Peace Without the Prince of Peace is No Real Peace At All

In the end, if this is indeed the end, at least for now, the Israeli Zionists got almost everything they wanted, and what they wanted most of all was to exact a heavy price upon the Gazan Palestinians in retribution for the Hamas terrorist attacks upon Israel on October 7, 2023, that many of us suspect was a “false flag” to justify the Israeli genocide that followed in their wake.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got his pretext to destroy practically every single structure in Gaza City and displacing thousands upon thousands of people. Netanyahu’s forces killed over 67,000 innocent Palestinians and injured or maimed at least 169,000 others, thus, in his mind, “teaching” the “subhumans” who their master is. Consider this incredible toll of human suffering:

Two years of Israeli attacks have killed at least 67,000 Palestinians. Thousands of other people are still under the rubble.

That is about one out of every 33 people killed, or 3 percent of the pre-war population.

At least 20,000 children are among the dead, or one child killed every hour for the past 24 months.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health counts deaths based on people brought to hospitals or officially recorded. The true number is unknown and is likely much higher because the official death toll does not include those who perished under rubble or are missing.

1 out of 14 people in Gaza injured

The human toll of Gaza’s war extends beyond the dead.

More than 169,000 people have been injured, many with life-altering wounds.

UNICEF estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 children in Gaza have lost one or more limbs.

What few health facilities are still open across the besieged enclave remain overwhelmed as they operate with dwindling supplies and little to no anaesthesia.

125 hospitals and clinics damaged

Israel has attacked nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Over the past two years, at least 125 health facilities have been damaged, including 34 hospitals, leaving patients without access to essential medical services.

Israeli strikes on hospitals and the continued bombardment of Gaza have killed at least 1,722 health and aid workers.

Hundreds of others have been forcibly removed from hospital wards and patient bedsides and detained in Israeli prisons and military camps.

According to Health Care Workers Watch, as of July 22, Israeli forces are holding 28 prominent physicians, including 18 senior specialists in vital fields such as surgery, anaesthesiology, intensive care and paediatrics, depriving Gaza’s devastated health system of critical expertise.

Two of these senior doctors have reportedly died under torture in Israeli custody, and their bodies are still being withheld.

At least 20 physicians were taken from hospitals besieged or stormed by Israeli soldiers, while others were detained from medical convoys, their homes or during forced evacuations. Most have been held without charge for more than 400 days, including three detained for over 600 days.

These arrests form part of a broader pattern of attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system. Since October 2023, there have been more than 790 documented attacks on health facilities, including aerial bombardments of hospitals, clinics and ambulances, according to the World Health Organization.

Hospitals cannot be the object of attack, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 18-22. According to Articles 12 and 51, medical units and personnel have special protections.

According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8 (2)(b)(ix), intentionally attacking a hospital is a war crime.

Famine

Israel has orchestrated widespread hunger in Gaza through military restrictions that have blocked aid for months and an imposed food distribution system in which people are shot almost daily while trying to collect food.

At least 459 people, including 154 children, have died due to starvation.

On August 22, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, a global hunger monitor, confirmed a famine in the enclave – the first officially recognised in the Middle East.

According to the IPC, famine is currently occurring in Gaza Governorate and is projected to expand to the Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates by the end of September. Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5).

Malnutrition among children surged at a historic pace: In July alone, more than 12,000 were identified as acutely malnourished – six times higher than at the start of the year.

Nearly one child in four suffers from severe acute malnutrition, and one in five babies is born prematurely or underweight.

When the Israeli- and United States-backed GHF took over aid operations on May 27, operating outside the UN framework, it introduced a new, deadly distribution system.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 2,600 people have been killed and over 19,000 injured by fire from Israeli soldiers and GHF security contractors while trying to collect food from GHF sites.

One Israeli soldier described these areas as “a killing field”. And Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted Israeli soldiers as saying they were ordered to fire on people gathered at the GHF sites.

89% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure is damaged

Since October 2023, Israel has systematically targeted Gaza’s already compromised water infrastructure – striking wells, pipelines, desalination plants and sewage systems.

According to UN experts, 89 percent of the enclave’s water and sanitation network has been damaged or destroyed, leaving more than 96 percent of households water insecure.

Local authorities said much of Gaza’s water distribution system lies in ruins, with major pipes shattered and wells either contaminated by untreated sewage or rendered inaccessible due to ongoing fighting and forced displacement.

Today, nearly half of Gaza’s population survives on less than 6 litres (1.6 gallons) of water a day for drinking and cooking, while 28 percent have access to under 9 litres (2.4 gallons) for hygiene and cleaning – far below the emergency 20-litre (5.3-gallon) standards set for “short-term survival”.

Nearly all homes destroyed or damaged

The destruction across Gaza is near total.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, by August, 92 percent of all residential buildings and 88 percent of commercial facilities had been damaged or destroyed.

Entire neighbourhoods have been wiped out, leaving millions of Palestinians displaced and without shelter.

Satellite analysis by the UN’s UNOSAT programme found that as of July 8, 2025, nearly 78 percent of all structures across the enclave have been destroyed.

With 62 percent of residents lacking legal documents to prove property ownership, rebuilding will be fraught with challenges. Many families face the prospect of permanent displacement, unable to reclaim their homes or land even if reconstruction eventually begins.

According to a World Bank assessment released in February, the direct physical damage caused by Israel’s bombardment is valued at $55bn, encompassing the obliteration of homes, schools, hospitals and public infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.

Education

Gaza’s education system has collapsed under the weight of war.

Nearly 658,000 school-aged children and 87,000 university students have been left without access to learning as classrooms and campuses lie in ruins.

At least 780 education staff members have been killed, and 92 percent of schools now require complete reconstruction.

More than 2,300 educational facilities, including 63 university buildings, have been destroyed. The ones still standing are being used as shelter for the displaced.

Thousands held in Israeli prisons

More than 10,800 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons under what rights groups describe as grave and inhumane conditions, including 450 children and  87 women.

People were rounded up in raids in Gaza or during raids in the occupied West Bank.

A significant number are held without charge or trial. At least 3,629 Palestinians are being detained under administrative detention, a policy that Israel uses to imprison Palestinians indefinitely on “secret evidence”.

Deadliest place to be a journalist

Nearly 300 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, including 10 from Al Jazeera, according to the Shireen Abu Akleh Observatory.

These are the Al Jazeera staff members killed by Israeli attacks:

• Mohammad Salama
• Anas al-Sharif
• Mohammed Qreiqeh
• Ibrahim Zaher
• Mohammed Noufal
• Hossam Shabat
• Ismail al-Ghoul
• Ahmed al-Louh
• Hamza Dahdouh
• Samer Abudaqa

Foreign media have been barred from entering the enclave, with only a few reporters embedded with Israeli soldiers allowed into the enclave under strict Israeli military censorship.

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Irene Khan says Israel’s campaign amounts to an effort to silence Palestinian journalists.

“Israel first delegitimises and discredits a journalist,” she said. “Smear campaigns accuse them of being terrorist supporters – and then they are killed. This is not just about killing journalists. It is about killing the story.”

The Brown University Costs of War Project reports that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the US Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Yugoslav conflicts and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan – combined.

(Al Jazeera) Illustrations by Muhammet Okur (Two years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza: By the numbers | Israel-Palestine conflict News.)

Yes, perhaps peace, at least of a sort, appears to be at hand for the Palestinian people of Gaza, but, as is usually the case, sadly, the Israelis exacted their pound of flesh in revenge for the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, but whether Hamas has been working an Israel’s agent provocateur or not, its leaders, who have safely in exile for quite some time despite Israel’s recent efforts to kill them in Qatar, they have accepted the terms of the peace agreement’s first phase:

• Israel’s government has approved “phase one” of a ceasefire agreement, which will see captives exchanged and Israel withdraw from parts of Gaza, but details of how it fits into a wider plan to bring lasting peace remain unclear.
• Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s negotiating team, said the group has received guarantees from the US and mediators that an agreement on a first phase of the ceasefire agreement means the war in Gaza “has ended completely”.
• The Israeli government’s ratification of the peace plan, which was confirmed in the early hours of Friday morning, paves the way for fighting in Gaza to stop within 24 hours, while Hamas has been given a 72-hour timeline to free Israeli captives.
• The vote reportedly saw right-wing Israeli factions oppose the deal, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir earlier telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he would not be part of any government “that will allow Hamas rule to continue in Gaza”.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 67,194 people and wounded 169,890 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 200 were taken captive. (LIVE: Hamas gets guarantees of end to Gaza war, Israel approves ceasefire | Israel-Palestine conflict News.)

Even though President Donald John Trump let the Israelis continue their Gazan genocide and even praised the “bravery” of the Israeli military forces despite the fact that it is not courageous to attack innocent people, destroy their homes and hospitals, target physicians as “potential terrorists” for treating suspected Hamas commanders, attack Christian churches, and deny humanitarian aid to starve Palestinians into submission the way that William Tecumseh Sherman did in his deplorable “March to the Sea” between November 15, 1864, and December 21, 1864, he did put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the twenty-five month war to a conclusion, at least for now:

It is a well-known adage in politics that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. Except when Donald Trump is involved, in which case there is only one parent.

Nevertheless, many countries and individuals have a right to step forward to claim an authorial role in the deal that it is hoped will bring an end to the two-year war in Gaza.

But it is a sign of the collective nature of the effort of the past few months that so many can credibly claim a role, including the US president, who after many false starts was finally persuaded to focus, end the fantasy of driving tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland and instead spell out to Benjamin Netanyahu the versions of victory the Israeli prime minister could and could not have.

The turning point was a meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN general assembly chaired by Trump, soon after his baroque speech to the gathering. Trump described the sidelines chat as his most important meeting at the UN. In the encounter organised by the United Arab Emirates, he set out for the first time his then 20-point plan for peace in front of a group of Arab and Muslim states that could form the backbone of any stabilisation force that entered Gaza in the event of a ceasefire.

By then Trump, with the help of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the former British prime minister Tony Blair, had been convinced to change his mind on two critical issues. First, Palestinians should not be driven from Gaza and Israel should not rule the territory. “Gaza should be for Gazans,” one said.

That meant Trump dropping the displacement rhetoric he deployed earlier in the year, when he triggered widespread alarm by speaking of plans to develop a “Gaza Riviera”.

Secondly, Trump was persuaded a “day after” plan for the future of Gaza would not complicate the negotiations on a ceasefire-hostage release agreement by adding new contested ingredients, but was the precondition for success. A UK diplomat explained Blair’s thinking: “Hamas was not going to give up unless it knew the Israelis were going to get out and the Israelis were not going to get out and stop occupying Gaza unless they knew Hamas were not going to be in government. Unless you resolved the question of who governs Gaza you cannot bring the thing to an end.”

That in turn made it easier for the Arab states to put political pressure on Hamas to negotiate since they could point to a route towards Palestinian statehood, something that has always been their precondition for reconciliation with Israel. The Arab states had also put their names to demands that Hamas stand aside and disarm.

One of those involved in persuading the US president said: “People don’t want to hear this but the advantage of Trump is that once he decides to do something he is like a juggernaut. And he really did put pressure on the Israelis.”

Trump’s mood towards Israel was clouded by Netanyahu’s unilateral decision to bomb Doha on 9 September in the hope of wiping out Hamas negotiators. Trump had not been consulted, but the US assurances were met with scepticism. As a result Netanyahu, not a man prone to contrition, was ordered to apologise and say he would respect Qatar’s sovereignty in future.

To repair relations fully with Qatar, the host of main US airbase in the Middle East, Trump issued an extraordinary executive order saying any future attack on the emirate would be treated as an attack on the US. All this meant the US leader was better disposed to the Gulf states’ vision of a new Middle East. In a sign he was prepared to push the Israeli government hard, in a way Joe Biden had not, Trump told Israel there would be no further annexations in the West Bank.

From the very start of the sidelines meeting at the UN in September, the aim of the Arab states was to bind Trump personally into the process. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said: “We count on you and your leadership … to end this war and to help the people of Gaza.” He said Israel’s real objective was “to destroy Gaza, to render housing, livelihoods, education, and medical care impossible, stripping away the very foundations of human life”.

The concept that Trump personally was central to a solution – indeed its guarantor – flattered the US president who offered himself up as the chair of the peace board, the body that would oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.

In one sense, he would be just a name plate, but to the extent he has a hinterland, it is construction. That means there is a possibility he will remain engaged, for the moment at least.

Those observing him said Trump began to feel he had a serious opportunity to solve a conflict he variously said had lasted 3,000 or 600 years, in contrast to his failed attempt in Ukraine. The prospect of winning the Nobel peace prize, Trump’s obsession, hovered once more into view.

That meant that once his plan was published Trump did not let go, but kept the pressure up on Hamas, warning of the group’s annihilation if it did not release the hostages in return for 250 Palestinians. But neither did Trump let Israel backtrack. Speed and momentum became of the essence.

It was the seniority of the negotiators who went to the talks in Egypt that revealed the stars were finally aligning and Hamas would be forced into releasing all the hostages it held, even though Israel would not immediately leave all of Gaza. The scenes were extraordinary enough in that the Hamas negotiators were – albeit through mediators – holding talks with a government that had tried to assassinate them a month earlier. By the time they started the participants sensed a deal was unavoidable.

The arrival of Kushner, the head of the intelligence office of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İbrahim Kalın, and the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, confirmed a breakthrough was imminent.

During the talks, Hamas negotiators led by its leader Khalil al-Hayya, Mohammad al-Hindi, the deputy secretary general of Islamic Jihad, and Jamil Mezher, the deputy secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, sought to clarify the names of the Palestinians to be released, the mechanism of the release of the Israeli hostages and the “day after” aspects of the agreement, poring over the maps showing a withdrawal of Israel’s forces.

But Hamas was told while the critical “day after” principles stood, the details would have to wait for a second linked negotiation. The risk for Hamas now is that it loses its leverage upon handing over the hostages – and that fears Israel will then refuse to engage with the plans for Gaza’s future or find a pretext to restart the fighting will be realised. The domestic brake on Netanyahu resuming the fighting – the demand to save the hostages – would have gone.

Here Trump’s continued willingness to keep up the pressure on Netanyahu was critical, and is acknowledged by Hamas in its statements referring to the US president as guarantor of the plan. On Fox News, Trump said he had told Netanyahu that “Israel cannot fight the world”, adding: “And he understands that very well.” He said: “You will see people coexisting and Gaza will be rebuilt.”

By contrast Amit Segal, a journalist close to Netanyahu, said: “There’s no phase two. That’s clear to everyone, right? Phase two might happen someday, but it’s unrelated to what’s just been signed.”

Many elements of Trump’s 20-point plan are being addressed by diplomats from the US, Europe and Arab states at a separate gathering in Paris on Wednesday.

On the agenda are issues such as the Hamas handover of weapons; its exclusion from future administrations; the mandate of an international peacekeeping force; the delivery of resumed aid flows; and the future relationship between Gaza and the West Bank as the nucleus of a future Palestinian state. On almost all these, there have been deep differences between Israel on the one hand, and Europe and the Arab states on the other.

But in a promising sign, US officials will attend this meeting, suggesting Washington does not favour an armed status quo.

At the centre of these discussions is Blair, who is to sit on the peace board or interim government that will oversee the Palestinian technocrats that help implement reconstruction plans. Blair will have to convince the Palestinian Authority that he is not offering a colonial-esque arrangement, as the former prime minister says it fears. But he is unlikely to do the job unless he has real powers, something he feels was not given when he was Middle East special envoy to the quartet.

Arab leaders are seeking assurances that the international stabilisation force that eventually enters Gaza has a UN security council mandate, and that there is a clear plan to treat Gaza and the West Bank as one political entity.

One of the most difficult issues unresolved in the rushed talks in Egypt is the timing of the Hamas weapons handover. The group may be willing to deliver its arms to an Arab-run authority, or a Palestinian civil police force, but not to Israel. Some diplomats even believe Hamas may feel the need to take a new political course, something it has been close to doing before. “Gazans are going to demand to know what the past two years were about,” one diplomat said.

One diplomat involved in the talks said: “The tragedy is that this could have all been agreed 20 months ago, all the elements were there. The key Israeli objective – which is why it is a tragedy this war has gone on so long – was the removal of Hamas from future rule, and that was obtainable a long time ago.” (‘Trump is like a juggernaut’: how the Gaza ceasefire deal was done.)

The Sheik of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, spoke the unvarnished to Trump at the United Nations last month while making sure to flatter the president in the process:

“We count on you and your leadership … to end this war and to help the people of Gaza.” He said Israel’s real objective was “to destroy Gaza, to render housing, livelihoods, education, and medical care impossible, stripping away the very foundations of human life”. (‘Trump is like a juggernaut’: how the Gaza ceasefire deal was done.)

This has been exactly what Israel has been trying to do for the past two years and, to cite the unnamed diplomat in the last paragraph of the news analysis in The Guardian, the tragedy of this all is that this result could have been reached a long time ago were it not the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu was a man with his “Greater Israel” mission in which I think we will learn one day that Hamas played its role as a false opposite perfectly.

Certainly, President Donald John Trump is to be commended for bringing pressure to bear on Benjamin Netanyahu and for coordinating the negotiations with leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. What was achievable twenty months ago, however, could have been achieved nine months ago and, recognizing that everything occurs within the Providence of God, the president has been publicly very supportive of Israel’s Gaza operations while always decrying the destruction that had taken place in Gaza without once blaming the Israelis for causing it (see one secular commentator’s negative reaction to the agreement at Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan Won’t Work, It’s an Ultimatum Under Genocide).

Nevertheless, however, the peace agreement is commendable as it promises to cease the hostilities and to let vital humanitarian aid reach those who have been rendered homeless by ceaseless Israeli onslaught of the past twenty-four months, three days.

No peace plan, however, can ever be truly successful without referencing the Prince of Peace, Whose Sacred Divinity is denied by both of the two major combatants in the Holy Land, Mohammedans and Jews, both of whom stand to spend all eternity in hell together unless they convert to the Catholic Faith before they die, and it is in this regard that the conciliar revolutionaries have failed the cause of the Prince of Peace as the only true peace that can exist among men is to be found first in the souls of those who are at peace with Him by means of Sanctifying Grace.

Pope Pius XII, writing in his last encyclical letter, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958, began with the reminder that he had attempted to engage in a holy crusade of prayer by seeking the intercession of the Mother of God in all the dangers of the moment, dangers that were only exacerbated, not resolved by the ineffectiveness of human plans and resources:

1. It is helpful to recall, when new dangers threaten Christians and the Church, the Spouse of the Divine Redeemer, that We — like Our Predecessors in bygone days — have turned in prayer to the Virgin Mary, our loving Mother, and have urged the whole flock entrusted to Our care to place itself confidently under her protection.

2. Thus, when the world was rocked by a terrible war, We did not simply preach peace to citizens, peoples, and nations, nor did We merely work to restore to mutual agreement — under the standard of truth, justice, and love — those whom strife had divided. On the contrary, when all human resources and human plans proved ineffective, in many letters of exhortation and in a holy crusade of prayer We invoked heaven’s help through the mighty intercession of the great Mother of God, to whose Immaculate Heart We consecrated Ourselves and the whole human race.[1]

3. By now, of course, that war is over, but a just peace does not yet prevail, nor do men live in concord founded on brotherly understanding. For the seeds of war either lurk in hiding or — from time to time — erupt threateningly and hold the hearts of men in frightened suspense, especially since human ingenuity has devised weapons so powerful that they can ravage and sink into general destruction, not only the vanquished, but the victors with them, and all mankind. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Pope Pius XII reminded Catholics that human plans, human, resourcs, and human endeavors are futile and will fail when Almighty God is esteemed little, denied His proper place, or even completely disregarded:

4. If we weigh carefully the causes of today’s crises and those that are ahead, we shall soon find that human plans, human resources, and human endeavors are futile and will fail when Almighty God — He who enlightens, commands, and forbids; He who is the source and guarantor of justice, the fountainhead of truth, the basis of all laws — is esteemed but little, denied His proper place, or even completely disregarded. If a house is not built on a solid and sure foundation, it tumbles down; if a mind is not enlightened by the divine light, it strays more or less from the whole truth; if citizens, peoples, and nations are not animated by brotherly love, strife is born, waxes strong, and reaches full growth.

5. It is Christianity, above all others, which teaches the full truth, real justice, and that divine charity which drives away hatred, ill will, and enmity. Christianity has been given charge of these virtues by the Divine Redeemer, who is the way, the truth, and the life,[2] and she must do all in her power to put them to use. Anyone, therefore, who knowingly ignores Christianity — the Catholic Church — or tries to hinder, demean, or undo her, either weakens thereby the very bases of society, or tries to replace them with props not strong enough to support the edifice of human worth, freedom, and well-being.

6. There must, then, be a return to Christian principles if we are to establish a society that is strong, just, and equitable. It is a harmful and reckless policy to do battle with Christianity, for God guarantees, and history testifies, that she shall exist forever. Everyone should realize that a nation cannot be well organized or well ordered without religion. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

One will note that Pope Pius XII was careful to make the same distinctions as had been made by previous popes concerning the fact that Christianity and the Catholic Church are coextensive. This is a distinction made by Pope Leo XIII in his own last encyclical letter and by Pope Pius XII himself in Mystici Corporis Christi, June 29, 1943:

Just as Christianity cannot penetrate into the soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into public life without establishing order. With the idea of a God Who governs all, Who is infinitely Wise, Good, and Just, the idea of duty seizes upon the consciences of men. It assuages sorrow, it calms hatred, it engenders heroes. If it has transformed pagan society--and that transformation was a veritable resurrection--for barbarism disappeared in proportion as Christianity extended its sway, so, after the terrible shocks which unbelief has given to the world in our days, it will be able to put that world again on the true road, and bring back to order the States and peoples of modern times. But the return of Christianity will not be efficacious and complete if it does not restore the world to a sincere love of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies Itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption. It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which  it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. Legitimate dispenser of the teachings of the Gospel it does not reveal itself only as the consoler and Redeemer of souls, but It is still more the internal source of justice and charity, and the propagator as well as the guardian of true liberty, and of that equality which alone is possible here below. In applying the doctrine of its Divine Founder, It maintains a wise equilibrium and marks the true limits between the rights and privileges of society. The equality which it proclaims does not destroy the distinction between the different social classes. It keeps them intact, as nature itself demands, in order to oppose the anarchy of reason emancipated from Faith, and abandoned to its own devices. The liberty which it gives in no wise conflicts with the rights of truth, because those rights are superior to the demands of liberty. Not does it infringe upon the rights of justice, because those rights are superior to the claims of mere numbers or power. Nor does it assail the rights of God because they are superior to the rights of humanity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)

If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ — which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church— we shall find nothing more noble, morre sublime, or more divine than the expression “the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ” – an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the holy Fathers. . . .

Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. "For in one spirit" says the Apostle, "were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free." As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered - so the Lord commands - as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

Moreover, Pope Pius XII’s discussion of the futility of human actions to resolve the problems caused by sinful men who are intent on persevering in their sins of one kind or another was identical to what Pope Pius XI had written in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio:

24. The inordinate desire for pleasure, concupiscence of the flesh, sows the fatal seeds of division not only among families but likewise among states; the inordinate desire for possessions, concupiscence of the eyes, inevitably turns into class warfare and into social egotism; the inordinate desire to rule or to domineer over others, pride of life, soon becomes mere party or factional rivalries, manifesting itself in constant displays of conflicting ambitions and ending in open rebellion, in the crime of lese majeste, and even in national parricide.

25. These unsuppressed desires, this inordinate love of the things of the world, are precisely the source of all international misunderstandings and rivalries, despite the fact that oftentimes men dare to maintain that acts prompted by such motives are excusable and even justifiable because, forsooth, they were performed for reasons of state or of the public good, or out of love for country. Patriotism -- the stimulus of so many virtues and of so many noble acts of heroism when kept within the bounds of the law of Christ -- becomes merely an occasion, an added incentive to grave injustice when true love of country is debased to the condition of an extreme nationalism, when we forget that all men are our brothers and members of the same great human family, that other nations have an equal right with us both to life and to prosperity, that it is never lawful nor even wise, to dissociate morality from the affairs of practical life, that, in the last analysis, it is "justice which exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable." (Proverbs xiv, 34)

26. Perhaps the advantages to one's family, city, or nation obtained in some such way as this may well appear to be a wonderful and great victory (this thought has been already expressed by St. Augustine), but in the end it turns out to be a very shallow thing, something rather to inspire us with the most fearful apprehensions of approaching ruin. "It is a happiness which appears beautiful but is brittle as glass. We must ever be on guard lest with horror we see it broken into a thousand pieces at the first touch." (St. Augustine de Civitate Dei, Book iv, Chap. 3)

27. There is over and above the absence of peace and the evils attendant on this absence, another deeper and more profound cause for present-day conditions. This cause was even beginning to show its head before the War and the terrible calamities consequent on that cataclysm should have proven a remedy for them if mankind had only taken the trouble to understand the real meaning of those terrible events. In the Holy Scriptures we read: "They that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed." (Isaias i, 28) No less well known are the words of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, Who said: "Without me you can do nothing" (John xv, 5) and again, "He that gathereth not with me, scattereth." (Luke xi, 23)

28. These words of the Holy Bible have been fulfilled and are now at this very moment being fulfilled before our very eyes. Because men have forsaken God and Jesus Christ, they have sunk to the depths of evil. They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. It was a quite general desire that both our laws and our governments should exist without recognizing God or Jesus Christ, on the theory that all authority comes from men, not from God. Because of such an assumption, these theorists fell very short of being able to bestow upon law not only those sanctions which it must possess but also that secure basis for the supreme criterion of justice which even a pagan philosopher like Cicero saw clearly could not be derived except from the divine law. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

That last paragraph, number twenty-eight, says it all:

They waste their energies and consume their time and efforts in vain sterile attempts to find a remedy for these ills, but without even being successful in saving what little remains from the existing ruin. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

Pope Pius XII went on to explain in his last encyclical letter how great numbers of citizens, especially the uneducated, are won over by errors, something that applies very much in our world today because even those who believe they are “educated” are not truly such as they have brainwashed into believing every ideological “ ‘ism” imaginable, including being trained today to believe that there are more than two genders and that those of a certain race should feel guilty for the past injustices done those of different races and, quite indeed, should understand when they and “their kind” are subjected to violent assaults, which their masters have taught them, are fully justifiable and to be encouraged. Pope Pius XII’s prophetic insight in this regard has been ignored even by most fully traditional Catholics:

7. As a matter of fact, religion contributes more to good, just, and orderly life than it could if it had been conceived for no other purpose than to supply and augment the necessities of mortal existence. For religion bids men live in charity, justice, and obedience to law; it condemns and outlaws vice; it incites citizens to the pursuit of virtue and thereby rules and moderates their public and private conduct. Religion teaches mankind that a better distribution of wealth should be had, not by violence or revolution, but by reasonable regulations, so that the proletarian classes which do not yet enjoy life’s necessities or advantages may be raised to a more fitting status without social strife.

8. As We reflect on this subject, from a vantage point that enables Us to transcend the tides of human passion and to love as a father the people of every race, two matters come to mind which cause Us great worry and anxiety.

9. The first of these is that there are some countries in which Christian principles and the Catholic religion are not given their proper place. Great numbers of the citizens, especially from the ranks of the uneducated, are easily won over by widely published errors, particularly since these are often colored with the appearances of truth. The seductive allurements of vice, which tend to corrupt minds through all sorts of publications, motion pictures, and television performances, are a special menace to unsuspecting young people.

10. There are writers and publishers whose goal is not to turn their readers to truth, virtue, and wholesome entertainment, but to stir up vicious and violent appetites solely for the sake of gain, and even to assail and defile with lies, calumnies, and accusations all that is holy, beautiful, and noble. Unfortunately, the truth is often distorted; lies and scandals are published abroad. The obvious result is damage to civil society and harm to the Church. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

Pope Pius XII was referring specifically to countries such as the United States of America and elsewhere in the supposedly civilized “West” that specialized in the dissemination of error and vice, and there are more relevant today than they were sixty-four years ago given the complete descent of motion pictures and television programs into an abyss of licentiousness and amorality that entice people to live in a debauched, depraved manner while their legitimate liberties are being stripped away by the modern caesars intent on distracting the masses with bread and circuses.

Pope Pius XII’s Meminisse Iuvat, which was certainly written while the pontiff was aware that his death was imminent, contained a denunciation of false doctrines and defended Holy Mother Church as the sole repository of the Sacred Deposit Faith by adhering loyally to the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the Roman Pontiff:

18. This unity is, indeed, being attacked by false doctrines and by a variety of insidious strategems. But all should remember that the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church, must be “closely joined and knit together through every joint of the system according to the function in due measure of each single part,”[6] “until We all attain to the unity of the faith and of the deep knowledge of the Son of God, to perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ,”[7] whose Vicar on earth is — by divine appointment — the Roman Pontiff, as successor of Peter.

19. They should recall and meditate upon the wise words of Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr: “The Lord spoke thus to Peter: I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. . .[8] On Peter alone He raised His Church. . . We must all resolutely preserve and defend this unity, but especially we bishops who govern the Church. . .

20. “For the Church is one, although she embraces greater and greater multitudes in the course of her prolific growth. So the sun has many rays, but one light; a tree has many branches, but one trunk rooted firmly in the ground; and when many streams issue from a single source, though their number seems to come directly from the abundance of flowing water, still there is only one source. Shut out a ray of the sun: the unity of its light has not been sundered; tear a branch from a tree: that branch no longer puts forth shoots; block a stream from its source: that stream dries up.

21. “In like manner, the Church is steeped in the Lord’s light and spreads the rays of that light through the world: but it is one light and its unity is not several. The Church extends her branches over the whole world in rich profusion; her full, flowing streams spread everywhere: but there is only one trunk, only one source. . .

22. “And He who does not have the Church as his mother, cannot have God as his father. . . He who does not uphold this unity does not uphold the law of God, does not uphold the faith of the Father and the Son, and has neither life nor salvation.”[9]

23. These words of the saintly martyr and bishop afford comfort, encouragement, and a shield of strength — especially since they cannot maintain communication with the Holy See (or cannot easily do so) and are in serious peril, since they must surmount many obstacles and deceits. Those in such a plight should rely upon God’s help, which they must never cease to implore in humble prayer. They must remember that all who persecute the Church — as history shows — have passed like shadows, but the sun of God’s truth never sets, because “the word of the Lord endures forever.” (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

This was an admonition to civil rulers in Communist lands seeking to divide Catholics from their Holy Father. However, it was also an admonition against the Modernists and New Theologians whose false beliefs His Holiness had condemned in Humani Generis, August 12, 1950, and whom he knew to have taken over large sections of the world’s Catholic colleges, universities, and seminaries and who, truth be told, even he had appointed to the highest positions of trust during his pontificate. It is not without reason that Pope Pius XII is reported to have said before he died, “After me, the deluge.” Indeed. The Pope of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pope Pius XII, exhorted Catholics to have great confidence in the August Queen of Heaven, Our Lady, and in her intercessory power:

29. And since We have great confidence in the intercessory power of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, it is Our ardent wish that, during the novena customarily held before the Feast of the Assumption, all Catholics throughout the world raise public prayers to heaven for the Church, which is — as We have said — afflicted and harassed in certain lands.

30. We confidently hope that Mary will not refuse or leave unfilled Our entreaties and the unanimous prayers of all Catholics — she whom We, with divine approval, decreed and proclaimed, in the Holy Year of 1950, to have been taken up, body and soul, into the abode of blessedness in heaven;[16] she whom We solemnly declared and ordained to be properly venerated by all mankind as the Queen of Heaven;[17] she, finally, whose maternal graces We invited a multitude to enjoy on the centenary of her appearances, as a gracious giver of gifts, in the grotto of Lourdes to an innocent girl.[18]

31. By your entreaties and your example, Venerable Brothers, may the flocks entrusted to you approach the altars of the Mother of God prayerfully and in great numbers on the days named. May they pray with one voice and one spirit that she who “became a cause of salvation to the whole human race”[19] might obtain for the Church the freedom she needs if she is to bring men to eternal salvation, reenforce just laws with the mandates of conscience, and bolster the bases of civil society.

32. Through Mary’s maternal intercession, they should pray particularly that shepherds kept far from their flocks, or otherwise restrained from the free exercise of their ministry, may be restored as speedily as possible to the positions they formerly, and properly, held; that the faithful who are beset by intrigues, falsehoods, and dissension, might find strength in the full light of truth and in unqualified union and charity; that the wavering and weak might be so strengthened by God’s grace that they will be ready and able to bear up under any hardship without abandoning Christian faith and Christian unity. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

We are lost without Our Lady. Lost. Doomed. Damned.

Anyone who thinks that the problems which beset the world-at-large and the Church Militant on earth at this time can be ameliorated without a firm reliance upon, confidence in, and an unapologetic public proclamation of devotion to her and her intercessory power, and by this I means to call out all “conservative” Catholics in public life who write as naturalists (Americanists, American exceptionalists, founderologists, libertarians) and who refuse to make any public reference to Our Lady, her Most Holy Rosary, and to the fact that no one can save their souls without being devoted to her and cooperating with the graces she sends to them to do so.

Pope Pius XII called upon Catholics to pray to Our Lady so that all Catholics could have their lawful shepherds again, and we should do so now so that we can have a true pope restored to the Throne of Saint Peter to which each of us will readily and humbly submit in all of his decisions and declarations without a moment’s hesitation:

33. We ardently pray that every diocese might soon have its lawful shepherd again. May Christian principles be taught freely in all lands and among all classes of citizens.

34. May the young, in grade schools and high schools, in workshops and on farms, escape the snares of materialistic, atheistic, and hedonistic doctrines, which cripple the wings of the mind and cut the sinews of virtue. May they rather be illumined with the light of the wisdom of God’s gospel, which will rouse, raise, and direct them to what is best.

35. May the gates of truth be everywhere unobstructed; may no one bar those gates unjustly. May all men realize that nothing can withstand for long the force of truth or charity.

36. And, finally, may the heralds of the gospel soon seek out again the peoples whom they once led to Christ with apostolic zeal and exhausting toil, and whom they ardently desire to raise to a richer Christian and civil culture, even at the cost of difficulty, toil, and adversity.

37. May all the faithful ask these favors of the dear Mother of God; and for those who persecute the Christian religion may the faithful implore forgiveness in that spirit of charity which led the Apostle of the Gentiles to say, “Bless those who persecute you.”[20] They should also be mindful to pray that these men be given God’s grace and heavenly light, which alone can scatter the shadows of error and set consciences aright. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

Yes, we must forgive others as we are forgiven.

The life of a Catholic is not that of revenge and hatred. It is not that of willing harm to those who persecute us. It is about forgiving others and seeing in our persecutors our best friends as they have been chosen by God to be the means by which we may humbled, brought low before men, made the laughingstock of all, and to be held contemptibly even by complete strangers. This is, after all, what Our Blessed Lord and Saviour chose to do when He effected our Redemption during His Passion and Death:

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? [2] And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: [3] Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. [4] Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

[6] All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. [8] He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him. [9] And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. [10] And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

[11] Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. [12] Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors. (Isaias 53: 1-12.)

We cannot imitate Our Lord’s self-abnegation without Our Lady’s help and without imploring her to be virtuous as we climb the heights of personal sanctity, something that Pope Pius XII emphasized as he concluded his last encyclical letter, Meminisse Iuvat:

38. But, as you well know, Venerable Brothers, a renewal of Christian life must accompany these public petitions. Otherwise such prayers are idle words, which cannot be wholly pleasing to God.

39. And so, out of that ardent and zealous charity with which all Christians are bound to love the Catholic Church, they should address their prayers to heaven, but they should also offer interior acts of penance, works of virtue, sacrifices, inconveniences, and all the pains and hardships under which we labor, of necessity, in this mortal life, but which we should occasionally, take upon ourselves voluntarily, in a spirit of generosity.

40. Through this sound renewal of their way of life, joined with suppliant prayers, they will win God’s favor for themselves and for holy Church, whom they must embrace as they would a loving mother.

41. The faithful should present the sort of picture — as often as circumstances require — which is described so wonderfully, beautifully, and meaningfully in the Letter to Diognetus: “The Christians . . . are in the flesh, but do not live by the flesh. They dwell on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey valid laws, and even go beyond the demands of law in the conduct of their lives. They love all men, and yet all men persecute them. They are not understood, and yet they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet their life is quickened. . . They are dishonored, and yet in the midst of dishonor they find honor. Their good name is railed at, and yet is presented as evidence of their justice. . . When they conduct themselves like honest men, they are punished like criminals; while they are being punished, they rejoice as though they are being exalted…[21]

42. “To express all this briefly: what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.”[22]

43. If a Christian way of life flourishes again, as it did in the age of the Apostles and martyrs, then we can reasonably hope that the Blessed Virgin Mary — who longs with a mother’s heart that all her sons should live virtuously — will graciously heed our prayers and will soon grant, in response to our petitions, happier and more peaceful times for the Church of her Only Begotten Son and for the whole human society.

44. We wish, Venerable Brothers, that you will make Our wishes and exhortations known on Our behalf, in the way you think best, to the faithful entrusted to your care. Meanwhile, as a pledge of heaven’s blessing and a witness of Our paternal good will, We lovingly impart Our Apostolic Benediction to each of you, to the flocks entrusted to you, and individually to each of those who suffer persecution and torment because they defend the rights of the Church and give evidence of the love they bear her.

45. Written at Rome, in Saint Peter’s, on the fourteenth day of July, in the year 1958, the twentieth of Our Pontificate. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

We need to give a Catholic witness at all times. We cannot live in fear nor can we permit ourselves to be agitated by the babbling, blathering ignoramuses of naturalism who know nothing of First and Last Things and believe in the “salvific” nature of politics and elections despite all the evidence that things always get worse no matter how elections turn out as those of the “left” and the “right” continue to sin unrepentantly and put material prosperity above all things. No one can enjoy physical safety when God’s Holy Laws are ignored or derided and when men make war upon their own souls by their persistence in sins of one kind or another.

Blasphemy, impurity, indecency, immodesty, reveling, quarreling, heresy, indifferentism, relativism, positivism, pragmatism, materialism, secularism, Machiavellianism, utilitarianism, and every other “ ‘ism” abounds while men are either ignorant of the true Faith, Catholicism, or, if they are Catholic, are too ashamed, too fearful of losing human respect to proclaim the true Faith as the foundation of order within the soul and order within society. Men will always seek “solutions” to social problems in all the wrong places when they forget the reality of Original Sin, the horror of their own Actual Sins and refuse to seek out the ineffable mercy of the Divine Redeemer in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance.

Yes, we need Our Lady’s help to live virtuously and to grow in holiness. It is holiness that we need, not stratagems of the natural order. The only success that matters to Our Lord is that we save our souls by means of the graces He has won for us on the wood of the Holy Cross and that He chooses to send to us through the loving hands of the Mediatrix of All Graces, His Most Blessed Mother.

The path to true peace in the Holy Land, the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ, now and forevermore, is through Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary and devotion to her Immaculate Heart, which is something we must keep in mind as the cessation of hostilities in the Holy Land will come to nothing unless both the persecutors and their victims become united in the true bond of peace to be found only in the Catholic Church here below in this mortal vale of tears and then forever in the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost for all eternity in Heaven.

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 Balthazar, pray for us.

Saint Francis Borgia, S.J.