No "Common Ground" Between Truth and Error

by Thomas A. Droleskey

President Barack Hussein Obama's long-awaited appearance at the University of Notre Dame engendered a great deal of controversy. Despite all of the protests assembled by a veritable potpourri of individuals and groups, some of whose tactics were evocative more of an Americanist spirit of protest than a Catholic spirit of penance and reparation, the pro-abortion and statist President of the United States of America was greeted enthusiastically by the graduating classes of 2009 at the University of Notre Dame du Lac (whose long history of undermining the Faith was summarized in (Our Lady Does Not Honor Pro-Aborts ):

There was little patience for the demonstrators inside Joyce Center, however. A relative handful of graduating students adorned their mortar boards with a yellow cross and a pair of baby feet, an anti-abortion symbol. But just as many had Mr. Obama’s red-white-and-blue campaign logo on theirs and the building erupted in loud and sustained cheering when the president entered.

Soon after Mr. Obama started speaking, a man sitting in near the rafters of the stadium began shouting at him, but was quickly drowned out by the crowd around him and taken away by security officers. Three other men repeated the same pattern at different points in the speech, shouting, "baby killer" and "stop killing our children." The crowd responded to one of them by shouting Mr. Obama’s campaign slogan, "Yes, we can." (Obama Calls for a Dialogue on Abortion)

 

Do not kid yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, the well-meaning people who organized protests to express opposition to the awarding of an honorary doctorate by a formerly Catholic university named in honor of the Mother of God, who does not honor pro-aborts, do not represent a "turning of the tide" insofar as Catholic attitudes about abortion after forty years of educational malformation in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

The scattered protests, as well-intentioned as they were and involving much sacrifice on the part of those who participated therein, do not represent any sign that "things" are "getting better. The fact that students at a supposedly Catholic university named in honor of the Mother of God could erupt in "loud and sustained cheering" when Caesar Obamus entered the Joyce Center at the University of Notre Dame du Lac tells you all you need to know about the simple truth that the apostasy of the conciliar ethos does indeed have consequences.

These graduates of the University of Notre Dame du Lac who erupted in massive applause for a man who has issued Executive Orders that have taken the lives of innocent preborn children in their mothers' wombs will take their places in the conciliar structures and they will divide along partisan political lines to support the candidates of the two major organized crime families of naturalism in the United States of American, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and almost none of them will become an advocate of the Social Reign of Christ the King who sees that the ethos of the counterfeit church of conciliarism in which they were "educated" at the University of Notre Dame is compatible, although certainly not entirely identical, with the spirit of the commencement address delivered by Caesar Obamus yesterday afternoon in Notre Dame, Indiana.

I. "Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone"

Caesar Obamus demonstrated in his commencement address yesterday at the University of Notre Dame du Lac in Notre Dame, Indiana, that he is indeed a thorough child of the spirit of Judeo-Masonry that helped to create the modern civil state, founded in the naturalist lies of religious indifferentism and semi-Pelagianism (the heresy that human beings more or less "stir up" graces within themselves to be virtuous and to save souls, that they do not need to have belief in, access to and cooperation with Sanctifying Grace in order to grow in virtue, no less in sanctity), including the United States of America. One of the first substantive paragraphs in his speech yesterday is a perfect reflection of this Judo-Masonic spirit that so many reflexive Americanists deny had any influence at all upon the men who had a founding hatred for Christ the King:

Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history. (Text of Obama Speech at the University of Notre Dame.)

 

This is pure, unadulterated Judeo-Masonry. It is a denial of the truths contained in the Deposit of Faith, reiterated over and over again by true pope after true pope, expressed particularly clearly by Pope Leo XIII in A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902, and by Pope Saint Pius X in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910, and by Pope Pius XI in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

Just as Christianity cannot penetrate into the soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into public life without establishing order. With the idea of a God Who governs all, Who is infinitely Wise, Good, and Just, the idea of duty seizes upon the consciences of men. It assuages sorrow, it calms hatred, it engenders heroes. If it has transformed pagan society--and that transformation was a veritable resurrection--for barbarism disappeared in proportion as Christianity extended its sway, so, after the terrible shocks which unbelief has given to the world in our days, it will be able to put that world again on the true road, and bring back to order the States and peoples of modern times. But the return of Christianity will not be efficacious and complete if it does not restore the world to a sincere love of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies Itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption. It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which  it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. Legitimate dispenser of the teachings of the Gospel it does not reveal itself only as the consoler and Redeemer of souls, but It is still more the internal source of justice and charity, and the propagator as well as the guardian of true liberty, and of that equality which alone is possible here below. In applying the doctrine of its Divine Founder, It maintains a wise equilibrium and marks the true limits between the rights and privileges of society. The equality which it proclaims does not destroy the distinction between the different social classes. It keeps them intact, as nature itself demands, in order to oppose the anarchy of reason emancipated from Faith, and abandoned to its own devices. The liberty which it gives in no wise conflicts with the rights of truth, because those rights are superior to the demands of liberty. Not does it infringe upon the rights of justice, because those rights are superior to the claims of mere numbers or power. Nor does it assail the rights of God because they are superior to the rights of humanity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)

But, on the contrary, by ignoring the laws governing human nature and by breaking the bounds within which they operate, the human person is lead, not toward progress, but towards death. This, nevertheless, is what they want to do with human society; they dream of changing its natural and traditional foundations; they dream of a Future City built on different principles, and they dare to proclaim these more fruitful and more beneficial than the principles upon which the present Christian City rests.

