Home Articles Golden Oldies Speaking Schedule About Christ or Chaos Links Donations Contact Us
April 30, 2008

Just Say No to Pantheism

by Thomas A. Droleskey

We speak of the things which you see with your own eyes, which We both bemoan. Depravity exults; science is impudent; liberty, dissolute. The holiness of the sacred is despised; the majesty of divine worship is not only disapproved by evil men, but defiled and held up to ridicule. Hence sound doctrine is perverted and errors of all kinds spread boldly. The laws of the sacred, the rights, institutions, and discipline -- none are safe from the audacity of those speaking evil. Our Roman See is harassed violently and the bonds of unity are daily loosened and severed. The divine authority of the Church is opposed and her rights shorn off. She is subjected to human reason and with the greatest injustice exposed to the hatred of the people and reduced to vile servitude. The obedience due bishops is denied and their rights are trampled underfoot. Furthermore, academies and schools resound with new, monstrous opinions, which openly attack the Catholic faith; this horrible and nefarious war is openly and even publicly waged. Thus, by institutions and by the example of teachers, the minds of the youth are corrupted and a tremendous blow is dealt to religion and the perversion of morals is spread. So the restraints of religion are thrown off, by which alone kingdoms stand. We see the destruction of public order, the fall of principalities, and the overturning of all legitimate power approaching. Indeed this great mass of calamities had its inception in the heretical societies and sects in which all that is sacrilegious, infamous, and blasphemous has gathered as bilge water in a ship's hold, a congealed mass of all filth.

These and many other serious things, which at present would take too long to list, but which you know well, cause Our intense grief. It is not enough for Us to deplore these innumerable evils unless We strive to uproot them. We take refuge in your faith and call upon your concern for the salvation of the Catholic flock. Your singular prudence and diligent spirit give Us courage and console Us, afflicted as We are with so many trials. We must raise Our voice and attempt all things lest a wild boar from the woods should destroy the vineyard or wolves kill the flock. It is Our duty to lead the flock only to the food which is healthful. In these evil and dangerous times, the shepherds must never neglect their duty; they must never be so overcome by fear that they abandon the sheep. Let them never neglect the flock and become sluggish from idleness and apathy. Therefore, united in spirit, let us promote our common cause, or more truly the cause of God; let our vigilance be one and our effort united against the common enemies (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

 

The madness of which Pope Gregory XVI, whose encyclical letters are almost never cited by the conciliar revolutionaries, wrote nearly 176 years ago manifests itself in many ways in our truly mad, mad, mad, mad world, wherein over 20,000 human beings are put to death each day around the world by means of surgical abortion alone, to say nothing of the thousands upon thousands more killed by chemical abortifacients. Many in this world gone mad as a result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Judeo-Masonry seek to assuage their consciences for supporting the evil of baby-killing by proving how "pro-life" they are by protesting against the raising of animals to be eaten, which is one of the reasons God them here to begin with:

And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. (Genesis 1: 26-30.)

 

Animals have been given us by God to serve as our companions, to help us in our work, to clothe us, and to feed us. While deliberate cruelty to an animal, such as beating an animal for no purpose (such as self-defense) is violation of the precepts of the Seventh Commandment, it is not an act of cruelty to raise animals in such a way as to make certain of their edible parts more conducive to being produced into various delicacies. How absurd it is that people who support the slicing and dicing of innocent babies under cover of law can "feel the pain" of ducks and geese being fattened so that they livers can be processed into foie gras!

Thus it is that we saw the following bumper sticker on the back of a car on Interstate 95 in Connecticut last Saturday, April 26, 2008, while we were praying the Rosary:

 

Say no to foie gras? Someone is wasting his or her time worrying about the treatment of ducks and geese by commercial breeders who force feed these fowls to produce fattened livers that are quite tasty in the delicacy known as foie gras (for the twelve people in the world who can afford this delicacy, that is; we can't!). Say no to foie gras? How about saying no to pantheism?

The sad part about all of this is that there are probably more than a few "priests" and lay Catholics yet attached to the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who think that this is an important "social justice" issue.

