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| GREC: 'Towards a Necessary Reconciliation' - A Book Review |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-11-2021, 08:28 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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Taken from The Recusant.com
Book Review of "Towards a Necessary Reconciliation"
Reviewed by 'Gentiloup'
I just finished reading the book by Fr. Michel Lelong, entitled: Towards the Necessary Reconciliation - Pour la nécessaire réconciliation.
It is a small work of 159 pages, not exciting but quickly read. It is a history of GREC, “Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques”.
This booklet summarizes the work accomplished by GREC. It is a glowing report by the author who helped to found GREC. The goal was to open up SSPX to reconcile with Conciliar Rome. This little book unintentionally clarifies the downward slide of the SSPX and why the attempted ralliement with Conciliar Rome was able to corrupt the very spirit at the heart of SSPX.
The GREC “think tank” was founded in 1997 with the goal to integrate SSPX with Modernist Rome and to convince it to accept the Second Vatican Council.
The founders were Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Pérol and Fr. Michel Lelong, author of the book and fervent defender of inter-religious dialogue and the Council. Mr Pérol had been the Ambassador of France to Rome.
GREC’s goal is not ambiguous. It is clearly defined throughout the book by different protagonists as being “Interpreting Vatican II in the light of Tradition,” according to the formula John-Paul II gave to Archbishop Lefebvre in 1978.
Fr. Michel Lelong is convinced of the benefits of the Council, especially of Nostra Aetate, and is a specialist in dialogue with Muslims.
The Ambassador’s idea was to enter into dialogue with the traditional Catholics of SSPX in the same way that he had dialogued with other religions and from which, to his regret, the SSPX had been excluded.
DICI editor Fr. Alain Lorans, one of the four founders of GREC, was the spokesman for the SSPX District of France. He immediately obtained permission from Bishop Fellay to participate in the dialogue “for a necessary reconciliation.” He was very attentive in keeping Bishop Fellay up-to-date with the progress of the dialogue.
The 'Charter' of the group was defined by Mr. Pérol shortly before his death: it is “to interpret Vatican II in light of Tradition,” which Benedict XVI himself calls the Hermeneutic of Continuity, in opposition to the Hermeneutic of Rupture as Archbishop Lefebvre ruefully observed at the end of his long quest to reach a tentative agreement with the Conciliar Church. In the end, Archbishop Lefebvre could see that an agreement was impossible, hence the consecrations of the four bishops in 1988.
GREC commenced its activities with small committees formed around Mrs. Pérol and Fr. Michel Lelong, with Fr. Emmanuel le Chalard of SSPX “who did not cease to provide discreet support and pay special attention to GREC.”
Page 24:
Quote:Two other priests contributed decisively to the creation and life of our Catholic think tank. One of them who has since returned to God was the Dominican, Fr. Olivier de La Brosse, the other, Fr. Lorans of the SSPX. I got to know them in 1997 during a dinner to which we had been invited by Mrs. Pérol. On that day GREC was born.
Details: This meeting took place in Rome at Madame Pérol’s home.
• Fr. Olivier de La Brosse, who died in 2009, was the spokesman for the Bishops' Conference of France.
• Fr. Lorans was the spokesman for the SSPX District of France.He had obtained permission from Bishop Fellay to dialogue for a "necessary reconciliation" with the group.
Thus we have the four founders of GREC:
• Mrs. Pérol
• Fr. Michel Lelong
• Fr. Lorans
• Fr. de la Brosse
In the months that followed, the protagonists remained quietly within their respective communities.
Soon after, conferences would be organized, but without fanfare, for it was necessary that this should remain confidential.
Page 27:
Quote:“When we meet in friendship, I often think of Gilbert Pérol who, while actively participating in Christian-Muslim dialogue, had the idea of this dialogue between Catholics.”
The apostolic nuncios supported this group, along with various other personalities of the Conciliar Church who regularly informed the Pope of the progress of the dialogue.
The FSSP Superior of France, Fr. Ribeton, joined the group and, a little later, so did the head of The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
To shorten this review, you should know that the initiative for the "lifting of the excommunications" of the four bishops of the SSPX can be traced back to GREC who had already requested it during the 2000 Jubilee year! Fr. Lelong reveals this explicitly in the book and provides many quotations from exchanges of letters amongst the group, the Roman authorities, and the Superior General of SSPX.
When we are told that the lifting of the excommunications was one of the points of the Society’s road map, that is not the whole truth as the road map actually initiated with GREC. The term returning to “full communion” is ceaselessly used.
Page 42:
Quote:As far as I'm concerned, having been a priest for fifty years and having devoted my ministry to the relationship between the Church and the Muslims, I am deeply attached to the teachings of Vatican II and I am trying to raise awareness and understanding of those among our fellow Catholics who follow Archbishop Lefebvre and his successors.
Thus, the message is clear - Bishop Fellay did not go to play as a naïve schoolboy, suddenly discovering in 2012 through a letter from the Pope the expectation of SSPX to recognize Vatican II. That had been clear from the beginning of the collaboration with GREC.
On January 6, 2004, Fr. de la Brosse sent a letter to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos of Ecclesia Dei to give an account of the “Tradition and Modernity” colloquium organized by GREC on November 22nd, 2003, in Paris:
Pages 45-46:
Quote:At our request, Bishop Philippe Breton was appointed by Bishop Ricard, President of CEF [French Bishops Conference], as the “affiliated bishop” of the group, to attend the meetings and provide the opening prayer, with Fr. Lorans of the SSPX presiding over the final prayer. . . .
Thus the very purpose of the colloquium was established: French Catholics of various and even opposite sensitivities freely agreed to engage in a dialogue that did not prejudice total reconciliation in any way—a field reserved to competent superiors—but this opens the possibility, when the times comes, that the dialogue caucus will find before them partners capable of understanding and mutual respect. . . .
The number of participants was 40 people, all of whom were invited individually by group members. . . .
Very great discretion was observed at the express request of Bishop Ricard, which corresponded to our intentions. No professional journalists were present in the room. No information or comments were leaked during the days that followed, neither in the Catholic nor the secular press.
Pages 45-46:
Quote:Thus, thanks to support from the Apostolic Nuncio and also to the efforts of Frs. La Brosse and Barthe, Cardinal Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, was kept informed of our activities. The election of Benedict XVI was welcomed . . . with great hope. . . . We know, indeed, how during the first months of his pontificate the new Pope met with Bishop Fellay and made statements and decisions that clearly manifested his desire to re-establish unity in the Church through a Hermeneutic of Continuity and not of rupture with regards to the teachings of Vatican II.
After the Motu Proprio of 2007, the organizers of GREC sent a new letter to the Pope, asking him again to lift the excommunications.
From page 55 follows a history of GREC’s activities and of the key figures of different sides who were to be involved in this process.
Following the Pope’s meeting with Bishop Fellay in 2005, GREC expanded the SSPX side to include among others: a very active Fr. Célier, and laymen Jacques-Régis du Cray and Marie-Alix Doutrebente.
It was then that the colloquia revealed the “doctrinal and spiritual convergence” between the two parties.
Page 69:
Quote:On June 10, 2010, following “a particularly unfair media campaign,” a GREC meeting was held around “Fr. Matthew Rouge, Rector of St. Clotilde Basilica in Paris . . . and Fr. Lorans, in charge of SSPX communications.” with the purpose of declaring its support of the Pope.
That evening, thanks to the two speaker's presentation and the discussion that followed, we sensed how much a reconciliation between Catholics around Pope Benedict XVI was expected and hoped for.
GREC devoted its meetings to Vatican II, Archbishop Lefebvre, and the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, with the participation of historians and theologians providing different points of view, so as to make its contribution during the 2010-2011 academic year.
Page 85:
Quote:At the time of this writing, one can hope that these meetings will lead to an agreement without delay. But the SSPX must understand that if it has much to offer to Rome, it also has much to receive from it. It must therefore stop rejecting Vatican II outright and accept the guiding principles in interpreting them as proposed by the Holy Father today.
The stories of different GREC actors follow, including those for SSPX of Fr. Lorans, Marie-Alix Doutrebente and Jacques-Régis du Cray.
A very important place is given to Fr. Paul Aulagnier, who began when he was District Superior of France, before the foundation of GREC, to open a dialogue in 1992 with Conciliarists, notably with Dom de Lesquen, Abbot of Notre Dame de Randol. He continued this role later after becoming a member of the IBP - Institute de Bon Pasteur / Good Shepherd Institute. Still very active in support of ralliement, he has already rejoined and has obtained a parish in the Conciliar structure.
Fr. Aulagnier Page 104:
Quote:Beginning in 1992, as District Superior of SSPX in France, I was happy to initiate new contacts with recognized ecclesiastical authorities.
One day, when passing by Randol . . . Abbot Dom de Lesquen was talking to a young man in the forecourt of the monastery. Knowing the role he had played with Dom Gérard during his rapprochement with Rome on July 10, 1988, I approached him and spoke with him . . . about the rapprochement with Rome, of a normalization of the SSPX with Rome . .
To understand the process of ralliement, it suffices to know the secretive work of the group whose members admit to it.
A reminder: this book was published in December 2011.
It is very important to be familiar with this book so as to know what is of importance in the future not to do: no doctrinal discussions at any level so long as Rome has not converted.
That was the point made by Archbishop Lefebvre and which always prevailed until the narrowly missed ralliement of June 2012:
“No practical agreement without a doctrinal agreement.”
Inferiors do not form the superiors, and yet, after a practical agreement, the SSPX would find itself under the authority of a Modernist Pope and Conciliar Congregations.
The truth does not support the least compromise with error, and yet the process initiated by GREC is nothing other than a search for compromise.
In conclusion, here is what Fr. David Hewko has to say:
Fr. Hewko in his Open Letter to His Excellency Bishop Fellay, Society Priests, Religious and Faithful, dated November 8, 2012:
Quote:Fr. Ludovic Barrielle (so highly revered by the Archbishop) commented in 1982:
"I am writing this to serve as a lesson for everyone. The day that the SSPX abandons the spirit and rules of its Founder, it will be lost. Furthermore, all our brothers who, in the future, allow themselves to judge and condemn the Founder and his principles, will show no hesitation in eventually taking away from the Society the traditional teaching of the Church and the Mass instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ".
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| Primary Sources for Studying the Crisis in the SSPX |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-11-2021, 07:55 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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In 2013 the Editor of The Recusant compiled an well-organized document, entitled Primary Sources for Studying the Crisis in the SSPX, showing the new direction of the SSPX, directly from the words of the SSPX bishops and priests themselves.
It is important to note that these 'sources' are not opinions that some hold that there is a new direction, rather, these are SSPX publications, declarations, and interviews. These are directly from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
The Document may be viewed online or downloaded from here: Primary Sources for Studying the Crisis in the SSPX
Contents:
1. SSPX General Chapter Declaration, July 2006
2. “Letter to Members of the SSPX” (Bp. Fellay) from ‘Cor Unum’ of March 2012
3. Letter of Three Bishops to the General Council, 7th April 2012
4. Reply of the General Council to the Three Bishops, 14th April, 2012
5. Doctrinal Declaration, 15th April 2012
6. CNS interview with Bishop Fellay, and CNS’s accompanying article about the interview, May 2012
7. DICI Interview with Bishop Fellay, 8th June 2012
8. Letter of Bishop Fellay to Benedict XVI, 17th June 2012
9. Letter from Fr. Thouvenot (SSPX Secretary General) to priests of the SSPX, 25th June 2012
10. Letter to Fr. Thouvenot by Fr. Matthew Clifton, 27th June 2012
11. SSPX General Chapter: Declaration & “Six Conditions”, July 2012
12. Fr. Pfluger interview with ‘Kirchliche Umschau’, 16th October 2012
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| Dr who mocked anti-vaxers dies days after getting jab |
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Posted by: Deus Vult - 03-10-2021, 11:12 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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Doctor Mocks Anti-Vaxxers While Getting
Experimental COVID Jab – Dies Days Later
(Natural News) Just days after getting injected with a Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine, Dr. Witold Rogiewicz, a Polish physician who openly mocked vaccine skeptics, died from the jab.
The official story is that Dr. Rogiewicz died of “heart failure,” but it is painfully obvious that he suffered the most serious adverse event of all associated with the vaccine: death.
While he was getting injected, a masked Dr. Rogiewicz arrogantly told the camera:
“Vaccinate yourself to protect yourself, your loved ones, friends and also patients.”
He went on to make fun of “anti-vaxxers” and “anti-coviders” who take issue with the fact that Chinese virus vaccines have never been long-term safety tested, nor are their manufacturers liable in the event of injury or death.
“And to mention quickly, I have info for anti-vaxxers and anti-coviders,” he stated in Polish. “If you want to contact Bill Gates, you can do this through me. I can also provide for you from my organism the 5G network. I am sorry I hadn’t spoke for a bit but I was just getting autism.”
Dr. Rogiewicz thought he was being funny with these cringeworthy comments, but little did he know that the joke would be ultimately on him. Within just a few short days, Bill Gates’ experimental gene therapy injection ended Dr. Rogiewicz’s life.
“At night, our Friend and Collaborator, Dr. Witold Rogiewicz, suddenly passed away,” reads a post from the VIP Clinic where this pro-vaxxer worked.
“We are devastated by this news. We send our deepest sympathy to the family he loved very much. We cannot believe … Witek, we will miss you very much.”
The clinic’s post went on to explain that all of Dr. Rogiewicz’s patients will be contacted immediately so as to “not leave them without help.”
And who said God doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Much like how every death in 2020 was blamed on Covid-19, Dr. Rogiewicz’s death will be blamed on anything other than the vaccine. The same is true of all other deaths caused by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines, which the mainstream media and the establishment will probably blame on anti-maskers.
As it turns out, far more people are being killed by the vaccine than from the “virus” itself, and yet such details are receiving zero media coverage because they break apart the entire phony plandemic narrative.
Hopefully Dr. Rogiewicz’s loved ones will connect the dots concerning his fate and skip the jab themselves, assuming they have not already received it. Perhaps his former patients will do the same so as to avoid potentially also dying from the injection.
All across social media, people from around the world are reporting similar patterns of post-vaccination death among their family members, most of whom probably did not mock others like Dr. Rogiewicz did, but who still bought into the plandemic lies due to fear and hysteria.
Whether coincidence or divine providence, Dr. Rogiewicz’s jesting serves as yet another lesson in that old biblical adage about pride coming before a fall. God is allowing those who are watching to see what this is all really about through incidents like this so they can make better choices than the one Dr. Rogiewicz made.
“Why do I oppose the vaccine so much? Because my uncle died at a young age when he was injected,” one person on Twitter wrote about why she opposes the Chinese virus vaccine. “His body could not take the vaccine’s side effects and passed away by cardiac arrest.”
“If it was so safe, my grandpa (who was healthy) wouldn’t have died immediately after getting the vaccine,” wrote another about how the WuFlu jab killed her grandfather.
More of the latest news about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine deaths can be found at Pandemic.news.
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| A Catechism of the Crisis in the SSPX |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 08:43 PM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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A Catechism of the Crisis in the SSPX
By a French priest of the SSPX [2013]
1. Has there ever really been a crisis?
Yes. Bp. Fellay speaks of “a very great trial in the SSPX” (Econe, 07/09/2012); “A sorrowful trial” with “serious problems” (Cor Unum, Nov. 2012) “The greatest that we’ve ever had” (01/11/2012)
2. Why speak of these problems in public?
For the simple reason that we must “never say these theological discussions are a matter for specialists and do not concern us. It must be emphasised to show that exactly the opposite is the case: because they touch on faith, these issues concern us all, clergy and laity. We must therefore take pains to understand and make understood the issues. "(Fr. de Cacqueray, Suresnes, 31/12/2008)
3. Why deal with these problem in the form of a catechism?
Because, as Mgr. Fellay said, “Aware of the vital need on behalf of souls to preach time and time again the truths of Faith, the Catholic Church has always sought to make available to her children the teaching of eternal truths ... May the pages of the Catechism enlighten souls of good will ... "(Preface to the catechism of Christian doctrine)
4. Of what exactly has the crisis in the SSPX consisted?
“There has been a challenge to authority, a radical challenge, since it accused the authorities of no longer directing the Society towards its end” (Bp. Fellay, Cor Unum, Nov.2012)
5. But wasn’t this crisis overcome at the General Chapter in July 2012?
No. “There is a distrust of authority.” (Bp. Fellay, Econe, 07/09/2012
6. Why has the sickness not been treated?
Because, as Bp. Fellay himself recognised, “I am well aware that this does not happen in a day and it is useless to say ''Trust us!''. It is after the facts, in actions, that little by little it will come back. It is following the facts, and through acts, that little by little it will return.
7. Have there not been any significant actions by Menzingen since then?
Of course! The expulsion of Bp. Williamson!
8. But is that enough to conclude that the crisis is still going on? You’d have to show that, apart from some disciplinary matters, Menzingen continues its doctrinal slide.
This is exactly what we are going to do: explain how and why Menzingen is continuing down the wrong road.
9. Why would Menzingen be going down the wrong road?
Because the authorities of the SSPX refuse to get rid of the ambiguity which they have created.
10. What is this ambiguity?
It is twofold and concerns the two acts performed by Benedict XVI which are favourable to Tradition in a material way and which Bp. Fellay presents as formally favouring Tradition.
11. What do these strange words mean?
When you have cement, sand and gravel, you have a house materially speaking, but not formally. There is a huge difference.
12. What is the first act of Benedict XVI which is a problem?
This is the Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict XVI on the use of the Roman liturgy prior to the reform of 1970. Bishop Fellay claims that "By the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI has restored to its rightful place the Tridentine Mass, stating clearly that the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V has never been abrogated."
(Menzingen, 07/07-2007)
13. Where is the ambiguity?
In reality, the Motu Proprio says that the Traditional Mass has never been abrogated as the extraordinary form but that it was repealed as the ordinary form. By this act, Benedict XVI made the Roman rite of Mass lose, de jure, its status as the only ordinary and official form, and relegated it to the status of “extraordinary form”, after having humiliated it by comparing its sanctity to that of the “bastard rite.” Despite these facts, no official document from Menzingen exists condemning this liturgical cohabitation.
14. But that’s just the way you see things.
No, it’s also the view of Fr. de Cacqueray in his Letter to Friends and Benefactors of 2009. The Motu Proprio, he said, “does not correspond, and is not a response, to the first requirement of the SSPX except materially speaking.” (Suresnes, 31/12/2008)
What’s more, Archbishop Lefebvre, after realising that it had been a mistake to sign an agreement with Rome in May 1988, put us on our guard after the Consecrations: “You can see clearly that they wanted to bring us back into the Conciliar Church... they want to impose these novelties on us in order to have done with Tradition. They don’t allow anything through esteem for the traditional liturgy but simply in order to trick those who they give it to and to diminish our resistance, to drive a wedge into the Traditionalist camp, in order to destroy it. That’s their policy, their tactics...” (Econe, 09/09/1988)
15. So how should Bp. Fellay have responded?
The same way the Society once upon a time responded to a similar action by Rome (the Indult of 1984). The Superior General of the SSPX said that this indult was “ruinous for the metaphysics of law”. It could only be an “argumentum ad hominem,” because “its conditions are unacceptable.” A Catholic, “who thinks with the Church, can only consider the indult as being the foundation of a request.” (Cor Unum, June 1985)
16. So, strictly speaking, the first requirement of the SSPX wasn't attained?
In effect, the General Chapter of 2006 spoke of “the necessity of having two requirements” in the “discussions with Rome.” A note recalled the first one: “Complete liberty without any conditions for the Tridentine Mass.” However, the liberating of the Mass, in addition to the deception already noted, was not unconditional. Article 2 of the Motu Proprio gives this freedom to say Mass without need for “authorisation from the Apostolic See or the Ordinary” only to “Masses which are celebrated without the people.”
17. Should we therefore not have pursued discussions with the Roman authorities any further?
If we had respected what the General Chapter of 2006 had decided: that’s right, yes. And yet, Bishop Fellay did the opposite, because after recalling “the Hegelian approach of Benedict XVI, according to which the change, which was necessary, nonetheless cannot be a rupture with the past”, he wrote: “Regarding Rome, not knowing how and when the situation can change, we prefer to prepare the ground for discussions by an ad hoc group and not let ourselves be taken by surprise, if there are any surprises.” (Cor Unum, 16/07/2007)
18. What is the second act of Benedict XVI which poses a problem?
It is the decree lifting the latae sententiae excommunications of the Society Bishops (21/01/2009), which didn’t correspond either with the second requirement of the 2006 Chapter, which is to say: “The repeal of the Decree of Excommunication of the four Society Bishops.”
For, just as in 1988, “For Rome, the goal of these discussions is reconciliation, as Cardinal Gagnon says, the return of the lost sheep into the sheepfold. When we think of the history of relations between Rome and Traditionalists from 1965 to our own time, we are obliged to state that it is one cruel, relentless persecution to oblige us to submit to the Council. The conciliar, modernist Rome of today could never tolerate the existence of a healthy, vigorous branch of the Church which condemns them by its vitality.” (Abp. Lefebvre, Econe, 19/06/1988)
19. But it doesn’t matter a great deal whether the excommunications are “repealed” or “lifted”, does it?
“The Society refuses to ask for a ‘lifting of the sanctions.’ It is seeking ‘the repeal of the decree of excommunication’ and anyone can see that the terms which we employed to make our request are that way by design. We want to make manifest our conviction that the sanctions are invalid.” (Fr. de Cacqueray, Suresnes, 31/12/2008)
20. But the result is there, and in spite of everything, it is positive!
“If what we’re talking about is really the repeal of a decree - and not the lifting of excommunications – then that will be the beginning of repairing the unprecedented injustice that we know of, and we will be able to rejoice. However, if there were to be a “lifting of excommunications,” then things would be quite different. That would not correspond to our second requirement, and it would not cleanse our Bishops of the unjust proceedings that have been practised against them. If we allow it to be thought that the penalties pronounced were not invalid, and perhaps were deserved, would that not result, in a certain sense at least, in a new and more profound evil? In that case, Rome, with an appearance of compassion, would have removed penalties which have been found by the same act to have been validly or legitimately made.” (Fr. de Caqcueray, Suresnes, 31/12/2008)
21. How did Bp. Fellay react in public to the lifting of the excommunications?
He expressed his “filial gratitude to the Holy Father for this act which, going beyond the SSPX, will benefit the whole Church ... Besides our recognition to the Holy Father, and to all those who helped him make this courageous act, we are happy that the decree of 21st January sees “discussions” with the Holy See as necessary... In this new climate, we have a firm hope of arriving soon at a recognition of the rights of Catholic Tradition.” (Menzingen, 24/01/2009)
22. Did anyone take issue with this communiqué at that time?
Yes. On the occasion of a meeting of priors, one of them commented that the communiqué told a lie, was deceiving our faithful, and that things needed clarification. He used this image: “When I order a pear cake, and I get delivered an apple cake, I can’t say I’ve obtained what I asked for.”
