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| A Medieval Hymn of St Bernard |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2023, 09:49 AM - Forum: The Saints
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A Medieval Hymn of St Bernard
NLM | August 20, 2023
Here is a very nice medieval hymn for the feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux, which is used in the Cistercian Divine Office at both Vespers of his feast. According to the Analecta hymnica, the great catalog of medieval liturgical hymns, both the author and the date of composition are unknown, but it appears in several Cistercian sources in the 13th century, and has been in continual use within the order ever since. (It does not seem that any of the great translators like Neale or Caswell ever put their pens to this, so we must be content with my poor English prose translation.) This recording from the abbey of Marienstatt in Germany also includes the versicle that follows the hymn, “Ora pro nobis, sancte Bernarde”, in a more solemn tone which is different from the Roman one.
Bernardus Doctor inclytus,
Caelos conscendit hodie,
Quem attraxit divinitus
Splendor paternae gloriae.
Bernard, the renowned doctor
ascends the heavens today
Whom the splendor of the Father’s
glory drew from on high.
Exsultet caelum laudibus
De Bernardi consortio,
Quem conjungis caelestibus,
Jesu, nostra redemptio.
Let heaven exult in praises
for Bernard’s company,
Whom You join to the citizens
of heaven, Jesus, our redemption.
Rufum dorso per catulum
Praefigurasti puerum
Fore Doctorem sedulum,
Conditor alme siderum.
By the figure of a dog with a red
back, you showed that the boy
would be a zealous teacher,
O maker of the stars.
Nascentis ei claruit
Clara Christi nativitas,
Hoc a te donum habuit,
O lux, beata Trinitas.
For him shined most brightly
The glorious birth of Christ;
This gift he had from you,
o light, o blessed Trinity.
Arcana sacrae paginae
Declarat, et mysterium
Quod effecit in Virgine
Deus, creator omnium.
He set forth the mysteries
of the holy book, which God, the
creator of all things, wrought
in the Virgin.
Rore perfusum gratiae
Monstrat dulcor eloquii;
Per te fons sapientiae,
Summi largitor praemii.
The sweetness of his speech
showed him to be filled with grace,
though Thee, o font of wisdom,
giver of the highest reward.
Detentos a daemonibus
Sanat, morbos languentium
Curat, confert doloribus
Magnum salutis gaudium.
He heals those held by devils,
he cures the ailments of the sick,
and gives the great joy of salvation
to their griefs.
Vita vivit feliciter
Cum Maria Christifera
Cum qua degustat dulciter
Aeterna Christi munera.
Happily he lives (eternal) life
with Mary, the bearer of Christ,
with whom he sweetly tastes
the eternal gifts of Christ.
Summae Deus potentiae,
Tibi sit laus et gloria:
Da post cursum miseriae
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.
God of highest power,
to thee be praise and glory:
after the way of wretchedness
give us blessed joys. Amen.
There are some interesting things to note. The hymn is an acrostic, the first letters of each stanza spelling his name BERNARDVS. The meter is the iambic dimeter, that of the original hymns of St Ambrose and other early Christian poets, short and long syllables alternating four times for a total of eight. (Substitutions are very common, especially since vowel quantities were already weakened in the 5th century, and hardly perceived as such in the High Middle Ages.) As such, it could in theory be sung in any one of a great many melodies, and other common hymns in this meter were often sung with different music from one church to another. However, it was an essential characteristic of the medieval Cistercians to keep a strict uniformity of observance in all their houses, and it is almost certain that they would have all used the same music.
The words of the third stanza “By the figure of a dog with a red back” refer to an episode recorded in the life of St Bernard. When his mother Aleth was pregnant with him (the third of her seven children, of whom four others are Blesseds), she dreamt that she was carrying a barking white dog with some red hair on its back. A religious man whom she consulted explained this dream to mean that the child she bore would be like the dogs mentioned in Psalm 67, “The tongues of your dogs lick the blood of their enemies”, guarding the house of God against its enemies, a preacher, and a healer of souls. This latter idea derives from St Gregory the Great’s symbolic interpretation of the dogs that licked the sores of Lazarus (hom. 40 in Evang.), in a passage which is read in the Roman Breviary on Thursday of the second week of Lent. “A dog’s tongue heals the sore which it licks; and so do holy teachers, when they instruct is in the confession of our sins, touch the sores of our souls by their tongues (i.e. their speech).” The following stanza refers to a vision of the Child Jesus which Bernard himself had when he was a boy, and fell asleep while waiting with his family to go out to Matins and the Midnight Mass of Christmas.
Christ Embracing St Bernard, ca. 1625, by Francisco Riablta (1565-1628). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.
Medieval hymnographers loved the trick performed by the author of this hymn, in which the last line of each stanza is the title (i.e. first line) of another hymn. (A similarly constructed piece is sung in the proper Office of St Anthony the Abbot.)
Splendor paternae gloriae – an original hymn of St Ambrose himself, which the
Cistercians sing at Sunday Lauds, the Roman Office at Monday Lauds.
Jesu, nostra redemptio – from the feast of the Ascension, pre-Urban VIII
Conditor alme siderum – from Vespers of Advent, pre-Urban VIII
O lux, beata Trinitas – Saturday Vespers, pre-Urban VIII
Deus, creator omnium – the Ambrosian hymn for Sunday Vespers
Summi largitor praemii – a hymn for Lent sung by the Cistercians at Matins;
also used at Sarum, but not in the Roman Office.
Magnum salutis gaudium – processional hymn for Palm Sunday
Aeterna Christi munera – Matins hymn of the Apostles.
Beata nobis gaudia – Lauds hymn of Pentecost.
In addition, the first line of the second stanza, “Exsultet caelum laudibus”, is the title of the pre-Urban VIII version of the Vespers hymn of the Apostles. (Like all the religious orders that retained their own Uses of the Divine Office, the Cistercians never adopted Pope Urban VIII’s reform of the hymns.)
The difficulty of this trick is to integrate the titles into the words of a new composition in a new sense. Some of the expressions in the vocative case, such as “Jesu, nostra redemptio,” could be interchanged with any of the others, (I do not say this as a critique of the author; medievals valued originality far less than we do,) but the last three are particularly well chosen.
The Cistercians were founded at the very end of the 11th century as “strict constructionalists” of the original Rule of St Benedict, which they felt had been unhappily compromised by later developments and customs that emerged within the Cluniac monastic empire. The term which St Benedict uses for “hymn” in the Rule (capp. 9, 12, 13 and 17) is “ambrosianum”, since it was St Ambrose who first introduced the use of hymns into the West. This led the Cistercians to the believe that St Benedict’s original intention was not merely that monks should sing “a hymn” at certain Hours, but that they should use the specific corpus of hymns used by Ambrose himself. This corpus would be found, as they thought, in the Ambrosian Divine Office; they therefore sent people to Milan to copy out the Ambrosian hymnal then in use, and bring it back to Citeaux. It was incorporated into their Office to the despite of many hymns which at that point had long been in general use within the broad liturgical family of the Roman Rite. This was very controversial, even for an age in which there was a great deal of liturgical variation, and the Order was eventually pressured into adopting the traditional corpus of hymns, with some variations. This is why some of the original Ambrosian hymns such as “Splendor paternae gloriae” are given a more prominent place within the Cistercian Office than they were elsewhere.
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| Prayer to the Most Holy Mary to Obtain the Pardon of Sins |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2023, 08:30 AM - Forum: In Honor of Our Lady
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Taken from The Glories Of Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori
Prayer to the Most Holy Mary to Obtain the Pardon of Sins
BEHOLD, oh mother of God, at thy feet a miserable sinner, the slave of hell, who has recourse to thee, and trusts in thee. I do not even merit that thou shouldst look upon me, but I know that having seen thy Son die to save sinners, thou hast the greatest desire to aid them.
Oh mother of mercy, look on my miseries, and have pity on me. I hear thee called by all: The refuge of sinners, the hope of the desperate, the help of the abandoned. Then thou art my refuge, my hope, my help. Thou must save me by thy intercession. Succor me for the love of Jesus Christ. Give thy hand to a poor fallen sinner who recommends himself to thee. I know that thou dost find consolation in helping the sinner when thou canst; help me then, for thou canst help me. I, by my sins have lost the grace of God and my own soul, now I place myself in thy hands; tell me what I must do to return to the favor of my Lord, for I will do it, without delay. He sends me to thee, that thou mayest succor me, and he wishes me to have recourse to thy mercy, that not only the merits of thy Son, but also thy prayers may aid in my salvation.
To thee then I have recourse; thou who dost pray for so many others, pray also to Jesus for me. Ask him to pardon me, and he will pardon me; tell him that thon dost desire my salvation, and he will save me. Make known the good that thou canst do to those who confide in thee. Amen; thus I hope, thus may it be.
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| St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Twelfth Week after Pentecost |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-20-2023, 07:39 AM - Forum: Pentecost
- Replies (7)
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It would seem that, on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven, the holy Church should invite us to mourn rather than rejoice, since our dear Mother has quitted this world and left us deprived of her sweet presence. But no: the holy Church rightly invites us to rejoice, for Mary is going to possess a kingdom and to be crowned Queen of Heaven. Let us therefore rejoice in the glorious triumph of our Mother.
I.
It would seem that on the day of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven the holy Church should rather invite us to mourn than to rejoice, since our sweet Mother has quitted this world and left us deprived of her sweet presence. St. Bernard says "It seems that we should rather weep than rejoice." But no; the holy Church invites us to rejoice: "Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a Festival in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary." And justly so; for, if we love our Mother, we ought to congratulate ourselves more upon her glory than on our own personal happiness. What son does not rejoice, though on account of it he has to be separated from his mother, if he knows that she is going to take possession of a kingdom? Mary is to be crowned Queen of Heaven; and shall we not keep it a festival and rejoice if we truly love her? Let us rejoice, then; let us all rejoice! And that we may rejoice, and be consoled the more by her exaltation, let us consider how glorious was the triumph of Mary when she ascended to Heaven.
After Jesus Christ our Saviour had completed, by His death, the work of Redemption, the Angels ardently desired to possess Him in their heavenly country; hence they were continually supplicating Him in the words of David: Arise, O Lord, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark which thou hast sanctified (Ps. cxxxi. 8). Come, O Lord, come quickly, now that Thou hast redeemed men; come to Thy kingdom and dwell with us, and bring with Thee the living ark of Thy sanctification, Thy Mother, who was the ark Thou didst sanctify by dwelling in her womb. Precisely thus does St. Bernardine make the Angels say: "Let Mary, Thy most holy Mother, sanctified by Thy conception, also ascend." Our Lord was at last pleased to satisfy the desire of these heavenly citizens by calling Mary to Paradise. But if it was His will that the ark of the old dispensation should be brought with great pomp into the city of David -- And David and all the house of Israel brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting, and with sound of trumpet (2 Kings vi. 15) -- with how much greater and more glorious pomp did He ordain that His Mother should enter Heaven!
II.
The Prophet Elias was carried to Heaven in a fiery chariot, which, according to interpreters, was no other than a group of Angels who bore him off from the earth. "But to conduct thee to Heaven, O Mother of God," says the Abbot Rupert, "a fiery chariot was not enough; the whole court of Heaven, headed by its King thy Son, went forth to meet and accompany thee."
St. Bernardine of Sienna says, that "Jesus," to honour the triumph of His most sweet Mother, "went forth in His glory to meet and accompany her." St. Anselm also says, that "it was precisely for this purpose that the Redeemer was pleased to ascend to Heaven before His Mother; that is, He did so, not only to prepare a throne for her in that kingdom, but also that He might Himself accompany her with all the blessed Spirits, and thus render her entry into Heaven more glorious, and such as became one who was His Mother." St. Peter Damian, contemplating the splendour of this Assumption of Mary into Heaven, says that "we shall find it more glorious than the Ascension of Jesus Christ; for to meet the Redeemer, Angels only went forth; but when the Blessed Virgin was assumed to glory, she was met and accompanied by the Lord of glory Himself, and by the whole blessed company of Saints and Angels." For this reason the Abbot Guerric supposes the Divine Word thus speaking: "To honour the Father, I descended from Heaven; to honour My Mother, I reascended there": that thus I might be enabled to go forth to meet her, and myself accompany her to Paradise.
Spiritual Reading
TO THEE DO WE SIGH, MOURNING AND WEEPING, IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS!
1.-THE NECESSITY OF MARY'S INTERCESSION FOR OUR SALVATION.
That it is not only lawful but useful to invoke and pray to the Saints, and more especially to the Queen of Saints, the most holy and ever blessed Virgin Mary, in order that they may obtain us Divine grace, is an Article of Faith, and has been defined by General Councils, against heretics who condemned it as injurious to Jesus Christ, Who is our only Mediator. But if a Jeremias after his death prayed for Jerusalem (2 Mach. xv. 14); if the Ancients of the Apocalypse presented the prayers of the Saints to God (Apoc. v. 8); if a St. Peter promises his disciples that after his death He will be mindful of them (2 Pet. i. 15); if a holy Stephen prays for his persecutors (Acts vii. 59); if a St. Paul prays for his companions (Acts xxvii. 24; Eph. ii. 16; Phil. i. 4; Col. i. 3); if, in fine, the Saints can pray for us, why cannot we beseech the Saints to intercede for us? St. Paul recommends himself to the prayers of his disciples: Brethren, pray for us (1 Thess. v. 25). St. James exhorts us to pray one for another: Pray one for another, that you may be saved (James v. 16). Then we can do the same.
No one denies that Jesus Christ is our only Mediator of justice, and that He by His merits has obtained our reconciliation with God. But, on the other hand, it is impious to assert that God is not pleased to grant graces at the intercession of His Saints, and more especially of Mary, His Mother, whom Jesus desires so much to see loved and honoured by all. Who can pretend that the honour bestowed on a mother does not redound to the honour of the son? The glory of children are their fathers (Prov. xvii. 6). Whence St. Bernard says: "Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on the Mother; for the more she is honoured, the greater is the glory of her Son." "There can be no doubt," says the Saint, "that whatever we say in praise of the Mother is equally in praise of the Son." And St. Ildephonsus also says: "That which is given to the Mother redounds to the Son; the honour given to the Queen is honour bestowed on the King." There can be no doubt that by the merits of Jesus, Mary was made the mediatress of our salvation; not indeed a mediatress of justice, but of grace and intercession; as St. Bonaventure expressly calls her, "Mary, the most faithful mediatress of our salvation." And St. Laurence Justinian asks -- "How can she be otherwise than full of grace, who has been made the ladder to Paradise, the gate of Heaven, the most true mediatress between God and man?"
Hence the learned Suarez justly remarks that if we implore our Blessed Lady to obtain us a favour, it is not because we distrust the Divine mercy, but rather that we fear our own unworthiness and the absence of proper dispositions; and we recommend ourselves to Mary, that her dignity may supply for our lowliness. He says that we apply to Mary "in order that the dignity of the intercessor may supply for our misery. Hence, to invoke the aid of the most Blessed Virgin is not diffidence in the Divine mercy, but dread of our own unworthiness."
That it is most useful and holy to have recourse to the intercession of Mary can only be doubted by those who have not the Faith. But that which we intend to prove here is that the intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation; we say necessary -- not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all the graces He dispenses should pass through the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard, and which we may now with safety call the general opinion of Theologians and learned men. The author of the Reign of Mary positively asserts that such is the case. It is maintained by Vega, Mendoza, Paciucchelli, Segneri, Poire, Crasset, and by innumerable other learned authors. Even Father Natalis Alexander, who always uses so much reserve in his propositions, even he says that it is the will of God that we should expect all graces through the intercession of Mary. I will give his own words: "God wills that we should obtain all good things that we hope for from Him through the powerful intercession of the Virgin Mother, and we shall obtain them whenever (as we are in duty bound) we invoke her." In confirmation of this, he quotes the following celebrated passage of St. Bernard: "Such is God's will, that we should have all through Mary." Father Contenson is also of the same opinion; for, explaining the words addressed by our Lord on the Cross to St. John: Behold thy Mother! (Jo. xix. 27) he says: It is the same thing as if Jesus had said: As no one can be saved except through the merits of My sufferings and death, so no one will be a partaker of the Blood then shed otherwise than through the prayer of My Mother. He alone is a son of My sorrows who has Mary for his Mother. My Wounds are ever-flowing fountains of grace; but their streams will reach no one but by the channel of Mary. In vain will he invoke Me as a Father who has not venerated Mary as a Mother. And thou, My disciple John, if thou lovest Me, love her; for thou wilt be beloved by Me in proportion to thy love for her.
Evening Meditation
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
I.
Jesus upon the Cross was a spectacle which filled Heaven and earth with amazement -- the sight of an Almighty God, the Lord of all, dying upon an infamous gibbet, condemned as a malefactor between two thieves. It was a spectacle of justice -- the Eternal Father, in order that His justice might be satisfied, punishing the sins of men in the person of His only-begotten Son Who was loved by Him as Himself. It was a spectacle of mercy, when His innocent Son died a death so shameful and so bitter, in order to save His creatures from the punishment that was due to them. Especially was it a display of love, in a God offering His life to redeem from death His slaves and enemies!
It is this spectacle which ever was, and ever will be, the dearest object of the contemplation of the Saints, who have counted it little to strip themselves of all earthly pleasures and goods, and to embrace with desire and joy both pain and death, in order to make some return of gratitude to a God Who died for love of them.
Comforted by the sight of Jesus derided upon the Cross, the Saints have loved contempt more than worldly people have loved the honours of the world. At the sight of Jesus naked and dying upon the Cross, they have sought to abandon all the good things of this earth. At the sight of Him all wounded upon the Cross, while the blood flowed forth from all His limbs, they have learnt to abhor sensual pleasures, and have sought to afflict their flesh as much as they could, in order to accompany with their own sufferings the sufferings of the Crucified. At the sight of the obedience and conformity of will practised by Jesus Christ to the will of His Father, they laboured to conquer all those appetites which were not conformed to the Divine pleasure; while many, though occupied in works of piety, yet, knowing that to be deprived of their own will was their most welcome sacrifice to the Heart of God, entered into some Religious Order, to lead a life of obedience, and subject their own will to that of others. At the sight of the patience of Jesus Christ, in being willing to suffer so many pains and insults for the love of us, they received with satisfaction and joy injuries, infirmities, persecutions, and the torments of tyrants. At the sight of the love Jesus Christ has shown to us in sacrificing to God His life upon the Cross for us, they sacrificed to Jesus Christ all they possessed, -- their property, their pleasures, their honours, and their life.
II.
How is it that so many Christians, although they know by Faith that Jesus Christ died for love of them, instead of devoting themselves wholly to love and serve Him, give themselves up to offending and despising Him for the sake of brief and miserable pleasures? Whence comes this ingratitude? It comes from forgetfulness of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. And, O my God, what will be their remorse and shame at the Day of Judgment, when the Lord shall reproach them with all that He has done and suffered for them?
Let us, then, never cease, O devout souls, to keep before our eyes Jesus crucified, and dying in the midst of torments and insults through love of us. From the Passion of Jesus Christ all the Saints have drawn those flames of love which made them forget all the good things of this world, and even their own selves, to give themselves up wholly to love and please this Divine Saviour, Who has so loved men that it seems as if He could not have done more in order to be loved by them. In a word, the Cross, that is, the Passion of Jesus Christ, is that which will gain for us the victory over all our passions, and over all the temptations that hell will hold out to us, in order to separate us from God. The Cross is the road and ladder by which we mount to Heaven. Happy he who embraces it during his life, and does not put it off till the hour of death. He that dies embracing the Cross has that sure pledge of eternal life which is promised to all those who follow Jesus Christ.
O my crucified Jesus, to make Thyself loved by men Thou hast spared nothing; Thou hast even given Thy life in a most painful death; how, then, can men who love their kindred, their friends, and even animals from whom they receive any token of affection, be so ungrateful to Thee as to despise Thy grace and Thy love, for the sake of miserable and vain delights! Oh, wretched me, I am one of those ungrateful beings who, for things of no worth, have renounced Thy friendship, and have turned my back upon Thee. I have deserved that Thou shouldst drive me from Thy face, as I have often banished Thee from my heart. But I know that Thou dost not cease to ask my heart of me: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (Deut. vi. 5). Yea, O my Jesus, as Thou desirest that I should love Thee and offerest me pardon, I renounce all creatures, and henceforth I desire to love Thee alone, my Creator and my Redeemer. Thou dost deserve to be the only object of my soul's love.
O Mary, Mother of God, refuge of sinners, pray for me; obtain for me the grace to love God, and I ask for nothing more.
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| Abandonment to Divine Providence |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-19-2023, 07:45 AM - Forum: Resources Online
- Replies (23)
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
by Reverend Jean-Pierre de Caussade S.J.
![[Image: 88118ae8aa02ff576d8907fd4d25fd2e.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/88/11/8a/88118ae8aa02ff576d8907fd4d25fd2e.jpg)
Translated and Edited by Reverend J. Ramiere, S.J.
1940 by Bruce Pub. Co., Milwaukee, US.
NIHIL OBSTAT: Anscar Vonier, O.S.B., Abbot; Dom Dunstan, O.S.B.
IMPRIMATUR: Joannes Ep. Plym.
Translated and Edited by the Reverend J. Ramiere, S.J.
Introduction by Dom Arnold, O.S.B.
Dedicated to St Joseph: “The one chosen shadow of God upon earth.”–Father Faber.
“Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea Father, for so hath it seemed good in thy sight:”—Matt. xi, 25, 26.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PUBLISHER
INTRODUCTION
BOOK I
BOOK II
SECOND PART
FIRST BOOK
SECOND BOOK
THIRD BOOK
FOURTH BOOK
FIFTH BOOK
SIXTH BOOK
SEVENTH BOOK
INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
The Rev. Jean Pierre de Caussade was one of the most remarkable spiritual writers of the Society of Jesus in France in the 18th Century. His death took place at Toulouse in 1751. His works have gone through many editions and have been republished, and translated into several foreign languages.
The present book gives an English translation of the tenth French Edition of Fr. de Caussade’s “Abandon ‘a la Providence Divine,” edited, to the great benefit of many souls, by Fr. H. Ramiere, S. J.
A portion of this remarkable work in English has already appeared in America, but many readers, to whom this precious little book has become a favourite, will welcome a complete translation, especially as what has already appeared in the English version may be considered as merely the theoretical part, whilst the “Letters of Direction” which form the greater portion of the present work give the practical part. They answer objections, solve difficulties, and give practical advice. The book thus gains considerably in value and utility.
It is divided into two unequal parts, the first containing a treatise on total abandonment to Divine Providence, and the second, letters of direction for persons leading a spiritual life.
The “Treatise” comprises two different aspects of Abandonment to Divine Providence; one as a virtue, common and necessary to all Christians, the other as a state, proper to souls who have made a special practice of abandonment to the holy will of God.
The “Letters of Direction,” now for the first time translated into English, were addressed to Nuns of the Visitation at Nancy. Fr. de Caussade had been stationed in this town for some time, and when later he was called away, his letters to the Nuns carried on the powerful influence he had exercised over them. They were treasured and preserved with religious care, and thus have come down to our own days. Fr. de Ramiere, S. J., collected these letters, and edited them with painstaking labour.
These “Spiritual Letters” are completely suited to the present time; Catholic spiritual life being ever the same, there is nothing in them which might require alteration or revision. Directors of souls will find them an answer to the daily and constantly recurring difficulties and trials of the interior life, from the initial difficulties of beginners to the hidden trials of souls of great sanctity. Whilst the “Letters,” from the fact that they were originally written for the direction of Nuns, are chiefly intended for Religious, yet earnest people living in the world will derive from their perusal a most efficacious means for the attainment of resignation and peace in the midst of the worries and anxieties of life.
The leading idea in the letters of Fr. de Caussade is abandonment, complete and absolute, to Divine Providence. This was the mainspring of his own spiritual life, and the key-note of his direction of souls. He promises peace and holiness to every soul, however simple, that follows his counsel, if it has an upright intention, and a good will.
The following extract is from Fr. H. Ramiere’s preface to the Letters:
“That which renders Dr. de Caussade’s letters especially valuable, and makes them useful in an eminently practical manner, is the circumstance that they are, for the most part, addressed to persons suffering under different kinds of darkness, desolation and trials; in a word, to those whom God designs for a high degree of sanctity. To all the doubts submitted to him, and to all the sufferings exposed to him by his correspondents, the holy Director applied but one and the same solution and remedy–abandonment; but, with perfect tact he adapts this practice to the particular nature of the trial, and proportions its exercise to the degree of perfection to which each soul has attained. The same method of direction he applies in a hundred different ways, and therefore this correspondence can be justly compared to a ladder by which the soul ascends by successive degrees from a still very imperfect state, to one of the most intimate union with God, and to the most heroic abandonment. To whatever degree a soul has attained we can safely promise that it will find in these letters suitable advice and a solution of the difficulties by which it is beset. Even those who look upon the spiritual life as an inextricable labyrinth will receive from the hands of Fr. de Caussade the clue which will enable them to escape from the darkness that envelopes them, and to enjoy peace in the midst of their uneasiness. May it prove this to all those poor souls who are troubled, and who tremble for fear where there is nothing to fear.’ (Ps. 13). May this book realise the message of the Angels, and bring peace to souls of a good will.”
The “Abandonment to Divine Providence” of Fr. de Caussade is as far removed from the false inactivity of the Quietists, as true Christian resignation is distinct from the fatalism of Mohammedans. It is a trusting, childlike, peaceful abandonment to the guidance of grace, and of the Holy Spirit: an unquestioning and undoubting submission to the holy will of God in all things that may befall us, be they due to the action of man, or to the direct permission of God. To Fr. de Caussade, abandonment to God, the “Ita Pater” of our Divine Lord, the “Fiat” of our Blessed Lady, is the shortest, surest, and easiest way to holiness and peace. Fr. de Caussade’s work must be read with a certain amount of discretion, as naturally every advice he gives does not apply to all readers indiscriminately. Some of his counsels may be appropriate for beginners; others for souls of a more advanced degree of spirituality. No one, however, can fail to recognise in his writings the sure tone of a “Master,” who has united practical to theoretical knowledge of his subject.
Every page is redolent with the unction of the Spirit of God, and readers will find in his doctrine a heavenly manna, a food of unfailing strength for their souls. The present work has been carefully translated into readable English, and more regard has been paid to the meaning than to the literal exactness of the sentences. The elevated, noble style of the author has been preserved throughout. It is a real contribution to the spiritual literature of England.
I am aware that our English word “Abandonment” does not adequately render the meaning of the French word “Abandon,” but we have no better expression. The translation has been undertaken solely for the purpose of helping souls to follow the hidden paths of the spiritual life, and to surrender themselves entirely to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Dom Arnold, O.S.B., Buckfast Abbey.
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| YouTube Greatly Expands Its Medical “Misinformation” Policies |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-17-2023, 06:30 AM - Forum: Health
- Replies (1)
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YouTube Greatly Expands Its Medical “Misinformation” Policies
New rules, largely determined by the WHO.
![[Image: ytc-rules.jpg]](https://reclaimthenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ytc-rules.jpg)
reclaimthenet.org | August 16, 2023
YouTube, the titan of online video content, has expanded its Covid misinformation policy to cover what it calls all forms of medical misinformation.
YouTube has also declared its plan to delist videos promoting “cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective,” effectively disallowing content creators from encouraging natural cures.
The platform pledges to implement its medical misinformation policies when a topic exhibits high public health risks, is supposedly prone to misinformation, and when official guidance from health authorities is accessible to the public.
The changes also see YouTube recommitting to groups such as the WHO and other health bodies on what information is deemed to be acceptable for people to talk about on the platform – despite these institutions having recently received major blows to their credibility.
According to the policy update, YouTube will no longer host content that:
- Misinforms about prevention techniques or contradicts current health authority guidelines, including inaccuracies regarding the safety or efficacy of approved vaccines.
- Promotes treatments that local health bodies or the WHO have neither approved nor recognized as safe and effective. Moreover, it bans content that advocates for harmful substances or practices that have been scientifically proven to be detrimental.
- Denies the existence of specific health conditions.
As stated in its blog post, YouTube intends to punish content promoting not only what it believes to be overtly harmful treatments but also unproven ones that are audaciously offered as replacements for recognized alternatives.
For instance, influencers suggesting vitamin C supplements or garlic for cancer may have their content removed, the post states.
This marks a substantial escalation in the Google-owned platform’s ongoing crusade against what it believes to be the dissemination of medical misinformation, heavily catalyzed by the controversial experience of battling narratives about themes such as COVID-19 and vaccines, something YouTube was heavily criticized for as truthful content ended up being censored on the platform.
YouTube had targeted vaccine “misinformation,” such as demonetizing and deleting vaccine skepticism, thereby refining their approach in response to the global pandemic situation.
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| Cardinal Cupich to appear at ecumenical conference coordinated by Wiccan priestess |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-17-2023, 06:23 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Cardinal Cupich to appear at ecumenical conference coordinated by Wiccan priestess
The Parliament of the World’s Religions conference, first held in 1893, was condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1895, at which time he also forbade Catholics from attending any of the organization's future events.
![[Image: Cardinal_Blase_Cupich_-_credit_Diane_Mon...10x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Cardinal_Blase_Cupich_-_credit_Diane_Montagna-810x500.jpg)
Cardinal Blase Cupich at 2018 Vatican Synod briefing
Diane Montagna/LifeSiteNews
Aug 16, 2023
(LifeSiteNews) — Left-wing Cardinal Blasé Cupich is set to appear at a scandalous ecumenical event in Chicago this week. The conference is coordinated by a Wiccan priestess and features more than 6,000 representatives of various forms of pagan and non-Catholic sects.
The 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions is being held at McCormack Place convention center from Tuesday, August 14 until Friday, August 18. Its theme is “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom and Human Rights.”
Cupich will appear on a “luminary” panel alongside Presbyterian minister Jennifer Butler and Rashad Hussain, who serves in Joe Biden’s State Department and who previously worked in the Obama administration.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as well as dissident Catholic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi are also scheduled to address the conference.
The event’s first meeting was held in 1893, also in Chicago. Cardinal John Gibbons of Baltimore controversially attended that gathering along with several other liberal U.S. clergy who later came to be associated with what then-Pope Leo XIII called “the heresy of Americanism.”
In 1895, two years after conservatives voiced their opposition to the meeting, Leo condemned the conference and forbade Catholics from attending future ones out of fear it would give the impression the Church viewed other religions to be true or good in themselves.
Phyllis Curott serves as the program chair for this year’s event. A self-described “Elder Witch” and author, Curott took a not so veiled swipe at former President Donald Trump, as well as at other politicians who refuse to go along with the Deep State agenda.
“This existential, expanding and global scourge [of authoritarianism] is manifesting in tyrants and strongmen who commit crimes against humanity, suppress essential freedoms, subvert democracies and murder the truth with lies,” she said at a press conference ahead of the gathering.
“They are fostering hate and the resurgence of antisemitism and Islamophobia, misogyny and racism. They are attempting to misappropriate religion to justify the unjustifiable,” she added.
On her YouTube Channel, Currot has posted videos that explain her love for Tarot cards and that show viewers how to cast spells.
In an article posted on the Chicago Archdiocese’s website, Cupich said that this year’s gathering is an opportunity for Catholics to “live out the Holy Father’s teaching that a core part of our identity as Catholics involves building friendship between members of different religious tradition.”
Social justice workshops are being held at the conference
On Tuesday, August 15, a “climate repentance ceremony” was conducted at the meeting.
Also on Tuesday, Yael Eisenstat, vice president of the left-wing Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Technology & Society, called for stricter policing of free speech on social media.
We need an “inclusive online” environment that will “amplify women and underrepresented voices,” she demanded
So-called Dharma Masters from the New York-based Tzu Chi Buddhist Center participated in the conference’s opening ceremonies while a “Parade of Faiths” was held in downtown Chicago to kick off the gathering on Tuesday.
The World Parliament of Religions is a global non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information. Its board of trustees is composed of people of all religious backgrounds. It acts, more or less, as the spiritual arm of the United Nations in that its primary purpose is to promote the green agenda, wokeism, and other liberal policies.
The last time the Parliament of the World’s Religions met in Chicago was in 1993. Then-Chicago Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, also a notorious liberal like Cupich, spoke at the event as well.
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| Faithful Catholics who disrupted ‘LGBT Mass’ at World Youth Day could face one year in jail |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-17-2023, 06:15 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Faithful Catholics who disrupted ‘LGBT Mass’ at World Youth Day could face one year in jail
‘I just want people to fight for Christ,’ Rafael da Silva, who organized the protest, told LifeSiteNews.
![[Image: Igreja_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_Encarnacao_Am...10x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Igreja_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_Encarnacao_Ameixoeira_04-810x500.jpg)
Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation
Wikimedia Commons
Aug 16, 2023
(LifeSiteNews) — A group of Catholics who protested an “LGBT Mass” during World Youth Day in Lisbon are facing up to one year in jail for their actions.
Twelve traditional Catholics held a reparation prayer in the Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation on August 3 in protest of a heterodox “LGBT Mass” taking place in the Catholic church. Police removed the group, and its members now face up to one year in prison for disrupting an act of worship.
Rafael da Silva, the protest organizer, confirmed to LifeSiteNews that he and his 11 companions are being criminally charged for their actions.
“We are facing a criminal investigation,” da Silva told LifeSiteNews. “We are being accused of disrupting a cult action.”
He said that they were unaware that their protest would constitute a crime.
Da Silva stated that some media reports wrongly claimed that the group “invaded” the church during the Mass. However, his group had already been inside the Church for a while before the service started. He recalled that when Fr. James Alison, an openly homosexual priest, entered the church, they “started praying the Rosary in Latin.”
Da Silva told LifeSiteNews that the police and the Portuguese secret service are now tracking their “phone, messages, and activities.” However, he currently does not believe that they will be put in jail. He instead thinks that the police are just trying to scare people to “stop the movement from expanding” and that they will end up with a fine at most.
Da Silva said that he and the other 11 Catholics involved in the protest are not too bothered by the criminal charges at the moment and that they are just “living life normally.”
The “LGBT Mass” held on August 3 was part of the series of heterodox events at World Youth Day organized by the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics and a local Portuguese LGBT group.
Fr. Alison, one of the “celebrants” at the event, has lobbied the Vatican for many years to be relieved of his clerical celibacy, arguing that he joined the priesthood based on a false acceptance of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
The prominently pro-homosexual priest received a letter from the Congregation for Clergy around 2010 in which he was informed of his eventual laicization after refusing to cooperate in previous attempts to laicize him.
Angered by this decision, he wrote to Pope Francis, requesting to ignore the Congregation’s decision. Francis subsequently called Alison, appearing to give his approval to the homosexual priest, saying, “I want you to walk with deep interior freedom, following the Spirit of Jesus. And I give you the power of the keys. Do you understand? I give you the power of the keys.”
READ: Openly gay priest claims Pope Francis affirmed his homosexuality in private phone call
Pro-LGBT priests ‘do not represent the Catholic faith’
When asked about his motivation to organize the protest, da Silva said, “I think they just crossed a line” by celebrating a “blasphemous Mass.”
Da Silva recalled that he was filled with “holy wrath” when he heard about the plans for the heterodox Mass in the news and that he felt like it was his “duty as a Catholic to do something.”
He told LifeSiteNews that the Catholics who attended the “LGBT Mass” “are not enemies; they are being used by the enemies to push an agenda that is anti-Christ.”
While he did not blame the attendees of the heterodox event, da Silva scolded the priests who celebrated the “LGBT Mass,” stating that “they hate Jesus Christ, they hate the Catholic Church.”
“They do not represent Jesus Christ; they do not represent the Catholic faith,” he continued.
Da Silva said his message to the self-proclaimed Catholics who are promoting heterodoxy and organizing events like this “LGBT Mass” is: “We’re coming, we are the faithful, and just like in the Arian crisis, we will restore the faith, and we will get our churches back because people deserve the truth, people deserve Catholicism, not this catastrophic new religion founded in Vatican II.”
“They forgot about real sins; they forgot about the ten commandments. They are killing souls every single day,” he stated.
“Just like the 12 apostles of Christ, we were there for some reason,” da Silva told LifeSiteNews when discussing the group of 12 Catholics who prayed loudly during the “LGBT Mass.” “God knows what he has in store for us.”
Da Silva said that he and his friends did not expect that they would receive so much media attention for their protest.
“We don’t want to be famous; we never thought that the media would cover us in such a way; we never thought this would have this big of backlash, to be quite honest.”
Rather than achieving fame, his goal is to “go to heaven,” Silva said. “I just want people to fight for Christ,” he stated.
Da Silva started the “Restore Portugal by Prayer” movement in June, together with his wife, for which they “go to places” in Portugal to “pray for a specific cause.”
He told LifeSiteNews that the best way that people can support him and his companions is by offering up prayers for them.
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| New Covid vaccines are on the way as 'Eris' variant rises |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-15-2023, 06:37 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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New Covid vaccines are on the way as 'Eris' variant rises
NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A new COVID vaccine is due out next month, but health experts and analysts say it is likely to be coolly received even as hospitalizations from "Eris", a variant of the Omicron form of the coronavirus, rise around the country. [Eris was the Greek goddess of strife and discord. - The Catacombs]
Some public health experts hope that Americans will welcome the new shot as they would a flu jab. But demand for the vaccine has dropped sharply since 2021 when it first became available and more than 240 million people in the U.S., or 73% of the population, received at least one shot.
In the fall of 2022, by which time most people had either had the COVID virus or the vaccine, fewer than 50 million people got the shots.
Healthcare providers and pharmacies such as CVS Health (CVS.N) will start next month to offer the shot, updated to fight the Omicron version of the virus that has been dominant since last year.
They will be fighting declining concern about the virus, as well as fatigue and skepticism about the merits of this vaccine, Kaiser Family Foundation Director of Survey Methodology Ashley Kirzinger said.
"Public health officials, if they want to see a majority of adults get these annual vaccines, they're going to have to make the case to the American public that COVID isn't over and it still poses a risk to them," Kirzinger said.
The top reason vaccinated people gave in KFF surveys earlier this year for eschewing annual shots was they believed they had protection from the virus because of previous shots or infections, she said.
COVID-19 vaccine makers have pared back expectations for this fall's vaccination campaign, with Pfizer – the largest maker of mRNA shots with BioNTech – recently warning that it might need to cut jobs if it does not do well. Its biggest rival, Moderna, conceded demand could be as few as 50 million shots.
Last year, Pfizer and Moderna's vaccine sales topped $56 billion worldwide; analysts project around $20 billion for this year.
Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said he does not expect the autumn campaign to reach last year's.
"Take a look at what happened last winter. It was 50 million in the US, and it seems likely to be lower than that, given that there's less concern about COVID this year than last year," Yee said.
POST PANDEMIC VACCINE
The COVID public health emergency ended in May and the government has handed much of the duty of vaccinating America to the private sector. Over 1.1 million people in the United States have died from COVID, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
CDC Director Mandy Cohen said last week in a podcast that she expects the shots - which still need to be authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the CDC - to be rolled out in the third or fourth week of September. She suggested Americans should view these shots as an annual measure to protect oneself, in line with the annual flu shot.
As with the flu, Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), Moderna (MRNA.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O), have created versions of the COVID vaccine to try to match the variant they believe will be circulating this fall. The shots are aimed at XBB.1.5, a subvariant that is similar to EG.5 and also a sub-lineage of the still dominant Omicron variant.
COVID-19 related hospitalizations are up more than 40% off of recent lows hit in June, but are still more than 90% below peak levels hit during the January 2022 Omicron outbreak, according to CDC data.
THE EVIDENCE
Some doctors suggest that annual shots should be targeted at the elderly and other high risk people, who are most likely to have dire outcomes if they catch COVID-19.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University and a liaison to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization practices, said it is possible that the ACIP could make a weaker recommendation for younger, healthier people. That could also affect demand.
"Should children really receive this booster?" Schaffner said. "Should the average person with no underlying illness who is a younger adult receive this vaccine or should this vaccine now be a more targeted vaccine?"
The CDC recommended children get a single dose of last year's updated vaccine for those aged 6 and older.
Dr. David Boulware, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Minnesota, said that according to research he has published, people who are boosted have less severe symptoms for a shorter duration.
"When you look at what you can do to reduce your duration of illness, even if you do get sick, being boosted is going to be the best way to do that," he said.
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| Australian archbishop: ‘Highly likely’ Rome will end celibacy for indigenous priests |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-15-2023, 05:53 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Australian archbishop: ‘Highly likely’ Rome will end celibacy for indigenous priests
While Archbishop Mark Coleridge claims indigenous people will only become priests if the celibacy requirement is lifted, other clerics consider that possibility to be inadequate and ‘inappropriate.’
![[Image: Coleridge-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Coleridge-810x500.jpg)
Archbishop Mark Coleridge
Archdiocese of Brisbane/YouTube screenshot
Aug 14, 2023
(LifeSiteNews) – An Australian archbishop declared that it is “highly likely” Rome will end the requirement of celibacy for indigenous priests.
