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| Conciliar US Bishops: No Problem taking CV Vaccine from Aborted Fetal Lines |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2020, 08:48 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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US bishops approve use of coronavirus vaccines with 'remote connection' to abortion
CNA Staff, Dec 14, 2020 / 09:00 am MT (CNA).- The United States bishops' conference has said that Catholics can take two of the three available COVID-19 vaccines, even though they were developed with a “remote connection” to “morally compromised” cell lines.
In a statement released Monday, the bishops also said it is morally permissible in some circumstances to receive a third vaccine, developed in close connection with aborted cell lines, but that Catholics cannot allow the pandemic to “desensitize” or “weaken our determination” to oppose the evil of abortion.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, the chair of the USCCB’s doctrine committee, and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s pro-life activities committee, outlined their concerns about the vaccines in statement dated December 11 and published on Dec. 14. Widespread rollout of coronavirus vaccine began in the United States on Dec. 14.
“In view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines, the reasons to accept the new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are sufficiently serious to justify their use, despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines,” said the bishops.
Taking one of those vaccines, said the bishops, “ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community.”
In the statement Monday, the two bishops also outlined concerns regarding the three vaccinations produced by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, and outlined the position taken by the Church on other vaccinations developed either in part or entirely from cell lines from an aborted child.
“The Holy See, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Academy for Life, has offered guidance on the question of whether it is morally acceptable to receive a vaccine that has been created with the use of morally compromised cell lines,” the bishops said.
“Both the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Academy for Life emphasize the positive moral obligation to do good and in so doing to distance oneself as much as possible from the immoral act of another party such as abortion.”
The bishops also noted that “with regard to people involved in the development and production of vaccines, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explains that ‘in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision.’”
In 1972, a female child was aborted in the Netherlands, and cells from her kidneys were extracted and developed into the cell line now known as “HEK293.” “HEK” stands for “Human Embryonic Kidney.” Cells from the HEK293 line have been commonly used in biologic research since the late 70s.
The vaccinations produced by Pfizer and Moderna did not use HEK293 in their design, development, or production, but did use cells from the line in a confirmatory test, said the bishops.
“While neither vaccine is completely free from any connection to morally compromised cell lines, in this case the connection is very remote from the initial evil of the abortion,” said the bishops.
Conversely, the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca “should be avoided if there are alternatives available,” said the bishops, as this vaccine is “more morally compromised.”
“The HEK293 cell line was used in the design, development, and production stages of that vaccine, as well as for confirmatory testing,” said Rhoades and Naumann. The two compared the AstraZeneca vaccine to the current rubella vaccine, which also was reliant on “morally compromised cell lines.”
In the case of the rubella (German measles) vaccine, explained the bishops, the risk posed to an unborn child and the community at large by the illness outweigh the morality concerns related to the development of the vaccine.
“In such a situation, parents are justified in having their children vaccinated against rubella, not only to avoid the effects of rubella on their children, but, secondarily and just as importantly, to prevent their children from becoming carriers of rubella, as the spread of rubella can lead to the infection of vulnerable pregnant women, thereby endangering their lives and the lives of their unborn children,” said the bishops.
Rhoades and Naumann acknowledged that while Catholics should avoid the AstraZeneca vaccine in preference for one of the other two, it may not be possible for someone to do this without putting society at risk from the coronavirus. If this were to happen, a Catholic would be permitted to receive that vaccine.
“It may turn out, however, that one does not really have a choice of vaccine, at least, not without a lengthy delay in immunization that may have serious consequences for one’s health and the health of others,” said the bishops.
“In such a case, just as accepting a vaccination for rubella with a morally compromised vaccine is morally permissible because of the lack of alternatives and the serious risk to the public health, so it would be permissible to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine,” they said.
A person who refuses to be vaccinated, said the bishops, has “a moral responsibility to undertake all the precautions necessary to ensure that one does not become a carrier of the disease to others, precautions which may include some form of self-isolation.”
While the vaccines for coronavirus are permissible to receive despite their moral flaws, it is imperative that Catholics “must be on guard so that the new COVID-19 vaccines do not desensitize us or weaken our determination to oppose the evil of abortion itself and the subsequent use of fetal cells in research,” they said.
“For our part, we bishops and all Catholics and men and women of good will must continue to do what we can to ensure the development, production, and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine without any connection to abortion,” said the bishops.
[Emphasis mine.]
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| Canada warns people not to take Pfizer vaccine if they’re allergic to ‘any’ ingredients |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2020, 08:32 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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Health Canada warns people not to take Pfizer COVID vaccine if they’re allergic to ‘any’ ingredients
'People with allergies to any of the ingredients in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine should not receive it.'
December 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Health Canada is warning Canadians to avoid the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine created by Pfizer-BioNTech if they have allergies to any of its ingredients after some allergic reactions were reported in the U.K.
“People with allergies to any of the ingredients in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine should not receive it,” cautioned the Government of Canada’s health department in a Dec. 12 communication.
“Speak with your health professional about any serious allergies or other health conditions you may have before you receive this vaccine,” it added.
Health Canada related that two individuals in the U.K. reported “severe allergic reactions to Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on December 8, 2020.”
“Health Canada has followed up on the two reports of anaphylactoid reactions to Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in the U.K. These reactions occurred on December 8, 2020. Both individuals in the U.K. had a history of severe allergic reactions and carried adrenaline auto injectors. They both were treated and have recovered,” the health department stated.
Health Canada listed the ingredients of the vaccine.
Medicinal ingredient:
Non-medicinal ingredients:- ALC-0315 = ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate)
- ALC-0159 = 2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide
- 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine
- cholesterol
- dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate
- monobasic potassium phosphate
- potassium chloride
- sodium chloride
- sucrose
- water for injection
Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which was tested using fetal cells from an aborted baby, on Wednesday last week.
Children of God for Life reported that although the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was not developed using a cell line derived from an aborted baby, it was tested — that is, the laboratory phase which verifies the quality of the vaccine on cell tissues — using the HEK-293 cell line, which was derived from an aborted baby.
The vaccine is currently approved for people who are “16 years of age and older.”
“Its safety and effectiveness in people younger than 16 years of age have not yet been established,” the government agency said in its report authorizing use in Canada.
While the vaccine in Canada is, so far, voluntary, some Canadian provinces are now floating the idea of a COVID-19 “immunity passport” in order to travel, go to work, visit the theater, etc.
“That’s going to be really important for people to have [proof of COVID vaccination] for travel purposes, perhaps for work purposes, for going to theatres or cinemas or any other places where people will be in closer physical contact when we get through the worst of the pandemic,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott told reporters last Tuesday.
“So yes, that will be essential for people to have that. … That’s their choice. This is not going to be a mandatory campaign. It will be voluntary. There may be some restrictions that may be placed on people that don’t have vaccines for travel purposes, to be able to go to theaters and other places,” she added.
The left-leaning Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) called the idea of an “immunity passport” “wrongheaded.”
Michael Bryant, CCLA’s executive director and general counsel, warned in a Dec. 12 email to supporters against the “dangers of society stratification -- historic oppression and discrimination that comes with publicly labelling haves and have nots.”
“Besides, the public health goal of the vaccine is to cross the threshold for herd immunity within a population. Getting to that threshold is the public health challenge, not publicly identifying the innoculators,” Bryant said.
“None of this is intended to encourage or discourage personal choices about vaccination. The impugned Cabinet Minister herself emphasized that vaccines would not be forced upon anyone by law,” he continued.
“My favourite point ends up being made by Dr. Seuss, for which I have our privacy director to thank. Rather than pitting the star-bellied Sneetches against those without, we are better off affirming that Canadians are Canadians, deserving of privacy, equality and mobility, regardless of whether they advertise their vaccine credentials,” Bryant added.
The CCLA sent an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Dec. 12 to warn him about the “bad idea” of immunity passports.
“But first it must be said, that the overall human rights challenge with Immunity Passports arises from the disconnect between means and ends. As you know well, the point of the vaccine is to achieve the herd immunity threshold, upon which the proportion of the population immune to the disease is greater than the percentage of the population capable of getting the disease for it to spread. That threshold crossed, the whole community becomes protected – not just the immunized. Herd immunity makes it possible to protect the population from a disease, including those who cannot be vaccinated, such as newborns or those who have compromised immune systems,” the letter stated.
“If the point of an Immunity Passport is to coerce inoculation, then this raises the issue of individual liberty and government mandated medical treatment, discussed below. But Canadian governments say that they are not mandating inoculation. Accordingly, the purpose of the Immunity Passport, or Immunization Passport, is unrelated to crossing the herd immunity threshold. If it is not about herd immunity, we would argue, then its purpose is wrongheaded and misleading,” it continued.
“It is wrongheaded because of its negative human rights consequences, discussed below. It is misleading, because possession of an inoculation record does not, in fact, equal immunity or proof of not being infected. Nor does the absence of a passport mean that the person is a carrier of COVID, or otherwise susceptible. The inoculated could be infected – they could be one of the few for whom the vaccine fails – just as the uninoculated could be immune. The herd immunity threshold can be achieved notwithstanding these exceptions, however, which is why immunity passports put the cart before the horse,” the letter added.
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| Mexico approves biometric ID card to help ‘address demographic changes’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2020, 08:28 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Mexico approves biometric ID card to help ‘address demographic changes’
A new General Population Law enables a government database that has Mexicans' personal data, including an individual's unique physical characteristics.
December 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Mexico passed a New General Population Law that aims for the creation of a “Unique Digital Identity Card” and to “enable the government to address demographic changes, mortality, fertility, and international migration.”
The new General Law on Population, Human Mobility and Interculturality, passed by the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico with 426 votes in favor, three abstentions, and one against, “will enable the Ministry of the Interior to create a database with the personal data of Mexicans, including biometrics,” reported Forbes Mexico.
The Cédula Única de Identidad Digital (Unique Digital Identity Card) is to become “the official identification document for all Mexicans,” and will be issued to those in Mexico and also to those living abroad, according to BiometricUpdate.com.
The card will contain citizens’ “names, surnames, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, and biometric data, together with a unique Population Registration Key (CURP) number.”
The stated purpose of the identity card is not just to “guarantee the right to identity,” but to “address” demographic changes.
The identity card “will enable the government to address demographic changes, mortality, fertility, and international migration,” according to Representative César Agustín Fernández Pérez (Morena).
The Yucatan Times reported, “In a bulletin published online, the Chamber of Deputies stated that the new General Population Law aims to “establish the bases for inter-institutional coordination to formulate and conduct population and intercultural policy that addresses the causes and consequences of demographic dynamics and guarantees the right to identity.”
Mexico’s previous General Population Law, created in 1974 and last reformed in 2014, provides for the execution of “measures required” for family planning programs through “education and public health services,” “with the purpose of rationally regulating and stabilizing the growth of population.”
The new General Population Law requires the National Population Registry to “contain the certificate number of disability, when applicable, and “self-inscription as a member of the indigenous peoples or Afro-Mexican population.”
[Emphasis mine.]
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| December 15th - Blessed John the Discalced and St. Maximin of Verdun |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 12-14-2020, 11:51 PM - Forum: December
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Blessed John the Discalced
Franciscan Friar
(1280-1349)
Blessed John the Discalced was born near Quimper in France. In his youth he was a laborer; he made and erected crosses, built bridges and arches. Works useful for the glory of God or the welfare of his neighbor were the ones most agreeable to him. However, God was calling him higher, and by perseverance he succeeded in studying to receive the priesthood, despite the opposition and mockery of an artisan from whom he had learned his trade, one of his relatives.
From that moment on his life was very austere; he fasted three times a week on bread and water, visited the poor and the sick, and became the object of universal veneration. For thirteen years he served as a parish priest in his diocese, and never did he take a horse for his parish visits, but walked barefoot; hence his name, the Discalced or unshod. His very frugal life might have permitted him to set money aside, but the indigent received all that was not strictly necessary for him, and sometimes that as well.
The holy priest then entered the Order of Saint Francis. In the monastery at Quimper, Brother John was soon recognized to be the most humble and most mortified of all. The spirit of poverty made him choose the most worn habits, which he repaired himself. Since he had nothing to give away, he begged from the wealthy and thus assisted the miserable. He rose every night before the others, and very often spent entire nights in the charms of mental prayer.
The devil sometimes waged a fierce war on him, but the holy religious, trusting in God, manifested his contempt for the tempter, calling him dog, and driving him away by words of distress and supplication from the Psalms. His mortification was extreme; he fasted unceasingly on bread and water save for forty days during the year, and for sixteen years touched no meat or wine. He had the gift of tears in his ministry of confession, and the spirit of prophecy which revealed to him future public chastisements. He foresaw and announced the siege and capture of Quimper before the intention had been formed in the mind of the assailants. Great cruelties accompanied it, and a famine followed.
He also foresaw the pestilence which would afflict it in 1349, and wept. When the other religious asked him what was wrong, he told them only that the city would be afflicted again with a new calamity. He devoted himself to serving the plague-stricken, offered his life to God in sacrifice, and died of the terrible scourge in that year, at the age of sixty-nine. The city remains devoted to his memory, and his statue is in its cathedral.
![[Image: sdj15dec.jpg]](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cZ7NbD6qoR4/Tum8sHUeepI/AAAAAAAAC6k/cjZ6jVARyl0/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/sdj15dec.jpg) Saint Maximin or Mesmin of Verdun
Abbot of Micy
(† 520)
Saint Maximin was a native of Verdun. A priest named Euspicius, uncle of Maximin, brought about a reconciliation between the French monarch Clovis and his subjects of that city, after the latter had engaged in a revolt. Clovis, appreciating the virtues of the good priest, persuaded Euspicius to take up his residence at the court in Orleans; and the servant of God took Saint Maximin, his nephew, with him. Maximin was ordained a deacon by the bishop of Orleans, and then a priest.
A site about two leagues from the city was given by Clovis to Euspicius for a monastery. He with Maximin and several disciples built there the large monastery, of which he then took charge. His young assistant knew well how to attract many young men of admirable piety and fervor to the religious state.
At the death of the Abbot two years later, the young priest was appointed to replace him. Solitaries left their cells to come and place themselves under his direction, and soon the gift of miracles was bestowed upon the abbot. He multiplied wine and grain during a famine, to assist the afflicted people; he delivered a possessed man and cured two blind men, though he knew one of them had become blind only after he maliciously cut down a tree belonging to the monastery. Through his prayers he brought about so many other prodigies that he was called the thaumaturge of his century.
His soul was soon ripe for the beatitude he had earned, and after having governed his monastery for ten years, he died as he had lived, in the odor of sanctity, and in the arms of his spiritual sons, on the 15th of December in about the year 520.
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| Saints and Religious on Prophecy |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 12-14-2020, 11:31 PM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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St. Jerome
" All prophecy is shrouded in enigmas and disconnected meanings; the prophet passes from one object to another, lest by keeping the order of events he make a story rather than a prophecy."
(In Isaiah, XVI, 1).
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| Dom Prosper Guéranger: The Third Week of Advent |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 02:48 PM - Forum: Advent
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Third Week of Advent
MONDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT
Prope est jam Dominus: venite, adoremus. The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.
Quote:De Isaia Propheta.
Cap. xxviii.
Haec dicit Dominus Deus : Ecce ego mittam in fundamentis Sion lapidem, lapidem probatum, angularem, pretiosum, in fundamento fundatum; qui crediderit, non festinet. Et ponam in pondere judicium, et justitiam in mensura; et subvertet grando spem mendacii, et protectionem aquae inundabunt. Et delebitur foedus vestrum cum morte, et pactum vestrum cum inferno non stabit.
From the Prophet Isaias.
Ch. xxviii.
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten. And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and waters shall overflow its protection. And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand.
Heavenly Father! Thou art preparing to set in the foundations of Sion a corner-stone, that is tried and solid; and this stone, which is to give firmness to Sion Thy Church, is Thy Incarnate Son. It was prefigured, as Thy apostle assures us, (1 Cor x. 4) by that rock of the desert, which yielded the abundant and saving stream that quenched the thirst of Thy people. But now Thou art about to give us the reality; it has already come down from heaven, and the hour is fast approaching when Thou wilt lay it in the foundations, O sacred Stone, which makest all one, and givest solidity to the whole structure! By Thee it will come to pass, that there shall be no longer Jew or Gentile, but all nations shall become one family. Men shall no more build on sand, nor set up houses which floods and storms may overturn.
The Church shall rise up from the stone which God now sets, and, secure on the great foundation, her summit shall touch the clouds. With all his weakness, and all his fickleness, man will partake of Thy immutability, O divine Stone, if he will but lean on Thee. Woe to him that rejects Thee, for Thou hast said, and Thou art the eternal Truth: ‘Whosoever shall fall upon that stone, shall be bruised; and upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.’ (St Matt. xxi. 44) From this twofold evil, O Thou that art chief corner-stone, deliver us, and never permit us to be of the number of those blind men who rejected Thee. Give us grace ever to honour and love Thee as the cause of our strength, and the one sole origin of our solidity: and since Thou hast communicated this Thy quality of the rock to one of Thine apostles, and by him to his successors unto the end of the world, grant us ever to cling to this rock, the holy Roman Church, in union with which all the faithful on the face of the earth are preparing to celebrate the glorious solemnity of Thy coming, O precious and tried Stone! Thou art coming, that Thou mayst destroy the kingdom of falsehood, and break the league which mankind had made with death and hell.
HYMN FOR ADVENT
(In the Mozarabic breviary, first Sunday of Advent)
Let all the assembly of Christ’s faithful ones laud the graces that are nigh, and sing their highest praises to their Creator.
When his only-begotten Son, who created this world, redeemed us, he fulfilled the promises which the heavensent prophets spoke in ages past.
The Word having come down from heaven, and shown himself to men, took away the punishment due to their sins; and assuming our nature, though but dust, he vanquished the prince of death.
Born of a Mother in time, but begotten eternally from the Father, in the two substances there is but one Person, that is the Person of the Word.
God has come into this world made man, that our old man being changed into the new, we may put on new beauty by being regenerated in the new-born God.
Let the Gentiles, who have received this new birth of grace, in gladness and exultation at the trophy won by the divine Nativity, keep every year its feast.
Let this coming of Jesus be celebrated with devout solemnity by all, who have so just a share in the glory of this great day.
That so, when the second coming shall burst upon the world and fill it with fear, this most humble expression of our devout celebration of the first may give us confidence.
To God the Father, and to his only Son, and to the holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
PRAYER FROM THE AMBROSIAN MISSAL
(In the Mass of the sixth Sunday of Advent - Preface)
Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos beatae semper Virginis Mariae solemnia celebrare, quae parvo utero Dominum coeli portavit; et, angelo praenuntiante, Verbum carne mortali edidit Salvatorem. Hic est mundi Redemptor, castis conceptus visceribus; clausa ingrediens, et clausa relinquens.
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that in this holy time we should celebrate the memory of the ever blessed Virgin Mary, who carried in the narrow inclosure of her womb the Lord of heaven, and who, according as the angel had foretold her, brought forth the Word become our Saviour in our mortal flesh. This is he who is the Redeemer of the world, conceived in a chaste womb, his Mother both then and at his birth remaining ineffably the Virgin.
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| 1982 SSPX General Chapter: Principles & Directives in the Present Situation of the Churc |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 11:45 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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The Angelus - February 1983
Principles & Directives of the SSPX In the Present Situation of the Church
The General Chapter of the Society of St. Pius X took place at Ecône, Switzerland, September 13-16, 1982. During the previous week, a retreat was preached by His Grace the Archbishop to seventy-three of the Society's priests who were gathered from around the world. After the retreat, thirty-one members of the Chapter met to consider all aspects of the Society 's work during its first twelve years of existence and to plan for its future. What follows is a statement of the position of the Society of St. Pius X with regard to key questions which are most frequently asked.
THE CHURCH, Mystical Spouse and Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was instituted by Him to continue and perfect His work of Redemption. To this effect He endowed her with an hierarchical government, a Magisterium and a ministry destined to illuminate the intellect with the light of faith and sanctify souls by the communication of His divine life. Thus souls are destined to eternal life, the object of Divine Love accomplished in the Creation and the Redemption. These wonderful means are therefore destined to transmit the precious deposit of faith and to communicate the precious gift of grace. The hierarchy of the Apostles possessed these means which were already essentially and substantially perfect. No truth or any means of sanctification was wanting to the Apostles.
Anything which can be given greater precision in the deposit of faith is implicitly contained in it. All that manifests the richness of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments only serves to highlight the sacramental graces, to enlighten the faithful, and dispose them to receive the Divine gifts. The continuous and infallible teaching of the Church and the exercise of her public life during the course of the centuries constitutes Tradition which is truly divine and therefore unchangeable. If, in its presentation, it can undergo certain adaptations, these adaptations of language or rites cannot but better transmit Tradition and never obscure it or even less, alter it.
The Church has always dreaded novelties, even in her vocabulary and that is why she has held on so strongly to the Latin language in the principal form of Tradition, viz. the Roman Church. For it is by a tendency to novelty that heresies, schisms, and errors have come about. This spirit of novelty, mutation, and change has succeeded in entering into the Church. It necessarily tends to destroy Tradition.
The Second Vatican Council, which wished to be the Council of "up-dating," opened the door to this spirit of change and novelty. The consequences and fruits are before our eyes; they are what allowed Pope Paul VI to make allusion to the auto-destruction of the Church.
One of the changes which affects the Church in that which is most essential to her is the liturgical change for it affects the very work of the Redemption: the Sacrifice of the Saviour, and as a necessary consequence,the priesthood of the Saviour and all who participate in it.
The self-defense of the Faith and the priesthood could not but manifest itself throughout the entire Catholic world. The Society of St. Pius X itself had also to make a sad choice either to follow the new reforms or to maintain the true sacrifice and the true priesthood. There was no hesitation: One does not sacrifice the greatest realities of Tradition to a false ecumenism. The Mass according to the traditional rites and the traditional priesthood would be jealously conserved, priestly formation and priestly life inspired by the best sources of tradition following the example of holy priests such as the last canonized Pope, Saint Pius X.
It is evident that the reformers could not tolerate a fidelity to the Church and to Tradition which placed their infidelity in evidence. Persecution was unleashed all the more that the effects of these reforms were terrible, especially in regard to the priesthood which was gravely affected.
This first stage of the active resistance of the Society was relatively easy, until 1974. Then came the second stage, that of canonical penalties which, being unsuccessful, were followed by a persecution of controversy.
Quote:"Your resistance places you in opposition to the Pope himself and puts you in a state of grave disobedience."
I deny the assumption that the Pope can oblige us to abandon the tradition of the Church on an essential point. If the Pope takes up a position in this sense it is because he is subject to pressures and he is all the more disposed to submit to them insofar as he himself is liberal.
The corruption of ideas in the Roman Curia is such that certain of its members arrogate illegitimate rights to themselves, especially the Secretariat of State. Rome is invaded by Modernists.
In the face of this state of affairs of which it is difficult for those who have not frequented the Roman Curia to have an exact idea, the defenders of tradition are divided. Some say that the Decrees of Rome, signed or carried out by the Pope, are so bad that the Pope cannot be a legitimate Pope, he is a usurper. There is therefore no Pope, the See is vacant. Others affirm that the Pope cannot sign decrees which are destructive of the Faith and therefore these decrees are acceptable and one must submit to them. The Society [of St. Pius X] does not accept one or the other of these two solutions, but supported by the history of the Church and the doctrine of theologians, thinks that the Pope can favorize the ruin of the Church by choosing bad collaborators and allowing them to act, by signing decrees which do not engage his infallibility, sometimes even by his own admission, which cause considerable harm to the Church. Nothing is more dangerous to the Church than liberal Popes who are in a continual state of incoherence.
On the other hand, we think that God can allow the Church to be afflicted with this misfortune. Consequently we pray for the Pope but we refuse to follow him in his folly in regard to religious liberty, ecumenism, socialism and the application of reforms which are ruinous for the Church. Our apparent disobedience is true obedience to the Church and the Pope as successor of Peter in the measure that he continues to maintain Tradition.
Quote:"By your attitude of refusal of the New Order of Mass and the new rites, you give the impression that these rites are invalid."
It is one thing to say that they are invalid, and another to say that they are bad. We say that they are bad because the intention which governed these changes is bad. It is that expressed by Mgr. Bugniniin the L'OsservatoreRomano of 19 March 1965. The modifications introduced into the rites are also opposed to the doctrine of the Holy Mass and the Sacraments. Our pastoral attitude which refuses these reforms follows from this.
The facts confirm our pastoral action. We are witnessing the loss of faith among the faithful and the clergy. When the Faith runs the risk of being changed or perverted nothing must be neglected to avoid this perversion.This is an elementary moral principle.
With regard to validity, moral theology and Canon Law indicate the necessary conditions: A validly ordained minister, the correct matter and form, and the intention of doing what the Church does, i.e., what she has always done and has the intention of doing and that which she will always do.
It should be noted that the study of this validity should especially be made from now on with the translations which are in use, given that Latin is no longer used. In this case it is easy to reveal the wrong ideas of the liturgical commissions which profit from this to use Protestant terminology. The confusion is total, and the danger of invalidity is very great. In this domain "auto-destructions" causes havoc.
This is yet another important incentive to refuse the reforms and to draw one's inspiration for pastoral action from the attitude of the Church with regard to schismatic and heretical sects.
Quote:"Are you among those who say that it is impossible to assist at the New Order without committing a grave sin?"
Evidently not. Those who speak in this way do not know what a grave sin is and forget the laws of moral theology which require a concrete act to be judged in the circumstances which modify the morality of the act. Many of those who assist at the New Order of Mass have not sufficient knowledge of the danger to their faith. They find themselves in a situation similar to that of large numbers of Catholics in the 16th century who allowed themselves to be drawn into Protestantism by their priests or bishops, especially in England and Germany. They saw their mentality and their faith being transformed little by little by their participation in the reformed liturgy with which the New Order of Mass has much in common.
This is why we must make them realize the danger to their faith while treating them with indulgence.
The adherence of bishops and priests to the reforms is much more grave. Many suffer from this dilemma which puts them either in opposition to authority or in opposition to their faith in their priesthood. Few have the courage to remain faithful and many prefer to retire or submit unwillingly. They do not have the gift of fortitude of the martyrs.
Quote:"Is your attitude assumed in a rejection of the Council from which the reforms have come?"
The Council should have been the occasion of the reaffirmation of the Truth of the Church and the necessity of the social reign of Jesus and Mary against the errors of Protestantism and Teilhardian naturalism and against socialism and communism. Ordinary Protestants would have been converted en masse. They were disposed to it and their debacle was profound on the eve of the Council. But the Modernists, traitors to the Church, used the Council to favor their compromise with all the modern errors, profiting from a weak pope and a pope disposed to radical changes. All of the commentators on the Council recognize the triumph of the liberals who did not hide their satisfaction and who neutralized or drove from the Roman Curia all of the conservatives and who took the reins of government, centralizing power in the Secretariat of State in order to be certain of managing the ecumenical revolution so much desired by the enemies of the Church.
The work was quickly carried out in all fields. Destruction also followed quickly.
In this pastoral Council the spirit of error and lies was able to work at its ease, placing time-bombs everywhere which, in due course, would destroy the institutions. One must therefore understand "accept the Council in the light of Tradition" in the sense of "correct the Council in the direction of the eternal principles of Tradition." This is, moreover, what Pope Paul VI began to do by placing in the acts of the Council the nota explicativa for the document Lumen Gentium. Let us admit that this is something new for a Council.
Such has always been the attitude and the thoughts of the Society on the Second Vatican Council; a pastoral Council as it defines itself (notification of 16 November 1964). The Council is an act of non-infallible teaching and consequently susceptible to being influenced in a bad sense. It is therefore a question of applying the criterion of Tradition to the different documents of the Council in order to know what is to be retained, what is to be clarified, and what is to be rejected.
Quote:"Your practical attitude in the apostolate puts the members of the Society in constant opposition to Canon Law."
In frequent opposition to the letter of certain laws, it is true, but not with the fundamental laws of Canon Law, the principal of which obliges all pastors of souls: Prima lex, salus animarum.[1]
On the other hand, [color+71101d]Canon Law itself foresees numerous exceptions to the law, authorizing in particular cases that which is generally refused. Thus it is for jurisdiction of different sacraments. Is not the essential duty of the bishop to perpetuate the priesthood?[/color]That which is permitted in the natural order in exceptional situations, i.e., cataclysms, conflagrations, wars, etc., in virtue of general laws is all the more so in the order of the salvation of souls in analogous situations. When this exceptional situation comes to an end, everything will return to order without any problems. All of the members of the Society have only one desire: To be subject in filial obedience to Rome which has returned to Tradition.
This line of conduct has been that of the Society—which in no way pretends to substitute itself for the Magisterium of the Church—since the beginning of its existence and it has never varied. Many strive to radicalize us or to liberalize us. Because of these opposing efforts a certain number of young priests, seminary lecturers and seminarians have preferred to leave us. However, the great majority of priests and seminarians are faithful to the spirit of the Society which strives on all points to be faithful to the spirit of the Church and to follow her indefectibly in her consolations and in her trials, in the footsteps of all those who, during the course of the centuries, have professed that the Jesus of yesterday is the same as that of today and of tomorrow. Jesus Christus heri, hodie, ipse et in saecula.
Virgo fidelis orapro nobis!
†Marcel Lefebvre
(Issued by the General Chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X,Ecône, Switzerland,13-16 September 1982.)
1.The first law is the salvation of souls.
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: Open Letter to Pope John Paul II - November 1983 |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 11:28 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Open letter to Pope John Paul II: An Episcopal Manifesto
Given at Rio de Janiero, Brazil on November 21, 1983
Holy Father,
May Your Holiness permit us, with an entire filial openness, to submit to you the following considerations. During the last twenty years the situation in the Church is such that it looks like an occupied city.
Thousands of members of the clergy, and millions of the faithful, are living in a state of anguish and perplexity because of the "self-destruction of the Church." They are being thrown into confusion and disorder by the errors contained in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the post-conciliar reforms, and especially the liturgical reforms, the false notions diffused by official documents and by the abuse of power perpetrated by the hierarchy.
In these distressing circumstances, many are losing the Faith, charity is becoming cold, and the concept of the true unity of the Church in time and in space is disappearing.
In our capacity as bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, successors of the Apostles, our hearts are overwhelmed at the sights throughout the world, by so many souls who are bewildered yet desirous in continuing in the faith and morals which have been defined by the Magisterium of the Church and taught by Her in a constant and universal manner. It seems to us that to remain silent in these circumstances would be to become accomplices to these wicked works (cf. II Jn. 11).
That is why we find ourselves obliged to intervene in public before Your Holiness (considering all the measures we have undertaken in private during the last fifteen years have remained ineffectual) in order to denounce the principal causes of this dramatic situation, and to beseech Your Holiness to use his power as Successor of Peter to "confirm your brothers in the Faith" (Luke 22, 32), which has been faithfully handed down to us by Apostolic Tradition.
To that end we have attached to this letter an appendix containing the principal errors which are at the origins of this tragic situation and which, moreover, have already been condemned by your predecessors. The following list outlines these errors, but it is not exhaustive:
Quote:1. A latitudinarian and ecumenical notion of the Church, divided in its faith, condemned in particular by the Syllabus, No. 18 (Den. 2918).
2. A collegial government and a democratic orientation in the Church, condemned in particular by Vatican Council I (Den. 3055).
3. A false notion of the natural rights of man which clearly appears in the document on Religious Liberty, condemned in particular by Quanta cura (Pius IX) and Libertas praestantissimum (Leo XIII)
4. An erroneous notion of the power of the Pope (cf. Den. 3115).
5. A Protestant notion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments, condemned by the Council of Trent, Session XXII.
6. Finally, and in a general manner, the free spreading of heresies, characterized by the suppression of the Holy Office.
The documents containing these errors cause an uneasiness and a disarray, so much the more profound as they come from a source so much the more elevated. The clergy and the faithful most moved by this situation are, moreover, those who are the most attached to the Church, to the authority of the Successor of Peter, and to the traditional Magisterium of the Church.
Most Holy Father, it is urgently necessary that this disarray come to an end because the flock is dispersing and the abandoned sheep are following mercenaries. We beseech you, for the good of the Catholic Faith and for the salvation of souls, to reaffirm the truths, contrary to these errors, truths which have been taught for twenty centuries in the Church
It is with the sentiments of St. Paul before St. Peter, when he reproached him for having not followed "the truth of the Gospel (Gal. 2, 11-14), that we are addressing you. His aim was none other than to protect the faith of the flock.
St. Robert Bellarmine, expressing on this occasion a general moral principle, states that one must resist the pontiff whose actions would be prejudicial to the salvation of souls (De Rom. Pon., I.2, c.29).
Thus it is with the purpose of coming to the aid of Your Holiness that we utter this cry of alarm, rendered all the more urgent by the errors, not to say the heresies, of the new Code of Canon Law and by the ceremonies and addresses on the occasion of the Fifth Centenary of the birth of Luther. Truly, this is the limit!
May God come to your aid, Most Holy Father. We are praying without ceasing for you to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Deign to accept the sentiments of our filial devotion,
H.E. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,
International Seminary of St. Pius X
Econe, Switzerland
H.E. Bishop Antonio de Castro-Mayer
Riachuelo 169, C.P. 255
28100 Campos, (RJ) Brazil
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1983 Press Conference on the 'Open Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to the Pope' |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 11:09 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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The Angelus - May 1984
The Archbishop's Press Conference
Paris - 9 December 1983
In our January issue, we published the very important Open Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to the Pope [see below - The Catacombs], its importance enhanced by the fact that it is also signed by a second bishop, Antonio de Castro-Mayer, retired Bishop of Campos (Brazil). The date of the Letter is also significant: November 21, (1983), the same date on which, nine years earlier, he wrote at Ecône, his now famous Declaration in response to the scandals caused at the Seminary by the Visitors from Rome. He mentioned that point in this article which is the text of a press conference he held in France in November, to focus the light of publicity on his Letter to the Holy Father, and thus hopefully give it greater impact. It is translated by Father Philip Stark from the January-February issue of Fideliter,a magazine of the Society of St. Pius X.
Question: We gather from everything you say that your meetings in private with the Vatican have borne no fruit. Do you think that this sort of public approach—this Open Letter—will bear any fruit?
Archbishop Lefebvre: I place my hopes in Providence. In answer to your question, I don't know, but we are fulfilling our responsibility to the people and to the priests, because we are being accused of doing nothing. People say, "You are constantly talking of your contact with Rome, but finally is anything being done? Are you really doing anything?" We ourselves see nothing. We see no results. We must speak louder. We must speak more openly.
Question: How about Bishop de Castro-Mayer? Is he also getting ready one day to ordain priests?
Archbishop Lefebvre: Well, he has already ordained some in his diocese, because you know he was a diocesan bishop. And now you know that the bishop who succeeded him, a progressivist, has closed the seminary and driven out the priests. But Bishop de Castro-Mayer has once again collected his seminarians together in a house and he is continuing to form them and certainly he will also ordain them. Clearly he is being forced by events to take the same attitude as myself because now his priests are being persecuted. He had 29 secular priests, 25 of whom were carrying on Tradition under his direction. Now that he has handed in his resignation and is no longer a diocesan bishop, the new bishop is persecuting these 25 priests. He has already put three or four of them out of their parishes. And he is using the radio, the newspapers, the press, the law courts and the police against these priests. It is unheard of, the persecution that they can undergo, even though the whole population is with them.
Question: You speak of a dialogue with Rome and, as far as we are concerned, we hear you saying today exactly what you were saying ten years ago. Can there really be any dialogue established between you and Rome?
Archbishop Lefebvre: I think that Rome will nevertheless pay a little more attention to an Open Letter published throughout the entire world than to a conversation, since they are not listening to me. Perhaps they will listen a little more like this.
Question: Are you disturbed by finding yourself opposite 2,000 bishops as though you are the absolute truth?
Archbishop Lefebvre: The truth does not depend upon me, or else the Church went astray for twenty centuries. All I am doing is to continue what I was taught, that is to say, what the Credo and the Catechism of all times teach. You can see for yourselves that the catechisms are being changed. All the traditional catechisms—the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Catechism of St. Pius X, the Catechism of Cardinal Gasparri—are all these catechisms no longer worth anything because the French bishops have just published a brand new one? It's madness. Catechism and Catholic doctrine cannot change. Our Credo cannot change. The moral law cannot change. It's inconceivable.
Question: Are there just two of you in the whole Church who realize this?
Archbishop Lefebvre: No, I don't think so. As I was telling you, there are many who realize inside what is going on, but we are the only two to cry out. But go and see them and they will tell you, yes, in fact, it's unacceptable, it's really sad to see what is going on, it's unfortunate that the children have catechism like that in their hands, but what do you expect us to do? It's the episcopal conference which decides. Rome it is true, has spoken a little against these catechisms, but it wasn't truly decisive. They weren't courageous.
Question: In your opinion, is there terrorism going on inside the Catholic Church?
Archbishop Lefebvre: To speak of terrorism is going a bit far. It's a strong word. But there is tyranny. I consider that the way in which the priests of Campos are actually being persecuted is a veritable tyranny. I think that behind the Iron Curtain, among the Soviets, no one is being persecuted any more.
Question: How do you see the Church in France at this moment?
Archbishop Lefebvre: I think a good number of bishops are no longer Catholic. We are in the state England was in at the moment it passed over to Protestantism. One fine day England woke up to find itself Protestant and Anglican. All the bishops, priests and people went over to Anglicanism, and they thought they were doing the right thing. Well, with the Church in France, it's the same thing. It is in the process of passing over to Modernism, worse than Anglicanism. And nobody is waking up! Everybody is swallowing this poison. The Church is going to wake up entirely Modernist. You know, you can now ask many faithful, many priests in France, "Do you still believe in Purgatory, do you still believe in the angels, in Hell?" Oh no, all those things belong to the past. Do you still believe in original sin? Original sin—this is what they wrote in this recent French catechism—is a fairy tale which was put together by sages at the time of Solomon. So if that's original sin, then there's nothing left of the Catholic religion. Why did Our Lord come, if original sin doesn't exist? It no longer makes any sense. There's no longer any sense in the whole Catholic Church. You have no idea of the depth of the errors in which people now find themselves. And so we protest. There will be at least two bishops who protest. We hope we are speaking clearly, respectfully, but firmly.
Question: Monseigneur, can this Manifesto be considered your will and personal testament?
Archbishop Lefebvre: Oh no. Of course, I can very well die quite soon. That's entirely possible. But it's still not a testament. Exactly the same day nine years ago on the 21st of November, I drew up a manifesto which also brought down on me the persecution of Rome, in which I said I can't accept Modernist Rome. I accept the Rome of all time with its doctrine and with its Faith. That is the Rome we are following, but the Modernist Rome which is changing religion—I refuse it and I reject it. And that is the Rome which was introduced into the Council and which is in the process of destroying the Church. I refuse that Church. Well, today, I am continuing quite simply, so it's not a testament, it's the Truth.
Question: Monseigneur, we know of your difficulties with Pope Paul VI, but we find it much more difficult to understand that you have not been able to reach any agreement with such a Pope as John Paul II.
Archbishop Lefebvre: Well, that's a mistake. Pope John Paul II is as inclined to reform as Pope Paul VI was. Pope John Paul II has not condemned Communism. He tries to come to an understanding with Communism. I am convinced that Pope John Paul II would be in agreement with a Christian Socialism, a Christian-flavored Communism. Communism needs to be improved on. After all, why can't we come to an understanding with Communism? It is Pope John Paul II who is changing the bishops to replace them with collaborating bishops, bishops of the Pax Movement, a movement of the "priests of peace." It is they who are now being named cardinals and bishops in the countries behind the Iron Curtain and these cardinals, these bishops persecute the good priests, whereas before these priests used to be encouraged by their bishops in order to resist Communism. Bishops are now being imprisoned and many have died in Communist jails. Now it is the very bishops themselves who are turning into the instruments of the Communist governments in order to persecute the priests doing their duty.
Question: So it's the Devil, not the Holy Spirit, who has been at work in the last few conclaves?
Archbishop Lefebvre: In any case the role being played by the Pope today is not truly the role that he ought to play. That is certain. He is not fulfilling his duty in the face of Communism. Look also at the "affair" that he is having with the Protestants. It's unheard of! He sent twenty official delegates to the Vancouver Congress of the Ecumenical Council of Churches. Those are the ones who have most worked with Protestants. After all, must we become Protestants? I had already written during the Council an article called "Must We Become Protestants in Order to Remain Good Catholics?" I already did that during the Council. It's going on. There is no change in this area. And then thirdly, Religious Liberty, the Rights of Man—it's always this humanism with which the Pope is infested. That is what pleases the Freemasons and the Protestants.
Question: However, John Paul II is a true pope?
Archbishop Lefebvre: I think so. I have always thought so, but he is a Pope who is not doing his duty. I would say so to himself if he were here. I am not afraid to say so to him. It's not my fault. Never before has one seen the Church not condemning Communism. Never before has one seen the Church agreeing with Communism to nominate collaborating bishops. Never before has the Church been seen united with Protestants to make a Catholic or Protestant liturgy and so on and so on.
Question: Then Monseigneur, if the situation is a deadlock, how do you see the future, notably the future of your communities and of your young priests?
Archbishop Lefebvre: That poses no problems for us. We have vocations in our seminaries. They are asking for us throughout the world. Communities of faithful Catholics who still wish to save their souls and who wish to continue the Catholic Church, so in that respect we have no difficulties. We have no problems within. But of course, as far as Rome is concerned, I do not know. I admit that the situation looks very dark because Rome is occupied by Modernists.
Question: The two signatures on the Manifesto—yourself and Msgr. de Castro-Mayer—are nevertheless rather closer to eternity than they are to today. So what's going to happen afterwards? How are you going to insure the continuation of your communities when there are no longer any bishops?
Archbishop Lefebvre: So you are asking the question for which maybe you all came, thinking that I was going to announce that I was going to make some bishops (laughter)?
Question: Monseigneur, why don't you make some bishops?
Archbishop Lefebvre: Because I still think that in appearance it would be an act of rupture with Rome which would be grave. I say, mark you, in appearance, because I think that before God, it is possible that this act may be an act necessary for the history of the Church, for the continuation of the Church, for the continuation of the Catholic priesthood, and so I am not saying that one day I won't do it. But it would be in circumstances still more tragic than today. Besides, as long as the Good Lord leaves me still a little health, I am still here, I prefer not to put the Society of St. Pius X into an even more difficult situation with regard to Rome. I still live in hope that, after all, Rome will one day open its eyes. Otherwise the Good Lord Himself must intervene with events of which we have no knowledge.
Question: So you are not absolutely refusing to consecrate a bishop?
Archbishop Lefebvre: No, I am not absolutely refusing. No, because if there is any role which is important for the bishop, it is that of handing on Tradition, of handing on the Gospel, of handing on the Faith.
Question: But in communion with other bishops, surely, Monseigneur.
Archbishop Lefebvre: Yes, but supposing these bishops no longer have the Faith? I wish it could be in communion with them. I have no desire at all to consecrate bishops, but if the bishops no longer have the Faith and I assure you that one may well ask how many bishops do still have the Faith, the true Catholic Faith. It is enough to see what has become of their seminaries. It is unheard of!
Question: Monseigneur, isn't this Manifesto also a little jab of the spurs to stimulate a movement that is beginning to slow down? Isn't it the opportunity to exert pressure with regard to your movement, in any case the communities connected with you and which have lost a little of their importance, or of the crowds which were following them?
Archbishop Lefebvre: No, not at all. I assure you that is not at all my intention, not the least in the world. I am not seeking publicity, and I don't think that we have habitually sought publicity. I think this act is sufficiently important once more in the history of the Church for me to ask for your cooperation in making known this appeal to the Holy Father and in reassuring Christians they are not alone, they are not abandoned; there are two bishops who are speaking for them.
Question: Isn't this act an ultimatum to Rome just before you consecrate bishops? Aren't you wishing to say to the Holy Father: "I am beginning to get on a bit in years, I'm getting a bit tired?"
Archbishop Lefebvre: That may be, but I don't yet know. I haven't thought out a method, but very possibly I will ask the Holy Father for an audience. If it is granted me, I might say to the Pope, "Listen. The situation is such that I believe in conscience I must consecrate a bishop; grant me the authorization. If you do not give it to me in the present situation, you oblige me to go ahead nevertheless."
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: Spiritual Journey - The Sacraments of Jesus Christ |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 10:58 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: Spiritual Journey
Chapter VII - The Sacraments of Jesus Christ
The Word of God was made flesh on account of the sin of man, to make reparation for it and to bring about a rebirth of divine life in souls, so that they might again become acceptable to God and glorify Him in this world and for eternity.
Thus Jesus, in His merciful love, chose to assume in a certain way the sins of humanity and to offer Himself as a sacrifice of redemption and of propitiation to His Father in order to restore the life of the Holy Ghost, the life of charity, in souls through a participation in His own life, which has become the sole source of life and salvation for men.
The Sacrifice of Calvary appears, then, as the Light which shines in the darkness, as the only fountain of life in the middle of the desert. By what means does God communicate this new life to us? It is by perpetuating Calvary. There will never be but one Sacrifice of the Cross, but one Victim, but one Priest: it is Jesus Himself.
We will never be able to insist enough on this marvelous invention of Divine Mercy, which sheds light on everything ordered by Divine Providence in the establishment of the Church, the Priesthood, and the Sacraments, of which the Eucharist, fruit of the Sacrifice and source of our sanctification, is the center and, in a certain way, the raison d’être. Which is the greatest and the most important of all these sacraments, and the one to which the rest are directed and whereby they are in some sort perfected?
It is the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. For in this Sacrament, our Lord Himself is present substantially, whereas in all the other sacraments there is only a power or a virtue which comes from Him. Further, all the other sacraments would seem to be directed to the Holy Eucharist, as Holy Orders which effect the sacrament; or as Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, and Extreme Unction, which make one worthy or more worthy to receive the Holy Eucharist; or as Marriage which signifies it, in so far as it is a union.(Pegues, pp. 247-8, III, Q. 65, Art. 3)
Would that we were able to give to the Mystery of the Cross its full value, its full place in the divine plan of the Redemption and in its application to souls throughout the history of the Church!
We must recognize that proper place is not always given, even in the teaching of the Church, in catechisms, to the Sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated on our altars. There is a tendency to give all recognition to the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and to make but an accidental allusion to the sacrifice. [color#71101d]This is a great danger for the faith of the laity[/color], especially in face of the violent attacks of the Protestants against the Holy Sacrifice. The devil is not mistaken when he is out to make the Sacrifice disappear. He knows that he is attacking the work of Our Lord at its vital center, and that any lack of esteem for this sacrifice brings about the ruin of all Catholicism in every domain.
The devil’s action since Vatican II is very revealing. It obliges those who wish to remain Catholic to courageously defend the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Priesthood as Our Lord instituted them.
It is essential for the spiritual life of priests as for that of the faithful to clarify our faith and our knowledge of the act, willed by Divine Wisdom, which has spiritually and supernaturally revived humanity.[/b] This act is the reason behind the Incarnation. It is the accomplishment of the Redemption. It is the act which glorifies God infinitely and opens the gates of heaven for sinful humanity. It is the Sacrifice of Calvary.
One cannot but be struck by the insistence of Our Lord during His entire earthly life on His “hour.” “Desiderio desideravi —greatly have I desired,” said Our Lord: Greatly have I desired this hour of My immolation. Jesus is stretched forward, as it were, towards His Cross.
The Mysterium Christiis, above all, the Mysterium Crucis —the mystery of the Cross. That is why, in the designs of the infinite Wisdom of God for the accomplishment of the Redemption, for the Re-creation and Renovation of humanity, Jesus’ Cross is the perfect, total, final, and eternal solution. It is by His Cross that all will be resolved. It is with respect to the relation each soul has with Jesus Crucified that the judgment of God will be delivered. If the soul is in a living relation with Jesus Crucified, then it prepares itself for eternal life and already participates in Jesus’ glory by the presence of the Holy Ghost in it. It is the very life of the Mystical Body of Jesus: “If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth” (Jn. 15:6).
For our justification, for our sanctification, Jesus organizes everything around this fountain of life which is His Sacrifice of Calvary. He founded the Church, He transmits His Priesthood, He instituted the sacraments to share with souls the infinite merits of Calvary. St. Paul does not hesitate to say: “For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2).
This Sacrifice of Calvary becomes on our altars the Sacrifice of the Mass, which at the same time as it continues the Sacrifice of the Cross brings about the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which makes us participants in the divine Victim, Jesus Crucified.It is therefore around the Sacrifice of the Mass that the Church, the Mystical Body of Our Lord, is organized. It is around the Sacrifice of the Mass that the Priesthood lives, in order to build up this Mystical Body by the preaching which attracts souls to purify themselves in the water of Baptism so as to be worthy to participate in the Eucharistic Sacrifice of Jesus, in the consuming of the divine Victim, and so as to unite themselves more and more to the Holy Trinity, beginning celestial and eternal life already here below.
It is also from the Cross that the grace of matrimony, received at the Sacrifice of the Mass, builds up Christendom, the social reign of Jesus Crucified, in families and in society. Christendom is society living in the shadow of the Cross, in the shadow of the parish church constructed in the form of a cross, surmounted by the cross, sheltering the altar where Calvary is renewed daily, in which souls come to receive and feed the life of grace by the ministry of priests, who are “other Christs.”
Christendom consists of this village, of those villages, cities, and countries which, following Christ on the Cross, accomplish the law of love under the influence of the Christian life of grace. Christendom is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.The authorities of this Christendom call themselves “lieutenants of Jesus Christ,” for they simply stand in His place and are thus charged with the application of His law, with protecting faith in Jesus Christ and with aiding its extension by all means possible, in full accord with the Church.
One can say in truth that the blessings of Christendom come from the Cross of Jesus and from Jesus Crucified. It is the resurrection of a fallen humanity thanks to the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. This marvelous program, put together by the eternal Wisdom of God, could not be realized without the Priesthood, whose particular grace is to perpetuate the unique Sacrifice of Calvary, source of life, of redemption, of sanctification, and of glorification.
The radiance of priestly grace is the radiance of the Cross. The priest is at the heart of the renovation merited by Our Lord. His influence is the determining factor on souls and for society. A priest enlightened by faith and filled with the virtues and gifts of the Spirit of Jesus can convert numerous souls to Jesus Christ, raise up vocations, and transform a pagan society into a Christian society.
Clearly, the role of the bishop—who is priest in the full sense of the term—is considerable. His function is the multiplication of true priests, the encouragement of religious vocations, the building up of Christian institutions, for the vitality of Christendom and the growth of Our Lord’s universal reign.
The bishops are responsible for keeping an unfailing, uncompromising faith in the virtue of the Cross of Jesus, unique source of salvation. They must not turn, as does the world, towards the use of human means as a so-called more effective apostolate. This would be a sign of their loss of faith in Jesus Christ Crucified. It is precisely this which we have observed for many decades and which has led to the self-destruction of the Church, according to the word of Paul VI, himself a decisive collaborator in this self-destruction.
It is Israel abandoning Yahweh, the one, true God, to prevaricate with false gods from neighboring tribes, whose daughters they took for wives and whose gods they adopted. Israel ended up by being guilty of deicide. But its glory would come from a virgin of the tribe of Judah, predestined to be the Mother of God and the Mother of the New Israel.
Thus, in spite of the promises of Our Lord, which in truth do not cease to be fulfilled, the majority of Church authorities prevaricate with false modern gods by ecumenism! These false, modern gods are not only those worshipped by false religions, but also the false deified ideologies: the goddess Reason, the goddess Liberty, and the goddesses Democracy, Socialism, and Communism.
God, Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, the Holy Sacrifice of the Cross and of the Mass, and the true Catholic Priesthood are not ecumenical because they proclaim a Credo and practice an anti-ecumenical Law: they work towards the universal reign of the King of Kings: Jesus Christ Crucified: “One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism” (Eph. 4:5).
Along these lines, since we have touched on the meaning of the sacraments, it seems an opportune time to return to the importance given to Baptism of water and of the Spirit by Our Lord. It is by this Baptism that Our Lord intends to constitute the new people of God, destined for the promised land, for eternal life.
The fact that He wished to be baptized by St. John the Baptist, and that all the significance of Baptism by water and by the Spirit was then manifested in a marvelous fashion, is of paramount importance for the work of the Redemption.
During His baptism, the whole Trinity deigned to make Itself manifested—[the Second Person] in His human nature, the Holy Ghost under the form of a dove, and the Father in the voice that was heard—in order to make known what would be the form of the Sacrament. He also made known the effect of this new baptism by the fact that the heavens were opened above His head; this was to show that by His baptism the gates of heaven were opened for men, in virtue of the baptism of blood where He washed away in His own person the sins of the world. (III, Q. 39, Arts. 1-8)
Thus the universality of the power of the Cross is manifested. By the character imprinted on the soul, the soul becomes able to participate in the Church, in the effects of Our Lord’s priesthood. But it cannot exercise the hierarchical acts of this priesthood.
Those who have received the grace of Baptism and who carry forever its indelible character, insofar as they are faithful to its grace, surpass in dignity and in excellence all creatures, considered in their own nature.
Our Lord wanted us to learn of His conversation with Nicodemus in St. John’s Gospel. His words were clear: “Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God....unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3-5).
It is also the command that Our Lord gives in a solemn manner when, before ascending to heaven, He sends the apostles on mission: “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Mt. 28:18).
It is this valid baptism of water which confers the sacramental character and constitutes a person as a full member of the Church, with rights and duties; and this even if baptism does not confer sanctifying grace, that is, even if it is not fruitful. This is the case with Protestants when their baptism is valid. Not having the true faith, they cannot receive grace, and yet they do receive the sacramental character, from which they can receive grace if they foreswear their heresies.
There is in the Church a teaching filled with errors, if not heresies, on the subject of the sacraments and especially of Baptism. It is very important to remember the doctrine of the Church on this subject. The new Rite of Baptism has been influenced by these errors, especially in what concerns the effects of Baptism. The true doctrine concerning Baptism corresponds well to the missionary spirit Our Lord inspired in His apostles. The visible outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the baptized at the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel confirms the capital importance of Baptism. Still today, in pagan regions, missionaries recognize the baptized by their faces—faces which are open, relaxed, trusting—while the pagans breathe fear, servility, and distrust.
Henceforward, the blood of Jesus, in which Christians have been baptized, calls them to unite themselves to Jesus’ Sacrifice every Sunday and thus to accomplish the most important act of the virtue of religion in union with Our Lord and all His Mystical Body for the glory of the Holy Trinity.
Before closing these meditations on the Holy Mass and the sacraments, it seems useful to consider especially the sacrament of Penance, which in numerous circumstances occupies a great part of the time that the priest consecrates to the apostolate. Given the weakness of souls and the scandals of a corrupt society in the midst of which they live, falls are frequent. Our Lord, in His infinite wisdom, instituted “a second plank of salvation” for us to hold on to.
The Fundamental Principle of the Spiritual Combat
The Wounds in Our Soul after Baptism
The acquisition of that holiness which is necessary for the salvation of our souls is not a simple thing. In effect, our daily experience and the teaching of the Church inform us that the grace of Baptism, although it gives us sanctifying grace by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost and frees us from original sin and from the control of the devil, does not free us from all the consequences of original sin. These consequences explain why our spiritual life takes on the bearing of a spiritual battle lasting throughout all our lives here below.
This teaching is fundamental and governs all of our apostolate. We remain sick and in need of the Doctor of our souls and of the spiritual helps He has provided for. Here is the teaching of the Church, expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas (I-II, Q. 85, Art. 3; Father Pegues, Catechism of the Summa, p. 128 [Fr. ed.]):
Quote:Original sanctity was lost by the sin of the first man. That is why all the powers of souls remain disordered, in a certain measure, with respect to their proper end, by which they were adapted to the practice of virtue. This absence of order is called the wounding of nature (vulneratio naturæ).
Insofar as reason is without its order to the truth, it is the wound of ignorance (vulnus ignorantiæ).
Insofar as the will is without its order to good, it is the wound of malice (vulnus malitiæ).
Insofar as fortitude is without its order to the accomplishing of difficult things, it is the wound of weakness (vulnus infirmitatis).
Insofar as fleshly desires are without the government of reason in that which is pleasurable, it is the wound of concupiscence (vulnus concupiscentiæ).
In his First Epistle, St. John confirms this truth: “All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life” (I Jn. 2:16).
These four wounds undermine the four cardinal virtues and thus provoke in us a continual disorder. The most devastating seems to be that of ignorance or blindness, that is to say ignoring God and Our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is in this knowledge that eternal life resides: “Now this is eternal life: That they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (Jn. 17:3).
How, in effect, can we render to God the love and the worship which are due to Him if we remain blind with respect to Him? The seminarians and priests will never be able to thank God enough for having led them to the seminary, where all studies teach them to know God and Our Lord, and where all life is directed to render to the Holy Trinity by the person of the Word Incarnate the honor, worship, and love which are due Him, “per Christum Dominum nostrum.”
May priestly souls enter courageously into the spiritual combat to heal their souls of these wounds and thus learn to become doctors of souls by their preaching, by the prayer of the Holy Mass, by the Eucharist, and by the sacrament of Penance. Retreats are a powerful means for diminishing the blindness of souls and for healing the other wounds.
Without knowledge of these elementary truths, one cannot comprehend the Catholic spirituality of the Cross, of sacrifice, of despising temporal goods so as to be attached to eternal goods.
The demons use all that appeals to the senses and is delectable to deepen our wounds. What happened to Eve continues to happen now. Having listened to the word of the devil, Eve saw that the fruit was delectable—pulchrum visu et delectabile (Gen. 3:6). She would say to God, but, alas, too late: “The serpent deceived me” (Gen. 3:13). Hence the insistence of the Church, in all its spirituality, and especially for priestly souls or those consecrated to God, on distancing oneself from the world and its spirit so as to seek nothing but eternal things, following Jesus and Jesus Crucified.
But it is yet another of the disastrous consequences of the Council that this traditional and Catholic spirituality, a spirituality of self-denial, of the cross, of contempt for temporal things, of being invited to carry one’s cross following Our Lord, is destroyed. The alternative proposed is the search for social justice based on envy and the desire of the goods of this world. Thus whole populations are thrown into a fratricidal struggle, and the poor increase in number. On the contrary, it is the true Catholic spirituality which will change hearts and bring about a turn towards greater social justice.
This bad spirit of the Council—the spirit of the world—has invaded priestly and religious life and has led to a destruction without precedent of the priesthood and of religious life. The great triumph of Satan is to have accomplished by men of the Church the destruction which no persecution has ever produced.
The priest has received the power to apply the merits of the Cross and of the Blood of Jesus to souls who confess their sins with contrition and make satisfaction for the punishment due for sins already pardoned. The fruitful exercise of this ministry requires of the priest numerous qualities: knowledge of the divine law and of the laws of the Church so as to judge the gravity of the sin confessed; prudence, discretion, counsel, merciful charity following the example of Our Lord, in order to bring appropriate help to the sick soul. Souls generally are more appreciative of sweet firmness than of liberal laxity; they yearn to be healed, even if this desire is not explicit.
Contrition being essential to the reception of the sacrament of Penance, it is often useful to insist on this disposition, as also on firm resolutions. To be effective, contrition must be interior and habitual. This profound sentiment of regret for sin, if it persists, shelters the soul from further sin, maintaining it in humility, self-distrust, and in a state of continual vigilance. This is indeed the advice constantly repeated by Our Lord: “Vigilate—Watch!”
Satisfaction is, of course, accomplished by the prayers or actions imposed by the confessor, but it should also be continuous; in our daily prayers, in sacrifices and self-denial, in fasting and almsgiving. In the context of that satisfaction which is applied by indulgences, the reality of the Mystical Body appears in all its effectiveness. Without doubt, in the course of history, indulgences were abused for financial gain. But these simoniacal abuses, although condemnable, do not obliterate the priceless reality. Indulgences do help us to pay back in satisfaction for the debt which we still have with respect to God before the particular judgment at the hour of our death.
In this apostolate we should act in such a way, publicly and socially, that nobody would have any reluctance to ask for the sacrament of Penance; that is to say, we should always conduct ourselves in a truly priestly manner.
- Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Spiritual Journey. Kansas City: Missouri. Angelus Press. E-Book
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: Where is the Schism? |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 10:42 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Taken from A Bishop Speaks:
Ecône, Switzerland
August 2, 1976
Where Is the Schism?
“Your Excellency, aren’t you heading towards schism?”
That is the question that very many Catholics are asking on reading about the latest sanctions adopted by Rome against us! Catholics for the most part define or imagine schism to mean a break with the pope. They don’t push their investigation any further. You are going to break with the pope or the pope is going to break with you, so you are heading towards schism.
Why does breaking with the pope cause a schism? Because where the pope is, there is the Catholic Church. In reality, it means separating oneself from the Catholic Church. But the Catholic Church is a mystical reality that exists not only in space, on the face of the earth, but also in time and eternity. For the pope to represent the Church and be its image, he must not only be united to it in space, but also in time, the Church being essentially a living tradition.
In the measure that the pope would distance himself from this tradition, he would become schismatic, he would break with the Church. Theologians like St. Robert Bellarmine, Cajetan, Cardinal Journet, and many others have studied this possibility. Thus it is not something inconceivable.
But what is of concern to us is the Vatican Council II and its reforms and official orientations, much more than the personal attitude of the Pope, which is more difficult to discover. The Council represents, as much to the eyes of the Roman authorities as to our own, a new Church, which in fact they themselves call the Conciliar Church.
We believe that we can affirm, by limiting ourselves to a critique of Vatican II, that is to say, by analyzing the documents and by studying the conduct of the Council, that, by turning its back on tradition and breaking with the Church’s past, it is a schismatic Council. A tree is judged by its fruits. At present, the mainstream press in Europe and America and even worldwide, recognizes that the Council is in the process of ruining the Catholic Church to such an extent that even unbelievers and secular States are worried.
A non-aggression pact was concluded between the Church and the Freemasons. That is the reality behind the words “aggiornamento–opening to the world,” and “ecumenism.”
Henceforth, the Church accepts being no longer the one true religion, the only way of eternal salvation. It recognizes the other religions as sister religions. It recognizes as a right derived from the nature of the human person that man is free to choose his religion, and consequently a Catholic State is no longer admissible.
Once this new principle is admitted, then all the doctrine of the Church must change: its worship, its priesthood, its institutions. For until now everything in the Church manifested that she alone possesses the Truth, the Way, and the Life in our Lord Jesus Christ, whom she possesses in person in the holy Eucharist present thanks to the continuation of His sacrifice. A complete overthrow of the entire tradition and teaching of the Church has been brought about since the Council by the Council. All those who co-operate in the implementation of this overthrow accept and adhere to this new “Conciliar Church,” as His Excellency Bishop Benelli designates it in the letter he addressed to me in the name of the Holy Father last June 25th, and enter into schism.
The adoption of liberal theses by a Council could not have occurred except in a non-infallible pastoral council, and cannot be explained without there having been a secret, detailed preparation which the historians will eventually uncover to the great stupefaction of Catholics who confuse the eternal Roman Catholic Church with the human Rome susceptible to infiltration by enemies robed in purple.
How could we, by a blind and servile obedience, go along with these schismatics who ask us to collaborate in their enterprise of demolishing the Church?
The authority delegated by our Lord to the pope, to the bishops, and to the priesthood in general is at the service of the faith in His divinity and the transmission of His own divine life. All the institutions, divine or ecclesiastical, are destined to serve this end. Each and every law has no other purpose. To make use of the Church’s law, institutions, and authority to destroy the Catholic Faith and to no longer transmit the life of grace is to practise spiritual abortion or contraception. Who will dare say that a Catholic worthy of the name can co-operate in a crime that is worse than physical abortion?
That is why we are submissive and ready to accept everything that is in conformity with our Catholic Faith such as it has been taught for two thousand years, but we reject everything that is against it.
The objection is made that we make ourselves the judge of the Catholic Faith. But is it not the gravest duty of every Catholic to judge the faith which is taught him by that which was taught and believed for twenty centuries and which is inscribed in the official catechisms, like that of Trent, of St. Pius X, and of every pre-Vatican II catechism? How have the true faithful always acted in the face of heresy? They have preferred to shed their blood rather than betray their faith.
No matter how exalted the dignity of the spokesmen of heresy may be, the problem for the salvation of our souls remains the same. And in connection with this, many Catholics are seriously ignorant about the nature and scope of the pope’s infallibility. Very many think that every word that comes from his mouth is infallible.
For the rest, it seems to us much more certain that the faith taught by the Church for twenty centuries cannot contain error than that it is absolutely certain that the Pope is pope. Heresy, schism, ipso facto excommunication, or the invalidity of the election are so many causes which, eventually, could make it such that a Pope was never pope or that he is so no longer. In such a case, obviously very exceptional, the Church would be in a situation similar to that which occurs after the death of a Sovereign Pontiff. For, ultimately, a serious problem has presented itself to the faith of all Catholics since the beginning of Pope Paul VI’s pontificate. How can a Pope who is a true successor to Peter, and hence is guaranteed the assistance of the Holy Ghost, preside over the most extensive devastation the Church has ever experienced in its history in such a short period of time, something no heresiarch has ever succeeded in doing? One day this question will have to be answered. But leaving this problem to theologians and historians, the reality constrains us to respond practically in accordance with the counsel given by St. Vincent of Lerins: Quote:What, therefore, will the Catholic Christian do if some members of the Church have broken away from the communion of universal faith? What else, but prefer the sanity of the body universal to the pestilence of the corrupt member? What if a new contagion strives to infect not only a small part but the whole of the Church? Then, he will endeavor to adhere to the antiquity which is evidently beyond the danger of being seduced by the deceit of some novelty.
We are resolved to continue our work for the restoration of the Catholic priesthood come what may, persuaded that we can provide no greater service to the Church, the Pope, the bishops, and the faithful. Let us be permitted to carry out the experiment of Tradition.
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, A Bishop Speaks, Kansas City, MO: Angelus Press. E-Book
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| Cardinal Burke: Forces of the ‘Great Reset’ have used COVID to advance ‘evil agenda’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 10:35 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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Cardinal Burke: Forces of the ‘Great Reset’ have used COVID to advance ‘evil agenda’
"So many in the Church seem to have no understanding of how Christ continues his saving work in times of plague and of other disasters."
![[Image: Burke-1-696x464.png]](https://alphanewsmn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Burke-1-696x464.png)
Cardinal Raymond Burke/Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Alphanews | December 13, 2020
At a time when “we need to be close to one another in Christian love, worldly forces would isolate us and have us believe that we are alone and dependent upon secular forces, which would make us slaves to their godless and murderous agenda,” Cardinal Raymond Burke said during a Saturday homily.
Burke, the founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, delivered a powerful homily at the La Crosse, Wisconsin, pilgrimage site Saturday evening.
“We come to Our Lady of Guadalupe on her feast day with troubled and heavy hearts. Our nation is going through a crisis which threatens its very future as free and democratic. The worldwide spread of Marxist materialism, which has already brought destruction and death to the lives of so many, and which has threatened the foundations of our nation for decades, now seems to seize the governing power over our nation,” Burke began his sermon.
“To attain economic gains, we as a nation have permitted ourselves to become dependent upon the Chinese Communist Party, an ideology totally opposed to the Christian foundations upon which families and our nation remain safe and prosper,” he continued.
Burke spoke specifically of the United States, but “evidently many other nations are in the throes of a similar, most alarming crisis,” he said.
“Then there is the mysterious Wuhan virus about whose nature and prevention the mass media daily give us conflicting information. What is clear, however, is that it has been used by certain forces, inimical to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda. These forces tell us that we are now the subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset,’ the ‘new normal,’ which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear,” said the cardinal.
Given these “grievous” conditions, Americans are now being asked to find “the way to understand and direct” their lives in a “disease and its prevention,” rather than “in God and in his plan for our salvation.”
“The response of many bishops and priests, and of many faithful, has manifested a woeful lack of sound catechesis. So many in the Church seem to have no understanding of how Christ continues his saving work in times of plague and of other disasters,” Burke said.
“What is more, our holy mother Church, the spotless bride of Christ, in which Christ is ever at work for our eternal redemption, is beset by reports of moral corruption, especially in matters of the sixth and seventh commandments, which seem to increase by the day. In our own nation, the reports about Theodore McCarrick have rightly tempted many devoted Catholics to question the shepherds, who in accord with Christ’s plan for the Church are to be their secured guides by teaching the truths of the faith, by leading them in the fitting worship of God and in prayer to him, and by guiding them by means of the Church’s perennial discipline,” he continued.
Instead, the faithful too often “receive nothing in response, or a response which is not grounded in the unchanging truths regarding faith and morals.”
“They receive responses that seem to come not from shepherds but from secular managers. The confusion regarding what the Church truly teaches and demands of us in accord with her teaching generates ever greater divisions within the body of Christ. All of this cripples the Church in her mission of witness to divine truth and divine love at a time when the world has never needed more the Church to be a beacon,” Burke declared.
“In encountering the world, the Church falsely wants to accommodate herself to the world instead of calling the world to conversion in obedience to the divine law written on every human heart and revealed in its fullness in the redemptive incarnation of God the Son,” he added.
The cardinal said these troubles “present a formidable challenge” to Christian life and have produced “the most painful suffering.”
“Yes, our hearts are understandably heavy, but Christ, through the intercession of his Virgin Mother, lifts up our hearts to his own, renewing our trust in him, who has promised us eternal salvation in the Church. He will never be unfaithful to his promises. He will never abandon us,” Burke concluded. “Let us not be beguiled by the forces of the world and by false prophets. Let us not abandon Christ and seek our salvation in places where it never can be found.”
[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
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| A Day in the Life of Archbishop Lefebvre |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 10:12 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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The Angelus - November 1980
A Day in the Life of Archbishop Lefebvre
This article first appeared in the September 1979 issue of Fideliter.
TO SEE ARCHBISHOP LEFEBVRE officiating at ordination or confirmation ceremonies, robed in his pontifical vestments, surrounded by gold and incense, one would think that he lives continuously in episcopal splendor. Nothing could be further from the truth. Christian simplicity inspires all his daily actions.
In everyday life Archbishop Lefebvre wears a simple black cassock with the cincture of the Holy Ghost Fathers. The only signs of his episcopacy are his ring and pectoral cross.
When he is at Écône, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X rises at 5: 30 a.m., a half-hour before the community. He celebrates Mass at 6:00, in a small chapel on the second floor of the seminary, for a group of the faithful who come before beginning their work day.
Around 6:45, His Grace goes to the main chapel where the seminarians are finishing Prime, and with them prays and attends the community Mass. At 8:00 he goes to the refectory for breakfast, sitting at the head of the faculty table.
After that His Grace is in his office, a little room next to his bedroom, exactly like the offices of-all the priests at the seminary. There he remains until noon. On the shelves of his library can be found books of spirituality, the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, Acts of the popes, a dictionary. The former Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers has not forgotten his vow of poverty: he gives all books presented to him to the seminary library.
During the morning hours, Archbishop Lefebvre answers his mail, prepares the spiritual talks which he gives to the seminarians each Thursday, does research for the course on papal teachings which he gives every week to the first-year students.
He receives most of his visitors in the parlor. Saturday morning is devoted to discussions with professors.
At 12:15 p.m. His Grace goes to the chapel for Sext in community, and leads the Angelus. He takes his lunch in silence, listening with the professors and seminarians to the table reading. The former missionary is not hard to please, much less fastidious: his food is the same as the others. Still, one attentive seminarian thinks he has spotted in him a certain predilection for grapefruit.
During recreation after lunch, His Grace loves to be with his sons, to walk and talk with them; unfortunately his many responsibilities seldom give him the opportunity to do so. The afternoon finds him again in his office, where he sees informally the seminarians who wish to speak to him after their classes.
When time permits, he visits the sacristy, the library, the supply room, to make sure that things are running smoothly in these areas. At 7:00 p.m. His Grace recites the Rosary with his seminarians, for the intentions of the friends of the Society. In spite of voracious demands on his time, he is rarely absent from community exercises. Dinner, then evening recreation, finally Compline chanted at 8:45, and his day is ended.
As he leaves the chapel, before retiring to his room, the Superior General of the Society of St.Pius X kneels on the tile floor of the cloister, before the statue of the Blessed Virgin for a short prayer; it would not be hard to guess what he is saying to Her. Until the next morning, throughout the house, it is Grand Silence.
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| The Angelus 1994: Attendance at Today's Masses |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 10:02 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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The Attendance at Today's Masses
by Fr. Marc Van Es
This article by Fr. Marc Van Es, was first featured in June 1994 issue of The Angelus magazine.
The attendance at today's Sunday Masses
After He had created in six days the universe and all it contains, God rested on the seventh day.[1] Thus, it was by this "divine repose" that the duty for man to reserve for God a part of his weekly time was foreshadowed; a duty which is one of the elements of religion due and owed to the Creator by the creature. Meanwhile, this natural duty was not specified except by the Mosaic law,[2] which had fixed its observance on the last day of the week, the Sabbath and which had established its forms. However, the duty to sanctify the Sabbath was imposed only on the Jewish people. Then, under the New Law a change took place; in memory of the Resurrection of Christ and of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, events which both happened on a Sunday, this duty became the Sunday precept as we know it today, characterized in particular by the duty of attendance at Mass.
But in our days we witness a multiplicity of Masses, all different one from the other, old or Tridentine, new or Conciliar, in traditional liturgical language or in the vernacular, for the young, for the handicapped, etc., etc.
In order to see a little more clearly on the subject of our Sunday duties today, let us first look at what the precept of Sunday Mass consists of, so as to examine subsequently the particular cases which are the attendance at the New Mass called that of "Pope Paul VI" and at the Mass called "with Indult."
The Sunday precept in general
From the beginning of the Christian era, it was the norm to sanctify feast days by the attendance at Mass. Why was this? To show by a public worship that we acknowledge the sovereignty of God over all things and, in consequence, our total dependence on Him. Such a duty was, however, at first, of a customary character. It did not become obligatory until, the year 506 A.D. through a provision of the Council of Agde.[3] This decree of a particular council was later transformed by custom into a universal law.
One satisfies the duty of attending Sunday Mass by a conscious participation[4] in the whole of the Sacrifice, it being understood that this same Mass is celebrated in the Catholic Rite. This precept binds "subgravi" (i.e., under pain of mortal sin) all those who have reached the age of reason, i.e., seven years old.[5] But one can be excused from attending Mass in the case of impossibility
resulting from:- illness,
- distance (estimated at about one hour's journey),
- from the fear of grave inconvenience (e.g., the shame of a pregnant girl out of wedlock),
- grave danger (e.g., traveling under dangerous conditions such as icy roads),
- or from charity towards one's neighbors (e.g., a mother looking after her children), etc.
The case of attending the New Mass called the "Conciliar Mass" or "of Paul VI"
Following the directives and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, a new Ordo Missae was promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum on April 3, 1969. Composed with the help of Protestant ministers, it had as its aim "to do everything to facilitate our separated brethren (i.e., the Protestants and the Orthodox) on the way to union, by avoiding every stumbling block and displeasing thing."[6] Composed so as to be acceptable to everyone, by this same deed all specifically Catholic marks disappeared. But very quickly the faithful, the clergy and some bishops resisted this reform by denouncing it as dangerous for the Faith. Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci did not hesitate to write on this occasion, that "the Novus Ordo represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent."[7]
Now what do we note in this reform of the Missal? The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the non-bloody renewal of the Sacrifice on Calvary has become a meal around a table, serving as a memorial, more nor less a simple narrative of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. The worship of the real Eucharistic Presence has been diminished and is no longer signified, by the suppression of genuflections, by the precious lining of the sacred vessels, by the placing aside of the tabernacle, by the placing of communion in the hand while standing, etc. Finally, the priest, sole minister and acting in persona Christi, has become president and brother of the people of God, barely distinct from them in the distribution of the Eucharist and in the readings. A series of facts which demonstrate the Protestantization of this New Mass, a Mass which can be used by the Protestants themselves because "theologically this is possible."[8]
Now, what about attending these new Masses? First of all, they constitute a danger to the faith of the faithful:
Quote:one can... without any exaggeration say that most of these Masses are sacrilegious and that they impoverish all Faith by diminishing it. The taking away of the sacredness is such that this Mass risks losing its supernatural character, "its mystery of faith" to become no more than an act of natural religion."[9]
This truth is confirmed by the evidence of numerous priests who have said this New Mass as well as by the attitude of the faithful in general who attend it, Even occasionally, in whom one notices unfortunately a lack of the spirit of prayer and recollection. The danger is likewise increased through the sermons heard, by the bad example seen and by becoming accustomed to the sacrileges committed.
The first consequence then is that attendance at such a Mass could become a sinful act for the Catholics warned of the danger.
In the second place, attendance at the New Mass signifies in some way one's approval, particularly if one receives Communion. It is a point of Catholic doctrine, recognized moreover by other religions, that he who receives the offering made during a religious ceremony recognizes in some implicit way, by his participation, this same religious cult. It is because of this that St. Paul declared on the subject of food offered to idols, to take care not to become an occasion of scandal for those who surround us.
Quote:"Because if someone sees you, you who have knowledge, seated at a table in the idol's temple" (today we would say at the table of the Conciliar supper), "shall not his conscience, being weak, bring him" to attend and to receive communion at the New Mass. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ hath died? Now when you sin thus against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."
That is why the attendance and Communion at the New Mass leads others to do the same; this thus becomes an occasion of loss of faith for our neighbor, it would be better to stop forever from frequenting this New Mass.[10]
In the same way, St. Thomas Aquinas adds, that he:
Quote:who receives the Sacrament from a doubtful minister (suspended, demoted, we may nowadays add dubious as to his intentions) sins for his part and does not receive the effect of the sacrament, unless excused through ignorance.[11]
But whoever communicates with another who is in sin, becomes a sharer in his sin. Hence we read in II John that 'He says unto him, God speed you, communicates with his wicked words."[12]
Consequently, it is not lawful to receive Communion from them, or to assist at their Mass.[13] Thus:
Quote:by refusing to hear the Masses of such priests, or to receive Communion from them, we are not shunning God's sacraments; on the contrary, by so doing we are giving them honor."[13]
What practical consequence can we draw from this?
These new Masses, not only cannot be the object of the obligation of the Sunday precept but one should apply, in their regard, the rules of moral theology and of Canon Law, which are those of supernatural prudence with regard to the participation or attendance, as an act perilous to our Faith or eventual sacrilege."[9]
This teaching demands on the part of the faithful an effort, sometimes very meritorious, of traveling long distances to come regularly or at least periodically to the Tridentine Mass. This also demands total abstention from attending at the New Mass; a passive attendance is tolerated for a serious reason "to render honor or for a polite obligation" (as for example for the marriage or funeral of a relative or friend), "as long as there is no peril of perversion and of scandal."[14]
In any case, no authority can oblige us to put our faith in danger. The children who attend so-called "Catholic" schools are particularly exposed by the fact of their lack of foundation and of discernment. It would be better to stay at home on Sunday, to say the family rosary, to read in your missal the Mass of the day or to read a spiritual book (Catechism, Lives of the Saints, etc.) rather than to expose oneself to the disquiet and to the imperceptible but certain alteration of our Catholic Faith, a treasure so rare in our days.
The case of attending the traditional Mass said under the "Indult"
Despite all the efforts of the official hierarchy since 1969, a few bishops, many priests, and a great number of the faithful have remained attached to the two thousand year-old traditional rite of Mass. Time passed but the problem remained. In order to resolve it, Pope John Paul II gave to the diocesan bishops the faculty of making use of an indult so as to allow priests to say and faithful to attend the Mass contained in the Roman Missal edited in 1962; the missal moreover used by the Society of St. Pius X. That was the indult promulgated by the Congregation for the Divine Worship on October 3, 1984 [Quattuor Abhinc Annos],[15] an indult we shall see hereafter, made unacceptable through the intention of its legislators and by the conditions of its application. The consecrations of June 30, 1988, occurring, Pope John Paul II made use of this with regards to the traditionalists.
Now, what about attending a Tridentine Mass celebrated under the indult?
First of all, it constitutes a danger for the faith of the faithful, a danger which comes from the priests themselves who are celebrating it. Because to obtain this indult from the official hierarchy, these priests must fulfill the following conditions:
Quote:That it should be very clear that these priests have nothing to do with those who place in doubt... the doctrinal soundness of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI, in 1970 and that their position should be without any ambiguity and publicly known."[15]
Thus is it necessary that these priests prove publicly by their behavior, their words and writings, shorn of ambiguities, that they admit "the doctrinal soundness" of the New Mass. No question in any way whatsoever of criticizing the Protestant and definitely non-Catholic look of Pope Paul VI's New Mass.
Cardinal Mayer, former president of Ecclesia Dei [Commission] placed in charge of re-integrating the traditionalists in the Conciliar Church, added the following condition:
Quote:these same priests "can obtain" this indult "on the condition that they be in normal juridical standing with their bishops or religious superiors."[16]
One remembers that dozens of priests have been unjustly put out of their churches or their religious houses for the simple fact of continuing to say without change the Tridentine Mass, except for a good number of those who were favored by certain circumstances (age, distance etc.). May we ask these indult favored priests at what cost or compromise with the integral Catholic Faith have they kept or obtained "normal legal relations" with the hierarchy? Compromise which, for example, could appear in the fact of giving hosts doubtfully consecrated during a previous conciliar Mass or even through the manner of celebrating the traditional Mass full of hesitations and mistakes, sometimes even cause of scandal.
There is a danger too for the Faith, that comes from the proximity of the faithful who attend exclusively these indult Masses, because they also have to fulfill the conditions of not placing in doubt the "doctrinal soundness" of the New Mass.[15] Characteristically, these type of faithful, unfortunately too often, are concerned with reconciling in thought and in action the truth with heresy, Tradition with the conciliar spirit. [see also the related FAQ: Should we attend diocesan Latin Masses?]
Secondly from the very nature of the indult: an indult is "a concession from the authority which dispenses its subjects from the obligation of keeping a law."[17] "The indult is an exception. It can always be withdrawn. It confirms the general rule"[18] which is the New Mass, the conciliar liturgy. Because, to use a special permission, is this not to recognize and legitimize ipso facto the general law, that is to say the legal suppression of the two thousand year-old traditional rite?
Indeed, to obtain the indult of 1984, one must fulfill the following conditions:Quote:that it should be quite clear that those priests and those faithful have nothing to do with those who place in question the legitimacy of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970."[15]
Furthermore "this concession... should be utilized without prejudice to the observance of the liturgical reform [of Pope Paul VI] in the life of ecclesiastical communities"[15] of the Conciliar Church.
Therefore no question of them advertising for the universal usage of the Traditional Mass. They must be made to recognize that this Tridentine Mass was validly, legally and legitimately abrogated or forbidden. No question either or calling the worth, always actual, of the words of the Pope St. Pius V:
Quote:by virtue of Our Apostolic authority We give and grant in perpetuity, that for the singing or the reading of Mass in any church whatsoever this Missal (that is to say, the Tridentine Mass), may be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment or censure, and may be freely and lawfully used."[19]
The third point to tackle is this: to attend the "indult" Mass is at least to approve implicitly and to encourage the work of the destruction of Catholic Tradition undertaken by the official hierarchy. To prove this assertion, let us look first of all at the intentions of some of those responsible, to see some precise facts.
In the first place the intention of Pope John Paul II himself, using this indult to favor the winning over of "traditional Catholics" to conciliar Rome:
Quote:The Holy See has granted... the faculty of using the liturgical books in use in 1962... It is very evident that, far from seeking to put a brake on the application of the reform [of the New Mass] undertaken after the Council [by Pope Paul VI], this concession is destined to facilitate the ecclesial communion (that is to say their reinstatement in the Conciliar Church) of people who feel themselves attached to these liturgical forms."[20]
What now of the intentions and hopes of Cardinal Mayer, former president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission? He said:
Quote:There are grounds to hope that, with the concerted efforts on the part of all concerned a substantial number of priests and seminarians will find the strength to renounce a 'state of mind' which until now was full of prejudices, of accusations and of disinformation... We have good reason to believe that the charity with which the priests coming from Archbishop Lefebvre and returning into the Church will be received, will contribute greatly to the fulfillment of this hope that, following them, numerous faithful whom they had served up till then, would also return into the ecclesial communion (with the Conciliar Church) through their mediation. Sometimes a temporary solution may be necessary, such as allowing them the possibility of celebrating the Holy Mass[21] [of Pope St. Pius V]."
In the hands of the official hierarchy, the Tridentine Mass serves therefore as a temporary means and bait to attract the traditional priests and people and to destroy at the same time the work of Catholic restoration, started by Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop de Castro Mayer and their priests. Means and bait to attract the traditional Catholics now considered as schismatics because they are no longer considered as "being in communion" with the present-day Rome, of liberal and modernist tendency.
It is to be further noted that the Commission Ecclesia Dei could be generous for a time in the concessions granted to priests — a question of making them bite at the bait. But if through their "mediation" more or less conscious, their faithful do not return into the conciliar fold, it is to be anticipated that they will be judged as useless instruments and will find themselves either in the obligation to fulfill other conditions to keep that permission, or even to simply see the aforesaid permission withdrawn.
Let us now move on to some illustrating facts: having received the permission to celebrate the Tridentine Rite, the Fraternity of St. Peter now see themselves threatened to accept giving Communion in the hand[22] and saying the Mass of 1965,[22] having already accepted by one of their superiors, "all the documents of the Vatican II Council."[23] Hundreds of priests, seminarians and faithful have been lured with the Tridentine Rite and now are made to forcibly return to the ranks and the spirit of the Council. This work of destruction continues by the approval of Indult Masses close to our important Mass centers... A good method to empty these last ones or at least to prevent them from developing.
Quote:That is why, what can look like a concession is in reality merely a maneuver to separate from us the largest number of faithful possible. This is the perspective in which they seem to be always giving a little more and even going very far. We must absolutely convince our faithful that it is no more than a maneuver, that it is dangerous to put oneself into the hands of Conciliar bishops and modernist Rome. It is the greatest danger threatening our people. If we have struggled for twenty years to avoid the Conciliar errors, it was not in order, now, to put ourselves in the hands of those professing these errors."[18]
To attempt to restore the traditional Mass without considering the historical context of the crisis of the Faith is to become a blind instrument in the hands of the conciliar hierarchy.
What final conclusion can we draw from all this?
That the precept of attending Sunday Mass is obligatory for all Catholics who have reached the age of reason (seven years old) but that some may be excused particularly those who are only near Masses "of Pope Paul VI" or to traditional Masses said under the "Indult." Why? Firstly, because of the danger for the faith coming either from the priests who celebrate or from the faithful who attend them; secondly, legitimization is given to the new liturgy and finally an approval more or less implicit of the work of destruction of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Tradition.
Footnotes
1 Gen. 2: 2-3
2 Ex. 20 :8, Lev. 23 :3, Deut. 5 :15, Ex. 31 :14.
3 Gratian: Dist. I De cons. c.3.
4 Can. 1247 (1917 Code of Canon Law).
5 Can. 12 (1917 Code of Canon Law).
6 Fr. A. Bugnini: L'Osservatore Romano (Mar 19, 1965) in Documentation Catholique, April 4, 1965, No. 1445, p. 603.
7 A Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae (also commonly known as The Ottaviani Intervention), TAN Books and Publishers, 1992.
8 Declaration of the Protestant minister Max Thurian: La Croix, May 30, 1969; p. 10.
9 Position of Archbishop Lefebvre on the New Mass and the Pope (Nov 8, 1979), Cor Unum, No. 4, November 1979, pp 3-9.
10 This is strongly inspired by I Cor 8.
11 Summa Theologica, III, Q. 64, A. 9.
12 II John 11.
13 Summa Theologica, III, Q. 82, A. 9.
14 Can. 1258, 2 (CIC 1917).
15 Indult of the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship of October 3, 1984 in Fideliter, No. 42, Nov-Dec 1984, pp 18-19.
16 30 Days, No. 6, June 1989, p. 48.
17 F. Roberti, P. Palazzini, Dizionario di Theologia Morale, Ed. Studium, Roma, 1955, article "Indulto".
18 Interview with Archbishop Lefebvre, Fideliter, No. 70, July-August 1989, pp 13-14.
19 Bull Quo Primum Tempore of Pope St. Pius V, July 14, 1570.
20 Audience of Sept 28, 1990 to the Benedictine Monks of Le Barroux. L'Osservatore Romano (French edition), October 2, 1990, No. 40.
21 Letter of Cardinal Mayer to Msgr. May, L'Homme Nouveau, March 19, 1989.
22 Controverses, No. 42; January1992, p. 3.
23 Controverses, No. 37; October 1991, p. 4.
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| The Angelus 1994: Attendance at Today's Masses |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2020, 10:02 AM - Forum: New Rite Sacraments
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The Attendance at Today's Masses
by Fr. Marc Van Es
This article by Fr. Marc Van Es, was first featured in June 1994 issue of The Angelus magazine.
The attendance at today's Sunday Masses
After He had created in six days the universe and all it contains, God rested on the seventh day.[1] Thus, it was by this "divine repose" that the duty for man to reserve for God a part of his weekly time was foreshadowed; a duty which is one of the elements of religion due and owed to the Creator by the creature. Meanwhile, this natural duty was not specified except by the Mosaic law,[2] which had fixed its observance on the last day of the week, the Sabbath and which had established its forms. However, the duty to sanctify the Sabbath was imposed only on the Jewish people. Then, under the New Law a change took place; in memory of the Resurrection of Christ and of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, events which both happened on a Sunday, this duty became the Sunday precept as we know it today, characterized in particular by the duty of attendance at Mass.
But in our days we witness a multiplicity of Masses, all different one from the other, old or Tridentine, new or Conciliar, in traditional liturgical language or in the vernacular, for the young, for the handicapped, etc., etc.
In order to see a little more clearly on the subject of our Sunday duties today, let us first look at what the precept of Sunday Mass consists of, so as to examine subsequently the particular cases which are the attendance at the New Mass called that of "Pope Paul VI" and at the Mass called "with Indult."
The Sunday precept in general
From the beginning of the Christian era, it was the norm to sanctify feast days by the attendance at Mass. Why was this? To show by a public worship that we acknowledge the sovereignty of God over all things and, in consequence, our total dependence on Him. Such a duty was, however, at first, of a customary character. It did not become obligatory until, the year 506 A.D. through a provision of the Council of Agde.[3] This decree of a particular council was later transformed by custom into a universal law.
One satisfies the duty of attending Sunday Mass by a conscious participation[4] in the whole of the Sacrifice, it being understood that this same Mass is celebrated in the Catholic Rite. This precept binds "subgravi" (i.e., under pain of mortal sin) all those who have reached the age of reason, i.e., seven years old.[5] But one can be excused from attending Mass in the case of impossibility
resulting from:- illness,
- distance (estimated at about one hour's journey),
- from the fear of grave inconvenience (e.g., the shame of a pregnant girl out of wedlock),
- grave danger (e.g., traveling under dangerous conditions such as icy roads),
- or from charity towards one's neighbors (e.g., a mother looking after her children), etc.
The case of attending the New Mass called the "Conciliar Mass" or "of Paul VI"
Following the directives and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, a new Ordo Missae was promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum on April 3, 1969. Composed with the help of Protestant ministers, it had as its aim "to do everything to facilitate our separated brethren (i.e., the Protestants and the Orthodox) on the way to union, by avoiding every stumbling block and displeasing thing."[6] Composed so as to be acceptable to everyone, by this same deed all specifically Catholic marks disappeared. But very quickly the faithful, the clergy and some bishops resisted this reform by denouncing it as dangerous for the Faith. Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci did not hesitate to write on this occasion, that "the Novus Ordo represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent."[7]
Now what do we note in this reform of the Missal? The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the non-bloody renewal of the Sacrifice on Calvary has become a meal around a table, serving as a memorial, more nor less a simple narrative of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. The worship of the real Eucharistic Presence has been diminished and is no longer signified, by the suppression of genuflections, by the precious lining of the sacred vessels, by the placing aside of the tabernacle, by the placing of communion in the hand while standing, etc. Finally, the priest, sole minister and acting in persona Christi, has become president and brother of the people of God, barely distinct from them in the distribution of the Eucharist and in the readings. A series of facts which demonstrate the Protestantization of this New Mass, a Mass which can be used by the Protestants themselves because "theologically this is possible."[8]
Now, what about attending these new Masses? First of all, they constitute a danger to the faith of the faithful:
Quote:one can... without any exaggeration say that most of these Masses are sacrilegious and that they impoverish all Faith by diminishing it. The taking away of the sacredness is such that this Mass risks losing its supernatural character, "its mystery of faith" to become no more than an act of natural religion."[9]
This truth is confirmed by the evidence of numerous priests who have said this New Mass as well as by the attitude of the faithful in general who attend it, Even occasionally, in whom one notices unfortunately a lack of the spirit of prayer and recollection. The danger is likewise increased through the sermons heard, by the bad example seen and by becoming accustomed to the sacrileges committed.
The first consequence then is that attendance at such a Mass could become a sinful act for the Catholics warned of the danger.
In the second place, attendance at the New Mass signifies in some way one's approval, particularly if one receives Communion. It is a point of Catholic doctrine, recognized moreover by other religions, that he who receives the offering made during a religious ceremony recognizes in some implicit way, by his participation, this same religious cult. It is because of this that St. Paul declared on the subject of food offered to idols, to take care not to become an occasion of scandal for those who surround us.
Quote:"Because if someone sees you, you who have knowledge, seated at a table in the idol's temple" (today we would say at the table of the Conciliar supper), "shall not his conscience, being weak, bring him" to attend and to receive communion at the New Mass. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ hath died? Now when you sin thus against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."
That is why the attendance and Communion at the New Mass leads others to do the same; this thus becomes an occasion of loss of faith for our neighbor, it would be better to stop forever from frequenting this New Mass.[10]
In the same way, St. Thomas Aquinas adds, that he:
Quote:who receives the Sacrament from a doubtful minister (suspended, demoted, we may nowadays add dubious as to his intentions) sins for his part and does not receive the effect of the sacrament, unless excused through ignorance.[11]
But whoever communicates with another who is in sin, becomes a sharer in his sin. Hence we read in II John that 'He says unto him, God speed you, communicates with his wicked words."[12]
Consequently, it is not lawful to receive Communion from them, or to assist at their Mass.[13] Thus:
Quote:by refusing to hear the Masses of such priests, or to receive Communion from them, we are not shunning God's sacraments; on the contrary, by so doing we are giving them honor."[13]
What practical consequence can we draw from this?
These new Masses, not only cannot be the object of the obligation of the Sunday precept but one should apply, in their regard, the rules of moral theology and of Canon Law, which are those of supernatural prudence with regard to the participation or attendance, as an act perilous to our Faith or eventual sacrilege."[9]
This teaching demands on the part of the faithful an effort, sometimes very meritorious, of traveling long distances to come regularly or at least periodically to the Tridentine Mass. This also demands total abstention from attending at the New Mass; a passive attendance is tolerated for a serious reason "to render honor or for a polite obligation" (as for example for the marriage or funeral of a relative or friend), "as long as there is no peril of perversion and of scandal."[14]
In any case, no authority can oblige us to put our faith in danger. The children who attend so-called "Catholic" schools are particularly exposed by the fact of their lack of foundation and of discernment. It would be better to stay at home on Sunday, to say the family rosary, to read in your missal the Mass of the day or to read a spiritual book (Catechism, Lives of the Saints, etc.) rather than to expose oneself to the disquiet and to the imperceptible but certain alteration of our Catholic Faith, a treasure so rare in our days.
The case of attending the traditional Mass said under the "Indult"
Despite all the efforts of the official hierarchy since 1969, a few bishops, many priests, and a great number of the faithful have remained attached to the two thousand year-old traditional rite of Mass. Time passed but the problem remained. In order to resolve it, Pope John Paul II gave to the diocesan bishops the faculty of making use of an indult so as to allow priests to say and faithful to attend the Mass contained in the Roman Missal edited in 1962; the missal moreover used by the Society of St. Pius X. That was the indult promulgated by the Congregation for the Divine Worship on October 3, 1984 [Quattuor Abhinc Annos],[15] an indult we shall see hereafter, made unacceptable through the intention of its legislators and by the conditions of its application. The consecrations of June 30, 1988, occurring, Pope John Paul II made use of this with regards to the traditionalists.
Now, what about attending a Tridentine Mass celebrated under the indult?
First of all, it constitutes a danger for the faith of the faithful, a danger which comes from the priests themselves who are celebrating it. Because to obtain this indult from the official hierarchy, these priests must fulfill the following conditions:
Quote:That it should be very clear that these priests have nothing to do with those who place in doubt... the doctrinal soundness of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI, in 1970 and that their position should be without any ambiguity and publicly known."[15]
Thus is it necessary that these priests prove publicly by their behavior, their words and writings, shorn of ambiguities, that they admit "the doctrinal soundness" of the New Mass. No question in any way whatsoever of criticizing the Protestant and definitely non-Catholic look of Pope Paul VI's New Mass.
Cardinal Mayer, former president of Ecclesia Dei [Commission] placed in charge of re-integrating the traditionalists in the Conciliar Church, added the following condition:
Quote:these same priests "can obtain" this indult "on the condition that they be in normal juridical standing with their bishops or religious superiors."[16]
One remembers that dozens of priests have been unjustly put out of their churches or their religious houses for the simple fact of continuing to say without change the Tridentine Mass, except for a good number of those who were favored by certain circumstances (age, distance etc.). May we ask these indult favored priests at what cost or compromise with the integral Catholic Faith have they kept or obtained "normal legal relations" with the hierarchy? Compromise which, for example, could appear in the fact of giving hosts doubtfully consecrated during a previous conciliar Mass or even through the manner of celebrating the traditional Mass full of hesitations and mistakes, sometimes even cause of scandal.
There is a danger too for the Faith, that comes from the proximity of the faithful who attend exclusively these indult Masses, because they also have to fulfill the conditions of not placing in doubt the "doctrinal soundness" of the New Mass.[15] Characteristically, these type of faithful, unfortunately too often, are concerned with reconciling in thought and in action the truth with heresy, Tradition with the conciliar spirit. [see also the related FAQ: Should we attend diocesan Latin Masses?]
Secondly from the very nature of the indult: an indult is "a concession from the authority which dispenses its subjects from the obligation of keeping a law."[17] "The indult is an exception. It can always be withdrawn. It confirms the general rule"[18] which is the New Mass, the conciliar liturgy. Because, to use a special permission, is this not to recognize and legitimize ipso facto the general law, that is to say the legal suppression of the two thousand year-old traditional rite?
Indeed, to obtain the indult of 1984, one must fulfill the following conditions:Quote:that it should be quite clear that those priests and those faithful have nothing to do with those who place in question the legitimacy of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970."[15]
Furthermore "this concession... should be utilized without prejudice to the observance of the liturgical reform [of Pope Paul VI] in the life of ecclesiastical communities"[15] of the Conciliar Church.
Therefore no question of them advertising for the universal usage of the Traditional Mass. They must be made to recognize that this Tridentine Mass was validly, legally and legitimately abrogated or forbidden. No question either or calling the worth, always actual, of the words of the Pope St. Pius V:
Quote:by virtue of Our Apostolic authority We give and grant in perpetuity, that for the singing or the reading of Mass in any church whatsoever this Missal (that is to say, the Tridentine Mass), may be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment or censure, and may be freely and lawfully used."[19]
The third point to tackle is this: to attend the "indult" Mass is at least to approve implicitly and to encourage the work of the destruction of Catholic Tradition undertaken by the official hierarchy. To prove this assertion, let us look first of all at the intentions of some of those responsible, to see some precise facts.
In the first place the intention of Pope John Paul II himself, using this indult to favor the winning over of "traditional Catholics" to conciliar Rome:
Quote:The Holy See has granted... the faculty of using the liturgical books in use in 1962... It is very evident that, far from seeking to put a brake on the application of the reform [of the New Mass] undertaken after the Council [by Pope Paul VI], this concession is destined to facilitate the ecclesial communion (that is to say their reinstatement in the Conciliar Church) of people who feel themselves attached to these liturgical forms."[20]
What now of the intentions and hopes of Cardinal Mayer, former president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission? He said:
Quote:There are grounds to hope that, with the concerted efforts on the part of all concerned a substantial number of priests and seminarians will find the strength to renounce a 'state of mind' which until now was full of prejudices, of accusations and of disinformation... We have good reason to believe that the charity with which the priests coming from Archbishop Lefebvre and returning into the Church will be received, will contribute greatly to the fulfillment of this hope that, following them, numerous faithful whom they had served up till then, would also return into the ecclesial communion (with the Conciliar Church) through their mediation. Sometimes a temporary solution may be necessary, such as allowing them the possibility of celebrating the Holy Mass[21] [of Pope St. Pius V]."
In the hands of the official hierarchy, the Tridentine Mass serves therefore as a temporary means and bait to attract the traditional priests and people and to destroy at the same time the work of Catholic restoration, started by Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop de Castro Mayer and their priests. Means and bait to attract the traditional Catholics now considered as schismatics because they are no longer considered as "being in communion" with the present-day Rome, of liberal and modernist tendency.
It is to be further noted that the Commission Ecclesia Dei could be generous for a time in the concessions granted to priests — a question of making them bite at the bait. But if through their "mediation" more or less conscious, their faithful do not return into the conciliar fold, it is to be anticipated that they will be judged as useless instruments and will find themselves either in the obligation to fulfill other conditions to keep that permission, or even to simply see the aforesaid permission withdrawn.
Let us now move on to some illustrating facts: having received the permission to celebrate the Tridentine Rite, the Fraternity of St. Peter now see themselves threatened to accept giving Communion in the hand[22] and saying the Mass of 1965,[22] having already accepted by one of their superiors, "all the documents of the Vatican II Council."[23] Hundreds of priests, seminarians and faithful have been lured with the Tridentine Rite and now are made to forcibly return to the ranks and the spirit of the Council. This work of destruction continues by the approval of Indult Masses close to our important Mass centers... A good method to empty these last ones or at least to prevent them from developing.
Quote:That is why, what can look like a concession is in reality merely a maneuver to separate from us the largest number of faithful possible. This is the perspective in which they seem to be always giving a little more and even going very far. We must absolutely convince our faithful that it is no more than a maneuver, that it is dangerous to put oneself into the hands of Conciliar bishops and modernist Rome. It is the greatest danger threatening our people. If we have struggled for twenty years to avoid the Conciliar errors, it was not in order, now, to put ourselves in the hands of those professing these errors."[18]
To attempt to restore the traditional Mass without considering the historical context of the crisis of the Faith is to become a blind instrument in the hands of the conciliar hierarchy.
What final conclusion can we draw from all this?
That the precept of attending Sunday Mass is obligatory for all Catholics who have reached the age of reason (seven years old) but that some may be excused particularly those who are only near Masses "of Pope Paul VI" or to traditional Masses said under the "Indult." Why? Firstly, because of the danger for the faith coming either from the priests who celebrate or from the faithful who attend them; secondly, legitimization is given to the new liturgy and finally an approval more or less implicit of the work of destruction of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Tradition.
Footnotes
1 Gen. 2: 2-3
2 Ex. 20 :8, Lev. 23 :3, Deut. 5 :15, Ex. 31 :14.
3 Gratian: Dist. I De cons. c.3.
4 Can. 1247 (1917 Code of Canon Law).
5 Can. 12 (1917 Code of Canon Law).
6 Fr. A. Bugnini: L'Osservatore Romano (Mar 19, 1965) in Documentation Catholique, April 4, 1965, No. 1445, p. 603.
7 A Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae (also commonly known as The Ottaviani Intervention), TAN Books and Publishers, 1992.
8 Declaration of the Protestant minister Max Thurian: La Croix, May 30, 1969; p. 10.
9 Position of Archbishop Lefebvre on the New Mass and the Pope (Nov 8, 1979), Cor Unum, No. 4, November 1979, pp 3-9.
10 This is strongly inspired by I Cor 8.
11 Summa Theologica, III, Q. 64, A. 9.
12 II John 11.
13 Summa Theologica, III, Q. 82, A. 9.
14 Can. 1258, 2 (CIC 1917).
15 Indult of the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship of October 3, 1984 in Fideliter, No. 42, Nov-Dec 1984, pp 18-19.
16 30 Days, No. 6, June 1989, p. 48.
17 F. Roberti, P. Palazzini, Dizionario di Theologia Morale, Ed. Studium, Roma, 1955, article "Indulto".
18 Interview with Archbishop Lefebvre, Fideliter, No. 70, July-August 1989, pp 13-14.
19 Bull Quo Primum Tempore of Pope St. Pius V, July 14, 1570.
20 Audience of Sept 28, 1990 to the Benedictine Monks of Le Barroux. L'Osservatore Romano (French edition), October 2, 1990, No. 40.
21 Letter of Cardinal Mayer to Msgr. May, L'Homme Nouveau, March 19, 1989.
22 Controverses, No. 42; January1992, p. 3.
23 Controverses, No. 37; October 1991, p. 4.
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