| Editor : Abbé Georges de Nantes | N° 74 – November 2008 |
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Our Lady of Fatima Camp 2007
THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH
IN THE MODERN WORLD (3)
GAUDIUM ET SPES
(7 décembre 1965)
BY THE ABBÉ DE NANTES
ASSISTANCE THAT THE CHURCH SEEKS TO OFFER HUMAN SOCIETY.
Here there is the same zeal, the same eagerness and, conversely, the same slowness, indifference, and distancing of the Church in all that is connected with what was thought until then to be her activity, ardour and satisfaction of the first order!
I repeat in passing: it is a total reversal of Catholic zeal, which is transformed into Calvinist or Puritan feverishness. Its theological origin smacks of the Confession of Augsburg that Luther signed but Melanchthon wrote: what relates to Catholic worship is neglected; what deals with earthly culture absorbs all the energies of the new evangelists!
Every man was helped to make himself grow in stature, to promote himself, to have a ball like a god. Do they also want to help the civil society? What does that mean? This:
42. § 1. « The union of the human family (a chimera) is greatly fortified and fulfilled by the unity, founded on Christ, of the family of God’s sons. »
This is the first paragraph. Perhaps they will attempt a beginning of a proof. I make a comparison. Paul VI exclaimed one day: « Never, ever again! No more wars! » It was at the un in October 1965, long before his death, thirty-one years ago. War continued, it continues, thus the event did not respond to the Pope’s order. When Jesus commanded the sea and the wind, « the elements obeyed » (Mk 4:41); men did not obey Paul VI. He had no effect? The direct effect was nil, but the indirect effect was considerable and harmful, as we would see too late, for most Catholic nations banked on disarmament… and lost.
There is no « human family » because, since original sin, the human race as such is a dead body; it has lost its soul. Men or demons rise to take control of it; they promise to raise it from the dead and to give it a soul. That makes rival empires. « The human family » never has existed and never will. But, the side-effect, when one of these great empires grows bigger, is that there is always some Christian prophet to celebrate it and to see in it the salvation of the human race, animated by Jesus Christ. This was how Teilhard de Chardin viewed the forward march of Hitlerian Nazism! Who was the Council for in its time? For Communism or Christian Democracy? Where are they today?
This was in lieu of giving the Church, as St. Pius X did, the only maxim that is suitable: “Omnia instaurare in Christo” (Ep 1:10). To plan to bring the whole world back to Christ the King is a holy and beautiful project that forces itself upon a Council. But to plan to put new life into the non-Christian world and to lead it to its perfection by putting the Church in its service is insane, infernal. How can one explain or even attempt to justify such a proposal to commit adultery?
We shall see. Perhaps…
§ 2. « Christ, to be sure, gave His Church no proper mission in the political, economic or social order. The purpose which He set before her is a religious one. » The “yes, but” trap worked. The whole conservative Church walked into this snare and is still trapped in it: the Church does not get involved in politics! I have come up against this “basic law” hundreds of time. St Pius X stood up to the crowd by announcing from his enthronement that, yes, of course! the Pope would get involved in politics and then he specified: God’s politics and not those of men, of the world, – he could have said – of the demons.
What does this mean? A two-word Latin maxim settles the “problem”: “ratione peccati”, by reason of sin. It is simple, practical, holy, and even divine. Thus, the Council is cleverly lying in order to pull its bulk from under the yoke of Catholic morality, and pursuing its chimera, involving its party in politics in the name of the Gospel! I do not know more politicking people than the “witnesses of the Gospel”. This explains the shower of words of the people who step into the breach opened by their vanguards.
« But (granted! no politics… but what?) out of this religious mission (oh! the beautiful word « mission » opens again to missionaries “the key to the parade ground” that the word “politics” forbade them!) itself come a function, a light (!) and an energy (!) which can serve to structure and consolidate the human community according to the divine law. »
As when a magician pulls from his opera hat a live rabbit, three new-laid eggs that he breaks on your head, and a shower of confetti, what renovation and restructuring of the world is going to be pulled from the word « mission »! It will open the gate to all the Christian Democrats and other visionaries who were only waiting for the historic moment when the Council would put them back into the political arena. In order to conceal their manoeuvre of invading the next Chamber of Deputies, they evoke what the Church, moreover, has always done “sub ratione caritatis”.
« As a matter of fact, (it has nothing to do with it) when circumstances of time and place produce the need (what a lot of fuss for nothing! What a fuss to put on airs of impartiality between the heroes of the Chamber of Deputies and the heroes of charity!), she can and indeed should initiate activities on behalf of all men, especially those designed for the needy (how I like this « especially », take note of it: « the needy », they say with a sigh and their eyes raised towards the ceiling), such as the works of mercy and similar undertakings. »
If Jesus were there, he would take a whip and drive them all out! Because “ratione peccati”, they should all enter in close formation into politics, by reason of the crime of abortion, and consider the weight of the Wrath of God in order to overthrow the majorities and the governments of assassins. This, they will never do! And they will all remind us: the Council, Gaudium et spes, you know it? 42, 2. No politics, Father!
After having made fun of us, the redactor takes advantage of it “to rally” today’s Church once again to all forms of Socialist, democratic, and humanitarian activities. It is the Church in the service of the Republic, and it is very officially the perpetual renewal of the enslavement of the Church (clergy, authorities, and population), under the implacable supervision of Freemasonry:
§ 3. « The Church recognises that worthy elements (morally or practically? According to God’s commandments or to the prevailing ideology, according to the “world” to which she has offered… and given herself?) are found in today’s social movements, especially an evolution toward unity (we will never be able to show adequately how antichristian, Masonic and revolutionary their presuppositions are), a process of wholesome (!) socialisation and of association in civic and economic realms (see above and probably further on).
« In fact… » this coordination warns us that the Council is going to extract from the Gospel all the sectary, secular, and leftist positions enumerated above; a Gospel that they see through the glasses of modernists and progressivists, who are considered the Law and the Prophets today:
« In fact, the promotion of unity belongs to the innermost nature of the Church, for she is, “thanks to her relationship with Christ, like a sacramental sign and an instrument of intimate union with God (so much for the Catholic religion), and of the unity of the whole human race (so much for the Devil).” »
You will note – or rather you will certainly not take note, this is why I underscore it – that on one line we are told that the Church is like a sacramental sign, then since the like is forgotten along the way, two prodigious effect are attributed to her that do not belong to her, which are, moreover, chimerical and agnostic rather than Catholic: the Church, through her mute, smiling and blind presence in the world alone… would bring about (like Baptism, Penance, and the other Sacraments) the intimate union with God… for any individual, from whatever religion and in whatever moral situation! All of Catholicism is revoked in favour of a charismatic Church. We will find this enormity further on.
The other effect that is produced, one of the same dimension, is completely in operation here: through her presence alone, the Church would cement the unity of the human race, beyond divisions and differences of all kinds. Thus, when she swears that she will not get involved in politics, you can expect her to enter the fray, with total, self-admitted incompetence, in the name of her spiritual insights and her evangelical sensibility, before which the competent political authorities can only remain silent.
A Gnostic profession of faith.
« Thus she (the Church) shows the world (since she is presented here as being like its sacrament) that an authentic union, social and external, results from a union of minds and hearts (this is, or should be, even more obvious), namely from that faith and charity by which her own unity is unbreakably rooted in the Holy Spirit. » Yes, here is well expressed the extraordinary, miraculous fact of the Church, from the beginning and forever, which is founded on the Catholic « Faith ». At least this is how it exists and must be expressed! and also founded on « charity », which is inseparable from this living Faith. To say that this « unity » is “indissoluble” is not equally true for each of her members, but only of the “vinculum substantiale”, of the bond, yes, of the soul that maintains the life of the total being, which is indestructible in accordance with Christ’s infallible promise. Such is the truth and the reality of the Catholic Church. Thereupon, there is a sudden, unannounced slide from the existence of this miracle of the Church’s holy unity, to her value as a model, and her power of prevailing influence for modern society:
« For the force which the Church can inject into the modern society of man consists in that faith and charity put into vital practice… » It is no longer a question of Catholic religion that is integrally experienced in the Church, in the heart of each one of the faithful, in Catholic families, in parishes, in Catholic nations… in what has always been designated by the name “Christendom”. Here, « modern society » is clearly « the world » explicitly accepted as a formidable antagonist of the Church; it is the house with red lights opposite the residence of the Bridegroom. The aim is to inject the high-test gasoline of a private car into the engine of a truck… It is a question of sending as though an effluvium of the breath of the Holy Spirit from the Church to the world. Those who « put into vital practice » this « faith » and this « charity » in the Church should be able to carry this out. We do not see why the militants, the fighters, the witnesses, the apostles should be effective and victorious within the visible Church and not outside her, namely in the house opposite.
Thus, the Council believes in this transfer of spiritual goods, goods that are considered miraculous, to the house opposite and to its keeper, but God has bequeathed these treasures to the virgin, faithful, and fruitful Spouse of His Son, in the Holy Spirit. We shall have to demonstrate that when the Spouse crosses the road to succeed in her plan of seducing another, she must change her attire, her language, her personality and leave her queen’s diadem with its saint’s aureole in the house of her first husband, her unique Spouse. When she attempts to get the same consideration from her guy’s children, to produce in them the same virtues that she produced so well from her children, she will be surprised to be unable to get the better of them and to receive nothing but sarcasm, contempt, hatred and threats.
But, as early as 1965 then, Gaudium et spes presents this miracle of sanctification of the modern world as fully successful or on the verge of becoming successful, so the Council shoots a poisoned arrow at its hated and feared enemy. Ah! how I love these burning jets of homicidal fury that suddenly reveal the innermost depths of our Christian Democrats’ loathsome, pharisaical hearts! The mask falls for an instant. Then there is a prodigious zoom: thus convinced that the “civilisation of love” is where reaction can only remain silent because the direct democracy of a “society without obligation or sanction” is established, the Council yields to boasting and puts out a challenge that is already won to authoritarian politicians in the Church as in states, provinces, corporations, families, even the home.
« … for the force (that came from this faith and charity… and affects modern society) does not consist in any external (to the conciliar Church obviously) dominion exercised by merely human means. »
For the spouse to offer herself with fine promises and all her charms to the sworn enemy of her husband must nonetheless provoke a twofold mistrust, the same on both sides, concerning the sincerity of the aforementioned lady’s love and convictions. Here she is protesting that she never had any for her husband, and thus provokes the rupture of their marriage bonds that he believed to be solid! On the other hand, she continually justifies the adulterous relationship based on the sincere flame of her enthusiastic love for the man from the brothel and all her convictions: « You can believe me when I say that I espouse all your ideas, your party, your combat, because I never got involved in politics before knowing you. »
The lady’s guy is not worried about that, since the she is in his house!
In the light of my sad but meaningful allegory, here is the pitiful boasting of this Council that could not have been more Christian Democrat:
§ 4. « Moreover, since in virtue of her mission and nature she is bound to no particular form of human culture, nor to any political, economic or social system, the Church by her very universality can be a very close bond (to the extent of stifling them!) between diverse human communities and nations, provided these trust her and truly acknowledge her right to true freedom in fulfilling her mission. »
Be careful! We must beware of dilemmas that make the mind rush onto a “good” path proposed to us that is opposite another, which is “bad.” Out of dread of rain we throw ourselves into the river… when the cabin close-by would be open to us. Here the Church commends herself for her indifference to all forms of classical government: monarchy, oligarchy, republic… all three of which are admissible to reason and religion. It is true, and this is what is asked of her.
So, we say no to politics and have confidence in the Council that also asserts that it is capable of counselling, arbitrating, re-… conciling persons, nations, peoples by its appeal to the most noble principles and energies that come to it from “the Spirit”.
It is a lie by omission. There is a « political system » that is so particular that it does not appear on the list of the indifferent forms of government: there is modern Democracy, which is considered as substantially secular and which excludes every sovereign authority as incompatible. It is unliveable and impious. Now, it is with this Devil’s invention that the Church has taken the oath to team up, in the house with the red lights. Moreover, with the help of all her charms, she promises to do marketing there among her acquaintances of yesterday: the « human communities » and the « nations » that had hitherto remained allergic to the word “democracy”, to the reality it signifies, and still more to « Christian Democracy » where religious hypocrisy increases the shame of demagogy.
And we should consider that she has « true freedom in fulfilling her mission »? And that precise mission is? To bring all the « communities » (ah! here they find the right word again) and the « nations » (here again they know what must be conquered) to Christian Democracy! Their manoeuvre has been clear for a hundred years. Here, it is flaunted.
Hey! let us search in the index for the word « nations »: there are two very entertaining columns, which eclipse the reality of “nation” but which are preceded by the word nationalism. That is what I need. Before entrusting the care of our French nation (or Belgium, etc.) to this Church who offers her arbitration, I would like to know what she thinks about our country’s last effort to survive in the globalist chaos. Three lines inform us, three references succinctly brought to mind: « Nationalism, exaggerated, to avoid; nationalism, obstacle to missionary action, to peace, to a global economic order. » Thank you for the information, goodbye! There are words that are murderous, and even genocidal. Since 1910, Action française fought for our national community, which is handed over to all the demons of internationalism, cosmopolitism, and chaos. Great theologians have spread as the Church’s doctrine the word that makes an impact like a revolver bullet: exaggerated. All the revolutionary nationalisms are unconditionally assisted in the sacrosanct name of the « freedom of peoples to self-determination », but those who have been determining themselves for five hundred years or a thousand years are « exaggerated ». “Here, something must change!”
Let us be on our guard.
« For this reason, the Church admonishes her own sons, but also humanity as a whole, to overcome… in this family spirit of God’s children… » See how all the parts of this Gnostic mecano screw together! So, … it is necessary to overcome (sic) « all strife between nations and races … and in the same way, to give internal strength to human associations which are just. »
These are terrible words, whereby we discover in this immense conciliar assembly a super un where our fate is already decided: it is death. Nations that have « exaggerated » self-love are to be dissolved; solve! by the force of Law and the divine breath of Revolution. « Just… associations »! for the coming of a new order, coagula! May all worthwhile people be attracted to it… “And tomorrow, the Internationale will be the human race”!
I merely point out that here, at last, it is clear, since we have discovered what is called « this spirit of the family of God’s children »; I see that the lady has moved and put her new window display in the brothel across the street, since her god has changed. He is now Luther, Robespierre or Lucifer. It is Hell, and the sabbath that takes place there is really hellish. I regret seeing all the princes of the Church there having a ball. One of them delivers a short speech of gratitude; listen to him:
§ 5. « With great respect, therefore, this Council regards all the true, good and just elements inherent in the very wide variety of institutions which the human race has established for itself and constantly continues to establish. The Council affirms, moreover, that the Church (the Church of the Council, for the verbs it uses to name its actions and decisions are in the present tense and switch to the future, but have no connection or reference to the past) is willing to assist and promote all these institutions to the extent that such a service depends on her (provided that the shareholders of the brothel consent to it) and can be associated with her mission. »
Here, let me take a breather. The « mission » they are referring to is not the task proper to cult, the religious works of the past; throughout these chapters, she mentioned them as infrequently as possible so as to discard them. The question here is that the Council expresses reservation regarding the functions that modern society might hold back for the Church, who would not tolerate being humiliated and buried in disgusting work for insignificant results: the works of mercy of the past! That has nothing that is missionary nor is it cultural advancement! Nevertheless, the Church “switched” shortly after the opening of the Council in 1962.
In French Canada, in Quebec, with the “Quiet Revolution”, through the agency of the overlords of Catholic Action who became the leadership team over the country, buildings, schools, hospitals, countless religious houses, often immense and modern. No longer having any future, they were liquidated, bought by the state with money from provincial taxes, and entrusted to young teams that were fiercely secular and anticlerical… So, the smooth talker is neither good nor lying. This misfortune has spread since then over the whole planet. It continues imperturbably:
« She has no fiercer desire (well, well! Has she really no fiercer desire?) than that in pursuit of the welfare of all (not to the welfare of monsters, but we should beware here too) she may be able to develop herself freely (this is a divine right, yet one that concerns the true Church; and still, now we have to beware of her honourable activities like worship!) under any kind of government which grants recognition to the basic rights of person (these are her « fiercer desires ») and family (this is something to comfort those who are worried), to the demands of the common good (which the new Church is incapable of defining, and thus of heroically serving and defending as is often necessary). »
The article ends with the assistance that the Church was dying to bring to human society. In fact, the assistance is not of little importance! It amounts to the extinction of religion, the transfer of all Catholic energies and values, which are founded on divine grace, to all secular associations for the purpose of turning them into leisure and cultural activities. The aim of this is to make all family, parish, school, professional, charitable, national, and even religious communities! pass from the religion of Jesus Christ to the cult of Man and to the exclusive service of the « modern world », all barriers and obstacles removed… without realising it. Well! Is that not sufficient?
It is also important to provide these new laws with rigorous orders to enforce them, if our objective is that “things change here!” as John Paul II used to say.
ASSISTANCE THAT THE CHURCH TRIES TO OFFER HUMAN SOCIETY THROUGH CHRISTIANS
An enormous article, 95 lines, a thousand words. There is not a single clear idea, not a word that is not marked like a deck of trick cards, not an affirmation that must not be understood in an esoteric or revolutionary sense. Great principles are thrust forward, the exaggeration and requirements of which always contradict reality. The result is that they end up destroying what is wholesome, well ordered, and religious in our world in favour of chimerical transformations. It is a dreadful work for us to get down to this Himalaya of evacuations and litter of the modern world. Shall we start?
Let us start, but I pity my readers! They can always skip down to article 44, which is not half as long as this one. Indeed, it relates to what the Church, who is so generous with the gifts that she gives to the world, hopes to or claims already to receive from the world…, and it is next to nothing.
Here, the article aims at urging « Christians » to help human activity!
43. § 1. « This Council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities… » Crash! From the first sentence, the Council, as is its habit, its tactic, thrusts our heads into a preposterous maze from which we will be unable to emerge. So, I interrupt the spate of rhetoric in order to clarify this false idea according to which the Christian is a « citizen of two cities ». It must be noted that the Council does not make the effort to tell us about whom and about what it is speaking. Obviously, as it is full of its zeal for the « world » and for « mankind », it grants them the reality and the substance of creatures of God. Then it thinks that the Christian belongs to the Catholic Community and he, therefore, has dual citizenship.
I do not mention the case of the Anglican « Christian » or of the Buddhist, for we would be confused…
Immediately, the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, or I give up. For St. Augustine, a faithful commentator of the Gospel, « Two loves have built two cities, St. Augustine said: love of God, to the contempt of self, and love of self to the contempt of God. One is the city of God and the other, the city of Satan. » This alone is true, and that is why Manichaeism, according to which there are two gods, was an appalling error; likewise the person who claims to belong to these two cities utters an idiotic remark.
You will tell me: religion and politics still exist; so too do the Church and the Republic, the clerical world and the free world, do they not?
Absolutely not! There is only one earth, and on this earth there are myriads of things at the disposal of human beings, all of whom belong to the same animal genus and have the same spiritual nature, in order to do whatever they can or want with them. God sent into this caravansary His Son Jesus Christ, who founded His Church and said to His Apostles: Put some order into all that, and I promise to help you make these masses of men into a magnificent Church, family, people, or kingdom. They did it. They were indeed the only ones to think it was possible. It is a miracle that is unique in history; this community grew to the scale of the earth to be evangelised. The human beings who belonged to other divinities, to other religions, abandoned them to die Christian martyrs: this « blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians » (Tertullian). This did not remove them from their family, their city, from the Roman Empire or from the Jerusalem of that time. But it is not because I go to the baker’s, the bookstore, and to the dentist that I belong to three worlds, three cities, or three idols. That « world » does not have enough consistence for us to be able to call it a « city » with the same sovereignty as the Church, to the extent that we be divided, citizens of the Church here, citizens of the world there.
A final explanation: the Devil (we must call him by his name), Lucifer, decided to foil the Church, and he created an association that mobilises the « world » against the Church. He did so in such a manner that good people were little by little forced to chose not between the Empire and the Church, but between the emperor who had passed over to the service of the Devil and the Church of the martyrs. One day, Emperor Constantine would convert to Christianity (312) and the Empire would become one of the unshakeable foundations of the City of God, which is called “Christendom”. The Church is its soul, and its body is formed out of this multitude of Christians who live in their natural communities in accordance with the Church’s laws, with the assistance of the Sacraments, in true obedience to God alone. The cursed are those who claim to be, at the same time that they are citizens of Christendom, citizens of the world of which Satan is the Prince. It is like water and fire, one destroys the other, and we must be consumed by one or the other.
The Council teaches that Christians are citizens of both cities. Well! If they were to say to you: « At university I am secular but within the family, we are Catholic », that can only be possible by blatant betrayal and hypocrisy. This is so even if they justify themselves with the world’s silliest theory imaginable, “liberalism”. It consists in changing one’s jacket when going from home to university. It will be too late to escape from this illusion when the Judge of the living and the dead will sit in judgement. Thus let us tremble as we recopy this criminal teaching:
« This Council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously (here is an enormous ambiguity that I grant them for the moment, but just you wait) and in response to the Gospel spirit (another nest of problems; I pass over this democratic charismatism). They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come (it is an admirable repetition of St Paul’s words to the Hebrews 13:14), think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities (what an odd idea!). For they are forgetting that by the faith itself (Watch out for the snare! is it the divine Catholic Faith or the faith that is promised to the keeper of the house across the street?) they are more obliged than ever to measure up to these duties (the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 3:6-33 is recalled in the note), each according to his proper vocation (hey! they still keep the way to religious consecration open). »
All this is obvious in everyone’s sight. But there is going to be a serious ambush… For the moment, let them put up their loophole with a « yes, but… » without our expressing ourselves.
« Nor, on the contrary, are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly affairs (the word is neutral, funny) in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from the religious life. »
It is pleasant to see, without being seen, how the enemy is setting his trap; we are already laughing at the way we shall blow it up before he leaves it! So, let them talk:
« This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age. » Really, we are amazed at such indignation against the faithful who do not deserve such anathema, so surprising on the lips of bishops who never mention the laws of Sunday observance, of attending Mass…
Patience, you are going to understand. For the moment their fervour is doing nothing but increasing:
« Long since, the Prophets of the Old Testament fought vehemently against this scandal (a scandal? Well I am blowed!) and even more so did Jesus Christ Himself in the New Testament threaten it with grave punishments. »
Here the Council is taking its public for a ride. Its reference to Mt 23:3-33 has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with this question; so much so that I wonder if it is not a means of making this text appear in the Index so as not to be accused of censoring it: they are appalling curses that Jesus uttered against… the Pharisees whose astonishing virtues the modern Church unceasingly sings the praises! At last, we are nearing the solution of this enigma:
« Therefore, let there be no false (sic) opposition between professional and social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other (all the dynamite is concealed under this beautiful and innocent sentence, and it is ready to blow up the first one who will turn his attention to it…). The Christian who neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbour and even God (it is the first time that the Council shows concern about man’s temporal duties toward God!), and jeopardises his eternal salvation. » The fun is over: it is terrible!
« Christians should rather rejoice (but that is what they did before the Council!) that, following the example of Christ who worked as an artisan, they are free to give proper exercise to all their earthly activities and to their humane, domestic, professional, scientific (hum) and technical enterprises by gathering them into one vital synthesis (what grand words to evoke our ever so humble duty of state! Hang on…) with religious values (this word is the fuse for the dynamite: in this paragraph, it has never been a question of Sunday observance, any more than of a man’s work in his fields and his wife’s at home… Then what exactly was it about? Just a minute of patience: it was about « humane enterprises », then, « by gathering them into one vital synthesis with religious values »; and to impress you before the explosion)… under whose supreme direction all things (« religious values ») are harmonised unto God’s glory. »
Ah! This coordination of human efforts in a vital synthesis with religious values under the supreme direction of which everything finds itself harmonised unto God’s glory… Until this morning it was Greek to me; this evening, it is blindingly clear: it is the formulating of “operative” – as the Freemasons say – enforcement orders out of the “speculative” gnosis with which the Council has stuffed us like barrels.
Here is the unveiling of this unspeakable secret.
But first, I have to relate a brief story that long remained incomprehensible to me. I was at that time the parish priest of three rural parishes. The third one, somewhat remote, was formed of decent farmers who had been de-Christianised by a couple of teachers in such a manner that they were intelligent, relentless workers, but without any religious life other than certain ceremonies that were as though compulsory through custom, social pressure.
The other two parishes were more open, more diversified, and had had the grace of a holy parish priest who had restored the faith and the practice to a group of respected adult men. He achieved this by taking them to Paray-le-Monial where they participated in the Exercises of saint Ignatius, which were preached by the belated Fr. Roustand. Afterwards, they established in a dozen parishes a confraternity of the “Men of the Sacred Heart”, of which the only event was the Prayer vigils of the First Friday of the month, from 9 p.m. to midnight: a one-hour conference, an hour of adoration during which all the priests of the district heard individual confessions – there was a steady flow – and finally the High Mass of the Sacred Heart… It took place in a different parish each month, and whether it was in the harvest time or when the roads were icy, they were there. I joined the team of priests and continued everything my predecessor had done. He died of cancer, leaving his parishes in a good state. The people who were in favour, were totally in favour, and those against, totally opposed.
One day at the bishop’s office, one of the vicar generals, the “conservative”, not at all progressivist like the other one, although liberal, called out to me: « So, Father, is all going well for you? » He rapidly came to our prayer vigils. My reply, to which he paid little attention, was happy, encouraging. Then, he interrupted me, slightly irritated: « So, how long is it going to last? » – « Well! For each of them, until their death. They confessed on the last first Friday of the month; they received Communion. That is how they live, quite ready to pass away… » – « And afterwards? » I did not have the courage to reply to him that, in fact, no one had ever thought about “afterwards”… other than that of eternal life.
So, I provided him with a few details, with supporting examples, of serious improvements in the moral life of these men and their families, unhoped-for returns to religious practice… He curtly cut me short saying to me that they did not agree « here » at the bishop’s office, because that was not the Catholic Action that the Church desired. It did not lead to anything constructive. I should have served him my customary witticism, but the moment was hardly appropriate: « Perhaps not constructive, monsignor, but edifying! »
Consequently, the world was waiting today for something else. It was not worthwhile to maintain old structures for a public (sic) more and more aged and which is not being renewed. « All the same, it is better than nothing! » I held up as an example my dear, yet bad parishioners from the third parish that only had a Catholic Action chaplain as parish priest in those days to demolish the faith and parish works with the same drive as the teachers. They were definitely quite decent people, too attached, all the same, to their land and money, but had nothing for the good God. I was surprised to hear him answer me: « Basically, I believe that that is even better. We can rebuild on cleared land. »
That took place one year before the opening of the Council. Must I explain? Of course. It goes without saying, but it goes even better when it is said.
We suffered two severe, irritated, basically impassioned admonitions for obscure reasons. Why get so angry against the ones, then against the others… Just what did they want? Who would find favour in their eyes?
The ironies of the vicar general will enlighten us, even if the third party, who is kept hidden, does not yet appear. Let us not fear to accumulate enlightening analogies. Here is a decisive one: in the famous Confession of Augsburg, I have already pointed out the complementarity of the two panels of the diptych. The first one annihilated the very substance of Catholic worship, and even declares religious vows and other sacred things blasphemous. The second panel sends the Christian, freed from all scruple, back to the good secular life, to his profane occupation, to cultivating the land, to grocery shopping, to weapons, and to the bank, especially to the bank where God’s benediction is made manifest by the almost automatic and miraculous influx of money (cf. The Confession of Augsburg, an Anti-Catholic Utopia, CCR no 134, May 1981, p. 4-18).
Well! Our number 43 is built on the same diptych: a suppressed fury against an absorbing religious practice, nonetheless with an exception for exceptional vocations, that of monastic life in particular, and that is intended to mark them off from the folly of Luther, who was dead against religious vows… That would not have passed at the Council! I, however, would not swear to it that deep in the progressivists’ consciences they were not discontent with this exception. The “cultual” had to be curbed. Why not see it through to the end, why not thereby free persons of character, institutions, buildings, money for…?
For something that my erstwhile vicar general, called Catholic Action, viz., promoting and honouring the secular life, affirmed a set of « earthly responsibilities » as good and blessed by God; it is criminal to renounce them despite the protection of the Pater nosters of the ancient religion: « terrena despicere et amare cælestia ». It is no longer permitted to depreciate, to scorn earthly things. Here, we are still in the second part of the Confession of Augsburg for which the humanist Melanchthon is responsible. But the Council is not prepared to accept that, any more than did my vicar general, who praised excessively the good people of my last parish, the smallest, where they lived exactly in accordance with the wishes of Luther - Melanchthon. The ultimate difficulty to be overcome in order to understand everything is: the Council execrated the people who abandoned the religion of their fathers and, as a result, jumped into the cultural. It matters little whether it be cultivating beets or civilisations and arts. The hopes of the vicar general respond to the indignations of the Council: at least the ground is cleared; nevertheless, in their present materialism they must not close themselves to all religion!
Everything is clear: the ancient religion was forced to withdraw and give way. Materialism invaded souls and society to the point of stifling any other interest: We must now make it withdraw for it to give way.
Yesterday’s religion will of course subsist in a few closed milieus, like that of the Raskolniki in Russia. Peter the Great let whole families immolate themselves on pyres that they built and ignited on their own initiative rather than accept the modernisation of their liturgical books. Between this survival and today’s dull materialism, there is room for… the children expected from the adulterous love of the modern Church with the modern world, and this is what remains for the Council to explain, with some embarrassed stammering, which we understand very well without excusing them:
§ 2. « Secular duties and activities (“navitates”; Calvin was radical and quite simply suppressed religious orders) belong properly although not exclusively (two steps forward and one back) to laymen. Therefore acting as citizens in the world whether individually or socially… »
Hold on! Who are the « citizens in the world »? Are they the peasants in their fields of beets or the bankers of Geneva who have no ulterior motive, no national or supranational ideology when they act?
Here we have caught by the tail the sly fox that was escaping us: the Council wants our children not to be too attached to their family, their nation, their Roman Church in order to be « citizens in the world » and to act as such, for the world and according to its maxims.
« The world of which Satan is the Prince? Impossible!
– Who else do you want it to be? »
« …they will (it is a directive of the Church, who fulfils the promises she made to her guy – they are studied above in § 41-42) keep the laws proper to each discipline, and labour to equip themselves with a genuine expertise (that is in the style of Calvin and the Yankees… but this zeal that the Council practices in favour of the world obviously demands relinquishing religious zeal! One cannot sleep in two houses on the same night!) in their various fields. »
Since we along with Ezekiel are speaking about monstrous philandering, the Council evokes it, straightaway, at the point, I discover, when I read: « They will gladly (ah! How I love the totally amorous and ever so humane style of the Council!) work (in number 40 § 3, it was treated clinically as a question of « mutual penetration ») with men seeking the same goals (just as actors start under the eyes of the audience what they will complete in fatal intimacy; hence measures of excommunication were taken in the past: I would excuse actors, but « laymen » are sent to the brothel across the street with the recommendation… well anyway! Ezekiel would explain all of this much better than I do). Acknowledging the demands of faith and endowed with its force, they will unhesitatingly devise new enterprises, where they are appropriate, and put them into action. »
All the more is this so inasmuch as along this disgusting way of « collaboration » (the word brings something to my mind), the conciliar Fathers teach laymen a thing or two about life: « Laymen should also know that it is generally the function of their well-formed (or deformed) Christian conscience to see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city… » Here the words that are limpid to the eyes ring false to the ears. The « divine law » is not in the conciliar repertoire, and it does not seem easy to impose it in the house with the red lights, even though it is a glaring necessity. No, the words are lies: under the trad label, the merchandise is rotting, but it is nevertheless difficult to pass it on in the general public. This is why the guile persists:
« from priests (pay attention! Here comes a trap…; priests are men of God who were formed in the old house, thus…) they may look for spiritual light and nourishment. (But?) Let the layman not imagine that his pastors are always such experts (oh, what a shame! This pact between bishops and laymen against their priests would have led St Pius X, and even the aged Leo XIII, to break off and immediately end such a Council), that to every problem which arises, however complicated (!), they can readily give him a concrete solution, or even that such is their mission. »
There you have it! You clergy, keep your paws off! and stay in the sacristy. As for you laymen, forge ahead with the encouragement of your (new) bishops.
It is true that, later on, the grumbling of the parish priests would be heard, and we will see the bishops attempting to make up for it by a show of enormous obsequiousness. For the moment the laymen’s hour has come, and in order to send them to what Ezekiel would call the…; as one might expect, it is recommended to them that they not ask for advice from father, the parish priest! But rather, from their father, the bishop, yes! Read what follows: « Rather… » Jesus and St Paul taught this principle to us: let your “yes be yes” and your “no be no”; our bishops, for their part, have read in their new gospel: let your “yes” and likewise your “no” always be open to a “but” that is their contrary! Yes, let them ask their priests, but rather, « …enlightened by Christian wisdom (that they do not receive from their priests; thank you on behalf of the heroic infantry of the Church that is crushed under the fire of her heavy artillery!) and giving close attention to the teaching authority of the Church (we are the authority of the Church, they say), let the layman take on his own distinctive role. »
This final commissioning created a new power in the Church, as there is a vice squad and services of espionage and counter-espionage, in which everyone receives from superior authorities surprising missions with this firm mandate but which transgresses all laws: « Face up to your responsibilities. » The person in command generally adds: « Now, if I am implicated, I will deny it, and I will wring the neck of whoever talks! » This descent into hell is charming… So, do not be amazed at the haughtiness of militant laymen.
The Council, how imprudent of it, nevertheless explains the work that is expected of them. It consists, for a secret branch of the Church – I am sure of it before having read it – in maintaining dialogue, relations, various mutual penetrations with the societies and sects that infiltrate populations, a group that is outside the governance of Church and public authorities in order to make the “Christian democracy” of their dreams progress. I read along with you:
§ 3. « Often enough the Christian view of things (so, is it no longer divine law?) will itself suggest some specific solution (the cunning fox hides his head!) in certain circumstances (is it clear?). Yet it happens rather frequently, and legitimately so (shh! let them talk, as though they still have full freedom!), that with equal sincerity (between the dove and the serpent that is commissioned there is striking sincerity) some of the faithful (for example, the trads) will disagree with others on a given matter (here civil war is well prepared, but its aim is to save the undertaking clandestinely). »
In the Church too, “revolution must be quiet”. The terrorists will build up their networks and will never unmask themselves through any open struggle against the trads. The terrorists let people say whatever, while for their part, they work. This was already Modernism’s order under Pius X: « Even against the intentions of their proponents, however, solutions proposed on one side or another may be easily confused by many people with the Gospel message. Hence it is necessary for people to remember that no one is allowed in the aforementioned situations to appropriate the Church’s authority for his opinion. » A cat would be unable to find her kittens again! It is intentionally scrambled because they are launching an infernal strategy.
I translate. You, the militant laymen, journalists, trade unionists, deputies, etc., you put out your propaganda into society in favour of abortion, contraceptives, against the Immaculate Conception, against Confession, etc. You set up your networks; financing will arrive. You will attack the opposition as “pseudo-Catholics” and bad Christians. Reactionaries will denounce you contradictorily and will call you false Christians, heretics and apostates. Never appeal to us, the Fathers of the Council, nor to the Pope: you should know only that our authority shields you and always will shield you. You will heap on the trads your accusations for identifying « their opinions » with the Gospel message, for being condemned by the hierarchy; no one will defend them against you. You will accuse them with no fear of receiving similar accusations yourself. Thus, the authority of the Church will only go one way, yours. It is clear. Then suddenly, the curtain closes, the secret is swamped in the waffling official verbiage in order to put everyone off the scent. But the message got through. Listen to these good apostles:
« They should always try to enlighten one another (in the past we used to say: « seek and you shall find »; but today, a certain “process” is in fashion and consists of in-depth research, in wondering and « exchanging » to such an extent that one believes he never finds anything decisive) through honest discussion (by virtue of human dignity, we cannot imagine that he claims to be honest and is not!), preserving mutual charity and caring above all (above their duties towards God and their neighbour) for the common good (the Council has never grasped its reality, its nature, and still less its demands). »
This short paragraph, which is appeasing for candid laymen, aims at making them feel not too lost or excluded, although in reality they are! For, the worst thing for the sect would be for cultivated and intelligent people to understand the plot and rise up against it:
§ 4. « Since they have an active (!) role to play in the whole life (!) of the Church (words, words, these are nothing but flattering words), laymen are not only bound (!) to penetrate the world with a Christian spirit (it is too little for their immense capacities!), but are also called to be witnesses to Christ in all things (of course) in the midst of human society (where is this “midst of human society”?!). »
Let us not grow weary of repeating it: a « witness to Christ » is someone who was close to Jesus during His earthly life, who bears witness to His virtues, His miracles, His prophecies, to His Passion and death, and finally to His resurrection, the essential proof of His divinity. On a second level, a witness (in Greek: martys) is also someone who echoes this original witnessing by his conviction based on what he has heard and believed about it. He is prepared to attest to it to the point of shedding his blood.
To make “militants” out to be « witnesses to Christ » is tantamount to having the weight of the Catholic edifice supported by a pile of sand. Each grain of sand cries out: “You can believe in Him, it is I who say so, and see my virtue, see my fine language and my plumage!” (allusion to a fable of Jean de la Fontaine)
Let us leave all this. It is wretched.
Now here is what is most amazing. The lesson solemnly given to the bishops of the entire world by themselves, or by the pen pusher who is an expert in fine words, exhorting them as well to bear witness, to dialogue, in short to open up to the world and hand over to it, each one of them, their own flock, as a consequence of their collective commitment to believe in the world, to love it, to serve it with all his soul, all his heart and all his strength:
§ 5. « Bishops (I find the tone imperious), to whom is assigned the task of ruling the Church of God (we will see further on the error of these frogs who swell up so much (an allusion to another fable of Jean de la Fontaine)… The Pope is the one who has the entire personal responsibility, including that of assigning to each bishop his plot of land for his very little flock), should, together with their priests, so (oh! pay attention to the snare!) preach the news of Christ (it goes without saying!) that all the earthly activities of the faithful will be bathed in the light of the Gospel. »
That is too beautiful to be honest. In fact, this bathing in light is a beautiful image that conveys nothing, but the harm is in the other idea that all earthly activities are important to the bishop, have a bond of usefulness with regard to religion. Thus, it strengthens the idea that the religion of the past was too focused on cult and outside of life, and that must change now; let everyone live his religion everywhere in temporal activities, bathing them in a certain light, to the point where the natural, transfigured in this way, the supernatural may be sufficiently disfigured that it loses all hope of preserving the slightest divine light.
« All (everything is always absolutely required from everyone) pastors should remember too that by their daily conduct and concern they are revealing the face of the Church (what a performance!) to the world, and men will judge the power and truth of the Christian message thereby. »
Here is the contemporary error that most shows the imbecility of our era of photos, cinemas, interviews, television, where the photogenic is in a decisive relationship with the theological: the person who has the most beautiful set of teeth and who know how to show them in a blissful smile (Sr. Emmanuelle), bears witness to the truth and the force of the « Christian message »! St. Paul refuted these impudent narcissistic pretentions (2 Co 4-6).
The Council insists: « By their lives and speech, in union with Religious and their faithful, may they demonstrate (!) that even now the Church by her presence alone and by all the gifts which she contains… » We do not know about what gifts they are speaking for there are two sorts of them: the true ones depend neither on the bishops’ look nor on their phraseology. They are sacraments and gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful. but here, it is the other sort that is in question as in the preceding articles, the gifts that the Church makes to the brothel and it is as ghostly as it is photogenic… Thus this Church « … is an unspent fountain of those virtues which the modern world (the aforesaid brothel) needs the most. »
All of this is not simple chattering. It is a question of doping the bishops themselves and of convincing them to neglect their automatically effective, powerful, and saving supernatural work – which enrages the world! – in order to sit up and beg in the circus of this perverted world. Listen: « By unremitting study they should fit themselves to do their part (sic!) in establishing dialogue with the world and with men of all shades of opinion. » It is more than crazy, it is diabolical, to preach to the shepherds to leave their flock there and to go dialogue with the wolves and foxes of the vicinity. Such is the order of the Council, which allows itself the indulgence of quoting itself with satisfaction. Oh! How well it spoke in its Constitution, De Ecclesia, read it:
« Above all (!) let them take to heart the words which this Council has spoken: “Since humanity today increasingly (the hackneyed expression) moves toward civil, economic and social unity (you’re telling me!), it is more than ever necessary that priests, with joint concern and energy (do you see that concretely? It is ridiculous!), and under the guidance of the bishops and the supreme pontiff, erase every cause of division, so that the whole human race may be led to the unity of God’s family.” »
They are drivelling on, you will tell me. But, with the same insolence, I would correct: they drive the point home, and the mediocrity of this entire eight-line sentence is deliberate in order to get the last words across. They are grave, terrible. It is a new key to the conciliar gnosis, a moral fraud, an act of apostasy: thus today, we must « erase every cause (considered a priori as vain, and we will fraudulently pass under this word all the dogmatic, moral, and canonical reasons) of division », that is, maintaining the scattered families, villages, schools, charitable works, in their nations, their territories, their armies, their banks and industries… in order to be the ecclesiastical coadjutors, or « fellow-workers » of the great international powers. Their programme is simple: solve, first dissolve all these natural, legitimate, historical communities. There will only remain naked individuals who dress themselves in paper clothes: dignity, liberty, rights, etc. Then: coagula, cement this anarchic dust to make it into… a tower.
Yes but, in order to do this the brothel needs the bishops. For the flock balks at entering into this sinister house. The religious leaders must further the process with their speech, and the Council must provide the mobilising theme for the Christian masses: « so that the whole human race may be led to the unity of God’s family. »
It is the supernatural goal of preaching the Gospel, the maxim of St. Paul that graces the feast of Christ the King as its theme, the same one that Pius X had given as a manifesto of Christianity for our twentieth century: “Omnia instaurare in Christo”.
« Let all men convert and practice our holy religion, added this Pope, who was so realistic and just as mystical, and world peace will be possible, yes! »
But we showed twenty times that with so beautiful an expression as « family of God’s children », the Council, hypocritically, did not designate the Catholic Church to which everyone should come or return, but the great ideal of their gnosis. Under the fallacious name of “God”, it is man who adores himself according to this gnosis, and Satan sniggers behind the statue, claiming all the glory of this mystification.
The last paragraph completes the work that Satan had set for this « flock of bishops », to speak as St. Basil did about those of his time, who had all become Arian heretics out of fear of Emperor Constantius II! The lady had to be taken with her jewellery, furniture, children, from the house of her husband to the house with the red lights, in order to pursue her adultery and raise her children there. It has been accomplished! There still remains one thing to be done – and all the victims of this sort of crime are aware of it – the memory and the reputation of the old house and of the poor man found deformed, divested, who weeps close to a dying hearth… must be sullied, blackened, destroyed. Ah! It is too awful. The Council must – with a little diplomacy, careful! – destroy her husband, efface their memories and throw whatever still bears witness to them in the main sewer.
§ 6. « Although (this royal concession that they grant us is the height of the « yes, but… » technique) by the power of the Holy Spirit (so, would this power not be his own? the insult rings in our ears like hearing a shot the first time) the Church will remain the faithful spouse of her Lord and will never cease to be the sign of salvation on earth, still she is very well aware that among her members, both clerical and lay, some have been unfaithful to the Spirit of God (on Judgement Day these same words will ring in the ears of these conciliar apostates, renegades, and adulterers, who dared to make such accusations against their predecessors. The latter’s bullarium, at least, had remained above reproach, as Maistre used to say about Pope Alexander VI Borgia) during the course of many centuries ».
« In the present age, too, it does not escape the Church how great a distance lies between the message she offers and the human failings of those to whom the Gospel is entrusted. »
This avowal full of humility on the part of the present-day Church is divided in two parts: the profit for this humility goes to the conciliar Fathers, but the accusation is scattered to the four winds. From the time I entered the seminary I have never seen any of our ecclesiastical personalities lay the blame on himself or acknowledge the slightest error.
Thus this feigned humiliation occasioned no embarrassment or sorrow for them. The aim was to balance, all the same, the indictment of these “modest” successors with their “scandalous” predecessors:
« Whatever be the judgement of history (just you wait until Vatican III and Peter II; I put my trust in them rather than in the secular and socialist history that others make a point of inventing for us and of imposing everywhere) on these defects, we ought to be conscious of them, and struggle against them energetically, lest they inflict harm on the spread of the Gospel. » Off you go! We’ll have done with them! We got out of that:
« The Church also realises (what does she not realise!) that in working out her relationship with the world (there is no sign of remorse after this adultery has at last been consummated) she always has great need of the ripening which comes with the experience of the centuries… » It does not come with wisdom, with charity, with the Church’s holiness of past centuries! but with experience, as though it were an inert substance wherewith the present-day Church judges good and evil, in order to make herself better, better than everything else: « Led by the Holy Spirit, Mother Church unceasingly exhorts her sons “to purify (the reference belongs to Lumen Gentium and repeats Paul VI’s words) and renew themselves so that the sign of Christ can shine more brightly on the face of the Church” (at that time it was Paul VI’s face; no thank you!). »