Let's Play the Let's Pretend Game
by Thomas A. Droleskey
It's time to play the "Let's Pretend" game.
Yes, let's pretend that the Protestant and Novus Ordo worship service is not offensive to God, that it was not designed to be a vessel of ecumenism and a means by which unsuspecting Catholics could have their sensus Catholicus broken down by a steady barrage of liturgical changes that were designed to accustom them to changes in matters of doctrine and discipline that are alien to Catholicism.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not denied the nature of dogmatic truth by insisting over and over and over again, whether it has been as Father Joseph Ratzinger or "Archbishop" Joseph Ratzinger or Joseph "Cardinal Ratzinger or as "Pope" Benedict XVI, that it is not possible for dogmatic truth to expressed precisely in human language at any one time, which is why some expressions of the Faith become "obsolete" and must be replaced with newer ones that can appeal to the "mind," such as it is, of the mythical entity known as "modern man."
Let's just pretend that the [First] Vatican Council did not anathematize these repeated assertions.
Let's pretend that Pope Saint Pius X's Pascendi Dominici Gregis (September 8, 1907) did not condemn such denials of the nature of dogmatic truth.
Let's pretend that Pope Pius XII's Humani Generis (August 12, 1950) did not condemn these falsehoods.
It's time for the "Let's Pretend" game, right?
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's endorsement of religious liberty and constant praise for the "ability" of false religions to contribute to the "betterment" of the world do not offend the true God of Divine Revelation.
Let's pretend that religious liberty has not been condemned forcefully by, among others, Pope Pius VII in Post Tam Diuturnas (April 29, 1814) and Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos (August 15, 1832) and Pope Pius IX in Quanta Cura (December 8, 1964.)
Let's pretend that Pope Pius VII did not call religious liberty a heresy and that Pope Gregory XVI called it insanity and that Pope Pius IX referred to it as "injurious babbling."
It's time to play the "Let's Pretend" game.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not endorsed the thesis of the separation of Church and State.
Let's pretend that Pope Gregory XVI's Mirari Vos and Pope Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors (December 7, 1864) and Pope Leo XIII's Immortale Dei (November 1, 1885) and Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus (November 1, 1900) and Pope Saint Pius X's Vehementer Nos (February 11, 1906) did not condemn the separation of Church and State.
Let's pretend that Pope Saint Pius X did not call separation of church and state a thesis "absolutely false" and that he reminded us that our popes had never stopped condemning it as the circumstances required them to do.
Let's pretend that Pope Saint Pius X's Iamdudum (May 24, 1911) did not condemn the separation of Church and State in Portugal that was praised by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI upon his arrival there on May 11, 2010.
It's time for the "Let's Pretend" game. Let's pretend all is well so that we can live in comity and unity with our fellows in what we think is the Catholic Church. Ah, what a fun game this is.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI does believe in the "ecumenism of the return," that he does not believe that it is not necessary to seek with urgency the unconditional conversion of all non-Catholics to the the maternal bosom of the Catholic Church.
Let's pretend that Pope Pius IX's Iam Vos Omnes (September 13, 1868) and Pope Leo XIII's Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae (June 20, 1894) and Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Animos (January 6, 1928) did not exhort non-Catholic Christians to return unconditionally to the Catholic Church.
Let's pretend that Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Animos did not condemn the sort of false ecumenism that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has praised throughout the course of his priesthood, the sort of ecumenism that originated at the so-called "World Missionary Conference" in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910 and was specifically praised by the current "pope" on its one hundredth anniversary.
The "Let's Pretend" game is better that the "Let's Make a Deal" game being played between Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of Saint Pius X and William "Cardinal" Levada of the misnamed Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Gee, this game is fun. Let's play some more, OK?
Sure, let's play some more, although we can't play for too much longer as there is so very much about which we must pretend these days (including that our "pope" has not rejected Scholasticism and is not a disciple of the "new theology" condemned by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis and has not put into question the traditional Catholic teaching on Limbo and the immutable Catholic doctrine on Purgatory and has not endorsed a motion picture, The Nativity Story, that was produced by Protestants and denied the doctrinal effects of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception by portraying her to be a sulky, moody and even rebellious teenager). So little time. So much about which to pretend!
