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At this time of year the question often arises about the celebration of Halloween by Catholics. Is it, for instance, pagan to dress up and go about as ghosts and goblins? The question often comes up because many modern Christians (mostly non-Catholic ones) believe that Halloween has something to do with worshipping the devil and participating in witchcraft. The truth is that the origins of Halloween are rooted deeply in the theology and popular customs of Catholicism.
The word Halloween, a contraction of "All Hollows Eve," falls on October 31st because the Feast of All Saints or "All Hallows" falls on November 1st. The feast in honor of all the Saints used to be celebrated on May 13th, but Pope Gregory III, in 731, moved it to November 1st, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter's in Rome. This feast spread throughout the world. In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in France, added a celebration on November 2nd. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. Therefore, the Church had a feast of the Saints and those in Purgatory.
The practice of dressing up in costumes arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. During the horrible bubonic plague, the Black Death, Europe lost a third to a half of her population. Artists depicted this on walls to remind us of our own mortality. These pictures and representations are known as the "Dance of Death" or "Dance Macabre." These figures were commonly painted on cemetery walls and showed the devil leading a daisy chain of people into the tomb. Sometimes the dance was re-enacted on All Soul's Day as a living tableau, with people dressed up as the dead.
"Trick-or-Treating" is a very odd addition to Halloween. It is the most American aspect of the holiday, and is the (unwilling) contribution of English Catholics. Guy Fawkes Day became a great celebration against Catholics in England. It celebrated the day the plot to blow up Parliament and King James I was discovered. This was on November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes was the rather reckless man guarding the gunpowder. He was arrested and hanged. During these times of persecution of the Catholic Church, bands of revelers would wear masks and visit Catholics in the night demanding they be given cakes and beer.
Guy Fawkes Day arrived in the American colonies with the first English settlers. Old King James had long been forgotten, but "Trick-or-Treating" was too much fun to give up. Eventually, it moved to the Irish/French Catholic masquerade. This practice of "Trick-or-Treating" was simply moved to coincide with the Catholic celebration involving dressing up. The ancient Druids did contribute the candy, which was used to welcome the good spirits, and masks (jack o'lanterns), which were used to scare away the evil spirits.
Halloween can still serve the purpose of reminding us about Hell and how to avoid it. Halloween is also a day to prepare us to remember those who have gone before us in Faith, those already in Heaven and those still suffering in Purgatory. Halloween is a time to let people know about our Catholic roots and significance.
Catholic parents who are not comfortable with the worst secular aspects of Halloween, which are admittedly increasing, can avail themselves of alternative activities on that day: family prayer and fasting for the Vigil of All Saints Day, visitations of houses in the garments of non-devilish personae, the reading aloud of stories of the Saints or of seasonal literature, such as Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death and Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and the playing of seasonal music such as Saint-Saens Danse Macabre, Modest Moussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead.
A word of caution, however. The Church has always condemned as sins against the First Commandment, and thus cautioned her children to stay far away from, astrology, charms, divination, fortune-telling, magic, ouija boards, sorcery, spells, witchcraft, and other occult activities, even if they are treated in a trivial or jesting fashion. St. Thomas Aquinas says that it is not permitted to Christians even to dabble in such things: "Man has not been entrusted with power over the demons to employ them to whatsoever purpose he will. On the contrary, it is appointed that he should wage war against the demons. Hence, in no way is it lawful for man to make use of the demons' help by compacts -- either tacit or express" [Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Q. 96, Art. 3].
We remember too the Prayer to St. Michael against Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo [Satan and the other evil spirits who roam in the world for the ruin of souls.] As in all things, parents must be sure to teach their children the proper balance in such matters, erring neither on the side of defect or excess.
We have long called the Novus Ordo service, the 1969 service composed by Hannibal Bugnini and six Protestant ministers and officially defined not to be a Mass, "Protestant-Masonic-Pagan." Now we have further confirmation from India that Newchurch is changing the service to become more acceptable to pagans in India.
According to reports from the Pune Papal Seminary, Novus Ordo presbyters from all over India are unanimous in demanding from Newvatican that it incorporate pagan Hindu practices, such as performing aarti during the service and incorporating the Vedas. Aarti is a ritual in which light from wicks are offered to Hindu deities. The Vedas are scriptures that amount to a Hindu Bible.
The paganization of what used to be the Roman Catholic Mass began essentially at Vatican II, which encouraged a "more radical adaptation of the liturgy" in Sacrosanctum Concilium. It flew in the face of the popes, for example, Pope Benedict XIV, who in 1742 issued two Papal Bulls condemning any attempt to graft pagan ideas and pagan practices onto the Roman Catholic liturgy.
The Novus Ordinarians in India want to be identified as Indians rather than Catholics, certainly not Roman Catholics. "The Catholic Church [sic] plans to adopt a number of Indian traditions and practices, which will give us a feel of being an Indian," said the Rector of the Papal Seminary.
So, we see historically that the use of vulgar languages in the Sacred Liturgy in the Novus Ordo service was just the beginning. The end will be a fully paganized Newchurch. Even in the question of language, it is interesting to note that the Hindus themselves do not use vulgar tongues in their services, but Sanskrit, a classical language contemporary with classical Greek and Latin.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
Newchurch always claims that its laity and hierarchy are obedient to the Catholic Church's teachings and claim that you can never find a doctrine that Newchurch has changed. Is this true? Has Newchurch not changed any doctrines?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral, he did so publicly in the spirit of scholastic debate. He debated his propositions against all takers, openly and directly. Although some of his notions may have been erroneous, he was at least honest -- at the beginning.
The Neo-Modernists who make up Newchurch are just as erroneous, but they are not honest. In the 19th century, the first Modernists did generally debate propositions. On this basis Pope Pius IX was able to issue his Encyclical Letter, Quanta cura of December 8, 1864, against Modernism and his Syllabus Errorum, a table of eighty previously-censured propositions bearing on pantheism, naturalism, rationalism, indifferentism, socialism, communism, freemasonry, and the various kinds of religious liberalism. The pope's Syllabus is well worth study today, as every single one of the papally-condemned eighty errors of Modernism have been either de iure or de facto adopted by Newchurch, aka the Church of the New Order, the post-Vatican II Counterfeit Church, the Great Facade.
The Modernists are if nothing else clever foxes. After Pope St. Pius X made his saintly efforts to rout Modernism out from the Church and its seminaries, the Modernists learned well. They realized that they could not confront Catholicism in a fair debate, so they resorted to other tactics. Brick by brick they built a New Order -- in doctrine, in liturgy, and in morality. They did this no longer by denying the doctrines of the Catholic Faith outright, but by innuendo, by ambiguity, and by indirection. The Modernism condemned by Pope Pius IX, Pope Leo XXIII, Pope St. Pius X, Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XI, and Pope Pius XII was metamorphosed into Neo-Modernism in the period leading up to Vatican II, and at that Council the condemned doctrines burst forth in diabolically-fashioned new raiment.
The Neo-Modernists no longer denied outright the doctrines of the Church as their Modernist predecessors had. No, they cleverly used ambiguous words and indirection to lay the documentary foundation of their Neo-Modernist Revolution. No longer did they deny the existence of Hell. They simply said that nobody was there. They no longer denied Purgatory. They simply said that very few people ever committed "fundamental" sin. No longer did they deny that the Catholic Church was the true Church. They simply said that "all religions worship the same god."
No wonder that most of the bishops at Vatican II were benighted into thinking that they were simply confirming traditional Catholic doctrine! They were bamboozled into fomenting the Neo-Modernist Revolution and Newchurch without realizing it. It took Hannibal Bugnini and his minions, such as the (then) Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, only five years to substitute for the liturgy, doctrine, and morality of the Catholic Church a proclaimed New Order. It took Bugnini's hero, Archbishop Cranmer, just the same number of years to replace the Catholic Faith in England with the heretical Church of England.
Anyone can see this difference between the modus operandi of the Catholic Church and that of Newchurch. It comes through even in translations into the vernacular tongues. Just read, for example, the Decrees of the Dogmatic Council of Trent on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They are clear, unambiguous, traditionally Catholic. Then compare the Constitution on the "Liturgy" of the Pastoral Council Vatican II. It is ambiguous and indirect in many passages, general statements being frequently undermined by broad exceptions.
"By their fruits you shall know them." And what have been the fruits of the Neo-Modernists? Their Novus Ordo "service" (even they don't define it as a Mass) is led not by priests, but by Protestantized presbyters, who modify it at will into Clown Messes, Cardboard-box Messes, Pontoon Messes, Dracula Messes, etc. Catholic doctrines such as those on the Church, the Saints, the nature of Christ, sin, hell, etc., are metamorphosed into an "oecumenical" nothingness. Catholic morals are reduced to a state that even dogs would be embarrassed to exhibit.
Res ipsa loquitur. The New Order and its Newchurch is not Catholic, either in its service or its doctrine or its morals. Novus Ordinarians, who are Neo-Modernists, no longer even try to deny this fact. They simply resort to name-calling against traditional Catholics, and especially traditional Catholic priests, who, like the great Saints of the past, refused even to consort with the heretics. The higher the Novus Ordinarians' anger, calumny, and vitriol against the Catholic Faith rise, the more you know that they have been metamorphosed into the enemies of Christ's true Church.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
You have discussed the pros and cons of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) in a very balanced way. But there has been a small group popping up more frequently these days, called the Institute of Christ the King? Is this a traditional group?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
We would call it "Indultarian." Unfortunately, like all "Indultarian" groups, it marries itself to Newchurch bishops. Regrettably, like Newchurch, to which it answers, it has experienced a number of scandals.
There was the unfortunate case in Rockford, Illinois, where the Institute's site there became a pawn in a "power" contest between the Newchurch bishop and municipal officials. One of the Institute's U.S. Superiors was caught in -- how shall we put this delicately? -- unseemly actions and deposed. Another of the Institute's priests was caught in grand theft. These are all incidents of public record, covered in the local newspapers at the time.
It just seems that a fact of life that if you consort with Newchurch personnel, you're going to get Ctenocephalides. So, although things might look pretty on the outside, the Newchurch connection is a killer. Therefore, TRADITIO's standing guidance when you choose a site for the Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments is normally to make a choice in the following order of preference:
Eastern Rites are not a viable option for Latin Rite Catholics. Not only are they not one's proper rite, but truly Catholic and Apostolic Eastern rite- sites are very few and far between, much harder to find the Traditional Latin Masses. Many of them have been corrupted by the Novus Ordo or have otherwise abandoned their Apostolic form, particularly in the United States. For further information, see FAQ10.TXT: How Do You Explain These Traditional Catholic Beliefs? in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics) in the article "Eastern-Rite 'Option'."
In the absence of a viable traditional option, one must rely on the practices of previous generations of Catholics, who were not infrequently denied the Holy Mass and Sacraments because of geography or dearth of priests. For further information, see ABSENT.TXT: Method of Hearing Mass Spiritually for the Absent (Adapted from The Key of Heaven) in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics).
We hear a lot these days about "Eastern" rites. It seems that some "Roman" Catholics think that they can hide out from the Novus Ordo in an Eastern Rite. The Easterns have spread a lot of propaganda about how much more "ancient" Eastern rites are than the traditional Roman rite. Even the liturgical scholar, Fr. Adrian Fortescue, had to put the kibosh on that fable when he wrote that the traditional Latin (Roman) Mass is "the most venerable in all Christendom, with a history of unbroken use far longer than that of any Eastern rite, there being no doubt that the essential parts of the Mass are of Apostolic origin."
The question comes up whether the Eastern Rites offer an alternative for traditional Roman Catholics. The answer is almost always no.
It must be noted that the Eastern rites are practiced both by the Eastern Orthodox, who are formally schismatic from the Roman Catholic Church, and by the Eastern Unitates, who are part of the Roman Catholic Church. A particularly virulent form of the Eastern Schism is the so-called "Western Orthodox" rite, which is a sham to lure Roman Catholics to cross the fence into the Eastern Schism.
