These prophetic words to the apostles occur within the larger context of what biblicists often refer to as the Farewell Discourse. Within this discourse Jesus prepared his disciples for the fact that he will be leaving them sometime in the near future but that they would not be abandoned, as he would continue to be present to them through the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. Jesus also warned them of future persecutions.
Jesus was true to his word, not only in bestowing the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost but also in his warning that the disciples would suffer persecution not long after that. They were, in fact, put out of the synagogues. Maybe not in the first few hours or days or weeks after the birth of the Church but soon enough and sure enough. The corrupt Jewish leadership and mainstream Judaism which followed these wicked shepherds was as intolerant towards believing Jews as they had been toward Christ Himself. Even prior to the Crucifixion, a man born blind who professed Christ was expelled from the synagogue.
It’s not just traditional Catholics who argue that there is a distinction in religion between Catholicism as it existed prior to the Second Vatican Council and Catholicism proposed by Modernists.
But what believing Jew would want to belong to a synagogue of unbelievers who rejected Jesus as the Messiah? And what devout Jew would offer animal sacrifices in a temple abandoned by God, when the true Lamb of God had already been sacrificed on the Cross, rendering animal sacrifices an abomination? Eventually all temple sacrifices were brought to an abrupt end, not by the will of man but by the will of God, who destroyed the temple at the hands of the Romans, along with over one million souls in the city.
Even so, rather than repent and accept Christ as the Messiah, the Jewish leadership gathered in a council in the wake of the sack of Jerusalem and pronounced a curse upon Christ and Christians. Thereafter, in all the synagogues, it was mandated that among the many benedictions that were recited aloud in the service, there was a benediction that invoked a curse upon Christ and upon all Christians who followed the Christ. No wonder Saint John referred to one such Jewish synagogue as a Synagogue of Satan in the Apocalypse.
Of course, Divine Providence always prevails, and the expulsion of believing Jews from the synagogues and exclusion from the temple occasioned an even greater expansion of the Gospel into the Gentile world and the ends of the earth. It also hastened a change of the center of true religion from Jerusalem to Rome. Far from crushing Christianity, persecution by apostate Judaism only served to strengthen and expand it.
Remnant readers, our present situation as traditional Catholics is not unlike that of Apostolic Christians. Just as the Jewish temple became defiled by continued animal sacrifices after the Crucifixion of Christ, so Saint Peter’s Basilica has been defiled by the honor and worship rendered to a pachamama goddess. And as the believing Jewish faithful were no longer welcomed in the temple, neither are traditional Masses allowed in Saint Peter’s Basilica. We should not even desire to enter its doors until it is re-consecrated.
In a recent interview, Cardinal Arthur Roche, head of the Dicastery on Worship and Sacraments, stated that “the theology of the Church has changed.”
Similarly, in parish churches, which are the Christian equivalent of ancient Jewish synagogues, traditional faithful and sacraments are not welcome. As bad shepherds of the past forbade Christians to participate in the synagogues, so too bad shepherds today have forbidden traditional Masses and Sacraments in parish churches. Ancient Jews suffered under Caiaphas and Annas, we suffer under Francis of Rome and Arthur Cardinal Roche. Not since Apostolic times have we had such persecution of true Faith by false shepherds.
But remember that by its rejection of Jesus as the promised Messiah, Jewish leaders and mainstream Judaism went into apostasy, meaning that it was no longer true religion. True religion was to be found within the fold of those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, under the leadership of the outcast Apostles.
Fr. Celatus writes "The Last Word" on the back of every Remnant Newspaper.
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There is a parallel to be found in our situation as well. Over the past sixty years, since the ecclesiastical revolution of the 1960’s and accelerated in the past decade in particular, there has been a counterfeit Catholic church in the works, forged and fashioned by Modernists who have infiltrated the true Church. This counterfeit church is now so contrary to Catholicism, it can no longer be regarded as true religion.
But it’s not just traditional Catholics who argue that there is a distinction in religion between Catholicism as it existed prior to the Second Vatican Council and Catholicism proposed by Modernists. In a recent interview, Cardinal Arthur Roche, head of the Dicastery on Worship and Sacraments, stated that “the theology of the Church has changed.” He went on to criticize those who oppose restrictions on tradition:
All that is taking place is the regulation of the former liturgy of 1962 Missal by stopping the promotion of that, because it was clear that the Council, the Bishops of the Council, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were putting forward a new liturgy for the vital life of the Church, for its vitality…That reform is taking place, but it’s a slow process because there are those who are dragging their feet with regard to this and not only dragging their feet but stubbornly opposing what the Church has actually decreed. That’s a very serious matter. In the end, people have to ask themselves: am I really a Catholic, or am I more of a Protestant?
No Cardinal, it is not traditional Catholics that are “more of a Protestant.” At least Protestants had the decency to protest against the Church from without. But you Modernists, who have undermined the Church from within with your new theology, are the ones who have created a false religion. So, as you ban us from your counterfeit churches, we will hold fast to true religion elsewhere, as did the Apostles.
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