Getting Bolder In His Apostasy

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Three days after blaspheming Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and denying the truths of His Holy Faith in the Talmudic synagogue in Rome, Italy, the false "pontiff," Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, was hard at work in his "general audience" address of Wednesday, January 20, 2010, extolling the "progress" that had been made in the "pursuit" of "Christian unity" as a result of conciliarism's false ecumenism that is founded on a rejection of what Ratzinger/Benedict himself calls disparagingly"the ecumenism of the return."

Although I have read the entirety of Ratzinger/Benedict's remarks of two days ago as found on the Zenit site, I am unable to reproduce the entire text on this site without paying Zenit for doing so. I must thus rely upon the following summary provided by the Vatican Information Service (which will be replaced with the full text once this is available on the Vatican website):

VATICAN CITY, 20 JAN 2010 (VIS) - Before his general audience, held this morning in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, Benedict XVI blessed a marble state of St. Rafaela Maria Porras y Ayllon, foundress of the Sisters Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which has been positioned in a niche in the external wall of the Vatican Basilica.

The theme of the papal catechesis in today's audience was the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is currently being celebrated and which, the Holy Father noted, invites us to pray to the Lord for "the visible unity of all Christians", because unity is "first and foremost a gift of God".

He then remarked how the theme chosen for this year's Week - "you are witnesses of these things" - raises two questions: "what are these things?" and: "how can we be witnesses of these things?". The answer to the first question is "the mystery of the Passion and the gift of the Resurrection", said the Pope. "By knowing Christ we know the face of God. ... In Christ, the distant God becomes close". As for the second question, he explained that "we can only be witnesses of Christ, ... by knowing Him personally, ... and truly meeting Him in our life of faith, and thus we can contribute to the novelty of the world, to eternal life".

"The modern ecumenical movement has undergone such considerable development in the last century as to become an important element in the life of the Church. ... It not only favours fraternal relations between Churches and ecclesial communities, in response to the commandment to love, ... but also stimulates theological research. Furthermore, it involves the real life of Churches and ecclesial communities, with themes that concern pastoral care and sacramental life".

"Since Vatican Council II the Catholic Church has forged fraternal relations with all the Churches of the East and ecclesial communities of the West. In particular, with most of them, she has established bilateral theological dialogue that has been able to find points of convergence, even consensus, on various matters, thus strengthening our bonds of communion. Over the last twelvemonth, the various dialogues have made important progress".

Turning then to refer specifically to "the study of a crucial theme in dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox: 'the role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the first millennium'", a study which will subsequently "also extend to the second millennium", the Holy Father recalled how he had asked Catholics to pray "for this delicate dialogue which is so essential for the entire ecumenical movement".

The Holy Father likewise referred to such events as "the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which Catholics and Lutherans celebrated together on 31 October 2009", and "the visit to Rome of Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, ... who held discussions on the situation currently facing the Anglican Communion. The joint commitment to continue dialogue is a positive sign, an expression of how intense the desire for unity is, despite the obstacles that stand in its way", said the Pope.

And he went on: "Ecumenical work is not a linear process, the old problems that arose in another age lose their importance, giving way to problems and difficulties of our own time. For this reason we must always be willing to accept a process of purification, through which the Lord makes us capable of unity".

The Holy Father concluded by asking people "to pray for the complex question of ecumenism, for the promotion of dialogue, and that the Christians of our time may show the world a shared witness of faithfulness to Christ". (CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THE UNITY OF ALL CHRISTIANS.)

 

This report of Ratzinger/Benedict's general audience address of two days ago is a cogent summary of his Modernist mind and heart, premised upon Ratzinger/Benedict's false, dogmatically condemned belief that dogmatic pronouncements lose their force over the course of time as a result of the historical circumstances in which they were formulated, which is in and of itself blasphemous as it denies that the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, inspired those dogmatic pronouncements with exactitude as they express immutable truths that can never "lose their importance" or be understood in any other way at a different point in time.

Ratzinger/Benedict's false ecumenism is premised upon a belief, expressed very openly by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M., Cap., on Good Friday, March 29, 2002, in his "homily" in the Basilica of Saint Peter in front of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and with Ratzinger himself present, that the very existence of Protestant "ecclesial communities" and the Orthodox churches signifies God's positive, ordained will that they exist. This means, of course, that those who belong to Protestant sects and Orthodox churches are in no danger whatsoever of losing their immortal souls, that they are able to sanctify and to save their immortal souls in and through these false, heretical organizations.

There is thus no need to seek with urgency the unconditional conversion of anyone who belongs to these false sects as all that is needed, apparently, to save one's soul is to "know" and to "love" Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ even though it is impossible to truly know and love and serve Him unless one accepts Him as He has revealed Himself to us through His Catholic Church without any degree of dissent or qualification or reservation whatsoever. No one except a believing member of the Catholic Church truly knows and loves Our Lord and is thus able to serve Him by seeking to cooperate with the graces that He won for us by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

Ratzinger/Benedict does not believe this. Ever-faithful to his apostate mentor, the late Father Hans Urs von Balthasar, the false "pontiff" believes that only "love" is "credible." Unfortunately for Ratzinger/Benedict, his mentor believed in a concept of "love" that was false as God's love for us is an act of His Divine Will, the ultimate expression of which is that we seek to sanctify and to save our immortal souls as members of His Catholic Church. No one can truly love Our Lord unless He accepts everything that is taught by the Catholic Church and is thus a member of her in good standing.

Pope Leo XIII explained this very cogently in Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896:

Agreement and union of minds is the necessary foundation of this perfect concord amongst men, from which concurrence of wills and similarity of action are the natural results. Wherefore, in His divine wisdom, He ordained in His Church Unity of Faith; a virtue which is the first of those bonds which unite man to God, and whence we receive the name of the faithful - "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. iv., 5). That is, as there is one Lord and one baptism, so should all Christians, without exception, have but one faith. And so the Apostle St. Paul not merely begs, but entreats and implores Christians to be all of the same mind, and to avoid difference of opinions: "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms amongst you, and that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Cor. i., 10). Such passages certainly need no interpreter; they speak clearly enough for themselves. Besides, all who profess Christianity allow that there can be but one faith. It is of the greatest importance and indeed of absolute necessity, as to which many are deceived, that the nature and character of this unity should be recognized. And, as We have already stated, this is not to be ascertained by conjecture, but by the certain knowledge of what was done; that is by seeking for and ascertaining what kind of unity in faith has been commanded by Jesus Christ. (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)

 

Contrary to the false premises of false "ecumenism" that are so near and dear to the Modernist mind and heart of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, there is no "process of purification, through which the Lord makes us capable of unity." The one and only way for non-Catholics to be united with the true Church is to convert unconditionally to the Catholic Faith. There is "work" involved other than seeking out the lost sheep and exhorting them to convert. This was the work of the Apostles. This was the work of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P. This was the work of Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen. This was the work of Saint Josaphat. This was the work of Saint Francis de Sales. This remains the work of true Catholics who make no concessions of any kind to conciliarism or to the false "pontiffs."

"Unity" for Ratzinger/Benedict, however, involves compromising various points of the Faith in the process of "dialogue" with members of Protestant sects and Orthodox confessions. It is indeed very telling that Ratzinger/Benedict praised the "Edinburgh Conference" (see the English language summary of the 20 January 2010, general audience address), which was a completely Protestant conference ("1910 World Missionary Conference," which met from June 14 to June 23, 1910) as the "start" of a "modern ecumenical movement" that did not have the approval of the reigning pontiff in 1910, Pope Saint Pius X, and that was actually condemned by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928, a "modern ecumenical movement" that was described as follows by Father Maximilian Kolbe, M. I., the founder of the Knights of the Immaculata:

"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.)

 

Modern "ecumenism" is the product of Protestantism, not Catholicism. Concilairism's penchant for "dialogue," which was praised by Ratzinger/Benedict as he cited the Joint Declaration on Justification that he himself helped to broker to an agreement between conciliarists and Lutherans, stems from Protestantism's "World Missionary Conference" in Edinburgh, Scotland, one hundred years ago, not from anything to do with Catholicism.

Ratzinger/Benedict also gave personal expression in his general audience address two years ago to a distortion of the history of the papacy in the First Millennium of the Church that he enunciated in Principles of Catholic Theology (published in 1982) and has found its way into The Ravenna Document, October 13, 2007:

Turning then to refer specifically to "the study of a crucial theme in dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox: 'the role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the first millennium'", a study which will subsequently "also extend to the second millennium", the Holy Father recalled how he had asked Catholics to pray "for this delicate dialogue which is so essential for the entire ecumenical movement". (CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THE UNITY OF ALL CHRISTIANS.)

 

The then Joseph "Cardinal" Ratzinger contended in Principles of Catholic Theology that papal primacy was exercised in a different manner in the First Millennium than in the Second Millennium, and that the Orthodox should be required to accept anything other that what Ratzinger/Benedict contends, albeit falsely, was the case in the First Millennium:

After all, Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida, in the same bull in which he excommunicated the Patriarch Michael Cerularius and thus inaugurated the schism between East and West, designated the Emperor and the people of Constantinople as "very Christian and orthodox", although their concept of the Roman primary was certainly far less different from that of Cerularius than from that, let us say, of the First Vatican Council. In other words, Rome must not require more from the East with respect to the doctrine of primacy than had been formulated and was lived in the first millennium. (Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology, pp. 198-199)

 

Pope Leo XIII dealt with this false assertion in Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, June 20, 1894:

First of all, then, We cast an affectionate look upon the East, from whence in the beginning came forth the salvation of the world.  Yes, and the yearning desire of Our heart bids us conceive and hope that the day is not far distant when the Eastern Churches, so illustrious in their ancient faith and glorious past, will return to the fold they have abandoned.  We hope it all the more, that the distance separating them from Us is not so great: nay, with some few exceptions, we agree so entirely on other heads that, in defense of the Catholic Faith, we often have recourse to reasons and testimony borrowed from the teaching, the Rites, and Customs of the East.

The Principal subject of contention is the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff.  But let them look back to the early years of their existence, let them consider the sentiments entertained by their forefathers, and examine what the oldest Traditions testify, and it will, indeed, become evident to them that Christ's Divine Utterance, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, has undoubtedly been realized in the Roman Pontiffs.  Many of these latter in the first gates of the Church were chosen from the East, and foremost among them Anacletus, Evaristus, Anicetus, Eleutherius, Zosimus, and Agatho; and of these a great number, after Governing the Church in Wisdom and Sanctity, Consecrated their Ministry with the shedding of their blood.  The time, the reasons, the promoters of the unfortunate division, are well known.  Before the day when man separated what God had joined together, the name of the Apostolic See was held in Reverence by all the nations of the Christian world: and the East, like the West, agreed without hesitation in its obedience to the Pontiff of Rome, as the Legitimate Successor of St. Peter, and, therefore, the Vicar of Christ here on earth.

And, accordingly, if we refer to the beginning of the dissension, we shall see that Photius himself was careful to send his advocates to Rome on the matters that concerned him; and Pope Nicholas I sent his Legates to Constantinople from the Eternal City, without the slightest opposition, "in order to examine the case of Ignatius the Patriarch with all diligence, and to bring back to the Apostolic See a full and accurate report"; so that the history of the whole negotiation is a manifest Confirmation of the Primacy of the Roman See with which the dissension then began.  Finally, in two great Councils, the second of Lyons and that of Florence, Latins and Greeks, as is notorious, easily agreed, and all unanimously proclaimed as Dogma the Supreme Power of the Roman Pontiffs.

We have recalled those things intentionally, for they constitute an invitation to peace and reconciliation; and with all the more reason that in Our own days it would seem as if there were a more conciliatory spirit towards Catholics on the part of the Eastern Churches, and even some degree of kindly feeling.  To mention an instance, those sentiments were lately made manifest when some of Our faithful travelled to the East on a Holy Enterprise, and received so many proofs of courtesy and good-will.

Therefore, Our mouth is open to you, to you all of Greek or other Oriental Rites who are separated from the Catholic Church, We earnestly desire that each and every one of you should meditate upon the words, so full of gravity and love, addressed by Bessarion to your forefathers: "What answer shall we give to God when He comes to ask why we have separated from our Brethren: to Him Who, to unite us and bring us into One Fold, came down from Heaven, was Incarnate, and was Crucified?  What will our defense be in the  eyes of posterity?  Oh, my Venerable Fathers, we must not suffer this to be, we must not entertain this thought, we must not thus so ill provide for ourselves and for our Brethren."

Weigh carefully in your minds and before God the nature of Our request.  It is not for any human motive, but impelled by Divine Charity and a desire for the salvation of all, that We advise the reconciliation and union with the Church of Rome; and We mean a perfect and complete union, such as could not subsist in any way if nothing else was brought about but a certain kind of agreement in the Tenets of Belief and an intercourse of Fraternal love.  The True Union between Christians is that which Jesus Christ, the Author of the Church, instituted and desired, and which consists in a Unity of Faith and Unity of Government.

Nor is there any reason for you to fear on that account that We or any of Our Successors will ever diminish your rights, the privileges of your Patriarchs, or the established Ritual of any one of your Churches.  It has been and always will be the intent and Tradition of the Apostolic See, to make a large allowance, in all that is right and good, for the primitive Traditions and special customs of every nation.  On the contrary, if you re-establish Union with Us, you will see how, by God's bounty, the glory and dignity of your Churches will be remarkably increased. 

May God, then, in His goodness, hear the Prayer that you yourselves address to Him: "Make the schisms of the Churches cease," and "Assemble those who are dispersed, bring back those who err, and unite them to Thy Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church."  May you thus return to that one Holy Faith which has been handed down both to Us and to you from time immemorial; which your forefathers preserved untainted, and which was enhanced by the rival splendor of the Virtues, the great genius, and the sublime learning of St. Athanasius and St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nazianzum and St. John Chrysostom, the two Saints who bore the name of Cyril, and so many other great men whose glory belongs as a common inheritance to the East and to the West. (See also the excellent discussion of the the history of what led up to the Greek Schism that is contained in Fathers Francisco and Dominic Radecki's Tumultuous Times.)

 

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict is not only an apostate who believes in things that have been condemned by the authority of the Catholic Church. He is a man whose Modernism, expressed in the precepts of his "New Theology," requires him to revise historical facts to suit his ideological agenda of the present moment.

Our true popes have taught us precisely that it is indeed the "ecumenism of the return" that Ratzinger/Benedict rejects that is the only means ordained by God to bring non-Catholics into His true Church:

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, Iam Vos Omnes, September 13, 1868.)

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. . . .

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." (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

 

Only those who are steeped in the false beliefs about the nature of dogmatic truth that have been propagated by Ratzinger/Benedict himself (that dogmatic pronouncements and/or papal statements are conditioned by the historical circumstances that gave rise to them and are thus subject to reinterpretation over time, a proposition condemned by the [First] Vatican Council and mocked roundly by Pope Saint Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8, 1907; see Ratzinger's War Against Catholicism) can scoff at the consistent reiteration of simple Catholic teaching presented above. "

 

Our Lady, the Mother of God herself, has sought converts now and again, presenting a sharp contrast between her direct approach with those outside of the the bosom of Holy Mother Church and that taken by the likes of Ratzinger/Benedict and his fellow conciliarists:

Heaven was watching over Pierre and after seven years, on March 25, 1656, Our Lady appeared to him. On that day, Pierre was working in the field and saw a Lady standing far away on a little hill. The Lady wore a white dress, a blue mantle and had a black veil over her head, which partly covered her face. As the Lady came toward Pierre, she suddenly picked up speed and in a flash, she stood beside him. With her beautiful, sweet voice, the Lady spoke to Pierre, "God be with you my friend!"

For a moment, Pierre stood in amazement. The Lady spoke again, "What is being said about this devotion? Do many people come?"

Pierre replied, "Yes many people come,"

Then the Lady said, "Where does that heretic live who cut the willow tree? Does he not want to be converted?"

Pierre mumbled an answer. The Lady became more serious, "Do you think that I do not know that you are the heretic? Realize that your end is at hand. If you do not return to the True Faith, you will be cast into Hell! But if you change your beliefs, I shall protect you before God. Tell people to pray that they may gain the good graces which, God in His mercy has offered to them." (See: If You Do Not Return to the True Faith, You Will Be Cast Into Hell!)

 

Our Lady even sought the conversion of the Catholic-hating Jewish man by the name of Alphonse Ratisbonne, did she not? She sought the conversion of all of the Americas when she appeared to Juan Diego on December 9, 10, and 12, 1531.

What does this mean to Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI ? Nothing. Nothing at all. Remember, Ratzinger made not one public exhortation to anyone to pray Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary while he visited the United States of America twenty-one months ago. After a few brief references to Our Lady in his address to the conciliar "bishops" on Wednesday, April 16, 2008, Ratzinger mentioned not one word about the Mother of God publicly. Not one word. He didn't even make the Sign of the Cross before or after his Masonic prayer at "Ground Zero" on Sunday, April 20, 2008. Every Catholic makes the Sign of the Cross before and after he prays. But that is the point, you see. Making the Sign of the Cross is something that comes naturally to a Catholic. Seeking the conversion of non-Catholics also comes naturally to a Catholic.

It is important to remember that those who defect from the Faith on even one point of her doctrine defect from It in Its entirety. It is clear that Ratzinger/Benedict and his fellow conciliarists defect from the Faith in many respects, especially on the matter of Catholic doctrine that it is impossible to save's soul in and through a false religion:

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

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

The need of this divinely instituted means for the preservation of unity, about which we speak is urged by St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians. In this he first admonishes them to preserve with every care concord of minds: "Solicitous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. iv., 3, et seq.). And as souls cannot be perfectly united in charity unless minds agree in faith, he wishes all to hold the same faith: "One Lord, one faith," and this so perfectly one as to prevent all danger of error: "that henceforth we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive" (Eph. iv., 14): and this he teaches is to be observed, not for a time only - "but until we all meet in the unity of faith...unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ" (13). But, in what has Christ placed the primary principle, and the means of preserving this unity? In that - "He gave some Apostles - and other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (11-12). (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)

 

Bishop George Hay, the Apostolic Administrator of the Lowland District of Scotland, wrote the following over two hundred years ago now:

The same is her language in all ages; and in this she shows herself to be the true mother, who will not suffer her children to be divided. She knows her heavenly spouse has declared that "no man can serve two masters; we cannot serve God and Mammon;" and therefore she must either have them to be hers entirely, or she cannot acknowledge them as such. She knows His holy apostle has protested that there can be no "participation, no fellowship, no concord, no pact, no agreement between the faithful and the unbeliever;" and therefore she never can allow any of her faithful children to have any religious communication with those of a false religion and corrupted Faith. (The Laws of God Forbidding All Communication in Religion With Those of a False Religion.)

 

This is all lost on those steeped in the apostasies of conciliarism.

Indeed, Pope Gregory XVI, who is not exactly much quoted by the conciliarists, put the matter this way in Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832:

Indeed you will accomplish this perfectly if, as the duty of your office demands, you attend to yourselves and to doctrine and meditate on these words: "the universal Church is affected by any and every novelty" and the admonition of Pope Agatho: "nothing of the things appointed ought to be diminished; nothing changed; nothing added; but they must be preserved both as regards expression and meaning." Therefore may the unity which is built upon the See of Peter as on a sure foundation stand firm. May it be for all a wall and a security, a safe port, and a treasury of countless blessings. To check the audacity of those who attempt to infringe upon the rights of this Holy See or to sever the union of the churches with the See of Peter, instill in your people a zealous confidence in the papacy and sincere veneration for it. As St. Cyprian wrote: "He who abandons the See of Peter on which the Church was founded, falsely believes himself to be a part of the Church."

