From Saint Simon Stock to Apostasy
by Thomas A. Droleskey
Catholicism took deep root in the soil of Europe as the barbaric tribes and pagan peoples of the former Roman Empire and elsewhere on that continent were converted to the true Faith during First Millennium and into the early part of the Second Millennium. Although racked with wars and convulsions that frequently laid her waste, as Pope Pius XII noted in Summi Pontificatus, October 10, 1939, men and nations were organized, albeit imperfect and never free from the ravages of the after-effects Original Sin and Actual Sins, around the Divine Plan that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had instituted through His Catholic Church to effect man's return to Him for all eternity in Heaven
The fact that the true Faith had taken such deep root in the soil of Europe is why the devil had to attack the Faith head on and so violently, especially in the period commencing with the Protestant Revolt launched by Father Martin Luther, O.S.A., in 1517. The Faith had to be attacked with ferocity during the Protestant Revolt to uproot the Cross of the Divine Redeemer and His Social Reign and public devotion to the Mother of God, who has crushed the head of the devil with her heel, from the minds of men and from all aspects of public life. While scant few people understand these days have any familiarity with the facts of true history, Catholics know that England was a thoroughly Catholic country for nearly a millennium, from the time of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in 598 A.D. to the time of King Henry VIII in 1534, and the devil had a particularly savage hatred of this fact, which is why he used the lecherous, debauched Henry Tudor to unleash a bloody revolution against anyone, bishop, priest, consecrated religious or member of the laity, who remained faithful to the Catholic Church and to Papal Primacy
Our Lady appeared to Saint Simon Stock the Father-General of the Carmelite Fathers, that ancient rite that traces its roots back to the Prophets Elias and Eliseus and whose latter-day disciples were baptized on Pentecost Sunday following the descent of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, upon the Apostles and Our Lady in that same Upper Room in Jerusalem where Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had instituted the priesthood and the Eucharist just fifty-three days before, to give him her Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel to be the habit of the Carmelite Order. This occurred just two hundred eighty-three years before Henry Tudor decided that he could wait no longer for Pope Clement VII to act on his petition for a decree of nullity from his legitimate wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, who was much beloved by the English people, and had himself declared "supreme head of the church in England" by an Act of the Parliament, ushering in a period of bloodletting in "civilized England" that would become a model for the likes of Maximilian Robespierre during the Reign of Terror in the most radical phase of the French Revolution (1793-1794), during which phase the martyrs we commemorate this very day, the sixteen Carmelite sisters who were the Martyrs of Compiegne, France, were put to death for their own fidelity to the true Faith.
The bloodletting of Catholics in England who remained faithful to the true Church that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope, was the foundation of the schismatic and eventually heretical Anglican sect that robbed itself of true bishops and true priests (and hence a true Mass and true Absolution of sins in the confessional). Brave Catholics throughout the British Isles, including in Ireland, gave up their property, their freedom and their lives rather than to forsake the true Faith or to give any credence at all to the schismatic Anglican sect that broke from the Catholic Church in an act of formal schism and thence adopted sacramental rites and doctrines repugnant to the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church for their eternal safekeeping and infallible explication.
The Anglican "church" is no church at all. It is a false religion. It is hated by God, who loathes all false religions. God desires the unconditional conversion of everyone in the "worldwide Anglican communion" to the maternal bosom of His true Church, the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation. The Anglican "church" has no true hierarchy. The Anglican "church" has no priests (save for those who may have gone to Brazil to have gotten themselves ordained by a Carlos Duarte Costa line bishop, men who will consecrate--or, in the case of females, attempt to consecrate-- anyone to the episcopacy or to ordain--or attempt to ordain--anyone to the priesthood--as long as the "price is right"). To give any kind of legitimacy to the Anglican "church" is to spit on the memory of the English martyrs as well as to disparage the work of the true Catholic bishops and priests of Catholic England, men such as Saint Simon Stock, O. Carm., who never gave any quarter to apostasy or blasphemy or sacrilege of any kind whatsoever.
As has been noted in several recent commentaries on this site (Duh,
Any Day Now,
Duh, Part Deux), Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has shown great solicitude for the "unity" of the Anglican "church," demonstrating that he, a disciple of the late Father Hans Urs von Balthasar, a proponent of the heresy of "universal salvation" and the non-eternity of Hell, believes that those who belong to a false religion are in no danger whatsoever of losing their immortal souls for all eternity. No danger at all. They are, more or less, pretty much assured of their salvation, a proposition condemned by Pope Pius IX in The Syllabus of Errors, December 8, 1864, and reiterated less than four years later in Iam Vos Omnes, September 13, 1868, an Apostolical Letter addressed specifically to Protestants a year before the [First] Vatican Council:
16. Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. -- Encyclical "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846.
17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ. -- Encyclical "Quanto conficiamur," Aug. 10, 1863, etc.
18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church. -- Encyclical "Noscitis," Dec. 8, 1849.
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. (Pope Pius IX, Iam Vos Omnes, September 13, 1868.)
What do these pronouncements matter to a disciple of the New Theology who believes that dogmatic truth is never expressed adequately at any one time, that further "modifications" are necessary in succeeding ages as men come to realize the difference between what is "historically conditioned" in those pronouncements of the past and what constitutes their "nuclei," if you will. The Catholic Faith is a tabula rasa for the Modernist Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who considers himself bound by nothing in the Catholic past that he does not like, justifying his apostasies and betrayals in a New Theology phrase of his own invention, the utter logical absurdity that is his doctrine of "continuity in discontinuity," a proposition opposed to even natural reason and condemned by the dogmatic of the Catholic Church by the [First] Vatican Council (as has been demonstrated countless numbers of time on this site).
Imagine how Saint Simon Stock, the first English Father-General of the ancient Carmelite Order that owes its origins to Saints Elias and Eliseus and built the first church in history in honor of the Mother of God, right on Mount Carmel itself, would react to the following news story and commentary in The Independent, a newspaper published in London, England:
Vatican shuns defectors and backs calls for Anglican unity
By James Macintyre, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
AFP/Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, at the Vatican
The Pope is leading an unprecedented drive by the Roman Catholic Church to prevent the fragmentation of the worldwide Anglican Communion ahead of the once-a-decade gathering of its 800 bishops, which begins today, The Independent has learnt.
In his first public comments on the Lambeth Conference, Pope Benedict XVI has warned Anglican leaders that they must find a "mature" and faithful way of avoiding "schism". On top of this the Pope has:
* Sent three cardinals to the conference in Canterbury, including one of his top aides from the Vatican, to act as personal intermediaries between the two churches;
* Let it be known that he does not support the defection of conservative Anglicans to the Roman Catholic Church;
* Given behind-the-scenes support to the Archbishop of Canterbury's attempts to hold together the conservative and liberal wings of the Anglican Church, including at face-to-face meetings in Rome.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, faces a near-impossible task as he prepares to preside over the conference, at which bishops from around the world are gathering today for prayer and reflection. The Archbishop is hoping to keep the conference focused on substantial issues facing the church and the world, but it is overshadowed by disputes over women bishops and homosexuality.
The latter issue looms large after Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire and the church's first openly gay bishop, timed a well-publicised visit to the UK to coincide with the conference, to which he was not invited. Church of England figures are privately dismayed that the bishop is highlighting divisions over homosexual clergy and that the media seem determined to derail the conference by granting him disproportionate publicity. "He's one of 800 [bishops]," one said.
Although the Vatican was concerned by last week's General Synod vote formally paving the way for women bishops, the church leaderships in London and Rome are keen to help Dr Williams hold the Anglican Church together. The Vatican has helped Anglican leaders with the preparation of key documents in the run-up to Lambeth.
Roman Catholic insiders say there are two motives behind the Pope's concerns. A decision has been taken within the Roman Catholic hierarchy that it is in its interests for the Anglican Church to maintain unity. Despite speculation about a group of conservative bishops breaking away to the Roman church, senior Catholics say such a move would be "premature", and that they are not encouraging defections. The other reason is that the Pope has developed a strong personal relationship with Dr Williams. "They get on, they are both theologians," a source said last night.
The Pope, who arrived in Australia on Sunday for the World Youth Day gathering of young Catholics and others, publicly expressed support for Dr Williams while remaining careful not to "intervene". The Pope added that the Church needed to avoid "further schism and fractures".
"We cannot, we must not intervene in their discussions and their responsibilities we respect," he said. "The words and the message of Christ are what offer the real contribution to Lambeth and only in being faithful to the message and only in being faithful to God's words can we find a mature way, a creative way, a faithful way to find a road together."
As the Roman Catholic church reaches out to Anglican leaders, it also emerged last night that Dr Williams has invited Muslim scholars to a conference in October to discuss elements of Christianity which he amidst may be "offensive" to followers of Islam. That meeting will address issues of religious freedom and religion-inspired violence.
In a demonstration of the strength of relations between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, Pope Benedict has sent Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, and the man who appoints all the bishops in Africa and Asia, to Lambeth from Rome.
He has also sent the theological heavyweight Cardinal Walter Casper who is said to be the "key man" in forging ever-closer relations between the churches.
Also attending will be Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, who has spent the past two days with the Pope in Australia. This is the first time that three cardinals will attend a Lambeth Conference.
Some Roman Catholics fear that unless divisions over issues including homosexuality can be healed, they will act as a forerunner to a similar battle in Rome. The Roman Church's apparent unity masks long-running splits over birth control, priesthood celibacy and the interpretation of Scripture in the modern world.
Catherine Pepinster, editor of the British Catholic newspaper The Tablet, said: "The last thing that Rome wants is a lack of unity in the Anglican Communion, however difficult it finds ecumenical relations with that Communion." Pope rides to Rowan's rescue
Paul Vallely: Why the Pope is not rejoicing at the split
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
The Pope might be expected, privately, to be rejoicing at the splits in Anglicanism. He might be expected to issue an open invitation for disgruntled Anglicans to join the Church of Rome. Instead, he is trying to bolster the beleaguered Archbishop of Canterbury.
Why is he doing this? Rome is playing a very long game here which began in 1966 when Pope Paul VI took off his ring and gave it to Dr Williams' predecessor Michael Ramsey. It was a gesture of huge symbolic importance.
In the past four decades, the relationship between Rome and Canterbury has markedly deepened. Years of talks, despite a setback on women priests, have produced joint statements on the eucharist and authority which laid the basis for healing the rift of the Reformation.
The Pope now fears this is at risk. He worries that the Church of England, which for centuries has prided itself on being both catholic and reformed, could mutate into hardline Protestantism.
He is at one with Dr Williams on this. The two leaders have a strong personal empathy and share a deep and sophisticated theology. Both emphasise the importance of reason as well as faith.
The Pope feels more in common with him than he does with theologically primitive and doctrinally ideological evangelicals who share his objections to homosexuality or women bishops. Both men see preserving unity as key and the Catholic bishops in England have warned Rome about the deeply factional nature of Anglican politics. A number of the Anglicans who moved to Rome when women were ordained brought with them a rancorous divisive mentality.
Which is why those Anglican bishops who recently approached the Vatican to ask if traditionalist C of E parishes could migrate en masse to Rome, under an Anglican liturgical rite, were sent off with a flea in their ear.
Paul Vallely: Why the Pope is not rejoicing at the split
Mutate into hardline Protestantism? Catholic and reformed? Sure, the Anglican "church" is as "Catholic" and "reformed"--as the counterfeit church of conciliarism, which is, absent several score of older Roman Rite bishops and the bishops of the Eastern rites who are attached to its structures and extol the virtues of conciliarism, as devoid of true bishops and true priests and most of the sacraments as its "partner" in "ecumenical dialogue." And while, as has been noted on this site before, the counterfeit church of conciliarism has "held the line" on the invalidity of Anglican orders in a de jure sense, how is it possible to say that its false "pontiffs" actually believe these orders to be invalid when they have treated the non-"archbishops" of Canterbury as legitimate "bishops," going so far as give joint "blessings" with them at various points, making it appear to one and all, at least in a de facto sense, that the false Anglican "bishops" are indeed legitimate.
Ah, the paradoxes and contradictions that exist in the world of those who reject the official philosophy of the Catholic Church, Scholasticism, as being too "clear, too "cold," too "sure of itself, too "closed in on itself. Such a world is one where "official" statements maintain an apparently Catholic line on a doctrinal matter while signals are sent by means of meetings and "blessings" that those "official" statements are worthless, as utterly null and void as Anglican "orders" actually are in point of fact.
