from Sean Govan
to the members of the SJBMA
February 15, 2013
Gentlemen,
As a final thought, I'm going to say the collect posted by Mr. Johnson for the next nine days to pray for the conversion of the Pope. If anyone wishes to join me, here it is:
O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify
those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, he may attain everlasting life.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Here's my last reply to the attacks of Mr. Riddle and Co. :
I apologize to Mr. Johnson for calling his courage into question, for such was not my intention - I said what I said in the heat of the moment, without thinking of people's feelings. But let me be very clear: I am sorry that I hurt people's feelings, and
very happy that I have shocked people into thinking about the issue, rather than mindlessly accepting whatever appears in their inboxes and is labeled "SJBMA." What scares me is that many people seem less shocked by the fact of indiscriminately taking a prayer composed for a good Pope and applying it to an evil Pope than by someone pointing out that fact. We have been opposed to the last several Popes and to their errors for a long time. Are we no longer opposed to them? I applaud Mr. Johnson for posting the collect for the Pope at the bottom of his reply, for this collect is clearly applicable to all Popes, even the most evil of them. All it asks for is that the Pope receive the grace to fulfill his duties and to reach Heaven, and that is precisely what we must pray for in regard to the current Pope as well.
Mr. Johnson, you seem to misunderstand the nature of Protestantism, whose essence is to reject the true authority in favor of an authority of one's own choosing. In withdrawing obedience from Benedict XVI, I am obeying God, Who commands that we have no other gods besides Him. Those who support or diminish the errors of the current Pope (be their motive false charity, false obedience, or actual agreement with his liberal principles) are the ones who exhale the odor of Protestantism that you speak of. They choose to obey man rather than God. True Catholics obey God rather than man.
Mr. Riddle, I appreciate your effort to make distinctions. Unfortunately, all or nearly all of the distinctions you make are based on the argument from authority, which is the weakest of all arguments, and - when it goes contrary to our Faith - is worse than useless, because it is the most apt to deceive simple souls, as it did in the years following Vatican II. If the Pope can be wrong, then please explain what makes you think that Bishop Fellay can't be. Or maybe you think that we were wrong before? Perhaps Archbishop Lefebvre was wrong to condemn John Paul II's errors, and John Paul II himself, so strongly after Assisi I and the consecrations - more strongly than he ever had?
In spite of your comment, Mr. Riddle, about the scandalousness of stating that Benedict XVI has "to all appearances" been preparing a place for himself in hell, it is hard to believe that a man whose email address is at angeluspress.org could fail to admit that breaking the first commandment publicly is a public mortal sin. Yet this is what you (hopefully involuntarily) imply when you qualify a remark said in passing as "not Catholic." The point is that the Supreme Shepherd is leading souls to hell and that we need to pray for him, lest he lead even more to hell and afterwards jump in himself. In your haste to make distinctions favorable to the conclusions you have already drawn, you miss the essential: the Pope, leader of the new Conciliar religion, is taking Catholics away from the Faith and leading them to hell by his evil example and evil teaching. Again in your haste, you neglect to explain why it is "scandalous" and "not Catholic" to cry out against the eternal damnation of millions, including the Pope. The reason didn't exactly seem obvious when I read it.
Furthermore, Mr. Riddle, to answer some questions you perhaps thought would be rhetorical, no, I have not contacted Menzingen - nor would it do any good. Shepherds may listen to other shepherds, but they rarely listen to sheep. You, on the other hand, are all sheep like me. If some poor sheep lets itself get influenced by liberal ideas, and begins to bleat about how wonderful the shepherd is and how much we agree with him ("all his defects acknowledged," of course) as that same shepherd gently ushers sheep over the cliff with perfect goodness in his heart, then the sheep who see clearly have a duty to bleat a warning - even if they are only sheep. When the Pope said that it's not that bad at the bottom of the cliff, traditional Catholics used to reply, "It is wrong to offend God. We will not follow you." If Bishop Fellay says, "That cliff can't be that bad. After all, the Pope wants us to jump off of it," then Traditional Catholics must continue to make the same reply that faithful Catholics, always and everywhere, have made. It doesn't matter who preaches error. What matters is the error that is preached.
As for the gratitude of Menzingen for the current Pope's "strength" and "constancy,"
yes, that gratitude reeks of Liberalism. Strength in what exploit? Helping to invent a Council that caused millions of souls to die in mortal sin? Constancy in what endeavor? That of convincing everybody that one can be saved in any religion? I am ashamed of Menzingen for saying such things.
Again, it is incredible that a man with
"angeluspress" in his email address should ask what basis we have for claiming that the Pope wants peace between the religions rather than peace in the True Religion. We are led to believe, Mr. Riddle, that you are not very well informed at all, considering that you work for a (Traditional) Catholic printing press. Since blogging and email wars both tend to take people away from their duties of state, as Mr. Johnson so justly reminded us, I refrain from enlightening your amazing ignorance, equaled only by your Liberal attitude, and refer you instead to the acts of the Pope made public by the world press over the course of his pontificate, and to the traditional catechisms published by your organization, especially the
Catechism of the Crisis in the Church.You, Mr. Riddle, unabashedly minimize the Pope's errors, by putting them in subordinate clauses and sandwiching them between
no doubt's and
but's. Let me remind you of your statements:
Regarding traditional Catholic teaching, it is fine to discuss objective sin, but for a Catholic to be so bold, no [sic] so scandalous, as to state that the Sovereign Pontiff, all his defects acknowledged, has, "been preparing for himself during his many long years of destroying the Catholic Church" for a "rather warm eternity" boggles the mind. To say your statement is not Catholic would be an amazing understatement.No doubt, the Holy Father has expressed a modernist conception regarding the doctrine that "outside the Church there is no salvation," but your argument is still a caricature of the Holy Father's thought; at least read what the various scholars in the Society say about it...you'll notice some distinctions being made.Again, you have more insights than Bishop Fellay who seems to assert that the Holy Father, despite his clearly liberal mind, wants to fix the crisis in the Church, even if he can't bring himself to understand the real cause (the Council) and so is unable to take the measures necessary?When you minimize the gravity of errors that destroy the Faith, do you not endanger the Faith of others? We could almost ask you, Mr. Riddle, if you are a Liberal or a Catholic, but I am afraid that you have already made the answer abundantly clear. It doesn't matter who you work for. If you endanger the Faith of others and spread Liberalism among your friends, then you are a Liberal. Please, for the good of everyone on this mailing list, have the humility to admit that you are wrong.
To answer your question as to the whereabouts of my charity toward the "Sweet Christ on earth," it is in the words I have been writing to you all. Is there anything better that we can do for a man that is in error than to fight against his errors and ask that others pray for his conversion - a topic which you overlook in your zeal to "make distinctions"?
To conclude, I request that the SJBMA remove me from the association. The association can hardly suffer from my expulsion, as both my friends and my enemies would agree, and I believe that my soul could suffer harm if I
deliberately continue to expose myself to Liberal garbage, which is probably a great occasion of sin for ex-Liberals like me.
Many thanks to those who have defended the Truth, both in public and in private, and pointed out the uncharity of those who criticize me for being uncharitable. Farewell, and keep the Faith.
In true charity,
Sean Govan