Sancte Michael Archangele, Defende Nos in Praelio

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Each of us fights a daily battle against the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Saint Paul noted this in his Epistle to the Ephesians:

Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high place. Therefore take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace:

In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God). By all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the spirit; and in the same watching with all instance and supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6: 11-18.)

 

Saint Michael the Archangel is the one who carries that "sword of the Spirit," having struck down Lucifer when he rebelled against God:

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. (Apocalypse 12: 7-9.)

 

Saint Michael remains as our helper today to do battle with the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil in our own lives. Indeed, he appeared with Our Lady on Tepeyac Hill on December 12, 1531, plainly visible in the miraculous image left on the tilma of the Venerable Juan Diego, to remind us that he does battle with the demons abroad in the world, and there were demons aplenty in the savage land of the Americas prior to the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the Sixteenth Century and prior to the miraculous conversion of over nine million indigenous peoples out of barbaric superstition to the true Faith. Saint Michael stands ready, as we know, to do battle with all of the evil, anti-Incarnational forces of Modernity in the world and of Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Although there is controversy over the exact nature of circumstances that gave rise to Pope Leo XIII's composition of the shorter (1844) and longer (1888) versions of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, there can be no controversy over the efficacy of praying either one or both of these prayers on a daily basis. The forces of evil are indeed arrayed all against us. Our very senses almost as soon as we step out of our homes (or motor homes). Billboards display the most hideous, indecent images. Pharmacies, which carry so many instruments of death today, and supermarkets assault our senses with horrible "music" and, especially during this time of year, with absolutely demonic images of the macabre in preparation for what has become, sadly, a cultural celebration of evil on All Hallows Eve, October 31. Immodesty, one of the many fruits of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King and the rise of naturalism and all of its manifestations (religious liberty, civil liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of press, pluralism, religious indifferentism, materialism, positivism, utilitarianism, etc.), abounds everywhere. We need the protection of Saint Michael the Archangel and of our Guardian Angels to help us to shield ourselves as best as possible from these evil influences and to pray for the conversion of those responsible for their promotion and/or who are immersed in the activities that flow from these wicked influences, which have enticed even so many Catholics to be blase as over four thousand innocent preborn babies are put to death by means of surgical abortion every day in the United States of America alone.

We need the help of Saint Michael and our Guardian Angels to help us to wade our way through the apostasies and betrayals being promoted in the name of Catholicism by the counterfeit church of conciliarism. The deceptions of the present moment are nothing other than diabolically conceived and executed. There has never been a time in the history of the Catholic Church when men claiming to be Sovereign Pontiffs have praised false religions and have called their places of false worship as sacred. Worse yet, there has never been a time when so many Catholics who knew better sought not to defend the honor and glory of God and served instead as apologists for the apostates who have seized upon the ecclesiastical offices and engaged in the sort of blasphemies and sacrileges that inspired countless millions of Catholics, who did not want to give even that appearance of the approval of such evils, to give up their lives. We need to pray to Saint Michael the Archangel to defend us in battle against falling prey to quietism in the mist of these apostasies and blasphemies and sacrileges.

None of the apostasies or blasphemies or sacrileges promoted by conciliarism is a minor thing. It is not a minor thing when a man who believes himself to be the Vicar of Christ genuflects before a heretical and schismatic "bishops," as Giovanni Montini/Paul VI, recently praised by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, did in 1964. The Vicar of Christ genuflects before no other man on the face of this earth. He is the Visible Head of the true Church founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope, by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb. Would Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ genuflect before any man? This was not a minor matter. This was a grave sacrilege, demonstrative of Montini's belief that his authority as the Vicar of Christ was not universal in its scope.

Saint Teresa of Avila's words below, which will be repeated several times in this article, are a rejoinder to those who think that such symbolic gestures are but "minor" matters not indicative of a loss of the Catholic Faith:

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

 

Similarly, it was not a minor matter when Joseph Ratzinger said recently that the "Second" Vatican Council was "essential to the faith." Some non-sedevacantist Catholics have said that the "Second" Vatican Council bound nothing upon the consciences of Catholics. How can a "council" that is said to have bound "nothing" upon Catholics be "essential to the faith"? Statements are either true or false of their nature. Do false statements no longer matter? Is this just nothing, an "exaggeration" about which we should not be concerned in the slightest?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

