Posted on 01/28/2003 11:27:58 AM PST by NYer
In Perspective
By Alphonse J. Matt, editor The Wanderer
Since the end of the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent promulgation by Pope Paul VI of the new rite of the Mass, there has been a growing division among those Catholics generally known as "orthodox" or "traditionalist."
The Wanderer itself suffered from the divisions and upheavals following the council.
In 1967 editor Walter Matt left the newspaper over a dispute about the meaning of Vatican II. He saw it not so much as a reform and a renewal of the Church but as a revolution that threatened to undermine the Church herself (in that same year, Walter Matt founded The Remnant). His brother, Alphonse J. Matt, Sr. (the present writer's father), took over the reins at The Wanderer and reminded its readers that the real intent of the council was a renewed evangelization of the world for Christ and a personal renewal of every individual Catholic.
For The Wanderer , the council was not a rejection or an abandonment of Tradition, but a development of that Tradition, safeguarded for 2,000 years by the Holy Spirit, to better enable the Church to bring the Gospel to all men.
Those "traditionalists" who view the council as a break with Tradition — who blame the council's teaching itself, not the subversion of, and departure from that teaching, by modernists and progressivists — are becoming increasingly hostile to the See of Peter and its present occupant.
The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who broke with the Holy See in 1988 over the issue of appointing bishop successors from his Society of St. Pius X, tends to be the hero of these traditionalist Catholics.
This past April, an angry, aggressive statement authored by Atila Sinke Guimarães, a former member of the Brazil-based TFP (Tradition, Family, Property), titled We Resist You to the Face was published in The Remnant, Catholic Family News, and other traditionalist organs.
The statement was signed by Mr. Guimarães and Marian Horvat, both members of Tradition in Action, Inc., Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant, and John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News.
We Resist You . . . is described by its signatories as "A Public Statement of Catholic Resistance" (in which) "Lay Catholic journalists respectfully suspend obedience to the Pope and remain inside Holy Mother Church."
A brochure promoting the statement declares:
" We Resist You to the Face analyzes the consequences of the adaptation of the Church to the modern world, and the consequences of ecumenism, as applied since the Council — including by the present Pontiff. The authors declare themselves in a state of resistance 'relative to the teachings of Vatican Council II, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, and to your teachings [of John Paul II] that are objectively opposed to the prior ordinary and extraordinary Papal Magisterium'."
One can conclude after a careful reading of We Resist You . . . that its authors and supporters are on a schismatic trajectory that can only have tragic consequences.
We have asked Stephen Hand, no stranger to traditionalists, to examine We Resist You . . ., its premises and conclusions in order to provide some guidance and counsel to those traditionalist Catholics who are troubled and confused by current developments within the Church and the kinds of analysis of such by the likes of We Resist You. . . .
The result of his effort is: "Traditionalists," Tradition, and Private Judgment. Two important addenda are included: Pope Paul II's Credo of the People of God and Cardinal Ratzinger's remarks in 1988 to the bishops of Chile regarding the Lefebvre schism.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln has graciously provided a preface to the work.
We recommend this commentary to every Catholic who seeks a better understanding of the controversies which continue to spread fear, doubt, and confusion within the Church. It will prove to be an effective instrument to strengthen one's faith.
— Alphonse J. Matt Jr. Editor, The Wanderer
Preface by The Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewtiz,
Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska
Stephen Hand has done a distinct service by his fine monograph pointing out by means of careful research as well as by personal and anecdotal experience the reality of removing a cinder in one's eye when such is there, but keeping the eye intact and not removing the eye out of exasperation, because of the annoyance and sometimes serious pain the cinder can cause.
It has been an axiom for many years in historical theology that what oftentimes begins or is declared to be a "return to tradition," in other words, a reaction, ends as being an innovation, that is, a schism or a heresy. There are people who suffer from intense headaches, and find themselves utterly incapable of mastering the horrible pain that they frequently endure. In moments of frustration, such people will sometimes say, "I wish I could cut off my head to cure my headache." But they, and all who are rational and reflective in their presence, would always realize that the so-called cure would be far worse than the continuous enduring of even the most tragic pain. It takes a faith-filled and prayer-filled discerning Catholic life to distinguish liturgical abuses, doctrinal and moral aberrations, and grave disciplinary infractions occurring in the lives and practices of people within the Church, from the Church herself, which despite being composed of sinful members, remains the spotless Spouse and Bride of Christ, not a Church of Cathers or Albigensians, but a Church of those who carry within themselves the sad effects of original sin while at the same time bearing the grace of God, which is to say, the seeds of eternal happiness. St. Thomas Aquinas calls pride the queen and mother of all vices, and oftentimes those who perhaps rightly perceive grave faults and defects in people in the Church, even sometimes in people with positions of clerical authority, forget their own creatureliness and sinfulness, and the ability they themselves have to fall into serious error.
At the time of the Jansenist crisis, for instance, the archbishop of Paris, speaking of the Jansenist nuns at Port-Royal, said they were as pure as angels but as proud as devils. Down through the centuries there have been countless sects, denominations, cults, and churches which have broken off from the Catholic Church under the pretense of being "holier than thou." We are witnessing the same occurrence in our time. Ironically, these groups are most often unknowing and indeliberate allies of the bitterest enemies of Christ and His Church, in effect, denying the abiding Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church and the promises that Christ bestowed on His Mystical Body from its inception.
In his masterful work, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, John Henry Newman points out how in the course of the Church's history she occasionally appears to fall into a deliquium, from which, under God's grace, she emerges victorious and stronger than ever. Many of those who defy the Church and even leave the Church in the name of "tradition," thus contradicting the very word by which they choose to define themselves, are ignorant in their despair regarding the Church's future or the realities of the Church's history through 2,000 years. This work of Stephen Hand undoubtedly will assist those who are loyal to Christ and to His Church, and to His Vicar on earth, the Bishop of Rome, to labor zealously within the boundaries of the Church herself for her growth in holiness, and willingly, even joyfully, do all possible to eliminate doctrinal, moral, liturgical, and disciplinary aberrations, but, at the same time, conceding nothing to those who wish not to remove a cinder from the eye, but to remove the eye itself and perhaps replace its empty socket with cinders and decayed matters.
The Venerable Servant of God, Abbot Joseph Columba Marmion, who is scheduled to be beatified on September 3, 2000, once reminded his readers that "God resists the proud," and he added: "Is it not terrible to be alienated from God? But how much more terrible it must be to be 'resisted' by God Himself."
May his rhetorical question echo in the minds and hearts of those who make use of this fine work of Stephen Hand.
— The Most Rev.
Fabian W. Bruskewitz,
Bishop of Lincoln, Neb
+ + + Part 1 The Church And The Council
The most wonderful thing about being Catholic is that the Church's saving Tradition is a "given," something which we can only receive from the hands of Christ's ministers, who extend in time through the apostolic succession all the way back to the empty Tomb, and who first heard the stunning words:
"Receive the Holy Spirit
For those whose sins you forgive,
They are forgiven;
For those whose sins you retain They are retained" (John 20:22).
The Church is not some esoteric gnosis which men must try to discern, decipher, and then keep jealously under a bushel. Rather, she is, following the Incarnation itself, astonishingly visible, a "light to the world" and the "salt of the earth," the continuation through time of Him who was "made flesh and dwelt among us."
From that moment when earth's history was split into a "before" and an "after," no one has had to look or wait for another Messiah, another teaching or "Way." For He is "with us," "always," (Isaiah 9:6; Matt. 28:20) and is the God who comes, the God who seeks us out, and who offers forgiveness and reconciliation to a world which will never again have to grope to find Him. He is there, in His Church, where, until the very end of the world are heard the simple words of consecration which are the substance of the Mass. St. Paul tells us what that substance is:
"For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn pass on to you: that on the night that He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and giving thanks He broke it, and He said, 'This is my Body, which is broken for you'. In the same manner He took the cup and said:"This is the cup of the New Covenant in my Blood. Whenever you drink it, do this in memory of me" (1 Cor. 11: 23-27).
Should she deem it necessary or good, the Church could reduce her liturgy to these words and acts, the "substance" around which all the ritual "accidents," which change through time, adhere. For only she is given to participate in and dispense the divine authority — the great and undemocratic "whatsoever" (Matt. 16:20) — until the Bridegroom returns to receive His Bride at the end of time. It is left for us to only "Hear the Church" which changes only in her "accidents" through the ebbs and flows of time, the "substance" perduring to the consummation.
LMAO Yet, the great UR (don't look behind the curtain) is daily judging the Pope a heretic and an Ecuemnical Council invalid ect ect. LMAO This is too funny<>
Fr. M.E. MORRISON and "TRADITIO" Furthermore, I e-mailed to the List on June 18, 1999: "Unfortunately, Fr. Morrison of TRADITIO is no more a Catholic priest than was Rasputin. His claim to be a Traditional Catholic priest, even a Traditional Roman Catholic priest, is just that - a claim. He will not reveal his pedigree." Refer to: http://www.tboyle.net/Catholicism/Cath_Links_Priest_Groups.html The SSPX@onelist.com Moderator, Mr Jim Vogel replied: "Correct, Mr Loughnan. Father Morrison is an Old Catholic priest. My source for this information is Fr. Peter Scott, who received this information from a traditional priest of the diocese of San Francisco, whom he visited there, and, who told what is commonly known locally. Fr. Morrison's chapel there on the wharf pretends to be Roman Catholic, but is in fact Old Catholic, and orthodox Roman Catholics refuse to attend. His refusal to identify his bishop is typical of the Old Catholics, who are ashamed of their origin, and try to pretend that they are Catholic. It is a shameful abuse of the priesthood, which the anonymity of the Internet makes possible." Perhaps Mr Taouk might explain why Fr. Morrison (whom he recommends), an Old Catholic, does not list in his "Directory" any Old Catholic priests, who say a Latin Tridentine Mass? One such person is Fr. Chris Vaillancourt. (37)
Oh yeah, they also, especially UR, constantly tell others "you are in over your head.".
POT. KETTLE. BLACK
THE STRANGE CASE OF CANON REVAZ, THE SSPX AND THE THUCites
One final example of "Flat-earthism": Mr Terrence Boyle has provided a wonderful service to the Church and to those who are interested in Church history. On one particular web-page he outlines the history of the THUCite line - truly a multitude of "bishops" - a veritable diabolic "legion"! He traces the commencement of the line to Econe (41): "The second complex lineage case is that of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin, a brother of Ngo Dinh Diem Jean Baptiste, the first President of the Republic of Viet Nam, who was murdered in November 1963.
"In the mid-1970s, the lonely, depressed and impoverished Msgr. Ngo was befriended by Rev. Maurice Revaz, a Swiss priest who, at that time, was teaching canon law at the traditionalist seminary of the Sacerdotal Society of St. Pius X that Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus Marcel Lefebvre has established in Econe, Switzerland."
"Throughout the 1970s many traditionalist clergy and laity in Europe and America were expressing impatience over Msgr. Lefebvre's then reluctance to consecrate traditionalist bishops."
"Canon Revaz, for his part, had even become convinced that the real Pope Paul VI was being held prisoner in a Vatican dungeon, with an imposter playing his role as Pope."
"Around 1976 Canon Revaz heard there was a lay group near Seville, Spain, that was also convinced that Paul VI was a prisoner in the Vatican. He began corresponding with its two leaders, Clemente Dominguez Gomez and Manuel Alonso Corral, who both for several years had been saying that they were receiving visions of Our Lord and Our Lady."
"Canon Revaz, after a trip to Rome and an unsuccessful attempt to find, and liberate, the imprisoned Pope Paul VI, left the Econe seminary permanently, and went to Spain along with two companions, an Irish woman visionary who claimed to be receiving visions from the incarcerated Pope, and a German nun, Sr. Cherubina, who for some time had been working at the SSPX seminary."
"Canon Revaz had gotten to know Msgr. Ngo, both from making many visits to Rome, where the exiled Archbishop had been living since 1963, and from a trip that Msgr. Ngo had once made to the seminary in Econe. Revaz convinced the Archbishop to go to Spain and to consecrate priests and bishops for the Dominguez/Alonso group."
"There are reports, from sources very hostile to Msgr. Ngo, that Canon Revaz and his companions persuaded Msgr. Ngo to perform the ordinations and consecrations by convincing him that a bi-locating Pope Paul VI (the real, imprisoned, one, not the imposter) had appeared in Spain and approved the idea."
"At any event, within days of the ordinations and the consecrations that Msgr. Ngo performed in Spain, the Vatican announced publicly that Archbishop Ngo had been automatically excommunicated for attempting to consecrate bishops without a Papal mandate. Msgr. Ngo, however, quickly expressed regret for his actions in Spain and sought forgiveness from the Vatican. The excommunication was then lifted."
"The Dominguez/Alonso group, however, went on without him. Its newly made bishops within weeks started ordaining priests and consecrating bishops and, at the death of Paul VI in 1978, they declared themselves the Holy Palmarian Church (the 'Iglesia Una, Santa, Catholica, Apostolica y Palmariana'). And, right after the lifting of his excommunication, Archbishop Ngo was again back to consecrating independent bishops. This time, the consecrations were for a wide variety of groups, including sedevacantists loosely grouped under the name Tridentine Latin Rite Church."
"Finally, some years before his death, Msgr. Ngo agreed also to perform a number of consecrations for a wide assortment of splinter groups, some of them not even Roman Catholic. Excommunicated a second time for these later consecrations, Msgr. Ngo moved to Rochester, NY, where for a few years he lived with an independent bishop (who had been consecrated by one of the bishops whom Msgr. Ngo had earlier consecrated for the Tridentine Latin Rite Church). While he was living in upstate New York, Msgr. Ngo was invited to New York City to attend a conference of exiled Vietnamese. While there, he was persuaded to join (some say, was kidnapped by) some emigre Vietnamese who were living in a monastery in Missouri and loyal to the Vatican. Shortly after arriving there, Msgr. Ngo died. Upon his death, the Vatican released a statement saying that he had recently asked for, and had received, John Paul II's forgiveness."
"Msgr. Ngo's lineage includes the broadest conceivable spectrum of theologies likely ever to be held by men all claiming to possess valid 'Catholic' priestly and episcopal orders derived from a single prelate alive in their lifetimes. The spectrum ranges from the head of a French Satanist sect all the way to the strictest of Traditional Roman Catholics. Needless to say, there are critics of both the liceity and validity of the various 'Thuc lineage' episcopal consecrations. This web address contains an (42) essay denying validity." ( http://www.tboyle.net/Catholicism/Thuc_Consecrations.html )
END QUOTE FROM TERRY BOYLE
As could be expected, Canon Revas was consecrated a bishop of the Holy Palmarian Church, and the much vaunted writer of The Ottaviani Intervention, Fr. Michel Louis Gurard des Lauriers, O.P., was also consecrated a bishop by the senile Archbishop Ngo-Dinh-Thuc; furthermore, upon the death of Pope Paul VI, Clemente Dominguez Gomez had himself proclaimed Pope Gregory XVII.
CONCLUSION
"What is to be learned from all this? It appears to me that 'traditionalism' takes on the appearances of Catholicism - it has all of the bells and smells that we knew and appreciated as being ostensibly Catholic. But the practical infidelity of the 'traditionalists' to the Holy See portrays a basic unbelief in Christ's promises; in effect they say that Christ's words should have been amended to something like this: 'And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it - that is, not until the days of Vatican Council II, when the gates of hell shall so prevail. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven - save and except that subsequent to Vatican Council II all such power shall be invested in Marcel Lefebvre and his successors. In the event, however, of a believer or group of believers not adhering to the above named Marcel Lefebvre or his successors, then the believer may select an alternative 'Independent' bishop or priest of the believer's choice in which to vest the above mentioned authority."
One could go on and on! We can only pray that the truth of the situation penetrate the souls of all who are no longer in full communion with the See of Peter, and that it is sooner rather than later.
F. John Loughnan jloughnan@hotmail.com July 30, 1999
Yes! And there is an apt term for those who separate themselves from the Pope. COWARDS . These individuals lack the courage to stand up for what they know to be true, using actual documentation from Vatican II. That would entail too much work! It's far easier (oh, I know ultima ratio will jump on that phrase) to join a schismatic group and defend them. Just one more spear driven into our Lord. Christ, knowing full well that Peter would deny him 3 times, entrusted the church into his hands, promising: "I am with you all days, even unto the end of time." The schismatics lay claim to that heritage and enshrine their liturgy in a museum. Ironically, even they can't agree on the proper missal ... the one prior to, or after, Pope John XXIII made changes to the text.
Something of a crackpot? The guy is an absolute head-case. In need of serious therapy. I am shocked that the neo-caths take him seriously. But then again, I guess they have to scrape the bottom of the intellectual barrel to justify their bizarre positions...
Limits on Papal Authority
ST. VINCENT OF LERINS (CA. 400-CA. 450)
"What then should a Catholic do if some part of the Church were to separate itself from communion with the universal Faith? What other choice can he make but to prefer to the gangrenous and corrupted member the whole of the body that is sound. And if some new contagion were to try to poison no longer a small part of the Church, but all of the Church at the same time, then he will take the greatest care to attach himself to antiquity which, obviously, can no longer be seduced by any lying novelty." (Commonitorium)
POPE ST. GREGORY I, "THE GREAT" (590-604)
The Eucharistic Canon remained unchanged from Apostolic times to the present day, with the exception of one short clause inserted by St. Gregory the Great. The phrase Pope Gregory added was "diesque nostros in tua pace disponas" [may you order our days in Thy peace] to the Hanc Igitur of the Canon. The Romans were outraged at this act and threatened to kill the pope because he had dared to touch the Sacred Liturgy. The Mass was affirmed to be complete and unchangeable. Since that time no pope has dared to change the Ordo of the Traditional Latin Mass, until in 1962 Pope John XXIII added "beati Ioseph, eiusdem Virginis Sponsi" [of blessed Joseph, Spouse of the same Virgin] to the Communicantes of the Canon.
POPE INNOCENT III (CA. 1160-1216)
"The pope should not flatter himself about his power, nor should he rashly glory in his honour and high estate, because the less he is judged by man, the more he is judged by God. Still the less can the Roman Pontiff glory, because he can be judged by men, or rather, can be shown to be already judged, if for example he should wither away into heresy, because he who does not believe is already judged. In such a case it should be said of him: 'If salt should lose its savour, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under foot by men.'" (Sermo 4)
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, O.P. (1225-1274)
"Hold firmly that your faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church."
"There being an imminent danger for the Faith, prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects. Thus, St. Paul, who was a subject of St. Peter, questioned him publicly on account of an imminent danger of scandal in a matter of Faith. And, as the Glossa of St. Augustine puts it (Ad Galatas 2.14), 'St. Peter himself gave the example to those who govern so that if sometime they stray from the right way, they will not reject a correction as unworthy even if it comes from their subjects....'
"Some say that fraternal correction does not extend to the prelates either because man should not raise his voice against heaven, or because the prelates are easily scandalized if corrected by their subjects. However, this does not happen, since when they sin, the prelates do not represent heaven, and, therefore, must be corrected. And those who correct them charitably do not raise their voices against them, but in their favour, since the admonishment is for their own sake .... For this reason, according to other [authors], the precept of fraternal correction extends also to the prelates, so that they may be corrected by their subjects." (IV Sententiarum, D. 19, Q. 2, A. 2)
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347-1380)
Alas, Most Holy Father! At times, obedience to you leads to eternal damnation. (To Pope Gregory IX, 1376.)
JUAN CARDINAL DE TORQUEMADA O.P. (1388-1468)
"Although it clearly follows from the circumstances that the Pope can err at times, and command things which must not be done, that we are not to be simply obedient to him in all things, that does not show that he must not be obeyed by all when his commands are good. To know in what cases he is to be obeyed and in what not,... it is said in the Acts of the Apostles: 'One ought to obey God rather than man'; therefore, were the Pope to command anything against Holy Scripture, or the articles of faith, or the truth of the Sacraments, or the commands of the natural or divine law, he ought not to be obeyed, but in such commands, to be passed over despiciendus)...." (Summa de Ecclesia [1489], founded upon the doctrine formulated by the Council of Florence and later re-asserted by Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Pius IV)
ST. GIACOMO TOMMASO DE VIO GAETANI O.P. (1469-1534)
"Where the Pope is, there is also the Church" holds true only when the Pope acts and behaves as the Pope, because Peter "is subject to the duties of the Office"; otherwise, "neither is the Church in him, nor is he in the Church." (Apud St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q. 39, Art. 1, ad 6)
POPE ADRIAN VI (1522-1523)
"If by the Roman Church you mean its head or pontiff, it is beyond question that he can error even in matters touching the faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgement or decretal. In truth, many Roman pontiffs were heretics. The last of them was Pope John XXII (1316-1334)."
ST. ROBERT BELLARMINE, S.J. (1542-1621)
"Just as it is lawful to resist the pope that attacks the body, it is also lawful to resist the one who attacks the souls or who disturbs civil order, or, above all, who attempts to destroy the Church. I say that it is lawful to resist him by not doing what he orders and preventing his will from being executed." (De Romano Pontifice, Lib. II, Ch. 29)
FRANCISCO SUAREZ, S.J. (1548-1617)
"If [the pope] gives an order contrary to right customs, he should not be obeyed; if he attempts to do something manifestly opposed to justice and the common good, it will be lawful to resist him; if he attacks by force, by force he can be repelled, with a moderation appropriate to a just defence." (De Fide, Disp. X, Sec. VI, N. 16)
VENERABLE POPE PIUS IX (1846-1878)
"If a future pope teaches anything contrary to the Catholic Faith, do not follow him."
FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF THE VATICAN (1869-1870)
"For the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or Deposit of Faith transmitted by the Apostles."
------------------------------------
Are the two of you "more Catholic" than these Popes and Saints?
Don't let those clowns bamboozle you. They appeal to a Universal, Objective, Moral Code only when it suits their polemical interests - you know, just the way liberals, and homosexuals do
I noticed "Epicene" as in "Ecclesiastically Epicence" wasn't mentioned...I feel slighted<>
We don't scrape the bottom of the barrel..no need to. We already have the sweet cream of the infallible Magisterium.
But, the Barrel isn't that bad a metaphor...at least it recognises, unconsciously, we are contained within an organised, solid, unified Body.
You schismatics are running all over the schismatic swamp, uncontained, putrifying, and evaporating<>
So your source is a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of someone who knows a diocesan priest in San Francisco? Sorry if I am not overwhelmed.
Father Morrison knows a hell of a lot more about the Faith than protestant neo-caths like you.
BUMP!
Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I am, stuck in the middle with you!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.