Now that we are in the autumn, we can clearly see that the "New Springtime of Vatican II" has merely made a mess of the Church by leaving a lot of rotting fruit on the ground. And the truth can't be hidden any more behind propaganda. Oh, sure, the Newvatican continues to spew forth that propaganda, trying to convince the world that the Church has never been in better condition. That's a dog that won't hunt.
What is the reality? We all know it. Catholic churches are being sold off right and left because people are tired of the Novus Ordo Mess, with its incessant "variations" and "translations," none of which rise to the standard of validity as a Catholic Mass. Religious orders are dying off before our eyes. Most will not exist in a generation. Church attendance has sunk from 4 out of 5 pre Vatican II to 1 in 7 post Vatican II.
Let us take a case in point and travel to the Irish archdiocese of Tuam, site of the Shrine to Our Lady of Knock. Not one new clerical student has begun studies for the Novus Ordo presbyterate this year in this large archdiocese, spread across Galway and Mayo. Indeed not one candidate for the Novus Ordo presbyterate has begun studies in the past five years. In 1984 there were 56 students from the Archdiocese of Tuam studying for the Novus Ordo presbyterate. [Galway Advertiser]
So, the Irish Newchurch officials thought to use a gimmick to get a candidate. So, they trotted out some secular "football star" and a P.R. company to "sell" the presbyterate. It seems that no students were interested in the presbyterate, but several students were interested in being considered for "football scholarships"!
These Newchurch officials just don't get it, do they? Before Vatican II, when the traditional Faith was strong, the seminaries and religious orders couldn't accommodate the number of candidates. Post Vatican II, zilch in many dioceses. Who would want to give his life for a big chair at a phony Mess, while ministresses dance around the altar? Who would want to study Rahner, Kung, and Chardin instead of Augustine, Aquinas, and Albert the Great?
Don't worry, traditional Catholics. Newchurch will be essentially dead in a generation. It will be just another one of those Protestant sects like the Episcopalians and the Methodists. Nothing more.
NOTE. One Board member claims that the Board is not considering turning the late Fr. Wickens' St. Anthony of Padua Church in West Orange, New Jersey, over to the diocese, nor is it entertaining the notion of giving it over to the SSPX. We hope that this is true, but there is quite a lot of conflicting information on the subject. This is obviously developing story, of great interest to the traditional Catholic community at large. What we know for certain is that Fr. Wickens was an independent traditional Catholic priest, who specifically eschewed the New Order diocese and was not a member of the SSPX.
We have also been informed that even when Fr. Wickens was on his deathbed, the SSPX was trying to insinuate itself into the situation, although Fr. Wickens was not a member of the SSPX. Some years ago the SSPX perpetrated a similar takeover of an independent church in New Jersey by infiltrating the Board. This action resulted in the dissolution of the church and the issuance of the famous "Blue Paper," which was circulated around the U.S. to warn other independent churches of the SSPX's predatory tactics in taking over independent churches.
That incident occurred when there was a different District Director, a ruthless individual who perpetrated many such attacks on the independent traditional Catholic community and even upon his own SSPXers. One only hopes that the SSPX has since learned something from that experience and will reject the despicable tactics of its former director. In any case, the SSPX has allegedly admitted that it doesn't have the resources to handle this church even if it wanted to.
KEEP ST. ANTHONY'S INDEPENDENT!
This is a good one. Some presbyter, "vested" in hiking clothes, performs Novus Ordo Mess on a toolbox. What always gets me about these Messes is how bored everyone looks. They ought to be. The novelty of the Novus Ordo died years ago. When are those daft Novus Ordinarians going to wake up?
NOTE. We have been informed that St. Anthony of Padua Church in Orange, New Jersey, which Fr. Paul Wickens, recently deceased, had worked decades to build as an independent traditional Roman Catholic church, may be in the process of being handed over by the Board of Directors to the New Order. It is hard to think of an act more offensive to the memory of Fr. Wickens, who struggled for decades against the Counterfeit Church of the New Order. Should this happen, many members of Fr. Wickens' congregation will either fight the move, or just walk out and go to one of the other traditional churches in the area. Although this information comes on good authority, we pray that it is not the case and that the Board will maintain the independent character of Fr. Wicken's church.
KEEP ST. ANTHONY'S INDEPENDENT!
Here we have the latest Mess. This from St. Charles Borromeo, which advertises itself as the oldest Catholic church in northern Rhode Island. What is particularly "messy" about this one is that St. Charles Borromeo was the effective author of the Roman Catechism, otherwise known as the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the best catechism ever written, by not only an eminent scholar-Saint of the Church but a noted Latin stylist as well.
This Mess took place on October 24, 2003, at which the little devils assemble around the "table" and have their Novus Ordo service of the abomination of desolation, since He is not there. The kids can probably be excused on the ground of ignorance from the sin they are committing. Most grievous, however, is the sin of the presbyters and the parents: "But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6/DRV).
NOTE. We have been informed that Dr. Robert Edgeworth, former Latin Liturgy Chairman, passed away on Friday, 22 October 2004, after a lengthy illness. He became an officer of the organization in 1984 and became its chairman in 1994. Dr. Edgeworth, a fine gentleman and classicist, was one of those people who were sadly caught in a limbo between fully traditional Roman Catholicism and association with the unCatholic New Order structure.
The organization of which he was an officer is in an untenable position because it tries to serve two masters: the Roman Catholic Faith and the New Order. Its constitution requires that both the true Traditional Latin Mass of 2000 years and the fabricated Novus Ordo service in Latin of 35 years be given equal weight.
Michael Davies, recently deceased, also discovered this truth. He thought that as President of Una Voce he could double-deal with the New Order apparatus from a semi-traditional perspective. He left the presidency quite disillusioned, as his later writings show. Efforts to "negotiate with" the New Order apparatus inevitably lead to disappointment and disillusionment, since it is a purely political organization, with its goal being to destroy the Roman Catholic Faith.
It is well to remember that the "New Mass," that is the Novus Ordo counterfeit service, was intended from the beginning not to be a valid Catholic Mass, but rather a Protestant service, one that could be shared with Protestant "brethren." Hannibal Bugnini composed the new service with that purpose deliberately in mind, and, to be sure that he accomplished that goal, he used six Protestant ministers to assist him. Pope Paul VI was fully aware of this all this, and personally posed in a famous picture with the six, which has been published here previously on TRADITIO.
Newchurch has succeeded in attaining this goal of "de-Catholicizing" the Mass and turning it into a Protestant service that is now fully acceptable to many Protestant denominations. Case in point. Look at the photograph above. Looks like a Novus Ordo service that one could see in any Novus Ordo temple, right? It's got the usual cross, the candles, the missal, and the de riguer loose-leaf binder to supplement the "official" vulgarized text.
Well, if you thought that the photograph shows a Novus Ordo service, you would be wrong. It is actually a Lutheran service, held in a Lutheran monastery in Michigan. In some ways, it is actually more "conservative" than most Messes you see these days in Novus Ordo temples.
This is one reason why we find all the folderol about John Kerry so amusing. Kerry is not a "bad" Catholic; he's a "good" Catholic -- if you consider anything about the New Order "Catholic." He's got the backing of no less than the Newchurch cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C., behind him, saying that his belief and practice are fully "Catholic." And they are, in the way Newchurch defines that term.
Of course, we traditional Catholics know the truth. Their "Mass" isn't Catholic. Their sacraments aren't Catholic. Their doctrine isn't Catholic. Their morals certainly aren't Catholic. It is all, as Malachi Martin first put it, a "Great Facade." That is not surprising. What is surprising is that a dwindling number of Novus Ordinarians still fall for it!
NOTE. We have informed that Fr. Gommar DePauw, the founder of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement is still recovering in hospital from exhaustion. We understand from a local source that Fr. DePauw, in his weekly message to his parishioners, said some very nice things about TRADITIO and its apostolate. The TRADITIO Commentary about Fr. DePauw was also read out to the congregation. TRADITIO has received many messages from around the United States on how much the Radio Mass and the Sounds of Truth and Tradition, which Fr. DePauw sponsored in the 1960s, meant long before many other traditional Catholics came "out of the closet," as it were, and more than 20 years before any purported "indult" came onto the scene.
We remember how important these were in the early years of the Modernist devastation of the Church. Fr. DePauw is the real pioneer of our movement, but for some reason the "conservatives" and the "semi-traditionalists" seem reluctant to mention his name. He must be too traditional, too Catholic, too honest for them, who are used to dealing with compromising "indults" and "negotiations" and "compromises" with Newchurch.
Strange headline, isn't it? But, as TRADITIO has consistently said, one cannot understand the Church of the New Order, the pope, and his curia by their meaningless words. One must look to their actions.
The Novus Ordinarians of St. Lucia's are "disturbed and scandalized" that the pope is awarding a Papal Knighthood to St. Lucia's Foreign Minister, Julian Hunte, a non-Catholic, who was "pivotal and instrumental in the successful passing of the St. Lucia Criminal Code, which legalized abortion in St Lucia." Giving Hunte the award sends "a terrible and disconsolate message to St Lucia's faithful."
