EPISTLE: 1 Cor. 9, 24-27; 10, 1-5.

Brethren, Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink: (that they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well pleased.

EXPLANATION Having exhorted us to penance in the Introit of the Mass, the Church desires to indicate to us, by reading this epistle, the effort we should make to reach the kingdom of heaven by the narrow path (Matt. VII. 13.) of penance and mortification. This St. Paul illustrates by three different examples. By the example of those who in a race run to one point, or in a prize-fight practice and prepare themselves for the victor's reward by the strongest exercise, and by the strictest abstinence from everything that might weaken the physical powers. If to win a laurel-crown that passes away, these will subject themselves to the severest trials and deprivations, how much more should we, for the sake of the heavenly crown of eternal happiness, abstain from those improper desires, by which the soul is weakened, and practice those holy virtues, such as prayer, love of God and our neighbor, patience, to which the crown is promised! Next, by his own example, bringing himself before them as one running a race, and fighting for an eternal crown, but not as one running blindly not knowing whither, or fighting as one who strikes not his antagonist, but the air; on the contrary, with his eyes firmly fixed on the eternal crown, certain to be his who lives by the precepts of the gospel, who chastises his spirit and his body as a valiant champion, with a strong hand, that is, by severest mortification, by fasting and prayer. If St. Paul, notwithstanding the extraordinary graces which he received, thought it necessary to chastise his body that he might not be cast away, how does the sinner expect to be saved, living an effeminate and luxurious life without penance and mortification? St. Paul's third example is that of the Jews who all perished on their journey to the Promised Land, even though God had granted them so many graces; He shielded them from their enemies by a cloud which served as a light to them at night, and a cooling shade by day; He divided the waters of the sea, thus preparing for them a dry passage; He caused manna to fall from heaven to be their food, and water to gush from the rock for their drink. These temporal benefits which God bestowed upon the Jews in the wilderness had a spiritual meaning; the cloud and the sea was a figure of baptism which enlightens the soul, tames the concupiscence of the flesh, and purifies from sin; the manna was a type of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, the soul's true bread from heaven; the water from the rock, the blood flowing from Christ's wound in the side; and yet with all these temporal benefits which God bestowed upon them, and with all the spiritual graces they were to receive by faith from the coming Redeemer, of the six hundred thousand men who left Egypt only two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land. Why? Because they were fickle, murmured so, often against God, and desired the pleasures of the flesh. How much, then, have we need to fear lest we be excluded from the true, happy land, Heaven, if we do not continuously struggle for it, by penance and mortification!

ASPIRATION Assist me, O Jesus, with Thy grace that, following St. Paul's example, I may be anxious, by the constant pious practice of virtue and prayer, to arrive at perfection and to enter heaven.

GRADUAL:

Ps. 9. Thou art a helper in due time in tribulation: let them trust in Thee, who know Thee: for Thou dost not forsake them that seek Thee, O Lord. For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: the patience of the poor shall not perish forever: arise, O Lord, let not man prevail.

TRACT:

Ps. 129. From the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let Thine ears be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant. If Thou shalt observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall abide it? For with Thee is propitiation, and because of Thy law I have waited for Thee, O Lord.

GOSPEL: Matt. 20, 1-16.

At that time Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: The kingdom of God is like to a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers in his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle, and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour: and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? The say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the laborers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.

In this parable, what is to be understood by the householder, the vineyard, laborers, and the penny?

The householder represents God, who in different ages of the world, in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and finally, in the days of Christ and the apostles, has sought to call men as workmen into His vineyard, the true Church, that they might labor there industriously, and receive the penny of eternal glory.

How and when does God call people?

By inward inspiration, by preachers, confessors, spiritual books, and conversations, etc., in flourishing youth and in advanced age, which periods of life may be understood by the different hours of the day.

What is meant by working in the vineyard?

It means laboring, fighting, suffering for God and His honor, for our own and the salvation of others. As in a vineyard we spade, dig, root out weeds, cut off all that is useless and noxious, manure, plant, and bind up, so in the spiritual vineyard of our soul we must, by frequent meditation on death and hell, by examination of conscience dig up the evil inclinations by their roots, and by true repentance eradicate the weeds of vice, and by mortification, especially by prayer and fasting cut away concupiscence; by the recollection of our sins we must humble ourselves, and amend our life; in place of the bad habits we must plant the opposite virtues and bind our unsteady will to the trellis of the fear of God and of His judgment, that we may continue firm.

How is a vice or bad habit to be rooted up?

A great hatred of sin must be aroused; a fervent desire of destroying sin must be produced in our hearts; the grace of God must be implored without which nothing can be accomplished. It is useful also to read some spiritual book which speaks against the vice. The Sacraments of Penance and of holy Communion should often be received, and some saint who in life had committed the same sin, and afterwards by the grace of God conquered it, should be honored, as Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine who each had the habit of impurity, but with the help of God resisted and destroyed it in themselves; there should be fasting, alms-deeds, or other good works, performed for the same object, and it is of great importance, even necessary, that the conscience should be carefully examined in this regard.

Who are standing idle in the market place?

In the market-place, that is the world, they are standing idle who, however much business they attend to, do not work for God and for their own salvation; for the only necessary employment is the service of God and the working out of our salvation. There are three ways of being idle: doing nothing whatever; doing evil; doing other things than the duties of our position in life and its office require, or if this work is done without a good intention, or not from the love of God. This threefold idleness deprives us of our salvation, as the servant loses his wages if he works not at all, or not according to the will of his master. We are all servants of God, and none of us can say with the laborers in the Vineyard that no man has employed us; for God, when He created us, hired us at great wages, and we must serve Him always as He cares for us at all times; and if, in the gospel, the householder reproaches the workmen, whom no man had hired, for their idleness, what will God one day say to those Christians whom He has placed to work in His Vineyard, the Church, if they have remained idle?

Why do the last comers receive as much as those who worked all day?

Because God rewards not the time or length of the work, but the industry and diligence with which it has been performed. It may indeed happen, that many a one who has served God but for a short time, excels in merits another who has lived long but has not labored as diligently (Wis. 4, 8-13).

What is signified by the murmurs of the first workmen when the wages were paid?

As the Jews were the first who were called by God, Christ intended to show that the Gentiles, who were called last, should one day receive the heavenly reward, and that the Jews have no reason to murmur because God acted not unjustly in fulfilling His promises "to them, and at the same time calling others to the eternal reward. In heaven envy, malevolence and murmuring will find no place. On the contrary, the saints who have long served God wonder at His goodness in converting sinners and those who have served Him but a short time, for these also there will be the same penny, that is, the vision, the enjoyment, and possession of God and His kingdom. Only in the heavenly glory there will be a difference because the divine lips have assured us that each one shall be rewarded according to his works. The murmurs of the workmen and the answer of the householder serve to teach us, that we should not murmur against the merciful proceedings of God towards our neighbor, nor envy him; for envy and jealousy are abominable, devilish vices, hated by God. By the envy of the, devil, death came into the world (Wis. 2, 24). The envious therefore, imitate Lucifer, but they hurt only themselves, because they are consumed by their envy. "Envy," says St. Basil "is an institution of the serpent, an invention of the devils, an obstacle to piety, a road to hell, the depriver of the heavenly kingdom.”

What is meant by: The first. shall be last, and the last shall be first?

This again is properly to be understood of the Jews; for they were the first called, but will be the last in order, as in time, because they responded not to Christ's invitation, received not His doctrine, and will enter the Church only at the end of the world; while, on the contrary, the Gentiles who where not called until after the Jews, will be the first in number as in merit, because the greater part responded and are still responding to the call. Christ, indeed, called all the Jews, but few of them answered, therefore few were chosen. Would that this might not. also come true with regard to Christians whom God has also called, and whom He wishes to save (I Tim. 2, 4). Alas! very few live in accordance with their vocation of working in the vineyard of the Lord, and, consequently, do not receive the penny of eternal bliss.

PRAYER O most benign God, who, out of pure grace, without any merit of ours, hast called us, Thy unworthy servants, to the true faith, into the vineyard of the holy Catholic Church, and dost require us to work in it for the sanctification of our souls, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may never be idle but be found always faithful workmen, and that that which in past years we have failed to do, we may make up for in future by greater zeal and persevering industry, and, the work being done, may receive the promised reward in heaven, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our, Lord. Amen.

OFFERTORY:

Ps. 91. It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to Thy name, O Most High.

SECRET:

Having received, O Lord, our offerings and prayers, we beseech Thee, cleanse us by Thy heavenly mysteries, and mercifully hear us. Through our Lord, etc.

Accept, O Lord, the gifts we bring Thee on the festival of blessed Agatha, Thy Virgin and Martyr, by whose protection we hope to be delivered. Through our Lord, etc.

Hear us, O God, our salvation, that through the power of this sacrament Thou mayest defend us from all enemies of soul and body and bestow upon us grace here and glory hereafter. Through our Lord. etc.

COMMUNION:

Ps. 30. Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant, and save me in Thy mercy: let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon Thee.

POSTCOMMUNION:

May Thy faithful, O God, be strengthened by Thy gifts, that receiving the same they may long after them, and seeking may receive them without end. Through our Lord, etc.

May the mysteries whereof we have partaken help us, O Lord; and, through the intercession of blessed Agatha, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may we ever be strengthened by their protection. Through our Lord, etc.

May the offering of this divine sacrament cleanse and protect us, O Lord, we beseech Thee; and by the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and all the Saints, may it purify us from all sin and free us from all adversity. Through our Lord, etc.

During the period from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the liturgy speaks no more of our greatness but contemplates the misery of fallen humanity-the fatal consequences of original sin and actual sin-and the sacrifice that God asked from the faithful Melchisedech, symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus brings for the whole of humanity…In this period we also prepare for the fasting and penance of the Season of Lent.

Rev. Sylvester P. Juergens, S.M.

From all this it is evident that the Christian, who would spend Septuagesima according to the spirit of the Church, must make war upon that false security, that self-satisfaction, which are so common to effeminate and tepid souls, and produce spiritual barrenness. It is well for them, if these delusions do not insensibly lead them to the absolute loss of the true Christian spirit. He that thinks himself dispensed from that continual watchfulness, which is so strongly inculcated by our divine Master, is already in the enemy’s power. He that feels no need of combat and of struggle in order to persevere and make progress in virtue should fear that he is not even on the road to that kingdom of God, which is only to be won by violence. He that forgets the sins which God’s mercy has forgiven him, should fear lest he be the victim of a dangerous delusion.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Septuagesima Sunday

The duration of the world itself, according to the ancient Christian tradition, is divided into seven ages. The human race must pass through seven ages before the dawning of the day of eternal life. The first age included the time from the creation of Adam to Noah; the second begins with Noah and the renovation of the earth by the deluge, and ends with the vocation of Abraham; the third opens with this first formation of God’s chosen people, and continues as far as Moses, through whom God gave the Law; the fourth consists of the period between Moses and David, in whom the house of Juda received the kingly power; the fifth formed of the years which passed between David’s reign and the captivity of Babylon, inclusively; the sixth dates from the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, and takes us on as far as the birth of our Saviour. Then, finally, comes the seventh age; it starts with the rising of this merciful Redeemer, the Sun of justice, and is to continue till the dread coming of the Judge of the living and the dead. These are the seven great divisions of time; after which, eternity… After the Septuagesima of mourning, we shall have the bright Easter with its seven weeks of gladness, foreshadowing the happiness and bliss of heaven.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, The Mystery of Septuagesima

PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 5^th:

20	Sun	Septuagesima Sunday St. Agatha, VM	sd	V		Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Mass for Mission members
21	Mon	St. Titus, BpC *St. Dorothy, VM*	d	V		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
22	Tue	St. Romuald, Ab	d	W		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
23	Wed	St. John of Matha, C	d	W		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM; Confessions 5:30 PM
24	Thu	St. Cyril of Alexandria, BpCD *St. Apollonia, VM*	d	W		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
25	Fri	St. Scholastica, V	d	W	A	Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation & Confessions 5:30 PM
26	Sat	Apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes	dm	W		Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM
27	Sun	Sexagesima Sunday Seven Holy Founders of the Servites, Cc	sd	V		Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions 8:00AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30; Mass for Mission members

And don’t tell me you don’t wish to fight, for the moment you tell me that, you are already fighting. Nor that you don’ know which side to join; for while you are saying that, you have already joined a side. Nor that you wish to remain neutral; for while you are thinking to be so, you are so no longer. Nor that you want to be indifferent; for I will laugh at you, because on pronouncing that word you have already chosen your party. Don’t tire yourself seeking a place of security against the chances of war, for you tire yourself in vain; that war is extended as far as space and prolonged through all time. In eternity alone… can you find rest, because there alone there is no combat. But do not imagine, however, that the gates of eternity shall be opened for you, unless you first show the wounds you bear. Those gates are only opened for those who gloriously fought here the battles of the Lord Crucified!

Juan Donoso Cortés, marqués de Valdegamas, 1809-1853, Spanish author, diplomat, and worthy descendent of the great conquistador, Hernando Cortes.

In our time more than ever before, the greatest asset of those disposed toward evil is the cowardice and weakness of good men, and all the vigor of Satan’s reign is due to the easy going weakness of Catholics. Oh! If I might ask the Divine Redeemer, as the Prophet Zachary did in spirit: “What are those wounds in the midst of Thy hands” (Zach. 13:6)? The answer would not be doubtful: “… With these I was wounded in the house of them that loved Me” (Zach. 13:6). I was wounded by My friends, who did nothing to defend Me, and who, on every occasion, made themselves the accomplices of My adversaries. And this reproach can be leveled at the weak and timid Catholics of all countries.

St. Pius X, December 13, 1908, the beatification of St. Joan of Arc

Let us place humility above all things. It is the hidden treasure buried in the field, to acquire which we ought to sell all we possess (Matt. 13, 44). It is the pearl of great price, to obtain which we should sell all we have (Matt. 13, 45). Do not let us call these sins against humility scruples, but let us regard them as real sins, worthy of confession and of amendment. May God guard us from too easy a conscience in respect to that true humility which is commanded us in the Gospel. We should then indeed be taking the broad way mentioned by the Holy Ghost, which though it seems the right and straight road nevertheless leads direct to perdition: "There is a way that seemeth to a man right, and the ends thereof lead to death" (Prov. 16, 25).

Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, Humility of Heart

The Church of Christ, animated by the same Divine Spirit of truth which inspired this holy Apostle, has at all times regulated her conduct according to the model set before her in his words and example,” . . . contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints" (Jude, 1: 3); her continual care is “ . . . to keep that which is committed to thy trust" pure and undefiled, "avoiding all profane novelties of words . . ." (1 Tim. 6: 20); that the sacred words of God, " . . . I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth . . . from henceforth and for ever" (Isa. 59: 21). She therefore knows not what it is to temporize in religion, in order to please men, not to adulterate the Gospel of Christ to humor them; she declares the sacred truths revealed by Jesus Christ in their original simplicity, without seeking to adorn them with the persuasive words of human wisdom, much less to disguise them in a garb not their own.

Bishop George Hay of Scotland [1729-1811], The Sincere Christian

St. Romuald is a son of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and like him, is the father of many children. The Benedictine family has a direct line from the commencement, even to this present time; but, from the trunk of this venerable tree there have issued four vigorous branches, to each of which the Holy Spirit has imparted the life and fruitfulness of the parent stem. These collateral branches of the Benedictine Order are: Camaldoli, founded by St. Romuald; Cluny, by St. Odo; Vallombrosa, by St. John Gaulbert; and Citeaux, by St. Robert of Molesmes.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Romuald

Liberalism is a heresy in the doctrinal order, because heresy is the formal and obstinate denial of all Christian dogmas in general. It repudiates dogma altogether and substitutes opinion, whether that opinion be doctrinal or the negation of doctrine. Consequently it denies every doctrine in particular. If we were to examine in detail all the doctrines or dogmas which, within the range of Liberalism, have been denied, we would find every Christian dogma in one way or the other rejected-----from the dogma of the Incarnation to that of Infallibility…. We may then say of Liberalism: in the order of ideas it is absolute error; in the order of facts it is absolute disorder. It is therefore, in both cases a very grievous and deadly sin, for sin is rebellion against God in thought or in deed, the enthronement of the creature in the place of the Creator.

Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin

The religion of Christ alone can produce in timid women, like St. Dorothy, an energy which at times surpasses that of the most valiant martyrs among men. Thus does our Lord glorify His infinite power, by crushing Satan’s head with what is by nature so weak. The enmity put by God between the woman and the serpent, is for ever showing itself in those sublime Acts of the Martyrs, where the rebel angel is defeated by an enemy whom he knew to be weak, and therefore scorned to fear; but that very weakness, which made her victory the grander, made his humiliation the bitterer.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Dorothy

The connection between the victory of the Divine Word and the triumph of his glorious Mother has never been more manifest than in the combats sustained by the Pontiff whom we are to honor today. St. Cyril of Alexandria is the Doctor of the Divine Maternity as his predecessor, St. Athanasius, was that of the Consubstantiality of the Word. The dogma of the Incarnation is founded upon these two ineffable mysteries, which they confessed and defended in two succeeding centuries. As Son of God, Christ must be consubstantial with the Father, for the infinite simplicity of the divine essence excluded all idea of division. To deny the unity of substance and principle in Jesus, the Divine Word, was to deny His divinity. As Son of Man, as well as true God of true God, Jesus was to be born on earth of a daughter of Adam, and yet in His humanity be still one Person with the Word which is consubstantial with the Father. To deny the personal union of the two natures in Christ was again equivalent to denying His divinity; it was also equivalent to declaring that the Blessed Virgin, who until then had been honored as having given birth to God in the nature which He assumed for our salvation, was only the mother of a man.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Cyril of Alexandria

God will have the Paraclete only in those who worship Him in perfect faith.

St. Cyril of Alexandria, On The True Faith

Therefore, it is unlawful, and an act the punishment of which is death, to love to associate with unholy heretics.

St. Cyril of Alexandria, On Leviticus

God, in His infinite wisdom, gave to St. Benedict a faithful co-operatrix, a sister of such angelic gentleness of character, that she would be a sort of counterpoise to the brother, whose vocation, as the legislator of monastic life, needed a certain dignity of grave and stern resolve. We continually meet with these contrasts in the lives of the saints; and they show us that there is a link, of which flesh and blood know nothing; a link which binds two souls together, gives them power, harmonizes their differences of character, and renders each complete. Thus it is in heaven with the several hierarchies of the angels; a mutual love, which is founded on God Himself, unites them together, and makes them live in the eternal happiness of the tenderest brotherly affection.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Scholastica

St. John of Matha, assisted by his faithful co-operator, St. Felix of Valois, established, under the name of the most holy Trinity, a body of religious men, who bound themselves by vow to devote their energies, their privations, their liberty, nay, their very life, to the service of the poor slaves who were groaning under the Saracen yoke. The Order of the Trinitarians, and the Order of Mercy founded by St. Peter Nolasco, though distinct, have the same end in view, and the result of their labors, during the six hundred years of their existence, has been the restoration to liberty and preservation from apostasy of upwards of a million slaves…. We are preparing for Lent, when one of our great duties will have to be that of charity towards our suffering brethren: what finer model could we have than St. John of Matha, and his whole Order, which was called into existence for no other object than delivering from the horrors of slavery brethren who were utter strangers to their deliverers, but were in suffering and in bondage… men who were even willing to change place with the poor captives, if their liberty could not be otherwise obtained.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. John of Matha

Remember in your charity the following pray requests:

Welfare of Brinton Creeger the son of Elizabeth Carperter,

Conversion of Justin Hagerman is the request of the Drews

Francis Paul Diaz, who was baptized at Ss. Peter & Paul, asks our prayers for his spiritual welfare,

For the welfare of Regina Spahalsky and her son, Francis Lester, who are in failing health,

The health and welfare of infant William Thomas Bennett,

The welfare of the Jason Kolinsky Family,

The conversion of David Keithley is the petition of Gene Peters,

William Adams, a resident in a nursing home in Gettysburg,

Emily LaFatta, who will be entering the convent of Carmel,

The Rhoad’s ask our prayers for a safe pregnancy and delivery for Mary Beres,

The Drews ask your intercession for the welfare of Brendon McGuire, a young father of three, who has been diagnosed with cancer,

For the conversion of Ben and Tina Boettcher, and Karin Ebert,

Julio Vargas petitions prayers for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his aunt, Flora Vargas, who has been diagnosed with cancer,

Fr. Waters requests our prayers for Br. Rene, SSPX who has been ill, and for Fr. Thomas Blute,

Clare Palmieri asks prayers for Maryann Oler, a Catholic from Baltimore who is in failing health,

Rose Cuono, the mother of John Cuono who is in failing health,

For Gary Smith, who has financial and medical problems and no family help,

For the health and welfare of Jerry Pitman, who has been ill,

Julio Vargas requests prayers for the welfare of his aunt, Isabel Viquez, who is gravely ill,

Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for Charles Valenti, who is dying and his wife, Julia,

For the welfare of Fr. Paul DaDamio and Fr. William T. Welsh,

Welfare of the Victor and Geraldine Caceres family,

The Drew’s ask our prayers for the welfare of Joe & Tracy Sentmanat family, Keith Drew, and Timothy & Christy Koziol and their children,

Ryan Boyle grandmother, Jane Boyle, who is failing health,

Mel Gibson and his family, please remember in our prayers,

The Sbardello Family asks our prayers for their son, Rocco Sbardello, who is gravely ill and in need of conversion,

Rev. Timothy A. Hopkins, asks prayers for himself, his mother, the Mission of St. Philomena in Miami, and the welfare of Fr Jean-Luc Lafitte,

The health and welfare of Augusta Wildt,

For the welfare of Ed Snell and Luanne Ferguson and their legal cases in the defense of children in their mother’s womb,

For the welfare of Anthony Maleski, a young Catholic father of three severely injured in a train accident,

Ebert’s request our prayers for the Andreas and Jenna Ortner Family,

Joyce Paglia has asked prayers for George Richard Moore Sr., and her children, Lease, Christopher, Perry, and Debbie,

The special intention and welfare of Julio Vargas, and for the conversion of Karla and Grace Vargas,

The health of Nancy Bennett, the daughter of Peg and Bill Barry,

Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who is in failing health,

For the welfare of Anthony and Joyce Paglia, who are responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,

The Paglias request our prayers for Anna Maria, Micky, and Romeo Paglia,

The Drew’s ask your prayers for the Gene Peters Family, the John Manidis Family, the Sal Massinio Family, and John Cuono,

Please pray for Fr. Michael Jurecki, an old and faithful traditional priest, who is in failing health,

Philip Thees asks our prayers for his family, for McLaughlin Family, and the conversion of Helen Mackewicz and Bruce Heller, the welfare of Dan Polly Weand and, and the conversion of Sophia Herman, the special intention of John and Louis Fergale, the welfare Nancy Erdeck, the wife of the late Deacon Erdeck, the health of Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio, and his uncle, John Thees.

    The siblings were quite close. The respective rules of their houses proscribed either entering the other's monastery. According to Saint Gregory, they met once a year at a house near Monte Cassino monastery to confer on spiritual matters, and were eventually buried together, probably in the same grave. Saint Gregory says, "so death did not separate the bodies of these two, whose minds had ever been united in the Lord."
    Saint Gregory tells the charming story of the last meeting of the two saints on earth. Scholastica and Benedict had spent the day in the "mutual comfort of heavenly talk" and with nightfall approaching, Benedict prepared to leave. Scholastica, having a presentiment that it would be their last opportunity to see each other alive, asked him to spend the evening in conversation. Benedict sternly refused because he did not wish to break his own rule by spending a night away from Monte Cassino. Thereupon, Scholastica cried openly, laid her head upon the table, and prayed that God would intercede for her. As she did so, a sudden storm arose. The violent rain and hail came in such a torrential downpour that Benedict and his companions were unable to depart.
    "May Almighty God forgive you, sister" said Benedict, "for what you have done."
    "I asked a favor of you," Scholastica replied simply, "and you refused it. I asked it of God, and He has granted it!"
    Just after his return to Monte Cassino, Benedict saw a vision of Scholastica's soul departing her body, ascending to heaven in the form of a dove. She died three days after their last meeting. He placed her body in the tomb he had prepared for himself, and arranged for his own to be placed there after his death.

St. Gregory the Great, Life of St. Benedict

Pray for the Repose of the Souls:

Fr. Timothy A. Hopkins, of the National Shrine of St. Philomena, in Miami, November 2,

Eduardo Cepeda, who died January 26,

Jane Hoover, who died December 22,

Larry Young, the 47 year old father of twelve who died December 10 and the welfare of his wife Katherine and their family,

Sister Mary Bernadette, M.I.C.M., a founding member of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died December 16,

Henry J. Phillips, a friend of Philip Thees, who died November 20,

Joeseph Elias, who died on September 28,

William, the brother of Fr. Waters, who died Septermber 7,

Donald Tonelli, died August 1,

Emma Colasanti, who died May 29,

Mary Dullesse, who died April 12, a Catholic convert who died wearing our Lady’s scapular,

Ruth Jantsch, the grandmother of Andre Ebert, who died April 7,

Philip D. Barr, died March 5, and the welfare of his family,

Judith Irene Kenealy, the mother of Joyce Paglia, who died February 23, and her son, George Richard Moore, who died May 14,

For Joe Sobran who died September 30,

Deacon Michael Erdeck, who died September 13,

John Vennari asks our prayers for Dr. Raphael Waters who died August 26,

Stanley Bodalsky, the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June 25,

John Raymond Dunn, a friend of the Drew’s who died June 12, 2009,

Mary Isabel Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and friend of the Drew’s, who died June 6^th,

Rev. John Campion, who offered the traditional Mass for us every first Friday until forbidden to do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,

Joseph Montagne, who died May 5,

For Margaret Vagedes, the aunt of Charles Zepeda, who died January 6,

Fr. Enrique Rueda, who died December 14, 2009,

Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for his brother, Leonard Edward Peterson, and his cousin, Wanda, who died last October, and for Angelica Franquelli,

Philip Thees petitions our prayers for Beverly Romanick, who died November 9,

Fr. Didier Bonneterre, the author of The Liturgical Movement, and Fr. John Peek,

Derrick Palengat, Andre Ebert’s godfather,

Brother Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, NH, who died September 5,

Elizabeth Vargas requests prayers for her grandmother, Petrona Zeballos Zolva, and her uncle, Nelson Torchino,

Rodolfo Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew, who died May 24,

Rev. Francis Clifford, a devout and humble traditional priest, who died on March 7,

Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for the repose of the souls of the six priests who were ordained with him sixty years ago,

Emilce Vargas, the grandmother of Julio Vargas, and his grandfather, Carlos Gutierrez,

Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonya Kolinsky.

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

PRESENCE OF GOD ‑ O Lord, I come to You with a keen desire to learn how to respond to Your invitations.

MEDITATION:

1. The time of Septuagesima is somewhat like a prelude to Lent, the traditional time for spiritual reform. That is why the liturgy presents us today with a program which we must put into effect in order to bring about within ourselves a new, serious conversion, so that we may rise again with Christ at Easter. The Collect of today's Mass, while reminding us that we are sinners, invites us to sentiments of profound humility, " to the end that we, who are justly afflicted because of our sins, may through Thy mercy, be freed from them. " The first step toward conversion always consists in humbly recognizing that we need to be converted. The lukewarm must become fervent, the fervent must reach perfection, the perfect must attain heroic virtue. Who can say that he does not need to advance in virtue and in sanctity? Each new step effects a new conversion to God, conversio ad Deum. In the Epistle (I Cor 9, 24‑27; 10, 1‑5) St. Paul urges us to undertake this ceaseless spiritual labor. To reach sanctity and heavenly glory we must never tire of running and striving, as those who run in the stadium struggle and exert themselves " to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I, therefore, so run... not as one beating the air, " says the Apostle, " but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection! " This is the first point in the program : a generous struggle to overcome ourselves, to conquer evil and achieve goodness; denial of self by humility; denial of the body by physical mortification. Only those who struggle and exert themselves will win the prize. Therefore let us also run in such a way as to obtain the reward.

2. The Gospel (Mt 20, I‑16) gives us the second part of the program for this liturgical season : not to remain idle, but to labor assiduously in the Lord's vineyard. The first vine to be cultivated is our own soul. God comes to meet us with His grace, but He does not will to sanctify us without our cooperation. On this Sunday the great invitation to sanctity is repeated to every soul. God in His love seeks out His scattered, idle children and gently reprimands them " Why stand you here idle? " St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi says that " God calls us at various times, because creatures differ in state. In this variety we see God's greatness and benignity, which never fail to call us by means of His divine inspirations, in no matter what stage or situation we may be. " Blessed are those who, ever since their youth, have always heard and followed the divine invitation! But each hour is God's hour; and He passes by and calls us, even to the very last hour. What a consolation, and at the same time what an incentive to respond at last to the Lord's appeal : " Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts! " (Ps 94,8).

In addition to the vineyard of our soul, we must also consider the vineyard of the Church, where so many souls are waiting to be won to Christ. No one can consider himself dispensed from thinking of the welfare of others. However lowly our place in the Mystical Body of Christ, we are all members of it; consequently, each one of us must work for the welfare of the others. It is possible for everyone to carry on an efficacious apostolate by example, prayer, and sacrifice. If, up to now, we have done but little, let us listen today to the words of Jesus : " Go you also into My vineyard. " Let us go and embrace generously the work which the Lord offers us; let us consider nothing too difficult when there is question of winning souls.

COLLOQUY:

Bless, O Lord, this new liturgical season which opens today. By penetrating its spirit may I be disposed, with Your aid, for a serious reform of my spiritual life. Grant me sincere humility, that I may know my misery and see myself as I am in Your eyes, free from those false lights which arise from self‑love, deceiving me and leading me to think I am better than I am. If I wish to consider my wretchedness at Your feet, it is by no means in order to become discouraged: " In my trouble I call upon You, my God, and. from Your holy temple, You hear my prayer .... You are my strength, O Lord, my support, my refuge, my Redeemer. You are my help in time of trouble. He who knows You, hopes in You, for You do not abandon the one who seeks You. From the depths of the abyss, I cry to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. If You will mark our iniquities, O Lord, who can stand it? But with You there is mercy, and by reason of Your law, I trust in You, O Lord! " (Mass of the day).

Infuse into me, O Jesus, new strength to take up more eagerly the course which will lead me to win the incorruptible crown of sanctity. " And since nature opposes what is good, I promise to declare a merciless war against myself. My weapons for the battle will be prayer, the practice of the presence of God, and silence. But, O my Love, You know that I am not skilled in handling these arms. Nevertheless, I will arm myself with sovereign confidence in You, with patience, humility, conformity to Your divine will, and supreme diligence. But where shall I find the aid I need to fight against so many enemies in such a continual battle? Ah ! I know! You, my God, proclaim Yourself my Captain, and raising the standard of Your Cross, You lovingly say, `Come, follow Me; do not fear'" (T.M. Sp).

O my Lord, I will no longer resist Your invitation. May today sound for me the decisive hour of a response filled with generosity and perseverance. You call me. Here I am. I come to Your vineyard, O Lord, but if You are not with me to sustain me in my work, I shall accomplish nothing. O You who invite me, help me to do what You ask of me.

Crosses are a symbol that hurts Jewish feelings… They did not have to take them off, just hide them. I’ve never encountered a Christian who has refused including the Pope.

Rabbi Shamble Rabinovitch, his comment after barring fourteen Austrian Catholic bishops from visiting the “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem because they refused to remove the crucifixes they were wearing.

The truths Jesus taught are so important and essential that, to know them or not, to believe them or not, is a matter of life or of death. His doctrine is not optional; rather, it is so essential that we cannot attain eternal life without it. “Who believeth in Him… may have life everlasting… but he that doth not believe is already judged : because he believeth not in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God” (Jn 3, 16-18). Compared to the truths taught by Jesus, all others are insufficient. Because the doctrine of Jesus is absolutely indispensable. He proved its truth by miracles in order to help our weak faith to adhere to it…. Jesus is the only Teacher who can guarantee with miracles the truth of His doctrine.

Rev. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy

From any sin, however slight, committed with full knowledge, may God deliver us, especially since we are sinning against so great a Sovereign and realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me a sin committed of malice aforethought : it is as thought one were to say : ‘Lord, although this displeases You, I shall do it. I know that You see it and I know that You would not have me do it; but, though I understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire than Your will.’

St. Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection

This being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth. Jesus Christ sent His Apostles into the whole world in order that they might permeate all nations with the Gospel faith, and, lest they should err, He willed beforehand that they should be taught by the Holy Ghost: has then this doctrine of the Apostles completely vanished away, or sometimes been obscured, in the Church, whose ruler and defense is God Himself?

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, On Religious Unity

The Sine Qua Non of ‘Theology of the Body’? Natural Family Planning!

The truth is that matrimony, as an institution of nature, in virtue of the Creator’s will, has not as a primary and intimate end the personal perfection of the married couple but the procreation and upbringing of a new life. The other ends, inasmuch as they are intended by nature, are not equally primary, much less superior to the primary end, but are essentially subordinated to it…. We Ourselves drew up a declaration on the order of those ends, pointing out what the very internal structure of the natural disposition reveals. We showed what has been handed down by Christian tradition, what the Supreme Pontiffs have repeatedly taught, and what was then in due measure promulgated by the Code of Canon Law.
Not long afterwards, to correct opposing opinions, the Holy See, by a public decree, proclaimed that it could not admit the opinion of some recent authors who denied that the primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of the offspring, or teach that the secondary ends are not essentially subordinated to the primary end, but are on an equal footing and independent of it.

Pope Pius XII

Considered from a pastoral aspect, one must say that the ecumenism of the last decades that it leads Catholics to a “silent apostasy” and that it dissuades non-Catholics from entering into the unique ark of salvation. One must reprobate, as Vatican Council I has said, “the impiety of those who close to men the gates of the Kingdom of heaven”. Under the guise of searching for unity, this ecumenism disperses the flock; it does not carry the mark of Christ, but that of the divider par excellence, the devil.

FROM ECUMENISM TO SILENT APOSTASY

It is said that on one occasion Pope St. Pius X asked a group of cardinals: “What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?” “Build catholic schools,” said one. “No,” said the pope. “More churches,” said another. “Still no.” “Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said still another. “No, no,” said the pope. “The most necessary thing of all at this time is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”

Rev. Charles Hugo Doyle, Guidance in Spiritual Direction

Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?… Wherefore go out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

2 Cor. 6: 14, 17

IN THE CHURCH THERE ARE GOOD AND BAD,
PREDESTINATE AND REPROBATE

    Was not that the true Church which St. Paul called the pillar and ground of truth and the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3, 15)? Certainly;---- for to be a pillar of truth cannot appertain to an erring and straying Church. Now the Apostle witnesses of this true Church, the house of God, that there are in it vessels unto honour and unto dishonour (2 Tim. 2, 20), that is, good and bad.
    Is not that Church against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail (Matt. 16, 18) the true Church? Nevertheless there are therein men who have to be loosed from their sins, and others whose sins have to be retained, as Our Lord shows us in the promise and the power He gave to St. Peter in this matter. Those whose sins are retained----are they not wicked and reprobate? Indeed, the reprobate are precisely those whose sins are retained, and by the elect we ordinarily mean those whose sins are pardoned. Now, that those whose sins St. Peter had power to forgive or to retain were in the Church is evident; for them that are outside the Church only God will judge (1 Cor. 5, 13). Those therefore of whom St. Peter was to judge were not outside the Church but within, though amongst them there were some reprobate.
    And does not Our Lord teach us that when we are offended by some one of our brethren, after having reprehended and corrected him twice, in two different fashions, we should take him to the Church? Tell the Church; and if he will not hear the Church let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican (Matt. 17, 17). Here one cannot escape---the consequence is inevitable. There is question of one of our brethren who is neither heathen nor publican, but under the discipline and correction of the Church, and consequently member of the Church, and yet there is no inconsistency in his being reprobate, perverse, and obstinate. Not only then do the good belong to the true Church, but the wicked also, until such time as they are cast out from it, unless one would say that the Church to which Our Lord sends us is an erring, sinful, and antichristian Church. This would be too open a blasphemy.

