Eleison Comments

Bishop Huonder

Bishop Huonder on March 30, 2019

It was widely known that Bishop Huonder (BpH) of the official diocese of Chur, Switzerland, when he is due to retire in April at the age of 77, was due to take up official residence for his autumn years in a boys’ school of the Society of St Pius X in Wangs, Switzerland. There was even a rumour circulating, from a close collaborator with two previous Superior Generals of the SSPX, that this same Conciliar bishop would be the principal consecrator of two Society priests to give, with Pope Francis’ full approval, two new bishops to the SSPX, perhaps after Easter. A date so soon for an event so significant is certainly impossible now, but its logic was inexorable, given the Newsociety’s 20-year old policy of blending with the Newchurch.

The same logic was behind BpH’s settling for his retirement in the Society’s school for boys in Wangs. Even as official bishop for one of the largest Newchurch dioceses in Switzerland, he is reported to have made several visits already to the school, and to have made himself popular with the Newsociety priests and boys living there. But he would not be cutting all contact with the Newchurch in Rome. On the contrary, his present diocesan spokesman announced in January that the bishop’s retiring to Wangs in April “is tied to a mission being entrusted to him by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to maintain contact with the SSPX.” Clearly BpH, reputed to be a personal friend of Pope Francis, was planning to act as a link between Newchurch and Newsociety, in the hope of bringing them closer together.

Nor was the hope necessarily dishonest. Many a Newchurchman cannot see (or will not see) the gulf that separates the Catholic religion of God from the Conciliar religion of man. On both sides there exists the wish to pretend that there is no such gulf. On the one hand Catholics find it hard to bear being outside the structure of the Church’s visible Authority, while on the other hand followers of Vatican II need re-assurance that they have not broken with the true Church’s unchanging Tradition. It may be to BpH’s credit that he wanted to settle in a more Catholic environment than the official diocese where he probably has no alternative to giving Communion to young women badly dressed, and no alternative to taking back remarks entirely justified against homosexuality. But “A fact is stronger than the Lord Mayor,” says the English proverb.

The fact is that Vatican II was the greatest break with Catholic Tradition in all Church history. Take for instance the Newmass, which is to the Council as practice is to theory. Would BpH have been asked never to say it in the school? Could he have accepted never to say it? And even if so, could he possibly have admitted that the theory and practice of his priesthood and episcopacy have been immersed in the Conciliar sell-out of God’s true Church to the godless modern world? Could he have shed overnight the convictions of all his tens of years of immersion in the Conciliar Church? Ordained priest in 1971 and consecrated bishop in 2007 with the rites of the revolutionary Paul VI, could he have admitted that to eliminate all doubt as to the Newrites’ validity, he needs to be conditionally re-ordained and re-consecrated? Or would the Newsociety have required neither? That seems most likely, given its recent practice, but how would the Swiss Traditionalists have responded to that? To all appearances Bishop Vitus Huonder may be an honest and well-meaning man, but his honesty is Conciliar, which means that he is loyal to a thoroughly dishonest corruption of the Catholic Faith and Church.

Alas, all over the world Society Traditionalists are being accustomed to the replacing of Archbishop Lefebvre’s Society by the Newsociety. Bishop Fellay wanted to establish the SSPX within the walls of official Rome for it to act as a Trojan horse to convert Conciliar Rome. But was not BpH, even granting him all the good will in the world, being placed to act as a Trojan horse within the walls of the Society? One may hope that the school in Wangs would have enabled him to see the gulf between Tradition and the Council, but that is a fond hope. Alice was in Wonderland. The Newsociety wanted to be in Huonderland.

Kyrie eleison.

Law-Courts Conclude

Law-Courts Conclude on March 23, 2019

On January 31 last, the European Court of Human Rights announced its long-awaited decision to reject the appeal of the author of these “Comments” against his almost unanimous condemnation by seven different courts of law in Germany over several years for the “crime” by German law, of questioning on German soil in November of 2008 whether Six Million people really were gassed under the Third Reich. The two German defence lawyers made an honourable attempt to defend their politically most incorrect client, but they were fighting with one hand tied behind their back, because German law forbade them to take their stand on historical truth. Instead, in Germany as in many countries today, truth is no longer the measure of certain private interests, rather these private interests have become the measure of truth.

But how can truth thus have been dethroned? Like Almighty God Himself, Truth is either Number One, or it is nothing. God Himself can be Number One only, because He is the Creator infinitely superior to His entire Creation. Truth is Number One only, because if we define it as the matching of mind to reality, then any diminution or contradiction of truth, any preferring of a non-truth to that truth which the non-truth denies, means a corresponding loss of grip of my mind on reality, and therewith a lesser or greater slide of my whole self into fantasy and lies. So it is obvious that in the laws and law-courts of any nation, the truth is of paramount importance. Do not witnesses in a normal law-court swear “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”?

Here is why great law-givers count as founders of their nations, e.g. Moses of the Israelites, Solon of the Athenians, Lycurgus of the Spartans, because they establish the framework of justice among their people, appointing to each man his due, thus making social relations and societies possible. Even the society of 22 men in a humble game of soccer needs its own administrator of justice, the referee. And he cannot act as referee without the truth. Was that an honest tackle or was it a foul? Now whether in justice it deserved a penalty or not depends on the truth of what actually happened. Thus living in society is possible only with a measure of justice, and justice is only possible with a measure of truth. Blessed is the nation that has law-makers and judges who reward what is truly right and punish what is truly wrong.

Now let us look at laws and courts which punish any questioning of the notorious murder of Six Million victims in World War II. Was it a historical fact, or not? If it was true, then to question it can be bad if the damage done is bad enough, but if the murder never took place, then it is in accordance with truth to call it in question, and not only is it not bad, it is positively good, to call it in question. For if the Six Million are a monstrous myth weighing down on people’s minds as the foundational dogma of what acts as their false religion, am I not a liberator if I help to free their minds from the lie? “The Truth will set you free,” says Our Lord (Jn.VIII, 32). Is it not then as clear as day that if the Six Million never were murdered, then to question that murder deserves a great reward from society, and not a punishment?

Now politicians and their private interests can twist truth to a certain extent, but truth is of such universal force that it cannot be suppressed altogether. Therefore the common judgment of serious historians, based on objective evidence, can still rise up against the most powerful of private interests. Such is the case with the “gassing” of “six million” victims under the Third Reich. Private interests can claim what they like, but they cannot change the objective facts of 75 years ago. And what serious researchers into those facts more and more allege now is that the “gassing” never happened.

Therefore with laws forbidding its denial, any State is building on sand. Let all States beware of passing such laws that put the truth in second place, because at the very least, in this case, historical truth – as opposed to emotional “truth” – is not necessarily on their side.

Kyrie eleison.

Convert Today – III

Convert Today – III on March 16, 2019

Dear young friend,

Two weeks ago these “Comments” related your own story of your conversion from the wasteland of a modern university to the truth of the Catholic Faith. It ended with your request for advice because you yourself realised that God had given you the Truth, but you needed to get your bearings in a very confused situation of Church and world. It took last week’s issue of the “Comments” to give you the basic advice that is valid for a Catholic convert in general, i.e. in all times and places. It will take this issue to offer you the particular advice recommended for you to see where you are in today’s chaos of the Church, unprecedented in all 20 centuries of Church history.

The crisis is unprecedented because the world will have only one ending, and we are approaching it. See Our Lord’s own description of the last times (Mt. XXIV, Lk. XXI), and see St Paul’s warning, dating from around 67AD, for these times (II Tim. III, 1–9), especially verses 5 and 8: men will be “corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith,” “having the appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid.” Excellent advice for 2019AD, because it is important to realise that today men in general and Catholics in particular are as a whole not “normal,” but men at the wrong end of a long process of degeneration. The purpose of such a realisation is neither to scorn them, nor to despair, but to take the right measure of what it means to live as a Catholic in a post- and anti-Christian world. In God it can be done – “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me ” (Phil. IV, 13).

The chaos in the Church is special today because never before Vatican II in the 1960’s had the official Church in Rome departed officially from the Catholic Faith. Now Catholic Truth and Catholic Authority were designed by Our Lord to go hand in hand – when Peter is to be confirmed in the Faith (Catholic Truth), then he is to confirm the other Apostles (Catholic Authority – Lk. XXII, 32). Thus Truth is the very purpose of Authority, but it needs Authority to protect it. Each needs the other, but at Vatican II they were split apart, because the Popes and Cardinals and Bishops (Authority), magnetised by the modern world, gave up the old religion (Truth). From now on all Catholics had to be schizophrenic – either they clung to Truth and let go of the false authority, or they clung to Authority and let go of the Truth, or they found their way somewhere in between. From now on every Catholic sheep had to find its own way through the thorn-hedge set up by the bad shepherds of Vatican II.

Judging by the fruits (Mt. VII, 15–20), Archbishop Lefebvre’s way, of resisting the false shepherds while still recognising their authority, has proved to be one of the most fruitful ways of dealing with the confusion let loose by the Council, but his successors at the head of his Society have not proved faithful to his balance between Truth and Authority. Even now many are crawling back to false Rome, when it is falser than ever! Let this be a warning to you of the danger of thinking today that the appearance of Catholicism is the same thing as its substance. Then how do you know where the substance is to be found? The best answer is Our Lord’s, just mentioned – judge by the fruits. By what fruits? By supernatural faith, as God has just given you to understand it, and by genuine supernatural charity.

Then mix for a while with all kinds of Catholics, but listen more than you talk. Be in no hurry to pursue a vocation because God is never in a hurry (Gal. I, 18; II, 1). Have a boundless trust in His Wisdom and Providence, and be careful of clinging to any human leader or leaders, until God puts His Church back on its feet (as He certainly will do). Always honour your father and mother, however wrong they may seem to be (God has not given them the grace He has given to you). Have a boundless compassion on the mass of confused souls around you, but never confuse subjective sincerity with objective truth. Love the Mother of God, and pray every day for as long as you can all 15 Mysteries of Her Holy Rosary. And God be with you.

Kyrie eleison.

Convert Today – II

Convert Today – II on March 9, 2019

Dear young friend,

Congratulations on having received from God important graces of conversion which give you a fighting chance of saving your soul for eternity! For you may fall by the wayside like any of the rest of us (I Cor. X, 12) on the narrow path leading to Heaven (Mt. VII, 14), but if you want to get to Heaven, then with the grace of God you will do so, despite anything that the world, the flesh and the Devil can throw at you. For make no mistake, you and I are alive and Catholics in order to save our souls by loving God and by loving our neighbour as ourselves. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets, yesterday, today and tomorrow, down to world’s end. Not even the modern world changes such basics.

Therefore today’s situation of Church and world may appear more frightening than ever, but you need not let yourself be frightened. “For I am sure,” cries out St Paul “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord.” (Rom. VIII, conclusion). However, there is one thing that can separate us from God, and which fills Hell with the damned souls of the majority of human beings that ever lived or will live (Mt. VII, 13), and that is – sin. Therefore whatever else you do, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. II, 12), because the prospect of eternal damnation is too horrible to think of, and keep constantly in front of your mind the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Hell and Heaven. And stay close, wherever reasonably possible, to the Sacraments, especially Confession and Mass, so as to be living regularly in the state of grace.

In this connection, to save our souls Our Lady knows that modern times do make Catholic life difficult, so she has given us a special remedy – the Five First Saturdays. Find out all about them, in all their detail, especially by means of this flyer, and then do them as soon and as faithfully as possible, because any Catholic who knows about them and does not pick up on Our Lady’s offer of this easiest possible means of salvation, needs to have his head examined. Her offer is too generous to be true? No, She knows exactly what you yourself have learned the hard way, namely that today’s atheistic materialism, lies and corruption, excessive comfort and freedom, do all act as obstacles between her human children and her divine Son, so here is Her answer. By doing exactly what She asks, you will also be doing the most you can to obtain for the Pope the grace to consecrate Russia to Her Heart, which is the God-given key to unlocking today’s universal troubles.

Meantime on the supernatural level, use the time presently available to you to pray and study. Pray as many as you can each day of the 15 Mysteries of the Rosary, the next greatest prayer to Mass, and study everything that you can lay your hands on said and written by Archbishop Lefebvre, God’s own guide through this unprecedented Church crisis. Read also any other Catholic books (from before the 1960’s) which catch your interest. Dutiful but uninteresting books will not give you as much. Likewise exploit, but beware of, the Internet, where treasures are surrounded by traps. By all means meet a variety of Catholic priests and learn from each of them, but not to the point where you would get confused. Visit communities, and stay as long as you are welcome in any surroundings where you find God.

And lastly, on the natural level, by all means look for honest work if you find that as a man you are getting out of balance without it, but avoid committing yourself long-term until you are sure that you have found God’s will for you. By the same token, treat the girls chivalrously and avoid choosing a wife until you have found your life’s work. A wise girl hangs back from a man who has not yet found his work.

And may God bless you, and His Mother protect you. Vaya con Dios!

Kyrie eleison.

A Convert Today – I

A Convert Today – I on March 2, 2019

A colleague has just written to tell the Editor of these “Comments” that the situation of the Church is much worse then he thinks – “It is an illusion to think that we can restore things. We must be faithful, and save the few souls that God will make use of when the time comes.” This Editor agrees entirely, and he thinks of a line from Virgil’s Aeneid (II, 353): For the doomed, hope lies in giving up all hope. However, for a follower of Christ, to trust in man is only less foolish than to distrust in God. Here is a recent e-mail to the Editor which shows Almighty God clearly at work, converting a young soul previously far from Him. In this week’s “Comments” he asks for the advice which for the next two weeks they will offer.

Excellency, I am a young man in some despair because I do not know what to do. Maybe Your Excellency can give me some advice. Let me give you briefly my background.

Until I was about 18 I was a “normal” teenager, completely deluded, because I accepted everything that the new modern world gave me. I tried to fit in with it, but I always felt that it was against human nature, and deep down something was lacking. Although I was baptised, I had never lived like a Catholic, nor ever really thought of God, since I was just too caught up in the atheistic material world. However, I was a good student and my parents could afford to pay, so at 18 I went to University to study Management. But after a while by the grace of God I started seeing that things are not after all how the media and people portray them. Filled with anger and contempt for modern society because of the lies and corruption, I dropped out of university and then tried the Army Officers’ Academy since I was always physically fit and ready to stand up to the “mushy leftist society.”

But that was not God’s plan for me either. In boot camp God gave me the immense grace to start converting and to foster my faith. When after a short time I came out I was a different person, no longer filled with rage and contempt but disappointed and lost. I had realised how weak my generation is because of our liberal parenting and teaching and how hard it is to counteract it. We are so uprooted in comfort and in complete freedom to do as we like, that it makes us useless. But my liberal parents continued to press me against my will to go to University, so I had to go – this was not all that long ago. At that moment God gave me to find the SSPX and the “Resistance,” thanks to Archbishop Lefebvre. My faith started to grow rapidly, because I was getting the Truth. I started to read the Bible and to look into the problems of the Conciliar Church and the modern world, and I started praying the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, since there is no Tridentine Mass anywhere nearby.

So now I am thinking about what I should do. I feel a desire to renounce the material life, to get closer to God and to study the Faith in depth so as to learn everything about Catholicism and to convert others, but since I am young and I do not have any skills, I thought it might be better first to learn a practical skill – carpentry, for instance. At this point in time I would not even exclude a priestly vocation. My greatest struggle has been trying to reason with my parents and to convert them, but they thought I was nuts or had had a breakdown, and since then it has been big arguments at home about my not wanting to go to University. So I don’t know what to do. I am all alone, nobody in my family or among my friends is a Traditional Catholic. Since I am still unemployed, I have thought of moving not far away to where there is a Traditional Catholic community. What advice might you give me?

Kyrie eleison.

USA Misled

USA Misled on February 23, 2019

Last week these “Comments” quoted President Putin of Russia in 2014 accusing the United States of America of having “ruined all systems of global collective security.” What was he referring to?

In the 1980’s Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev of the USA and Russia respectively, realising the danger of the store of nuclear weapons on each side capable of ending life on earth, together made agreements to reduce the weapons they had, and to abstain from producing any more armaments of specifically perilous kinds that they did not yet have. These agreements served well to relax tensions and to keep the peace between the two nations until the end of the Cold War in 1989 and beyond, but the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet Russia created a new situation on the world stage – the USA was now the only super-power. Would it have the wisdom not to misuse its now overwhelming military might?

A number of leaders inside the USA called for a severe reduction in military expenditure – what was it needed for any longer? – but as far back as 1961 the outgoing President Eisenhower had famously warned US citizens in his farewell address to the nation against its “military-industrial complex” exerting too great an influence on public policy. By the “MIC” he meant the informal triangular alliance that had arisen between the USA’s armed forces, heavy industry and Congress, and the danger was that together they would want war for the sake of the immense profits to be made from the production of expensive weapons – in 2011 the USA spent more on its armed forces than the next 13 nations combined.

The truth is that a capitalist economy thrives on war, insofar as weapons can be expensive to produce, and if they are destroyed and have to be replaced, that is all the more turnover for the producers. So at the end of the Cold War, there were at least three arguments for maintaining the heavy expenditure on weapons: the USA must still be ready to defend itself against threats that can arise, the economy needs the turnover, and the world needs a policeman. Within reason, each of the arguments is valid, but the Plan which US leaders (especially Dick Cheney) worked out in the 1990’s to guide US policy was not necessarily reasonable, because it was a plan for the US to rule the world. It calls for the US to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the US must be more or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful. The Plan has turned disarming back into rearming.

(For the Cheney Plan, see http://​www.​informationclearinghouse.​info/​article1544.​htm).

That a plan expressed in such terms suffers from dangerous pride and overweening ambition should be obvious to anyone with the least knowledge of human nature. Under President Clinton (1992–2000) the Plan was slowed down, but as soon as Dick Cheney came back to power with the Republicans as Vice-President, the wicked idea of a new Pearl Harbour as a contrived event to mobilise the people behind a policy they would never in their right minds approve of, was put into practice – 9/11, one of the greatest lies of all history, which can only have been engineered by the secret government (the true “Deep State”) from deep within the public government, but which eminently succeeded at the time in furthering Cheney’s Plan. 9/11 immediately made the military invasion of Iraq possible, and how many more wars of aggression since then. It also made the worldwide police State take gigantic strides forward.

But lies are the sure footprint of Satan. It would follow from the huge lie of 9/11 that there is something satanic about Cheney’s Plan with its design for military domination of the world by the USA, all in the name of “democracy.” For a sane view of insane US policy heading straight for World War III, read at PaulCraigRoberts.org the sanity of a former official high under President Reagan in the US government, who watched at first hand and admired how Reagan and Gorbachev succeeded in working together to protect world peace. And let us pray for both Trump and Putin. With all their respective faults, both are surely gifts of God for which we need to be grateful to God.

Kyrie eleison.