More "Traditional" Syncretism From the "Restorers" of Tradition
by
Thomas A. Droleskey
“‘Nevertheless send now, and gather unto me all Israel, unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, who eat at Jezebel’s table.’
“Achab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered together the prophets unto Mount Carmel.
“And Elias coming to all the people, said: ‘How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a word.
“And Elias said again to the people: ‘I only remain a prophet of the Lord: but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men. Let two bullocks be given us, and let them choose one bullock and cut it in pieces and lay it upon wood, but put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it. Call ye the names of your gods, and I will call on the name of my Lord; and the God that shall answer by fire, let him be God.’ And all of the people answering said: ‘A very good proposal.’
“Then Elias said to the prophets of Baal: ‘Choose you one bullock and dress it first, because you are many; and call on the names of your gods, but put no fire under.’
“And they took the bullock which he gave them, and dressed it; and they called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying: ‘O Baal, hear us.’ But there was no voice, nor any that answered: and they leaped over the altar that they had made.
“And when it was now noon, Elias jested at them, saying: ‘Cry with a louder voice: for he is a God, and perhaps he is talking, or he is in an inn, or on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awaked.’
“So they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till they were covered with blood. And after midday was past, and while they were prophesying, the time was come of offering sacrifice, and there was no voice heard, nor did any one answer, nor regard them as they prayed: Elias said to the people: ‘Come ye unto me.’ And the people coming near unto him, he repaired the altar of the Lord, that was broken down:
“And he took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying: ‘Israel shall be thy name.’ And he built with the stones an altar to the name of the Lord: and he made a trench for water, of the breadth of two furrows round about the altar. And he laid the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid it upon the wood.
“And he said: “Fill four buckets with water, and pour it upon the burnt offering, and upon the wood.’ And again he said: ‘Do the same the second time.’ And when they had done it the second time, he said: ‘Do the same also the third time.’ And they did so the third time. And the water run about the altar, and the trench was filled with water.
“And when it was now time to offer the holocaust, Elias the prophet came near and said: ‘O Lord God of Abraham and Isaac, and Israel, show this day that thou art the God of Israel, and I thy servant, and that according to they commandment I have done all these things. Hear me, O Lord, hear me: that this people may learn, that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart again.’
“Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces, and they said: ‘The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God.’ And Elias said to them: ‘Take the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape.’ And when they had taken them, Elias brought them down to the torrent Cison, and killed them there” (3 Kings 18:19-40)
Yes, this quote from the Third Book of Kings has been cited many times on this website. It needs to be cited again and again as Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and his conciliar "bishops" keep demonstrating their propensity for esteeming the symbols of false religions and for incorporating various aspects of false religious "spirituality" into the context of what purports to be, albeit falsely, the worship of God in the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service. Despite all of the protestations from Ratzinger/Benedict and his conciliar cronies that they are not engaged in syncretism, the plain fact of the matter is that they are so engaged, being unable (or unwilling) to admit this as the paradoxes and contradiction inherent in the New Theology do such violence to logic and to language that the only result is rank positivism, the assertion that something is so because it is asserted positively as being so. This is the only way that the reports below, which contain overt evidence of conciliar syncretism, can be denied as being an exercise in the combination of false religions with what claims to be Catholicism.
Take a look for yourself:
The Catholic Church has released a special Bible for India, one that has reference to Indian scriptures, uses Indian cultural and religious themes, and will appeal to the new generation
The liberative knowledge of the spirit (atman) is to be attained through ‘seeing, listening, reflecting and meditating’ This verse from the hoary Brihadaranyaka Upanishad explains chapter 51 of the Book of Isaiah, in The New Community Bible (Catholic Edition) for India .
Church leaders called the book, that was released in Mumbai last month by the Archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Cardinal Gracias, “a work of lasting importance”.
Christened the ‘Indian Bible’, the book is the culmination of a significant 18-year long experiment by the local Catholic Church to adapt the Bible for the Indian community.
Thus, apart from using Indian cultural and religious themes in the narrative, the book also uses English that is familiar to Indians, unlike the older editions of the holy book.
The scholars, most of them Indian, who put together the book felt that any serious commentary on the writings of the Bible, especially an edition for India , could not ignore the rich cultural and religious heritage of the country. “You cannot communicate if you do not communicate in the culture of the people,” said Father Tony Charanghat, spokesperson for Cardinal Gracias.
Rev (Dr) Augustine Kanachikuzhy, of the Society of St Paul who was the general editor of the book, said that the decision to include Indian scriptures in the book was taken by the scholars. “They felt that a Bible for India should also make reference to Indian scriptures,” he said.
“India has so many religions and languages. This translation takes into account the aspirations, culture, ethos --- the identifying marks of the Indian. It helps the people to relate the sacred text to local context,” said Bishop of Vasai, Fr Thomas Dabre, who was involved in the project. “It was a complex enterprise, but the resulting work is of lasting importance.”
The book is different from other Bibles because it has a commentary accompanying the passages from the holy book. “It is a contextualised Bible and that is where the references to Indian scriptures come in,” explained Kanachikuzhy.
Priests feel that the book will appeal to the new generation of church-goers who stress less on the ritual part of religion and more on the spiritual aspects. “They are asking more questions, some of which priests who were trained long ago are not equipped to answer. The book hence serves as a handy guide for both the priests and the worshippers,” said Charanghat.
Also, the church is forming groups called Christian Communities, that worship as small congregations. At present, the church does not have enough priests to administer to these small groups, and this precisely where the community Bible comes handy for such groups.
References to Indian scriptures
While authors of the book admit that references to Indian scriptures may make some Christians uncomfortable, they have clarified that the scriptures have been included only for a better understanding of Biblical terms and concepts, and that there is no implication that the texts from which the scriptures are derived, are parallel to the Bible.
Illustrations
The book has calligraphy and illustrations by a late priest, Christopher Coelho. The Holy Family here is dressed in Indian clothes and not in middle-eastern vestments. “Today, the image is very important and complements the abstract. Even religious discourses have recourse to metaphor,” said Dabre.
Indianisation of the Catholic Church
The Indianisation process began in the sixties when a revolutionary council in Rome introduced local traditions and practices, like use of local languages for mass and incorporation of Indian worship in church rituals.
Though the process has been criticised by both Hindu radicals and the orthodox among Catholics, the idea has taken root and is now generally accepted.
Some churches in south India, for instance, depict Christ as an Indian holy man, and even in Mumbai, some churches use aarties to welcome priests. Diwali is an important event in church calendars.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=2008070920080709023950233aa24a37&pageno=1
This isn't syncretism, you understand. Just keep saying that. This isn't syncretism. Click your heels three times and say, "This isn't syncretism. This isn't syncretism. This isn't syncretism." Are you back in Kansas yet? Of course not. You're back at that the revolutionary council, properly called, I should note, where this traditional non-syncretism all began. For this revolutionary council to have been correct, however, then Saint Thomas the Apostle must have been wrong to have preached the Gospel without making any concessions to the false religions of the east. Saint Francis Xavier must have been wrong to have preached the Gospel in India without making any concessions to the false religions of east and as he destroyed the very symbols of those false religions, symbols and beliefs that are now incorporated into the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service in India and into what purports to be a "Catholic" version of the Bible.
The arrogance of the conciliar revolutionaries is such that they must disparage the past, placing almost everything about the Catholic past into question. Pope Saint Pius X noted this in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8, 1907, as did Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis, August 12, 1950:
Although they express their astonishment that We should number them amongst the enemies of the Church, no one will be reasonably surprised that We should do so, if, leaving out of account the internal disposition of the soul, of which God alone is the Judge, he considers their tenets, their manner of speech, and their action. Nor indeed would he be wrong in regarding them as the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For, as We have said, they put into operation their designs for her undoing, not from without but from within. Hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain from the very fact that their knowledge of her is more intimate. Moreover, they lay the ax not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fibers. And once having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to diffuse poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth which they leave untouched, none that they do not strive to corrupt. Further, none is more skillful, none more astute than they, in the employment of a thousand noxious devices; for they play the double part of rationalist and Catholic, and this so craftily that they easily lead the unwary into error; and as audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink or which they do not thrust forward with pertinacity and assurance To this must be added the fact, which indeed is well calculated to deceive souls, that they lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for irreproachable morality. Finally, there is the fact which is all hut fatal to the hope of cure that their very doctrines have given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and brook no restraint; and relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a love of truth that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy. (Pope Saint Pius X, Pascendi Dominci Gregis, September 8, 1907.)
Another danger is perceived which is all the more serious because it is more concealed beneath the mask of virtue. There are many who, deploring disagreement among men and intellectual confusion, through an imprudent zeal for souls, are urged by a great and ardent desire to do away with the barrier that divides good and honest men; these advocate an "eirenism" according to which, by setting aside the questions which divide men, they aim not only at joining forces to repel the attacks of atheism, but also at reconciling things opposed to one another in the field of dogma. And as in former times some questioned whether the traditional apologetics of the Church did not constitute an obstacle rather than a help to the winning of souls for Christ, so today some are presumptive enough to question seriously whether theology and theological methods, such as with the approval of ecclesiastical authority are found in our schools, should not only be perfected, but also completely reformed, in order to promote the more efficacious propagation of the kingdom of Christ everywhere throughout the world among men of every culture and religious opinion. (Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, August 12, 1950.)
The conciliar revolutionaries would have us believe that they know better than the the Apostles and the great Catholic missionaries, that it is no offense to God to incorporate the worship of the devil himself into what purports to be Catholic liturgies, that God looks favorably upon syncretist efforts to combine the "insights" of the devil's religions into editions of Sacred Scripture. These revolutionaries must reckon with the how Saint Thomas the Apostle himself evangelized parts of India:
And after this, the apostle and Abbanes came unto the King of India, and the king devised to the apostle a marvellous palace, and delivered to him great treasure.
And the king went into another province, and the apostle gave all the treasure to poor people, and the apostle was always in predications two years or thereabout ere the king came, and converted much people without number to the faith. And when the king came and knew what he had done, he put him and Abbanes in the most deepest of his prisons, and purposed fully to slay them and burn. And in the meanwhile Gad, brother of the king, died, and there was made for him a rich sepulchre, and the fourth day he that had been dead arose from death to life, and all men were abashed and fled. And he said to his brother: This man that thou intendest to slay and burn is the friend of God, and the angels of God serve him, and they brought me in to paradise, and have showed me a palace of gold and silver and of precious stones, and it is marvellously ordained. And when I marvelled of the great beauty thereof, they said to me: This is the palace that Thomas hath made for thy brother. And when I said that I would be thereof porter, they said to me: Thy brother is made unworthy to have it; if thou wilt dwell therein, we shall pray God to raise thee so that thou mayst go buy it of thy brother, in giving to him the money that he supposed he had lost. And when he had said this he ran to the prison and required of the apostle that he would pardon his brother that he had done to him, and then delivered him out of prison, and prayed the apostle that he would take and do on him a precious vesture. And the apostle said to him: Knowest thou not that they which were to have power in things celestial set nought in nothing fleshly nor earthly?
And when the apostle issued out of prison, the king came against him and fell down at his feet, and required of him pardon. Then the apostle said to him: God hath given to you much great grace when he hath showed to you his secrets; now believe in Jesu Christ and be ye baptized, to the end that thou be prince in the realm perdurable. And then the brother of the king said: I have seen the palace that thou hast do make to my brother, and I am come for to buy it. And the apostle said to him: If it be the will of thy brother it shall be done. And the king said: Sith it pleaseth God, this shall be mine, and the apostle shall make to thee another; and if peradventure he may not, this same shall be common to thee and to me. And the apostle answered and said: Many palaces be there in heaven which be made ready sith the beginning of the world, that be bought by price of the faith and by alms of your riches, which may well go tofore you to these palaces, but they may not follow you.
And after this, at the end of a month, the apostle made to assemble all them of the province, and when they were assembled he commanded that the feeble and sick should be set apart by themselves. Then he prayed for them, and they that were well enseigned and taught said Amen. And forthwith came a clear light from heaven which descended upon them, and smote down all the people and the apostle to the earth; and they supposed they had been smitten with thunder, and so lay by the space of half an hour. After, the apostle rose and said: Arise ye up for my lord is come as thunder, and hath healed us; and anon they arose all whole and glorified God and the apostle.
Then began the apostle to teach them, and to show to them the degrees of virtue. The first is that they should believe in God which is one essence, and treble or three in persons, and showed to them examples sensible, how three persons be in one essence. The first example in a man is wisdom, and thereof cometh understanding, memory, and cunning. Cunning is of that thou hast learned the memory or mind, and retainest that thou shouldest forget. And the understanding is that thou understandest this that is taught to thee and showed. The second example is that, in a vine be three things, the stock, the leaf, and the fruit. The third example is that three things be in the head of a man, hearing, seeing, and tasting or smelling. The second degree that they receive baptism. The third, that they keep them from fornication. The fourth, that they keep them from avarice. The fifth, that they restrain them from gluttony. The sixth, that they keep their penance. The seventh, that they persevere and abide in these things. The eighth, that they love hospitality. The ninth, that in things to be done they require the will of God, and that they require such things by works. The tenth, that they eschew those things that be not for to be done. The eleventh, that they do charity to their enemies and to their friends. The twelfth, that they keep charity, and do work by diligence to keep these things. And after his predication, forty thousand men were baptized, without women and small children.
And incontinent he went into the great India where he shone by miracles innumerable, for he enlumined and made to see Syntice, the friend of Migdonia, which was wife of Carisius, cousin of the king of India. And Migdonia said to Syntice: Weenest thou that I may see him? Then Migdonia changed her habit by the counsel of Syntice, and put herself among the poor women, and came whereas the apostle preached. And he began to preach of the maleurte and unhappiness of this life, and said that this life is unhappy, wretched and subject to adventures, and is so slippery and fleeting, that when one weeneth to hold it, it fleeth away. And after, he began to show to them by four reasons that they should gladly hear the word of God, and likeneth it to four manner of things: first, unto a colour which lighteth the eye of our understanding; secondly, to a syrup or a purgation, for the word of God purgeth our affection from all fleshly love; thirdly, unto an emplaister, because it healeth the wounds of our sins; and fourthly, unto meat, because the word of God nourisheth us, and delighteth in heavenly love. And in like manner, like as all these things avail not to the sick man but if he take and receive them, in like wise the word of God profiteth nothing to a languishing sick man, if he hear it not devoutly. And as the apostle thus preached, Migdonia believed in God, and refused the bed of her husband. Then Carisius did so much that he made the apostle to be set in prison. And Migdonia went to him and asked him forgiveness, because he was set in prison for her sake. And he comforted her sweetly, and said he would suffer it debonairly. And then Carisius prayed the king that he would send the queen his wife's sister unto her, for to essay if she might turn her, and call her again from the christian faith. And the queen was sent thither, and when she saw her, and knew of so many miracles as the apostle did, she said: They be accursed of God that believe not in his works. Then the apostle taught them shortly that were there, four things; first, that they should love the church, honour and worship the priests, assemble them often in prayers, and often to hear the word of God.
And when the king saw the queen, he said to her: Why hast thou abided there so long? And she then answered: I had supposed that Migdonia had been a fool, but she is right wise, for she hath brought me to the apostle, which hath made me to know the way of truth, and they be overmuch fools that believe not the way of truth, that is to say, that they believe in Jesus Christ. And never after would the queen lie with the king. And then the king was abashed, and said to his cousin: When I would have recovered thy wife I have lost mine, and my wife is worse to me than thine is to thee.
Then the king commanded that the apostle should be brought tofore him, his hands and feet bound; and was commanded that he should reconcile the wives to their husbands. And then the apostle said to the king, in showing to him by three examples that, as long as he should be in the error of the faith they ought not to obey them. That is to wit, by the example of the king, by example of the tower, and by example of the fountain, and said to him: Thou that art king wilt have no services soiled ne foul, but thou hast cleanly servants and neat chamberers. And what weenest thou God loveth? Chastity and clean services. Am I then to blame if I preach to thee to love God and his servants whom he loveth? I have made them clean servants to him; I have founded a tower; and thou sayst to me that I should destroy it. Also I have dolven in the deep earth, and have brought forth a fountain out of the abysm, and thou sayst I should stop it.
Then the king was angry, and commanded to bring forth pieces of iron burning, and made to set the apostle on them all naked, his feet bound. And anon by the will of our Lord, a fountain of water sourded and sprang up, and quenched it all. And then the king, by the counsel of his cousin, made him to be set in a burning furnace, which was made so cold that the next day he issued out all safe, without harm. And then thereto, he said: king, thou art nothing more noble, nor more mighty than be thy painters, said Carisius to the king: Make him to offer sacrifice to one of the gods only, in such wise that he fall in the ire of his God that thus delivereth him. And as they constrained him and how despisest thou very God and worshippest a painting whom thou weenest to be thy God? Like as Carisius hath said to thee, that my God should be angry when that I worshipped thy god. And if he be angered, it should be more to thy god than to me, for when thou shouldest ween that I worshipped thy God, I should worship mine. And the king said: Why speakest thou to me such words?
And then the apostle commanded in Hebrew the devil that was within the idol that, as soon as he kneeled tofore the idol, he should anon break it in pieces. And the apostle kneeled and said: Lo! see ye that I worship, but not the idol; I adore, but not the metal; I worship, but not the false image, but I honour and worship my Lord Jesus Christ in the name of whom I command thee, devil, which art hid within this image, that thou break this false idol. And anon he molt it as wax. And then the priests came lowing as beasts, and the bishop of the temple lift up a glaive and run the apostle through and said: I shall avenge the injury of my god. And the king and Carisius fled away, for they saw that the people would avenge the apostle and burn the bishop all quick. And the Christian men bare away the body of the apostle and buried it worshipfully. Long time after, about the year of our Lord two hundred and thirty, the body of the apostle was borne into Edessa, the city which sometime was said Rages, city of Media; and Alexander the Emperor bare it thither at the request of the Syrians. And in this city no man might harbor Jew, nor paynim, nor tyrant, that should live. After this Abagar, king of this city, desired to have an epistle written with the hand of our Lord, for if any men moved war against this city, they took a Christian child, and set him on the gate, and he should there read the epistle, and the same day, what for the virtue of the writing of our Saviour, as for the merits of the apostle, the enemies fled or else made peace.
Isidore, in the book of the Life of the Saints, saith thus of this apostle: Thomas, apostle and disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, and like unto our Saviour, preached the Gospel unto miscreants, to them of Persia and of Media, to the Hircanians and Bactrians, and he entering into the parts of the orient, pierced through the entrails of the people. There demened his predication unto the title of his passion, and there was he pierced with a glaive and so died. And Chrysostom saith that when Thomas came in to the parts of the three kings which came to worship our Lord he baptized them, and they were made helpers and aiders of our Lord and of Christian faith. Pray we then to this holy apostle, Saint Thomas, that he will be moyen unto our Lord that we may have grace of him to amend us in this present life, that we may come into his everlasting bliss. Amen. (Jacobus de Vorgaine, O.P., The Golden Legend, Volume 1, pp. 32-35.)
Did Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI command that the devils come out of the the symbols of the false religions that he esteemed so admiringly on Thursday, April 17, 2008? Did he even mention to anyone that each of these religions is in the grip of the devil? Does he himself believe this? Or has he repented of what he wrote in God and the World in 2000, that
there were "in fact Christian hotheads and fanatics who destroyed temples, who were unable to see paganism as anything more than idolatry that had to be radically eliminated." Once again, folks, this means that Saint Thomas the Apostle was wrong, and it means that the great Jesuit missionary, Saint Francis Xavier, was wrong when he wrote the following (as has been quoted on this site several times before):
As to the numbers who become Christians, you may understand them from this, that it often happens to me to be hardly able to use my hands from the fatigue of baptizing: often in a single day I have baptized whole villages. Sometimes I have lost my voice and strength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and the other forms. The fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by the instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These children, I trust heartily, by the grace of God, will be much better than their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine law, and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and imparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They get into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once. Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil with a greater amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received of honor and worship from their parents, relations, and acquaintances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick them about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)
Quite a contrast with the syncretism of the revolutionary council in Rome, huh? Quite a contrast with the words and the actions of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Quite a contrast with the "Indian Bible" that has the approval of so many conciliar "bishops" and "priests." Quite a contrast with the praise offered to the false "pontiffs" by the Eternally Wishful Television Network (EWTN) for their various acts of apostasy and sacrilege and blasphemy.
Saint Francis Xavier went on to explain that the Brahmins in India were people of malice and cunning, not people to be admired:
We have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord." They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is, how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people. They give out publicly that the gods command certain offerings to be made to their temples, which offerings are simply the things that the Brahmins themselves wish for, for their own maintenance and that of their wives, children, and servants. Thus they make the poor folk believe that the images of their gods eat and drink, dine and sup like men, and some devout persons are found who really offer to the idol twice a day, before dinner and supper, a certain sum of money. The Brahmins eat sumptuous meals to the sound of drums, and make the ignorant believe that the gods are banqueting. When they are in need of any supplies, and even before, they give out to the people that the gods are angry because the things they have asked for have not been sent, and that if the people do not take care, the gods will punish them by slaughter, disease, and the assaults of the devils. And the poor ignorant creatures, with the fear of the gods before them, obey them implicitly. These Brahmins have barely a tincture of literature, but they make up for their poverty in learning by cunning and malice. Those who belong to these parts are very indignant with me for exposing their tricks. Whenever they talk to me with no one by to hear them they acknowledge that they have no other patrimony but the idols, by their lies about which they procure their support from the people. They say that I, poor creature as I am, know more than all of them put together.
They often send me a civil message and presents, and make a great complaint when I send them all back again. Their object is to bribe me to connive at their evil deeds. So they declare that they are convinced that there is only one God, and that they will pray to Him for me. And I, to return the favor, answer whatever occurs to me, and then lay bare, as far as I can, to the ignorant people whose blind superstitions have made them their slaves, their imposture and tricks, and this has induced many to leave the worship of the false gods, and eagerly become Christians. If it were not for the opposition of the Brahmins, we should have them all embracing the religion of Jesus Christ. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)
Saint Francis Xavier denounced the false religions of India. What does Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI desire to do? Accommodate the Faith to the "insights" provided by these false religions:
VATICAN CITY, 6 JUN 2008 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, the Holy Father received prelates from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.
In his English-language remarks to the prelates, the Pope pointed out that their visit to Rome coincides with preparations for the Pauline Year, and he invited them to follow the example of that Apostle, "outstanding teacher and courageous witness to the truth of the Gospel".
"The Church's faith in Jesus is a gift received and a gift to be shared; it is the greatest gift which the Church can offer to Asia", said the Pope quoting the Apostolic Exhortation "Ecclesia in Asia". And he went on: "Happily, the peoples of Asia display an intense yearning for God. In handing on to them the message that you also received, you are sowing the seeds of evangelisation in fertile ground.
"If the faith is to flourish, however", he added, "it needs to strike deep roots in Asian soil, lest it be perceived as a foreign import, alien to the culture and traditions of your people. Mindful of the manner in which St. Paul preached the Good News to the Athenians, you are called to present the Christian faith in ways that resonate with the 'innate spiritual insight and moral wisdom in the Asian soul', so that people will welcome it and make it their own".
The Holy Father proceeded with his discourse to the bishops: "In particular, you need to ensure that the Christian Gospel is in no way confused in their minds with secular principles associated with the Enlightenment. On the contrary, by 'speaking the truth in love' you can help your fellow citizens to distinguish the wheat of the Gospel from the chaff of materialism and relativism. You can help them to respond to the urgent challenges posed by the Enlightenment, familiar to Western Christianity for over two centuries, but only now beginning to have a significant impact upon other parts of the world. While resisting the 'dictatorship of positivist reason' that tries to exclude God from public discourse, we should welcome the 'true conquests of the Enlightenment' - especially the stress on human rights and the freedom of religion and its practice".
"This Pauline apostolate", said Pope Benedict, "requires a commitment to inter-religious dialogue, and I encourage you to carry forward this important work, exploring every avenue open to you. I realise that not all the territories you represent offer the same degree of religious liberty, and many of you, for example, encounter serious difficulties in promoting Christian religious instruction in schools".
"In the context of open and honest dialogue with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and the followers of other religions present in your respective countries, you assist your fellow citizens to recognise and observe the law 'written on their hearts' by clearly articulating the truth of the Gospel.
"In this way, your teaching can reach a wide audience and help to promote a unified vision of the common good. This in turn", the Pope concluded, "should help to foster growth in religious freedom and greater social cohesion between members of different ethnic groups, which can only be conducive to the peace and well-being of the entire community". (Christianity and Asian Spiritual Insight.)
Trying to use Saint Paul's preaching in the Aeropaugus to justify conciliarism's efforts at liturgical and ecumenical syncretism is quite a stretch, shall we say. Saint Paul did not esteem the false idols of the Greeks. He instructed them about their ignorance of the true God, using the the statue of the "unknown god" as a means to instruct them. He did not seek to incorporate the worship of the idols into the Catholic liturgy nor did he want tot gain "insights" from the Greek pagans as to how to better "understand" the true Faith. Saint Saint Chrysostom provides us with a commentary on this encounter, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (17: 2-14): Conciliarism inverts and distorts Saint Paul's discourse in the Aeropaugus to esteem false religions and to claim that they can "add" something to a Catholic's interior life and to what purports to be the Sacred Liturgy as its scions praise certain elements of the "Enlightenment" responsible for "shining forth" the theretofore "hidden truths" of "human rights and the freedom of religion and its practice." And although the Syro-Malabar Rite used by the Saint Thomas Christians in India underwent a process of de-Latinization in the late-Nineteenth Century into the middle part of the Twentieth Century, this process did not incorporate any elements of Hinduism or Buddhism or any other false religion into its ceremonies.
Saint Francis Xavier made no concessions to paganism at all, as one can see in a letter that he wrote to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, his Father-General of the Society of Jesus, about the effects of paganism on the character of the Indian people.
My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the first place, the whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been able to see, is very barbarous; and it does not like to listen to anything that is not agreeable to its own manners and customs, which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God. You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long possession. (Saint Francis Xavier, Letter on the Missions, to St. Ignatius de Loyola, 1549.)
Saint Francis Xavier would have had no use for these passages from the General Instruction to the Roman Missal that permit de fact syncretism in the context of the putative offerings of the Protestant and Novus Ordo service:
395. Finally, if the participation of the faithful and their spiritual welfare requires variations and more thoroughgoing adaptations in order that the sacred celebration respond to the culture and traditions of the different peoples, then Bishops' Conferences may propose such to the Apostolic See in accordance with article 40 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy for introduction with the latter's consent, especially in the case of peoples to whom the Gospel has been more recently proclaimed.156 The special norms given in the Instruction On the Roman Liturgy and Inculturation157 should be carefully observed.
Regarding procedures to be followed in this matter, the following should be followed:
In the first place, a detailed preliminary proposal should be set before the Apostolic See, so that, after the necessary faculty has been granted, the detailed working out of the individual points of adaptation may proceed.
Once these proposals have been duly approved by the Apostolic See, experiments should be carried out for specified periods and at specified places. If need be, once the period of experimentation is concluded, the Bishops' Conference shall decide upon pursuing the adaptations and shall propose a mature formulation of the matter to the Apostolic See for its decision. . . .
398. The norm established by the Second Vatican Council—that in the liturgical reform there should be no innovations unless required in order to bring a genuine and certain benefit to the Church, and taking care that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing—must also be applied to efforts at the inculturation of the same Roman Rite. Inculturation, moreover, requires a necessary length of time, lest the authentic liturgical tradition suffer contamination due to haste and a lack of caution.
Finally, the purpose of pursuing inculturation is not in any way the creation of new families of rites, but aims rather at meeting the needs of a particular culture in such a way that adaptations introduced either in the Missal or in combination with other liturgical books are not at variance with the distinctive character of the Roman Rite. r and Bishops' Conferences
I have commented on these passages at length in my own G.I.R.M. Warfare, written between March of 2001 and August of 2002:
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. [What purports to be the] Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can be used as a laboratory of experimentation. The purpose of this experimentation, which is absolutely, unqualifiedly without any precedence in the nearly 2,000 year history of the Church, is to adapt the barbaric practices of pagan peoples directly into the Catholic Mass so as to satisfy what are alleged to be the desires of indigenous peoples to "feel" as though the liturgy reflects the "genius" of their history. This is why, you see, it is important to incorporate tribal practices of the barbaric peoples of Africa, of the Aztecs and Mayans and Incas of Latin America, of the bush people of Australia and New Zealand, and of the various Indian tribes of North America, to say nothing of the experiments involving "rock" Masses" and "folk" Masses and the practices of the New Age movement.
Thus, we have the phenomena of the [putative] Vicar of Christ accepting the gifts to be used in a Papal extravaganza Mass in Africa from half-naked women, of New Zealand tribesmen dressing down to do tribal dances in the Basilica of Saint Peter (as I commented at the time a few years ago, did these natives board the plane from New Zealand in their tribal attire?), of scandalous music being played at World Youth Day celebrations, of feathered Aztec dancers entertaining the congregation at the canonization of Saint Juan Diego in Mexico City. How can any right thinking Catholic stand by and believe that this is anything other than sacrilegious? Would any canonized saint in the history of the Church shut his mouth at these horrible spectacles?
Paragraph 395, therefore, authorizes a national episcopal conference to propose a scheme of adaptation to the Holy See [now in conciliar captivity]. If the Holy See approves the schema, then there is a period of experimentation. If the experimentation is deemed to be successful in the view of the conference of bishops in question, then the project is presented to the Holy See for final approval. And, naturally, there is going to be great pressure placed on the Holy See to approve the experiment or otherwise run the risk of being considered insensitive to the needs inspired by the genius of the peoples. This paragraph represents the authorization of the un-Christian and the bizarre as constituent elements of a [putative offering of] Catholic Mass.
The Mass is not supposed to be a plaything. How can anyone assert the new Mass represents a "rite" when experiments to adapt that "rite" can be conducted provisionally to obtain the "feedback" of the people? This is not a rite. This is an exercise in revolutionary egalitarianism. . . . Simply saying that inculturation doesn't create new "families of Rites" does not make it so. Of course the adaptations result, in a de facto manner, in new families of Rites. And there is no need to worry about contaminating the "authentic liturgical tradition" of the Roman Rite. It was contaminated by the Novus Ordo itself, which has done so much harm to the life of the Church and the sanctification of souls.
Lost in their own revolutionary world deformed by the violence done to logic and language by the New Theology, the conciliar revolutionaries keep on retreading and retooling their worst abominations and blasphemies. The "inculturation of the Gospel" called for by the "Second" Vatican Council and insisted upon quite insistently by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI exists side-by-side with the alleged "restoration of Tradition" and the forthcoming mass "conversions" of a group of Anglo-Catholics from one part of the One World Church to another. There's just a little something for everyone, including pagan rituals and false "spiritualities," in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Just a little something for everyone except God Himself as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through the true Church that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the pope.
What I wrote a few weeks ago is once again most relevant when we consider the situation of apostasy and betrayal in which we find ourselves:
This is the time in salvation history in which God has chosen for us to live. 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 and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, are sufficient for us to carry the crosses of this present moment. This is the worst time of apostasy and betrayal in the history of the Catholic Church. Some of the outrages and abominations taking places under the auspices of the counterfeit church of conciliarism would have shocked the sensibilities of some of the worst heretics of the past, including the Arians. This is, however, the time that God has chosen for us to live, which means that there is work for us to do as the consecrated slaves of His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.
We must remember that each one of our sins, no matter how seemingly trivial to us, has wounded Our Lord once in time and wounded His Mystical Body, the Church Militant on earth. This means that we have reparation to do for our sins and those of the whole world. While we must be concerned about the apostasies that have come forth from the counterfeit church of conciliarism as we resolve most firmly with the help of God's graces never to have anything to do with its false sect ever again, we must, of course, concentrate on getting home to Heaven as members of the true Church.
Although believing Catholics know that they must strive for Heaven with every beat of their hearts, consecrated as those hearts must be to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, it is good to be reminded that this is the goal upon which we must focus our efforts. God will take care of His Holy Church in His good time. While we must make sure to cleave to true bishops and true priests in the Catholic catacombs who make no concessions to conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of its false shepherds, we must also understand that the extent to which our work here on earth will help souls, including our own, depends upon the extent to which we seek to grow in virtue as we pursue sanctity, seeking to immerse ourselves in First and Last Things at all times so as to avoid the plagues of worldliness and naturalism into which Catholics across the vast expanse of the ecclesiastical divide succumb to most readily.
In this regard, therefore, one must remember that the beginning of the season of summer does not that there can be any relaxation in our efforts to make reparation for our own sins and for the offenses committed by the conciliarists as they engage in syncretist actions such as what took place in Chicago three weeks ago today. There are some simple Catholic measures we can take to help keep ourselves focused on our Last End: the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for all eternity:
1) Assisting at the daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered by true bishops and true priests who make no concessions to conciliarism or to its false shepherds. Realizing that this may not be possible for people who live in areas where the true Mass is not offered by these bishops and priests, it is especially incumbent upon those who do live reasonably nearby chapels administered by the modern-day Saint Athanasiuses to make whatever sacrifices they need to make to get to daily Mass without fail. Not possible for working fathers to do every day? All right. Mothers and their children can organize their schedules to go every day. This is not impossible. This is a matter of the will. Do we want to spend all eternity in Heaven? Really? Then isn't it a good idea to be present at the pathway to Heaven, the very unbloody re-presentation of the very Sacrifice of the Son to the Father in Spirit on Truth that was effected on the wood of the Holy Cross. And those who are encumbered only by attachments to a particular place and familiar surroundings (and not obligations of work or family) must detach themselves from the dust of this earth and move to where they can worship God every day at Mass and to have their immortal souls nourished by the worthy reception of His very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Most Blessed Sacrament in Holy Communion.
2) Eucharistic piety. We must spend time in prayer with Our Beloved in His Real Presence. No one prays "alone" before the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lady, Saint Joseph and all of the angels and saints are with those who may have no other living human being on earth with them as they kneel in front of a tabernacle where Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is truly present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
3) The daily Rosary. Each of us should make the effort to pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit. The Rosary is the weapon given by Our Lady to Saint Dominic de Guzman to fight heresy. Shouldn't we consider it our privilege now to pray it well--and many times--each day, imitating the love exhibited by little Francisco Marto, who prayed Rosary after Rosary to console the good God? And one of those Rosaries must be the family Rosary prayed on our knees.
4) True Devotion to Mary. Total Consecration to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through His Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart is path to liberate us from attachment even to whatever merit we earn from our prayers and indulgenced works and sufferings and sacrifices and penances and mortifications and humiliations.
5) The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We must wear our Brown Scapulars (after making sure that we have been enrolled properly in this mantle of Our Lady) and fulfill the conditions associated with being clothed in the garment of the Mother of God herself.
6) Home Enthronement to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Entrusting our homes to these Twin Hearts of matchless love helps us to be loving and patient and meek and humble with the very people with whom we live and with whom we want to share the glories of Heaven for all eternity, helping to replicate the Social Reign of Christ the King in our own homes.
7) Scriptural reading and Spiritual reading. We should make it a point to read from Holy Writ at last fifteen to twenty mintues a day, making time also to do so good spiritual reading, especially before going to sleep and before we make our Nightly Examination of Conscience. Dom Prosper Gueranger's The Liturgical Year is a particularly good reading for a family to do every day/
8) Weekly Confession. We bathe our bodies frequently. We must bathe our souls in the live-giving streams of the Most Precious Blood of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as they are poured out over us in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance.
9) Distributing blessed Miraculous Medals and Green Scapulars to those whom God's Holy Providence places in our paths each day. We never meet anyone by "accident" or "coincidence." You might be the only person who can help a wayward soul get home to Heaven. We must never be afraid of "offending" anyone by giving them sacramentals that Our Lady herself wants distributed to help bring people to her Divine Son through the true Church that He created upon the rock of Peter, the Pope. The Miraculous Medal was given by the Jewish convert Theodore Ratisbonne to his Catholic-hating brother, Alphonse, to whom Our Lady herself appeared in the Church of San Andrea delle Fratte on January 20, 1842, in Rome, Italy. Don't think that these sacramentals are not meant to be given to non-Catholics or to fallen away Catholics.
10) Keeping the Nine First Fridays and the Five First Saturdays. Our Lord told Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque about the promises associated with the nine First Fridays. Our Lady revealed the request for the First Saturdays, first to each of the children of Fatima and then the specific request to honor her Immaculate Heart on five First Saturdays to Lucia dos Santos on December 10, 1925:
Have compassion on the heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation. Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
There are five specific offenses against the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary for which the Five First Saturdays devotion was instituted, explained by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself to Sister Lucia on Ascension Thursday, May 29, 1930:
- Attacks upon Mary's Immaculate Conception
Attacks against her Perpetual Virginity
- Attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind
- For those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother
- For those who insult her directly in her sacred images.
11) Accepting the Will of God each day and in each circumstance with joy and love and gratitude. We must remember that there is nothing that can happen to us in this life that is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Lord to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and that caused His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart to be thrust through and through with Seven Swords of Sorrow. We must thank God for each cross we have been given. Each cross has been fashioned for us from all eternity by His very hands. Who are we to complain? The cross is the path of our sanctification and our salvation. We must have total Faith in God, the Faith of Abraham and the Faith of Our Lady herself when she gave her perfect fiat to His Holy Will. Total Faith, total confidence in God as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His true Church. There is never any cause to question God. He is Who is. He answers each of our prayers, although they may be with a resounding "NO!" at times for His greater honor and glory and for our own sanctification.
We do not need to know "why" this or that happens in our lives. All we need to know is that all things happen in God's Holy Providence and that while He does not will evil to be done, He permits it to be done so that good may be drawn out of it, so that we might see in some injustice done to us or calumny spoken about us the injustices and calumnies we have committed by means of our sins against His greater honor and glory and majesty, how we we have scandalized others and given such bad example time and time again. We must love God as He has revealed Himself through His true Church with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, never deceiving ourselves that there is some naturalistic way to "resolve" social problems. We must be champions of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen, not agents of naturalistic politicians or seek to subordinate the truths of the Faith to appease the enemies of God responsible for the blasphemies of conciliarism.
The F.O.B. (Friends of Baal) predominate in the world at present. Their day will be ended sooner or later. May it be our privilege as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary to plant at least a few seeds for their vanquishing as the fruit of the Triumph of that same Immaculate Heart and thus the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and her, Our Immaculate Queen.
We must cleave to true shepherds who make no concessions to conciliarism or the nonexistent legitimacy of its false shepherds. One will never find syncretism in a Catholic chapel. One will find plenty of it in the churches that are occupied by the apostates at the present time.
We must remember these words of Saint Athanasius in A Letter to His Flock:
"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...
"You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day.
"Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."
May Our Lady help us to remain faithful to the Faith without any compromise, considering our great privilege to plant a few seeds as the consecrated slaves of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, for the restoration of the Church Militant, now in her Passion, Death and Burial, and for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of herself, our Immaculate Queen.
Viva Cristo Rey!
Our Lady of the Rosary, us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.
The Seven Holy Brothers, pray for us.
Saints Rufina and Secunda, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints
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