Eleison Comments

Priceless Femininity – I

Priceless Femininity – I on October 6, 2018

It is where the soldiers of a besieging army are pouring over the walls that the defenders need to fight. It is where the salvation of souls is being most hindered that servants of God must most fight. That is why these “Comments” and the “Rector’s Letters” that went before them come back often to the unwomaning of women and to the unmanning of men. God’s complementary design of man and woman, going back to Adam and Eve, is basic to human nature and life. And when that design is torn up by man and supposedly thrown away by the foul manipulations of “gender” and so on, how can the supernatural grace of God come in to land within human natures so radically fouled up? And without grace, where do they finish?

In theory, Catholic womenfolk should not have too great difficulty in understanding and accepting how God designed them. In practice, the pro-feminist propaganda is so relentless in today’s abject education and vile media that even Catholic women’s natural instincts and God-given sense of their true role in life are often overwhelmed by the thrust of pride towards seeming power. Here are some rough but wise words on woman, from Irene Claremont de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: Feminine Psychology:—

“Any girl who grows to womanhood without knowing that love is her supreme value has been spiritually raped. Feminine spirituality expresses an attitude of spiritual waiting, and tending, and readiness for the meeting with its opposite which is a prerequisite for woman’s inner wholeness. Without this she becomes a prey to the masculine within herself, a raging spirit of intellectual or physical activity to which no man can be related, and to which she can in no way relate herself. She is a woman possessed.”

And then from Henry Makow, Ph.D., Western Women Have Lost Their Power to Love (revised):—

“Western women have been tricked into pursuing power instead of love. Paradoxically, they have never been so powerless. They want to be loved but no longer have love to offer in exchange. In the movie War Games from 1983, the hero, Matthew Broderick, is a computer whiz-kid who accidentally starts a nuclear countdown and races to avert catastrophe. His girlfriend, played by Ally Sheedy, is seen in a complementary role, basically helping, encouraging and admiring him. He is the leader. But her presence informs, validates and heightens everything he does. It’s as though his actions are dedicated to her. This is the way heterosexuality works. Woman empowers man by entrusting her power to her husband. This is how woman loves, i.e. by ‘trusting,’ enlisting as First Mate to his Captain. If this movie were remade today, she would be Captain, he would be emasculated, and they would break up.

“From Chaucer to Freud, men have asked, ‘What do women want?’ It’s really quite simple. They want to be loved. Specifically, they want the passionate lifelong love of a husband. But what makes a man love a woman in this way? Her sacrifice. By throwing her lot in with his, by accepting his leadership, and by serving him and their children. In other words, lasting love is earned by deeds. It is not based on sex appeal (which wanes) or witty comebacks. It is built on bonds of GRATITUDE.

“By teaching women to be self-seeking instead of self-sacrificing, Feminism has deprived them of their stock-in-trade, love. All they have left to give is the act of marriage without marriage. Because they won’t surrender to a loving husband, they’re reduced to giving themselves to strangers.” (End of Makow quote.)

“But, Your Excellency, where are the Captains? Where are the potential loving husbands who will lead? The men today are wash-outs, not excluding the Traditional Catholics!” Girls, just like you have been de-feminised without your realising it, so they have been emasculated, by today’s whole wretched culture. You must pray, because God can easily find you a young man. Pray to St Anne, as above, but first of all, promise her that if she finds you a man, you are ready and willing to submit to him. That way she will be rather more inclined to search for you. Then twist her arm. Heaven does not mind that – Lk XVIII, 2–8.

Kyrie eleison.

Swedish Forethought

Swedish Forethought on September 29, 2018

“If crisis or war comes” is the title of a brochure of 19 pages issued to all Swedish households in May of this year by the State of Sweden, “to help us become better prepared for anything from serious accidents, extreme weather and IT (Information Technology) attacks, to military conflicts . . . . Many people may feel anxiety when faced with an uncertain world . . .” One useful page of the brochure lists in common sense fashion the four most important natural needs of any household in a national emergency: water, food, warmth and information. See on the Internet dinsäkerhet.se

The State of Sweden is obviously not alone in observing a high state of tension in the world around us. Every State is formed of nothing but human beings, every one of whom comes from God and has been given life in order to make the right use of it so as to be able to go to God at death. Yet the mass of mankind today lives in a state of indifference towards God, or in positive revolt against Him. Many men may not be atheists, they may still believe that He exists, but they hardly take Him seriously, because science and technology seem to have taken His place, and it is henceforth modern politics and economics that guarantee for us the good life. Old age is conveniently moved off into an old people’s home, and death into a hospital. Yet God exists of course as much as ever, He cares if anything more than ever, to see more souls than ever throwing themselves by sin into Hell, and here is why our world is in such a state of unprecedented tension: it is wilfully living at cross-purposes with its Maker. Some huge crisis must come.

Since the problem is radically religious, then it should go without saying that the best solution is also religious. That household is taking out the very best insurance policy to protect itself where the Rosary is regularly prayed by all the family together. How the Devil must hate the Rosary! But in the meantime Sweden’s practical suggestions are a good start for any household that has not yet been thinking of any natural measures to prepare for trouble. Here are a few of them:—

WATER – Clean drinking water is vital. Allow for at least three litres per adult per day. Foresee a means of boiling it if necessary. Have bottles, buckets with lids, plastic bottles in which to freeze water, and jerry cans, ideally with a tap, to collect water in.

FOOD – Have extra food at home that provides sufficient calories. Use non-perishable food that can be prepared quickly, requires little water or can be eaten without preparation: for instance, bread with a long shelf-life, spreads in tubes, milk powder, cooking-oil, pasta, lentils, tins of sardines, ravioli, boiled meat, soup, honey, nuts, seeds (those are only a few of the brochure’s suggestions).

WARMTH – In a house grown cold without electricity, gather in one room, hang blankets over the windows, cover the floor with rugs and build a den under a table to keep warm. Extinguish all candles and oil-burners before going to sleep. Air the room regularly to let in oxygen. Have woollen clothing, sleeping mats and sleeping bags, fire-lighters, alternative heat sources, etc.

COMMUNICATIONS – In a crisis there will be a need to be able to receive national news, to contact friends and relatives, to contact the emergency services. Therefore have a radio powered by batteries or solar cells or winding: a car radio and mobile phone charger that works in a car, extra batteries, etc.

And the brochure mentions a few miscellaneous extras like cash on hand, a medicine cabinet, fuel in the tank. Many of these things cost relatively little now, but let a dangerous crisis loom, and they risk suddenly becoming much more scarce and expensive, if they can be had at all. “Trust in God,” says the proverb, “but keep rowing to shore.”

Kyrie eleison.

Soul Attacked

Soul Attacked on September 22, 2018

Archbishop Viganò’s revelations of grave moral corruption among a number of the Church’s highest officials, not excluding Pope Francis himself, can be a severe trial for the faith of Catholics who have trusted the official churchmen for the last 50 years because they have not seen – or have not wanted to see – any essential problem in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Three weeks ago these “Comments” quoted words of a Catholic brought to virtual despair, even before the publication of Viganò’s letter, by the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania revealing similar Newchurch scandals in that State. The threat now being real of an avalanche of such scandals, let these “Comments” this week show how the Devil is turning his heavy artillery on another such Catholic to make him lose his faith. Here are the Devil’s shells, as related by this soul, with brief answers offered by these “Comments,” in the hope of fortifying other souls whose faith will be shaken in the foreseeable future:—

* In my home city I attended a Newmass celebrated for Sisters by a local auxiliary bishop. His sermon on the Sacred Heart was doctrinally beyond reproach and highly edifying. Yet a friend of mine with his own eyes once saw the same bishop kissing a seminarian! This bishop sets an agonising problem for me – how can he believe in the Sacred Heart on whose love he preaches so well?

He is a modernist, like easily most churchmen in the Church “renewed” by Vatican II, or, as we can call it, the “Newchurch.” Now modernism means adapting the Catholic Church to the anti-Catholic modern world, and this it does by a process of making objective reality depend on subjective feeling. But the process of subjectivising reality can take time, so that a churchman falling for modernism need not immediately lose the objective Catholic faith, even if it is already subjectively undermined in his soul.

It can be God alone who knows exactly when such a churchman loses the faith. So if this bishop believes in Vatican II, he is certainly on his way to losing the faith, far enough to let himself commit grave sin against the Sixth Commandment, but not yet far enough to have lost all notion of the Sacred Heart.

* But in order to destroy Catholic Truth as successfully as the Roman impostors are now doing, they must have known it. If they knew it, they must have known its force. If they knew its force, how can they have ceased to believe in it, unless it is a fairy-tale, untrue like all other religions, with the Catholic Church being in no way superior, and with man having no access to the Truth of God?

To believe the Catholic Faith a man’s mind must accept many supernatural truths which are not unreasonable but which are beyond his mind’s natural reach. To accept and to submit to these truths his mind must be pushed by his will. If his will stops pushing, or pushes in a contrary direction, he can lose the faith. Now modernism is proud, because in the Newchurch man takes the place of God. Therefore the Roman impostors, as you rightly call them, may have been Freemasons or Communist infiltrators from the start, or they may have believed to begin with, like Judas Iscariot, but the pride of taking God’s place and of remaking His Church overcame their wills, and their minds lost the faith. God knows.

* Then might we not be deceived, fighting an endless war for a fragile promise of Heaven, unable to know anything about God? Would we not be better off if God did not exist? Amid today’s chaos, I cannot help thinking that the Church is a purely human affair, so that there are times when I cannot help envying the people who lead happy lives without God.

Dear friend, a happy life without God is an illusion, however “happy” godless people pretend to be. We human beings are all from God, our souls are all directly created by God for us to go to God, body and soul. Today’s world and Church are in chaos precisely because they are trying to live without Him.

* It would appear that we are predestined to Heaven or Hell, and free-will cannot do much about it.

“The poison is in the tail,” said the Latins. This heavyweight conclusion of yours, a horrible heresy, is the proof that the devil is throwing everything at you to shake your faith. Pray the Rosary to obtain the help of the Mother of God. I send you my blessing.

Kyrie eleison.

Viganò Letter

Viganò Letter on September 15, 2018

A reader wrote in with a few questions on the 11-page letter of the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Viganò, which declared with a wealth of details, and quoting names, that there is immense moral corruption rotting the Catholic clergy in the USA, and that the responsibility for the crimes involved reaches to the very top of the Church. At the time of writing these “Comments,” the scandal caused by the letter is immense, and it is having widespread repercussions. Nobody can tell right now what the ultimate fallout will be. Here are the reader’s four questions with brief answers –

1 What is to be thought of the Viganò letter? Is it as serious as it looks?

Yes, because Archbishop Viganò gives all indications of being an honest man. In 2011 he was exiled from Rome and sent to the USA because he was making a successful attempt to clean up Vatican finances. At the time of writing he is in hiding because he is in fear for his life. He has serious enemies.

2 Will the letter be a bombshell in the Church, or a mere fire-cracker, with no lasting consequences?

Time must tell. Certainly the corruption high in the Church is matched by the corruption high among the powers-that-be in the world, politicians, bankers, media and so on. Satan rules, because satanists are linked with one another in all domains, and they are not going to allow one mere Archbishop to upset their apple-cart, if they can help it. In fact it is God who holds the whip-hand. Are people turning back to Him, or not? If not, He will allow the servants of Satan to continue whipping Church and world into the New World Order. If they are turning back to Him, we will have before long the Consecration of Russia.

3 Will the scandal make Menzingen think again about seeking recognition from the Pope and Rome?

It certainly should do so, but I fear it may not. For many years now, Society headquarters in Menzingen have been in the clouds, and liberals do not change their doctrine. For liberals, it is reality that is in the wrong. At all costs official recognition for the Society must be obtained from Rome, and so Pope Francis must still be treated as a friend. Maybe Menzingen can admit that they have been wrong for 20 years, but it will not be easy for them to change course. Archbishop Lefebvre on the contrary decided 30 years ago to let the Conciliar Popes go their way. He would not have been at all surprised by the Viganò letter.

4 What made the Archbishop so clear-sighted?

Doctrine. Scratch many a materialistic Westerner of today and you find an heir of Protestantism who tends to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel (Mt. XXIII, 24), meaning that he is more severe on sins of the flesh than on sins of the spirit, such as doctrinal error, or heresy. Now sins of the flesh are serious enough to contribute to the eternal damnation of a huge number of the souls that fall into Hell – so said Our Lady to the children of Fatima. But it is heresy which opens the way to these sins. See Romans I, 21 to 31. Breaking the First Commandment leads to impurity in general (21–24), to homosexuality in particular (26–27), and to all kinds of other sins in general (28–32). In other words it is the First Commandment which is the first, and not the Sixth.

Thus the real scandal being denounced by Archbishop Viganò is implicit rather than explicit. It is less the perverse sins of the flesh running riot in high-up churchmen than the official idolatry committed by Vatican II in its documents, which did more than anything else to take off the Catholic brakes on immorality. If no State should coerce doctrinally false religions in public ( Dignitatis Humanae), why should I have to observe Catholic morals which put special limits on my liberty? If Hell is a mere “doctrine” of the Church, why should it stop me from sinning how I like? Vatican II ( Nostra Aetate, Unitatis Redintegratio) declared that several religions beside Catholicism have their points. Was this not the Catholic Church itself teaching me that I do not really need to be Catholic?

Kyrie eleison.

Whither, “Resistance” ? – II

Whither, “Resistance” ? – II on September 8, 2018

When John-Paul II became Pope in 1978, a number of Catholics were genuinely hopeful that the situation in the Church would get better than it had been under Paul VI, but I can remember Archbishop Lefebvre saying that if John-Paul II did not clean house in Rome within the first six months of his pontificate, he would not be able to break with the policies established in Rome by Paul VI. Similarly, if Fr. Pagliarani does not clean house soon at the top of the Society, the followers around him of Bishop Fellay are liable to hinder him from making any significant change in the disastrous policies of his predecessor. The rot that started with GREC in the 1990’s has had time to put down some deep roots.

Therefore if anyone is concerned about the future of the “Resistance,” on the grounds that the Society is coming back on track with the new Superior General so that the “Resistance” will no longer be necessary, the first part of the answer is that it is not yet certain that the Society is coming back on track. We must wait and see. Fr Pagliarani is a good man, he surely means well, and we pray for him, but if he chooses first and foremost to unite liberals and anti-liberals within the Society by means of human and political compromises, he will never save the Society from its present downward slide. Our faith is our victory over the world, says St John (I Jn. V, 4), and not our politics. Therefore the “Resistance,” that small and scattered group of bishops, priests and laity doing what they can to resist disastrous politics of Rome and Menzingen, cannot yet give up resisting, however disorganised they are, however ineffective they may seem. Somebody in the Church must fight for what Archbishop Lefebvre fought for.

For indeed, secondly, imagine a convert being led by the grace of God, even today, to the Catholic Faith. By its very principles it must be incarnate somewhere. He may well not find it in the antics of the Novus Ordo. He turns away from the Conciliar Church towards Tradition. He finds the Society of St Pius X, but then discovers that it is going Conciliar. Where does he turn to next? If there is no “Resistance,” he risks giving up on the Incarnate Christ. Somebody in the Church must be living by the logic of the true Faith of 20 centuries, otherwise there risk being souls that conclude that that Faith is obsolete in today’s world.

Likewise souls letting go of the Society’s high trapeze need a Catholic safety-net to fall into, with or without the name of the “Resistance.”

And thirdly, there is any number of ways of mixing whisky with water, but they all depend on somebody producing pure whisky. Similarly, there is an even greater variety of ways of mixing Our Lord with the world, but they all depend upon some people upholding in their lives, and not only in their words, an example for all to see of true Catholic living. This function always used to be served by the Church’s religious Orders and Congregations. Hence their importance. After the Council which ruined them, that function was served especially by the Archbishop and his Society. Today from all over the world the reports come in of the fellayised Society giving a weaker and weaker example of Catholic life and morals. Somebody in the Church must give witness by at least striving to live up to the high standards of doctrine and morals demanded of souls by Our Lord Himself (Mt. V, 48).

And a fourth reason for the “Resistance” not to resign or go out of business or give up the wearisome fight for the Truth, is that it cannot do so, because if it did, then as Our Lord says (Lk XIX, 40), the stones of the street would have to cry out. In other words, the Truth may be smothered by all mankind, but it is not men, it is God who is in charge of the world, and God will never allow the Truth to be completely silenced, because that would frustrate His purpose in creating the world, which is to populate Heaven.

Therefore the “Resistance” may tomorrow, or the day after, change form – and in this respect its present formlessness will actually help! – but in some form or other God will make it continue (cf. Is. VI, 9–11).

We carry on.

Kyrie eleison.

Whither, “Resistance”? – I

Whither, “Resistance”? – I on September 1, 2018

If anybody still wonders what the Catholic “Resistance” movement is meant to be doing, recent events in the United States make it more obvious than ever – it must keep the Faith! With the official publication last month by the State of Pennsylvania, USA, of an 800-page document proving beyond doubt the guilt of high-ranking Catholic churchmen in abominable crimes against the law of the land and the law of God, millions of Catholics will be tempted, and not only in the USA, to doubt the Faith and to quit the Church.

One reader of these “Comments” names three disturbing Internet links, and he writes:

“My heart is hurting. Jesus didn’t teach this. I am bitterly weeping. I am a hard-headed man and don’t cry often at all. I can’t take this. I’m sorry, but if this continues I will have to become Eastern Orthodox or I will absolutely lose my mind. I just can’t take this monstrosity any more. I am in physical pain because this is making my chest hurt. I’m going to lose my mind. All the prayers and Masses are in vain if this is still being done by those who partake in prayers and Masses. Our Lord is being turned upside down by these heretics! I can’t take it!”

Now sin happens, and sin will go on happening until world’s end, even among priests and bishops because God does not take away their free-will, and no wise lawmaker in Church or State trusts in mere legislation to abolish sin. The grace alone of Our Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse souls of sin (Rom. VII, 24, 25). That is why the State is basically powerless to heal the deepest human problems of priests, or families, or nations. It is obliged to do its best to protect its citizens, but all intelligent and honest statesmen recognise that the Catholic Church alone is fully possessed of the means to reach with healing into the depths of human souls. That is why they will favour the Church as best they can for the good of the State, and protect as best they can the reputation of bishops and priests, and leave the Church to deal with her own criminals, if they will. But if the Church refuses to deal with its criminals, then the State has to intervene.

What is so scandalous in the present plague of abuse by churchmen of adolescents and children is the extent of the abuse, the systematic cover-up of the abuse by high-ranking churchmen, and the height of the rank of some of them, reaching up to the very top of the Church. In fact the scandal has been known about in the USA for tens of years, and it is wholly impossible that it was not common knowledge in Rome also. For tens of years, however, a network of homosexuals has had immense power within the structure and hierarchy of the Church, to the point that they exert far-reaching control in Rome over the appointment of bishops, and in the dioceses over the choice of seminarians. It can be more and more difficult to become either bishop or priest without belonging in person to that network.

But what can possibly explain such a disaster among so many churchmen? The only proportionate explanation is the loss of faith let loose by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), following on which the great protector of the priest’s perseverance, his Breviary, and the purpose of his existence, the Mass, were both maimed and crippled ( Sacrosanctum Concilium, Chapters II and IV). Take away from any man the purpose of his existence, and he is bound to look elsewhere for satisfaction. At least one American commentator blames Satanism for the disaster, a sin directly attacking God and, as such, much graver than sins of the flesh. But men only turn to Satan when they have turned away, or been turned away, from God. Vatican II opened the door for seemingly the entire Church to turn away from God.

Kyrie eleison.