05-03-2023, 08:46 AM
Taken from The Recusant.com
Reproduced with kind permission from the December 2015 issue of “Catholic Candle”: catholiccandle.neocities.org
The following is an effort to correct and counter faith-destroying statements from the author
of the Eleison Comments blog. I will not name the bishop so as not to embarrass him. I suspect that at one time or other you have run across this blog and considered it worth reading. I also have read it from time to time. Catholic Candle even reprinted one issue. However, not all that is published in Eleison is worth reading. In fact, some articles sow doubt and confusion that harm souls.
That harm is the reason for this article.
I will not republish these Eleison Comments (E.C.) articles here because I don’t want to be guilty of spreading further doubt and confusion. I will point out the problems and errors in the articles.
Traditional Catholics have always clearly known to stay far away from the Novus Ordo Missae (N.O.M.) because it subverts one’s Faith and greatly offends our Lord. The E.C.’s author says the opposite, viz., that Catholics should attend the N.O.M. if they perceive that it helps them spiritually.
He has since refused to admit that his advice is evil. In fact, he is doubling down on his ill-advised counsel by claiming there are miracles connected to the Novus Ordo. The devil himself works these “miracles” and, of course, they were not (and could not be) approved by the prudent pre-Vatican II Church.
The devil loves false “apparitions” and “miracles,” for by them he occasionally can undermine the faith of immense crowds, lead them into disobedience to the Church’s hierarchy, or even into schism, and distract them from their duties of state. Archbishop Lefebvre publicly denounced the widespread tendency of today’s credulous Catholics to run after such phenomena of doubtful origin. Angelus, May 1979, article: “Dubious Devotions”. Obviously the Church must, and does, regulate discipline with great care in such a dangerous domain. Canon 1399 §5 (pre-Vatican II code) forbids priests and faithful to publish, read, possess, sell, translate, or distribute any books or other publications (e.g., papers, magazines, pamphlets) which treat of new apparitions or miracles, unapproved by the Church.
Why would this Traditional leader speak so recklessly (i.e., citing supposed “miracles” connected to the Novus Ordo, to imply that Christ approves of people attending the N.O.M.), if this leader wasn’t trying to regain credibility with his confrères, heedless of how many trusting souls might take his advice and lose their souls. This is self-interest, not doing his duty.
Let us pray hard for this bishop. He has worked hard to save souls in the past and we need him very much in the Resistance Movement.
Of course, he must retract his advice about attending the Novus Ordo.
On December 13, 2014, a certain Resistance leader affirmed one of our core Traditional Catholic principles, viz., that no one should ever attend the new mass:
In June 2015, this same leader contradicted himself and publicly stated: “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single novus ordo mass.”
Over a three-week period in autumn 2015, this leader publicly promoted (supposed) “miracles” which he claimed that God worked in connection with the new mass. In these public statements, this leader stressed his belief that God performed these supposed) “miracles” to show the new mass can be valid. But since Traditional Catholics know that whether the new mass is valid or not, they must completely avoid it, why do Catholics need to know (and why should they care?) if the new mass is sometimes valid? This is like the fact that black (satanic) masses can sometimes be valid. But Catholics don’t need to know this because they must stay far away from black masses, whether they are valid or not.
Because the new conciliar mass, like the black mass, is inherently bad, it is an irreverent treatment of the sacred. In other words, the new mass is inherently a sacrilege. Summa, IIa IIae, Q.99, a.1. If a new mass or black mass were valid, that merely makes it objectively worse - by being a valid (rather than invalid) sacrilege. A valid sacrilege even more strongly calls down the wrath of God because a valid sacrilege compels God Himself (Sacramentally present) to take part in the sacrilege.
So it should be irrelevant to Traditional Catholics whether the new mass is valid. But here is how this Resistance leader ties together these (supposed) “miracles” - which he publicly states that God worked - with his pernicious view that some people should attend the new mass:
This present article examines this leader’s rash view that Traditional Catholics should change their position on the new mass because of (supposed) “miracles”.
We begin with our unshakable Traditional Catholic principles that the conciliar church is a new religion and its main liturgical expression is the new mass. Our Lord warned us that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Vatican II is a bad tree and bears only bad fruit—notably the new mass. To believe that the new mass can be good for anyone to attend, is to be deaf to our Lord’s words and to foolishly believe that bad trees can bear good fruit for anyone.
It defies Catholic teaching and Catholic common sense to accept a different religion (viz., the new conciliar religion) or its liturgy (the new mass) based on any theory whatsoever. We should not accept the conciliar (false) faith or its fruit (the new mass) any more than we should accept the satanic (false) faith or its fruit (the black mass).
So when this Resistance leader recently told people, “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single novus ordo mass”, he was as gravely wrong as if he said (about a different evil mass): “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single black mass”.
St. Paul warned his flock to never accept anything un-Catholic, even because of a supposed) miracle or vision: “But though ... an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” Galatians, 1:8. St. Paul further explains that this “angel of light” is the devil: “Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light.” II Cor. 11:14.
Our Lord warned, “there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect.” St. Matthew, 24:24. The devil uses false “signs and wonders” to lead credulous people away from what they know based on the principles of the Catholic Faith. So whenever there are “signs and wonders” which promote something un-Catholic, we know they must come from the devil (unless they are mere human deceit). Such “signs and wonders” might have no natural explanation (and be from the devil), but they could never be God’s work.
The Catholic principle which our Lord and St. Paul are teaching is that we must never consider that bad might be good because of so-called “miracles”. Only the man of weak Faith or the Traditional Catholic of weak conviction would read about (supposed) “miracles” with openness to the idea that maybe the Faith is wrong about something, or maybe Traditional Catholicism does not appreciate the good in the conciliar church (or the new mass).
So when this Resistance leader recently told people, “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single novus ordo mass”, and he promoted the false idea that God works “miracles” to promote the new mass in any way, this leader is showing he is a Traditional Catholic of weak conviction.
We sometimes talk with confused people who are diabolically disoriented and who think that evil is good. For example, an abortionist recently declared publicly that her conscience told her to perform abortions. [http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/09/abort...-tells-me/]
But we must never advise such erring people to do what is evil. We must tell them that what they do is wrong and, if their conscience tells them to do something evil, they must inform their conscience better, through praying, obtaining good advice, studying sound Catholic doctrine, etc.
No one should ever be advised to attend the new mass because he thinks he notices that it does him good. This is similar to the principle that no one should commit adultery, rob a bank or attend a black mass, even if he believes that he notices that such conduct (supposedly) brings him closer to God.
God can use whatever occasion (place, time, event, etc.) He wishes, to give His grace. So, e.g., God could use a (confused) person’s attendance at a new mass as an occasion of some good, such as causing someone to see how empty and man-centered the new mass is. But God never uses evil—like the new mass—as a source of grace. It is obvious, of course, that we should not attend the new mass motivated by the possibility that the new mass could be an occasion of grace, any more than we should attend a black mass or rob a bank, because it could be an occasion of grace. Those sins are not sources of grace but are always evil and offend God.
St. Ignatius of Loyola gives us Rules for the Discernment of Spirits to help us to discern when we are being led by the devil:
Applying this Rule to the example immediately above: while attending the new mass, if a person comes to understand how man-centered the new mass is, and decides to never return, that would be an example of God (or the good angel) using a new mass as an occasion (not a source) of good. In other words, God used the person’s attendance at the new mass as the place and activity during which He showed the person the evil of the new mass.
On the other hand, if that person saw how empty the new mass is and resolved to make it more “meaningful” by becoming a “eucharistic minister”, then plainly that inspiration (which ends in something bad) comes from the devil, because the person’s ties to the new mass are strengthened, instead of being broken (as God demands). This inspiration is demonic however much the person is convinced that it strengthens his faith.
Traditional Catholics must not make decisions based on sentimentality! We must do what is objectively right, and we must not advise another person to do objective evil (like attend the new mass) even if such person “feels” (wrongly, of course) that the evil activity is a source of God’s blessings. Acting on such feelings is the sort of “touchy-feely fiftyism” that this same Resistance leader has correctly fought for decades!
Let us pray hard for this confused Resistance leader! He has done much good in the past and he could also do much good in the future!
Catholic Candle Note - Here is a short schema which visually shows the devil’s plan to use false “miracles” to promote the new mass and ultimately, the new conciliar religion.
![[Image: CathCandle%20schema%20new%20mass.png]](https://mediaprocessor.websimages.com/width/232/crop/0,0,232x601/www.therecusant.com/CathCandle%20schema%20new%20mass.png)
“Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is the Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect...” St. Matthew 24:23-24
St Ephraim tells us in his sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost that the devil using his Anti-Christ will “blaspheme, declaring: ‘I am the Father and the Son, the first and the last, and there is no other God but me.’... But when the Accursed has come and has worked signs and lying wonders, the people will be assembled together and they will come to see the god, and multitudes will adhere to him and all will deny their God, and all will call upon those who are close to them to praise the son of perdition... and the elect shall fly from his face to the mountaintops and to the hills...”
Reproduced with kind permission from the December 2015 issue of “Catholic Candle”: catholiccandle.neocities.org
The Danger of So-Called “Miracles” in the Conciliar Church
The following is an effort to correct and counter faith-destroying statements from the author
of the Eleison Comments blog. I will not name the bishop so as not to embarrass him. I suspect that at one time or other you have run across this blog and considered it worth reading. I also have read it from time to time. Catholic Candle even reprinted one issue. However, not all that is published in Eleison is worth reading. In fact, some articles sow doubt and confusion that harm souls.
That harm is the reason for this article.
I will not republish these Eleison Comments (E.C.) articles here because I don’t want to be guilty of spreading further doubt and confusion. I will point out the problems and errors in the articles.
Traditional Catholics have always clearly known to stay far away from the Novus Ordo Missae (N.O.M.) because it subverts one’s Faith and greatly offends our Lord. The E.C.’s author says the opposite, viz., that Catholics should attend the N.O.M. if they perceive that it helps them spiritually.
He has since refused to admit that his advice is evil. In fact, he is doubling down on his ill-advised counsel by claiming there are miracles connected to the Novus Ordo. The devil himself works these “miracles” and, of course, they were not (and could not be) approved by the prudent pre-Vatican II Church.
The devil loves false “apparitions” and “miracles,” for by them he occasionally can undermine the faith of immense crowds, lead them into disobedience to the Church’s hierarchy, or even into schism, and distract them from their duties of state. Archbishop Lefebvre publicly denounced the widespread tendency of today’s credulous Catholics to run after such phenomena of doubtful origin. Angelus, May 1979, article: “Dubious Devotions”. Obviously the Church must, and does, regulate discipline with great care in such a dangerous domain. Canon 1399 §5 (pre-Vatican II code) forbids priests and faithful to publish, read, possess, sell, translate, or distribute any books or other publications (e.g., papers, magazines, pamphlets) which treat of new apparitions or miracles, unapproved by the Church.
Why would this Traditional leader speak so recklessly (i.e., citing supposed “miracles” connected to the Novus Ordo, to imply that Christ approves of people attending the N.O.M.), if this leader wasn’t trying to regain credibility with his confrères, heedless of how many trusting souls might take his advice and lose their souls. This is self-interest, not doing his duty.
Let us pray hard for this bishop. He has worked hard to save souls in the past and we need him very much in the Resistance Movement.
Of course, he must retract his advice about attending the Novus Ordo.
- The Foolishness of Believing that (Supposed) “Miracles” Show that Some People Should Attend the New Mass
On December 13, 2014, a certain Resistance leader affirmed one of our core Traditional Catholic principles, viz., that no one should ever attend the new mass:
Quote:“Take for instance the Novus Ordo Mass. ... it is as a whole so bad that no priest should use it, nor Catholic attend it. ... if I say that the new Mass must always be avoided, I am telling the truth ....”
- Eleison Comments #387 (emphasis added)
In June 2015, this same leader contradicted himself and publicly stated: “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single novus ordo mass.”
Over a three-week period in autumn 2015, this leader publicly promoted (supposed) “miracles” which he claimed that God worked in connection with the new mass. In these public statements, this leader stressed his belief that God performed these supposed) “miracles” to show the new mass can be valid. But since Traditional Catholics know that whether the new mass is valid or not, they must completely avoid it, why do Catholics need to know (and why should they care?) if the new mass is sometimes valid? This is like the fact that black (satanic) masses can sometimes be valid. But Catholics don’t need to know this because they must stay far away from black masses, whether they are valid or not.
Because the new conciliar mass, like the black mass, is inherently bad, it is an irreverent treatment of the sacred. In other words, the new mass is inherently a sacrilege. Summa, IIa IIae, Q.99, a.1. If a new mass or black mass were valid, that merely makes it objectively worse - by being a valid (rather than invalid) sacrilege. A valid sacrilege even more strongly calls down the wrath of God because a valid sacrilege compels God Himself (Sacramentally present) to take part in the sacrilege.
So it should be irrelevant to Traditional Catholics whether the new mass is valid. But here is how this Resistance leader ties together these (supposed) “miracles” - which he publicly states that God worked - with his pernicious view that some people should attend the new mass:
Quote:“[O]n the Internet can be found cases of Eucharistic miracles involving the Novus Ordo Mass .... How would this be possible if the Novus Ordo Mass was absolutely to be avoided?”
- Quoted from an email this leader wrote on July 21, 2015.
This present article examines this leader’s rash view that Traditional Catholics should change their position on the new mass because of (supposed) “miracles”.
We begin with our unshakable Traditional Catholic principles that the conciliar church is a new religion and its main liturgical expression is the new mass. Our Lord warned us that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Vatican II is a bad tree and bears only bad fruit—notably the new mass. To believe that the new mass can be good for anyone to attend, is to be deaf to our Lord’s words and to foolishly believe that bad trees can bear good fruit for anyone.
It defies Catholic teaching and Catholic common sense to accept a different religion (viz., the new conciliar religion) or its liturgy (the new mass) based on any theory whatsoever. We should not accept the conciliar (false) faith or its fruit (the new mass) any more than we should accept the satanic (false) faith or its fruit (the black mass).
So when this Resistance leader recently told people, “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single novus ordo mass”, he was as gravely wrong as if he said (about a different evil mass): “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single black mass”.
- We should never change our Traditional Catholic principles based on supposed “miracles”
St. Paul warned his flock to never accept anything un-Catholic, even because of a supposed) miracle or vision: “But though ... an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” Galatians, 1:8. St. Paul further explains that this “angel of light” is the devil: “Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light.” II Cor. 11:14.
Our Lord warned, “there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect.” St. Matthew, 24:24. The devil uses false “signs and wonders” to lead credulous people away from what they know based on the principles of the Catholic Faith. So whenever there are “signs and wonders” which promote something un-Catholic, we know they must come from the devil (unless they are mere human deceit). Such “signs and wonders” might have no natural explanation (and be from the devil), but they could never be God’s work.
The Catholic principle which our Lord and St. Paul are teaching is that we must never consider that bad might be good because of so-called “miracles”. Only the man of weak Faith or the Traditional Catholic of weak conviction would read about (supposed) “miracles” with openness to the idea that maybe the Faith is wrong about something, or maybe Traditional Catholicism does not appreciate the good in the conciliar church (or the new mass).
So when this Resistance leader recently told people, “I would not say that every single person must stay away from every single novus ordo mass”, and he promoted the false idea that God works “miracles” to promote the new mass in any way, this leader is showing he is a Traditional Catholic of weak conviction.
- Advising confused Catholics
We sometimes talk with confused people who are diabolically disoriented and who think that evil is good. For example, an abortionist recently declared publicly that her conscience told her to perform abortions. [http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/09/abort...-tells-me/]
But we must never advise such erring people to do what is evil. We must tell them that what they do is wrong and, if their conscience tells them to do something evil, they must inform their conscience better, through praying, obtaining good advice, studying sound Catholic doctrine, etc.
- Advising a confused Catholic who believes that he experiences good from doing evil
No one should ever be advised to attend the new mass because he thinks he notices that it does him good. This is similar to the principle that no one should commit adultery, rob a bank or attend a black mass, even if he believes that he notices that such conduct (supposedly) brings him closer to God.
God can use whatever occasion (place, time, event, etc.) He wishes, to give His grace. So, e.g., God could use a (confused) person’s attendance at a new mass as an occasion of some good, such as causing someone to see how empty and man-centered the new mass is. But God never uses evil—like the new mass—as a source of grace. It is obvious, of course, that we should not attend the new mass motivated by the possibility that the new mass could be an occasion of grace, any more than we should attend a black mass or rob a bank, because it could be an occasion of grace. Those sins are not sources of grace but are always evil and offend God.
St. Ignatius of Loyola gives us Rules for the Discernment of Spirits to help us to discern when we are being led by the devil:
Quote:“We ought to note well the course of the thoughts, and if the beginning, middle and end is all good, inclined to all good, it is a sign of the good Angel; but if in the course of the thoughts which he brings, it ends in something bad, ... it is a clear sign that it proceeds from the evil spirit ....”
- Spiritual Exercises, Fifth Rule, Second Week (emphasis added)
Applying this Rule to the example immediately above: while attending the new mass, if a person comes to understand how man-centered the new mass is, and decides to never return, that would be an example of God (or the good angel) using a new mass as an occasion (not a source) of good. In other words, God used the person’s attendance at the new mass as the place and activity during which He showed the person the evil of the new mass.
On the other hand, if that person saw how empty the new mass is and resolved to make it more “meaningful” by becoming a “eucharistic minister”, then plainly that inspiration (which ends in something bad) comes from the devil, because the person’s ties to the new mass are strengthened, instead of being broken (as God demands). This inspiration is demonic however much the person is convinced that it strengthens his faith.
Traditional Catholics must not make decisions based on sentimentality! We must do what is objectively right, and we must not advise another person to do objective evil (like attend the new mass) even if such person “feels” (wrongly, of course) that the evil activity is a source of God’s blessings. Acting on such feelings is the sort of “touchy-feely fiftyism” that this same Resistance leader has correctly fought for decades!
Let us pray hard for this confused Resistance leader! He has done much good in the past and he could also do much good in the future!
Catholic Candle Note - Here is a short schema which visually shows the devil’s plan to use false “miracles” to promote the new mass and ultimately, the new conciliar religion.
“Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is the Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect...” St. Matthew 24:23-24
St Ephraim tells us in his sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost that the devil using his Anti-Christ will “blaspheme, declaring: ‘I am the Father and the Son, the first and the last, and there is no other God but me.’... But when the Accursed has come and has worked signs and lying wonders, the people will be assembled together and they will come to see the god, and multitudes will adhere to him and all will deny their God, and all will call upon those who are close to them to praise the son of perdition... and the elect shall fly from his face to the mountaintops and to the hills...”