No, Venerable Brethren, We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker - the City cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization, it is the Catholic City. It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants. Omnia instaurare in Christo.

Here we have, founded by Catholics, an inter-denominational association that is to work for the reform of civilization, an undertaking which is above all religious in character; for there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact. The new Sillonists cannot pretend that they are merely working on “the ground of practical realities” where differences of belief do not matter. Their leader is so conscious of the influence which the convictions of the mind have upon the result of the action, that he invites them, whatever religion they may belong to, “to provide on the ground of practical realities, the proof of the excellence of their personal convictions.” And with good reason: indeed, all practical results reflect the nature of one’s religious convictions, just as the limbs of a man down to his finger-tips, owe their very shape to the principle of life that dwells in his body. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

Because the Church is by divine institution the sole depository and interpreter of the ideals and teachings of Christ, she alone possesses in any complete and true sense the power effectively to combat that materialistic philosophy which has already done and, still threatens, such tremendous harm to the home and to the state. The Church alone can introduce into society and maintain therein the prestige of a true, sound spiritualism, the spiritualism of Christianity which both from the point of view of truth and of its practical value is quite superior to any exclusively philosophical theory. The Church is the teacher and an example of world good-will, for she is able to inculcate and develop in mankind the "true spirit of brotherly love" (St. Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, i, 30) and by raising the public estimation of the value and dignity of the individual's soul help thereby to lift us even unto God.

Finally, the Church is able to set both public and private life on the road to righteousness by demanding that everything and all men become obedient to God "Who beholdeth the heart," to His commands, to His laws, to His sanctions. If the teachings of the Church could only penetrate in some such manner as We have described the inner recesses of the consciences of mankind, be they rulers or be they subjects, all eventually would be so apprised of their personal and civic duties and their mutual responsibilities that in a short time "Christ would be all, and in all." (Colossians iii, 11)

Since the Church is the safe and sure guide to conscience, for to her safe-keeping alone there has been confided the doctrines and the promise of the assistance of Christ, she is able not only to bring about at the present hour a peace that is truly the peace of Christ, but can, better than any other agency which We know of, contribute greatly to the securing of the same peace for the future, to the making impossible of war in the future. For the Church teaches (she alone has been given by God the mandate and the right to teach with authority) that not only our acts as individuals but also as groups and as nations must conform to the eternal law of God. In fact, it is much more important that the acts of a nation follow God's law, since on the nation rests a much greater responsibility for the consequences of its acts than on the individual.

When, therefore, governments and nations follow in all their activities, whether they be national or international, the dictates of conscience grounded in the teachings, precepts, and example of Jesus Christ, and which are binding on each and every individual, then only can we have faith in one another's word and trust in the peaceful solution of the difficulties and controversies which may grow out of differences in point of view or from clash of interests. An attempt in this direction has already and is now being made; its results, however, are almost negligible and, especially so, as far as they can be said to affect those major questions which divide seriously and serve to arouse nations one against the other. No merely human institution of today can be as successful in devising a set of international laws which will be in harmony with world conditions as the Middle Ages were in the possession of that true League of Nations, Christianity. It cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages this law was often violated; still it always existed as an ideal, according to which one might judge the acts of nations, and a beacon light calling those who had lost their way back to the safe road.

There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

 

Barack Hussein Obama also noted that the world's "religions" can "work together" to build the "better world"--and his invocation of the late Joseph "Cardinal" Bernardin's "common ground" initiative--is quite similar to the spirit expressed by the false "pontiff," Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, during his recently concluded pilgrimage to Jordan and Israel:

For if there is one law that we can be most certain of, it is the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It is no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. To serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth. (Text of Obama Speech at the University of Notre Dame.)

The use of scientific knowledge needs the guiding light of ethical wisdom. Such is the wisdom that inspired the Hippocratic Oath, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and other laudable international codes of conduct. Hence religious and ethical wisdom, by answering questions of meaning and value, play a central role in professional formation. And consequently, those universities where the quest for truth goes hand in hand with the search for what is good and noble, offer an indispensable service to society.

With these thoughts in mind, I encourage in a special way the Christian students of Jordan and the neighboring regions, to dedicate themselves responsibly to a proper professional and moral formation. You are called to be builders of a just and peaceful society composed of peoples of various religious and ethnic backgrounds. These realities – I wish to stress once more – must lead, not to division, but to mutual enrichment. The mission and the vocation of the University of Madaba is precisely to help you participate more fully in this noble task  (Blessing of the foundation stone of Madaba University of the Latin Patriarchate May 9, 2009.)

