Error Engenders Hate and Agitation, Christ the King Engenders True Charity and Peace

Every day seems to bring tragic news of one sort or another in a world that has gone mad as an inevitable result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolution, which was itself sought by various agents of Talmudism as the means to create a world order that would not reference Our Divine King and Redeemer and would, quite instead, make war upon His Holy Name and His true Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order. The irony of this overthrowing of the Divine Plan that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself instituted to effect man’s return to Him through His Catholic Church is that the descendants of those who agitated for and have profited from it have become victims of what their ancestors wrought and of what they themselves have sought to maintain: the reign of man and a pulsating hatred of Christ the King and His true Church.

As noted earlier this month in George Soros's Latest Sideshow, men must be divided into warring camps when they lose sight of First and Last Things as they concentrate on the acquisition, retention and the promotion of physical and material well-being as the ultimate raison d’etre of human existence. Our true popes prophetically warned us about this reality even as most Catholics in the United States of America went about their business of enjoying the bread and circuses along with their Protestant and Masonic countrymen.

Perhaps the most telling of these prophetic warnings from our true popes came from Pope Pius IX in Qunta Cura, December 8, 1864, and from Pope Leo XIII, Tamesti Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:

"For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling."

"And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right." But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests?" (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)

This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)

Indeed, as we see all too clearly from the daily headlines and instant news reports, public life is stained with crime.

Alas, public life is stained with crimes upon persons and property in a visible manner because most men, no matter where they stand along the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic naturalistic fault lines, sin, objectively speaking, with impunity in ways that do not make headlines against the binding precepts of the Divine Law and the Natural Law every day. These sins, which are very visible to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who shed droplets of His Most Precious Blood in his Agony in the Garden as He contemplated their number, gravity and enormity, make men more disposed to commit wanton acts of violence against others. Men whose lives are steeped in sin and whose only thoughts look downward upon the earth not upward towards Heaven will be prone to be agitated by the events of this passing world. Some such men will even go beyond agitation and seek to do bodily harm to others.

Acts offensive to God bring violence to men, starting with false worship and the religious indifferentism bred by “religious liberty.” Most Americans, including most Catholics who live in the United States of America, are oblivious to the harm of false worship and of religious indifferentism. Pope Leo XIII, of course, wared us of this harm that is so invisible to so many men but it nevertheless is very real and can be seen clearly by those who view the world through the supernatural eyes of the Holy Faith:

The sovereignty of the people, however, and this without any reference to God, is held to reside in the multitude; which is doubtless a doctrine exceedingly well calculated to flatter and to inflame many passions, but which lacks all reasonable proof, and all power of insuring public safety and preserving order. Indeed, from the prevalence of this teaching, things have come to such a pass that may hold as an axiom of civil jurisprudence that seditions may be rightfully fostered. For the opinion prevails that princes are nothing more than delegates chosen to carry out the will of the people; whence it necessarily follows that all things are as changeable as the will of the people, so that risk of public disturbance is ever hanging over our heads.

To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name. Men who really believe in the existence of God must, in order to be consistent with themselves and to avoid absurd conclusions, understand that differing modes of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict even on most important points cannot all be equally probable, equally good, and equally acceptable to God. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

The United States of America, for instance, was founded on the flattery of “popular sovereignty” even though actual power was exercised by a select elite at the time and remains exercised by a select elite (career politicians, bureaucrats, agents of the Deep State) today. The lie of “popular sovereignty” has convinced men in the “civilized world” to believe that everything is a matter of debate, including the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law.

The false principles of Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry were used by the American founds to convince men that they do not need belief in, access to and cooperation with Sanctifying Grace to grow in virtue, neigh well to become saints. The Calvinist spirit of egalitarianism and the Judeo-Masonic spirit of religious indifferenism and materialism have proliferated all manner of errors in the name of “liberty.” Acknowledging nothing external to the text of its own words as a brake on the proliferation of errors, the Constitution of the United States of America, which is so revered by Americanist Catholics and by “conservative” Protestants and Talmudists, becomes as mutable as the words of Holy Writ in the ands of Modernist Catholics and Protestants of any stripe or variety.

The Catholic Church is the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

As I have noted so frequently in my writing and speaking, Catholicism is not an infallible guarantor of the just social order, but it is the necessary foundation of such order. That is, fallen men must choose to cooperate with the graces that they receive in the Sacraments and by means of the Actual Graces made available to them to perform their daily duties to grow in holiness and to avoid sin. Men will sin, granted, but they must be aware of their sins, have true contrition for them, seek absolution in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance from a true priest and then make reparation for their sins. It is one thing to sin. It is quite another to persist in one’s sins unrepentantly and then to make reparation for them.

Catholics during the High Middle Ages understood these truths. Father Denis Fahey, C.SS.Sp., a true son of Ireland, explained the working of the Social Reign of Christ the King in the glorious Thirteenth Century:

By the grace of the Headship of the Mystical Body, our Lord Jesus Christ is both Priest and King of redeemed mankind and, as such, exercises a twofold influence upon us. Firstly, as a Priest, He communicates to us the supernatural life of grace by which we, while ever remaining distinct from God, can enter into the vision and love of the Blessed Trinity. We can thus become one with God, not, of course, in the order of substance or being, but in the order of operation, of the immaterial union of vision and love. The Divine Nature is the principle of the Divine Vision and Love, and by grace we are ‘made partakers of the Divine Nature.’ This pure Catholic doctrine is infinitely removed from Masonic pantheism. Secondly, as King, our Lord exercises an exterior influence on us by His government of us. As King, He guides and directs us socially and individually, in order to dispose all things for the reception of the Supernatural Life which He, as Priest, confers.

Society had been organized in the thirteenth century and even down to the sixteenth, under the banner of Christ the King. Thus, in spite of deficiencies and imperfections, man’s divinization, through the Life that comes from the sacred Humanity of Jesus, was socially favoured. Modern society, under the influence of Satan, was to be organized on the opposite principle, namely, that human nature is of itself divine, that man is God, and, therefore, subject to nobody. Accordingly, when the favourable moment had arrived, the Masonic divnization of human nature found its expression in the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789. The French Revolution ushered in the struggle for the complete organization of the world around the new divinity–Humanity. In God’s plan, the whole organization of a country is meant to aid the development of a country is meant to aid the development of the true personality of the citizens through the Mystical Body of Christ. Accordingly, the achievement of true liberty for a country means the removal of obstacles to the organized social acceptance of the Divine Plan. Every revolution since 1789 tends, on the contrary, to the rejection of that plan, and therefore to the enthronement of man in the place of God. The freedom at which the spirit of the revolution aims is that absolute independence which refuses submission to any and every order. It is the spirit breathed by the temptation of the serpent: ‘For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Man decided then that he would himself lay down the order of good and evil in the place of God; then and now it is the same attitude. (Father Denis Fahey, The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World, p. 27.)

The United States of America was founded upon an open rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King, which means that its whole ethos is satanically-inspired. The evils that have been and continue to be advanced under the cover of law—evils that are celebrated in “popular culture” and enjoy widespread public support—are the logical consequence of the false principles upon which the whole enterprise of “American freedom” was premised. There is only one standard of human liberty: the Holy Cross, not the Declaration of Independence of the United States Constitution.

