Ever At the Service of Those Who Deny Christ the King Before Men, part two

Today, Thursday, December 26, 2024, is the Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr within the Octave of Christmas.

As is summarized in today’s republished reflection, Saint Stephen was the first Catholic martyr. He was killed by Jewish zealots, led by Saul of Tarsus, who could not stand to hear Saint Stephen speak the following truths about the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:

But Solomon built him a house. yet the most High dwelleth not in houses made by hands, as the prophet saith: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What house will you build me? saith the Lord; or what is the place of my resting? Hath not my hand made all these things?

You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their teeth at him.

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. and he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran violently upon him. And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death. (Acts 7: 47-59)

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself converted Saul of Tarsus as he was traveling to Damascus to persecute the Catholics living there. The Jewish zealot who presided over the stoning of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr became Saint Paul the Apostle, who was a zealous for the sake of the Holy Faith as he had been in the persecution of those who professed It without fear of the consequences.

It has ever been thus with those who seek with urgency the conversion of all non-Catholics to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order within nations nor a just peace among them.

As was the case in the Apostolic Era, our own days are marked by a desire on the part of Talmudists and leftists of one stripe or another to suppress the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and to denounce the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church as “anti-Semitic.”

While there are genuine, honest-to-goodness anti-Semites to be found in the precincts of the so-called “progressive left,” especially on college and university campuses today, who use the genocidal crimes of the Zionist State of Israel to give vent to their hate, a Catholic’s opposition to Judaism as a dead, superseded religion that has the power to save no one is based in a sincere desire to help those whose souls are captives to the devil by means of Original Sin to be truly liberated from that slavery by being baptized as members of the Catholic Faith and thus to enjoy the enlightenment that comes from being in a state of Sanctifying Grace and thus being partakers of in the work of the Kingdom of God.

Catholics hate no human being. We will the good of all others, the ultimate expression of which is the salvation of their souls as members of the Catholic Church who persist until their deaths in a state of Sanctifying Grace.

Catholics do, of course, hate the devil and his minions and we firmly reject his works and pomps.

Catholics hate sin, especially their own, and its promotion in civil society.

Although it is a trite saying, a believing Catholic hates sin but the loves the sinner as he himself is a sinner who is loved by Our Lord, Who is constantly beseeching us to turn away from our sins and failings for love of Him so that we can save our souls and enjoy the glory of the Beatific Vision of the Most Holy Trinity in Heaven for all eternity.

Contemporary Talmudists, however, do hate the authentic Catholic Faith, which is why they have worked overtime to create a “safe,” albeit corrupt, version of Catholicism whose apostate leaders have scandalously and blasphemously denounced the true teaching of the Catholic Faith, especially Holy Mother Church’s immutable teaching that Judaism of any kind is false and has the power to sanctify or save no human being.

While I have no intention of examining each of the terms contained in the “Translate Hate” glossary as it would be utterly redundant and thus useless as there is no need to discuss such terms as Zionism and New World Order as these have discussed on this site literally hundreds of times before, I will focus on just one term, Decide, in this part and then one term in the third part, Anti-Semitism.

Here is the American Jewish Committee’s glossary entry for “Decide”:

Deicide is the charge that Jews bear eternal responsibility for the death of Jesus Christ. This claim is based on a misguided interpretation of Matthew 27:24-25, “His blood be on us, and on our children,” also known as the blood curse. This verse (25) has led to more Jewish suffering than any other passage in the Christian Bible. This source of antisemitism among Christians was only refuted by the Catholic Church in 1965, with Nostra Aetate, the landmark document that rejected collective Jewish responsibility for this crime. Protestant churches have also repudiated the deicide charge. Nevertheless, some churches today continue to teach that Jews killed Jesus. While this preaching may not be intended to cause harm, antisemites use the deicide charge to justify their anti-Jewish hatred. Additionally, the same wrongful accusation and imagery connected with Jews as Christ-killers has been recycled in the Middle East, often in the form of Jesus representing Palestinians who are “crucified” by the Israeli Defense Forces or the Israeli Government (see Figures D2 and D3).

Droleskey Commentary:

This glossary entry is very revealing for several reasons.

First, yes, the death of the God-Man on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday to effect our Redemption was indeed Deicide. No crime is worse than Deicide even though conciliar officials have claimed that the crimes of the Third Reich constitute the worst crimes in history, which they are not even in human terms as the greatest genocide that the world has ever known is the ongoing slaughter of the innocent preborn that, truth to be told, has been advanced by many secular Jews and many of those in various “conservative or “reform” Talmudic congregations.

Second, the American Jewish Committee’s text above celebrates the fact that what is thought to be the Catholic Church changed its teaching “only” in 1965, meaning that the pure, spotless, virginal mystical spouse of her Divine Founder, Invisible Head, and Mystical Bridegroom is capable of and is indeed guilty of teaching error. This means that the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, did not preserve holy Mother Church from error but was, instead, a passive observer as she did so. This is ontologically impossible, and it is blasphemous.

Third, While it is true that some Catholics in the Middle Ages did harbor hatred towards the Jews and failed to forgive them for the injustices committed by them in their business practices (the Talmud sanctions injustices against non-Jews) as they, the relative handful of Catholics who harbored such hate, forgot to interiorize the fact that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ forgave His executioners, which include each one of us our own sins transcended time and caused Him to be rejected, mocked, scourged, and crucified, it is also true that Jews were in the vanguard of snitching to the Roman authorities on the location of Catholics in the catacombs to curry favor with the cruel pagans. The bad example of some does not negate the truths of the Catholic Faith, and the plain truth is that the Jews of Our Lord’s time, abetted by our own sins, did commit Deicide.

Indeed, Pope Benedict XIV specifically condemned attacks by Catholics upon Jews while noting the injustices visited upon Catholics by Jewish financiers and merchants that even such important Catholic figures as King Philip II of Spain used to finance various ventures:

We esteem the glorious memory of Polish martyrs, confessors, virgins and holy men; their exemplary lives are recorded in the holy annals of the Church. We also recall the many successful councils and synods which gloriously defeated the Lutherans who tried tenaciously, using a variety of methods, to establish a foothold and welcome in this kingdom. At that time indeed the great council of Piotrkow met under Our great predecessor and fellow citizen Gregory XIII, with prelate Lippomano, bishop of Verona and Apostolic nuncio, as its president. To the great glory of God it prohibited the principle of freedom of conscience; adherents of this principle were seeking to introduce and establish it in Poland. Another threat to Christians has been the influence of Jewish faithlessness; this influence was strong because Christians and Jews were living in the same cities and towns. However their influence was minimized because the Polish bishops did all they could to aid the Poles in their resistance to the Jews. What the bishops did is recorded in the large tome which contains the constitutions of the synods of the province of Gniezno. These facts establish most clearly and plainly the great glory which the Polish nation has won for its zeal in preserving the holy religion embraced by its ancestors so many ages before.

2. In regard to the matter of the Jews We must express our concern, which causes Us to cry aloud: "the best color has been changed." Our credible experts in Polish affairs and the citizens of Poland itself who communicated with Us have informed Us that the number of Jews in that country has greatly increased. In fact, some cities and towns which had been predominantly Christian are now practically devoid of Christians.

The Jews have so replaced the Christians that some parishes are about to lose their ministers because their revenue has dwindled so drastically. Because the Jews control businesses selling liquor and even wine, they are therefore allowed to supervise the collection of public revenues. They have also gained control of inns, bankrupt estates, villages and public land by means of which they have subjugated poor Christian farmers. The Jews are cruel taskmasters, not only working the farmers harshly and forcing them to carry excessive loads, but also whipping them for punishment. So it has come about that those poor farmers are the subjects of the Jews, submissive to their will and power. Furthermore, although the power to punish lies with the Christian official, he must comply with the commands of the Jews and inflict the punishments they desire. If he doesn't, he would lose his post. Therefore the tyrannical orders of the Jews have to be carried out.

In addition to the harm done to Christians in these regards, other unreasonable matters can result in even greater loss and danger. The most serious is that some households of the great have employed a Jew as "Superintendent-of-the-Household"; in this capacity, they not only administer domestic and economic matters, but they also ceaselessly exhibit and flaunt authority over the Christians they are living with. It is now even commonplace for Christians and Jews to intermingle anywhere. But what is even less comprehensible is that Jews fearlessly keep Christians of both sexes in their houses as their domestics, bound to their service. Furthermore, by means of their particular practice of commerce, they amass a great store of money and then by an exorbitant rate of interest utterly destroy the wealth and inheritance of Christians. Even if they borrow money from Christians at heavy and undue interest with their synagogues as surety, it is obvious to anyone who thinks about it that they do so to employ the money borrowed from Christians in their commercial dealings; this enables them to make enough profit to pay the agreed interest and simultaneously increase their own store. At the same time, they gain as many defenders of their synagogues and themselves as they have creditors.

The famous monk, Radulph, inspired long ago by an excess of zeal, was so inflamed against the Jews that he traversed Germany and France in the twelfth century and, by preaching against the Jews as the enemies of our holy religion, incited Christians to destroy them. This resulted in the deaths of a very large number of Jews. What must we think his deeds or thoughts would be if he were now alive and saw what was happening in Poland? But the great St. Bernard opposed this immoderate and maddened zeal of Radulph, and wrote to the clergy and people of eastern France: "The Jews are not to be persecuted: they are not to be slaughtered: they are not even to be driven out. Examine the divine writings concerning them. We read in the psalm a new kind of prophecy concerning the Jews: God has shown me, says the Church, on the subject of my enemies, not to slay them in case they should ever forget my people. Alive, however, they are eminent reminders for us of the Lord's suffering. On this account they are scattered through all lands in order that they may be witnesses to Our redemption while they pay the just penalties for so great a crime" (epistle 363). And he writes this to Henry, Archbishop of Mainz: "Doesn't the Church every day triumph more fully over the Jews in convicting or converting them than if once and for all she destroyed them with the edge of the sword: Surely it is not in vain that the Church has established the universal prayer which is offered up for the faithless Jews from the rising of the sun to its setting, that the Lord God may remove the veil from their hearts, that they may be rescued from their darkness into the light of truth. For unless it hoped that those who do not believe would believe, it would obviously be futile and empty to pray for them." (epistle 365).

Peter, abbot of Cluny, likewise wrote against Radulph to King Louis of France, and urged him not to allow the destruction of the Jews. But at the same time he encouraged him to punish their excesses and to strip them of the property they had taken from Christians or had acquired by usury; he should then devote the value of this to the use and benefit of holy religion, as may be seen in the Annals of Venerable Cardinal Baronius (1146). In this matter, as in all others, We adopt the same norm of action as did the Roman Pontiffs who were Our venerable predecessors. Alexander III forbade Christians under heavy penalties to accept permanent domestic service under Jews. "Let them not continually devote themselves to the service of Jews for a wage." He sets out the reason for this in the decretal Ad haec, de Judaeis. "Because Jewish ways do not harmonize in any way with ours and they could easily turn the minds of the simple to their own superstitions and faithlessness through continual intercourse and unceasing acquaintance." Innocent III, after saying that Jews were being received by Christians into their cities, warns that the method and condition of this reception should guard against their repaying the benefit with evildoing. "They on being admitted to our acquaintance in a spirit of mercy, repay us, the popular proverb says, as the mouse in the wallet, the snake in the lap and fire in the bosom usually repay their host." The same Pope stated that it was fitting for Jews to serve Christians rather than vice versa and added: "Let not the sons of the free woman be servants of the sons of the handmaid; but as servants rejected by their lord for whose death they evilly conspired, let them realize that the result of this deed is to make them servants of those whom Christ's death made free," as we read in his decretal Etsi Judaeos. Likewise in the decretal Cum sit nimis under the same heading de Judaeis, et Saracenis, he forbids the promotion of Jews to public office: "forbidding Jews to be promoted to public offices since in such circumstances they may be very dangerous to Christians." Innocent IV, also, in writing to St. Louis, King of France, who intended to drive the Jews beyond the boundaries of his kingdom, approves of this plan since the Jews gave very little heed to the regulations made by the Apostolic See in their regard: "Since We strive with all Our heart for the salvation of souls, We grant you full power by the authority of this letter to expel the Jews, particularly since We have learned that they do not obey the said statutes issued by this See against them" (Raynaldus, Annals, A.D. 1253, no. 34).

But if it is asked what matters the Apostolic See forbids to Jews living in the same cities as Christians, We will say that all those activities which are now allowed in Poland are forbidden; these We recounted above. There is no need of much reading to understand that this is the clear truth of the matter. It is enough to peruse decretals with the heading de Judaeis, et Saracenis; the constitutions of Our predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs Nicholas IV, Paul IV, St. Pius V, Gregory XIII and Clement VIII are readily available in the Roman Bullarium. To understand these matters most clearly, Venerable Brothers, you do not even need to read those. You will recall the statutes and prescripts of the synods of your predecessors; they always entered in their constitutions every measure concerning the Jews which was sanctioned and ordained by the Roman Pontiffs.

The essence of the difficulty, however, is that either the sanctions of the synods are forgotten or they are not put into effect. To you then, Venerable Brothers, passes the task of renewing those sanctions. The nature of your office requires that you carefully encourage their implementation. In this matter begin with the clergy, as is fair and reasonable. These will have to show others the right way to act, and light the way for the rest by their example. For in God's mercy, We hope that the good example of the clergy will lead the straying laity back to the straight path. You will be able to give these orders and commands easily and confidently, in that neither your property nor your privileges are hired to Jews; furthermore you do no business with them and you neither lend them money nor borrow from them. Thus, you will be free from and unaffected by all dealings with them.

The sacred canons, prescribe that in the most important cases, such as the present, censures should be imposed upon the recalcitrant; and that those cases which bode danger and ruin to religion should be reckoned as reserved cases in which only the bishop can give absolution. The Council of Trent considered your jurisdiction when it affirmed your right to reserve cases. It did not restrict such cases to public crimes only, but extended them to include more notorious and serious cases, provided they were not purely internal. But we have often said that some cases should be considered more notorious and serious. These are cases, to which men are more prone, which are a danger both to ecclesiastical discipline and to the salvation of the souls which have been entrusted to your episcopal care. We have discussed these at length in Our treatise On the diocesan synod, Book 5, 5.In this matter We will help as much as possible. If you have to proceed against ecclesiastics exempt from your jurisdiction, you will doubtless encounter additional difficulties. Therefore We are giving Our Venerable Brother Archbishop Nicaenus, Our Nuncio there, a mandate appropriate for this business, in order that he may supply for you the necessary means from the powers entrusted to him. At the same time We promise you that when the situation arises, We will cooperate energetically and effectively with those whose combined authority and power are appropriate to remove this stain of shame from Poland. But first Venerable Brothers, ask aid from God, the source of all things. From Him beg help for Us and this Apostolic See. And while We embrace you in the fullness of charity, We lovingly impart to you, Our brothers, and to the flocks entrusted to your care, Our Apostolic Blessing. (Pope Benedict XIV, A Quo Primum, June 14, 1751.)

One will note that Pope Benedict XIV warned against the pernicious influences of Jews living near Catholics in Poland while at the same inveighing against all violence directed against Jews as had been done by Radulph the Monk in the Twelfth Century, proving the point that Father Fahey made in The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World about the Church’s support for the persons of the Jews and her opposition to their false religion and their designs against the Holy Faith and for the subjection of Catholics to their rule.

This a distinction that the intellectually dishonest authors of Translate Hate refused to recognize, and it is a distinction that is lost upon the American conciliar “bishops,” who wrote the following as a supposedly “Catholic Commentary” on the glossary entry for Deicide:

This trope is a classic anti-Jewish charge leveled against the Jewish people for nearly seventeen centuries. They have been labeled as “Christ-killers” and suffered persecution under that name. The allegation stems from an early Christian misreading of the Gospels to blame all Jews for the death of Jesus. The dangers of such a distorted interpretation are particularly heightened in the Lenten and Paschal seasons as the faithful contemplate the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. In 1965, the Second Vatican Council clearly condemned such readings. In its declaration Nostra Aetate, the Council Fathers proclaimed that the crimes during the Passion of Christ cannot be attributed, in either preaching or catechesis, indiscriminately to all Jews of that time, nor to Jews today. Additionally, the Catholic Church teaches that the Jewish people should not be referred to as though rejected or cursed. As the Church confesses, Christ freely suffered his Passion and death out of love, because of the sins of all, so that all might be saved. Since the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus’ Passion is uniquely salvific, the Crucifixion should only be invoked with a sense of reverence and gratitude for God’s redeeming work in Christ. (Translate Hate: USCCB.)

In other words, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was wrong when He said the following:

[12] Again therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying: I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. [13] The Pharisees therefore said to him: Thou givest testimony of thyself: thy testimony is not true. [14] Jesus answered, and said to them: Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go: but you know not whence I come, or whither I go. [15] You judge according to the flesh: I judge not any man.

[16] And if I do judge, my judgment is true: because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. [17] And in your law it is written, that the testimony of two men is true. [18] I am one that give testimony of myself: and the Father that sent me giveth testimony of me. [19] They said therefore to him: Where is thy Father? Jesus answered: Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also. [20] These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple: and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

[21] Again therefore Jesus said to them: I go, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. [22] The Jews therefore said: Will he kill himself, because he said: Whither I go, you cannot come? [23] And he said to them: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. [24] Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin. [25] They said therefore to him: Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning, who also speak unto you.

[26] Many things I have to speak and to judge of you. But he that sent me, is true: and the things I have heard of him, these same I speak in the world. [27] And they understood not, that he called God his Father. [28] Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know, that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me, these things I speak: [29] And he that sent me, is with me, and he hath not left me alone: for I do always the things that please him. [30] When he spoke these things, many believed in him.

[31] Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. [32] And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [33] They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou: you shall be free? [34] Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. [35] Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever.

[36] If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. [37] I know that you are the children of Abraham: but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. [38] I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father. [39] They answered, and said to him: Abraham is our father. Jesus saith to them: If you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. [40] But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not.

[41] You do the works of your father. They said therefore to him: We are not born of fornication: we have one Father, even God. [42] Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me: [43] Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. [44] You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. [45] But if I say the truth, you believe me not.

[46] Which of you shall convict me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? [47] He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. [48] The Jews therefore answered, and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? [49] Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me. [50] But I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.

[51] Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. [52] The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. [53] Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? [54] Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. [55] And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word.

[56] Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. [57] The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? [58] Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. [59] They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. (John 8: 12-59.)

“You will die in your sin.”

The conciliar “popes” and stooges of theirs such as Trail Blazing Cupich have left the Talmudists of today to die in their sins because they not only refuse to exhort them to convert to the Catholic Church, from which they, the conciliar revolutionaries, have expelled themselves by their own unbelief, but because they chastise and condemn Catholics within the conciliar structures who have tried to exhort Jewish friends and acquaintances to convert. The sad, tragic irony of this is that the conciliar revolutionaries themselves will die in their own sins and thus join their fellow non-Catholics in hell for all eternity to suffer the punishment deserving of reprobated souls.

Fourth, Saint Thomas Aquinas, writing in his Summa Theologiae, explained that the Jews of Our Lord’s time knew exactly what they were doing:

Article 6. Whether the sin of those who crucified Christ was most grievous?

Objection 1. It would seem that the sin of Christ's crucifiers was not the most grievous. Because the sin which has some excuse cannot be most grievous. But our Lord Himself excused the sin of His crucifiers when He said: "Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Therefore theirs was not the most grievous sin.

Objection 2. Further, our Lord said to Pilate (John 19:11): "He that hath delivered Me to thee hath the greater sin." But it was Pilate who caused Christ to be crucified by his minions. Therefore the sin of Judas the traitor seems to be greater than that of those who crucified Him.

Objection 3. Further, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. v): "No one suffers injustice willingly"; and in the same place he adds: "Where no one suffers injustice, nobody works injustice." Consequently nobody wreaks injustice upon a willing subject. But Christ suffered willingly, as was shown above (Article 1,Article 2). Therefore those who crucified Christ did Him no injustice; and hence their sin was not the most grievous.

On the contrary, Chrysostom, commenting on the words, "Fill ye up, then, the measure of your fathers" (Matthew 23:32), says: "In very truth they exceeded the measure of their fathers; for these latter slew men, but they crucified God."

I answer that, As stated above (Article 5), the rulers of the Jews knew that He was the Christ: and if there was any ignorance in them, it was affected ignorance, which could not excuse them. Therefore their sin was the most grievous, both on account of the kind of sin, as well as from the malice of their will. The Jews also of the common order sinned most grievously as to the kind of their sin: yet in one respect their crime was lessened by reason of their ignorance. Hence Bede, commenting on Luke 23:34, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," says: "He prays for them who know not what they are doing, as having the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." But the sin of the Gentiles, by whose hands He was crucified, was much more excusable, since they had no knowledge of the Law.

Reply to Objection 1. As stated above, the excuse made by our Lord is not to be referred to the rulers among the Jews, but to the common people.

Reply to Objection 2. Judas did not deliver up Christ to Pilate, but to the chief priests who gave Him up to Pilate, according to John 18:35: "Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee up to me." But the sin of all these was greater than that of Pilate, who slew Christ from fear of Caesar; and even greater than the sin of the soldiers who crucified Him at the governor's bidding, not out of cupidity like Judas, nor from envy and hate like the chief priests.

Reply to Objection 3. Christ, indeed willed His Passion just as the Father willed it; yet He did not will the unjust action of the Jews. Consequently Christ's slayers are not excused of their injustice. Nevertheless, whoever slays a man not only does a wrong to the one slain, but likewise to God and to the State; just as he who kills himself, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. v). Hence it was that David condemned to death the man who "did not fear to lay hands upon the Lord's anointed," even though he (Saul) had requested it, as related in 2 Samuel 1:5-14. (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Question 47.  See Appendix A for Hippolytus’s “Treatise Against the Jews.”)

Fifth, the Catholic Church has never misinterpreted verse twenty-five of the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.

Judaism is accursed because it is a false religion.

As Father George Leo Haydock noted in his commentary on verse twenty-five, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did not enforce the chief priests’ blasphemously impious prayer in literal terms as He has extended His mercies to countless thousands upon thousands of Jews to come out from the darkness of synagogue worship to enter into the New and Eternal Zion that is His Catholic Church:

Ver. 25. All the people answered: his blood be upon us, and upon our children which continues, saith St. Jerome, to this day. Then Pilate delivered to them Jesus to be crucified. (Witham) — This blasphemous prayer continues to this day, and will continue a protracted curse upon the Jews, and upon their posterity. (Origen) — Behold the insanity of the Jews! Their passion and pertinacious obstinacy will not suffer them to see and understand: they draw down curses upon themselves in these terrible imprecations: his blood be upon us and upon our children. Still the God of all mercies did not literally comply with their impious prayer. For, of these children he selected some for himself; amongst the rest even Paul, and many thousands who were converted at Jerusalem. (St. Chrysostom) (Matthew 27 – Haydock Commentary Online.)

Yes, while we must treat all people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, with kindness and respect as we would treat Our Lord Himself in the very Flesh and to pray for the conversion of all non-Catholics, it is nevertheless true that Judaism is accursed and that those who adhere to Jewish superstition suffer the effects of this curse until they are freed from in the life-giving waters of the Baptismal font.

There are even some fully traditional Catholics who would say that it is not opportune to talk about Deicide or to even use such terms as Judeo-Masonry as to do so is to unnecessarily provoke conflict and controversy.

To this objection, though, I answer that it is necessary to refute error and to point out the proximate root causes for its promotion within the world-at-large and within the conciliar sect while making the distinctions, as I always try to do, between opposition to the falsity of Judaism and the pernicious quality of its errors and the charitable way in which we must go about our daily business in a pluralistic country that, far from being cause for us to exercise pudentia carnis (prudence on the flesh), should inspire us all the more to speak with the love and conviction that motivated Saint Stephen the Protomartyr to sacrifice his very life to defend the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church.

So what if we are denounced by the Southern Poverty Law Center?

So what if we are investigated by agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation?

So what if we are denounced by otherwise well-meaning Catholics within the conciliar structures?

So what?

Instead of the fear of this world, including the fear of the Jews that the Eleven had before they had received word of Our Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday, we should draw inspiration from the commentary on the martyrdom of Saint Stephen written by Saint Fulgentius as contained in the reading for Matins for this feast day:

Yesterday we were celebrating the birth in time of our Eternal King; today we celebrate the victory, through suffering, of one of His soldiers. Yesterday our King was pleased to come forth from His royal palace of the Virgin's womb, clothed in a robe of flesh, to visit the world; today His soldier, laying aside the tabernacle of the body, entereth in triumph into the heavenly palaces. The One, preserving unchanged that glory of the Godhead which He had before the world was, girded Himself with the form of a servant, and entered the arena of this world to fight sin; the other taketh off the garments of this corruptible body, and entereth into the heavenly mansions, where he will reign for ever. The One cometh down, veiled in flesh; the other goeth up, clothed in a robe of glory, red with blood.

The One cometh down amid the jubilation of angels; the other goeth up amid the stoning of the Jews. Yesterday the holy angels were singing, Glory to God in the highest; today there is joy among them, for they receive Stephen into their company. Yesterday the Lord came forth from the Virgin's womb; today His soldier is delivered from the prison of the body. Yesterday Christ was for our sakes wrapped in swaddling bands; today He girdeth Stephen with a robe of immortality. Yesterday the new-born Christ lay in a narrow manger; today Stephen entereth victorious into the boundless heavens. The Lord came down alone that He might raise many up; our King humbled Himself that He might set His soldiers in high places.

Why brethren, it behoveth us to consider with what arms Stephen was able, amid all the cruelty of the Jews, to remain more than conqueror, and worthily to attain to so blessed a triumph. Stephen, in that struggle which brought him to the crown whereof his name is a prophecy, had for armour the love of God and man, and by it he remained victorious on all hands. The love of God strengthened him against the cruelty of the Jews; and the love of his neighbour made him pray even for his murderers. Through love he rebuked the wandering, that they might be corrected; through love he prayed for them that stoned him, that they might not be punished. By the might of his love he overcame Saul his cruel persecutor; and earned for a comrade in heaven, the very man who had done him to death upon earth. (Saint Fulgentius, as found in Matins, Divine Office, Feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, December 26.)

We must go to our battle stations, therefore, and by this I mean our kneelers so that we can pray for an increase in our faith to make it more possible for us to invite those non-Catholics God’s Holy Providence places in our paths, especially by means of spending time in profound Eucharistic piety if Our Lord’s Real Presence is reserved reasonably nearby where one lives (something that is, of course, an impossibility in most parts of the world today because of the conciliar liturgical revolution) and by our fervent devotion to the daily praying Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary.

Our Lady helped to make the prayers of Saint Stephen for the conversion of Saul of Tarsus fruitful and she appeared as the image on the Miraculous Medal in the Church of San Andrea’delle Fratte on January 20, 1842, to Alphonse-Maria Ratisbonne, who was converted from being a fire-breathing hater of Catholicism to the baptismal font and from there to being ordained a Roman Catholic priest.

We should never doubt the intercessory power of the Mother of God, and we must always invoke the patronage of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr for the conversion of today’s Jews so that they, rather being part of an accursed race, can enjoy the glories of the eternal Israel that is to be found only in the Catholic Church.