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Montana bill would jail priests for 5 years if they refuse to violate seal of confession |
Posted by: Stone - 01-23-2025, 08:54 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Montana bill would jail priests for 5 years if they refuse to violate seal of confession
A bill proposed by Montana Democrats would jail Catholic priests for upholding the confessional seal, to which they are bound by Canon Law.
Catholic League criticized the bill as ‘an egregious violation of the First Amendment.’
Walter Bibikow / Getty Images
Jan 22, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — A pending bill in Montana threatens Catholic priests with five years in jail and thousands of dollars in fines unless they commit the excommunicable offense of violating the seal of confession.
Senate Bill 139 would remove the mandatory reporter exemption for priests to report abuse. This would put priests in the position of either being excommunicated or being jailed or fined.
Canon 1386 states: “A confessor [priest] who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.”
Canon 983 states: “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.”
Similarly, Canon 984 states: “A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.”
Neither of the two supporters of the bill reached for comment by LifeSiteNews had an answer for the religious freedom issues posed by the bill.
“I was a Catholic,” Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, the bill’s chief sponsor, told LifeSiteNews during a phone interview Tuesday. Dunwell said she stopped practicing the faith five years ago but is familiar with confession. She also mentioned she “went to Catholic school” as part of her response to a question about if she had spoken to the Montana Catholic Conference or other Church leaders about the bill.
“I have spoken to various faith communities” and “members of the Catholic clergy” across the country,” Dunwell stated. She said that clergy told her they could grant absolution for sins and still report abuse.
LifeSiteNews asked about the excommunicable offense of violating the seal of confession and how the clergy would be able to report abuse without being excommunicated. “You know that’s really off the subject of the bill, you’re going to have to ask them that,” Dunwell said during the phone interview; however, she did not provide the names and contact info of the clergy members whom she spoke to when asked during a follow-up email.
Pressed for clarification on how it is “off the subject,” she said the question deals with “faith communities and canon law.”
“This [bill] deals with civil law and criminal law,” she added. “It has nothing to do with canon law, that’s not my job.”
LifeSiteNews again asked for clarification on the priest’s duty. Dunwell said the priest would have to report the abuse “just like any other profession does.”
“Your time is precious and so is mine,” Dunwell said, as LifeSiteNews tried to ask further questions. She repeated that this is a criminal and civil law issue, not “canon law.”
“I have folks lined up to testify. Others told me they agree with the bill, yet are reluctant to testify,” Dunwell said during a follow-up email on Tuesday.
A hearing with the judiciary committee is set for next Tuesday, January 28. The Montana Catholic Conference did not respond to an email on Monday and a voicemail left on Tuesday asking for comment on the bill and any plans to oppose it.
Another sponsor, Sen. Sara Novak, told LifeSiteNews “no” when asked on the phone if there was a religious freedom analysis done on the bill.
“In order to protect children there shouldn’t be exceptions to the mandatory reporting,” Novak also said during the Tuesday phone interview.
The other five co-sponsors did not respond to a Monday email asking about religious freedom concerns and the motivation for the bill.
The Catholic League criticized the bill in a statement sent to LifeSiteNews.
“This bill needs to be withdrawn immediately,” President Bill Donohue told LifeSiteNews in a media statement.
Donohue also called the bill “an egregious violation of the First Amendment rights of the clergy.”
“There is not a scintilla of evidence that child abusers are confessing their sins to Catholic priests,” Donohue stated. “Indeed, it strains credulity to argue that a person who is so depraved as to molest a child is likely to tell a priest about his behavior.”
He also said, “It is fatuous to think that any Catholic priest would violate his vows to satisfy the interests of politicians. They would go to jail before ever disclosing confidential information.”
Affirming the seriousness of the confessional, in 2023, a priest lost his faculties after advocating for the removal of the seal of confession. “He has publicly advocated for the removal of the legal protection of the confessional seal, suggesting there are situations where it is permissible to violate it,” Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced in March 2023 about Father James Connell.
“Such assertions are gravely contrary to the definitive teachings of the Catholic Church about this sacrament,” the prelate wrote. “The Catholic Church firmly declares that the sacramental seal of confession is always, and in every circumstance without exception, completely inviolable.”
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New Children's Storybook Published |
Posted by: PaxetBonum2024 - 01-22-2025, 10:30 PM - Forum: The Catacombs: News
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I have written a short storybook for children. Under the guise of a fantasy, it is an allegory with Catholic references, such as Our Lady, the Rosary, the Scapular, and so on.
I wrote this for my own children first of all. But I decided to publish it in the hopes that it will be interesting for Catholic children--they can 'decode' it. I also hope that nonCatholic children, who may read it and not understand the references, may be exposed to some Catholic elements. Perhaps this little exposure may blossom into something more in the future.
My goal is to contribute, in this very small way, to the reign of Christ the King on earth.
The book is now for sale on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.ca/Ellys-Quest-Christ...154&sr=8-1
Thank you very much.
For Christ the King and His Holy Mother!
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Opinion: In the Hands of an Angry God |
Posted by: Stone - 01-22-2025, 11:10 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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A secular commentary but one that resonates:
In the Hands of an Angry God
By Deana Chadwell, American Thinker | January 19, 2025
A couple of nights ago, as I was following the latest on the L.A. fires, I ran across a satellite picture of the tragedy. I could see the vastness of the conflagration, not closeups, not here and there a burning house or car, but the hugeness of this catastrophe. It looked like a monster had just taken a bite out of America. It brought me to tears.
I realized that a big chunk of American culture was being destroyed. So much of what was burning was symbolic of our civilization -- the motion picture industry, Sunset Boulevard, the Zane Grey and Will Rogers estates, to say nothing of the thousands of anonymous homes and scenarios we’ve all absorbed as scenes in movies and television shows -- the 1920s glamour, the Spanish tiled stucco houses, the swaying palm trees, the surfers on the beach. Los Angeles is a big piece of Americana. It’s where dreams came to either blossom or die. Note the past tense. I pray that isn’t over.
I have long maintained that Jesus Christ, as the second person of the Trinity, controls history. I can hear the skeptics shouting --What kind of a god would let something like this happen?!?! I’ll tell you -- a righteous God, a God that deals with us individually and corporately. A God who demands justice. A God who wants California to survive, to once again be a safe, fair, prosperous place to live.
California, L.A. especially, has been the epicenter of much that is culturally amiss in our society and has been so for decades. Right now, the nexus is P. Diddy and the horrors that surround his, and his friends’ behaviors, but he and his were preceded by Weinstein and Cosby -- behaviors that would have been right at home in Sodom and Gomorrah or in the harem of some sheik. Why would a righteous God tolerate American debauchery any more than ancient Middle Eastern nastiness?
Not only were so many of the big names in Hollywood guilty of shocking practices in their private lives, but Hollywood has promoted all kinds of sexual immorality and has done so for decades. Remember when The Graduate (1967) was shocking? Fast forward to Brokeback Mountain (2005) and this last year to a flick titled Queer. Societies that accept and applaud sexual deviation and general immorality suffer accordingly.
The panorama of the LA fires clicked into my mind the remembrance of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741). What I saw in that photo was indeed an angry God. Now days churches don’t often preach about God’s justice -- His love, yes; His grace, of course; His benevolence, naturally. But His uncompromising justice? Rarely. But there it is -- so uncompromising that His only Son came to pay off the sin debt we all owe.
