Indifferentism's Rotten Fruit

by Thomas A. Droleskey

(In the event anyone new to this site does not know the authorship of all of the articles featured hereon)

Well, the folks who are busily making room for Baal and his friends at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima are certainly not backing away from their efforts to turn that shrine into a center for "inter-religious" worship, all protestations to the contrary by the Vatican notwithstanding. A violation of the First Commandment took place in the Chapel of the Apparitions when visiting Hindu "priests" offered "worship" to their false gods. Consider the report in The Portugal News, the newspaper that first broke the story in  October of 2003 of the plans for turning Fatima into a center for "inter-religious" dialogue and worship:

Last October The Portugal News reported on the Interfaith Congress held at Fátima, one of Catholicism’s most sacred sites, where representatives of the world’s leading religions allegedly explored the possibility of opening the shrine to a whole variety of faiths. While the newspaper received many letters and emails congratulating it for reporting on the congress, it was also criticised by some groups who claimed that Fátima would remain exclusively Catholic.

Now, however, we can report that the first steps in developing Fátima as a multi-faith centre could have been taken. On May 5th, SIC and SIC Notícias carried a report on a Hindu religious service held in the Chapel of the Apparitions at the shrine.

SIC’s broadcast appears, to some extent, vindicate The Portugal News’ October report. Sixty Hindus led by a high priest had travelled from Lisbon to pay homage to the Goddess Devi, the divinity of nature. SIC’s reporter described how before leaving Lisbon the Hindus had gathered at their temple in the city to pray to and worship various statues of Hindu gods.

Arriving in Fátima the pilgrims made their way to the Chapel of the Apparitions, where from the altar a Hindu priest led prayer sessions. A commentary on the service was given by the TV reporter who explained: “This is an unprecedented unique moment in the history of the shrine. The Hindu priest, or Sha Tri, prays on the altar the Shaniti Pa, the prayer for peace.” The Hindus can be seen removing their shoes before approaching the altar rail of the chapel as the priest chants prayers from the altar’s sanctuary.

During the newscast the Rector of the shrine Father Luciano Guerra says: These meetings give us the opportunity to remind ourselves that we live in community”.

After worshipping their gods and praying in the chapel the Hindus are shown being escorted to an exhibition hall where a model of the controversial new basilica currently being constructed is on display. In a setting described as ambassadorial by the commentator, each Hindu is personally greeted by the Bishop of Leiria - Fátima, who bows to the Hindu priest repeating his gesture of greeting. The Hindu priest is then seen clothing the Rector of the Fátima Shrine and the bishop with a Hindu priestly shawl. “On the shoulders of the highest representatives of the Church in Fátima, the Hindu priest places a shawl with the inscriptions of the Bagavad Gita, one of the sacred books of Hinduism,” the reporter tells his viewers.

The newscast finishes with scenes of the Hindu priest lighting a candle at the shrine while his followers dance outside the Chapel of the Apparitions chanting praises to their gods. The TV commentator concludes by saying: “In 1982, a Guru, a high priest of Hinduism, came from Bombay to Fátima……He signed the book of honour right after Pope John Paul II and on the same page as Mother Teresa of Calcutta.”

In other reactions to the Hindu ritual, a long-standing member of the Leiria-Fátima diocese was less accepting of the opening of the sanctuary to other cults and religions, telling the Jornal de Leiria: “I understand the opening of the site to other religions. But I disagree with the practise of non-Catholic rituals at the sanctuary’s holiest site”.

Bishop of the Diocese, D. Serafim Ferreira e Silva, has a different opinion. He told the regional newspaper: “We don’t want to be fundamentalist, but sincere and honest”.

This is a summary of all that is wrong with the postconciliar Church. A direct violation of the First Commandment is countenanced in the very place where Our Lady appeared six times in 1917. Sadly, there were not the likes of Jacob Michael or Father McMahon from the Society of Pope Saint Pius X to defend the integrity of the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima as was the case in the cathedral in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a few months ago when Buddhists were prevented from singing their hymns to their false gods when Father McMahon took solid Catholic Action by leading over 200 protesters in the praying of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary. As my wife Sharon's sister, Mrs. Bridget Turpin, noted to her in a phone conversation this evening, what chance would there be for getting "permission" from Bishop Ferreira e Silva for the offering of a Traditional Latin Mass in the same Chapel of the Apparitions where the Hindu sacrilege took place? How telling, she indicated, that Bishop Ferreira e Silva would be wrapped in Hindu prayer shawl while he would not be caught dead in fiddleback vestments.

Pope John Paul II is personally responsible for the appointment of Bishop D. Serafim Ferreira e Silva to the see of Leiria-Fatima. He has countenanced all manner of false worship in his very presence at various "ecumenical" events, including the infamous ones that have taken place in Assisi, Italy. It is the Pope himself, who has presided over the deconstruction of the Fatima message and who has steadfastly refused to consecrate Russia specifically according to the formula demanded by the Mother of God herself. It is at his doorstep, therefore that blame squarely rests for offering of false worship in a Catholic shrine. It is futile to vent one's spleen at the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima. He is only doing that which has been directed from the visible head of the true Church on earth. This is a crime against Our Lord and Our Lady. One shudders to think what kind of punishment will be meted out to those responsible for countenancing such an offense in the very place where Our Lady warned us of the errors of Russia, errors that have found their way into the highest quarters of the Church.

Our Lady appeared to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, to ask that they pray the Rosary and to spread devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She implored them to pray the Holy Rosary for the conversion of Russia so that its errors would cease to be spread around the world. Our Lady told the seers on July 13, 1917, "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. Russia will be converted." As is being demonstrated so clearly in Fatima itself at present (as well as in Russia itself, as I noted in "Another Part of the Great Facade Begins to Crumble"), the Holy Father and the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima reject the conversion of anyone, no less whole nations and those steeped in false religions and pagan practices, to the true Faith as actually harmful to the good of the solidarity of nations in the civilization of love. This is nothing other than diabolical.

It must be remembered that it was the Masonic civil officials in Ourem, Portugal, who detained Blessed Jacinta and Francisco and Sister Lucia on August 13, 1917, threatening them with being boiled alive in oil if they did not tell the "truth" about their "lies" concerning the appearance of the beautiful Lady in the Cova da Iria. Yes, that's right, folks: the Masonic civil officials in Ourem, Portugal, men who believed in naturalism and the deification of man. The Church herself is doing in Fatima what could only have been fantasized by the Masonic officials in Portugal eighty-seven years ago: permitting false worship to take place right where Our Lady appeared to beg for the conversion of sinners and for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

How ironic it is, therefore, that there are some traditional Catholics who do not believe that everything in every nation (politics, constitutions, economics) must reference the God-Man as He has revealed Himself through His true Church. These men and women address their fellow conservatives and libertarians in meetings without once challenging them to convert to the true Faith or by stating quite openly that the solution to the problems of modernity is truly very simple: the proper consecration of Russia to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart. Their refusal to do this thus reaffirms their hearers in their errors and their intellectual pride. Oh, some of these traditional Catholics may indeed believe that Russia has not been converted; they simply do not want to run the risk of ridicule in "respectable" conservative circles by planting a seed or two for Our Lady of Fatima and then passing out Miraculous Medals quite liberally to those who believe in the false political and economic gods of their own crafty making. What was thus good enough for Saint Maximilian Kolbe and the Knights of the Immaculata is thus rejected both by a Vatican that condemns proselytizing and also by those traditional Catholics who do not believe that proselytizing in academic settings is any of their business.

I defy any believing Catholic to publicly state that the following statement made by Pope Leo XIII is either wholly or in part erroneous:

To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name. Men who really believe in the existence of God must, in order to be consistent with themselves and to avoid absurd conclusions, understand that differing modes of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict even on most important points cannot all be equally probable, equally good, and equally acceptable to God.

If Pope Leo XIII is wrong, then Pope John Paul II's indifference to religious indifferentism must be right. There is no middle ground. If Pope John Paul II is wrong in his embrace of the false ecumenism that countenances outrages against Our Lord and His Most Blessed Mother, then all Catholics who are given the opportunity to address others about the problems of our day must be unafraid to read this paragraph found in Immortale Dei publicly in all events as a reminder as to what results when the Incarnation of the God-Man in Our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb is denied altogether or its relevance to all aspects of social life is denigrated, if not disparaged.

It is our obligation, therefore, to condemn the outrages in Fatima and to lay the blame for them directly on Pope John Paul II. However, anyone who is unwilling to take risks at home in defense of the Social Kingship of Christ and the Queenship of Our Lady loses a substantial amount of credibility when attempting to criticize the Pope for permitting something that is really a manifestation in the Church of the same spirit of indifferentism that is at the foundation of modernity and is reflected in all aspects of American popular culture--and thus responsible for its inevitable decline into barbarism. There is no other antidote to the poisons of modernity than Catholicism, which the devil knows only too well and which is why he is waging a fierce battle to corrupt popes and bishops and priests and to silence even believing Catholics from asserting the truths of the true Faith openly at all times and in all places with all of the strength Our Lord and Our Lady can bestow upon them. The errors let loose on the world by the Protestant Revolt and Freemasonry continue to metastasize in our own day, doing so quite malignantly within the Church herself.

Renewing our resolve as we pray, preferably before the Blessed Sacrament in church, the Novena to the Holy Ghost prior to Pentecost Sunday, let us take to heart the mission Our Lord gave to the Eleven before He ascended to the Father's right hand in glory on Ascension Thursday: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (Mt. 28:19-20)

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Blessed Jacinta and Francisco, pray for us.