The Mania Produced by False Premises
by
Thomas A. Droleskey
"We've been praying the Rosary for thousands of years That hasn't changed anything. Where has that gotten us? . . . I don't care about any of that [Catholic Social Teaching]!"
Thus shouted an angry supporter of United States Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), who kept insisting that politics, not the Catholic Faith to which he belonged, was the way to "meet evil on its own terms." The man would not listen to any criticism of Dr. Paul whatsoever, no less any discussion of Catholic Social Teaching. Ron Paul has become the "secular savior" to many traditionally-minded Catholics in the United States of America. Dr. Paul is true to the "Founding Fathers," you see. Who cares about the Fathers of the Catholic Church or the Social Teaching that she has explicated over the centuries? The moment for "liberty" has arrived. Absolute and utter insanity.
Dr. John C. Rao (who is not a sedevacantist and is not a supporter of this website) is one of the foremost experts in the world on the condemned heresy of Americanism and its pernicious influences upon the thinking of Catholics in the United States of America. His essay, Dr. John C. Rao: Founding Fathers vs. Church Fathers: 666-0, which appeared originally in The Remnant in January of 2006, put the insanity produced by the false premises of Americanism in a true Catholic perspective:
I can just imagine what George Washington, a Freemason whose library at Mount Vernon was filled with works on cement-making and other such devotional topics, would really have thought if he had known that he would one day be incensed as a Catholic icon; a new Constantine; and even a Marian visionary to boot. The belly-laugh he would have enjoyed with his buddies at the Arlington Lodge! And what about Benjamin Franklin, fresh from an illuminist workshop in Paris? Did he realize that he was laboring alongside Augustine to build up a Catholic City of God? Or consider the musings of the "liberal " (and non-Mason) Thomas Jefferson with the "conservative" John Adams, recently cited in The New York Sunday Times: "And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away {with} all this artificial scaffolding…" (11 April, 1823, Adams-Jefferson Letters, ed. Lester J. Cappon, II, 594). How astonished would they have been to learn that Founder-intoxicated Americanists would not permit such dreams to interfere with their identification as card-carrying Catholic intellectuals: in fact, more reliable ones than men who actually had the temerity to believe in the Trinity, Original Sin, Redemption, and the Resurrection?
Let’s face it. If any of these Founder characters had lived outside of the United States, American Catholics would send them to hell in a hand basket. Too bad poor Robespierre could not have built a career on our side of the Atlantic. Given his own repeated deist references to God, he would have found himself qualifying as a Catholic candidate for canonization rather than for an eternal roasting as a terrorist Frog.
In any case, each time those sweet hosannas to the Founding Fathers ring, my mind turns to a different fatherly fraternity, this one truly worthy of the name—that of the Church Fathers. How many American Catholics can name them? Or, perhaps more fairly, how many American Catholics honestly take them and their works seriously? I mean, really seriously? Oh, they may be piously remembered for miracles associated with their lives, or for one or two anti-Arian citations, or even a couple of passages from their writings, rendered noteworthy through repeated quotation on EWTN. Nevertheless, insofar as daily practical life are concerned, they are dead, buried, and forgotten, consigned to the doctrinal rubbish bin. There is simply no contest in this battle of the ancestors, fraudulent and echt. The score is always the same: Founding Fathers "666"; Church Fathers "0".
American Catholics thinkers, liberal and conservative alike, are ever more confidently inciting the faithful to desert the army of their true spiritual forebears in order to embrace the "let’s-get-real" Founders of the last, best hope of mankind. They are so flush with Founderology that they promote it as though it were the only valid, practical Patrology. This has made a deeper interest in the old Church Fathers not only superfluous, but even harmful and downright impious. Hasn’t everything really valuable that the Fathers could teach us regarding social life been taught more suitably, and in English, by the American Founders? Some narrow patristic arguments, plucked from out of their overarching spiritual vision, may, of course, still be tolerated--if, that is to say, they can support the truly salvific constitutional and economic dogmas of Founderology. But all else is political and social trash, part of that human side of the Church’s Tradition which can easily be shed when reason and science and the inspired eighteenth century American aristocracy has spoken.
What does doctrine-soaked Cappadocia have to do with common sense Philadelphia anyway? What did Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and Gregory of Nyssa have to say about states’ rights? Where were Augustine’s comments on checks and balances? Cyril’s meditations on the pre-Civil War perfection of the dance of the sugar plum executives, legislators, and judges? Or Cyprian’s concerns about the right to bear catapults? What about that unconscionable collectivist John Chrysostom, whose neglect of the scientific laws of free enterprise helped disrupt the imperial GNP? Away with them! And the same worship of the Founder-friendly patristic phrase, accompanied by a dismissal of the Founder-phobic patristic spirit is employed to butcher the global vision of Thomas Aquinas, the late Scholastics, and the Church’s whole counterrevolutionary tradition as well.
Give me a determination to make all things jive with the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers, and Adam Smith and I’ll give you back a scriptural exegesis which will reveal the Incarnation to have been a humdrum prelude to the real excitement caused by 1776, 1787, and the daily figures from the New York Stock Exchange. Mutatis mutandis, what shows its face in Founderology is the same methodology familiar to us from the modernists of the turn of the twentieth century: that of restraining Christ’s message within a secular strait jacket. Christianity means the mundane as interpreted by this specific band of exegetes and nothing more. Take it or leave it. Live free according to these secular rules or die.
What most intrigues me as an historian is the sustained assault on Catholic History which such Patricide reflects. War on history has, of course, been declared everywhere in Christendom today. Rome has reduced the world before the1960’s to a house of horrors useful only in providing topics for self-deprecating addresses before frenzied anti-Catholic audiences out for blood. Local dioceses bulldoze their past with a passion matched only by Nicolae Ceausescu in pre-1989 Romania. Many elderly Catholics whom I know will deny on a stack of bibles all memory of doctrines and customs which I heard them piously repeat and saw them fervently practice in my childhood in the 1950’s.
None of this history killing, however, has the long term effect of that which is perpetrated on the school front. Anti-historical warmongering is rampant in Catholic education, and this, sad to say, is as true in conservative and even some traditionalist circles as in liberal centers. Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg? Don’t look to Goebbels for the handbook. He was a piker compared to the propagandists at the Sportpalasts of conservative American Catholic instruction. One can easily take stock of the damage by examining certain home schooling programs, whose record of human civilization begins with Virginia and Massachusetts rather than with Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Hebrews, Greece and Rome. Another proof of it is the outright prohibition by some "alternative" Catholic academies or colleges of any substantive presentation of our historical tradition, with its inevitable revelation of radical differences with the pottage served up by the American Dream. Talk about the sin against the Holy Ghost! Disclosure of Catholic History, for all too many conservatives, is the only thing that truly fits the bill. The equation Founders=Fathers=Catholic has more clout in our supposedly countercultural educational camp of the saints than any canon of the Council of Nicaea. Woe to the orthodox teacher who might threaten to weaken it! Would that he had never lived! Would, instead, that a twenty-first century Luca Signorelli might emerge to portray the way this mentality works to smooth the road down which the Antichrist will eventually happily sashay, with our fellow believers pulling his carriage. Once again, Founder Fathers, "666", Church Fathers--along with the rest of Catholic History-- "0".
Americanism, which is the product of the Protestant Revolt and of Judeo-Masonry, has produced many things, including the confusion that exists in the mind of Dr. Ron Paul, who stated a few months ago that he could not be certain that perverse behavior in violation of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments was sinful. Americanism has also produced the confusion in the minds of many believing Catholics, impelling them to ignore even the empirical facts of practical politics (which indicate most tellingly that Ron Paul will not win the Republican Party nomination) and to place Ron Paul embrace of libertarianism, which include many matters condemned by the Catholic Church (freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion) above the Revealed Teaching of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as He has entrusted it exclusively to His Catholic Church.