Our encounter today is a most fitting occasion to give thanks to the Almighty for the many blessings which have accompanied the dialogue conducted by the Bilateral Commission, and to look forward with expectation to its future sessions. The willingness of the delegates to discuss openly and patiently not only points of agreement, but also points of difference, has already paved the way to more effective collaboration in public life. Jews and Christians alike are concerned to ensure respect for the sacredness of human life, the centrality of the family, a sound education for the young, and the freedom of religion and conscience for a healthy society. These themes of dialogue represent only the initial phases of what we trust will be a steady, progressive journey towards an enhanced mutual understanding.

An indication of the potential of this series of meetings is readily seen in our shared concern in the face of moral relativism and the offences it spawns against the dignity of the human person. In approaching the most urgent ethical questions of our day, our two communities are challenged to engage people of good will at the level of reason, while simultaneously pointing to the religious foundations which best sustain lasting moral values. May the dialogue that has begun continue to generate ideas on how Christians and Jews can work together to heighten society’s appreciation of the distinctive contribution of our religious and ethical traditions. Here in Israel, given that Christians constitute only a small portion of the total population, they particularly value opportunities for dialogue with their Jewish neighbors. (Courtesy visit to the two Chief Rabbis of Jerusalem at Hechal Shlomo Center in Jerusalem, May 12, 2009)

Galilee, a land known for its religious and ethnic diversity, is home to a people who know well the efforts required to live in harmonious coexistence. Our different religious traditions have a powerful potential to promote a culture of peace, especially through teaching and preaching the deeper spiritual values of our common humanity. By molding the hearts of the young, we mold the future of humanity itself. Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze, and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence while preparing them to be builders of a better world. (Meeting with the religious leaders of Galilee in the Auditorium of the Shrine of the Annunciation in Nazareth, May 14, 2009.)

 

The spirit of Judeo-Masonry and that of the Modernism of the counterfeit church of conciliarism both reject the immutable truth that the civil state has an obligation to recognize the true religion, the Catholic Faith, and to accord her the favor the protection of the laws, yield to her in all that pertains to the good of souls, upon which rests social order within nations and true peace among them. The spirit of Judeo-Masonry and that of the Modernism of the counterfeit church of conciliarism both reject the simple truth that Catholicism alone is the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

This is the spirit that animated Ratzinger/Benedict during his recent pilgrimage to Jordan and Israel. This is the spirit that has animated what passes for "Catholic" education at the University of Notre Dame. This is the spirit that has produce men such as Barack Hussein Obama, who even spoke about the "Christian tradition" (not dogmatic teaching, you understand) of "original sin" his address yesterday (suggesting that some Catholic had a hand in drafting his speech, perhaps his conciliar apologist Douglas Kmiec; see Trapped by Apostasy and Willfully Trapped by Apostasy), who are convinced that "no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone" and that "religions" can "work together" to build the "better world."

 

II. Without a Clue as to Who God Is and What He Has Revealed to us exclusively through His true Church

Barack Hussein Obama also showed his utter ignorance about the meaning of Faith and God's own very identity throughout his commencement address yesterday that was redolent with the sophisms produced by ignorance and displayed for him to read on his ever-present TelePrompter:

But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It is the belief in things not seen. It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us, and those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

 

True Faith in God as He has revealed Himself to us through His true Church excludes all doubt whatsoever. The Act of Faith that we pray each morning makes this abundantly clear:

O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God, in three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost: I believe that Thy Divine Son became Man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead.  I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.  Amen.

 

Doubt in what God has revealed? Never.

Doubt about the plan of God's Providence for our lives? Never.

And while the specifics of our lives are indeed known to God alone, which is why we trust completely in His Providence without a moment of doubt, we do know that he has planned for us: to live in a state of Sanctifying Grace as members of His Catholic Church so that we can be ready at all times to die in that same state and thus be able to enjoy the glory of His Beatific Vision in an unending Easter Sunday of glory in Paradise after lives of prayer, penance and reparation here on earth as we have offered up those prayers and sufferings and penances and acts of reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Morning Offering that we pray each day upon arising makes this abundantly clear:

 

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary I offer Thee all my prayers, works, and sufferings in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the intentions for which He pleads and offers Himself in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, in thanksgiving for Thy favors, in reparation for my offenses, and in humble supplication for my temporal and eternal welfare, for the wants of our holy Mother the Church, for the conversion of sinners, and for the relief of the poor souls in purgatory.

 

Disbelief or doubt as to what God has revealed to us is of the essence of Judeo-Masonry, as Pope Leo XIII made clear in Humanum Genus, April 20, 1884:

If those who are admitted as members are not commanded to abjure by any form of words the Catholic doctrines, this omission, so far from being adverse to the designs of the Freemasons is more useful for their purposes. First, in this way they easily deceive the simple-minded and the heedless, and can induce a far greater number to become members. Again, as all who offer themselves are received whatever may be their form of religion, they thereby teach the great error of this age -- that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike. This manner of reasoning is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion, and especially of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only one that is true, cannot, without great injustice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions.

