Come Again, Shared Communion?

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The Anglican "Church" was born in blood in the year 1534 when the English Parliament passed four bills at the behest of King Henry VIII, who had been denied a decree of nullity for his marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon by Pope Clement VII, that made the king the "Supreme Head of the Church in England" and presaged the beginning of a monstrous reign of terror and intimidation against Catholics who remained faithful to Rome. Over 72,000 Catholics were killed in the nearly thirteen years between Henry Tudor's definitive break with Rome and his death on January 27, 1547. That figure represents fully 3.1 percent of the population of England at that time.

Henry VIII's break with Rome in 1534 made it more possible for the likes of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer to introduce Lutheran concepts into the life of the schismatic Anglican sect, further identifying itself with one heresy after another under the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553). Cranmer, who was influenced at various times by the heresies of Martin Luther, Ulirch Zwingli (who I was heard a Capuchin priest in Larchmont, New York, praise to the hilt back in the 1980s), and John Calvin, introduced Protestant concepts in the doctrinal and liturgical life of of the Anglican sect in rapid-fire sequence. Sound familiar? Although he met his unhappy end when Queen Mary, the daughter of Henry by Catherine of Aragon who had restored England, albeit temporarily, to Rome, justly executed him, Cranmer's influence outlived him, as was seen during the wretched reign of Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth I, between 1558 and 1603.

The question of the validity of Anglican orders (priesthood and episcopate) was a matter of some contention during the reign of Queen Mary as she sought to straighten out the mess caused by her late father and her predecessor, her half-brother Edward VI. Pope Julius III sent Reginald Cardinal Pole in 1554 to be be his legate in this effort to sort out whether bishops consecrated and priests ordained according to the rite contained in the Edwardine Ordinal were valid and could hold office if they abjured the errors of Anglicanism. Pope Paul IV, the same pope who gave us Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio, a document which has been analyzed very well by Messrs. John Lane and John Daly, confirmed Cardinal Pole's mission upon succeeding Pope Julius III in 1555.

Pope Leo XIII, writing in Apostolicae Curae, September 15, 1896, which was issued to reiterate the invalidity of Anglican orders so as to put an end for all time to any question about this matter, explained the results of Cardinal Pole's mission:

To all rightly estimating these matters it will not be difficult to understand why, in the Letters of Julius m, issued to the Apostolic Legate on 8 March 1554, there is a distinct mention, first of those who, "rightly and lawfully promoted," might be maintained in their orders: and then of others who, "not promoted to Holy Orders" might "be promoted if they were found to be worthy and fitting subjects". For it is clearly and definitely noted, as indeed was the case, that there were two classes of men; the first of those who had really received Holy Orders, either before the secession of Henry VIII, or, if after it, and by ministers infected by error and schism, still according to the accustomed Catholic rite; the second, those who were initiated according to the Edwardine Ordinal, who on that account could not be "promoted", since they had received an ordination which was null.

And that the mind of the Pope was this, and nothing else, is clearly confirmed by the letter of the said Legate (29 January 1555), sub-delegating his faculties to the Bishop of Norwich. Moreover, what the letters of Julius m themselves say about freely using the pontifical faculties, even on behalf of those who had received their consecration "irregularly (minus rite) and not according to the accustomed form of the Church," is to be especially noted. By this expression those only could be meant who had been consecrated according to the Edwardine rite, since besides it and the Catholic form there was then no other in England.

This becomes even still clearer when we consider the Legation which, on the advice of Cardinal Pole, the Sovereign Princes, Philip and Mary, sent to the Pope in Rome in the month of February, 1555. The Royal Ambassadors three men "most illustrious and endowed with every virtue," of whom one was Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely were charged to inform the Pope more fully as to the religious condition of the country, and especially to beg that he would ratify and confirm what the Legate had been at pains to effect, and had succeeded in effecting, towards the reconciliation of the Kingdom with the Church. For this purpose, all the necessary written evidence and the pertinent parts of the new Ordinal were submitted to the Pope. The Legation having been splendidly received, and their evidence having been "diligently discussed," by several of the Cardinals, "after mature deliberation," Paul IV issued his Bull Praeclara Charissimi on June 20 of that same year. In this, whilst giving full force and approbation to what Pole had done, it is ordered in the matter of the Ordinations as follows: "Those who have been promoted to ecclesiastical Orders . . . by any one but a Bishop validly and lawfully ordained are bound to receive those Orders again."

But who those Bishops not "validly and lawfully ordained" were had been made sufficiently clear by the foregoing documents and the faculties used in the said matter by the Legate; those, namely, who have been promoted to the Episcopate, as others to other Orders, "not according to the accustomed form of the Church," or, as the Legate himself wrote to the Bishop of Norwich, "the form and intention of the Church," not having been observed. These were certainly those promoted according to the new form of rite, to the examination of which the Cardinals specially deputed had given their careful attention. Neither should the passage much to the point in the same Pontifical Letter be overlooked, where, together with others needing dispensation are enumerated those "who had obtained both Orders as well as benefices nulliter et de facto." For to obtain orders nulliter means the same as by act null and void, that is invalid, as the very meaning of the word and as common parlance require. This is specially clear when the word is used in the same way about Orders as about "ecclesiastical benefices". These, by the undoubted teaching of the sacred canons, were clearly null if given with any vitiating defect.

Moreover, when some doubted as to who, according to the mind of the pontiff, could be called and considered bishops "validly and lawfully ordained," the said Pope shortly after, on October 30, issued a further letter in the form of a brief and said: "we, desiring to wholly remove such doubt, and to opportunely provide for the peace of conscience of those who during the aforementioned schism were promoted to Holy Orders, by clearly stating the meaning and intention which we had in our said letters, declare that it is only those bishops and archbishops who were not ordained and consecrated in the form of the Church that can not be said to be duly and rightly ordained..."

Unless this declaration had applied to the actual case in England, that is to say, to the Edwardine Ordinal, the Pope would certainly have done nothing by this last letter for the removal of doubt and the restoration of peace of conscience. Further, it was in this sense that the Legate understood the documents and commands of the Apostolic See, and duly and conscientiously obeyed them; and the same was done by Queen Mary and the rest who helped to restore Catholicism to its former state.

The authority of Julius, and of Paul IV, which we have quoted, clearly shows the origin of that practice which has been observed without interruption for more than three centuries, that Ordinations conferred according to the Edwardine rite should be considered null and void. This practice is fully proved by the numerous cases of absolute re-ordination according to the Catholic rite even in Rome.

In the observance of this practice we have a proof directly affecting the matter in hand. For if by any chance doubt should remain as to the true sense in which these pontifical documents are to be understood, the principle holds good that "Custom is the best interpreter of law." Since in the Church it has ever been a constant and established rule that it is sacrilegious to repeat the Sacrament of Order, it never could have come to pass that the Apostolic See should have silently acquiesced in and tolerated such a custom. But not only did the Apostolic See tolerate this practice, but approved and sanctioned it as often as any particular case arose which called for its judgment in the matter.

We adduce two cases of this kind out of many which have from time to time been submitted to the Supreme Council of the Holy Office. The first was (in 1684) of a certain French Calvinist, and the other (in 1704) of John Clement Gordon, both of whom had received their orders according to the Edwardine ritual.

In the first case, after a searching investigation, the Consultors, not a few in number, gave in writing their answers or as they call it, their vota and the rest unanimously agreed with their conclusion, "for the invalidity of the Ordination," and only on account of reasons of opportuneness did the Cardinals deem it well to answer with a dilata (viz., not to formulate the conclusion at the moment).

The same documents were called into use and considered again in the examination of the second case, and additional written statements of opinion were also obtained from Consultors, and the most eminent doctors of the Sorbonne and of Douai were likewise asked for their opinion. No safeguard which wisdom and prudence could suggest to ensure the thorough sifting of the question was neglected.

And here it is important to observe that, although Gordon himself, whose case it was, and some of the Consultors, had adduced amongst the reasons which went to prove the invalidity, the Ordination of Parker, according to their own ideas about it, in the delivery of the decision this reason was altogether set aside, as documents of incontestable authenticity prove. Nor, in pronouncing the decision, was weight given to any other reason than the "defect of form and intention"; and in order that the judgment concerning this form might be more certain and complete, precaution was taken that a copy of the Anglican Ordinal should be submitted to examination, and that with it should be collated the ordination forms gathered together from the various Eastern and Western rites. Then Clement XI himself, with the unanimous vote of the Cardinals concerned, on Thursday 17 April 1704, decreed:

"John Clement Gordon shall be ordained from the beginning and unconditionally to all the orders, even Holy Orders, and chiefly of Priesthood, and in case he has not been confirmed, he shall first receive the Sacrament of Confirmation."

It is important to bear in mind that this judgment was in no wise determined by the omission of the tradition of instruments, for in such a case, according to the established custom, the direction would have been to repeat the ordination conditionally, and still more important is it to note that the judgment of the pontiff applies universally to all Anglican ordinations, because, although it refers to a particular case, it is not based upon any reason special to that case, but upon the defect of form, which defect equally affects all these ordinations, so much so, that when similar cases subsequently came up for decision, the same decree of Clement XI was quoted as the norm.

Hence it must be clear to everyone that the controversy lately revived had already been definitely settled by the Apostolic See, and that it is to the insufficient knowledge of these documents that we must, perhaps, attribute the fact that any Catholic writer should have considered it still an open question.

That is, the work of Cranmer in devising alleged "rites" of priestly ordination and episcopal consecration ended the priesthood and the episcopate in the Anglican sect. Anglicans have no priests or bishops, which is why one of the great scandals of the tenure of the late Pope John Paul II was the "joint blessings" he gave with various Protestant laymen who believe that they are validly ordained bishops. The last valid Archbishop of Canterbury was the aforementioned Cardinal Pole, who died shortly after Queen Mary I in 1558. The current "Archbishop of Canterbury," Rowan Williams, is a layman who could have made an excellent contestant on the old television show Masquerade Party (one of my lasting memories from that program, which aired from 1952-1960, is of the late George Reeves stumping the panel as he answered questions from a giant mock-up of a box of Kent cigarettes). He is not a clergyman of any sort whatsoever, no less a Successor of the Apostles.

The conciliar church and its officials, however, continue to treat the non-ordained as though they are in fact ordained, proving themselves to be the true sedevacantists as they treat with contempt irreformable papal pronouncements, ignoring these plain words of Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae:

Wherefore, strictly adhering, in this matter, to the decrees of the pontiffs, our predecessors, and confirming them most fully, and, as it were, renewing them by our authority, of our own initiative and certain knowledge, we pronounce and declare that ordinations carried out according to the Anglican rite have been, and are, absolutely null and utterly void.

It remains for Us to say that, even as we have entered upon the elucidation of this grave question in the name and in the love of the Great Shepherd, in the same we appeal to those who desire and seek with a sincere heart the possession of a hierarchy and of Holy Orders.

Perhaps until now aiming at the greater perfection of Christian virtue, and searching more devoutly the divine Scriptures, and redoubling the fervor of their prayers, they have, nevertheless, hesitated in doubt and anxiety to follow the voice of Christ, which so long has interiorly admonished them. Now they see clearly whither He in His goodness invites them and wills them to come. In returning to His one only fold, they will obtain the blessings which they seek, and the consequent helps to salvation, of which He has made the Church the dispenser, and, as it were, the constant guardian and promoter of His redemption amongst the nations. Then, indeed, "They shall draw waters in joy from the fountains of the Savior", His wondrous Sacraments, whereby His faithful souls have their sins truly remitted, and are restored to the friendship of God, are nourished and strengthened by the heavenly Bread, and abound with the most powerful aids for their eternal salvation. May the God of peace, the God of all consolation, in His infinite tenderness, enrich and fill with all these blessings those who truly yearn for them.

