Monday, July 26, 2021

Attempted Coup

 

A priest of the SSPX leads the faithful in a
Rosary against satanists trying to take over Idaho's capitol.

Today, the feast of St. Ann, mother of Our Lady, a group of masked, robed and hooded satanists gathered at the Statehouse in Boise, Idaho, to conduct a "prayer" ceremony in an attempt to turn Idaho over to the will of the devil.  A group of Protestants gathered at the bottom of the steps to counter the satanists.  A group of Catholics, led by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X, climbed the steps past the satanists and gathered in the rotunda to pray the Rosary.  The satanists came in and stationed themselves at the four compass points within the rotunda (where there is currently construction underway) and shouted prayers to satan.  The Catholics prayed all the louder.  Before long, the satanists walked out and returned to the steps where they blew a horn or two and made some noise for about a minute.  After the Rosary, Father prayed a prayer of exorcism out of the Rituale Romanum while the Catholic group continued to pray silently, and then walked around the rotunda, sprinkling it with holy water.  He then blessed the group, which left the way it came.  By that time, the satanists were off the steps and in some unknown location.

This is not the only time or place where the devil's minions have launched a public offensive against a state or city or town.  Why are satanists bold enough to come out in the open (albeit hiding behind their masks) and conduct black rituals to try to capture a political entity for the powers of darkness?  It must be because, saturated with the ideology of "religious liberty," or a failure to take the devil seriously, or a disbelief in their own powers given to them in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, or some combination of all three, the Catholic hierarchy turns a blind eye.  But this is not a battle that they can just leave to the laity, who are usually the ones keeping track of these things.  If the local priests and bishops are not aware that these ceremonies are going on, why aren't they aware?  How is that not their business?  And if they are aware, how can they bear to allow it to go on?  Why do they mostly leave these things to the laity to deal with by themselves?  It's like sending an eight-year-old out to deal with a wild animal.  One can only speculate what the repercussions might have been, if there had not been a priest on the scene today to beat back the assault.  If priests and bishops haven't got time to chase devil worshippers off their doorstep, they haven't got time for anything.

Excellencies and reverend fathers: you have got to go out in the forefront of this battle and drive back the powers of darkness.  We pew sitters are willing to come with you and back you up with our prayers, but you must lead us.  You are the ones who wield the power of Jesus Christ.  This is why it was given to you.  It is up to you to send the satanists away, tail between legs, and make them fear to ever dare to launch an offensive against our states and cities.  Nobody else has been given the power and authority to do it.

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Ultra Vires

 "Ultra vires" is an old legal term that describes an act that exceeds the limits of the actor's authority.  Fr. Hunwicke explains why Traditionis custodes is ultra vires.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Ideological Litmus Tests as a Condition of Keeping the Traditional Mass


The letter from Bishop Sticka of the Diocese of Knoxville, released yesterday, expresses His Excellency's solicitude for the members of his flock who love the traditional Mass.  In essence, the bishop says he will allow the traditional Mass to continue status quo ante, at least for now, and even grants faculties to all priests ordained by the cutoff date to celebrate it.  However, the bishop also implements the litmus test of accepting all the teachings of Vatican II, as well as the validity and liceity of the implementation of the new Mass. 

One has to pause and hover over that litmus test.  First of all, is there no basis for questioning the liceity of the new Mass, especially in view of the extreme upheaval that resulted from the attempt to completely replace the old Mass?  Does there exist widespread agreement among high churchmen, reached after careful and deliberate consideration, about the liceity of imposing a new, manufactured rite of Mass, however valid, on the Church?  If not, why are the little people not allowed to question it?  

Secondly, why are we not allowed to question an ecumenical council that explicitly was "pastoral" and refrained from defining any dogmas?  Since there are priests and bishops who question parts of the Second Vatican Council, and whose objections are not trivial, why must the people in the pews take sides?

Thirdly, if we need litmus tests, why don’t we have an “acceptance of all the Ten Commandments and all the Precepts of the Church and all the Sins that Cry Out to Heaven for Vengeance” litmus test to let people in to any Mass whatsoever?  Why is there no litmus test to screen out those who reject those parts of Vatican II that were already defined and infallible doctrine before the Council?  And why are we doing this at a time when we have bishops and priests refusing to implement the canonical litmus test of not being a manifest public sinner in the case of pro-abortion and pro-same-sex-marriage politicians presenting themselves for Communion?

To ask some questions is to answer them.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

One of the Sanest Things I Have Seen Yet...

 ...on the subject of the new motu proprio.  

Hillary White: The Purge.  A teaser:

Why am I not mad? Why am I not freaking out? Why am I not panicking? Why, in fact, am I something along the lines of ferociously joyful? Because a very grave evil, that has duped a great many people with quite a lot of comforting, sleep-inducing lies for quite a long time, is coming to an end. An entire regime of Un-Reality is collapsing before the inexorable demands of the Real. And the defeat of lies, the defeat of UnReality is always a triumph for Christ who is Truth incarnate.

Hillary White gives clear expression to a lot of my own inchoate thoughts on the crisis in the Church.  Follow the link and read the whole thing.

Sunday, July 18, 2021

YES, The Holy Father Will Try to Suppress the Traditional Mass. War Has Been Declared.

 

Well, now we have the answer to the question I asked last month.  Besides saying I stand by everything I said last month, I will add the following observations:

- The blow, once landed, does not hurt any less just because you saw it coming.  This is no surprise.  Still, it may be that the biggest shock is how utterly devoid of even a scintilla of human empathy the document is.  It doesn’t even have a grace period before taking effect.

- It’s unfortunate that some people think this move by the Pope was justified and proportionate to the alleged provocation.  For decades, and especially over the last year and a half, we have been inured to exercises of raw power and draconian overreactions by those in authority, so that we have lost our sense of how wrong it is to depart from legitimate authority and proportionality.  We have also lost our sense of what an evil thing it is to try to stamp out the time-honored and tested Mass that has nurtured generation upon generation of saints.  It was an evil the first time around, and it is no less evil this time.

- Power and authority are not ends in themselves, but means to ends.  An exercise of power and authority that is destructive of the ends for which they were instituted is an abuse.  The end for which the Catholic Church was founded is the salvation of souls.  There is no sense in which the salvation of souls has been served here.

- This Orwellianly-titled motu proprio couldn’t be further beyond the Pope’s authority.  I can’t think that anyone is really bound to obey it, even if it weren’t full of things that don’t make sense.  Bishops should recognize it as the usurpation that it is.

- Let’s be clear about who is responsible for divisions in the Church.  It’s not the people who want to stick to tradition.  It’s the revolutionaries in the Church who think she is their personal property to do with as they please, and who try to transform her into something unrecognizable from what she had previously been.  In fact, those who govern the Church do not own tradition, but only hold it in trust.  These prelates and priests who cannot leave well enough alone are violating their obligation to keep care of the patrimony that has been entrusted to them, so that the present generation may enjoy the benefits of peace and order, and so that it will be there for future generations.  They are also violating their obligation not to put their flocks in a position of having to choose between obedience to them and obedience to God.  

- The enemies of the Church, both within and without, hate not only the Mass, but the papacy.  In our time, this would seem to include the current holder of that office.  He demonstrated that early on with his disdain for the customs and trappings and small “t” traditions that come with it.  Then there was his belittlement of the papacy by his continued promotion of “collegiality,” and his use of its prestige to make common cause with globalist leftists against the flocks he was appointed to protect.  Now there is this frontal assault on the Church herself, using his power as Supreme Pontiff to destroy what his predecessor built and to eviscerate the patrimony he is bound to defend.  These are all attacks on the primacy of Peter.  If you really hate the papacy, and want to bring it into disrepute and ultimately destroy it, what better place to try to do it from than the throne itself?

- Still, no: this move by Pope Francis does not prove he is an antipope.  If God demonstrates his wrath against His people by allowing them to fall into the hands of bad priests, as St. John Eudes says, how much more wrathful must He be to allow us to fall into the hands of bad bishops, and, above all, a bad Pope?  There have certainly been plenty of candidates in recent decades.  Pope Francis is a typical cleric of his generation: mean, nasty, arrogant, brutal, and contemptuous of all things Catholic.  The hierarchy is still chock-a-block with guys like him.  It was only a question of time before one of them landed his kiester on the throne of Peter.

- From what I am seeing on social media, the lumpen cruelty of Friday’s bombshell shocks the conscience, not only of die-hard Latin Mass-goers, but also Catholics who only attend the Novus Ordo, and even some non-Catholics.  It’s impossible at this early stage to know how many people who don’t think they have a dog in the fight have been shocked by this, but it’s possible the Pope has jumped the shark.  (I say “don’t think they have a dog in the fight,” because really, there is no one who does not have a stake in the preservation of the Mass of tradition.)

- I expect that the Society of St. Pius X will keep on keeping on, as they have been doing since they were founded in the 1970s.  I also expect they will have a lot more souls on their hands after this, over and above the increase they got out of the covid shutdowns.  Their uncompromising stance in favor of tradition is looking less and less like “disobedience” and “schism” and “rebellion” as more and more “Spirit of Vatican II” chickens come home to roost.  Their canonically irregular situation — which they acknowledge as an abnormality, and hope one day to be able to rectify — is also, in the present moment, looking more and more providential, as it allows them to plant standards pretty much anywhere, and to marshal resources that no bishop can strip them of.

While we wear out our Rosary beads, stock up on our supply of sacramentals, and go to confession and receive Holy Communion as often as possible, we need to stay sane inside insanity and remember that this ain’t 1970 anymore.  The traditional Mass parishes are loaded with babies and toddlers and young adults too young to have boomer and Gen X baggage.  They are where the future is.  Also, in 1970, we hadn’t had 2020 yet.  People noticed which sector of the clergy defended their flocks in 2020, and which didn’t.  

Above all, this is God’s Church.  Sooner or later, He will intervene.