respice stellam

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXLVI  (Sept. 30, 2023) :   BAD  SHEPHERDS ?

As certain questions come back, so there are certain answers which need to be repeated. From the very beginning of the “Traditional movement” soon after Vatican II there arose the question of attending or not the New Mass of Pope Paul VI: If it is not necessarily invalid, if it can be valid, why can I not attend it ?” In accordance with Catholic theology of the Mass, the Tradionalists’ answer from the beginning was that even if the celebration of a New Mass with correct Matter, Form and Intention is valid, nevertheless it cannot normally be attended because it is so poisoned by the new humanistic religion of Vatican II that many a Catholic who attends it regularly, risks losing his faith by exposure to a false version of God, of man, of sin and Redemption, no less. The Traditional Mass is centred on God, the New Mass is centred on man.

However, the acceptability of attending the New Mass has been supported in recent years by the allegation that there have been a number of Eucharistic miracles with hosts consecrated at a New Mass celebrated by a priest ordained with the New Ordination Rite by a bishop consecrated with the New Consecration Rite, for instance in Sokulka, Poland, in 2008. Now Traditionalists not only claim, but can argue, that all three  New Rites (of Mass, Ordination and Consecration) are not necessarily valid, but in the case of many of these alleged Eucharistic miracles they are up against the (truly) scientific evidence of transubstantiation having really taken place. See for instance the 279-page book recently published by the Sophia Institute Press, A Cardiologist Examines Jesus, in which a professional heart doctor lays out “the stunning science behind Eucharistic miracles.”  A sane mind, having examined such “science”, starts out from it. Sokulka features in the book from pages 81 to 95. Two of the book’s 27 photographic plates come from Sokulka.

With such evidence we must assume that at least a number of alleged eucharistic miracles are authentic. The argument for the New Mass then takes the following form:  If the New Mass is as offensive to God and as harmful to Catholics as Traditionalists claim, then how could God (who alone can produce the evidence behind such miracles) possibly have worked them at the New Mass ?  And how can it possibly be wrong for me to attend it ? The answer has not changed from above. All that the scientific evidence has done is to prove beyond all possible doubt that transubstantiation really did happen at the Mass where the miracle took place. Then the question becomes, how can a loving God possibly want to poison the faith of His own sheep ?

The answer is classic. God does not want evil, but He wants to allow evil in order to bring a greater good from it. The evil is the exposure of Catholic souls to humanistic poison threatening their faith. This evil was wanted by the unfaithful churchmen who changed the Rite of Mass, but it was not wanted by God. What He wanted was to remind His shepherds (bishops) and His sheep (layfolk) that the Mass is the true Sacrifice of His Son, and both of them must stop behaving as though Mass is just like some glorified picnic. In Sokulka for instance, the parish priest at the time of the miracle and for a number of years afterwards, declares that devotion to the Holy Eucharist has notably increased in the whole region of Sokulka itself ever since the miracle. And the miraculous corporal is now exposed for adoration in a side chapel of the parish church.

Thus Almighty God does not like what a mass of churchmen and layfolk have done to His church down the ages, starting with Judas Iscariot, but He does want to put His infinitely precious Church in the hands of churchmen with free-will to merit for their own Heaven by how well they serve it, at the risk of their choosing to demerit by their dis-serving it, and he does want to allow His sheep to have bad church shepherds if that is what they deserve, so that they will suffer and return to wanting good shepherds. But He will never leave His sheep completely leaderless, if they want to get to Heaven. See how He gave us Archbishop Lefebvre to pioneer the return to Tradition, and now Archbishop Vigano to set an example of courage, in telling Catholic Truth to an apparently overwhelming anti-Catholic power. 

                                                                                                                                                   Kyrie eleison

We always want calm seas, easy to sail,

But God wants storms, to test how we avail.                                                                                                     

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXLV  (Sept. 23, 2023) :  MESSAGE  from  HEAVEN ?

Ever since  Vatican II (1962-1965) when the highest Authority in the Catholic Church, its worldwide bishops assembled in an Ecumenical Council under Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, broke with Catholic Tradition and with Catholic Truth by imposing on the Universal Church a new humanistic version of Catholicism, supposedly “updated” to suit modern times, Catholics striving to remain faithful to Our Lord have had to be more or less schizophrenic. Either they clung to Catholic Authority and let go of the Truth at least partly; or they clung to Catholic Truth and “disobeyed” their authorities at least partly; or they chose any one of a variety of uneasy combinations in between.

In 1970 Archbishop Lefebvre founded in Switzerland a priestly Seminary and Congregation to produce a new generation of priests to protect the Church from the consequences of Vatican II which, as he foresaw, placed the very survival of the Church in peril. The Church authorities in Rome, still set upon the Council, bided their time before reacting, but when they saw that the Seminary in Econe was thriving and not about to disappear, they then began to use all the considerable means at their disposal to shut down Econe. The Archbishop would not give way, so there followed 13 years of conflict between Rome and Econe, because he refused to defy Roman Authority by going on his own outside of the normal Church structures. As for official Rome, it could neither swallow him down, because accepting Tradition would doom their false religion, nor could it spit him out, because condemning Tradition risked unmasking their false novelties.

And so the Archbishop presided over the expanding success of his Society while doing everything he could to avoid breaking the normal rules, while Rome watched and waited for the moment when it would at last be able to get away with smashing his work to pieces. That moment came when the Archbishop, approaching death, knew that he would have to consecrate bishops of his own to ensure the survival of his Society after his death, because all bishops “obedient” to Rome, which meant in practice all other bishops in the world, could not be relied on to stand up to the Conciliar authorities. And so in June of 1988 he proceeded to consecrate four of his own priests as bishops. And this was the quasi-consecration of the whole “Traditional movement” inside the Church, of Catholics by now numerous all over the world who understood that while authorities should be respected as far as possible, still Truth had to come first.

Now in November of last year, came allegedly from Heaven, a message from a Sister to a Traditional priest in France who was anxious about following Catholic Truth against the appearance of Catholic Authority. The message, heavenly or not, presents an admirable description of respecting Authority while protecting the Truth, but let readers of these “Comments” judge for themselves, and act accordingly –

The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is presently passing through a deep and hurtful crisis in its representatives, and you, Father, are one of its victims. Mgr. Thuc understood the breakdown inside the Church, and as bishop he took a personal stand which was not according to the rules, because he ordained priests and bishops without incardination, thus putting them all in an irregular situation, even if they are fervent and wish to exercise a ministry in accordance with the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Mgr Williamson, having been put in a similar situation by his dismissal from the Society of St Pius X by its Superior at that time without valid reason, should be able to understand your situation because he too has consecrated bishops and ordained priests. Like yourself, for now, these are also lacking incardination. The present situation within the Holy Catholic Church is so bad that the Lord is happy with all His ministers working faithfully for Him, with or without incardination.

This is the Lord’s answer to your question. As soon as Holy Church has recovered within itself the strength of the Truth, priests still adrift will be able to rejoin it officially, while unofficially never having left it. The Lord blesses you, be at peace, and be faithful.

                                                                                                                                Kyrie eleison

Clearly, Our Lord is watching over His Church.

By no means is He leaving it in the lurch.

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXLIV  (Sept. 16, 2023) :  ROSARY  DEVOTION

In October of last year these “Comments”, following the example of an SSPX priest in France, presented an overview of the 13 Encyclical Letters written by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) between 1883 and 1898 as a remedy for a Church and world moving away from God towards the century of the two World Wars. Now we are in the 21^st century, and Leo’s Encyclicals can be more precious than ever, if we pay attention to them. Here below is a brief summary of Laetitiae Sanctae from 1893, in which Leo shows how the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary successively brighten, console and support us against the miseries of our age. Leo’s general considerations can open out on many particular applications  in praying the Rosary.

Joyful Mysteries –

Modern society is threatened with a growing contempt of the homely duties and virtues which make up the beauty of a humble life. To this cause, we may trace in the home, the readiness of children to withdraw themselves from the natural obligation of obedience to the parents, and their impatience of any form of treatment which is not of the indulgent and effeminate kind. 

* For evils such as these let us seek a remedy in the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. Let us take our stand in front of that earthly and divine home of holiness, the House of Nazareth. Here we behold simplicity and purity of conduct, mutual respect and love – not of the false and fleeting kind – but that which finds both its life and charm in devotedness of service.

Sorrowful Mysteries –

A second evil characteristic of our time is to be found in repugnance to suffering and eagerness to escape whatever is hard or painful to endure. The greater number dream of a fantastical civilization in which all that is unpleasant shall be removed, and all that is pleasant shall be supplied. By this unbridled desire of living a life of pleasure, the minds of men are weakened, and if they do not entirely succumb, they become demoralized and sink under the hardships of the battle of life.

* A powerful means of renewing our courage will undoubtedly be found in dwelling upon the Sorrowful Mysteries of Our Lord’s life. In them we behold Christ overwhelmed with sadness, so that drops of blood ooze like sweat from His veins. We see Him torn with scourges, crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross, and condemned by the voice of the multitude as deserving of death. Here, too, we contemplate the grief of the most Holy Mother, whose soul was pierced by the sword of sorrow. Witnessing these examples of fortitude, who is there who will not feel his heart grow warm with the desire of imitating them?

Glorious Mysteries –

The third evil is one which is chiefly characteristic of the times in which we live. Men of our day pursue the false goods of this world in such wise that the thought of their true Fatherland is not only set aside but banished and entirely erased from memory. Men of carnal mind, who love nothing but themselves, lose sight altogether of the world which is to come, and sink to the lowest depths of degradation.

* It is from this danger that they will be happily rescued, who keep before their minds the Glorious Mysteries. Here alone we discover the true relation between time and eternity, between our life on earth and our life in heaven; and it is thus that are formed strong and noble characters.

Leo’s Conclusion – Then amid the manifold evils which beset modern society and press on our lives, the Holy Rosary is as if tailor-made to brighten, console, and support us on our way to Heaven. May Mary, the Mother of God and of men, herself the authoress and teacher of the Rosary, procure for Us its happy fulfilment.

                                                                                                                                              Kyrie eleison

The Rosary has for centuries been around.

No Saint to disapprove it has been found.

ELEISON COMMENTS  DCCCXLIII  (Sept. 2, 2023) :  CLEAR-SIGHTED   RESISTANT

The so-called movement of “Resistance” inside today’s Catholic Church is a poor affair, humanly speaking, but it may yet be the will of God, given the unprecedented state of chaos in which Church and world find themselves today. If we say that this “Resistance” consists in a loose and unstructured union of priests mostly coming from inside the Society of St Pius X, who quit the SSPX of their own accord or were thrown out by its Superiors because they would not go along with the Society’s re-orientation at its General Chapter of 2012, then we can ask, what have these “Resistant” priests achieved since 2012 ?

Humanly speaking, the answer must be, not very much. Normal features of any Catholic organisation are structure, Superiors and subjects, internal obedience to those Superiors and external obedience to local Catholic authorities and to Rome. And up till now the “Resistance” priests seem to have achieved none of these things, as its enemies do not fail to point out. Nor can the “Resistance” boast that it is convincing many souls that it it has the true solution to the problems being left unsolved by the Newchurch or the Newsociety. Many souls may be attracted for a while to the “Resistance” by the arguments of Truth which it presents, but rather fewer will permanently stay, often due to the seeming lack of Authority behind those arguments. Catholics need their Catholic Pope, and many, destabilised without him, follow his shadow.

Then if the “Resistance” is not heeded in principle and barely followed in practice, what use is it ?  Here are two quotes from the Passion of Our Lord. To Pharisees rebuking him for the noise being made by His disciples, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke XIX,40). The “Resistance” is trampled upon, like stones in the street, but it is crying out, to save stones the trouble !  And to Pontius Pilate asking Him if He is a king, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth, hears my voice” (Jn. XVIII, 37). The “Resistance” is telling vital truth no longer told by the SSPX, for instance, today’s Roman officials have lost the Faith.

Here follows what one member of the “Resistance” writes about it. One might wish there were many other members who saw the reality so clearly. Otherwise they risk playing children’s games, somewhat like the SSPX Capitulants in 2012 – and 2006 and 1994…

In effect, one cannot be “optimistic” as to what is going on here, either with regard to a certain priest in particular, or with regard to the “Resistance” in general. The Devil is working double overtime to bring down the last bastions of Tradition. We need to ask God for ourselves to keep a cool head. Nicolas Gomez Davila (1913-1994) would say, “Since everything being constructed today automatically passes over to the enemy, let us hope, before constructing anything, that time brings us materials that do not betray.”  May God grant us patience, common sense and good humour.

In other words, as the official Catholic Church passed over to the enemy at Vatican II; as the Society of St Pius X passed over to the enemy at its General Chapter of 2012; so there is every possibility, if not likelihood, of the “Resistance” in turn passing over to the enemy, even if that can hardly happen officially, because the “Resistance” has so little official about it.  One may wonder if here is not exactly why the Lord God has allowed the “Resistance” to come into existence with so little structure or organisation.

In any case, bravo to the Columbian philosopher, who never went to any “university”. And bravo to the “Resistance” member who quotes him. Neither of them are playing children’s games.

As St Paul says, “When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (I Cor. XIII, 11).  One may ask, are there any men left ?

                                                                                                                                            Kyrie eleison

Children are innocent, their games are sweet,

But adults have the Devil to defeat !

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXLII  (Sept. 2, 2023) : WOMEN  in  SCRIPTURE  –  III

The feminisation of men and masculinisation of women, so widespread in today’s poor world, is such a  universal and radical upheaval for human nature that it would take many issues of these one-page “Comments” to do it justice. However, the propaganda in favour of this particular war on human beings is so heavy all around us that common sense needs all the help that it can get, and perhaps at least one more issue of these “Comments”, to help readers to frame the problem as it needs to be framed – in God. 

For indeed, as a number of readers may already have understood, here is the most important point of all to decipher how a whole world can fall into such madness as feminism and anti-masculinism. If God exists and if it is He who designed all creatures, spiritual and material, then of course He designed human beings as man and woman to live on earth like all other material animals, male and female, but with a spiritual soul, with reason and free-will, unlike all the purely material animals, so that he and she alike could respond to His creative love and deserve to share in His eternal bliss. Human beings are meant for eternity, no less.

Thus before God, man and woman have an equal destiny in Heaven and an equal spiritual dignity, but, for our brief life on earth, God has appointed not equality between man and woman but complementary roles, to create families, which are little societies, which require not equality but a head, with authority to lead and decide for all the family. And gifts of the head He gives in general to men, while women He usually compensates with gifts of the heart, by which to spread love and happiness throughout the family. Thus an earthly and temporary inequality for women is meant to lead to an eternal equality in Heaven.

But imagine now that human beings on a worldwide scale cut God out of their lives. There is no more Creator, no more Designer of human life and nature, no more eternity or eternal life. We are the random products of an “Evolution” which could not care less as far as design, destiny, eternity are concerned. Now mankind learned from Christ, through Christendom, all about the dignity and equality of all men, and this heritage gave human beings a keen sense of their own worth. That much they enjoyed, and they do not want to let it go. But without God, it no longer has any backing from the past or guarantee for the future. Therefore an equality of divine dimension must be crammed into this little life of human dimension, into which it cannot fit, any more than a quart of liquid will fit into a pint bottle. Hence, in all kinds of ways, the dissatisfaction of modern life.  Godless people, but formerly godly, want the fruits of God without the roots. It cannot work. It will not work. But human beings insist on trying to make it work, rather than, by returning to God, live this life on God’s terms instead of their own. In fact they are choosing Hell, and they are turning this world into a vestibule of Hell.

Here is a strong argument for the existence of God. If cutting Him out, as mankind is doing today, could make everybody abidingly happy and prosperous, that might confirm that man neither comes from God or is meant to go to Him. On the contrary, if men today are deep down restless and dissatisfied, as indicated by their politicians continually promising change in one form or other, but always change, is that not an indication that men are not meant just for liberalism and materialism, or for liberty from the Ten Commandments and for the unchecked pursuit of money ?  If men could make liberalism and materialism succeed, that is when we would have to despair of human life.  As it is, we have a natural sense that there must be more to human life than just what is “nasty, poor, brutish and short” (in the words of Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679), and so the despairing condition of men all around us is even a sign of hope ! 

The feminists and anti-masculinists are visceral warriors in the great war on God. But they will not win !

                                                                                                                                       Kyrie eleison

Of multiple treasure God is the infinite hoarder,

But man would replace God with man’s own disorder.

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXLI  (August 26, 2023) : WOMAN  in  SCRIPTURE  –  II  

Surely few readers of these “Comments” realized, before reading those of last week, in just how many places the New Testament addresses directly the question, so vexed today, of man and woman. Or, when they see these quotes are gathered together, how much they say the same thing, and how far what they say departs from the teaching and practice of modern man and woman. Let us comment on the quotes :-

–   Gen. II, 18-24 : A helpmate Even before the very first woman was created, she was designed by God to be oriented towards her man; to be his faithful wife (“two in one flesh”), to enable him to have children and make a family (as no other man could do), to make a new generation (“leaving father and mother”), to continue mankind, eventually to populate the earth (and not de-populate it: Gen. IX, 1, 7). All of this Adam immediately understood. Today’s feminists try to get away from this orientation to man, but it is far too deep in their nature, and to any degree that they succeed, it is a disaster for women and men. See MIGTOW, a reaction of men to the feminism denaturing women. Man and woman are designed by God with a marvellous complementarity, as of head and heart in a human being, they need one another, and nature will always bring them together.  

Gen. III, 16 : The Fall : punishment, submission Even before the Fall, Eve was subordinate to Adam, because in God’s Creation there is everywhere order and hierarchy, not equality and disorder. To man God gives gifts of reason to make him the head of family and society, to woman He gives gifts of love to make her the heart of family and home. But while before the Fall this natural subordination of woman had been painless, after the Fall by which Eve had made Adam fall, as part of her punishment by God, this subordination became painful. By supernatural grace in a Christian marriage that pain is eased, but by pride in feminism the pain becomes only worse.  

1 Cor. XI, 3-12 :  Hierarchy St. Paul’s teaching could not be more clear: 1 God. 2 Christ. 3 Man. 4 Woman. Here is the key to feminism. If man throws off God and Christ, woman will naturally throw off man. If man wishes to restore order in hi home and society, he must start by subordinating himself to God through Christ. It is then quite reasonable to argue that the real authors of today’s disastrous feminism are rather the men than the women.  

Eph. V, 21-33 : Marriage Thus in this longer quote which serves as Epistle in the Catholic Wedding Mass, verses 24 and 33 remind the future wife of her duty to be submissive and respectful towards her husband, but all the other verses are directed to the husband, to tell him to look after his wife, as Christ looks after His own Body, the Church. That is a sublime example for a marriage to follow. It depends on the man to give the right lead to his wife.  

Col. III, 18-21 : Family Here is the essential complementarity: Husbands, love your wives; wives, submit to your husbands.  

1 Tim. II, 9-15 :  Salvation by motherhood When the men are godless, as today, then women take over, in society as in the home, and sometimes they have to do so. With the unhappy results we observe all around us, because women are natured not to exercise authority, but to give and receive love, especially through being mothers.  

Titus II, 4-5 :  Centred on the home As man needs to be creative by his work, so woman needs to be creative by making a family and home.

1 Peter III, 1-7 : Two more reasons for wives to submit One: the insubmission of wives is so unnatural, that, practised by Christians, it will discredit Christ. Two: women are weaker than men, and so should give way, while men should look after their weakness.                                                                                                                                          Kyrie eleison

Saints Peter and Paul, on women, teach the same –

It’s up to the men to lead them, in God’s name.        

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXL  (August 19, 2023)  WOMEN  in  SCRIPTURE  –  I    

Our times are in much confusion on the subject of man and woman.  Here below, God Himself speaks on the subject. He should know, because it is He that designed us, and not we ourselves (Ps. 99, 3).

Gen. II, 18-24:  A helpmate.
18 And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a helpmate like unto himself… 21 Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, He took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it.  22 And the Lord God made the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam.  23 And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.  24 Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.

Gen. III, 16:  The Fall: punishment, submission
To the woman also He said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.

1 Cor. XI, 3-12:  Hierarchy
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God…  7 The man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. 9 For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.

Eph. V, 21-33:  Marriage
22 Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord;  23 Because the husband is the head of the
wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of His Body.  24 Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be <subject> to their husbands in all things…  33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband.

Col. III, 18-21:  Family
18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as it is fitting in the Lord.  19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter towards them.  20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this pleases well the Lord.

1 Tim. II, 9-15:  Salvation, Motherhood
11 Let the woman learn in silence, with all submission.  12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence.  13 For Adam was first formed; then Eve.  14 And Adam was not seduced; but the woman being seduced, was in the transgression.  15 Yet she shall be saved through childbearing… if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety.

Tit. II 4-5 : Young women / love of family
4 That they may teach the young women to be wise, to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 To be discreet, chaste, sober, having a care of the house, gentle, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

I Pet. III, 1-7 : The weaker sex
1 In like manner also let wives be subject to their husbands: that if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word, by the conversation of the wives…   5 For after this manner heretofore the holy
women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands… 7 Ye husbands, likewise dwelling with them according to knowledge, giving honour to the female as to the weaker vessel, and as to the co-heirs of the grace of life: that your prayers be not hindered.                                                                                                                                                  Kyrie eleison How far are modern woman and man off track !

What suffering will it take to bring them back ?

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXLIX  (12 August, 2023) :  TWO  KINDS  of  BISHOP  –  V

It is time to tie together and bring to an end this series of five issues of these “Comments”, because, circling around the theme of what kind of bishops are needed today for the survival of the Catholic Faith tomorrow, the first four issues have ranged over a variety of topics. Here they are in brief :–  

July 15 :  To obtain good bishops, changeless Catholic Truth outweighs today’s Catholic Authority.

July 22 :  Archbishop Lefebvre put Truth first. His re-oriented Society of St Pius X prefers Authority.

July 29 :  All of us must pray for that Authority, none of us may act as though we can take its place.

Aug.05 :  Nor can any ambiguous compromise with today’s Rome truly serve the interests of God.  

The conclusion to be drawn from these four issues of the “Comments” is that Archbishop Lefebvre was not only right in 1988 when he consecrated four bishops against Rome’s express disapproval, but his re-oriented Newsociety (as it may be called because of its re-orientation officially adopted in 2012) was wrong when it then chose to wait upon Rome’s approval to obtain the new bishops it so much needs. It needs them to protect the Faith of a multitude of far-flung souls turning to it as a refuge from the many and resolute heresies of a Rome held in the vice-like grip of the enemies of God. But the Newsociety will hardly serve as a refuge if it insists on negotiating with these destroyers of the Faith. Can the Newsociety Superiors really not see what liberal crusaders for evil, God has allowed, justly, to take over Rome ?  The grave underestimation of the evil around them is at the heart of these Superiors’ re-orientation.  

Archbishop Lefebvre had an idea of the danger when he resigned in 1982 as Superior General of what was still then the Society, and put its Superiorate in the hands of younger successors. For at the same time he reserved to himself all questions of relations with Rome. With his long years of direct experience of dealing as Apostolic Delegate to French Africa with Vatican officials, he suspected that the young priests of his Society might prove to be like babes in the wood amidst the wolves and sharks at work in the Vatican, and so it turned out, because the Big Bad Wolf had such lovely teeth, as Little Red Riding Hood told him !  “All the better with which to devour you, my darling,” came the answer. And since modernist minds have lost objective truth, all the more power to deceive do the “sincere” lies of Roman officials have. Subjectively, they are “sincere”, especially lovely teeth !  Objectively, they are deadly.  

Young priests of the Newsociety, have you been given to believe that the Society of 2012 is the true Society of Archbishop Lefebvre ? If so, you resemble many young priests of the mainstream Church who were only ever taught that Vatican II is the true Catholic Church. But by the grace of God and by their own good will, a number of them are now waking up to the fact that they were sold a dummy, and they are looking for the truth, and you may know how some of them are even looking towards what was the Archbishop’s Society. By the continuing grace of God, they may realise, like yourselves, that his Society is running a grave risk by wanting to rejoin apostate Rome – and that is a grave risk because if anyone wants something for long enough, he is liable to get what he wants. Young man, beware of your wishes !  

What was the wisdom of the Archbishop himself ?  He said, it is Superiors who mould subjects, not the other way round, so to dream of rejoining Rome in order to convert it, is a dangerous dream. And on Vatican II he said, its danger is not so much even in the grave particular errors of religious liberty, collegiality or ecumenism, it is in the all-pervading subjectivism which radically undermines all objective truth together with any of the demands it makes upon us. What can possibly remain of the Catholic Faith?  

Dear young priests, get hold of any texts of the Archbishop himself, and devour them, but beware of editions so doctored by the Newsociety as to cut out anything running contrary to its Newness…                                                                                                                                      Kyrie eleison  

Getting to Heaven is a major enterprise,

Excluding even the shadow of compromise.    

KYRIE  ELEISON  DCCCXXXVIII  (August 5, 2023) : TWO  KINDS  of  BISHOPS  –  IV    

After three issues of these “Comments” (July 15, 22 and 29) it is time to go to the very heart of the split between the two kinds of Catholic bishops for the future of the Catholic Church. On the one hand are those wanted by Archbishop Lefebvre for his original Society of St Pius X. On the other hand are those wanted by the Newsociety of Bishop Fellay who will have the official approval of the Newchurch of Vatican II. By the Archbishop’s policy of “No practical agreement without doctrinal agreement” he put God in front of men, God’s doctrine of the true Church in front of any false agreement with men’s Newchurch. On the contrary, the Newsociety is liable to put men in front of God by its policy of “Since we cannot have a doctrinal agreement with the Roman officials, let us have at least a practical agreement.”  

Now some followers of the Newsociety may immediately object that ever since it adopted in 2012 the policy of practice before doctrine, it has not entered into any false agreement betraying true doctrine, so it is not putting men in front of God. True, the Newsociety has up till now refused any major false deal with Rome whenever Rome has insisted upon the Newsociety accepting the theory of the new religion, Vatican II, or its practice, by the New Mass. But the Newsociety has accepted since 2012 at least three minor agreements (over confessions, marriages and ordinations) which demonstrate to the world that it holds the apostates in Rome, in fact apostates from the Faith – so said the Archbishop — to be still servants of the true Faith. What message does that send to Catholics in confusion ?  The Romans have played skilfully.  

For in fact Conciliar Rome has abandoned Catholic doctrine, it has devastated the Church ever since Vatican II, in the person of Pope Bergoglio it is deliberately destroying the Faith day by day, and it is preparing the September Synod on synodality by which to dissolve the last remaining structures of the Church of Jesus Christ.  And the Newsociety ?  It keeps an official silence on all this demolition at work !  Why ?  Because it wants not to offend the apostates in Rome from whom it is hoping for an official approval ! Dreaming of a major approval, the Newsociety does not want, by speaking up, to throw away Rome’s three minor concessions mentioned above, by which Rome has effectively – cheaply – bought its silence. Can the Newsociety leaders not see how they have been sold a mess of pottage (Gen. XXV, 34) ?  

No, they do not see, because, one might fear, they want to have a comfortable life tucked away in a quiet corner of the wicked System presently governing world and Church. The Devil has deceived them that today’s Rome is not really all that bad, that the Newsociety is a normal Catholic Congregation fully deserving official recognition, that we are not in the thick of a pre-apocalyptic crisis with a divine Chastisement hanging over our heads, that the Vatican officials are our “new friends”, that “Pope Bergoglio loves us”, and so on. In other words at least the leaders of the Newsociety, if not also a  number of its priests and faithful, have at least half-entered into the lala-land of modern man, which is enough for their Catholic salt to have lost its savour.  In fact they have not had enough faith, not enough love of the Truth (II Thess. II, 10), to take the true measure of what is going on around them. St Thomas More might have said of them what he said of the English churchmen responsible for the collapse of the Catholic Church in England in his time : “They were not praying enough.”  

Readers, Catholic or non-catholic, the situation is urgent beyond words. Pray for Our Lord to give us Catholic bishops with a real love of the Truth; with a strong faith to see how corrupt is the System being constructed by the Devil and his agents all around us; with no desire to even half-enter into the lala-land; with no inclination to keep silent when millions and millions of souls are being swept towards eternal damnation, but with a readiness to die like St Thomas More, if necessary, for the greater glory of God.  

Pray through His Mother.  Pray the Rosary.  Pray 15 Mysteries a day.  And God will bless you.                                                                                                                                          Kyrie eleison.  

In serving God, half-measures will not do.

To all that He demands we must be true.              

ELEISON  COMMENTS  DCCCXXXVII  (July 29, 2023) : TWO  KINDS of  BISHOP  –  III    

The last two issues of these “Comments” presented a version of the difference between the Newsociety of St Pius X and Archbishop Lefebvre’s original Society, in the crucial matter of obtaining future bishops capable of ensuring that the Church will survive its crisis of now over half a century since the end of Vatican II, the Church Council which let loose that crisis. This necessarily meant presenting, however briefly, a version of the crisis itself, namely as the split between Catholic Authority and Catholic Truth brought about by that man-centred Council, which should have remained, like all 20 previous Church Councils, centred on God. There are several further conclusions to be drawn for the Church’s survival, conclusions which concern all of us, and not just the clergy.  

First and foremost, The Catholic Church cannot do without Truth because nobody can save his soul without Truth (Heb. XI, 6), because no lies or untruth can enter the one and only true Heaven of the one true God, who is Truth itself (Jn. XIV, 6). However, in our fallen world Truth cannot do without Authority because the Truth makes demands on men, and all men suffer from original sin, so that they will often want not to live up to those demands, and from God alone can come any infallible Authority sufficient to oblige men to live up to the full demands of His Truth. This Truth of salvation He chose to entrust to Peter and his successors, all fallible men with a free-will still capable of sinning (Mt. XVI, 23; Gal. II, 11 etc.).  

Now, foreseeing from eternity that some Popes would be fallible and would sin even gravely against the Truth, then to ensure that His Church and its Truth would survive to the end of the world (Mt. XXVIII, 20), He must have foreseen also His own interventions to guarantee that survival by working around the failings of His fallible human ministers. And since He chose from eternity to allow even a sequence of six Popes in succession from the death of Pius XII in 1958 onwards to fall foul of the radical doctrinal error of modernism, causing the worst ever Church crisis, lasting 65 years and counting (1958-2023), then there can be no doubt that He will intervene in a very special way to bring this crisis to an end. See, for instance, the Garabandal prophecies of a great Warning, a great Miracle and a great Chastisement. But between now and then, what is the divine Shepherd doing to ensure the survival of His sheep ?  He must be doing something. We look around us in 2023 to discover what that is.  

What we observe is a tremendous variety of Catholic groups and groupings which, broadly speaking, can be classified according to the relative importance that each of them gives to Catholic Authority or to Catholic Truth. And since Truth is unchanging, then it is only when Conciliar Authority abandons Vatican II that the disastrous split between Authority and Truth can be healed. Until then, Catholics must pray urgently for the Pope, or for the restoration of the pope, so that he can restore Catholic Authority, because the papacy is today humanly broken and God alone can mend it. Until that time, as the proverb says, “What cannot be cured, must be endured.”  

Then, for as long as Authority is strangulated by Conciliar popes, Catholics are bound to be divided, so that some are 80% for Authority and 20% for Truth, others are 80% for Truth and 20% for Authority, with all possible combinations in between. But when the pope is so struck, the sheep are so inevitably scattered that whatever combination they hold to, if they are sincerely wanting to be Catholic, then God is visibly tolerating them. And Catholics, rather than play God by excommunicating one another, will do better, broadly speaking, to imitate God by tolerating one another (Gal. VI, 10), until God sees fit to end the crisis. Not that Truth does not matter, on the contrary, somebody in the Church must preserve it, but that without a functioning Authority, Catholics can that much less be blamed for not finding it.                                                                                                                                     Kyrie eleison   Souls seeking God deserve that we take heed.

Souls spurning God, of charity have need.