Revised: Saint Vincent Ferrer and Anti-Saint Vincent Ferrers Aplenty

Today, Tuesday, April 5, 2016, is the Feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P.. We should call to mind this wonderful son of the Saint Dominic de Guzman who is one of the brightest lights of the extended family of the Order of Preachers.

Armed with Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary, Saint Vincent Ferrer, himself a son of Spain, worked tirelessly to bring back hardened sinners to the practice of the Faith and to convert non-Catholics, including thousands upon thousands of Talmudic Jews and Mohammedans, to the true Faith. Saint Vincent Ferrer was not possessed of the false spirit of a false religion, conciliarism, as he sought to convert Jews and Mohammedans. He was possessed of the spirit of Catholicism, and nothing else.

The zeal of Saint Vincent Ferrer for the conversion of non-Catholics to the true Faith contrasts, of course, with the multifarious ways in which the conciliar “popes” and their “bishops” refuse to seek the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans whenever they are in their presence, going so far, as they do so frequently, to express words of praise for these false religions as means of establishing “fraternity” and “peace” in the world. Although Saint Vincent Ferrer had permission to enter into Talmudic synagogues, he did so to convert the Jews present there, not to reaffirm them in their false, superseded religion that has the power to save no one and is the grip of the devil himself.

Thus it was three years ago that a meeting took place in Jerusalem between representatives of the counterfeit church of conciliarism’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The statement produced by the “bilateral commission” is a masterpiece of conciliar apostasy, the very antithesis of the work of the first pope Saint Peter (see Saint Peter and Anti-Peter), and of so many others, including Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P.:

1. The Bilateral Commission of the delegations of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews held its tenth meeting to discuss the Challenges of Faith and Religious Leadership in Secular Society. The meeting opened with a moment of silence in memory of Chief Rabbi Yosef Azran who had been a member of the Chief Rabbinate’s delegation for many years. Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, co-chairman of the Bilateral Commission, welcomed the participants and reaffirmed the historic nature and importance of these meetings. His counterpart Cardinal Jorge Mejía brought the greetings of the Cardinal Kurt Koch, recently appointed President of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, to the delegates. The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger, graced the meeting and expressed his strong support and encouragement for the work of the Bilateral Commission, acknowledging its impact on the positive change in perceptions of Jewish-Christian relations in Israeli society.

2. Deliberations sought to define the challenges that modern secular society faces. In addition to its many benefits; rapid technological advancement, rampant consumerism, and a nihilistic ideology with an exaggerated focus on the individual at the expense of the community and collective wellbeing, have led to a moral crisis. Together with the benefits of emancipation, the last century has witnessed unparalleled violence and barbarity. Our modern world is substantially bereft of a sense of belonging, meaning and purpose.

3. Faith and religious leadership have a critical role in responding to these realities, in providing both hope and moral guidance derived from the awareness of the Divine Presence and the Divine Image in all human beings. Our respective traditions declare the importance of prayer, both as the expression of awareness of the Divine Presence, and as the way to affirm that awareness and its moral imperatives. In addition, the study of the Divine Word in Scripture offers the essential inspiration and direction for life. The Biblical description of Moses (Exodus 3:1-15) was presented as a paradigm of religious leadership who, through his encounter with God, responds to the Divine call with total faith, loving his people, declaring the Word of God without fear, embodying freedom and courage, and an authority that comes from obeying God always and unconditionally, and listening to all, ready for dialogue.

4. The responsibility of the faithful is accordingly to testify to the Divine Presence in our world, (Isaiah 43:10) while acknowledging our failures in the past to be true and full witnesses to this charge. Such testimony is also to be seen in education, focus on youth and effective engagement of the media. Similarly, in the establishment and operation of charitable institutions with special care for the vulnerable, sick and marginalized, in the spirit of ‘tikkun olam’ (healing the world). In addition, the religious commitment to justice and peace also requires an engagement between religious leadership and the institutions of civil law.

5. Modern secular society has brought with it many benefits. Indeed, if secular is understood in terms of a broad-based engagement of society at large, this is likely to provide for a society in which religion can flourish. Furthermore the above mentioned focus on the individual has brought much blessing and led to an overwhelming attention to the subject of civil rights. However, in order for such a focus to be sustainable, it needs to be rooted in a higher anthropological and spiritual framework that takes into account “the common good”, which finds its expression in the religious foundation of moral duties. Society’s affirmation of such human duties, serves to empower and enshrine the human rights of its constituents.

6. Resulting from the discussion on the practical implications for religious leadership in relationship to current issues, the Bilateral Commission expressed the hope that the outstanding matters in the negotiations between the Holy See and the State of Israel would soon be resolved, and bilateral agreements speedily ratified for the benefit of both communities.

The Catholic delegation took the opportunity to reiterate the historic teaching of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate(No.4) regarding the Divine Covenant with the Jewish People that “the Jews still remain most dear to God because of their Fathers, for He, does not repent of the gifts He makes, nor of the calls He issues (cf. Romans 11:28-29)”; and recalled the prayer for peace of Pope Benedict XVI when receiving the Bilateral Delegation in Rome on March 12 2009, quoting Psalm 125 “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people, from this time forth and for evermore. (STATEMENT OF THE BILATERAL COMMISSION.)

There are many aspects to this brief statement that will be discussed as briefly as possible.

First, readers should note that the conciliar revolutionaries dated the “bilateral” meeting between themselves and the leaders of another false religion, Talmudic Judaism, as taking place according to the Gregorian and the Hebrew calendars. Although the conciliar officials continue to protest that they are not engaging in acts of syncretism, anyone with a modicum of rationality can see that the desire to appease the ancient enemies of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ conveys an acceptance of the “validity” of Talmudism as a religion that is both pleasing to God and capable of contributing to the “common good.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio does hand stands and back flips, figuratively speaking, to demonstrate the "validity" of the Talmudic religion, thus far outdistancing his predecessors as the consummate tool of the Talmudic agenda for the "modernization" of what is said to be Catholic doctrine.

Second, there was not one reference in this “bilateral” statement to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How is this not apostasy?

Third, the third and fourth paragraphs of the “bilateral” statement made it appear as though the world needs the “witness” of “religion” without regard to the fact that there is only one true religion, Catholicism, which alone contains the totality of God’s Divine Revelation and alone has the supernatural helps to sanctify and thus to save human souls. This is, of course, boilerplate conciliarism.

Fourth, the fifth paragraph is an exercise in pure, unadulterated Judeo-Masonry:

5. Modern secular society has brought with it many benefits. Indeed, if secular is understood in terms of a broad-based engagement of society at large, this is likely to provide for a society in which religion can flourish. Furthermore the above mentioned focus on the individual has brought much blessing and led to an overwhelming attention to the subject of civil rights. However, in order for such a focus to be sustainable, it needs to be rooted in a higher anthropological and spiritual framework that takes into account “the common good”, which finds its expression in the religious foundation of moral duties. Society’s affirmation of such human duties, serves to empower and enshrine the human rights of its constituents. (STATEMENT OF THE BILATERAL COMMISSION.)

“Broad-based engagement of society at large”?

This is nothing other than the sort of naturalism and religious indifferentism that has been condemned by pope after true pope, including by Pope Saint Pius X in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910:

This being said, what must be thought of the promiscuity in which young Catholics will be caught up with heterodox and unbelieving folk in a work of this nature? Is it not a thousand-fold more dangerous for them than a neutral association? What are we to think of this appeal to all the heterodox, and to all the unbelievers, to prove the excellence of their convictions in the social sphere in a sort of apologetic contest? Has not this contest lasted for nineteen centuries in conditions less dangerous for the faith of Catholics? And was it not all to the credit of the Catholic Church? What are we to think of this respect for all errors, and of this strange invitation made by a Catholic to all the dissidents to strengthen their convictions through study so that they may have more and more abundant sources of fresh forces? What are we to think of an association in which all religions and even Free-Thought may express themselves openly and in complete freedom? For the Sillonists who, in public lectures and elsewhere, proudly proclaim their personal faith, certainly do not intend to silence others nor do they intend to prevent a Protestant from asserting his Protestantism, and the skeptic from affirming his skepticism. Finally, what are we to think of a Catholic who, on entering his study group, leaves his Catholicism outside the door so as not to alarm his comrades who, “dreaming of disinterested social action, are not inclined to make it serve the triumph of interests, coteries and even convictions whatever they may be”? Such is the profession of faith of the New Democratic Committee for Social Action which has taken over the main objective of the previous organization and which, they say, “breaking the double meaning which surround the Greater Sillon both in reactionary and anti-clerical circles”, is now open to all men “who respect moral and religious forces and who are convinced that no genuine social emancipation is possible without the leaven of generous idealism.” (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

Catholicism does not seek accommodation with falsehood to “build” the better world, no less praising a false religion as having the means to do so. To assert otherwise, as was done in the “bilateral” statement, is to apostatize.

The conciliar revolutionaries are the living embodiments of the spirit of Judeo-Masonry, having been convinced that it is necessary for them to deny the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer by acts of omission when meeting with adherents of the false, blasphemous Talmud because of the crimes committed by the Nazis during World War II, preferring to believe that God is pleased with their false religion when Holy Mother Church has taught us that this is not so, that God loathes the false religion of Judaism while willing the conversion of individual Jews to the true Faith before they die.

How do I know that the conciliar revolutionaries have used the crimes of the Nazis as the foundation of their “relationship” with Talmudists today? Because the  retired antipope, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI told us that this is the case, that’s how:

Thirdly, linked more generally to this was the problem of religious tolerance – a question that required a new definition of the relationship between the Christian faith and the world religions. In particular, before the recent crimes of the Nazi regime and, in general, with a retrospective look at a long and difficult history, it was necessary to evaluate and define in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel. (Christmas greetings to the Members of the Roman Curia and Prelature, December 22, 2005.) 

Indeed, Ratzinger/Benedict continued to bow down at the altar of the Jews who were killed by the Nazis during World War II, did so five years ago whien he visited a “memorial” to them in Rome on the Third Sunday of Lent, March 27, 2011:

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday prayed at the memorial to victims of a 1944 massacre that was one of the worst atrocities by German occupiers in Italy during World War II and denounced what he called the “abominable” legacy of violence unleashed during war.

The visit won Jewish praise that Benedict had taken yet another step to heal centuries of painful Vatican-Jewish relations.

The German-born pontiff visited the Ardeatine Caves on the outskirts of Rome to mark the anniversary of the killings of 335 civilians in Rome to avenge an attack by resistance fighters that killed 33 members of a Nazi military police unit.

Among those in attendance were children and other relatives of the victims, with some of the elderly family members weeping at the memory of their loss and clutching flowers.

“What happened here on March 24, 1944, is a very grave offense to God, because it is violence perpetrated by man upon man,” the pope said in speech at the simple memorial fashioned out of the walls of the caves. “It is the most abominable effect of the war, of every war,” the pontiff said.

The wounds are still fresh for Rome’s tiny Jewish community. Many of them expressed outrage last fall when former SS Capt. Erich Priebke, 97, was allowed to go shopping and to church in Rome. Priebke was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the massacre but later given house arrest due to his age.

Elan Steinberg, a leader of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, praised the pontiff for paying “moving homage to the victims of this Nazi crime — Catholic and Jew.”

“Coming on the heels of his strong pronouncement exonerating Jews in the death of Jesus, this latest gesture by the German-born Benedict is a further dramatic step in binding the wounds that have disturbed Vatican-Jewish relations in recent years,” Steinberg said in a statement.

The landmark exoneration came in the pope’s new book, “Jesus of Nazareth-Part II,” in which Benedict lays out biblical and theological reasons why there is no basis in Scripture for the argument that Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion. Interpretations to the contrary have been used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.

Steinberg also voiced the “shock and disbelief” of Holocaust survivors that Priebke “is allowed shopping trips and other excursions,” and appealed to legal authorities to “put an end to this perversion of justice.’”

In 1994, Priebke was extradited to Italy from Argentina, where he had lived for years, and put on trial. The Germans had ordered 10 Italians to be executed for each of the 33 Nazis killed by resistance forces in Rome a day earlier. Priebke admitted shooting two people and rounding up victims, but insisted he was only following orders. (Pope visits memorial to Nazi victims in Rome. For more on the Eric Priebke matter, see Meet Some Catholics Truly Worth Admiring, part one and Meet Some Catholics Truly Worth Admiring, part two.) 

Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself did so as the conciliar “archbishop” of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November of 2012, just four months prior to his “election” as the sixth successive Petrine Minister of the counterfeit church of conciliarism:

Argentine Catholic organizations wondered how it was possible that a Jewish organization, also a lodge, might hold a memorial service in the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The Archdiocese might have helped out differently because of space problems. But why was a liturgical space was made available in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament of Christ Himself? As Cardinal Bergoglio was keynote speaker at the event, it is clear who made ​​the misappropriation, Pagina Catolica even speaks of the possible “desecration” of the Cathedral. In fact, with the “memorial liturgy” a kind of worship was celebrated. Since the event has been running for several years, there are already rehearsed rites similar acts. Before the altar there sat several representatives of Christian denominations (Lutheran, Prebyterianer, Methodist) next to the Cardinal. The official program book with the symbol of B’nai B’rith and the coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires is called an “Inter-religious Liturgy.” Six candles symbolize in this Holocaust memorial ritual each of the six million Jewish victims. Rabbi Alejandro Avruj lit each candle along with the representative of a Christian denomination or a Jewish organization. The last of the six candles he lit together with Cardinal Bergoglio.

Cardinal Bergoglio has cultivated close contacts with B’nai B’rith with an annual series of meetings and mutual invitations, where the cardinal especially emphasized his praise for the social commitment of the Jewish Lodge. For this reason, the Jewish representatives of the Grand Lodge officially opened on the 19th of March at the inauguration ceremony of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in part and the next day at the reception for the religious leaders in the Vatican, including the Director of B’nai B’rith-Committee for UN Affairs, David J. Michaels.

Under Archbishop Bergoglio it became customary in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires since 1994 that B’nai B’rith, performs its annual memorial service held for the Jewish victims of Nazism in Argentina’s Catholic churches. In 2005, the Acto de Recordación de la Noche de los Cristales Rotos was held in the Catholic church of San Nicolas de Bari. Even then Cardinal Bergoglio was present, as a photo of Rabbi Felipe Yafe shows. In 2009 in the Catholic parish church of Santa Catalina de Siena, also in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. In 2008 the memorial was on the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, also exclusively for Jewish victims of the Shoah, in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, in the presence of the Israeli, German and Austrian ambassador. In 2007, the ceremony was held in the San Ignacio Church of Buenos Aires.

After a meeting between Cardinal Bergoglio and Mario Wilhelm on the 4th of June, the Argentine president of B’nai B’rith and Boris Kalnicki, who is in B’nai B’rith responsible for inter-religious dialogue, said in a press statement for the Jewish organization that the “traditional commemoration of Kristallnacht” again will take place in 2012 and will “include a generous cooperation of Cardinal.” The event was organized for the 8th November “at a church, decided at upon at a later time”. It was finally not just any church, but the Diocesan church itself. The fact that the event takes place in a Catholic church, was self-evident for B’nai B’irith.

In 2011 the place for the Kristallnacht commemoration was in the cathedral church of the Diocese of San Isidro instead. For most of the Diocesan Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, B’nai B’rith Argentina, an Argentine Jewish-Christian brotherhood and fellowship Lamroth Hakol, organized to hold a commemoration on the 10th November with texts by Rabbi Leon Klenicki and the Catholic theologian Eugene Fischer for their own “Interfaith liturgy”, “with witnesses, songs and references to the night of the 9th November 1938 in Germany and Austria, the 20th which is regarded as the beginning of the Jewish Holocaust of the 20th Century or the Shoah.” It was also the basis of the “memorial liturgy” 2012.

The question is not why the Jews commemorate those events in Argentina. But the question is, why is the Catholic Church in Argentina which is not directly related to these events in faraway Europe 70 years ago apply, which – as explicitly emphasized B’nai B’rith – by no means all of the victims, but only the Jewish victims of National Socialism. Why then is this Jewish memorial to Jewish victims held in a Catholic church? (B’nai B’rith “Memorial Liturgy” in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires With Apostate Bergoglio. The source of this is a sedeplenist website.)

Here again, my good and unbelievably invisible readership, we see the effects of the “unofficial” words of the retired conciliar “pope” and the actions of his successor prior to his “election” that are based on the documents of the “Second” Vatican Council and have the effect of being “official” in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics worldwide (seeAccepting “Popes” As Unreliable Teachers and Boilerplate Ratzinger).  Here again, you see, we are face to face with another “papal” appearance with adherents of the Talmud without any hint that of seeking their conversion, something that contrasts very sharply with the example of Saint Peter and that of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O. P., to say nothing of that of the Mother of God herself as she sought the conversion of the Catholic-hating Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne (see the appendix below).

Yes, the crimes that were committed by the Nazis were indeed atrocious. They were the result, however, of the precise ideological efforts on the part of Talmudists over the preceding four centuries to undermine and thus eclipse the role of the Catholic Church in public life as they laid the groundwork for the very secular world that Ratzinger/Benedict and his conciliar officials consider to be a “benefit” to “human rights” and “human dignity” and to “fraternity.” The Talmudic Jews of the post-Diaspora era made themselves the victims of racialists who shared with them a hatred for the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Social Kingship over men and their nations. And no crime committed by men against each other is the equal of the crime of Deicide that our sins imposed upon Our King on the wood of the Holy Cross, a crime for which the Jews of Our Lord’s day are indeed culpable as they knew Who He was and they preferred accommodation to caesar rather than humbling themselves before their very God and Redeemer.

Conciliarism’s “changed relationship” with the “faith of Israel” is one of the reasons that the conciliar “popes,” including Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis, have been so adamant about not having anyone within the ranks of his false church put into question any of the particular details of the crimes of the Nazis that were the result of the systematic de-Catholicization of Europe brought out by the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King that was wrought by the Protestant Revolution and which leaders of Talmudic organizations exploited for their own purposes to promote secularism in Europe and to ghettoize and then eclipse Holy Mother Church, as noted just above. They cannot have anyone “dissent” from the very rationale that they have used to justify defining “in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel” that contradicts the consistent, immutable teaching of the Catholic Church as reiterated by true councils and true popes from time immemorial:

It [the Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism, to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation. Regarding children, indeed, because of danger of death, which can often take place, when no help can be brought to them by another remedy than through the sacrament of baptism, through which they are snatched from the domination of the Devil and adopted among the sons of God, it advises that holy baptism ought not to be deferred for forty or eighty days, or any time according to the observance of certain people, but it should be conferred as soon as it can be done conveniently, but so ,that, when danger of death is imminent, they be baptized in the form of the Church, early without delay, even by a layman or woman, if a priest should be lacking, just as is contained more fully in the decree of the Armenians. . . .

It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, February 4, 1442.)

28.That He completed His work on the gibbet of the Cross is the unanimous teaching of the holy Fathers who assert that the Church was born from the side of our Savior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of all the living. [28] “And it is now,” says the great St. Ambrose, speaking of the pierced side of Christ, “that it is built, it is now that it is formed, it is now that is …. molded, it is now that it is created . . . Now it is that arises a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” [29] One who reverently examines this venerable teaching will easily discover the reasons on which it is based.

29.And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching in a restricted area — He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel [30] -the Law and the Gospel were together in force; [31] but on the gibbet of his death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees, [32] fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, [33] establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. [34] “To such an extent, then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, “was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom.” [35]

30. On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, [36] in order to give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers; [37] and although He had been constituted the Head of the whole human family in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, it is by the power of the Cross that our Savior exercises fully the office itself of Head in His Church. “For it was through His triumph on the Cross,” according to the teaching of the Angelic and Common Doctor, “that He won power and dominion over the gentiles”; [38] by that same victory He increased the immense treasure of graces, which, as He reigns in glory in heaven, He lavishes continually on His mortal members it was by His blood shed on the Cross that God’s anger was averted and that all the heavenly gifts, especially the spiritual graces of the New and Eternal Testament, could then flow from the fountains of our Savior for the salvation of men, of the faithful above all; it was on the tree of the Cross, finally, that He entered into possession of His Church, that is, of all the members of His Mystical Body; for they would not have been united to this Mystical Body. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

I can’t recall any conciliar official referring to this part of Pope Pius XII’s Mystici Corporis Christi, can you? 

Certainly not Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who committed abominable crime after abominable crime in the sight of God while so many traditionally-minded Catholics, smug in their own self-righteous contentment that they were in “communion” with this notorious apostate during his false “pontificate”, remained silent and/or refused to admit the fact that the man they believed to have been their “pope” was then and remains now an enemy of Christ the King and of the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross, something that is equally true of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (among numerous other articles on this site, see Jorge Keeps It Kosher )

Bergoglio even went so far as to formalize the "Old Covenant is still valid" heresy when he wrote the following in Evangelii Gaudium, November 26, 2013:

247. We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an important part of the sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf. Rom 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.

248. Dialogue and friendship with the children of Israel are part of the life of Jesus’ disciples. The friendship which has grown between us makes us bitterly and sincerely regret the terrible persecutions which they have endured, and continue to endure, especially those that have involved Christians.

249. God continues to work among the people of the Old Covenant and to bring forth treasures of wisdom which flow from their encounter with his word. For this reason, the Church also is enriched when she receives the values of Judaism. While it is true that certain Christian beliefs are unacceptable to Judaism, and that the Church cannot refrain from proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah, there exists as well a rich complementarity which allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another to mine the riches of God’s word. We can also share many ethical convictions and a common concern for justice and the development of peoples. (Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Evangelii Gaudium, November 26, 2013.)

"Pope Francis" chose to have this "apostolic exhortation" published in the December, 2013, edition of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Here are the three passages as found in the Italian language (not Latin, by the way!) in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis as it is published in its conciliar captivity:

247. Uno sguardo molto speciale si rivolge al popolo ebreo, la cui Alleanza con Dio non è mai stata revocata, perché “i doni e la chiamata di Dio sono irrevocabili” (Rm 11, 29). La Chiesa, che condivide con l’Ebraismo una parte importante delle Sacre Scritture, considera il popolo dell’Alleanza e la sua fede come una radice sacra della propria identità cristiana (cfr Rm 11, 16-18). Come cristiani non possiamo considerare l’Ebraismo come una religione estranea, né includiamo gliebrei tra quanti sono chiamati ad abbandonare gli idoli per convertirsi al vero Dio (cfr 1 Ts 1, 9). Crediamo insieme con loro nell’unico Dio che agisce nella storia, e accogliamo con loro la comune Parola rivelata.

248. Il dialogo e l’amicizia con i figli d’Israele sono parte della vita dei discepoli di Gesù. L’affetto che si è sviluppato ci porta sinceramene ed amaramente a dispiacerci per le terribili persecuzioni di cui furono e sono oggetto, particolarmente per quelle che coinvolgono o hanno coinvolto cristiani.

249. Dio continua ad operare nel popolo dell’Antica Alleanza e fa nascere tesori di saggezza che scaturiscono dal suo incontro con la Parola divina. Per questo anche la Chiesa si arricchisce quando raccoglie i valori dell’Ebraismo. Sebbene alcune convinzioni cristiane siano inaccettabili per l’Ebraismo, e la Chiesa non possa rinunciare ad annunciare Gesù come Signore e Messia, esiste una ricca complementarietà che ci permette di leggere insieme i testi della Bibbia ebraica e aiutarci vicendevolmente a scerare le ricchezze della Parola, come pure di condividere molte convinzioni etiche e la comune preoccupazione per la giustizia e lo sviluppo dei popoli. (Data presso San Pietro, alla chiusura dell’Anno della fede, il 24 novembre, Solennità i i. S. Gesù Cristo Re dell’Universo, dell’anno 2013, primo del mio Pontificato. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, December, 2013.)

If one professes belief that a particular claimant to the Throne of Saint Peter is legitimate and is indeed the Vicar of Christ on earth, a matter about which no Catholic is free to err or to profess indifference, then one must accept as binding upon his conscience and beyond all criticism even Evangelii Gaudium as part of the Universal Ordinary Magisterium of the Catholic Church without complaint, reservation or qulification of any kind. Yet it is that Evangelii Gaudium contains heresy, which cannot emanate from the the spotless, mystical bride of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (see Memo from Two Popes and Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton to Bishop Richard Williamson: No One Can Resist a True and Legitimate Successor of Saint Peter,)

Modernism is a mixture of truth and error. One must retain every article of the Faith without exception in order to remain a member of Holy Mother Church.

By way of contrast, the Dominican saint whose inspirational life we have been celebrating today, Saint Vincent Ferrer, told the Jews straight out that they had to convert or that they would die, that is, the eternal death of the soul caused by their being in a state of Original Sin. Just as the Apostles urgently sought the conversion of all men in the known world to the true Faith as soon as they left the Upper Room in Jerusalem following the descent of God the Holy Ghost upon them in tongues of flame on Pentecost Sunday, Saint Vincent Ferrer sought most urgently the conversion of souls in his own day. Thousands of Mohammedans were converted by his fearless preaching, motivated by a supreme love for God and the Deposit of Faith He entrusted solely to the Catholic Church and motivated by a supreme love for the eternal welfare of the souls for whom Our Lord had given up His life to the Father in Spirit and in Truth on Golgotha.

People need to be challenged to convert. The actual process of conversion may take a long time. The devil wants to tamp down the initial ardor or curiosity of a possible convert. He wants to mute the tongues of Catholics who know that they must try to seek the conversion of family members and friends but who are waiting for the “right time,” as they see it, to do so. Saint Vincent Ferrer knew that the seed must be planted first. He was blessed with thousands upon thousands of instant conversions to the Faith–and with many thousands of people who sought him out in the hospital of Divine Mercy that is the Sacred Tribunal of Penance. Saint Vincent was thus unstinting in his fiery preaching to reach the heart of the unbeliever and the hardened heart of the fallen-away Catholic. The fruits borne as a result of holy, fearless imitation of the Apostles themselves speaks volumes about the necessity of proclaiming the necessity of everyone to convert to the Faith.

To be sure, different approaches are used at different times by different people. One approach is used in a pulpit by a professor or in the front of a classroom by a professor. Another approach, perhaps softer and gentler but nevertheless direct, is used in one-on-one contact over the course of time. Many students sought me out over the course of my thirty years of teaching, interested that a professor had actually said in a college classroom that there is a true religion and that everyone had to belong to that religion in order to be nourished by the sacraments and to die a happy, holy, sacramentally-provided-for death. The approach used in such one-on-one contact during office hours varied according to the needs and the backgrounds of each inquirer. Each, though, came with an clear understanding about the nature of the sessions: their conversion to the Faith.

Some students of mine over the decades were more ready to listen than others. Some kept asking the same questions repeatedly. Every effort was made to answer those questions before they were sent to men I thought to be (and in some instances were) priests for old-fashioned convert-instruction classes. Some persevered to the point of conversion, others did not, at least not to my knowledge. They sought out advice not because of any gift that I, a terrible sinner, had been given. They sought out advice because Catholic truth had resonated in their souls, which were made by God to know, to love, and to serve Him through the Catholic Church. That’s really all it takes, you see. A simple proclamation of Catholic truth to start the process of planting seeds for the conversion of souls.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, on the other hand, had the extraordinary gift from God of reaching deep into the souls of his hearers to prompt them to respond with urgency to God’s graces for the conversion to the Catholic Church–or for the return of those who had fallen away. He was able to do this because his own soul had been forged in the crucible of suffering, having to resist onslaughts of the devil and to endure calumnies uttered against his good name. He prepared himself for his work by the exquisite manner in which he offered the Dominican Rite of the Catholic Church, the time he spent before Our Lord’s Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament in prayer, his deep and tender devotion to the Mother of God, and the life of austere penances which he imposed upon himself. He was not only responsible for the conversion of thousands upon thousands of souls. Saint Vincent Ferrer performed numerous miracles, including gathering the remains of a young boy who had been chopped to death by an angry mother to bring him back to life whole and unharmed!

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B. wrote the following about Saint Vincent Ferrer in The Liturgical Year:

To-day, again, it is Catholic Spain that offers one of her sons to the Church, that she may present him to the Christian world as a model and a patron. Vincent Ferrer, or, as he was called, the angel of the judgment, comes to us proclaiming the near approach of the Judge of the living and the dead. During his lifetime, he traversed almost every country of Europe, preaching this terrible truth ["Convert, or die!"--editor's note]; and the people of those times went from his sermons striking their breasts, crying out to God to have mercy upon them–in a word, converted. In these our days, the thought of that awful day, when Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds of heaven to judge mankind, has not the same effect upon Christians. They believe in the last judgment, because it is an article of faith; but, we repeat, the thought produces little impression. After long years of a sinful life, a special grace touches the heart, and we witness a conversion; there are thousands thus converted, but the majority of them continue to lead an easy, comfortable life, seldom thinking on hell, and still less the judgment wherewith God is to bring time to an end.

It was not thus in the Christian ages; neither is it so now with those whose conversion is solid. Love is stronger in them than fear; and yet the fear of God’s judgment is every living within them, and gives stability to the new life they have begun. Those Christians, who have heavy debts towards divine justice, because of their past lives, and who, notwithstanding, make the time of Lent a season for evincing their cowardice and tepidity, surely such Christians as these must very rarely ask themselves what will become of them on that day, when the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens, and when Jesus, not as Saviour, but as Judge, shall separate the goats from the sheep. One would suppose that they would have received a revelation from God, that, on the day of judgment, all will be well with them. Let us be more prudent; let us stand on our guard against the illusions of a proud, self-satisfied indifference; let us secure to ourselves, by sincere repentance, the well-founded hope, that on the terrible day, which has made the very saints tremble, we shall hear these words of the divine Judge addressed to us: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!’ Vincent Ferrer leaves the peaceful cell of his monastery, that he may go and rouse men to the great truth they had forgotten–the day of God’s inexorable justice; we have not heard his preachings, but, have we not the Gospel? Have we not the Church, who, at the commencement, of this season of penance, preached to us the terrible truth, which St. Vincent took as the subject of his instructions? Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves to appear before Him, who will demand of us a strict account of those graces which He so profusely poured out upon us, and which were purchased by His Blood. Happy they that spend their Lents well, for they may hope for a favourable judgment! (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)

From the life of Saint Vincent Ferrer as found in the readings for Matins in today’s Divine Office:

This Vincent was born of respectable parents, at Valencia in Spain, (upon the 23rd day of January, in the year of our Lord 1357.) Even as a child he had an heart like the heart of an old man. Considering, to the utmost of his young understanding, how fleeting is the course of this dark world, he, in the eighteenth year of his age, took the habit of a Friar in the Order of Preachers. After he had made his solemn profession, he devoted himself to sacred learning, and took the degree of Master in Divinity with much distinction. He soon after received permission from his superiors to preach the word of God, on which duty he entered with such power and success, striving against the unbelief of the Jews, and overthrowing the errors of the Saracens, that he brought an exceeding great multitude of unbelievers to believe in Christ, and turned many thousands of Christians from sin to sorrow, and from vice to virtue. He was a chosen vessel unto God to proclaim the tidings of salvation among all nations, and tribes, and tongues, crying out that the last day, that awful day of judgment, is at hand, smiting consternation into the minds of all, as many as heard him, weaning their love from a perishing world, and turning it to God.

While Vincent wrought the Apostolic work of preaching committed to him, he lived ever as follows j Every morning he sang a solemn Mass, and every day he preached in public. He fasted every day, unless prevented by some absolute necessity. He refused to no one his holy and just advice. He never ate meat, nor wore linen. He quieted public disturbances, and negotiated the peace of kingdoms. When the seamless garment of the Church was rent by an horrid schism, he worked his every nerve to unite it again, and keep it one. He was a burning and a shining light of all virtues, walking always in lowliness and simpleness, so that he meekly welcomed and embraced them which spake evil against him and persecuted him.

The Power of God confirmed his life and doctrine with many great signs and wonders. He often laid his hands upon the sick and they recovered. He cast out unclean spirits, and made the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the blind to see. He cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead. After passing through many countries of Europe with exceeding profit to souls, worn out with age and disease, but still ever the same unwearied herald of the Gospel, he brought his life and his preaching together to an happy end, at Vannes in Brittany, (upon the 5th day of April,) in the year of salvation 1419. Pope Callistus III. numbered him with the Saints. (Matins, Feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., The Divine Office.)

In other words, men need to be exhorted, challenged, to convert.

The Apostles spoke, they challenged, they exhorted.

The Saints spoke, they challenged, they exhorted.

There is no conversion without the preaching of the Word orally and without a word of warning.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy exhort us to instruct the ignorant and to admonish the sinner. These works are not optional. They are mandatory. We do not know when we–or those we seek to convert–will die. That’s why the Apostles risked their lives to proclaim the truths of the Faith. They knew that there might not be a tomorrow for the souls to whom they were sent.

Do we?

Oh, how we excuse ourselves so lightly, sometimes by committing the cardinal Protestant sin of Presumption, believing that “everything will work out in the end for our relatives and friends even if they don’t convert before they die,” of  the responsibility of adhering firmly to the Catholic tradition of speaking and exhorting, doing so in love, to be sure, but making sure that it is done clearly and without equivocation.

Saint Vincent Ferrer also popularized the use of the monogram “IHS” for the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is no accident that many of of the leaders of Talmudic Jews of our own day have sought to eradicate all mention of the Holy Name of Our Divine Redeemer from public utterance as they do not want to see the likes the Saint Vincent Ferrer preaching to them and winning over souls from their ranks. And quite unlike Karol Joseph Wojtyla/John Paul II, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, and Jorge Mario Begoglio, Saint Vincent Ferrer’s preaching helped to convert a Jewish synagogue into a Catholic Church dedicated to Our Lady. As conversion is a free gift from God, Saint Vincent never forced anyone to convert to the Faith and was successful in quelling at least two outbreaks of violence against the Jews of Spain. In other words, he was a Catholic priest possessed of the sensus Catholicus, not the false “sense” of conciliarism. (For a wonderful book, whose entire text is online, about Saint Vincent Ferrer, please see St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Friar Preachers: His life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion.)

Similarly concerned about seeking the conversion of Jews and others to the true Faith was the zealous Conventual Franciscan, the founder of the Knights of the Immaculata (M.I.), Father Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M., Conv. An anthology of Father Kolbe’s writings contains a passage concerning Our Lady’s as the destroyer of all heresies. The passage below serves as something of an introduction to Father Kolbe’s protracted description (found in full in the appendix below) of the conversion of the Catholic-hating Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne on January 20, 1842, an event that one almost never hears any official associated with the conciliar church making reference to as the young Ratisbonne, who became a Jesuit priest, went to the Holy Land with the explicit permission of Pope Pius IX to seek the conversion of his own Jewish people to the true Faith.

There are people who do not understand how it can be said that “She alone has destroyed all heresies in the whole world” when heresies still exist. It is something like this: When during one of the battles, Napoleon was informed that for some unknown reason, the enemy’s cavalry was seen approaching, he said, “The enemy lost the battle” although the battle was still raging. And it turned out to be true. His plan worked. So, and even more so, it is with all heresies. They are already doomed. “The enemy is lost. She won, because she destroyed them.” (Father Anselm W. Romb, O.F.M., Conv., Commentator and Editor, The Writing of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv.: The Kolbe Reader, Franciscan Marytown Press, 1987, p. 24.)

We continue to pray as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits, bearing ourselves with kindness toward all of those God’s Holy Providence places in our paths, making sure to give blessed Green Scapulars to non-Catholics and to pray the prayer, “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death,” every day for each person to whom we give one. The rewards for doing so might just be heavenly.

Conciliarism and the confusion it has engendered within the souls of Catholics will vanish. The clarity of Catholicism will return. As the late William C. Koneazny, the progenitor of the Catholic Rendezvous gatherings in Salisbury, Connecticut, said ten  years ago shortly before he died on June 16, 2004, “Our Lady will come and throw the bums out!”

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!  

Isn’t it time to pray a Rosary now? 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

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 Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Appendix

Our Lady Did What is Forbidden by Conciliarism: She Sought the Conversion of Jewish Man

From The Kolbe Reader: “The Conversion of Ratisbonne“

Introduction (from the editor and commentator of The Kolbe Reader):

St. Maximilian incorporated into several writings the conversion to Catholicity of this remarkable French Jew, a wealthy and dissipated worldling, a man who set his hand to a wholly different way of life from the one he ultimately followed by the direct intervention of Mary Immaculate. This particular version appears here because it is the most exhaustive and touching and appeared in the May, 1924 issue of the Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculate).

Maximilian’s version is a “frame story.” He told the story of Ratisbonne to a group of people he encountered on a train the previous month. The story is derived, almost word for word, from documents published thirty-two years earlier. The paragraphs enclosed within quotation marks are Ratisbonne’s own words.

There are several reasons why the conversion of this man looms large in Maximilian’s thinking. The agnostic Jew was a well-known “playboy” and his sudden change of heart evoked much wonder. Our Lady’s appearance to him in her role of the Lady of Grace whose image appears on the face of the Miraculous Medal, the carrying of which is one of the principal “means” recommended by Maximilian for Knights. She is crushing Satan, the serpent, under her feet, which suggests the woman of Genesis, the Immaculate Conception. Finally, Maximilian was moved to found the M.I. as a Roman seminarian during his daily meditation on the anniversary date of Ratisbonne’s conversion, January 20. He would refer to Ratisbonne repeatedly in his words.

Reading (here follows the writing of Father Maximilian Kolbe):

Once again it happened on a train, on April 6, 1924. To tell the truth, that is a place where one can easily meet persons with the most varied ideas. On the train I was relating the story of Ratisbonne’s conversion, when a gentleman–one of those who are always ready to pronounce without proofs–observed ironically, “It’s so nice to hear you tell all this, Father!” I replied that I could show him documentary proofs of the story, because just some days before I had received from Rome a collection of these, printed in 1892.

Therefore I wish to publish some extracts from these documents. To begin with, I shall give you same passages of a letter written by Ratisbonne himself to a parish priest, the Director of an Archconfraternity founded to pray for the conversion of sinners.

(After describing his family background, his wealth, his engagement and the trip he made to the Orient before the marriage–during which he stopped in Rome, despite the aversion he felt for Catholic Rome–Ratisbonne described the efforts of Baron de Bussieres, a zealous Catholic convert from Protestantism, to bring him into the Church. This nettled Ratisbonne. here is how he relates the visit he paid to Baron de Bussieres.)

“On entering M. de Bussieres’ house I met with a first disappointment, because the maid, instead of simply taking my visiting card, immediately brought me into the parlor. As far as I could, I tried to dissimulate my ennui behind a feigned smile, and I sat down next to Baroness de Bussieres, near whom her two little daughters were playing. The conversation began with the usual insignificant topics, but soon I was displaying the passionate dislike with which I described the impressions I had received in Rome. In a condescending sort of way I considered Baron de Bussieres a devout person. Consequently, because this was a favorable opportunity for me, I did not refrain from some rather cutting remarks about the situation of the Jews in Rome, which relieved my feelings somewhat. However, it was these complaints of mine that brought the conversation around to religion. He spoke to me of the greatness of Catholicism. But I answered sarcastically with objections that I myself had read or that I had heard from others. However, I restrained my impious assertions somewhat, so as not to shock the faith of the little girls playing near us. Finally M. de Bussieres said to me: ‘Well, inasmuch as you condemn all prejudices and profess such liberal principles, and because yours is such an enlightened and advanced mind, would you be brave enough to submit yourself to a harmless experiment?’

“What experiment?”

“‘To carry about with you an object that I will give you. Here, take this image of the most Blessed Virgin. That sounds ridiculous to you, doesn’t it? However, I consider it very effective.’

“I must admit that I had never expected such a proposition. At first I felt like bursting out laughing and shrugging my shoulders. But then I thought, ‘What a splendid story this scene will make in the account of my trip!’ So I accepted the medal which was placed around my neck. When I rested on my breast I laughed aloud and said, ‘Well, well! Now I am a Catholic! . . . Apostolic . . . and Roman!’

“M. de Bussieres was genially triumphant over the victory he had won, but wanting to exploit it to the full, he said, ‘”Now, to complete the test, you must recite, morning and evening, the Memorare, a very short, but very efficacious prayer to the most Blessed Virgin, composed by St. Bernard.’

“But what on earth is this Memorare?” I exclaimed. Let’s have done with all this mummery!

“At that moment I felt a great surge of vexation. The name of St. Bernard made me remember my brother, who had written the life of this saint. I had never been willing to take the book in my hands. But his souvenir awakened my rage against proselytism, against the Jesuits and against those whom I called hypocrites and apostates.

“So I begged M. de Bussieres to let it go at that, and making a joke of the affair, I told him I was sorry that I could not offer him even a single Hebrew prayer in return and that consequently I would have to remain in his debt. The fact was that I did not know any prayers at all. However, my adversary insisted that if I refused to say this short prayer, the whole test would fail, and thus I would prove that I was only an obstinate unbeliever. Since I attached no importance whatever to the matter I finally promised to recite the prayer. He went to get a copy of it right way and asked me to write it out. I agreed, but on the condition that he would give me the original and keep my handwritten copy. What I wanted to do in fact was to add to my notebook the new ‘pledge of justice.’

So we finally came to an agreement. At the end we parted, and I spent the rest of the evening at the theater, forgetting all about the medal and the prayer. When I returned to my lodgings, however, I found a visiting card from M. de Bussieres, who had come to return my visit. He invited me to stop at his house again before leaving Rome. since I had to give the prayer back to him, after packing my valises in view of my departure the next day, I sat down and copied the prayer. It ran: ‘Remember, o most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known hat anyone who fled to thy patronage, sought thy aid, or implored thy intercession w left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother; to thee I come, before I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O mother of the Incarnate Word, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.’

“I wrote out the words of St. Bernard without paying any attention to them. It was late; I was tired and was about to fall asleep standing up.

“Next day, January 16th, I got everything ready for my departure. But as I went about I found myself constantly repeating the words of that prayer. My God, how had they taken such possession of my imagination?

(Ratisbonne goes on to relate how M. de Bussieres persuaded him to delay leaving so as to have a chance to see the Pope, Gregory XVI. In the meantime he brought his guest to visit some of the Christian antiquities, which gave him a chance ot discuss religious topics.)

“Everything our eyes beheld–monuments, paintings, the local customs–became topics of conversation. All this led on to various religious questions. M. de Bussieres brought them up so simply and spoke of them so enthusiastically that sometimes in the depths of my heart I thought ‘If anything can turn a man aside from religion, it is certainly the persistence some people show in trying to convert him!’ My natural irreverence led me to make fun even of most serious things. To my barbed remarks I added an infernal fire of blasphemies, which I no longer have the courage even to think of today. In spite of all this, however, M. de Bussieres, while expressing his disappointment, remained indulgent and calm. Once he even went so far as to say, ‘In spite of your irritation, I am sure that sooner or later you will become a Catholic, because deep in your nature there resides a naturally straightforward judgment, and this tells me that you will let God enlighten you, even if he has to send an angel from heaven to do it.’

“All right,” I replied jokingly, “but let it be when I am in a good mood; otherwise, the thing might off badly.

“As our carriage was passing near the Scala Santa, M. de Bussieres stood up and doffed his hat, exclaimed, ‘Hail,. O sacred stairway! Here is a sinner who will mount you on his knees some day!’

“I cannot express what I felt at the idea of paying homage to a stairway! I laughed heartily, as at something entirely unreasonable. Later, as we were passing by the lovely villas and gardens that lined the sides of Nero’s aqueduct, I too raised my voice, and using the same words as he, I exclaimed, ‘Hail, ye truly divine marvels! Before you one should bow his head and  not before a staircase of whatever kind!’

(Ratisbonne continues with the story of his meeting with some Protestant friends on January 20th, in a cafe where they were reading the papers.)

“As I left the cafe, I meet M. de Bussieres’ carriage, and he invited me for a ride. As it was a beautiful day, I willingly accepted. When we got to the church of Saint’ Andrea delle Fratte, M. de Bussieres excused himself for a moment, because he had an errand to run. He asked me to wait for him in the vehicle; but instead I preferred to get down and visit the church. Within they were preparing a catafalque for a funeral, so I asked the Baron, ‘Whose funeral is it?’

“‘The Count de Laferronays’,’ he replied, ‘a good friend of mine who died suddenly. That is why you may have found me rather glum these last couple of days.’

“I did not know the count; had never seen him in fact. So the news did not make any special impression on me, beyond that produced by the information about a sudden death. M. de Bussieres left because he had to see about preparing the place where the family of the deceased would sit. ‘Excuse me me for a few minutes,’ he said, as he went into the monastery. ‘I shall be back shortly.’

(On February 18th and 19th, in the deposition he made during the investigative process set up to make clear the circumstances of his conversion. Ratisbonne stated the following among other things.)

“When I traversed the church, I arrived at the spot where they were getting ready for the funeral. Suddenly I felt interiorly disturbed, and saw in front of me something like a veil. It seemed to me that the entire church had been swallowed up in shadow, except one chapel. It was as thought all the light was concentrated in that single place. I looked over towards this chapel whence so much light shone and above the altar I saw a living figure standing, tall, majestic, beautiful and full of mercy. It was the most Holy Virgin Mary, resembling her figure on the Miraculous Medal of the Immaculate. At this sight I fell on my knees right where I stood; several times I attempted to lift my eyes towards the Most Blessed Virgin, but respect and the blinding light forced me to lower my gaze; this, however, did not prevent me from seeing the luminosity of the apparition. I fixed my glance on her hands, and in them I could read the expression of mercy and pardon. In the presence of the most Blessed Virgin, even though she did not speak a word to me, I understood the frightful situation I was in, the heinousness of sin, the beauty of the Catholic religion . . . in a word, I understood everything.

“When he returned, M. de Bussieres found me kneeling, my head resting on the railing of the chapel where the most Blessed Virgin had appeared, and bathed in tears. I do not understand how I managed to get to the railing, because I had fallen to my knees on the other side of the nave, and the catafalque stood between me and the chapel. I must add that the feeling that accompanied my weeping was one of gratitude towards the Blessed Virgin and of pity for my family, buried in the darkness of Judaism, for heretics and for sinners. M. de Bussieres raised me up and, still weeping, I told him, ‘Oh, that person must have prayed very much for me,’ thinking of the deceased Count de Laferronays. [Father Kolbe note: "M. de Bussieres had in fact recommended Ratisbonne to the prayers of M. de Laferronays."]

“He asked me several questions, but I could not answer, so deeply was I moved. So he took me by the hand, led me out of the church to the carriage and helped me to get in. Then he asked me where I wanted to go.

“Take me wherever you like,” I said, “after what I have seen, I will do anything you want.”

“‘But what did you see?’ he asked me.

“I cannot tell you; but please bring me to a confessor, and I will tell him everything on my knees.”

“He brought me to the church of the Gesu, to a Jesuit, Father Villefort, to whom in the presence of M. de Bussieres, I related all that had happened to me.”

(In his letter he continues.)

“All I can say of myself comes down to this: that in an instant a veil fell from my eyes; or rather not a single veil, but many of the veils which surrounded me were dissipated one after the other, like snow, mud and ice under the burning rays of the sun. I felt as though I were emerging from a tomb, from a dark grave; that I was beginning to be a living being, enjoying a real life. And yet I wept. I could see into the depths of my frightful misery, from which infinite mercy had liberated me. My whole being shivered at the sight of my transgressions; I was shaken, overcome by amazement and gratitude. I thought of my brother with indescribable joy; and to my tears of love there were joined tears of compassion. How many persons in this world, alas, are going down unknowingly into the abyss, their eyes shut by pride and indifference! They are being swallowed up alive by those horrifying shadows; and among them are my family, my fiancee, my poor sisters. What a bitter thought! My mind turned to you, whom I love so much; for you I offered my first prayers. Will you some day raise your eyes towards the Savior of the world, whose blood washed away original sin? How monstrous is the stain of that sin, because of which man no longer bears the resemblance to God!

“They asked me now I had come to know these truths, since they all knew that I had never so much as opened a book dealing with religion, head not even read a single page of the Bible, while the dogma of original sin, entirely forgotten or denied by modern Jews, had never occupied my mind for a single instant. I am no sure that I had even heard its name. So how had I come to know these truths? I cannot tell’ all I know is that when I entered the church, I was ignorant of all this, whereas when I left I could see it all with blinding clarity. I cannot explain this change except by comparing myself to a man who suddenly awakens from deep sleep or to someone born blind who suddenly acquires sight. He sees, even though he cannot describe his sensations or pinpoint what enlightens him and makes it possible for him to admire the things around him. If we cannot adequately explain natural light, how can we describe a light the substance of which is truth itself? I think I am expressing myself correctly when I say that I did not have any verbal knowledge, but had come to possess the meaning and spirit of the dogmas, to feel rather than see these things, to experience them with the help of the inexpressible power which was at work within me.

“The love of God had taken the place of all other loves, to such an extent that I loved even my fiancee, but in a different way. I loved her like someone whom God held in his hands, like a precious gift which inspires an even greater love for the giver.”

(As they wanted to delay his Baptism, Ratisbonne pleaded.)

“What? The Jews who heard the preaching of the apostles were baptized at once; and you wish to delay Baptism for me who have heard the Queen of the apostles?”

“My emotion, my ardent desires and my prayers finally induced these good men to fix a date for my Baptism. I awaited the appointed day with impatience, because I realized how displeasing I was in the eyes of God.

(Finally the 31st of January came. He described his Baptism.)

“Immediately after Baptism I felt myself filled with sentiments of veneration and filial love for the Holy Father; I considered myself fortunate when I was told that I would be granted an audience with the Pontiff, accompanied by the General of the Jesuits. In spite of all this I was quite nervous, because I had never frequented the important people of this world; although these important people seemed to me too insignificant when compared to true grandeur. I must confess that I included among these great ones of the world the one who on this earth holds God’s highest power, i.e., the pope, the successor of Jesus Christ himself, whose indestructible chair he occupies.

“Never will I forget my trepidation and the beatings of my heart when I entered the Vatican and traversed the spacious courtyards and majestic halls leading to the sacred premises where the pope resides. When I beheld him, though, my nervousness suddenly gave way to amazement. He was so simple, humble and paternal. This was no monarch, but a father who with unrestrained love treated me like a cherished son.

“O good God! Will it be thus when I appear before you to give you an account of the graces I hare received? Awe fills me at the mere thought of God’s greatness, and I tremble before his justice; but at the sight of his mercy my confidence revives, and with confidence so will my love and unbounded gratitude.

“Yes, gratitude will from now on be my law and my life . I cannot express it in words; so I shall strive to do so in deeds. The letters received from my family give me full liberty; I wish to consecrate this liberty to God, and I offer it to him from this very moment, along with my whole life, to serve the Church and my brothers under the protection of the most Blessed Virgin Mary.” (Father Anselm W. Romb, OFM Conv., Commentator and Editor, The Writings of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv.: The Kolbe Reader, pp. 22-31.)