And what do Newchurch officials say? The local presbyters are not at all perturbed. The pope's spokesman, Angelo Cardinal Sodano, Newvatican Secretary of State, dismissed the concerns. This was obviously a Newvatican payoff to the pro-abortionist because he "upgraded the status of the Holy See at the United Nations." [The Star]
Now you see how Newvatican's words are just a facade. Doctrine Capo Ratzinger said that that the issue of abortion was undebatable and trumped all other issues morally. In reality, the pope and Newvatican are ready to sell out their morals for political benefit. This is, after all, what the New Morality of Newchurch means.
John Kerry is safe. The pope and Newvatican cannot censure him. If they did, the pope and his consiglieri would simultaneously be censuring themselves. And that they are not honest enough to do.
This has got to be one of the most bizzare "messes," from the pope's own homeland. Apparently, he can't keep even Poland Catholic any longer.
In a forest clearing, here we have a Novus Ordo presbyter being read to by a kid in shorts and a T-shirt. The presbyter looks bored. He hangs his head in his hand. The spectator kids look bored too. They clasp their arms and look down. Perhaps they are embarrassed to be part of this charade.Our Catholic ancestors used for an altar the tombs of the Roman martyrs. Here we have an overturned canoe. This is Catholic? Of course not. It is part of the Counterfeit Church, and anyone who has any sense about him knows it full well. That is why traditional Catholics must avoid the temples of the New Order, just as their ancestors underwent martyrdom rather than be forced to pray in the temples of the pagans.
The Novus Ordinarians have been "obeying" Newchurch bishops so long that they have lost their Mass, their Faith, and their morality. The problem for Newchurch is that now they are starting to realize that they've been duped.
An ABC News / Beliefnet Poll conducted in June 2004 showed that the Novus Ordinarians are not just after errant presbyters. 73% of them want to get the bishops as well on charges of obstruction of justice and as accessories after the fact. These Newchurch bishops should have the fear of God put into them -- finally. They are not going to be able so easily to promote their Counterfeit Church. They can't hide behind their purple any longer. And the police are backing off of their "hands off" policy. A score of Newchurch bishops are being rounded up on a number of charges, including embezzlement, racketeering, and even investigation of murder.
61% of Novus Ordinarians disapprove of the way Newchurch is handling the situation; more than 40% disapprove "strongly." Maybe the rising tide of disgust with the Counterfeit Church will lead these Novus Ordinarians back to the Roman Catholic Church and the true Mass. Regrettably, it is more likely that most will become lost souls, because they have played into Newchurch for so long.
The U.S. Bishops' own privately-commissioned survey indicated that fully one-third of Catholics stood with Pope St. Pius X and walked out immediately after Vatican II because they were disgusted with the Modernism introduced by that Council. But most of these never set foot in any church again. We traditional Roman Catholics, like Our Lord, must seek out these lost sheep and draw them back to the true Roman Catholic Church.
Is he or isn't he "excommunicated"? Does anyone at Newvatican know John Kerry's status? As reported here on TRADITIO yesterday, a "conservative" cardinal seemed to have arranged an "unofficial" leak from a "consultant," who claimed that Kerry was "automatically excommunicated." But just as TRADITIO predicted, Newvatican could never permit such a notion to stand because over one hundred "Catholic" U.S. senators and congressmen would be out of Newchurch, together with countless state legislators, as well as federal and state judges. Newvatican must read TRADITIO (in fact, we know it does)!
So now CNS reports that Newvatican officials contacted on October 19 said that they did not agree with the "consultant's" conclusion that Kerry has incurred excommunication. You can incur excommunication latae sententiae (without benefit of trial), these new officials claimed, "only if you procure or perform an abortion."
The Church of the New Order is a joke. The pontificate of JPII is a joke. These Newchurch officials cannot agree on anything Catholic, and they create scandal and confusion among the faithful. Is it any wonder that the Novus Ordinarians are deserting the Church of the New Order? Its status as a Counterfeit Church, in the words of the late Malachi Martin, has become so obvious that it is a wonder than anyone takes Newchurch seriously any more. In a few years, only the clowns from the Clown Mess will be left!
Isn't Newvatican politics fun? Now there is some story going around in one of the Novus Ordo news sources that U.S. Presidential candidate "Kerry Is Said to Be Excommunicated," not because he entered into a non-Catholic marriage before a justice of the peace, but because of some fuzzy logic on abortion by a Vatican "consultant." Notice the careful wording of the title: "is said," not "is." As Bill Clinton so pointedly put it: "It depends on what the meaning of the word is is." Remember that deliciously confusing statement from Vatican II, that the church of Christ "subsists in," not "is," the Catholic Church? Doctrine Capo Ratzinger gave us that one. Thanks, Ratz.
This situation bears all the earmarks of Newvatican gamesmanship. Ratzinger cowers in silence while some "consultant" is permitted to comment on a case in progress, "unofficially." Hmmm, maybe next time Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should issue her opinion "unofficially" before the court as a whole rules. Whatever one might think about Kerry (and personally we don't think a lot about him), he certainly has a right to justice.
This engineered "leak" from Newvatican is obviously intended by some "conservative" official there to influence the U.S. elections without actually going through the process of a church trial and issuing a public verdict. The last time Newvatican pulled this ploy, it was on a traditional archbishop by the name of Marcel Lefebvre. So, be careful, folks. Those of you out there who are so eager to deny Kerry the Novus Ordo kommunion kookie may get your ox gored next time. As St. Thomas More said at his trial, "I would give even the Devil the benefit of law."
This case will never come to ecclesiastical trial, just as Archbishop Lefebvre was denied an ecclesiastical trial. Why? Newchurch doesn't want publicity on these things. If Kerry were ever found guilty, 120 "Catholic" congressmen would have to be caught in the same net, including Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Susan Collins of Maine. And what about those hundreds of "Catholic" state legislators and "Catholic" judges who fall into the same category? And JPII and Ratzinger could be excommunicated too because of their complicity.
Isn't it interesting that at the same time as Newvatican "conservatives" have waded into the U.S. elections, the "consultant" has sidetracked the ecclesiastical trial filed by relying on that misunderstood ploy of latae sententiae, or so-called "automatic," excommunication. Again, that was the same ploy Newvatican pulled on Abp. Lefebvre. Contrary to erroneous "common knowledge," Lefebvre was never excommunicated. It was merely claimed that he excommunicated himself. There is quite a difference. That is why the Lefebvre "excommunication" has evaporated in all but ink. The problem with this method is that every Tom, Dick, and Harry can claim this or that one is "automatically excommunicated" because he doesn't agree with someone's else's politics.
The proper, the clear, the just way is to handle these cases, as in fact the Kerry case was originally entered and as in fact the Church's own law prescribes, through ferendae sententiae, that is, an ecclesiastical trial. But then Kerry and Kennedy and the rest could defend themselves. They could publicly produce Newchurch Cardinal McCarrick, who specifically told Kerry that his position was in accordance with Catholic teaching, along with about almost 300 other U.S. Newchurch bishops.
Kerry-Kennedy could attack Newchurch Cardinal Ratzinger, who can't seem to utter one clear statement on the issue to cardinals, bishops, presbyters, and laymen. Kerry-Kennedy could attack most of all JPII, who, for all his empty rhetoric about a "culture of death," has never addressed the specific issue except in so general terms that no one knows how to apply the principle to specific cases. Don't forget St. Joan of Arc. Venal ecclesiastical officials burned her at the stake. At least she got a (show) trial, and the records of that trial came back to haunt the Church. No, there won't be any trial.
But those of us who know Newvatican well know that this is its modus operandi: gamesmanship. It will never give Kerry or Kennedy a public trial. It will never put teeth into its deliberately vague words. It will handle abortion just the same way it handled the true Mass: by stealth, by innuendo, by "unofficial" statements, by playing games, not by standing up for Christ and His Church (the Roman Catholic Church, that is) with clear words and, even more, clear actions.
When JPII has the guts to stand before the world and condemn such politicians, then we will listen. When Ratzinger has the guts to stand before the world and condemn such politicians, then we will listen. Until then, these Newchurch officials are as "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal," signifying nothing.
What is this love-affair between Newchurch and Buddhism? Buddhism is essentially an atheistic religion, or at least makes a god of man. It is certainly one of the weirdest philosophies around, denying basic principles of rationality and substituting some kind of irrational ying-yang.
And yet it seems that this mindless philosophy attracts the fringe elements of the Novus Ordinarians, starting with the Mad Monk, Thomas Merton. Even Newvatican thought that things were getting out of hand (and things have to be pretty far out before Newvatican steps in!) so that in the late 1980s the Holy Office issued a condemnation of "Buddhist meditation."
So now in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City, traditionally dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the monument of the Dalai Lama stands among the real Saints, starting with Our Lady. The Lama was permitted to enter the sanctuary and conduct some kind of eirenistic "service" on October 4, 2004, thus desecrating the feastday of St. Francis of Assisi, Confessor and Stigmatist, as well. [Associated Press]
NOTE. Those participants who do not have access to a traditional church or chapel in their locality may submit the names of their Faithful Departed to the Confraternity of St. Michael for commemoration during the month of November, the Month of the Holy Souls. For further details see How Do I Submit a Mass Intention in the TRADITIO Library of Files.
While other sources were proclaiming "Vatican Calls for Resignation of Fatima Bishop and Shrine Rector," TRADITIO was not taking the story at face value, but, in its unique analysis from a perspective since before Vatican II, went behind the story to discover the truth. And TRADITIO's analysis was proven true: the pope himself supported the oecumenical desecration going on at Fatima, where the traditional shrine is being turned into an oecumenical nightmare.
The Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, D. Serafim Ferreira e Silva, in response to reports that the pope was purportedly unhappy with his "oecumenical" gestures at Fatima, retorted at a press conference reported by The Portugal News that he had received "personal instructions from the pope to promote the interfaith dialogue." It was in obeying these papal instructions that he welcomed a Hindu priest to offer pagan chant from the Altar of the Apparitions and staged an "oecumenical conference" last year at which pagans were prominent participants. The pope is personally championing the building of the Oecumenical Temple at Fatima, the installation of St. Peter's altar stone there, and the celebration of the counterfeit Novus Ordo Protestant-Masonic-Pagan service there.
The Newchurch bishop of Fatima used the press conference to highlight the fact that the Fatima sanctuary is open to the "Dalai Lama or an agnostic, and to those who believe and to those who do not." In other words, Our Lady's altar that was first turned over to the Novus Ordo schismatic sect is now being relegated more broadly to outright pagans and unbelievers, at the personal instruction of the pope. In fact, as TRADITIO reported earlier, the Dalai Lama was afterwards allowed to desecrate Our Lady's altar at the cathedral in Mexico City.
So, as TRADITIO was the only source to warn you from the start, folks, the pope's supposed dissatisfaction was apparently a ruse to calm down the strong opposition that the "oecumenization" of Fatima has engendered, even from the members of the Church of the New Order. The pope has still not stopped the building of the Oecumenical Temple there, he has not recalled St. Peter's altar stone, and he has not stopped the celebration of the Novus Ordo counterfeit mess there. When he does that, JPII and Newvatican can reclaim some credibility -- not before.
There is a well-established principle in Catholic theology that goes back to the classical Greeks, particularly Aristotle. This principle, known in Greek as epieikeia and later Latinized to epikeia, holds that a law cannot be perverted from the intent of its legislator. This principle was taken into Catholic theology by such great Doctors of the Church as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. It is enshrined in the Decretals, the Codex of 1917, and even the modernist Codex of 1983.
The principle is contained in St. Paul's famous words: "The letter killeth: but the spirit quickeneth" (2 Corinthians 3:6/DRV). Traditional Catholics have used this principle, among many other well-established Catholic principles, to repulse prelates who would try to use the Roman Catholic Faith against itself, to use "obedience to the letter of the [Novus Ordo] law" to strip Catholics of the true Mass, Sacraments, doctrine, and morality. They can't do that folks. Catholic theology makes such actions null and void.
Certain British Newchurch officials are invalidly trying to use the epikeia principle to justify giving the Novus Ordo communion cookie to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whereas they are silent on the valid application of the principle to maintain the true Faith. The principle, however, cannot be applied to such a situation, since it is a sacrilege for non-Catholics to participate in Catholic Sacraments, which is essentially against Divine Positive Law. Such a practice is a perversion of the Faith.
The Blair case is a good case in point. TRADITIO participants might remember our report the scandal that was caused in Rome when this formal heretic received the communion cookie at a Novus Ordo church instead of an Anglican one. For according to his own office, Blair is a member of the heretical Church of England. He does not profess the Roman Catholic Faith. He has not applied to take the Oath of Abjuration from heresy publicly to be received into the true Faith.
In fact, he is said to be a Socialist, to follow the teachings of the Modernist Hans Kung, who was formally censured by Pope John XXIII, and to reject certain teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion, divorce, etc. His reception of the communion cookie (of course, we know that it is invalid anyway) is a blatant expression of public heresy in which certain British officials of Newchurch have connived, apparently because they are "respecters of persons," not of God.
Included in a list of "suggestions and proposals" released on October 14 by the Newchurch Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments is more prayer and singing in Latin, particularly Gregorian chant. The document, titled "The Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions and Proposals," encourages "familiarity of Latin, indicating its necessity, especially in houses of formation and in seminaries, for prayer and singing in Latin, particularly Gregorian chant."
One can regard this "suggestion" as tantamount to a ploy to calm "conservatives." It will be just as much a ploy as the "indult," which hardly rises above the category of "dead letter." There is no teeth in a "suggestion." JP II could have taken a leaf out of the book of his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, who mandated the use of Latin, in seminaries, at Mass and Divine Office -- and much more extensively -- when the Modernists tried to slip out of it.
But never let it be said that Traditional Catholics don't obey the pope: we use Latin exclusively at Mass, in the Sacraments, and for other prayers, both public and private, and we promote the use of Gregorian chant in Divine Office and Mass. Throw this right back at the next Novus Ordinarian who claims that you don't "obey" the pope. It is the Novus Ordinarians who in reality don't obey the pope, or rather the popes.
NOTE. This is the time of year to order calendars and ordos for the next liturgical year. There is one traditional calendar and one traditional ordo that TRADITIO recommends above all the others. When you are ordering for next year, see our recommendations in the Traditional Liturgical Calendar department.
While certain sources speculate that Newvatican is upset at the Fatima desecration, there is no hard evidence of the fact. The pope has not only remained silent, he has sent the altarstone of St. Peter to Fatima. Even if some Newchurch officials do turn out to lose their positions, it will not be for the desecration, but some other cause.
So, folks, this is just another ploy to mislead the faithful into thinking that Newvatican will do something at Fatima. It won't. The Oecumenical "Tennis Racket" Shrine will continue to be built. St. Peter's altar stone will continue to be placed there. The counterfeit Novus Ordo service will continue to be said there. Fatima is in the possession of heretics and has been since 1970.
The best way to understand Newvatican is not to pay attention to its proven empty words and promises, but to look at its actions. And what has it now done? Why, after the scandal of the Hindus at the Fatima altar, it scheduled Buddhists to pray from the altar of the National Cathedral of Mexico, which is also consecrated to Our Lady!
On October 4, 2004, the Feastday of St. Francis of Assisi, Confessor and Stigmatist, Buddhists were allowed to propagate their chant from the altar of the National Cathedral. In fact, the Grand High Poobah of that sorry pagan philosophy, the so-called Dalai Lama, led the event. [Associated Press]
Newvatican has learned nothing from the Fatima desecration and demonstrates its hypocrisy. It loves these pagan religions and does not hesitate to open supposedly Catholic altars to them. It's all part of the One World Oecumenical Religion, folks. Better get used to it, if you have "some attachment" to the New Order Religion.
NOTE. We have been informed that in response to our notice, enough TRADITIO participants stuck a $10 bill in an envelope to P.O. Box 130, Mead, WA 99021-0130, to subscribe to and support the continuance of the fine traditional quarterly Catholic Voice for at least another two issues of some of the best practical material about the traditional Mass and Faith that is being printed these days.
Seattle's Newchurch Archbishop Alexander Brunett ascribes the Church's problems to the period of Vatican II. That period of the mid and late 1960s saw the uprooting of the Roman Catholic Faith and the "sexual revolution," rampant drug-taking and counter-culturalism. "It seems to be the period from which all these problems are coming from," he said. Even a broken clock gets it right twice a day. [AP]
The milieu of the 1960s saw undermined all three traditional supports of society: the Church, the State, and the family. These three are like a three-legged stool. If one of them is awry, the stool collapses. Imagine the effect of three legs awry! Only a few historians have yet recognized that the 1960s set off forces of revolution that have overwhelmed the Church, State, and family. The Church, which would normally have been a counter-force for good, was swept along in the revolution, and its human side was corrupted right along with it.
We are still paying the price forty years later. The ship of the Church has practically capsized. That is why it is taking so much effort to right it. But righted it will be. We have Our Lord's promise of that. However, He did not promise its exact aspect. It may well be restored to a faithful remnant.
Several Novus Ordo bishops are quoted in the newspapers to the effect that Catholics must vote for George Bush and that it would be a sin to vote for Kerry. Other bishops say that Catholics must vote for John Kerry and that it would be a sin to vote for Bush. What's going on here?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
Certainly nothing "Catholic." What's going on is that the Novus Ordo bishops, having lost the Catholic Faith, have substituted politics for their faith. These bishops don't believe in sin. They've gutted the Sacrament of Penance and replaced it in their Newchurch with some P.C. "reconciliation" thingamabob, conducted on a psychiatrist's couch.
All this posturing is typical Novus Ordo nonsense. Since it is not of the Catholic Faith, the Novus Ordo religion is politics, so why wouldn't sin be redefined from violating the Ten Commandments to "political sin," especially since the Novus Ordo bishops are themselves wallowing in real sin and want to shift the public focus away from themselves?
The Scriptures themselves make it clear that the Almighty set up two spheres of activity: Church and State. It is just as wrong for the Church to infringe upon the rightful sphere of the State as it is for the State to infringe upon the rightful sphere of the Church.
As we've said many times, putting on a pointed hat doesn't make a personal politically infallible. It's supposed to make them fight for the true Faith. That these Novus Ordo bishops have not done. They cannot make up for it by infringing upon the sphere of the State and the individual. As with any moral decision, each Catholic must sift the evidence, weigh the good and the evil, the ends and the means, and reach a rational decision guided by the queen of the moral virtues, prudence. Honest men can reach honestly different conclusions in practical politics.
Doesn't all this seem somehow familiar to you? It should. This trumped-up political "sin" game by the Novus Ordo bishops is the same game that they play against traditional Catholics. It's okay with them to attend a counterfeit mass, participate in counterfeit sacraments, believe unCatholic doctrine, and practice an unCatholic morality. What's a "sin" is to practice the immemorial Roman Catholic Faith with 260 popes, 3000 Saints, and 20 Dogmatic Councils!
It's an old Novus Ordo ploy. Don't be taken in by it.
On Sunday, October 10, George Bush and Dick Cheney heeded the Third Commandment and kept holy the Lord's Day, suspending their campaigning. John Edwards campaigned as usual.
John Kerry, who claims to be a Catholic, attended a Protestant service where he spoke in the pulpit. Is this Catholic? Of course not. It's getting hard for Kerry even to claim to be a Novus Ordinarian since:
And what did Kerry preach from the Protestant pulpit? He told the Baptists that his failure to support a constitutional amendment against homosexual "marriage" shouldn't be enough to lose their vote! (He didn't mention his stand for abortion "rights" and immoral stem-cell research.)
So, Kerry, the self-proclaimed Catholic, does not hesitate to attend an heretical service, mount an heretical pulpit, and preach to the heretics there assembled opinions tainted with immorality. I wonder what Kerry would say if George Bush spoke from the pulpit of Kerry's Novus Ordo temple. He'd probably scream to high heaven that the church was being politicized, yet Kerry does not hesitate to schmooze Baptists from their own pulpit.
Did Kerry even read the traditional Gospel of that Sunday? If so, he might have recognized himself in the passage concerning "the exterior darkness, [where] there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12/DRV).
England. Land of the martyrs for the Roman Catholic Faith against King Henry. England. Land of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. England. Land of soldiers who fought for the Traditional Latin Mass.
England. Victim of "multifaithism." Many studies have shown that Novus Ordinarians after Vatican II know very little of the Roman Catholic Faith, but they're sure educated in how wonderful false faiths are. After all, "we all worship the same god," according to the New Order "oecumenical" mantra.
Here we have "Multifaith Awareness Day 2004" at a British Novus Ordo school. This is certainly not a passive educational exercise. The students actually dress up in the costumes of the false faiths and are taught by pagans. In California, public-school students are forced to learn Mohammedanism, dress up like Muslims, and pray like Muslims on a prayer rug in a six-week "module."
There is no similar "module" for Catholicism. Just imagine the screams that would occur if students were forced to use a rosary, wear a crucifix, and attend a Mass in their classroom. Yet that's okay if Mohammedanism is being pandered. Catholic and other parents must categorically refuse to have their children participate in such indoctrinations.
One of the things that makes the conciliar False Oecumenism so ridiculous is that the recipients don't want it. The primary target of Vatican II "oecumenism" is the Orthodox. Newvatican seems to want the approval of the Easterners desperately as a kind of imprimatur on the New Order. The Orthodox want no part of. They consider the New Order to be "unCatholic" in the Apostolic sense. They don't consider the Novus Ordinarians to be "catholic" and will not permit them to be on holy ground, such as Orthodox shrines.
The conciliar popes keep wanting to drag the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs to Rome to show them off schmoozing the pope in yet another photo opportunity. But the Greek Orthodox Church, the largest Eastern Orthodox Church, has banned its Patriarch from going to Rome, as a majority of senior clerics in its governing body has voted against the trip.
His Beatitude Archbishop Christodoulos was seeking formal approval from the Holy Synod before moving ahead with plans to meet JP II in a visit meant to reciprocate the pope's trip to Greece in 2001. The proposed trip had angered the Greek Orthodox Church, which has virulently despised Rome since the Great Eastern Schism of 1054.
JPII in 2001 gave one of those ridiculous "historical apologies" to the Orthodox. The Orthodox never reciprocated, although they were guilty of an equal or greater number of offenses, if one wants to play these historical blame games.
The False Oecumenism promoted by Vatican II has been a bust. After a few years of schmoozing in the 1960s, the religions have faced the reality that their belief systems are different and that they do not "worship the same god." The conciliar popes should wake up to the fact that their opponents have already recognized, return to the true Faith, and stop all this relativistic-phenomenologist-subjectivist nonsense.
Here we go again. Your participants will be interested to know that the Church of the New Order has decided that a study must take place on how to "get" unbaptized babies into heaven. It is the "Politically Correct" thing to do, of course, since there is a need for everything to fit into the Newchurch teaching of Universal Salvation. After all, the Sacrament of Baptism isn't important is it? "We all worship the same god," so who cares? One wonders why the Church of the New Order and Newvatican don't just close up shop and put a sign in the window: "Go somewhere else. We don't have anything the others don't."
Councils of the Church have several times treated of the matter of the necessity of baptism for infants. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church, including the Church's Principal Theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, have taught that aborted children and infants who die without baptism descend immediately not into "Hell" as such, but to the edge, or limbus, as it were, where they exist in a state of natural bliss.
This wasn't sufficient for the New Order Revolutionaries, so first they simply dropped this constant teaching from the Modernist Catechism of the Catholic Church, even though the question of unbaptized infants was treated by the Sixteenth Oecumenical Council at Constance and Pope Martin V.
Look at the pope's statement to this kangaroo commission: "After the Second Vatican Council, Catholic theology has sought answers that are in accord with the mercy of God the Father.... It corresponds to you to scrutinize the nexus among all these mysteries to offer a theological synthesis that might serve as an aid for a more consistent and enlightened pastoral practice."
In other words, because the Church of the New Order doesn't like the Catholic doctrine, it has a commission change the doctrine. Isn't that reminiscent of what the Anglicans do? You want the king to head the Church, have a committee vote it in. You want divorce, vote it in. You want homosexuality, vote it in. Don't listen to the Fathers of the Church, don't listen to the Doctors of the Church, don't listen to 1500 years of Church teaching. Make up a New Religion that is more to modern taste.
Isn't this exactly what Pope Pius IX, Pope Leo XIII, Pope St. Pius X, Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, and Pope John XXIII condemned as the Heresy of Modernism, the synthesis of all heresies? Well, if you're a phenomenologist pope, everything is relative, so why bother? Why not just give up the ghost and tell the Novus Ordinarians that they can make up any religion they want. Then if they want the Wizard of Oz as their god, so be it.
Everyone knows about the flap on whether U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry should take the Novus Ordo cookie because his stance on abortion is not "Catholic" enough, but Kerry's position outside the Church may be much graver than that and may include Theresa Heinz-Kerry as well.
In a long profile of Theresa Heinz-Kerry in The New Yorker, Judith Thurman writes: "After a brief courtship, a short period of cohabitation, and the signing of a prenuptial agreement, the Kerrys were married in a civil ceremony on Nantucket in 1995." If that is the full story, the Kerrys are traditionally both excommunicates from the Catholic Faith and are prohibited from the Sacraments until absolution is sought publicly and until a penance is imposed in the external forum (not in the internal forum of the confessional, as the original act was a public act of separation from the Church).
The traditional canons provide that any Catholic who enters marriage in the presence of a "non-Catholic minister" (a term that includes civil magistrates in the United States) incurs automatic excommunication by that very act. This makes perfect sense, since by publicly turning his back on the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage and presenting himself or herself instead before an heretical minister or civil official, that individual is essentially telling the world that he (she) is no longer Catholic.
It appears that Mr. Kerry has much more serious problems with the Catholic Faith than a hazy position on abortion.
In a new Apostolic Letter, Mane nobiscum Domine, issued on October 7, JPII has declared October 2004-October 2005 the "Year of the Eucharist." This letter leads to the obvious question: Where can I find the Eucharist?
We know where we can't find it, and that is in any temple of the New Order. It is hard to deny any longer that the Novus Ordo service, in any version, is unCatholic, sacrilegious, irreverent, scandalous, blasphemous, idolatrous, and conclusively invalid. Just in time for the Eucharistic Year, last month a Roman theologian, after the manner of Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani's famous "Intervention" against the Novus Ordo service, issued a book presenting the theological evidence that the "New Mass" is conclusively invalid.
We also know that Newvatican has been powerless to eliminate the so-called "abuses" of the Novus Ordo service, which even it admits. (Of course, eliminating "abuses" does nothing to make the service valid, as the Protestant-Masonic-Pagan service itself is an "abuse.")
On April 17, 2003, the pope issued an Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, which called upon Novus Ordo bishops and presbyters to rout out "abuses." They turned a deaf ear. On March 25, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (a totally misnamed commission, if there ever was one) issued the Instruction Redemptionis sacramentum, which was supposed to have corrected the "abuses." However, this document was watered down to meaninglessness, because the most flaming Modernist bishops had vetoed the original text. They wanted not impediments to promoting messe sauvages full speed ahead!
Frankly, the Eucharistic Year could not have come at a better time. The Novus Ordo service has frequently been shown in the last 40 years to be an invalid, unCatholic mess, starting with P.H. Omlor's 1967 blockbuster, Questioning the Validity of the New, All-English Canon. The time has, therefore, come for all who call themselves Catholics to swear off the Novus Ordo service completely. No more, under any circumstances, can attendance at Sunday services in a Novus Ordo temple be justified, any more than attendance at the Methodist church down the street can be.
The time for prevaricating, weasel-wording, negotiating, excusing, and justifying a patently absurd service that is worse than Protestant is over. TRADITIO joins the pope in his call for Eucharistic reverence, and urges that Catholics assist only at the Traditional Latin Mass at a traditional Catholic church, chapel, or oratory.
NOTE. We have been informed of a program entitled "Voice of Tradition" now being broadcast Sundays at 8:00-8:30 p.m. local time from Long Island, New York, on WLIE 540 AM. The program is said to be rather traditional. Those in the area might want to give it a listen and report back to TRADITIO their observations.
One of the best traditional publications, a quarterly titled Catholic Voice, has just brought out its September 2004 issue. This isn't a big, expensively-produced publication, but a down-to-earth periodical that has some of the best material about the traditional Mass and Faith that is being printed these days.
Catholic Voice is absolutely traditional, not semi-traditional or conservative. It looks at the Traditional Latin Mass from the perspective of liturgy, history, music, culture, theology, and spirituality. Its writing is crisp and to the point, in manageable bites. It is pleasingly, but frugally, typeset and edited. The September 2004 issue includes:
By subscribing to this publication, you are helping a small, but committed group of traditional Catholics, the Society of Traditional Roman Catholics, continue their important work since December 1994, which happens to be just a few months after TRADITIO was established. STRC has become particularly known for its Pro Multis pin, which is a kind of de-facto emblem of the Traditional Catholic Movement, pointing to the sacramental defect in the Novus Ordo consecration.
Why not stick a $10 bill in an envelope to P.O. Box 130, Mead, WA 99021-0130, and do a lot to help a grassroots effort that has shown its traditional mettle for ten years now? It is a need of funds to continue publishing. You will be edified by the articles. They are some of the best down-to-earth apologetics we have seen.
We've heard from Boston, New York, and Chicago. Now we hear from St. Louis, another major cardinalatial diocese. The Novus Ordo tailspin continues. The numbers don't lie, folks. It's the Novus Ordo propaganda that lies. The "Vatican II springtime," if it ever existed, has long ago passed into winter.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that, one parish at a time, Novus Ordinarians in St. Louis are learning the details of archdiocesan plans to close southside churches and schools. The number of northside parishes has already been cut more than in half, from 25 to 10.
One additional factor has become clear in these church closings, not only in St. Louis but also elsewhere around the country -- the Vernacular Heresy. Before Vatican II, there was essentially only one language used for Holy Mass, the Church's language, Latin. This liturgical practice was confirmed dogmatically by the Council of Trent.
Before Vatican II, every Roman Catholic priest knew Latin and could say Mass at any parish, chapel, or oratory. That is no longer the case. Most Novus Ordo presbyters are ignorant of the Church's language (no wonder their theology is so erroneous; they can't read theology!). Even if they weren't so ignorant, the Novus Ordo bishops are now so anti-Catholic that they wouldn't permit its use.
So, the Newchurch has to cater to a babble of vernacular tongues -- Spanish, Vietnamese, Filipino, Swahili, whatever -- which have caused presbyters to be spread very thin. This Tower of Babble has become so expensive that the dioceses could enroll every one of the dwindling number of Novus Ordinarians in a Latin course and save money, at the same time keeping the churches open.
In 1978, even JPII was forced to admit, in the words of Cicero: "Non tam praeclarum est scire Latine, quam turpe nescire" [It is not so much excellent to know Latin, as it is obscene not to know it]. Now he, and Newchurch, are learning to their shame just how essential Latin is to the proper functioning of the Universal Church.
Remember that what happens to the Novus Ordo Church usually follows what happens in the Anglican Church. Well, the most influential Anglican leader in Africa, according to the Associated Press, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, said on October 7 that the U.S. Episcopal Church has created a "new religion" by confirming a gay bishop in New Hampshire, breaking the bonds between the denominations with roots in the Church of England.
Isn't this exactly what has been said about the Novus Ordo Church? It has broken the bonds with the Roman Catholic Church. Already Newchurch has had the spectacle of the Archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, telling the Novus Ordinarians not to object to "gay marriage" because "it makes our gay members upset." What! Catholics cannot condemn sin because the sinners will be upset? What nonsense! Next the Novus Ordo Church prelates will be telling the Novus Ordinarians not to condemn abortion because it will make pregnant women upset. Or not to condemn priestesses because it will make satanists upset.
Anglican Archbishop Akinola admits: "The communion is shattered. It is broken. The commonality that bound us together is no longer true." His words hold equally for the Church of the New Order. Roman Catholicism and Novus Ordoism/Modernism cannot coexist. The one is Catholic; the other is not. The one is Christ's Church; the other is a Counterfeit Church.
It's too bad that Archbishop Akinola is not traditional Catholic. He speaks the truth better than any Novus Ordo bishop. But let us not give up hope. Many Anglicans have converted to traditional Roman Catholicism. Archbishop Akinola might, by the Providence of God, just end up as the new Archbishop of Boston!
Dear Fr. Moderator:
I sent some questions to two Novus Ordo presbyters here locally, accompanied by supporting materials. The two went bonkers! They denied that there was any problem with Vatican II (even though the pope himself said that it has introduced the "smoke of Satan" into the Church), they defamed St. Thomas Aquinas, and they claimed that the Society of St. Pius X was "excommunicated," when none of the supporting materials came from or even referred to the SSPX -- just to what the pope had done, according to his own Vatican Press Office. I must admit that I didn't expect such an irrational response. Could you put this into context?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
Coming from a diocese that boasts a bishop forced out because of sex scandals, which is now in the process of declaring bankruptcy, I'm not surprised.
You have come face to face with the Church of Love, otherwise known as the Church of the New Order. If you are Muslim or Jewish or Protestant, the Novus Ordinarians will schmooze you, kiss your "holy book," and attend your "service." If you are Roman Catholic by the definition of 260 popes, 3000 Saints, and 20 dogmatic Councils, you're dirt.
The give-away is exactly what you got: not a discussion of the facts, but a character attack on phantoms. When we went to seminary, that was called calumny, a serious sin.
These Novus Ordo presbyters are scared to death of traditional Catholicism. Otherwise, they would make it one of their many "cafeteria options." What do they care between Swahili and Latin? They don't make it part of their cafeteria because they know its power. Traditional Roman Catholicism stands for truth against error, just as Christ did. It (and He) did not mince words.
And why shouldn't they be afraid? Their "service" attendance is dropping close to 10%, while the Traditional Latin Mass steadily increases. They are having to close scores of churches because most Catholics have walked out of the New Order. They can't get any presbyters, because no one feels called to sit in a big chair while women (and men) dressed in flower shirts hustle about the "table." Most religious orders will be dead within this generation, as they aren't getting any postulants.
All this is factual, statistical, and published, but these presbyters don't want you to know that. They keep telling you about the Vatican II Springtime, while the Church of the New Order is dying of hypothermia.
These presbyters are just like the secular politicians: don't address the facts; attack the opposition! Well, that may have worked for a couple of decades, but people are getting too smart now. They are realizing that they have been fed a pack of lies about their 2000-year-old religion, and they're not going to take it any more.
They confront bishops and cardinals directly now. "Why have you changed our Faith? Why have you closed our church? Why have you raped and stolen from your flock?" The delicate little flower-children prelates are not used to being confronted. Recently, when asked pointed questions about his behavior, the archbishop of Boston ran to his car and cried tears of bitter embarrassment.
These presbyters and bishops and cardinals have sold out. The example of Our Lord, St. Paul, St. Gertrude, St. Catherine, and many other Saints, as well as the Church's principal theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, tell us that we should not be intimidated by purple or scarlet or even white when it comes to standing up for our Faith. We can never obey evil and error, even when it comes from a man in a white suit. These Saints didn't.
That is why you got the answer you did from the New Order presbyters. You called their bluff, and they didn't like it. Now that you know what kind of a senseless reaction you'll get, don't waste your time. Our Lord said, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet" (Matthew 10:14/DRV).
Here's an idea. Ship a broom to those two presbyters with a note reading only: Start sweeping!
I know that things are getting so bizarre in Newchurch that some of you doubt the authenticity of our reports here. Believe us: we couldn't make this wierdo stuff up. We just don't have that kind of imagination. The following has got to be one of the wackiest things that has come to our attention.
An Associated Press report indicates that in Middleton, Wisconsin, a Presbyterian ministress is scheduled to make her final profession of vows on October 9 with an order of Benedictine sisters. Ministress Lynne Smith, who was "ordained" in 1982, said that she plans to retain the role of ministress when she takes her final vows with the Benedictine Women of Madison. There is already speculation is that she might become the community's priestess to "administer the sacraments."
The New Order is just not Catholic, folks. It doesn't even pretend to be any longer, so don't try to defend it. It wants the unCatholic. It loves the unCatholic. The Benedictines' own announcement of this "event" is "A New World Order." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? You'll find this Masonic principle enshrined, in Latin, on the dollar bill in your pocket. It is the operative principle for those attached to Communism, Socialism, Liberalism, and UNism.
The New Order hates the traditional Catholicism of the popes and Saints. That's how you know that the New Order is not Catholic. Consequently, it cannot be tolerated in any form, and true Catholics should not set foot in its temples to worship, any more than they would in Martin Luther's church or Bin Laden's mosque.
Before anyone gets too excited about what appears to be a merely minor pull-back at Fatima, as previously reported on TRADITIO, let us not forget the reality here, folks. A few Newchurch officials may have gotten a little heat (even that isn't completely confirmed), and maybe the Hindus won't be back at Fatima. But what is left there?
Plans for the Oecumenical Shine (the "Tennis Racket") continue unabated. St. Peter's altarstone, donated by the pope himself, will still be installed in the shrine. All the Fatima altars are sponsoring the abominable New Order service, which is not a Mass at all, but an unCatholic, sacrilegious, irreverent, scandalous, blasphemous, idolatrous, and conclusively invalid counterfeit, which spits in the face of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin.
Fatima will not be whole again until the place is completely fumigated of everything having to do with the Modernism of the New Order, which was condemned as "the height of all heresies" [summa omnium heresium] by Pope St. Pius X. Who knows? This incident might have been a plot to make "conservatives" be grateful for the New Mess, as long as they don't have to face Hindu chant. Even the SSPX demonstration was against the Hindus and the False Oecumenism, not against the New Order and its Mess, which has its home there.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
It has been some months since I quit the Novus Ordo RCIA process and have been self-educating in the traditional Faith. I have a 1952 Missal, I read St. Thomas Aquinas, some books by Abp. Lefebvre, etc. I try to tell Novus Ordinarians about this, but they can't "hear". The Newchurch presbyters turn a deaf ear.
I persevere anyway and pray for the restoration of true doctrine. But it seems as if the destruction of the "institutional" Church is nearly complete. What, short of a cataclysm, could possibly clean out this mess? When I think about what (and Who) has been thrown away and rejected, I wonder whether we are not in the end times.
Fr. Moderator Replies.
I think that you will benefit from putting everything into its historical perspective. People talk about end-times (which Christ specifically told us not to delve into) without understanding how bad things have been in the past. There is a sort of modern egotism about this. For example, read the letters of St. Basil during the Great Arian Heresy of the fourth century, when most of the bishops, and probably the pope too, were in heresy. St. Basil too could easily have believed that his were the end-times and that the Church would not survive.
The best antidote is to read church history. See the suggestions made in FAQ05: What Traditional Books Do You Recommend in the TRADITIO Library of Files. These are times that test our Faith. We should rejoice in them as the Roman martyrs did in their times. In times like these it makes a difference to "hold fast to the Traditions." When it's easy, it's meaningless. Thank God for the opportunity.
Walter Kasper, president of two Newchurch "oecumenical" commissions, was in Seattle in late September, hawking the doctrine of False Oecumenism that is so characteristic of this pontificate. But I wonder whether anyone really considers what this supposedly Catholic cardinal is preaching.
First of all, he says that "dialogue goes on, and participants come to see they have a 'common spirituality.'" This is the hallmark of the Oecumenical Heresy, which was condemned by every pope before Paul VI. The idea is that if you talk enough with error, the error becomes unimportant. It is defined away. That is how, for example, Catholic-Lutheran "dialogue" went, ending in a partial "agreement," which even Martin Luther would have condemned. Certainly many of the Lutherans in the dialogue knew that the "agreement" was a sham. They refused to sign it, and left, causing great embarrassment to Newvatican. At least the Lutherans were honest.
The Newchurch cardinal spouted another statement having the odor of heresy. He said: "Christian identity is not a fixed system of dogmas and a setting of commandments, but a personal relation to a person." Actually, this statement seems to partake of two errors. The first part is tantamount to a denial of Catholic doctrine. Even Our Lord, when asked what the greatest commandment was, answered by quoting dogma. The second part seems to be evocative of Protestantism, which holds that if you have "personal relationship with Christ," you can commit whatever unrepented sin you wish and still be "saved."
Kasper went further to say: "Catholic identity is a way to walk not alone but together with a big worldwide community in order to find there the truth of our existence and the fullness of life." Here we do not have the soul seeking the truth of Christ, as the Saints did. Neither the individual nor the soul is mentioned. Like a Communist, one simply merges into a "big worldwide community" of sheep devoid of any clear teaching. We know that this is not a Catholic thought. Our Lord knows His individual sheep by name. One cannot hide his personal responsibility to God in a confused "community."
But, unwittingly, the cardinal went on to admit a scandalous fact. He said that "many people don't know what their faith stands for." That is certainly true. The New Order has done such a job on Catholics that most Novus Ordinarians are almost completely ignorant of the Faith. This fact was publicly admitted at a recent conference of Novus Ordo "catechists," previously reported on here on TRADITIO. It has gotten so bad that many Catholic children don't even know the words of Hail Mary -- not in English, let alone the Church's tongue, which even Vatican II commanded them to do.
Who appointed this Kasper to spread confusion and error among Catholics? Oops! As in so many things, the buck stops with JPII. No wonder the Fatima Shrine is so embroiled in False Oecumenism. These statements are not a mistakes; they are the policy of the current pontificate. "The fish stinks from the head," as the old saying goes.
Isn't is amazing how, no matter how corrupt the Church of the New Order proves to be, the Novus Ordinarians stick their heads in the sand like ostriches?
Boston is a case in point. Its archbishop became an accomplice in the most perverted cover-ups and perpetuation of child abuse and rape. Finally, he was forced "up," to carry on his flawed ministrations in the Eternal City. The new archbishop has proceeded to close down scores of churches because of heavily reduced attendance at the Novus Ordo service. The new archbishop, who upon his appointment was hailed for his "openness," now won't show his face at his parish churches, because the people are too angry and confront him directly.
Unlike Peter Finch in Network, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"," Boston Novus Ordinarians, who have been lied to and played for fools by the Newchurch hierarchy, should be righteously indignant and walk out of the Counterfeit Church. Many are starting to do just that. According to former Vatican ambassador Raymond Flynn -- who had to be a Newvatican sycophant even to get the job -- incredibly said that "the Church remains strong. Catholics have not lost confidence in their faith; they have not lost confidence in John Paul II."
This Flynn should have been a Propaganda Minister for Nikita Krushchev! How does he account for the fact that that independent statistics show that attendance has fallen from 79% to 15% in the last 45 years under the New Order? How does he account for the fact that in Boston scores of churches will be closed for what the archbishop admits is dramatically fallen attendance? How does Flynn account for the fact that objective surveys of Novus Ordinarians show that they are more pro-abortion and pro-"gay marriage" than Protestants, even though JPII the Silent has come out strongly against all of these positions. And he has the confidence of his people?!
There is an old saying that nothing is certain in this world except death and taxes. To those, we must add the constant effluvium of the Newchurch propaganda machine. No matter how bad things get, no matter how many Newchurch bishops are indicted for crimes, no matter how few men are called to the Newchurch presbyterate, no matter how few women are called to the religious life, no matter how unCatholic "Catholic" hospitals become, no matter how low Newchurch attendance becomes, no matter how many churches close, we can rely on the Newchurch propaganda machine to grind out propaganda on how wonderful the Vatican II was, how wonderful the "New Mass" is, how wonderful the "New Pentecost" is.
Word has reached us that Fr. Gommar DePauw has been hospitalized for a second week for exhaustion. He had previously recovered from heart problems and continued to pastor the traditional Ave Maria Chapel community on Long Island. Although the "semi-traditionalists" heap effusive praise on Novus Ordo presbyters who, after having dished out the New Order to their congregations for decades, convert to traditional Catholicism, they never, for some reason, give recognition to the man who started the Catholic Traditionalist Movement, without which it is unlikely that there would have been any SSPX, any "indult," or any Traditional Latin Mass sites at all. It appears to us that the defect of the position of the "semi-traditionalists" is proven by the fact that they never give credit to the founder of our Movement, but loll around in their own mutual admiration societies with other "late-bloomers."
But let us look at a real traditional Catholic. A priest (never Novus Ordo a presbyter) with guts. A man who stood for the Roman Catholic Faith from the first assaults of Vatican II. And this at great personal sacrifice.
Fr. DePauw taught canon law and was dean of admissions at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. This is the seminary for the Primatial See of the United States, situated in Baltimore, Maryland. Already in 1964, when Vatican II was still in session to pass that flawed document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which planted the seeds of the Liturgical Revolution that is the foundation of the "Counterfeit Church" (as Fr. Malachi Martin called it), Fr. DePauw founded the Catholic Traditionalist Movement (CTM) in 1964.
He left his important position at the seminary and moved to New York, where he made the Traditional Latin Mass available in the Pan American Building. That took guts. He took out ads in major newspapers across the United States. He sent out tapes of the Traditional Latin Mass, which in many places at the time were the only connection that true Catholics had with the True Mass. He published booklets, taking the New Order to task and preaching uncompromised Roman Catholicism. On June 23, 1968, he purchased and opened a beautiful Gothic church on Long Island, formerly belonging to Ukranian Orthodox, and converted it to a headquarters of the traditional Roman Catholic Faith, Mass, and Sacraments.
It was to Fr. DePauw that we owe our understanding today of Quo Primum. Everyone else at the time had forgotten it. It was to Fr. DePauw that we owe such terms, taken for granted today, as Conciliarist. In his publication, Sounds of Truth and Tradition, which was the only traditional publication for years, he gave hope to traditional Catholics in those darkest days of the 1960s and 1970s. He never retreated from an uncompromising commitment to his traditional priesthood and his traditional Faith.
Today, we have a number of "semi-traditionalists," who may "prefer" the "1962 Missal," but whose Faith is one of constant compromise with the New Order, its immoral bishops, and Newvatican, which day by day loses its connection with the Catholic Faith and Catholic Tradition of the popes and Saints. We have the "indultarians" and the "wanderers" and the "one-voicers." No wonder we find that these New Order bishops and presbyters have gotten away for so many years with their doctrinal and moral filth.
In contrast to these, Fr. DePauw's courage stands as a paradigm for all traditional Catholics. He didn't have a big organization to back him up. He was a lone apostle, fighting the good fight for all of us. His voice speaks to us clearly, without any compromise with the unCatholic New Order, and shames those who talk about "negotiations" and "compromises" and give everyone else the Novus Ordo counterfeit, as long as they themselves get a "reverent" service dressed up with a little Latin.
It is known by the cognoscenti that when John Paul I was elected in 1978, one of the first things the pontiff did was to call Fr. DePauw to Rome to sit on a pontifical commission to restore the position of the Traditional Latin Mass. Unfortunately, before the good priest could answer the call, the pontiff was dead. John Paul II in 1986 tried a watered-down version of the same plan, but he did not have the moral fortitude to carry out the unanimous verdict of his own cardinalatial commission to restore the Traditional Latin Mass. Instead, he caved in to pressure on the part of the liberalist German bishops, the same ones who were instrumental in imposing the Novus Ordo service, including the then Fr. Ratzinger.
It is God's simple truth that there has been no one in the Traditional Movement like Fr. DePauw. No, not a Michael Davies, not a Stephen Sommerville, not a Stephen Zigrang. And yet, perhaps because of his uncompromising stand for traditional Roman Catholicism, not temporizing as the others, his name is rarely mentioned. One recent article in a semi-traditional publication presented a questionable list of "pioneer traditionalists," but omitted The Pioneer of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement!
But the truth will out. Fr. DePauw was there from the first, from 1964. He understood what was at stake while "conservatives" were still temporizing and excusing the New Order, as they still do. We pray that Fr. DePauw will very soon return to duty, where he most wants to be, at the traditional altar that he never compromised or abandoned.
Traditional Catholics are not alone in trying to preserve tradition. According to the News Telegraph, traditional Anglicans, who also have a Traditional Movement, are furious about the Vicar of Leeds, England, dismissing the bell-master and his team of five bell-ringers for refusing to ring the bells during modern, family services featuring "silly worship songs" and for demanding the full reintroduction of services based on the traditional Book of Common Prayer.
The Anglicans, who are associated with the Episcopalian Church in the United States, are supposedly known for their lovey-dovey attitude, which accepts blatant homosexuals, divorcees, priestesses, bishopesses, and all that goes with them. However, in the case of the traditional Anglicans, the tower locks of the 11th-century St. Nicholas Church in Leeds were changed without notice, and the bell-master had all of his equipment, including a peal board of great value, unceremoniously dumped on his doorstep in the middle of the night. So much for New Order "love"!
The vicar (equivalent to a Newchurch pastor) wanted to keep the matter hushed up, of course, just like the Newchurch prelates and their immoralities, but the bell-master went public with the fact that he and the others were dismissed for being "too traditional." "All of this was done behind our backs," the traditional bell-master said. "It's like living in Soviet Russia. There seems to be a big conspiracy against people like me who want to protect the [traditional] Book of Common Prayer. The whole thing has been nasty and sneaky." He said that problems began when he aired his views on the importance of maintaining traditional values. "Modernisation goes hand in hand with removing pews, not being silent before services, and the introduction of these silly worship songs," he added. "They didn't like what I had to say about the preservation of the [traditional] Book of Common Prayer."
Sound familiar, folks? Modernists are the same all over, and you have many allies around the world.
Mme. Pompadour laughed off all the remonstrances of her ministers at her extravagance by saying, Après nous le déluge. It appears that Mme. Pampadour's contemptuousness is well represented in the Church of the New Order and its popes. They seem to have cared little if the Church was destroyed after them; they simply wanted to fabricate Newchurch while they were alive. Well, it appears that le deluge is going to sweep them away before they might descend to Avernus.
Portland, Oregon, was the first diocese to fall, a few weeks ago. Then Tucson, Arizona. Now Davenport, Iowa, is toppling. Newchurch Bishop William Franklin says that the Diocese of Davenport lacks the financial resources to compensate victims of presbyter abuse and warned that the diocese could be forced into bankruptcy.
"God is not mocked," wrote St. Paul (Galatians 6:7/DRV). Who would have predicted in 1970 or 1980 or 1990 that the New Order, which was haughtily commandeering God's Church, would take so sudden an precipitous a fall? All over the world the immorality of the New Order with its thievery, fornication, racketeering, and conspiracies has been exposed, and that corruption touches even the papacy of JPII the Silent.
For those of you who were wondering when God would step in, look around you! Novus Ordo service attendance is plummeting, churches are being closed right and left because of desertion, the New Order clergy are being depleted, and no valid Masses are being said among the Novus Ordo sect to draw down God's graces. Can the handwriting on the wall be any clearer? As TRADITIO has constantly said, all we need to do is "stand fast and hold the traditions" (2 Thessalonians 2:15/DRV).
When the True Faith goes, the ridiculous comes in. It happened in the tumult of third-century Rome. It is happening again in the modern age. All too many Novus Ordinarians, who have lost the True Faith, are substituting for Christ and the Catholic Faith a congeries of charistmaticism, modernism, and apparitionism.
A case in point. In Clearwater, Florida, the sun hits a window on a building in such a way that the glass appears to have a vaguely human image. Voila! It's another one of those ubiquitous apparitions of Mary. She's found in windows, in knotholes in trees, and in oil spills. About the only place she's never found is in a real church! Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? One can almost hear her laughing -- or crying -- in heaven.
Well, someone finally broke the glass, and for the superstitious, it is a calamity. They are more broken up about losing the "glass goddess" than they ever were about losing the True Mass, Sacraments, and Faith. It is typical in such confused times that priorities in things become confused.
The only remedy to these inanities is a return to the True Faith, the True Mass, and the True Sacraments. Otherwise, the Faith becomes mere superstition -- as it has in Clearwater.
As if the circus atmosphere in Clearwater weren't bad enough, some Novus Ordinarians in Phoenix, Arizona, concocted an even more ridiculous "apparition." About four or five years ago, shortly before my conversion from the New Order sect to traditional Catholicism, I had a rather hilarious, but sad experience.
While visiting some relatives in Arizona, my father-in-law told me about a place in Phoenix, where the Blessed Virgin was said to be appearing. We went to the church where the event was supposed to be taking place. We were told that Mary would appear around nightfall near the bell-tower. That evening, shortly after nightfall, the "lady" began "appearing" in "small bursts." Each time the Novus Ordinarians made this "apparition" their religion would begin singing modernistic songs.
After about 30 minutes or so, I finally realized what was causing this "apparition." I told my father-in-law that I noticed that each time they would begin their singing, a light attached to the church rectory would blink because of the wind. My father-in-law then went over and screwed the light bulb in, and voila!, an "apparition" of Mary. The "apparition" was of the corner of the rectory roof reflecting off the bell-tower, giving, to those who had great imagination, an image of Mary with her hands folded in front of her, praying, from a side view.
That was the last time I went to one of these ridiculous "apparitions," to which so many Novus Ordinarians have become so attached in their search for something sacred to fill the void of the most sacred thing that they have lost: the true, valid Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
According to the Portuguese daily Correio da Manhã of September 29, Newvatican was apparently caught with its cassock down when the Fatima Shrine was turned by its bishop and rector into an oecumenical site, hosting a Hindu priest at the Altar of the Apparitions.
We know, of course, that Newvatican was behind the new direction. On February 2, 1986, the pope submitted himself to be marked with cow dung in the "Tilac," or sign of the adorers of the pagan goddess Shiva, by a Hindu priestess at Bombay. After all, this pope makes it a point to push false oecumenism, to worship with Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Pagans of the South Sea Islands, etc. Also, he sent the new altar stone to Fatima after all the oecumenical going-on, in such a way that his "approval" would be inferred.
So, what's really going on here? Apparition sites, both the putatively legitimate and the phony, are one of the few concessions that rake in money for the Church of the New Order, which is sinking into bankruptcy. Fatima is one of the most profitable religious venues in the world. Official figures for 2003 show that the sanctuary recorded net profits in excess of $8,000,000. Now if conservative Novus Ordinarians and traditional Catholics, as they have, speak ill of the management of the shrine and hold demonstrations, such as the one being planned for 2005, tourism will be compromised.
But Newvatican is always painfully aware of P.R. Although the Fatima bishop and rector bulldogged against the conservative Novus Ordinarians and traditional Catholics who objected to the abuse of the shrine and the sacrilege, the negative P.R. was apparently too much -- for the moment at least.
Remember that these Newchurch personnel often make a tactical retreat, only to return to their original purpose later. Also, in typical Vatican fashion, the pope did not publicly condemn the goings-on and statements of his officials at Fatima, so they can always say that any staff changes had nothing to do with their oecumenical initiative. The Vatican playbook is only too transparent.
So, the scandal is never put to rest with clarity; it is merely sidestepped. Therefore, it is likely to return. When it does, remember that TRADITIO warned you.
Since Vatican II the Newchurch has tried to make it out as if the Traditional Latin Mass were just for old foggies, but the Novus Ordo service is for the young and hip. That piece of deception is now being exposed by the secular press.
A recent article in the Daily Herald from the Chicago area unabashedly proclaimed: "Youth behind Resurgence of Ancient Catholic Ritual." It turns out that the young people are throwing over the steel guitars and vernacular for a connection with the real Mass. For "a growing number of young people, the ... traditional Latin Mass provides a connection to the divine unmatched by any contemporary service." They got that right! At a time when many dioceses are shutting down a significant number of churches because attendance at the Novus Ordo service is plummeting, to less than one in seven, traditional churches are seeing increases.
One Novus Ordo presbyter had to admit: "We're constantly bombarded with change, change, change. The Mass is like a rock, a source of stability in a noisy world." Well, isn't that what traditional Catholics, and the true Church, have said from the beginning? Some people are just 40 -- or 2000 -- years behind.
Sometimes looking at who your enemies are confirms the correctness of your position. And who are the enemies of the Mass and the Church quoted in the article? Why, one Crystal Chan, who is with Call to Action, an organization that wants to destroy the Roman Catholic Church by promoting lesbianism, "gay marriage," priestesses, wicca, and all the rest. "This isn't a trend we would welcome with open arms," she said. I should think not! Maybe a return to the true faith would "out" these pagans, who pose as "Catholics" in order to use the mechanism of the Church to destroy the Church.
And what about that Latin? Far from being a hindrance, the language is incorruptible by modern vernacular and serves as a unifying force across cultures. "It's really beautiful," says one 17-year-old.
Archbishop Sean O'Malley is shutting down close to one hundred churches in the Boston archdiocese. Why? Here is his explanation, as reported by Associated Press: "The closings were necessary because of a long, steady decline in Mass attendance.... I wish there was some way that all of these wonderful houses of life and prayer could remain open and alive and full. But there is not." He specifically denied that the churches were being closed to raise money for the settlement of more than 500 abuse lawsuits.
Now, if the New Order "Mess" is so wonderful, if people really desire a vernacularized Protestant service to the accompaniment of profane instruments and modern rock ditties instead of the Traditional Roman Catholic Latin Mass, as the New Order claims, why aren't people streaming into these churches?
O'Malley is being honest at least about this. The fact is that attendance at the Novus Ordo service is markedly declining. Most people don't really like it. They put up with it, reluctantly, but now they realize how many years of graces they have wasted attending a Counterfeit Mass that is utterly unCatholic and invalid, as well as sacrilegious, blasphemous, idolatrous, and irreverent.
The Novus Ordinarians have been had, partially from their own fault, and now they're starting to realize it. They are angry and are turning their indignation against the Pharisee bishops who have foisted off on them a phony mass, phony sacraments, phony morality, and phony doctrine. They're sitting in in the targeted churches and confronting the Newchurch bishops and their minions directly. It's just too bad that they didn't do this after 1965, and the Church could have avoided the pain of the last forty years of "religious engineering."
One of the most obvious signs of the failing New Order is that once Catholic countries have turned to the "dark side." The Irish, once converted by St. Augustine, have revered back to paganism. They now have divorce and abortion, and the Archdiocese of Dublin is ordaining not one presbyter this year. England, for which 10,000 died to preserve the Traditional Latin Mass, is now in single digits for Mass attendance.
Now, according the News Telegraph, Spain is cutting its funding of the New Order Church. In addition, Christian symbols, such as the crucifix, will be banned from state-owned public buildings such as schools, prisons, and military headquarters. The Spanish government has pledged to transform Spain into a fully secular society by scrapping the Church's "privileged position in society."
Formerly mandatory religious instruction will become optional. However, the teaching of Islam in state-run schools and the funding of mosques will be implemented. In the area of morality, equality for homosexuals, liberal abortion laws, ten-day divorces, and elimination of restrictions on embryo research will be implemented in Spain, which had been a Catholic country since the expulsion of the Moors in 1492.
Spain's El Mundo admitted that since the New Order was implemented after Vatican II, only a minority of Spaniards are regular churchgoers, most Novus Ordinarians remaining only "sociologically Catholic," a category like "cultural Jews." Only 20 per cent of Spaniards claim to go regularly to temples, a figure only 5 per cent higher than in the United States.
Whenever some Novus Ordinarian talks about obeying the New Order hierarchy, how can any good Catholic but think of the most perverted aspect of the scandals of the New Order Church: that we are speaking of a significant percentage of New Order bishops involved directly in these crimes.
Four bishops resigned rather than face the charges. On September 27, according to an Associated Press report, the (ex) bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts, Thomas Dupre, was indicated by a grand jury on charges of child rape. Other crimes presented by prosecutors against Dupre involve witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
We have the (ex) bishop of Phoenix convicted of killing a man and not even staying to help him, then concealing the crime. We have another Arizona bishop accused of racketeering. We have the (ex) archbishop of Milwaukee self-confessed to theft of half a million dollars of Church funds. The list goes on and on. There are now almost a score of New Order bishops accused, indicted, or convicted of crimes from rape, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, or racketeering.
And why not? John Paul II the Silent utters not one word of censure for such perversions of their episcopal oath. And the one man who stood by that oath, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Church of the New Order persecutes to a degree that rivals how the Pharisee hypocrites persecuted Our Lord. If the Church of the New Order had dogged its corrupt prelates as they have dogged the courageous archbishop, the episcopacy might be substantially cleaned up.
Be that as it may, we must remember that all these bishops have given up the authority of their office by public heresy. The New Order bishops -- whether under the guise of a counterfeit Protestant-Masonic-Pagan "Mess," or under the guise of a "New Morality" that allows such corruptions to continue unpunished, or under the guise of a "New Theology" that teaches Mohammedanism as "worshipping the same god" as the Christians -- are all teaching many planks of the Modernist heresy.
Therefore, not only have they lost their moral authority, but they have lost their ecclesiastical standing. They are hardly in a position to "disapprove" the Traditional Latin Mass and to grant or withhold "faculties" from any priest. The fact that their corruption is so public only lends more strength to that fact. It is certainly arguable that anyone who supports them takes upon himself the odor of heresy that these New Order bishops bear in their teaching.
The latest Mess for your guffaws is the "Guitar" Mess. Now, there is nothing new about the "Guitar" Mess, which was introduced in violation even of Vatican II. Instead of edifying Gregorian chant or sacred polyphony, the music of the human voice and the organ, profane instruments such as the guitar and the piano were introduced into the Novus Ordo service.
Not satisfied just to introduce unholy music into what is supposed to be the Holy Mass, this presbyter goes one step further: he plays the profane music himself at the altar! It looks as if attendance at the Novus Ordo Mess has fallen so low that the presbyters have no one to play -- or play for.
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