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Divided by Error, United in Amorality
Although I am not quite at the point of proclaiming a moratorium on commentary about the farcical insanity of American electoral politics as I had done in 2004 after the neoconservative war monger and profligate expander of the national security state named George Walker Bush and then United States Senator Richard John Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) endorsed and campaigned for the fully pro-abortion, pro-sodomite United States Senator Arlen “Magic Bullet” Specter (D-R-D-Pennsylvania) in his primary battle against then United States Representation Patrick Toomey, who was partly pro-life and partly pro-death (see Blame George Walker Bush), I am getting pretty close to that point as it does get more than a little exhausting to have to repeat points concerning the fatally flawed nature of the anti-Incarnational civil state of Modernity as much I as have done in my writing, especially in the last twenty-seven years since the launch of Christ or Chaos as a printed journal.in September 1996.
While I understand how thoroughly natural it is even for Catholics to get caught up in the dog and pony shows that pass for electoral politics and public policy debate in the post-Catholic world of Modernity, it is also way past time for Catholics to sober up, to coin a phrase, and to recognize that the world in which we live is founded in error, divided by error, and united in amorality, an amorality that is a defining characteristic of the demagogue named Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and of the man he is likely to face in the general election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Donald John Trump. Examples of their union in amorality will be given in part two of this commentary tomorrow, the Feast of Saint Eustace and his Companions.
As a prelude to tomorrow’s commentary, however, I want to reiterate some of the points that I have grown so weary making so repeatedly over the years as distracted by the agitation caused by this or that latest crisis or this or that “bombshell” (stop with the “bombshell” headlines everyone, please!) revelation contained in some overhyped news report or expose, it is very difficult, I understand for fallen men, including Catholics, not to be drawn like moths to a flame and thus to seek this or that naturalistic “solution” to solve intractable problems that have their ultimate root cause in Original Sin and their proximate causes in our own Actual Sins and/to project their own hopes, desires, and beliefs into the minds of empty men who promise to defeat the “bad guys” and restore order in a world which has been defaced not only by our sins but the persistence of so many people in hardened lives of sins that they become intractably institutionalized as “rights” that cannot be opposed lest one be deemed a professional “hater.”
Alas, the lies upon which the anti-Incarnational civil state of Modernity was based are responsible for spawning and sustaining the diabolical trap posed by the false opposites of the naturalist “left” and the naturalist “right,” which involves a never-ending series of agitations over matters about which human beings are not free to debate and, additionally, over problems caused by the destruction of family stability caused by the Protestant Revolution’s endorsement of divorce, which led in turn to the endorsement of contraception, abortion, sterilization, sodomy, and human gender mutilation, and the statist totalitarianism that cannot be stopped by means merely natural.
For the sake of reiteration, therefore, as I know that people forget and that there might be new readers to this website, let me explain yet again what I mean by the false opposites of the naturalist "left" and the naturalist "right":
I refer to the "false opposites" of the "left" and the "right" because, despite their differences about the powers of "government" over its citizens," both the "left" and the "right" reject Catholicism as the one and only foundation of personal and social order.
The adherents of the "left" and the "right" believe that it is neither prudent or necessary to acknowledge that the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of His Most Blessed Mother has changed human history. Such adherents also reject any suggestions that both men and their nations must be subordinate to Christ the King and the authority of His true Church on all that pertains to the good of souls and that the civil government has an obligation to pursue the common temporal good in light of man's Last End.
A belief in the ability to “change” a country by elections and laws is as ingrained in the American psyche as the belief that it is possible to “save” what is thought to be the Catholic Church from the “bad revolutionaries” by means of some kind of “action,” including various petition drives. If one thinks about the matter for a moment, one will see that the latter belief, which gives rise to so many false hopes among “conservative” and “traditionally-minded’ Catholics in the conciliar structures, stems directly from the Americanist belief that some kind of “action” is going to save the country from a destiny shaped by its founding principles that were premised upon man’s supposed inherent ability to maintain himself in virtue without belief in, access to, or cooperation with Sanctifying Grace. In other words, the American governmental and electoral systems are shaped by the heresy of Pelagaianism, the falsehood that human beings are able to stir up all the graces they necessary to do whatever they desire to do. This belief in human self-redemption is at the foundation of Lockean liberalism, which is the grandfather of all political ideologies of the false opposites of the “left” and “right.”
No matter the differences between "conservatives" and "liberals," my friends, they both have one mind and one heart in the belief that man does not need the teaching and sanctifying offices of the Catholic Church to guide them in their private and social lives. This is, of course, the triumph of the Judeo-Masonic spirit of naturalism that was dissected so well by Pope Leo XIII. It matters little as to who is or is not a formally enrolled member of the "lodges" when most Catholics and non-Catholics alike are infected with the ethos of naturalism.
Similarly, any civil leader who believes that can, either by himself or with others, pursue genuine order without the help of Our Lady and the use of her Most Holy Rosary is a fool. We must give public honor to Christ the King and to Mary our Immaculate Queen.
That's the point I try to make repeatedly on this site.
Nothing has changed since I wrote the following in June 2011 as the midget naturalists of the false opposite of the naturalist “right” were beginning the circus leading up to the 2012 presidential caucuses and primaries:
1) It is impossible to fight naturalism with naturalism. The statism of the elitist named Barack Hussein Obama, who believes that he has a right to stifle dissent and to limit press "unfavorable" press coverage of his administration (see Dangerous Precedent for Press), is but the other side of the false opposite of naturalism that is the so-called "right" as it is impossible to retard the growth of the size, the scope and power of the civil state over the course of the long term by any means other than a due subordination of men and their nations to the Social Reign of Christ the King as It must be exercised by Holy Mother Church. No amount of advertence to "constitutional principles" will "save the day" as a written constitution that admits of no ultimate authority for its proper interpretation in light of man's Last End, the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost in Heaven for all eternity, will be as utterly defenseless against positivists in the civil realm as the words of Holy Writ are in the hands of Protestants and modernist Catholics. We need Catholicism, my friends. We need the Social Reign of Christ the King.
2) None of the naturalists running for the Republican nomination understand the principal purpose of civil government. It is impossible to "restore" order in a society steeped in the madness of naturalism, emphasizing material well-being as the ultimate end of human existence without realizing that material prosperity is transitory and is only a by-product of right-living by citizens in conformity with the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law and of the pursuit of justice in the civil realm by public officials who are mindful that they must govern according to the Mind of Christ the King as He has discharged It exclusively in the Catholic Church. Our popes have taught us this very clearly, teaching us that the only end result that can occur when Our Lord is not recognized as King is the pursuit of material well-being and that public life would be stained by crime:
For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling."
And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right." But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests? (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)
So, too, the liberty of thinking, and of publishing, whatsoever each one likes, without any hindrance, is not in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. On the contrary, it is the fountain-head and origin of many evils. Liberty is a power perfecting man, and hence should have truth and goodness for its object. But the character of goodness and truth cannot be changed at option. These remain ever one and the same, and are no less unchangeable than nature itself. If the mind assents to false opinions, and the will chooses and follows after what is wrong, neither can attain its native fullness, but both must fall from their native dignity into an abyss of corruption. Whatever, therefore, is opposed to virtue and truth may not rightly be brought temptingly before the eye of man, much less sanctioned by the favor and protection of the law. A well-spent life is the only way to heaven, whither all are bound, and on this account the State is acting against the laws and dictates of nature whenever it permits the license of opinion and of action to lead minds astray from truth and souls away from the practice of virtue. To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from the business of life, from the making of laws, from the education of youth, from domestic society is a grave and fatal error. A State from which religion is banished can never be well regulated; and already perhaps more than is desirable is known of the nature and tendency of the so-called civil philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. She it is who preserves in their purity the principles from which duties flow, and, by setting forth most urgent reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to turn away from wicked deeds, but even to curb all movements of the mind that are opposed to reason, even though they be not carried out in action. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)
This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime. (Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900.)
That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. It limits the action of the State to the pursuit of public prosperity during this life only, which is but the proximate object of political societies; and it occupies itself in no fashion (on the plea that this is foreign to it) with their ultimate object which is man's eternal happiness after this short life shall have run its course. But as the present order of things is temporary and subordinated to the conquest of man's supreme and absolute welfare, it follows that the civil power must not only place no obstacle in the way of this conquest, but must aid us in effecting it. The same thesis also upsets the order providentially established by God in the world, which demands a harmonious agreement between the two societies. Both of them, the civil and the religious society, although each exercises in its own sphere its authority over them. It follows necessarily that there are many things belonging to them in common in which both societies must have relations with one another. Remove the agreement between Church and State, and the result will be that from these common matters will spring the seeds of disputes which will become acute on both sides; it will become more difficult to see where the truth lies, and great confusion is certain to arise. Finally, this thesis inflicts great injury on society itself, for it cannot either prosper or last long when due place is not left for religion, which is the supreme rule and the sovereign mistress in all questions touching the rights and the duties of men. Hence the Roman Pontiffs have never ceased, as circumstances required, to refute and condemn the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. (Pope Saint Pius X, Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906.)
By the way, one of the correlative proofs of how the conciliar "popes" have defected from the Catholic Faith is that they have done what our true Roman Pontiffs have never ceased to do, to "refute and condemn the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. To refresh your memories on this point, please see Mocking Pope Saint Pius X and Our Lady of Fatima.
3) Each of the Republican naturalists aspiring to be our next caesar support one or more grave evils under cover of the civil law. Each supports contraception, thereby denying the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity and fecundity marriage. All except Herman Cain, who has little chance of securing the Republican Party presidential nomination, support the direct, intentional killing of innocent human beings in their mothers' wombs in some "exceptional" circumstances. One, Obama's former Ambassador to Red China, Jon Huntsman, Jr., supports "civil union" status for those engaged in perverted against in violation of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Two possible candidates, former New York Governor George Elmer Pataki and former New York City Mayor Rudolph William Giuliani, are out-and-out pro-abort Catholics. Each of the presidential aspirants, save for United States Representative Ron Paul, is a bought-and-paid-for subsidiary of the Israeli lobby and are full-throated supporters of the fascism represented by the "Patriot Act" to fight the "Global War on Terror." None of them would understand that the legitimacy of their own candidacies is sunk by these words, written in the Sixteenth Century by Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, and quoted by Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929, because they believe in and support various evils that have caused the very social and economic disorder that they seek to redress by means of their candidacies:
The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society. This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity. (Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, quoted by Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929.)
4) Each of the Republican naturalists fails to recognize that they need to be openly devoted to and publicly reliant upon the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and of earth, to advance the common temporal good in light of man's Last End. Orestes Brownson discussed this exact point in the middle of the Nineteenth Century:
I have spoken of the influence of devotion to Mary in elevating maternity and with it, womanhood. The nations are in need of this influence still. Christendom is lapsing anew into heathenism, and the abominations I have referred to as existing in heathen nations, are reviving in nations that profess to be Christian, and even to a lamentable extent in the bosom of nations that call themselves Catholic. Faith has become weak, charity has given way to a watery philanthropy, and the worship of Mary is branded as idolatry or as besottish superstition. Every thing is Profaned, the church, the state, God, man, and woman; and society, while boasting of its progress, seems to be rapidly lapsing into barbarism. Never did the nations more need the church, or the pastoral authority of the vicar of Christ; never was there a greater need of the prayers and intercession of her whom we invoke as Health of the Weak, Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, and Help of Christians. No small part of the world, once Christian, and adoring the Cross, needs converting anew. The crescent profanes the sacred dome of Saint Sophia, and more than two-thirds of the population of the globe are infidels or pagans; while heresy, schism, incredulity, indifferentism, dishonor Christ and our Lady in fair lands that still retain the Christian name. The work of converting and purifying the world is not finished, and is apparently, to a great extent, to be done over again.
If there is any truth in the view I have presented of the moral and social influence of devotion to the virgin-mother of God, it is to that devotion, as a powerful means of reconverting and repurifying Christian nations, and of converting and purifying heathen nations, that we must have recourse. The enemy of man to be overcome, is the same old enemy of God. Man would be God, not in God's way, but in his own; he would stand on himself, and suffice for himself. In the pride of his strength, and the light of his own intellect, he refuses to bend to the Highest, and to learn of the Wisest, and his strength turns to weakness, his light to darkness, and his manhood disappears. He loses heart, and likens himself to a worm, and crouches, and grovels. What can restore him? Not to-day need we fear an excess of faith, an excess of devotion. The enemy is a cold, freezing rationalism, which, pretending to be reason, becomes lifeless materialism. Nothing can overcome him but devotion to her who, as the mother of God, was to crush the serpent's head. We must call on Mary to call on God with us, and for us, to help us as he did the first Christians.
In conclusion, I will say that efforts to increase devotion to the Blessed Virgin are, to me, among the most encouraging signs that God has not forgotten us; that there are still faith and love on the earth, and that there is still a recuperative principle in Christian society. I thank God, for society itself, that there are still those who delight to call themselves children of Mary, and to keep alive in our cold, heartless world, the memory of her virtues. While she is loved and reverenced there is hope for society, and most grateful am I to God that the hard reasonings of this reasonless age, and the chilling sneers of the proud, the conceited, the worldly, the corrupt, have not frightened all out of their deep, ardent, and simple devotion to her who is blessed among women. If I have not been able to speak fit words in honor of our Lady, as I fear I have not, let me at least avow that I honor and cherish, in my heart of hearts, an who honor her, and show their devotion to her, by imitating her virtues. They are the real philanthropists they are tile real moral, the true social reformers, and are doing more for society, for the progress of virtue, intelligence, wisdom, than all our statesmen and philosophers put together. They love and honor God, in loving and honoring his mother, and I love and honor them, and, all unworthy as I am, I pray them to have the charity to implore her to bestow on me a mother's blessing, and to obtain for me the grace, when my life's pilgrimage is ended, to behold the face of her divine Son, my Lord, and my God. (Orestes Brownson, Moral and Social Influence of Devotion to Mary.)
5) Whether of the "left" or of the "right," the men who govern us are Pelagians, people who think that human beings are more or less self-redemptive, that they can stir up the graces within themselves that are necessary to correct wrongs and to change course of history. Consider once again Father Frederick William Faber's explosion of this heresy:
All devotions have their characteristics; all of them have their own theological meanings. We must say something, therefore, upon the characteristics of the devotion to the Precious Blood. In reality the whole Treatise has more or less illustrated this matter. But something still remains to be said, and something will bear to be repeated. We will take the last first. Devotion to the Precious Blood is the devotional expression of the prominent and characteristic teaching of St. Paul. St. Paul is the apostle of redeeming grace. A devout study of his epistles would be our deliverance from most of the errors of the day. He is truly the apostle of all ages. To each age doubtless he seems to have a special mission. Certainly his mission to our is very special. The very air we breathe is Pelagian. Our heresies are only novel shapes of an old Pelagianism. The spirit of the world is eminently Pelagian. Hence it comes to pass that wrong theories among us are always constructed round a nuclear of Pelagianism; and Pelagianism is just the heresy which is least able to breathe in the atmosphere of St. Paul. It is the age of the natural as opposed to the supernatural, of the acquired as opposed to the infused, of the active as opposed to the passive. This is what I said in an earlier chapter, and here repeat. Now, this exclusive fondness for the natural is on the whole very captivating. It takes with the young, because it saves thought. It does not explain difficulties; but it lessens the number of difficulties to be explained. It takes with the idle; it dispenses from slowness and research. It takes with the unimaginative, because it withdraws just the very element in religion which teases them. It takes with the worldly, because it subtracts the enthusiasm from piety and the sacrifice from spirituality. It takes with the controversial, because it is a short road and a shallow ford. It forms a school of thought which, while it admits that we have an abundance of grace, intimates that we are not much better for it. It merges privileges in responsibilities, and makes the sovereignty of God odious by representing it as insidious. All this whole spirit, with all its ramifications, perishes in the sweet fires of devotion to the Precious Blood.
The time is also one of libertinage; and a time of libertinage is always, with a kind of practical logic, one of infidelity. Whatever brings out God's side in creation, and magnifies his incessant supernatural operation in it, is the controversy which infidelity can least withstand. Now, the devotion to the Precious Blood does this in a very remarkable way. It shows that the true significance in every thing is to be found in the scheme of redemption, apart from which it is useless to discuss the problems of creation. (Father Frederick Faber, The Precious Blood, written in 1860, republished by TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 258-259.)
Those who want to think that we will make "progress" in 2012 will do so they get all worked up about debt ceilings and Medicare reform and repealing ObamaDeCare and the state of the economy without for one moment recognizing that men must do penance for their own sins that have worsened the state of the world and made them sad in their own lives as they have become the mere creatures of the state more and and more. We are living in a time of major chastisement as the lords of conciliarism who present themselves as officials of the Catholic Church, who should be looked to by the powerful in the world for leadership are but laughing stocks who have enabled moral and civil crimes while they have committed crimes against God by means of blasphemous speech and the promotion of heretical doctrines, have played their their own insidious role in helping to reaffirm men and their nations that something short of Catholicism is "good enough" in the eyes of God to please Him. It is not.
Each of the naturalists running for the Republican Party presidential nomination in the year 2012 has this or that "plan" to improve the economy or to secure the nation or to reform this or that program. No one but one believes in the Divine Plan that God Himself instituted to effect man's return to Him through the Catholic Church as each is a son or daughter of the rotten fruit of that Divine Plan's violent overthrow wrought by the Protestant Revolution and institutionalized by the forces of Judeo-Masonry that are committed to the elimination of the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, from public discourse as all manner of evils become accepted gradually over time as "regrettable realities" about which we can do very little. After all, we have to win an election. right? Things will get "better" after that. This is but sheer deception.
Men, whether acting individually or collectively, deceive themselves if they think that they can make the world a "better" place absent a profound devotion to Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary. Our Lady told us in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, ninety-four years ago that we must pray the Rosary to console the good God and to make reparation for our sins as we pray for the conversion of poor sinners and for the faithful fulfillment of her Fatima Message. This is a work of the Mercy of the Divine Redeemer, Who is giving us every chance to repent and convert. Why do men still persist in their obstinate refusal to take Our Lady's Fatima Message seriously and to organize Rosary processions and rallies to counter the naturalism of the day and to serve as valiant champions of Christ the King?
Let me reiterate some passages that I wrote over seven months ago now:
The following words of Pope Pius XI, contained in his first encyclical letter, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922, are eternally true as it is impossible for the falsehoods of naturalism to do anything other than to worsen the situation of men and their nations:
Because men have forsaken God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of evil. They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. It was a quite general desire that both our laws and our governments should exist without recognizing God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority comes from men, not from God. Because of such an assumption, these theorists fell very short of being able to bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it must possess but also that secure basis for the supreme criterion of justice which even a pagan philosopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived except from the divine law. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)
This is all as true in 2023 as it was when it was written in 2011.
Error divides. Catholicism unites.
Protestantism has divided into a welter of warring, contradictory sects, numbering well over thirty-three thousand. Its errors have influenced the development and progression of conciliarism, which has seen a situation arise where the divisions between formerly Catholic parishes are so pronounced that many "conservative" and traditionally-minded Catholics attached to the conciliar structures go to great lengths to avoid the "ultra-progressive" revolutionaries who believe in a different faith than they do. Catholicism is supposed to speak with one voice, una voce, as it is the voice of Christ the King, Who has but one voice. It is no accident that our nation and the world is seeing more overt manifestations of evil and error when the lords of conciliarism have made their own "reconciliation" with the principles of Modernity, starting with religious liberty and separation of Church and State.
Error divides. Catholicism unites.
We are fighting the forces of darkness that can be defeated only if we base our efforts in the temporal realm upon a firm, unshakable and uncompromising commitment to the Social Reign of Christ the King and a tender reliance upon her Most Holy Rosary and fidelity to her Fatima Message. Anyone who believes in political ecumenism, mixing false religious beliefs with the tenets of the true Faith or with Freemasonry and outright atheism, has no business speaking to Catholics about "solutions" to the social problems that have been caused, proximately speaking, by the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Judeo-Masonry.
How can any Catholic not take seriously these words of Saint Augustine, quoted by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832, concerning the fact that there must no place whatsoever for errors concerning First and Last Things in our lives?
This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty. (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)
Error kills the soul. Catholicism makes it possible for one to save his immortal soul.
Pope Leo XIII, writing in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890, explained that there is a never a time when a Catholic can speak as a naturalist or as a political ecumenist. We must speak and think and act always as Catholics:
The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)
We must be champions of Christ the King and Our Lady, she who is our Immaculate Queen, champions of the Catholic Church in this time of apostasy and betrayal, champions of the truth that Catholicism is the and only foundation of personal and social order. Those who disagree do so at the peril to the nation they say they love but for which they have a false sense of nationalistic pride that impedes her conversion to the true Faith, which is what Our Lord Himself mandates for each nation on the face of this earth.
We must not be distracted by the side shows of naturalism or conciliarism. We must serve as champions of Christ the King through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially by praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits, refusing to march along in the parade of the blood-stained midget naturalists.
On the Feast of Saint Januarius
Januarius is ever preaching the Gospel to every creature; for his miraculous blood perpetuates the testimony he bore to Christ. Let those who say they cannot believe unless they see, go to Naples; there they will behold the martyr’s blood, when placed near his head which was cut off sixteen hundred years ago, to liquefy and boil as at the moment it escaped from his sacred veins. No; miracles are not lacking in the Church at the present day. True, God cannot subject Himself to the fanciful requirements of those proud men, who would dictate to Him the conditions of the prodigies they must needs witness ere they will bow before His infinite Majesty. Nevertheless, His intervention in interrupting the laws of nature framed by Him and by Him alone to be suspended, has never yet failed the man of good faith in any period of history. At present there is less dearth than ever of such manifestations.
The Divine Office for today’s feast provides us with a summary of Saint Januarius’s life, work, and martyrdom:
At that time time the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian were furiously raging against Christians, Januarius, Bishop of Benevento, was taken to Nola, to Timothy, President of Campania, on the charge of professing the Christian faith. There his firmness was tried diverse ways, and he was cast into a burning fiery furnace, but came forth thence unhurt, for neither upon his raiment nor upon the hairs of his head did the flame take any hold. Thereupon the wrath of the President was enkindled, and he commanded the martyr to be torn limb from limb. But in the meanwhile Januarius' Deacon Festus and his Reader Desiderius were taken, and the whole three were led in bonds to Puzzuoli in front of the President's carriage, and there thrown into the same prison wherein were already held four other Christians condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, that is to say, Sosius, a Deacon of Miseno Proculus, a Deacon of Puzzuoli and two laymen, named respectively Eutyches and Acutius.
The next day all seven were exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre, but these creatures forgot their natural fierceness, and lay down at the feet of Januarius. Timothy would have it that this came from charms, and commanded the witnesses of Christ to be beheaded. Thereupon he became of a sudden blind, until Januarius had prayed for him by the which miracle nearly five thousand persons were turned to Christ. But this good turn roused up no gratitude in the President, yea, rather, the conversion of so many drave him wild, and in his hot fear to obey the decrees of the Emperors he commanded that the holy Bishop and his companions should be smitten with the sword.
The cities of those coasts strove to obtain their bodies for honourable burial, so as to make sure of having in them advocates with God. By God's will the relics of Januarius were taken to Naples at last, after having been carried from Puzzuoli to Benevento, and from Benevento to Monte Vergine; when they were brought thence to Naples, they were laid in the chief Church there, and there have been famous on account of many miracles. Among these is remarkable the stopping of eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, whereby both that neighbourhood and also places afar off have been like to have been brought to desolation. It is also well known, and is the plain fact, seen even unto this day, that when the blood of Januarius, kept dried up in a small glass phial, is put in sight of the head of the same martyr, it is used to melt and bubble in a very strange way, as though it had but freshly been shed. (Matins, The Divine Office, Feast of Saint Januarius.)
Dom Prosper Gueranger’s prayer to Saint Januarius and his Companions begs them to offer to “Christ the King the growing faith of all who pay you honor”:
O holy martyrs, and thou especially, O Januarius, the leader no less by thy courage than by thy pontifical dignity, your present glory increases our longing for heaven; your past combats animate us to fight the good fight; your continual miracles confirm us in the faith. Praise and gratitude are therefore due to you on this day of your triumph; and, we pay this our debt in the joy of our hearts. In return, extend to us the protection, of which the fortunate cities placed under your powerful patronage are so justly proud. Defend those faithful towns against the assaults of the evil one. In compensation for the falling away of society at large, offer to Christ our King the growing faith of all who pay you honour. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Januarius and His Companions, January 19.)
May this be so even in our own lives as we continue to ask Our Lady for our own daily conversion and for the conversion of the United States of America and the world to the Catholic Faith, which alone can defeat error and thus unite men in the truths which can see men truly free from the world, the flesh, and the devil and thus equip them to lift high the Holy Cross of the Divine Redeemer, Christ the King, and to always proclaiming our public fealty to His Most Blessed Mother, she who is our Immaculate Queen as we pray as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.
Saint Januarius and his Companions, pray for us.