 

Is it not supposed to matter that the various apostasies of conciliarism (the new ecclesiology, religious liberty, ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, the separation of Church and State) have been condemned by the true popes of the Catholic Church? (See: Father Curzio Nitoglia's comprehensive and most readable The “Magisterium” of Vatican II. for a good analysis of Lumen Gentium and of another conciliar defection from the Faith, episcopal collegiality.) Does it not matter that quasi-official "agreements" (Joint Declaration on Justification, International Theological Commission report on the fate of non-baptized infants who die) at odds with the true teaching of the Catholic Church represent the actual mind of the conciliar officials, including that of the putative pontiffs themselves? Is it possible to dissent privately, no less to promote publicly, from articles contained in the Deposit of Faith and to remain a Catholic in good standing? Is every offense against truth and holiness and the honor and glory due the Blessed Trinity just an "absurdity" or a mere "aberration: that does not reflect the actual effects of conciliarism in the lives of ordinary Catholics at the parish level?

Is it not supposed to matter that a man who considers himself, albeit falsely, to be the Vicar of Christ walks into a mosque, taking off his shoes so as to signify that he is in a holy place, and then assumes a Mohammedan prayer position as he turns in the direction of Mecca? Nothing? An exaggeration?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

 

Is it not supposed to matter that an official representative of the putative Vicar of Christ serves as the master of ceremonies for the world premier of a motion picture, The Nativity Story, that blasphemes the Mother of God by denying the effects of her Immaculate Conception in its portrayal of her as a sulky, moody and disobedient teenager? Nothing, an exaggeration?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine.)

 

Each one of of own sins caused Our Lord to suffer unspeakable horrors in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and caused Our Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart to be thrust through with Seven Swords of Sorrow. Each one of the apostasies of conciliarism has caused Our Lord to suffer a mystical Passion, Death and Burial in the past forty-five years. No one of them is minor, no matter how many semantic devices are used to explain them away or to claim that they do not "matter" because they are not considered by conciliar apologists to be "officially" binding. Each of them is offensive to God and harmful to souls, millions upon millions of whom have been convinced in the past forty years that the Catholic Church taught error in the past and that everything is now open for discussion and debate and reconsideration.

Some try to defend the conciliarists by saying that they, the conciliarists, remain Catholics in good standing because they believe in some "core" beliefs of the Catholic Faith. Apart from the fact that Pope Leo XIII stated quite clearly in Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896, that those who fall from the Faith in one thing falls from the Faith in its entirety, Pope Benedict XV completely rejected any notion of a Catholic who could deny some of the truths of the Faith (say, religious liberty and the condemnation of the separation of Church and State) and remain a  believer in the Catholic Faith:

Such is the nature of Catholicism that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole or as a whole rejected: ‘This is the Catholic Faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved’ (Athanasian Creed). There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism: it is quite enough for each one to proclaim ‘Christian is my name and Catholic my surname,’ only let him endeavor to be in reality what he calls himself.

Besides, the Church demands from those who have devoted themselves to furthering her interests, something very different from the dwelling upon profitless questions; she demands that they should devote the whole of their energy to preserve the faith intact and unsullied by any breath of error, and follow most closely him whom Christ has appointed to be the guardian and interpreter of the truth. There are to be found today, and in no small numbers, men, of whom the Apostle says that: "having itching ears, they will not endure sound doctrine: but according to their own desires they will heap up to themselves teachers, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables" (II Tim. iv. 34). Infatuated and carried away by a lofty idea of the human intellect, by which God's good gift has certainly made incredible progress in the study of nature, confident in their own judgment, and contemptuous of the authority of the Church, they have reached such a degree of rashness as not to hesitate to measure by the standard of their own mind even the hidden things of God and all that God has revealed to men. Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fulness, Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the evil, to which we may apply the words Job used in other circumstances: "It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring" (Job xxxi. 12). Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a new way."  (Pope Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914.)

 

Pope Pius XI, writing in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928, also rejected any notion of a distinction between "fundamental" and allegedly "non-fundamental" doctrines of the Catholic Faith:

Besides this, in connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction. For this reason it is that all who are truly Christ's believe, for example, the Conception of the Mother of God without stain of original sin with the same faith as they believe the mystery of the August Trinity, and the Incarnation of our Lord just as they do the infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, according to the sense in which it was defined by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. Are these truths not equally certain, or not equally to be believed, because the Church has solemnly sanctioned and defined them, some in one age and some in another, even in those times immediately before our own? Has not God revealed them all? For the teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine wisdom was constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain intact for ever, and that they might be brought with ease and security to the knowledge of men, and which is daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth with solemn rites and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to oppose the errors or the attacks of heretics, or more clearly and in greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with the articles of sacred doctrine which have been explained. But in the use of this extraordinary teaching authority no newly invented matter is brought in, nor is anything new added to the number of those truths which are at least implicitly contained in the deposit of Revelation, divinely handed down to the Church: only those which are made clear which perhaps may still seem obscure to some, or that which some have previously called into question is declared to be of faith.

 

Catholics must reject the "teachings" of conciliarism. It is not possible to accept the condemned proposition of religious liberty and claim that one is upholding Catholic teaching. In addition to the many condemnations of religious liberty that have been cited in past articles on this site, The Syllabus of Errors, a document issued by Pope Pius IX that has been specifically rejected by Joseph Ratzinger (who called the "Second" Vatican Council a "countersyllabus of errors"), did so in no uncertain terms:

78. Hence it has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship. -- Allocution "Acerbissimum," Sept. 27, 1852.

79. Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism. -- Allocution "Nunquam fore," Dec. 15, 1856.

80. The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.- -Allocution "Jamdudum cernimus," March 18, 1861.

 

One of the hallmarks of the false pontificate of Joseph Ratzinger has been the promotion of this very heresy of religious liberty. He has even gone so far as to blaspheme the first martyrs of the Church as having died for this heresy. Nothing, an exaggeration?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

 

The condemnation of religious liberty, which was offered by Popes Pius VII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, and Leo XIII in no uncertain terms, was still being reiterated as late as Pope Pius XII's address to Italian lawyers, Ci Riesce, December 6, 1953:

Whatever does not respond to truth and the moral law has objectively no right to existence, nor to propaganda, nor to action.

 

Joseph Ratzinger has said over and over again that religious liberty is a fundamental "right" of the human being. If this is so, of course, then the Catholic Church had it wrong for nearly two millennia. Nothing? An exaggeration?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

 

The conciliar Vatican has sat back for six months now after the Connecticut conference of conciliar "bishops" approved the use of the "Plan-B" emergency abortifacient contraceptive in "Catholic" hospitals, paving the way for the approval of this baby-killing potion by the Wisconsin conference of conciliar "bishops." The novelty of episcopal collegiality makes it difficult for the conciliar Vatican to take action when "episcopal" conferences do things that are even beyond the pale of conciliarism's "approved" errors and apostasies and blasphemies:

HARTFORD, May 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Medical Association, the largest professional organization of Catholic physicians in the U.S. is resolutely opposed to the use of the abortifacient morning after pill (also known as 'emergency contraception' or its generic name Plan B) in Catholic Hospitals because of its potential to cause abortions.  Nevertheless, the Catholic Bishops of both Connecticut and Wisconsin and other states have publicly admitted that their Catholic hospitals are distributing such pills to rape victims.

In testimony before the Wisconsin Senate Committee last week, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference noted that Catholic hospitals were in fact already administering the morning after pill with the use of pregnancy tests.  Kim Wadas, Associate Director for Health Care at the Conference, told the committee, "Catholic hospitals in Wisconsin can and do treat victims with emergency contraception." (see the full testimony here: http://www.wisconsin.nasccd.org/bins/wisconsin/content/pages... )

In a joint April 25 letter signed by the Bishops of Connecticut, Archbishop of Hartford Henry Mansell, and Bishop of Bridgeport William Lori, the prelates state: "It is important to repeat that Connecticut's Catholic hospitals do provide emergency contraception."  Later in the letter they add, "We would not object to passage of a statute that would require all hospitals to adopt protocols requiring the distribution of Plan B to sexual assault victims when medically appropriate." 

LifeSiteNews.com has learned that some Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, California, Washington also offer so-called 'emergency contraception' to some rape victims.

The bishops of these dioceses believe they are allowing the use of emergency contraception only in cases where "appropriate testing" has determined that the woman is not pregnant and thus the pill, in halting ovulation may prevent a pregnancy occurring as a result of the rape.  The science however does not definitively back up their hopes.

