Tag: resistance

Whither, “Resistance”? – I

Whither, “Resistance”? – I posted in Eleison Comments 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.

Chaos Deciphered

Chaos Deciphered posted in Eleison Comments on March 24, 2018

Just before Holy Week is a good moment to reflect on the passion (suffering) of the Catholic Church. A

reader writes: “Can you tell us what on earth is going on with SSPX, Bishop Fellay, and others? We’re hearing some weird stories down here, and we don’t quite know what to believe. THINGS ARE FRACTURED ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF – EVERYWHERE. Starting from (1) the Novus Ordo, we have (2) the SSPX, (3) the Sedevacantists, (4) the SSPX Resistance, and (5) Fr. Pfeiffer’s group, with more splits to come, no doubt! What on earth is “Pope” Francis up to? He spends all his time playing politics, nothing spiritual! And one hears that Fellay is chasing a scarlet hat! What does that mean?

Dear Friend, the Catholic Church is in a state of chaos, by a just punishment of God, because His Church is the “light of the world” and the “salt of the earth,” but all over the world mankind is turning away from Him, including even His own churchmen. Nor is it any use God raising a good Pope too soon, because the churchmen would merely turn and tear him (Mt. VII, 6), as perhaps they assassinated John-Paul I. So the whole world is going to be in darkness (no light) and corruption (no salt), until enough men are so overwhelmed by today’s galloping chaos that they get back on their knees to beg God in His mercy to put the Pope back on his feet, who at the moment, as you say, is playing politics instead of religion.

The Pope is crucial because he is the rock on which the Church is built (Mt. XVI, 18), so that if he is fractured through wanting to follow the corrupt world instead of leading it out of its corruption, then as you say “things are fractured almost beyond belief – everywhere.” When Our Lord was struck in the Garden of Gethsemane all the Apostles were scattered (Zachary XIII, 7; Mt. XXVI, 31). Today Pope Francis is so deeply struck that authority throughout the Church is essentially dislocated.

The problem of Pope Francis goes back to the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), because that was when and where the Popes gave up resisting the decadent modern world and decided to follow it instead. Up till Pius XII included (1939–1958), the Popes had resisted that decadence, but it was so glamorous and overpowering that John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul II and Benedict XVI all allowed themselves to be deluded (not without their own fault). They created your (1), the Novus Ordo or Conciliar Church, named after the New Order of Mass which has turned masses of Catholics into virtual Protestants. Pope Francis not only shares these Popes’ errors from the accursed Council, but he also puts them most destructively into practice, causing more chaos in the Church than ever.

Yet soon after the Council, God had raised a Catholic Archbishop to found a Congregation to look after all souls that refused to abandon Catholic Tradition which was then being abandoned by the Popes and the mass of churchmen. That was your (2), the SSPX, or Society of St Pius X, which flourished until the Archbishop died in 1991. But before he died there began also your (3), the “sedevacantists” who are so scandalised by the Conciliar Popes that they refuse even to believe that they are true Popes. And after the Archbishop died, his younger successors at the head of his Society, suckled on the modern world, fell foul of the same errors as the Council, notably Bishop Fellay who may well be seeking a Cardinal’s hat as a reward for his corrupting the resistance of Tradition to the Newchurch. This betrayal of the Archbishop’s true resistance from inside the Society gave rise to your (4) the SSPX “Resistance,” in which scattered priests hang loosely together to keep the Catholic Faith being now corrupted inside both the Novus Ordo and the SSPX. Good Catholics hanker for less looseness, but by now half a century of Conciliar Popes had essentially broken Catholic structure. However, your (5) now arose, Fr. Pfeiffer’s group, to which the (4) “Resistance”did not seem to be resisting enough.

In brief, within all five groupings there are scattered Catholic sheep known to God, who have the faith and want and mean to be Catholics, but Conciliar Popes are incapable of pulling Catholics together in the true Faith. And since nobody less than a Pope in his right mind can fulfil that function, then “what cannot be cured must be endured,” until God intervenes. For God to intervene, let any Catholic – or non-Catholic! – pray 15 Mysteries of the Rosary every day for God’s Mother to intercede with her Son.

Kyrie eleison.

La Salette, Applied

La Salette, Applied posted in Eleison Comments on October 21, 2017

All prophecies are mysterious, including the famous Secret of La Salette revealed to a French peasant girl in the Alps of eastern France in 1846. However, that Secret certainly follows the Venerable Holzhauser’s broad outlines of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Ages of the Church, so that a large part of the Secret applies to our own end of the Fifth Age. Here is a substantial extract from that part of the Secret, in italics, followed by a Resistant priest’s presentation of how that end of an Age looks in our very own time. Firstly, Our Lady of La Salette:—

“There will be extraordinary wonders in every place because the true Faith has been extinguished and a false light lights up the world. ( . . . ) My Son’s Vicar will have much to suffer, because for a time the Church will be handed over to great persecutions: it will be the time of darkness; the Church will undergo a frightful crisis. With God’s holy Faith forgotten, each individual will want to direct himself and rise above his peers. Civil and ecclesiastical authority will be abolished, all order and justice will be trampled underfoot. Only murders, hatred, jealousy, lying and discord will be seen, with no love of country or family. ( . . . ) Civil governments will all have the same objective, which will be to abolish and make every religious principle disappear, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vices of all kinds . . .”

And secondly a priest of today:—“The Revolution has had a huge impact, and in 2017 it is a storm which is reaching its climax. Now is the time for us to hunker down, and help one another to survive the storm. This requires total abandonment to God’s Providence, and it requires more prayer and study to navigate and survive in the storm. It is no use hankering for that “Sunday Catholic” life-style which Traditionalists made a great effort to restore after the earthquake of Vatican II. Both the 1950’s and the 1970’s are gone for ever. By this crisis God is purifying His Church, which may be reduced to numbers and to a life-style close to those of the early Church. The beautiful buildings, relics, artwork and museums have been lost once to the Modernists, and they will be lost again to the Muslims, to natural causes, to wars. Let us brace ourselves to see the whole Christian heritage disappear, and as Lot fled Sodom, let us flee Neo-modernist Rome without looking back!

“For let us dream that at the next Conclave in Rome, by a direct intervention of God, the truly best of Cardinals is elected Pope. What could he do to restore the Church? Practically nothing, except offer up all the persecutions that would befall him the day after the election. Why? Because, surely as with President Trump in the United States, all the administrative machinery of the Church would still be in the hands of the Pope’s enemies, and he would not have the good men to replace them. And even if by a series of miracles, the whole of Rome was truly Catholic once more, would not the rest of the world on its present course have become virtually inconvertible? What can now stop mankind from becoming almost totally inhuman, unnatural, unreal? How could even a converted Rome evangelize tomorrow’s Zombies?

“We are going through a New Deluge, that of the Revolution, where the saving Ark which once was Rome has been hijacked by the enemies of God, and they are in the process of scuttling it. The Society of St Pius X was a lifeboat. But since 2012 it has thrown a rope towards the sinking Ark and is now attached to it. We poor souls of the “Resistance” are bobbing up and down on the waters, grabbing at pieces of wood for dear life. And that is how it is, and we had better face the reality around us.”

Kyrie eleison.

Catholic Soldier

Catholic Soldier posted in Eleison Comments on September 2, 2017

Once again good news and bad news, this time for English-speaking readers, from the United States. The good news is that there is a Traditional and Resistant quarterly magazine, beautifully produced on paper, sent by snail mail, and which is as politically incorrect as can be, because it is militantly Catholic. It is called Oportet Christum Regnare (Christ must reign), and it is edited by Mr. Hugh Akins, a veteran of the Vietnam war in the 1960’s, wounded then and shot at since in most probably an assassination attempt, because his brand of Catholicism must seriously displease the enemies of God who run the world today. The bad news is that the magazine is attracting barely enough subscriptions to be able to pay its way. That is a pity, because it throws a rare light on Church and world, a light most useful to any Catholics who seriously wish to save their souls. Akins’ light on the modern world is clear from his summary of his own very courageous book, written a few years ago: Synagogue Rising, OCR # 6, p.67:—

The book upholds the Church’s traditional teaching on the Jewish question, documenting the Jewish threat, bringing that threat up to date in relation to the most burning issues and events of the 20th and 21st centuries, including two World Wars, the rise of communism, the rape of the Holy Land, the plundering of the Church at Vatican II, the 9/11 attack on America by Israel, the whole war-on-terror hoax with the planned onset of World War III, and then the connection of all of that to the Jews, the modern apostasy, Fatima, Russia, world peace or the annihilation of nations . . . . To disseminate the truth that sets men free, one will not be concerned with being branded an “anti-semite.” Anti-semitism, so-called, has nothing to do with hatred of the Jews, but rather is a very effective Jewish smear-tactic designed to silence all opposition by discrediting anyone who dares to expose the diabolical intrigues behind the Talmudic and Zionist war against Christ and His Church ( . . . )

This light of Akins on the world goes hand in hand with his light on the Church. By God’s will the Church is inserted in our fallen world. Studying the history of that Church, Akins must have come across the pattern of the bimillennial enmity of the Jews towards Our Lord and His Catholic Church, and knowing how relentlessly this theological enmity is disguised and hidden from view, Akins, like Pope Leo XIII with Freemasonry, must have felt himself obliged to “strip off the mask.” May angels protect him!

But his value for Catholics in particular is that he understands, and in OCR keeps on explaining, not only why the Archbishop was the main upholder of true Catholicism after the “plundering of the Church at Vatican II,” but also why today’s so-called Resistant priests are the main upholders of the Archbishop’s work, despite the appearances. At least as much as he denounces the Church’s external enemies, Akins also identifies and condemns and gives reasons for condemning her internal enemies, within the Society of St Pius X as within the mainstream clergy. Akins is a soldier of Christ, fighting the true war both in Church and world, for the salvation of souls. That war is fiercer by the day. The paper copies of Oportet Christum Regnare may cost more than electronic sources of information, but they are more lasting, and will be a permanent asset of lasting and valuable orientation in a home library.

For subscriptions to Oportet Christum Regnare, or back issues, or much good Catholic reading, in particular for Synagogue Rising, contact Hugh Akins at hughakins@comcast.net, or order directly from the Catholic Action Resource Center/League of Christ the King website at www.ca-rc.com.

Kyrie eleison.

P.S. Not tomorrow, but next Sunday, September 10, after Holy Mass at 10h00, Dr David White, retired Lecturer on World Literature at the U.S.A. Naval Academy, will give three lectures at Queen of Martyrs House in Broadstairs, England, on Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889), English Jesuit and important poet of the Victorian Age. Use him as a bridge leading from your Faith into the neglected but nourishing world of the English poets. Trains afterwards at 17h26 and 17h42 from Broadstairs back to London.

 

Why “Resistance”?

Why “Resistance”? posted in Eleison Comments on August 26, 2017

Following on “Why Tradition?,” let Fr Patrick Girouard, presently ministering to a “Resistance” parish in Western Canada, explain the need not only for Catholics to be Traditional, but also for Traditional Catholics to “Resist.” The following “Mission Statement” he wrote in June of 2013, precisely to explain why he and a few dozen SSPX parishioners were getting out from under the SSPX. Alas, the “Statement” has had to be cruelly shortened. For the full text, contact Fr Girouard at thebastion.faith.

If I, Father Girouard, and about a third of the Langley parish, have decided to start a new parish, it was because our beloved Society is being destroyed by its management, and we could no longer stand the constant propaganda favouring that destruction. Having studied carefully the documents that shed light on it, we were able to understand what happened. If we then remained silent and inactive, not only would we be putting ourselves in harm’s way, but we would also be contributing to the destruction of the Traditional movement. May our taking action encourage more priests and faithful to do likewise!

For all practical purposes, the Society of St. Pius X has joined the Conciliar Church. Even if the deal with Rome has not yet been signed, nevertheless it was accepted in principle at the Society’s July 2012 General Chapter, which was the Revolution inside the Society: the Chapter took the decision that from now on the Society can sign a pact with the relentless destroyers of the Catholic Church.

But how can any Catholic worthy of the name go along with such a decision? How can we say that we are Catholic, if we accept to make a deal with those who are facilitating, by their actions or their silence, the damnation of countless souls for which Our Lord gave His life? How can we even sit down to talk with people who promote that abomination to God, the Novus Ordo Missae? I can remember Archbishop Lefebvre quoting the Prophet Malachy against the New Mass: “To you O priests, that despise my name, and have said: ‘Wherein have we despised thy name?’ You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: ‘Wherein have we polluted thee?’ saith the Lord of hosts” (I, 7).

The mission of the SSPX has never been to enter into the structure of the Conciliar Church so as to “transform” it from within. Such an illusion was condemned by Archbishop Lefebvre after the 1988 Consecrations. The Society’s mission is to train priests who will preach the Truth and fight vigorously against error, without “talks” or “dialogue,” or “negotiations.” Like a beacon, that little remnant will then attract souls of good will. But the present Society leaders have betrayed that mission, nor do they tolerate dissent or critics, so the only way for us to hold to the Truth is to separate ourselves from the Neo-society. We must pray hard for a solution to the crisis, and for ourselves to persevere.

You may ask me: when will be the time to join Rome? How will we ever know if we have a good Pope? The answer is simple: when the Pope publicly condemns the New Mass and forbids its celebration under pain of excommunication; when he publicly condemns and rejects the whole of the Second Vatican Council; in brief, when we see him taking effective action to clean up the mess. Similarly, when can we go back and trust the SSPX again? Answer: When Bishop Fellay and all the priests of the Society promoting the new line will be dismissed, and barred from any future office; when the texts of the Chapter will be officially repudiated; when the faithful priests will be vindicated, and so on.

Impossible, you say? I reply quite simply: So what? What’s the problem? We just do our duty, give glory to God, and leave Him to deal with the destroyers. Let us pray and sacrifice for their conversion, and remain united in prayer, for sure. But let us compromise and put ourselves in harm’s way? – Never!

Kyrie eleison.

Fifteen Countries

Fifteen Countries posted in Eleison Comments on December 31, 2016

The last day of the year may be a good time to take a survey of the battle for the Catholic Faith in 15 different countries visited in the course of calendar year 2016 by the author of these “Comments.” It is a battle being fought in very difficult conditions, because of course the Catholic Church depends like any organisation on its head, and Pope Francis has been giving all year long the impression of wanting to destroy the Church as it has been for 2,000 years, and to replace it with anything that will please the modern crowds, which means the media, which means the enemies of God. Truly “the Shepherd is struck and the sheep are scattered,” which includes the Society of St Pius X, but let us tell rather how all over the world God is raising up children of Abraham from stones (Mt.III, 9), who if they were to keep quiet, the very stones would have to cry out (Lk. XIX, 40).

In India, a former Society priest and Society seminarian, now a priest, are maintaining the only priory and parish of the Resistance as such on the whole sub-continent. May God be with them. In Brazil, it does seem that the episcopal consecration of Bishop Thomas Aquinas has strengthened the defence of the Faith around his Monastery. Thanks be to God. Mexico has always been strong in the Faith, and it is now the base of the excellent website in Spanish, Non Possumus. In Switzerland a small group of layfolk is happy in the shadow of Écône to learn some of the things that can no longer be so firmly taught in the Seminary itself, as when Archbishop Lefebvre gave so much to so many of us. In the United States where the Society had succeeded in replanting the Church’s anti-liberal doctrine all over the continent, liberalism is regaining lost ground, thanks to the Society’s disastrous change of direction since the Archbishop died. However, the US priests have not yet said their last word, and Fr Zendejas, who was one of them, is bravely rebuilding in their midst.

Two more former Society priests, Fr Chazal and Fr Picot, range all over the Far East and down to Australia and New Zealand. In Korea, a Resistance chapel is maintained in the capital, Seoul, by a courageous medical doctor. In Japan Catholics have been decimated by World War II, Vatican II and now the slide of the Society, but there remain a few Resistance contacts, including one veteran Japanese priest. On the other hand in Asia’s most Catholic country, the Philippines, Fr Chazal has dozens of Mass centres and a seminary which it will become easier to serve with the recent priestly ordination of Fr John, a native Philippino.

Back in Europe, Ireland has a new Resistance priory near Cork in the South, and Poland has a group of Catholics waking up to the Society’s dangerous slide towards Rome, but they have for the moment only one aged Polish priest. Patience. In the Czech Republic there is a parallel group of ardent Catholics, looking towards priestly conversions to Tradition from the mainstream Church. Their faith is strong. In Belgium there is also a strong group in one provincial city, going back to one good priest who many years ago left behind him a legacy of Catholic conviction and piety. In Germany the Resistance is proving slow to take shape because of Germans’ instinctive obedience to authority, but there are stirrings. In Italy also the Resistance is slow off the mark, because the conservatism of Catholics made the Conciliar Revolution tame compared with how it raged in some countries, but Pope Francis may change all that!

And last but not least there is France, which is always a leader in the Church, for good or ill (e.g. either Archbishop Lefebvre, or Teilhard de Chardin). French priests have always predominated within the Society, and they are now predominating in the Resistance, and hundreds of French laity come to regular conferences on the classic anti-liberal Encyclicals of pre-Conciliar Popes. But France as a country is for the moment disintegrating, because the Catholics have no true Pope to unite them, and the citizens want no Catholic King to rally them to the cause of God. However, let us have patience, because God will raise up France again, and he will lift us all up with it.

Kyrie eleison.