All right. All right. To make the game a little shorter, let's pretend a few more things.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not given joint "blessings" with the "clergy" of non-Catholic religions.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not entered into synagogues while praising the false religion of Talmudic Judaism, content to be treated as a person of lesser significance even though he believes himself to be the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not entered into mosques and has called them "sacred" places while treating them as "sacred" places by removing his shoes.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not esteemed the symbols of false religions with his own hands.
Let's pretend that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has not engaged in the forbidden practice of "inter-religious prayer" or that he has not omitted the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when engaged in such prayer with those who deny His Sacred Divinity?
Let's pretend that Pope Saint Leo the Great never wrote the following:
But it is vain for them to adopt the name of catholic, as they do not oppose these blasphemies: they must believe them, if they can listen so patiently to such words. (Pope Saint Leo the Great, Epistle XIV, To Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, St. Leo the Great | Letters 1-59 )
The "Let's Pretend" game is so much fun that we should all have a big celebration together.
I know, we'll have a staging of the modernized version of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition that was only in use in the conciliar church for three years before being replaced by the Ordo Missae on Sunday, November 29, 1964, which, of course, was replaced by the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo worship service on Sunday, November 30, 1969.
We'll have this "celebration" of the "extraordinary form" of the "one" Roman Rite in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Kansas City, Missouri, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, 2011, as a show of solidarity with our fellow passengers aboard the SS One World Ecumenical Church, you know, our friends in the "Catholic" Charismatic Renewal and Opus Dei and Focolare and Cursillo and the Sant'Egidio Community and the Shalom Catholic
Community and the Chemin Neuf Community and the International Community of
Faith and Light and Regnum Christi and Communion and Liberation and the Emmanuel
Community and the Seguimi Lay Group of Human-Christian Promotion and.
among many, many others, the Neocatechumenal Way. Boy, we're just a swell group in this "let's pretend" game as we have to pretend we all believe the same things, which, of course, we really, really don't.
Let's pretend that Kansas City-Saint Joseph "Bishop" Robert Finn, who is associated with, although not a member of, Opus Dei (see Not The Work of God for a little review of how this "personal prelature" of the conciliar "popes" lives in its own world of "let's pretend"), is a very responsible diocesan "ordinary," that it's really just a minor, petty little "oversight" that he failed to read the full report of one of his presbyters who just happens to have a perverse, sick hobby of taking photographs of school girls that, for the sake of modesty and propriety, can be described as grotesquely obscene and thus mortally sinful (see In wake of abuse scandals, priests to host Latin Mass).
In reality, though, the "Let's Pretend" game is played every day in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, not simply at the upcoming "Mass" at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul in five days.
The "Let's Pretend" game is played every time a conservative or "tradtionally-minded" priest or presbyter in the conciliar structures keeps his mouth shut about the offenses listed above.
Such men play the "Let's Pretend" game for a variety of reasons.
Some do so out of fear of human respect, fearing that their parents or their friends will hate them for having the courage of Father Michael Oswalt, who will be conditionally ordained by Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul at Mount Saint Michael Church in Spokane, Washington (see Embracing The Faith No Matter the Consequences and They Like It!).
Some of these priests and presbyters do so because of careerism, desiring to be promoted and/or to retain a pastorate or to receive the august title of "monsignor" as they are made "prelates of the 'papal' household."
Some of these priests and presbyters, having checked their integrity in at an Opus Dei retreat center long ago, do so out of "obedience" and "loyalty," virtues that they never tire of extolling publicly as they pat themselves on the back as exhibiting even though they may have, at least at one time, been more than a little outspoken about "papal" blasphemies and outrages and sacrileges that they know in their heart of hearts offend Our Lord and thus wound the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.
The "Let's Pretend" game is also played by members of the laity in the conciliar structures who know that the offenses listed above are serious, but who prefer to believe that "progress" is being made with their "traditional 'pope'." Oh, yes, progress is being made all right. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has made profound, indeed perversely admirable, progress in the direction of fulfilling these very words that he wrote in Principles of Catholic Theology in 1982:
Among the more obvious phenomena of the last years must be counted the
increasing number of integralist groups in which the desire for piety,
for the sense of mystery, is finding satisfaction. We must be on
our guard against minimizing these movements. Without a doubt, they
represent a sectarian zealotry that is the antithesis of Catholicity. We
cannot resist them too firmly. (Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology, pp. 389-390)
The "Let's Pretend" game must also ignore the reality that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has stated on more than one occasion that he issued Summorum Pontificum (July 7, 2007) not to stop the "Second" Vatican Council's ethos but to "broaden the vistas" and break down "one-sided" opinions against it harbored by some traditionally-minded Catholics who adhere to his false church in the belief that it is the Catholic Church, an ultimate kind of "let's pretend" game:
Leading men and women to God, to the God Who speaks in the Bible:
this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the
Successor of Peter at the present time. A logical consequence of this is
that we must have at heart the unity of all believers. Their disunity,
their disagreement among themselves, calls into question the credibility
of their talk of God. Hence the effort to promote a common witness by Christians to their faith - ecumenism - is part of the supreme priority.
