The model & guide of the Papacy

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/celebration-pope-st-pius-x-his-feast-september-3-31854

Today more than ever, the Church finds in St. Pius X, pope from 1903 to 1914, a true saint of the papacy, a model, and a guide

In the brief of beatification (June 3, 1951), Pius XII lists the chief traits deserving the attention and the admiration of the crowds:

1. His concern about the sanctity of the clergy, the key to renewing all things in Christ, according to his sublime motto.1
2. The renewal of ecclesiastical studies. Pius X exhorts Christian philosophers to defend the truth under the banner of St. Thomas Aquinas. He founds in Rome the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and encourages the theological sciences, inspired exegesis and carefully prepared preaching on the part of the clergy.
3. His preoccupation with the eternal salvation of souls. If Pius X desired a holy clergy, it was with a view to the instruction of the faithful, to whom he gave a catechism designed for both adults and children. To the latter he would forever remain the Pope of the Eucharist, promoting Communion at an early age, but also—and for everyone—frequent and even daily Communion.
4. The defense of the Faith in its fullness and purity. The false teachings that recycled a compendium of errors were unmasked, labeled as Modernism, and wisely repressed (Encyclical Pascendi, September 8, 1907). In these circumstances, as well as in his battle against anticlerical laws and the secularist separation of Church and State, St. Pius X was, in the words of the Angelic Pastor, an “infallible teacher of the Faith”, the “fearless avenger of religion” and the “guardian of the Church’s liberty”.
5. His love of the liturgy. The initiator of an authentic liturgical movement, Pius X renewed sacred music, but also the breviary and the calendar of feast days, so as to orient the Church decisively “toward a liturgical life that is thoroughly imbued with traditional piety, sacramental grace and inspired beauty”2.

These are chief traits of the sanctity of Pius X, the sanctity of a reign that was thoroughly imbued with the grandeurs and the supernatural riches that are the Church’s treasure. Pius XII likewise recalls the work of reform that he accomplished in the Roman Curia, in the schools and the parishes, the formidable work of compiling the hitherto scattered laws of the Church into one corpus adapted to the conditions of society (the Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1917). Not to forget the attention that he paid to evangelization in the missions and also his appeals to the “separated Oriental Christians” for unity.

Pius XII canonized this pontifical sanctity for a very precise purpose: in order to “dispose minds to confront our own struggles and to assure our victories and those of the generations to come”.3 Now that he is proclaimed a “saint and guide of men today”, “the apostle of the interior life”, St. Pius X is held up as a “providential example for the modern world where earthly society, which has increasingly become a sort of enigma to itself, anxiously seeks a solution so as to reacquire a soul!  May it therefore look for a model to the Church gathered about her altars.”4 For this pope “inspired everywhere an immense movement of return to the splendors of the sacred liturgy and of sacred music, and banished ugliness from God’s holy temple.”5

More than ever today, as she did 60 years ago, the Church finds in St. Pius X, a true saint of the papacy, a model and a guide.

For the clergy, so that they might rediscover the meaning of their eminent dignity and of their vocation to be first and foremost men of God, devoted to the worship and praise of Him. The sacrosanct rituals of the liturgy constitute in the first place public worship offered to the Divine Majesty, the same act of sacrifice offered by the one Savior of mankind. This is not about organizing a more or less Protestantized Last Supper, without grandeur or clearly defined priesthood.  It is about restoring to each priest his own identity: the fact that he is another Christ, mediator between God and men, charged with pardoning sins, distributing divine blessings to souls and leading them to Heaven.

For the faithful and the Christian people as a whole, so that they might understand the burning necessity of saving their souls, of sanctifying their home, their work and their city. Wisely instructed by their holy religion, may they know how to keep themselves from the corruption of the world, especially from moral and intellectual corruption. St. Pius X wanted the people to pray with the help of beauty and to “recognize in the Eucharist the power to feed their interior life substantially”.6 On a sound basis he organized Catholic Action and promoted the social and professional activities of Catholics within a denominational framework.

For the peoples of the world and for all men of good will, so that they might find in the Church access to Jesus Christ. This was his primary concern, Pius XII again explains, for God “is the origin and the foundation of all order, of all justice, of all law in the world.  Where God is, there order, justice and law reign.” Hence the great construction project during the pontificate of St. Pius X to organize the law of the Church. Hence also the primacy of faith and of sound doctrine which was “a service of the utmost charity, rendered by a saint, as head of the Church, to all humanity”.7

For the enemies of the Church, finally, so that they might know the fearlessness and the strength that God alone can give to his Vicar on earth and, though him, to his children spread throughout the world. Symbolic of this was the courage with which Pius X rejected the laws separating Church and State; he “gave new bishops to cruelly persecuted France, and resists the attacks of the wicked”.8

The Reformer Pope

A very good article about Pope St. Pius X:

It was the dawn of the 20^th century. The hedonism of the Belle Époque whirled through Europe’s capitals; like Poe’s raven, the precursors of civilizational decay tapped at the windows of the West. The ideologies originating in the Age of the Enlightenment were nearing full fruition in what American historian Lawrence Sondhaus would term the “global revolution”: the Great War, only a few years off.

An influential leader wrote in 1903 of the gathering clouds:

We were terrified beyond all else by the disastrous state of human society today[.] … Who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction?

Who can avoid being appalled and afflicted when he beholds, in the midst of a progress in civilization which is justly extolled, the greater part of mankind fighting among themselves so savagely as to make it seem as though strife were universal?

On all sides, voices called for peace, but fruitlessly. “To want peace without God is an absurdity,” he declared. “[W]here God is absent thence too justice flies, and when justice is taken away it is vain to cherish the hope of peace.”

The leader in question was Giuseppe Sarto, better known as Pope St. Pius X, writing his first encyclical, E supremi apostolatus (1903). The cancer in society to which he traced all the ills of his time was quite simply apostasy from God.

“We find extinguished among the majority of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid in the manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme Will — nay, every effort and every artifice is used to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God,” he lamented, in words that might justly be applied to the 21^st century.

He singled out the evil of humanism: “Man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God[.] … [H]e has contemned God’s majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored.”

Historian Yves Chiron points to E supremi apostolatus as a kind of manifesto. “We have no other program in our Supreme Pontificate,” St. Pius X proclaimed, “but that ‘of restoring all things in Christ,’ so that ‘Christ may be all and in all.’ … The interests of God shall be Our interest, and for these We are resolved to spend all Our strength and Our very life.”

How did he propose to carry out this program? Not by self-styled parties of order. “There is but one party of order capable of restoring peace in the midst of all this turmoil, and that is the party of God,” he declared.

Rather, it would be accomplished in “bringing back to the discipline of the Church human society, now estranged from the wisdom of Christ; the Church will then subject it to Christ, and Christ to God.”

To this end, Yves Chiron identifies three concrete steps proposed in E supremi apostolatus. First, a reformation of the clergy, that they might truly “bear stamped upon themselves the image of Christ.” Pius X adjured bishops to govern their seminaries in such wise that they might “flourish equally in the soundness of their teaching and in the spotlessness of their morals.”

Secondly, holy and well formed priests were to provide better and more thorough religious instruction for the faithful. Cardinal Raymond Burke wrote of this mandate in the preface to Cristina Siccardi’s 2014 biography of St. Pius X: “The Holy Father identified ignorance of Christian doctrine as the chief cause of the decline of faith, and therefore judged that sound catechesis was of primary importance in its restoration. It is easy to see how current the observations and conclusions of St. Pius X are today.”

Thirdly, Pius X asked lay Catholics to offer every assistance to this work of religious education. He insisted that all lay Catholic initiatives keep as their primary goal the maintenance of Christian life among their own members.

“It is of little avail,” he told them, “to discuss questions with nice subtlety, or to discourse eloquently of rights and duties, when all this is unconnected with practice. The times we live in demand action — but action which consists entirely in observing with fidelity and zeal the divine laws and the precepts of the Church, in the frank and open profession of religion[.]”

Like another leader in a time of crisis, Winston Churchill, Pius X held that nothing could be permitted to stand in the way of success. “[W]e must use every means and exert all our energy to bring about the utter disappearance of the enormous and detestable wickedness, so characteristic of our time — the substitution of man for God.”

Thirty-seven years later, Churchill would rally wartime Britain in not dissimilar terms: “to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime …”

Like Churchill, Pius X refused to set his sights on anything less than victory. “No one of sound mind can doubt the issue of this contest between man and the Most High,” Pius X declared with confidence. “Man, abusing his liberty, can violate the right and the majesty of the Creator of the Universe; but the victory will ever be with God[.]”

The restoration of all things in Christ would mean that “the upper and wealthy classes will learn to be just and charitable to the lowly, and these will be able to bear with tranquillity and patience the trials of a very hard lot; the citizens will obey not lust but law; reverence and love will be deemed a duty towards those that govern.” This was Pius X’s vision of peace.

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life-time,” British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey mused as the first guns of August rang out. Pius X died scarcely two weeks later; the darkest years of the century, for the world and the Church, were still to come.

The apparently universal rejection of Christ’s rule might prove a temptation to despair, as it was for Matthew Arnold 50 years earlier. “Dover Beach,” his lament for the retreat of faith in God that once embraced the earth “like the folds of a bright girdle furled,” ends in despair: “the world … hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain …”

The reality that paralyzed Arnold spurred Pius X to action. His program gives the ordinary Catholic concrete measures to take in the face of civilizational collapse: to maintain the practice of Christian life, to seek out true Catholic formation for oneself and those under one’s charge, and to proclaim the sovereign rights of Christ over human society.

It is not too much to hope that in making St. Pius X’s manifesto our own, the lamps of Europe and the world will be relit, one by one; and that when all things are restored, the nations will enter a new Golden Age under the scepter of the sole Sun of Justice, the Light of the World.

110th Anniversary of Pascendi

A war has been waged in the Catholic Church this past century. Me thinks we are witnessing a climax.  Let’s make use of our weapons, our Saints & our Mass to overthrow the evil that has the Church in its stronghold, through the intercession of Pope St. Pius X.

 

https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/110th-anniversary-pascendi-what-remedy-modernism-31924

On September 8, 1907, St. Pius X published his great encyclical against Modernism, Pascendi Dominici Gregis. 

This major document remains just as pertinent 110 years later.

In 1974, Fr. Roger-Thomas Calmel, OP wrote a preface to the second edition of the Catéchisme sur le modernisme (Catechism on Modernism) in which Fr. Jean-Baptiste Lemius, OMI, presents the encyclical Pascendi in a question-and-answer format. In his preface, the Dominican theologian considers whether there exists a remedy for Modernism which has infected the Church like gangrene, and his answer is:

It exists for sure. There are several, in fact. The evil is not incurable, since by faith we are sure that the gates of Hell will not prevail (Mt. 16:18), since the Lord will not leave us orphans (Jn. 14:18), since none can take from the Lord the sheep He holds in His hand (Jn. 10:28), since the Lord will continue to offer His sacrifice through the ministry of His priests donec veniat, until He returns (I Cor. 11:26). Therefore the evil the Church is undergoing will not destroy the Church. It can be healed. But this time, unlike what happened in the beginning of the century, the evil has greatly penetrated into the hierarchy itself. So long as the hierarchy has not eliminated the poison that infects it, the remedy can only be partial and limited. Doubtless the remedy will not come from the hierarchy alone, nor from the head alone. The body has to rid itself of the poison in all its members. But it remains that for the whole to be healed, the head needs to recover.
When we seek to find what remedy should be applied against Modernism, three fundamental questions arise: the question of the head of the Church, the question of the testimony to be rendered, and the question of theological studies.”

The Testimony of Tradition

Speaking of the testimony to be given by members of the Church, Fr. Calmel explains the precise conditions needed for this witness to be a truly Catholic response to Modernism. The most important passages are emphasized:

It is indispensable to confess the Faith, to bear public witness both with humility and gentleness and with pride and patience. For true confession of the Faith is a work of love, humility, goodness, and not only fortitude and courage. However, in times of Modernist revolution, new difficulties arise which keep the confession of the Faith and of the sacraments of the Faith from being a great work of love. But if it is not that, it remains very insufficient in the presence of God, angels, and men. If we had to bear witness to the traditional Catholic Mass before classic persecutors, if we had to face the tribunals of Terror and the Directory like our elders, we would obviously expose ourselves to a violent death simply by attending a Catholic Mass. In these conditions, how could we not hear or celebrate Mass with increased fervor? The violence would place us in a near occasion, so to speak, of growing in love in order not to commit the sin of denying the Faith. But today we have to deal with the Modernist revolution and not a violent persecution.
“Bearing witness to the traditional Catholic Mass undoubtedly requires a patient effort, but it does not actually place us in a state of necessarily growing in charity when we celebrate or hear Mass. We do not necessarily become apostates of the Mass if we continue to go with mediocre dispositions, whereas our persecuted elders would have become apostates if their interior dispositions had remained ordinary. There are in fact faithful and priests who, though they surely make an effort to confess their faith in the traditional Catholic Mass, persist in celebrating or hearing Mass with practically unchanged lukewarm dispositions. They do not seem to act with the great love that animated the martyrs of the Terror when they exposed themselves to death for going to the Mass of a refractory priest. They bear witness to the traditional Catholic Mass to a certain extent without being obliged to assist at or celebrate Mass with much love.
“Today there is practically no stimulus coming from the outside; but even without external provocation, the interior fire of divine life and mental prayer should be intense enough to make us bear witness to the Faith and the sacraments of the Faith with the love Our Lord desires. Not only Our Lord, but the souls of good will who are waiting; they hope to find this love in us, in order to find the courage themselves to turn to God and confess the Catholic Faith and the sacraments of the Faith.

The Specious Objection that Tradition is “Inadequate”

If our witness is penetrated with this love, the specious objection, that comes up in a thousand different forms, will be quickly swept aside. They tell us, ‘By teaching the Roman catechism, maintaining the traditional, Latin, and Gregorian Catholic Mass, you have no chance of influencing souls; you are preserving museum pieces; souls need a religion adapted to their needs; and this adaptation consists in adopting the spirit of the Council, entering into the evolutionary movement you call Modernism.’ (In truth, Modernism is not an adaptation, but a perversion under the cover of adaptation: non profectus sed permutation, in the words of St. Vincent of Lerins.)
“We know perfectly well that it belongs to the supreme authority to make ritual adaptations of general importance, and even more so to provide dogmatic explanations. When this authority is deficient, does any adaptation become impossible and are we left with being unadapted to our brothers of today, insofar as we confess the Faith of all times? It is a specious question and it is almost entirely resolved when the testimony is given with charity. For charity makes one attentive to the true needs of others, able to sense the right way to present the religion of all times so that it remains fitting in the present situation without being either corrupted or tampered with.
“Even when the supreme authority is deficient and the general adaptations, far from being accomplished in truth, have taken on the form of general perversions, even in these extreme cases, charity shows the simple priest and even more so the bishop, within the restricted field of his authority, the best way of preaching healthy doctrine and celebrating the Catholic Mass with the participation of the faithful without upsetting anything. There is no shortage of examples. The priests who keep the traditional, Latin, and Gregorian Catholic Mass out of a loving attachment to the Sovereign Priest, and therefore, inseparably, out of zeal for souls, know how to take care of the faithful and bring them to participate in the holiest possible way. These same priests captivate children by teaching them the catechism of St. Pius X and do not think they need to give in to Modernism in order to find a suitable way of teaching. However, these well-adapted presentations or this faithful adaptation can only be accomplished on two conditions: first meditating unceasingly on the traditional doctrine and rites in order to hold them as they are and never change or deform them; and then living in union with God so that the witness one bears to the Catholic Faith, the firm testimony one upholds, is a result of love.

The Spiritual Testament of Archbishop Lefebvre

For more on these interior dispositions that Fr. Calmel sees as indispensable in order to offer an effective remedy for the Modernist crisis ravaging the Church, the reader is invited to reread the Spiritual Journey of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, in which the founder of the Society of St. Pius X, one year before his death, recalled

the need, not only to confer the authentic priesthood, to teach not only the sana doctrina approved by the Church, but also to transmit the profound and unchanging spirit of the Catholic priesthood essentially bound to the great prayer of Our Lord which His Sacrifice on the Cross expresses eternally. (p. iii)

And he developed this thought a few pages further on:

Given that the Summa of St. Thomas represents the framework of knowledge of the Faith for each seminarian or priest who wishes, according to the desire of the Church, to enlighten his intelligence with the light of Revelation, and acquire accordingly divine wisdom, it seems to me supremely desirable that these priestly souls find in this Summa not only the light of the faith but also the source of sanctity, of a life of prayer and contemplation, of a total and unreserved offering of themselves to God by Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified, thus preparing themselves and preparing the souls which are entrusted to them for a blessed life in the bosom of the Holy Trinity.” (p. 14)

He then went on to voice his wish for priests to write “a spiritual Summa from the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas”, of which he gives a luminous outline in his Spiritual Journey.

Some may tacitly criticize what they see as too spiritual a vision of the fight for the Faith, thinking it is a failure to understand the priorities and current emergencies…and, in a sense, a form of demobilization. Fr. Calmel shows at the end of his preface the exact nature of this fight that a soldier would call asymmetrical, and forcefully recalls the One who in these circumstances remains our indispensable help:

Our fight against Modernism, even if waged in prayer as it should be, even if the appropriate weapons are used, remains out of proportion with the evil. This time, the apostasy has fine-tuned its methods too perfectly for it to be defeated without a miracle. Let us never cease to implore the Immaculate Heart of Mary for this miracle. Let us continue the fight with all our strength as useless servants, but let us place our hope more than ever in the all-powerful intercession of Mary, the Mother of God ever Virgin, for it is she who, once again, will be victorious over heresy. Gaude Maria Virgo, cunctas haereses sola interemisti quae Gabrielis archangeli dictis credidisti.

After all, it was on September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, that St. Pius X published his encyclical against Modernism.

Sources: Forts dans la Foi n°32-34, 1974/Itinéraire spirituel – FSSPX.News – 09/08/17

Cardinal Sarto exhorts Catholics to keep the Faith alive – in 1895

Now more than ever, it is imperative to pray to Pope St. Pius X, to intercede for the Church of God, that we may soon see a Pope of his calibur that will begin the restoration of our ravaged Church.

Damsel of the Faith

One of Cardinal Sarto’s (the future Pope Pius X) most important duties as Patriach of Venice, and one that he placed high priority on was the pastoral visitation, whereby he traveled from parish to parish, assessing the spiritual needs of both clergy and laity alike. Hear these words, given to his faithful, in 1895. They could be spoken of with just as much truth today.

~Damsel of the Faith

“How necessary it is to stir up again the spirit of faith, at a time when there is a growth of that malignant fever which would discredit everything and deny every dogma of revealed religion! How necessary it is at this present time when people are trying to dismiss the mysteries of our faith, when people are claiming to explain them – while Christ has demanded the submission of the intellect – when they are casting doubt on the most established…

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The beautiful Litany of Pope St. Pius X

Let us pray this Litany to Pope St. Pius X, that he will intercede for the Church ravaged by Modernism and apostasy, which he so valiantly fought against during his glorious pontificate:

 

Litany of Pope Saint Pius X

For private use only.

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 Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us.
Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church,
Pray for us.
Saint Pius X, model for priests, etc.
Saint Pius X, wise bishop,
Saint Pius X, humble cardinal and patriarch,
Saint Pius X, zealous Pope for his flock,
Saint Pius X, pious teacher,
Saint Pius X, devoted to the poor,
Saint Pius X, consoler of the sick,
Saint Pius X, lover of poverty,
Saint Pius X, humble of heart,
Saint Pius X, faithful to duty,
Saint Pius X, heroic in the practice of all virtues,
Saint Pius X, filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice,
Saint Pius X, who didst aim to restore all things in Christ,
Saint Pius X, who didst bring little children to the the Altar rail,
Saint Pius X, who didst counsel daily and frequent Communion for all,
Saint Pius X, who didst urge us to know and to love the Holy Mass,
Saint Pius X, who didst seek everywhere the diffusion of Christian teaching,
Saint Pius X, who didst withstand and reprove all heresies,
Saint Pius X, who didst teach us righteous Catholic Action,
Saint Pius X, who didst consecrate the faithful to the lay apostolate,
Saint Pius X, who didst wish to be known as a poor pastor of souls,
Saint Pius X, who answereth the prayers of those who cry to thee,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, Saint Pius X,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray.

O God, who didst fill the soul of Saint Pius X with a burning charity and
called him to be the Vicar of Christ, grant that through his intercession
we may follow in the footsteps of Jesus, Our Divine Master; and may
our prayers to this saintly Pope be fruitful for life both here and hereafter,
through the same Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.

 

Through the Intercession of Saint Pius X

O God, Who didst raise up Saint Pius X to be the chief Shepherd of Thy flock and especially endowed him with devotion to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and zeal for Thine eternal truths and a love of the priesthood and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, grant we beg of Thee, that we who venerate his memory on earth, may enjoy his powerful intercession in Heaven. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Cardinal Sarto exhorts Catholics to keep the Faith alive – in 1895

 

One of Cardinal Sarto’s (the future Pope Pius X) most important duties as Patriach of Venice, and one that he placed high priority on was the pastoral visitation, whereby he traveled from parish to parish, assessing the spiritual needs of both clergy and laity alike. Hear these words, given to his faithful, in 1895. They could be spoken of with just as much truth today.

~Damsel of the Faith

“How necessary it is to stir up again the spirit of faith, at a time when there is a growth of that malignant fever which would discredit everything and deny every dogma of revealed religion! How necessary it is at this present time when people are trying to dismiss the mysteries of our faith, when people are claiming to explain them – while Christ has demanded the submission of the intellect – when they are casting doubt on the most established prophecies, when they are denying the most manifest miracles, when they are rejecting the sacraments, deriding pious practices, and discrediting the magisterium of the Church and her ministers! We must build a dyke against the torrent of evil which is spreading everywhere; we must find the antidote to the poison which is threatening the life of society; we must give this sick world the remedies which will cute it; we must save, by a single word, even the souls of those who hate that word and persecute it, because for them too Jesus Christ shed His precious blood.”

Pope St. Pius X, Hammer of Modernists

A Happy and Blessed Feast of our beloved Patron, Pope St. Pius X, to all of my readers!

Damsel of the Faith

A Blessed Feast of Pope St. Pius X to all! May he intercede for the Church ravaged by Modernism so that we may soon see the restoration of all things in Christ that Pope St. Pius X so tirelessly worked for.

The following are his great Encyclicals and short videos of his Canonization.  He issued 17 Encyclicals during his reign, the most famous being “E Supremi,” his opening Encyclical and Pascendi on the Modernists.

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/

This was a Pope like no other, staunch, courageous and fearless, a Pope who recognized that the Church would one day be in danger from within by Modernists hellbent on destroying any vestige of the Catholic Faith.  Prophetic indeed was Archbishop Lefebvre’s choice to name the SSPX after Pope St. Pius X, for the work of the SSPX would be to fight against Modernism in the Church and preserve the True Catholic Faith.

Pope St…

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Architectural beauty points to God

“Among the cares of the pastoral office, not only of this Supreme Chair, which We, though unworthy, occupy through the inscrutable dispositions of Providence, but of every local church, a leading one is without question that of maintaining and promoting the decorum of the House of God in which the august mysteries of religion are celebrated, and where the Christian people assemble to receive the grace of the Sacraments, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, to adore the most august Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and to unite in the common prayer of the Church in the public and solemn liturgical offices. Nothing should have place, therefore, in the temple calculated to disturb or even merely to diminish the piety and devotion of the faithful, nothing that may give reasonable cause for disgust or scandal, nothing, above all, which directly offends the decorum and sanctity of the sacred functions and is thus unworthy of the House of Prayer and of the Majesty of God.”   ~Pope St. Pius X, “Inter Sollicitudines”

 

Religious Indifferentism condemned by Christ and the Church

All religions do not lead to God. God founded only One Church, that leads to His Father, the One True God. The gods of the pagans are devils, as St. Paul says.  Peace and justice is not to be found through “dialogue” but through the saving truth of Jesus Christ and His Church.  You cannot have peace without these two.  You cannot have peace without submitting to the Kingship of Jesus Christ. True peace is to do the will of God, obey His Commandments and practice the virtues.  Without the Church, one cannot have true peace. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you. It’s not “Seek first earthly peace and justice and the Kingdom of God is guaranteed to you.”

Remember the words of the Son of God:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  ~John 14:6

:And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”   ~Mark 16:15-16

“Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”  ~Matthew 7:21

“If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.”  ~John 15:22

“And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  ~Matthew 16:18

Read what the Popes say on Religious Indifferentism:

“Also perverse is the shocking theory that it makes no difference to which religion one belongs, a theory which is greatly at variance even with reason. By means of this theory, those crafty men remove all distinction between virtue and vice, truth and error, honorable and vile action. They pretend that men can gain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion, as if there could ever be any sharing between justice and iniquity, any collaboration between light and darkness, or any agreement between Christ and Belial.”   ~Bl. Pope Pius IX, “Qui Pluribus”, 1846 A.D.

“Again, as all who offer themselves are received whatever may be their form of religion, they thereby teach the great error of this age – that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike. This manner of reasoning is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion, and especially of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only one that is true, cannot, without great injustice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions.”   ~Pope Leo XIII, “Humanum Genus”, 1884 A.D

“To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name. Men who really believe in the existence of God must, in order to be consistent with themselves and to avoid absurd conclusions, understand that differing modes of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict even on most important points cannot all be equally probable, equally good, and equally acceptable to God.”   ~Pope Leo XIII, “Immortale Dei”

Prophetic words of Pope Pius X, truth indeed:

But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, ‘the reign of love and justice’ with workers coming from everywhere, of all religions and of no religion, with or without beliefs, so long as they forego what might divide them – their religious and philosophical convictions; and so long as they share what unites them – a ‘generous idealism and moral forces, drawn from whence they can’. When we consider the forces, knowledge, and supernatural virtues which were necessary to establish the Christian City, and the sufferings of millions of martyrs, and the light given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and the self-sacrifice of all the heroes of charity, and a powerful hierarchy ordained in heaven, and the streams of Divine Grace – the whole having been built up, bound together, and impregnated by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the Word made Man – when we think, I say, of all this, it is frightening to behold new apostles eagerly attempting to do better by a common interchange of vague idealism and civic virtues. What are they going to produce? What is to come out of this collaboration? A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people.” ~Pope St. Pius X,  “Notre Charge Apostolique”, 1910 A.D.

 

Litany of Pope St. Pius X

Let us pray this Litany to Pope St. Pius X, Hammer of Modernists and Heretics, that he will intercede for the Church ravaged by Modernism, apostasy, and every form of heresy:

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 Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us.
Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church,
Pray for us.
Saint Pius X, model for priests, etc.
Saint Pius X, wise bishop,
Saint Pius X, humble cardinal and patriarch,
Saint Pius X, zealous Pope for his flock,
Saint Pius X, pious teacher,
Saint Pius X, devoted to the poor,
Saint Pius X, consoler of the sick,
Saint Pius X, lover of poverty,
Saint Pius X, humble of heart,
Saint Pius X, faithful to duty,
Saint Pius X, heroic in the practice of all virtues,
Saint Pius X, filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice,
Saint Pius X, who didst aim to restore all things in Christ,
Saint Pius X, who didst bring little children to the the Altar rail,
Saint Pius X, who didst counsel daily and frequent Communion for all,
Saint Pius X, who didst urge us to know and to love the Holy Mass,
Saint Pius X, who didst seek everywhere the diffusion of Christian teaching,
Saint Pius X, who didst withstand and reprove all heresies,
Saint Pius X, who didst teach us righteous Catholic Action,
Saint Pius X, who didst consecrate the faithful to the lay apostolate,
Saint Pius X, who didst wish to be known as a poor pastor of souls,
Saint Pius X, who answereth the prayers of those who cry to thee,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, Saint Pius X,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray.

O God, who didst fill the soul of Saint Pius X with a burning charity and called him to be the Vicar of Christ, grant that through his intercession we may follow in the footsteps of Jesus, Our Divine Master; and may our prayers to this saintly Pope be fruitful for life both here and hereafter, through the same Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.

Through the Intercession of Saint Pius X
O God, Who didst raise up Saint Pius X to be the chief Shepherd of Thy flock and especially endowed him with devotion to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and zeal for Thine eternal truths and a love of the priesthood and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, grant we beg of Thee, that we who venerate his memory on earth, may enjoy his powerful intercession in Heaven. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.