But the naturalists go much further; for, having, in the highest things, entered upon a wholly erroneous course, they are carried headlong to extremes, either by reason of the weakness of human nature, or because God inflicts upon them the just punishment of their pride. Hence it happens that they no longer consider as certain and permanent those things which are fully understood by the natural light of reason, such as certainly are -- the existence of God, the immaterial nature of the human soul, and its immortality. The sect of the Freemasons, by a similar course of error, is exposed to these same dangers; for, although in a general way they may profess the existence of God, they themselves are witnesses that they do not all maintain this truth with the full assent of the mind or with a firm conviction. Neither do they conceal that this question about God is the greatest source and cause of discords among them; in fact, it is certain that a considerable contention about this same subject has existed among them very lately. But, indeed, the sect allows great liberty to its votaries, so that to each side is given the right to defend its own opinion, either that there is a God, or that there is none; and those who obstinately contend that there is no God are as easily initiated as those who contend that God exists, though, like the pantheists, they have false notions concerning Him: all which is nothing else than taking away the reality, while retaining some absurd representation of the divine nature.

When this greatest fundamental truth has been overturned or weakened, it follows that those truths, also, which are known by the teaching of nature must begin to fall -- namely, that all things were made by the free will of God the Creator; that the world is governed by Providence; that souls do not die; that to this life of men upon the earth there will succeed another and an everlasting life.

When these truths are done away with, which are as the principles of nature and important for knowledge and for practical use, it is easy to see what will become of both public and private morality. We say nothing of those more heavenly virtues, which no one can exercise or even acquire without a special gift and grace of God; of which necessarily no trace can be found in those who reject as unknown the redemption of mankind, the grace of God, the sacraments, and the happiness to be obtained in heaven. We speak now of the duties which have their origin in natural probity. That God is the Creator of the world and its provident Ruler; that the eternal law commands the natural order to be maintained, and forbids that it be disturbed; that the last end of men is a destiny far above human things and beyond this sojourning upon the earth: these are the sources and these the principles of all justice and morality.

If these be taken away, as the naturalists and Freemasons desire, there will immediately be no knowledge as to what constitutes justice and injustice, or upon what principle morality is founded. And, in truth, the teaching of morality which alone finds favor with the sect of Freemasons, and in which they contend that youth should be instructed, is that which they call "civil," and "independent," and "free," namely, that which does not contain any religious belief. But, how insufficient such teaching is, how wanting in soundness, and how easily moved by every impulse of passion, is sufficiently proved by its sad fruits, which have already begun to appear. For, wherever, by removing Christian education, this teaching has begun more completely to rule, there goodness and integrity of morals have begun quickly to perish, monstrous and shameful opinions have grown up, and the audacity of evil deeds has risen to a high degree. All this is commonly complained of and deplored; and not a few of those who by no means wish to do so are compelled by abundant evidence to give not infrequently the same testimony.

 

Anyone who does not believe that the spirit of Judeo-Masonry is alive and well in the United States of America and is indeed the naturalistic underpinning of the ideologies of the false opposites of the "left" and the "right" ought to re-read the text of Obama's address and then re-read this passage from Pope Leo XIII's Humanum Genus. The spirit of Judeo-Masonry has been alive and well in every presidential administration in the history of the United States of America because it is that spirit, a spirit of the devil that rejects the necessity of the Social Reign of Christ the King, that is at the very foundation of the Declaration of Independence, which makes no reference to the Divine Redeemer, Christ the King, and the Constitution, which established the first religiously indifferentist government in the history of the world (even the pagans of yore had official state religions, understanding that there was a public duty to give "worship" to something that was above them).

The true God of Revelation has taught us through His Catholic Church that it is His Sacred Reign to rule over men and nations through His true Church. Pope Leo XIII explained in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900, what happens when the Social Kingship of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is rejected:

From this it may clearly be seen what consequences are to be expected from that false pride which, rejecting our Saviour's Kingship, places man at the summit of all things and declares that human nature must rule supreme. And yet, this supreme rule can neither be attained nor even defined. The rule of Jesus Christ derives its form and its power from Divine Love: a holy and orderly charity is both its foundation and its crown. Its necessary consequences are the strict fulfilment of duty, respect of mutual rights, the estimation of the things of heaven above those of earth, the preference of the love of God to all things. But this supremacy of man, which openly rejects Christ, or at least ignores Him, is entirely founded upon selfishness, knowing neither charity nor selfdevotion. Man may indeed be king, through Jesus Christ: but only on condition that he first of all obey God, and diligently seek his rule of life in God's law. By the law of Christ we mean not only the natural precepts of morality and the Ancient Law, all of which Jesus Christ has perfected and crowned by His declaration, explanation and sanction; but also the rest of His doctrine and His own peculiar institutions. Of these the chief is His Church. Indeed whatsoever things Christ has instituted are most fully contained in His Church. Moreover, He willed to perpetuate the office assigned to Him by His Father by means of the ministry of the Church so gloriously founded by Himself. On the one hand He confided to her all the means of men's salvation, on the other He most solemnly commanded men to be subject to her and to obey her diligently, and to follow her even as Himself: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (Luke x, 16). Wherefore the law of Christ must be sought in the Church. Christ is man's "Way"; the Church also is his "Way"-Christ of Himself and by His very nature, the Church by His commission and the communication of His power. Hence all who would find salvation apart from the Church, are led astray and strive in vain.

 

This is pretty clear, would you not say?

The lie of Obama's belief that we do not know what God has "planned" for us was exploded by the late Louis-Edouard-François-Desiré Cardinal Pie, as can be see in this passage from Selected Writings of Cardinal Pie of Poitiers (which is available from Mr. Hugh Akin's Catholic Action Resource Center):

"If Jesus Christ," proclaims Msgr. Pie in a magnificent pastoral instruction, "if Jesus Christ Who is our light whereby we are drawn out of the seat of darkness and from the shadow of death, and Who has given to the world the treasure of truth and grace, if He has not enriched the world, I mean to say the social and political world itself, from the great evils which prevail in the heart of paganism, then it is to say that the work of Jesus Christ is not a divine work. Even more so: if the Gospel which would save men is incapable of procuring the actual progress of peoples, if the revealed light which is profitable to individuals is detrimental to society at large, if the scepter of Christ, sweet and beneficial to souls, and perhaps to families, is harmful and unacceptable for cities and empires; in other words, if Jesus Christ to whom the Prophets had promised and to Whom His Father had given the nations as a heritage, is not able to exercise His authority over them for it would be to their detriment and temporal disadvantage, it would have to be concluded that Jesus Christ is not God". . . .

"To say Jesus Christ is the God of individuals and of families, but not the God of peoples and of societies, is to say that He is not God. To say that Christianity is the law of individual man and is not the law of collective man, is to say that Christianity is not divine. To say that the Church is the judge of private morality, but has nothing to do with public and political morality, is to say that the Church is not divine."

 

In fine, Cardinal Pie insists:

"Christianity would not be divine if it were to have existence within individuals but not with regard to societies."

 

Fr. de St. Just asks, in conclusion:

"Could it be proven in clearer terms that social atheism conduces to individualistic atheism?"

 

Alas, Barack Hussein Obama's belief that "faith" admits of doubt and that it is not possible to know what God has "planned" for us, which places into doubt the content of his Divine Revelation, including the loving care with which He sustains us by means of His Divine Providence, is similar, although not identical, of course, to Joseph Ratzinger's belief that dogmatic truths can never be adequately expressed in human words as the formulae devised in one age must, he believes, be considered necessarily "contingent" upon the historical circumstances it which they were made, which is an act of blasphemy against God the Holy Ghost, Who has directed dogmatic councils and true popes to use the precise language that they used in teaching us the Holy Faith.

Here is yet another reprise of Ratzinger's view of dogmatic truth, which gives rise on the practical level to doubt about the permanence of the meaning and particular expression of dogmatic statements, and the Catholic Church's condemnation of his heretical view:

Joseph Ratzinger: "In theses 10-12, the difficult problem of the relationship between language and thought is debated, which in post-conciliar discussions was the immediate departure point of the dispute.

The identity of the Christian substance as such, the Christian 'thing' was not directly ... censured, but it was pointed out that no formula, no matter how valid and indispensable it may have been in its time, can fully express the thought mentioned in it and declare it unequivocally forever, since language is constantly in movement and the content of its meaning changes. (Fr. Ratzinger: Dogmatic formulas must always change.)

The Catholic Church:  "Hence, that meaning of the sacred dogmata is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by Holy Mother Church, and there must never be an abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a more profound understanding.... If anyone says that it is possible that at some given time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmata propounded by the Church which is different from that which the Church has always understood and understands: let him be anathema." [Vatican Council, 1870.]

 

Pope Pius IX condemned views held by Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict that do indeed have much "common ground" with each other:

80. The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.- -Allocution "Jamdudum cernimus," March 18, 1861. (Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus of Errors, December 8, 1864.)

 

The Modernism of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and the counterfeit church of conciliarism is but a theological expression of the tenets of Modernity, with which it, conciliarism, has made its "reconciliation."

III. The Fifth Commandment is Clear, Not Complex

Quite predictably, Barack Hussein Obama attempted in his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame du Lac yesterday, Sunday, May 17, 2009, the Fifth Sunday after Easter and the Commemoration of Saint Paschal Baylon, to make the act of the direct, intentional taking of innocent preborn human life into something "complex," showing once again his (or, more accurately, his TelePrompter's) incredible penchant for hubris:

As I considered the controversy surrounding my visit here, I was reminded of an encounter I had during my Senate campaign, one that I describe in a book I wrote called The Audacity of Hope. A few days after I won the Democratic nomination, I received an email from a doctor who told me that while he voted for me in the primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from voting for me in the general election. He described himself as a Christian who was strongly pro-life, but that's not what was preventing him from voting for me.

