Still Defaming The English Martyrs

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Defaming The English Martyrs, published on October 29, 2009, discussed the pending transfer of members of one false sect, Anglicanism, into another false church, that of conciliarism. Although this transfer of Anglicans from one part of the One World Church to another has been deemed as a "triumph" for Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's desire to effect "unity" among Christians, it is nothing other than a showcase of some of the principal apostasies of conciliarism, starting with the "new ecclesiology" that sees the Catholic Church as a "communion" that is actually larger than the Catholic Church. As is almost everything else in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, what appears to most people to be a "triumph" of the "Second Vatican Council's false "ecumenism" comes at the price of distorting and corrupting the truths of the Holy Faith and of giving credence to false liturgical rites that were opposed by English Catholics in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries to the very point of shedding their blood.

Ratzinger/Benedict's "apostolic constitution," Anglicanorum Coetibus, issued yesterday, Monday, November 9, 2009, the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and the Commemoration of Saint Theodore, follows very closely the outlines of the Vatican Note on Establishing Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans that was issued on October 20, 2009. There is indeed very little in Anglicanorum Coetibus that was not covered, at least in a general way, in  the Vatican Note on Establishing Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans. Thus, my good and very few readers, there is very little that needs to be done in his brief review of the terms of Anglicanorum Coetibus that has not been done already in Defaming The English Martyrs.

As is the case with the preponderance of documents issued by the conciliar officials in the Vatican, one will find no references in Anglicanorum Coetibus to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church prior to the "Second" Vatican Council. There are no footnote references in Anglicanorum Coetibus that predate the revolutionary dictates of the "Second" Vatican Council and the "magisterium" of the conciliar "pontiffs." It is as though, to use a phrase used by Father Romano Tommasi, an "ecclesiogensis" (the springing forth of a new church) took place at the "Second" Vatican Council whose officials see fit to spit on the memory of the martyrs who died in defense of the Catholic Faith as they accept distortions and corruptions of the Holy Faith to be the building blocks of a false "unity" according to the precepts to the "new ecclesiology" that has been studied and assessed so well by Father Anthony Cekada in Frankenchurch Rises Again: Ratzinger on the Church and by His Excellency Bishop Donald Sanborn's The New Ecclesiology: An Overview and The New Ecclesiology: Documentation.

As I noted in Defaming The English Martyrs, the amalgamation of disaffected Anglicans into the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism is premised upon the aforementioned new ecclesiology, which accepts Protestant sects and the Orthodox confessions as legitimate means of sanctification and salvation that have a "partial communion" with the Catholic Church. The first part of Anglicanorum Coetibus makes this very clear:

In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favorably to such petitions. Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches,[1] could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization.

The Church, a people gathered into the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,[2] was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, as “a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people.”[3] Every division among the baptized in Jesus Christ wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists; in fact, “such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching the Gospel to every creature.”[4] Precisely for this reason, before shedding his blood for the salvation of the world, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father for the unity of his disciples.[5]

It is the Holy Spirit, the principle of unity, which establishes the Church as a communion.[6] He is the principle of the unity of the faithful in the teaching of the Apostles, in the breaking of the bread and in prayer.[7] The Church, however, analogous to the mystery of the Incarnate Word, is not only an invisible spiritual communion, but is also visible;[8] in fact, “the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality formed from a two-fold element, human and divine.”[9] The communion of the baptized in the teaching of the Apostles and in the breaking of the eucharistic bread is visibly manifested in the bonds of the profession of the faith in its entirety, of the celebration of all of the sacraments instituted by Christ, and of the governance of the College of Bishops united with its head, the Roman Pontiff.[10] 

This single Church of Christ, which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic “subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.”[11]

 

Does this contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church? To quote the former Governor of Alaska, "You betcha:"

Weigh carefully in your minds and before God the nature of Our request.  It is not for any human motive, but impelled by Divine Charity and a desire for the salvation of all, that We advise the reconciliation and union with the Church of Rome; and We mean a perfect and complete union, such as could not subsist in any way if nothing else was brought about but a certain kind of agreement in the Tenets of Belief and an intercourse of Fraternal love.  The True Union between Christians is that which Jesus Christ, the Author of the Church, instituted and desired, and which consists in a Unity of Faith and Unity of Government. (Pope Leo XIII, Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, June 29, 1894.)

Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. "For in one spirit" says the Apostle, "were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free." As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered - so the Lord commands - as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

 

The whole concept of the new ecclesiology is false. One is either a member of the Catholic Church who subscribes to everything contained in the Deposit of Faith as It has been entrusted by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to her infallible teaching authority or he does not. It is that simple.

Answering questions that I posed in Defaming The English Martyrs, Anglicanorum Coetibus mandates the so-called "Catechism of the Catholic Church" as the norm for the beliefs that are to be hold by those who transfer from the Anglican "communion" to the counterfeit church of conciliarism without, it appears, at least at this writing, being required to make an abjuration of errors. Such an abjuration of errors is impossible for Ratzinger/Benedict to require of the Anglican transferees as many of their errors are incorporated directly into their false liturgical rites that are receiving his, Ratzinger/Benedict's, full recognition.

Alas, mandating that the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be the norm of the Anglican transferees into the counterfeit church of conciliarism, is not a guarantee will be subscribing to the Catholic Faith as it has been taught from time immemorial. Leaving aside the "resist and recognize" errors that are to expected of documents produced by those associated with the Society of Saint Pius X, this brief excerpt from an article by Father Michel Simoulin that appeared in the March, 1994, issue of The Angelus explains the heterodox nature of what is more properly referred to as the "Catechism of the Counterfeit Church of Conciliarism:"

Just as the Virgin Mary would not be immaculate if she had the lightest blemish, so the Catechism is not Catholic if the faith that it teaches is not whole, total, and clearly explained. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is therefore not Catholic.  It expresses the conciliar ecstasy before the splendor of man, and can only seduce the poor Christians severed for the past thirty years from all serious doctrinal formation. It is a symphony too discordant not to grate on the Catholic faith; it is the symphony of the new world, for the New Age of man in the third millennium.

The ancient or recent heresies have all been subtly danced around with such ambiguity so as to teach a new, more subtle one, and which one day shall be formally condemned as heresy; this new error bears upon the relations between the natural and supernatural order, which are theoretically distinguished but practically confused. It places in man a need for happiness in place of recognizing in him a natural desire for happiness. It confuses, moreover, this desire-need for happiness with the search for God or Jesus Christ. Its argument can be reduced to the following line of reasoning: God wants all men to be saved; now, God is good and powerful enough to save all men; therefore, he has placed in each one the need for happiness.

This passage taken from the Catechism is, in some way, its self-portrait, at the same time that it depicts perfectly the baleful and mortal imposture which has invaded the Church since Vatican II:

Before the coming of Christ, the Church must pass through a final trial which will shake the faith of numerous believers.90  The persecution which accompanies its pilgrimage upon earth91 will unveil the "mystery of iniquity," under the form of a religious imposture offering to men an apparent solution to their problems, at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious imposture is that of the Antichrist, that is to say, that of a pseudo-messianism where man glorifies himself in the place of God, and of His Messiah come in the flesh92 (§675).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a non-Catholic Catechism, that of "a religion more universal than the Catholic Church, reuniting all men finally become brethren and comrades in ‘the Kingdom of God.’ One does not work for the Church, one works for humanity." 93 (The New Catechism: Is it Catholic? ; the full text of this article can be found as an appendix in Piracy, Conciliar Style.)

Requiring those who have errors to subscribe to the errors advanced by another false church is not exactly a triumph for the Catholic Faith.

There are two other sections found within the text of Anglicanorum Coetibus that need to be dealt with in this brief commentary, starting with the aforementioned matter of the ability of the Anglican transferees to keep their defective liturgical rites that are corruptions of the Catholic Faith:

III. Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.

 

Yes,  Anglicanorum Coetibus permits the Anglican transferees  to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared," thus quite indeed making a mockery of the blood shed by the English Martyrs to refuse to make a single concession to these false rites. What I noted in Defaming The English Martyrs  is worth repeating once again:

1.1) Unlike the Orthodox, who have sacramental rites that developed under the inspiration of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, when the Eastern churches were united to the Catholic Church, the "traditions" of Anglicanism are man-made and were meant to be a publicly manifest rejection of Catholicism, which is why so many scores of thousands of Catholics were willing to suffer the most cruel tortures and inhumane executions to bear their own visible, tangible rejection of those man-made "traditions."

1.2) The passage of time does not confer legitimacy on that which has its very origins from the devil in a rejection of the Catholic Faith and the authority of the Catholic Church. Has the passage of time conferred legitimacy on the "Anglican Book of Common Prayer"? If not, then why should it receive "protection"  in the counterfeit church of concilairism that presents itself to the world as the Catholic Church?

1.3) Pope Saint Pius V declared the books of Anglican liturgy to be heretical:

Prohibiting with a strong hand the use of the true religion, which after its earlier overthrow by Henry VIII (a deserter therefrom) Mary, the lawful queen of famous memory, had with the help of this See restored, she has followed and embraced the errors of the heretics. She has removed the royal Council, composed of the nobility of England, and has filled it with obscure men, being heretics; oppressed the followers of the Catholic faith; instituted false preachers and ministers of impiety; abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fasts, choice of meats, celibacy, and Catholic ceremonies; and has ordered that books of manifestly heretical content be propounded to the whole realm and that impious rites and institutions after the rule of Calvin, entertained and observed by herself, be also observed by her subjects. She has dared to eject bishops, rectors of churches and other Catholic priests from their churches and benefices, to bestow these and other things ecclesiastical upon heretics, and to determine spiritual causes; has forbidden the prelates, clergy and people to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey its precepts and canonical sanctions; has forced most of them to come to terms with her wicked laws, to abjure the authority and obedience of the pope of Rome, and to accept her, on oath, as their only lady in matters temporal and spiritual; has imposed penalties and punishments on those who would not agree to this and has exacted then of those who persevered in the unity of the faith and the aforesaid obedience; has thrown the Catholic prelates and parsons into prison where many, worn out by long languishing and sorrow, have miserably ended their lives. All these matter and manifest and notorious among all the nations; they are so well proven by the weighty witness of many men that there remains no place for excuse, defense or evasion. (Regnans in Excelsis, the decree issued by Pope Saint Pius V on March 5, 1570, excommunicating Queen Elizabeth I.)

 

How has the passage of time corrected the heretical content of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (which is a replacement for the four parts of the liturgy used in the Catholic Church: the Breviary, the Missal, the Pontifical, and the Ritual)? Obviously, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI believes that "beauty" can exist in a liturgy without regard to truth, heedless of the fact that nothing can be beautiful if it is not true and that the liturgy is meant to protect the Faith, which is beautiful because it is true.

1.4) The Anglican liturgy (referred to as the Anglican "use" "Mass" in the conciliar structures, a "rite" whose theological deficiencies were assessed quite critically in an article in The Latin Mass: A Journal of Catholic Culture about five or six years ago) was a precursor and progenitor of the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service itself.

 

Anglicanorum Coetibus is indeed a slap in the face to the courage of the English Martyrs as it confers the appearance of "Catholic" legitimacy on liturgical rites declared to be heretical by Pope Saint Pius V in  Anglicanorum Coetibus. This unspeakable act of betrayal of the blood of the English Martyrs and their brave stand in fidelity to the integrity of Catholic Faith and Worship is typical of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's lifelong, Modernist contempt for anything and everything that stands in the way of a "unity" that is premised upon the acceptance of the philosophical absurdity that "good" is to be found in error.

Left totally unanswered in Anglicanorum Coetibus is what rite of "episcopal consecration" will be used to consecrate "bishops" attached to the Anglican Ordinariate in the conciliar structures. Will the Anglicans be allowed to use a rite of "episcopal consecration" that was declared null and void in the following words of Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae, September 18, 1896:

Wherefore, strictly adhering, in this matter, to the decrees of the pontiffs, our predecessors, and confirming them most fully, and, as it were, renewing them by our authority, of our own initiative and certain knowledge, we pronounce and declare that ordinations carried out according to the Anglican rite have been, and are, absolutely null and utterly void. . . .

We decree that these letters and all things contained therein shall not be liable at any time to be impugned or objected to by reason of fault or any other defect whatsoever of subreption or obreption of our intention, but are and shall be always valid and in force and shall be inviolably observed both juridically and otherwise, by all of whatsoever degree and preeminence, declaring null and void anything which, in these matters, may happen to be contrariwise attempted, whether wittingly or unwittingly, by any person whatsoever, by whatsoever authority or pretext, all things to the contrary notwithstanding.

 

Or will the Anglicans be required to use the conciliar rite of "episcopal consecration" that is almost identical to the one condemned by Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae? Either way, of course, those who are "consecrated" in the Anglican Ordinariate attached to the "Worldwide Conciliar Communion" won't be bishops any more then than they were in the "Worldwide Anglican Communion." Same ship, different deck. That's all.

Finally, there is the little matter of clerical celibacy about which Anglicanorum Coetibus is rather vague, giving the impression that the "case-by-case" review of married men desiring to be ordained, presumably de novo, as conciliar presbyters is going to be a free-for-all without any clearly defined guidelines:

Those who ministered as Anglican deacons, priests, or bishops, and who fulfill the requisites established by canon law[13] and are not impeded by irregularities or other impediments[14] may be accepted by the Ordinary as candidates for Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. In the case of married ministers, the norms established in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n. 42[15] and in the Statement In June[16] are to be observed. Unmarried ministers must submit to the norm of clerical celibacy of CIC can. 277, §1.

§ 2. The Ordinary, in full observance of the discipline of celibate clergy in the Latin Church, as a rule (pro regula) will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter. He may also petition the Roman Pontiff, as a derogation from can. 277, §1, for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.

 

As is the case with many of the provisions in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal that I analyzed in G.I.R.M. Warfare, the provisions on celibacy in Anglicanorum Coetibus are vague and admit of various subjective exceptions that might wind up opening the floodgates of an "optional celibacy" rule and thus a married clergy in the Latin Rite of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. And there might very well be "converts" to the Anglican Ordinariate from the Latin Rite in the conciliar church who will get married and then seek to study for the "priesthood" as members of that new ordinariate. It is not all clear that such a possibility is excluded by Anglicanorum Coetibus.

In other words, Anglicanorum Coetibus is a mess. It is a mess full of the acceptance of heresies and errors and practices that were rejected with great firmness by thousands upon thousands of Catholics in England and Ireland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. As noted earlier, the passage of time does not confer legitimacy on that which is erroneous or heretical or which represents a rejection or a corruption, either in whole or in part, of Catholic Faith and Worship. The passage of does, however, confer such legitimacy on that which is erroneous or heretical or which represents a rejection of a corruption, either in whole or in part of the Catholic Faith, in the mind of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and his band of conciliar revolutionaries who have a contempt for the steadfastness with which the Holy Faith was defended by the likes of the English Martyrs.

In the midst of the incredible apostasies taking place before our very eyes, we must, as always, have recourse to Our Lady as we pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit and as we keep her company in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in our time in fervent prayer before her Divine Son's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament. She will help us to cleave only to true bishops and to true priests who make absolutely no concessions to the abominable apostasies and blasphemies and sacrileges of conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of its "popes" and "bishops" who offend God so boldly, so openly and so brazenly--and with the full support and admiring approval of most of the world's baptized Catholics.

While each person must come to recognize this for himself (it took me long enough to do so; I defended the indefensible for far too long!), we must nevertheless embrace the truth once we do come to recognize and accept it without caring for one moment what anyone else may think about us as we make reparation for our sins and those of the whole world as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

As I noted twelve days ago now, we can never grow accustomed to defaming our martyrs. We can never grow accustomed to offenses given to God by the conciliar "popes" and their conciliar "bishops." We must cleave to the Catholic Church, not to the counterfeit church of conciliarism, as we attempt to plant the seeds for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

What are we waiting for?

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon.

 

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 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.

Saint Andrew Avellino, pray for us.

Saints Tryphon, Respicius, and Nympha, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints