Number CCCXLVIII (348)   15th March 2014

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RESISTANCE POLICY -- I
In today’s disastrous state of Church and world there are, amongst others, two central principles in play, the one permanent and primary, the other temporary and secondary, but both are central. Their interplay should be decisive to guide our actions.

The permanent principle is that “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. XI, 6). This is because all men come from God endowed with a free-will which they are meant so to use as to be able to go to God when they die, and enjoy the beatific vision of God for eternity. These obligatory terms of our earthly existence constitute an extremely generous offer on God’s part, given how relatively little is required on our part (Is. LXIV, 4), but the very least that we can do, a bare beginning, is to recognize his existence. Given the goodness of his Creation all around us, it is “inexcusable” not to recognize it (Rom. I, 20), and therefore without the most elementary faith in him it is impossible to please him.

The temporary principle is that the Shepherd is struck and the sheep are scattered (Zach.XIII, 7), text quoted by Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt. XXVI, 31). After 4,000 years of man’s repeated decadence, God took a human nature to found a Church to enable men to save their souls for the last 2,000 years of men’s existence on this earth. For the first thousand of those years the decadence was seriously interrupted, but after a few more centuries it picked up again to the point that with Vatican II the very leaders of God’s own Church, the Popes on whom it was designed to depend, became seriously infected by the decadence. Thereupon it became much more difficult for men to see how God meant them to save their souls.

Therefore on the one hand, objectively speaking, the permanent truths of salvation have not been changed one little bit by the fall of the Conciliar Popes, and these truths must be maintained if any souls at all are still to be saved. It was Archbishop Lefebvre’s glory to uphold those truths against the fallen churchmen and world, while it is his successors’ disgrace to be compromising them for the sake of rejoining those churchmen and their world.

On the other hand, subjectively speaking, that disgrace is mitigated by the temporary eclipse of those great truths, due to the fall of the Popes. It is not easy even for bishops to see straight when the Bishop of Rome is seeing crooked. It follows that those who by the grace of God – and by nothing else – see straight, must have a 360-degree compassion for souls caught in a confusion not entirely their own fault. Therefore, it seems to me, if James is convinced that to save his soul he must stay in the Newchurch, I need not hammer him to get out of it. If Clare is persuaded that there is no grave problem within the Society of St Pius X, I need not ram down her throat why there is. And if John can see no way to keep the Faith without believing that the See of Rome is vacant, I need urge upon him no more than that that belief is not obligatory.

Yet in all this scattering of the sheep, somebody must maintain and make available to them the objective Truth if the poor stones are not to have to do it (Lk. XIX, 40), because upon at least the seeking of that Truth depends the saving of our souls. However, let Catholics seek it with all due regard for the blindness of their fellow-sheep, for at least as long as the Shepherd remains struck.

Kyrie eleison.
 
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 :applause: :dancing-banana:

  The good bishop seems to be communicating that it is essential to the mission to save souls, and spread the good news of the salvation through Jesus Christ, rather than waste lives bickering about that which will likely not be resolved in our lifetimes.

 :applause: :dancing-banana:

  The good bishop seems to be communicating that it is essential to the mission to save souls, and spread the good news of the salvation through Jesus Christ, rather than waste lives bickering about that which will likely not be resolved in our lifetimes.

This EC seems to say we should not convert people to Tradition.

It seems to me that's not what +W is saying, intentionally.  If you yank out the middle without paying attention to the beginning and the end, you could get that, but it would be out of context.

Rather, it says if we don't try to encourage people to recognize objective truth (which is indistinguishable from Tradition) then THE ROCKS WILL CRY OUT.  

Do you think that would be fun or something, to have the rocks crying out?  

One of the ways paleontologists refer to the curious noise heard at the start of any great earthquake is "the voice of God."  

Not infrequently, when the rocks cry out, thousands of people die.  

The context of the Scripture is that some cried out, "Blessed be the king who cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory on high!" and the Pharasees said to him,  Master rebuke thy disciples.  To whom he said, I say to you that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.

So it's the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ recognized by the whole world that is at stake here.  

+W says we must share this objective truth.  How does that mean we should not convert people to Tradition?  You have to read the whole EC, not just one or two sentences.

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This EC seems to say we should not convert people to Tradition.

No, it doesn't say that at all.

I'm going to give my own interpretation of +W's letter, since I studied under him for 3 years (took countless classes from him, plus attended countless conferences) plus I've read lots of his other letters dating back to the 1990's.

It means we should act as if we're converting the heathen -- there's a difference, even if the difference is subtle in some cases.

Actually, it's more than that. We should assiduously and fervently try to convert the heathen, as well as pseudo-Catholics, to the full truth of the Faith -- in all patience, peace, and charity. In particular, we should be peaceful about it, rather than harsh, proud, and argumentative. That doesn't win anybody.

But we need to remember: We're not personally responsible for ending the Crisis in the Church. When we forget that, that's when the harsh arguments and pride start up. Let us remember that we're a bunch of laymen (sheep), not St. Athanasius. Let us remember our place.

In the case of converting other Catholics (which is a bit of a misnomer), we can and should bring as many souls to the objective truth as possible, but we should do so in a peaceful manner, and not act as if our soul, and the person's soul, depends on it. Because it doesn't! That sedevacantist (or SSPX attendee, Resistance attendee, Indult attendee, etc.) is NOT on the road to hell, regardless of what you think. And God doesn't hold us personally responsible for unifying all of Tradition (which is scattered because of the apostasy of the Pope) under a single, unified set of opinions about everything.

We can and should discuss, but not condemn. We should remember at all times that we're not the Pope, and we're not infallible. And God hasn't revealed anything personally to any of us!

People act like God is especially pleased by people arguing about the "salvation dogma" and stuff like that -- they couldn't be more wrong. These people want to be some kind of heroes for this or that pet dogma (or perceived dogma, which actually might be erroneous!)

They strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel. The first law of Catholic morality is Charity.

.

I had a chance short conversation with a stranger the other day.  It went like this.  I was waiting for an automotive mechanic, sitting in his waiting room, and there was one other customer there, whom I had never met and probably will never see again.  Another man was leaving the room, and I had been talking to him about how the Girl Scouts are nothing like what they used to be, and that now they promote a non-judgmental attitude toward abortion, and many of the scout leaders are lesbians, and the girls are encouraged to get involved with projects that show how 'free thinking' they are in regards to religion and sɛҳuąƖ morality.  

After he walked out of the waiting room, the other man sitting nearby said to me:

"I have managed to avoid having any abortions."

I replied, "Congratulations."

He said, "I really don't like to have anything to do with them.  They're so invasive."

I said, "Especially for the baby!"  

"Yeah, that's not so good..."  He seemed ready to make another wisecrack.  I could see it wasn't going anywhere positive, because I didn't think his jokes were funny.  But if I had told him that he would have held it against me.  

Therefore, I quickly added, "Imagine sleeping in a warm, cozy bed at night and then you wake up to find someone is tearing your body apart, yanking it to pieces, and throwing your parts out the window. Excuse me, they're discussing my fuel lines in here."   And I left the room to speak with the mechanic.  

The wise guy in the waiting room was not going to listen.  He had bad will, and was only looking to blaspheme the sanctuary of the womb at every opportunity.  There was nothing I could say to him that would change his mind, and all that could come of it would be an argument.  He was contemptuous of the truth and had no patience to accept it.  

Laymen might not be anything like St. Athanasius or St. John Chrysostom or St. Anthony of Padua, but we can invoke their intercession.  I have seen children's faces transform into the shining countenance of a saint, while they recite memorized words known to have been written by the saint they're imitating.  It is our place to defend the Faith, to the best of our ability, because after we die, we'll never have the chance to do so, anymore.  Our time is now.  We're not here to "dialogue."  Protestants like to "dialogue" in an effort to 'discover' the truth, but while presuming from the start that nobody already knows the truth.  Catholics don't have that handicap, that is, if they know their Faith.  And it is a damned lie for Catholics to engage in any such discussion, because they would have to consent to the false pretext of ignorance.  If we have the opportunity to explain the Faith to someone who is interested, we shouldn't pass it up, but we must remain aware when they show signs of 'leading us on' for their own amusement.  Do not cast pearls before swine.

Our Lord told the Apostles that at some point, you have to dust off your sandals and walk away.  There is no benefit in sticking around to lock horns with heretics.  They're only going to snicker and crack jokes and make derisive, hateful jabs at you and your faith.  They display no charity, and we are not obliged to endure their calumny.  Sometimes, all that remains is to be silent.  


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I'm sorry if my failure in brevity doesn't meet with your approval.

And anyone with a brain can see that arguing with vitriol until you're red in the face and spraying spittle from your mouth is NOT going to convert anyone.

I know a man who thinks Adolf Hitler was a saint.  Maybe you're confusing trads with "A.H."  I'd say that's like mixing bad apples with good oranges.  


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...
Just look at the lives of the saints. Are you accusing them of being protestants, or living a false philosophy of "agree to disagree"? Of course the Saints mourned to see souls going to hell. But if converting souls is one's goal, one MUST NECESSARILY want to have good results. And anyone with a brain can see that arguing with vitriol until one is red in the face and spraying spittle from his mouth is NOT going to convert anyone. Not even 1 out of 1000 cases. So why bother, unless one naturally enjoys being that way?
...

I remember seeing online some years ago an anecdote about Archbishop Lefebvre. He had visited a dying friend who had lapsed, and when he got back, his seminarians asked if he had talked to the man about the Four Last Things etc. He said no, because it might have been counterproductive, the man might have rejected his efforts and ended up worse off than he otherwise worse.

St Augustine said: “If a man refrains from chiding and reproving wrongdoers, because he awaits a suitable time for so doing, or because he fears lest, if he does so, they may become worse, or hinder, oppress, or turn away from the faith, others who are weak and need to be instructed in a life of goodness and virtue, this does not seem to result from covetousness, but to be counselled by charity.”