by Thomas A. Droleskey
The following story speaks volumes about what happens in a world where Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is not recognized as the King of all men and all nations and where His Most Blessed Mother, Mary Immaculate, is not honored the Queen of all men and all nations.
The story below, which appeared in the November 14, 2007, edition of The New York Times, is not a parody. It is a report of a true event. A man is actually in court for shooting and killing a wild cat that lived under a bridge in Galveston, Texas, as the creature was about to do that which comes naturally to a cat: pounce on a bird. Yes, the shooter is on trial. The "crime scene" has been displayed in a Galveston, Texas, courtroom by means of photographs which show where the victim's corpus dilecti was found after the shooting took place. We are talking about the shooting of a wild cat that belonged to no one, although it was "cared for" by a toll collection on the San Luis Pass toll bridge in Galveston, Texas, who named the creature "Wild Mama." A man, who is obsessed with birds and intended to kill cats on the day of the shooting, is on trial for shooting "Wild Mama."
How many babies are going to be killed this day by means of surgical and chemical abortion? Are the surgical baby-killers and those who participated in their heinous acts arrested and put on trial for their crimes? Are the surgical baby-killers sent to jail after conviction and have their licenses to practice medicine revoked? Are the executives of the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the chemicals that kill babies arrested and their property confiscated for their participation in the American genocide that has been perpetrated against the innocent preborn? Are the pharmacists instructed in their college courses never to dispense contraceptives under any circumstances? Oh, no, not in the pluralistic, "free" United States of America, which is suffering the logical consequences of its false foundations, premised as they are upon the belief that men do not need to submit themselves at all times to the Deposit of Faith that Our Lord has entrusted exclusively to His Catholic Church and that they do not need belief in, access to and cooperation with Sanctifying Grace in order to be virtuous.
Birder Admits Killing Cat, but Was It Animal Cruelty?
Chad Greene/Galveston Daily News
A day after the 2006 shooting of a cat that lived under the San Luis Pass toll bridge in Galveston, Tex., another cat could be seen.
By KATE MURPHY Published: November 14, 2007
GALVESTON, Tex., Nov. 13 — Jurors heard opening arguments on Tuesday in the trial of a bird-watching enthusiast who fatally shot a cat that he said was stalking endangered shorebirds.
Galveston Police Department
James M. Stevenson says he was protecting piping plovers.
The defendant, James M. Stevenson, is the founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society and leads bird-watching tours on this Gulf Coast island 60 miles southeast of Houston. If convicted on animal cruelty charges in the shooting last November, he faces up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Mr. Stevenson, 54, does not deny using a .22-caliber rifle fitted with a scope to kill the cat, which lived under the San Luis Pass toll bridge, linking Galveston to the mainland. He also admits killing many other cats on his own property, where he operates a bed and breakfast for some of the estimated 500,000 birders who come to the island every year.
In her opening statement, Paige L. Santell, a Galveston County assistant district attorney, told the jury of eight women and four men that Mr. Stevenson “shot that animal in cold blood” and that the cat died a slow and painful death “gurgling on its own blood.”
She said that the cat had a name, Mama Cat, and that though the cat lived under a toll bridge, she was fed and cared for by a toll collector, John Newland. He is expected to testify.
Whether the cat was feral is the crucial point in this case. Mr. Stevenson was indicted under a state law that prohibited killing a cat “belonging to another.” Prompted by this case, the law was changed on Sept. 1 to include all cats, regardless of ownership.
Ms. Santell argued that because Mr. Newland had named, fed and given the cat bedding and toys, the cat belonged to him and was not feral.
Mr. Stevenson’s lawyer, Tad Nelson, admitted in his opening statement that his client went to the San Luis Pass toll bridge with “an intent to kill.” but that he had planned to kill a wild animal that was preying on endangered piping plovers. “This man has dedicated his whole life to birds,” Mr. Nelson said, pointing at Mr. Stevenson.
The case has prompted emotional commentary on the Internet. Cat enthusiast blogs have called Mr. Stevenson a “murderous fascist” and a “diabolical monster.” Birding blogs have defended his right to dispense with a “terrible menace” and have set up funds to help pay for his defense.
In an interview in a courthouse elevator during a break in the trial, Mr. Stevenson said heatedly that cat fanciers who have condemned him and sent him hateful correspondence “think birds are nothing but sticks.” “This is about wild species disappearing from your planet,” he said, adding, “I did what I had to do.”
Testimony followed from police officers and the veterinarian who performed the autopsy on Mama Cat, a white and gray tabby mix. The jurors were shown several photographs of the bloodied cat, reminiscent of an episode of “CSI: Miami.”
Pictures of the crime scene showed trays of cat food, blankets and cat toys hanging from strings under the bridge. The .22-caliber rifle Mr. Stevenson used to kill the cat along with his magazine full of Remington hollow-point bullets were also on display.
The prosecution and defense wrangled repeatedly about whether witnesses could accurately assess the cat’s state of mind.
“He’s not qualified to know what the cat was feeling,” said Mr. Nelson, when a police officer, John P. Bertolino Sr., testified that the cat was in terrible pain when he arrived at the crime scene. The cat died en route to a Humane Society facility.
The trial, which is expected to take a week, had few spectators save a handful of bird lovers and cat lovers who sat on opposite sides of the courtroom. One side nodded emphatically at Ms. Santell’s arguments, and the other nodded whenever Mr. Nelson objected.
“How people feel about the trial depends on who you talk to,” said Victor Lang, a local historian, adding that bird-watchers and cat fanciers obviously had the strongest views.
Though others may argue passionately about whether Mr. Stevenson should be punished, Mr. Lang said he did not have strong feelings about the case.
“But you see, I’m a dog person,” he said. “If he had shot a dog, then I’d be more upset.”
Yes, this is the world in which we live. A world where innocent preborn babies can be suctioned alive. A world where innocent preborn babies can be poisoned by means of saline solution (or urea or prostaglandin). (The use of saline solution, which is injected through a mother's abdomen and into the amniotic sac, burns a baby alive.) A world where innocent preborn babies can be killed by means of a dilation and evacuation, which involves the carving up of the baby by a butcher as he is in his mother's birth canal. A world where innocent preborn babies can be killed by means of an hysterotomy, which is a Caesarean section operation performed for the sole purpose of a butcher reaching into a mother's womb and locating the baby so that he can twist his neck until he is dead. A world where innocent preborn babies can be killed by means of the intact dilation and extraction method, also known as partial-birth abortion (baby-killers have another term for this form of human butchery: "intrauterine cervical decompression"), wherein a baby is partially delivered and scissors pierced through his skull as the contents of his brain are suctioned out ("evacuated," to use the speech of the murderers).
Mind you, each of these methods of killing a preborn baby is equally morally heinous. None is more morally heinous than any of the others. A suction abortion kills a living human being just as a partial-birth abortion kills a living human being. There is no moral distinction whatsoever between the act of a killing a baby at eight weeks of age in his mother's womb or a baby who has been in mother's womb for nearly nine months. Each of these methods of killing a baby remain completely legal in the United States of America and many other parts of the world. Even partial-birth abortion? Yes, even partial-birth abortion, which can be "performed" quite legally if a physician claims that a mother's life is endangered.
Indeed, the Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy of Supreme Court of the United States of America went to great lengths to note that partial, conditional ban on partial-birth abortions would pose no impediment upon a woman's access to abortion in the latter stages of pregnancy because other methods (dilation and evacuation, the hysterotomy) remain perfectly legal:
The Act, on its face, is not void for vagueness and does not impose an undue burden from any overbreadth. Pp. 16-26 [Citation to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America in the case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1992]:
(a) The Act's text demonstrates that it regulates and proscribes performing the intact D&E procedure. First, since the doctor must "vaginally delive[r] a living fetus," §1531(b)(1)(A), the Act does not restrict abortions involving delivery of an expired fetus or those not involving vaginal delivery, e.g., hysterotomy or hysterectomy. And it applies both previability and postviability because, by common understanding and scientific terminology, a fetus is a living organism within the womb, whether or not it is viable outside the womb. Second, because the Act requires the living fetus to be delivered to a specific anatomical landmark depending on the fetus' presentation, ibid., an abortion not involving such partial delivery is permitted. Third, because the doctor must perform an "overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered fetus," §1531(b)(1)(B), the "overt act" must be separate from delivery. It must also occur after delivery to an anatomical landmark, since killing "the partially delivered" fetus, when read in context, refers to a fetus that has been so delivered, ibid. Fourth, given the Act's scienter requirements, delivery of a living fetus past an anatomical landmark by accident or inadvertence is not a crime because it is not "deliberat[e] and intentiona[l], §1531(b)(1)(A). Nor is such a delivery prohibited if the fetus [has not] been delivered "for the purpose of performing an overt act that the [doctor] knows will kill [it]." Ibid. Pp. 16-18.
Never--and I mean never--think that any "victory" was won in the battle against abortion by twelve years of debates and court battles that went into concentrating on one form of baby-killing. (See:
An Illusion of a Victory.) Babies can still be killed in the latter stages of their development within what should be the sanctuaries of their mothers' wombs. There has been no victory whatsoever. None.
The world in which we live is such that absurdity is present in everyday life. (I was going to name this article "Feline Theater of the Absurd." However, since so few readers seemed to have enjoyed the references to the farce that was Green Acres, I decided to forgo such a title this time around.) The absurdity is palpable. A "birder" who hates cats is on trial for shooting and killing a cat that was about to do what comes naturally to cats: kill birds. Has anyone ever heard of Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird? "I tawt I daw a puddy cat . . .I did! I did!"? The late Marlin Perkins of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom would have had to instruct his associate Jim Fowler to shoot predatory animals attacking their prey as the Wild Kingdom cameras rolled in order to save the intended prey if this madness had entered the social discourse in the 1960s. Cats kill birds. This is not news. The world of nature was rent asunder by Original Sin. The lion no longer lies down next to the kid without licking his chops.
One who reads The New York Times article above through the eyes of the true Faith can see the irrationality involved in the "cat lovers" who are calling the bird-obsessed Mr. Stevenson a "murderer." Here is a news flash: animals cannot be murdered. They can be killed. Only human beings can be murdered. Additional emotionally-laden phrases ("murderous fascist," "diabolical monster," "terrible menace") are supposed to add pathos to this absurdity. Wonder which side People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (P.E.T.A.) comes down on this one? Oh, I should let you know that I belong to P.E.T.A. (People Eating Tasty Animals).
There have been other such incidents in the last thirty years or so. Then New York Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull with a practice throw in the outfield of Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on August 4, 1983, while the incarnation of all evil, the Yankees, were playing the Toronto Blue Jays. Winfield was hauled into a police station in Toronto where he had to post a $500 {Canadian) bond before the charges of "animal cruelty" were dropped the next day. It was nine years later that a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York spent a jail because she had put pigeon repellant on the window sill of her apartment in a high-rise apartment building in the Borough of Manhattan in the City of New York, New York. A year after that, in 1993, a farmer in rural New Jersey (yes, there are parts of New Jersey that are rural) faced at $10,000 fine and a year in prison for killing a rat, yes, a rat, on his property! This prompted me to write an article for The Wanderer, "If Babies Were Rats." This current piece could just as easily been entitled, "If Babies Were Cats."
A Catholic is supposed to understand things in their proper proportion in the Order of Creation and in the Order of Redemption. Animals are given to man to serve his needs when necessary. While no one can be deliberately cruel (that is, injuring or maiming or beating or torturing or kicking an animal for no purpose other than the thrill of seeing pain imposed on the creature) to an animal as this is a violation of the precepts that flow from the Seventh Commandment and the good care of the things of this earth, cruelty to an animal is not the same thing as cruelty to another human being, who has an immortal soul that is made in the very image and likeness of God Himself. Animals do not have rational, immortal souls. They have irrational, mortal souls. No one can equate any kind of cruelty to an animal with cruelty to an human being, no less to express "outrage" over such cruelty to animals while endorse, if not actively supporting, the butchery of the innocent preborn in their mothers' wombs by means of surgical or chemical abortions.
God has given animals for various reasons. Some are meant to clothe us. Others are meant to feed us (yummy, yummy, yummy). Still others are meant to serve as our pets or to provide us with heavy farm labor and/or transportation. Others are meant to be hunted for sport and for the thinning out of the herd. The rest have been created to show forth the variety of the wonder of the infinite intelligence of God, Who created each species of animals and fishes and insects and birds within the six days of Creation before He rested on the seventh day. Some of these animals have bred with others, producing variation of these species. When one looks at an elephant or a walrus or a zebra or a giraffe or a manatee or any of the other creatures that can be found in a zoo
My late father, Dr. Albert Henry Martin Droleskey, was a veterinarian who had a small animal veterinary practice, the Queens Village Dog and Cat Hospital, Queens Village, New York, from 1946-1972, selling his practice to a Dr. Richard Lange before moving with my late mother to Texas in early-1973 (the building in which the practice was located--and on whose second floor I lived the first four years of my life--was torn down recently; evidently Dr. Lange retired and sold the land to the City of New York, which is building, ugh, an "intermediate school" on the property). I spent many, many days helping my father at his veterinary hospital in the 1960s, watching the tenderness (and this is being written with tears in my eyes) with which he treated the pets that were brought to him for his medical care. He was so beloved by his clients, of whom he had over 8,000, for the way in which he treated them and their pets.
Although my father did not really understand the Faith that he had learned in his childhood and at Brooklyn Preparatory School, he had enough residual Catholicism within him to know the balance between man and animals, understanding that there was no value to animal suffering whatsoever. He would never, for example, have encouraged any of his clients to subject their pets to the "chemotherapy." Pets live for only so long, and then they die. Period. Dr. Albert H. Droleskey always had a sense of due proportion when it came to the treatment of animals and their role in our lives and in the world. There is little such sense in a world where the forces of the past half of a millennium have finally converged to produce a naturalistic, pantheistic view of man and the world.
Indeed, as noted above, the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ King wrought by Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt has resulted in a world of madness. The overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King was used by naturalists (Judeo-Masonry, political ideologues of various stripes, including the various strands of false "opposites" of the alleged political "left" and "right") to poison the minds of those who rejected the teaching authority of the Catholic Church and whose minds were not enlightened nor their wills strengthened by means of Sanctifying Grace into accepting everything but Catholicism as the foundation of personal and social order. This leads over the course of time to the triumph of every manner of error possible, including the pantheistic deification of man and all other created beings. The madness is such that an alleged "ethicist" at Princeton University by the name of Peter Singer, who believes is it an exercise in "speciesism" to place one species above others. In other words, human life is no more special than that of a baboon's:
In Animal Liberation, Singer argues against what he calls speciesism: discrimination on the grounds that a being belongs to a certain species. He holds the interests of all beings capable of suffering to be worthy of equal consideration, and that giving lesser consideration to beings based on their having wings or fur is no more justified than discrimination based on skin color. In particular, he argues that while animals show lower intelligence than the average human, many severely retarded humans show equally diminished, if not lower, mental capacity, and intelligence therefore does not provide a basis for providing nonhuman animals any less consideration than such retarded humans. Singer does not specifically contend that we ought not use animals for food insofar as they are raised and killed in a way that actively avoids the inflicting of pain, but as such farms are uncommon, he concludes that the most practical solution is to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. Singer also condemns vivisection except the benefit (in terms of improved medical treatment, etc.) outweighs the harm done to the animals used.[6] (From Wikipedia.)
In ''Animal Liberation,'' Dr. Singer argues that the use of animals to serve the interests of humans is as barbaric and unethical as human slavery. He also defines the exploitation of animals for the benefit of humans as being ''speciesism,'' the equivalent of racism and sexism.
The New York Times, September 27, 1983
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (P.E.T.A.) has even given "cautious endorsement" to Peter Singer's demented belief that it is ethically acceptable for human beings to, shall we say, "know" animals. There are lots and lots of nuts out there who take all of this this craziness seriously. They hold conferences attempting to find the "right balance" between man and animal. This insanity is entirely the result of a world that refuses to be guided by the magisterial authority of the Catholic Church, a world where alleged scientists reject the account of how God created the world that He gave to Moses to record in the Book of Genesis, thus demonstrating once again that the attack against a truly Catholic understanding of Origins and Special Creation is from the devil so as to convince man that he is "god," a delusion that leads to the butchery of innocent preborn human beings in their mothers' wombs by surgical and chemical means as dumb animals given to us to serve our needs and to fill us with the awe of God's own creative powers are placed on a level of equality with human beings.
God said it all to Adam and Eve after having created them:
And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.
And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.
And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:
And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done.
And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1: 26-31)
The barbarians of today reject this. Catholics understand, however, that God Himself spoke these words. He has given His permission to us to eat the beats of the earth and the fowl of the air, subduing and ruling over the fishes of the sea, and all living creatures upon the earth. Animals are subordinate to the needs of human beings. This is what one can call real simple.
Alas, a world that has become naturalist and pantheistic and relativistic and positivistic and utilitarian and materialistic and hedonistic becomes so blinded by the falsehoods it embraces that men spend their entire lives trying to answer questions that have been answered by the true God Himself in the Revelation that He has entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church for its eternal safekeeping and infallible explication.
Pope Pius XI used his first encyclical letter, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, to write of the ways in which men were imposing cruelty upon each other in a world where Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ no longer reigned as King and His Most Blessed Mother was no longer honored as its Immaculate Queen:
The belligerents of yesterday have laid down their arms but on the heels of this act we encounter new horrors and new threats of war in the Near East. The conditions in many sections of these devastated regions have been greatly aggravated by famine, epidemics, and the laying waste of the land, all of which have not failed to take their toll of victims without number, especially among the aged, women and innocent children. In what has been so justly called the immense theater of the World War, the old rivalries between nations have not ceased to exert their influence, rivalries at times hidden under the manipulations of politics or concealed beneath the fluctuations of finance, but openly appearing in the press, in reviews and magazines of every type, and even penetrating into institutions devoted to the cultivation of the arts and sciences, spots where otherwise the atmosphere of quiet and peace would reign supreme.
Public life is so enveloped, even at the present hour, by the dense fog of mutual hatreds and grievances that it is almost impossible for the common people so much as freely to breathe therein. If the defeated nations continue to suffer most terribly, no less serious are the evils which afflict their conquerors. Small nations complain that they are being oppressed and exploited by great nations. The great powers, on their side, contend that they are being judged wrongly and circumvented by the smaller. All nations, great and small, suffer acutely from the sad effects of the late War. Neither can those nations which were neutral contend that they have escaped altogether the tremendous sufferings of the War or failed to experience its evil results almost equally with the actual belligerents. These evil results grow in volume from day to day because of the utter impossibility of finding anything like a safe remedy to cure the ills of society, and this in spite of all the efforts of politicians and statesmen whose work has come to naught if it has not unfortunately tended to aggravate the very evils they tried to overcome. Conditions have become increasingly worse because the fears of the people are being constantly played upon by the ever-present menace of new wars, likely to be more frightful and destructive than any which have preceded them. Whence it is that the nations of today live in a state of armed peace which is scarcely better than war itself, a condition which tends to exhaust national finances, to waste the flower of youth, to muddy and poison the very fountainheads of life, physical, intellectual, religious, and moral.
A much more serious and lamentable evil than these threats of external aggression is the internal discord which menaces the welfare not only of nations but of human society itself. In the first place, we must take cognizance of the war between the classes, a chronic and mortal disease of present-day society, which like a cancer is eating away the vital forces of the social fabric, labor, industry, the arts, commerce, agriculture -- everything in fact which contributes to public and private welfare and to national prosperity. This conflict seems to resist every solution and grows worse because those who are never satisfied with the amount of their wealth contend with those who hold on most tenaciously to the riches which they have already acquired, while to both classes there is common the desire to rule the other and to assume control of the other's possessions. From this class war there result frequent interruptions of work, the causes for which most often can be laid to mutual provocations. There result, too, revolutions, riots, and forcible repression of one side or other by the government, all of which cannot but end in general discontent and in grave damage to the common welfare.
To these evils we must add the contests between political parties, many of which struggles do not originate in a real difference of opinion concerning the public good or in a laudable and disinterested search for what would best promote the common welfare, but in the desire for power and for the protection of some private interest which inevitably result in injury to the citizens as a whole. From this course there often arise robberies of what belongs rightly to the people, and even conspiracies against and attacks on the supreme authority of the state, as well as on its representatives. These political struggles also beget threats of popular action and, at times, eventuate in open rebellion and other disorders which are all the more deplorable and harmful since they come from a public to whom it has been given, in our modern democratic states, to participate in very large measure in public life and in the affairs of government. Now, these different forms of government are not of themselves contrary to the principles of the Catholic Faith, which can easily be reconciled with any reasonable and just system of government. Such governments, however, are the most exposed to the danger of being overthrown by one faction or another.
It is most sad to see how this revolutionary spirit has penetrated into that sanctuary of peace and love, the family, the original nucleus of human society. In the family these evil seeds of dissension, which were sown long ago, have recently been spread about more and more by the fact of the absence of fathers and sons from the family fireside during the War and by the greatly increased freedom in matters of morality which followed on it as one of its effects. Frequently we behold sons alienated from their fathers, brothers quarreling with brothers, masters with servants, servants with masters. Too often likewise have we seen both the sanctity of the marriage tie and the duties to God and to humankind, which this tie imposes upon men, forgotten.
Just as the smallest part of the body feels the effect of an illness which is ravaging the whole body or one of its vital organs, so the evils now besetting society and the family afflict even individuals. In particular, We cannot but lament the morbid restlessness which has spread among people of every age and condition in life, the general spirit of insubordination and the refusal to live up to one's obligations which has become so widespread as almost to appear the customary mode of living. We lament, too, the destruction of purity among women and young girls as is evidenced by the increasing immodesty of their dress and conversation and by their participation in shameful dances, which sins are made the more heinous by the vaunting in the faces of people less fortunate than themselves their luxurious mode of life. Finally, We cannot but grieve over the great increase in the number of what might be called social misfits who almost inevitably end by joining the ranks of those malcontents who continually agitate against all order, be it public or private.
It is surprising, then, that we should no longer possess that security of life in which we can place our trust and that there remains only the most terrible uncertainty, and from hour to hour added fears for the future? Instead of regular daily work there is idleness and unemployment. That blessed tranquillity which is the effect of an orderly existence and in which the essence of peace is to be found no longer exists, and, in its place, the restless spirit of revolt reigns. As a consequence industry suffers, commerce is crippled, the cultivation of literature and the arts becomes more and more difficult, and what is worse than all, Christian civilization itself is irreparably damaged thereby. In the face of our much praised progress, we behold with sorrow society lapsing back slowly but surely into a state of barbarism.
We wish to record, in addition to the evils already mentioned, other evils which beset society and which occupy a place of prime importance but whose very existence escapes the ordinary observer, the sensual man -- he who, as the Apostle says, does not perceive "the things that are of the Spirit of God" (I Cor. ii, 14), yet which cannot but be judged the greatest and most destructive scourges of the social order of today. We refer specifically to those evils which transcend the material or natural sphere and lie within the supernatural and religious order properly so-called; in other words, those evils which affect the spiritual life of souls. These evils are all the more to be deplored since they injure souls whose value is infinitely greater than that of any merely material object. . . .
Peace indeed was signed in solemn conclave between the belligerents of the late War. This peace, however, was only written into treaties. It was not received into the hearts of men, who still cherish the desire to fight one another and to continue to menace in a most serious manner the quiet and stability of civil society. Unfortunately the law of violence held sway so long that it has weakened and almost obliterated all traces of those natural feelings of love and mercy which the law of Christian charity has done so much to encourage. Nor has this illusory peace, written only on paper, served as yet to reawaken similar noble sentiments in the souls of men. On the contrary, there has been born a spirit of violence and of hatred which, because it has been indulged in for so long, has become almost second nature in many men. There has followed the blind rule of the inferior parts of the soul over the superior, that rule of the lower elements "fighting against the law of the mind," which St. Paul grieved over. (Rom. vii, 23)
Men today do not act as Christians, as brothers, but as strangers, and even enemies. The sense of man's personal dignity and of the value of human life has been lost in the brutal domination begotten of might and mere superiority in numbers. Many are intent on exploiting their neighbors solely for the purpose of enjoying more fully and on a larger scale the goods of this world. But they err grievously who have turned to the acquisition of material and temporal possessions and are forgetful of eternal and spiritual things, to the possession of which Jesus, Our Redeemer, by means of the Church, His living interpreter, calls mankind.
It is in the very nature of material objects that an inordinate desire for them becomes the root of every evil, of every discord, and in particular, of a lowering of the moral sense. On the one hand, things which are naturally base and vile can never give rise to noble aspirations in the human heart which was created by and for God alone and is restless until it finds repose in Him. On the other hand, material goods (and in this they differ greatly from those of the spirit which the more of them we possess the more remain to be acquired) the more they are divided among men the less each one has and, by consequence, what one man has another cannot possibly possess unless it be forcibly taken away from the first. Such being the case, worldly possessions can never satisfy all in equal manner nor give rise to a spirit of universal contentment, but must become perforce a source of division among men and of vexation of spirit, as even the Wise Man Solomon experienced: "Vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit." (Ecclesiastes i, 2, 14)
The same effects which result from these evils among individuals may likewise be expected among nations. "From whence are wars and contentions among you?" asks the Apostle St. James. "Are they not hence from your concupiscences, which war in your members?" (James iv, 1, 2)
The inordinate desire for pleasure, concupiscence of the flesh, sows the fatal seeds of division not only among families but likewise among states; the inordinate desire for possessions, concupiscence of the eyes, inevitably turns into class warfare and into social egotism; the inordinate desire to rule or to domineer over others, pride of life, soon becomes mere party or factional rivalries, manifesting itself in constant displays of conflicting ambitions and ending in open rebellion, in the crime of lese majeste, and even in national parricide.
These unsuppressed desires, this inordinate love of the things of the world, are precisely the source of all international misunderstandings and rivalries, despite the fact that oftentimes men dare to maintain that acts prompted by such motives are excusable and even justifiable because, forsooth, they were performed for reasons of state or of the public good, or out of love for country. Patriotism -- the stimulus of so many virtues and of so many noble acts of heroism when kept within the bounds of the law of Christ -- becomes merely an occasion, an added incentive to grave injustice when true love of country is debased to the condition of an extreme nationalism, when we forget that all men are our brothers and members of the same great human family, that other nations have an equal right with us both to life and to prosperity, that it is never lawful nor even wise, to dissociate morality from the affairs of practical life, that, in the last analysis, it is "justice which exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable." (Proverbs xiv, 34)
26. Perhaps the advantages to one's family, city, or nation obtained in some such way as this may well appear to be a wonderful and great victory (this thought has been already expressed by St. Augustine), but in the end it turns out to be a very shallow thing, something rather to inspire us with the most fearful apprehensions of approaching ruin. "It is a happiness which appears beautiful but is brittle as glass. We must ever be on guard lest with horror we see it broken into a thousand pieces at the first touch." (St. Augustine de Civitate Dei, Book iv, Chap. 3)
There is over and above the absence of peace and the evils attendant on this absence, another deeper and more profound cause for present-day conditions. This cause was even beginning to show its head before the War and the terrible calamities consequent on that cataclysm should have proven a remedy for them if mankind had only taken the trouble to understand the real meaning of those terrible events. In the Holy Scriptures we read: "They that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed." (Isaias i, 28) No less well known are the words of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, Who said: "Without me you can do nothing" (John xv, 5) and again, "He that gathereth not with me, scattereth." (Luke xi, 23)
These words of the Holy Bible have been fulfilled and are now at this very moment being fulfilled before our very eyes. Because men have forsaken God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of evil. They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. It was a quite general desire that both our laws and our governments should exist without recognizing God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority comes from men, not from God. Because of such an assumption, these theorists fell very short of being able to bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it must possess but also that secure basis for the supreme criterion of justice which even a pagan philosopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived except from the divine law.
Authority itself lost its hold upon mankind, for it had lost that sound and unquestionable justification for its right to command on the one hand and to be obeyed on the other. Society, quite logically and inevitably, was shaken to its very depths and even threatened with destruction, since there was left to it no longer a stable foundation, everything having been reduced to a series of conflicts, to the domination of the majority, or to the supremacy of special interests.
Again, legislation was passed which did not recognize that either God or Jesus Christ had any rights over marriage -- an erroneous view which debased matrimony to the level of a mere civil contract, despite the fact that Jesus Himself had called it a "great sacrament" (Ephesians v, 32) and had made it the holy and sanctifying symbol of that indissoluble union which binds Him to His Church. The high ideals and pure sentiments with which the Church has always surrounded the idea of the family, the germ of all social life, these were lowered, were unappreciated, or became confused in the minds of many. As a consequence, the correct ideals of family government, and with them those of family peace, were destroyed; the stability and unity of the family itself were menaced and undermined, and, worst of all, the very sanctuary of the home was more and more frequently profaned by acts of sinful lust and soul-destroying egotism -- all of which could not but result in poisoning and drying up the very sources of domestic and social life.
Added to all this, God and Jesus Christ, as well as His doctrines, were banished from the school. As a sad but inevitable consequence, the school became not only secular and non-religious but openly atheistical and anti-religious. In such circumstances it was easy to persuade poor ignorant children that neither God nor religion are of any importance as far as their daily lives are concerned. God's name, moreover, was scarcely ever mentioned in such schools unless it were perchance to blaspheme Him or to ridicule His Church. Thus, the school forcibly deprived of the right to teach anything about God or His law could not but fail in its efforts to really educate, that is, to lead children to the practice of virtue, for the school lacked the fundamental principles which underlie the possession of a knowledge of God and the means necessary to strengthen the will in its efforts toward good and in its avoidance of sin. Gone, too, was all possibility of ever laying a solid groundwork for peace, order, and prosperity, either in the family or in social relations. Thus the principles based on the spiritualistic philosophy of Christianity having been obscured or destroyed in the minds of many, a triumphant materialism served to prepare mankind for the propaganda of anarchy and of social hatred which was let loose on such a great scale.
Is it to be wondered at then that, with the widespread refusal to accept the principles of true Christian wisdom, the seeds of discord sown everywhere should find a kindly soil in which to grow and should come to fruit in that most tremendous struggle, the Great War, which unfortunately did not serve to lessen but increased, by its acts of violence and of bloodshed, the international and social animosities which already existed?
One can see the prophetic wisdom given to the true popes prior to the dawning of the era of apostasy and betrayal represented by the counterfeit church of conciliarism. There is clarity in the passages above. There is surety, certainty in the passages above, each of which resonates with simple Catholic truths. Although many people think that they can "improve" society by this or that political "strategy," as absurd a proposition as a man being put on trial for killing a stray cat, there is one and only one solution for the problems of the world: Catholicism. Each man and each nation must come under the sweet yoke of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen in order to see himself and the world around him clearly.
Saint Josaphat, whose feast we celebrated today, November 14, 2007, sought to do what seemed be impossible: convert many of the Orthodox to Catholicism. This true apostolic zeal of the Archbishop of Krakow stands in quite some contrast to the injunction of another Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, who forbade the "proselytism" of the Orthodox, as does his "successor" as a conciliar "pontiff," Joseph Ratzinger. It is Saint Josaphat's great zeal for souls, which cost him his life and won him the crown of martyrdom, that we must imitate as we seek to plant the seeds for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Mary our Immaculate Queen, a reign that will put to an end the madness described in this article and that each of us witness with our own eyes every day of our lives.
The breviary account of Saint Josaphat's apostolic zeal and his martyrdom should inspire us all:
In this dignity [as Archbishop of Krakow] he relaxed nothing of his former manner of life; and had nothing so much at heart as the divine service and the salvation of the sheep entrusted to him. He energetically defended Catholic faith and unity, and laboured to the utmost of his power to bring back schismatics and heretics to communion with the See of Peter. The Sovereign Pontiff and the plenitude of his power he never ceased to defend, both by preaching and by writings full of piety and learning, against the most shameless calumnies and errors of the wicked. He vindicated episcopal rights, and restored ecclesiastical possessions which had been seized by laymen. Incredible was the number of heretics he won back to the bosom of mother Church; and the words of the pope bear witness how greatly he promoted the union of the Greek and Latin churches. His revenues were entirely expended in restoring the beauty of God's house, in building of dwellings for consecrated virgins, and in other pious works. So bountiful was he to the poor, that on one occasion, having nothing wherewith to supply the needs of a certain widow, he ordered his Omnophorion, or episcopal pallium, to be pawned.
The great progress made by the Catholic faith so stirred up the hatred of wicked men against the soldier of Christ, that they determined to put him to death. He knew what was threatening him; and foretold it when preaching to the people. As he was making his visitation at Vitebsk, the murderers broke into his house, striking and wounding all whom they found. Josaphat meekly went to meet them, and accosted them kindly, saying : "My little children, why do you strike my servants? If you have any complaint against me, here I am." Hereupon they rushed on him, overwhelmed him with blows, pierced him with their spears, and at length dispatched him with an axe and threw his body into the river. This took place on the twelfth of November, 1623, in the forty-third year of his age. His body, surrounded with a miraculous light, was rescued from the waters. The martyr's blood won a blessing first of all for his murderers; for, being condemned to death, they nearly all abjured their schism and repented of their crime.
The authentically incorrupt body of this great martyr, Saint Josaphat, was on display under an altar on the right transept of the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome until a few years ago. The incorrupt body of this great saint who spent himself tirelessly for the conversion of the schismatic and heretical Orthodox was moved to a different, less prominent location in order to make way for the artificially preserved body of the thoroughly corrupt Angelo Roncalli/John XXIII, who promised silence about Communism in order to purchase the presence of "observers" from the schismatic and heretical Russian Orthodox Church at his "Second" Vatican Council. The aggiornamento of Angelo Roncalli has nothing to do with the conversion of men and nations to the Social Reign of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen, thus helping to make more possible the madness of a world made mad by the overthrow of this sweet, gentle reign of our King and our Queen.
As we strive to live more penitentially in a world that is upside down, inside out and topsy turvy anti-Incarnational world of Modernity that has spawned so many absurdities, mindful of how our own sins have contributed in no small measure to the problems that beset us, may we, as people of Eucharistic piety and total consecration to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, never cease praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permit so that, if God wills it to be so, the glory of Christendom may be restored once again, giving all men the clarity to see themselves and the world around them clearly through the eyes of the true Faith as they exclaim with joy:
Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us now and the hour of our deaths. Amen.
All to thee, Blessed Mother. All to thy Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint Luke 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.
Saint Josaphat, pray for us.
Saint Albert the Great, pray for us.
Saint Didacus, pray for us.
Pope Saint Martin I, pray for us.
Saint Martin of Tours, pray for us.
Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for us.
Saints Vitalis and Agricola, pray for us.
Saint Hilarion, pray for us.
Saint John Cantius, pray for us.
Saint Peter of Alcantara, pray for us.
Saint Hedwig, pray for us.
Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.
Saint Francis Borgia, pray for us.
Saint Edward the Confessor, pray for us.
Saint John Leonard, pray for us.
Saint Dionysisus (Denis), Rusticus and Eleutherius, pray for us.
Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.
Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.
Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Saint Placidus and Companions, pray for us.
Saint Bruno, pray for us.
Saint Wenceslaus, pray for us.
Saint Jerome, pray for us.
Saint Remigius, pray for us.
Saint Clotilde, pray for us.
Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us.
Pope Saint Linus, pray for us.
Saint Peter Nolasco, pray for us.
Saint Raymond Pennafort, pray for us.
Saint Raymond Nonnatus, pray for us.
Saint Thecla, pray for us.
Saint Matthew, pray for us.
Saint Eustachius and Family, pray for us.
Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, pray for us.
Saint Joseph Cupertino, pray for us.
Saint Januarius, pray for us.
Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.
Saint Giles, pray for us.
Saint Stephen of Hungary, pray for us.
Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.
Saint Nicomedes, pray for us.
Saint Joseph Calasanctius, pray for us.
Pope Saint Zephyrinus, pray for us.
Saint Louis IX, King of France, pray for us.
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.
Saint Bartholomew, pray for us.
Saint Philip Benizi, pray for us.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.
Saint John Eudes, pray for us.
Saint Hyacinth, pray for us, pray for us.
Saint Agapitus, pray for us.
Saint Helena, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saint Clare of Assisi, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, pray for us.
Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.
Saints Monica, pray for us.
Saint Jude, pray for us.
Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.
Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.
Saint John Bosco, pray for us.
Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.
Saint Scholastica, pray for us.
Saint Benedict, pray for us.
Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.
Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.
Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.
Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.
Saint Turibius, pray for us.
Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.
Saint Lucy, pray for us.
Saint Monica, pray for us.
Saint Agatha, pray for us.
Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.
Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, pray for us.
Saint Cecilia, pray for us.
Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, pray for us.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, 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 Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.
Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.
Saint Lucy, pray for us.
Saint Dominic, pray for us.
Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.
Saint Basil, pray for us.
Saint Benedict, pray for us.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.
Saint Sebastian, pray for us.
Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.
Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.
Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.
Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.
Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.
Saint Genevieve, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.
Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.
Blessed Humbeline, pray for us.
Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.
Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.
Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.
Francisco Marto, pray for us.
Jacinta Marto, pray for us.
Juan Diego, pray for us.
Father Maximilian Kolbe,M.I., pray for us.
Father Frederick Faber, pray for us.
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.