We wish to direct our exhortation and our desires in a special way to those who are ministers of religion in their respective communities. They are men who from their very office take precedence in learning and authority, and who have at heart the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Let them be the first in joyfully submitting to the divine call and obey it, and furnish a glorious example to others. Assuredly, with an exceeding great joy, their Mother, the Church, will welcome them, and will cherish with all her love and care those whom the strength of their generous souls has, amidst many trials and difficulties, led back to her bosom. Nor could words express the recognition which this devoted courage will win for them from the assemblies of the brethren throughout the Catholic world, or what hope or confidence it will merit for them before Christ as their Judge, or what reward it will obtain from Him in the heavenly kingdom! And we, ourselves, in every lawful way, shall continue to promote their reconciliation with the Church in which individuals and masses, as we ardently desire, may find so much for their imitation. In the meantime, by the tender mercy of the Lord our God, we ask and beseech all to strive faithfully to follow in the path of divine grace and truth.

We decree that these letters and all things contained therein shall not be liable at any time to be impugned or objected to by reason of fault or any other defect whatsoever of subreption or obreption of our intention, but are and shall be always valid and in force and shall be inviolably observed both juridically and otherwise, by all of whatsoever degree and preeminence, declaring null and void anything which, in these matters, may happen to be contrariwise attempted, whether wittingly or unwittingly, by any person whatsoever, by whatsoever authority or pretext, all things to the contrary notwithstanding.

Well, as a very esteemed former colleague of mine is wont to say, there you have it. Pope Leo XIII called upon the Anglicans to be reconciled to the true Church. He did not reaffirm them in their heretical and schismatic sect, which is no church at all. Pope Leo also said that his reaffirmation of earlier condemnations of Anglican orders could not be "impugned or subjected to by reason of fault or any other defect whatsoever of subreption and obreption of our intention, but are and shall be always valid and in force and shall be inviolably observed both juridically and otherwise, by all of whatsoever degree and preeminence, declaring null and avoid anything which, in these matters, may happen to be contrariwise attempted, whether wittingly or unwittingly, by any person whatsoever, by whatsoever authority or pretext, all things to the contrary notwithstanding." This includes the efforts of popes from John XXIII through Benedict XVI to treat Anglican bishops and priests as though they were ordained when in fact they are laymen who belong to a heretical and schismatic sect of Protestantism.

For example, Walter Cardinal Kasper, the President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, expressed his alarm that the Anglican "church" might attempt to ordain women to its "episcopate. Cardinal Kasper said that such an action would put a chill into efforts to foster unity and "shared communion." Here is the Zenit report of June 8, 2006:

LONDON, JUNE 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Walter Kasper told the Church of England that to consecrate women as bishops would make unity "unreachable" and shared Communion impossible.

This week the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity urged the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and his fellow bishops not to proceed toward women becoming bishops, the Times reported Wednesday.

Cardinal Kasper said that the ordination of women as priests had led to a "cooling off."

Women bishops, he told the Anglicans in a private meeting in Leicestershire, would cause a "serious and long-lasting chill."

Come again, "shared communion?" Huh? Let's get this one straight: a curial cardinal makes a passing remark about "shared communion" in an effort to express his concern about the ordination of women to a bogus episcopate as though such "shared communion" is possible absent the complete return of the Church of England to Rome and its total abandonment of a liturgy and doctrine inimical to the true Faith. (Yes, I will overlook for the moment the fact that the liturgy and doctrine of Protestant England was indeed a harbinger of the liturgy and doctrine of the conciliar church. Just humor me for the moment, please). Shared communion? The Anglicans do not have valid orders, Cardinal Kasper. There is no Real Presence of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in an Anglican "Mass" or "liturgy" or "communion service." Anyone who believes that the bishops and priests of the Anglican sect are ordained and that they confect the Real Presence of Our Lord is a dissenter from the teaching of the Catholic Church, reaffirmed by Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae, and thus shows himself to be a defector from the Faith himself.

The ideological kinship between conciliarism and Anglicanism, however, is no accident. The whole ethos of conciliarism and of the Novus Ordo Missae wreaks of  multifaceted and interlocking Protestant and Modernist influences. Infallible pronouncements of the past mean nothing to the conciliar prelates, who have imposed their own Protestant revolution on the sheep in the pews while only a relatively few Catholics have remained---or found their way back to--the fullness of the Catholic Tradition without any concessions to the errors and heresies of conciliarism. How ironic it is, ladies and gentleman, that Catholics who have remained faithful to the fullness of the Catholic liturgy and doctrine as it has been handed down to us over the centuries are mocked and pilloried by the conciliarists who hold ecclesiastical power, thereby imitating the hatred of the Anglican revolutionaries for those who remained steadfastly Catholic in England during the time of Henry VIII and Edward VI and then from the time of Elizabeth I to the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.

How can it be that a curial cardinal can remain a Catholic in good standing while defecting from the Faith? Once again, the words of another 1896 encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896, are important to repeat for the sake of emphasis:

The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine: they abandoned only a certain portion of it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos).

The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. "No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).

How can it be that a curial cardinal can speak of "shared communion" with heretics and schismatics absent their complete conversion to the Catholic Faith? How can it be that a curial cardinal can speak as though Anglicans have true orders when the Church has spoken infallibly on this matter? How can it be that any Catholic, no less a prelate, can defect the Faith on any point of doctrine and remain a Catholic in good standing?

Alas, Apostolicae Curae is a sword not only against Anglicanism. It has been used by some against conciliarism itself, a matter I leave to those much more versed to discuss and explicate. Suffice it for present purposes, however, to note that conciliarism fosters a contempt for the past. Conciliarism fosters a contempt for dogmatic councils (the Council of Florence's 1442 declaration that Jews go to Hell unless they convert to the true Faith, the Council of Trent's Decree on Justification, Vatican I's anathematizing of anyone who believes that a different understanding of dogmas can be held in the future than that which has been passed down through the centuries) and for the preconciliar popes and their encyclical letters that reaffirmed the constant teaching of the Church and are thus part of the Church's Ordinary Magisterium. Talking about "shared communion" with Anglicans, therefore, is not such a stretch when those who are doing the talking have shown themselves to be in schism from the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is Trinity Sunday. We give the problems of this epoch in the history of Holy Mother Church to God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady is the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. She wants us to direct all of our actions to the Blessed Trinity through her Immaculate Heart, out of which was formed the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. While noting the problems and making sure to point out the thorough-going un-Catholicity of the conciliar prelates, we nevertheless trust totally in Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, knowing that she wants to present us at the Throne of the Blessed Trinity if we die in a state of sanctifying grace. We never despair. We never grow angry. We recognize that everything happens in God's Providence and that He has won for us all of the necessary graces, which flow to us through the hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of all Graces, to offer up the sufferings of the present moment in reparation for our own sins and those of the whole world.

Those who hold ecclesiastical office at the moment will fade from view soon enough. Some pope will consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. The Catholic Restoration will take place for a time during the Reign of Mary before the devil's final battle. Conciliarism and all of its errors, including the Novus Ordo Missae and the rejection of the confessionally Catholic State and thus the rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King, will be wiped away. We just need to find a place in the catacombs to sanctify our souls as we flee from everything to do with conciliarism and as we embrace the spirit of Holy Poverty of the Holy Family so that we may begin and end each of our thoughts and actions in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

A blessed Trinity Sunday to you all!

Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Barnabas, pray for us.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret of Scotland, pray for us.

Saints Primus and Felician, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Catherine of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Blessed Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Blessed Francisco, pray for us.

Blessed Jacinta, pray for us.

Sister Lucia, pray for us.

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint 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 our 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.  That 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 powers 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.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.