Mutate into "hardline" Protestantism." "Catholic" and "reformed." Who is kidding whom? To assert that the Anglican "church" is legitimate is to defect from the Catholic Faith and to make, as noted before, a complete mockery of the fidelity of those in the Sixteenth Century and thereafter who refused even the appearance of any kind of compromise with--or any sign of legitimacy offered to--the schismatic and heretical Anglican sect started under King Henry VIII and Protestantized in both liturgy and doctrine by the time that Queen Elizabeth I took England out of the Faith for good in 1558, a deed solemnized by Pope Saint Pius V's Bull of Excommunication,
Regnans in Excelsis, against her on March 5, 1570.
What a gigantic farce. What a fraud. And imagine that there are Catholics in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who accept this farce and this fraud at face value without ever once questioning the fact that to speak of the Anglican "church" as somehow legitimate is to defect from the Catholic Faith, mocking the witness of the English martyrs and mocking the very unicity of the true Church on earth.
Naturally, there will be those who claim that the stories in the British newspapers at the present time are being "planted" by the conciliar non-"bishops" of the United Kingdom, a claim that might indeed have some merit to it. As has been noted in the aforementioned recent articles on this site dealing with this subject, it is indeed eminently possible that some "High Anglicans" (or Anglo-Catholics) will be received into the counterfeit church of conciliarism, perhaps even a significant number in the wake of the results of the upcoming Lambeth Committee conference.
Once again, however, it is important--and even necessary in light of the "conservative" spin-doctoring going on some circles at this time--that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI would accept such "conversions" on the grounds of "freedom of conscience" and not on the grounds that it is necessary for all Anglicans to convert in order to save their immortal souls. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI does not believe that anyone's soul in the Anglican sect is endangered by staying in that false religion. "Come on in, if you like," is the conciliar approach. "You are, however 'all right,' exactly where you are at present if this is your 'choice.'" Anyone who denies that this is the conciliar approach to ecumenism is living in a fantasy world quite delusionally, ignoring the very words that "Pope" Benedict XVI used during the last World Youth Day, held in Cologne, Germany, three years ago now:
We all know there are numerous models of unity and you know that the Catholic Church also has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its various Documents (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 8, 13; Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.). This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 4); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.
On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!
It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline. Unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity: in my Homily for the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June last, I insisted that full unity and true catholicity in the original sense of the word go together. As a necessary condition for the achievement of this coexistence, the commitment to unity must be constantly purified and renewed; it must constantly grow and mature. (Benedict XVI, Ecumenical meeting at the Archbishopric of Cologne English, August 19, 2005.)
Father Francis Connell explained the falsity of the "unity in diversity" or "unity in multiplicity" and "multiplicity in unity" ecclesiology that is embraced by the ethos of the "Second" Vatican Council and that has been lon championed by Joseph Ratzinger throughout his priesthood:
To characterize the relation between Catholics and Protestants as 'unity-in-diversity' is misleading, inasmuch as it implies that essentially Catholics are one with heretics, and that their diversities are only accidental. Actually, the very opposite is the true situation. For, however near an heretical sect may seem to be to the Catholic Church in its particular beliefs, a wide gulf separates them, insofar as the divinely established means whereby the message of God is to be communicated to souls--the infallible Magisterium of the Church--is rejected by every heretical sect. By telling Protestants that they are one with us in certain beliefs, in such wise as to give the impression that we regard this unity as the predominant feature of our relation with them, we are actually misleading them regarding the true attitude of the Catholic Church toward those who do not acknowledge Her teaching authority. (Father Francis Connell, Father Connell Answers Moral Questions, published in 1959 by Catholic University of America Press, p. 11; quoted in Fathers Dominic and Francisco Radecki, CMRI, TUMULTUOUS TIMES, p. 348.)
