THE SKY GROWS DARKER By Patrick H. Omlor TRADITIO Traditional Roman Catholic Internet Site E-mail: traditio@traditio.com, Web: www.traditio.com Copyright 1997 CV. Reproduction prohibited without authorization. Last Revised: 00/00/97 [Made available on the TRADITIO Internet Site with permission of The Catholic Voice, a publication of The Society of Traditional Roman Catholics.] In his encyclical Acerbo Nimis, dated April 15, 1905, Pope St. Pius X singled out one principle cause of the remissness from which all the grave evils of that day arose. He claimed that the main source of all the troubles was ignorance -- the ignorance of divine things on the part of Catholics. And stating his case he cited these words of his predecessor, Benedict XIV: "We declare that the greater part of those who are damned have brought the calamity on themselves by ignorance of the mysteries of the Faith, which they should have known and believed, in order to be united with the elect." As an immediate and drastic remedy for this dangerous and widespread ignorance, St. Pius ordered, by virtue of his apostolic authority, that every bishop in the world should immediately put into effect a program for the Catholic education, not only of children, but also of adult Catholics. He directed that all pastors should, on Sundays and Holydays, in addition to the usual sermon at Mass, give a separate full period of instruction to all the faithful. Moreover he specified that the Catechism of the Council of Trent be followed in all these instructions. Very shortly, by the way, we will be examining several compelling teachings found in this Trent Catechism. Now by the time 1962 rolled around, the widespread ignorance of divine things, not only among the laity, but also and especially among the hierarchy and clergy, had reached colossal proportions. Had even a significant minority at that time known what is taught in the Trent Catechism, it is doubtful that even a fraction of the subversion of our Faith that has occurred could indeed have occurred. It is certain that all of us, sadder and wiser now, have learned or relearned much about our precious Catholic Faith since 1962. This warfare in which we are all presently engaged is a very vast and all-encompassing one. It is no less than a war to preserve the very Catholic Faith itself. Many are the different battlefronts where we must dig in and take our stand. We must oppose the forces of religious indifferentism which today masquerades under the euphemistic banner of ecumenism. We all know of the dangerous "catechisms" (so-called) which are designed to rob our children of their precious Catholic Faith and heritage. On every side we witness the almost total abandonment of all standards of Christian morality. THE MASS - OUR CHIEF RAMPART Although we must fight all these battles, and many others, the chief rampart we must defend is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The enemies of the Church have always had this key axiom: Tolle missam; tolle ecclesiam. "Take away the Mass, and thereby take away the Church." Contrariwise we may affirm with the greatest confidence: Preserve the Mass, and thereby preserve the Church. But what exactly can we hope to accomplish? At this point -- and it is very late in the game -- perhaps our chief job is salvaging, preventing shipwreck. That is to say, through our prayers and our work we must hinder as many as possible of our fellow Catholics - members of Christ's Mystical Body -- from being sucked down into the quicksands of this universal apostasy we are witnessing. We must awaken them to what has happened, and what is even now happening, in this complete sell-out of our Fai th and our Church by our supposed spiritual leaders, who are abetted and encouraged by a largely craven and faithless laity. Our prayer should be especially the Rosary. Our work lies principally in informing others. We must continue to write our letters, to talk to confused and uninformed priests and lay persons, and to pass out appropriate literature to be read. In a word: we must continue to proselytize, to make converts even as did the early Christians. With this difference, that here the missionary field is not among the pagan and the infidel, but among the nominal Catholics! DARK FOREBODINGS - A GRACE! The mental anguish we often feel in seeing the situation worsen from day to day is, paradoxically, our comfort. It was Chesterton who wrote these lines: Out of the mouth of the Mother of God Like a little word come I; For I go gathering Christian men From sunken paving and ford and fen To die in a battle, God knows when, By God, but I know why. And this is the word of Mary, The word of the world's desire; No more of comfort shall ye get, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher. No more comfort, save that the sky grows darker yet? Are we actually to find comfort in witnessing the situation growing bleaker? Yes! It is because from the standpoint of eternity, bad news is often good news. It forces us down upon our knees, it reminds us that we have not here a lasting city, and that our dependence upon Almighty God must be total. And so, paradoxically, we may rejoice in the fact that very likely there are even far worse things in store for us, lurking beyond the horizon.