Rejecting the Stone of the Heart

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. Matt. 24:11-13.

Author and former feminist “icon” Naomi Wolf is one of those examples, not uncommon in times past but becoming rare as we slide down the hell-highway we’re on, of a person with a high degree of intelligence and an inquiring mind being open to at least consider true things. Without making too much of it, people like her and a few others in the public eye who are beginning to awaken show that God is the giver of gifts like intellect and that He is sovereign over the most propagandized “educational” systems suffered by guilty man. All that is required is for the person to cooperate with their free will, which our good God respects in his unfathomable plan.

I paid little attention to Dr. Wolf before the satanic, preplanned, coordinated population reduction operation pandemic. I knew her to be a feminist lauded by other feminists, so my interest level was less than zero. But as I stated above, whatever her background and reasons she was open to the truth of what was happening. She publicly opposed the lockdowns and mandates, she fought, personally and at the cost of her reputation among our betters, for God-given rights and freedoms inherent with the Divine order and natural law. You know someone is on the side of truth when the empire of lies labels him a “consipiracty theorist”. The great pseudo-knowledge box Wikipedia, after providing her glorious feminist credentials of the past, has this shovel of dirt to throw on top:

Since around 2014, Wolf has been described, by journalists and media outlets, as a conspiracy theorist. She has received criticism for promoting misinformation on topics such as beheadings carried out by ISIS, the Western African Ebola virus epidemic and Edward Snowden.

She has objected to COVID-19 lockdowns and has criticized COVID-19 vaccines. In June 2021, her Twitter account was suspended for posting anti-vaccine misinformation. (citations omitted).

Heck, if your Twitter account is suspended, why get up in the morning, right? You are un-personed.

Anyway, such is the providence of God, a sign of His good will and perhaps of His good humor, that a Catholic trying to get to Heaven in the 21st century will sometimes look to a semi-reformed feminist icon for occasional good news or a glimpse of goodness in the human condition. And make no mistake: her views on many important topics show she is not to be held up as some wishful-thinking convert, as some do when any celebrity says something sensible on a certain topic. I merely want to highlight, today, what happens when a modernist comes into contact with the Real and the Good in life.

Which of course leads me inevitably to post some excerpts about falling on the ice and a puppy.

Why? Simply because it provides a little insight to a normal, functioning human community. A neighborhood. With neighbors. People of whatever background having simple human compassion for another person in need. People who act on this compassion, acting manfully and simply to do what is right.

That’s it. An article one would never needed to have posted a century ago. Or 60 years ago. Or maybe 10 years ago. But these days it may make a nice moment in your day.

In her post, Dr. Wolf describes falling on the ice during a run with her dog (with the lamentable name of Loki). First, what happened:

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The next moment, I realized that I was on my back on the icy sidewalk, in an agony unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life, and probably screaming.

Worse still, I could see that Loki was about 100 feet further away from me on the sidewalk, with the leash, fallen out of my hapless grasp, trailing near him. He was looking back at me in confused concern.

But I was unable to get up, and I realized with horror that I could not move my left arm or hand at all. Loki could easily wander away and be lost, or get hit by a car.

I started shouting, ‘Help me! Please help me!’ I put all of my conscious will into those screams, and I prayed someone would respond before I passed out, or before I went into shock, which would mean that my puppy would be in terrible danger.

Amazingly, I soon felt someone kneel by me. A woman had come out of her nearby home, having heard my screams. She was seeking to calm me, even as someone else called 911.

‘Please get my puppy,’ I begged. Miraculously, another woman appeared, from another house — I believe from across the street. I heard two voices then gently luring Loki back toward where I lay, and then my heart was in my throat until one woman was able to seize his leash handle securely.

‘Please tell my husband what happened,’ I managed to say between groans, and I gave that woman our address. Her wife also, I believe, called 911 on my behalf.

Amazingly, this neighbor took Loki three blocks away, accurately located our address, knocked on our door, gave Loki safely to Brian, and let him know that I had fallen. Amazingly too, another neighbor, an older man, appeared out of nowhere, while all of this was happening, a look of concern on his face, and bearing a pillow and blanket.

The neighbors deliberated about not using the pillow, as they decided that they should not move me. Meanwhile I felt myself start to sink into shock – I felt my heart rate slowing, and I grew colder and began to tremble. I felt that sense of, ‘My body and mind can’t take this pain any longer; I am about to lose consciousness.’

Then the four neighbors, working together, put the blanket gently over me. The sidewalk was frozen and my body temperature kept dropping; keeping me warm, I am sure, prevented me from going into shock or hypothermia, and their decision not to move my head also helped me avoid further injury.

The first woman who had come out to help me, knelt beside me and asked about my dog’s breed. She kept chatting with me. This cannot have been pleasant for her, as I was still inarticulate – howling and groaning.

I realized, even in my increasing confusion and agony, that she was making small talk with me, in order to keep me from passing out.

_________________

She was soon taken by ambulance and treated for a broken shoulder, but was otherwise fine. Next, her observations:

_________________

What I mean to say is that four strangers came out at once into the freezing street at the sound of a human voice in distress. Four strangers stayed at the uncomfortable, no doubt upsetting scene, prioritizing a stranger’s and a little pup’s visible risks over whatever else they had been doing at that moment, and over their own cozy comfort; strangers patiently lured, and then secured, and thus saved the life of my little dog. A stranger patiently brought him home, and let my husband know I was hurt. A stranger had held my good hand and talked to me of random subjects, in freezing temperatures, for quite a long time, so that I would not pass out. A stranger had brought me a pillow and a blanket of his own, and put the blanket down for me on the icy, gritty sidewalk.

The decency of these people — who themselves may not have even known one another — created an instinctive choreography of goodness, which was lifesaving.

Then, once my dog and I were safe, these strangers melted away, back into their lives, asking nothing of the moment — not even my thanks. I don’t even know their names.

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Later, Wolf explains what this little incident proves about a functioning human society:

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My larger point, if I may extrapolate from this extraordinary personal kindness I was fortunate to experience — is that our little community showed that it was emotionally and morally healthy. In a healthy community, humans save each other.

These people simply had in each one of them a moral compass and a sense of selfless compassion, that led them to act together with such a beautiful, positive outcome.

That is the society, the community, that sense of unity, we all used to have — at least as an ideal.

What, after all, is an angel? Maybe the angelic is just the human, acting with decency.

Human communities’ ability to save one another, to save the community itself, out of values of internalized decency and compassion, is a resilient, effective, powerful, unstoppable thing.

That is why when others wish to take power from us, they create policies to keep us apart, unknown to, and in fear of one another.

I don’t mean to politicize a great blessing I received at the hands of my neighbors, but I can’t help considering that if, God forbid, this had happened to us during ‘lockdown’ – or during some time of global messaging about our fellow humans being untouchable, or somehow dangerous to others — I might have lost consciousness, or frozen to death, and Loki too surely would have been lost.

[…]

Let us forever more defy any pronouncements that seek to turn making ‘a stone of the heart’ into a virtue.

First Day at My New Job Editing Matt Gaspers’ Twitter Post Headlines

I grabbed the link from Frank Walker at Canon 212, as I am not on Twitter. But, here is my first effort:

“Can an Antipope Ban the Latin Mass?: Five Quotes”

There, Matt. I fixed it for you.

Conversion of St. Paul

The richness and ever-relevance of the Roman Calendar presents today for our celebration and contemplation the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. From Acts 9:

[1] And Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, [2] And asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues: that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. [3] And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. [4] And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? [5] Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.

[6] And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? [7] And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do. Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. [8] And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. [9] And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink. [10] Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision: Ananias. And he said: Behold I am here, Lord.

[11] And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the street that is called Strait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prayeth. [12] (And he saw a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hands upon him, that he might receive his sight.) [13] But Ananias answered: Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem. [14] And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that invoke thy name. [15] And the Lord said to him: Go thy way; for this man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.

[16] For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. [17] And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house. And laying his hands upon him, he said: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus hath sent me, he that appeared to thee in the way as thou camest; that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. [18] And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized. [19] And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples that were at Damascus, for some days. [20] And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

As impossible as it looks to men; as impossible as it looks to reason; as impossible as it seems; Our Lord Jesus Christ can convert the hardest sinner, the most severe persecutor, the most hateful enemy of the Church. Whether He brings it about or not in His sovereign, Divine Plan, Christ wants us to pray for the conversion of sinners.

Even the ones hardest to pray for. Especially them. It would be a mistake to put limits on the power of God.

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter in Rome

Living as we are in this uniquely dangerous time, it would be good for us to reflect on the ancient feast day celebrating the final See of the First Pontiff. May the throne of Peter be restored and renewed! From my little iPieta app:

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January 18.–ST. PETER’S CHAIR AT ROME.

ST. PETER having triumphed over the devil in the East, the latter pursued him to Rome in the person of Simon Magus. He who had formerly trembled at the voice of a poor maid now feared not the very throne of idolatry and superstition. The capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of impiety, called for the zeal of the Prince of Apostles. God had established the Roman Empire, and extended its dominion beyond that of any former monarchy, for the more easy propagation of His Gospel. Its metropolis was of the greatest importance for this enterprise. St. Peter took that province upon himself, and, repairing to Rome, there preached the faith and established his ecclesiastical chair. That St. Peter preached in Rome, founded the Church there, and died there by martyrdom under Nero, are facts the most incontestable, by the testimony of all writers of different countries who lived near that time; persons of unquestionable veracity, and who could not but be informed of the truth in a point so interesting and of its own nature so public and notorious. This is also attested by monuments of every kind; by the prerogatives, rights, and privileges which that church enjoyed from those early ages in consequence of this title. It was an ancient custom observed by churches to keep an annual festival of the consecration of their bishops. The feast of the Chair of St. Peter is found in ancient martyrologies. Christians justly celebrate the founding of this mother-church, the centre of Catholic communion, in thanksgiving to God for His mercies to His Church, and to implore His future blessings.

Reflection.–As one of God’s greatest mercies to His Church, let us earnestly beg of Him to raise up in it zealous pastors, eminently replenished with His Spirit, with which He animated His apostles.

Welcome to Pottersville

Found this bracingly true little article at LRC blog, pointing out that we have let our Bedford Falls become Pottersvile, and there was no George Bailey to stop it. A brief excerpt, here, but as in the Capra movie I fully expect Divine Providence to remedy this situation. That is beyond doubt. But when, and at what cost to us, are the variables:

Ah, but what was my “Eureka!” moment? That moment was when I could see the difference between Bedford Falls run by and peopled with decent men and women and that same town in the hands of evil, godless people. “Welcome to Pottersville” is the “after” in a “before” (Bedford Falls) and “after” period of moral decline. We have left the Bedford Falls of my youth – and that was probably not all that innocent even then! – and are now full-time residents of Pottersville, and it’s not a pretty picture at all. Neither do I believe it is possible for us to undo what has been done. Why? Because the people in Pottersville were the same people that had lived in Bedford Falls with the exception of George Bailey, but they had succumbed to Potter and those who served him. We see a hint of this at one point in the movie after George’s father dies. George wants to go away. He’s bored with Bedford Falls and the Building and Loan and has accumulated a little money to go on his adventures but the board members tell him that they want him to lead his father’s company. George says no, that his Uncle Billy should do it. But they know Uncle Billy isn’t able and they tell George that if he doesn’t stay, the board will “vote with Potter” who will close the Building and Loan down as he had been trying to do for years! And so George stays. In other words, the moral decay was always there, but George’s presence prevented Potter from turning Bedford Falls into Pottersville.

Alas, no person or even group of people were there to stop our downward moral path from our “Bedford Falls” to our present “Pottersville.” Oh, there were good people from time to time but soon the whole milieu became too corrupt for any one person or group of people to influence the direction in which we were going. Even our churches became defenders of the indefensible whether it was abortion or sexual perversion or the Spirit of the Age. As I write this in the third decade of the 21^st century I realize that all our signposts now say “Welcome to Pottersville” but, alas, there is no George Bailey or Clarence to return this world to a time of wholesomeness and decency. We are condemned to reside where evil has triumphed and it’s our own damned fault.

Morning Prayer

I read Ann Barnhardt’s recent short reflection on pain— “We are saved through infinite pain, proceeding directly from infinite Love. To experience pain is to be invited to enter into the Passion of your Savior.”– and thought of a poem from Dan England and the Noonday Devil, by Myles Connolly.

The title character, master of the apostolate of hospitality, undergoes an inner struggle throughout the book to give up worldly attachments. It reaches a climax, of course– it is a book. But the climax occurs only after the narrator, Dan’s friend and chronicler, shares this poem with us:

Morning Prayer

My dear, good Lord, my heart is too much glad;
Too eagerly she knows how life is fair;
How rich with honest love and laughter,
And how Your beauty lies upon it everywhere.

O much too glad, this morning heart of mine;
I cannot keep her mute of song, or still;
She must be surging forth and singing
That life is good and man may love it if he will.

(Last night, my heart, I saw upon a hill,
With two lone arms outstretched, a gaunt black tree;
The sky was red a sullen moment,--
And lo, it was Cross, and on that Cross hung He.)

This soft, white morning, I say you are too glad,
Too readily you gifts of Pleasure gain;
He loves you less for all your singing,
Love more, glad heart, love more-- and win His gift of Pain.

Vigil of the Epiphany and Twelfth Night

As I am in full prep zone for a Twelfth Night Party, I will not hesitate to brazenly steal from the day’s entry at the wonderful Fisheaters website. I go back to this site periodically and marvel at the effort to put such a wonderful compendium of the traditional practice of the Catholic faith in one place. I think a lot of “trads” make use of it early in our “tradversion”, but then leave it. It is a good touchstone from time to time.

Today is the Vigil of one of the great Feasts of Our Lord:

Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the. strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.

Isaias 60: 1-6

Therefore taking up his parable, again he said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man whose eye is stopped up, hath said: The hearer of the words of God hath said, who knoweth the doctrine of the Highest, and seeth the visions of the Almighty, who falling hath his eyes opened: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A STAR SHALL RISE out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab, and shall waste all the children of Seth. And he shall possess Idumea: the inheritance of Seir shall come to their enemies, but Israel shall do manfully. Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the remains of the city.

Numbers 24: 15-19

If today is the Vigil of the Epiphany, then that means tomorrow is the Epiphany itself. See how I did that? And that means tonight is Twelfth Night. You don’t have to be a fan of Shakespeare to celebrate it.

On the Vigil, water is blessed with the special Epiphany blessing, and is used with blessed chalk and incense to bless homes. In the evening, it seems fitting for a Catholic to begin the celebration to welcome the Magi.

Our Lord is born, and is the salvation of the Gentiles! Let us adore Him!

To conclude, back to Fisheaters:

The custom of choosing Twelfthnight “royalty” is described in “Twelfth Night: Or King and Queen” by the English poet, Robert Herrick (A.D. 1591-1674):

Twelfth Night: Or King and Queen

Now, now the mirth comes
With the cake full of plums,
Where bean’s the king of the sport here;
Beside we must know,
The pea also
Must revel, as queen, in the court here.

Begin then to choose,
This night as ye use,
Who shall for the present delight here,
Be a king by the lot,
And who shall not
Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here.

Which known, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;
And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unurg’d will not drink
To the base from the brink
A health to the king and queen here.

Next crown a bowl full
With gentle lamb’s wool:
Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too;
And thus ye must do
To make the wassail a swinger.

Give then to the king
And queen wassailing:
And though with ale ye be whet here,
Yet part from hence
As free from offence
As when ye innocent met here.

I Can’t Watch It

I will not be watching the funeral Mass of Pope Benedict XVI, orchestrated and “presided” over by his enemies. The enemies of the Holy Mass. The enemies of the Church. I simply cannot do it.

I will not be a part of it.

I was persuaded to watch that abomination in St. Peter’s square where Bergoglio glowered down on Jesus on the cross. I watched it with increasing horror, moved to tears by the destruction of that beautiful medieval crucifix left in the rain, while Bergoglio sat nice and dry a few feet away.

I watched the Russia/Ukraine consecration feint in hopes it might have gone otherwise.

I won’t watch this.

I won’t watch this man spiking the ball.

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Instead I will be assisting at a Solemn High Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI tonight at 6 p.m. at the Oratory. I don’t have to worry about whether the Mass is Catholic, or whether the celebrant is offering it for the repose of the pope’s soul.

Eternal rest grant unto him, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen. May the soul of Pope Benedict XVI, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Forward with Faith, Hope, and Charity

I was prompted to write today after stumbling upon a twitter post that states: “Retweet if you think Pope Benedict XVI should be declared a Doctor of the Church.” That pretty much sums up where we are today.

For all the good that he did, for whatever faults he may have had, becoming a Doctor of the Church is not the product of an internet influence campaign. Or, if it become so these days, we are so far gone from any spirit of Catholicity that the mind reels at the unlikeliness of getting that spirit back. Neither is the question of which (if either)of any two persons is Pope subject to any internet influence campaign.

The gloating in some quarters over those who think that Pope Benedict XVI did not effectively resign the papal office as “sedevacantists”, or as facing a crisis of faith, or as being definitively proven wrong, betrays how little they understand of the Church, the papacy, and the duties of a Catholic. I don’t know some of the more famous internet gloaters personally, but it doesn’t speak well either for their intelligence or their honesty. One of two things happened in February 2013: Pope Benedict abdicated the papacy or he did not abdicate the papacy. That’s it. There can be at any time one pope, or none. Not two.

If he did abdicate, there is nothing in the death of Pope Benedict that changes it; if he did not, likewise, there is nothing in his death that changes that. Bergoglio, if he be not pope, does not inherit it with the passing of the pope. Nor does Bergoglio’s mere survival over his rival work to prove his claim like some trial by ordeal.

So, if the issue is not soluble, as a friend noted to me today, until a future date and/or event, do not ever abandon the Church. She is the ark of salvation, and will not fail. God loves us, and does not seek to mislead us. He has this. And Mary is on the job– she will crush the serpent’s head. And maybe cut people a break for being confused in a truly wretched time.

No matter what or when or how, the Church is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is the only true Church, founded by Christ, and outside of which there is no salvation.

And this may be a good time to state again publicly what I have said many times, and that informs any mere statement of opinion or question I ever address or have addressed concerning “the two popes” question: I accept Unam Sanctam. I willingly submit to the true Roman Pontiff, even if it is Bergoglio. If instead the seat is temporarily vacant until further events, I willingly await God’s foreordained plan and trust in His providence. This doesn’t unsay any of my opinions or questions or beliefs– not at all. It just means that as a human being who can err on all kinds of things, I could be wrong on any particular belief that is not part of the deposit of faith guaranteed by the Church. That’s it. That’s the last this unimportant layman has to say on it, unless such an event or future date makes things clear.

Therefore, keep the Faith. Have Hope. Live in Charity. This has all been foreseen by an All-loving, All-powerful God.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Archbishop Viganó’s Letter for the New Year

A must read. I repost it here in full. Oremus pro invicem:

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Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuæ. 
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in æternum.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.
Govern and uphold them now and always.  – Hymn. Te Deum

In these last hours that mark the conclusion of the civil year, each of us is preparing to take part in the solemn functions with which the Church raises to the Divine Majesty the praises of thanksgiving contained in the hymn Te Deum.

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. We praise you, O God: we acclaim you as Lord. In the plural “we,” one perceives the august voice of the Bride of the Lamb, adorned with the precious jewels of the Sacraments and the most precious gems of her royal crown: the most august Sacrament of the Altar, the Sacrosanct Sacrifice of the Mass and the Order of the Priesthood. And it is before the Most Blessed Sacrament that we all, standing as befits victors who are on our feet with Christ on the day of triumph, give thanks to God for the year that is drawing to a close.

Let us therefore consider that for which we must give thanks to the Most Holy Trinity.

