Revolutions Have Consequences

Part Two

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Several recent articles and series of articles on this site have attempted to summarize some of the major components of the conciliar revolution that has made warfare against Catholic Faith and Worship for five decades now. These articles include Apologizing to Everyone Save For God Himself, Pope Saint Pius V and the Conversion of the Muslims, Pope Saint Pius V and the Conversion of the Conciliarists, Mocking Pope Saint Pius X and Our Lady of Fatima, On Full Display: The Modernist Mind, Just Following Their "Pope's" Call for Cohesion, They're Screaming At Us: We're Not Catholic, With The Passage Of Time, Anti-Apostles All, Forever Prowling the World Seeking the Ruin of Souls, part 1, Forever Prowling the World Seeking The Ruin of Souls, part 2, Catholicism Is The Only Foundation of Personal and Social Order, Turning Perfection Aside For A More Perfect Banality, Get The Man A Mirror, Boy, If Only The "Pope" Knew, Boy, If Only The "Pope" Knew, partie deux, Fearing to Offend Men Rather Than God, Live By Separation of Church and State? Die By Separation of Church and State, Touchy, Touchy, As New Dog and Pony Shows Come To Town, part one, As New Dog and Pony Shows Come to Town, part two, As New Dog and Pony Shows Come To Town, part three, As New Dog and Pony Shows Come To Town, part four (the end), Chastisements Under Which We Must Save Our Souls, part one, Chastisements Under Which We Must Save Our Souls, part two, Chastisements Under Which We Must Save Our Souls, part three, One of Those "Is It Really Necessary To Write This Again" Articles, Revolutions Have Consequences, part one, and yesterday's article, An Interview With Father Joven Soliman. (And I wonder why I am so tired most of the time!)

The facts have been stated repeatedly. The outrages committed by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI against the honor and glory and majesty of God by his open and blatant public violations of the First and Second Commandments as the false "pontiff" has esteemed the symbols of false religions and called their places of false worship as "sacred" and praised the nonexistent ability of "religions" to contribute to the "betterment" of the world as they "coexist" in mutual understanding and tolerance to build that mythical "civilization of love" have been documented time and time and time again. Those who want to see and to accept these facts will do so. Others simply will not do so, pretending that these offenses against God do not tell us that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is bereft of the Catholic Faith and that no one can have true love for God or true charity for others if he remains silent in the face of these evils, thereby giving others the appearance that God is not offended and that it is never act of true love for God to speak up when His honor and glory and majesty is publicly blasphemed. As I have pointed out so many times, I fell into this latter category for quite a long time, to my utter and total shame.

This is the way it is. This is the situation that God has known from all eternity would occur as the Church Militant on earth undergoes her mystical Passion, Death and Burial (see Bookended From Birth to Birth). There is no need for panic. There is no need for despair. There is no need for sadness. We are Catholics, not pagans. We know that the graces won for us by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces, are sufficient for us to weather and to prosper under the storms of the present time. It is important to remember that nothing--and I do mean absolutely nothing--that we suffer in this passing, mortal vale of tears is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Lord to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and caused those Seven Swords of Sorrow to be pierced through and through His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Sure, of course. I have written this many times on my site. As I see it, however, it is important to repeat them yet again as we tend to get so bogged down in the details of this or that seemingly "new" development that is really not "new" at all. Most of what makes "news" from the officialdom of the counterfeit church of conciliarism is just a recycling of revolutionary concepts that have nothing to do with Catholicism and have been condemned by Holy Mother Church's twenty legitimate councils and true popes, speaking almost as though they had but one voice in doing so without a hint of contradiction as they were guided by the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, Who cannot contradict Himself. This is quite in contrast to the way in which the conciliar revolutionaries contradict the immutable teaching of the Catholic Church, thereby contradicting God Himself, and the way in which they all too frequently contradict themselves and each other in the defense of the conciliar revolution.

To wit, Walter "Cardinal" Kasper, the recently retired president of the "Pontifical" Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has offered his "reflections" upon his retirement. There is absolutely nothing new in what Kasper said as he defended his apostasies, including the so-called Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 (a declaration that was approved by the members World Methodist Council when meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on July 18, 2006) that concluded, at least in essence, that the Fathers of the Council of Trent, men who were guided by God the Holy Ghost, had gotten the doctrine wrong (see Bishop Donald Sanborn's Critical Analysis of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification). There is really no need at all to write about the apostasies contained in Vatican "cardinal" says lack of shared communion his greatest regret as two of the articles mentioned above, Forever Prowling the World Seeking the Ruin of Souls, part 1 and Forever Prowling the World Seeking The Ruin of Souls, part 2, have exhausted the subject of Walter Kasper as far as I am concerned. I will only point out that he and his fellow countryman, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, are of absolutely like mind on "ecumenical" matters and anyone who claims that there are anything other than superficial differences between these two men is not being intellectually honest (see Madness Writ Large).

One of the saddest aspects of the conciliar revolution is that so many well-meaning and devoted Catholics all across the vast expanse of the ecclesiastical divide today do not see these truths or prefer to bury their heads in the sands about them as they are content to live as "high Anglicans" who have access to a modernized version of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition (simulated more often than not by men who are not truly ordained to the Catholic priesthood) while they think, quite erroneously, of course, that they have no obligation to oppose error and sacrilege themselves.

Unfortunately, error and sacrilege do not simply "go away" any sooner than a toothache caused by a rotten tooth that needs to be extracted (and I know all about this as I had a root canal job done in February of 2003 on a tooth by a dentist, now deceased, in that went bad and caused me to have excruciating pain until it was extracted on January 4, 2005, in Escondido, California, by an oral surgeon). One can use an ointment such as Ambesol to soothe the ache caused by a rotten tooth. The underlying cause of the pain, however, will remain unless it is addressed with honesty and promptness as one seeks to offer up the pain to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for his sins and those of the whole world. The errors and sacrileges of conciliarism are not going away under Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. They are escalating as he propagates these errors and commits scandalous sacrileges personally.

It is bad enough that the conciliar revolutionaries have robbed so many Catholics across the vast expanse of the ecclesiastical divide of their sensus Catholicus. It is tragic to see how conciliarism's "reconciliation" with the anti-Incarnational forces of Modernity have convinced even traditionally-minded Catholics to lose all sense of propriety and to speak and to dress (or not dress!) in ways that make them absolutely indistinguishable from abject pagans. We are, after all, supposed to grow in virtue over the years as we cooperate with the graces sent to us by Our Lady to make good, humble, sincere and complete confessions of our sins before a true priest as we shed the "old man" who may have made far too many compromises with the world in the past and put on the "new man" of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is willing to detach himself more and more from the ways of the world and is more willing to suffer the loss of human respect for doing so. Our Lord really does reward those who "come in" at the eleventh hour, that is, those who "get it" later in life, just as much as He does those who have laboring from the first. Is this not correct?

Eschewing human respect and worldliness are essential to our growth in the interior life. God in His ineffable mercy gives us length of years so that we can long more and more for the things of Heaven, not to become immersed more and more in the way of the world as we rationalize that immersion in the name of a false "charity" that seeks not to "threaten" or "judge" others while believing that doing so can "reach" non-Catholics over the course of time. We are not to become like all others in order to be liked by others so that they will follow us into the path of a false understanding of charity, which must will the good of all others (the ultimate expression of which is the salvation of his immortal soul), into a self-servingly corrupted and distorted view of the Catholic Faith. A Catholic, relying upon the Gifts and Fruits of God the Holy Ghost that were imparted upon his immortal soul at the time of his Confirmation (he he has indeed been Confirmed in the true rites of the Catholic Church by a true bishop or a true priest who had the proper delegation from his true bishop to do so), must love God by serving Him humbly and by hating what He hates, namely, sin and heresy.

Yet it is that the doctrinally, liturgically and culturally compromising spirit of conciliarism, expressed in many varied ways in the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service, has seeped into the minds and hearts of even a few Catholics who have rejected the Novus Ordo as an abomination that is but a mockery of true Catholic worship, to say nothing of infecting the souls of those who accept this abomination as the "ordinary form of the Roman Rite" while they bask in the glory of their "extraordinary form of the Roman Rite." Why be different? Why stand out? Why make a fuss? Why make others feel bad?

Catholics do not "stand out" for the sake of standing out. No. They must, however, live and dress and speak as Catholics while giving no quarter to beliefs or trends or fashions that offend God and His Most Blessed Mother and that serve as incentives reaffirm those who are already lax about modesty and are in so many instances actual near occasions of sin for others. Canonized saint after canonized saint has made this abundantly clear. So has one true pope after another.

Yet it is that the conciliar revolution has been so successful in robbing Catholics of the sensus Catholicus that it those who try, perhaps despite their own past sins against the virtue of modesty, to live in less wordily ways and to eschew human respect as they act and speak and dress in a manner that befits true Catholic virtue, who are considered to be "crazy" or "eccentric" or "Jansenistic" or "judgmental" or "unloving" or "extremists" or any other of a variety of names thrown out to cast stones at those who are simply trying to please God and do as His Holy Church has taught. Such name-calling on the part of those who believe that they are being "charitable" by "fitting in" more with the world, which is a consistent theme of conciliarism. really cannot stand up in the face of Catholic truth.

Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri, for example, preached about the necessity of avoiding bad company in order to not to fall in the sinful ways of such company as it is far, far easier for the passive, gradual acceptance of bad behavior and immodest dress and speech to corrupt the good than it is for those who know the Faith to convert those steeped in bad behavior as they provide them with their company indiscriminately and without ever saying a word, no matter how gently put, or without seeking to teach merely by the way that they dress and act and speak:

"A friend of fools:, says the Holy Ghost, "shall become like them"--Prov., xiii. 20. Christians who live in enmity with God, are, Father M. Avila used to say, all fools, who deserve to be shut up in a madhouse. For, what greater madness can be conceived than to believe in Hell, and to live in sin? But the man who contracts an intimacy with these fools, shall soon become like them. Although he should hear all the sermons of the sacred orators, he will continue in vice, according to the celebrated maxim: "Examples make greater impressions than words". Hence the Royal Prophet has said: "With the elect though wilt be elect, and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted"--Ps., xvii. 27. St. Augustine says, that familiarity with sinners is as it were a hook, which draws us to communicate in their vices. Let us, said the saint, avoid wicked friends, "lest by their company we may be drawn to a communion of vice". St. Thomas teaches, that to know whom we should avoid, is a great means of saving our souls. "Firma tutela salutis est, scire quem fugiamus".

"Let their way become dark and slipper, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them"--Ps., xxxiv. 6. All men in this life walk in the midst of darkness, and in a slippery way. If, then, a bad angel--that is, a wicked companion, who is worse than any devil--pursue them, and endeavour to drive them into an abyss, who shall be able to escape death? "Talis eris", says Plato, "qualis conversatio quam sequeris?" And St. John Chrysostom said, that if we wish to know a man's moral habits, we have only to observe the character of the friends with whom he associates: because friendship finds or makes him like his friends. "Vis nosse hominem, attende quorum familiartate assuescat: amicitia aut pares invenit, aut pares facit:. First, because, to please his friends, a man will endeavour to imitate them; secondly, because, as Seneca says, nature inclines men to do what they see others do. And the Scripture says: "They were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works"--Ps., cv. 35. According to St. Basil, as air which comes from pestilential places causes infection, so, by conversation with bad companions, we almost imperceptibly contract their vices. "Quemadmodum in pestilentibus locis sensim attractus aer latentem corporibus morbum injuicit sic itidem in prava conversatione maxima a nobis mala haurinutur, etiamsi statim incommodum non sentiatur"--S. Bas., hom. ix. ex. var. Quod Deus, etc. And St. Bernard says, that St. Peter, in consequence of associating with the enemies of Jesus Christ, denied his Master. "Existens cum passionis dominicae ministris, Dominum negavit".

But how, asks St. Ambrose, can bad companions give you the odour of chastity, when they exhale the stench of impurity? How can they infuse into you sentiments of devotion, when they themselves fly from it? How can they impart to you a shame of offending God, when they cast it away? "Quid tibi demonstrant castiatem quem non habent? Devotionem quam non sequuuntur? Verecundiam quam projiciunt?" St. Augustine writes of himself, that when he associated with bad companions, who boasted of their wickedness, he felt himself impelled to sin without shame; and to appear like them, he gloried in his evil actions. "Pudebat", he says, "me esse pudentum"-lib. 2, de Conf., c. ix. Hence Isaias admonishes you to "touch no unclean thing:--Isa., lii. 11. Touch not what is unclean: if you don, you too shall be polluted. he that handles pitch, says Ecclesiasticus, shall certainly be defiled with it; and they who keep company with the proud, shall be clothed with pride. The same holds for other vices: "He that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled with it; and he hath fellowship with the proud, shall put on pride"--Eccl., xiii. 1.

What then must we do? The Wise Man tells us, that we ought not only to avoid the vices of the wicked, but also to beware of treading in the ways in which they walk. "Restrain they foot from their paths"--Prov., i. 15. That is, we should avoid their conversations, their discourses, their feasts, and all the allurements and presents with which they will seek to entice us into their net. "My son," says Solomon, "if sinners shall entice thee, consent not them"--Prov., i. 10. Without the decoy, the birds are not enticed into the fowler's net. "Will the bird fall into the snare upon the earth, if there be no fowler?"--Amos, iii. 5. The Devil employs vicious friends as decoys, to draw so many souls into the snare of sin. "My enemies", says Jeremias, "have chased me, and have caught me like a bird without cause"--Lamen., iii. 52. He says, without cause. Ask the wicked whey they have made a certain innocent young man fall into sin; and they will answer: We have done it without cause; we only wish to see him to do what we ourselves do. This, says St. Ephrem, is one of the artifices of the Devil: when he has caught a soul in his net, he makes him a snare, or a decoy, to deceive others. "Cum primum capta fuerit anima, ad alias decipiendas fit quasi laqueus".

Hence it is necessary to avoid, as you would a plague, all familiarity with these scorpions of Hell. I have said that you must avoid familiarity with them--that is, all fellowship in their banquets or conversation; for, never to meet them is, as the Apostle says, impossible. "Otherwise you must needs go out of this world"--I. Cor., v. 10. But, it is in our power to abstain from familiar intercourse with them. "But now I have written to you, not to keep company, etc........with such a one, not so much as to eat"--ibid., v. 11. I have called them scorpions: so they have been called by the Prophet Ezechiel: "Thou art among unbelievers and destroyers, and thou dwellest among scorpions"--Ezech., ii. 6. Would you live in the midst of scorpions? You must then fly from scandalous friends, who, by their bad examples and words, poison your soul. "A man's enemies shall be they of his own household"--Matt., x. 36. Wicked friends that are very familiar and intimate to us, become the most pernicious enemies of our souls. "Who", says Ecclesiasticus, "will pit an enchanter struck by a serpent, or any that come near wild beasts? So it is with him that keepeth company with a wicked man"--Eccl., xii. 13. If the man that makes free with serpents, or with ferocious wild beasts, be bitten or devoured by them, who will take pity on him? And so it is with him who associates with scandalous companions; if, by their bad example, he be contaminated and lost, neither God nor man will have compassion on him; because he was cautioned to fly from their society.

One scandalous companion is enough to corrupt all who treat him as a friend. "Know you not", says St. Paul, "That a little leaven corrupts the whole lump?"--I. Cor., v. 6. One of these scandalous sinners is able, by a perverse maxim, to infect all his companions. They are the false prophets whom Jesus Christ warns us to avoid. "Beware of false prophets",--Matt., vii. 15. False prophets deceive, not only by false predictions, but also by false maxims or doctrines, which are productive of the greatest mischief. For, as Seneca says, they leave in the soul certain seeds of iniquity which lead to evil. "Semina in animo relinquunt, quae inducunt ad malum". It is too true that scandalous language, as experience proves, corrupts the morals of those who hear it. "Evil communications", says the Apostle, "corrupt good manner"--I. cor., xv. 33. A young man refuses, through the fear of God, to commit a certain sin; an incarnate David, a bad companion, comes, and says to him what the serpent said to Eve--"No; you shall not die the death"--Gen., iii. 4. What are you afraid of? How many others commit this sin? You are young; God will have pity on your youth. They will, as is written in the book of Wisdom, say: "Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present,...let us spend our time in amusements and in joy. "O nimis iniqua amicitia", says St. Augustine, "cum dicitur, eaumus, faciamus: pudet non esse impudentum". O cruel friendship of those who say: Let us go and do, etc.; it is a shame not e shameless. He who hears such language is shamed not to yield to it, and not to be as shameless as they who utter it.

When any passion is kindled within us, we must be particularly careful in selecting the persons whom we will consult. For, then the passion itself will incline us to seek counsel from those who will probably give the advice which is most agreeable to the passion. But from such evil counsellors, who do not speak according to God, we should fly with greater horror than from an enemy; for their evil counsel, along with the passion which is excited, may precipitate us into horrible excesses. As soon as the passion shall subside, we shall see the error committed, and the delusion into which we have been led by false friends. But the good advice of a friend, who speaks according to Christian truth and meekness, preservers us from every disorder, and restores calm to the soul.

"Depart from the unjust", says the Lord, "and evils shall depart from thee"--Eccl., vii. 2. Fly, separate from wicked companions, and you shall cease to commit sin. "Neither let the way of evil please thee. Flee from it, pass not by it; go aside and forsake it"--Prov., iv., 14, 15. Avoid the ways in which these vicious friends walk, that you may not even meet them. "Forsake not an old friend; for the new will not be like to him"--Eccl., ix.. 14. Do not leave your first friend, who loved you before you came into the world. "I have love thee with an everlasting love"--Jer., xxxi. 3. Your new friends do not love you; they hate you more than your greatest enemy; they seek not your welfare, as God does, but their own pleasures, and the satisfaction of having companions of their wickedness and perdition. You will, perhaps, say: I feel a repugnance to separate from such a friend, who has been solicitous for my welfare; to break off from him would appear to be an act of ingratitude. What welfare? what ingratitude? God alone wishes your welfare; to break off from him would appear to be an act of ingratitude. Your friend wishes your eternal ruin; he wishes you to follow him, but cares not if you be damned. It is not ingratitude to abandon a friend who leads you to Hell; but it is ingratitude to forsake God, who has created you, who has died for you on the cross, and who desires your salvation.

Fly then from the conversation of the these wicked friends. "Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue"--Eccl., xxviiii. 28. Beware of listening to the language of such friends; their words may bring you to perdition. And when you hear them speak improperly, arm yourself with thorns, and reprove them, not only for the purpose of rebuking, but also of converting them. "Ut non solum", says St. Augustine, "repellantur sed etiam compunganatur". Listen to a frightful example, and learn the evil which a wicked friend does. Father Sabatino relates in his Evangelical Light, that two friends of that kind were one day together. One of them, to please the other, committed a sin; but, after they separated, he died suddenly. The other, who knew nothing of his death, saw, in his sleep, his friend, and according to his custom, ran to embrace him. But the deceased appeared to be surrounded with fire, and began to blaspheme the other, and to upbraid him for being the cause of his damnation. The other awoke, and changed his life. But his unhappy friend was damned; and for his damnation there is not, and shall not be, any remedy for all eternity. (Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost: On Avoiding Bad Company.)

 

One of the most insidious ways by which those immersed in lives of sin can corrupt others into minimizing various virtues and into thinking that "times change and so much fashions of dress" is by drawing them in gradually over the course of time into the false belief that "God doesn't really care about such things as He cares only about charity." Alas, this obviates the simple fact that no one can have true charity in his soul while his manner of speech or dress or behavior offends God and His Most Blessed Mother, that Saint John the Evangelist taught us very clearly what constitutes true love of God:

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him. In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy. (1 John 5: 1-3)

 

How can any Catholic say that he loves God and is keeping His Commandments when he has convinced himself that it is proper to dress young girls in short skirts that do not even go to the knee, no less extend well below the knee? How can any Catholic say that He loves God and is keeping His Commandments by mocking those who do take seriously the immutable standards of Catholic modesty that never yield to fashion for the sake of "fitting in" with others? It is impossible to love God and to offend Him and His Most Blessed Mother by raising one's own children to accept styles of dress that demean their own souls and serve as enticements to others to commit sins of thought, word, or deed? It is simply impossible as such a "profession of love" if false, projecting onto the true God of Divine Revelation an "understanding" of "changing times" and an alleged "need" to "reach" people "where they are" that is nothing other than a phony rationalization designed to justify surrendering oneself to the world because it is simply too "hard" to be otherwise.

Such a view contrasts sharply with these words of Pope Benedict XV, writing to the Tertiaries of Saint Francis of Assisi in Sacra Propediem, January 6, 1921:

From this point of view one cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and condition; made foolish by desire to please, they do not see to what a degree the in decency of their clothing shocks every honest man, and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for those toilettes as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table where one receives the heavenly Author of purity. And We speak not of those exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty.

In considering attentively this state of things, the Tertiaries will understand what it is that our epoch expects from the disciples of St. Francis. If they bring their gaze back to the life of their Father, they will see what perfect and living resemblance to Jesus Christ, above all in His flight from satisfactions and his love of trials in this life, had he whom they call the Poverello, and who had received in his flesh the stigmata of the Crucified. It is for them to show that they remain worthy of him by embracing poverty, at least in spirit, in renouncing themselves, and in bearing each one his cross.

In what concerns specially the Tertiary Sisters, We ask of them by their dress and manner of wearing it, to be models of holy modesty for other ladies and young girls; that they be thoroughly convinced that the best way for them to be of use to the Church and to Society is to labor for the improvement of morals.

 

Then there is, of course, the little matter of these words that Our Lady herself spoke to Jacinta Marto as she was hospitalized before she died:

"Certain fashions are introduced which gravely offend my Divine Son."

 

Short skirts and women in masculine attire don't offend Our Lord and Our Lady? Shirtless boys and men do no offend Our Lord and Our Lady? Boys and girls and men and women who parade around shameless displays of their flesh do not offend Our Lord and Our Lady? Says who? Says who? Not Pope Pius XII:

This second virtue, modesty - the very word “modesty” comes from modus, a measure or limit - probably better expresses the function of governing and dominating the passions, especially sensual passions. It is the natural bulwark of chastity. It is its effective rampart, because it moderates acts closely connected with the very object of chastity [...] Yet no matter how broad and changeable the relative morals of styles may be, there is always an absolute norm to be kept after having heard the admonition of conscience warning against approaching danger: style must never be a proximate occasion of sin. [...] An excess of immodesty in fashion involves, in practice, the cut of the garment. The garment must not be evaluated according to the estimation of a decadent or already corrupt society, but according to the aspirations of a society which prizes the dignity and seriousness of its public attire. [...] It is often said almost with passive resignation that fashions reflect the customs of a people. But it would be more exact and much more useful to say that they express the decision and moral direction that a nation intends to take: either to be shipwrecked in licentiousness or maintain itself at the level to which it has been raised by religion and civilization. (Pope Pius XII, Address to the Congress of the Latin Union of High Fashion, November 8, 1957; as found in Norms for Modesty, which is on the website of the National Coalition for Clergy and the Laity, which also includes links to Rome's Decrees on Modesty in Dress and Cardinal Siri’s Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women. Pope Pius XII's entire address may be purchased for fifty cents at MIQ Center Catholic Books: Papal Decrees, Encyclicals.)

 

Equivocators and rationalizers, whether priests or presbyters or members of the laity,  take note: "The garment must not be evaluated according to the estimation of a decadent or already corrupt society, but according to the aspirations of a society which prizes the dignity and seriousness of its public attire." There is no room for those who equivocate or rationalize their "prudent" "accommodation" to the standards of the times by saying, "Look, we're not dressing our children like others, are we? As a matter of fact, yes you are, and that is not all right with God or His Most Blessed Mother.

Could you imagine Saint Anne dressing her daughter, the spotless and immaculate thrice-holy Mother of God, Our Lady, in some of the attire that is accepted by conciliar pastors and even by some traditionally-minded pastors because of the fear that people might "walk away" if they are "too hard" on them? Of course not.

Could you imagine Saint Jean-Marie Vianney approving of what some traditionally-minded Catholics think is acceptable as they permit their daughters to go bare-armed and to wear skirts, if they can be called that, that do not even reach to the knee?

Could you imagine Padre Pio approving of the styles dress (or undress) that are deemed "acceptable" in the conciliar world, including in the Motu communities, and even considered "minimally" acceptable in some sedevacantist chapels?

What about Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini? She was willing to risk her life to defend the virtue of Modesty in girls' attire as she was confronted by an angry mob of parents in Nicaragua.

Mother Cabrini was fearless in the face of opposition. Fearless. She was  a firm defender of the virtue of Modesty, not permitting conditions dictate "exceptions" to his virtue. Unlike the ethos of conciliarism, she did not want to "meet people where they are." She wanted to elevate them to the highest levels of sanctity as soon as possible. There were no "youth Masses" or hootenannies. Just a firm adherence to Catholicism. Period.

Consider this remarkable story concerning her stay in Nicaragua:

As already mentioned, Mother Cabrini had noticed the instability of the inhabitants of Granada. Moreover, she knew that because of the various races, the tropical heat and several other factors, certain liberties of dress and manners had developed. What particularly displeased her, however, was the immodesty of the women's dress.

This latter condition Mother Cabrini decided to remedy immediately. While they were seated at table, several Indian waitresses entered the room and began to serve the sisters and their kind hostess. Noticing their scanty dress, Mother Cabrini exclaimed before her astonished hostess that neither she nor her sisters would eat a morsel of food until those women had covered themselves properly! After vainly trying to persuade her that such was the custom and that it would take some time to change it, the Indians were made to wear some towels, much to their displeasure. [Thomas A Droleskey note: What would Mother Cabrini have done at a John Paul II or Benedict XVI non-"Mass" with half-naked indigenous people offering the gifts to him?]

Slowly but firmly the missionaries made those poor native women realize that they must dress with modesty. They understood and soon after the missionaries arrived in Granada, the Indian women vied with one another in their modesty of dress, especially when they went to church.

When it came to the practice of virtue, Mother Cabrini was adamant. Hence, the alterations in the women's dress was only the beginning of her work in reforming the low moral standards of her new spiritual children. She was told that the hot climate was the cause for the indecent dress of the native women. However, she could not excuse this immodesty, because it led to serious consequences.

Were she living today what should St. Mother Cabrini say in regards to women's styles throughout the world and the resulting lack of good moral living! [What would she say about how many women dress in the Novus Ordo world? What would Mother Cabrini say about how some private traditional Catholic schools ignore standards of modesty and "bend" with the times, if only a little bit?]

The intrepid foundress made a list of rules and regulations for the new academy which they were about to open. Among these, the most important rule was the one denying admittance to girls whose parents were not properly married. With this severe rule she hoped to teach the parents the lesson they greatly needed. An angel of purity from birth, Mother Cabrini could not help but secure a flock of pure doves for her budding academy of Latin America. For, as she claimed, she feared that Jesus would not bless the new school if it were not a nest of candid souls.

Poor missionaries! A few days before they had been praised and looked upon with favor and esteem by the highest officials as well as by the lowly natives. But, because the stringent rules of the new academy affected some of the most important families of that city, the sunshine of the sisters' arrival was changed into a threatening storm.

Refusing to yield to the entreaties of a certain citizen of the city, Mother Cabrini drew upon the site of the new academy an angry mob which threatened to put an end to the religious, especially to their superior!

The holy missionary did not relent, but preferred to give up her life for the same reason that St. John the Baptist was decapitated, rather than to close her eyes and condone the evil which was prevalent in that country.

For several nights the sisters' door was stormed by the angry parents of the refused pupils. But Mother Cabrini was not moved; not even when these fired their guns to demonstrate the actual state of affairs did she cease to trust in her divine Spouse, nor did she think for a moment of yielding to their demands.

Hence, after seven nights of pandemonium, Mother Cabrini's constancy in her resolution won the admiration and reverence of those same persons who had been affected by her rules, and succeeded in making many people change their way of living.

Thus, in imitation of their Spouse, the missionaries also underwent their period of "Hosanna" and "Crucify"! The able foundress was not surprised, however, In fact, she had expected the people's rebellion, hence, she had been prepared for it, since she was always ready for any suffering, mental or physical, for her Master's sake.

The secret of Mother Cabrini's success in all her enterprises rested in three things, namely: prayer, mortifications and sacrifices. The latter were not lacking even in this new mission field.

To begin with, the torrid atmosphere was too much for her delicate health, and the living conditions did not help her in the least. Yet she lived there for three months without ever complaining.

To add to the sisters' discomfort, there were volcanoes in the vicinity of the academy which at times rumbled and frightened them. Worse yet, because of several earthquakes, the religious were forced to move their beds out into the courtyard. The sisters were protected by a thin netting, but their presence invited several unwelcome visitors in the form of insects and reptiles. The latter were most repugnant to the sisters and Mother Cabrini was mortally afraid of them. Yet, her spirit of self-abnegation, her serene and untiring labor, gave courage and good example to her daughters. (Mary Fabyan Windeatt Mother Cabrini, pp. 73-76.)

 

No true saint of the Catholic Church ever dressed in such a way as to serve as a near occasion of sin for others after he or she had given up former ways of acting and speaking if, that is, that had ever acted at all against the Virtue of Modesty as many lived their lives in perfect accord with this virtue. Where's the true female saint in a mini-skirt? Where's the true female saint in a pants suit? (Yes, as I have noted before, Saint Joan of Arc, upon the specific command of God Himself, dressed as a man to protect her chastity amongst men. Only God can grant such exceptions. Has he given you one yet?) Where's the male said who dressed in tight fitting pants and unbuttoned shirts to expose most of their bare chest? Where? You cannot produce one. Not one, and isn't sanctity what we, sinners who are in constant need of God's ineffable mercy, are striving to accomplish?

We must think as Catholics, not as children of the world, a world that is celebrated by the Novus Ordo mentality and liturgy, a world that infects so many traditionally-minded Catholics throughout the vast expanse of the ecclesiastical divide at the present time, yes, even in places where parents are asked to promise to dress their children modestly at home as a condition of enrolling in a school as those parents flaunt the promises they have made by permitting their children to wear some of the most immodest attire imaginable. God is not fooled by such deception and rationalization.

Saint John Chrysostom had a few choice words of his own on the topic in the Fifth Century:

You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not, indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment. ... When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup, you have given the death dealing drink, and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body; you murder not the body but the soul. And it is not to enemies you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity, nor provoked by injury, but out of foolish vanity and pride. (As found at Norms for Modesty.)

 

The root of worldliness, as Father Frederick Faber explained in All for Jesus, is self-love rather than true and pure love for God.

Life is but a very little while, compared with eternity, and throughout eternity, we shall be infinitely happy, and yet have but one occupation--to give glory to God. We shall literally have nothing else to do. And this single task will contain in itself such treasures of bliss that there will be nothing left that we can desire. Why not begin this work on earth? Why not try even now to fall in love with that dear glory of God which will be our joy and worship in the life to come? The character of God's goodness is to be communicative. He is always communicating Himself to His creatures, in nature, in grace, in glory. We must copy this example. There is such a thing as a selfish goodness, thinking only about our own selves and our own souls. Indeed, this does seem a great matter, when we see so many thousands round about us who hardly realize that they have souls at all. Yet it is dangerous to dwell exclusively on this. And who can have the Precious Blood, and know what It is, and fell what It does, and yet no long to pass It along to other souls? I would we could always do all things for the sole glory of God; but this can hardly be. Yet we may all do, without effort, much more than we have done, if we will only try to sorrow over sin, over the sins of the whole world, because our Blessed Lord God is so deeply offended by them.

Neither is this devotion without immense blessings to our own souls. What hinders us most, when we have once set to work to serve God in good earnest, is not so much sin as worldliness and self-love. Now we see how both these miseries, which so hang about us, keep us down, and adulterate all the good we do; see how both of them are kept in check by this devotion. The characteristic of the world is that it ignores sin. Things are right or wrong as it pleases, and according to its own canons; but as to a secret stain upon the immortal soul because the invisible God is offended, this it will not hear of for a moment. It is reckoned a doctrine to unmannered people, an idle bugbear, a priestly superstition. A man who sees everything as sin or not sin, who seeks everywhere the secret glory of the hidden Creator, who follows unearthly standards, and uses unearthly weights and measures, who strives to do the commonest actions from supernatural motives, and who can love what he does not see until he loses the power of loving, or at least of loving vehemently what he does see, can hardly be possessed either by the spirit of worldliness or or self-love. His life is a protest against the world, and also against himself. Yet this is only a description of what a man would soon become who took up this devotion. He who looks long and lovingly on God will soon cease to see any loveliness in himself; and thus his practice would deliver him from the two greatest enemies in the spiritual life. (Father Frederick Faber, All For Jesus, written in 1854, republished by TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 62-63.)

 

We must ask Our Lady for the graces to be heroic in the practice of virtue no matter what anyone else, including one's closest relatives and friends, may think.

Mind you, as I have been noting a lot lately, we must pray and make sacrifices as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary to help those who do not see the true state of the Church clearly in this time of apostasy and betrayal and for those who have permitted themselves, perhaps without even realizing it, to be coopted by the prevailing culture and the ethos of conciliarism that is so open of that culture and so permissive of that which offends God and His Blessed Mother greatly.

Prayer, fasting, sacrifice. Prayer, fasting, sacrifice. Pray, fast, sacrifice. And do not look for earthly results. Keep praying. Keep fasting. Keep sacrificing. Perservere by Our Lady's graces until the very end! Never look for results. Never abandon your prayers for those you deem to be irretrievably lost. Keep praying. Keep fasting. Keep making sacrifices, doing all for the honor and glory of the Most Blessed Trinity as the devoted clients and true slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

It is not so much "information" that will help people to accept something that they have decided to reject. It is, of course, the graces sent to them by Our Lady that will help to enlighten their intellects to accept the truth and to strengthen their wills to act in accord with the truth with promptness and fidelity without regard for human respect. No amount of attempting to "convince" those who do not want to be convinced to accept a particular truth. We must pray. We must fast. We must sacrifice. There are not shortcuts.

Many fingers are pointed in my direction, for example, to scold me for taking so long see the true state of the Church today. I can't undo the past. I was wrong, although I tried to defend the truths of the Holy Faith as best I knew how while accepting what I now know to be the nonexistent "legitimacy" of the conciliar "popes" and "bishops" even as I criticized their rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King and their embrace of false ecumenism. People prayed for me. They fasted. They made sacrifices. I was able to "get it" in time.

Our attitude cannot be Pharisaical in thinking ourselves better than others because "we" "got" a certain point (e.g., modesty, sedevacantism) sooner than they did. As alluded to earlier, Christ the King will repay all of the laborers the same amount no matter whether they came in at the eleventh hour or had been laboring from the very first hour:

[1] The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. [2] And having agreed with the labour ers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. [3] And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. [4] And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. [5] And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner.

[6] But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? [7] They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. [8] And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. [9] When therefore they were come, that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. [10] But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny.

[11] And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, [12] Saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. [13] But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? [14] Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. [15] Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good?

[16] So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. (Matthew 20: 1-16.)

 

It matters not when we come "in." It matters that we come "in" and work hard for the truths of the Faith for as long or as short a time as the good God sees fit to give us. But merely "coming in" will not matter much if we do not perservere to the end of our lives in a state of Sanctifying Grace as a member of the Catholic Church. And for this we need Our Lady's help as we pray as many mysteries of her Most Holy Rosary every day as our state-in-life permits. Others helped us to "get it" about various issues pertaining to the Faith. We need to help those, especially those from whom the circumstances of the moment have estranged us or caused hard feelings between us, who do not as yet "get it" by praying and fasting and sacrificing for them silently as we send them truly blessed Green Scapulars and Mass cards (offered by true priests) to assure them of our prayers despite the truly regrettable divisions that keep us apart at present in this passing, mortal vale of tears.

God will reward those who persevere to the end by means of His Most Blessed Mother's assistance. Saint Paul, who was viewed with much suspicion by some Catholics after his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, was rewarded although he was, to quote his own words, "born out of time" as He was called directly by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself:

[8] And last of all, he was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time. [9] For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. [10] But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and his grace in me hath not been void, but I have laboured more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God with me. (1 Cor. 15: 8-10.)

 

Pray for others. God has had mercy on us repeatedly in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance, has He not? Why should we not pray and have mercy and true compassion for people who have been victimized by the conciliar revolution even though they may not realize or accept this fact? Why should not we recognize that it is only by the grace of God that He sends to us through His Blessed Mother's loving hands that we are able to persevere in the truth no matter the loss of human respect or worldly prestige (and accepting the truth that those who defect from even one article of the Catholic Faith is not the path to human respect or worldly prestige or financial well-being, I can most certainly assure you)?

We must pray and fast and make sacrifices for others so that they can find their way out of the morass that is conciliarism and out of the dark consequences of the revolutions wrought by its false precepts and its false liturgy and thus live with the true joy of the unadulterated Faith in the Catholic catacombs where a variety of weak vessels of clay have, despite the problems of the clash of human personalities and the after-effects of our Actual Sins on our own souls, are attempting to live Catholic lives that are pleasing God without any compromises to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Good Saint Anne, pray for us!

 

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

 

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.

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

See also: A Litany of Saints

Appendix

Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D. on Modesty

The Remnant, 1972

The avowed enemies of God are rejoicing--temporarily--at having brought about an almost total collapse of the virtue of modesty among once virtuous Christian womanhood, while those commissioned by God to teach and uphold this angelic virtue insist on cowardly silence and indifference about it and on gutless permissiveness in manner of dress everywhere.

Meanwhile, vast numbers of supposedly "good" people remain as if without a conscience, being morally blind and insensitive as to what has really happened to a God-given virtue that was once a distinctive trademark of theirs. This type of blindness seems to go hand in hand with a brazen contempt and a sassy resentfulness towards any attempt to revive and restore the missing sense of modesty.

The fact stands out clearly that the immodest fashions of this unchaste generation still offend Our Lord "very much," as Our Lady foretold it through the angelic little Jacinta.

Anyone who still cares about God's virtue of modesty, which He has made shine with such heavenly beauty in the Immaculate Virgin Mary, cannot forget how Our Lord suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane when He foresaw so many sinners, including the immodest and the impure, remaining unrepentant. And the sight of so many immodest creatures displaying crude flesh, like animals, brings vividly before our mind's eye the frightful vision of Our Divine Savior being mercilessly scourged at the pillar. We need not strain ourselves in trying to picture this scene, for we can plainly see the immodest, with their unchaste displays of flesh and figure, continually scourging Our Lord. And we can see them crowning Him with thorns and nailing Him to the Cross all over again.

And look what sorrow the immodest and the impure are causing their Sorrowful and Immaculate Mother, whom God has presented to them as the Perfect Model of Modesty and Purity!

But it has not all happened by accident. Satan planned it this way. As he has done with such evil movements as Communism and Socialism and Freemasonry, so also has he planned out a program of gradual, not sudden, destruction of the sense of modesty and purity. A mere look at the past 50 years or more shows us very plainly how gradually it was all done, first by apparently innocent abbreviations of garments and by slight revelations of bare flesh and by subtle little displays of the figure, and then, as protests died down, by more and more abbreviations and displays--until the crude immodesty of our day became a shocking reality.

Many living today have seen it all happen before their very eyes. They have lived through it and, if they have managed to retain their God-given moral sense, they find the barbarian immodesty of the this day intolerable and they look upon it as a sin crying to Heaven for the vengeance that must inevitably come if sinners continue to refuse to amend their ways.

Perhaps some 50 years ago or more, a publication known as The Frenchwoman presented the following satanic program for the destruction of the virtue of modesty:

"Our children must realize the ideal of nakedness... Thus, the mentality of the child is rapidly transformed. To escape opposition, progress must be methodically graduated: first, feet and legs naked, then upturned sleeves; afterwards, the upper part of the chest; then, the back... in summer, they will go around almost naked."

Even if such a daring statement of the powers of darkness had never come to light--though "enlightened" liberals have tried to keep it in the dark--we would still know that it had to be planned that way and could not have happened by accident. And we would also know that such a program for immodesty could not have originated anywhere but in the dungeons of hell and in the mind of Satan.

The program of gradualism intended to lead eventually to the crude immodesty that we know so painfully well today was evidently drawn up, or at least made known, some time during the Fatima years, possibly a little before or after the 1917 Apparitions of Our Lady. (Maybe some well-informed person can provide a precise date.) Bearing this in mind, we can easily conclude that it was no accident that Our Lady insisted so strongly on modesty in her Fatima Message. She knew well of the evil program that would endanger so many immortal souls, and she came to Fatima to warn souls and to save them from the evil awaiting them.

As Sister Lucy has said, one of the things that Our Lady especially asked for was modesty in dress. And still better known, though disregarded, is Jacinta's prophecy: "Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much"--that little liked prophecy that leaves immodestly dressed "pious" women and girls callous and insensitive and cold.

Just as Our Lady was commissioned by God to oppose the rise of Russian Communism and all the other evils named in the Fatima Message, with God's own program of sanctification and salvation, so was part of her mission to warn souls of the dangers of immodesty and impurity that were to increase the unbelievable proportions in the years to come, and to turn them to modesty and and purity and amendment of life.

In connection with the timeliness of Our Lady's message of modesty in 1917, just when Satan's program of gradual nakedness was being put into effect, we must also mention the timeliness of the message of modesty of Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922). It is fairly well known how dynamic were his two successors, Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, in promoting modesty of dress, but it is not as well known that Pope Benedict XV was before them a strenuous defender and promoter of modesty at a time when we might imagine it was not so much of a problem.

We cannot believe that the statements of Our Lady of Fatima and those of Pope Benedict XV on modesty were disconnected or were merely a matter of coincidence. We can only believe that both Our Lady of Fatima and the Holy Father of that time were inspired and guided by God Himself to speak out on modesty in dress, so as to counteract the wicked program of gradual nudism that was being inspired and guided by hell's father of iniquity.

Let us quote an important statement of Pope Benedict XV--by no means his only one--so that we may see how immodesty in dress had already begun to cause moral ruin among women and girls of his day. In an Encyclical Letter (Sacra Propediem, 1921) commemorating the 7th centenary of the founding of the Franciscan Third Order, Pope Benedict wrote as follows:

"From this point of view one cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and condition; made foolish by desire to please, they do not see to what a degree the in decency of their clothing shocks every honest man, and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for those toilettes as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table where one receives the heavenly Author of purity. And We speak not of those exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty."

 

If we did not know that a Pope wrote this in 1921, we would surely think it was written, or should have been written by someone, in 1972!

After thus deploring the immodesty of his day, the Holy Father exhorted women with these words:

"In what concerns specially the Tertiary Sisters, We ask of them by their dress and manner of wearing it, to be models of holy modesty for other ladies and young girls; that they be thoroughly convinced that the best way for them to be of use to the Church and to Society is to labor for the improvement of morals."

 

Whose message, do you suppose, have women and girls accepted: the message of modesty of Our Lady of Fatima and of the Holy Father or, the message of immodesty of Lucifer?

Who has recommend to them short skirts, sleeveless dresses, pants, shorts, and clownish pants suits, and so on?

Not only did women and girls buy and buy and buy the clothing that through the years became gradually shorter and skimpier and tighter and ever more unladylike, thus making the whole program of gradual nakedness a huge success, but something else happened at the same time; the sense of modesty and propriety, which God has instilled into their souls, became gradually more blurred and dim and fuzzy, until in so many it became totally blacked out and dead. They did not, and do not, know what happened to them. By blindly and stupidly following the satanic program of gradual abbreviation of attire, they destroyed in themselves a precious God-given gift--the sense of modesty--so that they have now made themselves incapable of distinguishing between modesty and immodesty, nor do so many of them care to know.

And not only have women destroyed in themselves God's gift of modesty, but they have destroyed it in their children from their earliest years, so that a whole generation has been brought up without any real understanding of modesty without any desire to possess its beauty.

And, mind you, these have been "good" and "pious" women who have done this to their children! They have been the "Lord, Lord" type who have duly said their prayers, which all are obliged to do, but who have not done "the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven" (Mt. 7. 21) by obeying His law of modesty. (Emphases added.)