by T. Stanfill Benns | Jul 12, 2021 | New Blog
+St. John Gaulbert +
Many have asked if it is possible that we are spending our Purgatory here on earth, given the dire state of affairs we find ourselves in and the absence of the visible Church. St. Thomas Aquinas seems to indicate this might be possible, at least according to St. Vincent Ferrar. But when this was mentioned in a previous blog, some objected that the quote was not convincing and perhaps not even authentic, although it came from a reliable source and is supported by the writings of St. Thomas in his Summa and other works. Some readers fear that the belief we are spending our Purgatory time here will lead to laxity, so advise that such matters are better left alone. That might be the case if so many were not in near despair that they will save their souls. Hope is a precious commodity, and where it can be offered it seems only right and just that it be made available to those struggling to remain Catholic today.
But St. Thomas is not the only one who has opined on the topic of earthly Purgatory, although he is the only one who mentions it in relation to the end times. To refresh everyone’s memory about what he said, we again quote St. Vincent Ferrar who is talking about the fires of the final consummation. “Saint Thomas Aquinas speaks beautifully of this when he says that this last fire, inasmuch as it precedes the Judgment, will act as an instrument of God’s justice. It will also act like natural fire, inasmuch as, in its natural power, it will burn both wicked and good and reduce every human body to ashes. Inasmuch as it acts as an instrument of God’s justice, it will act in different ways with regard to different people. For the wicked will suffer intensely through the action of the fire, but the good in whom nothing is found which must be purged away will feel no pain from the fire, just as the three children felt nothing in the fiery furnace, although the bodies of these others will not be preserved as were those of the three children. And this will come to pass by the divine power, that without pain or suffering their bodies will be resolved into ashes.
“But the good in whom there is some stain to be purged away will feel the pain of this fire, more or less according to the merits of each. But they will be swiftly purged for three reasons. The first reason is that in them little evil is found, for they have been already in great measure purged by the preceding tribulations and persecutions. The second is that the living will voluntarily endure the pain; and suffering willingly endured in this life remits much more quickly than suffering inflicted after death. This is seen in the case of the martyrs, for if, when they came to die, anything worthy of purgation was found, it was cut away by the pruning knife of their sufferings. And the sufferings of the martyrs were short in comparison with the pains of purgatory. The third reason is that the heat of the fire gains in intensity what it loses through the shortness of the time. But in so far as the fire is active after the judgment its power only extends over the damned, since all the bodies of the just will be impassible” (Angel of the Judgment: A Life of Vincent Ferrer, by S.M.C., Ave Maria Press. Chapter 11, pgs. 102-117)
This may be true of those few left on earth when Christ comes a second time, but there are other means of avoiding Purgatory. These are outlined in a little booklet written by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, How to Avoid Purgatory. He gives a simple method for doing so including the necessity, of course, of avoiding mortal sin and deliberate venial sin (performing an act or entertaining thoughts we know are sinful, although not mortally so); praying to always do God’s Holy Will; mortifying ourselves in small matters and undergoing trials sent with patience and resignation; asking God directly for deliverance from Purgatory every day; resigning ourselves to whatever death God may send us and praying for a holy and happy death; bearing our pains in union with the Passion of Christ; hearing Mass and frequenting the Sacraments (St. John’s Mass and our Act of Contrition, Spiritual Communion) and devotion to the Poor Souls in Purgatory. These means are repeated in the work below but are added to and amplified in a remarkable way that should bring solace to all those who are reading this post.
Perfect Contrition
In a little book entitled Purgatory Surveyed, a French Jesuit priest, Fr. Etienne Binet, writing in the 1600s, explains how those on earth might well be exempted from the fires of Purgatory through certain practices and by the circumstances in which they live. It gives greater force to the argument that the majority of Catholics are saved and can offer hope to many, particularly those in their senior years and soon facing eternity, who feel especially bereft of any consolation in these times. The first of those conditions Fr. Binet lists as applying to us today is to die with “tears in our eyes,” with a contrition so perfect that it washes away every trace of sin, although Fr. Binet admits this is a rare exception, but in these times the Act of Contrition is the only means available to us. For this reason it is of supreme importance that all have a complete understanding of how to attain it. The best work on how to achieve Perfect Contrition can be found on the Internet at https://s3.amazonaws.com/ANF/2011/PDFs/FNL112-Booklet+Final+Layout.pdf
Devotion to the Blessed Mother
Another is a tender devotion to the Blessed Mother, and it is hard to imagine a stay-at-home Catholic that is not so devoted. But it must be a constant and special devotion, offering her prayers, giving alms in her name, constructing a chapel for her, (daily reciting) and promoting devotion to her Rosary, or some other special service. It should be noted here that those who devote themselves to Our Lady of Sorrows, according to a revelation given to St. Bridget of Sweden, are promised peace in their families, consolations in their daily pains and work, answers to all prayers not opposed to the Divine Will, defense when engaging in spiritual battles throughout their lives, and finally, “I will visibly help them at the moment of their death — they will see the face of their Mother. I have obtained this grace from my Divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy” (St. Bridget). The author of the book Devotion to the Sorrowful Mother (1958) also relates that according to an account found among the acts presented for the beatification of St. Vincent Palloti, “…the evil spirit once declared by the mouth of a possessed person that no one who had practiced devotion to Mary Sorrowful had yet been lost, and that the evil spirit had been commanded by God not to assail with temptations in the hour of death those who had faithfully practiced this devotion.”
A humble patience
Then there is the following, regarding those who suffer a lifetime of miseries on earth with a humble patience: “If God meant to punish His servants in Purgatory in this life, He would not punish them here in a Purgatory of miseries. His goodness is not wont to punish the same fault twice… God, to save His friends from the horrible torments of Purgatory fire, sends them a good store of crosses and afflictions in this world which are nothing so painful; and yet are highly meritorious in His sight, whereas the other are but pure sufferings. Hear St. Chrysostom: ‘The tongue that praises God in the midst of afflictions is not inferior to the tongues of martyrs, and likely they may have both the same reward. If a man praise God and give Him thanks in his sufferings, it is reputed as a kind of martyrdom; and would you have a martyr go to Purgatory…?’ The works of patience, according to St. James are perfect.” Our Lord tells us in Apoc. 3: 19-21: “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore and do penance. Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
As Rev. Henry James Coleridge, S.J. wrote in his Prisoners of the King (1889): “The Prophet Malachias (Malachias 3:17) speaks of those who remain faithful to God in the midst of generations who turn from Him, and his words may apply to the souls of which we speak: “A book of remembrance was written before Him for them that fear the Lord, and think upon His Name. And they shall be My special possession, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do judgment.” We also are reminded of the verses found in Apoc. 14: 12-13: “Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Write: Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them.”
What greater trial could we have endured on this earth than the loss of the Holy Sacrifice, the Sacraments and the papacy? All else pales in comparison. We lost all opportunity to educate our children in Catholic schools, to be cared for in Catholic hospitals and other institutions, to attend retreats, to make Eucharistic holy hours, to have Masses said for our dearly departed, to participate in processions, to receive spiritual direction and to benefit from the sacramentals — and that is the short list. According to Fr. Binet it would seem contrary to God’s infinite mercy to deprive us of worshipping Him at the heavenly altar who have so often longed to worship him in Catholic churches here on earth, taken from us by the usurpers in Rome. For as Fr. Binet so aptly explains, God will not punish us twice for our faults, especially when what has happened was His express will, in order that the Scriptures be fulfilled. If we accept all of this willingly and with perfect resignation, it cannot but count for exactly such a humble patience.
Then there is also the keen sufferings of those who for many years frequented various Traditional groups, thinking they would eventually find a truly Catholic community. Instead many encountered grave disillusionment, families were split apart, dissensions among the community and its leaders were rife, abuse of various kinds took place and families commonly experienced financial reversals, even bankruptcy. And this only accounts for temporal losses. Those realizing their mistake were shamed and greatly saddened by the sacrileges committed when all along they believed they were receiving true Sacraments. The betrayal by those they believed to be valid and licit Catholic clergy was galling, particularly when it was clear that all the confessions they had made were to a layperson who could not even claim the seal of the confessional. And finally the acceptance of the fact that they would need to keep their faith in the privacy of their homes and were not even able to socialize with other Catholics hit many the hardest. All this is true deprivation, and it is hard to believe that having lacked Catholic friends and relatives on earth, they would not be able to find them in Heaven.
And this is not even taking into consideration what we have already endured and may yet be facing on the civil scale!
Devotion to the Poor Souls and the dying
Those interested in the subject know that wearing their scapular and devotion to the Poor Souls are two means that can eliminate or at least shorten their time in Purgatory. Numerous saintly testimonials exist to verify this. But this is true only if those wearing the scapular and praying for the Poor Souls are in a state of grace in the first place and able to avail themselves of these promises. There are many treatises and books on the Internet available on Purgatory. (One such site is http://www.traditionalcatholic.co/free-catholicbooks/) The work most recommended or made available by Traditionalists for many years, by a Fr. Schouppe, is the most rigorous, and gives little hope of escaping such punishment. Other works are more consoling, without softening the doctrine of Purgatory itself in any way. As Fr. Binet notes and we have mentioned in a previous blog, the saints, including St. Francis de Sales and St. Thomas Aquinas, teach that charity to the suffering souls is superior to any charity to the souls here on earth, for the Poor Souls have no one else to help them. If we may be so bold to say it, it also seems that prayers for the dying might also rank among Fr. Binet’s exemptions, since they are the neediest next to the Poor Souls. A most excellent book on this topic, Devotion to the Dying by Mother Mary Potter, can be found at http://www.catholictradition.org/Classics/holy-souls.htm (This is given only as a reference; no endorsement whatsoever is given to the site. This book also can be purchased from various vendors.)
Frequent confession and Spiritual Communion
Yet another purgatorial exemption is to communicate well and often, also mentioned by Fr. O’Sullivan. While Catholics cannot receive Our Lord physically in Holy Communion, there is reason to believe that in being deprived of the Eucharist yet supplying for it by desire, there is possibly greater merit than receiving it from the hands of a Catholic priest. (See the heading on Spiritual Communion below.) As Rev. Coleridge, S.J. wrote in his previously mentioned work, “Again, we may remember that we have the power of renewing in our own hearts as often as we like the affections and holy acts which prepare for, or accompany, or follow, the actual reception of Communion, making at any time of the day or night, and many times in each, those spiritual communions of which the Saints have been so fond. It cannot be doubted that our Lord, on His part, is always ready to crown these tender and secret acts of love with great graces, renewing and confirming in us the effects of His own Sacramental Presence.” We may communicate only once a day in actually receiving the Body of our Lord, but many times when receiving Him spiritually. And this is productive of “great graces.”! Why do those who condemn these observances not educate themselves?!
Faithful and exact obedience
A final exemption of great note listed by Fr. Binet is that of “a faithful and exact obedience” — to God first, to superiors, the laws and teachings of the Church and even the civil law. Here he gives examples of obedience to God that seemed to endanger the lives of prophets such as Elias in his fiery chariot, Moses in the bottom of the Red Sea and Daniel in the lion’s den. Then there is also Jonas in the belly of the whale, Isaac, ready to be sacrificed by his father Abraham and Susanna, waiting to be stoned. Binet writes, “It is a kind of martyrdom to die for obedience, and without question, Purgatory was not made for martyrs.” He adds that St. Thomas teaches all heroic virtues place the soul in a pure and perfect state, but that “man can give God nothing that is of more value in this miserable life than to consecrate his will and submit it not only to Him but for love of Him.” Gerard, as he lay dying in St. Bernard’s arms, cried out: “I have been carried before God’s high tribunal and have seen the power of obedience; nobody shall ever perish who is truly obedient…” Binet adds: “A soul once purged in the fire of obedience hath no need of being purged again in the fire of Purgatory.” He then says an amazing thing. He tells us that God will refuse nothing to an obedient soul —that if she asks Him to be freed from Purgatory, He will not deny her.
Surely those who have obeyed God’s laws by departing from Traditionalism or the Novus Ordo to avoid communicatio in sacris can hope to at least lay claim to some measure of obedience. And perhaps it would be possible to also cite several of these other precious exemptions above for ourselves, at least in part. Others mentioned by Fr. Binet include angelical purity, a profound humility, to die as a religious, to serve the infected, and apostolic preaching. Those who have preserved virginity or been faithful to their marriage vows; those who at least try to humble themselves, those who defend the faith by word and/or example, who care for those with the Corona virus or other contagious diseases, those who wish to live the lives of religious although they cannot — isn’t all of this worthy at least of partial fulfillment of these exemptions? Both Fr. Binet and the Jesuit priest who translated his work, Fr. Richard Thimelby, lived during the precarious days of the Reformation. Fr. Thimelby is said in the preface to Binet’s work to have been a man of extraordinary piety by his biographers, and he says in the preface to the work he translated that Fr. Binet wrote may other treatises he only wish could also be translated. Fr. Binet ends his work with the following entreaty to his readers:
“It is in your power to make your way [to Heaven] without passing through Purgatory. Believe me, it is no trifling matter but the most important business we have to do in this world, to purchase Heaven… Learn at least by these discourses to have a tender heart for the Poor Souls and to use your uttermost endeavor to go yourself directly into Heaven out of this wicked world. It is the thing I earnestly beg out of God’s infinite mercy for you, and for myself, at the instance of your good prayers. For though I must acknowledge I deserve nothing more than hell-fire, and have reason to take it for a high favour to be sent into Purgatory, to lie there as many months and years as it shall please God; yet I confess ingenuously I have no great mind to either place, but only to heaven, which I beseech God, by the merits of my dear Saviour, and by the Plenary Indulgence of His most infinite mercy, to grant to us all.”
Given all the above, it would seem impossible for one committed to avoiding hell to ever go there if he or she availed themselves of every possible help listed here by these authors. This in spite of the fact that we lack Mass and Sacraments, although we have their spiritual substitutes. Those preying on souls today have made it seem that it will be difficult to save ourselves without their ministrations, but we have from God’s mouth the promises that a contrite heart He will not despise, and obedience is better than sacrifices. Why would we spurn this precious obedience that assures our salvation to please our fellow men and appear to worship God, when in fact we are worshipping idols? The treasury of the Church is rich with the means to save our souls if we but take the time and effort to discover them and put them into practice. Pray God that we are given the graces to do so!
The following is simply a refresher course from the popular work by Bp. Demaris, who reiterates all that was said previously.
Excerpts from Bp. Demaris
For those committed to avoiding at all costs the sacrilegious and idolatrous services of those who are not true members of Christ’s Mystical body or the hierarchy, there is nothing more consoling than the words of Fr. Demaris, a French bishop writing to his flock during the time of the French Revolution (They have Taken Away My Lord). During that time bishops had sworn allegiance and been installed by the French government, and these men were subsequently condemned by Pope Pius VI as not possessing jurisdiction and therefore incapable of transmitting valid Sacraments.
“The Catholic Church and the whole episcopal body has received and respected this judgment of the Holy See…,” we find in Arturo de Montor’s Lives of the Pope under Pope Pius VII. “The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was condemned by the same dogmatic judgment of Pius VI, as containing errors against the deposit of faith… “The decisions of ancient councils were also appealed to. One of these, held in Benevento in 1087 by (Bl.) Pope Victor III, had decreed as follows: ‘The Sacraments of Penance and Communion are to be received only at the hands of a Catholic priest; if none such is to be found, it is better to remain without communion and to receive it invisibly from Our Lord.’” Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Editor James Hastings and others, Vol. IX, 1917, Charles Scribner and Sons, New York; by Georges Volet). De Montor confirms this by stating that Victor III forbade Catholics to receive penance or the Eucharist “at the hands of heretics or simoniacs.”
In a past blog piece on the Petit Eglise, this entire period of history is examined and shown to be a complete vindication of the stay-at-home position, although none will accept this fact and quibble instead that Pope Pius VI’s Charitas proclaiming the condemnation was not dogmatic. This definitely is not the case and was not the opinion of Cardinal Consalvi, who de Montor quotes as follows: “The Catholic Church and the whole episcopal body has received and respected this judgment of the Holy See… The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was condemned by the same dogmatic judgment of Pius VI, as containing errors against the deposit of faith… His Holiness observes that, as his predecessor found it impossible to yield to the request made… it is equally impossible for him to admit to his communion and invest with canonical constitution the constitutionals, who, contrary to the dogmatic decision contained in said briefs, persist in maintaining the error condemned in them, refuse to acknowledge their illegitimate character, and to adhere and submit to the judgment pronounced by the Holy See.”
We find ourselves today in much the same position as the French Catholics, although our situation is much worse because we have no true pope. (However, the French Catholics faced real persecution and death and we do not, as yet.) Therefore the reassuring words below offered by Fr. Demaris will resonate spiritually with those who have withdrawn from anything smacking of false religion. Furthermore, it should convince Catholics that their determination never to dishonor Christ by committing communicatio in sacris will be abundantly rewarded and will merit them the very graces they are accused of neglecting in absence of the true Mass and valid Sacraments. Who to believe then – Traditionalists or the teaching of Popes Pius VI and VII and a missionary bishop?! The choice seems very simple. And as also shown below, there are other reasons to believe that rather than doing a disservice to religion, and actually sinning by avoiding “Mass and Sacraments,” as many have accused us of doing, we instead are acting meritoriously. In fact it is possible that we may indeed not only be able to snatch our souls from the fires of hell but we may be able even to avoid a lengthy Purgatory, as seen above. This by simply bearing our plight without complaint and offering up our sufferings for our own sins and those of others. This is further confirmed by the consoling words of Bp. Demaris:
General comments
“You are frightened, my children, at what you see: all that you hear is frightening, but be consoled that it is the Will of God being accomplished. Your days are numbered; His Providence watches over us. Cherish those men who appear to you as savages. They are the means which Heaven uses in its plans, and like a tempestuous sea, they will not pass the prescribed line against the countering and menacing waves. The stormy turbulence of revolution that strikes right and left, and the sounds that alarm you are the threats of Herod! Let it not deter you from good works, nor change your trust, nor wither the shower of virtues that tie you to Jesus Christ. He is your model. The threats of Herod do not change the course of His Destiny.
“The disciples of Jesus Christ in their fidelity to God are faithful to their country and full of submission and respect for all lawful authority — firm in their principles with a conscience without reproach — adoring the Will of God, they must not coward-like flee persecution. When one loves the Cross, one is fearless to kiss it and even enjoy death. It is necessary for our intimate union with Jesus Christ. It could happen any instant, but it is not always so meritorious or glorious. If God does not call you to it, you shall be like those illustrious confessors, of whom St. Cyprian said, “That without dying by the executioner, they have gained the merits of martyrdom, because they were prepared for it.”
“This consoling truth can only be appreciated by the righteous, and don’t be surprised if in our own time, we see what St. Cyprian saw in his: that most of the faithful succumbed. To love God and fear Him alone, such is the lot of a small number of the elect. It is this love and this fear that makes martyrs by detaching the Faithful from the world and attaching them to God and His Holy Law. To support this love and this fear, in your hearts, watch and pray.
On the absence of the Eucharist and Confession
“It is by Faith that the Faithful are united. In probing this truth, we find that the absence of the Body does not break this unity, since it does not break the ties of Faith, but rather augments it by depriving it of all feeling… This loss deprives you of Sacraments and spiritual consolation. Your piety takes fright, since it sees itself alone. However, through your desolation, never forget that God is your Father, and if He permits your deprivation of the dispensation of the Mysteries, that doesn’t mean that He shuts off the means of His Graces and Mercies. I’m going to offer them to you as the only sources to which you can possibly go for purification. Read what I write with the same intention as I have in writing. Seek nothing but the truth, and our salvation in self-denial, in our love for God and a submission to His Holy Will… If life’s events change the position of the Faithful, the events change our obligations.
“St. Leo said that love of justice contains in itself all Apostolic Authority, and in that he has expressed the belief of the Church… If confession must precede absolution, your conduct here, precedes the graces of holiness and justice which God gives you and is confession public and continuous. “Confession is necessary,” said St. Augustine, “because it embraces the condemnation of sin.” Here, we condemn it in a manner so public and so solemnly, that it is known by all, and this condemnation, which is why we cannot go to a priest, isn’t it more meritorious than an accusation of private sin made in secret? Our example tells the Faithful that there is more evil than one thinks in doing what is being done to us. We do not confess to a priest, but we confess to the Truth, which is the most noble confession, and the most necessary in these circumstances. We do not confess our sins in secret, we confess the Truth in public.
“The Holy Eucharist had for you many joys and advantages when you were able to participate in this Sacrament of love, but now you are deprived of it for being defenders of truth and justice. Your advantages are the same, for who would have dared approach this fearsome table if Jesus Christ had not given us a precept, and if the Church, which desires that we fortify ourselves with this Bread of Life, had not invited us to eat It by the voice of its ministers, who reclothed us with a nuptial dress. All was obedience, but if we compare obedience by that which we are deprived of with that which led us there, it will be easy to judge the merit. Abraham obeyed in immolating his son, and in not immolating him, but his obedience was greater when he took the sword in his hand than when he returned it to its scabbard.
“We are obedient in going to Communion, but in holding ourselves from the sacrifice we are immolating ourselves. Quenched of the thirst of justice and depriving ourselves of the Blood of the Lamb which alone can slake it, we sacrifice our own life as much as it is in us to do. The sacrifice of Abraham was for an instant, an angel stopped the knife; ours is daily, renewing itself every day, every time that we adore with submission the Hand of God that drives us away from His altars, and this sacrifice is voluntary. It is to be advantageously deprived of the Eucharist, to raise the standard of the Cross for the cause of Christ and the glory of His Church… Let not the love of the Eucharist drive us away from the Cross.
“Observe, my children, that Jesus, after having given His Body, found no difficulty in dying for us. There is the action of a Christian in the persecutions, the Cross follows on from the Eucharist. Let not the love of the Eucharist drive us away from the Cross. It is to arise and make glorious advance in the grace of the Gospel, to go out from the Cenacle, to go to Calvary. Yes, I have no fear in saying it. When the storm of the malice of men roars against truth and justice, it is more advantageous to the Faithful to suffer for Christ than to participate in His Body by Communion. I seem to hear the Savior saying to us: “Do not be afraid to be separated from My table for the confession of My Name: it is a grace I give you, which is very rare. Repair by this humiliating deprivation that glorifies Me, all the Communions which dishonor me.
“Feel this grace. You can do nothing for Me and I put into your hands a means of doing what I have done for you, and to return to Me with magnificence, that which I have given you is the greatest. I have given you My Body, and you give it back to Me, since you are separated from it in My service. You give back to the truth what you have received from My love. I could not have given you anything greater. Your gratitude matches by that, the grace I have given you — the greatness of the gift I made to you. Console yourselves if I do not call upon you to pour out your blood like the martyrs, there is Mine to make up for it. Every time that you are prevented from drinking it, I will regard it the same as if you had spilled yours; and Mine is far more precious.” So that is how we find the Eucharist, even during the deprivation of the Eucharist. From another view, who is able to separate us from Christ and His Church in Communion in approaching its altars by faith in a much more efficacious manner since it is spiritual and further from the sense. It is what I call communicating spiritually in uniting oneself with the Faithful who are able to do it in different places on the earth.”
The cessation of the Holy Sacrifice
(Editor’s note: If we recite the Mass of St. John, or say our Mass prayers in the absence of the True Mass; if we offer our very selves on this altar of sacrifice willingly and in a spirit of resignation to God’s will each day as Pope Pius XII enjoins us in his encyclical Mediator Dei, isn’t the Sacrifice still renewed spiritually in a continual way? In his The Mystery of Faith, Vol. I, Rev. de la Taille writes concerning chapters 5-16 of Apocalypse: “It is declared plainly that in the New Jerusalem which is to succeed the Church Militant, there would be neither Temple nor light, except God and the Lamb…Under these sacrificial symbols and metaphors we have an indication of some kind of heavenly and eternal worship,” consisting of Christ’s perpetual immolation eternally offered before the Throne of God.
St. Gregory Nazianzan wrote: “What then? Will they forbid us their altars? Even so, I know of another altar, and the altars we see now are but a figure of it… All the activities ‘round about that altar are spiritual; one ascends to it by contemplation. At this altar I shall stand, upon it I will make immolations pleasing to God, sacrifices, oblations, holocausts, better than those that are offered now…” (Ibid). St. Thomas writes: “The state of the New Law is intermediate between the state of the Old Law…and the state of glory, in which all truth will be fully and perfectly manifested. Then there will be no more sacraments; but now, inasmuch as we see only through a glass darkly, we have to enter into spiritual things through sensible signs.” So either we are being offered a foretaste of life in our Eternal Home, and the Church will eventually be restored; or we are being prepared for the end of the world proper and the commencement of the life to come in a very intimate way.) We continue now with more from Bishop Demaris:
Extreme Unction
“When you look to the future and see yourself on your deathbed, without the last sacrament, without Extreme Unction and without any help on the part of the ministers of the Lord, you see yourself abandoned in the most sad and terrible way. Console yourselves, my children, in the trust you have in God. This tender Father will pour on you His graces, His blessings and His mercies, in these awful moments that you fear, in more abundance than if you were being assisted by his ministers of whom you have been deprived only because you wouldn’t abandon Him Yourself. The abandonment and forsakenness that we fear for ourselves resembles that of the Savior on the Cross when He said to His Father: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27: 46). Ah! How constructive and consoling are these words! Your pains and abandonment lead you to your glorious destiny in ending your life like Jesus ended His.
“The number of the elect was always small… God only wants those who give themselves to Him entirely. Do not be surprised at the great number who quit. Truth wins, no matter how small the number of those who love and remain attached to Him.” (End of Bishop Demaris quotes)
The saints and Spiritual Communion
St. Alphonsus Liguori writes: “I advise everyone who desires to grow in love for Jesus to communicate in this spiritual manner at least once a day… This devotion is far more salutary than many suppose, while at the same time it is very easy of practice.”
Rev. Mueller relates in his work that St. Catherine of Siena at one point in her life was forbidden to communicate. But her desire to receive Communion was so intense that the smallest particle from the Host, being broken at the altar into three pieces by her confessor, St. Raymund Pennafort, flew from the altar to rest on St. Catherine’s tongue. Our Lord assured St. Raymund that this miracle was a reward for her intense desire to receive Him. A similar miracle occurred in the case of St. Juliana Falconieri, who was unable to communicate because of a gastrointestinal disorder. She begged the priest to lay a veil on her breast, and to place the Blessed Sacrament on it to receive Jesus in a spiritual Communion. This wish was complied with and the Sacred Host disappeared suddenly, to be found no more. Shortly afterwards, St. Juliana died with a smile on her face.
Rev. Mueller tells us: “[Our Lord] displays a similar love toward anyone who has a true desire to be united to Him. As soon as a soul ardently desires to receive Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, He comes to satisfy her desire, not as he did to St. Catherine, under the Sacramental species, but by the way of Spiritual Communion. This devotion is so full of grace and consolation that everyone should know how to practice it… Spiritual Communion, according to St. Thomas, consists in an ardent desire to receive Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament. It is performed by making an act of faith…and then an act of love, and an act of contrition for having offended Him. The soul then invites Him to come and unite Himself to her and make her entirely His own; and lastly she thanks Him as if she had really received Him sacramentally,” [and here Mueller gives the common form of Spiritual Communion].
“Our Lord Himself told St. Jane [Joanna] of the Cross that as often as she communicated spiritually, she received a grace similar to that received from her Sacramental Communions. He also appeared to St. Paula Maresca, foundress of the convent of St. Catherine of Siena at Naples, with two vessels, one of silver and one of gold, and told her that in the golden vessel He preserved her Sacramental Communions and in the silver vessel her spiritual Communions. The Fathers of the Church go so far as to say that one who has a very great desire for Communion, accompanied with great reverence and humility, may sometimes receive even more graces than another who, without these dispositions, should actually receive Our Lord in the Sacramental species; for as the Psalmist says: ‘The Lord hears the desire of the poor and fills their heart with good things.’”
Our Lord told St. Gertrude the Great the following regarding spiritual communion:
On account of an interdict, St. Gertrude the Great was unable to hear Mass. In The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude, issued by the nuns of her Benedictine convent in Germany, it is written: “[The Saint] addressed God thus: How wilt Thou console us most kind Lord, in our present affliction? He replied: “I will increase My joys in you; for as a spouse entertains himself more familiarly with his bride in the retirement of his house than in public, so will I take My pleasure in your retreat. My love will increase in you, even as a fire which is enclosed burns with great force; and the delight which I will find in you, and the love which you will have for Me, will be like a pent-up ocean, which seems to increase by the impediments placed to its progress, until at last it breaks forth impetuously. ‘But how long will this interdict continue?’ inquired the Saint. The Lord replied: ‘The favours which I promise you will last as long as it does.’
The Perfect Act of Contrition
In his Heaven Open to Souls, Rev. Henry Semple, S. J. shows that a perfect Act of Contrition is a common act. Semple quotes St. Alphonsus Liguori, who attributes the opposite belief, that such an act is not common, to the Jansenists. St. Alphonsus teaches that “the opposite teaching…that Contrition with remiss charity does not justify outside the Sacrament [of Penance] is altogether unsupported by any reason, and is false…It is at variance with all theologians and the common sentiments of the Fathers…It most openly contradicts many testimonies of Scripture and Councils and Holy Fathers,” (“Moral Theology,” Book 6, Treatise 4, n. 442 of St. Alphonsus). Rev. Raymond Kearney writes: “The Sacraments are the usual, not the exclusive channels of grace…Penitents frequently make acts of Perfect Contrition…These facts go to show that while the Church does not always supply jurisdiction as lavishly as some writers would desire, she is ever the Pia Mater Ecclesia,” (“Principles of Delegation,” 1929). In the book Semple references below, Rev. von Den Driesch writes:
“… There is no one who, if he sincerely wishes it, cannot, with the grace of God, make an act of Perfect Contrition. Sorrow is in the will, not in the senses or feelings. All that is needed is that we repent because we love God above everything else; that is all. True it is that perfect contrition has its degrees, but it is nonetheless perfect because it does not reach the intensity and the sublimity of the sorrow of St. Peter, of St. Mary Magdalene, or of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. Such a degree is desirable, but it is by no means necessary. A lesser degree, but, provided it proceeds from the love of God, and not through fear of His punishments is quite sufficient…Often, very often, without even thinking of it, you have Perfect Contrition for your sins. For example, when you hear Mass devoutly or make the Stations of the Cross properly; when you reflect before your crucifix or an image of the Sacred Heart. What is more, every time you say the ‘Our Father’, in the first three petitions you make three acts of perfect charity, each of which is sufficient to cancel every sin from your soul.”
These words are from saintly men and women and must be taken above anything taught by so-called Novus Ordo or Traditionalist clerics. For this was the true Catholic Church, the works of approved authors, not the mewlings of the hirelings we are currently offered. Honor that Church, study its wealth of teachings, listen to the words of the Roman Pontiffs, and pray that God have mercy on the souls of all who are in error today.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Jun 29, 2021 | New Blog
+Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul+
We daily hear about Cancel Culture and the ravages wreaked on American traditions as the push to establish Socialism in this country moves relentlessly forward. Faithful Catholics are neither surprised nor are they unfamiliar with the methods used by the Progressives; at least they shouldn’t be. It will serve well to repeat here what was stated last month in the series on false worship:
“What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us. There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end” (Ecclesiastes I: 9-11).
In summary, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Cancel Culture was long ago used as a tool to destroy the Church whether we are aware if it or not. What else would you call the Protestant Reformation if not one gigantic effort to cancel the glorious Age of Faith in the name of more progressive moral and doctrinal views? In other words, the exchange of truth for lies; orthodoxy for heterodoxy. And in its wake came the American Revolution, then the French Revolution, for Catholic France could never be allowed to stand. What else was KulturKampf in Germany but a disguised Cancel Culture? And we know what the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist rule that followed accomplished throughout Europe. Let us also not forget the totalistic systems of Nazi Germany and Mao’s China, with its diabolical imposition of thought reform. It is disgusting to see so many condemning Cancel Culture today, simply because it is happening to America, without making the necessary connections to these historical precedents. But they will not because they cannot; no one is any longer allowed to speak the whole truth.
No one dares remind those braying on the talk news channels about the dangers of Communist generated Cancel Culture that Socialism and Communism were condemned long ago by truly Catholic popes, or that the Fatima apparitions occurred at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. Once Catholic monarchies and other governmental systems toppled, drunk with their success, the Masonic forces driving Communism and Socialism focused on infiltrating the Church and reducing her to a mere outer shell. This, as we know all too well, resulted in the disastrous reforms of the Vatican 2 era. Such changes also were gradually introduced among more conservative Protestant denominations. As Robert Jay Lifton explains in his classic work Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism,“’ideological remolding’… or ‘thought reform’ has in fact emerged as one of the most powerful efforts at human manipulation ever undertaken.” And he credits the Chinese Communists with bringing to this method “a more organized, comprehensive and deliberate — a more total — character, as well as a unique blend of energetic and ingenious psychological techniques.” Thanks to modern day technology, these now have been enhanced one hundredfold. Pope Pius XII condemned these methods in his constitution Ad apostolorum principis, paras. 15-17:
“In order to spread these wicked principles more efficiently and to fix them in everyone’s mind, this association – which, as We have said, boasts of its patriotism – uses a variety of means including violence and oppression, numerous lengthy publications, and group meetings and congresses. In these meetings, the unwilling are forced to take part by incitement, threats, and deceit. If any bold spirit strives to defend truth, his voice is easily smothered and overcome, and he is branded with a mark of infamy as an enemy of his native land and of the new society. There should also be noted those courses of instruction by which pupils are forced to imbibe and embrace this false doctrine. Priests, religious men and women, ecclesiastical students, and faithful of all ages are forced to attend these courses. An almost endless series of lectures and discussions, lasting for weeks and months, so weaken and benumb the strength of mind and will that BY A KIND OF PSYCHIC COERCION an assent is extracted which contains almost no human element, an assent which is not freely asked for as should be the case.”