So, I’m still hearing the skeptic’s horror. Yes. Thousands of good people have been swept up in this catastrophe -- how is that fair? We must remember that God also deals with us individually, and as individuals we are affected differently by circumstances. Many will find unexpected and astounding blessing in the midst of all this suffering. I think of Daniel and his three friends who were swept up in the deportation of the Jews to Babylon in 597 B.C. Horrifying in the extreme, but for the rest of their lives (with two short-lived exceptions -- the fiery furnace and the lion’s den) they were amazingly blessed, holding down positions of power in the Babylonian government under two different kings. Many will find this fire to be the catalyst for a positive change in their lives -- a change they may not realize right away, but will grasp the magnitude of eventually. Others will meet people who turn out to be angelic blessings. Many will return to the God who now has their attention.
But all that doesn’t mitigate the suffering, the grieving, the trauma of what has happened, which brings up another aspect of the biblical worldview. We can recognize the punitive aspect of this tragedy and still pour out our love toward our fellow Americans who face the most difficult time -- and likely for a long time -- of their lives. The stories of bravery and loving kindness are just starting to trickle in -- people who saved their own homes by fighting back the flames by themselves; folks passing out food and water; Musk sending in Wifi and battery-charging stations so that communication can be restored.
Of course, few of us have the resources or proximity necessary to be of immediate help, but as time passes, I know we will see Americans stepping up to assist -- as we have seen with the Amish house builders in North Carolina. (We still have those hurricane folks to pray for.)
My own little valley suffered a similar catastrophe several years ago when wildfires, pushed by unusual winds, drove the fires through several small towns wiping out 2,500 residential structures. And these were not million-dollar mansions, but rather small tract homes, manufactured homes, rentals. The folks who lived in those dwellings didn’t always have the resources to find shelter, but the community -- a largely Christian community -- stepped up and opened our homes and our B&Bs to those displaced. Our local hospital set up a space close by that it filled with RVs for the hospital’s employees who found themselves homeless. Things are slowly being rebuilt. The scorched tree trunks still stand sentinel along the creek that the fire followed, so we won’t forget. My point is that we all learned how tenuous life is, how much we need to care for our fellow man, and how little our possessions really mean.
Now is the time for Christians to reach out to those who need a special dose of loving kindness. Yes, this may have happened because God has just had enough. It may have happened because of incompetent leadership. It may have happened because it often does in California. Probably all of the above. But regardless of the cause, the effect requires our prayers, (which is the most powerful thing Christians can do) our contributions, our physical effort when that’s feasible. I was pleased to see that Oregon sent 300 firefighters and several dozen fire trucks down to help.
My point is that nothing happens without a reason -- the hurricane catastrophe included -- and let’s not be deaf to the messages being sent. Let’s realize that, if L.A. is being punished for its immorality, that we are also to blame. We bought tickets to those movies, we oohed and ahhhed over those celebrities. We accepted their views. This is going to affect us all, so let’s roll up our sleeves, kneel in supplication and confession, and do what we can for our American brothers and sisters.
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Jean Madiran [1976]: Outside of Which Church? |
Posted by: Stone - 01-22-2025, 10:22 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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The following is reprinted from Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre - Volume 1, chapter 9:
Quote:Outside of Which Church?
by Jean Madiran
As a reaction to the papal allocution of 24 May 1976, Jean Madiran wrote the following article which first appeared in the Supplément-Voltigeur of Itinéraires of 15 June 1976. The following translation was made by Father Urban Synder and appeared in The Remnant of 21 July 1976.
"In his allocution to the Consistory of 24 May 1976, where he mentions Archbishop Lefebvre several times by name, Paul VI seems to cut him off and yet he doesn't. He accuses the Archbishop of 'putting himself outside the Church.' But which Church? There are two. And Paul VI has not renounced being the Pope of these two Churches sirnultaneously. Under such conditions, 'outside the Church' is equivocal and does not cut off anything.
That there are now two Churches, with one and the same Paul VI at the head of both, is not our doing, we are not making it up, but simply stating the way things are.
Many episcopates, which declare themselves to be in communion with the Pope, and whom the Pope does not reject from his communion, are objectively outside the Catholic communion.
The episcopate of Holland, in an official document, has explicitly called into doubt the virginal conception of Our Lord, but they have not been summoned by the Pope to retract or to resign. On the contrary-they have spread through-out the whole world their 'Dutch Catechism' which doesn't contain the things necessary to know for salvation, and which inspires all the new catechisms.
The French episcopate since 1969 subjects the faithful, 'as a reminder of faith,' to the false teaching that in the Mass 'there is question simply of a memorial.' None of our protestations or supplications has succeeded in bringing them to deny or even explain this. It is in the name of the Council, of the Pope, and of the bishops in communion with him that now, for ten years or more, and without any efficacious denial, there is imposed on us all the discourses and, decisions which install the immanent apostasy, the permanent auto-demolition, the capitulation before the world, the cult of man, the opening to Communism. There is no question here of some handful of marginal dissidents, as the Pope insinuates in his allocution. There is question of the greater part of the actual holders of the apostolic succession. Legitimate holders? Yes, but prevaricators, deserters, impostors. Paul VI remains at their head without either disavowing or correcting them. He keeps them in his communion, he presides over their Church also.
Archbishop Lefebvre is not in his present situation through any fault of his own. He didn't innovate anything, he didn't invent anything, he didn't overturn anything; he has simply preserved and transmitted the deposit which he received. He has kept the promises of his baptism, the doctrine of his catechism, the Mass of his ordination, the dogmas defined by Popes and Councils, the theology and the traditional ecclesiology of the Church of Rome. Just by his existence, by his very being, and without having willed it, he is thus the witness of a crisis which is not of his making, but that of an uncertain Pope at the head of two Churches at the same time.
Cardinal Suenens declared in 1969: 'We could draw up an impressive list of theses, taught in Rome yesterday and before yesterday as sole truths (seules valables), and which were eliminated by the Council Fathers.’ A formidable doctrinal revolution! Cardinal Suenens is happy about it. The greater part of the actual holders of the apostolic succession think and speak on this point like Cardinal Suenens. Neither he nor they are disavowed. Paul VI remains at their head and keeps them in his communion; a communion where they profess that the Church, yesterday and before yesterday, was mistaken. But on all these points where they teach that the Church was mistaken, who or what can guarantee to us that it is not they themselves who, today, are mistaken and are misleading us?
It doesn't help at all to reassure us that the Council is badly interpreted and the Pope badly understood. If the Council has been constantly interpreted the way it has, it is with the active or passive consent of the bishops in communion with the Pope. Thus there is established a Conciliar Church, different from the Catholic Church. And no bishop, however scandalous his post-conciliar excesses, has received from Paul VI the severe public rebukes which he has reserved for Archbishop Lefebvre alone, and for the sole reason that the Archbishop remains unshakeably faithful to the Catholic religion such as it was until 1958.
If the Catholic religion, such as it was in 1958 at the death of Pius XII, contained some things optional, variable, which (let us suppose) have become anachronistic in 1976, to remain attached to them does not, all the same, constitute a crime. Anachronism is not necessarily in itself something which puts you 'outside the Church.' If we are going to talk about anachronisms, pure, simple, and unlimited, they are in the new catechisms from which the things necessary for salvation have been excised; they are in the vernacular Masses, accompanied by Marxist chants and erotic dances; they are in the falsification of Scripture imposed by the episcopate, such as where a (French) liturgical reading proclaims that 'to live holily it is necessary to marry'; they are in all the other infamous things of like kind of which none, for the past ten years, has been either retracted by those guilty , or condemned by higher authority. There are indeed crimes really going on in the Church, those just mentioned, but they are considered less criminal than preserving the Catholic religion such as it was in 1958 at the death of Pius XII.
All this presupposes a new religion, another ecclesial community, which nevertheless is installed in the posts of command of Church administration, and boasts of communion with Pope Paul, having at the same time, to put it mildly, the consent of Pope Paul.
Archbishop Lefebvre 'outside the Church'? Out of the one just mentioned, certainly. But it surpasses belief that a person 'puts himself outside' the Catholic Church, without budging, or by simply remaining in the Catholic religion such as it was at the death of Pius XII in 1958.
There are two Churches under Paul VI. Not to see that there are two, or not to see that they are strangers the one to the other, or not to see that Paul VI thus far is presiding over both, partakes of blindness and in some cases perhaps of invincible blindness. But when one has once seen it, not to say it would be to add complicity by silence to an enormous monstrosity.
Gustave Corcao in the review Itineraires for November, 1975, and then Father Bruckberger in L' Aurore for 18 March 1976, remarked in print: Quote:The religious crisis is not like that in the 14th century, when you had, for one single Church, two or three Popes simultaneously; today, rather, there is question of one single Pope for two Churches, the Catholic and the post-conciliar.
But to belong simultaneously to two such contrary Churches is impossible. It is impossible even for a Pope, by the very definition of his office. If Paul VI doesn't disengage himself, there is going to be an inevitable blow-up (choc en retour) as a result."
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The Catholic Trumpet: SSPX & Ecclesia Dei – A Growing Convergence |
Posted by: Stone - 01-21-2025, 05:03 PM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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The following is part of a larger article published by The Catholic Trumpet which examines yet another abandonment by the SSPX of their previously strong stance on the errors of Vatican II and on upholding traditional Catholic teaching.
Reader Submission: SSPX & Ecclesia Dei – A Growing Convergence
The Catholic Trumpet [adapted and reformatted] | January 21, 2025
We are excited to present to you a reader-submitted article for The Catholic Trumpet. This article, originally written by Sean Johnson, is accompanied by commentary from a reader who goes by the name “Crow.” Crow, whom we have had the pleasure of meeting on several occasions, submitted this piece for publication. Their zeal for the Faith and their journey through the false church, SSPX compromises, and now to the true Catholic resistance are truly inspiring. We look forward to sharing more of their contributions in the coming weeks.
If you would like to contribute to The Catholic Trumpet’s user-submitted section, please email thecatholictrumpet@gmail.com for discussion and review.
Without further ado:
This September will see the 10-year anniversary of the death of Michael Davies.
A strong supporter of Archbishop Lefebvre until the time of the 1988 episcopal consecrations, he then opted to side with the indultarian Una Voce movement (becoming its President in 1992).
Having traded the battle for integral Catholic doctrine in preference for the permission to attend the 1962 Mass, he significantly toned down his rhetoric, lest his movement be seen to criticize the modernists, and jeopardize the indult.
Among other things, he is remembered for his famous saying, “It is the Mass that matters.”
Indeed, this saying could be the motto for every indult group in the Church, since it is the only thing their false obedience has been able to retain (and even in that respect, it is only to be considered a preference; a rite on equal footing with the Novus Ordo).
So, it was only natural that Michael Davies and the SSPX should drift apart.
Whether he was conscious of it or not, Michael Davies was only given his “table scraps” because the Romans perceived that others like him (i.e. battle weary, or scrupulous, or compromised Catholics) could be drawn away from the SSPX with the lure of an approved Traditional Latin Mass.
So pitched were the differences between the SSPX and various indult/ Ecclesia Dei organizations, that they would not even march in the same direction at the annual Chartres (France) Pilgrimage for Tradition, nor would they travel the same route: Leaders would meet in advance of the opposed pilgrimages to ensure the two did not intersect!
This was symbolic of the completely opposite ends which the two groups had in mind: Securing the Mass, on the one hand, vs. securing the entire Faith, on the other.
But those were the good old days.
Recent years have seen mounting evidence of a convergence of aims and ends between the SSPX and the various indult groups in ways which would have been impossible under Archbishop Lefebvre: The notice appearing on the SSPX Polish District website congratulating the Ecclesia Dei communities’ recent 2013 ordinations; the January 2014 letter from Menzingen in which Fr. Pivert’s book is condemned, with Menzingen offering strident defenses of the indult communities; the ‘tradcumenical’ initiatives in which The Remnant participates at The Angelus conferences; etc.).
But I would like to discuss one which flew under the radar: The 2007 Angelus Press reprint of the revised/expanded “Pope John’s Council” by Michael Davies.
Having just illustrated the divergence of opinion between Michael Davies and the SSPX since the 1988 episcopal consecrations (and the dumbing-down of the subject matter of Davies’ later books, which must always follow upon a regularization), it is pleasant mythology spread amongst SSPX-ers that, towards the end of his life, Michael Davies “came back” to the SSPX, and again collaborated with them, having realized the limited and short sighted nature of his indult position.
However, it is the purpose of this brief article to demonstrate that in fact, it is the opposite which is true:
That with the commencement in 2007 of the branding campaign (designed to cease-fire against modernism and the modernists in Rome, for the purposes of securing a Roman approval of the SSPX), the SSPX moved closer to Michael Davies’ indult position, rather than the other way around.
Observe that in 2001, the SSPX was condemning Dominus Iesus thusly:
Quote:“As a result, the document does not wish to repeat, firmly and univocally, that there is only one way of salvation, i.e., that established by Christ in His Church. Instead it gives us to understand, through its equivocations, that we must admit that “historical figures and positive elements of these [other] religions may fall within the divine plan of salvation,” and that, according to Vatican II, the false religions can be seen to exercise “a manifold cooperation” and even “participated mediation” in the one mediatorship of Christ. There is one reservation, however: these “participated forms of mediation…cannot be understood as parallel or complementary to his.” In fact, the concept of parallel [equal] complementarity is very different from that of participated [subordinate] mediation.
This concept of participated, subordinate mediation has always been intrinsic to the Catholic religion. What is new in the Declaration, and what is unheard-of in the Catholic religion, is that this participated mediation is now no longer reserved to the Most Blessed Virgin, the Saints and the members of the Mystical Body, but extended to all the false religions (the sects and the pagan religions). This is in harmony with the “new theology,” which no longer understand the Mystical Body to be coextensive with the visible Church (plus the individual exceptions in the case of souls united to the Church “in voto,” by implicit and explicit desire), but broadens and expands Christ’s Mystical Body to embrace all humanity with all its false religious beliefs.
The fundamental concept of ecumenism can be reduced to this: “All religions are orientated to salvation, which is one, and is of Christ. These religions are ranked according to each one’s degree of participation in the fullness of truth and salvation which is found in its highest degree in Christ and his Church.” This is the basis supporting the superstructure of the Declaration Dominus Iesus, and we cannot see in what way it differs from the thesis of Modernism, namely, that God reveals Himself “in the life of all the religions, individually and collectively, but most of all in the life of Christianity” (George Tyrell, Per la sincerità in Rinnovamento) [For Sincerity in the Renewal] July-Aug. 1907 ”
That was the SSPX in 2001 (i.e., Well before the branding campaign was commenced, and at a time when the plan to “proceed by stages” towards a “reconciliation” was in its infancy).
But in 2007, The Angelus announced that, with the new incoming editor, a new editorial policy would feature a “more positive” and less critical approach.
That same year, Angelus Press released Michael Davies revised edition of “Pope John’s Council”, which contained an heretical notion of apostolicity, with Davies claiming that – in accord with Dominus Iesus- the Orthodox churches were “authentic local churches,” and that the Orthodox possess formal apostolicity. (p.97)
The book also contains an Appendix titled “The Declaration Dominus Iesus Regarding the Term Subsistit” (p. 403-408), in which Davies (and the SSPX’s) confusion reaches new heights, going so far as to exclaim, “Some traditional Catholics have questioned the possibility as to how there can be true churches not in communion with the Pope…”, as though it were we who are confused!
Now to be clear, Orthodox bishops possess mere material apostolicity (i.e., episcopal continuity), but not formal apostolicity (which in addition to episcopal continuity, adds jurisdiction).
Since Orthodox bishops possess mere material apostolicity, it necessarily follows their local churches are not to be regarded as authentic churches (i.e., since their bishops, lacking formal apostolicity, lack jurisdiction).
At this point, a number of questions arise:
1) To publish such a book, which defends a heretical proposition regarding apostolicity, and promotes an ecumenically inspired Dominus Iesus perfectly in line with Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, the SSPX has walked back on its 2001 condemnation (cited earlier). Why?
2) It seems it was not Michael Davies revising his book to approach the SSPX position outlined in their condemnation of 2001, but rather, the SSPX publishing a book in 2007 which contradicts its former condemnation of Dominus Iesus in 2001, to promote Davies’ ecumenical position. Why?
3) Interestingly enough, I perceived this error back in 2007 when I purchased the book, and contacted The Angelus to make them aware of the error on apostolicity. I was told by the editor that it had been reviewed by three SSPX priests before it went to press (i.e., the implication being that I was wrong). I pressed the issue, and finally received an acknowledgement from a District official that conceded the point, and told me that, minimally, a notice of “errata” would be inserted in future shipments. Has this been done? Or, have they expunged the ecumenical content from Davies revised volume (in which case there would be little point of publishing a revision at all!)? (NB: Luker- a personage on Archbishoplefebvreforums- confirms that a sticker has been superimposed on subsequent volumes, but that the only change the overlay makes is to remove the word “formal” from apostolic succession. Hence, an heretical statement has been “improved” to one merely ambiguous. Small consolation. Meanwhile, the entire ecumenical sense of this portion of the book is consistent with Dominus Iesus and Lumen Gentium).
4) Regardless of who moved towards who, can anyone explain why the SSPX would publish a book promoting ecumenical ecclesiology (i.e., Dominus Iesus, and by extension, Lumen Gentium)?
My conclusion is this:
The publication of this revised Michael Davies work was one of the first attempts by the branded SSPX at incrementally “shifting” the SSPX audience towards looking favorably upon recent magisterial documents;
It was useful for building the bridge between SSPXers, Romans, and indultarians.
The only other alternative is to believe that the SSPX has suddenly become doctrinally incompetent, and is oblivious to publishing errors, which is not likely.
In any case, it shows that Michael Davies definitely did not come back to a traditional SSPX perspective (as though Archbishop Lefebvre would have accepted Dominus Iesus any more than Bishop Fellay did in 2001), but instead, that the SSPX moved towards Michael Davies’ indult position.
More disturbing than this, is the fact that in the larger picture (in light of the other examples cited above, which is far from exhaustive), it evinces an SSPX embarked upon a trajectory of convergence with the indult communities.
Once that convergence is completed, via slow boil, will there really be any need to negotiate a practical accord?
Indeed, as the Dominicans at Avriellé recently wrote, the terrain is already prepared for a recognition of tolerance “ad tempus” (in which no written accord will be necessary).
But at what price?
When the day comes that you see the indultarian and SSPX Chartres Pilgrimages for Tradition both marching in the same direction, understand that there is much more symbolism there than meets the eye.
Postscript:
In view of the eminence and reputation of Michael Davies, many readers of this article may be reluctant to accept that so gifted a man erred in so obvious and fundamental a doctrine as that on the Church’s teaching regarding apostolicity.
The first error of Mr. Davies is that he overlooked (or ignored) the distinction between material vs formal apostolicity (even though, interestingly enough, he uses the term “formal apostolic succession” in an erroneous sense at the bottom of p. 97).
As recounted above, “material apostolicity” is mere episcopal continuity (i.e., episcopal lineage traceable down to the Apostles), whereas “formal apostolicity” adds to mere material apostolicity the power of jurisdiction, which comes from the Pope.
Since a schismatic “church” cannot possess jurisdiction (other than a supplied jurisdiction acquired through necessity), and therefore cannot possess formal apostolicity, it necessarily follows that schismatic churches can never be considered authentic or true local churches.
But Michael Davies says otherwise:
On p. 98, he cites in support of his contention that the schismatic Orthodox possess formal apostolicity the Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX, Arcano Divinae Providentiae (1868), in which he observes that the great Pontiff “invited the bishops of the churches of the Oriental Rite not in communion with Rome to be present at the First Vatican Council on an equal basis with the bishops of the Latin Rite in communion with Rome.”
Now it is telling that this citation (obviously meant to justify Dominus Iesus, which follows as a separate appendix at the end of the book on pp 403-408) is entirely absent from the original 1970s version of “Pope John’s Council.”
But what is missed by Davies is that the Apostolic Letter is not an invitation to participate in Vatican I as schismatics, but an invitation to rejoin the Mystical Body of Christ in order that they could participate:
Quote:“On September 8, 1868, the pope wrote an Apostolic Letter, Arcano divinae Providentiae consilio, to the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, which demanded fidelity to the commitment they made to reunion at the Council of Lyons in 1274 and again at the Council of Florence in 1439.”
But Davies, confusing the matter even further, misreads this Letter as pointing to the Councils of Lyons and Florence as having allowed schismatics to participate as schismatics, not as uniates (as though schismatics could set policy and doctrine for the Catholic Church!), and not in the proper sense just previously quoted.
For example, the Orthodox participated in the Second Council of Lyons only because they consented to sign this declaration (which made them Catholics):
Quote:“The Holy Roman Church possesses the supreme and full primacy and principality over the whole Catholic Church. She truly and humbly acknowledges that she received this from the Lord himself in blessed Peter, the prince and chief of the apostles, whose successor the Roman Pontiff is, together with the fullness of power. And since before all others she has the duty of defending the truth of the faith, so if any questions arise concerning the faith, it is by her judgment that they must be settled.”