Medical evidence, accepted by the largest association of Catholic doctors in the United States, demonstrates that the pregnancy tests used cannot accurately detect a pregnancy at fertilization but only after implantation which takes more than a week after the new life is formed.  A more stringent protocol known as the ovulation method used in some Catholic hospitals, seeks to determine if the patient has ovulated and if the test indicates she has not, the pills can be given.  However, medical evidence demonstrates considerable doubt that even these tests can detect a potential fertilization in time to prevent an abortion caused by  administration of the pill. (for a detailed look at this aspect of the medical evidence see here: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007_docs/UScatholichospitalsand...)

Even if such tests could accurately determine that ovulation has not yet occurred another difficulty exists.  A study by Dr. Chris Kahlenborn in 2003 found that the pill only works to halt ovulation half the time.  Thus fertilization may occur even after the pill is administered, and an abortion would result since in addition to stopping ovulation the pills act to weaken the lining of the uterus making implantation unsustainable.  See Dr. Kahlenborn's study here: http://www.polycarp.org/postfertilization_polycarp_1.htm

Dr. Kathleen Raviele, the President-Elect of the Catholic Medical Association, told LifeSiteNews.com that the science is complex and "Bishops can't be expected to understand all of the medical nuances of this."  She says however that the situation as it stands requires reassessment.  "In everything we err on the side of life," she said and thus the administration of the morning after pill in Catholic hospitals is "not justified."

At its Annual Meeting in 2003, the Catholic Medical Association passed a resolution correcting theologians who have erroneously suggested that it would be legitimate for Catholic hospitals to provide "emergency contraception" to rape victims.

The Catholic doctors said that the term 'emergency contraception' is "a misnomer as it does not consistently prevent fertilization". The resolution concludes that the drug, "has the potential to prevent implantation whether given in the pre-ovulatory, ovulatory, or post-ovulatory phase, that it cannot be ethically employed by a Catholic physician or administered in a Catholic Hospital in cases of rape".

Raviele added that the most common morning after pill currently in use, Plan B, has many negative side effects such as nausea and dizziness, and the medical literature is pointing to use of the abortion drug RU-486 as a replacement.  "The next emergency contraceptive on the horizon is going to be a low dose of RU-486 since it has no side effects," she warned.

Dr. Kahlenborn, who, with two other physicians, did the study on the effect of the morning after pill told LifeSiteNews.com, no one knows for sure how the morning after pill works.  Acting in an area of life and death in uncertainty, suggests Dr. Kahlenborn, is reckless.  "The bishops who approve this are approving potential abortions," he said.

"You have the Catholic doctors telling you this and even Protestant doctors," said Kahlenborn speaking of the Catholic Medical Association and the two Protestant and Mormon physicians who co-authored the study on the morning after pill.  "Who are the bishops listening to?," he asked rhetorically.

The Catholic Health Association is an association led by theologians which advises the bishops on such matters and it approves of the limited use of the morning after pill in Catholic hospitals for rape victims. Dr. Kahlenborn wondered about reliance on theologians for opinion on medical science rather than on medical doctors.  "Basically saying your theologians are smarter than all the doctors out there," he said.

Given the complexities involved, Dr. Kahlenborn suggested that a new Vatican intervention would be required to clear up the situation.  "The only way I really think its going to change is if the Vatican does something," he concluded.

 

A complex matter? Not at all. The actions of the conciliar "bishops" in the United States of America as they pertain to matters of physical life and death, to say nothing of matters of spiritual life and death, demonstrate a fundamental loss of the Catholic Faith. Nothing? An exaggeration?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine)

We need Saint Michael the Archangel to help us to recognize that each defection from the Faith is serious, that it is impossible to produce peace in the soul and hence within and among nations if souls do not accept the totality of the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church and if they do not have belief in, access to and cooperation with Sanctifying Grace. There is no path to "peace," whether personal or social, that does not run through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and hence to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Not so for the conciliarists, obviously. No so for the conciliarists, the insane dreamers who believe that "inter-religious dialogue" is the path to "peace" and "justice" in the world:

CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS: PROMOTE A CULTURE OF PEACE

VATICAN CITY, SEP 28, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was the annual Message to Muslims for the end of the month of Ramadan from the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. It bears the signatures of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, respectively president and secretary of the council. The theme of the Message this year (1428 AH / 2006 AD) is, "Christians and Muslims: called to promote a culture of peace."

Extracts from the document are given below:

"In the troubled times we are passing through, religious believers have, as servants of the Almighty, a duty above all to work in favor of peace, by showing respect for the convictions of individuals and communities everywhere through freedom of religious practice. Religious freedom, which must not be reduced to mere freedom of worship, is one of the essential aspects of freedom of conscience, which is the right of every individual and a cornerstone of human rights. It takes into account the requirement that a culture of peace and solidarity between men can be built in which everybody can be firmly engaged in the construction of an increasingly fraternal society, doing everything one can to reject, denounce and refuse every recourse to violence which can never be motivated by religion, since it wounds the very image of God in man.

"We know that violence, especially terrorism which strikes blindly and claims countless innocent victims, is incapable of resolving conflicts and leads only to a deadly chain of destructive hatred, to the detriment of mankind and of societies.

"As religious believers, it is up to us all to be educators of peace, of human rights, of a freedom which respects each person. ... No individual in the national community should be excluded on the grounds of his or her race, religion, or any other personal characteristic. ... We are particularly responsible for ensuring that our young people, who will be in charge of tomorrow's world, are formed in this spirit" providing "everyone an education appropriate to his or her particular circumstances, especially a civic education which invites each young person to respect those around him or her, and to consider them as brothers and sisters with whom he or she is daily called to live, not in indifference, but in fraternal care."

"In this spirit, the pursuit and intensification of dialogue between Christians and Muslims must be considered important, in both educational and cultural dimensions. Thus all forces can be mobilized in the service of mankind and humanity so that the younger generations do not become cultural or religious blocs opposed to one another, but genuine brothers and sisters in humanity. Dialogue is the tool which can help us to escape from the endless spiral of conflict and multiple tensions which mark our societies, so that all peoples can live in serenity and peace and with mutual respect and harmony among their component groups. ... This is the ardent hope I share with you: that Christians and Muslims continue to develop increasingly friendly and constructive relationships in order to share their specific riches, and that they will pay particular attention to the quality of the witness of their believers."

 

Freedom of conscience? Perhaps it is wise to consult Popes Pius VII and Gregory XVI once again:

For We had hoped, affairs having so happily changed, not only that all impediments organized against the Catholic religion in France would be removed with the utmost speed (as We have unceasingly demanded), but also that, as the opportunity presented itself, provision would also be made for her splendour and ornament. We saw at once that a deep silence was preserved in the constitution concerning this, and that there was not even any mention made of Almighty God, by whom kings reign and princes command. You will find it easy, Venerable Brother, to convince yourself of how grave, how bitter and how painful this matter was to Us, to whom has been committed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Our Lord, the whole of Christendom. For how can We tolerate with equanimity that the Catholic religion, which France received in the first ages of the Church, which was confirmed in that very kingdom by the blood of so many most valiant martyrs, which by far the greatest part of the French race professes, and indeed bravely and constantly defended even among the most grave adversities and persecutions and dangers of recent years, and which, finally, that very dynasty to which the designated king belongs both professes and has defended with much zeal - that this Catholic, this most holy religion, We say, should not only not be declared to be the only one in the whole of France supported by the bulwark of the laws and by the authority of the Government, but should even, in the very restoration of the monarchy, be entirely passed over? But a much more grave, and indeed very bitter, sorrow increased in Our heart - a sorrow by which We confess that We were crushed, overwhelmed and torn in two - from the twenty-second article of the constitution in which We saw, not only that "liberty of religion and of conscience" (to use the same words found in the article) were permitted by the force of the constitution, but also that assistance and patronage were promised both to this liberty and also to the ministers of these different forms of "religion". There is certainly no need of many words, in addressing you, to make you fully recognize by how lethal a wound the Catholic religion in France is struck by this article. For when the liberty of all "religions" is indiscriminately asserted, by this very fact truth is confounded with error and the holy and immaculate Spouse of Christ, the Church, outside of which there can be no salvation, is set on a par with the sects of heretics and with Judaic perfidy itself. For when favour and patronage is promised even to the sects of heretics and their ministers, not only their persons, but also their very errors, are tolerated and fostered: a system of errors in which is contained that fatal and never sufficiently to be deplored HERESY which, as St. Augustine says (de Haeresibus, no.72), "asserts that all heretics proceed correctly and tell the truth: which is so absurd that it seems incredible to me." (Pope Pius VII, Post Tam Diuturnas, April 29, 1814.)

This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again? (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

 

Pope Pius XI explained in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922, that the Catholic Church alone is the only path to peace in souls and hence in the world:

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

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

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

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

It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.

It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.

It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace.

 

Propositions condemned (religious liberty, false ecumenism, peace on the basis of naturalism) by true popes of the Catholic Church have been embraced by the counterfeit church of conciliarism as a "fundamental right" of the human being, the very foundation of world peace. Nothing? An exaggeration?

"Know this: it is by very little breaches of regularity that the devil succeeds in introducing the greatest abuses. May you never end up saying: 'This is nothing, this is an exaggeration.'" (Saint Teresa of Avila, Foundations, Chapter Twenty-nine.)

 

We need the intercession of Saint Michael the Archangel to protect against falling into the belief that none of the apostasies or blasphemies or sacrileges or actions of the conciliarists contrary to the Faith and thus to good of souls represents nothing but "an exaggeration." We need Saint Michael, who defeated Lucifer and his minions in battle and thrust them down into Hell, to defeat the diabolically-clever forces of conciliarism that have convinced so many believing Catholics that it is no longer necessary to oppose heresy openly, that it not necessary to distance oneself, openly and publicly, from heresies and those who promote them, hating heresies as much as God Himself hates them and desires to have them eradicated from the face of this earth. Father Frederick Faber's admonitions from 150 years ago are useful to once again ponder as we behold the spectacle of how many "priests" in the Motu communities who know that the Novus Ordo is sacrilegious and who reject religious liberty and false ecumenism hold their tongues so that they can be part of the One World Ecumenical Church of which conciliarism is an essential component part:"

This is particularly offensive to the world. So especially opposed is it to the spirit of the world, that, even in good, believing hearts, every remnant of worldliness rises in arms against this hatred of heresy, embittering the very gentlest of characters and spoiling many a glorious work of grace. In the judgment of the world, and of worldly Christians, this hatred of heresy is exaggerated, bitter, contrary to moderation, indiscreet, unreasonable, aiming at too much, bigoted, intolerant, narrow, stupid, and immoral. What can we say to defend it? Nothing which they can understand. The mild self-opinionatedness of the gentle, undiscerning good will also take the world's view and condemn us; for there is a meek-looking positiveness about the timid goodness which is far from God, and the instincts of whose charity is more toward those who are less for God, while its timidity is daring enough for a harsh judgment. Heresy can only be hated by an undivided heart. (The Dolors of Mary, 1857.)

If we hated sin as we ought to hate it, purely, keenly, manfully, we should do more penance, we should inflict more self-punishment, we should sorrow for our sins more abidingly. Then, again, the crowning disloyalty to God is heresy. It is the sin of sins, the very loathsomest of things which God looks down upon in this malignant world. Yet how little do we understand of its excessive hatefulness! It is the polluting of God’s truth, which is the worst of all impurities.

Yet how light we make of it! We look at it, and are calm. We touch it and do not shudder. We mix with it, and have no fear. We see it touch holy things, and we have no sense of sacrilege. We breathe its odor, and show no signs of detestation or disgust. Some of us affect its friendship; and some even extenuate its guilt. We do not love God enough to be angry for His glory. We do not love men enough to be charitably truthful for their souls.

Having lost the touch, the taste, the sight, and all the senses of heavenly-mindedness, we can dwell amidst this odious plague, in imperturbable tranquility, reconciled to its foulness, not without some boastful professions of liberal admiration, perhaps even with a solicitous show of tolerant sympathies.

Why are we so far below the old saints, and even the modern apostles of these latter times, in the abundance of our conversations? Because we have not the antique sternness? We want the old Church-spirit, the old ecclesiastical genius. Our charity is untruthful, because it is not severe; and it is unpersuasive, because it is untruthful.

We lack devotion to truth as truth, as God’s truth. Our zeal for souls is puny, because we have no zeal for God’s honor. We act as if God were complimented by conversions, instead of trembling souls rescued by a stretch of mercy.

We tell men half the truth, the half that best suits our own pusillanimity and their conceit; and then we wonder that so few are converted, and that of those few so many apostatize.

We are so weak as to be surprised that our half-truth has not succeeded so well as God’s whole truth.

Where there is no hatred of heresy, there is no holiness.

A man, who might be an apostle, becomes a fester in the Church for the want of this righteous indignation. (The Precious Blood, 1860)

 

Saint Jerome, whose feast was commemorated yesterday, September 30, 2007, noted in his day that, "The whole world groaned, and was astonished to find itself Arian." Most every Catholic today finds himself immersed in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, either oblivious to its errors and apostasies and sacrileges or intent on trying to find some way to reconcile mutually contradictory principles with each other. Our Lady, the Queen of Angels, and the Prince of the the Heavenly Host of Angels, Saint Michael the Archangel, will help us in this month of the Holy Rosary and of the Holy Angels to remain steadfast in our adherence to the truths of the Catholic Faith without making even the slightest concessions to conciliarism or to the "legitimacy" of its false shepherds. Our Lady and Saint Michael will help us to take heart from these words of Saint Jerome, which describe what happened after the world awoke to find itself Arian:

Some, therefore, remained in their own communion, others began to send letters to those Confessors who as adherents of Athanasius were in exile; several despairingly bewailed the better relations into which they had entered. But a few, true to human nature, defended their mistake as an exhibition of wisdom. The ship of the Apostles was in peril, she was driven by the wind, her sides beaten with the waves: no hope was now left. But the Lord awoke and bade the tempest cease; the beast died, and there was a calm once again. To speak more plainly, all the bishops who had been banished from their sees, by the clemency of the new emperor returned to their Churches. Then Egypt welcomed the triumphant Athanasius; then Hilary returned from the battle to the embrace of the Church of Gaul; then Eusebius returned and Italy laid aside her mourning weeds. The bishops who had been caught in the snare at Ariminum and had unwittingly come to be reported of as heretics, began to assemble, while they called the Body of our Lord and all that is holy in the Church to witness that they had not a suspicion of anything faulty in their own faith. We thought, said they, the words were to be taken in their natural meaning, and we had no suspicion that in the Church of God, the very home of simplicity and sincerity in the confession of truth, one thing could be kept secret in the heart, another uttered by the lips. We thought too well of bad men and were deceived. We did not suppose that the bishops of Christ were fighting against Christ.

 

There is much of relevance to our own situation today in the description of Arianism provided by Saint Jerome, is there not?

Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos in the year before Our Lady appeared to them in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal. He prepared their hearts for them to receive Our Lady's Fatima Message, which implores us to make reparation to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for the conversion of poor sinners, especially by means of her Most Holy Rosary. Saint Michael wants to prepare our hearts to fulfill Our Lady's Fatima Message in our own lives, thus making us more ready to call upon his angelic assistance to defend us in battle against the wickedness and the snares of the devil. Those snares are laid for us in the midst of the anti-Incarnational world of Modernity and in the very wicked ethos of Modernism that is in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Our Lady and Saint Joseph and Saint Michael and our own Guardian Angels will help us to remain ever faithful in this time of apostasy and betrayal, making us ever desirous to offer up our daily prayers and penances of mortifications and sufferings and humiliations to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary has won many important battles in defense of the Faith. Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary will win the battle against conciliarism at the present time. We need to do our part by praying, especially in this month of the Most Holy Rosary, as many Rosaries as our states-in-life permit, making sure as well to pray to Saint Michael the Archangel after we conclude our meditation on the fifteen mysteries of our salvation contained within the psalter given by Our Lady herself to Saint Dominic de Guzman:

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio, contra nequitias et insidias diaboli esto praesidium: Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur, tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis, satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

 

Invoking Our Lady and the heavenly court of angels, may it be our privilege to plant a few seeds as her consecrated slaves for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of herself, Our Immaculate Queen. We need simply to trust in her maternal intercession and to invoke the help of Saint Michael and the other angels to avoid the traps of naturalism and conciliarism so that, as Pope Saint Pius X prayed throughout his pontificate, all things will be restored in Christ.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

 

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our deaths. Amen.

 

All to you, Blessed Mother. All to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls!

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

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

Saint Wenceslaus, pray for us.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

Saint Remigius, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints

 

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

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

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

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

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

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

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

Response:  Amen.