In honor of the 100th anniversary of St. Pius X’s death, I am re-printing an article originally written by the Rev. Simon FitzSimons and published in The American Catholic Quarterly Review in 1908. Over a century later, Rev. FitzSimons’ brilliant insight into the driving forces behind this heresy as well as its remedy are needed more than ever. Writing shortly after Pascendi was published Rev. FitzSimons is able to give us a unique “fly on the wall” perspective of a Catholic living at that time. In this fourth installment, Rev. FitzSimons exposes the fallacies behind the Modernist quest and explains why it is doomed to failure. Without further ado, I give you the Rev. SimonFitzSimons…Chris Jackson

“…they seem to forget that it has not been the Church's custom to remodel her beliefs to suit the epoch or to adapt them to the changing follies of the times; nay, that, on the contrary, her proudest boast is that she has remained unchanged in the midst of a constantly changing world; indeed, that her immutability is bound up in and inseparable from her indestructible vitality. They seem to overlook the important fact that if you change the essence of a religion, you have no longer the same religion, but a new one, and that when you expunge from a creed all that is vital you may indeed make a new creed, but you have the old one no longer.” Rev. Simon FitzSimons

The other day, a bishop in Algeria, the former head of the Dominican Order in France, Bishop Jean-Paul Vesco, on the website of the weekly magazine La Vie, made defense of the Kasper plan, to “pardon” those who have left their marriage, taken a civil “divorce” and entered into a second adulterous connection. The Catholic world is in turmoil over the possibility that this apparently common practice in Germany will be allowed formally throughout the world, and some powerful voices thunder against it, with the Pope, except for a few brief words of warm praise in the beginning, still silent.

Now we have the “pardon” instead of forgiveness of sins, covering instead of deleting them. Obviously, for the simple reason that repentance is difficult, too difficult for ordinary people.

A caution to the reader: What follows is a very harsh assessment of the current pontificate. I felt compelled to write it, but no one is compelled to read it. I am nothing and nobody in the great scheme of things, although I am privileged to contribute to the record of a venerable traditional Catholic journal that will surely have its place in the history of these times. I have no illusions that my little lamentations will have any effect on the Pope, for whom I pray each day, or on events in the Church. But at least I, at least The Remnant, at least traditionalists in general will be able say one day, concerning what was done to the Bride of Christ, “Not us. Not us.”

§

Here is an inescapable truth that ought to trouble every Catholic: Francis is the first Pope in the history of the Church to be universally lauded by “the rulers of the world of this darkness… the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Eph. 6:12) Even Barack Obama, a veritable forerunner of the Antichrist, is “hugely impressed” by Francis. There is no need to demonstrate yet again the copious outpouring of the world’s unprecedented praise for a Roman Pontiff. The world’s love affair with Francis has woven itself into the very Zeitgeist, as any Internet search for the terms “Pope Francis” and “revolution” will reveal. “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets.”

Editor’s Note: This personal remembrance of a great man is something I wrote 10 years ago, days after the death of my friend, Michael Davies, on September 25, 2004. We’re posting it here, unedited from how it first appeared, so obviously some of the dates and chronology mentioned herein are dated by one decade. Younger readers may wonder about the title of this article. For over 30 years Michael Davies wrote a bi-weekly column for The Remnant called, simply, “A Letter from London.” May he rest in peace. MJM


Thirty-three years ago this past June, Michael Davies submitted his first article for publication in these columns. I was five years old at the time. I don’t remember when he wasn’t a vital part of The Remnant family.

For well over three decades his “Letter from London” came in month after month and year after year, keeping thousands of post-Vatican II Catholics informed and encouraged during three of the most turbulent decades in the history of the Church.

American Diocesan Priest Interviewed on Effects of TLM, Summorum Pontificum

It would seem quite fitting for the Third Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome to field three senior Cardinals as main celebrants of the three extraordinary rite pontificals scheduled for late October: H.E. George Pell in the traditional parish church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini on Friday, October 24th; H.E. Raymond L. Burke on Saturday, October 25th in St. Peter’s Basilica; and H.E. Walter Brandmüller on Sunday, October 26th, in the Benedictine community in Norcia on the feast of Christ the King, October’s last Sunday in the Tridentine calendar.

The unprecedented development on the occasion of this third traditional pilgrimage is the fact that the religious services will be ushered in H.E. George Cardinal Pell, generally regarded as the highest-ranking prelate in the Vatican after his appointment in February 2014 as the first Cardinal-Prefect of the newly created Secretariat for the Economy to oversee the Vatican finances. But the former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney is also known for his sensitivity in favour of the traditional liturgy, which he himself celebrates from time to time.

The other day, while the rest of the Catholic world was reeling at the abrupt dismissal of Cardinal Burke from his curial office, Elizabeth Scalia, Queen of the Rose Tinted Patheos Bubble, in an apparent attempt at the gold for team Pollyanna, has given us an excellent and admittedly very attractive version of events.

I so much enjoyed the happy picture woven of Cardinal Burke moving to Malta to work hand in hand with the knights to ... uh ... better Catholic health care... or something.

Let have her own words:

Part III:
The Modernist Quest to “Save” the Church
(Read Part I here & Part II here)

“To the modernist there was but one remedy—the old faith must be remodeled. Catholicity must be reconstructed on a new basis… Indeed, adaptationists would seem to be the proper term to apply to them in this view of their work; for all their efforts would seem to lie in the direction of an adaptation of the Church's organism, its machinery, its discipline, its supernatural influences and effects to modern conditions as they regard them. They would apply its supernatural powers naturally. They would retain all the light and heat of the sun with all its marvelous effects, while discarding the sun itself.”

- Rev. Simon FitzSimons -

But there was more even than the work of exemplifying the workings of a great natural principle in this skillful manipulation. There was the task of saving the Church. For the first time in her history - in the opinion of the modernist - the indestructible Church stood in actual danger of total destruction, and the modernist alone seemed to comprehend the danger. These men, wiser than their generation, with a keenness of perception greater than that of their fellow-men, realized the awful peril of the situation. They beheld - or seemed to behold - science (modem science), with all its inventions, discoveries, incontrovertible facts and marvels of every kind, to say nothing whatever of its numberless hypotheses and theories, rushing with irresistible force against the Catholic Church.

So, this week, the pope married a bunch of people who were already living together and had children in the union. That’s the news.

Oh, wait, no. That’s been done before (*cough* JayPeetooweluvyou! *cough*). What’s news is that it’s news. Suddenly, the newspapers are FULL of the headline that, in a “first for his papacy” Francis chose (the implication is that he chose knowingly) to regularize the union of couples who had already been publicly living in unlawful unions, in a state of mortal sin.

In the usual fashion, no mention is made by anyone, whether the MSM’s “religion reporters” or anyone else (Fr. Lombardi, call your office) whether the canonical requirements were met. We are left to speculate, to wonder, whether the couples had repented of their sinful life, agreed to separate, receive the Sacrament of Confession, and gone to their weddings morally in the right with God, the Church and their fellow Catholics. It's glazed over with carefully constructed omissions, backed up by the dogged silence of the Sala Stampa.

Neo-Catholicism Refuted in 1881!

Unfortunately for the Neo-Catholics, evidence once again shows that the positions of the so-called “radical traditionalists” are nothing more than the perennial teachings of the Catholic Church. In an 1881 article published in The Month and Catholic Review, the Rev. Michael Gavin responded to a lengthy attack on papal infallibility launched by a Protestant named Dr. Littledale. As it turns out, Dr. Littledale was as well informed on papal infallibility as most modern Neo-Catholic apologists. Fr. Gavin goes about setting the poor Dr. Littledale straight on several points, some of which could also serve as a lesson to our Neo-Catholic friends. I’ll now list a few Neo-Catholic whoppers, with quoted rebuttals from Fr. Gavin.

Bishop David Zubik is a good man, reportedly one of the better bishops in the country in fact. He has been an outspoken opponent of homosexual “marriage”; he has prayed the rosary in front of abortion clinics; he’s even gone on the record opposing Common Core.

Because he’s a good man we’re confident he must be concerned when members of the Catholic faithful become confused and scandalized by something his chancery office has done.

A bit of background: Last week we reported that Bishop Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh encouraged the Catholic faithful of Pittsburgh to join him in joining hands with Billy Graham's son, Franklin, for the recent 3-day praise and song festival in Pittsburgh—the Three Rivers Festival of Hope at which “altar calls” and “forgiveness of sins” by Protestant ministers were reportedly part of the program.