Protected by the Forces of Darkness No More?

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The great deceiver, the one who rebelled against God and was defeated by Saint Michael the Archangel, hates us because we are made in the image and the likeness of the One he hates, namely, the Triune God. Having been thwarted in his effort to defeat God, Satan prowls about the world like a roaring lion looking for souls to devour.

And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you that dwell therein. Woe to the earth, and to the sea, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time. (Apocalypse 12: 7-12.)

There are times, of course, when we do the devil's bidding for him all too willingly. Most of us who are believing Catholics, however, are truly sorry for our sins. The devil knows that no one who is sorry for his sins and who attempts to amend his life following a good Confession of them by cooperating with the graces won for the human race by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, is his friend. He will try his best to tempt us in big ways and in small ways, trying to trip us up as we endeavor to walk on the rocky road that leads to the narrow gate of Life Himself:

Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. (Mt. 7. 13-20.)

 

The children of the world, however, belong in a special way to the devil. They are his. He protects them. He, the dark prince of this world, showers them with honors and blandishments, bestowing on them the illusion of earthly power. Some of the devil's children become convinced over the course of time in their own invincibility, becoming so megalomaniac that they really do come to believe that the world could not exist without them, that they are "essential" to provide "hope" and "solutions" to human problems. This is all part of the devil's clever strategy to lead his children to the precipice of what appears to be total power and control in this world before he removes his protection and sends them off of that precipice into an abyss of confusion and sadness caused by a loss of power and prestige that they considered unimaginable.

Sometimes the loss of power is the result of a violent act committed by another power seeker or a self-styled "avenger(s) of justice" (see Julius Caesar, Maximilian Robespierre, Georges Danton, Abraham Lincoln, Benito Mussolini). Sometimes the loss of power is the result of overarching military plans that go awry (see Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler). Sometimes the loss of power is the result of death after a life of debauchery and/or crimes against God and man (Nero, King Henry VIII, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Ho Chi Minh, Queen Elizabeth I, Richard Topcliffe, et al.). And sometimes the loss of power, particularly in in the past century in countries that have some form of "representative" government, is the result of a sudden and seemingly inexplicable loss of appeal to the masses who once adored them and lavished all kinds of praise upon them in spite of various scandals and misdeeds that would have caused any "John Q. Public" within the masses to be sent to jail for a lengthy prison term. People who considered themselves invincible find, almost in a heartbeat, that their old lines and fallback strategies no longer work. The devil has withdrawn his protection from them, passing the baton of naturalism onto others, who will be set up for their own falls in due course.

Although it is always a dicey proposition to write a political obituary in the prospective sense, it appears as though the devil is finally through with the Clintons. None of their own tricks are working in United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for the presidential nomination of the Democrat Party. None of the patented Clinton whining about the media is working. None of the patented Clinton "charm" is working. None of the usual focus group recommendations is working. Senator Clinton, a spirited supporter of the nonexistent "right of women to kill their preborn babies under cover of law, and her reprobate husband, former President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. Mind you, Senator Clinton might still win the Ohio and Texas primary elections next week, thwarting the bid of another radical leftist and fellow disciple of the late Saul Alinsky (see: They Never Take Prisoners), United States Senator Barack Hussein Obama, to win the Democrat Party presidential nomination. Mrs. Clinton and her campaign staff seem dumbfounded that she has had to fight for a nomination that they figured would be on on "Super Tuesday," February 5, 2008. After all, she's "Hillary." Don't people know that it's her turn to be president after all she voluntarily "endured" and most ably enabled as First Lady under the perjurer-in-chief named Bill Clinton?

The devil always works this way. He raises up naturalists who are so bad that anyone else looks better by comparison. There is really little difference between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama. As has been written about rather extensively on this site, despite whatever differences exist around the margins within and between the two major organized crime families in the United States of America (the Democrat Party and the Republican Party), each and every single one of their officeholders is a believer in the naturalistic, religiously indifferentist, anti-Incarnational and semi-Pelagian premises upon which the United States of America was founded and by which its institutions of civil governance operate on a daily basis. The disagreements are on the margins, exaggerated either biennially or quadrennially for the sake of raising the incredibly massive amount of funds to run campaigns and to hoodwink voters who have short attention spans and absolutely no understanding of First and Last Things, no less of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Mary our Immaculate Queen. Illusions must be created by the devil to keep the average citizen convinced that his field agents in the major political parties are the means to provide "hope" to "solve" problems.

This is what I wrote on this subject a little over seven years ago shortly after William Jefferson Blythe Clinton left the office of the President of the United States of America in disgrace after entering a plea-bargain with Independent Counsel Robert Ray:

As critical as I am of George W. Bush, he is the legitimately elected and inaugurated 43rd president of the United States of America. Those, including his predecessor, who contend that he “stole” the election are engaging in the sort of revisionism and wishful thinking that characterize disciples of the New Age movement. It was Vice President Al Gore and his collection of attorneys and paid stooges who tried to steal the election in Florida during the 36 days between November 7 and December 12 [2000]. Indeed, at least one recount of the votes in Dade County, that conducted by the Miami Herald, indicated that Bush picked up six votes, putting the lie to all of the nonsense about votes having been stolen. We elect the president in the United States through the Electoral College, and George W. Bush won the Electoral College vote quite legitimately.

However, as I noted last month in “Bill Clinton Will Be Everywhere,” the 42nd president is not going away. As shameless as ever, he left office only hours after entering into a plea arrangement with Independent Counsel Robert Ray. On January 21 [2001], Ray noted in a news conference that one of the reasons he accepted a plea arrangement with Clinton was that Bush had indeed let him, Ray, know that it was his intention to pardon Clinton if Ray’s office secured a grand-jury indictment of America’s perjurer-in-chief. A jury might not have convicted Clinton if the case had gone to trial, but it would have been quite a reaffirmation of “equal justice under the law” even to put the master manipulator and liar in the dock.

Once again, Clinton skates on the edge of the law. Can there any doubt but that the man is Satanically protected? Who else could enter into a plea arrangement to admit that he knowingly gave false and misleading information when he was deposed by attorneys representing Paula Jones on January 17, 1998, and at the same time act as though he were a conquering hero. Who could remain popular in the eyes of nearly two-thirds of the American populace while doing so? Who else could admit to having subverted the system of justice — long after Judge Susan Weber Wright, in her contempt-of-court citation against him, ruled that he had done so — and then turn around and issue 140 pardons to a variety of fellow criminals, murderers, thieves, liars, scoundrels, and miscreants? The man is shameless to his very core, walking into a delicatessen in Chappaqua, New York, the day after he left office simply to be patted on the back and receive the adulation of mindless people who consider his law-breaking — and his contempt for the law and the courts — admirable.

Among those granted pardon or clemency by Clinton as the minutes ticked away on his corrupt presidency were Susan McDougal; his half-brother Roger Clinton; Susan Rosenberg, a member of the radical Weather Underground (an offshoot of SDS, a Communist-front organization), who was linked to the robbery of a Brinks armored vehicle and the murder of two New York state troopers; and one Marc Rich, who fled the United States owing $48 million in taxes and whose ex-wife Denise is a major fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. Interesting, however, that the man who kept his mouth shut about the extent of the Clinton scandals, former Deputy Attorney General Webster Hubbell, was left out of the pardoning process. Wonder whether Webb is going be writing himself a book about his former golfing buddy Bill and his former law partner Hillary?

There is no need to recite the long list of crimes committed by the former president and covered up by his ever-compliant attorney general (who has returned to Florida, where, conveniently, her pal Donna Shalala is the new head of the University of Miami). Each of us knows only too well about Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Vince Fostergate, Wacogate, Buddhist Temple Fundraising-gate, White House political fund- raisers and coffees and sleepovers-gate, the sellout of American national security to the Chinese Communists-gate, Lewinskygate, the bombing of Iraq and the Sudan and Afghanistan to divert attention from Lewinskygate, the defiance of a federal judge’s order to disclose the members of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s secret health-care advisory committee-gate, the disappearance of computer hard drives containing this nation’s nuclear secrets-gate, and on and on and on.

Those criminal activities do not include the uninterrupted succession of outright lies Clinton and his minions told about governmental policy and the goals of their hapless opponents, the Republicans. He lied all the time about every single bit of policy. Weren’t our troops in Bosnia supposed to be home by Christmas 1996? As for those Republicans, Bill Clinton could not have conjured up a more hapless and inept opposition if he had asked Barbara Eden to fold her arms and blink up a group of political adversaries who would always make him look good: “Jeannie, I want a group of people who will roll over when I say boo, people who will confirm whomever I send up to them to confirm, people who will let me use the American military as my personal plaything whenever I want to use them as such, people who will look the other way as I sell out American sovereignty and claim state lands for federal use, people who will strain to outdo me in my desire to sustain programs opposed to the plain language of the Constitution and violative of the natural-law principle of subsidiarity, yes, people who will be afraid of my very name.” A screenwriter could not have conjured up people better able to fit that request than former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, current Senate majority leader Trent Lott, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, et al.

Clinton blamed Republicans for forcing him into dealing with the issue of sodomites in the military when the truth of the matter was that he had raised the issue the day after his election in 1992. During the government-shutdown crisis in 1995–96, he said Republicans wanted to cut the budget and starve the elderly. In making that charge, he deliberately characterized a proposed cut in the rate of projected government spending as a cut in actual spending — an abject lie. He demagogued on the issues of health care and Social Security, took credit for the “balanced budget” and “welfare reform,” and kept lying and lying and lying about the “rarity” of partial-birth abortions.

Above and beyond everything else, Bill Clinton was the abortion president. From the moment he entered office to the time he left, Clinton did the Devil’s bidding concerning the promotion of contraception, abortion, sodomy, sex instruction, and every other manner of evil and perversion extant in our culture today. And he did it shamelessly in both domestic and foreign policy. He appointed pro-aborts to every level of the federal judiciary (with Republican “pro-life” senators, just going along to get along, confirming almost every single one of Clinton’s pro- abortion nominees). He used slogans (“safe, legal, rare”) designed to obscure the reality of what happens every time a child is systematically dismembered or poisoned in his mother’s womb, which is why President George W. Bush’s expressed intention to see abortions become “safe and less numerous” is so very troubling. (That was an extemporaneous remark right from the horse’s mouth, not a statement issued in Bush’s name that he did not write.) Clinton made war upon the [conciliar Vatican’s] efforts to combat the evils being promoted by the United States in the United Nations and related agencies, and he showed nothing but contempt for Catholics who took their Faith seriously and wanted to safeguard the family from his own vicious attacks and those emanating from the United Nations. He appointed several notorious anti-life, anti-Catholic bigots, such as James Hormel, to government positions.

As I noted three years ago during the impeachment proceedings, Clinton should have been impeached by the House and removed from office by the Senate solely because he supported the execution of innocent children in their mothers’ womb under cover of law. No one who supports a single abortion is fit to serve in any capacity in government, much less in the presidency of the United States of America.

The Devil had his way with Bill Clinton. In my piece “From Luther to Clinton to Gore” — in the December issue of my newsletter Christ or Chaos — I made the point that Clinton is just the logical result of a set of forces that have been at work in the world from the days of the Renaissance and the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Freemasonry. Indeed, he is a poster boy for what was wrought when Luther posted his theses on the church door in Wittenberg in 1517. As horrible as Bill Clinton is — and as Satanically protected as he is — Clinton was never the problem, ladies and gentlemen. Hillary Clinton is not the problem. Al Gore is not the problem. Those people are only symptomatic of the much greater sickness plaguing our nation and the world: a mindset that accepts secularism and religious indifferentism as culturally normative and beyond human change.

Clinton is gone from office, although he will be everywhere. But his legacy is much more subtle than his overt actions of lying and obstructing justice, and granting pardons and clemency to those undeserving of them. No, Clinton’s real legacy illustrates the Devil’s cleverness of raising up people who are so bad that anyone else looks better in the eyes of well-meaning people. That is why so many people are rushing to repose religious faith in George W. Bush. After eight years of the stench and the corruption of Bill Clinton, good, well-meaning people mistake geniality for a commitment to fundamental justice founded in Truth. However, as I demonstrated last month in my column “Get a Grip on Reality,” Bush’s intellectual shallowness is such that he can have a statement read in his name that seems to indicate his opposition to all abortions even though he has said repeatedly that he supports abortion in certain cases. Glad to be rid of Clinton, though, a lot of good people don’t even want to see the inconsistency; they don’t want to apply the reasoning that the light of cold logic brings to bear on statements. (The principle of non-contradiction states that two mutually contradictory statements cannot both be true.) They want to believe that they have a hero now after eight years of looking at the Devil in the face. What they fail to realize is that that very attitude is one of the ways the Devil triumphs in our popular culture.

We must be about the business of praying and working for the Social Reign of Christ the King, not losing our minds to believe that anyone other than Clinton is our friend and will be committed to the pursuit of fundamental justice founded in Truth. Many of Bush’s appointees could have felt very much at home in a Gore administration; indeed, Colin Powell said last summer that he would have considered serving in such an administration. The only antidote to the poisons that have been spreading through the world in the past 700 years is Catholicism. Never lose sight of that fact, ladies and gentlemen. We place our trust in our Lord through His true Church, not politicians and their empty promises.

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, give us the wisdom to see the world clearly through the eyes of the true Faith (Protected by the Angels of Darkness, February 1, 2001, just around five years before I began to write publicly about sedevacantism.)

 

Obama or Clinton or McCain. Differences here and there. The bottom line, however, is that each supports surgical baby-killing to one degree or another. Each supports the chemical assassination of children by means of contraception. Each tries to do outdo the other in expressing support for the State of Israel. Each supports the naturalistic foundations of the United States of American and the naturalist operations of government on a daily basis. Although some might be more protected by the forces of darkness than others. Be assured, however, that the devil will use any one of them rather effectively until he has no further use for them. Naturalism is from the devil. It can only bear rotten fruit.

Indeed, Pope Leo XIII, writing in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900, reminded us of this precise point:

Those who go astray from the road wander far from the goal they aim at. Similarly, if the pure and true light of truth be rejected, men's minds must necessarily be darkened and their souls deceived by deplorably false ideas. What hope of salvation can they have who abandon the very principle and fountain of life? Christ alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John xiv., 6). If He be abandoned the three necessary conditions of salvation are removed.

It is surely unnecessary to prove, what experience constantly shows and what each individual feels in himself, even in the very midst of all temporal prosperity-that in God alone can the human will find absolute and perfect peace. God is the only end of man. All our life on earth is the truthful and exact image of a pilgrimage. Now Christ is the "Way," for we can never reach God, the supreme and ultimate good, by this toilsome and doubtful road of mortal life, except with Christ as our leader and guide. How so? Firstly and chiefly by His grace; but this would remain "void" in man if the precepts of His law were neglected. For, as was necessarily the case after Jesus Christ had won our salvation, He left behind Him His Law for the protection and welfare of the human race, under the guidance of which men, converted from evil life, might safely tend towards God. "Going, teach ye all nations . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew xxviii., 19-20). "Keep my commandments" john xiv., 15). Hence it will be understood that in the Christian religion the first and most necessary condition is docility to the precepts of Jesus Christ, absolute loyalty of will towards Him as Lord and King. A serious duty, and one which oftentimes calls for strenuous labour, earnest endeavour, and perseverance! For although by Our Redeemer's grace human nature hath been regenerated, still there remains in each individual a certain debility and tendency to evil. Various natural appetites attract man on one side and the other; the allurements of the material world impel his soul to follow after what is pleasant rather than the law of Christ. Still we must strive our best and resist our natural inclinations with all our strength "unto the obedience of Christ." For unless they obey reason they become our masters, and carrying the whole man away from Christ, make him their slave. "Men of corrupt mind, who have made shipwreck of the faith, cannot help being slaves. . . They are slaves to a threefold concupiscence: of will, of pride, or of outward show" (St. Augustine, De Vera Religione, 37). In this contest every man must be prepared to undergo hardships and troubles for Christ's sake. It is difficult to reject what so powerfully entices and delights. It is hard and painful to despise the supposed goods of the senses and of fortune for the will and precepts of Christ our Lord. But the Christian is absolutely obliged to be firm, and patient in suffering, if he wish to lead a Christian life. Have we forgotten of what Body and of what Head we are the members? "Having joy set before Him, He endured the Cross," and He bade us deny ourselves. The very dignity of human nature depends upon this disposition of mind. For, as even the ancient Pagan philosophy perceived, to be master of oneself and to make the lower part of the soul, obey the superior part, is so far from being a weakness of will that it is really a noble power, in consonance with right reason and most worthy of a man. Moreover, to bear and to suffer is the ordinary condition of man. Man can no more create for himself a life free from suffering and filled with all happiness that he can abrogate the decrees of his Divine Maker, who has willed that the consequences of original sin should be perpetual. It is reasonable, therefore, not to expect an end to troubles in this world, but rather to steel one's soul to bear troubles, by which we are taught to look forward with certainty to supreme happiness. Christ has not promised eternal bliss in heaven to riches, nor to a life of ease, to honours or to power, but to longsuffering and to tears, to the love of justice and to cleanness of heart.

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.

As with individuals, so with nations. These, too, must necessarily tend to ruin if they go astray from "The Way." The Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, is King and Lord of the earth, and holds supreme dominion over men, both individually and collectively. "And He gave Him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him" (Daniel vii., 14). "I am appointed King by Him . . . I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalm ii., 6, 8). Therefore the law of Christ ought to prevail in human society and be the guide and teacher of public as well as of private life. Since this is so by divine decree, and no man may with impunity contravene it, it is an evil thing for the common weal wherever Christianity does not hold the place that belongs to it. When Jesus Christ is absent, human reason fails, being bereft of its chief protection and light, and the very end is lost sight of, for which, under God's providence, human society has been built up. This end is the obtaining by the members of society of natural good through the aid of civil unity, though always in harmony with the perfect and eternal good which is above nature. But when men's minds are clouded, both rulers and ruled go astray, for they have no safe line to follow nor end to aim at.

Just as it is the height of misfortune to go astray from the "Way," so is it to abandon the "Truth." Christ Himself is the first, absolute and essential "Truth," inasmuch as He is the Word of God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, He and the Father being One. "I am the Way and the Truth." Wherefore if the Truth be sought by the human intellect, it must first of all submit it to Jesus Christ, and securely rest upon His teaching, since therein Truth itself speaketh. There are innumerable and extensive fields of thought, properly belonging to the human mind, in which it may have free scope for its investigations and speculations, and that not only agreeably to its nature, but even by a necessity of its nature. But what is unlawful and unnatural is that the human mind should refuse to be restricted within its proper limits, and, throwing aside its becoming modesty, should refuse to acknowledge Christ's teaching. This teaching, upon which our salvation depends, is almost entirely about God and the things of God. No human wisdom has invented it, but the Son of God hath received and drunk it in entirely from His Father: "The words which thou gavest me, I have given to them" john xvii., 8). Hence this teaching necessarily embraces many subjects which are not indeed contrary to reasonfor that would be an impossibility-but so exalted that we can no more attain them by our own reasoning than we can comprehend God as He is in Himself. If there be so many things hidden and veiled by nature, which no human ingenuity can explain, and yet which no man in his senses can doubt, it would be an abuse of liberty to refuse to accept those which are entirely above nature, because their essence cannot be discovered. To reject dogma is simply to deny Christianity. Our intellect must bow humbly and reverently "unto the obedience of Christ," so that it be held captive by His divinity and authority: "bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians x., 5). Such obedience Christ requires, and justly so. For He is God, and as such holds supreme dominion over man's intellect as well as over his will. By obeying Christ with his intellect man by no means acts in a servile manner, but in complete accordance with his reason and his natural dignity. For by his will he yields, not to the authority of any man, but to that of God, the author of his being, and the first principle to Whom he is subject by the very law of his nature. He does not suffer himself to be forced by the theories of any human teacher, but by the eternal and unchangeable truth. Hence he attains at one and the same time the natural good of the intellect and his own liberty. For the truth which proceeds from the teaching of Christ clearly demonstrates the real nature and value of every being; and man, being endowed with this knowledge, if he but obey the truth as perceived, will make all things subject to himself, not himself to them; his appetites to his reason, not his reason to his appetites. Thus the slavery of sin and falsehood will be shaken off, and the most perfect liberty attained: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" john viii., 32). It is, then, evident that those whose intellect rejects the yoke of Christ are obstinately striving against God. Having shaken off God's authority, they are by no means freer, for they will fall beneath some human sway. They are sure to choose someone whom they will listen to, obey, and follow as their guide. Moreover, they withdraw their intellect from the communication of divine truths, and thus limit it within a narrower circle of knowledge, so that they are less fitted to succeed in the pursuit even of natural science. For there are in nature very many things whose apprehension or explanation is greatly aided by the light of divine truth. Not unfrequently, too, God, in order to chastise their pride, does not permit men to see the truth, and thus they are punished in the things wherein they sin. This is why we often see men of great intellectual power and erudition making the grossest blunders even in natural science.

It must therefore be clearly admitted that, in the life of a Christian, the intellect must be entirely subject to God's authority. And if, in this submission of reason to authority, our self-love, which is so strong, is restrained and made to suffer, this only proves the necessity to a Christian of long-suffering not only in will but also in intellect. We would remind those persons of this truth who desire a kind of Christianity such as they themselves have devised, whose precepts should be very mild, much more indulgent towards human nature, and requiring little if any hardships to be borne. They do not properly under stand the meaning of faith and Christian precepts. They do not see that the Cross meets us everywhere, the model of our life, the eternal standard of all who wish to follow Christ in reality and not merely in name.

God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved, that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is of course both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty, and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once remove all impediments and allow the Christian spirit to revive and grow strong in a nation, and that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realise that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established ( by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictates respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Seditions and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without let or hindrance there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from whom we should never have gone astray; to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,-and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession. All elements of the national life must be made to drink in the Life which proceedeth from Him- legislation, political institutions, education, marriage and family life, capital and labour. Everyone must see that the very growth of civilisation which is so ardently desired depends greatly upon this, since it is fed and grows not so much by material wealth and prosperity, as by the spiritual qualities of morality and virtue.

It is the rejection of Catholicism, of the Social Reign of Christ the King, that is the problem we face in the world, not the illusion of the "false opposites" raised us by the devil to distract us from this simple truth.

Although it might very well be the Clintons' turn now to be thrown off of the precipice of the illusion of power in this world, we must understand that the Clintons are merely disposable minions of the devil. There are plenty of others to take their place now and in the decades ahead barring the fulfillment of Our Lady's Fatima Message.

We must not be concerned about the petty politicians of today. They will pass from the scene sooner or later. We must concerned about planting the seeds for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This Saturday is the First Saturday of the month of March in the year of Our Lord 2008.We must fulfill Our Lady's Fatima Message in our own lives, praying our Rosaries and meditating upon the mysteries contained therein before her Divine Son's Real Presence. Our task is to do nothing less than to plant at least a few seeds for the restoration of the Catholic City, as Pope Saint Pius X exhorted us to do in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910:

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.

 

Starting with the enthronement of our homes to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, making sure to pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through that same Immaculate Heart, keeping close to our own Guardian Angels and to Saint Michael the Archangel, may we plant a few seeds for a day when the forces of darkness will be vanquished and the bright light of Our King and the loving radiance of His Most Blessed Mother will have replaced all forms of naturalism, whether of the false opposites of the naturalist "left" or of the naturalist "right," with Catholicism as the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint 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.

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

See also: A Litany of Saints