Suppressing the Holy Mass Has Never Worked… And It Won’t Now

From Saul of Tarsus in the 1^st century to China’s Xi Jinping in our 21^st century, Our Dear Lord’s True Church and His Holy Mass have endured one near-constant threat throughout all of Her history. That constant is Suppression; “to put down by authority or force.”

Think of it. From the Jews to the Romans, from the Islamists to the Protestants, from the Nazis to the Communists, with a few pagan suppressors sprinkled in-between, -- some entity or another, in some part of the world or another, has almost-continually tried to suppress Holy Mother Church and especially, Her Holy Sacrifice.

These acts of suppression do not come from Heaven. Oh no, they comes from a place considerably south of there; a place where Christ, His Church and His Mass are both loathed – and feared.

The truth is, in spite of millions of Catholics over the centuries losing their freedoms, their earthly possessions—and in the end, their very lives—at the hands of suppressors, this unholy activity has never worked particularly well against the Church and Her Holy Mass; at least not in the long run. “. . . And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Last year, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, of the Diocese of Yongjia in China was arrested and fined the equivalent of $27,880 for celebrating a Holy Mass “in public.” This was a rare and dangerous public devotion in this brutal, surveillance-laden country. Yet, news reports recorded that it was attended by “hundreds of worshipers.” Bishop Shao remains in custody.

Just this autumn in Nigeria, there was an act of abominable suppression. More than 300 Catholic school children and 12 of their teachers from St. Mary’s School were kidnapped by Boko Haram, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria. Nigeria has become a place where simply assisting at Sunday Mass is indeed, a heroic act.

Boko Haram and 21 other jihadist groups, have a combined goal to “eliminate” the 100 million Christians in Nigeria within 50 years.

Since 2009, more than 125,000 Christians have already been killed, more than 19,000 churches destroyed and more than 600 clerics kidnapped – majority Catholic, according to the International Society for Civil Liberty and the Rule of Law. The Nigerian suppression is vicious and barbaric. In spite of the cost to these heroic, beaten-down Nigerian Catholics, they continue to assist at the Holy Sacrifice, still they come.

The Church recognized the effects of suppression way back in the 2^nd century with Tertullian’s timeless words, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

Catholic history is replete with such true tales of courage in the face of suppression. But, what if a European country had suppressed the Catholic Church and Her Holy Mass relentlessly, non-stop for 300 years – a time period longer than the United States has even been in existence? Generation after generation being born into and dying out of ruthless state-run Catholic suppression. How could that nation possibly remain Catholic? Well, just ask the Irish!

Few suppressors can “hold a candle” to the breadth and brutality of Protestant England who persecuted thousands and ultimately martyred hundreds of their own Catholic citizens, priests, religious and lay persons alike. Protestant England did the same in Catholic Ireland from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries; only with more contempt ferocity and with a higher body count.

British subjects who did not accept this monumental heresy were guilty of treason. Hence, one year later in 1535, both St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher were both martyred by beheading. The suppression of British Catholics had begun.

Henry VIII and his financial advisor Thomas Cromwell began confiscating British Church funds, lands, buildings, revenues and treasures. At the time, the Church was one of the largest landowner in all of England. In just a short time, the “business” of suppression had become such a lucrative money-making proposition that Cromwell wanted to “take the show on the road” (so to speak) and fleece Irish Catholics, as well. And that he did.

Suppression of the Holy Mass in England began in earnest following Henry VIII’s death in 1547. His successor was his 10 year old son, deemed Edward VI. Catholic-hater Cromwell and his cronies were fully unleashed to wage open war against Our Lord’s Mass.

In his 1933 book, Ireland’s Loyalty To The Mass, Father Augustine Heyden, O.F.M. Cap., makes an observation about this juncture in protestant suppression history that is valuable to understanding the 16^th century – but also applies to the suppression in our own 21^st century Church.

Father writes about 1547 England, “The destruction of the Mass (in England) however, was a dangerous enterprise, and cautious procedure was absolutely necessary.” Later he added, “Mass was associated in the common mind with the Latin language, which represented not only a mysterious sanctity but also a certain universality.”

“So, for those who are bent on the change in religion, the use of vernacular was essential. It would help to destroy the sense of mystery and, in consequence, limit the power of the clergy . . . (It) would break down the general unity of worship, impair the sacred authority of the universal Church, from priest to pope, and ensure—what the innovators most desired—the destruction of the Adorable Sacrifice.”

Meanwhile across the Irish Sea, Ireland was not spared during Henry’s life. Just two years after England’s heretical declaration in 1534, Henry VIII also became the supreme head of the church in Ireland 1536, confiscating Church property, appointing his own protestant “bishops,” fining Irishmen for not attending the protestant service and taxing them for attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But still, they came.

Catholic Ireland had already endured suppression for decades when in 1649, Oliver Cromwell, a distant relative of Thomas, landed on the Irish shores to wage war against them. Cromwell was truly a contemptible sort. He was a Puritan and they were known to have a special hatred for the True Church. Puritans thought that even the breakaway Church of England was “too Catholic” and had to be purified.

Some 21^st century historians actually consider Cromwell a war criminal. Father Heyden describes Cromwell as “this inhuman monster, the living incarnation of triumphant Puritanism.” Cromwell killed thousands of Irish Catholics in Drogheda and Wexford alone; paying special attention to hunt and murder priests and bishops in the most contemptible, hate-filled manner.

Father Heyden writes that, upon arrival in Dublin, Cromwell sacrilegiously stabled his horses within St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Shortly after arriving, he spoke to his troops and told them that the Catholic faith (in Ireland) was to be swept away. “The chief objects of their vengeance should be the churches, the priests and the Mass.” The war had begun.

The British protestants had determined that fining Irish Catholics to abandon their Holy Mass was woefully ineffective—almost laughable. Therefore, the stakes had to be raised. After a monetary fine for the first “offense,” repeat Mass-attending Catholics in Ireland could be jailed for the second offense, have their homes taken away on the next, and then their land confiscated. If an Irishman still continued to assist at Holy Mass, he could be tortured. Finally, if all else failed, the faithful Irish Catholic could be put to death. And, many were.

Alternatively, many Irish lay people were simply exiled to foreign continental Europe or as far away as Barbados. Meanwhile, Irish Catholic churches and properties continued to be confiscated or destroyed, while priests, religious and bishops were hunted down and either exiled, tortured or killed. Again, many were.

Throughout the suppression, priests and religious became accustomed to disguising themselves as beggars, farmers and laborers; sleeping in abandoned shacks or in the open forests – then traveling from village to village to clandestinely administer the Sacraments. With little to eat and nowhere to sleep, it was a punishing existence.

Progressively, Holy Mass was driven from churches to priests' homes. When suppressors prevented Mass in those locations, the Holy Sacrifice was moved to lay Catholics’ cabins, then to hidden mud and stick huts constructed by Catholics in the forests, and finally to the remote outdoors; to the famous “Mass Rocks” of Ireland in the distant hills (many are preserved to this day).

During those long, dark centuries, the Irish Catholics picked up their crosses and followed their Savior. As Our Lord instructed us in St. John’s Gospel, “The servant is not greater than the Master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”

Many Irish Catholics lived their entire lives under the heavy mantle of unbearable suppression. With the implementation of the punishing Penal Laws in 1700, those who were not killed or exiled lost not only their money, their homes and their lands, but also their rights: to vote, to own property, to own a firearm, to hold public office, to serve in the military and more. In the end, nearly all Irish Catholic land was “transferred” to the protestants. By the late-1800’s, only 16% of all land in Ireland was owned by Irish Catholics.

Mercifully, in 1869, the diabolical English protestant edict finally came to a quiet end. The British House of Commons officially “disestablished” the cruel Irish suppression, admitting publicly that it had failed egregiously. Father Heyden deemed it “as vile a persecution as ever disgraced the annals of religion.”

Regrettably, the suppression/persecution of Catholics and the Holy Mass seems to be expanding. In his book, The Catholic Martyrs of the 20^th Century, Robert Royal writes, “In the 20^th century, more Catholics were persecuted, tortured and martyred than in any previous century.” North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Sudan are regarded as the most severe state-sponsored suppressors.

If Mr. Royal’s research be accurate, a curious question inevitably arises among Faithful Catholics:

In the USA, the Dioceses of Arlington, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Monterey, CA. and San Angelo, TX. are such examples. Yet it seems, no matter how much the TLM is suppressed in a Diocese, still they come.

Should not our 21^st century focus be the same as 16rh century Irish Catholics? That is, the “Adorable Sacrifice” of the Mass?

In the aftermath of the centuries-long Irish suppression, after the dust had settled, after the spilled blood had dried, the insight of a British protestant politician who became Chief Secretary of Ireland may be instructive. When Augustine Birrell arrived in Ireland in 1907 he witnessed, with great remorse, the devastation the Irish Catholic suppression had wrought on the Emerald Isle. He did much to the help Irish Catholics rebuild.

Of his experience he wrote, “It is the Mass that matters; it is the Mass that makes the difference; so hard to define, so subtle it is, yet so perceptible, between a Catholic country and a Protestant one, between Dublin and Edinburgh, between Havre and Cromer. Here, I believe, is one of the battlefields of the future.”

Paul wrote about communion, don’t see the word Catholic or mass anywhere in the New testament

AND YOU DO KNOW THAT.

And if I’m the ignorant one answer me this ....

....who was the pope in A.D. 69 ?

(Linus is claimed to be the second pope.

But he wasn’t titled that, he was a Bishop.)

Not pope, bishop.

He died 9/23/76 a.d.

It wasn’t until 124 years later that

Irenaeus (c. 180 AD):

claimed that Peter and Paul made Linus ,

( who they postulated was the Linus mentioned in 2nd Timothy)

the 2nd pope.

They literally rewrote history after the fact and created the title pope . A title found nowhere in the New testament.

And btw

The Petra ( boulder ) the church is founded on is the confession of and belief in the crucified and resurrected Son of God Messiah OF ISRAEL, dying for the remission of our sins

not Petros ( pebble) Jesus’ nickname for Peter

This bait and switch of the subject and object of the biblical sentence, and the conflation and swapping of the 2 different Greek words , is either innocent ignorance or rank deception .

Many millions of Catholics are Christians, but to claim there are no Christians outside the Catholic Church is the height of arrogance and division .

I was excommunicated from the Lutheran church along with my whole Jesus revolution era senior youth group for rejection of replacement theology.

They thought and claimed they could actually abort us from the Body of Christ and revoke our salvation.

Boy will they be surprised when they see us in the ρπάζω.

( If they are there and I do hope they are /-)

With the implementation of the punishing Penal Laws in 1700, those who were not killed or exiled lost not only their money, their homes and their lands, but also their rights: to vote, to own property, to own a firearm, to hold public office, to serve in the military and more. In the end, nearly all Irish Catholic land was “transferred” to the protestants. By the late-1800’s, only 16% of all land in Ireland was owned by Irish Catholics.

And just where would they get that un-American idea, what precedent has such? Not from the NT church, but...

• Canons of the Ecumenical Fourth Lateran Council, 1215:
Secular authorities, whatever office they may hold, shall be admonished and induced and if necessary compelled by ecclesiastical censure, that as they wish to be esteemed and numbered among the faithful, so for the defense of the faith they ought publicly to take an oath that they will strive in good faith and to the best of their ability to exterminate in the territories subject to their jurisdiction all heretics pointed out by the Church; so that whenever anyone shall have assumed authority, whether spiritual or temporal, let him be bound to confirm this decree by oath. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp)

But if a temporal ruler, after having been requested and admonished by the Church, should neglect to cleanse his territory of this heretical foulness, let him be excommunicated by the metropolitan and the other bishops of the province. If he refuses to make satisfaction within a year, let the matter be made known to the supreme pontiff, that he may declare the ruler's vassals absolved from their allegiance and may offer the territory to be ruled lay Catholics, who on the extermination of the heretics may possess it without hindrance and preserve it in the purity of faith; the right, however, of the chief ruler is to be respected as long as he offers no obstacle in this matter and permits freedom of action.

Pope Innocent IV, Ad extirpanda:
(25) Those convicted of heresy by the aforesaid Diocesan Bishop,surrogate or inquisitors, shall be taken in shackles to the head of state or ruler or his special representative, instantly, or at least within five days, and the latter shall apply the regulations promulgated against such persons.{7}
(26)The head of state or ruler must force all the heretics whom he has in custody,{8} provided he does so without killing them or breaking their arms or legs, as actual robbers and murderers of souls and thieves of the sacraments of God and Christian faith, to confess their errors and accuse other heretics whom they know, and specify their motives, {9} and those whom they have seduced, and those who have lodged them and defended them, as thieves and robbers of material goods are made to accuse their accomplices and confess the crimes they have committed.
(29)The head of state or ruler must cause the names of all men rendered infamous by heresy, or under a statute of outlawry for it, to be written in a consistent form and manner in four books, of which one shall go to the state or local government, another to the Diocesan bishop, the third to the Dominican friars, and the fourth to the Franciscans, and the names of these persons are to be read aloud three times a year in a solemn public ceremony.
(30)The head of state or ruler must carefully investigate the sons and grandsons of heretics and those who have lodged them, defended them, and given them aid,and in the future admit them to no public affairs or public office.
(31) The head of state or ruler must send one of his aides, chosen by the Diocesan if there is one,with the aforesaid inquisitors obtained from the Apostolic See, as often as they shall wish, into the jurisdiction of the state and the district. This aide,as the aforesaid inquisitors shall have determined, will compel three men or more, reliable witnesses,or, if it seem good to them, the whole neighborhood, to testify to the aforesaid inquisitors if they have detected any heretics, or want to expose their motives,{9} whether the heretics celebrate rites in secret gatherings, or scoff at the common life of the faithful, and their customs; or if the witnesses want to expose those the heretics have seduced, or their defenders, or those who lodge them, or those who give the heretics help. The head of state shall proceed against the accused according to the laws of the Emperor Frederick when he governed Padua.
(32)The head of state or ruler must, within ten days after the accusation, complete the following tasks: the destruction of the houses, the imposition of the fines, the consigning and dividing-up of the valuables that have been found or seized, all of which have already been described in this decree. He must obtain all fines in coin within three months, and divide them up in the manner to be set forth hereafter, and convict of crime those who cannot pay, and hold them in prison until they can. However, he shall be subject to investigation for all and each of these things, as it shall be described hereunder, and moreover he must designate one of the assistants, chosen by the Diocesan bishop or his surrogate and the aforesaid inquisitors, to carefully complete all these tasks; another assistant shall be substituted if they so decide.
(33) None of these sentences or punishments imposed on account of heresy, shall, either by the motion of any public gathering, the advice of counselors, or any kind of popular outcry, or the innate humanity {10} of those in authority, be in any way waived or pardoned.
(34)The head of state or ruler must divide up all the property of the heretics that is seized or discovered by the aforesaid officials, and the fines exacted from these heretics, in the form and manner following: one-third shall go to the government of the state or district. The second as a reward of the industry of the office shall go to the officials who handled this particular case. The third shall be deposited in some secure place to be kept by the aforesaid Diocesan bishop and inquisitors,and spent as they shall think fit to promote the faith and extirpate{11} heretics, this policy prevailing in spite of any statute that has been or shall be enacted against this dividing-up of the heretics' property.

Pope Innocent IV, Ad extirpanda, papal bull, promulgated on May 15, 1252, by Pope Innocent IV, which explicitly authorized (and defined the appropriate circumstances for) the use of torture by the Inquisition for eliciting confessions from heretics.
The following parameters were placed on the use of torture:[1]
that it did not cause loss of life or limb (citra membri diminutionem et mortis periculum)
that it was used only once
that the Inquisitor deemed the evidence against the accused to be virtually certain.
The requirement that torture only be used once was effectively meaningless in practice as it was interpreted as authorizing torture with each new piece of evidence that was produced and by considering most practices to be a continuation (rather than repetition) of the torture session (non ad modum iterationis sed continuationis).[1]
The bull conceded to the State a portion of the property to be confiscated from convicted heretics.[3] The State in return assumed the burden of carrying out the penalty. The relevant portion of the bull read: "When those adjudged guilty of heresy have been given up to the civil power by the bishop or his representative, or the Inquisition, the podestà or chief magistrate of the city shall take them at once, and shall, within five days at the most, execute the laws made against them."[4]
Innocent’s Bull prescribes that captured heretics, being "murderers of souls as well as robbers of God’s sacraments and of the Christian faith, . . . are to be coerced – as are thieves and bandits – into confessing their errors and accusing others, although one must stop short of danger to life or limb." — Bull Ad Extirpanda (Bullarium Romanorum Pontificum, vol. 3 [Turin: Franco, Fory & Dalmazzo, 1858], Lex 25, p. 556a.)

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