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The Coming Resurrection of the Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World

By Michael J. Matt

Inhis L’Année Liturgique – The Liturgical Year – the great Dom Guéranger, 19th century abbot of Solesmes, notes that Holy Thursday’s praying of the fifth psalm conveys a "moral teaching, which, if listened to, would correct many a false judgment of the world. It often happens that men are shaken at seeing the wicked prosperous, and the virtuous afflicted. It was the temptation which overcame the apostles, when, seeing their divine Master in the hands of His enemies, they lost their faith in Him as the Messias." In other words, even after having witnessed the miracles of Our Lord and professing to recognize Him as the Messiah, the Apostles nevertheless "lost faith in Jesus" after He had fallen into the hands of His enemies. Does this mean that in our own day as we witness the Mystical Body of Christ undergo another passion, we too can expect to be scandalized to that extent? Might we also deny the Church and even flee from her when she falls into the hands of the Christophobes?

It would be presumptuous, it seems, to rule out the possibility. Many years ago I remember listening to a lecture by the late, great Fr.

~ See Editor's Desk/ Page 2

The Coming Resurrection of the Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World

Continued from Page 1

John O’Connor on the paralyzing fear the first Bishops of the Catholic Church experienced during Our Lord’s passion. Not many heroes in their company, I’m afraid, at least not at that point. In fact, the first act of collegiality is recorded in Mark, Chapter 14 verse 50: "Then his disciples leaving him, all fled away."

They all fled — those first bishops of the Church, shepherds who had been personally selected for their holy mission by Christ Himself. Why, then, should we be surprised when ecclesiastical midgets such as Roger Mahony or Timothy Dolan turn tail and run from Christ's company in our day!

And why did the first bishops flee? Because they were afraid. Fr. O’Connor speculated as to what must have been required to transform St. John, for example, from the trembling coward we see in the Garden to that tower of strength standing in the very shadow of the Cross on Golgotha. What happened?

"Isn’t it obvious?" asks Fr. O’Connor. John stopped fretting about himself just long enough to think of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. And so he dashed to her house, pounded on the door and tried breathlessly to warn her against the peril they all faced at that moment.

And what do you suppose she said to John, as he stood there panting in fear, begging Mary to come with him into hiding?

"Nothing, at first. She just stared into the distance, as her heart was pierced by the first of Simeon’s swords of sorrow. And then she spoke: ‘No, John. Not that way but back the way you came. The hour is at hand. We must go to Him."

And in that moment, the fear in John’s heart grew less paralyzing, and he knew he needn't run anymore.

Led by a transformed St. John, the little company of Jesus' closest friends then hastens to the foot of the Cross, where they remain for the next two thousand years. And for his part as noble protector of Our Lady, John would become the son of the 'woman wrapped in silence'. He would also be the only Apostle never required to shed his blood for Christ.

And where was Peter? Where were the first bishops? Well, that’s just the point—no one knows. Somewhere, anywhere, hiding, trembling in fear, plotting their escape. Christ was in the hands of His enemies, and His friends were losing faith in Him to such an extent that it would require a visit from God Himself, in the person of the Holy Ghost fifty days later to break the spell of their paralyzing fear.

The Catholic Church was founded on the Cross upon which Christ was executed, while His bishops hid in fear, terrified, confused, scandalized, in denial and even betrayal.

Little has changed since then as God made certain that all the precedents for scandal and terror were set while the Cross was still newly planted at the 'place of the skull'.

Two millennia later we have no excuse to lose faith in Christ or His Church. Despair is not an option, and neither is apostasy. Mary is still at the foot of the Cross, even if bishops and popes are not. And it is there with her that we belong... if we are to keep the faith.

Some say ours is the darkest hour in history, and yet what must it have been like for that little company beneath the Cross when the Messiah breathed His last? When the vulgar soldiers couldn’t even be bothered to look up from their dice as the blood of God poured into the ground beneath the spot where they played their games.

Listen to them: "Look at these kooks! They actually believe that dead guy up there on the Cross was God. What morons!"

Sound familiar? Nothing has changed.

But the little company wasn't listening to all that. Instead they were watching as Our Lord expired on the Cross of our sins. And far from despairing on that first Good Friday, they waited for the horrible ordeal to end and then removed His lifeless body from the gibbet, held Him close for a time and prepared it for burial. There was nothing else left to do. The soldiers had grown bored, the priests had walked back down the hill and the crowd was breaking up.

If His death on that Cross did not crush the old faith then, how, why, could it today? Easter Sunday will come for us too. In the end, Christ's Church will rise again, and He will be with us always even unto the consummation of the world. In the meantime, we keep the old Faith and watch and wait...just like they did.

It is sometimes suggested that tradition-minded Catholics see themselves as being "more Catholic than the Church". But one wonders if Magdalene and John weren’t accused of something similar, standing beneath the cross after all the other apostles had fled. Who do they think they are? Peter isn’t even there!

But it was love, certainly not arrogance, that united the little company at the foot of the Cross and prompted them to remain there as darkness came over the earth, when even Peter was conspicuous by his absence. So, too, it is love for Christ’s Church that inspires Catholics all around the world today to cling to the Cross of Tradition even when the Apostles themselves have abandoned it for fear of the Jews.

But we should still fear that our faith could fail us. Why? Because it well could. Christ prayed for Peter himself that his faith would not fail. "And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." (Luke 22) Obviously, we too could lose our way in this darkness. Our only hope, then, is the rock of Tradition.

Who among our shrinking, ragtag little remnant would dare presume that salvation is easily within his grasp, especially now when the bulwarks of the old Faith that stood strong against the gates of hell for a thousand years have been compromised. We remain paralyzed with fear, our arms wrapped around Tradition like Magdalene’s around the Cross. And in the darkness that is falling again, we plead as she might have: Jesus, we are not strong enough to go on without You; We are so afraid. Stay with us.

And in that terrible moment what does He say to us? 'Behold thy mother.'

We are sinners whose only hope of salvation is at her side, anchored to the rock of the traditional Mass, and at the mercy of the Crucified — glorious Catholic realities which ushered a million saints and more souls than can be counted through this vale of tears ever since the first Crucifixion.

Thomas Aquinas may have reasoned his way to the Cross; St. Teresa prayed her way there; St. Joan of Arc obeyed even unto the Cross; the Cure of Ars rode there on the back of heroic virtue. But sinners like us can only hope to find our way through Divine mercy and forgiveness. Our prayer is that God will see our weakness and pitiful attempts to stand with Him, and again ask His mother to take our hands and lead us to the Cross, even as she did for St. John.

Holy Mother Church is being eclipsed and we are becoming orphans. Our priests, our nuns, our monks, our fathers, our mothers are leaving us to fend for ourselves in a darkness so terrifying that even Peter himself lost hope because of it and denied the Son of God three times in the midst of it.

Demons are all around us once again, but the Virgin Mary still stands inviolate among them, even in the darkness of this new passion of the Mystical Body. Let us ask her, then, to stay with us so that we too can eventually witness the glories of the empty tomb.

A blessed Easter to all of our friends and allies in the little Remnant company all around the world. Christ has risen as He said. This dark night will pass and Christ’s Mystical Body will rise again. Hallelujah! "On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but of the dawn."

- G.K. Chesterton (The Everlasting Man)

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Tue, 15 Apr 2014 | Cover | Page 01

Christ the Risen Lord Still Speaks

by Bishop Rudolph Graber

Easter

was not always a feast of perfect joy; on the contrary, anxiety, precipitous haste, and fear overshadowed the first Passover when, in that memorable night, the Israelites made preparations to leave Egypt in which they had been enslaved. Anxiety seized upon them: Will the angel of death really pass by their thresholds which they had smeared with the blood of the paschal lamb? Precipitous haste marked all their actions: they had to eat their bread unleavened, "with their loins girt, sandals on their feet, and staff in hand…like those who are in flight".

Their faces revealed their fear: Will the Pharaoh really let us leave unhindered?

Will he not rather do all in his power to force us back?

Anxiety, haste and fear also overshadowed the first Christian feast of Easter: Yes, it even began in tears. "But Mary (Magdalene) was standing outside weeping at the tomb." Only one care filled her soul: "I do not know where they have laid Him." And with this care were associated anxiety and fear. The disciples and the women were terrified by the empty grave, they were terrified by the angels, they were frightened even by the Risen Christ.

We men are like that, entirely dependent on appearance, on external, on that which momentarily is in the foreground. When the Lord entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was greeted joyfully and jubilantly by loud Hosannas, although His followers should have known that He was going to His death.

Actually He had foretold it often enough. And so the joy and jubilation preceded the Passion, but on Easter morning sorrow and despair filled the hearts of Christ’s faithful even though He had spoken of His Resurrection on the third day more than once. "We men are so blind, so contradictory in our heart, that we are jubilant when we ought to be alarmed and terrified when there is reason for the greatest joy."

Now, into all this fluctuation of fear and sorrow, of incomprehension and doubt, ~ See Christ Speaks/ Page 5

Christ the Risen Lord Still Speaks

Bishop Graber/ Continued from Page 1

there flashes the brilliant lightning of the Resurrection morning. It tears asunder all those gray mists which obstructed our sight, and in the luminous clear light of this unique morning we behold thee, Lord, the Risen Christ.

Yes, we desire to gaze upon Thee, the Risen Christ, in seven great tableaux, the seven manifestations which the Gospels report in greater detail. In our souls there still echo the seven last words on the Cross which, from the awful mystery of the Cross, illumined our Christian existence. But the Cross is not the end; it is the gateway to the Resurrection.

And so, side by side with the seven last words of Christ Crucified, we want to look at those glorious tableaux of the Risen Christ, for even now our life hungers and thirsts for a glimmer of the Transfiguration. Assuredly, Golgotha is our Salvation, but only because, after it, there rises the glorious Sun of Easter.

But eyes red with weeping cannot bear the light, and especially cannot bear the Easter Sun which blinds even us of the unbelieving, doubting, twentieth century, torn apart spiritually by inner conflict. And thus what had to happen did happen, and is happening. At that time they did not fully recognize the Risen Christ, and today we recognize Him even less. Their failure to recognize Christ immediately after His Resurrection is so peculiar to the Easter accounts in the Gospels that one might suppose they had been written expressly for our time. Over all seven accounts of the appearances of the Risen Christ, which we wish to review, we could write the words of St. John: "Behold the world knew Him not."

Not only did the world at large fail to recognize the Risen Christ; He did not even show Himself to it…and even His most faithful ones did not recognize Him. Of Magdalene the Gospel of St. John clearly states: "She did not know that it was Jesus". And, likewise, we read of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: "But their eyes were held, that they should not recognize Him." When Jesus appeared on the evening of Easter Day, even the Apostles, "startled and panic-stricken, thought that they saw a ghost," and a week later Thomas, the Doubter, still resists acknowledging the Risen Christ.

Then, at the Sea of Tiberias, when Jesus appears in the morning, "The disciples did not know that it was Jesus", and some time elapses before the eyes of the beloved disciple recognize the Lord.

Even shortly before the Ascension, when on the mount in Galilee, Jesus entrusts His missionary authority to the Apostles, "some still doubted". All these people had been blinded by the supernatural brilliance of the Sun of the Resurrection; this event was too incomprehensible.

Another light blinds us men of today: The glaring light of the mortal world with its scientific and technical achievements. And we fail so miserably to recognize the Risen Christ, for the crucial question of mankind remains the same for all time: How do we arrive at the understanding which is decisive for eternity? "Now this is everlasting life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Him Whom Thou has sent, Jesus Christ."

Thus, with this question on our lips, we will approach the manifestations of the Risen Christ, for here, doubtlessly, the accounts which lead to the recognition of God are opened up to us. But then, when we have passed through the gateways, every doubt should be forever dispelled; with the light of the Easter sun on our foreheads we will step out into the world, the workaday world, and, in word and deed, profess full of holy joy: "Vidimus dominum, we have seen the Lord," and "His glory, the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father – full of grace and truth."

The Nations are Dying of Sin

With Christ, the Light came into the world, and the Light is Love, Truth and Life. But men loved the darkness more than the Light, and this darkness is the estrangement from Christ, from His Love, from His Life, His Truth.

This darkness is called Sin. In the vocabulary of our languages of today, sin scarcely occurs any longer. If one took the trouble to take the books on philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, conduct, and belletristic works from the shelves of our modern libraries, and read them carefully, you would not find the word "sin"; it has died in the world of our thinking, our opinions and of our decisions. The twentieth century has radically fulfilled Nietsche’s wish: "Let us rid the world of the notion of sin, and then as soon as possible, also of the notion of punishment; there is no greater weed in the world!"

How does mankind of today arrive at this attitude? 1500 years ago, St. Augustine , one of the greatest psychologists of humankind came to this conclusion: The source of all sin is Pride! Pride in the form of autonomy, of auto-legality, of autocracy, of tyranny.

Thus, there is no law outside of man, and therefore also no transgression of His law. There is no God, and therefore also no law of God, no transgression of this law – Sin? Sin is a fossil from that time when men still concerned themselves with religion.

Anti-authoritarian education and behavior is the watchword today.

And what will be the consequence?

"Darkness", according to the words of Christ, and that is the death of love, truth and life. What will be the result: A multitude of brutal egoists, of idlers and loafers, of depraved criminals, of rapists, and brutal men of violence…" The people and the nation that does not serve Thee, O Lord, shall perish; the nations shall become wastelands!

(Reprinted from The Remnant, April 15, 1977, Translated by Marie Agnes Matt)

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Tue, 15 Apr 2014 | Cover | Page 01

On Profound Crisis in the Church

(Special Report on a Lecture by Roberto de Mattei)

By Vincent Chiarello

COSMOS CLUB, April 9, 2014—The stately Cosmos Club of Washington D.C., located in "Embassy Row" of our nation’s capital was the site of a recent talk by the Italian historian of religion, Roberto de Mattei. The attractive external design of the Cosmos Club is reminiscent of French la belle époque style architecture, and was constructed at the turn of the 20th century.

A crowd of more than 100, including at least four Catholic priests, attended the one-hour lecture in which de Mattei laid out the consequences of Vatican II, the expanded details of which are included in his recently published, The Second Vatican Council, an Unwritten Story.

Roberto de Mattei serves as President of the Lepanto Foundation, which, although American in its origins, maintains an office in Rome and is associated with Italian Christian organizations such as Marcia per la Vita - the March for Life.

He is the editor of the Italian journal,

Radici Cristiane (Christian Roots), and for his work with the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, the Holy See awarded him the insignia of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great.

He is also the author of The Vicar of Christ: Between the Ordinary and the Exceptional, and teaches Church History at the European University of Rome,

~ See de Mattei/ Page 9

On Profound Crisis in the Church

(Special Report on a Lecture by Roberto de Mattei)

V. Chiarello/ Continued from Page 1

where he is the head of the Faculty of Historical Sciences.

De Mattei became a focus of attention when he was recently relieved of his position at Radio Maria, a Vatican radio station, after four years. He was told by Radio Maria’s Director, Fr.

Livio Fanzaga, the priest who hired him, that the principal reason for his dismissal was that he had not affirmed the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church (my emphasis), something that still puzzles de Mattei and many others.

In an interview prior to his departure to the U.S., de Mattei stated that he believes that his support in gathering signatures in support of the Franciscans of the Immaculate to offer the Tridentine Mass was "not liked by certain high ecclesiastics, who asked Fr. Livio for my head." He then added that since Vatican II, while calling for "dialogue" with separated brethren, "...they (the anti-Traditionalists in the Vatican) use a fist of iron toward those within the Church who do not want to stray from the unchangeable Tradition of the Church."

Why he would become a troublemaker, subversive, or even a heretic to certain members of the Vatican’s dicastri (departments) was a theme, amongst others, that he would try to explain as part of the lecture at the Cosmos Club.

In attempting to describe the changes in the Church over the past half century, Professor de Mattei sought to connect, as a historian, not a theologian, the impact of other cataclysmic events such as the French Revolution, "the mother of all revolutions," to changing attitudes in the Church, something that another contributor to The Remnant, Prof. John Rao, has also described.

As a historian he could see the early evidence of those consequences as Vatican II unfolded over the arc of a half century, and which are now clearly detectable to any observer. Noticeable changes from the Church’s earlier attitudes, de Mattei emphasized, came about as the Church increasingly adopted, perhaps unwittingly, the philosophical framework of the Italian Communist, Antonio Gramsci, who claimed that Socialism/Communism would "march through the institutions," but in a nonviolent way. Gramsci’s philosophical victory, de Matttei maintains, is in claiming that "objective truth" would overtake that of "supernatural truth," and that religious belief would slowly be replaced by a philosophical framework in which in order to survive the Church must modernize. That transformation is described by de Mattei as "principle giving way to praxis," a situation in which the Church has increasingly "ceased to fight" for its principles. The historical evidence of that reversal, among other accommodations with modernism, "the synthesis of all heresies," can be found the documents of Vatican II.

While it is fair to say, as one questioner did, that although few recall the four Constitutions of the French Republic during the Revolution, most recall at least one major historical consequence: the guillotine. De Mattei reiterated that it makes little sense to examine the documents of Vatican II in a vacuum; it is what has historically happened to the Church in the intervening half century that really matters. To de Mattei there could be no question that a "profound crisis within the Church" now engulfs it.

Many in the audience that night were aware of the paper delivered by Walter Cardinal Kasper in February of this year to a gathering at the Consistory on the topic of the family in preparation for the Synod that will be held in the Vatican this coming October. The German Cardinal’s paper expressed his (emphasis mine) belief that there should be a willingness by the Church to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments of the Church, including communion. As if on cue, major newspapers in the U.S. and Europe seized upon the prelate’s words to theorize that the Church was, indeed, making an effort to accommodate its principles with the modern world, a primary objective – aggiornamento – of Pope John XXIII in convoking of the Second Vatican Council. Those in the audience who wondered if de Mattei would broach that subject were not disappointed, for Kasper’s proposal came under scrutiny almost at the start of the historian’s talk.

Referring to Cardinal Kasper’s approach as "sociological," de Mattei described the proposal as being framed in a way that pits "Church doctrine versus real-life convictions of many Christians," as if one were at odds with the other. Further, the end result of such "situational ethics" changes would, aside from its antithetical nature to Catholic dogma, lead most certainly to "Catholic divorce" and permission of cohabitation. Cardinal Kasper’s overall approach was, then, a plea which de Mattei described as, "...the Church must adapt to the forces of history, not history to the unchanging principles of the Church."

Cardinal Kasper’s novel approach to re-thinking the sacrament of marriage is a direct historical result of Vatican II’s emphasis on "pastoral orthodoxy" as being the sine qua non of Church practice, even though it was patently antithetical to accepted Church doctrine for centuries.

For a Traditional comparison to Cardinal Kasper’s proposal, de Mattei pointed to Pope Pius XII, who defined the morality issue in marriage thus: " Continence within and outside of marriage is a Christian value; sexual union outside the sacrament of marriage of matrimony is a grave sin." What Kasper was proposing had eliminated those differences, which had been "what the moralists always taught," and at the same time the German Cardinal was discarding the dogmatic teachings of the pre-Vatican II Church, a major consequence of the Council. It is hard to believe that the participants in that aggiornamento suspected anything like the Kasper proposal would ever be considered, yet alone discussed.

In attempting to explain the apparent amnesia that now is an integral part of current Church teaching, the lecturer devoted a lengthy review of the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes (Joys and Hopes), which was "supposed to be the ‘first proving ground’ of the Church’s capacity to enter into dialogue with the world," or as described by one of the participants, "the promised land of the Council."

Here de Mattei points an accusatory finger at the Leon-Joseph Suenens, then Cardinal Archbishop of Brussels, who during the Council deliberations was relentless in his effort to "connect the Church’s teaching to the modern world," and "became an icon of the Second Vatican Council."

Historically, the primary purpose of Catholic marriage was "to give children to God," followed by the requirements of "mutual love and respect," but in July ‘64, Pope Paul VI approved the schema (outline or preliminary text), drafted under the supervision of Cardinal Suenens which omitted that priority and now placed "giving children to God" and "mutual love and respect" on an equal footing. It also inserted that decisions regarding marriage, which of course included the use of birth control, could be left "up to the conscience" of the couple. The dominant role of the human conscience, rather than the application of ethical rules, was a further demonstration that the Council was now being orchestrated by prelates who had an aversion to universal moral laws: individual conscience, not Church doctrine, was to be sovereign in these matters.

When Cardinal Suenens, in an impassioned plea to the Council Fathers questioned the Church’s previous marital priority and claimed that it had been, "over-emphasized to the detriment of the marital union," he drew an interesting analogy: "Let us avoid another Galileo trial." At that point, enraged by the speaker’s tone Ernesto Cardinal Ruffini pounded his fist on the table and later characterized Suenens’ words as, "horrendous," and sought them stricken from the debate.

The Belgian’s rhetoric was so inflammatory that even the pontiff upbraided the cardinal for his "lack of judgment." Still, efforts to defeat the proposed wording of the document failed, and on December 7, 1965 Gaudium et Spes became one of the landmark documents of the Second Vatican Council. Can anyone today point to any aspect of Catholic family life that is in any way better than it was before Gaudium et Spes?

In his talk, Roberto de Mattei highlighted the history of some, but not all, of the baleful aspects of the Second Vatican Council and the unraveling of Church doctrine and dogma, but he has only scratched the surface. For example, the Church’s current position on ecumenism flies in the face of centuries, if not millennia, of dogma and doctrine; yet, any attempt to call attention the previous Church holdings on this matter is brushed off as medieval in outlook, if not antediluvian.

For a more nuanced and comprehensive analysis, de Mattei’s book on Vatican II should be read by those who seek an understanding of what happened at the Council meetings – and why. Still, in ways that are incomprehensible to many of the Faithful, the Vatican’s hierarchy has plunged the Church into an abyss that has had disastrous effects; yet, any effort to connect the dots between the baleful effects of Vatican II and the current disastrous decline of the Church in many areas is considered to be almost sacrilegious. De Mattei’s treatment at Radio Maria bears witness to that condition.

Toward the end of his talk, de Mattei quoted a French novelist who wrote, "It is necessary to live as one thinks, to avoid winding up thinking as one lives." To Roberto de Mattei, personal knowledge and understanding are necessary in following the moral and ethical guidelines set up by the Church to avoid a chaotic and uncertain morality. That fight has in large part been lost by the withdrawal of the Catholic Church from the lists of moral combat.

In the end, however, de Mattei believes that the Second Vatican Council was not only a historical event, but an amorphous "Spirit" that has come down over the 50 years, a "Spirit" that has emphasized practice and deemphasized doctrine, but he is firm in his conviction that Christ will see to it that this "profound crisis within the Church" will not be allowed to have its enemies prevail. Of that end de Mattei is certain. ■

Italian Historian Roberto de Mattei Lectures in Washington, D.C.

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Tue, 15 Apr 2014 | Cover | Page 03

The Remnant Speaks

Letters to the Editor: The Remnant Speaks P.O. Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 55025, Editor@RemnantNewspaper.com Some Good News Out of Rome

Editor, The Remnant: Pope Francis has confirmed the conservative Msgr. Guido Marini as Papal Master of Ceremonies.

This says a lot since Marini is one of Rome’s most conservative liturgists and one of the strongest supporters of the Traditional Latin Mass. Marini’s concerns over slights against the Traditional Mass have apparently made an impression on the pope.

In an interview before Marini’s official reappointment, Francis said: "You say that my papal master of ceremonies is of a traditionalist character. And many have asked me about my choice to remove him from office and be replaced.

I said no, just that I prefer him to even benefit me by his traditional formation and at the same time, so he is formed in the same way by my emancipated formation." The pope must know that he could never change Marini even if he wanted to, so if he appointed him it’s because he accepts him on traditional terms. It doesn’t mean Francis has given up his modern ideas, of course, but at least here he has made a good decision.

The new appointment hopefully points to renewed reverence for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Hopefully it will help to close down the modernist carnival and open the way to a little more "majesty" in the future.

David Martin Internet Saint Pope John Paul

Editor, The Remnant: Pope John Paul II did found the FSSP, and didn’t he help found the Franciscans of the Immaculate, as well? I agree with your arguments made recently on Remnant TV—you are right to caution against his canonization as he did many things which are questionable. And I think people are often disingenuous when they say "the holy spirit wants us to do this or that." What real miracles have been worked through Pope John Paul?

St. Padre Pio cured a blind girl and she could see afterwards without any pupils.

This was well documented. Where are the similar cases for Pope John Paul II?

But I don’t believe either of the Popes (John Paul II or John XXIII) really made an effort to cover up child abuse. I think we can see that there were many bishops and priests who made sure their abuse never became known and especially that word of their crimes never reached the Vatican.

They’re going to ram this canonization through but I don’t think it will achieve what they want it to achieve. If he is in heaven then God will give us a special grace and we will begin to see more good things from him. Perhaps God will give the Church the grace of restored seminaries and maybe well even see the TLM return to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate which John Paul II helped establish. Isn’t it amazing that they canonize him while at the same time attacking his "traditionalist" legacy? Still, I believe Vatican II really should be accepted more as the Church becomes more liberal. It may be ambiguous in some areas, but it speaks to issues that I believe need to be stressed today. For example, the attack on the celibate priesthood and a push for married priests in the Latin Rite.

KMO Internet The Remnant’s Wrong: John Paul II Should Be Canonized!

Editor, The Remnant: I have recently heard about the Remnant and became a subscriber, but I strongly disagree with you on the Vatican not canonizing John Paul II to sainthood. In the years I have lived, I have seen very good saintly people, but I honestly have to tell you that I have never seen a more saintly man than Pope John Paul ll. Seeing him over the 25 years of his pontificate, the suffering that that man went through, how he kept pushing himself to do the work of Pope that our God put him here for despite the pain and agony he endured along with his deep humility— that alone makes him a saint.

Have you forgotten all the other things he has done? For example, bringing down the Iron Curtain, standing by his beloved Poland and helping other countries under the Russian yoke.

When some people accuse him of the pedophiles under his watch, they have not done their homework. Pedophiles in the Church have long been there before his papacy. That man loved children more than any other Pope, it was so obvious.

He traveled much and brought Jesus Christ to everyone he met. I will never forget how in South America, at Mass, the communists tried to drown out the words he spoke at the consecration and his homily, but in spite of their evil, the picture I will never forget is him standing on the podium dressed in white with the wind blowing his garments and Pope John Paul holding up high his cross and shouting out over their jeers, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.

There are things that John Paul has done like—like kissing the Koran, and the gathering of faiths at Assisi—which I am disturbed about; but only God can judge him in that regard. I would bet something was done to him by the Vatican liberals. But all in all, every saint down through the centuries was nowhere near perfect, all had flaws.

When John Paul was still alive, I saw sainthood written all over him. I am definitely in favor of his sainthood!

Philip Schneider Internet On Archbishop Lefebvre and Father Paul Editor, The Remnant: So Father Paul Nicholson has determined that Archbishop Lefebvre is now "considered to be damned for all eternity" www.

remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.

php/fetzen-fliegen/item/513-fr-paulnicholson- marcel-didn-t-care-aboutthe- holy-mass Are we to assume that the poor Father has elevated himself to the position of a judge of souls? Only a delusion that stems from an inflated ego could lift a mere mortal to such a lofty height.

In contrast, the Archbishop was too humble, holy and Catholic to judge the soul of anyone. He did, however, out of necessity judge the actions of those who were straying from true doctrine, and he dedicated his life to doing all he could to preserve Church teaching for the sake of souls. He would have prayed for, and probably is praying for Fr.

Nicholson, that he will be saved from being judged as he has judged. How often are inflated egos used as a source of ammunition for the Father of Lies?

Mary Strangward Internet Thank You

Editor, The Remnant: I just want to let you all know that the Remnant is saving my spiritual life. I am so heartbroken with the things happening in the Church today. When I get my copy of your paper I feel like I am home at last.

Thanks you and I pray for you. Please pray for me.

Ann Hyde Internet An Objection from Andrew Senior

Editor, The Remnant: It seems that once more I must defend my father’s honor and reputation, not from his enemies by way of attack, but from those who advertise themselves as his friends, who seek to use him for their gain.

With publication expected soon, many have asked me about the biography of my father from Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. I would like to state the following briefly for the record: I do not recommend this book at all. I most heartily dis-recommend it in the highest terms. It is not authorized by the family. It is a betrayal of his memory, an invasion of his personal privacy, and a deep insult to his family.

It is filled with inaccuracies, complete fabrications, and subjective fantasies.

If there is any truth in it at all, it is completely out of proportion. It distorts the truth about my father; it is written with "spin." It tries to portray him as a "conservative", not a traditionalist Catholic. It paints an utterly false picture which attempts to deny the fact that he loathed the Novus Ordo.

Sadly, the main purpose of the book seems to be to raise even more funds

Continued Next Page

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Letters to the Editor

for the monastery, which in my opinion already has too much. I urge faithful Remnant readers to support my father’s true legacy by sending donations to the Society of St. Pius X, and they should also buy his last book from The Remnant ( The Remnants: The Final Essays of John Senior). Sent on April 8, 2014 the 15th anniversary of his death.

Andrew Senior

The Remnant’s Impact

Editor, The Remnant: I just wanted to echo the sentiments of Remnant readers in thanking you for your wonderful and necessary work in defending our traditional Catholic faith. I know I consider the Remnant home base for both me and my website tridentinecatholic.com It wasn’t until after you published my first letter about 8 months ago that carried my website domain that I realized just how widely The Remnant newspaper truly is read. About a month after you published that letter I started to get hits literally from all over the world, even from Ho Chi Min city in North Vietnam—just to show you how widespread your publication is! The Remnant is definitely an excellent source in spreading the word of traditional Catholicism. I also need to mention your latest venture, Remnant TV on YouTube. You and Chris Ferrara make a fantastic team on The Remnant Forum, and, most importantly, it gives us all hope for a reunited and restored Catholic church. Through your videos we can feel the momentum moving.

Even with the current crises in the church I think we are still better off now than in the deep dark days following Vatican II. In the 60s and 70s we did not have the web, social media, email, etc.

We had no communication so we were all little remote islands essentially at the mercy of whatever lies and innovation the Vatican chose to shove down our throats. Information and a sense that we are not alone is the key. That’s what I tried to do with my site, gather all information I could on our traditional faith, such as Tridentine Mass locations, gift shops of traditional Catholic religious groups, even the traditional rules for fasting, way of the cross, etc in downloadable pdf files. I even added a social network to the site in an attempt to make an even stronger bond. I think you hit the nail on the head in one of your remnant videos making a plea that we all stick together through this and avoid as much infighting as we can.

Being a Tea Party member I know that the Internet was how we managed to grow and stand strong. I see the same movement growing here with Traditional Catholics. Fisheaters, Rorate Caeli, Angle Queen, etc, and of course The Remnant have blazed the trail. I only hope my little site can contribute in a small way as well.

Al Schroeder Jr. www.tridentinecatholic.com Modern Notions of Charity

Editor, The Remnant: While reading a book of counsels and reflections by Rev.

Lasance, I started thinking about the differences between Christian charity, Modernism, and some false concepts of charity. Part of the doctrine of Christian charity is that, as members of the Mystical body of Christ, by loving God above all things, each of us can be the best he can be for his own sake and for the sake of edifying the others. We need to remember that whatever each member does, it also affects the others.

On the other hand, the Modernists, some the very leaders of the Church, do the opposite of what is charitable.

They appear to be careless or doubtful, playing the dual role of unbelieving rationalist and faithful Catholic and presenting doctrines that contradict one another. Pope St. Pius X warns in Pascendi Dominici Gregis that those are the characteristics of the Modernists, and that their purpose is to confuse the faithful and subvert the Church of Christ. Then there are the well-meaning Catholics who have a different idea of what Christian charity should be.

Although Pope St. Pius X advised that it was necessary, for the good of the Church and for the love of souls, to judge the Modernists by their tenets, words and actions, the well-meaning Catholics believe it’s wiser to support the Modernist whenever he plays the part of Catholic and to excuse him for what they think are blunders.

Finally, there are the desperate Catholics who need a quick solution to the crisis in the Church; so they promote the superstitious notion that each conciliar pope is under some sort of curse, which makes him confused about the faith, and that the remedy is not the sacrament of penance and to renounce his errors, but to consecrate Russia. They put words in Our Lady’s mouth. Yes, the Consecration is needed badly, but it makes more Catholic sense to expect this grace from a converted papacy. St. Paul admonishes us against lying to one another or defrauding one another, because we are fellow members of one body. It would do the Church much good if we’d take his words to heart.

Maria Medeiros Mississauga, Ontario On St. Joseph’s Assumption

Editor, The Remnant: Thank you for making the writing of Edward Healy Thompson on The Assumption of St.

Joseph available to your readers once again on www.RemnantNewspaper.com . It was a great pleasure for me to be able to bring this gold mine of traditional Catholic teaching to your attention a couple of years ago, and I hope that many of our fellow Catholics will be edified by this brief presentation of the holiness and prerogatives of this truly great Saint.

While it is difficult to know what Our Lord has in mind, it seems to me that St. Joseph may play a very important role in the re-establishment of Christendom throughout the world – not only because of his position as Patron of the Universal Church, but because of his great strength of character and masculinity. One of the great tragedies of the Modernist revolution has been the emasculation of the priesthood and of men in general. We live in an era where men of all stripes are shirking their responsibilities due in large part to a radical feminization of the male psyche and a drift toward what can only be described as a unisex culture.

This has produced a tremendous void of male leadership not only within the family, but within institutions such as the Catholic Church as well. It is contrary to the natural order established by our Heavenly Father and is, at least in my estimation, one of the greatest contributing factors to the rise of militant homosexuality within Western civilization. What is needed is a model of exemplary male virtue, strength, and holiness for modern man to emulate, and Glorious St. Joseph provides this in the highest possible degree. Once men, whether clerical or lay, begin to take St. Joseph as their model and patron and entrust themselves to his guidance, perhaps then they will begin to conduct themselves as God intended and find a level of holy wisdom and boldness that will begin to set things right. Such a circumstance will also allow women to once again assume the feminine nature that is their right, because they will not feel compelled to try to fill the void created by the detached effeminate male that has become all too pervasive in our time. When men and women properly integrate themselves in accordance with God’s plan, then Christian culture will have a genuine opportunity to flourish – and St. Joseph and Our Lady will be the driving force behind this reordering of society and the genuine establishment of the reign of Christ the King. With all good wishes I remain, Yours in the Hearts of Jesus, Mary, & Glorious St.

Joseph, Scott Montgomery Jehovah’s Catholics?

Editor, The Remnant: Why don’t Catholics go around knocking on doors like Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses to get converts? If it works for them, why can’t we try it? What do we have to lose by trying it? Even if we can’t get converts, maybe we could talk some fallen-aways into returning to Church. Thanks.

Vince in Eugene Oregon

Editor’s Response: Not a bad idea, Vince, although I sometimes wonder if actually doing something like this, which could lead to real conversion, might somehow violate the spirit of the New Evangelization. After all, didn't someone recently call such proselytization "solemn nonsense"?

Besides, with the New Evangelization we don’t have to actually do anything at all except, of course, agree that the Old Evangelization was terribly lacking!

MJM

Mrs. Gary Stadum, RIP

Editor, The Remnant: Please pray for the repose of the soul of Mrs. Gary Stadum (Terry), who was one of the first subscribers to The Remnant. Your longtime readers may remember some of her letters to the editor, written with wit and poignancy.

Proud of her role as a North Dakota farm wife and mother of nine, she was a true champion of devotion to Catholic tradition, particularly to the traditional Mass. A few years ago, Terry developed a rare form of dementia and on January 4, 2013, passed away from its effects, wearing the brown scapular, having received Extreme Unction from a traditional priest who visited her from time to time. All who knew her miss her joyful and enthusiastic spirit.

Please, I would prefer not to have my name printed. Thank You! God bless the Remnant staff and readership.

Her sister, a Franciscan

Editor’s Note: This letter from last year was recently discovered in our Remnant Speaks file. I don’t believe it was ever published and, even if it was, the fact that we "happened upon it" again could mean that prayers are being requested from beyond the grave. In your charity, please keep Mrs. Stadum in your prayers. MJM

Waiting for Sponsors

Young pilgrims will walk the pilgrimage in the name of their sponsors. As in years past, the names of sponsors and their special intentions will also be carried to Chartres and read aloud each day on the Pilgrimage.

Tax-exempt donations are much appreciated and can be sent to the addresss below. MJM Remnant Tours’ Youth Fund PO Box 1117 Forest Lake, MN 55025

Olivia Rao, New York (Sponsored) William Bischel, Ohio (Sponsored) Michael Rubin,(Sponsored) Alyssa Brandon, Indiana (Sponsored) Nicholas Rao, New York (Sponsored) Fatima Cruz, California ($400 thus far) Magdalena Alanis ($400 thus far) The Priest Fund: $1000 thus far.

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The Lives of the Saints

St. Alexandra

The

TheHoly Empress Alexandra was the wife of Diocletian (284-305). Her supposed death was described in the Martyrdom of Saint George, which was written immediately after his death. The empress, however, received the crown of martyrdom several years later, in 314.

Many events occurred during these years. In 305 the emperor Diocletian resigned the throne and power passed to his co-ruler Maximian Galerius (305-311), a fanatic pagan, as well as a coarse and fierce soldier. His wife was St Valeria, the daughter of the holy Empress Alexandra, whom Diocletian had given in marriage against her will.

St Alexandra raised her daughter in Christian piety. When Galerius died, the emperor Maximinus sought her hand in marriage. When he was refused, he banished St Valeria to Syria, where she lived with her mother.

After the death of Maximinus in 311 the mother and daughter arrived in Nicomedia, trusting in the mercy of the emperor Licinius (311-324). Together with St Constantine, he had subscribed to the Edict of Milan, which gave Christians the freedom of religion, but secretly he remained an enemy of Christianity. Licinius gave orders to execute the holy Empress Alexandra and her daughter Valeria. They were beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea.

In another account, Alexandra was not beheaded but rather died peacefully on her way to be martyred, after having declared herself as a Christian.

While Diocletian, her depraved husband, was having Saint George tortured, the Empress went to the arena and bowed before St. George and professed her faith openly. Her husband was so outraged by this and by so many people being converted by witnessing George’s miracles and patient endurance, that he ordered both of them to be beheaded.

Alexandra quietly accepted her sentence and prayed as the guards walked her to the place of execution. She asked if she could rest for a moment. The guards allowed this. While resting by the wall of a building, she quietly gave her soul to God. She reposed on April 21, 303. Two days later, St. George was beheaded.

They are commemorated at the same time along with Anatolios, Protoleon and the 630 others who were martyred for professing faith while witnessing George’s martyrdom.

St. Alexandra, Pray For Us

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A View from Rocco’s…

Dancing on a Corpse…and Liking It

■ What is it that makes our Neo-Catholic enemies "comfortable" amidst all the ruins and stench? Why do they insist on remaining pathetic deniers of the great historian of the Council of Trent, Hubert Jedin’s, warning that nothing does more to abet a disaster than an unwillingness to recognize its real existence and character?

By John Rao, Ph.D.

"Christ said ‘I am the Truth’. He did not say, ‘I am custom’." (Tertullian)

Howmuch time does it take for neo Catholics to realize that they are dancing on a corpse? Apparently, the answer is "forever", and this because their head is where their heart is.

The question popped into my head while sitting here at Rocco’s today, comparing this pastry shop’s situation with that of the Church in general, and wondering what I, as an historian, would write about news of the immediate collapse of both.

If Rocco’s gave up the ghost by closing time tonight, I would find myself at a total loss explaining why. The proprietors own the building, are in position to charge low rates for their customers, actually do so, and have a thriving business in consequence. Hence, finding reasons for the café’s sudden closure would be a first class chore.

I cannot say the same for the physical demise of the Church. Yes, I suppose that if news came out that every parish was to be handed over to fashion outlets this very afternoon, that St. Peter’s was being demolished first thing tomorrow morning to provide better parking facilities for tourist buses, and that every member of the clergy was being given an entire week to decide whether to go for his M.B.A. or to enter the rehabilitation center of his choice, it would be momentarily shocking. Nevertheless, a minute’s recollection would remind me why it all made perfect sense. And the only shock that two minutes’ reflection would cause would be bafflement as to why the final physical dissolution had taken so long.

Obviously, no one reading The Remnant needs a catalogue enumerating the specifics of the disaster that has befallen the Bride of Christ over the last fifty years. Remnant writers and readers have themselves aided in the compilation of that catalogue. In doing so, we have imitated our forbears in analogous situations through the ages: men and women who both stubbornly and loudly identified the diseases crippling Holy Church, regularly employing as their battle cry the only prescription for a cure that could seriously work—the need for a "Reform of Both Head and Members". Their banner is still our banner. And given our recognition that there will be no turnabout in the fortunes of the Church until her Head definitively leads us in the work of putting things straight, it is no surprise whatsoever that we endure the same abuse that past reformers did at the hands of those who consider any criticism of a pope to be an attack on Catholicism. Like past reformers, we have to contend with opponents who have confused Apostolic Tradition with the standard operating procedures of institutions that have become familiar and comfortable to them; the standard operating procedures that have turned the Church in her human element into a rotting corpse.

A brief example from the Theatine reformer, Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa, underscores the historical analogy.

Before becoming the ferocious Pope Paul IV (1555-1559)—as well as afterwards—Carafa was absolutely scathing in his attacks on an erroneous Roman ideology and those who devastated the Church while defending it. He joined with fellow cardinals in the Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia of 1537 in declaring that "the fundamental cause of the ills of the Church is the immense exaggeration of the pontifical power occasioned by the refined adulation of canonists without conscience". (See my article, "The Theatines and the Question of Catholic Renewal", at jcrao.freeshell.org; quotation from Gennaro Maria Monti, ed., Ricerche su Papa Paolo IV Carafa Benevento, 1923, p. 42).

It was this transformation of the Holy Father into Il Supremo which, given the nature of bureaucratic institutions, was to allow "those most rapacious Cerberi that surround the poor prince, selling, at base price, the soul and the honor of His Holiness" to guarantee "the immoderate favor which so many—not merely the most pernicious and criminal, but also those most heretical and hostile to Christ, His Holiness, and the whole of Holy Church—find and enjoy in that Court to the great dishonor and offense of God and His Church. (Monti, pp.

156-157). He who most loudly praised the pope proclaimed infallibility for his own personal fantasies and crimes in the process.

Carafa and the school of spirituality that he represented were convinced that one thing alone could effect a return to health: a root and branch change of spirit. That change of spirit required a total abandonment of an equation of "business as usual" with "tradition" that had enabled the "Catholic" powersthat- be to continue their riotous and destructive dance upon the ecclesiastical corpse. Abandonment of this false conservatism divinizing intellectual distortion and personal corruption opened the highway to embrace of Christ, Apostolic Tradition, and true Catholic recovery.

Our Neo-Catholic conservative enemies are among "those most rapacious Cerebri" whose praise of the "business as usual" of the post-Conciliar era allows our current dance upon a "corpse" that can always be revived joyfully to continue. Something makes them "comfortable" amidst all the ruins and stench; pathetic deniers of the great historian of the Council of Trent, Hubert Jedin’s, warning that nothing does more to abet a disaster than an unwillingness to recognize its real existence and character.

I have become convinced that that something is an unshakeable commitment, conscious or unconscious, to the basic foundations of an American culture rooted in the so-called moderate Enlightenment of John Locke and Company and the perks they believe they get from this. Until they break with this most dangerously successful of individualist and materialist ideologies they will continue their unconscionable praise of ignorance of the true Catholic Tradition, their refusal to admit that a Head that for fifty years has played ball with the Enlightenment must be reformed along with the Members, and their joyful dance upon a corpse: not only the corpse of the Church, but of the whole of a society rapidly approaching a dissolution that will be even easier to describe. ■

Pope Paul IV

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On the Ecumenical Front...

Vatican Surrenders to Luther: A Neo-Catholicism Update

By Christopher A. Ferrara

■ In his Responsio ad Lutherum, St. Thomas More called Luther an "ape", a "drunkard", and a "lousy little friar". But who was he to judge?

TheVatican has announced another milestone in neo-Catholicism: a joyous Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017! The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity proclaims the surprising development that makes this very special commemoration possible:

Catholics and Lutherans realize that they and the communities in which they live out their faith belong to the one body of Christ.

The awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that the struggle of the sixteenth century is over. The reasons for mutually condemning each other’s faith have fallen by the wayside.

Yes, the awareness is dawning: Catholics and Lutherans are one after all! And since this great good news comes to us from a Pontifical Council, we ought not to protest it because, as the neo-Catholics so rightly insist, there must be no public criticism of the Pope. Ever. Under any circumstances.

Yet reactionary, radical traditionalist, self-absorbed, neo-Pelagian counters of Rosaries may still cavil that it seems impossible for Catholics to belong to "the one body of Christ" with Lutherans who reject dogmas of the Faith, the existence of seven sacraments, the sacrificial priesthood, and the divine institution of the papacy, while approving divorce and remarriage, contraception, abortion— but only when there are " sound reasons for ending a pregnancy"— and the "ordination" of women and actively homosexual "gay" ministers. Indeed, the Vatican document even bears the name of "Rev. Wanda" from Brazil.

Butnottoworry!TheVaticanhassuspended the operation of the principle of noncontradiction for ecumenical purposes. As the document explains: As members of one body, Catholics and Lutherans remember together the events of the Reformation that led to the reality that thereafter they lived in divided communities even though they still belonged to one body. That is an impossible possibility and the source of great pain.

Problem solved: Catholics and Lutherans belong to "the one body of Christ" by an impossible possibility. Who knew!

But, no doubt, the reactionary, radical traditionalist, self-absorbed, neo-Pelagian counters of Rosaries will point to the anathemas attached to Luther’s errors by the supposedly "infallible" Council of Trent, as approved by Pope Saint Pius V, and the earlier condemnation of forty-one Lutheran propositions by Pope Leo X in Exsurge Domine (1520).

Tut, tut, tut. That was then, and this, my friend, is now! As the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Disunity—I mean Unity—explains, with appropriately contemptuous quotation marks: Meanwhile, in Rome, the process against Luther continued and, eventually, Pope Leo X decided to act. To fulfill his "pastoral office," Pope Leo X felt obliged to protect the "orthodox faith" from those who "twist and adulterate the Scriptures" so that they are "no longer the Gospel of Christ." Thus the pope issued the bull which condemned forty-one propositions drawn from various publications by Luther. Although they can all be found in Luther’s writings and are quoted correctly, they are taken out of their respective contexts.

So it seems that dastardly Pope Leo X did Luther a grave injustice by quoting him out of context. But what of the Tridentine anathemas approved by Saint Pius V? Well, even saints can make mistakes, as the coming canonizations of John XXIII and John Paul II will demonstrate resoundingly. As the Pontifical Council explains, the Tridentine anathemas were a polemical excess, an unfortunate tit-for-tat with Protestants, uttered in the heat of the moment: Because the doctrinal decrees of the Council were largely in response to what it perceived to be Protestant errors, it shaped a polemical environment between Protestants and Catholics that tended to define Catholicism over and against Protestantism. In this approach, it mirrored many of the Lutheran confessional writings, which also defined Lutheran positions by opposition. The decisions of the Council of Trent laid the basis for the formation of Catholic identity up to the Second Vatican Council.

But, of course, the Super Council That Changed Everything Forever has superseded the polemical excesses of Trent, whose embarrassing fulminations can now be safely abandoned despite the exaggerated claims of their infallibility. Quoth the Pontifical Council: While the Council of Trent largely defined Catholic relations with Lutherans for several centuries, its legacy must now be viewed through the lens of the actions of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). This Council made it possible for the Catholic Church to enter the ecumenical movement and leave behind the charged polemic atmosphere of the post-Reformation era.

But wait. Those same reactionary, radical traditionalist, self-absorbed, neo-Pelagian counters of Rosaries might object that a document published by the "Pontifical Council for Christian Unity" has no doctrinal value. Nonsense. This is the epoch of The Great Façade in which nondoctrine is doctrine, while actual doctrine is forgotten. So, on with the commemoration of the Reformation! It’s just another day in neo-Catholic land. ■

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Johannes Cochlæus

Catholic Champion Against the Errors of Martin Luther

Born

in 1479; d. 11 Jan., 1552, in Breslau, he was ordained in Rome and entered the arena as the opponent of the Lutheran movement. His first works were "De Utroque Sacerdotio" (1520) and several smaller writings published in rapid succession. In 1521 he met the nuncio Aleander at Worms and worked untiringly to bring about the reconciliation of Luther. During the following years he wrote tracts against Luther’s principal theses on the doctrine of justification, on the freedom of the will, and on the teaching of the Church (especially the important work, "De Gratia Sacramentorum", 1522; "De Baptismo parvulorum", 1523; "A commentary on 154 Articles"; etc).

Luther, to the vexation of Cochlæus wrote in answer only a single work, "Adversus Armatum Virum Cocleum".

Cochlæus accompanied Compeggio to the negotiations at Nuremberg and Ratisbon. The Lutheran movement and the Peasants’ War drove him to Cologne in 1525.

From there he wrote against the rebellion and Luther, its real author. In 1526 he received a canonry at Mayence and accompanied Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg to the Diet of Speyer. After Emser’s death Cochlæus took his place as secretary to Duke George of Saxony, whom he defended against an attack of Luther based on the false charge of an alliance between the Catholic princes at Breslau (cf. The Affaire of Otto v.

Pack). Conjointly with Duke George he labored strenuously in 1530, to refute the Augsburg Confession. Because of a pamphlet against Henry VIII of England he was transferred in 1535 to a canonry in Meissen. After the duke’s death, owing to the advance of the Reformation, his further stay in Saxony became quite impossible. For the time being he found a refuge as canon first at Breslau and later at Eichstätt. With indomitable ardor he published pamphlet after pamphlet against Luther and Melanchthon, against Zwingli, Butzer, Bullinger, Cordatus, Ossiander, etc.

His greatest work against Luther is his strictly historical "Commentaria de Actis et Scriptis M. Luther" (extending to his death), an armory of Catholic polemics for all succeeding time.

In 1549, he returned to Breslau where he died shortly after. Naturally of a quiet and studious disposition he was drawn into the arena of polemics by the Lutheran schism. There he developed a productivity and zeal unparalleled by any other Catholic theologian of his time. ■

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Brest, not Balamand

By Gabriel S. Sanchez

Thehistory of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), one of two sui iuris churches created by the 1595/96 agreement known as the Union of Brest (the other being the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church), has been fraught with difficulties. [Brest was the decision of the Ruthenian Church of Rus’, the "Metropolia of Kiev-Halych and all Rus’", to break relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople and enter into communion with and place itself under the authority of the Pope of Rome.] Fiercely opposed from its inception by the Russian Orthodox Church, many of the heirs of Brest were deceptively, or forcibly, reunited with the Russian Orthodox beginning in the late 18th C. and culminating in the utterly tragic 1946 "L’viv Sobor"—a bogus council staged by the Soviet Union’s puppet Moscow Patriarchate (MP) and kept in check by Stalin’s secret police— which purportedly abrogated the Union of Brest and abolished the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Driven underground for decades, Ukraine’s Catholics, Slavo-Byzantine in rite and loyal to the Pope, were finally granted the freedom to openly practice their faith following the historic meeting between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on December 1, 1989. Though some had estimated that the number of Ukrainian Catholics in the Soviet Union remained in the tens of thousands, the joyous reality was that over 1,000 Ukrainian clergy came forward along with five million faithful. Truly the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas, patron of Greek Catholics, had watched over the beleaguered Ukrainian Church during its time in the catacombs.

Astonishingly, the brave Catholic souls of Ukraine and Russia had yet to experience five years of freedom before the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, headed by now-Cardinal Walter Kasper and including a representative from the MP, backed the so-called "Balamand Declaration"(named after the Orthodox’s Balamand School of Theology in Lebanon) which, inter alia, repudiated "Uniatism," the (sometimes pejorative) name given to the Catholic Church’s process of seeking reunification with its estranged eastern brethren that began at Brest and met with noticeable success in other parts of the globe up until the early 20th C.

Though the Balamand Declaration lacks binding force, it is routinely held up by ecumenists as an absolute prohibition against Catholic proselytism of Orthodox (though not the other way around). While some hoped Balamand would help thaw relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, it was not to be. John Paul II’s hopes of visiting Russia were dashed by the MP and indeed no Patriarch of Moscow has yet to agree to meet with any Roman Pontiff. Meanwhile, the MP has remained strident in its public stand against Roman primacy in the Church while freely talking out of both sides of its mouth with respect to strengthening Catholic/Orthodox ties.

Of course, the Balamand Declaration was not the Catholic Church’s first ecumenical blunder vis-à-vis the Orthodox. As Roberto de Mattei details in his The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story, the desire of some Roman churchmen to win MP participation at Vatican II resulted in a clandestine deal whereby the Soviets were assured that the Council Fathers would take no strong stand against communism in exchange for the greenlight to be given for Moscow’s ageing Patriarch, Alexius, to dispatch two of his priests to Rome. Embarrassingly, the immediate fruits of this unholy pact was acrimony among the other Orthodox patriarchates, including accusations that Rome was attempting to divide the Orthodox Church against itself. According to Mattei, it was only after Pope Paul VI’s meeting with Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantinople, that the situation was defused. Sadly, all of this transpired at a time when Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, the rightful head of the UGCC, was languishing in a Russian gulag as millions of his flock practiced their faith clandestinely for fear of bloody reprisals. Now, fast-forward to the Euromaidan demonstrations which began in Ukraine last November. Without delving too deeply into the complex series of political grievances and power struggles which remain at the heart of that movement and the coinciding call for Ukraine to deepen its integration with the European Union at the expense of its historic ties to Russia, the protests, along with the Russian state’s subsequent annexation of Crimea in southern Ukraine, has ignited Russian Orthodox recriminations against the UGCC and a fresh round of persecutions. Since the annexation of Crimea, all of the region’s Catholic clergy, save one priest and a deacon, have left after intimidation by Russian forces. At the same time, the Catholic faithful have been urged by their leaders to remove themselves to Ukrainian-controlled territory due to heightened concerns over arrest and property seizures.

While some apologists for the Russian Church view the Crimean situation as an isolated matter bound up with its Russian-speaking majority’s desire for unity with Russia, the Russian Church’s rhetoric says otherwise. Since the start of the Euromaidan, Ukraine’s Catholic population has been routinely blamed by Russian authorities for instigating the protests. Moreover, the alignment of some Ukrainian Catholics with the country’s two leading farright nationalist parties has opened the door for Russian propagandists to mischaracterize those movements as "neo-Nazi" and thus, by extension, suggesting that Ukrainian Catholics are neo-Nazis as well. More troubling than this childish name-calling, however, is the openly prejudicial attitude of the MP toward the UGCC. In an interview published on the Russian Orthodox Church’s official website, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfayev, the MP’s leading theologian and potential heir to the Patriarchal throne, had this to say:

To sum up the theme of the Uniates or Greek Catholics, in fact, from Rome’s point of view, the Uniates should serve as a bridge between East and West.

Actually, this project was conceived as such. But this special project of the Catholic Church has always been perceived by the Orthodox extremely negatively because, as a matter of fact, the Uniates are people who wear Orthodox clothes, observe Orthodox rites while remaining Catholic.

In these lines one finds the classic conflation of rite and religious identity which many in the Orthodox Church have clung to for centuries. From the Russian Orthodox perspective, as articulated by Alfayev, all Christians who practice the Slavo-Byzantine Rite belong to them by right and their union with the Church of Rome is ipso facto invalid. The irony of that erroneous view is that the MP was the first Orthodox jurisdiction to manufacture and establish an "Orthodox Western Rite" in Europe and the United States which, in large part, borrows from Roman Rite worship while clumsily mixing in Byzantine and long-defunct Western liturgical elements. Following Alfayev’s reasoning, shouldn’t Orthodoxy’s Western Rite parishes belong, by right, to the Roman Church? But really, the truly disturbing aspect of the MP’s attitude is its parochialism and ethnocentrism. Have the Russian Orthodox forgotten that the Church is supposed to be universal and not circumscribed geographically or ritualistically (so long as the ritual properly expresses the Faith)? The UGCC, along with the 21 other Eastern sui iuris churches, is a witness to the catholicity of the Church, not a cultural ornament.

The full unveiling of the MP’s negative stance toward the UGCC in the light of the unsettling political situation in Ukraine should give all Catholics, particularly traditional Catholics, reason to seriously question the unilateral dissolution of "Uniatism" in the wake of Balamand. Between ethnic pride and historical animosity, it should be clear that the MP has no intention of "playing ball" with Rome nor allowing the UGCC to thrive on "its territory" if it can help it. With the Russian Orthodox Church being so far gone from ecumenical dialogue at this point, would it not be better, in the interest mending the Great Schism stich-by-stich, for the Catholic Church as a whole and the UGCC in particular to open the door once again to those Eastern Orthodox who also long for the Church to be truly one?

In fact, is not Rome carrying out this very project in its own backyard under Pope Benedict XVI’s Anglicanorum Coetibus? Although this project of "Anglican Uniatism"—to borrow Fr.

Aidan Nichols’ expression—has come packaged with certain difficulties, the far older enterprise of "Eastern Uniatism," with its preservation of the ancient liturgy, spirituality, and theology of the Christian East, should be seen as a means of restoring the universal Church’s alignment with tradition.

Traditional Catholicism, a movement which has largely, though not exclusively, been associated with those faithful who follow the Roman Rite would do well to support the UGCC and, from there, to call for the rebirth of "Eastern Uniatism." With the Catholic Church still in the midst of a painful doctrinal and liturgical crisis, even incremental reunion with separated Eastern Christians, many of whom carry a strong fidelity to the historic principles which once united all of Christendom, can only strengthen the Mystical Body of Christ. For too long Rome, intoxicated by false ecumenism, has capitulated to the Orthodox while ignoring those heroic Catholics of the East who were supposed to be under her protection. The spirit of Balamand is the spirit of selling out; the spirit of Brest, and the "Uniate" accords which followed, is the true spirit of catholicity in union with Christ’s words, "That they all may be one…and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (John 17:21). ■

No Communion in the hand here. A Ukrainian Greek Catholic Mass at the pilgrimage to the miraculous icon of 'Halytska' in the village of Krylos, Ukraine, July 29, 2012. (CNS photo)

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The Hour Has Come

On the Passion of the Mystical Body of Christ

THE doctrine of Christ is that we die to the world and join with Him on the cross. This teaching is beautifully expressed by St. Paul where he says, "I am nailed to the cross with Christ."

(Galatians 2:19) To endure the suffering of the cross is necessary for salvation as taught by the Savior Himself: "Whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."

(Matthew 14:27) Christ came to deliver us from the world and to call us home to His everlasting Kingdom, but this will be done strictly through the cross. He went before us to open the way but unless we follow Him, His sacrifice avails us nothing. The way to Heaven is to strip oneself of worldly interest and to press after Christ with our cross as taught by the evangelist: "I suffer the loss of all things, and count them as dung, that I may gain Christ."

(Phil. 3:8) The apostle furthermore teaches, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim.

3:12) The faithful are called upon to join with Christ and to endure the rejection of the world, remembering the words of the Savior, "If the world hate you, know that it has hated Me before you." (John 15:18) To endure the cross of persecution is what glorifies God most and procures the greatest blessings. "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven."

(Matthew 5: 11,12) The world will reject this truth as it has for 2000 years, though this rejection has reached unparalleled heights at this last hour. Satan today is waging his final battle against the Church and what is his plan but to undermine the cross of Christ! And what is the cross, but the Sacrifice of Calvary planted in our midst - the Mass.

Christ underwent His sacrifice on Good Friday, but at the Last Supper (Holy Thursday) He instituted this sacrifice as an ongoing sacrifice that would continue to the end of time. The Mass is the actual event of Calvary re-enacted on the altar, though it be mystical and unbloody, but nonetheless real. Each Mass is one and the same sacrifice, not many. The priest is the instrument used [alter Christus] through whom Christ daily perpetuates His sacrifice among us. Christ then through His institution has planted His death in our midst, which is why the crucifix is above the main altar in the churches, because it reminds us of what we are attending. St. Paul says that each time the priest offers the bread and chalice he shows forth "The death of the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:26) Some will say: Why does Christ want to come and die among us? The answer is because He loves us and He wants us to die with Him. St. Paul says that in our baptism we are baptized into Christ’s death. Through our baptism we take on the robes of the Passion and walk the path of mortification because we are members of His Body and are called to be one with Him. That is, we die with Him: we die to self and sin, we die to the elements of the world.

Jesus foretold His Passion and death when He said, "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified." He went on to say that those who follow Him into death will keep their life eternally. "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto eternal life." (John 12: 24,25) The Mass summons us to participate in Christ’s sacrifice and to meditate on His death. Through the Mass Christ draws us into union with His own sufferings, that through these sufferings we might be purified of our defects and be united more closely with Him. The Mass then is Christ’s way of sanctifying His people that they may learn to die to the world and walk with Him in the holy way of the cross.

This will better help us to understand why the devil unleashes so much fury A Remnant Blog

against the cross, because the cross is our salvation. Satan’s work in these last times is to turn the world against the cross as evidenced by the secular reforms ensuing from the Vatican II Council. What we have witnessed in the past forty years is a well-planned conspiracy to undermine the Mass and discredit the Catholic religion so that people will leave the Church and not be associated any longer with Jesus Christ on the cross.

It was never deemed that Christ be recrucified in His own House, but the sacrilegious scenario of today can be turned on the devil’s head and used to deepen our meditation on the Passion, thus advancing our union with Christ.

For the lewdness and body exposure of today’s women in Church are the insulting scourges that violently beat and lacerate Our Lord’s most pure body. The denials and false protestations coming forth from the pulpit are the sharp thorns which today’s modernists are driving into Our Lord’s sacred head with the mallet of their intellectual pride. The excessive talking and celebration in the Church today is a replay of the jeering crowd that danced around the cross as they too celebrated that the suffering Jesus was finally done away with.

And as in Our Lord’s time, so it is today that the scribes and high priests are the ones stirring up the people and leading this seditious revolt against the cross.

The Mystical Body is truly passing through its Passion!

But the followers of Christ needn’t despair because Christ has given them the remedy to conquer this temptation, namely, the cross. The standard of the cross has been the victory of the saints and martyrs down through the ages of time.

If there is one lesson we learn from The Passion it is that Jesus Christ can take a punch. When they stripped Him of His garments and cloaked Him with a dirty purple rag He didn’t drop dead with the first blow but endured many hours of abuse. Likewise, when the modernists stripped Our Lord of His royal, liturgical garments (Tridentine) He didn’t just expire, but has continued with us, fulfilling His promise that He would always remain with His Church "even to the consummation of the world."

(Matthew 28:20) The faithful of the last times are called upon to join with Christ at His tabernacle in imitation of the Holy Virgin and St. John who remained at the foot of the cross amidst the turmoil and sacrilege. Their example sets the stage for all the true apostles of the last days. Our calling as Christians is to walk "with Him and in Him" and to share in His cross in order that we may one day share in His resurrection. In the words of St. Paul: "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." (2 Tim. 2:12) Let us resolve then to do just that knowing that this royal way of the cross will lead us directly to the Kingdom of Heaven.

(Our Lady’s Workers of Southern California)

Felzen Fliegen

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Impressions from La Salette

By Brian McCall

Serene Manliness

Twoand a half years ago I wrote in these pages of my experience bringing my oldest son to commence his high school formation at Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy in Georgetown, Illinois. In that article I discussed the school’s philosophy of educating the whole boy—spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit La Salette for a few days and give three conferences to the boys. My impressions only confirmed that what is happening in the obscurity of remote Illinois is one of the most important things necessary for the restoration of the Church and civil society.

My first impression upon arrival on campus was one of peacefulness. With over eighty boys from eighth through twelfth grade there is certainly much activity on campus. One might expect to be greeted by a loud, boisterous cacophony. Yet, as one enters the gates of the school one breathes a sigh of relief. The serenity is palpable.

I have often read in philosophy of that component of the common good described as the "tranquility of order."

I had understood the concept but at La Salette I have experienced it. As one progresses through the well-ordered periods of the day one knows that God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world. The orderliness of how staff and students go about their duties brings peacefulness. Certainly they have their share of problems, yet the community moves about its day with a deep sense of order. Everyone has his place, his job— his responsibility. It might be the ironing of the purple covers for Passiontide or the washing of the dinner dishes or the writing of a summary of the next chapter for religion class or the conjugating of Latin verbs or the mopping out of the gym basement which flooded yet again due to the rain the previous day. The whole gamut of activities might seem overwhelming in the whole but when divided into its proper place and time— punctuated by the predictable bell that resounds across the farmland—all seems not only possible but perfectly ordered.

The well-structured tranquility of order allows one to focus on the required task at hand. Now is the time for dishes or history class or rugby practice (or listening to Mr. McCall’s conference) and so I must focus my entire will on that which is required of me right now.

This was most evident during my conferences. As I looked out at the boys I was almost discombobulated by their focus. Being accustomed to teach graduate students in their mid-twenties, I usually find myself lecturing to the backs of laptop computers as the dazed figures behind move their roving eyes from the laptop screen to the phone that they work frantically with their thumbs.

Years ago in my career I realized it was impossible to separate students in the modern classroom from their security blankets of addictive technology. They live and breathe a world lacking all sense of punctuated order. They live a life of multi-tasking where everything is done simultaneously and nothing is done well. Multitasking is the antithesis of the tranquility of order.

In contrast, here at La Salette were boys ranging from age 13 through 18 who at least in their exterior appearance were focusing their attention on what was required of them in this forty-five minute period. Rather than open laptops, the tools of students across the ages—open notebooks and pens—rested on their desks. Obviously I have no way of knowing the state of their minds and the distractions that may have competed with my words, but, at least exteriorly, they were single tasking. They were supposed to be listening to my conferences and taking notes and that is what they were doing, as well as they could.

Likewise as the end of the school day was singled they switched tasks to that of tackling their schoolmates in the muddy field for rugby practice. One task must end before another begins. That is the tranquility of order and something these boys could teach to the generation that multitasked through their education only to find themselves right where they began—having been led nowhere in order to multitask in circles.

The other distinct impression beyond the unity of order is the clear manliness of the place. Kneeling in the chapel for evening rosary and benediction one could feel the masculinity in forceful unison of the praying of the Aves and the deep echoing of the Tantum Ergo. The vigorous masculinity of the student body was palpable, speaking and moving una voce. This is striking because it is so absent in a world devoid of masculinity.

Our society is dominated by the effeminate, the trite, the weak. The

Novus Ordo is drowning in it. Now the subtlety and the gentleness of the chant echoing down the nave demonstrate that it is not the masculinity of uncontrolled male brute force. The controlled strength of the rugby team on the field (even in the face of foulmouthed competitors) distinguishes the La Salette manliness from mere aggressive passion unregulated by reason.

The politeness and respect with which each boy greets a visitor results from a manliness confident in its strength yet controlled by right reason. A man, a gentleman, does not flit about with femininity tossed by the winds of the world, nor does he lash out and crush with brute violence all that lies in his path. He exudes a calm, ordered strength. There is a time to push forward with all one’s physical strength (in a rugby ruck for example), and there is time to call upon strength of soul to sing in praise of one’s Creator with gentle subtlety.

Being a gentleman, and not merely a male, requires wisdom. Schools of the modern world seem only capable of producing one of the two vicious extremes. The models of masculinity they promote are either effeminate, pasty faced, gender neutral creatures who know neither what they are nor what they are meant to do in life or they are overweight rabid brutes who cannot tell the difference between reality and their violence training consoles. These are not gentlemen; they are either hybrid women or brute animals.

The narrow way of virtue involves the ordered manliness taught at La Salette.

My recent experience has confirmed that all that comprises the institution of La Salette is more than a theoretical knowledge of formation exposited at the opening ceremonies. It is a deep wisdom that is both taught and lived. If only there were more institutions like this the future of Church and civil society would be so much brighter. If more boys could experience this Catholic tranquility of order, I’m sure the world would soon be populated by men, gentlemen worthy of the dignity of their nature.

For more information on La Salette or to contribute to the formation of a new class of truly Catholic gentlemen you can contact the Academy at 5065 Olivet Road, Georgetown, IL, 61846, or visit www.LaSalette.net

Headmaster Father Michael McMahon prays with his La Salette Lions

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Remnants of the Past…

Supreme Grace of Life:

To Die in the Friendship of God

■ Human words cannot express the tragedy when so many souls in our day, even Catholics, are drinking iniquity like water. They love their sins, and even boast of them! Others misled by hireling shepherds and systematically starved of the traditional Sacraments and Liturgy, are sinking slowly, gently, into fatal blindness and indifference. Faith is disappearing from the earth, vices flourish, prayer is abandoned.

By Fr. Urban Snyder

(Published in The Remnant, October 31, 1978)

What

shall I cry? "All flesh is grass and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field" Every year at this time Holy Church begins to put more forcefully before our minds the thought of what used to be called "the last things": Death, Judgment, Purgatory, Heaven and Hell. For some time I have been wanting to write about what was often called "a happy death", or, to be more exact, a good death, bona mors, from the supernatural viewpoint.

The present season of the Liturgy, coinciding with the recent unexpected and sudden demise of Pope John Paul I, creates a favorable moment for the subject.

The late Pope, in renouncing the ceremony of coronation, eliminated also the touching and significant reminder of death which was a part of it. During the ceremony a cleric would appear before the new pontiff, burn a wisp of flax, and cry out: Sic transit gloria mundi! "Thus passes the glory of the world. Remember that you are a mortal man."

Every death should remind us of what is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And: "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment."

The modern world does not like to hear about death, and still less, about a Judgment. But our Lord says plainly that when we die we shall have to render an account of absolutely everything – even our idle words. "I tell you, that for every idle word that men speak, they shall give an account on the day of judgment." St.

Peter writes: "The time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; but if it begins first with us, what will be the end of those who do not believe the gospel of God? And if the just man scarcely will be saved, where will the impious and sinner appear?"

It was a benevolent Providence which sent to the late Pope a dramatic reminder of death not many days before his own Summons. I refer to the sudden death in his presence of a high-ranking Orthodox prelate. He, too, died of a heart attack.

Any reminder of death for anyone of us is a grace of God; all the more if it touches us closely, or happens suddenly before our own eyes. It is a special renewal of the grace of Ash Wednesday: "Remember man that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return." Sleeping or waking, at every moment we are speeding towards eternity; every heartbeat means one less to go. God’s timeless Wisdom decreed, before the ages began, your existence and mine, and appointed to each of us our allotted number of heartbeats, known to Himself alone. "The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds which cannot be passed," (Job 14.5) We have here no lasting city, because we were created to enjoy eternal happiness with God in Heaven.

In the Cathedral of Toledo, in Spain, there is a tomb containing the bones of a Cardinal. By the occupant’s wish it bears no name, only an inscription: "Here lies dust, ashes, and nothing".

"We brought nothing into this world, and certainly we can take nothing out of it." (1Tim 6.7) Nothing, that is, except the moral value of our thoughts, words, and deeds, whether good or bad. "As the father has life in himself, even so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself, and he has granted him power to render judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not wonder at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they who have done good things shall come forth unto resurrection of life; but they who have done evil, unto resurrection of judgment." (Jn 5, 26.29) The most important moment of life is the End of it. The one thing that matters is to die in the friendship of God, with the soul illuminated, divinized, made ready for Heaven by Sanctifying Grace. Whatever condition the soul is in when it leaves the body, so must it remain for all eternity, because the time of faith, or probation, is over. The veil is taken away, all is revealed, and the soul remains forever in the state in which it finds itself.

Final impenitence is the disaster of all disasters, the doom of all dooms. "What doth it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul?" "Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels." St. John the Baptist cries out: "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise parish." St. Paul writes: "Do you not know that the goodness of God is meant to lead you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works. Life eternal he will indeed give to those who by patience in good works seek glory and honor and immortality; but wrath and indignation to those who are contentious, and who do not submit to the truth, but assent to iniquity. Tribulation and anguish shall be visited upon the soul of every man who works evil…But glory and honor and peace shall be awarded to everyone who does good…Because with God there is no respect of persons…" (Rom. 2.4-11) Human words cannot express the tragedy when so many souls in our day, even Catholics, are drinking iniquity like water. They love their sins, and even boast of them! Others misled by hireling shepherds and systematically starved of the traditional Sacraments and Liturgy, are sinking slowly, gently, into fatal blindness and indifference, being persuaded that what was once good is now evil, and what was once evil is now good. Faith is disappearing from the earth, vices flourish, prayer is abandoned.

The great Dominican theologian, Fr.

Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., reminds us that the Fathers of the Church often threatened with final impenitence those who put off conversion from day to day. "Return is difficult," he says rightly.

"Hardening of heart supposes blindness of mind, and a will carried on to evil, with feeble movements toward good. The soul no longer derives profit from good advice, from sermons; it no longer reads the Gospel, no longer frequents the church.

It resists even the warnings of genuine friends. It falls under the indictment of Isaiah: "Woe to you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits!"(5.20-21) This condition is the consequence of sins often repeated, of vicious habits of criminal entanglements, of erroneous reading. After such abuse of grace, the Lord may refuse a sinner…the grace, proximately sufficient, to make obedience possible.

"But return to God is still possible. The sinner, even though hardened, receives remotely sufficient graces…He can begin to pray. If he does not resist, he receives efficacious grace to begin praying effectively. This is certain, because salvation is still possible, and, against the Pelagian heresy, conversion is not possible except by grace. If the sinner does not resist this last appeal, he will be led from grace to grace, even to that of conversion. The Lord has said: ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." St.

Paul says: ‘God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth.’ "Return is always possible. Calvinism indeed says that God destines certain souls to eternal damnation and that consequently He refuses them all grace.

The truth, on the contrary, says with St.

Augustine and the Council of Trent: ‘God never commands the impossible, but warns us to do what we can, and to ask of Him the grace to accomplish what we of ourselves are unable to do.’ A grave obligation lies on the hardened sinner to do penance, and this is impossible without grace. Hence we must conclude that he receives from time to time sufficient graces that he may begin to pray. Salvation is still possible.

"But if the sinner resists these graces, he steps into quicksand, where his feet sink down when he attempts to emerge.

Sufficient grace blows from time to time, like a fresh breeze, to renew his forces.

But if he continues to resist, he deprives himself of the efficacious grace which is offered in sufficient grace as fruit is offered in the blossom. Hence when, later on, he wishes for that efficacious grace, will he have that succour which touches the heart and converts him in truth?

Difficulties grow greater, the will grows weaker, graces diminish.

"Temporal impenitence, if voluntary, manifestly disposes the soul for final impenitence, although divine mercy at times saves the sinner, even on his deathbed.

"It is possible to die in the state of mortal sin, even though the thought of such a death has not presented itself to the spirit. Many die suddenly, and we say, looking at their abuse of grace, that they have been surprised by death.

Continued Next Page

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Bishop of Rome Celebrates Solemn Traditional Latin Mass

By Alberto Carosa

Rome Correspondent ROME—There would be nothing extraordinary about a pastoral visit from a bishop to a parish church under his diocesan jurisdiction, normally— but the ordinary does become "extraordinary" when it relates to the celebration of the "extraordinary" rite on the part of a bishop of Rome… for the first time since Vatican II.

Australian-born FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St Peter) Father Joseph Kramer described the event as a "historic day" during his brief introduction to the Sunday solemn pontifical mass on March 30th, 2014. Father Kramer is

Continued...

They did not pay attention to warnings received beforehand. They have not had contrition, or even attrition, which with the Sacrament of Penance would have justified them. Such souls are lost for eternity. Here we find final impenitence, without any special previous refusal of the last grace.

"If on the contrary, death is foreseen, we are met with an impenitence that is final.

This last rejection of grace, offered before death by infinite mercy, is a sin against the Holy Spirit, which takes different forms. The sinner shrinks back from the humiliation involved in acknowledgement of his sins, and chooses consequently his own personal evil. At times he even scorns the duty of justice and reparation before God, scorns the love which he owes to God by the supreme precept: ‘Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind.’ "These terrible lessons show us the importance of repentance, a state quite different from remorse, which can continue to exist in hell without the least attrition. Condemned souls do not repent of their sins as guilt against God, though they see that for these sins they are punished. They hate the pain which is justly inflicted. They hate the worm of remorse which arises from their sin. They are at war with everything especially pastor of the personal parish church of

Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in the ancient city centre of Rome, established for the traditional-minded faithful under Summorum Pontificum in 2008. He was referring to the fact that the pontifical Mass would be celebrated by his Excellency, the Most Reverend Matteo Zuppi, Titular Bishop of Villanova and Auxiliary Bishop for Diocese of Rome (in charge of the City Center).

Fr. Kramer noted that it was the first time since the end of Vatican II that a titular Bishop of Rome has come again to celebrate according to the extraordinary rite durante munere (while in office) in one of the parish churches under his jurisdiction.

with themselves. Judas had remorse and anguish, but he did not have repentance which gives peace. He fell into despair instead of confiding in infinite mercy and asking pardon… "Deathbed conversion, however difficult, is still possible. Even when we see no sign of contrition, we can still not affirm that, at the last moment, just before the separation of soul from body, the soul is definitely obstinate. A sinner may be converted at that last minute in such fashion that God alone knows it…" (Quoted from Life Everlasting, by Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Chap. VII, passin.) May I add that I think the most essential thing for the reader to grasp and hold is this: Return of hardened sinners to God is always difficult, but never impossible, especially if other persons of faith are praying and doing penance for them.

God’s love is omnipotent, and we should have infinite confidence in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is very encouraging if the sinner himself prays. The man who prays," says St. Alphonsus, "is the man who will be saved, and the man who does not pray is the man who will be lost."

There is a certain over-simplification in that perhaps, but by and large it is true. The man who prays humbly and perseveringly will go from strength to strength and "renew his youth like the eagle’s". ■ The bishop of Roma centro works in close co-operation with the Holy Father under the latter’s Vicar for the diocese of Rome, currently Cardinal Agostino Vallini, together with the other bishops responsible for the other four districts in which the diocese of Rome is divided: north, south, east and west. Fr. Kramer observed that the event makes it clear how the traditionalist congregation served by the personal parish is now a fullfledged component of the mainstream Church.

"We are very grateful to our bishop who wanted to show that the extraordinary form came to be part of the normal life of the church in the manner instructed by Pope Benedict XVI with his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum", father Kramer pointed out in his conclusion.

"Every priest works under the direction of his local bishop. For me, personally, it is very reassuring to have the direction of my Bishop. And for our parish this is very encouraging , Your Excellency, to have you with us today in this visible and tangible sign of your pastoral care for us.

Thank you".

Father Kramer’s words were aptly echoed by Bishop Zuppi, who said in his homily that with his decision to celebrate the extraordinary rite he intended to reach out to the tradition-minded community attached to the personal parish, as a sign of "profound communion" with their faithful, "because we are all called to the service of communion" in order not to get weakened "in front of the real enemy, which is division".

This was the only reference to the particular status of the personal parish.

For the rest, and this is also quite significant, the senior prelate addressed the theme proper of the readings pertaining to the Gospel and the Epistle of the day, as he would have normally done with any other congregation under his pastoral guidance.

March 30th was the Fourth Sunday in Lent ( Laetare Sunday) and the faithful are urged, albeit still in a penitential period, to start rejoicing ( laetare in Latin) for the fact that Easter is fast nearing, and with it the resurrection and triumph of Our Lord.

"We are all called to serve the universal Church," Msgr. Zuppi reminded the faithful who had packed out the church, "and therefore to be involved as a parish and as individual Catholics, to feed the people with the spiritual food of the Word of God and also with material food whenever necessary."

In other words, a simple and humble homily, in a truly Catholic spirit, with no trad-bashing, however veiled it might have been, no alarm sounding about the risks of unraveling the Council or "instrumentalizing" the old rite etc. Curiously, in his homily he also apologized for the inevitable mistakes he would make in celebrating a Mass to which he is not accustomed. As a result of his desire to celebrate in the traditionalist personal parish, he had even taken "lessons" to be able to do so the best he could.

His outreach continued also after the celebration, as he kindly took the time to speak with all the faithful during the post-Mass refreshments of coffee and sweets. In a very amiable way, he went on repeating how sorry he was for his inevitable mistakes, not being used to the traditional missal and rubrics. At the end of the day, Father Kramer noted that Msgr. Zuppi seemed visibly satisfied with the success of the event.

The decision to celebrate the old rite by Bishop Matteo Zuppi, who is said to have had to face resistance from a number of his ecclesial confreres, has been widely seen as somewhat stunning due to his close association to Comunità di Sant’Egidio, a Catholic-inspired lay movement normally thought to be among the most advanced bastions of Catholic progressivism in many respects, including liturgy, and whose clergy have never been known to be particularly interested in celebrating the Old Rite.

However, it would seem that there is now an exception and an interesting precedent has been set. On May 31, 2013, a new bishop of Liege in Belgium was appointed: Msgr. Jean-Pierre Delville, who is also closely associated to Comunità di Sant’Egidio and has personally celebrated the Traditional Mass since July 2007, when Benedict XVI promulgated the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in favour of those wishing to celebrate the old rite.

If nothing else, this is a hopeful sign. ■

Death Comes To Us All

(Napoleon on His Death Bed, by Horace Vernet)

Bishop Matteo Zuppi Celebrates TLM in Rome

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Darwinism

-

the greatest hoax in academic history!

By Peter Wilders

It’s

criminal! Mr. Darwin with the help of the scientific community killed God in the eyes of many believers: yet he is lauded as a hero of science – even by the Catholic Curia! Atheists are cock-a-hoop. Without a vestige of empirical proof his famous "theory" of evolution launched over 150 years ago albeit nothing more than an invalidated hypothesis is heralded as the greatest scientific triumph ever. After all this time and not even having achieved status of a "law" it is considered as the indisputable paradigm, and Queen of sciences. Those daring not to bend the knee before the theory commit career suicide.

No student reaching scientific maturity can expect to earn academic laurels by mentioning the emperor’s lack of wearing apparel. The question is how much longer can the threadbare theory resist the cold reality of logic? Patched up by one ad hoc amendment after another, defenders of the theory have thrown prudence to the wind. Irritated at the lack of proof for their evolutionary speculations, they have promoted them to scientific principles. No single example of macro-evolution has ever been forthcoming. The evidence is no Nobel prize has been awarded for proving the theory: neither in terms of "cosmic" or "biological" evolution. If there had it would no longer be called a theory and the debate closed to thunderous applause.

The basic laws of physics are tortured to fit speculations of matter being produced from non-matter. Brilliant academics are recruited to spend their talents on algorithms to prove life could come from non-life. Phylogenetic trees are drawn showing all the imagined stages of development of bacteria to man with not a single undisputed intermediate fossil. Despite the systematic lack of links, fossils are nonetheless used to indoctrinate biology students into the dogma of evolution. Extrapolation is the rule of the game. Morphological resemblance between species is sufficient for biology teachers to teach them as proof of evolution. To qualify as scientists students must accept as factual data this kind of specious evidence – with approval of the examiners!

The cost to society is the fantastic waste of brain power expended to give the hoax credibility. To give Darwinism an infrastructure two assumptions only are needed. They are those taught from playschool to university. First, rocks took millions of years to form, and second, life evolved from nothing by natural laws. These tenets of the evolutionary infrastructure digested, it is then left to the top Ph. D.’s in all disciplines, including theology and philosophy, to find the best hypothesis to justify the assumptions. As neither assumption is founded on empirical evidence, as explained later, their mission is impossible!

All this is a background to the drama that has been playing out for many years in Rome: intensifying within the realm of the relatively new pontificate. The epicenter of Catholic evolutionism is the Pontifical Academy of Science (PAS).

Founded in its present form in 1936 by Pope Pius XI, it arrogantly nailed to the walls of Rome its crossed keys evolutionary colors alongside those of St Peter’s. After first irradiating the Vatican incumbents, its evolutionary shock waves then went via Catholic schools and seminaries to the entire Papal Empire. God did not create alone, as His Church magisterially taught at Lateran IV in 1215, He did so as Darwin taught in 1859 by means of an evolutionary process. The situation was manna from heaven to the principally atheist intellectual elite. The prestige of the PAS with its current Protestant President and its glittering assembly of Nobel laureate evolutionists is such that Christ’s humble teaching has had to take second place – as has her 1215 dogmatic proclamation out-casting evolution theory!

In the last year of the 19th century and the start of the 20th Pope Pius X began to realize with a few others that the Church was under serious attack. He labelled the aggressors "modernists".

Not distinguishing between their various facets he unknowingly rendered a service to evolutionism. There were several attackers whose weapons were varied. Masons used skullduggery, atheists: materialism, evolutionists: flawed science, Soviets: infiltration, modernists: abuse of magisterial teaching. They all had in common the overthrow of the Church. So Pius X lumping them together, not giving particular emphasis to evolution, the pivot around which the others turned, allowed Darwinists to slip the net.

Whereas modernism targeted so heavily at the time by Pius IX and Pius X continued to be rejected by the Curia its meaning was open to manipulation.

Today modernism is still considered as an evil but has lost all of the "Syllabus" and " Pascendi" punch. Tragically, biological Darwinism continues not to be given "modernist" status and ergo is accepted by the hierarchy. This was made clear by Benedict in his 1989 Vienna address to European doctrinal commission presidents:

The decline of metaphysics goes hand in hand with the decline of the teaching on creation. Their place has been taken by a philosophy of evolution (which I would like to distinguish from the scientific hypothesis of evolution). The object of this philosophy is to learn rules from the development of Nature for improving life. But Nature which ought to be the teacher along this path is blind. This adds to the hazards which man has in attempting to copy Nature. Man’s relation with Nature (no longer with Creation) becomes one of a manipulator and not as a learner. It continues as a relationship of domination based on the assumption that rational calculation can be just as intelligent as "Evolution": it can lead the world to heights not so far obtained without man. (Author’s translation and added emphasis)

Whilst Pius X was condemning modernism in the strongest of terms—he called it "the synthesis of all heresies"— the liberal corridor was closing ranks. It ridiculed the Pope’s encyclical Pascendi in particular for its affirmation that the Church’s teaching is not opposed to science. Rationalist scientists disagree.

They claim man evolved from preexisting beings. The Church, however, dogmatically declares man was created from nothing: ex nihilo. The separate forces of Masonry, atheists and Soviet infiltration whose stated object is the annihilation of the Catholic Church made papal governance extraordinarily difficult. The tendency among the then loyal Catholics to nod indulgently at the reigning Pope’s pre-occupation with the Church’s enemies, led to the lowering of the former’s guard against the bitter reality of those adversaries.

Eventually, however, as history has shown, the enemies took control. It was achieved by the battering ram given them by the scientific and theological propagation of Darwin’s theory in places of Catholic education. Evolution replaced God. Yet, amazingly, for over a generation, the theory has become the paradigm of scientific and theological teaching. In the mind of Catholic academia, science has priority over faith. After all, the principal propaganda weapon of Communism since its inception had been to teach that the Church is the enemy of science.

In the light of the foregoing, a look at the track record of current clergy explains its failure to respond adequately (if at all!) to today’s problems. The struggle for power by the various modernist factions has produced a resounding victory for Darwinism. Traditional teaching was trampled in the rush to modernism years ago. In such conditions, how can any prelate be expected to see things differently? Daring to criticize the subject of Darwinism within the hearing of clergy or catechists is not only politically incorrect, it guarantees a ticket for marginalization. Strangely, the general public are less close-minded, but in a society where all official lines of communication are pro-evolution, occasional public sympathy counts for little. The pseudo-scientific overtones of Neo-Darwinism and its synthetic theory leave no door open to protest. Science is "knowledge", anything else is "faith".

Modernism, the "synthesis of all heresies", has triumphed: it is wishful thinking to believe otherwise. Can a modernist Curia claim to be Catholic?

Fortunately, the new knowledge now available can pull out the pegs and collapse the evolutionary tent. The empirical experimental peer-reviewed proof (www.sedimentology.fr) that rocks form rapidly leaves all evolutionary disciplines bereft of credibility.

Nonetheless, for the time being the smoke cloud thrown up by modernism continues. It has reduced intellectual visibility to the point that evolution appears nowhere on the Vatican radar screen. Bravo Lucifer! Moreover, he (L) has so arranged it that there is nil awareness in the Church that Darwinism has usurped God’s place as Creator.

Looking objectively at the situation, however, there is reason to believe that God is not party to this indifference.

History has shown He will forgive people breaking his commandments but anything touching his divine nature is another thing.

Starting with the Great Flood, the entire people the Bible says was corrupt. They had turned away from their Creator.

Only eight persons Noah and his family survived: out of how many million – there is no way of telling? Then the perversion of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (redolent of laws enacted today?), exterminated en masse by fire. So it went on throughout biblical history. The incredible phenomenon of the last century, described here, is a continuation. A vigorous god-fearing people reduced to a remnant by the godless theory of evolution it espoused.

A theory fuelled by an equally godless media catering for immorality of every kind: abortion, "marriage for all", euthanasia, divorce on demand etc.

The punishment exacted is clear to see. Churches, seminaries, convents closed. Religious communities exposed to scandals. Youth perverted by liberal school programs. The natural law is in tatters. Where is it going to end? Where are the clear signals that should be coming from the Church? There is an end in sight but only when its members realize they have been taken for a ride, and demand unambiguous answers.

Why has the Deposit of Faith been twisted to accommodate an unproven theory? Why is modernist theology preferred to that of the Apostles and Fathers of the Church? An example of both is the Genesis Creation account. It is read at the great festivals of Christmas and Easter but because of evolution theory is not expected to be taken seriously. Darwin knows best! ■

'...the truth of Creation as presented in the Book of Genesis does not oppose in any way the principle of the natural theory of evolution'

(Pope John Paul, General Audience, January 29 1986 - my translation from the French)

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A Remnant Book Review…

A Tale Told Softly,

By Robert T. Morrison

Reviewed by Vincent Chiarello

Theproposition that Shakespeare used allegory to allow his theatrical productions to get past government censors has not been accepted by all, including those who have posited that Robert Morrison’s interpretation could as easily fit a pagan theme as a Catholic one. To which Morrison has responded by pointing out that the two places that are central to the play – Sicilia and Bohemia, not Classical Greece or Rome – reveal another aspect of The Winter’s Tale, one which he believes intentional.

Bohemia, once part of the former Czechoslovakia and now part of the Czech Republic, played a pivotal role for the English clergy at that time. In a letter to a fellow Jesuit, the soon-to-be martyred St. Edmund Campion wrote: For this at least we are indebted to those by whose heresy and persecution we have been driven forth and cast gently on a pleasant and blessed shore. (N.B.

Bohemia is landlocked.) Bohemia was where Campion was trained, and from where he left to return to England where he was condemned to a traitor’s death by drawing and quartering.

Was Shakespeare geographically illiterate? His contemporary Ben Jonson thought so for in a letter to a friend, Jonson, who adopted "the new religion" and remained a favorite at Court, claimed that Shakespeare had been careless in his details, since in the play he’d given a seacoast to Bohemia, which is a landlocked country. I seriously doubt Shakespeare’s nescience in this matter; what is more likely is that Jonson never understood why his contemporary did so.

In a recent publication, A Blessed Shore: England and Bohemia from Chaucer to Shakespeare, (2007), the author Alfred Thomas writes: "Sixteenth and seventeenth century Bohemia was one of the most tolerant places in Europe, so tolerating in fact that many English Catholics sought refuge there."

But is there anything substantive to be made of the play’s Sicilia/Rome connection?

Here a good deal turns on the symbolism of Rome as the Oracle, something that Shakespeare’s audience would have recognized. Since the use of Rome would never have passed the censor’s eyes, Morrison believes that Shakespeare "conveys the same message by linking Catholic Rome and the Oracle. As one writer also comments: " The most remarkable instance of Catholic imagery in the play is when the poet goes out of his way to describe the Oracle of Delphi. Now it must be remembered that Rome was the Delphi of medieval Europe."

In Shakespeare’s telling, Leontes, King of Sicily, seeks from the Oracle the truth abut his wife Hermione’s fidelity. There can be little doubt that his effort to seek this answer about Hermione’s chastity is similar to Henry VIII’s effort to seek the answer he desired from the Oracle, in his case Rome, concerning his petition for divorce.

Regarding his immediate situation, Shakespeare was well aware of the gathering storm clouds that grew increasingly menacing after the failed Gunpowder Plot, and the efforts of the new monarch, James I, to deal with those "recusants" who would not accept "the new religion" or abandon "the old one."

In his address to Parliament in March 1610, James I outlined the lengths to which his government would enforce the "Oath of Allegiance" (to the King and the Church of England), and reveals the first Stuart King’s mindset for the duration of his reign:

Papists are waxed as proud at this time as ever they were, which makes many to think they have some new plot in hand... As for Recusants, let them be all duly presented (with the Oath) without exception, for in times past there has been too great a connivance and forbearing of them...But for those Apostates, who I know, must be the greatest haters of their own Sect...they shall never find any more favor of me; further then I must in Justice afford them. And these I would have the Law strike the severest upon, and you (Parliament) most careful to discover.

The Winter’s Tale was written between 1610-1611, and first performed in May, 1611. It strains common sense to believe that Shakespeare was unaware of the two classes of Catholics described by James I: the simple and misled to whom their sovereign could dispense mercy, and those to whom he would give no quarter. The Latin phrase Iacta alea est summarized the situation: the die is cast.

Morrison examines several other aspects of the play that may also catch the reader’s eye, often hidden Catholic themes and symbols that are not only a reflection of Shakespeare’s personal story, but also an integral part of the country the Bard himself called "the sceptered isle." Some of these clandestine themes that Morrison develops may resonate with readers of The Remnant.

For example, the aforementioned Oath of Allegiance provides a subject for commentary in Morrison’s tome. As one English historian explained:

The oath concluded with an assurance that the taker understood these words in their plain and common meaning, and had taken the oath ‘without an equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever’ - a reference to the doctrine of equivocation devised by Roman Catholic priests to enable them to avoid answering directly the questions put to them when they were in official custody.

Implicit in the origin of the Oath was that English Catholics, who were the conspirators in the attempt to blow up Parliament, were also directly or indirectly influenced to do so by (then) Pope Paul V. In his correspondence with Rome, James I accused the pontiff of "encouraging" the plot. But was this a credible charge?

James knew of the correspondence with the Papal Emissary, St. Robert Bellarmine, that Pope Paul V has written: "I abhor Parricide, I detest all conspiracies." To strengthen that claim, St. Bellarmine in a letter to Rev.

Blackwell, who had authority over all secular priests (not in Religious Orders) in England, had written:

For it was never heard of from the Church’s infancy until this day that ever any Pope did command, that any Prince, though a Heretic...though a persecutor, should be murdered; or did approve of the fact, when it was done by any other.

Still, James remained steadfast in his refusal to believe the Vatican’s policy of rejecting parricide, and specifically sought to reaffirm it through the taking of the Oath, which highlighted the Anglican belief that the pope’s ability to depose monarchs was heretical.

But what of those characters in The Winter’s Tale who willfully abjured the Faith and took the Oath? Morrison describes the ill-fated character, Antigonus, and the consequences of his action.

Far more than today, the swearing of an oath in Shakespeare’s time bound a man to a course of action that might prove disastrous, but, unless released, that oath was indissoluble. By swearing allegiance to King Leontes, Antigonus, sensing the consequences of his actions is quickly judged, and says, "I am gone forever," and Morrison claims: "...and with one of the more remarkable stage directions in Shakespeare’s plays, he exits ‘pursued by a bear’." Was St. Robert Bellarmine the "bear" who chased the apostate from the scene?

We learn that Antigonus dies on land, and his crew, which had taken him to Bohemia, perishes at sea. In his final speech of the play, his despair is obvious as is the religious imagery: Weep I cannot, But my heart bleeds; and most accursed am I to be by oath enjoined to this. Farewell!

Is it too far a stretch to consider that in Shakespeare’s view the betrayal of Antigonus resembles the deeds of one of the original apostles? There is more, much more to this book, and I suspect that anyone who reads A Tale Told Softly will, perforce, read or re-read The Winter’s Tale.

Robert Morrison spent nearly 17 years of his life researching and then writing A Tale Told Softly, which started as an assignment while a midshipman at the US Naval Academy. I believe that "assignment" morphed into something far more significant: it became a labor of love and a journey to find his faith. To him there was an "epiphany" that often coincides with learning more and more about something you cherish.

In a note to the reviewer, Morrison wrote that he might explain his sense of wonderment with the play by offering this analogy: it was as if he had tripped in the garden of The Winter’s Tale, and lying on the ground he "could see a small opening, which turned out to be a cave... Beneath the masterfully planted garden, the gardener had designed another that was complete, consistent with the one above, and more magnificent. Seeing it made me appreciate the one above even more."

Is it, then, a coincidence that a young man was brought to the Faith in part through a play by William Shakespeare?

Is it a coincidence that long after he had left the US Naval Academy and pursued a career in law that the memory of one play, The Winter’s Tale, continued to haunt his memory and demand he get to the bottom of why Shakespeare wrote it? Perhaps the true answer to both those questions is found in the French proverb: A coincidence is an event in which God chooses to remain anonymous.

■

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The Last Word…

But Pius Still Must Wait

■ Critics have complained that Pope Pius XII did nothing to help victims of Nazi atrocities; critics have complained that Pope John Paul II did nothing to help victims of clergy abuse. The irony is that the Vatican shows more sensitivity to Jewish concerns than it does to the victims of its own clergy.

By Father Celatus

Know

anyone who always has to have the last word? I know of a bishop who always had to have the last word in his written correspondence. So one of his priests decided to test his endurance.

He sent the bishop a thank you letter, to which the bishop responded with an acknowledgment, to which the priest responded with another thank you, to which the bishop responded again with another acknowledgment, etc, etc, etc. In the end, after much time and postage, the bishop prevailed.

So too, Father Celatus insists on having the last word about his "Last Word." I concluded my recent article regarding the impending canonization of Pope John Paul II with these words:

As the Church Militant continues to lower the standard for heavenly evidence that souls are within the Church Triumphant, one wonders whether canonization is now more a matter of what man himself declares and less a discernment of what God determines. Jesus promised that what is bound on Earth is bound in Heaven but in these canonizations, might not the Church be forcing the hand of God?

Apparently many folks on Facebook interpret my text to mean that I deny the very validity of this canonization. Clearly not the case!

Rather, I am suggesting that in this case, the canonization may be more a matter of the permissive will of God which permits it rather than the active will of God. The active will of God refers to that which is objectively desirable as the true good; the permissive will of God refers to that which is allowed or tolerated which is less than or other than the ideal. Examples of this abound but one will suffice. As we read in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, on the permanency of marriage:

Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

They say to him: Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away? He saith to them: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

So the active will of God regarding marriage is the two remain one but his permissive will tolerated divorce, for a time. Regarding the modern innovation of fast tracking candidates to sainthood, the streamlined process has been stripped of traditional elements such as the Devil’s Advocate, multiple miracles and the passage of a reasonable span of time. This raises the question whether the Church is properly discerning the active will of God or instead is pushing ahead with its own will and agenda. If God intends Santi Subiti, why is Heaven so slow to provide the Church irrefutable miracles?

Quite the contrary, some of the greatest canonized saints (including those who died by martyrdom) waited centuries to be formally declared to be Saints of Heaven. Here is a small sampling of the span of time required for some notable saints:

• Saint Thomas More: 400 years

• Saint John Fisher: 400 years

• Saint Joan of Arc: 400 years

• Saint Norbert: 448 years

• Saint Agnes of Assisi: 500 years

• Saint Agnes of Prague: 707 years

• Saint Hermann Joseph: 717 years In some cases, the canonization of candidates was delayed for prudential reasons, including political concerns. No doubt politics played a part in the case of Saint Joan of Arc, for instance, out of a concern for English opinion. It is alleged, in fact, that the pope took the unusual step of consulting Queen Victoria, a Protestant no less, to make sure that the English government had no objections.

Similar prudential considerations delayed canonization for Thomas More and John Fisher.

The same is certainly true in the ongoing consideration of the candidacy of Venerable Pope Pius XII for canonization. Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his cause for canonization was opened in 1965 during the final session of the Second Vatican Council, he was made a Servant of God in 1990 by Pope John Paul II and declared Venerable in 2009 by Pope Benedict.

Reaction and public outcry from many Jewish individuals and groups was swift.

As reported by one major magazine, "The inclusion of Pope Pius XII among the venerables brought howls of protest from Jewish groups across Europe and the world." The cause was quietly put on hold and among the harshest critics, "Hitler’s Pope" became "Benedict’s Pope."

But the cause for canonization of Pope Pius XII may be taken down from the pending Communion of Saints’ shelf soon and revisited. Bishop of Rome Francis may be interested in opening up the Vatican archives to address the still unresolved accusations that the Holy See turned a blind eye to Jewish persecution during the Holocaust.

Critics of Pope Pius XII have steadily maintained that he never condemned the Nazis or helped the Jews; supporters insist that the Pope saved many Jewish lives and concealed them within various Christian religious institutions. According to credible sources, the Bishop of Rome wants to release the Pius XII papers for study before determining whether to consider his controversial predecessor for canonization.

When he was still the ordinary of Buenos Aires, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio wrote:

Opening the archives of the Shoah seems reasonable. Let them be opened up and let everything be cleared up. Let it be seen if church leaders could have done something to help and until what point they could have helped. If they made a mistake in any aspect of this, we would have to say: ‘We have erred.’ We don’t have to be scared of this—the truth has to be the goal.

Do not dismiss the cries of critics; allow sufficient time to pass and the truth to be told. Whether one agrees with the critics or not, the Church is exercising prudence in the cause of Pope Pius XII. It is precisely such prudence that is lacking in the impending canonization of Pope John Paul II.

Critics have complained that Pope Pius XII did nothing to help victims of Nazi atrocities; critics have complained that Pope John Paul II did nothing to help victims of clergy abuse. The irony is that the Vatican shows more sensitivity to Jewish concerns than it does to the victims of its own clergy.

Time and archives may one day exonerate Pope John Paul II, but for now the rush to canonize shows a lamentable lack of prudence. ■

Pope Pius XII

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