What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my website - an entry that said I would fight "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose." The doctor said that he had assumed I was a reasonable person, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable.

He wrote, "I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words."

Fair-minded words.

After I read the doctor's letter, I wrote back to him and thanked him. I didn't change my position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my website. And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that - when we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do - that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.

That's when we begin to say, "Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.

So let's work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women."

Understand - I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. No matter how much we may want to fudge it - indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory - the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature. ((Text of Obama Speech at the University of Notre Dame.)

 

There is no "common ground" between truth and error, between good and evil. The precepts of the Fifth Commandment make it clear that it is never permissible to directly intend to kill an innocent human being as the first end of a moral act.

An expectant mother has no "decision" to make when she discovers that she is carrying a child in her womb. She has a baby to nurture unto birth and then to bring to the Baptismal font to be made a spiritual child by adoption of the Most Blessed Trinity, Whose very inner life is flooded into that baby's soul as the Original Sin and that soul's captivity to the devil is flooded out of it. There is no "decision" to be made. There is no "choice" to be made. There is God's Holy Will to fulfill with love and with perfection, made possible by the supernatural helps won for us by the shedding of every single drop of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into human hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of all Graces.

Although I have written (and taught) this repeatedly throughout the course of my professional life as a college professor and speaker and writer, let me reiterate this simple truth once again: Every abortion in an attack mystically on the preborn Baby Jesus in the person of an innocent preborn baby in his mother's womb. No one--and I mean no one--can say that he "loves" Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and support as a matter of public law and/or participate in actively the act of dismembering  or burning or poisoning Him mystically in the persons of innocent preborn children by chemical or surgical means.

It is that simple. There is "common ground" to be found. There is only God's Law to be obeyed. Period.

The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen explained that we must be intolerant of error and vice:

"America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance. It is not. It is suffering from tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so much overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded....

"...In the face of this broadmindedness, what the world needs is intolerance." ("A Plea for Intolerance," 1931).

 

Barack Hussein Obama and other pro-abort civic officials, both Catholics and non-Catholics alike, won't be able to use hubris to escape from the reality of these words, written by Pope Pius XI in Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930, at the moment of their Particular Judgments if they do not repent of their crimes against God and men and convert to the true Faith before they die, choosing to Baptized, if necessary, which washes away Original Sin and Actual Sins (and all of the temporal punishment due to one's Actual Sins), or to return to the true Faith by making a good, integral auricular Confession of their sins to a true bishop or a true priest and publicly abjuring their former crimes against God and men:

 

"Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves. Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven." (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 30, 1930.)

 

I can assure Barack Hussein Obama and pro-abortion Vice President, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., who maintains his "good standing" as a "Catholic" in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism despite his support for the mystical dismemberment of the preborn Baby Jesus in the persons of innocent children under cover of the civil law, that God is not going to find any "common ground" with them if they persist until their dying breaths in their support for the chemical and surgical execution of innocent children under cover of law.

Then again, of course, why should Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr, take this injunction of Pope Pius XI seriously when Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and most of his conciliar "bishops" maintain the "canonical" "good standing" of pro-abort Catholics in public life such as Biden himself and and Edward Moore Kennedy and David Paterson and George Elmer Pataki and Mario Matthew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo and Rudolph William Giuliani and Charles Rangel (who is also a Freemason!) and Rick Lazio and Susan Molinari and Susan Collins and Richard Durbin and Thomas Harkin and Kathleen Sebelius and Jennifer Granholm and Patricia Murray and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mary Landrieu and Tom Ridge and James Florio and James McGreevey and Robert Menendez and Barbara Mikulski and John F. Kerry and Patrick Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Loretta Sanchez Brixey and Linda Sanchez and Gray Davis and Carolyn McCarthy and Thomas Foley, among so many others, including the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the late Thomas P. O'Neill and the late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America William Brennan (who was buried with a full conciliar "Mass of Christian Burial" despite his casting one of the seven votes in favor of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton; Moynihan and O'Neill also were buried as "Catholics" in "good standing"--as will Edward Moore Kennedy when he dies)? These pro-abort Catholics have remained in "good standing" in the conciliar structures despite their full, active and conscious participation, to borrow a conciliar phrase, thank you very much, in the deaths of millions upon millions of the innocent preborn, making them full partners with the "papally"-"knighted" "reform" rabbis who have promoted this slaughter with a reckless abandon in the name of "reproductive rights," while Bishop Richard Williamson, who has learned how to keep his mouth shut about Ratzinger/Benedict's most recent offenses against God in order to maintain his "good standing" in the "church within the conciliar church," the Society of Saint Pius X, is considered to have defected from the Catholic Faith for having put into question the conclusions of "mainstream" historians.

No, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and his conciliar "bishops" must themselves reckon with the words of Pope Pius XI by their trivializing the seriousness of chemical and surgical baby-killing by refusing to penalize pro-aborts in public life, including the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and his wife, Tony and Cherie Blair, almost without exception throughout the world.

Indeed, the former conciliar "bishop" of Evreux, France, Jacques Gaillot, remains a "bishop" in good standing in the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism despite his having been removed by Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II on January 13, 1995, following a popular uprising against him for his support of, among other things, the human pesticide, RU-486, the French abortion pill, divorce, contraception and the "blessing" of perverse "unions." Yes, Jacques Gaillot is a "bishop," albeit "retired," in perfectly "good standing" even as he addresses "Call to Action" meetings. The again, "Call to Action," a group that believes in one apostasy after another, was formed with the full support and approval of the notorious Modernist John Cardinal Dearden of the Archdiocese of Detroit.

No, not even Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI takes seriously the words of Pope Pius XI from Casti Connubii quoted above. Why should Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Nancy Pelosi, among others, take them seriously as a result? Why should Obama and Biden and Pelosi, et al., take seriously anything taught in the name of the Catholic Church when the conciliar "pontiff" can't even raise his voice to censure and sanction "Archbishop" Robert Zollitsch for denying that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ died in atonement for our sins?

 

IV. Crimes Against the First Commandment Take Precedence Over Crimes Against the Fifth Commandment

Each of the articles that I wrote during the time that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI was visiting Jordan and Israel (Archbishop Who?, Accustomed to Apostasy, Knights of Conciliarism, How Catholics Act and Speak in Jerusalem, Words and Actions of Antichrist, Keep Focused on Root Causes, Having No Regard for the Horror of Personal Sin and  "When He Cometh, Shall He Find, Think You, Faith on Earth?") has stressed the simple fact that crimes against the First Commandment take precedence--and make more possible--crimes against the Fifth Commandment.

It is indeed a supreme work of the devil that he had the attention of well-meaning Catholics focused so exclusively on the true outrage represented by the honorary doctorate that was bestowed upon Barack Hussein Obama yesterday by the administrators of the University of Notre Dame du Lac that most, although not all, of these people did not even raise their voices in outrage to defend the honor and majesty and glory of God as the false "pontiff," Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, called mosques "splendid" places of "worship" and "jewels" that stand out "across the earth" and as "sacred" and as he prayed as a Jew at the Wailing Wall, refusing to mention the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer in his "prayer," and esteeming the "values" of false religions and their nonexistent "ability" to "contribute" to the better world.

Without taking anything away from the outrage that was perpetrated by the administrators of my own Master's alma mater yesterday, I do want to emphasize once again, however, that the greater crimes were committed by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI against God as he, Ratzinger/Benedict, violated the First Commandment repeatedly during his visit to Jordan and Israel that ended on Friday, May 15, 2009, the Feast of Saint John Baptist de la Salle.

Ratzinger/Benedict can offend God so regularly and so blithely because he does not believe in the the true God of Revelation, Who has taught us through His true Church that His dogmatic truths must be accepted and understood without any shadow of change and Who has taught us that we must have no strange "gods" before Him. Like Obama himself, who is clueless about theological matters and says about them only what appears on his ubiquitous TelePrompter, Benedict/Ratzinger sees God as "tolerant" of a "diversity" of beliefs and that it is His Will for people of different "beliefs" to find "common ground" to "work together" for the better world.

This conciliar enshrinement of the the falsehoods of Modernity once again brings to mind (repetition is the mother of learning, you know) this passage from Pope Leo XIII's Custodi di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892:

Everyone should avoid familiarity or friendship with anyone suspected of belonging to masonry or to affiliated groups. Know them by their fruits and avoid them. Every familiarity should be avoided, not only with those impious libertines who openly promote the character of the sect, but also with those who hide under the mask of universal tolerance, respect for all religions, and the craving to reconcile the maxims of the Gospel with those of the revolution. These men seek to reconcile Christ and Belial, the Church of God and the state without God. (Pope Leo XIII, Custodi di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892.)

 

It is also important once again to note these words of Pope Saint Leo the Great to drive home the point that those who are silent about the blasphemies of the "false pontiff" are themselves guilty of these blasphemies and cannot call themselves Catholics:

But it is vain for them to adopt the name of catholic, as they do not oppose these blasphemies: they must believe them, if they can listen so patiently to such words. (Pope Saint Leo the Great, Epistle XIV, To Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, St. Leo the Great | Letters 1-59 )

 

Ignorant men such as Barack Hussein Obama, who is as inarticulate and lost for words without his TelePrompter as the partly pro-abortion/partly pro-life George Walker Bush was when speaking extemporaneously, would stand far less chance of rising to power if Catholics were not fed a steady dose of crimes against the First Commandment by the conciliar "pontiffs," making these Catholics more disposed to accept crimes against the Fifth Commandment under cover of the civil law.

Remember this and remember it well: Barack Hussein Obama would not have had any chance to be awarded a honorary doctorate and invited to speak his TelePrompter-prompted falsehoods if Ratzinger/Benedict had been as firm against him, Obama, as he has been against Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of Saint Pius X for expressing his views on a matter of secular history that is open to scholarly research and discussion 

Then again, Ratzinger/Benedict has let "Archbishop" Robert Zollitsch's denial that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ died in atonement for our sins on the wood of the Holy Cross go unanswered for thirty-seven days thus far. Taking action against Obama's award and speech at the University of Notre Dame du Lac is, evidently, about the false "pontiff's" "pay grade."

V. " Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!"

"Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!"

These words were spoken by the Mother of God to fourteen year old Bernadette Soubirous in the Grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, on February 24, 1858, the eighth time in thirteen days that she had appeared to the future Sister Marie-Bernard Soubirous. These words apply to us!

"Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!"

Each of us is a sinner. Each of one our sins has contributed more than we realize to the worsening of the state of the Church Militant on earth and the world-at-large. We can't hope to be an effective instrument of the conversion of others unless we are serious about making reparation for our own sins as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, praying as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit.

God has known from all eternity that we would be alive in these troubling times. The graces that He won for us on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady as the Mediatrix of All Graces are indeed sufficient for us to prosper under our own personal crosses and those that face Holy Mother Church during the time of her Mystical Passion, Death and Burial (see Bookended From Birth to Birth).

We must not look for results as we pray and make penance for our sins and those of the whole world and as we pray for the conversion of the likes of Barak Hussein Obama and Joseph Ratzinger.

We must consider a great gift from God to be calumniated and rejected and misunderstood by others.

We must make every sacrifice necessary to flee from the ravenous wolves of the counterfeit church of conciliarism and their false sacraments and false doctrines and blasphemies and sacrileges, cleaving exclusively to true bishops and true priests who make no concessions of any kind to these wolves.

We must get to true offerings of Holy Mass that are not in communion with the false "pontiff" as frequently as we can during the week.

We must spend time in mental prayer and quiet reflection before Our Lord's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

We must promote Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary and instruct the ignorant on how to pray it-and to pray it well and attentively.

We must make known the power of the sacramentals of the Brown Scapular and the Miraculous Medal and the Green Scapular.

As we engage in some extra penances in these Rogation Days and the Lesser Litanies prior to the Feast of the Ascension this Thursday, May 21, 2009, may we take encouragement once again from these words of Pope Pius XI, Saint Athanasius and his friend and protector, Saint Servatus:

We may well admire in this the admirable wisdom of the Providence of God, who, ever bringing good out of evil, has from time to time suffered the faith and piety of men to grow weak, and allowed Catholic truth to be attacked by false doctrines, but always with the result that truth has afterwards shone out with greater splendor, and that men's faith, aroused from its lethargy, has shown itself more vigorous than before. (Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, December 11, 1925.)

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." (Letter of St. Athanasius)

Servatus held the bishopric of Tongres (Belgium) at a time when the whole of Christendom had Arian tendencies. The all-powerful emperor, Constantius, was a heretic and supported the heresy; many bishops no longer believed in the divinity of Our Lord; St. Athanasius and St. Hilary, great champions of orthodoxy, were in exile.

The story of the Jewish origins of St. Servatus and his kinship with St. Anne appears legendary. It is not known when he became bishop of Tongres, but by 336, when St. Athanasius spent his exile at Trier, he had already occupied the see. The declaration which he made before the Council of Cologne in 346 informs us both of his meeting with the celebrated Alexandrian doctor and of his own orthodoxy. This is what he says in reference to the bishop of Cologne, deposed on that occasion: "It is not from hearsay that I know what he has been teaching, but from having myself heard it. Our churches are adjacent; many times I have had occasion to contradict him, when he has denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. It has happened in the presence of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. .. . I judge that he can no longer be bishop of Christians; and those do not deserve to be considered Christians who remain in communion with him."

After failing in his efforts to reconcile the usurper, Magnetius, with the Emperor Constantius, Servatus made a pilgrimage to Rome. He returned convinced that Tongres would soon fall to the Huns. Hastily he carried the relics of the church to Maestricht, and there, shortly afterwards, he died.The towns of Tongres remained thereafter for nearly a century without a bishop. (Omer Engelbert, The Lives of the Saints, Barnes and Noble, p. 186.)

 

We must also remember Our Lady's words to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City on December 12, 1531:

Know for certain that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. . . . Here I will show and offer my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows and will remedy and alleviate their suffering, necessities and misfortunes. . . . Listen and let it penetrate into your heart. . . . Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. So not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?

 

No, dear Blessed Mother. We have you. There is nothing else we need as you pray for us to your Divine Son now, and at the hour our deaths. There is nothing else we need other than for you to pray for us to remain faithful to your Divine Son without making any concessions or compromises at all to the figures of Antichrist in the counterfeit church of conciliarism or in the realm of politics and civil government. Help us to plant a few seeds for the Triumph of your Immaculate Heart as the fruit of the fulfillment of your Fatima Message.

 

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

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, especially on your feast day today!

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Venantius, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints