The Armageddon Gang

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Aficionados of Ironside will recognize the title of this article as serving as the title of the fifth episode of the program's seventh season, airing on October 11, 1973. The premise of that episode, which seemed to me to border on science fiction at the time, centered around a general and a few others who wanted to force a showdown with the Soviet Union to launch nuclear missiles without a presidential order by means of overriding certain computer programs.

Ironically, though, this episode of the late Raymond Burr's second long-running series aired during the midst of the Yom Kippur War, which had started the day before, October 10, 1973 (the day that Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned the Vice Presidency of the United States of America and the day that the New York Mets defeated the Cincinnati Reds at Shea Stadium to win the National League Championship Series), during which time the United States military forces worldwide were placed at Defcon 3 level and Defcon 2 level in certain military theaters (Pershing I missile silos in Germany were actually opened) by then President Richard Milhous Nixon so as to deter any possible Soviet naval intervention in the Bosporus Strait. Although the danger was not as visible to the general public as it had been ten years before during the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was the real possibility during the Yom Kippur War of a nuclear confrontation with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Ironside's "The Armageddon Gang" was not so far-fetched after all.

Well, the "Armageddon Gang" is back in business in Washington, D.C., and they are not a bunch renegade generals and scientists. The real armageddon gang is composed of the neoconservatives in the administration of President George Walker Bush who believe that war--and the death and destruction engendered thereby--is the answer to all international problems, real or imagined. The coffers of American and multinational corporations, many of whose chief executives donate generously to the criminals who belong to both of this country's major organized crime families, the Republicans and the Democrats, have been lined quite handsomely from nonstop war. The lives of over 3,000 members of the armed forces of the United States of America--and of over 600,000 Iraqis, killed by the "liberating" forces and by the insurgency that has opposed the "liberation"--have been lost since this country launched its unjust and immoral invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003. Some estimates indicate that the war will cost in the neighborhood of one trillion dollars by the end of this calendar year, 2007.

In the midst of this moral, political, economic and strategic disaster, however, leaders of both major political parties in the United States of America continue to insist that a "winning strategy" must be found to make Iraq a "stable democracy." This madness--and there is no other word for it--is being fed by the insane delusion of Bush and Vice President Richard N. Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice that "regional security" in the Middle East can be secured only by the use of "coalition" military force, which was used in Iraq as a result of the false assertions that the now executed dictator and all-around-thug Saddam Hussein had "weapons of mass destruction" and has possible links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Each and every one of the claims made by Bush and Cheney and then Secretary of State Colin Powell and then Secretary of Defense Donald D. Rumsfeld were false. Powell, at least, has expressed regrets about the misleading presentation he gave at the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003. The others are unrepentant, believing that we need to do "more" in Iraq to "prevail."

The complete and total disaster in Iraq, which many of us predicted in late-2002 would be the case, has not deterred these insane neoconservatives from planning the next war, which will involve the possible use of "strategic" or "theater" or "bunker-busting" thermonuclear weapons in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The same exaggerated claims that were being made at this time four years ago are being repeated once again. Even Democrat Party presidential hopefuls Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Senator John Edwards have discussed the necessity of "dealing" with Iran. Anyone who thinks that we have a two-party system in this country is not seeing reality for what it is. We have a one-party system, most of whose sycophants are bought and paid for by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which actually congratulated itself on making possible Israel's slaughter of the innocent in Lebanon last summer.

The text of an article, which came to my attention when doing a search about AIPAC, written by one John Walsh, contains a fund-raising letter by AIPAC's president, Howard Friedman, who states quite openly that his organization seeks to control American electoral politics and international policy (even the secularists fighting other secularists and naturalists get "it right" sometimes):

 

"My fellow American," Howard Friedman, President of AIPAC, begins his letter of July 30 to friends and supporters of AIPAC, "Look what you've done"! After warning that "Israel is fighting a pivotal war for its life," by which he means Israel's wanton slaughter and all-out destruction in Lebanon, Freidman condemns "the expected chorus of international condemnation of Israel's actions" and Europe's call for "a cease-fire immediately." Then he exults: "only ONE nation in the world came out and flatly declared: Let Israel finish the job. . That nation is the United States of America--and the reason it had such a clear, unambiguous view of the situation is YOU and the rest of America Jewry." (All emphases in the original here and below.) Here I must take issue with President Friedman since I bet that most Jewish Americans, in contrast to the AIPAC crowd, were horrified by the slaughter in Lebanon. In fact if anyone other than President Friedman wrote this, he would be accused of fabricating a Jewish plot and labeled a nutty conspiracy theorist and scurrilous anti-semite.)

"How do we do it"? President Friedman asks a little further on. The answer is "decades of long hard work which never ends." Not only is it hard work--but it's eternal. However, President Friedman is not content with generalities and gives us some of AIPAC's trade secrets. Here are two notables:

"AIPAC meets with every candidate running for Congress. These candidates receive in-depth briefings to help them completely understand the complexities of Israel's predicament and that of the Middle East as a whole. We even ask each candidate to author a 'position paper' on their views of the U.S.-Israel relationship--so it's clear where they stand on the subject." (Would it not be great to see these "position papers"? I wonder how many candidates would release them? And what do the candidates get for all this effort? A pat on the back?)

"Members of Congress, staffers and administration officials have come to rely on AIPACs memos. They are VERY busy people and they know that they can count on AIPAC for clear-eyed analysis.. We present this information in concise form to elected officials. The information and analyses are impeccable--after all our reputation is at stake. This results in policy and legislation that make up Israel's lifeline." (Another way to read this is that the pea-brained hillbillies who make up most of the Congress can be led by the nose if the memos are simple enough. Testimony to this fact enters my mailbox, as I write, in the form of a must-read interview with Noam Chomsky, which details just how distorted the discussion of Israel and the war on Lebanon has become in the U.S.)

President Friedman's letter continues with more headliners: "Unfortunately, our work has just begun"! "Hizballah must be defeated." And finally, "The war is a diversion"!!!! This last section argues that the war in Lebanon is a "distraction," to "divert attention away from Iran's nuclear weapons program"! (In case you haven't noticed President Friedman loves exclamation points, which leads one to wonder whether a good dose of lithium might not be in order.) But this "analysis' is hopelessly confused since Israel started the war on Lebanon using a minor border skirmish as an excuse - as Chomsky points out in the interview alluded to above. It leaves one wondering about AIPAC's analyses. Are they "clear-eyed" as Friedman claims, or wild-eyed?

President Friedman closes with the exhortation: "Now is the time for us, American Jews, to stand up and tell our elected officials that they must demand Iran halt its pursuit of atomic arms." In other words, next stop Iran if AIPAC can swing it. And in that lies a great danger. The Bush administration is losing ever more of its base and only the neocon establishment and AIPAC remain securely in its camp. (Even some of the born-agains are deserting.) With the November elections coming, Rove and Bush desperately need AIPAC support, and so they may be even more susceptible than usual to its demands for going after Iran. Indeed this is a dangerous time.

John Walsh can be reached at john.endwar@gmail.com.

He thanks President Friedman for much of the material in this article, which is taken directly from his latest fundraising letter to AIPAC supporters and members. John Walsh: AIPAC Congratulates Itself for the Slaughter in Lebanon

 

The Bush administration has been very careful not to "rule out" the use of armed force in Iran, although Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified recently that there are no plans to put ground forces in Iran. Of course not. Nuclear weapons are going to be used for the first time since Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6, 1945, and August 9, 1945, respectively. And this is where the "armageddon" scenario becomes quite real, especially in the minds of the Bush operatives of a fundamentalist Protestant bent who believe that they can "expedite" the Second Coming of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by means of a nuclear conflagration. While admitting that there are dark forces that unite the leaders of the governments of the United States of America and Russia and Red China on many points of mutual interest, especially economic interest, one does wonder how the Russians and Red Chinese would respond if the United States of America uses thermonuclear weapons in Iran. Can the Russians and Red Chinese afford to let the United States act as it wants without showing the rest of the world that such use of catastrophic military firepower will not go unchecked?

Mind you, I do not wish for one minute to suggest that the Russians or the Red Chinese should attack our military forces, for whose safety we must pray at all times, anywhere in the world or that they should attack the territory of the United States of America if our government uses nuclear weapons in Iran. Not at all. I am merely stating that there might very well come a day when forces outside of the United States might seek to put to an end the use of unchecked military adventurism that politicians in the United States seem unwilling and/or incapable of checking or de-funding We must stay in states of Sanctifying Grace at every moment of our lives, especially in these days when the price we may have to pay for the daily slaughter of the preborn and our wanton exportation of the evils of contraception and pornography and usury around the world could be visited upon us when we least expect it. Madness does not go unchecked forever. The devil, who loves to deal death and destruction, both supernatural and natural, delights in setting one group of madmen against another in the belief that they are "creating" the "better," "more secure" world.

As we know, of course the end of the world will occur when God wills it, not before. No group of plotting madmen are going to "expedite" the hour when all men will see the King of Kings come in all of His glory, escorted by choirs of angels as He judges the living the dead. No group of plotting madmen is going to create the "better," "more secure" world by dropping bomb after bomb and sending thousands of young men and women to their deaths in unjust, immoral military adventures to spread the "American way" and to do the bidding of the Zionists in Jerusalem. One can only conclude that the madmen in Washington who are doing these monstrous things actually believe in their own invincibility and infallibility. Sort of harkens back to an ethos abroad in a certain country in Europe almost exactly seventy years ago.That country's leaders believed that their fatherland had the right to rule over all men and that they were both invincible and infallible. History is indeed repeating history, albeit in the framework of the "free" and "democratic" and "pluralistic" United States of America.

Republicans in the United States Senate, for instance, are blocking an effort for the full chamber to debate President Bush's plans to send an additional 20,000 American troops into Iraq. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has said that it is irresponsible to debate the war while our troops are in harm's way, thus possibly demoralizing them as a result. Such rhetoric is fascistic nonsense. Our troops are already demoralized by the conditions under which they find themselves so needlessly wrapped up in a bloody civil war between different Mohammedan factions that the American invasion in 2003 helped to unleash. A survey conduct in behalf of the Military Times, not exactly an arm of any antiwar organization, indicates that only thirty-five percent of the troops in Iraq support their presence in the country, fewer yet believe that their presence will "change" things there.

The Republican effort to stop legislative debate in their chamber of the Congress of the United States is thwarting any effort to exercise what are supposed to be the "checks and balances" inherent in the presidential-congressional system of government as part of the separation of powers. So much for the pluralist myth of "freedom of speech" and "freedom of press." There is only the "freedom" in the sterile world of pluralism and the Judeo-Masonry that is its progenitor to agree with whatever those in power decide is best for us as our pockets are picked to find their mad schemes for the "better," "more democratic," "more free," "more secure" world

Adding to this thorough-going mess is the fact that many of those opposing American involvement in Iraq are the same old radicals from the 1960s, most of whom believe that it is permissible to slaughter, both by chemical and surgical means, innocent preborn babies in their mothers' womb, a point I made four years ago in Neither Protests Nor Bombs Can Produce True Peace and More on War and Peace (both written three years before I embraced the sedevacantist position, obviously). The mindset engendered by American pluralism, which is but an aspect of the larger Protestant-Judeo-Masonic ethos, sets up conflicts between various naturalists who think that their own naturalistic "solutions" to the problems of the world will work to secure their objectives. Neoconservative naturalists think that the "new world order" will be created by bombs. Peacenik naturalists, many of whom oppose all legitimate efforts to defend a nation's borders by means of military force, think that their sentimentally-based version of "love" and "tolerance" and "universal brotherhood" can produce an end to conflict in the world. The two apparent opposing sides are but different sides of the same Judeo-Masonic coin.

As has been noted endlessly in my work long before I returned to the Tradition of my youth by means of the "indult" in the 1990s, it is the Catholic Church alone that has the means--the fullness of Divine Revelation and the supernatural helps offered the soul in Sanctifying Grace--by which the conflicts that occur in the world as a result of man's fallen human nature and his proclivity to commit Actual Sins that wound his immortal soul and harms his relations with other can be ameliorated. Pope Saint Pius X condemned the ethos of the Sillon that was born of the spirit of the French Revolution, one of the many byproducts of the anti-Incarnational thrust of Modernity that is also at the heart of Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. These passages from Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910, are quite relevant to the false beliefs of Modernity and Modernism:

Our Apostolic Mandate requires from Us that We watch over the purity of the Faith and the integrity of Catholic discipline. It requires from Us that We protect the faithful from evil and error; especially so when evil and error are presented in dynamic language which, concealing vague notions and ambiguous expressions with emotional and high-sounding words, is likely to set ablaze the hearts of men in pursuit of ideals which, whilst attractive, are nonetheless nefarious. Such were not so long ago the doctrines of the so-called philosophers of the 18th century, the doctrines of the Revolution and Liberalism which have been so often condemned; such are even today the theories of the Sillon which, under the glowing appearance of generosity, are all too often wanting in clarity, logic and truth. These theories do not belong to the Catholic or, for that matter, to the French Spirit.. . .

But, on the contrary, by ignoring the laws governing human nature and by breaking the bounds within which they operate, the human person is lead, not toward progress, but towards death. This, nevertheless, is what they want to do with human society; they dream of changing its natural and traditional foundations; they dream of a Future City built on different principles, and they dare to proclaim these more fruitful and more beneficial than the principles upon which the present Christian City rests.

No, Venerable Brethren, We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker - the City cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work; no, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization, it is the Catholic City. It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants. omnia instaurare in Christo. . . .

To sum up, such is the theory, one could say the dream of the Sillon; and that is what its teaching aims at, what it calls the democratic education of the people, that is, raising to its maximum the conscience and civic responsibility of every one, from which will result economic and political Democracy and the reign of justice, liberty, equality, fraternity.

This brief explanation, Venerable Brethren, will show you clearly how much reason We have to say that the Sillon opposes doctrine to doctrine, that it seeks to build its City on a theory contrary to Catholic truth, and that falsifies the basis and essential notions which regulate social relations in any human society. The following considerations will make this opposition even more evident. . . .

Indeed, we have the human experience of pagan and secular societies of ages past to show that concern for common interests or affinities of nature weigh very little against the passions and wild desires of the heart. No, Venerable Brethren, there is no genuine fraternity outside Christian charity. Through the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour, Christian charity embraces all men, comforts all, and leads all to the same faith and same heavenly happiness.

By separating fraternity from Christian charity thus understood, Democracy, far from being a progress, would mean a disastrous step backwards for civilization. If, as We desire with all Our heart, the highest possible peak of well being for society and its members is to be attained through fraternity or, as it is also called, universal solidarity, all minds must be united in the knowledge of Truth, all wills united in morality, and all hearts in the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ. But this union is attainable only by Catholic charity, and that is why Catholic charity alone can lead the people in the march of progress towards the ideal civilization.

Finally, at the root of all their fallacies on social questions, lie the false hopes of Sillonists on human dignity. According to them, Man will be a man truly worthy of the name only when he has acquired a strong, enlightened, and independent consciousness, able to do without a master, obeying only himself, and able to assume the most demanding responsibilities without faltering. Such are the big words by which human pride is exalted, like a dream carrying Man away without light, without guidance, and without help into the realm of illusion in which he will be destroyed by his errors and passions whilst awaiting the glorious day of his full consciousness. And that great day, when will it come? Unless human nature can be changed, which is not within the power of the Sillonists, will that day ever come? Did the Saints who brought human dignity to its highest point, possess that kind of dignity? And what of the lowly of this earth who are unable to raise so high but are content to plow their furrow modestly at the level where Providence placed them? They who are diligently discharging their duties with Christian humility, obedience, and patience, are they not also worthy of being called men? Will not Our Lord take them one day out of their obscurity and place them in heaven amongst the princes of His people? . . . .

Here we have, founded by Catholics, an inter-denominational association that is to work for the reform of civilization, an undertaking which is above all religious in character; for there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact. The new Sillonists cannot pretend that they are merely working on “the ground of practical realities” where differences of belief do not matter. Their leader is so conscious of the influence which the convictions of the mind have upon the result of the action, that he invites them, whatever religion they may belong to, “to provide on the ground of practical realities, the proof of the excellence of their personal convictions.” And with good reason: indeed, all practical results reflect the nature of one’s religious convictions, just as the limbs of a man down to his finger-tips, owe their very shape to the principle of life that dwells in his body.

This being said, what must be thought of the promiscuity in which young Catholics will be caught up with heterodox and unbelieving folk in a work of this nature? Is it not a thousand-fold more dangerous for them than a neutral association? What are we to think of this appeal to all the heterodox, and to all the unbelievers, to prove the excellence of their convictions in the social sphere in a sort of apologetic contest? Has not this contest lasted for nineteen centuries in conditions less dangerous for the faith of Catholics? And was it not all to the credit of the Catholic Church? What are we to think of this respect for all errors, and of this strange invitation made by a Catholic to all the dissidents to strengthen their convictions through study so that they may have more and more abundant sources of fresh forces? What are we to think of an association in which all religions and even Free-Thought may express themselves openly and in complete freedom? For the Sillonists who, in public lectures and elsewhere, proudly proclaim their personal faith, certainly do not intend to silence others nor do they intend to prevent a Protestant from asserting his Protestantism, and the skeptic from affirming his skepticism. Finally, what are we to think of a Catholic who, on entering his study group, leaves his Catholicism outside the door so as not to alarm his comrades who, “dreaming of disinterested social action, are not inclined to make it serve the triumph of interests, coteries and even convictions whatever they may be”? Such is the profession of faith of the New Democratic Committee for Social Action which has taken over the main objective of the previous organization and which, they say, “breaking the double meaning which surround the Greater Sillon both in reactionary and anti-clerical circles”, is now open to all men “who respect moral and religious forces and who are convinced that no genuine social emancipation is possible without the leaven of generous idealism.”

Alas! yes, the double meaning has been broken: the social action of the Sillon is no longer Catholic. The Sillonist, as such, does not work for a coterie, and “the Church”, he says, “cannot in any sense benefit from the sympathies that his action may stimulate.” A strange situation, indeed! They fear lest the Church should profit for a selfish and interested end by the social action of the Sillon, as if everything that benefited the Church did not benefit the whole human race! A curious reversal of notions! The Church might benefit from social action! As if the greatest economists had not recognized and proved that it is social action alone which, if serious and fruitful, must benefit the Church! But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, "the reign of love and justice" with workers coming from everywhere, of all religions and of no religion, with or without beliefs, so long as they forego what might divide them - their religious and philosophical convictions, and so long as they share what unites them - a "generous idealism and moral forces drawn from whence they can" When we consider the forces, knowledge, and supernatural virtues which are necessary to establish the Christian City, and the sufferings of millions of martyrs, and the light given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and the self-sacrifice of all the heroes of charity, and a powerful hierarchy ordained in heaven, and the streams of Divine Grace - the whole having been built up, bound together, and impregnated by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the Word made man - when we think, I say, of all this, it is frightening to behold new apostles eagerly attempting to do better by a common interchange of vague idealism and civic virtues. What are they going to produce? What is to come of this collaboration? A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we shall see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people. Yes, we can truly say that the Sillon, its eyes fixed on a chimera, brings Socialism in its train.

We fear that worse is to come: the end result of this developing promiscuousness, the beneficiary of this cosmopolitan social action, can only be a Democracy which will be neither Catholic, nor Protestant, nor Jewish. It will be a religion (for Sillonism, so the leaders have said, is a religion) more universal than the Catholic Church, uniting all men become brothers and comrades at last in the "Kingdom of God". - "We do not work for the Church, we work for mankind."

And now, overwhelmed with the deepest sadness, We ask Ourselves, Venerable Brethren, what has become of the Catholicism of the Sillon? Alas! this organization which formerly afforded such promising expectations, this limpid and impetuous stream, has been harnessed in its course by the modern enemies of the Church, and is now no more than a miserable affluent of the great movement of apostasy being organized in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church which shall have neither dogmas, nor hierarchy, neither discipline for the mind, nor curb for the passions, and which, under the pretext of freedom and human dignity, would bring back to the world (if such a Church could overcome) the reign of legalized cunning and force, and the oppression of the weak, and of all those who toil and suffer.

 

Here we see condemned the common mindset of the scions of Modernity in the world and Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism: the belief that there are naturalistic "solutions" to the problems of world and that it is not necessary to think and act and to speak confessionally as Catholics at all times in all circumstances without any exception whatsoever, that it is not necessary to plant the seeds for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen.Thus these words of Pope Pius XI, contained in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, are flushed down the Orwellian "memory hole" and replaced with the insane dreams of the madmen in both ecclesiastical and civil power.

There exists an institution able to safeguard the sanctity of the law of nations. This institution is a part of every nation; at the same time it is above all nations. She enjoys, too, the highest authority, the fullness of the teaching power of the Apostles. Such an institution is the Church of Christ. She alone is adapted to do this great work, for she is not only divinely commissioned to lead mankind, but moreover, because of her very make-up and the constitution which she possesses, by reason of her age-old traditions and her great prestige, which has not been lessened but has been greatly increased since the close of the War, cannot but succeed in such a venture where others assuredly will fail.

It is apparent from these considerations that true peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life. If this were done, then society being placed at last on a sound foundation, the Church would be able, in the exercise of its divinely given ministry and by means of the teaching authority which results therefrom, to protect all the rights of God over men and nations.

It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below. . . .

Many believe in or claim that they believe in and hold fast to Catholic doctrine on such questions as social authority, the right of owning private property, on the relations between capital and labor, on the rights of the laboring man, on the relations between Church and State, religion and country, on the relations between the different social classes, on international relations, on the rights of the Holy See and the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff and the Episcopate, on the social rights of Jesus Christ, Who is the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord not only of individuals but of nations. In spite of these protestations, they speak, write, and, what is more, act as if it were not necessary any longer to follow, or that they did not remain still in full force, the teachings and solemn pronouncements which may be found in so many documents of the Holy See, and particularly in those written by Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV.

There is a species of moral, legal, and social modernism which We condemn, no less decidedly than We condemn theological modernism.

 

Although the warfare waged against the Social Reign of Christ the King began over four and one-half centuries before the advent of conciliarism, the ethos of the counterfeit church of Aggiornamento (opening up to the world) has muted the voice of the men the world believes are the leaders of the Catholic Church on the social rights of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen, thus completing, at least for a little while known only to God Himself, the triumph of the devil over civil society as he seeks to lead men into believing that their schemes and their wars and their protests can "create" the "better" and "more perfect" world without any magisterial teaching or supernatural helps provided by the Catholic Church.

Alas, we know that the Immaculate Heart of Mary will indeed triumph in the end. We must be about the business of simply doing our daily duties for love of God as the consecrated slaves of that same Immaculate Heart of Mary, saying as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit, refusing to listen to let any form of naturalism influence our thinking, seeing ourselves and the world always through the eyes of the true Faith, recognizing that in everything we do we must be conscious of First and Last Things as they have been revealed by God to and taught infallibly by the Catholic Church.

The "armageddon gang" in Washington, D.C., may indeed wind up starting some kind of nuclear conflagration. Nuclear war is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Dying in a state of Moral Sin, a state of final impenitence, is the worst thing that can happen to any human being. Such a death leads to a conflagration in Hell for all eternity that makes a nuclear explosion seem as frosty as the temperatures being experienced in many parts of the Midwest and in the Northeast at this time. May we pray to Our Lady nunc et in hora mortis nostrae so that we can avoid such a terrible fate as we give unto Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart our own prayers and sufferings and sacrifices to bring about the day when all men and women in all parts of the world will know the authentic peace that comes from being in states of Sanctifying Grace as members of the Catholic Church and as they exclaim the words that were on the lips of Father Miguel Augustin Pro, S.J., when he was put to death by the Masonic revolutionaries in Mexico on November 23, 1927:

Viva Cristo Rey!

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.

Saint Peter Nolasco, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Andrew Corsini, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Titus, pray for us.

Saint Dorothy, pray for us.

Saint Romuald, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, 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.