37 minute read
The Eucharist: the greatest treasure of the Church in time of tribulations
THE TORMENTS OF JOB UNDER A SWIRLING SKY DOMINATED BY GOD (1563). ENGRAVING BY M. VAN HEEMSKERCK. WELLCOME COLLECTION, LONDON.
Tempus – the time that the mercy of God gives to people to change their ways. In this space of time God offers sinners the possibility of suspending the sentence, revoking the penalty, remitting the offense, receiving grace. God waits because he desires the conversion of sinners. The time of waiting may be long, but it has a limit. If during this time there is no repentance, punishment is logical and necessary.
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In the second moment, God prepares punishment for impenitent sinners: a time that is expressed by the words faciendi Domine, which summarise, according to Saint Bernardine, “the bitter revenge and the harsh punishment of God”, if the people do not wish to change their ways.13 The punishment however is an act of the Father’s mercy. He does not wish the eternal death of sinners but their life, and through the scourges he inflicts on them he still tries to obtain their conversion. It is the time in which the axe is placed at the root of the tree: securis ad radicem arboris posita est. (Mt. 3:10)
The third moment is when the offense is complete: dissipaverunt legem tuam. It is the hour of taking up the sickle and reaping the harvest, as the angel says in the Book of Revelation: “Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time to reap has come, because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe”. (Rev. 14:15) What are the signs that indicate the harvest is ripe? Saint Bernardine lists seven:
1. The existence of many horrendous sins, like in
Sodom and Gomorrah 2. The fact that the sin is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent 3. That these sins are committed by entire people as a whole 4. That this happens in a public and shameless manner 5. That it happens with all the affection of the heart of sinners 6. That the sins are committed with attention and diligence 7. That all of this is done in a continuous and persevering way.14 This is the hour in which God punishes the sins of pride, luxury, and avarice with the scourges of plague, war, and famine.
TEMPUS FACIENDI DOMINE, DISSIPAVERUNT LEGEM TUAM It is time to act, O Lord, for they have violated your law. Another great saint with a prophetic voice that echoes Saint Bernardine, Saint Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort, exclaims in his Fiery Prayer For The Apostles of the Latter Times:
“It is time to act, O Lord, they have rejected your law. It is indeed time to fulfill your promise. Your divine commandments are broken, your Gospel is thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even your servants. The whole land is desolate, ungodliness reigns supreme, your sanctuary is desecrated and the abomination of desolation has even contaminated the holy place. God of Justice, God of Vengeance, will you let everything, then, go the same way? Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah? Will you never break your silence? Will you tolerate all this for ever?”
Saint Louis Marie wrote these words at the beginning of the 18th century. Two centuries later, the Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima to announce that if the world continued to offend God it would be punished through war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father and that “various nations will be annihilated”.
But today, one hundred years after the apparitions at Fatima, three hundred years after the death of Saint Louis Marie, has the world ceased offending God? Is the divine law perhaps less transgressed, the Gospel less abandoned, the sanctuary less profaned? Do we not see sins that cry out for vengeance before the face of God such as abortion and sodomy justified, exalted, and protected by the laws of nations?
Have we not seen the Pachamama idol welcomed and venerated even within the holy precincts of the Vatican? Should all of this not be judged by God by now? And should not whoever loves God also love and desire the hour of his justice, so as to respect, as on the day of the final judgement: Iustus es Domine, et rectum iudicium tuum: You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is right. (Ps. 118:137)
WHY THE PEOPLES DO NOT REALIZE THE PUNISHMENTS THAT ARE LOOMING OVER THEM Among Catholics, whenever an affliction happens to a certain people or nation, there are those who say that they do not know if this is a punishment or a trial. But in contrast to trials that befall individual men, evils that afflict nations are always punishments. It may happen that a virtuous man must suffer much in order to be proven in his patience, as happened to Job. The sufferings that individual men encounter in their lives are not always a punishment; more often they are a trial that prepares them to gain eternal happiness. But in the case of nations, the sufferings due to war, epidemics or earthquakes are always a punishment because nations do not have an eternal existence. To say that a scourge could be “a trial” for a nation does not make any sense. It could be a trial for the individual men of a particular nation, but not for the nation as a whole, because nations receive their punishment in time, not in eternity.
The punishments of a nation increase in proportion to the sins of a nation. And in proportion to the increase of their sins, the wicked also increase their rejection of the idea of punishment, as Voltaire did in his blasphemous Poem on the Disaster in Lisbon, written after the terrible earthquake that destroyed the capital of Portugal in 1755. The Church has always responded to the blasphemies of the atheists by recalling that everything that happens depends on God and has a meaning. But when it is the very men of the Church who deny the idea of divine punishment, this means that the punishment is already underway and is irremediable. In the days of the coronavirus outbreak, Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan even went so far as to say that “it is a pagan idea to think that God sends scourges”. In reality, thinking that God does not send scourges makes someone not a pagan but an atheist. The fact that this is exactly what many bishops throughout the world think means that the Catholic episcopate throughout the world is immersed in atheism. And this is a sign of a divine chastisement that is already under way.
Saint Bernardine explains that the more the punishment of God draws near, the less the people who
deserve it are aware of it.15 The reason for this blindness of the mind is pride, initium omnis peccati. (Eccl. 10:15) Pride darkens the intellect, prevents it from seeing how near the destruction is, and God desires by this blindness to humiliate the proud.
With the help of Saint Bernardine we can also interpret a line from the Book of Psalms that was incorporated by Leo XIII in his Exorcism Against the Rebel Angels: “Veniat illi laqueus quem ignorat, et captio quam abscondit, apprehendat eum et laqueum cadat in ipsum”. (Ps. 34:8) The free translation of this passage could be: “Let the snare come, the trap he is not thinking of. Let the maneuver he is hiding seize him and let him fall into his own snare of death.”
Saint Bernardine says that this passage of the Psalms can be interpreted under three aspects.
First, from God’s viewpoint: Veniat illi laqueus quem ignorat. The first cause of this ignorance comes from God, who in order to conceal his plans uses epidemics and famines: “laqueus est pestis vel fames et consimilia”,16 says Saint Bernardine: “the snare is plague or famines and similar things”. First of all, God takes away the people’s guides, not only their political and spiritual guides, but also the angels who preside over nations. God then takes away the lumen veritatis, which is a grace like every good that comes from God. Finally, God permits the sinful people to fall into the hands of their own vices, of demons who replace the angels, and of the wicked, who lead them towards the abyss.
Et captio quam abscondit, apprehendat eum. Once every guide has been taken away from them and also the light of truth, the impenitent people not only do not change when God announces the chastisement but they actually increase their sins. And this multiplication of sins increases the blindness of the peoples.
Et laqueum cadat in ipsum. The sinful people are unaware of the hour of punishment, which comes upon them suddenly and unexpectedly. The maneuvers with which they attempted to destroy the good turn against them. They are not only punished but humiliated. Thus the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled:
“Upon you shall come a disaster, nor shall you know where it comes from; upon you shall fall a calamity you cannot ward off; upon you shall suddenly come a catastrophe you cannot imagine.” (Is. 47:11)
THE FEAR OF GOD AND HUMAN TERROR When then the chastisement begins, the demon, seeing his plans being upset, spreads the sense of terror among the peoples, the antechamber of despair. The wicked deny the existence of the catastrophe; the good understand that it has arrived, but instead of seizing the opportunity of their rebirth, they are tempted to see in it only the hour of their own ruin. This happens when they refuse to see behind the events the wise hand of God in order to chase after the maneuvers of men. An author dear to the heart of Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, the archdeacon Henri-Marie Boudon writes: “Dieu ne frappe que pour être regardé; et l’on n’arrête les yeux que sur les créatures”17 – “God strikes so as to be contemplated, but instead of turning our gaze to him, we turn it to creatures.”
This does not mean that the maneuvers of the revolutionary forces should not be observed, analysed and combated, but never forgetting that the Revolution is always defeated in history by the self-destructive nature it intrinsically possesses in itself, while the Counter-Revolution always wins because of the fruitfulness of the good which it likewise possesses within itself.
Atheism is the expulsion of God from every aspect of human activity. The great victory of the enemies of God does not lie in suppressing our lives or restricting our physical liberties, but rather in removing the idea of God from our minds and hearts. All human reasoning and philosophical, historical, and political speculation in which God does not hold the first place is false and illusory.
Bossuet says that: “Toutes nos pensées qui n'ont pas Dieu pour objet sont du domaine de la mort”18 – “All of our thoughts that do not have God for their object belong to the domain of death.” This is true, and we can also say that all of our thoughts that do have God for their object belong to the domain of life, because Jesus Christ, the Judge and Savior of the human race, is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. (Jn. 14:6) To speak of the judgement of God in history and over history is therefore not to speak of death but life, and whoever speaks of divine judgement is not a “prophet of doom” but rather a herald of hope.
Those who today with ever greater force reject the idea of divine punishment are the men of the Church. They reject punishment because they reject the judgement of God, which they replace with the judgement of the world. But the fear of God is born from humility, while the fear of the world is born from pride.
KNIGHT, DEATH AND THE DEVIL (1513). ALBRECHT DÜRER. NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON.
To fear God is the highest wisdom: Timor Domini initium Sapientiae says the Book of Ecclesiastes, which concludes with these words: Deum time, et mandata ejus serva: hoc est enim omnis homo (Eccl. 12, 13) – “Fear God and observe his commandments, because this is everything for man.” Whoever does not fear God replaces the divine commandments with the commandments of the world, for fear of being isolated, censured and persecuted by the world. The fear of the world, which is a consequence of sin, drives men to run away from battle, while the fear of God incites men to fight.
A great French author, Ernest Hello, says: “Fearing the name of God means not being afraid of anything.”19 And Hello also reminds us of a word of Sacred Scripture whose depth will never succeed in fully understanding: laetetur cor meum ut timeat nomen tuum (Ps. 85:11) – “my heart rejoices that it may fear your name”.
Joy exists only where there is the presence of God, and God cannot be present if the fear of the Lord is not present. The Holy Spirit says that there is nothing greater than the fear of the Lord: Nihil melius est quam timor Domini (Eccl. 23:27); the Holy Spirit calls the fear of the Lord the fountain of life: Timor Domini fons vitae (Prov. 14:27); as well as jubilation and joy: Timor Domini gloria, gloriatio et laetitia et corona exultationis! (Sir. 1:11).
It is this fear of God that leads us to recognize the divine hand in the tragic events of our time and to enter into the battle with tranquil courage.
THE KNIGHT, DEATH AND THE DEVIL The Knight, Death and the Devil is a copperplate engraving made by Albrecht Dürer in 1513. The work shows a horseman with a helmet on his head, armed with a sword and lance, riding on a majestic steed, defying death, who shows him an hourglass containing the timespan of life that is fleeting, and the devil, who is depicted as a horned animal holding a halberd.
Almost seventy years ago, in an article published in the journal Catolicismo in February 1951, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira used this image to illustrate the clash between the Revolution that cannot go back and the Church that, despite everything, has not managed to triumph. He wrote:
“War, death and sin are preparing once again to destroy the world, this time in greater proportions than ever. In 1513 the incomparable talent of
Dürer represented them in the form of a knight that is leaving for war, fully dressed in his armour, and accompanied by death and sin, the latter portrayed by a unicorn. Europe, which was even then immersed in the disturbances that preceded the Pseudo-Reform, was heading for the tragic age of the religious, political and social wars that Protestantism triggered off.
“The next war, without being explicitly and directly a war of religion, will so affect the sacred interests of the Church that a true Catholic cannot fail to see in it mainly the religious aspect. And the devastation that will be unleashed will certainly be incomparably more destructive than those of the past centuries.
“Who will win? The Church?
“The clouds we have before us are not rosy. But they animate us with an unconquerable certainty and that is that not only the Church – which is obvious, given the divine promise – will not disappear, but in our days it will obtain an even greater triumph than that of Lepanto.
“How? When? The future belongs to God. Many reasons for sadness and anxiety appear before us, even when we look at some of our brothers in faith. In the heat of the struggle it is possible and even probable that there will be terrible defections. But it is absolutely certain that the Holy Spirit continues to inspire in the Church admirable and indomitable spiritual energies of faith, purity, obedience and dedication, which at the opportune moment will once more cover the Christian name with glory.”
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira concluded his article with the hope that the 20th century would be “not only the century of the great battle, but above all the century of the immense triumph”. We ourselves echo this hope, that extends into the 21st century, our century, the era of the coronavirus and of new tragedies, but also the time of a renewed faith in the promise of Fatima, a faith that we wish to express with the words that Pope Pius XII addressed to Catholic Action in 1948:
“You know, beloved sons, the mysterious horsemen of which the Book of Revelation speaks. The second, third, and fourth horsemen are war, hunger, and death. Who is the first horseman on the white steed? ‘Its rider had a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode forth victorious’ (Rev. 6:2). He is Jesus Christ. The visionary-evangelist did not see only the ruin caused by sin, war, hunger, and death; he also saw first and foremost the victory of Christ. And indeed the path of the Church down the centuries is but a via crucis, but it is also in every age a triumphal march. The Church of Christ, the men of faith of Christian love, are always those who bring light, redemption and peace to humanity that is without hope. Iesus Christus heri et hodie, ipse et in saecula (Heb. 13:8). Christ is your guide, from victory into victory. Follow him.”20
Translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino
Prof. Roberto de Mattei is a former professor of Modern History and History of Christianity in the European University of Rome. He founded and oversees the Lepanto Foundation that operates in Washington and in Rome. He directs the magazine Radici Cristiane and the Corrispondenza Romana News Agency. He is the author of numerous books and publications, which have been translated into various languages. Among his publications is a history of the Second Vatican Council, which is translated into English as The Second Vatican Council - An Unwritten Story. He is married and has five children.
ENDNOTES:
1. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, La vita eterna e la profondità dell’anima, Italian translation, Fede e Cultura, Verona 2018, p. 94. 2. Vita del gran patriarca s. Bruno Cartusiano. Dal Surio, & altri ..., Alessandro Zannetti, Roma 1622, vol. 2, p. 125. 3. St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, I, 10, 11. 4. St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 20, 30. 5. Saint Thomas Aquinas, In IV Sent. 47, 1, 1, ad 1. 6. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III, q. 59, art. 5. 7. Michael Schmaus, Le ultime realtà, Italian translation, Edizioni Paoline, Rome, 1960 p. 247. 8. Ibid., p. 248. 9. Antonio Piolanti, Giudizio divino, in Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI (951), col. 731 (731-732). 10. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Dieu, son existence et son nature, Beauchesne, Paris 1950, vol. I, pp. 440-443. 11. Prosper of Aquitaine, De vocatione omnium gentium (La vocazione dei popoli, Città Nuova, Rome 1998, p. 74). 12. Saint Bernardine, Opera omnia, Sermo 46, Feria quinta post dominicam de Passione, in Opera omnia, Ad Claras Aquas, Florence 1950, vol. II, pp. 84-8. 13. Ibid., Sermo XIX, Feria secunda post II dominicam in quadragesima, vol. III, p. 333. 14. Ibid., pp. 337-338. 15. Ibid., pp. 340-350. 16. Ibid., p. 341. 17. Henri-Marie Boudon, La dévotion aux saints Anges, Clovis, Cobdé-sur-Noireau 1985, p. 265. 18. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Oraison funèbre de Henriette-Anne d'Angleterre (1670), in Œuvres complètes, Outhenin-Chalandre fils, Paris 1836, t. II, p. 576. 19. Ernst Hello, L’homme, Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris 1911, p. 102. 20. Pio XII, Discourse of 12 September 1948 to the Youth of Catholic Action, Discorsi e Radiomessaggi, X (1948-1949), p. 212).
WHY SHOULD WE EXPECT A divine intervention today?
by JOHN-HENRY WESTEN
The following talk was given on 21 May 2020 at the online Rome Life Forum on the theme “Coronavirus in the light of Fatima: a tragedy and a source of hope”.
In these times of coronavirus it has become for me clear that we are living in the end times, at least as that pertains to the chastisement predicted by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. Today the greatest deprivation of all time has taken place. For the first time in history the greater part of Catholic humanity has been deprived of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
SOLEMN MASS CELEBRATED AT THE ALTAR OF ST. MICHAEL IN ST. PETER’S BASILICA, VATICAN, ON MICHAELMAS 2019.
We will never be able to comprehend the gravity of this fully. But in order to appreciate it somewhat, hear the words of St. Alphonsus Ligouri in his Discourses on the Mass and Office. He wrote:
“A single Mass gives more honour to God than can ever be given to Him by all the prayers and austerities of the saints, all the labours and fatigues of the Apostles, all the torments of the martyrs, and all the adorations of the Seraphim, and of the Mother of God.”
For the last few months, this, the greatest of treasures on earth, the very pearl of great price, has been taken from us. It is a loss beyond comprehension. And as this deprivation continues it brings to mind the apocalyptic warnings of Christ Himself which we read in the Gospel of Matthew.
“When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that reads let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains.” (Mt. 24:15-16)
The verse from Daniel which Our Lord references is this:
“And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days.” (Daniel 12:11)
In a conversation with some of my closest friends I mentioned that the removal of the Mass from nearly all the faithful throughout the earth seems like a fulfilment of that prophecy, and I’m praying that it will not last as long as predicted – 1290 days or about three and a half years. It was pointed out to me, however, that of course the Holy Sacrifice has not in fact ceased since priests continue to offer the Mass privately. Nonetheless, it seemed to me that even in the worst of times to come, should all Masses be banned under pain of death, there will always be faithful priests who secretly offer the Holy Sacrifice, happy to risk their lives for doing so.
This notion was bolstered by the interpretation of St. Robert Bellarmine in his famous work On The Roman Pontiff, who interprets this passage from the Book of Daniel as saying that “all public ceremonies and sacrifices of religion will cease”.
Whereas I do believe the times are apocalyptic, it is certainly not the end of the world for Our Lady of Fatima told us we are first to experience the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the prophesied period of peace that will be given to the world.
Recall the words of Our Lady of Fatima:
“When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
It is in this sense, I believe many prelates view these times as the end times.
Carlo Cardinal Caffara told us at our Rome Life Forum in 2017 that the decisive battle between Our Lord and the reign of Satan, which was foretold by Our Lady of Fatima to be over “marriage and the family”, is on now – and has been raging since the Church has been thrown into confusion on the subject of marriage and family with Amoris laetitia and the two synods which preceded it.
When he was at our Rome Life Forum in 2019, I spoke with the Dutch Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk about his article in which he wrote: “Observing that the bishops and, above all, the Successor of Peter fail to maintain and transmit faithfully and in unity the deposit of faith contained in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, I cannot help but think of Article 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.” That section of the Catechism – which he quoted says this:
“The Church’s ultimate trial before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.”
In a follow-up interview with LifeSite’s Paris correspondent Jeanne Smits, Cardinal Eijk explained his reference this way:
“I quoted number 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Because there are cardinals who plead for the blessing of homosexual relationships, I referred to this paragraph of the Catechism as a warning. It states that shortly before the Apocalypse, voices will rise within the Church itself, and even among the highest authorities of the Church who will express divergent opinions in relation to Catholic doctrine. I did this as a warning: let us be careful not to find ourselves in this situation.”
Cardinal Eijk told me that he had noticed with interest that he was not the only cardinal who referenced this part of the Catechism in describing our times. Gerhard Cardinal Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, issued his “Manifesto of Faith” in February of last year. In that heroic document, His Eminence said that,
DETAIL OF A MINIATURE FROM APOCALYPSE IN BIBLE HISTORIALE (1411), OF THE ANGEL FROM HEAVEN, AND BABYLON FALLEN WITH DEMONS AND UNCLEAN BIRDS. THE BRITISH LIBRARY, LONDON.
“To keep silent about these and the other truths of the Faith and to teach people accordingly is the greatest deception against which the Catechism vigorously warns. It represents the last trial of the Church and leads man to a religious delusion, ‘the price of their apostasy’, it is the fraud of Antichrist.” Cardinal Müller added, “He will deceive those who are lost by all means of injustice, for they have closed themselves to the love of the truth by which they should be saved.”
In the lead up to the Amazon synod, Walter Cardinal Brandmüller, who spoke at this Rome Life Forum last year, said:
“The frightening question arises whether the protagonists of this synod are not more concerned with the attempt secretly to replace religion as man’s answer to the call of its Creator by a pantheistic natural religion of man – namely, by a new variant of Modernism from the beginning of the 20th century.”
“It is difficult not to think of the eschatological texts of the New Testament!” he exclaimed. As the Pachamama scandal broke out during the synod, Cardinal Brandmüller made direct reference to the apocalyptic warnings of Christ, calling the Pachamama idols in the Vatican “the abomination of desolation set up in the holy place”.
Cardinal Brandmüller made the reference while praising the actions of Alexander Tshugguel and the other young man who threw the Pachamama idols into the Tiber River. “These two courageous ‘Maccabees’ who have removed the ‘abomination of desolation in the holy place’ are the prophets of today,” he said. His Eminence Cardinal Burke whom we heard from yesterday and has graced the Rome Life Forum with his presentations and presence every year since our inception in 2014, said in a 2017 interview with Catholic Herald and I quote:
“In the present moment there is confusion and error about the most fundamental teachings of the Church, for example with regard to marriage and the family.”
He then described the debate in the Church over communion and divorce and remarriage saying,
“There is today confusion as to whether there are acts which are intrinsically evil and this, of course, is the foundation of the moral law. When this foundation begins to be questioned within the Church, then the whole order of human life and the order of the Church itself are endangered.”
Adding:
“So there is a feeling that in today’s world that is based on secularism with a completely anthropocentric approach...the Church itself seems to be confused. In that sense one may have the feeling that the Church gives the appearance of being unwilling to obey the mandates of Our Lord. Then perhaps we have arrived at the End Times.”
When the apostles asked Our Lord about the end times, he replied to them as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24. The first sign Christ gives of the time of times was firstly, that the Gospel would be preached over the whole world. And interestingly it was in a homily on 21 February 2001 that Pope St. John Paul II recognized that the Church “has spread to every corner of the globe”. Speaking to a gathering of Cardinals from all over the world the Pope marvelled that there were so many countries and languages represented. “Is this not a sign,” he said, “of the Church’s ability, now that she has spread to
every corner of the globe, to understand peoples with different traditions and languages, in order to bring to all the message of Christ?”
Another sign Our Lord speaks of in Matthew 24:24 is confusion, even of the elect – that is of the faithful, of believers. Never before in Church history, as our eminent Church historian Professor Roberto de Mattei whom we heard from earlier today attests, has there been such confusion among the faithful. Even during the Arian heresy when it seemed all the world was Arian, as many historians have said at least that was only one heresy. Today heresies are legion and the faithful themselves are confused and divided as never before.
In these times, the confusion is most grave as it comes from the Pope himself who is supposed to be the chief guardian of the truths of the faith. Pope Francis has caused dreadful confusion with public statements to the press distorting Church teaching about contraception, cohabitation, homosexuality and transgenderism. The Pope’s personal promotion of LGBT activist-clergy, such as Fr. James Martin and Godfried Cardinal Danneels, have caused scandal.
But beyond even that are the semi-formal changes that go against the teaching of the Church, such as communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.
1. The Acta Apostolicae Sedis – a guidebook for the world’s bishops – refers to the heretical notion that communion for remarried divorcees not living in continence is possible as ‘authentic magisterium’; 2. The change to the Catechism on the death penalty directly contravening the teaching always held by the Church and spelled out explicitly by Pope
Innocent III; 3. The Pope’s allowance for individual bishops to permit Holy Communion for Protestant spouses of Catholic couples; 4. And finally, and most troubling for many listening today is the altering of the Church’s priorities on abortion in Pope Francis’ exhortation Gaudete et exsultate where he teaches the opposite of what
Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI taught regarding the pre-eminence of abortion as an issue of moral concern. In his 2018 exhortation, Pope Francis wrote speaking of immigration and abortion: “Some Catholics consider it a secondary issue compared to the ‘grave’ bioethical questions.” The Pope added: “That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian.” He criticised those who “relativise” these issues, “as if there are other more important matters, or the only thing that counts is one particular ethical issue or cause that they themselves defend”.
More recently we’ve been plagued with confusion over female ordination and optional celibacy for clergy. It is beyond imagination. Recognition of the coronavirus pandemic as a chastisement is only logical from a Catholic perspective. All throughout the Scriptures, the New Testament included, what are today called “natural disasters” are related to God’s displeasure. At Christ’s death there was a horrific earthquake. As we read in Matthew 27:51,
“And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.”
Jesus Himself warns of Divine punishments. He tells his apostles, as recorded in Luke, chapter 10, to wipe off the dust from their sandals as a testimony to those cities which have rejected His teachings, warning, “I say to you, it shall be more tolerable at that day for
LOT'S WIFE LOOKS BACK AT THE FLAMES POURING FROM HEAVEN UPON SODOM; LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS GO ON AHEAD (1583). ENGRAVING BY R. SADELER AFTER M. DE VOS. WELLCOME COLLECTION, LONDON.
Sodom than for that city.” Again, when Jesus heals the invalid man at the Bethesda pool, as recorded in John 5, he tells him, “Behold you are made well: sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” It is very clear in Scripture that God hates idolatry. When the Israelites turned to idolatry as Moses was away on the mountain with God, God was ready to destroy them all, but Moses pleaded for the people of Israel and appeased God’s wrath. You can read about that in Exodus 32.
Cardinal Burke drew attention to idolatry in his comments about the coronavirus as a chastisement. Speaking of coronavirus he said,
“[A] person of faith cannot consider the present calamity in which we find ourselves without considering also how distant our popular culture is from God. It is not only indifferent to His presence in our midst but openly rebellious toward Him and the good order with which He has created us and sustains us in being.”
He added,
“We witness, too, even within the Church, a paganism which worships nature and the earth.”
He continued,
“There are those within the Church who refer to the earth as our mother, as if we came from the earth, and the earth is our salvation. But we come from the hand of God, Creator of Heaven and Earth.”
It is worth noting that just before this virus broke out, the Pope allowed for idolatry in the Vatican Gardens. The Pachamama idolatry that took place there also included prostration before a statue of the Pachamama. The statue was later processed into St. Peter’s Basilica where the Pope and several Cardinals said prayers before it. This act was condemned by many Cardinals, bishops, priests, and laity all over the world.
A letter put out over 100 priests and scholars including the signature of two bishops described the events as follows:
• On 4 October, Pope Francis attended an act of idolatrous worship of the pagan goddess Pachamama. (1) • He allowed this worship to take place in the Vatican Gardens, thus desecrating the vicinity of the graves of the martyrs and of the church of the
Apostle Peter. • He participated in this act of idolatrous worship by blessing a wooden image of Pachamama. (2) • On 7 October, the idol of Pachamama was placed in front of the main altar at St. Peter’s and then carried in procession to the Synod Hall. Pope Francis said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this procession. (3) • When wooden images of this pagan deity were removed from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, where they had been sacrilegiously placed, and thrown into the Tiber by Catholics outraged by this profanation of the church, Pope Francis, on 25
October, apologised for their removal and another wooden image of Pachamama was returned to the church. (4) Thus, a new profanation was initiated. • On 27 October, in the closing Mass for the synod, he accepted a bowl used in the idolatrous worship of Pachamama and placed it on the altar. (5)
Bishop Athanasius Schneider, whom we will have the pleasure of hearing tomorrow at this conference,
called the coronavirus pandemic “a divine intervention to chastise and purify the sinful world and also the Church”. Bishop Schneider singled out the Pope’s allowance of the Pachamama idolatry and communion in the hand as drawing down God’s justice.
He quoted from the book of Revelation in his remarks.
“I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching...that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.”
“I am convinced,” Bishop Schneider commented on that scripture passage,
“that Christ would repeat the same words to Pope Francis and to the other bishops who allowed the idolatrous veneration of the Pachamama and who implicitly approved sexual relationships outside a valid marriage, by allowing the so-called ‘divorced and remarried’ who are sexually active to receive Holy Communion.”
So this coronavirus crisis is a chastisement, it is a wakeup call allowed by God for us to come back to His truth. If God truly didn’t care, He would, as it says in the Scriptures, abandon us to our own lusts, not give us a wake-up call. This time of total separation from the Mass for the greater part of humanity, this isolation, this global fear and awakening to the reality of the frailty of human life is a wake-up call the likes of which the world has never experienced before.
Let us take heed and turn ourselves to God. Let us hear the words of Scripture – in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
That’s us – we are called by His name. We are called to humble ourselves, to pray, seek His face, turn from our wicked ways and He promises to hear us from heaven to forgive our sin and heal our land! But are we recognizing the chastisement for what it is and repenting? The answer for the most part today is NO. In fact, we’re doing exactly the opposite. We’re saying no, it’s not God’s wrath, it’s nature’s wrath! Pope Francis has said numerous times that we have the coronavirus thanks to nature being angry with us for not protecting the environment. It is the result, the Pope said, of ‘nature’ throwing a fit because we have failed to address pollution.
The Mass promulgated in response to the coronavirus has excised references which would recognize the coronavirus as a chastisement. The Congregation of Divine Worship, invoking the authority delegated to it by Pope Francis, issued a text for a special votive mass for pandemics that departs from ancient liturgical tradition by omitting any reference to divine wrath and chastisement for sins.
The new “Mass in Time of Pandemic”, was issued in response to popular request during the current coronavirus crisis. But unlike the Traditional Latin Mass, which includes a “Votive Mass for the Deliverance from Death in Time of Pestilence”, the new “Mass in Time of Pandemic” fails to ask for pardon for sins and removes references to the scourge of God’s wrath.
The entrance hymn of the Traditional Latin Mass (last issued in 1962), implores God to
“be mindful . . . of Thy covenant and to say to the destroying Angel: Now hold thy hand, and let not the land be made desolate, and destroy not every living soul.” However, the new version gives a brief entrance antiphon that merely states,
“Truly the Lord has borne our infirmities, and has carried our sorrows.”
The special collect or opening prayer of the traditional version states,
“O God, who does not want the death of the sinner but that he should repent: welcome with pardon Thy people’s return to Thee: and so long as they are faithful in Thy service, do Thou in Thy clemency withdraw the scourge of Thy wrath. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son…”
The new version’s collect instead asks for help, but without reference to sin or punishment.
But what will a loving God do when His children refuse to listen to His warnings? Will he just give up? No. He will turn up the heat, so that we will sit up and listen. Just like He did in my life to get me to pay attention to Him, to acknowledge that without Him I could do nothing to defeat the evil in my life. If a global pandemic filled with fear and removal of sacraments is not enough what will come next to awaken us? I don’t know.
DETAIL OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT (C.1430) FROM CRUCIFIXION AND LAST JUDGEMENT DIPTYCH. JAN VAN EYCK. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK.
But even before coronavirus we’ve been experiencing another severe punishment that has been afflicting the world for many decades now but more acutely in recent years.
In his book The Priest, His Dignity and Obligations, St. John Eudes writes:
“The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than charity and affection of devoted shepherds …
“When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is visiting His most dreadful anger upon them.”
While I can’t predict what will come to wake us up beyond coronavirus, I do know what will come when we finally do turn around and repent.
As we read again in 2 Chronicles 7:14,
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
In truth, we – we Catholics – are all guilty of idolatry in some ways – how many times have we given in to lust, to gluttony, to pride, to anger, to laziness, to jealousy, to greed?
And it is our very sins and especially those of abortion, lust, and sodomy which have drawn down upon us the chastisement of God. So when we – we Christians – who are called by His name repent, God will forgive us and heal our land. But even more than that. When we fulfill Our Lady’s requests for Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays and the Holy Father responds to the explicit request of Our Lady of Fatima as Cardinal Burke spoke of yesterday to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, we will see the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. That is – a glorious never-before seen peace on earth. A time of great rejoicing and faithfulness is coming and in fact is around the corner.
