10/1/07: Votive Mass against the Heathen

Introit. Ps. 43, 23-26. Arise, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arise, and cast us not off to the end. Why turnest Thou Thy face away, and forgettest our trouble? Our belly has cleaved to the earth: arise, O Lord, help us and deliver us. (P.T. Alleluia, alleluia.) Ps. 43, 2. We have heard, O God, with our ears: our fathers have declared to us. V. Glory be.

Prayer. Almighty, everlasting God, in Whose hand are the powers and the government of every kingdom; look to the Christian people to help them, that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might, may be crushed by the power of Thy right hand. Through our Lord, etc. S. Amen.

Gradual Ps. 82, 19. 14. Let the Gentiles know that God is Thy name: Thou alone art the Most High over all the earth. V. O my God, make them like a wheel, and as stubble before the face of the wind.

Alleluia, alleluia. V. Ps. 79, 3. Stir up Thy might, O Lord, and come: that Thou mayest save us. Alleluia.

Tract. Ps. 78, 9-11. Help us, O God our Savior, and for the honor of Thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and be propitious to our sins, for the sake of Thy name. V. Lest the Gentiles should say: Where is their God? And let Him be known among the nations before our eyes. V. Avenge the blood of Thy servants which has been shed, let the sighing of the prisoners come in before Thee.

Alleluia, alleluia. V. Ps. 79, 3. Stir up Thy might, O Lord, and come: that Thou mayest save us. Alleluia. V. Ps. 79, 15. 16. O God of Hosts, look down from heaven and see, and visit this vineyard; and perfect that which Thy right hand has planted. Alleluia.

Offertory. Ps. 17, 28. 32. Thou wilt save the humble people, O Lord, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud; for who is God but Thee, O Lord.

Secret. Look, O Lord, upon the sacrifice which we offer; that Thou mayest deliver Thy champions from the wickedness of the heathen, and keep them safe under Thy protection. Through our Lord, etc.

Communion. Ps. 118, 81. 84. 86. My soul is in Thy salvation, and in Thy word have I hoped: when wilt Thou execute judgment on those who persecute me? The wicked have persecuted me: help me, O Lord my God.

P. The Lord be with you. S. And with thy spirit.

Postcommunion. Look upon us, O Lord, our Protector, and defend Thy champions from perils of the heathen, so that all disturbance being removed, they may freely serve Thee. Through our Lord, etc. S. Amen.

Saint Joseph Daily Missal (Great Falls, MT: St. Bonaventure Publications, 2004) pp. 1178-1180.

9/5/07: The Origin of the Forged Schoeman Quote Revealed &c.

Steve Tolles, the man who sent Sungenis the forged quote of Roy Schoeman advocating the return of Jewish festivals to Catholicism, recently contacted me and explained where the quote came from. Tolles had been debating a Messianic Jewish friend on the propriety of Christians celebrating Jewish festivals, and the friend forged the quote in order to bolster his case in favor of said festivals. Then, at some point, Tolles mentioned this quote to Sungenis, and, predictably, Sungenis eagerly asked for it and promptly published it. When it was exposed as a forgery (Mark Wyatt found the un-doctored version of Schoeman's statement on the Association of Hebrew Catholics website), Sungenis scared Tolles into hiding with some very bizzare e-mails. This is why Tolles has not come forward until now, even though his friend admitted to forging the quote as soon as it became the subject of public controversy. Tolles gave me permission to pass his apologies along to Roy Schoeman, which I did. Here is the full story, with all the gory details.

In other news, the third conference of Catholics Defending Biblical Inerrancy went beautifully. It was well attended, and all the talks were well received. They should soon be available for download at keepthefaith.org.

8/1/07: Annuntio Vobis Gaudium Magnum! and Other Updates

Robert Sungenis' bishop, Very Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades of Harrisburg, PA, has forced him to remove all material concerning the Jews from his website. Sungenis' statement is available here: Catholic Apologetics International and its Teaching on the Jews. While he leaves yet unfulfilled his duties to explicitly retract specific statements, and to make reparations to people whose reputations he has unjustly harmed, at least by complying with his bishop's directives he has removed the immediate cause of public scandal. Since this is the case, I will remove my three articles about Sungenis from this site. In their place, I offer The Orthodoxy of Roy Schoeman. This article is meant to counter any lingering damage to Schoeman's reputation which has resulted from Sungenis' attacks.

In other news, I'd like to remind readers that the third conference of Catholics Defending Biblical Inerrancy is this Saturday in St. Patrick's Church in Fredericksburg, VA. I, Sal Ciresi, and Fr. Brian Harrison will each be delivering two talks. For more details see the flyer. And for those who cannot make it, all six talks will be recorded and made available in mp3 format at www.keepthefaith.org.

Next, I'd like to share two excellent theological resources. The first is Fr. Chad Ripperger's site, Sensus Traditionis. Fr. Ripperger, FSSP, PhD is extremely articulate and deeply committed to traditional Thomistic philosophy, theology, and psychology. His voice is badly needed in the Church today. Second, the website of the Dominican Institute in Nigeria hosts an almost complete set of St. Thomas' collected works in English. To my knowledge, this is the only place on the internet where some of these works are available to the public in translation.

On the lighter side, a gentleman named Del Sydebothom has resurrected a delightful children's book written and illustrated by G. K. Chesterton, entitled The Disadvantage of Having Two Heads. It reinforces the principle that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. By the way, in case anyone was wondering, the Greek phrase gnothi seauton means "know thyself"; this slogan was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Just like Chesterton to put Greek in a children's book.

Also on the lighter side, though not intentionally, I have added two new projects to Pugio Fidei's queue of forthcoming projects: (1) a study of Joshua 5:13-15, defending the identification of "the commander of the Lord's army" with St. Michael the Archangel, and thus shoring up the biblical foundations for the cult of the angels and saints; (2) a translation of the great Portuguese Jesuit Diego Andrada de Payva's magnum opus, Defensio Tridentinae fidei Catholicae. In this work, Andrada refutes the Lutheran Martin Chemnitz's book Examination of the Council of Trent.

Finally, I recently came across another biblical argument against the doctrine of eternal security. In 1 Samuel 10:9 we read that, after Samuel annointed Saul King of Israel, God gave Saul "another heart." Further, in the following verse, we are informed that "the spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied." These verses may be plausibly interpreted as referring to regenerating grace and the seal of the Holy Spirit. In that case, Saul was at one point in a state of grace, yet was later reprobated.

6/29/07: Turn Off Your Computer

Many people, myself included, spend far too much time on the internet. This time could better be spent praying, reading books, or developing real human relationships. I do not want this website to feed the disease. So, from henceforth the site will be updated on, and only on, the first of the month. This will obviate regular checking to see if anything new has been added, since you may know with certainty that nothing new will have been added unless the month has changed since last you checked.

5/22/07: The Holy Ghost Dictated Sacred Scripture

"Therefore, when those disciples have written matters which He declared and spoke to them, it ought not by any means to be said that He has written nothing Himself; since the truth is, that His members have accomplished only what they became acquainted with by the repeated statements of the Head. For all that He was minded to give for our perusal on the subject of His own doings and sayings, He commanded to be written by those disciples, whom He thus used as if they were His own hands" (St. Augustine, Harmony of the Gospels, Book I, Ch. 35).

"But who wrote these words is quite a pointless question when we believe confidently that the Holy Spirit is the true author of the book. The writer is the one who dictates things to be written. The writer is the one who inspires the book and recounts through the voice of the scribe the deeds we are to imitate. We might read the words of some great man in his letters but ask by what pen they were written; but it would be ridiculous not to recognize the author and attend to the contents and to go on asking by just what sort of pen the words were pressed onto the page. Since we know the substance of the story and know that the Holy Spirit is the author, if we go on asking who the scribe was what else are we doing than reading the text and asking about the pen?" (Pope St. Gregory the Great, Moralia, or Commentary on the Book of Blessed Job, Preface, 2)

"The sacred and holy, ecumenical, and general Synod of Trent,--lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the Same three legates of the Apostolic Sec presiding therein,--keeping this always in view, that, errors being removed, the purity itself of the Gospel be preserved in the Church; which (Gospel), before promised through the prophets in the holy Scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first promulgated with His own mouth, and then commanded to be preached by His Apostles to every creature, as the fountain of all, both saving truth, and moral discipline; and seeing clearly that this truth and discipline are contained in the written books, and the unwritten traditions which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down even unto us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand; (the Synod) following the examples of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety, and reverence, all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament--seeing that one God is the author of both --as also the said traditions, as well those appertaining to faith as to morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ's own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continuous succession" (Trent, Session 4).

"Now this supernatural revelation, according to the belief of the universal Church, as declared by the sacred Council of Trent, is contained in written books and unwritten traditions, which were received by the apostles from the lips of Christ himself, or came to the apostles by the dictation of the Holy Spirit, and were passed on as it were from hand to hand until they reached us" (Vatican I, Session 3, Chapter 2, Par. 5).

"For the Sacred Scripture is not like other books. Dictated by the Holy Ghost, it contains things of the deepest importance, which in many instances are most difficult and obscure" (Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus, 5).

"But among the truths that shine out in the triple poem of Alighieri as in his other works We think that these things may serve as teaching for men of our times. That Christians should pay highest reverence to the Sacred Scripture and accept what it contains with perfect docility he proclaims when he says that 'Though many are the writers of the Divine Word nevertheless there is but one Dictator, God, Who has deigned to show us His goodwill through the pens of many' (Mon. III, 4). Glorious expression of a great truth" (Benedict XV, In Praeclara Summorum, 5).

"After this preliminary account of St. Jerome's life and labors we may now treat of his teaching on the divine dignity and absolute truth of Scripture. You will not find a page in his writings which does not show clearly that he, in common with the whole Catholic Church, firmly and consistently held that the Sacred Books -- written as they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit -- have God for their Author, and as such were delivered to the Church. Thus he asserts that the Books of the Bible were composed at the inspiration, or suggestion, or even at the dictation of the Holy Spirit; even that they were written and edited by Him" (Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus, 8).

"Meditate with care and attention on these fertile truths which the Holy Spirit has disclosed to us in the Sacred Scriptures and upon which the writings of the Fathers and Doctors are commentary explanations. As your lips repeat the words dictated by the Holy Spirit, try not to lose anything of this great treasure, and, that your souls may be responsive to the voice of God, put away from your minds with all effort and zeal whatever might distract you and recollect your thoughts, that you may thus more easily and with greater fruit attend to the contemplation of the eternal truths" (Pius XII, Menti Nostrae).

5/11/07: Father O'Flynn

From A Celtic Psaltery by Alfred Perceval Graves (New York, 1917):

Of priests we can offer a charming variety,
Far renowned for larning and piety;
Still, I'd advance you, widout impropriety,
Father O'Flynn as the flower of them all.

Chorus: Here's a health to you, Father O'Flynn,
Slainté is slainté, is slainté agin;
Powerfullest preacher, and
Tenderest teacher, and
Kindliest creature in ould Donegal.

Don't talk of your Provost and Fellows of Trinity,
Famous for ever for Greek and Latinity,
Dad, and the divels and all at Divinity,
Father O'Flynn 'd make hares of them all.

Come, I vinture to give you my word,
Never the likes of his logic was heard.
Down from Mythology
Into Thayology,
Troth! and Conchology, if he'd the call.

Chorus: Here's a health to you, etc.

Och! Father O'Flynn, you've the wonderful way wid you,
All the ould sinners are wishful to pray wid you,
All the young childer are wild for to play wid you,
You've such a way wid you, Father a mhac!

Still, for all you've so gentle a soul,
Gad, you've your flock in the grandest control
Checkin' the crazy ones,
Coaxin' onaisy ones,
Liftin' the lazy ones on wid the stick.

Chorus: Here's a health to you, etc.

And though quite avoidin' all foolish frivolity,
Still at all saisons of innocent jollity,
Where was the play-boy could claim an equality
At comicality, Father, wid you?

Once the Bishop looked grave at your jest,
Till this remark set him off wid the rest:
"Is it lave gaiety
All to the laity?
Cannot the clargy be Irishmen too?"

Chorus: Here's a health to you, etc.

4/22/07: "Third Way" Links Added

This new section of the links page is devoted to Catholic thinkers who challenge the Neuhaus, Weigel, Novak, Sirico "Whig Thomist" school of social thought which currently holds hegemony over conservative American Catholic discourse. Chesterton, Belloc, McNabb, Willock, Storck, Nichols, and Rao, inter alios, critique modern Democratic Capitalism and propose a third way (the second being Communism) which is derived from Catholic social doctrine as from first principles. See IHS Press; The Distributist Review; The Chesterbelloc Mandate; The American Chesterton Society; For the Whole Christ: Writings of Dr. John C. Rao; and Caelum et Terra.

3/4/07: St. Francis de Sales for Today

"The first impulse to this second purification is a clear and hearty consciousness of the exceeding evil of sin, by which means we attain deep and earnest contrition. For as a feeble contrition (if it is true), and especially if united to the holy Sacraments, serves to purify us from actual sin, so deep and hearty contrition purifies us from all the affections of sin. A feeble dislike or antipathy makes us feel repugnant to its object, and glad to shun it; but a strong mortal hatred causes us not only to abhor and fly from its object, but fills us with disgust for it, so that we cannot endure to approach any person or thing in the remotest degree connected with, or reminding us of it. So when the penitent hates his sin with but a feeble (although it may be a sincere) contrition, he resolves to sin no more, but when he hates it with a hearty, vigorous contrition, he detests not only the sin itself, but every affection, circumstance, and inducement which tends towards it. Therefore, my daughter, we should seek to enlarge our contrition and repentance till they extend to everything appertaining to sin" (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life [Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1994] p. 18).

5/12/06: Sad Day in Colombia

Legal abortion has been imposed by judicial fiat on another country: Colombia. Get the story.

Notice that the decision of these five godless judges has flown in the face of the overwhelming opposition of the Colombian people. This is why it is such a disaster to make judges the final arbiter of what is and isn't legal in a nation. They may very well do as they please, and do their best to remake the nation after their own image and likeness through the exercise of "raw judicial power," as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White put it in his dissent from Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade. This Colombian situation also demonstrates once again the awful consequences of abandoning the ultimate constitutional safeguard against such vile and evil laws, which is to write it into the constitution that civil authority derives its sovereignty from God, and that it has no right to pass any law contrary to the law of God as defined by the Catholic Church, and that any such law is utterly null and absolutely void.

Colombia's Constitution was never this explicit, however, if only the following clauses from the Constitution of 1886 (abandoned in 1991) were still in effect, the Constitutional Court might find it a whole lot more difficult to impose its will upon the people. These clauses would give the Catholic Colombian people a powerful legal weapon against these foreign attempts to impose a regime of baby killing on their nation.

La Religión Católica, Apostólica, Romana, es la de la Nación; los Poderes publicos la protegerán y harán que sea respetada como esencial elemento del orden social. Se entiende que la Iglesia Católica no es ni será oficial, y conservará su independencia.

[The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion is the religion of the Nation; the public powers will protect it and assure that it be respected as an essential element of social order. It is understood that the Catholic Church is not nor will be official [i.e. an organ of the state], and will conserve its independence.]

La educación pública será organizada y dirigida en concordancia con la Religión Católica.

[Public education will be organized and directed in accordance with the Catholic Religion.]

El Gobierno podrá celebrar convenios con la Santa Sede Apostólica a fin de arreglar las cuestiones pendientes, y definir y establecer las relaciones entre la potestad civil y la eclesiástica.

[The Government will be able to form concordats with the Holy Apostolic See in order to settle dangling questions, and define and establish the relations between the civil and ecclesiastical powers.]

5/7/06: Dan Brown: Sexual Degenerate

The character of Sophie Neveu in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code might serve very well as an allegory for the author's conscience. When she came home as a naive young college student to find her grandfather having sex with a strange woman while a congregation of neo-pagans with masks, robes, and orbs chanted around them, she was repulsed. In fact, she never spoke with her grandfather again. So too, the idea of ritual sex must have disgusted Dan Brown a bit at first, for it is contrary to the natural law which is written on the heart of every man. This innate knowledge of right and wrong must be suppressed before one may celebrate such a pornographic ritual without guilt. Enter gnosis. Once Spohie is enlightened by the learned Harvard professor that this is actually a deeply holy ritual which grants its practitioners a direct vision of God, she is able to suppress her revulsion and see that what her grandfather did was a good thing after all. I wonder how long it took Brown to make the transition.

Brown makes a statement about the artwork of Georgia O'Keefe that also provides some insight into his psychology. He sees in it, not surprisingly, genital imagery. Now, I've watched an interview in which O'Keefe said that if anyone saw genital imagery in her work it was their own imagination, not her. Next, Brown also makes the ludicrous claim that the Star of David is a sex picture: the male sex organ penetrating the female sex organ. So, one notices the pattern that he sees sex absolutely everywhere.

4/17/06: Postmodernism Is Not Livable

Peter Eisenman is a deconstructivist. In layman's terms, this means he likes his architecture a jumbled and chaotic mass. And if you listen to him justify his absurd buildings, he appeals to philisophy. Specifically, he wants his buildings to reflect the chaos and instablility supposedly inherent in life and the family, as demonstrated by such luminaries as Jacques Derrida, the literary critic who basically taught that texts have no definite meaning so he can interpret them any which way he wants. Eisenman built a house, according to the principles which he derived from this inane postmodern philosophy, in which he split the bed in two and had a hole dug in between the halves. Needless to say, his clients did not leave it that way for long. Eisenman's philosophical and artistic flourish got obnoxious rather quickly, so they put a board over the hole and pushed the beds together. I find this an elegant refutation of postmodernism: it cannot be lived, it is simply insufferable.

Among the imbecilic things pro-aborts like to yell out of their car windows as they drive by pro-life protestors are attacks on President Bush, such as "Bush kills!" Today one was so emboldened by his vehicular impunity as to take it a step further and declare, "Bush kills more than these people!" The braver pro-aborts, the ones who actually stand out there with signs, found this rather amusing, and pronounced his statement to be true. So, I asked them whether 200,000 is more than 45,000,000. They told me to shut up and just keep praying. I reminded them that this is a very remedial math problem, then yelled the question at them. They all fell silent. This is their typical tactic when they know they can't win an argument. Incidentally, by agreeing that "Bush kills more than these people" they admitted that what was going on inside the building was killing. So much for a "medical procedure" that a woman chooses to have performed on "her own body."

A young woman came a little later with her five year old son and really held their feet to the fire. She wanted them to explain to her son what it was they were defending. You believe women have a right to abortion. What is abortion? They were typically evasive, claiming that they were simply defending a woman's right to control her own body and have a medical procedure. She pressed them to describe what exactly this medical procedure entailed. They only regurgitated the same hair-brained slogans about choice, and refused to actually describe, say, a suction aspiration or D&C abortion. So, she walker her son over to a picture of the severed head of a 21 week old boy, and told him, "this is what they are defending." This is what goes on in that building, and this is what these people believe women have a right to do: hand their babies over to a butcher. The pro-aborts seemed uncomfortable. The little boy agreed that this was wrong, and stated that the people with the signs must be defending this "because they're liberals." God bless him.

Then the abortionist arrived. He always walks in with his coat over his head, hiding his face. That's how proud he is of what he does. A few weeks ago I told him he couldn't hide his face from God, and he gave me the finger. Today I really laid into him, and told him that when he died he would face the wrath of a righteous God, thousands of whose children he has slaughtered. No obscene gestures this time. He seemed to be in a hurry. He's never there for very long, not nearly long enough to perform abortions on all the women who go inside. It's rather curious actually: women show up for the preceding two hours or so, then he arrives, and a few minutes later the women start leaving in pretty rapid succession. It seems like the nurses are performing the abortions illegally, and just making sure that the abortionist is there before they let anyone leave. This would not surprise me, given their obvious contempt for the law. The "escort" once informed me that if I thought I was going to stop abortion through legislation, I was sorely mistaken, as they would continue to perform abortions so long as women wanted them, regardless whether the government told them not to. Incidentally, this really gives lie to their positivist argument that "the law says abortion is right, therefore abortion is right." They don't really care what the law says; they want their quick and easy (if a bit messy and unpleasant) escape from responsibility for the consequences of sexual liberty, and it would take a uniformed police officer, putting handcuffs on them at gunpoint, to stop them from providing it.

4/4/06: St. Peter Damian for Today

He wrote this to Pope Clement II in April 1047:

I am consumed by feelings of extreme sorrow and compassion over the state of the Church in our area, in complete disarray because of evil bishops and abbots. Of what profit is it, my lord, for us to say that the Apostolic See has come back from darkness and turned to light if we ourselves are still encompassed by the same darkness? How can one benefit from hoarding an abundance of food under lock and key if he be dying of hunger? To what avail is a man armed with a keen-edged sword if he does not attack the enemy that surrounds him? For Almighty God has set you in his stead to be food, so to speak, for the people; from your resources he has armed the body of His Church against all the assaults of of its enemies, all to the end that you may strive with heavenly virtue to pierce the heart of those who resist God, and to satisfy the hunger of our unworthiness with the food of divine revelation. But when we see that theif, the bishop of Fano, cursed and excommunicated even by those who were called apostolic, but were not; and the bishop of Osimo also involved in so many and such unprecedented crimes, and others deserving of condemnation for similar guilt, now returning from your court with such gloating arrogance, my joyous hope is forcibly changed to grief. I indeed had hoped that you were about to set Israel free.

Wherefore, my good lord, endeavor so to re-establish downtrodden and degraded justice and to apply the scourge of ecclesiastical energy, that the faction of evil may fall from its proud estate, and that the disposition of the humble may confidently recover its hope for better things.
(Owen J. Blum, O.F.M., trans., The Letters of Peter Damian 1-30 [Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press] pp. 245-246)

4/1/06: "I Ate Babies for Breakfast"

Sadly, this wasn't the most absurd thing someone yelled at me at the local abortion mill today. One expects blatant obscenity from the partisans of the baby-butchering industry. Hence, it isn't the world's biggest surprise when someone expels some repulsive drivel because he hates what you stand for and wants to lash out in so far as it is within his power. A Catholic praying the rosary in front of an abortion clinic is an indictment of this type, and it is indictment for murder. People don't like being indicted for murder. Thus, the reaction of their depraved and unregenerate minds is quite often "shut up, I hate you, die." Translated into language that doesn't get them thrown in jail: "I ate babies for breakfast!" "I love abortion!" "I kill babies!" Their being in a car, and hence the Catholic's inability to take them to task, increases their boldness. The presence of pro-abortion protestors further increases their desire to expatiate, which then results in great whooping and cheering. They want sex. Not only that, they want lots of sex. Not only that, they want drunken sex. And they know that they can't have sex, lots of sex, and drunken sex indefinitely without their being a good chance that they will knock up the repository of their lust. And their life would come to a screeching halt unless they could make her get an abortion. So, they need abortion. Abortion is necessary to sustain their culture, their way of life. Thus they cheer on their champions who fight to preserve free access to the unspeakable crime which allows them to perpetuate their lives of unspeakable crime.

But on to the real absurdity. A young lady was squawking like a parrot, over and over again, that it is a woman's right to choose. I pointed out two things. (1) To make her statement meaningful she needs to attach an object to the verb "to choose" i.e. women have a right to choose what? Say I have a right to eat. Eat what? Spaghetti, or babies? She informed me I do not have a right to eat. (2) I pointed out, borrowing an observation from Robert Bork, that there is no argument more vacuous than the bald assertion of rights. Say I insisted I had a right to own a slave. Does that mean I actually have a right to own a slave? She responded in the affirmative. So, I can have a slave, but I can't eat. Well, at least the poor guy will go free in no more than 40 days. He'd probably have to carry me around for the last bit, though. This young lady's intellect has been deeply darkened by sin.

1/31/06: St. Benedict versus the Spirit of Assisi

"[T]he town, which is called Cassino, standeth upon the side of an high mountain, which containeth, as it were in the lap thereof, the foresaid town, and afterward so riseth in height the space of three miles, that the top thereof seemeth to touch the very heavens: in this place there was an ancient chapel in which the foolish and simple country people, according to the custom of the old gentiles, worshipped the god Apollo. Round about it likewise upon all sides, there were woods for the service of the devils, in which even to that very time, the mad multitude of infidels did offer most wicked sacrifice. The man of God [St. Benedict] coming thither, beat in pieces the idol, overthrew the altar, set fire to the woods, and in the temple of Apollo, he built the oratory of St. Martin, and where the altar of the same Apollo was, he made an oratory of St. John: and by his continual preaching, he brought the people dwelling in those parts to embrace the faith of Christ" (Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Book II, Chapter 8).

This is the spirit, the spirit of missionary zeal, courage, and boldness, of fervent desire that all the cult of the devil, whether he goes by Apollo, Vishnu, or the Great Thumb, be destroyed and his bondslaves brought to the liberty of the abopted sons of God, that is needed to bring true peace to the world (though our methods should of course conform to the decree of the second Vatican Council on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae). The spirit which tells us to gather representatives of these religions together to pray to their false gods (i.e. demons) for peace will only bring down the wrath of the true God. I will close with one more witness to what has been believed always, everywhere, and by everyone in the Catholic Church regarding the origin and object of pagan religions: a 16th century Spanish conquistador, Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa:

"As the devil, who is always striving to injure the human race, found these unfortunates [the Inidians of Peru] to be easy of belief and timid in obedience, he introduced many illusions, lies, and frauds, giving them to understand that he had created them from the first, and afterwards, owing to their sins and evil deeds, he had destroyed them with a flood, again creating them and giving them food and the way to preserve it" (Sir Clements Markham, trans. Hisory of the Incas [Nedeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint Limited, 1967] p. 27).

1/21/06: Offensive to Pious Ears

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa is a preacher to the papal household. The following are just a few excerpts from his teachings, which are either puerile, erroneous, heretical, or offensive to pious ears. Why would the Pope keep such a man in his service?

"Luther for me is the man whose faith in Jesus Christ was more rock-solid than granite" (cf. Exsurge Domine, the writings of St. Thomas More).

"The Old Testament too contains elements which are passing and morally unacceptable, but this doesn’t prevent us from recognising its immense religious value" (cf. Trent, Vatican I, Providentissimus Deus, Lamentabili Sane, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Spiritus Paraclitus, Divino Afflante Spiritu).

"[Paul] teaches us to base our evangelising on a positive motive, not on a negative one; we do not need to argue that if people do not know Christ they cannot be saved (the old “extra ecclesiam nulla salus”), but rather to proclaim Christ’s love for all humankind" (cf. IV Lateran Council, Unam Sanctam, Cantate Domino, Iucunda Sane, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, Mortalium Animos, et al).

"Mysteriously, all suffering — not only that of believers — completes "what is lacking in Christ's sufferings" for the sake of his body (Col 1,24)" (??? Hitler's suicide?).

"The present concern is to recognise that in God’s plan for salvation other religions not only exist de facto but also de jure, in principle; that they are not merely tolerated by God but positively willed by him as expressions of the inexhaustible richness of his grace and of his will for “everyone to be saved" (1 Timothy 2, 4)" (cf. Assisi and the Gods of the Nations).

"One cannot say that hundreds of millions of people are in error [regarding the charismatic movement]" (fatuous).

"We Christians cannot be the ones who seek to convert [Jews]. We have lost the right to do so by the way in which this was done in the past. First the wounds must be healed through dialogue and reconciliation" (cf. Matt 28:19-20).

John Vennari provides some important background information on Cantalamessa and the charismatic movement in general in his article From Pentacostalism to Apostasy. He's a bit hasty in making the jump from Cantalamessa's at least material heresy, to accusing him of all out apostasy, but I can certainly see where he's coming from.