True Catholic Faith: Clarion Call of the Church’s Timeless Teaching

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Dear faithful, have you ever wondered why the Lord continues to permit the church to be without a pope? Are not sixty years of Vatican two darkness and confusion enough, you may ask, with its false doctrines, disciplines, and worship? Some may lament, there is nothing that can be done about the wretched situation in the church. Others may even conclude, God has left us.

Thus, sadness has taken over. Our Lord in today's gospel finds fault for the apostles' sadness concerning his departure. He rebukes them for not asking him where he is going. For if they know where he is going and why he is going there, they will not be sad. Fixing their eyes merely on their earthly lives and on how much they are going to miss his physical presence with them, the apostles are blind to the fact that the Lord's departure will turn into the greatest of blessings, not only for them, but for the great body of followers that he has been forming from the beginning, the one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

This will indeed be a cause for joy. Recall the Lord's words to the apostles from last week's gospel. You shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned to joy. In our fallen nature, we too can become excessively sad over misfortunes in life. Not recognizing that divine providence may turn our sadness into one of our greatest blessings.

Indeed, from all eternity, our Lord has foreseen every misfortune in our lives to the minutest detail. He lovingly permits each misfortune so that we may exercise certain virtues which have an eternal effect. We must remember that whereas the earthly effects of any particular misfortune will pass away, no matter what they may be, the misfortune's eternal effects may be the very thing that gives us eternal life or even a greater place in heaven. In short, never forget that eighty, ninety, or even one hundred years of misfortunes on this earth are nothing in comparison to the joy of eternity which the Lord offers to us. Your first task in this life, dear faithful, is to save your souls and become saints.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori poses the question, what is necessary to save our souls and to become saints? Some imagine that sanctity consists in performing many works of penance. But were a sick man to perform mortifications which would expose him to the proximate danger of death, he would instead of becoming a saint, be guilty of a very grievous sin. Others think that perfection consists in long and frequent prayers. But should the father of a family neglect the education of his children and go into the desert to pray, he too would commit sin.

Because although prayer is good, a parent is bound to take care of his children. And he can fulfill the precept of prayer and attention to their instruction without going into the desert. Others believe that holiness consists in frequent communion. But if despite a just command of her husband and to the injury of her family, a married woman wished to communicate every morning, she would act improperly and would have to render an account of her conduct to God. In what then does sanctity consist?

It consists in the perfect fulfillment of the will of God. All the souls which are in hell are there because they prefer they preferred to do their own will instead of the will of God. Let us then, says Saint Bernard, cease to do our own will. Let us follow the will of God. And for us, there shall be no hell.

The primary vice that the Vatican two religion fosters is disobedience, which is the offspring of self will. It is truly a religion of choice, A conservative liberal, traditionalist, progressivist, sliding scale, two winged religion. But Christ did not institute a religion of choice in which one could choose a convenient interpretation of his precepts on a conservative, liberal, or traditionalist progressivist scale of preference. The religion that Christ established rather has a more basic dynamic. You obey Christ and repent of your disobedience to him, which is his unmerited gift to you, and then you go to heaven.

Or you disobey Christ and don't repent of your disobedience to him, thus rejecting his unmerited gift to you, and then you go to hell. It's very simple. Moreover, since Christ established his religion in the church, there is no salvation outside the church. The Vatican two Council fabricated a bogus distinction between the Church of Christ and the Catholic church. One of the council documents states that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic church, which opposes the church's perennial teaching that the Church of Christ is the Catholic church.

This heretical distinction implies that there are two churches. For something cannot be in something else unless there are two things, the thing itself and a second thing that contains the thing itself. However, or moreover, the council stated that the spirit of Christ has not refrained from using separated churches and communities as a means of salvation. According to this statement, we may logically ask how many saving churches and communities there are in the Vatican two schema. At this point, it is important to understand the Holy Ghost's relationship to the church.

According to Saint Augustine, the Holy Ghost does in the whole church what the soul does in all the members of one body. It gives life. Saint Thomas Aquinas said that the Holy Ghost lives in the church, teaches it, and sanctifies it. He also said that by the Holy Ghost, we are made one with Christ. In short, theologians say that the Holy Ghost is the soul of the Catholic church.

Important is that a body remains a dead thing unless it has a soul in it. Again, it is the soul that gives the body its life and direction. The Holy Ghost, as the soul of the church, gives the body of its members a divine goal and the divine means for achieving the goal. That we may say is the Catholic church. Thus, if the churches and communities referred to in the Vatican two document are separated from the Catholic church, the mystical body of Christ, how can the Holy Ghost be within them?

Analogously, how can the soul be in a member of the human body such as the hand, if that member has been cut off from the body. In short, these heretical statements of Vatican two, which imply a multiplicity of saving churches and communities, go against the very foundation of the Catholic religion as expressed in the creed. I believe in one and only one, holy Catholic and apostolic church. Dear faithful, we must recognize that the Vatican to religion and the American system of government profess the same heretical and damaging truth, freedom of religion. So even though integral Catholics do not participate in the Vatican two religion per se, we are daily surrounded by its principles.

We must fix our eyes not on our earthly lives, but on the goal of heavenly life. We must not let the misfortunes of our earthly existence, such as sickness, suffering, lack of financial prosperity, hostilities in families, encounters with violence, or even the lack of a pope sadden us. But we must seek unceasingly to exercise every virtue, especially those in which we are weakest. Recall our Lord's words. Do not think that I came to send peace upon the earth.

I came not to send peace, but the sword. Recall too that the Lord does not need a pope sitting on the throne of Peter to accomplish what he wishes to accomplish, even if the vacancy is for many years. Clearly, he is calling us to understand and fight for the truth with the grace of the Holy Ghost, and to banish from our lives all disobedience to his most holy will. Indeed, we have much work to do in cultivating the virtues. Many blessings will certainly follow, perhaps even a true pope.

Let us thus beg Our Lady today to help us perfectly obey Our Lord in all things, banishing all disobedience and cultivating the virtues. That we might grow in holiness, in the holiness that he desires in us and attain to eternal joy. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Amen.