Blaspheming the Holy Ghost

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The full-scale assault on the Received Teaching of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that has been emanating from the Vatican in a particularly aggressive manner during the ten-month pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI seems to be intensifying in recent weeks. The Vicar of Christ Himself has brazenly positioned himself as an unrepentant champion of the secular state, an entity that not even the pagans of antiquity would have approved. Pope Benedict has also continued to champion the cause of a "search for unity" with Protestants, acting as though Our Lord Himself did not institute the sole means of religious unity when He founded the Catholic Church upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

Pope Benedict XVI has given free reign to Walter Cardinal Kasper, the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to speak in ways that make it appear that it is not a matter of great urgency to seek the return of Protestants to the Catholic Church. One of the points I made in my address to a group of "conservatives" in Edmond, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, February 15, 2006, was that each and every single one of them has Catholic ancestors who are praying for them from Purgatory and/or Heaven for their own return to the Church that nurtured their ancestors sacramentally unto the point of happy, holy deaths. Why should such talk from a Catholic layman be taken seriously, however, when a curial cardinal can be quoted as follows in a Zenit dispatch of February 23, 2006?

ROME, FEB. 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- In an age characterized by globalization, ecumenism is also "a response to the signs of the times," says Cardinal Walter Kasper.

The president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity made that point during a lecture Wednesday at the Regina Apostolorum university, as part of the school's master's program in Church, Ecumenism and Religions.

The cardinal said that, thanks to the new means of communications, peoples are now closer and "like it or not, in the same boat."

Separated Christians, noted Cardinal Kasper, "in general no longer consider themselves foreign" or "in competition."

Rather, they see themselves as "brothers and sisters"; they have realized that "what unites them is much greater than what divides them," he said.

Cardinal Kasper went on to mention, however, that after a "certain euphoria, as a consequence of the Second Vatican Council, in the last decade there have been signs of exhaustion, disillusion and stagnation" in the ecumenical movement.

Some observers even talk about "a new ecumenical winter," the cardinal said. The cause of this crisis must be sought above all in the "current questions about identity," because "no one wants to be absorbed by a faceless whole."

He noted that Vatican II's dogmatic constitution, "Lumen Gentium," and its decree on ecumenism, "Unitatis Redintegratio," declared that "the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church."

This does not, however, exclude that "beyond the visible structures of the Catholic Church, exist, not only Christians taken individually, but also ecclesial elements that push for unity," Cardinal Kasper said.

He cited Pope John Paul II's encyclical "Ut Unum Sint": "It is not that beyond the boundaries of the Catholic community there is an ecclesial vacuum."

"The Holy Spirit is hard at work in the other Churches and ecclesial communities," explained the cardinal.

"The Catholic Church has been wounded by the divisions of Christianity," he added. What is needed, he said, is an ecumenism that is not "a one-way street but a process of reciprocal learning."

"The issue is not only the conversion of others but the conversion of everyone to Jesus Christ. Conversion always begins with ourselves," the cardinal said.

It is not simply the turning of others to the sheepfold of the Catholic Church, but of a common growth, he added, because the "closer we come to Christ, the closer we come to one another." ZE06022304

Reciprocal learning? The belief that Catholics have anything to learn from heretics is, well, heretical. The fullness of the Deposit of Faith resides only in the Catholic Church. No Protestant denomination has been entrusted with one iota of the Deposit of Faith, No Protestant layman or laywoman posing as a "minister" can make the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man incarnate under the appearance of bread and wine. No Protestant "minister" has any power to absolve mortal sins from the soul of any penitent, not that most Protestants believe that the Sacrament of Penance was instituted by Our Lord Himself when He said: "When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." (Jn. 20:22-23) No Protestant "minister" has any power to anoint a man at the moment of his death to give his soul sanctifying grace prior to taking his last breath. It is thus blasphemous to contend that the "Holy Spirit is hard at work in the other Churches and ecclesial communities."

The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is not at work in denominations where there are no true sacraments. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity cannot contradict Himself, inspiring the Apostles and those who followed them to seek the conversion of others for nearly 2,000 years and then changing His Mind. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity does not will for people to live undisturbed in false religious sects to the point of their dying breaths. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity does not teach that there is, as the late Pope John Paul II, wrote a Christian "ecclesial" community outside of the Catholic Church. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity wants each person on this planet to be a formal member of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation. Period.

Although the quotations included below have been used frequently in the past few months, I am aware that there are new readers to this site and that regular readers might forget various points. Thus, in light of Cardinal Kasper's horrific blasphemies against the Holy Ghost, it is necessary to recite once again what was taught always and everywhere and believed by everyone prior to the novelties of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar popes and their curial cardinals:

As regards Jews and Mohammedans and other infidels, the Council of Florence taught the following dogmatically in 1442:

The holy Roman Church believes, professes, and preaches that 'no one remaining outside the Catholic Church, not just pagans, but also Jews or heretics or schismatics, can become partakers of eternal life; but they will go to the everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels,' unless before the end of life they are joined to the Church. For the union with the body of the Church is of such importance that the sacraments of the Church are helpful to salvation only for those who remaining in it; and fasts, almsgiving, other works of piety, and the exercise of Christian warfare bear eternal rewards from them alone. And no one can be saved, no matter how much alms, he has given, even if he sheds his blood for the name of Christ, unless he remains in the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.

It is clear that Pope Benedict XVI feels free to ignore this defined dogma of the Catholic Church with impunity. The Holy Father and Cardinal Kasper act as though no pronouncement made before 1958 is binding upon them, when the truth of the matter is that ecumenism is a rejection of the Received Teaching of Our Lord. And to those who would say that ecumenism is simply a "legitimate development of doctrine" and merely a "replacement" for a former "disciplinary practice" of the Church, the truth is this: as John Henry Cardinal Newman taught, no legitimate development of doctrine can contradict anything that went before it. Ecumenism contradicts everything that went before it, that is, the entire patrimony of the Catholic Church. It is a farcical lie that has had devastating consequences on the souls of Catholics, who believe that they do not have to seek the conversion of others to the true Faith, and non-Catholics, who believe they they are saved in and by their false religions, alike.

Pope Benedict XVI said repeatedly before he ascended to the Throne of Saint Peter on April 19, 2005, that the Second Vatican Council was a "counter-syllabus of errors," believing erroneously that Blessed Pope Pius IX was wrong about the following points contained in The Syllabus of Errors, 1864:

16. Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. -- Encyclical "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846.

17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ. -- Encyclical "Quanto conficiamur," Aug. 10, 1863, etc.

18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church. -- Encyclical "Noscitis," Dec. 8, 1849.

In other words, Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Kasper (and the late Pope John Paul II) believe that past popes were wrong, and that they were wrong consistently. Those who would be prone to accuse me (and others) of "disloyalty" to Pope Benedict must ask themselves the following question: has it not been Catholic Tradition that popes must adhere faithfully to that which has been handed down to them? Is it not, therefore, the conciliar and postconciliar popes who have been disloyal to the Received Teaching of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? The cavalier dismissal of nearly two millennia of consistent teaching demonstrates that it is the popes of the past forty-eight years who are odds with the Faith, not traditional Catholics who point out the errors of the contemporary Church in her human elements.

Pope Pius IX's Iam Vos Omnes was an Apostolic Letter addressed specifically to Protestants to seek their return to the Church, something that Pope Benedict XVI and the Preacher of the Papal Household, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, and Cardinal Kasper, specifically and categorically reject. The words of the beatified pontiff, issued on September 13, 1868, prior to the start of the First Vatican Council, are quite a contrast to the syncretism and religious indifferentism being practiced at present by the Vatican:

Surely you all are aware that We, who have been raised up, though without any merit, to this Chair of Peter, and therefore to the head of the supreme government and care of the entire Catholic Church of Jesus Christ Our Lord, have thought it opportune to call to Us the Venerable Brothers of the Episcopate of all the world, and to reunite them, in the coming year, in an Ecumenical Council; for preparation, with the same Venerable Brothers, calling you to share Our pastoral solicitude, those provisions which will prove more suitable and more incisive to dissipate the darkness of many pestilent errors which, wherever, with added damage of the soul, every day are more affirmed and triumph, and to always give more consistency and to diffuse in the Christian people, entrusted to Our vigilance, the kingdom of the true faith, of justice and of authentic peace of God.

Reposing full confidence in the most tightly bound and most amiable pact of union which in a marvelous way binds to Us and to this Seat the same Venerable Brothers, what testimony the unequivocable tests of fidelity, of love and of obedience towards Us and towards this Our Seat, [they] have never omitted to offer in the course of all Our Supreme Pontificate, we nourish the hope that, as it has happened in ages past through other General Councils, so also in the present age, this Ecumenical Council of Ours will produce, with the help of divine grace, copious and most joyous fruits for the greater glory of God and for the eternal salvation of men.

Sustained therefore by this hope, solicitous and urged by the charity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered His life for the salvation of all the race of men, it is not possible for us to pass by the occasion of the future Council without turning Our paternal and Apostolic word again to all those who, even if they acknowledge Jesus Christ the Redeemer and boast of the name of Christian, do not profess the totality of the true faith of Christ and are not in the communion of the Catholic Church. This being the case, we propose with all zeal and Charity to admonish, exhort, and beseech them for this reason to seriously consider and reflect whether the way in which they continue is that which is indicated by that same Christ the Lord: which is the way that leads to eternal life.

Nobody will certainly be able to doubt or deny that this Jesus Christ, to the end that the fruits of His Redemption might be applied to all the race of men, has built here on earth, upon Peter, the only Church, which is one, holy, catholic and apostolic; and that He has conferred upon her the power necessary to preserve whole and inviolate the deposit of faith; to transmit this same faith to all peoples, tribes, and nations; to call [elect] to unity in this Mystical Body, through baptism, all men, for the purpose of preserving in them, and perfecting, that new life of grace, without which no one can merit and obtain eternal life; wherefore this Church, which constitutes the Mystical Body, will persist and prosper in her own stable and indefectible nature until the end of the ages, and offer to all Her sons the means of salvation.

Whoever thus gives proper attention and reflection to the situation which surrounds the various religious societies, divided amongst themselves and separated from the Catholic Church - which, without interruption, from the time of Christ the Lord and of His Apostles, by means of her legitimate sacred Shepherds, has always exercised, and exercises still, the divine power conferred upon Her by the Lord - it will be easy to convince [them] that in none of these societies, and not even in all of them taken together, can in some way be seen the one and Catholic Church which Christ the Lord built, constituted, and willed to exist. Neither will it ever be able to be said that they are members and part of that Church as long as they remain visibly separated from Catholic unity. It follows that such societies, lacking that living authority established by God, which instructs men in the things of the faith and in the discipline of the customs, directing and governing them in all that concerns eternal salvation, they continuously mutate in their doctrines without that mobility and the instability they find one end. Everyone therefore can easily comprehend and fully reckon that this is absolutely in contrast with the Church instituted by Christ the Lord, in which the truth must always remain constant and never subject to change whatsoever, deposited as if it were into a warehouse, entrusted to be guarded perfectly whole. To this purpose, it has received the promise of the perpetual presence and the aid of the Holy Spirit. No one then ignores that from these dissentions [disagreements] in doctrines and opinions derive social divisions, which find their origin in these innumerable communions and which are always and increasingly diffused with grave damage[s] to the Christian and civil society.

Therefore, whoever recognizes that religion is the foundation of human society must be moved to confess what great violence has been wrought in civil society by the discrepancy of principles and the division of religious societies which fight amongst themselves, and with what force the refusal of the authority willed by God for governing the convictions of the intellect of men through the direction of the actions of men, as much in private life as in social life, has provoked, promoted and fed the lamentable of the things and of the times which agitate and plague [afflict] in this way nearly all peoples.

It is for this reason that so many who do not share “the communion and the truth of the Catholic Church” must make use of the occasion of the Council, by the means of the Catholic Church, which received in Her bosom their ancestors, proposes [further] demonstration of profound unity and of firm vital force; hear the requirements [demands] of her heart, they must engage themselves to leave this state that does not guarantee for them the security of salvation. She does not hesitate to raise to the Lord of mercy most fervent prayers to tear down of the walls of division, to dissipate the haze of errors, and lead them back within holy Mother Church, where their Ancestors found salutary pastures of life; where, in an exclusive way, is conserved and transmitted whole the doctrine of Jesus Christ and wherein is dispensed the mysteries of heavenly grace.

It is therefore by force of the right of Our supreme Apostolic ministry, entrusted to us by the same Christ the Lord, which, having to carry out with [supreme] participation all the duties of the good Shepherd and to follow and embrace with paternal love all the men of the world, we send this Letter of Ours to all the Christians from whom We are separated, with which we exhort them warmly and beseech them with insistence to hasten to return to the one fold of Christ; we desire in fact from the depths of the heart their salvation in Christ Jesus, and we fear having to render an account one day to Him, Our Judge, if, through some possibility, we have not pointed out and prepared the way for them to attain eternal salvation. In all Our prayers and supplications, with thankfulness, day and night we never omit to ask for them, with humble insistence, from the eternal Shepherd of souls the abundance of goods and heavenly graces. And since, if also, we fulfill in the earth the office of vicar, with all our heart we await with open arms the return of the wayward sons to the Catholic Church, in order to receive them with infinite fondness into the house of the Heavenly Father and to enrich them with its inexhaustible treasures. By our greatest wish for the return to the truth and the communion with the Catholic Church, upon which depends not only the salvation of all of them, but above all also of the whole Christian society: the entire world in fact cannot enjoy true peace if it is not of one fold and one shepherd.

Very clear, wouldn't you say? Very clearly contrary to everything that has happened in the past forty-one years since the close of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Leo XIII amplified the necessity of the return of Protestant to the true Church. Writing in Satis Cogntium in 1896, Pope Leo did away with the "secular state" heresy and with ecumenism in one fell swoop, stating clearly that Protestants are not "in" the Church established by Christ Our Lord:

Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles and their successors to the end of time to teach and rule the nations. He ordered the nations to accept their teaching and obey their authority. But his correlation of rights and duties in the Christian commonwealth not only could not have been made permanent, but could not even have been initiated except through the senses, which are of all things the messengers and interpreters. . .  .

In what has been said we have faithfully described the exemplar and form of the Church as divinely constituted. We have treated at length of its unity: we have explained sufficiently its nature, and pointed out the way in which the Divine Founder of the Church willed that it should be preserved. There is no reason to doubt that all those, who by Divine Grace and mercy have had the happiness to have been born, as it were, in the bosom of the Catholic Church, and to have lived in it, will listen to Our Apostolic Voice: "My sheep hear my voice" John x., 27), and that they will derive from Our words fuller instruction and a more perfect disposition to keep united with their respective pastors, and through them with the Supreme Pastor, so that they may remain more securely within the one fold, and may derive therefrom a greater abundance of salutary fruit. But We, who, notwithstanding our unfitness for this great dignity and office, govern by virtue of the authority conferred on us by Jesus Christ, as we "look on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. xii., 2) feel Our heart fired by His charity. What Christ has said of Himself We may truly repeat of Ourselves: "Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice" John x., 16). Let all those, therefore, who detest the wide-spread irreligion of our times, and acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the human race, but who have wandered away from the Spouse, listen to Our voice. Let them not refuse to obey Our paternal charity. Those who acknowledge Christ must acknowledge Him wholly and entirely. "The Head and the body are Christ wholly and entirely. The Head is the only-begotten son of God, the body is His Church; the bridegroom and the bride, two in one flesh. All who dissent from the Scriptures concerning Christ, although they may be found in all places in which the Church is found, are not in the Church; and again all those who agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head, and do not communicate in the unity of the Church, are not in the Church" (S. Augustinus, Contra Donatistas Epistola, sive De Unit. Eccl., cap. iv., n. 7).

And with the same yearning Our soul goes out to those whom the foul breath of irreligion has not entirely corrupted, and who at least seek to have the true God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, as their Father. Let such as these take counsel with themselves, and realize that they can in no wise be counted among the children of God, unless they take Christ Jesus as their Brother, and at the same time the Church as their mother. We lovingly address to all the words of St. Augustine: "Let us love the Lord our God; let us love His Church; the Lord as our Father, the Church as our Mother. Let no one say, I go in deed to idols, I consult fortune-tellers and soothsayers; but I leave not the Church of God: I am a Catholic. Clinging to thy Mother, thou offendest thy Father. Another, too, says: 'Far be it from me; I do not consult fortune-telling, I seek not soothsaying, I seek not profane divinations, I go not to the worship of devils, I serve not stones: but I am on the side of Donatus.' What doth it profit thee not to offend the Father, who avenges an offense against the Mother? What doth it profit to confess the Lord, to honour God, to preach Him, to acknowledge His Son, and to confess that He sits on the right hand of the Father, if you blaspheme His Church? . . . If you had a beneficent friend, whom you honoured daily - and even once calumniated his spouse, would you ever enter his house? Hold fast, therefore, O dearly beloved, hold fast altogether God as your Father, and the Church as your Mother" (Enarratio in Psal. Lxxxviii., sermo ii., n. 14).

Two years prior to writing Satis Congitum, Pope Leo XIII  in 1894 had issued Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, using the example of recent Protestant converts (John Henry Cardinal Newman, Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, other members of the Oxford Movement) to the Catholic Faith to exhort all Protestants to return to the true Church, the Catholic Church:

It is on this account that many of those We allude to men of sound judgment and seeking after Truth, have looked to the Catholic Church for the sure way of salvation; for they clearly understand that they could never be united to Jesus Christ, as their Head if they were not members of His Body, which is the Church; nor really acquire the True Christian Faith if they rejected the Legitimate teaching confided to Peter and his Successors.  Such men as these have recognized in the Church of Rome the Form and Image of the True Church, which is clearly made manifest by the Marks that God, her Author, placed upon her: and not a few who were possessed with penetrating judgment and a special talent for historical research, have shown forth in their remarkable writings the uninterrupted succession of the Church. of Rome from the Apostles, the integrity of her Doctrine, and the consistency of her Rule and Discipline.

With the example of such men before you, Our heart appeals to you even more than Our words: to you, Our Brethren, who for three centuries and more differ from Us on Christian Faith; and to you all likewise, who in later times, for any reason whatsoever, have turned away from Us: Let us all meet in the Unity of Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God.  Suffer that We should invite you to the Unity which has ever existed in the Catholic Church and can never fail; suffer that We should lovingly hold out Our hand to you.  The Church, as the common mother of all, has long been calling you back to her; the Catholics of the world await you with brotherly love, that you may render Holy Worship to God together with us, united in perfect Charity Worship  to God together with us, united in perfect charity by the profession of one Gospel, One Faith and One Hope.

Condemning the heresy of Americanism, whose influence on the mind of Pope Benedict XVI is profound, as will be explored in an upcoming article, in Testem Benevolentiae in 1899, Pope Leo noted that those who wanted to "water down" the Faith so as to attract Protestants will wind up alienating Catholics from the Church:

Let it be far from anyone's mind to suppress for any reason any doctrine that has been handed down. Such a policy would tend rather to separate Catholics from the Church than to bring in those who differ. There is nothing closer to our heart than to have those who are separated from the fold of Christ return to it, but in no other way than the way pointed out by Christ.

No honest Catholic can look at these quotes and not be appalled at the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost being committed by Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Kasper, among so many others.

Indeed, Pope Saint Pius X condemned the philosophy of the Sillon in Notre Charge Apostolique,1910, noting that the Sillonist philosophy sought to leave Catholicism aside in order to "resolve" social questions:

This being said, what must be thought of the promiscuity in which young Catholics will be caught up with heterodox and unbelieving folk in a work of this nature? Is it not a thousand-fold more dangerous for them than a neutral association? What are we to think of this appeal to all the heterodox, and to all the unbelievers, to prove the excellence of their convictions in the social sphere in a sort of apologetic contest? Has not this contest lasted for nineteen centuries in conditions less dangerous for the faith of Catholics? And was it not all to the credit of the Catholic Church? What are we to think of this respect for all errors, and of this strange invitation made by a Catholic to all the dissidents to strengthen their convictions through study so that they may have more and more abundant sources of fresh forces? What are we to think of an association in which all religions and even Free-Thought may express themselves openly and in complete freedom? For the Sillonists who, in public lectures and elsewhere, proudly proclaim their personal faith, certainly do not intend to silence others nor do they intend to prevent a Protestant from asserting his Protestantism, and the skeptic from affirming his skepticism. Finally, what are we to think of a Catholic who, on entering his study group, leaves his Catholicism outside the door so as not to alarm his comrades who, “dreaming of disinterested social action, are not inclined to make it serve the triumph of interests, coteries and even convictions whatever they may be”? Such is the profession of faith of the New Democratic Committee for Social Action which has taken over the main objective of the previous organization and which, they say, “breaking the double meaning which surround the Greater Sillon both in reactionary and anti-clerical circles”, is now open to all men “who respect moral and religious forces and who are convinced that no genuine social emancipation is possible without the leaven of generous idealism.”

The condemned philosophy of the Sillon is nothing other than the belief enunciated by Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Cartias Est that "politics" builds up the just society, not the Church. This is where the twin errors of ecumenism and the secular state converge to confuse the minds of Catholics and thus to produce mass chaos in the world.

Once again, it is necessary to quote from Pope Pius XI's clear and unambiguous call for the return of all Protestants to the true Church, the Catholic Church, in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928:

So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly." The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills." For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head.

Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors. Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in the errors of Photius and the reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the chief shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their fathers, but it did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for it was supported by God. Let them therefore return to their common Father, who, forgetting the insults previously heaped on the Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving fashion. For if, as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and ours, why do they not hasten to enter the Church, "the Mother and mistress of all Christ's faithful"? Let them hear Lactantius crying out: "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind."

Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is "the root and womb whence the Church of God springs," not with the intention and the hope that "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government. Would that it were Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our predecessors could not, to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose unhappy separation from Us We now bewail. Would that God our Savior, "Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," would hear us when We humbly beg that He would deign to recall all who stray to the unity of the Church! In this most important undertaking We ask and wish that others should ask the prayers of Blessed Mary the Virgin, Mother of divine grace, victorious over all heresies and Help of Christians, that She may implore for Us the speedy coming of the much hoped-for day, when all men shall hear the voice of Her divine Son, and shall be "careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

You, Venerable Brethren, understand how much this question is in Our mind, and We desire that Our children should also know, not only those who belong to the Catholic community, but also those who are separated from Us: if these latter humbly beg light from heaven, there is no doubt but that they will recognize the one true Church of Jesus Christ and will, at last, enter it, being united with us in perfect charity. While awaiting this event, and as a pledge of Our paternal good will, We impart most lovingly to you, Venerable Brethren, and to your clergy and people, the apostolic benediction.

"Let none delude himself in obstinate wrangling. . . Let, therefore, the separated children draw night to the Apostolic See. . .not with the intention and the hope that 'the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth' will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government."  It is no wonder, obviously, why Pope John Paul II made no reference to Mortalium Animos in Ut Unum Sint and why Pope Benedict XVI ignores it as though it never existed.

You see, Pope Benedict XVI, whose mind is Hegelian in nature, believes that truth can contradict itself. Such a belief is an absurdity, defying the principles of basic logic, which is why the Holy Father despises Thomistic thought, relying as it does on the logic of Aristotle, who taught that two contradictory statements cannot both be true simultaneously. Thus, Pope Benedict and Cardinal Kasper and countless other churchmen believe that the past is the past and that the perennial teaching of the Church can be ignored in favor of the novelties that deny the necessity of seeking urgently the conversion of all men to the true Faith lest their souls perish in hell fires for all eternity. The erroneous thought of the late Father Hans Urs von Balthasar, who taught that all men, whether baptized or unbaptized, are saved, is everything to Pope Benedict XVI. Dogmatic teaching and the constant Tradition of the Church mean nothing when they conflict with von Balthasar. It is that simple.

In the midst of this utter madness, we must cleave closely to the fullness of the Faith without any hint of compromise with the novelties of the recent past. Yes, Cardinal Kasper is correct in stating that each of us must be converted on a daily basis, but not to the novelties of the Second Vatican Council. We must be converted to the Received Teaching of Our Lord without any concession made to ecumenism and religious liberty/secular state/healthy secularity. I am afraid Cardinal Kasper's notion of "conversion" has more to do with abandoning the Catholic Faith in all of her holy integrity than in embracing the fullness of Catholic Tradition.

God has known from all eternity that we would be living in these troubling times. The graces He won for us by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross are sufficient to deal with these difficulties and to give them all freely as the consecrated slaves of His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. We know that the jaws of Hell will never prevail against the Church. This does not mean, however, that the devil will not win a few battles in our own lives now and again and in the life of the Church in her human elements. Pope Leo XIII had a vision of the devil having his way with the Church for about a hundred years. We don't know when that period begins and when it will end. It is clear, though, that we are in the midst of this battle for the soul of the Church's popes and cardinals and bishops and priests.

Not only, therefore, should we be reciting the shorter version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer derived from the longer one composed by Pope Leo after the vision he had in 1888, we should become familiar with and recite the full version of the prayer:

O Glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in his own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.

Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven.

That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of his Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.

These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.

Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and Patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.

Fortified by our daily reception of Holy Communion in the Immemorial Mass of Tradition, which is hated by the Modernists because of its Catholicity, and by our frequent use of the Sacrament of Penance, we must use this coming season of Lent as the consecrated slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart to undo the damage to our souls by means of our own sins and thus to be better able to make reparation for the prideful sins being committed by those in ecclesiastical authority against the constant Tradition of the Catholic Church that puts so many souls, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, in grave peril unto eternity. Let us continue to pray for the miracle of the fulfillment of Our Lady's Fatima Message by some pope and all of the world's bishops.

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for us.

Saint Robert Bellarmine, pray for us.

Saint Ignatius Loyola, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Canisius, pray for us.

Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint Rita, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Blessed Francisco, pray for us.

Blessed Jacinta, pray for us.

Sister Lucia, pray for us.