Still Urbanely Accepting Evil

by Thomas A. Droleskey

An old conciliar revolutionary Georges "Cardinal" Cottier, who was the "pro-theologian" to the "papal" household between 1987 and 2003, has joined the bandwagon of insane conciliarists in Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's conciliar Vatican in praising the "moderation" of the Marxist-trained, pro-abort, Barack Hussein Obama, in advance of the latter's upcoming visit to the Vatican. This follows multiple editorials in the Vatican's semi-official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, praising Caesar Obamus for, it has been alleged, not being as "radical" in support of surgical baby-killing under cover of the civil law as had been feared. Although this insanity has been addressed on other occasions on this site (Urbanely Accepting Evil, No "Common Ground" Between Truth and Error, Respect Those Who Break the First Commandment? Respect Those Who Break the Fifth Commandment, and L'Osservatore Del Naturalista), it is necessary to do so once again in light of "Cardinal" Cottier's praise of Caesar Obamus's nonexistent "moderation" about the chemical and surgical assassination of innocent preborn babies under cover of the civil law.

Here is a National Catholic Reporter story about "Cardinal" Cottier's praise of Barack Hussein Obama:

In the run-up to President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, an influential cardinal and Vatican adviser has praised Obama’s “humble realism” and compared the president’s approach to abortion to the thinking of St. Thomas Aquinas and early Christian tradition about framing laws in a pluralistic society.

Swiss Cardinal George Cottier, 87, former theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II, laid out those views in a cover essay in the current issue of 30 Giorni, perhaps the most widely read journal of Catholic affairs in Italy.

Styled as an analysis of two Obama speeches – his May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame and his June 4 speech to the Islamic world in Cairo – Cottier’s essay was overwhelmingly positive, repeatedly arguing that Obama’s “realism”, as well as his commitment to finding “common ground”, resonate with Christian tradition and the social teaching of the Catholic church.

Seen through American eyes, perhaps the most striking element was Cottier’s analysis of what Obama had to say at Notre Dame. The university’s decision to invite Obama, and to award him an honorary degree, were widely criticized in Catholic circles in the States, given Obama’s positions on abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other life issues. More than 80 bishops publicly objected to the event.

Cottier, however, compared Obama’s Notre Dame address to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, in its accent on dialogue and common ground, and to the document Dignitatis Humanae of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) on conducting the search for truth in a pluralistic society. Christians, Cottier wrote, “can be in agreement” with Obama’s “way of framing the search for solutions.”

Cottier noted that many American bishops have been critical of Obama on abortion, writing that “on the one hand, those criticisms are justified, because … non-negotiable values are involved.” Yet, he wrote, Obama offered “positive indications” in his Notre Dame address of a desire to find common ground on the issue.

Cottier argued that Obama has not defended abortion as an absolute right, that he recognizes the “tragic gravity” of the problem, that Obama does not defend “relativism,” and that “his words move in the direction of reducing the evil” by seeking to make “the number of abortions as small as possible.”

Cottier invoked early Christian history to suggest that efforts to reduce the actual number of abortions, rather than to seek an outright legal ban, might be justifiable as a temporary expedient.

“I’m reminded of the first Christian legislators, who didn’t quickly abolish the tolerant Roman laws regarding practices which didn’t conform to the natural law, or which were actually contrary to it, such as concubinage and slavery,” Cottier wrote. “Change happened along a slow path, often marked by steps backward, as the Christian population increased, and, along with them, the impact of a sense of the dignity of the human person.”

“At the beginning, in order to guarantee the consent of the citizens and to protect social peace, the so-called ‘imperfect laws’ were kept in force, which avoided persecuting actions and behaviors in contrast with the natural law,” Cottier wrote. “St. Thomas [Aquinas] himself, who certainly had no doubt that the law must be moral, added that the state must not enact laws which are too severe or ‘high,’ because they’ll be disrespected by the people, who won’t be able to follow them.”

“Political realism recognizes evil, and calls it by its name,” Cottier wrote. “Yet it also recognizes that one must be humble and patient, combating evil without the pretense of eradicating it from human history through instruments of legal coercion.”

He said that the Catholic church is aware of the dangers of trying to totally eliminate perceived evils through the use of force, saying that was the problem with Communist regimes.

