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| The Battle of Lepanto by W.T. Walsh - The Angelus 1986 |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 12:47 PM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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The Angelus - October 1986
The Battle of Lepanto
By William Thomas Walsh
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3...%3DApi&f=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.WStCrLxGmkwcXpBROIZCZgHaJZ%26pid%3DApi&f=1)
Our Lady of the Rosary
From the very first Don Juan ascribed the triumph of his fleet to the powerful intercession of the Rosary Queen… "It was not generals nor battalions nor arms that brought us victory; it was Our Lady of the Rosary."
In the middle 1500's Christian Europe was an embattled fortress. Riddled by the Protestant Revolt that swept the North and England from the fold of the Church, she faced, almost in despair, yet another threat—the mounting attack of a centuries-old enemy, the Turk.
Like an angry sea not to be denied, the Turkish menace licked and growled at the frontiers. On the eastern flank in 1529, a Moslem army stormed up from prostrate Hungary, to be turned back only at the gates of Vienna. Increasingly, Turkish pirates boldly raided the shores of Spain and Italy, going so far as to sack Ostia, the port of Rome. In 1567, Spanish Moriscos, once subjugated by Ferdinand and Isabella, were in open revolt in the West and calling for a Turkish army to invade Spain. The real threat, however, was the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, an island in the east Mediterranean long held by Venice. In 1570, the Turks barbarously conquered all Cyprus except for the city of Famagosta where the Venetians grimly held on. Cyprus in their hands, the Moslems would sweep the Mediterranean with their powerful fleet, thus exposing southern Europe, especially Italy, to invasion.
It took the faith of a great saint—Pope Saint Pius V—to kindle anew Europe's crusading spirit. The odds seemed hopeless. North and south Europe were split apart; William of Orange in Holland had actually intrigued with the Turks to invade Spain; jealous France held aloof from a common effort with Philip II of Spain. But Pius V refused to believe that the Moslem could not be defeated at sea, or that the Crusader's faith was dead. Early in 1571 he appealed to Philip for help.
Philip, although his armies were at the other end of Europe and his treasury bare, wholeheartedly responded, naming his half-brother, Don Juan, to command the united Papal, Spanish, and Venetian fleets. And so, as a mighty Turkish fleet converged on beleaguered Famagosta in early summer of 1571, the Christian armada grew apace at Messina, readying to strike a great crusader's blow in the historic battle of Lepanto off the west coast of Greece.
"Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?"
The Turkish fleet, about that time, was setting out from Constantinople, with instructions to find and destroy the Christian navies and to complete the conquest of Cyprus. Before Ali Pasha left for the Bosphorus with forty great galleys, four Christian prisoners were crucified, and others skinned alive, as sacrifices to Mohammed for victory. While an army of 70,000 began the siege of Dolcino, on the coast of Albania, the fleet proceeded to Chios (April eighth) where it was joined by forty more vessels under Mohammed-Bey, governor of Negro ponte. A second armada was preparing to follow from Constantinople, and Aluch Ali was cruising from Algiers with twenty more. Before the end of April the Grand Turk had almost 300 heavy warships, with a huge army of crack Janizaries and Spahis on board, on the way to Cyrpus.
On May nineteenth, Mustapha resumed the siege of Famagosta, which had held out heroically for nearly a year under the Venetian, General Bragadino.
Mustapha loosed all his fury upon this city for three months. The Italian women fought in the breaches with their men. The children carried dirt and ammunition. Hunger at last got the better of them, and, in August, Bragadino agreed to surrender, if the Turks would spare their lives. Mustapha agreed; but as soon as the Christians had laid down their arms, he had them tortured and butchered, women and children with the men. The valiant Bragadino was skinned alive. There were other atrocities too horrible to mention. Mustapha went sailing off to range the Mediterranean in quest of the Christian fleet, with the stuffed skin of Bragadino swinging from his yardarm.
It seems incredible that with such dangers hanging over their other eastern possessions, and even their own shores, the Venetians should have haggled over the details of the League treaty for fully two months after the Pope had signed it.
At last, however, the treaty was signed, on May twentieth. The news reached Madrid on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and the nuncio hastened to San Lorenzo, to notify the King. Philip was attending a solemn procession in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a day he had long anticipated, for the monastery portion of the Escorial was finished, and he was formally handing it over to the Jeronymite friars he had chosen as its custodians. He would not grant Castagna an audience until the next day; but he had the Cardinal of Siguenza tell him of his pleasure over the good news, and say that Don Juan would start at once. Philip was waiting for confirmation of the news from his own commissioners. This arrived on the morning of June sixth. He then gave his orders. The Prince left Madrid at three o'clock the same afternoon, reaching Guadalajara, thirty-five miles away, the same night. He was at Barcelona on the fifteenth. Don Juan of Austria was riding to the sea at last.
The Pope was pleased with what he heard of his Generalissimo, and wanted him to come to Rome. King Philip refused to allow this. Pope Pius was compelled, therefore, to send the banner of the Crusade and the Admiral's truncheon, which he blessed, to Naples, where, on August second, an immense crowd gathered to hear Mass, and to see Don Juan seated in a throne on the steps of the high altar in Santa Chiara, a noble figure in steel armor, spangled with gold, his shoulders draped with the decoration of the Golden Fleece, even his hair golden in the soft multicolored light of the old church. After Mass, Cardinal Granvelle, as viceroy of Naples and a Prince of the Church, presented to him the truncheon and the azure banner on which was emblazoned the figure of Christ Crucified, with the arms of the Pope, King Philip, Venice, and Don Juan at His feet.
"Take, O illustrious Prince," said Granvelle, "the insignia of the true Word Made Flesh. Take the living symbol of the holy Faith whose defender you will be in this enterprise. He gives you glorious victory over the impious enemy, and by your hand shall his pride be laid in the dust." "Amen!" A mighty shout like that of Clermont burst from the people. "Amen!"
On August twenty-third, when Don Juan arrived at Messina, the harbor was a cluttered forest of masts, the ancient town swarming with men of all nations. By September first, when the whole fleet was assembled, there were 208 galleys in all, 90 of Spain and her dependencies, 106 of Venice and 12 of the Pope; besides nearly 100 brigantines, frigates, and transports, mostly furnished by Spain; with some 50,000 sailors and galley slaves, and 31,000 soldiers; 19,000 of them paid by King Philip (including Germans and Italians), 8,000 Venetians, 2,000 papal troops, and 2,000 volunteers, chiefly from Spain.
Spanish galleys were by far the best built, best equipped, and best handled, and would bear the brunt of any fighting. The Venetian ships showed up so badly in a review that Don Juan inspected some of them, and found, to his disgust, that they were not even sufficiently manned. Some had hardly any crews. Others lacked fighting men. He distributed among the worst of them about 4,000 of the famous Spanish and Italian infantry. Then he held a Council of War, attended by seventy officers. Some favored a merely defensive campaign, since the Turks evidently outnumbered them, and the risk would be great, especially as the time for autumn tempests was at hand. Others said that if the Turk galleys were more numerous, they were not so efficient; and "something always had to be left to luck." Don Juan himself apparently hesitated, thinking of the King's instructions."
The Papal influence was all in favor of fighting, whatever the odds. The invincible spirit of the old saint in the Vatican was perhaps the decisive factor. When Bishop Odescalchi, his nuncio, came to bless the fleet and to give a large portion of the True Cross for distribution among the crews, each vessel having a grain of the Precious Wood, he also brought to Don Juan the solemn assurance of Pope Pius V that, if he offered battle, God would give him the victory. If they were defeated, the Pope promised "to go to war himself with his gray hairs, to put idle youth to shame." But with courage they could not fail. Had not several revelations, including two prophecies by Saint Isidore of Sevilla, described such a battle and victory as seemed imminent, won by a youth closely resembling Don Juan?
At the Holy Father's suggestion, Don Juan adopted a modus operandi seldom if ever taught in naval academies. No women were allowed aboard the ships. Blasphemy was to be punished with death. While waiting for a good wind and the return of his scouting squadron with news of where the Turks were, the Generalissimo fasted for three days. All his officers and crews did likewise. Contemporary accounts agree that not one of the 1,000 sailors and soldiers failed to confess and to receive Holy Communion. Even the galley slaves were unshackled from their long benches and led in droves ashore, to confess to the numerous priests who toiled day and night at the Jesuit College helping chaplains of the galley.
When the last of the Venetians had arrived, the Armada began to put to sea, September fifteenth, in the order agreed upon. Doria led the vanguard with 54 galleys of the right wing, flying green banners. Don Juan followed next morning with the batalla or center, under azure banners, with the blue standard of Our Lady of Guadalupe over the Real. (The Pope's Standard of the League was reserved for battle.) Marcantonio Colonna, on the flagship of the Pope, was on his right, Veniero, a cantankerous old Venetian sea-dog, at his left. The third squadron of the Venetian Barbarigo followed, with yellow banners: and the Marques of Santa Cruz (Don Alvaro de Bazan) brought up the rear with thirty Spanish galleys and some of Italy, all under white flags.
It was a sight to remember—the papal nuncio, a flaming figure in scarlet from head to foot, standing on the mole with hand uplifted to bless each ship as it passed, the crusaders kneeling on the decks, the knights and men-at-arms glittering with steel, the sailors in red suits and caps, the rowers with dark naked backs glistening with sweat, the brown sails bellying out to catch the first breeze; and on the lofty prow of the flagship, Don Juan in golden armor, like an avenging angel under the out flung blue banner of her who had trodden on the serpent's head. Thus they passed into the open Mediterranean and formed in ranks, two by two. The six great Venetian galeasses, each a bristling fort with 44 heavy guns, led the way into the sapphire studded morning light. The galeasses kept a full mile ahead, to open the fray with a heavy bombardment. Two by two the whole Armada followed, almost in battle order, according to a plan carefully worked out by old paralyzed Don Garcia de Toledo. The plan was somewhat modified, apparently, to leave spaces between the squadrons, so that Santa Cruz could intervene where his help might be needed.
Don Juan left Corfu on September twenty-eighth. While the Turkish fleet was skirting the southern shore of Aetolia, making for the Gulf of Corinth (or Lepanto) the Christian Armada, using oars because the wind was contrary, nosed through the waters of the Ionian Sea, with the Albanian shore off the port bows, past Nicopolis and that stretch of sea lying off Actium where the spirit of the East had fled from the spirit of the West in the jaded galleys of Antony and Cleopatra, and around the coast of Santa Maura to Cephalonia, with the narrow isle of Ithaca hugged under its lee shore, still fragrant with the memory of Penelope and the unconquerable fortitude of Odysseus.
It was October fifth when the fleet cast anchor among the Curzolares. That day a brigantine from Candia came by with news of the fall of Famagosta, and the horrible atrocities perpetrated by Mustapha upon the helpless Christians who had surrendered. A quiver of rage passed through the floating city of armed men. Nothing could have been better timed to make them fight like holy madmen.
The wind was east, the sky overcast, the sea gray with fog. All day Saturday and well into the night, the fleet remained inactive, not knowing that the wind which kept them there had brought the Turkish fleet across the Gulf of Patras to the Albanian shore, and that Aluch Ali, with all his Algerian galleys, was still with them. With the falling of the starless night a dead silence settled over the sea.
About two o'clock in the morning of Sunday, the seventh, there came up a fresh steady wind from the west, across the Ionian Sea, sweeping the stars and the wide bay clear of the wraiths of fog. Don Juan, lying sleepless in the cabin of his Real, saw that he was in the middle of what seemed a huge lake, flooded with moonlight. He gave the word, the great anchors were weighed and the sails unfurled, the whips cracked over the straining backs of the galley slaves, the great ships hove through the choppy waters, as if racing the dawn to the Albanian coast. When the sun came flaming up over the Gulf of Lepanto, Doria's lookout, in the vanguard, sighted a squadron of the enemy about twelve miles away, returning from a scouting trip to Santa Maura. The signal flag agreed upon was on the masthead of the royal frigate, where Doria was on watch.
"We must conquer or die here," said Don Juan, exultantly, and ordered a green banner displayed as a sign for all to get in battle array. The multiple banks of oars on the six great Venetian galeasses plunged into the sea, driving the massive hulks to their positions, two of them a mile in front of each of the three sections of the battle line.
The Venetian Barbarigo, with sixty-four galleys, veered as closely as possible to the Aetolian shore, to prevent an encircling movement by the enemy on the north. Don Juan commanded the center or batalla of sixty-three galleys, with Colonna and Veniero on either side of him, and Requesens in the ship behind him. Doria's squadron of sixty took the right wing, nearest the open sea, the most dangerous post of all. Thirty-five vessels were held in reserve in the rear under the Marques of Santa Cruz, with orders to give help wherever it might be needed. Thus the great fleet advanced into the Gulf of Patras, in a long arc extending over a league-and-a-half sea and gradually stiffening into a straighter line as the enemy came in sight.
The Turks, having a total of 286 galleys (for Hascen Bey had just arrived with 22 extra ones from Tripoli) against 208, had decided to fight, and were clearing their decks for action. Mohammed Siroco with 55 galleys opposed Barbarigo. Ali Pasha and Pertew with 96 faced the batalla of Don Juan. Aluch Ali with 73 took the side nearest the open sea, opposite Gianandrea Doria. There was also a squadron of reserve in the rear. The wind had shifted to the east, bringing on the Turks with bellied sails, while the Christians had to use their oars. Toward noon it almost died away. Four hours passed while both fleets made their preparations for combat.
Doria meanwhile came back in a swift frigate to consult with Don Juan and the others. According to one account he was averse, at the start, to giving battle to an enemy with so large a preponderance of heavy ships. He wanted a council of war, at least. But Don Juan cried, "It is time to fight now, not to talk"; and so it was agreed. Cabrera says Doria not only drew up the final battle order of the fleet, but suggested that the Generalissimo have the espolones cut away from the bows of his galleys. These were sharp spurs, fourteen feet long which could crash through the side of an enemy ship, doing great damage when propelled by the arms of a hundred galley slaves. It was obvious that in fighting at close quarters, hand-to-hand, ship locked to ship, they would be useless. Without them, too, Don Juan could place his bow guns lower, and hit the Turkish hulks nearer the water line. The plan was adopted. One after another down the long line the espolones splashed into the calm sea.
The young Admiral, now in his golden armor, went in a fast frigate from ship to ship, holding up an iron crucifix for all to see. "Hey, valorous soldiers!" he cried. "Here's the chance you wanted. I have done my part. Do you now humble the pride of the enemy and win glory in this holy fight. Live or die, be conquerors; if you die, you go to Heaven." The sight of the gallant young figure and the sound of his fresh voice had an extraordinary effect. A mighty shout answered him from each ship. There passed across the sparkling sea a long broken cheer as the Pope's banner of the League with the image of Christ Crucified catching the glint of the high sun, rose above the Real beside the blue flag of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On the forward mast of his flagship Don Juan had hung a crucifix which alone of all his effects survived the fire in his house at Alcala.
As the Turks advanced in a great half-moon he knelt on the prow and in a loud voice begged the blessing of God on the Christian arms, while priests and monks throughout the fleet held up crucifixes before the kneeling sailors and soldiers. The sun was now directly overhead. The clear water, almost unrippled, flashed back a tremulous replica in vivid colors of a thousand standards, streamers, pennons and gonfalons, the cold brilliant glitter of weapons and armor, the gold and silver of armaments, all wavering kaleidoscopically between the blue sea and the dazzling sky. A hush like that which comes just before the consecration of the Mass fell over the whole Armada. The Turkish side replied with the usual blood-curdling chorus of screams, hoots, jibes and groans, the clashing of cimeters on shields, the blaring of horns and trumpets. The Christians waited in silence.
At that moment the wind, which had thus far favored the Turks, shifted to the west and sped the Christian galleys on to the shock. Ali Pasha, in the Moslem center, opened the battle with a cannon shot. Don Juan answered, with another. As the Turkish oarsmen churned the sea, the six great galeasses of Venice opened fire with their 264 guns. This bombardment was not as devastating as had been expected, but it had the effect of breaking the enemy's line. The Turkish right was racing now to gain the open water between the Venetians and the Aetolian shore. Five ships closed upon the galley of Barbarigo, while the Moorish archers let fly clouds of poisoned arrows, which they preferred to firearms and used with more deadly effect. Ship to ship they were lashed now, fighting hand-to-hand. Huge Barbarigo fought like a lion, until, taking his shield from his face to shout an order, he was pierced through the eye with an arrow.
It was the Christian right that stood the heaviest attack. Doria was held in fear and respect by the Moslems. Moreover, he occupied the most dangerous post, where strategy and good sailing counted. If there was a match for him among the mariners of the Mediterranean, it was Aluch Ali, the Italian apostate. As the Turkish left tried to gain the open sea, to attack by poop and prow, Doria extended his line farther to the right, leaving a space between his squadron and the batalla. Aluch Ali swiftly changed his course and came crashing through the open space with his best ships, while his slower sailing galleys took the Genoese on the side toward the open sea. Doria, heavily outnumbered, fought a magnificent engagement. On ten of his vessels, nearly all the soldiers were killed in the first hour of the conflict. The handful of of survivors fought on, desperately holding their ships in the hope of succor.
Santa Cruz's reserve, however, had gone to the aid of some of the Venetians on the left, and the whole batalla was locked in mortal conflict with the Turkish center. As soon as Ali Pasha saw where the holy flags flew over the galley of Don Juan, he drove straight for it. The two enormous hulks crashed prow to prow. Ali's ship was higher and heavier, and manned with 500 picked Janizaries.
The wisdom of Doria's advice to cut away the espolones was now apparent; while the Turk's artillery fired through the rigging of the Real, Don Juan's poured death into the ranks of the Janizaries as the ships grappled. Hand-to-hand they fought from one deck to the other, for two hours. Seven Turkish ships stood by to help the Sultana. As fast as the Janizaries fell on the decks, they were replaced by others from the hulks of reserve. Twice the horde of yelling Turks penetrated the Real to the main mast, and twice the Spaniards thrust them back. But Don Juan, with heavy losses, had only two ships of reserves. Fighting gallantly in a little ring of chosen Spanish cavaliers, he was wounded in the foot. His situation was extremely perilous, in fact, when Santa Cruz, having saved the Venetians, came to his aid and rushed 200 reserves aboard.
Heartened by this fresh blood, the Spanish threw themselves on Ali and his Janizaries so furiously that they hurled them back into their own ship. Three times the Christians charged, and three times the Turks cast them out over decks now red and slippery with blood, piled with heaps of dead men, ghastly mangled trunks, severed arms and legs still quivering. The two fleets were locked in the embrace of death, ships lashed by twos and threes in water already streaked with crimson from floating bodies and limbs. The din of musketry, screams of rage and pain, clash of steel on steel, thunder of artillery, falling of spars and lashing of bloody waters between rocking timbers resounded horribly all through the Sunday afternoon. Splendid and terrible deeds were done. Old Veniero, seventy years old, fought sword in hand at the head of his men. Cervantes arose from his bed of fever to fight and to lose his left hand. Young Alexander of Parma boarded a Turkish galley alone, and survived the experience. The moment was critical, and the issue still in doubt, when the magnificent Ali Pasha, defending his ship from the last Christian onslaught, was laid low by a ball from a Spanish arquebus. His body was dragged to the feet of Don Juan. A Spanish soldier triumphantly pounced upon it and shore away the head. One version says that Don Juan reproved him for this brutality. Another, more likely, says that the Prince impaled the head on the end of a long pike and held it up for all to see. Hoarse shouts of victory burst from the Christians on the Real, as they brushed the disheartened Turks into the sea and hoisted the banner of Christ Crucified to the enemy masthead. There was not a single hole in this flag, though the spars and masts were riddled, and the mainmast bristled with arrows like a porcupine. From ship to ship the shout of triumph was taken up, with the word that Ali was dead and the Christians had won. A panic seized the enemy, and he took to flight.
As the sun sank over Cephalonia, Doria's right wing was still furiously engaged with the Algerians. Gianandrea was red from head to foot with blood, but escaped without a scratch. When Aluch Ali saw that the Moslem fleet was getting the worse of it, he skillfully withdrew between the right and the center of the Christians. In the rear of Doria's fleet he came upon a galley of the Knights of Malta, whom he especially hated. He pounced upon it from the stern, slew all the knights and the crew, and took possession of the vessel; but when Santa Cruz attacked him, he abandoned his prize and fled with 40 of his best ships toward the open sea and the crimson sunset. Doria's fleet pursued him until night and the coming of a storm forced him to desist.
The Christians took refuge in the port of Petala, and there counted their casualties, which were comparatively light, and their booty, which was exceedingly rich. They had lost 8,000 slain, including 2,000 Spanish, 800 of the Pope's men, and 5,200 Venetians. The Turks had lost 224 vessels, 130 captured and more than 90 sunk or burned; at least 25,000 of their men had been slain, and 5,000 captured; 10,000 of their Christian captives were set free.
Don Juan at once sent ten galleys to Spain to inform the King, and dispatched the Count of Priego to Rome. But Pius V had speedier means of communication than galleys. On the afternoon of Sunday, October seventh, he was walking in the Vatican with his treasurer, Donata Cesis. The evening before he had sent out orders to all convents in Rome and nearby to double their prayers for the Victory of the Christian fleet, but now he was listening to a recital of some of his financial difficulties. Suddenly he stepped aside, opened a window, and stood watching the sky as if astonished. Then, turning with a radiant face to the treasurer, he said, "Go with God. This is not the time for business, but to give thanks to Jesus Christ, for our fleet has just conquered."
He then hurried to his chapel to prostrate himself in thanksgiving. Afterwards he went out, and everybody noticed his youthful step and joyous countenance.
The first news of the battle, through human agencies, reached Rome by way of Venice on the night of October twenty-first, just two weeks after the event. Saint Pius went to St. Peter's in a procession, singing the Te Deum Laudamus. There was great joy in Rome. The Holy Father commemorated the victory by designating October seventh as the Feast of the Holy Rosary, and by adding "Help of Christians" to the titles of Our Lady in the Litany of Loreto.
From the very first Don Juan ascribed the triumph of his fleet to the powerful intercession of the Rosary Queen. The Venetian Senate wrote to the other States which had taken part in the Crusade: "It was not generals nor battalions nor arms that brought us victory; but it was Our Lady of the Rosary."
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| The Infamous WEF Forum Wants Government, Banks, Big Business to Help ‘Vaccinate the World’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 11:45 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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World Economic Forum Wants Government, Central Banks, Big Business to Help ‘Vaccinate the World’
Breitbart |16 Dec 20200
The World Economic Forum (WEF) believes a management triumvirate comprising big business, central banks and government can play a “pivitol role” in the global take-up of coronavirus vaccinations.
A WEF report published Tuesday points to the personal records held by big businesses as an asset in identifying those who need the vaccinations, underwritten by banking institutions and globalist organizations like the U.N.-subsidiary World Health Organization providing “tracing apps and digital health passports.”
“Workplace norms and employers that encourage pandemic-time discipline, even after the vaccination programs kickoff, will play a pivotal role in driving continued positive outcomes,” the report posits.
The WEF call came just hours after the Catholic church argued such a vaccine program should not be feared or countered – rather, treated as a natural course of global events. [See here - The Catacombs]
"Being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.” https://t.co/9YFjGGc4pl
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 15, 2020
The WEF paper goes on to say relying on employers is a natural solution, “Given that this is adult vaccination at a scale which we have not done ever before, it is only natural that the workplace will emerge as one of the key hubs for evangelizing and expanding vaccination cover.”
It then points to what it believes the combination of tech, big government, and globalist organizations can achieve:
Quote:Governments, central banks and organizations like W.H.O. are hugely supported by enterprises joining the good fight. Public-private partnerships, adopting the ‘all hands-on deck’ approach, have served us tremendously well even as corporations fight their own battle to protect employees, redeploy capabilities to help new pressing needs, steady cashflows and keep the economy running.
From contact tracing apps, digital health passports, technology for safer public spaces, vaccine discovery, logistics capabilities for vaccine distribution to massive philanthropic funding for community support, enterprises are truly partnering nations struggling to tide things over through these trying times.
The WEF urges big businesses to play their part, saying “employment records can serve as a rich source of demographic data – age, ethnicity and occupation, for example – to continue to support equitable vaccination coverage.”
Whether or not there is ever a total acceptance of the vaccine is a problem even the World Economic Forum admits to.
The report concludes “public hesitancy towards vaccination, brought on by a fear of side-effects, is rampant.
“In a June 2020 survey, conducted by the World Economic Forum’s COVID Action Platform, only 71.5% of participants reported that they would be very or somewhat likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine.”
[Emphasis mine.]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: May 1988 - 'Summary of the Situation' |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 10:10 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Summary of the Situation
May 30, 1988
Here is the account of the situation written by the hand of Archbishop Lefebvre, which he gave to the superiors of traditional communities and to some priests with whom he met at the Society’s retreat house of Le Pointet, France. Present were Benedictine monks and nuns (including Dom Gérard), Dominican monks and nuns, Franciscan monks and nuns, Carmelite nuns, Fr. Coache, Fr. André, Fr. Lecareu....
Explanation of the Situation Concerning What Rome Calls “Reconciliation”
- Fifteen years of opposition to the doctrinal deviations of the Council and the reforms issuing from this conciliar spirit, to remain faithful to the Faith and the sources of edifying grace.
- To abide in this fidelity we undergo the persecution of Rome and conferences of bishops, and religious congregations.
- Being involved in the same struggle, we have helped each other to consolidate and develop the works which Providence has put in our hands and which it has visibly blessed.
- Providence has permitted us to have a bishop, thanks to which we have had the grace of ordinations and confirmations, an indispensable aid to our fidelity.
- Fifteen years of traditional ecclesial life, 15 years of blessings, of life with the Eucharistic Sacrifice, prayers, reception of valid and fruitful sacraments, a bishop, priests, brothers, nuns, Christian families united in the Faith. Fervor, generosity, full spiritual and material growth in the midst of trials, crosses, scorn...etc.
- The bishop formed the moral bond and even the ecclesial bond with the present Modernist Rome.#
- It must be recognized that the efforts to correct the spirit and reforms of the Council were in vain, as well as requests to officially authorize the “experiment of Tradition.”
However, a vital problem is posed for fidelity to Tradition with the disappearance of the bishop. As Rome refuses to agree to the permanence of Tradition, the necessity of the salvation of souls becomes the (supreme) law.
On June 29, 1987, the decision to create some bishops to ensure the episcopal succession is announced.
On July 14, 1987, a final request is made of Rome, both by letter and in person.
On July 28, 1987, a serious hope of a solution appears. Rome seems frightened by the threat of episcopal consecrations.
The response does not reject the idea of an episcopal succession, but after legal recognition of the Society, the liturgy, the traditional seminaries are authorized. They no longer speak of a doctrinal document. They will return to that. An Apostolic Visitor is envisaged. What would we do?
- The visit of Cardinal Gagnon is decided on and takes place from November 11 to December 9.
- The report is given to the Pope on January 5.
- A Commission is proposed on March 18.
- A Commission of experts meets April 13-15. Signature of a proposal takes place on April 15.
- Meeting of the Commission of experts, Archbishop Lefebvre and the Cardinal, May 3 and 4. Signing of the Protocol, May 5, Feast of St. Pius V.
Procedure for putting into application. Question of the date of the consecration?Put off sine die (indefinitely). Letter of His Grace to the Pope of May 5, 1988.
The difficulties of putting into application begin:- Letter of May 6 to the Cardinal. Threat to proceed with the consecrations on June 30.
- Response of the Cardinal on May 6.
- Project of the letter to the Pope asking pardon, the letter of May 5 being too administrative (brought by Fr. du Chalard).
- Fr. du Chalard confirms to the Cardinal that I intend to consecrate on June 30. The Cardinal asks that I come to Rome.
- Letter to the Pope and letter to the Cardinal on the subject of the date and number of bishops and membership of the Roman Commission, May 20 and May 24.
- Meeting with the Cardinal and the secretaries on May 24.
- The letters are delivered. Then the Cardinal mentions August 15 as the date for the consecration, but does not respond to the other problems. As for the secretaries, they allude to the other problems by saying that the requests can be looked into! The Cardinal gives me another project of a letter to the Pope.
- On May 28, the Pope confirms the date of August 15.
The atmosphere of these contacts and talks, the reflections of both sides during the conversations, clearly manifests to us that the desire of the Holy See is to bring us back to the Council and to the reforms, also to place us back into the bosom of the Conciliar Church as a religious congregation:
- The Bureau at Rome will be provisional. (Special note)
- The Bishop is not necessary, and grudgingly conceded. Delays!
- The Catholic Church is the Church of Vatican Council II.
- Acceptance of the conciliar novelties. St. Nicolas! (Cardinal Ratzinger had asked for the celebration of a Mass of Paul VI each Sunday at St. Nicolas, in Paris.)
- The religious congregations are to be returned to their respective orders, with a special statute!
- We are given a doctrinal note to be signed.
- Again we are expected to ask pardon for our faults.
Our reintegration seems to be a political, diplomatic “trump card” to offset the excesses of others.
This poses the following moral problem, in which I do not feel entitled to act without your counsel, since you are directly concerned. (Recall of Fr. Schmidberger from America.)
We must realize that a new situation will appear after the application of the accord.
Let us state the advantages:- Canonical normalization of our works. Renewal of relations with Rome for each one of our works.
- At the same time we retain a certain independence, for the safeguarding of Tradition,
- through the Liturgy.
- through the formation of our members and the faithful.
- by relations with the bishops, and the conciliar world.
- suppression of apprehensions and reticences (to a certain extent).
- facilitation of relations with certain civil administrations.
- easier missionary contacts to convert priests and faithful to Tradition!
- a flow of vocations and the faithful to our works.
- a bishop consecrated with the approval of the Holy See.
Let us state the disadvantages:- a limited but definite dependence on Modernist and Conciliar Rome through the Roman Commission directed by Cardinal Ratzinger.
its principles are the same ones which alienated us from modern Rome.
- disassociation of our moral unity created around my person, which disappears, partly in favor of Cardinal Ratzinger, and partly in favor of the different superiors general who report directly to Rome, but who can continue to have recourse to the bishop consecrated for Tradition. We risk having less unity and less strength.
- Relations with the congregations and orders. They are to have a special statute, but in spite of everything a moral dependence, which Rome would like to see transformed as early as possible into a canonical dependence. Danger of contamination.
- Relations with the Conciliar bishops, faithful and clergy. In spite of the broad exemption, as the canonical barriers disappear, there will necessarily be courtesy contacts and perhaps offers of cooperation, for the student unions—superiors’ unions—priests’ meetings— regional ceremonies, etc...This whole world of the Conciliar spirit— ecumenical and charismatic.
- Only one bishop. Less protection, more danger.
Up until now we were naturally protected, the selection was assured by the necessity of a rupture with the conciliar world. From now on, continual caution is necessary, to keep us always on guard against the atmosphere in Rome, against the atmosphere in the dioceses.
This is why we want three or four bishops and the majority in the Roman Commission, but they turn a deaf ear. They have agreed to only one bishop, after continual threats, and delayed the date. They consider it inconceivable that we treat them as a contaminated atmosphere, after all they are granting us.
Thus, a moral problem is posed for all of us.
- Must we run the risk of contacts with this modernist atmosphere in the hope of converting some souls, and with the hope of fortifying ourselves beforehand with the grace of God and the virtue of prudence, and thus remain legally united to Rome according to the letter, as we are in reality and in spirit?
- Or must we, before all else, preserve the traditional family to maintain its cohesion and vigor in the Faith and in grace, considering that the purely formal tie with modernist Rome cannot be as important as the protection of this family, representing those who remain faithful to the Catholic Church?
- What do God and the Holy Trinity, and Our Lady of Fatima ask of us in response to this question?
It is clear that four bishops will fortify us better than just one. The decision must be taken within 48 hours.
Reflect. Pray. Please give me your opinion, even in writing if you wish, and it will be my duty, with the help of the Holy Ghost, and Our Lady the Queen, to make a decision.
Msgr. de Castro Mayer has promised to come June 30, for the episcopal consecrations, with three priests of his diocese.
# i.e., Rome occupied by modernists.
Source
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1979 Conference - On His Recent Audience with Pope John Paul II |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 10:06 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Conference given by His Excellency Mgr. Lefebvre to the Seminarians at Ecône regarding his recent Audience with Pope John Paul II
21 December 1978
My dear friends,
I hope there is no representative of the press among you! Somebody in disguise! In any case, I ask you to be discreet and not, after this evening, to be running to the telephone to spread what I shall be saying about the audience. The business is not yet ended, and talks are in progress; there will be further meetings, not perhaps with the Holy Father himself but probably with Cardinal Seper, so what has been begun must not be hampered. This is a new stage in our relations with Rome, with a Rome somewhat changed, not the old Rome with which we had no difficulty.
Cardinal Siri’s Mediation
The Holy Father was informed that I was in Rome by Cardinal Siri whom I had gone to visit on my arrival in Rome. Cardinal Siri wanted to intervene so that I should have this audience. I did not myself ask Cardinal Siri for the audience – I was thinking of having it later, as it was still too soon and it would be better to wait until the Pope had been informed and events would show what line the Pope would take, what he was thinking. But as soon as I met Cardinal Siri he said: “Fine! Next week I have an audience with the Pope, and if you like I'll talk to him about it. We'll certainly discuss it."
He did have an audience the next week, on the Monday. I had visited him on Friday and on the following Monday he had his audience (he hadn't told me the day: it could have been Thursday, Friday). That Monday evening he told me, saying: "Good. It is arranged. The Holy Father will receive you on Saturday at 4:30 in his private apartments"- on Saturday, for, as the Pope had said to him, he wanted the meeting to be on Our Lady's day so that it would be under her patronage. I was to get in touch with one of his friends who would bring me to the Holy Father's private apartments – as it was not an official audience it could not take place in the offices where the Pope is accustomed to receive those who have an audience with him.
I have often been to see the Popes, one after another, Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI – but always in the official places, never in the private apartments. So I thought it better to keep out of sight for a day or two so as to avoid being eventually interrogated by people in the Vatican, who always know everything. It is difficult, I said to myself: I don't know how I can get to the Vatican without the news being in the press beforehand. Monday to Saturday evening! It would be a miracle if nothing appeared in the press. And, if it did get in, would I have the audience?
Arrival at the Vatican
Saturday afternoon, 18 November 1978
However, things were so well arranged that nobody knew. I started on Saturday afternoon in Monsieur Pedroni’s car. He drove me to the little Holy Office Square where the entrance to the Vatican now is. There we were joined by the car of the secretary appointed by Cardinal Siri, and I went off in that car, so that no one should see a car with a Swiss – still less a Valais! – registration, especially as no one comes to the Vatican on Saturday afternoons: they are all away on holiday. But the Swiss Guards saw me change from one car to another. And it seems, though I did not notice it myself, that when Monsieur Pedroni and the Abbé du Chalard stayed on in the Holy Office Square, and were strolling under the colonnade of St. Peter's waiting for me to return from the audience, they were spotted by a young man who was already there, and who waited as they did, smiling from time to time. They both said: "That is surely someone in the know. He saw Monseigneur leave and is waiting for him to come back. He is certainly up to something!" And that is just what happened. As soon as I got back he rushed to the telephone to pass on his news, so that the same evening on the radio and the next the Italian newspapers the news was out.
In the Pope’s Private Apartments
When we got to the Court of Saint Damasus, there was nobody there except a Swiss Guard. Mgr. Magee, an Irishman, who had been secretary to Pope Paul VI, came down as soon as he saw the car and led me to a private life which goes up directly to the Holy Father’s private apartments. That made things easier. I did not know of that lift, and I should have taken the official lift up to the third floor – I knew where it was. So we reached the private apartments, and the secretary took me for a short visit up to the Chapel, a Chapel which is completely standard, not in the modern but totally in the old style – a fine simple altar, altar screen, candlesticks, the Cross, tabernacle; a nun dressed as a nun was praying before the Blessed Sacrament. I genuflected, stayed there for a few moments, and left. I was led then into a salon where there was a round table and seven or eight armchairs, all alike. I asked myself: “Where is the Holy Father going to sit?” I could not say. Was I be led into another salon, nearby? I stayed where I was, and the secretary said: “The Holy Father will be coming.”
A Warm Welcome
And so it was. Scarcely had he closed the door when the Holy Father arrived and embraced me warmly. I confess that it occurred to me that he had done the same with the communist mayor a few days before! However, ecumenism is the current practice! So he gave me a friendly embrace, sat at my side, and, very simple, without ceremony, he got straight into the conservation: “I am glad to see you. I know one of your good friends, Cardinal Thiandoum. I had met him before, but he came specially to talk to about you.” So we spoke of Dakar and such-like subjects. I said that I had ordained him priest. The Pope asked: “Did you also consecrate him?”
I replied: "No, I did not consecrate him as I had already left, but it was he who succeeded me: it was the Apostolic Delegate, my successor, who consecrated him."
"Ah," he replied, "so you have been an Apostolic Delegate?"
"Yes, indeed. I was Apostolic Delegate for eleven years."
"So, then, you must have been engaged in diplomacy.
"Oh, ever so little, ever so little."
Though by his office an Apostolic Delegate is not a diplomat, he is nonetheless the delegate of the Holy Father and the French government agreed to give him all the honors of a Nuncio, which made him the diplomatic representative of the Holy Father.
The Archbishop Explains the Seminary
We chatted like that for a while. Then: "But we had better get down to business."
"Yes, Holy Father. If you wish I will tell you briefly the position of the Fraternity, how it began, etc."
I gave him the story that you know already, from Fribourg with Mgr. Charriere, the decree of erection, the canonical existence of the Fraternity for five years, perfectly legal in its foundation; the seminary authorized by Mgr. Adam; the Albano House authorized by Mgr. Mamie (though he is not very favorable, as I told the Pope) and by Mgr. Maccario.1
The Pope interjected: "So your Albano House is quite legal?"
And I replied: "Yes." Someone must have told him it was a wildcat house!
The Plan for the Suppression of the Fraternity
“The French Bishops then became jealous of this seminary which was growing fast." And I quoted to him what Cardinal Lefebvre (whom I knew well: he is my cousin) had written and had printed: that there could be no pardoning Mgr. Lefebvre for taking up, at the Council, positions contrary to those of the French Bishops. I said: "You can see what the French episcopate already thought of me. Obviously, seeing this growing seminary and the prospect of its training priests as they could not do themselves, they were disturbed. So they entered into a veritable conspiracy, with Cardinal Villot and Cardinal Garrone, and later with Cardinal Wright and Cardinal Tabera: they decided to pretend to have an official investigation. They sent two Apostolic Visitors2 who did not even visit the Chapel, and who left no word behind them, no report. I do not know what the conclusions were from their visit, but what they said was scandalous. I myself said to them: “I know very well why you are here – to condemn and to suppress this seminary. That means so many fewer priests, although the whole world is short of them and here in France the number of seminarists is going down rapidly. Why come to this seminary? What shall we do when there are no more priests?' To which they both replied at once: 'Oh, we’ll ordain married men!' They were from Rome, and that, you will agree, was a bit too much!"
He listened, with great attention. I went on: "The meeting which I had with the Cardinals just for information was not a tribunal! Cardinal Garrone himself said so: it was merely an interview in which explanations could be given to supplement the (Apostolic) visitation of 11 November 1974.3 Yet, a few weeks later came the condemnations, totally illegal, for it was Mgr. Mamie who withdrew the canonical institution, which he had no right to do: when a bishop has accepted a Congregation in his diocese he cannot suppress it: Rome has to issue a decree of suppression, not the bishop of the place (Canon 493). When that happened I went back to Rome, to the Signatura Apostolica, where Cardinal Staffa received my protest. I even paid the fee due for its reception; and, together with my lawyer and Cardinal Staffa 's delegate, we signed the protocol of the reception of my complaint at the Signatura. But a few days later Cardinal Villot wrote a letter in his own hand forbidding the examination of my case and an investigation into whether I was right or not."
I said then to the Holy Father: "I don't know if the communists can improve on that!" He laughed. "Faced with that contempt for natural rights, good sense and canon law, it seemed to me that I was not obliged to submit to such a measure. That is why I kept the seminary going. Obviously that has made our relations with Rome delicate; but I hope the priests trained in the Fraternity are good priests, devoted to Rome."
The Same Old Accusation: You are Against the Pope: NO!
"Now what, precisely, are we accused of? Since this difficulty with Rome we are accused of being 'against the Pope, against the Council, and against the reforms, especially the liturgical reform.' Listen: we are not at all against the Pope – that is absolutely false! We were calumniated on those points to Pope Paul VI, and that is why it was made so difficult for us to see him, and why he was so hard on us. He was made to believe that I got the seminarians to take an oath against the Pope. He accused me of that in my audience with him. That is too bad! I can understand why they did not want me to go near the Pope – they had told him such serious calumnies." I added: "It was not through Cardinal Villot that I saw the Pope. It happened quite unexpectedly. A Father LaBellarte, whom I did not know, said to me one day: 'Go to Rome and see the Pope. He wants to see you.' I replied: “I shall not see the Pope. They have always prevented me from seeing him. I’ve been waiting for five years to see him, and they have refused me every time.’ ‘Oh, yes, you'll see him.' In fact, I saw Pope Paul VI, but against the will of Cardinal Villot who, the evening before, learning that I was to have the audience, forced the Pope to have Mgr. Benelli present at our audience.”4
I could tell that he was listening to me with great attention and interest. I told him again: "We pray for the Pope. We are perhaps one of the few seminaries which still pray for the Pope. At Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament we sing the prayer for the Pope, in the Canon of the Mass we name the Pope. The Albano House was founded precisely for the acquisition of romanita,5 to attach us to Rome, to the successor of Peter to all that is represented by Rome and the Roman Church.”
It was then that he asked me: "How many seminarians have you?”
“One hundred and seventy."
“Ah, one hundred and seventy!"
“Yes, there are thirty at Albano, ninety at Ecône, and the rest at our two other seminaries in the U.S.A. and Germany."
You are Against the Council! No!
I continued: “As to the Council, there are certainly things in the Council which are hard to admit; but I should be ready to sign a sentence like this: 'I accept the Acts of the Council interpreted in the sense of tradition.' That is a sentence which I think I could eventually accept and sign, if you so wish.”
“But that is fine, fine! But that is ordinary and obvious! Would you really agree to sign such a sentence?"
I replied: "Certainly, I am ready to sign it, provided it contains the phrase 'interpreted in the sense of tradition'."
He said again: "But that is just ordinary," He seemed to be thinking that that settled the business of the Pope and the business of the Council, Both questions were settled, so now what about the question of the Liturgy?
The Liturgical Reform…in Poland!
I said, "Oh, yes. The question of the liturgy…We are evidently very attached to the Mass of Saint Pius V and also to the traditional rites. All around us we see these reforms and their consequences: the destruction of churches, the closing of seminaries, the lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament."
At that point, of course, and without a pause, as though his mind were still in Poland, he said to me: "But, you know, in Poland it is all going very well! The reforms have been effected, but I assure you there is plenty of respect for the Blessed Sacrament. Besides, we have had lots of difficulties with the communists. Our people are very respectful to the Blessed Sacrament, and are very devout. We fight for devotion to the Holy Eucharist, processions, any show of devotion: we fight. And what has caused us most pain, let me tell you, and made us suffer, is the suppression of Latin. I myself think that it was most painful for us. But now! What do you want to do? The seminarians no longer know Latin; they all read the breviary in the vernacular; Latin is not taught any- where; what do you want to do? What do you want us to do? Besides, perhaps the people understand the Mass better, what is said at Mass."
I then permitted myself to say: " Are you not afraid, all the same, that because of those reforms a certain Protestant and neo-modemist spirit will in the end creep slowly but surely into seminaries, parishes, everywhere?"
"Oh, I know very well that there have been complaints from the faithful who are afraid. We are not altogether free from difficulties, but, after all, they don't amount to much."
Then I said to him: "Holy Father, listen. I have in my pocket a letter from a Polish bishop."
He looked at it: "N..., he is the communists' Enemy Number One. They are scared of him." He read part of the letter and then he said to me: "Yes, but you have to be careful. I wonder if this letter is genuine. One of the communist tricks is to compose false letters and spread them left, right and center as to divide the Catholics and divide the bishops."
“Of course, I am no judge of that."
“Anyway," he said, "these liturgical questions: they are disciplinary questions, disciplinary: perhaps we had better look into the question."
Religious Liberty
He went back to the Council: "You know, the Decree on Religious Liberty has been a great help to us in Poland."
“No doubt. It can serve in that way – an argumentum ad hominen; but all the same there have been serious consequences of that declaration since its approval by the Council, above all the laicization and de-Christianization of Catholic States." I quoted Colombia, the Canton of Valais, and the words of the Nuncio at Berne whom I had myself asked why Mgr. Adam had written to his diocesans inviting them to vote suppression of the first article in the Valais Constitution according to which the Catholic religion is the only one officially recognized in the Canton of Valais. I said to the Nuncio: “That is a bit too much!”
The Nuncio replied: “But the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ is very difficult these days.”
Then I said: "And the Encyclical Quas Primas. What about that, then?" He replied: "Today, Pope Pius XI would not write it!”
The Holy Father then said to me: "That's not the way to say it. We should say, rather: 'He would not write it in the same way’."
I replied: “That may be so…but the social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ should certainly be acknowledged in Catholic States. There are plenty of communist States based on the communist religion, and Muslim States whose official religion is Islam, and Protestant States whose official religion is Protestantism. I don't see why Catholic States…why there can't be officially Catholic States." The Pope answered: “Oh, yes, yes, that's true."
“We Must Come to a Practical Solution”
"But now," he said, "we must be practical, we must come to a conclusion."
I answered: "Could you nominate an intermediary with whom I could discuss, and examine things more closely?"
He said: "Precisely! I thought of that, and it will be Cardinal Seper. I very much want it to be Cardinal Seper, he is a friend of mine, I know him well, he knows your business and will be dealing with it. I'll call him at once."
Cardinal Seper: “You are making a banner out of the Mass of Saint Pius V!”
"Good! He is efficient!"
The Pope got up at once – smartly, I can tell you! He is lively. He went to his office and phoned for Cardinal Seper to come, and he arrived three or four minutes later. He sat on my right. I wish a photograph could have been taken! The Pope on my left, Cardinal Seper on my right – very democratic!
The Pope summed up quickly for the Cardinal and said: "We must find a solution without delay."
But the Cardinal then proved difficult. "Yes," he said. "But wait a moment. They are making a banner out of the Mass of Saint Pius V."
"Oh," I said, "Not a banner! The Mass is of capital importance, essential in the Church, and that is why for us it is a grave and primary problem.”
The Cardinal answered: "What Pope Paul VI said to me was true! He would have made it possible to say the Mass of Saint Pius V if you had not turned that Mass into a banner!”
By that he meant that we criticize the other Mass, that we do not want it: and, upon my word, that is exactly true.
He went on: "Monseigneur, two and a half years ago you came to see me.
"So I did."
"You came to ask my advice. What did I tell you? I told you: 'Obedience, obedience, obedience, obedience!' There!"
"Yes. And what did obedience require me to do?"
"If you had closed your seminary and all your Houses, if you had stopped everything, stopped it for a year and a half or two years, everything could then have been arranged."
"That I think is a totally gratuitous assertion. I do not know what would have become of us. We should have been dead, and we should have continued dead, just that!"
The End of the Audience
The Pope intervened: "Yes. Look into that…stay here, I have to go, Cardinal Baggio is waiting for me with dossiers this high! Your Eminence, stay and talk."
But the Cardinal had no wish to stay with me. He got up, saying: “No. Not now. In any case, Monseigneur, you will be receiving a letter in two or three weeks asking you to come again to Rome for an interview. We can talk of these things then. Besides, you must be given the results of the study we made of what you sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." That was the end. I paid my respects to the Pope who once more embraced me warmly. I said good-bye to Cardinal Seper, and we parted. And that's how matters stand for the moment.
Can We give a Direction to the Reform, and Limit the Damage?
What I noticed in the Holy Father is that he is very pious, that he has a great love for the Blessed Virgin, that he is completely anti-marxist (I do not say anti-communist, but anti-marxist), and that he will do all he can to suppress abuses and keep the reform within limit; but I must confess that he appears to be basically in agreement with the Council and with the reforms – he just does not question them. And that is serious, because it means that he is for ecumenism, for collegiality, and for religious liberty.
Always the same Three Things!
Those are the three capital ideas from the Council. It is they which make the spirit of the Council. They are what the progressives wanted and what in practice they obtained – watered down perhaps, but they got them, and they will not loosen their hold on them! Study those ideas, and see how serious they are!
1. Collegiality: that means number against person, the law of number against the authority of the person. It is no longer the person who has authority, but number! It is democracy, or at least the democratic principle. It is no longer Our Lord Who commands through the authorities (it is Our Lord Who is the Authority, and in the Church all those who have authority – Pope, Bishops, Priests – share in the authority of Our Lord). By the very fact that number is put in the place of the person, that authority is given to number, authority is in the people, in the rank and file, in the group. That is absolutely contrary to what Our Lord wanted, to the personal authority which He always wanted to give: the Pope has a personal authority; the Bishop has a personal authority by his consecration; the Priest has a personal authority by his sacramental character, his ordination; in the Church authority is personal. The subject of authority (he who is going to exercise it) may be designated democratically, but the authority cannot be so given. That is an important principle. On a false principle Our Lord could lose His crown.
2. Ecumenism: Fraternity. That is not directly contrary to Our Lord, but ecumenism is, for it is a fraternity which destroys paternity. Who makes the unity of brothers? It is the father. Ecumenism makes us all brothers in a sentimental communion but no longer in the faith, no longer in the faith taught us by Our Lord, no longer in the "Father" we have in the Creed. That unity is not in the Father but in a vague feeling of subjectivism, of religious sentiment : it is Modernism.
3. Religious Liberty: that is conscience in place of law. Once more something subjective in place of law, which is objective. And what is this law? It is the Word of God. The Word of God is the Law: Our Savior Himself is our Law. You can see how all that is directly opposed to the authority of Our Lord!
On Those Three Principles the Church Cannot Survive.
That, for the Church, is a catastrophe. The Church cannot live in an atmosphere directly opposed to Our Lord, its Founder, opposed to what makes the unity of the Church, her truth and her law. They have no hope of damming the harm done by those principles. They will try to set limits, to make the catechisms a little more orthodox; but until they have gone back to those fundamentals of the Council and brought them into line with tradition there is nothing to be done. It is that which is serious.
He is no Longer a Polish Bishop!
It is a pity. He seems to be attached to order and discipline; but he is certainly filled with Liberal ideas. Cardinal Wyszynski could well tell himself: "He did well as Archbishop of Cracow, because he fought the communists." That is what makes the unity of Poland, anti-communism and devotion to the Blessed Virgin – the devil is in communism, and then there is the Blessed Virgin: with two such elements it is easy to see how the Poles can be united among themselves and with their bishops. But Poland and the circumstances of Poland are one thing: what matters is what he is going to do as Pope. For in the West, communism does not have such a hold, and as for devotion to the Blessed Virgin, he himself has it, but where is it now in the surrounding world? And that is the problem. What he was able to do as bishop united with the other Polish bishops to save the reign of Our Lord from disappearing – will he be able to do that as Pope, in other, completely different, circumstances?
Hope of Recovery
At least we can pray to the Blessed Virgin that when he becomes aware of the gross difficulties he will meet in the exercise of his power as Pope he will reconsider himself and perhaps conclude that he must return to Tradition. That is a grace for which we should pray to the Blessed Virgin. In another three or four months we shall know one way or another, when he has had a look at his surroundings and at what is happening in Western Europe.
Source
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1982 Conference at Martigny - The Drama of the Church Today |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 09:58 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Archbishop Lefebvre at Martigny
21 March 1982
My dear friends,
I am sure the Blessed Virgin Mary is happy today, that she is looking upon us with joy and that she has been much consoled with the prayers offered to her throughout the night just past. You have certainly been most obedient to the wishes of the Blessed Virgin Mary, following the initiative of some true and faithful Catholic laymen.
In all her apparitions and particularly at Fatima, she asked us to pray and do penance. This is why you are here, many of you coming from far away. In spite of inconveniences you have willingly taken on this penance and have come here to pray. To pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose wish we shall fulfill in a few minutes when we repeat, in the words of Pope Pius XII, the consecration of the world and of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
What Christian today, what faithful Catholic, does not feel the need to pray and do penance, in present world circumstances? We are a little like those who invited their friends to the wedding feast at Cana and, when they ran short of wine, turned to the Virgin Mary with anxious looks, asking the Mother of Jesus to put in a word with her Divine Son to relieve them of this worry of having no more wine to serve their guests. So Mary turned to Jesus and said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus performed the wonderful miracle of transforming water into wine. A mirror image of the situation we find ourselves in today!
We too turn to the Blessed Virgin, where we can still today find the grace of God, where we can still find divine life in this world. The wine symbolizes precisely the Blood of Christ, which transmits divine life to us. We shall listen to the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary saying, "Do whatever He tells you." So now, we too are making a resolution to listen to the Blessed Virgin and to do whatever Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us.
And what is He telling us? What is He revealing? His Revelation tells us that the most beautiful, the most admirable, the most perfect of His creatures did not make good use of the freedom which Our Lord, as God, gave them. Yes, He has shown us that this extraordinary conflict took place in heaven between the good angels and the wicked angels, between those who wanted to become like God and St. Michael the Archangel at the head of all the angels loyal to God. Quis ut Deus? "Who is like God?"
So He plunged the wicked angels into hell. This is what God tells us. Not only on earth, therefore, do men misuse their freedom, this extraordinary gift which God gave them to do good and not evil. It has already happened in heaven.
So the situation is that, henceforth and for all eternity, there will be, on the one side, the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ united to the Father and to the Holy Ghost, which will shine in the hearts of all the elect, of all who are united to God: the holy angels, the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, all the saints, the martyrs, all who follow the law of God and love Him here below.
And then there is hell. Hell, the place forever of those who tried to resist God, tried to make themselves God a state of eternal separation from God. This is what Our Lord teaches us.
He dwelt among us to make reparation for the sin of our first Parents, who had abused their freedom and disobeyed God. So He too found Himself in confrontation and opposition to those who wanted to put Him to death. Because Satan, if he can do no more in heaven, because he has been confined to hell once and for all, can still work here below and try to populate hell in ever greater numbers. God permits him to do this. We have seen Our Lord Jesus Christ persecuted by Satan, by the devil himself. Satan believed that his definitive victory had been achieved. He had succeeded in crucifying God Himself, body and soul. God seemed dead. He had breathed His last.
Satan cried victory, because it was Satan who wanted to crucify Him. This is in the Gospel. When Judas went off to betray Our Lord, having taken the Bread which Our Lord had given Him, the Gospel says, "Satan entered into his soul." So it is indeed a struggle, a struggle between Our Lord and all who wanted to crucify Him. And who showed up as the means of the crucifixion of Our Lord? False religions and bad governments. This is in the Gospel. The Scribes and the Pharisees said, "What do you think? He has blasphemed, because He makes Himself the Son of God, and because He has blasphemed, He must be crucified."
Yes, from that moment Israel abandoned the religion which Jesus had taught them. And instead of recognizing the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, they rejected the Messias and crucified Him. There are also those who said, in the name of pagan governments, as Pilate hesitated to crucify Him, "If you do not put Him to death, you are no friend of Caesar, because everyone who makes himself king sets himself against Caesar." So you see, it is perfectly clear: in the Gospel there are false religions and bad governments which crucify Our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as you know, Our Lord escaped them. Satan thought He was dead once and for all, the Scribes and Pharisees too. And Our Lord rose, He ascended to heaven triumphantly, gloriously, henceforth for all eternity. He enters again into the glory of His Father and of the Holy Ghost in the Holy Trinity.
But He founded the Church, His Mystical Body which carries on the struggle, which henceforth will be open to all the attacks of the devil and of all those who wish to destroy Our Lord. Because Our Lord slipped past them, they will persecute members of the Church.
This is what Our Lord said to St. Paul to Saul on the road to Damascus, "Why persecutest thou Me?" Thus Our Lord considered persecution of His members as persecution of Himself. "Why persecutest thou Me?"
Yes, the Church is the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ. So, throughout the history of the Church, you have seen this struggle carried on by heretics, by every means at their disposal, in all the attacks which the Church has undergone in the course of her history, all the martyrs and all those who have been witnesses of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Church. This conflict continues, it continues into our own day. And it continues with the Blessed Virgin Mary at our side, because she has entered the lists. She is no pacifist, the Blessed Virgin Mary. "She is powerful," says the Scripture, "as an army in battle array." She is represented crushing the head of Satan. So she is in the struggle. She is on our side to help us.
Now what shall we do, we Catholics of the twentieth century, members of the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Shall we lay down our arms? This is the drama of the Church today. They want us to lay down our arms. They want us to enter into a kind of pacifism which is nothing more nor less than cowardice. In the face of Satan, in the face of the enemy, in the face of all those who seek the destruction of the Church, in the face of those who want to crush all Christians, to finish off Our Lord Jesus Christ here below, we are supposed to lay down our weapons. First of all, the weapon of prayer. We are not supposed to pray any more. The churches will be empty. We will come no more to adore the Blessed Sacrament, no longer pray to the Blessed Virgin. So Satan will be happy, he will have won a great victory, and he will take millions and millions of souls to hell.
There you have it, my dear friends, the great drama which the Church is experiencing today, worse than the attacks of the Moslems in the time of Pope Saint Pius V; worse than Protestantism in the sixteenth century, worse than all heresies and schisms put together.
Today the evil is inside the Church. We must realize that, until the Second Vatican Council, popes, bishops, and priests fought courageously alongside the faithful, leading the faithful in the struggle against Satan and all his works.
Now we are astonished to see that, since the Council, because of two attitudes of those with responsibility in the Church, two attitudes which are contrary to this struggle, which undermine the Church, we are told we have now arrived at a time when we must have peace at any price.
So, vis-à-vis other religions, we have ecumenism. They are saying about all religions which are against the Church: "Now we must have unity, we must lay down our arms, we embrace you, in order to have union." The union of truth with error, the union of shadows with the Light, the union of Satan with God. This is what St. Paul says. How is it possible? It is part of what they call Ostpolitik. The Vatican has changed its policy. From now on we must cooperate with all hostile governments, hostile to the Church, governments which have only one end in view: to destroy Our Lord Jesus Christ in His embers, in His Church. This is their one aim. They use possible means, falsehood and with so much more effectiveness dialogue, if that will serve their purpose. This is the program: peaceful coexistence, detente, dialogue. We have handed over to these governments the poor priests and faithful who were fighting in defense of their faith.
At the present time in Czechoslovakia, in Rumania, there are bishops called Peace Priests, appointed by and answerable to the government, as in the Russian Orthodox Church, totally under the control of the communist government. And these bishops turn good priests out, turn good Catholics out, because they will not obey the communist government, because they want to have their children baptized, because they want their children taught the catechism, because the priests want to go out and visit the sick, to take Holy Communion to them, to teach catechism (secretly, if necessary), to hear confessions in homes, if people have difficulty in getting to church. All this is against the communist government regulations. This is why the bishops persecute these good priests.
And I say it is the same thing with us. I also say that these good priests, these good Catholics, are sacrificed on the altar of Ostpolitik and of dialogue with wicked governments, just as we are sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism, in maintaining our Catholic Faith, which teaches that there is only one Church.
There are not two religions, there is only the religion of God, the religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God. He came to earth to found His religion. There are not two religions, there is only one religion, the Catholic religion, and so, if we believe there is only one religion, we should pray and do penance for the conversion of souls, for their conversion and not to embrace them with all their errors and vices. This is not doing them a favor. It is deceiving them. This has always been the attitude of the Church: to send missionaries all over the world, even if they are martyred, to win souls for Christ and for the Church.
It has never been understood that henceforth there should be no more missionaries. We want to uphold and prolong the Catholic Church. We want to uphold the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to proclaim that the Catholic Church is the true religion and that everyone is called to convert to the Catholic Church. For this we pray, we do penance and we try with all means at our disposal to do good wherever we are, in order to convert souls.
There you have it, my dear friends, the resolution which we should make today, especially to have devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to her Immaculate Heart. With her we will fight, we will continue the combat. We will continue the fight against ourselves, against all that is evil in ourselves, all that is evil in our families, all that is evil in our cities, so that Our Lord Jesus Christ can reign everywhere and always. We will pray to the Good Lord and to the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us to continue the fight. We will not be taken in by this false ecumenism. This false ecumenism has completely transformed our holy liturgy. We reject this transformed liturgy which is supposed to turn us into Protestants, because we do not want to give the Eucharist to Protestants. They are not of our Faith. They cannot receive our Eucharist. We wish to convert them first, convert them to our Faith, and then they will be able to receive our Eucharist joyfully.
There you have, my dear friends, what I wanted to say to you. In a few minutes we shall join, shall we not, with our Lady of Fatima, with all those who have faith in Our Lady, especially to the great and venerated Pope Pius XII, who drew up this consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We shall repeat his very words and put our entire lives and souls under the protection of the Immaculate Heart and pray that the reign of Mary be established over the earth and over souls.
From Fideliter, May/June 1982 as published here.
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1984 Conference on the 'Poisoned Chalice' of the New Code of Canon Law |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 09:46 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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The poisoned chalice of the New Code of Canon law
Given by Archbishop Lefebvre in Turin, Italy - March 24, 1984
I want to speak to you of a very serious novelty: the New Code of Canon Law. I had not seen any necessity for a change. But if the law changes, the law changes, and we must make use of it, for the Church can ask nothing evil from her faithful.
However, when one reads this new code of Canon Law one discovers an entirely new conception of the Church. It is easy to be aware of, since John Paul II himself describes it in the apostolic constitution which introduces the new Code.
Quote:". . . It follows that which constitutes the fundamental novelty of Vatican Council II, in full continuity with the legislative tradition of the Church (this is to deceive), especially in that which concerns ecclesiology, constitutes also the novelty of the new Code."
Hence the novelty of the conception of the Church according to the Council is equally the novelty of the conception of the new Code of Canon Law.
What is this novelty? It is that there is no longer any difference between the clergy and the laity. There is now just the faithful, nothing else, on account of the "doctrine according to which all the members of the people of God, according to the mode which is proper to each, partake in the triple priestly, prophetic and royal function of Jesus Christ. To this doctrine is likewise attached that which concerns the duties and rights of the faithful and particularly the laity, and finally the Church's involvement in ecumenism!"
This is the definition of the Church (Canon 204):
Quote:"The faithful are those who, inasmuch as they are incorporated in Christ by baptism are constituted as the people of God, and who for this reason, having been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal functions of Christ, are called to exercise the mission that God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world..."
We are all faithful, members of the people of God, and we all therefore have ministries! It is clearly said in the Code: all the faithful have ministries. They therefore all have the responsibility to teach, to sanctify and even to direct.
Let us continue our commentary on this Canon 204:
Quote:"...having been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal function of Christ, they are called to exercise the mission which God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world, according to the juridical condition proper to each one."
Hence everyone without exception, without distinction between clergy and laity, inasmuch as they are the people of God, has the responsibility of this mission entrusted by Jesus Christ properly to the Church. There is no longer any clergy. What, then, happens to the clergy?
It is as if they said that it is no longer parents who have the responsibility to give life to children but the family, or rather all the members of the family: parents and children. This is exactly the same thing as saying today that Bishops, priests and laymen have all responsibility for the mission of the Church. But who gives the graces to become a Catholic? How does one become faithful? No one knows any more who has the responsibility for what. It is consequently easy to understand that this is the ruin of the priesthood and the laicization of the Church. Everything is oriented towards the laymen, and little by little the sacred ministers disappear. The minor orders and the subdiaconate have already disappeared. Now there are married deacons, and little by little laymen take over the ministry of the priests. This is precisely what Luther and the protestants did, laicizing the priesthood. It is consequently very serious.
This is quite openly explained in an article in the Osservatore Romano of March 17, 1984:
Quote:"The role of the laity in the new Code." "The active function that the laity has been called on to exercise since Vatican II by participating in the condition and mission of the entire Church according to their particular vocation is a doctrine which, in the context of the appearance of the concept of the people of God has brought about a reevaluation of the laity, as much in the foundation of the Church as for the active role they are called on to develop in the building up of the Church."
Such is the inspiration of the whole new Code of Canon Law. It is this definition of the Church which is the poison which infects the new laws.
The same can be said for the Liturgy. There is a relationship between this new Code of Canon Law and the entire liturgical reform, as Bugnini said in his book The Fundamental Principles of the Changing of the Liturgy.
Quote:"The path opened by the Council is destined to change radically the traditional liturgical assembly in which, according to a custom dating back many centuries, the liturgical service is almost exclusively accomplished by the clergy. The people assist, but too much as a stranger and a dumb spectator."
What? How can one dare say that the faithful are present at the sacrifice of the Mass as simply dumb spectators so as to change the Liturgy? How must the faithful be active in the sacrifice of the Mass? By the body or spiritually? Obviously spiritually. One can draw a great spiritual profit from assisting at Mass in silence. It is, in effect, a mystery of our Faith. How many have become saints in this silence of the true Mass!
Quote:"A long education will be necessary for the Liturgy to become an action of all the people of God." Without a doubt. Then he adds that he is speaking of "a substantial unity but not a uniformity. You must realize that this is a true break with the past."
This past is the twenty centuries of prayer of the Church.
Bugnini was the key man in the liturgical reform. I went to see Cardinal Cicognani when this reform was published and I said to him: "Your Eminence, I am not in agreement with this change. The Mass no longer has its mystical and divine character." He replied:
Quote:"Excellency, it is like that. Bugnini can enter as he likes into the Pope's office to make him sign what he wants."
This is what happened to the Secretariat of State. This is how all these changes happened. They agreed on it beforehand, and then obtained signatures for some changes, and then others, and then others. I said to Cardinal Gut:
Quote:"Your Eminence, you are responsible for Divine Worship, and you accord permission for the Blessed Sacrament to be received in the hand! They will know that this was published with the agreement of the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship!"
He replied:
Quote:"Excellency, I do not even know if I will be asked for it to be done. You know, it is not I who command. The boss is Bugnini. If the Pope asks me what I think of Communion in the hand, I will cast myself on my knees before him to ask him not to do it."
You see, then, how things happened at Rome: a simple signature on the bottom of a decree and the Church is ruined by numerous sacrileges ... The real presence of Our Lord is ruined, for it is no longer respected. Then, nothing sacred remains, as was seen at the large reunion at which the Pope was present, where the Blessed Sacrament was passed around from hand to hand between thousands of persons. Nobody genuflects anymore before the Blessed Sacrament. How can they still believe that God is present there?
It is this same spirit which inspired the changing of the Canon Law as that which inspired the changes in the Liturgy: it is the people of God, the assembly, which does everything. The same applies to the priest. He is a simple president who has a ministry, as others have a ministry, in the midst of an assembly. Our orientation towards God has likewise disappeared. This comes from the Protestants who say that Eucharistic devotion (for them there is neither Mass nor sacrifice: this would be blasphemy) is simply a movement of God towards man, but not of man towards God to render Him glory, which is nevertheless the first (latreutic) end of the Liturgy. This new state of liturgical mind comes likewise from Vatican II: everything is for man. The bishops and priest are at the service of man and the assembly. But where is God then? In what is His glory sought? What will we do in heaven? For in heaven "all is for the glory of God," which is exactly what we ought to do here on earth. But all that is done away with, and replaced by man. This is truly the ruin of all Catholic thought.
You know that the new Code of Canon Law permits a priest to give Communion to a Protestant. It is what they call eucharistic hospitality. These are Protestants who remain Protestant and do not convert. This is directly opposed to the Faith. For the Sacrament of the Eucharist is precisely the sacrament of the unity of the Faith. To give Communion to a Protestant is to rupture the Faith and its unity.
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[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1980 Sermon on the Feast of Our Lady of Compassion |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 09:34 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Sermon of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Given to the Oblates of the SSPX - Feast of Our Lady of Compassion - April 10, 1981
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross
It is written in the Holy Gospel that a sword shall pierce the Heart of the Virgin. This Heart, pierced by a sword, of course, means nothing else than her association with the Passion of her Divine Son. The Gospel also says that the Blessed Virgin Mary was standing beside Our Lord Jesus Christ during His Passion and at the moment of His death: "Stabat Mater iuxta Crucem."
Therefore we must not deny that Divine Providence wanted to associate the Blessed Virgin Mary not only with His birth, to His coming on earth and to His infancy, to His hidden life and to His public life, but above all to His Passion. Indeed, if the most important moment - "the hour" of Our Lord Jesus Christ - was the moment of His death on the cross, the hour of His Passion, that of the Blessed Virgin Mary was that of her Compassion, of her intimate union with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Devotion to the Sorrows of Our Lady
This devotion is very old in the Church. We do not know exactly when the feasts of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady and of the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin began. However, in the Church, some religious societies were founded through the direct intervention of the Virgin Mary herself, in order to meditate on her sorrows and especially on her compassion. The Servites of Mary are a good example, established by the Seven Founders upon a request of the Blessed Virgin Mary herself; they are particularly dedicated to meditation on her sufferings, to union with the Sorrowful Virgin.
Another society dedicated to this contemplation is that of the Passionists of St. Paul of the Cross. The Passionists have had many saints in their congregation. It was a most fervent congregation. One of their saints, St. Gabriel of the Addolorata, took the name of " Addolorata" precisely because he wanted to spend his life meditating on the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To Associate Ourselves with Jesus Suffering
Why this meditation? Why this union with the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Compassion, in her suffering, in her transfixion? In order to associate ourselves more intimately with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Indeed, if there were ever a Heart, which suffered with the Heart of Jesus pierced on the cross, if ever there were a soul whose thoughts were united with those of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, it was the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary! She had never sinned, and like Our Lord, she did not need to make reparation for herself. Yet both wanted to suffer, to suffer horribly, to suffer deeply, to suffer in their bodies.
Two Hearts Burning with Charity
Let us then try to penetrate the sentiments of these two Hearts, the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. It is obvious that both the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary were profoundly motivated by Charity.
Their Hearts were devoured by charity, burning with love of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord, Word of God, one substance with the Holy Ghost, was devoured by the love of the Holy Ghost, by this Holy Spirit who set on fire all His Being. The person of the Word but also His Soul, His Body, His Heart of flesh, were inflamed by the Holy Ghost. The Virgin Mary imitated her Divine Son and she too tried to model her sentiments on those of her Divine Son. She too was filled with the Holy Ghost. This was so for her whole life but without any doubt, in a very particular way during the Passion.
To Restore the Honor of the Father
We must never forget that the first and main goal of these two Hearts inflamed by the Holy Ghost was the love of the Father.
Indeed, love of the Holy Ghost, this "Consuming Fire," leads to the Father. It is none other than the love of God: "God is Charity." Therefore, the Holy Ghost can do nothing other than lead us to God, to lead us to the Father. Thus Jesus was suffering first of all in order to restore the honor of God the Father. The Virgin Mary, too, was united with the sufferings of her Divine Son in order to restore the honor of the Father.
The Father receives infinite glory, really infinite, from His Divine Son. And He also receives the greatest created glory from a privileged creature. This creature was the Blessed Virgin Mary, united with her Divine Son. She was the first to be truly redeemed. She was perfectly redeemed, in the sense that she has not even known sin. It was in consideration of the Incarnation of Our Lord that she was Immaculate in her Conception and thus has never known sin.
At the foot of the Cross, she sang the glory of the Father in suffering; in sorrow she sang the glory of God; she wanted to restore the honor and the glory of God upon earth.
Merciful Love
This love, which devoured both of them, made them full of mercy. Indeed, the immediate consequence of a great love, of a great charity, is mercy. For this love these Hearts possessed wants to be spread about, wants to be communicated to those who do not have it, to all those who are lacking it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing all sinful mankind since Adam and Eve, all men who were to be born in this world - Our Lord Jesus Christ had a clear vision and full knowledge of this by His Divinity because He is the Creator and Redeemer of mankind - He knew all this misery, all these men far from God who don't think of the Father, of their Creator and Redeemer. Our Lord saw all this and His Heart was filled with mercy. This mercy leads to sacrifice. Mercy is a source of sacrifice. It leads all the way to sacrifice because it is ready to give itself totally so that charity be re-established in the hearts of men.
Thus Our Lord suffered; He suffered in His Body - in the Garden of the Agony drops of blood were dripping from His forehead. Our Lord was filled with mercy. And the Blessed Virgin wanted to share the sufferings of Our Lord precisely for the same reason. She too thought of all these souls. Both of them suffered together and wanted to suffer, even unto death, unto martyrdom.
And if Our Lord Jesus Christ truly gave His last breath for the glory of His Father and for the redemption of souls so that the Holy Ghost may inflame all hearts and all souls with the love of the Most Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary did not die herself at that moment, but she offered her life and she suffered martyrdom. She is truly called the Queen of Martyrs. She too gave herself, all her blood, all her life, all that she had and, in particular, her Divine Son. She gave all to the Good Lord for the redemption of souls. Mother of Mercy, Mater Misericordiae. Such are the origins of the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Suffering with Peace and Joy
Far from us to think that in the Passion there is sadness leading to despair and that this sadness would have put Jesus and Mary's souls in a certain kind of despair. No, not at all! Since it was precisely charity which was the origin of these sufferings, charity produced in their Hearts peace and joy: Though it might seem unbelievable to unite passion, suffering and mercy with a profound joy, yet the Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with joy indeed; and so was the Heart of the Virgin Mary, united with that of Our Lord.
They were filled with the joy of the Most Holy Trinity, the joy given by a great Charity; the peace, which Charity produces in souls, is an ineffable peace. Jesus and Mary were not in a torture like many souls who suffer in their bodies, and who have feelings of deep sorrow and despair. No, Jesus and Mary did not suffer in this way. They suffered, but their Hearts were truly in serenity, in peace, which allowed the Blessed Virgin to remain standing at the foot of the Cross. If she had not had this peace, if she had not had this Charity, if she had not had this intimate and profound joy of associating herself with the sufferings of her Divine Son, of associating herself with His Charity, of being filled with the Holy Ghost, she could not have remained standing and the Gospel would not have said “Stabat Mater." The persons who surrounded the Blessed Virgin most likely showed more than the Blessed Virgin their exterior suffering - through tears and exterior feelings. The Virgin remained calm, in peace.
Patroness of the Oblates of the Society of St. Pius X
Here you have your patroness, my most dear Sisters. And you chose to come here to unite yourselves with us, you chose to come here particularly to this house of Econe where almost all the Oblates, have come or with which they are at least all united; you came to associate yourself with the priests, because the priest is another Christ. The priest must associate himself with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ particularly through the Sacrifice that he offers; he must thereby espouse the feelings of the Heart of Jesus, and also the feelings of Mary; he must ask the Virgin to make him understand these feelings in order to feel them more and to espouse them better.
Thus be helpers of the priests, not only helping them with your hands, but with your soul and with your spirit, helping in the Priesthood, in the spirit of sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Cross for the extension of His reign, for the extension of His love.
In this way you will unite yourselves in a very special way with the Blessed Virgin Mary as she was united with her Divine Son, and you will share His sufferings. You shall contribute in a very powerful way to the redemption of souls, according to the measure in which you are able, to the measure, which Divine Providence shall give to you. You will associate yourselves in a more profound way to the priesthood, praying for the priests, for the seminarians whom you serve, that they may become true priests, that they may become truly other Christs, that they may associate themselves in an even more profound and more perfect way to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
You will ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for this grace. Then offer your sufferings, offer your sacrifices for this intention, so that the Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ may be extended.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1980 Sermon at the First Solemn Mass of Fr. Alain Lorans |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 08:05 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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Sermon pronounced by His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
at the First Solemn Mass of Father Alain Lorans,
In Honor of Our Lady of Pointet
13 July 1980
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
Dear Father, from now on you are a priest. You no longer face years of formation, but rather a burden of responsibility. The great honor of the priesthood is yours, with the grace of God, with the support of those who love you and of all those who, already in heaven, put their mantle of protection around you so that you may be able to carry out a wonderful apostolate.
As we all know, you have been chosen to lend a helping hand to all those who will come to the Catholic university soon to be opened in Paris, where you will have a special apostolate, marked by a special enthusiasm and a special importance, because this is what Our Lord Himself did. He chose a small group, He formed His Apostles, and with these twelve Apostles He transformed the world. An apostolate based on a chosen few is a very important apostolate. You will have to bring these souls, especially chosen by God, to an understanding of the ideal they are searching for, and to make of it a Christian ideal, so that, whatever the vocation to which they are called, they will fulfill it in a Christian manner, a Catholic manner, in union with Our Lord, according to the teachings of Our Lord, in the light of Our Lord Jesus Christ, because Our Lord came to you too, as to us, when He said to His Apostles and His disciples: “You are the light of the world."
And so, particularly in this task to which you have been assigned, you will be the light of the world. Now what is the light of the world? Where is this light of the world? Our Lord Himself gives the answer: "I am the Light of the world." We don't have to look for it; it is already there. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, Light, that is to say, from God. Could we have a light more clear, more dazzling than one which comes from God Himself, which is God? Our Lord is God, so we will find the light in Him, and He is what you will teach. You will act as St. Paul, who said, "I have wanted to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified." This is what St. Paul said; his entire message is summed up in this – to speak of Christ, Christ Crucified.
Your task will be to show these chosen souls how to know Christ, how to unite themselves with Our Lord, meditating on His words, on His life, on what He is; and in this way they will find the light of their life. What a beautiful apostolate! How I hope these souls entrusted to you may profit from your ministry and give to the world the basic principles it needs, the basic principles of our first catechism, the catechism which summarizes the teachings of the Church, all the teachings of Our Lord. This should be the foundation of the life of every individual, of family life, of social life, political life. We must lay this foundation which is so necessary for people and for families, so that peace and prosperity and the truly Christian life which ours should be, may flourish.
And you will not only be the light of these souls; you will also give them life – the life of Our Lord. Not only His light, but His own life, the supernatural life of grace, grace which you will give them in the sacraments and especially in the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion – sacraments which we need almost every day to sustain us in the spiritual life. You will make them understand that they need these sacraments, this life, this divine life. Today, alas, it is so hard to lift oneself up to these spiritual realities, as we are caught up in the material world, the materialistic world which wants to know only earthly joys and closes its eyes to eternal realities.
It is hard to understand that the supernatural life, the divine life of Our Lord in us, is the one thing necessary. It is what will get us to heaven. We should be already in eternity, at this moment. Our soul is eternal and imperishable and therefore we must bathe our soul in the life of Our Lord, in the supernatural life and make it truly full of eternal life. The day God calls us and tells us that our life here below is over, that life will continue, as it says so well in the Preface of the Requiem Mass, "Life is not taken away but changed.” God does not extinguish our life. It goes on, with a change. It changes, yes, in incidental ways, but it does not end; it goes on, if we have been careful to imbue it with the eternal life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is what you will do; you will build this bridge between the life of God, the life of Our Lord, and these souls who will come to you, searching for true life.
And finally you will set an example. As Our Lord said, you are not only the salt of the earth, you are not only the light of the world, but you act in such a way that the world may give glory to God when they see your works: “…and seeing your good works they will glorify the Father Who is in heaven.”
You will set this example, therefore, and exemplify the virtues of Our Lord by gentleness, goodness and perseverance in the priestly life, in the apostolate. And you will do good for souls, for all who come to you. This should be your ideal.
I am sure you already understand this, and I am sure that you realize that what I have been talking about is nothing more than an extension of your Mass. Live your Mass every day, every second of your life, prolong it through the course of the day, that is, prolong the teaching you give us in the words of the Epistle and Gospel, the words of Our Lord. Prolong this life of sacrifice which you will make present, in a few moments, on the altar, by the presence of Our Lord, who is prolonging His Sacrifice of the Cross and showing us His love. Here it is: you will love souls, you will give yourself to souls, you will sacrifice yourself for souls, for love, for love of God and love of your neighbor. This is the whole Sacrifice of the Mass. You will give yourself to souls as you give Communion. You will give Christ to souls through knowledge of Him, Christ in His life. This is your Holy Mass, this is the Communion you will give, this is the Christ you will give to souls. Thus your whole priestly life is a continuous Mass. You are a priest. You have begun your first Mass. But your Mass must never end. Your whole life now will be a continual Mass. May God give you the grace to live your Mass and encourage all around you to do the same, and to understand that our whole lives should be a Mass, an oblation which is complete and continuous, a continuous sacrifice of ourselves for love of God and love of our neighbor.
This is your ideal, this is what we are going to pray for all together, today, pray for you that this joy of yours, the profound joy of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, may remain in you, that you may continue in this joy, in this spiritual peace which will make you a true priest.
I must not end without putting you under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary was with the Eternal High Priest throughout His life, right up to His complete self-sacrifice on the Cross. She was there. So then, be assured that Mary, Mother of the priest, will be with you too, all the days of your life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Ghost. Amen.
Source
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1972 Sermon for the Reception of the Cassock |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 07:57 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
on the Feast of the Epiphany - 7 January 1972
Given at Ecône, for the Ceremony of The Reception of the Cassock
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
My dear friends, my dear brethren,
In think that in this ceremony today the very angels of heaven are assisting along with the saints, and along with your parents and friends who have already gone to the eternal dwelling of the Father. Today they are all rejoicing with us, giving thanks at the thought that today, my dear friends, you are going to put on Our Lord Jesus Christ. This means nothing else than this very habit with which you will be girded in a few moments. You have come to this house like the Magi, the Three Kings. Drawn by the star, the star of your vocation, in the midst of a world that is troubled, disoriented, no longer knowing where it can find the solution to its problems. In the midst of priests who are themselves equally disoriented, no longer knowing what the priesthood is, you have received a special grace - whether through the influence of your parents, or through priests friendly to us - you have received this extraordinary grace of a priestly vocation.
What drew you to come here? Why have you come and why have you chosen this seminary? Why have you come to these mountains, to this out-of-the-way place in Ecône? You have not come here to find any posh resort, in a purely human and material sense. Nor have you come to pursue the human sciences. These you could have found elsewhere, and many of you have already done studies in the universities, where you were called to work, to study.
You have come here to seek Our Lord Jesus Christ, He Who is the solution to all problems. And after a few months of reflection, some of you told me in the letters you wrote to apply for this year, you understood that in this house what is given you above all is the knowledge of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is your Master. He is the Object of your science, He is the source of your sanctification. That is what we and all your professors desire to give you above all - the knowledge and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore this habit which you will put on will be nothing more or less than the echo of the words of St. Paul: "Induimini Dominum Iesum Christum - Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ!"
Therefore from the very beginning when this seminary was founded at Fribourg, already back then it seemed to be wise and necessary to place the Crucifix into the hands of those especially who were beginning the Year of Spirituality, so that during this year of meditation, during this entire year of reflecting on their vocation, they many find in the Crucifix the solution to all their problems, a firm perseverance in their vocation, firmness in the faith, which is the reason for everything we shall ask of them during the course of this year, and the years to follow.
To follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, to imitate Him, to "put Him on," is no small thing, especially in our modern world, especially in the present time. My dear friends, the present time cries out for heroes, at a time when everything seems to be vanishing in the structure of society, and even in the structure of the Church. This is no time for tepid souls, for souls who give themselves in the face of the troubles or doubts which are circulating all over the world, even on the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, even throughout the Catholic Church. The time belongs to those who believe - believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ by His Cross has given the solution to all the problems of our life, even personal problems.
You have meditated on these things during the good retreat given by Frs. Barrielle and Riviere. You have seen that you must undergo a conversion, you must do penance as Our Lord Jesus Christ give us an example on the Cross, but you have understood that this must be done through love, out of charity, for the love of God, for the love of souls, for the love of your own soul. For the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a Cross which breathes love. The Office for Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows says it explicitly in the beautiful liturgy for that day: "Dilectus meus rubicundus, candidus, totus desiderabilis... omnis figura eius amorem spirat - (These words are put on the lips of the Blessed Virgin) - "My beloved is all resplendent in white, but also red, reddened by his own blood," for He is covered with His own blood. Thus does He draw us - He is for us the object of an immense desire, an immense love. "Omnis gifura eius amorem spirat - His whole attitude inspires love," and this evocation of the liturgy continues, "Caput inclinatum...manus extentae....pectus perforatum." Yes, His head bent over, His arms stretched out, His pierced Heart all breathe love.
This is what you must come to understand, my dear friends. You will come to understand through meditation, through prayer, through everything which is taught you, that it is Our Lord Jesus Christ Who gives us charity, true charity, the charity of God, the charity which above all attaches us to God. And so you will detest your sins, your own failings, you will always have a spirit of sorrow for your sins, but this spirit of sorrow will be provoked by the love of God, by the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It will not be an inefficacious penance, a somber and sad kind of penance which will depress your heart, but on the contrary, it will dilate your heart through the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is something you must never forget, that in the Christian life there are always two fundamental aspects - the penitential aspect, the detestation of sin and flight from it, and the desire for God, the love of God. And as St. Thomas said so well, there are two aspects of the Christian life in the same act of charity, for if one loves God one will flee whatever separates us from Him. Now sin separates us from God; hence by the act of charity which we have for God and for Our Lord, we must at the same time detest our sins, detest everything that renders our path to God difficult, and always love more He who is the Author of our own being and of the grace we have.
Hence the Crucifix will be your model, the source of your Faith, to which your glance shall be directed, but it will also be for you the source of your apostolate. Hence you are not afraid to put on the soutane, you are not afraid to put on Our Lord Jesus Christ, to loudly proclaim Him, to demonstrate and manifest Him to the world. The world needs this manifestation of Our Lord Jesus Christ more than ever. The more the world sinks into this dung-heap of vice and disorder, doubting and abandoning the Truth, the more do the noble-hearted need light, charity, and order. And this cassock which you will wear will signify these things in the eyes of the world.
Therefore you will surely be a sign of contradiction - signum cui contradicetur - yes, certainly you will be, like Our Lord, a sign which shall be contradicted. You will be loved - or hated, you will be persecuted. You will have well-wishers. The noble-minded will wish you well, but those who are possessed by the spirit of Satan will persecute you - as Our Lord was persecuted.
Be proud, then, of wearing your cassock, your habit which manifests Our Lord Jesus Christ to the world, and fear nothing, for God is with you, the holy angels are with you, all the saints of heaven are with you, as well as all those who have worn this habit, who sanctified themselves by this habit, and who sanctified others.
Know, that just as Our Lord Jesus Christ is the solution to all problems, the priest also, who is another Christ - sacerdos alter Christus - must also be the solution to all problems. I make no exception, even for economic problems, even social problems; all problems must be resolved by Our Lord Jesus Christ. And if today these economic and social problems seem insoluble, it is because they have lost the true solution which is Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Crucifix has been suppressed everywhere, it has been driven from the public places, from schools, from courts, from public buildings, from the hearts of children, from houses. The Crucifix is no longer present and that is why they are no longer able to solve these problems.
I will give you a single example: the economic and social problems would be resolved if the virtue of temperance - perhaps even more so than the virtue of justice - would be practiced by everybody. Now does not Our Lord Jesus Christ on His Cross preach to us the virtue of temperance, contempt for the things of the world? Temperance is simply moderation in all things, in everything which must be used here below. Thus if everybody practiced temperance, the problems concerning questions of justice would be quickly resolved. But because they no longer want to practice the virtue of temperance, because everybody is looking for more goods, always for more enjoyment at whatever price, they no longer think of the spirit of penance, of moderation in using the goods of this world; hence jealousy and envy arise in the hearts of men, and fighting spreads all over the world. Just as those who possess these goods could understand that they too must use the goods of this world with moderation, they could be more generous with the "have-nots" - here is an example to show you how Our Lord Jesus Christ by the example of His Cross, by the example of His Blood which was shed - can and must be the solution to all problems.
Well, you will be the ones to preach Our Lord Jesus Christ. You will bring with you the true solution to all the problems of this world. But to do that, stay priests, abandon not that which makes you a priest. Of course you are not yet priests, but you have made a first step which manifests your desire to become one. I wish with all my heart that you finally do become priests, and already the world will judge you as such - when you wear the cassock, from now on the world will judge you as though you were already priests. So be sure to conduct yourselves as if you were already such. By your example, by your deportment, by your attitude, by your charity, by your goodness and wisdom - already you must act like men who bring with them the solutions to problems. Thus the honor of God will be saved. The glory of God will spread throughout the world, and thus souls will be converted to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Behold, my dear friends, the meaning of this ceremony we will perform in a few moments with you. I hope you will understand it, that you will keep its signification in your heart, and that you will be always more and more convinced of it. Then you will truly be "the light of the world."
We will ask this especially today on this feast of the Epiphany, like the Magi, the Kings who came to seek the Light of the Child Jesus. They found Him, in the company of Mary and Joseph - we will ask Mary and Joseph to give you conviction in these sentiments which I have tried to evoke these morning, so that they remain in you. And I am convinced that at your prayers, and the prayers of your parents and all those present here, and the prayers of all who love you and follow your progress with so much affection, that the grace of Our Lord will be abundant in you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Source
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| The Catacombs: Re-platforming Updates and Notices |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 07:53 AM - Forum: The Catacombs: News
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A Notice on the 'Archived Catacombs' Posts
Dear friends,
As you may have noticed, I am slowly bringing over onto this newly re-platformed Catacombs many of the important articles and resources that are on the old/archived Catacombs.
In doing this, many times I am copying over important contributions made by different members. For clarity's sake I am prefacing these posts as coming 'From the Archived Catacombs' with the original link, to give the authors the credit due to them whenever possible.
Please let me know if you have any questions - contact@thecatacombs.org
God bless!
-Admin
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1983 Statement Against False Ecumenism |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 07:32 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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From the Archived Catacombs:
Archbishop Lefebvre's Public Statement against False Ecumenism
Written in October 1983, it was not actually made public until June 1988 in conjunction with the Episcopal Consecrations.
Albano
October 19, 1983
We read in the twentieth chapter of Exodus that God, after having forbidden His people to adore strange gods, added these words: "It is I who am the Lord thy God, a mighty and jealous God, visiting the iniquity of fathers on their sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me." In chapter thirty-four of Exodus we read: "Thou shalt not adore any strange god. A jealous God, that is the name of the Lord."
It is just and salutary that God should be jealous of what belongs to Him alone and from all eternity: jealous of His infinite eternal almighty being, jealous of His glory, of His truth, of His charity, jealous of being the only Creator and Redeemer, and so of being the end of all things, the sole way of salvation and happiness for all angels and men, jealous of being the Alpha and the Omega.
The Catholic Church founded by Him and to which He entrusted all the treasures of salvation is for her part also jealous of the privileges of her sole Master and Lord, and teaches all men that they must turn towards her and be baptized by her if they wish to be saved and partake of the glory of God in a happy eternity. Thus the Church is essentially missionary. She is essentially one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman.
She cannot admit of there being any other true religion outside of her; she cannot admit that one may find any way to salvation outside of her since she identifies herself with her Lord and God who said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
Hence she has a horror of any communion or union with false religions, with heresies, and with errors which put a distance between souls and her God who is the one and only God. She knows only unity within her fold, as does her God. For that she gives the blood of her martyrs, the life of her missionaries, of her priests, the sacrifice of her religious and nuns, she offers the daily Sacrifice of Propitiation.
But with Vatican II a spirit of adultery has been blowing through the Church, a spirit which in the Declaration on Religious Liberty allows of the principle of religious liberty of conscience for internal and external acts, with exemption from any authority. This is the principle of the Declaration of the Rights of Man against the rights of God. The authorities of the Church, the State and the Family partake of the authority of God and hence they have the duty to contribute to the spread of the Truth and to the application of the Decalogue, and to protect their subjects against error and immorality.
This Declaration provoked the laicizing of Catholic States which is an insult to God and to His Church, reducing the Church to the status of equality with false religions. This is exactly the spirit of adultery for which the people of Israel were so often rebuked (see Note 1, the declaration of Pope Paul VI, L'Osservatore Romano, April 24, 1969). This spirit of adultery is also made clear in the ecumenism instituted by The Secretariat for the Unity of Christians. This aberrant ecumenism has brought in its train all the reforms of the liturgy, of the Bible, of canon law, with the collegiality that destroys the personal authority of the Supreme Pontiff, of the episcopacy and of the parish priest (see Note 2).
This spirit is not Catholic; it is the fruit of the Modernism condemned by St. Pius X. It wrecks all the institutions of the Church and especially the seminaries and the clergy, in such a way that one may ask who is still integrally Catholic among the clerics who submit to this adulterous spirit of the Council! Hence nothing is so urgent in the Church as to form a clergy repudiating this adulterous and Modernist spirit and saving the glory of the Church and her Divine Founder by keeping the integral Faith and the means established by Our Lord and by the Tradition of the Church to keep this Faith, and to transmit the life of grace and the fruits of the Redemption.
It will soon be twenty years now that we have been striving with patience and firmness to get the Roman authorities to understand this need for a return to sane doctrine and Tradition, for a renewal of the Church, for the salvation of souls and for the glory of God.
To safeguard the Catholic priesthood which perpetuates the Catholic Church, we need Catholic bishops. We find ourselves constrained, because of the spirit of Modernism invading today's clergy, an invasion reaching even to the highest summits within the Church, to undertake the consecrating of bishops, this principle having been accepted by the pope...
But a deaf ear is continually turned to our entreaties - nay, more, we are being asked to recognize the wisdom of the whole Council and of the reforms ruining the Church. No one wishes to pay any heed to our present experience of, with the grace of God, maintaining the Tradition which produces true fruits of holiness and draws numerous vocations.
To safeguard the Catholic priesthood which perpetuates the Catholic Church and not an adulterous Church, we need Catholic bishops. So we find ourselves constrained, because of the spirit of Modernism invading today's clergy, an invasion reaching even to the highest summits within the Church, to undertake the consecrating of bishops, the principle of this consecration having been accepted by the pope, according to Cardinal Ratzinger's letter of May 30. These episcopal consecrations will not only be valid, but given the historical circumstances, most probably also licit. However, be they licit or not, it is sometimes necessary to abandon the letter of the law in order to observe the spirit of the law.
The Pope can only desire the Catholic priesthood to continue. Hence it is in no way in a spirit of rupture or schism that we are carrying out these episcopal consecrations, but in order to come to the help of the Church which finds herself no doubt in the most sorrowful situation of her whole history. Had we found ourselves in the times of St. Francis of Assisi, the pope would have been in agreement with us. There was not an occupation by Freemasonry of the Vatican in its happier days.
Hence we declare our attachment and our submission to the Holy See and to the pope. In accomplishing this act of consecration we are aware of continuing our service to the Church and to the papacy exactly as we have striven to do ever since the first day of our priesthood.
The day when the Vatican will be delivered from this occupation by Modernists and will come back to the path followed by the Church down to Vatican II, our new bishops will put themselves entirely in the hands of our Sovereign Pontiff, to the point of desisting if he so wishes from the exercise of their episcopal functions.
Finally we turn towards the Virgin Mary who is also jealous of the privileges of her Divine Son, jealous of His glory, of His Kingdom on earth as in heaven. How often has she intervened for the defense, even the armed defense, of Christendom against the enemies of the Kingdom of Our Lord! We entreat her to intervene today to chase the enemies out from inside the Church who are trying to destroy her more radically than her enemies from outside. May she deign to keep in the integrity of the Faith, in the love of the Church, in devotion to the successor of Peter, all the members of the Society of St. Pius X and all the priests and faithful who labor alongside the Society, in order that she may both keep us from schism and preserve us from heresy.
May St. Michael the Archangel inspire us with his zeal for the glory of God and with his strength to fight demons.
May St. Pius X share with us a part of his wisdom, of his learning, of his sanctity, to discern the true from the false and the good from the evil in these times of confusion and lies.
† Marcel Lefebvre
P.S. [this post script is from the June 1988 issue of The Angelus magazine when this text was made public—webmaster] This statement, drawn up in 1983, is still valid today. It needed only one correction concerning the agreement with Rome for the consecration of a bishop in the letter of May 30, 1988. If the conversations of the months of April and May did not reach a conclusion, that is because they showed the will of Modernist Rome to make us accept the spirit and reforms of Vatican II.
Note 1: Declaration of Paul VI, L'Osservatore Romano, August 24, 1969:
Quote:"The new position adopted by the Church with regard to the realities of this earth is henceforth well known by everyone... and here is the most important new principle to be put into practice... the Church agrees to recognize the world as 'self-sufficient,' she does not seek to make the world an instrument for her religious ends..."
This is a declaration contrary to the Catholic Faith, against which I protested in a letter to what used to be the Holy Office. The reply was, coming from the Secretary of State, that is to say Cardinal Villot, that I should quit Rome immediately; to which I answered that he would have to send a squad of Swiss guards to force me to quit Rome. The reply was silence. That is what has happened to the Vatican and what it still is today with regard to the defenders of the Catholic Faith. All the popes in their encyclicals stated the opposite. Not only the Faith, but also sane philosophy rises up in protest against this declaration which laicized all the Catholic States.
Note 2: Secretariat for the Unity of Christians at the Council. It is suitable to recall the important role played by the members of the Secretariat for the Unity of Christians in the Council. Cardinal Bea entered into official relations with the Masonic Jewish Lodge of B'nai B'rith of New York in the United States. It was Cardinal Bea who drew up the projects for the schemas on Religious Liberty, on the Jews, on non-Christian Religions, on ecumenism, in collaboration with Cardinal Willebrands, Secretary of the Secretariat, and Bishop De Smedt, Vice-President of the Secretariat and reporter at the Council on the Declaration on Religious Liberty.
Cardinal Willebrands formed part of the Vatican Commission for Judeo-Christian relations and of the Commission which maintains relations with the ecumenical Council of Churches, and of the Commission which concerns itself with relations with Moscow through the intermediary of the Orthodox Church of Moscow. To them are to be joined Cardinal Etchegaray, Msgr. Maller, the Dominican Fathers de Contenson, Bernard Dupuy, and a number of others. The influence of the Protestants of Taize is not to be neglected either, who were able to come and go as they liked in the Vatican. Nor should we forget the presence of six Protestant pastors in the Liturgical Commission. The harmfulness of all these Commissions is considerable. The Commissions are paralyzing all the normal activity of the Roman Curia. The Rome of the Commissions is the present active-day Rome, Modernist and Masonic. Popes Paul VI and John Paul II have wanted these commissions and have become their slaves just as they are prisoners of the Roman Synods, fruits of the collegiality recognized by the new Canon Law. To read the long article in the Dictionary of Catholic Theology, listed in the index under the title "Ecumenism," and written by Father Charles Boyer, S.J., who was the Secretary for the Secretariat for Unity after Cardinal Willebrands, is very instructive in uncovering the ecumenical spirit presiding over all the reforms.
Source - archives.sspx.org/archbishop_lefebvre/public_statement_ab_lefebvre_june_1988.htm
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| A microchip-based program backed by Bill Gates and the WEF is tracking millions |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 07:22 AM - Forum: Global News
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A microchip-based program backed by Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum is tracking the COVID status of millions
Since 2015, the Gates Foundation has supported Khushi Baby, a microchip-based project in India that helps monitor children's vaccination through attachable NFC microchip necklaces.
December 15, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – On November 17, LifeSiteNews reported that the Gates Foundation has been a major backer of Microchips Biotech, a company that designs a kind of contraceptive microchip commissioned directly by Bill Gates.
In June, Gates lied about his involvement with Microchips Biotech in a CBS interview, saying, “I’ve never been involved in any sort of microchip-type thing.” Ten days later, his foundation gave Microchips Biotech another $1 million grant.
In fact, Gates lied not only Microchips Biotech, but about another microchip project - one with strong ties to COVID-19 tracking initiatives.
Khushi Baby
Since 2015, the Gates Foundation has supported Khushi Baby, a microchip-based project in India that helps monitor children's vaccination through attachable NFC microchip necklaces.
Khushi Baby necklaces hold immunization history, GPS location at time of vaccination, and biometric data from children and their parents. The information can be read by an app that the the company created and can be uploaded to a cloud service to be “accessed seamlessly by NGOs, MOHs [Ministries of Health], and other health officials.”
The group claims to have tracked at least 50,000 mothers and children through their microchip- necklace program.
According to Khushi Baby, the Gates Foundation, along with 3ie, a Gates-backed international NGO, provided seed funding for the start-up's initial trial in 2015.
No information about Khushi Baby can be found on the Gates Foundation website, although Melinda Gates promoted the start-up on Twitter in 2014. Nevertheless, Khushi Baby, 3ie, and UNESCO attest to the foundation’s involvement with Khushi Baby.
In 2016, Khushi Baby also partnered with Gavi, the multilateral vaccine distributer that Bill Gates co-founded and that the Gates Foundation has supplied with over $4 billion. Gavi, one of the world’s most prolific vaccination groups, reports having facilitated the immunization of more than 800 million children. Gavi currently co-leads COVAX, the UN’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program, which aims to deliver two billion doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2021.
Khushi Baby received $500,000 from Gavi in 2017 and another $250,000 last year. Their collaboration with Gavi landed Khushi Baby an addition Gates Foundation pledge of at least $1.5 million in matching funds.
The specific Gavi program that Khushi Baby participates in is called INFUSE, which was launched at and has been hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the organization behind the “Great Reset.”
In June, the WEF announced the “Great Reset,” a pro-LGBT, socialistic scheme to “revamp all aspects of our societies and economies” in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Archbishop Carlo Viganó slammed the Great Reset as a “global conspiracy against God and humanity” in an open letter to President Trump. Cardinal Raymond Burke recently condemned the project, as well, linking it to an “evil agenda,” realized by means of “manipulation of citizens and nations.”
The WEF, which also helped develop a popular COVID-19 travel pass and works with the controversial ID2020, has promoted Khushi Baby multiple times.
COVID-19 status tracking
Last year, Khushi Baby adapted their platform to develop a new health tracking app for Rajasthan, India’s sixth largest state. The government of Rajasthan plans to deploy the app, called Nirogi Rajasthan (“Healthy Rajasthan”), to 50,000 state health workers, who will go “door-to-door to collect details of the family members and their health.” The CEO of Gavi has voiced his support for the initiative.
Participants will be given “NFC-enabled health cards” and may be require to suppply personal data, like “GPS location” and facial biometrics, according to Khushi Baby. Nirogi Rajasthan seeks to track more than 50 million people over the next three years.
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Khushi Baby joined the Rajasthan government to design yet another app, called Mission LiSa. This “active surveillance” software again allows Khushi Baby to collect GPS data, in addition to “contact history” and biometrics.
Personal information is “processed using artificial intelligence” and GIS technology to track the spread of COVID-19. Around 100,000 Indians are surveilled each day through the app, which reported over 10 million “household screenings” by September. Khushi Baby has declared that “the Mission Lisa deployment has achieved pan-state status.”
Last week, a writer for an Indian government website noted that Mission LiSa “will be extended moving forward to longitudinally track community health, including the forthcoming delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the population at large.” This announcement, which was retweeted by Khushi Baby, follows similar suggestions by Rajasthan health ministers.
While it’s not clear if Mission LiSa employs microchip technology, Khushi Baby said that the program “will be used as the base to integrate longitudinal modules RMNCH tracking." Khushi Baby’s larger “RMNCH” (reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health) goals features “GPS, Near Field Communication (NFC), and facial biometric accountability at all points of care.”
Ultimately, Khushi Baby doesn’t just want to track tens of millions of Indians. In line with Bill Gates’ call for “digital certificates,” the start-up’s co-founder said in 2017, “Our broader mission is to take our NFC-enabled necklace and unlock its full potential as a digital passport.”
“We are building and scaling in India, but also have an eye to make a sustainable, global impact by selling our integrated service and products to other countries’ Ministries of Health and INGOs,” he declared.
[Emphasis mine.]
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| Leaked Chinese Communist Party list reveals infiltration of COVID vaccine manufacturers |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2020, 07:16 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Leaked Chinese Communist Party list reveals infiltration of COVID vaccine manufacturers
'There is an espionage emergency,' declared Gordon G. Chang, long time international commentator on Asian affairs.
December 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – A leaked list of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members suggests a massive infiltration of western corporations and governments, including the major pharmaceutical corporations developing vaccines for COVID-19, the virus which originated in China and has held the entire world hostage for nearly a year.
The list containing the names of 1.95 million CCP members was leaked to The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, The Australian in Australia, and De Standaardin in Belgium. It raises serious questions about the operational integrity of western firms employing these individuals.
“There is an espionage emergency,” declared Gordon G. Chang, long time international commentator on Asian affairs in a tweet.
“China's influence, intelligence and infiltration attempts are overwhelming America,” said Chang, writing at GateStoneInstitute.org.
“NEVER take any vaccine that has been within missile range of Bill Gates,” tweeted attorney Lin Wood. “I also have serious concerns about Pfizer & its CCP connections.”
Quote:NEVER take any vaccine that has been within missile range of Bill Gates.
I also have serious concerns about Pfizer & its CCP connections.
Be prudent. Be cautious. Talk at length to your medical doctor. Do research. Demand answers.https://t.co/9BiaNB2cxb
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 14, 2020
After conducting a detailed analysis, The Daily Mail said that “pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca – both involved in the development of coronavirus vaccines – employed a total 123 party loyalists.”
GlaxoSmithKline also employs members of the CCP.
The primary allegiance of these individuals is not to the west or to the companies employing them but to communism and the CCP.
CCP members swear a solemn oath to
Quote: “carry out the Party’s decisions, strictly observe Party discipline, guard Party secrets, be loyal to the Party, work hard, fight for communism throughout my life, be ready at all times to sacrifice my all for the Party and the people, and never betray the Party.”
Other CCP members work for companies such as Boeing and Airbus which supply equipment and technology used by the U.S. military and the armed forces of other western nations, creating the potential for security breaches.
These companies “make some of our most advanced weaponry and are trusted to guard top-secret designs for our most sensitive assets and facilities,” reported National File.
Quote:“Yet collectively they employ hundreds of Chinese Communists who have pledged to serve the Party above all else.”
An intelligence officer who asked to remain anonymous told The Australian that the CCP members in government and corporations that work with government “is a totally unacceptable security risk.”
Quote:“Party members are often expected to do the bidding of the state, and especially when they are overseas,” he said. “In some cases, they go beyond being a security risk, and actually do the bidding of China in attempting to influence governments overseas. The recent raids in Sydney are an example of this.”
“Chinese nationals have compromised the security of global companies which form part of the military supply chain for the West,” continued the intelligence officer. “Allowing members of the CCP to work for such companies risks their stealing technology, providing intelligence to China on forthcoming weapons systems and capabilities, or on force structures built around those capabilities.”
Boeing produces not only commercial airliners; it is the second-largest defense contractor in the world, manufacturing jet fighters, bombers, and missiles for the U.S. military. The company also has a contract to deliver two new 747 aircraft for use as the president’s Air Force One, beginning in 2024.
Other CCP members can be found working for global banking giants, representing a potential threat to western economies.
John Ratcliffe, the U.S. Director of National Security, warned of the grave threat the CCP represents to the U.S. and the rest of the world in a commentary earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal:
Quote:As Director of National Intelligence, I am entrusted with access to more intelligence than any member of the U.S. government other than the president. I oversee the intelligence agencies, and my office produces the President’s Daily Brief detailing the threats facing the country. If I could communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.
The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically. Many of China’s major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party.
I call its approach of economic espionage “rob, replicate and replace.” China robs U.S. companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the U.S. firms in the global marketplace.
“This generation will be judged by its response to China’s effort to reshape the world in its own image and replace America as the dominant superpower,” said Ratcliffe.
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate who is now being referred to by mainstream media as “president-elect,” said that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent endorsement of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is a “bright light in a needlessly dark time.”
Biden’s relationship with China has been the object of suspicion since troubling details about his and his son’s dealings with the communist nation – and associated attempts by U.S. intelligence agencies to cloak the Bidens’ dealing with China – have been revealed.
His advocacy on behalf of the CCP reaches back decades to his days as a U.S. Senator, voting against all legislation aimed at curtailing China’s ambitions, including fostering American dependence on Chinese-manufactured pharmaceuticals.
“The Biden Family is owned by the Chinese Communist Party,” declared White House advisor and former New York City Mayor Rudy Gulianni in October.
[Emphasis mine.]
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