I'm re-reading one of my favorite novels, The Masterful Monk by Owen Francis Dudley, a Catholic priest who converted from Anglicanism. He wrote a series of connected novels about human happiness. I've read them all. The Masterful Monk is the third in the series which is recommended in Fr. John Hardon's Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan.
"The current situation regarding the episcopal consecrations in the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has suddenly awakened the entire Church." [Source] Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Being awake is a good thing as St. Peter reminds us:
"Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour." [1 Peter 5:8]
In the Old Testament God told Gideon to dismiss any soldiers who knelt and drank directly from the stream. Those who stayed alert, awake so to speak to any advancing enemy by using their hands to bring water to their mouths, became the conquering army. [Judges 7]
Revelation has a particularly apt point:
"Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God." [Revelation 3:2]
Throughout his life, he made a rule never to advance any doctrine which he had not learnt from the ancient fathers.
Would that those bishops who love introducing novelties and errors adulterating the faith were followers of St. Cyril. And what did Archbishop Lefebvre say? Unlike our dissenting and scandalous bishops, the archbishop wanted to pass on faithfully what he had been given. I think he and St. Cyril have much in common, both Catholic in the fullest sense, both lovers and defenders of the Blessed Virgin Mary and enemies of heresy. Archbishop Lefebvre was never looking for a fight. He simply wanted to pass on the faith as he had received it, protecting Sacred Tradition:
Jesus gave us the roadmap to happiness. Love God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the highway to heaven? And once we get to the finish line Peter and his successors hold the keys to heaven's gates.
The Church tells us, "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus," Outside the Church there is no salvation. But what exactly does that mean? Can only baptized Catholics go to heaven? |
| SSPX seminary Econe, Switzerland |
Earlier this week, I wrote a post titled Is There a Crisis in the Church? That post was the beginning of a series on Modernism which is the plague eating at the heart of Holy Mother Church and has been for much of my life. I was in high school during most of Vatican II and lived through all the dissent over contraception that followed. I personally experienced the damage of the scandalous confusion of Modernism even leaving the Church for a short time between college graduation and my marriage a year later. What began as a tidal wave of scandal and confusion, has become a tsunami today.
 |
| St. Cyril of Alexandria |
St. Cyril has been called the Doctor of the Incarnation, as St. Augustine was styled the Doctor of Divine Grace: in the great intercession of the Syrian and Maronite Mass he is commemorated as "a tower of truth and interpreter of the Word of God made flesh." Throughout his life he made it a rule never to advance any doctrine which he had not learnt from the ancient fathers."
This reminded me of Archbishop Lefebvre's determination to pass on what he had received, the faith as taught by the Apostles and Fathers of the Church. Would the Fathers of the Church even recognize the faith as presented in Amoris Laetititia, Traditionis Custodes, and the synodal process?
 |
| Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre |
 |
| Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, defender of Doctrine and Sacred Tradition |
Have you waded through any of the recent Vatican documents that appear under Pope Francis' name? Let's face it; Francis doesn't write them. But he employs some of the most blathering voices on the planet. I try to read the documents, but bang my head on the wall when I see Laudato Si's 246 paragraphs or the 325 paragraphs of Amoris Laetitia. (Poor Topsy and Tuptim get totally bogged down wading through them.) Of course there is the tyrannical and short Traditionis Custodes, only two pages with footnotes. The fall of the guillotine only takes a few seconds after all.
 |
| Michael and the never ending battle |
Have you listened and embraced all the slanders against Archbishop Lefebvre? Maybe it's time to listen to the man himself. I recently came across a video with the archbishop's own voice with English subtitles. It was the famous Mass and homily at Lille, France, after his suspension. The enemies of the archbishop called it an act of defiance, but it wasn't. It was a crie de coeur. The archbishop meant the August 29th Mass to be a private event for a few hundred people at most. But when the press got word of it, they portrayed it as an act of defiance and tens of thousands of faithful Catholics attended. I found the archbishop's words so poignant and so relevant to the disaster we are facing in the Church that I want to share it. [NB: I am not endorsing Fr. Hewko whose commentary begins the video.]
 |
| Traditional Latin Mass St Thomas More Church, Sanford, FL |
As the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) is being suppressed around the world it's a fact that, by the providence of God, the TLM will continue among a remnant no matter what further steps are taken to suppress it. For that gift we thank the great Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).
The SSPX states: Until 1969, the various Catholic liturgies were all of apostolic origin. The Gregorian Latin liturgy, celebrated in this church (St Thomas More, Sanford, FL), follows the tradition of St Peter, the first Pope, and has never undergone any essential change til the present time. Every gesture, every word has been weighed and measured with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls."
 |
| This man saved Spain from Communism. |
Franco won the Spanish Civil War against the Communist Left who have forever viciously attacked him and his memory, even to the point where Cancel Culture decided that Franco must not lie in peace - his dead body had to be dug up and laid to rest somewhere else out of the memory of the Spanish people whom "he saved from the worst fate that could befall any nation in the 20th century - conquest by Communism" and all its evil horrors.
"We must divest ourselves of the vilifying lies of the Left and their political poison. Franco was not a tyrant, not an oppressor, and certainly no totalitarian. He may have been too severe toward his enemies, but he never enslaved his own people. He had a cool head, great intelligence and formidable reserves of courage and will, a lion's heart and a cold-steel backbone. He thought war was a hateful business, was never a fascist nor had the smallest belief in any kind of Utopia or system." - Dr Warren Carroll, The Last Crusade