We thank the Lord God for punishing us for our lukewarmness, our silence, our inclination to compromise, our hypocrisies, our yielding to the spirit of the world and the errors of the dominant ideologies. It was these sins and shortcomings that have allowed those who today impose the tyranny of the New World Order to flourish in the civil world, and those who excommunicate a pro-life priest and scandalously promote corrupt and heretical prelates and clerics to prevail in the ecclesiastical world. They have allowed, in the civil world, democracy to be transformed into the apostasy of nations and the cruel slaughter of the innocent. They have allowed, in the ecclesial body, the Second Vatican Council to introduce the principles of the Revolution into the Church, as a subversive lever to destroy it from within. They have allowed sin and vice be encouraged in the civil world, while honesty, integrity, and Christian morality are mocked and trampled upon, if not criminalized. They have allowed, in the ecclesiastical world, the persecution of the faithful and clerics who ask to profess the Catholic Faith and to celebrate it in the Apostolic Rite, while the Vatican Sanhedrin worships an infernal idol at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. They have allowed, in both the civil and ecclesiastical world – significantly allied on this point – the health mark of the Beast to be imposed on billions of people, in the name of a delirious plan of global population control, using as a pretext a disease that has proven to be curable and not fatal only after the prohibition of appropriate treatments had caused a sufficient number of deaths to terrorize the masses. They have allowed an operation, long time planned, carried out with impunity by NATO to provoke a war against an “invader” and in order to destroy the economy of Western nations, while it is evident that the Ukrainian crisis is instrumental to the realization of the Great Reset; no more and no less than COVID-19, as well as being as an expedient for Joe Biden to hide the evidence of the corruption of his family and the presence of biolaboratories linked to the Pentagon. They have allowed, in both civil and ecclesiastical institutions, officials to be more blackmailed the more they ascend in their careers, and that neither citizens nor believers demand that the corrupt and perverted be removed and prosecuted.

What we are witnessing today is the inevitable outcome of a series of small steps, each of which could have been prevented if only we had exercised a minimum of critical judgment and raised our voice, if we had protested in order to defend our rights that have been violated by those who should have been the first to protect them. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia, sodomy, gender ideology, leftist or right-wing liberalism, immigrationism, cancel culture, globalism, the health dictatorship, Malthusian environmentalism, ecumenism, synodality. . . Each time, we could and should have denounced the threat that loomed, and yet we were silent, so as not to be called “conspiracy theorists” or branded as “fundamentalists,” so that we would not suffer social and ecclesial ostracism because of our ideas or our Faith.  “Each person is free to do what he wishes, so long as this also allows me to be Catholic and to go to the Latin Mass,” say those who have allowed themselves to be contaminated by liberal thought. But it is precisely this “doing whatever one wants” that has allowed the manipulators of the masses to change society and to make us strangers in our homeland, both in our own Nations and also within the Church.

Yet we knew very well that the project of Masonic liberalism ought to have been opposed by Catholics, following the repeated alarms and multiple condemnations of the Roman Pontiffs. We knew that liberals give their tolerance to everyone except Catholics, and that their worst enemy is Christ the King of the Nations, because wherever He reigns, the enemies of God and mankind are in shackles and not at the head of governments. We knew very well that rebellion against God in temporal and spiritual matters could only lead to either dictatorship or anarchy, yet we have allowed the trampling down of Justice in our courts and workers’ rights in our businesses, the prevention of treatment in our hospitals, the spreading of lies in our media, the corruption of young people’s morals in our schools, and the contradiction of the Magisterium from our pulpits.

Those who up until now have held positions of authority have done so by usurping power for the opposite purpose to that for which it exists. As I said earlier: we feel treated as if we are foreigners, indeed, although we are citizens we are treated like enemies of the State, and although we are members of the faithful we are treated as enemies of the Church, while the true foreigners and enemies of the State are welcomed, honored, and obeyed in the delirious “humanitarian” and “philanthropic” projects of the elite who have usurped authority. And some of us, in the face of this operation of social and religious engineering, have given up fighting, or even sided with the conspirators: they have chosen to please the powerful, to support their subversive plans in our Parliaments, in the halls of international institutions, in our cathedrals and even right under the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica. Conformism, cowardice, obsequiousness; with the hope that today’s betrayal by which they crush our neighbor – whether it is a citizen who asks for honest rulers or one of the faithful who asks for holy shepherds – can somehow spare us from subsequent decimation. They forget that the Revolution devours its own children like Saturn, and that none of the accomplices of the first hour are spared the gallows, either in reality or in the media.

The Lord is our Father, and as Father He punishes us so that we understand our faults, repent of them, and change our lives. Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pœnitentia placaris, says a prayer of Lent: O God, who is offended by guilt and appeased by penance. Wherever there is guilt, wherever the Majesty of God is infinitely offended, there is the need of a punishment. Flagella tuæ iracundiæ, quæ pro peccatis nostri meremur: the scourges of Your indignation, which we merit because of our sins – just as so often happened to the people of Israel.

Blessed be this chastisement, which has lasted for over two years, and which is destined to endure if we do not make ourselves worthy of being spared, giving signs of conversion, repentance, expiation, and reparation. Blessed be this most inauspicious year that we now leave behind, during which the pandemic farce has shown itself in its criminal nature by revealing the project of death of the globalist elite; during which the ruthless cynicism of international organizations has manifested itself in hypocritical propaganda in favor of governments led by those who are most corrupt and subservient to the Great Reset, showing what lies those who do not recognize the transcendent principle of Truth are capable of telling, deluding themselves that they can erase the very work of the Creator by transhumanism, in whose image and likeness we have been made. Blessed be the boldness with which the tyrants of the New World Order have shown us the horrors that await us if we remain inert, passively enduring their health, environmental, energy, economic or war blackmails. Blessed is the arrogance of the Bergoglian sect, the accomplice of power and the servant of Masonic ideology, which with its compliance towards the wicked and its pharisaic severity against the good reveals – even to the simple – its apostasy and uncovers the gangrene of its vices. Like Job, let us bless the Lord above all in moments of tribulation, because in those trials – even in the most arduous and painful – we ought to see the intervention of Providence, the loving hand of God who does not abandon us to our own devices, we who have ended up much worse than watching over pigs, as happened to the prodigal son.

Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us. May thy mercy be upon us, Lord, in the measure that we have hoped in You. Have mercy on your children who have been abandoned by their rulers and shepherds. Have mercy on those who, precisely because they do not wallow in the false illusions of this age but live by the blessed Hope of your holy help, find in You the strength to fight the good fight, whether conducted in the family or in the workplace, from the seats of Parliament or from the editorial offices of a newspaper, from the pulpit of a country church or from the cell of a convent. Have mercy on those who do not resign themselves to the establishment of the hell on earth of the New World Order, nor to the no-less-infernal apostasy of irenic ecumenism.

And if we ask for an end to the scourges of this 2022, preparing to invoke with the Veni Creator the gifts of the Paraclete at the beginning of 2023, let us do so with the trusting humility of the prodigal son: Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son (Lk 15:21). We do this by renewing our determination to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29), when men abuse their authority by offending and disobeying Him in temporal and spiritual things.

The Te Deum is a hymn of thanksgiving for victory, a song of triumph. But this triumph is not the passing triumph of men. Rather it is the eternal triumph of the Son of God, who conquered Satan, not with armies and angelic hosts, but by dying on the Cross, an instrument of ignominy transformed into a banner of glory by the Blood of the Lamb. Christ’s victory – Ego vici mundum, I have overcome the world, Our Lord assures us (Jn 16:33) –  is accomplished on the triumphal way to Calvary, which the entire Mystical Body must follow, even to the passio Ecclesiæ, following the example of the Divine Redeemer, its Head. If we do not unite ourselves to the Passion of Christ, we will not be able to rise with Him and sit at His right hand in the blessed glory of Heaven. If we do not fight against sin under the banner of Christ and the Blessed Virgin, we will not be able to celebrate the final triumph over the ancient Serpent and his followers. If we do not rouse ourselves from torpor but instead remain simply watching the scoundrels who rage against the Church and humanity, seeking to cancel every trace of Christ, we have no reason to thank the Lord by singing the Te Deum, because we will have remained insensitive to His punishments and to the many warnings that He deigns to send us to urge us to reciprocate His love, that perfect and infinite love which enabled the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity to become Incarnate in order to redeem us. Then we will be deserving of that dystopian nightmare which the servants of Masonic globalism have been preparing for us for years and of which we have had a terrifying foretaste in the recent past.

Let us therefore sing this Te Deum with a renewed heart and with the intention of witnessing to our fidelity to the Lord, regardless of our abilities, trusting in His holy help, which is all the more powerful the greater and more ferocious is the assault of the Enemy: In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in æternum.

And so may it be.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
31 December 2022
S. Silvestri Papæ et Confessoris