Eleison Comments

Catholic Life?

Catholic Life? on March 18, 2017

Another young man writes to me about the problem of living as a Catholic in today’s world around us. But what Catholic can not have a problem in today’s world? His questions as to world and Church are in italics. Some advice from the author of these “Comments” follows:—

It is more and more difficult for me to live a life consistent with the Catholic Faith. As for the world, should I be thinking, as soon as I earn my own living, of moving to another country, e.g. France, in order to seek there the means of founding a Christian family (e.g. wife, Catholic priests consistent with the defence of Tradition, &c)? As for Mass, the Traditional Mass nearest to my city is in B., where there is a chapel of the Newsociety and another chapel which depends on the Newchurch. What would your Excellency recommend me to do? I know of no priests of the Resistance in my country, nor even of many true Catholics, as it seems to me.

As for the world I would not recommend your moving to any other country. There is every likelihood that you would meet there with the same problems, and you would have severed your native roots in your own country. You may think those roots in a modern city are not worth much but they are better than none. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” You would risk jumping “from the frying pan into the fire,” instead of jumping from the frying pan onto the kitchen table. Providence has put you in the city where you have now your family and your friends. The solutions today are rather internal than external, above all when World War may start before long (the whole USA System is against Trump, and it wants war!).

Similarly with attending Mass. The “other chapel” that you mention was once better than it is now. Likewise the SSPX, as you know. The apostasy today is all around. I would beware of geographical solutions. You could attach one day to the best-seeming priest, and a little while later he goes crazy too. That has happened all too often in today’s Church. The solution has to be internal rather than external.

As for the internal solution, since you read the ‘Eleison Comments,’ then you know how often and repeatedly I recommend praying the full 15 Mysteries of the Rosary every day. Good books (and good music) can also help considerably to nourish and protect the mind and the heart. Read what genuinely interests you, and do not read merely dutiful books because you will not get out of them nearly as much. Almighty God has seen from eternity what a mess the modern world would get itself into. He has also seen from eternity that there would be souls today still wanting to go to Heaven. Is it imaginable that even in today’s infernal big cities He would have left such souls with no recourse if only they wanted to stay on track for Heaven?

Yet He foresaw that everything external would fall under the control of His enemies: telephone calls, emails, drones, universities, politics, law, medicine, etc., etc. That is why I think that what He means by allowing such power to His enemies is to drive us back to Him and to a true inner practice of His holy religion despite the worst that Popes and priests can do. Therefore, in my opinion, be content to attend the least contaminated Tridentine Mass that there is anywhere near you, get regularly to Confession with any priest still willing to hear Confessions and who does not tell you that a sin is not a sin, and find the way to work into your day all 15 Mysteries of the Rosary. And then “possess your soul in patience” and quietly beg God to show you the way to Heaven, and to intervene here below before everything is lost. Despite all appearances, He is still in perfect control.

Kyrie eleison.

Fourth Bishop

Fourth Bishop on March 11, 2017

Ever since the summer of 2012 when the Society of St Pius X decided officially to change course and abandon the doctrine-first stand taken 40 years previously by Archbishop Lefebvre, it has been interesting to watch Providence in action to ensure the Church’s defence. One might have expected a widespread uprising in defence of God’s Truth. Resistance from inside the Society? Existent, but at least up till now, largely silent. And from outside? Existent, but only a scattering of layfolk and a handful of priests, riven by divisions for lack of a recognised authority. Catholics need authority. And that need is so great that even while Truth is draining out of the man-centred Newchurch and the Rome-centred Newsociety, still souls cling to each because of the remains of Papal authority in the former, and of Catholic authority bequeathed to the latter by the Archbishop.

But Truth remains the purpose of Authority and Authority is not the purpose of Truth. Given fallen human nature, Authority is the indispensable defender and guarantee of Truth, but it comes after Truth and not before. Take for example one of Our Lord’s last instructions to Peter before He will leave Peter behind to govern the Church (Lk.XXII, 31–32): “Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you (plural), that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee (singular) that thy faith fail not (Truth); and thou, being once converted (Truth), confirm thy brethren (Authority).” And when on Palm Sunday a few days beforehand the Pharisees had attempted to rebuke Our Lord for the joyful noise being made by His disciples, so necessary is the adoration of God in Truth that Our Lord replied (Lk.XIX, 40): “I say to you that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.”

In today’s Newchurch, Authority is mixing Conciliar error with Catholic Truth in the engine of the Church, which is like mixing water with gasoline (petrol) in the engine of a motor car – the car is crippled, the Church is crippled. And whereas Archbishop Lefebvre defied that crippling, not least of all but rather above all, by his consecrating of four bishops to maintain a Catholic authority that would protect God’s Truth, his successors at the head of what was once his Society are doing their utmost to submit his protection of Truth to the crippled and crippling Authority of Rome! If these successors seriously think that once they are “inside the official Church” they will be in a position to convert the neo-modernists, they are excessively naive. Already they are holding their fire on Vatican II. Just when do they imagine they will be able to open fire again?

In these quite exceptional circumstances, there must be disciples of Our Lord who tell the Truth – so as to spare the stones the effort! These disciples may not be united as they would be beneath true Authority (always allowing for human weakness). They may be “straitened and cast down,” they may suffer “tribulation and persecution” (cf. II Cor. IV, 8–9), but they must be there for as long as Truth is held in captivity. Will that be a long time? God knows. Many of us expected Him to intervene long ago, but God has a very long fuse. However, intervene He will, if anything at all is still to be saved. Patience.

Meanwhile these disciples need a handful of bishops to ensure a minimal continuation in Truth of episcopal teaching and of the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Orders. In 1988 the Archbishop consecrated four of them for the same reason, two for Europe, and one each for North and South America. As of now the “Resistance” has two in Europe and one in South America. There remains a gap in North America. God willing, this coming May 11 Fr. Gerardo Zendejas will be consecrated bishop in the Traditional parish of Fr Ronald Ringrose in Vienna, Virginia, USA. Please pray for the blessing of Almighty God upon the ceremony – and for good weather!

Kyrie eleison.

“Holy Priests”?

“Holy Priests”? on March 4, 2017

By a great grace of God, one reader of these “Comments,” immersed by family and work in today’s world, has nevertheless kept a true sense of what is going on around him – the great drama unfolding every day of the salvation or damnation of the souls which he meets. It is not a comfortable sense. He might wish that he could not see what he sees, but by another great grace of God, he does not want to go back to sleep. He knows what the Society of St Pius X used to represent, and he used to profit greatly by it. Now from a simple layman’s point of view, with no pretention of getting into the higher arguments, he observes that the Society is not what it was, but has joined the sleeping brigade, and he wonders what he is going to do. His words are not to be found on the Internet, but they must be in many a sad Catholic’s heart. Here they are, in italics:—

I have mentioned this before but I keep seeing it at work. Souls are starving and they are withering away under the weight of sin and the pressures of this anti-culture engulfing all of us. Almost all of the former Catholics I have talked to have either been disgusted with all the abuse taking place in the Church (I imagine though that many use this as a big rationalization for their own sins), or they have seen in the priests nothing but selfish men who have not died to self and put on Christ. Their view of the Church is clouded by so much unfaithfulness and so much sin.

No doubt the abuses in the Church serve as an excuse for Catholics to give up the Faith, but what a responsibility of priests who, even without causing grave public scandal, nevertheless by their example cease to inspire and uplift! Priests of the Society – you used to inspire and uplift – where are you now?

Honestly, I would dare say that The Angelus Press (magazine of the SSPX in the USA) no longer has a cutting edge. We need to be jarred from our complacency (I know I certainly do with my fallen human nature!). We need to be jarred from our intellectual sloth. It is all very well to write beautifully about spiritual and doctrinal issues, indeed I do not think anyone can accuse AP of promoting heresy but . . . . and here is the kicker . . .  if none of these ideas are woven into the fabric of daily life or address any of the problems of modernity, then the Church becomes just one “sweet thing” to soothe us from the realities of real life.

Here is the problem. Real priests deal in “the realities of real life.” “Lord, give us holy priests,” prays the SSPX. Alas, is not “holy priests” liable to mean soothing priests? And should priests be soothing souls so as to make them comfortable in this life, or should they not rather be making them uncomfortable in this “valley of tears,” so that all their desires go towards life eternal?

I am becoming more and more indifferent to what the SSPX does because we layfolk have no influence on what they do. So if they want to rush headlong into oblivion and obscurity and irrelevance, which is what I think will happen, then let them go ahead. The unique glory of the SSPX used to be that it was the only organized resistance against Conciliar shenanigans out of a principled rejection not of authority but of anything that was destroying the Faith. Alas, the SSPX is using the same principle of authority – good in itself – to co-opt any opposition to error, whereas authority is meant to be at the service of the truth. So quite honestly, I have no idea what I am going to do, practically speaking. We still attend the SSPX but (at least for myself) the fervor I had with the SSPX has almost been extinguished. Patience. Amidst all of this, Christ is the one who will give victory.

Is the Newsociety indeed not on its way to making itself as irrelevant for life eternal as the Newchurch?

Kyrie eleison.

Migration Religion

Migration Religion on February 25, 2017

So there is a Global Power behind the on-going flood of non-European immigrants into Europe, and religion is “decisive” in that flood – so said last week’s “Eleison Comments.” Then two questions arise – who or what is that power? And how can religion enter into such a political question?

As to the identity of that Global Power, of whose existence the Hungarian economist was so sure without his ever being willing to identify it, there is easily accessible on the Internet (unless it has been smothered) a fascinating and frightening clip from an interview filmed in 2010, only a few minutes long, in which a Jewess claims that it is the Jews who are leading the multi-cultural transformation of Europe. Barbara Spectre was born in the USA in 1942, graduated in philosophical studies in the USA, was active as a professional educator from 1967 in Israel, and in1999 emigrated to Sweden to join her husband who was Rabbi there of the Stockholm Synagogue. If one watches the clip, it seems evident that nobody is forcing her to reveal who is behind the transformation of Europe now taking place. Rather she sincerely believes in that transformation and in what the Jews are doing to Europe, because she claims that the immigrant invasion will alone enable Europe to survive. Here are her own words:—

“I think there is a resurgence of antisemitism because at this point in time Europe has not yet learned how to be multicultural. And I think we are going to be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Europe is not going to be the monolithic societies they once were in the last century. Jews are going to be at the centre of that. It’s a huge transformation for Europe to make. They are now going into a multicultural mode and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role and without that transformation, Europe will not survive.” (See https://youtu.be/8ERmOpZrKtw)

Here is a convincing answer to the question of the identity of the Global Power. Active at university level for over 30 years in Israel, ardent Zionist and wife of a Rabbi, Barbara Spectre could easily know what Jews were planning for Europe, years before the immigrant invasion of Europe became today’s flood. And Jewish mastery of all five elements named by the Hungarian economist as being necessary to set up a flood of immigrants makes the identification of his “Global Power” with Jewish power entirely plausible.

But why would Jews want to turn “monolithic” Europe into “multi-culti” Europe? The answer is a driving force that goes far behind and above mere politics.

Ever since the Pharisees and Scribes crucified Our Lord Jesus Christ because he was turning God’s people from theirs by race into His by Catholic faith, they have persecuted His Church for nearly two millennia (read Maurice Pinay’s The Plot Against the Church ). Still today Jewish leaders believe in their unique God-given gifts and rights to govern the world. Now the Old Testament did come from God, but it points straight to the New Testament which replaced it, and so the successors of the Pharisees had to twist the Old Testament into the Talmud, which is viciously anti-Christian. Therefore Talmudism is a false religion, but it has given pseudo-religious backing and power to the age-old Pharisaic drive to kill off Christianity.

Now Christ’s Church was born and bred in the Middle East, and spread rapidly all around the Mediterranian Sea, but when the Middle East and North Africa fell to Islam, then the Faith was upheld and spread world-wide mainly by Europeans, of the white race, and divided by Providence into the variety of European nations. Thus St Francis Xavier in India begged St Ignatius to send to him from Europe European priests to act as missionaries. Hence the quasi-religious hatred of the Pharisees’ successors for the white nations of Europe, and hence the Jews’ “multi-culti” drive to dilute that white race and dissolve the “monolithic” nations of Europe. And unless these nations turn back to God and His one true Church, His Justice risks allowing that drive to succeed, unless His Mercy interrupts it . . .

Kyrie eleison.

Migration Politics

Migration Politics on February 18, 2017

Discussing a week later on Hungarian television the misbehaviour of migrants in Cologne at the end of last year, a former politician and leading economist of Hungary, Dr. László Bogár, attempted to uncover the roots of the problem of the immigrant invasion, still continuing in Europe, see — youtu.be/TKpe4swiVOc. His analysis of the political roots goes as far as public opinion allows him to go in naming the Unnameable Global Power behind the invasion, but he gets nowhere near the religious roots, which are decisive. Yet who today still thinks that religion counts for anything in the world? It is to be hoped that readers of these “Comments” can both conceive that this baneful Power exists, and that the true Catholic Church can alone neutralize the bane. Here follows in italics Dr Bogár’s analysis, shortened and adapted:—

A Global Power wishes to annihilate all that is humane, all that has dignity. And since the European White Man still possesses too much of this, it wants to annihilate the European White Man. Therefore it is pumping over to Europe a mass of alien migrants with the aid of gigantic resources. For indeed it should be obvious to anyone with a grain of sense that for the relatively quick pumping of millions of people across thousands of kilometres, a number of things are needed.

Firstly, to finance the operation, let us say a minimum of ten billion dollars. Secondly, to direct and control the pumping, a minimum of a few thousand strictly secret agents, and if ever a light was occasionally shone on this skilfully disguised operation, then thirdly, the media were needed to repair the disguise in a hurry. Fourthly, to organize the operation, the complete collaboration of the global crime syndicate was indispensable with its tens of thousands of human smugglers to handle the migrants. And finally the cynical collaboration of Europe’s top politicians was needed, like the British Prime Minister who visited us here today, and the leaders of France and Germany, all of whom participated likewise in the destruction of Libya and Syria. Besides creating the chaos, these leaders have proudly announced that they are doing it in the name of Europe, of Western culture, of democracy. Here are the true culprits of the horror that we just saw in Cologne, and something whispers to me that this is just a faint prelude to something much more sinister . . .

The truth is that Europe is being dragged into a conflict just as brutal as WWI and WWII, by the same Global Power. In effect, Europe is letting itself be dragged into a third World War. The invasion of migrants is just the final product of a huge hidden process. Now one may counteract the horror at the end of the process, but if we do not understand the process itself and choke it off at its roots within the global power structure, then horrors such as the migrant invasion will only continue. Unfortunately, international cooperation is needed here, but the reality is that Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, has been virtually on his own. When Libya was being bombed to Hell, he was the ONLY European politician to voice his worries and reservations about what the strategic consequences would be. Very, very few other politicians voiced the same concerns. Therefore Hungary had to step up to the plate, and that is why we are under constant attack. In Hungary we need not fight a civil war because we have closed our frontiers, but now we must wait for the other nations of Europe to do the same.

Alas, when it comes to uprooting the process of which the migrant horrors in Europe’s cities are merely the rotten fruits, sad to say, Europe is already utterly defeated. The process can only lead to a civil war. BUT THAT IS THE GOAL. This is what this Global Power wants. The Global Power wants above all a brutal never-ending 30 years war, just like the devastating 30 Years’ War of the 17th century (which was the same Global Power’s work). It wants precisely a civil war, stretching for decades, to develop in Europe.

Kyrie eleison.

Five Hundred

Five Hundred on February 11, 2017

This issue of “Eleison Comments” for the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 2017, is the 500th issue from the first which appeared on July 6, 2007. For nine and a half years the “Comments” have appeared on the Internet once a week, usually on Saturdays unless there is some delay or other, and every week during that time with few exceptions. Also on Saturdays it goes out on an electronic mailing-list to thousands of subscribers. In English, French, German, Italian and Spanish it is accessible on stmarcelinitiative.com, and let it here be said that if anybody ceases to receive the “Comments” by e-mail when he has wished to continue receiving them, it will never be because he has been struck off by the mailing-list’s administrators. Usually it will be by some electronic misfortune, for instance when somebody’s computer switches the “Comments” to Spam. On other sites the “Comments” appear each week in Czech, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese.

The “Comments” are never long, although occasionally they have a Supplement. In English they rarely exceed 700 words, containing about as much material as can be made to fit on an A4 page in size 12 lettering. This brevity has the advantage of assuring readers with little time to spare that reading them will never take more than a few minutes each week. On the other hand the brevity has the disadvantage that the “Comments” will rarely go into a subject in any great depth. Occasionally a few issues will appear in a row on the same subject to examine it in a little more detail, but even then the contents are hardly scholarly, nor do they pretend to be. Scholars are liable to use rather more than 700 words to prove a point, and many readers today have little time for much more than 700 words.

What the “Comments” do attempt to do is to argue from the reality of the modern world around us to establish some reasonable and coherent connection between on the one hand the Catholic faith without which we cannot be saved (Heb. XI, 6), and on the other hand the ever darkening scene of world and Church which we all know. Whether the “Comments” achieve that purpose, readers must judge for themselves. They are certainly not infallible, coming as they do from a Catholic bishop cut loose from any official structure and twice declared “excommunicated” (1988 and 2015) by official Rome (which might, alas, be more of an honour than a dishonour – God knows). But if he himself had to go over all back issues he might find judgments that he would change in the light of subsequent events. He can bend over backwards to be kind to the churchmen responsible for Vatican II and its aftermath, but as Don Putti, the founder of Sisi Nono, once said to him, “Sono tutti delinquenti” – objectively, they are all delinquents.

Thus while many readers may find the “Comments” to be rather dark and too pessimistic, their author may suspect that if he erred, it was where he was a little too optimistic. Paradoxically, the supposed arch-conservative of the SSPX and arch-critic of the Newchurch can seem to go quite easy on the practitioners of the Novus Ordo religion. He would say he was following St Augustine: “Slay the errors, but love those erring.” Others might be less kind and say that underneath he has been a flaming liberal all along – such are the delights of our modern age. In any case he does not expect the “Comments” to reach their thousandth issue. He fully expects the electronics on which they depend to be in a near future either knocked out of the sky by war, or crippled on the ground by agents of the New World Order, to the lies of which the Internet has done so much harm, despite the Internet’s manifold miseries.

Meanwhile all honour and thanks go to Almighty God and to Our Lady of Lourdes for every little way in which the first 500 issues may have helped souls, and may souls pray that more light and warmth come from as many more issues of the “Comments” as Providence will provide for.

Kyrie eleison.