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Anti-Religious Bigots Are Using Riots And COVID To Go On A Church Vandalism Spree |
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2020, 08:33 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Anti-Religious Bigots Are Using Riots And COVID To Go On A Church Vandalism Spree
As our nation wrestles with challenging issues, anti-religious rioters and officeholders are forgetting that successful social movements don’t attack religion.
Rather, they are usually rooted in it.
The Federalist | December 15, 2020
In the chaotic year of 2020, anti-religious activists have learned that the best place to hide is in a crowd. With news cycles crowded by COVID-19, nationwide protests and riots, a contentious election, and much more, such activists were given perfect cover to vandalize houses of worship across America while drawing little criticism from secular media or public officials. These tragic acts of vandalism matter, however, and the motives behind them deserve examination.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently reported at least 39 incidents of vandalism on Catholic Church property since June 22. This alarming number makes sense given the Catholic Church’s history of statuary and the frequent targeting of statues in this year’s riots.
In addition to incidents such as satanic graffiti on a church in Connecticut, and a Florida man driving his van into a church before lighting the vehicle on fire, numerous church statues of Jesus, Mary, saints, and even a monument for children killed by abortion have been toppled, beheaded, and graffitied. That’s not all. The many incidents on church property detailed by the Conference of Catholic Bishops don’t account for the numerous statues of Catholic saints on public property that have been vandalized, too.
In St. Louis, large groups of sometimes-violent protesters graffitied the prominent public statue of St. Louis (King Louis IX), the city’s namesake, who frequently shared meals with beggars and ministered to other outcasts such as lepers, the blind, and even prostitutes.
The violence went further in California. Protesters destroyed a statue of St. Junipero Serra, a Spanish missionary who founded many historic churches (one of which was largely burned down in July) and evangelized thousands of Native Americans. Additionally, as Pope Francis noted when he canonized Serra in 2015, “Junipero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it.”
Certain elements of the race-related protests this year have surely been honest, well-intentioned efforts, but that cannot be said of this violence that has treated St. Junipero and St. Louis the same way it has treated Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Instead, a subgroup of radical secularists among the rioters has used the recent lawlessness as an opportunity to advance their own agenda — one that opposes Judeo-Christian religion in its entirety.
While Catholic statues have been a convenient target, these radicals haven’t chosen to destroy religious figures at random. Their animosity toward faith traditions is intended. As you might recall, rioters set fire to the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., this past May. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, rioters graffitied “Free Palestine” at a Jewish synagogue. Further examples abound.
Even more tragically, many people of faith have watched this vandalism while being prohibited from stepping inside their own houses of worship, sometimes due to anti-religious discrimination from government officials. One prime example is Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s COVID-19 order, currently being challenged in court, which allowed casinos to open at half capacity while limiting churches to just 50 people.
As Archbishop Charles Chaput and Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Michael Farris pointed out, some officials implementing discriminatory restrictions have also been slow to protect the church property from rioters. As our nation wrestles with challenging issues, officials such as Sisolak and anti-religious rioters are forgetting that successful social movements — including the civil rights movement for racial equality in the law — don’t attack religion. Rather, they are usually rooted in it.
The American Revolution and the French Revolution provide a relevant history lesson. These two movements shared some noble goals, both seeking freedom from national theocracy and monarchy — but those ends were pursued in two very different ways.
The French Revolution was outright hostile toward religion. Church property was vandalized. Priests were arrested just for conducting their normal ministry. Religious statues were removed from the public eye and sometimes demolished because religious devotion threatened the aims of the revolution.
Our Founding Fathers chose a better path. They cared deeply about religion and forged a new nation where people of various faiths could live peacefully without coercion from an all-powerful central government. The founders’ success in winning independence, reforming our governance, and improving American life was rooted in a commitment to free speech and Judeo-Christian principles that fostered a true tolerance.
Whether it be responding to COVID-19, police brutality, or political unrest, the solution to our nation’s present problems will not be found in throwing out those principles of liberty and civility. The answer lies in recommitting to them and working to live them out more fully, more consistently, and more devotedly than ever before.
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Health Worker Hospitalized After ‘Serious Reaction’ to Pfizer’s CV Vaccine |
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2020, 08:28 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- Replies (1)
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Alaska Health Worker Hospitalized After Experiencing ‘Serious Reaction’ to Pfizer’s Coronavirus Vaccine
Breitbart | 16 Dec 20200
A health worker in Alaska experienced a “serious reaction” and was subsequently hospitalized after receiving a dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved last week, according to reports.
The worker had what the New York Times described as a “serious reaction” after receiving the vaccination and remained in the hospital as of Wednesday morning, according to the paper. The worker had “no history of drug allergies,” the Times reported, adding that it remains “unclear whether he or she suffered from other types of allergies, according to one person familiar with the case.”
This month, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) confirmed that it was providing “resuscitation facilities” in vaccination centers following reports of two individuals experiencing anaphylactic reactions after receiving the vaccine. However, the two health care workers reportedly had histories of allergic reactions.
“Resuscitation facilities should be available at all times for all vaccinations. Vaccination should only be carried out in facilities where resuscitation measures are available,” the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said, offering “precautionary advice.”
The FDA approved Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use on Friday. On Monday, a critical care nurse out of New York reportedly became the first person in the U.S. to receive the Pfizer vaccine outside of clinical trials:
Quote:Today, ICU nurse Sandra Lindsay made history as the first American to be vaccinated.
"I felt a huge sense of relief after I took the vaccine… There is hope." pic.twitter.com/45RWerTqdX
The news coincides with a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released this week, which found that an increasing number of Americans have expressed willingness to receive a vaccine, contingent on two factors: If it is deemed safe and offered for free. Seventy-one percent indicated that they will “definitely” or “probably” get a coronavirus vaccine based on those factors — an eight-point jump from the 63 percent who said the same in September.
Willingness to get the vaccination rose across ethnic groups and political parties, the survey showed.
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December 17th - 23rd: The Great 'O Antiphons' |
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2020, 08:02 AM - Forum: Advent
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DECEMBER 17 - THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT ANTIPHONS
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
The Church enters to-day on the seven days, which precede the Vigil of Christmas, and which are known in the Liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The ordinary of the Advent Office becomes more solemn; the Antiphons of the Psalms, both for Lauds and the Hours of the day, are proper, and allude expressly to the great Coming. Every day, at Vespers, is sung a solemn Antiphon, which consists of a fervent prayer to the Messias, whom it addresses by one of the titles given him by the sacred Scriptures.
In the Roman Church, there are seven of these Antiphons, one for each of the Greater Ferias, They are commonly called the O’s of Advent, because they all begin with that interjection. In other Churches, during the Middle Ages, two more were added to these seven; one to our Blessed Lady, O Virgo Virginum; and the other to the Angel Gabriel, O Gabriel; or to St. Thomas the Apostle, whose feast comes during the Greater Ferias; it began O Thoma Didyme [It is more modern than the O Gabriel; but dating from the 13th century, it was almost universally used in its stead.] There were even Churches, where twelve Great Antiphons were sung; that is, besides the nine we have just mentioned, there was Rex Pacifice to our Lord, O mundi Domina to our Lady, and O Hierusalem to the city of the people of God.
The canonical Hour of Vespers has been selected as the most appropriate time for this solemn supplication to our Saviour, because, as the Church sings in one of her hymns, it was in the Evening of the world (vergente mundi vespere) that the Messias came amongst us. These Antiphons are sung at the Magnificat, to show us that the Saviour, whom we expect, is to come to us by Mary. They are sung twice; once before and once after the Canticle, as on Double Feasts, and this to show their great solemnity. In some Churches it was formerly the practice to sing them thrice; that is, before the Canticle, before the Gloria Patri, and after the Sicut erat. Lastly, these admirable Antiphons, which contain the whole pith of the Advent Liturgy, are accompanied by a chant replete with melodious gravity, and by ceremonies of great expressiveness, though, in these latter, there is no uniform practice followed. Let us enter into the spirit of the Church; let us reflect on the great Day which is coming; that thus we may take oar share in these the last and most earnest solicitations of the Church imploring her Spouse to come, and to which He at length yields.
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Here are the Prophecies associated with each of these Titles of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
December 17th: Sapientia - Wisdom
Isaias 11:2-3
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord, He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.
Isaias 28:29
This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.
December 18th: Adonai - Lord of Israel
Isaias 11:4-5
But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.
Isaias 33:22
For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us.
December 19th: Radix Jesse - Root of Jesse
Isaias 11:1
And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
Isaias 11:10
In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.
Micheas 5:1
Now shalt thou be laid waste, O daughter of the robber: they have laid siege against us, with a rod shall they strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.
Romans 15:8-13
For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. But that the Gentiles are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and magnify him, all ye people. And again Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing; that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Apocalypse 5:1-5
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel, proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man was able, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, to open the book, nor to look on it. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open the book, nor to see it. And one of the ancients said to me: Weep not; behold the lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
December 20th: Clavis David - Key of David
Isaias 22:22
And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isaias 9:6
For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
December 21st: Oriens - Radiant Dawn, Dayspring
Isaias 9:2
The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.
Malachias 4:1-3
For behold the day shall come kindled as a furnace: and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of hosts, it shall not leave them root, nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd. And you shall tread down the wicked when they shall be ashes under the sole of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
December 22nd: Rex Gentium - King of all Nations, King of the Gentiles
Isaias 9:7
His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Isaias 2:4
And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.
December 23rd: Emmanuel - God with us
Isaias 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
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January 14th - St. Hilary of Poitiers |
Posted by: Elizabeth - 12-17-2020, 01:37 AM - Forum: January
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Saint Hilary of Poitiers
Doctor of the Church
(301-368)
Saint Hilary was a native of Poitiers in Aquitaine. Born and educated a pagan, it was not until near middle age that he embraced Christianity, moved to that step primarily by the idea of God presented to him in the Holy Scriptures. He soon converted his wife and daughter, and separated himself rigidly from all non-Catholic company, fearing the influence of error, rampant in a number of false philosophies and heresies, for himself and his family.
He entered Holy Orders with the consent of his very virtuous wife, and separated from his family as was required of the clergy. He later wrote a very famous letter to his dearly-loved daughter, encouraging her to adopt a consecrated life. She followed this counsel and died, still young, a holy death.
In 353 Saint Hilary was chosen bishop of his native city. Arianism, under the protection of the Emperor Constantius, was then at the heights of its exaltation, and Saint Hilary found himself called upon to support the orthodox cause in several Gallic councils, in which Arian bishops formed an overwhelming majority. He was in consequence accused to the emperor, who banished him to Phrygia. He spent his more than three years of exile in composing his great works on the Trinity.
In 359 he attended the Council of Seleucia, in which Arians, semi-Arians, and Catholics contended for the mastery. He never ceased his combat against the errors of the enemies of the Divinity of Christ. With the deputies of the council he went to Constantinople, and there so dismayed the heads of the Arian party that they prevailed upon the emperor to let him return to Gaul. He traversed Gaul, Italy and Illyria, preaching wherever he went, disconcerting the heretics and procuring the triumph of orthodoxy. He wrote a famous treatise on the Synods. After some eight years of missionary travel he returned to Poitiers, where he died in peace in 368.
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January 13th - The Baptism of Our Lord and St. Veronica of Milan |
Posted by: Elizabeth - 12-17-2020, 01:36 AM - Forum: January
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The Baptism of Our Lord
In the life of Christ, His baptism in the Jordan is an event of the highest importance, because it represents a significant phase in the work of redemption. We know that the liturgy of the ecclesiastical year commemorates all the phases of Christ's redemptive work; and recently, during the season of the Nativity, we have reflected on His coming into the world, poor and solitary in a grotto at Bethlehem, and on His circumcision. Now His baptism in the Jordan marks the divinely inaugurated beginning of Our Lord's public life. Indeed, Saint Peter states that at His baptism, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel, He was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Christ, the Messiah, which means the Anointed One: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were in the power of the devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10:38) An anointing has always been the symbolic, visible representation of an intimately established union, a specific, defined alliance or covenant between God and one of His servants. God the Father speaks at this moment, to make clear who this Person is. The foretold Saviour is His Divine Son, begotten from all eternity: This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
In the symbolism of His baptism, Christ, Himself immaculate, assumes the sins of the world, descends into the purifying waters, and raises mankind to divine sonship. His baptism was vicarious in nature; He stands in the Jordan in our stead. Consequently, this act must find its complement in our personal redemption. Our lives are profoundly altered through Christ's redemptive sacrifice, on at least three such occasions: our Baptism, our attendance at Holy Mass, and our death in Christ.
At our Baptism we were immersed with Jesus, with Him we died and were buried. Then we emerged, and for the first time heaven opened to us, as the Holy Spirit made His advent into our soul, and our Father in heaven looked down upon us, now His sons, His children.
In each Holy Mass, Christ's baptismal offering is again operative. Through the Holy Sacrifice we are immersed in His sacrificial death; heaven then opens and the Holy Spirit descends through Holy Communion. Through the pledge of the sacrificial Banquet the Father assures us of renewed and enriched sonship in Christ.
The baptism of Christ is accomplished within us a third time at our death, if we are united with Him, for death is indeed a sort of baptism. Death is like immersion into the dark depths, but when we receive the Last Sacraments, on emerging, it is to a different life — it is our hope and our confidence, if we have been faithful to God's grace, that it will be the life of glory, the beatific vision. Then we will see the Blessed Trinity, no longer through the darkened sun-glass of faith, but in immediate vision, face to face.
To sum up, today's liturgy helps us to understand more clearly the basic structure of spiritual life, the redemptive acts of Christ. Upon that foundation the edifice rises through the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, while the Lord's return, at our death, brings completion to the work.
Saint Veronica of Milan
Virgin
(1445-1497)
Saint Veronica's parents were peasants of a village near Milan. From her childhood she toiled hard in the house and the field, and accomplished cheerfully every menial task. Gradually the desire for perfection grew within her; she became deaf to the jokes and songs of her companions, and sometimes, when reaping and hoeing, would hide her face and weep. Untaught, she began to be anxious about her lack of instruction, and rose secretly at night to try to learn to read. Our Lady told her that other things were necessary, but not this: My daughter, do not be anxious, it will be sufficient for you to know the three letters that I bring you from heaven. The first is purity of heart, which makes us love God above all things; you must have only one love, that of My Son. The second is not to murmur against the faults of your neighbor, but to support them with patience and pray for the one in question. The third is to meditate every day on the Passion of Jesus Christ, who accepts you for His spouse.
After three years' patient waiting she was received as a lay-sister in the convent of Saint Martha at Milan. The community was extremely poor, and Veronica's duty was to beg throughout the city for their daily food. Three years after receiving the religious habit she was afflicted with constant bodily pains, yet never would consent to be relieved of any of her labors, or to omit one of her prayers. By exact obedience she became a living copy of her rule, and obeyed with a smile the slightest wish of her Superior. She sought until the last the hardest and most humble occupations, and in their performance enjoyed some of the highest favors ever granted to Saints.
By the first letter taught her by Our Lady, Saint Veronica learned to begin her daily duties for no human motive, but for God alone; by the second, to carry out what she had thus begun by attending to her own affairs, never judging her neighbor, but praying for those who manifestly lacked virtue; by the third she was enabled to forget her own pains and sorrows in those of her Lord, and to weep hourly, but silently, over the memory of the wrongs He suffered. She had constant ecstasies, and saw in successive visions the whole life of Jesus, and many other mysteries. Yet, by a special grace, neither her raptures nor her tears ever interrupted her labors, which ended only with death. She died in 1497, on the day she had foretold, after a six months' illness, in the thirtieth year of her religious profession.
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December 17th - St. Olympia of Constantinople |
Posted by: Elizabeth - 12-17-2020, 01:32 AM - Forum: December
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Saint Olympia of Constantinople
Widow and Deaconess
(† 440)
Saint Olympia, the glory of the widows in the Eastern Church, was born of a noble and illustrious family. Left an orphan at a tender age, she was brought up by Theodosia, sister of Saint Amphilochius, a virtuous and prudent woman. At the age of eighteen, Olympias was regarded as a model of Christian virtues. It was then that she was married to Nebridius, a young man worthy of her; the new spouses promised one another to live in perfect continence. After less than two years of this angelic union, Nebridius went to receive in heaven the reward of his virtues.
The Emperor would have engaged her in a second marriage, but she replied: If God had destined me to live in the married state, He would not have taken my first spouse. The event which has broken my bonds shows me the way Providence has traced for me. She had resolved to consecrate her life to prayer and penance, and to devote her fortune to the poor. She liberated all her slaves, who nonetheless wished to continue to serve her, and she administered her fortune as a trustee for the poor. The farthest cities, islands, deserts and poor churches found themselves blessed through her liberality.
Nectarius, Archbishop of Constantinople, had a high esteem for the saintly widow and made her a deaconess of his church. The duties of deaconesses were to prepare the altar linens and instruct the catechumens of their sex; they aided the priests in works of charity, and they made a vow of perpetual chastity. When Saint John Chrysostom succeeded Nectarius, he had for Olympias no less respect than his predecessor, and through her aid he built a hospital for the sick and refuges for the elderly and orphans. When he was exiled in the year 404, he continued to encourage her in her good works by his letters, and she assisted him to ransom some of his fellow captives.
Saint Olympia, as one of his supporters, was persecuted. When she refused to deal with the usurper of the episcopal see, she was mistreated and calumniated, and her goods were sold at a public auction. Finally she, too, was banished with the entire community of nuns which she governed in Constantinople. Her illnesses added to her sufferings, but she never ceased her good works until her death in the year 410. She outlived the exiled Patriarch by about two or three years.
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The Communist Infiltration of the Catholic Church |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 12:54 PM - Forum: Resources Online
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THE GREATEST CONSPIRACY (Communist infiltration of the Church)
Christian Order| November 2000
A few months back, during social chit-chat which turned with predictable concern to the modern plague of clerical apostasy, a venerable member of the Society of Jesus recounted various word of mouth histories of Communist infiltration of the Jesuits. These included two men sent to join the Society in Italy and Spain by their respective national Communist Parties - the former having left to return to the Party in the early 1950s after more than a dozen years of study and actual ordination; the latter leaving the Society before ordination a decade ago. More disturbing still was the case of a prominent Jesuit seminary rector in Rome who, after being run over and killed, was allegedly found to be a member of the KGB. We pondered briefly all the imponderables of such infiltration as well as the domino effect it might have set in train, like: how many students were deformed by the seminary professor down the years; how many others, clerical and lay, they in turn, as priests, had corrupted; how many other seminaries and Orders were similarly infiltrated; and, above all, how many of the infiltrators and their warped progeny had risen to the episcopate.
In recent years this latter quandary in particular has emerged from the realms of much derided "conspiracy theory" to become a plausible contributory explanation for the otherwise inexplicable levels of corruption, negligence and indifference within Western episcopates. The fact that we will never precisely quantify the degree of infiltration and only rarely identify "plants" beyond all doubt, is no reason to ignore the reality. Besides, it's not as if we hadn't been warned. Ex-Communist and celebrated convert Douglas Hyde revealed long ago that in the 1930s the Communist leadership issued a worldwide directive about infiltrating the Catholic Church. While in the early 1950s, Mrs Bella Dodd was also providing detailed explanations of the Communist subversion of the Church. Speaking as a former high ranking official of the American Communist Party, Mrs Dodd said:
"In the 1930s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within."
The idea was for these men to be ordained and progress to positions of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops. A dozen years before Vatican II she stated that: "Right now they are in the highest places in the Church" - where they were working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church's effectiveness against Communism. She also said that these changes would be so drastic that "you will not recognise the Catholic Church."
Mrs Dodd, who converted to the Faith at the end of her life, was personally acquainted with this diabolic project since, as a Communist agent, part of her brief was to encourage young radicals (not always card-carrying Communists) to enter Catholic seminaries. She alone had encouraged nearly 1,000 such youngsters to infiltrate the seminaries and religious orders! One monk who attended a Bella Dodd lecture in the early 1950s recalled:
Quote:"I listened to that woman for four hours and she had my hair standing on end. Everything she said has been fulfilled to the letter. You would think she was the world's greatest prophet, but she was no prophet. She was merely exposing the step-by-step battle plan of Communist subversion of the Catholic Church. She explained that of all the world's religions, the Catholic Church was the only one feared by the Communists, for it was its only effective opponent. The whole idea was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the Faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through the promotion of a pseudo-religion: something that resembled Catholicism but was not the real thing. Once the Faith was destroyed, she explained that there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church…. to label the 'Church of the past' as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary in order to shame Church leaders into an 'openness to the world,' and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church."
This conspiracy has been confirmed time and again by Soviet defectors. Ex-KGB officer Anatoliy Golitsyn, who defected in 1961 and in 1984 forecast with 94% accuracy all the astonishing developments in the Communist Bloc since that time, confirmed several years ago that this "penetration of the Catholic and other churches" is part of the Party's "general line [i.e. unchanged policy] in the struggle against religion." Hundreds of files secreted to the West by former KGB archivist Vassili Mitrokhin and published in 1999 tell a similar tale, about the KGB cultivating the closest possible relationships with 'progressive' Catholics and financing their activities. One of the leftist organs identified was the small Italian Catholic press agency Adista, which for decades has promoted every imaginable postconciliar cause or "reform" and whose Director was named in The Mitrokhin Archive as a paid KGB agent. Interestingly, just prior to the Mitrokhin expose it was little Adista that ultra-Modernist Cardinal Martini utilised to diffuse his dissident rant at the 1999 European Synod, where, among other things, he called for a "new Council".
What is often lost in all of this, however, is that Communism (along with the New Age movement) is simply a chief tool of Freemasonry; it's policy of Church infiltration just an extension of the Masonic plan clearly laid out in the Alta Vendita and other bona fide Masonic documents recognised by the Popes. Even experts like Anatoliy Golitsyn have failed to grasp this point. In The Perestroika Deception (1996), his collection of very accurate analyses and forecasts submitted to the CIA during the period 1985-95, he hints at a controlling force behind Soviet Communism but lacks "the facilities to study how it might be operating" under cover of some "front" organisation. At the same time he complains that despite public plaudits for the accuracy of his forecasts, Western leaders have regularly ignored his warnings. He fails to see that having financed and nurtured Russian Communism from its inception, the elite Freemasons (in symbiotic alliance with transnationalist billionaires who shape world affairs for more prosaic reasons of power and profit) will not always allow a free hand to the likes of Bill Clinton, who himself attributes "a lot of breaks" in his life to his forty year membership of the Masonic Order of De Molay.
There are, of course, logistically implausible and just plain silly conspiracy theories. Yet, as the widespread homosexual infiltration of the postconciliar Church attests, the idea that evil men never seek each other out to work together is sillier still. Moreover, the insistence of liberal propagandists that there is no Masonic conspiracy (aided and abetted by fellow-travellers like themselves) is doubtless the greatest conspiracy of all. As E. Michael Jones explains in his dissection of one such propaganda exercise, by distorting and misrepresenting primary historical sources - like ex-Mason Abbe de Barruel, who wrote in the late eighteenth century that "the object of their [Masonic] conspiracy is to overturn every altar where Christ is adored" - the liberal Establishment seeks to protect and maintain at all costs the nihilistic spirit of the Enlightenment, which Masonic legacy underpins that dissolute and crumbling artifice we call Modernity.
As so many of our Shepherds have themselves bowed to the insidious forces of the Enlightenment and embraced Modernity, it might be said that all these ruminations are now superfluous; that with the secular liberal mindset so entrenched within the Church the whole infiltration/subversion thesis has become purely academic. Nonetheless, Catholics especially should know more about all of this; about how to distinguish Masons-and-Reds-under-the-bed 'conspiracies' from the real thing. And since the bishops are not about to alert them or explain the difference, this edition, though unsettling for some, will fill a gap.
Quote:THE PONTIFFS vs. THE LODGE
"The papal condemnations of Freemasonry are so severe and sweeping in their tenor as to be quite unique in the history of Church legislation. During the last two centuries Freemasonry has been expressly anathematized by at least ten different Popes and condemned directly or indirectly by almost every Pontiff that sat on the Chair of St. Peter."
"The Popes charge the Freemasons with occult criminal activities, with 'shameful deeds', with worshipping satan himself (a charge which is hinted at in some Papal documents), with infamy, blasphemy, sacrilege and the most abominable heresies against the State, with anarchical and revolutionary principles and with favouring and promoting what is now called Bolshevism; with corrupting and perverting the minds of youth; with shameful hypocrisy and lying, by means of which Freemasons strive to hide their wickedness under a cloak of probity and respectability, while in reality they are the very 'synagogue of satan', whose direct aim and object is the complete destruction of Christianity."
Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement (1930), Fr E. Cahill, S.J.
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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The Battle of Lepanto by W.T. Walsh - The Angelus 1986 |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 12:47 PM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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The Angelus - October 1986
The Battle of Lepanto
By William Thomas Walsh
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Our Lady of the Rosary
From the very first Don Juan ascribed the triumph of his fleet to the powerful intercession of the Rosary Queen… "It was not generals nor battalions nor arms that brought us victory; it was Our Lady of the Rosary."
In the middle 1500's Christian Europe was an embattled fortress. Riddled by the Protestant Revolt that swept the North and England from the fold of the Church, she faced, almost in despair, yet another threat—the mounting attack of a centuries-old enemy, the Turk.
Like an angry sea not to be denied, the Turkish menace licked and growled at the frontiers. On the eastern flank in 1529, a Moslem army stormed up from prostrate Hungary, to be turned back only at the gates of Vienna. Increasingly, Turkish pirates boldly raided the shores of Spain and Italy, going so far as to sack Ostia, the port of Rome. In 1567, Spanish Moriscos, once subjugated by Ferdinand and Isabella, were in open revolt in the West and calling for a Turkish army to invade Spain. The real threat, however, was the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, an island in the east Mediterranean long held by Venice. In 1570, the Turks barbarously conquered all Cyprus except for the city of Famagosta where the Venetians grimly held on. Cyprus in their hands, the Moslems would sweep the Mediterranean with their powerful fleet, thus exposing southern Europe, especially Italy, to invasion.
It took the faith of a great saint—Pope Saint Pius V—to kindle anew Europe's crusading spirit. The odds seemed hopeless. North and south Europe were split apart; William of Orange in Holland had actually intrigued with the Turks to invade Spain; jealous France held aloof from a common effort with Philip II of Spain. But Pius V refused to believe that the Moslem could not be defeated at sea, or that the Crusader's faith was dead. Early in 1571 he appealed to Philip for help.
Philip, although his armies were at the other end of Europe and his treasury bare, wholeheartedly responded, naming his half-brother, Don Juan, to command the united Papal, Spanish, and Venetian fleets. And so, as a mighty Turkish fleet converged on beleaguered Famagosta in early summer of 1571, the Christian armada grew apace at Messina, readying to strike a great crusader's blow in the historic battle of Lepanto off the west coast of Greece.
"Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?"
The Turkish fleet, about that time, was setting out from Constantinople, with instructions to find and destroy the Christian navies and to complete the conquest of Cyprus. Before Ali Pasha left for the Bosphorus with forty great galleys, four Christian prisoners were crucified, and others skinned alive, as sacrifices to Mohammed for victory. While an army of 70,000 began the siege of Dolcino, on the coast of Albania, the fleet proceeded to Chios (April eighth) where it was joined by forty more vessels under Mohammed-Bey, governor of Negro ponte. A second armada was preparing to follow from Constantinople, and Aluch Ali was cruising from Algiers with twenty more. Before the end of April the Grand Turk had almost 300 heavy warships, with a huge army of crack Janizaries and Spahis on board, on the way to Cyrpus.
On May nineteenth, Mustapha resumed the siege of Famagosta, which had held out heroically for nearly a year under the Venetian, General Bragadino.
Mustapha loosed all his fury upon this city for three months. The Italian women fought in the breaches with their men. The children carried dirt and ammunition. Hunger at last got the better of them, and, in August, Bragadino agreed to surrender, if the Turks would spare their lives. Mustapha agreed; but as soon as the Christians had laid down their arms, he had them tortured and butchered, women and children with the men. The valiant Bragadino was skinned alive. There were other atrocities too horrible to mention. Mustapha went sailing off to range the Mediterranean in quest of the Christian fleet, with the stuffed skin of Bragadino swinging from his yardarm.
It seems incredible that with such dangers hanging over their other eastern possessions, and even their own shores, the Venetians should have haggled over the details of the League treaty for fully two months after the Pope had signed it.
At last, however, the treaty was signed, on May twentieth. The news reached Madrid on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and the nuncio hastened to San Lorenzo, to notify the King. Philip was attending a solemn procession in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a day he had long anticipated, for the monastery portion of the Escorial was finished, and he was formally handing it over to the Jeronymite friars he had chosen as its custodians. He would not grant Castagna an audience until the next day; but he had the Cardinal of Siguenza tell him of his pleasure over the good news, and say that Don Juan would start at once. Philip was waiting for confirmation of the news from his own commissioners. This arrived on the morning of June sixth. He then gave his orders. The Prince left Madrid at three o'clock the same afternoon, reaching Guadalajara, thirty-five miles away, the same night. He was at Barcelona on the fifteenth. Don Juan of Austria was riding to the sea at last.
The Pope was pleased with what he heard of his Generalissimo, and wanted him to come to Rome. King Philip refused to allow this. Pope Pius was compelled, therefore, to send the banner of the Crusade and the Admiral's truncheon, which he blessed, to Naples, where, on August second, an immense crowd gathered to hear Mass, and to see Don Juan seated in a throne on the steps of the high altar in Santa Chiara, a noble figure in steel armor, spangled with gold, his shoulders draped with the decoration of the Golden Fleece, even his hair golden in the soft multicolored light of the old church. After Mass, Cardinal Granvelle, as viceroy of Naples and a Prince of the Church, presented to him the truncheon and the azure banner on which was emblazoned the figure of Christ Crucified, with the arms of the Pope, King Philip, Venice, and Don Juan at His feet.
"Take, O illustrious Prince," said Granvelle, "the insignia of the true Word Made Flesh. Take the living symbol of the holy Faith whose defender you will be in this enterprise. He gives you glorious victory over the impious enemy, and by your hand shall his pride be laid in the dust." "Amen!" A mighty shout like that of Clermont burst from the people. "Amen!"
On August twenty-third, when Don Juan arrived at Messina, the harbor was a cluttered forest of masts, the ancient town swarming with men of all nations. By September first, when the whole fleet was assembled, there were 208 galleys in all, 90 of Spain and her dependencies, 106 of Venice and 12 of the Pope; besides nearly 100 brigantines, frigates, and transports, mostly furnished by Spain; with some 50,000 sailors and galley slaves, and 31,000 soldiers; 19,000 of them paid by King Philip (including Germans and Italians), 8,000 Venetians, 2,000 papal troops, and 2,000 volunteers, chiefly from Spain.
Spanish galleys were by far the best built, best equipped, and best handled, and would bear the brunt of any fighting. The Venetian ships showed up so badly in a review that Don Juan inspected some of them, and found, to his disgust, that they were not even sufficiently manned. Some had hardly any crews. Others lacked fighting men. He distributed among the worst of them about 4,000 of the famous Spanish and Italian infantry. Then he held a Council of War, attended by seventy officers. Some favored a merely defensive campaign, since the Turks evidently outnumbered them, and the risk would be great, especially as the time for autumn tempests was at hand. Others said that if the Turk galleys were more numerous, they were not so efficient; and "something always had to be left to luck." Don Juan himself apparently hesitated, thinking of the King's instructions."
The Papal influence was all in favor of fighting, whatever the odds. The invincible spirit of the old saint in the Vatican was perhaps the decisive factor. When Bishop Odescalchi, his nuncio, came to bless the fleet and to give a large portion of the True Cross for distribution among the crews, each vessel having a grain of the Precious Wood, he also brought to Don Juan the solemn assurance of Pope Pius V that, if he offered battle, God would give him the victory. If they were defeated, the Pope promised "to go to war himself with his gray hairs, to put idle youth to shame." But with courage they could not fail. Had not several revelations, including two prophecies by Saint Isidore of Sevilla, described such a battle and victory as seemed imminent, won by a youth closely resembling Don Juan?
At the Holy Father's suggestion, Don Juan adopted a modus operandi seldom if ever taught in naval academies. No women were allowed aboard the ships. Blasphemy was to be punished with death. While waiting for a good wind and the return of his scouting squadron with news of where the Turks were, the Generalissimo fasted for three days. All his officers and crews did likewise. Contemporary accounts agree that not one of the 1,000 sailors and soldiers failed to confess and to receive Holy Communion. Even the galley slaves were unshackled from their long benches and led in droves ashore, to confess to the numerous priests who toiled day and night at the Jesuit College helping chaplains of the galley.
When the last of the Venetians had arrived, the Armada began to put to sea, September fifteenth, in the order agreed upon. Doria led the vanguard with 54 galleys of the right wing, flying green banners. Don Juan followed next morning with the batalla or center, under azure banners, with the blue standard of Our Lady of Guadalupe over the Real. (The Pope's Standard of the League was reserved for battle.) Marcantonio Colonna, on the flagship of the Pope, was on his right, Veniero, a cantankerous old Venetian sea-dog, at his left. The third squadron of the Venetian Barbarigo followed, with yellow banners: and the Marques of Santa Cruz (Don Alvaro de Bazan) brought up the rear with thirty Spanish galleys and some of Italy, all under white flags.
It was a sight to remember—the papal nuncio, a flaming figure in scarlet from head to foot, standing on the mole with hand uplifted to bless each ship as it passed, the crusaders kneeling on the decks, the knights and men-at-arms glittering with steel, the sailors in red suits and caps, the rowers with dark naked backs glistening with sweat, the brown sails bellying out to catch the first breeze; and on the lofty prow of the flagship, Don Juan in golden armor, like an avenging angel under the out flung blue banner of her who had trodden on the serpent's head. Thus they passed into the open Mediterranean and formed in ranks, two by two. The six great Venetian galeasses, each a bristling fort with 44 heavy guns, led the way into the sapphire studded morning light. The galeasses kept a full mile ahead, to open the fray with a heavy bombardment. Two by two the whole Armada followed, almost in battle order, according to a plan carefully worked out by old paralyzed Don Garcia de Toledo. The plan was somewhat modified, apparently, to leave spaces between the squadrons, so that Santa Cruz could intervene where his help might be needed.
Don Juan left Corfu on September twenty-eighth. While the Turkish fleet was skirting the southern shore of Aetolia, making for the Gulf of Corinth (or Lepanto) the Christian Armada, using oars because the wind was contrary, nosed through the waters of the Ionian Sea, with the Albanian shore off the port bows, past Nicopolis and that stretch of sea lying off Actium where the spirit of the East had fled from the spirit of the West in the jaded galleys of Antony and Cleopatra, and around the coast of Santa Maura to Cephalonia, with the narrow isle of Ithaca hugged under its lee shore, still fragrant with the memory of Penelope and the unconquerable fortitude of Odysseus.
It was October fifth when the fleet cast anchor among the Curzolares. That day a brigantine from Candia came by with news of the fall of Famagosta, and the horrible atrocities perpetrated by Mustapha upon the helpless Christians who had surrendered. A quiver of rage passed through the floating city of armed men. Nothing could have been better timed to make them fight like holy madmen.
The wind was east, the sky overcast, the sea gray with fog. All day Saturday and well into the night, the fleet remained inactive, not knowing that the wind which kept them there had brought the Turkish fleet across the Gulf of Patras to the Albanian shore, and that Aluch Ali, with all his Algerian galleys, was still with them. With the falling of the starless night a dead silence settled over the sea.
About two o'clock in the morning of Sunday, the seventh, there came up a fresh steady wind from the west, across the Ionian Sea, sweeping the stars and the wide bay clear of the wraiths of fog. Don Juan, lying sleepless in the cabin of his Real, saw that he was in the middle of what seemed a huge lake, flooded with moonlight. He gave the word, the great anchors were weighed and the sails unfurled, the whips cracked over the straining backs of the galley slaves, the great ships hove through the choppy waters, as if racing the dawn to the Albanian coast. When the sun came flaming up over the Gulf of Lepanto, Doria's lookout, in the vanguard, sighted a squadron of the enemy about twelve miles away, returning from a scouting trip to Santa Maura. The signal flag agreed upon was on the masthead of the royal frigate, where Doria was on watch.
"We must conquer or die here," said Don Juan, exultantly, and ordered a green banner displayed as a sign for all to get in battle array. The multiple banks of oars on the six great Venetian galeasses plunged into the sea, driving the massive hulks to their positions, two of them a mile in front of each of the three sections of the battle line.
The Venetian Barbarigo, with sixty-four galleys, veered as closely as possible to the Aetolian shore, to prevent an encircling movement by the enemy on the north. Don Juan commanded the center or batalla of sixty-three galleys, with Colonna and Veniero on either side of him, and Requesens in the ship behind him. Doria's squadron of sixty took the right wing, nearest the open sea, the most dangerous post of all. Thirty-five vessels were held in reserve in the rear under the Marques of Santa Cruz, with orders to give help wherever it might be needed. Thus the great fleet advanced into the Gulf of Patras, in a long arc extending over a league-and-a-half sea and gradually stiffening into a straighter line as the enemy came in sight.
The Turks, having a total of 286 galleys (for Hascen Bey had just arrived with 22 extra ones from Tripoli) against 208, had decided to fight, and were clearing their decks for action. Mohammed Siroco with 55 galleys opposed Barbarigo. Ali Pasha and Pertew with 96 faced the batalla of Don Juan. Aluch Ali with 73 took the side nearest the open sea, opposite Gianandrea Doria. There was also a squadron of reserve in the rear. The wind had shifted to the east, bringing on the Turks with bellied sails, while the Christians had to use their oars. Toward noon it almost died away. Four hours passed while both fleets made their preparations for combat.
Doria meanwhile came back in a swift frigate to consult with Don Juan and the others. According to one account he was averse, at the start, to giving battle to an enemy with so large a preponderance of heavy ships. He wanted a council of war, at least. But Don Juan cried, "It is time to fight now, not to talk"; and so it was agreed. Cabrera says Doria not only drew up the final battle order of the fleet, but suggested that the Generalissimo have the espolones cut away from the bows of his galleys. These were sharp spurs, fourteen feet long which could crash through the side of an enemy ship, doing great damage when propelled by the arms of a hundred galley slaves. It was obvious that in fighting at close quarters, hand-to-hand, ship locked to ship, they would be useless. Without them, too, Don Juan could place his bow guns lower, and hit the Turkish hulks nearer the water line. The plan was adopted. One after another down the long line the espolones splashed into the calm sea.
The young Admiral, now in his golden armor, went in a fast frigate from ship to ship, holding up an iron crucifix for all to see. "Hey, valorous soldiers!" he cried. "Here's the chance you wanted. I have done my part. Do you now humble the pride of the enemy and win glory in this holy fight. Live or die, be conquerors; if you die, you go to Heaven." The sight of the gallant young figure and the sound of his fresh voice had an extraordinary effect. A mighty shout answered him from each ship. There passed across the sparkling sea a long broken cheer as the Pope's banner of the League with the image of Christ Crucified catching the glint of the high sun, rose above the Real beside the blue flag of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On the forward mast of his flagship Don Juan had hung a crucifix which alone of all his effects survived the fire in his house at Alcala.
As the Turks advanced in a great half-moon he knelt on the prow and in a loud voice begged the blessing of God on the Christian arms, while priests and monks throughout the fleet held up crucifixes before the kneeling sailors and soldiers. The sun was now directly overhead. The clear water, almost unrippled, flashed back a tremulous replica in vivid colors of a thousand standards, streamers, pennons and gonfalons, the cold brilliant glitter of weapons and armor, the gold and silver of armaments, all wavering kaleidoscopically between the blue sea and the dazzling sky. A hush like that which comes just before the consecration of the Mass fell over the whole Armada. The Turkish side replied with the usual blood-curdling chorus of screams, hoots, jibes and groans, the clashing of cimeters on shields, the blaring of horns and trumpets. The Christians waited in silence.
At that moment the wind, which had thus far favored the Turks, shifted to the west and sped the Christian galleys on to the shock. Ali Pasha, in the Moslem center, opened the battle with a cannon shot. Don Juan answered, with another. As the Turkish oarsmen churned the sea, the six great galeasses of Venice opened fire with their 264 guns. This bombardment was not as devastating as had been expected, but it had the effect of breaking the enemy's line. The Turkish right was racing now to gain the open water between the Venetians and the Aetolian shore. Five ships closed upon the galley of Barbarigo, while the Moorish archers let fly clouds of poisoned arrows, which they preferred to firearms and used with more deadly effect. Ship to ship they were lashed now, fighting hand-to-hand. Huge Barbarigo fought like a lion, until, taking his shield from his face to shout an order, he was pierced through the eye with an arrow.
It was the Christian right that stood the heaviest attack. Doria was held in fear and respect by the Moslems. Moreover, he occupied the most dangerous post, where strategy and good sailing counted. If there was a match for him among the mariners of the Mediterranean, it was Aluch Ali, the Italian apostate. As the Turkish left tried to gain the open sea, to attack by poop and prow, Doria extended his line farther to the right, leaving a space between his squadron and the batalla. Aluch Ali swiftly changed his course and came crashing through the open space with his best ships, while his slower sailing galleys took the Genoese on the side toward the open sea. Doria, heavily outnumbered, fought a magnificent engagement. On ten of his vessels, nearly all the soldiers were killed in the first hour of the conflict. The handful of of survivors fought on, desperately holding their ships in the hope of succor.
Santa Cruz's reserve, however, had gone to the aid of some of the Venetians on the left, and the whole batalla was locked in mortal conflict with the Turkish center. As soon as Ali Pasha saw where the holy flags flew over the galley of Don Juan, he drove straight for it. The two enormous hulks crashed prow to prow. Ali's ship was higher and heavier, and manned with 500 picked Janizaries.
The wisdom of Doria's advice to cut away the espolones was now apparent; while the Turk's artillery fired through the rigging of the Real, Don Juan's poured death into the ranks of the Janizaries as the ships grappled. Hand-to-hand they fought from one deck to the other, for two hours. Seven Turkish ships stood by to help the Sultana. As fast as the Janizaries fell on the decks, they were replaced by others from the hulks of reserve. Twice the horde of yelling Turks penetrated the Real to the main mast, and twice the Spaniards thrust them back. But Don Juan, with heavy losses, had only two ships of reserves. Fighting gallantly in a little ring of chosen Spanish cavaliers, he was wounded in the foot. His situation was extremely perilous, in fact, when Santa Cruz, having saved the Venetians, came to his aid and rushed 200 reserves aboard.
Heartened by this fresh blood, the Spanish threw themselves on Ali and his Janizaries so furiously that they hurled them back into their own ship. Three times the Christians charged, and three times the Turks cast them out over decks now red and slippery with blood, piled with heaps of dead men, ghastly mangled trunks, severed arms and legs still quivering. The two fleets were locked in the embrace of death, ships lashed by twos and threes in water already streaked with crimson from floating bodies and limbs. The din of musketry, screams of rage and pain, clash of steel on steel, thunder of artillery, falling of spars and lashing of bloody waters between rocking timbers resounded horribly all through the Sunday afternoon. Splendid and terrible deeds were done. Old Veniero, seventy years old, fought sword in hand at the head of his men. Cervantes arose from his bed of fever to fight and to lose his left hand. Young Alexander of Parma boarded a Turkish galley alone, and survived the experience. The moment was critical, and the issue still in doubt, when the magnificent Ali Pasha, defending his ship from the last Christian onslaught, was laid low by a ball from a Spanish arquebus. His body was dragged to the feet of Don Juan. A Spanish soldier triumphantly pounced upon it and shore away the head. One version says that Don Juan reproved him for this brutality. Another, more likely, says that the Prince impaled the head on the end of a long pike and held it up for all to see. Hoarse shouts of victory burst from the Christians on the Real, as they brushed the disheartened Turks into the sea and hoisted the banner of Christ Crucified to the enemy masthead. There was not a single hole in this flag, though the spars and masts were riddled, and the mainmast bristled with arrows like a porcupine. From ship to ship the shout of triumph was taken up, with the word that Ali was dead and the Christians had won. A panic seized the enemy, and he took to flight.
As the sun sank over Cephalonia, Doria's right wing was still furiously engaged with the Algerians. Gianandrea was red from head to foot with blood, but escaped without a scratch. When Aluch Ali saw that the Moslem fleet was getting the worse of it, he skillfully withdrew between the right and the center of the Christians. In the rear of Doria's fleet he came upon a galley of the Knights of Malta, whom he especially hated. He pounced upon it from the stern, slew all the knights and the crew, and took possession of the vessel; but when Santa Cruz attacked him, he abandoned his prize and fled with 40 of his best ships toward the open sea and the crimson sunset. Doria's fleet pursued him until night and the coming of a storm forced him to desist.
The Christians took refuge in the port of Petala, and there counted their casualties, which were comparatively light, and their booty, which was exceedingly rich. They had lost 8,000 slain, including 2,000 Spanish, 800 of the Pope's men, and 5,200 Venetians. The Turks had lost 224 vessels, 130 captured and more than 90 sunk or burned; at least 25,000 of their men had been slain, and 5,000 captured; 10,000 of their Christian captives were set free.
Don Juan at once sent ten galleys to Spain to inform the King, and dispatched the Count of Priego to Rome. But Pius V had speedier means of communication than galleys. On the afternoon of Sunday, October seventh, he was walking in the Vatican with his treasurer, Donata Cesis. The evening before he had sent out orders to all convents in Rome and nearby to double their prayers for the Victory of the Christian fleet, but now he was listening to a recital of some of his financial difficulties. Suddenly he stepped aside, opened a window, and stood watching the sky as if astonished. Then, turning with a radiant face to the treasurer, he said, "Go with God. This is not the time for business, but to give thanks to Jesus Christ, for our fleet has just conquered."
He then hurried to his chapel to prostrate himself in thanksgiving. Afterwards he went out, and everybody noticed his youthful step and joyous countenance.
The first news of the battle, through human agencies, reached Rome by way of Venice on the night of October twenty-first, just two weeks after the event. Saint Pius went to St. Peter's in a procession, singing the Te Deum Laudamus. There was great joy in Rome. The Holy Father commemorated the victory by designating October seventh as the Feast of the Holy Rosary, and by adding "Help of Christians" to the titles of Our Lady in the Litany of Loreto.
From the very first Don Juan ascribed the triumph of his fleet to the powerful intercession of the Rosary Queen. The Venetian Senate wrote to the other States which had taken part in the Crusade: "It was not generals nor battalions nor arms that brought us victory; but it was Our Lady of the Rosary."
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The Infamous WEF Forum Wants Government, Banks, Big Business to Help ‘Vaccinate the World’ |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 11:45 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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World Economic Forum Wants Government, Central Banks, Big Business to Help ‘Vaccinate the World’
Breitbart |16 Dec 20200
The World Economic Forum (WEF) believes a management triumvirate comprising big business, central banks and government can play a “pivitol role” in the global take-up of coronavirus vaccinations.
A WEF report published Tuesday points to the personal records held by big businesses as an asset in identifying those who need the vaccinations, underwritten by banking institutions and globalist organizations like the U.N.-subsidiary World Health Organization providing “tracing apps and digital health passports.”
“Workplace norms and employers that encourage pandemic-time discipline, even after the vaccination programs kickoff, will play a pivotal role in driving continued positive outcomes,” the report posits.
The WEF call came just hours after the Catholic church argued such a vaccine program should not be feared or countered – rather, treated as a natural course of global events. [See here - The Catacombs]
"Being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.” https://t.co/9YFjGGc4pl
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 15, 2020
The WEF paper goes on to say relying on employers is a natural solution, “Given that this is adult vaccination at a scale which we have not done ever before, it is only natural that the workplace will emerge as one of the key hubs for evangelizing and expanding vaccination cover.”
It then points to what it believes the combination of tech, big government, and globalist organizations can achieve:
Quote:Governments, central banks and organizations like W.H.O. are hugely supported by enterprises joining the good fight. Public-private partnerships, adopting the ‘all hands-on deck’ approach, have served us tremendously well even as corporations fight their own battle to protect employees, redeploy capabilities to help new pressing needs, steady cashflows and keep the economy running.
From contact tracing apps, digital health passports, technology for safer public spaces, vaccine discovery, logistics capabilities for vaccine distribution to massive philanthropic funding for community support, enterprises are truly partnering nations struggling to tide things over through these trying times.
The WEF urges big businesses to play their part, saying “employment records can serve as a rich source of demographic data – age, ethnicity and occupation, for example – to continue to support equitable vaccination coverage.”
Whether or not there is ever a total acceptance of the vaccine is a problem even the World Economic Forum admits to.
The report concludes “public hesitancy towards vaccination, brought on by a fear of side-effects, is rampant.
“In a June 2020 survey, conducted by the World Economic Forum’s COVID Action Platform, only 71.5% of participants reported that they would be very or somewhat likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine.”
[Emphasis mine.]
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Archbishop Lefebvre: May 1988 - 'Summary of the Situation' |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 10:10 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Summary of the Situation
May 30, 1988
Here is the account of the situation written by the hand of Archbishop Lefebvre, which he gave to the superiors of traditional communities and to some priests with whom he met at the Society’s retreat house of Le Pointet, France. Present were Benedictine monks and nuns (including Dom Gérard), Dominican monks and nuns, Franciscan monks and nuns, Carmelite nuns, Fr. Coache, Fr. André, Fr. Lecareu....
Explanation of the Situation Concerning What Rome Calls “Reconciliation”
- Fifteen years of opposition to the doctrinal deviations of the Council and the reforms issuing from this conciliar spirit, to remain faithful to the Faith and the sources of edifying grace.
- To abide in this fidelity we undergo the persecution of Rome and conferences of bishops, and religious congregations.
- Being involved in the same struggle, we have helped each other to consolidate and develop the works which Providence has put in our hands and which it has visibly blessed.
- Providence has permitted us to have a bishop, thanks to which we have had the grace of ordinations and confirmations, an indispensable aid to our fidelity.
- Fifteen years of traditional ecclesial life, 15 years of blessings, of life with the Eucharistic Sacrifice, prayers, reception of valid and fruitful sacraments, a bishop, priests, brothers, nuns, Christian families united in the Faith. Fervor, generosity, full spiritual and material growth in the midst of trials, crosses, scorn...etc.
- The bishop formed the moral bond and even the ecclesial bond with the present Modernist Rome.#
- It must be recognized that the efforts to correct the spirit and reforms of the Council were in vain, as well as requests to officially authorize the “experiment of Tradition.”
However, a vital problem is posed for fidelity to Tradition with the disappearance of the bishop. As Rome refuses to agree to the permanence of Tradition, the necessity of the salvation of souls becomes the (supreme) law.
On June 29, 1987, the decision to create some bishops to ensure the episcopal succession is announced.
On July 14, 1987, a final request is made of Rome, both by letter and in person.
On July 28, 1987, a serious hope of a solution appears. Rome seems frightened by the threat of episcopal consecrations.
The response does not reject the idea of an episcopal succession, but after legal recognition of the Society, the liturgy, the traditional seminaries are authorized. They no longer speak of a doctrinal document. They will return to that. An Apostolic Visitor is envisaged. What would we do?
- The visit of Cardinal Gagnon is decided on and takes place from November 11 to December 9.
- The report is given to the Pope on January 5.
- A Commission is proposed on March 18.
- A Commission of experts meets April 13-15. Signature of a proposal takes place on April 15.
- Meeting of the Commission of experts, Archbishop Lefebvre and the Cardinal, May 3 and 4. Signing of the Protocol, May 5, Feast of St. Pius V.
Procedure for putting into application. Question of the date of the consecration?Put off sine die (indefinitely). Letter of His Grace to the Pope of May 5, 1988.
The difficulties of putting into application begin:- Letter of May 6 to the Cardinal. Threat to proceed with the consecrations on June 30.
- Response of the Cardinal on May 6.
- Project of the letter to the Pope asking pardon, the letter of May 5 being too administrative (brought by Fr. du Chalard).
- Fr. du Chalard confirms to the Cardinal that I intend to consecrate on June 30. The Cardinal asks that I come to Rome.
- Letter to the Pope and letter to the Cardinal on the subject of the date and number of bishops and membership of the Roman Commission, May 20 and May 24.
- Meeting with the Cardinal and the secretaries on May 24.
- The letters are delivered. Then the Cardinal mentions August 15 as the date for the consecration, but does not respond to the other problems. As for the secretaries, they allude to the other problems by saying that the requests can be looked into! The Cardinal gives me another project of a letter to the Pope.
- On May 28, the Pope confirms the date of August 15.
The atmosphere of these contacts and talks, the reflections of both sides during the conversations, clearly manifests to us that the desire of the Holy See is to bring us back to the Council and to the reforms, also to place us back into the bosom of the Conciliar Church as a religious congregation:
- The Bureau at Rome will be provisional. (Special note)
- The Bishop is not necessary, and grudgingly conceded. Delays!
- The Catholic Church is the Church of Vatican Council II.
- Acceptance of the conciliar novelties. St. Nicolas! (Cardinal Ratzinger had asked for the celebration of a Mass of Paul VI each Sunday at St. Nicolas, in Paris.)
- The religious congregations are to be returned to their respective orders, with a special statute!
- We are given a doctrinal note to be signed.
- Again we are expected to ask pardon for our faults.
Our reintegration seems to be a political, diplomatic “trump card” to offset the excesses of others.
This poses the following moral problem, in which I do not feel entitled to act without your counsel, since you are directly concerned. (Recall of Fr. Schmidberger from America.)
We must realize that a new situation will appear after the application of the accord.
Let us state the advantages:- Canonical normalization of our works. Renewal of relations with Rome for each one of our works.
- At the same time we retain a certain independence, for the safeguarding of Tradition,
- through the Liturgy.
- through the formation of our members and the faithful.
- by relations with the bishops, and the conciliar world.
- suppression of apprehensions and reticences (to a certain extent).
- facilitation of relations with certain civil administrations.
- easier missionary contacts to convert priests and faithful to Tradition!
- a flow of vocations and the faithful to our works.
- a bishop consecrated with the approval of the Holy See.
Let us state the disadvantages:- a limited but definite dependence on Modernist and Conciliar Rome through the Roman Commission directed by Cardinal Ratzinger.
its principles are the same ones which alienated us from modern Rome.
- disassociation of our moral unity created around my person, which disappears, partly in favor of Cardinal Ratzinger, and partly in favor of the different superiors general who report directly to Rome, but who can continue to have recourse to the bishop consecrated for Tradition. We risk having less unity and less strength.
- Relations with the congregations and orders. They are to have a special statute, but in spite of everything a moral dependence, which Rome would like to see transformed as early as possible into a canonical dependence. Danger of contamination.
- Relations with the Conciliar bishops, faithful and clergy. In spite of the broad exemption, as the canonical barriers disappear, there will necessarily be courtesy contacts and perhaps offers of cooperation, for the student unions—superiors’ unions—priests’ meetings— regional ceremonies, etc...This whole world of the Conciliar spirit— ecumenical and charismatic.
- Only one bishop. Less protection, more danger.
Up until now we were naturally protected, the selection was assured by the necessity of a rupture with the conciliar world. From now on, continual caution is necessary, to keep us always on guard against the atmosphere in Rome, against the atmosphere in the dioceses.
This is why we want three or four bishops and the majority in the Roman Commission, but they turn a deaf ear. They have agreed to only one bishop, after continual threats, and delayed the date. They consider it inconceivable that we treat them as a contaminated atmosphere, after all they are granting us.
Thus, a moral problem is posed for all of us.
- Must we run the risk of contacts with this modernist atmosphere in the hope of converting some souls, and with the hope of fortifying ourselves beforehand with the grace of God and the virtue of prudence, and thus remain legally united to Rome according to the letter, as we are in reality and in spirit?
- Or must we, before all else, preserve the traditional family to maintain its cohesion and vigor in the Faith and in grace, considering that the purely formal tie with modernist Rome cannot be as important as the protection of this family, representing those who remain faithful to the Catholic Church?
- What do God and the Holy Trinity, and Our Lady of Fatima ask of us in response to this question?
It is clear that four bishops will fortify us better than just one. The decision must be taken within 48 hours.
Reflect. Pray. Please give me your opinion, even in writing if you wish, and it will be my duty, with the help of the Holy Ghost, and Our Lady the Queen, to make a decision.
Msgr. de Castro Mayer has promised to come June 30, for the episcopal consecrations, with three priests of his diocese.
# i.e., Rome occupied by modernists.
Source
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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Archbishop Lefebvre: 1979 Conference - On His Recent Audience with Pope John Paul II |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 10:06 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Conference given by His Excellency Mgr. Lefebvre to the Seminarians at Ecône regarding his recent Audience with Pope John Paul II
21 December 1978
My dear friends,
I hope there is no representative of the press among you! Somebody in disguise! In any case, I ask you to be discreet and not, after this evening, to be running to the telephone to spread what I shall be saying about the audience. The business is not yet ended, and talks are in progress; there will be further meetings, not perhaps with the Holy Father himself but probably with Cardinal Seper, so what has been begun must not be hampered. This is a new stage in our relations with Rome, with a Rome somewhat changed, not the old Rome with which we had no difficulty.
Cardinal Siri’s Mediation
The Holy Father was informed that I was in Rome by Cardinal Siri whom I had gone to visit on my arrival in Rome. Cardinal Siri wanted to intervene so that I should have this audience. I did not myself ask Cardinal Siri for the audience – I was thinking of having it later, as it was still too soon and it would be better to wait until the Pope had been informed and events would show what line the Pope would take, what he was thinking. But as soon as I met Cardinal Siri he said: “Fine! Next week I have an audience with the Pope, and if you like I'll talk to him about it. We'll certainly discuss it."
He did have an audience the next week, on the Monday. I had visited him on Friday and on the following Monday he had his audience (he hadn't told me the day: it could have been Thursday, Friday). That Monday evening he told me, saying: "Good. It is arranged. The Holy Father will receive you on Saturday at 4:30 in his private apartments"- on Saturday, for, as the Pope had said to him, he wanted the meeting to be on Our Lady's day so that it would be under her patronage. I was to get in touch with one of his friends who would bring me to the Holy Father's private apartments – as it was not an official audience it could not take place in the offices where the Pope is accustomed to receive those who have an audience with him.
I have often been to see the Popes, one after another, Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI – but always in the official places, never in the private apartments. So I thought it better to keep out of sight for a day or two so as to avoid being eventually interrogated by people in the Vatican, who always know everything. It is difficult, I said to myself: I don't know how I can get to the Vatican without the news being in the press beforehand. Monday to Saturday evening! It would be a miracle if nothing appeared in the press. And, if it did get in, would I have the audience?
Arrival at the Vatican
Saturday afternoon, 18 November 1978
However, things were so well arranged that nobody knew. I started on Saturday afternoon in Monsieur Pedroni’s car. He drove me to the little Holy Office Square where the entrance to the Vatican now is. There we were joined by the car of the secretary appointed by Cardinal Siri, and I went off in that car, so that no one should see a car with a Swiss – still less a Valais! – registration, especially as no one comes to the Vatican on Saturday afternoons: they are all away on holiday. But the Swiss Guards saw me change from one car to another. And it seems, though I did not notice it myself, that when Monsieur Pedroni and the Abbé du Chalard stayed on in the Holy Office Square, and were strolling under the colonnade of St. Peter's waiting for me to return from the audience, they were spotted by a young man who was already there, and who waited as they did, smiling from time to time. They both said: "That is surely someone in the know. He saw Monseigneur leave and is waiting for him to come back. He is certainly up to something!" And that is just what happened. As soon as I got back he rushed to the telephone to pass on his news, so that the same evening on the radio and the next the Italian newspapers the news was out.
In the Pope’s Private Apartments
When we got to the Court of Saint Damasus, there was nobody there except a Swiss Guard. Mgr. Magee, an Irishman, who had been secretary to Pope Paul VI, came down as soon as he saw the car and led me to a private life which goes up directly to the Holy Father’s private apartments. That made things easier. I did not know of that lift, and I should have taken the official lift up to the third floor – I knew where it was. So we reached the private apartments, and the secretary took me for a short visit up to the Chapel, a Chapel which is completely standard, not in the modern but totally in the old style – a fine simple altar, altar screen, candlesticks, the Cross, tabernacle; a nun dressed as a nun was praying before the Blessed Sacrament. I genuflected, stayed there for a few moments, and left. I was led then into a salon where there was a round table and seven or eight armchairs, all alike. I asked myself: “Where is the Holy Father going to sit?” I could not say. Was I be led into another salon, nearby? I stayed where I was, and the secretary said: “The Holy Father will be coming.”
A Warm Welcome
And so it was. Scarcely had he closed the door when the Holy Father arrived and embraced me warmly. I confess that it occurred to me that he had done the same with the communist mayor a few days before! However, ecumenism is the current practice! So he gave me a friendly embrace, sat at my side, and, very simple, without ceremony, he got straight into the conservation: “I am glad to see you. I know one of your good friends, Cardinal Thiandoum. I had met him before, but he came specially to talk to about you.” So we spoke of Dakar and such-like subjects. I said that I had ordained him priest. The Pope asked: “Did you also consecrate him?”
I replied: "No, I did not consecrate him as I had already left, but it was he who succeeded me: it was the Apostolic Delegate, my successor, who consecrated him."
"Ah," he replied, "so you have been an Apostolic Delegate?"
"Yes, indeed. I was Apostolic Delegate for eleven years."
"So, then, you must have been engaged in diplomacy.
"Oh, ever so little, ever so little."
Though by his office an Apostolic Delegate is not a diplomat, he is nonetheless the delegate of the Holy Father and the French government agreed to give him all the honors of a Nuncio, which made him the diplomatic representative of the Holy Father.
The Archbishop Explains the Seminary
We chatted like that for a while. Then: "But we had better get down to business."
"Yes, Holy Father. If you wish I will tell you briefly the position of the Fraternity, how it began, etc."
I gave him the story that you know already, from Fribourg with Mgr. Charriere, the decree of erection, the canonical existence of the Fraternity for five years, perfectly legal in its foundation; the seminary authorized by Mgr. Adam; the Albano House authorized by Mgr. Mamie (though he is not very favorable, as I told the Pope) and by Mgr. Maccario.1
The Pope interjected: "So your Albano House is quite legal?"
And I replied: "Yes." Someone must have told him it was a wildcat house!
The Plan for the Suppression of the Fraternity
“The French Bishops then became jealous of this seminary which was growing fast." And I quoted to him what Cardinal Lefebvre (whom I knew well: he is my cousin) had written and had printed: that there could be no pardoning Mgr. Lefebvre for taking up, at the Council, positions contrary to those of the French Bishops. I said: "You can see what the French episcopate already thought of me. Obviously, seeing this growing seminary and the prospect of its training priests as they could not do themselves, they were disturbed. So they entered into a veritable conspiracy, with Cardinal Villot and Cardinal Garrone, and later with Cardinal Wright and Cardinal Tabera: they decided to pretend to have an official investigation. They sent two Apostolic Visitors2 who did not even visit the Chapel, and who left no word behind them, no report. I do not know what the conclusions were from their visit, but what they said was scandalous. I myself said to them: “I know very well why you are here – to condemn and to suppress this seminary. That means so many fewer priests, although the whole world is short of them and here in France the number of seminarists is going down rapidly. Why come to this seminary? What shall we do when there are no more priests?' To which they both replied at once: 'Oh, we’ll ordain married men!' They were from Rome, and that, you will agree, was a bit too much!"
He listened, with great attention. I went on: "The meeting which I had with the Cardinals just for information was not a tribunal! Cardinal Garrone himself said so: it was merely an interview in which explanations could be given to supplement the (Apostolic) visitation of 11 November 1974.3 Yet, a few weeks later came the condemnations, totally illegal, for it was Mgr. Mamie who withdrew the canonical institution, which he had no right to do: when a bishop has accepted a Congregation in his diocese he cannot suppress it: Rome has to issue a decree of suppression, not the bishop of the place (Canon 493). When that happened I went back to Rome, to the Signatura Apostolica, where Cardinal Staffa received my protest. I even paid the fee due for its reception; and, together with my lawyer and Cardinal Staffa 's delegate, we signed the protocol of the reception of my complaint at the Signatura. But a few days later Cardinal Villot wrote a letter in his own hand forbidding the examination of my case and an investigation into whether I was right or not."
I said then to the Holy Father: "I don't know if the communists can improve on that!" He laughed. "Faced with that contempt for natural rights, good sense and canon law, it seemed to me that I was not obliged to submit to such a measure. That is why I kept the seminary going. Obviously that has made our relations with Rome delicate; but I hope the priests trained in the Fraternity are good priests, devoted to Rome."
The Same Old Accusation: You are Against the Pope: NO!
"Now what, precisely, are we accused of? Since this difficulty with Rome we are accused of being 'against the Pope, against the Council, and against the reforms, especially the liturgical reform.' Listen: we are not at all against the Pope – that is absolutely false! We were calumniated on those points to Pope Paul VI, and that is why it was made so difficult for us to see him, and why he was so hard on us. He was made to believe that I got the seminarians to take an oath against the Pope. He accused me of that in my audience with him. That is too bad! I can understand why they did not want me to go near the Pope – they had told him such serious calumnies." I added: "It was not through Cardinal Villot that I saw the Pope. It happened quite unexpectedly. A Father LaBellarte, whom I did not know, said to me one day: 'Go to Rome and see the Pope. He wants to see you.' I replied: “I shall not see the Pope. They have always prevented me from seeing him. I’ve been waiting for five years to see him, and they have refused me every time.’ ‘Oh, yes, you'll see him.' In fact, I saw Pope Paul VI, but against the will of Cardinal Villot who, the evening before, learning that I was to have the audience, forced the Pope to have Mgr. Benelli present at our audience.”4
I could tell that he was listening to me with great attention and interest. I told him again: "We pray for the Pope. We are perhaps one of the few seminaries which still pray for the Pope. At Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament we sing the prayer for the Pope, in the Canon of the Mass we name the Pope. The Albano House was founded precisely for the acquisition of romanita,5 to attach us to Rome, to the successor of Peter to all that is represented by Rome and the Roman Church.”
It was then that he asked me: "How many seminarians have you?”
“One hundred and seventy."
“Ah, one hundred and seventy!"
“Yes, there are thirty at Albano, ninety at Ecône, and the rest at our two other seminaries in the U.S.A. and Germany."
You are Against the Council! No!
I continued: “As to the Council, there are certainly things in the Council which are hard to admit; but I should be ready to sign a sentence like this: 'I accept the Acts of the Council interpreted in the sense of tradition.' That is a sentence which I think I could eventually accept and sign, if you so wish.”
“But that is fine, fine! But that is ordinary and obvious! Would you really agree to sign such a sentence?"
I replied: "Certainly, I am ready to sign it, provided it contains the phrase 'interpreted in the sense of tradition'."
He said again: "But that is just ordinary," He seemed to be thinking that that settled the business of the Pope and the business of the Council, Both questions were settled, so now what about the question of the Liturgy?
The Liturgical Reform…in Poland!
I said, "Oh, yes. The question of the liturgy…We are evidently very attached to the Mass of Saint Pius V and also to the traditional rites. All around us we see these reforms and their consequences: the destruction of churches, the closing of seminaries, the lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament."
At that point, of course, and without a pause, as though his mind were still in Poland, he said to me: "But, you know, in Poland it is all going very well! The reforms have been effected, but I assure you there is plenty of respect for the Blessed Sacrament. Besides, we have had lots of difficulties with the communists. Our people are very respectful to the Blessed Sacrament, and are very devout. We fight for devotion to the Holy Eucharist, processions, any show of devotion: we fight. And what has caused us most pain, let me tell you, and made us suffer, is the suppression of Latin. I myself think that it was most painful for us. But now! What do you want to do? The seminarians no longer know Latin; they all read the breviary in the vernacular; Latin is not taught any- where; what do you want to do? What do you want us to do? Besides, perhaps the people understand the Mass better, what is said at Mass."
I then permitted myself to say: " Are you not afraid, all the same, that because of those reforms a certain Protestant and neo-modemist spirit will in the end creep slowly but surely into seminaries, parishes, everywhere?"
"Oh, I know very well that there have been complaints from the faithful who are afraid. We are not altogether free from difficulties, but, after all, they don't amount to much."
Then I said to him: "Holy Father, listen. I have in my pocket a letter from a Polish bishop."
He looked at it: "N..., he is the communists' Enemy Number One. They are scared of him." He read part of the letter and then he said to me: "Yes, but you have to be careful. I wonder if this letter is genuine. One of the communist tricks is to compose false letters and spread them left, right and center as to divide the Catholics and divide the bishops."
“Of course, I am no judge of that."
“Anyway," he said, "these liturgical questions: they are disciplinary questions, disciplinary: perhaps we had better look into the question."
Religious Liberty
He went back to the Council: "You know, the Decree on Religious Liberty has been a great help to us in Poland."
“No doubt. It can serve in that way – an argumentum ad hominen; but all the same there have been serious consequences of that declaration since its approval by the Council, above all the laicization and de-Christianization of Catholic States." I quoted Colombia, the Canton of Valais, and the words of the Nuncio at Berne whom I had myself asked why Mgr. Adam had written to his diocesans inviting them to vote suppression of the first article in the Valais Constitution according to which the Catholic religion is the only one officially recognized in the Canton of Valais. I said to the Nuncio: “That is a bit too much!”
The Nuncio replied: “But the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ is very difficult these days.”
Then I said: "And the Encyclical Quas Primas. What about that, then?" He replied: "Today, Pope Pius XI would not write it!”
The Holy Father then said to me: "That's not the way to say it. We should say, rather: 'He would not write it in the same way’."
I replied: “That may be so…but the social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ should certainly be acknowledged in Catholic States. There are plenty of communist States based on the communist religion, and Muslim States whose official religion is Islam, and Protestant States whose official religion is Protestantism. I don't see why Catholic States…why there can't be officially Catholic States." The Pope answered: “Oh, yes, yes, that's true."
“We Must Come to a Practical Solution”
"But now," he said, "we must be practical, we must come to a conclusion."
I answered: "Could you nominate an intermediary with whom I could discuss, and examine things more closely?"
He said: "Precisely! I thought of that, and it will be Cardinal Seper. I very much want it to be Cardinal Seper, he is a friend of mine, I know him well, he knows your business and will be dealing with it. I'll call him at once."
Cardinal Seper: “You are making a banner out of the Mass of Saint Pius V!”
"Good! He is efficient!"
The Pope got up at once – smartly, I can tell you! He is lively. He went to his office and phoned for Cardinal Seper to come, and he arrived three or four minutes later. He sat on my right. I wish a photograph could have been taken! The Pope on my left, Cardinal Seper on my right – very democratic!
The Pope summed up quickly for the Cardinal and said: "We must find a solution without delay."
But the Cardinal then proved difficult. "Yes," he said. "But wait a moment. They are making a banner out of the Mass of Saint Pius V."
"Oh," I said, "Not a banner! The Mass is of capital importance, essential in the Church, and that is why for us it is a grave and primary problem.”
The Cardinal answered: "What Pope Paul VI said to me was true! He would have made it possible to say the Mass of Saint Pius V if you had not turned that Mass into a banner!”
By that he meant that we criticize the other Mass, that we do not want it: and, upon my word, that is exactly true.
He went on: "Monseigneur, two and a half years ago you came to see me.
"So I did."
"You came to ask my advice. What did I tell you? I told you: 'Obedience, obedience, obedience, obedience!' There!"
"Yes. And what did obedience require me to do?"
"If you had closed your seminary and all your Houses, if you had stopped everything, stopped it for a year and a half or two years, everything could then have been arranged."
"That I think is a totally gratuitous assertion. I do not know what would have become of us. We should have been dead, and we should have continued dead, just that!"
The End of the Audience
The Pope intervened: "Yes. Look into that…stay here, I have to go, Cardinal Baggio is waiting for me with dossiers this high! Your Eminence, stay and talk."
But the Cardinal had no wish to stay with me. He got up, saying: “No. Not now. In any case, Monseigneur, you will be receiving a letter in two or three weeks asking you to come again to Rome for an interview. We can talk of these things then. Besides, you must be given the results of the study we made of what you sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." That was the end. I paid my respects to the Pope who once more embraced me warmly. I said good-bye to Cardinal Seper, and we parted. And that's how matters stand for the moment.
Can We give a Direction to the Reform, and Limit the Damage?
What I noticed in the Holy Father is that he is very pious, that he has a great love for the Blessed Virgin, that he is completely anti-marxist (I do not say anti-communist, but anti-marxist), and that he will do all he can to suppress abuses and keep the reform within limit; but I must confess that he appears to be basically in agreement with the Council and with the reforms – he just does not question them. And that is serious, because it means that he is for ecumenism, for collegiality, and for religious liberty.
Always the same Three Things!
Those are the three capital ideas from the Council. It is they which make the spirit of the Council. They are what the progressives wanted and what in practice they obtained – watered down perhaps, but they got them, and they will not loosen their hold on them! Study those ideas, and see how serious they are!
1. Collegiality: that means number against person, the law of number against the authority of the person. It is no longer the person who has authority, but number! It is democracy, or at least the democratic principle. It is no longer Our Lord Who commands through the authorities (it is Our Lord Who is the Authority, and in the Church all those who have authority – Pope, Bishops, Priests – share in the authority of Our Lord). By the very fact that number is put in the place of the person, that authority is given to number, authority is in the people, in the rank and file, in the group. That is absolutely contrary to what Our Lord wanted, to the personal authority which He always wanted to give: the Pope has a personal authority; the Bishop has a personal authority by his consecration; the Priest has a personal authority by his sacramental character, his ordination; in the Church authority is personal. The subject of authority (he who is going to exercise it) may be designated democratically, but the authority cannot be so given. That is an important principle. On a false principle Our Lord could lose His crown.
2. Ecumenism: Fraternity. That is not directly contrary to Our Lord, but ecumenism is, for it is a fraternity which destroys paternity. Who makes the unity of brothers? It is the father. Ecumenism makes us all brothers in a sentimental communion but no longer in the faith, no longer in the faith taught us by Our Lord, no longer in the "Father" we have in the Creed. That unity is not in the Father but in a vague feeling of subjectivism, of religious sentiment : it is Modernism.
3. Religious Liberty: that is conscience in place of law. Once more something subjective in place of law, which is objective. And what is this law? It is the Word of God. The Word of God is the Law: Our Savior Himself is our Law. You can see how all that is directly opposed to the authority of Our Lord!
On Those Three Principles the Church Cannot Survive.
That, for the Church, is a catastrophe. The Church cannot live in an atmosphere directly opposed to Our Lord, its Founder, opposed to what makes the unity of the Church, her truth and her law. They have no hope of damming the harm done by those principles. They will try to set limits, to make the catechisms a little more orthodox; but until they have gone back to those fundamentals of the Council and brought them into line with tradition there is nothing to be done. It is that which is serious.
He is no Longer a Polish Bishop!
It is a pity. He seems to be attached to order and discipline; but he is certainly filled with Liberal ideas. Cardinal Wyszynski could well tell himself: "He did well as Archbishop of Cracow, because he fought the communists." That is what makes the unity of Poland, anti-communism and devotion to the Blessed Virgin – the devil is in communism, and then there is the Blessed Virgin: with two such elements it is easy to see how the Poles can be united among themselves and with their bishops. But Poland and the circumstances of Poland are one thing: what matters is what he is going to do as Pope. For in the West, communism does not have such a hold, and as for devotion to the Blessed Virgin, he himself has it, but where is it now in the surrounding world? And that is the problem. What he was able to do as bishop united with the other Polish bishops to save the reign of Our Lord from disappearing – will he be able to do that as Pope, in other, completely different, circumstances?
Hope of Recovery
At least we can pray to the Blessed Virgin that when he becomes aware of the gross difficulties he will meet in the exercise of his power as Pope he will reconsider himself and perhaps conclude that he must return to Tradition. That is a grace for which we should pray to the Blessed Virgin. In another three or four months we shall know one way or another, when he has had a look at his surroundings and at what is happening in Western Europe.
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Archbishop Lefebvre: 1982 Conference at Martigny - The Drama of the Church Today |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 09:58 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Archbishop Lefebvre at Martigny
21 March 1982
My dear friends,
I am sure the Blessed Virgin Mary is happy today, that she is looking upon us with joy and that she has been much consoled with the prayers offered to her throughout the night just past. You have certainly been most obedient to the wishes of the Blessed Virgin Mary, following the initiative of some true and faithful Catholic laymen.
In all her apparitions and particularly at Fatima, she asked us to pray and do penance. This is why you are here, many of you coming from far away. In spite of inconveniences you have willingly taken on this penance and have come here to pray. To pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose wish we shall fulfill in a few minutes when we repeat, in the words of Pope Pius XII, the consecration of the world and of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
What Christian today, what faithful Catholic, does not feel the need to pray and do penance, in present world circumstances? We are a little like those who invited their friends to the wedding feast at Cana and, when they ran short of wine, turned to the Virgin Mary with anxious looks, asking the Mother of Jesus to put in a word with her Divine Son to relieve them of this worry of having no more wine to serve their guests. So Mary turned to Jesus and said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus performed the wonderful miracle of transforming water into wine. A mirror image of the situation we find ourselves in today!
We too turn to the Blessed Virgin, where we can still today find the grace of God, where we can still find divine life in this world. The wine symbolizes precisely the Blood of Christ, which transmits divine life to us. We shall listen to the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary saying, "Do whatever He tells you." So now, we too are making a resolution to listen to the Blessed Virgin and to do whatever Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us.
And what is He telling us? What is He revealing? His Revelation tells us that the most beautiful, the most admirable, the most perfect of His creatures did not make good use of the freedom which Our Lord, as God, gave them. Yes, He has shown us that this extraordinary conflict took place in heaven between the good angels and the wicked angels, between those who wanted to become like God and St. Michael the Archangel at the head of all the angels loyal to God. Quis ut Deus? "Who is like God?"
So He plunged the wicked angels into hell. This is what God tells us. Not only on earth, therefore, do men misuse their freedom, this extraordinary gift which God gave them to do good and not evil. It has already happened in heaven.
So the situation is that, henceforth and for all eternity, there will be, on the one side, the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ united to the Father and to the Holy Ghost, which will shine in the hearts of all the elect, of all who are united to God: the holy angels, the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, all the saints, the martyrs, all who follow the law of God and love Him here below.
And then there is hell. Hell, the place forever of those who tried to resist God, tried to make themselves God a state of eternal separation from God. This is what Our Lord teaches us.
He dwelt among us to make reparation for the sin of our first Parents, who had abused their freedom and disobeyed God. So He too found Himself in confrontation and opposition to those who wanted to put Him to death. Because Satan, if he can do no more in heaven, because he has been confined to hell once and for all, can still work here below and try to populate hell in ever greater numbers. God permits him to do this. We have seen Our Lord Jesus Christ persecuted by Satan, by the devil himself. Satan believed that his definitive victory had been achieved. He had succeeded in crucifying God Himself, body and soul. God seemed dead. He had breathed His last.
Satan cried victory, because it was Satan who wanted to crucify Him. This is in the Gospel. When Judas went off to betray Our Lord, having taken the Bread which Our Lord had given Him, the Gospel says, "Satan entered into his soul." So it is indeed a struggle, a struggle between Our Lord and all who wanted to crucify Him. And who showed up as the means of the crucifixion of Our Lord? False religions and bad governments. This is in the Gospel. The Scribes and the Pharisees said, "What do you think? He has blasphemed, because He makes Himself the Son of God, and because He has blasphemed, He must be crucified."
Yes, from that moment Israel abandoned the religion which Jesus had taught them. And instead of recognizing the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, they rejected the Messias and crucified Him. There are also those who said, in the name of pagan governments, as Pilate hesitated to crucify Him, "If you do not put Him to death, you are no friend of Caesar, because everyone who makes himself king sets himself against Caesar." So you see, it is perfectly clear: in the Gospel there are false religions and bad governments which crucify Our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as you know, Our Lord escaped them. Satan thought He was dead once and for all, the Scribes and Pharisees too. And Our Lord rose, He ascended to heaven triumphantly, gloriously, henceforth for all eternity. He enters again into the glory of His Father and of the Holy Ghost in the Holy Trinity.
But He founded the Church, His Mystical Body which carries on the struggle, which henceforth will be open to all the attacks of the devil and of all those who wish to destroy Our Lord. Because Our Lord slipped past them, they will persecute members of the Church.
This is what Our Lord said to St. Paul to Saul on the road to Damascus, "Why persecutest thou Me?" Thus Our Lord considered persecution of His members as persecution of Himself. "Why persecutest thou Me?"
Yes, the Church is the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ. So, throughout the history of the Church, you have seen this struggle carried on by heretics, by every means at their disposal, in all the attacks which the Church has undergone in the course of her history, all the martyrs and all those who have been witnesses of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Church. This conflict continues, it continues into our own day. And it continues with the Blessed Virgin Mary at our side, because she has entered the lists. She is no pacifist, the Blessed Virgin Mary. "She is powerful," says the Scripture, "as an army in battle array." She is represented crushing the head of Satan. So she is in the struggle. She is on our side to help us.
Now what shall we do, we Catholics of the twentieth century, members of the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Shall we lay down our arms? This is the drama of the Church today. They want us to lay down our arms. They want us to enter into a kind of pacifism which is nothing more nor less than cowardice. In the face of Satan, in the face of the enemy, in the face of all those who seek the destruction of the Church, in the face of those who want to crush all Christians, to finish off Our Lord Jesus Christ here below, we are supposed to lay down our weapons. First of all, the weapon of prayer. We are not supposed to pray any more. The churches will be empty. We will come no more to adore the Blessed Sacrament, no longer pray to the Blessed Virgin. So Satan will be happy, he will have won a great victory, and he will take millions and millions of souls to hell.
There you have it, my dear friends, the great drama which the Church is experiencing today, worse than the attacks of the Moslems in the time of Pope Saint Pius V; worse than Protestantism in the sixteenth century, worse than all heresies and schisms put together.
Today the evil is inside the Church. We must realize that, until the Second Vatican Council, popes, bishops, and priests fought courageously alongside the faithful, leading the faithful in the struggle against Satan and all his works.
Now we are astonished to see that, since the Council, because of two attitudes of those with responsibility in the Church, two attitudes which are contrary to this struggle, which undermine the Church, we are told we have now arrived at a time when we must have peace at any price.
So, vis-à-vis other religions, we have ecumenism. They are saying about all religions which are against the Church: "Now we must have unity, we must lay down our arms, we embrace you, in order to have union." The union of truth with error, the union of shadows with the Light, the union of Satan with God. This is what St. Paul says. How is it possible? It is part of what they call Ostpolitik. The Vatican has changed its policy. From now on we must cooperate with all hostile governments, hostile to the Church, governments which have only one end in view: to destroy Our Lord Jesus Christ in His embers, in His Church. This is their one aim. They use possible means, falsehood and with so much more effectiveness dialogue, if that will serve their purpose. This is the program: peaceful coexistence, detente, dialogue. We have handed over to these governments the poor priests and faithful who were fighting in defense of their faith.
At the present time in Czechoslovakia, in Rumania, there are bishops called Peace Priests, appointed by and answerable to the government, as in the Russian Orthodox Church, totally under the control of the communist government. And these bishops turn good priests out, turn good Catholics out, because they will not obey the communist government, because they want to have their children baptized, because they want their children taught the catechism, because the priests want to go out and visit the sick, to take Holy Communion to them, to teach catechism (secretly, if necessary), to hear confessions in homes, if people have difficulty in getting to church. All this is against the communist government regulations. This is why the bishops persecute these good priests.
And I say it is the same thing with us. I also say that these good priests, these good Catholics, are sacrificed on the altar of Ostpolitik and of dialogue with wicked governments, just as we are sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism, in maintaining our Catholic Faith, which teaches that there is only one Church.
There are not two religions, there is only the religion of God, the religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God. He came to earth to found His religion. There are not two religions, there is only one religion, the Catholic religion, and so, if we believe there is only one religion, we should pray and do penance for the conversion of souls, for their conversion and not to embrace them with all their errors and vices. This is not doing them a favor. It is deceiving them. This has always been the attitude of the Church: to send missionaries all over the world, even if they are martyred, to win souls for Christ and for the Church.
It has never been understood that henceforth there should be no more missionaries. We want to uphold and prolong the Catholic Church. We want to uphold the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to proclaim that the Catholic Church is the true religion and that everyone is called to convert to the Catholic Church. For this we pray, we do penance and we try with all means at our disposal to do good wherever we are, in order to convert souls.
There you have it, my dear friends, the resolution which we should make today, especially to have devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to her Immaculate Heart. With her we will fight, we will continue the combat. We will continue the fight against ourselves, against all that is evil in ourselves, all that is evil in our families, all that is evil in our cities, so that Our Lord Jesus Christ can reign everywhere and always. We will pray to the Good Lord and to the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us to continue the fight. We will not be taken in by this false ecumenism. This false ecumenism has completely transformed our holy liturgy. We reject this transformed liturgy which is supposed to turn us into Protestants, because we do not want to give the Eucharist to Protestants. They are not of our Faith. They cannot receive our Eucharist. We wish to convert them first, convert them to our Faith, and then they will be able to receive our Eucharist joyfully.
There you have, my dear friends, what I wanted to say to you. In a few minutes we shall join, shall we not, with our Lady of Fatima, with all those who have faith in Our Lady, especially to the great and venerated Pope Pius XII, who drew up this consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We shall repeat his very words and put our entire lives and souls under the protection of the Immaculate Heart and pray that the reign of Mary be established over the earth and over souls.
From Fideliter, May/June 1982 as published here.
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Archbishop Lefebvre: 1984 Conference on the 'Poisoned Chalice' of the New Code of Canon Law |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 09:46 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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The poisoned chalice of the New Code of Canon law
Given by Archbishop Lefebvre in Turin, Italy - March 24, 1984
I want to speak to you of a very serious novelty: the New Code of Canon Law. I had not seen any necessity for a change. But if the law changes, the law changes, and we must make use of it, for the Church can ask nothing evil from her faithful.
However, when one reads this new code of Canon Law one discovers an entirely new conception of the Church. It is easy to be aware of, since John Paul II himself describes it in the apostolic constitution which introduces the new Code.
Quote:". . . It follows that which constitutes the fundamental novelty of Vatican Council II, in full continuity with the legislative tradition of the Church (this is to deceive), especially in that which concerns ecclesiology, constitutes also the novelty of the new Code."
Hence the novelty of the conception of the Church according to the Council is equally the novelty of the conception of the new Code of Canon Law.
What is this novelty? It is that there is no longer any difference between the clergy and the laity. There is now just the faithful, nothing else, on account of the "doctrine according to which all the members of the people of God, according to the mode which is proper to each, partake in the triple priestly, prophetic and royal function of Jesus Christ. To this doctrine is likewise attached that which concerns the duties and rights of the faithful and particularly the laity, and finally the Church's involvement in ecumenism!"
This is the definition of the Church (Canon 204):
Quote:"The faithful are those who, inasmuch as they are incorporated in Christ by baptism are constituted as the people of God, and who for this reason, having been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal functions of Christ, are called to exercise the mission that God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world..."
We are all faithful, members of the people of God, and we all therefore have ministries! It is clearly said in the Code: all the faithful have ministries. They therefore all have the responsibility to teach, to sanctify and even to direct.
Let us continue our commentary on this Canon 204:
Quote:"...having been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal function of Christ, they are called to exercise the mission which God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world, according to the juridical condition proper to each one."
Hence everyone without exception, without distinction between clergy and laity, inasmuch as they are the people of God, has the responsibility of this mission entrusted by Jesus Christ properly to the Church. There is no longer any clergy. What, then, happens to the clergy?
It is as if they said that it is no longer parents who have the responsibility to give life to children but the family, or rather all the members of the family: parents and children. This is exactly the same thing as saying today that Bishops, priests and laymen have all responsibility for the mission of the Church. But who gives the graces to become a Catholic? How does one become faithful? No one knows any more who has the responsibility for what. It is consequently easy to understand that this is the ruin of the priesthood and the laicization of the Church. Everything is oriented towards the laymen, and little by little the sacred ministers disappear. The minor orders and the subdiaconate have already disappeared. Now there are married deacons, and little by little laymen take over the ministry of the priests. This is precisely what Luther and the protestants did, laicizing the priesthood. It is consequently very serious.
This is quite openly explained in an article in the Osservatore Romano of March 17, 1984:
Quote:"The role of the laity in the new Code." "The active function that the laity has been called on to exercise since Vatican II by participating in the condition and mission of the entire Church according to their particular vocation is a doctrine which, in the context of the appearance of the concept of the people of God has brought about a reevaluation of the laity, as much in the foundation of the Church as for the active role they are called on to develop in the building up of the Church."
Such is the inspiration of the whole new Code of Canon Law. It is this definition of the Church which is the poison which infects the new laws.
The same can be said for the Liturgy. There is a relationship between this new Code of Canon Law and the entire liturgical reform, as Bugnini said in his book The Fundamental Principles of the Changing of the Liturgy.
Quote:"The path opened by the Council is destined to change radically the traditional liturgical assembly in which, according to a custom dating back many centuries, the liturgical service is almost exclusively accomplished by the clergy. The people assist, but too much as a stranger and a dumb spectator."
What? How can one dare say that the faithful are present at the sacrifice of the Mass as simply dumb spectators so as to change the Liturgy? How must the faithful be active in the sacrifice of the Mass? By the body or spiritually? Obviously spiritually. One can draw a great spiritual profit from assisting at Mass in silence. It is, in effect, a mystery of our Faith. How many have become saints in this silence of the true Mass!
Quote:"A long education will be necessary for the Liturgy to become an action of all the people of God." Without a doubt. Then he adds that he is speaking of "a substantial unity but not a uniformity. You must realize that this is a true break with the past."
This past is the twenty centuries of prayer of the Church.
Bugnini was the key man in the liturgical reform. I went to see Cardinal Cicognani when this reform was published and I said to him: "Your Eminence, I am not in agreement with this change. The Mass no longer has its mystical and divine character." He replied:
Quote:"Excellency, it is like that. Bugnini can enter as he likes into the Pope's office to make him sign what he wants."
This is what happened to the Secretariat of State. This is how all these changes happened. They agreed on it beforehand, and then obtained signatures for some changes, and then others, and then others. I said to Cardinal Gut:
Quote:"Your Eminence, you are responsible for Divine Worship, and you accord permission for the Blessed Sacrament to be received in the hand! They will know that this was published with the agreement of the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship!"
He replied:
Quote:"Excellency, I do not even know if I will be asked for it to be done. You know, it is not I who command. The boss is Bugnini. If the Pope asks me what I think of Communion in the hand, I will cast myself on my knees before him to ask him not to do it."
You see, then, how things happened at Rome: a simple signature on the bottom of a decree and the Church is ruined by numerous sacrileges ... The real presence of Our Lord is ruined, for it is no longer respected. Then, nothing sacred remains, as was seen at the large reunion at which the Pope was present, where the Blessed Sacrament was passed around from hand to hand between thousands of persons. Nobody genuflects anymore before the Blessed Sacrament. How can they still believe that God is present there?
It is this same spirit which inspired the changing of the Canon Law as that which inspired the changes in the Liturgy: it is the people of God, the assembly, which does everything. The same applies to the priest. He is a simple president who has a ministry, as others have a ministry, in the midst of an assembly. Our orientation towards God has likewise disappeared. This comes from the Protestants who say that Eucharistic devotion (for them there is neither Mass nor sacrifice: this would be blasphemy) is simply a movement of God towards man, but not of man towards God to render Him glory, which is nevertheless the first (latreutic) end of the Liturgy. This new state of liturgical mind comes likewise from Vatican II: everything is for man. The bishops and priest are at the service of man and the assembly. But where is God then? In what is His glory sought? What will we do in heaven? For in heaven "all is for the glory of God," which is exactly what we ought to do here on earth. But all that is done away with, and replaced by man. This is truly the ruin of all Catholic thought.
You know that the new Code of Canon Law permits a priest to give Communion to a Protestant. It is what they call eucharistic hospitality. These are Protestants who remain Protestant and do not convert. This is directly opposed to the Faith. For the Sacrament of the Eucharist is precisely the sacrament of the unity of the Faith. To give Communion to a Protestant is to rupture the Faith and its unity.
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Archbishop Lefebvre: 1980 Sermon on the Feast of Our Lady of Compassion |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 09:34 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Sermon of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Given to the Oblates of the SSPX - Feast of Our Lady of Compassion - April 10, 1981
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross
It is written in the Holy Gospel that a sword shall pierce the Heart of the Virgin. This Heart, pierced by a sword, of course, means nothing else than her association with the Passion of her Divine Son. The Gospel also says that the Blessed Virgin Mary was standing beside Our Lord Jesus Christ during His Passion and at the moment of His death: "Stabat Mater iuxta Crucem."
Therefore we must not deny that Divine Providence wanted to associate the Blessed Virgin Mary not only with His birth, to His coming on earth and to His infancy, to His hidden life and to His public life, but above all to His Passion. Indeed, if the most important moment - "the hour" of Our Lord Jesus Christ - was the moment of His death on the cross, the hour of His Passion, that of the Blessed Virgin Mary was that of her Compassion, of her intimate union with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Devotion to the Sorrows of Our Lady
This devotion is very old in the Church. We do not know exactly when the feasts of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady and of the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin began. However, in the Church, some religious societies were founded through the direct intervention of the Virgin Mary herself, in order to meditate on her sorrows and especially on her compassion. The Servites of Mary are a good example, established by the Seven Founders upon a request of the Blessed Virgin Mary herself; they are particularly dedicated to meditation on her sufferings, to union with the Sorrowful Virgin.
Another society dedicated to this contemplation is that of the Passionists of St. Paul of the Cross. The Passionists have had many saints in their congregation. It was a most fervent congregation. One of their saints, St. Gabriel of the Addolorata, took the name of " Addolorata" precisely because he wanted to spend his life meditating on the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To Associate Ourselves with Jesus Suffering
Why this meditation? Why this union with the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Compassion, in her suffering, in her transfixion? In order to associate ourselves more intimately with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Indeed, if there were ever a Heart, which suffered with the Heart of Jesus pierced on the cross, if ever there were a soul whose thoughts were united with those of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, it was the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary! She had never sinned, and like Our Lord, she did not need to make reparation for herself. Yet both wanted to suffer, to suffer horribly, to suffer deeply, to suffer in their bodies.
Two Hearts Burning with Charity
Let us then try to penetrate the sentiments of these two Hearts, the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. It is obvious that both the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary were profoundly motivated by Charity.
Their Hearts were devoured by charity, burning with love of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord, Word of God, one substance with the Holy Ghost, was devoured by the love of the Holy Ghost, by this Holy Spirit who set on fire all His Being. The person of the Word but also His Soul, His Body, His Heart of flesh, were inflamed by the Holy Ghost. The Virgin Mary imitated her Divine Son and she too tried to model her sentiments on those of her Divine Son. She too was filled with the Holy Ghost. This was so for her whole life but without any doubt, in a very particular way during the Passion.
To Restore the Honor of the Father
We must never forget that the first and main goal of these two Hearts inflamed by the Holy Ghost was the love of the Father.
Indeed, love of the Holy Ghost, this "Consuming Fire," leads to the Father. It is none other than the love of God: "God is Charity." Therefore, the Holy Ghost can do nothing other than lead us to God, to lead us to the Father. Thus Jesus was suffering first of all in order to restore the honor of God the Father. The Virgin Mary, too, was united with the sufferings of her Divine Son in order to restore the honor of the Father.
The Father receives infinite glory, really infinite, from His Divine Son. And He also receives the greatest created glory from a privileged creature. This creature was the Blessed Virgin Mary, united with her Divine Son. She was the first to be truly redeemed. She was perfectly redeemed, in the sense that she has not even known sin. It was in consideration of the Incarnation of Our Lord that she was Immaculate in her Conception and thus has never known sin.
At the foot of the Cross, she sang the glory of the Father in suffering; in sorrow she sang the glory of God; she wanted to restore the honor and the glory of God upon earth.
Merciful Love
This love, which devoured both of them, made them full of mercy. Indeed, the immediate consequence of a great love, of a great charity, is mercy. For this love these Hearts possessed wants to be spread about, wants to be communicated to those who do not have it, to all those who are lacking it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing all sinful mankind since Adam and Eve, all men who were to be born in this world - Our Lord Jesus Christ had a clear vision and full knowledge of this by His Divinity because He is the Creator and Redeemer of mankind - He knew all this misery, all these men far from God who don't think of the Father, of their Creator and Redeemer. Our Lord saw all this and His Heart was filled with mercy. This mercy leads to sacrifice. Mercy is a source of sacrifice. It leads all the way to sacrifice because it is ready to give itself totally so that charity be re-established in the hearts of men.
Thus Our Lord suffered; He suffered in His Body - in the Garden of the Agony drops of blood were dripping from His forehead. Our Lord was filled with mercy. And the Blessed Virgin wanted to share the sufferings of Our Lord precisely for the same reason. She too thought of all these souls. Both of them suffered together and wanted to suffer, even unto death, unto martyrdom.
And if Our Lord Jesus Christ truly gave His last breath for the glory of His Father and for the redemption of souls so that the Holy Ghost may inflame all hearts and all souls with the love of the Most Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary did not die herself at that moment, but she offered her life and she suffered martyrdom. She is truly called the Queen of Martyrs. She too gave herself, all her blood, all her life, all that she had and, in particular, her Divine Son. She gave all to the Good Lord for the redemption of souls. Mother of Mercy, Mater Misericordiae. Such are the origins of the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Suffering with Peace and Joy
Far from us to think that in the Passion there is sadness leading to despair and that this sadness would have put Jesus and Mary's souls in a certain kind of despair. No, not at all! Since it was precisely charity which was the origin of these sufferings, charity produced in their Hearts peace and joy: Though it might seem unbelievable to unite passion, suffering and mercy with a profound joy, yet the Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with joy indeed; and so was the Heart of the Virgin Mary, united with that of Our Lord.
They were filled with the joy of the Most Holy Trinity, the joy given by a great Charity; the peace, which Charity produces in souls, is an ineffable peace. Jesus and Mary were not in a torture like many souls who suffer in their bodies, and who have feelings of deep sorrow and despair. No, Jesus and Mary did not suffer in this way. They suffered, but their Hearts were truly in serenity, in peace, which allowed the Blessed Virgin to remain standing at the foot of the Cross. If she had not had this peace, if she had not had this Charity, if she had not had this intimate and profound joy of associating herself with the sufferings of her Divine Son, of associating herself with His Charity, of being filled with the Holy Ghost, she could not have remained standing and the Gospel would not have said “Stabat Mater." The persons who surrounded the Blessed Virgin most likely showed more than the Blessed Virgin their exterior suffering - through tears and exterior feelings. The Virgin remained calm, in peace.
Patroness of the Oblates of the Society of St. Pius X
Here you have your patroness, my most dear Sisters. And you chose to come here to unite yourselves with us, you chose to come here particularly to this house of Econe where almost all the Oblates, have come or with which they are at least all united; you came to associate yourself with the priests, because the priest is another Christ. The priest must associate himself with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ particularly through the Sacrifice that he offers; he must thereby espouse the feelings of the Heart of Jesus, and also the feelings of Mary; he must ask the Virgin to make him understand these feelings in order to feel them more and to espouse them better.
Thus be helpers of the priests, not only helping them with your hands, but with your soul and with your spirit, helping in the Priesthood, in the spirit of sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Cross for the extension of His reign, for the extension of His love.
In this way you will unite yourselves in a very special way with the Blessed Virgin Mary as she was united with her Divine Son, and you will share His sufferings. You shall contribute in a very powerful way to the redemption of souls, according to the measure in which you are able, to the measure, which Divine Providence shall give to you. You will associate yourselves in a more profound way to the priesthood, praying for the priests, for the seminarians whom you serve, that they may become true priests, that they may become truly other Christs, that they may associate themselves in an even more profound and more perfect way to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
You will ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for this grace. Then offer your sufferings, offer your sacrifices for this intention, so that the Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ may be extended.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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Archbishop Lefebvre: 1980 Sermon at the First Solemn Mass of Fr. Alain Lorans |
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 08:05 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Sermon pronounced by His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
at the First Solemn Mass of Father Alain Lorans,
In Honor of Our Lady of Pointet
13 July 1980
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
Dear Father, from now on you are a priest. You no longer face years of formation, but rather a burden of responsibility. The great honor of the priesthood is yours, with the grace of God, with the support of those who love you and of all those who, already in heaven, put their mantle of protection around you so that you may be able to carry out a wonderful apostolate.
As we all know, you have been chosen to lend a helping hand to all those who will come to the Catholic university soon to be opened in Paris, where you will have a special apostolate, marked by a special enthusiasm and a special importance, because this is what Our Lord Himself did. He chose a small group, He formed His Apostles, and with these twelve Apostles He transformed the world. An apostolate based on a chosen few is a very important apostolate. You will have to bring these souls, especially chosen by God, to an understanding of the ideal they are searching for, and to make of it a Christian ideal, so that, whatever the vocation to which they are called, they will fulfill it in a Christian manner, a Catholic manner, in union with Our Lord, according to the teachings of Our Lord, in the light of Our Lord Jesus Christ, because Our Lord came to you too, as to us, when He said to His Apostles and His disciples: “You are the light of the world."
And so, particularly in this task to which you have been assigned, you will be the light of the world. Now what is the light of the world? Where is this light of the world? Our Lord Himself gives the answer: "I am the Light of the world." We don't have to look for it; it is already there. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, Light, that is to say, from God. Could we have a light more clear, more dazzling than one which comes from God Himself, which is God? Our Lord is God, so we will find the light in Him, and He is what you will teach. You will act as St. Paul, who said, "I have wanted to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified." This is what St. Paul said; his entire message is summed up in this – to speak of Christ, Christ Crucified.
Your task will be to show these chosen souls how to know Christ, how to unite themselves with Our Lord, meditating on His words, on His life, on what He is; and in this way they will find the light of their life. What a beautiful apostolate! How I hope these souls entrusted to you may profit from your ministry and give to the world the basic principles it needs, the basic principles of our first catechism, the catechism which summarizes the teachings of the Church, all the teachings of Our Lord. This should be the foundation of the life of every individual, of family life, of social life, political life. We must lay this foundation which is so necessary for people and for families, so that peace and prosperity and the truly Christian life which ours should be, may flourish.
And you will not only be the light of these souls; you will also give them life – the life of Our Lord. Not only His light, but His own life, the supernatural life of grace, grace which you will give them in the sacraments and especially in the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion – sacraments which we need almost every day to sustain us in the spiritual life. You will make them understand that they need these sacraments, this life, this divine life. Today, alas, it is so hard to lift oneself up to these spiritual realities, as we are caught up in the material world, the materialistic world which wants to know only earthly joys and closes its eyes to eternal realities.
It is hard to understand that the supernatural life, the divine life of Our Lord in us, is the one thing necessary. It is what will get us to heaven. We should be already in eternity, at this moment. Our soul is eternal and imperishable and therefore we must bathe our soul in the life of Our Lord, in the supernatural life and make it truly full of eternal life. The day God calls us and tells us that our life here below is over, that life will continue, as it says so well in the Preface of the Requiem Mass, "Life is not taken away but changed.” God does not extinguish our life. It goes on, with a change. It changes, yes, in incidental ways, but it does not end; it goes on, if we have been careful to imbue it with the eternal life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is what you will do; you will build this bridge between the life of God, the life of Our Lord, and these souls who will come to you, searching for true life.
And finally you will set an example. As Our Lord said, you are not only the salt of the earth, you are not only the light of the world, but you act in such a way that the world may give glory to God when they see your works: “…and seeing your good works they will glorify the Father Who is in heaven.”
You will set this example, therefore, and exemplify the virtues of Our Lord by gentleness, goodness and perseverance in the priestly life, in the apostolate. And you will do good for souls, for all who come to you. This should be your ideal.
I am sure you already understand this, and I am sure that you realize that what I have been talking about is nothing more than an extension of your Mass. Live your Mass every day, every second of your life, prolong it through the course of the day, that is, prolong the teaching you give us in the words of the Epistle and Gospel, the words of Our Lord. Prolong this life of sacrifice which you will make present, in a few moments, on the altar, by the presence of Our Lord, who is prolonging His Sacrifice of the Cross and showing us His love. Here it is: you will love souls, you will give yourself to souls, you will sacrifice yourself for souls, for love, for love of God and love of your neighbor. This is the whole Sacrifice of the Mass. You will give yourself to souls as you give Communion. You will give Christ to souls through knowledge of Him, Christ in His life. This is your Holy Mass, this is the Communion you will give, this is the Christ you will give to souls. Thus your whole priestly life is a continuous Mass. You are a priest. You have begun your first Mass. But your Mass must never end. Your whole life now will be a continual Mass. May God give you the grace to live your Mass and encourage all around you to do the same, and to understand that our whole lives should be a Mass, an oblation which is complete and continuous, a continuous sacrifice of ourselves for love of God and love of our neighbor.
This is your ideal, this is what we are going to pray for all together, today, pray for you that this joy of yours, the profound joy of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, may remain in you, that you may continue in this joy, in this spiritual peace which will make you a true priest.
I must not end without putting you under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary was with the Eternal High Priest throughout His life, right up to His complete self-sacrifice on the Cross. She was there. So then, be assured that Mary, Mother of the priest, will be with you too, all the days of your life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Ghost. Amen.
Source
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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