Making John L. Sullivan Look Like Mister Peepers

by Thomas A. Droleskey

 

John L. Sullivan was a famed boxer of the late-Nineteenth century who fought a famous bare-knuckled fight (seventy-five rounds!) with Jake Kilrain in Richburg, Mississippi, on July 7, 1889. Although he fought with gloves during most of his career, John L. Sullivan's reputation as a "bare-knuckled" fighter remains strong to do this day.

Well, John L. Sullivan is reduced to the level of the mild-mannered junior high school science teacher Mister Robinson Peepers, the character played by the late Wally Cox on the NBC-TV television series, Mister Peepers, that ran from 1952 to 1955, when you compare him to the bare-knuckled conciliar cleric masquerading as the conciliar archbishop of New York, Edward Cardinal Egan, a product of the bare-knuckled, take-no-prisoners style of his clerical mentor, the late, corrupt John Cardinal Cody. Consider this story from the February 27, 2007, edition of the New York Post, CARDINAL SIN, written by Dan Mangan to understand how Egan makes John L. Sullivan look like Mister Peepers:

February 27, 2007 -- Edward Cardinal Egan pulled a fast one on a lower Manhattan parish pastor yesterday, summoning the priest to meet with him - then dispatching security guards to permanently lock the cleric's church doors.

The priest returned to Our Lady of Vilnius to find himself locked out - a brusque Egan move that left parishioners stunned and saddened.

The cardinal's move also occurred right before a scheduled meeting with Lithuania's consul general, who was set to make a plea to save the church, parishioners and the Archdiocese of New York said.

"Cardinal Egan again shows his true colors," said Peter Borre, a Boston man who is advising local parishioners in their efforts to avoid planned church closings by the archdiocese.

"This church has been here for 102 years. We're supposed to have a 12:15 p.m. Mass today and people were turned away crying," said the church's secretary, who gave only her first name, Joy.

"I find this unconscionable."

Egan's sneak attack came just days after The Post revealed that Lithuania's president had written a letter asking that he reverse a plan to close Our Lady of Vilnius on Broome Street, originally founded to serve natives of his country.

It also comes on the heels of his abrupt closure of an East Harlem church after parishioners there staged a one-day sit-in that ended in six arrests, and after two similar trespassing arrests at a Yonkers church that was being closed.

"It seems to be a vindictive act," said Ramute Zukas, president of the local chapter of the Lithuanian-American Community Inc., who has coordinated efforts to keep Our Lady of Vilnius open.

Egan's spokesman last week had said that although the small church was slated to close - because of dwindling attendance, a crumbling roof and the fact that Mass no longer was being offered in Lithuanian - no closing date had been set.

But yesterday, Egan summoned the Rev. Eugene Sawicki to his Madison Avenue office at 9 a.m., and told him "the closure is effective immediately," said archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

Even as that meeting with the pastor was occurring, three security guards were changing the locks on the parish doors and preventing anyone from entering.

An hour later, Egan met with Lithuanian Consul General Mindaugas Butkus, who hand-delivered President Valdas Adamkus' letter, and told the cardinal that "we value [the church] very much . . . it has historical value and cultural value."

Butkus, who had scheduled the meeting days before, had no idea the closing was imminent.

Asked if he was insulted by Egan agreeing to hear his request when he had already made up his mind, Butkus said, "I decline to comment."

But he said Egan "expressed dissatisfaction" about the way the issue had been portrayed in the media.

Zwilling, asked if anything had happened between last week and yesterday to prompt the cardinal's sudden shuttering of the church, said "nothing in particular," and denied that Egan was miffed by press coverage of the planned closure.

Additional reporting by Marianne Garvey

 

This is the cold, clinical statement that was released by Mr. Joseph Zwilling, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of New York, on February 27, 2007:

The parish of Our Lady of Vilnius was closed today.  Father Eugene Sawicki, Administrator of the parish, was informed at a meeting that the closure is effective immediately.  Although not a part of the recent Archdiocesan realignment process, the decision to close Our Lady of Vilnius was announced on January 19, 2007.

Our Lady of Vilnius, located at 32 Dominick Street across from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, was a "national parish" founded in 1905 to serve Lithuanian Catholics then living in the New York metropolitan area.  National parishes were originally established to serve large numbers of immigrants from a particular country, for instance Germany or Italy, by providing services in their native language and preserving their cultural and religious celebrations.

Sunday and Holy Day Masses were regularly attended by six to thirty persons.  They were in English, inasmuch as the priest serving the parish for many years does not understand, read, or speak Lithuanian.  There have been virtually no weddings or funerals in the church for years.  Moreover, persons wishing to participate in Mass and parish activities in Lithuanian are informed of Lithuanian parishes in the neighboring Diocese of Brooklyn and Archdiocese of Newark. 

Monsignor Edmond Putrimas, Delegate for the Apostolate for Lithuanian Catholics living outside of Lithuania, was informed months ago of the situation of the parish and agreed that it should be closed.  Similarly, the priest who has been serving the parish for many years was informed of the decision to close the parish also months ago and did not object until recently.

Appropriate steps have been taken to secure and safeguard the church and other parish buildings.  All items of liturgical or historical value will be removed and stored for future use in other churches. Statement on Our Lady of Vilnius

 

This is simply the latest low blow by the bare-knuckled street fighter from the Archdiocese of Chicago, who claimed as the conciliar bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, that neither he or the diocese could be held responsible for the criminal misbehavior of perverted priests because they were employed by their parishes, obviating the simple fact that the priests would not have had any parish assignments had they not been  assigned to them by the men who "ordained" them to the priesthood, the bishops of Bridgeport. Edward Cardinal Egan, who boasts that pro-abortion politicians of all denominations are his "friends," has been closing and selling off numerous churches in the Archdiocese of New York, including the historic Saint Ann's Church on East 12th Street in Manhattan, which was sold to a developer associated with New York University and torn dorn to make way for a co-educational dormitory. Several articles on this site dealt with this travesty. (See Faithless, Heartless Bureaucrats, published on March 19, 2004. This article was based on information that Saint Ann's Church was being sold to the United States Postal Service. Although Saint Ann's Church was sold to a developer associated with New York University, one can see from the Village Voice report below that the United States Postal Service played an active role in assuring its destruction.)

Mind you, folks, the churches of the dioceses now in conciliar captivity belong to the Catholic Church. They belong to us. No matter the fact that they have been held hostage for over forty years and have had the abomination known as the Novus Ordo Missae offered within them, the closing and the selling off of Catholic church buildings is the result of the failure of the conciliarists to seek converts as the demographics of parishes have changed in the past forty years and it is the result of the sterility of the counterfeit nature of conciliarism itself. The alleged need to sell off our churches has been fueled by the millions upon millions of dollars that the conciliarists have had to pay to the victims of the perverted priests who have been enabled and protected at every turn by their like-minded brethren in chancery offices. Subterfuge, double-dealing and outright deceit are the common denominators as this shameful series of events have unfolded before our very eyes.

A March 7, 2006, story in the Village Voice, Not Subject to Review, written by Kristen Lombardi, details the skullduggery that was associated with the deal engineered by Egan and his staff to sell Saint Ann's Church to Hudson Companies, the real estate developer that is associated with New York University.

Elizabeth Langwith used to love the view from her East Village apartment window. Every day for 11 years she took in the scene from her 10th-floor one-room loft on Fourth Avenue—the old carriage house next door, the old brownstones along East 12th Street.

And then there was St. Ann's Church, a beautiful, rusticated-stone structure dating back to 1847. Its Romanesque tower dominated the scene. And every weekend, she'd see adults filing into services, or children playing in its backyard. She'd hear bells clanging and parishioners praying. Every weekend, that is, until last winter, when she noticed St. Ann's had shuttered its doors. Within weeks, she was watching the scaffolding go up and the church, piece by piece, come down.

Today, her beloved view has all but disappeared. What remains is the church's facade, a shell wrapped in black netting.

"The whole vista was like you were going back in time. Now it's gone," says Langwith, the chair of St. Ann's Committee, an 80-strong residents group born out of the church's demolition. "There's such a sense of loss."

That loss has only been made worse by news of what will replace St. Ann's—namely, a 26-story New York University dorm. In November, officials announced they'd signed a deal with the owner of the church property to develop an undergraduate student residence. Hudson Companies, the Brooklyn developer, is expected to break ground this year, with the dorm to open in May 2009. The plan calls for housing 700 students in a rectangular building that neighbors describe as hulking, nondescript, and utterly out of keeping with the rest of the block.

 

To make matters worse, he and other critics cannot forget the lingering question over how this dorm got to be so tall in the first place. Hudson acquired St. Ann's Church from the New York archdiocese in December 2004. The next month, the company bought additional air rights for the Peter Cooper Station Post Office, on East 11th Street, from the United States Postal Service. The transfer of those air rights allows Hudson to erect a far larger building—with another 61,000 square feet, by neighbors' calculation an extra 62 percent of room—than the developer otherwise could.. . .

Critics claim the air-rights sale was improper, possibly illegal, because the USPS skirted its obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act. Among other provisions, Section 106 requires federal agencies to consider the effects of their actions on historic properties, and sets forth procedures for consulting with the state and the public to avoid or limit any harmful effects.

"Here was a federal agency involved in an action that had an impact on historic resources," says Andrew Berman, of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, referring both to St. Ann's Church and to Cooper Station. The 1936 post office is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the church had been deemed eligible for listing but was demolished before state preservation officers could make the designation official. When Berman found out about the transfer last spring, he did some sleuthing and discovered the postal service had sold the air rights without studying the impact on immediate historic buildings. He filed a complaint with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which oversees the Section 106 review.

The Advisory Council sent the USPS a letter in July, saying the transfer appeared to warrant a review. The post office at first argued that it had no obligation to review the matter because it was only selling development rights, not putting forward a development. By August, USPS officials had admitted the mistake. "We have recognized that the postal service should undertake a Section 106 review before selling air rights," says Robert Anderson, a spokesperson.

Martha Catlin, of the Advisory Council, won't go so far as to say whether the postal service improperly sold the air rights, as critics claim. Beginning this month, she says, she expects to meet with postal officials to discuss the matter. "Right now," she explains, "the postal service is willing to undertake a Section 106 review so I cannot draw a conclusion like that."

Who knows what would have happened if the postal service had studied the impact before selling the Cooper Station air rights? Maybe St. Ann's Church would have been spared. Maybe the dorm's size would have been reduced. Or maybe the project would be rolling along just as it is now.

"It's all conjecture," Berman concedes. Yet at least the review would have forced the transfer into the open. Residents, preservationists, parishioners: All would have had some say.

 

Edward Egan was single-minded in his determination to sell off Saint Ann's Church. He has been single-minded in his determination to do so throughout the archdiocese, which announced on January 19, 2007, that the following parishes would be closed or merged:

Parishes to be closed:

1. Mary Help of Christians, Manhattan
2. Our Lady Queen of Angels, Manhattan
3. Saint Mary, Bronx
4. Saint John the Baptist de LaSalle, Staten Island
5. Our Lady of the Rosary, Yonkers, Westchester County
6. Saint Margaret of Hungary, Yonkers, Westchester County
7. Saint Stanislaus, Hastings, Westchester County
8. Holy Cross, Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County
9. Most Sacred Heart, Port Jervis, Orange County
10. Saint John the Baptist, Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County

Parishes to be merged or have chapels established

1. Nativity, Manhattan – to be merged into St. Teresa, South Manhattan, with a new chapel to be established
2. Saint Veronica, Manhattan – to be merged into Our Lady of Guadalupe/Saint Bernard and to be used as a worship site
3. Saint Brigid, Manhattan – to be merged into Saint Emeric, with a new chapel to be established
4. Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Manhattan – to be merged into Our Lady of the Scapular/Saint Stephen with a new chapel to be established
5. Saint Vincent de Paul, Manhattan – to be merged into St. Columba, with a new chapel to be established
6. Resurrection, Harlem – to be merged into Saint Charles Borromeo and to be used as a worship site
7. Saint Francis of Assisi, Bronx – to be merged into Sacred Heart and to be used as a worship site
8. Saint Francis of Assisi, Bronx – to be merged into Saint Frances of Rome and to be used as a worship site
9. Saint Anthony, Bronx – to be merged into Saint Frances of Rome and to be used as a worship site
10. Saint Paul, Staten Island – to be merged into Assumption and to be used as a worship site
11. Saint Stanislaus, Pine Island, Orange County - to be merged into Saint Joseph, Florida and to be used as a worship site

Mission Churches to be closed:

1. Saint Edward Mission, Orange County (St. Stephen the First Martyr, Warwick)
2. Our Lady of LaSalette, Boiceville, Ulster County (Saint Francis de Sales, Phoenicia)
3. Our Lady of Lourdes, Allaben, Ulster County (Saint Francis de Sales, Phoenicia)

Parishes Still Under Review:

1. Our Lady of Esperanza, Manhattan
2. Assumption, Tuckahoe, Westchester County
3. St. Mary, Newburgh, Orange County
4. St. Francis of Assisi, Newburgh, Orange County  (Complete list of Archdiocesan parish realignment decisions)

 

Although five new parishes are to be created, three of which will be in Orange County, New York, and new church buildings (one can only imagine the monstrosities that will be built) will replace existing churches in nine parishes, the sweeping nature of the changes listed above reflect a merciless "bottom-line" mentality that has grow-up in the wake of the emptying of Catholic parishes that has occurred as a result of the Novus Ordo Missae and the entire ethos of conciliarism. Cardinal Egan is doing as much as he can to impose his "vision" for the archdiocese before he turns seventy-five on April 2, 2007, and is thus required to submitted his resignation to Benedict XVI.

Unlike his immediate predecessor, the late John Cardinal O'Connor, who mixed a full-throated support for conciliarism (especially as it relates to not seeking the conversion of Jews) with open opposition to abortion and to some Catholics in public-life who supported baby-killing under cover of law, Edward Cardinal Egan is a full-throated conciliarist who has been relatively quiet about the daily carnage of preborn babies, all the while indemnifying politicians, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, who are partly or completely pro-abortion. This is much the same approach taken by Benedict XVI, who has said that he prefers to talk about "positive" things about the Faith, such as his own view of God's love, than to be "negative" and to condemn various moral evils. And even though Egan and the conciliar bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas DeMarzio, recently condemned the City of New York's program to distribute a certain type of contraceptive device in the city's subway system, their joint statement was based on naturalistic grounds, not on a call for everyone involved to observe the law of God and to seek the sanctification and salvation of their immortal souls as Catholics.

This naturalistic bent of Edward Egan, who was instrumental in helping to draft the conciliar church's 1983 Code of Canon Law, which includes the provision to administer what is said to be Holy Communion to non-Catholics in some cases (which cases were elaborated upon by the 1993 Vatican Ecumenical Directory, was on display in the mid-Hudson Valley region of the Archdiocese of New York in 2001. Veteran pro-life activist Mrs. Helen Westover composed the following report on a visit Egan paid to Kingston, New York, on June 12, 2001:

On June 12, 2001, Cardinal Egan spoke at St. Joseph's Church in Kingston, hosted by the Ulster County vicariate. I work as music director at St. Joseph's in New Paltz, so I was invited to attend, along with my Pastor, Fr. Maurice Moreau, several members of our choir, and others who have an official capacity in the parish.

I had heard some things Egan was purported to have said about politicians having a "right" as Americans to be pro-choice. I will return to that later.

As a prolife activist, I was determined to question him on his commitment to the issue. I notified Fr. Maurice, and several of the others that I would be doing this.

When he began to speak, however, he seemed so dynamic, so passionate, that my defenses went down, and I was sure that I had been wrong about him! So when I asked the questions, it was with affection and respect. The narrative went as such:

"Your Eminence, what are your plans to continue and foster the pro-life effort in the Archdiocese?" 

He immediately came back with "Well, I never use a religious approach." 

He also addressed the priests, prior to the statement, and said, "Now some of you will get mad at me for this!".  But, he said, "Apart from the Faith, there is much controversy over when life begins. Science cannot tell us for sure.  Is it a human life at 6 weeks? At 6 months?  Science cannot tell us." He continued that he uses the "Deer in the Forest" analogy - ie. a hunter is not sure if what is moving in the bushes is a person or a deer, therefore "He may not kill it." And this is what he said over and over:  If we "are not sure, we MUST NOT KILL IT!" 

I stood up again and responded, "Your Eminence, with all due respect, science DOES know when life begins; I use science and fetology all the time, and have never lost a debate. The only time there is 'doubt' is when we are talking about abortion."  I also said, that in vitro fertilization has settled the argument; the scientists involved certainly can tell us "when human life begins."

Then he changed his approach.  He said, "The problem with the abortion issue is you pro-lifers.  You are disorganized, work at cross-purposes, and are therefore ineffective."  

I stood up and said, "Respectfully, that is not true, Your Eminence. We all have the same goal, but work in different facets of the issue; my group (Stop Planned Parenthood) targets Planned Parenthood, others attend to crisis pregnancy, others more in the political field, but we are not working against one another." Then I said, " But if you feel that we need more unity, perhaps you could help us by providing ! a VOICE.."  That was end of it. He had no more comment.

Later, I asked all those who were with me, "Did I hear what I thought I heard?" All responded, "Yes, you did."

This exchange was witnessed by over 200 people, including my own pastor. The organizer of the meeting, 5 people I have spoken with at the time, and have contacted lately, reaffirm the dialogue, including the Vicariate lay contact, Tom Conway.

 

Apart from a refusal to accept the simple facts of biology concerning the time at which human life begins (at the moment of fertilization), Edward Cardinal Egan revealed the essence of the naturalistic, Judeo-Masonic approach of conciliarism to the world when he said, "Well, I never use a religious approach." This stands in some considerable contrast to the simple words of Pope Leo XIII, contained in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world."Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. So soon as Catholic truth is apprehended by a simple and unprejudiced soul, reason yields assent.

 

Edward Cardinal Egan is simply a poster boy for the fact that the counterfeit church of conciliarism is not the Catholic Church. Please examine the naturalism of his remarks recorded in Nothing but an American Right  and No Room for Christ at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.  His actions prove the sterility of conciliarism. His words demonstrate a complete lack of understanding that those who support various moral evils must be corrected publicly and on the basis of nothing other than Catholic truth, keeping in mind first and foremost the honor and glory of God and the eternal good of the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross. Gone entirely from the conciliarist mind and lips of Edward Egan is the authentic Catholic tradition contained in these words of Pope Pius VI in Inscrutabile, December 25, 1775:

We thought it useful to speak to you lovingly on these matters in order to strengthen your excellent resolve. But a much more serious subject demands that We speak of it, or rather mourn over it. We refer to the pestilent disease which the wickedness of our times brings forth. We must unite our minds and strength in treating this plague before it grows rife and becomes incurable in the Church through Our oversight. For in recent days, the dangerous times foretold by the Apostle Paul have clearly arrived, when there will be "men who love themselves, who are lifted up, proud, blasphemous, traitors, lovers of pleasure instead of God, men who are always learning but never arriving at the knowledge of truth, possessing indeed the appearance of piety but denying its power, corrupt in mind, reprobate about the faith." These men raise themselves up into "lying" teachers, as they are called by Peter the prince of the Apostles, and bring in sects of perdition. They deny the Lord who bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. They say they are wise and they have become fools, and their uncomprehending heart is darkened.

You yourselves, established as scouts in the house of Israel, see clearly the many victories claimed by a philosophy full of deceit. You see the ease with which it attracts to itself a great host of peoples, concealing its impiety with the honorable name of philosophy. Who could express in words or call to mind the wickedness of the tenets and evil madness which it imparts? While such men apparently intend to search out wisdom, "they fail because they do not search in the proper way. . . and they fall into errors which lead them astray from ordinary wisdom."[9] They have come to such a height of impiety that they make out that God does not exist, or if He does that He is idle and uncaring, making no revelation to men. Consequently it is not surprising that they assert that everything holy and divine is the product of the minds of inexperienced men smitten with empty fear of the future and seduced by a vain hope of immortality. But those deceitful sages soften and conceal the wickedness of their doctrine with seductive words and statements; in this way, they attract and wretchedly ensnare many of the weak into rejecting their faith or allowing it to be greatly shaken. While they pursue a remarkable knowledge, they open their eyes to behold a false light which is worse than the very darkness. Naturally our enemy, desirous of harming us and skilled in doing so, just as he made use of the serpent to deceive the first human beings, has armed the tongues of those men with the poison of his deceitfulness in order to lead astray the minds of the faithful. The prophet prays that his soul may be delivered from such deceitful tongues. In this way these men by their speech "enter in lowliness, capture mildly, softly bind and kill in secret." This results in great moral corruption, in license of thought and speech, in arrogance and rashness in every enterprise.

When they have spread this darkness abroad and torn religion out of men's hearts, these accursed philosophers proceed to destroy the bonds of union among men, both those which unite them to their rulers, and those which urge them to their duty. They keep proclaiming that man is born free and subject to no one, that society accordingly is a crowd of foolish men who stupidly yield to priests who deceive them and to kings who oppress them, so that the harmony of priest and ruler is only a monstrous conspiracy against the innate liberty of man.

Everyone must understand that such ravings and others like them, concealed in many deceitful guises, cause greater ruin to public calm the longer their impious originators are unrestrained. They cause a serious loss of souls redeemed by Christ's blood wherever their teaching spreads, like a cancer; it forces its way into public academies, into the houses of the great, into the palaces of kings, and even enters the sanctuary, shocking as it is to say so.

Consequently, you who are the salt of the earth, guardians and shepherds of the Lord's flock, whose business it is to fight the battles of the Lord, arise and gird on your sword, which is the word of God, and expel this foul contagion from your lands. How long are we to ignore the common insult to faith and Church? Let the words of Bernard arouse us like a lament of the spouse of Christ: "Of old was it foretold and the time of fulfillment is now at hand: Behold, in peace is my sorrow most sorrowful. It was sorrowful first when the martyrs died; afterwards it was more sorrowful in the fight with the heretics and now it is most sorrowful in the conduct of the members of the household.... The Church is struck within and so in peace is my sorrow most sorrowful. But what peace? There is peace and there is no peace. There is peace from the pagans and peace from the heretics, but no peace from the children. At that time the voice will lament: Sons did I rear and exalt, but they despised me. They despised me and defiled me by a bad life, base gain, evil traffic, and business conducted in the dark." Who can hear these tearful complaints of our most holy mother without feeling a strong urge to devote all his energy and effort to the Church, as he has promised? Therefore cast out the old leaven, remove the evil from your midst. Forcefully and carefully banish poisonous books from the eyes of your flock, and at once courageously set apart those who have been infected, to prevent them harming the rest. The holy Pope Leo used to say, "We can rule those entrusted to us only by pursuing with zeal for the Lord's faith those who destroy and those who are destroyed and by cutting them off from sound minds with the utmost severity to prevent the plague spreading." In doing this We exhort and advise you to be all of one mind and in harmony as you strive for the same object, just as the Church has one faith, one baptism, and one spirit. As you are joined together in the hierarchy, so you should unite equally with virtue and desire.

The affair is of the greatest importance since it concerns the Catholic faith, the purity of the Church, the teaching of the saints, the peace of the empire, and the safety of nations. Since it concerns the entire body of the Church, it is a special concern of yours because you are called to share in Our pastoral concern, and the purity of the faith is particularly entrusted to your watchfulness. "Now therefore, Brothers, since you are overseers among God's people and their soul depends on you, raise their hearts to your utterance," that they may stand fast in faith and achieve the rest which is prepared for believers only. Beseech, accuse, correct, rebuke and fear not: for ill-judged silence leaves in their error those who could be taught, and this is most harmful both to them and to you who should have dispelled the error. The holy Church is powerfully refreshed in the truth as it struggles zealously for the truth. In this divine work you should not fear either the force or favor of your enemies. The bishop should not fear since the anointing of the Holy Spirit has strengthened him: the shepherd should not be afraid since the prince of pastors has taught him by his own example to despise life itself for the safety of his flock: the cowardice and depression of the hireling should not dwell in a bishop's heart. Our great predecessor Gregory, in instructing the heads of the churches, said with his usual excellence: "Often imprudent guides in their fear of losing human favor are afraid to speak the right freely. As the word of truth has it, they guard their flock not with a shepherd's zeal but as hirelings do, since they flee when the wolf approaches by hiding themselves in silence.... A shepherd fearing to speak the right is simply a man retreating by keeping silent." But if the wicked enemy of the human race, the better to frustrate your efforts, ever brings it about that a plague of epidemic proportions is hidden from the religious powers of the world, please do not be terrified but walk in God's house in harmony, with prayer, and in truth, the three arms of our service. Remember that when the people of Juda were defiled, the best means of purification was the public reading to all, from the least to the greatest, of the book of the law lately found by the priest Helcias in the Lord's temple; at once the whole people agreed to destroy the abominations and seal a covenant in the Lord's presence to follow after the Lord and observe His precepts, testimonies and ceremonies with their whole heart and soul." For the same reason Josaphat sent priests and Levites to bring the book of the law throughout the cities of Juda and to teach the people. The proclamation of the divine word has been entrusted to your faith by divine, not human, authority. So assemble your people and preach to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. From that divine source and heavenly teaching draw draughts of true philosophy for your flock. Persuade them that subjects ought to keep faith and show obedience to those who by God's ordering lead and rule them. To those who are devoted to the ministry of the Church, give proofs of faith, continence, sobriety, knowledge, and liberality, that they may please Him to whom they have proved themselves and boast only of what is serious, moderate, and religious. But above all kindle in the minds of everyone that love for one another which Christ the Lord so often and so specifically praised. For this is the one sign of Christians and the bond of perfection.

 

To accept these beautiful words of Pope Pius VI means rejecting the entire ethos of conciliarism and its perverse "accommodation" to the world (see Gaudium et Spes). The necessity of of beseeching, accusing, correcting and rebuking those in error enters not into the minds of those who are steeped in the errors of conciliarism. There is thus no spirit of Saint John the Baptist to be found amongst most of the false shepherds of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. There is no spirit of the Brag of Blessed Edmund Campion. There is only the desire to curry the favor with the high and mighty of this world. Edward Cardinal Egan embodies, therefore, the "fear of losing human favor" that was condemned by Pope Saint Gregory the Great in his Pastoral Guide, referenced by Pope Pius VI in Inscrutabile.

Ultimately, you see, the abortion of the Faith represented by conciliarism produces a vast harvest of aborted souls. This harvest of aborted souls embraces the evils of the world with a ready abandon, knowing full well that they will remain in perfectly good canonical standing in the conciliar structures despite a bold, unrepentant embrace of the very thing, sin, that caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer so horribly during His Passion and Death. Souls in need of correction rarely hear a word of correction. And even when halting words of reproof are offered by a conciliar shepherd, you see, these words are founded on the shifting sands of naturalism, not on the rock solid foundation of the one and only true Faith, the Catholic Faith.

Although it would be nice to turn the tables on the bare-knuckled fighter known as Edward Cardinal Egan by having security guards lock him out of his residence on Madison Avenue as he is eating at one of his favorite establishments, the Bull and Bear Restaurant in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, some evening, our only real recourse is to pray to Our Lady that the Babylonian Captivity of the present time will end sooner rather than later and that the false shepherds wedded to a false religion will convert, thus saving their own souls, and that said conversion will prompt them to spend the rest of their lives in monasteries doing penance for the disservice they have done to Catholics and to those outside of the Church's maternal bosom who are in such desperate need of being called to correction themselves.

The "solution" to the problems exemplified by the reign of Edward Cardinal Egan as the conciliar archbishop of New York is not coming from Conciliar, Modernist Rome in the form of the latter's successor. No, the "solution" to the problems exemplified by the reign of any particular conciliar bishop, including Edward Egan, is to be found in total consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. God is more powerful than all of the petty hirelings who have betrayed the Faith, offended God in the form of worship He wants offered to Him, shuttered the doors of Catholic church buildings, and browbeaten priests and members of the laity who have remained faithful, despite their own sins and failings, to the authentic patrimony of the Catholic Church without any concession to conciliarism and/or to the legitimacy of its hirelings.

Saint Athanasius wrote about this in his biography of St. Antony of the Desert:

The renown of Antony reached even to kings. For on hearing of these things, Constantine Augustus and sons, Constantius Augustus and Constans Augustus, wrote to him as to a father and begged to receive answers from him. He, however, did not value these writings nor rejoice over the letters, but was just what he had been before the kings had written to him. When the letters were brought to him, he called the monks and said, "Do not admire if a king writes to us, for he is a man, but admire rather than God has written the law for men, and has spoken to us by His own Son." He wished not to receive the letters, saying that he knew not what to answer to such. But being urged by the monks because the kings were Christians and they might be scandalized as though he had made them outcasts, he allowed them to be read. And he wrote back, welcoming them because they worshiped Christ, and advised them, for their salvation, not to think much of things present, but rather to remember the coming judgment, and to know that the only true and eternal king is Christ. He begged them also to be lovers of men, to care for justice and to care for the poor. And they were glad to get his letter. So was he beloved by all, and so did all wish to hold him as a father.

With this character, and thus answering those who sought him, he returned again to the mount in the interior and continued his usual life. Often when sitting or walking with visitors he would become dumb, as it is written in Daniel (Cf. Dan. 10:15). After a time he would resume his former discourse with the brethren, but they perceived that he was seeing some vision. For often in the mountain he saw things happening in Egypt, and described them to the Bishop Serapion, who as within and saw Antony occupied with the vision. Once as he sat working, he became as in ecstasy, and in the vision he groaned constantly. Then after a time he turned to his companions groaning; and trembling, he prayed, bending his knees and abiding a long time; and when he arose, the old man was weeping. Then the others trembled and were much afraid and begged him to tell, and long they urged him till he was compelled to speak. Then with a great groan he said, "Ah, my children, better is it to die than that there happen what I have seen in this vision." And when they asked again, he said with tears, "Wrath shall overtake the Church, and she shall be delivered up to men who are like to senseless beasts. For I saw the table of the Lord, and around it mules standing on all sides in a ring and kicking what was within, as might be the kicking of beasts in a wild frolic. You heard surely," he said, "how I was groaning, for I heard a voice saying, "My altar shall be made an abomination."

So the old man said, and two years after came this present onset of the Arians and the plundering of the churches, wherein, seizing by force the vessels, they had them carried away by pagans; when, too, they forced the pagans from the workshops to their meetings and in their presence did what they would on the sacred table. Then we all understood that the kicking of the mules had foreshown to Antony what the Arians are now doing, brutishly as beasts. When he saw this vision, he comforted his companions, saying, "Do not lose heart, children, for as the Lord has been angry, so later will He bring healing. And the Church shall quickly regain her own beauty and shine as before. And you shall see the persecuted restored and impiety retiring to its own hiding places and the True Faith in all places speaking openly with all freedom. Only, defile not yourselves with the Arians. For this teaching is not of the Apostles, but of the demons and their father the devil; and indeed from no source, from no sense, from a mind not right it comes, like the senselessness of mules." (Saint Athanasius, St. Antony of the Desert, TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 93-95.)

 

Although we pray our Rosaries for our own conversion on a daily basis and for the conversion of the conciliarists back to the Catholic Church, we must protect ourselves in the era of conciliarism by having as much contact with them as Saint Antony of the Desert told his brethren to have with the Arians, meaning, of course, no contact at all. "Defile not yourselves with the Arians" can be rendered in our times as "Defile not yourselves with the conciliarists," who have seized "by force the vessels" in our own day and continue to do "what they would on the sacred table." Saint Athanasius put the matter quite directly during one of his exiles in a Letter to His Flock:

 

"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...

"You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day.

"Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."

 

May we have the spirit of Saints Athanasius and Antony in our own days as we flee from conciliarism and pray for the speedily deliverance of the churches that have been seized by them and for the feeding of the flocks they have been deceiving with nothing other than the unchanging truths of the Catholic Faith as the consecrated slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart and as the lovers of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Himself.

Viva Cristo Rey!

 

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 Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.