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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 01

From the Editor's Desk...

By Michael J. Matt

We Are Fools to Make War on Our Brothers in Arms

As we go to press with this first issue of 2019, it’s pretty obvious that not all is right with the world. Our benighted civilization has finally moved beyond the point of no return. With our course set, our rejection of Christ official, we’ve begun the gruesome process of cannibalizing ourselves to death—quite literally.

Having learned nothing from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center the last time around, the One World Trade Center (yes, you read the right—the "One" World) was illuminated in pink this week to celebrate the signing of a new law legalizing abortion right up until the moment of birth.

For the preborn, in other words, doctors and mothers have become the worst terrorists the city of New York has ever seen.

On the orders of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (a "Catholic"), the Reproductive Health Act also eliminates New York’s recognition of preborn babies over 24 weeks as potential homicide victims and represents the de facto legalization of infanticide in America.

And as New York goes, so goes the world.

Obviously, abortion in 2019 has little to do with women’s reproductive health or the rights of teenagers to

~ See Editor's Desk/ Page 2

Editor's Desk, Continued...

terminate unplanned pregnancies.

Ours has become a society of experts on the prevention of conception, with entire generations of kids having been schooled in the black arts of the most sophisticated contraception methods in the history of the world.

Surgical abortion, in other words, is not nearly as "necessary" as it once was, even for a promiscuous society like ours. And yet our political leaders and social elites are more fanatically committed to its unrestricted access and legalization than ever before.

Why? I believe it is because they are giving themselves over to the demonicm, and bortion is ritual sacrifice, an inverted sacrament whose blasphemous form includes an implicit blood oath to proudly and publicly damn our own souls to hell under the full protection of law.

We prove our loyalty to the evil regime by approving the ritual killing of the unborn. And one can only imagine where this Luciferian depravity will end up.

Now that they’ve legalized infanticide in America, it’s no big deal for the population-controlling sustainable development crowd to hit up Soros for the next big thing: Mandatory birth regulation laws.

America may get her very own twochild policy before we know it. And then the world will live as one – one big Kingdom of Antichrist.

We are begging for Divine chastisement, obviously. And as a result, we are turning on each other like feral animals; motiveless shootings, babies ripped from their mothers’ wombs, children perverted in classrooms from East Coast to West, millions incapable of engaging in civil discourse of any kind in the cacophonous echo chambers of a new Tower of Babel.

A hundred years after Our Lady’s intervention at Fatima, we’ve entered the period of prophesied chastisement, with the instrument of that chastisement to be the human race itself. We stand as our own judge and executioner, putting history on notice that deformed and hideous we are what happen when Christian nations turn against Christ.

Look around you! What is everyone screaming about? Why are even the young and beautiful mutilating their bodies, disfiguring the temples of the Holy Ghost? Why are they exterminating their unborn babies? Why are their public schools churning out entire generations of the post-Christian living dead?

Why?

They say the Devils hate God so completely that even if they had a chance to leave hell and go to heaven, they wouldn’t. This is where we seem to be heading today, here on earth. So in hate with God that we can no longer tolerate the little reminders of His love, even in the eyes of babies. We will close those eyes forever and call it progress, which it is, of course — progress down the road to hell, progress up the facade of that new Tower of Babel—that stupid, twisted and arrogant phallic symbol called the New World Order.

As followers of Jesus Christ, no matter how this ends (or when), we must be ever vigilant for a chance to scramble off the side of this insane Tower and come back down to earth. And it’s quite possible for Catholics who love Christ to form a loose-knit alliance against the builders of the Tower, hellbent as they are on destroying us all and blaspheming Almighty God.

So last week when the Diocese of Manchester, NH declared the St.

Benedict Center to be entirely un-Catholic for its view on "no salvation outside the Church"—ordering the socalled "Feeneyites" to stop using the name "Catholic" and to cease offering the traditional Sacraments—The Remnant went to their public defense, pointing out that the St. Benedict Center was being excoriated as non-Catholic by the same diocese that had no objection to heretic "Father" Jimmy Martin being invited to address Catholics educators assembled at St. Anselm College in Manchester. His topic? Building bridges to the LGBT community.

Nevertheless, some critics of The St.

Benedict Center didn’t appreciate The Remnant’s effort, arguing that we should remain entrenched against the followers of Father Feeney, come hell or high water.

Well, I’m sorry, but the hour is too late (and the situation too desperate) for that. The followers of Father Feeney love Christ, love His Mother, and defend the dogmas of His Church. After the war ends (if the world doesn’t end first), we can all get back to the old debates over Baptism of Blood and Desire.

But in the here and now—when the Christophobes are breaking down the doors of our Church, murdering our unborn and destroying our families—the so-called "Feeneyites" are hardly the problem! And neither, by the way, is Franciscan University of Steubenville, which also came under fire this week for defending the Mother of God, even over the sacrosanct academic freedom.

After an English professor had, for the purposes of critical analysis, recommended a novel to upper classmen that included salacious and even sacrilegious passages where Our Lady is concerned, the President of the University, Father Sean Sheridan, banned the book and demoted the professor: " The Kingdom is so directly pornographic and blasphemous that it has no place on a Catholic university campus" wrote Father Sheridan, and " I would like to apologize to Our Blessed Mother and Her Son and to anyone who has been scandalized by this."

For this, Franciscan incurred the wrath of liberal academia and the public support of The Remnant.

Now, let me be clear: The Remnant has serious disagreements with Franciscan.

But this does not mean we are blind to the fact that they also love Christ and His Church. Our critics seem to be incapable of distinguishing between conservative Novus Ordo Catholics and rabid pro-abort Devil worshipers.

This, my friends, is ludicrous!

Of course, we defended Franciscan!

Why? Because it was the right thing to do. Because here in the gulag, we all need to reach out to those who still believe. Because our wardens and our overseers want to silence and intimidate us all; they recognize no difference between The Remnant and The Wanderer, the Society of St. Pius X and the Fraternity of St. Peter, Christendom College and Franciscan University and anyone else who can still say the Creed with us and mean every word of it.

To them, we are all haters in need of straightjackets, muzzles, cellblocks, solitary confinement and psychological evaluation. Standing together against demons does not signal false compromise.

Precisely because we may face martyrdom, we need to form whatever Catholic alliances are still possible.

And as more former Neo-Catholics come to realize what's really happening, Traditional Catholics should reach out to them and invite them down into our foxholes, trenches and catacombs—the places whence we were ostracized years ago and they are being ostracized now.

With Pope Francis scandalizing the whole Church, and the world becoming more Christophobic every day, many of these are potential brothers in arms. The only way to find out for sure, however, is to be open to charitable engagement.

Traditional Catholic restoration is the only solution, not just for us, but for them and for the whole world. I believe this with all my heart. And if the former neo-Catholics don’t realize this yet, many of them will soon enough.

As the Christophobes become more aggressive against Christ and all who follow Him, the enclaves of Catholic Tradition will become refugee camps (they already are, in fact) where even former adversaries will discover brothers—brothers in Christ at first, brothers in arms soon enough.

Please, God, let it be so. Let the Catholic army muster itself around the Cross and the High Altar once again. Let the open war for the old Faith begin at last. ■

(Those interested in reading The Remnant’s defense of Franciscan University will find it at www.

RemnantNewspaper.com)

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 01

Here Is Why They Hate Him

by Michael J. Matt | Editor

AS THE DEMONS and their Democrat allies beat the war drums against all things true, good and beautiful, let us take a moment to thank God that even today, in 2019—in the wake of so many terrible advances against the Cross, the Family and the Unborn—our children can nevertheless still watch and see the leaders of America stand against most of the rest of the world in defense of what we Christians hold most sacred. [For treatment of the Covington Case, see Page 7] We’ve come to the point now where our President and Vice-President can be vigorously defended just on the basis of who their enemies are and how much they hate God and the unborn. The enemies of God and Cross—the builders of an anti-Christian New World Order— are using all in their power to crush this administration. Why? Because Trump and Pence weren’t supposed to win, and that they did win is due to the faith and heart of what is left of Christian America. They hate Trump because they hate us and they hate us because they hate Christ.

The day may come when we’ll all look back on these as the good old days when an American president was still willing to stand strong for God’s greatest gift to the world—life itself. Trump’s enemies at this point are legion, and they will stop at nothing to destroy him

~ See Trump/Pence/ Page 5

President Trump addresses an estimated 650,000 at The March for Life 2019

Trump, Pence Stand with Pro-Life Americans,

Continued from Page 1 and those who voted for him. Pray for him, pray for his re-election, pray for his conversion. And thank God for this moment of truth in a world full of lies:

Full address of President Donald Trump to the 2019 March for Life.

Today, I am very proud to welcome tens of thousands of families, students, and people of all faiths and backgrounds to our nation’s capital for the 46th annual March For Life.

This is a movement founded on love and grounded in the nobility and dignity of every human life.

When we look into the eyes of a newborn child we see the beauty in the human soul and the Majesty of God’s creation. We know that every life has meaning and that every life is worth protecting. As President, I will always defend the first right of our Declaration of Independence, the right to life.

During my first week in office, I reinstated the Mexico City policy.

We have taken bold action to protect the religious freedoms of doctors, nurses, and charities, like the Little Sisters of the Poor. We issued a new proposal to prohibit Title X taxpayer funding from going to any clinic that performs abortions. We are supporting the loving choice of adoption and foster care, including through the support of faith-based adoption services.

And I am supporting the US Senate’s effort to make permanent the Hyde amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion in spending bills.

Today, I have signed a letter to Congress to make clear that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, I will issue a veto. And, we have the support to uphold those vetoes. Every child is a sacred gift from God.

As this year’s March For Life theme says: "Each person is unique, from day one."

That’s a very important phrase, ‘unique from day one.’ And so true.

I want to thank Americans who traveled all across the country to march for life. And, I especially want to thank so many young people who give us hope for the future.

Together we will work to save lives of unborn children so that they have a chance to live and to love, to thrive and to dream, and to bless our nation and reach their full and glorious potential.

Thank you and God bless you and your family and God bless America. Thank you, President Trump, and may God bless you. ■

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 01

ANATOMY OF A COVERUP:

Francis, Vatican Exposed

By Christopher A. Ferrara | Remnant Columnist

Introduction: the "Abuse of Minors" Ruse

The homosexual priest and bishop scandal has erupted anew, just as I predicted in an article for this journal seventeen years ago, concerning the useless "pedophile summit" in Rome, presided over by none other than ex-Cardinal McCarrick, the serial sexual abuser of seminarians and altar boys Pope Bergoglio was finally forced to discipline after having rehabilitated him in full knowledge of his past. The 2002 Roman junket for well-fed prelates was cunningly designed to avoid the issue of homosexual activity among the clergy and their "consenting adult" partners in sodomy.

With vipers like McCarrick running the show, the participants would never get anywhere near the third rail of rampant homosexuality in the post-Vatican II priesthood. The problem, we were told, was "abuse of minors" by pedophiles— an outright lie designed to conceal the widespread homosexual corruption of Catholic clergy. I attended the event as a reporter for The Remnant, confronting McCarrick personally at a press conference during its worthless proceedings. Herewith my question and McCarrick’s supremely deceptive and hypocritical answer, a carefully worded nod to the continuing ordination of homosexuals so long as they profess not to have been "active":

Ferrara: Nearly every single case has involved an adolescent

~ See Anatomy of Coverup/ Page 6

C. Ferrara/

Continued from Page 1

Anatomy of a Cover-up:

Francis, Vatican Exposed

and does not constitute a true case of pedophilia. So, we’re dealing with the acts of homosexual males who could not control their predilection.

To avoid what would be a perpetual bumper crop of this type of scandal, is the hierarchy in North America going to enforce the Vatican’s [1961] Instruction that homosexual males simply should not be ordained?

McCarrick: I think certainly every seminary in the country has a program that says, "anyone who is an active homosexual should never be admitted." I don’t know of any bishop in the country who would allow someone who had been actively involved in homosexuality to enter a seminary. I don’t think any bishop would allow anyone who was actively engaged in heterosexual [his emphasis] activity right before they went in to enter the seminary.

We believe in celibacy. It’s not the easiest road in today’s crazy world, but we believe in celibacy. We believe that if you practice celibacy with all your heart, with all your love, you can be free to serve God’s people, to serve God in a beautiful way. If someone gets into a seminary, and that question is not asked, that’s a terrible thing. But any seminary that I know, you say, "have you been acting celibately up until now?"

Knowing what we now know about McCarrick’s crimes, which forced even Bergoglio to remove him from the College of Cardinals when the media heat became too intense, consider the Washington Post’s glowing description of his role back then as the "leading spokesman … national leader… [and] most sensible voice" on "the sexual abuse crisis" in the Church, who "understands the depth of the problem" of "abuse of minors"—which he himself had committed!

If only it were a joke. One of the most cunning snakes in a brood of vipers—"the crafty McCarrick" I called him at the time—was put in charge of misdirecting the focus of the meeting to "abuse of minors" by "pedophiles" instead of sodomy between priests and young adult males. As for "consensual" sodomy between priests and their fellow priests or other "consenting adults," that would not even be mentioned, much less addressed. Protection was thus assured for the "gay Mafia" that now afflicts the Church as never before.

Bergoglio Continues the Coverup

Bergoglio has made his own novel contributions to Operation Homo Coverup. While coddling homosexual associates and refusing to identify homosexual infiltration of the hierarchy as the root problem (see below), he condemns instead an ill-defined "clericalism" as the cause of the "abuse of minors," thereby adding another layer of rhetorical misdirection to the phony "abuse of minors" narrative.

In the immediate aftermath of the devastating Grand Jury report lastAugust on widespread homosexual predation in the dioceses of Pennsylvania, much of it covered up by Cardinal Wuerl, Bergoglio issued a "Letter to the People of God" in which he decries "clericalism," not homosexual predation: "Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’to all forms of clericalism." But what about "saying an emphatic no" to all forms of homosexual activity?

The subject finds no mention in the sanctimonious missive, which dares to imply collective guilt of the faithful for the depraved acts of priests and bishops: "I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting [his emphasis], following the Lord’s command. This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says ‘never again’ to every form of abuse." It is not our consciences which need awakening, nor is it we who are obliged to do penance for the homosexual molestation of boys by sexual perverts who should never have been ordained to the priesthood and should have been laicized the moment their perversion came to light.

Bergoglio cannot even bring himself to state clearly that the "abuse" in question involves the acts of homosexuals. Notice how the depraved acts of homosexual perpetrators are rhetorically elided into " every form of abuse" and " all forms of clericalism."

According to Bergoglio, the homosexual molestation of boys reflects, not sexual depravity as such, but rather "a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred." A "peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority" is certainly a peculiar way to describe homosexual priests and bishops molesting boys.

As Life Site News points out, Bergoglio does not even "recognize the role bishops have played in the scandal. In fact, the word ‘bishop’ does not appear once in the entire letter." The same grand jury report that prompted the "Letter to the People of God" revealed that Wuerl, whose name appears 206 times in the report, had been instrumental in covering up the sex crimes of homosexual priests when he was Bishop of Pittsburgh. As LifeSite News summarizes: "[W]hile he corresponded with the Vatican concerning the liability these priests created for the Church, he kept their actions concealed from parishioners."

Wuerl also approved payments to "a known molester of underage boys" who demanded money in exchange for information on his fellow priests engaged in the same activity.

Wuerl had previously returned the same priest to ministry after he threatened to sue over the allegations against him. The same priest, who was "murdered in Cuba where he lived with his boyfriend, was ultimately found to be involved in producing child pornography based on religious imagery on Church property, and to be part of a group of priests who ‘used whips, violence and sadism in raping their victims.’" Wuerl has also demonstrably lied about his longstanding knowledge of ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s homosexual predation. When his lies were exposed, he was forced to issue increasingly hedged, evidently lawyer-drafted, "clarifications," including that he "forgot" what he knew about McCarrick. He was finally forced to resign as Archbishop of Washington two months after the grand jury report was made public. But the "resignation" was another Bergoglian ruse. Bergoglio’s letter accepting Wuerl’s faux resignation last October portrays him as the heroic victim of the "father of lies" and declares that he had "sufficient elements to ‘justify’your actions" and had not covered up any crimes but merely "commit[ed] some mistakes."

Yet, said Bergoglio, "your nobility has led you not to choose this way of defense."

The same letter appoints the noble Wuerl as Apostolic Administrator of the diocese— meaning, preposterously enough, that he replaces himself ad interim, thereby retaining all the authority he only pretended to relinquish. Wuerl will no doubt also handpick his own successor.

A Fatal Blow to the "Humble" Reformer Narrative Then there is the Gustavo Zanchetta affair, which exploded only this month.

Even Philip Lawler has described it as "a fatal blow to the Pope’s reputation as a reformer." Zanchetta, a friend and "spiritual son" of Bergoglio, who was his confessor, held the title of executive undersecretary of the Argentine bishops’ conference under Bergoglio as its head. Bergoglio made him bishop of the remote Argentine diocese of Orán, one of his earliest episcopal appointments. Four years later Zanchetta suddenly resigned in the midst of allegations of financial impropriety and the sexual harassment of seminarians, only to receive from Bergoglio, in December 2017, a Vatican sinecure as "assessor" of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which handles the Vatican’s real estate and investments.

Bergoglio created the position just for Zanchetta, ASPA never having had an "assessor" before, as John Allen notes. A most curious appointment for someone already in flight from allegations of financial misfeasance.

Lawler rightly wondered whether Bergoglio had ignored the sexual molestation charges against Zanchetta "just as, a few years earlier, he had dismissed charges against the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros; just as, according to Archbishop Vigano, he ignored complaints about then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick." That concern was well-founded. On January 20, as this article was about to be posted, Associated Press published an exclusive report based on an interview with the former vicar general for the Diocese of Orán, Father Juan Jose Manzano, who is now a parish priest. Manzano revealed that Francis had summoned Zanchetta to the Vatican in 2015 and again in July of 2017, months before the appointment to ASPA, to answer to allegations that he "had taken naked selfies, exhibited ‘obscene’behavior and had been accused of misconduct with seminarians…" Manzano, who had forwarded Zenchetta’s nude selfies to the Vatican in 2015, told AP that he was only "one of the three current and former diocesan officials who made a second complaint to the Vatican’s embassy in Buenos Aires in May or June of 2017 ‘when the situation was much more serious, not just because there had been a question about sexual abuses, but because the diocese was increasingly heading into the abyss.’" According to Manzano, Zanchetta told Bergoglio when summoned to Rome in 2015 that "his cellphone had been hacked, and that there were people who were out to damage the image of the pope." As AP further reports, in May or June 2017, Manzano, the seminary rector and another priest "presented their concerns to the No. 2 in the Buenos Aires nunciature, Monsignor Vincenzo Turturro" after which "the pope summoned Zanchetta again in July 2017.

Returning home, Zanchetta announced his resignation in a July 29 statement saying

Continued on Page 8

Then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, key spokesman for bishops at the summit meeting with JPII on the sex abuse crisis unfolding in the U.S., faces the press at the Vatican on April 24, 2002. The Remnant's Chirstopher Ferrara was there to ask McCarrick the $64,000 question.

(Reuters photo)

Anatomy of a Cover-up

C. Ferrara/ Continued from Page 6

he needed immediate treatment for a health problem." A few months later, Bergoglio created the Vatican sinecure for his friend at ASPA.

When the allegations of Zanchetta’s sexual misconduct first exploded into the world media at the beginning of January, the Vatican Press Office, through its interim spokesman Alessandro Gisotti (replacing the sacked Greg Burke) gave a statement to AP denying that Bergoglio had known anything of the allegations before Zanchetta’s appointment to ASPA in December of 2017. In the wake of the justpublished AP report, however, the Vatican has had to fall back on Manzano’s hairsplitting distinction between "a report about alleged sexual abuse [from Manzano and others] and a formal complaint."

As Lawler had rightly concluded nine days before this new evidence surfaced:

The Zanchetta case demonstrates that Pope Francis continues to protect his friends and allies, regardless of his professed commitment to accountability. This one case illustrates how, since Francis was elected, the Vatican has actually moved backward [his emphasis] on two crucial fronts: the fight against sexual abuse and the quest for financial transparency. In this pontificate, the cause of reform is dead, unless the reform begins with the Pontiff himself.

Note well: Even a commentator who had never previously been inclined to level strong criticism of any Pope now declares that the reform of the Church under Bergoglio is impossible unless it begins "with the Pontiff himself." Lawler’s piece demonstrates that there is scarcely a responsible Catholic commentator left who has not had quite enough of Bergoglio’s double-talk and crooked maneuvers.

The Bergoglian double-talk now reportedly includes some carefully timed statements in an upcoming book-interview wherein he suddenly recognizes that homosexuality is a problem in the Church after all and that homosexuals should not be admitted to seminary. This, Life Site rightly observes, fits Bergoglio’s "established… pattern of saying one controversial thing which deflects attention from another controversial matter." The same would be true concerning reports of statements Bergoglio made behind closed doors to the Italian bishops last May to the effect that that "it is better" that homosexuals not be admitted to seminary if there is "the slightest doubt" about their fitness.

There will never, of course, be any official and binding declaration from Bergoglio to the universal Church strictly banning those afflicted by the homosexual disorder from admission to seminaries or barring their path to ordination should they succeed in being admitted. On this issue, as with so many others, Bergoglio will say one thing while he intends to do quite the opposite— in this case, nothing. Nothing, that is, except to protect friends and allies who engage in or cover up homosexual activity. ■ To be continued next issue with:

Worse than the Borgias?

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 01

Toxic Femininity

by Hilary White | Remnant Columnist

When can we start talking about "toxic femininity"?

The other day, before we all got distracted by that absurdist bit of manufactured political theatre in DC, apparently the Gillette company produced an advert that more or less insulted their entire customer base. (Well DONE, morons!) I didn’t see it, but it’s not hard to guess. It was probably something like this: "7 Obsolete ‘Manly’ Skills and What to Replace Them With" Click it if you think you must, but in brief it says, "If you are manly, get rid of that toxic notion and become a woman." If you’re handy about the house, fixing things, that’s toxic: learn to decorate.

If you’re willing to take a punch and get hurt defending your family, that’s toxic; learn to mediate, discuss and dialogue. If you’re a hunter and like the independence and enjoy being outdoors and feel pride when you kill an animal that will provide food for yourself or others, that’s toxic; learn to cook (learn

~ See Toxic Femininity/ Page 5

Toxic Femininity

H. White/ Continued from Page 1

to cook what, exactly isn’t mentioned.

Presumably something involving soy).

If you can fix and maintain your own car, that’s toxic; learn to write computer code. Learn, in other words, that as a man you are worse than useless, you are evil, destructive, "toxic." Learn that no one wants a husband, a father or a protector because feminism has destroyed marriage and Modernity and the state provides us with everything.

The message is clear: all the things that men were good for before the Enlightened and Wonderful Era of Now are useless, superfluous and even dangerous.

Men are bad and need to become women.

I’ve fought feminism all my life, even before I knew what it was, even while being aware that I couldn’t help being influenced by it. From my earliest memories of my parents’ divorce, I knew something terrible was happening, something that HAD to be opposed, a matter of life and death.

Feminism, with its harlot-offspring the Sexual Revolution, is a cultural poison, an aerosolised moral and intellectual toxin introduced into the water system that gets soaked up by every blade of grass and distributed with every drop of rain. We breathe it in, we eat and drink it every day. It is a mutagen, a virus that re-writes the DNA of the culture and the psychology of the individuals in it. It turns intelligent people into whimpering, lifelong professional victims, destroying minds and souls. It created institutionalised divorce, destroying marriage as a societal foundation, leaving us standing on sand. It turned the few children who still had two parents into effective orphans, raising themselves and warning them never to marry, inoculating them forever against family life, against trust. Then it set about turning children first into commodities and now into prey. It has turned fathers into perpetual boys and mothers into assassins.

With regard to men, it’s finally telling them that they just have no place anymore as men.

It is presenting them with a choice: become women (that is, become willingly and eagerly subservient to the State) or go away. The Sexual Revolution continues its gruesome mutations, and now that we’ve moved past the "do anything you want with your body parts with anyone you want" stage, we’ve got the "trans" movement that proposes there is no such thing as natural masculinity, as an in-built normal trait that has a specific function in human ecology. This has led to a passel of evils, but perhaps one of the worst was to tell men that they are useless.

Superfluous. As the vile article linked above put it, "obsolete."

But like everything else Feminism and the Sexual Revolution - that for brevity’s sake I will now call the New Order - proposes, it is a lie. Women do in fact need men, and vice versa. The irony of the New Order is that women and children need protection from the state, from the ravages of the New Order itself. They need to be protected from the increasingly deadly and chaotic environment the New Order has created (as we saw this weekend with an American Catholic family now being threatened by a screaming mob of lunatics).

The New Order has told women that they can be "just as good as men" and can "do what men do."

But the flip side of that is isolation, the atomisation of a society into an everyone-forthemselves mob. If women don’t need men, either for the traditional things like protection and provision or for the modern things like sexual and emotional gratification, then they will do it on their own -- as the millions raised by single mothers since the 70s will attest. Men, with considerable justification, hear the message, shrug and use their manly skills to amuse and provide for themselves. Women are left not only to be both mother and father to their children, but wife and husband to themselves.

What is it all really about? Isolation. First they came for the "extended family" by destroying the land-based local economies that sustained families and small communities, forcing everyone into cities, breaking up family ties, leaving us in the 20th century with only the aptly named "nuclear family" isolated in their suburban pre-fabs. But the New Order has moved on, and now we’ve got the Feminist/Sexual Revolution eating eagerly away even at that.

What has it all accomplished?

Atomisation. Women are angry at and isolated from men, who are now enemies, and from each other by a sudden loss of sisterhood - no sisterhood can survive now that all women are competing with each other in a feral marketplace of education and work opportunities. Men are angry at their fathers for abandonment, angry at their single mothers for failing to provide them with fathers, angry at and isolated from wives who no longer need them to be men, husbands and fathers; isolated from children who are being raised by the state school, the state-sponsored media, the device screens and a culture that shuts men, husbands and fathers out of meaningful purpose within the family. Children, of course, are orpahned, isolated from each other because most of them no longer have siblings, and from their parents who have been rendered functional narcissists by the psychological warfare the culture visits on them all.

The result is the atomisation. This has been the goal looked for by the revolutionaries, the people who think the State must be all-in-all, the authors of the whole business. You can’t create a materialist utopia without first completely destroying the civilisation you mean to replace.

Who, specifically are these people? Who started it? It’s not that hard to discover, once you know where to look.

Guys, the chaos, the misery, the universal warfare, the reduction of our entire civilisation into the Hobbesian nightmare of the screaming Twitter Mob, is not a bug.

It’s a feature. ■

The female mantis cannibalizes her mate.

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 03

The Remnant Speaks

Letters to the Editor: The Remnant Speaks P.O. Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 55025 ~ Editor@RemnantNewspaper.com

Remnant in Slovenia

Dear Mr. Michael Matt! Merry Christmas and Happy New year. I just received two badges from Remnant League of the Sacred Heart and I thank you deeply from the bottom of my heart.

So now we are connected more. In my country Slovenia the situation is like everywhere. It's getting worse every day. Even our Catholic newspapers are becoming mainstream. So for me and my friends The Remnant Newspaper and some other portals (Lifesite, Lo straniero...), are very important. Our circle is getting bigger every day. But there is a war against us. Like in USA.

But in the name of Jesus we will live and fight till the end of our lives. Like you and your friends. Let us stay closer in prayer and connected in our lives. Wish you all the best and a big bless from Slovenia. Sincerely, Zoran Anton More

Keep the Old Faith in 2019

Editor, The Remnant: Looking forward to another year of The Remnant both on line and in newsprint. The work you do is much appreciated. A former bishop of Lancaster here in England used to say to his priest as he departed after a visit - "Remember, Father, keep the faith - I mean the old faith". That was many years ago, one wonders what would be his take on things happening in the Church today. Perhaps he was aware that things were on the slide then. Anyway, here’s to another twelve months of fighting for the ‘old faith’. In Christo Rege, Brian Burns

A Tribute to Michael Davies--the best friend I ever had Editor, The Remnant: Every issue is good, but the 12/31/18 edition is outstanding for several reasons. I’ll name just a couple.

Chris Ferrara’s tribute to the poor black man who virtually died in his arms is touching. Shows he has a heart--as well as a shrewd lawyer’s mind.

And quoting Michael Davies was an inspired thought. I remember I was at the conference in Minneapolis where he spoke. Much earlier I saw him, with wife and daughter, when they came to Atlanta, where I was stationed (in my SSPX days). I took them to the home of a family friend, where they had hospitality and saw with my own eyes his writing for The Remnant.

Astonishing: he just batted out an article on a manual typewriter and sent it off (no corrections, revisions, hardly any proofreading) in the mail. And of course, it was brilliant; no wonder he wrote so well for 30 years.

I was at his last appearance (in NJ); he got a standing ovation both before & after his talk. He had good luck with St. Anthony! My history with the good saint is mixed. Hastily, with prayers for you and your apostolate. In the Faith, Fr. P. Stark

Another Tribute to Davies

Editor, The Remnant: I am writing to report an intriguing personal experience linked to your reprint of Michael Davies’ article on St Anthony in your 31 December issue.

A friend and I meet regularly for lunch once a month. In our last meeting my friend’s wife raised the topic of invoking St Anthony for help in finding lost items. I then recalled the above article and recounted to them what I could remember of the details, promising to try and track down the original. In this, however, I was totally unsuccessful despite much searching of my own files and The Remnant’s on-line archives.

Which brings me to today when we were due to meet again for lunch but sadly without the article to show them.

To my utter amazement, when I went to retrieve my mail I found your latest issue complete with the Davies 2002 article reprinted inside!

Was this just an interesting coincidence?

To quote the author himself – you can "draw your own conclusion"!

David Ollerenshaw Australia

Tim Cullen inspires young reader

Editor, The Remnant: As a new subscriber to the Remnant, I confess I do not recall if I have read much by Timothy J. Cullen. Nonetheless, as a 27-year-old convert to the authentic Catholic faith, and more so as someone who writes about the Church, I found his "retirement speech" inspiring.

I am tired of the way that the mainstream Church hierarchy speaks to those of my generation. I am tired of being given a lukewarm, pale, and tasteless version of the truth, lest I collapse in my apparent fragility beneath the weight of the faith (and liturgy!) that used to turn simple people like me into Saints. These fathers of mine give me stones as I cry for bread.

Fortunately, my Father in Heaven has not left me hungry, and through those stalwart men such as Mr. Cullen and publications such as The Remnant, He has worked a great miracle: keeping His Church and her glorious traditions alive to feed me in these troubled times. For now, I stand in the in-between place, ever in need of the guidance of those who will be called to their eternal reward before I’m ready to let them go. But let them go I will, because I must. I pray to be worthy of fighting the battle for which I know I have been called, knowing that when the time comes, I may end up on the front lines, passing on to others what you giants have passed on to me. I stand on your shoulders, Mr. Cullen. I kneel for your blessing. Ave Christus Rex, Stefanie Nicholas

Don't Mess with Mom!

Editor, The Remnant: You and your Remnant Foundation are in the forefront of keeping well-meaning traditional Catholics from cannibalizing each other. Your well organized Catholic Identity Conferences are an effective tool. Don’t back down! (Our Kids used to say, "Don’t mess with Mom). At the age of 80, I will give you that advice, also.

May St. Michael the Archangel help you keep your sword sharp! Prayers, Audrey

Seeking Pilgrimage Sponsors

Dear Sponsor: My name is Madeline Eastman, and I am seventeen years old. I am a homeschooled junior, the eldest of a busy family of nine children. I live in Pennsylvania and attend St. Stephen of Hungary FSSP parish in Allentown. My family and I have long loved the Tridentine Mass for its immense beauty and reverence; and three years ago we were blessed to move close to a Fraternity parish.

I found out about the Chartres Pilgrimage from Father Gregory Pendergraft, FSSP, who is the pastor of St. Stephen's, and also the Remnant Tours chaplain. I was very interested!

I learned of the helpful opportunity for sponsorship when some of my friends went to Chartres last year. For two years now I have been privileged to walk the Auriesville Pilgrimage for Restoration, and it taught me how amazing and spiritually fruitful a pilgrimage can be. Though quite difficult, it is one of the most worthwhile things I have ever done. I was heartened to be with so many people publicly proclaiming our beautiful Faith! The pilgrimage to Chartres Cathedral is so historic and on a grand scale. To walk it and see the veil of Our Lady would be an immense grace! Very exciting too is the opportunity of meeting other good and like-minded Catholics from all over the world.

On the pilgrimage I wish to pray about my vocation, for various friends and family, for sinners, and especially for those fallen away or who do not know the Faith. In addition I wish to show my gratitude by praying hard for my sponsors and their intentions!

I also greatly wish to see Europe’s great cathedrals, and to see the places where so much in history took place. I was thrilled when I heard about the places the Remnant group will go. Especially

Continued on Page 4

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 03

Inside this issue

January 31, 2018

Reprints of every article are available for $3.00 for 2 copies. Please check the author’s name and send payment to:

The Remnant Reprint Service

P.O. Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 55025

◆ ◆M. Matt Editor's Desk ( P. 1)

◆ ◆M. Matt Pence/Trump at March for Life (P. 1)

◆ ◆ C. Ferrara Anatomy of a Coverup (P. 1)

◆ ◆H. White Toxic Femininity (P. 1)

◆ ◆Letters to Editor (P. 3)

◆ ◆ J. Morgan MissionAccomplished (P. 7)

◆ ◆A. Calderone City of Man/God (P. 8)

◆ ◆T. Mullins Social Media Brag ( P. 10)

◆ ◆M. Matt Ecclesia Dei/SSPX (P. 12)

◆ ◆C. Wilson Lost Sheep (P. 13)

◆ ◆Lives of the Saints St. Raymond (P. 14)

◆ ◆Fr. Celatus The Last Word (P. 15)

Send Reprints To:

Name................................................... Address............................................... City/State............................................

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 04

Letters to the Editor

Continued...

interesting is the stop in Budapest, where St. Stephen of Hungary, our parish patron, is buried! Another interesting coincidence (or more likely Providence) is the strong emphasis on Blessed Emperor Karl; my family used to attend St. Mary’s in Washington D.C., which hosts the Blessed Karl Mass every year.

From various jobs I have saved up to pay my registration. I would be immensely grateful for any donations, and will pray for all my sponsors both spiritual and material.

Thank you so much for your consideration, and may God reward you richly! Sincerely, Madeline Eastman Dear Remnant Readers: My name is Jean-Michel Rusangiza. I am a 22-yearold senior from Franciscan University of Steubenville where I study Computer Science. I humbly write this letter in hopes that I can receive sponsorship for the 2019 Chartres Pilgrimage. I began attending the Traditional Latin Mass at St. Peter Catholic Church in only the last year when my friends asked me to go and it instantly attracted me by its tradition and beauty. The use of the Latin language and being in utter silence alone has drawn me closer to Christ. My prayer life and my desire to dive deeper into studying Catholic dogma and doctrine has increased ever since attending. I also began attending the Tridentine Mass at my home parish in Gainesville, VA.

As a result of studying more of the Catholic faith, it opened my eyes to see the errors of Vatican II and its results.

Young people are no longer exposed to the Traditional Latin Mass much, just the plainer, protestant looking Novus Ordo mass. They are not being taught in a way that should allow them to radically change their lives, that the Catholic faith is the only true faith, the only true religion and that every other religion is false. They are being taught that it doesn’t matter what religion you are, as long as you’re a nice person. In order for people witness the truth of the faith, we need to get back to its roots, back to tradition.

I would love to go to the Chartres Pilgrimage because it would give me an experience to step away from the world for the moment and be able to meet other Traditional Catholics from around the world to see how the Church should be at its roots. It will allow me grow more in humility and piety. It would refresh me to continue the fight in this war as a part of the Church Militant. And this would give me a chance after graduating from college to discern God’s will for the next step in my life.

Jean-Michel Rusangiza Dear Remnant Readers: My name is Bryan Zhu. I originally came from China and I am a recent convert into the Catholic faith. I came over to United States about 6 years ago with high school and higher education in mind. It was on my search for true happiness that I discovered the relational reality and joy of Christianity. With the help of my host family I converted and became a Presbyterian Protestant. I thought this would be the end of my spiritual journey until I start to pay more attention to the monthly Mass that my Catholic high school celebrated with the attendance of the whole student body. I felt an immense peace from the Mass that my church’s Sunday service could never promise. I became more and more interested in Catholic teachings and doctrines. With the help of my junior year Theology teacher, I was consumed with the vast knowledge of the Catholic church.

It was the historicity that struck me the most since no other denominations can claim its founder to be Christ except Catholic Church. The Church’s teaching on contraception also enlightened my road to conversion. After learning how each protestant denomination fell to the lie of modernism and the evil of contraception, the long-standing teaching of the Church against them gave me confidence that the Catholic Church is the true Church of Christ. I started to pray the rosary in private and asked for the Holy Spirit to confirm my thoughts and speculations. Finally, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, our Lady talked to me in my heart to call me home. With tearful eyes, I answered the maternal love with all my faith and courage and eventually was confirmed and entered the church on Easter Sunday of 2018.

Now as a Catholic on fire with love for my Faith, I am enrolled at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, one of the best Catholic liberal art colleges in the United States. I love the classical education that the college offers and enjoy several extra curricular activities such as rugby, music theatre, men’s group and swing dancing. This Chartres pilgrimage will greatly strengthen my new-born Catholic faith and give me a global perspective of the Catholic Church; truly experience the catholicity of the mother Church and the glory of Christendom. I not only will continue the fire of faith within that this pilgrimage will strengthen, but also emits the light that it produces to the world by being a life-long witness of Christ. Thank you for reading my story and God bless. God Bless, Bryan (Liyun Zhu) Dear Remnant Readers: My name is Sean Homcy and I am a 20-yearold Junior at Franciscan University of Steubenville. While at home in Cleveland, Ohio, I am blessed to be able to attend the Latin Mass at more than one nearby parish, though I was not exposed to the Extraordinary Form until about six years ago. That discovery drastically changed my life as I began to know the rich traditions of the Church and the depth of God’s revelation in His Holy Bride. It also led to an awareness of my vocation to the priesthood which I have been seriously discerning for the past few years.

I first heard about the Chartres Pilgrimage over the summer and I yearned to experience the camaraderie and spiritual benefits of this tradition, though I did not think that I would be given the opportunity to do so. That changed, however, when I came back to school this past semester and learned, from several others who have gone or who intend to go, about the possibility of sponsorship. Attending the Catholic Identity Conference this past November also served to strengthen my desire as I met so many fervently devoted and traditionally minded men and women.

Going on this pilgrimage would be an incredible opportunity to give glory to God, to pray for His people, and to grow in holiness so that I may know His will and obtain the strength with which to follow it for the sake of the Church. I am unable to fund the trip by myself. Therefore I humbly rely on your generosity in the hope that I may be able to partake in this incredible experience.

Be assured that I will most certainly pray for the intentions of any sponsors not just on the pilgrimage, but thereafter.

Thank you for your consideration and may God continue to bless you. Yours In Christ, Sean Homcy Dear Remnant Readers: Pax Christi.

My name is Megan McBryde, and I’m currently a senior in high school. I attend the FSSP parish, Mater Dei, in Irving, TX, and am also enrolled at the homeschool co-op there. I’m the second oldest of seven and a cradle Catholic.

I’m seriously discerning the religious life, and while I’m pretty certain I have a vocation, I would like to make this pilgrimage to pray for the knowledge of God’s will and the strength to follow it. I’ve been active-ly discerning since I was sixteen and have since then visited the Benedictines of Mary and the Labor Mariae Sisters, both traditional Latin orders.

Both times I found a sense of peace and true happiness I know I won’t find in this material world. Unfortunately there are so many vocations lost in the world, and so, while I pray for my own vocation, I will also be praying for more vocations to both the priesthood and reli-gious life.

My parents were blessed to go on the Chartres Pilgrimage years ago and expressed the graces and spiritual benefit they both received on this journey. It would be such a blessing to be able to attend and receive these graces God has waiting to offer those who make this journey for Him. As I am one of seven, my family can’t cover the full cost of this trip, but between now and then I believe I’ll be able to save up as much as $500. I would greatly appreciate any prayers and sponsorship and carry with me the prayer intentions of my sponsors and anyone who prayed to make my presence in this beautiful pilgrimage possible. God bless and Mary keep you. In the Heart of Mary, Megan McBryde Dear Remnant Readers: My name is Thomas Hess Jr. and I am twenty years old. I have been attending Christendom College for two years, and currently am taking a year off from school to discern what I may be called to do. I attend the Latin Mass at St. Stephen of Hungary Parish in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Fr. Pendergraft is my pastor.

After attending a three day Pilgrimage in Auriesville, New York, which was spiritually edifying, I am determined to seek out another chance to challenge myself and grow in my faith as I continue this period of discernment.

I know people who have experienced this wonderful Chartres pilgrimage and how it had an impact on their lives and spiritual growth. I have been so inspired by the stories of the pilgrims who persevered through the hardships of the pilgrimage and were met with such a renewal of faith. In our dark world today, it is easy to go out like a light in a storm. To be surrounded by so many faithful Catholics marching for Christ is precisely what we need in order to instill a sense of fervor, as well as remind ourselves what our purpose is on earth as the Church militant. It would be a privilege to be given this opportunity to be a part of this pilgrim-age and any contribution I would be truly grateful for. I will pray for you and your intentions.

In Christ, Tommy Hess

Waiting for Sponsors:

Patrick Seeley...FULLY SPONSORED Devan Brandalick….FULLY SPONSORED David Kirk……. FULLY SPONSORED Joseph Meyers… FULLY SPONSORED Bridgette Mitchel…FULLY SPONSORED Megan McBryde… $0 thus far Madeline Eastman..$400 thus far Jean-Michel Rusangiza…$0 thus far Thomas Hess…$0 thus far Bryan Zhu……$0 thus far Sean Homcy…$0 thus far Brendan Vance…$0 thus far Please send your tax-deductible donations to:

Remnant Tours Youth Fund

PO Box 1117 Forest Lake, MN 55025

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 07

Mission Accomplished

by Jason Morgan | Remnant Columnist By now, everyone in America and half the people on the planet have surely heard about the group of boys from Covington High School. The latest random target of the swarm of seething stalkers and mindless drones that Facebook and Twitter like to call an "online community," the students who were accosted on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by a lying Indian (Elizabeth Warren’s prom date?) and a phalanx of "Black Hebrew Israelites" yelling some of the vilest racial bile this side of the Women’s March are now a part of the growing diorama of our new American life: if you are a Christian or an Orthodox Jew, you are going to get hate-scrubbed on social media. Get used to it.

True to form—and having learned nothing from being punked just days before by a BuzzFeed story so patently false that only Dan Rather in his heyday could have come close to equaling it— the gladiator-media hacks ran with the "story" of—wait for it—a teenager smiling in our nation’s capital.

Again and again and again, the regurgatory press organs churned out the meme of the flush-faced kid and the longhaired old guy, apparently trying to recreate a sitcom version of Wounded Knee for a generation of "news" consumers incapable of sustaining thought for longer than 240 characters. It must have been a slow day on the Russiamania front.

But what was this one-act play in the Theater of the Absurd really all about?

What was the point? Did we really all just spend a week shouting about such nonsense?

Let me tell you about an old trick from my hometown of New Orleans.

When all the tourists stop to watch a street performer in the French Quarter, why, that’s the perfect time for "local entrepreneurs" to mingle amongst the crowd and pick everyone’s pocket.

"Look at the guy juggling torches, honey! Wait a minute… Where’s my wallet?"

Indeed, America, we have all been suckered again. The joke is on us, just as so many times before. The story was not the story, it was the distraction. There was something very important going on last week that the media didn’t want you to see. And by focusing on a non-story about a high schooler and a reject from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, we all missed the action right out.

What was the story? Hundreds of thousands of young people—including the kids in the infamous video—were in Washington calling for an end to the genocide of the unborn. (Like the last genocide, against the Native Americans, this one is also sponsored by the federal government.) People of conscience— many of them Christian and Jewish— had gathered in Washington, DC, as they do every year, to demand that the killing of the innocents be stopped. By pushing the doctored footage of the Lincoln Memorial Drum-Off, the mainstream media did in spades what it does every other year: try to convince you that the March for Life doesn’t really exist.

This year you really have to hand it to them. Mission accomplished. They did it. The media succeeded in distracting tens of millions of us from thinking about the horrors that compel hundreds of thousands to march in the freezing cold—heckled by Satanists, feminists, and other members of Catholic college faculties—to testify to the dignity of human life.

What made this year special, though? Why did the media have to pull out all the stops to get us to look the other way? Why the incessant, tranceinducing repetition of the same four minutes of fake news?

The answer is that abortion, bad enough already, just got even worse.

In anticipation of the grim anniversary of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the New York State Senate voted on January 22, 2019, to eliminate every single restriction on abortion throughout the Empire State.

Doctors and non-doctors can now kill a gestating New Yorker at any point during pregnancy to the moment of natural birth.

It is a free-for-all against the unborn.

This is what the media did not want you to see. Twitter and Facebook gladiatorwork may be largely rhetorical—only sporadically do the yahoos who use social media to threaten violence (like, for instance, Saturday Night Live writer Sarah Beattie, who is still employed by NBC) actually put their depraved scribbling into practice. But the swordplay in the abortuaries is very, very real. Children are vivisected, their mothers are often left with lacerated uteruses or septicemia or worse, and the human remains, instead of being respectfully buried, are sold to medical researchers like so many pieces of scrap metal.

This is why you spent the past week watching a non-story on playback loop.

The media blackout was not for lack of publicity by the New York establishment, of course. The proponents of the New York Senate bill were doing everything in their power to get their "achievement" on the evening news. And no one was more vocal in his praise for the Senate’s handiwork than Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York’s "Catholic" chief executive.

In this sickening irony we come to the second big "mission accomplished" of the bait-and-switch media coup.

For, when the story broke about the conscientious Kentucky high schoolers on pilgrimage to the March for Life in DC, no fewer than four bishops, including their own, rushed to condemn them. No attempt was made to discover the truth. The bishops—not least among them Archbishop Lori, spiritual leader of the Knights of Columbus— immediately rushed to judgment and cast the boys out into darkness amid the glinting eyes of the circling jackals. The boys who were standing up for life got thrown under the bus by their bishops.

So, the media brouhaha accomplished the very important task of revealing the neo-Catholic establishment for what it really is: a secularist organization which vastly prefers the praise of its liberal overlords to the protection of the faithful. The "Catholic" leadership in the US is not Catholic at all. It is just secularist, like everyone else. The last good American bishop is cold in the ground now, His Excellency Robert Morlino of Madison having gone to his reward late last year. Whoever is left is just a husk, a moral coward who would rather be lauded by the New York Times than stoned in the public square sheltering one of the sheep. We can see it all too plainly now if we somehow couldn’t before. Like Francis and the Chinese Catholics, we are the objects of our shepherds’ contempt. It’s time for every Catholic in the country to wake up and realize this fact, because it will only get truer from here out.

These are the media’s two big wins of this week. They kept us from discussing the nightmare of forty-six years of clinical holocaust. And they showed us that those of us who are in the trenches for human dignity are fighting even though all of our generals have gone over to the enemy camp. ■

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Cardinal Dolan

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 08

The CITY OF MAN

vs.

The CITY OF GOD

by Adrian Calderone | Remnant Columnist

This is a meditation on the city, that of man and that of God. I offer some reflections on the history, sociology and spiritual aspects of the city.

Civilization is defined by the existence of cities. Culture can exist apart from the city but civilization means a society with cities. The origin of cities is recorded in Genesis 4:17. Cain built the first city and named it after his son Enoch. Cain inaugurated a city dedicated to a new world apart from Eden. Adam and Eve remained in a pastoral world relying upon God. But Cain, having murdered his brother Abel, was now estranged from God. Where was he to find security apart from God except in the world of men?

God’s grace does not factor into the spirit of Cain. He wants to be self sufficient.

He wants to provide his own protection.

The city is a center of spiritual power and its inhabitants cannot help but be affected by it. In Plato’s Republic Socrates explains that the State arises out of the needs of mankind. No one person is completely self-sufficient. Many people are needed, with a division of labor to provide for the basic needs of food, clothing, housing and commerce.

What Socrates first describes is a city which provides just the basic needs: a subsistence state. His interlocutor, Glaucon, denigrates this primitive city as a city of pigs. He wants a city of luxuries and riches. But this complicates matters, for the desire to satisfy one’s desires beyond one’s needs requires expansion which brings the city into conflict with other cities. The city then requires an army. Warfare is conducted by cities, not pastoral people. The origin of wars, said Socrates, comes from the same desires that lead to the corruption of cities and their inhabitants. Warfare spurs technology. The great and terrible inventions of man are made by and for a society with cities.

One of the features of a city is the wall which surrounds it. The wall is meant to define an area with a boundary to control the entry of people. Since the city engages in warfare, the wall serves the function of defense. The walls of Troy were impassible to the Mycenaean Greeks who attacked Troy in the Trojan War. It was only by subterfuge that the Greeks could enter the front gate opened to them by the deceived Trojans.

According to Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, the ancient cities of Greece and Rome were founded on the cult of ancestor worship. A priesthood officiated at the household worship of the domestic hearth where the spirits of the family’s ancestors resided. The ancestral spirits were regarded as gods who protected the family. In addition to the gods of the family hearth the citizens of the city worshiped city gods. Religion was at the heart of society.

The priesthood of the Romans went back as far as Aeneas and Romulus.

The founding of a city was a religious act. Romulus and Remus, brothers and descendants of Aeneas had a conflict over where their city was to be founded. Romulus had traced a furrow to demarcate the location of the city wall which surrounded the sacred hearth, the dwelling place of the ancestral gods.

Thus, the furrow traced by Romulus was the mark of sacred space. No stranger had the right to cross over it. Remus, to spite his brother, leapt over the furrow. A fight ensued in which Remus was killed.

But the fight was not about a slight given to Romulus by the act of leaping over a ditch. The ditch marked sacred space and in the eyes of Romulus the act of Remus constituted a sacrilege. It was for this that Remus was killed.

Whatever piety we might think to ascribe to the ancient Romans for their devotion to their ancestors, it was not a matter of morality in our sense of the word. The Romans did not pray for those outside of their family. Outsiders were strangers to them. The Romans also had gods not taken from human souls of ancestors.

These were gods of physical nature and, unlike the traditional worship of ancestral spirits, religious worship of these city gods developed through the ages. Such gods as those, for example, taken from the Greeks, were not loved but feared for their alleged power and its amoral use.

The Psalmist tells us that the gods of the nations are demons. And St. Augustine provided ample evidence in The City of God that none of them were good or even capable of providing the protection for which they were worshiped.

The use of a wall to delimit sacred space, the sanctuary, is carried forth today in Catholic churches and is represented by an altar rail. It is kneeling at the altar rail that the Catholic faithful receive Holy Communion, a participation in a sacred act. The modern practice in the post-Vatican II Church of eliminating the altar rail and giving Holy Communion in the hand to people standing leads to desacralization of the Faith. The sacred should not be mixed with the profane.

There are two cities mentioned in the Old Testament which have special mythic significance. The first is Babylon, founded by Nimrod, who was renowned as a mighty warrior. Nimrod attempted to usurp the privileges of God by building a tower to heaven. We should note that Babylon was not founded by a priestking as the center for pious worship.

The people of the time spoke a common language. "Let us build a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, they said, "so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth." So they built a tower to their pride and insolence. God would not allow them to succeed, so He confused their language. They could no longer communicate with each other and had no common interests which would enable them to act in concert. It was a punishment from God but also a mercy, for it prevented them from even greater evils. Because of their confused language their city was known as Babel, from which we later get Babylon.

Babylon factors in sacred history as the city to which the Israelites were exiled for 70 years. This was not an ordinary city. It was the city: Babylon the Great.

No city matched her in opulence and war. Her walls were impenetrable. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who had captured the Israelites, had a dream which only the prophet Daniel could interpret.

Nebuchadnezzar had dreamt of a statue with a head of gold, arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron.

The statue represented Babylon and the kingdoms and peoples which would follow, all of them inferior to Babylon.

Babylon was the physical archetype of the city of man. It was where man

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Continued...

wanted to dwell for its riches. But it was also the city of sin. It did not last. The Persians conquered it by slipping through openings in the wall.

The mythic significance of Babylon as an archetype and its fall is seen in the book of Revelation. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great which made all the nations drink of the maddening wine of her adulteries." She is described as a haunt for demons and unclean spirits. A voice from heaven cries out, "Come out of her my people so that you do not partake of her sins." Those who live in Babylon share in her sins and punishments.

The other city of mythic significance is Jerusalem. Originally called Salem, which means "peace", and governed by the priest-king Melchizedek, which means "king of righteousness", Salem was later called Jerusalem, the "city of peace." Of all the cities on earth, this city is unmatched in its spiritual significance.

It is the city of God’s Chosen People.

Unlike Babylon, which asserted its independence from God, Jerusalem was the home of the Temple and the center of worship of God. The Israelites time and again abandoned true worship, but God did not abandon them. Chastised for a while, they returned to God only to fall into sin again. They were tempted, as we are tempted, by the allurements of the world. The true enemies of man – the world, the flesh and the devil – cannot be overcome by human strength, even that of those who truly wish to achieve goodness. Grace and the power of the Holy Spirit are what enable us to rise again after a spiritual fall. The Israelites looked to Jerusalem as their home. Their devotion to Jerusalem, the center of their worship, was with them even in their exile in Babylon: We no longer have to think of Jerusalem as the place where we worship God.

The sacrifice of the paschal lamb in the Temple at the Passover celebration has been replaced. Jesus Himself is the Paschal Lamb who is offered to the Father at the Catholic Mass in every Catholic Church throughout the world.

At the end of time, when after this world with all of its sin has passed away, a holy city, a New Jerusalem will come down from heaven. We will dwell with God. Christ, our Priest-King and the Lamb of God, will wipe away every tear.

There will be no death in the heavenly Jerusalem. Neither will there be a Temple, for God and the Lamb are its temple.

But we are not there yet. We live in the earthly city of man, which is man’s greatest achievement. But bound as it is to the exclusion of God, there is no existential hope in it. Of course, there are earthbound hopes. But that other hope, what Josef Pieper calls "fundamental hope", is not directed to anything in this world.

Man creates a city for security, hence the wall and war. He also creates a city for immortality. This is sought through one’s progeny and renown. One’s descendants are expected to continue the ancestor worship of the spirit of the deceased which inhabits the hearth.

Renown keeps the dead in the abiding memory of future generations. Achilles was given the choice to go to war against the Trojans in which he would die but be forever remembered for his heroic deeds, or stay at home and lead a peaceful and well-fulfilled life into old age and with many children and grandchildren. But after that he would be forgotten. Achilles chose fame and war. His exploits have been memorialized in Homer’s Iliad for the past three thousand years. In Virgil’s Aeneid we read that Rome was granted the privilege of lasting as long as the earth. We still dub Rome the "Eternal City."

St. Augustine wrote the following about the immortality achieved by fame:

But since these Romans were in an earthly city, and had before them, as the end of all the offices undertaken in its behalf, its safety and a kingdom, not in heaven, but in earth – not in the sphere of eternal life, but in the sphere of demise and succession, where the dead are succeeded by the dying – what else but glory should they love, by which they wished even after death to live in the mouths of their admirers.

St. Augustine reminds us that human honor should not be held at a great price, "for it is smoke which has no weight."

But the Romans who sought glory through noble and valorous deeds were long gone in the time of Augustine.

The great saint describes the society of the men of his age: prostitution, fornication, hedonism, lewd dancing and obscene theaters, gluttony, crookedness, excitement and injustice. The one who attempts to criticize the licentious behavior of the people is branded a public traitor and silenced, banished, or killed.

This is the type of happiness sought by those who denounce Christianity in the city of man. Is this not an accurate description of the current state of civilization? One can almost hear the voice of Augustine from across the centuries asking us today, "Have you learned anything at all from history?"

But what of that other city, the city of God? This is the city, Augustine says, which knows and worships one God.

Both cities are founded on love. The city of man is founded on the love of self and earthly things to the exclusion of God.

The city of God is founded on the love of God and heavenly things. St. Paul spoke to the Philippians about the people of the two cities. There were those who were the enemies of the cross of Christ, who mind only the things of earth, whose god is in their belly, and who glory in their shame.

Their end is ruin. But there are those whose citizenship is in heaven and who eagerly await a Savior, Jesus Christ, Who will refashion their body of lowliness into a body of glory.

The city of God is characterized by hope of eternal life, absent from the city of man. It is spiritual but in the present world. It is sustained by grace which comes to us through the Catholic Church.

The two cities both exist on earth and are commingled until the end of time. We, as Catholics, are in this world but not of it. Cain founded the earthly city. But Abel, who founded no city, nevertheless belonged to the city of God. As long as the two cities are commingled, the citizens of the city of God are to obey the just laws of the city of man insofar as the temporal goods common to both are necessary to sustain livelihoods. Thus, as St. Augustine observed, there can be a harmony between the two cities.

This commingling is absolutely necessary for the continued existence of the earthly city of man. By its exclusion of any consideration of God, whether through ignorance or willfulness, it cuts itself off from the rationale for its existence. For God is not only the first cause of His creation, but also the final cause. Which is to say that He is the reason for which the universe is created. "I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." But how is the worldling to attain to such knowledge and its acceptance? This requires supernatural faith brought by grace.

More specifically, what is required is actual grace, which is given in some degree to everyone, even those in mortal sin. Actual grace is a supernatural gift, internal to us and of a passing nature whereby God helps us to avoid sin and enables us to do those things which tend to salvation. Without it sanctifying grace once lost could never be recovered. For example, the sting of a guilty conscience is a result of actual grace and prompts us to repentance and confession. But actual grace can be resisted and its benefit lost.

On a purely human level we can use rational arguments to bring people to the preambles of faith. But true conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a Catholic doctrine that supernatural faith is above the power of the natural intellect. Hence the necessity for some agency to channel supernatural grace into the city of man. That agency is the commingled city of God, the Catholic Church, which is the presence of the Mystical Body of Christ in the natural world. Without it the city of man would sink of its own iniquity to the level of Sodom and bring destruction upon itself. In Genesis, Abraham bargained with God to spare Sodom. Had there been even ten Godly persons in Sodom it would have been spared. The very few that were, Lot and his family, were urged by angels of God’s wrath to leave Sodom. Then Sodom along with Gomorrah were obliterated in a rain of fire and brimstone. Is this not a lesson for our time?

In the parable of the weeds, Jesus spoke of a man whose field of wheat was mingled with weeds sewn by an enemy.

He declined to have the weeds pulled up because the wheat would also be uprooted. Instead, both the wheat and the weeds were to be grown together until harvest, at which time the wheat was to be gathered and stored and the weeds were to be bundled and burned. This is what is to happen at the end of time as further explained in the parable of the sheep and the goats. The faithful of the city of God, the sheep of the parable, and those who sought not God in the present life, the goats, will be separated, the faithful to eternal life, and the faithless to their doom.

But the city of God will no longer be just a spiritual city. For there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And the Holy City of Jerusalem will come down from heaven and be inherited by the resurrected bodies of those who died in Christ and who will dwell with God forever. There will be no death or suffering. This, then, is the end of the city. ■

How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?

If I forget you Jerusalem may my right hand be forgotten.

May my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not, If I place not Jerusalem ahead of my joy.

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 10

THE SOCIAL MEDIA BRAG:

We Are All Stuart Smalley Now

By Tess Mullins | Remnant Staff Writer

Status Update: I’m about to rip on social media.

But before I begin, let me take a selfie so you all can visualize my angst… Remember when bragging was bad form? Whatever happened to that?

We all like it when people notice, I suppose, when you have to tell them to notice, doesn't it get just a little awkward?

My grandfather called them blowhards; today they’re respected bloggers.

Anyway, it used to be socially awkward when people went fishing for compliments. Now it’s what we do...

one, long fishing trip after another. And when the fish stop biting, just change the bait! Post another profile pic—and start all over again.

It’s a 24/7 competition for attention on social media, there’s no denying that fact. It ranges from the mundane to the positively ludicrous, and maybe the following exercise will highlight the difference: Imagine sitting down opposite your friend at a restaurant and saying: "Today I was watering the garden and the hose sprung a leak all over my pants!"

That’s one thing. It’s a self-deprecating little anecdote and if it ends up online, whatever. Still might be a little cry for attention if you feel the need to post that sort of thing online, but that status update is not why I’m writing this.

I’m writing about the following: Imagine now you sat down with your friend and suddenly blurted out: "My Faith absolutely defines me because I’m nearing the seventh castle of spirituality, but I also need to let my creative streak shine!"

What the…? Imagine the look on your friend’s face. "Umkay… you do you, Pumpkin."

You would have utterly embarrassed yourself.

So how come when we post the same sentence online, we’re not embarrassed? We’re arguably the most selfconscious people in history, but we can’t cyber-blush.

We all know the girl in the second scenario. In fact, we know many; our feeds are littered with posts like this: "I just realized during this journey that with all my philanthropic writing and posting I forgot to make time for myself. I matter, even though I put my needs aside at all times in order to be a force for good, but… maybe it’s time, for your benefit as well as mine, of course, that I carve out some me time. In 2019, I’m going to take more meaningful swims in Lake Me!"

Her "About Me" goes something like: "I like movies! And walks in the rain!

My friends call me spunky, sassy and glamorous lolz! I enrich the lives of those around me by doing hair and makeup tutorials on my vlog! I’m a ‘Beau-tuber’ because I YouTube beauty Lol!"

She’s even got the results of one of those personality quizzes that were so popular in the early 2000s: "I’m loving, complex, and amazing! I’m also most like the Disney character Belle because I’m extremely susceptible to Stockholm syndrome LOL!"

Oh boy. Line up if you want to hear more from Spunky on a daily basis, because she never stops.

My generation calls this girl "basic b*tch", which aside from being depressingly apropos, may be the most astute observation we’ve come up with so far.

And LOL simply follows pretty much everything we chat, tweet and post. It has replaced the period, in fact. Why?

Because way down deep inside we know we’re acting like a basic…well, we’re acting, and so we need the LOL to provide cover. "If you call out my BS I will fall back on my LOL. Just kidding. You know I’m self-indulging like a drunk bohemian so I must be LOLing like any normal person should." It really is LOL, though, when a 28-year-old’s resume can be mistaken for a 13-year-old’s Myspace page.

We’ve become a caricature and, for that matter, a SNL character: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6ldAQ6Rh5ZI For those who can't click the link,

it's 'Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley'; a skit in which the character tells himself in the mirror, 'I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!'

It was comedy back then. Today it’s Facebook.

I guess we think we’re "worth it", but it really wasn’t that long ago when people used to LOL at delusional folks who thought they were so "worth it" that they could tell it to the world.

For those of you who still laugh at Stuart, here’s a serious question: When was the last time you commented favorably on a friend’s status update, and meant it? When your basic, um, gal pal posted that before-and-after hair pic, or the song lyrics that were supposed to make her seem deep, or the life goals that included ‘hugging puppies more’— When you saw that post, did you even sort of care?

How about when your guy friend tried to wax poetic about the smell of the great outdoors, or prove his macho cred by taking a cigar selfie, or when his Twitter bio read as follows: "Artist. Author. Philanthropist... Self.

Me. I."

Did you mean it when you hit the Like Button and called him "Bro"? If you did, well, I fear it’s worse now than Orwell ever thought it would get.

We all know it’s not really deep, Bro. So, why do so many comments on Facebook and Instagram read something like this: "You’re just so AMAZING. And so lovably random! You’re a dreamer and you will follow those dreams wherever your giant heart takes you! Let’s celebrate you!"

And not more like: "Listen, while you’re trying desperately to remind us all how precious you are, some people are dying of cancer…" Sometimes it’s not the original post that freaks me out as much as the comments do. Why do we respond like we’re buying all that vanity on e-steroids?

Maybe we should think about not enabling this kind of psychotic behavior and call it out instead.

What’s most frightening is that people who seem intelligent and accomplished fall just as hard as anyone else. And they slowly morph into "Spunky who is random" without even realizing it. Which is kind of funny, because you’d think if we’re already creating imaginary personas on social media, we wouldn’t choose to go the ultimate ditz route. Why do we have to care about hair color and pumpkin spice lattes just because we’re on social media?

Yet "Spunky who is random" is what most full-grown humans are achieving right now. Why? Tell him, Stu: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZVA-Bx4rNc0 'So today, I decided to take a risk, and wear: A new sweater!'

Does it get any more self-obsessed?

Selfishness is a terrible thing. It makes people untrustworthy. When everything a person does has an obviously selfish motive, how do we know they won’t throw us under the bus whenever they want a spike in their likes?

We see it all the time. Good friends one moment, mortal enemies the next. It’s nothing personal, just clickbait.

So, an online persona defined by superficiality and selfishness? How can that be a good thing?

That’s what I see when I poke around in the self-promotion theme park that is Facebook; a whole lot of self-absorbed individuals who can’t be trusted with real-life relationships... They don’t know what it means to be loyal to anything but their own image.

It’s literally Narcissus at his pool; everyone’s obsessed with the projected version of themselves that they’ve

Continued on Page 11

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Continued...

crafted from behind their screens, so they keep the screens ever before their eyes, living vicariously through a shadow of their own design.

It’s tragic how quickly most of us got sucked into the frenetic world of reminding everyone that we’re still awesome before our posts get buried by competitors—I mean, friends and followers.

Think about how we got here. There was a time when we didn’t bother people with our mundane daily activities; even a time when bringing up our own accomplishments at the dinner table would leave the family silent and mortified: Did you really think nobody would notice you digging for praise?

Remember? We didn’t even take selfies. Eventually we started seeing selfies on other people’s Myspace pages, and the first few times we tried it for ourselves we had to turn our flip phones or our clunky Nikons or disposable Kodaks around and hope our whole head was in the shot.

And even when our phones started coming with front-facing cameras, it was devastatingly embarrassing to be caught in a selfie. But somewhere along the line it became such a habit that we forgot it was shameful and will do it in broad daylight in front of the froyo place.

And that’s just too bad.

Maybe one of the reasons we succumbed so quickly is because social media personas are much easier to keep up than real-life personas.

Instead of actually being good at something, we can count on our followers to stop by and tell us that we’re good at everything (especially since we were only posing with—not using—the equipment when we took that gym selfie).

And in return, we’ll dutifully and robotically scroll through our feed and leave "Likes" and empty praise with screen-coma abandon. The muscle memory in our thumbs can find the "reaction buttons" no matter what language the post’s in.

But, whatevs. Right? It’s all good?

LOL?

No, actually it’s not all good and not really so LOL, either. What’s happening to us? Where’d all the adults go?

And trad cats are no exception; sometimes we’re the worst offenders, maybe just because we should know better. So, why don’t we put on our traddy pants and grow up?

We can see through this manipulation.

We can be different. Can’t we?

Catholic adults—yes, even us millennials—can start pushing back against this selfie-fueled popularity contest right now. Sounds like a wonderfully countercultural thing to do. Hipster in the true sense, BYO mustache and mason jar!

I think we can start by cutting down on our status updates. This is actually doable so long as before we post we remember one thing: As much as we don’t actually care about our Facebook friends’ lunch and pedicure color, they don’t care about ours. So, what’s the point of the exercise.

I’ll make you a deal. Sometimes I travel. I like it, but you don’t give a rat’s patootie about my travel (and you shouldn’t). So, I promise never to post vacay pics or ask if anyone can recommend a good café in Paris (READ: I’m here and you’re NOT) if you promise never to post another Throw-Back-Thursday photo of you in high school looking all New Kids on the Block.

Nobody cares, except maybe your parents.

But really, no matter how many times we hit Like, you’re not a new kid anymore (but it’s okay because you can be other things, like "dignified").

Deal?

And let’s not forget that posts run on likes and comments. So, no more reacting unless we mean it.

No more giving attention in order to receive attention in return. Let’s try to be a little more self-reliant and a little less self-absorbed.

Otherwise, we might as well just go right ahead and admit to the world that we have a big, gaping hole in our hearts that we’re seeking to fill with affirmation.

This is especially important for Catholics to remember, because in a world that’s lost all direction, we’ve been blessed with tools that point the way—but they’re not up there on your toolbar.

Our lives as followers of Jesus Christ and children of God should fill us with the ultimate purpose, and we can rest assured that nothing on social media needs to reaffirm that, nor can it. Jesus said that unless we become as little children we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. But I’m pretty sure that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to smear spaghetti sauce all over our faces and eat Tide Pods on our vlogs.

Besides, He was talking about innocence and humility, and I think Facebook has banned all that.

I think maybe social media has been making fools of us all along. Whaddya say, peeps—should we unlike Facebook and move on? ■

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 12

Pope Suppresses Ecclesia Dei, SSPX Holds Its Ground

By Michael J. Matt | Remnant Editor

Surprise!

We knew it would happen sooner or later. This just in fromVaticanNews.com: "With a new Apostolic Letter issued "motu proprio", Pope Francis has suppressed the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was established thirty years ago by Pope St. John Paul II.

…The Pontifical Commission had also exercised the authority of the Holy See "over various institutes and religious communities which it has erected which have as their ‘proper Rite’ the ‘extraordinary form’ of the Roman Rite and observe the previous traditions of the religious life." It was also tasked with looking after and promoting "the pastoral care of the faithful attached to the antecedent Latin liturgical tradition, present in various parts of the world."

In the motu proprio suppressing the Ecclesia Dei Commission, Pope Francis notes that "the Institutes and Religious Communities which habitually celebrate in the extraordinary form have today found their own stability of number and life."

"With the Apostolic Letter, the Holy Father assigns the duties of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in their entirety to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "within which a specific Section will be set up in order to continue the work of vigilance, promotion, and protection" of the suppressed Commission."

Remnant Comment: So according to this report, "dialogue" with the SSPX is part of the reason the commission has become redundant. Trouble is, a «deal» with the SSPX seems far from a done deal. So, what are we talking about here? Has the purge of all things Traditional begun?

The good news? The SSPX is holding its ground. In their January 19, 2019 statement we read the following vintage position of the Society of St. Pius X: One conclusion is evident: as the so-called Ecclesia Dei communities have preserved "their spiritual and liturgical traditions", they clearly do not count in this discussion. If they remain attached to a section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it is incidental. They can have the Mass, the "spiritual and liturgical traditions", but not the whole doctrine that goes along with them.

That has always been the Society of St. Pius X’s great reproach against Dom Gérard [founder of the Benedictine monastery at Le Barroux who worked with Archbishop Lefebvre until 1988] and all those who thought they should break the unity of Tradition in order to negotiate a purely practical agreement. The crisis of the Church cannot be reduced to a spiritual or liturgical question alone.

It is deeper, for it touches the very heart of the Faith and the doctrine of Revelation, Christ the King’s right to reign here below over men and over societies.

Indeed it does! Viva Cristo Rey! ■

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Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | Cover | Page 13

Lost Sheep:

The Modern Crisis of Catholic Formation

By Clare Wilson

As a lifelong member of one of the societies which promote and preserve the Traditional Latin Mass, it is possible for a Catholic to be almost completely removed from the culture of what we might call ‘mainstream’ Catholicism, and to have little direct experience of the crisis in the Church. In such a situation, a Catholic might even find it hard to believe that the Church really is in a critical state. Perhaps the constant warnings from priests and conservative thinkers might even strike a sheltered traditional Catholic as an exaggeration of the true state of things.

For most of my life, I have been just such a Catholic. Born and baptized in the Traditional Roman rite, I was raised by parents who did all they could to locate our family within reach of the Latin Mass. In the Catholic girls’ school which I attended, we spoke occasionally about the lamentable state of the Catholic world at large, but otherwise were completely sheltered from its effects. At the Catholic college where I earned my bachelor’s degree, most of the students were Latin Mass attendees, at least occasionally, and the faculty espoused the Anglican use of the Novus Ordo Missae, which is perhaps the most reverent form of the new Mass in English. My schoolmates and I earnestly studied Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, the Fathers; accepted the truths of revelation without question. After college, I returned to my home in Post Falls, Idaho, and worked for the same girls’ school where I had attended high school. Later I moved on to work for a traditional Catholic homeschooling company. Through all this, I had a good theoretical grasp of the crisis in the Church, having studied almost all the documents from Vatican II, as well as various encyclicals of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but mostly I assumed that Novus Ordo Catholics behaved much the same as Traditional ones, just putting up with an unfortunate downgrade to the form of the Mass.

When I began my graduate program in 2017, I began to realize this might not be the case. From the first day of class, I was open about being Catholic, and over the next few months one after another of my classmates began to mention that they also are Catholic—or used to be.

At current count, I know of six young men and four young women who were all raised Catholic; adding myself to the number, eleven out of the thirty-five students in my program are Catholic—a quite impressive percentage!

I, however, am the only one who practices. Among those who have discussed the Faith with me, one actually practices, two still consider themselves Catholic and occasionally tell me that they plan to return to Mass or go to confession (but then do not), while a few more have adopted a sort of weak spirituality in which they believe in God but find it impossible to embrace the doctrines of the Church. The majority of them have been or are cohabitating with their significant others.

As you might imagine, I was somewhat stunned by the terrible rate of attrition represented by the Catholic population of my graduate program. Twenty percent of students are Catholic, but only fifteen percent of these Catholics practice.

(Obviously these numbers are skewed by the small sample size, but I would not be surprised if this rate held true even among thousands). Wondering at the cause, I supposed perhaps this phenomenon arises from the liberal atmosphere in which most American Catholics of the millennial generation have been raised. When pulled between the rigors of Catholic morality and the pleasures of the modern world, it’s not surprising that, at least in their youth, most of these young people slip towards the easy path of pleasure and fall away from the Church. It’s probably an American problem, I told myself.

Then I spent a month in Europe, walking one of the oldest Catholic pilgrimages in the world—the Camino de Santiago.

Of course, I was aware before I started that people walk the path for any number of non-Catholic reasons. Some view it as an athletic endeavor; some think of it as a way to get in touch with their inner selves; some see it as an opportunity to connect with other people. I supposed, however, that I would meet many Catholics from Spain and France and Italy, who had undertaken the pilgrimage for expressly religious reasons. This was true to a certain extent, but I noticed an interesting fact: more than three-quarters of obviously Catholic pilgrims were well over the age of fifty. At the pilgrim Masses, I did see a young Spaniard here, a young Italian there, a Czech couple, a Polish boy, girls from America or Mauritius or France, but these youthful Catholics were few and far between. I spoke to many Italians and Spaniards in their twenties and thirties who shrugged and admitted they were baptized, but only attend Mass at Christmas and Easter. At one of the parish hostels, a diocesan seminarian who was acting as host asked me if I were a nun, probably because I wore a scarf over my hair during Mass. That one comment revealed to me how uncommon it must be to see devout or traditional young people in churches along the Camino, despite its venerable history as an act of Catholic devotion. I realized that perhaps the state of the Catholic Church in Europe is just as dire as in the States.

What is the cause for this lamentable state of affairs? Two conversations from the past year have helped me understand. The first happened in the Fall of 2017.

I had been explaining the Traditional movement and the Latin Mass to a Jewish classmate, when another classmate across the table asked if I attended a local sedevacantist parish of which he knew. I then attempted to lay out the difference between the traditional movement and the sedevacantist movement, supposing that he was unfamiliar with the terms. He, however, announced that he was raised Catholic but had stopped practicing years before.

It turned out, however, that he had studied comparative religions as a minor

in his undergraduate degree, and the campus of his New York university was very close to the American headquarters of the Dalai Lama, who used to visit the campus occasionally to speak to the students.

This lapsed Catholic explained that he is very drawn to Buddhism, but that while listening to the Dalai Lama on one occasion, he heard this advice: don’t look outside your own religious tradition for spiritual nourishment, but instead embrace the tradition in which you were born. Apparently the Dalai Lama’s thought is that a person’s cultural religion is the only which he or she can really understand and profit from, so it makes no sense for an American Catholic to practice Chinese Buddhism or vice versa. Of course, this viewpoint is problematic in its own right, but the interesting result was that the young man began to wonder if he should return to the practice of his Catholic Faith, especially since he acknowledges how ancient and enriching it can be. He had not done so, though, he informed me, because he could not imagine practicing a religion just because it was old and beautiful, even if those qualities attracted him. My somewhat befuddled response to this observation was that certainly the Catholic Faith is old and beautiful, but that’s not why I practice it; my belief is instead based on doctrine which I have studied and taken pains to understand.

The second conversation I had occurred at the very end of my Camino, when I spent a couple of days walking with a lawyer in his mid-thirties from Milan.

As we sat over breakfast on the second morning, I prayed the blessing before meals. The night before, when we visited a basilica together, I had knelt to pray before walking through the building to admire the side altars and statues.

Having observed all this, the lawyer asked me how I, as an American, came to be a practicing Catholic (Europeans, it turns out, have no idea that almost twenty percent of U.S. citizens still identify as Catholic).

The only explanation that really satisfied him for my religion was that my Catholic grandfather was half-Irish and half-Italian. I felt like protesting that this fact of my heritage is only accidentally connected to my practice of the Faith, since it was actually my convert Welsh-English grandmother who brought my father’s family into Tradition, and my convert German-English mother who taught me the catechism. For this Italian, though, ancestry and culture are the chief justifications for being Catholic. He explained to me that he was, of course, baptized—most Italians are—and that he goes to Mass on occasion, and believes in God, and appreciates the symbolism and imagery connected to Catholic identity and history. At the same, though, he informed me, Italian Catholics are too rationalistic to accept their own Faith completely at face value, so he is Catholic, but really only by culture.

What I noticed about these conversations was that, while the two men both felt a certain attraction towards the traditions of the Church, neither of them seemed to know anything about doctrine. They are both intelligent, well-educated, cultured men raised by Catholic families, or even in the Italian’s case, surrounded by a deeply Catholic national heritage, but there is a huge gap in their education regarding the Faith of their birth. Since the two men and I fall in the same agerange (30-35), it seems astonishing that I should be the only one who can confidently reference even simple truths of the catechism.

Then it struck me that the main difference between us is that I consistently attend the Traditional Catholic Mass, while they were both brought up with the Novus Ordo. During my five-week pilgrimage in Spain, which was the longest time I had ever been unable to attend a Latin Mass, I decided to attend the parish Masses in Spanish churches, simply to avoid the danger of scandal. After all, once other pilgrims found out I was Catholic, I didn’t want them observing me skip Mass, since that might give them the opinion I condoned such behavior. In total, I went to the Novus Ordo six times during the trip.

Continued on Page 14

Lost Sheep

C. Wilson/ Continued From Page 13

By the end, I was so homesick for the Latin Mass that I felt almost angry to be present at the Novus Ordo pilgrim Mass in Santiago Cathedral.

This was not just a manifestation of sentimental attachment to the Traditional Mass. Instead, several factors contributed to my chagrin. I was frustrated that I could not understand the exact words of the Spanish Masses.

Since I, at least, have a sense of basic Spanish vocabulary, thanks to years of studying Latin, I was more or less able to keep track of the various parts of the Mass, but I imagine other non-Spanish pilgrims felt even more lost and possibly more frustrated. I was also distressed by how much the Mass has been shortened, as if the Church has lost confidence in her children’s ability to focus and decided that forty-five minutes is the most that can be allotted to even a high Mass celebrated by a bishop in the seat of his diocese. It was also clear that most of the prayers relating to sacrifice, connecting the Mass to the Old Testament, and emphasizing the mystical body of Christ—Church triumphant, suffering, and militant—had been eliminated. Even in a country that is still obviously very Catholic, like Spain, the priests seemed to handle the Sacred Species and the altar vessels and linens with a sort of cavalier attitude, as if they were serving at a buffet or folding laundry.

Observing all this, I began to realize: mainstream Catholics are not offered a constant nourishment and reinforcement of their Faith. The Novus Ordo Missae has stripped away large portions of both the doctrinal content and the physical reverence inherent in the Traditional Latin Mass, leaving Catholics with little reminder that in every Mass they are dealing directly with God. The Italian cultural Catholic is a little better off than the American lapsed Catholic, simply because the relics of the Faith— churches, sanctuaries, pilgrimages, monasteries, etc.—are constantly present before his or her eyes. These remnants provide a sort of subconscious education, but otherwise, it is clear that neither the cultural nor the lapsed Catholic has received a thorough education in the truths of the Faith. Without that foundation, when presented with a form of the Mass that omits to confirm those truths, these Catholics have little hope of retaining belief or devotion.

I have friends and family members who did receive a solid Catholic education, thanks to some intervention of grace and good parenting, and who attend the Novus Ordo with obvious lively faith.

However, once that crucial childhood formation is lacking, baptized Catholics in the mainstream Church seem to fall from practice in droves, not finding the support needed to retain their faith. At the same time, I know many young people from the Traditionalist movement who have only vague answers for reasonably simple questions about doctrine, because perhaps the only instruction they received was weekly catechism classes years ago in their parish basement. In spite of this ignorance, though, they still attend Mass every Sunday, appear in the confessional line, say grace before meals in public, marry other practicing Catholics, bring non-Catholic friends to introduce them to the Church. To me this says that attendees of the Traditional Latin Mass, even those who are poorly instructed, receive some indispensable element of ongoing formation which preserves their faith while mainstream Catholics fall away. If the chief difference between these two groups of Catholics is the form of the Mass which they attend, perhaps we can conclude that the Traditional Latin Mass in itself offers more to the average Catholic than does the Novus Ordo.

I think perhaps there can at times be rhetoric from the traditional movement in the Church that sounds extremist, as if the Catholic Church has lost the Faith and only Traditional Catholics really deserve the name, ‘Catholic,’ anymore.

This is of course a rash judgment, since even if we cannot know the providence of Christ for His bride, we can at least be sure that He has not divorced her, as one might say in human terms. Even while we reserve judgment and cultivate trust in God, though, one thing we can know for sure is that the Novus Ordo fails in most cases to bolster the faith of modern Catholics. The mass apostasy of young Catholics in America and Europe points out a real problem that perhaps older and better educated Catholic generations in the mainstream Church fail to notice.

The Novus Ordo does not provide its attendees with enough, and if they come to it already ill-formed in the Faith, they will seldom have the strength to resist the loud appeals of the world constantly echoing in their ears. The result: up to ninety percent of Catholic millennials have lapsed.

Does this mean there is no hope for their souls? Of course not. What it does mean, however, is that Traditional Catholics in the world have a particularly strong obligation to be true to their Faith and to its practice. If nothing else, their silent example can be a reminder to their less fortunate Catholic peers that the commandments of God and the Church have not been dissolved, and that it is possible to live a happy, balanced life while following them. In the best cases, though, we Traditional Catholics can hope and pray that lapsed Catholics whom we encounter and whom we invite to attend Mass or with whom we discuss the Faith will be led gently back into the fold of the Church, thus bringing about that joy of which the Gospel speaks: "There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance" (Luke XV, vii). ■

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An Afternoon with...

Dr. David Allen White

Conducted by Vincent Chiarello |Remnant Columnist

There are events which, even decades later, can be recalled with perfect clarity, even if other similar encounters have long since faded into the mists of history. In his memoirs, the Canadian actor and author, Hume Cronyn, called memory, "the terrible liar;" perhaps with justification, for much of what we "remember" may actually bear little or no resemblance to what actually transpired. With the passage of time, even more so. However, I maintain that particular events, even if we cannot recall the circumstances surrounding them, are wired into our brain’s hard drive. One such event took place nearly twenty years ago; yet, in my mind’s eye, it could have happened last week.

On this particular autumn Sunday, as I entered St. Athanasius for the first time, I immediately noticed something unusual, something I’d not seen in any church previously: five young men, each dressed in the midshipman’s uniform of the U.S.

Naval Academy, side by side in a pew. How Traditionally devout, I thought, these young men must be to have made the trip from Annapolis to Northern Virginia to attend Mass, in this case, a Traditional Latin one.

When the Mass ended, outside I noted the midshipmen gathered around a man who was the center of their attention. Burly, with a mellifluous voice, he exuded the assumed authority of a naval captain, and his followers appeared to be captivated, listening to his every word.

I thought no further about the event until the following Sunday, and, once again, noticed the row of midshipmen. My earlier assumption that these young men were devout Catholics had been validated, I thought. Once again, the young men gathered after Mass to hear the words of this most impressive man, whose name at the time was unknown to me. Within a short period, however, I would come to learn that the midshipmen who formed that circle were there as a result of their contact with a man I have called, "Tradition’s Pied Piper" - DavidAllen White. His is a story that should be told, for in getting to know the man, you will readily understand why he was such a force among the dozens of men - and two women - at the U.S. Naval Academy over a period of three decades.

The city of Winchester, Virginia, sits nestled in the Shenandoah Valley, with a population of slightly more than 27,000 inhabitants. During the U.S. Civil War, the city served as headquarters of a division of the Confederate Army commanded by "Stonewall" Jackson, and was exposed to constant attack by Union forces. Three major military engagements were fought in the city or nearby; at war’s end, Union troops occupied Winchester. It is ironic that what could not be done with a Union military occupation, the elimination of a Southern way of life, is now, slowly but surely, taking place in Winchester: growing numbers of "Yankee" transplants from suburban Washington are moving there. On a mild winter afternoon, I met David Allen "Doc" White, a marvelous storyteller, and author of the recent biography of Bishop Richard Williamson. What follows is the result of a lengthy interview we had in his home in Winchester. To begin at the beginning...

"My parents were natives of Eau Clare, Wisconsin." So begins the background of David Allen White: his father, a butcher, owned a small shop, but was driven out of business by the coming of supermarkets; his mother, a part-time secretary of the Congregational Church, known for its "bake sales and suppers." Growing up in that environment had a lasting impact on young David: from his attendance at Congregational services, he learned to memorize large segments of the Bible which "stayed with me to this day," a trait, he laments, Catholic Traditionalists do not emphasize enough. He can recite portions of Corinthians, as well as segments of

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Doc. White

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Continued...

St. John’s Gospel, verbatim. But schools now have de-emphasized memorization, a major reason, he believes, for the decline in educational achievement. There is, in addition, the discarding of anything "demanding" from most of the curriculum.

What is emphasized by most schools’ curricula, and sought in the classroom, are courses that will develop "creativity" in the student. That objective is increasingly more difficult, since both writing ability and reading skills have notably weakened in many a school environment.

Young David, however, was to have several fortunate aspects of his early life: he was blessed with "decent public schools," and, in his case, female teachers, often unmarried, "who regarded their students as their children." One of them provided David with books that began his interest in literature, most notably, David Copperfield, "which changed my life," and then Shakespeare, "which gave me my profession." Is was to this teacher that Prof. White dedicated one of his earliest publications, "Shakespeare A-Z." She had fulfilled the prediction that "a teacher affects eternity."

But there was another aspect of David’s young life that was instrumental in his development: the best readers, both then and now, he maintains, "had their mothers read to them." White: "You take the mother out of the home and everything falls apart," a theme that would be often repeated by Bishop Williamson. In his later experience as a Professor of Literature at both Temple University in Philadelphia, and the U.S.

Naval Academy, it was demonstrated over and over again, that the best writers in the class were also the most devoted readers, many, if not most, of whom had listened as their mothers read them bedtime stories.

After obtaining his Ph. D. in Literature, "Doc" White’s first teaching position was at Temple University in Philadelphia, which lasted a decade, and was a major factor in his life today. It was at Temple, a school of 30,000 students, that he was to meet one student who would change his life. This student "knew more than I did, and began challenging me in class."

So began Prof.

White’s search for answers and the truth, including God.

The student was also to serve as a formative part of White’s religious education and development.

This "most intelligent student I’ve ever had" would, six months later, be received into the Catholic Church, but for his professor, he went an additional mile: he literally traveled all over the Philadelphia area to find the "right" priest to speak toWhite, and in E. Landsdowne, a Philadelphia suburb, he found Msgr. Dean. This "great old priest" received David Allen White into the Catholic Church on December 6, 1979, the Feast of St. Nicholas. The priest warned the new convert: "You are coming into the Church in the worst time in its history.

Hold on." Ironically, White’s student did not "hold on." Proclaiming the Church " a mess," he left, but White stayed: his journey had begun. "Tradition" came to White after accepting a teaching position at the U.S.

Naval Academy in 1981, where he would teach Shakespeare and direct the Academy’s Theatre Program, a position, he claims, "made for me." White: "You can’t get more traditional or Catholic than Shakespeare." It was also made for dozens of students who were so impressed by Professor White’s Shakespeare course that it served as a basis for not only their literary interests, but their spiritual ones, too. Allow a digression.

I know, and correspond with, a former White student and USNA graduate, whose registration for the Shakespeare course had an amazing impact on his life.

While studying "A Winter’s Tale," the midshipman decided to write his course paper on Catholic imagery in the play, which was unusual: the student was not Catholic...at least not then. Over the course of years, that symbolism refused to leave him. In time, that term paper grew into a book, a copy of which I have. But that was not all White had done: to this day, this now attorney claims that "Doc" White changed his life not only in literature, but in spirituality as well: he became, and still is, a devout Traditional Catholic, and still deeply devoted to Professor White. I could spend the rest of this article just citing similar cases, I assure you.

There is another aspect to the Pied Piper’s role in converting dozens of midshipmen to the Catholic Church which should also be addressed: in an institution such as the U.S. Naval Academy, how did White succeed with so many? What White practiced personally, he insists, did not extend into the classroom: "I never ever would proselytize in the classroom...that’s not what I was there for... I would sit in my office with the door open, with a copy of the 1903 Catholic encyclopedia on the shelf."

Many of the midshipmen, "who came in clusters," and planned to convert, did so only after first visiting the Catholic chaplain on the Academy’s grounds at Prof White’s insistence. More often than not, the prelate would question the midshipmen’s intent for converting: "Why would you want to do that?" Conversion, it appeared, was not included in this chaplain’s job description. White also singled out for praise the labors of Fr. Ronald Ringrose, Pastor of St. Athanasius, who, in "making clear to the midshipmen what was necessary to understand about the Faith," was of immeasurable help to the students of "the Pied Piper of Tradition."

Another digression: I mentioned two women among the dozens of men who were converted by the Pied Piper of Tradition. One of them, a "hugely talented" bass player in the Academy’s band, served in the U.S. Marine Corps after graduation.

After leaving, she became a postulate and later a Franciscan Sister Religious of the SSPX in Kansas City, the first Marine Corps officer ever to follow that path, and White modestly claims that he was "God’s instrument" in that conversion. With equally great pride, White added: "She has taught the children of my former students." The other became a veterinarian and currently resides in Post Falls, Idaho, deeply attached to the SSPX community there.

Overall, however, White believes that the introduction of women into the Academy has been disastrous: "I could fill pages telling you horror stories." And if that is not enough, this: "The country has gone mad."

As one of White’s former students, and a convert to Tradition, recently told me: "He taught us about religion through literature." No better example of that statement could be demonstrated than that, through the teaching of Dante’s "Inferno," many potential converts appeared at Prof. White’s open door. Why were they attracted? Why Dante? White mentions the papal encyclical of Pope Benedict XV proclaiming Dante the Church’s poetic artist, and future converts were attracted to this epic hero because of Dante’s role as the Pilgrim, one soul trying to make his way to understand the whole of the ideas that we are part of. It should be noted that the administrators of the Naval Academy allowed White to teach "The Inferno" on the condition that another instructor teach a course on the Koran at the same time.

"Diversity is heralded," he added, "but diversity of thought is unacceptable." In this regard, White is convinced that of all the modern writers, Alexander Solzhenitsyn "...

towers above all others. He is our giant."

According to White, the primary concern of the modern world is, "the hatred of Christ," and Solzhenitsyn’s novels describe how that hatred has destroyed society; in this case, Russian society.

Regarding White’s latest publication, a bio of Bishop Williamson, a personal observation. The very first time I saw Bishop Williamson is also quite memorable: it was my belief then, which I hold to this day, that if Hollywood wished to cast someone who had all of the outward trappings of a bishop, Bishop Williamson would be its man. He looked the part. But the White bio of the prelate reveals other aspects of the bishop’s life that will surprise the reader: for example, Bishop Williamson was rejected twice as a seminarian, including a "Thanks, but no thanks" from the Oratory in London. After that rejection, the future bishop would now go to Econe, and then become a member of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X. White’s biography of Bishop Richard N. ("Nelson," whose mother’s family is from Pennsylvania) is his third bio of giants within the Traditional Catholic movement:

The Mouth of the Lion, dealt with the life of Bishop Castro Mayer;

The Horn and the Unicorn, with the life of Archbishop Lefebvre, and now

The Voice of the Trumpet. What makes this biography different is thatWhite makes it clear from the very beginning: "I am writing about a friend." That friendship, nurtured over three decades, is evident in White’s description of the life of Bishop Williamson, a cleric who, White is convinced, "...has no ego. His concern is simply saving souls."

White insists there are two indispensable rules by which Bishop Williamson lives as a priest, but which have caused him problems throughout his clerical career: first and foremost, the overriding importance of doctrine; then, and tied to that rule, the bishop’s unshakable faith in "objective reality," something that is outside of us, but knowledgeable, in the search for Truth. The search for Truth is often the search for God. White: "The keystone of that system of thought and thus the basis of Bishop Williamson’s world view was the primacy of objective reality."

It is evident that what Williamson found as the key to understanding Catholic thought and doctrine was encapsulated in St.

Thomas’s

Summa. The future bishop found there "counsels, and reasons and answers," which were "the essentials for modern Catholics." It may surprise the reader to know that Pope Francis described the morality of his papal exhortation, thus: "the morality of

Amoris Laetitia is Thomist."

One wonders if "the Angelic Doctor" would have agreed.

One cannot finish White’s bio of Bishop Williamson without a detailed account of the public controversy that has grown up around the bishop. The last quarter of the book is White’s "Apologia" of the bishop, who was expelled from the SSPX, and whose talks at the seminary were deleted. Yet, to White, that situation has not changed the bishop’s attitude about his role as a priest. White: "...from the moment of his conversion and reception into the Roman Catholic Church, Williamson was convinced our Lord, reigns over all of life, every sphere of human existence, every pursuit, every study, every action..." To confine Catholic Truth and isolate it in a hospital-like ‘church ward" is to suggest that the highest Truth must be quarantined like a disease...and not wander out into the wide world." In that regard, Bishop Williamson will not "go gently into the night," for there is still much to be done.

When one reaches a certain age - mine you tend to look back over your life, and recognize certain individuals are indelibly etched in your mind; simply put, they are unforgettable. I have been fortunate enough to have known three such men, devout Catholics who approached their devotion in distinct ways.The late JusticeAntonin

Continued Next Page

Doc White and Michael Davies

Doc. White Interview,

Continued from Page 15

Scalia was one. His devotion to the Faith was such that, according to his son, "it made him a better judge." His chambers had a copy of the Holbein portrait and a bust of St.Thomas More, the Justice’s idol. In my experience in dealing with public figures, no one else was as open about his dedication to the Church.

Another was the internationallly acclaimed Shakespearean scholar, Fr. Peter Milward, S.J. He was a prime mover in establishing the Catholic background and beliefs of William Shakespeare, and it cannot be denied that he sas the first to emphasize that, within Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, were to be found the "hidden language" of a Recusant.

Both the late Justice and Jesuit were men of remarkable and profound scholarship.

David Allen "Doc" White completes this triumverate.

It is difficult to distinguish what attracted so many men and women to follow this "Pied Piper of Tradtion" into the Church.

The impact he had on so many students at the U.S. Naval Academy was unique; no one comes close to equal - forget surpass - his yeoman’s service in the cause of Tradition. And that influence extended among so many of his converts after their departure: according to White, 144 (no typo) children have been brought into the world of Traditional Catholic families from those souls who converted.

But I would be remiss if I did not also mention that, despite his accomplishments in the conversion of others, he is also one of the funniest and most engaging person to be around. When he spoke to the Sodalists at our church, my wife was effusive in her praise, for he is a spell-binding storyteller, whose unforgettable voice resonates: "You should hear him read poetry," was another of my wife’s comments. If I had to summarize what makes David Allen White special, i would say that, at least to me, he is "sui generis" - one of a kind. Winchester is not terribly far from my home, and it is my express hope that out paths will cross often in the future. To know this man has been a great honor; indeed, one might also call it a "blessing."

I end on a personal note: to know "Doc" White is to recognize how much of his life has been devoted to the fostering of the belief that the Catholic Church is God’s creation.

As a teacher and friend, I believe that the Bard said it best in describing this "Pied Piper of Tradition:" "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world: This was a man."■

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WWLWD?

By Father Celatus

Starting back in the 1990’s a movement grew out of Protestantism which is best known by the acronym WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? Many Protestant teens wear colored rubber bracelets with the acronym WWJD on them as a reminder that they should personify Jesus in their daily lives. It would seem that this is the Protestant version of the Catholic classic, The Imitation of Christ. If truth be told, I think that what Jesus would really do or say if asked this question by Protestants is to tell them to BC--Become Catholic!

Starting some six years ago, Catholic Modernists came up with their own version of the WWJD acronym: What Would Jorge Do? But unlike Protestants, whose spiritual ancestor Martin Luther coined the phrase "sin boldly," Modernists operate under the principle "be sneaky." So it is that they operate under the guise that it is not What Would Jorge Do that is their guiding principle, but rather WWGSD: What Would the God of Surprises Do? The unspoken answer to this question is simple: Whatever Jorge Bergoglio wants!

What are some of examples of WWGSD, as interpreted through the Modernist lens of Jorge Bergoglio?

WWGSD: He would show utter contempt for actions of Christ at the Last Supper and the liturgical tradition of the Church by washing the feet of women and infidels for the Mandatum of Holy Thursday.

WWGSD: He would provide approval for active homosexual behavior by responding, "Who am I to judge?"

when asked about homosexual unions, and he would embrace and encourage homosexual couples.

WWGSD: He would crush the Divine Commission to preach the Gospel and baptize the nations and replace it with interreligious doublespeak and a false ecumenism that celebrates Protestantism.

WWGSD: He would cast doubt about the divinity of Jesus by use of rationalist interpretations of the Gospels, such as describing the Miracle of the Loaves as a mere sharing of bread that was on hand.

WWGSD: He would undermine the teaching of Jesus against divorce and remarriage by admitting unrepentant actively adulterous couples to the sacraments of Confession and to Holy Communion.

WWGSD: He would contradict his own past practice of punishing terrible sinners with death by declaring the death penalty to be intrinsically evil and long term confinement to be equivalent to a death penalty.

WWGSD: He would harass and eliminate traditional Catholicism wherever it is found by insulting all faithful Catholics and by shutting down traditional religious communities and traditional movements.

Recently, Francis came up with yet another version of WW__D, on the occasion of his birthday visit to the Santa Marta Pediatric Clinic, located a stone’s throw from where Jorge sleeps. The clinic serves mostly immigrant children, which is probably why Francis chose to celebrate his birthday there. At one point Francis remarked that if the Holy Family had lived in Rome and the child Jesus had a cold, Mary would have surely brought him to that clinic for care. So now we have WWMD: What Would Mary Do?

But this was not the first time that Jorge attributed something to the Blessed Mother. Recall this sacrilege:

The Gospel tells us nothing: if she said a word or not ... She was quiet, but in her heart - how much she said to the Lord! ‘You told me then - that’s what we have read - that He will be great. You told me that You would give him the throne of his father David, that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And now I see Him there!’ The Blessed Mother was human! And perhaps she would have wanted to say, ‘lies! I have been cheated!’ Clearly Jorge has no clue what Mary would do or say. She would never accuse God of cheating and call him a liar; neither would she take the boy Jesus or any child into Vatican City with its current infestation of homosexual pederasts. But let’s play the WWMD game for a bit, though we will take the ball away from Bergoglio and propose our own Last Word scenarios as to what Mary would say and do.

WWMD: Mary would speak to Francis as follows: "Jorge, this is your Mother speaking, though you do not recognize my voice because you have ignored me for most of your life. It’s time to get off the Chair of Peter and into a permanent Time Out Chair. I knew Peter personally, and you are no Peter--and no successor. You will have one final public appearance, in black cassock not white, in which you will announce to the world that you stole the Chair by fraud and you renounce all claims to the papal office.

WWMD: Mary would show Francis the vision of hell which she had revealed to the Fatima children. "Jorge, do you see these demons and souls in a sea of fire, rising and falling like burning embers? Do you hear their shrieks and groans of pain and despair? These are the souls that you claim are annihilated for having failed to achieve the beatific vision. I assure you that unless you repent and confess and do prayer and penance the rest of your life, your soul will soon be among them. Get thee to a monastery, now!"

WWMD: Mary would next speak these words to Benedict XVI. "Benedict, I have kept patience with you long enough. It’s time to man up and sit up straight. Either get off or get on the Chair of Peter but stop your slouching in the Chair. If you can’t handle the wolves then abdicate the papacy fully and take off the white. Follow your brother Jorge to a monastery and work out your salvation through prayer and penance.

But if you have the faith and fortitude, then resume your rightful place on the Chair of Peter. I will assist you in destroying Modernism and restoring Catholicism but you MUST be obedient to me. Here is a very long list of what your Mother wants, starting with the Consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart."

So there you have it, What Would Mary Do from the hopeful perspective of The Last Word. But don’t worry; we have no intention of following the misguided practices of Protestants and Modernists.

We have no plan, for now, to promote yet another gimmick, such as WWLWD: What Would the Last Word Do? ■

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