Through a process of gradualism, the last three occupants of the Chair of Peter have been eroding the visible presence of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, i.e., the Roman Catholic Church, in the world. The results may be seen all around us.
Before a parasite reaches the full-blown, visible effects of its presence in the host victim, it has been working silently, destroying one cell at a time. Finally, what seems like a sudden eruption of putrefaction is nothing more than the outward sign of interior destruction.
Pope St. Pius X , with the supernatural charisma of his office as Vicar of Jesus Christ, truly by the grace of God elected to the highest office in the Kingdom of God, perceived the mounting evil threatening to engulf and drown the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. His courageous Encyclical Letter, Pascendi, draws attention to the evil that has taken hold within the body of the Church.
Providing an authoritative answer to those who deceitfully sought and seek to lull unsuspecting faithful into a deadly complacency, this saintly Pope bravely stated: "The office divinely committed to Us of feeding the Lord's flock has especially this duty assigned to it by Christ, namely, to guard with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the faith delivered to the saints, rejecting the profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. There has never been a time when this watchfulness of the supreme pastor was not necessary to the Catholic body; for, owing to the efforts of the enemy of the human race, there have never been lacking 'men speaking perverse things' (Acts 20,30), 'vain talkers and seducers' (Titus 1,10), 'erring and driving into error' (2 Tim.3,13).
Still it must be confessed that the number of the enemies of the cross of Christ has in these last days increased exceedingly, who are striving, by arts, entirely new and full of subtlety, to destroy the vital energy of the Church, and, if they can to overthrow utterly Christ's kingdom itself. Wherefore We may no longer be silent, lest We should seem to fail in Our most sacred duty, and lest the kindness that, in the hope of wiser counsels, We have hitherto shown them, should be attributed to forgetfulness of Our office."
There is an antidote for every illness. If the antidote is not used, no one can complain when the final termination of life in an organism swiftly follows.
Using the analogy of the human body, who can ignore the advice of a competent physician prescribing a remedy for an illness including the giving up smoking, especially if it is a matter of life or death? Countless smokers suddenly found the strength to quit smoking when a doctor told them: "You have a choice: Keep smoking - and die; or, quit smoking - and live."
Somehow, life became more important than smoking….
Just as no one suspects a mother of gradually poisoning the food of her children, who would suspect that a trusted government or public-spirited association would be working against the people who either established them or accepted them at their face value? What is true in the natural order, is equally true in the supernatural order: Those who have received authority to be exercised for the good of the community are rightly expected to fulfill their duties, as St. Paul stated: "Let a man so account us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now here it is required in stewards that a man be found trustworthy" (I Cor.4,1-2).
All human society is built on the principle of law and order. Many of the observations made by Jesus in the Gospel are nothing more than bringing to mind common sense principles known to all men of honesty and good will. Even hell itself is structured on some kind of order among its citizens. Otherwise, as Jesus has said, if hell is divided, how can it stand? That is, it could not exist and work for its furtherance throughout creation if it is not held together with kind of unifying force. After Jesus had cast out the devil from a possessed man, the people exclaimed: "Can this be the Son of David?" The Pharisees would not hear of this so they tried to refute the suggestion by saying: "This man does not cast out devils except by Beelzebub the prince of devils." (Matt.12, 23-24).
Jesus answered them, knowing their evil intentions: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?"(Ibid. 12,25-26).
St. Pius X admitted that the enemy of the kingdom of God had already infiltrated into some of the key positions of the Church when he refers to those who are Catholic laity and even the clergy: "That we make no delay in this matter is rendered necessary especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; they lie hid, a thing to be deeply deplored and feared, in her very bosom and heart, and are the more mischievous, the less conspicuously they appear. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church and lost to all sense of modesty, vaunt themselves as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious daring, they reduce to a simple, mere man." (Pascendi, Pope Pius X)
The Kingdom of Satan is the kingdom of darkness and is identified with the disorder in society. When madmen are in management, the order peculiar to hell makes itself felt in society. Where insane ideas dominate, insane activity follows. Insanity means 'unhealthy.' It's only a question of degree and not of nature when speaking of 'insanity.' Unhealthy, erroneous ideas are insane ideas. Sane ideas are 'healthy,' correct ideas. Correct ideas are in conformity with reality; they are objectively correct and reflect reality as it is.
The Roman Catholic is a citizen of the City of God, a subject in the kingdom of God. He is also a citizen of a particular earthly State. He has, a kind of 'dual citizenship' which entails rights and obligations. The two are not necessarily inimical to each other. On the contrary, the ordered purpose of both is the well-being of its members. Whenever there is a conflict between the two, it means that one or the other has digressed from its purpose or is using means to attain its purpose that are not permitted by natural or divine law.
When Jesus reduced the law to basically two commandments, He did not abrogate the law, He merely emphasized the essence of the law: love.
Later on, it would be St. Augustine who would write on this subject with such insight and erudition that his work remains a classic even today among informed people. His work is aptly entitled City of God because he wishes to compare the blessed fruits of being a loyal subject of this kingdom, or, city, as opposed to the disorder of the City of Satan.
This canonized Pope is telling us that even though throughout the history of religion, there has never been a time without heretics and schismatics due to the influence over them by the devil, he has no hesitation in admitting that the efforts of the devil have increased in ways as yet unheard of: instead of severing a piece here and there of the Mystical Body of Christ, now the devil has laid the ax to the very root of the tree, that is, now the devil is making every effort to destroy the vital energy of the Church.
What is the "vital energy of the Church"?
The vital energy of the Church is the life of supernatural grace which comes to the faithful through the Sacraments and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is why even the intelligent heresiarch Martin Luther had said, it appears: "Destroy the Mass, and you destroy the Church."
Destroy the Sacraments and you effectively destroy the source of grace! You destroy the vital energy of the Church!
But, there is more, the life of the Church is only guaranteed by the presence and influence of the Holy Ghost It is the Holy Ghost Who is the principle of sanctification. The Church's "one divine Spirit" is the Holy Ghost.
Another Pope, Pope Pius XII teaches the entire Church as its universal pastor that "Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed…..As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore if a man refuse to hear the Church let him be considered - so the Lord commands - as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith and government, cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine spirit." (Mystici Corporis, Pope Pius XII,24 June 1943).
What "arts, entirely new and full of subtlety" can possibly be employed by the infiltrated enemies of the Church, posing as virtuous priests, bishops, cardinals and , yes, even as popes?
Pope St. Pius X openly admits in this Encyclical Letter, Pascendi, that these internal enemies of the Church are not only "more mischievous" but "the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain, the more intimate is their knowledge of her."
Who, but someone who has spent much time studying the theology of the Church would know that by the simple change of a word, a Sacrament may become invalid?
Who can deny, after carefully examining the words of the 'new' sacramentaries, that there is something peculiarly subtle and different - even when the words seem to say the same thing?
Only after many hours of reflection, comparison, recourse to works on Sacramental theology does the reality begin to emerge from the pages. The real meaning of words in a sacramental formula are often definitively explained in what theologians call the 'signification from the adjuncts' which simply means from the context. Everyone knows that words can lose their meaning merely by taking them out of context. Dishonest people frequently resort to this form of attack upon those whom they wish to destroy.
There are some who cannot accept the reality of things unless something blows up in their faces; but, then, it is too late. Others, having been deceived a few times and falling into a skeptical frame of mind, eventually end up doing what the devil planned for them to do: fall into a kind of 'agnostic despair.' This is essentially the mental attitude of the Modernist. Pope Pius X states this in his Encyclical Letter: "Modernists place the foundation of religious philosophy in that doctrine which is usually called Agnosticism."
The Vatican Council (Note: the true Vatican Council of 1870) declared: "If anyone says that the one true God our Creator and Lord, cannot be known with certainty by the natural light of human reason by means of the things that are made, let him be anathema." Whether we are able to admit it or not, this is the case with Karol Wojtyla alias "John Paul II."
In like manner, Pope Pius X points out that these individuals are not troubled in the least to fall under condemnations of the infallible teaching authority of the Church as expressed in an General Council: "Nor does the fact that the Church has formally condemned these portentous errors exercise the slightest restraint upon them." This holy Pope then quotes another idea of the Modernists which was condemned by the Vatican Council: "If anyone says that it is not possible or not expedient that man be taught, through the medium of divine revelation, about God and the worship to be paid to Him, let him be anathema."
Pope Pius X unmasks the false epistemology and spirituality of the Modernists: "However, this Agnosticism is only the negative part of the system of the Modernists; the positive side of it consists in what they call vital immanence. This is how they advance from one to the other. Religion, whether natural or supernatural must, like every other fact, admit of some explanation. But when Natural Theology has been destroyed, the road to revelation closed through the rejection of the arguments of credibility, and all external revelation absolutely denied, it is clear that this explanation will be sought in vain outside of man himself. It must, therefore, be looked for in man; and since religion is a form of life, the explanation must certainly be found in the life of man. Hence the principle of religious immanence is formulated."
The mental vagaries of these Modernists fatigues the rational mind. Nonsense always does. And here we come to that part of this true Pope's theological instruction which will explain the actions of Karol Wojtyla: His 'openness' to all religions with some apparent favoritism to the heresy known as 'Judaism.' Read on carefully: "Hence, Venerable Brethren, springs that ridiculous proposition of the Modernists, that every religion, according to the different aspect under which it is viewed, must be considered as both natural and supernatural. Hence it is that they make consciousness and revelation synonymous. Hence the law, according to which religious consciousness is given as the universal rule, to be put on an equal footing with revelation, and to which all must submit, even the supreme authority of the Church, whether in its teaching capacity, or in that of legislator in the province of sacred liturgy or discipline." (Pascendi).
This is the ideology that inspired "John Paul II" to call all the leaders of contradictory religions to Assisi, to 'pray for peace.' Each one, it is assumed, prayed to his or her 'god' which Karol Wojtyla must have been pleased to interpret as being the same God as that of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus…
As recently as January 15, 1996, "Pope John Paul II" is said to have "called on Christians to respect the 'spiritual riches' of other faiths and said he regretted in particular tensions with Jews." It was reported that he devoted his regular Sunday address to a document from the Second Vatican Council, which urged fellowship with other faiths, condemned anti-Semitism and repudiated the teaching that Jews bear the responsibility for killing Christ." (Source: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 1-15-96). He is further quoted as saying that the document of Vatican Two points out "the spiritual riches of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam."
Karol Wojtyla must be viewing all these religions which the Church calls "inspired by the devil" because it is the devil who is the teacher of all heretics through Modernist eyes: in the light of "that ridiculous proposition that every religion according to the different aspect under which it is viewed, must be considered as both natural and supernatural." (Pascendi).
The Modernists would be correct if they viewed all those religions as imperfect imitations of the true religion which is that established by God through Moses and perfected by the Incarnate Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ; as so many deliberate demonic deceptions to keep people from accepting Jesus Christ and entering His kingdom on earth, by becoming members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.
Having infiltrated to the very top of the Roman Catholic Church from which Lucifer spreads his 'doctrines' "urbi et orbi" through his mouthpiece, the results have proven to be universally disastrous. All heresies are honored and respected in the New Order Religion - everyone can find himself in this new religion where all are welcome; where the only requirement is to fall down and worship the beast. All are welcome - except those who have the true faith.
This is the Church in the desert: eclipsed; persecuted and hated. But, the devils will not be content with capturing the almost entirety of Catholics. Being an absolute dictator, Lucifer cannot rest with only a portion of those who believe in the true God and offer Him the Sacrifice of the Mass.
The devil sows confusion among those who have left the Church of the Beast after recognizing it as the Church of the Antichrist - the Church of the Judaizers, the Church of the 'Second Vatican Council'. All present day heresies can ultimately be traced back to this last of the great heresies.
Remember that Pope St. Pius X mentioned the unheard of new and subtle arts used to destroy the vital energy of the Church.
What of all those thousands of Roman Catholics dispersed over all the earth who have not succumbed to the enticement and charm of the Beast? How will they be dealt with so as to destroy them spiritually? To destroy their supernatural 'vital energy'?
This is where we meet with that vast number of equally false prophets who operate to achieve the same end as the Modernists. These call themselves 'Traditionalist.' They resume all of Roman Catholic tradition in one single action: the Latin Tridentine Mass.
They are only half right. And, to employ the words of Pope St. Pius X to silence the hypocrites who will surely protest that this is nothing but an abominable 'rash judgment,' that only God knows the inner secrets of the human heart, etc. etc. etc., let's give the Holy Father a chance to speak:
Speaking of all heretics and schismatics to whom these words apply, the Holy Father applies them to the Modernists: "Though they express astonishment themselves, no one can justly be surprised that We number such men among the enemies of the Church, if, leaving out of consideration the internal disposition of soul, of which God alone is the judge, he is acquainted with their tenets, their manner of speech and their conduct."
The Holy Father, Pope Pius X is saying exactly what sound philosophy would substantiate: "Agere sequitur esse" -Actions follow the nature of the being. As a being is, so it acts. In this case, as a person is, that is how he acts. Therefore, it is a legitimate process of arriving to the nature of a thing by observing its activities. This truth is often expressed in humorous sayings, such as: "If it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck - it must be a duck."
Jesus expressed this same thought in using the analogy of fruit trees: "A good tree cannot give bad fruit; and a bad tree cannot give good fruit." One must look to the fruit to know the tree.
There are generally two reasons why a person does something, or refrains from doing something. Only the virtuous man has but one reason: the honor and glory of God expressed in obedience to Him.
Apart from this type, all others find it necessary to use two reasons: the one they tell people, and the real one.
They will try to cover their real reasons with pious platitudes, feigned ignorance or blithely and blindly wallow in total self-contradiction.
By way of warning, everyone who can convince himself or herself of being a genuine Roman Catholic ought to know that there are many false teachers crossing the skyways from East to West and from North to South deceiving people with their pious pretensions. In the ultimate analysis, they are all heretics and/or schismatics - the kind of people whom Pope Pius XII said were not members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they are not to be considered as Roman Catholics.
Among these are individuals or groups of individuals presenting themselves to the public as members of some Religious Order or Congregation.
What should Roman Catholics consider when required to make judgments? The first thing to avoid is the making of rash judgments based on gossip. People, generally speaking, are notoriously inaccurate in making objective judgments because they too often unwittingly project their own thoughts and sentiments into whatever they are required to judge objectively.
Since the death of Archbishop Ngo, there has been such a proliferation of "Thuc-line bishops" (as they are erroneously called) who in turn ordain priests without the least concern for the prescriptions of the laws of the Church, that sincere and informed Catholics are at a loss what to think. Added to this chaos is the attempted consecration performed by Marcel Lefebvre of several of his followers that are invalid. These, in turn, defying those whom they concede to have authority, and deliberately dismissing the doctrine and practice of the Church, continue boldly to insist that they are "Roman Catholics" 'saving' the Church!
Heretics and schismatics have this trait in common: They have the demonic obstinacy of the spirit that guides them. In light of the fact that ordinations and consecrations according to the Modernist rituals are invalid, and viewing the chaotic anarchy rampant among those of the right -"Traditionalists" - what is a person to believe and do?
Here are some practical conclusions:
First of all, as laymen, we should be convinced that God is not going to abandon His Church. Therefore, He will always provide the kind of shepherds that are needed. How many there will be is not for us to determine (Which, incidentally, most 'confused' people seem to try to do!).
Secondly, laity or clergy who disdain the teachings and laws of the Church should be avoided because they are not moved by the spirit of God. How can we distinguish them, especially, the clergy from those who are in good standing with the true Church?
If it is a layman, the first thing to determine is whether such a person has received some kind of mandate or authorization to teach either by word or by writing in the name of the Church. If they do not, why would you want to waste your time reading what cannot possibly be an enterprise by God? Many souls have been lost because they chose to be wise in their own conceits, rather than wisely listen to those whom God has given them as shepherds. A natural talent is by no means a mandate from the Church. Catholics should realize that one of the steps towards the destruction of the Church was Paul VI's disposing of the laws concerning censorship of suspect and subversive literature. It is no defense for anyone to claim heretical bishops as the source of their "authorization" to attack the legitimate hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church for the purpose vilifying it.
The proliferation of perhaps sincere, but poorly informed (or misinformed!) laymen expounding Catholic doctrine and discipline is more destructive than that of open enemies of the Church. How sad!
What about validly ordained priests? Should we attend their Masses, receive Sacraments from them, etc.?
There are many "validly ordained priests" among the various heretical and schismatic sects. This does not make them 'Roman Catholic.'
"Independent" clergymen are invariably tainted with some kind of theological error whether this error deals with the Sacraments or the constitution of the Church as a hierarchical institution.
The following laws and practice of the Church will certainly jolt many people. Those who scoff or scorn them will be the first to grant themselves what may be considered 'papal prerogatives' in their effort to justify their scandalous violation of these laws.
"Each one must be ordained by his proper Bishop or with legitimate dimissorial letters from him. (c.955)." Such dimissorial letters are required even for first tonsure in order that a Bishop may licitly advance one who is not his own subject.
In the case of ordination of seculars (as opposed to religious) the proper Bishop of the diocese in which the person to be ordained has a domicile (That is, a legal residence) together with origin, or has a simple domicile without origin. In the latter case the person to be ordained must confirm by oath his intention to remain in the diocese for life.
So, if the proper Bishop for the ordination of a secular candidate is the Bishop of the diocese in which the candidate has either a domicile together with origin or a simple domicile without origin, and if, as in the latter case, the candidate must take an oath as to his intention to remain for life in the diocese in which he has his domicile, what must be thought of a 'bishop' who indiscriminately ordains individuals whom he publicly claims are not his subjects since he denies having any jurisdiction anywhere? What are we to think of such crass disobedience to the laws of the Church - laws that were made precisely to prevent the same tragic situation of the past which we now face: bishopless priests roaming the face of the earth, accountable to no one; supervised as to their theology and lifestyles by no one?
What should a Catholic think of such 'bishops' when the rule previously stated is an absolute rule? There is no saving grace for such defiant disregard for the good order in the Church. Would it not be counter-productive to expect another bishop to compromise his duties by disregarding such an outrage against good order?
A candidate for priesthood is incardinated in the diocese of the Bishop who administered first tonsure. This being true for seminarians, how much more so must this be observed by priests who make a promise to obey their Bishop, or the Bishop for whom they were ordained.
Manifestly such an attitude and practice on the part of the guilty ones indicates a rebellious spirit at odds with the spirit of the Church.
The proper training of candidates to the priesthood is something that must be conscientiously maintained. The laws of the Church are very clear in these matters.
What must be said of those who neglect the wise directives of the Church? Can they be considered as worthy sons of the Church - trustworthy ministers of the mysteries of God?
Because such 'bishops' failed to be selected as candidates for consecration at a meeting of bishops, they took it upon themselves to find someone overseas to perform, wittingly or unwittingly, this great disservice to the Church. Lacking a divine call, such individuals have stolen sacred orders and cannot be respected by anyone having the good of the Church at heart.
The Roman Catechism, expressing the will and mind of the Church at the Council of Trent, states: "Let no one take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God as Aaron was; and they are called by God who are called by the lawful ministers of His Church. It is to those who arrogantly intrude themselves into this ministry that the Lord must be understood to refer when He says: 'I did not send prophets, yet they ran.' Nothing can be more unhappy and wretched than such a class of men as this, and nothing more calamitous to the Church of God." (Catechism of the Council of Trent, see: Holy Orders).
"Nothing more calamitous to the Church of God" than those priests who have in one way or another succeeded in having themselves consecrated as 'bishops.'
As for those who have their orders from Marcel Lefebvre or in that alleged line, there is a cloud over their ordinations and consecrations. The only prudent attitude that can be taken is to avoid them until their situation can be regulated.
This does not mean that they would be automatically ordained or consecrated. Most of them know that their vocations may not even be true vocations from God. Among their number are those who claim to have left Modernist seminaries because of their attachment to the true faith. One is permitted to surmise that this need not necessarily be the only or real reason…..
This much should be certain to everyone who holds to the faith and discipline of the Roman Catholic Church: those who will not listen to the Church can only be considered as a heathen and a publican - as Our Lord commands.
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