What Iceberg?

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Lord Caesar Barackus Obamus Ignoramus spoke last night. He spoke at length. Caesars always do when they give their annual "state of the union" addresses.

Lord Caesar Barackus Obamus Ignoramus spoke last night. He spoke at length. He said nothing. Caesars always do when they give their annual "state of the union" address.

That's right. State of the Union addresses are filled with different kinds of naturalistic"plans" to "solve" this or that crisis. None of them matter. Why?

Ah, have you forgotten what I wrote eleven months ago in Not A Mention of Christ the King?

That article provided a review of presidential inaugural addresses, explaining that none of those inaugural addresses mentioned the King of Kings Whose Social Kingship must define the lives and the laws of nations. Men who think that they can improve their lot by means that are merely natural and who govern almost exclusively to pursue temporal prosperity absent a due submission to the binding precepts contained in the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law as they have been entrusted exclusively by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ undertaken in light of the pursuit of man's Last End will be puffed up with pride as they and those who advise them dream up plans that they believe will curry favor with "swing" voters. 

No efforts, including those of naturalists of the "right" who understand that there is not, contrary to what the reigning caesar contended last evening, any kind of economic "recovery" taking place, to correct the nation's economic ship will succeed as long as public law permits and popular culture promotes grievous sins that wound the souls of men and thus disorder their nations accordingly.

We have been told this repeatedly in the past. Here are some very brief reminders:

The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society. This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity. (Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, quoted by Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929.)

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. (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling."

And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right." But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests? (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)

 

There! The popes--and other learned Catholic writers--have told us the simple truth: there can be no true temporal prosperity if men are consumed with their own pleasures and interests as they violate God's Commandments. What more is there to say. More of true substance, that of Catholic truth, is contained in the above quotations than can be found in any of the nine pages of text of Barack Hussein Obama's 2011 State of Union address.

Although expenditures by the Federal government of the United States of America have swollen the national debt to a ludicrous, crippling sum of $14,000,000,000 (see U.S. National Debt Clock) that will bring this nation to fiscal bankruptcy soon enough if it does not first suffer a foreign attack (China, Russia, Mohammedans) as the price for its endorsement and promotion of every sin imaginable. Those who think there is a naturalistic way out of this fiscal nightmare are sadly mistaken. The nation's moral house must be put back in order, something that might not be, humanly speaking, within God's Holy Providence to occur. Empires do come and go, including ours.

There is only one way to restore sanity to a nation gone insane: Catholicism. Who says so? Well, let me turn to Pope Saint Pius X once again:

Here we have, founded by Catholics, an inter-denominational association that is to work for the reform of civilization, an undertaking which is above all religious in character; for there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

 

No formula of a naturalist of the "left" or of the "right" can produce true improvement that will redound to men and their nations. It is only by light of the Catholic Faith that men can see clearly enough to pursue temporal matters in light of eternity. Those who believe that there is are akin to the captain of a ship (pick a name that comes to mind) who says "What iceberg?" as his ship is taking on water after having struck one.

 

Get out of the diabolical trap of naturalism. Refuse to be agitated by the "talking heads" on radio and television who do not understand anything about First and Last Things and thus whose histrionics are nothing more than the injurious babbling spoken of by Pope Pius IX as they do not understand that the remote cause of all human problems is Original Sin and that their proximate causes are to be found in the Actual Sins of men and thus can be remedied only by the daily conversion of souls as they seek to grow in sanctity by cooperating with the graces sent to them by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the loving hands of His Most Blessed Mother, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

These "talking heads" make constant advertence to the genius of the "founding fathers," men who a founding hatred for Christ the King, and their founding principles that have convinced men that they can establish a social order without regard to any religion, no less the true religion, which is the very premise of Judeo-Masonry. How can men who believe in the very principles that are the fruit of the Protestant Revolution against the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Judeo-Masonry are the foundation of "American exceptionalism" help us to understand issues that must be viewed through the deeper, supernatural eyes of the Holy Faith? They can't.

What should we do?

Spend more time in prayer before Our Lord's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament, if this is at all possible.

Pray more Rosaries.

Make more sacrifices.

Do more fasting.

Pray for more crosses.

Pray for humiliation.

Enthrone your homes to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Read more books about the lives of the saints.

Stop watching television.

Don't be agitated by the lies of naturalists and their enablers.

Know that Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart will triumph.

Conscious of making reparation for our own sins, which, although forgiven and thus no longer exist, are in need of our making satisfaction here in this passing, mortal vale of tears before we die, may our Rosaries each day help lift the scales of naturalism that cloud our vision, thus making us courageous apostles of the Social Reign of Christ the King who recognize and are unafraid to proclaim that Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

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

Saint Polycarp, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints