Mocking Pope Saint Pius X And Our Lady Of Fatima
by Thomas A. Droleskey
Who needs phony stories about telescopes fabricated by embittered fallen-away Catholics who have turned on the true Faith to demonstrate that the lords of the counterfeit church of conciliarism are in the grip of devil when they, those lords of conciliarism, do a perfectly fine job of demonstrating their allegiance to the devil all on their very own? Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI gives us all of the proof that we need of the alliance between the devil and the counterfeit church of conciliarism.
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI wasted no time yesteday upon arriving in Portugal to continue his role of mocking deconstruction of Our Lady's Fatima Message to force it to conform with the conciliar worldview expressed in Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae, December 7, 1965, and in countless "papal" allocutions since that time:
As for the event that took place 93 years ago, when heaven itself was opened over Portugal – like a window of hope that God opens when man closes the door to him – in order to refashion, within the human family, the bonds of fraternal solidarity based on the mutual recognition of the one Father, this was a loving design from God; it does not depend on the Pope, nor on any other ecclesial authority: “It was not the Church that imposed Fatima”, as Cardinal Manuel Cerejeira of blessed memory used to say, “but it was Fatima that imposed itself on the Church.” (Official Reception at Lisbon Portela International Airport, Tuesday, May 11, 2010.)
"In order to refashion, within the human family, the bonds of fraternal solidarity based on the mutual recognition of the one Father. . . ."? What an affront to the truth of the Mother of God as the false "pontiff" justifies the turning of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima into a center of false ecumenism. Consider the words that Our Lady spoke to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, after she had shown them a vision of Hell on July 13, 1917:
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world." (Words spoken by Mary at Fatima.)
I am dense. Yes, I do make mistakes and chase after bogus stories perhaps twice a year or so. I am not the sharpest blade in the tool shed. I will concede all of this right readily. I do fail, however, to see anything about "fraternal solidarity" in this message of Our Lady. I see solely a concern to save souls by the establishment of devotion to her Immaculate Heart.
Furthermore, while it is true, as Ratzinger/Benedict quoted Manuel Cardinal Cerejeira, that the apparition of Our Lady in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, between May 13, 1917, and October 13, 1917, does not depend on a true pope as it was indeed Heaven sent, the faithful fulfillment of Our Lady's Fatima Message does depend upon a true pope consecrating Russia with all of the world's bishops to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, something that Our Lady, keeping her promise made on July 13, 1917, to "come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturdays" by appearing to Sister Lucia dos Santos in the convent chapel in Tuy, Spain, on June 13, 1929:
"The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops in the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray." (Words spoken by Mary at Fatima.)
The effort to deconstruct Our Lady's Fatima Message knows no limits in the Hegelian mind of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.
Ratzinger/Benedict XVI also knows no limits in pushing the thesis of the "separation of Church and State" that was condemned by true pope after true pope prior to 1958, including Pope Saint Pius X, who termed this thesis "absolutely false" in Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906, which has been much quoted on this site, including in today's other article, Three Out of Nine, Something That Matters:
From a wise vision of life and of the world, the just ordering of society follows. Situated within history, the Church is open to cooperating with anyone who does not marginalize or reduce to the private sphere the essential consideration of the human meaning of life. The point at issue is not an ethical confrontation between a secular and a religious system, so much as a question about the meaning that we give to our freedom. What matters is the value attributed to the problem of meaning and its implication in public life. By separating Church and State, the Republican revolution which took place 100 years ago in Portugal, opened up a new area of freedom for the Church, to which the two concordats of 1940 and 2004 would give shape, in cultural settings and ecclesial perspectives profoundly marked by rapid change. For the most part, the sufferings caused by these transformations have been faced with courage. Living amid a plurality of value systems and ethical outlooks requires a journey to the core of one’s being and to the nucleus of Christianity so as to reinforce the quality of one’s witness to the point of sanctity, and to find mission paths that lead even to the radical choice of martyrdom. (Official Reception at Lisbon Portela International Airport, Tuesday, May 11, 2010.)
Apostasy. "By separating Church and State, the Republican revolution which took place 100 years ago in Portugal, opened up a new area of freedom for the Church"? Pluralism strengthens sanctity within the soul? Guess again.
Pope Saint Pius X specifically condemned the very separation of Church and State in Portugal that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI praised yesterday:
2. Whilst the new rulers of Portugal were affording such numerous and awful examples of the abuse of power, you know with what patience and moderation this Apostolic See has acted towards them. We thought that We ought most carefully to avoid any action that could even have the appearance of hostility to the Republic. For We clung to the hope that its rulers would one day take saner counsels and would at length repair, by some new agreement, the injuries inflicted on the Church. In this, however, We have been altogether disappointed, for they have now crowned their evil work by the promulgation of a vicious and pernicious Decree for the Separation of Church and State. But now the duty imposed upon Us by our Apostolic charge will not allow Us to remain passive and silent when so serious a wound has been inflicted upon the rights and dignity of the Catholic religion. Therefore do We now address you, Venerable Brethren, in this letter and denounce to all Christendom the heinousness of this deed.
3. At the outset, the absurd and monstrous character of the decree of which We speak is plain from the fact that it proclaims and enacts that the Republic shall have no religion, as if men individually and any association or nation did not depend upon Him who is the Maker and Preserver of all things; and then from the fact that it liberates Portugal from the observance of the Catholic religion, that religion, We say, which has ever been that nation's greatest safeguard and glory, and has been professed almost unanimously by its people. So let us take it that it has been their pleasure to sever that close alliance between Church and State, confirmed though it was by the solemn faith of treaties. Once this divorce was effected, it would at least have been logical to pay no further attention to the Church, and to leave her the enjoyment of the common liberty and rights which belong to every citizen and every respectable community of peoples. Quite otherwise, however, have things fallen out. This decree bears indeed the name of Separation, but it enacts in reality the reduction of the Church to utter want by the spoliation of her property, and to servitude to the State by oppression in all that touches her sacred power and spirit. (Pope Saint Pius X, Iamdudum, May 24, 1911.)
That the Holy See made an accommodation to the reality caused by the Portuguese decree of separation of Church and State and had its property and many of its privileges restored in the Concordat of 1940 in no way justifies the revolution against the Social Reign of Christ the King in Portugal wrought by the Masonic and socialistic forces there one hundred years ago. Holy Mother Church has long sought to accommodate herself to the concrete realities of any given situation in which her children find themselves so that she can continue her work of teaching and preaching and sanctification without the hindrance of the civil state. To reach a concordat that recognizes the reality of a forced separation of Church and State is not the same thing as endorsing that false thesis or to praise the free flow of false ideas and organizations that have occurred in its wake.
Pope Saint Pius X, far from praising a revolution that suppressed much of the Church's liberties for thirty years prior to the Concordat of 1940, understood that the life of the Church and thus the good of souls in Portugal would be irreparably harmed by the decree of separation of Church and State that was praised by Ratzinger/Benedict yesterday upon his arrival in Lisbon, Portugal:
The way in which the Portuguese law binds and fetters the liberty of the Church is scarcely credible, so repugnant is it to the methods of these modern days and to the public proclamation of all liberty. It is decreed under the heaviest penalties that the acts of the Bishops shall on no account be printed and that not even within the walls of the churches shall there be any announcement made to the people except by leave of the Republic. It is, moreover, forbidden to perform any ceremony outside the precincts of the sacred buildings without permission from the Republic, to go round in procession, to wear sacred vestments or even the cassock. Furthermore, it is forbidden to place any sign which savors of the Catholic religion not only on public monuments, but even on private buildings; but there is no prohibition at all against so exposing what is offensive to Catholics. Similarly, it is unlawful to form associations for the fostering of religion and piety; indeed societies of this sort are placed on a level with the criminal associations which are formed for evil purposes. And whilst on the one hand all citizens are allowed to employ their means according to their pleasure, on the other, Catholics are, against all justice and equity, placed under restrictions like these if they wish to bequeath something for prayers for the dead, or the upkeep of divine worship; and such bequests already made are impiously diverted to other purposes in utter violation of the wills and wishes of the testators. In fine, the Republic -- and this is harshest and gravest stroke of all -- goes so far as to invade the domain of the authority of the Church, and to make provisions on points which, as they concern the constitution of the priesthood, necessarily claim the special care of the Church. We speak of the formation and training of young ecclesiastics. For not only does the Decree compel ecclesiastical students to pursue their scientific and literary studies which precede theology in the public lycees where, by reason of a spirit of hostility to God and the Church, the integrity of their faith plainly is exposed to the greatest peril; but the Republic even interferes in the domestic life and discipline of the Seminaries, and arrogates the right of appointing the professors, of approving of the textbooks and of regulating the sacred studies of the Clerics. Thus are the old decrees of the Regalists revived and enforced; but what was grievous arrogance whilst there was concord between Church and State, is it not now, when the State will have nothing to do with Church, repugnant and full of absurdity? And what is to be said of the fact that this law is positively framed to deprave the morals of the clergy and to provoke them to abandon their superiors? For fixed pensions are assigned to those who have been suspended from their functions by the authority of the Bishops, and benefices are given to those priests who in miserable forgetfulness of their duty shall have dared to contract marriage; and what is still more shameful to record, it extends the same benefits to be shared and enjoyed by any children there may be of such a sacrilegious union. (Pope Saint Pius X, Iamdudum, May 24, 1911.)
The revolution praised by Ratzinger/Benedict yesterday did not open up a "new era of freedom for the Church" as the subsequent concordats (1940 and (2004) sought only to limit the effects of a revolution that had its inspiration from the same source as conciliarism, the devil himself. Unlike the concordat of 1940, which was negotiated under the pontificate of our last true pope thus far, Pope Pius XII, the concordat negotiated by the then Secretary of State of the Holy See, Angelo "Cardinal" Sodano (another of the troika that helped to deconstruct Our Lady's Fatima Message), specifically recognized and accepted the separation of Church and Sate in Portugal:
The Holy See and the Portuguese Republic, recognising that the Catholic Church and the State are, each and severally, autonomous and independent; taking into account the deep and historical ties between the Catholic Church and Portugal and bearing in mind the reciprocal responsibilities which bind them together, within the limits of religious freedom, and for the benefit of the common good and the duty of building a society which promotes the dignity of the mankind, justice and peace; recognising the Concordat of 7 May 1940, agreed between the Holy See and the Portuguese Republic, and its application has contributed to a considerable extent in to strengthen their historical ties and consolidate the activity of the Catholic Church in Portugal for the benefit of the faithful and for the Portuguese community in general; mindful of the need of an up-date in the light of profound changes on a national and international scale, and in particular as regards the Portuguese legal system, the new Democratic Constitution, revised provisions of European Community law and contemporary international law, and in so far as this affects the church, and the evolution of its relations with the political community; have agreed to stipulate the following Concordat in the terms laid down:
Article 1
The Holy See and the Portuguese Republic declare the commitment of the state and the Catholic Church to cooperate in promoting the dignity of mankind, justice and peace.
The Portuguese Republic recognises the legal status of the Catholic Church.
Relations between the Holy See and the Portuguese Republic are assured through the auspices of an Apostolic Nuncio, as attaché to the Portuguese Republic, and a Portuguese Ambassador to the Holy See. ( Church-State Concordat in Portugal 2004)
Circumstances within countries do change. Granted. Concordats may need to be amended from time to time. Certainly. Catholic teaching remains immutable, and one of the articles of Catholic teaching that remains immutable is the condemnation of the separation of Church and State:
Many believe in or claim that they believe in and hold fast to Catholic doctrine on such questions as social authority, the right of owning private property, on the relations between capital and labor, on the rights of the laboring man, on the relations between Church and State, religion and country, on the relations between the different social classes, on international relations, on the rights of the Holy See and the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff and the Episcopate, on the social rights of Jesus Christ, Who is the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord not only of individuals but of nations. In spite of these protestations, they speak, write, and, what is more, act as if it were not necessary any longer to follow, or that they did not remain still in full force, the teachings and solemn pronouncements which may be found in so many documents of the Holy See, and particularly in those written by Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV.
There is a species of moral, legal, and social modernism which We condemn, no less decidedly than We condemn theological modernism.
It is necessary ever to keep in mind these teachings and pronouncements which We have made; it is no less necessary to reawaken that spirit of faith, of supernatural love, and of Christian discipline which alone can bring to these principles correct understanding, and can lead to their observance. This is particularly important in the case of youth, and especially those who aspire to the priesthood, so that in the almost universal confusion in which we live they at least, as the Apostle writes, will not be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive." (Ephesians iv, 14) (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)
Pope Pius XII made it clear in Humani Generis, August 12, 1950, that we are duty bound to accept papal encyclical letters, something that Ratzinger/Benedict does not believe applies to the "older" encyclical letters condemning the separation of Church and State as he believes that those letters were conditioned by the historical circumstances in which they were written, thus making them subject to modification at a later time. Once again, however, this is false. Catholic truth is immutable, admitting that it may not be possible always in the circumstances of the world to realize this teaching with exactness. He is as bound as each of one us to accept and to preach the immutable teaching that the civil state has an obligation to recognize the Catholic Church and to accord her the favor and the protection of the laws:
Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their Teaching Authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say: "He who heareth you, heareth me"; and generally what is expounded and inculcated in Encyclical Letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic doctrine. But if the Supreme Pontiffs in their official documents purposely pass judgment on a matter up to that time under dispute, it is obvious that that matter, according to the mind and will of the same Pontiffs, cannot be any longer considered a question open to discussion among theologians. (Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, August 12, 1950.)
Unlike Ratzinger/Benedict, who praised the decree of the separation of Church and State as a "liberating" factor in the life of the Catholic Church, Pope Saint Pius X condemned it very vigorously:
Accordingly, under the admonition of the duty of Our Apostolic office that, in the face of such audacity on the part of the enemies of God, We should most vigilantly protect the dignity and honor of religion and preserve the sacred rights of the Catholic Church, We by our Apostolic authority denounce, condemn, and reject the Law for the Separation of Church and State in the Portuguese Republic. This law despises God and repudiates the Catholic faith; it annuls the treaties solemnly made between Portugal and the Apostolic See, and violates the law of nature and of her property; it oppresses the liberty of the Church, and assails her divine Constitution; it injures and insults the majesty of the Roman Pontificate, the order of Bishops, the Portuguese clergy and people, and so the Catholics of the world. And whilst We strenuously complain that such a law should have been made, sanctioned, and published, We utter a solemn protest against those who have had a part in it as authors or helpers, and, at the same time, We proclaim and denounce as null and void, and to be so regarded, all that the law has enacted against the inviolable rights of the Church. (Pope Saint Pius X, Iamdudum, May 24, 1911.)
The contrast cannot be much clearer.
I have noted frequently on this site that God has known from all eternity that these are the circumstances that would face us in our days. I remind my readers of this in order to reassure them that there is nothing to fear, that we have the intercessory power of Our Lady and Saint Joseph and all of all of the angels and the saint to help us in these times of apostasy and betrayal. God knows the end of the story. He lives outside of time and space. He sees the beginning and the end of the world in an "instant now." He wins. Antichrist gets defeated.
This is not, I want to make clear, an invitation to be passive about the events of the Church Militant on earth or in the world-at-large. Not at all. We are called to work and work very hard until the day we die as we seek to sanctify our souls by fulfilling the duties imposed by our freely-chosen state-in-life and as we seek to make reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary for our sins and those of the whole world. Pope Leo XIII reminded Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini upon one of her visits to him after she had begun her missionary work in the Americas to keep working, keep working until the end:
By this time Mother Cabrini was well known among the Noble Guards. She was one of the privileged few who could have a private audience with the Pontiff. Yet, one day, after a private audience with the Holy Father, Mother Cabrini stopped with a group of sisters in the first gallery. She loved the Pope so much that she took every opportunity to see him. He, in turn, immediately spotted the foundress among her sisters and asked her:
"How many Sisters are leaving for America this time?"
"Sixteen, Your Holiness?"
"When are they leaving?'
"In September, Holy Father."
"Let us work, Cabrini, let us work, for after there is a beautiful paradise."
"I like to work, Your Holiness, but will paradise be ours?"
"Certainly, paradise is for those who work like you. Courage, Cabrini, on with your work...onward until death." The Holy Father pronounced those last words with such ardor that all who heard him were deeply impressed. When he reached the entrance to his apartments he turned and repeated: "Let us work, Cabrini, let us work." Mother Cabrini followed him with her eyes until he was out of sight; she was radiant with joy, for the Supreme Pontiff had promised her heaven if she continued her work." (Mother Cabrini, pp. 91-92.)
Saint Paul warned the Thessalonians not to sit around and wait for Second Coming of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which some of them thought was imminent. The end our own particular worlds can occur at any time:
And we charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they have received of us. For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us: for we were not disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and in toil we worked night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you. Not as if we had not power: but that we might give ourselves a pattern unto you, to imitate us. For also when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat.
For we have heard there are some among you who walk disorderly, working not at all, but curiously meddling. Now we charge them that are such, and beseech them by the Lord Jesus Christ, that, working with silence, they would eat their own bread. But you, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed: yet do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (2 Thessalonians 3: 6-15.)
In like manner, of course, we must work, work, work as we base all of our efforts to plant seeds for the restoration of the Church Militant on earth for the Social Reign of Christ the King as the fruit of the fulfillment of Our Lady's Fatima Message and the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart in fervent prayer, doing so as the consecrated slaves of Christ the King through that same Immaculate Heart.
Suffice it to say for the present moment that we need to pray those Rosaries of reparation requested by Our Lady of Fatima for our sins and those of the whole world, including the sins of the man who almost everyone in the world believes is the Vicar of Christ, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who dared to speak about the "church's" need to "relearn penance" yesteday while heaping more hot coals upon himself by mocking Our Lady and Pope Saint Pius X as soon as he got off the plane.
Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!
Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.
Saints Nereus, Achilleus, Pancras, and Domitilla, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints
Appendix
IAMDUDUM
Encyclical of Pope Pius X promulgated on May 24, 1911.
To Our Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and the Ordinaries of other places in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction.
You are already, We think, well aware, Venerable Brethren, of the incredible series of excesses and crimes which has been enacted in Portugal for the oppression of the Church. For who does not know that, when the Republican form of Government was adopted in that country, there immediately began to be promulgated measures breathing the most implacable hatred of the Catholic religion? We have seen religious communities evicted from their homes, and most of them driven beyond the Portuguese frontiers. We have seen, arising out of an obstinate determination to secularize every civil organization and to leave no trace of religion in the acts of common life, the deletion of the feast days of the Church from the number of public festivals, the abolition of religious oaths, the hasty establishment of the law of divorce and religious instruction banished from the public schools. And then, to pass over in silence other enormities which would take too long to enumerate, the Bishops have been savagely attacked, and two of the most prominent of them, the Bishops of Oporto and Beia, men who are illustrious by the integrity of their lives and by their great services to their country and the Church, have been driven out of their sees and stripped of their honors.
2. Whilst the new rulers of Portugal were affording such numerous and awful examples of the abuse of power, you know with what patience and moderation this Apostolic See has acted towards them. We thought that We ought most carefully to avoid any action that could even have the appearance of hostility to the Republic. For We clung to the hope that its rulers would one day take saner counsels and would at length repair, by some new agreement, the injuries inflicted on the Church. In this, however, We have been altogether disappointed, for they have now crowned their evil work by the promulgation of a vicious and pernicious Decree for the Separation of Church and State. But now the duty imposed upon Us by our Apostolic charge will not allow Us to remain passive and silent when so serious a wound has been inflicted upon the rights and dignity of the Catholic religion. Therefore do We now address you, Venerable Brethren, in this letter and denounce to all Christendom the heinousness of this deed.
3. At the outset, the absurd and monstrous character of the decree of which We speak is plain from the fact that it proclaims and enacts that the Republic shall have no religion, as if men individually and any association or nation did not depend upon Him who is the Maker and Preserver of all things; and then from the fact that it liberates Portugal from the observance of the Catholic religion, that religion, We say, which has ever been that nation's greatest safeguard and glory, and has been professed almost unanimously by its people. So let us take it that it has been their pleasure to sever that close alliance between Church and State, confirmed though it was by the solemn faith of treaties. Once this divorce was effected, it would at least have been logical to pay no further attention to the Church, and to leave her the enjoyment of the common liberty and rights which belong to every citizen and every respectable community of peoples. Quite otherwise, however, have things fallen out. This decree bears indeed the name of Separation, but it enacts in reality the reduction of the Church to utter want by the spoliation of her property, and to servitude to the State by oppression in all that touches her sacred power and spirit.
4. First, so far as property is concerned, the Portuguese Republic severs itself from the Church in such a way that it leaves her nothing at all from which to provide for the decency of the house of God, the maintenance of the clergy and the exercise of the manifold duties of charity and piety. For by the articles of this decree not only is the Church despoiled of all the property, whether real or movable, which she holds by the strongest of titles, but she is deprived of all power of acquiring anything for the future. It is indeed provided that certain civil bodies shall have the care of exercise of religious worship; but it is astounding to see within what narrow limits permission to receive any offerings for this purpose is circumscribed. Moreover, the obligations under which Catholic citizens have been accustomed to assist or maintain their respective parish priests, these the decree abolishes and suppresses, forbidding anything to be henceforth demanded for this purpose. It allows Catholics to provide for the cost of divine worship by voluntary alms, but it requires that a third of the sum so contributed shall be set apart and employed for works of civil assistance. And to crown all, under this new law, the buildings which may be henceforth acquired or erected for the exercise of religion are, after the lapse of a given term of years, to pass from the rightful owners without any compensation and to become public property.
5. But in those matters with which it is the sacred prerogative of the Church to deal, much more seriously injurious is this mockery of Separation, which, as We have said, reduces the Church to shameful servitude.
6. First of all the Hierarchy is set aside as if its existence were unknown. And if men in holy orders are mentioned, it is only that they may be prohibited from having anything to do with the ordering of public worship. This work is entirely handed over to associations of laymen already established or to be established as societies of public assistance according to the regulations of the administrative under the power of the Republic and in no way depending on the authority of the Church. And if from the actions of the associations to which this duty is entrusted disputes arise between clerics and lay people or between lay people alone, the decision is to lie not with the Church but with the Republic, which claims all power over these bodies. Indeed, so completely do the rulers of the Portuguese Republic deny any place to the clergy in the organization of divine worship that they have definitely laid it down and provided that those who exercise the ministry of religion may not be co-opted as members of the aforesaid parish associations or be allotted any part in their administration or direction. Than such a provision nothing can be imagined more unjust or more intolerable, for it puts the clergy at the beck of other citizens in the very matters upon which they are the rightful directors.
7. The way in which the Portuguese law binds and fetters the liberty of the Church is scarcely credible, so repugnant is it to the methods of these modern days and to the public proclamation of all liberty. It is decreed under the heaviest penalties that the acts of the Bishops shall on no account be printed and that not even within the walls of the churches shall there be any announcement made to the people except by leave of the Republic. It is, moreover, forbidden to perform any ceremony outside the precincts of the sacred buildings without permission from the Republic, to go round in procession, to wear sacred vestments or even the cassock. Furthermore, it is forbidden to place any sign which savors of the Catholic religion not only on public monuments, but even on private buildings; but there is no prohibition at all against so exposing what is offensive to Catholics. Similarly, it is unlawful to form associations for the fostering of religion and piety; indeed societies of this sort are placed on a level with the criminal associations which are formed for evil purposes. And whilst on the one hand all citizens are allowed to employ their means according to their pleasure, on the other, Catholics are, against all justice and equity, placed under restrictions like these if they wish to bequeath something for prayers for the dead, or the upkeep of divine worship; and such bequests already made are impiously diverted to other purposes in utter violation of the wills and wishes of the testators. In fine, the Republic -- and this is harshest and gravest stroke of all -- goes so far as to invade the domain of the authority of the Church, and to make provisions on points which, as they concern the constitution of the priesthood, necessarily claim the special care of the Church. We speak of the formation and training of young ecclesiastics. For not only does the Decree compel ecclesiastical students to pursue their scientific and literary studies which precede theology in the public lycees where, by reason of a spirit of hostility to God and the Church, the integrity of their faith plainly is exposed to the greatest peril; but the Republic even interferes in the domestic life and discipline of the Seminaries, and arrogates the right of appointing the professors, of approving of the textbooks and of regulating the sacred studies of the Clerics. Thus are the old decrees of the Regalists revived and enforced; but what was grievous arrogance whilst there was concord between Church and State, is it not now, when the State will have nothing to do with Church, repugnant and full of absurdity? And what is to be said of the fact that this law is positively framed to deprave the morals of the clergy and to provoke them to abandon their superiors? For fixed pensions are assigned to those who have been suspended from their functions by the authority of the Bishops, and benefices are given to those priests who in miserable forgetfulness of their duty shall have dared to contract marriage; and what is still more shameful to record, it extends the same benefits to be shared and enjoyed by any children there may be of such a sacrilegious union.
8. Lastly, it is not enough for the Republic, after having despoiled her of her property, to impose an almost slavish yoke upon the Church of Portugal; it even, on the one hand, strives as far as it can, to tear her from the bosom of Catholic unity and from the arms of the Roman Church, and on the other to prevent the Apostolic See from exercising its solicitude and its authority in the religious affairs of Portugal. Thus, in virtue of this Decree, it is not even lawful to publish, without permission publicly given, the commands of the Roman Pontiff. Similarly, a priest who has gained his degrees in sacred science in a college constituted by Papal authority, even though he has made his theological course in his own country, is not permitted to exercise his sacred functions. What the Republic in all this wants is plain; it is to prevent young clerics, who are desirous of improving themselves and finishing in the higher studies, from coming for this purpose to this City, the head of the Catholic world, where certainly more than anywhere else it is a fact of experience that minds are more imbued with the incorrupted truth of Christian teaching and by sincere piety and faith to the Apostolic See. These, to omit others which are equally pernicious, are the chief points of this wicked Decree.
9. Accordingly, under the admonition of the duty of Our Apostolic office that, in the face of such audacity on the part of the enemies of God, We should most vigilantly protect the dignity and honor of religion and preserve the sacred rights of the Catholic Church, We by our Apostolic authority denounce, condemn, and reject the Law for the Separation of Church and State in the Portuguese Republic. This law despises God and repudiates the Catholic faith; it annuls the treaties solemnly made between Portugal and the Apostolic See, and violates the law of nature and of her property; it oppresses the liberty of the Church, and assails her divine Constitution; it injures and insults the majesty of the Roman Pontificate, the order of Bishops, the Portuguese clergy and people, and so the Catholics of the world. And whilst We strenuously complain that such a law should have been made, sanctioned, and published, We utter a solemn protest against those who have had a part in it as authors or helpers, and, at the same time, We proclaim and denounce as null and void, and to be so regarded, all that the law has enacted against the inviolable rights of the Church.
10. Assuredly, these days of difficulty in which Portugal since the public proclamation of the Republic is so tormented, are to Us a source of great anxiety and sorrow. We are deeply grieved at the sight of so many evils, which are pressing upon a nation so dear to Us; We are torn with anxiety at the apprehension of worse things to come, which certainly threaten it unless the powers that be seriously consider the duty of their position. But in the midst of all this, your eminent virtue, Venerable Brethren, who govern the Church of Portugal, and the earnestness of the clergy which seconds that virtue, are no small consolation to Us, and afford good hope that with God's help things will one day take a turn for the better. For you all recently showed a sense not of security or of well-being, but of your duty and its dignity, when you openly and fearlessly repudiated this iniquitous Law of Separation; when with one voice you proclaimed that you would rather recover the freedom of your ministry, even at the loss of all your property, than suffer servitude for the sake of paltry pensions; when, in fine, you declared that never, either by promises or by force should your enemies be able to sunder you from your allegiance to the Roman Pontiff Those splendid proofs of faith, constancy, and greatness of mind which you have given in the sight of the whole Church -- be assured that they have been a source of joy to all good men, as well as a credit to yourselves and a comfort to Portugal herself in her affliction. Wherefore, continue as you have begun, to defend with all your might the cause of religion with which the very welfare of your common fatherland is bound up; but see to it, first and above all else, that you carefully preserve and strengthen the greatest concord and unity between yourselves, then between yourselves and Christian people, and all of you with this See of Blessed Peter. For, as we have said, the purpose of the authors of this wicked law is not, as they would make out, to separate the Church of Portugal, which they despoil and oppress, from the Republic, but from the Vicar of Christ. If you strive to meet and resist such a design on the part of these men and such a crime with all your might, then certainly you will have done well for the good of Catholic Portugal. Meanwhile, We, for the singular love We bear you, shall be suppliants to Almighty God that He may in His goodness favor your zeal and your efforts. And We beg you, Bishops of the rest of the Catholic world, to fulfill the same duty on behalf of your suffering brethren in Portugal in their time of need.
11. As an earnest of divine gifts and a pledge of Our benevolence, We impart from Our heart to you all, Venerable Brethren, and to your clergy and people the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 24th day of May, on the feast of Our Lady Mary, the Help of Christians, in the year 1911, and the eighth of Our Pontificate. (Iamdudum.)