The Americanist mindset, however, makes Dr. Paul, who is certainly a well-meaning man who has consistently and rightly opposed the Iraq War, appear to be the principal means by which evils of "big government" and of the Council for Foreign Relations are going to be retarded, providing the country with some "breathing" space, as more than righteously indignant correspondent has attempted to inform me in recent months. This is insanity. Insanity. Dr. Paul is certainly well-meaning. He also happens to base most of what he believes on entirely false premises, starting with his belief that a state legislature hase the right to restrict or permit abortion according to will of of its state's voters. No human legislature has any right to permit the direct, intentional taking of innocent human life. Those who serve in institutions of civil governance must submit themselves in all things that pertain to the eternal good of souls entirely to the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church for its eternal safekeeping and infallible explication. No one who believes that any institution of civil governance can permit the deliberate taking of innocent preborn human life to accommodate the "views" of "the people" is "pro-life"--and anyone, no less a Catholic, who uses that label to describe such a person is perpetrating a most cruel hoax upon others.
Dr. Paul does not believe this. He is espousing a serious error, one that his maniacal supporters, people like the man quoted above who dares to denigrate the power of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary (which was given by Our Lady to Saint Dominic at the beginning of the Thirteenth Century, less than eight hundred years ago now, not the "thousands" that the angry Ron Paul supporter said in his disparaging way), either reiterate or do not believe is worth correcting or even noting publicly as a flaw in his thinking that demonstrates the fallacious nature of efforts to discuss public policy absent an understanding and acceptance of Catholic Social Teaching. A Catholic must reject such concepts of "states' rights" and popular sovereignty as the twin arbiters of public policy just as he must reject all other false naturalistic concepts (statism, nationalism, capitalism, communism, socialism, liberalism, libertarianism, conservatism, relativism, positivism, feminism, environmentalism, evolutionism, racialism--the exaltation of one race as possessing superior characteristics to other races, ethnocentrism, nihilism, pragmatism, et a.) as the arbiters of public policy and popular culture. Every aspect of public policy and of popular culture must take into consideration the Last End of man.
Pope Saint Pius X noted this very clearly in Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906:
That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. It limits the action of the State to the pursuit of public prosperity during this life only, which is but the proximate object of political societies; and it occupies itself in no fashion (on the plea that this is foreign to it) with their ultimate object which is man's eternal happiness after this short life shall have run its course. But as the present order of things is temporary and subordinated to the conquest of man's supreme and absolute welfare, it follows that the civil power must not only place no obstacle in the way of this conquest, but must aid us in effecting it. The same thesis also upsets the order providentially established by God in the world, which demands a harmonious agreement between the two societies. Both of them, the civil and the religious society, although each exercises in its own sphere its authority over them. It follows necessarily that there are many things belonging to them in common in which both societies must have relations with one another. Remove the agreement between Church and State, and the result will be that from these common matters will spring the seeds of disputes which will become acute on both sides; it will become more difficult to see where the truth lies, and great confusion is certain to arise. Finally, this thesis inflicts great injury on society itself, for it cannot either prosper or last long when due place is not left for religion, which is the supreme rule and the sovereign mistress in all questions touching the rights and the duties of men. Hence the Roman Pontiffs have never ceased, as circumstances required, to refute and condemn the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. Our illustrious predecessor, Leo XIII, especially, has frequently and magnificently expounded Catholic teaching on the relations which should subsist between the two societies. "Between them," he says, "there must necessarily be a suitable union, which may not improperly be compared with that existing between body and soul.-"Quaedam intercedat necesse est ordinata colligatio (inter illas) quae quidem conjunctioni non immerito comparatur, per quam anima et corpus in homine copulantur." He proceeds: "Human societies cannot, without becoming criminal, act as if God did not exist or refuse to concern themselves with religion, as though it were something foreign to them, or of no purpose to them.... As for the Church, which has God Himself for its author, to exclude her from the active life of the nation, from the laws, the education of the young, the family, is to commit a great and pernicious error. -- "Civitates non possunt, citra scellus, gerere se tamquam si Deus omnino non esset, aut curam religionis velut alienam nihilque profuturam abjicere.... Ecclesiam vero, quam Deus ipse constituit, ab actione vitae excludere, a legibus, ab institutione adolescentium, a societate domestica, magnus et perniciousus est error."
No human being, whether acting individually on his own or collectively with others, has any moral right to defy the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law, which, as entrusted to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, are the sole standard of right and wrong in this passing, mortal vale of tears. Public "opinion," whether derived as a result of referenda conducted during general or special elections or as a result of random-sample polling, is an arbiter of nothing and is not the basis, therefore, of any action undertaken by any branch of government (executive, legislative, judicial) or at any level of government (national, state, local) pertaining to matters of Faith and morals. While, as I have noted in other articles and lectures over the years, men are free to debate the specific penalties to be imposed by the civil state upon those who, for example, directly, intentionally kill an innocent human being at any moment after his fertilization to the moment of his natural death, they are not free to use use positive human legislation or judicial decrees or executive orders to "permit" things grievously contrary to God's laws and thus contrary to the good of souls (and thus to the whole of social order).
Dr. Ron Paul suffers from much confusion on these matters because he is not a Catholic and has associated himself with many Catholics who are in his own libertarian camp, Catholics who reject the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the necessity of the confessionally Catholic State just as surely as Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI himself, who considers such teaching to be "obsolete." It does no service at all to the nation or to the good of Dr. Paul's own immortal soul to extol him as "the" candidate for our times without at least mentioning his many errors, including his views, and without exhorting him to convert to the Catholic Faith and to be a firm, vocal advocate of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Mary our Immaculate Queen.
What makes this whole situation particularly exasperating is that although Dr. Paul has generated a fervent following, especially in cyberspace, and set the one day record for campaign fund-raising, he is not going to obtain the presidential nomination of the Republican Party nor will he be elected to the office of the President of the United States of America if he chooses to run as an independent in the general election, which he has said thus far he will not do. Dr. Paul will obtain an aggregate of between four and eleven percent of the national primary and caucus vote when the nomination process runs its course in a few months. All of the energy, all of the arguments, all of the time, all of the money, all of the emotion invested will then come to a crashing end. And for what? For what? To extol a belief in the "founders'" vision of "liberty," founded as it was in the rejection of the standard of the Holy Cross as it must lifted high by the Catholic Church as the one and only symbol of human liberty, and to extol numerous erroneous positions that are at odds with the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law? For what?
Oh, I know. Some naturalists out there will say that a sizable vote for Dr. Ron Paul in the primaries will "scare" the establishment--or least put its scions "on notice" that there are voters out there who will "defend liberty." More insanity. More self-delusional absurdity. Patrick Joseph Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary on February 20, 1996, winning 38% of the primary vote. He won in Alaska and Louisiana, coming in a very close second in the Iowa causes, although huge Buchanan majorities in Woodbury and Dubuque Counties were never included in the vote totals reported to the national service that tallies the votes. What role did this net Mr. Buchanan at the 1996 Republican National Convection in San Diego, California? A cameo appearance on stage milling about with scores of other people following the hapless, mercurial thirty-third degree Mason Robert Joseph Dole, Jr.'s, acceptance address. Pat Buchanan won a far larger share of the primary vote in 1992 and in 1996 than Ron Paul will win in 2008. The false "opposites" of the naturalist "left" and the naturalist "right" went right on about their business, didn't they? They will do the same in 2008. The Ron Paul phenomenon will fade from public view just as the Howard Dean phenomenon faded from public view in early-2004.
Political science is not an "avocation" with me as it was when I was a child, following primaries and campaigns and and elections with baited breath every four years. It is the field of my professional training in which I hold a doctorate. As a Catholic who deeply loves God despite my many and terrible sins, I can tell you both from my expertise in my chosen field as well as from our extensive travels across the nation that have put us into contact with thousands upon thousands of ordinary Americans, very few people, relatively speaking, retain any memory of the details of elections from one cycle to the next. Only hard-core political activists and journalists and political scientists and the small universe of political junkies amongst the citizenry can remember, for example, the names of each of the contenders for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1996 or 2000, no less remember the details of the positions of each candidate and when and how he (or she) dropped out of the race.
Those caught up in the Ron Paul mania at the present time have lost sight of this truth. They refuse to accept the fact that God is never going to give a country that slaughters over 4,000 innocent preborn babies a day by means of surgical abortion (and thousands more by means of chemical abortifacients)--and as it exports all manner of cultural evils abroad to poison the souls of billions of people in the name of "liberty," you understand--until and unless Catholics get serious about sanctifying their souls and to call upon others to do so in order to plant the seeds for the establishment of a social order founded on the truths of the Catholic Faith, the one and only foundation of all personal and social order.
Although I have made a personal judgment, which I do not impose upon anyone else as it is not received from the hand of God and is merely a judgment based on an understanding of the futility of our naturalist, Judeo-Masonic electoral and governmental systems, that participation in our fraudulent system is fruitless and accomplishes no good end while encouraging people to lose their minds, if only temporarily, in the "rush" of various election cycles, the only purpose for waging any kind of campaign for public office is to speak clearly to the truths of Catholic Social Teaching so as to attempt to plant a few seeds for the conversion of individual souls. The conversion of individual souls is what leads to the conversion of nations to the true Faith, thus establishing the Social Reign of Christ the King.
The preaching of the Apostles and those who followed them in the centuries of the First Millennium planted the seeds for the establishment of the first Christendom. The mighty Roman Empire itself fell under the weight of its own decadence, statism, bloated bureaucracies, needless foreign wars, liberal immigration policies and excessive taxation. Christendom rose in its tire to replace that mighty worldly empire. Anyone who doubts that the same is not possible in our own day doubts the efficacy of the graces 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 flows into the hearts and souls of men through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces. Run for office? Go right ahead? Run to speak for Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen regardless of the consequences. There is no other purpose to be accomplished than to state the truth with conviction and out of a true love for souls and for the ultimate good of one's nation, namely, her Catholicization in all aspects of her political and social lives.
Yes, please remember, my friends, that Catholicism is the one and only solution to personal and social problems, each of which have their remote cause in Original Sin and their proximate causes in the Actual Sins of men. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ came to liberate us from enslavement to sin, which He does not want promoted under cover of law and institutionalized in every aspect of popular culture in the name of a "false" civil liberty that rejects the teaching office, governing authority and Sanctifying Graces of His own Catholic Church. Writing in Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832, condemned that the "liberty of conscience" exalted by the scions of Modernity, that era which is indifferent, if not hostile, to the fact of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity's Incarnation in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of His Most Blessed Mother, including the founders of the religiously indifferentist United States of America:
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?
The Church has always taken action to destroy the plague of bad books. This was true even in apostolic times for we read that the apostles themselves burned a large number of books. It may be enough to consult the laws of the fifth Council of the Lateran on this matter and the Constitution which Leo X published afterwards lest "that which has been discovered advantageous for the increase of the faith and the spread of useful arts be converted to the contrary use and work harm for the salvation of the faithful." This also was of great concern to the fathers of Trent, who applied a remedy against this great evil by publishing that wholesome decree concerning the Index of books which contain false doctrine."We must fight valiantly," Clement XIII says in an encyclical letter about the banning of bad books, "as much as the matter itself demands and must exterminate the deadly poison of so many books; for never will the material for error be withdrawn, unless the criminal sources of depravity perish in flames." Thus it is evident that this Holy See has always striven, throughout the ages, to condemn and to remove suspect and harmful books. The teaching of those who reject the censure of books as too heavy and onerous a burden causes immense harm to the Catholic people and to this See. They are even so depraved as to affirm that it is contrary to the principles of law, and they deny the Church the right to decree and to maintain it.
Dr. Ron Paul, ladies and gentlemen, believes that "liberty" gives people the "right" to view pornography and to use hallucinogenic substances, that government may not "interfere" with such practices even though he, Dr. Paul, might be opposed to them. Do you believe that this is so? Is this the teaching of Our Lord's true Church, the Catholic Church? No, it it is not. There is no civil right to manufacture or traffic or to view any form of pornography. There is no civil right to blaspheme Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and/or His Most Blessed Mother. There is no civil right to poison one's own body and to dull one's senses, making oneself a threat to others and making oneself less capable of fulfilling the duties of his freely chose state-in-life. Once again, while men are free to discuss and to debate range of penalties that should be imposed upon those caught doing such things, including a particular level of enforcement that would be considered prudent in a given place at a given time, to assert that "liberty" provides people with the "right" to harm their souls and/or their bodies is irresponsible. Indeed, it is, objectively speaking, demonic.
Although, as I have noted many times before, perfection was not attained in Christendom during the Middle Ages and there existed many problems, the era of the Christ-centered world of Christendom was one in which people of all of the various social strata understood why they had been created (to know, to love and to serve God as He has revealed Himself exclusively to men through His Catholic Church that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope) and what their Last End was (to die in a state of Sanctifying Grace as members of the Catholic Church in good standing so that they might behold the glory of the Beatific Vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for all eternity in Heaven in the company of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and all of the angels and the saints), thus ordering their daily lives accordingly. Sure, sins were committed. They were not enshrined in public law nor were they extolled in the popular culture. And it was the case that instances of widespread clerical or popular corruption were corrected not by means of the ballot box or by this or that ideology or philosophy but by the reform of individual lives effected by prayer, penance, fasting, almsgiving and sacrifice. Saint Dominic de Guzman and Saint Francis of Assisi effected true social reform by means of their respective foundings of the Order of Preachers and of the Orders of Friars Minor.
The modern age, fraught with the heresy of semi-Pelagianism (the belief that humans are more or less self-redemptive and that they stir up in themselves the necessary graces to be "virtuous" and to achieve whatever goals, earthly or spiritual, that they "put their minds" to achieving), believes that the world is goin to be "improved" by frenetic, maniacal efforts to win this or that election, that it is possible and reasonable to believe in the absurdity of social order without the Catholic Faith being embraced by all men and by their civil states. So many Catholics are caught up in this lie, spitting and shouting at those who even dare to suggest that they believe in something worse than a fairy tale: a demonic lie designed to entrap them to sacrifice the true Faith in exchange for the ever illusory goal of a "better tomorrow through electoral politics" in a world of naturalism and the barbarism wrought thereby.
While not condemning individual Protestants, for whose conversion we must pray most fervently on a daily basis, Protestantism is from the devil. No one who believes in and espouses publicly Protestant principles of "liberty" must have our support at any time. These principles are false. They are from the devil, who inspired Martin Luther and John Calvin and Thomas Cranmer and John Wesley and John Knox and all of the rest to lead men out of the Catholic Church and in to the abyss of Modernity where we find ourselves at present. Too strong? The devil has said so himself.
Consider the well-document case of The Exorcism of Nicola Aubrey, by Father Michael Muller, C.SS.R.
It is indeed a remarkable fact that, as the devil made use of Luther, an apostate monk, to abolish the Mass and deny the Real Presence; in like manner, God made use of His arch-enemy, the devil, to prove the Real Presence. He repeatedly forced him publicly to profess his firm belief in it, to confound the heretics for their disbelief, and acknowledge himself vanquished by Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. For this purpose, God allowed a certain Mme. Nicola Aubrey, an innocent person, to become possessed by Beelzebub and twenty-nine other evil spirits. The possession took place on the eighth of November, 1565, and lasted until the eighth of February, 1566.
Her parents took her to Father de Motta, a pious priest of Vervins, in order that he might expel the demon by exorcisms of the Church. Father de Motta tried several times to expel the evil spirit by applying the sacred relics of the holy cross, but he could not succeed; Satan would not depart. At last, inspired by the Holy Ghost, he resolved to expel the devil by means of the sacrament of Our Lord's Body and Blood. Whilst Nicola was lying in a state of unnatural lethargy, Father de Motta placed the Blessed Sacrament upon her lips, and instantly the infernal spell was broken; Nicola was restored to consciousness, and received Holy Communion with every mark of devotion. As soon as Nicola had received the sacred Body of Our Lord, her face became bright and beautiful as the face of an angel, and all who saw her were filled with joy and wonder, and they blessed God from their inmost hearts. With the permission of God, Satan returned and again took possession of Nicola.
As the strange circumstances of Nicola's possession became known everywhere, several Calvinist preachers came with their followers, to "expose this popish cheat," as they said. On their entrance, the devil saluted them mockingly, called them by name, and told them that they had come in obedience to him. One of the preachers took his Protestant prayer book, and began to read it with a very solemn face. The devil laughed at him, and putting on a most comical look, he said: "Ho! Ho! My good friend; do you intend to expel me with your prayers and hymns? Do you think that they will cause me any pain? Don't you know that they are mine? I helped to compose them!"
"I will expel thee in the name of God," said the preacher, solemnly.
"You!" said the devil mockingly. "You will not expel me either in the name of God, or in the name of the devil. Did you ever hear of one devil driving out another?"
"I am not a devil," said the preacher, angrily, "I am a servant of Christ."
"A servant of Christ, indeed!" said Satan, with a sneer. "What! I tell you, you are worse than I am. I believe, and you do not want to believe. Do you suppose that you can expel me from the body of this miserable wretch? Ha! Go first and expel all the devils that are in your own heart!"
The preacher took his leave, somewhat discomfited. On going away, he said, turning up the whites of his eyes, "O Lord, I pray thee, assist this poor creature!"
"And I pray Lucifer," cried the evil spirit, "that he may never leave you, but may always keep you firmly in his power, as he does now. Go about your business, now. You are all mine, and I am your master."
On the arrival of the priest, several of the Protestants went away -- they had seen and heard more than they wanted. Others, however, remained; and great was their terror when they saw how the devil writhed and howled in agony, as soon as the Blessed Sacrament was brought near him. At last the evil spirit departed, leaving Nicola in a state of unnatural trance. While she was in this state, several of the preachers tried to open her eyes, but they found it impossible to do so. The priest then placed the Blessed Sacrament on Nicola's lips, and instantly she was restored to consciousness. Rev. Father de Motta then turned to the astonished preachers, and said: "Go now, ye preachers of the new Gospel; go and relate everywhere what you have seen and heard. Do not deny any longer that Our Lord Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Go now, and let not human respect hinder you from confessing the truth."
During the exorcisms of the following days, the devil was forced to confess that he was not to be expelled at Vervins, and that he had with him twenty-nine devils, among whom were three powerful demons: Cerberus, Astaroth, and Legio. On the third of January, 1556, the bishop arrived at Vervins, and began the exorcism in the church, in the presence of an immense multitude.
"I command thee, in the name and by power of the real presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, to depart instantly," said the bishop to Satan in a solemn voice.
Satan was, at last, expelled the second time by means of the Blessed Sacrament. On leaving, he paralyzed the left arm and right foot of Nicola, and also made her left arm longer than her right; and no power on earth could cure this strange infirmity, until some weeks after, when the devil was at last completely and irrevocably expelled. Nicola was now taken to the celebrated pilgrimage of Our Lady at Liesse, especially since the devil seemed to fear that place so much. Next day Father de Motta began the exorcism in the church of Our Lady at Liesse, in the presence of an immense multitude. He took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and, showing it to the demon, he said: "I command thee, in the name of the living God, the great Emmanuel Whom thou seest here present, and in Whom thou believest."
"Ah, yes!" shrieked the demon, "I believe in Him." And the devil howled again as he made this confession, for it was wrung from him by the power of Almighty God.
"I command thee, then, in His Name," said the priest, "to quit this body instantly."
At these words, and especially at the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, the devil suffered the most frightful torture. At one moment the body of Nicola was rolled up like a ball; then again she became fearfully swollen. At one time her face was unnaturally lengthened, then excessively widened, and sometimes it was as red as scarlet. Her eyes, at times, protruded horribly, and then again sunk deeply into her skull. Her tongue hung down to her chin; it was sometimes black, sometimes red, and sometimes spotted like a toad. The priest still continued to urge and torture Satan. "Accursed spirit!" he cried, "I command thee, in the Name and by the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ here in the Blessed Sacrament, to depart instantly from the body of this poor creature.
"Ah, yes!" cried Satan, howling wildly, "twenty-six of my companions shall leave this instant, for they are forced to do so."
The people in the church now began to pray with great fervor. Suddenly Nicola's limbs began to crack, as if every bone in her body were breaking; a pestilential vapor came forth from her mouth, and twenty-six devils departed from her, never more to return. Nicola then fell into an unnatural swoon, from which she was aroused only by the Blessed Sacrament. On recovering her senses, and receiving holy communion, Nicola's face shone like the face of an angel. The priest still continued to urge the demon, and used every means to expel him.
"I will not leave, unless commanded by the bishop of Leon," answered the demon, angrily.
Nicola was now taken to Pierrepont, where one of the demons, name Legio, was expelled by means of the Blessed Sacrament. Next morning Nicola was brought to the church. Scarcely had she quitted the house, when the devil again took possession of her. The bishop who was requested to exorcise Nicola, prepared himself for this terrible task by prayer and fasting, and other works of penance. On arrival of Nicola in the Church, the exorcism began. "How many are you in this body?" asked the bishop.
"There are three of us," answered the evil spirit.
"What are your names?"
"Beelzebub, Cerberus, and Astaroth."
"What has become of the others?" asked the bishop.
"They have been expelled," answered Satan.
"Who expelled them?"
"Ha!" cried the devil, gnashing his teeth, "it was He whom you hold in your hand, there on the paten." The devil meant our dear Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
The bishop then held the Blessed Sacrament near the face of Nicola. The demon writhed and howled in agony. "Ah, yes! I will go, I will go!" he shrieked, "but I shall return."
Suddenly Nicola became stiff and motionless as marble. The bishop then touched her lips with the Blessed Sacrament, and in an instant she was fully restored to consciousness. She received holy communion, and her countenance now shone with a wondrous, supernatural beauty. Next day Nicola was brought again to the Church, and the exorcism began as usual. The bishop took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, held it near the face of Nicola, and said:
"I command thee in the name of the living God, and by the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ here in the sacrament of the altar, to depart instantly from the body of this creature of God, and never more to return."
"No! No!" shrieked the devil, "I will not go. My hour is not yet come."
"I command thee to depart. Go forth, impure, accursed spirit! Go forth!" and the bishop held the Blessed Sacrament close to Nicola's face.
"Stop! stop!", shrieked Satan; "let me go! I will depart – but I shall return." And instantly Nicola fell into the most frightful convulsions. A black smoke was seen issuing from her mouth, and she fell again into a swoon.
During her stay in Leon, Nicola was carefully examined by Catholic and Protestant physicians. Her left arm, which had been paralyzed by the devil, was found entirely without feeling. The doctors cut into the arm with a sharp knife; they burnt it with fire; they drove pins and needles under the nails of the fingers; but Nicola felt not pain; her arm was utterly insensible. Once, while Nicola was lying in a state of unnatural lethargy, the doctors gave her some bread soaked in wine (it was what the Protestants call their communion, or Lord's Supper); they rubbed her limbs briskly; they threw water in her face; they pierced her tongue until the blood flowed; they tried every possible means to arouse her, but in vain! Nicola remained cold and motionless as marble. At last, the priest touched the lips of Nicola with the Blessed Sacrament, and instantly she was restored to consciousness, and began to praise God.
The miracle was so clear, so palpable, that one of the doctors, who was a bigoted Calvinist, immediately renounced his errors, and became a Catholic. Several times, also, the Protestants touched Nicola's face with a host which was not consecrated, and which, consequently, was only bread, but Satan was not the least tormented by this. He only ridiculed their efforts.
On the twenty-seventh of January, the bishop, after having walked in solemn procession with the clergy and the faithful, began the exorcism in church, in the presence of a vast multitude of Protestants and Catholics. The bishop now held the Blessed Sacrament close to the face of Nicola. Suddenly a wild, unearthly yell rings through the air -- a black, heavy smoke issues from the mouth of Nicola. The demon Astaroth is expelled forever. During the exorcism which took place on the first of February, the bishop said:
"O accursed spirit! Since neither prayer, nor the holy gospels, neither the exorcisms of the Church, nor the holy relics, can compel thee to depart, I will now show thee thy Lord and Master, and by His power I command thee."
During the exorcism, which took place after Mass, the bishop held the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and said: "O accursed spirit, arch-enemy of the ever-blessed God! I command thee, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ here present, to depart from this poor woman! Depart accursed, into the everlasting flames of hell!"
At these words, and especially at the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, the demon was so fearfully tormented, and the appearance of Nicola was so hideous and revolting, that the people turned away their eyes in horror. At last a heavy sigh was heard, and a cloud of black smoke issued from the mouth of Nicola. Cerberus was expelled. Again Nicola fell into a death-like swoon, and again she was brought to consciousness only by means of the Blessed Sacrament. During the exorcism which took place on the seventh day of February, the bishop said to Satan:
"Tell me. Why hast thou taken possession of this honest and virtuous Catholic woman?"
"I have done so by permission of God. I have taken possession of her on account of the sins of the people. I have done it to show my Calvinists that there are devils who can take possession of man whenever God permits it. I know they do not want to believe this, but I will show them that I am the devil. I have taken possession of this creature in order to convert them, or to harden them in their sins; and, by the Sacred Blood, I will perform my task."
This answer filled all who heard it with horror. "Yes," answered the bishop, solemnly, "God desires to unite all men in the only holy faith. As there is but one God, so there can be but one true religion. A religion like that which the Protestants have invented, is but a hollow mockery. It must fall. The religion established by Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true one; it alone shall last forever. It is destined to unite all men within its sacred embrace, so that there shall be but one sheepfold and one shepherd. This divine Shepherd is Our Lord Jesus Christ, the invisible head of the holy Roman Catholic Church, whose visible head is our holy Father the Pope, successor of St. Peter."
The devil was silent – he was put to shame before the entire multitude. He was expelled once more by means of the Blessed Sacrament. In the afternoon of the same day the devil began to cry: "Ah! Ha! You think that you can expel me in this way. You have not the proper attendance of a bishop. Where are the dean and the archdean? Where are the royal judges? Where is the chief magistrate, who was frightened out of his wits that night, in the prison? Where is the procurator of the king? Where are his attorneys and counselors? Where is the clerk of the court?" (The devil mentioned each of these by name.) "I will not depart until all are assembled. Were I to depart now, what proof could you give to the king of all that has happened? Do you think that people will believe you so easily? No! No! There are many who would make objections. The testimony of these common country-people here will have but little weight. It is a torment to me that I must tell you what you have to do. I am forced to do it. Ha! Cursed be the hour in which I first took possession of this vile wretch.
"I find little pleasure in thy prating," answered the bishop. "There are witnesses enough here. Those whom you have mentioned are not necessary. Depart! then; give glory to God. Depart – go to the flames of hell!"
"Yes, I shall depart, but not today. I know full well that I must depart. My sentence is passed; I am compelled to leave."
"I care not for thy jabbering," said the bishop, "I shall expel thee by the power of God: by the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
"Yes, I must yield to you," shrieked the demon wildly. "It tortures me that I must give you this honor."
The bishop now took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and held it close to the face of the possessed woman. At last, Satan was compelled to flee once more. The next morning, after the procession was ended, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered up as usual. During the consecration, the possessed woman was twice raised over six feet into the air, and then fell back heavily upon the platform. As the bishop, just before the Pater Noster, took the Sacred Host once more in his hand, and raised it with the chalice, the possessed woman was again whisked into the air, carrying with her the keepers, fifteen in number, at least six feet above the platform; and, after a while, she fell heavily back on the ground.
At this sight, all present were filled with amazement and terror. A German Protestant named Voske fell on his knees; he burst into tears; he was converted. "Ah!" cried he, "I now believe firmly that the devil really possesses this poor creature. I believe that it is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ which expels him. I believe firmly. I will no longer remain a Protestant." After Mass, the exorcism began as usual.
"Now, at last," said the bishop, "thou must depart. Away with thee, evil spirit!"
"Yes," said Satan, "it is true that I must depart, but not yet. I will not go before the hour is come in which I first took possession of this wretched creature."
At last the bishop took the Sacred Host in his hand, and said: "In the name of the adorable Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – in the name of the sacred body of Jesus Christ here present – I command thee, wicked spirit, to depart."
"Yes, yes, it is true!" shrieked the demon wildly; "It is true. It is the body of God. I must confess it, for I am forced to do so. Ha! It tortures me that I must confess this, but I must. I speak the truth only when I am forced to do it. The truth is not from me. It comes from my Lord and Master. I have entered this body by the permission of God."
The bishop now held the Blessed Sacrament close to the face of the possessed woman. The demon writhed in fearful agony. He tried in every way to escape from the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. At length a black smoke was seen issuing from the mouth of Nicola. She fell into a swoon, and was restored to consciousness only by means of the Blessed Sacrament. The eighth of February, the day appointed by God on which Satan was to leave Nicola forever, arrived at last. After the solemn procession, the bishop began the last exorcism.
"I shall not ask thee any longer," said the bishop to Satan, "when thou intendest to leave, I will expel thee instantly by the power of the living God, and by the precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, here present in the Sacrament of the Altar."
"Ha, yes!" shrieked the demon. "I confess that the Son of God is here really and truly present. He is my Lord and Master. It tortures me to confess it, but I am forced to do so." Then he repeated several times, with a wild, unearthly howl: "Yes, it is true. I must confess it. I am forced to leave, by the power of God's body here present. I must – I must depart. It torments me that I must go so soon, and that I must confess this truth. But this truth is not from me; it comes from my Lord and Master, who has sent me hither, and who commands and compels me to confess the truth publicly."
The bishop then took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and, holding it on high, he said, with a solemn voice: "O thou wicked, unclean spirit, Beelzebub! Thou arch-enemy of the eternal God! Behold, here present, the precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Lord and Master! I adjure thee, in the name and by the power of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who is here present; I command thee to depart instantly and forever from this creature of God. Depart to the deepest depth of hell, there to be tormented forever. Go forth, unclean spirit, go forth – behold here thy Lord and Master!"
At these solemn words, and at the sight of our sacramental Lord, the poor possessed woman writhed fearfully. Her limbs cracked as if every bone in her body were breaking. The fifteen strong men who held her, could scarcely keep her back. They staggered from side to side; they were covered with perspiration. Satan tried to escape from the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The mouth of Nicola was wide open, her tongue hung down below her chin, her face was shockingly swollen and distorted. Her color changed from yellow to green, and became even gray and blue, so that she no longer looked like a human being; it was rather the face of a hideous, incarnate demon. All present trembled with terror, especially when they heard the wild cry of the demon, which sounded like the loud roar of a wild bull. They fell on their knees, and with tears in their eyes, began to cry out: "Jesus, have mercy!"
The bishop continued to urge Satan. At last the evil spirit departed, and Nicola fell back senseless into the arms of her keepers. She still, however, remained shockingly distorted. In this state she was shown to the judges, and to all the people present; she was rolled up like a ball. The bishop now fell on his knees, in order to give her the Blessed Sacrament as usual. But see! Suddenly the demon returns, wild with rage, endeavors to seize the hand of the bishop, and even tries to grasp the Blessed Sacrament itself. The bishop starts back; Nicola is carried into the air and the bishop rises from his knees, trembling with terror and pale as death.
The good bishop takes courage again; he pursues the demon, holding the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, till at length the demon, overcome by the power of Our Lord's sacred body, goes forth amidst smoke, and lightning, and thunder. Thus was the demon at length expelled forever, on Friday afternoon, at three o'clock, the same day and hour on which Our Lord triumphed over hell by His ever-blessed death.
Nicola was now completely cured; she could move her left arm with the greatest ease. She fell on her knees and thanked God, as well as the good bishop, for all he had done for her. The people wept for joy, and sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving in honor of our dear Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. On all sides were heard the exclamations: "Oh, what a great miracle! Oh, thank God that I witnessed it! Who is there now that can doubt of the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar!" Many a Protestant also said: "I believe now in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; I have seen with my eyes! I will remain a Calvinist no longer. Accursed be those who have hitherto kept me in error! Oh, now I can understand what a good thing is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!"
A solemn Te Deum was intoned; the organ pealed forth and the bells rung forth a merry chime. The whole city was filled with joy.
This great triumph of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament over Satan occurred in the presence of more than 150,000 people, in the presence of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of the city, of Protestants and Catholics alike. I have published a lengthy account of this extraordinary affair in a little volume entitled "Triumph of the Blessed Sacrament." These facts are well authenticated by the accounts published in various languages – French, Italian, Spanish, and German, as I have shown on pages 13, 14, and 15 of the above-mentioned little volume.
Protestantism is from the devil. Never forget that. It is no basis of personal sanctity or of personal salvation. It is no basis, therefore, of social order. While we pray to Our Blessed Mother to help individual Protestants to become Catholics before they die, giving them Green Scapulars and blessed Miraculous Medals, we do not lionize them as having "solutions" to social problems no matter how correct they might be on some particular issues. As Father Frederick Faber pointed out 150 years ago, "Where there is no Mass, there is no Christianity.
The devil composed the prayers of the Protestant services. The Novus Ordo Missae was composed with the help of six Protestant observers, who made their "observations" during coffee breaks that were then read into the record by episcopal members of Annibale Bugnini's Consilium as representing their own particular thoughts and impressions. The devil inspired Protestantism. He used Protestantism to inspire the Novus Ordo Missae, thereby depriving most Roman Rite Catholics in the world today of the Real Presence of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament. A Protestant and Masonic-inspired liturgical service that enshrines the errors of Modernity and Modernism has convinced most Catholics to quit resisting the culture and to plunge headlong into the abyss of the religiously indifferentist civil state and of the cultural pluralism which helped to create it and which sustains it to this very day.
Too harsh? Come come, face reality squarely. The conciliarists themselves told us forty years ago that their intention in concocting the Novus Ordo Missae was to please Protestants. To Annibale Bugnini himself, quoted in L'Osservatore Romano, 1965:
We must strip from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our separated brethren that is for the Protestants
A close friend of Giovanni Montini/Paul VI, the late Jean Guitton, made this same point in 1993:
"[T]he intention of Pope Paul VI with regard to what is commonly called the Mass, was to reform the Catholic liturgy in such a way that it should coincide with the Protestant liturgy.... [T]here was with Pope Paul VI an ecumenical intention to remove, or at least to correct, or at least to relax, what was too Catholic in the traditional sense, in the Mass, and I, repeat, to get the Catholic Mass closer to the Calvinist mass" (Dec. 19, 1993), Apropos, #17, pp. 8f; quoted in Christian Order, October, 1994. (The quotation and citations are found in Christopher A. Ferrara and Thomas E. Woods, Jr. The Great Facade, The Remnant Publishing Company, 2002, p. 317.)
Who composed the Calvinist liturgical rites? In case you've forgotten, perhaps a quick refresher is necessary (see: The Exorcism of Nicola Aubrey). I report. You decide.
Although Americanism undermined Catholic Social Teaching in the minds of most, although not all, Catholics in the United States of America in the eighteen and one-half decades between 1776 and the "Second" Vatican Council in 1962, the Immemorial Mass of Tradition served as the bulwark by which people could focus, if only once a week on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation, on First and Last Things. The Novus Ordo has throw open the doors of the counterfeit church of conciliarism to the ways of the world, making it easier for the likes of Edward Moore Kennedy and Joseph Biden and Denis Kucinich and Mike Gravel and Bill Richardson and Mario Matthew Cuomo and Geraldine Ferraro and Rudolph William Giuliani and Rick Lazio and Susan Molinari and Susan Collins and Tom Ridge and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mary Landrieu and Jennifer Granholm and George Pataki and Tom Harkin and Richard Durbin and Ed Rendell and Jim Doyle and Patricia Murray and James Florio and John Kerry and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Joseph Kennedy III and Patrick J. Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi and Gray Davis and Richard Riordan and Patrick Leahy and Robert Toricelli and the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and scores upon scores of others in public life who have supported the mystical dismemberment of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the persons of innocent preborn children to remain in perfectly good standing as "Catholics" in the public eye.
The above-listed pro-death Catholics in public life have never heard the immutable doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King preached at any point in their lives. They have grown up in the Americanist exaltation of the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic embrace and propagation of religious liberty and religious indifferentism and the separation of Church and State. The "Second" Vatican Council has enshrined these false principles as the very foundation of the counterfeit church of conciliarism's approach to the world, "teaching" that a "healthy secularity" is the basis for social order in the pluralist world, as though pluralism is an irreversible fact of history that cannot be changed by means of seeking the conversion of those outside of the Catholic Church to her loving, maternal bosom. Americanism, one of the chief pillars of Modernism, and conciliarism have teamed up, empowered by the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo Missae, to make libertarian Protestants such as Ron Paul seem better in comparison to the Catholic apostates listed above who are quite comfortable in the apostasies of conciliarism itself. We have no Catholic champions of truth in the social order, making those who adherent to false principles seem great in comparison. Alas, false premises, no matter how sincerely they are believed by those who adhere to them, always lead to evil consequences. Always. Inevitably. Without fail.
Mind you, this is not to beat up on Dr. Ron Paul. This is only to point out once again that Catholics must not suspend their adherence to Catholic Social Teaching and seek to exalt a man who bases much, although not all, of his positions on human liberty on false notions that have been condemned by the Catholic Church repeatedly throughout her history prior to the advent of conciliarism. Who among his Catholic supporters is attempting to sit him down and to say, "Look, libertarianism is not the solution to the problems of the world. Catholicism is. Nothing else. Catholicism. It is Catholicism which produces the well-ordered society wherein most human problems are handled within the context of the family and/or the parish. The rise of the modern monster state is the direct result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and cemented in place by the rise of Judeo-Masonry and a whole host of inter-related, naturalistic "philosophies" and ideologies. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with Catholic Social Teaching, Dr. Paul." Who is saying this to him?
Saint Francis Xavier, whose feast we celebrate today, December 3, 2007, would have if Dr. Paul lived 450 years ago.
Saint Francis Xavier, who was born 501 years ago now, led a rather carefree youth as a student in Paris before he met Saint Ignatius Loyola. He became a zealous missionary for souls in the Far East. As the founder of the Society of Jesus, his friend Saint Ignatius, was fighting the diabolical heresies of Protestantism in Europe, Saint Francis Xavier was fighting paganism, which so very much alive here in the United States of America today, in the Far East. Here are just a few accounts of his zeal to smash paganism, something that contrasts very much with conciliarism's wishing of "good tidings" to those who worship false gods:
As to the numbers who become Christians, you may understand them from this, that it often happens to me to be hardly able to use my hands from the fatigue of baptizing: often in a single day I have baptized whole villages. Sometimes I have lost my voice and strength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and the other forms. The fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by the instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These children, I trust heartily, by the grace of God, will be much better than their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine law, and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and imparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They get into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once. Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil with a greater amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received of honor and worship from their parents, relations, and acquaintances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick them about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543)
We have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord." They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is, how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people. They give out publicly that the gods command certain offerings to be made to their temples, which offerings are simply the things that the Brahmins themselves wish for, for their own maintenance and that of their wives, children, and servants. Thus they make the poor folk believe that the images of their gods eat and drink, dine and sup like men, and some devout persons are found who really offer to the idol twice a day, before dinner and supper, a certain sum of money. The Brahmins eat sumptuous meals to the sound of drums, and make the ignorant believe that the gods are banqueting. When they are in need of any supplies, and even before, they give out to the people that the gods are angry because the things they have asked for have not been sent, and that if the people do not take care, the gods will punish them by slaughter, disease, and the assaults of the devils. And the poor ignorant creatures, with the fear of the gods before them, obey them implicitly. These Brahmins have barely a tincture of literature, but they make up for their poverty in learning by cunning and malice. Those who belong to these parts are very indignant with me for exposing their tricks. Whenever they talk to me with no one by to hear them they acknowledge that they have no other patrimony but the idols, by their lies about which they procure their support from the people. They say that I, poor creature as I am, know more than all of them put together.
They often send me a civil message and presents, and make a great complaint when I send them all back again. Their object is to bribe me to connive at their evil deeds. So they declare that they are convinced that there is only one God, and that they will pray to Him for me. And I, to return the favor, answer whatever occurs to me, and then lay bare, as far as I can, to the ignorant people whose blind superstitions have made them their slaves, their imposture and tricks, and this has induced many to leave the worship of the false gods, and eagerly become Christians. If it were not for the opposition of the Brahmins, we should have them all embracing the religion of Jesus Christ. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)
My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the first place, the whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been able to see, is very barbarous; and it does not like to listen to anything that is not agreeable to its own manners and customs, which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God. You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long possession. Saint Francis Xavier, Letter on the Missions, to St. Ignatius de Loyola, 1549.)
Indeed, it is a very hard business to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason to give up their habits of sin. It is unrepentant and un-absolved sin that is the proximate cause of all social problems. The answer to this is not Dr. Ron Paul's libertarianism or Hillary Rodham Clinton's feminism and socialism and globalism or Rudolph Giuliani's careeism or Mitt Romney's Mormonism or John McCain's brand of "conservatism" or Mike Huckabee's Protestantism or Barack Obama's Oprahism or John Edwards's sillyism. Catholicism is the answer. Our goal? To establish the Catholic City as the fruit of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
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. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)
I am sure that the man who blasphemed Our Lady and her Most Holy Rosary yesterday by saying that "it," meaning the Rosary, "hasn't changed anything" does not realize the extent to which he has let his unbridled enthusiasm for a political candidate whose campaign will come to an end in a few months override his love of the Catholic Faith. This man is swept up in the mania of world founded on false premises, one that gets people excited about this or this problem or this or that conspiracy or this or that group of conspirators, forgetting that the greatest conspiracy of all is the devil's daily conspiracy against the salvation of our own immortal souls. The devil wants to blind us to the binding and universally applicable nature of Catholic Social Teaching, convincing us that there is some secular, inter-denominational or non-denominational way to "resolve" social problems or retard various evils. There is no such thing.
Saint Dominic de Guzman used the Rosary, which he had been given by Our Lady herself, to stop the Albigenses heresy dead in its tracks. Saint Vincent Ferrer used it to help convert the thousands of Talmudic Jews and Mohammedans to whom he preached at the end of the Fourteenth and the beginning of the Fifteenth Centuries. Saint Vincent Ferrer, a member of the Order of Preachers, was totally reliant upon Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary:
As a good Dominican, Master Vincent loved to proclaim the all-powerfulness of the Rosary. "Who observes this practice," he said, "is beyond the reach of adversity." He told the case of a very pious merchant who would say the rosary from morning to night, even to the neglect of his business. One day he was captured by brigands and, knowing that his hour was come, he humbly asked for a little moment to pray. Hardly had he begun when the Blessed Virgin came to him accompanied by St. Catherine carrying a tray of roses and St. Agnes with a needle and a ball of thread. The brigands, needless to say, opened their eyes wide. At each Ave the prisoner recited, the Blessed Virgin took a rose from the plate, pierced it with the needle, slipped it on to the thread. Thus, she made a wreath which she placed on the prisoner's brow. As he happened to have his eyes closed, he did not see the wreath, but he smelt its fragrance. The Virgin and the two saints went off and the merchant offered them his neck, saying, "Now you can strangle me." "Strangle you?" said the brigands. "Who were those beautiful women? You must be a holy man; remember us in your prayers." Then they restored his goods and went away converted. When he spoke of the Mother of Men, Vincent was transfigured. He used to tell the case of a schoolboy who wanted at all costs to see her. An angel warned him that if he did so, he would lose an eye. He accepted and lost an eye. Then he asked to see her again, though it meant the loss of the other eye, which also took place. But when he was thus completely blind, the Blessed Virgin restored both eyes. The Life of St. Vincent Ferrer
We need to ask Our Lady to help us to see with the eyes of the true Faith and to be healed of any and all blindness caused by our immersion in the ways of naturalism. It was Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary that thwarted the Mohammedan fleet in the Battle of Lepanto and turned back the Mohammedan hordes at the Gates of Vienna. It was Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary that turned back Dutch ships as they were about to attack Lima, Peru, during the life of Saint Rose of Lima. It was the Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary that helped the forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to leave Austria of their own accord in 1955 without seeking to install a Soviet puppet government in their zone of occupation. Can the Rosary do any less in our own day in the United States of America?
We can give the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus many gifts by offering as many Rosaries to It through the Most Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary as her consecrated slaves, living in absolute spiritual peace in the midst of apostasy and the social disorder that it helps to aid and abet. God is in charge. He is more powerful than lies and liars. The petty tyrants and potentates of the past each died. So will those of the present day. The worst thing that can happen to us is not that this or that "worse" politician gets elected. A little persecution might be a good thing to whip some of us slackers into shape, huh? Maybe then we'd wake up and actually defend the Catholic Faith and stop serving as the lackeys and shills for politicians who are not advocates of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen.
No, the worst thing that can happen to us is if, God forbid, we die in a state of final impenitence.
May it be our privilege, therefore, to plant a few seeds for the restoration of Christendom. True, the hour may be too late for such a restoration. We must continue to do the work of apostles no matter the likelihood of any tangible, earthly success. We must seek to be faithful to the cause of our King by serving Him through His Immaculate Queen's Immaculate Heart, enthroning our own homes to His Most Sacred Heart and to that same Immaculate Heart, helping at least a few souls to His champions as we remember these words that He spoke to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque:
"I will reign in spite of all who oppose Me."
(quoted in: The Right Reverend Emile Bougaud. The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, reprinted by TAN Books and Publishers in 1990, p. 361.)
Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Behold the only standard of true human liberty (not the "liberty bell" or the Masonic "goddess" in New York Harbor.)
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome, Italy, Sunday, May 22, 2005.
A painting of the Catholic martyrs of Gorkum, The Netherlands, who were tortured and executed in 1572 by Dutch Calvinists, the theological soul-mates of the "Pilgrims" who came to North America less than half a century later who were so "grateful" that they had had a bountiful harvest in a land where there was no Catholic Mass. (Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, Monroe, Connecticut, the Feast of Saint Cecilia, Thursday, November 22, 2007.)
Here is a description of their martyrdom as found at the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia site:
The year 1572, Luther and Calvin had already wrested from the Church a great part of Europe. The iconoclastic storm had swept through the Netherlands, and was followed by a struggle between Lutheranism and Calvinism in which the latter was victorious. In 1571 the Calvinists held their first synod, at Embden. On 1 April of the next year the Watergeuzen (Sea-beggars) conquered Briel and later Vlissingen and other places. In June, Dortrecht and Gorkum fell into their hands and at Gorkum they captured nine Franciscans. These were: Nicholas Pieck, guardian of Gorkum, Hieronymns of Weert, vicar, Theodorus van der Eem, of Amersfoort, Nicasius Janssen, of Heeze, Willehad of Denmark, Godefried of Mervel, Antonius Of weert, Antonius of Hoornaer, and Franciseus de Roye, of Brussels. To these were added two lay brothers from the same monastery, Petrus of Assche and Cornelius of Wyk near Duurstede. Almost at the same time the Calvinists laid their hands on the learned parish priest of Gorkum, Leonardus Vechel of Bois-le-Duc, who had made distinguished studies in Louvain, and also has assistant Nicolaas Janssen, surnamed Poppel, of Welde in Belgium. With the above, were also imprisoned Godefried van Duynsen, of Gorkum who was active as a priest in his native city, and Joannes Lenartz of Oisterwljk, an Augustinian and director of the convent of Augustinian nuns in Gorkum. To these fifteen, who from the very first underwent all the sufferings and torments of the persecution, were later added four more companions: Joannes van Hoornaer, a Dominican of the Cologne province and parish priest not far from Gorkum, who, when apprised of the incarceration of the clergy ot Gorkum, hastened to the city in order to administer the sacraments to them and was seized and imprisoned with the rest, Jacobus Lacops of Oudenaar, a Norbertine, who after leading a frivolous life, being disobedient to his order, and neglectful of his religious duties, reformed, became a curate in Monster, Holland and was imprisoned in 1572; Adrianus Janssen of Hilvarenbeek, at one time a Premonstratensian and parish priest in Monster, who was sent to Brielle with Jacobus Lacops; and lastly Andreas Wouters of Heynoord, whose conduct was not edifying up to the time of his arrest, but who made ample amends by his martyrdom.
After enduring much suffering and abuse in the prison at Gorkum (26 June-6 July) the first fifteen martyrs were transferred to Brielle. On their way to Dortrecht they were exhibited for money to the curious and arrived at Brielle 13 July. On the following day, Lumey, the commander of the Watergeuzen, caused the martyrs to be interrogated and ordered a sort of disputation. In the meantime the four other martyrs also arrived. It was exacted of each that he abandon his belief in the Blessed Sacrament and in papal supremacy. All remained firm in their faith. Meanwhile there came a letter from William of Orange which enjoined all those in authority to leave priests and religious unmolested. Nevertheless Lumey caused the martyrs to be hanged in the night of 9 July, in a turfshed amid cruel mutilations. Their beatification took place on 14 Nov., 1675, and their canonization on 29 June, 1865. For many years the place of their martyrdom in Brielle has been the scene of numerous pilgrimages and processions. The Martyrs of Gorkum
One will notice that the Calvinists, ever eager to make a buck--or the Dutch equivalent thereof, charged admission for the curious to see the martyrs, who would not renounce their belief in the Blessed Sacrament and in papal supremacy. It is that very truth of papal supremacy that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is prepared to "discuss" with the heretical and schismatic Orthodox on the basis of The Ravenna Document. Today the Orthdox and tomorrow the descendants of the Dutch Calvinists and all other Protestants.
Remember this and remember it well: where there is no Mass there is no Christianity. We must seek to plant the seeds for the Catholicization of the United States of America, never ever seeking to lionize people who rejected the true Faith and whose heresies helped to pave the way for the social problems we face today.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saint Elizabeth, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Andrew the Apostle, pray for us.
Saint Barbara, pray for us.
Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.
Saint Peter Chrysologus, pray for us.
Saint Bibiana, pray for us.
Saint Sabbas, pray for us.
Saint Nicholas, pray for us.
Saint Ambrose, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.
Saint Sylvester the Abbot, pray for us.
Saint Gertrude the Great, pray for us.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.
Saint Benedict, pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.
Saint Dominic de Guzman, pray for us.
Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.
Saint Peter Nolasco, pray for us.
Saint John Matha, pray for us.
Saint John Bosco, pray for us.
Saint John of God, pray for us.
Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.
Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.
Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
Saint Brendan the Navigator, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, pray for us.
Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.
Saint Peregrine, pray for us.
Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, pray for us.
Saint John Fisher, pray for us.
Saint Thomas More, pray for us.
Saint Peter Canisius, pray for us.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
Saint Francis Borgia, pray for us.
Saint John Francis Regis, pray for us.
Saint Genevieve, pray for us.
Saint Casimir, pray for us.
Saint Hedwig, pray for us.
Saint Louis IX, King of France, pray for us.
Saint Stephen of Hungary, pray for us.
Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.
Saint Brigid of Kildare, pray for us.
Saint Patrick, pray for us.
Saint Martin of Tours, pray for us.
Pope Saint Leo the Great, pray for us.
Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.
Pope Saint Gregory VII, pray for us.
Saint Boniface, pray for us.
Saint Meinrad, pray for us.
Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us.
Saint Bernardine of Siena, pray for us.
Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.
Saint Joseph Cupertino, pray for us.
Saint Joseph Calasanctius, pray for us.
Saint John Damascene, pray for us.
Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, pray for us.
Saints Isidore the Farmer and Maria de Cappella, pray for us.
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, pray for us.
Pope Saint Damasus I, pray for us.
Saint Jerome, pray for us.
Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Saint Louise de Marillac, pray for us.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us.
Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.
Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.
Saint Turibius, pray for us.
Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.
Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.
Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.
Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.
Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.
Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.
Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.
Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.
Saint Polycarp, pray for us.
Blessed Rose Philippine Duchesne, pray for us.
Saint Rita, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, pray for us.
Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, pray for us.
Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.
Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.
Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.
Saint Peter of Alcantara, pray for us.
Saint Stanislaus, pray for us.
Saint Stanislaus Kostka, pray for us.
Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.
Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us.
Saint Adalbert, pray for us.
Saint Norbert, pray for us.
Saint John Chrysostom, pray for us.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria, pray for us.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, pray for us.
Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us.
Saints Gervase and Protase, pray for us.
Saint Cecilia, pray for us.
Pope Saint Clement I, pray for us.
Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.
Saints Fabian Sebastian, pray for us.
Saint Lawrence the Deacon, pray for us.
Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, pray for us.
Saint Eustachius and Companions, pray for us.
Saints Pontian and Hippolytus, pray for us.
Saint Clare of Assisi, pray for us.
Saint Agnes, pray for us.
Saint Agatha, pray for us.
Saints Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us.
Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.
Saint Scholastica, pray for us.
Saint Margaret of Scotland, pray for us.
Saint Peter Lombard, pray for us.
Saint Albert the Great, pray for us.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
Saint Monica, pray for us.
Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us.
Saint Anselm, pray for us.
Saint Canute, pray for us.
Saint Clotilde, pray for us.
Saint Brendan the Navigator, pray for us.
Saint Coleman, pray for us.
Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us.
Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us.
Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us.
Blessed Father Vincent Pallotti, pray for us.
Saint Josaphat, pray for us.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.
Blessed Edmund Campion, pray for us.
Saint Saturninus, pray for us.
Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us.
Venerable Juan Diego, pray for us.
Venerable Junipero Serra, pray for us.
Venerable Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.
Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.
Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.
Jacinta Marto, pray for us.
Francisco Marto, pray for us.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
The Christmas Novena, begun today, the Feast of Saint Andrew (said fifteen times daily until Christmas Day)
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
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.