St. Francis de Sales, The Catholic Controversy, In Defense of the Faith

St. Jerome relates in a letter to Eustochium how, at the time when he was beginning to lead the monastic life near Antioch, he was led by a very great grace to the assiduous reading of the Scriptures. The elegance of profane writers still pleased him greatly; by preference he read the works of Cicero, Virgil, and Plautus. Then he received the following grace: during sleep he beheld himself, as it were, transported before the tribunal of God, who asked him severely who he was. "I am a Christian," Jerome replied. "You lie," said the sovereign Judge. "You are a Ciceronian; for where your treasure is, there is your heart also." And the order was given to scourge him. "Upon awakening," writes St. Jerome, "I felt, indeed, that this had been more than a dream, that it was a reality, since I bore on my shoulders the marks of the stripes I had received. Since that time I have read the Sacred Scriptures with greater ardor than I formerly read profane books." This experience explains St. Jerome's statement to Eustochium in another letter: "Let sleep surprise you only reading; fall asleep only on Sacred Scripture."

Rev. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Ages of the Interior Life

So run that ye may obtain, i.e., obtain the crown of glory and the Prize of victory. The allusion is to those that ran in the public games for a crown as the prize, with which they were crowned when victorious. Cf. notes to Rev. iii. 2. ‘The word so denotes the rectitude, the diligence, the swiftness, and the perseverance especially required in order to win the prize. The course of Christ was marked by these qualities, that course which all ought to put before themselves for imitation. S. Bernard (Ep. 254) says: “The Creator himself of man and of the world, did He, while He dwelt here below with men, stand still? Nay, as the scripture testifies, ‘He went about doing good and healing all.’ He went through the world not unfruitfully, carelessly, lazily, or with laggard step, but so as it was written of him, ‘He rejoiced as a giant to run his course.’ No one catches the runner but he that runs equally fast; and what avails it to stretch out after Christ if you do not lay hold of Him? Therefore is it that Paul said, ‘so run that ye may obtain.’ There, 0 Christian, set the goal of your course and your journeying where Christ placed his. ‘He was made obedient unto death.’ However long you may have run, you will not obtain the price if you do not persevere even unto death. The prize is Christ.” He then goes on to point out that, in the race of virtue, not to run, to stand still, is to fail and go back. “But if while He runs you stand still, you come no nearer to Christ, nay, you recede from Him, and should fear for yourself what David said, ‘Lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish.’ Therefore, if to go forward is to run, when you cease to go forward you cease to run: when you are not running you begin to go back. Hence we may plainly see that not to wish to go forward is nothing but to go back. Jacob saw a ladder, and on the ladder angels, where nonce was sitting down, none standing still, but all seemed to be either ascending or descending, that we might be plainly given to understand that in this mortal course no mean is to be found between going forward and going back, but that in the same way as our bodies are known to be continuously either increasing or decreasing, so must our spirit he always either going forward or going back.” And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.

Rev. Cornelius a Lapide, Commentary on First Corinthians 9:24

Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has inspired you with this resolution (which is worthy of your zeal for the Catholic faith), to endeavor, by delivering yourselves and your kingdom from a woman’s passion, to restore it to its ancient obedience to this holy Roman See . . . and if, in maintaining the Catholic faith and the authority of this Holy See, even death should be encountered by you and your blood should be shed, it is far better for the confession of God’s truth to pass quickly to eternal life by the short road of a glorious death, than to live on in shame and ignominy, to the loss of your souls, in bondage to a feeble woman’s passion. For think not, beloved sons in Christ, that those Bishops, or other leading Catholics (principibus Catholicis) of your country whom you mention, have made an unhappy end; who, for their refusal to give up their confession of the Catholic faith, have been either cast into prisons, or unjustly visited with other penalties. For their constancy, which has been encouraged by the example (still, as we believe, effective) of the blessed Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, can be praised by none as much as it deserves. Imitating this same constancy yourselves, be brave and firm in your resolve! and abandon not your undertaking through fear or threat of any dangers.

Pope St. Pius V, Letter to the St. Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland and to his friend, the Earl of Westmoreland, regarding the moral right to rebel, February 22, 1570

The Church of Christ IS the Roman Catholic Church

“On this the Earl, turning towards the people, said: ‘I should have been content to meet my death in silence, were it not that I see it is the custom for those who undergo this kind of punishment to address some words to the bystanders as to the cause of their being put to death. Know, therefore, that, from my earliest years down to this present day, I have held the Faith of that Church which, throughout the whole Christian world, is knit and bound together; and that in this same Faith I am about to end this unhappy life. But, as for this new Church of England, I do not acknowledge it.’

“Here Palmer, interrupting him, cried out in a loud voice: ‘I see that you are dying an obstinate Papist; a member, not of the Catholic, but of the Roman Church.’

“To this the Earl replied: ‘That which you call the Roman Church is the Catholic Church, which has been founded on the teaching of the Apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being its corner-stone, strengthened by the blood of Martyrs, honoured by the recognition of the holy Fathers; and it continues always the same, being the Church against which, as Christ our Saviour said, the gates of Hell shall not prevail.’

“When Palmer tried a second time to interrupt him, the Earl said: ‘Cease, pray, to further trouble me, for of this truth my mind and conscience are most thoroughly convinced.’ And when Palmer still would not be silent, the Earl, turning to the people, said: ‘Beware, beloved brothers, of these ravening wolves, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, whilst, meantime, they are the men that devour your souls.’ At this, rushing straight down from the platform, as though he had received a blow, Palmer left the Earl free to finish his address.

“To me it has been a grievous sorrow,’ he continued, ‘that, in consequence of an occasion furnished in a manner by myself, so many of the common people have been put to a violent death for the zeal with which they strove to further God’s religion, and clung also personally to myself. Would that by my own death I might have saved their lives! and yet I have no fear but that their souls have obtained the glory of Heaven.’

“‘As to other matters brought against me, they are already fully explained in my answers to the questions set me by the Privy Council; but I know that in them there is no room for mercy, and therefore from them I expect none: but from Him alone, whom I know to be the author of all mercy, who will, as I truly believe, grant mercy to me.’

“After commending to his brother’s care his children (four daughters, the eldest but ten), his servants, and some small debts, he begged all present to forgive him, declaring that he on his part forgave all from his heart. Then kneeling down he finished his prayers.

“Then, after kissing a cross, which he traced upon the kidder of the scaffold, with his arms so folded on his breast as to form a cross, he stretched himself upon the block; and as soon as he had said, ‘Lord, receive my soul!’ the executioner struck off his head. At that same instant, a great groan, which sounded like a roll of thunder, burst from the weeping spectators, as with one voice they called on God to receive his soul into eternal rest.

“It was thought very wonderful that, from the moment of his laying himself upon the block, he gave not even the smallest sign of fear, and made no movement whatsoever, either of head or body.

Martyrdom of St. Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, August 22, 1572, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; Taken from, Lives of the English Martyrs by Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B. St. Thomas’ father, also Thomas Percy, was martyred under the reign of Henry VIII.

The Religion of Sloth

If we are going to turn away from spiritual joy, we are going to look for joy elsewhere. And so the slothful man ends by putting something else in the place of the revealed spiritual good.

For the mainstream Catholic clergy, ecumenism is that something else. It is the substitute for the Divinely revealed spiritual good. It has been the driving force of every papacy since John XXIII’s; the overarching concern of most every precept and policy to issue from Rome these past 40-some years. It is the reason there is a New Mass. It is the reason we are identified as traditionalists. We are resisting the new religion fashioned by sloth. We are the declared enemies of ecumenism. We are, quite simply, Catholic.

And because we are Catholic, we are either despised or ignored by the vast majority of the Catholic hierarchy. We are not of their faith. We do not attend their Mass. And we are an irritating, hateful reminder of the spiritual good from which they have turned away.

Edwin Faust, Catholic commentator

Dogmas are not Precepts – They are Divinely Revealed Truths

The dogmas of the Faith are to be held only according to their practical sense; that is to say, as preceptive norms of conduct and not as norms of believing, Condemned Proposition.

St. Pius X, Lamentabili Sane

Pope Benedict XVI and the Prayer Meeting at Assisi

Although it clearly follows from the circumstances that the Pope can err at times, and command things which must not be done, that we are not to be simply obedient to him in all things, that does not show that he must not be obeyed by all when his commands are good. To know in what cases he is to be obeyed and in what not, it is said in the Acts of the Apostles: “One ought to obey God rather than man,”; therefore, were the Pope to command anything against Holy Scripture, or the articles of faith, or the truth of the sacraments, or the commands of the natural or divine law; he ought not to be obeyed, but in such commands, to be passed over.

