+St. Zachary and Elizabeth+

Some housekeeping items

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What is truth?

I have often been asked how I can be so certain that what is written here is the truth. The only answer I can give to this question is to define truth. “What is truth?” Pontius Pilate asked Our Lord, after Jesus had just announced to Pilate He was “…the way, the truth, and the life.” Since Christ left the determination of His truth to be decided by the Roman Pontiffs and the ecumenical councils convened by them, the main sources used on this site are the popes and councils, the decisions of the Holy Office and the Sacred Congregations, Canon Law and approved scholastic theologians writing before the death of Pope Pius XII. Why “scholastic” theologians? Because the Roman Pontiffs have declared for centuries that the only trustworthy method of determining the truth is the scholastic method used by St. Thomas Aquinas; all other methods are in error.

The scholastic method teaches its students how to arrive at what is known as certitude, discussed at length in articles on this site for many years. Here is a quick review of this method and how it actually works below, paraphrased from the work ABC of Scholastic Philosophy, by A.C. Cotter, S.J., 1949.

Epistemology, that is major logic or criteriology, is the science of the certitude of our cognitions. Epistemology is 1) cognition: that which we know and 2) certitude, cognition which is necessarily true and known to be true. Epistemology determines the where, why and how of our cognitions. The sources of certitude include consciousness, external senses, intellect, reasoning and human testimony. Logical truth is conformity of the mind to an object; formal certitude is the ideal state of mind which is necessarily true and known to be true, such as 2 + 2 = 4 . Some openly and explicitly deny all formal certitude. These are the so-called skeptics, and their denial that one can obtain such certitude is condemned by the Church because it is contrary to the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas.

What constitutes our cognitive faculties was mentioned above. First there is consciousness, which is awareness of our present internal acts to external senses. This is of course sight, hearing, taste smell and feeling. Also our intellect which is the faculty of thought. Under thought is included attention, judgment, reflection, self-consciousness, the formation of concepts and the processes of reasoning. Then there is reasoning itself, which can only be expressed correctly by the use of  logic. Finally there is human testimony, which is credible only when provided by trustworthy witnesses. Rev. Cotter tells us that where a definite goal is to be attained, method is of supreme importance. Method is a way to arrive at a doctrine and logic is a treatise on method with the goal of obtaining correctness of thought.

Without the papacy, without sure guides, deprived of all the many advantages the Church offered Catholics for centuries, it is more important than ever that we learn to think according to the mind of the Church, according to Her own tried and true method. Truth cannot come through the endless dialogue and cacophony of useless human opinions broadcast perpetually by the LibTrads. Formal certitude alone, available to us only from the Continual Magisterium, is the one thing left to us — integral truth, binding on all Catholics, devoid of all heretical exclusivism or minimalization.

LibTrads lost in fog of denial

The past few blogs have explained how LibTrads fail to draw out the logical conclusions of the teachings of the Church, of their own stated principles and even of the opinions held by their pseudo-clergy, because they refuse to follow scholastic method which alone can lead to the truth. They fall into thinking errors which scholasticism was designed to prevent because they will not acknowledge the consequences logically flowing from their erroneous premises. LibTrads also work to confuse ideas and distort the proper meaning of words. The most especially fall into the logical fallacy of the vicious circle, assuming as true that which has yet to be proven, which applies generally to nearly every argument they present, since scholastic method is never followed. But most notably, in the course of their erroneous reasoning process, they depend on the varying degrees of the truths which are denied, in order to maintain the stance they have taken. Basically, they live, move and breathe in a constant state of denial. This is described by Michael J. Mahony, S.J., in his 1918 work Essentials of Formal Logic as, “Seeing what we wish to see and not seeing what we do not wish to see.”

This point is the wellspring from which all the errors of Traditionalists issue. Having failed to follow the rules, they proceed as if they never existed, or cannot possibly apply, or have ceased to exist “in this emergency.” They see what it is they want and wish to see: the Church as She once was, as they believed She would always be. Mass, Sacraments, clergy, the false certainty of Her restoration. They see Her in Her youth and middle age, but they do not see Her in Her declining years. In fact they will tell you that She will never decline or that Her decline is in the distant future. This in direct contradiction of Matt. 24, the prophets, and St. John’s Apocalypse (Ch. 13:7): “And it was given to Antichrist to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them.” They prefer children’s fairy tales to reality, which can be found only in the application of logic; they would rather believe lies than truth. They never observed the Church’s gaunt visage, disfigured by the cancer of Modernism, or heeded Her death rasps, the edicts and the warnings issued by a dying pope who was surrounded by his enemies.

Today nothing is more dangerous than to be lost in this denial. For in failing to draw out the proper consequences of the sede vacante, LibTrads of every shade have deceived not only themselves but anyone following them. Using evasions and specious arguments, they continue to ignore the basic infallible documents that would set them right and which teach the inevitable truths, these being primarily Pope Paul IV’s 1559 Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio and Pope Pius XII’s 1945 papal election constitution, Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS), also Canon Law. Most important among these papal pronouncements is Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, which predicts the precise arrival of the abomination of desolation in exactly the manner in which John the 23rd was invalidly placed into office. Yet they deny both VAS and Cum ex… as documents which either no longer bind or issue from human law alone.

Many have objected that John 23rd could not have been the Antichrist, the abomination of desolation foretold by Pope Paul IV, but they misunderstand the meaning of the term abomination of desolation, which can be used in several different ways. One of these is to describe anything or anyone unworthily entered into the sanctuary, and Roncalli was an, but not the antichrist, as antipopes were described before him. False worship also classifies as an abomination, and this undoubtedly was the Novus Ordo Missae, the John the 23rd missal and also the dialogue missalettes that John 23rd approved for distribution in 1959. Finally, it was Montini himself, introduced into the sanctuary from the moment Roncalli was invalidly elected.

For with Roncalli as “pope,” Montini became his coadjutor and official advisor, and this had been the case even prior to Roncalli’s “election.” Roncalli was the false prophet and Paul 6 was the actual Antichrist. They had been close friends since the 1930s and ruled together just as prophesied in Ch. 13 of Apocalypse. Roncalli almost immediately made Montini a “cardinal” in the new counter church. Furthermore Montini worked very closely with Roncalli from the time he was elected knowing he was going to succeed him; a deal made secretly with the CIA. Montini also ghostwrote Pacem in Terris, according to several credible reports, as well as authoring other pseudo-papal documents. But because LibTrads reject Paul IV’s bull, coupled with these well-known facts, they fail to fully draw out the consequences. Instead, they stop short of admitting that Pope Paul IV taught that two men, both invalidly elected, would be the abomination of desolation, standing in the Holy Place.

Enter the second part of the equation, that is Pope Pius XII’s election constitution. Flying in the face of this infallible teaching, LibTrads insist that their pseudo-bishops can substitute for the Pope and rule the Church. In their liberal charity, they may be afraid of calling people heretics, but I’m not one to pull any punches. This is nothing but the heresy of Gallicanism, plain and simple, dealt the death blow at the Vatican Council. Deny that and heresy is the only word to describe it. VAS is so clear that no one should have any questions about its import. And VAS is not the only binding Church teaching they deny. Incredibly, as seen below, LibTrads manage to manipulate the teachings of Pope Leo XIII to support their belief that “there must always be bishops,” who can constitute the Church without the Pope. (This heresy is refuted here and here.)

What LibTrads ignore in quoting Pope Leo XIII

The following is excerpted from what LibTrads quote regarding Pope Leo XIII’s supposed intent that the bishops have the ability to rule the Church in the absence of the Pope.

“Only the Church of Jesus Christ has been able to preserve, and surely will preserve unto the consummation of time, her form of government. Founded by Him Who was, Who is, and Who will be forever (Heb. 13:8), She has received from Him, since Her very origin, all that She requires for the pursuing of Her divine mission across the changeable ocean of human affairs. And, far from wishing to transform Her essential constitution, She has not the power even to relinquish the conditions of true liberty and sovereign independence with which Providence has endowed Her in the general interest of souls” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Au Milieu de Sollicitudes, Feb. 16, 1892, n. 17).

“But as the Church was to last to the end of time, something more was required besides the bestowal of the Sacred Scriptures. It was obviously necessary that the Divine Founder should take every precaution, lest the treasure of heavenly-given truths, possessed by the Church, should ever be destroyed, which would assuredly have happened, had He left those doctrines to each one’s private judgment. It stands to reason, therefore, that a living, perpetual “magisterium” was necessary in the Church from the beginning, which, by the command of Christ himself, should besides teaching other wholesome doctrines, give an authoritative explanation of Holy Writ, and which being directed and safeguarded by Christ himself, could by no means commit itself to erroneous teaching” (Encyclical On the Church in Scotland by Pope Leo XIII, 1898).

“And, since it was necessary that His divine mission SHOULD BE perpetuated to the end of time, He took to Himself Disciples, trained by Himself, and made them partakers of His own authority. And, when He had invoked upon them from Heaven the Spirit of Truth, He bade them go through the whole world and faithfully preach to all nations, what He had taught and what He had commanded, so that by the profession of His doctrine, and the observance of His laws, the human race might attain to holiness on earth and never-ending happiness in Heaven. In this wise, and on this principle, the Church was begotten…

“For to the Apostles and their LEGITIMATE SUCCESSORS ALONE these words have reference: “Going into the whole world preach the Gospel.” “Baptizing them.” “Do this in commemoration of Me.” “Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them.” And in like manner He ordered the Apostles only and those who should LAWFULLY succeed them to feed – that is to govern with AUTHORITY – all Christian souls. Whence it also follows that it is necessarily the duty of Christians to be subject and to obey. And these duties of the Apostolic office are, in general, all included in the words of St. Paul: “Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God” (I Cor. iv., I). (Par. 10)… Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles and their successors to the end of time to teach and rule the nations. He ordered the nations to accept their teaching and obey their authority. But his correlation of rights and duties in the Christian commonwealth not only could not have been made permanent but could not even have been initiated except through the senses, which are of all things the messengers and interpreters” (Pope Leo XIII, Satis cognitum, 1896).

A classic case of heretical exclusivism

A better example of the heretical exclusivism evidenced above (emphasizing one dogma to the exclusion of others, also known as the fallacy of special pleading in Scholastic philosophy), could not be found anywhere. Pope Leo predicates the ability of the Apostles to teach and rule entirely on their LAWFUL succession, meaning that even if validly ordained and consecrated (which they are not), LibTrads are obligated to PROVE their “clerics” receive the POWER or jurisdiction necessary to their appointed office from the head bishop, the pope. That this power comes from the pope and not to bishops directly from Christ was infallibly defined by Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi and elsewhere. Under Canon 147, no office can be validly obtained without being granted by competent ecclesiastical authority according to the sacred canons. In 1950, Pius XII quoted the Council of Trent as the source of this canon, declaring anyone who appointed themselves to such offices as “thieves and robbers.” He also declared that such persons were excommunicated for heresy under Can. 2314 no. 1, adding additional penalties for those subverting ecclesiastical authority and anyone aiding them. And this decision is binding on the faithful, being entered into the Acta Apostolica Sedis. (Canon Law Digest, T. Lincoln Bouscaren, Vol. III, AAS 42-601).

During a sede vacante, Pope Pius teaches in VAS, no one may usurp papal jurisdiction, and it is left to the pope alone to appoint bishops and issue the mandate permitting consecration. This was originally decided by the Council of Trent. It is a usurpation of papal jurisdiction, a subversion of ecclesiastical authority, to proceed without the required mandate, And in VAS, Pope Pius XII infallibly declares that if such acts are undertaken during an interregnum, including any supposed ordination of priests, they are null, void and invalid (see here).  But to ramp up their contention that bishops must always exist, LibTrads entirely ignore these infallible teachings. Yes, bishops should exist until the end of time, as Pope Leo XII states, but only as long as they are operating under their HEAD bishop, the pope, which of course Pope Leo XIII presumes. That he does so presume is seen in this portion of Satis cognitum which LibTrads do not dare quote out for their readers:

“…Indeed, Holy Writ attests that the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to Peter alone, and that the power of binding and loosening was granted to the Apostles and to Peter; but there is nothing to show that the Apostles received supreme power without Peter, and against Peter. Such power they certainly did not receive from Jesus Christ. Wherefore, in the decree of the Vatican Council as to the nature and authority of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, no newly conceived opinion is set forth, but the venerable and constant belief of every age (Sess. iv., cap. 3)… “…Christ the Lord WISHED that by the strength and solidity of the foundation the gates of hell SHOULD BE PREVENTEDfrom prevailing against the Church. All are agreed that the divine promise must be understood of the Church as a whole, and not of any certain portions of it. These can indeed be overcome by the assaults of the powers of hell, as in point of fact has befallen some of them.”

This is the way these disgraceful “promoters of the faith” lead well-intentioned Catholic inquirers astray. And it goes much deeper than that. These false guides have succeeded in convincing people that they cannot become so “extreme” that they finally do reach the proper conclusions and realize the consequences of what is taught in infallible pronouncements, taken as an integral whole. Such individuals they wrongfully label as “totalists,” a pejorative used to discourage readers from unhealthy rigidity or “dogmatism.” But as Rev. A. C. Cotter explains, “Unfortunately the terms dogmatism, “dogmatic,” “dogmatize” etc. usually have a sinister meaning implying blind or unreasonable stubbornness and sticking to one’s own opinion. [However] In Catholic usage, a dogma is a revealed truth which the Church proposes to all as revealed and therefore to be believed.”  (And it is in this sense only that dogmatic is used in the articles on this website). If those quoting Leo XIII’s Satis Cognitum and other documents had properly qualified them in the context indicated by Pope Leo, it would soon be seen that what this pope was saying could not apply in any way to LibTrad pseudo-bishops,or to the time period in which we find ourselves today.

End, or consummation, of the age

In blogs written earlier this year, we discussed the difference between the end of time/the present age versus the final consummation of the world. And in those blogs, we made it clear that the end of time, the consummation of the ages or consummation of time itself was an expression used to indicate the end of the juridical Church’s time on earth. The Church’s time on earth could end only if he who withholdeth was permanently taken out of the way, which could happen only if a Pope died and all the qualified electors also died, so that no one could elect another true Pope. This has actually occurred.  But to demonstrate this is NOT to say that Christ reneged on HIS promises! It only describes an act strictly executed by man exercising the free will God gave him, an innate quality which cannot be taken from him. Christ was true to His promise: the Gates of Hell never prevailed against the Church as long as a canonically elected pope reigned. So what is Pope Leo’s meaning of the end of time?

If we find Pope Leo XIII mentioning the end of time in his papal documents, we cannot presume that he meant the consummation, for if he had he would have simply used that word. The Popes had to allow for a time when the Church would fall under grievous attack, and even they could not fully be certain of what would transpire during those dreaded times. Even Christ could not tell the Apostles when we would experience the last days; He described only in general terms what we could expect. The Church’s “time” ended with the reign of Antichrist; the two periods could scarcely be said to overlap because Antichrist proper could never reign as long as the holding power was in place. That he who was prophesied in the Book of Daniel to take away the Continual Sacrifice and change times and laws has reigned tells us this event indeed has transpired. And the advent of that hellish period has led us to where we are today. LibTrads of course will never admit this, and by refusing to believe Paul 6 was Antichrist they have entirely miscalculated every other aspect of their very existence. Pride and whatever other insidious motives they may entertain will not allow them to correct their position.

They should be reviewing the other encyclicals Pope Leo XIII wrote, primarily Humanum genus and those encyclicals written by his predecessors on the same subject. And if only a smattering of research was conducted these LibTrads would clearly understand that we are in a most precarious position now, one that cannot be resolved by their constant wrangling and erroneous speculations; one that will come upon us so quickly that some will have little time to even realize far less reconsider their heretical, schismatic state and repent. For Christ has warned us, “I come as a thief.” Those reading these papal teachings must surely come away with the idea that all the popes feared has come to fruition, and as Pope Pius XI said regarding Christ’s kingship, all governments will certainly topple. Apocalypse 17-19 describes this event. But we are not there??? Think hard on this question as you read below and understand that the children of darkness are wiser in their day than the children of light.

Masonic predictions on war in Israel

(The following letter is believed to have been written by 33^rd degree Mason and Sovereign Grand Commander Albert Pike. Pike is believed to have had close ties with the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini, a 33rd degree Freemason who became the head of the illuminati in 1834 and whom some credit with founding the Mafia in the 1860s. Pike reportedly wrote a letter to Mazzini on August 15, 1871, in which he outlined his vision for three world wars which would ultimately bring about one world government. There is no trace of the original letter today which is reputed to have been on display at the British Museum in London as late as 1977. Pikes plan called for Communists, Nazis and political Zionists, also other international movements, to unite and allow themselves to be used to foment three global wars and at least two major revolutions. The following are extracts from Pike’s letter to Mazzini.)

The First World War — World War I

“The First World War must be brought about in order to permit the Illuminati to overthrow the power of the Czars in Russia and of making that country a fortress of atheistic Communism. The divergences caused by the “agentur” [agents] of the Illuminati between the British and Germanic Empires will be used to foment this war. At the end of the war, Communism will be built and used to destroy the other governments and in order to weaken religions.”

The Second World War — World War II

“The Second World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences between the Fascists and the political Zionists. This war must be brought about so that Nazism is destroyed and that the political Zionism be strong enough to institute a sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. During the Second World War, International Communism must become strong enough in order to balance Christendom, which would be then restrained and held in check until the time when we would need it for the final social cataclysm.”

The Third World War —  said to be the last.

“The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by “agentur” of the “Illuminati” between the political  Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other.

“Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion… We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil.

“Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in public view.

“This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”

So there we have the real reason for fighting World War I and II, and the blueprint for the current war in Israel — Satan’s own plan for world domination.

Conclusion

Unlike non-Catholics, Catholics have the advantage of viewing the above with the sure knowledge that regardless of who among the ranks of Freemasonry wrote it, such diabolical machinations were foretold long ago, beginning with the popes in the 1700s and continuing until the death of Pope Pius XII. And papal teaching on this terrible menace to both our faith and governmental institutions is no “conspiracy theory,” but a belief binding on Catholics and punished by excommunication. We see all the players at work here: the political Zionists, the neo-Nazis and the Communists. We see their final goal, which the popes also envisioned: pure Satanism.

We also see the intended means of accomplishing their goal — the battle of Armageddon, described in chapters 16 and 19 of the Apocalypse. When these satanic forces encompass or surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city is precisely when this battle takes place. The beloved city of course is Rome prior to its destruction, and Rev. Leo Haydock tells us the “camp” of the saints refers to those faithful scattered throughout the world. Christ intervenes when Satan and his armies surround us, when they are moving in for the kill.

We cannot know for certain if Satan and his minions will rule us for a short period of time prior to this battle or whether the battle will come suddenly, preventing his rule. For already, in so many ways, Satan has ruled both openly and secretly for several centuries. And if he ruled universally, it seems no truly Catholic souls could ever survive. But if this attack is sudden, it would fulfill the prophecies of Christ as a thief, and LibTrads will never know what hit them. This is the most grievous and terrifying work of the devil, to have seized those destined to be Christ’s own and to have so warped their minds they cannot think aright and are even immune to any attempts to dissuade them from their errors. That is Satan’s TRUE triumph, one which no one sees.

Once  the civil war planned by Pike’s collaborators has decimated this and other nations there will be no Latin Mass or pseudo-clergy to rely upon, and then where will these LibTrads be? Their so-called leaders should have been rigorously training them to survive these times, but they have made them codependents instead, unable to think and act for themselves. If the attacks break out soon as many now fear they will be left to their own devices without knowing how to maintain their spiritual life and could even abandon their faith entirely when it is apparent that all they have been promised will never come to pass. It will be easy then to convince them the Church was always a lie, and that Christ has not been true to His promises, seeing that She has literally disappeared. The despair they would then experience could well disable even the best of them. That is why for decades so many have worked diligently to practice keeping the faith at home, preparing for the times that are fast approaching.

It is interesting that in Apostolic times, those who had publicly sinned (as in attending the services of non-Catholics) and who refused to recant their sins suffered major excommunication and were termed as “delivered unto Satan.” This meant that not only were they deprived of all communication with members of the Church, the prayers of the faithful, Mass attendance and reception of the Sacraments but were actually cursed, and also subjected to “…corporal vexations and torments inflicted by the evil one. This opinion has the support of Saint John Chrysostom and most of the Greek fathers, and among the Latin fathers of Saints Pacianus, Ambrose and Augustine. Certainly corporal afflictions and torments were effects of sin not uncommon in the early days” (Rev. Francis Hyland, Excommunication, 1928). Hyland writes that the phrase anathema was attached only to those offenses involving heresy, and this condemnation is attached to the very teaching that the Council of Trent condemns regarding those clerics or pseudo-clerics who insert themselves into positions once considered offices in the Church (DZ 967).

We have returned then to the Church’s early days, where such violations were punished more severely. For by refusing to leave their blind guides, LibTrads have been delivered to Satan both spiritually and literally. In the early Church, those who repented from their sins and stood ready to do penance were forgiven and gradually readmitted to the Church, but many still were unable to attend Mass or receive the Sacraments. By praying at home we obey God’s commands, hoping to become worthy of His mercy and to do penance for our sins.

“For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words and mayst overcome when thou art judged. For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51: 3-7; 17).