Donald John Trump: Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est la Même Chose

Although there have a few times in the past eleven months since Donald John Trump was sworn in to a second, non-consecutive term as the forty-seventh President of the United States of America that I had found it opportune to discuss either him or his administration, most notably in King Donald John Nabuchodonosor as well in various parts of the “Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomini Domine” series, I have learned the lessons of the past concerning the utter futility of discussing the madness of Judeo-Masonic naturalism and the endless battles between the false opposites of the naturalist “left” and the naturalist “right.”

After over a thousand articles on this subject in the past twenty years on this website alone, leaving aside a score or so or videos and the old lecture series that I delivered around the country between 2000 and 2002, I believe that, as a general rule, it is a waste of my good Catholic time to keep repeating themes that were best summarized by Pope Pius XI in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922, and William Thomas Walsh in The Characters of the Inquisition:

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. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

That last paragraph, number twenty-eight, says it all. The gist of the two hundred thirty-seven articles linked at the top of this article can be summarized in the following words written by Pope Pius XI ninety-three years ago:

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.)

Sadly, many Catholics continue to waste their energies and consume their time and efforts (if not money!) in vain sterile efforts to find a remedy for the ills of Modernity without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin

William Thomas Walsh noted the dangerous consequences that must occur when Catholics live in a country where non-Catholics constitute a majority and where social pressures to conform to “agree to disagree” makes many Catholics indistinguishable from their non-Catholic neighbors:

Now, either the Catholic body will come into sharp conflict with those about them, or they will not.

Within a generation we have seen our Liberal politicians denounce the Soviet, cultivate friendly relations with it, and denounce it again – this time more coyly. As the world grows smaller in time, may not all the forms of Socialism be gathered together by skillful hands into a World State, such as many Masonic writers have advocated, and the League of Nations sought to achieve? It is not only conceivable, but probable; for all forms of Socialism (even if some still call themselves Democracies) will be animated by a single obscure but powerful principle: the worship of the material, which is and always must be the negation of Christianity. Here, then, by a masterly anithesis, Pius XI has cast a strong light upon the shapes of things to come. It is all the more revealing when it shows us only the recurrence upon a larger stage of a deathless drama that happened long ago. Christ still lives in His Mystical Body, the Church, as truly as in the human body he took from Our Lady; and when the time comes for Him to be crucified again in His Church, depend upon it, Pilate and Herod that day will find a way to patch up their differences, some Caiaphas will cry, “Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!” and there will always be found some Judas to give the kiss of death.

Admittedly (perhaps my wish is father to this thought) we may by some miracle escape that fate, here in America. Perhaps despite their affiliations, Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Wilkie, as political Catholic admirers of each will tell us, will be led in the right direction by a divine hand. Again, perhaps not. Only the future can reveal this. Meanwhile this much is certain: the United States, in a very few years, will be either a Catholic country (and therefore a free country) or a Socialist country, (and therefore a slave country). “He who is not with Me is against Me.” History demonstrates the unfailing truth of this dilemma.

Here on the last edge and in the twilight of the world, the stage is set for the reenactment of an ancient tragedy – or can it this time be a comedy? Here are all the actors who have appeared over and over again in that tragedy in Europe. Here we have most of the Freemasons of the world, the Jews, most of the gold and its masters; Parthians and Medes and Elamites – men gathered together from all nations under the sun, speaking one language, leading a common life; and among them heirs of all the isms and heresies that the Catholic Church has denounced throughout the centuries, and some millions of good bewildered folk who have ceased to believe much in anything, and do not know what they believe, or whether anything be worth believing; and, scattered among these millions with their roots in such movements of the past, some twenty-five millions of Catholics.

If they do not [oppose socialism and liberalism as two sides of the same Protestant and Judeo-Masonic coin], it will be the first time in history that the Mystical Body of Christ (and American Catholics, like all others, are “cells” of that Body) has not aroused violent and unreasoning antagonism. This has been so uniformly a characteristic of the life of Christ and the life of the Catholic Church, that when persons calling themselves Christian or Catholic do not meet with oppositions, and strong opposition, one may well begin to wonder whether they are profoundly Christian and truly Catholic. Perhaps then it is a reflection upon us American Catholics that we have inspired so little antagonism (comparatively) thus far. Perhaps we have not been telling our neighbors the truth, the strong truth, the hard saying they will not like: that the real test of our republican experiment here must ultimately be whether it accepts or opposes the Church of Christ; that it must become either a Catholic state, or a slave state. (William Thomas Walsh, Characters of the Inquisition, New York, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1940 pp. 188-189.)

William Thomas Walsh summarized in a few paragraphs the theme that I have tried to hammer home in hundreds upon hundreds of lengthy commentaries on this site—and in countless hours of lectures around the country and online.

This having been noted, I believe that it is opportune once again to note that President Donald John Trump, despite doing what he did not do in 2016 or 2020, that is, run a disciplined presidential campaign in 2024, cannot help but to return to his basest instincts as a New York insult artist who considers opposition to him personally and to his policies to be tantamount to treason and that those guilty of such “treason” are deserving to be executed:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) warned that President Trump calling Democratic lawmakers “traitors” is “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible”

Paul on Sunday offered one of the strongest denunciations of Trump’s attacks on Democratic colleagues, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), something the president doubled down on over the weekend.

“You know, everybody knows that the president is famous for his unfiltered social media,” Paul told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation” in an interview. “But if you take it at face value, the idea that calling your opponents traitors — and then specifically saying that it warrants the death penalty — is reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible.”

“It’s not something that is helping the country heal wounds. I think it stirs things up,” he added.

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and one of the Democratic lawmakers Trump has labeled a traitor, said on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump’s attacks have affected her “security situation.”

“The security situation changed for all of us,” she told ABC when asked about the fallout from Trump’s attacks.

“Leadership climate is set at the top,” she said. “So if the president is saying things like that, you can imagine people on the ground, what they’re doing, the calls into our office … into our teams, the calling of police.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) warned that President Trump calling Democratic lawmakers “traitors” is “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible”

“It’s not something that is helping the country heal wounds. I think it stirs things up,” he added.

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and one of the Democratic lawmakers Trump has labeled a traitor, said on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump’s attacks have affected her “security situation.”

“The security situation changed for all of us,” she told ABC when asked about the fallout from Trump’s attacks.

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Slotkin said she has seen a “huge spike in death threats and intimidation” on her phones, email and websites since Trump lashed out against her, Kelly and Democratic Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.) and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.) for appearing in a video in which they urged members of the military not to follow unlawful orders.

The offices of Slotkin, Crow, Houlahan and Deluzio have said they received bomb threats after Trump’s attacks.

The president vented his fury after the Democrats posted the video in which they urged members of the military to refuse unlawful orders.

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL,” Trump posted on Truth Social last Thursday. (Rand Paul criticizes Donald Trump's "traitor" labels.)

Those denounced by President Trump as “traitors” were expressing their outrage that several survivors of the first American airstrikes upon suspected Venezuelan narco-terrorists in international waters off the cost of Venezuela were ordered to be killed, whether directly by Secretary of War Peter Hegspeth or by a commander of the operation.

While the spread of fentanyl and other hallucinogenic drugs into the United States of America is indeed a threat to national security that is being fostered in large measure by the Red Chinese government of Xi Jinping through minions of his such as Nicolas Maduro, measures to interdict such drug trafficking must be approved by the Congress of the United States of America. Sure, Congressional action can be messy, but what good is having a governing majority in both houses of the Congress of the United States of America if one is unwilling to abide by the plain provisions of the Constitution?

Donald John Trump, however, knows as much about the Constitution of the United States of America and its provisions as he knows about the binding precepts of the Divine and Natural Laws, that is, nothing, and it is thus the case that he is as unconcerned about securing Congressional approval for military actions as he is about the inherent immorality of killing survivors of a military attack. While I have no sympathy for domestic or international drug traffickers, it is still nevertheless immoral to directly intend to kill human beings who have survived a military attack, especially since that were only suspected, probably with good cause, of being drug traffickers.

As a Democratic member of the House of Representatives noted three months ago, what will Republicans say in 2009 if a President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez orders military strikes on pro-life groups overseas because they are said to be “anti-women?”

The ends never justify the means, but Donald John Trump has never realized this, especially in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election that was most likely stolen from him but about which there was little he could do with the kind of proof that has emerged in the past five years, and he continues to believe that whatever he says, does, or desires is correct and that those who disagree with him, no matter how long they had been his supporters and defenders in the midst of the lawfare waged against him by Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., Kamala Harris Emhoff, Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, and Fani Willis, are “lowlifes”:

President Donald Trump thinks the Republican Party is more united than ever—except for a couple of “lowlifes” among its ranks.

Trump, 79, namedropped his intraparty enemies in a Truth Social post touting the strength of conservatives on Sunday.

“The Republican Party has never been so UNITED AS IT iS RIGHT NOW!” he began before dropping major—and multiple—caveats.

“Other than Rand Paul, Rand Paul Jr.(Massie!), Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown, and a couple of other ‘lowlifes,’ [sic] and other than the fact that many want the Election threatening Filibuster TERMINATED (the Dems will do it in the first minute of their first chance!), and some don’t, there is great spirit and cohesion.”

Trump was nonetheless committed to ending his rant on a high note.

“The Republican Party is MUCH BIGGER than it was when I announced in 2015 or, ever was before - Many Millions More Members!” he said. “THE BEST IS YET TO COME! VOTE REPUBLICAN!!!”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the offices of Paul, Massie, and Marjorie Taylor Greene for comment. (Donald Trump Unloads on ‘Lowlife’ Republicans But Brags About GOP Unity.)

United States Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is a licensed ophthalmologist who is also a very serious student of the Constitution of the United States of America. He is not Adam Schiff or Jamie Raskin, or Jasmine Crockett, or Alexandra Ocasio-Cortzez, Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi, true lowlifes who care nothing for truth.

United States Representative Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) is also a serious Constitutional scholar who has had the courage to oppose President Trump’s obsequiousness towards the Zionist State of Israel and its genocide against the Palestinian people as well as pushing the president to release the government’s Jeffrey Epstein files, which most likely do not implicate the president in any of Epstein’s unspeakable abuses but about whose release he, Trump, has been adamantly opposed. Perhaps Trump’s irrational reaction to Thomas Massie’s opposition to Zionism and his push to release the Epstein files have a common thread: the desire to please Israeli leaders at all costs.

However, the Republican who has really gotten under President Trump’s very thin skin has been United States Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been allied with Representative Massie’s efforts to release the Epstein files. Mrs. Greene, a baptized Catholic who later apostatized and is now living in sin (as is FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent), was a fiery support of President Trump’s during her time in public office, but his attacks on her were so unhinged and vitriolically person that decided to resign from the House of Representatives on January 5, 2026:

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Hi everyone. I've always represented the common American man and woman as a member of the House of Representatives, which is why I've always been despised in Washington D.C. and just never fit in. Americans are used by the political-industrial complex of both political parties, election cycle after election cycle, in order to elect whichever side can convince Americans to hate the other side more.

And the results are always the same. No matter which way the political pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman. The debt goes higher.

Corporate and global interests remain Washington's sweethearts. American jobs continue to be replaced, whether it's by illegal labor or legal labor by visas, or just shipped overseas. Small businesses continue to be swallowed by big corporations.

Americans' hard-earned tax dollars always fund foreign wars, foreign aid, and foreign interests. And the spending power of the dollar continues to decline. The average American family can no longer survive on a single breadwinner's income, as both parents have to work in order to simply survive.

And today, many in my children's generation feel hopeless for their future and don't think they will ever realize the American dream. And that breaks my heart. I ran for Congress in 2020 and have fought every single day believing that Make America Great Again meant America First.

I have one of the most conservative voting records in Congress, defending the First Amendment, Second Amendment, unborn babies, because I believe God creates life at conception, and I love to fight for the little guy. Strong, safe borders, I have fought hard for that. I fought against COVID tyrannical insanity and mandated mass vaccinations, and I've never voted to fund foreign wars with your hard-earned tax dollars.

However, with almost one year into our majority, the legislature has been mostly sidelined. We endured an eight-week shutdown, wrongly, resulting in the House not working for the entire time. And we are entering campaign season, which means all courage leaves and only safe campaign re-election mode is turned on in the House of Representatives.

During the longest shutdown in our nation's history, I raged against my own speaker and my own party for refusing to proactively work diligently to pass a plan to save Americans' health care and protect Americans from outrageous, overpriced, and unaffordable health insurance policies. The House should have been in session working every day to fix this disaster, but instead America was force-fed disgusting political drama once again from both sides of the aisle on television every single day. My bills, which reflect many of Trump's executive orders, like calling for a new census counting Americans only to draw new districts, making English the official language of the U.S., making it a felony to medically trans a minor, and other bills like eliminating capital gains taxes on the sale of your primary home and eliminating H-1B visas, just sit. They all sit collecting dust. That's how it is for most members of Congress' bills. The speaker never brings them to the floor for a vote.

Many common Americans are no longer easily convinced by paid political propaganda spokespersons and consultants on TV and paid shills on social media obediently serving with cult-like conviction to force others to swallow the political party talking points. Because they know how much credit card debt they have, they know how much their bills have gone up over the past five years. They actually do their own grocery shopping and no food costs too much.

Their rent has increasingly gone up and up. They have been outbid by corporate asset managers too many times when they put in an offer to buy a house. They have been laid off after being forced to train their visa holding replacement.

The college degree they were told to earn only left them in debt with no big six-figure salary. They see more homeless people than ever on their own community streets. They can't afford health insurance or practically any insurance and they just aren't stupid.

These are the people I represent and love because that is who all of my family and friends are, common Americans. I've been blessed to represent the 14th District of Georgia for five years. That is filled, the district is filled with some of the most wonderful, kind-hearted, God-fearing, patriotic, hard-working people you will ever meet.

Good, regular, common Americans. I've worked hard to bring taxpayer dollars back home to help district needs. I impeached Biden's Secretary of Homeland after watching my constituents die as he facilitated dangerous open border invasion into America.

And I led the effort to defund hard-left politically biased NPR and PBS and the corrupt USAID and I did that as chair of the DOJ subcommittee. I have fought harder than almost any other elected Republican to elect Donald Trump and Republicans to power. I traveled the country for years.

I spent millions of my own money. I missed precious time with my family that I can never get back. And I showed up in places like outside the New York courthouse in Collect Pond Park against a raging leftist mob as Trump faced Democrat lawfare.

Meanwhile, most of the establishment Republicans who secretly hate him and who stabbed him in the back and never defended him against anything have all been welcomed in right after the election. And I will never forget the day I had to leave my mother's side as my father had brain surgery to remove cancerous tumors in order to fly to Washington D.C. to defend President Trump and vote no against the Democrats' second impeachment in 2021. My poor father and my poor mother.

It was way too much for all of us. Through it all, I never changed or went back on my campaign promises and only disagreed in a few areas like my stance against H-1Bs replacing American jobs, AI state moratoriums, debt-for-life 50-year mortgage scams, standing strongly against all involvement in foreign wars, and demanding the release of the Epstein files. Other than that, my voting record has been solidly with my party and the president.

Loyalty should be a two-way street, and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district's interests because our job title is literally representative. America first should mean America first and only Americans first, with no other foreign country ever being attached to America first in our halls of government. Standing up for American women who were raped at 14 years old, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States whom I fought for.

However, while yes, hurtful, my heart remains filled with joy, my life is filled with happiness, and my true convictions remain unchanged because my self-worth is not defined by a man, but instead by God who created everything in existence. You see, I have never valued power, titles, or attention in spite of all the wrong assumptions about me. I do not cling to those things because they are meaningless and empty traps that hold too many people in Washington.

I believe in term limits and do not think Congress should be a lifelong career or an assisted living facility. My only goal and desire has ever been to hold the Republican party accountable for the promises it makes to the people and put America first. And I have fought against Democrats damaging policies like the Greene New Deal, wide open deadly unsafe border policies, and the trans agenda on children and against women.

With that has brought years of non-stop never-ending personal attacks, death threats, lawfare, ridiculous slander, and lies about me that most people could never withstand even for a single day. It has been unfair and wrong not only to me but especially to my family, but it's been wrong to my district as well. I have too much self-respect and dignity, I love my family way too much, and I do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president that we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms and in turn be expected to defend the president against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me. It's all so absurd and completely unserious. I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better.

If I am cast aside by the president and the MAGA political machine and replaced by neocons, big pharma, big tech, military industrial war complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can never ever relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well. There is no plan to save the world or a 4D chess game being played. When common American people realize and understand that the political industrial complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington's machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, the people, possess the real power over Washington, then I'll be here by their side to rebuild it. Until then, I'm going back to the people that I love to live my life to the fullest as I always have, and I look forward to a new path ahead.
I'll be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026, and I look forward to seeing many of you again sometime in the future. May God bless you all, and may God bless America. (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Resigns: The Political Industrial Complex Is Ripping This Country Apart.)

Now, I disagree with Mrs. Greene about Obamacare and could care less about the “Make America Great Again Movement” as to make American great again we must pray and work to make America Catholic Again (see MAHA: Make America HOLY Again by Making America Catholic Again!), she is correct about the hapless nature of the Republican leadership, who, as per usual, are tongue-tied and paralyzed with the rise of the likes of Zohran Mamdani as the next Mayor of the City of New York as well as the political strength of socialists among the young. Careerist Republicans have never stood for anything other than getting elected, and it is no different now almost one full year into President Donald John Trump’s final term as President of the United States of America. What Mrs. Greene does not understand is that a secular system of government can never withstand the assaults of those intent on using the illusion of American “freedom” to impose the sort of tyranny and repression that we came very close to realizing on a permanent basis during the administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Kamala Harris Emhoff and that, truth be told, Trump himself is trying to impose with respect to criticism of Israel (see Why Are Americans Being Placed Under a Speech Tsar?)

A firm supporter of President Donald John Trump’s over the past nine years, Mr. Frank Miele, the former editor of the Daily Inter Lake newspaper in Kalispell, Montana, is himself now admitting what many of us saw about Trump from the beginning, namely, that Donald John Trump, is all about Donald John Trump:

It was just six weeks ago that Democrats celebrated No Kings Day. At the time it seemed like a puerile demonstration of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Of course, there should be no kings in America, but no one in the MAGA movement was seriously arguing in favor of a despotic monarchy in the first place. Nor was blind loyalty to President Trump considered a requirement for those who want to Make America Great Again.

But since then, a number of things have happened which have put at risk the coalition which Trump built in 2015 and then pieced back together in 2024. And some of those things suggest that Trump didn’t get the message about no kings.

Everyone can make their own list, but here are a few of the most questionable moments in the Trump administration recently that suggest a royal lack of accountability:

When meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who has been credibly accused of ordering the death of a Washington Post columnist, Trump said of the allegation, “Things happen.” That might be something Richard III would say after killing his nephews.
Asked a question he didn’t like by a reporter, Trump threatened to remove ABC’s broadcast license. This followed another incident in which he called a woman reporter “piggy.” Retaliation against the media asking hard questions may not be strictly a royal trait, but every despot does it. This goes beyond Richard Nixon and his notorious “enemies list.”
In responding to a video put out by six members of Congress advising members of the military that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders, Trump suggested the six should be charged with sedition – and reposted on social media calls that they be put to death. Whether you think the video was appropriate or not, we should all agree that executing your political enemies, which was the fate that befell Jamal Khashoggi, is not a democratic norm.

We all know that Trump lives in the margins of civility, and that has been part of his political charm – telling the elites where to go. But at some point even MAGA supporters like myself have to ask whether there are limits.

If we all agree there should be no kings in America, we should also agree that there should be no blind loyalty to our leaders. They do need to be held to account whether in politics, media, or business.

Which brings me to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who broke with Trump on the matter of releasing the so-called Epstein files and other matters, and was subsequently exiled by Trump to the nether regions of Truth Social.

Inexplicably, Trump had been adamantly opposed to releasing Justice Department files about his former friend Jeffrey Epstein – a convicted sex offender – even though he promised during the 2024 campaign to turn them over if he were elected.

wrote a column in September saying that Trump calling the Epstein files a hoax was “a low point in his presidency.” My goal then, along with that of other MAGA supporters such as Rep. Greene, was to dissuade Trump from pursuing a self-destructive path that would injure not just himself but the Republican Party and the MAGA movement he founded.

But Trump was having none of it. When Greene asked him to meet with the victims of Epstein at the Oval Office, he did not accept the offer, again blaming a “hoax.” She responded, “Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted pedophile. That takes away the whole hoax thing. It’s not a hoax. It’s not a lie.”

I agreed, and I was hoping Greene and other women prominent in the MAGA movement such as Rep. Lauren Boebert and Laura Loomer – and maybe even Melania Trump – would succeed in convincing Trump to separate his personal concerns about political embarrassment (there’s no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on Trump’s part) from the necessity of providing an open window on the issue of whether or not the Justice Department had worked to protect Epstein’s rich and powerful friends.

That didn’t happen. Although the president eventually went along with the inevitable vote in Congress to release the materials, he singled out Greene for retribution, calling her a “ranting lunatic” in a Truth Social post on Nov. 14. What Trump doesn’t seem to understand is that if Greene is a lunatic, what does that say about his policies? What she has been ranting about most during the past decade is her total support for almost all of the president’s programs.

Something doesn’t add up.

So when Greene appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” two days later, it was a signal that sides were being chosen, and everyone in MAGA needed to make a decision – transparency or blind loyalty. Trump made it clear: He wanted blind loyalty, and as a result he went scorched earth on the Georgia congresswoman.

Mind you, MTG is not without blemish herself. She has advocated positions that are beyond the pale. In late 2021, she promoted a “national divorce” between red states and blue states, which kind of goes against the whole idea of the United States of America. And like Trump, she has all but advocated the execution of various political opponents, including Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. She has promoted the conspiracy theory that leading Democrats belong to a Satanic pedophilia cult. Most absurd of all, she suggested that wildfires in California were lit by lasers from outer space.

So let’s make it clear. No one should give MTG blind loyalty either. If there are no kings, there are no queens. All leaders should be subject to the utmost scrutiny, and each of us as citizens must learn to reject bad ideas without throwing out the good.

Hopefully, that is the standard the MAGA movement will hold itself to. When she appeared on CNN, Greene was absolutely right to caution that unanimity should not be the hallmark of Trump’s coalition.

“I have disagreed with [the president] at times,” she said. “I'm allowed to do that. I think that’s the most important thing we can do as Americans. And I’m urging my party, I have been putting massive pressure on my party and our speaker to pass the agenda that the American people vote for.”

That about sums up where I am too. Although I voted for Donald Trump twice, mainly because of his promises to end illegal immigration and to deport those here illegally, I do not agree with everything he says or does. That includes his reluctance to unseal the Epstein files. More importantly, there are substantive issues that raise concerns, such as his insistence that H-1B visas for foreign workers are necessary because Americans lack “certain talents.”

But based on the way Trump has treated Greene in the wake of her public disagreement with him, I should expect to be drummed out of the MAGA coalition any day now.

In a Truth Social post, the president called Greene “Wacky Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Remember, Green turns to Brown where there is ROT involved!)” and he specified that she was not just a traitor to him personally or to the MAGA movement, but a “Traitor to our Country.”

That can only be compared to the dictum attributed to King Louis XIV of France, “L’etat c’est moi,” or “The state, it is me” – a sentiment Trump has actually quoted on social media himself. That grandiose belief is self-evident in Trump’s assessment of Greene as a national traitor when she has in fact only challenged the president on a few specific policies.

It is possible that Trump will continue to enjoy policy successes by strong-arming his opponents and his allies alike, but I am concerned that his transparent disregard for minority rights or often for common decency will result in long-term damage to the Republican brand.

And if Democrats win back Congress in 2026 and claim the presidency in 2028, then all the good Trump did in the last decade will be undone in short order. (No Kings, No Queens, No Blind Loyalty.)

This is all very good, but what Mr. Miele does not realize is that the American system of pluralistic religious indifferentism is unstable of its nature as men must be the mercy (or lack thereof!) of the shifting sands of popular sovereignty when neither they nor their nations acknowledge the Sovereignty of Christ the King over them and their nations in all that pertains to the good of souls.

Sooner or later, of course, there will be a completely open Socialist president of the United States of America who will make that nothing he or she does can be undone by those nasty things called elections, something was alluded by William Thomas Walsh in the quotation cited near the beginning of this commentary.

Permit me to remind you once again of what Dr. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn said in this regard at Harvard University on June 8, 1978:

This statement turned out not to be entirely senseless. One does see the same stones in the foundations of a despiritualized humanism and of any type of socialism: endless materialism; freedom from religion and religious responsibility, which under communist regimes reach the stage of anti-religious dictatorship; concentration on social structures with a seemingly scientific approach. (This is typical of the Enlightenment in the Eighteenth Century and of Marxism). Not by coincidence all of communism's meaningless pledges and oaths are about Man, with a capital M, and his earthly happiness. At first glance it seems an ugly parallel: common traits in the thinking and way of life of today's West and today's East? But such is the logic of materialistic development.

The interrelationship is such, too, that the current of materialism which is most to the left always ends up by being stronger, more attractive and victorious, because it is more consistent. Humanism without its Christian heritage cannot resist such competition. We watch this process in the past centuries and especially in the past decades, on a world scale as the situation becomes increasingly dramatic. Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism, radicalism had to surrender to socialism and socialism could never resist communism. The communist regime in the East could stand and grow due to the enthusiastic support from an enormous number of Western intellectuals who felt a kinship and refused to see communism's crimes. When they no longer could do so, they tried to justify them. In our Eastern countries, communism has suffered a complete ideological defeat; it is zero and less than zero. But Western intellectuals still look at it with interest and with empathy, and this is precisely what makes it so immensely difficult for the West to withstand the East. (Dr. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, A World Split Apart. June 8, 1978.)

Solzhenitsyn, who is should be pointed out, was a Russian nationalist and thus had a bias against the Catholic Church and her teaching authority, especially as pertains to Papal Primacy and to her constant condemnation of contraception, which he, Solzhenitsyn supported in the name of “population control,” explained forty-seven and one-half ago years that his condemnation of socialism did not mean that he could recommend the Western culture of consumerism and materialism as the model for his own country should Communism end there (as it supposedly did on December 25, 1992, as the flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was lowered and the tri-color flag of Russia was raised up a flagpole in its place):

But should someone ask me whether I would indicate the West such as it is today as a model to my country, frankly I would have to answer negatively. No, I could not recommend your society in its present state as an ideal for the transformation of ours. Through intense suffering our country has now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive. Even those characteristics of your life which I have just mentioned are extremely saddening.

A fact which cannot be disputed is the weakening of human beings in the West while in the East they are becoming firmer and stronger -- 60 years for our people and 30 years for the people of Eastern Europe. During that time we have been through a spiritual training far in advance of Western experience. Life's complexity and mortal weight have produced stronger, deeper, and more interesting characters than those generally [produced] by standardized Western well-being.

Therefore, if our society were to be transformed into yours, it would mean an improvement in certain aspects, but also a change for the worse on some particularly significant scores. It is true, no doubt, that a society cannot remain in an abyss of lawlessness, as is the case in our country. But it is also demeaning for it to elect such mechanical legalistic smoothness as you have. After the suffering of many years of violence and oppression, the human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor, and by intolerable music.

There are meaningful warnings which history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen. There are open and evident warnings, too. The center of your democracy and of your culture is left without electric power for a few hours only, and all of a sudden crowds of American citizens start looting and creating havoc. The smooth surface film must be very thin, then, the social system quite unstable and unhealthy.

But the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their offensive; you can feel their pressure, and yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about? (Dr. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, A World Split Apart, June 8, 1978, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts .)

The Nobel Laureate gave this address nearly eleven months after riots had broken out in the Borough of Brooklyn in the City of New York, New York, when the inept utility company, Consolidated Edison, suffered an outage at a power plant in Astoria in the Borough of Queens on Wednesday, July 13, 1977. Solzhenitsyn was saying in his address, in effect, that Americans are in trouble if the only thing keeping the masses from rioting and looting is Consolidated Edison, known colloquially in New York and environs as “Con Ed.”

Neither liberalism nor its variants nor socialism and its variants are the foundation of social order. Catholicism, though not a guarantor of order given the vagaries of fallen human nature, is alone the only means that can provide men and their nations with the foundation for a just social order.

Remember, we have no “rooting” interest in the battles of the false opposites of naturalism. We cannot continue to make the mistake of projecting our own Catholic thoughts and desires into the minds of men such as Donald John Trump, whose administration has certainly very good things but which has also abandoned its previous opposition to foreign interventionism and whose commendable efforts to secure the border have seen too many cases of those who have been here for decades and have committed no crimes after arriving here of being swept in raids along with the violent gang members who were given free rein by the Biden-Harris administration to act with impunity against innocent American citizens.

We must view all things through the eyes of the Holy Faith.

We must view all things through the eyes of the Holy Faith at all times.

We must never allow the events of the world to agitate us as agitation is from the devil.

We must rest secure in our absolute trust in Our Lord’s Divine Providence, remembering that we are living at the exact time which He has ordained from all eternity for us to live and thus to give Him honor and glory as His consecrated slaves through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Is it not the case today that most “Catholics work, act, in a word, live as if they had neither a Creator to obey, a Saviour to love, nor a soul to save”?

Well, it cannot be that way with us.

We must think supernaturally at all times, and we must give thanks at all times that we have been given the gratuitous gift of the Catholic Faith so that we can see the world and everything in it clearly through the eyes of the true Faith. Our gratitude must express itself especially in the midst of personal trials and those tragedies in the world as we give thanks to Our Lord and Our Lady that we can rise about naturalism and as we pray for the gift of perseverance to continue doing so.

While we do indeed want as much good for our country as can be realized here below in this passing, mortal vale of tears, such good, when accomplished, is only transitory because of the impermanent nature of the false principles upon which the entire system is founded and, importantly, we must always recognize that we have been baptized and confirmed to loyal to Christ the King and His true Church as we recall these words of Sacred Scripture:

[2] Praise the Lord, O my soul, in my life I will praise the Lord: I will sing to my God as long as I shall be. Put not your trust in princes: [3] In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation. [4] His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish. [5] Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God:

[6] Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them. [7] Who keepeth truth for ever: who executeth judgment for them that suffer wrong: who giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth them that are fettered: [8] The Lord enlighteneth the blind. The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down: the Lord loveth the just. [9] The Lord keepeth the strangers, he will support the fatherless and the widow: and the ways of sinners he will destroy. [10] The Lord shall reign for ever: thy God, O Sion, unto generation and generation. (Psalm 145: 2-10.)

Any questions?

Without Our Lord we can do nothing, and without a firm devotion to and reliance upon His Most Blessed Mother, especially through her Most Holy Rosary, we cannot save our souls, and that is what should matter to us at all times without exception.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

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.

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.

Saint Peter Chrysologus, pray for us.

Saint Barbara, pray for us.

Appendix A

Dom Prosper Gueranger's Reflections on the Feast of Saint Peter Chrysologus, December 4

The same divine Providence, which would not that the Church should be deprived of the consolation of keeping, during Advent, the feast of some of the apostles, who announced to the Gentiles the coming of the Messias, has also willed that the holy doctors, who defended the true faith against heretics, should be represented in this important season of the Catholic year.

Two of them, Saint Ambrose and Saint Peter Chrysologus, shine as two brilliant stars in the firmament of the Church during Advent. It is worthy of note, that both of them were the zealous avengers of that Son of God whom we are preparing to receive. The first was the valiant opponent of the Arians, whose impious doctrine taught that Jesus, the object of our hopes, is merely a creature and not God; the second was the adversary of Eutyches, whose sacrilegious system robs the Incarnation of the Son of God of all its glory, by asserting that, in this mystery, the human nature was absorbed by the Divinity.

It is this second doctor, the holy bishop of Ravenna, that we are to honour to-day. His pastoral eloquence gained for him a great reputation, and a great number of his sermons have been handed down to us. In almost every page we find passages of the most exquisite beauty, though we also occasionally meet with indications of the decay of literature, which began in the fifth century. The mystery of the Incarnation is a frequent subject of the saint’s sermons, and he always speaks upon it with a precision and enthusiasm, which show his learning and piety. His veneration and love towards Mary, the Mother of God, who, in that very age, had triumphed over her enemies by the decree of the Council of Ephesus, inspire him with thoughts and language which are extremely fine. Let us take a passage from the sermon on the Annunciation.

“God sends to the Virgin an angelic messenger, who, whilst he brings graces, gives her the entrusted pledge, and receives hers. Then does Gabriel return with Mary’s plighted troth. But, before ascending to heaven, there to tell the consent promised him by the Virgin, he delivers to her the gifts due to her virtues. Swiftly does this ambassador fly to the bride, that he may assert God’s claim to her as His own. Gabriel takes her not from Joseph, but he restores her to Christ, to whom she was espoused when she was first formed in the womb. Christ, therefore, did but take His own, when He thus made Mary His bride. It is not a separation that He thus produces, but a union with Himself of His own creature by becoming Incarnate in her womb.

But let us hearken to the angel’s words. Being come in, he said unto her: ‘Hail full of grace! the Lord is with thee!’ These words are not a mere salutation; they convey the heavenly gift. ‘Hail’, that is, Take, 0 Mary, the grace I bring thee; fear not; this is not the work of nature. ‘Full of grace’, that is, thou art not in grace as others are; thou art to be filled with it. ‘The Lord is with thee’! What means this, but that He is coming to thee not merely to visit thee, but to enter within thee by the new mystery of becoming thy Child! ‘Blessed art thou among women’. How fittingly does he add these words! They imply, that they who heretofore were mothers with the curse of Eve upon them, now have the blessed Mary as their joy, and honour, and type: and whereas Eve was by nature the mother of children of death, Mary is by grace the mother of children of life.’

In the following passage from another sermon, the holy doctor teaches us with what profound veneration we ought to contemplate Mary during these days when God is still residing in her womb.

“What reverence and awe are shown to that inner chamber of a king, where he sits in all the majesty of his power! Therein no man may enter that is a stranger, or unclean, or unfaithful. The usages of courts require, that when men come to pay their homage, everything must be the best, and fairest, and most loyal. Who would go to the palace-gate in rags? Who would go, that knew he was odious to the prince? So it is with the sanctuary of the divine Spouse. No one is permitted to come nigh, but he that is of God’s family, and is intimate, and has a good conscience, and has a fair name, and leads a holy life. Within the holy place itself God receives but the Virgin, and spotless virginity. Hence learn, 0 man, to examine thyself : who thou art, and what thou art, and what merits thou hast. Ask thyself, after this, if thou mayst dare to penetrate into the mystery of the birth of thy Lord, or canst be worthy to approach that living sanctuary, wherein reposes the whole majesty of thy King, and thy God.”
Let us now listen to our holy mother the Church, who thus speaks of our saint:

“Peter, surnamed, for his golden eloquence Chrysologus, was born at Forum Cornelii (Imola) in Emilia, of respectable parents. Turning his mind to religion from his childhood, he put himself under Cornelius, the bishop of that city, who was a Roman. In a short while he made such progress in learning and holiness of life, that, in due time, the bishop ordained him deacon. Not long after, it happened that the archbishop of Ravenna having died, the inhabitants of that city sent, as usual, to Rome the successor they had elected, that this election might be confirmed by the holy Pope Sixtus III. Cornelius, who was also sent in company with the deputies of Ravenna, took with him the young deacon. Meanwhile, the apostle Saint Peter, and the holy martyr Apollinaris, appeared to the Roman Pontiff in his sleep. They stood with the young levite between them, and ordered the Pontiff to create him, and none other, archbishop of Ravenna.

The Pontiff, therefore, no sooner saw Peter than he recognized him as the one chosen by God; and rejecting the one presented to him, he appointed Peter to the metropolitan Church of that city, in the year of our Lord 433. At first, the deputies from Ravenna were dissatisfied at this. decision of the Pope; but, having been told of the vision, they readily acquiesced in the divine will, and received the new archbishop with the greatest reverence.

Peter, therefore, being, though reluctant, consecrated archbishop, was conducted to Ravenna, where he was received with the greatest joy. by the emperor Valentinian, and Galla Placidia. the emperor’s mother, and the whole people. On his part, he told them that he asked of them but this, that since he had not refused this great burden for their salvation’s sake, they would make it their study to follow his counsels, and to obey the commandments of God. He then buried in the city the bodies of two saints, after having embalmed them with the most precious perfumes; Barbatian, a. priest, was one; and the other, Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, whose cowl and hair-shirt he cIaimed as his own inheritance.

He ordained Projectus and Marcellinus bishops. In the town of Classis he erected a fountain of an incredible size, and built some magnificent churches in honour of several saints, of Saint Andrew among the rest. The people had a custom of assisting at certain games, on the first day of January, which consisted of theatrical performances and dances; the saint repressed these by the severity with which he preached against them. One of his expressions deserves to be handed down: ‘He that would play with the devil, can never enjoy the company of Jesus.’

At the command of Pope St. Leo I., he wrote to the Council of Chalcedon against the heresy of Eutyches. He answered Eutyches himself by another epistle, which has been added to the acts of that same Council in the new editions, and has been inserted in the ecclesiastical annals.

In his sermons to the people he was so earnest, that at times his voice completely failed him, as in his sermon on the woman healed by our Lord, as mentioned in the ninth chapter of St. Matthew; on which occasion his people of Ravenna were so affected, and so moved to tears, that the whole church rang with their sobbings and prayers, and the saint afterwards thanked God that he had turned the failure of his speech into the gain of so much love.

After having governed that Church, in a most holy manner, about eighteen years, and having received a divine warning that his labours were soon to end, he withdrew to his native town. There he visited the church of St. Cassian, and presented an offering of a large golden diadem, set with most precious stones, which he placed upon the high altar: he also gave a golden cup, and a silver paten, which imparts to water poured on it the virtue of healing the bites of mad dogs, and of assuaging fevers, as frequent instances have attested. He then took leave of those who had accompanied him from Ravenna, admonishing them to spare no pains in electing for their pastor him who was the most worthy. Immediately after this he turned in humble prayer to God, that, through the intercession of his patron St. Cassian, he would mercifully receive his soul; and calmly passed out of this life, on the third of the Nones of Dccember (Dec. 3), about the year 450. His holy body was buried, amidst the tears and prayers of the whole city, near the body of the same St. Cassian: there it is venerated even at this day; though Ravenna possesses and venerates one of the arms, which was enshrined in gold and gems and placed in the basilica Ursicana.” (Matins, The Divine Office, Feast of Saint Peter Chrysologus, December 4.)

Holy pontiff, who didst open thy lips and pour out on the assembly of the faithful, in the streams of thy golden eloquence, the knowledge of Jesus, cast an eye of compassion on the Christians throughout the world, who are watching in expectation of that same God-Man, whose two Natures thou didst so courageously confess. Obtain for us grace to receive Him with the sovereign respect which is due to a God who comes down to His creatures, and with the loving confidence which is due to a Brother who comes to offer Himself in sacrifice for His most unworthy brethren. Strengthen our faith, most holy doctor! for the love we stand in need of comes from faith.

Destroy the heresies which lay waste the vineyard of our Father; and uproot that frightful pantheism, which is the form under which the heresy thou didst combat is still among us. May the numerous Churches of the East abjure that heresy of Eutyches which reigns so supreme amongst them and gives them the knowledge of the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation only to blaspheme it. Pray that the children of the Church may show to the judgements of the apostolic See that perfect obedience, to which thou didst so eloquently urge the heresiarch Eutyches, in the epistle thou didst address to him, and which will ever be precious to the world: ‘We exhort thee above all things, most honoured brother, that thou receive with obedience whatsoeyer has been written by the most blessed Pope of the city of Rome: for, blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own See, shows the truth of faith to all them that seek it.’ (Letter 25) (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Peter Chrysologus, December 4.)

Appendix B

Father Francis X. Weninger's Reflection on Saint Peter Chrysologus

St. Peter, on account of his great eloquence surnamed Chrysologus, or the golden speaker, was a native of Imola, a town not far from Rome. His parents were pious and distinguished people, who led their son from his early youth in the path of rectitude. In his studies he progressed so rapidly, that he was always the first among his schoolmates. The retired life he led, and his blameless conduct, induced the bishop of Imola to receive him among those whom he instructed in theology, and, in due time, to ordain him deacon. In this office, Peter showed such wisdom and ability, that he was beloved and highly esteemed by every one. By his untiring diligence, and the careful instructions of the bishop, he obtained a thorough knowledge of the sacred sciences, and he was often entrusted with the most important affairs of the Church, which he always terminated to the great satisfaction of the clergy.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Ravenna died, and the clergy choosing a successor, sent him with a deputation to Rome, in order that the Pope might confirm the election. The bishop of Imola, who had some business to transact at Rome, went with the delegation, and took Peter along as his travelling companion. During the night before these travellers arrived at Rome, the holy Apostle, St. Peter and St. Apollinaris, formerly bishop of Ravenna, appeared to the Pope, and bade him place the mitre, not upon the head of him whom the deputies of Ravenna would present, but on the deacon, Peter, who would arrive with the bishop of Imola. When, on the following day, the deputies presented to the Pope him who had been elected bishop, the holy Father received them very courteously, but refused to confirm their choice, saying that he would bestow on Peter the priestly and episcopal consecration, as he, and no other, should become their bishop. The deputies could not conceal their dissatisfaction; but when the Pope related to them the command he had received from heaven, they praised the Almighty, and carried Peter in great triumph to Ravenna, after he had first been ordained priest and then consecrated bishop.

The emperor Valentinian, who resided at Ravenna, as soon as he had received information, came, with the empress, to meet him, and accompanied him, amid great rejoicings, to the cathedral. The new bishop, however, manifested very little joy, and in his first sermon he said, among other things, that as God had laid so heavy a burden on his shoulders, he begged all present to assist him in carrying it, which they would do, first, by obeying the commandments of God, and then by following his instructions. He also assured the people that he was determined to seek only the honor of God and the salvation of their souls. He set immediately to work to accomplish this purpose. He preached frequently to the people, and always with such eloquence, that the most hardened sinners did penance, while others were induced to lead a more perfect life. Sometimes, when, with great earnestness, he reproved vice, his voice would fail him, so that he could not continue his sermon. This happened, one day, whilst he was speaking of the woman mentioned in the Gospel as having been sick seven years; but, on that occasion, the exhaustion of the bishop had such an effect upon his hearers, that the whole church resounded with cries for mercy.

He endeavored to abolish several abuses of long standing, among others, the custom which the people had of masking themselves, on the first day of the year, and spending the day in wildly dancing, singing, and rioting around a statue that stood outside of the city. Against this shameful abuse St. Peter continued to thunder, until he had abolished it entirely. In one of his sermons on this subject he says: "Those who divert themselves with the devil on earth, cannot rejoice with Christ in heaven." He overthrew the statue where so much wantonness had been displayed, and, in place of it, he raised a crucifix. Besides his zeal in preaching, he manifested great love and compassion towards the poor and oppressed, and no one left him without being comforted. He most earnestly protected the widow and the orphan against all who would rob them. The ignorant he instructed with gentleness and patience in all that a true Christian ought to know. The sorrowful and disheartened he knew how to comfort and cheer with admirable ability and wisdom.

What made St. Peter especially celebrated in the whole Christian world, was his apostolic zeal in defending the true faith, and in refuting the heresies of Eutyches and Dioscorus. By request of the holy Pope, Leo I., the Saint wrote against the errors of these heresiarchs with so much learning and eloquence, that the heretics were made ashamed before the entire council assembled at Chalcedon; and as they were not willing to retract their heresies, they were disowned and banished from the true Church. To this day, this and other writings of St. Peter are greatly admired, which he composed for the benefit of the Catholics; for they are filled with heavenly wisdom. During the time that St. Peter administered the See of Ravenna, St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, came thither, and having witnessed the virtues of our holy bishop, became his warm friend. They animated each other to zeal in the service of God and in the protection of the true faith. Not long afterwards, St. Germanus became ill, and ended his life. Peter had the holy body embalmed and sent it to France, together with all that St. Germanus had left, except his cowl and his hair-shirt, which St. Peter kept to himself, and esteemed above all other earthly treasures.

After St. Peter had, for eighteen years, most worthily administered his See, bravely defended the Church of Christ, furthered the honor of God and the salvation of his flock, by erecting several churches, by abolishing vices and abuses, and by leaving for the benefit of posterity many wholesome books, God revealed to him his approaching end. His life had always been blameless and holy, but to prepare himself better for death, he set out for his native city, where he hoped to be able to spend his time more peacefully in devout exercises. Arrived there, he dismissed the ecclesiastics who had accompanied him, with the admonition to keep God always before their eyes, to observe His commandments, and to exercise great care in choosing a new bishop. Some time later, going into the church of the martyr St. Cassian, he offered upon the altar a golden crown, studded with jewels, and an equally precious cup: after which, having received the holy sacraments, he lay down beside the tomb of the holy martyr, prayed to the Almighty, and asked the Saints to assist him in his last combat, and lead his soul to the throne of God. With this prayer he ended his life, in the year of our Lord 452.

St. Peter left his labor, although it was holy, when his last hour approached, in order the better to prepare himself for death. After having devoutly received the holy Sacraments, he invoked the martyr, St. Cassian, to assist him in his last hour. Our last hour is of such importance, that we are right in putting everything aside to make that hour calm and happy. Hence those do very wrong who, in old age or in mortal sickness, needlessly trouble themselves with temporal affairs until the very last hour, and think not earnestly on the chief affair which is lying before them, that is, death. Take heed not to commit so dangerous an error. If you are old or sick, discard all other thoughts and cares, and prepare yourself for a happy death on which everything depends. Employ usefully every moment left to you; for they are precious moments, in which you may win much for eternity. During the days of your health, also, no work ought to be of so much importance to you as the work of your salvation, an early preparation for death; for, on your last hour depends your whole eternity.

It is useful to endeavor to obtain the intercession of the Saints. Above all, you ought to pray to the Lord of life and death for the grace to die happily; for, this is a grace, which is not due to us on account of our good works but which we can obtain from the divine Mercy, by humble and persevering prayer. After God, implore daily the Blessed Virgin, as the chief patroness of the dying, to intercede for you and assist you. Besides her, choose other holy patrons of the dying, to whom you should commend yourself in your last, hour. This the Saints have done and taught. "We ought to invoke the holy Angels, who are given to us to protect us, and also the holy Martyrs, whose intercession we have a right to request, as we still possess their holy bodies on earth." Thus speaks St. Ambrose. St. Bernard says: "We ought fervently to seek and invoke the Saints, that we may receive by their intercessions, what we, of ourselves, cannot obtain." "The prayers of the Saints," says St. Chrysostom, "have great power to obtain anything for us, if while we pray to them, we do true penance." (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., Feast of Saint Peter Chrsyologus, December 4.)

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