APOSTASY WITHIN Filed by Pauly Fongemie March 10, 2013 "Today you preserve only as much faith as you defend." --- Pope John Paul I, Illustrissimi, p. 77 On the eve of the papal conclave in Rome Americans are informed that the latest PEW poll shows that the percentage of Catholics in the US in support of "gay marriage" has increased from just under 50% to 54%. This confirms my own internal poll here in the diocese of Portland, Maine. Only two years ago it was less than 49% and is now between 52% and 54% depending on the region, a statistical difference without any real distinction. When coupled with those who favor the Obama mandate on contraception [here in Maine] which runs to over 60% ---  fluctuating by a mere 2% from locale to locale, is more than alarming, it is prima facie evidence of widespread apostasy within. Now, it is necessary to define terms: apostasy means the defection from God through entire rejection of either one or more articles of the Catholic faith after previous acceptance. [If one does believe and affirm that the teachings of the Church are valid, but as an individual commits a particular sin condemned by a doctrine, this means one is unfaithful or in the state of sin, but one is not an apostate.] I stress, apostasy does not refer to an immoral action, itself, such as abortion, contraception, and deviant lifestyles, but the actual acceptance of such as legitimate and or something that the Church no longer has the right to tell us we have to believe or accept. This is what has occurred. Or, as Marc Cardinal Ouellet, the expectedly not so popular Cardinal of Quebec who has preached against these intrinsic evils, all part of the natural law as well as the Divine law, has said: "The people [meaning "Catholic"] are ahead of the Vatican." Ahead defined as not in compliance or in a state of apostasy de facto. This deplorable situation cannot be laid at the door of Vatican II as some imply. Vatican II, itself, with its unprecedented pastoral approach and convened by Pope John XXIII so precipitously, as if out of midair, taking not only the world by surprise but himself as well --- he said it was from a sudden inspiration --- is the result of the malaise of the age in which it was called and which has plagued us as pledged hostages ever since. That disorder or evil spirit is the subjective imperative over that of the objective; mankind in large was no longer content with the order of reason joined to the natural law but suffered from an illusion, an affliction of the mind, heart and soul that rendered man no longer capable or desirous of distinguishing between the true and the false, the good and the bad, the essential, enduring verities and passing vicissitudes. This necessitated the rejection of the Church in her theology rooted in Tradition and the Apostolic mandate. Man, self-satisfied with his new-found empowerment, which in reality was an unparalleled solipsism, would henceforth decide what belonged to Truth for himself. It was even declared that Truth was no longer objective and in such wise that for this nostrum to be valid, it in of itself must, by definition, be objective or infallible. Of course the obvious contradiction --- and hypocrisy --- was dismissed and rather easily since man had decided to discard his rational being for a sentient, material one more in keeping with the "love of humanity" --- rather than love of a personal neighbor --- as posited by this soul-destructive liberalism. Instead of the Council being the primary cause, it was the new ideological imperative, that seized like a contagion that brought about the very idea, the preposterous idea of a Council divorced from the definitions of doctrine. That contagion had to have taken root within the hierarchy in order for the Council  to have succeeded in destroying the faith of so many, for as Pope John Paul I, who reigned for a mere thirty days well understood, simply because the spirit of the age, --- "non serviam" --- deeply implanted the notion that doctrine was no longer in need of defending and explaining, hence the notion of the "pastoral" Council. As I wrote earlier, "An unwed Council, which gave birth to an illegitimate heir." [THE MOTU PROPRIO: IN LIGHT OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND THE BULL: QUO PRIMUM , July 28, 2007] Please note that pastoral and doctrinal are not mutually exclusive, but are intricately connected; the same cannot be said of the purely pastoral, as if there was something incompatible if doctrine were included. How did all this rupture happen in the first place? There are four sources, all from a sinful, wanton neglect of necessary things: The first is the decision to not effect the specific Consecration of Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart as willed by Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lord, thereby incurring the scourge foretold by Our Lady in the Third Secret --- apostasy within the Church and at the top ---; this was followed by the cessation of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, who is also the Angel of Fatima, at the conclusion of Mass, which left the Church vulnerable; recall that Pope Leo XIII, who instituted this practice was given a vision whereby Satan was permitted almost unfettered reign over the earth for a period of some 100 years or more, and thus the prayer to combat his power; the consequence of which was foretold in St. Paul's Second Epistle to St. Timothy, Chapter 4, verses 3-5: For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober. Concurrently, the refusal of hierarchy and its priests in union --- the dereliction of vigilance the very failure to remain steadfast and dutiful as evangelists --- to uphold the beautiful teaching on the sanctity of human life as expressed through the marriage act, i.e., on the express evil of contraception brought more loss of grace. At best any teaching in this regard, in all but a few select quarters, was so nuanced as to make a virtual mockery of the teaching, thereby leaving the laity to decide for themselves on the matter. By this time the laity were so inundated with mass media propaganda and their few children subjected to the same indoctrination in the government schools that without strong bishops taking a decisive lead and true pastoral work, the people were essentially abandoned to the principalities and powers of the world. The final straw that brought the Catholic world upside down was the advent of the "New Mass", which in the beginning years at least, was said so impudently, scandalously and illicitly by many priests that the wrathful hand of God could no longer be stayed. It was as if everything that was reasonable and normative to expect ceased being recognized or accepted as so. As we just said above, a widespread, generalized cessation of preaching on contraception, for certain a form of apostasy, on the part of the hierarchy was noted. This sinful neglect brought upon the Catholic people the disfavor of God Who seemed to have withdrawn many of His previous graces. A rejection of generosity in favor of natural life superseded by a loss of supernatural life --- the indispensable, irreplaceable priesthood: It would be but a few short years when the "vocation crisis" was established with very little improvement except in those quarters of the Church that held on to Tradition and defended it, per John Paul I. The demoralization that had set in was entirely inexplicable to Pope John Paul II, a member of the new sect, philosophically speaking, but who had enough of the true faith still instilled within; he found himself pleading with us to "interpret Vatican II in the light of Tradition." But it was already too late for the most part. Bishops no longer led from Tradition, but became followers themselves of modernity and in all of its worst facets. The scandal of the pederast priests [and bishops] should have not been any surprise because after all, evil --- the rejection of objective truth --- has its own "logical" or foreseeable direction. Like the documented "Stockholm syndrome", the possibility that the hostage may begin to identify with his captor or nemesis, if held confined long enough, the horror of the homosexual nightmare would soon dissipate into outright homophilia. Ironic? Oh yes! But also in keeping with the modern imperative and its irrational dictates. This scourge of 54% of the "Catholic" people accepting "gay marriage", whether they would practice this vice themselves or not, could only be surprising if the statistics were not forthcoming. And this brings us back to our opening statement, " On the eve of the papal conclave in Rome  ..." We must await the will of God as expressed through the Cardinal-electors, many of whom are not Traditionalists, not even with a modicum of minimality. One of the purported favorites is reportedly decidedly anti-Traditional Mass. Too many are suffused with the confusion of all that ails us; there are few if any certain trumpets there and here also. We must hope and pray for a Traditionalist Pontiff with a stiff spine, no lack of fortitude, and above all, holy, humble, and full of the True and Only Faith of the Apostles, unafraid to discipline, not just suggest by example alone, and by this I mean the need to remove all dissidents in episcopal power, not only for the good of the salvation of souls, but those of the hierarchy as well. This Pontiff must do the actual Consecration as precisely requested by Our Lady of Fatima, must restore the Roman Rite to its full, including the restoration of the Traditional Roman Mass to that of the ordinary, relegating the Novus Ordo to the rubble of the past; The natural law must be once again carefully and diligently instilled into the laity until it is internalized with reverence. Contracepting adults must be forbidden the reception of Holy Communion, the practice now at a scandalous, sacrilegious rate, until sincere repentance and a firm purpose of amendment in the Sacrament of Penance. Bishops who do not comply and or instruct the same of their priests must be removed. Better a few good bishops for a while than so many false shepherds. Remember the stern warning of St. John Chrysostom, "The floor of Hell is lined with the skulls of bishops." I close with some citations on the sacerdotal priesthood as it is related to the patron of the parish priest, St. John Vianney: The Devil told St. John Vianney, "If there were three such priests as you, my kingdom [in France] would be ruined." And from the Saint himself: "O, how great is the priest! ... If he realized what he is, he would die." "If we had faith, we would see God hidden in the priest like a light behind glass, like wine mixed with water." "Without the priest, the passion and death of our Lord would be of no avail. It is the priest who continues the work of redemption here on earth ... What use would be a house filled with gold, were there no one to open its door? The priest holds the key to the treasures of Heaven: it is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of His goods ... Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest and they will end by worshiping the beasts there ... The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you." Indeed. Leave the faithful without faithful stewards, priests and prelates is to abandon them or leave them to worship as beasts, to render themselves unclean. The savagery of the world today, modern culture is so bereft of a normal conscience, the latest example being a nurse who refused to come to the aid of dying woman because "she was a drain on the system," that it is as if society in general --- not every single person who as individuals may be Saints --- will to be beasts, no longer true children of God, created in His image for Him alone. We approve of our fellow human beasts out of a false sense of respect and a sham tolerance, so we in effect live as beasts. Too few of our prayers are accepted by Heaven. Actual dogs would stand a better chance, if they could pray ... The rising numbers of those who no longer believe in God or attend church, is just one prominent leading indicator of widespread, endemic apostasy. Let us cease pretending that what is no longer deniable is deniable, let us acknowledge our own defects here, and amend to change, ask for the mercy of God and pray without surcease that He will hear and accept them. Let us pray for the new Pontiff as if our very lives depend on it, because they actually do, in the sense of what the gift of life fully means, to live in according to the will of God that we might enjoy eternity with Him ... "Today you preserve only as much faith as you defend." DOWNLOAD THE WALLPAPER MAIN INDEX  --------------------    E-MAIL www.catholictradition.org/apostasy.htm