Communiqué of the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X : True Fraternity

 

Bravo to Fr. Pagliarani for calling a spade a spade!

https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/communiqu%C3%A9-superior-general-society-saint-pius-x-true-fraternity-45364

On February 4, 2019, Pope Francis together with the Grand Imam of the Mosque in Cairo signed a Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.

True Fraternity Exists Only in Jesus Christ

An ecumenical Christ would not be the true Christ. For more than fifty years, modern ecumenism and interreligious dialogue have ceaselessly presented to the world a diminished, unrecognizable, and disfigured Christ.

The Word of God, the only Son of the Father, uncreated Eternal Wisdom took flesh and became man; faced with this historical fact no one can remain indifferent: “He that is not with Me is against Me: and He that gathereth not with Me scattereth” (Mt 12:30). By the fact of the Incarnation, Christ became the High Priest of the unique New Covenant and the Teacher who proclaims the truth to us; He became the King of hearts and of societies and “the firstborn amongst many brethren” (Rom 8:29). Thus true fraternity exists only in Jesus Christ and in Him alone: “For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

It is a truth of the faith that Christ is King of all men and that He wants to unite them in His Church, His unique Bride, His only Mystical Body. The kingdom that He establishes is a reign of truth and grace, of holiness, justice, and charity, and consequently peaceful. There can be no true peace apart from Our Lord. It is therefore impossible to find peace outside the reign of Christ and of the religion that He founded. To forget this truth is to build on sand, and Christ Himself warns us that such an undertaking is doomed to fail (cf.Mt 7:26-27).

The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar is nothing but a house built on sand. It is furthermore an impious gesture that scorns the First Commandment of God and attributes to the Divine Wisdom, incarnate in Jesus Christ who died for us on the Cross, the statement that “the pluralism and the diversity of religions” is “willed by God in His wisdom”

Such talk is opposed to the dogma that declares that the Catholic religion is the one true religion (cf.Syllabus of Errors, proposition 21). When something is a dogma, anything opposed to it is called heresy. God cannot contradict Himself.

Following Saint Paul and our revered founder, Abp. Marcel Lefebvre, under the protection of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, we will continue to hand on the Catholic faith that we have received (cf.1 Cor 11:23), working with all our might for the salvation of souls and of nations, by preaching the true faith and the true religion.

“Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Mt 28:19-20). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mk 16:16).

February 24, 2019

Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General

Bp. Alfonso de Galarreta, First Assistant
Father Christian Bouchacourt, Second Assistant

The Sacrament of Holy Orders: Dignity and Excellence (3)

What a great evil it is for a priest, consecrated in the image of God to be his representative & vicar to the people, to abuse his sacred office.  It’s truly the horror or horrors & the deepest betrayal.

The dignity of the priesthood is very great for the priest is the minister of Christ and the dispenser of the divine mysteries. As the mediator between God and men, he has power over the Real Body of Christ and over His Mystical Body, that dispense the divine goods to lead men to eternal life.

“Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God.” (I Cor. 4:1)

“For Christ therefore we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us…” (II Cor. 5:20)

The holy Curé d’Ars used to say, “Oh, how great is a priest!” He esteemed that “it is the priest who continues the work of Redemption on earth,” and that consequently, the sanctification of souls and parishes depends on him: “A good pastor, a pastor according to God’s heart, is the greatest treasure that God can grant a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy.”

“When you see a priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Because of this excellence and dignity, it is a grave sin to despise or insult priests. Through them, the contempt and insults touch Jesus Christ Himself, who said to His Apostles: “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth Him who sent me” (Lk. 10:16).

Preparation and Call from God

By reason of its divine mission and the spiritual powers attached to it, the Catholic priesthood requires a serious preparation and the practice of virtue, as well as a great zeal in following Christ, the priest’s model.

“But in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings” (II Cor. 6:4-5).

For this reason only those who, having been called by God and tried by the ecclesiastic superiors, intend to work for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, are to be admitted to the dignity of the priesthood: “Neither doth any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was” (Heb. 5:4).

The Sacrament of Holy Orders: The Matter, Form and Minister (2)

It’s always beneficial to go over the basics of our Faith & how the chain of authority works together for our salvation.

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/sacrament-holy-orders-matter-form-anminister-2-45115

The only minister of this sacrament is the bishop, successor of the Apostles.

The matter of the Sacrament of Holy Orders is the imposition of the hands by the bishop, in silence, and the form consists in the words of the Consecratory Preface. Pope Pius XII solemnly defined this:

Wherefore, after invoking the divine light, We of Our Apostolic authority and from certain knowledge declare, and as far as may be necessary decree and provide: that the matter, and the only matter, of the Sacred Orders of the Diaconate, the Priesthood, and the Episcopacy is the imposition of hands in silence, but not the continuation of this imposition by the extension of the right hand nor this continuation accompanied by the words ‘Receive the Holy Ghost’…The form consists of the words of the ‘Preface,’ of which the following are essential and therefore required for validity: ‘Grant, we beseech Thee Almighty Father, to Thy servant here present the dignity of the priesthood; renew in his heart the Spirit of holiness that he may conserve the ministry of the second order received from Thee and that by the example of his manner of life he may instill good conduct.’ (Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis, November 30, 1947)

It is of the utmost necessity for the Church to have many holy priests, ministers of God and dispensers of His grace through the sacraments, their preaching and the example of virtue they set.

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest.” (Mt. 9:38 and Lk. 10:2)

“He that receiveth you, receiveth Me: and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent Me” (Mt. 10:40 and Jn. 13:20).

O Lord, grant us priests, holy priests, many holy priests!

Former Cardinal McCarrick laicized

Praise God this monster is out of the Catholic Church! Now let’s finish business for the rest of them, Francis!

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-02/holy-see-mccarrick-dismissed-from-clerical-state-for-abuse.html

The Holy See announces sanctions against former American Cardinal, Theodore Edgar McCarrick, including dismissal from the clerical state.

By Vatican News

The Holy Press Office has published a statement from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, concerning the case of Theodore Edgar McCarrick.

The Congresso of the CDF, which investigated the accusations, has issued a decree finding McCarrick “guilty of the following delicts while a cleric: solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”.

The Congresso has imposed the penalty of “dismissal from the clerical state”.

The statement of the CDF notes that McCarrick’s appeal against this decision was considered on 13 February 2019 by the Ordinary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “Having examined the arguments in the recourse”, the statement says, “the Ordinary Session confirmed the decree of the Congresso”. McCarrick was notified of the decision on 15 February 2019.

This decision, following the recognition by the Holy Father, is definitive and admits of no further recourse or appeal.

History of allegations

In September 2017, the Archdiocese of New York reported to the Holy See accusations against then-Cardinal McCarrick, for allegedly abusing a male teenager in the 1970’s.

Pope Francis ordered an in-depth investigation into the allegations, to be carried out by the Archdiocese of New York. At the conclusion of this inquiry, all relevant documentation was transmitted to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is charged with investigating cases of sexual abuse by the clergy.

The results of the New York Archdiocesan Review Board investigation, were announced by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in June 2018. The Board found that the allegations against McCarrick were “credible and substantiated”. In his statement, Cardinal Dolan announced that, at the direction of Pope Francis, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, had instructed McCarrick that he was “no longer to exercise publicly his priestly ministry”.

The statement also noted that McCarrick had cooperated with the investigation, and accepted the decision of the Holy See, while maintaining his innocence.

On the same day, the Diocese of Metuchen, and the Archdiocese of Newark, both in New Jersey, revealed that they were aware of past allegations of sexual misconduct by McCarrick, including two that had resulted in legal settlements.

Resignation from Cardinalate

In the weeks following the announcement of the initial allegations against McCarrick, news sources published further accusations of misconduct against adult seminarians, as well as additional accusations of abuse of minors.
On 28 July 2018, the Holy See announced that Pope Francis had accepted McCarrick’s resignationfrom the College of Cardinals, and “ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial”.

Commitment of the Holy See

On October 6, 2018, a statement of the Holy See strongly affirmed: “Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated and a different treatment for Bishops who have committed or covered up abuse, in fact represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable”. The statement reiterates Pope Francis’ “pressing invitation” to “to unite forces to fight against the grave scourge of abuse within and beyond the Church, and to prevent such crimes from being committed in the future to the harm of the most innocent and most vulnerable in society”.

Ahead of the upcoming meeting in the Vatican of Presidents of Bishops’ Conferences of the world, set to take place from 21 to 24 February 2019, the statement emphasizes the words of Pope Francis in his Letter to the People of God: “the only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within” (20 August 2018).

Letter of Cardinal Ouellet

On 7 October 2018, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, published an open letter in response to accusations by the former Papal Nuncio to Washington DC, concerning the McCarrick affair. In the letter, Cardinal Ouellet asks how it was possible that a man like McCarrick, could have been promoted on several occasions, to the point of being named Archbishop of Washington and being created a Cardinal. The letter notes that personnel decisions taken by popes are based on the best information available at the time and constitute prudential judgments that are not infallible. Cardinal Ouellet also points out how skillfully McCarrick defended himself against the allegations raised in his regard, and notes that, once real evidence became available, strong decisions were taken.

Cardinal Ouellet’s letter continues, stating how, during the pontificate of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, McCarrick was “strongly urged” not to travel and not to appear in public. McCarrick disregarded these instructions. Cardinal Ouellet clarifies that these directives were not “sanctions” imposed by Benedict XVI, and repudiates the suggestion that any sanctions were lifted by Pope Francis. He notes also that the present Holy Father “had nothing to do with McCarrick’s promotions in New York, Metuchen, Newark and Washington”, and removed him from his dignity as a Cardinal when an accusation of abuse of a minor was deemed credible.

Biography

Theodore Edgar McCarrick, 88, was born in New York on 7 July 1930. He was ordained priest by Cardinal Francis Spellman on 31 May 1958. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New York in May 1977 by Pope Saint Paul VI, and consecrated on 29 June 1977. Pope Saint John Paul II appointed him first Bishop of Metuchen (1981-1986), Metropolitan Archbishop of Newark (1986-2000), and Metropolitan Archbishop of Washington (2000-2006). On 21 February 2001 he was created Cardinal. McCarrick took part in the conclave of 2005, which elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Full text of statement from the CDF:

On 11 January 2019, the Congresso of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the conclusion of a penal process, issued a decree finding Theodore Edgar McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C., guilty of the following delicts while a cleric: solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power. The Congresso imposed on him the penalty of dismissal from the clerical state. On 13 February 2019, the Ordinary Session (Feria IV) of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith considered the recourse he presented against this decision. Having examined the arguments in the recourse, the Ordinary Session confirmed the decree of the Congresso. This decision was notified to Theodore McCarrick on 15 February 2019. The Holy Father has recognized the definitive nature of this decision made in accord with law, rendering it a res iudicata (i.e., admitting of no further recourse).

Traditional Doctrine on Holy Orders (1)

“Bishops and priests being, as they are, God’s interpreters and ambassadors, empowered in His name to teach mankind the divine law and the rules of conduct, and holding, as they do, His place on earth, it is evident that no nobler function than theirs can be imagined…they exercise in our midst the power and prerogatives of the immortal God.” ~Catechism of the Council of Trent

The greatness of a priest in indescribable.  All the more horrible is it when they do not live up to their extraordinary duty of saving souls. We must pray for them every day.

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/catholic-doctrine-sacrament-holy-orders-1-45045

The sacrament of Holy Orders is a sacrament instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ to create bishops and priests in the Church to exercise the sacred functions of the cult for the salvation of souls.

Holy Orders imprints the character of a Minister of God in the soul that receives it. It confers upon him the power and grace to accomplish the sacred functions.

Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted this sacrament when He gave the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood the power to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass and the power to forgive or retain sins. The priestly order was therefore established during the Last Supper and on the day of the Resurrection.

And taking bread, He gave thanks, and brake; and gave to them, saying: This is my body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me. In like manner the chalice also, after He had supped, saying: This is the chalice, the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you. (Lk. 22:19-20)

Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. (Jn. 20:23)

All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Mt. 28:18-20)

Sacred Hierarchy

The sacrament of Holy Orders has different, subordinate degrees, hence the sacred hierarchy. The highest of them is the Episcopate, that contains the fullness of the priesthood; then the Presbyterate or simple priesthood; lastly, the Diaconate, the Subdiaconate and what is known as the Minor Orders: Porter, Lector, Acolyte and Exorcist.

The United States Is the Leading Country for the Religiously Unaffiliated

“I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?”  ~Luke 18:8

“Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”  ~2 Thess 2:3

Lawlessness rules because the people do not know God or His Church.

https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/united-states-leading-country-religiously-unaffiliated-44556

In God we trust… How much longer will the American Congress be able to leave this national motto adopted in 1956 on its bills? One cannot help wondering after the publication of a wide-reaching survey showing that 2019 may be the year that sees the “religiously unaffiliated” become the largest religious group of all.

According to the results of this study by the Pew Research Center on the year 2016, “atheist, agnostic or religiously unaffiliated” Americans represent almost a quarter of the total population of the United States: 22%, compared to 15% in 1998 and 8% in 1990.

The numbers of the “religiously unaffiliated” are even higher than those of the traditional Protestant groups (10% of the population) and the Catholics (23% of the population), and in 2019 they may outnumber the Evangelicals (25% of Americans), a confession that has been on the decline for the past 20 years.

The generation effect has an important impact on this wave of secularization. Denis Lacorne, research director for the Centre de recherches internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po in Paris, summed it up for the magazine Le Point on January 19, 2019, with the following phrase: “The younger you are, the less religion you have.” According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 40% of the 18 to 29 age group are religiously unaffiliated, which is four times more than in the 1980’s.

The survey also shows that, at least at first, the immigrant population is more strongly influenced by their original religion, but that their Faith wears away with the second or third generation; if this phenomenon proves true with the “convergence between the United States and Europe” mentioned by Denis Lacorne, the Submission described by the bestselling author Michel Houellebecq very well may become a reality.

God wills diversity of religions?

 

“The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.”

~Document co-signed by Francis and the “Grand Imam of Al-Azhar” Ahmad Al-Tayyeb

God does not will that men reject His Church & therefore, salvation.  What a blasphemous heresy if ever there was one!

What did these other great Popes have to say on the matter? Read below.

“Return to submission to Mother Church, a submission as honorable as it is salutary, and know that we have…no keener desire than that of your salvation.” ~Pope Benedict XI

“Christ, who is afflicted beyond measure by the diverse heresies multiplying around Him, is faithfully sought by the heart alone of the Catholic Church.” ~St. Bede the Venerable

“The toleration of heretics is more injurious than the devastation of the provinces by the barbarians.” ~Pope Gelasius I

Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.

Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion.

Pius XI

Mortalium Animos

 

The Church will stand strong while the pride of these diverse religions will fall:

“The Church, instituted by the Lord and confirmed by the Apostles, is one for all men; but the frantic folly of the diverse impious sects has cut them off from her. It cannot be denied that this tearing asunder of the faith has arisen from the defect of poor intelligence, which twists what is read to confirm to its opinion, instead of adjusting its opinion to the meaning of what is read. However, while individual parties fight among themselves, the Church stands revealed not only by her own doctrines, but by those also of her adversaries. And although they are all ranged against her, she confutes the most wicked error which they all share, by the very fact that she is alone and one. All the heretics, therefore, come against the Church; but while all the heretics can conquer each other, they can win nothing for themselves. For their victory is the triumph of the Church over all of them. One heresy struggles against that teaching of another, which the faith of the Church has already condemned in the other heresy, – for there is nothing which the heretics hold in common, – and the result is that they affirm our faith while fighting among themselves.” (St. Hilary of Poitiers

 

Ordinations & Taking of the Cassock

God bless them & their journey to the Priesthood!

https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/ordinations-and-taking-cassock-seminary-dillwyn-44542

On February 2, 2019, Bishop Bernard Fellay gave the cassock to 24 first-year seminarians at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Dillwyn: 21 Americans, 2 Irishmen and 1 Canadian.

He also conferred the tonsure on 8 candidates (6 Americans, 1 Canadian, and 1 Irishman), the subdiaconate on one American seminarian, and the second Minor Orders on another.

The seminary is located in Dillwyn, Virginia, in the county of Buckingham. It was inaugurated on November 4, 2016, feast of St. Charles Borromeo, the great cardinal who applied the reform of the Council of Trent in his Archdiocese of Milan.

Purification of the Blessed Virgin

 

Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Candlemas Day)
by Leonard Goffine, 1871

On this day the Church solemnly celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the temple, and the obedience and humility both of Mary and her divine Son, who, though not subject to the law in regard to purification and presentation, yet subjected themselves to it. Hence this feast is called the Purification of the Virgin Mary. In common speech we call it also Candlemas, because on this day the candles required for the divine service are blessed and carried in procession.

What is the design of this custom?

1. It is to remind us that Jesus, the light of the world, was offered up to His heavenly Father, by Mary, in the temple at Jerusalem, where He was called by Simeon “a light for the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of the people of Israel.” 2. To remind us, also, of several important truths, to which the priest refers in the prayers at the blessings. Thus he prays that as the earthly light dispels the darkness of night, so Jesus, with the light of His divine doctrine, may clear away our spiritual blindness and ignorance, and lead us in the way of virtue; that as the Holy Ghost enlightened Simeon, so He may also enlighten us to acknowledge Jesus as the true light, to love Him and follow Him, to keep our hearts from the way of sin, and to guide them in the way of virtue, and to kindle them with the fire of holy love; finally, that God may preserve, in soul and body, those who use blessed candles with devotion, may hear their prayers, and grant them entrance into the kingdom of the eternal and ever-blessed light.

In the Introit of the Mass the Church sings: “We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple; according to Thy name, O God, so also is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth; Thy right hand is full of justice. Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.” Glory be to the Father, etc. Prayer.

Almighty, everlasting God, we suppliantly beseech Thy majesty that, as Thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, so Thou wouldst grant us to be presented to Thee with purified souls. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

EPISTLE. Mal. iii. 1 – 4 :Thus saith the Lord: Behold I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face. And presently the Lord Whom you seek, and the angel of the testament whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts: and who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fullers herb: and he shall sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold, and as silver, and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice. And the sacrifice of Juda and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord, as in the days of old, and in the ancient years, saith the Lord Almighty.

GOSPEL. Luke ii. 22 – 32: At that time: After the days of Mary’s purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they carried Jesus to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord; and to offer a sacrifice according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when His parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law: he also took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace: because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light to the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.

Explanation: The Blessed Virgin presented herself and her divine Son at the temple so as not to give scandal to such as were ignorant of their being exempt from the law, to show from the first that Jesus was come to redeem sinners, and to leave us an example of humility and obedience. Mary offered the gift of a pair of doves, like the poor, because she was poor, and was not ashamed to acknowledge it before the world.