It was almost twenty-five years ago now, on May 7, 1983, that I gave an address at the first annual Brooklyn "Catholic" Charities congress, noting that the singularly most important issue of genuine social justice, restoring legal protection to all preborn children without any exception whatsoever, was not on their agenda. Two elderly Sisters, dressed in their traditional habits, applauded furiously. Everyone else in the audience sat on their hats, including an auxiliary "bishop" of the Diocese of Brooklyn, Joseph Sullivan, whose bald head turned beat red as I noted and denounced the meeting's naturalistic, liberal agenda. (Sullivan was a confidante and supporter of former United States Representative Geraldine Ferraro Zaccaro and former Governor of the State of New York Mario Matthew Cuomo.) There might be a few of those in that audience from twenty-five years ago who do indeed consider opposition to foie gras to be an issue of "social justice." Those who are indifferent to, if not actually supportive of, the daily slaughter of the preborn in the name of "women's rights" and "reproductive freedom," have to find some issue in which to be "involved" as to to prove themselves to be "good" people who are concerned about the world. Why not foie gras?

The conciliar Vatican itself, as we know, is steeped in the pantheism that was condemned by Pope Pius IX's The Syllabus of Errors, December 8, 1864, feeds this madness by associating itself with actual, honest-to-goodness, out-and-out pantheists such as the Buddhists. The Vatican Information Service released a news story yesterday, April 29, 2008, to explain how "Christians" and "Buddhists" work together to save the environment. Who cares about saving souls, huh? Let's save the "environment."

VATICAN CITY, 29 APR 2008 (VIS) - Made public today was the annual Message to Buddhists for the Feast of Vesakh, issued by the Pontifical Council for Inter- religious Dialogue and signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, respectively president and secretary of the council.

Vesakh, the main Buddhist festivity, marks three fundamental moments in the life of Gautama Buddha. It is held during the full moon of the month of May because, according to tradition, Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away in that period.

This year's message - published in English, French and Italian - is entitled "Christians and Buddhists: Caring for the Planet Earth". It indicates that "preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for everyone. Many governments, NGOs, multi-national companies, and research and tertiary institutes, in recognising the ethical implications present in all economic and social development, are investing financial resources as well as sharing expertise on bio-diversity, climate change, environmental protection and conservation.

"Religious leaders too", the message adds, "are contributing to the public debate. This contribution is of course not just a reaction to the more recent pressing threats associated with global warming. Christianity and Buddhism have always upheld a great respect for nature and taught that we should be grateful stewards of the earth. Indeed it is only through a profound reflection on the relationship between the divine Creator, creation and creatures that attempts to address environmental concerns will not be marred by individual greed or hampered by the interests of particular groups.

"On a practical level can we Christians and Buddhists not do more to collaborate in projects which confirm the responsibility that falls to each and everyone of us? Recycling, energy conservation, the prevention of indiscriminate destruction of plant and animal life, and the protection of waterways all speak of careful stewardship and indeed foster goodwill and promote cordial relations among peoples. In this way Christians and Buddhists together can be harbingers of hope for a clean, safe and harmonious world".

The message concludes by expressing the hope that such ideas may be promoted "within our respective communities through public education and our good example in respecting nature and acting responsibly towards our one common planet Earth". CHRISTIANS AND BUDDHISTS: CARING FOR THE PLANET EARTH

 


"In this way Christians and Buddhists can be harbingers of hope for a clean, safe and harmonious world."

Ladies and gentlemen, how in the world do we have a chance of telling the foie gras people that they are crazy when the crazies in the conciliar Vatican issue statements that are completely pantheistic and give the impression that "Christians" are supposed to coexist "harmoniously" with pantheists as the lesser creatures of the world are deified and endowed with "rights" that they do not have. There is no room for Christ the King in the Vatican, my friends. Make no mistake about this whatsoever. There is plenty of room for pantheism, that is the worship of nature and of created things as having "divine" properties.

As has been noted on this site before, the Buddhists are so peace loving. They have been responsible for the execution of Catholics in Japan, near the mountain called "sacred" by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI last year, Mount Hiei, at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century, and they have been responsible for the execution of Catholics in Thailand. The "peace-loving, "planet caring" Buddhists are not so peace loving, you see:

Our thrilling story begins in Songkhon, a Catholic village on the Thai side of the mighty Maekhong River as it flows along the North Eastern border. The people of Songkhon were all Catholics and since the beginning they have always been in the Archdiocese of Thare-Nongseng.

