Introduction

by Michael J. Matt

The following article was published in The Remnant back in 1987. It was written by the late, great Dr. John Senior, and it is so excellent that I fear I lack the necessary skills to sum it up with due justice in a few words. It is long, very long—so, alas, I suppose most bloggers and tweeters working diligently in the cyber vineyard will likely not bother with it -- the days of the thoughtful, well-developed article having long since passed in order to make room for the video clip, the meme and the one-sentence paragraph.

The article is so inherently Catholic, however, that it makes one wonder: What has happened to us? We spend our days and nights on the Internet rummaging through the ruins of Christendom in a cyberspace filled to capacity with sound bites and pointless proofs of lingering consciousness around the globe, but we never really seem to get anywhere. The most valiant among us make Quixotic attempts to combat the ubiquitous effects of social and spiritual revolution in our world and Church, but even we are too overwhelmed by disinformation and apathy to confront the actual causes anymore.  We expend almost all of our energies combatting the heinous crime of abortion as if that were the fundamental cause of all that's gone wrong in the world.  But is it?  Abortion is much less of a cause than an effect, and until we can learn to target the root causes of such evils I wonder if we will ever really eradicate any of them.

While Francis perplexes faithful Catholics and delights the world almost daily by saying and doing whatever occurs to him as a good idea, a surprising voice in defense of sound orthodoxy has emerged in the midst of the vast confusion this Pope is causing: Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In a book-length interview just published in Spain, Italy, and the United States, Müller has resoundingly reaffirmed his opposition to Cardinal Kasper’s evil proposal to admit a supposedly small number of divorced and “remarried” Catholics to Holy Communion without any commitment to end their adulterous relations. Recall that this blatant attack on the indissolubility of marriage was part of Kasper’s address to the “Extraordinary Consistory on the Family” back in February, and that Francis praised the address as “beautiful and profound.” Recall also that Kasper, with no objection from Francis, is now being identified as “the Pope’s theologian.” Indeed, Francis made it a point to praise Kasper as “a talented theologian, a good theologian” on no less an occasion than his first Angelus address as Pope.

Robert’s Dictionary defines the word Freemasonry thus:

"An international Association, in part secret, of a naturalist and philanthropic nature, the members of which recognize one another through certain signs or emblems."

While not being complete, this definition underlines important characteristics of Freemasonry:

•  - its ideology: naturalism;
•  - its organization: international and secret;
•  - its external aspect: often philanthropic;

Before extending the analysis further, let us examine its sources of inspiration, its previous history and some of the main features of its history according to its own historians and others.

(Reprinted from The Remnant, July 1995) On July 17, 1794, sixteen holy women were executed by guillotine at the Place du Trône Renversé in Paris. The group comprised thirteen professed Carmelite nuns, one Carmelite novice, and two “tourières” (laywomen servants).

When they were solemnly beatified by Pope Pius X on May 27, 1906, they became the first martyrs under the Masonic “French Revolution” on whom the Holy See passed judgment. Though often called the “Carmelite” martyrs, two of them were not actually Carmelites; they were faithful house servants who considered themselves part of the community and refused to leave them when the Reign of Terror against the Church, the Clergy and all Religious Orders was in full swing.

1) Mother Teresa of St. Augustin [Madeleine Claudine Lidoine] -- prioress -- the last to be executed -- age 42.

2) Mother Henriette of Jesus [Marie-Françoise Gabrielle de Croissy] -- ex-prioress -- age 49.

3) Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection [Anne-Marie-Madeleine Thouret] -- sacristan -- age 79.

4) Sister Of Jesus Crucified [Marie Anne Piedcourt] -- choir-nun -- the eldest -- age 80.

Conservative and Traditional Catholic apologists have spilled a lot of ink over the years explaining how Catholics and Muslims either do or do not worship the same God. Conducting a web search on the topic results in a cavalcade of apologetic websites promising to explain, often in painstaking detail, one or the other side of the issue. Why? Because, of course, a few lines from two documents of Vatican II which refer to Muslims seem to indicate that Catholics and Muslims worship the same God. If you’ll indulge me, I’m going to attempt to cut through the morass created by the repeated attempt to “explain” these few lines by apologists on both sides and simplify this issue to its essentials.

First the “Dogmatic Constitution” (which teaches no new dogma) Lumen Gentium (LG) paragraph sixteen offers the following words regarding the Muslims:

But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.

The urgent need of a saintly and courageous Pope to govern and guide the Church in the early years of the ill-fated 20^th century is evident from the description of the sad condition of the times that was given by Pope St. Pius X himself in his first Encyclical, E supreme apostolatus Cathedra, in which he wrote that on ascending the Chair of Peter (1903) he was “terrified beyond all else by the disastrous state of human society today.” “Who can fail to see,” he asked, “that at the present time society is suffering more than in any past age from a terrible and radical malady which, while developing every day and gnawing into its very being, is dragging it to destruction. You understand, Venerable Brethren, that this disease is apostasy from God.”

“Truly,” he concluded, “nothing is more allied with ruin, according to the saying of the Prophet (King David): For, behold, they that go away from Thee shall perish (Ps. 72.27).”

It was Joseph Goebbels, master Nazi propagandist and a trusted confidant of Hitler, who is credited with The Big Lie:

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

The Big Lie approach of the Nazis duped the German masses and The Big Lie approach of Modernists has similarly duped many of the faithful, in particular from among the Neo-Catholics. Try this simple substitution for the words of Goebbels:

“[Pope] Benedict did not intend to renounce the munus petrinus, nor the office, or the duties, i.e. which Christ Himself attributed to the Head of the Apostles [Peter] and which has been passed on to his successors. The Pope intended to renounce only the ministerium, which is the exercise and concrete administration of that office.” – Vittorio Messori

There have been some interesting developments in Rome over the past several months, which have brought to light some curious aspects of the Papal resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. The widely read Vittorio Messori – “the most translated Catholic writer in the world” - recently published an article in Corriera della Sera, in which he discusses a newly published study by Stefano Violi, esteemed Professor of Canon Law at the Faculty of Theology in Bologna and Lugano. Professor Violi’s study, which includes a detailed examination of the Latin text of the Papal resignation, argues that Pope Benedict did not intend to completely renounce the Papal office, but only the active exercise thereof. His intent was essentially to split the Papacy in two, thereby transforming the Papal Monarchy into a Papal Diarchy. In Messori’s words: