by T. Stanfill Benns | Feb 14, 2012
Traditionalist AND Orthodox Sacraments Are Invalid
© Copyright 2011, T. Stanfill Benns (This text may be downloaded or printed out for private reading, but it may not be uploaded to another Internet site or published, electronically or otherwise, without express written permission from the author.)
Introduction
There are some fine points that needed to be sorted out concerning the reasons that Catholics cannot receive Sacraments from the Orthodox, nor participate in their services, and this applies even when Catholics are in danger of death. After laying a sufficient foundation, several theologians will explain why, even when true popes were alive, the Orthodox could not be approached for the Sacraments. While Traditionalists either believe they operate under the Canons covering common error or act with a title to supplied jurisdiction, this has been proven from Church law and teaching not to be the case, (see the sections covering Canon Law and clerics on this board). Not surprisingly, many believed in the 1940s that common law and supplied jurisdiction also granted Orthodox schismatics the necessary jurisdiction to absolve not only their own subjects, but Catholics requesting the sacraments outside the danger of death, (Can. 2261§3). Rev. E. J. Mahoney takes on this question in his work Questions and Answers: The Sacraments, (Burnes, Oates and Washbourne, 1946), proving that common law and the occasional grant of supplied jurisdiction are not the answers in this case.
Two important points
Before launching into this explanation, it is important to understand two things. First, the fullness of jurisdiction rests only with the Roman Pontiff. Without a reigning Roman Pontiff, any jurisdiction that once was provided by the pope can no longer be supplied. The “Church” in Can. 209 means the Pope, according to Rev. Francis Miaskiewicz’s Supplied Jurisdiction According to Canon 209, (1948; Catholic University of America, pgs. 28, 194). Bancroft and Szal concur on this in their respective dissertations. And the Vatican Council infallibly declares that the pope “possesses the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church” (DZ 1831). Some have argued that Christ, as the invisible Head of the Church, supplies jurisdiction to bishops directly and subsequently priests in the absence of the Roman Pontiff, but this proposition was authoritatively contradicted by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi and other encyclicals.
The pope taught that while bishops did indeed receive their jurisdiction from Christ, they cannot exercise it without the permission of the Roman Pontiff. This from Christ’s grant to Peter: “and thou being once confirmed, confirm thy brethren.” This was the conveyance of the primacy; Peter was the head bishop. All must be done through him or not at all. To say that such clerics may freely function and Catholics may receive Sacraments from them and attend their masses is actually a heresy. This can be seen from the following condemnation issued at the Council of Trent: “IF ANYONE SAYS…THAT THOSE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN RIGHTLY ORDAINED NOR SENT BY ECCLESIASTICAL AND CANONICAL AUTHORITY, BUT COME FROM A DIFFERENT SOURCE, ARE LAWFUL MINISTERS OF THE WORD AND OF THE SACRAMENTS, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA,” (DZ 967, 960).
The heresies at issue
Now it is important to break down this condemnation into understandable bytes. Who are those who have not been rightly ordained nor sent (and ordination also can refer to the creation of bishops)? DZ 960 (Sess. XIII, Ch. 4 of Trent) is added to this condemnation for reference purposes in Henry Denzingers “Sources of Catholic Dogma.” It tells us that DZ 967 is actually referring to the “ordination of bishops, priests and other orders.” Traditionalists and others are not rightly ordained and sent because a) we have no pope to grant the use of jurisdiction to the bishops or issue papal mandates and b) those never called by bishops in communion with a true pontiff. Therefore, bishops possessing the proper jurisdiction cannot be said to be chosen and sent by the Church. Validity here really has nothing to do with it; it is licitity or lawfulness that the anathema above zeros in on. Traditionalists claim this licitity by invoking Can. 209 or supplied jurisdiction, but supplied by whom? Or they claim to receive it directly from Christ, but where in Holy Scripture, reflected in Church law and teaching is this even alluded to?
In DZ 960 we learn that those “called by the people” as priests and bishops, or those who “by their own temerity take these offices upon themselves, are not ministers of the Church, but are to be regarded as ‘thieves and robbers…’” Traditionalists give their clerics tacit permission to function by simply presenting themselves at Mass and requesting the Sacraments. That, or these clerics assume it for themselves, and convince followers that they have the right to demand Mass and Sacraments and as priests and bishops they must provide these spiritual goods, (although Can. 2259 says these clerics must be rejected as unworthy by the faithful). Either way, if Traditionalists do not leave these unlawful pastors, once they know they are indeed unlawful, they incur the anathema of Trent. Many other proofs cited for these statements can be found on this site, but they do not specifically speak to what happens when we have no true pope. Pope Pius XII foresaw this possibility and infallibly determined what should be done in such a case. This serves as “the final word” for our own situation, and provides the rule by which all other laws and teachings in this regard are to be understood.
In the preamble to his 1945 constitution on papal elections, Vacantis Apostolica Sedis, Pope Pius XII teaches what must be done during interregnums.
“While the Apostolic Seat is vacant, let the Sacred College of Cardinals have no power or jurisdiction at all in those things which pertain to the Pope while he was alive…but let everything be held, reserved for the future Pope. AND THUS WE DECREE THAT WHATEVER POWER OR JURISDICTION PERTAINING TO THE ROMAN PONTIFF, WHILE HE IS ALIVE (UNLESS IN AS FAR AS IT IS EXPRESSLY PERMITTED IN THIS, OUR CONSTITUTION) THE MEETING OF CARDINALS ITSELF MAY HAVE TAKEN FOR EXERCISING, IS NULL AND VOID…“Laws given by the Roman Pontiffs are in no way able to be corrected or changed through the meeting of the cardinals of the Roman Church [the See] being vacant; NOR IS ANYTHING ABLE TO BE TAKEN AWAY OR ADDED, NOR IS THERE ABLE TO BE MADE ANY DISPENSATION IN ANY MANNER CONCERNING THE LAWS THEMSELVES OR SOME PART OF THEM. THIS IS VERY EVIDENT FROM PONTIFICAL CONSTITUTIONS [ON]…THE ELECTION OF THE ROMAN PONTIFF. BUT IF ANYTHING CONTRARY TO THIS PRESCRIPT OCCURS OR IS BY CHANCE ATTEMPTED, WE DECLARE IT BY OUR SUPREME AUTHORITY TO BE NULL AND VOID.” — (Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, paras.1- 3, Ch. 1; Pope Pius XII, 1945; translated from the Latin taken from Revs. Woywod and Smith’s A Practical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, Joseph Wagner, 1957). It is a heresy to deny the infallible decrees of the Roman Pontiff and Ecumenical Councils (Trent) as non-binding, yet this is what Traditionalists have done.
If even the cardinals are forbidden to act, certainly bishops cannot act. And certainly they have not received from Christ a jurisdiction He could not possibly grant. For in order for Christ to grant such jurisdiction, He would be required to break his promise to Peter and his successors that whatever they would bind on earth He would bind also in Heaven. Clearly from the above, Pope Pius XII used his Apostolic Authority, the power of his ordinary magisterium, to bind the cardinals and anyone else to his law, even going so far as to declare that should they attempt to violate it, whatever they did would be null and void. Once Pope Pius XII died, there could be no exercise of jurisdiction until the election of a true pope. And here we are 53 years later, and still no pope, hence no jurisdiction. It is a known fact that Pope Pius IX, Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI (some also add here Pope Pius XII) secretly or openly supplied jurisdiction to the Orthodox for the sake of those who followed them. This is probably what Rev. Mahoney has in mind in writing what he did on the situation with the Orthodox as it existed in his day. Yet now that the popes as the supplying principle for the Orthodox schismatics is gone, they have no more claim to jurisdiction than the Traditionalists.
Theologians on Orthodox jurisdiction
Canon Mahoney begins his commentary on this subject by explaining that it is a mistake to assume that the Orthodox are to be judged under Canons in the Western Code, since Can. 1 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law excludes those in the East from observance of our code. However, the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda decided in 1907 that the Orientals, while not bound by Western canon laws, are yet bound by ”laws emanating from the Holy See if: a) they concern matters of faith or morals; b) If they contain matters connected with the divine or natural law…; c) if the laws themselves expressly state that they are meant to bind the Oriental Church,” (Rev. Charles Augustine, A Commentary on Canon Law, 1931). Revs. Woywod-Smith write: “It is evident that in matters of faith and morals all Catholics, without distinction of race, nationality or rite, are bound by the authoritative pronouncements of the Holy See. There can be but one rule in these matters for all who belong to the Catholic Church,” (and this means anything contained in the Acta Apostolica Sedis, as Humani Generis teaches). Cicognani says the same, adding the following:
“All Catholics are subject to the dogmatic canons of Ecumenical Councils and pronouncements of the Holy See. The decrees of the Roman Pontiffs condemning propositions contra fidem et mores, the various instructions of the Holy Office, the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, the Congregation for the Oriental Church, and of the Sacred Penitentiary, the prohibition of books and theories…The Congregation for the Oriental Church declared that the decrees mentioned above affect the faithful of every rite, and all are bound in the same way, since these decrees are more than disciplinary in character and refer directly to matters of doctrine. The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office,” (1885 — when asked about the Constitution Apostolica Sedis of Pope Pius IX replied), “they are subject to censures inflicted by the Apostolic See in matters of dogma …” Cicognani continues: “This legislation remains today; hence the Orientals are subject to those former penal laws now contained in the Code.”
Still, Mahoney maintains it could be concluded that for very serious reasons, the Church grants jurisdiction for absolution in those cases affecting the common good, but only per each act of jurisdiction where the necessary (stringent) conditions apply. He then goes on to suggest something that at first will sound as though Catholics may have recourse to the Orthodox, (but please remember that supplied jurisdiction cannot exist in the absence of a true pope.) On this head Rev. Mahoney wrote: “May the proposition be defended that that the priests of the schismatic Oriental Churches possess true habitual jurisdiction and that there is, consequently, no need to invoke any fortuitous title of supplied jurisdiction whether in the hour of death or in ‘common error?’ Many theologians and canonists in the past have been adverse to any admission of this kind, but the view which predominates nowadays is in favor of upholding the proposition just as it is stated.”
He goes onto explain that thesis true because these schismatic clerics do not have sufficient knowledge of the Western code to have incurred the censures. Even if they are formally guilty, he maintains that the are not really formally excommunicated for this very reason, since they are not bound by our code. The better way to look at all this, he continues, is to understand that the Church, “for the gravest reason affecting the salvation of souls, has not withdrawn the necessary jurisdiction from them,” referring obliquely to the secret jurisdiction they enjoyed by free grant of the Roman Pontiffs. He proves that Oriental schismatics are not excommunicated by noting that in reconciling non-Catholics, the Church “requires a general confession from the newly reconciled person,” yet no such confession is required from the Orthodox. And he also notes that Confirmation, which Orthodox priests routinely administer in infancy, is rarely repeated should an Orthodox schismatic convert. Mahoney concludes: “If the Church has not withdrawn from schismatical priests their power to confirm, it follows that their power to grant absolution has not been withdraws either; for the latter is more necessary for souls than the former.”
Rev. Charles Journet states, in his The Church of the Word Incarnate that, “The validity of the Confirmation given by dissident priests, a validity that could only result from a concession of the Sovereign Pontiff, was explicitly recognized by the Holy Office (July 3, 1859) for all the Oriental Churches, save those of Bulgaria, Cyprus, South Italy and the islands adjacent from whom this concession has been withdrawn…” Journet quotes the Ami du clerge, 1927, Vol. 44, saying that the validity of absolution from dissident priests can be demonstrated from the principle, “admitted by all, of good faith and colorable title [still insisted on by Rev. Augustine, even after the Code] …As regards the faithful, good faith, since their priests are sent them by their bishops and patriarchs and are taken by all for legitimate pastors. As regards the pastors, colorable title, since the priests are deputed by a bishop and held to be legitimate pastors.” Journet comments: “But it is only a momentary, fugitive jurisdiction, valid for those particular cases that can be established in this way, not one that is durable and continuous.” Like Mahoney he cites the fact that the Church recognizes their Confirmations, and does not conditionally re-Confirm those reconciled to them; also the fact that those reconciled to the Church are not required to make a general Confession.
Journet then goes on to say that he believes that “in the eyes of the Roman Church, the transmission of power of order in the dissident Churches is licit conditionally…on the hypothesis of their good faith and invincible ignorance, an hypothesis which is indeed probable and generally admitted. But we add that this transmission remains illicit in itself and speaking absolutely, so that it would become, not of course invalid, but illegitimate, as soon as it ceased to be effected in good faith. However this may be, the dissident Oriental Churches can possess the spiritual jurisdiction needed for the valid administration of Confirmation and Penance. We will not say that they can possess it illicitly or illegitimately since they have it by a free delegation from the Sovereign Pontiff and so licitly and legitimately [but] in a partial, precarious, borrowed and accidental manner.” Rev. Mahoney concurs, writing, “These schismatical priests accordingly draw their jurisdiction from the Church, through their bishops and patriarchs, exactly as they did before the schism. The Church has not wished to deprive them of jurisdiction for the greater good of souls, and one can discover no act on the part of the Church which can be interpreted as a deprivation of those powers.”
Summarizing a passage from “De Ecclesia Christi” by P. Billot, Rome, 1921, Journet also states: “THEOLOGICAL FAITH IS MORE NECESSARY STILL THAN THE SACRAMENTS, SINCE NOTHING CAN REPLACE IT, WHEREAS THOSE WHO POSSESS IT IN CHARITY ALREADY POSSESS THE SACRAMENTS AS BY DESIRE, VOTO. If then the Sacraments can in some sense be had ‘outside’ the Church, to those who receive them in uprightness of heart, it is still more necessary that a sufficient proposal of the faith should be made outside the Church, and that true believers in the true faith should be found even amongst those whose ecclesiastical rulers hold doctrines that are contrary to orthodoxy or erroneous…The way of justification remains open ‘outside’ the Church to men of good will, who are ready at heart to believe all that God has revealed. It can even be opened to them by the message proposed by schismatics and heretics, provided, of course, that this message still contains that minimum of truth without which no adult in any event can be saved — namely the supernatural mystery of the existence and providence of God. So that the sects separated from the legitimate Bride of Christ see, in these circumstances, to become Her servants to aid her to engender new children to grace, not solely by the ministration of the Sacraments but also by proposing a doctrine, tainted with error though it may be.”
But Billot died during the reign of Pope Pius XI, so this was before the issuance of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis and Ad apostolorum principis, also Humani generis. Based on his assertions, Journet even grants that the Orthodox possess a ‘partial or mutilated’ apostolicity, given their ‘borrowed’ jurisdiction. Nevertheless, Rev. Mahoney cautions, “There is no real objection to this doctrine in the fact that CATHOLICS ARE FORBIDDEN TO RECEIVE ABSOLUTION FROM SCHISMATICAL PRIESTS; it is forbidden because it is an act of communicatio in sacris with schismatics, NOT BECAUSE THE ABSOLUTION WOULD BE INVALID.”
Communicatio in sacris
As Rev. Ignatius Szal explains from the beginning of his work, The Communication of Catholics With Schismatics, such communication in religious rites is forbidden because of accompanying dangers such as perversion of faith and scandal to others. This prohibition of the Church, found in Can. 1258, extends not only to active participation with schismatics in rites that are of their nature non-Catholic, but also excludes communication with them in rites which, though peculiarly Catholic, are exercised under the auspices of a non-Catholic sect. Can. 2316 states that those violating Can. 1258 forbidding communication in sacred rites with heretics incur suspicion of heresy. If a person suspected of heresy for participating in non-Catholic rites does not remove all cause for suspicion or show any signs of amendment over a period of six months, they should be considered as heretics, (Can. 2315). These canons still apply. Pope Pius XII — in his Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, quoted above — states that during an interregnum not even the cardinals may dispense from, change or deviate from these laws in any way. This is why DZ 967 does not deal with validity. The very fact that those who administer Sacraments and celebrate Mass do so without the proper jurisdiction places them outside the Church under these canons, whether their orders are valid or not. This is proof that heretics are not permitted to minister to the faithful under these conditions.
Are Catholics permitted to resort to them in danger of death per Can. 2261§3? This canon states only that the excommunicated may absolve in these cases; it does not state that those excommunicated for heresy and schism are allowed to do so. Where the Church (or, as Rev. Francis Miaskiewicz defines, the Pope) supplies, it is permitted to resort to a schismatic or heretic in danger of death and in other rare cases. These priests should be a last resort, even when the Pope supplies. But when there is no pope, and because Pope Pius XII’s election law states that no one may supply jurisdiction in the absence of a true pope, the Sacraments of Penance cannot be valid. Can. 203 states: “The delegate who acts beyond his mandate…acts invalidly.” Since Pope Pius XII’s death, no papal mandate at all exists. But even if the secret jurisdiction granted the Orthodox by the popes still existed, Rev. Ignatius Szal tells us in his The Communication of Catholics With Schismatics (Catholic University of America, 1948) that we could not have approached them for the Sacraments:
“THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE IS THAT IT IS GRAVELY ILLICIT TO REQUEST OR RECEIVE THE SACRAMENTOF PENANCE FROM A SCHISMATIC OUTSIDE THE DANGER OF DEATH… A SCHISMATIC MINISTER CANNOT BE CONSIDERED MERELY AS ONE IN THE STATE OF MORTAL SIN OR AS ONE BOUND BY A CENSURE. HE IS MORE THAN THAT. HE IS THE MINISTER OF AN UNAUTHORIZED SECT…THE ACT OF ASKING OR RECEIVING THE SACRAMENTS FROM A SCHISMATIC MINISTER IS FORBIDDEN IN VIRTUE NOT ONLY OF THE DIVINE LAW, BUT ALSO OF THE LAW ENACTED IN CAN. 1258§1.” And now, even in danger of death, such a priest cannot be used because the pope can no longer supply jurisdiction for such an act. For this and other reasons, Orthodox Sacraments can no longer be considered certainly licit or even valid in the eyes of the Church, given this extended interregnum. Traditionalists try to rationalize their decision to frequent their priests or those of the Orthodox by defiantly asserting that what is said above is proof the Church would not wish them to be without the Sacraments. And yet the Church forbids their reception form these tow sources even while a pope is reigning because resutls in excommunication for heresy and schism (Can. 2314) not to mention infamy of law. So it appears there lis a very good reason indeed.
For those who object that the jurisdiction granted the Orthodox might have continued following Pius XII’s death, it seems that this indeed is possible. “[Jurisdiction] ceases with the delegator’s death, or with his defection from office. It does not cease during a vacancy of the diocesan see or the papal see unless the clause in the rescript [granting jurisdiction] indicates its cessation at the time of the vacancy of the Holy See or the diocese,” (Can. 61). This canon refers us to the canons on privileges, which say pretty much the same thing. The trouble is, it is not known how Pope Pius XII granted the Orthodox jurisdiction or whether he intended it to remain intact after his death. What is known is that the jurisdiction he granted them was not for our benefit or use, but was to be used only for those subject to schismatic priests. In the canons on privileges, we find that the privilege continues except when its use may become injurious or is illicit, (Can. 77). Rev. Ignatius Szal states in his work that “Because of recent developments among the Oriental dissidents and schismatics in general, much doubt has been cast upon the validity of the orders of certain schismatic priests,” requiring that each case be judged on its own merit. And no Catholic can receive doubtfully valid Sacraments, (DZ 1151).
Rev. John R. Bancroft, C.S.S.R., J.C.B., S.T.L., in his Communication in Religious Worship with Non-Catholics also relates, “The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, in dealing with this matter of communication with heretics or schismatics of the Orient, mentions that there is scarcely any rite among them which is not tainted with some error in the matter of faith, for in their churches there is either dedication in memory of some schismatic who is venerated as a saint, or fasts are celebrated for those who died in schism, or there is commemoration of living schismatic and heretical Patriarchs and Bishops, who are commended as preachers of the Catholic faith,” (“Instructio pro Missionariis Orientis,” 1729)” (Catholic University of America dissertation for a degree in Sacred Theology, 1943).
In Rev. Szal’s day, the Oriental schismatics were presumed to have valid orders unless the contrary was proven. But already abuses were creeping in. It is a known fact that the KGB infiltrated the ranks of the Orthodox as surely as Catholic ranks were likewise infiltrated by secret societies; and the ecumenists long ago began successfully seducing Orthodox sects even before the introduction of the Novus Ordo. Those Orthodox sects that managed to escape ecumenism and, like Traditionalists, held more conservative views, are very notably anti-Catholic, owing to what they believe to be the actions of the “popes” in Rome; this hostility is reflected in their official on-line writings. Because there is no possible way either to confirm their validity or to avoid perversion of faith, then, it really doesn’t matter whether they retained their jurisdiction or not.
Where any doubt of validity concerning their orders exists at all, they cannot be approached. Where any possibility exists that there could be perversion of faith, they must not be approached. Pope Pius XII infallibly declared that no bishops may function during an interregnum without papal examination and approval, and this these bishops and their patriarchs have not received for a very long time. It is ridiculous — and contradicted by Pope Pius XII himself — to believe that those in the Western Church cannot exercise jurisdiction during an interregnum, while those who long ago seceded from the Roman Pontiffs’ jurisdiction could still retain it in his a absence. A Holy Office excommunication issued April 9, 1951, AAS 43-217, listed under Can. 2245 decrees:
“A Bishop OF WHATSOEVER RITE OR DIGNITY who consecrates to the episcopacy anyone who is neither appointed nor expressly confirmed by the Holy See and the person who receives the consecration, even though they were coerced by great fear, Can. 2229 §3, no. 3), incur ipso facto an excommunication most specially reserved to the Holy See” (“Canon Law Digest 3”, T. Lincoln Bouscaren, S.J.). This is proof that the Eastern rites were included in Pope Pius XII’s intent regarding the approval of bishops, since this decree came after the first news of bishops in China consecrating without the mandate. A second excommunication was issued following the promulgation of Ad apostolorum principis. And all of this is outside any existence of an interregnum, which necessarily withdraws jurisdiction from everyone until a new pope is elected.
Infamy of law
Traditionalists guilty of establishing their own sects were long ago excommunicated for failure to cease and desist from their activities and thereby incurred infamy of law. Infamy of law is a permanent impediment, able to be absolved only by the pope (see https://www.betrayedcatholics.com/articles/a-catholics-course-of-study/canon-law/infamy-of-law-bars-the-valid-exercise-of-orders-received/). We have no pope, ergo they cannot be absolved. As such, Traditionalists’ sacramental acts and those of the Orthodox are not valid, and Catholics sin mortally in requesting the Sacraments from them. For as was noted above, these schismatics are still bound by Can. 2314. Rev. Szal quotes Clement VIII and Pope Benedict XIV in his work to the effect that when schismatics or those they have ordained are received back into the Church, they cannot “be admitted for the conferring of orders or for the administration of any of the other Sacraments” until they have made the abjuration of their errors and been personally dispensed by the Holy See from their irregularity, (infamy of law). This would also explain why Western rite Catholics are not to approach Orthodox schismatics for the Sacraments. Traditionalists, unlike the Orthodox, never had any claim to supplied jurisdiction in the absence of a true pope. They were members of non-Catholic sects before they entered Traditionalist “seminaries” and therefore were never eligible for ordination in the first place because a) they already had incurred infamy of law by being members of non-Catholic sects and b) they could not be called to the priesthood by schismatic bishops or priests.
Because the acts of these priests, even if posited, are invalid because they are incapable of receiving jurisdiction without dispensation by the pope, they cannot even absolve penitents at the hour of death. The missionary priest Fr. Demaris wrote to his people on this subject during the period in France following the French Revolution when true priests were exiled from this country, and only the unlawful and excommunicated priests installed by the French government were available for the sacraments. Rather than disobey the laws of the Church by resorting to these hirelings in their final moments on this earth, Fr. Demaris told his flock, “BEING DEPRIVED OF EXTREME UNCTION, AND IN THE HANDS OF PERSONS, WHO NOT ONLY DO NOT HELP, BUT INSULT ME, I SHALL BE MUCH HAPPIER THAT MY DEATH SHALL HAVE MORE CONFORMITY WITH THAT OF JESUS WHO WAS A SPECTACLE OF OPPROBRIUM TO ALL THE WORLD…BE PIERCED WITH THIS TRUTH: THAT THE MOST GLORIOUS AND SALUTARY TIME TO DIE IS WHEN VIRTUE IS STRONGEST IN OUR HEART. ” (“They Have Taken Away My Lord,” Father Demaris, Professor of Theology, Missionary of St. Joseph, wrote the following at Lyon in 1801, translated from the French by A. Drover).
Conclusion
It is not by coincidence that Traditionalists used the argument referred to by Rev. Mahoney — that common error and supplied jurisdiction are to be invoked to justify the actions of Traditionalists today — to attract those exiting the Novus Ordo church in the 1970s. It relieved them of further researching the subject, as Mahoney, Billot, Journet and others did, and arriving at the true nature of the suppletory principle — which rests entirely with the Roman Pontiff. Sedevacantists, in declaring the See vacant, satisfied the objections of many that the rulers in Rome following Pope Pius XII were usurpers, but likewise failed to complete the necessary research and reasoning flowing from their conclusions. It is obvious to those who understand the Apostolic nature and constitution of Christ’s Church that nothing can be done in the absence of the Roman Pontiff, but Sedevacantist ministers have consistently dodged that bullet and refused to provide their followers with positive proofs that they function validly and licitly in his absence. These various Traditionalist organizations have good reasons to avoid this issue — it damages their personal credibility and hits them in the pocketbook, where it hurts the most.
No one is saying that there is anything contrary to civil law in forming these organizations and collecting funds to support their operation and (unfortunately) provide for the sustenance of its ministers. Americans are free from a civil standpoint to support any religion they choose to support, and they can do this as Americans, but not as true Catholics. Divine law and Canon Law take precedence over civil law, whenever it conflicts with the laws of God and His Church. As seen above, “THE PERSON WHO HAS INCURRED…AN INFAMY OF LAW…CANNOT VALIDLY OBTAIN ECCLESIASTICAL BENEFICES, PENSIONS, OFFICES AND DIGNITIES, NOR CAN HE VALIDLY EXERCISE THE RIGHTS CONNECTED WITH THE SAME.” Under Can. 1258, those who “tithe,” or contribute to or support in any way the efforts of these organizations to perpetuate their unCatholic activities, come under suspicion of heresy if they persist in this behavior for six months. The Council of Trent has condemned as heretical (see DZ 970 above) the doctrine they support and perpetuate concerning the right of Traditional clerics to minster to them. And under Can. 1325, they are judged to be heretics for supporting or defending these heretical ministers and groups.
The will of God for us in these times is obedience to His laws. We are being asked to renew the Passion in His Mystical Body, and many are angrily casting aside the cross of His law because they believe themselves entitled to the spiritual goods God initially gave His Church, then withdrew. Speaking of Antichrist, the prophet Daniel tells us why Mass and Sacraments are no longer available: “Strength was given him against the continual sacrifice because of sins,” (Dan. 8:12). But like all wayward children, Traditionalists rebel against the punishment and defy the law to have their way. That “way” is not the Way of the Cross, which God mercifully has extended to us in these unbelievably evil times as the only way to save our souls. We die to ourselves to live again, just as Christ rose from the dead then ascended to His Father in Heaven. So , then, we shall never give up hope of eternal salvation, but this can be achieved only if we are obedient enough and generous enough to “fill up what is wanting” to the Passion of Christ.
by T. Stanfill Benns | May 9, 2024 | New Blog
+The Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven+
(Please pray for a Prayer Society member who is gravely ill to receive all the graces necessary to obtain eternal salvation.)
A reader commented recently on the excellence of one of Fr. Hunolt’s series of sermons, written in the 1700s. He especially praised the ones concerning the torments the faithful would have to endure under Antichrist. While Fr. Hunolt wrote before it was determined by Pope Pius XII that there would not be a spiritual renewal or millennium following the destruction of Antichrist’s system, his writings aside from that are good reminders of what our attitude today should be. We know Antichrist has come and gone, but that his system lives on. We also know that Christ will come in person to destroy this system and that the first two individuals receiving the final judgment, their bodies and souls being cast into hell, most likely will be John 23 and Paul 6 (the beast proper and his false prophet). Excerpts from this series on Antichrist’s reign will be examined below. The sermons can be read in their entirety HERE.
Spiritual snowflakes
“It is easy to talk of resisting torments and braving martyrdom! Ah! how could they give up their bodies to the rods, the scorpions, the leaded clubs, the iron hooks, to be torn and flayed, who are now so delicate and tender that they cannot bear the prick of a needle; who find a fast-day intolerable, and are absolutely unable to stand or kneel for an hour in church, or to rise early in the morning on account of the cold? How could they allow themselves to be roasted or boiled alive who, if their beds are the least uncomfortable, cannot sleep for impatience? How could they laugh at torments to whom all crosses are terrible, who sigh and moan at the least trial, and give vent to their feelings in oaths and curses at the most trifling annoyance, expressing their dissatisfaction also by giving up the practice of prayer and devotion and the frequentation of the sacraments?”
Comment: Here we are reminded of those today, so accustomed to ease and indulgence on every count. Unable to accept God’s will, they cuss and grumble with every disagreeable trifle and then proceed to blame others for their troubles! If we are ever persecuted physically and openly, they will be the first to abandon their faith. Must we all not fear we might be among them?
Mortification and obedience to God’s laws
“Oh, no! God of goodness! we are not in want of an Antichrist to prove our virtue, our faith, hope, and charity by putting us to the torture! We have daily tribulations enough: more than we wish for, to try our virtue! Would that we could only bear them with patience and resignation for Your sake and to gain heaven! Every hour of the day we have abundant opportunity of mortifying our eyes, ears, tongue, sensuality, and evil inclinations; but to do so is often for us a bitter martyrdom that, without any tyrant to compel us, CAUSES US TO FORGET THE OBEDIENCE WE OWE YOUR HOLY LAW. A slight chagrin, a word of contradiction, a cross look is sometimes enough to upset our so-called virtue, and change it into impatience, hatred, and anger. What would then become of us in the midst of a terrible persecution, which many even of the holiest and most innocent shall not withstand?”
Comment: It all boils down to obedience to God’s laws, offering little sacrifices throughout the day, and performance of daily duty. Fr. Hunolt repeatedly notes the necessity of obeying God’s laws. And who among us in this age is innocent and holy? Some very sobering thoughts here.
Our state better than those who went before
“Ah, poor, unhappy souls that are to live in those times of Antichrist, how you are to be pitied! But if you, almost forced as you shall be by grievous persecutions, temptations, torments, hypocrisy, and pretended miracles to abandon God, shall nevertheless be condemned by a most just sentence to eternal torments, what excuse shall we have? What sort of a hell awaits us who can so easily enjoy the freedom of the children of God, and who yet allow ourselves to be led astray, to be turned away from God, to be drawn over to the side of the devil, and to live like antichrists, that is, sworn enemies of Jesus Christ?
When the three and a half years of the reign of that terrible persecutor Antichrist shall have expired, then, says Our Lord in the Gospel of St. Matthew, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved.” Mark the word “immediately.” We must not understand by it that the moment Antichrist sinks into the abyss those signs shall be visible. NO; FOR ACCORDING TO COMMENTATORS THE MERCY OF GOD SHALL GRANT A RESPITE OF SOME MONTHS, OR, AS SOME SAY, OF YEARS FOR THOSE WHO SHALL BE PERVERTED BY ANTICHRIST TO REPENT, BECAUSE THEN ALMOST THE WHOLE WORLD SHALL RETURN TO CHRIST AFTER THEIR ACCURSED APOSTASY. “
Comment: Certainly those who led lax lives, or those who lapsed from the faith when the juridical Church yet existed, are far more to blame for any such actions than those of us today, deprived of all spiritual assistance and the Mass and Sacraments. We know from what we have seen for the past 65 years that the three years and a half are not a definite period of time but must be interpreted symbolically. According to the teachings of Pope Leo XIII, only scriptural passages the Fathers of the Church agree upon that are a matter of faith are binding for belief; the rest are only so many opinions, (see HERE). Most of us today who have made the round of various Traditionalist groups then repented for our sins is what the medieval Augustinian Canon John of Ruysbroeck says: “Those good Christians who, from time to time, fell into sin, and rose again through contrition and penance; but who have not made full satisfaction for their sins according to justice… belong to purgatory.” And as St. Thomas Aquinas believes, either we are serving our Purgatory on earth or when the final consummation occurs, we will be cleansed of our sins immediately.
And yes, a respite will be granted for non-believers to repent, but has this taken place over the past 45 some years since Paul 6’s death? We have no sure way of knowing. Or will it occur only after the destruction of Antichrist’s system? Some give this time anywhere from 45 days to several months or even years, as Hunolt notes. We would like to think the whole world would return to the true faith excepting a few, but how could this possibly happen when the pope is the center of all unity, we have no pope and all the means of obtaining one are no longer possible to fulfill? Not unless there is a miracle of exceedingly great proportions, which is nowhere suggested in Holy Scripture for these times, could the papacy be restored.
Signs of the times
“But when the time of the general judgment is finally at hand, ““There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves.” The sun shall be deprived of its brilliancy and make night out of day, like to the darkness of Egypt: “There came horrible darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. No man saw his brother, nor moved himself out of the place where he was.”; The moon, of a blood-red color, shall appear like some grizzly phantom of night; the stars shall fall from the sky; not indeed the stars that God has placed in the firmament: for where should they fall? Not on the earth, because according to astronomers the smallest star is much larger than the earth. But the stars shall hide themselves as if they had fallen, and at the same time luminous vapor in the shape of stars shall fall in masses on the globe as if to set fire to it.”
Comment: Have we not recently experienced “luminous vapors” — fog covering a large section of the US for weeks which hid the stars and kept the sun from shining? There was no fire, but the vapor definitely was there. Also haven’t we seen “blood moons”? Don’t many expect a three-day period of darkness, which could mean anything from a nuclear attack, a solar-triggered EMP or a pole shift? And couldn’t these “fiery stars” have another (symbolic) meaning, as Rev. E.S. Berry, Rev. H.B. Kramer and other commentators have noted? Both authors say this could mean bishops tumbling from their offices owing to heresy. Some will now say this could also mean all the true bishops were “hiding,” and they may have been, for a time. But we know that today there are no true bishops left on earth who were approved by Pope Pius XII. And that even if some elderly bishop yet existed, he could not have retained any episcopal see he once possessed, assigned to him by Pope Pius XII. He therefore would no longer possess an office or any jurisdiction.
Why this judgment will come
“This shall be done at the end of the world, when all creatures are to be set at liberty and released from slavery, and then like a mighty army they will all rush in a body against the wicked to put them to shame, as we read in the Book of “Wisdom: ” And His zeal will take armor, and He will arm the creature for the revenge of His enemies. . . .and the whole world shall fight with Him against the unwise: “The sun will declare war, as Tamerlane did of old, with a black banner spread; the moon colored like blood, and the stars disturbed out of their course shall begin the battle. We, they will say, have given our fair light for such a long time to sinners who were unworthy of it; we have marked for them the hours, days, weeks, months, and years; we have by our regularity in our motions set them a good example of the obedience they owe to God; but they preferred to follow the suggestions of the devil, the appetites of the flesh, the customs and maxims of the perverse world, INSTEAD OF OBEYING THE LAW OF THEIR CREATOR; THEY LOVED DARKNESS MORE THAN THE LIGHT; therefore our period of service is now at an end for them, and we shall be to them henceforth a source of nothing but fear and dread.”
Comment: True Catholics will have their day in the sun and will be used by God to punish the wicked. Those who have not obeyed ALL God’s laws and have followed the maxims of this perverse world we live in will be punished for their disobedience and worldliness. This is especially true of those who refuse to acknowledge and obey papal laws based on Divine law, such as the Council of Trent, Charitas and Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis. If these are not God’s laws, as presented by His vicars, why did Christ even bother to appoint St. Peter and his successors as supreme legislators on His behalf
Nature vs. man
“In the same manner the four elements shall take the field against sinners. The air that gave them breath and voice, so that they could breathe and speak; from which they received the fruitful rain; in which the birds dwelt to their delight and nourishment the air will attack them on all sides; it will throw down buildings by the violence of opposing winds; it will tear up trees by the roots; send down hail-storms to strike the beasts of the field dead, and with thunder and fierce lightnings and terrible apparitions that shall be seen in the air (such as were not beheld even in Egypt in the time of the hardened Pharao, nor in Jerusalem when that city was destroyed), it will fill every one with dismay, as if to complain of the sinner and say: ” He has stretched out his hand against God, and has strengthened himself against the Almighty.”
Comment: Certainly we have seen some of these strange weather events recently and some have reported seeing apparitions in the air. These will only increase as man continues to sin.
The wicked panic
“The wicked, those who have a bad conscience, shall indeed wither away with fear and dismay, and seek to hide themselves under the earth; they will howl and moan and lament like the beleaguered Turks: alas! now all is up with us! We must surrender; there is an end to all the pleasures and delights we enjoyed on earth; honor and high places are no more; we must leave our wealth behind us; the last day is at hand; in a short time the terrible trumpet shall sound in our ears the words: arise, you dead, and come to judgment! Soon shall we appear before our angry Judge, whom we have despised and made our enemy by our sins! Now the time is approaching when the shameful things we have kept hidden from men and not dared to mention even in the tribunal of penance shall be openly declared before the world! Soon shall we hear the awful words: ” Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.” … Alas! how great will be the terror and anguish of the wicked at the sight of the signs and portents of the last day!”
Comment: This is pretty amazing. We read everywhere that the elite are building cities underground with all the modern conveniences and preppers (not all of them wicked) are hiding in private bunkers to escape the wrath of God they know is coming for them. Shades of Adam and Eve! Anna Catherine Emmerich also predicted how “…cities built on a thin crust [of earth] would precipitate [people] into the abyss” (Vol. 1, p. 528). It is the wicked who are trying so hard to do all they can to escape and to grasp all they can before their day in the sun ends. God will not be mocked forever, and even they, in their wickedness, know this on some level.
Lift up your heads
“But what shall be the feelings of those just servants of God who have either kept inviolable fidelity to their Creator, or by true repentance have washed away their sins, and who have hitherto in this vale of tears, amidst so many dangers of soul and body, sighed like prisoners for their eternal home and place of rest! How, I ask, will it be with them? Hear what Christ says to them, after having spoken of the terrible forerunners of the last day: “But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads: because your redemption is at hand. To go with downcast head is a sign of sorrow and fear, and My dear children, that is not for you, but for the wicked who refused to love and honor Me. Let them wither away for fear, because they have no part in My eternal kingdom; BUT YOU, JUST SOULS! WHO HAVE KEPT MY LAW AND IN ALL THINGS TRIED TO DO MY WILL, “Look up, and lift up your heads;” rejoice and be glad; why? “Because your redemption is at hand!” This is the time for which you have been sighing so long; the time for your release from captivity, from all dangers and troubles; the time for you to enter into the eternal repose of the children of God. This is the day on which your enemies and Mine, who have persecuted and oppressed you in so many ways this is the day for them to lie trembling and shaking under your feet. This is the time when I shall make known to the world your humility and other virtues which men knew nothing of, and vain worldlings despised you for! Rejoice, My children! your redemption is at hand; the kingdom of heaven will soon be opened to you. Come, you blessed! possess the kingdom that My Father and you yourselves have prepared for you! Come with Me into everlasting joys!”
Comment: None of us can be certain of our salvation just because we pray at home. Anyone could die in mortal sin and none can presume to be assured of gaining heaven. Nevertheless, we must never lose hope, and must always have confidence in God. We must “look up,” and longing for His coming, place all our hope in God and none in ourselves. Heaven is our only hope of escaping the evils of this world.
Why the coming of Antichrist was missed by most
“No one, says St. Augustine, who wishes to strike you will cry out to you to ‘Be on your guard — I am about to draw my sword to kill you!’ A man who threatens in that way gives clear proof that he is not in earnest, but that he wishes the other to escape his sword by running away. If a judge were to send to a thief whom he has caught in the act, telling him that when he hears the clang of arms or a certain bell tolling, it is a sure sign that the soldiers are on their way to apprehend him, put him in prison, and when sentence has been passed on him to bring him out to the place of execution, what would you think of that? Would the judge appear to you to be in earnest about putting the thief to death ? No; quite the contrary; the judge in such a case must be a good friend of the thief, and would be very glad to see him make his escape. For as the old saying has it, ‘The cat that mews too much will never make a good mouser.’ So it is; he who intends to get hold of his enemy lets not a word of his purpose be known; he hides his weapons and does not draw them until he has the other completely in his power, so that he cannot escape. One of the first and most necessary qualities of a general is silence; he must know how to keep secret the plans he forms against the enemy; he should not reveal them even to his most intimate friends, much less to his own soldiers, that no one may betray them; and if sometimes he publishes that on a certain day, at a certain hour he shall make a sally to surprise the enemy, the latter think at once: “Oh, that is only a blind! We need not fear that attack; but there is some other plan in his mind, and we must be on our guard not to be surprised by it.”
Comment: Those waiting for an obvious manifestation of Antichrist wait in vain. As we have believed for years, offering proofs to support our belief, Paul 6 was Antichrist and no one would have suspected him until almost after the fact. And yet they look for one accomplishing still greater feats than the cessation of the Holy Sacrifice and the perversion of the sacramental rites established by Christ. They demand that fire must come down from heaven, that Antichrist must perform outright miracles that cannot be explained and physically persecute Christians. And yet the Doctors (St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis de Sales) tell us that these things will be only illusions and not real miracles. St. Hilary, Dom Gueranger, John Henry Cardinal Newman and others — all have said that Antichrist won’t show his hand in this way. He will appear as a deceiver and a usurper, pretend to be very kind and loving and will basically kill Christians with kindness and compassion. But underneath lurk dead man’s bones, for he was always a whited sepulchre.
Only the Protestants wait for such an Antichrist. They expect him to come with horns, speaking in curious tongues; healing the sick and raising the dead. I suppose that we could see something like that happen; the final antichrist of this present system might appear to accomplish such things. But it seems highly insulting to God to expect that he would be so obvious, as Fr. Hunolt points out, in making the man of sin known. The primary indicator that Paul 6 was Antichrist is that he dared to change the words of Holy Scripture from “for many to “for all,” abolishing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is a point of Scripture on which all the Church Fathers unanimously agree: that Antichrist will indeed abolish Continual Sacrifice. The Vatican Council says that when this is the case, we’re bound ourselves to believe it as well.
Chastisements sent us to avoid hell
“Public calamities are to us what the signs that are to precede the last day shall be to those who are to live towards the end of the world. They shall be exceedingly terrified and dismayed, “for there shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now.” Such, too, is the effect of calamities on us; they terrify us and fill us with anguish; when we feel them we commence to moan and sigh: alas! how wretched we are! etc. And yet, as with the signs of the last day, so with those calamities. For what else are they but proofs of God’s mercy and goodness to sinners, whose only object is to humble men, chastise them in a fatherly manner, make them enter into themselves, repent of their sins, amend their lives, and so escape eternal punishment in hell? For public calamities are never sent on a country except on account of the sins of the people, in order to eradicate them and put a stop to them. This truth has often been preached from the pulpit, and therefore it requires no further proof; it is a truth founded on the infallible word of God, and one therefore of which the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church have not the least doubt.”
Comment: We have noted in the past several weeks that it is unlikely that anyone in these times we’ll repent regardless of what happens. This is predicted 3 separate times in the Apocalypse. As Saint Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2, they have been given a special kind of blindness that prevents them from converting.
And still they will return to their vomit
“After the appearance of the signs, the last day of judgment shall come upon men quite suddenly and unexpectedly… “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man shall revealed.” Should we not think that so many signs and portents wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, the persecutions of Antichrist, the disturbance of the elements would be enough to make the men of that time watchful and vigilant? But no! When the fear and terror caused by the signs shall be at an end, they shall resume their former mode of life. Following the opinion of St. Jerome writing on the words of St. Paul, “When they shall say peace and security, then shall sudden destruction come upon them,” I maintain that when the signs shall have vanished men shall live in peace and quiet for a time (how long no one can say), and will continue in their former mode of life; and although the true faith shall then be general over the world, there shall be sinners who shall lead a very wicked life, and tepid Christians who shall lead a very slothful one. Under those circumstances then, when they least expect it, ” in the twinkling of an eye,” as the Apostle says, fire shall fall from heaven and reduce the world to ashes, and then the dreadful trumpet shall resound in all places, and the angel’s voice be heard crying out: “Arise, you dead, and come to judgment ! ” There, my dear brethren, we have all the preparation that shall be made to introduce the great day of the general judgment.”
Comment: How can the true faith be general over the whole world without a canonically elected pope and hierarchy in communion with him to teach it? We do not take the word of commentators, however well respected, or the private revelations, even of saints, over the teachings and laws of Christ’s vicars. The commentators never foresaw the usurpation of the papacy. Only Pope Paul IV considered it a possibility in his 1559 Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio. Fr. Hunolt’s sermons are of great value; he makes many fine points. But he is not the pope. Those who use him to justify their beliefs that Antichrist has not yet come and we can expect a resurrection of the Church do him a grave disservice, for he would be the first to bow to the teachings of the Roman Pontiff had he lived in Pope Pius XII’s day. We can see this in his many references to obedience to God’s laws. Would he have, nevertheless, followed others we believed to be loyal to the papacy into the false Vatican 2 church? Thankfully he was spared that possibility. And we who remain must ever be on our guard that we too remain faithful to all that once was.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Apr 5, 2024 | New Blog
+St. Vincent Ferrer, Confessor+
Solar eclipse April 8: America’s last chance for repentance?
Prayer Society Intention for April, Month of the Holy Ghost
“O Holy Ghost… by Thy love and grace, renew the spirit of Thy servants whom Thus has anointed that they might glorify the Father and His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” (Raccolta)
+First Friday and Saturday+
(The following was submitted by a reader for consideration and provides much food for thought. It will be interesting to see if anything unusual results from this event. My thanks to the author for collecting these observations.)
— Matthew 12:39: “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but THE SIGN OF JONAS THE PROPHET.”
— The eclipse begins off the coast of Mexico, on islands named Maria Madre, Maria Magdalena, and San Juan: Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and St. John at the foot of the Cross. The North American path of the eclipse ends over the island of St. Pierre (Peter) and Newfoundland’s capital, St. Johns.
https://www.google.com/maps/@21.882884,-106.59289,10z/data=!5m1!1e4?hl=en-US&entry=ttu; https://nso.edu/for-public/eclipse-map-2024/
— When it enters the United States, the eclipse passes through the city of Jonah, and then passes over all seven towns called Nineveh in the United States, and the only city called Nineveh in Canada.
— Monday, April 8, the day of the eclipse, is the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lord.
— Jonah said that 40 days more and Nineveh would be destroyed.
— Forty days from April 8 is Saturday, May 18, the Vigil of Pentecost, when fire from Heaven descended upon man.
— When Jonah preached in 700 BC and when he came out of the whale, there was a total eclipse over the city of Nineveh.
— Some interesting aspects on the eclipse: https://www.christianforums.com/threads/eclipse-coming-with-some-interesting-aspects.8293966/
— Jonah, Nineveh, and the Solar Eclipse Over North America
Sensus Fidelium, March 16, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvtFmWBER3c
— “A rare green ‘devil’ comet, matching wormwood in the Bible in the end times prophecy, is about to crash into the sun during a rare ‘666’ eclipse.” https://www.businessinsider.com/devil-comet-visible-during-total-solar-eclipse-how-see-2024-4
— Jews just announced the first red heifer in 2000 years has been found and will be sacrificed this month. This in preparation for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFDFdX-zco (WARNING: THIS IS A MORMON VIDEO and while much of the information is accurate, there are inappropriate images and false interpretations of Scripture. (For a Catholic explanation of the Temple rebuild, see the article at https://www.betrayedcatholics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Final-Chapter-for-web.pdf, pg. 19)
— The San Gabriel River runs through Jonah, Texas.
— The eclipse passes through Temple, Texas.
— The eclipse of 8-21-2017 went from east to west, and the eclipse of 4-8-2024 goes from south to north. It creates a great cross over the United States. In the center of that cross is a town called Palestine.
— Also in that center area is the largest cross in North America at 198 feet tall, along with a large station of the 10 Commandments: https://crossusa.org/
— CERN is reactivating their collider on April 8. (WARNING: this site is loaded with bad images and text) https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/463336718
The unnamed threat almost NO ONE is talking about
T. Benns Comment on reader’s post
What may well be the real concern of states activating Homeland Security and National Guard troops for this event is not the eclipse itself but something that could be truly devastating and might possibly be activated or exacerbated by CERN. The New Madrid fault line matches almost exactly the path the eclipse will take. And it has been experiencing an unusual spate of activity since November of last year. An eclipse can trigger earthquakes as explained below, and this is a total eclipse: https://temblor.net/earthquake-insights/1417-1417/; https://sciencenotes.org/can-a-solar-eclipse-trigger-an-earthquake/#google_vignette
Since Nov. 13, 2023, there has been a significant increase in earthquake activity being reported along the New Madrid Fault. “While there is no immediate cause for alarm, the pattern of these quakes is being closely monitored. In geological terms, such swarms of small earthquakes can sometimes act as precursors to larger seismic events. However, they more frequently result in a gradual dissipation of energy along fault lines, eventually settling without leading to a major quake.” https://laketribune.com/2023/11/new-madrin-swarm-of-earthquakes-could-be-precursor-to-larger-seismic-event-seismologists-say/
In the past month, there have been 11 instances of seismic activity along the New Madrid fault, ranging from a 1.5 temblor to a 2.5 quake, reported April 2, and now a 1.9 quake, reported just today, April 5: https://earthquaketrack.com/us-mo-new-madrid/recent#google_vignette. Also, just this morning, (April 5), a 4.8 earthquake hit the New York/New Jersey/Boston area: https://apnews.com/article/east-coast-earthquake-7d03f7a44a6c1a1ea877820515808bee. This is significant if one considers that in December, 1812, when the New Madrid earthquake occurred following three months of seismic activity, “The effects of these earthquakes were felt as far away as New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, causing church bells to ring” https://iemaohs.illinois.gov/preparedness/earthquake-newmadrid.html. Four major earthquakes over 6.0 have occurred this week alone in Japan, Taiwan and near Saipan. So prospects overall are not looking good for April 8 if the ring of fire is already flaming.
See here for a summary of all the above: https://theaquariusbus.com/5-eerie-events-surrounding-the-coming-solar-eclipse-of-2024/ These events are not just a series of unrelated coincidences. This eclipse is a pointed message from God and we’d better not ignore it. But then the book of Apocalypse says in three separate places that men will blame God for these punishments and will not repent. Nevertheless, pray that America becomes another Nineveh as God obviously desires for her by sending this sign, and repents of her many sins, before it is too late. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of America, pray for us! St. Americus, pray for us! Lord save us, we perish!
Recusant site taken down, then reposted
People keep trying to reinvent the wheel by dumbing down information available in essays, books and on the web for over 50 years. We are all well aware of the various organizations and their many offshoots that have dominated the American Traditionalist scene since Vatican 2. The claims made by the pseudo-clerics belonging to these organizations — that they possessed a direct or supplied jurisdiction — remained largely unchallenged until the early 1980s, although Catholic writers such as William Strojie and Mary Lejeune did warn Catholics they were better off praying at home. Beginning in 1977-78, all the necessary information needed to determine with certitude that the Papal See was indeed vacant and these men were conferring illicit sacraments was presented.
We have demonstrated before that LibTrads KNEW that proofs existed showing these men were illicit and ignored them. This was a matter of published record all Traditionalists had access to beginning in the late 1970s. Hugo Maria Kellner first published this assessment of Traditionalists in his Letter 72, Lefebvre — the Final Unmasking. A Latin edition of Pope Paul IV’s 1559 bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio was published in1978 by Carlos Disandro and was later translated by Prof. Benjamin Dryden into English. David Bawden released one article on LibTrads’ lack of jurisdiction in 1983, and then in 1985 issued Jurisdiction During the Great Apostasy, showing these men were all functioning illicitly outside the laws of the Catholic Church. This was followed on 1990 by the Benns-Bawden book Will the Catholic Church Survive the Twentieth Century?, sent (often gratis) to Traditionalist pseudo-clergy all over the world. The book went to great lengths explaining the invalidity of Traditionalist sacraments, citing extensive quotes from Rev. Francis Miaskiewicz’s Canon Law dissertation Supplied Jurisdiction According to Canon 209 and other related pre-Vatican 2 dissertations then generally unknown. It also went to great lengths to explain the various canons on this issue.
The book condemned the use of epikeia, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas. The need to arrive at certitude on jurisdiction matters was discussed at length. A full history of Cum ex Apostolatus Officio was given and proofs provided showing it was still in force, something disputed by LibTrads even today. (See the link HERE.) Pope Leo XIII’s vision was covered and the long St. Michael’s Prayer cited to show the incursions of the infiltrators into the Vatican. For the first time, proofs necessary to show that Angelo Roncalli could never have been validly elected and that those electing him were disqualified to hold any further election (under canon law) were presented. Because Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis was then thought to be “only an ecclesiastical law,” the actual invalidity of these pseudo-clerics was not yet realized. Further research over the years proved, however, that this constitution was indeed an infallible document treating of Divine — not ecclesiastical — law, which clearly made it impossible for anyone to function validly during an interregnum if usurping papal jurisdiction or violating Canon Law.
Nothing exists without a foundation
The material provided by certain others on jurisdiction, after the release of Will the Catholic Church Survive… was primarily based on the research provided in the book, later posted by Bawden and myself on the Internet. To the best of my knowledge, no other detailed assay of these subjects existed at that time, with the exception of an article printed by one British publication (which more clearly stated the same principles. If one examines the early works of those currently “teaching” on these topics via internet, podcasts, and videos it can be easily verified by dating the material presented on these other sites, nearly always articles or essays written and posted after 1990. These authors cite the conclusions arrived at by those who went before them without ever crediting the source, as we have noted before. And not only have they used these conclusions on which to base their own work, they have added falsehoods to them to make it appear as though Church teaching is not clear on various issues, or they pretend it can be viewed in a different way.
Citing the conclusions of others without ever crediting them and then presenting these conclusions as coming from upstanding Catholics, with years dedicated to educating and helping people find and preserve the faith, is not only dishonest — it is a lie. A true Catholic does not present material not entirely his or her own, without crediting the source. If you say that John 23 and all who followed him are not true popes, you must prove it, or point to someone who hasproven it inconclusively because it is such a serious accusation. If it is a self-evident fact now, it is only because others have exhaustively researched it for years to confirm this! The scholastic method of the Church demands that certitude must be acquired in these matters using logic, and sacred theology insists that the scholastics cite the popes and councils in determining the meaning and sources of sacred theology. The popes demand the use of the scholastic method in presenting the faith.
Although those behaving this way consider themselves true Catholics, free of any blame, they are not following the popes, even though they quote their teachings when it suits them. They do not give their readers the privilege of checking the actual facts uncovered and sources for themselves to better arrive at the necessary certitude. They don’t even inform them they NEED to arrive at certitude. They do not proceed, as is required in all scholastic disputation, in the form of defender and objector, as scholastic form requires. (And Rev. A.C. Cotter, in his ABC of Scholastic Philosophy carefully differentiates such disputation from debate, commenting: “The thesis assigned is not debatable.”)
Fallacies of logic and misquoting the popes
These latecomers are simply objectors, and the defender is never named or allowed to answer their “objections.” They simply say, “I disagree” (with the defender) and pretend that this suffices to dismiss even infallible papal commands. By not naming the defender or even at times clearly identifying the disagreements between the two parties, just simply presenting what readers will perceive as an acceptable alternative view, they are never required to prove the truth of their assertions or objections as the Church intended. In addition, they constantly resort to the “cherry-picking” fallacy (a logical fallacy that occurs when someone focuses only on evidence that supports their stance, while ignoring evidence that contradicts it). The Church forbids this type of disputation among Catholics, which entirely discredits the argument of the person resorting to this deceptive practice. We have tagged members of this same group before here for this and other fallacies.
Examples of this error in logic are the admission of papal or other teachings on a subject which is in favor of their “view”, while omitting anything from the same papal or other document that supports the defender’s position. This is a favorite ploy of LibTrads and their Liberal, later Modernist forerunners, and when seen among those claiming to hold the pray-at-home position, it can only indicate they are still contaminated by Traditionalist errors. We recently witnessed this deceptive practice regarding the discussion on modesty. We are now seeing it again in the reposted recusant site material. It states as fact, without any reference to a fully sufficient explanation or proof, that LibTrad pseudo-clerics are illicit. It also states that: “They may or may not have valid orders (but are at the least very dubious since they came from the modernists Thuc, Lefebvre, and Mendez), but they are certainly illicit since they have no jurisdiction or mission from God or His pope” (emphasis mine). This tell readers there is no way to prove they are invalidly ordained and consecrated or develop certitude regarding this fact.
So while admitting papal documents prove these fakers are schismatic and illicit, they omit the one papal document proving them invalid on all counts — Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS). And they give readers no indication this infallible constitution even exists. They do the same sort of thing in quoting Pope Pius VI’s Charitas, cited for over 15 years on this site. For they quote the part that says these men are illicit (the bishops) but fail to quote the following: “24. We therefore severely forbid the said Expilly and the other wickedly elected and illicitly consecrated men, under this punishment of suspension, to assume episcopal jurisdiction or any other authority for the guidance of souls since they have never received it. They must not grant dimissorial letters for ordinations. Nor must they appoint, depute, or confirm pastors, vicars, missionaries, helpers, functionaries, ministers, or others, whatever their title, for the care of souls and the administration of the Sacraments under any pretext of necessity whatsoever… For We declare and proclaim publicly that all their dimissorial letters and deputations or confirmations, past and future, as well as all their rash proceedings and their consequences, are utterly void and without force. Furthermore, We command those who have been or are to be elected, to behave in no way as archbishops, bishops, parish priests, or vicars nor to call themselves by the name of any cathedral or parochial church, nor to assume any jurisdiction, authority, or faculty for the care of souls under the penalty of suspension and invalidity.“
Lefebvre and Thuc, Mendez, et al all lost their jurisdiction by accepting positions under the usurpers and celebrating the Novus Ordo Missae. They not only could not assume or resume it, they simply no longer possessed it. These men in Pope Pius VI’s time were only suspended from their episcopal office as Charitas also states; they did not tacitly resigntheir office. And none of this happened during an interregnum. But the recusant site is telling you that you can consider some of these men valid if illicit when the pope, whom they refuse to quote in full, is telling us that even their dimissorial letters — far less any ordinations — are null and void! You cannot be ordained without dimissorial letters guaranteeing you are a fit candidate for the priesthood just as you cannot be validly consecrated without the papal mandate. The language is much the same as in VAS.
Could a pope and bishops still exist?
“So, do we have a pope? No, not to our knowledge” which once again, could easily be answered by Cum ex… and VAS, as could the following: “None of the faithful believe the illicit bishops have a papal mandate to do what they are doing… these illicit clergy have no right of leading God’s people astray with their illicit sacraments and orders.” Well they would have absolutely NO STANDING WHATSOEVER if it ever was once conceded that Vacantis Apostolicae Sedisdismisses them all and they are only excommunicated laity! While trying to convince one LibTrad that the validity issue had to be resolved because the moral theologians state we cannot remain in doubt about such things, I was told it was impossible to do because I could not overcome the fact that even Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis had to yield to epikeia because it was “only an ecclesiastical law.” And yet VAS is undeniably infallible and is unquestionably treating of the Divine law regarding papal jurisdiction. How, then, can it be an ecclesiastical law, particularly in its first three paragraphs, written with the pope’s Supreme Apostolic authority?!
The recusant site is frequented by those who believe there could still be true bishops and they would allow that a pope could just “pop up” from somewhere after all these years of utter chaos and be considered credible. Just as we have shown through numerous articles on VAS and the impossibility that true bishops still exist, so too these objectors must come clean and produce CREDIBLE evidence that VAS does not exclude all possibility of any certainly validly consecrated bishops still existing and hence of any election of a true pope. Yes, a layman could be elected pope, but a true bishop or bishops would need to ordain and consecrate him after determining he is fit for ordination in order for him to be Bishop of Rome. The refusal to admit the invalidity of these LibTrad pseudo-clergy is a clever way to leave open the door to a future claimant to the papacy and/or mysterious bishops who suddenly appear on the horizon.
Conclusion
Just as Lefebvre led all through the back door of Traditionalism only to remain aligned with the Novus Ordo usurpers in the end, so too this seems a clandestine way to leave the door cracked open just wide enough to admit a bishop and a priest or two eventually, possibly after some sort of catastrophic event or upheaval, to “restore all things” and “carry on.” And those who think they are working in the dark to bring this about are far more transparent than they realize; their actions have been noted and followed for many years whether they choose to believe this or not. No certainty could ever be had in this matter unless confirmed by miracles. An evil and adulterous generation has asked for a sign, and they may well soon receive it. But it will not be the “miracle” they are planning for. To write as a Catholic, to truly defend and uphold the faith one must follow ALL the rules laid down by approved theologians and in Canon Law. Therefore, the gauntlet is here thrown down on this matter:
Publicly demonstrate with the same level of proofs used to vindicate Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis HERE that this infallible constitution does not declare that, DURING AN INTERREGNUM, ALL THESE MEN MUST BE CONSIDERED INVALID, NOT JUST ILLICIT. You owe this to all faithful Catholics and to Pope Pius XII himself.
If they truly wish to make praying at home more acceptable to their readers and easier to understand, VAS is the best way to accomplish that. Once Cum ex… is fully applied and VAS is understood as infallible, there is no need to explain supplied jurisdiction, epikeia, or necessity. All we need to know is that during an interregnum, none of these things can exist. Only the canonical election of a true Roman Pontiff, now made impossible by the apostasy of all cardinals and bishops, would clarify this situation. And that the hierarchy cannot and does not exist tells us we have entered the last days of Antichrist’s reign by decree of the pope himself. All we can do is obey the Pope, who has dictated to us God’s signified will in this matter.
Unity, not diversity of belief, is what is required of all members of the Mystical Body. Only by honestly addressing the issues that arise and are posed to divide us can we ever hope to obtain as much unity as is possible today without the pope. And only by obeying all the Roman Pontiffs have commanded can we hope to achieve that unity. Prideful aloofness and refusal to acknowledge or address the truth cannot accomplish that unity. As Henry Cardinal Manning wrote: “Truth goes before unity. Where truth is divided, unity cannot be. Unity before truth is deception; unity without truth is indifference or unbelief. Truth before unity is the law and principle and safeguard of unity. Unity of communion is the effect of unity of faith” (The True Story of the Vatican Council, 1870). And as St. Paul wrote: “One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:4).
by T. Stanfill Benns | Mar 28, 2024 | New Blog
+Good Friday+
Many have had questions about the “recusant Catholics” presenting as “homealone” because it seems this group has no intention of accepting papal teaching on a number of topics. I have attempted to answer most of these questions here over the past several weeks but must now move on to more spiritually productive conversations. In summary, however, the following points need to be firmly taken away from this troubling experience.
- We have never said that the Church teaches invincible ignorance alone will suffice to secure eternal salvation. Several articles on this site have definitely stated this is not the case and those articles were published nearly a decade ago. Maybe people should do their research before falsely accusing someone of heresy.
- No matter how educated someone pretends to be, they are not equipped nor approved by the Church to engage in debate or public discourse regarding the faith. We have devoted two blogs to explaining the Church’s teaching on this so there should be no further questions. It is forbidden entirely to the laity and clerics can engage in it only with permission from the Holy See.
- The word forum itself is defined as “open discussion; expression of ideas.” We do not discuss truths of faith or express our ideas concerning them. We accept them with a firm and sincere assent, whether we fully understand them or not, or we cannot call ourselves Catholic. The definition of dialogue, a distinctly Novus Ordo method of dogmatic perversion, is “an exchange of ideas and opinions… aimed at resolution.” This clearly shows the intent of some LibTrads to use discussion forums to compromise the faith — what such ”discussion” is intended to accomplish.
- As lay Catholics surviving without the hierarchy, there are certain things we can and must do and certain things we are forbidden to do. One of those things is public teaching on Holy Scripture, whether done vocally or by means of videos. The bishops alone, as successors of the Apostles, are commissioned to teach about Holy Scripture or they may delegate priests subject to them to teach. And such priests must be educated in teaching Holy Scripture in “seminaries and colleges of religious” by professors “who are, in all respects, qualified to teach properly on this subject, which is holy and sublime above all others… He should be equipped with the requisite knowledge of biblical matters which is acquired by serious study and must be conserved and augmented” (Biblical Commission Instruction, 1950; AAS 42-495).
Holy Scripture is the word of God and only the Church has the right and the necessary power to determine who is fit to expound on it. No one qualified today exists to conduct such instruction. Only those validly ordained to the priesthood are allowed to teach the faithful the meaning of Holy Scripture, for this teaching is an act of jurisdiction. NO lay person could ever be permitted to substitute for the clergy in this undertaking.
- The modesty issue has been discussed at length in the blogs and in the comments section. No papal directive exists that forbids the wearing of pants that are not immodest in themselves, although there is no doubt that the Church favors women wearing long skirts and dresses. Pope Pius XII, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, taught in his address to the Young Women of Catholic Action, May 22, 1941: “Feminine adornment may be a meritorious act of virtue when it is in conformity with custom, with a woman’s place in the world and chosen with good intention and when women wear ornaments in keeping with their station and dignity and are moderate in adapting themselves to current fashion.” This is all we need to know.
- Concerning the secrecy resorted to by Freemasons to evade detection as enemies of the Faith, Pope Pius IX taught: “A society which thus avoids the light of day must surely be impious and criminal. ‘He who does ill,’ says the apostle, ‘hates the light.’ How different from such an association are the pious societies of the faithful which flourish in the Catholic Church! With them there is no reticence, no obscurity. The law which governs them is clear to all, also, are the works of charity practiced according to the gospel doctrine” (Sept. 25, 1865, condemnation of Freemasonry).
Groups which conduct their discussions in semi-secrecy, bind others to rules which may or may not be Catholic and expel those at will who dare to disagree with them come dangerously close to fitting the description provided by Pope Pius IX above. Catholics should view membership in such associations as a danger to their faith.
- The accusation of slander has been levied against certain parties but the use of this term is based on a misunderstanding of what those who present as genuinely Catholic owe to those they are presenting to. Those praying at home who believe that what they are hearing and seeing is truly Catholic have the inherent right to know whether those informing them are faithful Catholics themselves and whether they are abiding by the teachings of the Church.
“Calumny (slander) injures reputation by stories that are untrue… Detraction is the revealing of real faults or defects of another. Revealing what is known privately is necessary if otherwise an individual would be seriously injured, spiritually or physically, or honor is attacked; or if a third party would be so injured were the information not revealed. So revealing what is public record is not sinful if done to prevent spiritual harm. (Summarized from McHugh and Callan’s work on Moral Theology.)
I wish no one any ill will. But we all have the duty in fraternal charity to correct those in error, lest they mislead others and for their own sake. It is very sad to see people so eager to associate with other pray-at-home Catholics only to find they are not loyal to the papacy, but this is the havoc the Traditionalists have wrought. I pray that all involved in such groups will reconsider and realize that without obedience to the Roman Pontiffs and what they have taught we will drown in this flood of impiety now engulfing us. I know many are lonely and long to be in touch with other like-minded Catholics who pray at home. But God has provided us helps to endure in these times, which amount to martyrdom of the spirit, and the words of Fr. Frederick Faber from his Foot of the Cross, or the Sorrows of Mary, (1857) below will tell us much about grief and loneliness and how we can best use it for our spiritual benefit.
The sanctuary of “God alone”
“There is no darkness like the darkness of a world without Jesus such as Mary’s world was on that fearful night [following Christ’s death on the Cross.] It is darker than the darkness of Calvary, for that is a darkness which cheers, refreshes and inspires. Jesus is there. He is the very heart of that darkness. He is felt more plainly than if he were seen. He is heard more distinctly because all is so dark about him and other sounds are hushed by the gloom. It is like being in the cloud with God as tried souls often are. It is truly a darkness and brings with it the pain of darkness; yet there is hardly a loving soul on earth to whom such darkness would not be more welcome for than light. But the darkness of the absence of Jesus is, as it were, a participation in the most grievous pain of hell.
“If it is by our own fault then it is the greatest of sorrows. If it is a trial from God, then it is the greatest of sufferings. In either case, we must not let the light of the world tempt us out of the darkness. In such a gloom it is indeed dreadful to abide, but the consequences of leaving it by our own self-will are more dreadful still. it is not safe there to think of creatures. We must think of God only. It is the sanctuary of ‘God alone,’ the motto of the Saints and of the saintly. We must deal only with the supernatural and leave Him who brought us there, whether for chastisement or fervour, to take us out when it shall be His will. Meanwhile we should unite ourselves to the disposition in which Mary endured her seventh dolor, and this will bring us into closer union with God. She did her work in the world as it were with all her heart and yet her heart was not there, but in the tomb with Jesus.
“This is the grand work which sorrow does for all of us. It entombs us in the will of God. It buries our love together with our sorrow. Sorrow is, as it were, the missionary of the divine will. It is the Prince of the apostles; the Church is built upon it. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Our Lord is with us always to the end. It is sorrow that digs the grave of itself and blesses it, and burns incense in it, and buries self therein, and fills it up, and makes the flowers grow upon the tomb. The great secret of holiness is never to have our hearts in our own breasts but living and beating in the heart of Jesus and this can rarely be accomplished except through the operation of sanctified sorrow. Happy therefore is he who has a sorrow at all hours to sanctify.
“Mary’s dolors are Mary’s self. Her last 15 years commencing with the descent of the Holy Ghost were the maturity of her dolors. During them her sea of sorrow settled till it became a clear, profound, translucent depth of commingled love, whose last act of taking the tranquil plenitude of possession of its glorious victim was the dislodging of her soul from her body by the most marvelous and beautiful death which creature ever could ever die. Such an edifice of sorrow as the Divine Motherhood was to bring along with it could not rest on foundations less broad and deep than the immeasurable graces of her first 15 years. What then must have been the grandeur of the graces which came upon that edifice when it was completed and were its domes and towers and pinnacles?
“We have often wondered what could be done to Mary in the way of sanctification at the descent of the Holy Ghost. What was left to do and what direction was she to grow? The mere fact of the delaying of the Assumption meant something and what could it have meant — the increase of holiness and multiplication of graces? If she was kept on earth to nurse the Infant Church as she had nursed the Infant Saviour, to be herself a living Bethlehem, with the Blessed Sacrament forever in her and her queenship of the apostles and external ministry of Bethlehem to the childhood of the Church, still, untold and incalculable, augmentation of grace and merit are implied in the very office, as well as in the fact that it was God’s mother who fulfilled the office.
“It was her dolors which opened out in her soul fresh abysses for eager grace to fill. It was the dolors which rendered her capable of that other new creation of grace and the descent of the Holy Ghost. His graces are absolutely inexhaustible; her capacities of grace are practically inexhaustible, to or limited comprehension. The grace which prepared her for the Divine Maternity prepared her also for her singular and lifelong martyrdom. The martyrdom prepared her for those ineffable augmentations of grace and merit which were compressed into her last 15 years. Thus her dolors are, as it were, the center of her holiness. They reveal Mary to us as she was in herself more than any other of her mysteries. Indeed they are hardly to be called mysteries. They are more than that: they are her life, herself, her maternity. They enable us to understand her holiness.
“Sorrow is a sanctuary so long as self is kept outside. Self is the desecrating principle. If a time of sorrow is not the harvest time of grace, it is sure to be the harvest time of self. Hence when we find people indulging in the sentimentality of their sorrow, we are almost certain to find them inconsiderate towards others. They are the centers around which everything is to move… But a Christian mourner smiles through his tears, takes the sorrow carefully out of the tone of his voice and makes others almost gay while his own heart is broken. A saint’s sorrow is never in the way. To others it is softness, a sweetness, a gentleness, a beauty. It is a cross only to himself. We must be careful also not to demand sympathy from others and if possible, not even to crave it for ourselves. What is it worth if it comes when we have demanded it?
“Surely the preciousness of sympathy is in its being spontaneous. There is no balm in it when it is paid as a tax. Not that it is wrong to hunger for sympathy when we are in sorrow. We are not speaking so much of right and wrong… The more consolation from creatures, the less from God. This is the invariable rule. God is shy; He loves to come to lonely hearts which other loves do not fill. This is why bereaved hearts outraged hearts, hearts misunderstood, hearts that have broken with kith and kin and native place, on the grave of father and mother, are the hearts of His predilection. Human sympathy is a dear bargain let it cost us ever so little. God waits outside till our company is gone. Perhaps he cannot wait so long for visits to mourners are apt to be very long and he goes away not angrily but sadly and then how much we have missed.
“The whole theology of sorrow may be compressed into a kind of syllogism: Everything is given for sanctification and sorrow above all other things; but selfish sorrow is sorrow unsanctified, therefore unselfishness is grace’s product out of sorrow. There must be in our grief a total absence of realizing the unkindness or neglect of human agents. Nobody is in fault but God and God cannot be in fault therefore there is no fault at all there is only the divine will. Faith must see nothing else. It must ignore secondary causes. It takes its crosses only from Jesus and straight from him. It sees, hears, feels, recognizes no one but God. All these are hard lessons and sorrow, if it is not peculiarly teachable, is the most unteachable of all things. Yet we could hardly expect Mary’s lessons to be easy ones, least of all when she gives them from the top of Calvary. Let us gaze at her once more as she swathes the Body in the winding sheet how like a priest she seems! How like a mother! And are not all mothers priests? For lightly considered all maternities are priesthoods. Ah, Mary! thy maternity was such a priesthood as the world had never seen before!” (End of Fr. Faber quotes)
Conclusion
Christ lays in his tomb, and like His Blessed Mother, we are lonely and sorrowful. If we would read Chapter 12 of the Apocalypase, we would know that, as Rev. H.B. Kramer writes in his The Book of Destiny: “The meaning of the word wilderness is probably contained in the prophets…The prophets by these poetic figures named the gentiles the wilderness for they are devoid of God’s benefits and are a spiritual desert. Osee calls the captivity among the heathen Babylonians a dwelling in the wilderness: “Behold I will allure her and will lead her into the wilderness and will speak to her heart” (Ch.2, v. 4). Ezekiel speaks of the captivity in the same figurative language: “And I will bring you into the wilderness of people and there will I plead with you face to face” (Ch.20 v. 35). Rev. Haydock tells us of Apoc. 12:6: “The Christians we’re accustomed to fly during the times of persecution into the deserts to avoid the fury of the pagans. This was done by the greatest saints. Saint Jerome remarks that it was this which gave rise to the hermetical state of life.
Commenting on verse 14, Rev. Haydock notes that by the two wings of the great eagle taking the woman to the desert some understand “…the love of God and the fear of offending Him; others piety, prudence etcetera. The Church, on account of the severe pressure of the persecution obtained from the almighty a special protection and assistance.” Still others see in the wings of the eagle the assistance of the Holy Ghost. Well the Church has gone into the desert but she enters that desert in the arms of the Blessed Mother; She isn’t there alone. Who better to comfort us in our sorrows than the Mother of Sorrows herself. Who better to help us learn of Her Son and listen to His voice.
I’ve noted before that many who leave the Traditionalist movement and other sects go through a period of grieving, and psychologists teach there are five to seven stages of grief. These stages of grief are described above by Fr. Faber in a way that makes us understand that we’re grieving because we’ve lost our Church; we’re grieving intensely because we are sorry for our sins. And we are also grieving because we are alone. But all of this is the will of God, and we can’t benefit from it if we don’t accept it as His will and if we don’t stop pretending that we can still re-create the Church in some way in our lives without Him and without His Vicar. The only thing that we can do is to accept what He has sent us and keep Him company by turning FROM creatures, not TO creatures; by asking our Blessed Mother to intercede for us and to join with her in filling up what is wanting to the Passion of Christ — to carry our Cross with Him and for Him.
You can’t do that by constantly running around visiting with fellow Catholics, spending hours on the Internet watching videos or arguing with others on forbidden “discussion forums” (see above). The best way you can comfort our Lord and commune with Him is to simply do what Fr. Faber is describing. In our grief we have to continue performing our daily duties, make the best of this great trial and try not to worry or seek sympathy from others; we must bury our sorrow in Christ. Of course we’re going to have friends and associate with like-minded Catholics, but all in moderation. We are here for a reason — to expiate our sins and to fill up the cup of His Passion, and if we are preoccupied with creatures, that can’t happen.
So this little excerpt from Fr. Faber is my Lenten offering to you. May God grant you all a holy Good Friday and a joyous Easter.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Feb 9, 2024 | New Blog
+St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop and Doctor of the Church+
“They (the Apostles) strove to learn through one, that preeminent one, Peter.” (St. Cyril of Alexandria, c. A.D. 424). Would that all true Catholics living today strove to “learn through Peter,” and not from the mouths of those who teach falsely regarding obedience to the teachings of his successors. This applies especially to those calling themselves bishops and priests, but who we know from Pope Pius XII’s infallible teaching in Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS) are nothing more than laymen, having never received ordination or consecration. This is true of all who received orders during this lengthy interregnum (see HERE).
Throughout the years, we have spoken much of VAS, also Pope Paul IV’s 1559 bull, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio (Cum ex…), and its far-reaching implications. Paul IV’s bull is an infallible decree stating that a man who commits heresy while holding the papal office was a heretic pre-election, so never became pope. But this bull is only one of a certain class of papal documents known as special legislation. Such legislation is called special because it contains what is called a “curse,” a sentence toward the end of these documents calling down the indignation of God and the wrath of Sts. Peter and Paul should any of the papal directives in these teachings be disobeyed. We may add to VAS and Cum ex… Pope Pius II’s Execrabilis, forbidding the appeal of a Roman Pontiff’s decrees to a future council; Pope St. Pius V’s Quo Primum, prescribing the Latin Mass of the Roman Rite be said in perpetuity, further confirmed by Pope St. Pius V’s bull De Defectibus; Pope St. Pius X’s papal election law Vacante Sede Apostolica, a codification of all papal election laws down through the centuries; Pope Benedict XV’s Providentissima Mater Ecclesia, promulgating the 1917 Code of Canon Law and finally VAS itself, which invalidates any change in the laws or teachings of the Church in any way during an interregnum.
That all the papal pronouncements containing such an oath are protected from any sort of abrogation is explained by Rev. Nicholas J. Neuberger, in his Canon 6: The Relation of the Codex Juris Canonici to Preceding Legislation, Catholic University of America, 1927.) Rev. Neuberger comments on the phrase “hac immutabili et in perpetuum valitura constitutione” stating that while such a phrase does not curtail the power nor invalidate future acts of a (legitimate) successor of the Roman Pontiff, nevertheless “the legislator attaches an especial juridical sanction to laws which have such a clause appended. Pihring advances the theory that the laws of general councils are not abolished unless a derogatory clause is annexed next to the posterior enactment… If a prior law is bound up with an oath which reads into it immunity from abrogation, the law is not countermanded unless express mention is made to that effect. The reasons for this assertion are that the legislator is mindful of a law which has an oath attached and hence abrogation would be invalid.”
All of the above are Church teachings which can neither be questioned nor violated; they can only be changed by the pope himself. And these are just the papal documents containing this curse that we know about. There are doubtless other laws that contain this curse, and in every case the same reason can be adduced for its use: the legislator wished it to be a seal of sorts guaranteeing the inviolability of the law, unless indicated otherwise. It is interesting, though, that so many related laws with this same curse come together for application in the present crisis the Church has endured over the past 65 years, and in a certain sense they are all interrelated. First, we have the bull Execrabilis, issued by Pope Pius II in 1460. It became necessary to issue this bull because the Gallicanists were still at work undermining the papacy and the pope believed that their activities could precipitate a schism. The Vatican Council, intended to deal the death blow to Gallicanism, only succeeded in disabling it for a time: it reappeared in full force with the advent of Vatican 2, collegiality and then Traditionalist pseudo-clergy, with their odious claims to represent the Church minus her head bishop.
Pius II’s Execrabilis states: “An execrable, and in former ages unheard-of abuse has sprung up in our time; namely, that some people, imbued with the spirit of rebellion, presume to appeal to a future council from the Roman Pontiff… They do not do so because they are anxious to obtain sounder judgment but in order to escape the consequences of their sins… Anyone who is not ignorant of the laws can realize how contrary this is to the Sacred Canons and how detrimental to the Christian community.” (And this is exactly what the apostate cardinals and bishops did following the death of Pope Pius XII at the false V2 Council, since neither John 23 nor Paul 6 had the authority to call it.” “Consequently, We enjoin that nobody dares under whatever pretext to make such an appeal from any of our ordinances, sentences or commands and from those of our successors, or to adhere to such appeals, made by others, or to use them in any manner…We denounce them as erroneous and detestable, and entirely quash and annul them.” So aside from John 23 being a false pope, such a council never happened. Yet how many insisted on separating out the “good” V2 decrees from the heretical or erroneous, when all were condemned outright?
Then of course there is Quo Primum, which many LibTrads now consider non-infallible, and have relegated to the status of only a “disciplinary law.” Pope St. Pius V taught: “Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used… We likewise declare and ordain that no one whosoever is forced or coerced to alter this Missal, and that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remain always valid and retain its full force…” There also is Pope St. Pius V’s De Defectibus, given at the conclusion of the Council of Trent,
De Defectibus
(Papal bull decreed by Pope St. Pius V in ratifying the Council of Trent)
V – Defects of the form
- Defects on the part of the form may arise if anything is missing from the complete wording required for the act of consecrating. Now the words of the Consecration, which are the form of this Sacrament, are:
HOC EST ENIM CORPUS MEUM, and HIC EST ENIM CALIX SANGUINIS MEI, NOVI ET AETERNI TESTAMENTI: MYSTERIUM FIDEI: QUI PRO VOBIS ET PRO MULTIS EFFUNDETUR IN REMISSIONEM PECCATORUM
If the priest were to shorten or change the form of the consecration of the Body and the Blood, so that in the change of wording the words did not mean the same thing, he would not be achieving a valid Sacrament.
And here is the condemnation of all that was introduced in the Novus Ordo. We also wish to include a comment on the rubrics, or rules governing the celebration of the liturgy, below:
Follow the Rubrics (from: The Pastor, Vol.1, 1882):
“Follow the Rubrics” (Serventur Rubricae), which frequently occurs in the decisions of the Sacred Congregation of Rites means, that the rubrics, as they appear on their face in the missal, are to be simply followed, neither adding to, nor taking anything from them, changing nothing, explaining nothing or interpreting nothing. For the missal clearly indicates what the rubrics are, and how and when to be observed.
“On this head nothing could be plainer than the words of the Bull of St Pius V, Quo primum, dated July 1570, and prefixed to all our missals. The saintly Pontiff therein declares “that he ordered the missal as revised and corrected to be printed and published, in order that priests may know what rites to use, which rites and ceremonies they are thenceforth to retain in the celebration of mass.” Then he solemnly decrees “that nothing shall ever be added, taken from or changed in this our missal under pain of indignation.” Nay further he expressly forbids the introduction of any ceremony not found in the missal, “prescribing, in virtue of holy obedience, that all sing and say mass according to the rite, and after the style and manner, which are now set forth in this missal; nor shall any in the celebration of mass presume to add other ceremonies, or recite other prayers than those contained in this missal.” (https://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Quo%20Primum.html).
Then we have Pope St. Pius X’s papal election law, a codification of all papal election laws throughout the century. One of the purposes of this codification was to make it difficult for any government entity to interfere with a papal election. This following the jus exclusivae veto of Mariano Cardinal Rampolla, advanced by the Austria-Hungary emperor, Franz Joseph during the 1903 papal election. Rampolla, a suspected Freemason, had presented as a papal candidate and appeared to be winning, so Franz Joseph blocked his election. Even though the emperor was right to do as he did, Pope St. Pius X saw the dangers if other governments, most of which were already non-Catholic and even anti-Catholic, were ever allowed to influence an election. And in this he was correct. One wonders if he did not better understand the intent of Franz Joseph following the death of Rampolla in 1913, and the reported discovery by St. Pius X of his Masonic membership after his death, especially when Franz Joseph was later assassinated. For the pope himself died shortly after these events, in August of 1914, just as Europe entered World War I.
Pope St. Pius X began the codification of canon law with the codification of papal law in his Vacante Sede Apostolica, making sure it was invalid to invoke the exclusivae in future elections. Pope Benedict XV then continued the codification of canon law begun by his predecessor, concluding this onerous labor by officially promulgating the 1917 Code in his Providentissima Mater Ecclesia. In his bull, Benedict XV explained how the Church spent 13 years purging laws from her books which had been abrogated over the centuries by other papal laws and were no longer able to be applied for various reasons, adjusting and reconciling laws that were too strict or too lax and laws that no longer served the common good. This was done “for the restoration and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline.” To accomplish this, Benedict XV explained how first St. Pius X and later he himself consulted all the bishops, appointed a commission of Cardinals, then called together only canon law experts to do the actual work on the rest of the Code. These were succeeded, as they died, by yet other experts appointed by Benedict XV, until the work was completed.
Pope Pius XII himself was one of those who assisted these men in their labors. In the process, a commission for the authentic interpretation of the Code was established to resolve questions as they arose. These decisions are reflected in the revised editions of the Code issued in the 1950s. So in consulting these works, we can be relatively certain that the authors have reconciled their comments with the decisions of the Roman Pontiffs and the decisions of the Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code. These decisions, Can. 17 states, can be made only “by the lawmaker and his successor and by those to whom the lawmaker has committed the power to interpret the laws. The authoritative interpretation of the law has the same force as the law itself.” In promulgating the Code, Pope Benedict XV wrote:
“Therefore, having invoked the aid of Divine grace, and relying upon the authority of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of Our own accord and with certain knowledge, and in the fullness of Apostolic power with which we are invested, by this Our constitution, which we wish to be valid for all time, We promulgate, decree, and order that the present Code, just as it is compiled, shall have from this time forth the power of law for the Universal Church, and we confide it to your custody and vigilance… Wherefore let no one violate or rashly oppose in any way this document of Our constitution, ordinance, limitation, suppression, derogation, and expressed will. And if anyone shall presume to attempt to do so, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of his Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”
There is no doubt that this decree is infallible, for it contains in this sentence all the necessary marks required for infallibility. But who has kept the law and followed it “just as it is compiled,” even as set forth by commentators in the 1950s? Certainly not LibTrad pseudo-clerics, (who never received valid orders nor were properly instructed in Canon Law themselves, and therefore ignore and misinterpret them), or certain laymen who pretend to be knowledgeable in these laws yet lead others into error concerning them. Instead of enforcing these laws with the due vigilance counseled by Pope Benedict XV, they have instead consistently acted contrary to the law, dispensed from these laws, or have changed these laws to “suit the times.” These are acts allowed only to the lawgiver, his successors or the Commission for the law’s interpretation established by the Code. Is Canon Law itself infallible? Indirectly at least, according to the constant teaching of the Church on this matter, which tells us She could legislate nothing that would act against the best interests of the faithful.
The Vatican Council provides the most recent testimony to this teaching: “This power of jurisdiction on the part of the Roman Pontiff, is truly episcopal and immediate; and with respect to this the pastors and the faithful of whatever rite and dignity, both as separate individuals and all together, are bound by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church…” (DZ 1827; emph. mine). Needless to say, this is an infallible pronouncement which must be obeyed.
The Vatican Council also condemned the following: “For the doctrine of the faith has not been handed down as a philosophical invention to the human mind to be perfected, but has been entrusted as a divine deposit to the Spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and infallibly interpreted. Hence also that understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained which Holy Mother Church has once declared; and there must never be a recession from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding…” (DZ 1800). This teaching reflects the later issuance of Pope Pius XII’s papal election law.
Pope St. Pius X taught in his Oath Against Modernism: “I accept sincerely the doctrine of faith transmitted from the Apostles through the orthodox fathers, always in the same sense and interpretation, even to us,” (DZ 2145). Pope St. Pius X also taught that “Hence the triple authority in the Catholic Church [is] disciplinary, dogmatic and liturgical…” (DZ 2091).
Pope Pius XII’s Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS) abrogated the previous 1904 election law of Pope St. Pius X, yet generally left Pope St. Pius X’s law intact with a few exceptions. This confirms the statements of Rev. Neuberger above, that such laws can be abrogated only by the pope himself, and even here Pius XII was very careful to only strengthen his predecessor’s law, not weaken it in any way. For in one change he clearly marked the first three paragraphs of his revised constitution as infallible, also adding references to censures regarding the cardinals from the Code of Canon Law which had not yet been completed and promulgated when Pope St. Pius X issued his law. Another most notable change required a two-thirds plus one vote, to prevent any cardinal from being elected because he voted for himself.
The invalidation of any acts usurping papal jurisdiction — also the paragraph invalidating all acts contrary to papal law, the election law itself, but also any of the Sacred Canons — is found in both Pope Pius XII’s as well as St. Pius X’s election laws. This upholds the validity of Execrabilis, (Can. 2332), as well as all the laws promulgated in the 1917 Code by Pope Benedict XV. It invalidates any election held contrary to these laws, especially one in which a secular government was involved. This even aside from Roncalli’s heresies, which under Cum ex… exclude him as pope. This is why there is reference in VAS to Can. 188 §4, also to another bull by Paul IV excluding all from election who promoted themselves as candidates prior to the reigning pontiff’s death, which Roncalli did. Quo primum of course is a moot point, for all know that the Mass existed under this bull until the usurpers abolished it. As pointed out before, it was all an illusion. With Pope Pius XII’s death, both Quo primum and VAS stand, incapable of ever being abrogated in any way. Pope Pius XII concludes VAS as follows:
“These same documents are manifestly and will be always and perpetually true, valid, and effective, and acquire and obtain their own full and undiminished results; and we command those individuals to whom it pertains and will pertain for the time being to vote, that the ordinances must be respectively and inviolably observed by them, and if anyone should happen to try otherwise relative to these things, by whatever authority, knowingly or unknowingly, the attempt is null and void… Therefore, let it be permitted to no man to weaken this Our constitution, ordinance, abrogation, commandment, binding order, warning, prohibition, precept, and will, or to go against it by a rash undertaking. Moreover, if anyone presumes to attempt this, let him know that he will incur for it the anger of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”
Conclusion
Given the above, that no one is to weaken this constitution or go against it, and that should this occur, one will suffer God’s indignation and the wrath of Sts. Peter and Paul for deviating from these papal commands in any way, it is impossible to understand how one could misinterpret, disregard, ignore, contest and defy such teachings. And yet we see statements by certain parties presumably praying at home who piously claim to “reject all modernism, heresy, dissent from Catholic teaching, including the Novus Ordo … and uphold the Catholic faith in its entirety” yet state they cannot participate in “liturgical practice” because it is conducted by “illicit clergy.” They claim to take the “gentle” approach (read here the approach of those practicing liberal charity), but there is no escaping the stern and undeniable warnings found in the papal documents above. We know and must believe, as stated in VAS, that LibTrads parading as clerics were never validly consecrated or ordained, because such acts were infallibly declared “null, void and invalid” as a usurpation of papal jurisdiction by Pius XII.
I remember well my time in a conclavist sect when I first began to realize that a lay papal election was not valid or even possible. It was an agony to decide if I dared to leave a man I had believed to be pope, on the off chance I was wrong and he was after all a true pope. The revelation that he knew he was not qualified to become pope because he had been involved in heresy pre-election finally convinced me he was not validly elected. But fear of disobeying him as pope kept me a prisoner of that sect for many years.
Today there is no fear of sinning or displeasing God in any way. And the true nature of infallibility has been so successfully obscured by the LibTrads that they can get away with justifying almost anything. None of the young rubes they prey upon realize that even if something that is considered only a papal opinion is registered in the Acta Apostolic Sedis (AAS), as taught by Pope Pius XII in Humani generis, this binds them to believe. They are duty bound to believe and obey what the popes teach and flee from those who have no authority to teach them at all.
“Fear of the Lord [of offending Him or angering Him] is [only] the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is prudence.” (Prov. 9:10). No matter what they may have learned in their LibTrad sects, those are not wise, nor are they holy or prudent, who do not tremble at the words of the popes declaring the indignation of almighty God and the wrath of Sts. Peter and Paul. The clear words of VAS, duly entered into the AAS, show that LibTrad clergy are invalid not just illicit, for attempting to usurp papal jurisdiction. When those now believing them to be only illicit once reject the trap set for them by their deceivers and accept and obey these infallible papal teachings, then and only then will they be members of Christ’s Mystical Body — true Catholics. Until then they are, sadly, outside the Church.