In that regard, Cottier wrote, the recent murder of an abortion doctor in the United States illustrates that even the highest values can be become “marching orders at the disposition of an aberrant ideology.”

All of that, Cottier wrote, puts the “humble realism” of Obama in a positive light.

With regard to Obama’s Cairo speech to the Islamic world, Cottier praised it as a “radical reject of the thesis of a clash of civilizations and an antidote to the tendency to apply negative stereotypes to others.” He compared Obama’s approach to international relations to that of John Paul II in the emphasis upon forgiveness and “purification of memory.”

"The president also reaffirmed that democracy cannot be imposed from the outside, and that in the movement toward democracy every people must find its own path," Cottier wrote. "He underlined that religious liberty is fundamental for peace."

Noting that Obama cited the Sermon on the Mount during his Cairo speech, Cottier wrote that he "seemed to perceive its positive reflection and its inspiration for public life." (Former papal theologian praises Obama's 'realism,' even on abortion.)

 

While Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI may indeed condemn Caesar Obamus's support for the daily slaughter of the preborn under cover of the civil law in the United States of America and throughout the world, the fact that the likes of Gian Maria Vian at L'Osservatore Romano and the retired "pro-theologian" of the "papal" household, Georges Cottier, are permitted to spout off their truly sickening propaganda in behalf of Barack Hussein Obama is just another correlative proof of the spirit of the toleration of error that is awash in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. As I pointed out in  Respect Those Who Break the First Commandment? Respect Those Who Break the Fifth Commandment, it is relatively easy to praise or, at the very least, be "tolerant" of an open pro-abort when the conciliar "pontiffs" have been so "tolerant of one theological error after another and as they have esteemed the symbols and praised the "values" of one false religion after another.

The insanity is such that there is a "banner" on the National Catholic Reporter website to inform its readers that "Pope Meets Hope," meaning that the false "pontiff" is about to meet with the false "president" at the Vatican this Friday, July 10, 2009. "Pope Meets Hope"? Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the world's only hope, not a Marxist-trained statist and pro-abort named Barack Hussein Obama (aka Barry Sotero).

It is, of course, painful to have to dissect the insanity of a Georges Cottier. I would much rather be gainfully employed as a college professor of political science and drawing a monthly paycheck with benefits. As things have worked out in God's Holy Providence, however, it is this work that has been appointed to me at this time, and even though there are times I want to crawl into a hole and forget all these apostasies, I recognize that I have an obligation to cooperate with the graces won for us on Calvary by the shedding of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood that flow into my soul through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces, in order to provide a few souls with information that might be of benefit to them.

Georges Cottier's analysis of Obama's address of the University of Notre Dame is, despite its emphasis on "realism," remarkably detached from any semblance of reality concerning abortion:

Cottier, however, compared Obama’s Notre Dame address to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, in its accent on dialogue and common ground, and to the document Dignitatis Humanae of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) on conducting the search for truth in a pluralistic society. Christians, Cottier wrote, “can be in agreement” with Obama’s “way of framing the search for solutions.”

Cottier noted that many American bishops have been critical of Obama on abortion, writing that “on the one hand, those criticisms are justified, because … non-negotiable values are involved.” Yet, he wrote, Obama offered “positive indications” in his Notre Dame address of a desire to find common ground on the issue.

Cottier argued that Obama has not defended abortion as an absolute right, that he recognizes the “tragic gravity” of the problem, that Obama does not defend “relativism,” and that “his words move in the direction of reducing the evil” by seeking to make “the number of abortions as small as possible.” (Former papal theologian praises Obama's 'realism,' even on abortion.)

 

Certainly, there is no doubt at all that Barack Hussein Obama is a living personification of the spirit of the "Second" Vatican Council's Dignitatis Humanae, December 7, 1965, and the late Joseph "Cardinal" Bernardin's "common ground initiative." This is not a good thing, however. There is no need to "search for truth in a pluralistic society. Catholics have an obligation to proclaim Catholicism as the one and only means of personal and social order, something that Pope Leo XIII made abundantly clear in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. So soon as Catholic truth is apprehended by a simple and unprejudiced soul, reason yields assent.

 

There is no "tragic gravity" concerning the slaughter of innocent preborn children. This is a matter of moral black and moral white. It is always wrong to take any action which has as its only and immediate end the death of an innocent human being. To claim, as Georges Cottier did, that Barack Hussein Obama is not a relativist and that he "understands" the "tragic gravity" of abortion is to deny the reality that Barack Hussein Obama supports as a matter of constitutional law the nonexistent right of a woman to kill her preborn child. Cottier's contention is itself a positivistic attempt to present Obama as a "serious thinker" who is trying to "bridge the gap" on a "difficult" issue. Georges Cottier is living in a fantasy world of his own creation, making of abortion something that it is not (a "difficult" issue) while projecting into the mind of Caesar Obamus a "reasonableness" and "sense of proportion" that is not there.

Barack Hussein Obama, who is but a sad product of the Protestant Revolution's overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King, has not defended abortion as an "absolute right"? Really, Father Cottier? Really? Then why is the putative President of the United States of America directing his team at the United Masonic Nations Organization to insure the spread of baby-killing around the world, especially in Catholic countries in Latin America that prohibit baby-killing? Barack Hussein Obama has not defended abortion as an "absolute right"? Read Jill Stanek's Obama's 100 days of death.

Barack Hussein Obama is a thorough relativist. It is all he knows as a product of the Protestant Revolution and the rise of Judeo-Masonry, which spawned all naturalistic political philosophies and ideologies, including his, Obama's, Marxism

There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. This is what I wrote in No "Common Ground" Between Truth and Error about Obama's thoroughly relativist speech at the University of Notre Dame du Lac on Sunday, May 17, 2009:

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Barack Hussein Obama, much to the delight of Georges Cottier, made it appear as though adherence to the Fifth Commandment is complex, not clear:

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

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

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

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

Fair-minded words.

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

"...In the face of this broadmindedness, what the world needs is intolerance." ("A Plea for Intolerance," 1931). (No "Common Ground" Between Truth and Error

 

Georges Cottier claimed in his 30 Days interview that we are faced with the same situation now as in the first centuries of the Church as Catholics could only limit some of the evils being advanced under cover of the civil law and abroad in the popular culture in the latter days of the Roman Empire:

Cottier invoked early Christian history to suggest that efforts to reduce the actual number of abortions, rather than to seek an outright legal ban, might be justifiable as a temporary expedient.

“I’m reminded of the first Christian legislators, who didn’t quickly abolish the tolerant Roman laws regarding practices which didn’t conform to the natural law, or which were actually contrary to it, such as concubinage and slavery,” Cottier wrote. “Change happened along a slow path, often marked by steps backward, as the Christian population increased, and, along with them, the impact of a sense of the dignity of the human person.”

“At the beginning, in order to guarantee the consent of the citizens and to protect social peace, the so-called ‘imperfect laws’ were kept in force, which avoided persecuting actions and behaviors in contrast with the natural law,” Cottier wrote. “St. Thomas [Aquinas] himself, who certainly had no doubt that the law must be moral, added that the state must not enact laws which are too severe or ‘high,’ because they’ll be disrespected by the people, who won’t be able to follow them.”

“Political realism recognizes evil, and calls it by its name,” Cottier wrote. “Yet it also recognizes that one must be humble and patient, combating evil without the pretense of eradicating it from human history through instruments of legal coercion.”

He said that the Catholic church is aware of the dangers of trying to totally eliminate perceived evils through the use of force, saying that was the problem with Communist regimes.

In that regard, Cottier wrote, the recent murder of an abortion doctor in the United States illustrates that even the highest values can be become “marching orders at the disposition of an aberrant ideology.”

All of that, Cottier wrote, puts the “humble realism” of Obama in a positive light.

 

Humble realism? We are dealing with a situation today that has been created in large, although not exclusive, measure by Catholic jurists and legislators and executives and bureaucrats who have expelled themselves from the bosom of Holy Mother Church by actively promoting chemical and surgical baby-killing under cover of the civil law. One of these jurists was none other than the late Associate Justice William Brennan, who cast one of the seven affirmative votes in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. One of these legislators was a Jesuit priest, Father Robert Drinan. Another was the late Thomas P. O'Neill, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987. Each of these three men died as "Catholics" in "good standing" in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Each was "hailed" for their "contributions" to "social justice." Although not a Catholic, it is to this pantheon of death that Barack Hussein Obama belongs. No one who promotes grievous sin under cover of the civil law can be an instrument of "social order" in his own country or an agent of "peace" among nations. It is that simple.

Georges Cottier reprehensibly created a straw man when attempting to link the murder of late-term baby-killer George Tiller to the "marching orders at the disposition of an aberrant ideology." To what "ideology" is Cottier referring? To efforts to restore full legal protection to all innocent preborn children without any exception whatsoever? to what "ideology" is Cottier referring? Is not abortion one of the four crimes that cry out to Heaven for vengeance? Have these words of Pope Pius XI, written in Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930, lost their meaning and/or are reflective of an "aberrant ideology"?

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

 

As I written time and time again, why should Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr, take this injunction of Pope Pius XI seriously when Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and most of his conciliar "bishops" maintain the "canonical" "good standing" of pro-abort Catholics in public life such as Biden himself and and Edward Moore Kennedy and David Paterson and George Elmer Pataki and Mario Matthew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo and Rudolph William Giuliani and Charles Rangel (who is also a Freemason!) and Rick Lazio and Susan Molinari and Susan Collins and Richard Durbin and Thomas Harkin and Kathleen Sebelius and Jennifer Granholm and Patricia Murray and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mary Landrieu and Tom Ridge and James Florio and James McGreevey and Robert Menendez and Barbara Mikulski and John F. Kerry and Patrick Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Loretta Sanchez Brixey and Linda Sanchez and Gray Davis and Carolyn McCarthy and Thomas Foley, among so many others, including the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the late Thomas P. O'Neill and the late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America William Brennan (who was buried with a full conciliar "Mass of Christian Burial" despite his casting one of the seven votes in favor of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton; Moynihan and O'Neill also were buried as "Catholics" in "good standing"--as will Edward Moore Kennedy when he dies)?

These pro-abort Catholics have remained in "good standing" in the conciliar structures despite their full, active and conscious participation, to borrow a conciliar phrase, thank you very much, in the deaths of millions upon millions of the innocent preborn, making them full partners with the "papally"-"knighted" "reform" rabbis who have promoted this slaughter with a reckless abandon in the name of "reproductive rights," while Bishop Richard Williamson, who has learned how to keep his mouth shut about Ratzinger/Benedict's most recent offenses against God in order to maintain his "good standing" in the "church within the conciliar church," the Society of Saint Pius X, is considered to have defected from the Catholic Faith for having put into question the conclusions of "mainstream" historians.

Georges Cottier, an aging conciliar revolutionary, has been in the vanguard of promoting one falsehood after another throughout the course of his priesthood. He has promoted myths concerning the Inquisition (another "papal" apology for the Inquisition). He is a thorough supporter of the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service. It is only natural for him to see a kindred spirit in a social revolutionary, Barack Hussein Obama, who blasphemed Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in his Cairo address to Mohammedans on Thursday, June 4, 2009, just as much as Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI had done during his own visit to Jordan and Israel between May 8 and May 15, 2009 (see Kindred Spirits of the New World Order).

It is, of course, a relatively easy thing to be so blithe about the killing of preborn children under the cover of the civil law when one accepts offenses given to the honor and majesty and glory of God by the conciliar "popes," men who have time and time and time again attacked the nature of dogmatic truth and promoted false doctrines as they have praised the "values" and esteemed the symbols of false religions. Acceptance of violations of the Fourth through Tenth Commandments becomes almost a given when one can violate the First through Third Commandments shamelessly and repeatedly.

What I wrote nearly two months ago is apropos once again:

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

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

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

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

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

May we take encouragement once again from these words of Pope Pius XI, Saint Athanasius and his friend and protector, Saint Servatus:

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

May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...

"You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day.

"Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ." (Letter of St. Athanasius)

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

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

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

 

We can never accept evil as urbanely as do so many of the officials in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Indeed, speaking as a sinner who has so very much for which to make reparation, we must be conscious at all times of our need to pray and to fast and to make many, many sacrifices to more perfectly conformed to the mercies of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. We must always remember that our sins have contributed mightily to the worsening of the state of the Church Militant on earth and the state of the world, which is why we need to pray many Rosaries of reparation for our own sins as well as those of the whole world.

The final victory belongs to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May it be our privilege to plant a few seeds for this great triumph and the ushering in of the Reign of Mary and the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

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

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us, especially on your feast day today!

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

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

Saints Cyril and Methodius, pray for us.

Saint Lawrence Brindisi, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints