TREASURY OF QUOTATIONS FOR TRADITIONAL CATHOLICS
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They preach tolerance, but practice intimidation.
A saint is a sinner who kept on trying.
Graves mutationes in liturgia introducunt graves mutationes in
dogmata. [Serious changes in the liturgy usher in serious changes in
dogmata.] --Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II, v.
I, p. 1, p. 371
The first requirement of salvation is to keep the standard of the
True Faith. --Pope St. Adrian II (867-872)
These liberal theologians seized on the Council as a means of de-
catholicizing the Catholic Church while pretending only to de-romanize it.
--Bishop William Adrian, Nashville
If anyone prays with heretics, he is a heretic. --Pope St. Agatho
I (678-682), SCN XXI:635
A hundred private prayers have not as much efficacy as a single
petition offered in the Divine Office. --St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of
the Church (1696-1787)
The devil has always attempted, by means of the heretics, to deprive
the world of the Mass, making them precursors of the Anti-Christ, who,
before
anything else, will try to abolish and will actually abolish the Holy
Sacrament of the altar, as a punishment for the sins of men, according to
the
prediction of Daniel "And strength was given him against the continual
sacrifice" (Daniel 8:12D). --St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
(1696-1787)
The Mass is the most beautiful and the best thing in the Church. At
the Mass, Jesus Christ giveth Himself to us by means of the Most Holy
Sacraent of the altar, which is the end and the purpose of all the other
Sacraments. --St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church (1696-1787)
One single Mass gives more honor to God than all the penances of the
Saints, the labors of the Apostles, the sufferings of the martyrs, and even
the burning love of the Blessed Mother of God. --St. Alphonsus Liguori
(1696-1787)
Man cannot perform a more holy, a more grand, a more sublime action
than to celebrate a Mass, in regard to which the Council of Trent says: "We
must needs confess that no other work can be performed ... so holy and
divine
as this tremendous Mystery itself. God Himself cannot cause an action to be
performed that is holier and grander than the celebration of Mass. --St.
Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), The Holy Mass
When you are at Rome, do as the Romans do. --St. Ambrose (334?-397)
Sanctorum vita ceteris norma vivendi est [the life of the Saints is
the norm of living for others]. --St. Ambrose (334?-397), On St. Joseph
Quia non solum episcopos ad tuendum gregem Dominus ordinavit, sed
etiam Angelos destinavit [Because the Lord has ordained not only bishops to
protect His flock, but also has appointed the Angels]. --St. Ambrose (334?-
397), Book 2 on Chapter 2 of St. Luke about the middle
Apart from bad Latin and a lack of precision, the Curia can be
criticized for the cultural inadequacy implicit in recent papal documents,
which were for centuries distinguished by an irreproachable perfection. --
Prof. Romano Amerio, Iota Unum: A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church
in
the XXth Century (Sarto House, 1996, p. 146), on the decadence of the post-
conciliar Curia
Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if
they had lived in our day, faith would be simple and easy. But in their
day,
they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and
made meaningful to the day's problems. --St. Anthony (ca. 251-356)
A Christian is part of a new and heavenly race of men, of a divine
trunk: divinum genus. He is a deified man, a son of God the Father,
incorporated into the Incarnate Word, animated by the Holy Ghost. His life
must be that of a citizen of heaven: "If God humiliated Himself to such an
extent as to make Himself man," says St. Augustine, "this was in order to
exalt men to such an extent as to make of them gods [Serm. 166]". --Fr. J.
Arintero, O.P., La Vie Spirituelle, December 1919.
O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee,
do not Thou forget me; for Christ's sake. Amen. --Sir Jacob Astley
St. Athanasius, to whom it was objected, "You have the bishops
against you," answered with Faith: "that proves that they are all against
the Church." --St. Athanasius (ca. 296-373)
If the world goes against the truth, then Athanasius goes against
the world [Athanasius contra mundum]. --St. Athanasius (ca. 296-373) [tag
also attributed to the Roman Emperor Constantius in the year 355 when he
chided Pope Liberius for refusing to condemn St. Athanasius ("Who are you to
stand up for Athanasius against the world?")]
God has promised to be like a wall of fire round those who rightly
believe in Him. --St. Athanasius (ca. 296-373)
Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful,
they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ. (Patrologia
Graeca/Coll. Selecta SS. Eccl. Patrum, Caillau and Guillou, Vol. 32, pp.
411-412)
An unjust law is no law at all. --St. Augustine (354-430)
And what more certain death for souls than the liberty of error. --
St. Augustine (354-430) [condemning "religious liberty"]
Persecutions serve to bring forth saints. --St. Augustine (354-430)
Wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it, and right is right
even if nobody is doing it. --St. Augustine (354-430)
If there are some present who do not understand what is being said
or sung, they know at least that all is said and sung to the glory of God,
and that is sufficient for them to join in it devoutly. --St. Augustine
(354-430)
Pray as though everything depended on God and act as if everything
depended on you. --St. Augustine (354-430)
If it happens that the authority of Sacred Scripture is set in
opposition to clear and certain reasoning, this must mean that the person
who interprets Scripture does not understand it correctly. It is not the
meaning of Scripture that is opposed to the truth, but the meaning that he
has wanted to give it. --St. Augustine (354-430)
In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is
revealed. --St. Augustine (354-430)
It is better that the truth be known than that scandal be covered
up. --St. Augustine (354-430)
There is a beauty of form, a dignity of language, a sublimity of
diction which are, so to speak, spontaneous, and are the natural outcome of
great thoughts, strong convictions, and glowing feelings. The Fathers [of
the Church] often attain to this eloquence without intending to do so,
without self-complacency and all unconsciously. --St. Augustine (354-430)
Lay this body anywhere; let not the care of it in any way disturb
you. This only I request of you, that you would remember me at the altar of
the Lord, wherever you. --St. Augustine (354-430), Confessions IX [the last
request of his dying mother, St. Monica]
The crown of victory is promised only to those who engage in the
struggle. --St. Augustine (354-430), De Agone Christiano, 1:1
Accordingly this seems to me to be one principal reason why the good
are chastised along with the wicked, when God is pleased to visit with
temporal punishments the profligate manners of a community. They are
punished together, not because they have spent an equally corrupt life, but
because the good as well as the wicked, though not equally with them, love
this present life; while they ought to hold it cheap, that the wicked, being
admonished and reformed by their example, might lay hold of life eternal.
And if they will not be the companions of the good in seeking life
everlasting, they should be loved as enemies, and be dealt with patiently.
For so long as they live, it remains uncertain whether they may not come to
a better mind. --St. Augustine (354-430), De Civitate Dei I.9 [the "problem
of evil"]
With regard to whatever is in the Septuagint that is not in the
Hebrew manuscripts, we can say that the one Spirit wished to speak to them
through the writers of the former rather than through the latter in order to
show that both the one and the other were inspired. --St. Augustine (354-
430), De Civitate Dei XVIII:43
Divine providence often allows even good men to be expelled from the
Christian community.... By their patient endurance of such injury and
disgrace for the peace of the Church..., they will give man a lesson in true
affliction, in the really genuine charity, which God's service calls for.
The object of such men is to return when the gale has blown itself out; but
if this is not possible because the storm continues, or is more likely to
break out more furiously than ever if they go back, they cling to their
determination ... and are prepared ... to defend to the death the faith
which they know is preached in the Catholic Church, and to support it by
their loyal testimony. The Father sees these men in secret, and rewards
them in secret. --St. Augustine (354-430), De Vera Religione, sec. 6
A man cannot have salvation, except in the Catholic Church. Outside
the Catholic Church he can have everything except salvation. He can have
honor, he can have Sacraments, he can sing alleluia, he can answer amen, he
can possess the gospel, he can have and preach faith in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; but never except in the
Catholic church will he be able to find salvation. --St. Augustine (354-
430), Discourse to the People of the Church at Caesarea, ca. 418
They do not realize that while remaining in communion with the
wicked, one really communicates with them only when one approves of their
perversity and that those who do not approve of them but are unable to
correct them, must, however, tolerate them, and not "root out the tares"
before harvest time, lest they should also "root out the corn," for it is
not with the acts of the wicked, but with the altar of Jesus Christ that
they are in communion.... Let us read all the heavenly words of the
scriptures, and we shall see that the holy servants and the faithful friends
of God have always found plenty of culprits to be tolerated among their
people. However, they remained with them in the communion of the sacraments
of those times, and far from being sullied through that, they have earned
praise, endeavoring as the Apostle says "to keep unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). --St. Augustine (354-430), Epistulae 43 [on the
Donatists]
[Besides what] happens to be observed by the universal Church
wherever it exists,... there are other things that vary according to locale
and region.... All such things are a matter of freedom, and there is no
better practice for the serious and prudent Christian to follow with regard
to them than to act in the way he sees the Church acting wherever he happens
to be. For whatever is not contrary to the faith or to good morals ought to
be considered as indifferent and should be observed for the sake of
fellowship with those among whom one is living. --St. Augustine (354-430),
Epistulae, 54:1-2
These [glossolalia] were miracles suited to the times.... Is it now
expected that they upon whom hands are laid, should speak with tongues? Or
when we imposed our hand upon these children, did each of you wait to see
whether they would speak with tongues? and when he saw that they did not
speak with tongues, were any of you so perverse of heart as to say "these
have not received the Holy Ghost"? --St. Augustine (354-430), Ep. Joan.,
tr. vi.)
With each year it seems that we get closer to an "American Church"
separate from Rome. For millions of Catholics it already exists in fact,
though not yet officially (de facto but not de iure). Even though the
entrenched bureaucracy will not admit it, the Church here is in bad shape.
There has been a loss of morale and elan. But what should one expect when
most Catholic children do not know the basis of the faith, when heresy is
openly taught and defended in "Catholic" universities, when seminarians have
declined from 48,000 to about 5,000, and when only 14,000,000 out of 55
million Catholics go to Church regularly on Sunday? It is not an
exaggeration to say that the Church here is in a crisis. --Fr. Kenneth
Baker, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, November 1991
For him there can be no theater. The play which dominates his life
and enthralls his every morning is holy Mass. --Hugo Ball, dramatist (ob.
1927)
Simon and Peter do coexist in the same person, and Simon can
interfere, resist, and even reject the duties proper to Peter's Office and
even go so far as to act in contradiction with his pontifical functions.
This can be proved by referring to St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians
(2:14): it was at Antioch that St. Paul publicly rebuked the Chief of the
Apostles (St. Peter) because the first Pope was, by his behavior, actually
repudiating that Doctrine of Faith which he had personally and solemnly
defined regarding the end or cessation of the Mosaic Law. It is for this
reason that Cajetan points out that the famous axiom "Where the Pope is,
there is also the Church" holds true only when the Pope acts and behaves as
the Pope, because Peter "is subject to the duties of the Office"; otherwise,
"neither is the Church in him, nor is he in the Church" (Summa Theologica
IIa
IIae, Q. 39, Art. 1, ad 6). --Barnabas, translated from Courrier de Rome,
April 1993
The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.
--Caesare Cardinal Baronio (Caesar Baronius), Vatican Librarian (ca. 1600,
quoted by Galileo)
Our afflictions are well known without my telling; the sound of them
has gone forth over all Christendom. The dogmas of the Fathers are
despised;
apostolic traditions are set at naught; the discoveries of innovators hold
sway in churches. Men have learned to be speculatists instead of
theologians. The wisdom of the world has the place of honor, having
dispossessed the glorying of the cross. The pastors are driven away.
grievous wolves are brought in instead, and plunder the flock of Christ. --
St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca. 379), Epistulae [an orthodox Catholic
bishop
when the Church in the East was dominated by Arian bishops and priests; this
letter is to the bishops of the West, thanking the bishops for the letter
they had written to his friend St. Athanasius] (cf. Appendix V of Venerable
John Henry Cardinal Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century)
Who has lost and who has won in the struggle -- the one who keeps
the
premises [buildings] or the one who keeps the Faith? The Faith obviously.
That therefore the ordinances which have been preserved in the churches from
old time until now may not be lost in our days,... rouse yourselves,
brethren,... seeing them now seized upon by aliens. --St. Basil the Great
(ca. 330-ca. 379) (in 371)
The heresy long ago disseminated by that enemy of truth, Arius, grew
to a shameless height and like a bitter root it is bearing its pernicious
fruit and already gaining the upper hand since the standard-bearers of the
true doctrine in the individual parishes have been driven from the churches
by defamation and insult and the authority they were vested with has been
handed over to such as captivate the hearts of the simple in mind. --St.
Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca. 379) (in 371)
The whole Church is in dissolution. --St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-
ca. 379), Epistulae, to St. Athanasius (in 371/72)
The danger is not confined to one Church.... This evil of heresy
spreads itself. The doctrines of Godliness are overturned; the rules of the
Church are in confusion; the ambition of the unprincipled seizes upon places
of authority; and the chief seat is now openly proposed as a reward for
impiety; so that he whose blasphemies are the more shocking, is more
eligible
for the oversight of the people. Priestly gravity has perished; there are
none left to feed the Lord's flock with knowledge; ambitious men are ever
spending, in purposes of self-indulgence and bribery, possessions which they
hold in trust for the poor. The accurate observation of the canons are no
more; there is no restraint upon sin. Unbelievers laugh at what they see,
and the weak are unsettled; faith is doubtful, ignorance is poured over
their
souls, because the adulterators of the word in wickedness imitate the truth.
Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose.
Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in faith avoid
the places of worship, as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in
solitude with groans and tears to the Lord in heaven. --St. Basil the Great
(ca. 330-ca. 379), Epistlae 92 (in ca. 372)
The present time (has) a strong tendency towards the overthrow of
the
Church. --St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca. 379), to the priests of Tarsus
(in 372)
Has the Lord completely abandoned His Church? Has the hour then
come
and is the fall beginning in this way so that now the man of sin is clearly
revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and is lifted up above all that
is called God or that is worshipped? --St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca.
379)
(in 373)
Matters have come to this pass: the people have left their houses
of
prayer and assembled in the deserts, -- a pitiable sight; women and
children,
old men, and men otherwise inform, wretchedly faring in the open air, amid
most profuse rains and snow-storms and winds and frosts of winter; and again
in summer under a scorching sun. To this they submit because they will have
no part of the wicked Arian leaven. --St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca.
379),
Epistulae 242 (in 376)
Only one offense is now vigorously punished, an accurate observance
of our fathers' traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their
countries and transported into the deserts. The people are in
lamentation.... Joy and spiritual cheerfulness are no more; our feasts are
turned into mourning; our houses of prayer are shut up; our altars are
deprived of spiritual worship. No longer are there Christians assembling,
teachers presiding, saving instructions, celebrations, hymns by night, or
that blessed exultation of souls, which arises from communion and fellowship
of spiritual gifts.... The ears of the simple are led astray, and have
become accustomed to heretical profaneness. The infants of the Church are
fed on the words of impiety. For what can they do? Baptisms are in Arian
hands; the care of travelers, visitation of the sick, consolation of
mourners, succors of the distressed.... Which all, being performed by them,
become a bond to the people... so that in a little while, even though
liberty
be granted us, no hope will remain that they, who are encompassed by so
lasting a deceit, should be brought back again to the acknowledgment of the
truth. --St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca. 379), Epistulae, in a letter to
the bishops of Italy and Gaul (in 376)
Unjust laws are, properly speaking, no laws. --St. Robert
Bellarmine
And we ourselves experience this, that when we enter ornate and
clean
Basilicas, adorned with crosses, sacred images, altars, and burning lamps,
we
most easily conceive devotion. But, on the other hand, when we enter the
temples of the heretics, where there is nothing except a chair for preaching
and a wooden table for making a meal, we feel ourselves to be entering a
profane hall and not the house of God. --St. Robert Bellarmine, Octava
Controversia Generalis, liber II, Controversia Quinta, caput XXXI.
As a Catholic, my faith tells me that the Church has a divine
origin,
but my own experience tells me that it must be divine because no human
institution run with an equal mixture of ineptitude and wickedness would
have
lasted a fortnight. --Hilaire Belloc
The Faith is that which Rome accepted in her maturity; nor was the
Faith the cause of her decline, but rather the conservator of all that could
be conserved. --Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith, 1920 (Tan Books, c.
1920/rep. 1992, p. 13
Every manifestation of divine influence among men must have its
human
circumstance of place and time. The Church might have risen under Divine
Providence in any spot; it did, as a fact, spring up in the high Greek tide
of the Levant and carries to this day the noble Hellenic garb. It might
have
risen at any time; it did, as a fact, rise just at the inception of that
united Imperial Roman system which we are about to examine. It might have
carried for its ornaments and have had for its sacred language the
accoutrements and the speech of any one of the other great civilizations,
living or dead: of Assyria, of Egypt, of Persia, of China, of the Indies.
As a matter of historical fact, the Church was so circumstanced in its
origin
and development that its external accoutrement and its language were those
of
the Mediterranean, that is, of Greece and Rome: of the Empire. --Hilaire
Belloc, Europe and the Faith, 1920 (Tan Books, c. 1920/rep. 1992, p. 19
More and more as time went on did things turn into a battle between
two opponents -- those who would preserve intact the great structure of the
old faith, its liturgy and morals and affirmation of doctrine -- and those
who would build up something quite new and different to act against it, to
dethrone it, to take its place: and the Mass was the test." --Hilaire
Belloc, Cranmer, 1931, pp. 60-61
That truth had already been put in one sentence by St. Jerome, when
he said that, if the Graeco-Roman world had accepted the Catholic Church in
time, the decay of civilization would never have taken place. --Hilaire
Belloc, The Crisis of Civilization: Being the Matter of a Course of
Lectures
Delivered at Fordham University 1937 (Tan Books, c. 1937/rep. 1992, p. 39)
You will not remedy the world until you have converted the world. -
-
Hilaire Belloc, The Crisis of Civilization: Being the Matter of a Course of
Lectures Delivered at Fordham University 1937 (Tan Books, c. 1937/rep. 1992,
p. 165)
Now against the great heresies, when they acquire the driving power
of being the new and fashionable thing, there arises a reaction within the
Christian and Catholic mind, which reaction gradually turns the current
backward, gets rid of the poison and re-establishes Christian civilization.
Such reactions begin, I repeat, obscurely. It is the plain man who gets
uncomfortable and says to himself, "This may be the fashion of the moment,
but I don't like it." It is the mass of Christian men who feel in their
bones that there is something wrong, though they have difficulty in
explaining it. The reaction is usually slow and muddled and for a long
time
not successful. But in the long run with internal heresy it has always
succeeded; just as the native health of the human body succeeds in getting
rid of some internal infection. --Hilaire Belloc, The Great Heresies
(London: Sheed & Ward, 1938) pp. 58-58
For the first issue (the dwindling of Catholic influence, the
restriction of our numbers and political value to the edge of extinction)
there is to be noted the increased ignorance of the world about us, coupled
with the loss of those faculties whereby men might appreciate what
Catholicism means and take advantage of their salvation. The level of
culture including a sense of the past, sinks visibly. With each decade the
level is lower than the last. In that decline, tradition is breaking away
and melting like a snow-draft at the edge of winter. Great lumps of it fall
off at one moment and another, melt, and disappear.
Within our generation the supremacy of the classics has gone. You
find men upon every side possessed of power who have forgotten that from
which we all came; men, to whom Greek and Latin, the fundamental languages
of
our civilization, are incomprehensible, or at best curiosities. Old men now
living can remember uneasy rebellion against tradition; but young men only
perceive for themselves how little there is left against which to rebel, and
many fear that before they die the body of tradition will have disappeared.
That the mood of faith has been largely ruined, ruined certainly for the
greater part of men, all will admit. --Hilaire Belloc, The Great Heresies
(London: Sheed & Ward, 1938) pp. 157
Our civilization developed as a Catholic civilization. It developed
and matured as a Catholic thing. With the loss of Faith it will slip back
no
only into Paganism, but inter barbarism with the accompaniments of Paganism
and especially the institution of slavery. --Hilaire Belloc, "The New
Paganism," in Essays of a Catholic (1931)
The Old Paganism was profoundly traditional; indeed it had no roots
except in tradition, deep reverence for its own past, and for the wisdom of
its ancestry and the pride therein were the very soul of the Old Paganism;
that is why it formed so solid a foundation on which to build the Catholic
Church, and that is also why it offered so long a determined resistance to
the growth of the Catholic Church. But the New Paganism has for its very
essence contempt for tradition and contempt for ancestry. It respects
perhaps nothing, but least of all does it respect the spirit of 'our fathers
have told us.' --Hilaire Belloc, "The New Paganism," in Essays of a
Catholic
(1931)
Most people are taught by way of example and not by way of words. -
-
St. Benedict
Prefer nothing to the work of God [the Opus Dei, the Divine Office].
-- St. Benedict
We declare that the greater part of those who are damned have brought
the calamity on themselves by ignorance of the mysteries of the Faith, which
they should have known and believed, in order to be united with the elect.
-
-Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758)
[The Church] simply permits them [private revelations] to be
published for the instruction and the edification of the faithful. The
assent to be given to them is not therefore an act of Catholic Faith but of
human faith, based upon the fact that these revelations are probable and
worthy of credence.
St. John of the cross asserts that the desire for revelations deprives faith
of its purity, develops a dangerous curiosity that becomes a source of
illusions, fills the mind with vain fancies, and often proves the want of
humility, and of submission to Our Lord, Who, through His public revelation,
has given all that is needed for salvation.
We must suspect those apparitions that lack dignity or proper
reserve, and above all, those that are ridiculous. This last characteristic
is a mark of human or diabolical machination. --Pope Benedict XIV (1740-
1758)
Latinis potius literis erudiantur, quam ut facultas concedatur,
adhibendi in Missae celebratione vulgarem linguam [Let them rather learn
Latin letters, that that the faculty be conceded of using the vulgar tongue
in the celebration of Mass]. --Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), De Missa
Sacrificio, 1.2, c. 2. n. 14
The Church must steadily and firmly heed that although the language
of the people may change, the language of liturgy should not be altered.
Thus, the Mass must be said in the language in which it was said from the
beginning, even if such a language be already, antiquated and strange to the
people, for it is wholly enough, if the learned men understand it. --Pope
Benedict XIV (1740-1758), De Missae Sacrificio, 2, II
Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our
Predecessor
[Pope St. Pius X] rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies,"
and
solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fullness,
Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but
lurks
here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their
guard
against any contagion of the evil, to which we may apply the words Job used
in
other circumstances: "It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and
rooteth up all things that spring" (Job 31:12). Nor do We merely desire
that
Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the
tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are
infected
by
that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savors of antiquity and
become
eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they
carry
out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in
private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our
forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep
to
what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably
adhered
to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject
to
change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a
new
way." --Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922), Encyclical Letter "Ad Beatissimi
Apostolorum," November 1, 1914
It suffices for us not to wish to be better than our fathers. --St.
Bernard of Clairvaux
In spiritual life, when you cease to climb, you begin to descend. -
-
Saint Bernard
Predicting the future is an occupation for pagans, not Christians. -
-
Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Alfred, King of England
The best perfection is to do ordinary things in a perfect manner.
Constant fidelity in little things is a great and heroic virtue. -- St.
Bonaventure (1221-1274)
Tolle hoc sacramentum de ecclesia, et quid eris in mundo, nisi error
et
infidelitas? Et populus Christianus erit quasi grex porcorum dispersus et
idolatriae deditus, sicut expresse patet in caeteris infidelibus.
[Take this Sacrament (of the Holy Eucharist) from the Church, and
what
will there be in the world, except error and unfaithfulness? And the
Christian
people will be scattered like a herd of pigs and given over to idolatry, as
is
patently clear among the rest of the unfaithful.] --St. Bonaventure (1221-
1274)
It is true that the official teaching of the Church (and the
reality)
is that the Mass is the Unbloody Sacrifice of Jesus. But if as Marshall
McLuhan once claimed, "The medium is the message," we have succeeded by
virtue of the liturgical reforms ... in transforming the appearance of the
Mass (the medium) from a serious act of objective worship of an actual,
transcendent God to a 45-minute occasion at which "we gather, we listen, we
respond." We have gone psychologically, intellectually, and ritually from a
Mass that externally indicated that something important may actually have
been taking place, beyond the priest, beyond the people --and almost beyond
their control --to an occasion whose definition is measured solely in terms
of the wordy effervescence of the ever-babbling priest's personality and the
snappy participation of the congregation. --Fr. Anthony Brankin, St. Thomas
More Church, Chicago
In the D.C. public schools today [1992], the cost per pupil is
almost
$5,000 per year. Yet, in many, children are reading at levels three and
four
years below the national average. At Blessed Sacrament [parish in D.C.] in
the 1940s, tuition was free; we were taught in "overcrowded" (by today's
standards) classrooms by women, some of them girls barely out of their
teens,
who were paid almost nothing. They had given up boyfriends, families, home,
and the prospect of marriage and children to live in a convent and instruct
these children in basic education and our common Catholic faith. The
elements indispensable to the success of these parish schools were teachers
who cared deeply, and strictly disciplined children, upon whom constant
demands were made. No nonsense was tolerated. Money had nothing to do with
it, dedication not being a function of dollars. --Patrick J. Buchanan,
"Blessed Sacrament: How Millions of Catholic Children Grew up, in the Bad
Old Days," Latin Mass Magazine, May-June 1992, p. 25
In recent years, politicians and the secular clergy of the national
press, who succeeded the routed Christian clergy as our Lords Spiritual,
have
not hesitated to use the power of law to insist that all Americans,
including
us "heretics," set aside as a day of reflection and remembrance the birthday
of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, a secular saint whose interests appear
to
have been somewhat broader than peace and civil rights. The church of
yesterday never insisted that non-believers observe our feast days or Holy
Days of Obligation; yet, the triumphant humanists have no reservations about
imposing their household gods upon us. --Patrick J. Buchanan, "Blessed
Sacrament: How Millions of Catholic Children Grew up, in the Bad Old Days,"
Latin Mass Magazine, May-June 1992, p. 26
The first step of this program was taken in 1951 with the reform of
the solemn Easter Vigil. The second is contained in the document which we
shall explain in the following pages, and which forms a bridge for passing
from the old rubrical situation to the new. It is a bridge which opens the
way to a promising future. --Fr. Annibale Bugnini, author of the New Mass,
writing in 1955 in the preface of his pamphlet entitled The Simplification
of
the Rubrics, a commentary on the reforms of the rubrics made in that same
year
Dear Buan, we inform you of the task that the Council of Brothers
has
established for you in agreement with the Grand Master and the Princes to
the
Throne, and we charge you:... to spread de-Christianization by confusing
rites and languages and to set priests, bishops, and cardinals against each
other. Linguistic and ritualistic babble means victory for us, since
linguistic and ritual unity has been the strength of the Church.....
Everything must happen within a decade. --Letter of Mason Peerless Grand
Master, July 14, 1964, concerning a secret mission assigned to Fr. Annibale
Bugnini
We must discard from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic
liturgy everything that could constitute the slightest risk of obstacle or
displeasure for our separated brethren, that is, for the Protestants. --Fr.
Annibale Bugnini, principal author of the Novus Ordo liturgical reforms,
L'Osservatore Romano, March 19, 1965
...In brief, I believe I have sown the seeds of maximum license with
the document, according to your instructions. I had to fight bitterly and
make use of every wile to have it approved by the Pope, in the face of my
enemies in the Congregation for Rites. Fortunately for us, we won immediate
backing from our friends and brothers in the Universa Laus, who are loyal.
I
thank you for the sum sent and in the hope of seeing you soon. I send my
embrace. Your brother Buan (Bugnini) --Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, reply
to the head of the Lodge, July 2, 1967, 30 Days (no. 6, 1992)
Eastern Rites, Roman Mass More Apostolic Than. Much better than the
Oriental [Eastern] Liturgies, it [the Roman Mass] has kept the purest and
most ancient tradition, represented by St. Justin and St. Hippolytus, a
tradition which places the words of institution at the Last Supper in the
midst of the Sacrifice, and terminates the Eucharistic prayer by a solemn
doxology. It think we may say that it is the Liturgy which approaches most
closely to the Apostolic anaphora. --Abbot Dom Fernand Michel Cabrol,
O.S.B., "The Excellence of the Roman Mass," in Angelus, February 2001
(XXIV:2), p. 16
[Religion,] the exercise of all that belongs to the worship and
honor
of God. --St. Joseph Cafasso, The Priest, the Man of God: His Dignity and
Duties
All this power is given to the Pope for no other end than the
service
of the Church. She is greater than he, not in authority but in worth and
nobility. The papacy is for the Church, not the Church for the papacy; the
end is always a nobler thing than the means. -- St. Giacomo Tommaso de Vio
Gaetani (Cajetan) (1469-1534)
Those who refuse to give up the Catholic Faith must be put to the
sword. --John Calvin (1509-1564)
Even in the Roman Catholic church, my God -- they've translated the
Mass out of ritual language and into a language that has a lot of domestic
associations. The Latin of the Mass was a language that threw you out of
the
field of domesticity.
The altar was turned so that the priest's back was to you, and with
him you addressed yourself outward. Now they've turned the altar around --
it looks like Julia Child giving a demonstration -- all homey and cozy. --
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
In condemning us, you condemn all your ancestors -- all the ancient
priests, bishops and kings -- all that was once the glory of England, the
island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter. --St.
Edmund Campion, English recusant martyr
I am a Catholic man and a priest. In that Faith have I lived and in
that Faith I intend to die. If you esteem my religion treason, then I am
guilty. --St. Edmund Campion, who in similar times went about the country,
from manor house to town house, celebrating the Canonized Mass, within a
milieu that treated the upholders of such a Mass a societal criminals and
ecclesial outlaws
Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere
in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were,
to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open
foes of our faith. --St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597), one of the greatest
Jesuit theologians, speaking of the Protestants, who were then introducing
changes such as vernacular liturgies, the abolition of fasting laws, the
removal of statues, and other diminutions of traditional Catholicism
It behooves us unanimously and inviolably to observe the
ecclesiastical traditions, whether codified or simply retained by the
customer practice of the Church. --St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597), Summae
Doctrinae Christianae
Peter has no need of our lies or flattery. Those who blindly and
indiscriminately defend every decision of the supreme Pontiff are the very
ones who do most to undermine the authority of the Holy See -- they
destroy instead of strengthening its foundations. --Melchior Cano,
Theologian of the Council of Trent
Alas, Most Holy Father! At times obedience to you leads to eternal
damnation. --St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) Letter to Pope Gregory IX,
1376
Cursed be you, for time and power were entrusted to you, and you
did not use them! --St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) to Pope Gregory XI
(1371-1378), the last pope at Avignon, who returned to Rome in January
1377
Speak the truth as if you had a thousand voices! It is silence that
kills the World. --St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
We've had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred
thousand tongues. I see the world is rotten because of silence. --St.
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
It is the Mass that matters. --Catholics in Elizabethan England
A good man was there of religion, He was a poor parson of a town,
But rich he was in holy thought and work;
He was also a learned man, a clerk,
That the Christian Gospel would truly preach,
And his parishioners devoutly would he teach....
And though he was holy and virtuous
He was not to sinful men contemptuous
Nor in his speech mean nor scornful,
But in his teaching, discreet and thoughtful
To draw people to heaven by fairness,
And by good example; this was his business.
But if any person were obstinate
Whether he were of high or low estate,
Him would he rebuke sharply, right there
A better priest I trust there is nowhere.
He wanted no pomp and reverence,
Nor did he have an over-fastidious conscience.
But Christ's doctrine and his apostles twelve
He taught, but first he followed it himself.
--Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canturbury Tales
Fools with tools are still fools. --Archbishop Charles Chaput, of
Denver
We need to stop over-counting our numbers, our influence, our
institutions, and our resources, because they're not real. We can't talk
about following St. Paul and converting our culture until we sober up and
get
honest about what we've allowed ourselves to become. --Archbishop Charles
Chaput, of Denver, April 2, 2009
These are days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed
but his own. --G.K. Chesterton
Tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything. -
-
G.K. Chesterton
The funeral of Christianity [after the 1799 death of the Pius VI,
imprisoned by the French Republic] was interrupted by the least expected
incident of all -- the corpse came to life. --G.K. Chesterton
Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of
those who merely happen to be walking about. --G. K. Chesterton
Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment, the worst is what these
people call the Inner Light. Of all the horrible religions, the most
horrible is the worship of the god within. Anyone who knows anybody knows
how it would work; any one who knows anyone from the Higher Thought Center
knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns
out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. --G.K. Chesterton
I am very glad that our fashionable fiction seems to be full of a
return to paganism, for it may possibly be the first step of a return to
Christianity. Neo-pagans have sometimes forgotten, when they set out to do
everything the old pagans did, that the final thing the old pagans did was
to
get christened. --G.K. Chesterson, March 20, 1926
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our
ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit
to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking
about. --G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
God wills to be worshipped with all that is beautiful, rich,
reverent, and inspiring in nature as well as in humanity.... The entire
book
of Leviticus is devoted to the careful and minute description of the
elaborate ceremonies which were to be observed by priests and people in
their
approach to their Heavenly Father. --Right Rev. Mons. John D. Chidwick,
D.D., from The Golden Jubilee of St. Agnes' Parish, New York City, 1873-
1923.
It was the most profound and grandiose poetry, enhanced by the most
august gestures ever confided to human beings. I could not sufficiently
satiate myself with the spectacle of the Mass. --Paul Claudel, converted by
watching Solemn High Mass at Notre Dame in Paris
The Church uses her chant and her ceremonies to appeal to the sense
faculties, and to reach, through them, the souls of her children more fully,
and to give to their wills a more effective presentation of the true goods,
and raise them up more surely, more easily, and more completely to God. I
can therefore enjoy all the changeless, wholesome refreshment of dogma
thrown
into relief by Liturgy, and let myself be moved by the majestic spectacle of
a solemn High Mass, and esteem the prayers of absolution, of the touching
rites of Baptism, Extreme Unction, the Burial Service, and so on. --Dom
Jean-Baptiste Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate (Trappist, KY: Abbey of
Gethsemani, 1946, pp. 218-219).
Est quidem vera lex recta ratio naturae congruens, diffusa in omnes,
constans, sempiterna, quae vocet ad officium iubendo, vetando a fraude
deterreat; quae tamen neque probos frustra iubet aut vetat nec improbos
iubendo aut vetando movet. Huic legi nec obrogari fas est neque derogari ex
hac aliquid licet neque tota abrogari potest, nec vero aut per senatum aut
per populum solvi hac lege possumus. (True law is right reason congruent
with nature, spread among all persons, constant, everlasting, which calls to
duty by commanding, deters from crime by forbidding; which nevertheless
neither commands or forbids good persons in vain, nor moves evil persons by
commanding or forbidding. the wicked by ordering or forbidding. Neither is
it right to replace this law, nor is it permitted to amend it in any part,
nor can it be entirely abrogated, nor in fact can we be released from this
law by either the senate or the people.) [The Natural Moral Law] --Marcus
Tullius Cicero, De Re Publica III.xxii.33)
The Pope's power is not absolute. It goes without saying that it is
bound to Scripture, to the ecumenical councils and to the unchangeable
elements of Tradition -- not to the secondary ones. It is bound, and it
cannot say whatever it likes. It is impossible to think of an absolute
power; such power has never existed in the Church. Nothing of the Tradition
can be changed deep down. It is true that among its secondary elements
there
is a little of everything, including errors. But the essential cannot be
touched....
There is also a danger within Catholicism. The Magisterium is not
the only thing there is. There is the whole Church. There are the
faithful.... There are examples from history showing that it was the
faithful who conserved the true Tradition. Venerable John Henry Cardinal
Newman illustrated this brilliantly in his study on the Arians. At a time
when almost the whole episcopate had become Arian with little resistence --
in the persons of Athanasius of Alexandria and St. Hilary of Poitier in
France -- it was the faithful who defended the Faith, who made sure that
Christianity survived....
And I wonder if paradoxically a new crisis were to explode such as
the Arian one, would the faithful be capable of defending the Faith and
Tradition? Of safeguarding Catholicism once again? --Yves Cardinal Congar,
1993, Interview with 30 Days [a central figure at Vatican II]
Classical canonists discussed the question of whether a pope, in his
private or personal opinions, could go into heresy, apostasy, or schism. If
he were to do so in a notoriously and widely publicized manner, he would
break communion, and according to an accepted opinion, lose his office ipso
facto (c. 194, sec. 1, 2o). Since no one can judge the pope (c. 1404) no
one
could depose a pope for such crimes, and the authors are divided as to how
his loss of office would be declared in such a way that a vacancy could then
be filled by a new election --James Corridan et al., editors, The Code of
Canon Law: A Text and Commentary 1983, commissioned by the Canon Law
Society
of American [New York: Paulist 1985], c. 333)
[We] are awaiting the last phase which will mark a substantial
withdrawal of the word "ity" from the Church because its bishops, more than
all others combined, hold the responsibility for the predicament in which we
find ourselves. They seem to be obsessed by secular ecumenism as they
persist in following a pattern of self-preservation instead of Church
preservation. It is, sorrowfully, a pattern of materialism instead of
spirituality; a pattern contrary to Christ's prediction, namely, he who
loses
his life will find it.... Our modern bishops are in tragic need of humility
and sanctity. Perhaps today is too late for their personal renewal in view
of the damage that has been effected in our sanctuaries and schools and
seminaries not only these past ten years but this last half century. --Fr.
Charles Coughlin, Helmet and Sword (1967), pp. 50-51
One must neither pray nor sing songs with heretics. --Council of
Carthage (Patrologia Latina, vol. 56, col. 486)
In the consecration of the Body of the Lord this form of words is
used: "Hoc is enim corpus meum;" and in that of the blood: "Hic est enim
calix sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testament, mysterium fidei, quod pro
vobis et pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum." -- Dogmatic
Council of Florence, A.D. 1442
We have learned from a report by Sparatus, that you will not cease
hauling in the huts of your compatriots certain tables upon which you
celebrate the divine sacrifice of the Mass with the assistance of women whom
you describe as commensals (colhospitae) and who, while you are distributing
the Eucharist, administer to the people the blood of Christ. This is a
novelty, an unprecedented superstition; we are profoundly saddened to
witness
the resuregence of an abominable sect which had never taken hold in the
Gauls; the oriental fathers have dubbed it Pepundienne after Pepundius,
author of this schism, who dared to associate women in the service of the
altar. Licinius, Metropolitan of Tours; Estochius, Bishop of Angers; and
Melaine of Rennes, on the two secular priests Lovocat and Catihern, who went
from Great Britain to Brittany, France
In our province it would be best to have one mode of holy ceremonies
and divine office lest a variety of observances toward a single end should
give rise to the belief that our devotions also express differences. --
Council of Tours (565)
Whatever may be the custom elsewhere, the American tradition, of
which Catholics form so loyal a part, is satisfied simply to call to public
attention moral questions with their implications and leave to the
conscience
of
the people the specific political decision which comes in the act of voting.
--
Richard Cardinal Cushing, 1960
Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress.
--St. Cyprian, Bishop & Martyr (ca. 200-258)
We are called gods because not only does grace elevate us to a
supernatural glory, but even more because we have in us God who dwells and
remains there. --St. Cyril of Alexandria
After you have reverently sanctified your eyes by gazing upon the
sacred Body, receive It; but be careful lest any particle be lost. For if
you lose a portion, it will be as if you lost a part of yourself; for, tell
me, if someone gave you grains of gold, would you not save them with the
greatest care and watch so that none would be lost and you suffer damage?
Should you not, therefore, be far more careful that not even a crumb go
lost
of that which is more valuable than gold or precious gems?... Remember these
various points. Keep yourselves blameless. Do not stay away from Holy
Communion; do not by defilement with sin rob yourselves of this sacred and
sanctifying mystery." --St. Cyril of Alexandria, March 18, 386
Human affairs are now carried on in so many different languages, so
that many people are no better understood by others when they use words than
when they do not. --Dante Alighieri
The prevailing attitude among so many of the [conservative] clergy
is
to accept a particular belief or attitude not because it has an inherent and
enduring truth or value, but because it happens to be the current policy.
Thus, the very clergy who would have denounced (and rightly so) any layman
who had attended a Protestant service before the Council will not denounce
any layman who suggests that the faith would in any way be compromised by
attending such services.... Thus, a matter touching upon the very nature of
the Church Christ founded is seen in itself as something neutral; all that
matters is the current instruction. --Michael Davies, Pope John's Council,
(Angelus Press, 1977), pp. 17-18
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a bureaucratic
mentality had developed among Catholics, the clergy in particular. The
essence of Catholicism was seen as implementing any instruction coming from
higher authority whatever its merits, and this is still the attitude of most
of those clergy who abhor the destruction of the traditional liturgy. They
complain but they obey. --Michael Davies, The Missal of 1962: A Rock of
Stability, Latin Mass (X:2, Spring 2001), pp. 11-12
The Eucharistic teaching of the Council of Trent is indeed
compromised by the Novus Ordo Missae itself, and not simply by the abuses
which accompany its celebrations.... --Michael Davies, Pope Paul's New
Mass,
Author's Introduction (Angelus Press, 1980), p. xxiv
It is indeed no exaggeration to claim that we are living now in the
dark night of the Church. Lack of reverence to the Blessed Sacrament or
even
outright sacrilege constitutes perhaps the most terrifying aspect of this
dark night. --Michael Davies, "The American Scandal," Appendix VI to Pope
Paul's New Mass (Angelus Press, c. 1980)
In other words, you justify attendance at Tridentine Masses on the
principle of what is called in moral theology, epikeia, or equity, which
assumes that in cases of human --not divine --law, the lawgiver would not
prohibit a certain action if he knew all the circumstances in a concrete
situation which are said to make the observance of the law impossible. --
Michael Davies, The Schismatic Six
Many traditional Catholics much prefer the pre-1962 Missal and
would,
in at least some respects, like to see certain features of that Missal
restored eventually, but to campaign for this at present would be
unrealistic
and counterproductive. Mainstream traditionalists are rightly, prudently,
and very successfully directing all their energies into the widest possible
use of the 1962 Missal. --Michael Davies, "Adoremus -- A Balanced
Appraisal," in The Wanderer, January 15, 1996 (29:1), pp. 1 et seq. (cf.
Michael Davies, The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty, Appendix
A)
It is to be hoped that all the traditional priestly communities will
look upon each other as allies rather than rivals, and that some of the
unfortunate mutual criticism which has occurred in the past will not be
repeated. --Michael Davies, "A Letter from London," Wanderer, February 15,
1996 (29:3), p. 5
Its [Vatican II's] documents do not pertain to the Church's supreme
Magisterium, the Extraordinary Magisterium, but to its Ordinary Magisterium,
and therefore it cannot be presumed with certainty that in formulating those
documents it was guided by the Holy Spirit, or that these documents are an
expression of the word of Christ for His Bride the Church in our time. The
Council could have invested its teaching or even some of its teaching with
the authority of the Extraordinary infallible Magisterium, but it
deliberately chose not to do so. Where teaching is proposed by the
Magisterium without the intention of fully engaging the prudential authority
of the Church, it does so only in a fallible manner. --Michael Davies,
"Adoremus -- A Balanced Appraisal," in Wanderer, January 15, 1996 (29:1),
pp.
1 et seq. (cf. Michael Davies, The Second Vatican Council and Religious
Liberty, Appendix A)
In his article "Magisterium" in A Dictionary of Theology, Fr.
Joseph
Crehan, S.J., ... drew our attention to the fact that the Council accepted
that it had "put forth its teaching without infallible definitions" by
concluding the decree on the Church "with the words decernimus ac statuimus"
('We decree and establish') and not with the word definimus." The same
formula was used for all sixteen promulgated documents of the Council. As
was explained above, infallibility pertains only to definitions." --Michael
Davies in "The Authority of Vatican II," Latin Mass, March-April 1993, p. 28
There have been celebrations of the Indult Mass in the United States
where the homilies have been used as propaganda to try to stop people going
to the traditional Mass. Then you have some celebrations of the Indult Mass
in which the Lectionary of the 1969 Missal is used; that is completely
contrary to the regulations governing these Indult Masses. You are supposed
to have the 1962 Missal used exactly.... An unadulterated 1962 Missal must
be used, and Communion must be given on the tongue. --Michael Davies,
"Catholic Interviews," in Catholic, June-July 1996 (No. 154), p. 8
As the quotations from Card. Newman make clear, it is an established
historical fact that St. Athanasius and St. Eusebius of Samosata [?Bp. of
Vercelli, ob. 371] both ordained outside their own dioceses. An interesting
reference to him [St. Eusebius] occurs in a study of the Church's divine
constitution by Dom Adrien Grea, OSB, [L'Eglise et sa Constituition Divine
(Editions Casterman, 1965), p. 236] in his examination of the extraordinary
powers of the episcopate which can only be exercised in the most drastic
circumstances: "In the fourth century St. Eusebius of Samosata traveled
through Eastern dioceses devastated by the Arians and ordained orthodox
pastors for them, without having particular jurisdiction over them. These
are evidently extraordinary actions as were the circumstances that gave rise
to them." --Michael Davies, St. Athanasius: Defender of the Faith (Kansas
City, MO: Angelus Press, 2nd ed./June 1995), p. 74.
During a period of schism and heresy, their [bishops'] duty to
defend
the integrity of tradition extends beyond any single diocese. Card. Newman
illustrates this by pointing out out that St. Athanasius, St. Epiphanius of
Salamis, and St. Eusebius of Samosata, both fierce opponents of Arianism,
had
ordained outside their own dioceses. --Michael Davies, St. Athanasius:
Defender of the Faith (Kansas City, MO: Angelus Press, 2nd ed./June 1995),
p. 43.
No one with even a cursory knowledge of the history of the Church
could possibly claim either that there had ever been any previous radical
reform of the liturgy in the 2000 years of its history, or that any
sacramental rite had been composed artificially by a committee composed for
the purpose. The principle governing authentic liturgical development has
never been expressed more perfectly than by the Protestant historian,
Professor Owen Chadwick: "Liturgies are not made; they grow in the devotion
of centuries." --Michael Davies, Letter From London: Unhappy Anniversary,"
Remnant, April 30, 1994
It might be hoped that ... [Traditional Catholics] would see each
other as allies, and even if they did not have identical opinions on the
most
effective method of restoring the traditional Mass, or of the attitude that
we should take to the New Mass, they would at least refrain from polemical
attacks on fellow traditionalists. As Bill Marra has expressed it so
perfectly: "No enemies on the right!" --Michael Davies, "A Response: To
Father Peter Scott, SSPX, in The Remnant, May 31, 1997 (XXX:10), p. 2
Cardinal Stickler mentioned that the cardinal from Sicily [at
Vatican
II said, "Fathers, Fathers, we have to be careful or we'll end up with the
whole of the Mass in the vernacular," and all the bishops roared with
laughter because they thought that such a suggestion was ridiculous. --
Michael Davies, Inside the Vatican, March 2000, "Interview: Here I Stand,"
pp. 16
The Ecclesia Dei Commission stated in a letter to Father Bisig
[Superior of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter] it wants traditionalists
to be integrated into the reality of the Church of today, but the reality of
the Church of today is that it is disintegrating, and traditional Catholic
have no intention of being integrated into a disintegrating Church. We are
happy to remain within the very rapidly expanding traditionalist movement
which we think is the most vital and orthodox and most loyal section of the
Catholic Church. --Michael Davies, Inside the Vatican, March 2000,
"Interview: Here I Stand," pp. 17
Everything that the Christian world possessed of doctrine and poetry
and music and art was poured into the liturgy and molded into an organic
whole which centered round the Divine Mysteries. --Christopher Dawson
[The traditional Mass] is the most elaborate work of art ever
created
by man. --Christopher Dawson
We are turned so much towards the assembly that we often forget to
turn ourselves together, people and priest, towards God! Yet, without this
essential orientation, the celebration no longer has any Christian meaning.
--Albert Cardinal Decourtray, Archbishop of Lyons, Primate of France,
Documentation Catholique, Paris, June 21, 1992, p. 613)
What Catholics once were, we are. If we are wrong, then Catholics
through the ages have been wrong. --Robert DePiante, Secretary of the
Society of Traditional Roman Catholics. [Also expressed as: "We are what
you once were. We believe what you once believed. We worship as you once
worshipped. If we are wrong now, you were wrong then. If you were right
then, we are right now.]
Stylus brevis, grata facundia; celsa, clara firma sententia. [A
pity
style, of quite elegant grace; lofty, clear in its sound expression. --
Dominican Office, of St. Thomas Aquinas' Latin style
Anti-Catholicism is the last respectable bias among those who view
themselves as models of enlightenment. Utter a word remotely offensive to
Jews, blacks, women, or gays? Heaven forbid. Yet some of those same people
do not blink before mocking the Church or Jesus or Catholic sacraments....
Don't Catholics deserve the same consideration? --Dr. William A. Donohue,
President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, interviewed
in the New York Times, June 1, 1998
It is a grave impoverishment of our culture that so many classify
music as an amusement; and not as a collective voice of mankind that unites
men on a higher level of spiritual sensitiveness than they could otherwise
attain. --Winfred Douglas, Church Music in History and Practice: Studies
in
the Praise of God (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937), p. 9
The switch from Latin to English immediately rendered obsolete the
entire musical repertoire of cathedral, chapel, and parish church.... At
the
heart of the Edwardine reform was the necessity of destroying, of cutting,
hammering, scraping, or melting into a deserved oblivion the monuments of
popery, so that the doctrines they embodied might be forgotten. Iconoclasm
was the central sacrament of the reform, and, as the programme of the
leaders
became more radical in the years between 1547 and 1553, they sought with
greater urgency the celebration of that sacrament of forgetfulness in every
parish in the land. --Dr. Eamon Duffy, British Historian, The Stripping of
the Altars (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 465, 480
No one can foresee what the situation in the church will be in 2036,
any more than anyone could have predicted the present situation from the
vantage point of 1956. --Prof. Robert J. Edgeworth, President of the Latin
Liturgy Association
The Catholic Church was the only one to raise its voice against
Hitler's attack on freedom. Until that period the Church had never
attracted
my attention, but today I express my great admiration and my profound
attachment to this Church which alone had the boundless courage to fight for
moral and spiritual freedom. --Albert Einstein (himself a Jew), Essays
Even if there were only one person left who held the right Catholic
Faith, there would be the Catholic Church. --Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerick
(1774-1824)
The Church is the only one, the Roman Catholic! And if there were
left upon earth but one Catholic, he would be the one, universal Church, the
Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ against which the gates of
Hell shall never prevail. -- Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824)
It is the Mass that matters. --English Catholics at the time of the
persecutions
When you read, do not be content with turning the pages, but review
the same passage twice, three times, or more in order to understand well all
its significance. Reading too quickly is like storm rains that fall
violently and flow away without giving the earth time to become moistened
and
are therefore useless or not very useful to it. Spiritual reading must
rather imitate gentle rain, which falls slowly, penetrates to the depths of
the earth and fertilizes the soil. [He who wishes always to be with God
must
often pray and read. When we pray, it is we who speak to God; but when we
read, it is God who speaks to us.] --St. Ephrem
They [deaconesses] were only women-elders, not priestesses in any
sense, and their mission was not to interfere in any way with Sacerdotal
functions, but simply to perform offices in the care of women. --St.
Epiphanius (Haer. lxxix, cap. iii)
The crosses with which our path through life is strewn associate us
with Jesus in the mystery of His crucifixion. -- St. John Eudes (1601-1680)
[The traditional Mass] is the most beautiful thing this side of
heaven. It came forth out of the grand mind of the Church and lifted us out
of earth and out of self, and wrapped us round in a cloud of mystical
sweetness and the sublimities of a more than angelic liturgy, and purified
us
almost without ourselves, and charmed us with celestial charming so that our
very senses seemed to find vision, hearing, fragrance, taste, and touch more
than ear can give. --Fr. Frederick W. Faber, 19th century, Oratorian priest
at the Brompton Oratory, London, close associate of Cardinal Newman
As the decay in belief in the Divinity of Jesus continues to
increase, the tendency will be to model church organization according to the
political theories in favor at the moment. The democratic form of society
will be exalted and a "Reunion of Christendom," for example, will be aimed
at, along the lines followed by the League of Nations. --Fr. Fahey
We have to distinguish according to the schemata and the chapters
those which have already been the subject of dogmatic definitions; as for
the
declarations which have a novel character, we have to make reservations. --
Cardinal Pericle Felici, describing the "theological note" of the Council
Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to
suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it,
is no less a sin than to encourage them. --Pope St. Felix III
The first remedy against spiritual temptations which the devil
plants
in the hearts of many persons in these unhappy times, is to have no desire
to
procure by prayer, meditation, or any other good work, what are called
(private) revelations, or spiritual experiences, beyond what happens in the
ordinary course of things; such a desire of things which surpass the common
order can have no other root or foundation but pride, presumption, a vain
curiosity in what regards the things of God, and in short, an exceedingly
weak faith. It is to punish this evil desire that God abandons the soul,
and
permits it to fall into the illusions and temptations of the devil, who
seduces it, and represents to it false visions and delusive revelations.
Here
we have the source of most of the spiritual temptations that prevail at the
present time; temptations which the spirit of evil roots in the souls of
those who may be called the precursors of Antichrist. --St. Vincent Ferrer
(1350-1419)
Hence, that meaning of the sacred dogmata is ever to be maintained
which has once been declared by Holy Mother Church, and there must never be
an abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a more
profound understanding.... If anyone says that it is possible that at some
given time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to
the dogmata propounded by the Church which is different from that which the
Church has always understood and understands: let him be anathema. --First
Vatican Council
This Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its
servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. --First Vatican
Council, Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation
Neque enim Petri successoribus Spiritus sanctus promissus est, ut eo
revelante novam doctrinam patefacerent, sed ut eo assistente traditam per
apostolos revelationem seu fidei depositum sancte custodirent et fideliter
exponerent.
[For the Holy Ghost was promised to the successors of Peter not so
that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that,
by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the
revelation or Deposit of Faith transmitted by the Apostles. --First Vatican
Council, Constitutio Dogmatica Prima de Ecclesia Christi (Pastor Aeternus),
chap. 4, De Romani Pontificis Infallibili Magisterio, July 18, 1870
He who goes about to take the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the
Church plots no less a calamity than if he tried to snatch the sun from the
universe. --St. John Fisher, 16th-century English bishop
The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it. --
St. John Fisher, 16th-century English bishop
Ordo autem missarum, quibus oblata Deo sacrificia consecrantur,
primo
a sancto Petro est institutus, cuius celebrationem uno eodemque modo
universus peragit orbis.
[Moreover, the order of Mass, by which the sacrificial offerings are
consecrated to God, were first instituted by Blessed Peter, the celebration
of which in one and the same manner the whole world carries out]. --St.
Isidore of Seville, Patrologia Latina vol. 83, col. 752A
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man.... When Pilate, upon
hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned
him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did
not give up their affection for him.... --Flavius Josephus (n. 37/38),
Antiquities of the Jews, 18:63. This passage is known as the Testimonium
Flavium and appears to have suffered at the hands of later Christian
interpolators, and the original wording of this section is now lost.
If an angel should come down from heaven and show me any other thing
than I have believed all my lifetime past, I would not believe him. --
Blessed John Forest, one of the martyrs of the English Reformation
The Pope has no authority from Christ in temporal matters, in
questions of politics.... His authority is ecclesiastical authority; it
goes
no further than that of the Church herself. But even in religious matters,
the Pope is bound, very considerably, by the divine constitution of the
Church. There are any number of things that the pope cannot do in religion.
He cannot modify, nor touch in any way, one single point of the revelation
Christ gave to the Church; his business is only to guard this against attack
and false interpretation. We believe that God will guide him that his
decisions of this nature will be nothing more than a defense or unfolding of
what Christ revealed. The pope can neither make nor unmake a sacrament; he
cannot affect the essence of any sacrament in any way. He cannot touch the
Bible; he can neither take away a text from the inspired Scriptures nor add
one to them. He has no fresh inspiration nor revelation. His business is
to
believe the revelation of Christ, as all Catholics believe it, and to defend
it against heresy.... The Pope is not, in the absolute sense, head of the
Church; the head of the Church is Jesus Christ our Lord.... The Pope is
the
vicar of that head, and therefore visible head of the Church on earth,
having
authority delegate from Christ over the Church on earth only.... If the
Pope
is a monarch, he is a very constitutional monarch indeed, bound on all sides
by the constitution of the Church, as this has been given to her by Christ.
--Fr. Adrian Fortescue (England's greatest liturgical historian, 1874-1923),
The Early Papacy to the Synod of Chalcedon in 451 (St. Austin Press, 1997),
pp. 27-28
So our Mass goes back without essential change to the age when
Caesar
ruled the world and thought he could stamp out the faith of Christ, when our
fathers met together before dawn and sang a hymn to Christ as God.... There
is not in Christendom a rite so venerable as ours. --Adrian Fortescue
(England's greatest liturgical historian, 1874-1923), The Mass: A Study of
the Roman Liturgy (London, 1917), p. 213
[There is] a prejudice that imagines that everything Eastern must be
old. This is a mistake, and there is no existing Eastern liturgy with a
history of continual use stretching back as far as that of the Roman Mass.
-
-Adrian Fortescue (England's greatest liturgical historian, 1874-1923), The
Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy (London, 1917), p. 213n
Let us be as Roman as possible always. But in artistic matters let
us look to Rome's good artistic periods. It would be absurd to defend
mangled plainsong and operatic music as Roman. It is just as absurd to
claim
the name of the ancient city for only one period of her long artistic
development. Skimped chasubles, gold braid, and lace are not Roman; they
are
eighteenth-century bad taste. --Adrian Forescue (England's greatest
liturgical historian, 1874-1923), The Vestments of the Roman Rite (New York:
Paulist Press, 1912)
The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the
cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost Heart. This
cross that He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes,
understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with
loving arms and weighted with His own hands to see that it be not one inch
too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His
holy Name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation,
taken one last glance at you and your courage and then sent it to you from
heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love
of God.
If the name Peter makes us recognize him as chief, the name Simon
warns us that he was not unlimited chief, but obedient and subordinate
chief.... Our Lord is Lord and Master in his own right: St. Peter only
administers for Him. --St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Say your Pater, Ave, and Credo in Latin ... so as to join in the
universal language of the Church. --St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Be assured that we shall obtain more grace and merit in one day by
suffering patiently the afflictions that come to us from God or from our
neighbor than we would acquire in ten years by mortifications and other
exercises that are of our own choice. --St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
"We do not sufficiently remember our dead, our faithful departed....
Notwithstanding their advantages, the state of the souls in purgatory is
still very sad and truly deserving of compassion. Moreover, the glory that
they will render to God in heaven is delayed. These two motives ought to
engage us, by our prayers, our fasts, our alms, and all kinds of good works,
especially by offering the holy sacrifice of the Mass for them, to procure
their speedy deliverance." -- St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
We may compare a soul rising from sin to holiness to the dawn which,
as it rises, does not at once dispel darkness, but advances gradually. It
is
an old saying, that a slow cure is a certain cure. Spiritual diseases like
those of the body come mounted and at full speed; they return on foot and
creeping. We must be patient and courageous. It is sad to see those who,
finding their attempts after the devout life hindered by various
infirmities,
begin to grow uneasy, to fret and be disheartened, almost ready to yield to
the temptation of forsaking their aim and falling back. --St. Francis de
Sales (1567-1622), Philothea, Part I, Chapter v
There will be an uncanonically elected Pope who will cause a great
schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even
those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics
which will cause my Order to divide, then will there be such universal
dissensions and persecutions that if those days were not shortened even the
elect would be lost. --St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Too many American Catholics are just Protestants who go to Mass on
Sunday. --Hamish Fraser
The American Church is in schism. -- Edouard Cardinal Gagnon
(1990).
The Roman Rite, in important parts, goes back at least to the fourth
century, more exactly to the time of Pope Damasus (366-384). The Canon of
the Mass had attained by the time of Gelasius I (492-496) the form it has
kept until now, apart from some modifications made under Gregory I (590-
604).
The only thing which the popes have unceasingly insisted upon since the
fifth
century is that the Roman Canon must be adopted; their argument being that
it
went back to the Apostle St. Peter. --Msgr. Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the
Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background (Una Voce Press, 1987/1993)
In the final analysis, ... in the future the traditional rite of
Mass
must be retained in the Roman Catholic Church ... as the primary liturgical
form for the celebration of Mass. It must become once more the norm of our
faith and the symbol of Catholic unity throughout the world, a rock of
stability in a period of upheaval and never-ending change. --Msgr. Klaus
Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy
There never was a celebration versus populum in either the Eastern
or
Western Church. Instead, there was a turning toward the East. -- Msgr.
Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy
In contrast to the liturgies of the Eastern Church, which continued
their development well into the Middle Ages, but remained fixed thereafter,
the Roman liturgy, in its simple, even plain forms, which originated in
early
Christianity, has remained almost unchanged for centuries. There is no
question that the Roman liturgy is the oldest Chrsitian rite. Over time, a
number of popes have undertaken revisions. In an early period, Pope Damasus
I (366-384) did so; and later, so did Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604),
among others. --Msgr. Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its
Problems and Background (Una Voce Press, 1987/1993, p. 10)
It most certainly is not the function of the Holy See to introduce
Church reforms. The first duty of the pope is to act as primary bishop
(episcopus = supervisor), to watch over the traditions of the Church --her
dogmatic, moral, and liturgical traditions. --Msgr. Klaus Gamber, The
Reform
of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background (Una Voce Press,
1987/1993, p. 38)
Liturgy and faith are interdependent. That is why a new rite was
created, a rite that in many ways reflects the bias of the new (modernist)
theology. The traditional liturgy simply could not be allowed to exist in
its established form, because it was permeated with the truths of the
traditional faith and its ancient forms of piety.... Instead of our
religious life entering a period of new invigoration, as has happened in the
past, what we now see is a form of Christianity that has turned towards the
world. --Msgr. Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems
and Background (Una Voce Press, 1987/1993, pp. 100, 102)
Se per malum fidem et negligentiam pontificis, universalis ecclesia
in errorem induci possit,... tutela Christi ... iudicium tale impediretur.
[If the entire Church should ever face the danger of being led astray
through
the bad faith and negligence of a pope,... Christ's vigilance ... would
prevent an infallible declaration.] --Bishop Gasser of Bressanone at the
time of the First Vatican Council, Mansi 52, col. 1212-1214
Let those who like myself have known and sung a Latin-Gregorian High
Mass remember it if they can. Let them compare it with the Mass that we now
have. Not only the words, the melodies, and some of the gestures are
different. To tell the truth, it is a different liturgy of the Mass. This
needs to be said without ambiguity: the Roman Rite as we knew it no longer
exists [le rite romain tel que nous l'avons connu n'existe plus]. It has
been destroyed [il est detruit]. Some walls of the former edifice have
fallen while others have changed their appearance, to the extent that it
appears today either as a ruin or the partial substructure of a different
building. We must not weep over the ruins or dream of an historical
reconstruction. --Fr. Joseph Gelineau, one of the most influential members
of Archbishop Annibale Bugnini's Consilium, which composed the New Mass,
"Demain La Liturgie," Latin Mass, November-December 1992, p. 32
Men are hard at work to put an end to the 2000-year worship history
of the Roman Catholic Church. They seem determined to interrupt the
continuous Sacrifice of Calvary, and the Supreme Act of reparation to the
infinite God. Nearly every Catholic Church has been "remodeled and updated"
--altars have been removed and destroyed, sanctuaries have been leveled to
the ground, and the House of God has been turned into a meeting facility, a
place nobody wants to visit at any time other than when service are being
conducted. Consequently, all things reminiscent of the Old Order of
Sacrifice have been "massacred," as it were, and in too many instances, the
"massacre" of Sacred things has been conducted by the very ones who once
enjoyed their use and were careful custodians of them. --Fr. Leonard
Giardina, O.S.B., Prior of Christ the King Monastery, Cullman, Alabama, in
Speculum Benedictinum (#5, Christmas 1993).
Let us pray that God will give all traditional Roman Catholic
priests
and people the grace to understand that unless and until unity of purpose is
achieved amongst all traditional Roman Catholic priests and people, the work
of restoring the Sacrifice of the Mass will be paralyzed and, therefore,
ineffective. May God grant to all Traditional Roman Catholic priests and
people the grace to put aside every cause other than the cause of the
restoration of the Mass. When the Holy Sacrifice is restored to Catholic
worship, all things will be returned to their proper focus. Have no fear
about that. --Fr. Leonard Giardina, O.S.B., Prior of Christ the King
Monastery, Cullman, Alabama, The Catholic Voice, (XI:2, June 1995), p. 3
The Sacrifice of the Mass is and remains the center of the Christian
Religion, the sum of spiritual exercises, the heart of devotion and the soul
of piety. Hence that ever-new, never-failing power by which the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass attracts all Catholic hearts and gathers Catholic
nations around its altars. Everywhere the Holy Mass retains this magnetic
power of attraction.... The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the soul and the
heart of the liturgy of the Church; it is the mystical chalice that presents
to our lips the sweet fruit of the passion of the God-Man -- this is, grace.
--Fr. Nicholas Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Latin is the language of the Church, and the sad withering away of
the Christian liturgy by translations into the vulgar language, which
vulgarizes it without cease, makes one see the necessity of a sacred
language, whose very changelessness is protected against the deprivations of
taste. --Etienne Gilson [modern historian of the Middle Ages], The
Philosopher and Theology (1960)
The Reformation began in lust and continued in greed and hypocrisy.
--Chris Gonenthal, "The Tragic Fall of Catholic England" in Adsum (March
2001)
To use the words of the Fathers of the Council of Trent, it is
certain that the Church "was instructed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles and
that all truth was daily taught by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost."
Therefore, it is obviously absurd and injurious to propose a certain
"restoration and regeneration" for her as though necessary for her safety
and growth, as if she could be considered subject to defect or obscuration
or other misfortune. Indeed these authors of novelties consider that a
"foundation may be laid of a new human institution," and what St. Cyprian
detested may come to pass, that what was a divine thing "may become a human
Church." --Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846), Mirari Vos, "On Liberalism and
Religious Indifferentism," August 15, 1832
We now come to another and most fruitful cause of the evils that at
present afflict the Church and that we so bitterly deplore. We mean
Indifferentism..., or that fateful opinion, everywhere diffused by the craft
of the wicked, that men can by the profession of any faith obtain the
eternal salvation of their souls, provided their life conforms to justice
and good morals.... Let them tremble then who imagine that every creed
leads by an easy path to the court of blessedness.... Consequently, they
will perish eternally without any doubt if they do not hold to the Catholic
faith and preserve it entire and without alteration. --Pope Gregory XVI
(1831-1846), Mirari Vos, "On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism," No.
14, August 15, 1832
Liturgical Reform, having as one of its basic principles the
abolition of all mystical acts and formulations, insists upon the usage of
modern languages for the divine service.... Hatred for the Latin language
is inborn in the heart of all enemies of Rome. They recognize it as the
bond that unites Catholics throughout the world, as the arsenal of orthodoxy
against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit. They consider it the
most powerful arm of the Papacy.... We must admit that it is a master blow
of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should
ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory.
Exposed to a profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that
moment on the liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon
people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one's work or pleasure
in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks in the
marketplace. How long do you think the faithful will go to hear these self-
styled liturgists cry "The Lord be with you" and how long will they continue
to respond "and with your spirit"? --Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B.,
Liturgical Institutions, vol. 1, chapter IV "The Antiliturgical Heresy,"
(1840)
Priests should not always be obedient because they will assume the
vices of their superiors too. --Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604)
If the scandal comes from the truth, one must endure the
scandal rather than conceal the truth" -- Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-
604), In Hezechiam Sermo VII
The Church, instructed by the teaching of humility, does not command
as though by authority, but persuades by reason. --Pope St. Gregory the
Great (590-604), Epistulae 1:30
It's a dumb dog that doesn't bark when the wolf is among the sheep!
--Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604), In Ezechiam Homilia 7
Blind that they [the Modernists] are, and leaders of the blind,
inflated with a boastful science, they have reached that pitch of folly
where they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true nature of the
religious sentiment. With that new system of theirs, they are seen to be
under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at
all of finding some solid foundation of truth, but despising the holy and
apostolic traditions, they embrace other vain, futile, uncertain doctrines,
condemned by the Church, on which, in the height of their vanity, they think
they can rest and maintain truth itself. --Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846)
Surely the pastors have done foolishly; for excepting a very few,
who
either on account of their insignificance were passed over, or who by reason
of their virtue resisted, and who were to be left as a seed and root for the
springing up again and revival of Israel [the Church] by the influence of
the
Spirit, all temporized, differing from each other only in this, that some
succumbed earlier, and others later; some were foremost champions and
leaders
in the impiety, and others joined the second rank of the battle being
overcome by fear, or by interests or by flattery, or, what was the most
excusable, by their own ignorance. --St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389) [an
orthodox Catholic bishop when the Church in the East was dominated by Arian
bishops and priests], Orationes xxi.24
One who entered the parish church at Wittemberg after Luther's
victory discovered that the same vestments were used for divine service as
of
yore, and heard the same old Latin hymns. The Host was elevated and
exhibited at the Consecration. In the eyes of the people, it was the same
Mass as before, despite the fact that Luther omitted all the prayers which
represented the sacred function of the Sacrifice. The people were
intentionally kept in the dark on this point. "We cannot draw the common
people away from the Sacrament, and it will probably be thus until the
Gospel
is well understood," said Luther. The rite of celebration of the Mass, he
explained, is a "purely external thing," and said further that "the damnable
words referring to the Sacrifice could be omitted all the more readily,
since
the ordinary Christian would not notice the omission and hence there was no
danger of scandal." --Hartmann Grisar, S.J.
The intention of Paul VI in the matter of the liturgy, in the matter
of what is commonly called the Mass, was to reform the Catholic liturgy so
that it should approximate as closely as possible to the Protestant liturgy
... with the Protestant Lord's Supper.... I can only repeat that Paul VI
did
all that he could to bring the Catholic Mass away from the tradition of the
Council of Trent towards the Protestant Lord's Supper. He was assisted by
Archbishop Bugnini in particular, though Bugnini did not always enjoy the
full confidence of Paul VI.... The Mass of Paul VI is first and foremost a
banquet, is it not? It lays heavy emphasis upon the aspect of taking part
in
a banquet, and much less upon the idea of sacrifice, ritual sacrifice in the
presence of God, the priest only showing his back. So I do not think I am
mistaken when I say that the intention of Paul VI, and the new liturgy which
bears his name, was to ask the faithful to participate more in the Mass, to
make more space for Scripture and less for what some call "magic," but
others
call consecration, consubstantiation, transubstantiation and the Catholic
Faith. In other words we see in Paul VI an ecumenical intention to wipe out
or at least to correct or soften everything that is too Catholic in the Mass
and to bring the Catholic Mass, again I say, as close as possible to the
Calvinist liturgy. --Jean Guitton, French philosopher and close friend of
Pope Paul VI, in the radio program "Ici Lumiere 101," broadcasted by Radio-
Courtoisie, Paris, December 19, 1993, translated by Adrian Davies in Latin
Mass, Winter 1995 (IV, 1), pp. 10-11
Either the Catholic Church remains constant in her fundamental
articles of faith over the centuries, or she is no longer the Church founded
by Christ.... What leaders of the Church need to do [in this] veritable
emergency of faith [is] to hold on literally for dear life to what Christ
has
revealed, to what has been defended for us by the champions of orthodoxy
like
Athanasius, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great, lived out before us by
saints and mystics like Benedict, Francis, and Ignatius Loyola, like ...
Teresa ... and Thomas More. --Fr. John A. Hardon, "The Crisis of Faith,
Christian Order, May 1997, pp. 275-76
An Indult, after all, does mean an exception to the norm -- in
effect, second-class citizenship. --Fr. Brian Harrison
The bishops were under the impression that the liturgy had been
fully
discussed [at the Second Vatican Council]. In retrospect it is clear that
they were given the opportunity of discussing only general principles.
Subsequent changes were more radical than those intended by Pope John and
the
bishops who passed the decree on the liturgy. His sermon at the end of the
first session shows that Pope John did not suspect what was being planned by
the liturgical experts." --Cardinal Heenan, Crown of Thorns (London, 1974),
p. 223
If the Church is to remain truly the Catholic Church, it is
essential
to keep a universal tongue. --Cardinal Heenan, 1967
Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and Pope John would have wept over Rome
if
he had foreseen what would be done in the name of his Council. --Cardinal
Heenan, 1968
The Conservatives whose talent for accommodation to any environment
renders them nearly invisible until it's too late. No matter what happens,
they are not so much in the Church as "in," and for them the Church is the
establishment. Their unquestioning obedience to authority, blinder than any
Mason's, relieves them of untold struggles of conscience. Although they may
express a preference for the ancient Mass, they have no problems with the
new
one as long as the music is good the atmosphere reverent, and the majority
attend it.... Their catechisms rarely teach outright heresy, but jarring
truths are prudently disregarded lest charity be wounded. --Solange Strong
Hertz, "It's Only Natural," Remnant, February 28, 1994, p. 10
Because the papacy cannot be exercised apart from it [the Faith],
Innocent II, St. Antoninus, Paul IV, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Alphonsus
Liguori, and other eminent theologians and canonists have contended that no
heretic can be Pope, even should he preempt the Chair of Peter, for he does
not possess the faith of Peter.... As Vicar of Christ and Head of the
Church, the Pope is indeed ... an infallible shadow, but only by virtue of
the Rock whose outline he projects. Separated from the Rock, he is not even
a shadow, and no more infallible than any other pagan, heretic, or
schismatic.
Alas, the Pope's office does not confirm him in grace. This
explains
why traditionally the faithful pray in the Litany of the Saints "to preserve
the Apostolic Prelate and all ecclesiastical orders in holy religion." Like
anyone else, the Pope can commit the most grievous sins without prejudice to
his ministry or estrangement from the body of the faithful, but again, like
anyone else, he excommunicates himself if he sins against faith and falls
into heresy or schism, for faith is to the Church what the root is to the
tree. No longer part of the Mystical Body, how can he function as its
earthly, visible head?
Lest the faithful be scandalized at such an eventuality, the Book of Daniel
explicitly foretells a time when the power of evil would be "magnified even
to the prince of the strength" (a person commonly identified as the Pope by
the Church Fathers) and would take "from him the continual sacrifice ...
because of sins" (Dan. 8:11-12). The prophet Osee likewise predicted that
"the children of Israel," prefiguring the Church, "shall sit many days
without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice and without altar
and
without ephod and without theraphim" [liturgical vestments]....
It remains that authority, even the supreme papal authority, is at
the service of the faith, and not the other way round. As St. Paul told the
Corinthians, speaking as their bishop, "We can do nothing against truth" (2
Cor. 13:8), inasmuch as his authority was conferred on him only for the
reinforcement of truth. Belief in the Holy Catholic Church is a solemnly-
defined article of the Creed, without which no one can be saved. One, holy,
universal, and apostolic, the Church is indefectible because she is the
Mystical Body of Christ, against whom the gates of hell have no power
whatever to prevail. Her soul is the Spirit of Christ, which is the Holy
Ghost. For the Church to defect, God himself would have to defect. Nowhere
does the Creed enjoin faith in Peter, or even in the Papacy, for these are
not indefectible, and part from the Church they have no credibility....
Never actually concluded, the First Vatican Council left the
Catholic
world with a somewhat one-sided view of papal authority, which must be seen
in the larger context of the infallibility of the Church to remain in
balance. It was not long before the obedience due the Pope was over-
emphasized. There was a natural human tendency to forget that even in this
regard, obedience is no transcendent theological virtue like faith, hope, or
charity, but a simple moral virtue like any other, in the practice of which
it is possible to sin by excess as well as by deficiency....
For not even in mediaeval times has deference to the Pope as an
individual assumed the proportions it has today. As often as not, even the
popular idiom instinctively refers to the Second Vatican Council as "Pope
John's Council" and the subsequent reforms as "the liturgy of Paul VI"
rather
than the liturgy of the Church....
There is no precedent for the uncritical adulation accorded John
Paul
II.... It is no longer unusual for fans of the Pontiff to view him apart
from his office, as an outstanding celebrity in his own right..., giving
rise
to a veritable cult....
At the First Vatican Council Pope Pius IX promulgated as dogma that
the Pope speaks infallibly when doing so "ex cathedra, that is, when in
discharge of the office of Pastor and Doctor of all Christians, by virtue of
his supreme Apostolic authority he defines a doctrine regarding faith or
morals to be held by the Universal Church, by the divine assistance promised
to him in blessed Peter." Although "such definitions are irreformable of
themselves and not from the consent of the Church," a clear line of
demarcation was laid between Peter acting in his official capacity as Pope,
and Peter as a private individual. The Council had already made clear in
the
decree De Ecclesia Christi that the assistance of the Holy Ghost had not
been
promised to Peter's successors to reveal new doctrines, but only to teach
and
preserve intact the Deposit [of Faith] confided to the Apostles. --Solange
Strong Hertz, "De Petris: On the Rocks," Wanderer
The Church was not in any special crisis when the Second Vatican
Council was convened in 1962. On the contrary, it was in a particularly
flourishing state, institutionally, intellectually, and religiously. As
John
Lukacs pointed out in 1959 (in his introduction to Alexis de Tocqueville's
"The European Revolution), "for the first time since the Counter-
Reformation,
conversions have been flowing almost unilaterally toward Catholicism." But
today, after the Council, the entire trend has been reversed:
institutionally, intellectually, religiously, the Church is under attack, is
falling back, is in crisis. --Will Herberg
Vernacular means banalization; vernacular means profanation. --
Canon
Gregory Hesse of Austria
We started with twelve bishops, and one of them was a traitor. Now
we have the opposite. --Canon Gregory Hesse of Austria
The churches shall lament with great lamentations, because there
shall neither oblation be made, nor incense, nor worship grateful to God.
But the sacred houses of churches shall be like to cottages, and the
precious
Body and Blood of Christ shall not be exist in those days, the liturgy shall
be extinguished, the psalmody shall cease, the reciting of Scriptures shall
not be heard. --St. Hippolytus (ob. ca. 236)
And women, whether believers or catechumens, shall stand for their
prayers by themselves in a separate part of the Church.... And the
presbyters -- or, if there are not enough presbyters, the deacons -- shall
hold the cups, and shall stand with reverence and modesty. And even if the
bishop should be absent when the faithful meet at a supper, if a presbyter
or
deacon is present they shall eat in a similar orderly fashion, and each
shall
be careful to take the blessed bread from the presbyter's or deacon's hand."
--St. Hippolytus (ob. ca. 236), The Apostolic Tradition
The Latin is also so close to the Church's liturgical and
theological
wellsprings that its abandonment has left many people badly out of touch
with
their traditions. Its demise has been one of the principal stimuli to the
belief that liturgy ought to be a completely contemporary thing.... The
association of the Latin language with the timeless, mysterious, and
traditional aspects of worship is so profound that no fully adequate
translation of it into the vernacular is possible. The decision to
translate
the liturgy into the vernacular has had momentous consequence which should
not be minimized. It may lead to the disappearance of almost all sense of
the sacred in liturgy.... --Prof. James Hitchcock, The Recovery of the
Sacred (1974), "written less than a decade after Vatican II to call
attention
to certain liturgical trends which seemed unwise and even destructive"
Q. If a person lived a decent, noble and moral life as judged by
Catholic Faith beliefs and standards, yet was not a Christian or a Catholic
and may, for the sake of discussion, be a non-believer, would this person be
denied Heaven?
A. To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a
person be incorporated in fact as a member of the Church, but it is
required
that he belong to it at least in desire and longing [in voto]. It is not
always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens.
When
a man is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called
because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a man wants
his will to be conformed to God's will.
[The letter than goes on to state under what circumstances it
suffices for salvation to belong to the Church by an implicit desire of
longing: such a person must be invincibly ignorant of his error, possess
supernatural Faith (by which he believes that God exists and is a rewarder
to
those that seek Him), and have an implicit desire informed with perfect
charity. Referring to the encyclical Mystici Corporis, the Letter says:
"... the pope censures those who exclude from eternal salvation all men who
belong to the Church only with implicit desire, and he also censures those
who falsely maintain that men can be saved equally as well in any
religion."]
--Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston, August 8, 1949
The Episcopate was now so generally corrupted by the spirit of the
world that to be subject to it was often a direct menace to spiritual and
temporal well being. --Fr. Philip Hughes, Popular History of the Catholic
Church (Macmillan, 1946), p. 91
Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as
wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. --St. Ignatius,
Bishop of Antioch, ca. 110 [first known use of the word "Catholic" as
applied
to Christians]
Who does not know that what has been handed down by Peter, the
Prince
of the Apostles, to the Roman Church is still observed unto this day and
must
be observed by all? --Pope Innocent I (402-417) to Decentius, Bishop of
Gubbio, about St. Peter as the founder of the Roman liturgy, for the method
of celebration followed and introduced by him was undoubtedly the essential
and permanent foundation for its later development and form
The consecratory formula of the Roman Canon has been imposed on the
Apostles by Christ directly, and handed down by the Apostles to their
successors. --Pope Innocent III (1198-1215)
The judgment of God may be compared to a mirror. It is not the
mirror's fault if the face it reflects is hideous. --St. Jerome, Great
Father and Doctor of the Western Church
I have never spared heretics, and I have done my best to make the
enemies of the Church my own.... All we who hold the Catholic Faith wish
and long that, while the heresy is condemned, the men may be reformed. At
all events, if they will continue in error, the blame does not attach to us
who have written, but to them, since they have preferred a lie to the truth.
--St. Jerome, Great Father and Doctor of the Western Church
The best advice that I can give you is this. Church traditions --
especially when they do not run counter to the Faith -- are to be observed
in the form in which previous generations have handed them down. --St.
Jerome, Epistulae, lxxi.6
They [the bishops of France] are not the Church. Jesus Christ is
the Church. --St. Joan of Arc to the Church tribunal that condemned her
No Catholic could subscribe to even moderate socialism. --Pope John
XXIII
I suppose I should quote it for you in Latin, for one could speak
in Italian, or French, or German, but some might not be able to understand
it. Latin is the language of the Church, and hence is universal. --Pope
John XXIII, 1958, in an audience given to the press in the Clementine Hall
of the Vatican
Latin is the immutable language of the Western Church. --Pope John
XXIII, Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia, February 22, 1962 (just
eight months before the opening of Vatican II)
Egomet ipse praesens adfui sat proxime stans proper altare S. Petri
in Basilica Vaticana cum ipse Ioannes Pp. XXIII hoc documentum Veterum
Sapienia publici iuris fecit. Et res ita accidit:
Tota Basilica Vaticana ingenti multitudine fidelium repleta, Summus
Pontifex ingressus est et sermonem habuit praeclarum quo momentum et valorem
huius documenti (Veterum Sapientia) sat fuse et abundanter audientibus
explicavit et inter cetera hoc quoque dixit:
"Ne postea dici possit hunc Summum Pontificem iam aetate provectum
non bene intellexisse quali documento nomen suum subscribendo apposuisset,
sed tantummodo subscripsisse, quia alii hoc documentum illi ad subscribendum
dedereunt, Ego vobis dico me scire quid nunc subscribam et me quod in
documento scriptum est re vera velle et propterea hoc documentum coram
omnibus vobis in hoc altari Sancti Petri sollemniter subscribam."
Et coram omnibus nobis, me -- ut dixi -- sat proxime adstante,
documentum subscripsit.
Hoc est historice certum, quia ante tot testes public factum est.
[I myself was present, standing very closely to the altar of St.
Peter in the Vatican Basilica when Pope John XXIII enacted this document,
"Veterum Sapientia," as a public law. And the event occurred as follows:
[The whole Vatican Basilica was full of a large crowd of the
Faithful. The Supreme Pontiff entered and gave an outstanding sermon
by which he explained at length and in detail to the audience the importance
and weightiness of this document ("Veterum Sapientia"), and among other
things said the following too:
["Lest afterwards it may be said that this Supreme Pontiff,
now advanced in age, has not well understood what kind of document
he has enacted by signing his name, but has signed it only because others
gave this document to him for his signature, I say to you that I know what I
was signing and I willed in truth what was written in the
document, and consequently I solemnly signed this document before you all on
this altar of St. Peter."
[And before all of us, while I -- as I said -- stood very closely
by,
he signed the document.
[This is historicaly certain, because it was done publicly before so
many witnesses.] --Fr. Suitbertus a S. Ioanne a Cruce, Letter of September
15, 1998, to the Familia Sancti Hieronymi
Let no innovator dare to write against the use of Latin in the
sacred
rites ... nor let them in their folly attempt to minimize the will of the
Apostolic See in this matter. --Pope John XXIII, Apostolic Constitution
Veterum Sapientia, February 22, 1962
Quoniam lingua Latina est lingua Ecclesiae viva. [For the Latin
language is the living language of the Church.] --Pope John XXIII,
Apostolic
Constitution Veterum Sapientia, No. 6, February 22, 1962
[The Latin language] has been consecrated through constant use by
the
Apostolic See. --Pope John XXIII, Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia,
chap. 10, February 22, 1962
Let no innovator dare to write against the use of Latin in the
sacred
rites... nor let them in their folly attempt to minimize the will of the
Apostolic See in this matter. --Pope John XXIII, Apostolic Constitution
Veterum Sapientia, chap. 13, February 22, 1962
The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every
merely
human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether
fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and
non-vernacular. --Pope John XXIII, Veterum Sapientia, February 22, 1962,
chap. 13
We also, impelled by the weightiest of reasons ... are fully
determined to restore this language to its position of honor and to do all
We
can to promote its study and use. The employment of Latin has recently been
contested in some quarters, and many are asking what the mind of the
Apostolic See is in this matter. We have therefore decided to issue the
timely directives contained in this docuyment, so as to ensure that the
ancient and uninterrupted use of Latin be maintained and, where necessary,
restored. --Pope John XXIII, Veterum Sapientia, chap. 13, February 22, 1962
The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the
sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more
efficaciously.... The salient point of this Council is not, therefore, a
discussion of one article or another of the fundamental doctrine of the
Church. --Pope John XXIII, Opening Speech to the Council, October 11, 1962
When you face Jesus Christ in eternity, He is not going to ask you
how you got along with the Roman Curia, but how many souls you saved. --
Pope
John XXIII
When, during the rebellious first session of the Council, he [Pope
John XXIII] realized that the papacy had lost control of the process, he
attempted, as Cardinal John Heenan of Westminster later revealed, to
organize
a group of bishops to try to force it to an end. Before the second session
opened he had died. --Alice Muggeridge, The Desolate City (revised &
expanded ed./1990), p. 72; letter from Fr. Joseph W. Oppitz, C.S.s.R. in
"America" magazine of April 15, 1972
Stop the Council; stop the Council. --Pope John XXIII, on his
deathbed, quoted in Kevin Haney, "The Stormy History of General Councils,"
Latin Mass, Spring 1995, attributed to Jean Guitton (ob. March 21, 1999),
the
only Catholic layman to serve as a peritus at Vatican II [Also it was
reported in Michael Davies Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre that Pope John XXIII
attempted to stop the Second Vatican Council at the end of the first
session.
Davies further stated that this same pope, in the final days and hours of
his
life, repeatedly urged "Stop the council; stop the council."]
The Church is not an archaeological museum, but the ancient
fountain
which slakes the thirst of the generation of today as she did that of the
generations of the past. --Pope John XXIII
I want to guard my faith carefully like a sacred treasure. Most of
all I want to be true to that spirit of faith which is gradually being
hittled away before the so-called requirements of criticism, in the
atmosphere and light of modern times.... It will always be my principle, in
all spheres of religious knowledge and in all theological or biblical
questions, to find out first of all the traditional teaching of the Church,
and on this basis to judge the findings of contemporary scholarship.... In
general, it will be my rule to listen to everything and everyone, to think
and study much.... --Pope John XXIII, Journal of a Soul, translated by
Dorothy White, pp. 211-212
...This wind of Modernism blows very strongly and more widely than
seems at first sight, and ... it may very likely strike and bewilder even
those who were at first moved only by the desire to adapt the ancient truth
of Christianity to modern needs. Many, some of them good men, have fallen
into error, perhaps unconsciously; they have let themselves be swept into
the
field of error. --Pope John XXIII, Journal of a Soul, translated by Dorothy
White, pp. 242
Above all, one must always be ready for the Lord's surprise moves,
for although he treats his loved ones well, he generally likes to test them
with all sorts of trials such as bodily infirmities, bitterness of soul, and
sometimes opposition so powerful as to transform and wear out the life of
the
servant of God.... --Pope John XXIII, Journal of a Soul, translated by
Dorothy White, pp. 350
The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of rotten bishops. --St.
John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and Great Eastern
Doctor of the Church
A soul should be as ready to pray in the marketplace as in the
oratory; when sitting among friends as when attending services in church. -
-
St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and Great Eastern Doctor of
the Church
Our chant is nothing but an echo, an imitation of the angelic chant.
Music was invented in Heaven. Around and above us the angels sing. --St.
John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and Great Eastern Doctor of the
Church
I speak not with rashness, but what I feel and mean: among priests,
I reckon that not many are saved, but many more perish, not so much on
account of their own sins as for the sins of others, which they have not put
a remedy to. --St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and Great
Eastern Doctor of the Church
When you are before the altar where Christ reposes, you ought no
longer to think that you are amongst men, but believe that there are troops
of angels and archangels standing by you, and trembling with respect before
the sovereign Master of Heaven and earth. Therefore, when you are in
church,
be there in silence, fear, and veneration. -- St. John Chrysostom
I have occasion to listen to the reading of St. Paul's epistles. At
the sound of this spiritual trumpet I am filled with joy; and I am greatly
moved, and overcome with longing. For in the words that are read, I sense
the voice of a friend, and I feel as though he were standing before me, and
I
heard him preaching with his own mouth. But at the same time I am grieved
and troubled that not all Christians know this great saint as they ought;
indeed, some are so ignorant of him that they do not even know the exact
number of his epistles. This failure is not due to any natural
incompetence,
but to their unwillingness to have the apostle's writing constantly in their
hands.
We ourselves must acknowledge that whatever we know, if we know
anything at all, we do not owe to the excellence or keenness of our
understanding, but to this holy man. Him we love with a warm love, and
never
cease to read his writings. It is with us as with those in love; better
than
anyone else they know the actions and accomplishments of those whom they
love
simply because of their constant concern. The holy apostle himself makes
the
same observation when he says in his epistle to the Philippians: "It is
just
and proper to think so of you all because I have you in my heart, both in my
chains and in the confirmation and defense of the gospel."
If, therefore, you devoted yourselves to sympathetic reading of the
apostle's writings, you would have no need of seeking anything further. But
many of you gathered here must attend to the rearing of children and the
care
of a wife and the upkeep of a home. You are accordingly no longer able to
apply yourselves adequately to this task; but you ought, at least , try hard
to assimilate the thoughts that others have gathered. Certainly you could
give the sermon as much attention as you do the pursuit of profane
interests!
It is almost a shame not to ask more of you; yet even this little is very
worthwhile. --St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople & Great
Eastern Doctor of the Church
To put a heretic to death is an unpardonable crime. --St. John
Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople & Great Eastern Doctor of the Church
[St. John Chrysostom held it acceptable to prevent public meetings and the
preaching of heresy, and St. Augustine believed that it was permissible to
fine or exile heretics]
Is it Tradition? Then ask no more. --St. John Chrysostom,
Patriarch
of Constantinople and Great Eastern Doctor of the Church
The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops. --St. John
Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and Great Eastern Doctor of the
Church
Stay away from visions, apparitions, and miracles as much as you
can.
Be careful of visions, even when they are authentic. --St. John of the
Cross
(1542-1591)
Private prayer is like straw scattered about: if you set it on
fire, it makes a lot of little flames. But if these straws be gathered into
a bundle and lit, you get a mighty fire blazing to the sky. Public prayer
[Holy Mass and Divine Office] is like that. --St. John Vianney, the Cure of
Ars (1786-1859)
I don't want to have anything to do with the Vatican. The devil is
in the Vatican. --Albino Cardinal Luciani, later Pope John Paul I, on his
pilgrimage to Fatima, July 1977
We address especially the young people: in an epoch when in some
areas, as you know, the Latin language and the human values are less
appreciated, you must joyfully accept the patrimony of the language which
the
Church holds in high esteem and must, with energy, make it fruitful. The
well-known words of Cicero, "Non tam praeclarum est scire Latine, quam turpe
nescire (Brutus, xxxvii.140)" [It is not so much excellent to know Latin,
as
it is a shame not to know it] in a certain sense are directed to you. We
exhort you all to lift up high the torch of Latin which is even today a bond
of unity among peoples of all nations. --Pope John Paul II, 1978
The [Second Vatican] Council must be understood in the light of all
of Holy Tradition and on the basis of the constant magisterium of the
Church.
--Pope John Paul II, November 6, 1978, at the reunion of the Sacred College
of Cardinals
Ecclesia quae Latina vocatur, quamvis propter utilitates pastorales
in liturgia etiam sermones vulgares induxerit, a principio ex quo lingua
eius
propria est Latina non recedit.
[The Church which is called Latin, although because of pastoral
utility has even introduced vulgar tongues in the liturgy, has not retreated
from the principle by which its language is properly Latin.] --Pope John
Paul II, Sermon of 26 November 1979, Acta Apostolicae Sedis (LXXI, 1979), p.
507
Nevertheless, there are also those people who, having been educated
on the basis of the old liturgy in Latin, experience the lack of this "one
language," which in all the world was an expression of the unity of the
Church and through its dignified character elicited a profound sense of the
Eucharistic Mystery. It is therefore necessary to show not only
understanding but also full respect towards these sentiments and desires.
As
far as possible these sentiments and desires are to be accommodated, as is
moreover provided for in the new dispositions. The Roman Church has special
obligations towards Latin, the splendid language of ancient Rome, and she
must manifest them whenever the occasion presents itself. --Pope John Paul
II, Dominicae Cenae, sec. 10, February 24, 1980
I would like to ask forgiveness --in my own name and in the name of
all of you, venerable and dear brothers in the Episcopate --for everything
which, for whatever reason, through whatever human weakness, impatience or
negligence, and also through the at time partial, one-sided and erroneous
application of the directives of the Second Vatican Council, may have cause
scandal and disturbance concerning the interpretation of the doctrine and
the veneration due to this great Sacrament [of the Holy Eucharist]. And I
pray the Lord Jesus that in the future we may avoid in our manner of dealing
with this sacred mystery anything which could weaken or disorient in any way
the sense of reverence and love that exists in our faithful people. --Pope
John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, sec. 12, February 24, 1980
There are of course various roles that women can perform in the
liturgical assembly: these include reading the word of God and proclaiming
the intentions of the Prayer of the Faithful. Women are not however
permitted to act as altar servers." --Pope John Paul II, Inaestimabile
Donum, sec. 18, April 3, 1980
The faithful have a right to a true Liturgy, which means the Liturgy
desired and laid down by the Church.... Undue experimentation, changes and
creations bewilder the faithful. The use of unauthorized texts means a loss
of the necessary connection between the lex orandi and the lex credendi.
The Second Vatican Council's admonition in this regard must be remembered:
"No person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in
the liturgy on his own authority." --Pope John Paul II, Inaestimabile
Donum, April 3, 1980
Pope John conceived the Council as an eminently pastoral event. --
Pope John Paul II, October 27, 1985 Angelus
At the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church committed herself
irrevocably to following the path of the ecumenical venture." --Pope John
Paul II, Encyclical Ut Unum Sint (1995)
I like classical music very much, but I also enjoy rock 'n roll, as
I am not a man of the past. --Pope John Paul II, Allocution to Grade-School
Children, Melbourne, 1996
At the dawn of a new millennium, two world views collide: paganism
and theism -- the earth goddess versus the God who made the heavens and the
earth. At the heart of our culture's wars are Spirit Wars. But this clash
doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is
happening right now in our living rooms! Within a single generation, Judeo-
Christian America has become a breeding ground for the new paganism. Behind
the dazzling diversity of pro-choice culture -- abortion rights, the
homosexual agenda, radical feminism, New Age spirituality, goddess worship,
and witchcraft -- lies a coherent pagan spirituality bent on absolute
control of our culture and intolerant of any truth that stands in opposition
to its teachings. Pagans in the Pews is essential reading for the Church
today. -
-
Peter R. Jones, Pagans in the Pews: Protecting Your Family and Community
from the Pervasive Influence of the New Spirituality (Regal Books, 2001, 288
pages). Peter R. Jones is Professor of New Testament at Westminster
Theological Seminary in California. Dr. Jones also serves as associate
pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, California. Dr. Jones
is the author of three books, including The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An
Old Heresy for the New Age (1992), Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian
America (1997), and Gospel Truth/Pagan Lies: Can You Tell the Difference
(1999).
When I saw the definition of the Mass in the instruction that
precedes the Novus Ordo, I said: "This definition of the Mass is
unacceptable; I must go to Rome to see the Pope." I went and said: "Holy
Father you cannot allow this definition. It is heretical. You cannot leave
your signature on a document like this." The Holy Father replied to me:
"Well, to speak truthfully, I did not read it. I signed it without reading
it." --Charles Cardinal Journet of Geneva (1891-1975), explaining that Pope
Paul VI signed texts that he had not read
The claim that the altar of the early church was always designed to
celebrate facing the people, a claim made often and repeatedly, turns out to
be nothing but a fairy tale. --Fr. Josef A. Jungmann, author of Missarum
Sollemnia, in The Pastor magazine shortly after Vatican II
The decision of Vatican II, to which the Pope adheres and spreads,
is absolutely clear: Today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense
of the ecumenism of a return, by which the others would "be converted" and
return to being "catholics." This was expressly abandoned by Vatican II.
Today ecumenism is considered as the common road: all should be converted
to the following of Christ, and it is in Christ that we will find ourselves
in the end.... Even the Pope, among other things, describes ecumenism in Ut
unum sint as an exchange of gifts. I think this is very well said: each
church has its own riches and gifts of the Spirit, and it is this exchange
that unity is trying to be achieved and not the fact that we should become
'protestants' or that the others should become 'catholics' in the sense of
accepting the confessional form of Catholicism. -- Walter Cardinal Kaspar,
President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Adista,
Rome, February 26, 2001, p. 9
Respecting other religions does not mean ignoring irreconcilable
differences from Catholic teaching. When evaluating Eastern techniques, it
[sic] is important to remember that Eastern spirituality and Catholic
spirituality are based on strongly conflicting views of reality. Eastern
spirituality tells us that our sense of individuality is an illusion, that
we are really "the Absolute" or "the whole Universe" or "God" or (in some
secular variations) that we have "infinite potential." Our highest good is,
therefore, to lose our false sense of individuality and to realize our
infinite nature and potential. This theme is common to both traditional
Eastern religions and to modern New Age variations. Catholic spirituality,
however, tells us that our sense of individuality is both real and eternal
and that we are limited beings totally dependent on God. Our highest good
is, therefore, to submit our wills to that of God, and to grow thereby in
the ability to receive and return God's love. If we accept the Catholic
view, then it shouldn't be surprising that difficulties can arise from
Eastern practices. If we are truly limited dependent beings, then the more
we experience ourselves as infinite in nature or potential the more we will
be living an illusion. Living this illusion, even partially, can have
destructive consequences. --Joseph Kellett, Catholic Voice, April 20, 1992,
p. 2)
This time we are going to stay in the Church, and we are going to
dismantle the Catholic Church from within. --Hans Kung, peritus of Vatican
II
The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This the
fount of Truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God. --
Lactantius
(ca. 240 -ca. 320)
The fall and ruin of the world will soon take place. But it seems
that nothing of the kind is to be feared as long as the city of Rome stands
intact. But when the capital of the world has fallen, who can doubt that
the end will have come for the affairs of men and for the whole world. It
is that city which sustains all things. --Lactantius (ca. 240 -ca. 320)
He is also the moralist who, through his advocacy of virginity and
vows of chastity, did the most to free the individual from family ties and
women from male domination, placing them on the same plane as men." --
Valery Larbaud, An Homage to Jerome, Patron Saint of Translators (Marlboro,
Vermont: Marlboro Press, 1984)
There [in De Optimo Genere Interpretandi] he [St. Jerome] sets forth
his great principle: to render the meaning rather than the words of a text.
Then, as is his wont, he introduces his references and looks for backers:
Terence, Plautus, Cicero. The last two-thirds of the work consist in a
demonstration of the fact that the Evangelists, like the Apostles, very
freely translated passages of the Old Testament that they cite, sometimes
erring in their attributions, while the Seventy were often unfaithful to the
'Hebraic Truth.' Finally, he takes up his theme of the simplicity that is
indispensable to the ecclesiastical style.... This Letter LVII contains the
essential: the listing, complete with examples, of the greatest
difficulties of the art of translation, and an ingenious illustration of the
basic rule: Non verbum e verbo, sed sensum exprimere de sensu, a trick of
the trade and a sort of reductio ad absurdum, "translate" a work in verse
into prose, but within the same language. A few more passages from his
works, such as the conclusion of Letter XX on "non-translatable" foreign
words, which therefore must be borrowed, the rest of the preface to the
Chronicon not cited in the De Optimo Genere Interpretandi, a few sentences
from the Prefaces and which are given in most Latin editions of the Vulgate,
etc..., complete this "Art of Translation." --Valery Larbaud, An Homage to
Jerome, Patron Saint of Translators (Marlboro, Vermont: Marlboro Press,
1984)
For even the Authorized Version, despite all the reworking and all
the approximations of the Hebrew text, rejoins --through Wycliffe --the
Vulgate; and it is as if its deliberate archaism were a finery adopted in
order to outdo, in minds dazzled by its beauty, the deliberate modernism of
Jerome. --Valery Larbaud, An Homage to Jerome, Patron Saint of Translators
(Marlboro, Vermont: Marlboro Press, 1984)
Our future lies in our past. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-
1991)
No authority, not even the highest in the hierarchy, can compel us
to abandon or diminish our Catholic faith, so clearly expressed and
professed by the Church's Magisterium for nineteen centuries. --Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991)
[The New Order service] is a spiritual poison that destroys the
Catholic Faith, a danger to souls. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991)
We are living in an age completely exceptional. We must realize
this. The situation is no longer normal, quite particularly in Rome. --
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991)
Satan's masterstroke is to have succeeded in sowing disobedience
to all Tradition through obedience. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-
1991)
How can I agree to abandon the Mass of all ages or to admit to
place it at the same level as the Novus Ordo, created by Annibale Bugnini,
with the participation of Protestants to make of it an equivocal supper that
eliminates totally the Offertory, and touches on the very words of the
Consecration? --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991)
I am going to put a fishbone in the gullet of the Roman
bureaucrats -- they can't swallow it and they can't cough it up. --
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991)
It is certain that the evil in the [New] Mass is something
internal to the Mass, inside the Mass, and not something merely external or
extrinsic to it. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), "June
Conferences"
The New Mass is] a poisoned Mass, because, once Catholic truths
are no longer affirmed in the Mass, as is the case in the Protestant
version, then little by little, faith in these truths disappears too. --
Archbishop Marcel LeFebvre (1905-1991), "June Conferences"
I have the Mass of St. Pius V only once a month. What am I to do
on the other Sundays? Should I go to the New Mass if there is not a Mass of
St. Pius V?" I cannot counsel you to assist at something which is bad. I
cannot! I would not go myself, because I do not want to breathe in that
atmosphere; it is stronger than I am; I could not go. So I advise you not
to go.... I am giving you the advice which I, in conscience, believe, and
which I feel obliged to give you -- but I am not saying that, if you go, you
are committing a mortal sin; I am saying that if you go, you will, in the
long run, endanger your Faith, and that is very serious. You must be
careful. It would be better to stay at home, to pray at home with your
children, until you can get to a Mass of St. Pius V, the true Mass, the
Catholic Mass, the Mass of the ages.... In the missions we visited the
Faithful three times a year, in some places only once a year.... In spite
of this, these people did not lose the Faith; they prayed; they prayed to
the Blessed Virgin.... They kept the Faith. We do not have the right to
endanger our Faith! Even if it is a slow poison, it is still a poison. --
Archbishop Marcel LeFebvre (1905-1991), "June Conferences"
We cleave, with all our heart and with all our soul, to Catholic
Rome, the guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary for
the maintenance of that Faith and to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and
truth. On the other hand, we refuse and have always refused to follow the
Rome of the neo-Protestant trend clearly manifested throughout Vatican
Council II and, later, in all the reforms born of it. --Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991), "Declaration of November 21, 1974"
I have said many times in my conferences that the three most
disputed matters at the Council were collegiality, ecumenism, and religious
liberty.... But, of course, these three subjects of so much violent
discussion at the council correspond precisely to the three Liberal
principles of liberty, equality, fraternity. --Abp. Marcel Lefebvre (1905-
1991), December 1975
We are suspended a divinis by the Conciliar Church and for the
Conciliar Church and for the Conciliar Church, to which we have no wish to
belong. That Conciliar Church is a schismatic Church, because it breaks
with the Catholic Church that has always been. It has its new dogmata, its
new priesthood, its new institutions, its new worship, all already condemned
by the Church in many a document, official and definitive.... The Church
that affirms such errors is at once schismatic and heretical. THIS
CONCILIAR CHURCH IS, THEREFORE, NOT CATHOLIC. To whatever extent pope,
bishops, priests, or faithful adhere to this new Church, they separate
themselves from the Catholic Church. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-
1991), "Reflections on Suspension a Divinis," June 29, 1976
I do not say that the pope is not the pope, but I do not say either
that you cannot say that the pope is not the pope." --Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991), Letter to his American priests, 1979
The New Mass is intrinsically evil. The New Mass is the Mass of
Luther. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), 1979
As for myself, I do not want people to make me say that the New
Mass is good, but that it is simply less good than the Traditional Mass. I
cannot say that. I cannot say that these modern sacraments are good. They
were made by Protestants. They were made by Bugnini. And Bugnini himself
said on March 19, 1956, as can still be read in L'Osservatore Romano and in
Documentation Catholique, which published a translation of Bugnini's
discourse: "We must strip from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic
liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our
separated brethren, that is for the Protestants." This was on March 19,
1965, just before the reforms.... Keep the Faith. Be a martyr rather than
abandon your Faith.... For it is clear that those who habitually attend the
New Mass and the new sacraments undergo a gradual change of mentality.
After a few years it will become apparent in questioning somebody who goes
regularly to this new ecumenical Mass that he has adopted its ecumenical
spirit. This means that he ends up by placing all religions on the same
footing.... He has become liberal and protestant and is no longer Catholic.
--Abp. Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), Speech in Montreal, Canada, 1982, "There
Is Only One Religion," apud The Angelus, July 1995 (XVIII:7), p. 4
All these [pre-John XXIII] Popes have resisted the union of the
Church with the [Modernist] revolution; it is an adulterous union and from
such a union only bastards can come. The rite of the new mass is a bastard
rite, the sacraments are bastard sacraments. We no longer know if they are
sacraments which give grace or do not give it. The priests coming out of
the seminaries are bastard priests, who do not know what they are. They are
unaware that they are made to go up to the altar, to offer the sacrifice of
Our Lord Jesus Christ and to give Jesus Christ to souls. --Abp. Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991), "An Open Letter to Confused Catholics," 1986
I have summed it up to Cardinal Ratzinger in certain words, of course,
because it is difficult to sum up this whole situation, but I said to him:
"Eminence, see, even if you grant us a bishop, even if you grant us a
certain self-government in relation to the bishops, even if you grant us all
the liturgy of 1962, if you grant us to continue the seminaries and Society,
as we do it now, we cannot collaborate. It is impossible, impossible,
because we work in two diametrically opposed directions. You, you work for
the de-Christianization of society, of the human person, and of the Church,
and we, we work for its Christianization. They cannot be in agreement." --
Abp. Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), 1987
The Novus Ordo Missae, even when said with piety and respect for the
liturgical rules... is impregnated with the spirit of Protestantism. It
bears within it a poison harmful to the faith. --Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991), "An Open Letter to Confused Catholics," 1988
Now I don't know if the time has come to say that the pope is a
heretic. I don't know if it is the time to say that. You know, for some
time many people, the sede-vacantists, have been saying "there is no more
pope," but I think that for me it was not yet the time to say that, because
it was not sure, it was not evident, it was very difficult to say that the
Pope is a heretic, the Pope is apostate. But I recognize that slowly, very
slowly, by the deeds and acts of the pope himself we begin to be very
anxious. I am not inventing the situation; I do not want it. I would
gladly give my life to bring it to an end, but this is the situation we
face, unfolding before our eyes like a film in the cinema. I don't think it
has ever happened in the history of the Church, the man seated in the chair
of Peter partaking in the worship of false gods. What conclusion must we
draw in a few months if we are confronted by these repeated acts of
partaking in false worship? I don't know. I wonder. But I think the Pope
can do nothing worse than call together a meeting of all religions, when we
know there is only one true religion and all other religions belong to the
devil. So perhaps after this famous meeting of Assisi, perhaps we must say
that the Pope is a heretic, is apostate. Now I don't wish yet to say it
formally and solemnly, but it seems at first sight that it is impossible for
a pope to be publicly and formally heretical. Our Lord has promised to be
with him, to keep his faith, to keep him in the Faith -- how can he at the
same time be a public heretic and virtually apostatize? So it is possible
we may be obliged to believe this pope is not the pope. --Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991), "The Archbishop Speaks: Talks given by Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre on March 30 and April 18, 1986," The Angelus, July 1, 1986
(IX:7, pp. 3-4)
My dear friends, the See of Peter and the post of authority in Rome
[is] being occupied by anti-Christs; the destruction of the Kingdom of Our
Lord is being rapidly carried out even within His Mystical Body here
below..., since this Rome, Modernist and Liberal, is carrying on its work of
destruction of the Kingdom of Our Lord. --Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-
1991) Letter to Future SSPX Bishops, August 1987
Rome has lost the Faith, my dear friends. Rome is in apostasy.
These are not just words in the air that I say to you. It is the truth.
Rome is in apostasy. He [the pope] has left the Church. They [the
Newchurchers] have left the Church. This is sure, sure, sure!" --
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), Retreat Conference, September 4,
1987)
Witnesses to the Faith, martyrs, always had to choose between
Faith and authority. We are re-living the trial of Joan of Arc, only with
us it is not a disagreeable few months, it has been going on for 20 years!
--Abp. Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), June 13, 1988
You must change, come back to Tradition. It is not just a
question of the Liturgy, it is a question of the Faith. --Abp. Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991) to Cardinal Oddi, from his address to his priests, "Two
Years after the Consecration - We Must Not Waver, We May Not Compromise,"
September 6, 1990
At this stage it is relevant to remind Catholics all over the
world that obedience to the pope is not a primary virtue. The hierarchy of
virtues starts with the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and
charity, followed by the four cardinal virtues of justice, temperance,
prudence, and fortitude. Obedience is a derivative of the cardinal virtue
of justice. Therefore, it is far from ranking first in the hierarchy of
virtues. --Abp. Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), "Interview with Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre," The Angelus, August 1992, pp. 2 et seqq.
This is another fruit of Vatican II: it preaches so-called
tolerance toward all ideas, but as soon as one opposes one of its aims, it
is intolerance personified. Denying justice does not faze them. --Abp.
Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), "Interview with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,"
The Angelus, May 1994, p. 6
The heresy which is now being born will become the most dangerous of
all: the exaggeration of the respect due to the Pope and the illegitimate
extension of his infallibility. --Fr. LeFloch, Rector of the French
Seminary in Rome (1926)
The sweet concord of voices, the blaze of lights, the fragrance of
perfume, the rich vestments, the sacred vessels, adored with precious
stones, the statues and pictures, which awaken holy thoughts, the glorious
creation of architectural genius, working their effects of height and
distance, the music of the bells. --Gottfreid Wilhelm von Leibnitz, German
philosopher and mathematician
Above all things, avoid marriage with those outside the Faith. It
is foolish to expect that those who differ from us regarding religion can
cooperate mentally in other things. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903)
To the priest it belongs to impose himself as a barrier to the
encroachments of error and disguised heresy;... to unmask their deceits and
point out their ambushes; to caution the simple, to give courage to the
timid, to open the eyes of the blind. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903),
Encyclical letter to the Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy of France
This work is remarkable at once for the richness and exactness of
its
doctrine, and for the elegance of its style; it is a precious summary of all
theology, both dogmatic and moral. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), on the
Catechism of the Council of Trent
[Divorce] is the fruitful cause of mutable marriage contracts; it
diminishes mutual affection; it supplies a pernicious stimulus to
unfaithfulness; it is injurious to the care and education of children; it
gives occasion to thee breaking up of domestic society; it scatters the
seeds
of discord among families; it lessens and degrades the dignity of women, who
incur the danger of being abandoned when they shall have subserved the lust
of their husbands. And since nothing tends so effectually as the corruption
of morals to ruin families and undermine the strength of kingdoms, it may
easily be perceived that divorce is especially hostile to the propserity of
families and states. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Encyclical Letter Arcanum
(February 10, 1880) on Christian Marriage
Let us unite in mind and heart, launching a counterattack on evil,
that truth may at length triumph over error and virtue over vice, and this,
through confident recourse to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and continual use
of her heavenly weapons, the Holy Rosary and Brown Scapular. Victorious
over
Satan in the very first instant of Her Immaculate Conception, may she show
forth her power over wicked movements which We clearly see to be animated
with the spirit of revolt, and with the incorrigible perfidy and hypocrisy
of
Satan and his fellow demons. Let us implore the help of St. Michael, Prince
of the Heavenly Host, who hurled those rebels down to hell, and of St.
Joseph
the Spouse of the Most Holy Virgin and Patron of the Catholic Chruch. Under
their protection and the persevering prayer of the faithful, may God
mercifully come to the help of the human race, exposed to so many dangers.
--Pope Leo XIII (1884)
Justice forbids and reason itself forbids that the State should be
godless, or that it should adopt a line of action which would end in
godlessness -- namely, to treat the various religions (as they call them)
alike, and to bestlow upon the promiscuously equal rights and privileges....
Yet, with the discernment of a true mother, the Church weighs the great
burden of human weakness, and well knows the course down which the minds and
actions of men in this are are being borne. For this reason, while not
conceding any right to anything save what is true and honest, she does not
forbid public authority to tolerate what is at variance with truth and
justice, for the sake of avoiding greater ills.... But to judge aright, we
must acknowledge that the more a State is driven to tolerate evil, the
further it is from perfection. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Encyclical
Libertas Praestantissimum, June 1888
All the world knows that this Divine promise ought to be understood
to apply to the Universal Church and not to any part of the church taken in
isolation, for individual segments may, and in fact, indeed have, been
overcome by the forces of evil. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Satis
Cognitum,
June 29, 1896
They knew only too well the intimate bond that unites faith with
worship, "the law of belief with the law of prayer," and so, under the
pretext of restoring it to its primitive form, they corrupted the order of
the liturgy in many respects to adapt it to the errors of the Innovators."
-
-Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Apostolicae Curae, September 13, 1896
Now, if a person has seriously and duly used the proper matter and
form for performing or administering a sacrament, he is by that very fact
presumed to have intended to do what the Church does. This principle is the
basis of the doctrine that a sacrament is truly a sacrament even if it is
conferred through the ministry of a heretic or unbaptized person, provided
the Catholic rite is used. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Apostolicae Curae,
September 13, 1896
Precisely at the epoch when the American colonies, having, with
Catholic aid, achieved liberty and independence, coalesced into a
constitutional republic, the ecclesiastical hierarchy was happily
established
amongst you; and at the very time when the popular suffrage placed the great
Washington at the helm of the Republic, the first bishop [John Carroll] was
set by apostolic authority over the American Church. The well-known
friendship and familiar intercourse which subsisted between these two men
seems to be an evidence that the United States ought to be conjoined in
concord and amity with the Catholic Church. And not without cause; for
without morality the State cannot endure -- a truth which that illustrious
citizen of yours, whom We have just mentioned, with a keenness of insight
worthy of his genius and statesmanship perceived and proclaimed. --Pope Leo
XIII (1878-1903), Encyclical Letter Longinque oceani (January 6, 1895) to
the
bishops of America, para. 4 [Pope Leo also donated an inscribed stone "A
Roma
Americae" to the Washington Monument, which the Know-Nothings stole]
But, moreover (a fact which it gives pleasure to acknowledge),
thanks
are due to the equity of the laws which obtain in America and to the customs
of the well-ordered Republic. For the Church amongst you, unopposed by the
Constitution and government of your nation, fettered by no hostile
legislation, protected against violence by the common laws and the
impartiality of the tribunals, is free to live and act without hindrance. -
-
Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Encyclical Letter Longinque oceani (January 6,
1895) to the bishops of America, sec. 6
There can never ... be any real discrepancy between the theologian
and the physicist, as long as each confines himself within his own lines,
and
both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us, "not to make rash assertions,
or
to assert what is not known as known." --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903),
Encyclical Letter Providentissimus Deus, November 18, 1893
Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on
the
part of the good. --Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae
From the foregoing it is manifest, beloved son, that we are not able
to give approval to those views which, in their collective sense, are called
by some "Americanism." But if by this name are to be understood certain
endowments of mind which belong to the American people, just as other
characteristics belong to various other nations; and if, moreover, by it are
designated your political conditions and the laws and customs by which you
are governed, there is no reason to take exception to the name. But if this
is to be so understood that the doctrines which have been adverted to above
are not only indicated, but exalted, there can be no manner of doubt that
our
venerable brethren, the bishops of America, would be the first to repudiate
and condemn them as being most injurious to themselves and to their country.
For it would give rise to the suspicion that there are among you some who
conceive and would have the Church in America different from what she is in
the rest of the world. --Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), Testem Benevolentiae
(Encyclical on True and False Americanism), to U.S. Cardinal James Gibbons,
January 22, 1899 (although warning of the dangers of Americanism [he never
called it a heresy], the pope praised America for granting the Catholic
Church such liberty of action)
If you practice religion looking for comfort, you will end up with
soft soap, but if you practice religion looking for truth, you will end up
with truth, with comfort thrown in besides. --C.S. Lewis
Prayer doesn't change God; it changes me. --C.S. Lewis
Disputationes magis aggravant schismata quam sanant: communis
operatio, oratio, fortitudo, communes (si Deus voluerit) mortes pro Christo
adbunabunt. [Debates more aggravate schism than cure them: common action,
prayer, courage, and (if God should will) deaths for Christ enrich]. --C.S.
Lewis, Letter of November 25, 1947, to Blessed Fr. Giovanni Calabria
Nunc enim curiosi scrutatores omnia nostra effodiunt et veneno
publicitatis (ut rem barbaram verbo barbaro nominem) aspergunt [For now
curious scrutinizers dig out everything of ours and sprinkle with them with
the poison of publicity (that I may name a barbarous thing with a barbarous
word]. --C.S. Lewis, Letter of January 3, 1961, to Fr. Luigi Pedrollo
It is clear that the Church is facing a grave crisis. Under the
name
of "the new Church," "the post-conciliar Church," a different Church from
that of Jesus Christ is now trying to establish itself; an anthropocentric
society threatened with immanentist apostasy which is allowing itself to be
swept along in a movement of general abdication under the pretext of
renewal,
ecumenicism [sic], or adaptation. -- Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J.,
speaking
at the Institute on Renewal in the Church, University of Toronto, August,
1967
Si hoc instrumentum, tam aptum moderandi et firmandi, a sacra
Liturgia
eripitur, stabilitas dogmatum periclitatur. Sectae protestanticae linguae
vulgari se converterunt et in factiones innumeras se dissolverunt....
Saeculis recentibus, etiam in America Septentrionali tam
materialistica,
incrementum Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae vere mirabile fuit, retenta sacra
Liturgia
in lingua latina. Conatus protestantismi deficiunt, et protestantismus
lingua
vulgari utitur. Iterum rogamus: quare mutatio, praesertim quando mutatio in
hac
re difficultates multas et pericula magna secumfert? Omnes in hoc Sacro
Concilio
possumus in mentem revocare mutationes fundamentales in significatione
verborum
vulgarium usus hodierni. Deinde sequitur quod si sacra Liturgia in lingua
vulgari sit, immutabilitas doctrinae periclitetur....
Si linguae vulgares introducuntur, praevidemus interpretationes
innumeras sacrorum dogmatum. Ut aeterna veritas doctrinae exprimatur, sacra
dogmata significationem et formam pristinam immutabiliter retineantur!...
Introductio linguae vulgaris debet separari ab actione sacrae
Missae.
Sancta Missa debet remanere ut est. Graves mutationes in liturgia
introducunt
graves mutationes in dogmata.
If this instrument [the Latin language], so appropriate for
regulating
and confirming, is ripped out of the Sacred Liturgy, the stability of
dogmata
is
endangered. Protestant sects have converted to the vernacular and have
dissolved into innumerable sects....
In recent times, even in materialistic North America, the growth of
Holy
Mother Church has been true remarkable, with the Sacred Liturgy being kept
in
the Latin language. The attempts of Protestantism are failing, and
Protestantism uses the vernacular. We ask again: Why the change,
especially
since changes in this matter involves many difficulties and great dangers?
All
in this Sacred Council can recall the fundamental changes in the meaning of
vernacular words in use today? Thus it follows that if the Sacred Liturgy
were
in the vernacular, the immutability of doctrine would be endangered....
If the vernacular is introduced, we foresee innumerable
interpretations
of sacred dogmata. In order that the eternal truth of doctrine be
expounded,
let sacred dogmata retain their pristine form and significance....
The introduction of the vernacular must be separated from the action
of
Holy Mass. Holy Mass must remain as it is. Serious changes in liturgy
introduce serious changes in dogmata. --James Cardinal McIntyre, Archbishop
of
Los Angeles (1948-1970)
Tolle Missam, tolle Ecclesiam [destroy the Mass [and] destroy the
Church]. --Martin Luther
Love the [Biblical] languages as you do the Gospel. --Martin Luther
The languages [Hebrew, Greek, and Latin] are the sheath in which the
sword of the Spirit is lodged. -- Martin Luther
Sin, and sin boldly, but believe more boldly still. --Martin Luther
A pure heart enlightened by God must not dirty, soil itself with the
Law. Thus let the Christian understand that it matters not whether he keeps
it or not; yea, he may do what is forbidden and leave undone what is
commanded, for neither is a sin.... We must put away thoughts and disputes
about the Law, whenever the conscience becomes terrified and feels God's
anger against sin. Instead of that, it will be better to sing, to eat, to
drink, to sleep, to be merry in spite of the devil. --Martin Luther
When the Mass has been overthrown, I think we will have overthrown
the Papacy. I think it is in the Mass, as on a rock, that the papacy wholly
rests.... Everything will of necessity collapse when their sacrilegious and
abominable Mass collapses. --Martin Luther
Come, my princes, strike! To arms! Thrust! The times have come,
blessed times where with blood a prince can win heaven more easily than we
can with our prayers; I, Martin Luther, I myself ordered their tortures,
impalement, beheading, bludgeoning. --Martin Luther, against the Peasant's
War of 1524
Jews are young devils damned to hell.... Burn down Jewish schools
and synagogues, and throw pitch and sulphur into the flames; destroy their
houses; confiscate their ready money in gold and silver; take from them
their
sacred books, even the whole Bible; forbid their holding any religious
services under penalty of death; and, if that does not help matters, hunt
them out of the country like mad dogs. --Martin Luther, Luther's Works,
vol.
xx, pp. 2230-2632
Be a sinner, and sin boldly, but believe more boldly still.... We
must sin as long as we are what we are.... Sin shall not drag us away from
Him [Christ] even should we commit fornication or murder, thousands and
thousands of times a day [provided only that the sinner believes].... Be a
sinner, sin boldly and fearlessly. --Martin Luther, Letter to Melanchthon,
August 1, 1521
Let all the vestments, the altar, the candles be, until they get
used
up, or we decide to change them. And if somebody wants to do things
differently, let him do it. But for the real Mass among true Christians,
the
altar should not remain its current form, and the priest should always face
the people.... It will be necessary to preserve for a time some of the
ceremonies of the ancient Mass for the weak-minded who might be scandalized
by too sudden a change. --Martin Luther
There is a threefold distinction in worship and the Mass. First a
Latin Order which we have before published and which is called the Formula
Missae. This I do not herewith wish to have abrogated or changed; but as we
have observed it among us, so shall it be free to use the same where and
when
we please or occasion requires, for I in no way wish to banish the Latin
language from Divine Service....If I could bring it to pass, and Greek and
Hebrew were as familiar to us as the Latin and had as many fine melodies and
songs, we would hold Mass, sing, and read on successive Sundays in all four
languages, German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. I do not at all agree with
those who give themselves to only one language and despise all others. --
Martin Luther, Works of Martin Luther, Phil Ed., Vol. VI, p. 172
The 21st century will be spiritual, or it will not be. --French
writer Andre Malraux (1901-1976)
A change which held both on earth and in heaven had been
accomplished.... There was no Holy Sacrifice offered morning by morning.
The
Scriptures were read, but there was no Divine Teacher to interpret them.
The
Magnificat was chanted still, but it rolled along the empty roofs, for Jesus
was no longer on the altar. So it is to this day. There is no light, no
tabernacle, no altar, nor can be, till Jesus shall return thither. They
stand
like the open sepulcher, and we may believe that angels are there, ever
saying,
"He is not here. Come and see the place where the Lord was laid." --Henry
Edward Cardinal Manning (1808-1892), The Blessed Sacrament, Center of
Immutable
Truth, speaking of the heretical Anglican Church
The Holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist,
and
the prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know --
and
they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the
Latin Church --, all of them unanimously say that in the latter end of the
world, during the reign of the Antichrist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
will cease.... Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the
wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it were in the beginning, invisible,
hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it
shall be swept, as it were, from the face of the earth. Such is the
unanimous testimony of the Fathers of the early centuries. --Henry Edward
Cardinal Manning (1808-1892), The Present Crisis of the Holy See (1861)
Didn't our Lord guarantee the indefectibility of the Church (Matthew
16:18)? Yes, but we must distinguish between the organization and the
mystical Body of Christ which is composed of believers, people of faith. --
Fr. Malachi B. Martin
Prior to Constantine there was no Church structure as we know it
today. The Popes before that, many of whom were martyred, lived secretly in
the poorest sections of Rome. It was the victorious Constantine who sought
out Pope Miltiades, and installed him in a palace. The Church was changed
in
its external lineaments. It grew, and it evolved as an institution.... We
must realize that in spite of the confusion, disarray, and decline in
today's
institutional Church, the essence of our faith remains. We are members of
the Mystical Body of Christ.... Thus, despite heretical bishops and priests
and nuns, when a Catholic dies in grace after receiving the Body and Blood
of
Christ he has achieved victory -- he has won eternal life with God and His
saints. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, in a talk "A Retrospective Glance at
Vatican II", March 15, 1993, New York, making what he termed an all-
important
distinction between the institutional or structural Church, and the Mystical
Body of Christ
It's very hard for people to realize that the real Church is now
underground and that what we have is a facade, which Christ has deserted....
Anybody in the Catholic Church today can see in the facade, in the
appearance, all the elements that were there in 1950: pope, bishops,
cardinals, priests, nuns, newspapers, seminaries, institutes, publishing
houses, missions, religious orders of nuns and priests. The facade is
there.
The terrible thing is: what most people cannot allow themselves to admit is
that it is an illusion. The organization as it was then does not exist
now....
Is an underground Church justified under these circumstances?
Absolutely. If the only way that you can have your children go to
Confession
and Holy Communion, and you can hear Mass at least once a month, and receive
the Body and Blood of Christ, truly, once a month, there is no question in
my
mind, because without that you're not going to save your soul. You won't
get
Sanctifying Grace.... --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, "The Kingdom of Darkness"
(audiotaped interview, 1995)
So we're in a situation there where the institutional Church does
not
necessarily line up with the body of Christ. No, it does not. And remember
that at the time of the Arians, as [Cardinal] Newman pointed out in his
examination of the Arian heresy. What restored the Church -- remember,
first
of all, the Arian heresy had attracted 81% of the bishops -- Newman points
out that the people who saved the Church, who finally got rid of the Arians,
were not the clergy, not the pope, but the people, in their faith, finally
shed them as alien material. It took three or four hundred years.... It was
as pernicious as that. Similarly here, too, it will be the people
themselves, God in the people, who will reject them, but then they have to
turn to the lawful authority of the Church, when there is a lawful authority
that consents to exercising its responsibilities and tells the people the
truth of revelation. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, "The Kingdom of Darkness"
(audiotaped interview, 1995)
The Novus Ordo is normally invalid. You've got to make an effort to
make the Novus Ordo valid. You can make it valid, but you've got to make an
effort. Of itself, it seems to be invalid.... I've been to hundreds of
Masses -- I make it my business -- Novus Ordos, just to notice the ritual,
and the vast majority are invalid. And as to the intention of the priest,
no
wonder! He doesn't believe in the Sacrifice of Calvary, he doesn't believe
in grace, he doesn't believe in Heaven, he doesn't believe in a Savior. He
believes in having a communal celebration where everybody loves each other
and kisses each other. He doesn't believe in the Mass as the salvific act
of
Christ on the altar with the people in veneration and adoration. He doesn't
believe in that any longer. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, "The Kingdom of
Darkness" (audiotaped interview, 1995)
The people who composed the [Novus Ordo] Mass originally were six
Protestants and two Catholics, under the direction of a Freemason called
Annibale Bugnini, who is ... an archbishop, and he lost his faith. And he
was the originator of it. And the first version of the Mass, which he drew
up for Pope Paul VI -- you know what happened to it. He gave it to Paul VI,
and two cardinals, Ottaviani and Bacci, went to Pope Paul VI and said, "Your
Holiness, if you publish this Mass, we're going to declare you a heretic."
They said that. So Paul VI withdrew it. He made some small changes in it,
and hence we got the Novus Ordo. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, "The Kingdom of
Darkness" (audiotaped interview, 1995)
The traditional Roman Mass was never forbidden, never abrogated, and
never declared illegal, by any competent Roman official. But, all over the
Church, there was an active and sometimes a violent policy of suppressing
any
trace of the traditional Roman Mass.... Without some special care, not
indicated in the official text and instructions of the Novus Ordo, the
ceremony of the Novus Ordo does not ensure its validity, i.e., that it
achieves that presentation of Christ's Sacrifice on Calvary. As a general
fact, nowadays throughout the Church such special care is rare.
Consequently, the celebration of the Novus Ordo does not always result in a
valid Mass. Indirectly, this result can be seen mirrored in the overall
lack
of sacramental reverence for the Eucharist among the clergy and the laity.
-
-Fr. Malachi B. Martin, Catholic Family News, April 1995, p. 4
[The National Bishops' Councils have as their ultimate objective]
the
liquidation of absolute papal control over the dogma and moral discipline of
the Church, no longer called Roman, [which] would consist of a gaggle of
"national churches" bound together by sentiment and association,... free to
arrange the "national" affairs of their Church merely according to the
"local
culture." --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, Roman Catholic Observer, April 1995, p.
25
Let me make quite clear ... for you and for everybody listening.
This man [John Paul II] is my pope. He does represent Christ. He is the
Vicar of Christ for me. And if he were to speak under conditions of
infallibility, I will accept what he says. But I am allowed, nay, I am
obliged by my Tradition and my Faith and by previous popes to critique
anybody -- priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope -- when I think they are in
error.... So John Paul II has ventured out along the edges of orthodoxy in
his statements and in his preaching, but whenever he taught, he has never
yet
taught error infallibly. He's never adopted the infallible mode. The
infallible mode is something where the pope says, "I am now doing this as
the
head of all Catholics, I am doing it as the Successor of Peter, and it is to
be held by all the faithful under pain of mortal sin." He has never done
that yet. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, Interview with Art Bell, Chancellor
Networks, May 4, 1998
The prophecy of Fatima is not a pleasant document to read. There is
not pleasant news. It implies -- it doesn't make any sense -- unless we
accept that there will be, or that there is in progress, a wholesale
apostasy
amongst clerics and laity in the Catholic Church and that the institutional
organization of the Roman Catholic Church, that is, the organization of
parishes, dioceses, archbishops and bishops and cardinals and the Roman
bureaucracies and the chanceries throughout the world -- unless that is
totally disrupted and rendered null and void, the Third Secret makes no
sense. And number two, the other salient characteristic about it is that it
means intense suffering of the peoples. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, Interview
with Art Bell, Chancellor Networks, May 4, 1998
The fact is, I think, that once the churchmen of the Roman Catholic
Church drifted into grave error after the Vatican Council, Christ said,
"Okay, you want to go that way; all right, I'm not with you." And he
withdrew His grace, and therefore we have this devastation of Catholic
marriages, this devastation of Catholic religious orders, the major ones
above all -- Jesuits, Dominicans, Carmelites, Holy Ghost Fathers -- all
devastated, and the lack of cohesive theological thinking and philosophical
thinking in the Church is glaring and discouraging. Christ withdrew his
grace, and that was His decision in view of our infidelity because our
churchmen were unfaithful, and are unfaithful to Him. I think that's where
we are, but we still can have His grace, we can receive his body and blood,
and we can be protected by the Angels and the Saints. But now we're in a
battle; there's bloody battle going on. --Fr. Malachi B. Martin, Interview
with Art Bell, Chancellor Networks, May 4, 1998
With its selections from St. Paul of such phrases as "Try
everything;
retain what is good," Mediator Dei was, in fact, taken by the neo-liturgists
as a go-ahead for experimentation. Meanwhile the Vatican approved a
liturgical updating in the way of a new Latin translation of the Psalms for
the Canonical Hours. Fr. [Dieter] Bonneterre remarks [Le Mouvement
Liturgique], "This version, very faithful to the Hebrew, lacks all poetic
feeling. It is full of words difficult to pronounce and impossible to sing
to Gregorian melodies. It remains a witness to the lack of liturgical
sensitivity on the part of Augustin Bea and his fellow Jesuits at the
Biblicum. --Mary Ball Martinez, The Undermining of the Catholic Church
(1991)
It is good to recall that our of the original twelve Apostles, only
one had the courage to stand with Christ at Calvary. Traditionalists, St.
John must then must be our patron, for that is what we are called upon to do
now, as Christ's Church is being crucified as He was. --Michael J. Matt,
"The Democratization of the Catholic Church," Remnant, October 31, 1994, p.
7.
As Catholics, we must recall that the Theology of the Papacy is
highly complex and must be understood in its totality. It would be nice if
it were all as simple as merely being able to say of any and all bad Popes:
"He's the Pope, and he can never harm the Church. We, therefore, have
nothing to worry about."
But we must recall the words of St. Robert Bellarmine, for example, which
obviously indicate that a Pope is capable of harming the Church and so can
indeed harm the Faith of believers. In his De Romano Pontifice, II:29, St.
Robert Bellarmine says: "It is lawful to resist him [the Pope] when he
attacks souls or troubles the state, and, above all, when he appears to be
causing harm to the Church. It is lawful, I say, to resist him by not doing
what he commands and by hindering the execution of his will"....
Practically speaking, the majority of practicing Catholics know
nothing of the Theology of the Papacy, and generally speaking most of them
have a wholly inaccurate understanding of the doctrine of Papal
Infallability. Somewhere between Sede-vacantism [belief that the Apostolic
See is currently vacant] and Papolatry [belief that everything the Pope does
is of divine authority] lies the truth. --Michael J. Matt, "The Remnant
Speaks," Remnant, August 15, 1996, p. 11.
The Church went to bed Catholic and woke up Modernized. --Michael
J.
Matt, "On Unjust Compromise and Indults," Remnant, October 15, 1996, p. 4.
One year later, I feel tranquil and consider the punishment
[excommunication for co-consecrating bishops with Abp. Lefebvre] unjust and
invalid.... Whoever breaks with those who broke with tradition stands with
the Truth.... Is it a crime to defend the tradition of the Church?... The
safekeeping and transmission of the Catholic faith is today seriously and
gravely threatened by various factors, among them the new seminaries that do
not provide an authentic Catholic training.... The future? That belongs to
God; we trust in Providence. --Bishop de Castro Mayer, of Campos, Brazil
The difference between John Paul and Davies, of course, is that the
latter wishes to replace the rite of Paul VI. (But even Davies, and other
stalwart Tridentine Mass devotees like the late Fr. Vincent Miceli, point
out
that prudence requires the new rite be left in place for those who sincerely
prefer it, lest they be harmed by any sudden change.) --Roger McCaffrey,
"From the Publisher," Latin Mass, July-August 1992.
Tradition is more important than a pope. He himself is
representative of it, and is a key element, sine qua non, of Christ's
Church.
--Roger McCaffrey, Latin Mass, July-August 1994 (3:4), p. 32
Latin ... was mediaeval Europe's lingua franca and its culturally
preeminent instrument of thought and expression. It offered the
incomparable
advantage, denied to us in the modern world, of a living and learned
language
common to the whole of western Christendom and transcending the localism of
many different languages and dialects. When its writers used the term tota
latinitas (rather than the geographical designation Europa) and spoke of the
orbis latinus, everyone knew they were referring to their shared Latin
culture. More locally the adjective latinus could identify, for example,
the
Latin quarter in Paris, where the language was commonly used for both oral
and written communication. --F.A.C. Mantello, The Catholic University of
America
Proceeding in logical order, he examined first whether the Council
documents come under the Church's extraordinary or ordinary infallibility --
not under extraordinary infallibility because both Pope John XXIII and Paul
VI explicitly said the Council was making no definitive declarations; nor
under ordinary infallibility because ... the bishops of Vatican II presented
none of their doctrines as requiring definitively to be believed. Nor are
these doctrines even part of the Church's authentic (i.e., ordinary, non-
universal) teaching, because the bishops expressed no intention to hand down
the Deposit of the Faith; on the contrary, their spokesmen (e.g., Paul VI)
expressed their intention to come to terms with the modern world and its
values, long condemned by true Catholic churchmen as being intrinsically
unCatholic. Therefore, the documents of Vatican II have only a Conciliar
authority, the authority of that Council, but no Catholic authority at all,
and no Catholic need take seriously anything Vatican II said, unless it was
already Church doctrine beforehand. --Fr. Pierre Marie, editor of the
French Traditional Dominicans' quarterly, Le Sel de la Terre
The sermons of these ancient preachers come down to us under the
name
of The Targuns and Midrashes. But they made no change in the ancient Hebrew
of Moses and Temple, and synagogue services to our day (circa 1906) remains
in the pure Hebrew, which only the learned Jews now understand. People who
find fault because Mass is said in Latin, Greek , and tongues the people do
not understand, do not realize that Christ worshipped in the synagogues
where the services were in a dead language. --Fr. James L. Meager, D.D.,
How
Christ Said the First Mass
The Latin Church, which I constantly find myself admiring, despite
its frequent astounding imbecilities, has always kept clearly before it the
fact that religion is not a syllogism, but a poem.... Rome, indeed, has not
only preserved the original poetry of Christianity; it has also made capital
additions to that poetry -- for example, [to] the poetry ... of the liturgy
itself.... A Solemn High Mass must be a thousand times as impressive, to a
man with any genuine religious sense in him, as the most powerful sermon
ever
roared under the big top.... Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If
they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some
extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to
translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced
by it. --H.L. Mencken, Essay (1923)
It is often asserted that the pressures of modern life make a daily
recitation of the Rosary impractical. Nothing can be further from the
truth.
In fact, it is the pressures of modern life that make its daily recitation
essential. Never has an active life been incompatible with prayer. We need
only look at the lives of the saints to give the lie to this theory. A
perfect example of this is St. Francis Borgia, who managed to combine a very
busy life with an active prayer life. It was, in fact, the pressures of his
world that led him to God, for he knew that one "can find true happiness
nowhere but in the Cross of Christ. All the pleasures of the world seem ...
heavy and wearisome when once [one has] experienced the sweetness of the
Savior's yoke." -- Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
61. Jesus, our Savior, true God and true man must be the ultimate
end
of all our other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading.
He
is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of everything. "We
labor,"
says St. Paul, "only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ." For in him
alone dwells the entire fullness of the divinity and the complete fullness
of
grace, virtue and perfection. In him alone we have been blessed with every
spiritual blessing; he is the only teacher from whom we must learn; the only
Lord on whom we should depend; the only Head to whom we should be united and
the only model that we should imitate. He is the only Physician that can
heal
us; the only Shepherd that can feed us; the only Way that can lead us; the
only Truth that we can believe; the only Life that can animate us. He alone
is everything to us and he alone can satisfy all our desires. We are given
no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. God has laid no other
foundation for our salvation, perfection and glory than Jesus. Every
edifice
which is not built on that firm rock, is founded upon shifting sands and
will
certainly fall sooner or later. Every one of the faithful who is not united
to him is like a branch broken from the stem of the vine. It falls and
withers and is fit only to be burnt. If we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in
us, we need not fear damnation. Neither angels in heaven nor men on earth,
nor devils in hell, no creature whatever can harm us, for no creature can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Through him,
with
him, and in him, we can do all things and render all honor and glory to the
Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost; we can make ourselves perfect and be
for our neighbor a fragrance of eternal life.
62. If then we are establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady,
it is only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by
providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. If devotion to
our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to reject it as an
illusion of the devil. But this is far from being the case. As I have
already shown and will show again later on, this devotion is necessary,
simply and solely because it is a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving
him