Join us in a novena of reparation for IDF sacrilege in Lebanon

by T. Stanfill Benns | May 2, 2026 | Blog

+Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop+

Prayer intention for May, Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“For all those who impiously blaspheme thee Blessed Mother, not knowing what they say… obtain for them from Almighty God the grace of conversion.” (Raccolta)

Novena of Reparation for IDF insults to the Holy Face

St. Therese of Lisieux had a special devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and the Infant of Prague. Jesus’ Holy Face was smashed by IDF (Israeli) soldiers recently invading Lebanon, and for this a reader has begun a crusade to make reparation. He requests that all may: “Please unite with us in a Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face to end the Zionist/Epstein cabal, torturing and murdering children and smashing the Holy Face. We will pray May 6-14, Ascension Day.

MIRACULOUS INVOCATION TO ST. THERESE

O glorious Saint Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and counsel mankind, I implore thy Miraculous Intercession. So powerful art thou in obtaining every need of body and soul our Holy Mother Church proclaims thee a “Prodigy of Miracles . . . the Greatest Saint of Modern Times.”

Now I fervently beseech thee to answer my petition [mention here] and to carry out thy promises of spending Heaven doing good on earth . . . of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses.
Henceforth, dear Little Flower, I will fulfill thy plea “to be made known everywhere” and I will never cease to lead others to Jesus through thee. Amen.

Petition: O dear St. Therese, so devoted to the Infant King, beg the Holy Child to cast down this Satanic cabal now enslaving the world and free the suffering innocents they hold captive, that He may then reign in their stead as our King.

St. Therese Prayer in honor of the Infant of Prague

O Eternal Father, Thine only Son, the dear Child Jesus, is mine, since Thou hast given Him to me. I offer Thee the infinite merits of His divine childhood, and I beg Thee, in His name, to open the gates of heaven to a countless host of little ones, who will forever follow this divine Lamb. Amen.

Beware of the influencers condemning Zionism

In lamenting the Noahide law issue last week, I provided a link to a Substack feed for a Jana Bennrun. I hope readers understood it was only for attribution purposes. After corresponding with her, I must ask readers to please not subscribe to her feed, view her videos or read her articles. Her anti-Catholic animus emerged quite quickly following the release of my last blog.  But I have to say I am not surprised. As with Candace Owens (who given her Novus Ordo alliance would obviously have issues with Bennrun too), I keep trying to make inroads regarding the views presented by these people, educate them a little and see if it is information they lack or whether they are working a different agenda. So far it has always been the latter. And that tells us something.

Working from different platforms — but all headed, seemingly, in the same direction — they are using their exposure of Zionism as a means of attempting to gather “Christians” into a malleable mass able to abolish Zionism and Freemasonry, and they are doing this from many different fronts. This without crediting the Church for being the first to warn against these evils.  And not only do they fail to credit the Church, or, in some cases, even view these entities from a spiritual perspective, they pointedly ignore the fact that the organizations THEY belong to are the original promoters of both evils — Zionism with the Novus Ordo and Freemasonry with the Protestants, agnostics and atheists. They fail to mention that Zionism and Freemasonry are simply different tentacles of the octopus, thoughtlessly brushing this inconvenient truth aside.

I would like to officially point out to those referring to themselves as Christians and pretending to defend the faith that they don’t even know what the word faith really means. If it wasn’t for the Catholic Church, they would never have been able to even call themselves Christians in the first place! They have contributed to the creation of the very monsters we find ourselves fighting today, so they should be on the Internet warning others about them. But while they repeatedly broadcast their devotion to truth and proudly proclaim that they are promoting it, it is only THEIR particular brand of the truth they are promoting. They steadfastly refuse to plunge into the very depths of the abyss of errors to acknowledge the fact that it is the Church that long ago warned about all these things and prescribed the remedy — the acceptance of pre-1959 Catholicism as the one, true Church. For really it is authority over others that they want, the right to direct others and be seen as the defenders of the Christian faith, a faith and a body that can never think and believe as one without the papacy.

Even in these last throes of our final existence on earth they cannot, will not see it, and we know why. Yet we keep approaching them, correcting them, just in case. Wherever we see evidence of this psyop, we will call it out. For deliberately or unwittingly, they are all working for the creation of a one-world religion to replace the one, holy Catholic apostolic Church which once gloriously ruled from Rome. It is reminiscent of the attempt to create the tower of Babel, the first attempt at world government. Babel is Hebrew for Babylon and its end will be the same. In the meantime, these podcasters and Internet stooges will continue to “babble-on,” contributing some good information with the rest of the slop they sling, just enough to make it palatable for those not wise to what they are up to. Are we angry, as they claim, because we have been “dethroned”? No, because there is no need to be. Christ promised to be with us until the very end — US, the one true Church — and He is ever true to His promises.

A diabolic, schizophrenic generation

We have referred to this quote before but it bears repeating here because it explains how even prior to the psychological warfare unleashed on U.S. Catholics in 1953 by the CIA, a mental state existed among Catholics that made them even more susceptible to being led astray. In 1945, C.J. Woolen wrote an article for the December Homiletic and Pastoral Review entitled “A Schizophrenic Generation.” The article held that already in post-war America a condition existed among Catholics that effectively minimized sin and evil living by attributing its cause to a mental illness which Woolen calls the “split mind,” or schizophrenia, known also today as the dissociative state. The predilection for this schizophrenia, he observes, is present in us all and needs only a conscious assent to take hold and completely replace any pre-existing ego state. Described effectively enough by St. Augustine in his City of God, the citizen sojourning in this vale of tears simply makes the decision to set his sails for a different port — the River Styx adjacent to Satan’s kingdom rather than Heaven’s safe harbor. A sort of convenient amnesia following this radical change masks any uncomfortable pangs of conscience, making the transition a smooth one.

Woolen noted that this condition was known even to the pagans, and quotes from Aristotle’s The Republic to prove it is the age-old struggle between good and evil, literally as old as Adam. In modern times, man’s final descent into the pit of deliberate unknowing began with Liberalism then Americanism and concluded with secular humanism, the belief that man can become a god himself, perhaps even greater than the Triune God. The Liberals were the first to master the art of dissembling for public consumption while intending by narrow mental reservation not to believe or comply with certain teachings of the Church. Will Herberg in Protestant, Catholic, Jew coined a great term for it: “…religious narcissism,where the individual and his psycho-spiritual state is made to concentrate on its own navel.”

In other words, “It is not man who serves God, but God who is mobilized to serve man.” And faith is only a “sure fire way to get what we want.” Religion, then, is not a standard by which Catholics order their allegiance to America, family, the community, their jobs etc., but vice versa. Civic and social allegiances dictate the role religion will play in most people’s lives. This results in what Herberg described as an incurable “civic idolatry.” This lifestyle, led by those he labels as “other-directed” individuals constitutes an inversion of the natural order that perfectly accommodates the schizophrenic mentality. And isn’t that what we see today, both in the extreme MAGA mentality and mindless allegiance to the Zionist cause?

“The Christian, if he is to be faithful, has no choice but to be heroic,” Woolen stated towards the end of his article. The numbing process of denial, psychiatry, prescription and psychotropic drugs are modern choices for dulling the pain of living in a materialistic world where fidelity to the Catholic ideal means loss of earthly goods, the patient enduring of pain, admission of guilt and indifference to human respect. Catholic Action, coupled with the “world exorcism,” Woolen advised could have provided the solution decades ago, but that time has long since passed. No faithful bishops, as a united whole, cared to relieve the sheep of this terrible danger to their souls. There are now only lay people to plead for this exorcism for it seems the only solution to our present state. But perhaps there is yet a way to practice Catholic Action, although it would need to be done with great care, one-on-one, and in very limited cases.

Hope for a slim Protestant minority?

Several readers have expressed the belief that a select minority of Protestants could be brought to the true faith if there was some way it could be explained to them in a way they could accept and understand. They have even observed that certain Protestant families seem to them to be more “Catholic” than some of the Traditionalists they know. One reader even pointed out that some of them probably are the products of fallen away Catholic families, which means they have still retained a modicum of Catholic sense. And it seems that in a way God has given us an open door to appeal to those who seem attracted to the faith, or at least are curious as to why we do not attend “church” or accept the “pope” in Rome. I say this because many of the things that were most strongly objected to in the past no longer exist, and this gives us an opportunity to explain why. But the daunting nature of this task is easily seen when the following is carefully considered.

Pope and hierarchy — This would be the most difficult obstacle to overcome. Any convert to Catholicism must first accept unequivocally, with firm, irrevocable assent the Scriptural primacy of the popes, the binding nature of nearly two centuries of their teachings until the death of Pope Pius XII and understand that those teachings fully bind us yet today. It should be demonstrated from papal teaching that nearly every evil we suffer from today was long ago condemned by the popes and had world leaders obeyed, we would not now be suffering from the evils that afflict the world today. It must be carefully explained that shortly before he died, Pope Pius XII entrusted the spread of the faith to the laity, who in the absence of the hierarchy were commanded to assume all their duties. Then VAS would be brought in and the false election explained, meaning that valid hierarchy no longer exist.

No extraordinary jurisdiction — This leads in directly to the mission Christ conferred only on the Apostles by valid ordination/consecration and the valid transference of jurisdiction in a continual unbroken line, until the coming of Antichrist. Christ confers jurisdiction only through validly consecrated bishops approved by the Pope who then “lend” (delegate) their jurisdiction to the priests.

The Latin Mass and Transubstantiation — As long as the Mass existed, Transubstantiation existed: Catholics received the true Body and Blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. But the Prophet Daniel tells us the Continual Sacrifice will cease, and sacrifices among the Jews were not continual. The early Fathers of the Church, also the Doctors, authoritatively teach that this refers to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And it has ceased because there is no one able or worthy to offer it because valid consecration of the bread and wine requires that the one consecrating is validly ordained and possesses jurisdiction.

Sola Scriptura — Tradition, “…the word of God transmitted orally from Christ to the Apostles concerning faith and morals — not written but transmitted orally from Christ to the Apostles and from them to their successors down to us“— must be accepted as de fide. “The principal instruments by means of which divine tradition has been conserved are the professions of faith, the sacred liturgy, the writings of the Fathers, the practice of the Church, the acts of the martyrs, and archaeological monuments. Its organ is the living magisterium of the Church, (the Roman Pontiff and the bishops, united with and subordinate to him),” (Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology, Pietro Parente, Antonio Piolanti, Salvatore Garofolo, 1951).

The Sacraments — All the sacraments will exist eternally because they were instituted by Christ, but only marriage and Baptism are available to us today. Infant Baptism only must be insisted upon, unless new converts are adults not certainly baptized.

Honoring the Blessed Mother, the Angels and the Saints — This is part and parcel of Tradition and the teachings of the ordinary and extraordinary magisterium.

Justification, Purgatory, et al — Only the saints are certainly in Heaven. We cannot assume that anyone else is in Heaven or Hell.  Faith without works is dead. Without good works and sincere intent to obey the commandments and the teachings of the Church, we cannot be saved. We must diligently pray for the souls in Purgatory, as the correct version of Holy Scripture, the Douay-Rheims, states. Even the Jews prayed for their dead.

Home church — One article reports that, “As of 2023, an estimated 6–12 million Americans worship regularly in house churches — a number that has grown steadily since the early 2000s as believers seek the relational depth modeled in Acts 2:46, where the early church met “from house to house.” And the article also notes that home or house churches are especially appealing to younger people.

The numbers of this movement are important because it directly contradicts any notion that worshipping privately from home is eccentric or cultistic, and the movement is predicted to be growing by 8-10 percent annually. The establishment of house churches is a natural companion to homeschooling, and statistics show that 3,408,000 children were homeschooled in the U.S. in 2025. This provides a broad base to work from, and gives hope that in the midst of the false Christianity now prevailing, some sincere individuals might consider Catholicism. But a Catholic structure and supervision of these converts would need to be diligently attended to by the individuals instructing them.

Holy Office Instruction

The above is only a brief summary of what would need to be established in order to build a framework for conversion. We must remember that catechumens were often instructed for two years or even longer in the days of the early Church, and yet were considered to be baptized Catholics by desire if they died during that time period. Unlike those days, some of these Protestants today have already been validly baptized, but the instruction was lacking. Others would need conditional Baptism. But at least it would be a concerted effort to save their souls, an heroic act of charity. Below is a summary from an Instruction of the Holy Office regarding The Ecumenical Movement, how any contact with non-Catholics from a conversion standpoint must be conducted.

“All should be on guard lest, on the false pretext that more attention should be paid to the points on which we agree than to those on which we differ, a dangerous indifferentism be encouraged, especially among persons whose training in theology is not deep and whose practice of their faith is not very strong. For care must be taken lest in the so-called irenic spirit of today, though through comparative study and the vain desire for a progressively closer mutual approach among the various professions of faith, Catholic doctrine, either in its dogmas or in the truths which are connected with them, be so conformed or in a way adapted to the doctrines of dissident sects, that the purity of Catholic doctrine be impaired or its genuine and certain meaning be obscured…

Also, they must restrain the dangerous manner of speaking which generates false opinions and fallacious hopes incapable of realization, for example, to the effect that the teachings of the encyclicals of the Roman Pontiffs on the return of dissidents to the Church, on the constitution of the Church, on the mystical body of Christ, should not be given too much importance, seeing that they are not all matters of faith, or what is worse, that in matters of dogma even the Catholic Church has not yet attained the fullness of Christ, but can still be perfected from outside…The whole and entire Catholic doctrine is to be presented and explained. By no means is it permitted to pass over in silence or to veil in ambiguous terms the Catholic truth regarding the nature and way of justification, the constitution of the Church, the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, and the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ” (Rome, Dec. 20, 1940, AAS 42-142).

And these are just the primary considerations. But before any Catholic engages in Catholic Action, let those who see an opportunity to assist Protestants interested in the faith first be firmly grounded in the interior life, as the popes have taught, and let their own house be in order. That is, let those who have families make certain that all their needs are first attended to, both spiritual and material, for as St. Augustine taught, charity begins at home. And as the Holy Office instruction reminds us, “Nothing more effectively paves the way for the erring to find the truth and to embrace the Church than the faith of Catholics when it is confirmed by the example of upright living.”

This topic needs much discussion and prayer before it can even be considered as something that could be put into actual practice. Please feel free to make any comments or suggestions.

Jesus teaches us how to preserve peace of heart

by T. Stanfill Benns | Jun 21, 2024 | Blog

+St. Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J.+

St. Aloysius statue on altar of Our Lady of Lourdes in the church of Saint Matthew in Stitar, Croatia on August 27, 2015

 

The Mystical Body of Christ in the End Times, Pt. 1

by T. Stanfill Benns | Dec 11, 2022 | Blog

ROME, ITALY – AUGUST 28, 2021: The detail of fresco of Holy Trinity in the church San Francesco Saverio by Sebastiano Conca (1680 – 1764).

+Third Sunday in Advent+

In the series on marriage, the fact was stressed that those who violate Canon Law and are married outside the Church are no longer members of the Mystical Body of Christ because they have become at least material heretics. This is true because one cannot belong to a Church which pretends to be Catholic but has no pope and cannot legitimately procure one. The definition of a schismatic fits Traditionalists to a “T.” A schismatic is defined by Rev. Ignatius Szal as: “…one who, having received baptism and still retaining the name of Christian nevertheless refuses obedience to the Supreme Pontiff,” (while yet recognizing him as the head of the Church) “or refuses to communicate with those members of the Church subject to him.” In the strict sense, Szal noted, the following elements also are essential for schism to exist:

“One must withdraw directly (expressly) or indirectly (by one’s actions) from obedience to the Roman Pontiff and separate oneself from ecclesiastical communion with the rest of the faithful; one’s withdrawal must be made with obstinacy and rebellion; in relation to those things by which the unity of the Church is constituted; yet despite this formal disobedience the schismatic must recognize the Roman Pontiff as the true pastor of the Church” (Communication of Catholics with non-Catholics, Catholic University of America Canon Law dissertation, 1948).

Traditionalists are individuals who are baptized and retain the name Catholic. They recognize the pope as the head of the Church and pay him lip service. They will not acknowledge that those who pray at home legitimately object to their position and they dismiss them as cranks. They deny the necessity of the papacy by recognizing men as bishops who are not even validly consecrated according to the laws and infallible teachings of the Church, which Traditionalists stubbornly and consistently refuse to acknowledge as binding. They have denied the necessity of the papacy for the Church’s existence, indirectly withdrawing themselves from such obedience by refusing to honor the Church’s teaching that doubts regarding the validity of the Sacraments require them to remove themselves from these bishops. More to the point, Canon Law actually requires that they denounce them.

Those now members of Traditionalist sects could study and arrive at certitude regarding their actual position and convert, but this doesn’t often happen. All of us at one time were material heretics if we ever attended the Novus Ordo or a Traditionalist chapel. And yet, thankfully, even though they must consider themselves as such, there has been no formal decision made in their case, giving time at least for repentance. As explained in the marriage blogs, there are ways to mitigate this censure and prepare ourselves for absolution as best we can, as detailed in Canon Law. It requires public penance and a three-year probationary period as a pray-at-home Catholic, but it is the best we can do to return to the Church without valid bishops or the pope to receive us. We must humble ourselves and rely entirely on God’s mercy. Without the hierarchy we are in much the same position as those who have no one to baptize them, or who are truly invincibly ignorant and love God according to their best lights, but remain in other non-Catholic sects. We must become members of Christ’s Mystical Body by desire, praying He always will count us as such if we obey His laws, the teachings of His Vicars, do penance for our sins and do our best to help others find Him.

That Catholics do not go to greater lengths to make certain they are at least members of this Body by desire can be attributed to the fact that they refuse to adopt the pray-at-home position and know so little about the beauty and the living reality of this Body, representing Christ’s continued existence and operation on this earth among men. Some of this material has been covered already in our site articles HERE and HERE. But more needs to be said about the living reality of this Body that binds Catholics to Christ and to one another. This is the union that will exist unto the consummation, for as Pope Pius XII infallibly defined in Mystici Corporis Christi: “If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ — which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church — we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression ‘the Mystical Body of Christ’ — an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fathers.” Christ and His Vicar are the invisible and visible heads of this Body, but when there is no visible Head, Christ alone rules His Church. Below we will read more about the workings of this wondrous Body from approved theologians.

The Theology of the Mystical Body by Emile Mersch S.J., 1951

“…Christ ‘s humanity was both an empirical thing and a mysterious reality… The Church will likewise be an empirical thing and a mysterious reality.

“First it will be an empirical, concrete, visible, tangible thing like all human realities that prolong themselves in some form of continuation, for it is a human institution, a human society. And it is a society quite visibly and tangibly. Its sociology and Canon Law can be written down, it has its clearly defined members and its definite seat. It is the Church of Rome as Jesus Christ was Jesus of Nazareth. As a society it is perfect in its kind with a firm and well-delineated structure as befits a thing that is the perpetuation of the God-man. Secondly the Church will be an invisible reality; a life of thought, love and grace that is infused into souls; a divinization and an adoptive sonship which in the unity of the only-begotten Incarnate Son is diffused throughout all mankind so deeply as to be inaccessible to natural consciousness; and which in the depths thus reached unifies mankind in itself and attaches it to God.

“The two aspects of the Church — the visible and the invisible — are often called the soul and the body of the Church. This manner of speaking may have disadvantages and they are brought out in our day, but it greatly facilitates certain explanations. Hence we may profitably devote some consideration to it. The body of the Church as we see at once is the external aspect — the empirical society which is the Church of Rome. The word body does not have here the precise sense it has in the term mystical body. FOR THE EXPRESSION ‘MYSTICAL BODY’ DESIGNATES THE MYSTERIOUS AND INTERIOR ELEMENT OF THE CHURCH. Even for those who identify the Church Militant with the Mystical Body, it does not designate the external aspect of body except so far as it is the outward manifestation of the interior soul which consists in such a mystery.

“The soul of the Church must clearly be the factor that makes this society a living Organism. It is the first general principle of a collective and unified life in all the members. This factor can be nothing else than the grace which causes all these members to be living members of Christ —the divinizing grace that is infused into all by one and the same Christ. Or else we may say that it is Christ, the Son of the Father regarded as the principle of life and the whole supernatural Organism. Because of this confusion, a certain universal principle and a genus of such as have grace as Saint Thomas says a universal principle for bestowing grace on human nature” (end of Mersch quotes). 

The Mystical Christ, (Rev. John C. Gruden, S.T.L., 1938)

“Bishop Myers clarifies this difference between the Church and moral bodies in the words: ‘What makes Christ’s Mystical Body so very different from any moral body of men is the character of the union existing between Christ and the members. It is not a mere external union; it is not a mere moral union, it is a union which, as realized in Christ’s Church, is at once external and moral, but also in that primarily internal and supernatural. It is the supernatural union of the sanctified soul with Christ and with all other sanctified souls in Christ. The term Mystical Body is used to convey the idea that the Church is not merely a social organization, but an organism, a communion, a body: the living spiritual or supernatural body of Christ.

“The term mystical or mystic calls attention to the fact that in mere natural or moral bodies the relationship between the members and their head and the relationship between the members one to another is moral only or juridical, whereas the relationship between Christ and the members of the Church, members of His body, is quasi-physical and organic. The bonds that unite Christians to Christ and to one another are organic, physical, sacramental, although supernatural and invisible. The Church is not only ‘a complicated but smoothly functioning administrative machine’ it is more than that; Christians and Christ form a body of a special kind, neither physical nor moral, which lives and grows by a vital force descending from the head, Jesus Christ, to the members. ‘Christ the head, in His members’ says Bishop Myers ‘constitute a unique entity which is designed by a unique name: the Mystical Body of Christ’” (p. 64-65).

“The following are the leading ideas necessary for a correct grasp of the relation which obtains between the Mystical Body of Christ and the communion of saints:

“A. The Mystical Body (p. 160-161)

1. The Mystical Body of Christ is the Church militant, the “Church” or “ecclesia” in the strict sense, a visible society, both human and divine, with a visible hierarchical organization established by Christ, and with a visible, juridical, or moral head, the pope, the vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome.
2. Its invisible, principal, juridical and sole mystical head is Jesus Christ, the God-man, gloriously reigning in heaven. The Incarnate Word is also its exemplary cause, that is, the union of the visible with the invisible elements, of the natural with the supernatural, of the human and divine, in the supernatural organism of the Mystical Body is patterned after the model of the hypostatic union between the human and the divine nature in the person of the incarnate Word.
3. The formal internal cause, the Soul of this unique organism, is the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity who proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit dwells in this body as its informing principle consolidating all the members of the visible society into a unified organism, joining them by mystical, quasi-physical, or sacramental bonds to their mystical head, Jesus Christ.
4. The members of this body are all baptized earthly pilgrims (viatores) who have not separated themselves from it either by the loss of faith or excommunication.
5. The immediate end or purpose of the Mystical Body is to be the medium of salvation for men of all nations and of all times, to be the means whereby the merits of Christ’s redemption are applied to them, to be the sacrament or the mystery through which divine life is imparted to them that they may secure for themselves the life of glory in the world to come. The remote or final end is the same as that of all creation, that is, to manifest the glory of the only begotten Son who is the substantial image of the Father. Jesus Christ is glorified in his brothers, members of his Mystical Body, and God the Father is glorified “in his beloved Son.”

“B. The Communion of Saints

1. The communion of saints is an invisible society, a “Church” or “ecclesia” in the broad sense, a moral body.
2. Its invisible, moral, or juridical head is the glorified or exalted Christ.
3. The formal cause of the communion of saints is grace, the work of the Holy Spirit to whom sanctification of creatures is ascribed by appropriation. The Holy Spirit also personally dwells in individual souls belonging to the communion. He is present in the communion of saints as a spirit, but not as its soul, for he is not its informing principle. The Holy Spirit may, indeed, be spoken of as the soul of the communion of saints, if the term “soul” be used in the broad sense, as equivalent to “spirit.”
4. The members of this communion are the saints in heaven (saints in the strict sense, comprehensores), and the souls in purgatory, in other words, the Church triumphant and the Church suffering. Members of this communion are also the saints in the broad sense, that is, all the faithful, even though they be sinners who actually belong to the Church militant. There are, however, others who are outside the pale of the Catholic Church, who have not been baptized or who, even though baptized, profess a false religion through invincible ignorance. Pagans and Protestants may belong to this class. They, too, may be in the state of sanctifying grace, hence there seems to be no reason for excluding them from the “communion of saints.”
5. The object of the “communion of saints,” its proximate purpose, is not to be the medium of salvation, but rather a means of participation by all the members in the spiritual treasures held in common. This participation imports the distribution, interchange, and application of the spiritual gifts, graces, and fruits of meritorious works to all the members in need of the same. The remote or final end is the praise and glory of the Father through the Son.
6. At the end of time the Mystical Body will have achieved its fullest development, it will have attained “to the full measure of the stature of Christ,” and in the glory of heaven the pleroma of Christ will be fully realized. Then the Mystical Body of Christ, the kingdom of God upon earth, the Church militant, will be transformed into the kingdom of God in heaven, or the Church triumphant, namely, that communion of saints in which not only the souls of men, but their bodies also, will, “through Christ our Lord,” share in the glory of the Triune God (Eph. 4:13).

“The Church is a living organism, a body; the mystic body of Christ; hence, if the analogy of the human body as applied to the Church is to be regarded as more than a mere figure of speech, the Church must be informed by an animating principle, a soul. Besides the many or multiple external visible elements, clergy and laity, hierarchical structure, sacraments, sacramentals, etc., the Church must possess an inner element which, intimately united to the visible elements, must be the formal cause of the unity and identity of the organism, formal cause, too, of its own peculiar life which is supernatural and divine. In the Church must dwell a spirit which is not only “spirit” but “soul” in its restricted meaning, which, intimately or quasi-substantially, united with the visible and invisible elements of the Church, “elevates” them to a higher level of being and makes of them the Church; a spirit which through intimate union with the visible and invisible elements be- comes the formal cause of the union between the head and the members and ultimately the source of the manifold life and activity of the “organs,” as well as of the ordinary “members” of Christ’s Mystical Body.

“The theory of two Churches, however, is not exclusively Protestant. Svetlov, a modern Russian “orthodox” theologian, defends it. From the comparison of the Church with the human body he concludes that the invisible Church can exist independently of the visible Church. The human soul, he argues, can live without the body and independently of it. Similarly the soul of the Church, that is, the invisible Church, can exist independently of the body or the visible Church. Here we have an instance of the wrong use of the analogy of the human body. Analogies have their value, but they also have their danger. The value of analogies is that they clarify concepts; their danger is that they may be pushed too far. The Church may not be compared to the human soul existing independently after its separation from the body, but rather to the living human body informed and vivified by the soul.

“The true picture of the Church presented in Sacred Scripture and tradition is that of a unique visible organism, with a human and a divine side, visible and invisible aspect, comprising natural and supernatural elements. The invisible elements which, figuratively speaking, we call the soul of the Church, form together with the visible elements, its body, one undivided and indivisible whole, informed and vivified by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit.This living visible organism, of which the Holy Spirit is the soul in the real but mystical sense, is the Mystical Body of Christ, or the mystical Christ (p. 167).

“Henry Cardinal Manning…writes: ‘The Church is a mystical person, and all its endowments are derived from the Divine Person of its head, and the Divine Person who is its Life. As in the Incarnation there is a communication of the divine perfections to the humanity, so in the Church the perfections of the Holy Spirit become the endowments of the body. It is imperishable, because he is God; indivisibly one, because he is numerically one; holy, because he is the foundation of holiness; infallible both in believing and in teaching, because his illumination and his voice are immutable, and therefore, being not an individual depending upon the fidelity of the human will, but a body depending only on the divine will, it is not on trial or probation but is itself the instrument of probation to mankind. It cannot be affected by the frailty or sins of the human will, any more than the brightness of the firmament by the dimness or the loss of human sight. It can no more be tainted by human sin than the holy sacraments, which are always immutably pure and divine, though all who come to them be impure and faithless. What the Church was in the beginning it is now, and ever shall be in all plenitude of its divine endowments, because the union between the body and the Spirit is indissoluble, and all the operations of the Spirit in the body are perpetual and absolute.’

“This function of the Holy Spirit in the Mystical Body of Christ, a function so important and so vital, should not be overlooked in any adequate definition of the Church. We suggest as the briefest definition: “The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ animated by the Holy Spirit,” or “The Church is a living, supernatural organism whose Mystical head is Christ, gloriously reigning in heaven (the exalted Christ) and whose soul is the Holy Spirit.” (End of Gruden quotes)

And this from Mystici Corporis: “To this Spirit of Christ, also, as to an invisible principle is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of the Body are joined one with the other and with their exalted Head; for He is entire in the Head, entire in the Body, and entire in each of the members. To the members He is present and assists them in proportion to their various duties and offices, and the greater or less degree of spiritual health which they enjoy. It is He who, through His heavenly grace, is the principle of every supernatural act in all parts of the Body. It is He who, while He is personally present and divinely active in all the members, nevertheless in the inferior members acts also through the ministry of the higher members. Finally, while by His grace He provides for the continual growth of the Church, He yet refuses to dwell through sanctifying grace in those members that are wholly severed from the Body. This presence and activity of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is tersely and vigorously described by Our predecessor of immortal memory Leo XIII in his Encyclical Letter Divinum Illud in these words: ‘Let it suffice to say that, as Christ is the Head of the Church, so is the Holy Spirit her soul.’“

If we are making amends and doing penance as Canon Law prescribes — praying and studying our faith to be forgiven for the sins of schism and material heresy — we can hope to qualify as those not wholly severed from the Body. We can yet be counted as members of Christ’s Body and the continuation of His Church on earth. In the next part of this study, the intended continuation of Christ’s Mystical Body will be explained and readers will see that what has happened to the Church in these times, the loss of the papacy, Mass and Sacraments, will actually assist the faithful in seamlessly transitioning to the New Jerusalem in Heaven.

What does the Church really teach about: Almsgiving

by T. Stanfill Benns | Oct 15, 2022 | Blog

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+St. Teresa of Avila+ 

The next few blogs will be dedicated to dispelling some misunderstandings that have arisen around certain Catholic moral topics as they apply to the world we live in today. The first subject to be addressed will be almsgiving.

In a day and age when the true sense of Catholic almsgiving has been almost obliterated, it is important to keep in mind the longstanding teaching of the Church in these matters, which along with so many other moral and dogmatic teachings has been lost in the neo-pagan shuffle. Great discretion in almsgiving is required today owing to the many scams and con artist operations run in this world, by both cunning individuals and fraudulent organizations. Many of the younger set especially believe it is perfectly acceptable to aid the anonymous “homeless” person, or beggar with a sign stopping traffic on the street, but those who read what is below will understand that this is neither wise nor does it constitute true charity.

Discretion in Almsgiving

Proverbs 6 — vs. 6-11

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom:

7 Which, although she hath no guide, nor master, nor captain,

8 Provideth her meat for herself in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou rise out of thy sleep?

10 Thou wilt sleep a little, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to sleep:

11 And want shall come upon thee, as a traveler, and poverty as a man armed. But if thou be diligent, thy harvest shall come as a fountain, and want shall flee far from thee.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins, Matthew 25

1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride.
2. And five of them were foolish, and five wise.
3. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them:
4. But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps.
5. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept.
6. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him.
7. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
8. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.
9. The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10. Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
11. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us.
12. But he, answering, said: Amen I say to you, I know you not.
13. Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.

“Charity begins at home.” — St. Augustine

The above verses remind us that we are not obligated to support those who are willfully lazy and do not provide for themselves, even in times of great need. As one author writing about hospital care sponsored by the Church wrote: “Hospital care was so good that precautions had to be taken not to permit sturdy beggars to take advantage of it… by pretended ailments and thus secure for themselves a nice easy life or at least a refuge during the colder months until they could take to the road again” (The World’s Debt to the Catholic Church, James J. Walsh, 1924). With the many homeless now populating metro areas, this would seem to be a good bit of advice. Better that such funds be used to benefit some family one knows personally to be truly worthy and in need, and St. Cyprian says such people do not need to be Catholic. The risk of the homeless or random beggars using these funds for sinful purposes is simply too great, and this would amount to cooperation in sin. More on this is explained below.

Rules for almsgiving

(The following is from the article on Almsgiving, Catholic Encyclopedia.)

Discretion in almsgiving is counseled in the Apostolic Constitutions: “Alms must not be given to the malicious, the intemperate, or the lazy; lest a premium should be set on vice” (Const. Apost., ii, 1-63; iii, 4-6).

And this from the Didache, or non-canonical book, The Teaching of the 12 Apostles: “In addition to its innate characteristics, almsgiving should be vested with qualities tending to garner fruitfulness for giver and receiver. Hence, almsgiving should be discreet, so as to reach deserving individuals or families (2 Thessalonians 3:10; Sirach 12:4); prompt, so as to warrant opportuneness (Proverbs 3:28); secret and humble (Matthew 6:2); cheerful (2 Corinthians 9:7); abundant (Tobit 4:9; St. Thomas, Summa Theol., II-II, Q. xxxii, art. 10). The harvest of blessings to be reaped by almsgiving amply suffices to inspire noble-minded Christians “to make unto themselves friends of the Mammon of iniquity.”

First of all, almsgiving renders the donor like unto God Himself (Luke 6:30, 36); nay more, it renders God Himself debtor to those giving alms (Matthew 25:40 sqq.). Moreover, almsgiving adds special efficacy to prayer (Tobit 4:7), tends to appease divine wrath (Hebrews 13:16); liberates from sin and its punishment (Sirach 29), and thus paves the way to the gift of faith (Acts 10:31). Daily experience proves that those lending a helping hand to stay the miseries of the poor frequently prepare the way for the moral reformation of many whose temporal misery pales before their spiritual wretchedness. Finally, almsgiving tends to guard society against turbulent passions whose fury is often checked by almsgiving.

“Give to everyone that asks thee, and do not refuse, for the Father’s will is that we give to all from the gifts we have received. Blessed is he that gives according to the mandate; for he is innocent; but he who receives it without need shall be tried as to why he took and for what, and being in prison he shall be examined as to his deeds, and “he shall not come out thence until he pay the last farthing.”

“But concerning this it was also said, “Let thine alms sweat into thine hands until thou knowest to whom thou art giving.” (The Didache)

Moral Theology on almsgiving, McHugh and Callan

1249. (b) As to the need of the receiver, a person should give his share towards providing for the case before him. Thus, if there is no one else who can or will give, and a neighbor is in grave necessity, a charitable person will bear the whole expense, as was done by the good Samaritan. But if the necessity is ordinary (as in the case of street beggars), or there are others who will help, a smaller alms suffices. Steady employment is a better charity than temporary doles, inasmuch as it gives permanent assistance.
1250. (a) Those in apparent need are such as pretend poverty, sickness, or misfortune, in order to get sympathy and financial aid (e.g., professional beggars). Alms should not be given persons of this kind, since they take what would be given to the really poor and needy. Rather they should be exposed and punished.

(b) Those in real need through choice should not be helped, if they take to begging because they are too lazy to work, or find it profitable to live off others; for they have no right to beg, being able to help themselves, and it would be wrong to encourage them in idleness and an imposition on others (II Thess., iii. 10). But those who are voluntarily poor for Christ’s sake, whether they belong to a religious order or not, are worthy of respect and it is meritorious to assist them.

(c) Those who are in real need against their will, should be assisted; for, even though they became destitute through their own fault, they are in fact unable to help themselves now.

1256. The Manner of Giving Alms

(a) One gives alms directly when one ministers relief personally to the needy, giving food to the starving and medicine to the sick, helping to put out a fire, etc.

(b) One gives alms indirectly when one pays taxes for the support of alms-houses, public hospitals, orphan asylums, homes for the aged, the insane, etc.; …

1257. Public charity done by the State is useful and necessary under the conditions of modern life, but it does not and cannot take the place of charity done by the Church or by private individuals.

(a) State-administered charity does not reach all, or even the most deserving, cases of need. Hence, those who pay their taxes for the support of state charities are not thereby exempted from the obligation of contributing to cases they may meet, especially of extreme or grave necessity.

Charity can demand a condemnation

Canon 1935 tells Catholics they have an obligation to publicly denounce those posing a danger to the faith, as does Can. 1325. Catholics often fall into the trap today of urging charity for those disseminating errors since they are in invincible ignorance (although we cannot always be certain of this), but this is not Catholic practice. Rather it is the practice of liberal charity, as Rev. Felix Sarda Salvany explains in his book, What Is Liberalism,  a book personally commended by the Holy Office.

“It is often necessary to displease or offend one person, not for his own good but to deliver another from the evil he is inflicting. It is then an obligation of charity to repel the unjust violence of the aggressor; one may inflict as much injury on the aggressor as is necessary for the defense… The love due to a man inasmuch as he is our neighbor ought always to be subordinated to that which is due to our common Lord. For His love and in His service we must not hesitate to offend men… Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin. If the propagation of good and the necessity of combating evil require the employment of terms somewhat harsh against error and its supporters, this usage certainly is not against charity…

“The authors of heretical doctrines are soldiers with poisoned weapons in their hands… Is it sufficient to dodge their blows? Not at all; the first thing necessary is to demolish the combatant himself… It is thus lawful, in certain cases, to expose the infamy of [an] opponent, to bring his habits into contempt and to drag his name in the mire…The only restriction is not to employ a lie in the service of justice. This never. Under no pretext may we sully the truth, even to the dotting of an ‘i.’ As a French writer says: ‘Truth is the only charity allowed in history,’ and, we may add, in the defense of religion and society…When it strikes, let the sword of the Catholic polemicist wound, and wound mortally…This is the only real and efficacious means of waging war.”

Spiritual almsgiving

The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us further that alms also can be given in a spiritual manner: “As, however, the spiritual works of mercy deal with a distress whose relief is even more imperative as well as more effective for the grand purpose of man’s creation, the injunction must be supposed to extend to them also. Besides there are the plain references of Christ to such works as fraternal correction (Matthew 18:15) as well as the forgiveness of injuries (Matthew 6:14). It has to be remembered however that the precept is an affirmative one, that is, it is of the sort which is always binding but not always operative, for lack of matter or occasion or fitting circumstances. …Thus in general it may be said that the determination of its actual obligatory force in a given case depends largely on the degree of distress to be aided, and the capacity or condition of the one whose duty in the matter is in question.

“The law imposing spiritual works of mercy is subject in individual instances to important reservations. For example, it may easily happen that an altogether special measure of tact and prudence, or, at any rate, some definite superiority is required for the discharge of the oftentimes difficult task of fraternal correction. Similarly to instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, and console the sorrowing is not always within the competency of everyone. To bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offences willingly, and to pray for the living and the dead are things from which on due occasion no one may dispense himself on the pleas that he has not some special array of gifts required for their observance. They are evidently within the reach of all. It must not be forgotten that the works of mercy demand more than a humanitarian basis if they are to serve as instruments in bringing about our eternal salvation. The proper motive is indispensable, and this must be one drawn from the supernatural order.”

Duty to dispel ignorance

Ignorance in our times is legion. Much confusion has arisen as the result of deliberate mis-instruction in the faith owing to Modernism, ecumenism and the proliferation of non-Catholic sects. Many desire to know the truth but are lost in a welter of conflicting opinions and half-truths. To help readers better understand the true nature of ignorance and their obligations as Catholics, we return to the moral theologians McHugh and Callan for a reliable assay regarding ignorance.

“27. With reference to the responsibility of the person who is ignorant, there are two kinds of ignorance:

(a) Ignorance is invincible when it cannot be removed, even by the use of all the care that ordinarily prudent and conscientious persons would use in the circumstances. Thus, a person who has no suspicions of his ignorance, or who has tried in vain to acquire instruction about his duties, is invincibly ignorant.

(b) Ignorance is vincible when it can be removed by the exercise of ordinary care. There are various degrees of this species of ignorance: first, it is merely vincible, when some diligence has been exercised, but not enough; secondly, it is crass or supine, when hardly any diligence has been used; thirdly, it is affected, when a person deliberately aims to continue in ignorance.

“30. (b) Vincible ignorance does not make an act involuntary, since the ignorance itself is voluntary; hence, it does not excuse from sin. It does not even make an act less voluntary and less sinful, if the ignorance is affected in order that one may have an excuse; for such a state of mind shows that the person would act the same way, even though he had knowledge.

“31. Vincible ignorance makes an act less voluntary and less sinful:

(a) when the ignorance is not affected, for the voluntariness is measured by the knowledge, and knowledge here is lacking;

(b) when the ignorance, though affected, was fostered only through fear that knowledge might compel a stricter way of life; for such a state of mind seems to show that one would not act the same way if one had knowledge.

“The Commandment of Knowledge:

The first of the foregoing commandments includes three things:

(a) The doctrines of faith must be taught and must be listened to — “These words thou shalt tell to thy children” (Deut., vi. 6), “Teach ye all nations” (Matt, xxviii. 19), “He that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me” (Luke, x. 16).

(b) One must apply oneself to understand what one hears — “Thou shalt meditate on these words, sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising” (Deut., vi. 7), “Meditate upon these things, be wholly in these things. Take heed to thyself and doctrine” (I Tim., iv, 15, 16).

(c) One must retain what one has learned — “Thou shalt bind the words of the law as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes. And thou shalt write them in the entry and on the doors of thy house” (Deut., vi. 8, 9); “Have in mind in what manner thou hast received and heard” (Apoc., iii. 3).

There has been some confusion about the true nature of affected ignorance and the authors above do not sufficiently address this matter. Innocent Robert Swoboda, O.F.M., J.C.L., in his Ignorance in Relation to the Imputability of Delicts (1941) writes: “Affected ignorance is real ignorance and not merely simulated or pretended ignorance. A man who pretends ignorance or pleads ignorance in court contrary to fact is not ignorant at all; he is merely trying to deceive others… Affected ignorance can therefore be defined as a directly voluntary lack of obligatory knowledge which is procured by positive effort …” The gravity of affected ignorance depends upon the gravity of the motive on account of which the ignorance is directly sought. We have seen many who know they should investigate the claims of their Traditionalist sects further, yet fail to do so. The same could be said of some claiming to be pray-at-home Catholics. Their motives, which cannot be certainly known, determine the seriousness of their sin. This is something that can be positively determined only by a confessor.

It requires courage to face the truth, and many simply lack the intestinal fortitude to move from their comfy Traditional couches. On the other hand, those who at least try to inform themselves should be careful that theirs is not a selective process when it comes to a better understanding of the true nature of faith or morals, since all of us are easily capable of deceiving ourselves. The best precaution to take against such deceit is to read Fr. Frederick Faber’s chapters on this subject in his Spiritual Conferences, available at https://archive.org/details/spiritualconfer00fabe.  If we wish to save our souls, if Heaven is truly our goal, we will leave no stone unturned in the quest for truth. May the Holy Ghost enlighten you all and guide you in that quest.