Month: March 2015

Their March newsletter is here . An excellent source of information from the New Hampshire Resistance!

 
 

 

Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.

 

                                                                             Our Lady at La Salette, 1846

It seems to be a popular destination, this Rome – even the Devil is jostling for a seat or two for his progeny.
Father Michel Simoulin, in his article, Romanitas: essential for Catholicism, issued through the SSPX E-pistola, lavishes the readers with more neo-SSPX inspired sappy laments for eternal Rome.  He recounts a recent pilgrimage of the Dominican sisters, with their charges, to Rome, wherein he relates, “. . . their minds still embalmed with the ‘perfume of Rome’. What happiness!”  Embalmed? Are they still alive? A stench so overpowering it proves fatal? Might it have been a whiff from the seventh circle of Hell, home to the . . . stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit?
 

What happiness, he exclaimed?  He should have said: What a mess!

 
It is a messy maze, indeed.  Father Simoulin later notes: “Obviously, but I do not want to dwell on this, we would have liked to sing the Mass, at least once, in one of the Roman basilicas.”  So, the “hosts of the Vatican” threw open the doors for the pilgrims, but forbade entrance of the Traditional Latin Mass kits, which had to be left at the door, so to speak. In other words, Christ was not welcomed in eternal Rome – His Rome. The Rome that is the pope’s “. . . but . . . belongs first to Jesus Christ.”   He was denied access to His own Roman basilicas? Shame!  Our Lord shall repay them for their coldness in due course.

 
It would appear, from Father Simoulin’s article, that neither the pilgrims or their superiors offered even a slight protest to this insult to our Lord; obviously, proving themselves to be somewhat less than great friends of our Lord! Not to mention, a terrible example for the students in tow. In which circle might Dante have placed such a brand of culprits? A lyrical translation of such culpable cold-heartedness must be penned. Let us call it The Chant of the Ingrates:

 
Leave Him at the door,

we wish to explore.

The treasures of Rome,
we will adore,
Not Him, Whom

we left at the door!

 

Such an exclusion is acceptable by the standards of the neo-SSPX?  That perfume, spoken of earlier, might have been the same infamous smoke of Satan, said to have lingered in Rome, which now seems to have embalmed the minds of far too many within the neo-SSPX hierarchy.  One fundraising idea, to help pay for all those public relations initiatives, might be to set-up a business for the production of doormats, to be sold throughout eternal Rome, especially  Vatican City and now Menzingen, which might read: Christians welcome, but not their Founder; or, perhaps, a more general option: All welcome, except the Creator. It is the Age of Transparency, so they say.

 
On the topic of business, a simple rule to facilitate commercial success has been distilled into three words:  Location, Location, Location. That is, the location of a storefront business often determines its degree of success. This catchphrase was coined to serve as a simple reminder for those embarking on a new business venture.

 
What of our Faith? Is its success dependent on a geographical location? If the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, becomes dislodged from Rome, Vatican City, would this spell the end of our Faith? Or, lessen it to any extent?  Keep in mind the fact that even if Rome, as a geographical entity, ceased to exist, then we would still be subjected to a personal judgement, upon death (after exposure to some of Rome’s perfume, perhaps), according to our individual fidelity to the precepts of the Faith. In reality, this grandiose idea of eternal Rome is a nice-to-have, not a necessity.

 
His Excellency, Archbishop Lefebvre recognized the duality of the Roman dilemma, but he remained clear on the matter as it relates to the Faith as noted in his Declaration of November 21, 1974: “We hold firmly with all our heart and with all our mind to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith, to the eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth. We refuse on the other hand, and have always refused, to follow the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies, which became clearly mani­fest during the Second Vatican Council, and after the Council, in all the re­forms which issued from it.”

Consider the recent statements and actions of Pope Francis, plastered all over the media. Can any prudent person believe that in light of such effuse demonstrates that he, the Pope, is a faithful Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith? It must be acknowledged that Rome has changed, but only to become progressively worse since the close of the Second Vatican CounciI.

Shirk the sentimentality and longing for unity, for a moment, at least, and be honest on this one point. If you answered in the negative to the above question, then consider if it is reasonable, at this time, to move toward any form of unsanctioned cohabitation with the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies? Is it judicious even to ignite such sentimentality for eternal Rome amongst the faithful, which could lead to a misplaced reverence toward the conciliar hierarchy?  This becomes a question of life and death, the eternal destination of your soul.

 
Eternal Rome is figurative. The Faith is eternal.  The Faith is Truth. Truth is unchanging. Rome has been graced as the temporal home of the Church, Vatican City. The Vicar of Christ, who resides at the Vatican, has been entrusted as the Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith, hence its earthly prominence. The ultimate and true eternal Rome is Heaven, because it is Heaven that is eternal as well as the final end of those who have kept the Faith – in its entirety.

 
His Excellency, Archbishop Lefebvre, when he spoke at Rennes, France, in November of 1972 asked a question:  “What does faith give you?”  He answered: “Eternal Life.”[1]

 
It is the untainted deposit of the Faith of which His Excellency spoke and to which we much adhere in order to earn eternal life. Verboten are the compromised, liquidated, distortions propagated by a modernist, enemy embracing, Conciliar loving Rome, still dizzy, obviously, from a diabolical disorientation.

 
In his Spiritual Journey, Archbishop Lefebvre wrote: “The higher they come from, the more scandals provoke disasters. Certainly, the Church itself guards its sanctity and its sources of sanctification, but the control of its institutions by unfaithful popes and apostate bishops ruins the faith of the faithful and the clergy, sterilizes the instrument of grace, and favors the assault of all the powers of Hell which seem to triumph.”[2]

And so it remains “. . . until such time as the true light of tradition dissipates the gloom which obscures the sky of the eternal Rome”[3]

 

Instead of joining the hullabaloo for eternal Rome, true Roman Catholics should herald a little catchphrase to remind themselves to aspire to the ultimate success: Salvation, Salvation, Salvation. Strive for the true eternal, which is Heaven, and spurn the disorienting smoke and mirrors roadshow peddled by the traitors to our Lord, Jesus Christ. He, Who lives and reigns forever, in eternal Heaven. Deo gratias.

Let us give thanks to our dear Lord for having sent us such a faithful and wise bishop, who was His Excellency, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

 

[1] A Bishop Speaks: Writings and Addresses 1963-1976, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, p. 119.

[2] Spiritual Journey, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, p. 54.

[3] Archbishop Lefebvre’s Declaration of November 21, 1974, p. 5, retrieved from http://fsspx.com/Convictions/2010/Convicitons_26_2010.pdf
 

Note: The four marks of the true Church are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Roman is not a mark of the Church, but it might become one, unofficially, should the neo-SSPX ever decide to issue their own catechism.

 

 

Sister Michaela Raphaela TOSF

AKA: Patricia MacLean

 

 

 

Don Camillo and Giovanni Guareschi

or

Catholic Mind and Modern World

 
Giovanni Guareschi (1908-1968) wrote the stories of Don Camillo at a time when his fellow Italians were at a low point. WWII had already weakened their Faith and so they were an easy prey of Communism and Atheism. Little did they suspect that they were being set up for the Aggiornamento of the Conciliar Church.
 

However, evil plots can never fully succeed as long as there remains at least one Don Camillo who relentlessly pursues his adversary, the Communist Mayor Peppone – not to destroy him – but to bring him to the love and knowledge of God. And if Giovanni Guareschi in the end did get caught up in the Aggiornamento, read the story, and say a prayer for him. And then ask him in turn to pray for us.

 
The following story is a demonstration of how our mind is worked on by the modern world. Observe how the attacks and the temptations are followed by the progressive deterioration of the mind.

 
 

* * *

 
 

“The Thirteenth-Century Angel” is borrowed in part from Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son, pp 142 – 146. The italicized parts are the author’s; the others are mine.

 
A bequest was made to Don Camillo, the parish priest, to have the angel on the church tower gilded. It was soon discovered that the angel was the Archangel Gabriel made in beaten copper and that he dated from the thirteenth century.

 
That afternoon a photographer came to take pictures of the statue from every possible angle. And the next morning a city newspaper carried an article, with three illustrations, which said it was a crime to leave such a treasure exposed to the four winds, when it was part of the nation’s cultural heritage and should be kept under shelter. Don Camillo’s ears turned crimson as he read. …

 
Then some more important people arrived upon the scene, including representatives of the bishop, and as soon as they came down from [the scaffolding] looking at the angel they all told Don Camillo that it was a shame to leave it up there, exposed to the weather.

 
“I’ll buy him a raincoat,” Don Camillo said in exasperation, and when they protested that this was an illogical thing to say he retorted with considerable logic: “In public squares all over the world statues have stood for centuries amid the raging elements and no one has dreamed of putting them under shelter. Why should we have to tuck our angel away! Just go and tell the people of Milan that the Madonnina on that cathedral of theirs is falling to pieces and they ought to take it down and put it under cover. Don’t you know that they’d give you a good, swift kick if you suggested anything of the kind?”

 
“The Madonnina of Milan is a very different matter,” said one of the important visitors.

 
“But the kicks they give in Milan are very much like those we give here!” Don Camillo answered, and because the villagers crowding around him on the church square punctuated his last remark with a “That’s right!” no one pursued the subject further.

 
Some time later the city newspaper returned to the attack. To leave a beautiful thirteenth-century angel on the church tower of a valley village was a crime. Not because anyone wanted to take the angel away, but because the village could make good money from tourists if only it were in a more accessible place. No art-lover was going to travel so far, simply in order to stand in the square and gape up at a statue on top of a tower. They ought to bring the angel down into the church, have a cast made, and then an exact copy which they could gild and put in its place.

 
After people in the village had read that newspaper article, they began to mumble that there was something to it, and the local Communists, under the leadership of Mayor Peppone, couldn’t very well miss the opportunity to comment on “a certain reactionary who should have been born in the Middle Ages.” As long as the angel stayed up on the tower, no one could appreciate its beauty. Down in the church it would be in plain sight, and there would be no loss to the tower if another angel were to replace it. Don Camillo’s most prosperous parishioners talked it over with him, and eventually he admitted that he might have been in the wrong. …

 
And so the angel was taken down. And because the bequest was large enough, both the original angel and the replica angel were to be gilded. That way both angels would look identical.

 
The new angel was hoisted to the top of the tower, and the experts proceeded to gild the old one. It was placed in a niche near the door, and everyone gaped at it in its shiny new dress.

 
The night before the unveiling of both statues, Don Camillo could not sleep. Finally he got up and went over to the church to look at the original angel. …

 
Don Camillo stared at the great wings of the Archangel Gabriel and ran his big hand over his perspiring face. How could a heavy copper angel like this one have flown up to the top of a tower? Now he stood in a niche, behind a glass door that could be opened and shut for protection. Impulsively Don Camillo took a key out of his pocket and opened the door. How could an angel that had lived on top of a tower stay shut up in a box? Surely he must be suffocating for want of air. And Don Camillo remembered the text of old Bassini’s will: “I bequeath everything I have to the parish priest, Don Camillo, to be spent for gilding the angel on the church tower so that I can see it shining all the way from Heaven and recognise the place where I was born.”

 
“And now he doesn’t see his angel at all,” Don Camillo reflected. “He sees a false angel in its place. That isn’t what he wanted.”

 
Don Camillo was very troubled, and when that happened he went to kneel at the feet of Christ on the big cross over the altar.
 

“Lord,” he said, “why did I cheat old Bassini? What made me give in to those rascals from the city?”
 

The Lord did not answer, and so Don Camillo went back to the angel.

 
“For three hundred years you’ve watched over this valley and its people. Or perhaps for seven hundred years. Who knows? For this church may have been built on the ruins of one much older. You have saved us from famine and plague and war. Who can say how many gales and bolts of lightning you have turned away? For three, or perhaps seven hundred years, you have given the village’s last farewell to the souls of the dead as they rose up into Heaven. Your wings have vibrated to the sound of the bells, whether they called men to rejoice or to mourn. Yes, centuries of joy and sorrow are in your wings. And now you are shut up in a gilded cage, where you will never see the sky or the sun again. Your place has been usurped by a false city angel, whose only memories are the swear words of unionized foundry-workers.You took shape from an unknown thirteenth-century craftsman with faith to inspire his hammer, while the usurper was turned out by some monstrously unholy machine. How can a pitiless, mechanical creature like that protect us? What does he care for our land and its people?

 
It was eleven o’clock at night and the village lay wrapped in silence and fog from the river when Don Camillo went out of the church and into the darkness.

 
 

*

 

Peppone was not in a good humour when he answered the knock at his door.

 
“I need you,” said Don Camillo. “Put on your coat and follow me.”
 

When they were inside the church the priest pointed to the captive angel.
 

“He protected your father and mother and their fathers and mothers before them. And he must watch over your son. That means going back to where he was before.”
 
“Are you mad?” asked Peppone.
 
“Yes,” said Don Camillo. “But I can’t do it alone. I need the help of a madman like you.”
 
The scaffolding was still up all around the tower. Don Camillo tucked his cassock into his trousers and began to climb, while Peppone followed him with a rope and pulley. Their madness lent them the strength of a dozen men. They lassoed the angel, detached it from its pedestal and lowered it to the ground. Then they carried it into the church, took the original angel out of the niche and put the false one in its place.
 
Five men had worked at hoisting the false angel up to the top of the tower, but now the two of them managed to do it alone.They were soaked with fog and perspiration and their hands were bleeding from the rope.
 
It was five o’clock in the morning. … At this point they began to be afraid. Day was breaking, and they went to peer out of the window. There was the angel, high above them, on top of the tower.
 
“It’s impossible,” said Peppone.
 
Suddenly he grew angry and turned upon Don Camillo.
 
“Why did you rope me into it?” he asked him. “What damned business is it of mine?”
 
“It isn’t damned business at all,” Don Camillo answered. “There are too many false angels loose in the world working against us already. We need true angels to protect us.”
 
Peppone sneered.
 
“Silly religious propaganda!” he said, and went away without saying goodbye.
 
In front of his own door, something made him turn around and look up into the sky. There was the angel, shining in the first light of dawn.
 
“Hello there, Comrade!” Peppone mumbled serenely, taking off his cap to salute him.
 
Meanwhile Don Camillo knelt before the crucifix at the altar and said:
 
“Lord, I don’t know how we did it!”
 
The Lord did not answer, but he smiled, because He knew very well how.
 
 

* * *

 
 
Taken from: Don Camillo Omnibus, Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son, Giovanni Guareschi, Readers Book Club, London, 1956, pp 543.

 
 

Sister Constance TOSF

 
 

“No man ought wickedly to pride himself upon such things as a sinner can do. A sinner,” he said, “can fast, pray, weep, mortify his flesh; this only he cannot do – be faithful to his Lord. In this, then, we may glory – if we give Him the glory which is due to Him, if we serve Him faithfully, if we ascribe all HIs gifts to Him.”

 

The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure

 
 

Sister Michaela Raphaela TOSF

 
 

Education is not the filling of a vessel, but the kindling of a flame.

Socrates as quoted in neo-SSPX video
 

It starts with a quote from the pagan philosopher Socrates and ends with an invitation to support Catholic education by buying a raffle ticket for a 2015 Malibu LS (through a link to smac.edu). Such is the New video on St. Mary’s Academy & College‏, delivered via the SSPX E-pistola.

 

Really, with all things considered as regards the neo-SSPX, this is more or less yawn territory, now. Nevertheless, the highbrow piano composition serves to keep the viewer’s attention. If one does continue to view the New video on St. Mary’s Academy & College, then the words of Mr. Andrew Clarendon reward with a bit of tragicomedy.

 
Mr. Andrew Clarendon, Department Head, St. Mary’s Academy, attempts to describe the institution’s objective: “The academy seeks to develop the whole man: physical attributes, mental attributes, moral attributes, spiritual attributes. We’re less interested in memorization of data and of discrete facts and we’re more interested in developing the student the ability to find those facts, to process those facts, to know the meaning of those facts and how they fit into the whole. So, in other words, we are interested in developing human beings.”

 

The tragedy: “We’re less interested in memorization of data and of discrete facts and we’re more interested in developing the student the ability to find those facts, to process those facts, to know the meaning of those facts and how they fit into the whole.”

Even the well-heeled, highbrow-ish, secularists know that such a strategy is bunk. An article on the George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) Educational Foundation site offers a bit of free education on the benefits of rote learning: “Before students can think critically, they need to have something to think about in their brains. It is true that knowledge without comprehension is of little use, but comprehension requires knowledge . . . the highest order of thinking occurs at the evaluating and creating levels which infer that the thinkers must have knowledge, facts, data, or information in their brains to combine into something new, or with which to judge relative importance or value. Therefore, effective knowledge acquisition has to come first.”[1]
Then again, empty vessels might be much more comfortable with the neo-SSPX; conversely, the neo-SSPX might be much more comfortable with empty vessels. A gambling man might wager a bet on the latter.

 

More tragedy: “So, in other words, we are interested in developing human beings.” As suspected, if you Google “developing human beings”, then you will get “About 47,000,000 results” on human development, as in baby on the way.
According to the above statement, St. Mary’s Academy & College is seeking to do very little for their students, as human beings are already developed, once born. More study is recommended on this topic or, at least, the wording thereof.

 

The comedy: It is pretentious. It is misguided. It lacks attention to detail. It is commercial. It is lowbrow.
And they paid for this bit of hogwash? Hence the raffles, one would suppose!

 

From a fallen tree (branch), make kindling.

                                       Spanish proverb

 

[1] When Rote Learning Makes Sense, http://www.edutopia.org/rote-learning-benefits

 

Sister Michaela Raphaela TOSF