23. Did Bp. Fellay publicly correct the position he had taken?
No. The following year, the prior was silenced and appointed as a junior priest in a new post. In the meantime, Bp. Fellay wrote in the internal bulletin of the Society: “At the same time as I handed over to the Cardinal the bouquet for Pope Benedict XVI, I received from his hands the decree signed by Cardinal Re, dated 21st January. How can one not see the hand of Our Lady in that? I swear to you, I am still today amazed by it. This goes beyond human expectations, even if the decree speaks of remitting [pardoning] the excommunications and not of cancelling the decree of 1988, and even if the text arranges things in such a way that the Holy See doesn’t lose face. The essential thing is still that the excommunications - which we have always contested – no longer exist, and the path recommended by us of discussions of the root problems (doctrine, faith, etc.) is recognised as necessary. In the present circumstances, it seems to me to be unrealistic to expect more from the current authorities." (Cor Unum, 08/02/2009)
24. Surely what matters is the effect?
No, since “The essential thing is that the excommunications no longer exist” is another way of saying that we’re content with having a thing materially whereas we wanted to have it formally.
25. So in spite of these “even if”s, Bishop Fellay considered the second requirement fulfilled?
Yes. Not only would he engage in discussions with Rome, but he had already begun to talk to members of a “canonical situation, when it will be possible” where “we would necessarily have to have a system of protection, as Archbishop Lefebvre so wisely foresaw, with a committee for the defence of Tradition in Rome at its head.” (Cor Unum, 08/02/2009)
26. So we began the discussions with Rome on a false foundation?
Completely, since “we don’t see reconciliation in the same way. Cardinal Ratzinger sees it in the sense of reducing us, of bringing us back to Vatican II. We see it as the return of Rome to Tradition. We don’t agree with one another. It’s a dialogue of the deaf.” (Archbishop Lefebvre, Fideliter, Sept-Oct 1988)
27. But we’re no longer in the era of John-Paul II.
“But, is the thinking of Benedict XVI better in this respect than that of John Paul II? It is enough to read the study made by one of us three, The Faith in Peril from Reason, to realize that the thought of the current Pope is also impregnated of subjectivism. It is all the subjective imagination of the man in the place of the objective reality of God. It is all the Catholic religion subjected to the modern world.” (Bishops Williamson, Tissier, de Galarreta 07/04/2012)
28. All the same, even if both the requirements were not strictly speaking met, in terms of the media and also psychologically speaking they showed that Benedict XVI was really benevolent towards the Society and its doctrinal position.
“As a subjectivist this can easily be the case, because liberal subjectivists can tolerate even the truth, but not if one refuses to tolerate error. He would accept us within the framework of relativistic and dialectical pluralism, with the proviso that we would remain in “full communion,” in relation to the authority and to other “ecclesiastical entities.” For this reason the Roman authorities can tolerate that the Society continue to teach Catholic doctrine, but they will absolutely not permit that it condemn Conciliar teachings. That is why an even purely practical agreement would necessarily silence little by little the Society, a full critique of the Council or the New Mass. By ceasing to attack the most important of all the victories of the Revolution, the poor Society would necessarily cease being opposed to the universal apostasy of our sad times and would get bogged down.”
(Bishops Williamson, Tissier, de Galarreta 07/04/2012)
29. But when Rome calls on us to take part in discussions, we have to come running, don’t we?
No! We mustn’t rush in: “I will lay down my conditions for eventually resuming talks with Rome” (Abp. Lefebvre, Fideliter Sept-Oct 1988) Note well that these conditions are for entering back into contact, and not for signing an agreement!
30. What were the conditions, so wisely foreseen by Archbishop Lefebvre, for eventually resuming talks with Rome?
“At that point, I will be the one to lay down conditions. I shall not accept being in the position where I was put during the dialogue. No more. I will place the discussion at the doctrinal level: ‘Do you agree with the great encyclicals of all the popes who preceded you? Do you agree with Quanta Cura of Pius IX, Immortale Dei and Libertas of Leo XIII, Pascendi Gregis of Pius X, Quas Primas of Pius XI, Humani Generis of Pius XII? Are you in full communion with these Popes and their teachings? Do you still accept the entire Anti-Modernist Oath? Are you in favor of the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ? If you do not accept the doctrine of your predecessors, it is useless to talk! As long as you do not accept the correction of the Council, in consideration of the doctrine of these Popes, your predecessors, no dialogue is possible. It is useless.’ The positions will then be made more clear.” (Abp. Lefebvre, Fideliter Sept-Oct 1988)
31. Did the work of our theologians lack clarity?
Absolutely not. “On our side, our experts have shown the opposition between the Church of all time and the teaching of Vatican II, and what came from it.” (Bp. Fellay, Cor Unum, March 2012)
32. What were the results of these discussions?
“The discussions have shown a profound disagreement on virtually all the points touched upon.” (Bp. Fellay, Cor Unum, March 2012)
33. So why this “proposition from the Roman congregation to recognise the Society through the juridical status of a Personal Prelature on condition that we sign an ambiguous text?” (Bp. Fellay, Cor Unum, March 2012)
The discussions with Rome showed “that they are not ready to renounce the Second Vatican Council” and they want “to bring us to it.” However the return of the Society could “be useful” to the Conciliar Church “in order to endorse the renewal of the reform with continuity.” (Bp. De Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/2011)
34. But is Bp. Fellay aware of that?
Yes. “So we received a proposal which was an attempt to make us enter into the system of the hermeneutic of continuity.” (Bp. Fellay, Cor Unum, March 2012) And in the same document, he claims to be surprised by this proposal from Rome.
35. Surprised or not, what does he decide to do?
First of all, to call a meeting of all the Society superiors (except Bishop Williamson) at Albano to seek advice. (Oct. 2011)
36. What was said to him at this meeting?
That the offer from Rome was “confused, equivocal, false and evil concerning essentials.” “Their doctrinal preamble” is “worse than the protocol of 1988, particularly regarding the Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium.” “Given the circumstances, it is certain that in the end, after a long palaver, we would end up with absolutely nothing.” To continue the contacts would “necessarily mean some harming of the common good that we possess, for the Society and for the family of Tradition.” (Bp. De Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/2011)
37. Did he follow the advice?
No.
38. So Bishop Fellay showed a serious lack of prudence?
Yes, but that wasn’t his only fault, because doing that meant going against the will of the General Chapter of 2006. Therefore, there has been not only a very rash imprudence, but also a serious disobedience.
39. Which means?
In March 2012, the Superior General wrote the following to all the members of the Society: “The few acts of Benedict XVI ad intra affecting the liturgy, discipline and morals are important even though their implementation still leaves much to be desired. Some young bishops clearly show us their sympathies ... It may be that these things are more obvious in Rome! We now have friendly contacts in the most important dicasteries, and equally among those closest to the Pope!”
Bishop Fellay thinks he is witnessing “the restoration of the Church. While one should not exclude the return of a Julian the Apostate, I do not think this movement could be stopped. If this is true, and that's for sure, it demands of us a new position in relation to the official Church. This is the appropriate context in which to consider the question of the Society’s recognition by the official Church. It’s a question of having a supernatural view of the Church, and the fact that She is still in the hands of Our Lord Jesus Christ, although disfigured by Her enemies. Our new friends in Rome confirm that the impact of such a recognition would be extremely powerful, throughout the whole Church, like a confirmation of the importance of Tradition for the Church. All the same, such a concrete realisation requires two absolutely necessary points in order to ensure our survival: the first is that the Society not be asked for concessions on anything touching the Faith, or flowing from it (liturgy, sacraments, morals, discipline). The second is that a real liberty and autonomy of action be granted to the Society, and that it be permitted to live and develop concretely. These are the concrete circumstances which will demonstrate when the time has arrived to make steps back towards the official Church. Today, and in spite of the Roman approach of 14th September, and because of the attached conditions, that still seems to be impossible. When God wishes it, the time will arrive. We can no longer exclude the possibility, because the Pope is putting his full weight behind this matter, that it reaches a sudden end.” (Cor Unum)
40. How could he justify such a change of direction?
By scorning all friendly warnings and cancelling the decisions of the 2006 Chapter which bound him.
41. Which “friendly warnings” are you thinking of?
This one in particular: “To proceed in the direction of a practical agreement will mean breaking our word and our engagements in front of our priests, our faithful, Rome and the whole world. Such an approach would demonstrate a serious diplomatic weakness on the part of the Society, and to tell the truth, more than just a diplomatic weakness. It would be a lack of coherence, of uprightness and of firmness, the effect of which would be the loss of the credibility and moral authority which we enjoy at present. The simple fact alone of setting out down this road will bring us distrust and division. Lots of superiors and priests will have a problem of conscience and will oppose it. Authority, and even the principle of authority, will be called into question and undermined. Therefore, this is not the time to change the decision of the 2006 Chapter. (Bp. De Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/2011)
42. What did this decision of the 2006 Chapter say?
“The contacts made from time to time with the authorities in Rome have no other purpose than to help them embrace once again that Tradition which the Church cannot repudiate without losing her identity. The purpose is not just to benefit the Society, nor to arrive at some merely practical impossible agreement. When Tradition comes back into its own, "reconciliation will no longer be a problem, and the Church will spring back to life.”
43. What did Bp. Fellay think of the conditions of the 2006 Chapter?
“The 2006 Chapter gave a line which was, one might say clear, but which I would venture to suggest was too abstract. It’s a clear line, it says: the discussions are in order to help Rome return to Tradition and we don’t want to discuss a practical agreement; when Rome returns there will no longer be a problem. How does one judge that? How far does it go? Is it total or partial? On what points?"
44. What did he do with these clear decisions?
He officially threw them in the dustbin in March 2012, in Cor Unum.
45. How?
Through a sophism.
46. Which one?
This one: the so-called “new situation” which requires a new “direction”; the decision of the 2006 chapter is not a “principle” but a “guideline which must inform our concrete action”.
“We're here in front of reasoning in which the major premise is the affirmation of the principle of the primacy of faith in order to remain Catholic. The minor premise is a historical observation on the current situation of the Church and the practical conclusion is based on the virtue of prudence governing human action, not to seek an agreement to the detriment of the faith. In 2006, the heresies continued to emerge, the authorities were even propagating the modern and modernist spirit of Vatican II and were imposing on everyone like a steamroller (that’s the minor premise). Reaching a workable agreement: impossible without the authorities being converted, otherwise we would be crushed, shredded, destroyed or subjected to such strong pressure that we could not resist (that’s the conclusion). If the minor premise were to have changed, that is to say, if there were to be a change in the situation of the Church in relation to the Tradition, this could lead to a corresponding change in the conclusion, without our principles having changed in the slightest! As Divine Providence is expressed through the reality of the facts, to know His Will we must attentively follow the reality of the Church, observe it, scrutinise what’s going on. However, there is no doubt that since 2006, we are witnessing a development in the Church, an important and very interesting development, though barely visible." (Bishop Fellay, Cor Unum, March 2012)
47. Where is the error in this reasoning?
It is in a blindness which refuses to see reality for what it is: the authorities are still, in 2012, propagating the modern and modernist spirit of Vatican II! For Cardinal Ratzinger, “there is no Tradition. There is not deposit to transmit. The Tradition of the Church is whatever the current Pope happens to be saying today. You have to submit to what the Pope and the bishops are saying today. That’s what Tradition means to them, the famous “living tradition,” sole motive of our condemnation... It’s is the tyranny of authority.”
(Archbishop Lefebvre, quoted by Bishop de Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/2011)
48. In view of this blindness, were there reactions, was there opposition?
Yes, and of very good quality too. As Bp. De Galarreta predicted, “lots of superiors and priests” had a “problem of conscience” and “opposed” it. But they were not all that numerous in quantity, for: “Do we not already see within the Society the symptoms of a lessening of its confession of the Faith?” (Bps. Williamson, Tissier and de Galarreta)
49. Was not Bp. Fellay misled by “the contradiction reigning in Rome” (Bp. Fellay, DICI 264)
Rome has always used the same wrong but clear and precise language. By contrast, the Superior General during recent years has made use of ambiguity and imprecision in his official communiqués and press statements.
50. Couldn’t it be that we’re mistaken about the Pope’s intentions?
No!
51. Why not?
Because on Weds. 20th April 2005, on the day after his election, Benedict XVI in front of 11 Cardinals addressed his first message to the world. In it, he praised Pope John-Paul II, “his teaching and his example”:
“Pope John Paul II rightly pointed out the [Second Vatican] Council as a ‘compass’ by which to take our bearings in the vast ocean of the third millennium. Thus, as I prepare myself for the service that is proper to the Successor of Peter, I also wish to confirm my determination to continue to put the Second Vatican Council into practice, following in the footsteps of my Predecessors and in faithful continuity with the 2,000-year tradition of the Church... the Conciliar Documents have lost none of their timeliness; indeed, their teachings are proving particularly relevant to the new situation of the Church and the current globalized society.” (L'Osservatore Romano, 21/04/2005)
52. What did Bp. Fellay think of Benedict XVI when he was first elected?
“Very briefly, let me summarise the thought by using an image: if we took the allegory of a freefall to describe the Pontificate of John Paul II, we can predict that Benedict XVI will try to open a parachute, but one whose size we don’t yet know. The effect of the parachute will be to slow down the fall to some extent, but the descent will continue. This situation could deceive more than one or two people, making them believe that the restoration of the Church is at hand. Short of a miracle, that is not the case. The standard is still going to be Vatican II, as well as the broad guidelines of collegiality, ecumenism and religious liberty, with an emphasis being placed on “ecumenism” with “our nearest neighbours”, whether the Orthodox, the Anglicans or the Jews. Regarding the question of the liturgy, we can expect a reinforcing of Ecclesia Dei as well as some sort of attempt at “reform of the reform”." (Cor Unum, June 2005)
53. And what about in 2012, when they were all busy celebrating 50 years of Vatican II with indulgences being offered to the faithful who assisted at conferences on Vatican II?
“One may observe a change of attitude in the Church, helped by the gestures and acts of Benedict XVI towards Tradition. ... The hierarchy in favour of Vatican II is losing speed. ... I have been able to observe in Rome that even if the glories of Vatican II are still in the mouths of many, and are pushed down our throats, it is nevertheless not in all the heads.”
(Letter, 14/04/2012)
54. Be honest: there is some truth in that statement.
Some truth which hides a lot of falsehood. Archbishop Lefebvre, in his judgement, did not omit the most essential thing: principles. In an interview with the magazine Jesus, Cardinal Ratzinger declared that the “values” of “two centuries of liberal culture” which “were born outside the Church” have “found a place in the Church’s view of the world.” But that since the climate was no longer one of 1960s optimism, we have to “continue to look for a new balance.” Archbishop Lefebvre had this to say on the subject:
“It’s clear: religious liberty, ecumenism, it’s the ‘rights of man.’ It’s satanic. And the Cardinal says: ‘That’s one accomplishment, now we have to find a new balance.’ He doesn’t say that we should get rid of principles and values which come from liberal culture, but that we have to find a new balance. This ‘new balance,’ it’s the balance which Opus Dei have: a traditional looking exterior, an exterior piety, an exterior of religious discipline, but with liberal ideas. There’s not concept of fighting against the ‘rights of man,’ against religious liberty and against ecumenism. So, for this balance they’ll have to put down liberation theology a little, put down the French bishops a little due to their catechism, it’ll mean they’ll have to give a little bit of satisfaction to those who have a real nostalgia for the old Mass: and voila! Ultimately, they’ll give the impression of wanting to return to Tradition, but they don’t really want to do so. So we have to warn our faithful, in such a way that they won’t end up being fooled, so that they don’t let themselves be taken in by an exterior traditional reform which would fatally lead them into adopting liberalism and liberal ideas.” (St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, 13/12/1984)
55. Bp. Fellay said he was wrong about the Pope because Rome deceived him.
He can say that, but without proving it. The Pope publicly warned Bishop Fellay and the SSPX:
“This will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium of the Popes ... The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life.” (Benedict XVI, Letter to Bishops, 10/03/2009)
56. Perhaps Benedict XVI is praising Vatican II for political reasons, but deep down he doesn’t really believe in it, as Bishop Fellay claimed when he came to the meeting of SSPX priors in Flavigny to talk about the Beatification of John-Paul II?
If Benedict XVI believes what he himself speaks, then he’s a modernist. If he doesn’t, then he’s a hypocrite. In either case, the will of such a person isn’t worth anything. In either case, it is misplaced to say: “For the common good of the Society, we would far prefer the present solution of the intermediary status quo but it is clear that Rome will put up with it no longer.”
57. You only see what divides us, and never what unites us. Benedict XVI, at least, has condemned the “hermeneutic of rupture.”
You talk like a newcomer who knows nothing about modernist doctrine. Everything is ‘living’ for them, everything is history. Everything is a historical continuity, because, for a modernist, truth evolves with the life of the subjective Church.
58. Perhaps Bp. Fellay was badly advised?
In Menzingen yes, but not in the SSPX at large. District Superiors, Bishops, priest friends, and Superiors of religious orders all warned him. Even voices from within Rome warned him not to take the road he was starting out down. Among the latter was Fr. Ferre, the secretary of Cardinal Canizares, as well as others. (Source: Bp. De Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/12)
59. But Bp. Fellay hasn’t made any concession to, or compromise with, modern Rome.
Maybe, maybe not. We still haven’t yet seen all the documents. In any case, there is this strange confidence of Bp. Fellay: “The 13th June interview with Cardinal Levada well and truly confirmed that the Vatican” has proposed for us “a canonical arrangement” based on “my letter of 14/04/12” whereby “we would have to say at the same time that we were in agreement and not in agreement.” “This extremely delicate letter seems to have been approved by the Cardinals and the Pope.” (Cor Unum, Summer 2012)
60. Do I have to remind you that Bp. Fellay didn’t sign anything on 13th June 2012?
“But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” One can very well commit spiritual adultery in thought or desire, without one’s plans ever coming to fruition.
61. But you’re judging intentions.
Not so! I’m simply reading! Bp. Fellay reproached the other three Bishops for having a vision of the Church which is “too human and even fatalistic.”
- “These gestures over the last few years in our favour are under the government of Benedict XVI.” (Which isn’t true, as we’ve already seen.)
- “Now, these gestures indicate a line - not always a straight line - but a line clearly in favour of Tradition.” (This affirmation is superficial, because it is material and subjectivist, and thus objectively and formally false.)
- “We are in the process of making the Council's errors into super-heresies, as though it is becoming absolute evil, worse than anything... This is serious because such a caricature no longer corresponds to reality.” (One wonders if Bp. Fellay really understood the combat of Abp. Lefebvre, who said: “The Roman replies to our objections tended to show that there was no change, but a continuity of Tradition. These are statements which are worse than the conciliar declaration on religious liberty. This is the real official lie. There is no way we can understand one another, it’s all in continuous evolution. It becomes impossible to speak.” (Abp. Lefebvre, quoted by Bp. De Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/12)
- “Logically it will in the future finish up in a true schism.” (Yet another dishonest sophism, which plays on sentimentality and not cold reflection. In a letter which Abp. Lefebvre wrote to Bp. De Galarreta in 1989, we read: “It seems to me opportune to analyse the action of the devil to weaken our work or reduce it to naught. The first temptation consists of maintaining good relations with the Pope or current bishops. Obviously it is normal to be in harmony with the authorities, as opposed to being in conflict with them. The Society will therefore be accused of exaggerating the errors of Vatican II, of abusively criticising the writings and actions of the Pope and bishops, of being attached to the traditional rites with an excessive rigidity and ultimately of displaying a sectarian tendency which will one day lead to schism. Once the word ‘schism’ starts being mentioned, it will be used as a scarecrow to make seminarians and their families afraid, leading them to abandon the Society more easily than if priests, bishops and Rome itself pretend to offer them guarantees in favour of some sort of ‘Tradition’.”)
- “And it may well be that this fact is one of the arguments pushing me to delay no longer in responding to the pressure from Rome. ... As for the most crucial question of all, that of whether we can survive in the case of the Society being recognised by Rome, we do not arrive at the same conclusion as you do.” (What could be clearer than that?)
62. But this private letter was never intended for public consumption.
So? Is it OK to blaspheme in private as long as you don’t do it in public? Isn’t a perverse but private intention still a perverse intention?
63. Menzingen said that the person responsible for this indiscretion had “sinned gravely”.
On the contrary, we think he did nothing more than his duty. When a leader loses his reason, it’s as well if the rest of the group realises it. And if there was any fault involved: o felix culpa, which revealed the thoughts of the heart.
64. These are serious matters. Unimpeachable proof is needed.
We have quite sufficient words of Bp. Fellay which reveal his innermost thoughts.
65. Which words?
Regarding the “text which they presented” to him “in June,” there were some modifications personally desired by the Pope (the three conditions: Magisterium, Vatican II, New Mass). “When they gave me back this document, I thought to myself ‘No, I can’t sign it. The Society can’t sign it.’ ” (Bp. Fellay, 01/11/2013, DICI 264)
66. How do these words condemn Bishop Fellay?
If the modifications are what made Bishop Fellay decide that he couldn’t sign, that means that on that day there was something which he could sign. “No, I can’t sign it” means that there had been another possibility: “Yes, I’ll sign it.” That being the case, in other words without the Papal modifications, what is it that he could have signed on behalf of the SSPX if not a practical agreement without a doctrinal agreement? And that, contrary to the will of the 2006 Chapter and the more recent extraordinary meeting of Superiors.
67. So without the doctrinal explanations added by the Pope, there would have been a compromise [‘ralliement’]?
Everything points that way. And several indiscretions by the Assistants, Frs. Pfluger and Nely, confirm it.
68. But all the same, Bp. Fellay isn’t a modernist.
Obviously. Nobody has ever thought that. But Cardinal Billot taught that the liberal: “is incoherent, he says yes, he says no, he doesn’t know exactly, who never affirms his position in a completely clear way, who always talks in an ambiguous way, and all due to his concern for pleasing the world.” A liberal inclination is therefore susceptible to the temptation of compromise with an unconverted Rome. That is where the danger lies: in a desire to be accommodating, and not in any direct recognition of the theory of Vatican II. The danger is this liberal illusion which in practice seeks to live in peace with the conciliar system.
69. Why have Bishop Fellay and his General Council been maintaining all the ambiguities? Why were they so imprudent, even to the point of disobedience? Why have they been attempting so dangerous and suicidal a policy?
Because Bishop Fellay and those around him, when all’s said and done, have more in common with the ecclesiology of Benedict XVI than that of Archbishop Lefebvre.
70. What is the ecclesiology of Benedict XVI?
It is that of Cardinal Ratzinger who already in 1988 “insisted on there being only one Church: the Church of Vatican II.” (Abp. Lefebvre, 19/06/1988)
71. Didn’t Archbishop Lefebvre warn us about this false ecclesiology?
Of course! “Cardinal Ratzinger always told me, ‘But Monsignor, there is only one Church, you mustn’t make a parallel church.’ Which is this Church for him? The Conciliar Church, this is clear! And if we mention Tradition to him, Cardinal Ratzinger replies: ‘But the Council, that’s what Tradition is today! You have to return to the Tradition of the Church of today and not of the past! Rejoin the Church of today!’” And Abp. Lefebvre comments: “I could sense very well that that was what was in his mind: it might take a few years perhaps, but he had to bring us back to the spirit of the Council.” (Econe, 09/06/1988)
72. Doesn’t Bishop Fellay also think that there’s only one Church, the concrete Church?
Yes, and he preaches it! “The fact of going to Rome doesn’t mean that we agree with them. But it’s the Church! And it’s the true Church! In rejecting the bad bits, we mustn’t reject everything. It remains the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” (Flavigny, 02/09/2012)
73. Does that really contradict the thinking of Archbishop Lefebvre?
Obviously. “The visible church is recognized by the features that have always given to visibility: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. I ask: Where are the true marks of the Church? Are they more in the official Church (this is not the visible Church, but the official church) or in us, in what we represent, what we are? Clearly we are who preserve the Unity of the faith, which disappeared from the official Church. ... It is not us, but the modernists who are leaving the Church. As for talk of ‘leaving the visible Church,’ it is a mistake to the visible Church one and the same as the official Church. We belong to the visible Church, to the faithful under the authority of the Pope, since we aren’t denying Papal authority, just what he is doing. ... How about ‘Leaving the official Church’, then? In a certain sense, obviously, yes.” (Econe, 09/09/1988)
74. But Archbishop Lefebvre used to go to Rome too.
Yes, but with a very precise and non-negotiable goal: “I can hear them say: ‘You exaggerate! There are more and more good bishops who pray, who have the faith and are edifying!’ - Can they be saints when they admit false Religious Liberty and therefore the secular state? When they accept false ecumenism and therefore the admission that there are many paths leading to salvation? When they accept the liturgical reform and therefore the practical denial of the Sacrifice of the Mass? And the new Catechism with all its heresies and errors? Are they not rather officially cooperating with the revolution within the Church and its destruction? ... One thing alone is necessary for the continuation of the Catholic Church: bishops who are fully Catholic, without any compromise with error, who found Catholic seminaries. ” (Archbishop Lefebvre, Spiritual Journey)
75. Where does this phrase “Conciliar Church” come from?
It comes from a letter from Abp. Lefebvre to Mgr. Benelli (25/06/1976), and since the time of Paul VI (Consistory of 24/05/1976) who viewed as “outside the Church” anyone who “refuses the teachings of the Council”, and on into the era of John-Paul II (Sacræ Disciplinæ Leges 25/01/1983) who saw “in the Code a great effort to translate into the language of canon law the very doctrine of conciliar ecclesiology ... which constitutes the essential novelty of the Second Vatican Council, in continuity with the legislative tradition of the Church,” leading us all the way up to Benedict XVI, there is a perfect (if unique) continuity.
76. How long has Bp. Fellay thought like this?
For several years. “To identify the official Church with the modernist Church is an error, because we’re talking about a concrete reality.” (Bp. Fellay, Flavigny, 16/02/2009)
77. Have people pointed out his error to him?
Of course. At a priests meeting, a theologian and former seminary professor asked him to get rid of this ambiguity regarding the Church: Catholic or Conciliar? He was heard to reply: “I am tired of all this quarrelling over words.”
78. Well that’s a surprising reply!
It is more than just surprising. It is distressing. Forty years of theological combat over the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of words just to end up hearing that from a successor of Abp. Lefebvre! Who himself, in an interview one year after the Consecrations, said the following:
“The talk of ‘visible Church’ by Dom Gerard and M. Madiran is childish! It’s incredible that anyone could talk of the ‘visible Church’ to mean the Conciliar Church in opposition to the Catholic Church which we are trying to represent and to continue. I’m not saying that we are the Catholic Church. I have never said so. But we represent the Catholic Church as it used to be since we are continuing what it has always done... Obviously we are against the conciliar Church which in practical terms is schismatic, even if they don’t accept it. In practice it is a Church which is virtually excommunicated, since it is a Modernist Church.”
79. That’s why Menzingen and its press organs (DICI...) always avoid using terms such as “Conciliar Church”, “Church of Vatican II”, etc...
Undoubtedly. And more worrying still, most recently the General Chapter of 2012 didn’t want to take up and make their own again either the words of the 1974 Declaration: “We refuse and have always refused to follow the Rome of neo-Protestand and neo-Modernist tendencies, which is manifested clearly in Vatican II and after the Council in all the reforms which came from it” or the words of the Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin: “We never wanted to belong to this system which calls itself the Conciliar Church, and which defines itself by the Novus Ordo Missae, indifferentist Ecumenism and the secularisation of all society. Yes, we have nothing whatever to do, nullam partem habemus, with the Assisi Pantheon of religions. We can ask for no better than to be declared ex communione...”
80. But isn’t talking of a new Church dangerous for one’s faith?
It’s not dangerous, it’s necessary. It’s reality!
“It is a new Church which has arisen. ...They are obsessed with fidelity to Vatican II which for them is the new Church, it’s the conciliar Church with its own sacraments, its own faith, its own liturgy, catechisms, all in all it’s terrifying, terrifying. We can’t submit to that, it’s impossible! ...So what would I be asking? Ask the seminarians to swear an oath of submission to the conciliar Church? That’s not possible. No, no, it’s clear now that we’re dealing with a new Church, a Church which is twelve years old.” (Cospec 33B, 1976)
81. Today the conciliar Church is fifty years old. Has nothing changed, deep down?
Yes, one thing has changed. Today Bp. Fellay, the superior of the Society founded by Abp. Lefebvre intends to make the Catholic faithful believe that this fifty-year-old conciliar Church is the same reality as the Catholic Church, whereas the former is the corruption of the latter.
82. Is it unacceptable for you?
Not for me. In itself. Just as it was unacceptable for everyone who assisted at the Consecrations in 1988 and who applauded the anathema which Abp. Lefebvre hurled upon the conciliar spirit:
“What is this truth for them if not the truth of Vatican II, the truth of the Conciliar Church? Consequently, it is clear that the only truth that exists today for the Vatican is the conciliar truth, the spirit of the Council, the spirit of Assisi. That is the truth of today. But we want nothing to do with this for anything in the world! For anything in the world!” (Long and thunderous applause follows.) (Abp. Lefebvre, 30/06/1988)
83. For you, neither Rome nor Benedict XVI should be spared?
Not for me! For Abp. Lefebvre, with whom I agree. For Abp. Lefebvre, “we abandon, practically speaking, the fight for the faith,” when we cease, “attacking Rome.” (Fideliter, quoted by Bp. de Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/2011)
84. OK, so even if the head of the SSPX is no longer in its right mind, at least Rome won’t try anything again, after the failure and refusal of an agreement by the SSPX?
Rome may have lost one battle, but not the war. “If they break with us, a pause in the constant tension which these contacts bring the Society would be welcome, and, in my eyes, providential. In any case, knowing them, they won’t waste any time in getting back into contact with us.” (Bp. de Galarreta, Albano, 07/10/11)
85. Is that so?
As it happened, it didn’t take long. In December 2012 Abp. Di Noia addressed a letter to all the members of the Society regarding “an agreement”. For that, we have to “rise above the seemingly insurmountable disagreements on the authority and interpretation of the Council” in order to “truly desire unity.” He invited us not to lose “the zeal of [our] founder.” For that, we have to “stop publicly correcting others in the Church” and not “usurp the mission of the Sovereign Pontiff.” That way, “the authentic charism of the Society” which “consists of forming priests” will be of use to the Church. We have to abandon our “desire for autonomy” and “seek reconciliation.” “The only future for the SSPX,” he claimed, “is to be found on the road to full communion with the Holy See.”
86. What ought we to think of that?
“Vatican II is the uncrowning of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the denial of His rights over societies. Vatican II is an immeasurably harmful and scandalous ‘kindness’ towards souls in relation to these societies, factories of error and vice and purveyors of Hell, which are quite improperly called ‘other religions.’ Vatican II is the triumph of democratism inside the Church which renders all authority illusory, and any command nigh on impossible, and which permits the proliferation of heresy and schism. Vatican II is, in reality, the greatest ever disaster in the Church... To recover, we must get rid of it. In no way whatsoever, therefore, could the SSPX cease from its immense fight to confess the faith, which must include the denouncing of error. The SSPX must remain humble and respectful, but intrepid, fearless, to continue to say what needs to be said, to confess what must be confessed, to denounce everything that needs to be denounced.” (Fr. de Cacqueray, Suresnes, 31/12/2008)
87. But since Bp. Fellay has declared, three times, that he doesn’t want to sign, why do Rome say that they’re still waiting for a response, and giving the Society more time?
Because Bp. Fellay, due to his false ecclesiology, and the perpetual temptation of compromise [‘ralliement’] refuses to denounce Benedict XVI publicly as an instigator of error. He remains fixed on the documents of Abp. Lefebvre in 1987 saying “We accept being recognised as we are by the Pope and to bring our assistance to a renewal of the Church, we never wished to break with the successor of Peter...” (Letter to Cardinal Gagnon, 21/11/1987)
He refuses to see the evolution and conclusion of Abp. Lefebvre after 1988 who said himself that he had gone too far in his dealings with Rome.
88. So, is this condition which Bp. Fellay has made his own, that we be “recognised as we are” therefore ambiguous?
Yes, because it can be made to fit with the “hermeneutic of continuity” and because this formula is a form of ecumenism, mixing truth and error together in the same ecclesiastical structure.
89. When will this crisis in the Society come to an end?
The crisis will come to an end when Menzingen:
- gets rid of the ambiguities;
- calls things by their name: a modernist is a modernist, even if he’s the Pope; a virtually schismatic conciliar Church is a virtually schismatic conciliar Church, even if it shows favour towards the cassock and the so-called “extraordinary form”;
- and decides to publicly demand the conditions laid down by Abp. Lefebvre.
90. To finish: “What’s going to happen with Rome? Excommunication? Things staying as tey are? Or the situation becoming unblocked?” (Bp. Fellay, Econe, 07/09/2012)
Bp. Fellay answered the question himself: “I’ll tell you: expect a bit of everything.”
91. What does that mean?
It means that we’re not out of the doctrinal area of turbulence. The proof is in these words of Bp. Fellay at a time when they’re trying to beatify Paul VI:
“But look and that’s very interesting. Who, during that time, was the most opposed that the Church would recognize the Society? The enemies of the Church. ... I may say that’s the kind of argument we’re going to use with Rome. Trying to make them reflect, trying to make them reflect. ... I have absolutely no idea when there will be an agreement, and the term “agreement” is not the right word, but “recognition”, “normalisation.” ... [in spite] of everything that is not well, there is some hope. I am optimistic in this situation. ... I say, if you look at the situation in the Church, it’s still winter. But we start to see the little signs that start to say that spring is coming.” (New Hamburg, 28/12/2012)
92. What are we to do?
Follow the advice of a confrere: when you go through a patch of turbulence, you’re told “put your seatbelt on” but “don’t buckle it.” (‘Le Chardonnet’ newsletter, July-August 2012)
93. You’re a pessimist.
No, I’m a realist. Our Superior sees the devil at work everywhere in the SSPX, everywhere that is except in Menzingen. He is incapable of questioning himself. As a confrere said, in reference to the unjust persecutions by the General Headquarters (intimidations, monitions, transfers, delaying ordinations, and the expulsion of priests and one of our bishops):
“In the final analysis, they’ve established a veritable dictatorship in the Society. They have knowingly ignored the warnings of prudent people who counselled them not to go after a practical agreement with modernist Rome. They have undermined the unity and the common good of the Society, exposing it to the danger of a compromise with the enemies of the Church. And finally, they contradict themselves by affirming the opposite of what they themselves were saying only a few years ago. They have thus betrayed the legacy of Abp. Lefebvre, the responsibility of their duties, the trust of thousands of people, and even of those who, fooled by them, continue to trust them. They have manifested a determined will to lead the Society, cost what it may, into a compromise with our enemies. It hardly matters if the agreement with the conciliar Church isn’t yet concluded today, or if it doesn’t happen in the immediate future, or ever... a grave danger for the Society remains, since they haven’t retracted the false principles which have been guiding their destructive actions...”
(Fr. Ortiz, December 2012)
94. Is that your last word?
No. To every lord, every honour. I will allow our Superior General to have the final word, despite all the harm that he has done.
“We should expect Rome to try to bring us into a universalist amalgam, where we would end up being offered a place “among others”, a little bit like they are already declaring the Orthodox to be “sister churches”. We can think that the temptation to re-enter “officialdom” could be very great, in proportion to the offers which ecumenist Rome could offer us; refusing therefore to enter into this confusion, we would be made to look like wicked villains. At the moment, this is just a hypothesis...” (Bp. Fellay, Cor Unum, March 1995)
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| Whistleblower reveals pregnancy complications after COVID-19 vaccine |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 04:14 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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Whistleblower reveals pregnancy complications after COVID-19 vaccine
'I guess most of the doctors don’t understand the science. I can’t believe more aren’t fighting this.
It’s against the Nuremberg code and a horrible crime against humanity.'
Albuquerque, NEW MEXCIO, March 9, 2021 (Abortion Free New Mexico) — Last month, Abortion Free New Mexico released a report on a woman from Michigan, who at 28 weeks of pregnancy, received the first dose of Pfizer’s BioNTech vaccine. She later delivered a nonviable 29-week old baby. Her baby had no heartbeat within three days of the vaccine and she reported the stillbirth directly to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) website attributing the vaccine to her baby’s death.
Abortion Free New Mexico continues to receive information from a whistleblower, who sits on a COVID-19 task force, who is concerned not only about these adverse reactions in pregnant women but also about how the media is not alerting the public to these reactions that are resulting in stillbirths at an alarming rate.
According to our whistleblower:
Quote:We’re up to 35 adverse pregnancy outcomes (preterm birth, miscarriage, spontaneous abortion) related to the ‘vaccine’ and 25 ‘birth defects’. There have been 925 deaths reported overall with about 300 of them within 2 days of getting the shot. These are just short term effects!
There are also reports of ‘permanent disability’. There will be more later and by then it will be difficult to link them to the vaccine.
This is VERY VERY bad and so many people have already been vaccinated. Many will develop severe autoimmune diseases like MS, infertility, & prion diseases, thrombocytopenia, alzheimers, nonspecific brain damage, lung immunopathology, multiple organ failure.
I guess most of the doctors don’t understand the science. I can’t believe more aren’t fighting this. It’s against the Nuremberg code and a horrible crime against humanity. Since the embryo/fetus is so quickly developing they’re a good indicator of toxicity.
The other scientists on my team seem ‘afraid’ to say anything and everything we put out is filtered through the politicians before THEY decide what gets told to the public.
None of the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for pregnant women and are being distributed without full approval from the FDA on an emergency approval basis. In addition, all four of the vaccines currently being distributed are produced and/or tested with cell lines that originated from an aborted child.
According to the National Vaccine Information Center, as of February 18, 2021, there have been an additional 46 complications reported of pregnant women who have received a COVID 19 vaccine. These complications range from stillbirth, premature delivery due to spontaneous rupture of amniotic fluid, abnormal fetal heart rate and more. Complications are occurring both early and late in the pregnancies.
Tara Shaver, spokeswoman for Abortion Free New Mexico issued the following statement:
Quote:Pregnant women are being mislead to believe that the Pfizer and Moderna COVID 19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy. However, our whistleblower who is currently working on a COVID 19 task-force is very concerned about the large amount of adverse short term effects already being reported, especially in pregnant women. In addition, it is disturbing that OBGYN doctors are advising pregnant women to take the vaccines. In one instance two doctors, in Virginia, made this recommendation and within two days a woman miscarried her baby. This vaccine is leaving a trail of devastated mothers and who knows what the long term fertility issues may be for these women. The COVID 19 vaccines being administered to pregnant women must be halted immediately. These vaccines should not be promoted by the medical community as safe because the evidence is mounting that they, in fact, are not.
VAERS report of woman who miscarried her nearly 9-week old unborn baby after receiving the Moderna COVID19 vaccine.
MedAlerts offers an alternative to the official VAERS search engine, CDC Wonder. Both are built from the government’s raw data, but MedAlerts has a better user interface, more powerful search capabilities, and more extensive reporting, making it the best VAERS search facility.
Addendum from Operation Rescue
Excerpts from a report published by The Epoch Times discuss additional medical concerns regarding the use of COVID-19 vaccinations on pregnant and lactating women, and the use of alternatives. We are presenting this for informational purposes only. Consult your doctor before taking supplements or drugs.
Quote:Dr. Shelley Cole, MD, an OB-GYN and a member of America’s Frontline Doctors, says it’s concerning that a vaccine still in an experimental phase is being recommended to pregnant and lactating women and that science is no longer protecting them.
“As an obstetrician-gynecologist, it is a concern,” Cole told The Epoch Times. “We’re [now] throwing science and the scientific medicine method out the window and jeopardizing pregnancies and future pregnancies.”
“It concerns me that the CDC says that there are no studies, but it’s okay to get it and you don’t even need to discuss it with your doctor,” Cole added. “I mean this is the opposite of everything that the scientific models and methods, and standard of care has been for a century.”
***
Cole—while certified in OB-GYN, now focusing only on gynecology—has treated over 550 patients with COVID-19, and says she understands the fear pregnant women may have of contracting a severe illness from COVID-19.
But she disagrees with the CDC, saying people have the option of being treated early with hydroxychloroquine instead of waiting until the disease progresses requiring hospitalization. She also recommends taking 1000 milligrams of vitamin C twice a day and “2000 to 5000, international units a day” of vitamin D to help strengthen the immune system.
Individuals should discuss with their physician before taking the supplements.
“So it is scary, it is scary, but the vast majority of women that are pregnant are under the age of 40, the death rate is extremely low,” Cole said. “And people do not have to go to the hospital if they’re treated early, or if they use early prevention.”
“Now hydroxychloroquine is safe to use in pregnant women, it’s safe to use in any age group, it’s safe to use in breastfeeding women,” she added.
— The Epoch Times, “3 Dozen Cases of Spontaneous Miscarriages, Stillbirths Occurring After COVID-19 Vaccination” published March 1, 2021.
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| PCR Test inventor Kary Mullis on A. Fauci |
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Posted by: SAguide - 03-10-2021, 04:06 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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The Nobel Prize-winning inventor of the PCR Test Kary Mullis on Anthony Fauci
Kary Mullis, American biochemist and inventor of the PCR test, talks about Anthony Fauci. Interesting
too how he died in August 2019, just before they started using his PCR test! -comment posted below the video
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| Little Catechism of the Second Vatican Council |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 02:12 PM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Little Catechism of the Second Vatican Council
Part I
Preface
Vatican II is not a council like the others. This council, which was held in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in four sessions from 1962 until 1965 under the pontificates of Popes John XIII (1958-1963) and Paul VI (1963-1978), was the occasion, if not the principal cause, of the gravest crisis the Church has known in its history.
The studies concerning this council are numerous, but often voluminous and very technical. We have thought that it would be useful to provide for Catholics of good will a relatively short text, explaining what Vatican II declared and what is unacceptable for Catholics who want to remain faithful to the traditional infallible teaching of the Church.
After a brief introduction on the authority of the council, we will briefly analyze each of the 16 documents, presenting them in a thematic order.
Introduction - The Authority of the Second Vatican Council
What is an ecumenical council?
An ecumenical council is an assembly of bishops of the entire world convoked by the pope, who conducts its meetings (called “sessions”), whether directly or via legates, and who approves the texts, so that they have a binding value for the whole Church. There have been in the history of the Church twenty ecumenical councils since the Council of Nicaea in 325 until the First Vatican Council in 1870.
Is Vatican II a council like the others?
Vatican II is an atypical council because the popes who convoked and conducted it, John XXIII and Paul VI, declared that it was not a dogmatic council, like all the preceding councils, but a pastoral council. In other words, its aim was not to define doctrine against errors, but to perform an updating (aggiornamento) of this doctrine to adapt it to the thinking of our contemporaries.
Does Vatican II contain infallible teachings?
Here again, differently than all the preceding ecumenical councils, the Second Vatican Council does not contain any infallible teaching. For a council to be infallible, it must pronounce solemn judgments, which this council refused to do.
Even if it is not infallible, can it not be admitted that Vatican II was assisted by the Holy Ghost?
Our Lord Jesus Christ promised the assistance of the Holy Ghost for the transmission of Revelation: “the Paraclete the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and suggest unto you all things whatsoever I shall say to you.” (Jn 14:26) [Rheims version].
But, without renouncing the transmission of Revelation, the Council proposed the aggiornamento of the Church, i.e., its adaptation to the modern world, notably by introducing into the Church “the best expressed values of two centuries of ‘liberal’ culture”1, and by working to “smooth the way toward unity of mankind.”2.
Why cannot the Holy Ghost aid the Church in acquiring the values of liberal culture, once purified and corrected3?
Liberalism is an error condemned by two centuries of teaching from the Magisterium of the Church. Such a condemnation is infallible in virtue of the Universal Ordinary Magisterium of the Church. As the Holy Ghost cannot contradict Himself, He cannot assist the council fathers in making these values of liberalism enter into the Church.
Why cannot the Holy Ghost aid the Church in working toward the unity of mankind?
The Church was founded to save souls and unite them to Our Lord Jesus Christ. In so doing, the Church works indirectly for peace, propagating charity in souls: “Seek therefore first the Kingdom of God, and the justice of him [the union to Our Lord Jesus Christ by grace]: and all these things [including peace] shall be given you besides.” (Mt. 6:33) [Rheims version].
But today Freemasonry seeks to reshape the unity of mankind (“globalism”) by human means and by positively excluding Our Lord Jesus Christ in virtue of “secularism”.
As was especially seen after the Council (with the secularization of the States and inter-religious meetings), the men of the Church collaborate in this work by means of religious liberty, ecumenism, and inter-religious dialogue. The Holy Ghost cannot assist the Church in working toward an end that is not Her own.
1. Cardinal Ratzinger, interview with the monthly Jesus, November 1984, p. 72: “The problem with the 1960s was to acquire the best expressed values of two centuries of ‘liberal’ culture. There are values that, even if they are born outside of the Church, can find their place—purified and corrected—in its vision of the world. This is what was done.” The cardinal only specifies what the Council itself said: “This council, first of all, wishes to assess in this light [of the faith] those values which are most highly prized today and to relate them to their divine source. Insofar as they stem from endowments conferred by God on man, these values are exceedingly good. Yet they are often wrenched from their rightful function by the taint in man’s heart, and hence stand in need of purification.” (GS 11,2) [www.vatican.va translation].
2. John XXIII, Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 11 October 1962, DC 1383 (4 November 1962): “While it [the Council] focuses the Church’s chief energies and earnestly strives to have people accept more favorably the message of salvation, it is, as it were, preparing and consolidating the path that can bring about that unity of the human race” [Komonchak translation §20].
3. Cardinal Ratzinger, interview with the monthly Jesus, November 1984, p. 72.
Insofar as popes and bishops spoke at the Council, should not one then obey and accept Vatican II?
The council Fathers decided to adopt “forms of inquiry and literary formulation of modern thought”1, i.e., the “new theology”2 founded on modern philosophy. Now, this philosophy is subjective: truth does not come from outside; it comes, at least in part, from the knowing subject. But if truth does not come from outside, the hierarchy cannot impose it: so, the Council inaugurated a new type of magisterium, a living and dialoging magisterium that has lost its binding aspect.
Why did the council Fathers adopt this new theology?
Since they wanted to adapt the teaching of the Church to the modern world, they had to find a way to modify this teaching. The solution was to adopt modern subjectivist philosophy, according to which, as we have said, truth comes, at least in part, from the knowing subject. And consequently it evolves with it. What was true yesterday (e.g., that the Church cannot adopt religious liberty) is not true today3. So, thanks to this new theology, one could perform an updating of the Church and reconcile it with the modern world.
Are there calculated ambiguities in the Council?
Father Schillebeeckx himself affirms this in the Dutch review De Bazuin (23 January 1965)4:
Quote:A theologian of the doctrinal commission—to whom, already during the second session, I had expressed my disappointment in the face of the minimalism on papal collegiality—responded to me, to calm me down: “We will explain it in a diplomatic way, but after the Council we will draw the implicit conclusions.”
Were there external influences on the Council?
The power of the media exerted a very strong influence. It was the fear of this influence which made Pius XI and Pius XII abandon their projects to reconvene a council to pursue the work interrupted by the First Vatican Council.
There was also a more discreet but nonetheless real influence due to the more or less secret agreements with the Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Communists, and Freemasons5.
—With the Orthodox and the Communists: For inviting Orthodox observers to the Council, John XXIII committed to not condemn communism6.
—With the Jews: Jewish leaders secretly received, at the Community Center of Peace at Strasbourg during the winter of 1962-1963, Father Congar O.P., sent by Cardinal Bea in the name of John XXIII, on the brink of the Council, to ask what the Jews expected from the Catholic Church7; Cardinal Bea himself secretly visited the Jewish American Committee at New York, 31 March 1963, with the same aim8.
—With the Protestants and Freemasons: In September 1961 Cardinal Bea secretly met in Milan the pastor Willem A. Visser’t Hooft, secretary general of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (very masonic organization of Protestant origin). Later, 22 July 1965, the same Ecumenical Council of Churches published the list of its seven requirements regarding religious liberty: all of them were satisfied by the Council in the document Dignitatis humanæ9.
(Catechism to be continued)
1. John XXIII, Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 11 October 1962 (from the Italian text [Komonchak translation]). The same text in: John XXIII – Paul VI, Discours au Concile, Paris, le Centurion, 1966, p. 64.
2. This expression signifies the neo-Modernist theology of the 1940s. See Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., “La nouvelle Théologie où va-t-elle?“, Angelicum 23 (1946), p. 126-145, translated in Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, “Where Is the New Theology Leading Us?,” trans. by Suzanne M. Rini, Catholic Family News Reprint Series #309.
3. Cardinal Ratzinger, “Magistère et théologie”, ORLF, 10 July 1990, p. 9: “In the details related to the contents, [the anti-Modernist decisions of the Church] were outmoded, after having fulfilled their pastoral need at a certain time.”
4. Ralph M. Wiltgen, The Rhine Flows into the Tiber, Charlotte, North Carolina, TAN Books, 2014, p. 288-9, reports it in a slightly different manner.
5. Regarding these secret agreements, see Abbé Matthias Gaudron, Catéchisme catholique de la crise dans l’Église, 5e éd., Le Sel, Avrillé, 2012, question 26.
6. “Cardinal Tisserant received formal orders to negotiate the agreement and supervise its exact execution during the Council. Each time that a bishop would raise the question of communism, the cardinal, from his table where he presided, would intervene” (Msgr. Roche, Itinéraires 285, p. 157). There was in 1962 an agreement between the Vatican and Moscow according to which, in exchange for the presence at the Council of schismatic Russian observers, it would refrain from speaking of communism. See on this subject Le Sel de la terre 53 (summer 2005), p. 68-70; Le Sel de la terre 62 (autumn 2007), p. 189-194; Jean Madiran, «L’accord Rome-Moscou», Itinéraires n° 280, February 1984 and n° 285 of July-August 1984, p. 151-160; Sì sì no no, 15 September 1984.
7. “The Jews, held after almost twenty centuries in the margin of Christian society, often treated as subordinate, enemies, and decides—demanded their complete rehabilitation. Issuing directly from the Abrahamic stock, from where Christianity came, they asked to be considered like brothers, partners of equal dignity, of the Christian Church.” Lazare Landau in n° 1001 of Tribune Juive (of 25-31 December 1987).
8. See Sel de la terre 34, p. 196: «Comment les juifs ont changé la pensée catholique» (Joseph Roddy, Look, 25 January 1966).
9. “During the last council session, the bishop of Monaco, Msgr. Rupp, in a very short discourse, asked that the Council be content with taking up these seven requests and of confirming them with its own authority […]. In reality, the Council did not do it. Not only did it make these seven requests its own, in equivalent terms, but it solidly justified them […].” Msgr. Willebrands, in Vatican II – La liberté religieuse, collection Unam Sanctam, Paris, Cerf, 1967, p. 241-242.
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: On Sedevacantism [1979] |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 01:08 PM - Forum: Sedevacantism
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The New Mass and the Pope
In the following statement Archbishop Lefebvre clarified his position and that of the Society of St. Pius X on the subject of the New Mass and the Pope.
8 November 1979
The New Mass and the Pope
How often during these last ten years have I not had occasion to respond to questions concerning the weighty problems of the New Mass and the Pope. In answering them I have ever been careful to breathe with the spirit of the Church, conforming myself to her Faith as expressed in her theological principles, and to her pastoral prudence as expressed in moral theology and in the long experiences of her history.
I think I can say that my own views have not changed over the years and that they are, happily, those of the great majority of priests and faithful attached to the indefectible Tradition of the Church.
It should be clear that the few lines which follow are not an exhaustive study of these problems, The purpose, rather is to clarify our conclusions to such an extent that no one may be mistaken regarding the official position of the Society of St, Pius X.
It must be understood immediately that we do not hold to the absurd idea that if the New Mass is valid, we are then free to assist at it. The Church has always forbidden the faithful to assist at the Masses of heretics and schismatics, even when they are valid. It is clear that no one can assist at sacrilegious Masses or at Masses which endanger our faith.
Now, it is easy to show that the New Mass, as it was formulated by the officially authorized Conciliar Liturgical Commission considered together with the accompanying explanation of Mgr. Bugnini, manifests an inexplicable rapprochement with the theology and liturgy of the Protestants. The following fundamental dogmas of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are not clearly represented and are even contradicted:
- that the priest is the essential minister of the Rite;
- that in the Mass there is a true sacrifice, a sacrificial action;
- that the Victim or Host is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, present under the species of bread and wine, with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity;
- that this Sacrifice is a propitiatory one;
- that the Sacrifice and the Sacrament are effected by the words of the Consecration alone, and not also by those which either precede or follow them.
It is sufficient to enumerate a few of the novelties in the New Mass to be convinced of the rapprochement with the Protestants;
- the altar replaced by a table without an altar stone;
- Mass celebrated facing the people, concelebrated, in a loud voice, and in the vernacular;
- the Mass divided into two distinct parts: Liturgy of the Word, and Liturgy of the Eucharist;
- the cheapening of the sacred vessels, the use of leavened bread, distribution of Holy Communion in the hand, and by the laity, and even by women;
- the Blessed Sacrament hidden in corners;
- the Epistle read by women;
- Holy Communion brought to the sick by laity.
All these innovations are authorized. One can fairly say without exaggeration that most of these Masses are sacrilegious acts which pervert the Faith by diminishing it. The de-sacralization is such that these Masses risk the loss of their supernatural character, their mysterium fidei; they would then be no more than acts of natural religion. These New Masses are not only incapable of fulfilling our Sunday obligation, but are such that we must apply to them the canonical rules which the Church customarily applies to communicatio in sacris with Orthodox Churches and Protestant sects.
Must one conclude further that all these Masses are invalid? As long as the essential conditions for validity are present (matter, form, intention, and a validly ordained priest), I do not see how one can affirm this.
The prayers at the Offertory, the Canon, and the Priest’s Communion which surround the words of Consecration are necessary, not to the validity of the Sacrifice and the Sacrament, but rather to their integrity. When the imprisoned Cardinal Mindszenty, desiring to nourish himself with the Body and Blood of Our Lord, and to escape the gaze of his captors, pronounced solely the words of Consecration over a little bread and wine, he most certainly accomplished the Sacrifice and the Sacrament.
It is clear, however, that fewer and fewer Masses are valid these days, as the faith of priests is destroyed and they possess no longer the intention to do what the Church does – an intention which the Church cannot change. The current formation of those who are called seminarians today does not prepare them to celebrate Mass validly. The propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass is no longer considered the essential work of the priest. Nothing is sadder or more disappointing than to read the sermons or teachings of the Conciliar bishops on the subject of vocations, or on the occasion of a priestly ordination. They no longer know what a priest is.
Nevertheless, in order to judge the subjective fault of those who celebrate the New Mass as of those who attend it, we must apply the roles of the discernment of spirits given us in moral and pastoral theology. We (the priests of the Society) must always act as doctors of the soul and not as judge and hangmen. Those who are tempted by this latter course are animated by a bitter spirit and not true zeal for souls. I hope that our young priests will be inspired by the words of St. Pius X in his first encyclical, and by the numerous texts on this subject to be found in such works as The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard, Christian Perfection and Contemplation by Garrigou-Lagrange, and Christ the Ideal of the Monk by Dom Marmion.
Let us now pass to a second but no less important subject: does the Church have a true Pope or an impostor on the Throne of St. Peter? Happy are those who have lived and died without having to pose such a question! One must indeed recognize that the pontificate of Paul VI posed, and continues to pose, a serious problem of conscience for the faithful. Without reference to his culpability for the terrible demolition of the Church which took place under his pontificate, one cannot but realize that he hastened the causes of that decline in every domain. One can fairly ask oneself how it was possible that a successor of Peter can, in so little time, have caused more damage to the Church than the French Revolution.
Some precise facts, such as the signatures which he gave to Article VII in the Instruction concerning the New Mass, and to the Declaration on Religious Liberty, are indeed scandalous and have led certain traditionalists to affirm that Paul VI was heretical and thus no longer Pope. They argue further that, chosen by a heretical Pope, the great majority of the cardinals are not cardinals at all and thus lacked the authority to elect another Pope. Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II were thus, they say, illegitimately elected. They continue that it is inadmissible to pray for a pope who is not Pope or to have any "conversations" (like mine of November 1978) with one who has no right to the Chair of Peter.
As with the question of the invalidity of the Novus Ordo, those who affirm that there is no Pope over-simplify the problem. The reality is more complex. If one begins to study the question of whether or not a Pope can be heretical, one quickly discovers that the problem is not as simple as one might have thought. The very objective study of Xaverio de Silverira on this subject demonstrates that a good number of theologians teach that the Pope can be heretical as a private doctor or theologian but not as a teacher of the Universal Church. One must then examine in what measure Pope Paul VI willed to engage in infallibility in the diverse cases where he signed texts close to heresy if not formally heretical.
But we can say that in the two cases cited above, as in many another, Paul VI acted much more the Liberal than as a man attached to heresy. For when one informed him of the danger that he ran in approving certain conciliar texts, he would proceed to render the text contradictory by adding a formula contrary in meaning to affirmations already in the text, or by drafting an equivocal formula. Now, equivocation is the very mark of the Liberal, who is inconsistent by nature.
The Liberalism of Paul VI, recognized by his friend, Cardinal Daniélou, is thus sufficient to explain the disasters of his pontificate. Pope Pius IX, in particular, spoke often of the Liberal Catholic, whom he considered a destroyer of the Church. The Liberal Catholic is a two-sided being, living in a world of continual self-contradiction. While he would like to remain Catholic, he is possessed by a thirst to appease the world. He affirms his faith weakly, fearing to appear too dogmatic, and as a result, his actions are similar to those of the enemies of the Catholic Faith.
Can a Pope be Liberal and remain Pope? The Church has always severely reprimanded Liberal Catholics, but she has not always excommunicated them. Here, too, we must continue in the spirit of the Church. We must refuse Liberalism from whatever source it comes because the Church has always condemned it. She has done so because it is contrary, in the social realm especially, to the Kingship of Our Lord.
Does not the exclusion of the cardinals of over eighty years of ages, and the secret meetings which preceded and prepared the last two Conclaves, render them invalid? Invalid: no, that is saying too much. Doubtful at the time: perhaps. But in any case, the subsequent unanimous acceptance of the election by the Cardinals and the Roman clergy suffices to validate it. That is the teaching of the theologians.
The visibility of the Church is too necessary to its existence for it to be possible that God would allow that visibility to disappear for decades. The reasoning of those who deny that we have a Pope puts the Church in an inextricable situation. Who will tell us who the future Pope is to be? How, as there are no Cardinals, is he to be chosen? This spirit is a schismatical one for at least the majority of those who attach themselves to certainly schismatical sects like Palmar de Troya, the Eglise Latine de Toulouse, and others.
Our Fraternity absolutely refuses to enter into such reasonings.
We wish to remain attached to Rome and to the Successor of Peter, while refusing his Liberalism through fidelity to his predecessors. We are not afraid to speak to him, respectfully but firmly, as did St. Paul with St. Peter.
And so, far from refusing to pray for the Pope, we redouble our prayers and supplications that the Holy Ghost will grant him light and strength in his affirmations and defense of the Faith.
Thus, I have never refused to go to Rome at his request or that of his representatives. The Truth must be affirmed at Rome above all other places. It is of God, and He will assure its ultimate triumph.
Consequently, the Society of St. Pius X, its priests, brothers, sisters, and oblates, cannot tolerate among its members those who refuse to pray for the Pope or affirm that the Novus Ordo Missae is per se invalid. Certainly, we suffer from this continual incoherence which consists in praising all the Liberal orientations of Vatican II and at the same time straining to mitigate its effects. But all of this must incite us to prayer and to the firm maintenance of Tradition rather than to the affirmation that the Pope is not the Pope.
In conclusion, we must have that missionary spirit which is the true spirit of the Church. We must do everything to bring about the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the words of our Holy Patron, St. Pius X: Instaurare omnia in Christo. We must restore all things in Christ, and we must submit to all, as did Our Lord in His Passion for the salvation of souls and the triumph of Truth. "In hoc natus sum," said Our Lord to Pilate, "ut testimonium perhibeam veritati." “I was born to give witness to the Truth."
Notes:
1. See Pope Paul’s New Mass, p. 240.
2. Ibid., pp. 65-66.
3. Inaestimabile Donum forbids girls to serve on the altar, but this instruction is widely defied in the U.S.A. The Apostolic Delegate has been made aware of this but no action has been taken to curtail the abuse (see The Angelus, December 1982).
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: The New Mass and the Pope |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 12:58 PM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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The New Mass and the Pope
In the following statement Archbishop Lefebvre clarified his position and that of the Society of St. Pius X on the subject of the New Mass and the Pope.
8 November 1979
The New Mass and the Pope
How often during these last ten years have I not had occasion to respond to questions concerning the weighty problems of the New Mass and the Pope. In answering them I have ever been careful to breathe with the spirit of the Church, conforming myself to her Faith as expressed in her theological principles, and to her pastoral prudence as expressed in moral theology and in the long experiences of her history.
I think I can say that my own views have not changed over the years and that they are, happily, those of the great majority of priests and faithful attached to the indefectible Tradition of the Church.
It should be clear that the few lines which follow are not an exhaustive study of these problems, The purpose, rather is to clarify our conclusions to such an extent that no one may be mistaken regarding the official position of the Society of St, Pius X.
It must be understood immediately that we do not hold to the absurd idea that if the New Mass is valid, we are then free to assist at it. The Church has always forbidden the faithful to assist at the Masses of heretics and schismatics, even when they are valid. It is clear that no one can assist at sacrilegious Masses or at Masses which endanger our faith.
Now, it is easy to show that the New Mass, as it was formulated by the officially authorized Conciliar Liturgical Commission considered together with the accompanying explanation of Mgr. Bugnini, manifests an inexplicable rapprochement with the theology and liturgy of the Protestants. The following fundamental dogmas of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are not clearly represented and are even contradicted:
- that the priest is the essential minister of the Rite;
- that in the Mass there is a true sacrifice, a sacrificial action;
- that the Victim or Host is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, present under the species of bread and wine, with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity;
- that this Sacrifice is a propitiatory one;
- that the Sacrifice and the Sacrament are effected by the words of the Consecration alone, and not also by those which either precede or follow them.
It is sufficient to enumerate a few of the novelties in the New Mass to be convinced of the rapprochement with the Protestants;
- the altar replaced by a table without an altar stone;
- Mass celebrated facing the people, concelebrated, in a loud voice, and in the vernacular;
- the Mass divided into two distinct parts: Liturgy of the Word, and Liturgy of the Eucharist;
- the cheapening of the sacred vessels, the use of leavened bread, distribution of Holy Communion in the hand, and by the laity, and even by women;
- the Blessed Sacrament hidden in corners;
- the Epistle read by women;
- Holy Communion brought to the sick by laity.
All these innovations are authorized. One can fairly say without exaggeration that most of these Masses are sacrilegious acts which pervert the Faith by diminishing it. The de-sacralization is such that these Masses risk the loss of their supernatural character, their mysterium fidei; they would then be no more than acts of natural religion. These New Masses are not only incapable of fulfilling our Sunday obligation, but are such that we must apply to them the canonical rules which the Church customarily applies to communicatio in sacris with Orthodox Churches and Protestant sects.
Must one conclude further that all these Masses are invalid? As long as the essential conditions for validity are present (matter, form, intention, and a validly ordained priest), I do not see how one can affirm this.
The prayers at the Offertory, the Canon, and the Priest’s Communion which surround the words of Consecration are necessary, not to the validity of the Sacrifice and the Sacrament, but rather to their integrity. When the imprisoned Cardinal Mindszenty, desiring to nourish himself with the Body and Blood of Our Lord, and to escape the gaze of his captors, pronounced solely the words of Consecration over a little bread and wine, he most certainly accomplished the Sacrifice and the Sacrament.
It is clear, however, that fewer and fewer Masses are valid these days, as the faith of priests is destroyed and they possess no longer the intention to do what the Church does – an intention which the Church cannot change. The current formation of those who are called seminarians today does not prepare them to celebrate Mass validly. The propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass is no longer considered the essential work of the priest. Nothing is sadder or more disappointing than to read the sermons or teachings of the Conciliar bishops on the subject of vocations, or on the occasion of a priestly ordination. They no longer know what a priest is.
Nevertheless, in order to judge the subjective fault of those who celebrate the New Mass as of those who attend it, we must apply the roles of the discernment of spirits given us in moral and pastoral theology. We (the priests of the Society) must always act as doctors of the soul and not as judge and hangmen. Those who are tempted by this latter course are animated by a bitter spirit and not true zeal for souls. I hope that our young priests will be inspired by the words of St. Pius X in his first encyclical, and by the numerous texts on this subject to be found in such works as The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard, Christian Perfection and Contemplation by Garrigou-Lagrange, and Christ the Ideal of the Monk by Dom Marmion.
Let us now pass to a second but no less important subject: does the Church have a true Pope or an impostor on the Throne of St. Peter? Happy are those who have lived and died without having to pose such a question! One must indeed recognize that the pontificate of Paul VI posed, and continues to pose, a serious problem of conscience for the faithful. Without reference to his culpability for the terrible demolition of the Church which took place under his pontificate, one cannot but realize that he hastened the causes of that decline in every domain. One can fairly ask oneself how it was possible that a successor of Peter can, in so little time, have caused more damage to the Church than the French Revolution.
Some precise facts, such as the signatures which he gave to Article VII in the Instruction concerning the New Mass, and to the Declaration on Religious Liberty, are indeed scandalous and have led certain traditionalists to affirm that Paul VI was heretical and thus no longer Pope. They argue further that, chosen by a heretical Pope, the great majority of the cardinals are not cardinals at all and thus lacked the authority to elect another Pope. Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II were thus, they say, illegitimately elected. They continue that it is inadmissible to pray for a pope who is not Pope or to have any "conversations" (like mine of November 1978) with one who has no right to the Chair of Peter.
As with the question of the invalidity of the Novus Ordo, those who affirm that there is no Pope over-simplify the problem. The reality is more complex. If one begins to study the question of whether or not a Pope can be heretical, one quickly discovers that the problem is not as simple as one might have thought. The very objective study of Xaverio de Silverira on this subject demonstrates that a good number of theologians teach that the Pope can be heretical as a private doctor or theologian but not as a teacher of the Universal Church. One must then examine in what measure Pope Paul VI willed to engage in infallibility in the diverse cases where he signed texts close to heresy if not formally heretical.
But we can say that in the two cases cited above, as in many another, Paul VI acted much more the Liberal than as a man attached to heresy. For when one informed him of the danger that he ran in approving certain conciliar texts, he would proceed to render the text contradictory by adding a formula contrary in meaning to affirmations already in the text, or by drafting an equivocal formula. Now, equivocation is the very mark of the Liberal, who is inconsistent by nature.
The Liberalism of Paul VI, recognized by his friend, Cardinal Daniélou, is thus sufficient to explain the disasters of his pontificate. Pope Pius IX, in particular, spoke often of the Liberal Catholic, whom he considered a destroyer of the Church. The Liberal Catholic is a two-sided being, living in a world of continual self-contradiction. While he would like to remain Catholic, he is possessed by a thirst to appease the world. He affirms his faith weakly, fearing to appear too dogmatic, and as a result, his actions are similar to those of the enemies of the Catholic Faith.
Can a Pope be Liberal and remain Pope? The Church has always severely reprimanded Liberal Catholics, but she has not always excommunicated them. Here, too, we must continue in the spirit of the Church. We must refuse Liberalism from whatever source it comes because the Church has always condemned it. She has done so because it is contrary, in the social realm especially, to the Kingship of Our Lord.
Does not the exclusion of the cardinals of over eighty years of ages, and the secret meetings which preceded and prepared the last two Conclaves, render them invalid? Invalid: no, that is saying too much. Doubtful at the time: perhaps. But in any case, the subsequent unanimous acceptance of the election by the Cardinals and the Roman clergy suffices to validate it. That is the teaching of the theologians.
The visibility of the Church is too necessary to its existence for it to be possible that God would allow that visibility to disappear for decades. The reasoning of those who deny that we have a Pope puts the Church in an inextricable situation. Who will tell us who the future Pope is to be? How, as there are no Cardinals, is he to be chosen? This spirit is a schismatical one for at least the majority of those who attach themselves to certainly schismatical sects like Palmar de Troya, the Eglise Latine de Toulouse, and others.
Our Fraternity absolutely refuses to enter into such reasonings.
We wish to remain attached to Rome and to the Successor of Peter, while refusing his Liberalism through fidelity to his predecessors. We are not afraid to speak to him, respectfully but firmly, as did St. Paul with St. Peter.
And so, far from refusing to pray for the Pope, we redouble our prayers and supplications that the Holy Ghost will grant him light and strength in his affirmations and defense of the Faith.
Thus, I have never refused to go to Rome at his request or that of his representatives. The Truth must be affirmed at Rome above all other places. It is of God, and He will assure its ultimate triumph.
Consequently, the Society of St. Pius X, its priests, brothers, sisters, and oblates, cannot tolerate among its members those who refuse to pray for the Pope or affirm that the Novus Ordo Missae is per se invalid. Certainly, we suffer from this continual incoherence which consists in praising all the Liberal orientations of Vatican II and at the same time straining to mitigate its effects. But all of this must incite us to prayer and to the firm maintenance of Tradition rather than to the affirmation that the Pope is not the Pope.
In conclusion, we must have that missionary spirit which is the true spirit of the Church. We must do everything to bring about the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the words of our Holy Patron, St. Pius X: Instaurare omnia in Christo. We must restore all things in Christ, and we must submit to all, as did Our Lord in His Passion for the salvation of souls and the triumph of Truth. "In hoc natus sum," said Our Lord to Pilate, "ut testimonium perhibeam veritati." “I was born to give witness to the Truth."
Notes:
1. See Pope Paul’s New Mass, p. 240.
2. Ibid., pp. 65-66.
3. Inaestimabile Donum forbids girls to serve on the altar, but this instruction is widely defied in the U.S.A. The Apostolic Delegate has been made aware of this but no action has been taken to curtail the abuse (see The Angelus, December 1982).
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| Si Si No No: They Think They've Won! |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 12:26 PM - Forum: The Architects of Vatican II
- Replies (7)
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Si Si No No - August 1993 No.3
They Think They've Won!
Part 1
Pope St. Pius X described Modernism as the synthesis of all heresies. From the beginning of this century, it grew and infected many of the clergy and laity. It teaches that our knowledge of God cannot be certain and that faith comes out of man's need of a God. From these principles, Modernism sets out to destroy dogmas and divine revelation. It seeks to reduce Christ to mere human dimensions, and makes divine inspiration a common gift to all of mankind. This modernism, the coming together of all heresies, is now the “official theology of Vatican II.”
PART ONE: THE APPARENT VICTORY OF MODERNISM EXPOSED AND DENOUNCED BY ST. PIUS X
St. Pius X, in his encyclical Pascendi (1907) denounced those modernist "partisans of error" who concealed themselves "in the very womb and heart of the Church" insidiously spreading destruction "from within the Church itself...So that the danger today lies in the very heart and veins of the Church."
This same saint added the pain of excommunication against anyone contradicting the encyclical Pascendi or the decree Lamentabili, which exposed and condemned Modernism.
He also insisted that all bishops and religious superiors be on their guard against modernist infiltration, to carefully screen those chosen as seminary professors, as well as prospective seminarians and priests, saying:
Quote:"If any [priest] be found tainted with modernist errors...let them be absolutely forbidden from teaching anything whatsoever. Also any seminarian in any way even suspected of attachment to these condemned modernist novelties and doctrines, must be refused all access to Holy Orders" (Motu Proprio, November 18, 1907).
Pope St. Pius X knew that the modernists sought out followers in seminaries and religious houses, where the future of the Church was formed. In order to do this, they secretly organized themselves into hidden sects.
DENOUNCED BY THE GREAT THEOLOGIAN FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, O.P.
In 1946, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange wrote a brilliant article entitled: "Where is the New Theology Leading Us To?" To Modernism, he replied. He then proceeded to denounce this work of doctrinal corruption, saying that: "Typed sheets have been distributed among the clergy, seminarians and Catholic intellectuals, containing strange doctrinal assertions and negations."
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange quoted, at length, many parts of those secret sheets - a preview of all the heretical novelties that would emerge in this post-Vatican II era. One example will be sufficient: "A general convergence of all religions to a universal Christ, which will satisfy them all. This seems to me to be the only possible imaginable conversion for a Religion of the future." This is the very essence of today's ecumenism, which seeks to bring together all religions, in a Christ separated from His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church.
THE CONFIRMATION
Confirmation of this treachery comes to us today, from the very lips of those representing this New Theology. A mouthpiece of theirs is the journal Communio and in an article of November-December, 1990, the Jesuit Fr. Peter Henrici (born 1928) tells us that:
a) In Jesuit seminaries, contrary to papal instructions, the doctrine, method and principles of St. Thomas Aquinas were openly scorned and held in contempt. Henrici assures us that "the official scholastic studies of St. Thomas were merely thumbed through."
b) Behind that facade of official studies, modernist texts and tracts were secretly circulated to the most brilliant and promising seminarians.
Those same modernist concepts, secretly passed around, would later reappear as the New Theology. Those who showed interest and promise in theology, would be given the modernist Fr. Henri de Lubac's book: The Supernatural - the most forbidden of forbidden books! Then they would receive another of his books, Corpus Mysticum. This was done to inculcate them with the principle that identical theological terms could have different meanings with the passage of time or when looked at in another context. Thus we say goodbye to unchanging divine and apostolic Tradition! Goodbye to the homogenous development of dogma! Goodbye to unchangeable truths!
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange was right in saying the novelty of this New Theology would deprive the Church of its sound Tradition. Today, the ideas and assumptions of that novelty, make up the premises of the New Tradition, which, though it is living, is no longer coherent.
These treacherous modernist theologians, then condemned, were later rewarded at Vatican II. The aggiornamento (updating) spirit of Vatican II placed the Conciliar Fathers in a position where they had to rely upon the preparatory work done by theologians prior to the Council. In other words, those Vatican II bishops who succumbed to the siren song of the aggiornamento ended up having to rely upon the works of those who had concocted and cultivated a New Theology in direct opposition to Catholic theology.
A great number of these Conciliar Fathers did not know or understand the New Theology. It had been cultivated in secrecy, in closed circles. It was hidden behind traditional sounding terms. The Fathers, ignorant of these facts, gave this often traditional-sounding, New Theology a kind of ecclesiastical orthodoxy and acceptability.
A VETERAN’S TESTIMONY
Similar expressions of modernist triumphalism are found in the work of Fr. Henri Bouillard, S.J. - a veteran of the New Theology. On the occasion of the inauguration of a center known as the Maurice Blondel Archives at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, Bouillard stresses the influence of Blondel's philosophy on the New Theology: "Blondel's thoughts and ideas have, in their essential theses, progressively won the day." The orthodox teachings, brushed aside and dismissed by Blondel are "no longer valid today."
THE COUNCIL – VATICAN II
For Bouillard, the most conclusive and positive proof of the modernist victory is Vatican II, where "they abandoned the concept of looking at the natural and supernatural orders as two superimposed things neither having any kind of internal link with the other." It is interesting to note that, in none of Vatican II's major documents, will you find the use of the word, supernatural. Bouillard's affirmation is only too true, being well documented and easily proved by the official documents of Vatican II. Under the influence of Modernism, it has deliberately and studiously avoided in its most important documents (especially those dealing with ecumenism) the use of the word, supernatural. Thus its major documents implicitly approve naturalism, which is the essence of Modernism. This naturalism has also proved itself the basis of Blondel's philosophy and of De Lubac's theology.
So, we must ask ourselves today, what is being substantially proposed to us as Catholics in the name of Vatican II? The answer is that same New Theology officially condemned by Pope Pius XII. What lies hidden beneath this billboard? Nothing else but that same modernism condemned by Pius X and which leads to a radical denial of the existence of divine revelation, the divinity of Our Lord and the divine origin of the Catholic Church.
THE WINNERS
Still more recently, in 30 Days (December 1991), we find the same Fr. Henrici saying:
a) that the New Theology condemned by Pope Pius XII in the Encyclical Humani Generis, has now "become the official theology of Vatican II."
b) that the key positions in the Church are already in the hands of the actual representatives of the New Theology, whose mouthpiece is the journal Communio: "Nearly all of the theologians who have been named bishops in recent years, have come up through the Communio line. Their names form a list of important persons destined for the top careers: the Germans, Lehman and Kasper, the Swiss, Von Schonborn and Corecco; the Italian, Scola; the Belgian, Leonard and the Brazilian, Romer.”
The Jesuit professor at the Gregorian University, Peter Henrici, slyly laments: "The founding members, Balthasar, De Lubac and Ratzinger, have all become cardinals. Many of the second generation have been chosen as bishops."
He also adds such important names as that of "the Dominican theologian in the Papal residence, Georges Cottier; also Jean Duschesne, press agent for Cardinal Lustiger; the Hegelian André Léonard, Bishop of Namur" who has charge of St. Paul's Seminary, the place where Cardinal Lustiger sends his seminarians. According to 30 Days: "These are the ones (they say!) who have won."
THE BREAK
Similar cries of triumph and indirect confessions of treachery are found in post-Vatican II era, Neo-modernist literature:
A book by Fr. René Latourelle, SJ. entitled Vatican II-1962-87: Results & Views 25 Years Later, was in fact "produced by the Jesuit Universities in Rome." (from the Italian magazine Avvenire). The book has 68 contributors from 20 countries (all, but two, are Jesuits) clearly illustrating the triumph of this New Theology and the favor lavished upon it by Pope Paul VI. One of these contributors, Fr. Martini SJ., says:
Quote: "Though it's not quite a case of excommunications being followed by canonizations, nevertheless some notorious theologians who were reprimanded prior to Vatican II, later found themselves playing a major role amidst Vatican II experts, and thus had a great influence in the formulation of Vatican II decrees. In 1950, some of their books were officially removed from library shelves. After the Council, these same authors were named cardinals (De Lubac and Danielou)."
Thus do we see the Encyclical Humani Generis, of Pope Pius XII, quickly being repudiated and disowned by another Pope. Those who had always faithfully adhered to Rome's directives, now wondered to whom they owed obedience: to the Pope of yesterday who was in full agreement with his predecessors, or the present Pope, who had evidently broken with the constant and traditional direction of the Church.
More recently, on the anniversary of De Lubac's death, the Vatican newspaper L 'Osservatore Romano (September 1992) devoted an entire page to Cardinal De Lubac and “the great theses of a precursor of Vatican II.” In it we read:
Quote:"Our thoughts turn to Blondel, Gilson, Mounier, Maritain, De Lubac, Chenv and many others, who prepared the philosophical and theological positions which later emerged in many themes of Vatican II."
Therefore, we must admit that the New Theology, officially condemned by Pope Pius XII, as being nothing but a heap of "false opinions, which threaten to overthrow the very foundations of Catholic doctrine," has now become "the official theology of Vatican II" (Fr. Henrici).
This open Neo-modernist war against the Church is a grave reality, especially since it is waged by persons occupying such high positions in the Church. The reason why we are exposing the current situation in such detail is to shake people out of their indifference or numbness, and to put them on their guard against this very real danger threatening their souls.
It is nothing less than that long-standing "often passive, but nevertheless real resistance" of the bishops themselves, which paved the way for the present crisis in the Church, a crisis that is simply the triumph of Modernism in the Catholic Church. Therefore, it is necessary to know a little more about those who think they have won and just what it is that they are after.
They think that they have won the day simply because they do not believe in the words of Jesus Christ "And I say to thee: that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it! (Matt 16:18)"
MAGISTERIUM SCORNED
(Translator’s note: MAGISTERIUM- The Church’s divinely appointed authority to infallibly teach the truths of Religion, “Going therefore, teach ye all nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Matt. 28:19-20)
Quote:“The Church insists that its future priests be formed in the philosophical disciplines 'according to the method, doctrine and principles of the Angelic Doctor’ (St. Thomas Aquinas). The reason being that experience over many centuries has proven (to the Church) that the method of St. Thomas Aquinas, whether informing young minds, or sounding the depths of the deepest truths, stands high above all others by its singular merits; his doctrine is in complete harmony with Divine Revelation and in perfect accord; it is particularly useful and efficient in laying, in all safety, the foundations of Faith, as well as in reaping, in a sure and useful manner, the fruits of true progress.” - Pope Pius XII, Humani generis
Those who think themselves to be “winners” are those neo-modernists faithful (if we can use this expression) to the line of the founding fathers of the “New Theology,” and particularly to the (tortuous, involved and obscure) line drawn by the Jesuit Henri de Lubac and that of the ex-Jesuit Hans Urs von Balthasar. "The representatives of the New Theology are celebrated as if they constituted the cornerstone of the Church" rightly recorded the famous thinker and writer Dom Jules Meinvielle.
But before presenting you with these "holy fathers" of the post-Conciliar Catholic world, it would be most opportune and useful to briefly illustrate the very essence of the "new theology."
THE SIMPLE PRINCIPLE OF A COMPLEX HERESY
The German priest and theologian Johannes Dörmann, in his best book The Strange Theology of John Paul II and the Spirit of Assisi writes:
Quote:"The 'New Theology,' although many-sided and varied, is really quite simple in its principle, and that is why its multiple forms can be grouped together under the same title. Its different forms ALL HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON: THEIR STUDIED REJECTION OF TRADITIONAL THEOLOGY. (p.55)"
The author then provides us with a concise and effective explanation of what is meant by the "rejection of Traditional theology," referring to the last Council which deemed it necessary to abandon the Church's scholastic language or terminology for "pastoral" motives:
Quote:"The chief theologians (who were actually directing the Council) saw very clearly that in this question of scholastic language, both theology as well as the Faith itself were at stake. For scholastic terminology was indissolubly linked to scholastic philosophy which itself is linked to scholastic theology which is, in its turn, closely knit to the Dogmatic Tradition of the Church." (p.52)
And consequently, this abandoning of scholastic language would end up, in the last analysis, in saying farewell to the Divine and Apostolic Tradition so faithfully kept and guarded by the Church.
Quote:"This rejection or abandonment of the 'language of the Scholastic school' by the Council Fathers (Dörmann writes) constituted for them (those theologians directing the Council) the SINE QUA NON or indispensable condition which would assure a complete rupture from traditional dogmatic teachings, in order to set the 'New Theology' in place after having ceased using 'the previous traditional theology' and discarding it once and for all. (p.53)"
SHEER UTOPIANISM
And just what was the motivation of this dumping of Traditional theology? ...They were motivated by "this simple and seductive idea: a 'New Theology' consonant with modern, scientific characteristics, as well as with the modern image of the world and history. (p.55)"
In other words they were motivated by the old and constantly recurring Utopia of the Church being reconciled with the modern world, that is with modern philosophical thought, and with which Pope Pius IX (Syllabus, Proposition 80) declared that the Church cannot and must not reconcile itself, seeing its essentially anti-Christian character and outlook:""(Modern) men are, in general, strangers to truth and supernatural benefits and graces, thinking as they do to be able to satisfy themselves exclusively by human reason and in the natural order of things as they (vainly) expect to reach in them their own perfection as together with their own happiness" (Vatican I, preparatory outline of Catholic Doctrine).
Quote:"For those partisans of the 'new theology' (Dörmann continues), the slogan, 'aggiornamento' simply meant a resolute opening-up on the part of the Church to modern thought (which is totally alien to Truth as well as supernatural treasures and values) in order to end up with a completely new and different theology from which would be born a new secularized Church, adapted to its modern time. (p.54)"
This is nothing but modernist Utopianism. "Where is the new theology taking us? It is taking us in a straight line to modernism," wrote Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. in 1946.
And in fact, digging a little more deeply into the matter, we find beneath the simple principle of the new theology, that same perversion of the notion of truth which serves as the very foundation of modernism: "Truth is no more unchangeable than man himself, for it evolves with him, in him and by him. (Pope Saint Pius X, in his Decree Lamentabili, condemned proposition #58)"
From all this, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. who, laying aside all pretense at prophesying, simply came to these logical conclusions in 1946 (16 years BEFORE Vatican II):
"And where is this New Theology headed with its new masters from whom they seek to draw their inspiration? Where is it heading if not for the road to skepticism, whims and heresy"? ("La nouvelle theologie. Ou va-t-elle?" In Angelicum #23-1946, p.136)
A BLAMEWORTHY UTOPIA
This attempt to reconcile the Church with the "modern world" cannot be considered an innocent utopia. The Magisterium of the Roman Pontiffs, has, over and over again, blocked the way to such moves, particularly Popes Gregory XVI (Mirari Vos, 1832), Pius IX (Syllabus, 1864), Saint Pius X (Pascendi; 1907) and, on the eve of the last Council, Pius XII (Humani Generis, 1950).
In this last encyclical, scorned, disavowed and buried by those very same persona whom it condemned, Pius XII, illustrating the (theological) climate preceding the Council, points out "with anxiety" and clarity the dangers of the "New Theology" which, seeking its basis outside the enduring philosophy, endangers the entire structure of Catholic Dogma. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Pope Pius XII does not hesitate one moment to underline in red the scorn heaped upon the Magisterium, an underlying scorn borne out by its attitude:
Quote:29. But reason can perform these functions safely and well, only when properly trained, that is, when imbued with that sound philosophy which has long been, as it were, a patrimony handed down by earlier Christian ages, and which moreover possesses an authority of even higher order, since the teaching authority of the Church, in the light of Divine Revelation itself, has weighed its fundamental tenets, which have been elaborated and defined little by little by men of great genius. For this philosophy, acknowledged and accepted by the Church, safeguards the genuine validity of human knowledge, the unshakable metaphysical principles of sufficient reason, causality and finality, and finally the mind's ability to attain certain and unchangeable truth.
30. Of course this philosophy deals with much that neither directly nor indirectly touches faith or morals, and which consequently the Church leaves to the free discussion of experts. But this does not hold for many other things, especially those principles and fundamental tenets to which we have just referred (validity of human knowledge, the unshakable metaphysical principles, etc...). But never may we overthrow it, or contaminate it with false principles, or regard it as a great, but obsolete, relic. For truth and its philosophic expression cannot change from day to day, least of all where there is question of self-evident principles of the human mind or of those propositions which are supported by the wisdom of the ages and by Divine Revelation.
32. How deplorable it is then that this philosophy, received and honored by the Church, is scorned by some who today call it outmoded in form and rationalistic, as they say, in its method of thought. While scorning our philosophy, they extol other philosophies of all kinds, ancient and modern, oriental and occidental, by which they seem to imply that any kind of philosophy or theory, with a few additions and corrections if need be, can be reconciled with Catholic dogma. No Catholic can doubt how false this is, especially where there is question of those fictitious theories they call immanentism, or idealism, or materialism, whether historic or dialectic, or even existentialism, whether atheistic or simply the type that denies the validity of the reason in the field of metaphysics.34. It would indeed be unnecessary to deplore these aberrations from the truth, if all even in the field of philosophy, directed their attention with the proper reverence to the teaching authority of the Church, which by divine institution has the mission not only to guard and interpret the deposit of divinely revealed truth, but also to keep watch over the philosophical sciences themselves, in order that Catholic Dogmas may suffer no harm because of erroneous opinions."
Thus do we see confirmed that which we have been repeating for years: we have irrefutable as well as unmistakable proof that although they are members of the Catholic Hierarchy, the neo-modernists have disobeyed and continue to disobey the constant and therefore infallible Magisterium of the Catholic Church and their own "obedience" which they, in turn, seek to impose in their style of new Church, results in the moral obligation of the true and faithful Catholics to disobey the false orders of their new-style Church.
TRUE AND FALSE "RESTORATION"
From what we have just seen, it logically follows that true restoration can only come by traveling along in a reverse direction from the one which led to the rupture or breaking away from the Doctrinal Tradition of the Church: a return to constant and durable philosophy, and therefore to Scholastic Theology, therefore to the Dogmatic tradition of the Church in faithful obedience to the constant directives and teachings of the Magisterium of all the Popes.
Those neo-modernists following the modern “line” of de Lubac and of von Balthasar are now posing as “moderates and even as “restorers,” but they categorically refuse to repudiate or renounce their “New Theology” from which – whether they like it or not - arose this crisis which today paralyses the life of the Church.
“Our line” (the one we follow) - declared, sure of himself, Fr. Henrici S.J. to (the review) 30 DAYS (December 1991) – “is the one of the extreme centre. No excessive attention (sic!) to the Magisterium, nor CONTENTION. No right, nor left. Attachment to tradition (which in the language or “Newspeak” of de Lubac and of the “new” theologians, is not - as we will see - the Dogmatic tradition of the Church) in the line of the new theology of Lyon (seat of de Lubac as well as that of the other “founding fathers” (of the new theology), which underscored the non-opposition (i.e. identification) between nature and supernature, between faith and culture, and which has become the official theology of Vatican II.”
“That same ‘New Theology’ Pope Pius XII officially condemned in his Encyclical Humani Generis as simply being a whole heap of “false opinions threatening to lay waste the very foundations of Catholic Doctrine!” It is, therefore, even more imperative to bring to light just what is behind the “moderation” of these neo-modernists of the “extreme centre,” yes, but still modernists just the same.
Hirpinus
Translated from Courrier de Rome, March 1993
[Emphasis mine.]
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| Fr. Henri Charles Chery O.P.: The Art of Confessing |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 09:59 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
- Replies (2)
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The Art of Confessing
[A French Dominican Priest who wrote many books in the 1940's and 1950's]
Part I
THESE WORDS are not addressed to the “big sinners” who come before Christ to relieve themselves of a great burden. They are not even addressed to Catholics who are making their annual Easter confession. But these lessons may be helpful for those people who have the “habit” of weekly, bimonthly or monthly confession.
“Habit” is a colorless word if it signifies only a praiseworthy regularity; it is a cold word if it signifies routine. And sadly, everyone knows that a praiseworthy regularity easily degenerates into something routine.
The majority of penitents lament the miserable banality of their confessions, the small amount of fruit derived, and sometimes even their little interest in the exhortation that the confessor addresses to them when they come to find him. Some have disgust for it, confess only by custom, and finally end up spacing their recourse to the sacrament of penance in a way that is prejudicial to their spiritual progress.
This disgust, and its consequences, do these not come from those who do not know how to confess? There is a manner, an “art,” that could make this regular exercise into a serious means of sanctification.
In writing these lines, we have particularly thought of the numerous young people who seek to live a true Christianity in a generous effort of sincerity. Not yet habituated, they suffer from a horror of routines, and they reject formalities. They are right. But they need to know that formalism is introduced through the fault of the ‘users,’ and I dare say, that it depends on them to keep intact, or lose, their religious vitality, for want of a personal effort.
The rites are conveyors of life, but only to the living.
The use of confession, if it is well understood, can be a serious support for the development of the spiritual life.
But first, since we are going to speak of confession, and nothing but confession [accusation of sins], it is necessary to carefully note that this is not the whole sacrament of penance, that it is not even the principal element. This principal element consists of a regret, an accusation, an absolution, a reparation. The sacrament is constituted essentially by an absolution effacing the fault of a heart that repents. If a penitent, on his deathbed for example, cannot [verbally] express his accusation, the sacrament can [still] take place [even] from this [unspoken] accusation; it cannot take place without regret. God, for His part, can effect the sacrament (in the absence of any priest qualified to give it): (but) He cannot save a soul in spite of itself, or remit a sin that someone obstinately refuses to regret.
Such people for whom the essential seems to be their accusation will do well to remember it. The priest exhorts them to contrition, to the means to be considered so as not to fall back into their fault, but once their accusation has been made they seem not to follow him, distracted as they are by the concern to enunciate such and such other sin that did not initially come to their lips. If it were a matter of a serious fault, it would be normal not to withdraw before expressing it; but most often it is a matter of venial faults. One mainly worries about being complete; but it is necessary above all to be contrite.
Consequently, in the few moments usually spent preparing for confession, it will be good not to give everything to the examination of conscience, but even more to implore the grace of God, in order to obtain a sincere regret for one’s faults, and to express in advance one’s contrition and the intention not to fall again.
To whom am I going to address myself when I go to confession?
First response: to a priest. I am deliberately using this general term to emphasize that the primordial importance in the use of the sacrament of penance must be granted not to the qualities of the man who hears confessions, but to his quality as minister of Christ. Because we lack faith, we excessively attach ourselves to the human value of the confessor, a real, objective value, or a value that attributes to him our sympathy and our confidence.
Whether this is to be taken into consideration is undeniable, but from a point of view which is, so to speak, on the margins of the sacrament.
This comes into play for the counsel that will follow the accusation and precede absolution. But the sacrament is not constituted by this counsel; it can even do without it. The important thing is to deal with the Christ who holds forgiveness, with the living Christ acting in his Church. Every priest who has received from the Church the powers to absolve you validly, acts in persona Christi, in the name of Christ. He opens for your soul the spring of pardon – which is the Blood of the Redeemer Christ – and He washes it in this Blood.
Erroneous for lack of faith is therefore the attitude of such penitents who delay liberating themselves from a serious sin or who indefinitely delay a confession which would release them from a growing malaise (by purifying the infection that spreads little by little) because “their confessor” is not there. If they had an understanding of what the sacrament is – sovereignly valuable in its purifying work, independent of the quality of the confessor who is before all else the “minister of Christ,” that is to say, the ear of Christ to hear the admissions, the wisdom of Christ to judge, and the mouth of Christ to pronounce the remission – they would attach themselves less to the human appearances and not delay at all.
It is appropriate here to mention why I must admit my faults to a priest instead of contenting myself with an admission directly expressed to God in the intimacy of my heart. This is because I am a member of the Church.
My fault has offended God and diminished myself: it is a lack of the love that I owe to my Creator and to the virtuous love that I must show for the child of God that I am. And it also harmed the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. “Every soul that raises itself, raises the world.” Likewise, every Christian who sins upsets the perfection of the Christian community. The most obscure of sins causes a wound to the tree of which I am a branch. Whether I detach myself from the tree completely by mortal sin, or whether I separate myself only a little, the entire tree suffers. I rise from the Church in my vitality, for God has entrusted his graces to the Church for me. I should, therefore, also rise to escape my fault.
In the early centuries this responsibility before the Church was more obvious, since accusation was public and professed before the entire community. Presently, the discipline has softened, but it is always before the Church that I accuse myself – through the person of the priest who hears me, and the Church from which I receive reconciliation through the ministry of the priest who absolves me.
I thus confess to the priest because he is a priest. This does not prevent me from choosing him as humanly capable of understanding and advising me. We are not speaking here, since it is not our aim, of that which is called (a little improperly perhaps) “direction.” Even while remaining strictly on the plane of confession, it is surely better for the progress of the soul if it usually addresses itself to the same confessor. After some time (provided we have followed the advice we shall give later concerning the manner of accusing ourselves), he (the same confessor) knows whom he is dealing with. He knows your tendencies and your habitual weaknesses. Even if you have little to say, he knows what points should be insisted upon in his exhortations. Little by little you have revealed the difficulties with which you are struggling: your particular situation. He does not risk, as would a stranger who does not understand you, perplexing you by an untimely remark. At a difficult moment in your life, he can stop you from making a dangerous fall. And at any time, he is able to suggest to you appropriate decisions to get out of your torpor if you let yourself fall asleep.
How should you choose him?
Above all, he needs good sense and right judgment. Also, holy if this is possible – this is clear – but a balanced and insightful priest will always be preferable to another of a more fervent life with less sound judgment.
Do not forget that you seek a counselor, and that as is the wisdom of the counselor, so is the value of his advice. But as he is also one who leads, you ought to desire that he be demanding. A good-natured confessor who merely lulls you with soothing words or sends you away with absolution and a general exhortation, would risk leaving you to languish in your sin or your serious imperfections.
This is why it is necessary, if need be, to encourage the confessor to this beneficial requirement and to humbly accept his invitations to effort. You will recall that the first condition for him to be useful to you is that you trust him. You can have the best confessor in the city; but if you cannot open yourself up to him frankly, he can do nothing for you. You should thus choose him so that you do not feel paralyzed in his presence and that you readily consider him as a father, perceptive, capable of realizing your situation and to interest himself in it, open to the realities of life, sure in his diagnoses, and of firm goodness in his counsel.
If you do not find him (one such ideal priest), do not be much distressed. Go to a priest1: he has the grace of state. The Holy Ghost will use him anyway for your best good, provided you are listening.
If you do find the ideal priest, do not easily switch from him. While remaining fully free from another choice, do not let yourself be “undone” by a few impressions, all the more by some crushing of self-esteem or by some of his demands. Persevere until you have positive proof that you are making no progress in his school, despite a loyal and constant effort on your part.
(To be continued)
Note:
1. This text was written before Vatican II Council. Today, we must be precise: “a traditional priest validly ordained”. We know that there is a doubt on the validity of the new rite of priestly ordination (look at the letter of Archbishop Lefebvre on our website). There is also a doubt about the validity of the ordinations performed by conciliar bishops, even when they use the traditional rite.
In his sermon of the consecration of four bishops (June 30, 1988), Archbishop Lefebvre said: “If God calls me, from whom will these seminarians receive the priestly ordination: from conciliar bishops whose sacraments are ALL doubtful?
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| Padre Pio said that the Third Secret of Fatima was about a “False Church” |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 09:29 AM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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Chief exorcist Father Amorth: Padre Pio said that the third secret of Fatima was about a “false church” in the End Times
In a recent article on the “Secret of Fatima”, Steve Skojec, the founder and editor of OnePeterFive, published for the first time in the English language words from Rome’s chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth (d. 2016), about Padre Pio and his knowledge of the Third Secret of Fatima. They come from a newly published book written by José María Zavala, entitled The Best Kept Secret of Fatima (El Sécreto Mejor Guardado de Fátima). Zavala interviewed Father Amorth in 2011, and was instructed to keep the interview secret until after the exorcist’s death.
Fr. Amorth personally knew Saint (Padre) Pio for 26 years, and it is from this towering figure of 20th century Catholic sanctity that he claims to have learned the contents of the Third Secret of Fatima. According to Fr. Amorth, Padre Pio said that the Third Secret pertained to the infiltration of the Vatican by Satan and the rise of a “false church” – details that are not found in the Vatican’s official publication of the Third Secret in 2000.
Below we publish details of the interview with Fr. Amorth:
In the interview, Fr. Amorth relates — as he has done elsewhere — that he does not believe the consecration of the world by Pope John Paul II in 1984 was sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth by Our Lady.
“There was no such consecration then,” he [Father Amorth] says. “I witnessed the act. I was in St. Peter’s Square that Sunday afternoon, very close to the Pope; so close, I could almost touch him.”
Pressed by Zavala as to why he so forcefully believes that the consecration was not done, Fr. Amorth replied: “Very simple: John Paul II wanted to mention Russia expressly, but in the end he did not.”
Fr. Amorth said further: “I have no doubt that the consecration did not occur on the terms required by the Virgin. But we must not lose sight of what she herself wanted to tell us through Lucia: ‘In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.’”
Zavala then asked about the Third Secret: “Forgive me for insisting on the Third Secret of Fatima: Did Padre Pio relate it, then, to the loss of faith within the Church?”
Fr. Gabriele furrows his brow and sticks out his chin. He seems very affected.
“Indeed,” he states, “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church.’”
“Oh my God! Some kind of Antichrist! When did he prophesy this to you?” I [Zavala] ask.
“It must have been about 1960, since I was already a priest then.”
“Was that why John XXIII had such a panic about publishing the Third Secret of Fatima, so that the people wouldn’t think that he was the anti-pope or whatever it was …?”
A slight but knowing smile curls the lips of Father Amorth.
“Did Padre Pio say anything else to you about future catastrophes: earthquakes, floods, wars, epidemics, hunger …? Did he allude to the same plagues prophesied in the Holy Scriptures?” [asks Mr. Zavala]
“Nothing of the sort mattered to him, however terrifying they proved to be, except for the great apostasy within the Church. This was the issue that really tormented him and for which he prayed and offered a great part of his suffering, crucified out of love.” [says Fr. Amorth]
“The Third Secret of Fatima?”
“Exactly.”
“Is there any way to avoid something so terrible, Fr. Gabriele?”
“There is hope, but it’s useless if it’s not accompanied by works. Let us begin by consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us recite the Holy Rosary, let us all do prayer and penance …"
by Maike Hickson, http://www.onepeterfive.com
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| The Dangers of the New Mass |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 08:10 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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The Dangers of the New Mass
"From the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." (Malachias 1:11)
St. Augustine said: "He who devoutly hears Holy Mass will receive a great vigor to enable him to resist mortal sin, and there shall be pardoned to him all venial sins which he may have committed up to that hour."1
Had satan been aware that Jesus Christ was the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, he would have never pushed for the Crucifixion. Every True Mass reminds him, once again, of his terrible mistake and at the same time it is a vehicle for bestowing infinite grace on mankind. It is no wonder that the devil has an intense hatred for the True Mass.
St. John Fisher said: "He who goes about to take the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the Church plots no less a calamity than if he tried to snatch the sun from the universe."2
St. Alphonsus said: "The devil has always attempted, by means of heretics, to deprive the world of the Mass, making them precursors of the antichrist, who before anything else, will try to abolish and will actually abolish the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as a punishment for the sins of men, according to the prediction of Daniel, 'And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice."3 (Daniel 8:12)
St. Robert Bellarmine said: "When we enter ornate and clean Basilicas, adorned with crosses, sacred images, altars and burning lamps, we most easily conceive devotion. But on the other hand, when we enter the temples of the heretics, where there is nothing except a chair for preaching and a table for making a meal, we feel ourselves to be entering a profane hall and not the House of God."4
Luther's slogan was: "Take away the Mass, destroy the Church."5
St. John Vianney said: "All the good works together are not of equal value with the Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of man, and the Holy Mass is the work of God."6
How did we get the Mass?
A general history: In his letter to the Corinthians in the year 88 A.D., Pope St. Clement of Rome (martyr and fourth Pope after St. Peter), wrote that Our Lord laid down the order of the Mass, referring to the Offertory, Consecration and Communion. St. Justin the Martyr (in his writings, 155 A.D.) stated that after His Resurrection, Our Lord taught the Apostles how to say Mass.
Many liturgical historians believe that the writings of St. Clement and St. Justin were expressed in a formal way by St. Ambrose (approximately 360 A.D.) in a book titled, De Sacramentis. De Sacramentis essentially contains the canonized Mass prayers. The Mass prayers appeared in written form only three hundred years after Jesus Christ's death. It was in the 4th century that Latin became the official language of the Church and the word missa was introduced. This was probably introduced by St. Ambrose in the Leonine Sacramentary (Pope St. Leo in 450 A.D.) and the Gelasian Sacramentary (Pope Gelasius I in 498 A.D.). The essential parts of this missal were found to be almost the same as those in the Tridentine Mass. In the year 600 A.D., Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604 A.D.) finished his Gregorian Sacramentary, which is essentially the Mass "codified" by Pope St. Pius V in 1570.7
The True Mass goes back to Apostolic times; and it was "codified", solidified, or set in stone by St. Pope Pius V in his Papal Bull Quo Primum Tempore on July 14, 1570. Pope St. Pius V specified the exact Mass ritual "of and for" the Roman Rite. Only this Liturgy or Ritual was to be used from that time until the end of time (for the Roman Rite). The Canon with the exception of one short clause, inserted by Pope Gregory the Great, had remained unchanged ". . . until 1962, when John XXIII added the name of St. Joseph to the Canon of the Mass. A total of 26 words have been added to the Traditional Canon, by Popes Leo (440-461 A.D.) and St. Gregory the Great (590-604 A.D.). Thus, as the Council of Trent accurately states, the Canon is composed out of the very words of the Lord, the tradition of the Apostles, and the pious institutions of the holy Pontiffs."8
Names Given to the Roman Rite of the Mass
It is called "the Mass of All Times" (because it dates back to the Apostles in its essential elements--though it is eternal in its nature), the "Tridentine Mass" (only because the 16th century Council of Trent <Tridentum in Latin> ordered it to be "codified"), the "Mass of Pius V" (after the Pope who actually "codified" it in 1570), and on occasion (but loosely and incorrectly) "the Latin Mass" (incorrectly because any Rite can be translated into Latin and because the Novus Ordo Missae itself was issued originally in Latin).9 The True Mass should be called the Roman Rite of the Mass. This way there isn't any confusion.
New World Order: New Order of the Mass
In the middle to late 60's, Rome started to have the Mass said in the vernacular and then in 1970, Paul VI gave us a whole new rite of Mass called the "Novus Ordo Missae". It is not by chance that the enemies of the True Faith who are building "a Novus Ordo Seclorum" (a new world order) would establish "a Novus Ordo Missae" (a new order of the Mass) to destroy the Roman Catholic Church. Even in the original Latin form, the New Mass was bad enough, but after going to the vernacular through the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), disaster ensued, and the questions of validity were justified. A total of 35 prayers or approximately 70% of the Tridentine Mass has been replaced or discarded.10
Ambiguous, Wishful Thinking; Binding No One
Here is what Paul VI put in the new Roman Missal on April 3, 1969: #13 "We hope that the Missal will be received by the Faithful" and #15 "We wish that these, our decrees and prescriptions, may be firm and effective."11 To impose a law the Pope must make it clear to the Church that a Law is being imposed, or that he is binding the Church to use this New Mass. He did not do so. What Paul VI did had nothing to do with the Church's indefectibility or the Pope's infallibility. Paul VI said on November 19, 1969: "This Rite (New Mass) and its related rubrics are not in themselves a dogmatic definition."12 Paul VI did not and could not change the Roman Rite of the Mass.
The People Supersede the Priest as the Indispensable Element
It is not necessary to examine all four of the Eucharistic prayers in the New Mass. However, let's look at Eucharistic Prayer #3: The following words are addressed to the Lord:
Quote: "From age to age you gather a people to yourself, in order that from East and West a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your Name."13
This phrase makes it clear that it is the people, rather than the priest, who are the indispensable element in the celebration. In the Encyclical Mediator Dei, Pope Pius XII condemned the statement that "the eucharistic sacrifice" is an authentic concelebration of the priest as well as of the people present.
Biblical Prefigurement of True and False Worship
The purpose of the True Mass is the praise and adoration of Almighty God through the Sacrifice of Christ, who is the invisible priest and victim. The difference between the New Mass and the True Mass is the difference between Cain and Abel. We are told: "The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offerings. But to Cain and his offerings, He had no respect" (Gen. 4:3-5). At the beginning of human history, the two brothers set the pattern of true and false religious observance for all time. One was an immolation in expiation of sin, the other merely a friendly exchange of gifts between man and God. One was acceptable, the other was not.14 It has been said that in countries, such as Poland, the Communist Party uses their "inspectors of religion," to keep under surveillance those priests who say the True Mass, but they leave alone those who say the New Mass.15
Freemasonry Wields the Axe to the Root
"Archbishop Bugnini was a consultant in the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, and in the Sacred Congregation of Holy Rites. He was also the chairman of the Concilium which drafted the Novus Ordo Missae. Archbishop Annibale Bugnini was a freemason, initiated into the Masonic Lodge on April 23, 1963 (Masonic Register of Italy dated 1976). Monsignor Bugnini was removed from his office in the Vatican when it became public that he was a Mason. And instead of being publicly reproved, or required to renounce his Masonic membership, he was appointed Papal Nuncio to Iran."16
The president of this Concilium was Cardinal Lecaro, a man whom Cardinal Bacci called, "Luther resurrected."17 When we discuss the New Mass we must consider the authors. Whereas Paul VI was formally and juridically responsible, it was actually composed by the Concilium, which consisted of some 200 individuals, many of whom had functioned as periti ("expert theologians") during Vatican Council II.
The Concilium was helped by six Protestant 'observers' (ministers) who played a huge part in developing the New Mass. ". . . Paul VI publicly thanked them for their assistance in re-editing in a new manner liturgical texts ... so that the lex orandi (the law of prayer) conformed better with the lex credendi (the law of belief)."18 You need a new liturgy for a new religion. The New Mass is the new law of non-Catholic belief.
Attempting the Destruction of the Roman Rite
Jean Guitton (an intimate friend of Paul VI) wrote:
Quote:"The intention of Pope Paul VI with regard to what is commonly called the Mass, was to reform the Catholic Liturgy in such a way that it should almost coincide with the Protestant liturgy. There was with Pope Paul VI an ecumenical intention to remove, or, at least to correct, or, at least to relax, what was too Catholic in the traditional sense in the Mass and, I repeat, to get the Catholic Mass closer to the Calvinist mass."19
Tearing the Heart Out of The Roman Rite
Judging the Novus Ordo Missae (New Mass) in itself, in its official Latin form, Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci wrote to Paul VI on Sept. 25, 1969:
Quote:"The Novus Ordo represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session 22 of the Council of Trent."20
Of the 12 Offertory prayers in the Traditional Rite, only two are retained in the New Mass.21 And of interest is the fact that the deleted prayers are the same ones that Luther and Cranmer eliminated. Why did they eliminate them? Because, as Luther said, the "smacked of Sacrifice . . . the abomination called the offertory, and from this point on almost everything stinks of oblation."22 The Offertory and Consecration are the very heart of the True Mass.
Anything But A Sacrifice
Martin Luther said:
Quote:"The Mass is not a sacrifice ... call it Benediction, Eucharist, the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, Memory of the Lord or whatever you like, just so long as you do not dirty it with the name of a Sacrifice."23
16th century Protestant reformer, Thomas Cranmer said:
Quote:"The use of an altar is to make sacrifice upon; the use of a table to serve men to eat upon."24
When you line up the New Mass with the Anglican schismatic Book of Common Prayer (1549), they are almost identical; in fact, the Book of Common Prayer is more reverent than the New Mass.
The Law of Prayer Establishes the Law of Belief
Christopher Monchton informs us that in the English version of the New Mass there are over 400 mistranslations from the Latin.25
Almost 100 percent of the new Masses around the world are said in the vernacular. Just changing the Mass into vernacular is, in itself, condemned. Session 12, Canon 9 of the Council of Trent says: "If anyone says ... that the Mass should be said in vernacular only, let him be anathema."26
Constitution, "Auctorem Fidei," August 28, 1794, Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) The Suitable Order to Be Observed in Worship #33. The proposition of the Synod condemns the following in regard to the Mass:
Quote:"by recalling it (the Liturgy) to a greater simplicity of Rites, by expressing it in the vernacular language, by uttering it in a loud voice."
These changes were condemned by Pope Pius VI as "rash, offensive to pious ears, insulting to the Church, favorable to the charges of heretics against it."27
The New Mass is Pleasing to Protestant and Jew alike. In the Offertory of the New Mass the priest says precisely the same words as those which are used in the Jewish seder service. These are the words:
Quote:"Blessed art thou, O Lord God of all creation. For through your goodness we have this bread to offer, fruit of the earth and work of human hands it will become for us the bread of life. This wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands it will become for us our spiritual drink."28
It's frightening to think that the Offertory of the New Mass is taken word for word from the seder meal of the Jewish holiday of Passover. In the New Mass the Priest offers bread and wine; however, in the True Mass, the Priest offers the Immaculate Victim. It is a blasphemy to offer God bread and wine.
In the Novus Ordo Requiem Masses (the Mass for the Dead), the word "Soul" is not mentioned even once.29
Paul VI said on May 24, 1976:
Quote:"The New Ordo has been promulgated to replace the old after mature deliberation and in order to fulfill the Council's decisions."30
Canon 6 of the Council of Trent says:
Quote:"If anyone says that there are errors in the Canon of the Mass and that therefore it should be abrogated: let him be anathema."31
Back at the Council of Trent, in Session 22, the Council Fathers realized that the Mass was being attacked, and they basically said, "Let's make sure the Mass remains intact." After the Council, Quo Primum forever defined the liturgical morals - the Mass Liturgies, both Eastern and Roman.
Quo Primum
St. Pope Pius V said dogmatically and infallibly in Quo Primum that:
Quote:"It shall be unlawful henceforth and forever throughout the Christian world to sing or to read Masses according to any formula other than this Missal published by us."
The Decree of Quo Primum was irrevocable, and Pope St. Pius V went on further to state in Quo Primum:
Quote:"This present Constitution can never be revoked or modified, but shall forever remain valid and have the force of Law . . . And if, nevertheless, anyone would ever dare attempt any action contrary to this Order of ours, handed down for all times, let him know that he has incurred the wrath of Almighty God, and the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."32 (July 14, 1570)
Binding Peter's Successors
But, can one Pope change what another Pope has done? In pastoral matters, yes; in matters of Faith, No! When we talk about the Liturgy we are talking about the Faith. Quo Primum was not a discipline. It dealt directly with Faith and morals.
Faith and Morals
Faith: What you must believe to be saved.
Social Morals: How man behaves towards other men.
Liturgical Morals: How man behaves towards God.
Liturgy is not arbitrary or dispensable. The Liturgy is the essence of Catholic Faith.
Wrath Foretold For Those Who Destroy the Immemorial Mass
The Bull on witchcraft by Pope Innocent VIII demonstrates that Quo Primum was infallible. The Bull's language is not nearly as strong as Quo Primum, but ends with these words:
Quote:"If any man dare to go contrary to this command, which God forbid, let him know that upon him will fall the wrath of Almighty God, and the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."
These are the exact words used in Quo Primum at the end.
In the introduction to the 1928 Catholic Encyclopedia it says (speaking about Innocent VIII's Bull):
Quote:"If any man shall presume to go against the tenor let him know that therein he will bring down the wrath of Almighty God and The Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."
The commentary afterwards says: "Could words weightier be found?"
Defining Truth and Binding the Faithful
The Encyclopedia goes on to say:
Quote:"Are we then to class this Bull in with the Bull Dogmatica Ineffabilis Deus where Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception? Such a position is clearly tenable, but even if we do not insist that the Bull of Innocent VIII is an infallible utterance, that it does not in set terms define a Dogma, although it does set forth sure and certain truths, it must be held to be a document of supreme and absolute authority, of dogmatic force."
Pope Pius XI said in his apostolic constitution "Divini Cultus" on December 20, 1928, addressing the connection of the Sacred Liturgy with the Church:
Quote: "The Liturgy is an undoubtedly sacred thing; for through it we are brought to God and are joined with Him; we bear witness to our Faith . . . Hence a kind of intimate relationship between Dogma and Sacred Liturgy, and likewise between Christian worship and the sanctification of the people. Therefore, Pope Celestine I proposed and expressed a Canon of Faith in the venerated formulas of the Liturgy: "Let the Law of Supplication, (prayer) establish the Law of Believing . . ."33
Anathemas Against the New Missal
7th Session, Canon 13 of the Council of Trent: The correct Latin translation says:
Quote:"If anyone says that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, customarily used in the solemn administration of the Sacraments, can be despised or can be freely omitted by the ministers without sin, or can be changed into other new rites by any pastor in the Church whomsoever, let him be anathema."34
This canon states very clearly that the Pope, who is the first and supreme pastor may never change any approved Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Rite was fixed forever by Pope St. Pius V in Quo Primum. Paul VI tried to establish a whole new Roman Rite. There is only one Roman Rite of the Mass; there cannot be two.
In the Profession of Faith in the Council of Trent, the following was always professed by the priest begin ordained; he promises and vows:
Quote:"I also receive and admit the accepted and approved rites of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of all the aforesaid Sacraments."35
It is indisputable that according to the previous pronouncements of the Church that the New Mass is illegal, and therefore cannot be celebrated or attended. The issue of whether there is a valid consecration in the New Mass is another question which we will now address.
The Requirements for Validity
In the decree to the Armenians in the Council of Florence, it states the following:
Quote:"All these Sacraments are dispensed in three ways, namely, by things as the matter, by words as the form, and by the person of the minister conferring the Sacrament with the intention of doing as the Church does; if any of these is lacking the Sacrament is not fulfilled."36
Minister, Intention, Matter, and Form
The four main things necessary for a valid celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:
minister: The celebrant must be a validly ordained priest.
intention: The celebrant must have the intention of confecting the Sacrament.
matter: The elements of the Mass must be wheaten bread and grape wine, made without additives.
form: The proper form (words) of consecration must be used.
According to the Council of Trent, these requirements cannot be altered by anyone, not even the Church itself, since they were established by Christ.
Is the New Mass Valid?
Let's first cover the issue as to whether the New Mass is valid by reviewing the vernacular. In most every vernacular translation of the New Mass, the words "many" have been changed to "all" in the Consecration. This is not a minor change! It will be argued that in the New Mass the priest says, "This is My Body" which are the same words used in the Tridentine Mass and so, if we use the right words for the Consecration of the Body, "This is My Body," we have a Sacrament. They do not believe anything else is required. Those who hold to this position ignore the defects in the "form" of the New Mass (essential words needed to confect the Sacrament).
Furthermore, they ignore the fact that the words in the form of the New Mass, while themselves essential to the form of the Sacrament, do not constitute the complete form of the Sacrament. Others will argue that both consecrations are not imperative to have a valid Sacrament. This is also contrary to the teaching of the Church. The proper intention necessary is an intention to confect not one, but both Sacraments. This is essential for a valid celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Both Consecrations are Necessary for a Valid Mass
St. Thomas Aquinas says:
Quote:"As often as the Sacrifice is offered, the consecration of both species is required, according to the will and institution of Christ. For Christ at the Last Supper, consecrating each (both) species, commanded: 'Do this in commemoration of me' . . . the very notion of sacrifice . . . demands the consecration of both species.37
De Defectibus
De Defectibus is a long document written by Pope St. Pius V which discusses certain defects which could arise in the celebration of Mass. It is largely a point of reference so the celebration of Mass would remain the same in all lands for all times. Defects were described in detail so that priests would always say Mass in the same manner.
Quo Primum and De Defectibus emanated from the Council of Trent. Both of these documents were found in the front of all Altar Missals as an easy reference for priest offering the Holy Mass. Quo Primum and De Defectibus were first included in the Missale Romanum in 1572. They were deleted from the ICEL (Committee on English in the Liturgy) version in 1969.
De Defectibus Chapter X, Part 3, prescribes that a Mass interrupted after the Consecration of the Host (because of illness or death of the celebrant) must be continued by another priest, i.e., that the wine must be consecrated to complete and effect the Sacrifice.
In the 1917 Code, Canon 817 states:
Quote:"It is unlawful even in the case of necessity, to consecrate one species without the other, or to consecrate both outside the Mass."
The complete form or words of Consecration needed for a valid Sacrament were clearly stated in the Council of Florence.
The Council of Florence, in 1442, declared that the following words must be used for a valid Consecration in the Mass:
Quote:"Wherefore the words of Consecration, which are the form of this Sacrament, are these: 'For this is My Body: For this is the Chalice of My Blood, of the new and eternal testament, the mystery of faith: which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins."38
Various Mass Rites: "For Many" or "For All"
". . . The Church hast traditionally recognized as valid -- some 76 different rites in various languages, many of which date back to Apostolic times, not one however, has ever used "all" in the form for the Consecration of the Wine."39
Even the Anglican Common Prayer Book of 1549 didn't change the word "many to "all" in the consecration and it was still declared by Pope Leo XIII to be invalid.
Little Words and Letters Can Mean a Lot
Some people may say that discarding or changing a word or words in the Mass isn't a big deal. Church history has proven that little words, even little letters, can mean a lot.
The combats sustained by the Nicean Fathers against the Arians over the definition of the dogma of the Incarnation are witness to the uncompromising zeal for stating the truth without shade of alteration, gloss, or ambiguity which the faith demand in a time of crisis. Major differences could have been settled at that time by the addition of one single letter. The problematic homoousios denoting "consubstantial" needed only have been softened to homoiousios denoting "similar in nature."40
Jesus Christ, The Word of God has Spoken
Luke 16:17: "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the Law to fall."
Matthew 5:18: "For Amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth shall pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the Law, till all be fulfilled."
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not use the word "all" in the upper room in Matthew 26:26. He used the word "many." God help the New Order priest who uses the words which are different from the words that Jesus Christ used.
Perpetual Teaching of the Universal Church
The Church has always taught that the word "all", for very specific reasons, is purposely not used in the Consecration!
St. Alphonsus tells us:
Quote:"The words pro vobis et pro multis (for you and for many) are used to distinguish the virtue of the Blood of Christ from its fruits: for the blood of Our Savior is of sufficient value to save all men but its fruits are applied only to a certain number and not to all, and this is their own fault."41
Or, as the theologians say, this Precious Blood is sufficient to save all men, but in reality it does not save all -- it saves only those who cooperate with Grace.
The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is not a Sacrament for all men; it is a Sacrament for you and for many.
The Catechism by Decree of The Holy Council of Trent teaches that the additional words:
Quote:"for you and for many, are taken, some from St. Matthew, some from St. Luke, but were joined together by the Catholic Church under the guidance of the Spirit of God . . . With reason, therefore, were the words 'for all' not used, as in this place the fruits of the passion are alone spoken of, and to the elect only did His Passion bring the fruit of salvation."42
St. Thomas Aquinas expressed the same opinion in the Summa, III, Q78, Art. 4, Reply to Objection 8. Pope Benedict XIV also expressed this opinion in De Missae Sacrificio.
Doubtful Consecration; Must Not Participate
Just for the reason that there is a doubtful Consecration in the New Mass, Catholics are obliged to abstain from any participation in such rites. Fr. Jone's Moral Theology, Chapter under the Efficacy of the Sacraments Part IV #2, states under examples:
Quote:"To administer or receive a Sacrament invalidly is a much greater sin than to administer or receive it unfruitfully."43
Pope Innocent XI, in a decree of the Holy Office, March 4, 1679, condemned the idea that a person could follow a probable opinion regarding the value of a sacrament and abandon the safer course.44 Pope Innocent XI condemned this thinking not once, but twice!
Pope Innocent XI
Errors of Michael of Molinos (Condemned in the decree of the Sacred Office, August 28, 1687, and in the Constitutions "Coelestis Pastor," Nov. 20, 1687)45
Quote:11. It is not necessary to reflect upon doubts whether one is proceeding rightly or not." (Condemned)46
"Condemned as heretical, suspect, erroneous, scandalous, blasphemous, offensive to pious ears, rash, or relaxed Christian discipline, subversive, and seditious respectively."47
Fr. Henry Davis says in his Moral and Pastoral Theology Vol. 2 p. 27:
Quote:"In conferring the Sacrament, as also in the Consecration in the Mass, it is never allowed to adopt a probable course of action as to validity and to abandon the safer course. The contrary was explicitly condemned by Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689); to do so would be a grievous sin against religion, namely an act of irreverence towards what Christ Our Lord has instituted."48
"It would be a grievous sin against Charity, as the recipient would probably be deprived of the graces and effects of the Sacrament. It would be a grievous sin against Justice, as the recipient has a right to valid Sacraments. Matter and form must be certainly valid. Hence, one may not follow a probable opinion and use either doubtful matter or form. Acting otherwise, one commits a sacrilege."49
That is one reason why the New Mass is a sacrilege.
Sacrilege By Which He is Offended
The New Mass is a sacrilege because it is a deliberate counterfeit of the established Mass of the Roman Rite. The True Mass was given a definite and unchangeable form by St. Pope Pius V so sacrilege could be avoided and condemned.
St. Thomas Aquinas describes a sacrilege:
Quote:"In a sacrilege, we find a special type of deformation, namely the violation of a sacred thing by treating it with irreverence." (Summa. II Q. 99, Art. 2)
What Part Does Truth Have With Error?
If the Novus Ordo Missae is not Catholic, then it cannot satisfy one's Sunday obligation, and would be a grievous sin to attend. St. Thomas Aquinas said:
Quote: "Falsehood in outward worship occurs on the part of the worshipper, and especially, in common worship which is offered by minister impersonating the whole Church. For even as he would be guilty of falsehood who would, in the name of another person, proffer things that are not committed to him, so too does man incur the guilt of falsehood who, on the part of the Church gives worship to God contrary to the manner established by the Church or Divine Authority, and according to the ecclesiastical custom. Hence, St. Ambrose says: "He is unworthy who celebrates the mystery otherwise than as Christ delivered it."50
Pope Innocent III, one of the greatest jurists, said:
Quote:"No one may depart from the universal customs of the Church."51
Saint Pope Pius X said in Pascendi Dominic Gregis:
Quote:"For Catholics nothing will remove the authority of the Second Council of Nicea, where it condemns those who dare, after the impious novelties of some kind or to endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow anyone of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church."
The English Martyrs' Blood Testifies Against the New Mass
The New Mass is strikingly similar to the service instituted by Cranmer (the liturgist of Henry VIII) following the Protestant Reformation. Pope St. Pius V told Catholics, at that time, that they were forbidden to attend such services. In fact, many went to their death rather than go to the churches where Cranmer's form of prayer was being said. If true Catholics went to their death rather than attend a mass such as the Novus Ordo, the response of the faithful today must be the same.
A New Liturgy For A New Religion
You need a new liturgy for a new religion. Just because the original Novus Ordo Missae had a few similarities to the True Mass, that doesn't make it Catholic. Consider the following description of the early Lutheran service, as given by the great Jesuit scholar, Hartmann Grisar:
Quote:"One who entered the parish church at Wittenburg after Luther's 'victory' discovered that the same vestments were used for divine service as before, and heard the same old Latin hymns. The host was elevated and exhibited at the consecration. In the eyes of the people it was the same Mass as before, despite the fact that Luther omitted all the prayers which represented the sacred function of the Sacrifice. The people were intentionally kept in the dark on this point. 'We cannot draw the common people away from the Sacrament, and it will probably be thus until the Gospel is well understood,' said Luther. 'The rite of celebration of the Mass,' he explained, is a 'purely external thing,' and he said further that 'the damnable words referring to the Sacrifice could be omitted all the more readily, since the ordinary Christian would not notice the omission and hence there was no danger of scandal.'"52
The Morality of the New Mass
The Council of Trent, Canons on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 3 says:
Quote:"If anyone says that the Sacrifice of the Mass is merely an offering of praise and thanksgiving, or that it is a simple memorial of the Sacrifice offered on the Cross, and that it should not be offered for the living and the dead, for sins, punishments, satisfaction, and other necessities: let him be anathema."53
The New Mass is only an offering of praise and thanksgiving. At the New Mass anything can and does go. If the only church in town happened to be a protestant church, a Catholic surely could not attend services there. The same principle applies to the New Mass. Since it is not a Catholic Mass, a Catholic has no business being there. In fact, in most churches the New Mass would not even qualify to be a Protestant service. Many New Masses have laughing, joking, clapping, singing, dancing, hugging, kissing, flutes, guitars, charismatics calling up spirits, homosexual priests, Eucharistic ministers, communion in the hand, immodest dress, no dresses, no head coverings, no reverence, etc...
As the Antichrist will be so evil because he will claim to be the Real Jesus and will not be, so the New Mass is evil because it claims to be the Real Mass and is not. The New Mass is a deliberate counterfeit of the True Mass, and a non-Catholic service. It is very clear that according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church it would be a grievous sin to attend the New Mass. This is why the New Mass is deadly.
Notes
1. St. Leonard, The Hidden Treasure , p. 157
2. Rev. T. E. Bridgett, The Life of Blessed John Fisher (London: Burns & Oates, 1888). Bishop St. John Fisher was martyred, along with St. Thomas More, by Henry VIII in 1535.
3. St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Dignities and Duties Of The Priest (London: Benzinger Bros., 1889), p. 212.
4. Octava Controversia Generalis. Liber Ii. Controversia Quinta. Caput XXXI.
5. Fr. Paul Trinchard, Holy Mass, Holy Mary (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1997), p. 41.
6. St. Leonard, The Hidden Treasure , p. 157
7. Fr. Paul Trinchard, Holy Mass, Holy Mary (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1997), p. 4,5.
8. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass, p. 11.
9. Ibid, p. 9.
10. Fr. Paul Trinchard, New Mass in Light of the Old (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1995), p. 20.
11. Fr. James Wathen, The Great Sacrilege, p. 178, 179.
12. Fr. Paul Trinchard, Novus Ordo Condemned (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1997), p. 34.
13. Comment of Fr. Joseph Jungmann, the Mass: An Historical, Theological And Pastoral Survey (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1976), p. 201.
14. Solange Hertz, On the Contrary (Veritas Press, Box 1704, Santa Monica, CA), p. 50.
15. Most Asked Questions About The Society Of Saint Pius X (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 26.
16. Fr. James Wathen, Who Shall Ascend?, p. 178, 179.
17. La Tunica Stracciata by Tito Casini, Rome 1967 / Fr. Paul Leonard, A Theological Vindication Of Roman Catholic Traditionalism (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 43.
18. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 24.
19. Latin Mass Magazine, Winter, 1995 / Christian Order, Oct. 1994.
20. Most Asked Questions About The Society Of Saint Pius X (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 26.
21. Msgr. Frederick McManus, The Revival of the Liturgy, p. 217.
22. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 34.
23. Ibid., p. 29.
24. The Works of Thomas Cranmer (London: Parker Society), V. 2, p. 524.
25. Faith, Nov 1979.
26. Denzinger 956.
27. Denzinger 1533.
28. Fr. Donald Sanborn, Changes of Vatican II, Part IV (Catholic Restoration Bookstore, 2850 Parent, Warren, MI).
29. Fr. Anthony Cekada, "A Response", The Roman Catholic, Jan. 1987.
30. Fr. James Wathen, Who Shall Ascend?, p. 523.
31. Denzinger 953.
32. Fr. James Wathen, The Great Sacrilege, p. 173-175.
33. Denzinger 2200.
34. Denzinger 856.
35. Denzinger 996.
36. Denzinger 695.
37. De Eucharistia, Noldin-Schmitt, S. J., in "Summa Theologiae Moralis," III Innsbruck, 1940.
38. Denzinger 715.
39. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 55.
40. Solange Hertz, On the Contrary (Veritas Press, Box 1704, Santa Monica, CA), p. 75.
41. St. Alphonsus, Treatise On The Holy Eucharist
42. Patrick Henry Omlor, Questioning The Validity Of The Masses Using The New, All-English Canon (Athanasius Press; Reno, NV), p. 59.
43. Fr. Heribet Jone, Moral Theology (The Neumann Press, Westminster, MD, 1952), p. 311.
44. Denzinger 1151.
45. Denzinger p. 331.
46. Denzinger 1231.
47. Denzinger 1288.
48. Fr. Henry Davis, S. J., Moral And Pastoral Theology (London: Sheed And Ward, 1936), V. 2, p. 27.
49. Fr. Heribet Jone, Moral Theology (The Neumann Press, Westminster, MD, 1952), p. 323.
50. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 86.
51. Innocent III, de Consuetudine Theol. II-II, 104-105.
52. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 18.
53. Denzinger 950.
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| The Dangers of the New Mass |
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Posted by: Stone - 03-10-2021, 08:10 AM - Forum: New Rite Sacraments
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The Dangers of the New Mass
"From the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." (Malachias 1:11)
St. Augustine said: "He who devoutly hears Holy Mass will receive a great vigor to enable him to resist mortal sin, and there shall be pardoned to him all venial sins which he may have committed up to that hour."1
Had satan been aware that Jesus Christ was the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, he would have never pushed for the Crucifixion. Every True Mass reminds him, once again, of his terrible mistake and at the same time it is a vehicle for bestowing infinite grace on mankind. It is no wonder that the devil has an intense hatred for the True Mass.
St. John Fisher said: "He who goes about to take the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the Church plots no less a calamity than if he tried to snatch the sun from the universe."2
St. Alphonsus said: "The devil has always attempted, by means of heretics, to deprive the world of the Mass, making them precursors of the antichrist, who before anything else, will try to abolish and will actually abolish the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as a punishment for the sins of men, according to the prediction of Daniel, 'And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice."3 (Daniel 8:12)
St. Robert Bellarmine said: "When we enter ornate and clean Basilicas, adorned with crosses, sacred images, altars and burning lamps, we most easily conceive devotion. But on the other hand, when we enter the temples of the heretics, where there is nothing except a chair for preaching and a table for making a meal, we feel ourselves to be entering a profane hall and not the House of God."4
Luther's slogan was: "Take away the Mass, destroy the Church."5
St. John Vianney said: "All the good works together are not of equal value with the Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of man, and the Holy Mass is the work of God."6
How did we get the Mass?
A general history: In his letter to the Corinthians in the year 88 A.D., Pope St. Clement of Rome (martyr and fourth Pope after St. Peter), wrote that Our Lord laid down the order of the Mass, referring to the Offertory, Consecration and Communion. St. Justin the Martyr (in his writings, 155 A.D.) stated that after His Resurrection, Our Lord taught the Apostles how to say Mass.
Many liturgical historians believe that the writings of St. Clement and St. Justin were expressed in a formal way by St. Ambrose (approximately 360 A.D.) in a book titled, De Sacramentis. De Sacramentis essentially contains the canonized Mass prayers. The Mass prayers appeared in written form only three hundred years after Jesus Christ's death. It was in the 4th century that Latin became the official language of the Church and the word missa was introduced. This was probably introduced by St. Ambrose in the Leonine Sacramentary (Pope St. Leo in 450 A.D.) and the Gelasian Sacramentary (Pope Gelasius I in 498 A.D.). The essential parts of this missal were found to be almost the same as those in the Tridentine Mass. In the year 600 A.D., Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604 A.D.) finished his Gregorian Sacramentary, which is essentially the Mass "codified" by Pope St. Pius V in 1570.7
The True Mass goes back to Apostolic times; and it was "codified", solidified, or set in stone by St. Pope Pius V in his Papal Bull Quo Primum Tempore on July 14, 1570. Pope St. Pius V specified the exact Mass ritual "of and for" the Roman Rite. Only this Liturgy or Ritual was to be used from that time until the end of time (for the Roman Rite). The Canon with the exception of one short clause, inserted by Pope Gregory the Great, had remained unchanged ". . . until 1962, when John XXIII added the name of St. Joseph to the Canon of the Mass. A total of 26 words have been added to the Traditional Canon, by Popes Leo (440-461 A.D.) and St. Gregory the Great (590-604 A.D.). Thus, as the Council of Trent accurately states, the Canon is composed out of the very words of the Lord, the tradition of the Apostles, and the pious institutions of the holy Pontiffs."8
Names Given to the Roman Rite of the Mass
It is called "the Mass of All Times" (because it dates back to the Apostles in its essential elements--though it is eternal in its nature), the "Tridentine Mass" (only because the 16th century Council of Trent <Tridentum in Latin> ordered it to be "codified"), the "Mass of Pius V" (after the Pope who actually "codified" it in 1570), and on occasion (but loosely and incorrectly) "the Latin Mass" (incorrectly because any Rite can be translated into Latin and because the Novus Ordo Missae itself was issued originally in Latin).9 The True Mass should be called the Roman Rite of the Mass. This way there isn't any confusion.
New World Order: New Order of the Mass
In the middle to late 60's, Rome started to have the Mass said in the vernacular and then in 1970, Paul VI gave us a whole new rite of Mass called the "Novus Ordo Missae". It is not by chance that the enemies of the True Faith who are building "a Novus Ordo Seclorum" (a new world order) would establish "a Novus Ordo Missae" (a new order of the Mass) to destroy the Roman Catholic Church. Even in the original Latin form, the New Mass was bad enough, but after going to the vernacular through the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), disaster ensued, and the questions of validity were justified. A total of 35 prayers or approximately 70% of the Tridentine Mass has been replaced or discarded.10
Ambiguous, Wishful Thinking; Binding No One
Here is what Paul VI put in the new Roman Missal on April 3, 1969: #13 "We hope that the Missal will be received by the Faithful" and #15 "We wish that these, our decrees and prescriptions, may be firm and effective."11 To impose a law the Pope must make it clear to the Church that a Law is being imposed, or that he is binding the Church to use this New Mass. He did not do so. What Paul VI did had nothing to do with the Church's indefectibility or the Pope's infallibility. Paul VI said on November 19, 1969: "This Rite (New Mass) and its related rubrics are not in themselves a dogmatic definition."12 Paul VI did not and could not change the Roman Rite of the Mass.
The People Supersede the Priest as the Indispensable Element
It is not necessary to examine all four of the Eucharistic prayers in the New Mass. However, let's look at Eucharistic Prayer #3: The following words are addressed to the Lord:
Quote: "From age to age you gather a people to yourself, in order that from East and West a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your Name."13
This phrase makes it clear that it is the people, rather than the priest, who are the indispensable element in the celebration. In the Encyclical Mediator Dei, Pope Pius XII condemned the statement that "the eucharistic sacrifice" is an authentic concelebration of the priest as well as of the people present.
Biblical Prefigurement of True and False Worship
The purpose of the True Mass is the praise and adoration of Almighty God through the Sacrifice of Christ, who is the invisible priest and victim. The difference between the New Mass and the True Mass is the difference between Cain and Abel. We are told: "The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offerings. But to Cain and his offerings, He had no respect" (Gen. 4:3-5). At the beginning of human history, the two brothers set the pattern of true and false religious observance for all time. One was an immolation in expiation of sin, the other merely a friendly exchange of gifts between man and God. One was acceptable, the other was not.14 It has been said that in countries, such as Poland, the Communist Party uses their "inspectors of religion," to keep under surveillance those priests who say the True Mass, but they leave alone those who say the New Mass.15
Freemasonry Wields the Axe to the Root
"Archbishop Bugnini was a consultant in the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, and in the Sacred Congregation of Holy Rites. He was also the chairman of the Concilium which drafted the Novus Ordo Missae. Archbishop Annibale Bugnini was a freemason, initiated into the Masonic Lodge on April 23, 1963 (Masonic Register of Italy dated 1976). Monsignor Bugnini was removed from his office in the Vatican when it became public that he was a Mason. And instead of being publicly reproved, or required to renounce his Masonic membership, he was appointed Papal Nuncio to Iran."16
The president of this Concilium was Cardinal Lecaro, a man whom Cardinal Bacci called, "Luther resurrected."17 When we discuss the New Mass we must consider the authors. Whereas Paul VI was formally and juridically responsible, it was actually composed by the Concilium, which consisted of some 200 individuals, many of whom had functioned as periti ("expert theologians") during Vatican Council II.
The Concilium was helped by six Protestant 'observers' (ministers) who played a huge part in developing the New Mass. ". . . Paul VI publicly thanked them for their assistance in re-editing in a new manner liturgical texts ... so that the lex orandi (the law of prayer) conformed better with the lex credendi (the law of belief)."18 You need a new liturgy for a new religion. The New Mass is the new law of non-Catholic belief.
Attempting the Destruction of the Roman Rite
Jean Guitton (an intimate friend of Paul VI) wrote:
Quote:"The intention of Pope Paul VI with regard to what is commonly called the Mass, was to reform the Catholic Liturgy in such a way that it should almost coincide with the Protestant liturgy. There was with Pope Paul VI an ecumenical intention to remove, or, at least to correct, or, at least to relax, what was too Catholic in the traditional sense in the Mass and, I repeat, to get the Catholic Mass closer to the Calvinist mass."19
Tearing the Heart Out of The Roman Rite
Judging the Novus Ordo Missae (New Mass) in itself, in its official Latin form, Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci wrote to Paul VI on Sept. 25, 1969:
Quote:"The Novus Ordo represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session 22 of the Council of Trent."20
Of the 12 Offertory prayers in the Traditional Rite, only two are retained in the New Mass.21 And of interest is the fact that the deleted prayers are the same ones that Luther and Cranmer eliminated. Why did they eliminate them? Because, as Luther said, the "smacked of Sacrifice . . . the abomination called the offertory, and from this point on almost everything stinks of oblation."22 The Offertory and Consecration are the very heart of the True Mass.
Anything But A Sacrifice
Martin Luther said:
Quote:"The Mass is not a sacrifice ... call it Benediction, Eucharist, the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, Memory of the Lord or whatever you like, just so long as you do not dirty it with the name of a Sacrifice."23
16th century Protestant reformer, Thomas Cranmer said:
Quote:"The use of an altar is to make sacrifice upon; the use of a table to serve men to eat upon."24
When you line up the New Mass with the Anglican schismatic Book of Common Prayer (1549), they are almost identical; in fact, the Book of Common Prayer is more reverent than the New Mass.
The Law of Prayer Establishes the Law of Belief
Christopher Monchton informs us that in the English version of the New Mass there are over 400 mistranslations from the Latin.25
Almost 100 percent of the new Masses around the world are said in the vernacular. Just changing the Mass into vernacular is, in itself, condemned. Session 12, Canon 9 of the Council of Trent says: "If anyone says ... that the Mass should be said in vernacular only, let him be anathema."26
Constitution, "Auctorem Fidei," August 28, 1794, Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) The Suitable Order to Be Observed in Worship #33. The proposition of the Synod condemns the following in regard to the Mass:
Quote:"by recalling it (the Liturgy) to a greater simplicity of Rites, by expressing it in the vernacular language, by uttering it in a loud voice."
These changes were condemned by Pope Pius VI as "rash, offensive to pious ears, insulting to the Church, favorable to the charges of heretics against it."27
The New Mass is Pleasing to Protestant and Jew alike. In the Offertory of the New Mass the priest says precisely the same words as those which are used in the Jewish seder service. These are the words:
Quote:"Blessed art thou, O Lord God of all creation. For through your goodness we have this bread to offer, fruit of the earth and work of human hands it will become for us the bread of life. This wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands it will become for us our spiritual drink."28
It's frightening to think that the Offertory of the New Mass is taken word for word from the seder meal of the Jewish holiday of Passover. In the New Mass the Priest offers bread and wine; however, in the True Mass, the Priest offers the Immaculate Victim. It is a blasphemy to offer God bread and wine.
In the Novus Ordo Requiem Masses (the Mass for the Dead), the word "Soul" is not mentioned even once.29
Paul VI said on May 24, 1976:
Quote:"The New Ordo has been promulgated to replace the old after mature deliberation and in order to fulfill the Council's decisions."30
Canon 6 of the Council of Trent says:
Quote:"If anyone says that there are errors in the Canon of the Mass and that therefore it should be abrogated: let him be anathema."31
Back at the Council of Trent, in Session 22, the Council Fathers realized that the Mass was being attacked, and they basically said, "Let's make sure the Mass remains intact." After the Council, Quo Primum forever defined the liturgical morals - the Mass Liturgies, both Eastern and Roman.
Quo Primum
St. Pope Pius V said dogmatically and infallibly in Quo Primum that:
Quote:"It shall be unlawful henceforth and forever throughout the Christian world to sing or to read Masses according to any formula other than this Missal published by us."
The Decree of Quo Primum was irrevocable, and Pope St. Pius V went on further to state in Quo Primum:
Quote:"This present Constitution can never be revoked or modified, but shall forever remain valid and have the force of Law . . . And if, nevertheless, anyone would ever dare attempt any action contrary to this Order of ours, handed down for all times, let him know that he has incurred the wrath of Almighty God, and the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."32 (July 14, 1570)
Binding Peter's Successors
But, can one Pope change what another Pope has done? In pastoral matters, yes; in matters of Faith, No! When we talk about the Liturgy we are talking about the Faith. Quo Primum was not a discipline. It dealt directly with Faith and morals.
Faith and Morals
Faith: What you must believe to be saved.
Social Morals: How man behaves towards other men.
Liturgical Morals: How man behaves towards God.
Liturgy is not arbitrary or dispensable. The Liturgy is the essence of Catholic Faith.
Wrath Foretold For Those Who Destroy the Immemorial Mass
The Bull on witchcraft by Pope Innocent VIII demonstrates that Quo Primum was infallible. The Bull's language is not nearly as strong as Quo Primum, but ends with these words:
Quote:"If any man dare to go contrary to this command, which God forbid, let him know that upon him will fall the wrath of Almighty God, and the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."
These are the exact words used in Quo Primum at the end.
In the introduction to the 1928 Catholic Encyclopedia it says (speaking about Innocent VIII's Bull):
Quote:"If any man shall presume to go against the tenor let him know that therein he will bring down the wrath of Almighty God and The Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."
The commentary afterwards says: "Could words weightier be found?"
Defining Truth and Binding the Faithful
The Encyclopedia goes on to say:
Quote:"Are we then to class this Bull in with the Bull Dogmatica Ineffabilis Deus where Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception? Such a position is clearly tenable, but even if we do not insist that the Bull of Innocent VIII is an infallible utterance, that it does not in set terms define a Dogma, although it does set forth sure and certain truths, it must be held to be a document of supreme and absolute authority, of dogmatic force."
Pope Pius XI said in his apostolic constitution "Divini Cultus" on December 20, 1928, addressing the connection of the Sacred Liturgy with the Church:
Quote: "The Liturgy is an undoubtedly sacred thing; for through it we are brought to God and are joined with Him; we bear witness to our Faith . . . Hence a kind of intimate relationship between Dogma and Sacred Liturgy, and likewise between Christian worship and the sanctification of the people. Therefore, Pope Celestine I proposed and expressed a Canon of Faith in the venerated formulas of the Liturgy: "Let the Law of Supplication, (prayer) establish the Law of Believing . . ."33
Anathemas Against the New Missal
7th Session, Canon 13 of the Council of Trent: The correct Latin translation says:
Quote:"If anyone says that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, customarily used in the solemn administration of the Sacraments, can be despised or can be freely omitted by the ministers without sin, or can be changed into other new rites by any pastor in the Church whomsoever, let him be anathema."34
This canon states very clearly that the Pope, who is the first and supreme pastor may never change any approved Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Rite was fixed forever by Pope St. Pius V in Quo Primum. Paul VI tried to establish a whole new Roman Rite. There is only one Roman Rite of the Mass; there cannot be two.
In the Profession of Faith in the Council of Trent, the following was always professed by the priest begin ordained; he promises and vows:
Quote:"I also receive and admit the accepted and approved rites of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of all the aforesaid Sacraments."35
It is indisputable that according to the previous pronouncements of the Church that the New Mass is illegal, and therefore cannot be celebrated or attended. The issue of whether there is a valid consecration in the New Mass is another question which we will now address.
The Requirements for Validity
In the decree to the Armenians in the Council of Florence, it states the following:
Quote:"All these Sacraments are dispensed in three ways, namely, by things as the matter, by words as the form, and by the person of the minister conferring the Sacrament with the intention of doing as the Church does; if any of these is lacking the Sacrament is not fulfilled."36
Minister, Intention, Matter, and Form
The four main things necessary for a valid celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:
minister: The celebrant must be a validly ordained priest.
intention: The celebrant must have the intention of confecting the Sacrament.
matter: The elements of the Mass must be wheaten bread and grape wine, made without additives.
form: The proper form (words) of consecration must be used.
According to the Council of Trent, these requirements cannot be altered by anyone, not even the Church itself, since they were established by Christ.
Is the New Mass Valid?
Let's first cover the issue as to whether the New Mass is valid by reviewing the vernacular. In most every vernacular translation of the New Mass, the words "many" have been changed to "all" in the Consecration. This is not a minor change! It will be argued that in the New Mass the priest says, "This is My Body" which are the same words used in the Tridentine Mass and so, if we use the right words for the Consecration of the Body, "This is My Body," we have a Sacrament. They do not believe anything else is required. Those who hold to this position ignore the defects in the "form" of the New Mass (essential words needed to confect the Sacrament).
Furthermore, they ignore the fact that the words in the form of the New Mass, while themselves essential to the form of the Sacrament, do not constitute the complete form of the Sacrament. Others will argue that both consecrations are not imperative to have a valid Sacrament. This is also contrary to the teaching of the Church. The proper intention necessary is an intention to confect not one, but both Sacraments. This is essential for a valid celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Both Consecrations are Necessary for a Valid Mass
St. Thomas Aquinas says:
Quote:"As often as the Sacrifice is offered, the consecration of both species is required, according to the will and institution of Christ. For Christ at the Last Supper, consecrating each (both) species, commanded: 'Do this in commemoration of me' . . . the very notion of sacrifice . . . demands the consecration of both species.37
De Defectibus
De Defectibus is a long document written by Pope St. Pius V which discusses certain defects which could arise in the celebration of Mass. It is largely a point of reference so the celebration of Mass would remain the same in all lands for all times. Defects were described in detail so that priests would always say Mass in the same manner.
Quo Primum and De Defectibus emanated from the Council of Trent. Both of these documents were found in the front of all Altar Missals as an easy reference for priest offering the Holy Mass. Quo Primum and De Defectibus were first included in the Missale Romanum in 1572. They were deleted from the ICEL (Committee on English in the Liturgy) version in 1969.
De Defectibus Chapter X, Part 3, prescribes that a Mass interrupted after the Consecration of the Host (because of illness or death of the celebrant) must be continued by another priest, i.e., that the wine must be consecrated to complete and effect the Sacrifice.
In the 1917 Code, Canon 817 states:
Quote:"It is unlawful even in the case of necessity, to consecrate one species without the other, or to consecrate both outside the Mass."
The complete form or words of Consecration needed for a valid Sacrament were clearly stated in the Council of Florence.
The Council of Florence, in 1442, declared that the following words must be used for a valid Consecration in the Mass:
Quote:"Wherefore the words of Consecration, which are the form of this Sacrament, are these: 'For this is My Body: For this is the Chalice of My Blood, of the new and eternal testament, the mystery of faith: which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins."38
Various Mass Rites: "For Many" or "For All"
". . . The Church hast traditionally recognized as valid -- some 76 different rites in various languages, many of which date back to Apostolic times, not one however, has ever used "all" in the form for the Consecration of the Wine."39
Even the Anglican Common Prayer Book of 1549 didn't change the word "many to "all" in the consecration and it was still declared by Pope Leo XIII to be invalid.
Little Words and Letters Can Mean a Lot
Some people may say that discarding or changing a word or words in the Mass isn't a big deal. Church history has proven that little words, even little letters, can mean a lot.
The combats sustained by the Nicean Fathers against the Arians over the definition of the dogma of the Incarnation are witness to the uncompromising zeal for stating the truth without shade of alteration, gloss, or ambiguity which the faith demand in a time of crisis. Major differences could have been settled at that time by the addition of one single letter. The problematic homoousios denoting "consubstantial" needed only have been softened to homoiousios denoting "similar in nature."40
Jesus Christ, The Word of God has Spoken
Luke 16:17: "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the Law to fall."
Matthew 5:18: "For Amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth shall pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the Law, till all be fulfilled."
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not use the word "all" in the upper room in Matthew 26:26. He used the word "many." God help the New Order priest who uses the words which are different from the words that Jesus Christ used.
Perpetual Teaching of the Universal Church
The Church has always taught that the word "all", for very specific reasons, is purposely not used in the Consecration!
St. Alphonsus tells us:
Quote:"The words pro vobis et pro multis (for you and for many) are used to distinguish the virtue of the Blood of Christ from its fruits: for the blood of Our Savior is of sufficient value to save all men but its fruits are applied only to a certain number and not to all, and this is their own fault."41
Or, as the theologians say, this Precious Blood is sufficient to save all men, but in reality it does not save all -- it saves only those who cooperate with Grace.
The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is not a Sacrament for all men; it is a Sacrament for you and for many.
The Catechism by Decree of The Holy Council of Trent teaches that the additional words:
Quote:"for you and for many, are taken, some from St. Matthew, some from St. Luke, but were joined together by the Catholic Church under the guidance of the Spirit of God . . . With reason, therefore, were the words 'for all' not used, as in this place the fruits of the passion are alone spoken of, and to the elect only did His Passion bring the fruit of salvation."42
St. Thomas Aquinas expressed the same opinion in the Summa, III, Q78, Art. 4, Reply to Objection 8. Pope Benedict XIV also expressed this opinion in De Missae Sacrificio.
Doubtful Consecration; Must Not Participate
Just for the reason that there is a doubtful Consecration in the New Mass, Catholics are obliged to abstain from any participation in such rites. Fr. Jone's Moral Theology, Chapter under the Efficacy of the Sacraments Part IV #2, states under examples:
Quote:"To administer or receive a Sacrament invalidly is a much greater sin than to administer or receive it unfruitfully."43
Pope Innocent XI, in a decree of the Holy Office, March 4, 1679, condemned the idea that a person could follow a probable opinion regarding the value of a sacrament and abandon the safer course.44 Pope Innocent XI condemned this thinking not once, but twice!
Pope Innocent XI
Errors of Michael of Molinos (Condemned in the decree of the Sacred Office, August 28, 1687, and in the Constitutions "Coelestis Pastor," Nov. 20, 1687)45
Quote:11. It is not necessary to reflect upon doubts whether one is proceeding rightly or not." (Condemned)46
"Condemned as heretical, suspect, erroneous, scandalous, blasphemous, offensive to pious ears, rash, or relaxed Christian discipline, subversive, and seditious respectively."47
Fr. Henry Davis says in his Moral and Pastoral Theology Vol. 2 p. 27:
Quote:"In conferring the Sacrament, as also in the Consecration in the Mass, it is never allowed to adopt a probable course of action as to validity and to abandon the safer course. The contrary was explicitly condemned by Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689); to do so would be a grievous sin against religion, namely an act of irreverence towards what Christ Our Lord has instituted."48
"It would be a grievous sin against Charity, as the recipient would probably be deprived of the graces and effects of the Sacrament. It would be a grievous sin against Justice, as the recipient has a right to valid Sacraments. Matter and form must be certainly valid. Hence, one may not follow a probable opinion and use either doubtful matter or form. Acting otherwise, one commits a sacrilege."49
That is one reason why the New Mass is a sacrilege.
Sacrilege By Which He is Offended
The New Mass is a sacrilege because it is a deliberate counterfeit of the established Mass of the Roman Rite. The True Mass was given a definite and unchangeable form by St. Pope Pius V so sacrilege could be avoided and condemned.
St. Thomas Aquinas describes a sacrilege:
Quote:"In a sacrilege, we find a special type of deformation, namely the violation of a sacred thing by treating it with irreverence." (Summa. II Q. 99, Art. 2)
What Part Does Truth Have With Error?
If the Novus Ordo Missae is not Catholic, then it cannot satisfy one's Sunday obligation, and would be a grievous sin to attend. St. Thomas Aquinas said:
Quote: "Falsehood in outward worship occurs on the part of the worshipper, and especially, in common worship which is offered by minister impersonating the whole Church. For even as he would be guilty of falsehood who would, in the name of another person, proffer things that are not committed to him, so too does man incur the guilt of falsehood who, on the part of the Church gives worship to God contrary to the manner established by the Church or Divine Authority, and according to the ecclesiastical custom. Hence, St. Ambrose says: "He is unworthy who celebrates the mystery otherwise than as Christ delivered it."50
Pope Innocent III, one of the greatest jurists, said:
Quote:"No one may depart from the universal customs of the Church."51
Saint Pope Pius X said in Pascendi Dominic Gregis:
Quote:"For Catholics nothing will remove the authority of the Second Council of Nicea, where it condemns those who dare, after the impious novelties of some kind or to endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow anyone of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church."
The English Martyrs' Blood Testifies Against the New Mass
The New Mass is strikingly similar to the service instituted by Cranmer (the liturgist of Henry VIII) following the Protestant Reformation. Pope St. Pius V told Catholics, at that time, that they were forbidden to attend such services. In fact, many went to their death rather than go to the churches where Cranmer's form of prayer was being said. If true Catholics went to their death rather than attend a mass such as the Novus Ordo, the response of the faithful today must be the same.
A New Liturgy For A New Religion
You need a new liturgy for a new religion. Just because the original Novus Ordo Missae had a few similarities to the True Mass, that doesn't make it Catholic. Consider the following description of the early Lutheran service, as given by the great Jesuit scholar, Hartmann Grisar:
Quote:"One who entered the parish church at Wittenburg after Luther's 'victory' discovered that the same vestments were used for divine service as before, and heard the same old Latin hymns. The host was elevated and exhibited at the consecration. In the eyes of the people it was the same Mass as before, despite the fact that Luther omitted all the prayers which represented the sacred function of the Sacrifice. The people were intentionally kept in the dark on this point. 'We cannot draw the common people away from the Sacrament, and it will probably be thus until the Gospel is well understood,' said Luther. 'The rite of celebration of the Mass,' he explained, is a 'purely external thing,' and he said further that 'the damnable words referring to the Sacrifice could be omitted all the more readily, since the ordinary Christian would not notice the omission and hence there was no danger of scandal.'"52
The Morality of the New Mass
The Council of Trent, Canons on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 3 says:
Quote:"If anyone says that the Sacrifice of the Mass is merely an offering of praise and thanksgiving, or that it is a simple memorial of the Sacrifice offered on the Cross, and that it should not be offered for the living and the dead, for sins, punishments, satisfaction, and other necessities: let him be anathema."53
The New Mass is only an offering of praise and thanksgiving. At the New Mass anything can and does go. If the only church in town happened to be a protestant church, a Catholic surely could not attend services there. The same principle applies to the New Mass. Since it is not a Catholic Mass, a Catholic has no business being there. In fact, in most churches the New Mass would not even qualify to be a Protestant service. Many New Masses have laughing, joking, clapping, singing, dancing, hugging, kissing, flutes, guitars, charismatics calling up spirits, homosexual priests, Eucharistic ministers, communion in the hand, immodest dress, no dresses, no head coverings, no reverence, etc...
As the Antichrist will be so evil because he will claim to be the Real Jesus and will not be, so the New Mass is evil because it claims to be the Real Mass and is not. The New Mass is a deliberate counterfeit of the True Mass, and a non-Catholic service. It is very clear that according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church it would be a grievous sin to attend the New Mass. This is why the New Mass is deadly.
Notes
1. St. Leonard, The Hidden Treasure , p. 157
2. Rev. T. E. Bridgett, The Life of Blessed John Fisher (London: Burns & Oates, 1888). Bishop St. John Fisher was martyred, along with St. Thomas More, by Henry VIII in 1535.
3. St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Dignities and Duties Of The Priest (London: Benzinger Bros., 1889), p. 212.
4. Octava Controversia Generalis. Liber Ii. Controversia Quinta. Caput XXXI.
5. Fr. Paul Trinchard, Holy Mass, Holy Mary (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1997), p. 41.
6. St. Leonard, The Hidden Treasure , p. 157
7. Fr. Paul Trinchard, Holy Mass, Holy Mary (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1997), p. 4,5.
8. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass, p. 11.
9. Ibid, p. 9.
10. Fr. Paul Trinchard, New Mass in Light of the Old (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1995), p. 20.
11. Fr. James Wathen, The Great Sacrilege, p. 178, 179.
12. Fr. Paul Trinchard, Novus Ordo Condemned (MAETA: P.O. Box 6012, Metairie, LA, 1997), p. 34.
13. Comment of Fr. Joseph Jungmann, the Mass: An Historical, Theological And Pastoral Survey (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1976), p. 201.
14. Solange Hertz, On the Contrary (Veritas Press, Box 1704, Santa Monica, CA), p. 50.
15. Most Asked Questions About The Society Of Saint Pius X (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 26.
16. Fr. James Wathen, Who Shall Ascend?, p. 178, 179.
17. La Tunica Stracciata by Tito Casini, Rome 1967 / Fr. Paul Leonard, A Theological Vindication Of Roman Catholic Traditionalism (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 43.
18. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 24.
19. Latin Mass Magazine, Winter, 1995 / Christian Order, Oct. 1994.
20. Most Asked Questions About The Society Of Saint Pius X (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 26.
21. Msgr. Frederick McManus, The Revival of the Liturgy, p. 217.
22. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 34.
23. Ibid., p. 29.
24. The Works of Thomas Cranmer (London: Parker Society), V. 2, p. 524.
25. Faith, Nov 1979.
26. Denzinger 956.
27. Denzinger 1533.
28. Fr. Donald Sanborn, Changes of Vatican II, Part IV (Catholic Restoration Bookstore, 2850 Parent, Warren, MI).
29. Fr. Anthony Cekada, "A Response", The Roman Catholic, Jan. 1987.
30. Fr. James Wathen, Who Shall Ascend?, p. 523.
31. Denzinger 953.
32. Fr. James Wathen, The Great Sacrilege, p. 173-175.
33. Denzinger 2200.
34. Denzinger 856.
35. Denzinger 996.
36. Denzinger 695.
37. De Eucharistia, Noldin-Schmitt, S. J., in "Summa Theologiae Moralis," III Innsbruck, 1940.
38. Denzinger 715.
39. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 55.
40. Solange Hertz, On the Contrary (Veritas Press, Box 1704, Santa Monica, CA), p. 75.
41. St. Alphonsus, Treatise On The Holy Eucharist
42. Patrick Henry Omlor, Questioning The Validity Of The Masses Using The New, All-English Canon (Athanasius Press; Reno, NV), p. 59.
43. Fr. Heribet Jone, Moral Theology (The Neumann Press, Westminster, MD, 1952), p. 311.
44. Denzinger 1151.
45. Denzinger p. 331.
46. Denzinger 1231.
47. Denzinger 1288.
48. Fr. Henry Davis, S. J., Moral And Pastoral Theology (London: Sheed And Ward, 1936), V. 2, p. 27.
49. Fr. Heribet Jone, Moral Theology (The Neumann Press, Westminster, MD, 1952), p. 323.
50. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 86.
51. Innocent III, de Consuetudine Theol. II-II, 104-105.
52. Dr. Rara Coomaraswamy, The Problems with the New Mass , p. 18.
53. Denzinger 950.
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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