For example, Vatican II began to invade the Maronite Rite decades ago. The foreword in the June 1969 Maronite missal (The Divine Liturgy according to the Maronite Antiochian Rite, Maronite Chancery Office, Detroit) says: "It is a small step toward the total revision of our Liturgy, because our Maronite Missal should undergo changes even more basic than the present ones. We are anxiously awaiting the revisions of the Patriarchal Liturgical Commission. They have started working on the total revision of our Missal, Ritual, Pontifical, Calendar, Breviary, and public prayers." The current Maronite Missal (Qurbono: The Book of Offering, copyright 1994 by the Diocese of Saint Maron, Brooklyn) states in its foreword that the new Maronite liturgy is based on Vatican II decrees.
Yes, there is the rare Eastern-rite church with an Eastern-rite liturgy that has not been corrupted by history or Vatican II, but such a church is more by far like the proverbial needle in the haystack than the Traditional Latin Mass is! After all, the Eastern rites make up only 0.1% of the Roman Catholic Church.
A similar deception has recently come about with the "Anglican Use" service. To be sure, it is dressed up in finer English than usual Novus Ordo service, which often uses pretty vulgar English. But this is the same Church of England service declared invalid by Pope Leo XIII. It is completely consonant with the Novus Ordo and is thus "permitted" by Newchurch "authorities" where the true Mass, the traditional Latin Mass, is usually not.
The Traditional Roman Rite is the only truly universal rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been carried even into the Far "East," as the photograph above demonstrates. The Roman Church was planted so firmly in China, for example, that only in the last few years has it started to abandon the true Mass for the Novus Ordo service. For thirty years or so after Vatican II, China held firm with the Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments.
A major missionary effort had been made by St. Francis Xavier in Japan. Even though the Church was ejected and persecuted for centuries afterward, the faith of the Roman-rite Catholic people held firm for centuries "underground." The travail of the Japanese Catholics, who were deprived of the Holy Mass and Sacraments (except Baptism and Matrimony, of course, which in case of necessity do not require a priest), can be an example to traditional Catholics of the present day, who do not have a Traditional Latin Mass within reasonable geographical distance.
Cicero (Brutus 37:140) said it best: Non enim tam praeclarum est scire Latine quam turpe nescire [For it is not so commendable to know Latin as it is deplorable not to know it]. As a matter of fact, for all his many faults, JPII was at least Catholic enough to quote this statement frequently. He also ridiculed his prelates' ignorance of Latin by taunting them with Latin jokes at their expense -- which they could not understand!
It seems that there might have been one Roman Catholic present at the recently-concluded Synod of Newchurch Bishops in Rome. When Angelo Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Patriarch of Venice, opened the synod, he gave his address entirely in Latin. Many of the 241 participants were so ignorant of the Church's language that they had to resort to headsets to hear a translation into a babel of vulgar tongues.
Nothing could have better illustrated how unRoman Catholic Newchurch has become. Just forty years ago, all the participants at Vatican II: cardinals and bishops, Easterners and Westerners, even Protestants and Orthodox, could read, write, and speak the Church's catholic language, and avail themselves of the boon that Providence offered them of a universal language to bridge vernacular language barriers.
Just ten years, when that pathetic product mistitled the Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued, the chairman of the catechism committee, the Cardinal of Vienna, admitted that the committee members could not read the Latin and Greek documents of the Church. No wonder that catechism bears so little relationship to the Roman Catholic Faith of 2000 years and that what passes for doctrine in Newchurch is not Catholic!
As Newchurch dioceses sell off traditional churches to pay their sex-crime bills, the question arises: who owns the churches? For decades, traditional Catholics donated millions and millions of dollars to buy marble altars, silver candlesticks, sacred metalware, statuary, organs, and so forth. Who owns these?
It is clear that Newchurch doesn't care. It will confiscate what it can to pay off the wages of its sin. The New Order is thoroughly immoral and cares nothing about justice, unless it is justice for whales! More and more, the Novus Ordinarians are getting sick of the New Order that steals their religious treasures. More and more of them are willing to put their bodies on the line to stop the Newchurch barbarism in destroying great traditional churches.
A case in point. St. Brigid's Church in San Francisco, a glorious example of the French Romanesque style, was to have been destroyed by the Modernist Archbishop of San Francisco, John Quinn. Quinn had lied to the Novus Ordinarians of San Francisco and to Newvatican, telling them that the church was not earthquake safe. A local group scoured the city records and found that St. Briget's had been declared one of the most earthquake-safe churches in the city. In fact, it had survived the 1906 Earthquake! Quinn had just wanted to sell it off for the money.
Because of public outrage against the Newchurch archdiocese, St. Brigid has sat unoccupied since 1994. Now the archdiocese has decided to sell it off to an art academy for close to $4,000,000, to pay for its sex-crime settlements. So, when the archdiocese started on October 21 to gut all of the precious religious artifacts from the interior, a group of Novus Ordinarians formed a human chain to stop the Newchurch archdiocese.
The group claimed that items such as the statuary and the Stations of the Cross are sacred and as integral to the building as the granite walls. The tense developments came a day after the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to recommend preservation of the exterior of St. Brigid as a historical landmark, but left open the debate over whether interior fixtures could be similarly protected. The commission said the interior landmark status needs to be decided by the Board of Supervisors.
The showdown began about 10 a.m., when parishioners heard that workers were inside St. Brigid. Within an hour, members of a citizens group called the Committee to Save St. Brigid had staked out the doors and driveways of the church. A loading van was pulled up outside the sacristy door to cart way the historic Stations of the Cross, together with revered statues of the Virgin Mother and St. Anthony.
When workers started to carry out the first of the Stations of the Cross, members of the committee to save St. Brigid physically blocked the way. A police sergeant warned the group that it would be arrested for trespassing if it didn't move. The group didn't budge. One of the group retorted: "If you arrest these people, you are all going straight to hell." By mid afternoon a San Francisco building inspector arrived at St. Brigid with a stop work notice.
More than an hour later, the Newchurch archdiocese, publicly embarrassed by members of its own sect, closed the door and sent the moving van off. But the group was taking no chances. The archdiocese's trust factor is now zero. Long after police had left and the church doors were closed and locked, members of the group remained. Many said that they would spend the weekend watching over the church. [San Francisco Chronicle]
All of this, though commendable, is too little and too late. Many of our finest traditional churches have been destroyed or converted into pubs or office buildings. Priceless artifacts of our Faith, which are despised by the Newchurch bishop-vandals because the artifacts are of traditional Catholicism, have been destroyed. Even the Novus Ordinarians are now beginning to realize the consequences of their deplorable cowardice over the last forty years, listening to popes and bishops who wish to destroy the Roman Catholic Faith and replace it with a New Order, Modernist Church. Now they know the wages of their sin, and it is the loss of their Church. "God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:27/DRV).
Well, good Catholics, it has taken six months, but finally Newrome has done exactly what TRADITIO predicted: it has dumped the issue of the Traditional Latin Mass from its agenda. Benedict-Ratzinger remains the flaming Modernist he was at Vatican II. There isn't a "traditional" bone in his body. Benedict has been presiding personally over the Synod on the "Eucharist" that concluded in Rome on October 22. The Synod completely ignored the issue of the Traditional Latin Mass. Moreover, it even ignored the issue of "abuses" in the Novus Ordo service, which even Ratzinger was hawking before his accession.
The Synod rejected Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, who made a pro forma appeal to the Synod on October 15 to make a "gesture of outreach to Catholics attached to the old [sic] Mass," and thumbed its collective nose at traditional Catholics. Instead, the Synod's Final Message affirms completely the liturgical Modernism that emanated from Vatican II and calls for "a progressive and adequate liturgical reform." Presumably, that would include accommodation for an increase in Clown Messes called for by a Korean bishop on the floor of the Synod. Hoyos's own colleague, Francis Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in an October 13 press conference, had already stated before the world press that the question of the true Mass is "not a priority" for Newchurch. [CNS]
TRADITIO holds that the most honest appraisal of the status in Newchurch of the Traditional Latin Mass is that it is considered an albatross. Newchurch doesn't want to reject the true Mass formally and lose the attendance and money of the Indultarians. So, Newchurch will leave the anemic and deceptive "indult" of 1988 in place. The vast majority of Newchurch bishops will never authorize even a single "Indult Mass." Newchurch will permit no "universal indult." Newchurch will not recognize the SSPX or any other traditional organizations. But who cares? Traditional Catholicism does not rest for its authority on the New Order.
"Conservative" Novus Ordinarians, Wanderites, and Indultarians should finally wise up. Newrome, Newvatican, and Newchurch are Hell-bent on Modernism. The picture of Benedict XVI as a "traditionalist" is a utterly false. The man doesn't have a traditional bone in his Modernist body. From beginning to end, he has promoted Modernism, throwing in occasionally a few words to deceive the Indultarians' into keeping their false hopes up. Will this final rejection wake them up? Probably not. They have allowed themselves to be drawn into aiding and abetting the Modernist heresy, while promoting a caricature of the Roman Catholic papacy known as papolatry.
It seems that the latest rage on the internet is "blogs." Some correspondents have sent us examples of these sites, which indicate that in many cases the people running them are high-school or college kids who are doing it as a lark. The information is frequently inaccurate and clearly indicates that the kids are not familiar with the Roman Catholic Faith in any depth whatsoever. Moreover, they seem to have no knowledge of traditional Catholicism and have no idea of how to read "Vaticanese." Many of these sites, even when they purport to be "conservative" or "indultarian," are actually shills for the New Order and attempt to defame traditional priests who do not tow the line of the New Order sect.
In contrast, here at TRADITIO you get the experience of traditional priests who had actual experience of Vatican II and before. They lived it. You have TRADITIO's eleven-year record of incisive, knowledgeable commentary. Our record of fierce independence for truth is there for all to see, and our predictions, based on knowledge and experience, have invariably turned out to be correct. Our priests are inside Newvatican and the traditional organizations. We don't accept at face value the articles of secular and religious press, who no longer have experienced journalists in religion and who themselves are often hostile to traditional Roman Catholicism. TRADITIO is not run by college kids and last year's Protestant converts, but seasoned, traditional priests.
The wisest counsel to follow in the case of "blogs" and other such silliness is that of Our Lord: "Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit" (Matthew 15:14).
Even though the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has its leadership and administrative problems, at least it is not schismatic or heretical. Can one say as much for Samuel Aquila, Newchurch bishop of Fargo, North Dakota? In Fargo, it appears that heresy has decided to take on "schism" in the latest sign indicating that Newchurch is becoming more and more frightened by outspoken traditional Catholicism, as New Order church after church is closed and New Order bishop after bishop is charged with criminal immoralities.
In Fargo, the Traditional Latin Mass is offered by the SSPX only four times a year, and Sam "Schismatic" Aquila is panicked. His diocesan chancellor Joseph Goering issued a "letter of caution": "It looks Catholic, but it is not in union with the Catholic Church." (Now who says that Providence doesn't have a sense of humor? Hermann Goering was Reichmarshall of the Nazis, one of Hitler's highest officials.)
Fair is fair, and TRADITIO wants to be fair. Let's compare Goering's Modernism to SSPX's Catholicism. SSPX has an altar; Goering has a table. SSPX uses the Mass of St. Peter; Goering uses the Mass of Hannibal (Bugnini). SSPX teaches Catholic and Apostolic doctrine that every Saint of the Church for 2000 years would recognize; Goering teaches the Modernist heresy condemned by Pope St. Pius X. SSPX teaches Catholic morality; Goering teaches according to the Modernist morality: "all gods are equal"; "gay is good"; "don't judge crimes."
We're confused. Tell us again: who is in not in union with the Catholic Church?!
Update on MAETA in New Orleans. TRADITIO previously reported on the status of the traditional sites hit by Hurricane Katrina, including the traditional Catholic publisher MAETA. We can now report that we have heard from MAETA, which has just been able to return to the area, as there were no utilities in the houses, no gasoline to be bought, and no stores open, "just devastation." Mail service has been restored, but phone service has not been completely restored. The computers were taken down for preservation and were only recently restored.
Contrary to previous reports, Fr. Trinchard did not lose his personal home, but did suffer wind damage. However, MAETA's warehouse was flooded under two metres of water, which destroyed all of the book stock. MAETA is back in business, slowly trying to catch up on backorders that customers were kind and patient enough not to cancel. Fr. Trinchard is determined to keep MAETA afloat and to rebuild.
MAETA wishes to thank TRADITIO readers heartily for their generosity and Catholic action in sending donations, which MAETA says will help immensely "to get back to work, to rebuild." We are pleased to hear this information, since MAETA is one of the few fully traditional Catholic publishers left. Anyone interested in assisting MAETA may send a donation to P.O. Box 6012 Metairie, LA 70009-6012. At least this way you can be certain that your Hurricane donation will be directed to truly traditional enterprise.
Permit a personal observation. We were reminded by MAETA of the fact that TRADITIO was the only traditional Roman Catholic organ to circulate information about the status of traditional sites and organizations in the area of the hurricane. While the Indultarian and "conservative" organs just kept going on with their "neo-con" politics, only TRADITIO, it appears, took time out to let individual traditional Catholics know how they could help out our traditional brethren in the area of devastation. And they say that traditional Catholics are not "charitable"!
Dear Fr. Moderator:
Is one pope's decision more binding than another's? Pius V declares that the Mass is be of a certain structure until the end of time. Does he have the authority to speak for subsequent popes? When another pope declares a change, does his voice carry over the previous pope's decision? I am not talking about making an error, but the more recent pope's notion that he is moving the Church closer to the Kingdom.
Fr. Moderator Replies.
Yes, one pope's decree may be more binding than another's. It depends upon the content of the decree, not the pope. No pope may change a dogmatic decree. Otherwise, we could find Benedict rescinding the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Obviously, that would be absurd.
Pope St. Pius V's decree Quo Primum is the most binding form of papal decree. It was issued to carry out the decrees of a dogmatic council, the Council of Trent. Pope Pius V was not "declaring a change." Quite the contrary. He was simply confirming for the world, in the face of the Protestant heresy, Catholic and Apostolic Tradition, the precedential Mass of the Holy See, of Rome, of St. Peter. Therefore, it is binding, as the pope specifically decreed, in perpetuum.
In comparison, the decrees surrounding the implementation of the Novus Ordo service (setting aside the invalidating defects in its content) had no such force. The decrees arose out of a pastoral, not a dogmatic, council. They did not confirm Catholic and Apostolic Tradition, but overturned it. As the theologian, Fr. Kramer, put it:
Quo Primum is no 'merely ecclesiastical law' (can. 11) that can be revoked, but has been enacted into law and declared ex cathedra to be irreformable, and is therefore a solemnly defined moral doctrine, which is also of itself infallible and irreformable.... The statutes of Quo Primum, therefore, pertain to Divine Law insofar as they constitute a particular application of the divine law....
Sometimes Novus Ordinarians try to make the argument that one pope is equal to another, so one can "overrule" another to change "modernize" the Church after the pope's own notion. That is not Catholic doctrine. That statement arises from a "legalistic" (Pharasaic) error. The popes are not to be petty potentates trying to overrule one another. No, the popes are to be as one, in succession to one another in the continuity of Catholic and Apostolic Tradition. As the dogma on the papacy describes it:
For the Holy Ghost was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or Deposit of Faith transmitted by the Apostles.
Nor are popes prophets. That is not their office, just as Moses and Aaron, Saul and Samuel had different offices. Whether in their personal, fallible opinion, they are bringing the Church "closer to the Kingdom" is not a matter for them to decide. The papacy is not a personal office in the sense that each pope can do as he pleases or can follow his personal notions. The pope is merely the "vicar," that is the subordinate of his Principal, Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Church as He, not the pope, established it.
In 452 the barbarian Attila (properly pronounced with the accent on the first syllable) approached Rome to sack it as he had other cities in Italy. Pope Leo, later justly to be eponymized "The Great," courageously rode out to meet the Hun and successfully treated with him to save the Eternal City. Thus, a barbarian destruction of Rome was averted.
1500 years later, as the title of a book on the present state of the Church once put it, The Barbarians Have Taken Over, Newchurch and its leaders have much evil to answer for, owing to their efforts to destroy the Roman Catholic Faith, the Roman Catholic Mass, and Roman Catholic morals. But their evil is not even limited to the Church. It has extended to the barbarizing of Western Civilization, founded by Providence upon classical Rome, whose successor is the Roman Catholic Church.
Before Vatican II, scholae and choirs, encouraged by Pope St. Pius X and his successors, offered Catholic congregations Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony. The beauty of the Latin language, the most divine language graced by Providence, rang out in sonorous tones in metrical prayers and hymns from the early Church. Sacred art was reflected in the forms of Classical, Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque churches and cathedrals, representing God's order and sublimity.
The Newchurch barbarians, on the other hand, have destroyed much of this. Their churches are reminiscent of office buildings or Masonic temples devoid of a sacred sense. Their languages are the Babel of vernaculars that people use to make up their shopping list. Their music is the banality of Kumbaya and pop tunes. Even the late, non-great JPII had the audacity to praise this garbage.
Before Vatican II, for at least an hour a week, Catholic humanity was ennobled with great music, great art, great language, and great literature. Now Novus Ordinarians are dragged down to the artistic gutter. Now two generations of them don't know Bach from the Beatles, Michelangelo from Maplethorpe, or Dominus vobiscum from rap.
A recent case in point. A Newchurch bishop, John Magee, a cohort of the late JPII, has caused an uproar in Ireland over his plans to redesign a neo-Gothic cathedral built by one of the most celebrated ecclesiastical architects. He plans to rip up an historic mosaic floor and dismantle a 30-metre marble altar rail in St. Colman's Cathedral, Cobh, designed by Edward Pugin, one of the most important Victorian architects of the Gothic revival. (Why do you need an altar rail anyway? Novus Ordinarians stand to receive the phony cookie.)
And what is this Newchurch bishop's excuse for this barbarous destruction? Why, Vatican II, of course. Magee believes that the changes are necessary "to bring the style of worship in the cathedral into line with Vatican II." St. Patrick, who brought Roman classicism to Ireland, must be turning over in his grave at this barbarian of a bishop.
The reconstruction is meant to proclaim the heresy of "the priesthood of the people," the same heresy that was proclaimed by the arch-heretic Martin Luther. Magee wants to strip out 20 pews to extend the sanctuary into the body of the cathedral and lower it to the same level by removing three steps. He also wants to bring the bishop's chair and altar forward. Thus, the spotlight is not upon Christ and His sacrifice, but upon man: Magee. Large portions of the delicate mosaic floor, laid in 1867 and depicting St. Coleman's playing of the psaltery, will be destroyed.
This barbarism is too much even for the Irish government, which is contesting Magee's proposed destruction in court. Moreover, some 25,000 Novus Ordinarians in the diocese have signed a petition to stop this Newchurch barbarian. "The alterations proposed would greatly undermine the character and integrity of these works and would diminish a major heritage asset for generations to come," it says. When confronted by his own people with the evil of his plans, Magee did what Newchurch prelates, including the pope, do when confronted by traditional Catholics: they retreat to silence. [News Telegraph]
Some years ago there was a cartoon character called Mr. Magoo, who was blind as a bat and deaf as a doornail. He would go around doing and saying all kinds of silly things because he couldn't see or hear. He did no harm, though. Magee and the Newchurch prelates are just as blind and deaf as Mr. Magoo, except that they have done great harm. The Novus Ordinarians should eject these vandals (another Germanic tribe) from the offices that they have forsworn. For these vandals are worse than the barbarian Attila the Hun.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
What about all the Masses offered before the Council of Trent, i.e., before the Tridentine Mass?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
The term "Tridentine" is a misnomer used by the Novus Ordinarians to confuse people, as if to say that the Council of Trent invented it. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the Traditional Latin Mass, which started with St. Peter in Rome in the first century, and was essentially set in the period of the early Church Fathers. Missals in the century before Trent, after the printing press was invented, are essentially the same as those after.
What the Council and Pope St. Pius V did was to canonize and confirm the Roman form in perpetuity, after having purged minor regional variations, to make it incontrovertible (specifically against the Protestants) that this was in fact the Roman Mass. As the great liturgical scholar, Fr. Adrian Fortescue, wrote, this Mass is "the most venerable in all Christendom, with a history of unbroken use far longer than that of any Eastern rite, there being no doubt that the essential parts of the Mass are of Apostolic origin." For further information, see MASSTRAD.TXT: The Traditional Roman Catholic Latin Mass.The Novus Ordo service, on the other hand, was fabricated. It was made up essentially by the Freemason Hannibal Bugnini and his six Protestant "advisors." It had no substantial basis in the Mass of St. Peter. It was deliberately and publicly said to be a new service that was intended to be acceptable to Protestants. And, in fact, it has been adopted by several Protestant groups.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
Is it better to pray for errant bishops or to expose their errors?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
It is not an either/or question. The Catholic answer is both. The Saints vigorously attacked the errors of the heretics of their day at the same time that they were praying for them. It is the Christian's obligation in charity, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, to speak out against those who would corrupt it or abolish it: "If the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly" (S.T. II IIae, Q. 33, A. 4, R. ad Obj. 2). Moreover, he said: "The worst wolves in sheep's clothing are the heretics and then, bad prelates." He points to the example of St. Paul, who upbraided Pope Peter, when the latter was teaching false doctrine.
Unfortunately, the modern world has become so uneducated in the Faith and so deaf and blind, that the message must be repeated frequently and in many ways. Otherwise, the error spreads, and people begin to believe that it is acceptable. A practical moral example that everyone will understand. If one's child is taking drugs, should the Catholic parent pray for him or confiscate the drugs? The answer is both.
Benedict-Ratzinger and his Newchurch bishops meeting in a Roman synod through this week on the Eucharist have confirmed TRADITIO's consistent predictions. Not one bishop spoke about extending the "indult." However, many of them talked about allowing "inter-communion" with Protestants. (Since Newchurch is essentially Protestant anyway, it seems curious why Newchurch is having such problems with this issue.)
When the bishops' opinion was asked about denying the Novus Ordo cookie to supposed "Catholic" politicians like 2004 U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry and U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who publicly defy Catholic moral teaching, observers expected "a chorus of input to ring through the assembly hall." Instead, the bishops offered "the sound of silence" and expressed no interest in enforcing Catholic morals. No surprise there. The Newchurch bishops, by their seemy actions, have indicated that they do not believe in Catholic moral theology.
Again, the "conservative" Novus Ordinarians, Indultarians, Neo-cons, and Wanderites have been foiled by the very pope they praised and his curia, which they misjudged as "conservative." It was Telesphore Placidus Cardinal Toppo who told the world the clear truth at the synod. The policy of Newchurch is unambiguous, he said. Deny the cookie to no one, even public figures who contradict Church teaching. "If he [the public figure] considers himself worthy, I don't think anyone can refuse him."
So, JPII's "phenomenology" has come back to haunt Newchurch. Phenomenology is a subjectivist philosophy that finds truth and right not in objective acts, but in the subjective mental notions of the individual. It essentially rejects the Church's Thomistic theology. In answer to Pontius Pilate's question, "What is truth?," Newchurch answers: "We don't know. It depends on the individual." So, in the theology of Newchurch, every panderer, thief, and murderer is perfectly free to receive the Novus Ordo cookie. And why not? The Newchurch bishops have shown themselves the most immoral of all -- far more immoral than the Kerrys and Kennedys of this world!
Newchurch can't even handle its own backyard. Leftist politician Romano Prodi, who simultaneously proclaims himself a "devout Catholic" and as a supporter of abortion, is challenging Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2006. Newpope and Newvatican, as usual, is silent. Is it any wonder that Newchurch has become a joke around the world?
TRADITIO has always said that the New Order admits its own invalidity and failure, if you just listen carefully to its own words instead of trying to create some "figment of imagination."
Charles "Commanche" Chaput, Newchurch archbishop of Denver, celebrant of the infamous "Indian Feather" Mess (for further information, see the Novus Ordo Service Photo Gallery), now admits that history may judge Vatican II a failure. His statements were made on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council in December.
He points to the words of Pope John XXIII, who called this unique oecumenical council as a pastoral council (all other oecumenical councils of the past had been called as dogmatic councils): "The council now beginning rises in the Church like daybreak, a forerunner of most splendid light." He quotes Pope John Paul II, who attended the council as a bishop, about "crossing the threshold of hope" and a rebirth of Christian faith in the new millennium.
Chaput, however, points to the contrary evidence. One in every three new children born in "Christian Europe" today is Mohammedan. Except for Mohammedanism, religious belief and practice are declining across the continent. So are fertility rates. Pope Benedict XVI admitted that the "so-called traditional Churches look like they're dying." In fact, in Europe's wealth and selfishness and refusal to have children, an entire civilization seems to be choosing to die. In 2002, Ratzinger said that "a bishop must do as Christ did: precede his flock, being the first to do what he calls others to do and, first of all, being the one who stands against the wolves who come to steal the sheep." A not very subtle reference to the Mohammedans, who are invading Europe once again.
Chaput, in a stunning statement for a Newchurch prelate, even states that the First Oecumenical Council at Nicaea "could have turned out very differently. It didn't, because of one man -- a young deacon and scholar at Nicaea named Athanasius of Alexandria, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit." Athanasius, later to be known as Patriarch of Alexandria and one of the Four Great Doctors of the Eastern Church, resisted the "institutional" Church of his time, most of whose bishops were Arian heretics. [Zenit]
Athanasius even resisted the pope, who leaned toward the heretics. He violated the letter of the law to ordain priests to preserve the orthodox Catholic Faith. He was "excommunicated" by the heretic-infested "institutional" Church, several times, but shortly was recognized as the Catholic bishop he was, and the bishops in the "institutional" Church were later judged as the heretics they were.
We were fortunate to have our time an Athanasius to stand up for the true Catholic Faith in almost exactly the same way that Athanasius did: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. He too was "excommunicated" by the Church of the New Order of our times. He too resisted the pope, who leaned toward the heretics. He too violated the letter of the law to ordain priests and consecrate bishops to preserve the orthodox Catholic Faith. He too was "excommunicated" by the heretic-infested "institutional" Church of this time. Deo volente, he too will be recognized as a courageous Saint. Forget JPII. Archbishop Lefebvre, if anyone, deserves to be Subito Santo.
The Novus Ordinarians have certainly fallen into irrationality, as St. Paul describes the consequences of the fall from God into paganism: "Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25/DRV).
The latest "miracle" circulating about the latest "saint" is that JPII has been found in a pancake! Myrna Kincaid isn't the only loony. Other Novus Ordo fanatics have seen the Virgin Mary in a tree trunk, Baby Jesus in a pretzel, demons in the smoke billowing from the Twin Towers, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in a salt stain in Chicago. There was even a Virgin Mary that appeared in a toasted cheese sandwich, which some idiot bought for $28,000 on eBay.
These people who see patently ridiculous "apparitions" are not Catholic, not even Christian. They are demented pagans, whom God, as St. Paul says, has allowed to sink into an unholy dementia.
TRADITIO's analysis that the coming of a "Universal Indult" for the Modernized Mass of 1962 is pure fantasy has been admitted by one of the highest Newvatican authorities, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
In a press conference on October 13 to evaluate the first phase of the current Synod of Bishops meeting at Rome, Arinze noted that "no one at the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist has addressed the issue of the 'Tridentine rite' Mass that the Latin Church used before the Second Vatican Council."
"No synodal father has mentioned this point," said Cardinal Arinze, the co-president of the assembly. "If there are groups that desire the Tridentine [sic] Mass, this is already provided for. Bishops may allow it for groups. It is not a priority for the synod, as no one has spoken about it," the cardinal concluded. For further information, see ARINZE.HTM: Cardinal Arinze's Changing Church in the TRADITIO Features department.
TRADITIO has always maintained that Newchurch has no interest in doing anything more than allowing the feeble "Indult Mass" to continue as a counterpoint to the Traditional Latin Mass, the Society of St. Pius X, and other traditional Catholic sites. Benedict-Ratzinger has made it clear that Newrome will not interfere with the local bishops' power, and they have power enough already if they really wanted the Traditional Latin Mass. In reality, they don't. The Newchurch bishops are clearly committed to the New Order sect, not the Catholic Church.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
Can I get your views on whether you think that Protestantism in England was a welcome movement of religious reformation or an unwanted and destructive imposition from above?
Fr. Moderator Replies:
It was not a movement of religious reformation, but an unwelcome, unwanted, and destructive imposition from above.
In the typical arrangement of the time, the crown, the nobles, and the Church balanced power to prevent excesses of any one against the other. Henry VIII was not happy with that "political" arrangement and fomented a formal schism in order to gain pre-eminent personal power. The nobles generally supported the move because they were enriched through the stolen properties of the Church. Henry never talked about "reformation." In fact, he wrote a work defending the Church against Luther, Assertio Septem Sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum, for which he was granted by the pope the title, Defensor Fidei.
The English people were generally acknowledged to be the most Catholic in Europe. Cardinal Fisher and Sir Thomas More, along with 72,000 Catholics who refused the oath recognizing Henry VIII's spiritual supremacy, were cruelly put to death. More's resistance was particularly devastating to the reputation of England. His defense rang throughout Europe: "I am the King's true faithful subject and daily bedesman [someone who prayed using Rosary beads] and pray for His Highness and all his and all the realm. I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I think none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live" (Letters).
Monasteries were plundered, all Church lands confiscated, and religious orders blotted out. After Henry's death in 1547 the "reformation" was continued by Edward VI (1547-1553) and Elizabeth (1558-1603). They added to Henry VIII's totalitarianism by suppressing the Mass, destroying images, profaning churches, changing dogma and ceremonies, and more persecution. Priests were hunted like wolves, hanged and quartered. Penal laws were enacted obliging laymen to assist at the Protestant services or be subject to fines and imprisonment.
When the government attempted to replace the Mass with Cranmer's Prayerbook, this proved too much for many ordinary Englishmen. In many parts of England they took up arms to defend their Faith in 1549 (and at other times through 1594). At least 4,000 Englishmen died for the Faith at the hands of the royal army. The government executed the leaders at Tyburn on January 27, 1550, and "on that gallows suspended, and while yet alive, to be cast down upon the ground and the entrails of each to be taken out and burnt before their eyes while yet living, and their heads cut off, and their bodies to be divided into four parts to be distributed at the King's pleasure."
Doesn't sound like a voluntary, grassroots "reformation" movement does it? No, it was murderous totalitarianism imposed from above. Prominent artists and writers resisted, perforce covertly. The composer William Byrd wrote several Masses, for which he was subject to death. William Shakespeare, whom recent studies have indicated to be a closet Catholic, wrote plays with symbolic inclusions to indicate his moral resistance to the butchery and heresy of Elizabeth, who had forsworn her Coronation Oath to protect the Faith.
Eventually the English government persecuted its own "reformists," the Puritans, who escaped England to America. Historically, it's not a pretty picture. The English "reformation" is a saga of butchery and persecution.
What do you think about these rumors of a "universal indult" for the Modernized Mass of 1962? It is a "bone" being tossed, in my opinion, that will only serve to heighten the reason why traditional Catholics disagree with the Novus Ordo sect. Even the High-Church Anglicans "play" Mass. In the Novus Ordo sect, the "indult," universal or not, will be the same "dress up" nonsense.
Fr. Moderator Replies.
The number of ignorant talking heads circulating rumors since Benedict-Ratzinger's access has increased exponentially. These ignoscenti are just "the blind leading the blind." Now everyone claims "inside" information, most of which is contradictory. The people circulating these rumors are, in many cases, not even Catholic. They have no real knowledge of Catholicism -- certainly not its history. Hardly any of them were around at Vatican II.
Nobody checks their record. Remember when they all said that Benedict-Ratzinger was going to give a "universal indult" at the "Beheading" meeting with SSPX's Fellay on August 29? Didn't happen. Remember when they all said that Ratzinger was going to clean up the "abuses" in the Novus Ordo service when he became pope? Didn't happen. Remember when they said that Benedict-Ratzinger was going to be a "traditional pope"? Didn't happen. He hasn't done one "traditional" thing in six months. Instead, he's become the Mother of All Modernists. Now they disagree on whether a document against homosexual Novus Ordo seminaries will be issued and, if it is, what it will say.
Who cares? Whatever comes out of Newchurch since Vatican II is, in Shakespeare's famous phrase, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The "indult" Mass has in most places been turned into a pseudo-Novus Ordo service. It is often used as a tool by diocesan bishops to win over the Indultarians to the Novus Ordo sect by knocking heads directly with established truly Traditional Latin Masses. Even if Newvatican should issue a mealy-mouthed statement, the diocesan bishops would never permit the true Mass. They have the power to do so now, and they don't permit it, except as an occasional Novus Ordo trick to entice confused Indultarians.
We kid you not, good Catholics! With Newchurch now pandering to every hysterical notion of secular society, among which are purported "encounters with aliens," Guy Consolmagno, a Newjesuit brother and astronomer, has published a book pondering the baptism of extra-terrestrials.
The pope's astronomer divides his year between the Vatican's observatory in Arizona and its older observatory at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo in the hills outside of Rome. When he isn't kept busy observing comets and asteroids, he ponders baptizing extra-terrestrials. And you don't think that Newchurch is wacko enough? Think again!
Arch-modernist Roger "Mad" Mahony, Newchurch Cardinal of Los Angeles has engaged in everything from rejecting the Catholic doctrine on the Holy Eucharist to building a pagan temple from a mortuary "protection scam" funded by preying on the families of the bereaved, as exposed in a U.S. News & World Report article entitled The Deathcare Business, March 23, 1998, pp. 50-58.
Ever since the Great Sex & Embezzlement Scandal blew up in the face of Newchurch, Mahony has fought like a tiger to resist helping the police in identifying his presbyter-rapists. Finally, the court records have been unsealed, and we know why. According to the New York Times, which reviewed the court records, Mahony himself was an integral participant in the cover-up of crimes.
The Times reveals that Mahony, who has led the Newchurch archdiocese since 1985, had personally overseen many of the men. David Clohessy, National Director of a group watchdogging Newchurch presbyter crimes, accused Mahony of "shameless posturing as some sort of reformer," while he used legal maneuvers to block a full accounting of his role in the crisis. "Mahony is grasping at straws to convince his flock that he's not as awful as many of his colleagues," Clohessy said. "And as he has for years, Mahony is trying anything he can dream up to avoid having to fully reveal how little he did to safeguard innocent kids from abusive clerics."
And what has been the reaction from Newpope? As usual -- consentual and complicit silence. Any pope worthy of the name would be outraged at the unholiness, unCatholicity, and downright criminality of his creature. JPII and Benedict-Ratzinger will go down in history as worse than the "Bad" Pope, Alexander VI, for their consent to and complicity in the rampant criminality of their lieutenants.
One wonders why Ratzinger took the name Benedict, as Ratzinger's Modernism is so contrary to the traditional Catholicism of his immediate namesake. Pope Benedict XV reigned from 1914 to 1922, from before to after the period of World War I. He succeeded the saintly Pope Pius X, who condemned Modernism in all its forms, calling it the summa omnium heresium, the sum-total of all heresies.
Pope Benedict XV waited less than two months to raise his voice too in condemnation against the heresy of Modernism, which he termed "monstrous," a "plague," a "contagion." How scandalized he would have been to learn that his successor, Benedict XVI, would embrace the very Modernism that he and all the Catholic popes condemned! Moreover, Pope Benedict XV condemned not only Modernism itself, but "the spirit of Modernism." We cannot fail to hear in the pope's words the later phrase so commonly used by the Church of the New Order: "the spirit of Vatican II," which Benedict would equally have condemned.
In his first Encyclical Letter Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, issued on November 1, 1911, the All Saints Day following his coronation, Pope Benedict XV addressed all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other local Ordinaries in peace and communion with the Apostolic See as follows:
Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor [Pope St. Pius X] rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fullness, Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the evil, to which we may apply the words Job used in other circumstances: "It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring" (Job 31:12).
Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savors of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a new way."
The aftermath of the August 29 "Beheading" meeting between Benedict-Ratzinger and SSPX's Bernard Fellay is showing more and more clearly that Fellay was given the sucker punch by the pope. In a little-noticed report from Paris, where Fellay gave an interview in French not covered in English-language publications, it became clear that Fellay was just part of Benedict-Ratzinger's P.R. plan to come out smelling like a rose for "dialoging" with "rebels" and "dissidents." Fellay allowed himself to be joined to the company of censured Modernist theologian Hans Kung, Eastern Orthodox schismatics, Protestant heretics, and liberal "Catholics," who want a married clergy, priestesses, and communion for remarried divorcees.
Now Fellay, according to the Paris report, "wants to launch theological discussions with the [New]vatican in the hope that Pope Benedict may help find ways to resolve a 17-year-long schism separating it from Rome." Fellay revealed that even after his "beheading" by the pope, he still clings to the naive, contrafactual opinion that Benedict-Ratzinger's election was "providential." Yet this is the same pope who has taken not one "conservative," let alone "traditional," action in the five months of his papacy. Rather, his papacy has been an unremitting continuum of window-dressing and pandering to the Modernist elements of Newchurch. The motto of this papacy is "Loquens Non Agens" (loosely translated "All Talk and No Action" -- and not much talk either!).
Good Catholics, does it seem to you that the SSPX has increasingly lost its way under the Superiorship of Fellay? Archbishop Lefebvre was an outspoken opponent of the false religion of Vatican II and even held out the possibility that the See of Peter might be vacant in the future. Fellay seems more interested in human respect, like the student-activists of the 1960s, who always demanded first an amnesty for their unlawful actions. Fellay seems to be more concerned with some negotiated empty "recognition" for himself and his cronies than he does for unequivocally demanding from the Alexander VI of our time the 100% Roman Catholic Faith -- with no compromise.
Meanwhile, Fellay is throwing away the unique opportunity available at this critical juncture in Church history to proclaim the truth of traditional Roman Catholicism to the world. Fellay scurries out of side doors, generally avoids the press, and refuses to speak to the world about what true Catholicism really is. He now has the world's microphones and television cameras coming to him, and he does not teach the world the traditional Catholic message. Instead, he let's the pope's press secretary say that he is not part of the Catholic Church and never articulates the traditional Catholic position in a way that much of the world would clearly understand -- and agree with -- if properly articulated.
Archbishop Lefebvre, whose 100 birthday would have been this month, must be turning over in his grave to see how his successor is selling out the Faith for the human respect that the archbishop himself rejected in favor of God's respect. Deo volente, the other leaders of the SSPX will grab hold of the helm and send Fellay out to pasture. He would make a wonderful abbot of a remote monastery in his beloved Swiss Alps, not the purported representative of the courageous Archbishop Lefebvre's Society dedicated to a courageous pope. [Kerala News Service-India]
Some "conservative" publications would lead you to believe that Benedict-Ratzinger and his Newvatican are interested in some kind of universal "indult" for the Modernized Mass of 1962. The SSPX toys with that willow-the-wisp. Think again. Look at what the 256 Newchurch bishops at the Newchurch Eucharistic Synod now going on in Rome are in fact applauding: Dance Messes.
African Bishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan doesn't think that the Novus Ordo service has any significant "abuses" or that there is cause for alarm. In his opinion, dances "enrich" the service and can deepen faith. His speech "won loud applause." This is all part of a recurring theme of "inculturation," kicked off by Vatican II, of making the Roman Catholic Church less Roman and less Catholic.
Newchurch's movement is in the direction of "regional liturgies": different services not only for different countries, but for different localities. Just like the Protestants. He singled out JPII for having introduced, at Rome, at St. Peter's Basilica, what used to be called Messes sauvages. These got Hannibal Bugnini, the Chief Architect of the New Order, kicked out. Now, a couple of decades later, they are praised in Newrome.
Who knows, maybe by the end of the decade, Newchurch will have the spectacle of the pope sacrificing a chicken on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica, in Novus Ordo style. Oh, you think not? Who ever expected that the pope would have himself anointed with cow dung by a Hindu priestess? Whoever expected that the pope would countenance placing the Buddha above the tabernacle at Assisi. Who ever expected that the pope would preside over a Clown Mess at St. Peter's? Think again. [ANSA]
As TRADITIO has pointed out, the Great Sex Scandal is just a drop in the bucket of Newchurch. The Great Embezzlement Scandal is far worse. Because Newchurch, its popes, and its bishops have fallen into such disrepute around the world owing to their rampant moral corruption, secular law-enforcement has been able more boldly to attack Newchurch's crimes -- something that the authorities were in former years too intimidated to do. One Roberto Calvi was known as "God's Banker" because of his connections with Newvatican, which has been trying for 25 years to cover up his money-laundering activities involving Newvatican and the Mafia, as well as the Freemasons. But no longer. Roman law (real Rome, that is, not Newvatican) has finally said, "Enough is enough."
Novus Ordo attendance and contributions are dropping like a rock in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, etc. -- all big contributors in the past to the Vatican. Newvatican has therefore had to sell itself out to corrupt financial interests like the Mafia to maintain financial solvency. Novus Ordinarians prefer to shut their eyes to this fact, as they do to the moral and spiritual corruption of their presbyters, but it is beyond denying. Even Newvatican has admitted its Vatican Bank's "moral involvement" in a Calvi scam and paid out a quarter of a billion dollars to creditors.
Roberto Calvi, an Italian financier with ties both to Newvatican and the Mafia, had such a chummy relationship with JPII that in 1982 he begged John Paul II to step in and save his bank from collapse. A letter to JPII has been discovered in which Calvi writes: "I have thought a lot, Holiness, and have concluded that you are my last hope." Calvi threatened JPII that if his bank went under, it would "provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, in which the Church will suffer the gravest damage."
Before JPII could respond, two weeks later, Calvi was found hanging by a rope. The police ruled out suicide and called it homicide. Now, in Rome, the prosecution will argue that Calvi was murdered after he held onto millions of dollars he was laundering for the Mafia, the Vatican, and the head of the Masonic lodge. The defense is planning to call Newvatican prelates to testify and expose their involvement. Among those eager to see justice finally done are Calvi's widow Carla and son Carlo. They believe that Calvi was the victim of a well-disguised Cosa Nostra hit to cover up the Vatican Bank's involvement with the Mafia.
Macabre details of the murder indicate a connection with Newvatican and the Freemasons. Calvi was hung on Blackfriars Bridge in London, named after the English Dominicans, or Blackfriars, at Oxford. He was dressed in a black robe of a presbyter or a Freemason. He was weighed down with bricks, a mason's working material. Calvi's son believes that the way he was murdered was symbolic. [Toronto Star]
This kind of involvement of the Mafia and the Freemasons with JPII papacy is just another reason why JPII should be relegated to hundreds of years of investigation, so that whatever the truth is will surface. Wouldn't it be an embarrassment to Newchurch if its first "Subito Santo" was also its first Mafioso-sympathizer? JPII was known to be quite "soft" on the Mafiosi in Italy.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
Is it wrong -- or even a sin -- for a Catholic mother to skip Sunday Mass whenever her lapsed Catholic adult children visit her because she doesn't want to inconvenience them or offend them by asking them to drive her to Sunday Mass when they don't attend Mass any more? Is it sinful for her to skip Sunday Mass simply to spend some enjoyable time or eat breakfast with these lapsed Catholic children whenever they visit her on Sunday?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
Wrong and sinful indeed! You must have alternate transportation since you attend on other Sundays. So, you don't want to offend your children who are spurning their God, but you are quite willing to offend God yourself? Doesn't this sound as if your priorities were upside down for a Catholic mother?
What an example you would set if you told them, "I'd love you to visit me, but you'll have to come after I return from Holy Mass. Better yet, maybe you'd like to drive me, and we can share the time together in God's sacramental presence." It might just jolt them out of their virtual atheism!
Producer-actor-director Mel Gibson, who produced and directed the blockbuster 2004 traditional religious film The Passion of the Christ, publicly proclaims his traditional Catholicism and his rejection of Vatican II. Because of his serious problems with the post-Vatican II Newchurch, he built the Holy Family Chapel on his property in Southern California and brings in independent traditional priests to service the community. (Sorry, he has asked that we withhold the exact location because attendance is by invitation only, in order not to attract paparazzi.)
Gibson has just circulated a letter in favor of a conservative candidate for the office of California Lieutenant-Fovernor, State Senator Tom McClintock. McClintock is a well-known California conservative, who ran for governor in the recall election in which Arnold Schwarzenneger was eventually victorious.
McClintock is a seasoned legislator with a particular knowledge of finance. He previously ran for California Controller and lost in a very close election to the Democratic candidate. In addition to being a staunch fiscal conservative, he is an outspoken moral conservative. He had previously expressed interest in running for California Treasurer in 2006, but later decided to run for the office of Lieutanant-Governor. In California, the Lieutenant-Governor is the presiding officer of the State Senate and sits ex officio on some 150 boards and commissions, including the University of California Board of Regents and the California State College Board. In addition, when the Governor physically leaves the state, the Lieutenant-Governor becomes acting governor with the full powers of the Governor.
Gibson writes that a few months ago he met personally with McClintock and found him "knowledgeable, articulate, and courageous." Gibson says that he does not often support political candidates, but as a resident of California, he "loves this state and believes that it is worth fighting for." In his letter of support, Gibson points to the state's inability, "despite record levels of spending, to maintain a decent road system or education our kids or protect our families from predators. Worse, a government that was founded to protect our fundamental God-given rights is now becoming destructive of those rights."
One of the myths that the Novus Ordinarians and Indultarians try to pull over on traditional Catholics is the "Episcopal Approval Game." You know the argument. You can't worship at the Traditional Latin Mass unless the local Newchurch bishop approves it. It doesn't matter that this is the Catholic and Apostolic Mass that St. Peter used and transmitted to the Church from Rome, and was essentially "set" in the period of the Apostolic Fathers. It doesn't matter that the dogmatic Council of Trent and Pope St. Pius V confirmed this as exclusive Catholic and Apostolic Mass of the Roman Rite. No, if the Modernist Newchurch bishop doesn't approve it, you are under obligation to reject Christ, reject the Apostles, and reject the immemorial Magisterium of the Church. So the Novus Ordinarians' argument goes.
Having now expressed that myth at some length, it sounds patently ridiculous, doesn't it? Catholicism is not a religion of slavery to man's ordinances. It is, instead, a rational, free-will acceptance of God's ordinances. Underline that word rational. Man's rationality is what makes him reflect his creation in the image of God. It is ridiculous to believe that any man, of whatever ecclesiastical rank, can use his authority to guard and preach the true Faith instead to destroy the very thing that he swore to protect!
In other words, since a bishop is consecrated for the purpose of guarding and preaching the true Catholic Faith, he has no authority to abuse that authority for the opposite purpose, that is, to destroy the Catholic Faith. No Catholic has any obligation to seek "approval" from such a Newchurch bishop. Rather, a Catholic is bound to resist such an abuse of authority. As one lay woman once put it in simpler form: "If the bishop doesn't obey God, why should I obey the bishop?"
A case in point. One Newchurch presbyter reported that in the Miami Archdiocese, with the "approval" of the Newchurch archbishop (at least no action was ever taken against the offending presbyter), the cookie was publicly administered, with other presbyters present, to the presbyter's dog. No presbyter intervened to stop the action. Another Newchurch presbyter reported that around 1980 there, the Novus Ordo cookie was given to a dog on the Feast of St. Francis with the Newchurch archbishop personally present to share the cookies with the dog! TRADITIO has previously reported other instances of the public administration, with episcopal "approval," to dogs.
So much for the bishop's "approved" presbyters and "approved" Messes and approved "communion." Newchurch has literally gone to the dogs and has absolutely no authority to bind Catholic faithful against Scripture, Tradition, and the authentic Magisterium of the Church. That is Catholic dogma, which the Novus Ordinarians hope that you will forget.
Although some of Archbishop Lefebvre's successors in the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X fall far short of their founder's experience, sagacity, and Catholicity, the Archbishop himself had a remarkable directness and clarity about the post-Vatican II debacle. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, let us hear and meditate upon some of his assessments. Here is what he wrote to Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, Cardinal-Prefect of the Holy Office, in 1966, just after the Council.
I daresay that the present evil seems to me something very much more serious than the negation or placing in doubt of any one truth of our faith. It manifests itself in our day by an extreme confusion of ideas, by the disaggregation of the Church's institutions, religious institutes, seminaries, Catholic schools, and, finally, of what had been the Church's permanent support; but it is nothing other than the logical continuation of the heresies and errors which have been sapping the Church for the last several centuries, especially since the liberalism of the 19th century....
Moreover, each time groups of Catholics let themselves be attracted by these myths, the popes courageously corrected them, instructed them, and, if need be, condemned them. Catholic liberalism was condemned by Pius IX, modernism by Leo XIII, Sillonism by St. Pius X, communism by Pius XI, and Neo-modernism by Pius XII. Thanks to this admirable vigilance, the Church was strengthened and developed. Conversions of pagans and Protestants were very numerous, heresy was completely routed, and the States accepted legislation in keeping with Catholic doctrine....
Here is what the Archbishop wrote about Vatican II, and its hijacking by the Neo-Modernist element. Remember, the Archbishop was a member of the Council and involved with its Preparatory Commission, whose work was rejected in the Neo-Modernist takeover. He saw the hijacking first hand.
It is in this context that we must situate the Council, which, through the work of the Preparatory Commission, was preparing to proclaim the truth in the face of these errors in order to make them disappear for a long time from the Church's midst. It would have spelled the end of Protestantism and the beginning of a new, fruitful era of the Church.
But this preparation was odiously rejected in order to make way for the worst tragedy the Church has ever suffered. We have witnessed the marriage of the Church with liberal ideas. It would be to deny the evidence and to shut one's eyes not to affirm courageously that the Council allowed those who profess the errors and tendencies condemned by the Popes named above to legitimately believe that their doctrines were henceforth approved. One can and one unfortunately must affirm that, in a general way, when the Council innovated, it shook the certitude of the truths taught by the authentic magisterium of the Church as belonging definitively to the treasure of Tradition.
Doesn't that hit the nail on the head and dispel the myth of Vatican II? It certainly doesn't sound like the words of someone who would have countenanced "negotiating" with the New Order, as the left wing of the SSPX does today! And to what does the Archbishop think the errors of Neo-modernism and Vatican II have led?
Doubts about the necessity of the Church and the Sacraments led to the disappearance of priestly vocations. Doubts about the necessity and the nature of the conversion of every soul led to the disappearance of religious vocations, the ruin of traditional spirituality in the novitiates, and the futility of the missions. Doubts about the legitimacy of authority and the duty of obedience provoked by the exaltation of human dignity, the autonomy of conscience, and of freedom shake all societies starting with the Church, religious societies, the dioceses, civil society, and the family. The destruction of the Church is rapidly advancing. By an exaggerated authority given to the episcopal conferences, the Sovereign Pontiff has rendered himself ineffectual.
Again, the Archbishop has hit the nail on the head. Through his clear-sighted, even prophetic, words, we see what Vatican II could have been if it were not hijacked by the Neo-Modernists, and the consequences of its fall. And, remember, he wrote these words in 1966 -- three years before the launching of the full-blown invalid Novus Ordo service, 13 years before the accession of JPII, and 39 years before the accession of Benedict-Ratzinger.
JPII was not known as the "Clown Pope" for nothing. Not only did he perform "Clown" Messes, but he also presided over the Papal "Buddha" Mess, the Papal "Hindu" Mess, the Papal "Nudie" Mess, the Papal "Sugar Cookie" Mess, and the Papal "Woodstock" Mess. These Messes, and many others, are documented in the Novus Ordo Service Photo Gallery department of TRADITIO.
Benedict-Ratzinger, the "Pusillanimous Pope," has shown himself to be just as bad as his predecessor. He seems to be hell-bent on copying the worst aspects of his precedessor's sacrileges and has now performed a Papal "Sugar Cookie" Mess of his own, in which he "consecrated," in the invalid Novus Ordo rite, matter looking like a giant sugar cookie. This asinine event occurred on April 21, 2005, in Rome, at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.
Meanwhile, the presbyter on the right realized full well that this sugar cookie is far from being the Corpus Christi. He totally ignores it and instead is intent on rearranging his papers. You see, good Catholics, you don't have to prove anything about the invalidity of the Novus Ordo. The Novus Ordinarians themselves know full well the truth of the matter. They agree with you by their actions, even if their mouths still prattle propaganda so that they can keep their day jobs.
The spirit of the world has thoroughly infected Newchurch. At one time, in accordance with Our Lord's prescription, His Church was to be a contradiction to the world. Newchurch, to the contrary, embraces the world. That is one of many reasons why the New Order cannot be reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church. You should remember from your catechism the four marks of the Church: one, holy, catholic, apostolic. Good Catholics, just ask yourselves if even a single one of those marks can be found in the Newchurch.
The poster boy for Newchurch in the minds of most members of the New Order sect is JPII. This is the man known for "Clown" Messes. This is the man known for commending debased "rock" music. This is the man who publicly participated in several pagan rites while "on tour." This is the man who stood by silent as his presbyters and bishops raped innocent children.
And yet this is the idol of Newchurch. This is the man the Novus Ordinarians think can hold a candle to the likes of Pope St. Leo the Great. Leo at great personal risk stood against Attila the Hun, who was going to devastate Rome. Leo stood for Christ and His Church against barbarism. JPII gave in to barbarism, even commended it. How many souls fell into the pit because of his bad example? Yet this is the man they want to rush into the Modernist pantheon as "Great," probably so that there won't be time to investigate his well-documented fall from the Catholic Faith that he had once been trained in.
Cries of Sancto Subito were engineered at his funeral. Now people don barbecue aprons in his name. How fitting! The whole thing is "cooked up" by Newchurch to give itself legitimacy. But there is nothing of Catholicism here. As the Angel said, "I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here" (Matthew 28:5-6/DRV).
Those who have been looking for the chimaera of a "Universal Indult" for the 1962 Modernized Mass (as if Newrome had any authority to tamper with the obligation of the faithful to worship in the Catholic and Apostolic Roman rite) will see how vain their thinking has been when they read the preliminary report of the Eucharistic Synod now going on in Newrome:
In order to express the intercultural dimension of the Eucharist it is valuable -- especially in occasions of big international celebrations or in Churches where there is a relevant number of foreign visitors -- the use of the Latin language. With regard to this perspective, the use of the vernacular and the considered use of particular expressive forms in the rites, temples, decor and songs to celebrate the Eucharistic action, which should always and in every latitude remain the unique Eucharist instituted by Christ, can become fruitful and paradigmatic expressions of the need for inculturation for evangelization.
So, the use of Latin is essentially relegated to a few "international celebrations," while the vernacular is to be used as a universal handmaiden for that damnable concept of Vatican II called "inculturation." The term means that the Roman Catholic Church should be de-Catholicized and, especially, de-Romanized. That if you're African and want to include chicken sacrifices in the Novus Ordo service (as one African Newchurch archbishop advocates), then do so. If you're Australian and want to smear tree pitch over your face instead of incensing the altar (as JPII did), then do so.
The document specifically cites one of those "bombshells" in Vatican II, Article 38 of Sacrosanctum Concilium: "legitimis varietatibus et aptationibus ad diversos coetus, regiones, populos, praesertim in Missionibus, locus relinquatur." The Fathers of Vatican II undoubtedly thought that the phrase meant essentially some minor accommodations in non-western missions, but Hannibal Bugnini & Co. inserted it to destroy the traditional Roman liturgy and replace it with Protestant, Masonic, and even pagan rites. In Newchurch, they have succeeded in doing so beyond their wildest dreams.
Just as TRADITIO predicted when Benedict-Ratzinger appointed the beleaguered Archbishop of San Francisco, William Levada, who never met a "gay" he didn't like, Newchurch's Doctrinal Czar will be not a Rottweiler, but a Pussycat. He has learned well the motto of do-nothing politicians: "If you don't want to tackle a subject, form a committee"!
It seems that Levada and Benedict-Ratzinger couldn't find Catholicism with a candle. They need to depute a committee (they use the fancier name synod) to discuss "whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should receive Communion." For the counterfeit Newchurch and its denizens, this is a hot topic. Prominent Novus Ordinarians, calling themselves Catholic, typically munch the invalid Novus Ordo cookie, no matter whether they believe in the Catholic Faith or not.
For the "conservative" Novus Ordinarians, politicians' position on abortion has become a litmus test. It doesn't matter to them what these politicians' positions are on sacrilege, blasphemy, gay marriage, or any other issues that are far more important in the end. Their perfect Catholic would be one who boogies with the Protestant-Masonic-Pagan Novus Ordo service, just as long as he expresses an opinion against Roe vs. Wade. That is the abyss to which "conservative" Novus Ordoism has been reduced: mere politics.
In the United States, for example, Bishop Raymond "Bully" Burke, who escaped to St. Louis after consecrating as a "nun" a man who mutilated his God-given body to make himself a woman, at first boomed that he would deny the cookie to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Novus Ordinarian who supports abortion rights. Then, to play both sides, Burke reversed himself within a week. Cardinal "Teddy Bear" McCarrick, of Washington, D.C., on the other hand, called Kerry "an exemplary Catholic" and offered him a second helping of cookies and grape juice.
It seemed to have escaped both Burke and McCarrick that Kerry, whatever his views on abortion might be, had publicly received another cookie from the hands of a Methodist-Episcopalian priestess. Why didn't the Newchurch prelates withhold the cookie from McCarrick for this brazen act reeking with the odor of heresy? Well, that wouldn't be "oecumenical." Matthew Fox or Hans Kung might say something nasty about them. (By the way, has Levada ever considered withholding the cookie from Burke and McCarrick? We guess not.)
Meanwhile, South Korean Newchurch bishop Peter Kang, seems to be the only one who has a clue about the real problem in Newchurch. He says that the problem with Newchurch is not one of presbyters, but of "faithful." "Children who don't go to the [New] Mass say they don't go because they find it boring," he said. So forty years of "Clown" Messes and "Dance" Messes haven't stimulated children, who are now seeking out the profundity of the Traditional Latin Mass, of which they have been deprived, in increasing numbers!
Dear Father Moderator:
I know that you have many problems with EWTN, and I don't blame you. However, Mother Angelica has had more trials than most people know. This poor woman had to go through a lot with her own bishop in Birmingham, Cardinal Mahoney, and the U.S. Conference of [Newchurch] Catholic Bishops, who attempted to take the network away from her. She had fight to keep the mass traditional; the list goes on and on.
Fr. Moderator Replies.
That's just it: she didn't keep the Mass traditional. She turned over the network to the New Order Modernists. Granted, the worst aspect of the EWTN cable network has been its overt takeover in recent years by Protestant Charismatics like Scott Hahn and Ralph Martin, after Mother Angelica became debilitated. But let's face it, EWTN was never really Catholic; it certainly wasn't ever traditional.
That having been said, Mother Angelica did convert to the New Order sect with full knowledge of what it was and set up a network to beam the Modernist heresies of the New Order sect to the world. She knew that Pope St. Pius X had called the Modernist New Order the "sum total of all heresies" to the world. Yet she knowingly spread this religious filth around the world.
Oh, sure, on a personal level she seems like a nice old lady and bears her debilitation courageously, but the scope of the souls she has corrupted with the Novus Ordo heresy is incalculable. Just so, one could admire JPII on a personal level for bearing his significant ailments courageously, but the death he brought to souls with his pandering of the counterfeit New Ordo sect and the support he gave his corrupt prelates, who because of his inaction worked like a Mafia to rape children, is incalculable.
Christianity is not to be an effete religion for "nice guys." It is a religion of soldiers for Christ. The Apostles were that. The Martyrs were that. The Saints were that. For them, charity started first with God and fighting for His honor. Christ was not a milquetoast passivist, but a fighter in the Divine cause. He Himself told us: "Do not think that I have come to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword" (Matthew 10:34/DRV).
Poor Mother Angelica. She has gone through all of this suffering only to pander the Counterfeit Religion of the New Order. If she was going to suffer that much anyway, she might as well have gone all the way and spread the True Faith. However, she opened the Pandora's box by enslaving herself to the New Order. Now her work is being seized by the worst of the New Order ilk, which even she wouldn't countenance!
Dear Fr. Moderator:
You recently commented upon the New Order sect's belief that Christ spoke Aramean at the Last Supper. I thought that Aramean was in fact the spoken language in that part of the world at that time, but apparently I'm wrong. What in fact was the language that Christ spoke at the Last Supper, Hebrew?. And how can anyone be sure? Your insights would be appreciated.
Fr. Moderator Replies.
Aramean, or Aramaic, was one of many local vernaculars spoken. Jerusalem was quite a cosmopolitan place, as one can see from Chapter 2:9-11 of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, where this condition is indicated.
Hebrew in Our Lord's time was like Latin in our time (although Latin has a much wider usage than Hebrew ever had, being used as well in science, law, music, government, etc.): it was a non-vernacular language used for religious purposes, to convey the exact meaning of Tradition and theological teaching. Even to this day, Biblical Hebrew (which is not the same as the modern Israeli language) is used for this purpose, and all true Jews learn it. Scripture relates that Our Lord taught frequently in the synagogue and went to the Temple at Jerusalem annually. There, in religious contexts, Hebrew would have been used. The Last Supper, being a liturgical situation, would have been conducted in Hebrew, as is the Passover to this day in truly Jewish households and synagogues.
For day-to-day commerce in the countries of the Eastern Roman Empire, Koine Greek, the same Greek in which the New Testament is written, a more "common" form than that used in the High Classical period of some centuries before, was normally used as a lingua franca. Alexander the Great had brought Greek, Greek civilization, and "Greek cities" to the area in the fourth century B.C. Recent archaeology indicates that there was a Greek city about 10-15 kilometres from Nazareth, so Our Lord would likely have been exposed to Greek there, and, if not there, certainly in Jerusalem.
Since the time of Pompey the Great, about a century before, the Romans governed the area and appointed its governors, or procurators. Although Romans, such as Pilate, would have been educated in Greek to read the classical authors and would have been exposed to Koine Greek in the area's commerce, would still take great pride about their own Latin language, which carried Roman civilization and culture throughout the world. For example, only Latin could be spoken in the Roman Senate. We know that Tiberius prohibited an ambassador from addressing the Senate in Greek, even though the Roman senators would have been able to understand it.
Thus, Pilate, when sitting in the judgment seat in the Praetorium, would likely have used Latin in at least the most official pronouncements or, failing that, Greek. He would not likely have condescended to speaking the local vernacular when rendering Roman justice. Mel Gibson's portrayal of Christ and Pilate conducting their dialogues in Latin, especially within the legal context, is not an unrealistic assumption. For further information, see FAQ10.TXT: How Do You Explain These Traditional Catholic Beliefs? in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics) in the article "Sacred Languages: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew."
What language is the most popular worldwide for purchases from the Vatican Press? With all the Newchurch "vernacularization," you might be surprised to learn that it is still Latin. Of the 25 Bestsellers for September, 20 were published in Latin or primarily in Latin. Of the remainder, 2 were published in Italian, 2 in English, and one in German.
Latin is God's language for the New Covenant, the language that unquestionably was determined by Providence to carry the Roman Catholic Faith to the world. It's not easy to suppress the hand of God. Newchurch is now finding this out more than ever before. For further information, see Necessity of Latin for the Roman Catholic Church in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics).
Dear Fr. Moderator:
I know that there have been many changes in the liturgical calendar under NewChurch. When was the Feast of Christ the King changed and what reasoning was offered when this happened? The only thing I can find is a private revelation from the early 1990's, with Christ supposedly directing the change to Newchurch's "Last Sunday in Ordinary Time."
When I became a traditional Catholic (or, more properly, a Catholic), I immediately dropped any interest in "private revelations," except for the long-standing ones such as Guadalupe and Lourdes. Even those, however, have become very secondary. I agree with your stance that no private revelation, however amazing and enthusiastically received, replaces the concreteness of Scripture and doctrine. Where before I used to study the false Medjugorje and other messages, I now study Aquinas and Latin and the teachings of the dogmatic Council of Trent.
I admit that I followed these private revelations before I became a traditional Catholic, but I both repented and confessed it as a sin. I am truly sorry that I ever sought anything other than the solidity of Scripture and doctrine as taught by the Apostles. As much as I love Our Lady and am deeply devoted to her, she is a Disciple, not an Apostle. It is the Apostles who were given the mission to teach, not just any disciple, not even Our Lady.
Fr. Moderator Replies.
No "private revelation" was involved. Nothing supernatural was involved. The change was quite down to earth: arising from a typical attitude on the part of the New Order sect. Before getting into that, however, we have to point out that these stories of phony "private revelations" to justify everything unCatholic is really getting ridiculous. Even supposedly traditional Catholics are falling for this nonsense. True Catholics focus their Faith on Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the authentic Magisterium of the Church.
The Church has constantly warned against the danger of putting one's faith in "private revelations." Our Lord Himself warned against it as a feature of what fanatics now call "End Times." St. John and St. Paul warned against it. Popes and Saints, including visionaries, have warned against it. For further information, see FAQ10.TXT: How Do You Explain These Traditional Catholic Beliefs? in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics) in the article "Private Revelations / Apparitions / Visions."
In any case, that particular story is nonsense. We know exactly why the date of the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King was changed. Pope Pius XI set the date on the last Sunday of October specifically to combat Protestant Reformation Day, which fell on the same Sunday. For Newchurch, of course, that wasn't "oecumenical," so moved the feast was moved to the last Sunday in the calendar of the New Order sect.
Even Pope John XXIII started to muck with his predecessor's clear vision, by deleting the condemnation of the Jewish and Mohammedan religions contained in the Act of Dedication of the Human Race, which Pope Pius XI decreed be recited on this feastday. Here is the full, traditional version. If you are going to a truly traditional church or chapel, this is the prayer that will be used in full. If the prayer is modified, you have to suspect whether the site is truly traditional.
ACTUS DEDICATIONIS HUMANI GENERIS
Iesu dulcissime, Redemptor humani generis, respice nos ad altare tuum humillime provolutos. Tui sumus, tui esse volumus; quo autem tibi coniuncti firmius esse possimus, en hodie sacratissimo Cordi tuo se quisque nostrum sponte dedicat. Te quidem multi novere nunquam; te, spretis mandatis tuis, multi repudiarunt. Miserere utrorumque, benignissime Iesu, atque ad sanctum Cor tuum rape universos. Rex esto, Domine, nec fidelium tantum qui nullo tempore discessere a te, sed etiam prodignorum filiorum qui te reliquerunt: fac hos, ut domum paternam cito repetant, ne miseria et fame pereant. Rex esto eorum, quos aut opinionum error deceptos habet, aut discordia separatos, eosque ad portum veritatis atque ad unitatem fidei revoca, ut brevi fiat unum ovile et unus pastor. Rex esto eorum omnium, qui in tenebris idolatriae aut islamismi adhuc versantur, eosque in lumen regnumque tuum vindicare ne renuas. Respice denique misericordiae oculis illius gentis filios, quae tamdiu populus electus fuit: et Sanguis, qui olim super eos invocatus est, nunc in illos quoque redemptionis vitaeque lavacrum descendat. Largire, Domine, Ecclesiae tuae securam cum incolumitate libertatem; largire cunctis gentibus tranquillitatem ordinis; perfice, ut ab utroque terrae vertice una resonet vox: Sit laus divino Cordi, per quod nobis parta salus: ipsi gloria et honor in saecula. Amen.
ACT OF THE CONSECRATION OF THE HUMAN RACE
Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate in Thy presence. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united with Thee, behold, each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee; grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinion, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd. Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them all into the light and kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of that race, once Thy chosen people. Of old, they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may It now descend upon them as a laver of redemption and of life. Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise be to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to It be glory and honor forever. Amen.
Sometimes all you can do is look at Newchurch and come out with a belly-laugh!
Can anything be more unsaintly than Newchurch and its popes? We had Paul VI, the "Pathetic" Pope; JPII, the "Clown" Pope; and now Benedict-Ratzinger, the "Pusillanimous" Pope. All of them have been mired in doctrinal or moral unholiness to a degree that has not been seen since the Bad Popes of the pre-Reformation period. In another effort at Newchurch "spin," every single one of these popes has been put up for canonization!
We're looking at a miracle here, folks. In the last 700 years, only two popes have been canonized as Saints: Pius V and Pius X. Now, since Vatican II, we have them all set up for "sainthood" like dominoes. Absent from this insanity so far has been John Paul I, the pope who reigned for only 34 days and was possibly murdered because he was going to root the Mafia out of the Bank of the Holy Spirit.
Now this Presto Pope is gliding towards beatification already on just the 27th anniversary of his death in 1978. All this becomes possible because JPII gutted the traditional canonization process to a "mini" investigation and a joke of one miracle. And we know that Newchurch plays fast and loose with the definition of "miracle, as in the case of Mother Theresa, whose doctors claim that her alleged miracle was simply normal cancer remission after the application of anticarcinogenic drugs. Newchurch desperately want to have a popular post-conciliar saint, so it "fudged" the miracle by breaking all Catholic tradition and refusing to accept the testimony of the physicians.
Newchurch is getting more and more desperate to paint a facade of "sanctity," when everyone knows that from the pope on down, Newchurch is a cesspool of corruption. Thank God, when JPII so significantly modified the canonization process from the traditional one that guaranteed factual certainty, he vitiated any certainty of infallibility in the process.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of the Church's theologians, already foresaw this possibility some 800 years ago and argued the possibility that canonizations would not be infallible if their factual certainty were brought into question. Catholics didn't have to worry about that because of a process that was above reproach until JPII, but now that pope's madness in overturning Church tradition is manifest. First, we had the Pseudo-Mass, then the Pseudo-Sacraments, now Pseudo-Saints. For further information, see FAQ10.TXT: How Do You Explain These Traditional Catholic Beliefs? in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics) in the article "Canonizations, Post-Conciliar."
CBS-WCCO Wisconsin reports that a Newchurch presbyter is being charged by prosecutors with a dual murder. It appears that the presbyter drugged and raped at least three times a teenager sent to him for community service.
When the teenager's father confronted the presbyter, the presbyter murdered him in his place of business, together with an assistant who happened to witness the murder. The presbyter later committed suicide after he was questioned in the murders.
The evidence will be presented during John Doe hearings next week. The judge will rule whether evidence gathered by the police provides enough probable cause that the presbyter could have been charged with the crime, if he were still alive.
Meanwhile, WTOL-Toledo reports another Newchurch presbyter is to stand trial for strangling and stabbing a 71-year-old nun inside a hospital chapel. The Novus Ordinarians shelled out $600,000 to spring him on bail. The case was apparently broken when the presbyter was investigated for association with bizarre Satanic rituals, including the killing of children, mutilation of dogs, and abortions during devil-worship.
And what does Newvatican and Newpope say about the crime of murder growing among its presbyters? Nothing. No shock, no outrage. Silence as usual.
Traditional Catholics, doesn't it feel good at last to be in the vanguard of a new movement? The New Order Revolution dying; it is the Traditional Catholic Movement that is at the head of the new revolution.
It's a trend: in this anything-goes age, ever larger numbers of people are fleeing Liberalist/Modernist sects for traditional Christianity. Millions are streaming out of churches that preach the Gospel of "If It Feels Good, Do It" and are finding homes in churches that preach a more traditional and more demanding religion.
David Shiflett's new Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity, Dave Shiflett explores this encouraging trend. He tells the story of mainline decline and traditional growth. He goes to the heart of why there are so many refugees from the mainline denominations streaming into traditional Catholic, Orthodox, and Fundamentalist churches.
Shiflett maintains that ever since the liberal American Episcopalians chose an openly "gay" bishop, the demise of mainline Protestantism has been a foregone conclusion. "It is clear now that in a generation or two conservative Christians will be the only Christians left," he says. Shiflett shows that conservative Christians are better educated, wealthier, and wiser to the ways of the world than anyone in the Liberalist media establishment gives them credit for. They're longing for the traditional Christian message. Shiflett's analysis covers:
TRADITIO has always maintained that the Traditional Catholic Movement is actually part of a bigger traditional movement that includes the Church, the State, and the family, all three of which were devastated in the Liberalist Revolution of the late 1960s. In the last decade, all three have swung around to more traditional positions, and the Liberalists are scared out of their wits.
In the Church, traditional Roman Catholics have beaten back the New Order so decisively in argument that the Novus Ordinarians have been relegated to simply calling traditional Catholics names. The Novus Ordinarians have no further arguments to make. Their unCatholic theology, liturgy, and morals are falling apart. Even the post-Conciliar popes are now being charged in courts for personally violating the Catholic "morals clause."
In the State, since 1994, after forty years of control by the Liberalists, the U.S. Congress passed to the control of basically conservative legislators. The most grotesque forms of abortion are being legislated against with persistence. In the family, the devastating nature of divorce, adultery, junk culture, and parental permissiveness is being openly admitted once again.
You traditional Catholics, hang in there! You are winning the fight that St. Paul talked about. You won't hear it on Liberalist television, but Liberalist television is dying. The alternate press, of which TRADITIO was an original member since 1994, remember, is giving you the real scoop, independent of being any organization's mouthpiece.
Catholics around the word were scandalized to learn that Benedict-Ratzinger, who recently met at length with Modernist theologian Hans Kung, has continued to pander to the Modernists, even Communists, by inviting to the XIth Synod starting October 2 in Rome two schismatic bishops, who were appointed by and are associated with the Communist government of Red China. No such invitation was issued to "schismatic" SSPX Bishop Bernard Fellay, a Swiss.
Good Catholics, this is why we, like St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Therese of Avila, and many other Saints, denounce the pope of our times with the strongest vocabulary, as they did the popes of their times. Newpope is simply pandering to power. Newvatican for decades has been salivating over the possibility of shoehorning Newchurch into a nation of one billion people, whose Catholic faith had remained traditional up until the last decade, when the New Order started its manipulations there.
After the Great Sex & Embezzlement Scandal, it is clear to one and all that the only thing that motivates Newchurch at its heart is power -- not the true Faith, not the true M1ass, not the true Sacraments, and most certainly not Catholic morality.
No Catholic can call himself traditional without having a reasonable acquaintance with the principal Gregorian hymns of the Church. With due regard for Sacred Polyphony, Sacred Chant is the only truly authentic music of the Church. A recent article gave recommendations for an "essential dozen" of these hymns. It is a good selection.
Often you TRADITIO participants ask us what you can do to promote the traditional Roman Catholic Faith. Well, this is one good way. We recommend that your learn and teach these hymns to your families and friends as part of a truly traditional "lay initiative," close to the heart of Pope St. Pius X. The melodies will be found in the St. Gregory Hymnal or the Liber Usualis. For further information, see FAQ05.TXT: What Traditional Books Do You Recommend? in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics).
St. Augustine teaches us: Qui bene cantat bis orat [He who sings well prays twice.] So let all of us traditional Catholics get twice as much from our praying by singing our prayers!
Here's a shocker! In a September 27 report, Catholic World News revealed that when questioned on whether Vatican II intended to abolish the "Tridentine" rite, Jorge Cardinal Medina Estevez, current member of the Ecclesia Dei Commission and former Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said that "the arguments were inconclusive on that point"!
Hogwash! So, now we have Newvatican officials, speaking for the pope, planting the myth that Vatican II bishops intended to replace the "Tridentine" Mass, more properly called the Traditional Latin Mass. There is no evidence whatsoever for this statement. Nothing will be found in the conciliar documents to this effect. Nothing will be found in the press reports of the time. The machinations took place after the Council under the aegis of the Freemason Hannibal Bugnini, who was the Chief Architect of the New Order.
Why is Medina Estevez planting this myth now? The answer is obvious. His remarks go on to state: "The missal of St. Pius V and that of Paul VI are both perfectly orthodox"; they just appeal to "different sensibilities." There you have it. The effort is to resuscitate the legitimacy of the dying Novus Ordo service, what Newchurch likes to call "the Mass of Paul VI," which has been coming under increasing fire for being not Catholic and not valid. The New Mess is sinking like a rock. New Order churches are closing right and left. In Europe, many New Order churches draw less than a dozen attendees for their one Sunday service. Mess participation is well below 5% in most Western European countries. In the United States, it's at 15% and dropping about 1% a year.
So, this "equality of orthodoxy" is the latest effort to resuscitate the failing Novus Ordo. Such "equality of orthodoxy" is just as much a lie as the Newchurch statements that the early Church celebrated Mass "toward the people" or that Christ spoke Aramean at the Last Supper or that "for all" and "for many" mean the same thing. Newchurch has a proven record of persistent lying and creating myths to cover their unCatholic tracks. Even the more honest of their own people couldn't stand it. That is why Monsignor Klaus Gamber, whom Paul VI considered one of the greatest liturgicians of his time, wrote The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background, which devastated all of these myths. For further information, see FAQ05.TXT: What Traditional Books Do You Recommend? in the TRADITIO Library of Files (FAQs and Traditional Apologetics).
The Traditional Latin Mass is the Catholic and Apostolic Mass that comes to us from St. Peter. The most recent scholarship indicates that it was celebrated in Latin well before the end of the first century. Monsignor Adrian Fortescue, an eminent liturgical scholar of the early twentieth century, states:
[The Traditional Latin Mass is] the most venerable in all Christendom, with a history of unbroken use far longer than that of any Eastern rite, there being no doubt that the essential parts of the Mass are of Apostolic origin.
The so-called "Mass of Paul VI" is not a Mass at all. In the official document of Paul VI permitting its publication, an heretical definition of the Mass was included, which indicates that the Novus Ordo Missae is not intended to be a Mass, but essentially a Protestant service. It includes an invalidating change to the Apostolic form of consecration that was specifically condemned by Fathers of the Council of Trent as a Protestant heresy.
No, good Catholics, the choice between the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Service is not a matter of "personal preference." It is a matter of valid vs. invalid, historical vs. fabricated, Catholic vs. Protestant. No traditional Catholic can crawl into some "neo-con" hole and say, "As long as I get an 'indult,' the Novus Ordinarians can go to Hell." No, this is a matter of standing for what is Roman Catholic -- 100%. 50/50 is not anywhere near good enough; neither is 99/1 when it comes to the Faith, Morals, the Mass, and the Sacraments.
As the Roman philosopher stated the principle: Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat [Those whom God wishes to destroy he first drives mad.] Echoes of Seneca's principle are found in chapter 1 of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul knew Seneca, as there is extant correspondence between the two. The prayers of traditional Catholics are being answered as we are seeing before our eyes now the long-awaited demise of Newchurch, and in that we can see the hand of Providence.
Didn't TRADITIO warn you that Newvatican and its Ecclesia Dei Commission have been hankering to dump the 1962 Missal? Now it turns out that the Ecclesia Dei Commission has issued an instruction, Missa Conventualis Cantata, which directs that sung Conventual "Indult" Masses, i.e., the principal daily Mass of "indult" religious orders, be conducted in full-blown Novus Ordo style:
Every single one of these changes is an aberration of the Roman Catholic Mass that instead reflects the practices of the Novus Ordo Mess. Is there any doubt that Newrome, while deceiving the SSPX's Fellay and the indultarians by a few meretricious words, is really intending to impose the Novus Ordo on the Fraternity of St. Peter, on the Institute of Christ the King, on Campos, and all the other indultarians at the earliest possible opportunity? And after these "indult" societies, that the Novus Ordo style will be imposed upon the "indult" at Newchurch parishes.
Good Catholics, don't put your eggs in the "indult" basket. The fox intends to wolf down those eggs -- and you "chickens" along with them. Traditional Catholics need to hang tough, to hang traditional, to eschew phony "indults," and to eschew phony "negotiations" with the New Order -- 100%.
Dear Fr. Moderator:
Why is it that the whole history of the Rosary comes from the tradition of the Church, but that the "Luminous Mysteries" were added by JPII. As far as the word luminous, is that not a curious word? I have heard it claimed that JPII was a Mason. This I cannot confirm at all, but if this is true, then the word luminous makes much more sense, as it is connected with the same root as Illuminati, the name for those highest among the Freemasons. I realize this is stretching things, but if the Novus Ordo service has Masonic, as well as Protestant and pagan, roots, and if the rumours about JPII being a Mason are true, wouldn't all this fit together?
Fr. Moderator Replies.
The Rosary was a normal development of Catholic prayer, being a kind of layman's version of the Divine Office, and gained popularity in the late Middle Ages. The Divine Office, which the Church and its clergy celebrate daily in its eight Hours, includes the chanting or recitation of the 150 Psalms throughout the course of a week. (The New Order in its fabricated Liturgia Horarum changed this to only once a month.)
That is why there are 150 Aves in the Rosary, to represent the 150 Psalms for laypeople. St. Dominic was principally responsible for the dissemination of the Rosary in its relatively modern form. Most modern Catholics are unaware that what they think of as the Rosary is a rather modern development. The essential Rosary consists of 150 Aves and 15 meditations.
Already in the heyday of the New Order, Hannibal Bugnini, the Freemason who was the Chief Architect of the New Order, originally suggested the change from the traditional form. It just took Newchurch thirty years and a "Marian pope" to get it together. Of course, we say that satirically, since no "Marian pope" would ever dare to touch the traditional essence of such a well-established devotion as the Most Holy Rosary.
Whether JPII was a Freemason, who knows? (That Hannibal Bugnini was a Freemason is essentially beyond dispute at this point. Even Paul VI had to banish him to Iran when it became too obvious to deny, except by Bugnini himself.) Like Paul VI, who became the vehicle for the dissemination of the Novus Ordo, JPII became the vehicle for the dissemination of the "Luminous Mysteries." Well, JPII must have flunked math at that Polish university he went to. 150 does not equal 200!
The "Luminous Mysteries" are, of course, a ridiculous break from the Catholic tradition of representing the 150 Psalms with 150 Aves. It appears to be just another change for change's sake, another effort to inject into people the unCatholic notion that everything about the Church is subject to change: the Mass, the Sacraments, morals, even the Faith itself. It is undeniable that Newchurch and its officials are acting more like Protestants and pagans every day. Their service is invalid, their sacraments are not sacramental in many cases, their morality is more representative of canines than humans, and their doctrine is thoroughly Modernistic, all under the aegis of the Conciliar popes, led now by the arch-Modernist of Vatican II.
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