Added to this is the need for all those who believe in God to join in
seeking peace, to attempt to draw closer to one another, and to journey
together, even with their differing images of God, towards the source of
Light - this is inter-religious dialogue. Whoever proclaims that God is
Love 'to the end' has to bear witness to love: in loving devotion to
the suffering, in the rejection of hatred and enmity - this is the
social dimension of the Christian faith, of which I spoke in the
Encyclical 'Deus caritas est'.
"So if the arduous task of working for faith,
hope and love in the world is presently (and, in various ways, always)
the Church's real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of
reconciliation, small and not so small. That the quiet gesture of
extending a hand gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the
opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must
accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to
meet half-way the brother who 'has something against you' and to seek
reconciliation? Should not civil society also try to forestall
forms of extremism and to incorporate their eventual adherents - to the
extent possible - in the great currents shaping social life, and thus
avoid their being segregated, with all its consequences? Can
it be completely mistaken to work to break down obstinacy and
narrowness, and to make space for what is positive and retrievable for
the whole? I myself saw, in the years after 1988, how the
return of communities which had been separated from Rome changed their
interior attitudes; I saw how returning to the bigger and broader Church
enabled them to move beyond one-sided positions and broke down rigidity so that positive energies could emerge for the whole.
Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests,
215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level
institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands
of lay faithful? Should we casually let them drift farther from the
Church? I think for example of the 491 priests. We cannot know how mixed
their motives may be. All the same, I do not think that they would have
chosen the priesthood if, alongside various distorted and unhealthy elements,
they did not have a love for Christ and a desire to proclaim Him and,
with Him, the living God. Can we simply exclude them, as representatives
of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What
would then become of them?
"Certainly, for some time now, and once again on
this specific occasion, we have heard from some representatives of that
community many unpleasant things - arrogance and presumptuousness, an obsession with one-sided positions,
etc. Yet to tell the truth, I must add that I have also received a
number of touching testimonials of gratitude which clearly showed an
openness of heart. But should not the great Church also allow herself to
be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of
the promise made to her? Should not we, as good educators, also be capable of overlooking various faults and making every effort to open up broader vistas?
And should we not admit that some unpleasant things have also emerged
in Church circles? At times one gets the impression that our society
needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown;
which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to
approach them - in this case the Pope - he too loses any right to
tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or
restraint. (Letter
to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the remission of the
excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre, March 10, 2009.)
Fr Federico Lombardi, S.J., Director of the Holy See Press Office: What do you say to those who, in France, fear that the "Motu proprio' Summorum Pontificum signals a step backwards from the great insights of the Second Vatican Council? How can you reassure them?
Benedict XVI: Their fear is unfounded, for this "Motu
Proprio' is merely an act of tolerance, with a pastoral aim, for those
people who were brought up with this liturgy, who love it, are familiar
with it and want to live with this liturgy. They form a small group,
because this presupposes a schooling in Latin, a training in a certain
culture. Yet for these people, to have the love and tolerance to let
them live with this liturgy seems to me a normal requirement of the
faith and pastoral concern of any Bishop of our Church. There is no
opposition between the liturgy renewed by the Second Vatican Council and
this liturgy.
On each day [of the Council], the Council Fathers celebrated Mass in
accordance with the ancient rite and, at the same time, they conceived
of a natural development for the liturgy within the whole of this
century, for the liturgy is a living reality that develops but, in its
development, retains its identity.
Thus, there are certainly different accents, but nevertheless [there
remains] a fundamental identity that excludes a contradiction, an
opposition between the renewed liturgy and the previous liturgy.
In any case, I believe that there is an opportunity for the enrichment
of both parties. On the one hand the friends of the old liturgy can and
must know the new saints, the new prefaces of the liturgy, etc....
On the other, the new liturgy places greater emphasis on common
participation, but it is not merely an assembly of a certain community,
but rather always an act of the universal Church in communion with all
believers of all times, and an act of worship. In this sense, it seems
to me that there is a mutual enrichment, and it is clear that the
renewed liturgy is the ordinary liturgy of our time. (Interview of the Holy Father during the flight to France, September 12, 2008.)
Liturgical worship is the supreme expression of priestly and
episcopal life, just as it is of catechetical teaching. Your duty to sanctify
the faithful people, dear Brothers, is indispensable for the growth of the
Church. In the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”, I was led to
set out the conditions in which this duty is to be exercised, with regard to the
possibility of using the missal of Blessed John XXIII (1962) in addition to that
of Pope Paul VI (1970). Some fruits of these new arrangements have already been
seen, and I hope that, thanks be to God, the necessary pacification of spirits
is already taking place. I am aware of your difficulties, but I do not doubt
that, within a reasonable time, you can find solutions satisfactory for all,
lest the seamless tunic of Christ be further torn. Everyone has a place in the
Church. Every person, without exception, should be able to feel at home, and
never rejected. God, who loves all men and women and wishes none to be lost,
entrusts us with this mission by appointing us shepherds of his sheep. We can
only thank him for the honour and the trust that he has placed in us. Let us
therefore strive always to be servants of unity! (Meeting with the French Bishops in the Hemicycle
Sainte-Bernadette, Lourdes, 14 September 2008.)
And, most importantly, the "Let's Pretend" game played by traditionally-minded clergy and laity in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism must pretend that these words, uttered recently by Kurt "Cardinal" Koch, do not reflect in very precise terms the mind of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI:
"In fact, Pope Benedict knows well that, in the long term, we
cannot stop at a coexistence between the ordinary form and the
extraordinary form of the Roman rite, but that in the future the
church naturally will once again need a common rite," he said.
"However, because a new liturgical reform cannot be decided
theoretically, but requires a process of growth and purification, the pope for the moment is underlining above all that the two forms of the
Roman rite can and should enrich each other," he said. (Benedict's 'reform of the reform' in liturgy to continue, cardinal says.)
Although a bit of acerbic humor was used at the beginning of this brief commentary, the "Let's Pretend" game is not a laughing matter. It is a matter of spiritual life and spiritual death as people who should know better, many of whom are pretending to be truly ordained priests of the Catholic Church, which is the ultimate "Lets Pretend" game, permit themselves to pretend that back is white and that falsehood is truth in order to avoid coming to the logical conclusion, namely, that the conciliar officials are but figures of Antichrist with whom we must have no contact while we pray very fervently for the conversion back to the Catholic Faith and for the public abjuration of their errors before their day.
The "Let's Pretend" game will not work at the moment of the Particular Judgment. We cannot play it now. At any time. For any reason.
Saint John the Baptist, whose nativity we celebrate today on this second day in the Octave of Corpus Christi, was willing to risk his very head in defense of the One Whose precursor he, the last of the Old Testament prophets, was. Saint John the Baptist did not pretend that Herod Tetrarch was not living in sin with his brother Philip's wife, Herodias. Why are we so willing to pretend that figures of Antichrist are actually officials in the spotless Bride of Christ, she who can never be tainted with the slightest bit of error and who brings forth her doctrines with clarity and stability, the Catholic Church?
To Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart belongs the triumph that will vanquish the lords of Modernism once and for all. May our own efforts to make reparation for our sins, especially as we prepare for the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus one week from today, to that same Sacred Heart through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary help to plant a few seeds so that the day on which the the Church Militant on earth can have another true visible head to guide her can be expedited. The Rosaries we pray this day and every day will plant a few seeds to bring this about.
Indeed, we rest secure in the arms of Our Lady, very secure. This is the moment that God has known from all eternity in which we would be alive. She will help us to weather the storms of the moment if only we go to her as her trusting children. O Blessed Mother, help us. We need you to take us to your Divine Son, where we can repose with Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament in this life and be ready at all times to face Him at the moment of our Particular Judgments with clean consciences, thus being able to enjoy the blessedness of Heaven for all eternity. Help us, dear Blessed Mother, to remain faithful to the end.
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
