Month of St. Joseph

(Please pray for the repose of the soul of Larry K. Benns, July 25, 1951— March 1, 2021)

Prayer society intention for the Month of March 

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, bless us and grant us the grace of openly professing as we are bound to do with courage and without human respect the faith that we received of thy gift in holy Baptism— (Raccolta, no. 257)

+St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows+

The following was written to help those grieving for the Church they lost and the sins they believe they committed by following Traditionalists. If we are to survive spiritually in the coming days, we must better understand how our journey through unbelief to the light affected us, to better prepare ourselves for even greater trials and clear our minds of any misperceptions. Most especially we must diligently avoid the trap of guilt obsession over past sins, a trap set by Satan himself that allows him to prey on our minds and impede any spiritual progress. We must also earnestly petition the Holy Ghost for the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and understanding — especially knowledge of self (nosce te ipsum). This will help clear the way for a more fruitful study and knowledge of our faith as well as facilitate the understanding.

It is clear from a psychological perspective that Catholics never dealt with the loss of their Church, because they were redirected into other channels by Traditionalists.  A quick walk through the seven steps of grieving as taught by psychologists will help both readers praying at home and those new to this site to understand the feelings that often threaten to overwhelm them when they realize just how completely they have been deceived.

Seven steps of grief

Shock and denial — Hanging onto Traditionalism despite obvious signs it is not Catholic or moving to another sect thinking it will be the answer. This is the practice of avoidance, in order to relieve the anxiety of dealing with the real problem.

Pain and guilt — Blaming oneself for being fooled by Traditionalists and NO clerics; pain when criticized for questioning or “abandoning” the faith and considering being “home alone;” also the pain of being subjected to shunning and ridicule.

Anger and bargaining — Lashing out at pseudo-clerics and trying to reason with them. Going back and forth between what has been learned and understood about their errors and wanting to belong to what one thought was the true Church.

Depression, reflection, loneliness — All this occurs after separating from these groups. Distrust of self and others, difficulty sleeping, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks, difficulty making decisions, spiritual dryness or malaise and other disturbances may continue for a time, but eventually subside if one slowly and carefully re-evaluates the basic truths of faith.

The upward turn — Eventually, with prayer and study, the dark clouds clear and one begins to understand.

Reconstruction and working through — Once one has accepted the fact that the faith can be kept whole and entire only by avoiding these bogus groups then additional study can begin and one can work toward arriving at true certitude.

Acceptance and hope — Once true certitude is obtained, then a commitment can be made to pray at home, amend one’s life and do penance. But this decision must come gradually and cannot be rushed. Any resentment, all remaining doubts, must be vanquished. This can be achieved only by progressing through steps 4-6. And for those to whom God grants this rare and special grace, we urge them to look up, not back, and use these graces to amend their lives and secure their salvation.

Why were the above steps missed? Because, as the early 1970s writer Mary Lejeune in her newsletters, The Sword of Truth and the author Craig Heimbichner later documented in Blood on the Altar, false priests (and bishops) were already in the wings in the 1950s waiting for the changes in the Church, knowing that those exiting would be disoriented and ripe for the picking. And they were. Using mind control as practiced on Cardinal Mindszenty in the 1950s, wolves in sheep’s clothing sympathized with Vatican 2 refugees, to gain their trust. They later offered their services, interrupting the natural psychological process they knew would be necessary to Catholics, a process that would logically have resulted in the election of a true Pope and the survival of the Church. Not only were remnant Catholics vulnerable and in denial about the destruction of their Church, but they were also entirely incapable of comprehending that the very ones rushing to their rescue could possibly be part of the same hideous nightmare they had just escaped. They believed that this would mean that God had abandoned His Church and it no longer existed, something that simply could not be possible in doctrinal terms. And yet the ante-Nicene Fathers predicted that this is exactly what would happen with the advent of Antichrist, although this ancient teaching was never pointed out to them. 

Cardinal Mindszenty’s ordeal

On February 18, 1946, Pope Pius XII raised the Primate of Hungary, Jozsef Mindszenty, to the Cardinalate. As Pope Pius XII placed the Cardinal’s hat on his head, the Holy Father said: “Among the thirty-two, you will be the first to suffer the martyrdom whose symbol this red color is.” https://mindszenty.org/mindszenty-bio/ Only two years later, the Communists seized control of Hungary. Cardinal Mindszenty was arrested for “subversive activity” Dec. 28, 1948, after opposing Communism as an “atheistic theology.” Following a mock trial for his “crimes,” preceded by weeks of beatings, sleep deprivation, possibly hypnosis and mind-altering drugs added to his food, Mindszenty spent eight years in jail.  He had informed some of his fellow priests before his arrest that should his captors claim he had signed a confession of crimes against the state, placed into evidence during his trial, such a signing would be null and void, the result of human frailty and coercion. Mindszenty was released by a provisory government in 1956 following a brief victory won by the Hungarian Revolution, but the Soviets quickly took control once again, and the cardinal fled for protection to the American Embassy in Budapest.

Despite Mindszenty’s heroic refusal to leave the American embassy for 15 years, in support of the faithful in his country suffering under Communist oppression, Paul 6 lifted the excommunications imposed by Pope Pius XII on his captors and ordered the cardinal to relocate to Rome. A few years later Paul 6 also ordered Mindszenty to resign his Primacy. The cardinal refused, pleading with Paul 6 to consider the consequences of his actions and the evils of Communism, but to no avail.  Paul 6 then deposed him on the 25^th anniversary of his mock trial, in an attempt to appease the Communists. “This is what I said on February 6, 1974 — there is nothing more to say — and this is how I found, waiting to greet me at the end of the road, complete and absolute exile.” He died in Vienna, Austria 15 months later, at the age of 83. Surely his time in prison could not equal the blow dealt to him by his own Church, the removal of the ancient primacy he had fought so hard to keep all those years as a symbol of hope for his enslaved people.

Why have I related this story? Because Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty could be the “patron saint” of those who today are suffering the mental torments of being duped by Traditionalists, deprived of the Mass and Sacraments, the hierarchy, and most importantly, the papacy. Traditionalism is only the extension of a decades-long Masonic plot to destroy the Church, a plot largely engineered by the CIA, British Intelligence and other American intelligence agencies. A monumental work by international attorney David Wemhoff, published in 2015 and running to 800 pages of documentation, adeptly chronicles this effort. If Catholics and God-fearing men of good will only knew the role the media — not to mention the American government — has played in manipulating the news and destroying the Church, they would be hard-pressed to believe it. And even if they managed to believe it, they still would not be able to draw from it the enormous theological consequences that have cascaded relentlessly around us through the past five decades of our existence.

Mind control used to seduce Catholics

We have covered this at length in previous blogs, But it is best explained in the book The Phantom Church in Rome. There David Wemhoff’s work, John Courtney Murray, Time/Life, and the American Proposition: How the  C.I.A.’s Doctrinal Warfare Program Changed the Catholic Church is cited as the itemized documentation, taken largely from declassified material, of just how the American government set out to infiltrate, subvert and subjugate the Catholic Church — and other more orthodox Christian churches — using religion as a means of building empire under the guise of combating Communism.

As Wemhoff explains, it was an intense psychological campaign harnessing the print and broadcast media — employing government officials, professors, priests, ministers and American business leaders — to make it appear that the Church had abandoned Her condemnation of Americanism as a heresy. It involved active infiltration and subversion. This out-and-out warfare was declared in order to coerce Catholics worldwide into embracing the Americanist conception of religious liberty and ecumenism. This was accomplished in large part long before Vatican 2 convened; in fact, it was this very protracted campaign that paved the way for the modernization of the Church, largely carried out by its own clergy and liberal members of the educated laity.

Those living in the 1940s-50s had to know there was an ideological war going on, even if they were only the sort of Catholics who seldom did any more than attend Mass on Sunday. It was in the air, and publications from that time period clearly reflect this. But as it turns out, they cannot be blamed entirely for not being able to pin it down, or effectively resist it. When an intelligence agency sets out to deliberately wage psychological warfare on an entire segment of the population, it successfully distorts reality and actually reprograms brains. Edward Hunter, a C.I.A. propaganda operator who worked undercover as a journalist, wrote in his 1956 work:

“The highly educated person who bends medical discoveries to the practice of mind attack is incalculably more evil than any savage using potions, trances, and incantations…The word brain-changing became obscured as brainwashing and began to embrace all the available pressures that could be utilized to bend a man’s will and change his attitudes fundamentally. Brain-changing specifically refers to the complete job in all its wickedness. Cardinal Mindszenty underwent a brain-changing. That was how his vigorous mind was bent. A man’s memory can be physically eliminated, if at all possible, only at the price of permanent damage to the brain. In such a brain-changing, drugs have to be used to destroy the natural alertness and strong character of the individual, and hypnotism must be employed, too, to help in breaking down resistance. Information obtained through the most persistent inquiry by every possible channel reveals that drugs and hypnotism were used on the cardinal.”

And techniques today have been further perfected to anticipate all possibilities and eventualities and to better bind captives to the particular mindset at play. Hunter spoke at length with servicemen and others who were victims of brainwashing; individuals who, following their release, clung to the beliefs they had imbibed while prisoners of the Communists. He became convinced that at some deep level, all who had experienced “brain-changing” had the tentative idea they were deluded and even could be brought to this conclusion through intensive debriefing. “If truth can linger in the mind in spite of the strongest hallucinations, and the evidence I have accumulated indicates it can, the reason is clear why the Reds cannot be sure of even their completest victories, their Mindszentys. They never capture their minds completely!”

And this remark is very revealing. The primary difference between those who were the initial lab rats for brain-changing then and those who experienced it years later is this: Hunter and others noticed that Americans were far more susceptible to these tactics, for some reason, than others, and this cannot have improved with the passage of time. Those wishing to use these tactics always look for the weakest, most vulnerable links — the elderly, the young, the disoriented, the uneducated, the grieving, and those emotionally or mentally unstable, for whatever reason. We read everywhere that prior to the false Vatican 2 council, Catholics in general were not well instructed in their faith and tended to lay undue emphasis on external religion. They certainly never possessed the level of faith and spiritual formation of a Cardinal Mindszenty. And so it is not surprising that they became sitting ducks for those wishing to finish the destruction of the juridical Church once and for all.

Despite the fact that Mindszenty was entirely broken by his captors and his brain thoroughly changed or “washed” — even to the extent that he appeared to deny his faith and concede to all Communist demands — Pope Pius XII neither condemned nor deserted him for these forced concessions. Pope Pius XII’s example concerning Cardinal Mindszenty should indicate the mind of the Church in this matter. His behavior in Mindszenty’s case should prompt us to be more open-minded in dealing with those who have experienced what modern experts adjudge to be even worse and more seductive torments than Mindszenty himself experienced. It is interesting that one of the last constitutions Pope Pius XII wrote contained a section on brain-changing and its evils.

17. “There should also be noted those courses of instruction by which pupils are forced to imbibe and embrace this false doctrine [Communism]. 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.
18. “In addition to these there are the methods by which minds are upset — by every device, in private and in public, by traps, deceits, grave fear, by so-called forced confessions, by custody in a place where citizens are forcibly “reeducated,” and those “Peoples’ Courts” to which even venerable bishops are ignominiously dragged for trial.
19. “Against methods of acting such as these, which violate the principal rights of the human person and trample on the sacred liberty of the sons of God, all Christians from every part of the world, indeed all men of good sense cannot refrain from raising their voices with Us in real horror and from uttering a protest deploring the deranged conscience of their fellow men” (Ad apostolorum principis, June 29, 1958). And indeed, Pope Pius XII himself may well have been one of the unwitting victims of this very psychic coercion, carried on by Holy Office officials skilled in such techniques who practically kept him a prisoner until the time of his death.

