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                 July 18, 2008

Nothing About Which to be Shocked

by Thomas A. Droleskey

A world in the grip of the devil as a result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and cemented by the rise of Judeo-Masonry and the social revolutions wrought thereafter will degenerate more and more over the course of time. This process of degeneration has accelerated in the past four decades as the flow of graces into souls has been diminished as a result of the liturgical revolution wrought by conciliarism. The fact that baptized Catholics have degenerated into the state of barbarism from which their long ago ancestors in Europe were converted to the true Faith in the First Millennium (and into the early part of the Second Millennium) and have thus plunged headlong into the false attractions of naturalism is attributable to the lack of graces in the counterfeit church of conciliarism and to the worldly, Protestant and Judeo-Masonic spirit of the Novus Ordo service, which reinforces the influence of the world rather than fortifying Catholics to be soldiers in the Army of Christ.

This spirit of the world was very much on display yesterday, July 17, 2008, the Feast of the Humility of Mary, as aboriginal dancers "welcomed" Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI to the celebration of disorder and sacrilege that is "World Youth Day 2008" in Sydney, Australia. Just take a look:

Heavy metal, acid jazz, reggae, rap, Gospel, Afro-Caribbean, Gregorian Chants and Christian rock - hear it all at World Youth Day

Pope Benedict XVI may be the 'rock star' attraction of World Youth Day Sydney 2008 (WYD08), but many headline and emerging artists will also take centre stage during the week.

More than 165 outdoor concerts will take place during WYD08 week, 15 - 20 July, as part of the Youth Festival.

Headline acts include the likes of Damien Leith, Guy Sebastian, Paulini, the Tap Dogs, Diesel, Vanessa Amorosi and Australian Idol finalist Joseph Gateau.

They are joined by some of the world's leading Christian artists, multicultural wonders, eclectic bands and emerging local and international acts.

"Dance and song is just some of the ways we can express our faith," said Fr Mark Podesta, WYD08 spokesman.

"Apart from the Liturgy, they seem to be the most popular ways for young people with over 165 different acts performing during the week.

"WYD08 will be a great celebration, and by the fantastic array of musical genres that will be on stage, there will be something for everybody."

All Youth Festival acts are available to registered pilgrims and members of the public, and are listed at www.wyd2008.org/youthfestival

Highlights include:

· Resonaxis @ Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

A fusion of the secular and the sacred, acid jazz meets Gregorian Chant

Wednesday 16 July, 3.00pm - 3.45pm

· Metatrone @ Tumbalong Park

Catholic heavy metal band from Italy

Wednesday 16 July, 8.00pm - 9.00pm

· Scythian @ Palm Grove, Darling Harbour

Celtic, gypsy and Klezmer music with high energy rhythms

Wednesday 16 July, 9.00pm - 10.00pm

· World Youth 4 Justice concert by St Vincent de Paul @ Barangaroo

A concert raising awareness of the needs of Australia's poor and oppressed, addressing social poverty and injustice in the world featuring DIESEL, Vanessa Amorosi, Rick Price and The McClymonts

Thursday 17 July, 6.00pm - 9.00pm

· Amanda Vernon and Psalm6Teen @ Harbourside Amphitheatre

Up-tempo gospel to ballads and rap Amanda Vernon collaborates with Psalm6Teen an exciting father and son Christian rock band

Thursday 17 July, 6.30pm - 7.30pm

· Internationally renowned Christian act, the Matt Maher Band @ Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre (SCEC)

Christian pop rock from the USA with powerful teaching and prayer

Thursday 17 July, 7.30pm - 10.00pm

· Rexband @ Royal Hall of Industries

Contemporary Christian band from India incorporating Indian classical, western classical, rock, pop and R&B

Thursday 17 July, 8.00pm - 10.00pm

· Tony Melendez, the 'toe picker' @ Sydney Opera House Forecourt

Highly talented composer and musician, and an excellent guitarist with no arms, known as the 'toe picker'

Friday 18 July, 6.00pm - 6.40pm

· Receive The Power Live! featuring the Matt Maher Band, Hillsong United and Darlene Zscech @ Barangaroo

Friday 18 July, 7.00pm - 10.00pm

· Timothy Upshur and Jesus His Passion @ Sydney Opera House Forecourt

A multi sensory interpretation fusing Gregorian chant, jazz, drum rhythms and rich imagery of photographic artist Thomas Upshur

Friday 18 July, 7.00pm - 7.20pm

· Mustard Seeds Community Choir @ Tumbalong Park

African choral performance from Zimbabwe

Friday 18 July, 7.00pm - 7.40pm

Handel's Messiah performed by Australian Catholic Students Association, Artes Christi and Campion College Australia @ St Peter's, Surry Hills

One of the world's greatest choral works, performed with an 80 strong choir and orchestra

Friday 18 July, 8.30pm - 10.00pm

Judy Bailey Band @ Randwick Racecourse

Blend of Afro-Caribbean grooves with religious roots

Saturday 19 July, 5.00pm - 5.45pm

Tongan Dance @ Randwick Racecourse

Traditional and contemporary Tongan dance

Sunday 20 July, 2.40pm - 2.55pm

The WYD08 Youth Festival will take place from Tuesday 15 July - Sunday 20 July commencing at 2.00pm each day. The Youth Festival will also feature performing arts, visual arts exhibitions, debate, film, national and community gatherings, street performers, workshops and a Vocations Expo.

 

I know, I know. If only the "pope" knew about these travesties beforehand. Do not fear, however! Everything will be made "all right" when he distributes what purports to be Holy Communion on the tongue to those kneeling at an altar rail when he simulates the Novus Ordo service (with the "for you and for all" formula in the alleged words of consecration of the wine into the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ). The fact hundreds of thousands of young souls will have been exposed to the diabolical horrors of "rock music" and indecency and filth will mean nothing once a few chosen souls from out of the multitude receive what purports to be Holy Communion on the tongue while they are dealing. Sure. I got it. How silly of me to think that the agenda described above is from the devil and is designed to reinforce the ethos of the world in order to lead souls for all eternity, especially since Handel's Messiah is being thrown in for good measure, right? How silly of me.

Obviously, there is nothing about which to be shocked here. Conciliarism is apostasy. It has bred these kinds of outrageous displays against modest and decency and reverence in the name of the Catholic Faith as a matter of routine as they are of its (conciliarism's) very nature. While it is interesting to note that there has been no attenuation of these outrages now that the "pontificate" of "restoration" in its fourth year, there is nothing new and nothing terribly shocking about these travesties, which are, of course, simply standard fare in the world of the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Indeed, the more that one is removed from the world of apostasy and betrayal is the more that one can look on these sad spectacles that deceive so many souls as one would look on the events of the upcoming Lambeth Committee meeting of the "worldwide Anglican communion." Both are irrelevant to the Catholic Faith. Events such as "World Youth Day 2008" are merely useful to demonstrate, at least to those who are open to examining the evidence for themselves, that counterfeit church of conciliarism is deadly serious about making its "reconciliations" with the "principles of the new era inaugurated in 1789." Behold the results. Behold the horrors.

Similarly, there is nothing at all "shocking" about the fact that Christoph "Cardinal" Schonborn, the conciliar "archbishop" of Vienna, Austria, has bestowed "papal" knighthood upon a militantly pro-abortion Catholic politician in Austria, Renate Brauner. This is not shocking. This is not news. This is not even the first time that he has bestowed "papal" knighthood upon one who supports abortion. See for yourself:

(kreuz.net) The archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, has again shown his sympathy for politicians who support abortion.

On June 25 he decorated the socialistic deputy mayor of Vienna, Renate Brauner, with the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great.

The Order of St. Gregory is the fourth highest award for merits regarding the Roman-Catholic Church. It is directly granted by the Pope and is one of the highest decorations that is conferred on lay people.

The award was instituted by pope Gregory XVI. in 1831. The inaugural brief states that it is intended for “gentlemen of proven loyalty to the Holy See” who “are deemed worthy to be honoured by a public expression of esteem on the part of the Holy See”.

Renate Brauner was honoured with this order for alleged merits in the field of the Austrian health care system and for her collaboration with ecclesiastical institutions in that field.

Brauner is also a well-known defender of abortion which Second Vatican Council has called an “unspeakable crime”. Pro-abortion politicians are excommunicated by Canon Law.

During the bestowal of the Pontifical order upon Mrs Brauner, Cardinal Schönborn stated according to the official website of his archdiocese:

“It’s good if the finance minister in the city council has first been responsible for the health care system because, this way, we can be sure that the state money will be in good hands. “

Mrs Maria Hampel-Fuchs, former president of the Vienna parliament, said in her honorific speech:

“This bestowal of the Order is an expression of the good cooperation between the city of Vienna and the Catholic Church”.

In the year 2000, Austrian right-wing politician Herbert Haupt started a move in order to forbid aborting handicapped children after the third month of pregnancy.

Current law allows the elimination of disabled children until the beginning of contractions in the mother.

Mrs Brauner was among the politicians who opposed Haupt: “Hands off the abortion law!” – she said according to the information-service of the city of Vienna:

“I consider Haupt’s suggestion to reduce the period of the so-called eugenic indication, an attempt to call abortion into question. This becomes clear as Haupt challenges the exclusive responsibility of the woman to decide for or against an abortion.”

In autumn 2005 she said: “If we socialist women speak about lasting values, we mean lasting women’s values – abortion rights are part of it.”

This has already been the second time that cardinal Schönborn has bestowed the Order of St. Gregory to a promoter of abortion.

In November 2006 he honoured Gertraude Steindl, the secretary general of the ‘Aktion Leben Österreich’ – an Austrian pregnancy centre.

‘Aktion Leben’ is co-financed by the Austrian bishop conference and controversial because of its attitude toward abortion, contraception and abortifacient pills.

‘Aktion Leben’ is also defending the current Austrian abortion law and pregnant consultations that considers the decision to abort a legitimate outcome.
(Vienna Cardinal awards notorious pro-abortion official.)

 

Renate Brauner is the second pro-abort to be honored by Christoph Schonborn with a "papal" knighthood, and the conference of conciliar "bishops" in Austria co-finances an organization that supports both chemical and surgical baby-killing. Did the "papal" knighthood bestowed by Schonborn upon Gertraude Steindl matter to Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI? Has he upbraided or removed his good friend and protege, Christoph Schonborn? Quite the contrary, Schonborn has done it again, knowing that he acts with complete "papal" approval. What's new here? What's new at all?

Remember, my friends, that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI approved the "papal" knighting of a pro-abortion Talmudic rabbi just last year, making sure that the conciliar Vatican's permanent observer at the United Masonic Nations organization, "Archbishop" Celestino Migliore, was present at the ceremony of his investiture in Boston, Massachusetts (Continuing to Knight Infidels.)

 

Interfaith Pioneer Klenicki Knighted By Pope For Historic Contributions To Jewish-Catholic Relations

New York, NY, August 27, 2007 … Rabbi Leon Klenicki, the Anti-Defamation League's Interfaith Affairs Director Emeritus, has been knighted by Pope Benedict XVI for his historic contributions in creating positive relationships between Catholics and Jews around the world.  Rabbi Klenicki was made a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great at a ceremony at the Vatican's Mission to the United Nations, presided by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston.

Rabbi Klenicki becomes the second ADL interfaith official to receive papal knighthood. In 1986, the late Dr. Joseph L. Lichten became the first American Jew to receive the honor, from Pope John Paul II. 

A renowned scholar and theologian, Rabbi Klenicki joins a select group of living Jews, and only a handful of rabbis, who have been so honored by the Vatican.  Klenicki is the author and co-author of hundreds of books and papers dealing with the theological and practical aspects of improving relations between Catholics and Jews after nearly two millennia of tragedy.

"I am deeply honored by Pope Benedict XVI for my nomination as a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great," said Rabbi Klenicki, who recalled his many meetings through the years with the future pope -- then Cardinal Ratzinger -- whom he praised for "the depth and breadth of his knowledge."

"I cannot describe how much this honor means to me," he said.  "It is recognition of the importance of the interfaith dialogue that has been my vocation and my passion for more than 30 years."

Rabbi Klenicki, a native of Argentina, thanked his high school and university teachers, his family, and his wife, Myra Cohen, whom he called his inspiration.  He also thanked ADL "for the opportunities it has given me to spend more than 30 years in the field of interfaith work."

 "We are extremely proud that Rabbi Klenicki's decades of work to help reconcile the Catholic and Jewish people has been recognized by Pope Benedict XVI with this special honor," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.  "Leon is a true pioneer in interfaith dialogue and education. I can think of no better person to deserve this honor."

Leon Klenicki received a Rabbinical diploma in 1967 from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.  In September 1967, Klenicki returned to Buenos Aires, where he accepted the position of Director of the Latin American Office of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He helped develop Reform Judaism in Latin America and lectured widely at the main Latin American Jewish centers. Rabbi Klenicki served as an advisor on interfaith affairs for the DAIA, the main Jewish organization in Argentina.

In October 1973, Rabbi Klenicki joined ADL as head of the Jewish-Catholic Relations Department. He became Director of ADL's Department of Interfaith Affairs in 1984, and ADL's Co-Liaison to the Vatican.  He held this position until his retirement in January 2001.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recommended to all U.S. bishops and cardinals that they observe Holocaust  Memorial Day by using as a liturgy the service prepared by Rabbi  Klenicki and Dr. Eugene J. Fisher, "From Desolation to Hope: An Interreligious Holocaust Memorial Service."  In May 2001, Rabbi Klenicki was honored by the Holy See's Commission for Interreligious Relations with Judaism for his contributions to the interfaith dialogue.

Attending yesterday's ceremony at the Vatican Mission were leading Catholic and Jewish interfaith officials including Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's Permanent Observer to the United Nations and Father James Massa, Executive Director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (Interfaith Pioneer Honored.)

 

Have I missed the calls for Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's "resignation" over Leon Klenicki's "papal" knighthood?

Why should we be "shocked," therefore, that the City Council of the City of San Francisco, California, passes a resolution denouncing the Catholic Church for opposition to acts in violation of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments when the counterfeit church of of conciliarism exalts the the errors of religious liberty and separation of Church and State and bestow "papal" honors upon people who support the very moral evils of the day that it is "condemned" for opposing?

How is it possible to assert that one opposes various moral evils while honoring those who promote them under cover of of law and in every fabric of our popular culture?

How is it possible to expect those steeped in unrepentant acts of perversity to respect the authority of what they think, albeit erroneously, to be the Catholic Church when many of the men considered to be its "officials" give a "wink and a nod" constantly to the promotion of evil under cover of law despite all of their opposition to the "dictatorship of relativism?" There is nothing more relativistic that conciliarism's rejection of the very nature of dogmatic truth, which is a rejection of the very nature of God Himself.

Conciliarism's rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King places it in league with Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry, both of which are the work of the devil himself, contributing to the further degeneration of men and nations in many inter-related ways, something about which Pope Leo XIII warned us quite specifically in Custodi Di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892, and Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:

Everyone should avoid familiarity or friendship with anyone suspected of belonging to masonry or to affiliated groups. Know them by their fruits and avoid them. Every familiarity should be avoided, not only with those impious libertines who openly promote the character of the sect, but also with those who hide under the mask of universal tolerance, respect for all religions, and the craving to reconcile the maxims of the Gospel with those of the revolution. These men seek to reconcile Christ and Belial, the Church of God and the state without God  (Pope Leo XIII, Custodi Di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892.)

God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)

 

We are looking at what happens in a world where most people, including most baptized Catholics, are devoid of contact with the Most Precious Blood of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as Father Frederick Faber made this exact point in The Precious Blood:

It is plain that some millions of sins in a day are hindered by the Precious Blood; and this is not merely a hindering of so many individual sins, but it is an immense check upon the momentum of sin. It is also a weakening of habits of sin, and a diminution of the consequences of sin. If then, the action of the Precious Blood were withdrawn from the world, sins would not only increase incalculably in number, but the tyranny of sin would be fearfully augmented, and it would spread among a greater number of people. It would wax so bold that no one would be secure from the sins of others. It would be a constant warfare, or an intolerable vigilance, to preserve property and rights. Falsehood would become so universal as to dissolve society; and the homes of domestic life would be turned into wards either of a prison or a madhouse. We cannot be in the company of an atrocious criminal without some feeling of uneasiness and fear. We should not like to be left alone with him, even if his chains were not unfastened. But without the Precious Blood, such men would abound in the world. They might even become the majority. We know of ourselves, from glimpses God has once or twice given us in life, what incredible possibilities of wickedness we have in our souls. Civilization increases these possibilities. Education multiplies and magnifies our powers of sinning. Refinement adds a fresh malignity. Men would thus become more diabolically and unmixedly bad, until at last earth would be a hell on this side of the grave. There would also doubtless be new kinds of sins and worse kinds. Education would provide the novelty, and refinement would carry it into the region of the unnatural. All highly-refined and luxurious developments of heathenism have fearfully illustrated this truth. A wicked barbarian is like a beast. His savage passions are violent but intermitting, and his necessities of sin do not appear to grow. Their circle is limited. But a highly-educated sinner, without the restraints of religion, is like a demon. His sins are less confined to himself. They involve others in their misery. They require others to be offered as it were in sacrifice to them. Moreover, education, considered simply as an intellectual cultivation, propagates sin, and makes it more universal.

The increase of sin, without the prospects which the faith lays open to us, must lead to an increase of despair, and to an increase of it upon a gigantic scale. With despair must come rage, madness, violence, tumult, and bloodshed. Yet from what quarter could we expect relief in this tremendous suffering? We should be imprisoned in our own planet. The blue sky above us would be but a dungeon-roof. The greensward beneath our feet would truly be the slab of our future tomb. Without the Precious Blood there is no intercourse between heaven and earth. Prayer would be useless. Our hapless lot would be irremediable. It has always seemed to me that it will be one of the terrible things in hell, that there are no motives for patience there. We cannot make the best of it. Why should we endure it? Endurance is an effort for a time; but this woe is eternal. Perhaps vicissitudes of agony might be a kind of field for patience. But there are no such vicissitudes. Why should we endure, then? Simply because we must; and yet in eternal things this is not a sort of necessity which supplies a reasonable ground for patience. So in this imaginary world of rampant sin there would be no motives for patience. For death would be our only seeming relief; and that is only seeming, for death is any thin but an eternal sleep. Our impatience would become frenzy; and if our constitutions were strong enough to prevent the frenzy from issuing in downright madness, it would grow into hatred of God, which is perhaps already less uncommon than we suppose.

An earth, from off which all sense of justice had perished, would indeed be the most disconsolate of homes. The antediluvian earth exhibits only a tendency that way; and the same is true of the worst forms of heathenism. The Precious Blood was always there. Unnamed, unknown, and unsuspected, the Blood of Jesus has alleviated every manifestation of evil which there has ever been just as it is alleviating at this hour the punishments of hell. What would be our own individual case on such a blighted earth as this? All our struggles to be better would be simply hopeless. There would be no reason why we should not give ourselves up to that kind of enjoyment which our corruption does substantially find in sin. The gratification of our appetites is something; and that lies on one side, while on the other side there is absolutely nothing. But we should have the worm of conscience already, even though the flames of hell might yet be some years distant. To feel that we are fools, and yet lack the strength to be wiser--is not this precisely the maddening thing in madness? Yet it would be our normal state under the reproaches of conscience, in a world where there was no Precious Blood. Whatever relics of moral good we might retain about us would add most sensibly to our wretchedness. Good people, if there were any, would be, as St. Paul speaks, of all men the most miserable; for they would be drawn away from the enjoyment of this world, or have their enjoyment of it abated by a sense of guilt and shame; and there would be no other world to aim at or to work for. To lessen the intensity of our hell without abridging its eternity would hardly be a cogent motive, when the temptations of sin and the allurements of sense are so vivid and strong.

What sort of love could there be, when we could have no respect? Even if flesh and blood made us love each other, what a separation death would be! We should commit our dead to the ground without a hope. Husband and wife would part with the fearfullest certainties of a reunion more terrible than their separation. Mothers would long to look upon their little ones in the arms of death, because their lot would be less woeful than if they lived to offend God with their developed reason and intelligent will. The sweetest feelings of our nature would become unnatural, and the most honorable ties be dishonored. Our best instincts would lead us into our worst dangers. Our hearts would have to learn to beat another way, in order to avoid the dismal consequences which our affections would bring upon ourselves and others. But it is needless to go further into these harrowing details. The world of the heart, without the Precious Blood, and with an intellectual knowledge of God, and his punishments of sin, is too fearful a picture to be drawn with minute fidelity.

But how would it fare with the poor in such a world? They are God's chosen portion upon the earth. He chose poverty himself, when he came to us. He has left the poor in his place, and they are never to fail from the earth, but to be his representatives there until the doom. But, if it were not for the Precious Blood, would any one love them? Would any one have a devotion to them, and dedicate his life to merciful ingenuities to alleviate their lot? If the stream of almsgiving is so insufficient now, what would it be then? There would be no softening of the heart by grace; there would be no admission of of the obligation to give away in alms a definite portion of our incomes; there would be no desire to expiate sin by munificence to the needy for the love of God. The gospel makes men's hearts large;and yet even under the gospel the fountain of almsgiving flows scantily and uncertainly. There would be no religious orders devoting themselves with skilful concentration to different acts of spiritual and corporal mercy. Vocation is a blossom to be found only in the gardens of the Precious Blood. But all this is only negative, only an absence of God. Matters would go much further in such a world as we are imagining.

Even in countries professing to be Christian, and at least in possession of the knowledge of the gospel, the poor grow to be an intolerable burden to the rich. They have to be supported by compulsory taxes; and they are in other ways a continual subject of irritated and impatient legislation. Nevertheless, it is due to the Precious Blood that the principle of supporting them is acknowledged. From what we read in heathen history--even the history of nations renowned for political wisdom, for philosophical speculation, and for literary and artistic refinement--it would not be extravagant for us to conclude that, if the circumstances of a country were such as to make the numbers of the poor dangerous to the rich, the rich would not scruple to destroy them, while it was yet in their power to do so. Just as men have had in France and England to war down bears and wolves, so would the rich war down the poor, whose clamorous misery and excited despair should threaten them in the enjoyment of their power and their possessions. The numbers of the poor would be thinned by murder, until it should be safe for their masters to reduce them into slavery. The survivors would lead the lives of convicts or of beasts. History, I repeat, shows us that this is by no means an extravagant supposition.

Such would be the condition of the world without the Precious Blood. As generations succeeded each other, original sin would go on developing those inexhaustible malignant powers which come from the almost infinite character of evil. Sin would work earth into hell. Men would become devils, devils to others and to themselves. Every thing which makes life tolerable, which counteracts any evil, which softens any harshness, which sweetens any bitterness, which causes the machinery of society to work smoothly, or which consoles any sadness--is simply due to the Precious Blood of Jesus, in heathen as well as in Christian lands. It changes the whole position of an offending creation to its Creator. It changes, if we may dare in such a matter to speak of chang, the aspect of God's immutable perfections toward his human children. It does not work merely in a spiritual sphere. It is not only prolific in temporal blessings, but it is the veritable cause of all temporal blessings whatsoever. We are all of us every moment sensibly enjoying the benignant influence of the Precious Blood. Yet who thinks of all this? Why is the goodness of God so hidden, so imperceptible, so unsuspected? Perhaps because it is so universal and so excessive, that we should hardly be free agents if it pressed sensibly upon us always. God's goodness is at once the most public of all his attributes, and at the same time the most secret. Has life a sweeter task than to seek it, and to find it out?

Men would be far more happy, if they separated religion less violently from other things. It is both unwise and unloving to put religion into a place by itself, and mark it off with an untrue distinctness from what we call worldly and unspiritual things. Of course there is a distinction, and a most important one, between them; yet it is easy to make this distinction too rigid and to carry it too far. Thus we often attribute to nature what is only due to grace; and we put out of sight the manner and degree in which the blessed majesty of the Incarnation affects all created things. But this mistake is forever robbing us of hundreds of motives for loving Jesus. We know how unspeakably much we owe to him; but we do not see all that it is not much we owe him, but all, simply and absolutely all. We pass through times and places in life, hardly recognizing how the sweetness of Jesus is sweetening the air around us and penetrating natural things with supernatural blessings.

Hence it comes to pass that men make too much of natural goodness. They think too highly of human progress. They exaggerate the moralizing powers of civilization and refinement, which, apart from grace, are simply tyrannies of the few over the many, or of the public over the individual soul. Meanwhile they underrate the corrupting capabilities of sin, and attribute to unassisted nature many excellences which it only catches, as it were by the infection, by the proximity of grace, or by contagion, from the touch of the Church. Even in religious and ecclesiastical matters they incline to measure progress, or test vigor, by other standards rather than that of holiness. These men will consider the foregoing picture of the world without the Precious Blood as overdrawn and too darkly shaded. They do not believe in the intense malignity of man when drifted from God, and still less are they inclined to grant that cultivation and refinement only intensify still further this malignity. They admit the superior excellence of Christian charity; but they also think highly of natural philanthropy. But has this philanthropy ever been found where the indirect influences of the true religion, whether Jewish or Christian, had not penetrated? We may admire the Greeks for their exquisite refinement, and the Romans for the wisdom of their political moderation. Yet look at the position of children, of servants, of slaves, and of the poor, under both these systems, and see if, while extreme refinement only pushed sin to an extremity of foulness, the same exquisite culture did not also lead to a social cruelty and an individual selfishness which mae life unbearable to the masses. Philanthropy is but a theft from the gospel, or rather a shadow, not a substance, and as unhelpful as shadows are want to be. (Father Frederick Faber, The Precious Blood, published originally in England in 1860, republished by TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 53-59.)

 

Conciliarism's embrace of the world and of those who support one moral evil after another is not an accident. It is the direct result of its false "reconciliation" with the revolutionary principles of the naturalistic, anti-Incarnational and semi-Pelagian world of Modernity, as Joseph Ratzinger himself explained to us in Principles of Catholic Theology:

Let us be content to say here that the text [of Gaudium et Spes] serves as a countersyllabus and, as such, represents on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789.(Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology, p. 382.)

 

We must be about the business of shielding ourselves from all of the decaying rot that emanates from the counterfeit church of conciliarism. As has been noted on this site frequently in the past two years, we are grateful for the courage and fidelity of the true bishops and priests who have maintained the Faith and glorified God in the Immemorial Mass of Tradition without making any concessions to conciliarism or to its false shepherds. One will never hear "rock" music or see aboriginal dancing in the true Catholic catacombs, and one will never be confused by the errors of Gallicanism by being told that the Catholic Church could for one moment be in any way responsible for the horrors on full display at "World Youth Day 2008" and that are represented by the repeated "knighting" of those who are, truth be told, just as much enemies of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen as the conciliarists themselves.

May we have the true humility of Our Lady to serve God without complaint and by relying in humility upon her maternal intercession from Heaven as we seek to give to her Divine Son's Most Sacred Heart our prayers and penances and acts of reparation (for our sins and those of the whole world) through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart in this time of apostasy and betrayal, remembering also to have the humble bearing of Saint Camillus de Lellis, whom God had to humiliate before he reformed his life, in seeing the Divine impress in everyone we meet and treating them as we would treat Our Lord Himself. And to truly help others to flee from the errors of the moment and to gain Heaven we must storm Heaven each day with as many Rosaries as our states-in-life permit, imitating little Francisco Marto, who loved to "console the good God" with his Rosaries.

The final victory belongs to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In this victory we must place our confidence as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through that same Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

 

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for 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.

Saint Camillus de Lellis, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints

 





© Copyright 2008, Thomas A. Droleskey. All rights reserved.