In "Good Standing" to Promote Evil

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., will be replaced in two weeks by Archbishop-designate Donald Wuerl, whose record of spiritual carnage as the Bishop of Pittsburgh was documented in 1996 by a very thorough report issued by Mothers' Watch. Cardinal McCarrick, however, is not going gently into the "good night" of his retirement. The same Prince of the Church who invoked the name of the false god "Allah" last year in the presence of King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan--and who has indemnified every Catholic pro-abortion politicians by stating that they should not be barred from the reception of Holy Communion--has said that "civil union" status for those engaged in unrepentant sins of perversion against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments is perfectly acceptable. This demonstrates once again the utter bankruptcy of the ethos of conciliarism, an essential part of which is the erroneous novelty of episcopal collegiality, as a cardinal will be allowed to remain in "good standing" in retirement after doing and saying things contrary to the good of souls and to the common good of his own country.

Hyattsville, Md. (AP) - Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said Wednesday he could support same-sex civil unions, but not same-sex marriage.

The Washington archbishop appeared on CNN to respond to the Senate's rejection of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. McCarrick said he believes marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and that altering that definition would denigrate society. But he said it's acceptable for the government to allow civil unions of gay and lesbian couples.

McCarrick said although it's not his ideal, the government needs to protect the rights of same-sex couples to care for each other or visit each other in a hospital. He said allowing civil unions would protect those rights.

Acceptable? To God, Cardinal McCarrick? Our Blessed Lord and Savior, Who was put to a horrible death by means of the sins of all men for all eternity, approves of special civil recognition for people who persist unrepentantly in the very thing, sin, that caused Him to suffer so unspeakably in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death? What source, Cardinal McCarrick, can you cite in the patrimony of the Catholic Church to justify giving special civil recognition to those who are steeped in behavior that is destructive of their own souls and to the common good of society itself? There is nothing other than the false sentimentality that is the product of the religious indifferentism and cultural pluralism of Americanism by which a Catholic can claim that the civil state has an obligation to accord special rights to those steeped in unrepentant sins.

For your information, Cardinal McCarrick, there were popes prior to the Second Vatican Council. Some of them wrote voluminously about the necessity of Catholics to oppose evils with Catholicism. These popes, like the saints enrolled in the Church's martyrology, would have preferred death to giving the impression that any kind of sinful relationship is deserving of protection or recognition by the civil state. Consider these telling words of Pope Leo XIII, contained in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:

But, if the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violate in the person of the supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime; a crime, moreover, combined with misdemeanor against the State itself, inasmuch as every offense leveled against religion is also a sin against the State. Here anew it becomes evident how unjust is the reproach of sedition; for the obedience due to rulers and legislators is not refused, but there is a deviation from their will in those precepts only which they have no power to enjoin. Commands that are issued adversely to the honor due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws. You are fully aware, venerable brothers, that this is the very contention of the Apostle St. Paul, who, in writing to Titus, after reminding Christians that they are "to be subject to princes and powers, and to obey at a word," at once adds: "And to be ready to every good work." Thereby he openly declares that, if laws of men contain injunctions contrary to the eternal law of God, it is right not to obey them. In like manner, the Prince of the Apostles gave this courageous and sublime answer to those who would have deprived him of the liberty of preaching the Gospel: "If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

Wherefore, to love both countries, that of earth below and that of heaven above, yet in such mode that the love of our heavenly surpass the love of our earthly home, and that human laws be never set above the divine law, is the essential duty of Christians, and the fountainhead, so to say, from which all other duties spring. The Redeemer of mankind of Himself has said: "For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth." In like manner: "I am come to cast fire upon earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?''[10] In the knowledge of this truth, which constitutes the highest perfection of the mind; in divine charity which, in like manner, completes the will, all Christian life and liberty abide. This noble patrimony of truth and charity entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Church she defends and maintains ever with untiring endeavor and watchfulness.

But with what bitterness and in how many guises war has been waged against the Church it would be ill-timed now to urge. From the fact that it has been vouchsafed to human reason to snatch from nature, through the investigations of science, many of her treasured secrets and to apply them befittingly to the divers requirements of life, men have become possessed with so arrogant a sense of their own powers as already to consider themselves able to banish from social life the authority and empire of God. Led away by this delusion, they make over to human nature the dominion of which they think God has been despoiled; from nature, they maintain, we must seek the principle and rule of all truth; from nature, they aver, alone spring, and to it should be referred, all the duties that religious feeling prompts. Hence, they deny all revelation from on high, and all fealty due to the Christian teaching of morals as well as all obedience to the Church, and they go so far as to deny her power of making laws and exercising every other kind of right, even disallowing the Church any place among the civil institutions of the commonweal. These men aspire unjustly, and with their might strive, to gain control over public affairs and lay hands on the rudder of the State, in order that the legislation may the more easily be adapted to these principles, and the morals of the people influenced in accordance with them. Whence it comes to pass that in many countries Catholicism is either openly assailed or else secretly interfered with, full impunity being granted to the most pernicious doctrines, while the public profession of Christian truth is shackled oftentimes with manifold constraints.

Under such evil circumstances therefore, each one is bound in conscience to watch over himself, taking all means possible to preserve the faith inviolate in the depths of his soul, avoiding all risks, and arming himself on all occasions, especially against the various specious sophisms rife among non-believers. In order to safeguard this virtue of faith in its integrity, We declare it to be very profitable and consistent with the requirements of the time, that each one, according to the measure of his capacity and intelligence, should make a deep study of Christian doctrine, and imbue his mind with as perfect a knowledge as may be of those matters that are interwoven with religion and lie within the range of reason. And as it is necessary that faith should not only abide untarnished in the soul, but should grow with ever painstaking increase, the suppliant and humble entreaty of the apostles ought constantly to be addressed to God: "Increase our faith.''

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world."Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. So soon as Catholic truth is apprehended by a simple and unprejudiced soul, reason yields assent. Now, faith, as a virtue, is a great boon of divine grace and goodness; nevertheless, the objects themselves to which faith is to be applied are scarcely known in any other way than through the hearing. "How shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? Faith then cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Since, then, faith is necessary for salvation, it follows that the word of Christ must be preached. The office, indeed, of preaching, that is, of teaching, lies by divine right in the province of the pastors, namely, of the bishops whom "the Holy Spirit has placed to rule the Church of God.'' It belongs, above all, to the Roman Pontiff, vicar of Jesus Christ, established as head of the universal Church, teacher of all that pertains to morals and faith.

No one, however, must entertain the notion that private individuals are prevented from taking some active part in this duty of teaching, especially those on whom God has bestowed gifts of mind with the strong wish of rendering themselves useful. These, so often as circumstances demand, may take upon themselves, not, indeed, the office of the pastor, but the task of communicating to others what they have themselves received, becoming, as it were, living echoes of their masters in the faith. Such co-operation on the part of the laity has seemed to the Fathers of the Vatican Council so opportune and fruitful of good that they thought well to invite it. "All faithful Christians, but those chiefly who are in a prominent position, or engaged in teaching, we entreat, by the compassion of Jesus Christ, and enjoin by the authority of the same God and Savior, that they bring aid to ward off and eliminate these errors from holy Church, and contribute their zealous help in spreading abroad the light of undefiled faith.''[16] Let each one, therefore, bear in mind that he both can and should, so far as may be, preach the Catholic faith by the authority of his example, and by open and constant profession of the obligations it imposes. In respect, consequently, to the duties that bind us to God and the Church, it should be borne earnestly in mind that in propagating Christian truth and warding off errors the zeal of the laity should, as far as possible, be brought actively into play.

Pope Leo XIII stressed the fact throughout his pontificate that the true Faith, Catholicism, must inform our actions at all times. Reason alone is insufficient to guide us. Our Lord has become Incarnate in Our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb. He has died on the wood of the Holy Cross to redeem us. He has risen from the dead and Ascended to the Father's right hand in glory. He has founded His Church, born on Pentecost Sunday, on the Rock of Peter, the Pope, giving to her the Deposit of Faith to guide us so that we will not fall into the diabolical traps of empty-headed sentimentality. Pope Leo XIII made this point specifically in Sapientiae Christianae:

In the case of those who profess to take reason as their sole guide, there would hardly be found, if, indeed, there ever could be found, unity of doctrine. Indeed, the art of knowing things as they really are is exceedingly difficult; moreover, the mind of man is by nature feeble and drawn this way and that by a variety of opinions, and not seldom led astray by impressions coming from without; and, furthermore, the influence of the passions oftentimes takes away, or certainly at least diminishes, the capacity for grasping the truth. On this account, in controlling State affairs means are often used to keep those together by force who cannot agree in their way of thinking.

It happens far otherwise with Christians; they receive their rule of faith from the Church, by whose authority and under whose guidance they are conscious that they have beyond question attained to truth. Consequently, as the Church is one, because Jesus Christ is one, so throughout the whole Christian world there is, and ought to be, but one doctrine: "One Lord, one faith;""but having the same spirit of faith," they possess the saving principle whence proceed spontaneously one and the same will in all, and one and the same tenor of action.

In other words, we are not to be guided by the dictates of the ever-shifting sands of a political ideology (liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism, socialism, communism, utilitarianism, nationalism, positivism, relativism, materialism, Hegelianism, evolutionism). We are to be guided solely by Catholicism. In all things. At all times. Without any exceptions. Ever. Not even one. We are to think and to speak as Catholics no matter what this might cost us in the realm of human respect. Cardinal McCarrick, who has always been very "sensitive" when it comes to the enabling of those steeped in unrepentant perverse sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, is a poster boy for what happens when one's mind is not shaped by Catholicism but by the "influence of passions" that diminish "the capacity for grasping the truth."

The truth of the matter concerning"civil unions" is that such things have been condemned repeatedly by the Popes of Tradition. Repeatedly. In no uncertain terms. Were these popes wrong, who did not have "nephews" with whom they consorted openly as a cause of scandal to the faithful, to have condemned such civil unions? Cardinal McCarrick would be wise to consider the words contained in Pope Leo XIII's Arcanum, February 10, 1880, which condemned natural "unions" outside of marriage."

Lastly, since We well know that none should be excluded from Our charity, We commend, venerable brothers, to your fidelity and piety those unhappy persons who, carried away by the heat of passion, and being utterly indifferent to their salvation, live wickedly together without the bond of lawful marriage. Let your utmost care be exercised in bringing such persons back to their duty; and, both by your own efforts and by those of good men who will consent to help you, strive by every means that they may see how wrongly they have acted; that they may do penance; and that they may be induced to enter into a lawful marriage according to the Catholic rite.

Pope Pius XI wrote of the same matter, that is, the illicit nature of "natural unions" outside of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, some fifty years later in Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930:

Armed with these principles, some men go so far as to concoct new species of unions, suited, as they say, to the present temper of men and the times, which various new forms of matrimony they presume to label "temporary," "experimental," and "companionate." These offer all the indulgence of matrimony and its rights without, however, the indissoluble bond, and without offspring, unless later the parties alter their cohabitation into a matrimony in the full sense of the law.

Indeed there are some who desire and insist that these practices be legitimatized by the law or, at least, excused by their general acceptance among the people. They do not seem even to suspect that these proposals partake of nothing of the modern "culture" in which they glory so much, but are simply hateful abominations which beyond all question reduce our truly cultured nations to the barbarous standards of savage peoples.

Cardinal McCarrick, your belief that "civil unions" among individuals living lives of unrepentant perversity has been condemned in Casti Connubii. Are you saying that you know more than Pope Pius XI? Please tell us if this is the case? Do you know more than the whole patrimony of the Catholic Church? Do you know more than God Himself, who condemns unions outside of marriage as illicit and without any rights at all?

Cardinal McCarrick and his like-minded brethren in the hierarchy who take positions in support of perversity are at odds with Catholic Church, thereby condemning themselves as apostates according to the words of Pope Leo XIII in Satis Cognitum:

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).

As can be gleaned by the summary provided below, Cardinal McCarrick has indeed receded from the Catholic Faith. Although he will be praised by his successor, Archbishop-designate Donald Wuerl, in thirteen days as the latter is installed as the new Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal McCarrick has defected from the Catholic Faith on many points, including his embrace of "civil unions" for those engaged in lives of unrepentant perversity. He is, simply put, not a Catholic. Period.

A Catholic, you see, would understand and accept and enunciate these basic points:

1) God's love for us is an act of His divine will, the ultimate expression of which is the salvation of our immortal souls.

2) Our love for others must be premised on willing for them what God wills for us: their salvation.

3) We love no one authentically if we do or say anything, either by omission or commission, which reaffirms him in a life of unrepentant sin.

4) God hates sin. He wills the sinner to repent of his sins by cooperating with the graces He won for them on the wood of the Holy Cross.

5) One of the Spiritual Works of Mercy is to admonish the sinner. We have an obligation to admonish those who are in lives on unrepentant sin to turn away from their lives of sin and to strive to pursue the heights of sanctity.

6) God has compassion on all erring sinners, meaning each one of us. He understands our weakness. He exhorts us, as He exhorted the woman caught in adultery, to "Go, and commit this sin no more."

7) It is not an act of "love" for people to persist in unrepentant sins with others.

8) It is not an act of "judgmentalness" or "intolerance" to exhort people who are living lives of unrepentant sin to reform their lives lest their souls wind up in Hell for eternity.

9) Mortal sins cast out sanctifying grace from the soul. Those steeped in unrepentant mortal sin are the captives of the devil until they make a good and sincere Confession, which includes a firm purpose of amendment to reform their lives in cooperation with the graces won for us on Calvary by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

9) Certain sins cry out to Heaven for vengeance. Sodomy is one of the four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.

10) Those engaged in natural or unnatural acts against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments do not "love" the individuals with whom they are sinning. Authentic love cannot exist in a soul committed to a life against the Commandments of God and the eternal welfare of one's own soul, no less the souls of others.

11) Those engaged in natural  or unnatural acts against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments are not entitled to any special benefits bestowed by the state. Sinful behavior, whether natural or unnatural, does not merit any recognition or protection by the civil state.

12) Those engaged in unnatural, perverse acts against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments have no right in the Divine positive law or the natural law to live together as a "couple." 

13) Those engaged in unnatural, perverse acts against the Sixth and Ninth Commandment have no right in the Divine positive law or the natural law to present a "model" of "love" that is nothing other than a deceit from the devil himself. The words that Saint Paul wrote about perversity in Rome in his own day are quite apropos of our own:

Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use against which is their nature.

And in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.

And as they liked not to  have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy.

Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.  (Romans 1: 24-32)

14) Matrimony was elevated to a Sacrament by Our Lord at the wedding feast in Cana. The Holy Sacrament of Matrimony is entered into by one man and by one woman to achieve these ends: the procreation and education of children, the mutual good of the spouses, a remedy for concupiscence. Pope Pius XI noted this in Casti Connubii:

This conjugal faith, however, which is most aptly called by St. Augustine the "faith of chastity" blooms more freely, more beautifully and more nobly, when it is rooted in that more excellent soil, the love of husband and wife which pervades all the duties of married life and holds pride of place in Christian marriage. For matrimonial faith demands that husband and wife be joined in an especially holy and pure love, not as adulterers love each other, but as Christ loved the Church. This precept the Apostle laid down when he said: "Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the Church,"[24] that Church which of a truth He embraced with a boundless love not for the sake of His own advantage, but seeking only the good of His Spouse.[25] The love, then, of which We are speaking is not that based on the passing lust of the moment nor does it consist in pleasing words only, but in the deep attachment of the heart which is expressed in action, since love is proved by deeds. This outward expression of love in the home demands not only mutual help but must go further; must have as its primary purpose that man and wife help each other day by day in forming and perfecting themselves in the interior life, so that through their partnership in life they may advance ever more and more in virtue, and above all that they may grow in true love toward God and their neighbor, on which indeed "dependeth the whole Law and the Prophets." For all men of every condition, in whatever honorable walk of life they may be, can and ought to imitate that most perfect example of holiness placed before man by God, namely Christ Our Lord, and by God's grace to arrive at the summit of perfection, as is proved by the example set us of many saints.

This mutual molding of husband and wife, this determined effort to perfect each other, can in a very real sense, as the Roman Catechism teaches, be said to be the chief reason and purpose of matrimony, provided matrimony be looked at not in the restricted sense as instituted for the proper conception and education of the child, but more widely as the blending of life as a whole and the mutual interchange and sharing thereof.

16)Perverse unions are not, therefore, founded in "love" or "compassion." They are exercises in mutual assured spiritual immolation. Demons abound in situations of unrepentant sin. Does Cardinal McCarrick deny this? Do not the demons want men and women to live in situations where they deceive themselves into thinking that they are "apostles of love" when they are actually the agents of spiritual death unto eternity? Or does Cardinal McCarrick believe that unnatural acts against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments are indeed "loving" and that teaching that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in Our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, has entrusted to His true Church in this regard is no longer reliable?

We are face to face here, ladies and gentlemen, with yet another example of the perversity of conciliarism as cardinals, no less, remain in canonical "good standing" while the priests and the laity  devoted to the fullness of the Catholic Faith in "unapproved" chapels are said to be dangerous "schismatics" who are possessed of the Protestant spirit of rebellion and disobedience. My friends, the ones who are schismatic and disobedient and possessed of the Protestant spirit hold ecclesiastical power in this country and in Rome itself.

Consider this cheery fact: Cardinal McCarrick, who will remain a cardinal in good standing despite his support of "civil union" status for those steeped in unrepentant lives of perversity, is qualified to serve as a "papal elector" for another four years, until he turns eighty on July 7, 2010. Roger Cardinal Mahony will continue as an elector until February 27, 2016. He won't even have to retire as the Archbishop of Los Angeles until February 27, 2011. The true schismatics are the ones who ecclesiastical power. Anyone who cannot see this is simply unwilling to look at reality as it is.

Saint Nicholas of Flue, Switzerland, lived in the Fifteenth Century. A married man with ten children, Saint Nicholas  had a divine revelation to live as a hermit, receiving permission from his wife and children to do so. His hermitic life began in 1467. He spent the last twenty years of his life in prayer. He lived for nineteen and one-half of those twenty years on the Eucharist alone!

As a book about his life, Saint Nicholas of Flue: Patron and Protector of Switzerland: 1417-1487, published by the Monastery of the Magnificat of the Mother of God,  notes:

One day a veil of deep worry hung over his features, and a gloomy look clouded his face. God had not doubt revealed some great woes to him, painful defections that threatened the Church, as he commented sadly, "An unfortunate time of revolt and dissension in the Church of Jesus Christ is on the way. O my children, do not let yourselves be misled by any innovations! Stay together and hold fast. Stay on the same way, the same paths as your pious ancestors. That is how you will resist the attacks, tempests and storms that are going to rise up with violence." Shortly afterwards it was understood that he had caught a glimpse of the troubled dawn of Protestantism and the wars of religion.

God also showed him the general apostasy of the latter times: "The Church will be punished," he prophesied, "for the majority of its members, great and small, will become very perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until it finally seems to have been destroyed, and the Succession of Peter and the other Apostles seemed to have ended. But after that, it will be triumphantly exalted in the sight of all doubters."

Can it be doubted that the perversion prophesied by Saint Nicholas of Flue is upon us at present? Cardinal McCarrick's support for "civil unions" for those steeped in perversion, whose conversion out of their lives of perdition he seems not to care about whatsoever, is itself proof of the fact that the Church is being punished and that "the majority of its members, great and small," have become "very perverted. Men such as Cardinal McCarrick put into jeopardy the salvation of the souls for whom Our Lord offered His life on the wood of the Holy Cross. They render unto Caesar that which belongs to God alone: the eternal welfare of souls. The people who countenance such actions are so bold as to dare to use such words as "loving" to describe unnatural, perverted actions that were--along with each one of our sins--responsible for the sufferings Our Lord endured during his fearful Passion and Death. These people are not be obeyed and their actions must be denounced with all of the vigor that we can muster. They may be in good standing canonically. They are not in good standing with God as they promote one abject evil after another.

Each of us must be assiduous about rooting out the smallest venial sins from our own lives by cooperating with the graces sent to us by Our Lady and by making a good Confession on a weekly basis. The fact that we are sinners, however, can never deter us from denouncing the acceptance of sinful lifestyles as compatible with the Catholic Faith or compatible with the establishment and maintenance of a just social order that must rest in a submission of all men and their nations to the Social Reign of Christ the King. Indeed, we have a positive obligation to defend the Faith from the wolves in shepherds' clothing.

As Pope Leo XIII noted in A Review of His Pontificate, 1902:

Just as Christianity cannot penetrate into the soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into public life without establishing order. With the idea of a God Who governs all, Who is infinitely wise, good, and just, the idea of duty seizes upon the consciences of men.  It assuages sorrow, it calms hatred, it engenders heroes. If it has transformed pagan society--and that transformation was a veritable resurrection--for barbarism disappeared in proportion as Christianity extended its sway, so, after the terrible shocks which unbelief has given to the world in our days, it will be able to put that world again on the true road, and bring back to order the States and peoples of modern times. But the return of Christianity will not be efficacious and complete if it does not restore the world to a sincere love of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption.  It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine Assistance and of that immortality which has been promised It, It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which It has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect It in Its inviolable integrity. Legitimate dispenser of the Teachings of the Gospel It does not reveal Itself only as the consoler and Redeemer of souls, but It is still more the internal source of Justice and Charity, and the Propagator as well as the Guardian of True Liberty, and of that equality which alone is possible here below. In applying the doctrine of its Divine Founder, It maintains a wise equilibrium and marks the True Limits between the rights and privileges of society. The equality which it proclaims does not destroy the distinction between the different social classes  It keeps them intact, as nature itself demands, in order to oppose the anarchy of reason emancipated from Faith, and abandoned to its own devices. The liberty which it gives in no wise conflicts with the rights of Truth, because those rights are superior to the demands of liberty.  Not does it infringe upon the rights of Justice, because those rights are superior to the claims of mere numbers or power. Nor does it assail the rights of God because they are superior to the rights of humanity.

It is clear that Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, to say nothing of Pope Benedict XVI, dissents from Pope Leo XIII's clear reiteration of basic Catholic truths from which no one may dissent and remain a Catholic in good standing. Evil advances by leaps and bounds as a result.

Entrusting all to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, may we keep ourselves unspotted by the world--and unsullied by the horrors fomented upon the Church Militant by those who say they hold ecclesiastical authority but whose words and actions prove that they have receded from the Catholic Faith and are in all truth apostates undeserving of anything other than our prayers for their speedy return to the true Church from which they have fled.

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 Angela Merici, 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.

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.  

SEQUENCE:    VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS

Veni, sancte Spíritus, Et emítte cælitus Lucis tuæ rádium. Veni pater páuperum, Veni dator múnerum, Veni lumen córdium. Consolátor óptime, Dulcis hospes ánimæ, Dulce refrigérum. In labóre réquies, In æstu tempéries, In fletu solátium. O Lux beatíssima, Reple cordis íntima Tuórum fidélium. Sine tuo númine, Nihil est in hómine, Nihil est innoxium. Lava quod est sórdidium, Riga quod est áridum, Sana quod est sáucium. Flecte quod est rígidium, Fove quod est frígidium, Rege quod est dévium. Da tuis fidélibus, In te confidéntibus, Sacrum septenárium. Da virtutútis méritum, Da salútis éxitum, Da perénne gáudium. Amen. Allelúja.			Come Thou Holy Spirit, come, And from Thy celestial home Shed a ray of light divine. Come, Thou Father of the poor, Come, Thou source of all our store, Come, within our bosoms shrine, Thou of Comforters the best, Thou the soul's delightful guest, Sweet refreshment here below. In our labor rest most sweet, Pleasant coolness in the heat, Solace in the midst of woe. O most blessed Light divine, Shine within these hearts of Thine, And our inmost being fill. Where Thou art not, man hath nought, Nothing good in deed or thought, Nothing free from taint of ill. Heal our wounds, our strength renew, On our dryness pour Thy dew, Wash the stains of guilt away. Bend the stubborn heart and will, Melt the frozen, warm the chill, Guide the steps that go astray. On Thy faithful who adore, And confess Thee evermore, In Thy sevenfold gifts descend. Give them virtue's sure reward, Give them Thy salvation, Lord, Give them joys that never end. Amen. Alleluia.