Juan cardinal de Torquemada, O. P., Summa de Ecclesia, quoting St. Robert Bellarmine

Or, what would JP II have done if they handed him a toilet plunger?

Question: Why did JP II, who kisses the Sacred Scripture, kiss the Koran that contains blasphemies against Jesus Christ and His blessed Mother?

“The answer is simple: Same lips, different reason. The pope had been advised that in the Near Eastern culture, when a gift is received, it is normally kissed as a sign of respect to the gift’s giver. The pope would have kissed whatever gift was given to him, whether it was the Koran or commemorative coins which is actually what the pope gives to visiting guests.”

Rev. John Trigilio, Phd, ThD, Rev. Kenneth Brighenti, PhD, & Rev. Jonathan Toborowsky, MA, John Paul II for Dummies

After all, Clerical Pedophiles in jail need a patron saint!

JP II, who the Dummies call, “the people’s pope” when they know very well that his duty was to be the “vicar of Christ”, presided over the greatest decline over the shortest period of time in the history of the Catholic Church. Now there is mounting evidence that he may have actively participated in the cover-up of homosexual predator priests and the bishops he appointed, yet these Dummies “firmly believe and trust [that JP II] will one day be proclaimed John Paul the Great and Doctor of the Church, the Luminous Doctor, just as St. Thomas Aquinas was known as the Angelic Doctor and St. Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor.”

Mary: Our model in our First Duty

The field which Justice controls is an extensive one; in fact, Justice means the discharge of all our obligations. It is respect for the rights of others: and, first of all, of God, by the acts of [the virtue of] Religion…. Because God is the Supreme Being, the Lord and Master of all, and we are His subjects, our first duty is to acknowledge His superiority and our dependence, and to give expression to this religious sentiment by appropriate acts. The chief acts of divine worship and adoration are faith, hope and charity, prayer and sacrifice. Prayer implies praise, thanksgiving, atonement and petition. Must we not suppose that Mary poured out her soul to God every day of her life by adoring His Divine Majesty, thanking Him for His inestimable gifts to herself and to every creature, pleading for pardon and mercy in behalf of a sinful world and petitioning for help and grace to supply her own needs and those of her spiritual children?

Very Rev. Lawrence C. Diether, P. Carm., Ave Maria, A short commentary on the Hail Mary

Cardinal Ranjith – Let’s Recast the “Golden Calf”

[The Liturgy] is the means with which human beings are lifted up to the level of the transcendent and eternal: the place of a profound encounter between God and man. Liturgy for this reason can never be what man creates. For if we worship the way we want and fix the rules ourselves, then we run the risk of recreating Aaron's golden calf. We ought to constantly insist on worship as participation in what God Himself does, else we run the risk of engaging in idolatry. Liturgical symbolism helps us to rise above what is human to what is divine. In this, it is my firm conviction that the Vetus (old) Ordo represents to a great extent and in the most fulfilling way that mystical and transcendent call to an encounter with God in the liturgy. Hence the time has come for us to not only renew through radical changes the content of the new Liturgy, but also to encourage more and more a return of the Vetus Ordo, as a way for a true renewal of the Church, which was what the Fathers of the Church seated in the Second Vatican Council so desired. … Hence the time has come for us to be courageous in working for a true reform of the reform and also a return to the true liturgy of the Church, which had developed over its bi-millenial history in a continuous flow. I wish and pray that, that would happen.

Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, November 8, 2011, Letter to Una Voce Meeting in Rome

Did Job’s candid speech to God depart from the respect due to the Lord?

Truth does not change because of the high dignity of him to whom it is addressed; he who speaks the truth cannot be overcome, no matter with whom he disputes.

St. Thomas, Commentary on the Book of Job

The “Traditional Evangelization” – Conversion to the True Faith in the Catholic Church

· Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.

Jesus Christ, Mark 16, 15-16

· “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.”

Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council 1215

· “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”

Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, 1302

· “The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.”

Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Dominio, 1441

The “Old-New Evangelization” of Vatican II – Ecumenical Convergence replaced Conversion

[According to Lumen Gentium] the Catholic Church has no right to absorb the other Churches... [A] basic unity — of Churches that remain Churches, yet become one Church — must replace the idea of conversion, even though conversion retains its meaningfulness for those in conscience motivated to seek it.

Fr. Josef Ratzinger, Theological Highlights of Vatican II

The New “New Evangelization” – Its Ends Remain a Mystery

Bishop Mc Fadden on the “New Evangelization” -

     One of the challenges for the Catholic Church in the third millennium is to proclaim the Gospel to a new generation of people and to articulate the truths of our faith in a way that is understandable to this age and this generation. Our late Holy Father, Blessed John Paul II, at the dawn of the new millennium called for a “New Evangelization”. Our current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has called for a Synod next October to discuss the New Evangelization and he created a new Pontifical Council to encourage and support the work of the New Evangelization.
    The question many ask is “what do we mean by the New Evangelization”? This is a good question and it is important to reflect on it. In succinct terms, the New Evangelization is the work of more effectively proclaiming the truth about Jesus and His Church to a new age and at this particular moment in history. It is the need to address an increasingly secular and materialistic culture with the truth and the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is first and foremost the importance of teaching the basic tenets of our Catholic faith so that individuals may truly know and understand the call to “conversion of life” proclaimed by Jesus. It is to help people understand the truth about life and about God that is revealed in Jesus. It is about helping individuals to understand more clearly what the Church is and how God is present in the world, in and through His Church that He founded and promised to be with until the end of time. The New Evangelization is about helping people see that our faith calls us to a particular lifestyle or way of living our relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters in the human family. It is a distinctive way of embracing life and its reality based upon the Gospel values taught to us by the Lord.
    In the end, the New Evangelization is about understanding what it means to be the People of God in the world always focused on cooperating with the Lord in bringing about His Kingdom that was made manifest in the world in and through His Incarnation over 2000 years ago. The New Evangelization is about encountering the person of Jesus who has revealed Himself as unconditional love and who invites us to share His life by following the Gospel He proclaimed in His words and His actions.
Harrisburg Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, The Catholic Witness

If you don’t know where you are going,

how are you going to get there?

It is unlikely, it is extremely unlikely, that any new plan of evangelical action could succeed unless there is first a clear understanding why the ‘old new-evangelization’ from the heady springtime of Vatican II failed. And better yet, a clear understanding why the traditional evangelization before Vatican II worked. If Pope Benedict’s recent trip to Germany is an example of the practical application of the “new evangelization”, they may find that what looks like the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ is nothing but glow from the fires of hell. Are we plunging deeper into the great apostasy?

The fruit of the ‘old evangelization’ of Vatican II in the U. S.

No other major faith in the U.S. has experienced greater net losses over the last few decades as a result of changes in religious affiliation than the Catholic Church. Nearly one-third (31.4%) of U.S. adults say they were raised Catholic. Today, however, only 23.9% of adults say they are affiliated with the Catholic Church, a net loss of 7.5 percentage points. Overall, roughly one-third of those who were raised Catholic have left the church, and approximately one-in-ten American adults are former Catholics. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world –

The fruit of the ‘old evangelization’ of Vatican II and John Paul the Great

In Europe, a majority of former Catholics have simply become secular; in Brazil, this trend is occurring too, but it takes place alongside a turn towards Pentecostalism. In 1980, when 1.5 million people greeted Pope John Paul II in São Paulo, the overwhelming number of Brazilians (89%) still self-identified as Catholic. By 2000, the Catholic share of the population had dropped to 74%.

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released in October 2006 confirms the Catholic decline and Protestant (more specifically Pentecostal) growth. Less than 60% of the urban population now claims a Catholic affiliation. At the same time, there was a rise in the number of people with no religion, from 1.6% in 1980 to 7.4% at the time of the national census in 2000. Above all, the number of Pentecostalist Protestants has increased from 5% in 1980 to 15% in 2000, and above 20% in urban areas.

Rodrigo de Almeida, Benedict XVI in Brazil, May 2007

Usury – a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance is the reason for the global debt crisis

If you had borrowed one dollar at the time of Christ at 6% (compound) interest, how much money do you think you would owe today, 2000 years later?

Let’s do the math: 1.06^2000 = $4.09 x 10^⁵⁰, or $409.006,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s orders of magnitude more money than there is in the whole world! To put that in perspective, if there were 10 billion people on the earth each earning $1 trillion dollars a second, for every second of every minute of every hour of every day from the beginning of time, 15 billion years ago, their combined earning would only amount to $4.07 x 10^³⁹. It would take another 86 billion earths each full with 10 billion people earning $1 trillion dollars a second for every second from the beginning of time before you would come close to having enough money to pay back the interest due on a measly $1 loan at a low 6% interest for a mere 2000 years.

Anthony Santelli, Ph.D., What is Usury?, Culture Wars Magazine

Sodomy, Marriage and Impotent Shepherds

In the aftermath of the legalization of gay “marriage” in New York state, some commentators had wondered why, despite their leadership role in the fight against the law, the state’s Catholic bishops’ efforts had ultimately seemed so strangely half-hearted, given the high stakes.

One of these was gay activist Terence Weldon. Writing after the vote at the blog “Queering the Church,” he said: “the really interesting thing about the Catholic bishops and NY gay marriage is not how vigorously they fought against it (as the headlines would have it), but how lukewarm this opposition was overall, and how calm they have been in response.”

Weldon pointed out that of 21 bishops in the state, he could only think of two who had taken any public steps to fight the gay “marriage” law - Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Bishop Nicholas DiMazio. Overall he described the response of the bishops to the passage of the law as “muted and moderate.”

It is a puzzling question, but in a mostly overlooked interview with EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo in August, Archbishop Dolan gave some insight into what happened behind the scenes, suggesting that the bishops had, in fact, deliberately avoided “pulling out the stops.” John Jalsevac, Life Site News, November 25, 2011

The Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity

– Made Manifest Through the Virtue of Religion

To this effect St. Augustine says: "God is to be honored by faith, hope and charity". The acts of faith, hope and charity are in themselves acts, not of the moral virtue of religion, but of the three essentially different theological virtues ; yet they may be elicited with the intention of acknowledging the divine truth, fidelity and goodness, and God is thereby greatly honored and glorified. In believing, hoping and loving we give ourselves to God with all the powers of our soul, we lean upon God and rest in God as our last end ; in other words, we render to the divine perfections and majesty due homage and submission. The three divine virtues also condition the development and completion of the Christian life, which is founded on faith, nourished by hope and animated by charity. Faith enlightens the understanding with celestial light, hope endows the soul with supernatural strength, and love inflames the heart with divine fire ; thus these, three virtues enable us by a new and holy life to announce to men the glorious prerogatives and perfections of God, that they may see our works and glorify our Father who is in heaven (i Peter 2, 9; Matt. 5, 16). They give rise to the virtue of religion, and excite us to glorify God through works of piety, mercy and penance.

Rev. Nicholas Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained

Holy self-sacrifice forms the seal of the life of Christ on earth: His life was a constant martyrdom, a blood sacrifice of mortification, an incense-offering of devotion and prayer, a burnt-offering of love for God and men. Truly, the whole earthly career of Christ from the womb of His Mother to the grave, was a sacrifice of abnegation and self-denial. A vail of mourning shrouded His entire life, bearing the character of severe penance and atonement for a world full of frivolity, sinful, sensual enjoyment and horrible godlessness. This painful way began in the crib, to end only on the Cross: crib and Cross are closely connected with each other. In the crib Jesus lay as a meek, lovely Infant-God; on the Cross He was suspended, His body torn and bleeding: but in the one situation as well as in the other, He is the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world. Calvary cast its shadow upon His hidden, silent life at Bethlehem and Nazareth. "Poor and sorrowful' (Ps. 68, 30) was Jesus throughout the whole course of his life. Privations, humiliations, sufferings were His inseparable companions: they surrounded Him on His entrance into the world, accompanied Him during His earthly pilgrimage and ascended with Him on the Cross. Whatever the world cherishes, seeks and values, all its joys, riches and glory, all its pomp and grandeur, He despised and disdained; in their stead He endured poverty, hardships, hostility, contradictions, vexations innumerable, such as only an unbounded love could choose and endure. As a stranger who had not whereon to lay His head, did the Lord of Heaven dwell many years upon this earth, an earth yielding thorns and thistles. At the same time, we must remember that His pure, delicate body and noble and holy soul were created peculiarly susceptible of suffering, and consequently experienced, a thousand times more than men can imagine, the severity, acuteness and bitterness of all corporal and spiritual sufferings. His infancy, boyhood and youth were passed in retirement and obscurity, in poverty and self-denial, in painful labor and austere penance; also the three years of His public life, His ministry among an "unbelieving and perverse generation" (Matt. 17, 16) were filled with bitterness arising from the inappreciation, ingratitude and persecution on the part of His own nation; and this was all the more painful to Him, since He had come but to seek and save those who were lost. He was repudiated, blasphemed and calumniated by the obdurate Jews, so that before leaving this world, He could apply to Himself these words of the Prophet: "They have hated Me without cause" (John 15, 25; cf. Ps. 68, 5), and He could say to His disciples : "If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated Me before you" (John 15, 18).

Rev. Nicholas Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained

The priest at the altar is the representative and image of the praying and sacrificing Saviour. Now, as on the Mount of Olives and on the Cross, Jesus prayed not only in loud tones, but also in a low voice and in the silence of His heart to His Father, so also it is proper that the priest should even herein resemble His Divine Model, when representing and renewing the Sacrifice of the Cross. The altar becomes not merely the Cross, but also the Crib; for at the moment of Consecration the marvels of Bethlehem as well as those of Golgotha are renewed. Whilst deep silence pervaded all things and the night was in the midst of its course, the Almighty Word of God descended from His royal throne in heaven to the crib of Bethlehem; in like manner, does the King of Glory at the consecration come down upon the altar, amid the most profound silence.

Rev. Nicholas Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained

Now that the gross mistranslations of the Novus Ordo, the “Ordinary Form” of the Bugnini liturgical revolution, have been corrected, we are back to the Critical Study of the Roman Theologians on the New Mass, otherwise known as the “Ottaviani Intervention”. This evaluation was done on the normative Latin text before any vernacular mistranslations.

They spotlighted many deficiencies inherent in the New Mass: Here are some of the defects they noted:

• A new definition of the Mass, as an ‘assembly’ rather than as a sacrifice offered to God;

• Omissions of elements emphasizing the Catholic teaching that the Mass makes satisfaction for sins, a teaching utter rejected by Protestants;

• The reduction of the priest’s role to a position approximating that of a Protestant Minister;

• Implicit denials of Christ’s Real Presence and the doctrine of Transubstantiation;

• The change of the Consecration from a sacramental action into a mere narrative retelling the story of the Last Supper;

• The fragmentation of the Church’s unity of belief through the introduction of countless options;

• Ambiguous language and equivocation through the rite which compromises the Church’s doctrine.

• The Study said, “It is obvious that the Novus Ordo obsessively emphasizes ‘supper’ and ‘memorial,’ instead of the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross.

• The Study points out that in the New Mass, “the central role of the Real Presence has been suppressed”.

• The Study accurately noted that the New Mass “has much to gladden the heart of the most modernist Protestant”.

Catholic Family News

Jesus Christ Received the Throne of David through St. Joseph

It may be yet further asked, why S. Matthew unfolded the genealogy of Joseph rather than of Mary, since Christ was born of her alone, being a Virgin? I answer : First, because among the Jews, and other nations, genealogy is customarily reckoned through fathers and husbands, not through mothers and wives. Second, because Joseph was the true and lawful father of Christ, after the manner which I shall explain presently. And Christ was the heir of David’s throne and sceptre, not through Mary, but through Joseph, according to Gods promise to David, 2 Sam. vii. 12; Ps. lxxxix. and cxxxii. The sceptre, therefore, of Judah devolved upon Jesus Christ, not only by the promise and gift of God, but by the right of hereditary succession. For if, by common right, sons succeed to their fathers’ inheritance, when they are only accounted their sons by common repute, how much more was Christ Joseph’s, his father’s, heir, since He was the Son of his wife, by the power and the gift of the Holy Ghost? Wherefore as Joseph had a parent’s right over Christ, indeed, all rights which parents have over sons, so on the other hand, Christ had, with reference to Joseph, all the rights which sons have in respect to their parents. He had therefore a right to the kingdom of Israel after Joseph’s death. Hence the question of the Magi (ii. 2), “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” This was what S. Matthew wished to demonstrate, who, as S. Augustine says, insists, most of all the Evangelists, upon the kingship of Christ. And this explains why he gives the genealogy of Joseph, rather than of Mary. For she could not be the heiress of the kingdom, so long as heirs male, like Joseph and others, survived. Whence also it must be said, as a consequence, that the father and other ancestors of Joseph were first-born, or at least eldest surviving sons of their fathers, so that the right of reigning devolved upon them.

This is what is meant in the first chapter of S. Luke by the words, “And the Lord God will give unto him the throne of his father David.” So likewise in Gen. xlix. to, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come,” that is, Christ, who was to restore to Judah the sceptre, iniquitously taken away by Herod; yea, who was to raise their kingdom to a far higher grandeur, by making it spiritual instead of corporeal, heavenly instead of earthly, and, instead of temporal, eternal.

Rev. Cornelius a Lapide, Commentary on St. Matthew

“Religion holds the first place among the moral virtues”

The supernatural virtue of Religion is, in the first place, an abiding, persevering disposition inclining us to render unto God the worship due Him. Ease and readiness in the performance of supernatural acts of religion is the fruit of faithful exercise and is obtainable by our own exertions assisted by divine grace. Charity and all the infused moral virtues are inseparably united with sanctifying grace, whilst the two theological virtues of faith and hope (habitus fidei et spei) can still exist even after sanctifying grace has been lost…. Religion holds the first place among the moral virtues. Although, like all other moral virtues, the virtue of religion is inferior in merit and dignity to the divine virtues of faith, hope and charity, it is, nevertheless, most intimately connected with them, for it regulates the conduct of man toward God. It holds the first rank among the moral virtues, because it approaches nearer to God than the others, in so far as it produces and has for its primary object those acts which refer directly and immediately to the honor of God — that is, whatever acts pertain to the divine service…. We read in the epistle of St. James (i. 27) these words: “Religion (religio) clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this; to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one’s self unspotted from the world.” The meaning of the above is — that if we would honor God the Father in a sincere and proper manner, we must be assiduously intent upon assisting the poor, the abandoned and the distressed, upon consoling and comforting them, and, at the same time, endeavor, amid the universal corruption of the world, to serve God alone and to please Him by purity of heart and the righteousness of our ways. Thus the virtue of religion will produce abundant fruits “that in all things and above all things God may be glorified” (ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus).

Rev. Nicholas Gihr

Cardinal Raymond Burke: The Reform of the Reform; a semi-organic liturgical hermeneutics of continuity

Cardinal Burke has discovered that the “cultural revolution” is responsible for the hijacking of Vatican II, giving us a “man-centered liturgy” and now the “extraordinary form” of the Novus Ordo has “helped correct the problem.” Now everyone sees that the “ordinary form could be enriched by elements of that long tradition,” and at last, “It seems, to (Cardinal Burke), that what (Pope Benedict) has in mind is that this mutual enrichment would seem to naturally produce a new form of the Roman rite — the ‘reform of the reform,’ if we may — all of which (he) would welcome and look forward to its advent.”

Condensed from: Cardinal Burke Talks About Rome, the Mass, Canon Law and U.S. Culture by DAVID KERR (EWTN NEWS/CNA) 11/28/2011

Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity

Entrusting myself fully to the Spirit of truth, therefore, I am entering into the rich inheritance of the recent pontificates. This inheritance has struck deep roots in the awareness of the Church in an utterly new way, quite unknown previously, thanks to the Second Vatican Council, which John XXIII convened and opened and which was later successfully concluded and perseveringly put into effect by Paul VI, whose activity I was myself able to watch from close at hand.

Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis

Indeed, the extent and depth of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council call for a renewed commitment to deeper study in order to reveal clearly the Council's continuity with Tradition, especially in points of doctrine which, perhaps because they are new, have not yet been well understood by some sections of the Church.

Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia Dei Adflicta

Catholic Church Teaches:

Condemned Proposition: Revelation, constituting the object of the Catholic faith, was not completed with the Apostles.

Pope St. Pius X, Lamentabili Sane, (Denzinger-Schonmetzer 3421)

To Obtain Virtue, You Must Ask For It

It is a law of the spiritual life that no grace is granted which has not been asked for. “You receive not, because you ask not.” Thus prayer becomes a necessary means of salvation, be it vicarious or for one’s self. Every petition that is presented at the throne of God, whether it be addressed by the Church triumphant in Heaven or the Church militant on earth, or the Church suffering in purgatory, is received by Mary and by her is presented to God. For Mary in Heaven is still the golden link uniting God and His creation, the gateway through which we come to God, as God comes to us; for the favors granted pass through Mary’s hands. Mary is the mystic Jacob’s ladder on which creatures ascend to God and His blessings descend upon us. Mary alone – with the exception of Christ, her Son – has immediate access to the Blessed Trinity; and, as the Mother of the redeemed, she makes intercession for us unceasingly… The virtue of Fortitude regulates the passions brought into play under hardships by steeling the will to bear up and to dare. It checks fear and cowardice on the one hand and foolhardiness on the other. It contemplates and does big things; it is patient and preserving.

Very Rev. Lawrence Diether, O. Carm., Ave Maria, A Short Commentary on the Hail Mary

They hold a plainly false opinion who say that in regard to the truth of religion it does not matter what a man thinks about the Creation so long as he has the correct opinion concerning God. An error concerning the Creation ends as false thinking about God.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Question:

Does the SSPX possess an unqualified “right” to confidentiality in their current discussions with Rome regarding matters of Catholic Faith? Do they have a right to pursue a hidden agenda in their negotiations of the Faith against the pretensions of a Modernist hierarchy? The disputations, for example, with Martin Luther, were never a “private” concern of either party. All Catholics have a material interest in the current discussions and those who have supported the SSPX in the past have done so in the interest of defending the Catholic Faith and never from the standpoint of supporting the private interests of a Catholic association. To prevent any temporizing of the Catholic Faith, all discussions that pertain to matters of Faith belong in the public forum. The Catholic Faith is to be professed and defended by all to all.

Letter of Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, SSPX District Superior for South America

Martinez, October 12, 2011
†
Society of St. Pius X
District of South America
The Superior

Dear Fathers,

Just got back from Rome a few hours ago and I want to share some news about the meeting to which we were summoned by our Superior General, Bishop Fellay. It was an informative meeting.

As the communiqué that was published said, the General Council was attended by all the District Superiors and three of the four bishops.

Indeed Bishop Williamson did not go to Albano. He had also been summoned to the meeting, but Bishop Fellay had added two conditions: to close his blog and keep secret the contents of the preamble that Rome gave the SSPX. Bishop Williamson did not agree to at least one of the two conditions, and for that reason did not take part in the meeting in Albano.

The session unfolded in three stages. Firstly, Bishop Fellay presented a historical assessment of relations with Rome. Secondly, Bishop de Galarreta and Father Jorna spoke of the doctrinal discussions in Rome. Lastly, the doctrinal preamble provided by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by Cardinal Levada, was presented.

No need to review the historical facts concerning our relations with Rome. You already know the essentials. Regarding the doctrinal discussions, we studied four capital points: the Novus Ordo Missae; religious liberty; ecclesiology- Lumen Gentium, the "subsists in", collegiality; and the Magisterium and Tradition.

Our opponents did not seek to answer our arguments but constantly tried to show that there is no break with tradition. They recognized that religious liberty, collegiality, and so on, are modern terms but, they maintained that they are contained implicitly in Tradition and made explicit by the Vatican Council.

The climate of the discussions was cordial, which permitted each one to openly express his position. Our opponents remained sympathetic to our arguments, at least outwardly.

The text of the document given to Bishop Fellay and his assistants remains confidential. But I can tell you some elements of its content. It has two parts: a preamble and a brief doctrinal canonical solution proposed for the SSPX.

The preamble is based on the memorandum of understanding that was once proposed to Archbishop Lefebvre, but it is more restrictive.

We are asked to recognize Catholic Tradition in the light of Vatican II and the teachings of the Popes after the Council. Moreover, we should accept on the one hand, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which constitutes a compendium of the conciliar doctrine, and also, the Code of Canon Law published in 1983, with an application tailored to the particular discipline given to the SSPX.

Then, we should also recognize the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo. According to the explanations of the Vatican canonists, the word "legitimate" means "legal" ... This is not the commonly understood sense.

Then would follow the Profession of Faith and the Oath of Allegiance.

Finally, if we sign this preamble, we would be granted a personal prelature, similar to the canonical structure of Opus Dei.

Clearly, this preamble, with its content, cannot be signed, even if amendments are made. The situation of the Conciliar Church, the Pope's remarks in Germany, the meeting in Assisi, all declare that it is not the time to sign such a document. We would be crushed by the system, as were the "motu propio" communities.

Bishop Fellay will send his response in a few weeks, and perhaps publish a doctrinal declaration which will have nothing to do with what was presented to us, and it will not be accepted by Rome.
Although there is a canonical opening by Rome, the doctrinal situation in the Church has not changed.

Rome needs us. It needs us to reunite with them to prove that the Vatican II is not a rupture with Tradition, and to neutralize the progressive wing that yearns for a manifest rupture with Tradition. Clearly we cannot continue this way. We must stand firm and wait for Rome to take new steps. Rome returns more and more (to Tradition), but still not enough.

So the battle continues! I ask you to maintain the confidentiality of the contents of this circular. You can tell the faithful that nothing was signed and that the situation remains identical to what we had before September 14. When I visit your priories, I will provide more details about the situation.

Finally I want to tell you that last Monday I went to Rome to pray before the Chair of St. Peter. I also went to climb the Scala Santa, asking the Lord to grant each of us, the District priests, an unwavering fidelity to the fight led by Archbishop Lefebvre for the good of souls, the Church and Tradition. Thinking of the tragedy that the Church is going through today should encourage our zeal for the sanctification of souls entrusted to our care.

Assuring you of my fraternal prayer in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Father Christian Bouchacourt

SSPX District Superior

South America

SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission

P.O. Box 7352, York, PA, 17408

717-792-2789

SaintsPeterandPaulRCM.com

SaintsPeterandPaulRCM@comcast.net

To Restore and Defend Our Ecclesiastical Traditions of the Latin Rite to the Diocese of Harrisburg

SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Chapel

129 South Beaver Street, York PA 17401

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. John of Matha

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

The Sine Qua Non of ‘Theology of the Body’? Natural Family Planning!

The Religion of Sloth

Letter of Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, SSPX District Superior for South America