He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

OUR LADY OF FATIMA CAMP 2007
THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH
IN THE MODERN WORLD (1)

(GAUDIUM ET SPES
7 DECEMBER 1965)

BY THE ABBÉ DE NANTES 

HUMAN ACTIVITY AND ITS PERFECTION IN THE PASCHAL MYSTERY.

Are we finally going to receive some enlightenment on the « meaning », the « value », the final end, and the outcome of the history of mankind and of the cosmos in which it « navigates »? What is unfortunate is that the Council does deal with these things, not in the succession of time, not in chronological order, but by themes for reflection that do not isolate epochs, great civilisations, or men’s projects, but partial glimpses of reality. This is how they previously treated things that are really in continual reciprocal reactions; they isolated them in watertight compartments: the « monumental amount of individual and collective effort » (34, 1) that appears to be a total success (this augers well for the dizzy summits that they reach in this century), then the « monumental struggle against the powers of darkness », without any connection with the first leaf of the triptych in which evil prevailed except over Christians or those in similar categories. It would prevail, but to go where? Not to Heaven in any case, because the vanquished are not worthy of it, nor to Hell, which, in this sinister panel is not mentioned any more than Santa Claus or the Bogeyman. Finally, it seems that having arrived at the end of this study, the Council reveals everything to us at once, for everything goes together on this third panel without any connection with the previous ones: the meaning, the value, and the end of the present world in order to answer the urgent, harrowing, vital questions of these times!

Astonishing! This time, are we off to a good start? The Council begins at the beginning, and although it does not quote St. John, it refers to him in a footnote: « cf. Jn 1:3 and 14 ». It would be asking too much for it to quote the first verses or, for it, too much to ask of the « entire earth » to which it addresses itself. « In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. » Perhaps it is insolent for « man » to have it drummed into him that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Only-begotten Son was « from the very origins », as the Council says (37, 2), God, Son of God by nature, eternally « in the bosom of the Father » (Jn 1:18). The following two verses are indicated for us: « Through Him all thing came to be and without Him nothing came to be. » (Jn 1:3) « The Word was made flesh and came to dwell among us, and we saw His glory, the glory that He has from the Father as the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. » (Jn 1:14)

As for the two short verses that were censored before and after (1:2-13; 15-17), the Council does not keep any trace or memory of them because it is a question here, right from the prologue of the Gospels, of opposing darkness to the light which is the Word, Jesus Christ, of opposing the world in which He shone in full view of everyone, then of His own people opposing Him. Nevertheless, from among them some would arise as well as from all nations who would believe in Jesus, who would welcome fervently the mystery of His virginal birth (verse 13, Tertullian), and as a reward they « would receive the power to become children of God » (verse 12)!

The Council cannot accept this interpretation – the only intelligible one – of verse 13 and thus prefers not to quote it… because, according to its « Christian revelation »! all men are already, thanks to their eminent dignity itself and the rights pertaining to it, « sons of God »! These difficulties, these oppositions are the object of the preceding article (37, 1). Do not mix up everything! We spoke about sin and its ravages, fine, it is finished! Now we speak about the light, life, grace and glory to come. Do not bring back the darkness here again!

Thus, in my humble opinion, this theological purple passage is off to a bad start. Here it is:

38. § 1. « For God’s Word, through whom all things were made, was Himself made flesh and dwelt on the earth of men (among His people, St. John specifies, not unintentionally). Thus He entered the world’s history as a perfect man, taking that history up into Himself and summarising it. »

It is a sin of omission to censor what St. John tells us about the two tragedies of the history of the world that took place before the coming of the Lord, which we are told He took up into Himself and summarises. The first tragedy was the refusal of the light by Adam and his “pagan” descendants, and the second, the refusal by Caiaphas and the Jewish people of John’s call to the baptism of penance and the very Messiahship of the Word…

By means of omission our Council has surmounted this central tragedy and forgets the obscure, painful, dramatic side of History in order to take us for a boat ride. The navigation will not be dreary, and the port will be welcoming to everyone:

« He Himself (the Word) revealed to us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8) and at the same time taught us that the new command of love was the basic law of human perfection and hence of the world’s transformation. » You are cheating!

I let the word from our childhood games slip out before thinking of its lack of decorum. Now that the word is out I will not take it back because it is balefully, shamefully and odiously true. Re-read this sentence well: it is an example of the Modernist sect’s main treachery that consists in naturalising the supernatural in order to be able to supernaturalise the natural. Thus we smoothly pass here, without warning from divine charity (in St. John’s Greek, agapè), and not just any but the one that he tells us is proper to God in the second commandment of the Gospel Law. We are also told that it is the basis of the Law, while passing cheerfully over the first commandment. Am I splitting hairs? Well really! Let us take our time; it is a matter of importance…

« God is love », in His very being, in His Trinitarian mystery, by His holiness, and His infinite liberty. This prodigious liberty is revealed to us as being entirely occupied with loving. It is not only an incomprehensible and generous communication of being and mutual perfection within Their blessed Trinity, but still more incomprehensible, in the gift of being, of life, and of love to angels as well as men. He created them in His « image and likeness ». Here then is the fundamental law of the Kingdom of Heaven for His free, rational, and holy creatures before all sin. This law is supernatural as well as natural because nature is good and, born by grace, it is excellent. In the likeness of God, Adam and Eve, the holy Angels in Heaven were in their perfection of supernatural beings, for the trial of the choice between obedience or rebellion, love or hatred had not yet arrived for the angels on their side, for Eve and Adam in their earthly Paradise.

But the trial, the temptation, and the fall did come! It is treated with so much imprecision in the previous article (37, 1), that nothing can be understood… Yet we do not have the right to forget in article 38, 1 what was said, written, and proclaimed in article 37, 1:

« For when the order of values is jumbled and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and groups pay heed solely to their own interests, and not to those of others. » It has reached the point that « the magnified power of humanity threatens... » I interrupt in order to correct this Council’s irritating, systematic depersonalisation of everything bad or criminal: they are never due to anyone. Impersonal and abstract words are charged with “all the sins of Israel”, let us say with all the responsibility: here, it is the « the magnified power ». Well, no! I re-establish the terrible accusation: it has reached the point that the Council does not dare to say that man, or rather men who could be denounced, who take advantage of the terrible means placed in their disposition, « threaten to destroy the race itself. » (37, 1). What monsters!

« ... All human activity, constantly imperilled by man’s pride (The pride of all men? It would seem so.) and deranged self-love » (37, 4) are indeed imbued with the « spirit of vanity and malice » that St. Paul denounces as master of « this world » (37, 3). Without hesitating, the Council draws from this that it is quite impossible to « overcome this unhappy situation », except, in accordance with what Christians confess, that all human activity be necessarily and deeply « purified and perfected by the power of Christ’s cross and resurrection » (37, 4).

Thus, Love is substantial in God. It is eternal, it is infinite and incorruptible from an active liberty. In the angel and in man, in the likeness of divine Love, their love was the spontaneous and happy movement of their natural liberty. It was, if I may permit myself to make fun, the « civilisation of love » of which Paul VI, the Pope of the Council, dreamed for the future. It was not man’s ultimate perfection, nor the transformation of their Paradise, but it was, or ought to have been the first and decisive consequence. For, « human perfection » at that time, as in all times, is the love of the creature for his Creator and Lord, a sovereign love that draws all the other virtues into its fire. The world’s ultimate transformation was, through the creation and sanctification of humanity; worship given to God. It proclaimed throughout the world and on behalf of the universe for which Humanity had been made the interpreter, the Glory of the Creator, the praise of thanksgiving of His creatures and of all the works of religion that flowed from it.

… Among other things they are fraternal charity, the second commandment, but which the infinite Love of God for each of His spiritual creatures had promoted to the first rank. God deigned to assimilate Himself by His love to all His children who were already justified in Paradise through Adam. Are we in agreement? Perfect! Let us advance boldly.

The original sin of which our first parents were guilty – and what a sin it was! – made them dreadful, odious to the holiness of God and similarly odious to each other. God’s “wrath” – I fear that I will never see word itself appear – could only be imitated by human beings one against the others and not only the innocent against the wicked but the wicked amongst themselves. Here we have the real climate of the Bible, of the Sapiential books, of the Psalms in particular, and then, I agree to invoke after the documents of the Revelation « the experience of the ages » (37, 1), and our own experience in the world that has been declared unliveable.

I turn to our observation: love of neighbour is in no way « the basic law of human perfection », contrary to what “philanthropic” atheists claim, nor is it the principle motor of the « world’s transformation ». Even from the personalist and Socialist viewpoint, which seems to have dominated in the Council, it is rather the pursuit, every man for himself, of his rights, of his personal fulfilment, of his glory, which dominates the personalist ethic. When one speaks of « common good » or « solidarity », it is a protest against social disorder, an association of malcontents for the establishment of a more satisfactory order, rather than a crusade for each to sacrifice himself more for his neighbour.

In short, I incriminate in this text the effacement of the supernatural order that Christ instituted and that the whole Church asserted as necessary. It is even supported by the preceding article in number 37, with a return to naturalism, to atheism, quite suddenly promoted to the heights of charity that have only been experienced in the order of Catholic holiness, that is to say, to the summits of charity based on the true Faith and fed by the grace of the Sacraments of the Church. Let us continue…

« To those, therefore, who believe in divine love, He (God’s Word) gives assurance that the way of love lies open to men and that the effort to establish a universal brotherhood is not a hopeless one. »

It is the complete opposite of the truth, for you want to keep us in the secular, atheist, and Socialist world by convincing us that we can love our neighbour and that humanity can triumph over its demons in the light of the humanist teachings of the Gospel but not by its very necessary grace. As soon as we agree with you on this principle it will be the end. You will no longer show the slightest interest in divine Revelation, worship, and the reception of the Sacraments; by the year 2000, fear of God’s punishment in this world and eternal damnation in the next will have disappeared. That being the case, all the rest you say is only a discourse of apostates.

« He (God’s Word) cautions them at the same time that this charity is not something to be reserved for important matters (?), but must be pursued chiefly in the ordinary circumstances of life. » What fine words to regain the trust of simple folk! « Undergoing death itself for all of us sinners, He taught us by example that we too must shoulder that cross which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who search after peace and justice. »

One really has to be imbued with Socialism to turn the Gospel truth onto the one-way dead end road of “trials” and “crosses” of the revolutionaries, but the Gospel promises martyrdom to its saints because of their faith… and not because of their politicking! Everything, however, is an occasion for left-wing propaganda, even in a Council!

There is no end to this twisted speech of the defence...

« Appointed Lord by His resurrection and given plenary power in Heaven and on earth, Christ is now at work in the hearts of men through the energy of His Holy Spirit, arousing not only (I admire this « only »!) a desire for the age to come (in square ecclesiastical language, this locution used to refer to eternal Life... but some people must have thought about the year 2000), but by that very fact animating, purifying and strengthening (As I was automatically copying, in accordance with my subconscious that functions independently, I had written, “and sanctifying”; a glance at the text and I rectify... No, really! Can you see the Council talking to the whole world about sanctifying the modern world? That would be the world topsy-turvy! Religion would doubtlessly be put on her feet again!) those noble longings too by which the human family makes its life more human and strives to render the whole earth submissive to this goal. » Basically, if I understand well, God’s Word is not only the friend of men, who is awaiting them in Heaven where felicity is already prepared for them, but He is a militant, a genuine Christian who is constantly arousing universal democratic ardour in the masses of every religion or irreligion.

Have you not yet understood? The Council knows how to express things in a hundred different ways: « Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse (another “yes, but...” reasoning): while He calls some to give clear (sic!) witness to the desire for a heavenly home and to keep that desire green among the human family (the word “green” means in marketing style: because, you know, I think that this company is dying!), He summons others (a multitude that is young, ardent, ready for any act of generosity) to dedicate themselves to the earthly service of men (rather than the heavenly service of God, it is marketing!) and to make ready the material of the celestial Realm by this ministry (this word, which was most fashionable in the Council, covers these Social Democratic militants “with ingenuous probity and white linen”) of theirs. »

These last words constitute a whole chapter. We will come back to it…

« Yet » already, in order to strike while the iron is hot, a new categorical assertion ends this « Christian revelation », the first stirrings of which we had begun to feel, but that bursts into the open here for the first time: some people dream of Heaven, others devote themselves on earth to all the great human causes, « yet He frees (?) all of them so that by putting aside love of self and bringing all earthly resources into the service of human life (there is no end to marketing: the militants are go-getters!) they can devote themselves to that future when humanity itself will become an offering accepted by God (Rm 15:16). »

In marketing, this principle is the rule: stick to it, do not shrink back, do not yield. Well! Hats off to the commercial travellers of Christian progressivism! Under the pretext of gathering together at the end of the speech all the clients, some to depart for Heaven, others to visit the radiant city of the Future, they are both congratulated for being swept away by the gust of the Spirit « to that future »! It goes without saying that this future will of course be earthly and temporal: it will be a time when humanity will be gathered together, will be worthy, by reason of its perfectly democratic virtues, to offer its works and its days just as they are, without ritual sacrifices of any cult or rite at all, as an offering pleasing to God… The happy times will be unending. That brings to my mind the band of “Jecists” (members of the Jeunesse étudiante chrétienne – Young Christian Students) of which I was the unworthy leader in 1939. We began the meetings with the Jecist hymn, everyone standing. It was already Vatican II: « We march without regret or fear, and in our vibrant breasts, there beats the heart (bis) of the Redeemer… Jecists, Christ is calling us (bis), forward towards the future (bis)! » Then we sat down. The Future consisted of defeat, concentration camps, and the rest. The Future of the Council, thirty-five years afterwards, seems to me to amount to the same thing.

It appears to me that here we have the first attempt to introduce into an official act of the supreme Magisterium, the Pope and the Council being but one, the untenable theory of the double end of “human cosmic navigation”. I remember having seen in a very short article by Fr. Congar that he was warmly fanatical about it, but he could not see how theology could make them co-exist without clashes or the absorption of one by the other in the Christian Faith (Letter to My Friends n^o 202, Easter 1965). I am still waiting for the answer. Now that he has received the first end by humbly accepting the honour of the cardinal’s hat, he must have received the solution to his problem, either by seeing himself proclaimed above a doctor of the Church, or – alas! I so fear – doomed to the horror of quite another end.

The market man never gives up his campaign without having the last word. Thus, while our attention is wandering, he is still going to win a round. Just read on!

§ 2. « The Lord left behind a pledge of this hope and strength for life’s journey (do not forget that it is a Social Democratic journey! The Council canvasses on behalf of the joint Christian democracy - Masdu enterprise) in that sacrament of faith (fancy that! What is it doing here!) where natural elements cultivated by man (a point scored by the militant against the contemplative in the old quarrel over the new offertory of Paul VI’s Mass...) are gloriously changed into His Body and Blood (that is true) »

The conclusion is magnificent: « providing a meal of brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. »

There is only one problem. This « meal » is nothing if it is not an expression for the sacrifice of the Mass, the sacramental renewal of the sacrifice of the Cross. This reduces militant farmers and wine growers to their rank; as for contemplatives… it is the predicament of Martha and Mary! Draw your own conclusion!

new earth and new Heaven

For it is indeed a question of the end of the world. Since they have lied throughout history and in all the panels, the triptych became a pentaptych, breaking reality and history into a thousand pieces, they must lie one last time for the final ending to correspond to the ideal one that has intoxicated them, the Council itself, the Church, and the world, as though with a potion.

39. § 1. « We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of humanity, nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away; but we are taught (this word indicates that on this point neither world public opinion nor our real-life experience have been able to teach us anything: for once it was necessary to have complete faith in God’s word, without there being any possibility of human verification!) that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice (social justice, Socialist justice; let us make another point because the game is not over yet, and the last clashes will be tough) will abide, and whose blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart (a paradise reserved for the fighters for peace and justice). Then, with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be invested with incorruptibility. Enduring with charity and its fruits, all that creation which God made on man’s account (so, man himself is liberated, I think; it is not said but it is supposed and accepted without any hesitation) will be unchained from the bondage of vanity; cf. Rm 8:19-21. »

Note that I have no hesitation in sharing this expectation of the universal liberation and transfiguration of this admirable “cosmos” regarding which neither angels nor men have ever had anything to reproach. But, all men?

For the moment, let us say that this text has gaps, camouflaging. Let us leave it some hope of survival. Truth is at hand, its shining will be dazzling, and woe to him who will have tampered with the Catholic Faith on divine Revelation in such a serious matter!

Nevertheless this does not prevent our author from continuing to spout his silly gnosis in the same pompous tone:

§ 2. « Therefore (this indicates a twisted “yes therefore, but… no” reasoning), we are warned (even if we never talk about it) that it profits a man nothing if he gain the whole world and lose himself (a good translation, I congratulate you... then I correct myself: « if he lose his soul » was better; I let you think about it), but (ah! there is a « but » that is going to crush what the « therefore » seemed to guarantee!) the expectation of a new earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age. »

Here there is a surprise attack against the best-established traditional positions, the complete opposite of what is alleged to us to be its content. It is so far beyond the framework of Christian thought that we do not know what to reply. In order to rediscover the Gospel and the charity to which the Council attaches such great importance, we might understand that the thought of Heaven, which is very near and so desirable, would arouse in our hearts wise resolutions to practice virtues and devotion to our brethren… Or, on the other hand, the thought that the things of the earth are mere nothings will incite us to order them, despite the little importance that we attach to them at the approach of death… Unless it is a question of becoming the benefactor of the poor before going to meet our Saviour…?

All these arguments do not correspond to the mind of the Council, which is attached to the present time and to earthly goods as one sees the dying clinging to their blankets… so as not to leave!

« The body of a new human family », of the elect, I suppose, « here grows » if only through abundant births first. And conversions also… But the more man remains attached to worldly affairs, the less he burdens himself with children. In our rich countries, demographics are in a dramatic fall; poor countries proliferate. As for true Catholic peoples, they know that the earth is the place where the future inhabitants of Heaven are brought forth. This is why they like to engender children, even poor, even disabled, because it is for Heaven. This is a thought that is infinitely pleasing to Jesus and Mary.

The most reprehensible thing in this text, however, is in the last reason advanced to support the modern thesis:

« …which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age. » It is in such short phrases that lard an otherwise innocuous text that we discover to what extent the conciliar mentality is profoundly immersed in the material human world and its last stage of sensorial, all-consuming, comfortable and, in fact, international development. The Council only thinks within this world to the point of imagining what comes afterwards, in the beyond, as a success similar to what we see and experience, and that a futuristic comic strip could undoubtedly make us imagine. Thus, we know already that all that we invent follows on from the original creation, but also, and even more so, it prepares the various material, corporal – and as we are going to learn forthwith – social political elements of the Kingdom of Heaven. I leave it to you to guess under what institutional form!

« Hence, while earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from the growth of Christ’s Kingdom (a fortunate remark! Let us beware of another “yes, but...” snare), to the extent that the former can contribute to the better ordering of human society, it is of vital concern to the Kingdom of God (I told you so! And just what vital concern? A democratic one!). »

Thus, elections and referendums must thus be expected as soon as the « new earth » is established for the new democracy that is outlined now here below, which must be perfected in the beyond. Do you think that I am joking? But this last well-thought-out, categorical sentence serves as transition to the following, which is staggering.

Let us read well and weigh the words:

§ 3. « For (it is a coordination of what is going to be said that is thus linked as a proof to what has just been announced) the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom… » I interrupt: dignity is the highest value upon which « believers and unbelievers generally agree: all things on earth should be related to man as their centre and crown. » Such is his inviolable and inamissable dignity. So, let us keep this value firmly in mind.

« Brotherhood » is the result of the « world’s transformation » under the effect of love. It is « the way that lies open to men, » the « effort to establish a universal brotherhood » (38, 1), the union of everyone in love that results from the experience of solidarity. We will notice that the « brotherhood » [here, our Father criticises the Decree for the use in French of communion fraternelle; in English, brotherly communion] for Christians is « a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, behind a pledge of this hope and strength for life’s journey » (38, 2). The Protestant “Lord’s Supper”, which is not a sacrifice but a magic meal, is also a rite among other rites of a completely human brotherhood, « the basic law of human perfection and hence of the world’s transformation ».

Finally, freedom is this third “value” or, as is said now – for modern words rapidly fall into disuse and are replaced by others – the last “point of reference” that was studied above (17), which is both the means for rising to the superior dignity of man as man and the effect of this dignity (ibid.). Even if no one can really define liberty, it is a practical “point of reference” and an inescapable threshold of all modern society. If there is a God, the human person « demands » from Him respect for his freedom, which says it all…

« For after we have obeyed the Lord (a Lord whom I do not know unless he is called Robespierre, Karl Marx, Félicité de Lamennais, Marc Sangnier or Maritain), and in His Spirit (What a nerve it would be to invoke the breath of God’s Spirit as the Defender of an atheistic, materialist, revolutionary human order!) nurtured on earth (according to that famous marketing that I indicated and that is not finished as this fantastic text proves) the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed all the good fruits of our nature and enterprise (we observe the Fathers of the Council unanimously accepting this astounding naturalism and materialism). »

« … we will find them again (this means in “the age to come”; a choice can be made between the two opinions: either the twenty-first century, the third millennium, which is announced as the “reign of the Spirit”, or eternal Life of Heaven), but (yes! All our atheistic materialism, all our Socialism, all our democratism, yes! but…) freed of stain (and by what miracle?), burnished (how can darkness be burnished?) and transfigured (but will they remain themselves or will they become unrecognisable?)... » And when will this happen?

« ...when Christ hands over to the Father: « a Kingdom eternal and universal, a Kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace.” »

The text is taken from the preface of the feast of Christ the King from the ancient liturgy, which was chucked out for a new one that is better adapted to the Council’s navigation on the moon and among the stars. The feast has been renamed, secularised, and depoliticised. It has become the feast of Christ the King of « the universe » of spiral nebulae but no longer of peoples and nations.

I fear that the new arrivals who have landed from the Council and who are led by angels towards this Kingdom will not at all recognise there, even though informed of its « transfiguration », this fine democracy that enchanted them at the Council. I fear also that surging back from above, they jostle each other on the other road, that of the Prince of this world, who pushing them and sniggering shows them the points of reference of this modern highway: Dignity, Brotherhood and Freedom!

« On this earth that Kingdom is already present in mystery. When the Lord returns it will be brought into full flower. » These words are quite worthy to conclude this antichrist speech.

INTERLUDE

IS THERE A COURSE OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY, THAT IS TO SAY, A PLAN OF GOD THAT IS UNDER WAY?

Divine Revelation gives its true and infallible answer to this question. The Council should begin its study of God’s plan with it and should continue it likewise with the sacred history of its laborious fulfilment in the midst of all kinds of obstacles, and end it by renewing the divine warnings that are appropriate for converting the world with regard to its end, God’s judgement and each person’s ending up in one empire or the other, in Christ Jesus’ empire or that of the Devil, forever. For if the worst heresy of the first centuries was, perhaps, Manichaeism, the worst of the last times may well be the unanimism of the contemporary gnosis in which every division, every antagonism, every judgement is effaced. What better way is there to succeed in it than by annihilating the true Catholic Church, only allowing her adversary to subsist, the world, of which Satan is the Prince and the new gnosis, his gospel of lies. Ah, yes! What “good news” that is! The New Evangelisation in which the whole moral life, instead of being a terrible and magnificent battle between evil and good, is the theatre for “man’s progress” towards the perfection of his being and the transformation of the world by love!

The Council chose the Gnostic way, the reverie of which mingled from one chapter to the next more and more intimately and boldly with the revealed mysteries of the Christian Faith to the extent of controlling and distorting in it all the truth in order to serve its fables. For me, it was an hallucinating study to see little by little the « ocellated serpent » from St. Ignatius’ visions slither into an appearance of Christ, and this Christ, assuming all kinds of forms and colours, becoming like a god, to the unanimous cries of joy and adoration not only of the world, but of depraved Christians and the Second Vatican Council!

We need to clean the Augean stables completely without allowing ourselves any diversion. It is so incredible, unprecedented! The Serpent under the guise of Jesus Christ and his depraved adorers under the sacred vestments of the Princes of the Church!

Now, forgetting everything, we ask the question to a country parish priest, to lady catechists, to children who are preparing for their solemn communion, and the truth is going to be said to us in an unequalled clarity and beauty. If not, it will be my fault as a clumsy writer.

1. Why did God create the world and the angels, and men on earth?

In order to know Him, adore Him, love Him, and serve Him, and thus merit the happiness of Heaven.

2. Why is man called the king of creation?

Because his adorable Creator and Father arranged everything on earth and in the vast universe to make corporal life possible, to feed his intellectual life, and finally, to give him the insights and goods required for his spiritual life of praise of God, of sacrifices made to His glory and of love, forming his supreme happiness, love that extends from God to all His creation, particularly to all men and to the angels of Heaven.

3. This seems to be a fine dream compared to what Christian Revelation teaches us, and to what we know about the history of peoples and to what came to us from our personal experience from our youngest age!

Indeed. The first cause of all these tragedies to which you allude is the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. But the fall has causes that must be pointed out because they still subsist, in themselves and in their consequences. Here they are:

a) Although God made man and woman in His own image, He did not make them His equals, which was quite impossible! But, in order to give them the most intimate likeness to Himself and thus the supreme share of His holiness, His love and His happiness, He placed them in a position to merit all goods through an act of love and obedience, which was a trial for them. Although free – but not as perfectly as God – they had to prefer His Will, the Will of so good, so lovable a Father, to their own will which madly and wickedly rebels against Him.

b) Our heavenly Father had acted likewise with the angels before bringing them into his intimate mystery: before us, they had to choose between obedience to a commandment of God with confidence and love, or refuse to submit to their Creator and Master out of pride. Following this trial, the good angels received from God His sanctifying grace and His love, thus becoming His sons in Heaven, while the rebellious angels lost at one stroke all goodness and beauty, every felicitous gift from God, who banished them forever from His Presence and made them fall into Hell to suffer eternally the just punishment of their rebellion.

This history of the angels interests us first because it must, after the history of our first parents, be for us a second warning: before drawing His creatures to Him in His glory and happiness, God puts them to the test. Thereafter it is either eternal Paradise or eternal Hell, even if the trail takes place for us through several sessions, with retakes.

Thus, we are well warned.

Then we learn that it was the Devil who “destabilised” Eve. Then, with her complicity, Eve led Adam, our first father, into her fall. This is another warning. The Devil had to get involved in it for Adam and Eve, scarcely out of the hands of the Creator and good throughout, to have the idea and then the temptation to disobey God: it was the « Serpent » who suggested this crime to them and who incited them to commit it. Thus, let us be wary during our trial on earth, for we have the holy angels on our side but against us the demons who are unleashed now that they are lost, and vowed to our loss out of jealousy.

c) Led by the Devil and by one another to transgress madly the divine order, man and woman feel a desire for evil arise no longer only in their mind but in their flesh and also an inclination to tempt one another to do evil… This was the defect that caused sin in them; it is called, with a word as ugly as the thing it designates, concupiscence, transcribed from Latin and designating all bad desires.

4. How did the human race live when it had been driven out of the earthly Paradise, in what conditions?

The answer is simple: good or bad. Then come the sons of Adam and Eve; Cain is a wicked man who irritates the good God. Abel is gentle and peaceful; he honours God by sacrifices that please Him. So Cain was jealous of him and killed him! Our human history began badly? Yes or no. Abel is a saint; Cain will be a criminal, but who was able to find the time to repent.

To be clear, we must say that God recomposed the various conditions of the life of men on earth in such a way that the trial could still be the raison d’être for their passage here below. Thus, God gave them a law in their conscience, which they must obey; then another, more perfect law, the Mosaic law, then another law, a definitive one, that of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. From one to the next, He revealed His plans of mercy and promised them all the graces necessary for their salvation, to save them from Hell. God is on men’s side.

But the demons are against them and all the more excited because they know that the time of human history is counted. Afterward, they can do nothing against us, and they are working more and more furiously.

The good angels and the saints who are in Heaven help us as much as they can by their prayers, merits, and examples. This compensates for the demons’ actions: when we appeal to St. Michael, the Devil steps back before his personal enemy.

We also have two great enemies that could not be such except that we have great difficulty dominating and overcoming them completely. This is because we are too fond of them, as Adam was too fond of his nice wife and, with her and like her, he was too fond of his own pleasure even if it was forbidden! Well! Mankind has been well assisted by God, the angels, and saints, but is attracted towards evil and misfortune by the demons, the world, and the flesh, their own feeble and greedy flesh, without an ounce of good sense…

a) But what resulted from it during thousands of years? Chaos, confusion, the loss or salvation of humanity?

Under the eyes and hand of God, there was a little of all of these, yet balanced by “divine predestination”, a mystery that is so profound that no one can boast of being able to explain it. This is what this mystery consists of: without hindering in the slightest each person’s freedom, on the contrary, maintaining it enough so that each soul can come out of the trial of life a winner, God, who is the sole master of events, makes this one succeed, that one fail, so wisely that the earth is not Heaven, for we must merit here below the eternal reward. It is not Hell either because it would be too terrible for us to resist.

b) Why then is it said that the flesh and the world are our enemies?

It is quite simple and very true. For there to be a battle in a universe that is created by God where everything is in consequence good, one wonders how there can be bad things, or opportunities to commit evil. So the Good God created man good, but imperfect: his mind, his soul wants a certain good, his body or his passionate heart wants another and he has to choose! It is an inner struggle, and there results from this freedom, left by God, one of the most heartrending aspects of our earthly trial: this battle of the spirit against the flesh that makes us all beings, who are torn, whom God watches suffering, groaning, and struggling, with satisfaction and … understanding because He knows that we are winning our Heaven through this calvary! But if we give up struggling and insult God for making it a condition of our salvation, we damn ourselves.

c) All right for this battle of the flesh that is never assuaged! and for the spirit that, like the golden eagle hovers in the heights. But the world?

The world is everyone, and then it is also all of creation. So, human beings help one another. It is a good thing! Absolutely! Everything that God makes is good. But it is the same as for the flesh and the spirit: God, who made all of that, planned everything so that life on earth may be a time of trial for each and every one, with enough exceptions to prove the rule. He thus created the two parts of the human being, the flesh and the spirit or “soul”. Thus, the system gives satisfaction to the Creator; to poor mortals, who know that the trial will not last and that the rest will be eternal, it gives many joys and sorrows, and at the same time many tears and fears.

Well! God made man a friend of man. Even better, He made them born from man and raised in a familial, parish, and national community. God placed in him a natural charity that is very appreciable for living less harshly in this world that is still untamed. Society is a good thing. The permission given to Adam and Eve to dominate all the kingdoms and species to satisfy their needs and pleasures was a good thing. And what of filling the earth by their fruitfulness and their discovery of all the continents of the globe? Another good thing. But God knew that there would be in the world not a mixture of good and evil, as imbeciles say, but an occasion for Him, the good God, to facilitate their decisive choice in their life between good and evil, between Heaven and Hell.

For, by putting himself in the company of others to make work advance more quickly and be easier, men have made their choices in accord with their affinities. Even when they come from communities that originally kept them faithful to the law of God, they separated themselves into sons of Cain and sons of Abel, if I may say so. On the one hand, there are the calm, well-ordered communities that only seek to work out their salvation in accordance with good. On the other, there are associations that take the opposite course; in them pride, egoism, brutality, and contempt for God unite the impious in a coalition. They make them dream of exploiting all the riches and forces of nature to dominate all other men and to defy God Himself, from the height of their gigantic towers even up to His Heaven! This is what the just, the humble, the poor, the peace-loving call « the world », this conglomeration of rebels « for whom Christ did not pray » (Jn 17:15)!

d) But then, how will all this finish? If the “machine to make gods” is well regulated, it could last forever?

No, because I only endeavoured to explain the raison d’être of our earthly history and of its various conditions, namely that everyone is placed in a state of freedom to accept God’s will. People call that will “signified”, that is to say, prescribed by known laws; they also refer to the will “of His good pleasure”, which God manifests to us without giving us His reasons for it. His purpose is that we might, with merit, win Heaven and, unfortunately, that those who do not want this obedience, disappear. For what fate? I do not need to play the idiot to avoid having to answer. The response is terrible, since Hell provokes a salutary dread in souls, even the strongest and most rebellious! So, I say it: eternal Hell for those who imitate and follow the demons in their pride and all the vices that they convey. That is justice.

And Heaven is mercy.

5. When will it finish, and why?

These are fascinating questions to which I will reply very briefly because to this history of humanity would have to be added another history, that of Jesus Christ and to complete it, that of the Church. So, let us come back to the simplicity of the pure Catholic Faith:

a) There is no reason for human history to continue other than to perpetuate the species and increase the number of souls who, at every second, appear before the Judge of the living and the dead. Thus, the right answer is to say that the number of the elect who will populate His Heaven is decided by God in His predestination and, when it is reached, the time of the Last Judgement will have come.

b) But there is another reason that comes from a completely different mystery than predestination. It is the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God, of which I have not yet spoken in this elementary catechism lesson. There would be so much to say! But let us at least reply to the first question:

6. Why will there be an end?

Here is the answer: In the beginning « the Word was with God », you know the rest. The Word was brazenly defeated in His dear little brother and sister, Adam and Eve, by Satan. The Father could not accept that… His Beloved Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, thus came first to settle the disagreement between humanity and God, by paying the debt incurred by Adam and by all sinners of the “human lineage”, by His Passion and His Death on the Cross.

Nevertheless, men must choose to convert to Christ and believe in Him, rather than to crucify Him anew in one way or another. Well! You well know that far from converting at last, humanity finds itself divided between the Church, the mystical community of Jesus’ friends, and « the world » which assembles under the orders of its Prince all the rebels. It incites them in every way to damn themselves individually through all sorts of crimes – it is a trifle, if I may say so, for the Devil. No, what he seeks is to confederate, to gather together well disciplined multitudes under the orders of human beings who have gone over to his service. There are as many great efforts of the Devil as there are high towers raised by human pride against God and His Messiah. As time goes by, this conspiracy becomes more powerful; all Hell is unleashed… and, in their madness, these powers already anticipate the moment of their victory over the Church of Christ and His elect.

Then, it will be the end! When everything will have risen, risen to a degree of raving madness and raging demonic fury, then Christ in all His power and majesty will be victorious. His Holy Mother will undoubtedly precede Him, and together, King and Queen will triumph over the Devil. They will have but one word to say to conquer death and thus raise up from their tombs all the saints and lead them into the heavenly Kingdom that is more beautiful than all else.

What troubles me is that you are going to think that the Council was completely mobilised in the marketing of the modern world. If you believe so, you are of course not mistaken, but it will be for you the occasion for many crosses and the great trial of your, of our life. If we were created to be victorious in this trial, in our most cherished heavenly Father’s Will of good pleasure, let us repeat the word of our most cherished heavenly Mother: « Fiat! fiat nobis secundum Verbum tuum! »

Abbé Georges de Nantes.