Religion

Modernism is evil’s spell and we must defeat it: Pius X’s demolition of liberalism

Mandeville, LA – On today’s show I brought up the spell that modernity hath cast over Western man in nearly all his affairs and that St. Pope Pius X had warned, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis that this would happen and what the transgendered consequences would be. Those who think this enemy is but a political one must also be of the opinion that rotted meat is caused by food service wraps; that is the rot is from without not within. Pius X began Paschendi with what should be obvious today:

“It is one of the cleverest devices of the Modernists (as they are commonly and rightly called) to present their doctrines without order and systematic arrangement, in a scattered and disjointed manner, so as to make it appear as if their minds were in doubt or hesitation, whereas in reality they are quite fixed and steadfast. For this reason it will be of advantage, Venerable Brethren, to bring their teachings together here into one group, and to point out their interconnection, and thus to pass to an examination of the sources of the errors, and to prescribe remedies for averting the evil results.” [emphasis mine-MC]

Most “conservatives” these days cannot conceive that their enemy is actually evil and not merely the Hollywood-movie type of evil that plays Mrs Clinton for eight years and then as an encore plays Mrs Clinton elect then Mrs Clinton appointed, who moonlights as a grandmother and sometimes wife who is, not coincidentally, sometimes a wife. This evil is also capable of playing philosopher, scientist, doctor and most frightfully priest and parson. Yet Pius X knew all this as yet another intellectual proof of the Holy Spirit that proves intellect.

“The following is their manner of stating the question: In the religious sense one must recognize a kind of intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the reality of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God’s existence and His action both within and without man as far to exceed any scientific conviction. They assert, therefore, the existence of a real experience, and one of a kind that surpasses all rational experience. If this experience is denied by some, like the Rationalists, they say that this arises from the fact that such persons are unwilling to put themselves in the moral state necessary to produce it. It is this experience which makes the person who acquires it to be properly and truly a believer.

How far this position is removed from that of Catholic teaching! We have already seen how its fallacies have been condemned by the Vatican Council. Later on, we shall see how these errors, combined with those which we have already mentioned, open wide the way to Atheism. Here it is well to note at once that, given this doctrine of experience united with that of symbolism, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true.”

The protestant and Catholic war-hawk/neocon must not grant the above to be true, for they must do whatever is needed to continue their worship of the warfare state and the civil religion of “American Exceptionalism” they have chosen as ersatz Christianity. Why? Because if the modernists have made “every religion true” they have made Islam true, that scourge of “freedom” that knits the warfare state to the cloth of ‘Muricah. Islam cannot be True, because if it is then on what grounds do you abolish it and its followers? Put another way if every religion is true then there is no true religion, for Truth in its Divine form can have but one definition and has no expiration date. As the First Vatican council concluded:

“…the doctrine of faith, which God has revealed, has not been proposed as a philosophical discovery to be improved upon by human talent, but has been committed as a Divine deposit to the spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and infallibly interpreted by her.”

I don’t think that council was speaking of the 8th Day Adventist of the Serpent Handlers or the 63rd Street, Shrine of Sultan V the Beheader. St Thomas Aquinas probed this question as only Aquinas could and while he concluded that man can have no truth that is immutable precisely because God allows an initial “cause” to create that truth’s accidentals, God, because he exists out of time, has no such conditions.

“…if no intellect were eternal, no truth would be eternal. Now because only the divine intellect is eternal, in it alone truth has eternity. Nor does it follow from this that anything else but God is eternal; since the truth of the divine intellect is God Himself.

Order your copy of the Siege of Malta today!

Order your copy of the Siege of Malta today!

The mere use of the term “divine” should command use also of “universal” as in singular. But this must also not be admitted because we all know what the term “universal” means in the Greek and woe be I for using the “C” word and not referring to the Cardashians whose surname misnomer is required for my humor, though I find no humor in their name spelled correctly on a magazine cover near the qualifier “shocking!”

Let us return now to the courage and inerrant vision of our Saint, Pius X. For those whose Honey Boo Boo-scarred eyes fear exposure to Papal writ, I will inform you of Our Saint’s conclusion and plan to combat the modernists by which we are currently surrounded. Mind you this is not a surrounded in the General Custer sense of the term because Custer had violently assisted in the creation of his assassins while modern “conservative” man laid down his only weapon and happily joined his moral lynch mob. Never mind that Pius’s remedies were aimed at the Catholic Church, his courageous statement that error had no rights, including the right to print and speak as if under some sacred authority, speak volumes about the now unshackled evil’s near-complete control of the Media. In his book The Politically Correct Guide to the Constitution Kevin Gutzman had a running list of “Books You’re Not Supposed to Read.” Of course depriving the aspiring Facebook essayists of fodder for their judgement porn pronouncements is “against the first amendment’s free speech.” Pius X was not impressed, there was a civilization to save:

“In all episcopal Curias, therefore, let censors be appointed for the revision of works intended for publication, and let the censors be chosen from both ranks of the clergy – secular and regular – men of age, knowledge and prudence who will know how to follow the golden mean in their judgments. It shall be their office to examine everything which requires permission for publication…”

Some readers will recoil in horror at this statement and wonder when I will don my brown shirt, khaki riding pants and war-eagle hat (some assume I already own these wardrobe items but am forbidden from wearing them by my wife’s sartorial admonitions). “That’s fascist!” they yell and while it may be true that in secular states a Fascist would seek a ban on good books as in the Good Book you should read; at least the fascist recognizes what it is that threatens his hegemony and, after the ban, fears no damage to his stature among fellow demons at the Execution-Porn Club’s annual pancake supper. While the modern Christian has forgotten Christ’s promise that book bans, public rosaries and scarlet letters affixed to rainbow letters would assuredly earn a loving follower of his a cross of her very own.

Si me persecuti sunt, et vos persequentur;” i.e. “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you

The point is, Pius X could exercise what were once ordinary powers for extraordinary purposes, a condition that guided Christians and Christendom into their victories over all heresies, including, invading Ottoman armies and every demonic assault imaginable. Science and the liberal arts flourished and Europe bustled with secular advancement tempered by ecclesiastical assertion. This spread to the new world too, but the germ of the error-plagued modernist thinking was growing like kudzu on an Alabama roadside. The American experiment in “liberty” is exhibit A in the upcoming murder trial of Christendom, the Founders’ valiant efforts notwithstanding. It has resisted every secular and quasi-“evangelical” attempt to halt its slide into a democratic hedonism not seen since Nero, who at last word, was seething with jealously that he didn’t think of “gay” marriage. Benedict Options and conventions to change Articles offer no hope unless some portion of the citizenry learn humility of the heart and begin the arduous yet joyful sojourn back to Faith, Hope and Charity. What enemy has an answer to that, not experienced by glorious martyrs who are the venerable reason Christendom emerged over pagans and vikings? Our Saint encourages us thus:

Meanwhile, Venerable Brethren, fully confident in your zeal and work, we beseech for you with our whole heart and soul the abundance of heavenly light, so that in the midst of this great perturbation of men’s minds from the insidious invasions of error from every side, you may see clearly what you ought to do and may perform the task with all your strength and courage. May Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, be with you by His power; and may the Immaculate Virgin, the destroyer of all heresies, be with you by her prayers and aid.”

Amen.

This post is republished from Mikechurch.com

Fun with Jim and Gene: Get ready for sacramental gay marriage, Episcopalians!

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church convenes in about two weeks, where they will consider an amendment to the canons smoothing out a discrepancy between the Book of Common Prayer and the canons and the “pastoral response” to gay couples; a liturgy in use since 2012 which clearly violated them. The Anglican Curmudgeon has a useful post on the problem. Others include a BDS resolution, fossil fuels divestment, and a quasi-presbyterian restructuring,

With this in mind, I was doing my normal blog reading yesterday afternoon, between publishing Daily Caller op-eds, and came across this post at Anglican Samizdat, claiming that the gay marriage blessing was more for the benefit of clergy than the laity, which tracks with how it passed in the U.S.; overwhelmingly supported by the bishops, opposed by much of the laity. Never expecting him to respond, I asked what the Center for American Progress’s resident gay “bishop” Gene Robinson thought of it.

To my great surprise, he hit me back:

I asked whether the current blessing goes far enough:

What I should have said at that point is that all sacraments are for everyone, but that the Church has no right to redefine them. Alas: (more…)

A Sense of Place: The Beauty in Small Churches

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In no place do I feel more closer to God and my ancestors, both the Christian and those who followed Africa’s religions of various forms, than I do at a rural Negro church. It was there that, these two great paths towards God mingled and gave us many of the practices we have in the Black Church today and our culture at large. The ring shout, catching the holy ghost, the great Black American Gospel music that is derived from Negro Spirituals, that swing you hear in your favorite Jazz composition (the basis of and feeling you get from Jazz),  down on to the style of oratory made famous by too many Black preachers to name.

So if you’re in need affirmation, a way to rekindle your connection to community (which is harder and harder to maintain in this age) visit these churches or even the remains of one, its metaphysical impact can be great if you are open to it. God bless you.

 Ring Shout!

Ring Shouters, 1930 Courtesy Anacostia Community Museum/Smithsonian Institution

Ring Shouters, 1930

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Ireland first, with the United States not far behind

Thanks for nothing, Ireland. Your people are the first in the West to approve of same-sex marriage through the ballot box. And with it, you’ve continued the social revolution – I don’t mince words when I say “revolution” – that is surely to be affirmed by the United States Supreme Court this summer.

American social conservatives may balk, but their time is limited. Liberalism has won the culture war. The proof is overwhelming. A recent Gallup poll showed that for the first time in decades, more Americans identify as socially liberal than conservative. Big Business is now firmly on the side of pro-gay marriage. In the recent uproar over Indiana’s religious freedom law (which was subsequently watered down to the point of being ineffective), few national Republicans supported Governor Mike Pence. The one political party that’s supposed to protect religious liberty was too cowed by public perception.

Barring an extraordinary event like World War III, the Supreme Court will end all state bans on same-sex marriage this June. Only naïve simpletons living under a rock still believe the high court will defer to states on marriage. Our robed overlords will somehow find the right to gay nuptials in the Constitution. And just like that, America will take yet another turn away from its generic Christian cultural background and one step forward to egalitarian enlightenment. Liberals will rejoice. Conservatives will recoil as an institution two millennia old has been turned into a contractual love fest in the span of only 7 – yes, 7! – years.

(more…)

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Feast of the English Martyrs

Collect from the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham:

O Merciful God, who, when thy Church on earth was torn apart by the ravages of sin, didst raise up men and women who witnessed to their faith with courage and constancy: give unto thy Church that peace which is thy will, and grant that those who have been divided on earth may be reconciled in heaven and may be partakers together in the vision of thy glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Holy Martyrs, pray for us.

Litany for the English Martyrs:

 Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.

Lord have mercy on us.
Christ hear us. Christ graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven,
have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the World,
have mercy on us.

God the Holy Ghost,
have mercy on us.

Our Lady of the Precious Blood,
pray for us.

Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs,
pray for us.

Saint John Haughton,
intercede for us.

Saint Robert Lawrence,
intercede for us.

Saint Augustine Webster,
intercede for us.

Saint Richard Reynolds,
intercede for us.

Saint John Stone,
intercede for us.

Saint Cuthbert Mayne,
intercede for us.

Saint Edmund Campion,
intercede for us.

Saint Ralph Sherwin,
intercede for us.

Saint Alexander Briant,
intercede for us.

Saint John Payne,
intercede for us.

Saint Luke Kirby,
intercede for us.

Saint Richard Gwyn,
intercede for us.

Saint Margaret Clitherow,
intercede for us.

Saint Margaret Ward,
intercede for us.

Saint Edmund Gennings,
intercede for us.

Saint Swithun Wells,
intercede for us.

Saint Eustace White,
intercede for us.

Saint Polydore Plasden,
intercede for us.

Saint John Boste,
intercede for us.

Saint Robert Southwell,
intercede for us.

Saint Henry Walpole,
intercede for us.

Saint Philip Howard,
intercede for us.

Saint John Jones,
intercede for us.

Saint John Rigby,
intercede for us.

Saint Anne Line,
intercede for us.

Saint Nicholas Owen,
intercede for us.

Saint Thomas Garnet,
intercede for us.

Saint John Roberts,
intercede for us.

Saint John Almond,
intercede for us.

Saint Edmund Arrowsmith,
intercede for us.

Saint Ambrose Bartlow,
intercede for us.

Saint Alban Roe,
intercede for us.

Saint Henry Morse,
intercede for us.

Saint John Southworth,
intercede for us.

Saint John Plessington,
intercede for us.

Saint Philip Evans,
intercede for us.

Saint John Lloyd,
intercede for us.

Saint John Wall,
intercede for us.

Saint John Kemble,
intercede for us.

Saint David Lewis,
intercede for us.

V. I shall go unto the altar of God.
R. Unto God. Who giveth joy to my youth.

Let us Pray.

O God, in Whom there is no change or shadow of alteration,
Thou didst give courage to Thy holy Martyrs
through the unfathomable graces of the immemorial Mass.
Grant unto us. we beg Thee,
through their intercession,
the wider restoration of this sacred rite of Mass,
that we may rejoice in the consolation of its graces
and be strengthened to serve Thee
in imitation of the courage
and fidelity of these holy Martyrs.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, Who being God,
liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
for ever and ever.

Amen.

Also, the St. Thomas More Society of America is having a gala dinner in a couple of weeks at the Army Navy Club in DC, check it out here.

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew

popenightimage

Religious liberty does not apply to conservatives

From the 1660s until the revolution, American colonists burned effigies of the pope yearly. Loyalist officials were accused of promoting “the Popish religion.” Most colonists would have regarded the public display of crosses suspiciously.

There were Catholic signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as others who spoke out in favor of tolerating them; George Washington himself cracked down on “Pope’s Day” celebrations. But it’s equally important to note that the concept of religious liberty, especially in the context of the Southern colonies, mostly arose from the need for accommodation between the established Anglican Church and dissenting protestants. Religious liberty did not by definition extend to Catholics, because their loyalty to a foreign sovereign was a political matter as much as a religious one.

Many have written about how Catholic toleration during the revolution was due mostly to America’s alliance with France. That and the pragmatic need to put aside differences in a time of war forced New Englanders to moderate their rabid anti-Catholicism, which prior to the outbreak of hostilities used the king’s toleration of French Catholics in Quebec to inflame revolutionary sentiments, a radical point of view encapsulated by the slogan, “No king, no popery.” Even during and after the revolution, full rights of citizenship were not granted to Catholics; after 1776 in Georgia, the Carolinas, and New Jersey they could vote but not hold public office. Elizabeth Fenton has argued that Catholicism was the foil American liberalism needed to develop.

Along the same lines, T.H. Breen identifies anti-Catholicism as one of three major facets of British colonial identity, the others being constitutional monarchism and commerce:

The second element distinguishing the British Empire of the eighteenth century from its European competitors was Protestantism. Religious confession energized national identity. An English person assumed an obligation not only to uphold the constitution but also to resist the spread of Catholicism. Not surprisingly, the seeds of England’s dislike of Catholicism — an emotion that came close to mass hysteria — could be found in the history of the English Reformation. Henry VIII broke with the pope, and then his strong-willed daughter Elizabeth I turned back that Spanish Armada in 1588. The Spanish had intended to root out the religious heresy. Long after the threat of direct attack had receded, the English people still imagined dark conspiracies designed to weaken the Protestant faith. Such notions acquired greater credibility during the seventeenth century, as a succession of Stuart kings either married Catholics, compromised themselves by accepting large subsidies from Catholic nations like France, or, in the case of James II, converted to Catholicism. None of this pleased the ordinary people. In 1688 England’s ruling class sent James II packing — a defining moment known as the Glorious Revolution — and in his place invited William and Mary to accede the throne. The new monarchs’ major appeal was their unquestioned commitment to the Protestant cause.

Eighteenth-century Americans wove anti-Catholicism into their own sense of being British. However deficient in charisma were the Hanoverian kings who for more than a century after 1714 held the British Crown, they defended Protestantism against its continental enemies. In America this commitment translated into a long series of wars against the French. When the British finally emerged victorious from the Seven Years’ War in 1763, the colonists assured themselves that a Protestant God had supported British troops in the battle for Canada. Within this imperial framework it did not mater much whether one attended a Congregational, Anglican, or Presbyterian service, nor to what extent the leveling spirit of evangelical revivalism had swept up an individual or community. All Protestants qualified as proper British subjects. And Catholics were implacable enemies. As the Reverend Jonathan Mayhew explained in a politically charged sermon delivered in Boston in May 1765, “Our controversy with her [Rome] is not merely a religious one … But a defense of our laws, liberties and civil rights as men in opposition to the proud claims of ecclesiastical persons, who under the pretext of religion and saving of men’s souls, would engross all power and property to themselves, and reduce us to the most abject slavery.”

Another relevant line from that sermon is “Popery and liberty are incompatible; at irreconcileable enmity with each other,” which would have been common sense to most of the Founding Fathers.

John Adams took the rhetorical architecture of anti-Catholicism and applied it to the Church of England and the protestant government in his Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law in 1765, referring to apostolic succession as a “fantastical idea” and praising Massachusetts’ founders for rejecting episcopal delusions. As a New Englander, he rejected bishops for theological and philosophical reasons; a century earlier, Virginia rejected them because a bishop would have threatened the gentry’s hold on parish vestries. The Anglican religion, defined by bishop and king — representing canon and feudal law respectively — has never recovered in America, after a revolution in opposition to both, and the leftward drift of American protestantism has continued unabated, through unitarianism on down to the gingham and well-oiled beards of the “emerging church.”

Religious liberty privileges more progressive-friendly kinds of religion, by design. That is the reason why the ACLU will support Religious Freedom Restoration Acts when they’re applied to Sikhs and Native Americans but not Christian bakers. If orthodox Christians, particularly Catholics, wonder why religious liberty no longer seems to apply to them, a large part of the answer is that it was never meant to.

Update: I’ve been meaning to link this piece by Mike Church about Patrick Henry’s support for the clergy and this seems like a good time.

(Image: A pope night celebration in Boston)