Pope Benedict XVI, Meet Pope Paul IV
by Thomas A. Droleskey
No doubt: Our piety is here often a little superficial [has often proceeded a little superficially] and has given occasion for some misunderstanding. In this respect the critical question of modern consciousness will be able to challenge a salutary purification in the self-understanding of the Faith. It may suffice to cite an example, in the end, by which the crisis becomes especially obvious and by which the point [i.e. reason] for the purification, which is necessary, can once more, by summary, come to light. Eucharistic adoration or quiet visiting in church can, reasonably, not simply be thought of as conversation with the God who is thought present in a locally-circumscriptive manner. Statements such as "God lives here" and conversation with the locally-thought God based on such [thinking] express a mistake [misjudgment] of the christological event as well as the idea of God, which necessarily repels the thinking man who knows about the omnipresence of God. If one were to justify going to church on the grounds that one must visit the God who is only present there, this would indeed be a justification which would make no sense and would rightfully be rejected by modern man. Eucharistic adoration is in truth related to the Lord, who, through his historical life and suffering, has become "bread" for us, that is, who through his Incarnation and abandonment unto death has become the one who is open for us [the for-us-open-one]. Such praying, then, refers to the historical mystery of Jesus Christ, to the history of God with man, which [i.e. the history] approaches us in the sacrament. And it refers to the mystery of the Church: By referring to the history of God with men, it refers to the entire "Body of Christ," to the communion of the believing, in which and through which God comes to us. Thus praying in church and in closeness to the eucharistic sacrament is [i.e. means] a subsumption of our relation [relationship] to God into the mystery of the church as the concrete place where God meets us. And this is, after all, the point of our going to church anyway: the subsumption of myself into the history of God with man, in which exclusively I as man have my true human existence and which exclusively, for this reason, also opens up to me the true extent [i.e. range] of my meeting with God's eternal love. For this love does not merely look for an isolated Spirit which (as we have already said) would only be a specter in relation to the reality of man, but man entirely, in the body of his historicity, and it [i.e. the love] gives him, in the holy signs of the sacraments, [the] security of divine response, in which the open question of being human reaches its goal and finds its fulfillment. (View scanned cover image here, pp. 24-25 here, and pp. 26-27 here.)
The author of this quote, which appeared in a slightly different translation on the home page of this site yesterday morning, was none other than the then Father Joseph Ratzinger. Although some have tried to dismiss the quote above as nothing more than "internet folklore," the quote comes from a lecture that was given by Father Ratzinger in Salzburg, Austria, in 1965, that was turned into a book,
Die sakramentale Begründung christlicher Existenz. A traditional priest who had read the book in German verified the general gist of the quote I posted originally. Mr. David Hobson, whose OpusDeiAlert.com website contained that quote, found the full text at www.novusordowatch.org after I requested him to verify the authenticity of the quote so that the focus of this site's readers will be on the content of the then Father Ratzinger's remarks rather than on efforts to question their accuracy. There is no doubt but that this quote belongs to Pope Benedict XVI, who has said on any number of occasions that he takes back nothing of what he had written at any point in his priesthood.
There is no other way to start this particular commentary than by saying I have been pretty sick to my stomach in the past few days. This sickness has little to do with a recurring debilitating condition that has been given to me to help me make reparation for my sins by offering up the crosses involved to God through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. The sickness I have felt comes from examining more and more information concerning the writings of the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Truth must take us where it will. It serves no useful purposes for anyone to pretend that the errors and heresies extant in the current Holy Father's writings can be squared with the Catholic Faith. It is an exercise in self-delusion to pretend that serious problems do not plague the mind of Pope Benedict XVI.
It should have been evident in the past few months that I have been raising questions about the Holy Father's repeated contradictions of defined teachings and of matters taught by the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church and protected by the charism of infallibility. I have demonstrated how Cardinal Ratzinger's views on the ability of defined dogmas to be understood differently now than when they were promulgated is directly contrary to anathemas imposed by the First Vatican Council. Indeed, a number of examples have been provided. Many more could be cited. A traditional priest who is not a sedevacantist has enumerated some important errors concerning the Holy Father's views of Our Lord's Redemptive Act, among other things.
Up until recently, however, I thought it sufficient to let the Popes and the Councils of Tradition speak for themselves, comparing their statements and decrees with the words of Pope Benedict XVI. Catholics are smart enough to realize that two mutually contradictory statements both cannot be true. Catholics are smart enough to recognize that the Holy Father's mentor, Hans Urs von Balthasar, believed in the absolute absurdity that truth can contradict itself and that even the plain words of Our Lord Himself are no impediment to believing other than what the plain words themselves signify and have been taught by the Church perennially that they mean. Father Regis Scanlon, O.F.M., Cap., did a devastating analysis of Von Balthasar's illogic and absurdity in New Oxford Review seven years ago, something that I have quoted many times on this site in recent months and once each in The Remnant and Catholic Family News.
Similarly, Mr. James Larson was so alarmed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Eucharistic heresy, which is on full display in the quotation at the beginning of this commentary, that he called upon the late Pope John Paul II in February of 2004 to investigate the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Father Lawrence C. Smith noted that it was. of course, the former Karol Cardinal Wojtyla who had appointed Cardinal Ratzinger to the very office that had placed him under suspicion of heresy during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. No investigation would be forthcoming. Cardinal Ratzinger was elected on April 19, 2005, to succeed Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI has championed the errors of ecumenism and religious liberty ceaselessly in the past year, even going so far as to say that the secular state is a necessity, something that even the pagans of antiquity, no less the Church perennially, rejected as destructive of both personal and social order.
Pope Pius XI noted in Mortalium Animos that there is no such distinction between "fundamental" and "non-fundamental" truths of the Faith. A denial of one part of the Faith is a denial of it all. It is, though, particularly disturbing that the former Cardinal Ratzinger's views on the Eucharist, which are designed to circumvent the Council of Trent defined doctrine concerning Transubstantiation with Martin Luther's heresy of Consubstantiation, have received scant attention from even many traditionally-minded Catholics. There is a point, you see, where the views about Eucharistic adoration expressed by a thirty-eight year old German priest in 1965 lead into and form the foundation of what Mr. Larson explored in his February, 2004, article in Christian Order:
Having just read Cardinal Ratzinger’s most recently published book, God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (Ignatius Press, 2003), I offer the following quote from one of its chapters titled The Presence of the Lord in the Sacrament:
"The transformation happens, which affects the gifts we bring by taking them up into a higher order and changes them, even if we cannot measure what happens. When material things are taken into our body as nourishment, or for that matter whenever any material becomes part of a living organism, it remains the same, and yet as part of a new whole it is itself changed. Something similar happens here. The Lord takes possession of the bread and the wine; he lifts them up, as it were, out of the setting of their normal existence into a new order; even if, from a purely physical point of view, they remain the same, they have become profoundly different (p. 86)." [emphasis mine]
Those who read my article concerning the Rosmini rehabilitation in the February CO are familiar with my contention that the real reason behind this "superseding" of the 40 condemned propositions of Rosmini (which occurred under Pope Leo XIII) is the attempt to supersede the metaphysics of St. Thomas and, especially, to change the meaning of the Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation. Condemned proposition #29 (Denz. #1919) from Rosmini’s writings reads as follows:
"We think that the following conjecture is by no means at variance with Catholic doctrine, which alone is truth: In the Eucharistic sacrament the substance of bread and wine becomes the true flesh and true blood of Christ, when Christ makes it the terminus of His sentient principle, and vivifies it with His life; almost in that way by which bread and wine truly are transubstantiated into our flesh and blood, because they become the terminus of our sentient principle."
The similarities between these two passages are absolutely extraordinary. They should leave no doubt in our minds that the real agenda behind the Rosmini rehabilitation is the attempt to change our whole metaphysical understanding of reality by changing the way we understand the Eucharist.
In order to understand this agenda and its methodology it is extremely important to understand that it is being done from within classical terminology. Cardinal Ratzinger continues to use the terms "transubstantiation", "substance", and "change of substance", but is now employing these terms is ways that are meant to totally change the way the Church has previously used them.
And since the one place wherein the understanding of these terms is solemnly defined is the dogma of Transubstantiation, then the primary object of this "war against being and substance" is precisely this dogma.
Finally, it is equally important, if we are to successfully defend the traditional dogma, to understand that Transubstantiation necessitates a real physical change in the nature of bread and wine (the reader will note in the italicised portion of Cardinal Ratzinger’s quote that he specifically denies any such "physical" change).
In Thomistic Metaphysics (and absolutely integral to the traditional understanding of Transubstantiation) all physical properties or accidents inhere in a substance. Substance, in other words, is not some sort of real being "way down there" or "way out there", underneath and distinct from physical reality. It is absolutely integral to the real physical existence of any physical substance, whether it be bread or the Body of Christ. It is this substantial being which is truly "physically" changed through the miracle of Transubstantiation, the accidental properties of being alone remaining.
It is precisely this meaning of substance which Cardinal Ratzinger denies because he has succumbed to the secular world-view that all physical reality is reducible to quantified particles (molecules, atoms, etc.). He must therefore make "substance" and "substantial change" into realities which are "metaphysical" in a sense which is totally opposed to the Thomistic understanding, and also to the traditional understanding of the Eucharistic change of substance. In my Rosmini article I quoted the following from Cardinal Ratzinger’s God and the World, Believing and Living in Our Time (Ignatius Press, 2000):
"But this (transubstantiation) is not a statement of physics. It has never been asserted that, so to say, nature in a physical sense is being changed. The transformation reaches down to a more profound level. Tradition has it that this is a metaphysical process. Christ lays hold upon what is, from a purely physical viewpoint, bread and wine, in its inmost being, so that it is changed from within and Christ truly gives himself in them."
Since he does not believe that physical reality is really changed, then Cardinal Ratzinger must also refuse to believe that the entire substance of the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, the accidents alone remaining. And he also therefore believes, like Luther, that instead of Christ alone being there in His Substance, He is rather there now in the Bread and Wine.
In other words, Cardinal Ratzinger has embraced the heresy of consubstantiation.
Mr. Larson had written the following in the body of his February, 2004, article about the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's reversal of Pope Leo XIII's condemnation of the errors of Father Antonio Rosmini:
Neither Cardinal Ratzinger or anyone else can make the Magisterium contradict itself on matters of faith and morals. But he and others possess many subtle means (including private statements and writings, and also non-doctrinal elements in magisterial documents) of making it appear that this is not only possible, but that it has already happened. Worse yet, they can make Catholics believe it is not only permissible but that it is also perfectly sane Christianity.
Arch-Modernists like Gregory Baum immediately seized on the Rosmini rehabilitation to reinforce that very line of thinking and to bolster the heretical view of a fallible Magisterium. "We are bound to ask with Ratzinger," wrote the supercilious Baum, "whether there is an internal contradiction in the magisterium. Were the solemn declarations of Boniface VIII and the Council of Florence [regarding extra ecclesiam, nulla salus] wrong?" And having encouraged such questions, the Cardinal can hardly complain about the heresy they engender, or the loss of faith among Catholics which is the inevitable fruit of the filtering down of these errors. Baum concludes: "I would argue – these declarations were wrong. The magisterium has made mistakes. The church [sic], guided by the Spirit is forever learning" [National Catholic Reporter, 25/1/02]. May we not safely assume that this conclusion which the Modernist has greeted with conscious rejoicing, is also being assimilated viscerally by the average Catholic?
It would seem, on the other hand, that faithful and even militant Catholics cannot comprehend what is seen so easily by the enemy. How many "orthodox" Catholics have read the above-quoted passage from Cardinal Ratzinger on the Real Presence and have not blinked an eye or uttered a protest? The obvious answer to this question begs another: How close are we all to that mental and moral insanity which concludes that "To be is not to be"?
Papal Enquiry
On my table there are 14 books by Cardinal Ratzinger (3 of them being interviews). I believe that the distortions and contradictions of Catholic doctrine which they contain are extensive and overwhelmingly destructive to the faith of Catholics.
I personally have no idea whether these attacks upon Catholic truth are done out of ignorance or malice – whether the Cardinal is simply a benighted child of his times or some sort of conspiratorial mole. What I have certainly come to believe is that these errors must be exposed, and that a full enquiry into his personal orthodoxy is a must. This, of course, can only be conducted by the Pope. It is time for a clarion call for this enquiry from all who are faithful and can understand what is at stake. What we are witnessing is a direct assault upon our first love.
A papal inquiry is impossible now. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is now the Vicar of Christ. Or is he?
No, I am not making any declarations that the See of Peter is vacant. I hath not the authority or the power to do this. I am, though, stating that it is time for every serious Catholic to take a long, hard look at Pope Paul IV's Papal Bull Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio, issued on February 15, 1559. As one who ignored the plain words of Pope Saint Pius V's Quo Primum for the better part of a decade--and who hemmed and hawed whenever I was asked about it during lectures around the country in the 1990s while promoting the Immemorial Mass of Tradition under what I now accept to be the unjust and illicit conditions imposed on its offering in 1984 and 1988 by the Holy See, I have been looking at the plain words of Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio and fail to see how they can be dismissed without very serious study and reflection. Priests, men who have the Grace of State, need to study the heresies in the writings (which do not need to be promulgated solemnly while in office as the Supreme Pontiff to be considered deviations from the Faith) of Pope Benedict XVI and to then come face to face with the plain words of Pope Paul IV (the entire text of Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio is appended below):
6. In addition, by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define: that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, or, as has already been mentioned, any legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy: (i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless;
(ii) it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity (nor for it to be said that it has thus acquired validity) through the acceptance of the office, of consecration, of subsequent authority, nor through possession of administration, nor through the putative enthronement of a Roman Pontiff, or Veneration, or obedience accorded to such by all, nor through the lapse of any period of time in the foregoing situation;
(iii) it shall not be held as partially legitimate in any way;
(iv) to any so promoted to be Bishops, or Archbishops, or Patriarchs, or Primates or elevated as Cardinals, or as Roman Pontiff, no authority shall have been granted, nor shall it be considered to have been so granted either in the spiritual or the temporal domain;
(v) each and all of their words, deeds, actions and enactments, howsoever made, and anything whatsoever to which these may give rise, shall be without force and shall grant no stability whatsoever nor any right to anyone;
(vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power.
7. Finally, by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We also enact, determine, define and decree: that any and all persons who would have been subject to those thus promoted or elevated if they had not previously deviated from the Faith, become heretics, incurred schism or provoked or committed any or all of these, be they members of anysoever of the following categories: (i) the clergy, secular and religious;
(ii) the laity;
(iii) the Cardinals, even those who shall have taken part in the election of this very Pontiff previously deviating from the Faith or heretical or schismatical, or shall otherwise have consented and vouchsafed obedience to him and shall have venerated him;
(iv) Castellans, Prefects, Captains and Officials, even of Our Beloved City and of the entire Ecclesiastical State, even if they shall be obliged and beholden to those thus promoted or elevated by homage, oath or security; shall be permitted at any time to withdraw with impunity from obedience and devotion to those thus promoted or elevated and to avoid them as warlocks, heathens, publicans, and heresiarchs (the same subject persons, nevertheless, remaining bound by the duty of fidelity and obedience to any future Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals and Roman Pontiff canonically entering). To the greater confusion, moreover, of those thus promoted or elevated, if these shall have wished to prolong their government and authority, they shall be permitted to request the assistance of the secular arm against these same individuals thus promoted or elevated; nor shall those who withdraw on this account, in the aforementioned circumstances, from fidelity and obedience to those thus promoted and elevated, be subject, as are those who tear the tunic of the Lord, to the retribution of any censures or penalties.
8. The provisions of this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity are to take effect notwithstanding any Constitutions, Apostolic Ordinations, privileges, indults or Apostolic Letters, whether they be to these same Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates and Cardinals or to any others, and whatsoever may be their import and form, and with whatsoever sub-clauses or decrees they may have been granted, even "motu proprio" and by certain knowledge, from the fulness of the Apostolic power or even consistorially or otherwise howsoever; and even if they have been repeatedly approved and renewed,have been included in the corpus of the Law or strengthened by any capital conclaves whatsoever (even by oath) or by Apostolic confirmation or by anysoever other endorsements or if they were legislated by ourself. By this present document instead of by express mention, We specially and expressly derogate the provisions of all these by appropriate deletion and word-for-word substitution, so that these may otherwise remain in force.
9. In order, however, that this document may be brought to the notice of all whom it concerns, We wish it or a transcription of it (to which, when made by the hand of the undersigned Public Notary and fortified by the seal of any person established in ecclesiastical dignity, We decree that complete trust must be accorded) to be published and affixed in the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles in this City and on the doors of the Apostolic Chancery and in the pavilion of the Campus Florae by some of our couriers; [we] will [further] that a quantity of copies affixed in this place should be distributed, and that publication and affixing of this kind should suffice and be held as right, solemn and legitimate, and that no other publication should be required or awaited.
10. No one at all, therefore, may infringe this document of our approbation, re-introduction, sanction, statute and derogation of wills and decrees, or by rash presumption contradict it. If anyone, however, should presume to attempt this, let him know that he is destined to incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.
Given in Rome at Saint Peter's in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1559, 15th February, in the fourth year of our Pontificate
It is a sin against truth to dismiss these words cavalierly. They matter.
Oh, some will say, "Hey, the words mean what they say. No declaration is necessary. What's the need for a conference? Joseph Ratzinger is not the pope. It's as simple as that."
Others will say, "Why raise this issue now? You will only confuse people, perhaps lead them out of the Church into a group of sedevacantists with questionable orders. Why not wait until some future council or pope declares on this matter, remaining steadfast in prayer until then?"
Still others will say, "Look, I don't care what the words of Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio say. God would never permit there to be a vacancy in the See of Peter for nearly fifty years. This would be a denial of His promises to the Church that He would be with her always until the end of time."
To the first set of objections I reply as follows: This is a serious matter. Father Lawrence C. Smith raises very serious questions about the implications posed if Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio does indeed apply at this time. Where does one go to Holy Mass? Why don't the various communities that have come to a conclusion about a vacancy in the See of Peter--or who at least hold that it is a legitimate theological opinion--have intercommunion with each other? Who is the recognized authority to govern Catholics visibly? How do we know this? Father Smith's own probing questions, Facing Hard Questions, speak for themselves. Both of us are approaching this whole subject matter with fear and with trembling.
To the second set of objections I reply as follows: This issue is being raised now in light of the continued proliferation of errors emanating from the Holy See. What if the episcopal consecrations are invalid, as Father Anthony Cekada has written at length? What if no priestly ordinations are being performed by invalidly consecrated bishops? Am I really married to my wife? Am I really going to Holy Mass offered at the hands of Father Lawrence Smith or other priests ordained by bishops consecrated in the new rite? Have my sins been forgiven? If Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio applies, folks, I'd rather know now than at the moment of my Particular Judgment.
To the third set of objections I reply as follows: Yes, there appears be a conflict here, one that I cannot answer. There are various theological opinions, some relying upon the views expressed by various canonized saints of the centuries.(Yes, I have a list of these opinions.) It is clear that the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger dissents from a number of points of the Catholic Faith, including the necessity of converting non-Catholics to save their souls. He believes in the enduring validity of the Mosaic Covenant, which was superceded when Our Lord breathed His last on the wood of the Holy Cross and the curtain in the Temple was torn in two from to bottom. Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio says what it says. Our Lord's promises are what they are. Better minds belonging to holier souls than mine need to address this matter, which is why I must remain steadfast in prayer while seeking answers to the apparent contradiction here.
Thus, it is my belief, which is far, far from infallible that the issues involved--and the very probing questions raised by Father Smith--need to be addressed by priests in a serious, sober and scholarly manner that is bereft of all invective and suspicion. I, for one, am ready to admit that I have been wrong about a number of things, which will cost me working relationships with people I respect and admire, people whose dedication to Tradition is no less sincere or complete as that of those who believe with certainty that the See of Peter is vacant. I simply believe that a consideration of the dilemma in which we find ourselves needs to be undertaken by priests, men who have the Grace of State, to help us in the true Sheepfold of Christ to be guided safely home unto eternity. Our eternal salvation--and that alone--is what should drive us to seek the truth without recrimination.
All of this having been noted, however, I want to emphasize once again that I detest and deplore the denunciations of committed traditionalists such as Michael Matt and John Vennari and Christopher Ferrara and even the bishops and the priests of Society of Saint Pius X as "false traditionalists" by some in the sedevacantist community. No one will know until the General Judgment of the Living and the Dead on the Last Day the many sacrifices and hardships that these and many other traditional Catholics have endured in these almost unprecedented times in Church history. As Father Smith notes at the end of his set of questions, this matter goes to the very heart of the Catholic Faith. We cannot err even on one point in order to seem to arrive at an expedient solution of the crisis in which the Church finds herself in her human elements. Each traditional Catholic, even those yet in the indult, is trying to do the best he can to save his soul and that of his family as he deals with assaults from the world and denials of the perennial teaching of the Church by our shepherds. We need to pray for each other as we confront the hard realities that afflict Holy Mother Church in her human elements at present, keeping close to Our Lord in His Real Presence and to the Mother of God, especially through her Most Holy Rosary.
Additionally, there are priests and lay people who assist at the Novus Ordo Missae who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to explain to them how it is impossible for doctrine and worship to change as it has in the past forty years in the milieu of teaching and praxis created by conciliarism. Regardless of the validity or invalidity of he Novus Ordo Missae, we need to exhibit solicitude for those who have been swept up into believing that truth can contradict itself and that God is not offended in a form of worship designed to appease heretics, namely, the Protestants, and to strip the "bastions of the Faith" from every precinct of Catholic life.
Thus having angered people in every camp and satisfied no one in any camp, I close this reflection with a reminder once again that the Catholic Church is indeed the true Church founded by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope. The jaws of Hell will never prevail against her. She will last until the end of time. This does not mean, however, that the devil will not win a few battles in our own lives now and again, requiring us to accuse ourselves frequently in the Sacrament of Penance. And this does not mean that the devil, perhaps in the form of the Antichrist or one of his precursors, will not win a few battles now and again in the larger life of the Church in her human elements.
We must thus rely totally upon Our Lady, she who is our life, our sweetness, and our hope, as we give all of the problems and difficulties that beset the Church Militant at present to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. The final victory belongs to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May she help us to see our situation clearly and to act wisely in accord with that which will get us home to an unending Easter Sunday of glory in the Beatific Vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, 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 Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.
Saint Jerome, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, pray for us.
Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for us.
Saint Peter Canisius, pray for us.
Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.
Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Saint Robert Bellarmine, pray for us.
Saint Louis IX, King of France, pray for us.
Saint Henry, pray for us.
Saint Canute, pray for us.
Saint Edward the Confessor, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.
Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, pray for us.
Blessed Emperor Charles, pray for us.
Blessed Jacinta, pray for us.
Blessed Francisco, pray for us.
Sister Lucia, pray for us.
The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888
O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity. These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered. Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.
Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.
Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.
Response: As we have hoped in Thee.
Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.
Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.
Verse: Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls.
Response: Amen.
The Full Text of Pope Paul IV's Cum Ex Apostolatus, February 15, 1559
By virtue of the Apostolic office which, despite our unworthiness, has been entrusted to Us by God, We are responsible for the general care of the flock of the Lord. Because of this, in order that the flock may be faithfully guarded and beneficially directed, We are bound to be diligently watchful after the manner of a vigilant Shepherd and to ensure most carefully that certain people who consider the study of the truth beneath them should be driven out of the sheepfold of Christ and no longer continue to disseminate error from positions of authority. We refer in particular to those who in this age, impelled by their sinfulness and supported by their cunning, are attacking with unusual learning and malice the discipline of the orthodox Faith, and who, moreover, by perverting the import of Holy Scripture, are striving to rend the unity of the Catholic Church and the seamless tunic of the Lord.
1.In assessing Our duty and the situation now prevailing, We have been weighed upon by the thought that a matter of this kind [i.e. error in respect of the Faith] is so grave and so dangerous that the Roman Pontiff,who is the representative upon earth of God and our God and Lord Jesus Christ, who holds the fulness of power over peoples and kingdoms, who may judge all and be judged by none in this world, may nonetheless be contradicted if he be found to have deviated from the Faith. Remembering also that, where danger is greater, it must more fully and more diligently be counteracted, We have been concerned lest false prophets or others, even if they have only secular jurisdiction, should wretchedly ensnare the souls of the simple, and drag with them into perdition, destruction and damnation countless peoples committed to their care and rule, either in spiritual or in temporal matters; and We have been concerned also lest it may befall Us to see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel, in the holy place. In view of this, Our desire has been to fulfil our Pastoral duty, insofar as, with the help of God, We are able, so as to arrest the foxes who are occupying themselves in the destruction of the vineyard of the Lord and to keep the wolves from the sheepfolds, lest We seem to be dumb watchdogs that cannot bark and lest We perish with the wicked husbandman and be compared with the hireling.
2 Hence, concerning these matters, We have held mature deliberation with our venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; and, upon their advice and with their unanimous agreement, we now enact as follows:-
In respect of each and every sentence of excommunication, suspension, interdict and privation and any other sentences, censures and penalties against heretics or schismatics, enforced and promulgated in any way whatsoever by any of Our predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, or by any who were held to be such (even by their "litterae extravagantes" i.e. private letters), or by the sacred Councils received by the Church of God, or by decrees of the Holy Fathers and the statutes, or by the sacred Canons and the Constitutions and Apostolic Ordinations - all these measures, by Apostolic authority, We approve and renew, that they may and must be observed in perpetuity and, if perchance they be no longer in lively observance, that they be restored to it.
Thus We will and decree that the aforementioned sentences, censures and penalties be incurred without exception by all members of the following categories:
(i) Anysoever who, before this date, shall have been detected to have deviated from the Catholic Faith, or fallen into any heresy, or incurred schism, or provoked or committed either or both of these, or who have confessed to have done any of these things, or who have been convicted of having done any of these things.
(ii) Anysoever who (which may God, in His clemency and goodness to all, deign to avert) shall in the future so deviate or fall into heresy, or incur schism, or shall provoke or commit either or both of these.
(iii) Anysoever who shall be detected to have so deviated, fallen, incurred, provoked or committed, or who shall confess to have done any of these things, or who shall be convicted of having done any of these things.
These sanctions, moreover, shall be incurred by all members of these categories, of whatever status, grace, order, condition and pre-eminence they may be, even if they be endowed with the Episcopal, Archiepiscopal, Patriarchal, Primatial or some other greater Ecclesiastical dignity, or with the honour of the Cardinalate and of the Universal Apostolic See by the office of Legate, whether temporary or permanent, or if they be endowed with even worldly authority or excellence, as Count, Baron, Marquis, Duke, King or Emperor.
All this We will and decree.
3. Nonetheless, We also consider it proper that those who do not abandon evil deeds through love of virtue should be deterred therefrom by fear of punishment; and We are aware that Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals and Legates, Counts, Barons, Marquises, Dukes, Kings and Emperors (who ought to teach others and offer them a good example in order to preserve them in the Catholic Faith), by failing in their duty sin more gravely than others; since they not only damn themselves, but also drag with them into perdition and into the pit of death countless other people entrusted to their care or rule, or otherwise subject to them, by their like counsel and agreement.
Hence, by this Our Constitution which is to remain valid in perpetuity, in abomination of so great a crime (than which none in the Church of God can be greater or more pernicious) by the fulness of our Apostolic Power, We enact, determine, decree and define (since the aforesaid sentences, censures and penalties are to remain in efficacious force and strike all those whom they are intended to strike) that:
(i) each and every member of the following categories - Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals, Legates, Counts, Barons, Marquises, Dukes, Kings and Emperors - who:
(a) hitherto (as We have already said) have been detected, or have confessed to have, or have been convicted of having, deviated [i.e. from the Catholic Faith], or fallen into heresy or incurred schism or provoked or committed either or both of these;
(b) in the future also shall [so] deviate, or fall into heresy, or incur schism, or provoke or commit either or both of these, or shall be detected or shall confess to have, or shall be convicted of having [so] deviated, or fallen into heresy, or incurred schism, or provoked or committed either or both of these; (since in this they are rendered more inexcusable than the rest) in addition to the aforementioned sentences, censures and penalties, shall also automatically, without any exercise of law or application of fact, be thoroughly, entirely and perpetually deprived of:- their Orders and Cathedrals, even Metropolitan, Patriarchal and Primatial Churches, the honour of the Cardinalate and the office of any embassy whatsoever, not to mention both active and passive voting rights, all authority, Monasteries, benefices and Ecclesiastical offices, be they functional or sinecures, secular or religious of whatsoever Order, which they may have obtained by any concessions whatsoever, or by Apostolic Dispensations to title, charge and administration or otherwise howsoever, and in which or to which they may have any right whatsoever, likewise any whatsoever fruits, returns or annual revenues from like fruits, returns and revenues reserved for and assigned to them, as well as Countships, Baronies, Marquisates, Dukedoms, Kingships and Imperial Power;
(ii) that, moreover, they shall be unfit and incapable in respect of these things and that they shall be held to be backsliders and subverted in every way, just as if they had previously abjured heresy of this kind in public trial; that they shall never at any time be able to be restored, returned, reinstated or rehabilitated to their former status or Cathedral, Metropolitan, Patriarchal and Primatial Churches, or the Cardinalate, or other honour, any other dignity, greater or lesser, any right to vote, active or passive, or authority, or Monasteries and benefices, or Countships, Baronies, Marquisates, Dukedoms, Kingships and positions of Imperial power; but rather that they shall be abandoned to the judgement of the secular power to be punished after due consideration, unless there should appear in them signs of true penitence and the fruits of worthy repentance, and, by the kindness and clemency of the See itself, they shall have been sentenced to sequestration in any Monastery or other religious house in order to perform perpetual penance upon the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction;
(iii) that all such individuals also shall be held, treated and reputed as such by everyone, of whatsoever status, grade, order, condition or pre-eminence he may be and whatsoever excellence may be his, even Episcopal, Archiepiscopal, Patriarchal and Primatial or other greater Ecclesiastical dignity and even the honour of the Cardinalate, or secular, even the authority of Count, Baron, Marquis, Duke, King or Emperor, and as such must be avoided and must be deprived of the sympathy of all natural kindess.
4. By this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We further enact, determine, decree and define: that those who shall have claimed to have the right of patronage or of nominating suitable persons to Cathedral, Metropolitan, Patriarchal and Primatial Churches, or to Monasteries or other Ecclesiastical benefices which may be vacant by privation of this kind (in order that those which shall have been vacant for a long time may not be exposed to the unfit, but, having been rescued from enslavement to heretics, may be granted to suitable persons who would faithfully direct their people in the paths of justice), shall be bound to present other persons suitable to Churches, Monasteries and benefices of this kind, to Us, or to the Roman Pontiff at that time existing, within the time determined by law, or by their concordats, or by compacts entered into with the said See; and that, if they shall not have done so when the said period shall have elapsed, the full and free disposition of the aforesaid Churches, Monasteries and benefices shall by the fulness of the law itself devolve upon Us or upon the aforesaid Roman Pontiff.
5. By this Our Constitution, moreover, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We also enact, determine, decree and define: as follows concerning those who shall have presumed in any way knowingly to receive, defend, favour, believe or teach the teaching of those so apprehended, confessed or convicted: (i) they shall automatically incur sentence of excommunication;
(ii) they shall be rendered infamous;
(iii) they shall be excluded on pain of invalidity from any public or private office, deliberation, Synod, general or provincial Council and any conclave of Cardinals or other congregation of the faithful, and from any election or function of witness, so that they cannot take part in any of these by vote, in person, by writings, representative or by any agent;
(iv) they shall be incapable of making a will;
(v) they shall not accede to the succession of heredity;
(vi) no one shall be forced to respond to them concerning any business;
(vii) if perchance they shall have been Judges, their judgements shall have no force, nor shall any cases be brought to their hearing.;
(viii) if they shall have been Advocates, their pleading shall nowise be received;
(ix) if they shall have been Notaries, documents drafted by them shall be entirely without strength or weight;
(x) clerics shall be automatically deprived of each and every Church, even Cathedral, Metropolitan, Patriarchal, Primatial, and likewise of dignities, Monasteries, benefices and Ecclesiastical offices, and even, as has been already mentioned, of qualifications, howsoever obtained by them;
(xi) laymen, moreover, in the same way - even if they be qualified, as already described, or endowed with the aforesaid dignities or anysoever Kingdoms, Duchies, Dominions, Fiefs and temporal goods possessed by them;
(xii) finally, all Kingdoms, Duchies, Dominions, Fiefs and goods of this kind shall be confiscated, made public and shall remain so, and shall be made the rightful property of those who shall first occupy them if these shall be sincere in faith, in the unity of the Holy Roman Church and under obedience to Us and to Our successors the Roman Pontiffs canonically entering office.
6. In addition, by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define: that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, or, as has already been mentioned, any legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy: (i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless;
(ii) it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity (nor for it to be said that it has thus acquired validity) through the acceptance of the office, of consecration, of subsequent authority, nor through possession of administration, nor through the putative enthronement of a Roman Pontiff, or Veneration, or obedience accorded to such by all, nor through the lapse of any period of time in the foregoing situation;
(iii) it shall not be held as partially legitimate in any way;
(iv) to any so promoted to be Bishops, or Archbishops, or Patriarchs, or Primates or elevated as Cardinals, or as Roman Pontiff, no authority shall have been granted, nor shall it be considered to have been so granted either in the spiritual or the temporal domain;
(v) each and all of their words, deeds, actions and enactments, howsoever made, and anything whatsoever to which these may give rise, shall be without force and shall grant no stability whatsoever nor any right to anyone;
(vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power.
7. Finally, by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We also enact, determine, define and decree: that any and all persons who would have been subject to those thus promoted or elevated if they had not previously deviated from the Faith, become heretics, incurred schism or provoked or committed any or all of these, be they members of anysoever of the following categories: (i) the clergy, secular and religious;
(ii) the laity;
(iii) the Cardinals, even those who shall have taken part in the election of this very Pontiff previously deviating from the Faith or heretical or schismatical, or shall otherwise have consented and vouchsafed obedience to him and shall have venerated him;
(iv) Castellans, Prefects, Captains and Officials, even of Our Beloved City and of the entire Ecclesiastical State, even if they shall be obliged and beholden to those thus promoted or elevated by homage, oath or security; shall be permitted at any time to withdraw with impunity from obedience and devotion to those thus promoted or elevated and to avoid them as warlocks, heathens, publicans, and heresiarchs (the same subject persons, nevertheless, remaining bound by the duty of fidelity and obedience to any future Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals and Roman Pontiff canonically entering). To the greater confusion, moreover, of those thus promoted or elevated, if these shall have wished to prolong their government and authority, they shall be permitted to request the assistance of the secular arm against these same individuals thus promoted or elevated; nor shall those who withdraw on this account, in the aforementioned circumstances, from fidelity and obedience to those thus promoted and elevated, be subject, as are those who tear the tunic of the Lord, to the retribution of any censures or penalties.
8. The provisions of this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity are to take effect notwithstanding any Constitutions, Apostolic Ordinations, privileges, indults or Apostolic Letters, whether they be to these same Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates and Cardinals or to any others, and whatsoever may be their import and form, and with whatsoever sub-clauses or decrees they may have been granted, even "motu proprio" and by certain knowledge, from the fulness of the Apostolic power or even consistorially or otherwise howsoever; and even if they have been repeatedly approved and renewed,have been included in the corpus of the Law or strengthened by any capital conclaves whatsoever (even by oath) or by Apostolic confirmation or by anysoever other endorsements or if they were legislated by ourself. By this present document instead of by express mention, We specially and expressly derogate the provisions of all these by appropriate deletion and word-for-word substitution, so that these may otherwise remain in force.
9. In order, however, that this document may be brought to the notice of all whom it concerns, We wish it or a transcription of it (to which, when made by the hand of the undersigned Public Notary and fortified by the seal of any person established in ecclesiastical dignity, We decree that complete trust must be accorded) to be published and affixed in the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles in this City and on the doors of the Apostolic Chancery and in the pavilion of the Campus Florae by some of our couriers; [we] will [further] that a quantity of copies affixed in this place should be distributed, and that publication and affixing of this kind should suffice and be held as right, solemn and legitimate, and that no other publication should be required or awaited.
10. No one at all, therefore, may infringe this document of our approbation, re-introduction, sanction, statute and derogation of wills and decrees, or by rash presumption contradict it. If anyone, however, should presume to attempt this, let him know that he is destined to incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.
Given in Rome at Saint Peter's in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1559, 15th February, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.
