Pope Leo X and Anti-Leo X
by Thomas A. Droleskey
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is an apostate. He is a betrayer of Christ the King and the Catholic Faith. He is a mortal enemy of the souls redeemed by the shedding of the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How any Catholic can at this late date consider this man a member of the Catholic Church who is faithful to the Deposit of Faith that Our Lord has entrusted exclusively to His Mystical Bride without any shadow of change or obscurity is a great mystery.
Does this sound familiar? It should. It's the first paragraph from
Saint Peter and Anti-Peter, which examined the apostasy represented by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's visit to the Talmudic synagogue in Rome on Sunday, January 17, 2010. That first paragraph is relevant again in light of the announcement made three days ago by Walter "Cardinal" Kasper, the President of the "Pontifical" Council for Promoting Christian Unity, that the false "pontiff" will be visiting the Lutheran Church of Rome:
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will visit a Lutheran church in Rome for a German-language service in which both he and a Lutheran pastor will give homilies.
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Vatican press office today confirmed that the visit -- previously announced -- will take place March 14.
The president of the unity council, Cardinal Walter Kasper, will participate in the visit.
Rome's Lutheran community had invited the Pope in 2008 to mark the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit to the church. The Polish Pontiff's 1983 visit commemorated the 550th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther (1483-1546).
According to the Lutheran community, Benedict XVI's homily will be on the biblical passage from John: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
For his part, Pastor Jens-Martin Kruse will analyze the first chapter of the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, which speaks about Christ's consolation in moments of tribulation.
In statements to the NEV agency, Kruse noted his sense of the importance of the visit: "To have the Bishop of Rome among us is a good sign for ecumenism in our city."
Earlier this month, the Holy Father gave a special greeting to a U.S. Lutheran delegation visiting the Vatican. On that occasion, he said he has "been encouraged that relations between Catholics and Lutherans have continued to grow, especially at the level of practical collaboration in the service of the Gospel."
Last year, the 10th anniversary of the joint Catholic-Lutheran declaration on justification was celebrated. (Benedict XVI to Visit Lutheran Church in Rome)
Ah, yes, what an auspicious occasion. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is going to visit the Lutheran Church of Rome to commemorate the twenty-sixth anniversary of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II's visit there on Sunday, December 11, 1983, which was itself a commemoration of the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of the hideous man who overthrew the Social Reign of Christ the King by engaging in a violent, bloody, sin-stained revolution against the Divine Plan that God Himself instituted to effect man's return to Him through His Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order, Father Martin Luther, O.S.A. (Those who read either Italian or German or both can review Wojtyla/John Paul II's remarks on that occasion by clicking on one or both of these respective links,German, Italian).
This is what Wojtyla/John Paul II said to representatives of the American Lutheran Church on Monday, April 29, 1985:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I want to thank you, first of all, for coming to see me. I have met the Presiding Bishop of the American Lutheran Church, Bishop David W. Preus. Please extend my cordial greetings to him. I am happy now to welcome to Rome the Vice-President, the Reverend Lloyd Svendsbye, and this prominent group of Lutheran laity, led by Mr and Mrs Arley Bjella of the Lutheran Brotherhood Fraternal Benefit Society.
From accounts given to me by American Catholic bishops, I know the good relations that have been developing between Lutherans and Catholics in the United States. Your visit today has the effect of adding to this growing relationship. The laity have an important role in the quest for unity. “The concern for restoring unity”, according to the Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio, 5), “involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike. It extends to everyone according to the talent of each, whether it be exercised in daily Christian living or in theological and historical studies”.
Our commitment is always to Christ, and for this reason we must always strive for unity with one another in Christ. We do this through prayer, dialogue, and collaboration. When I visited the Lutheran church in Rome in December 1983, I said that “I have come because in these days the Spirit of God has urged us, through the ecumenical dialogue, to the quest for the full unity among Christians”. I feel that the same motivation has led you here today. We live in an extraordinary time of grace. A time in which the Spirit is transforming the old hostilities of the past into new patterns of reconciliation so that the prayer of Christ for the unity of his followers (Cfr. Io. 17) may be fulfilled. It is the task of all of us to pray and work so that Christians everywhere will be responsive to the grace of the Spirit leading them to unity.
Please accept my best wishes and the assurance of my prayers during his holy Easter season. “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen” (1 Cor. 16, 21). (To the representatives of the American Lutheran Church).
"A time in which the Spirit is transforming the old hostilities of the past into new patterns of reconciliation so that the prayer of Christ for the unity of his followers may be fulfilled"? Was the Lutheran revolution against the visible society instituted by God Himself to teach and to sanctify men until the end of time merely a matter a "hostilities" that can be "transformed" by some nebulous "spirit" into a "unity" that is not premised upon an unconditional conversion of Lutherans to the Catholic Church as they abjure their Lutheran errors? Martin Luther and his false theological concepts are proximately responsible for the rise of monarchical absolutism and the rationalist reaction to that absolution, which has in its own turn led to the rise of the tyranny of majoritarianism in "democratic" states and to what must come of such majoritarianism, statism. Lutheranism gave birth to a theological relativism that certainly did transform itself over the course of time, right into over thirty-three thousand (you read that right, 33,000) different Protestant sects, each with its own set of beliefs. If there is no recognition of the truth of Papal Primacy and Papal Infallibility, my friend, everyone is his own pope or popessa.
Many of Martin Luther's false theological and liturgical principles have made their way right into the praxis of the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo worship service.
Luther was in favor of a liturgy offered facing the people.
Luther believed that the minister merely presided over the liturgy, that he was not acting in persona Christi.
Luther desired that the altar be changed into a table.
Luther's disciple, Martin Bucer, supported what was called "Communion in the hand" to eradicate lingering Catholic belief in the Real Presence in the minds of those who apostatized and joined the "evangelicals:"
As, therefore, every superstition of the Roman AntiChrist is to be detested, and the simplicity of Christ, and the Apostles, and the ancient Churches, is to be recalled, I should wish that pastors and teachers of the people should be commanded that each is faithfully to teach the people that it is superstitious and wicked to think that the hands of those who truly believe in Christ are less pure than their mouths; or that the hands of the ministers are holier than the hands of the laity; so that it would be wicked, or less fitting, as was formerly wrongly believed by the ordinary folk, for the laity to receive these sacraments in the hand: and therefore that the indications of this wicked belief be removed ----- as that the ministers may handle the sacraments, but not allow the laity to do so, and instead put the sacraments into the mouth ----- which is not only foreign to what was instituted by the Lord but offensive to human reason.
In that way good men will be easily brought to the point of all receiving the sacred symbols in the hand, conformity in receiving will be kept, and there will be safeguards against all furtive abuse of the sacraments. For, although for a time concession can be made to those whose faith is weak, by giving them the Sacraments in the mouth when they so desire, if they are carefully taught they will soon conform themselves to the rest of the Church and take the Sacraments in the hand. (Michael Davies on Communion in the hand)
Martin Luther was a lecher who never "felt" forgiven when he availed himself of the Sacrament of Penance. He returned to his sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandment, convincing himself that he was incapable of reforming his life in cooperation with the Sanctifying Grace as man is but a "dung heap covered with a few snow flakes of grace," thoroughly corrupted, as opposed to being wounded, by Original Sin. The best that man could do, Luther contended, was to express sorrow in his heart for his sins, knowing that his "confession of faith" on his lips and in his heart in the "Name of the Lord Jesus" would have his sins "covered up" by Our Blessed and Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ without being Absolved by the intermediary actions of an alter Christus acting in persona Christi in the Sacrament of Penance. Martin Luther used the various ecclesiastical abuses of the day, including the sale of indulgences, as the pretext for justifying his own rejection of the visible, hierarchical nature of the Church and for rejecting even Apostolic or Sacred Tradition as one of the two sources of Divine Revelation.
Martin Luther also possessed a view of the doctrine of Justification that was condemned by the Council of Trent but endorsed by the conciliar Vatican in one of its "unofficial" moves, you understand, in 1999 with the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification that had the full support of the then Joseph "Cardinal" Ratzinger and which he has, as Benedict XVI, made reference to more than once, including in meetings with Methodists in 2005 and Baptists in 2007. (See Bishop Donald Sanborn's analysis of the Joint Declaration on Justification.)
Martin Luther, much in the manner of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict himself, rejected Scholasticism, believing that Saint Thomas Aquinas and those of his school had "corrupted" the true meaning of Sacred Scripture and of the writings of many of the Church Fathers, especially Saint Augustine.
Martin Luther stressed the ability of each individual to "interpret" the Bible on his own without the magisterial authority of the Catholic Church, an absurd proposition that resulted in the proliferation of over thirty-three thousand Protestant sects in the past 490 years. Men who do not rely upon the magisterial authority of the Catholic Church must become popes in their own right--or "invent" popes who will guide them on matters of Faith and morals (Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jim Bakker, Robert Schuller, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Norman Vincent Peale, Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, et al.). Martin Luther also rejected in the most manifest terms the Social Reign of Christ the King, endorsing the very concept of the separation of Church and State that is the foundation of the modern civil state and that has the personal seal of approval of conciliarism, being championed in a loud and most vocal manner by none other than Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI himself.
Luther did not live long enough to see the worst effects of his revolution against Christ the King, some of which we see right in our own families, do we not? That is, many of us have relatives who are directly under the influence of the errors of Luther and his friends, people who are quite happy to be "liberated" from the "shackles" of the true Faith. However, Luther did live long enough to see where his revolution led the men who followed him, failing to realize that he was personally responsible for the descent of his "evangelicals" into barbarism.
The assumption that Protestantism brought a higher and purer moral life to the nations that came under its influence does not need elaborate refutation. It is a fact of uncontroverted history that "public morality did at once deteriorate to an appalling degree wherever Protestantism was introduced. Not to mention robberies of church goods, brutal treatment meted out to the clergy, secular and regular, who remained faithful, and the horrors of so many wars of religion," we have the express testimony of [Martin] Luther himself and several other leaders of the revolt, such as [Martin] Bucer and [Philip] Melancthon, as to the evil effects of their teaching; and this testimony is confirmed by contemporaries. Luther's own avowals on this matter are numberless. Thus he writes:
"There is not one of our Evangelicals, who is not seven times worse than before he belonged to us, stealing the goods of others, lying, deceiving, eating, getting drunk, and indulging in every vice, as if he had not received the Holy Word. If we have been delivered from one spirit of evil, seven others worse than the first have come to take its place."
And again:
"Men who live under the Gospel are more uncharitable, more irascible, more greedy, more avaricious than they were before as Papists."
Even Erasmus, who had at first favoured Luther's movement, was soon disillusioned. Thus he writes:
"The New Gospel has at least the advantage of showing us a new race of men, haughty, impudent, cunning, blasphemous . . . quarrellers, seditious, furious, to whom I have, to say truth, so great an antipathy that if I knew a place in the world free of them, I would not hesitate to take refuge therein."
That these evil effects of Protestantism were not merely temporary--the accidental results of the excitement and confusion which are peculiar to a stage of transition (although they were no doubt intensified thereby)--is shown from present-day statistics. The condition of domestic morality is usually best indicated by the statistics of divorce, and of illegitimate births, and by the proportion of legitimate children to the number of marriages; while statistics of general criminality, where they can be had, would convey a fair idea of the individual and public morality in any given place. According to these tests Protestant countries are at the present day much inferior to Catholic countries in domestic and public morality.
The following examples will help to illustrate this:
Italy, Spain and Ireland are perhaps the most Catholic countries of the world, while Britain, the United States of America, with Denmark and Scandinavia, are the most Protestant. Legalised divorce does not exist at all (1930-1931) in any country of the former group. It exists in all the countries of the latter group; and the number of divorces is increasing year by year. In England and Wales there were 3,740 divorces in 1928, being about one divorce to every 114 marriages. In the United States of America the number of divorces in 1916 was 112,031, being one divorce in every 10 marriages. Ten years later (viz., in 1926), the number of divorces reached the appalling total of 181,000, being about one to every seven marriages. The statistics of illegitimate births tell a similar tale. Thus in 1927 the proportion of illegitimate births was at 44 per 1,000 for England and Wales, and 29 per 1,000 for the Irish Free State.
Again, the Irish Free State has a very high proportion of births to marriages, one of the highest in Europe. England, where the birth-rate has now fallen to nearly 16 per 1,000, has the lowest birth-rate in the world as compared with the marriage rate. While all Catholic countries have a fairly high birth-rate, the birth-rate is so low in some Protestant or non-Catholic countries that the human race there is hastening to extinction. This is in fact what has occurred to the original Protestant settlers in the New England States of America, who have practically disappeared, being in large measure supplanted by the Irish, the Canadians and others.
Exact statistics of criminality are difficulty to obtain; and trustworthy comparisons between different countries are more difficult still. Anyone, however, who remembers the constant recurrence of the ceremony of presenting "white gloves" to the judges of the criminal courts in Ireland owing to the complete absence of criminal indictments a few years ago, when the country was in its normal state, and contrasts this fact with the records of the criminal courts of Great Britain and U.S.A. may draw his own conclusions.
It has been not inaptly said that "greed, robbery, oppression, rebellion, repression, wars, devastation, depredation, would be a fitting inscription on the tomb of early Protestantism." We shall see that the latter effects of the new religion, though not so violent or dramatic, have fulfilled the promise of its earlier years. (Father Edward Cahill, S.J., The Framework of a Christian State, first published in 1932, republished by Roman Catholic Books, pp. 102-104.)
Celebrate the life of Martin Luther? Accept the Lutheran sect as valid? Believe that a Lutheran "pastor" can teach anyone anything about Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that has not been entrusted to Holy Mother Church, she who is the sole repository of the Deposit of Faith and the sole, exclusive teacher and infallible interpreter of everything contained in that Deposit (Sacred Scripture and and Sacred Tradition)? Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is, like Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II before him, the very antithesis of Pope Leo X, who condemned Luther and his false principles in Exsurge Domine, June 15, 1520:
Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who are filled with foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod. When you were about to ascend to your Father, you committed the care, rule, and administration of the vineyard, an image of the triumphant church, to Peter, as the head and your vicar and his successors. The wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy it and every wild beast feeds upon it.
Rise, Peter, and fulfill this pastoral office divinely entrusted to you as mentioned above. Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.
We beseech you also, Paul, to arise. It was you that enlightened and illuminated the Church by your doctrine and by a martyrdom like Peter's. For now a new Porphyry rises who, as the old once wrongfully assailed the holy apostles, now assails the holy pontiffs, our predecessors.
Rebuking them, in violation of your teaching, instead of imploring them, he is not ashamed to assail them, to tear at them, and when he despairs of his cause, to stoop to insults. He is like the heretics "whose last defense," as Jerome says, "is to start spewing out a serpent's venom with their tongue when they see that their causes are about to be condemned, and spring to insults when they see they are vanquished." For although you have said that there must be heresies to test the faithful, still they must be destroyed at their very birth by your intercession and help, so they do not grow or wax strong like your wolves. Finally, let the whole church of the saints and the rest of the universal church arise. Some, putting aside her true interpretation of Sacred Scripture, are blinded in mind by the father of lies. Wise in their own eyes, according to the ancient practice of heretics, they interpret these same Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit demands, inspired only by their own sense of ambition, and for the sake of popular acclaim, as the Apostle declares. In fact, they twist and adulterate the Scriptures. As a result, according to Jerome, "It is no longer the Gospel of Christ, but a man's, or what is worse, the devil's."
Let all this holy Church of God, I say, arise, and with the blessed apostles intercede with almighty God to purge the errors of His sheep, to banish all heresies from the lands of the faithful, and be pleased to maintain the peace and unity of His holy Church.
For we can scarcely express, from distress and grief of mind, what has reached our ears for some time by the report of reliable men and general rumor; alas, we have even seen with our eyes and read the many diverse errors. Some of these have already been condemned by councils and the constitutions of our predecessors, and expressly contain even the heresy of the Greeks and Bohemians. Other errors are either heretical, false, scandalous, or offensive to pious ears, as seductive of simple minds, originating with false exponents of the faith who in their proud curiosity yearn for the world's glory, and contrary to the Apostle's teaching, wish to be wiser than they should be. Their talkativeness, unsupported by the authority of the Scriptures, as Jerome says, would not win credence unless they appeared to support their perverse doctrine even with divine testimonies however badly interpreted. From their sight fear of God has now passed.
These errors have, at the suggestion of the human race, been revived and recently propagated among the more frivolous and the illustrious German nation. We grieve the more that this happened there because we and our predecessors have always held this nation in the bosom of our affection. For after the empire had been transferred by the Roman Church from the Greeks to these same Germans, our predecessors and we always took the Church's advocates and defenders from among them. Indeed it is certain that these Germans, truly germane to the Catholic faith, have always been the bitterest opponents of heresies, as witnessed by those commendable constitutions of the German emperors in behalf of the Church's independence, freedom, and the expulsion and extermination of all heretics from Germany. Those constitutions formerly issued, and then confirmed by our predecessors, were issued under the greatest penalties even of loss of lands and dominions against anyone sheltering or not expelling them. If they were observed today both we and they would obviously be free of this disturbance. Witness to this is the condemnation and punishment in the Council of Constance of the infidelity of the Hussites and Wyclifites as well as Jerome of Prague. Witness to this is the blood of Germans shed so often in wars against the Bohemians. A final witness is the refutation, rejection, and condemnation no less learned than true and holy of the above errors, or many of them, by the universities of Cologne and Louvain, most devoted and religious cultivators of the Lord's field. We could allege many other facts too, which we have decided to omit, lest we appear to be composing a history.
In virtue of our pastoral office committed to us by the divine favor we can under no circumstances tolerate or overlook any longer the pernicious poison of the above errors without disgrace to the Christian religion and injury to orthodox faith. Some of these errors we have decided to include in the present document; their substance is as follows:
1. It is a heretical opinion, but a common one, that the sacraments of the New Law give pardoning grace to those who do not set up an obstacle.
2. To deny that in a child after baptism sin remains is to treat with contempt both Paul and Christ.
3. The inflammable sources of sin, even if there be no actual sin, delay a soul departing from the body from entrance into heaven.
4. To one on the point of death imperfect charity necessarily brings with it great fear, which in itself alone is enough to produce the punishment of purgatory, and impedes entrance into the kingdom.
5. That there are three parts to penance: contrition, confession, and satisfaction, has no foundation in Sacred Scripture nor in the ancient sacred Christian doctors.
6. Contrition, which is acquired through discussion, collection, and detestation of sins, by which one reflects upon his years in the bitterness of his soul, by pondering over the gravity of sins, their number, their baseness, the loss of eternal beatitude, and the acquisition of eternal damnation, this contrition makes him a hypocrite, indeed more a sinner.
7. It is a most truthful proverb and the doctrine concerning the contritions given thus far is the more remarkable: "Not to do so in the future is the highest penance; the best penance, a new life."
8. By no means may you presume to confess venial sins, nor even all mortal sins, because it is impossible that you know all mortal sins. Hence in the primitive Church only manifest mortal sins were confessed.
9. As long as we wish to confess all sins without exception, we are doing nothing else than to wish to leave nothing to God's mercy for pardon.
10. Sins are not forgiven to anyone, unless when the priest forgives them he believes they are forgiven; on the contrary the sin would remain unless he believed it was forgiven; for indeed the remission of sin and the granting of grace does not suffice, but it is necessary also to believe that there has been forgiveness.
11. By no means can you have reassurance of being absolved because of your contrition, but because of the word of Christ: "Whatsoever you shall loose, etc." Hence, I say, trust confidently, if you have obtained the absolution of the priest, and firmly believe yourself to have been absolved, and you will truly be absolved, whatever there may be of contrition.
12. If through an impossibility he who confessed was not contrite, or the priest did not absolve seriously, but in a jocose manner, if nevertheless he believes that he has been absolved, he is most truly absolved.
13. In the sacrament of penance and the remission of sin the pope or the bishop does no more than the lowest priest; indeed, where there is no priest, any Christian, even if a woman or child, may equally do as much.
14. No one ought to answer a priest that he is contrite, nor should the priest inquire.
15. Great is the error of those who approach the sacrament of the Eucharist relying on this, that they have confessed, that they are not conscious of any mortal sin, that they have sent their prayers on ahead and made preparations; all these eat and drink judgment to themselves. But if they believe and trust that they will attain grace, then this faith alone makes them pure and worthy.
16. It seems to have been decided that the Church in common Council established that the laity should communicate under both species; the Bohemians who communicate under both species are not heretics, but schismatics.
17. The treasures of the Church, from which the pope grants indulgences, are not the merits of Christ and of the saints.
18. Indulgences are pious frauds of the faithful, and remissions of good works; and they are among the number of those things which are allowed, and not of the number of those which are advantageous.
19. Indulgences are of no avail to those who truly gain them, for the remission of the penalty due to actual sin in the sight of divine justice.
20. They are seduced who believe that indulgences are salutary and useful for the fruit of the spirit.
21. Indulgences are necessary only for public crimes, and are properly conceded only to the harsh and impatient.
22. For six kinds of men indulgences are neither necessary nor useful; namely, for the dead and those about to die, the infirm, those legitimately hindered, and those who have not committed crimes, and those who have committed crimes, but not public ones, and those who devote themselves to better things.
23. Excommunications are only external penalties and they do not deprive man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church.
24. Christians must be taught to cherish excommunications rather than to fear them.
25. The Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, is not the vicar of Christ over all the churches of the entire world, instituted by Christ Himself in blessed Peter.
26. The word of Christ to Peter: "Whatsoever you shall loose on earth," etc., is extended merely to those things bound by Peter himself.
27. It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or the pope to decide upon the articles of faith, and much less concerning the laws for morals or for good works.
28. If the pope with a great part of the Church thought so and so, he would not err; still it is not a sin or heresy to think the contrary, especially in a matter not necessary for salvation, until one alternative is condemned and another approved by a general Council.
29. A way has been made for us for weakening the authority of councils, and for freely contradicting their actions, and judging their decrees, and boldly confessing whatever seems true, whether it has been approved or disapproved by any council whatsoever.
30. Some articles of John Hus, condemned in the Council of Constance, are most Christian, wholly true and evangelical; these the universal Church could not condemn.
31. In every good work the just man sins.
32. A good work done very well is a venial sin.
33. That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit.
34. To go to war against the Turks is to resist God who punishes our iniquities through them.
35. No one is certain that he is not always sinning mortally, because of the most hidden vice of pride.
36. Free will after sin is a matter of title only; and as long as one does what is in him, one sins mortally.
37. Purgatory cannot be proved from Sacred Scripture which is in the canon.
38. The souls in purgatory are not sure of their salvation, at least not all; nor is it proved by any arguments or by the Scriptures that they are beyond the state of meriting or of increasing in charity.
39. The souls in purgatory sin without intermission, as long as they seek rest and abhor punishment.
40. The souls freed from purgatory by the suffrages of the living are less happy than if they had made satisfactions by themselves.
41. Ecclesiastical prelates and secular princes would not act badly if they destroyed all of the money bags of beggary.
No one of sound mind is ignorant how destructive, pernicious, scandalous, and seductive to pious and simple minds these various errors are, how opposed they are to all charity and reverence for the holy Roman Church who is the mother of all the faithful and teacher of the faith; how destructive they are of the vigor of ecclesiastical discipline, namely obedience. This virtue is the font and origin of all virtues and without it anyone is readily convicted of being unfaithful.
Therefore we, in this above enumeration, important as it is, wish to proceed with great care as is proper, and to cut off the advance of this plague and cancerous disease so it will not spread any further in the Lord's field as harmful thornbushes. We have therefore held a careful inquiry, scrutiny, discussion, strict examination, and mature deliberation with each of the brothers, the eminent cardinals of the holy Roman Church, as well as the priors and ministers general of the religious orders, besides many other professors and masters skilled in sacred theology and in civil and canon law. We have found that these errors or theses are not Catholic, as mentioned above, and are not to be taught, as such; but rather are against the doctrine and tradition of the Catholic Church, and against the true interpretation of the sacred Scriptures received from the Church. Now Augustine maintained that her authority had to be accepted so completely that he stated he would not have believed the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church had vouched for it. For, according to these errors, or any one or several of them, it clearly follows that the Church which is guided by the Holy Spirit is in error and has always erred. This is against what Christ at his ascension promised to his disciples (as is read in the holy Gospel of Matthew): "I will be with you to the consummation of the world"; it is against the determinations of the holy Fathers, or the express ordinances and canons of the councils and the supreme pontiffs. Failure to comply with these canons, according to the testimony of Cyprian, will be the fuel and cause of all heresy and schism.
With the advice and consent of these our venerable brothers, with mature deliberation on each and every one of the above theses, and by the authority of almighty God, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own authority, we condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected . . . We restrain all in the virtue of holy obedience and under the penalty of an automatic major excommunication....
Moreover, because the preceding errors and many others are contained in the books or writings of Martin Luther, we likewise condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the books and all the writings and sermons of the said Martin, whether in Latin or any other language, containing the said errors or any one of them; and we wish them to be regarded as utterly condemned, reprobated, and rejected. We forbid each and every one of the faithful of either sex, in virtue of holy obedience and under the above penalties to be incurred automatically, to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or defend them. They will incur these penalties if they presume to uphold them in any way, personally or through another or others, directly or indirectly, tacitly or explicitly, publicly or occultly, either in their own homes or in other public or private places. Indeed immediately after the publication of this letter these works, wherever they may be, shall be sought out carefully by the ordinaries and others [ecclesiastics and regulars], and under each and every one of the above penalties shall be burned publicly and solemnly in the presence of the clerics and people.
As far as Martin himself is concerned, O good God, what have we overlooked or not done? What fatherly charity have we omitted that we might call him back from such errors? For after we had cited him, wishing to deal more kindly with him, we urged him through various conferences with our legate and through our personal letters to abandon these errors. We have even offered him safe conduct and the money necessary for the journey urging him to come without fear or any misgivings, which perfect charity should cast out, and to talk not secretly but openly and face to face after the example of our Savior and the Apostle Paul. If he had done this, we are certain he would have changed in heart, and he would have recognized his errors. He would not have found all these errors in the Roman Curia which he attacks so viciously, ascribing to it more than he should because of the empty rumors of wicked men. We would have shown him clearer than the light of day that the Roman pontiffs, our predecessors, whom he injuriously attacks beyond all decency, never erred in their canons or constitutions which he tries to assail. For, according to the prophet, neither is healing oil nor the doctor lacking in Galaad.
But he always refused to listen and, despising the previous citation and each and every one of the above overtures, disdained to come. To the present day he has been contumacious. With a hardened spirit he has continued under censure over a year. What is worse, adding evil to evil, and on learning of the citation, he broke forth in a rash appeal to a future council. This to be sure was contrary to the constitution of Pius II and Julius II our predecessors that all appealing in this way are to be punished with the penalties of heretics. In vain does he implore the help of a council, since he openly admits that he does not believe in a council.
Therefore we can, without any further citation or delay, proceed against him to his condemnation and damnation as one whose faith is notoriously suspect and in fact a true heretic with the full severity of each and all of the above penalties and censures. Yet, with the advice of our brothers, imitating the mercy of almighty God who does not wish the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live, and forgetting all the injuries inflicted on us and the Apostolic See, we have decided to use all the compassion we are capable of. It is our hope, so far as in us lies, that he will experience a change of heart by taking the road of mildness we have proposed, return, and turn away from his errors. We will receive him kindly as the prodigal son returning to the embrace of the Church.
Therefore let Martin himself and all those adhering to him, and those who shelter and support him, through the merciful heart of our God and the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ by which and through whom the redemption of the human race and the upbuilding of holy mother Church was accomplished, know that from our heart we exhort and beseech that he cease to disturb the peace, unity, and truth of the Church for which the Savior prayed so earnestly to the Father. Let him abstain from his pernicious errors that he may come back to us. If they really will obey, and certify to us by legal documents that they have obeyed, they will find in us the affection of a father's love, the opening of the font of the effects of paternal charity, and opening of the font of mercy and clemency.
We enjoin, however, on Martin that in the meantime he cease from all preaching or the office of preacher.
{And even though the love of righteousness and virtue did not take him away from sin and the hope of forgiveness did not lead him to penance, perhaps the terror of the pain of punishment may move him. Thus we beseech and remind this Martin, his supporters and accomplices of his holy orders and the described punishment. We ask him earnestly that he and his supporters, adherents and accomplices desist within sixty days (which we wish to have divided into three times twenty days, counting from the publication of this bull at the places mentioned below) from preaching, both expounding their views and denouncing others, from publishing books and pamphlets concerning some or all of their errors. Furthermore, all writings which contain some or all of his errors are to be burned. Furthermore, this Martin is to recant perpetually such errors and views. He is to inform us of such recantation through an open document, sealed by two prelates, which we should receive within another sixty days. Or he should personally, with safe conduct, inform us of his recantation by coming to Rome. We would prefer this latter way in order that no doubt remain of his sincere obedience.
If, however, this Martin, his supporters, adherents and accomplices, much to our regret, should stubbornly not comply with the mentioned stipulations within the mentioned period, we shall, following the teaching of the holy Apostle Paul, who teaches us to avoid a heretic after having admonished him for a first and a second time, condemn this Martin, his supporters, adherents and accomplices as barren vines which are not in Christ, preaching an offensive doctrine contrary to the Christian faith and offend the divine majesty, to the damage and shame of the entire Christian Church, and diminish the keys of the Church as stubborn and public heretics.} . . .
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is indeed the antithesis of Pope Leo X. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification that he helped to bring to fruition is a slap in the face to the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, Who guided the fathers of the Council of Trent when they issued their Decree on the Doctrine of Justification. The currently reigning false "pontiff's" announced-but-as-yet-unscheduled visit to the Lutheran Church of Rome is in full violation of Catholic teaching prohibiting such exercises in false "ecumenism:"
Lastly, the beloved disciple St. John renews the same command in the strongest terms, and adds another reason, which regards all without exception, and especially those who are best instructed in their duty: "Look to yourselves", says he, "that ye lose not the things that ye have wrought, but that you may receive a full reward. Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine the same hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, nor say to him, God speed you: for he that saith to him, God speed you, communicateth with his wicked works". (2 John, ver. 8)
Here, then, it is manifest, that all fellowship with those who have not the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which is "a communication in their evil works" — that is, in their false tenets, or worship, or in any act of religion — is strictly forbidden, under pain of losing the "things we have wrought, the reward of our labors, the salvation of our souls". And if this holy apostle declares that the very saying God speed to such people is a communication with their wicked works, what would he have said of going to their places of worship, of hearing their sermons, joining in their prayers, or the like?
From this passage the learned translators of the Rheims New Testament, in their note, justly observe, "That, in matters of religion, in praying, hearing their sermons, presence at their service, partaking of their sacraments, and all other communicating with them in spiritual things, it is a great and damnable sin to deal with them." And if this be the case with all in general, how much more with those who are well instructed and better versed in their religion than others? For their doing any of these things must be a much greater crime than in ignorant people, because they know their duty better. (Bishop George Hay, The Laws of God Forbidding All Communication in Religion With Those of a False Religion.)
Who is going to hear the sermon of the Lutheran "pastor"? That's right, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, thereby committing, as Bishop George Hay noted over two hundred years ago, a "great and damnable sin." Why do so few in the Motu communities seem to care, fewer yet even bother to speak privately to each other about such acts of apostasy and betrayal in violation of the First Commandment? Why has there been such a deafening silence from the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X, where there seems to be a lot of "recognize" and very little "resist" left these days? There are even some supposedly sedevacantist Catholics who never write about these matters, never address the enemy of the Faith dressed in white in Rome, an enemy of the Faith who falls directly under the condemnation described by Bishop Hay at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century:
The spirit of Christ, which dictated the Holy Scriptures, and the spirit which animates and guides the Church of Christ, and teaches her all truth, is the same; and therefore in all ages her conduct on this point has been uniformly the same as what the Holy Scripture teaches. She has constantly forbidden her children to hold any communication, in religious matters, with those who are separated from her communion; and this she has sometimes done under the most severe penalties. In the apostolical canons, which are of very ancient standing, and for the most part handed down from the apostolical age, it is thus decreed: "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, shall join in prayers with heretics, let him be suspended from Communion". (Can. 44)
Also, "If any clergyman or laic shall go into the synagogue of the Jews, or the meetings of heretics, to join in prayer with them, let him be deposed, and deprived of communion". (Can. 63) (Bishop George Hay, (The Laws of God Forbidding All Communication in Religion With Those of a False Religion.)
Pope Pius XI reiterated the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church that had been explicated by Bishop Hay:
So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly."The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills." For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)
Who rejects the "ecumenism of the return"? You got it. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI:
We all know there are numerous models of unity and you know that the Catholic Church also has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its various Documents (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 8, 13; Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.). This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 4); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.
"On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!
"It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline. Unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity: in my Homily for the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June last, I insisted that full unity and true catholicity in the original sense of the word go together. As a necessary condition for the achievement of this coexistence, the commitment to unity must be constantly purified and renewed; it must constantly grow and mature." (Ecumenical meeting at the Archbishopric of Cologne English)
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI dares to use the word "fathers" to refer to the Protestant revolutionaries, including Luther himself. Those revolutionaries had a "father." He is known by the names of Lucifer, Satan, the devil.
Anyone who thinks that the "popes" of the counterfeit church of concilairism have maintained the teaching of the Catholic Church "exactly the same" as Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"instituted it" is not thinking very clearly.
Oh, by the way, did I tell you that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is an apostate, that he is a betrayer of Christ the King and the Catholic Faith, that he is a mortal enemy of the souls redeemed by the shedding of the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Have I told you that lately?
This is, of course, a chastisement for our sins, for our own infidelities, for our own lukewarmness, for our own lack of steadfastness in prayer, especially to the Mother of God, who was not mentioned at all by Ratzinger/Benedict yesterday in his address to the Jews. We need to pray many Rosaries of reparation now that these additional offenses have been given to God the false "pontiff." We need, therefore, to make much reparation, especially during this season of Lent, for these sins as we seek always to make reparation for our own sins as we entrust to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary the need of the present moment.
We must, of course, continue to remember that this is the time that God has appointed from all eternity for us to be alive. He has work for us to do. Let us do this work with courage and valor as we never count the cost of being humiliated for the sake of defending the integrity of Faith, as we never cease our prayers for the conversion of all people, including those who adhere to the falsehoods of Lutheranism and all other Protestant sects and of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and his fellow conciliarists themselves, to the true Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.
Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!
Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!