There was no need for the devil to attack Catholicism in se directly in the United States of America (admitting, obviously, that open persecution of individual Catholics and the burning of Catholic churches and convents was a major feature of the life in the United States of America until after the War between the States) as most, although not all, of this country’s Catholic bishops in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries were thoroughly imbued with the founding principles, which were extolled from the pulpit and taught as a matter of Catholic doctrine in parochial schools. Catholics thus accepted the Americanist spirit uncritically, thus coming to view Holy Mother Church and the Sacred Deposit of Faith through the eyes of “democracy,” “egalitarianism” and “liberty” rather than seeing the world and judging the things in it by the standard of the Holy Faith.

In Europe, however, the Cross of the Divine Redeemer had been deeply implanted on its soil. The entirety of the fabric of European civilization was built by Catholic missionaries and confessors in the First Millennium as pagans and barbaric tribes were converted to the true Faith. Paganism and barbarism gave way to Catholicism, and men, yes fallen and thus sinful, lived under the shadow of the Holy Cross. This is why the adversary had to attack the Faith head-on with violence in the Sixteenth Century, noting, of course, the insidious influences of Talmudists on royal courts and in commerce and banking through the course of Christendom. The devil used Martin Luther, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Wesley, John Knox, Oliver and Richard Cromwell and countless others to attack Holy Mother Church and to let loose a reign of social terror against Catholics who remained faithful to her.

Flowing from the pestilence of sins against the First Commandment are those committed by so many men, including Protestants and not a few Catholics, who blaspheme by using the Holy Name of God in vain and/or by using the Holy Name of Jesus as in a profane manner.  Men who can commit blasphemy usually are noted for their vulgar mouths in general. Indeed, one of the worst aspects of our contemporary situation is that, while noting many presidents of the recent past have used profanity regularly in their private conversations without using it publicly, the current occupant of the White House has made it acceptable, if not mandatory, for men who engage in public discourse to do so. This has nothing to do with establishing and maintaining a well-ordered civil state. It has everything to do with making countries very poor in the eyes of the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Holy Trinity, and brings down upon them untold chastisements.

Indeed, it is time for believing Catholics in the Republic of Ireland to get their lifejackets handy as, in addition to having voted in sodomite “marriages” and child-killing, the prodigal sons and daughters of Saint Patrick, heirs to such a lustrous and wondrous Catholic heritage, voted just yesterday, Saturday, October 27, 2018, to remove all remaining civil penalties against blasphemy:

Counting was underway Saturday in Ireland after voting in a presidential poll and a referendum on removing the offense of blasphemy from the constitution.

The Friday referendum asked whether to remove the word "blasphemous" from Article 40, which reads: "The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law."

Although the nation's blasphemy ban was enshrined in the constitution in 1937, no one has ever been prosecuted under it.

Exit polling late Friday by Ireland's national broadcaster, RTE, indicated voters would repeal the ban.

If that's the case, it would be the latest step on the nation's trajectory toward a more secular, diverse society. Two recent referendums legalized same-sex marriage and abortion in the Catholic-majority country.

RTE's exit polling also suggested that Michael D. Higgins would be elected to a second term as president, a largely ceremonial post, with 58% of first preference votes.

The RTE survey put businessman Peter Casey second, with just short of 21%, and the Sinn Fein candidate in third place. Six candidates are running. The exit poll's margin of error is 3%.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar tweeted Saturday to congratulate Higgins on being reelected, based on exit polls and early tallies.

Critics of the blasphemy ban argue it is obsolete and reflects an Ireland long gone.

In 1995, a member of the public lodged a blasphemy case against the Sunday Independent newspaper, which had printed a cartoon of government ministers refusing the Catholic sacrament of communion. Ireland's Supreme Court threw out the case in 1999, ruling that although blasphemy was technically a crime, there was no law to enforce it.

A decade later, the government eventually defined the terms of blasphemy as law under the 2009 Defamation Act. The offense currently carries a fine of up to 25,000 euros (about $28,500).

British actor and comedian Stephen Fry was at the center of a 2017 blasphemy probe in Ireland.

A high-profile case in 2017 drew attention to that law, when Irish police opened an investigation into British comedian Stephen Fry after a member of the public complained about comments he made during a 2015 interview on Irish television.

"Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world so full of injustice and pain?" Fry said on broadcaster RTE. "The god that created this universe -- if it was created by a god -- is quite clearly a maniac, utter maniac. Totally selfish."

The Fry investigation was eventually thrown out, but the case re-energized the national conversation around the topic. (The Irish Vote in Favor of Blasphemy.)

Although the Irish law against blasphemy was not enforced, the vote two days ago was very symbolic of how the Irish, victims of Modernity and of Modernism’s revolution against the sensus Catholicus, have surrendered themselves to the voices of hell itself, and this is just the way that the Irish “bishops” and their boss, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, want it. After all, who wants to be a “party pooper” and get in the way of a good movie that is full of blasphemy, to say nothing about graphic violence and actual immorality.

The following description of the enormity and the horror of blasphemy as found in the Catechism of Rodez, which was written by Abbe Luce and Brother Hermenegild in 1899, should help to sober up anyone who thinks that blasphemy and profanity are matters of indifference to the civil state:

The next thing forbidden by the Second Commandment, is Blasphemy. Blasphemy consists in words, or a discourse injurious to God, to the saint, or to religion. Thus, a person blasphemy if he attributes to God what is not becoming to Him, if he refused to Him what belongs to Him, or if he places certain creatures on an equal footing with God, by words like: this is as true as there is a God, as God sees me, and as God hears me … A person also blasphemy if he speaks of God or to God with contempt and in a haughty tone as did the Jews, when they bent their knee before the cross and said: if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we will believe in Thee; or like Julian the Apostate, who finding himself mortally wounded, took a handful of his blood and threw it towards heaven, and cried out: Galilean, thou hast conquered. A person also blasphemes if he associates the name of God with pagan expression, such as “In the name of all the gods,” or if he says, “may the devil take me if I do not speak the truth: “May I drop dead if I do not speak the truth.”

Blasphemy also includes injurious words against the saints or against religion. Thurs, those blaspheme who rail at or about the saint in heaven; who attributes to them vices or faults, who mock at their miracles, at their canonization, or at the honors one renders them. Those blaspheme who deny to the Blessed Virgin some of her august prerogatives, such as her immaculate conception, her perpetual virginity, her divine maternity. Finally, those blaspheme who speak evil of the Catholic Church, oh her doctrine, of her commandments, or who pretend that all religions are good, and the Protestants can save themselves as well in their religion as in ours.

Blasphemy is a very great crime, for, says St. Jerome, the blasphemer attacks the very perfections of God. In other crimes it is the inordinate love of pleasures, of goods or honors, which makes the sin; but in blasphemy it is the contempt and hatred shown to God Himself. The impure, the thief, the drunkard, may find a kind of excuse in the violence of the passions, that drag them along; but what excuse can he allege who blasphemes the holy name of God only through hatred or contempt? In the Old Law the most terrible chastisements were decreed against blasphemers. The son of an Israelite woman was condemned to be stoned for having blasphemed in a quarrel.

The army of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, composed of a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, was exterminated in one night by the destroying angel, and Sennacherib himself, on his return to Nineveh, was assassinated by one of his own children, because he had blasphemed in saying that the God of Israel could no more resist his armies than the gods of his own nation. Under the New Las the most severe punishments have been enacted against blasphemers, not only by the Church, but also sometimes by Christian princes. St. Louis, King of France, ordered that the tongues of convicted blasphemers should be pierced with a redhot iron.

Blasphemy, besides outraging God, also draws down great misfortunes upon the head of the blasphemer. Who has not heard of the famous apparition of the Blessed Virgin to the shepherds of La Salette, and of the prediction she made to them of the terrible afflictions which would befall France, on account of its blasphemies and the profanation of Sunday, if the people did not hasten to do penance? This was in 1846. The admonitions of heaven were not listened to, and I need not remind you of the stormy revolution which broke out in that unfortunate country two years afterwards, and which caused such great misfortunes to both Church and State; nor of that long series of pestilential diseases of men, animals, and even plants, which has not ceased to afflict the country since that time. These are solemn lessons which God is please to give from time to time; and woe to us if we do not profit by them. (Abbe Luce and Brother Hermenegild, TOSF, The Catechism of Rodez, B. Herder Book Publisher, St. Louis, Missouri, 1899.)

Who listens to the message of Our Lady of La Salette these days?

Not Americans.

Not the Irish.

Not the blasphemer in white named Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

It is also the case that very few people pay any heed to the bone-chilling words of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori about blasphemy:

All sins are hateful in the sight of God; but the sin of blasphemy ought more properly to be called an abomination to the Lord. Every mortal sin, as the Apostle says, dishonors God. “By transgression of the law, you dishonor God.” (Rom. 2:23). Other sins dishonor God indirectly by the violation of his law; but blasphemy dishonors him directly by the profanation of his most holy name. Hence, St. Chrysostom teaches, that no sin exasperates the Lord so much as the sin of blasphemy against his adorable name. “Nihil ita exacerbat Deum, sicut quando nomen ejus blasphematur.” Dearly beloved Christians, allow me, then, this day, to show you, first, the great enormity of the sin of blasphemy; and secondly, the great rigor with which God punishes it. 

First Point. On the great enormity of the sin of blasphemy. 

1. What is blasphemy? It is the uttering of language injurious to God; it is, according to the definition of theologians, “contumeliosa in Deum locutio;” or, contumely against God. God! Whom does man assail when he blasphemes? He directly attacks the Lord. “He has strengthened himself against the Almighty.” (Job. 15:25). Are you not afraid, blasphemer, says St. Ephrem, that fire will come down from Heaven and devour you? Or that the earth shall open and swallow you up? "Non metuis ne forte ignis de coelo descendat et devoret te, qui sic os adversus omnipotentem aperis? Neque vereris, ne terra te ab-sorbeat?” (Paren. 3). The devil, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, trembles at the name of Jesus, and we are not afraid to profane it. “Domones ad Christi nomen exhorrescunt, nos vero nomen adeo venerandum contumelia afficere nou veremur.” (Orat. xx). The vindictive assail a man who is their own equal; but by their blasphemies blasphemers appear to seek revenge against God, who does or permits what is displeasing to them. There is a great difference between an act of contempt towards the portrait of a king, and an insult offered to his person. Man is the image of God; but the blasphemer offends God himself. “He who blasphemes” says St. Athanasius, “acts against the very Deity itself.” The man who violates the law is guilty of a crime; but he who attacks the person of his sovereign commits an act of treason; therefore, he receives no mercy, but is chastised with the utmost severity. What, then, shall we say of the man who blasphemes and insults the majesty of God? “If,” says the high-priest Heli, “one man shall sin against another, God may be appeased in his behalf; but if a man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?”(1 Kings 2:25). The sin of blasphemy, then, is so enormous, that the saints themselves appear not to have courage to pray for a blasphemer. 

2. Some sacrilegious tongues blaspheme the God who preserves their existence! "Tu Deo benefacienti tibi,” says St. Chrysostom, “et tui curam agenti maledicis.” O God! You stand with one foot at the gate of hell; and if God, in his mercy, did not preserve your life you should be damned forever, and, instead of thanking him for his goodness, you, at the very time that he bestows his favors upon you, blaspheme his holy name. “If,” says the Lord, “my enemy has reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. (Ps. 54:13). Had you treated me with contumely and insult at the time that I chastised you, I would be more willing to bear with your impiety; but you revile me at the time that I confer my favors upon you. Diabolical tongue, exclaims St. Bernardine of Sienna, what could have induced you to blaspheme your God, who has created you, and redeemed you with his blood? “0 lingua diabolica, quid, potest te inducere ad blasphemandum Deus tuum qui te plasmavit, qui te pretioso sanguine redemit?” (Serm. xxxiii). Some expressly blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ of that God who died on a cross for the love of them. God! If we were not subject to death, we should be glad to die for Jesus Christ, in order to make some little return of gratitude to a God who gave his life for us. I say, a little return of gratitude; for there is no comparison between the death of a miserable creature, and the death of a God. But instead of loving and blessing this God, you, as St. Augustine says, revile and curse him. “Christ was scourged by the lash of the Jews; but he is not less scourged by the blasphemies of false Christians.” (S. Aug. in John). Some have blasphemed and insulted the Virgin Mary, that good mother, who loves us so tenderly, and prays continually for us. Some of these blasphemers have received a horrible chastisement from God. Surius relates, in the 7th August, that a certain impious Christian blasphemed the blessed Virgin, and pierced her image with a dagger. As soon as he went out of the church to which the image belonged, he was struck by a thunderbolt, and reduced to ashes. The infamous Nestorious blasphemed, and induced others to blaspheme, most holy Mary, by asserting that she was not the mother of God. But, before death, his impious tongue was eaten away by worms, and he died in despair.

3. “Who is this who speaks blasphemies?” (Luke 5:21). He is a Christian who has received the holy sacrament of baptism, in which his tongue has been in a certain manner consecrated to God. A learned author says, that on the tongue of all who are baptized is placed blessed salt, “that the tongues of Christians may be made, as it were, sacred, and may be accustomed to bless God.” (Clericat. torn. 1. Dec. Tract. 52). And the blasphemer afterwards makes his tongue, as St. Bernardine says, a sword to pierce the heart of God. “Lingua blasphemantis efficitur quasi gladius cor Dei penetrans.” (Tom. 4. serm. 33). Hence, the saint adds that no sin contains in itself so much malice as the sin of blasphemy. “Nullum est peccatum quod habet in se tantem iniquitatem sicut blasphemia.” St. Chrysostom says, "there is no sin worse than blasphemy; for in it is the accumulation of all evils, and every punishment.” St. Jerome teaches the same doctrine. “Nothing,” says the holy doctor, “is more horrible than blasphemy; for every sin, compared with blasphemy, is small.” (In Is. 118). And here it is necessary to observe, that blasphemies against the saints, against holy things or holidays such as the sacraments, the Mass, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Holy Saturday are of the same species as blasphemies against God; for St. Thomas teaches, that, as the honor paid to the saints, to holy things, and holidays, is referred to God, so an insult offered to the saints is injurious to God, who is the foundation of sanctity. “Sicut Deus, in sanctis suis laudatur,” as we read in the 150th Psalm, “laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus, ita et blasphemia in sanctos in Deum redundat.” (S. Thorn, qu. 13, a 13, a 1, ad 2). The saint adds that blasphemy is one of the greatest of the sins against religion. (Ibid. a. 3).

4. Thus, from the works of St. Jerome we may infer that blasphemy is more grievous than theft, than adultery, or murder. All other sins, says St. Bernardine proceeds from frailty or ignorance; but the sin of blasphemy proceeds from malice. “Omnia alia peccata vindentur procedere partim ex fragilitate, partim ex ignorantia, sed peccatum blasphemia procedit ex propria malitia.” (Cic. serm. 30). For it proceeds from a bad will, and from a certain hatred conceived against God. Hence, the blasphemer renders himself like the damned, who, as St. Thomas says, do not now blaspheme with the mouth for they have no body, but with the heart, cursing the divine justice, which punishes them. “The detestation of the divine justice is in them an interior blasphemy of the heart.” (S. Thom. 2, 2, qu. 13, a. 4). The saint adds that we may believe that as the saints in Heaven, after the resurrection shall praise God with the tongue, so the reprobates in hell shall also blaspheme him with the tongue. “Et credibile est quod post resurrectionem erit in eis etiam vocalis blasphemiæ sicut in sanctis vocalis laus Dei.” Justly, then, has a learned author called blasphemy the language of hell; because, as God speaks by the mouth of the saints so the devil speaks by the mouth of blasphemers. “Blasphemia est peccatum diabolicum, loquela infernalis, sicut enim Spiritus Sanctus loquitur per bonos ita et diabolus per blasphemos.” (Mansi. Discors, 7, num. 2). When St. Peter denied Christ in the Palace of Pilate, and swore that he did not know him, the Jews said, that his language showed that he was a disciple of Jesus, because he spoke the language of his Master. “Surely,” they said, “you also art one of them; for even your speech does  discover you.” (Matt. 26:73). Thus, we may say to every blasphemer, You are from hell; you are a true disciple of Lucifer; for you speak the language of the damned. St. Antonine writes that the entire occupation of the damned in hell consists in blaspheming and cursing God. “Non aliud apus inferno exercent nisi blasphemare Deum et maledicere.” (Part 2, tit. 7, cap. 3). In proof of this doctrine, the saint adduces the following text of the Apocalypse, “And they gnawed their tongues for pain, and they blasphemed the God of Heaven.” (Rev. 16:10-11). The holy doctor afterwards adds, that he who indulges in the vice of blasphemy, already belongs to the number of the damned, because he practices their art. “Qui ergo hoc vitio detinetur ostendit se pertinere ad statum damnatorum, ex quo exercet artem eorum.” (Ibid).

5. To the malice of blasphemy is added the malice of scandal, which generally accompanies blasphemy, for this sin is ordinarily committed externally and in presence of others. St. Paul reproved the Jews, because by their sins they caused the Gentiles to blaspheme our God, and to laugh at his law. “For the name of God, through you, is blasphemed by the Gentiles.” (Rom. 2:24). But how much more criminal are Christians, who, by their blasphemies, induce other Christians to imitate their example! How does it happen, that in certain provinces blasphemies are never, or at least very seldom, heard, and that in other places this horrible vice is so prevalent, that the Lord may say of them, “My name is continually blasphemed all the day long.” (Is. 52:5). In the squares, houses, cities, villas, nothing is heard but blasphemies. How does this happen? Some of the inhabitants learn to blaspheme from others, children from their parents, servants from their masters, the young from the old. In some families, particularly the vice of blasphemy seems to be transmitted as an inheritance. The father is a blasphemer; hence, the sons and nephews blaspheme, to this inheritance, their descendants succeed. O accursed father! Instead of instructing your children to bless the name of God, you teach them to blaspheme him and his saint. “But I reprove them when they blaspheme in my presence.” Of what use are these reproofs, when with your own mouth you give them bad example. For God’s sake, for God’s sake, O fathers of families, never blaspheme; but be particularly on your guard never to blaspheme in presence of your children. This is a crime which God can no longer bear in you. And whenever you hear any of your children utter a blasphemy, reprove them severely, and, in obedience to the advice of St. Chrysostom, strike him on the mouth, and you shall thus sanctify your hand. “Contere os ipsius, manum tuam percussione sanctificat.” (Hom. 1. ad pop). Certain fathers unmercifully beat a child for the neglect of some temporal business; but if he blasphemes the saints, they either laugh at his blasphemies, or listen to them in silence. St. Gregory relates (Dial. 4., cap. 17). that a child of five years, the son of a Roman noble man, was in the habit of profaning the name of God. The father neglected to correct him; but he one day saw his son pursued by certain black men. The child ran to embrace his father; but they, who were so many devils, killed him in the father"s arms, and carried him with them to hell.

Second Point. On the great rigor with which God punishes the sin of blasphemy.

6. “Woe to the sinful nation... they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel.” (Is. 1: 4). Woe to blasphemers, eternal woe to them, for, according to Tobias, they shall be condemned. “They shall be condemned that blaspheme you.” (Job 13:16). The Lord has said by the mouth of Job, “You imitates the tongue of blasphemers; your  own mouth shall condemn, and not I.” (Job 15:5-6). In pronouncing the sentence of their condemnation, God will say, "It is not I that condemn you to hell; it is your own mouth, with which you have dared to revile me and my saints, that condemns you." Poor miserable blasphemers! They shall continue to blaspheme in hell for their greater torment, their very blasphemies in hell shall always remind them that they are damned forever in punishment of their blasphemies on earth.

7. But blasphemers are punished not only in hell, but even on this earth. In the Old Law they were stoned by the people. “And he that blasphemes the name of the Lord, dying let him die; all the multitude shall stone him.” (Lev. 24:76). In the New Law they were condemned to death by the Emperor Justinian. St. Louis, King of France, ordered them to be punished by perforating their tongue, and by branding their forehead with a red-hot iron; and when they afterwards relapsed into blasphemy, he ordained that they should die on the scaffold. (Homo Bon. de cas. res. p. 2, c. i). Another author says, that the law renders blasphemers (as being infamous). incapable of giving testimony. (Navarr. cons. 11, de offic. ord). By the constitution of Gregory the Fourteenth, they were deprived of Christian burial. In the Authentica ut non luxur hom., it is said that blasphemies bring on famine, earthquakes, and pestilence. “Propter blasphemias, et fames, et terræmotus et pestilentia fiunt.” You, O blasphemer, complain that through you labor and submit to fatigue, you are always in poverty. You say, “I know not why I am always in misery, some malediction must have fallen on my family.” No; the blasphemies, which you utter, are the cause of your wretchedness, and make you always an object of God’s malediction.