The year 1940 was a time of fear and uncertainty in many areas of the world. Nazism was on the march in Europe and in Asia, imperialism was spreading rapidly. In Thailand, people felt fearful and threatened and a foreign faith was an obvious scapegoat, although Catholicism had already been in Thailand over three hundred and fifty years. In this tense atmosphere the usually tolerant Thais forsook their normal friendliness and began a religious persecution.

So it happened that in the winter of 1940, the police moved into Songkhon. Their first hostile act was to banish and then deport the parish priest. With guns in their hands, they then went from door to door intimidating the good simple people of the village and ordering them to abandon their faith in Christ. Naturally the people were nervous and frightened by they remained quiet and steadfast.

Living in Songkhon were two Sisters of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross: Sister Agnes and Sister Lucia. There was also an excellent catechist, Mr. Philip Siphong. Since their pastor had been deported, these three good people felt responsible for the Catholic community and were in charge of the village school.

Mr. Siphong gave both moral and physical support to the worried people by visiting each house, praying with each family and speaking words of encouragement and strengthening their faith. The police were naturally furious at this act of rebelliousness and decided to get rid of Mr. Philip Siphong.

So in early December 1940 the police sent a letter to Philip supposedly from the Sheriff of Mukdahan requesting him to go to Mukdahan to meet the Sheriff. The people were suspicious and they warned Philip about the false letter and not to trust the police. They also told Philip that the police had every intention of killing him. However this good man told the people that if that was the case, then he, Philip Siphong was prepared to die for his Faith. Eventually he set out with the police for Mukdahan. Actually when they got the poor man into the forest the police shot him dead. So on December the 16th 1940 Mr. Philip Siphong died for his Faith and became the first of the Seven Holy martyrs of Thailand.

When the two Sisters Agnes and Lucia heard the news of the death of their faithful catechist, they were both saddened and very frightened. Nevertheless they continued their care of the school and their guidance of the community. Each day the children of the village came to the convent to be taught and catechised.

The police on their part kept up their pressure on the Sister and the local community. They tried to frighten everyone by firing their rifles in the air and by shouting at the people. They kept reminding the villagers of the murder of Philip by warning the people. "We'll get rid of all of you."

The children like everyone else were terrified of the police but the Sisters encouraged the children and themselves by saying that if the police killed them, they would be martyrs for Jesus.

On the Christmas Day. Mr. Lue, the police officer in charge of Songkhon, came to the Sister' house. On arrival he discovered the Sisters were instructing the children in their Catholic Faith. The officer was furious and berated the Sisters: "I've told you many times not to speak about Jesus. You must not mention god in Thailand, otherwise I'll kill you all." Sister Agnes who was the elder Sister, conscious of her role, in turn became indignant. She confronted the police officer saying: "Mr. Policeman, do you mean to say that you will kill us all because we are Catholics and loyal to our Catholic Faith. Do you really mean that, Mr. Policeman?"

Mr. Lue replied: "Yes I do, I will kill all of you if you continue to talk about God like this."

Sister Agnes with rising indignation and raised her voice saying to the officer: "Be sure you have sufficient guns and bullets." "Oh yes, we have enough guns and bullets to kill all of you." Mr. Lue retorted.

"Then be sure you polish the barrels of your guns lest the bullets get stuck." Countered the brave Sister Agnes. "Yes, we will." concluded the policeman.

On the evening of that same Christmas Day, the Sister prepared some coconut oil and sent a small bottle of it to the police so that they could clean and polish their gun barrels. Then the brave Sisters began preparing themselves and their companions for their coming martyrdom, by prayers and hymns' singing throughout the night.

Late that same night, our inspired Sister Agnes sat down and wrote a letter to the police. It is a document of utter simplicity and of a lively faith.


"To the Chief Police in Songkhon


"Yesterday evening you received your order to wipe out, definitely, the Name of God, the Only Lord of our lives and minds. We adore Him only, Sir. A few days earlier, you had mentioned to us that you would not wipe out the Name of God and we were rather pleased with that in such a way that we put away our religious habits which showed that we were His handmaids. But it not so today. We do profess that the religion of Christ is the only true religion. Therefore, we would like to give our answer to your question, asked yesterday evening which we did not have a chance to respond because we were unprepared for it. Now we would like to give you our answer. We are asking you to carry out your order with us. Please do not delay any longer. Please carry out your order. Please open the door of heaven to us so that we can confirm that outside the Religion of Christ no none can go to heaven. Please do it. We are well prepared. When we will be gone we will remember you. Please take pity on our souls. We will be thankful to you and will be grateful to you for it. And on the last day we will see each other face to face.

"Do wait and see, please. We keep your commands, oh God, we wish to be witnesses to You, dear God. We are: Agnes, Lucia, Phuttha, Budsi, Buakhai, Suwan. We would like to bring little Phuma along with us because we love her so much. We have already made up our minds, dear Sir."



This letter is such a simple yet moving and powerful Gospel of faith that reminds us that the faith witnessed in the early church in roman times is still alive and potent in Thailand in our own time. The diocesan archives now have Sister Agnes's wonderful profession of faith statement.

The police reacted quickly. On the following afternoon of the 26th of December 1940 on the feast of St. Stephen the first martyr, they arrived at the convent and shouted: "Are you ready, Sisters? If you are, go straight to the bank of the Maekhong." But Sister Agnes objected, "No, that is not the place for us to die for Christ. We must go the cemetery, the holy place."

In line they walked to the cemetery singing hymns and calling to the people.

"Good-bye, we are going to Heaven, we are going to become martyrs for Christ." How these brave and noble women remind us once again of the martyrs of ancient Rome, joyfully entering the arena for the love of Jesus Christ.

Seeing the police marching the children and Sisters to the cemetery, the people of the village realized that the police were going to kill them there. They too followed the Sisters and their companions wishing to die with them. However the policed brushed the people aside with their rifles saying angrily: "We only intend to kill those in the line."

A young girl named Suwan was one of those in the line. She was willing to become one of Christ's Martyrs but her father upon hearing what was happening rushed to the scent to rescue his little daughter. Suwan on her part clung to Sister Agnes begging him: "Mother Agnes, help me please, I want to die with you and go to Heaven." "But you are too young to die" said her father and he snatched her away and carried her back home where he locked her in a room.

On arrival at the cemetery the brave women knelt down beside a fallen tree trunk. They continued praying and hymn-singing fervently in that crucial atmosphere.

Sister Agnes turned and addressed the police: "You may kill us but you cannot kill the Church and you cannot kill God. One day the Church will return to Thailand and will flourish more than ever. You will see with your own eyes that what I am now saying, will come true. So we thank you from our hearts for killing us and sending us to Heaven. From there we will pray for you." Once again her words echoed those of many great martyrs before her.

Then turning to her companions, Sister Agnes said, "My dear friends, we will soon be in Heaven."

On the cross, Jesus said to the thief, "This day you will e with me in Paradise," (Lk.23:43) When all were ready, Sister once more addressed the police saying: "Mr. Policeman, we are ready, please do your duty."

Immediately the police opened fire and left the cemetery shouting to the people, "Bury them like dogs, for they are bad people." The poor villagers who were watching the scene from behind nearby bushes, rushed forward and began to shake the bodies to see who was alive or dead. They found that both Sister Agnes and Phorn were still alive but badly wounded.

Looking around, Phorn asked: "Where is heaven?" She understood from the Sisters' teaching that if one died a martyr one went straight to Heaven, but looking around Phorn saw not Heaven but a crowd of villagers. Sister Agnes on her part enquired: "where are the police?" They've left already." someone spoke out. "Then you better call them back I'm not dead yet:' said the brave sister Agnes. So one of the villagers returned to the village to inform the police that Sister Agnes and Phorn although badly wounded were still alive.

In the meantime another girl called Sorn who hand knelt at the end of the line stood up and looking around exclaimed: "Where is heaven?" Seeing that her clothes were spattered with blood the people enquired if she was hurt. "I'm afraid not, I don't feel any pain," Sorn replied. She then examined herself more closely but found no bullet wounds. "You'd better run home," she was advised: "as the police will soon be back here." So the little girl ran home. (She is still alive, healthy and living in Songkhon. She is also an excellent catechist.) In a short time the police returned to the cemetery and killed the wounded Sister Agnes and Phorn.

In all, six good and holy women were dead and the villagers buried them hurriedly, placing two bodies in each grave for they had not the time to make coffins. Thus were these brave and noble women of Songkhon laid to rest.

Many eye witnesses including those who took part in the burial of our brave martyrs are still alive. They are proud and grateful to recall, the bravery, the loyalty to Christ and the wonderful faith displayed on that momentous day, the 26th December 1940 by the Holy martyrs of Songkhon  (The Martyrs of Thailand)

 

The paradoxes of conciliarism are such that the Thai martyrs, who professed the true Faith and would give the idolatry of Buddhism no quarter whatsoever, were "beatified" by Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II in 1989 while the conciliar authorities in the Vatican continue to wish the devil-worshiping Buddhists a happy "feast of Vesakh" each and every year without fail. The Buddhists worship devils. Devils. How can any right-thinking Catholic express "best wishes" to devil worshiping pantheists on their diabolical "feasts"? The three phases of Buddha indeed. The three phases of Buddha's life were fat, fatter and fattest.

Pope Pius XI, writing in Ad Salutem, August 30, 1930, noted the views of the son of Saint Monica, whose feast we celebrate in four days, Saint Augustine of Hippo, on false religions:

Let us add a word further. Augustine set the mark, or more truly, the fiery brand of his condemnation on the moral infamy of Greek and Roman paganism. And yet yearning for such a religion has been seen to infatuate, even in our day, certain writers, shallow and even licentious, who extol such a cult for its beauty and fitness and attractiveness. Again, knowing thoroughly his contemporaries and their unhappy forgetfulness of God, with a pen at one time caustic, at another indignant, he scored in his pages all the compulsion and folly, all the outrages and lust, introduced into man's life by the demons through the worship of false gods. There can be no salvation in the ideal of the earthly City, as it sets before its eyes a vain picture- of completeness and perfection. For scarcely anyone will take such an ideal seriously or, if he does, the prize he wins will be only the satisfaction of empty and fleeting glory.

 

Pope Pius IX, writing in Maxima Quidem, June 9, 1862, explained the essence of the pantheism that is at work in all forms of naturalism, including the sort of pantheism represented by those on the march against foie gras and those steeped in the demonic lies of Buddhism that the conciliar Vatican believes serves as a "partner" in "caring" for "planet Earth:"

Now then, they [the plotting enemies of the Church] have reached such a degree of impiety and shamefulness that they attack the Heavens and try to eliminate even God. In fact, expressing an evilness that only equals their foolishness, they affirm that the Supreme Divinity, full of wisdom and providence, is not distinct from the universe; that God is not different from Nature, and that He, like it, is subject to changes. They say that God is mixed with man and the world; that all things are God and have the very substance of God, and God is one and the same thing with the world, and as a consequence, that there is no longer any difference between spirit and matter, necessity and liberty, truth and error, good and evil, justice and injustice. Certainly nothing could be imagined more unwise, impious, and repugnant to reason.

 

Pope Pius IX referred to this allocution in The Syllabus of Errors to reaffirm the Church's condemnation on pantheism. As noted in Listen to the Voice of God, Catholics, while conscious of being good stewards of the goods of this world as befits redeemed creatures, do not render unto dirt and to created things what belongs to God. The right ordering of the world proceeds from the right ordering of individual souls in cooperation with the graces won for us by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 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. The right ordering of the world must be premised upon the establishment of the Reign of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in our own hearts and homes as a precondition of the Social Reign of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen in the world, which Social Reign will help to keep fallen man, always prone to excess and greed, more in check with respect to his proper and proportionate use of the goods of this world than would otherwise be the case.

To "kick against the goad," so to speak, goes against the desire that most people have to be respected in this life. Human respect is one of the great stumbling blocks to embrace the truth and to reject error forthright no matter what difficulties that this might cause among one's relatives and friends and acquaintances. It is nevertheless the case, however, that we were taught as children that to be soldiers in the Army of Christ we must indeed run the risk of rejection by others to be faithful to the truths of the Faith. This does not make us, with all of our sins and failings and shortcomings, for which we must be conscious of making reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, one bit better than anyone else. It does, however, make us obliged to persevere in defense of the Faith in the spirit with which the saint we whose glorious life we celebrate today, Saint Catherine of Siena, persevered despite fierce opposition, sometimes bordering on mockery, within her own family.

Just consider this brief passage from an account of the life of the saint who lived on nothing other than Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Eucharist for weeks on end and who considered it be a singular privilege to suffer with Him for the sake of souls:

Back home, Catherine began to make penances for the love of Jesus. She began to eat less and less, and to sleep less and less. She spent her nights praying fervently, keeping up straight on the hard floor.

Catherine's parents and relatives were puzzled. Why was she such a strange girl? Why didn't she like fine clothes as the other girls did? Why didn't she want to be admired? Why didn't she like boys? She was entering her teens, and since she was charming and had a winning personality, her relatives thought it was time for her to be married.

But Catherine had vowed her virginity to God at the age of seven; she wished to be only His, and refused to listen to talk of boy friends and marriage.

"Let us put her to doing the housework," her parents decided. "Then she won't be able to spend all her time praying."

So Catherine took care of the house, doing each and every duty well. She was serving God with her hands, while she kept Him in her thoughts and in her heart. Instead of lessening, her thoughts and in her heart. Instead of lessening, her love for Him and union with Him grew. A great resolve was forming within her: she wanted to become a sister.

When her parents found out her hopes, they said, "No." But Catherine did not let that stop her. She kept on begging her mother to let her mother to let her enter the Dominicans, and paid no attention at all when friends told her mother, "Catherine is too pretty to be a sister!"

Too pretty? Would such a human motive come between Catherine and her spiritual desire? "Send me a sickness, my Lord," the girl prayed. Make me ugly, but grant me my desire."

The sickness came, and Catherine's beauty faded. At last she was permitted to enter the Third Order of St. Dominic. As a religious, she continued to live in the world, and went about doing good. Her father let her spend part of the family's income in helping the poor. (Fifty-Seven Saints for Boys and Girls, Daughters of Saint Paul, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, 1963, pp. 282-283.)

 

Mary Fabyan Windeatt had this description of Saint Catherine of Siena's confrontation with her mother about being a Third Oder member of the Order of Preachers:

"I want to be a Dominican," she announced. "Not a nun in a convent, but a Dominican Tertiary."

"Why can't you be like other people?" sighed her mother, when she heard the news. Lapa knew that Tertiaries were very holy people, men and women, who wore the habit of a friar or a nun and yet lived in their own homes. Usually they were middle-aged folk, not sixteen-year old girls like Catherine.

Catherine wondered if her mother were going to be angry. "I think God wants me to be a Tertiary, not a nun," she said. "It is really a wonderful thing to be called to be Tertiary, Mother."

Lapa shook her head. "Why do you want to dress like a nun and yet not really be one? Oh, Catherine, you are always causing me trouble! First you must cut off your hair. Then you must live in the worst room in the house. Now you want to go and be a Dominican Tertiary! Oh, dear ! I never had such trouble with my other children!"

"I have promised not to leave my little room," said Catherine. "Please, Mother, go to the Dominican Tertiaries and tell them I want to be a Tertiary, too."

Lapa shrugged her shoulders. "I will not," she said. "I have no use for being different from other people. Besides, the Tertiaries will never have you. They are all older women--widows, too. The would not want to take in a young girl."

"Oh, please go and ask them!" begged Catherine. "If you only knew how much I want to wear the blessed habit of Saint Dominic!"

"There is no arguing about it," said Lapa. "I will not have you in my house, wearing a religious habit and looking like a nun. Don't bother me again."

Catherine knelt down in the middle of the her little room. She was very sad. How could she go to become a Tertiary when she had promised to remain at home to pray for sinners?

"Dearest Saint Dominic, you will have to help me," she said. And then a little of her sadness left her when she offered her disappointment for the conversion of a certain man who had sworn he would never go to church again.

The same year that Catherine was sixteen, a smallpox plague swept through the town. The dyer's young daughter caught the terrible disease and for a time it seemed as though she would die of it. She lay on her hard bed, her face and body covered with sores, her thoughts far away from this world. Poor Lapa was terribly worried.

"Oh, dear! Isn't there something you would like, Catherine? Perhaps I could make you a pudding or something. Or maybe you would like a little fruit . . ."

But Catherine shook her head. "The only thing I want is to be a Dominican Tertiary," she said sadly.

Lapa realized that she could hold out no longer. "All right," she said. "I will go to the woman in charge of the Tertiaries and see what can be done." (Mary Fabyan Windeatt, Saint Catherine of Siena, published originally in 1941 by Sheed and Ward. Republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1993, pp. 32-34.)

 

Saint Catherine of Siena suffered for the Faith throughout her entire life, including bearing Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's stigmata. Her reputation suffered even after her death as not a few Catholics blamed her for the Great Western Schism, believing that things would have been better if Pope Gregory XI had remained in Avignon, France, rather than returning to the See of Peter in Rome at her insistent behest. Saint Catherine did not care what she had to suffer for the Faith. It should be the same way with us.

We will be hated by relatives and friends and acquaintances for making no concessions to the false religion of conciliarism, which itself makes all manner of concessions to false religions that are hated by God, worship the devil and are thus harmful to souls and to social order and the cause of genuine peace, that of the Divine Redeemer Himself, in the world. We will be hated for attempting to defend the honor and majesty of God as a prideful Modernist handles with his own priestly hands the symbols of false religions in direct violation of the First Commandment. We will be hated for pointing out the evils of a synthetic "liturgy" that incorporate elements of Protestantism and is designed to propagate a Judeo-Masonic spirit of naturalism by means of the "inculturation of the Gospel." We will be hated for reminding our associates that to attack the very nature of dogmatic truth itself, as Joseph Ratzinger has done throughout the course of his priesthood, is to attack the very nature of God Himself.

None of this matters, however. Our sins deserve us to be punished by means of humiliation and calumny, among so many other ways. We should consider it a joy to suffer justly for our sins as we attempt to make reparation for them in some small manner as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, especially at those times when we have been given the opportunity to defend the truths of the Faith against the attacks of the fomenters of the novelties of our own day.

Pope Gregory XVI gave us quite an exhortation in this regard in the aforementioned Mirari Vos:

 

These and many other serious things, which at present would take too long to list, but which you know well, cause Our intense grief. It is not enough for Us to deplore these innumerable evils unless We strive to uproot them. We take refuge in your faith and call upon your concern for the salvation of the Catholic flock. Your singular prudence and diligent spirit give Us courage and console Us, afflicted as We are with so many trials. We must raise Our voice and attempt all things lest a wild boar from the woods should destroy the vineyard or wolves kill the flock. It is Our duty to lead the flock only to the food which is healthful. In these evil and dangerous times, the shepherds must never neglect their duty; they must never be so overcome by fear that they abandon the sheep. Let them never neglect the flock and become sluggish from idleness and apathy. Therefore, united in spirit, let us promote our common cause, or more truly the cause of God; let our vigilance be one and our effort united against the common enemies.

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.

 

When was the last time you heard those who have severed their relationship with the true Church by means of their embrace of one condemned notion after another as they regard with public esteem and respect false religions quote from Pope Saint Agatho on the simple fact that "nothing of the things appointed ought to be diminished, nothing changed, nothing added; but they must be preserved both as regards expression and meaning"? Not lately, I can assure you. Not lately.

We must defend the Faith, especially by means of our devotion to the daily offering of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition at the hands of true bishops and true priests who make no concessions to conciliarism, making sure to spend time in prayer before Our Lord's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament and to pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit. Our Lady will have the Triumph of her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, and it will be glorious beyond all telling.

We should take consolation in these words of the late Father Maximilian Mary Kolbe:

There are people who do not understand how it can be said that "She alone has destroyed all heresies in the whole world" when heresies still exist. It is something like this: When during one of the battles, Napoleon was informed that for some unknown reason, the enemy's cavalry was approaching, he said, "The enemy lost the battle" although the battle was still raging. And it turned out to be true. His plan worked. So, and even more so, it is with all heresies. They are already doomed. "The enemy is lost. She won, because she destroyed them." (Father Anselm W. Romb, ed., O.F.M. Conv., The Kolbe Reader, Franciscan Marytown Press, Libertyville, Illinois, 1987, p. 74.)

 

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary right now?

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

 

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

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.

Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints

 





© Copyright 2008, Thomas A. Droleskey. All rights reserved.