In an interview with The Australian published Saturday, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, former president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), declared that the requirement of celibate priests must be lifted for any hope of the ordination of indigenous priests.
Coleridge claimed there is “no way you’re going to recruit a celibate clergy in those cultures.”
While the archbishop said he wouldn’t describe an end to clerical celibacy for indigenous communities as “inevitable,” he said he believes that the development is “highly likely.”
“I don’t know quite when or how, but the … question is certainly not going away,” he told The Australian. “And I think there will come a point of maturation when it will look kind of the natural next step and not sort of an artificial or dramatic or untimely overturning of what’s been a very long tradition.”
Coleridge sees such a change as especially needed because he excludes the possibility of priests from “outsider” cultures ministering to indigenous communities as unviable.
“You can’t have the whitefella providing leadership; you’ve got to provide leadership from within the indigenous communities,” the archbishop was quoted as saying.
Coleridge noted he has been “calling loud and clear for some time” for a “new way to imagine and engage with the indigenous peoples,” and that the issue has been discussed informally among members of the country’s bishops’ conference.
Other bishops concede that recruiting priests from among indigenous peoples around the world remains a difficulty, but believe a different solution is needed.
For example, Peruvian Bishop Rafael Escudero told Amazonian Synod participants in 2019 that the people of the Amazon region need adequate evangelization rather than married priests.
Escudero called on his fellow bishops to work harder on training catechists and pastoral workers, saying, “From a people that has been evangelized and well formed, there will come charisms and from among these will come celibacy for the priesthood.”
“It would be important for evangelizers to live among them,” he said, “and therefore understand them in the midst of their culture and customs.”
During the same synod, Venezuelan Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino objected that the possibility of married indigenous priests is not only unhelpful but inappropriate.
“There are many serious questions regarding the ordination of these good elder married men,” Cardinal Urosa wrote in an article in Portuguese at ACI Digital, adding, “And this will not resolve the problems of the current situation. I don’t see it as being appropriate nor useful.”
At the time, the cardinal also questioned whether the requirement of priestly celibacy would be done away with only in the Amazonian region or impact the Church practice around the world.
The question of married, incelibate priests is now relevant as ever to Vatican officials, as shown by the Synod on Synodality Instrumentum Laboris (IL), or working document, issued on June 20. The IL explicitly posed the possibility of married priests, raising the question, “As some continents propose, could a reflection be opened concerning the discipline on access to the Priesthood for married men, at least in some areas?”
While proponents of married priests often hearken back to the early days of the Catholic Church — when married priests were permitted — to support their position, such advocates rarely mention that even during that period priests were expected to remain completely celibate while married, as Father Christian Cochini has pointed out in his book ‘The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy.”
Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder of Ignatius Press, explained the Roman Catholic perspective on clerical celibacy in an e-mail to LifeSiteNews:
“The frequently heard statement that priestly celibacy is “not doctrinal but only disciplinary” is not only misleading, it is false. False because there is no Cartesian bright line between doctrine and discipline,” Father Fessio wrote.
He noted that there is a “very variegated spectrum” between questions of pure “doctrine” and of pure “discipline,” and that “clerical celibacy is much closer to doctrine than to discipline on this spectrum.”
“The fundamental reason is Christological. A priest has expropriated himself to be united in a unique way to Christ the High Priest. The priesthood is not merely a function. It is a sacramental, ontological, mysterious union with Jesus Christ … Christ did not marry an individual woman because he is also the Bridegroom who is totally surrendered to his Bride the Church in a fruitful union that brings forth his Body the Church,” Fessio continued.
“And if I may douse with some very chill water on some of the overheated enthusiasms of those clamoring for a return to “primitive tradition,” I remind that all those “married priests” in the early Church had to have the agreement of their wives and make a vow of continence before they could be ordained.”
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| Pope Pius XII: Munificentissimus Deus - Defining the Dogma of the Assumption |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-15-2023, 05:43 AM - Forum: Encyclicals
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MUNIFICENTISSIUMUS DEUS
DEFINING THE DOGMA OF THE ASSUMPTION
Pope Pius XII - 1950
1. The most bountiful God, who is almighty, the plan of whose providence rests upon wisdom and love, tempers, in the secret purpose of his own mind, the sorrows of peoples and of individual men by means of joys that he interposes in their lives from time to time, in such a way that, under different conditions and in different ways, all things may work together unto good for those who love him.[1]
2. Now, just like the present age, our pontificate is weighed down by ever so many cares, anxieties, and troubles, by reason of very severe calamities that have taken place and by reason of the fact that many have strayed away from truth and virtue. Nevertheless, we are greatly consoled to see that, while the Catholic faith is being professed publicly and vigorously, piety toward the Virgin Mother of God is flourishing and daily growing more fervent, and that almost everywhere on earth it is showing indications of a better and holier life. Thus, while the Blessed Virgin is fulfilling in the most affectionate manner her maternal duties on behalf of those redeemed by the blood of Christ, the minds and the hearts of her children are being vigorously aroused to a more assiduous consideration of her prerogatives.
3. Actually God, who from all eternity regards Mary with a most favorable and unique affection, has “when the fullness of time came”[2] put the plan of his providence into effect in such a way that all the privileges and prerogatives he had granted to her in his sovereign generosity were to shine forth in her in a kind of perfect harmony. And, although the Church has always recognized this supreme generosity and the perfect harmony of graces and has daily studied them more and more throughout the course of the centuries, still it is in our own age that the privilege of the bodily Assumption into heaven of Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, has certainly shone forth more clearly.
4. That privilege has shone forth in new radiance since our predecessor of immortal memory, Pius IX, solemnly proclaimed the dogma of the loving Mother of God’s Immaculate Conception. These two privileges are most closely bound to one another. Christ overcame sin and death by his own death, and one who through Baptism has been born again in a supernatural way has conquered sin and death through the same Christ. Yet, according to the general rule, God does not will to grant to the just the full effect of the victory over death until the end of time has come. And so it is that the bodies of even the just are corrupted after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each to its own glorious soul.
5. Now God has willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be exempted from this general rule. She, by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.
6. Thus, when it was solemnly proclaimed that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, was from the very beginning free from the taint of original sin, the minds of the faithful were filled with a stronger hope that the day might soon come when the dogma of the Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven would also be defined by the Church’s supreme teaching authority.
7. Actually it was seen that not only individual Catholics, but also those who could speak for nations or ecclesiastical provinces, and even a considerable number of the Fathers of the Vatican Council, urgently petitioned the Apostolic See to this effect.
8. During the course of time such postulations and petitions did not decrease but rather grew continually in number and in urgency. In this cause there were pious crusades of prayer. Many outstanding theologians eagerly and zealously carried out investigations on this subject either privately or in public ecclesiastical institutions and in other schools where the sacred disciplines are taught. Marian Congresses, both national and international in scope, have been held in many parts of the Catholic world. These studies and investigations have brought out into even clearer light the fact that the dogma of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption into heaven is contained in the deposit of Christian faith entrusted to the Church. They have resulted in many more petitions, begging and urging the Apostolic See that this truth be solemnly defined.
9. In this pious striving, the faithful have been associated in a wonderful way with their own holy bishops, who have sent petitions of this kind, truly remarkable in number, to this See of the Blessed Peter. Consequently, when we were elevated to the throne of the supreme pontificate, petitions of this sort had already been addressed by the thousands from every part of the world and from every class of people, from our beloved sons the Cardinals of the Sacred College, from our venerable brethren, archbishops and bishops, from dioceses and from parishes.
10. Consequently, while we sent up earnest prayers to God that he might grant to our mind the light of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to make a decision on this most serious subject, we issued special orders in which we commanded that, by corporate effort, more advanced inquiries into this matter should be begun and that, in the meantime, all the petitions about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven which had been sent to this Apostolic See from the time of Pius IX, our predecessor of happy memory, down to our own days should be gathered together and carefully evaluated.[3]
11. And, since we were dealing with a matter of such great moment and of such importance, we considered it opportune to ask all our venerable brethren in the episcopate directly and authoritatively that each of them should make known to us his mind in a formal statement. Hence, on May 1, 1946, we gave them our letter “Deiparae Virginis Mariae,” a letter in which these words are contained: “Do you, venerable brethren, in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge that the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith? Do you, with your clergy and people, desire it?”
12. But those whom “the Holy Spirit has placed as bishops to rule the Church of God”[4] gave an almost unanimous affirmative response to both these questions. This “outstanding agreement of the Catholic prelates and the faithful,”[5] affirming that the bodily Assumption of God’s Mother into heaven can be defined as a dogma of faith, since it shows us the concordant teaching of the Church’s ordinary doctrinal authority and the concordant faith of the Christian people which the same doctrinal authority sustains and directs, thus by itself and in an entirely certain and infallible way, manifests this privilege as a truth revealed by God and contained in that divine deposit which Christ has delivered to his Spouse to be guarded faithfully and to be taught infallibly.[6] Certainly this teaching authority of the Church, not by any merely human effort but under the protection of the Spirit of Truth,[7] and therefore absolutely without error, carries out the commission entrusted to it, that of preserving the revealed truths pure and entire throughout every age, in such a way that it presents them undefiled, adding nothing to them and taking nothing away from them. For, as the Vatican Council teaches, “the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter in such a way that, by his revelation, they might manifest new doctrine, but so that, by his assistance, they might guard as sacred and might faithfully propose the revelation delivered through the apostles, or the deposit of faith.”[8] Thus, from the universal agreement of the Church’s ordinary teaching authority we have a certain and firm proof, demonstrating that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven- which surely no faculty of the human mind could know by its own natural powers, as far as the heavenly glorification of the virginal body of the loving Mother of God is concerned-is a truth that has been revealed by God and consequently something that must be firmly and faithfully believed by all children of the Church. For, as the Vatican Council asserts, “all those things are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written Word of God or in Tradition, and which are proposed by the Church, either in solemn judgment or in its ordinary and universal teaching office, as divinely revealed truths which must be believed.”[9]
13. Various testimonies, indications and signs of this common belief of the Church are evident from remote times down through the course of the centuries; and this same belief becomes more clearly manifest from day to day.
14. Christ’s faithful, through the teaching and the leadership of their pastors, have learned from the sacred books that the Virgin Mary, throughout the course of her earthly pilgrimage, led a life troubled by cares, hardships, and sorrows, and that, moreover, what the holy old man Simeon had foretold actually came to pass, that is, that a terribly sharp sword pierced her heart as she stood under the cross of her divine Son, our Redeemer. In the same way, it was not difficult for them to admit that the great Mother of God, like her only begotten Son, had actually passed from this life. But this in no way prevented them from believing and from professing openly that her sacred body had never been subject to the corruption of the tomb, and that the august tabernacle of the Divine Word had never been reduced to dust and ashes. Actually, enlightened by divine grace and moved by affection for her, God’s Mother and our own dearest Mother, they have contemplated in an ever clearer light the wonderful harmony and order of those privileges which the most provident God has lavished upon this loving associate of our Redeemer, privileges which reach such an exalted plane that, except for her, nothing created by God other than the human nature of Jesus Christ has ever reached this level.
15. The innumerable temples which have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary assumed into heaven clearly attest this faith. So do those sacred images, exposed therein for the veneration of the faithful, which bring this unique triumph of the Blessed Virgin before the eyes of all men. Moreover, cities, dioceses, and individual regions have been placed under the special patronage and guardianship of the Virgin Mother of God assumed into heaven. In the same way, religious institutes, with the approval of the Church, have been founded and have taken their name from this privilege. Nor can we pass over in silence the fact that in the Rosary of Mary, the recitation of which this Apostolic See so urgently recommends, there is one mystery proposed for pious meditation which, as all know, deals with the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into heaven.
16. This belief of the sacred pastors and of Christ’s faithful is universally manifested still more splendidly by the fact that, since ancient times, there have been both in the East and in the West solemn liturgical offices commemorating this privilege. The holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church have never failed to draw enlightenment from this fact since, as everyone knows, the sacred liturgy, “because it is the profession, subject to the supreme teaching authority within the Church, of heavenly truths, can supply proofs and testimonies of no small value for deciding a particular point of Christian doctrine.”[10]
17. In the liturgical books which deal with the feast either of the dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin there are expressions that agree in testifying that, when the Virgin Mother of God passed from this earthly exile to heaven, what happened to her sacred body was, by the decree of divine Providence, in keeping with the dignity of the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and with the other privileges she had been accorded. Thus, to cite an illustrious example, this is set forth in that sacramentary which Adrian I, our predecessor of immortal memory, sent to the Emperor Charlemagne. These words are found in this volume: “Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten your Son our Lord incarnate from herself.”[11]
18. What is here indicated in that sobriety characteristic of the Roman liturgy is presented more clearly and completely in other ancient liturgical books. To take one as an example, the Gallican sacramentary designates this privilege of Mary’s as “an ineffable mystery all the more worthy of praise as the Virgin’s Assumption is something unique among men.” And, in the Byzantine liturgy, not only is the Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption connected time and time again with the dignity of the Mother of God, but also with the other privileges, and in particular with the virginal motherhood granted her by a singular decree of God’s Providence. “God, the King of the universe, has granted you favors that surpass nature. As he kept you a virgin in childbirth, thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has glorified it by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb.”[12]
19. The fact that the Apostolic See, which has inherited the function entrusted to the Prince of the Apostles, the function of confirming the brethren in the faith,[13] has by its own authority, made the celebration of this feast ever more solemn, has certainly and effectively moved the attentive minds of the faithful to appreciate always more completely the magnitude of the mystery it commemorates. So it was that the Feast of the Assumption was elevated from the rank which it had occupied from the beginning among the other Marian feasts to be classed among the more solemn celebrations of the entire liturgical cycle. And, when our predecessor St. Sergius I prescribed what is known as the litany, or the stational procession, to be held on four Marian feasts, he specified together the Feasts of the Nativity, the Annunciation, the Purification, and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.[14] Again, St. Leo IV saw to it that the feast, which was already being celebrated under the title of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother of God, should be observed in even a more solemn way when he ordered a vigil to be held on the day before it and prescribed prayers to be recited after it until the octave day. When this had been done, he decided to take part himself in the celebration, in the midst of a great multitude of the faithful.[15] Moreover, the fact that a holy fast had been ordered from ancient times for the day prior to the feast is made very evident by what our predecessor St. Nicholas I testifies in treating of the principal fasts which “the Holy Roman Church has observed for a long time, and still observes.”[16]
20. However, since the liturgy of the Church does not engender the Catholic faith, but rather springs from it, in such a way that the practices of the sacred worship proceed from the faith as the fruit comes from the tree, it follows that the holy Fathers and the great Doctors, in the homilies and sermons they gave the people on this feast day, did not draw their teaching from the feast itself as from a primary source, but rather they spoke of this doctrine as something already known and accepted by Christ’s faithful. They presented it more clearly. They offered more profound explanations of its meaning and nature, bringing out into sharper light the fact that this feast shows, not only that the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ-truths that the liturgical books had frequently touched upon concisely and briefly.
21. Thus St. John Damascene, an outstanding herald of this traditional truth, spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the bodily Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and privileges. “It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God.”[17]
22. These words of St. John Damascene agree perfectly with what others have taught on this same subject. Statements no less clear and accurate are to be found in sermons delivered by Fathers of an earlier time or of the same period, particularly on the occasion of this feast. And so, to cite some other examples, St. Germanus of Constantinople considered the fact that the body of Mary, the virgin Mother of God, was incorrupt and had been taken up into heaven to be in keeping, not only with her divine motherhood, but also with the special holiness of her virginal body. “You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life.”[18] And another very ancient writer asserts: “As the most glorious Mother of Christ, our Savior and God and the giver of life and immortality, has been endowed with life by him, she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a way known only to him.”[19]
23. When this liturgical feast was being celebrated ever more widely and with ever increasing devotion and piety, the bishops of the Church and its preachers in continually greater numbers considered it their duty openly and clearly to explain the mystery that the feast commemorates, and to explain how it is intimately connected with the other revealed truths.
24. Among the scholastic theologians there have not been lacking those who, wishing to inquire more profoundly into divinely revealed truths and desirous of showing the harmony that exists between what is termed the theological demonstration and the Catholic faith, have always considered it worthy of note that this privilege of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption is in wonderful accord with those divine truths given us in Holy Scripture.
25. When they go on to explain this point, they adduce various proofs to throw light on this privilege of Mary. As the first element of these demonstrations, they insist upon the fact that, out of filial love for his mother, Jesus Christ has willed that she be assumed into heaven. They base the strength of their proofs on the incomparable dignity of her divine motherhood and of all those prerogatives which follow from it. These include her exalted holiness, entirely surpassing the sanctity of all men and of the angels, the intimate union of Mary with her Son, and the affection of preeminent love which the Son has for his most worthy Mother.
26. Often there are theologians and preachers who, following in the footsteps of the holy Fathers,[20] have been rather free in their use of events and expressions taken from Sacred Scripture to explain their belief in the Assumption. Thus, to mention only a few of the texts rather frequently cited in this fashion, some have employed the words of the psalmist: “Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark, which you have sanctified”[21]; and have looked upon the Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and placed in the Lord’s temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven. Treating of this subject, they also describe her as the Queen entering triumphantly into the royal halls of heaven and sitting at the right hand of the divine Redeemer.[22] Likewise they mention the Spouse of the Canticles “that goes up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense” to be crowned.[23] These are proposed as depicting that heavenly Queen and heavenly Spouse who has been lifted up to the courts of heaven with the divine Bridegroom.
27. Moreover, the scholastic Doctors have recognized the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God as something signified, not only in various figures of the Old Testament, but also in that woman clothed with the sun whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos.[24] Similarly they have given special attention to these words of the New Testament: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women,”[25] since they saw, in the mystery of the Assumption, the fulfillment of that most perfect grace granted to the Blessed Virgin and the special blessing that countered the curse of Eve.
28. Thus, during the earliest period of scholastic theology, that most pious man, Amadeus, Bishop of Lausarme, held that the Virgin Mary’s flesh had remained incorrupt-for it is wrong to believe that her body has seen corruption-because it was really united again to her soul and, together with it, crowned with great glory in the heavenly courts. “For she was full of grace and blessed among women. She alone merited to conceive the true God of true God, whom as a virgin, she brought forth, to whom as a virgin she gave milk, fondling him in her lap, and in all things she waited upon him with loving care.”[26]
29. Among the holy writers who at that time employed statements and various images and analogies of Sacred Scripture to Illustrate and to confirm the doctrine of the Assumption, which was piously believed, the Evangelical Doctor, St. Anthony of Padua, holds a special place. On the feast day of the Assumption, while explaining the prophet’s words: “I will glorify the place of my feet,”[27] he stated it as certain that the divine Redeemer had bedecked with supreme glory his most beloved Mother from whom he had received human flesh. He asserts that “you have here a clear statement that the Blessed Virgin has been assumed in her body, where was the place of the Lord’s feet. Hence it is that the holy Psalmist writes: ‘Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark which you have sanctified.”‘ And he asserts that, just as Jesus Christ has risen from the death over which he triumphed and has ascended to the right hand of the Father, so likewise the ark of his sanctification “has risen up, since on this day the Virgin Mother has been taken up to her heavenly dwelling.”[28]
30. When, during the Middle Ages, scholastic theology was especially flourishing, St. Albert the Great who, to establish this teaching, had gathered together many proofs from Sacred Scripture, from the statements of older writers, and finally from the liturgy and from what is known as theological reasoning, concluded in this way: “From these proofs and authorities and from many others, it is manifest that the most blessed Mother of God has been assumed above the choirs of angels. And this we believe in every way to be true.”[29] And, in a sermon which he delivered on the sacred day of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s annunciation, explained the words “Hail, full of grace”-words used by the angel who addressed her-the Universal Doctor, comparing the Blessed Virgin with Eve, stated clearly and incisively that she was exempted from the fourfold curse that had been laid upon Eve.[30]
31. Following the footsteps of his distinguished teacher, the Angelic Doctor, despite the fact that he never dealt directly with this question, nevertheless, whenever he touched upon it, always held together with the Catholic Church, that Mary’s body had been assumed into heaven along with her soul.[31]
32. Along with many others, the Seraphic Doctor held the same views. He considered it as entirely certain that, as God had preserved the most holy Virgin Mary from the violation of her virginal purity and integrity in conceiving and in childbirth, he would never have permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes.[32] Explaining these words of Sacred Scripture: “Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?”[33] and applying them in a kind of accommodated sense to the Blessed Virgin, he reasons thus: “From this we can see that she is there bodily…her blessedness would not have been complete unless she were there as a person. The soul is not a person, but the soul, joined to the body, is a person. It is manifest that she is there in soul and in body. Otherwise she would not possess her complete beatitude.[34]
33. In the fifteenth century, during a later period of scholastic theology, St. Bernardine of Siena collected and diligently evaluated all that the medieval theologians had said and taught on this question. He was not content with setting down the principal considerations which these writers of an earlier day had already expressed, but he added others of his own. The likeness between God’s Mother and her divine Son, in the way of the nobility and dignity of body and of soul-a likeness that forbids us to think of the heavenly Queen as being separated from the heavenly Kingmakes it entirely imperative that Mary “should be only where Christ is.”[35] Moreover, it is reasonable and fitting that not only the soul and body of a man, but also the soul and body of a woman should have obtained heavenly glory. Finally, since the Church has never looked for the bodily relics of the Blessed Virgin nor proposed them for the veneration of the people, we have a proof on the order of a sensible experience.[36]
34. The above-mentioned teachings of the holy Fathers and of the Doctors have been in common use during more recent times. Gathering together the testimonies of the Christians of earlier days, St. Robert Bellarmine exclaimed: “And who, I ask, could believe that the ark of holiness, the dwelling place of the Word of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, could be reduced to ruin? My soul is filled with horror at the thought that this virginal flesh which had begotten God, had brought him into the world, had nourished and carried him, could have been turned into ashes or given over to be food for worms.”[37]
35. In like manner St. Francis of Sales, after asserting that it is wrong to doubt that Jesus Christ has himself observed, in the most perfect way, the divine commandment by which children are ordered to honor their parents, asks this question: “What son would not bring his mother back to life and would not bring her into paradise after her death if he could?”[38] And St. Alphonsus writes that “Jesus did not wish to have the body of Mary corrupted after death, since it would have redounded to his own dishonor to have her virginal flesh, from which he himself had assumed flesh, reduced to dust.”[39]
36. Once the mystery which is commemorated in this feast had been placed in its proper light, there were not lacking teachers who, instead of dealing with the theological reasonings that show why it is fitting and right to believe the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, chose to focus their mind and attention on the faith of the Church itself, which is the Mystical Body of Christ without stain or wrinkle[40] and is called by the Apostle “the pillar and ground of truth.”[41] Relying on this common faith, they considered the teaching opposed to the doctrine of our Lady’s Assumption as temerarious, if not heretical. Thus, like not a few others, St. Peter Canisius, after he had declared that the very word “assumption” signifies the glorification, not only of the soul but also of the body, and that the Church has venerated and has solemnly celebrated this mystery of Mary’s Assumption for many centuries, adds these words of warning: “This teaching has already been accepted for some centuries, it has been held as certain in the minds of the pious people, and it has been taught to the entire Church in such a way that those who deny that Mary’s body has been assumed into heaven are not to be listened to patiently but are everywhere to be denounced as over-contentious or rash men, and as imbued with a spirit that is heretical rather than Catholic.”[42]
37. At the same time the great Suarez was professing in the field of mariology the norm that “keeping in mind the standards of propriety, and when there is no contradiction or repugnance on the part of Scripture, the mysteries of grace which God has wrought in the Virgin must be measured, not by the ordinary laws, but by the divine omnipotence.”[43] Supported by the common faith of the entire Church on the subject of the mystery of the Assumption, he could conclude that this mystery was to be believed with the same firmness of assent as that given to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Thus he already held that such truths could be defined.
38. All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate foundation. These set the loving Mother of God as it were before our very eyes as most intimately joined to her divine Son and as always sharing his lot. Consequently it seems impossible to think of her, the one who conceived Christ, brought him forth, nursed him with her milk, held him in her arms, and clasped him to her breast, as being apart from him in body, even though not in soul, after this earthly life. Since our Redeemer is the Son of Mary, he could not do otherwise, as the perfect observer of God’s law, than to honor, not only his eternal Father, but also his most beloved Mother. And, since it was within his power to grant her this great honor, to preserve her from the corruption of the tomb, we must believe that he really acted in this way.
39. We must remember especially that, since the second century, the Virgin Mary has been designated by the holy Fathers as the new Eve, who, although subject to the new Adam, is most intimately associated with him in that struggle against the infernal foe which, as foretold in the protoevangelium,[44] would finally result in that most complete victory over the sin and death which are always mentioned together in the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles.[45] Consequently, just as the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the final sign of this victory, so that struggle which was common to the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son should be brought to a close by the glorification of her virginal body, for the same Apostle says: “When this mortal thing hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.”[46]
40. Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination,[47] immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.[48]
41. Since the universal Church, within which dwells the Spirit of Truth who infallibly directs it toward an ever more perfect knowledge of the revealed truths, has expressed its own belief many times over the course of the centuries, and since the bishops of the entire world are almost unanimously petitioning that the truth of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven should be defined as a dogma of divine and Catholic faith-this truth which is based on the Sacred Writings, which is thoroughly rooted in the minds of the faithful, which has been approved in ecclesiastical worship from the most remote times, which is completely in harmony with the other revealed truths, and which has been expounded and explained magnificently in the work, the science, and the wisdom of the theologians-we believe that the moment appointed in the plan of divine providence for the solemn proclamation of this outstanding privilege of the Virgin Mary has already arrived.
42. We, who have placed our pontificate under the special patronage of the most holy Virgin, to whom we have had recourse so often in times of grave trouble, we who have consecrated the entire human race to her Immaculate Heart in public ceremonies, and who have time and time again experienced her powerful protection, are confident that this solemn proclamation and definition of the Assumption will contribute in no small way to the advantage of human society, since it redounds to the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity, to which the Blessed Mother of God is bound by such singular bonds. It is to be hoped that all the faithful will be stirred up to a stronger piety toward their heavenly Mother, and that the souls of all those who glory in the Christian name may be moved by the desire of sharing in the unity of Jesus Christ’s Mystical Body and of increasing their love for her who shows her motherly heart to all the members of this august body. And so we may hope that those who meditate upon the glorious example Mary offers us may be more and more convinced of the value of a human life entirely devoted to carrying out the heavenly Father’s will and to bringing good to others. Thus, while the illusory teachings of materialism and the corruption of morals that follows from these teachings threaten to extinguish the light of virtue and to ruin the lives of men by exciting discord among them, in this magnificent way all may see clearly to what a lofty goal our bodies and souls are destined. Finally it is our hope that belief in Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven will make our belief in our own resurrection stronger and render it more effective.
43. We rejoice greatly that this solemn event falls, according to the design of God’s providence, during this Holy Year, so that we are able, while the great Jubilee is being observed, to adorn the brow of God’s Virgin Mother with this brilliant gem, and to leave a monument more enduring than bronze of our own most fervent love for the Mother of God.
44. For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
45. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.
46. In order that this, our definition of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven may be brought to the attention of the universal Church, we desire that this, our Apostolic Letter, should stand for perpetual remembrance, commanding that written copies of it, or even printed copies, signed by the hand of any public notary and bearing the seal of a person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, should be accorded by all men the same reception they would give to this present letter, were it tendered or shown.
47. It is forbidden to any man to change this, our declaration, pronouncement, and definition or, by rash attempt, to oppose and counter it. If any man should presume to make such an attempt, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
48. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, in the year of the great Jubilee, 1950, on the first day of the month of November, on the Feast of All Saints, in the twelfth year of our pontificate.
I, PIUS, Bishop of the Catholic Church, have signed, so defining.
ENDNOTES
1. Rom 8:28.
2. Gal 4:4.
3. Cf. Hentrich-Von Moos, Petitiones de Assumptione Corporea B. Virginis Mariae in Caelum Definienda ad S. Sedem Delatae, 2 volumes (Vatican Polyglot Press, 1942).
4. Acts 20:28.
5. The Bull Ineffabilis Deus, in the Acta Pii IX, pars 1, Vol. 1, p. 615.
6. The Vatican Council, Constitution Dei filius, c. 4.
7. Jn 14:26.
8. Vatican Council, Constitution Pastor Aeternus, c. 4.
9. Ibid., Dei Filius, c. 3.
10. The encyclical Mediator Dei (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XXXIX, 541).
11. Sacramentarium Gregorianum.
12. Menaei Totius Anni.
13. Lk 22:32.
14. Liber Pontificalis.
15. Ibid.
16. Responsa Nicolai Papae I ad Consulta Bulgarorum.
17. St. John Damascene, Encomium in Dormitionem Dei Genetricis Semperque Virginis Mariae, Hom. II, n. 14; cf. also ibid, n. 3.
18. St. Germanus of Constantinople, In Sanctae Dei Genetricis Dormitionem, Sermo I.
19. The Encomium in Dormitionem Sanctissimae Dominae Nostrate Deiparae Semperque Virginis Mariae, attributed to St. Modestus of Jerusalem, n. 14.
20. Cf. St. John Damascene, op. cit., Hom. II, n. 11; and also the Encomium attributed to St. Modestus.
21. Ps 131:8.
22. Ps 44:10-14ff.
23. Song 3:6; cf. also 4:8; 6:9.
24. Rv 12:1ff.
25. Lk 1:28.
26. Amadeus of Lausanne, De Beatae Virginis Obitu, Assumptione in Caelum Exaltatione ad Filii Dexteram.
27. Is 61:13.
28. St. Anthony of Padua, Sermones Dominicales et in Solemnitatibus, In Assumptione S. Mariae Virginis Sermo.
29. St. Albert the Great, Mariale, q. 132.
30. St. Albert the Great, Sermones de Sanctis, Sermo XV in Annuntiatione B. Mariae; cf. also Mariale, q. 132.
31. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., Illa; q. 27, a. 1; q. 83, a. 5, ad 8; Expositio Salutationis Angelicae; In Symb. Apostolorum Expositio, a. S; In IV Sent., d. 12, q. 1, a. 3, sol. 3; d. 43, q. 1, a. 3, sol. 1, 2.
32. St. Bonaventure, De Nativitate B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo V.
33. Song 8:5.
34. St. Bonaventure, De Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 1.
35. St. Bernardine of Siena, In Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 11.
36. Ibid.
37. St. Robert Bellarmine, Conciones Habitae Lovanii, n. 40, De Assumption B. Mariae Virginis.
38. Oeuvres de St. Francois De Sales, sermon for the Feast of the Assumption.
39. St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Part 2, d. 1.
40. Eph 5:27.
41. I Tm 3:15.
42. St. Peter Canisius, De Maria Virgine.
43. Suarez, In Tertiam Partem D. Thomae, q. 27, a. 2, disp. 3, sec. 5, n. 31.
44. Gn 3:15.
45. Rm 5-6; I Cor. 15:21-26, 54-57.
46. I Cor 15:54.
47. The Bull Ineffabilis Deus, loc. cit., p. 599.
48. I Tm 1:17.
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| Eucharistic profanations at WYD 2023 |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-14-2023, 05:50 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Are there really some who will argue vehemently for the case for Eucharistic miracles in the Novus Ordo? Would the Most Holy Trinity really grant miracles to the same Novus Ordo that allowed THIS:
Eucharistic profanations at WYD 2023
![[Image: B050-Pro-1.jpg]](https://traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/Images(B-001-100)/B050-Pro-1.jpg)
The photo above, posted on Instagram by one of the youth pictured in it, shows three grey plastic stackable boxes on the top of a table inside a pop-up canvas tent. On either side of the boxes there is a candle, atop the stack is a small vase with a few cheap flowers. There is no sign inside or outside of the tent indicating to the passerby what those boxes contain.
We are at the WYD-2023 in Lisbon on Saturday, August 5, the vigil of the papal Mass. Those boxes contain the Blessed Sacrament, and this is how a Conciliar Church "chapel" hosts Jesus Christ truly present in the Eucharist.
Was this a proper way to host the God Incarnate, the King of the Kings? No, it was not. The least we can say is that it was a profanation of the Eucharist. It was so shocking that the young American lady in the white dress kneeling in the photo – Savannah Dudzik – became indignant and called her friends to come to adore Our Lord and pray the Rosary in reparation for the blasphemy.
“At that moment I was infuriated: How dare they disrespect Our Lord?" she wrote. "What do they think they are doing – putting Him in a box with almost zero respect… people walking right past not knowing it’s Him at all!”
She went on to describe the ambience around that tent: “There were people smoking right outside the tent, there were girls not wearing shirts, there were girls in bras, I am not talking about crop-tops, I'm talking about bras. It didn’t look great. There were people dancing in circles, chanting, and I’ve heard that the chanting was praise, but there were a lot of things that didn't look Catholic there.”
The same grey boxes were also placed on tables in other tents, below first and second rows.
In yet other tents, third row, the Eucharist was kept inside restaurant style foil-topped serving dishes, lined up on tables like "meals-to-go," another grave profanation.
After the young lady's denunciation went viral on the Internet, the religious authorities were asked about the grey boxes. They admitted that it actually was a mistake to put the large grey boxes on the tables. They should have been under the table and the foil top boxes-to-go should have been displayed on the tables. That was the only error they acknowledged...
Millions of dollars were spent to promote this event and to bring Francis to Lisbon. No money was allocated to honor Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who should be the center of the WYD if it were really Catholic.
Fourth row, the posting of Savannah Dudzik that brought attention to the profanation; fifth row, the ambience of semi-nudism of the WYD in Lisbon, corresponding perfectly to her description.
![[Image: B050-Pro-2.jpg]](https://traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/Images(B-001-100)/B050-Pro-2.jpg)
Photos from the Internet; text partially based on The Pillar article |
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| CFN interview with Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2023, 08:00 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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CFN INTERVIEWS VIGANÒ: Francis, Trump, Ukraine, Child Trafficking, and More
CFN [slightly adapted]| August 11, 2023
Editor’s Note: In this new interview with CFN’s Matt Gaspers, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò comments on a wide variety of topics including the Francis pontificate after ten years, the 2013 Conclave, Donald Trump’s efforts to obtain a second term as President, the Russia-Ukraine war in light of Our Lady’s Fatima Message, child trafficking and the new film Sound of Freedom, and more. “The failures of the deep church, like those of the deep state, can be hidden and denied, but they are apparent in all of their disastrous consequences,” His Grace says, while emphasizing that in these difficult times we must rely on “the sane (Catholic and Roman) pragmatism which combines the omnipotence of God in deciding the fate of the world with the generous cooperation of man whom He has created and redeemed. In a word, it is the multiplication of the few loaves and fishes.”
INTERVIEW
with Matt Gaspers for “Catholic Family News”
CFN: Your Grace, we are now in the tenth year of Francis’s pontificate. From his comment, “Who am I to judge?” to Amoris Lætitia, from the Abu Dhabi Declaration to the Pachamama incident (and the ongoing Synod on synodality), we have witnessed truly unprecedented papal scandals over the past decade — scandals touching on both faith and morals. In your opinion, what has been the most damaging affair of this pontificate and how can the Church recover from it?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: It is difficult — and I think many will agree with me — to identify the single issue that has had the most negative influence out of all of Bergoglio’s actions and words. His every gesture is deliberately provocative and histrionic, deliberately designed to leave the interlocutor baffled, or to offend him, or to make fun of him. Those who think that Bergoglio is naïve are mistaken: his every word is spoken with the purpose of arousing scandal, distancing himself from all his predecessors, and criticizing the Church’s past, falsifying it and misrepresenting it with irritating simplifications. And above all: he never affirms. If you have noticed, his most controversial utterances are not the result of an autonomous statement, but the answer to questions asked by others according to the directions they have received, giving the appearance that the topic has been chosen by the interviewer or interlocutor. It is curious, if you pay attention, that all of his most puzzling statements — from “Who am I to judge” to his latest zinger “God loves you as you are” — are answers to questions. Bergoglio himself confirmed this during the press conference returning from Portugal when he said: “Thank you for the courage to ask this question. Thank you” (here).
In practice, regardless of the topic, all Bergoglio’s words are based a priori on a fiction, a lie. In some cases, these manipulations take place with systems that are more elaborate but always dishonest and disloyal: think of the maneuvers to impose his agenda at the recent Synods and his absolute contempt for the rules. Add to this the mocking contempt with which he attributes to other circumstances and other people what he ostentatiously does first himself.
Beyond all of the individual scandals, I believe that the greatest damage done to the Church by this “pontificate” has been the discredit and dishonor that has been thrown on the Papacy, on the Church, on the clergy, and on the faithful. His hatred for Tradition knows no rest, and this necessarily has repercussions on what is a natural expression of that Tradition: doctrine, morality, liturgy, and spirituality. The demolition is systematic and starts mainly from authority, which is corrupt and subservient to the enemy, abusing its power for the opposite purpose to that which legitimizes it. The democratization of the Church, conciliar “collegiality,” and Bergoglio’s “synodality” are all colossal lies, behind which tyranny hides: the parallel with governments subjected to the globalist elite is evident and confirms a single coordination of the two subversive actions. Both institutions, as we see, are discredited and delegitimized by those who hold positions of authority. In this way, if in the future this crisis should come to an end, restoring trust in the Church and restoring her authority will be almost impossible, humanly speaking.
CFN: In a recent interview (here), you said that certain Cardinals “created by Benedict XVI have proved to be completely inferior to the expectations of faithful conservatives,” and that some of them “at the last Conclave witnessed things that they do not denounce publicly.” What things do you believe they witnessed and why do they not denounce them?
Some cardinals who entered the Conclave in 2013 do not seem to understand the gravity of what happened in the Conclave and continues to happen, under false appearances of formal legality. We have heard them fiercely defend the Papacy, declaring that the errors proposed by Bergoglio and his impromptu provocations are not to be considered papal Magisterium; we heard them ask Bergoglio to resolve the Dubia without him even deigning to answer, and everything ended there. But this denunciation of the effects — that is, the present “pontificate” — is completely useless as long as it refuses to recognize their causes in the conciliar revolution, sidelining this question. Their tetragonal desire to “save” the pseudo-magisterium of Vatican II, which is the remote cause of the present crisis, renders utterly useless any action in defense of the Church.
As for their silence on the events that took place during the Conclave, I see here as well a certain formally legalistic mentality prevailing over the urgent need to put an end to the subversive coup d’état of the deep church. Their main concern is to not undermine the observance of norms that are valid in times of relative normality, so that it cannot be said that they have violated human precepts, while with their respect for procedures they find themselves endorsing the violation of divine precepts carried out by none other than the leaders of the Catholic hierarchy.
I find it incomprehensible that a member of the College of Cardinals can confide to friends that he has witnessed facts that render the election of Jorge Mario null and void, and at the same time he does not want to denounce them publicly so as not to break the Pontifical secret: the secret that he has already broken by talking about it with those who can do nothing, which forces His Eminence into silence before the Church, whose Pastors could perhaps settle the question. But here we are not talking about the Seal of Confession, but rather about matters that have reason to be reserved until this is to the detriment of the institution that brought them into force; otherwise we find ourselves like the Pharisees of the Gospel, who asked Our Lord if it was lawful to pull a donkey out of the well on the Sabbath day.
The indiscretions of these Cardinals focus on the evidence of serious irregularities, without providing further details. I am reminded of what happened in 1958, with the question of the smoke that was initially white and then turned black: it seems that Cardinal Giuseppe Siri was elected, but then, due to the opposition of the Soviet communist regime, the Fathers were forced to elect another man as Pope, who coincidentally turned out to be the conciliatory Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli.
If these confidences are true, I dare not think of the moral travail of those who are preparing to take the secret to the grave, when they would have had the opportunity of unmasking the intrigues and plots of the Saint Gallen Mafia. If they are not true, it would not make sense to talk about it even with the most trusted people (who, however, must have told others, since the news has leaked).
CFN: Humanly speaking, do you foresee any way the next conclave will not repeat the outcome of 2013?
Except for extraordinary interventions by Providence, the College of Cardinals has been largely entirely discredited by Bergoglio: Caligula limited himself to the threat of appointing his horse Incitatus as priest and consul; the present crisis instead creates Cardinals who under Pius IX would have been sent in partibus infidelium. The outcome of the next Conclave therefore seems obvious, rebus sic stantibus. But if evidence were to emerge of some serious irregularity in the 2013 Conclave, this would ipso facto render the outcome of its election null and void, and consequently all the acts of government and magisterium carried out by the one elected. Included among these null and void acts would be, of course, the creation of Cardinals, so that all the Consistories of Bergoglio would be null: we would find ourselves as if by magic back in the situation of 2013, and this would disrupt Bergoglio’s plans, because if the electors of the next Conclave were only those cardinals appointed prior to 2013, they would certainly be less inclined to repeat the mistakes already committed and, strengthened by the experience of the past ten years, they could elect the least bad candidate among them.
CFN: Next year, Americans will face another presidential election. In 2020, you were greatly supportive of Donald Trump’s efforts to obtain a second term. In light of his continued promotion of COVID vaccines and his rhetoric in favor of the LGBTQ agenda, do you believe that Catholics can still support him in another bid for the presidency? Do you still consider him to be a “katechon” of sorts?
The President of the United States of America can be a sort of katechon if he is clear about the global coup d’état perpetrated by the deep state. I believe that Donald Trump has understood the deception he has been subjected to by Antony Fauci and the other Big Pharma peddlers, and that he is also capable — as is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on the Democrat side — to verify whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus is part of a military project which has used pharmaceutical companies only for the large-scale production of serums (which significantly began even in 2019, before the declaration of the pandemic emergency).
With regard to other forms of more or less explicit support for movements or ideologies contrary to the Catholic Faith, I would like to suggest to the President not to be influenced by the reports and percentages of the electoral communication agencies, and to think about the responsibility before God for the decisions that, as President of the United States, he takes on. The task of the President of the United States is to govern his people for the common good, according to justice and with respect for the natural and divine Law. If he fulfills this task, the Lord — Who is Almighty and Who decides the fate of nations and individuals — will bless him and the American people; if, on the contrary, he fails in his duties and panders to the mentality of the world and the advice of his electoral experts, he can certainly not expect God, offended and disobeyed, to help him and the Nation.
It must be said that Trump, in his recent rallies, has strongly denounced woke policies and pledged to combat gender transition and mutilation for minors, gender indoctrination in schools, the hyper-sexualization of children, and child trafficking. It is significant that, just when the people’s perception of the very serious threat of the pedophile lobby is increasing, the US Department of Justice has nothing better to do than reduce the level of social alarm: evidently the dome of perverts that maneuvers Biden feels public awareness breathing down their necks.
In any case, I prefer a thousand Trumps to one Biden, there is no doubt about that. Also, because Trump has shown himself in fact much closer to the image of a Catholic politician than the self-styled Catholic Biden has done.
CFN: Do you have any thoughts about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and his campaign to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for President? Given his support of abortion, could a Catholic vote for Kennedy in good conscience?
Robert Kennedy certainly has a clear view on the pandemic and vaccine fraud and the deep state’s assault on Americans’ fundamental rights. The positive aspects of his political program do not take away the fact that he supports abortion, and this means one cannot vote for him, especially since Kennedy declares himself Catholic despite being in serious contradiction with the teaching of the Church as well as the natural law. Here too we need a jolt of pride, which puts aside electoral calculations and makes a radical choice. Compromise is no longer practicable today.
CFN: Arguably the most significant event since Joe Biden took office has been the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, which seems to have been provoked at least in part by bad actors. What do you think the deep state is hoping to achieve through this ongoing conflict?
The Ukrainian crisis has been prepared for years, in order to destroy the Russian Federation through a process of balkanization, so as to guarantee a hegemony of the Anglosphere in the international geopolitical balance and keep the European nations in a position of subordination with respect to Anglo-American power.
The conflict was supposed to have resulted in Putin’s further rapprochement with Xi Jinping, which was largely predictable and could have been avoided. It is possible that pushing Russia into China’s arms could constitute, in the minds of the New World Order hierarchy, the casus belli for a declaration of war on China itself, which is consistent with the White House’s request to European partners to end the so-called Silk Road trade agreements. This claim will not only have serious repercussions for the reduction of exports to China and for the foreseeable increases in raw materials and semi-finished products from China that until now have been important; it also constitutes the premise for an instability and economic crisis that are usually the antechamber of a military conflict, to the benefit of arms sellers and those who profit from reconstruction (see Iraq, but also Greece). I doubt, however, that the elite has the time necessary to achieve these goals: its days are numbered, because the lie on which their power is based is now exposed.
Beyond the political strategies of one part of the American establishment, we know that the war in Ukraine has also served to hide the scandals of the Biden family and cover up the activity of biolaboratories financed by the Pentagon and America or its allies: artificial viruses genetically modified to be effective on certain ethnic groups have been discovered in those laboratories, in violation of international agreements. Probably the partial failure of the pandemic project — which in 2015 foresaw very large reductions in the world population — is due to the fact that Putin sped up the start of his military operation and put the scientists of those biolaboratories in prison.
Let’s not forget that Ukraine is the main player in the market of surrogacy, organ predation, and human trafficking, which also feeds the pedophile network. The denunciations of humanitarian organizations leave no doubt about these unprecedented horrors: children are being killed and dismembered to send their organs to clinics in the West; wounded Ukrainian soldiers are having their organs harvested for the same purpose; the lives of innocent creatures are being sold to rich perverts to satisfy their abominable deviations. And we know how much the deep stateis composed of characters who can be blackmailed precisely in furtherance of these execrable crimes, a dynamic highlighted by the recent film Sound of Freedom.
CFN: If peace in Ukraine were the true goal, what steps would need to be taken in order to obtain it?
Ukraine acts as a battering ram in NATO’s proxy war against the Russian Federation, so we should first stop considering Zelensky as a legitimate interlocutor in any peace agreements. If he has counted for nothing in the declaration of war and in the continuation of the military actions carried out so far, I do not see what his role should or could be at a peace negotiating table.
Certainly, the Ukrainian crisis can end immediately, if Kiev returns to being a buffer between the NATO bloc — which had previously pledged not to expand to the East — and guarantees the autonomy of Donbass and the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk. The problem is that the damage suffered and the colossal debt taken on by Ukraine in order to cope with the procurement of weapons and the sending of soldiers to the front makes it difficult to end the conflict, also because victory against Russia is impossible without the official involvement of other nations. As long as there was a plan to merely send old tanks or a few volunteers, NATO convinced its member countries to support the war, but I do not believe that they really want to start a world war, despite the ranting statements of some politicians.
CFN: In past statements and interviews, you have expressed notable support for Russia in the context of the war. While Ukraine clearly has the support of Western globalists, would you not agree that Russia’s strong alliance with Communist China is equally concerning, especially in light of Our Lady of Fatima’s prophecies concerning the “errors of Russia”?
My support is not for Russia per se, but for those who are actively opposing the plans of the New World Order at this juncture. It was well known that a conflict between the United States and the Russian Federation would inevitably strengthen the ties of the latter with China: it is only to be hoped that the alliance between Putin and Xi Jinping is not only to the advantage of the Chinese communist dictatorship, and that the balance will be maintained.
I believe, however, that the time has come to get out of the ideological cage that leads us to consider Americans “good” and Russians “bad,” on the basis of a prejudice wanted and imposed by the deep state. As Giulio Andreotti rightly observed — before being ousted from international politics by the intervention of the Atlantic services with the collaboration of organized crime and mafia informants — “NATO should have been dissolved in favor of a social purpose when the Berlin Wall fell in ‘89” (Repubblica, 28 October 2004). Until we realize that Western governments are hostage to an elite dome of subversives who manage power against the peoples, we will not be able to defeat this institutional cancer that alters the international balance and feeds on wars, famine, and poverty.
When Our Lady speaks of the “errors of Russia,” we should consider that these errors have now spread throughout the West, while in Russia materialist atheism and communism have now become a minority. It is in the West — and even within the Catholic Church — that Marxist errors are today publicly professed by governments, in an infernal union between socialism and liberalism that is an expression of the two great Masonic currents, the socialist and revolutionary currents of French Freemasonry and the liberal and institutional currents of Anglo-American Freemasonry.
CFN: One of the hidden plagues in our world today is child trafficking. The new film Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Our Lord in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, shines a light on this plague and calls upon all people to help eradicate it. Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice appears to be downplaying the problem (here). Do you believe, as Caviezel does, that there is a connection between global elites, government agencies, and child trafficking?
As I said earlier, Ukraine is at the center of child trafficking and pedophilia, which principally involves the members of the Satanic elite of the New World Order and government agencies of many states. I am not surprised that this elite seeks in every way to minimize or hide these heinous crimes, also resorting to the power it possesses throughout politics, the media, and the world of entertainment. If we think about how Joe Biden’s son, who has been photographed in poses with minors that are as obscene as they are eloquent, is still at large, we ought to ask ourselves what forces are in play and how deep is the corruption of our leaders and the entire ruling class that revolves around them.
Caviezel’s denunciation has the merit of bringing to light this network of complicity and crimes which cry out for vengeance before God, and which cannot go unpunished. I think also that the now-imminent collapse of the entire deep state will be due more to the indignation of common citizens over the horrors it has perpetrated against children than to the evidence of their plan to exterminate humanity by means of pandemics and famines.
When I hear Klaus Schwab declare: “Climate lockdowns are coming: no more debate necessary,” I wonder how much of a hurry these subversives — Schwab, Gates, Soros, etc. — are in to bring their infernal project to completion in order to hide the reality of what they are doing. Their plans for total control ultimately aim to guarantee themselves impunity by manipulating the Truth and imposing a lie.
CFN: In light of the increasing suppression of the True Mass by the hierarchy, what advice would you give to Catholics who are concerned about attending Mass by, or receiving sacraments from, a priest lacking written faculties or in an “irregular canonical status”?
During the 1970s, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre distanced himself from the “conciliar church” and continued to ordain priests who would guarantee the celebration of the Catholic Mass, the first measures taken against the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X were of a canonical nature: suspension a divinis for having conferred Holy Orders in an institute that had become irregular from one day to the next. The same thing that Archbishop Lefebvre had done up until the day before with the encouragement of the Pope had become illicit overnight. It was only fifteen years later, in 1988, with the Consecration of bishops that excommunication was imposed on Lefebvre, which was then revoked by Benedict XVI. Archbishop Lefebvre had the strength to bear witness to his fidelity to Christ even by disobeying the orders of the Hierarchy, and it is thanks to this holy disobedience that the clergy and the faithful have been able to benefit first from the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei and then from Summorum Pontificum.
In fact, I would say more: many of those people who today indulge in giving little lessons about orthodoxy to others, seeking to demonstrate the acceptability of Vatican II, and who attend liturgical celebrations in the Ancient Rite with the tacit agreement that they will not reject the Council — these individuals can do so only thanks to the “intransigence,” that is, to the principled steadfastness, of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who denounced the errors of that most unfortunate assembly and the liturgical reform that followed it. Without his courage; without the testimony of priests who continued to celebrate the Mass of all Ages and who were torn away from the altars only because they were ordered by their Bishops, the traditional rite would have definitively disappeared from our churches, as it did for nearly the first twenty years following the Council.
And so I ask myself: is it possible that the authority of the Church can be used to prevent the very same thing that the authority of the Church blessed and praised prior to the Council? Can the vicarious power of the Pope and Bishops go against the purpose for which Our Lord, the holder of that power, has established the Church? And again: what credibility can the authority of the Shepherds have when it first establishes a universal norm, then prohibits it, then restores it, and then finally de facto suppresses the same rite? It is necessary to recognize that the exercise of ecclesiastical authority is indissolubly tied to the purpose for which Christ has instituted the Sacred Hierarchy, and that no subversive power can usurp this authority without placing itself in opposition to the Church and to Christ Himself. The abolition of the Apostolic Mass by Paul VI in order to replace it with a counterfeit written by heretics was an abuse, and the nullification of Summorum Pontificum by Bergoglio was also an abuse. It is no coincidence that they are both part of a “conciliar church” broken off from the Catholic Church; a self-referential “church” that has separated from Sacred Tradition, with its own “saints,” its own rites, its own doctrine and morality, all in stark contrast to the Saints, Rites, Doctrine and Morality of the Church of Christ.
Anyone who impedes the celebration of the Tridentine Mass does so indefectibly for evil reasons. But in the entire history of the Church no one has ever dared to forbid the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice in a particular form by using the rationale that it does not express a “new ecclesiology.” Because if anyone had ever said this, he would have by those very words been implicitly recognizing that there is a new doctrinal formulation in contrast with that of the Mass of all Ages, something that, for a Catholic, is completely unacceptable and inconceivable.
If, therefore, the Mass of Saint Pius V is heterogeneous with respect to the religion imposed by the “conciliar church,” then it is the “conciliar church” that is placing itself outside the Church, and not those who, changing nothing of what has always been celebrated and believed, wish to defend a rite that has molded and still molds the holiness of the faithful and of priests.
I have personally founded the Exsurge Domine Association (here the link where you can make your donation) in order to help priests and men and women religious who are being persecuted by the Bergoglian junta. We are constructing a monastic village in the Viterbo province in Italy, in order to give a home to the nuns of Pienza who have been persecuted by the Holy See and their Bishop. We are helping priests left without a parish simply because they celebrate the Apostolic Mass, priests who have been removed from ministry solely because they do not accept the present apostasy. I appeal to all Catholics, asking them to contribute to this project.
The failures of the deep church, like those of the deep state, can be hidden and denied, but they are apparent in all of their disastrous consequences. In order to remove the deep church from the ecclesial body — just like amputating an infected limb — it is necessary above all to denounce the false shepherds, firmly resist their illegitimate orders, and coordinate pastoral care for the small communities of those who are “refractory”. This will probably not assure the victory, but our commitment, our sincere desire to serve the Lord and save souls, our testimony of the coherence of our Christian lives, will be able to induce the Lord to that “everything” which only our “nothingness” can move.
And this is, after all, what gives a reason for hope in these circumstances: not the (Orthodox) fatalism of those who await a divine intervention without lifting a finger; not the (Protestant) activism which leaves God’s help out of the picture and places all its hope in itself; but rather the sane (Catholic and Roman) pragmatism which combines the omnipotence of God in deciding the fate of the world with the generous cooperation of man whom He has created and redeemed. In a word, it is the multiplication of the few loaves and fishes.
August 10, 2023
S. Laurentii Martyris
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| Satanists desecrate Eucharist inside Panama church |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2023, 04:34 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Satanists desecrate Eucharist inside Panama church, archdiocese issues condemnation
Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Panama Father Carlos Mejía has urged priests and faithful to 'redouble' their prayer efforts, especially for those 'submerged in this type of syncretistic practice.'
![[Image: Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-12.50.47-PM-810x500.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-12.50.47-PM-810x500.png)
Aug 11, 2023
(LifeSiteNews) – The Archdiocese of Panama has released a statement condemning the actions of yet unknown persons who desecrated a Catholic church in the Western part of the nation, spelling out a satanic phrase with Communion hosts.
According to a local report published Thursday, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Panama Father Carlos Mejía issued a statement urging local Catholics to engage in “reflection” following last week’s desecration of Mary Help of Christians church in Bejuco, Chame, while reminding the laity of their duty to ensure “zealous care” is taken of their “places of worship.”
Mejía also called for the evangelization of those “submerged in this type of syncretistic practice,” urging parish priests and others to “redouble their prayer efforts so that the Lord may help them to redouble their prayer efforts.”
The mayor of the district of Chame, Abdul Juliao, referred to the desecration as being so terrible it has “no name,” and vowed to make sure those responsible are fully prosecuted under the law.
According to the local report, it was last Wednesday when parishioners at Mary Help of Christians (María Auxiliadora) entered their church to discover that at least one vandal had taken consecrated hosts from the tabernacle and “dispersed” them around the church.
Footage on social media shows that some of the hosts were laid on the ground to form the phrase “Ariel Satan Vive” or, in English, “Satan Lives.” Other hosts were used to form upside-down crosses, a symbol commonly used by those engaged in satanic practice.
Panama’s National Police (FN) is actively investigating the incident, and noted that neither the church nor the tabernacle were broken into.
Many Catholics took to social media to lament the blasphemous event, and encouraged Catholics to pray and do penance in reparation for the grave mockery of Jesus Christ’s True Presence in the Most Holy Eucharist.
While the desecration of Catholic churches is nothing new, such acts of hatred toward Christ and His Church have continued to ramp up in historically Catholic regions in Central and South America.
In 2019, Antifa-like protesters in Chile desecrated a church and tabernacle in Santiago. Similar acts of anti-Catholic persecution have occurred in Mexico and Nicaragua.
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| Historic Catholic Church in Lahaina Miraculously Untouched by Maui Wildfires |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2023, 04:05 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Historic Catholic Church in Lahaina Miraculously Untouched by Maui Wildfires
![[Image: Maria-Lanakila-Catholic-Church-1024x642.jpg]](https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/Maria-Lanakila-Catholic-Church-1024x642.jpg)
Maria Lanakila Catholic Church-Image: Screenshot @HawaiiBrunoldSquad/TikTok
GP | Aug. 12, 2023
The Gateway Pundit reported on the devastating wildfires in Hawaii that have left at least 80 dead with approximately 1,000 people still unaccounted for.
Maria Lanakila Catholic Church, which opened in 1846, was miraculously untouched amidst the devastation surrounding it after wildfires ravaged the area.
Directly across the street from Maria Lanakila Catholic Church-Image: Screenshot @HawaiiBrunoldSquad/TikTok
Video of the still standing church was captured and posted to TikTok.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hawaiibrunoldsqu...9550199083
The New York Post reports:
When the camera pans around, the rest of the town — the largest tourist destination on Maui — looks like a smoldering hellscape of rubble.
Viewers hailed the jaw-dropping miracle as an act of God.
“A def sign from God,” one TikTok user wrote, adding, “he is with you. hold on and keep that faith. we are all praying for you.”
The Pillar spoke with Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, pastor of the nearby parish of St. Anthony’s Who shared,”Basically what we know is the fact that all of Lahaina Town has been consumed by fire. It’s all gone. The church, Maria Lanakila [Our Lady of Victory], is still standing, as is the rectory. The school’s been a little bit affected. They’re still not allowing people to drive into Lahaina. And then 36 people are dead, that they’ve reported, and about 271 facilities have been impacted, not to mention all the cars that are still on the streets, that also got burned.”
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| St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Eleventh Week after Pentecost |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2023, 03:49 AM - Forum: Pentecost
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A Novena of Meditations and Readings for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary begins here.
Let us consider how holy Mary passed from this world by a sweet and happy death. Three things render death bitter -- attachment to the world, remorse for sins, and the uncertainty of salvation. Mary died as she had lived, entirely detached from the things of the world; she died in the most perfect peace; she died in the certainty of eternal glory.
I.
Death being the punishment of sin, it would seem that the Divine Mother -- all holy, and exempt as she was from its slightest stain -- should also have been exempt from death, and from encountering the misfortunes to which the children of Adam, infected by the poison of sin, are subject. But God was pleased that Mary should in all things resemble Jesus; and as the Son died, it was becoming that the Mother should also die; because, moreover, He wished to give the just an example of the precious death prepared for them, He willed that even the most Blessed Virgin should die, but by a sweet and happy death. Let us, therefore, consider how precious was Mary's death, on account of the special favours by which it was accompanied.
There are three things that render death bitter: attachment to the world, remorse for sins, and the uncertainty of salvation. The death of Mary was entirely free from these causes of bitterness, and was accompanied by three special graces, which rendered it precious and joyful. She died as she had lived, entirely detached from the things of the world; she died in the most perfect peace; she died in the certainty of eternal glory.
There can be no doubt that attachment to earthly things renders the death of the worldly bitter and miserable, as the Holy Ghost says: O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions! (Ecclus. xli. 1). But because the Saints die detached from the things of the world, their death is not bitter, but sweet, lovely, and precious; that is to say, as St. Bernard remarks, worth purchasing at any price, however great. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord (Apoc. xiv. 13). Who are they who, being already dead, die? They are those happy souls who pass into eternity already detached, and, so to say, dead to all affection for terrestrial things; who, like St. Francis of Assisi, find in God alone all their happiness, and with him can say: "My God and my All!"
II.
What soul was ever more detached from earthly goods, and more united to God, than the beautiful soul of Mary? She was detached from her parents, for at the age of three years, when children are most attached to them, and stand in the greatest need of their assistance, Mary, with the greatest intrepidity, left them, and went to shut herself up in the Temple to attend to God alone. She was detached from riches, contenting herself always to live poor, and supporting herself with the labour of her own hands. She was detached from honours, loving an humble and abject life, though the honours due to a queen were hers, as she was descended from the kings of Israel. The Blessed Virgin herself revealed to St. Elizabeth of Hungary that when her parents left her in the temple, she resolved in her heart to have no father, and to love no other good than God.
St. John saw Mary represented in that woman, clothed with the sun, who held the moon under her feet. And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet (Apoc. xii. 1). Interpreters explain the moon to signify the goods of this world, which, like the moon, are uncertain and changeable. Mary never had these goods in her heart, but always despised them and trampled them under her feet; living in this world as a solitary turtle-dove in a desert, never allowing her affection to centre itself on any earthly thing; so that of her it was said: The voice of the turtle is heard in our land (Cant. ii. 12). And elsewhere: Who is she that goeth up by the desert? (Cant. iii. 6). Whence the Abbot Rupert says "Thus didst thou go up by the desert; that is, having a solitary soul." Mary, then, having lived always and in all things detached from the earth, and united to God alone, death was not bitter, but, on the contrary, very sweet and dear to her; since it united her more closely to God in Heaven, by an eternal bond.
Spiritual Reading
TO THEE DO WE CRY, POOR BANISHED CHILDREN OF EVE
I.-THE PROMPTITUDE OF MARY IN ASSISTING THOSE WHO INVOKE HER.
Truly unfortunate are we poor children of Eve; for, guilty before God of her fault, and condemned to the same penalty, we have to wander about in this valley of tears as exiles from our country, and to weep over our many afflictions of body and soul. But blessed is he who, in the midst of these sorrows, often turns to the comfortress of the world, to the refuge of the unfortunate, to the great Mother of God, and devoutly calls upon her and invokes her! Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates (Prov. viii. 34). Blessed, says Mary, is he who listens to my counsels, and watches continually at the gate of my mercy, and invokes my intercession and aid.
The holy Church carefully teaches us her children with what attention and confidence we should unceasingly have recourse to this loving protectress; and for this purpose commands a worship peculiar to Mary. And not only this, but she has instituted many Festivals that are celebrated throughout the year in honour of this great Queen: she devotes one day in the week, in an especial manner, to her honour: in the Divine Office all Ecclesiastics and Religious are daily obliged to invoke her in the name of all Christians; and, finally, she desires that all the faithful should salute this most holy Mother of God three times a day, at the sound of the Angelus-bell. And that we may understand the confidence that the holy Church has in Mary we need only remember that in all public calamities she invariably invites all to have recourse to the protection of this Divine Mother, by novenas, prayers, processions, by visiting the churches dedicated to her honour, and her images. And this is what Mary desires. She wishes us always to seek her and invoke her aid; not as if she were begging of us these honours and marks of veneration, for they are in no way proportioned to her merit; but she desires them, that by such means our confidence and devotion may be increased, and that so she may be able to give us greater succour and comfort. "She seeks for those," says St. Bonaventure, "who approach her devoutly and with reverence, for such she loves, nourishes, and adopts as her children."
The Saint remarks that Ruth, whose name signifies, "seeing and hastening," was a figure of Mary; " for Mary, seeing our miseries, hastens in her mercy to succour us." Novarino adds that "Mary, in the greatness of her desire to help us, cannot admit of delay, for she is in no way an avaricious guardian of the graces she has at her disposal as Mother of Mercy, and cannot do otherwise than immediately shower down the treasures of her liberality on her servants."
Oh, how prompt is this good Mother to help those who call upon her! Thy two breasts, says the sacred Canticle, are like two roes that are twins (Cant. iv. 5). Richard of St. Laurence explains this verse, and says, that as roes are swift in their course, so are the breasts of Mary prompt to bestow the milk of mercy on all who ask it. By the light pressure of a devout salutation and prayer they distil large drops." The same author assures us that the compassion of Mary is poured out on every one who asks it, even should it be sought for by no other prayer than a simple "Hail Mary." Wherefore Novarino declares that the Blessed Virgin not only runs but flies to assist him who invokes her. "She," says this author, "in the exercise of her mercy, knows not how to act differently from God; for, as He flies at once to the assistance of those who beg His aid, faithful to His promise, Ask, and you shall receive (John xvi. 24), so Mary, whenever she is invoked, is at once ready to assist him who prays to her. "God has wings when He assists His own, and immediately flies to them; Mary also takes wing when she is about to fly to our aid." And hence we see who the woman was, spoken of in the following verse of the Apocalypse, to whom two great eagle's wings were given, that she might fly to the desert. And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert (Apoc. xii. 14). Ribeira explains these wings to mean the love with which Mary always flew to God. "She has the wings of an eagle, for she flies with the love of God." But the Blessed Amadeus, more to our purpose, remarks that these wings of an eagle signify "the velocity, exceeding that of the seraphim with which Mary always flies to the succour of her children."
This will explain a passage in the Gospel of St. Luke, in which we are told that when Mary went to visit and shower graces on St. Elizabeth and her whole family, she was not slow, but went with speed. The Gospel says: And Mary, rising up, went into the hill country with haste (Luke i. 39). And this is not said of her return. For a similar reason, we are told in the sacred Canticles that her hands are skilful at the wheel (Cant. v. 14), meaning, says Richard of St. Laurence, "that as the art of turning is the easiest and most expeditious mode of working, so also is Mary the most willing and prompt of all the Saints to assist her clients." And truly "she has the most ardent desire to console all, and is no sooner invoked than accepts our prayers and helps us." St. Bonaventure, then, was right in calling Mary the "salvation of all who call upon her," meaning, that it suffices to invoke this Divine Mother in order to be saved; for, according to Richard of St. Laurence, she is always ready to help those who seek her aid. "Thou wilt always find her ready to help thee." And Bernardine de Bustis adds that "this great lady is more desirous to grant us graces than we are desirous to receive them."
Evening Meditation
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
I.
The Prophet David predicted many circumstances, and in great detail, respecting the Passion of Jesus Christ. Especially in the twenty-first Psalm he foretold that Jesus would be pierced with nails in His hands and in His feet, and that they would be able to count all His bones. He foretold that before He should be crucified, His garments would be stripped from Him and divided among the executioners. He spoke of His outer garments, because the inner vestment, which was made without seam, was to be given by lot: They parted my garments amongst them, and upon my vesture they cast lots (Ps. xxi. 19). This Prophecy is recalled both by St. Matthew and St. John (Matt. xxvii. 35; Jo. xix. 23).
David also foretold what St. Matthew relates respecting the blasphemies and mockeries of the Jews against Jesus Christ while He hung upon the Cross: They that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it, save thy own self; if thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. In like manner also, the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: He saved others, himself he cannot save; if he be the king of Israel, let him come now down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him now deliver him if he will have him; for he said: I am the Son of God (Matt. xxvii. 39-43). All this was in accordance with what David had foretold: All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn; they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head. He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him seeing he delighteth in him (Ps. xxi. 8, 9).
II.
The Royal Prophet further foretold the great pains Jesus would suffer on the Cross in seeing Himself abandoned by all, and even by His own, except St. John and the Blessed Virgin; while His beloved Mother, by her presence, would not lessen the sufferings of her Son, but rather increased them through the compassion He felt for her, in seeing her thus afflicted by His death. Thus our suffering Lord, in the agonies of His bitter death, had none to comfort Him. This also was foretold by David: I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none (Ps. lxviii. 21). The greatest suffering, however, of our afflicted Redeemer consisted in His beholding Himself abandoned by His Eternal Father, upon which He cried out, according to the prophecy of David: O God, my God, look upon me; why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins (Ps. xxi. 2), as though He had said, "O my Father, the sins of men, which I call My own, because I have taken them upon Me, forbid Me to be delivered from these sufferings which are ending My life; and why hast Thou, O My God, abandoned Me in this My great agony?" To these words of David correspond the words which St. Matthew records as uttered by Jesus upon the Cross a little while before His death: Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani? that is: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matt. xxvii. 46).
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