? No one from the conciliar structures. Conciliarism thus deceives its own adherents with a counterfeit brand of Catholicism while it leaves those in schismatic and heretical churches and "ecclesial communities" at risk of eternal perdition while rejecting quite plainly these words of Pope Pius XI, contained in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928:
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."
"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." In other words, "inter-religious dialogue" is not of God whatsoever. The Catholic Church would never engage in "obstinate wrangling" but has sought from time immemorial to convert souls unconditionally without such wrangling.
The new document from William Levada will be seen, sadly, by some Catholics as a significant "clarification," which it is not. The new document is merely a reiteration of points made in the past that have been critiqued so well by Bishop Sanborn and Father Cekada (see:
Resisting the Pope, Sedevacantism and Frankenchurch). To understand William Levada and his mentor, Joseph Ratzinger, one must understand that idea of a "development of doctrine" is fundamentally different from what has been declared by the [First] Vatican Council:
Hence, that meaning of the sacred dogmata is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by Holy Mother Church, and there must never be an abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a more profound understanding.... If anyone says that it is possible that at some given time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmata propounded by the Church which is different from that which the Church has always understood and understands: let him be anathema.
Both Fathers Levada and Ratzinger swore to the following in the Oath Against Modernism before their respective ordinations to the priesthood (December 20, 1961, for Levada; June 29, 1951, for Ratzinger):
Fourthly, I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport.
The Fathers of the Church would not recognize Lumen Gentium and William Levada's recent "responses" as holding the doctrine that was handed down to us from the apostles through them, the orthodox Fathers, in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport. We must not permit ourselves to be fooled by yet another Modernist trap.
Relying upon Our Lady in the time of apostasy and betrayal, let us pray for each other as the forces of darkness conspire more and more to weaken any and all opposition, whether within or without the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary is the weapon we must use to protect ourselves against the wickedness and the snares of the adversary. We must give all of our daily actions, including all of the calumnies and humiliations that come our way, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, beseeching Saint Michael the Archangel, especially in the prayer appended after each of these articles, to help us in this, the decisive day of battle.
Viva Cristo Rey!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint John Gualbert, 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 John of the Cross, pray for us.
Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.
Saint Genevieve, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us
Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.
Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.
Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.
Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.
Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.
Francisco Marto, pray for us.
Jacinta Marto, pray for us.
Juan Diego, pray for us.
The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888
O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity. These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered. Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.
Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.
Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.
Response: As we have hoped in Thee.
Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.
Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.
Verse: Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls.
Response: Amen.