 

Who are the ones who have severed themselves from the See of Peter? It is the conciliarists, not the sedevacantists. It is the conciliarists who have dared to diminish, change and add things, refusing to preserve the expression and meaning of the Church's doctrine as it has been handed down to us from time immemorial unchanged, defying anathematized propositions and sanctioning liturgical abominations that no true pope has ever--or would ever--do anything other than denounce as unbridled exercises in paganism.

Why would God permit millions of Catholics to be misled by a false pope and be denied the true sacraments? Chastisement. Chastisement is an important element of the Great Apostasy, as is taught in any course in Eschatology (the one that I took at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, was taught the late, great Father John Joseph Sullivan). God is permitting the Church Militant on earth, which must experience every phase of His own life on earth, to undergo its Mystical Passion, Death and Burial, as the late Father Vincent Bowes noted to me on June 23, 2007 (see Bookended From Birth to Birth). God did permit the entire human race to be deceived in the Garden of Eden. He did permit all but Noah's family to be deceived at the time of the Flood. Don't think that God can't permit millions of people to be deceived at this present time of apostasy and betrayal.

Saint John Eudes spoke of a chastisement involving men who were priests more in name than in deed:

The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than charity and affection of devoted shepherds ... “When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is visiting His most dreadful anger upon them. That is why He cries unceasingly to Christians, ‘Return O ye revolting children ... and I will give you pastors according to My own heart’. (Jer. 3:14,15) Thus, irregularities in the lives of priests constitute a scourge upon the people in consequence of sin.” ( Saint John Eudes, The Priest: His Dignity and Obligations, P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1947, pp. 9-10.)

Yes, God could indeed chastise His people with not only true priests who are moral reprobates and/or heretics. God can chastise us with bogus bishops and priests who appear to represent Him but who are, whether wittingly or unwittingly, but precursors of the Antichrist.

In the midst of this era of apostasy and betrayal, therefore, we have recourse, as always, to the Mother of God, Our Lady, especially by means of her Most Holy Rosary and by total consecration to her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. She promised us at Fatima that her Immaculate Heart would triumph in the end. It will. We can be assured of this. And that triumph will be glorious beyond all telling.

We must, until that Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit, being sure, of course, to make reparation for our own many sins, which have worsened the state of the Church Militant on earth and thus of the world-at-large, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through that same Immaculate Heart.

We must also be most assiduous in commending our fellow Catholics, including those from whom were are estranged at the present moment because of situation created by the doctrinal and liturgical revolutionaries of conciliarism, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The conciliar revolutionaries have succeeded in pitting believing Catholics against each other, affording them, the revolutionaries, the luxury of getting bolder and bolder in their attacks on the Faith and more and more open in their offenses given quite publicly to the honor and majesty of the Most Holy Trinity. This is one of the greatest tragedies of the past fifty years. Believing Catholics should not be pitted against each other as men posing as representatives of the Catholic Church do and say things that were never done and said by Catholics in the past.

Such is our situation, however. God has known from all eternity that we would be living in these times. The graces that He won for us on Calvary by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, are sufficient for us to bear the crosses of the present time and to prosper under them as His consecrated slaves through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The apostasies of the day will pass. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will be made manifest when her Fatima Message is fulfilled. And the Babe born for us in Bethlehem and made manifest to the Gentiles at the Epiphany, Whose Most Sacred Heart beats us with such love in the tabernacles of true Catholic churches in the catacombs, awaits our efforts as His consecrated slaves through His Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart to plant a few seeds for the day when all men and women will indeed be of one mind with His and one heart with His as they exclaim as members of the Catholic Church:

May we be united in these days of the Chair of Unity Octave, making good use of the Spiritual Resource: Prayers for the Church Unity Octave that has been sent to me by Father Francis Miller, O.F.M.

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

 

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint 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.

Saints Vincent and Anastasius, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints