Traditionalists know only one Church: the juridic Church or visible Church. They claim to be that Church with their “visible” clergy, mass and sacraments, but with no pope, when the pope alone is the embodiment of all three attributes, and without the attributes, Rev. Thomas Kinkead teaches in his Baltimore Catechism #3, the four marks cannot exist. The Church especially cannot exist juridically without apostolicity (Catholic Encyclopedia on that head) and lawful pastors, for this mark is the primary mark that contains all the others. Trads, then, are no more the juridic Church than those who stay at home. The juridic Church is defined by St. Robert Bellarmine as “the assemblage of all Christians, united by the profession of the same faith and the use of the same sacraments, under one common supreme head, the pope, who is the successor of St. Peter, and under the bishops in communion with him, who are the successors of the Apostles.” Notice how carefully this definition is worded. The same faith and the same sacraments must be professed, so that if faith teaches, (as it does in the Council of Trent), that the Sacraments of Penance cannot be received from those lacking true jurisdiction, nor can Holy Orders and/or appointment to office be conveyed by the people, then such “sacraments” must be rejected by the faithful. Then we may only adhere to a pope who is certainly the successor of St. Peter, not some doubtful pope. And only the bishops in communion with him who are truly successors of the apostles and who are in communion with the pope can comprise the Church.

The juridic Church, for both Trads and homealoners, exists only partly and materially. Some Catholics share the same profession of faith. Others do not. Whether Trads admit it or not, the only sacraments left to Catholics today are Marriage and Baptism; their priests, per the dictates of Canon Law, cannot validly convey the Sacraments. Even if they were administered validly but illicitly, they would be fruitless and sacrilegious, according to St. Thomas Aquinas. Catholics, most anyway, believe that the Church will someday be restored and a true pope will be elected, per Christ’s promises to His Church. St. Alphonsus appears to have believed this as well, saying that the Mass would only be suspended for a time. Those homealoners who don’t pretend to know whether/when the Church will be restored do not deny indefectibility but only admit that they do not know when God will act, only that He will act. Those who hold this belief are mainly Catacomb Catholics. They are convinced that Antichrist has come and the Sacrifice has ceased. And no; the fruitless masses of Traditional “clerics” do not qualify as holding back the hand of God in our case; another practice, as we shall see below, could be responsible for the fact that we have managed to hang on as long as we have. It is only a matter of time before Christ delivers His Church. And once a true pope is restored to the Church, THEN it will last “unto the consummation.”

The juridical or external Church that Trads pretend to belong to only reflects the external religion they have become dependent upon practicing all these years. Below is an explanation of why this is so detrimental to the spiritual life.

In the early years of the 20th century, an Italian Bishop, Bishop Bonomelli of Cremona, wrote an excellent treatise on the necessity of both interior and exterior devotion. Interior devotion is prayer said silently with meditation and spiritual reading. Exterior devotion is public or vocal prayer, Sunday devotions, and singing. He reminded us that they “must not be considered as separate or separable things, but only distinct from each other…Exterior worship is derived from interior devotion. Both are a necessity and a duty of man towards God…but interior worship comes first in order of time and intrinsic value, exterior worship comes second in both these respects.” Concerning exterior worship, Bp. Bonomelli tells his people and priests that they must learn well to distinguish “between the worship which they owe to God and that which they should pay to the Virgin, the angels and the saints.” He quotes the French Bishop of Rodez, who explains that the devotion to the Sacred Heart, the Holy Face, the Five Precious Wounds, etc… should not replace veneration of the crucifix and our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. “Let us make an end to this mania for new devotions,” the French bishop pleads. “Do not let us too much materialize or particularize our worship, for in doing so we diminish its value, its meaning and its efficacy…Let everything be in its right place…Before all, Jesus Christ only, by Himself.”

Concerning the often exaggerated legends and popular myths that surround stories of the saints, holy people and holy things, Bp. Bonomelli writes: “It is not by fables, perverted facts, miracles invented by the popular imagination, visions, apparitions, raptures, ecstasies, inventions, exaggerations and the misrepresentation of history that we shall edify the faithful or draw to us those who have separated themselves from the faith…” He goes on to warn Catholics that even in the use of those practices and devotions prescribed and approved by the Church, private or public, “It is…easy to sin through excess… Excess in exterior religious practices disperses the spiritual forces in too many directions, distracts, fatigues and oppresses the spirit and instead of elevating it and arousing all its energies, relaxes the fibers and suffocates it…Let medals, rosaries, images, sacred symbols…be used with moderation…Do not let us imagine real virtue to exist in them…What are all these devotions, rosaries and novenas, benedictions and visits to altars and famous sanctuaries, processions and pilgrimages, hymns and feastdays and functions worth unless we do our duty and live a real Christian life? What are they but a pretence of virtue?…Am I condemning the use of medals, rosaries, images, sacred symbols? God forbid! They are…means to excite the faith and sustain piety — but let them be used with moderation.” As the Bishop reminds his priests, these devotional practices are subject to Church law and should never be reduced to excessive, material, unworthy or superstitious acts.

For as the Bishop notes, many abuses arise around devotions that are fundamentally good. Today this can be seen in the chain letter novenas circulated on the Internet; the newspaper ads which must be published so many times to obtain favors or give thanks for favors obtained. Most disturbing among these are the Little Flower “rose” novenas that often have people scurrying hither and yon to find the required roses for those saying the novena, that their favor might be fulfilled. The good bishop especially renounces these types of novenas and devotions, particularly when the faithful are forever begging “some temporal favor,” while “…of spiritual there is hardly a trace. It would please me to have this list of temporal favors suppressed…The object of these persons’ devotions almost always appears to be a worldly, human one, and therein differs little from that of the heathen.” Especially offensive is the use of these devotions to “pander to the dishonest passion of avarice,” or love of money and material things, which Bp. Bonomelli orders his clerics to guard against. By this he meant those prayers directed to obtain some favor based solely on the desire to obtain money or benefits, even at the expense of an innocent party or parties. “Let us see to it that hearts and minds are fixed on the grand mysteries of the faith and not on their remote applications; on the substance of the dogmas rather than on their outgrowths.”

As Peter Michaels wrote in 1949: “It is not inspiration that the modern lay apostle needs so much as basic knowledge and deep spirituality. Novenas and non-theological sermons are mostly on the inspirational level…Today a lay apostle has to aim at the highest spirituality, such as was formerly thought suitable for a cloistered religious…If all Catholics have a moral duty to understand their faith at their level of secular education, few of us are going to be saved.” Inspiration without the tools and the discretion necessary to use it properly is not conducive to a productive spiritual life. I know many who call for prayer and some even demand it, and they assume that if others do not join them in what they are doing or accede to their demands that they do not lead prayerful and holy lives. But prayer is an offering of one’s entire life and being every minute of the day; it is not an isolated event. If it cannot and does not apply to every moment of one’s life, at least indirectly, then it is hard to see how one can lead a truly Catholic life. We are all functioning members of a living, breathing body — the Mystical Body — whose head is Christ, and we inhale and exhale every breath we take with Him and with our fellow Catholics. The external, juridic Church must co-exist ordinarily with the internal “soul” of the Church, just as the human body and soul function as one. But today, the state of the juridic Church can be compared only to that of a body in a coma. The body breathes on its own, the brain is not yet dead, but there is no movement in the body, only the basic functions necessary to keep it in existence. It is without a functioning head, but the life still remaining in the brain could cause the head to speak again, the body to function as before.  Those standing watch by the comatose body must not only pray; they must do everything in their power to educate themselves about how they can make that essential connection to the brain, the intellect.

To date we have laid great emphasis on the juridic body in order to prove it can no longer function because it’s members are lifeless; they cannot interact with or call upon the powers of the Church’s soul to sustain them because they are not members of that Church. In fact they are so convinced that they are receiving valid and licit Sacraments and need nothing more to get to Heaven that they forget that the Church even has a soul, if they ever realized this in the first place. If there is any doubt among Catholics that their membership in the Mystical Body of Christ is more important than any membership they think they still retain in the visible, juridic Church, let them heed the words of Pope Pius XII in “Mystici Corporis”:

“17. One must not think, however, that this ordered or ‘organic’ structure of the body of the Church contains only hierarchical elements and with them is complete; or, as an opposite opinion holds, that it is composed only of those who enjoy charismatic gifts — though members gifted with miraculous powers will never be lacking in the Church. That those who exercise sacred power in this Body are its chief members must be maintained uncompromisingly. It is through them, by commission of the Divine Redeemer Himself, that Christ’s apostolate as Teacher, King and Priest is to endure. At the same time, when the Fathers of the Church sing the praises of this Mystical Body of Christ, with its ministries, its variety of ranks, its officers, it conditions, its orders, its duties, they are thinking not only of those who have received Holy Orders, but of all those too, who, following the evangelical counsels, pass their lives either actively among men, or hidden in the silence of the cloister, or who aim at combining the active and contemplative life according to their Institute; as also of those who, though living in the world, consecrate themselves wholeheartedly to spiritual or corporal works of mercy, and of those in the state of holy matrimony. Indeed, let this be clearly understood, especially in our days, fathers and mothers of families, those who are godparents through Baptism, and in particular those members of the laity who collaborate with the ecclesiastical hierarchy in spreading the Kingdom of the Divine Redeemer occupy an honorable, if often a lowly, place in the Christian community, and even they under the impulse of God and with His help, can reach the heights of supreme holiness, which, Jesus Christ has promised, will never be wanting to the Church.

Comment: All of us then are members necessary to the functioning of the Mystical Body, even if we occupy only a lowly place in the community. In fact in para. 94 of this same encyclical, feeble members of the Body are actually described as its more important members, deserving of greater honor. St. Francis de Sales taught that, “Misery is the throne of God’s mercy…You have no reason to doubt God’s love for you. He looks with love on the worst sinners despite their lack of will to convert themselves. For His weak creatures He has a gentle, condescending and loving heart, provided they recognize their misery… The most miserable beggars and those whose wounds are the most terrible are considered the best and most suitable to receive charity,” (“How to Profit form One’s Faults,” by Rev. Joseph Tissot, Missionary of St. Francis, 1894).

“22. Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed… (23) For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the Body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy. Men may lose charity and divine grace through sin, thus becoming incapable of supernatural merit, and yet not be deprived of all life if they hold fast to faith and Christian hope, and if, illumined from above, they are spurred on by the interior promptings of the Holy Spirit to salutary fear and are moved to prayer and penance for their sins…. (24) Let every one then abhor sin, which defiles the mystical members of our Redeemer; but if anyone unhappily falls and his obstinacy has not made him unworthy of communion with the faithful, let him be received with great love, and let eager charity see in him a weak member of Jesus Christ. For, as the Bishop of Hippo remarks, it is better ‘to be cured within the Church’s community than to be cut off from its body as incurable members. As long as a member still forms part of the body there is no reason to despair of its cure; once it has been cut off, it can be neither cured nor healed.’

Comment: Many now residing in the Mystical Body have received valid and licit Baptism, although they have since lost their membership in the Body through heresy and/or schism according to Canon Law. While they must observe this censure in the external forum since their acts were notorious and public (Can 2232) and cannot presume themselves exempt from such observance, neither are they members whose circumstances have been duly examined by competent ecclesiastical authority to determine the degree of liability. Canon 2218 takes into consideration the subject matter and gravity of the law; the age, knowledge, education, sex, state of life and mental condition of the delinquent; whether committed under duress or grave fear, etc. But the excuse must be proved in the external forum. If excused from grave guilt even latae sententiae censures are lifted, but only by determination of the proper superior. Revs. Woywod-Smith write: “If a competent superior has imposed a penalty and the subject doubts whether the penalty is justified, he is obliged to submit to it in both conscience and in the external forum, for the stability of ecclesiastical discipline and the maintenance of law and order demand that the action of the superior be not frustrated by doubts of his subject over the justice of the superior’s action.” In this case the censure for heresy and schism issues from the lawgiver (Popes and especially Pope Paul IV) and cannot be questioned in this way, being ipso facto.

However, as Can. 2218 states, in pleading one’s case (even to the Pope): “whether the delinquent repented of his misdeed and tried to prevent its evil effects” is one of the mitigating factors in determining liability and is required besides by Can. 2242: “A person is considered to have desisted from his obstinacy when he has truly repented of his offense, and has at the same time made proper satisfaction for the damages and scandal caused, or at least earnestly promised to do so…”  Many Traditionalists will claim they were not actually bound by these censures, pointing to Can. 2232 as an excusing factor and insisting they were not “conscious” of the offense. But this same canon states that this is true only if the delict was not notorious. Notorious means that a thing is “so public and so manifest as to require no proof in law,” (Donald Attwater, “A Catholic Dictionary,” 1941). Nearly all Traditionalists publicly attended and supported the NO or some specific non-Catholic group, and were known to have done so; the exception does not apply to them. Those professing sorrow for their errors and departing Traditionalism or the NO are to be “received with great love,” as weak members. But this applies only conditionally to those who not only lost membership, but also have incurred infamy of law. Until a true pope dispenses them, if he chooses to do so, they can be members of the Church only by desire, not actual members.

It is not possible at this time, however, for us to know exactly who is incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body as members. Some Christ does not hold guilty for their crimes, others He does. We know some are true members because otherwise there could be no Mystical Body. Only the pope can decide this at some future time. But shouldn’t it behoove us, not knowing our true state, to do everything in our power to repent of our sins, make reparation and cooperate in the upbuilding of Christ’s Mystical Body? Because unless we do all in our power to do this, we will not demonstrate the true love required to qualify us even as members of the Church by desire. As Rev. J. C. Fenton explains: “The men and women who have a salutary votum or desiderium of entering the Church are ‘within’ it insofar as they are working and fighting within it for the attainment of the objectives of Jesus Christ. Yet they are definitely not parts or members of this society…Thus it is apparent that the man who is not a member or a part of the Church, but who has a salvific intention or desire to enter it and to remain within it, is actually praying and working along with the Church for the objectives of Jesus Christ. In this way he is truly ‘within’ the Church. And, since the work of the Church is accomplished in the face of serious and never-ending opposition, the non-member of the Church who has a salvific intention to join it is actually fighting for Our Lord ‘within’ His company. He is actually serving God with his whole mind and his whole heart, and thus he is joined to the Church even in his status as a non-member of this society,” (“Questions About Membership in the Church,” The American Ecclesiastical Review, The Catholic University of America Press, July 1961). So those who belong to the Church by desire, then, are members of Her Mystical Body even though they are excluded from juridic Church membership.

The only thing that would keep Traditionalists and others from returning to the Church by desire would be the condition mentioned in the last “Mystici Coproris” paragraph above: obstinacy. This condition is linked to pertinacity where heresy is concerned and is the hallmark of someone truly bent on retaining their heretical or schismatic position. Once a person has been warned that they are holding such a position and do not immediately pull back from it and renounce it, they are considered pertinacious, and pertinacity is the proof that heresy exists. Information on the teaching of the Council of Trent and other papal teachings, also Canon Laws that proved the position held by Traditionalists is heretical have been available since the mid-1980s, over 30 years ago. Homealone as a definite position began in earnest at that time because of this knowledge, although some had stayed at home all along. While those who knew about this and did not investigate it properly all those years may still return to the Church to be members by desire, they will have a much harder time proving any mitigating circumstances to a true pope when the papacy is restored and could run the risk of not being dispensed from infamy of law, which all those guilty of communicatio in sacris have incurred. While a true pope can dispense from this vindictive penalty, and, in this author’s opinion, probably would, in cases where he felt it was not in the best interests of the faithful to so dispense he may well refuse to do so. Hopefully this will be limited to a few rare cases.

“34. That this Mystical Body which is the Church should be called Christ’s is proved in the second place from the fact that He must be universally acknowledged as its actual Head. ‘He,’ as St. Paul says, ‘is the Head of the Body, the Church.’ He is the Head from whom the whole body perfectly organized, ‘groweth and maketh increase unto the edifying of itself.’…(37) Because Christ is so exalted, He alone by every right rules and governs the Church; and herein is yet another reason why He must be likened to a head. As the head is the ‘royal citadel’ of the body — to use the words of Ambrose — and all the members over whom it is placed for their good are naturally guided by it as being endowed with superior powers, so the Divine Redeemer holds the helm of the universal Christian community and directs its course. And as to govern human society signifies to lead men to the end proposed by means that are expedient, just and helpful, it is easy to see how our Savior, model and ideal of good Shepherds, performs all these functions in a most striking way….(38) Moreover He conferred a triple power on His Apostles and their successors, to teach, to govern, to lead men to holiness, making this power, defined by special ordinances, rights and obligations, the fundamental law of the whole Church….

Comment: In these unprecedented times, Christ Himself indeed heads the Church, but not as Traditionalists teach. He cannot and does not “supply” jurisdiction to their priests and bishops because this is entirely outside the order He established, and would mean that the Church, as He constituted it, has become something different; that strictly speaking it would no longer need a pope. This smacks of the Gallicanist heresy. He expects them, like everyone else, to obey Canon Law and to pray and watch (study) until He sees fit to resolve this situation. Nothing is to be done outside the confines of the juridical Church He established on earth, the one to whom He gave the powers of binding and loosing. That Church, by its own laws — God’s written and express will — infallibly decreed that during an interregnum no one could usurp papal jurisdiction or dispense themselves from Canon Law or papal teaching, and yet this is exactly what Traditionalists have done. They have placed their clerics above the pope; they have even placed them above Christ Himself, true head of the Mystical Body! And Yet Pope Pius XII infallibly decreed that any time they violate the law all their attempted actions, including Mass, sacraments, sacramentals, are null and void. Christ is upholding this law made by Pope Pius XII because it is His will. We cannot reach Heaven without doing God’s will, so when will those among Traditionalists begin to truly seek it, to obey Christ, their one and only Head?

“39. But our Divine Savior governs and guides the Society which He founded directly and personally also. For it is He who reigns within the minds and hearts of men, and bends and subjects their wills to His good pleasure, even when rebellious. ‘The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord; whithersoever he will, he shall turn it.’ By this interior guidance He, the ‘Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,’ not only watches over individuals but exercises His providence over the universal Church, whether by enlightening and giving courage to the Church’s rulers for the loyal and effective performance of their respective duties, or by singling out from the body of the Church — especially when times are grave — men and women of conspicuous holiness, who may point the way for the rest of Christendom to the perfecting of His Mystical Body. Moreover from Heaven Christ never ceases to look down with especial love on His spotless Spouse so sorely tried in her earthly exile; and when He sees her in danger, saves her from the tempestuous sea either Himself or through the ministry of His angels, or through her whom we invoke as Help of Christians, or through other heavenly advocates, and in calm and tranquil waters comforts her with the peace ‘which surpasseth all understanding.’”

Comment:Christ will enlighten and give courage only to those Church leaders lawfully reigning in His Church, because His will IS the law and He will not step outside the order He established. At the present, these men are not even members of His Church. They are not lawful pastors and Catholics are never obliged to obey them. While He still loves them and wishes for them to denounce their heresies and schism, He will not assist them in the way described above, because it would be to assist them in defying His will. Times today are very grave, and He Himself, Our Lady and the angels, especially St. Michael, assists the Church in ways we cannot even imagine.

“49. These words of the disciple whom Jesus loved lead us to the last reason why Christ our Lord should be declared in a very particular way Head of His Mystical Body. As the nerves extend from the head to all parts of the human body and give them power to feel and to move, in like manner our Savior communicates strength and power to His Church so that the things of God are understood more clearly and are more eagerly desired by the faithful. From Him streams into the body of the Church all the light with which those who believe are divinely illumined, and all the grace by which they are made holy as He is holy.

Comment: Anything we are able to understand today is by virtue of those graces afforded us directly by Christ. He alone is our teacher, the dispenser of all the graces we need and the Divine Physician of our souls. Traditionalists excuse themselves to attend Mass, receiving sacraments by insisting they “need the graces.” Yet they fail to credit Christ alone in these times as the Divine source of every grace they could possibly want or desire.

“63. Hence, this word in its correct signification gives us to understand that the Church, a perfect society of its kind, is not made up of merely moral and juridical elements and principles. It is far superior to all other human societies; it surpasses them as grace surpasses nature, as things immortal are above all those that perish. Such human societies, and in the first place civil Society, are by no means to be despised or belittled; but the Church in its entirety is not found within this natural order, any more than the whole man is encompassed within the organism of our mortal body. Although the juridical principles, on which the Church rests and is established, derive from the divine constitution given to it by Christ and contribute to the attaining of its supernatural end, nevertheless that which lifts the Society of Christians far above the whole natural order is the Spirit of our Redeemer who penetrates and fills every part of the Church’s being and is active within it until the end of time as the source of every grace and every gift and every miraculous power. Just as our composite mortal body, although it is a marvelous work of the Creator, falls far short of the eminent dignity of our soul, so the social structure of the Christian community, though it proclaims the wisdom of its divine Architect, still remains something inferior when compared to the spiritual gifts which give it beauty and life, and to the divine source whence they flow.

Comment:Those who believe that only a feigned resemblance to the juridical Church will save them undermine the importance of membership in the Mystical Body; they do not understand what manner of men they are. It is Christ in His Mystical Body who is active in our souls and remains with His Church “unto the consummation.”  Pope Pius XII clearly states that by comparison the juridic Church is necessarily inferior to this Body. To emphasize the moral, juridic exterior of this Body as all-important and to neglect its very soul is odious to our Lord. The bonds of the law and all papal and conciliar teaching still bind us because it is God’s will and we must do His will in order to be saved. Therefore we must strive to believe in the same faith and receive the same sacraments (those which we still can receive) as well as to pray as one for an end to these times, lest no flesh at all is to be saved. In this way we will be members of the juridic Church insofar as we can, but primarily members of Christ’s Mystical Body.

“64. From what We have thus far written, and explained, Venerable Brethren, it is clear, We think, how grievously they err who arbitrarily claim that the Church is something hidden and invisible, as they also do who look upon her as a mere human institution possessing a certain disciplinary code and external ritual, but lacking power to communicate supernatural life. On the contrary, as Christ, Head and Exemplar of the Church “is not complete, if only His visible human nature is considered…, or if only His divine, invisible nature…, but He is one through the union of both and one in both … so is it with His Mystical Body’ since the Word of God took unto Himself a human nature liable to sufferings, so that He might consecrate in His blood the visible Society founded by Him and ‘lead man back to things invisible under a visible rule.’ 69. Now since its Founder willed this social body of Christ to be visible, the cooperation of all its members must also be externally manifest through their profession of the same faith and their sharing the same sacred rites, through participation in the same Sacrifice, and the practical observance of the same laws. Above all, it is absolutely necessary that the Supreme Head, that is, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, be visible to the eyes of all, since it is He who gives effective direction to the work which all do in common in a mutually helpful way towards the attainment of the proposed end. As the Divine Redeemer sent the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who in His name should govern the Church in an invisible way, so, in the same manner, He commissioned Peter and his successors to be His personal representatives on earth and to assume the visible government of the Christian community.

Comment: Not only may we make the same profession of faith and participate in the remaining sacraments, but we may say together the Spiritual Mass of St. John, which substitutes for the Mass in the same manner as Spiritual Communion substitutes for the reception of the Holy Eucharist. If all cooperate and are united in Christ, who supplies the grace for everything, how can this obedience to His law — which prevents us from attending sacrilegious masses and receiving fruitless sacraments in the first place — be anything but eminently pleasing to Him and constitute anything but a truly acceptable sacrifice? It is Christ’s sending of the Paraclete into our souls as He did at Pentecost that sustains us. The fact that at this time the fullness of the juridic Church is wanting does not rob us of the soul of the Church to which we ardently wish to be joined.

“67. Here, Venerable Brethren, We wish to speak in a very special way of our union with Christ in the Body of the Church, a thing which is, as Augustine justly remarks, sublime, mysterious and divine; but for that very reason it often happens that many misunderstand it and explain it incorrectly. It is at once evident that this union is very close. In the Sacred Scriptures it is compared to the chaste union of man and wife, to the vital union of branch and vine, and to the cohesion found in our body. Even more, it is represented as being so close that the Apostle says: ‘He (Christ) is the Head of the Body of the Church,’ and the unbroken tradition of the Fathers from the earliest times teaches that the Divine Redeemer and the Society which is His Body form but one mystical person, that is to say to quote Augustine, the whole Christ. Our Savior Himself in His sacerdotal prayer did not hesitate to liken this union to that wonderful unity by which the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son.

“78. …This profound truth — of our union with the Divine Redeemer and in particular of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls — is shrouded in darkness by many a veil that impedes our power to understand and explain it, both because of the hidden nature of the doctrine itself, and of the limitations of our human intellect. But We know, too, that from well-directed and earnest study of this doctrine, and from the clash of diverse opinions and the discussion thereof, provided that these are regulated by the love of truth and by due submission to the Church, much light will be gained, which, in its turn will help to progress in kindred sacred sciences. Hence, We do not censure those who in various ways, and with diverse reasonings make every effort to understand and to clarify the mystery of this our wonderful union with Christ. But let all agree uncompromisingly on this, if they would not err from truth and from the orthodox teaching of the Church: to reject every kind of mystic union by which the faithful of Christ should in any way pass beyond the sphere of creatures and wrongly enter the divine, were it only to the extent of appropriating to themselves as their own but one single attribute of the eternal Godhead. And, moreover, let all hold this as certain truth, that all these activities are common to the most Blessed Trinity, insofar as they have God as supreme efficient cause.

Comment: And so none who would try to discern the meaning of this mystery need worry that they are wrongly interfering with Christ’s designs or attempting to read God’s mind, as it were. Avoiding the error of secular humanism is all that Pope Pius XII requires of us.

“79. It must also be borne in mind that there is question here of a hidden mystery, which during this earthly exile can only be dimly seen through a veil, and which no human words can express. The Divine Persons are said to indwell inasmuch as they are present to beings endowed with intelligence in a way that lies beyond human comprehension, and in a unique and very intimate manner which transcends all created nature, these creatures enter into relationship with Them through knowledge and love. If we would attain, in some measure, to a clearer perception of this truth, let us not neglect the method strongly recommended by the Vatican Council in similar cases, by which these mysteries are compared one with another and with the end to which they are directed, so that in the light which this comparison throws upon them we are able to discern, at least partially, the hidden things of God.

Comment: Simply because it is difficult for the faithful to determine the meaning of these mysteries insofar as they are able, this does not excuse them from understanding them to whatever extent they can. Here Pius XII gives the method prescribed by the Vatican Council to assist us. To do otherwise would be to succumb to a species of quietism, which the pope condemns in para. 87 of his encyclical.

103. As you know, Venerable Brethren, from the very beginning of Our Pontificate, We have committed to the protection and guidance of heaven those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic Church, solemnly declaring that after the example of the Good Shepherd We desire nothing more ardently than that they may have life and have it more abundantly. Imploring the prayers of the whole Church We wish to repeat this solemn declaration in this Encyclical Letter in which We have proclaimed the praises of the ‘great and glorious Body of Christ’ and from a heart overflowing with love We ask each and every one of them to correspond to the interior movements of grace, and to seek to withdraw from that state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation. For even though by an unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of the Redeemer, they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church. Therefore may they enter into Catholic unity and, joined with Us in the one, organic Body of Jesus Christ, may they together with us run on to the one Head in the Society of glorious love. Persevering in prayer to the Spirit of love and truth, We wait for them with open and outstretched arms to come not to a stranger’s house, but to their own, their father’s home.

“104. Though We desire this unceasing prayer to rise to God from the whole Mystical Body in common, that all the straying sheep may hasten to enter the one fold of Jesus Christ, yet We recognize that this must be done of their own free will; for no one believes unless he wills to believe.

Comment:It is not possible for a pope to make this dedication now, as we have no pope. But clearly it is Christ’s desire, expressed by His Mother at Fatima, that all sinners may be converted and come to a love for the truth. Traditionalists, at the very least are in a situation where they cannot be certain of their salvation. According to the laws of the Church, they have no certainty concerning the validity of their “clerics,” the mass they say nor the sacraments they dispense. As such they must “seek to withdraw from that state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation.” While all members of the Mystical Body by desire pray for the conversion of those who are not within its pale (at least by desire), no words can convince them of this need unless they will to believe. And that means joining their will to Christ’s for the upbuilding of His Mystical Body, a subject, if truth be known, that they probably understand precious little about. Therefore stay-at-home Catholics will continue to pray for Traditionalists’ realization that what their unlawful, questionably valid “clerics” offer must be rejected, not only for their own sakes, but also that these false ministers themselves may be converted.

What else can be known about the Mystical Body?

Traditionalists desire to be united in the closest way to Christ — in the Mass, and in His Sacraments. Yet by dishonoring Him in unlawfully participating in these very things, they never are able to acquire that unity. This is because they see it through human eyes, not the eyes of the Mystical Christ. Sacrifice is only the expression of an interior sacrifice or devotion, Rev. M. Eugene Boylan notes in his “The Mystical Body,” (1947), paraphrasing St. Thomas of Aquinas. Because the Sacrifice has ceased, it is God’s expressed will that no longer will it be possible for us to offer ourselves though the Holy Mass to Christ in Heaven. But there is a more direct participation that is available to us: we can offer ourselves and our lives as that sacrifice, through the merits and in the name of Christ, who first offered Himself for us. There is no other more perfect way to “fill up what is wanting to the passion of Christ,” than by offering ourselves as a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God,” (Rom. 12:`1). For as St. Cyprian wrote, “the sacrifice of Our Lord is not complete as far as our sanctification is concerned unless our offerings and sacrifices correspond to His Passion.”

Rev. Boylan tells readers: “There is then a continual need for activity on our part even as members of Christ. To act we must will; to will we must have knowledge…That knowledge which regulates our actions in that newness of life and the volition by which we cleave to the source of that new life, must be supernatural,” (not something one hears from a Traditional “priest” or lay leader).  “We cannot see or perceive Christ or His Mystical Body, even though there is a sense in which the Church is visible. To live with Him and by Him and in Him, all our actions must be guided by faith…The beginning and foundation of our spiritual life is faith. We must believe, we must live by faith…[But] although faith is the foundation of our incorporation into Christ, yet without charity we cannot share in the life of the Mystical Body. If we remember that the soul of that Body is the Holy Ghost — Who is the Love of God for God, the Living Flame of Divine Love — and that for living membership of Christ it is essential that we be animated and moved in our actions by the soul of that Body, we can see the essential importance of charity…The other virtues of faith and hope are dead and without ‘form’ if they are not animated by love…”By doing the truth in charity, we may all grow up in Him who is the Head…Christ,” (Eph. 4:15).

“Our duty of fraternal charity must never be separated from our love of God — for there is but one virtue of charity,” Rev. Boylan continues. “But in addition to our obligations towards our fellow-members of the Mystical Body, there is something even more fundamental which is essential to our life in Christ. This is conformity to the Divine Will. It was the first sentiment that we know of in Our Lord’s human life: ‘I come to do Thy will, O God,’ (Heb.10: 9)…The need for this conformity is evident from a consideration of our membership of Christ. If we are to be His members in truth, we must live by the Soul of His Body, Who is the Holy Spirit, and we must be subject to the life of His Body, which is submission to the Head….We can only be true members of Christ when we are doing the Will of God. True love of God is impossible without submission to His Will. For love is the giving of oneself to God and disobedience is the removal of it from Him. Our Lord Himself made this submission the test and touchstone of our love.” Here Boylan cites, “If you love Me, keep my commandments,” and “Love one another, as I have loved you.” How did Christ love His Apostles and those who came to hear Him speak? He healed them of their sins and infirmities; He preached the truth to them and fed them physically. Boylan states: “These are the two fundamentals of the spiritual life: to live by the Will of God and to live in organic union with one’s neighbor.” He also mentions humility as an essential virtue, “without which there can be no Christian life.”

Rev. Boylan does not forget the role played by the Blessed Mother, who, he says, is the woman in Apocalypse, laboring to give birth to none other than ourselves. She is our Mediatrix, our Reparatrix and Co-Redemptrix, our Queen. Boylan writes of her: “Her consent to be the Mother of the Redeemer of Mankind, with the acceptance of the suffering that involved for her, was probably the greatest act of fraternal charity ever performed by a creature until she herself renewed it under the Cross…’Be it done to me according to Thy word,’ (Luke 1:38)…The will of God was the law of her life…We can share in her works by bringing forth Christ in our own souls by humble and loving obedience to the Will of God. We can ensure our complete union with Christ by true devotion to Mary, by a complete consecration of all that we are or have to her that she may form us in Christ, and Christ in us. She is the ‘Gate of Heaven’ by whom we enter into Christ. She is the Mother of the Whole Christ.” The primary fulfillment of God’s will for us on earth is obedience to His law and the acceptance of whatever he sends us in this life. Unless we obey and accept, we cannot enjoy membership in His Body.

Conclusion

While Catacomb Catholics cannot be full-fledged members of the juridic Church today because Christ has suspended Her hierarchical functions for the time being, as laity we yet are able to participate in a limited, material way in that body. We keep the same faith unchanged, minister to each other those Sacraments we have left and participate in the same spiritual sacrifice, offered in communion with those remaining bishops and priests who are still actual members of the Church. Our Head is Christ, who lives forever in uninterrupted cohesion with His Mystical Body. Our Mediatrix is Our Lady, who St. Bernard has described as the neck of the Mystical Body. Our consolation is the Holy Ghost and our protector St. Michael with his many legions of angels. While we have no pope at present, we are careful to adhere to all those former teachings of past pontiffs. We pledge a firm and irrevocable assent to the infallible teachings of popes and councils and all that has been taught in the ordinary magisterium of these popes throughout the ages. We abide by the Ten Commandments and obey Canon Law, since it is based largely on papal and conciliar teachings.

To supply for spiritual direction, we read the pre-1959 writings of those who directed others and follow their counsels. We pray for and with one another and bear one another’s burdens. We long for those who continue to attend Traditional chapels and the Novus Ordo to repent of their heresies and schism as we ourselves have done and join us in the wilderness, under the wings of the Holy Ghost and in the safety and the peace of Christ’s Mystical Body. Some we are sure are already there with us by desire and many others by invincible ignorance. This is not an invisible Church; our dealings with others, our writings and our pledge of faith are publicly known. May we all one day be one flock under one shepherd, and till then be assured of our love and our prayers.