Culpability of most Traditionalist followers diminished

Does anyone really think that we would be held entirely accountable for the fraud perpetrated on us, especially when we break away from Traditionalist and Novus Ordo sects and try to do all we can to help others? That we would be given such a great grace to see the truth only to turn it into despair over “sins” committed in good faith? Such a want of confidence in God will not lead us to heaven but will only alienate us from Our Lord. We must fight it at every turn. Those who are victims of fraud cannot be held accountable for their misdeeds if they were erroneously taught and truly believed they were doing the right thing. A grave sin is only a sin if we know it to be wrong — or could and should know it to be wrong — and act despite this knowledge. Given the situation today, there is grave doubt whether the censures for heresy and schism fully apply to those leaving Traditionalism. Historians have dismissed the idea that any real schism existed among the faithful during the Western Schism, and it is most likely that if we ever miraculously see another pope in our lifetime, the large majority of the faithful would be exonerated for their participation in Traditionalism.

There is a difference between absolution from such sins and abjuration from heresy. If we make a perfect Act of Contrition and do penance for these sins, they will be forgiven. It is impossible to seek abjuration, and God will make allowances for this, provided that we earnestly desire to be abjured. Canon 2199 states: “The imputability of an offense depends on the evil will of the delinquent, or on the extent to which his ignorance of the violated law or his omission of proper diligence was culpable.” Lay Traditionalists possessed no evil will. And it can be said only of a scant minority of them that they were culpable of ignorance regarding the law and did not use proper diligence. The general uneducated state of the laity in the 1960s was such that many of them could not even properly understand those truths necessary to salvation, far less the much more complicated precepts of Canon Law and moral and dogmatic theology. Canon 2200 states: “The evil will spoken of in Canon 2199 means a deliberate will to violate a law and presupposes on the part of the mind a knowledge of the law and on the part of the will freedom of action. Given the external violation of a law the evil will is presumed in the external forum until the contrary is proved.”

It cannot be said that there was any deliberate will by Traditionalist followers to violate Church law because a true knowledge and understanding of the law was lacking, thanks to the false teachings of Traditionalist pseudo-clergy. And actual cult tactics (coercive persuasion) employed by Traditionalist leaders further complicates matters. Nevertheless, “For formal heresy to exist… it is not necessary that the individual believer realizes that the truth in jeopardy has been revealed” (Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Theological Virtues, Vol. I). And here we are talking formal, not material, heresy that has been expressed in belonging to a schismatic sect that was founded on a heresy — a denial of the necessity of the papacy and the supreme jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff. As Can. 2200 teaches, however, the evil will of the delinquent must be presumed until the proper authorities can judge the case on its merits under Can. 2199.

Because we can have no certainty, then, regarding their decision, we must observe the censures, since it is entirely possible, at least in some cases, that — should we ever again see the Church restored, a very faint possibility — the hierarchy might determine us wholly or partially guilty. But there is a remedy the Church offers to prepare oneself for complete abjuration should we ever again see valid clergy. It is based on Canon Law and consists in three years of prayer and study as prescribed under Can. 672, a probationary period which is also referred to in other canons (see https://www.betrayedcatholics.com/begin-the-probationary-period/). This three-year period offers the faithful a welcome respite from the perpetual drama of Traditionalism and allows time for us to better know our faith and practice it. It also allows time for healing and reflection to help complete the grieving process.

The above censures for heresy and schism, however, DO generally apply, in their full rigor, to Traditionalist “clerics” and certain lay leaders who boast they are trained in Canon Law and theology and have benefited both financially and personally, in way of their elevated status as “clerics” or experts. They will bear the lion’s share of the guilt for all this, since the information regarding the necessity of jurisdiction and the inability of the Church to exist without a true pope was made available to them as early as the mid-1980s. The good news is that under Pope Pius XII’s Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, their acts were all null and void from the beginning, so no one ever committed actual sacrilege, although they did publicly adhere to a schismatic sect. And Traditional clerics, as leaders of these sects, were guilty of erecting a religious foundation outside the Catholic Church without papal approval, making them not only a non-Catholic sect, but automatically dissolving their organizations (Canon Law Digest, Vol. IV, AAS 49-34, Can. 211). Moreover, they are excommunicated also for “pretending to say Mass or hear Confessions by one who is not an ordained priest” (Can. 2232 §1). This in addition to a slew of other excommunications specially or simply reserved to the Holy See.

Victim Souls

One true priest called those suffering mental torments “martyrs of the mind,” and this is a most apt description of what has happened to many Catholics desperately trying to keep the faith in these days. We should all remember that St. Therese of Liseux and other commentators described those living in the end times as the greatest saints of all, and we must at least try to be those saints! That seems impossible, but what we are really being asked to do is to become white martyrs, who willingly suffer without shedding their blood, or better yet, victim souls. This we examined in one of our Advent blogs here.

“A victim soul is a chosen soul who freely sacrifices oneself, one’s health, material goods, happiness etc. as an offering to divine justice for the sins of the world, for sinners or for the benefit of the Church… In the mysterious designs of the Eternal Father, a certain reparation must still be made for sin so that our sufferings and trials ‘…may fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ’” (Col. 1:24). Another author writes: “A victim soul is an individual who has been chosen by God to undergo physical, and sometimes spiritual, suffering beyond that of normal human experience. The victim soul willingly accepts this unique and difficult mission of offering up his or her pains for the salvation of others” (Gerald Korson).

Every member of the laity leaving a Traditionalist sect has been given the opportunity to make this most precious and grace-filled gift of self to God — that of becoming a victim soul by praying at home and offering up their sufferings. How can one resist this invitation issued directly by Our Lord to participate in his Passion this Lent? Are we not undergoing the Passion of His Church on earth? Can we not watch one hour with Him? Let no one waste this precious gift, thinking they are condemned by God and cannot redeem themselves. Let them rather gladly take up their cross and follow that Holy One who has so sweetly called them.

Mental Suffering with Christ

As strange as it may sound, there is a reason why so many today suffer with various kinds of mental difficulties. We are told that we are reliving the Passion of Christ, and this condition has to do with filling up what is wanting to His Passion. Rev. Alan Keenan O.F.M. writes: “‘For who can overcome the hatreds of the world, or the whirlwinds of temptation or the terrors of those who persecute if Christ suffering in all of us and on behalf of all of us did not say to His Father: Thy will be done,’ (St. Leo, Sermon 16, de Passsione)…The neurotic carries the mental stigmata of Christ. This is credible, but for some, not palatable. Only the flame of faith will carry conviction of it, and even then the flame may scorch while yet it heals…The nearest friends of Christ, the chosen apostles, were invited to Gesthemane. They were healthy and slept. Perhaps only the sick of mind can really keep the vigil. The supernatural limit to pain is martyrdom. Martyr of course means witness. The neurotic is called to martyrdom within. Only the nearest friends of Christ are invited there.”

It is most assuredly God’s will and a matter of Scriptural truth that the worst persecution ever will occur in the time of Antichrist. Mental and spiritual torment is far more painful than anything Antichrist and his system can do to our bodies. We must bear witness to all that has happened, and yet we must fight giving in to our neuroses if we wish to watch one hour with Christ. This is martyrdom of the spirit at its finest, and we are privileged to be able to offer these sufferings back to Jesus, especially during Lent, who suffered so much more for us.

Consoling Scripture verses

“But in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, In chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, In the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left; By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet known; As dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things” (2 Cor 6: 4-10).

“Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations:  That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ:  Whom having not seen, you love: in whom also now, though you see him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified;  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you.  Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify: when it foretold those sufferings that are in Christ, and the glories that should follow:  To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you they ministered those things which are now declared to you by them that have preached the gospel to you, the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on whom the angels desire to look” (1 Peter 1:6-7).