Editor's Note: The following article appeared in The Remnant's December 31, 2010 issue. It is part of a decade-long series of Remnant articles which vigorously and unapologetically opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq for violating the Church's teaching on what constitutes just war. For that editorial position, which continued from 2003 onward, we lost thousands of subscribers.

In recent weeks and months it has become very fashionable in neo-Catholic circles to finally begin to speak out against the genocide of Christians in Iraq at the hands of the Islamic extremists that took over after the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” had finished bombing the living daylights out of Iraq for reasons even Fox News no longer cares to defend. That's all well and good, but I guess I'm curious to know where these neo-Catholic heroes were ten years ago when something might  have been done to sandbag the lunatical U.S. foreign policy that would give us the insufferable Barack Obama and lead to the present crisis in Iraq, leaving millions homeless, tens of thousands dead, with our Christian brothers and sisters (those that survived the "shock and awe" of which we Americans were so embarrassingly proud at the time) driven from their homes, banished from their country and separated from their families forever. 

Remnant readers are surely aware of the recent news surrounding two planned Satanic rituals, or Black Masses, and the condemnations they have elicited from Catholics throughout the country. However, a certain irony in this entire affair may have been missed by many.

During the five decades that have followed Vatican II’s “Declaration on Religious Freedom” (Dignitatis Humanae),[1] the post-conciliar hierarchy has repeatedly and emphatically stated that religious liberty is fundamental to human dignity. Thus while they fawn over backwards to accord religious liberty to an entire spectrum of false religions, they nevertheless deny this “right” to Satanists.

On the Council and the Duties of the Pope

Rome, December, 20 1966

Your Eminence,

Your letter of July 24, concerning the questioning of certain truths was communicated through the good offices of our secretariat to all our major superiors.

Few replies have reached us. Those which have come to us from Africa do not deny that there is great confusion of mind at the present time. Even if these truths do not appear to be called in question, we are witnessing in practice a diminution of fervor and of regularity in receiving the sacraments, above all the Sacrament of Penance. A greatly diminished respect for the Holy Eucharist is found, above all on the part of priests, and a scarcity of priestly vocations in French-speaking missions: vocations in the English and Portuguese-speaking missions are less affected by the new spirit, but already the magazines and newspapers are spreading the most advanced theories.

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.

The Remnant recently came across a very telling October 7, 2013 homily by Msgr. Henry A. Kriegel of Saint Patrick Church in Erie, PA.

Since viewing this homily, I've had the misfortune of viewing other talks and homilies from Msgr. Kriegel, proudly posted all over YouTube by Saint Patrick's. During most of these lectures, Msgr. Kriegel presents various erroneous propositions as fact citing no other authority than a vague "consensus of scholars." Nevertheless, the danger here is that unwitting faithful, assisting at Msgr. Kriegel's masses, will accept the authority of their Pastor (who is in "full communion") trusting that he speaks for the Church. In reality nothing can be further from the truth.

Msgr. Kriegel is yet another sad example of a priest with a thoroughly modernist conception of the Church. He is allowed free reign over the poor souls in his parish with the apparent tacit consent of his bishop and the Roman authorities. To do my small part in alerting any parishoners of Msgr. Kriegel's that he is preaching his own doctrine and not that of Christ or the Catholic Church I will take a few statements from Msgr. Kriegel and analyze them below.

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.

There is a simple tombstone in St. Peter’s Cemetery in West Brighton, Staten Island, New York. It does not stand apart in a specially designated area, nor is it adorned in any way to distinguish this gravesite from the countless others in that consecrated ground. The humble headstone is engraved with the family name Capodanno. Along with his beloved mother and father, this is the final resting place of the mortal remains of a faithful Servant of God who had the valiant, sacrificial heart of a priest, truly another Christ. His name is Father Vincent Robert Capodanno. The inspiring story of Father Capodanno speaks louder than any grand or splendid monument.

The Capodanno Family

Like millions of courageous immigrants before him, Vincent Capodanno, Sr., of Gaeta, Italy, left the security and comfort of his family and homeland in 1901 at the age of sixteen in hopeful anticipation of the American dream. Through perseverance, hard work and faith in God, Vincent established himself in the New World, working as a ship caulker at New York Harbor.

(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).”