Lifton’s book is too complicated and lengthy to delve into in any detail here but suffice it to say they appealed to the young people, to the criminal and the simple peasant element, and to disenchanted intellectuals and government employees to accomplish their goals. It is clear the brainwashing in this country was done in liberal universities across the nation, and the world for that matter, and the foundation was laid for Cancel Culture long ago. Most of it became more apparent after the death of Pope Pius XII, but it had been a work in progress for decades. And in retrospect, some of the propaganda used by the Communist Chinese had just enough truth to make it appear later that no brainwashing had been used at all! This is revealed in the following excerpt from Lifton’s book, quoted from the writings of a Belgian Catholic bishop, Hans Barker, who lived in China as a missionary for 40 years.
“You cannot escape the fact that your society and your mission ought to be regarded as spy centers, sending out reports to both headquarters, and that Rome becomes the world center from where imperialist governments draw their perverting information… as proof that you now condemn this process, you must at once give full information about the spy activities of your society, of your mission, as of Rome.” Bishop Barker later remarks that the Chinese “lie so truly.” But how sad is it that this very comment, based on information presented in The Phantom Church in Rome, can actually be proven to be true, a spy operation set up with the help of the British OSS during World War II by none other than Giovanni Montini, Paul 6? Now what? Will this be used by those now indoctrinating the public and viciously slandering the Church as proof the Chinese were right all along? Is it any wonder that this country is so friendly with the Chinese, considering they are using and have been using all along their own indoctrination techniques?!
All that we see today was mirrored in the events that occurred in the 1960s, when it first became apparent the Church was no longer the same institution She had been for nearly 2,000 years. The Vietnam war, peaceniks, anti-patriotic activities, campus riots, cults, assassinations, drug and alcohol abuse, abortion, pornography, family breakdown, a surge in serial murders — as the Church goes, so goes the world. But today’s society cannot admit it. They cannot believe that what the Catholic Church gave to the world was far superior to anything we have in way of government and civilization today. Were there abuses? Of course there were abuses, just as there are now, but the standard to judge who would pay and to what extent was based on moral and doctrinal principles, not some wacked out critical race theory that is nothing more than glorified Nazism. We are the white supremacists? Really? This is the biggest historic lie since time began, and anyone who has access to the Internet and real history sources is guilty of allowing such lies to be propagated by remaining willfully ignorant. Or is the real explanation for this that they are truly brainwashed? You be the judge.
As a teenager, I was privileged to have a father who did the research and knew what Nazism was and why it came to power. I was introduced to such books as The Nightmare Years and Berlin Diary, by William Shirer, among other works. In junior high school I was fortunate enough to be educated formally on the dangers of Communism and Socialism, which took up an entire two semesters. To say that the similarities today are frightening would be an understatement. I later expanded on what I had learned and discovered some connections that for Catholics should be very telling.
Luther and Hitler
According to the Episcopalian scholar Peter F. Wiener, writing in the 1940s at the beginning of World War II, a pamphlet was issued by the German government worthy of Hitler himself. It only proves the following, as stated in a site article written 15 years ago: Hitler merely reaped the bountiful harvest sown by Martin Luther. This pamphlet warned the world what they could expect from Germany. The Allies were told that WWI was “Luther’s idea come true.” They heard that “Christianity [the Lutheran variety] is the religion of war, and that Germans preach a “German, a national God.” One Lutheran preacher declared: “I am proud to preach the religion of might and what our enemies call barbarism.” Despite these hateful boasts, WWI ended in defeat for Germany. As Wiener explains, the German government pretended for a time to incline to Internationalism, simply as a ruse to allow them to recover sufficiently before making yet another pass at the world. When Hitler came to power in the late 1920s, the Lutheran pamphleteers wholeheartedly supported him. After years of attending international congresses to promote world peace, the Germans could now drop the mask and be themselves. Internationalism, “the sweet- sentimental and sentimental-weak Christianity” of their opponents dissolved overnight, and the Third Reich was born.
It was Luther, not the Catholic Church, that stirred up hatred of the Jews in Germany. He wrote, as quoted by Wiener: “The Jews are malignant snakes and imps…It is our own fault that we have not avenged the sacred blood of Our Saviour and the innocent blood of countless Christians and children, it is our own fault that we have not annihilated the Jews but placidly let them stay where they are despite all their murders…” And so the diatribe goes. Griener says his worst utterances are too filthy to be repeated. Luther also published his own anti-Jew code centuries before Hitler would come to power. In it the Reformer suggested that Jewish synagogues and all their prayerbooks and literature be burned; that their houses be burned as well; that they be deprived of all their belongings and be barred from moving freely about the country; that they all be herded under one roof and that their rabbis be forbidden to teach and finally that all Jewish children be put to hard labor or driven out of the country.
Historians called Luther’s anti-Jewish hatemongering “mad fanaticism,” calculated to “provoke the people to an unchristian persecution of their Jewish neighbors…Official reports go to prove that the cruel persecution of the Jews was no mere paper measure.” Dr. Lewin wrote that all future “anti-Semitic decrees had their origin in Luther.” Griener comments that Martin Luther died plotting a wholesale and violent attack against the Jews which the German princes failed to carry out. The full harvest of his hatred would be gathered by yet another antichrist at a later time. But it would be the Catholic Church, and specifically Pope Pius XII — not the Lutherans —that would be accused of encouraging anti-Semitism.
As von Kirchman remarked, “Luther…is not the reformer, but the devastator of faith and Church.” Lutheranism from WWI on became synonymous with Nazism. Hitler’s satanic treatment of Jews, Catholics, and those mentally and physically defective is well-documented fact. It is exceeded in its monstrosity only by Stalin’s murder of Christians and Catholics in Russia. Hitler was, mentally and politically, Luther reincarnated. His fits of rage, egomania, paranoia, immorality, and delusions of grandeur, so similar to Luther’s own, are well documented. Mein Kampf is testimony to his political and spiritual beliefs. In the end it was Hitler who carried out Luther’s last project: the incarceration and extermination of the Jews. Had circumstances allowed, he would have destroyed the Vatican and as many Catholics as possible. This last task, however, is most likely reserved for the Stormfuehrers of the Fourth Reich, now waiting in the wings for the signal to be thrown and the New Order to begin.
It is important to understand that Hitler’s Germany began as a democracy under the Republic of Weimar. It was set up under American auspices following WWI, just as Lenin came into power as a result of Kerensky’s Menshevik democracy, financed with American money. Internationalism will struggle to the death with National Socialism for world control. In the meantime, the Internationalists are content to allow Germany and her American and South American sympathizers free reign to do their worst, to clear the way for the New World Order. To give Americans some indication of where they are headed Wiener states: “Christianity and a conservative political power became identified with each other, as well as piety, love of power, purity of doctrine, and the glorification of war and the aristocratic standpoint.” In many respects, the same could be said of America today with her stance of manifest destiny, her democratic mission to all nations, the glorification of civil and military service to the exclusion of all else, and the fat cat attitudes of the Mayflower families still in power.
Wiener sums up his work by condemning the Lutheran-German idea of religion and political superiority; the anti-intellectualism and willful stupidity which deliberately encouraged the creation of an unquestioning and obedient warrior nation. He quotes a leading French cleric, Fr. Pasquier, who admits, “Too many German Catholics have proved (during the war) that they are marked Lutherans.” Too many indeed, and they are still with us.
Education as a preparatory tool
John Taylor Gatto on his The Underground History of American Education informs us that it was Luther and the philosopher Fichte who first insisted on compulsory public education. “Prior to Fichte…any number of compulsion school proclamations had rolled off the printing presses here and there, including Martin Luther’s plan to tie church and state together this way… [The] address to the German nation [in 1806] by the philosopher Fichte [was] one of the influential documents of modern history leading directly to the first workable compulsion schools in the West…Fichte told Prussia…children would have to be disciplined through a new form of universal conditioning. They could no longer be trusted to their parents. Look what Napoleon had done by banishing sentiment in the interests of nationalism. Through forced schooling everyone would learn that ‘work makes free,’ and working for the State, even laying down one’s life to its commands, was the greatest freedom of all…The Prussian mind had a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1) Obedient soldiers to the army; 2) Obedient workers for mines, factories and farms; 3) Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their functions; 4) Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5) Citizens who thought alike on most issues: 6) National uniformity in thought, word and deed…While German state management was rigid and regulated with its common citizens [and enlisted men], it was liberal and adventuresome with its elites. After WWII, and particularly after Vietnam, American elite military practice began to follow this German model.”
Gatto explains that Luther, Calvin, Hobbes and Rosseau, among others, believed that “without compulsory universal schooling, the idiosyncratic family would never surrender its central hold on society. Family had to be discouraged from its function as a sentimental haven, pressed into the service of loftier ideals — those of the perfected State.” The politician Horace Mann taught that families were addicting their children to artificial wants, created by the advent of the Industrial Revolution and its ensuing materialism. The observation was correct; the solution was disastrous. Here we see further examples of Luther’s contradictions. Sentimentality was to be preserved for religious devotion only, yet it was to be cut off from the Germans’ function as citizens. The State could not afford it as a guiding principle any more than the Church could afford it; but then one must understand that in nationalism, the State, not the Church, rules in God’s place.
Luther and democracy
We also see Luther’s firm distinction between the ruling class and the common people. Only officers in the German army were given special training; the enlisted ranks had only to obey. Clearly Luther and King Henry VIII first advocated the separation of Church and State. It is easy to understand why they wished to retain sentimentalism in religion. Without the fuel of fiery speeches and exhortations from the pulpits, Lutheran and other German preachers could not appeal to the passions and baser instincts of their congregations, enforcing obedience to rulers and stoking the fires of military fervor. In this way these preachers rendered their assigned service to the Faderland. In like manner Traditionalist ministers have preached John Birch, conservatism in general and even British Israel from their own pulpits and publications, and Novus Ordo ministers also have preached decidedly liberal political themes.
Bitter rule by fear and intimidation resulted in the reactive herd instinct and blind obedience on the part of subjects. “That no revolution ever successfully played out in Germany” proves the atmosphere of resignation, unthinking acceptance and unflinching obedience,” (Wiener). America has been formed in the German mold now for many generations, both spiritually and politically. The revolt of the South against those supported by the federal government in the North ended in destruction of the Southern way of life and liberation of the African Americans indentured to the Southerners, another example of cancel culture, even though the popes had condemned slavery centuries before Lincoln came on the scene. It was the Republican party that built itself on the freedmen of the South despite the protests of plantation owners and native Southerners. Reconstruction eventually waned, and freedmen never realized their promise of “40 acres and a mule.” No real plan to ease those freed from slavery ever evolved to help them integrate into society on a level footing with their white counterparts. But as we have learned, democracy doesn’t operate on the principles of Christian charity.
St. Thomas Aquinas, after naming off several different political systems, including democracy, noted that none of these systems save a right-ordered monarchy “takes thought for the common good.” He said of democracy: “The perversion…of democracy, (meaning power of the people or rather the vulgar mass) is the perversion of that polity [constitution] in which the many dominate, but on the basis of at least one virtue, viz., military bravery.” And this is the very perversion that those favoring fascism would seek to bring about. It is interesting to note that Nietzsche believed democracy to favor “the nurturing of a human type prepared for slavery in the most subtle sense of the term.” As Lord Acton stated, “Socialism is the infirmity that attends mature democracies,” and as democracies go, America is mature. This maturity and the relative instability of democracies throughout history explain why this country is ripe for the adoption of National Socialism.
“The teachings of Luther [on subservience to the State] had two very natural results. In the first place, the people were taught that they had no right to rebel or protest against even the most unjust ruler…The other result is that Luther strengthened to the highest degree the power of the princes,” (Wiener). St. Thomas distinguishes between the manner in which the authority is acquired and the use made of this authority. All authority, good or bad, ultimately is from God. The abuse of this authority, when it commands sin or even when it is merely violating the end in view for which the authority is instituted excuses from obedience. “Should therefore the authority command an act of sin contrary to virtue, we not only are not obliged to obey, but we are also obliged not to obey, according to the examples of the holy martyrs who preferred death to obeying these ungodly tyrants.” No one can command us to sin. Nor does the Church teach that an abuse of power be tolerated without complaint because of the harm done to the common good. Because the discussion of disobeying authority when there is a perceived abuse of power is a very convoluted and thorny one, however, it will not be discussed in detail here.
Wiener notes that Luther glorified war, even if it was unjust. War must be fought, according to Luther, “even if it should be mistaken and sinful,” something which in this country has been done in practice, if not intentionally. St. Thomas teaches that a just war requires three conditions be met: 1) That it be called by legitimate authority; 2) That those who are to be attacked deserve it on account of some fault or misdeed; 3) And that those waging war have the right intentions — that good be advanced, evil be avoided. St. Thomas quotes St. Augustine as teaching that war cannot be waged for revenge, hope of spoils, world conquest, material advantage and so forth. These motives are “rightly condemned in war.” In other words, if Catholic soldiers resisted being drafted for a war that is judged unjust by St. Thomas’ standards, they would have sufficient probability to support their refusal to be drafted based on Catholic teaching. Catholics have not only a right, but an obligation to refuse to cooperate in sin, and an unjust war involves grave sin.
Luther urged the princes into censorship of those not in sync with his Augsburg Confessions. And presidents practice censorship in withholding from Americans information affecting their welfare and the right to make informed decisions concerning the selection of their leaders. The Bay of Pigs invasion, Watergate, the Contra affair, Clinton’s Monica caper, Bush’s secret wiretaps, Bengazi, the Russia hoax, FISA warrants, Hunter Biden’s current woes and all manner of other secret dealings all serve to illustrate the clandestine mindset of the federal government. Few Americans believe the media delivers the truth and nothing but. Most understand that journalism is held hostage by gag orders, legal or otherwise, issuing from advertisers, law enforcement, political figures, government entities and secret societies. Sins of omission in reporting and slanting the news have done as much damage as misreporting, if not more. This devious form of censorship is rarely recognized for what it truly is.
Then of course there is censorship in the religious sphere. Traditionalists love to threaten lawsuits if one dares reveal the truth about something or someone dear to them. In another essay, we have detailed the methods used by Traditionalists to destroy their opponents, methods Luther would proudly have claimed for his own. It has been reported many times that those visiting this site have been warned they will be “excommunicated” or otherwise ostracized for reading these articles and questioning their Traditionalist “keepers.” It has previously been explained on this blog how some Traditionalist operations themselves are a front for neo-Nazi activities and in actuality have more to do with political than religious beliefs, using religion as a ruse to distract those who question their orientation. Timewise it is midnight in America, and Traditionalists and Americans in general have some very grave decisions to make. The one withholding factor that kept the entire world from descending into barbarism and atheism effectively has been removed from sight. Unless it is recognized as soon as possible by those professing the true faith; unless those entrapped in false belief flee to the mountains — to that eternal city, the Church, ever standing on the mountaintop — no flesh will be saved.
It is appropriate to remind Catholics of what could possibly halt this madness, as noted in a previous blog.
“If Christians today would bring the mentality of overcomers to bear upon contemporary realities in the service of truth, and above all that of the Gospel, the world would once more be compelled to bow to their testimony. It is when witnesses, apparently dead come back to life that men give glory to God. May our witness thus be revived; may it become strong again so that the new spirit of the Gospel may enter into our spirits and our lives! Then shall we again stand upright on our feet and the enemies of Christ will once more be reduced to silence,” (The Apocalypse Explained, H.M. Feret, 1958).
by T. Stanfill Benns | Jun 17, 2021 | New Blog
+Sts. Nicander and Marcian+
It is a misunderstanding of the term “black mass” that has prevented Catholics from seeing the Novus Ordo (and Traditionalist operations) in their true light. Criminologist Henry Rhodes described a true black mass, attributed to the Cathars, as one in which “men said one thing and meant another…It was possible for a priest to introduce prayers and ceremonies into an orthodox rite without any of the congregation except the satanically initiated being aware that anything unusual was taking place.” Other occult authorities agree with Rhodes, noting that a mass said by a priest with a contrary or perverse intention also can be called a black mass. In his “History of Witchcraft,” Montague Summers defined a black mass as a “blasphemous mass in which the words of consecration are omitted.” While a substitution is not the same as an omission, it is still a fact that in substituting new words, the old formula is omitted. “The abomination of the black mass is performed by some apostate or renegade priest…shamefully prominent among the congregation of witches… (These) witches are as profoundly convinced of the doctrine of Transubstantiation, the totality, permanence and adorableness of the Eucharistic Christ (and) sacrificing priesthood as the most orthodox Catholic. Unless this were the case, their result would be empty…” True perhaps until the abomination could be set up on once-Catholic altars, for then the need of pretense and secrecy would cease.
One of the best modern examples of this phenomena can be found in the Liberal Catholic liturgy celebrated by heretical Old Catholic priests, with a Gnostic emphasis on certain vowel sounds and the use of magnetized water in sacramental rites. Are not magnetized particles what is said to be in the COVID vaccines, and in our food supply and other consumer goods? Is this not black magic, the art of the would-be antichrist Simon Magus, at the very height of its development?! These New Age guru-priests very often have become the consecrators for Traditional priests and other candidates for the priesthood, on the pretext of conveying valid orders. In “Are Liberal Catholic Orders Valid,” (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, March 1958) Dr. Leslie Rumble, of Radio Replies fame, wrote: “A Catholic who lapses from the Church and receives orders from a schismatical bishop can be received back into the Church only on the understanding that such ordination, even if valid, will be completely disregarded.”
This statement needs to be burned into the brains of every reader, for several reasons. 1) Rumble is speaking here of ANY person lapsing from the Catholic faith, not just Liberal Catholic church members. 2) He makes it clear that by seeking orders from any schismatic bishop, (one not in communion with a canonically elected Roman Pontiff), one lapses from the Catholic faith. 3) Such orders will never be accepted by the Church, even if the one erring seeks reconciliation with Rome. They are to be completely disregarded, EVEN IF VALID! This by virtue of a Nov. 18, 1931 decree of the Holy Office, stating that such orders are null and void. And Catholics are ignoring this?! Dr. Rumble warned in his article that the Liberal Catholics were so thoroughly alarmed by this ruling they circulated a forgery of a Holy Office document which declared their orders to be valid. Rumble consulted the Holy Office in the 1950s, which confirmed no such decision had ever been handed down. At a later date, a Liberal Catholic historian wrote Rumble stating the original claim was based on a forgery, later attributed to a former Liberal Catholic priest in Belgium.
This shows the lengths the Gnostic church was prepared to go to in order to protect their future line of pretender priests who later deliberately infiltrated the Catholic clergy. No wonder that today we see public manifestations of satanic liturgies as punishment for such blindness and deceit. Rhodes identified the Cathars as masters of the art of secretly penetrating orthodox groups and subverting from within, a trait also peculiar to the Illuminati. This is the legacy handed down from Judas Iscariot and the Gnostic progenitors of these individuals, who St. Jude, in apostolic times described as “certain men, secretly entered in, denying the only sovereign Ruler and Our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Jude l:4). St. Paul gives the reason why so many are deceived: they do not love the truth. “Therefore, God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying,” (2 Thess. 2: l0). At La Salette Our Lady warned that religious houses would become cesspools of iniquity. She also warned that priests THEN (mid-1800s!) were no longer worthy to offer the Holy Sacrifice, and that Satan would be loosed to seduce mankind. And one of the oldest and most effective ways of blotting out the Mass was to offer it sacrilegiously with a contrary intention.
That such masses were still valid if reduced in fruitfulness until Pope Pius XII’s death in 1958 is explained by the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia as follows: “When, however, as De Lugo rightly points out, an excommunicated or suspended priest (not one excommunicated however for heresy whose Mass would be invalid – Ed.) celebrates in defiance of the prohibition of the Church, this ecclesiastical merit is always lost, since such a priest no longer acts in the name and with the commission of the Church. His sacrifice is nevertheless valid, since, by virtue of his priestly ordination, (and this must be unquestionably valid, which is not true regarding Traditional ordinations and consecrations — Ed.), he celebrates in the name of Christ, even though in opposition to His wishes, and, as the self-sacrifice of Christ, even such a Mass remains essentially a spotless and untarnished sacrifice before God. We are thus compelled to concur in another view of De Lugo, namely that the greatness and extent of this ecclesiastical service is dependent on the greater or less holiness of the reigning pope, the bishops, and the clergy throughout the World, and that for this reason in times of ecclesiastical decay and laxity of morals (especially at the papal court and among the episcopate) the fruits of the Mass, resulting from the sacrificial activity of the Church, might under certain circumstances easily be very small.” So these Masses dating from at least the time of La Salette had very small fruits indeed, given the faithlessness exhibited by “Catholic” cardinals in “electing John 23 and the apostate bishops presiding at the false Vatican 2 council.
In his Satanism and Witchcraft, the avowed Satanist Jules Michelet wrote: “The original framework of the Black Mass was elastic and could find room for a thousand variations of detail…Fraternity of man with man, defiance of the Christians’ heaven, worship of nature’s God under unnatural and perverted forms – such [is] the inner significance of the Black Mass.” Michelet explained that this abominable anti-sacrifice arose in medieval times as an offering to the “Proscribed of ancient days, the great creator of the earth, the Master that makes the plants germinate from the soil,” to deliver the serfs from their slavery. Michelet cited as “not improbable” that not only Luciferians but also the “Knights of the Temple” joined in the fomentation of these masses. Included in the “intention” in a Black Mass is the “redemption of Eve from the curse Christianity has laid upon her, [for] she is priest, altar and consecrated host.” The abominable “meal” celebrated at these infernal services was “a confareatio, the sharing of bread which has absorbed magic virtue.” Medieval monks taught that child killing and abortion was the entry point for the practice of Satanism by common folk, leaving the blasphemies and insults against God and actual dissemination of error to the ruling magicians. In one paragraph, then, can be linked all the errors of the Novus Ordo and the modern world with worship of the Evil One.
This bread “with magic virtue” was not something new to the medieval ages, for it was known even in Old Testament times. Surprisingly, it is in Scripture that we find the strongest condemnations of “bread idols” and the rites that produce them. In “The Divine Armory,” an extensive cross-reference of Scripture quotations compiled by Rev. Kenelm Vaughan, we find the following under the heading, “Names and Types of the False Christs: “bread idols, the bread of deceit, the bread of lying, bread of wickedness, wheat bringing forth thorns, profitless wheat, the two iniquities [bread and wine], unacceptable holocaust, a sin graven on the horns of the altar, wicked gifts,” and so forth, all with a corresponding Scripture verse. Vaughan even includes as a type of false Christ, (and an unconsecrated host believed to have been consecrated IS a false Christ) the name of Daniel’s unknown God, Maozim, one of 99 official names of Allah in Islam. Here also is listed as connected to this topic the sin of desolation and the abomination of desolation, both mentioned in Daniel. One of the most striking quotes Vaughan cites is the following, taken from Ezech. 13:19: “They violated Me among my people for a piece of bread, telling lies to My people that believe lies,” and this could apply to Protestants, Novus Ordo believers and Traditionalists alike. Preceding the section on bread idols is a lengthy treatment of the faithless Israelites led astray by the pastors “who have destroyed My vineyard” and “profaned My sanctuary upon earth,” (Jer. 12:10; Ps. 88:40).
And another purveyor of these sacrilegious events listed two other forms of the black mass. In his The Golden Bough, Sir James Frazer described a certain “Mass of the Holy Spirit…” which was celebrated “with certain special rites.” It was believed by superstitious French peasants to have a great efficacy in obtaining the impossible. He also detailed the repulsive, undoubtedly Satanic “Mass of St. Secaire,” which is resorted to by those seeking revenge on others. “None but wicked priests dare perform the gruesome ceremony,” Frazer stated. The ceremony can be celebrated “only in a ruined or deserted church.” The priest says the mass backwards, consecrates a black, triangular host and commits other depraved acts to effect the death of the one named in the mass. These are the abominations that prefigured the institution of the open-ended Novus Ordo Missae.
Paul 6 (Giovanni Montini, who fulfills all the biblical prophecies regarding Antichrist) relied on the elasticity of ceremonial mentioned by Michelet. He knew that establishing the Novus Ordo mass would not cover all bases. The new ecumenical church was very well aware of the resistance movement among Catholics that championed the Tridentine and held to pre-Vatican II faith. To think that arrangements had not been made in advance for the perversion even of those celebrating the old rite would be failing to give the Devil his due. The demonic genius of the Novus Ordo Missae lies in its ability to be read in a Catholic, Protestant or even Satanic sense, all at the same time. Yet as stated above, a Black Mass can exist even when offered in Latin and appearing impeccably orthodox. This is how so many are deceived.
Because Catholics failed to exert the necessary effort to sort out truth from lies and truly study their faith to determine the manner of action to be taken, the fight for the Church was lost. And Catholics themselves were lost in the wasteland of unbelief, unaware that in order to retain membership in the Church, a Catholic must believe ALL the truths of faith, in the same sense the Church has always taught them, (DZ 1797, l800). In focusing on the exterior practice of religion only, they lost sight of the fact that there can be no guarantee of faith without the exercise of those powers Christ entrusted only to St. Peter and his successors. Because they did not understand, or were led astray by false shepherds, error triumphed.
And “Traditional priests and bishops” are no better than the Novus Ordo variety, for these priests and bishops cannot claim in anyway to be part of the line of direct apostolic ascent from the hierarchy established by Christ. This is demonstrated above in the Holy Office decision on schismatic orders. Traditionalists were established as a part of the Gnostic church before Vatican II was ever called and their object from the start was deception and enrichment through the donations of those calling themselves Catholics. The clean-up crew was already in position to scoop up Catholics protesting the Vatican II changes and re-channel them into less harmful cells that could be easily managed and continually expanded according to the needs of the infiltrators and the frame of mind among the people at any given time. In the wake of this controlled opposition, made possible by Catholics who failed to educate themselves, trailed every other evil imaginable. And those who cooperate with them in their evil in any way are as guilty as they are.
Public opinion won their toleration, and that opinion was long in forming. The Gallicanists, the German Nationalists, the Priory/K of M, the Liberal Catholics and Old Catholics, the Gnostics and the Illuminati among the world governments worked for centuries to bring about the downfall of the Church. They even remained at the scene of the crime to absorb whatever might be left of the true Church following Vatican II and neutralize any genuine Catholics displaying tendencies to restore the Church. And this was by design. Montini spent years learning at the feet of Felix Morlion, champion of religious liberty, the best way to successfully manipulate events and form public opinion. And having created those events in large part himself, he knew in advance what methods would be used.
It is the Old Testament story of the priests of Bel all over again. In Daniel’s time, Bel had all the appearances of a living god. The pagans, including King Nebuchodonosor, worshipped him unquestioningly. Daniel spoiled the game by telling the king that Bel was not a living god and he could prove it. He exposed the imposture of the priests who pretended to feed the god, and then secretly entered at night with their families (the “aristocracy”) to eat all that had been fed to him during the day, making it appear as though the god himself had consumed it. Montini fed the beast for decades, and one of those beasts, sadly, was Traditionalism. His successors in iniquity have continued in this role and have seduced many. All about the seat of the beast can be seen the telltale footprints of the faithless priests, who fleece their devotees and offer stones for bread. Novus Ordo and traditional masses alike are the food of Bel, offerings to the demons. And unless Christ’s Mystical Body refrains from eating this bread of damnation, they will meet with the fate of Bel’s priests and followers, who were cast into the den of lions intended for Daniel and were devoured.
And so we end where we began. “What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us. There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end” (Ecclesiastes I: 9-11). And here we are…
Conclusion
The fact that those participating in “masses” offered by ministers not in communion with a canonically elected pope are actually worshipping demons might have seemed a stretch until the events of these past few years. Now Satanism is out in the open and all can see the extent of Satanic influence, built in part on the false sacrifices offered to these idols by those calling themselves Catholic. Those unable to understand the enormity of such a crime have been so desensitized to any idea of the truly sacred nature of Mass and Sacraments — indeed of Our Lord and His Holy Sacrifice itself — that they are incapable of appreciating the inexpressable horror it represents. This began long ago when the shortage of priests caused many Catholics to confuse the minister of the Sacraments with their actual source — Christ Himself. The near worship of these “precious priests,” perceived to be the only ones who could actuate the graces needed to reach Heaven, is the root cause of many a Traditionalist affiliation. Do these people not know that Christ will never leave us orphans? That Our Lady is the Mediatrix of all graces? That the faithful Israelites who lived before Christ’s coming and never knew the Sacraments also made it to Heaven without them?!
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but there can be no fear hence no wisdom is ever possible when His laws have been trampled underfoot and the teachings of His Vicars ignored and perverted. God must be placed first in the lives of those wishing to be Catholic. Unless His laws and the teachings of His Church are obeyed, whatever is worshipped on altars where men who have no mission to serve Him officiate — be they Protestant, Novus Ordo or Traditionalist — is offered to demons, however offensive that may seem. As the Prophet Elias once cried, “How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” (Kings I: 21).
by T. Stanfill Benns | Jun 5, 2021 | New Blog
+St. Boniface+
By the time Jesus’ Public Life began, ancient Rome had achieved an uneasy truce with the Jews, more out of necessity than concession. The Assassins, a faction of the Jewish sect known as the Zealots or Sicarii, were particularly dedicated to wreaking havoc. Many believe they were Pharisee extremists, identified by some historians as the secret avenging arm of the Essenes, determined to force political change. It is more likely, however, that the Essenic sect was put to service by faithless Pharisees to redirect the people into rabbinic, man-centered channels. The Jewish religion had become a caricature of its former self. Shot through with priestly graft and the political intrigues of the Saduccees; weakened by the various Pharisee sects determined to use them as a political vehicle and seedbed for their own hybrid Gnosis, the Chosen People were at cross-purposes with one another. Having lost much of their ancient sense of mission, they were merely ripe fruit waiting to fall. In short, their factionalization, fragmentation and doctrinal deviations were not unlike the Church’s situation today. Ruled from afar by a quasi-democratic authority already experiencing the first symptoms of sociological decline, even political conditions then were not unlike our own.
In 68 A.D., the Jewish Zealots, ever the political adversaries of Rome, turned the Temple into a fortress, engaging the Roman armies and generally creating havoc. Chaos ensued for the next two years. The Temple was stormed and set afire by Caesar’s armies and destroyed in 70 A.D. as foretold by Christ in Matt. 24:2. Following its destruction, the factionalized Pharisee-led Jews were hard-pressed to present a united front. Decimated by conversions to Christianity and Roman persecution, they sank into the shadows for a time, fed only by their antagonism to Christianity, there to reorganize. Turning inward on themselves, they held fiercely to what was left of their religious teachings and traditions, concentrating on community and family life. As was also the custom among early Christians, the Jews held religious services in their homes. Some Jewish sages tarried with the Mandean, Essene, Ebionite, Docetic and Gnostic sects, imbuing these heresies with Jewish, latter-days teachings on the end of the world and the coming of a second (warrior) Messiah-King. Also attenuated, it seems was Christian doctrine concerning the Trinity. Before the birth of Christ, the Jews had conceived a rudimentary idea of the Trinity already, as their ancient manuscripts reveal. Because they vehemently denied that Christ was the true Messiah, they could scarcely accept Him as part of their pre-conceived Trinity. Systematically, Pharisee scholars began to reconstruct this teaching, drawing heavily from the most ancient of their oral traditions and pagan myths theorizing how the Godhead manifested itself. These sources were summarized in the pagan (falsified) version of the Kabbala, a detestable book that was nothing less than the history and practice of Baal worship.
The sun gods occupied a place of honor in the ceremonies of the Egyptian mystery religions that fueled Gnosticism because the sun’s warmth and light was so necessary to crop growth. The feverish multiplication of Gnostic sects and Rome’s attempts to gain allegiance by introducing polytheism, (which allowed any and all pagan gods to be worshipped without injuring loyalty to the emperors and Jupiter) all succeeded in synthesizing (combining and intertwining) pagan worship. Osiris, Ammon-Ra, Baal, Dionysius, Jupiter, Mithra — all became connected in some way with fertility rites and crop rituals. They also were carried into and mingled with the cults of Northern Europe. Jupiter or Jove is described in St. Augustine’s “City of God” as “king of all gods and goddesses.” Reverencing the god’s “sacred oak,” a symbol of strength in warfare, was an important part of Jupiter worship. The Greeks worshipped Jupiter Ammon as the ram- headed sun god in Aries, (April). In a Cretan legend, Dionysius or Bacchus, the god of wine, was said to be Jupiter’s son, mutilated by his enemies. In another legend, New Age author Immanuel Velikovsky portrayed the goddess Venus as a separate planet issuing from the “head” of Jupiter, and tied Jupiter to the sun god Horus, Babylonia’s Ishtar and the “owner of all” god Baal, mentioned in previous chapters.
The Romans designated Jupiter god of the wine crop, Frazer said. Jupiter Capitoline was worshiped as the god of thunder, lightning and rain, while Baal is styled as the “storm god.” Thus the Druidic rituals with their sacred oaks, Thor, god of thunder and other similar deities, all emanate from the same source. John B. Noss in “Man’s Religion,” stated that one of the earliest forms of idol worship involved tribute paid by the Canaanites to their Baal farm gods, indicating these gods owned or possessed the soil they planted. Worship of these Baal was carried out on hillocks, high places or in strongholds where fertility symbols were usually deposited. (The kissing of the soil on arrival in a new locale or custom of tossing the soil of newly acquired ground in the air or over one’s shoulder is reminiscent of this pagan belief.) The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) identified Baal as “genius lord of the elements,” and in Osee 2:6 it is Baal who “gives bread, water, wool, flax and drink.” In his “Idol Worship of the World,” Dobbins identified this god as “Baal of the Covenant.” Josephus Flavius related that the Essenes were known as “Sons of the Covenant,” and also worshipped the sun.
As previously noted, Frank Dobbins, in his “Idol Worship of the World,” writes: “Baal’s temple was a fortress” where the money left him by devotees was kept hidden in order to be worshipped alongside the god, demonstrating that power and money were as closely connected in those days as in our own. (This is reminiscent of the Vatican banking scandals and the rumored wealth of both the Templar and Hospitaller sects, also the Masonic commitment to advance sect members financially through occult contacts in business and finance.) The Israelites worshipped Baal up to the time of Samuel, desisted for a time, then resumed their idolatry, as stated earlier. Elias slew the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. Today that mighty prophet would find Baal’s priests and devotees more numerous than ever before.
And Baal worship is intricately connected with the coming of Antichrist, also referred to by St. Jerome, St. Bernard Clairvaux, Pope Paul IV and other commentators as the abomination of desolation. Francis Gigot says regarding the abomination, under this heading in the Catholic Encyclopedia: “The most recent interpretation which has been suggested of these Hebrew words is to the following effect: The phrase shíqqûç shômem stands for the original expression bá` ál shámáyîm (Baal of heaven), a title found in Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions, and the semitic equivalent of the Greek Zeus, Jupiter, but modified in Daniel through Jewish aversion for the name of a Pagan deity. While thus disagreeing as to the precise sense of the Hebrew phrase usually rendered by ‘the abomination of desolation,’ Christian scholars are practically at one with regard to its general meaning. They commonly admit, and indeed rightly, that the Hebrew expression must needs be understood of some idolatrous emblem, the setting up of which would entail the ultimate desolation of the Temple of Jerusalem (I Mach. i, 57; iv, 38). And with this general meaning in view, they proceed to determine the historical event between Our Lord’s prediction and the ruin of the Temple (A. D. 70), which should be regarded as “the abomination of desolation” spoken of in St. Matthew, xxiv, 15, and St. Mark, xiii, 14.” This however, does not address our own times, although it is plain to see that a connection exists.
Paul Winkler, in his “The Thousand-Year Conspiracy” related that the celebration of communal meals replaced human sacrifice as an offering to the gods to obtain good weather and bountiful crops. Frazer’s description of the green-faced Osiris, crowned with laurels, brings to mind the Jolly Green Giant of TV and grocery-shelf fame. A television movie, “Children of the Corn,” portrayed the revived custom of sacrificing human victims to the corn god. Winkler explained that the wheat or corn and wine in the communal meal replaced the flesh and blood in these sacrifices. Patai ranked Moloch as synonymous with Baal and Holy Scripture tells us it was to the god Moloch that the pagans sacrificed their children. Winkler reported that this worship of agriculture carried with it it’s own moral system, based on a code of peaceful co-existence as opposed to the divide and conquer mentality. From this “share the earth’s goods” philosophy, which Winkler referred to as “ground life” came the primitive idea of communism, passed down through the Egyptian mystery cults to the Pythagoreans, then to Plato and his students, who carried it, in turn, into Essenism.
In his “Tracing Our Ancestors,” a work said to be favored by one-time Pilgrim Society propagandist William Allen White, Frederic Haberman stated that the planting, sowing, reaping and preserving cycle of agriculture applied also to the regenerative cycle of man. Proof of this is easily found in Masonic ritual and manuals. It is applied not only to the children man creates, but also to his handiwork and thought processes. The Catholic Encyclopedia attributed this to the identification of Baal as the “male fertility principle.” That secular humanism was involved in this worship is verified by the Encyclopedia author, who wrote that pagan homage to Baal could be given by devotees kissing their own hands. This practice could have reference to the signing of Antichrist’s servants on their hands or foreheads, and “foreheads” could indicate the practice of Masonic baptism described by Madison Peters in his “The Masons as Makers of America.” It also could apply to Novus Ordo baptism.
To ensure the adequate sustenance of man needed to guarantee his fertility and productivity, this communal meal celebrating crop worship became “a literal enactment of the cycle of the passion of the solar deity,” Haberman wrote. It also is repeated in Rosicrucian rituals of initiation. This in gross imitation and direct opposition to the Church’s own liturgical cycle. What is offered for consecration in the NO, then, is not validly consecrated and can become an offering to the sun god. When the Novus Ordo liturgy was established on Holy Thursday, 1969, Montini, so appreciative of man’s vast “creative” abilities left the bulk of this bastard liturgy open to interpretation, substitutions, adaptation and combinations according to the desires of the people and the celebrant. Only the new offertory was fixed in stone in this ghastly service so devoid of any reference to the renewal of Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary. This service was diametrically opposed — reversed, in Satanic fashion — as compared to the Tridentine Mass, where every word, every motion was prescribed by Tradition.
Lest some spurn the identification of Novus Ordo rites with Baal worship, the following account taken from Tito Casini’s The Last Mass of Paul VI might be of interest. According to reports published by a Catholic news service in Belgium in 1970, a theological congress was held that year in the Belgian capital to reformulate the Creed. The congress was attended primarily by youths and the designated church was “transformed for the occasion into a hippie temple,” according to the news service. The attending youths indulged in suggestive dancing, smoking, drinking and so forth, which puts one in mind of Rev. Haydock’s commentary on the Douay-Rheims passage describing the contest between the prophet Elias and the priests of Baal, (3 Kings Ch. 18:26). Haydock noted: “The prophets of Baal acted in a foolish manner…The pagans were accustomed to dance around their altars.” Casini then described what would seem to any true Catholic to be a horrifying outrage to God. At the heighth of the event, “from behind the altar there rose up an enormous phallus in transparent plastic.” Casini comments that although one Church prelate actually protested this monstrosity, no interdict of the church or excommunications were forthcoming.
This perfidious liturgy capable of the very abuses observed above is nothing more, nothing less than the institution of a new “sacrifice” honoring a false god, in actuality a demon; a sacrifice observed on an altar set in front of the main altar once reserved exclusively to consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ. While the entire Novus Ordo liturgy can be termed only as abominable, ironically it is the new offertory that reveals the true orientation of this service. As one Catholic author has noted, Adam and Eve were the first humans to participate in the consumption of forbidden fruits while yet in the Garden. Their son Cain offered second-hand “fruits of the earth,” and slew his brother Abel for offering a pure sacrifice pleasing to God, the only acceptable sacrifice capable of satisfying for the sins of men. Cain’s defective offering, today, is the only offering made in Novus Ordo “masses.” This offertory was foretold by Moses in Deut. 31:29-30, where the prophet proclaims: “For I know that after my death you shall do wickedly and will quickly turn aside from the way that I have commanded you: and evils shall come upon you in the latter times, when you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him by the work of your hands.”
It is no surprise, then, that this offertory never varied. Out of all the other variables, from service to service, it is worded as it is in the Novus Ordo Missae: “Blessed are you, Lord God of the Universe, because from your bounty we have bread, which we offer you, fruit of the earth, the work of human hands. It will become for us the bread of life.” This same formula is repeated for the wine: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity. Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.” This “God of the Universe,” according to the 18th dogma of the Kabbala, is the Devil! While this phrase could conceivably suggest a Catholic interpretation, the very fact that it is capable of being interpreted in this other manner renders it not only ambiguous (DZ 1177) but also highly suspect. Interesting that the offering of the wine mentions man’s divinity, especially since one of the symbols used by one Masonic sect is the grapevine. If the Body and Blood of Christ is not worshipped on Novus Ordo altars, something or someone must take His place.
Montini first introduced his cult’s sacrificial parody in the very month the pagan god Jupiter is worshipped as Jupiter Ammon, sun god — in April, when the sun is in Aries. Thus does the mighty sun god offer his son Dionysius, crop god, to mortals to immolate once again. His pandering to the U.N. self-appointed “guardians of peace” worldwide smacks of Priory (Masonic) lingo and peaceful coexistence, a precept he preached almost exclusively during his 1965 speech to the U.N. “Whoever loves peace loves mankind, without distinction of race or of color. You must serve the cause of peace.” It was this speech and other comments from Montini that inspired the peace-not-war protests, and contributed to the popularity of the upside-down crosses worn by the peaceniks. The symbolism behind this generational talisman will not escape those who remember the nature of St. Peter’s martyrdom. Whether conscious of the fact or not, those wearing this symbol were proclaiming the downfall of the papacy – indirectly supporting Masonry — while endorsing the moral and spiritual decline that accompanied it. Since Montini could not possibly claim to promote the moral system taught by Christ’s Church, another system was necessary to inculcate amorality.
In direct contradiction to Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, Montini gave his blessing to this “ground life.” Pope Leo had written: “God has granted the earth to mankind in general…the limits of private possession have been left to be fixed by man’s own industry and the laws of individual peoples…The main tenet of socialism, the community of goods, must be utterly rejected…Our first and most fundamental principle must be that of the inviolability of private property.” Montini heretically asserted, in accord with his true (Communist/socialist) beliefs, “God has destined the earth and all it contains for the use of all men and all peoples, so that the goods of creation must flow in just proportion into the hands of everybody, according to the rule of justice. All rights of whatever kind, including those of private property and of free trade, must be subordinated to it,” (Popularum Progresso). If it sounds like what’s being promoted today, the source is the same.
Those who believe in the True Presence and consider themselves Catholics are thus cruelly tricked into worshipping the very idol of Jupiter under the guise of bread, as well as the present Jupiter now ruling Rome, (whose name is included in the “canon” of the Novus Ordo liturgy). It is the same idol Antiochus set up in the Temple, the abomination of desolation, and those who claim this does not fulfill Scriptural prophecy will not see. If those who read could only understand, the plain words of the Novus Ordo offertory would be seen for what they really are: Satanic ritual. For as St. Paul teaches, all the gods of the pagans are demons. “But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils” (I Cor. 10: 20). Having worshipped at the Devil’s altar for decades, is it any wonder Satan is openly reigning today?
by T. Stanfill Benns | May 23, 2021 | New Blog
Introduction
Holy Scripture tells us there is nothing new under the sun, and Catholics would do well to ponder the wisdom of this passage:
“What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us. There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end” (Ecclesiastes I: 9-11).
This is a stunning condemnation of “Progressivism” and a pointed reminder to us in these times that regardless of all the knowledge we think we have accumulated, we have not perceived the instruments of our own destruction being wielded against us, nor have we formulated any clear idea of the origin of such instruments or a truly workable plan to escape these evils that have plagued mankind from the beginning. That the very same blueprint for the seduction of God’s people goes back to the beginning of time would be an idea scoffed at even by those considering themselves spiritually minded and yet given the above, and the many warnings of Our Lord, His Vicars, the Saints and holy people, it cannot be denied. Of course all know that the devil roams the earth, seeking whom he may devour, but exactly what agents and means he employs and the cloaks these agents and their minions garb themselves in is largely unknown and unappreciated. What is even more frightening is that the destruction continues before our eyes and we cannot quite comprehend its source in order to marshal our defenses against it.
Ever since Lucifer fell from his place of honor in heaven, the demons at work among us have been busy trying to regain what their master lost. It is their sole mission on earth. What they cannot successfully destroy they set out to imitate in such a cunning way that the majority of men will be deceived and will take their diabolical fabrication for the genuine article. Their greatest asset in accomplishing this work is the lack of piety and ignorance of those they prey upon, making them unable to successfully connect the dots in order to detect their deceits. What follows below is an attempt to at least give a bare outline of their plan and to alert the faithful to Satan’s many triumphs in the 20th century and today. This content first appeared in the book Imposter Popes and Idol Altars © 2004; revised 2007 by T. Stanfill-Benns; some text has been added to the original. This series will be presented in three parts for the next several weeks. It seems to be a necessary follow-up to the discussion regarding Antichrist, since many are not convinced that Paul 6 fulfilled that scriptural role. That is because so many fail to fully absorb the extent of the evil he perpetrated and its true source, explained below.
False Gods Spell Destruction
Ba-al proper was the storm god of heaven; his father’s name was El, or Al, the Phoenician nature god. Man’s Religion, by John B. Noss, defined El as a “superhuman being or divinity” used to address “major and minor divinities alike. It also was applied to demons,” or fallen angels. The Mason Pike falsely claimed that the el-al endings were used in the names of the archangels to commemorate the Al god, (the Gnostics name seven archangels, but the Church officially recognizes only Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.) In Muslim belief, Al refers to the three daughters of Allah — Al-Lat, Al-Manah and Al-Uzzah. The Catholic Bible Dictionary, by Rev. Bernard O’Reilly, ranked Baal as “identical to the sun” and synonymous with Bel. Other works identify the god with the symbol of a bull, and connect him to Bel, Belial, Baal-Zebub, Baal-Amun, Baal-Tsaphun, Baal-Peor, Moloch, the Persian Mithra and other gods. In Greek and Roman mythology, numerous gods can be linked to “parent” gods, primarily Baal, who also can be linked to Jupiter. In Scripture this is demonstrated by the use of the plural ‘baalim,’ referring to the multitude of gods Baal can represent.
In Canaan, where the cult first gained popularity, baals were farm gods unique to each region; the pagans believed these idols lent fertility to the land, their animals and themselves. The Bible confirms this, describing the unfaithful Israelites’ false belief that Baal, not the true God, gave them their “bread, water, wool, flax and drink,” (Osee 2:5). They worshipped these gods on hills, in groves of trees and ideally near bodies of water. In his Idol Worship of the World, Frank S. Dobbins explained that temples to Baal were referred to as high places, strongholds, “fortresses,” where the money left by the god’s devotees was worshipped along with the god. This can be referred to the prophet Daniel’s description of the priests of Bel and their coffers. Baal worship has the dubious distinction of being the first crude form of secular humanism — its devotees were said to kiss their own hands to worship their god, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. This same article stated that anything and anyone could be worshipped as a Baal. In Semitic etymology the word Baal means “to possess sexually,” giving some idea of the depravity involved in the god’s cult. Scripture relates the self-abuse, self-mutilation and homosexuality that accompanied Moloch and Baal worship, reminding the Israelites of the punishments associated with these crimes.
Rev. Martin Scott, S.J., in his Credentials of Christianity related that the pagans in Christ’s time evidenced secular humanism in the worship of their idols, dating this heresy to pre-Christian times. “Paganism flattered man and gratified the passions,” Scott wrote. “Generations of self-indulgence, living only for self, for pleasure, for every gratification within reach had made man a god unto himself.” Scott credited the degradation occasioned by idolatry as the source of pagan cruelty to women and children, noting that children were “offered as victims to Baal…and many other idols like the frightful idol Moloch, who had a man’s body and a bull’s head.” Both Plato and Aristotle advocated laws to compel women past their prime to practice birth control in order to prevent the birth of defective children. Today the depravity of those times is considered an inalienable right!
The first reference to the actual worship of Baal is made in Leviticus 18:21, where he is referred to as Moloch, one of his many names: for as we shall see, they are legion. The first reference to Baal by name is found in Judges 3:7, where the Israelites are described as engaging in forbidden marriages with pagans and worshipping their gods, “Baalim and Ashteroth.” (Ashtereth, Asherah, Ashtorah, Ishtar, Astarte all refer to the goddess-mother of Baal, often symbolized by a tree trunk.) Another reference to Baal is found in 3 Kings 14:24, where King Solomon is chastised for offering worship to Moloch and Astarte, often identified with Anath, Baal’s wife. This infidelity God the Father attributes to Solomon’s intermarriage with pagan wives, who demanded their gods be worshipped after the same fashion as the true God was worshipped in Solomon’s Temple. Solomon’s sins, so grievous in the eyes of God, hastened his death. His son, Rehoboam, installed an Asherah in the Jerusalem Temple, despite the warnings given to his father. Later King Ahab and his infamous wife Jezebel established Baal and the tree-trunk symbol of Asherah in a temple in Samaria. For this sacrilege Elias the prophet confronted the king, inviting Baal’s priests to the contest on Mt. Carmel. Elias condemned and confounded the Baal priests, (3 Kings 18:30-40), ordering their death. In restoring the purity of worship in his day, King Josias destroyed all these same idols in Jerusalem, but their worship was later reintroduced after his death. Dobbins stated that idolatry continued in Israel until the time of Samuel.
Eager to win the souls of those Israelites not subjected to idol worship, the Devil first removed them from their own land to other nations. He then preyed upon their carnal appetites to make the daughters of their Gentile captors more appealing as wives than the limited choices available among those of their own faith. With wives who did not accept or understand the ways of Israel, the faith then became easy enough to water down. During the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews feasted on the democratic doctrines of Hellenism and reveled in the pleasure principal. Shortly thereafter, the sacrifice ceased during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. This Jewish version of the Antichrist was opposed by one family, that of Judas Machabeus. The descendants of this family waged many battles against Antiochus, eventually defeating him. But one battle was lost because certain soldiers had concealed miniature Baals beneath their cloaks. The cult of the stones was yet alive.
Rev. Bernard Kelly, in his work God, Man and Satan, acknowledged the relationship between Jewish mixed marriages and idolatry prior to Israel’s downfall. “The temptation to idolatry (and) impurity…were often linked by Satan in view of their common purpose, for he found in impure love a powerful incentive to the abandoning of the austere religion of the true God.” Before the death of the saintly little Fatima seer, Jacinta Marto, Our Lady revealed to her that more souls go to hell for sins of impurity than any other sin. Mixed marriage, licentiousness and the hatred of women promoted in advertising, pornography, birth control — all spelled the Church’s doom long before the fateful 1960s. Always Satan has known that the seduction of women guarantees the ruin of mankind. This may be why he approached Eve, not Adam. Paraphrasing Ven. Mary of Agreda, Kelly remarked: “The Old Testament is the story of Satan’s attempt to pervert the Chosen People that the woman and her seed would never come into existence.” Satan lives in daily fear of the Genesis promise that the Woman will crush his head. Forever inspired to a hatred of all women by this fear, he projects his hatred on those who might also bring forth Christ mystically — devout women raising God-fearing children. His plan, however, did not succeed with the Chosen People who accepted Christianity, and it will not succeed now. But Baal and Ashtorah are yet with us in ways we cannot fully comprehend.
The “evil and adulterous generation” we are forced to view each day was systematically paganized and perverted by Kabbalistic, Masonic propaganda for decades. We agonize over the death of innocence, not realizing that our philosophy and thinking, our community and family life are but reflections of an anti-God system still celebrating the rites of Moloch. As a goddess, Ashtorah may be relatively unknown. But in principal, she rules from more hearths today than at any time in the past. In reality, we as a society have been impenetrated by pagan beliefs to such an extent that we are blind to our own seduction, thanks to the film and music industry, television and the secular media. Our ignorance of the serpent’s perverse ways fulfills the words of Scripture, “For the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light,” (Luke 16:8). The Devil has succeeded in destroying belief in the Holy Trinity while establishing acceptance of an accursed false “quatrinity” fashioned after his own evil likeness, just as Wisdom prophesied. The Fathers taught that this denial of the Trinity would be the primary predicator of Antichrist’s reign. What has never, to our knowledge, been addressed before are the terrible blasphemies that would likewise be leveled against the Most Holy Mother of God, destined to crush the serpent’s head. St. John Eudes has revealed that because Our Lady’s own heartbeat for Her Son’s in the womb, the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary constitute ONE Heart. How, then, can this cruel denial of the Trinity not affect Our Blessed Lord and His holy Mother profoundly?
To finalize their triumph, the neo-pagans must not only pervert and defile womanhood — they must destroy the model on which it was created. Our Lady’s demotion to one of the many “mother goddesses” must be revived and appreciated anew, that today’s moderns may be worshipped as their own gods and goddesses without feeling the slightest discomfort. A new paganism more virulent, even, than that known in Roman times plagues us today, and we must learn to identify the resurgence of this ancient heresy in our own environment. It is the “current of black paganism,” which Pope Pius XII defined as hedonism, immodesty, individualism and rationalism. Another author, Msgr. L. Cristiani, pointed out that this “black” paganism is really quite different than the type of paganism practiced by those living before the time of Christ. Then at least, pagans recognized powers superior to themselves and assumed an inferior position to these powers, preparing the way for acceptance of Christianity after a fashion. Although all idol worship is defined by St. Paul as the worship of demons, an opinion unanimously held by the early Fathers, Cristiani makes the distinction between those who worship Satan unknowingly, such as the early pagans, and those who worship themselves as possessing magical powers attributed to Satan. And making such fine distinctions and identifying these themes and patterns is crucial to understanding the neo-paganism that reigns triumphant in society today.
In his June 26 radio address to the people of Minneapolis, Minn. Pope Pius XII wrote: “Early explorers record in their relations their utter amazement at the mighty current that sweeps down the Mississippi River. There is a stronger current of black paganism sweeping over peoples today, carrying along in its onward rush newspapers, magazines, moving pictures, breaking the barriers of self-respect and decency, undermining the foundations of Christian culture and education.” No less than the New York Times ran this headline on the front page that day, covering the Pope’s speech: “Pope Pius warns ‘black paganism’ is world menace; its flood engulfs newspapers, magazines, films, he tells eucharistic congress Christianity endangered [and] calls for self-sacrifice to combat evil.”
Earlier in Divini Redemptoris, 1937, Pope Pius XI taught: “At the same time the State must allow the Church full liberty to fulfill her divine and spiritual mission, and this in itself will be an effectual contribution to the rescue of nations from the dread torment of the present hour. Everywhere today there is an anxious appeal to moral and spiritual forces; and rightly so, for the evil we must combat is at its origin primarily an evil of the spiritual order. From this polluted source the monstrous emanations of the communistic system flow with satanic logic. Now, the Catholic Church is undoubtedly preeminent among the moral and religious forces of today. Therefore the very good of humanity demands that her work be allowed to proceed unhindered.
“Those who act otherwise, and at the same time fondly pretend to attain their objective with purely political or economic means, are in the grip of a dangerous error. When religion is banished from the school, from education and from public life, when the representatives of Christianity and its sacred rites are held up to ridicule, are we not really fostering the materialism which is the fertile soil of Communism.? Neither force, however well-organized it be, nor earthly ideals however lofty or noble, can control a movement whose roots lie in the excessive esteem for the goods of this world. With eyes lifted on high, our Faith sees the new heavens and the new earth described by Our first Predecessor, St. Peter. While the promises of the false prophets of this earth melt away in blood and tears, the great apocalyptic prophecy of the Redeemer shines forth in heavenly splendor: ‘Behold, I make all things new.‘ Venerable Brethren, nothing remains but to raise Our paternal hands to call down upon you, upon your clergy and people, upon the whole Catholic family, the Apostolic Benediction.”
God alone, not man, can truly make all things new. Next, we will examine how Baal worship was established in the very heart of what many believed to be the Catholic Church.