That this participation and Council did not end the schism permanently or completely is only because, according to Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology, the representatives had no authority to bind the other Orthodox bishops back home.
But the simple fact is that those Orthodox who participated were converted Catholics at the onset by the signing of that declaration.
It is worth mentioning that in so far as certain Churches (e.g., the Greek Orthodox) become uniate or schismatic at various points in history, they likewise vacillated between true particular churches possessing formal apostolicity, and schismatic churches, possessing only material apostolicity (therefore not representing true local churches at such times).
But in the appendix titled “The Declaration Dominus Iesus Re: The Term Subsistit,” which represents a blatant defense of Lumen Gentium as well, the reader will be shocked to see how far this error regarding formal apostolicity and true local churches causes Davies to embrace the new ecclesiology:
“But what of the churches, dioceses, that have breached their unity with the Holy See? Do they cease to be particular churches? By no means.” (P. 406)
Now, I will be unjustly fair to Mr. Davies here, because as the phrase stands, he does not distinguish between authentic and schismatic particular churches (which makes it merely ambiguous).
But from the context, previous quotes showing him arguing in favor of schismatic churches representing authentic churches, and the sentence immediately following that just quoted, in which Mr. Davies reverts to his already refuted erroneous interpretation of Pius IX’s Arcano Divinae Providentiae, we know what he means, and he finishes with the alarming statement that:
“There is thus no doubt whatsoever that the Dioceses of the Eastern Orthodox Churches constitute true particular churches despite being schismatic.” (p. 406)
That statement is heretical, insofar as it directly contradicts the Church’s immemorial teaching on apostolicity, in addition to implicitly rejecting Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Mystici Corporis Christii (of which Dominus Iesus and Lumen Gentium are both also violators).
No particular church can be said to be a “true particular church” which does not possess formal apostolicity, and therefore receive its jurisdiction from the Pope. It necessarily follows, therefore, that all true particular churches are in union with Rome, since otherwise, it is not possible for them to possess ordinary jurisdiction (the distinguishing feature of formal apostolicity). To say otherwise is to make of the Petrine Primacy an empty title, by implying jurisdiction (which only flows from Peter) is not necessary for a true particular church to have a legitimate apostolic mission.
And it is ludicrous to contend that there can be such a thing as a true particular church not in union with Peter, which is at once divided in government, worship, doctrine, and devoid of jurisdiction and legitimate apostolic mission, for to hold any other opinion is to negate the gravity of schism (and heresy) and make the injunctions of the Church and Pius XII, et al, frivolous and of no consequence for salvation.
Moreover, it is to encourage complacency and peaceful conscience in the hearts of those our Lord is trying to prompt to reach out to the only Ark of Salvation which is the Catholic Church, and such measure, the position advocated by Davies, Dominus Iesus, and Lumen Gentium is antichrist.
Therein lies the true evil latent within the teaching of Dominus Iesus and Lumen Gentium, and the contorted path Michael Davies has traveled in order to attempt to justify them.
But having reached this point, we are brought back to asking ourselves the question:
Why is the SSPX publishing a book promoting such ideas?
To my thinking, that question has already been answered above.
Commentary continued HERE.
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Pope Francis praises ‘profound’ Buddhist religious revival in Mongolia without mentioning Christ |
Posted by: Stone - 01-21-2025, 04:40 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis once again repeats the errors and heresies of Vatican II...
Pope Francis praises ‘profound’ Buddhist religious revival in Mongolia without mentioning Christ
In an address to a delegation from Mongolia, Francis praised what he called the ‘rich religious heritage’ of Buddhism,
without calling Buddhists to convert to the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis, Buddhists
Paul Kagame/Flickr, VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto
Jan 21, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis applauded post-Soviet Mongolia’s “profound” Buddhist religious revival without mentioning Jesus Christ or any call to conversion to Catholicism in his recent address to delegates from the country.
“By reviving traditional spiritual practices and integrating them into the nation’s development, Mongolia has reclaimed its rich religious heritage,” said Francis in reference to Buddhism, which is by far the majority religion in the country. The religious practice does not acknowledge God as Creator, let alone Jesus Christ.
During the reign of communism in the country from 1924 to 1992, Buddhism was brutally repressed, along with other religions in the country, and experienced a resurgence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991.
Francis has often met with Buddhists and praised their religion without calling them to convert to Catholicism, thereby neglecting what the Church has historically recognized is an essential part of true ecumenism, since it is a dogma that there is “no salvation outside the Church.” Christ Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
Instead of calling the Buddhists to conversion, Francis expressed a wish that their meeting with the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue “will serve as an opportunity for deepening cooperation in promoting a society founded on dialogue, fraternity, religious freedom, justice and social harmony.” He did not elaborate on how Buddhists and Christians can share a vision of “justice” while they do not share an understanding of the moral law.
Under Francis, the Vatican has gone so far as to participate in religiously indifferent Buddhist-Christian colloquiums, and, in 2023, the Vatican issued a statement contrary to Church teaching and to Scripture that put Jesus Christ and Buddha on the same level by declaring, “As Buddhists and Christians, we see the Buddha and Jesus as Great Healers.”
This is a blatant, egregious falsehood, since the man known as the Buddha did not acknowledge God, cannot be called anything other than a false prophet, and therefore cannot be a true “healer.”
During his meeting with the Mongolian Buddhist delegation, Francis also praised their “commitment to religious freedom and dialogue among the different religious denominations” for “cultivat[ing] a space of mutual respect for all traditions.”
Far from holding Francis’ esteem for “religious freedom,” the Catholic Church has a long history of rebuking this idea as contrary to Christ’s desire that all men be saved.
Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemns as erroneous and heretical the notion that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.”
In his 1888 encyclical Libertas, Pope Leo XIII also declared that it is “contrary to reason that error and truth should have equal rights.”
Initially, only the Catholic Church in Mongolia X page shared the news of the Mongolian Buddhists’ meeting with Francis, while the Pontiff’s address to the delegation remained unpublished by the Vatican website, and the meeting was not included in his calendar for the day, as LifeSiteNews Senior Vatican Correspondent Michael Haynes noted.
The next day, on January 17, the bulletin for the day of the meeting was amended and his speech was published.
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Holy Mass in New York - January 26, 2025 |
Posted by: Stone - 01-20-2025, 08:34 PM - Forum: January 2025
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Third Sunday after Epiphany
Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025
Time: Confessions - 4:30 PM
Holy Mass - 5:00 PM
Location: 498 Louie Dickinson Rd.
Edmeston, NY 13335
Contact: Perry (212) 991-8319
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Holy Mass in NY [Syracuse area] - January 26, 2025 |
Posted by: Stone - 01-20-2025, 08:31 PM - Forum: January 2025
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Third Sunday after Epiphany
Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025
Time: Confessions - 8:30 AM
Holy Mass - 9:00 AM
Location: Hotel Concord Syracuse
6605 Old Collamer Road
East Syracuse, NY 13057
Contact: 315-391-7575
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Archbishop Viganò: Homily on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome |
Posted by: Stone - 01-20-2025, 10:21 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò
Cathedra veritatis
Homily on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome
Taken from here [Emphasis mine]
Deus, qui beato Petro Apostolo tuo,
collatis clavibus regni cælestis,
ligandi atque solvendi pontificium tradidisti:
concede; ut, intercessionis ejus auxilio,
a peccatorum nostrorum nexibus liberemur.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Today the Church in Rome celebrates the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, with which the authority that Our Lord conferred on the Prince of the Apostles finds in the Chair its symbol and ecclesial expression. We find traces of this celebration since the third century, but it was in 1588, at the time of the Lutheran heresy, that Paul IV established that the feast of the Chair qua primum Romæ sedit Petrus would take place on January 18, in response to the denial of the presence of the Apostle in the City of Rome. The other feast for the Chair of the first Diocese founded by St. Peter, Antioch, is celebrated by the universal Church on February 22.
Let me point out this important aspect: just as the human body develops antibodies when disease arises, so that it can be defeated when it is infected; so too the ecclesial body defends itself from the contagion of error when it occurs, affirming with greater incisiveness those aspects of dogma threatened by heresy. For this reason, with great wisdom, the Church proclaimed Truths of the Faith at certain times and not before, since those Truths were hitherto believed by the faithful in a less explicit and articulated form and it was not yet necessary to specify them. The sacred Canons of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea respond to the Arian denial of the divine nature of Our Lord, and are echoed by the splendid compositions of the ancient liturgy; the denial of the sacrificial value of the Mass, transubstantiation, suffrages, and indulgences are answered by the sacred Canons of the Council of Trent, and along with them also the sublime texts of the Liturgy. Today’s feast responds to the anti-papal denial of the foundation of the Diocese of Rome by the Apostle Peter, a feast that was desired by Paul IV precisely in order to reiterate the historical truth contested by Protestants and to strengthen the doctrine that derives from it.
The heretics and their neo-modernist followers, who have infested the Church of Christ for the past sixty years, act in the opposite way. And where they do not brazenly deny the Catholic Magisterium, they attempt to weaken it by being silent about it, omitting it, and formulating it in such a way as to make it equivocal and therefore acceptable even by those who deny it. This is exactly how the heresiarchs of the past also acted; this is how the innovators acted at Vatican II; and this is how those who, in order not to be accused of formal heresy, seek to cancel those “immune defenses” with which the Church had endowed herself, so as to make the faith fall into error and infect those defenses with the plague of heresy. Almost everything that the Mystical Body had wisely developed over the centuries – and particularly during the second millennium of the Christian era – growing harmoniously like a child who becomes an adult and strengthens himself in body and spirit, has now been willfully obscured and censured, with the deceptive excuse of returning to the primordial simplicity of Christian antiquity, and with the unspeakable purpose of adulterating the Catholic Faith in order to please the enemies of the Church. If you take the Montinian Missal, you will not find explicit heresies in it; but if you compare it with the traditional Missal, you will find that the omission of so many prayers composed in defense of revealed Truth was more than enough to make the Reformed Mass acceptable even to Lutherans, as they themselves admitted after the promulgation of that fatal and equivocal rite. To confirm this, even the feasts of the Chair of St. Peter in Rome and Antioch have been combined into one, in the name of that cancel culture that the modernist sect adopted in the ecclesiastical sphere well before the woke Left appropriated it in the civil sphere.
Today we celebrate the glories of the Papacy, symbolized by the Cathedra Apostolica that the genius of Bernini artistically composed on the altar of the apse of the Vatican Basilica, which is dominated by the alabaster window depicting the Holy Spirit and guarded by four Doctors of the Church: Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose for the Latin Church, Saint Athanasius and Saint John Chrysostom for the Greek Church. In the original project, which has remained intact through the centuries, the Chair was located above an altar, which the devastating fury of the innovators did not spare, moving it between the apse and the baldacchino of the Confession. Yet it is precisely in the architectural unity of altar and chair – which today has been deliberately erased – that we find the foundation of the doctrine of the Primacy of Peter, which is founded on Christ, He who is the lapis angularis, just as the altar of sacrifice, which is also a symbol of Christ, is made of stone.
We celebrate the Papacy in a historical phase of grave crisis and apostasy, which has risen even to the level of the Throne on which Peter first sat. And while our hearts are broken in contemplating the ruins caused by the devastation of the innovators to the detriment of so many souls and the glory of the divine Majesty; while we implore from Heaven a light that will allow us to understand how to combine Our Lord’s promise Non prævalebunt with the steady stream of heresies and scandals spread by the one whom Providence has inflicted on us at the head of the ecclesial body as punishment for the sins committed by the Hierarchy in these decades; while we see the division between those who deluded themselves that they still had a Pope segregated in the Monastery and the schism in the Dioceses of Northern Europe with their wicked synodal journey strongly desired by Bergoglio, we remember the prophecy of Leo XIII of happy memory, who wanted to insert in the prayer of the Exorcism against Satan and the apostate angels those terrible words that at the time must have sounded almost scandalous, but that today we understand in their supernatural sense:
Ecclesiam, Agni immaculati sponsam, faverrimi hostes repleverunt amaritudinibus, inebriarunt absinthio; Ad omnia desiderabilia ejus impias miserunt manus. Ubi sedes beatissimi Petri et Cathedra veritatis ad lucem gentium constituta est, ibi thronum posuerunt abominationis et impietatis suæ; ut percusso Pastor, et gregem disperse valeant.
Terrible enemies have filled the Church, bride of the immaculate Lamb, with bitterness, they have poisoned her with absinthe; they have laid their wicked hands on all desirable things. There where the See of Blessed Peter and the Chair of Truth was established to enlighten the nations, there they have placed the throne of their abomination and impiety, so that by striking the Shepherd they might also scatter the flock. These are not randomly written words: they were written after Leo XIII, at the end of Mass, had a vision in which the Lord granted Satan a period of time of about a hundred years to test the men of the Church. They echo the message of the Blessed Virgin at La Salette, fifty years earlier: “Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist,” and precede by little more than a decade that third part of the Secret of Fatima in which, in all likelihood, Our Lady predicted the apostasy of the Hierarchy with the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reform.
Every believer down the centuries has been able to look to Rome as a beacon of truth. No Pope, not even the most controversial popes in history like Alexander VI, ever dared to usurp his sacred Apostolic Authority in order to demolish the Church, adulterate her Magisterium, corrupt her Morality, and trivialize her Liturgy. In the midst of the most shocking storms, the Chair of Peter has remained unshaken and, despite persecution, it has never failed in the mandate conferred on it by Christ: Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep (Jn 21:15-19). Today, and for ten years now, feeding the lambs and sheep of the Lord’s flock is considered as a “solemn foolishness” by the one who now occupies the Throne of Peter, and the command that the Lord has given to the Apostles – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Mt 28:19-20) – is seen as deplorable “proselytism,” as if the divine mission of the Holy Church were comparable to the heretical propaganda of sects. He said so on October 1, 2013; January 6, 2014; September 24, 2016; May 3, 2018; September 30, 2018; June 6, 2019; December 20, 2019; April 25, 2020, and again just a week ago on January 11, 2023. And here collapses the last, gasping vestige of what was Vatican II, which made “mission” [missionarietà] its watchword without understanding that in order to proclaim Christ to a paganized world it is necessary first of all to believe in the supernatural Truths that He taught the Apostles and that the Church has the duty to guard faithfully. Watering down Catholic doctrine, silencing it, and betraying it in order to please the mentality of the age is not the work of Faith, because this virtue is based on God who is the Supreme Truth; it is not a work of Hope, because one cannot hope for the salvation or help of a God whose revealing authority and saving love one rejects; it is not a work of Charity, because one cannot love Him whose very essence is denied. [We have seen this 'watering down Catholic doctrine' and 'betraying it in order to please the mentality of the age' since Pope John XXIII, in each and every Conciliar pope has embraced these mantras. This is not unique to Francis. - The Catacombs]
What is the vulnus that has struck the ecclesial body, making possible this apostasy of the leaders of the Hierarchy, to the point of causing scandal not only in Catholics, but also in the people of the world? It is the abuse of authority. It is believing that the power connected with authority can be exercised for the very opposite purpose of that purpose which legitimizes authority itself. It is taking God’s place, usurping His supreme power to decide what is right and what is not, deciding what can still be said to people and what is to be considered old-fashioned or outdated in the name of progress and evolution. It is to use the power of the Holy Keys to loose what ought to be bound and bind what ought to be loosed. It is not to understand that authority belongs to God and to no one else, and that both the rulers of nations and the prelates of the Church are all hierarchically subjected to Christ the King and High Priest. In short, it is separating the Chair from the altar, the authority of the Vicar and the Regent from that of the One who makes that authority sacred, ratified from above, because He possesses its fullness and is its divine origin.
Among the titles of the Roman Pontiff, there recurs, along with Christi Vicarius, also that of Servus servorum Dei. If the first has been disdainfully rejected by Bergoglio, his choice to retain the second sounds like a provocation, as his words and his works demonstrate. The day will come when the prelates of the Church will be asked to clarify what intrigues and conspiracies may have led to the Throne one who acts as the servant of Satan’s servants, and why they have fearfully assisted his excesses or made themselves accomplices of this proud heretical tyrant. Let those tremble who know and yet are silent out of false sense of prudence: by their silence they do not protect the honor of the Holy Church, nor do they preserve the simple from scandal. On the contrary, they plunge the Bride of the Lamb into ignominy and humiliation, and drive the faithful away from the Ark of Salvation at the very moment of the Flood.
Let us pray that the Lord will deign to grant us a holy Pope and holy rulers. Let us implore Him to put an end to this long period of trial, thanks to which – like every event permitted by God – we are now understanding how fundamental it is instaurare omnia in Christo, to recapitulate everything in Christ; how hellish – literally – is the world that rejects the Lordship of Christ, and how much more infernal is a religion that strips itself with contempt of its royal garments – robes dyed with the Blood of the Lamb on the Cross – to become the servant of the powerful, of the New World Order, of the globalist sect. Tempora bona veniant. Pax Christi veniat. Regnum Christi veniat.
And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
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Nice [France]: Brand New Statue of Joan of Arc Must Go |
Posted by: Stone - 01-20-2025, 09:34 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Nice [France]: Brand New Statue of Joan of Arc Must Go
![[Image: zdxeyyqllofzm2e883s5lv4dagajiy0rie72ry1....30&webp=on]](https://seedus4268.gloriatv.net/storage1/zdxeyyqllofzm2e883s5lv4dagajiy0rie72ry1.webp?secure=DaKtp716jiSU0-CepQJxww&expires=1737585930&webp=on)
gloria.tv | January 19, 2025
A brand new and very beautiful statue of Saint Joan of Arc was inaugurated on 23 October by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
The monumental work in bronze, gilded with fine gold, weighs 9 tonnes, is 4.50 metres high and cost 170,000 euros.
But on Wednesday, the administrative court of Nice, at the instigation of the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, Hugues Moutouh, ordered the city to remove the statue.
The pretext for the removal: The court ruled that the contract had been awarded without advertising or competition.
The Nice city council replied that the specificity of a work of art is that it is unique, and that if you want to decorate a wall with a Piéta by Botticelli, you don't buy a Piéta by Enguerrand Quarton.
An appeal against the ruling has no suspensive effect and the statue must be removed immediately.
The same court, which heard the case under an expedited procedure, took the opposite view in a ruling on 23 February.
The masterpiece, which depicts Joan of Arc on horseback brandishing a sword, had been erected in the municipal garden above a new underground car park near the church of Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc in the centre of Nice.
Mayor Estrosi has accused the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, Hugues Moutouh, of 'attacking the figure of Joan of Arc'.
At a time when France is struggling to find its bearings in a period of unprecedented instability, its representative is attacking the figure of Joan of Arc, which we wanted to embody by erecting a bronze statue in front of the church dedicated to the heroine,' he said.
Gaël Nofri, chairman of the Parcs d'Azur public service, commented on Twitter: "Making a statue of Joan of Arc out of bronze probably poses more problems than making a bust of Che Guevara out of used toilet paper."
The Missor studio, which created the masterpiece, was set up in response to woke extremism and its iconoclasm. Some sectarian circles don't like Joan of Arc because she doesn't stand for decadence.
Meanwhile, Christian Estrosi has launched a fund-raising campaign to save the statue of Joan of Arc. It will be placed in front of the church of Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc.
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The Catholic Trumpet: The Cartesian Dual and Ritual Killing of Christ’s Mystical Body |
Posted by: Stone - 01-18-2025, 09:29 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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The Cartesian Dual and Ritual Killing of Christ’s Mystical Body
The Catholic Trumpet | January 18, 2025
The Enmity at Work
From the beginning, the enmity between the Woman and the Serpent has been a battle for the Kingship of Christ and the unity of His Mystical Body, the Church. This war, foretold in Genesis, has been waged across centuries, seeking to sever what Christ established: the union of the visible and spiritual dimensions of His Church.
Today, this enmity operates in two ways:
1. Modernism, which attacks from the bottom up, undermining doctrine, sacraments, and the faithful.
2. Cartesian dualism, which attacks from the head down, severing the visible hierarchy from the spiritual essence of the Church.
The Mystical Body now suffers its Passion. Just as Christ appeared disfigured on the Cross, so too does His Church appear weak and humiliated. Yet fidelity to the Mystical Body demands unity, even in its suffering, not rejection. This article examines how Cartesian dualism leads to the ritual killing of the King and how Catholics can resist this fracture by following the example of Archbishop Lefebvre and remaining faithful to Mary, the Mother of the Church.
1. The Cartesian Divide: Body and Soul
“The Church is visible because it is a body; it is spiritual because it is animated by the Holy Spirit.” (Mystici Corporis Christi, Pius XII)
Cartesian dualism fractures reality, separating body from soul as though they were independent and disconnected. René Descartes’ famous phrase, “I think, therefore I am,” elevated the mind above the body, creating a false dichotomy that denies their natural unity.
The Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, reflects the union of body and soul:
1. Visible and Hierarchical: The pope, bishops, clergy, and sacraments form its structured, tangible body.
2. Spiritual and Divine: Animated by the Holy Spirit, the Church is the instrument of grace and salvation.
To reject the visible hierarchy of the Church (the body) while claiming fidelity to its spiritual essence (the soul) mirrors Cartesian dualism. This mindset also echoes the Kabbalistic concept of tzimtzum, where God’s presence is said to withdraw, leaving a void between the infinite divine and finite creation. Both Cartesian and Kabbalistic frameworks distort reality by introducing divisions where unity was intended.
Can fidelity to Christ’s Mystical Body justify rejecting its visible head, or does such rejection fracture the unity Christ willed for His Church?
2. The Ritual Killing of the King
At Christ’s Passion, the crowd cried out, “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19:15). This rejection of Christ’s Kingship led to His crucifixion, a betrayal that is mirrored today in the rejection of His Mystical Body.
This belief system reenacts the ritual killing of the King by:
1. Severing Visible Authority: Declaring the pope illegitimate fractures the Mystical Body, denying Christ’s Kingship over His Church.
2. Betraying the Mystical Body: Just as Judas betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver, rejecting the visible Church abandons the hierarchy Christ Himself established.
Typology: Just as Christ’s visible suffering and humiliation on the Cross did not negate His Kingship, the visible corruption of the Church today does not nullify its divine authority. Fidelity demands standing with the Mystical Body at its Cross, not abandoning it.
When the Mystical Body appears disfigured, do we remain with it in faith, like Mary at the foot of the Cross, or do we join the crowd in shouting, “Crucify Him”?
3. The Social Contract of Rejection
In the belief system commonly referred to as sedevacantism, fidelity appears to hinge on a social contract. This contract emphasizes private judgment and public rejection of the visible Church’s authority, reflecting a fragmentation that mirrors the Cartesian tendency to isolate the spiritual from the visible.
1. Private Judgment: Individuals must decide, based on personal reasoning, whether the pope is valid.
2. Public Declaration: Fidelity is demonstrated by ceasing to pray for the pope and vocally rejecting his authority.
3. Group Approval: Membership is validated by alignment with others who share this rejection, fostering division rather than unity.
This mirrors the Kabbalistic concept of sitra achra (the “Other Side”), which thrives on division and imbalance, opposing the harmony of God’s creation. The Cartesian rejection of the visible head of the Church distorts the Mystical Body, fragmenting it into isolated factions disconnected from sacramental grace.
Does rejecting the pope preserve unity in the Mystical Body, or does it deepen the fracture desired by the enmity?
4. Pope Francis and the Counterfeit Churc
• Is Pope Francis preparing the platform for the Antichrist?
• His promotion of synodality, religious indifferentism, and globalism aligns with the construction of a counterfeit church, one that mirrors the secularism and false unity of the world.
• This false church began with Judas’ betrayal, was formalized at Vatican II, and now approaches full manifestation as the synodal church.
• Antipope Concerns: It is valid to question whether Pope Francis acts as an antipope. However, entering into a Cartesian social contract to reject him publicly undermines unity and fosters division, echoing the fragmentation desired by the enmity.
5. +Archbishop Lefebvre’s Path: Resistance Without Fracture
+Archbishop Lefebvre foresaw the crisis of the Church but avoided the extremes of modernism and Cartesian dualism. He chose:
1. Resistance Without Rejection:
• Lefebvre resisted Vatican II’s errors while remaining united to the visible Church.
• He continued to pray for the pope, recognizing his authority even in error.
2. Unity Over Division:
• Lefebvre refused to declare the pope illegitimate, knowing such judgments belong to the Church alone.
• His path preserved sacramental and hierarchical unity while resisting modernist errors.
6. Fidelity Through Mary: The Answer to Enmity
At the Cross, Mary stood as the model of fidelity, trusting in Christ’s Kingship even as He appeared humiliated. Her Immaculate Heart is the refuge for Catholics during the Church’s Passion. She calls us to:
1. Resist Without Division: Reject modernism and Cartesian dualism while remaining united to the Mystical Body.
2. Cling to Tradition: Uphold the perennial teachings of the Faith without abandoning the Church.
3. Trust in Her Triumph: The Immaculate Heart will crush the head of the Serpent and restore the Church in her visible and spiritual unity.
Unity or Fragmentation?
The Mystical Body suffers its Passion, humiliated and disfigured. Fidelity demands standing with it at the Cross, trusting in its Resurrection. +Archbishop Lefebvre’s model of resistance without rejection is the only path to true unity.
Will you cling to the Mystical Body, trusting in its divine promise, or fracture it through rejection? Consecrate yourself to Mary, and remain faithful to Christ the King.
When sedevacantists tell you, “I think, therefore I am,” you must counter with, “I am because God, who is Being itself, creates, sustains, and wills me to exist.”
No compromise. No retreat.
—The ☩ Trumpet
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Statues of Our Lady, St. Joseph miraculously survive wildfires that destroyed California home |
Posted by: Stone - 01-18-2025, 09:17 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Statues of Our Lady, St. Joseph miraculously survive wildfires that destroyed California family’s home
Statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are miraculously still standing after wildfires destroyed the Halpin’s family home in Los Angeles.
Currents News/YouTube
Jan 17, 2025
LOS ANGELES (LifeSiteNews) — Statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are miraculously standing after wildfires destroyed a Catholic family’s home in California.
In a January 12 interview with Fox News, Los Angeles resident Peter Halpin revealed that the relentless wildfire that destroyed his family’s home was unable to destroy their Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph statues.
“It was remarkable how everything had gotten fried, but the statue of the Virgin Mary and another statue of Saint Joseph were in perfect condition,” Halpin revealed.
“Obviously, they were a little singed, but we just took that opportunity to pray,” he continued. “Our home is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and always has been, and all my family members, my extended family.”
The survival of the statues is a testament to the family’s faith, which was not broken, even by the loss of their longtime and beloved home of 37 years.
Far from being angry at their loss, Halpin’s wife Jackie revealed that she felt grateful for their years which they had spent in their home and had returned to their home to give thanks to God for the time they had spent there.
“That was my intention,” she said. “We’re going to pray. We’re going to thank God that we’re safe, and we have entertained a lot for years. We feel very strongly in the virtue of hospitality, so I just wanted to pray and say, ‘If we can do it again, that would be great.’”
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, after the family’s home was tragically burned to the ground amid the raging Los Angeles fires, the Halpin family returned to the site where the house once stood and sang a beautiful hymn of praise, Regina Caeli, O Queen of Heaven, in Latin.
In a spontaneous act of faith, members of the Halpin family, including parents Peter and Jackie and their six adult children who were raised in the family’s Altadena home, lifted their voices and sang the traditional Marian hymn.
“Our intention was not for this thing to go viral at all,” Halpin explained. “It was pretty much just a family thing, but the response from the community has been unbelievable and so heartfelt.”
“I already feel so much healing because we were able to be there together as a family, and we were able to bond over this song that means so much to our family,” son Andrew Halpin, 36, told the National Catholic Register later in the day.
“We have to give everything to God,” he continued. “And if that means our home at this time, we choose to trust that we’re in the palm of His hand.”
“Our parents bought that home over 35 years ago, and it was a center of hospitality, joy, support, and familial love for a wide and deep circle of loved ones over those three decades. As with many others, they lost absolutely everything,” wrote son Pete on a GoFundMe page set up to help his parents family recover from their devastating loss.
At the time of the fire, the home was occupied by Pete’s parents and his sister Gianna and her daughter Beatrice, all of whom escaped harm.
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