ABC---Anything But Catholicism

by Thomas A. Droleskey

 

There comes a time when stating the obvious becomes obviously tedious (or should that be tediously obvious?). After all, what more can be said in the face of continued assaults against the Faith of our fathers by bishops or priests or "professionals" in the bureaucracies of Catholic educational institutions or hospitals or charitable organizations? It's all been said so many times by so many people. I find myself repeating themes I have explored years ago. At what point do we say that we have said all that can be said and concentrate on the interior life of the soul and on fulfilling the obligations of our state-in-life without badgering people with obvious comments about obvious problems?

It is with this in mind that I offer just a few reflections on the impending sacrilege that will take place in the Basilica of Saint Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, this coming Saturday, August 14, 2004, which is the Vigil of the Assumption in the calendar of Tradition. Following the two papal events at Assisi, endless papal meetings with leaders of false religions and/or heretical, schismatic Christian sects, affronts committed against the Deposit of Faith by bishops and pastors of parishes in “ecumenical” prayer outings, the abomination that took place on May 5, 2004, in the Chapel of the Apparitions in the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima, Portugal (when Hindu “priests” put a Hindu prayer shawl on the rector of the shrine before they desecrated the shrine by offering prayers to their false gods), and countless other events, especially those that took place in this country in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we should not be surprised by this impending outrage. Saddened and sickened, yes. Surprised, no. One of the saddest commentaries of the regime of novelty of the past forty to forty-six years is that it has become fairly standard to expect offenses sanctioned by our shepherds that go to the very heart of the Revelation the God-Man, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, entrusted to His true Church.

Several articles on this site have addressed the religious indifferentism that is at the essence of the syncretism that passes for “ecumenism.” Among these are “No Other Name by Which Men Can be Saved” and two articles in May dealing with the desecration of the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima. An article of mine in the November 30 issue of The Remnant, “Making Room for Baal and His Friends,” dealt with plans to turn the Fatima shrine into a center for “inter-religious” dialogue and worship. After all, wasn’t Our Lady’s Fatima message all about ecumenism? (For those who are in doubt, the answer to that question is no.) Thus, there is no real need to offer extensive commentary on the newest outrage. It’s all been said scores of times before by so many people.

The best place to go, though, for a thorough refutation of the errors of ecumenism is to the Pope himself. Well, to be a little more precise, you see, I am referring to Pope Pius XI. Read Mortalium Animos, issued on January 6, 1928, and you will see a ringing condemnation of all forms of syncretism and inter-religious worship. Another encyclical that condemns religious indifferentism as one of the many aspects of Modernism is Pope Saint Pius X’s Pascendi Domenici Gregis, which was issued on September 8, 1907. The Popes of tradition have said it all. They are the ones who point firm, unbending fingers of condemnation at the popes of the conciliarist era to mislead Catholics and non-Catholics alike by their words and actions that give the appearance of endorsing the heretical–and specifically condemned--notion of universal salvation.

We must offer our prayers in reparation for what will take place on Saturday, August 14, 2004, when, as a news flash put out by Father Nicholas Gruner’s Fatima Center, states:

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is the "founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a United Nations - non-governmental organization" is scheduled to speak, teach and/or do meditation in the Basilica (we found this out by calling the number on a flyer).!

We were unable to find this information on the web site of St. Joseph's Oratory. The word was spread by means of flyers and on the web site of Mr. Shankar's 'foundation'.

Flyers were distributed in the Montreal area that refer to this man as "his holiness"!. On the flyer it also says Mr. Shankar is "...the founder of The Art of Living Course, which 'may be the fastest-growing spiritual practice on the planet' (Yoga Journal)". Need we say more?

Worse - people are actually paying money to hear him speak at this place of Catholic Worship.

The phone, fax and e-mail numbers provided by the Fatima Center news flash will be appended at the end of this brief reflection. Although one can remain hopeful that our prayers to prevent this outrage from occurring will be answered, the history of the regime of novelty suggests that the event will go on as scheduled. After all, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which runs Saint Joseph’s Oratory, is the same congregation that runs the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, at which a celebration of perversity took place on February 14, 2004, exactly six months before Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (I mean, I heard of the late Albert Shanker, the long-time president of the New York City teacher’s union, but Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?) will give his day of “meditation” in a shrine dedicated to the foster-father of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man and the chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. The Congregation of the Holy Cross welcomed the sodomites onto Our Lady’s campus in Indiana six months ago; they will welcome Sri Sri Ravi Shankar without hesitation.

Barring the miracle for which we pray, Rome will not intervene. Rome never intervenes in these matters. How can it? The Pope has participated in ecumenical outrages. Cardinals participate in them all the time.

The appearance of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at Saint Joseph’s Oratory calls to mind an event that took place was just about ten years ago in Oyster Bay, New York. The [now] former pastor of Saint Dominic’s Church there, Monsignor Charles H. “Bud” Ribaudo, sponsored a day of “spirituality” in his parish that featured one New Age speaker after another. Ribaudo, who was removed as pastor in 2002 as a result of molestation allegations made by a priest, Father Michael Hinds (who became a molester himself), advertised himself in the flyer promoting the conference as a graduate of “est, Silva Mind Control, and Ira Progoff’s Intensive Journal Workshops.” In other words, Monsignor Bud Ribaudo was a practitioner of various “meditation” programs that were at odds with the entire patrimony of Divine Revelation and actually are tools of the devil to empty one’s mind so as to be open to one’s “inner self.” This prompted me to write a piece, “This Bud’s Not for You,” that was meant to get the attention of Roman authorities. Nothing happened. The then ordinary, the late Bishop John Raymond McGann, did nothing. Rome did nothing. In fact, Ribaudo would not have been removed as pastor in 2002 by Bishop William Murphy had it not been for the bad press generated by the allegations made by Father Hinds, something that Monsignor Frank Caldwell, then the director of priest personnel for the diocese, admitted before a grand jury in Suffolk County, New York. Bad press got rid of Monsignor Bud Ribaudo. The fact that he believed in New Age “spirituality” programs mattered not one little bit to Bishops John R. McGann or William Murphy.

Let’s be plain about this: there is only one winner when those representing false religions appear in Catholic churches, no less shrines dedicated to Our Lady or her most chaste spouse, Saint Joseph, the Patron of the Universal Church. The devil is the only winner when blasphemous, sacrilegious prayers are offered up in a Catholic church. The devil is the winner when a Catholic priest, dressed in full Aztec regalia, used a pagan ritual to “bless” the four winds, as happened in the Serra Chapel of Mission San Juan Capistrano in California a few years ago. The devil is the winner when the Vicar of Christ praises the voodoo witch doctor for his “contributions” to tribal life. The devil is the winner when the Pope lets the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is a layman without valid orders (unless he’s paid some money to an Old Catholic bishop to get himself ordained, something that seems to be in vogue in some traditional Catholic circles these days), give a “blessing” with him. The devil is the winner when Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston suspends a devoted son of Our Lady, Father Stephen Zigrang, for associating with the Society of Saint Pius X, a “schismatic” group that rejects ecumenism and the “enduring validity Old Covenant God made with the people of Israel.” The devil is the winner when any Catholic, no less a pope or a cardinal or other bishop or a priest, conveys the notion, whether by words or actions, that one can be saved by any religion other than Catholicism.

The errors of Russia are the errors of modernity. The errors of modernity are crystallized in Modernism, which has infected the highest quarters of the Church. Continued assaults against the First and Second Commandments in Catholic churches and under the official color of the Church herself lead inexorably to ecclesiastical and social chaos. The father of all chaos is the devil. And devil wants all men to believe in ABC–Anything But Catholicism.

There is thus only one antidote to this: for some pope to actually consecrate Russia to Our Lady’s Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Until this happens, our situation is going to get worse and worse and worse.

Our Lady, Queen assumed into Heaven, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, whose feast day is August 11, pray for us.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, on whose auxiliary feast* the outrage in Saint Joseph’s Oratory will occur, pray for us to be totally consecrated to Our Lady’s Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart so that we will build up the City of Mary Immaculate.

Saint Joachim, father of the Mother of God, whose feast is on August 16, pray that the shrine dedicated to your just and holy son-in-law, Saint Joseph, will be preserved from this scandalous outrage.

Saint Francis Xavier, who preached to the people of the East, pray for the conversion of all those trapped in the idolatries of false religions and the various manifestations of the New Age movement.
______________________________________________________________________________
*Although the feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe is not in the calendar of Tradition, it can be commemorated in a secondary collect, secret and postcommunion in Masses on August 14. As Father Patrick Perez explained on the Feast of Saint Juan Diego, December 9, 2003, the more recently canonized saints may be commemorated in a secondary manner as just described. Saint Maximilian Kolbe, although disparaged by some traditional Catholics, was imprisoned in Auschwitz by the Nazis precisely because of his fearless work against all false ideologies, including Nazism (as well as Freemasonry, Zionism, Communism). Saint Maximilian Kolbe was devoted to the Triumph of Mary Immaculate. It is certainly just to invoke his intercession to prevent the pending outrage in Montreal and to make reparation for it if it takes place.

Here is contact information provided by the Fatima Center:

Phone, fax or email the Rector of the oratory, Father Jean-Pierre Aumont, CSC at: phone (514)733-8211 or 1-877-672-8647; fax (514)733-9735; email: fatherweb@saint-joseph.org

Phone, fax, or email the Archbishop of Montreal: Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte at:-phone (514)931-7311; fax (514) 931-3432 (the names of the auxiliary Bishops are Bishop Anthony Mancini and Bishop Jude Saint-Antoine). email: chanc@cam.org.

Phone, fax or email the Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers in Rome at: - phone 011 39 06 612 96 210; fax 011 39 06 614 75 47.

Phone or fax Father LeBlanc, the English Canadian Provincial of the Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers at: phone: (905)714-9797; fax (905) 714-9696

Phone, fax or email the Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers in Montreal: phone (514) 731-7828; fax (514) 731-7820; email: administrationprov@perescsc-qc.com.

Keep praying Rosaries to prevent this sacrilege and to make reparation for it in the event it does take place as scheduled. Remember, the example of Father McMahon and the courageous Catholics who prayed the Rosary in Grand Rapids, Michigan six months ago. There is no reason why this courage cannot be exhibited on August 14, 2004, at Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal.