Liturgical Reform: tool of both the Novus Ordo and Traditionalist sects

by T. Stanfill Benns | Aug 25, 2023 | New Blog

+St. Louis, King+

Introduction

I hesitate here to spend too much time on the heretical new liturgy that was introduced into the Catholic Church by the Roman usurpers beginning in 1959 because strictly speaking, we can no longer enjoy the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass owing to the lack of valid clergy. However what has happened regarding the Mass is important, because Traditionalists, of various shades and descriptions, have been so bold as to suggest that Pope Pius XII was implicated in the Mass changes and can be blamed for what later happened regarding the Latin Mass. I have already directed people to read the passion of Pope Pius XII which is under the More Recent Articles section of my Articles/Study the Faith page. So I hope that in reading that article people will have a better understanding of what actually happened, why it happened and why it may appear to some that Pius XII was indeed complicit in this, although he was not.

I don’t think that it’s stating too much to say that those who blame Pope Pius XII for changing the Holy Week liturgy and the Breviary are demonizing him in the hopes of perhaps, at one point, declaring him part of the plot to introduce usurpers into the Catholic Church and destroy the Mass. Having spent a good part of my life studying the writings of Pope Pius XII and the theology of the Church as it existed prior to his death, I do think that it is a terrible travesty for anyone to believe that he could have been complicit and I expressed this in the article just mentioned in the opening paragraph. People who are involved with Traditionalists in some way are very much the victims of these pseudo-clergy who would like nothing better than to destroy even the idea of the Catholic Church in order to supplant it themselves. And this is nothing new — I’ve been explaining these aberrations on this site for nearly 20 years. But it keeps resurfacing, particularly among the recognize and resist crowd, and other “rad-Trad” types who have been openly anti-Semitic and suspected of harboring neo-Nazi sympathies. It seems oddly coincidental to me that these individuals are the very ones who seem most devoted to this condemnation of Pius XII regarding the liturgy.

While the “conservative” media is calling out the Department of Justice and the FBI for targeting radical Traditionalists, saying that it’s totally unjustified, these media claims are entirely bogus. I’m sorry — I don’t support anything the DOJ or FBI are doing regarding the violation of our personal freedoms, but I have personally witnessed the existence of these ties to neo-Nazi groups among Traditionalists and have documented its existence. If the so-called conservative media would do their homework instead of cowering to their bosses and be honest in all this — if they would read back a couple of decades into the history of Traditionalism —they would see there were concerns long ago about these neo-Nazi tendencies. Many of them centered around the activities of the Society of St. Pius X.

Some Traditionalists most adamant in condemning Pope Pius XII for his Holy Week and Breviary changes also insinuate he was a Jewish sympathizer, siding with those among the Jews and Protestants accusing him of this for the past two decades. This would only serve to inflame any Traditionalists harboring neo-Nazi tendencies as well as fuel opposition to the liturgical changes he made. In other words, they are reacting out of an entrenched prejudice based on anti-Semitism, a prejudice condemned by the Church, even though Pope Pius XII did not do anything contrary to faith and morals in executing the changes he made to the liturgy. But is there a more fundamental link to the Nazi mentality that somehow explains how it contributed to not only liturgical reform, but to the anticipated Hegelian reaction to that reform — the Latin Mass movement? (thesis: Latin Mass; antithesis Novus Oro Missae; synthesis, splitting of the Mass entirely from it’s ancient safeguard, the papacy).

There is indeed proof there was such a connection, as explained by Fr. Albert F. Kaiser, C.P.P.S., in a two-part article written for the American Ecclesiastical Review in December-January, 1953-54 (“The Historical Backgrounds and Theology of Mediator Dei”). Perhaps those sporting secular “credentials” who are now busy bashing Pius XII and this encyclical on the liturgy should have conducted more thorough research before daring to criticize and defame a true pope, acting well within the limits of his jurisdiction. Certainly what Fr. Kaiser relates in his article is an eye-opener, for not only does he make the neo-Nazi connection; he also spells out other heresies that exist today among the Novus Ordo and Traditionalist sects. According to Fr. Kaiser in Part 1 of his article, the following tendencies and errors contributed to the clamor for liturgical reform. See my comments in blue.

1. The heresies of Gallicanism, Jansenism and Febronianism — all promoted by the Protestants especially in Germany, where the liturgical movement had its deepest roots — limited papal jurisdiction to favor episcopal equality, which made it difficult to fight and overcome National Socialism (Naziism).

Comment: The anti-papal heresies of Gallicanism and Febronianism have been covered at length on this site. The Gallicanist theologian Jean Gerson taught: “The decision of the Pope alone, in matters which are of faith, does not as such bind (anyone) to believe; Bishops in the primitive Church were of the same power as the Pope; The Roman Church, the head of which is believed to be the Pope …may err, and deceive and be deceived, and be in schism and heresy, and fail to exist.” (Henry Cardinal Manning, The Ecumenical Council and the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff: a Letter to the Clergy, 1869). And here is recognized the very same teachings which the Anglicans and Luther used to justify their separation from Rome at the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Febronianism went even further, declaring: “The final court of appeal in the Church is the ecumenical council (cap. vi), the rights of which exclude the pretended monarchical constitution of the Church. The pope is subordinate to the general council; he has neither the exclusive authority to summon one, nor the right to preside at its sessions, and the conciliar decrees do not need his ratification. Ecumenical councils are of absolute necessity, as even the assent of a majority of bishops to a papal decree, if given by the individuals, outside a council, does not constitute a final, irrevocable decision. Appeal from the pope to a general council is justified by the superiority of the council over the pope. According to the Divine institution of the episcopate (cap. vii), all bishops have equal rights; they do not receive their power of jurisdiction from the Holy See… Febronius, while ostensibly contending for a larger independence and greater authority for the bishops, seeks only to render the Churches of the different countries less dependent on the Holy See, in order to facilitate the establishment of national Churches in these states, and reduce the bishops to a condition in which they would be merely servile creatures of the civil power.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911).

This of course essentially establishes the bishops as equal to the pope and does to discipline what liturgical reform accomplished in the liturgy. It successfully reduced it to its primitive forms (ignoring all development of doctrine and discipline over the ages), and opened the door to the state religion, such as was established in Germany by the Old Catholics and was also advanced by National Socialism (Aryanism). It eventually led to the “collegiality” of Vatican 2 and the rule of Traditional “bishops” lacking valid orders and jurisdiction, pretending to be able to constitute the Church without their head bishop, the Roman Pontiff. Later concessions to American belief and the heretical teachings of John Courtenay Murray were conceded at the false Vatican 2 council, granting non-Catholics in America equal status with Catholics where salvation is concerned.

2. The constant struggle between Progressives concerning liberalism and Catholic orthodoxy was especially pronounced in the German universities, where Protestants, of course, were in the majority.

Comment: This was the direct result of the inroads made by Liberalism and Modernism.

3. There was a growing ambition, even among some of the religious centers, to free themselves from the authority of Rome.
4. The proponents of Gallicanism and Febronianism were the primary agitators for the free from Rome movement, and this dovetailed in a sense with the Nazi political movement. For Naziism was it’s own religion, the religion of the state, and already the Old Catholics had succeeded in making inroads as the state religion. This heightened the battle waged by Protestants to champion state over Church.

Comment: Pope St. Pius X writes in his encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis: “The Modernists try in every way to diminish and weaken… authority. They propose to remove the ecclesiastical magisterium itself by sacrilegiously falsifying its origin, character and rights and by freely repeating the calumnies of its adversaries.”

5. Hitler lured youth away from Sunday instruction with his youth movement and the liturgical movement placed its emphasis strictly on the liturgy ridiculing and de-emphasizing catechetical instruction. This considerably weakened the authority of those of insisting upon the necessity of instructing children in Catholic dogma. Pope St. Pius X wrote on this grave error:

“How many and how grave are the consequences of ignorance in matters of religion! And on the other hand, how necessary and how beneficial is religious instruction! It is indeed vain to expect a fulfillment of the duties of a Christian by one who does not even know them… the Council of Trent, treating of the duties of pastors of souls, decreed that their first and most important work is the instruction of the faithful. It therefore prescribes that they shall teach the truths of religion on Sundays and on the more solemn feast days; moreover during the holy seasons of Advent and Lent they are to give such instruction every day or at least three times a week. This, however, was not considered enough. The Council provided for the instruction of youth by adding that the pastors, either personally or through others, must explain the truths of religion at least on Sundays and feast days to the children of the parish, and inculcate obedience to God and to their parents” (Acerbo nimis).

6. The reform liturgists appealed to the popular will and the popular mind by use of the vernacular in the liturgy. They also favored the teachings of National Socialism and showed a tendency to nationalize and desacralize religion itself.
7. Dr. Pius Parsch encourage the cultural and social aspects of the liturgy and the use of the vernacular in both the pew and on the altar, and this in the 1920s.
8. Dom Odo Casel advocated for the “community cult” or community priesthood in Germany, which Kaiser says “disturbs the hierarchical order.” It ignores the Apostolic College and the Pope and Bishops in communion with him as the only real teachers in the Church.

Comment: “We must now consider upon whom rests the obligation to dissipate this most pernicious ignorance and to impart in its stead the knowledge that is wholly indispensable. There can be no doubt, Venerable Brethren, that this most important duty rests upon all who are pastors of souls. On them, by command of Christ, rest the obligations of knowing and of feeding the flocks committed to their care; and to feed implies, first of all, to teach. “I will give you pastors according to my own heart,” God promised through Jeremias, “and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.”[9] Hence the Apostle Paul said: “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel,” thereby indicating that the first duty of all those who are entrusted in any way with the government of the Church is to instruct the faithful in the things of God” (Pope St. Pius X, Acerbo nimis).

It was not the championing and celebration of the Latin Mass and the Eucharist that would render the salvation of souls Traditionalists falsely profess to be so solicitous in procuring. That false theology is exactly the same basis used to justify liturgical reform, and the allowance of the Latin Mass was already built into that reform. Their primary duty was to first educate themselves, then educate the faithful in Christian doctrine. They disobeyed Pope St. Pius X’s and Our Lord’s command to educate, obeying instead the popular will and the popular mind, which demanded the Latin Mass be provided and the Sacraments be administered to them. This is also contrary to Canon Law and the Council of Trent which as noted under Can. 147 in the Canon Law Digest, Vol. 3, where the Sacred Congregation of the Council declared: “The Catholic Church is, in virtue of its institution by Christ Himself, a perfect society hierarchically established, whose full and supreme power of government and jurisdiction rests with the Roman Pontiff, the successor of the Blessed Apostle Peter in the primacy. Hence no one can presume to intrude himself or others into ecclesiastical offices or benefices without a legitimate canonical investiture or provision.

“The true rule of Canon Law in this matter is found in Rule VI…And the Council of Trent declared, “that those who undertake to exercise these offices merely at the behest of and upon the appointment by the people or the secular power and authority, and those who assume the same on their own authority, are all to be regarded not as ministers of the Church but as thieves and robbers who have entered not by the door,” (Cap. IV, Session XXIII, de reform). More, the same Sacred Synod defined as follows: “If anyone says…that those who are neither duly ordained nor sent by ecclesiastical and canonical authority, but who come from elsewhere, are legitimate ministers of the word and of the Sacraments, let him be anathema,” (Ibid. Can. VII, also the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX, no. 50).” Here related canons 2331 §2, 2334 nos. 1 and 2, 147 §1 and 147 §2, 332 §1 and 2394 are cited as already having condemned these abuses. Canons 330, 331 §1, §2, §3 also apply in this case.

It was at the request of “the people” that Traditionalists established their chapels. Traditional priests possess no offices, as required under Can. 147: “An ecclesiastical office cannot be validly obtained without canonical appointment. By canonical appointment is understood the conferring of an ecclesiastical office by the competent ecclesiastical authority in harmony with the sacred canons,” Pope Pius XII’s infallible constitution Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS) nullifies any acts performed contrary to Canon Law and papal teaching during an interregnum. Clearly in violating the teachings of the Council of Trent and VAS, any acts attempted by Traditionalists who admit they possess no offices is and was null and void.

What Traditionalists did was no different than what those promoting the changes to the liturgy did in helping to establish the Novus Ordo Missae. Both were contrary to Divine revelation and the infallible teachings of the Church.

9. Kaiser states that regarding the use of the vernacular and the term community priesthood “…Such phrases were loaded with danger. It is possible they became handles for heresy when the time was ripe for change, as in Nazi Germany, Austria, and to a lesser extent in France. Phrases originally intended to express secondary social aspects of religion and to stimulate new and vitalized interest in Iiturgical revival were possibly twisted to become spearheads of liberals, Hegelians, mitigated Quietists and just plain religious compromisers.”
10. The reform liturgists attempted to tie all sources of grace to the Sacraments strictly, not broadly. They tried to use the liturgy as a way to test doctrines before they were embodied in the Church by the Pope. Kaiser calls this an “…heretical attitude. This, liberals believe, is how doctrine develops,” he says, identifying this attitude as the error of pragmatism.

Comment: How many times have we heard from Traditionalists that unless one attends their masses and receives their sacraments, they cannot obtain the fullness of sanctifying grace or even be certain their sins are forgiven because they rely only on a Perfect Act of Contrition?

There is a heresy that can be traced to the Council of Basle and the heretics Wycliffe and Hus which the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia identifies as Utraquism The Encyclopedia author defines this belief as: “Man, in order to be saved, must receive Holy Communion when he wishes and where he wishes, under the forms of bread (and wine)…That this is of Divine precept, continued the Hussite, is further evident from tradition.” The article’s author, Joseph Hughes goes on to explain that reception of the Eucharist is not by necessity of means (“an imperative must”) but by necessity of precept, meaning, “an obligation imposed by a command, and for good reasons that which is prescribed may be dispensed with. The Hussites contended that the Eucharist was a necessary means to salvation, so that those who died without having received the Eucharist, (the young, the insane) could not be saved… (But) the Catholic Church denies the Eucharist is necessary as a means to salvation…(it) is a precept; from it dispensations are possible.”

Shades of the Jansenists and the Feeneyites, the Jansenists for rigoristically teaching contrary to the Council of Trent that Perfect Contrition can never procure salvation and the Feeneyites for proclaiming that no one may be saved unless they receive actual water Baptism.

11. Referring to the disregard for catechetical instruction and dogma, Kaiser states that the liturgy edged out Christian dogma and calls this “heretical exclusivism.” He also accuses them of seeking refuge in psychological and social ideals instead of emphasizing catechetical instruction as a necessary foundation for understanding sermons and worthily participating in the liturgy.

Comment: This heretical exclusivism is precisely what was used by Traditionalists to edge out the papacy itself, and Catholics bought into that because they did not know or understand their faith. Many had never attended Catholic school or been well instructed in the Catechism. The mania for social reform and the increase in emotional and mental disturbances which came as a result of the advent of psychiatry, usurping the role of the confessor, further complicated their understanding of the faith. Pope St. Pius X writes:

“We are indeed aware that the work of teaching the Catechism is unpopular with many because as a rule it is deemed of little account and for the reason that it does not lend itself easily to the winning of public praise. But this in Our opinion is a judgment based on vanity and devoid of truth. We do not disapprove of those pulpit orators who, out of genuine zeal for the glory of God, devote themselves to defense of the faith and to its spread, or who eulogize the saints of God. But their labor presupposes labor of another kind, that of the catechist. And so if this be lacking, then the foundation is wanting; and they labor in vain who build the house. Too often it happens that ornate sermons which receive the applause of crowded congregations serve but to tickle the ears and fail utterly to touch the hearts of the hearers. Catechetical instruction, on the other hand, plain and simple though it be, is the word of which God Himself speaks through the lips of the prophet Isaias: ‘And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more thither, but soak the earth and water it, and make it to spring and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater: so shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it… Since it is a fact that in these days adults need instruction no less than the young, all pastors and those having the care of souls shall explain the Catechism to the people in a plain and simple style adapted to the intelligence of their hearers. This shall be carried out on all holy days of obligation, at such time as is most convenient for the people, but not during the same hour when the children are instructed, and this instruction must be in addition to the usual homily on the Gospel which is delivered at the parochial Mass on Sundays and holy days.’”

12. In their attempt to simplify everything, bringing the liturgy back to the bare bones of the early Christian era, the liturgical reformers emphasized all the benefits of being Catholic and participating in the liturgy v. the responsibilities of being educated Catholics, ignoring the pain and suffering of Christ on the cross which led to the joys of the resurrection. As Kaiser explains, there is no way to experience properly the joy of the Resurrection except through acknowledging and participating in the pain of the Crucifixion.

Comment: This is a subject that deserves a treatment all its own, and it will be covered in a future blog. Pain and suffering in this age of easily available pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs and the belief that all pain must be alleviated and not borne leaves little room for sharing in the pain of the Crucifixion, even among those professing to be Catholic. Pope Pius XII has much to say on this topic that is so little appreciated or understood.

Conclusion

The principles of Liturgical Reform were exercised not only by those establishing the Novus Ordo, but eq
ually by Traditionalists, who chose liturgy over dogma, eschewed scholasticism, opted for episcopal equality over the necessity of the papacy and the community priesthood over the necessity of jurisdiction to guarantee apostolicity. It is not difficult to pin down the main heresies of the liturgical reformers, something that was done by a German bishop, as Kaiser notes below:

“In 1942, Bishop Conrad Groeber of Freiburg in a memorandum to the German hierarchy deplored:

(1) the new definition of faith as sensation, emotion or interior intuition;

(2) the penchant for criticizing contemporary forms of religious life, including developments in the liturgical cult, with the view of returning to primitive Christianity with its bare table altar, etc.;

(3) veering from Scholastic philosophy to Hegelianism. The latter was considered more vital, the former only of historic interest and value;

(4) use of oriental philosophies and Protestant terms in connection with dogma;

(5) veering away from the historic redeeming Christ and His symbol, the Crucifix in our churches, to a new concept of the so-called Triumphant Christ, whose image should replace the Crucifix on the altar;

(6) a new concept of the Eucharistic Christ outside of time and space and not connected with the historical Redeemer;

(7) a new concept of the Church as a biological organism rather than the historically and divinely established hierarchical Kingdom of Truth, and guide to salvation.”

All of the above, also the ridicule of dogma and rejection of the papal supremacy mentioned previously, point to one heresy, and that the synthesis of all heresies — Modernism. Everything Groeber details is denounced in Pope St. Pius X’s Pascendi; liturgical reform was the Modernist Trojan horse used to seduce the remaining faithful, among both the Novus Ordo sect as well as Traditionalists.

(Next week: Kaiser reviews liturgical reform in the light of Mediator Dei.)

Mind control, liturgical reform and the descent into heresy and schism

by T. Stanfill Benns | Jul 13, 2023 | New Blog

+St. Anacletus, Pope and Martyr+

Some readers have expressed almost disbelief that the “for all men” in the consecration of the wine could have been printed in the 1959 missalettes and been openly approved (or ignored) by the bishops; and that after all these years, this is just now coming to light. But this was first made public on my site in an article entitled Death Knell for “Good Pope John,” which was later retitled and rewritten. I myself only became aware of it in 2004, and this almost by accident. At the time, like everyone else, related it only to the aberrations revolving around the Mass. This because I already had proven that Roncalli was invalidly elected and all the clergy were excommunicated and unable to function. Greater emphasis now needs to be placed upon this find to prove to those still in doubt that the bishops were complicit in all the Vatican 2 changes, lost their offices under Can. 188 n. 4 through heresy and schism in January 1959 and violated the oath they took at their consecration to obey the pope and defend the faith.

Some have asked why the date of the Great Apostasy even matters, but truth always matters. Perhaps we should ask the question: Why didn’t those championing the Mass early on, or those who exited the NO and followed them into the Traditionalist movement ever notice it? The man who wrote the most comprehensive study of the “for all men,” Patrick Henry Omlor, did not write his work until 1967-68, when “for all men” debuted in the U.S., even before Paul 6 made it official in 1969. That happened on October 22, 1967, Black Sunday, when the U.S. bishops first introduced the revised Vatican 2 “mass,” with a vernacular canon containing the words “for all men.” What is striking about Omlor’s singular work The Robber Church, is that it clearly states that:

“THIS “FORM” IS HERETICAL. Since UNTO denotes efficacy, this ‘form’ says that the benefits of Christ’s Passion are actually communicated to ALL MEN UNTO the forgiveness of sins.  And this is contrary to faith… The mutilation in question (to wit, ‘FOR ALL MEN SO THAT, etc.’) is a forgery of Christ’s words recorded in Holy Writ…  St. Thomas Aquinas defines HERESY as ‘a species of unbelief, belonging to those  who profess the Christian faith, but corrupt its dogmas.’” (Summa Theol., II-II, Q. 11, Art. 1).”

What is most notable here is that throughout his work, Omlor applies these words only to the invalidity of the consecration. Nowhere does he even so much as intimate that the men promoting such a blatant heresy could themselves be rank heretics. There is a sense of outrage only that the Mass is violated and mutilated. In other words, he entirely misses the point. And it demonstrates that even someone such as Omlor, seminary and college educated prior to Vatican 2, was clueless regarding the true hierarchical structure of the Church, its inner workings, and the devastating implications of such a heresy.

That bishops could allow Christ’s very words to be falsified and remain blameless is a travesty, one that obviously prevails even now. And this after decades of proofs that the destruction was the result of careful planning, engineered by Masonic agents of the Devil, who long ago infiltrated the Church. The denial of this infiltration and the full realization of its consequences is what keeps many confused and attached to Traditionalist groups. So below we will try to explain why the laity did not recognize the treachery in the 1959 missalettes, and why the liturgy was the very bait used to deceive them.

Michael Davies on the Liturgical Movement

I am no fan by any means of Michael Davies but what he says here is an example of Baalim’s ass speaking the truth. “Crushed by St. Pius X, the Modernists understood that they could not penetrate the Church by theology, that is, by a clear exposé of their doctrines. They had recourse to the Marxist notion of praxis, having understood that the Church could become modernist through action, especially through the sacred action of the liturgy. Revolutions always use the living energies of the organism itself, taking control of them little by little and finally using them to destroy the body under attack. It is the well-known process of the Trojan horse.” Wikipedia defines Marxian praxis as “…concrete practical activity that directly influences social life;” the belief that “theoretical contradictions can only be resolved through practical activity…doing something, and then only afterwards, finding out why you did it… trusting experience, before institution or dogma” – Wiki). This “experience” is addressed by Pope St. Pius X  in his encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis as follows:

“…Given this doctrine of experience united with the other doctrine of symbolism, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true. What is to prevent such experiences from being met within every religion?… But this doctrine of experience is also under another aspect entirely contrary to Catholic truth. It is extended and applied totradition, as hitherto understood by the Church, and destroys it.” The Pope goes on to explain that by appealing to human traditions via the power of suggestion, the Modernists would then involve people in experiencing their religion (greater lay involvement) and in this way attract both new converts and awaken the “sluggish.” And this they accomplish both by “books and oral transmission.”

Kinkead’s Baltimore Catechism no. 3 lists approved “books of worship” as belonging to revealed Traditions in the Church (Q. 560). So the reformers went straight for Tradition, knowing that Catholics were generally uneducated in dogma, (as St. Pius X pointed out in Acerbo Nimis) and also knowing that many of them wanted a more active role in the Mass. This to appeal to the “sluggish” and attract others to the faith who were put off by Latin and passive attendance at Mass. And so by preaching and encouragement, beginning in the 1920s, clergy and religious fostered the idea of liturgical reform, eventually holding annual liturgical conferences and organizing groups (promoting these changes. This rather than focusing, as Pope St. Pius X and his successors urged, on education in Church teaching and participation in the forms of Catholic Action that promoted catechesis. And yet as Davies noted in the 1970s, “…most Catholics know very little about the liturgical movement.”

The groundwork already had been laid; the bottom rungs of the Masonic pyramid accomplished. Materialism had eroded the Catholic ideal of self-denial  over time and Catholic and Protestant Liberalism emerged en force in the late 1800s. The Great Depression and the war years only hastened the spread of these two errors. Then came the push for liturgical reform,  accomplished in increments. This is nothing more than gradualism, another Marxian tool based on evolutionary principles used to facilitate change: “In politics and society, gradualism is the theory that social change can be achieved in small, discrete increments,” rather than sudden eruptions, such as revolutions or uprisings. In other words, heat the water very slowly, little by little, to boil the frog. “Gradualism is one of the defining features of political liberalism and reformism,” and reformism is defined as “…a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement” (Wikipedia).

In condemning excesses in liturgical reform in Mediator Dei, Pope Pius XII brought the reformers resorting to methods of praxis and gradualism up short, writing: “The entire liturgy has the Catholic Faith for its content…. For this reason whenever there was a question of defining a truth revealed by God, the Sovereign Pontiff and the Councils, in their recourse to ‘theological sources,’ as they are called, have not seldom drawn many an argument from this sacred science of the Liturgy…[Lex orandi, lex credendi]: The rule for prayer determines the rule for belief.’ [However] The Sacred Liturgy does not decide or determine independently and of itself what is of Catholic Faith… If one desires to differentiate and described the relationship between faith and the Sacred Liturgy IN ABSOLUTE AND GENERAL TERMS, it is perfectly correct to say…‘let the rule of BELIEF determine the rule of prayer.’”

In other words, only the pope may determine what is of Catholic faith; As Pope Pius XII also taught in Sacramentum Ordinis: “The Church has no power over the substance of the Sacraments; i.e., over those things which, with the sources of divine revelation as witnesses, Christ the Lord Himself decreed to be preserved in a sacramental sign.”

Davies continues: “After the Second World War, the movement became a force that nothing could stop. Protected from on high by eminent prelates, the new liturgists took control little by little of the Commission for Reform of the Liturgy founded by Pius XII, and influenced the reforms devised by this Commission at the end of the pontificate of Pius XII and at the beginning of that of John XXIII. Already masters, thanks to the Pope, of the pre-conciliar liturgical commission, the new liturgists got the Fathers of the Council to accept a self-contradictory and ambiguous document, the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Lercaro and Fr. Bugnini, themselves very active members of the Italian Liturgical Movement, directed the efforts of the Consilium which culminated in the promulgation of the New Mass.

“How could Pope Pius XII, the Pastor Angelicus, the most scholarly Pope of the century, and one whose orthodoxy could not possibly be questioned, have allowed the young wolves of the liturgical movement to consolidate their power during his pontificate? Father Bonneterre makes it clear that this saintly pontiff was well-aware of the subversive elements within the Liturgical Movement. In His encyclical Mediator Dei, perhaps the most sublime exposition of the true nature of the Mass ever to be written, Pope Pius wrote: “We observe that certain people are too fond of novelty and go astray from the oaths of sound doctrine and prudence…. They sully this sacred cause with errors, errors which affect the Catholic faith and ascetical teaching.” Father Bonneterre insists that, alas:

“‘Pope Pius XII did not know the true position of the Liturgical Movement. Its most dangerous leaders were being supported and protected by the highest dignitaries of the Church. How could the Pope have suspected that the “experts” who were so highly praised by Cardinals Bea and Lercaro were, in fact, the most dangerous enemies of the Church? …The news of the death of the Angelic Pastor was received with almost delirious joy by the deviated Liturgical Movement.” The aged Dom Lambert Beauduin had not the least doubt as to the cardinal he hoped would be elected, and confided his hopes to Father Bouyer: ‘If they elect Roncalli,’ he said ‘all will be saved. He will be capable of calling a Council and canonizing ecumenism…’ Silence fell; then, with a return of his old mischievousness, he said with flashing eyes, ‘I believe we have a good chance. Most of the cardinals are not sure what to do. They are capable of voting for him.’” (The Destruction of the Traditional Roman Rite; Davies quotes end here.)

As noted in our June 23 blog, Beauduin and Roncalli were known to be friends. If Pope Pius XII had been the advocate for the type of liturgical reform the progressives desired, why would they have been delirious with joy at his death? No, the liturgical reform was merely a prelude to the theological reform that would succeed it, and “for all men” was the mantra which would be the key to transforming not just the liturgy, but the very scope of Catholic theology.

Whence cometh the theology behind “for all men”?

It seems the fear of Communism drove Pope Pius XII to cast the Church’s lot with America, which he believed was dedicated to fighting Communism and to winning the fight. This explains why the pope seemingly tolerated the installation of the OSS-funded Pro Deo group headed by the suspected CIA operative Fr. Felix Morlion, O.P., a friend of the man who was rewarded by the Pope for having done the Vatican a great service during the war years — William “Wild Bill” Donavan. Morlion, with Giovanni Baptiste Montini’s assistance, established his intelligence service, Pro Deo, in the Vatican. This occurred  in 1944 during WWII, once Rome was liberated from the Nazis. Montini had been collaborating with the OSS using priests in various countries as spies, however, long before Pro Deo’s move to Rome (Messianic Legacy, Lincoln Leigh and Baigent, 1986). And it was precisely at this very time that the liturgical movement began to explode. It is no coincidence that Morlion would later figure into the very heart of the ecumenist movement and would play a major role in the theology that would emerge from the false Vatican 2 council.

In The Phantom Church of Rome, I went into great detail regarding the extent of what the American government called doctrinal warfare, first implemented in 1953. In his book John Courtenay Murray, Time/Life, and the American Proposition, international attorney David Wemhoff described it as a “planned attack against a basic hostile doctrinal system” combined simultaneously with a propaganda-style campaign to promote socially acceptable religious ideals. Originally developed as a program to combat Communism, it was redesigned to primarily target (religious) “decision makers and their staffs.” It grew “out of the propaganda agencies of World War II,” agencies that were later coordinated from the Vatican by then pro-secretary of state Giovanni Montini. Using Montini’s contacts, priests and other clergy engaged in teaching positions were employed to pump neo-Modernist poison into the veins of the Catholic intelligentsia. And who was one of those well-versed in at least the campaign to combat the spread of Communist ideology? None other than Felix Morlion.

A later-released 1957 intelligence document reveals that: “Felix A. Morlion, O.P., is a Belgian who became a Dominican after engineering studies at Louvain. He served for Psychological Warfare Activities in the United States from 1941-44 with other leaders of anti-totalitarianism. He was first on the Nazi blacklist for his Brussels International Pro Deo Center. The impact of the American way of life brought him and his associates to plan the creation of a university to apply the philosophy of the American Founding Fathers to the international promotion of democracy under God.” It was Morlion, Wemhoff relates, who first hosted the promulgation of the American proposition at Pro Deo University in November of 1953. It was a much-awaited reversal of Pope Leo XIII’s condemnation of Americanism, seemingly coming from the Church Herself. Embattled as She was, it appeared that a Catholic institution endorsed democracy as the savior of the world and a governmental system that would be acceptable to, and even protective of, the Catholic faith.

Democracy and the Novus Ordo church

We wonder today why democracy is touted as the only acceptable system of government in the world, without understanding how those barriers were first beaten down by those who would later canonize it at the false Vatican 2 council. So now we know. The infamous “innocent “ cardinals would do nothing to oppose the American proposition and later would approve Dignitatus Humanae on Dec. 7, 1965, almost unanimously. The U.S. branch of Pro Deo was headed up by Francis Cardinal Spellman (Wemhoff, p. 367). Spellman also was the de facto head of the Knights of Malta, its “protector and spiritual advisor” (Messianic Legacy). Later Pope Pius XII would refuse to appoint a new head for the Knights of Malta, setting up a commission to determine if they had been infiltrated by Freemasons. The K of M remained headless until after Pope Pius XII’s death, when Roncalli appointed a new head for the group.

Henry Luce, owner of Time magazine and the tireless promoter of John Courtney Murray’s American proposition, taught by Morlion at his university, is featured with Murray as the antagonists in Wemhoff’s book. It was the American proposition that Msgr. Joseph C. Fenton and his one-time boss Rev. Francis J. Connell so strenuously opposed at the false Vatican 2 council. Murray’s proposition was best summarized in a 1999 Crisis magazine article: “Murray claimed that America was a pluralistic society divided into four disparate camps: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and secularist [as also described in Protestant, Catholic, Jew by the Jewish theologian Will Herberg in 1955]. For all Americans, the First Amendment’s clauses amounted to “articles of peace” that enabled them all to coexist. Murray wanted more than mere coexistence, though. He hoped that Americans would rediscover the natural law and use it.” This in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching. As Fr. Francis Connell insisted, the Church must preach Christ’s message to all nations, America included, and civil authorities must recognize Christ as their true King.

Murray was censured by the Holy Office in July 1955, but the fact was not widely broadcast. As a  2008 article published by the liberal Catholic World later revealed : “[T]he Holy Office was preparing an official condemnation… of Jacques Maritain and another architect of the Council, John Courtney Murray, also others who played a role in… the Declaration on Religious Liberty…… only the death of Pope Pius XII on October 8, 1958… prevented this from happening.”(Catholic World, “Censuring of John Courtney Murray Part Two,” by Robert Nugent; March/April 2008) “…In the spring of 1963, during a break in the Council, Murray was still persona non grata in some quarters. Murray, along with Godfrey Diekmann, Gustave Weigel and Hans Kung, was barred from speaking at the Catholic University of America at the urging of the Apostolic Delegate to the U. S. (1958-1967) Egidio Vagnozzi. Finally, on April 4, 1963, at the insistence of Cardinal Francis Spellman, Murray received his official invitation to attend the Council as a peritus and later served as the chair of the commission drafting the document on religious liberty.”

That document on human liberty, Dignitatis humanae, states: “The declaration of this Vatican Council on the right of man to religious freedom has its foundation in the dignity of the person, whose exigencies have come to be fully known to human reason through centuries of experience… It follows that a wrong is done when government imposes upon its people, by force or fear or other means, the profession or repudiation of any religion, or when it hinders men from joining or leaving a religious community. All the more is it a violation of the will of God and of the sacred rights of the person and the family of nations when force is brought to bear in any way in order to destroy or repress religion, either in the whole of mankind or in a particular country or in a definite community.” In other words, no one would be able to identify anyone as a heretic in a Catholic country and Church authorities would not be able to discipline him, nor enjoin the civil arm to arrest them and prevent error from being taught to the faithful.

Given the above, a Martin Luther would be allowed free rein even in a Catholic state, and no one could prevent him from ensnaring Catholics. The democratic notion that: “religious freedom has already been declared to be a civil right in most constitutions, and it is solemnly recognized in international documents” supersedes the teaching of the Church and places Catholics under the civil rule of democracy worldwide. Yes, centuries of experience that have witnessed the fatal promotion of democracy as the only government compatible with free exercise of religion — free meaning the RIGHT to choose to believe and promote error. This despite all the papal condemnations of errors arising from democracy. And to call a council in the face of the ONLY Vatican Council, and despite the refusal of previous popes to do so, was sheer madness. Below find a summary of thinking that guided both Pope Pius XI and Pius XII NOT to call such a council, taken from the work of Joseph A. Komonchak, co-author of the work, The History of Vatican II.

The dangers of an ecumenical council

[Joseph de Maistre, in his work The Pope wrote]: “’I never saw a council assembled without danger and inconvenience…. To speak truly, I must say that I avoid, as much as I can, assemblies of priests and bishops; I never saw so much as one concluded in a happy and agreeable manner, and which did not tend rather to increase evils than to remove them’ (St. Gregory Nazienzen)… The more enlightened the world becomes, the less will a general council be thought of. There have just been twenty-one the whole time since the origin of Christianity, which would give about one general council to each period of eighty years; but we see that for two centuries and a half religion has done very well without them; and I do not believe that any one thinks of them, notwithstanding the extraordinary wants of the Church, for which the Pope will provide much better than a general council, if men only understand how to make use of his power. The world is become too great for general councils, which seem only to have been intended for the youth of Christianity…” (Caprile’s Il Concilio Vaticano II, V [Rome: Ed. “La Civiltà Cattolica,” 1969], 681-701), cited from the latter, 692).

Earlier Caprile had summarized Billot’s view: “Providence itself, in his opinion, took it upon itself to close the Vatican Council by means of a series of well-known events. It thus appears to have wanted to make us see that, with the definition of pontifical infallibility, the age of Councils is terminated, since they are ‘so expensive, so inconvenient, so full of difficulties and dangers of every sort… [Cardinal Billot said in full]: “Finally, here is the most serious reason, the one which would seem to me absolutely to militate for a negative reply. Resuming the Council is desired by the worst enemies of the Church, the modernists, who are already getting ready — as quite certain indications reveal — to profit from the estates general of the Church in order to make revolution, a new 1789, the object of their dreams and hopes.

“They will not succeed, of course, but we would see again those very sad days of the end of the pontificate of Leo XIII and of the beginning of that of Pius X; we would see things even worse, and it would annihilate the happy fruits of the Encyclical Pascendi which silenced them all.” Billot was also especially fearful that “…the proportion, considerable both in numbers and in means of action, of the Irish-American element in Council, would introduce procedures of discussion and propaganda more in accord with democratic usage than with ecclesiastical traditions.” Cardinal Bonzano was concerned about “the danger that a certain number of bishops, especially foreigners, would try to emphasize their own rights, in opposition to the prerogatives of the primacy of the Supreme Pontiff, under the pretext that Rome centralizes too much” (Caprile, V, 688). ‘” Komonchak observes:

“Councils are no longer necessary, are too expensive, and too full of difficulties and dangers, that there were no matters which either had not already been dealt with by the popes or could not be dealt with by them in the future, and that the unsettled state of the Roman Question made it unwise to hold a Council, which would demonstrate the ability of the pope to carry out his task even without the temporal power. Other reasons advanced against the idea of the Council included the political and psychological conditions of the world (particularly nationalism among the hierarchies), certain dangerous tendencies among the bishops and clergy (modernism, democracy, episcopalism [better understood as Gallicanism]), a lack of theological preparation and skills, the technical and financial difficulties, and the fear of how the press would exploit a Council.”

“Information about the idea of an ecumenical council during the reign of Pope Pius XII was revealed late in 1959 by Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini. On October 28, 1959, in a lecture on the first year of Pope John’s pontificate, Ruffini wrote: ‘Twenty years ago, at the feet of Pius XII, I, the least of all priests, dared to call for an Ecumenical Council. It seemed to me to be urgently required by the circumstances, and that there was as much material to treat as the Council of Trent had had. The venerable Pontiff did not reject the proposal and took note of it, as he used to do on important matters. I know that he later spoke about it with other prelates, but Divine Providence reserved to his successor the difficult and arduous enterprise.’”

But Pope Pius XII did at least investigate the possibility of calling a council. “In March 1948, Monsignor Alfredo Ottaviani, Assessor of the Holy Office, discussed the subject with Pius XII, urging the need to clarify and define certain doctrinal points… The Pope stated some of the difficulties about calling a Council, but authorized some initial preparatory work, to be carried out secretly and within the Holy Office… Two weeks later, on March 15, 1948, Ottaviani presided over a meeting of six consultors and informed them of the pope’s charge. (Ibid. Komonchak and end of his quotes. See https://jakomonchak.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pius-xi-pius-xii-on-a-council.pdf).

After calling for the preparatory work and pursuing the possibility, however, the council idea was abandoned. Pope Pius XII’s health was given as the reason, the pope being too compromised by his illness to withstand all the necessary preparatory work and other organizational details that would accompany such an effort. And perhaps the pope, like his predecessor, realized in the end — particularly after his vision of Christ and miraculous recovery from his poison-induced illness — that a council would not be the solution, but a great danger. In both sets of the preparatory council documents from Popes Pius XI and XII listed by Komonchak, there is not one mention of the liturgy or the Mass as a possible focal point; almost the entire focus was on doctrinal matters and a few social issues. This tells us what we need to know: first vacate the papacy, then destroy the Mass. We end with this warning from 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 Her 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.”

Conclusion

It must be remembered that throughout the Church’s history, the popes have, for better or for worse, relied upon the protection of various heads of state when outside forces threatened to disturb the Church’s autonomy. This happened particularly in the early days of the Church when the emperors assisted in selecting the pope and during the Avignon exile in France. Gradually all lay intervention was excluded. But throughout papal history, various countries and factions lent aid to the papacy and helped protect the pope. Pope Pius XII may have believed that the U.S. was a trustworthy ally at first, but later realized his mistake. He was convinced that the threat of atheistic Communism was of paramount importance and thought that American officials were fighting to curb this menace. Unfortunately he underestimated the extent of Masonic influence in this country and the vast inroads it had made into government. He also was the victim of an unparalleled disinformation campaign carried out by a coterie of Jesuit infiltrators who were advising him, something Msgr. Fenton refers to in his diaries.

The false Vatican 2 council was everything and much more than Pius XI and Pius XII had feared or Card. Billot had predicted. Modernism and democracy were canonized. The secret societies ruled those passing as popes, who were among their own members. The true Church was replaced by the Church of Antichrist. And the “innocent cardinals” made it all possible. In our previous blog it was noted that Ruffini, Ottaviani and certain “other cardinals” were the very ones who, once it appeared Roncalli would be elected, urged him to call a council (Bro. Michael of the Trinity, The Whole Truth About Fatima; Peter Hebblethwaite. See his work at: https://www.catechistcafe.com/books/john-xxiii-pope-of-the-century-by-peter-hebblethwaite-part-4). Given what Komonchak says above about the eagerness of Ottaviani and Ruffini to hold such a council, their visit to Roncalli prior to his election, based on Ottaviani’s own account, is credible. And we will go a little further here.

It seems to us that this established the necessary nexus that made Roncalli’s election possible. For according to the link above, Ruffini and Ottaviani visited Roncalli the day before his election to secure a promise the council would indeed be called. And surely that request for such a favor was accompanied by an offer to cast their votes for Roncalli; that is simply how things are usually done. And we are to believe these two so-called conservative cardinals were innocent?! We know Roncalli himself was a Mason, although this was learned only after his death. We also know Lienart was a Freemason and that Spellman was compromised. Ottaviani and Ruffini are now thrown into this mix. How many others were there who should never have been admitted to the Conclave?

The entire Wemhoff book, all 911 pages of it, is documented proof of what happened to the Catholic Church, when and how it happened and the absolutely incredible lengths those implementing its destruction were willing to go to in order to accomplish it. The intricate web of complicity Wemhoff reveals leaves no doubt that American Catholics especially were deliberately brainwashed and conditioned to believe what Vatican 2 later taught long before Pope Pius XII died. Their natural quietistic apathy and neglect to learn the faith on an adult level, their desire to be served rather than dedicate themselves to the service of God, their love of conformity was glaringly obvious and has been documented in such works as The Mystery of Iniquity by Rev. Paul Furfey and Peter Michaels’ This Perverse Generation, among other works.

As difficult as it may be to admit it, our parents and grandparents were largely oblivious to what was going on in the Church and chose to simply follow their pastors blindly. They had come to take the Church for granted. The few who did realize something was wrong were either ridiculed or ignored. Many of them gave up. The pastors being struck the flock was scattered, just as Our Lord predicted. We now must struggle each day to simply keep what we know of the faith alive, study to learn it completely to the best of our ability, sacrifice ourselves for our loved ones and the poor souls, ignore the chaos that surrounds us and pray for deliverance. Those coming from the outside to create that chaos must be excluded from our purview as much as possible, for involving us in their ridiculous reassessments of the situation only obscure the truth and disturb our hard-won peace. “…Rejoice, be perfect, take exhortation, be of one mind, have peace; and the God of peace and of love shall be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11).

Preparation for Lent: Learning to develop spiritual survival skills

by T. Stanfill Benns | Feb 18, 2023 | New Blog

+ St. Simeon, Bishop and Martyr +

As we prepare for the Lenten season, may those honoring Our Lady daily increase their devotion to her, Mother of Sorrows, whose Divine Son in the Blessed Trinity is the source of all truth. Another article has been completed further exposing the fallacies promoted by Traditionalists to shore up their false claims to validity and liceity. This piece addresses the longstanding work of Anthony Cekada, Canon Law and Common Sense, which can still be found circulating on the Internet. It explains how Traditionalists dismissed Canon Law as solely the product of  human law to justify their use of epikeia and necessity in order to promote their agenda. You may read it here.

Peering into the future

The train carrying the Novus Ordo and various Traditionalist sects is slowly leaving the station, bound for who knows where. Same train, different cars. Whether Rome anathematizes the “Latin Tridentine Mass” (so many believe it is identical to the John 23 Missal, which tells us how much they know about their faith) is scarcely the issue. It is only thesymbol of a romanticized Church that once existed long ago. The true Mass was the fulfillment of Christ’s request to commemorate His Passion and death on the Cross, the actual re-enactment of that Holy Sacrifice. But it could onlyBE that actual re-enactment if offered by valid and licit priests and bishops in communion with a canonically elected Roman Pontiff, and that ended with the death of Pope Pius XII. For as Henry Cardinal Manning taught in his The Vatican Decrees and Their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: “The doctrine of the Church does not determine the doctrine of the Primacy, but the doctrine of the Primacy does precisely determine the doctrine of the Church.”

The Traditionalist train is leaving the station because they have never possessed the true faith to begin with, and now it is becoming increasingly clear. They have embraced political ideologies and heretical propositions condemned by the Church. They have made a travesty of Catholicism because they have touted the Mass, rather than the papacy, as the source of unity and belief. And if it is taken from them, they lose nothing, because they never had it in the first place. But many of them could easily lose their way, because this is the sole focus of their identity as Catholics. It is the one thing separating them from Novus Ordo believers and other non-Catholics, (although some would say that they could never accept Francis as a true pope, and of course this is correct). Yet they fail to even consider, far less understand, that this all began with John 23^rd, not Francis. And we have the material-formal proponents to thank for that. So where will they go and what will they do once their make-believe mass disappears?

I think we all know a time is soon coming when we will either be persecuted for our faith or lose our lives defending it. Or we will die in one of the many staged events we see playing out across this country today, events that will only become more prevalent and more deadly with the passage of time. It seems likely that we may see an actual Communist takeover, and/or experience a financial disaster that will change forever the way we have lived for over a century. Traditionalist preppers think they are ready for this, but I have news for them. They may have gathered together many of the necessities for physical survival but they know little of what it will take to survive spiritually. That requires a very disciplined approach, and years of training. It involves trial and error, swift repentance, solitude, study, prayer and sacrifice — a separation from everything worldly and an entering into self, to purge and learn to be vigilant.

The great betrayal

This has been stated many times before, but it needs to be emphasized here: Traditionalist pseudo-clergy have betrayed their people. They kept them in diapers and made sure they had their pacifiers in place when they needed to be training the spiritual equivalent of Green Berets and Navy Seals. They told them fairy tales instead of delivering hard truths and gave them stones for bread. They kept them immersed in a fantasy world and never attempted to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. They failed to teach them how to develop the interior life because of course they could not, having never developed it themselves. And yet the means to do this were out there, had been out there for many years. The work that needed to be done was made clear even before Vatican 2, but none of the clergy possessed the humility, the courage — the unfailing faith — to implement it.

In a previous blog we quoted Solange Hertz, writing for The Wanderer in the 1980s, who penned the following: “Fr. François Dufay, who witnessed the battle at close quarters in China [in the 1940s], says to lose no time in preparing the Church of the Catacombs: “Take as principle that normal exterior life – liturgy, teaching, apostolate – should continue as far as possible [but only when certainly valid clergy are available — Ed.]. But, at the same time, prepare Christians to preserve their essential religious life in the absence of priests, worship and Sacraments… Prepare memory aids on the dogmas of necessary means, marriage without clergy, perfect contrition, assistance to the dying, Baptism, child education, etc., and place these leaflets in safe places…”

“It would be good if trustworthy priests of high caliber were to set themselves to living the life of the people. They need profound dogmatic and spiritual formation, especially on the theology of the Church, the meaning and value of persecution and suffering, and should be steeped in the remembrance of the great saints and martyrs of the past. Thus armed, the Christian faith will use its bad times for growth in charity,” making the most of the service Communism will render it by purifying and detaching it from all that is not God here below. And again, “Actually it’s solitaries who must be found and trained, in other words, Christians capable of living their faith all alone, amid the strongest pressures, the most painful happenings and the most forbidding of deserts.”

And no one has trained them.

Hirelings, not pastors

This is what I would love to be able to earnestly impress on those who may soon be left without any spiritual compass, when the going gets tough: If these men truly loved the faith; if they had been validly ordained priests, they would never have lived this charade and involved those emotionally attached to the Mass and other religious externals to be used as props in their infernal plots. “By their fruits you shall know them,” our Lord said, and He warned us to be wary of the hirelings and false christs. Isn’t it clear that no one has nourished the flock, that there are no fruits? Pope St. Pius X taught that the primary duty of bishops and priests before conveying the sacraments was first to teach, just as our Lord instructed: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; [then] baptizing them…” (Matt. 28: 19-20). In Acerbo nimis, Pope St. Pius X wrote:

“’I will give you,’ God promises by the mouth of the Prophet Jeremias, ‘pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine’ (a). And so the Apostle said: ‘Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel’ (b), indicating thus that THE FIRST OFFICE of those who are set up in any way for the government of the Church is to instruct the faithful in sacred doctrine.” Please tell me, how can any of these men pretend to teach the doctrines of Christ when they refuse to acknowledge His Vicars?  Pietro Parente, Antonio Piolanti, and Salvatore Garofalo write in their Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology (May 1, 1951, p. 170-171):

“According to Catholic doctrine therefore, Holy Scripture and Tradition are only the remote rule of faith, while the proximate rule is the living magisterium of the Church, which resides in the Roman Pontiff and in the bishops, inasmuch as they are subject to and united with him. The Vatican Council (sess. 4, c. 4, DB, 1832) has sealed this truth by defining that the primacy of Peter and his successors is included in the supreme power of teaching, which is veritatis et fidei numquam deficientis charisma (“the chrism of never-failing truth and faith”).”  

In other words, those who pass themselves off as pastors and teachers are not and cannot be such if not in communion with and subject to the pope. Because we have no pope today and no hope of electing one, anyone attempting to present sacred doctrine for belief must at least be united to the Roman Pontiffs by desire and willing to strictly obey all the Continual Magisterium ever taught. Catechetical centers, not Mass centers, is what should have been established. Much could have been accomplished if those of good will had not committed schism by jpoining the Traditionalist movement. But Traditionalist pseudo-bishops did not possess the necessary office, hence jurisdiction, to ever become teachers. They were B-movie actors at best; amateur philosophers, perhaps, but they never were and never could be teachers commissioned by Christ as successors to the Apostles; the “pastors according to my own heart” spoken of by the prophet Jeremias.

Liturgy junkies and neo-Modernists

Some people say they get tired of the Traditionalist clergy beat-up. Well I am tired too; tired of sad, discouraged and frustrated Catholics trying to save their souls, going from group to group, being battered with political sermons and bored with talk of the bishop’s cats, weathering scandal after scandal, but never receiving the soul-saving doctrinal food they deserve. Or even worse, they hear sermons and instructions that contain false doctrine; or pieces of the truth but not the integral truth necessary to increase faith; or in some cases the standard sermon one would have heard pre-1959, when so much more than the average doctrinal fare is required today. Catholics deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and that comes only from God’s mouth, through His Son, to Christ’s Vicars enlightened by the Holy Ghost and bishops commissioned by Him. If bishops had fulfilled their teaching duties instead of obsessing over liturgical renewal, bishops who later brought us Vatican 2, we wouldn’t be here today.

Traditionalists are no less liturgy junkies than their Novus Ordo counterparts; they simply chose a different “liturgy.” Neither the John 23 “mass” or a mass simulated by those never ordained is any more “worship” than the Novus Ordo Missae purports to be. In all cases it is a matter of pandering to the emotions and the senses.; entertainers, actors parodying the mass in Latin and officiating at “sacraments” with all due pomp and splendor. This to produce optical wonders and effect magical graces. Pope St. Pius X, in his encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, notes how Modernistsuse sentiment and emotion to “hijack the intelligence.” What he says about this is very revealing, for he explains that faith is to be reduced to a “religious sentiment” and dogmatic formulas “sanctioned by the heart.” Sacraments are only “symbols and signs, although not devoid of a certain efficacy… [They are] the result of a double need, for everything in their system is to be explained by,” INNER IMPULSES OR NECESSITIES.”  And after all, isn’t necessity one of the main tenets of Traditionalism?

This sainted pope continues: “Since God is the object of religion, we must conclude that faith, which is the basis and the foundation of all religion, consists in a sentiment which originates from a need of the divine. This need of the divine replaces intellectual knowledge of God with a “a certain special sentiment” (which the pope identifies as Fideism, condemned by the Church). Modernism finds in this sentiment not faith only “but with faith, as they understand it, revelation… This makes God both the object and the cause of faith, this revelation being the same time of God and from God; that is God is both revealer and revealed.” And according to Pope Pius X, this leads to indifferentism and naturalism — “…It is  religious consciousness given as the universal rule, to be put on an equal footing with revelation. And all things must be made subject, even the supreme authority of the Church,” to this pernicious Modernist doctrine. (Taken from Rev. J.B Lemius, A Catechsim of Modernism).

Here we see the beloved symbolism, the emotional need, the “necessity” which bypasses the intelligence to create a religion of the emotions. And we ought to begin to see, then, who was behind the engineering of this false Traditionalist church. Pope St. Pius X explains the dual personality of a Modernist, describing such a heretic as “…proclaiming publicly his profound respect for authority, while continuing to follow his own bent.” This is how Traditionalists dismiss the papacy and is followed by a contempt for dogma and discipline, which the pope also notes. St. Pius X further condemns Modernists for their contempt for the scholastic method of philosophy and theology, the authority of the ecumenical councils and the Fathers, and the authority of the Supreme Magisterium itself. He concludes: “They propose to remove the ecclesiastical magisterium itself by sacrilegiously falsifying its origin, character and rights and by freely repeating the calumnies of its adversaries.” What better description of what has happened to the Church without her Supreme Head could one possibly hope for?

We have fully documented and repeatedly demonstrated on this site Traditionalists’ contempt for the scholastic method, the ecumenical councils, especially Trent and the Vatican Council, their revival of the Gallicanist heresy, their rejection of Canon Law and all ecclesiastical discipline, and finally their rejection of the papacy itself by pretending bishops alone can rule the Church. Ah yes, they profess to respect and even quote papal documents when it suits them, all the while “continuing to follow [their] own bent.” But they do not obey them, and they refuse to teach their followers the integral truths they contain. So shall we simply call them neo-Modernists?

When reality sets in

What happens then when reality sets in, and what today IS that reality? Some would say that Traditionalist followers had to be coddled and shielded from the unvarnished truth; that many would have either lost their faith or given way to despair. But that remains to be seen. Without the right support and guidance, some probably would have suffered in this way; but with the truth comes peace, and power. Truth alone, Scripture tells us, will set us free.  For “Whoever sincerely seeks the truth is already by that fact armed with a terrible force.” (Theodor Dostoyevsky). Traditionalists could have offered that support, been those guides, warned of the dangers awaiting us. Because it is quite clear now, although it wasn’t in the beginning, that wherever we are in time, whatever lies ahead, only a miracle, one we don’t deserve, will save us from utter disaster.

And we needed to know, to prepare. Because it is quite possible we could see the Second Coming, and who is really spiritually capable of even comprehending this? What situations might we face, how have Catholics coped in the past, what moral teachings bind us in the event of persecution, even torture, what devotions are most profitable, what spiritual helps most beneficial and how are we to keep oil for our lamps — that we not fall asleep before the Bridegroom cometh, but continue to watch?

For those just now realizing the deceits of Traditionalism, the safest refuge is Our Lady of Sorrows, mercifully waiting to hide in her garments those who are distressed and confused, unable to sufficiently prepare themselves spiritually. We are reliving Christ’s Passion on earth, and She alone best understands our sufferings. As Lent approaches, let us ponder these things, and remember how even the Apostles did not expect Christ’s death on the Cross. Let us gather, not scatter, as they did that night in Gesthemane.