8. O! How many melancholy examples could I mention of blasphemers who have died a bad death? Father Segneri relates, (Tom. 1, Rag. 8,). that, in Gascony, two men who had blasphemed the blood of Jesus Christ, were soon after killed in a quarrel, and torn to pieces by dogs. In Mexico, a blasphemer being once reproved, answered, “I will hereafter blaspheme more than I have hitherto done.” During the night, he found his tongue sowed under the palate, and died in that miserable state without giving the least sign of repentance. Dresselius relates that a certain person was struck blind in the very act of blaspheming. Another, in uttering a blasphemy against St. Anthony, was seized by a flame, which issued from the image of the saint, and was burnt alive. In his book against blasphemy, Sarnelli relates, that in Constantinople, a man called Simon Tornaco, who had blasphemed God, began like a mad dog to lacerate his own flesh, and died in his madness. Canta-pratensis states (cap. 48)., that a person who had been guilty of blasphemy, had his eyes distorted, and that falling on the ground he bellowed like an ox, and continued to roar aloud until he expired. In the Gallician Mercury (lib. x)., we read that a man named Michael, who had been condemned to be hanged, when he felt the pain of the halter, burst out into blasphemies, and died instantly. After death, his head fell from the body, and the tongue remained hanging out from the neck, as black as coal. I abstain from fatiguing you with other terrible examples, you can find a great many of them in the work of Father Sarnelli against blasphemy.

9. But to conclude. Tell me, blasphemers, if there be any of you present, what benefit do you derive from your accursed blasphemies? You do not receive pleasure from them. Bellarmine says that blasphemy is a sin, which produces no pleasure. You derive no profit from them, for as I have already said, your blasphemies are the cause of your poverty and wretchedness. You derive no honor from them; your fellow- blasphemers have a horror of your blasphemies, and call you a mouth of hell. Tell me, then, why you blaspheme. “Father, the habit which I have contracted is the cause of my blasphemies.” But can this habit excuse you before God? If a son beat his father, and say to him, “My father, have compassion on me, for I have contracted a habit of beating you,” would the father take pity on him? You say that you blaspheme through the anger caused by your children, your wife, or your master. Your wife or your master put you into a passion, and you take revenge on the saints. What injury have the saints done to you? They intercede before God in your behalf, and you blaspheme them. But, “the devil tempts me at that time.” If the devil tempts you, follow the example of a certain young man, who, when tempted to blaspheme, went for advice to the Abbot Pemene. The abbot told him, that as often as the devil tempted him to commit this sin, his answer should be, "Why should I blaspheme that God who has created me, and bestowed so many benefits upon me?" I will forever praise and bless him. The young man followed the advice, and Satan ceased to tempt him. When you are excited to anger, can you speak nothing but blasphemies? Say on such occasions, “Accursed sin, I hate you, Lord, assist me, Mary, obtain for me the gift of patience.” And if you have hitherto contracted the abominable habit of blaspheming, renew every morning, as soon as you rise, the resolution of doing violence to yourself to abstain from all blasphemies during the day, and then say three Aves to most holy Mary, that she may obtain for you the grace to resist every temptation by which you shall be assailed. (Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Sermon for the Twenty-fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost.)

Freedom of speech?

Make America great again while ignoring blasphemy and profanity?

Guess again.

Lands where blasphemy and profanity abound will be lands of spiritual squalor, unhappiness, violence, murder, suicide, greed, lust and nihilism.

Sound familiar?

Look familiar?

In like manner, what is to be said of Modernity’s warfare against the sacrality of Sunday, the Lord’s Day, on which we are obliged to assist at Holy Mass, barring unforeseen circumstances and assuming the availability of a true Mass offered by a true priest, and are to rest from all unnecessary servile labor?

Sunday is just another day for most Americans. It is a day during the autumn when many Americans are glued to their television screens (I suppose the phrase television set is no longer quite accurate) to watch the gladiatorial combat of steroid-muscled and tattooed caricatures of athletes engage in the “sport” of professional assassination and injury known colloquially as football. Stores are open. Political junkies even make it a point to spend their Sundays watching the various interview programs that shed light on nothing but serve as an addictive side show to those who would rather watch naturalists babble on about naturalism than spend the day in prayer and spiritual reading. This, too, calls down upon men and their nations the wrath of God, especially so if one considers that various states in the United States of America began to relax laws forbidding commercial transactions on Sundays only after the conciliar revolutionaries had made it possible for Catholics to fulfill their Sunday obligation on Saturday afternoon or evening, thus freeing up Sundays for "fun" and, ultimately, "shopping." Yes, there were forces at work in the world to descralize Sundays, but those forces found a powerful ally in the counterfeit church of conciliarism even though Karol Josef Wojtyla/John Paul II tried to reclaim the sacrality of Sundays in an "apostolic exhortation" (Dies Domini, May 31, 1998) to which only a handful of Catholics in the conciliar structures paid any attention thirty years after Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria/Paul VI had "liberated" Sundays for their own pleasures.

The Fourth Commandment has been overturned by “free men” in their “free republics” by arrogating unto themselves that which belongs to Christ the King alone, namely, sovereignty over men and their nations in all that pertains to the good of souls. The proper ordering of men and their temporal affairs undertaken with a view to advancing man’s Last End has been replaced with the disorder of a chaotic world where it is deemed a “virtue” to be independent of and rebellious against all legitimate authority, starting in the bosom of the family, which has been undermined by contraception, divorce, abortion, feminism and the civil state’s supplanting parents as the principal educators of their children.

There is little that needs to be said about how the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King has let loose a veritable and quite literal genocide against the innocent preborn and against innocent life at all subsequent stages. Babies are slaughtered by chemical and surgical means under cover of the civil law. Innocent human beings in hospitals are starved and dehydrated to death. Other innocent human beings are vivisected for their vital bodily organs after having been declared “brain death” while the practice of “palliative care” in hospitals and hospices dispatches the innocent with a variety of “cocktails” that are administered intravenously to effect the “merciful exit” of those suffering from a terminal disease or what is said to be a “diminished quality of life.”

Make America great again while caring not about the slaughter of the innocent preborn and the perfectly “legal” attacks against innocent lives by “medical professionals” in the name of “compassion”?

Guess again.

The anti-Incarnational world of Modernity has worked overtime to destroy the family, a feature that is common to the supposedly “free” and “civilized” West and of all forms of Communism. Indeed, it was at the time that Vladimir I. Lenin was “legalizing” surgical baby-killing and placing the family under the control and at the service of the Bolshevism that Margaret Sanger and other social engineers were advancing contraception. This came during and after World War I, resulting in the rise of divorce by the destabilization of marriage and paved the way for surgical abortion and the promotion of all manner of perversity under cover of law. This has resulted in the feminization of poverty, the rise of maladjusted children who spend most of their time in schools or day care centers or being shuttled back and forth between this or that step-family, rootlessness, violent crime, depression, suicide, drug and alcohol addiction and a variety of other social ills that helped to usher in the institutionalization of the welfare state, which became so embedded in the fabric of American existence that out-and-out socialism is now considered to be electorally viable.

Socialism is but the logical result of a world shaped by the Calvinist ethos of material success as a sign of “divine election.” It is easy for people to want the government to provide for their temporal needs from the cradle to the grave after centuries of believing that human happiness is defined principally, if not exclusively in terms of material prosperity and freedom from any kind of pain or inconvenience. The Calvinist ethos has resulted in numerous sins against the Seventh and Tenth Commandments as legalized theft (usury by banks and credit card companies, corporations manufacturing shoddy goods, withholding the wages of the day laborer, defrauding the widow) in the private sector was joined in due course by the legalized theft of private property by civil governments.

Indeed, Pope Pius XI described the contest between the organized crime families of naturalism as follows in his first encyclical letter, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

To these evils we must add the contests between political parties, many of which struggles do not originate in a real difference of opinion concerning the public good or in a laudable and disinterested search for what would best promote the common welfare, but in the desire for power and for the protection of some private interest which inevitably result in injury to the citizens as a whole. From this course there often arise robberies of what belongs rightly to the people, and even conspiracies against and attacks on the supreme authority of the state, as well as on its representatives. These political struggles also beget threats of popular action and, at times, eventuate in open rebellion and other disorders which are all the more deplorable and harmful since they come from a public to whom it has been given, in our modern democratic states, to participate in very large measure in public life and in the affairs of government. Now, these different forms of government are not of themselves contrary to the principles of the Catholic Faith, which can easily be reconciled with any reasonable and just system of government. Such governments, however, are the most exposed to the danger of being overthrown by one faction or another. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

As Pope Leo XIII noted in Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891, men must be plunged into the worship of the passing things of this earth once they lose sight of futurity:

But the Church, with Jesus Christ as her Master and Guide, aims higher still. She lays down precepts yet more perfect, and tries to bind class to class in friendliness and good feeling. The things of earth cannot be understood or valued aright without taking into consideration the life to come, the life that will know no death. Exclude the idea of futurity, and forthwith the very notion of what is good and right would perish; nay, the whole scheme of the universe would become a dark and unfathomable mystery. The great truth which we learn from nature herself is also the grand Christian dogma on which religion rests as on its foundation -- that, when we have given up this present life, then shall we really begin to live. God has not created us for the perishable and transitory things of earth, but for things heavenly and everlasting; He has given us this world as a place of exile, and not as our abiding place. As for riches and the other things which men call good and desirable, whether we have them in abundance, or are lacking in them -- so far as eternal happiness is concerned -- it makes no difference; the only important thing is to use them aright. Jesus Christ, when He redeemed us with plentiful redemption, took not away the pains and sorrows which in such large proportion are woven together in the web of our mortal life. He transformed them into motives of virtue and occasions of merit; and no man can hope for eternal reward unless he follow in the blood-stained footprints of his Savior. "If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him." Christ's labors and sufferings, accepted of His own free will, have marvelously sweetened all suffering and all labor. And not only by His example, but by His grace and by the hope held forth of everlasting recompense, has He made pain and grief more easy to endure; "for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory."

Therefore, those whom fortune favors are warned that riches do not bring freedom from sorrow and are of no avail for eternal happiness, but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the threatenings of Jesus Christ -- threatenings so unwonted in the mouth of our Lord -- and that a most strict account must be given to the Supreme Judge for all we possess. The chief and most excellent rule for the right use of money is one the heathen philosophers hinted at, but which the Church has traced out clearly, and has not only made known to men's minds, but has impressed upon their lives. It rests on the principle that it is one thing to have a right to the possession of money and another to have a right to use money as one ills. Private ownership, as we have seen, is the natural right of man, and to exercise that right, especially as members of society, is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary. "It is lawful," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "for a man to hold private property; and it is also necessary for the carrying on of human existence.'' But if the question be asked: How must one's possessions be used? -- the Church replies without hesitation in he words of the same holy Doctor: "Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need. Whence the apostle saith, 'Command the rich of this world . . to offer with no stint, to apportion largely'." True, no one is commanded to distribute to others that which is required for his own needs and those of his household; nor even to give away what is reasonably required to keep up becomingly his condition in life, "for no one ought to live other than becomingly." But, when what necessity demands has been supplied, and one's standing fairly taken thought for, it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over. "Of that which remaineth, give alms." It is duty, not of justice (save in extreme cases), but of Christian charity -- a duty not enforced by human law. But the laws and judgments of men must yield place to the laws and judgments of Christ the true God, who in many ways urges on His followers the practice of almsgiving -- "It is more blessed to give than to receive"; and who will count a kindness done or refused to the poor as done or refused to Himself -- "As long as you did it to one of My least brethren you did it to Me. "To sum up, then, what has been said: Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others. "He that hath a talent," said St. Gregory the Great, "let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility hereof with his neighbor."

As for those who possess not the gifts of fortune, they are taught by the Church that in God's sight poverty is no disgrace, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of in earning their bread by labor. This is enforced by what we see in Christ Himself, who, "whereas He was rich, for our sakes became poor''; and who, being the Son of God, and God Himself, chose to seem and to be considered the son of a carpenter -- nay, did not disdain to spend a great part of His life as a carpenter Himself. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?"

From contemplation of this divine Model, it is more easy to understand that the true worth and nobility of man lie in his moral qualities, that is, in virtue; that virtue is, moreover, the common inheritance of men, equally within the reach of high and low, rich and poor; and that virtue, and virtue alone, wherever found, will be followed by the rewards of everlasting happiness. Nay, God Himself seems to incline rather to those who suffer misfortune; for Jesus Christ calls the poor "blessed"; He lovingly invites those in labor and grief to come to Him for solace; and He displays the tenderest charity toward the lowly and the oppressed. These reflections cannot fail to keep down the pride of the well-to-do, and to give heart to the unfortunate; to move the former to be generous and the latter to be moderate in their desires. Thus, the separation which pride would set up tends to disappear, nor will it be difficult to make rich and poor join hands in friendly concord.

But, if Christian precepts prevail, the respective classes will not only be united in the bonds of friendship, but also in those of brotherly love. For they will understand and feel that all men are children of the same common Father, who is God; that all have alike the same last end, which is God Himself, who alone can make either men or angels absolutely and perfectly happy; that each and all are redeemed and made sons of God, by Jesus Christ, "the first-born among many brethren"; that the blessings of nature and the gifts of grace belong to the whole human race in common, and that from none except the unworthy is withheld the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven. "If sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and co-heirs with Christ." (Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891.)

The entire fabric of our world without Christ the King that is based on lies and engenders hatred is itself a living violation of the Eighth Commandment’s injunction against bearing false witness. Men have been convinced of the lie that it is possible for them to realize social order without subordinating themselves to the Social Reign of Christ the King as it must be exercised by His Catholic Church in all that pertains to the good of souls. They have also been convinced of the lie that it is possible for them to live “good” lives while committing grievous sins and that is not necessary to reform their lives by cooperating with the sanctifying offices afforded them by our mater and magister, Holy Mother Church.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that men in public and private life lie with impunity?

We have the spectacle of a president who seems constitutionally incapable of admitting that he said something even though he is on the record saying it, and we have the spectacle of those in the deep administrative state using lies of one sort or another in an effort to undermine his presidency and to oust him therefrom after they had lied and schemed to protect one of their own, Madame Defarge (aka Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton), whose callous disregard of just laws protecting national security was indemnified by her deep state allies at every turn. Lies. Lies. Lies.

Then, of course, we have the spectacle of those who believe in the lie of popular sovereignty to such an extent that they resort to violence to “express” their outrage about alleged “threats” to democracy. Whether the names be James Hodgkinson, a supporter of the socialist named Bernard John Sanders, who hated Republicans and whose shooting spree nearly killed United States Representative Stephen Scalise (R-Louisiana) last year, or Cesar Sayoc, a Donald John Trump loyalist who sent fake bombs to the leaders of the current coup d’etat and to the purveyors of fake news, more and more people believe that the use, whether actual or simulated, of violence can do anything other than increase a cycle of hatred and violence in a world born of hated for and violence against the Social Reign of Christ the King and His Holy Catholic Church.

The cycle of hatred and violence of men against men is made all the more possible by the sins against God enumerated earlier in this commentary. Catholicism is not a guarantor that men will not fall prey to their lower passions. However, the Holy Faith provides the supernatural helps necessary so that Catholics will see in all men, including those who are the enemies of Holy Mother Church, the image of the Divine Redeemer and treat them as they would treat Him in the very Flesh.

Catholics are taught to will the good of all others and to pray for the conversion of all who are outside the Barque of Saint Peter. They will harm to no one. They plot harm to no one as they take seriously the following words of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself and the example of countless saints, starting with Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, to pray for the conversion of others, especially those who are persecuting us, promoting evil and seeking to silence our own voices from speaking the truth of Truth Himself in the midst of the world:

[43] You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. [44] But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: [45] That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.

[46] For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? [47] And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? [48] Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5: 43-48.)

The Acts of the Apostles records Saint Stephen's dauntless courage as he proclaimed the truths of the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the Jews (a lesson that is rejected by the conciliar "popes" and their rump "cardinals" and bogus "bishops" in these our own days):

Then the high priest said: Are these things so?

Who said: Ye men, brethren and fathers, hear. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charan. And said to him: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

Then he went out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charan. And from thence, after his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein you now dwell. And he gave him no inheritance in it; no, not the pace of a foot: but he promised to give it him in possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God said to him: That his seed should sojourn to a strange country, and that they should bring them under bondage, and treat them evil four hundred years. And the nation which they shall serve will I judge, said the Lord; and after these things they shall go out, and shall serve me in this place.

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he begot Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob; and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, through envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; and God was with him. And delivered him out of all his tribulations: and he gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharao, the king of Egypt; and he appointed him governor over Egypt, and over all his house.

Now there came a famine upon all Egypt and Chanaan, and great tribulation; and our fathers found no food. But when Jacob had heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers first: and at the second time, Joseph was known by his brethren, and his kindred was made known to Pharao. And Joseph sending, called thither Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt; and he died, and our fathers.

And they were translated into Sichem, and were laid in the sepulchre, that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Hemor, the son of Sichem. And when the time of the promise drew near, which God had promise to Abraham, the people increased, and were multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose in Egypt, who knew not Joseph.

This same dealing craftily with our race, afflicted our fathers, that they should expose their children, to the end they might not be kept alive. At the same time was Moses born, and he was acceptable to God: who was nourished three months in his father's house. And when he was exposed, Pharao's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and in his deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

And when he had seen one of them suffer wrong, he defended him; and striking the Egyptian, he avenged him who suffered the injury. And he thought that his brethren understood that God by his hand would save them; but they understood it not. And the day following, he shewed himself to them when they were at strike; and would have reconciled them in peace, saying: Men, ye are brethren; why hurt you one another?

But he that did the injury to his neighbor thrust him away, saying: Who hath appointed thee prince and judge over us? What wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yesterday kill the Egyptian? And Moses fled upon this word, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begot two sons.

And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the desert of mount Sina, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush. And Moses seeing it, wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to view it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:

I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses being terrified, darest not behold. And the Lord said to him: Loose the shoes from thy feet, for the place wherein thou standest, is holy ground. Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, am am come down to deliver them. And now come, and I will send the into Egypt.

This Moses, whom they refused, saying: Who hath appointed thee prince and judge? him God sent to be prince and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the desert forty years.

This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel: A prophet shall God raise up to you of your own brethren, as myself: him shall you hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on mount Sina, and with our fathers; who received the words of life to give unto us, Whom our fathers would not obey; but thrust him away, and in their hearts turned back into Egypt, saying unto Aaron: Make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. And God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the books of the prophets: Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years, in the desert, O house of Israel? And you took unto you the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god. Rempham, figures which you made to adore them. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

The tabernacle of this testimony was with our fathers in the desert, as God ordained for them, speaking to Moses, that he should make it according to the form which he had seen. Which also our fathers receiving, brought in with Jesus, into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David Who found grace before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

But Solomon built him a house. yet the most High dwelleth not in houses made by hands, as the prophet saith: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What house will you build me? saith the Lord; or what is the place of my resting? Hath not my hand made all these things?

You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their teeth at him.

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. and he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran violently upon him. And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death. (Acts 7:1-59)

As I have noted repeatedly on this site, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his predecessors as the universal public faces of apostasy of the counterfeit church of conciliarism have forbidden the sort of "proselytism" undertaken by Saint Stephen in the discourse recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Unlike the conciliarists, Saint Stephen was not interested in learning what the Jews believed. He knew what the Jews believed, and he knew that they had to convert to be saved. He was willing to suffer a brutal death by stoning rather than to be silent about the necessity of proclaiming the Holy Name at all times and in all places without any exception whatsoever. Saint Stephen, therefore, teaches us about the solemn obligation that we have to seek the conversion of all others to the true Faith, and to do so with boldness, understanding that authentic Charity seeks the good of others, the ultimate expression of which is the salvation of their immortal souls by means of belonging to the true Church that the God-Man Himself created upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

Saint Stephen perfectly imitated Our Lord as he preached His Holy Gospel. He prayed for his persecutors just as Our Lord had prayed for His persecutors, namely, each one of us, as He spent those three horrible hours on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday. Catholics hate no one. They hate sin and falsehood but they do not hate those who are steeped in sin and falsehood. This is a distinction that is lost on the lords of Modernity who are truly filled with hatred of Christ the King and His true Church, which is why they have sought to blot out the Holy Name from public utterance and sight and worked to infiltrate seminaries and chancery offices in the centuries before the “Second” Vatican Council, which produced a “Catholicism” to their liking and which is under their influence, if not within their almost total control.

Most men alive today, of course, do not view the world through the eyes of the true Faith nor see the image of the Divine Redeemer in everyone and to treat them accordingly. The description of the world after World War I offered by Pope Pius XI at the beginning of his pontificate in 1922 is even more applicable today nearly ninety-six years later:

Men today do not act as Christians, as brothers, but as strangers, and even enemies. The sense of man's personal dignity and of the value of human life has been lost in the brutal domination begotten of might and mere superiority in numbers. Many are intent on exploiting their neighbors solely for the purpose of enjoying more fully and on a larger scale the goods of this world. But they err grievously who have turned to the acquisition of material and temporal possessions and are forgetful of eternal and spiritual things, to the possession of which Jesus, Our Redeemer, by means of the Church, His living interpreter, calls mankind.

22. It is in the very nature of material objects that an inordinate desire for them becomes the root of every evil, of every discord, and in particular, of a lowering of the moral sense. On the one hand, things which are naturally base and vile can never give rise to noble aspirations in the human heart which was created by and for God alone and is restless until it finds repose in Him. On the other hand, material goods (and in this they differ greatly from those of the spirit which the more of them we possess the more remain to be acquired) the more they are divided among men the less each one has and, by consequence, what one man has another cannot possibly possess unless it be forcibly taken away from the first. Such being the case, worldly possessions can never satisfy all in equal manner nor give rise to a spirit of universal contentment, but must become perforce a source of division among men and of vexation of spirit, as even the Wise Man Solomon experienced: "Vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit." (Ecclesiastes i, 2, 14)

23. The same effects which result from these evils among individuals may likewise be expected among nations. "From whence are wars and contentions among you?" asks the Apostle St. James. "Are they not hence from your concupiscences, which war in your members?" (James iv, 1, 2)

24. The inordinate desire for pleasure, concupiscence of the flesh, sows the fatal seeds of division not only among families but likewise among states; the inordinate desire for possessions, concupiscence of the eyes, inevitably turns into class warfare and into social egotism; the inordinate desire to rule or to domineer over others, pride of life, soon becomes mere party or factional rivalries, manifesting itself in constant displays of conflicting ambitions and ending in open rebellion, in the crime of lese majeste, and even in national parricide.

25. These unsuppressed desires, this inordinate love of the things of the world, are precisely the source of all international misunderstandings and rivalries, despite the fact that oftentimes men dare to maintain that acts prompted by such motives are excusable and even justifiable because, forsooth, they were performed for reasons of state or of the public good, or out of love for country. Patriotism -- the stimulus of so many virtues and of so many noble acts of heroism when kept within the bounds of the law of Christ -- becomes merely an occasion, an added incentive to grave injustice when true love of country is debased to the condition of an extreme nationalism, when we forget that all men are our brothers and members of the same great human family, that other nations have an equal right with us both to life and to prosperity, that it is never lawful nor even wise, to dissociate morality from the affairs of practical life, that, in the last analysis, it is "justice which exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable." (Proverbs xiv, 34)

26. Perhaps the advantages to one's family, city, or nation obtained in some such way as this may well appear to be a wonderful and great victory (this thought has been already expressed by St. Augustine), but in the end it turns out to be a very shallow thing, something rather to inspire us with the most fearful apprehensions of approaching ruin. "It is a happiness which appears beautiful but is brittle as glass. We must ever be on guard lest with horror we see it broken into a thousand pieces at the first touch." (St. Augustine de Civitate Dei, Book iv, Chap. 3)

27. There is over and above the absence of peace and the evils attendant on this absence, another deeper and more profound cause for present-day conditions. This cause was even beginning to show its head before the War and the terrible calamities consequent on that cataclysm should have proven a remedy for them if mankind had only taken the trouble to understand the real meaning of those terrible events. In the Holy Scriptures we read: "They that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed." (Isaias i, 28) No less well known are the words of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, Who said: "Without me you can do nothing" (John xv, 5) and again, "He that gathereth not with me, scattereth." (Luke xi, 23)

28. These words of the Holy Bible have been fulfilled and are now at this very moment being fulfilled before our very eyes. Because men have forsaken God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of evil. They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. It was a quite general desire that both our laws and our governments should exist without recognizing God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority comes from men, not from God. Because of such an assumption, these theorists fell very short of being able to bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it must possess but also that secure basis for the supreme criterion of justice which even a pagan philosopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived except from the divine law. . . .

It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.

It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

Paragraph number twenty-eight above says it it all:

They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

There is no getting the toothpaste of Modernity back in the tube any more than it is possible to get the toothpaste of Modernism back into its own tube. Great chastisements will have to come upon men and their nations to bring them to their knees. These chastisements will occur in God’s good time and according to His Holy Will. Everything “won” in one election is easily lost in another, and it is thus foolhardy to think that the demographic and sociological trends of a nation that was born in error and been nurtured and sustained in error will reverse the drift in the direction of socialism and all the miseries that always follow in its wake.

As has been noted so regularly on this site, we must always recognize the simple fact that our sins have played a significant part in worsening the state of the Church Militant on earth and the world-at-large. While we must pray always for the conversion of heretics, schismatics and all non-Catholics, we must first of all pray and work daily for our own conversion away from our sins, including our sins of spiritual torpor and our worldliness. We need to make reparation for our sins as we offer unto the throne of the Most Blessed Trinity all our prayers, sacrifices, sufferings, good work, fasting and almsgiving as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Suffering and reparation are not optional in the lives of Catholics as it is impossible to build up the Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ socially if we do not first build up His Kingship in our souls.

Pope Pius XI put the matter this way in Mitt Brenennder Sorge:

Every true and lasting reform has ultimately sprung from the sanctity of men who were driven by the love of God and of men. Generous, ready to stand to attention to any call from God, yet confident in themselves because confident in their vocation, they grew to the size of beacons and reformers. On the other hand, any reformatory zeal, which instead of springing from personal purity, flashes out of passion, has produced unrest instead of light, destruction instead of construction, and more than once set up evils worse than those it was out to remedy. No doubt "the Spirit breatheth where he will" (John iii. 8): "of stones He is able to raise men to prepare the way to his designs" (Matt. iii. 9). He chooses the instruments of His will according to His own plans, not those of men. But the Founder of the Church, who breathed her into existence at Pentecost, cannot disown the foundations as He laid them. Whoever is moved by the spirit of God, spontaneously adopts both outwardly and inwardly, the true attitude toward the Church, this sacred fruit from the tree of the cross, this gift from the Spirit of God, bestowed on Pentecost day to an erratic world.

In your country, Venerable Brethren, voices are swelling into a chorus urging people to leave the Church, and among the leaders there is more than one whose official position is intended to create the impression that this infidelity to Christ the King constitutes a signal and meritorious act of loyalty to the modern State. Secret and open measures of intimidation, the threat of economic and civic disabilities, bear on the loyalty of certain classes of Catholic functionaries, a pressure which violates every human right and dignity. Our wholehearted paternal sympathy goes out to those who must pay so dearly for their loyalty to Christ and the Church; but directly the highest interests are at stake, with the alternative of spiritual loss, there is but one alternative left, that of heroism. If the oppressor offers one the Judas bargain of apostasy he can only, at the cost of every worldly sacrifice, answer with Our Lord: "Begone, Satan! For it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. iv. 10). And turning to the Church, he shall say: "Thou, my mother since my infancy, the solace of my life and advocate at my death, may my tongue cleave to my palate if, yielding to worldly promises or threats, I betray the vows of my baptism." As to those who imagine that they can reconcile exterior infidelity to one and the same Church, let them hear Our Lord's warning: -- "He that shall deny me before men shall be denied before the angels of God" (Luke xii. 9).(Pope Pius XI, Mit Brennender Sorge, March 17, 1937. See also Meet Some Catholics Truly Worth Admiring, part one and Meet Some Catholics Truly Worth Admiring, part two.)

Let us never fear to proclaim Viva Cristo Rey! to an unbelieving world.

Let us never fear to suffer for the Holy Faith.

Let us never surrender to hopelessness nor to the illusion of secular salvation.

Let us be confident in the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially through her Most Holy Rosary, and in the fact that there will come a day when a true pope will be restored to the Throne of Saint Peter who will fulfill her Fatima Message and usher in the Triumph of her own Immaculate Heart.

This time of chastisement will pass. This may not occur in our own lifetimes. Granted. However, it is up to us to endure the suffering of the moment as the loving clients of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary as we seek to plant the seeds for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Our Heavenly Queen.

What are we waiting for?

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saints Simon and Jude, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.