Moreover, anyone who claims, as some "conservative" conciliar spin-doctors are attempting to do at this time, that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI does not want to see the Anglican sect remain more or less "intact" is willfully ignoring the false pontiff's very own words, which were uttered just five days ago as he flew from Rome to Australia for the jamboree of irreverence and blasphemy and sacrilege that is now underway in Sydney, World Youth Day, 2008:
My essential contribution can only be prayer and with my prayers I shall be very close to the Anglican Bishops meeting at the Lambeth Conference. We cannot and must not intervene immediately in their discussions, we respect their responsibilities and what we desire is that new divisions or ruptures may be avoided and a responsible solution found in keeping with our time and also with fidelity to the Gospel. These two things must go hand in hand. Christianity is always contemporary and lives in this world, in a certain period, but it makes Jesus Christ's message present in this period and therefore makes a true contribution to this time only by being faithful in a way that is mature and creative but faithful to Christ's message. Let us hope, and I am personally praying, that together they may find the path of the Gospel in our day. This is my hope for the Archbishop of Canterbury: that the Anglican Communion in communion with the Gospel of Christ and of the Word of the Lord may find responses to the current challenges. (Interview of the Holy Father during the flight to Australia)
"...What we desire is that new divisions or ruptures may be avoided..." This is the statement of a man possessed of the sensus Catholicus? Anglicanism is an expression of Christianity? These are no more statements of one thinking with the Mind of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as He has discharged It exclusively in His Catholic Church than to pay public acts of esteem to symbols of false religions is in keeping with the dictates of the First Commandment. Where is the outrage of "conservative" conciliarists for the honor and glory and majesty of God in light of Joseph Ratzinger's esteeming of the symbols of five false religions in Washington, District of Columbia, on Thursday, April 17, 2008. Where is this sense of outrage. It is nowhere to be seen. God's majesty and honor and glory have no defenders among the ranks of those in some "conservative" conciliar journals such as Catholic World News, which ignores such things as though they have never happened--or that such apostasies are indeed no acts of apostasy and sacrilege at all. Well, go tell that to Saint Elias!
Acts of blasphemy were committed on Mount Carmel which the Prophet Elias extinguished with fire sent at his prayer by God from Heaven. Acts of blasphemy and sacrilege and apostasy are committed every day by the conciliar revolutionaries as mountains held in reverence by Buddhists are called "sacred" and as false "pontiffs" kiss the Koran or enter synagogues or mosques or engage in the forbidden practice of inter-religious "prayer" or by treating Protestant "ministers" as having legitimacy of some kind or another (see Bishop George Hay,
The Laws of God Forbidding All Communication in Religion With Those of a False Religion).
Father Maximilian Kolbe, the great enemy of all forms of Judeo-Masonic naturalism, understood how false ecumenism was the enemy of the Mother of God herself:
"Only until all schismatics and Protestants profess the Catholic Creed with conviction, when all Jews voluntarily ask for Holy Baptism – only then will the Immaculata have reached its goals.”
“In other words” Saint Maximilian insisted, “there is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s ecumenism, which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy. We must realize the goal of the Militia Immaculata as quickly as possible: that is, to conquer the whole world, and every individual soul which exists today or will exist until the end of the world, for the Immaculata, and through her for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” (Father Karl Stehlin, Immaculata, Our Ideal, Kansas City, Missouri, Angelus Press, 2007, p. 37.)
And there is no greater ecumenist than Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.
We must turn to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to ask her that we use the shield provided by her Brown Scapular she gave into the hands of Saint Simon Stock, O Carm., to protect us in battle against the forces of Modernity in the world and Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism as we use the weapon of her Most Holy Rosary that provided us through Saint Dominic de Guzman, O.P, making sure to pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit.
Mindful always of our own sins, for which we must make reparation and which sins have worsened the state of the Church Militant on earth and hence of the world-at-large, may we live penitentially as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, practicing True Devotion to Mary as taught by Saint Louis de Montfort, giving all of our sufferings and prayers and penances and mortifications and calumnies to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through that same Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We must remain strong of heart in these days of apostasy and betrayal, ever grateful to God and to His Most Blessed Mother for keeping the true Mass of the Roman Rite and the very Faith which it expresses so beautifully and protects so fully alive by means of the true bishops and true priests in the catacombs who make no concessions to conciliarism or to the legitimacy of the apostates who dare to masquerade as "shepherds" of the Catholic Church. While we may for the conversion of the conciliar officials as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we must flee from these ravenous wolves and cling to true shepherds so that the Faith, for which the English Martyrs gave up their lives, will preserved in our own souls and those of our children now and for all eternity.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
Viva Cristo Rey!
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
