There was a time when there were real, honest-to-goodness Catholic Archbishops of Canterbury. Let's see here, that would be from the time of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in 597 A.D. to the time of Reginald Cardinal Pole in 1558, a period of nearly a millennium. The fortieth legitimate Archbishop of Canterbury is the saint whose feast we celebrate today, Saint Thomas a Becket, who was indeed a martyr for the Church's liberties.

Saint Thomas a Becket asserted the rights of Christ the King as the Archbishop of Canterbury, insisting that clerics accused of civil crimes be tried in ecclesiastical, not civil, courts. This led him to clash with his onetime friend, King Henry II of the House of Plantagenet. Prefiguring another English king named Henry (this one, number The Eighth, from the House of Tudor), Henry II could not abide his former friend's resistance to his, Henry's attempt to assert royal power over the Church, leading him to uttering the words that would inspire three of his barons to murder the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, on this date in 1170, eight hundred thirty-nine years ago now. The latter Henry, the one called "The Eighth," had Saint Thomas a Becket's relics destroyed as his martyrdom was a reminder to one and all that the Church has Divine Rights superior to those of the civil state.

King Henry II had to do public penance for uttering the words that resulted in the martyrdom of Saint Thomas a Becket. His son, King John I, having been slow to learn the lessons of his public penance, was forced by his barons and noblemen in the year 1215 to sign the Magna Carta to guarantee the rights of the Church under civil law in England. This was a victory for the liberties of the Catholic Church that had been won by the blood of this great champion of the Social Reign of Christ the King, Saint Thomas a Becket, whose intercession we seek this day and every day for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King in all nations, including the United States of America.

Indeed, the situation we face in the United States of America today is the direct result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Judeo-Masonry. Nations founded in the belief that men can pursue the common temporal good without subordinating themselves to the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ entrusted exclusively to His Catholic Church for Its eternal safekeeping and infallible explications who believe that they can be "good" and "virtuous" on their own powers without belief in, access to or cooperation with Sanctifying Grace--are bound to degenerate over the course of time. Statism is the only end result of the process of decay that must occur when nations reject the simple truth that Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal and social order. And it is the statists of the present moment, starting with Barack Hussein Obama, who sacrifice the legitimate national sovereignty and national security of their own nations in order to demonstrate their "solidarity" with "bettering" the world on a "global" basis.

A continued blessed Christmas and a blessed Feast of Saint Thomas a Becket to you all!

The kind Catholic gentleman who maintains this site for me has fixed the problem that was blocking the posting of new articles. I will spend some time this evening updating the Articles page before doing some more work on part seven of "Sober Up" so that it can be posted on Saturday, December 31, 2016, the Feast of Pope Saint Sylvester.

Our Lady, Mother of God, pray for us.

Saint Thomas a Becket, pray for us.

Today, the Fourth Day within the Octave of Christmas, is the Feast the Holy Innocents, the children who were put to death at the orders of the jealous titular King of Judea who had been installed by the Roman occupiers to pacify resistance to their unjust occupation of the Holy Land. King Herod the Great, whose sons Herod and Philip were no less corrupt and violent than he was, wanted to kill the Baby King Whom he thought to be a threat to his own political suzerainty, such as it was as a puppet ruler under the Roman occupiers. It meant nothing to him to wipe out so many innocent children in his quest to kill the Baby King, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who was born in Bethlehem to save, his, Herod the Great's, own immortal soul by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

There have been imitators of Herod the Great throughout history who have sought to put to death the followers of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in an insane effort to wipe the Faith off of the face of this earth. The names of these imitators are legion. Their likes are to be found in our own midst today as politicians of both major organized crime families of naturalism in the United States of America, the Democrat Party and the Republican Party, believe that a just social order can be established and maintained while innocent preborn human beings are slaughtered under cover of law and while the Sovereignty of Christ the King is denied in favor of the sovereignty of men and their false, naturalistic, semi-Pelagian and anti-Incarnational ideas.

That having been noted, however, it is important to point out that the Holy Innocents are honored as saints because they died in the place of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as a political potentate drunk with his own self-importance sought to kill the Newborn Baby King with a furious rage. The slaughter of the innocent preborn today, as horrible as it is and as deserving of our attention especially by means of praying Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary and by means of sidewalk counseling, is different in that the children being killed today are not being targeted specifically in the place of Our Lord.

Unlike the speculative conclusions offered by the "International Theological Commission" of the counterfeit church of conciliarism in 2007, the Catholic Church has never held out "hope" that the souls of unbaptized infants go to Heaven, which is why the crime of the killing of the preborn is so monstrous as it kills the souls of those involved in the execution and denies the slaughtered babies the glory of the Beatific Vision. The Holy Innocents are saints because they were targeted quite specifically because of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and thus shed their blood on His account.

We need to invoke the intercession of the Holy Innocents today and every day to stop the shedding of the blood of the innocent under cover of law, praying to them especially that Catholics blinded by the allure of various naturalistic "strategies" to end the social evils of the day will be reminded of this truth stated by Pope Saint Pius X in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910:

For there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion: it is a proven truth, a historical fact. (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ must reign as King of men and nations, my friends. Accept no naturalistic substitutes from the "Herods" of this world and their enablers in the counterfeit church of conciliarism who reject the Social Reign of the Newborn King, Our Divine Redeemer Whom Herod the Great sought to kill.

Saint John the Evangelist, a son of Zebedee, was the youngest of the twelve Apostles. He was a virgin, a man who offered to His Divine Master, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, pure love in a heart that was not sullied by the world, the flesh and the devil. This youngest Apostle with the purest heart was permitted to lean on Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's chest, wherein beat His Most Sacred Heart, at the Last Supper. And it was this purity of heart possessed by Saint John the Evangelist that led him to be present at the foot of the Holy Cross and to be given the singular privilege by Our Divine Redeemer of caring for His own Most Blessed Mother until the time of her death and bodily Assumption into Heaven.

Despite what the now retired Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI contended blasphemously in his Jesus of Nazareth book concerning the "disputed" nature of the human authorship of the Fourth Gospel, Saint John the Evangelist is indeed the human author of the Fourth Gospel and of his epistles and the Book of the Apocalypse. Saint John is the Evangelist of the Incarnation of the Word whose Gospel provides us with Scriptural proofs for the doctrine of the Eucharist and for the Sacrament of Penance. And the Charity preached by Saint John the Evangelist was no exercise in empty sentimentality. For it was Saint John himself who wrote:

" Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him. In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy. " (1 John 5: 1-3.)

This reflection has been revised and expanded in several places.

A new article was posted very early this morning. Please scroll below for "Jerusalem Belongs to Christ the King and His Catholic Church, part one/Sober Up, part six."

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us to remain faithful to the Catholic Faith.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

There are times when the completion of an article has to be done during the overnight hours. This is one of those times.

Although I had planned to focus on Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the global leader of leftism, a fact that is already currying support for Donald John Trump among "conservatives," the recent action of the United Nations Security Council condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank required some considerable attention. Jerusalem is not "eternal home of Israel"as Trump's nominee to be American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believe. Jersusalem belongs to Christ the King and His true Church. No one else.

Sober up.

Donald John Trump is a Judaizer, and this is not a good thing.

A revised reflection on Saint John the Evangelist will appear later today.

A continued blessed Christmas to you all, however many or few are still out there reading this site!

Our Lady, Mother of God, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

The shadow of the Holy Cross hung over the cave in Bethlehem even as the shepherds who had been called by angels from the nearby fields adored the Infant King alongside the Mother of God and her Most Chaste Spouse, Saint Joseph. Holy Mother Church directs our attention to this fact today as we focus on the truth that the Birth of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in Bethlehem on Christmas Day was to make possible our own spiritual rebirth in the Baptismal font and our birth unto eternal life at the moment of our deaths if we persist to the very end in states of Sanctifying Grace. The path to our salvation runs directly through the Holy Cross and it requires us to be willing to sacrifice riches and honors and pleasures and human respect and even our very lives to bear witness to Christ the King a He has revealed Himself to men exclusively through the Catholic Church that He founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr was willing to lay down his life as he preached the Gospel of the Divine Redeemer in an attempt to convert the Jews who were listening to him and engaging him in disputation. He exhibited the Virtue of Fortitude as he proclaimed the Gospel in the midst of insults an threats. And Saint Stephen the Protomartyr exhibited the Virtue of Charity as he prayed for his executioners, one of whom was the fire-breathing anti-Catholic zealot named Saul of Tarsus. Saint Stephen's prayers at the time of his martyrdom and from eternity thereafter won the conversion of Saul, who became the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saint Paul the Apostle.

Saint Stephen wanted to effect the conversion of his executioners. He did not seek to reaffirm them in their act of murder or to reaffirm them in the practice of Judaism. Saint Stephen did not dismiss or denigrate the gravity of their crimes. He simply did not hold those crimes against his persecutors as he prayed for their conversion.

We must pray always for those who hate us, for those who calumniate us, for those who have done us some injury in the past, for those who have rejected us for one reason or another. Praying for and forgiving those from whom we are estranged is not an option for a Catholic. It is an obligation of the interior life imposed directly by the God-Man Himself in the Sermon on the Mount. If He forgives us so readily in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance, why are we so slow to forgive others who owe us but an infinitesimally small portion of what we owe Him for our own forgiven sins? As the late Father John Hardon, S.J., noted in a conference in Sterling Heights, Michigan, at which I gave two presentations, "God permits us to sin so that we can forgive each other. Let me repeat myself here: God permit us to sin so that we can forgive each other." A sinner who is contrite and thankful to God never withholds forgiveness from his fellow sinner. Saint Stephen teaches us that lesson today. Are we going to learn it once and for all?

As I fell asleep while attempting to revise this reflection last night, it was not possible to have this available for posting earlier today. I now understand why my late paternal grandmother, Adrienne Delfausse Droleskey, fell asleep in her chair on occasion when she was only about three or four years older than I am now! Well, it's back to work on part six of "Sober Up," which I promise will be worth the wait.

A continued merry and most blessed Christmas to you all.

Although late in the evening of Christmas Day, an original reflection has been written for the readers of this site to consider.

"Sober Up," part six, will appear at some point tomorrow, the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomatyr, about whom a revised reflection will be posted in a few hours.

A continued blessed Christmas to you all.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is nigh today. He comes to us in Midnight in piercing cold in Bethlehem.

Have we prepared to "make haste," that is, to flee from the world and its false attractions and promises and "saviours" to welcome Him in our hearts and souls by means of Holy Communion?

Have we asked His Most Blessed Mother, Who brought Him forth miraculously in the cave when there was no room for Him in the inn, to help us to make room for Him in the "inns" of our hearts and souls.

Have we asked the Patron of the Universal Church and the Protector of the Faithful, Good Saint Joseph, to protect and to guide us as we seek out His Divine foster-Son as He is born for us on Altars of Sacrifice in the Catholic catacombs?

Are we prepared to make this day, Christmas Eve, the Vigil of Christmas, one final day of penance as we abstain from the eating of meat and as we have but one full meal?

Are we prepared to celebrate this Christmas with joy and with thanksgiving as the Word Who was made Flesh in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of God the Holy Ghost beckons us to adore Him in His Real Presence day in and day out?

Make haste, the Lord is nigh.

Midnight is coming.

Are we ready?

Make haste.

Prepare well.

Our Saviour is to be born for us!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

[Update on Friday, December 23, 2016: Part six of "Sober Up" is nearing completion. As it focuses on how many Catholics will naturally gravitate in defense of Donald John Trump when he is criticized by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whose affinity for pro-abortion, pro-perversity pantheists in public life is a well-established fact, a great deal of effort is being to illustrate how Bergoglio's opposition to Trump will give many Catholics in the conciliar structures an incentive to "go easy" on the new president when he does things to promote the lavender agenda of perversity or to serve as a willing stooge of Zionism while further denigrating any remaining respect they may have for the office of the paper. Although the article will be completed by late this evening or tomorrow afternoon, it will not be published until the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr. There will be several revised Christmas reflections that will be published in the interim. Thank you for your patience.]

This is a slightly revised—and very brief reflection—on the heroic missionary work of the saint whose feast we celebrate today, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, a naturalized citizen of the United States who is the first and thus far only citizen of this country to be canonized by a true and legitimate Successor of Saint Peter.

Let me try to put it to you this way: Mother Cabrini’s insistence on the highest standards of personal modesty and her concern about Italian immigrants being converted by the materialistic and decadent ways of Protestant and Judeo-Masonic American culture, to say nothing of her love of mortifications and sufferings, would have earned her an “apostolic visitator” sent by Jorge Mario Bergoglio to “reform” her “Pelagian” ways if she lived at this time of apostasy and betrayal.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle.

Saint Thomas did not believe that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had risen from the dead on Easter Sunday. Our Lord told the doubting Apostle to press his finger into His nail marks and to press his hand into His wounded side. Saint Thomas believed. Along with the other Apostles, including the one who replaced Judas Iscariot, Saint Matthias, Saint Thomas became a bold proclaimer of the Catholic Faith, going to India, where he sacrificed his life for the Holy Faith.

Saint Thomas the Apostle touched the flesh of the Risen Saviour with his own hands. He then went on to touch the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of that same Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with his own priestly hands as he uttered the words at Holy Mass that made the Messias incarnate under the appearances of bread and wine. The very words Saint Thomas uttered after he had touched Our Lord on Low Sunday, Dominus meus et Deus meus, are what we pray every time a true priest utters these words at Holy Mass: "Hoc Est Enim Corpus Meum."

As we prepare the celebration of Christmas Day four days from now, we should ask Saint Thomas to help us reverence Our Lord in His Real Presence with greater fervor as we grow stronger in the Faith with every passing day, consecrated as we are to Our Lord through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

This brief reflection has been revised and enlarged, and there is preface with a link to "Sober Up, part two," which is a commentary on the efforts of Raymond Leo "Cardinal" Burke and three other conciliar "cardinals" to defend the Catholic doctrine on the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony by using conciliar teaching. One cannot use error to oppose error, and a proposed "papal correction" based on error is not correction at all. The false religion is what is at fault, and Jorge Mario Bergoglio is only its faithful evangelist.

Part six of "Sober Up" should appear by Friday, December 23 2016.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.