Chris Jackson | Remnant Columnist
On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I have compiled some quotations, which tell us precisely why we will not see many liberals and Modernists celebrating with any amount of enthusiasm today. For, as these quotes explain, this Dogma implicitly destroys the foundations on which their ideology rests. In addition to being a jewel in the crown of Our Lady, this dogma, above all other Marian dogmas, is one of the primary instruments she uses to crush the head of the serpent…Chris Jackson
From AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM (On the Immaculate Conception)
by Pope Pius X
Encyclical promulgated on 2 February 1904
…22. But lest it be thought that We have lost sight of Our subject, which is the Immaculate Conception, what great and effectual succor will be found in it for the preservation and right development of those same virtues.
On November 28th, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the following:
Twice in recent weeks, the Diocese of Pittsburgh has issued notices warning Catholics against taking part in worship services by two groups that claim to be Catholic but that the diocese says are not…
One is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X, which rejects the modernizing changes of the Second Vatican Council and whose late founder was excommunicated. The other is affiliated with the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which disputes the Vatican’s insistence that only men can be priests…
Before the age of pontiffs who put human respect for heretics and schismatics above respect for God’s Truth, there lived a different breed of Catholic. One who was capable of grasping the simple logic that two contradictory belief systems could never be reconciled. He understood that no amount of praising a heretic, no amount of dialoguing with a heretic, and no amount of doing good works with a heretic could ever make the heretic’s error one bit closer to being true.
The Chicago Sun-Times, March 13, 2013:
In the Chicago Archdiocese, there are 276,000 fewer Catholics than there were in 1980, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives. This decline occurred despite overall population growth in the area of more than 200,000, along with a large influx of mostly Catholic Hispanics during the same period.
Our Sunday Visitor, September 17, 2014:
Since 1997, the Catholic population [in Chicago] has fallen by more than 150,000, and the number of priests has decreased by more than 300. There are 22 fewer parishes.
Question: Can we expect spirited resistance from our favorite Neo-Catholic commentators against whatever shenanigans Kasper and company decide to pull with Francis’ approval at next year's Synod on the Family? No! Why? Because in principle, they have already hitched their intellectual wagons to the Kasper train.
If you think that Neo-Catholics stand ready to defend perennial Catholic teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and worthy reception of Communion if the 2015 Synod goes south, think again. If Pope Francis decides to jump off the ecclesiastical cliff next year by adopting Cardinal Kasper’s proposal as Church law, make no mistake that the Neo-Catholic apologists stand dutifully ready to jump with him.
We have heard much talk over the last year and a half about “faulty translations.” For some reason the Vatican’s official website and radio station lost all ability to accurately translate texts as of March 13, 2013. This just so happens to coincide with the election of Pope Francis. Since this point, the Neo-Catholics have implied that we are all incapable of understanding anything Pope Francis or any high-ranking Vatican Prelate has said without their careful and painstaking (re)interpretation.
Well, for once, I am going to offer, as a service to our readers, an accurate translation (and more) of the words of the “pope’s theologian” Cardinal Walter Kasper. In the text below, I have translated, then interpreted, then commented upon, key parts of Cardinal Kasper’s speech at his Catholic University (CUA) award presentation. (Yes, they actually gave him an award!) The quotes below are from a recent news story on Kasper’s speech by the National Catholic Reporter (NCR). I guarantee the following translation and interpretation to be correct as I have many years experience in deciphering the very subtle and intricate language of Modernist doublespeak. Please enjoy this public service.
As of yesterday, November 10, 2014, Fr. Michael Rodríguez, is no longer the Administrator of Sacred Heart Mission in Shafter, TX. He has been given a six-month sabbatical in order to discern God’s Will for the future. Fr. Rodríguez remains a priest in good-standing of the Diocese of El Paso. He will most likely be looking at options for priestly ministry beyond the Diocese of El Paso.
Fr. Rodríguez has been offering the Traditional Latin Mass exclusively for the past three years, and this has led to increasing difficulties for him with the local hierarchy. Fr. Rodríguez asks for your prayers, and he especially asks you to pray for the small group of faithful (about 50) of the Presidio-Shafter area who are heartbroken over the loss of the Traditional Latin Mass and parish life based on the Traditional Latin Mass.
Admittedly, Fr. Rodríguez is in a very difficult situation. On the one hand, he intends to do his best to be obedient to his bishop. On the other hand, Fr. Rodríguez is convinced that God is calling him – through the Church – to dedicate his priesthood and all his energy and strength to promote the Church’s greatest treasures: her timeless liturgy and doctrine. Both Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have acknowledged that the Church is suffering through a terrible crisis of Faith in the post-Vatican II era, and Fr. Rodríguez, as a loyal priest and son of the Church, cannot stand idly by in the face of such widespread disparagement and abandonment of the Catholic Faith...
The irony is that if Catholics in Bishop Semeraro’s diocese received sacraments from truly schismatic Orthodox priests they would not be excommunicated at all. So is the Orthodox church somehow in “friendly schism” while the SSPX is in “naughty schism?”
Tuesday, November 4th, I wrote a blog piece regarding the implications of two bishops presuming to excommunicate Catholics who receive sacraments from the SSPX. On the same day, the International Una Voce Federation echoed my sentiments, stating that these excommunications may be illegal. Unfortunately, a third commentary on this event was posted on the same day, much unlike the others. That piece was Episcopal action on the SSPX: A basic strategy for unityby Neo-Catholic apologist, Dr. Jeff Mirus.
In the piece, Mirus states the following:
…it is important to understand why some bishops are adopting this policy. It has nothing to do with the question of whether the SSPX bishops are excommunicated (which is no longer the case), or whether the SSPX is formally in schism (about which the popes have been noticeably coy while seeking to restore full communion). Nor are those who avail themselves of sacraments administered by SSPX priests either in schism or universally excommunicated by that fact. Arguing (as theLatin Mass Society of England and Wales has) that Bishops Semeraro and Sarlinga are on shaky ground because such universal judgments are not in force would seem to miss the point. Rather, at this time such excommunications are imposed diocese by diocese, according to the judgment of the local ordinary. This is because the SSPX constitutes a direct attack on ordinary episcopal jurisdiction in the Catholic Church.
On October 14th, Marcello Semeraro, Bishop of Albano, Italy, close friend of Pope Francis, and member of the Pope’s Council to reform the curia, took the surprising step of declaring the following:
…any Catholic faithful who requests and receives Sacraments in the Society of Saint Pius X, will place himself de facto in the condition of no longer being in communion with the Catholic Church. A readmission to the Catholic Church must be preceded by an adequate personal path of reconciliation, according to the ecclesiastical discipline established by the Bishop.
Then, on October 20th, an interview with Abp. Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, regarding his recent meeting with the SSPX was made available. In it, the Secretary, for the first time publicly, stated that certain documents of Vatican II are of lesser authority and that the SSPX would not be required to give up objections related to pastoral and prudential matters: