Does Apostolicity of the Church Absolutely Require a Hierarchy?

Earliest Known Images of the Apostles

Courtesy of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology

The Roman Catechism teaches the meaning of Apostolicity: “The true Church is also to be recognized from her origin, which can be traced back under the law of grace to the Apostles; for her doctrine is the truth not recently given, nor now first heard of, but delivered of old by the Apostles, and disseminated throughout the entire world. Hence no one can doubt that the impious opinions which heresy invents, opposed as they are to the doctrines taught by the Church from the days of the Apostles to the present time, are very different from the faith of the true Church. That all, therefore, might know which was the Catholic Church, the Fathers, guided by the Spirit of God, added to the Creed the word Apostolic. For the Holy Ghost, who presides over the Church, governs her by no other ministers than those of Apostolic succession. This Spirit, first imparted to the Apostles, has by the infinite goodness of God always continued in the Church. And just as this one Church cannot err in faith or morals, since it is guided by the Holy Ghost; so, on the contrary, all other societies arrogating to themselves the name of church, must necessarily, because guided by the spirit of the devil, be sunk in the most pernicious errors, both doctrinal and moral.”

The dogma of apostolicity, then, absolutely requires the Catholic Faith. 

The question is whether it absolutely requires a hierarchy. The answer is yes, insofar as it’s necessary generally throughout history. Without the hierarchy, the Church would not have survived these last 1990 years and the faith most likely would not have lasted to the present day.

However, I submit that it’s not necessary at every point in time. As long as the principle of perpetuity or potential of fulfilling the offices exist within the faith, the mark of apostolicity remains. The principle of perpetuity for the papacy was defined at the First Vatican Council. By logical extension, the same principle must apply for the existence of bishops, since the episcopal order necessarily belongs to the essential constitution of the Church. 

Apostolic succession doesn’t die out due to interregnums. An office doesn’t defect by the mere fact it is empty, but only if it can’t be filled. The transmission will always remain as long as the potential is there and according to the First Vatican Council, it will remain for the Chair of Peter.

The common opinion may be that the hierarchy will exist at every point in time, but facts outweigh a common opinion. I will examine later (in Part II) some theological works to see if they deny the possibility of our sedevacantist position or do they give general rules and understandings. For now, I will prove that apostolicity doesn’t require a hierarchy at every point in time.

The apostolic mark is a visible mark like the other three marks, viz. one, holy, and catholic. We call them marks so as to identify the true church. However, these marks matter most to us in identifying the local Catholic Church in our own communities. Knowing that the pope is Catholic or that somewhere the Catholic Church exists in the world doesn’t help us find the local Catholic Church. 

Each and every particular church and mission of the Catholic Church has all four marks or else you couldn’t identify the local Catholic Church. It shouldn’t require a Catholic to consult a theological manual to understand all the particular details of each of the four marks. A basic understanding of the marks is all that’s needed to find the Church or else only theologians and highly educated Catholics would be the only ones to actually find it.

All four marks are interconnected to the doctrine and ministry of the Church. No other church has any of the four marks as the Catholic Church defines them. If you find the Church that’s one, then you’ve also found the Church that’s holy, catholic, and apostolic.

When a pastoral office of a particular church or mission becomes vacant, the apostolic mark doesn’t disappear from that particular church or mission or else the particular church or mission would effectively disappear each time the office becomes vacant.

One might argue that the particular church without a priest is under the bishop. Therefore, the mark exists with the bishop over that church. What if the bishopric is also vacant at the same time as the church without the priest? The next step would be to point to the pope who is the head over all the Church. Well, what if the papal office is vacant at the same time as the diocese without a bishop and the church within that diocese without a priest? Does that church cease to be Catholic, since there’s no hierarchy over that particular church to point to? In the past without the internet and high speed mail, men wouldn’t know for long periods of time when the papal office is vacant anyway.

No Catholic in his right mind would say that church was no longer Catholic. What keeps the apostolic mark with this particular church, without a priest, bishop, or pope, is the faith of the people with the potential of having the office filled.

A good example is the Church in Japan. On July 24, 1587, the Chancellor of the Realm, Tokugawa Hideyoshi promulgated a ban on Catholicism. The Church went underground and eventually lost all of its pastors for the next couple of hundred years until the late 1800’s. This of course, would include papal interregnums throughout those many years. The Catholic Church existed without a hierarchy in Japan under these harshest of times for any Christian anywhere anytime.

The particular church or mission that’s connected to the Apostolic See (filled or not) is the Catholic Church, plain and simple. Again, the Church in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries serves as one good example.

Every particular church and mission of the faithful united to the Chair of Peter has all four marks, because the marks are not dependent on the offices being filled, but only that they can be filled or the potential of being filled.

The whole Church is governed by the Chair of Peter even when the office is vacant. The proof lies in the fact that Catholics must obey and follow the laws and teachings of the Church that stem from the Office of Peter just as we are governed by Christ through His Word and Instruction. The governing would be imperfect, since the Church is in an imperfect form without a pope.

Just as the Church can be in an imperfect form without a pope, the four marks can be imperfect.  For instance, during the Great Western Schism, when three men claimed the papacy, the mark of oneness was imperfect. The oneness existed, but it was difficult to see and understand.

The Great Western Schism was a unique time in history, just as our times are today. I suspect the common and perhaps the universal opinion of the experts long before the Great Western Schism would be that such a thing would be impossible, yet it happened. A universal opinion is still an opinion, thus it is futile to use some theologian to prove that a hierarchy will exist at every moment in time. The moral unanimity opinion can’t be proved and the numerical unanimity opinion proves nothing.

It was the universal (numerical) opinion, including that of popes, that a true pope could be legitimately deposed. This is proved by the fact that popes were deposed and not a single theologian said it was illegitimate at that time. This universal opinion was eventually defined to be false at the First Vatican Council, which reiterated the teaching of Pope St. Nicholas I, in his epistle (8), Proposueramus quidem, (865 A.D.) to Emperor Michael III on the Immunity and Independence of the Church: “… “Neither by Augustus, nor by all the clergy, nor by religious, nor by the people will the judge be judged… ‘The first seat will not be judged by anyone.’”

The apostolic mark exists in potentiality when it comes to the filling of offices for Apostolic succession, but exists fully in apostolicity in doctrine, which is guaranteed by apostolicity in mission. Since the mission remains with the potentiality of the filling of office, and the Church is one body morally in law and doctrine with the highest office, the mark is still visible and perhaps more visible than the mark of oneness during the time of the Great Western Schism. It’s not hard to find the real Church, which holds to the Apostolic Faith in its entirety, but it will take some effort to find it.

A government or hierarchy without apostolicity of faith is not and can not be of the Church of Christ. This necessarily excludes the Eastern Orthodox and the Vatican 2 religion because both religions can’t trace its faith back to the Apostles.

The Eastern Orthodox churches reject the papacy and the Vatican 2 church not only doesn’t have the four marks, it rejects them as the Catholic Church has defined them. This is demonstrated in Missing the Marks: The Church of Vatican 2.

The Vatican 2 religion also rejects the ecclesiology of the return to the Catholic Church, the Syllabus of Errors, and the condemnation of women serving the sanctuary and holding public offices. It rejects the death penalty as an intrinsically evil practice because according to the head of the Vatican 2 religion, it attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person. 

Apostolicity absolutely requires the Apostolic Faith, but not the hierarchy at all times. Apostolic succession doesn’t cease for the papacy when the office is vacant even for a long time. There’s no reason to think it’s stopped now. Apostolicity remains with the Chair of Peter regardless.

According to the Vatican 2 religion, material apostolic succession as found in the Eastern Orthodox churches is all that’s needed to maintain the Church of Christ. There’s no question that sedevacantism has material apostolic succession with the current bishops. Therefore, if a Vatican 2 apologist appeals to an opinion that formal apostolic succession is necessary, they would be going against their own popes who taught the opposite.

The position of sedevacantism does not say the hierarchy has died out, just as the papal office has not died out due to the vacancy. For it to die out, it would take the inability to ever fill the office. As long as Catholic bishops exist, the potential of having offices exist. Thus, apostolic succession remains and the hierarchy has not died out and it will not die out, lest the gates of hell prevail.

The Sacrament of Confirmation in the Bible

Descent of the Holy Ghost by Gustave Doré 1865

Pope St. Pius X explains Confirmation in his Catechism:

Confirmation is the sacrament which gives us the Holy Ghost, imprints on our souls the mark of a soldier of Jesus Christ, and makes us perfect Christians by confirming us in the faith and perfecting the other virtues and gifts received in Baptism.

The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and the Fear of the Lord.

The matter of this sacrament, besides the imposition of hands by the bishop, is the anointing of the forehead of the baptised with sacred chrism; and for this reason it is also called the sacrament of Chrism, that is Anointing.

Sacred Chrism is oil of olive mingled with balsam, and consecrated by the bishop on Holy Thursday. In this sacrament the oil, which is unctuous and strengthening, signifies the abounding grace which is diffused over the soul of the Christian to confirm him in his faith; and the balsam, which is fragrant and prevents corruption, signifies that the Christian, strengthened by this grace, is enabled to give forth a good odour of Christian virtue and preserve himself from the corruption of vice.

The form of the sacrament of Confirmation is this: “I sign thee with the Sign of the Cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

In administering the sacrament of Confirmation the bishop first stretches his hands over those to be confirmed, and invokes the Holy Ghost upon them; next, he anoints the forehead of each one with sacred chrism in the form of a cross, saying the words of the form; then he gives each one confirmed a light stroke on the cheek with his right hand, saying: Peace be with you; finally, he solemnly blesses all those he has confirmed.

The anointing is made on the forehead, where signs of fear and shame appear, in order that he who is confirmed may understand that he should not blush at the name and profession of a Christian, nor fear the enemies of his faith.

A light stroke is given to the person confirmed to show him that he should be ready to bear all insults and endure all sufferings for the faith of Jesus Christ.

We find this great sacrament in the Holy Scriptures several times:

Now when the apostles, who were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For he was not as yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. (Acts 8:14-17)

And it came to pass, while Apollo was at Corinth, that Paul having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. And he said to them: Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost. And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John’s baptism. Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of penance, saying: That they should believe in him who was to come after him, that is to say, in Jesus. Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. (Acts19:1-6)

Wherefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect, not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works, and of faith towards God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and imposition of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Heb 6:1-2)

In whom you also, after you had heard the word of truth, (the gospel of your salvation;) in whom also believing, you were signed with the holy Spirit of promise,…(Eph 1:13)

The following are three early Church Fathers writing on Confirmation. More can be found with Tertullian, St. Hippolytus of Rome, St. Ephraim, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, etc.

 St. Theophilus of Antioch writing in 181 AD “To Autolycus”:

Are you willing to be anointed with the oil of God? It is on this account that we are Christians: because we are anointed with the oil of God.

Pope St. Cornelius wrote in 251 AD to Fabius of Antioch:

As [Novation] seemed about to die, he received Baptism in the bed where he lay, by pouring – if indeed, such a man can be said to have received it at all. And when he recovered from his illness he did not receive the other things which, in accord with the law of the Church, it is necessary to have; nor was he sealed with by the bishop. And since this was not done, how could he have the Holy Spirit?

St. Cyprian of Carthage to Jubalianus, Bishop of Maurentania 254 AD:

Some, however, say in regard to those who were baptized in Samaria, that when the Apostles Peter and John came there only hands were imposed on them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and that they were not, however, re-baptized. But we see, dearest brother, that this situation in no way pertains to the present case. For those in Samaria who had believed, had believed in the true faith; and it was by the deacon Philip, who those same Apostles had sent there, that they had been baptized inside, in the Church, which is one, and in which alone it is permitted to give the grace of Baptism and to absolve sins.

For the reason, then, that they had already received legitimate and ecclesiastical Baptism, it was not necessary to baptize them again. Rather, that only which was lacking was done by Peter and John; and thus, prayer having been make over them, and hands having been imposed upon them, the Holy Spirit was invoked and was poured out upon them. This is even now the practice among us, so that those who are baptized in the Church are then brought to the prelates of the Church; and through our prayer and the imposition of hands, they receive the Holy Spirit and are perfected with the seal of the Lord.

The History of Bishop Martin J. Spalding

The following 3-minute video tells us about a great Kentuckian who once pastored St. Peter’s Church in Lexington, which I was married in. He was the Bishop of Louisville, Kentucky and later became the Archbishop of Baltimore and leader of the Catholic Church in America. He also attended the First Vatican Council.

Rome Will NOT Become the Seat of Antichrist

“Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist” is an infamous quote from Melanie Calvat, seer of the Apparition of La Salette used by traditional Catholics in an attempt to prove that an apparition supports the resistance movement against the Vatican 2 popes. 

The 1846 apparition of La Salette was endorsed by St. John Vianney and Pope Pius IX. It was later endorsed by Pope’s Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII. The original secrets from the apparition were recorded by church officials in 1847 and submitted by the children directly to Pope Pius IX in 1851, the year the apparition was approved by the Church.

After joining a convent in 1851, Melanie became disturbed, and her behavior became progressively worse. When surrounded in public, she began making up strange stories about her childhood, such as playing with the Christ child and leading wolves, foxes, and snakes in procession through the woods chanting praises to God, with the wolf carrying the cross. However, it was well-known that she had been completely irreligious as a child and woods didn’t exist where she lived. She became hysterical and had fits when people refused to believe her. For instance, she refused to eat for a couple of days and once tried to bite the Reverend Mother.

She was never allowed to take her vows and become a sister.

When she was sent to England in 1855, she claimed to hear voices, witness miraculous events, and began to make apocalyptic prophecies. Her bishop forbade to make prophecies, but she considered herself over his authority.

When told that she didn’t have a vocation, she reacted by attacking the convents. She was later sent back to France and broke promises with the authorities. She was finally sent to Italy for the next 17 years. There she spent time reading apocalyptic books and the lives of the illuminati. 

In 1878, new religious orders were being established in La Salette. Melanie claimed she was authorized by God to provide their rules and habits, but her bishop rejected her. She appealed to Pope Leo XIII who in an interview with Melanie also denied her.

At this point, she wrote her new version of the La Salette secret in 1879, which contained the infamous quote about Rome becoming the seat of Antichrist. This tract was approved by a bishop and was circulated under the title of Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette. However, in 1880 the Holy Office forbade her to write further tracts. After 3 printings, Rome finally placed the tract on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1923. [1] Her new version of the secret of La Salette was forbidden. 

In 1903, Pope St. Pius X implied that the universe and not Rome will be the seat of Antichrist. [2]

Case closed.

 

Footnotes:

[1] The decree of the Holy Office reads:

DAMNATUR OPUSCULUM: “L’APPARITION DE LA TRÉS SAINTE VIERGE DE LA SALETTE”

DECRETUM

Feria IV, die 9 maii 1923

In generali consessu Supremae Sacrae Congregationis S. Officii Emi ac Rmi Domini Cardinales fidei et moribus tutandis praepositi proscripserunt atque damnaverunt opusculum: L’apparition de la trés Sainte Vierge sur la montague de la Salette le samedi septembre 1846.—Simple réimpression du texte intégral publié par Mélanie, etc. Societé Saint-Augustin, Paris-Rome-Bruges, 1922;

Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1923) pp. 287-288

[2] Pope St. Pius X’s pivotal teaching in E Supremi, (On the Restoration of All Things in Christ), Oct. 4, 1903:

5. When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the Apostle speaks (II. Thess. ii., 3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge of God, he has contemned God’s majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored. “He sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God” (II. Thess. Ii., 2).

 

 

Powerful Epistle Reading for the Third Sunday of Lent

St. Paul told the Ephesians, “the days are evil.” The days are still evil as is evident by the wickedness found in the world all around us. Today’s reading comes from the same chapter in Ephesians, where St. Paul tells us how to behave in these evil days:

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.” (Eph. 5:1-9)

The Sunday reading ended here, but St. Paul continued…

“Proving what is well pleasing to God: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.” (Eph. 5:10-12)

 

How many of us are guilty of fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, obscenity, foolish talking, or scurrility? How many of us partake or delight in it in some way? How many of us don’t reprove the evil works or aren’t ashamed to speak of them? Not only do these things keep us from attaining Heaven, but they cause scandal and influence others to do evil. We become part of the world and enemy to Christ and His Church. 

 

Getting to Heaven should always be on our minds as our final end. We want as many as possible to follow us in this goal. That means we should despise everything that stands in the way! We must love what God loves and hate what God hates.

 

St. Paul also told us, “And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.” (Rom. 12:2)

40 Defects of the Vatican 2 Religion

The following list of defects of the Vatican 2 religion is in no particular order. These are just the first 40 which came to mind.

 

1. We begin with the 4 marks of the Church, which the Vatican 2 religion has none. It even denies having them as the Catholic Church has defined them as seen in Missing the Marks: The Church of Vatican 2.

2. Not only is the Vatican 2 church a formally divided religion, but it’s The Believe-Whatever-You-Want Religion of Bergoglio. Just about anything and everything is permissible for belief to be part of the religion. 

3. It has heretical and unholy doctrines and practices, which only false religions have.

4. Claims that false religions make up the Church of Christ. In the Balamand statement and in numerous letters and addresses from the Vatican 2 popes, the Eastern Orthodox are considered and called part of the Church of Christ. We see the same with some Protestant religions, such as the Lutherans.

5. It officially teaches that the death penalty is intrinsically evil. As we see in ‘Pope’ Francis’ Heresy on the Death Penalty. It claims this position was not intrinsically evil in the past, which proves the religion is a modernist religion where truth changes over time.

6. It officially approved altar girls. Altar Girls are Impossible for the True Catholic Church and in Altar Girls Revisited to Prove Again Sedevacantism I quickly prove that point again.

7. In 1970, women lectors were approved despite Scripture’s teaching, “Let women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject, as also the law saith” (I Cor. 14:34). The evil fruit of feminism has taken over the world, because the Vatican 2 religion has incorporated it and doesn’t condemn it. You don’t even find laymen condemning the feminism in their church and world. They ALL go along with it.  

8. Not only are women permitted to hold public offices, but “Pope” Francis actually appoints them for leadership positions in the Vatican.

9. Head coverings are missing from women in church despite the fact that St. Paul specifically says they should be covered in chapter 11 of First Corinthians. 

10. Not only are head covering not required, but clothes aren’t either as seen with a few of “Pope St.” John Paul II’s masses. Apparently, women may go topless, too.

11. Lay men and women are permitted to serve as “Eucharistic Ministers” in mass.

12. There’s widespread effeminacy especially with bishops and priests. All of the Vatican 2 popes, except John Paul II, were effeminate. This is all part of the feminist culture.

13. In Vatican 2, which is supposed to be an ecumenical council, we have intended ambiguity leaving open heretical interpretations. The hierarchy have taken advantage of these ambiguities and the goal is realized. 

14. We have a papal denial of Christ’s literal descent into hell as seen in A Forgotten Heresy of ‘Pope St.’ John Paul II

15. There’s false ecumenism such as the THE DIABOLICAL ASSISI EVENTS. There’s also participation in false worship led by popes who’ve participated in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Islam, and Lutheranism. This is encouraging false worship and mixing with false worship. All in all, it’s fundamentally the ideals of Freemasonry.

16. The New mass is more like Martin Luther’s and Archbishop Cranmer’s services. This is clearly seen in the Institution Narrative, which was invented by these Protestants.

17. Liturgical abuses such as clown masses, puppet masses, quasi-masses with women running the show are not stopped, punished, or even condemned by the Vatican 2 popes.

18. Communion is permitted to non-Catholics by law.

19. Holy Orders are doubtful as seen in Why Catholics Can’t Accept the New Rite of Holy Orders for Priests and Bishops

20. Extreme Unction is invalid as seen in Extreme Unction VS Vatican 2’s Anointing of the Sick.

21. Marriage has a 6-month prep with classes, but then annulments are handed out like candy.

22. Religious liberty is recognized as a divine right because of the dignity of the human person.

23. Vatican 2’s teaching on religious liberty abolished the Catholic state. The implication is that the Vatican 2 religion is against the existence of the Catholic state.

24. Has taught that the Old Covenant was not revoked and the conversion of Jews is not necessary. 

25. Vatican 2 popes are perverted with washing women’s and tranny’s feet during Lent, appointing and supporting LGBTQ bishops/priests/ideology, and transgenderism. Rainbow flags are already flown in the churches.

26. “Pope” Francis officially declared that God permissively willed the sex of man. The implication is that transgenderism is permissible.

27. Every Vatican 2 pope is canonized. These canonizations are beyond ridiculous.

28. It permits its members who hold high ranking positions such as the US President to openly profess heresy, abortion on demand, homosexuality, transgenderism, Marxism, and Communism. “Pope” Francis praises Biden and Pelosi. 

29. The Vatican 2 religion has a very lax system with only 2 days fasting all year, no ember days, no Lenten fast, and does not encourage or enforce the Friday abstinence. Even at mass, dressing up is rarely practiced as men and women wear jeans, tees, and other casual wear. Churches are used for entertainment and art exhibits (sometimes pornographic.) Most nuns no longer where their habits. There’s widespread laziness among clerics getting the sacraments to the people. 

30. Although popes can be bad, they must be Catholic unlike “Pope” Francis who openly denies Mary’s perfection, openly denies John the Baptist’s knowledge of Christ, and tells children that atheists go to heaven. He even condemns proselytism and calls it a grave sin and pagan. Both John XXIII and Paul VI appointed openly practicing Freemasons in offices. The religion is officially gay and masonic.

31. Vatican 2 denies that the Catholic Church is the only means of salvation.

32. Vatican 2 declared that Muslims worship the same God who will judge us on the last day, when objectively they don’t worship Jesus and it’s impossible to know who or what they worship subjectively.

33. Purgatory is almost forgotten because everybody is treated as going to heaven. Hell is reserved for the really, really bad people. The Fewness of the Saved – Most Christians Go to Hell is a rejected belief.

34. Non-Catholic and Public schools are praised and encouraged despite the true Papal Teaching on Non-Catholic and Public Schools.

35. Vatican 2 popes call into doubt saints and then removed them from the liturgical calendar.

36. Vatican 2 popes venerate arch-heretic Martin Luther. Now there’s a statue of him in the Vatican. Vatican postage stamps give Luther praise for his revolt. The Vatican even celebrates “Reformation Day.”

37. “Pope St.” John Paul II approved heretical Lutheran doctrine of Sola Fide with the approval of the joint declaration, which also implied that the Lutheran religion is part of the Church of Christ.

38. Altar rails are removed from beautiful historic Churches and replaced the high altars with tables.

39. New churches are built ugly as sin – devoid of all holiness – blasphemous architecture, crucifixes, and Stations of the Cross.

40. Most all the members of the Vatican 2 religion love the defects of their religion and hate the traditional teachings and practices of the Church. Vatican 2 apologists rationalize all of it away. 

All in all, I absolutely detest the Vatican 2 religion and all of its evil fruit.

 

A Forgotten Heresy of ‘Pope St.’ John Paul II

6/7/1982 President meeting with Pope John Paul II during visit to the Papal Library Vatican Pontifical Palace

I recently gave an old stubborn Vatican 2 Catholic a copy of an article I posted in 2009 titled One of the Great Heresies of John Paul II in His Own Words. He knows Francis is bad news, but to him John Paul II was a great pope. I want to revisit this whopper heresy by the man the Vatican 2 religion calls “Pope Saint John Paul the Great.”

EWTN (generally thought of as a conservative outlet) is not ashamed to post the 1989 General Audience of John Paul II on the meaning of Christ’s descent into hell. [1] I will post the relevant parts, but you’re welcomed to read the whole cursed thing to get the full flavor of his interpretation. Like the good modernist he was, he cleverly makes it sound like he’s orthodox by stating the key words and phrases.

John Paul II first mentions those keys:

4. As is evident from the texts quoted, the article of the Apostles’ Creed, “he descended into hell”, is based on the New Testament statements <on the descent of Christ>, after his death on the Cross, into the “region of death”, into the abode of the dead”, which in Old Testament language was called the “abyss”.

So far, so good. However, John Paul II then explains what this all means. He continued…

If the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of “the lower parts of the earth”, it is because the earth receives the human body after death, and so it received also the body of Christ who expired on Calvary, as described by the Evangelists (cf. Mt 27:59 f, and parallel passages; In 19:40-42). <Christ passed through> a real <experience of death>, including the final moment which is generally a part of the whole process: <he was placed in the tomb.>

It is a confirmation that this was a real, and not merely an apparent, death. His soul, separated from the body, was glorified in God, but his body lay in the tomb as a <corpse.>

During the three (incomplete) days between the moment when he “expired” (cf. Mk 15:37) and the resurrection, Jesus experienced the state of death”, that is, the separation of body and soul, as in the case of all people. This is the primary meaning of the words “he descended into hell”; they are linked to what Jesus himself had foretold when, in reference to the story of Jonah. he had said: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so ” (Mt 12:40).

Notice that he declared that “the primary meaning” of descent into hell means “experience of death,” “as in the case of all people,” “placed in a tomb,” and “separation of body and soul.” 

While it’s true that we’ll all experience death, none of us will ever experience the descent into hell as Christ and those who died before Him. John Paul II’s initial explanation about Christ’s descent into hell is pure nonsense. The late imposter pope reaffirmed that Christ didn’t literally go anywhere when he also said, “The Apostle adds however: ‘<In spirit (Christ) went and preached to the spirits in prison>’ (1 Pt 3:19). This seems to indicate metaphorically the extension of Christ’s salvation to the just men and women who had died before him.”

All throughout the explanation, John Paul II sounds like a modernist Jesuit theologian who hits all around the dogma and deliberately avoiding the main point. Never does John Paul II indicate that there’s a real literal place where Christ went. Everything is a metaphor and even titles one section “Metaphors of Time and Space” where he explains away the simple meaning of I Peter 4:6.7.

One Vatican 2 apologist told me that John Paul II got it right in his 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church.

However, his catechism is not clear at all. It uses the same language as his 1989 general audience. At the end, his catechism states:

IN BRIEF

636 By the expression “He descended into hell”, the Apostles’ Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil “who has the power of death” (Heb 2:14).

637 In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him.

The Apostles’ Creed already states that Christ died and was buried. “Descended into hell” means something different. The “realm of the dead” according to John Paul II just meant the sepulcher, separation of body and soul, and experience of death. It’s a metaphor and not an actual place. 

The dogma of Christ’s descent into hell is very simple and the Roman Catechism of Pope St. Pius V explains it clearly. In fact, his catechism actually condemns John Paul II’s apparent old-recycled explanation.

The Roman Catechism of Trent taught:

“We firmly believe and profess that when His soul was dissociated from His body, His Divinity continued always united both to His body in the sepulcher and to His soul in limbo. (p. 53)”

“By the word hell is not here meant the sepulcher, as some have not less impiously than ignorantly imagined; for in the preceding Article we learned that Christ the Lord was buried, and there was no reason why the Apostles, in delivering an Article of Faith, should repeat the same thing in other and more obscure terms.”

“Hell, then, here signifies those secret abodes in which are detained the souls that have not obtained the happiness of heaven. In this sense the word is frequently used in Scripture. Thus the Apostles says: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell; and in the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter says that Christ the Lord is again risen, having loosed the sorrows of hell. (p. 62-63)”

“Lastly, the third kind of abode is that into which the souls of the just before the coming of Christ the Lord, were received, and where, without experiencing any sort of pain, but supported by the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed peaceful repose. To liberate these souls , who, in the bosom of Abraham were expecting the Saviour, Christ the Lord descended into hell. (p. 63)”

“Christ the Lord descended into hell, in order that, … he might liberate from prison those holy Fathers and the other just souls… (p. 64)”

It just so happens that Pope St. Pius X implicitly condemned John Paul II as a modernist when he declared: 62. The principal articles of the Apostles’ Creed did not have the same meaning for the Christians of the earliest times as they have for the Christians of our time. CONDEMNED as an error of the Modernists, by Pope St Pius X in Lamentabili, July 3, 1907

John Paul II surely knew the Roman Catechism and that the early Christians didn’t believe as his 1989 explanation.

John Paul was simply a modernist. It should come as no surprise. He continued his modernist agenda throughout his entire fake pontificate. I contrast him with St. Patrick in My Article The New Oxford Review Wouldn’t Publish.

John Paul II was no saint. He was a man-pleaser and a dogma denying apostate. How quickly we forget how bad he truly was.

 

Footnote:

[1] https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/he-descended-into-hell-8679

A Forgotten Teaching of Pope St. Pius X

 

TRIBUS CIRCITER

ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS X
ON THE MARIAVITES OR MYSTIC PRIESTS OF POLAND
TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN,
THE ARCHBISHOPS OF WARSAW, AND BISHOPS OF PLOTSK
AND LUBLIN AMONG THE POLES

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, the fifth day of April, MDCCCCVI, in the third year of Our Pontificate.

9. But their profession of fidelity to the Vicar of Christ is vain in those who, in fact, do not cease to violate the authority of their Bishops. For “by far the most august part of the Church consists of the Bishops, (as Our Predecessor Leo XIII of holy memory wrote in his letter of December 17, 1888, to the Archbishop), inasmuch as this part by divine right teaches and rules men; hence, whoever resists them or pertinaciously refuses obedience to them puts himself apart from the Church. . . On the other hand, to pass judgment upon or to rebuke the acts of Bishops does not at all belong to private individuals – that comes within the province only of those higher than they in authority and especially of the Sovereign Pontiff, for to him Christ entrusted the charge of feeding not only His lambs, but His sheep throughout the world. At most, it is allowed in matters of grave complaint to refer the whole case to the Roman Pontiff, and this with prudence and moderation as zeal for the common good requires, not clamorously or abusively, for in this way dissensions and hostilities are bred, or certainly increased.”

St. Margaret Mary and Purgatory

Before Holy Mass today, I picked up my favorite book, “Purgatory – Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints” by Fr. F.X. Shouppe S.J. As always when reading this book, I stumbled upon a story that shook me up a bit. The story comes from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. In 2019, I posted St. Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus giving a little information about her. This great saint is mentioned several times in the Purgatory book. In fact, there are four different stories, which are related to her and Purgatory. I’ve decided to post all of them here for our edification.

First Story

Let us conclude what we have said concerning the nature of these pains by some details which we find in the Life of Blessed Margaret Mary of the Visitation. They are taken in part from the Memoir of Mother Grefifier, who, wisely diffident on the subject of the extraordinary graces granted to Blessed Sister Margaret, recognized the truth only after a thousand trials. Mother Philiberte Emmanuel de Montoux, Superior at Annecy, died 2 February 1683, after a life which had edified the whole Order. Mother Grefifier recommended her especially to the prayers of Sister Margaret. After some time the latter told her superior that Our Lord had made known to her that this soul was most dear to Him on account of her love and fidelity in His service, and that an ample recompense awaited her in Heaven when she should have accomplished her purification in Purgatory.

The Blessed Sister saw the departed in the place of expiation. Our Lord showed her the sufferings which she endured, and how greatly she was relieved by the suffrages and good works which were daily offered for her throughout the whole Order of the Visitation. During the night from Holy Thursday to Good Friday, whilst Sister

Margaret was still praying for her. He showed her the soul of the departed as placed under the chalice which contained the Sacred Host on the altar of repose. There she participated in the merits of His agony in the Garden of Olives. On Easter Sunday, which that year fell on April 18, Sister Margaret saw the soul enjoying the commencement, as it were, of eternal felicity, desiring and hoping soon to be admitted to the vision and possession of God.

Finally, a fortnight after, on 2 May Sunday, Feast of the Good Shepherd, she saw the soul of the departed as rising sweetly into eternal glory, chanting melodiously the canticle of Divine Love.

Let us see how Blessed Margaret herself gives the account of this last apparition in a letter addressed on the same day, 2 May 1623, to Mother de Saumaise at Dijon: “Jesus forever!

My soul is filled with so great a joy that I can scarcely restrain myself Permit me, dear Mother, to communicate it to your heart, which is one with mine in that of Our Lord. This morning, Sunday of the Good Shepherd, on my awakening, two of my good suffering friends came to bid me adieu.

Today the Supreme Pastor receives them into His eternal fold with a million other souls. Both joined this multitude of blessed souls, and departed singing canticles of joy. One is the good Mother Philiberte Emmanuel de Montoux, the other Sister Jeanne Catherine Gacon. One repeated unceasingly these words: Love triumphs, love rejoices in God; the other. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, and the Religious who live and die in the exact observance of their rules. Both desired that I should say to you on their part that death may separate souls, but can never disunite them. If you knew how my soul was transported with joy! For whilst I was speaking to them, I saw them sink by degrees into glory like a person who plunges into the vast ocean. They ask of you in thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity one Laudate and three times Gloria Patri. As I desired them to remember us, their last words were that ingratitude is unknown in Heaven.”

Second Story

We read of the Life of Blessed Margaret Mary that a soul was tortured in a bed of torments on account of her indolence during life; at the same time she was subjected to a particular torture in her heart, on account of certain wicked sentiments, and in her tongue, in punishment of her uncharitable words. Moreover, she had to endure a frightful pain of an entirely different nature, caused neither by fire nor iron, but by the sight of a condemned soul. Let us see how the Blessed Margaret describes it in her writings.

“I saw in a dream,” she says, “one of our sisters who had died some time previous. She told me that she suffered much in Purgatory, but that God had inflicted upon her a suffering which surpassed all other pains, by showing her one of her near relatives precipitated into Hell.

“At these words I awoke, and felt as though my body was bruised from head to foot, so that it was with difficulty I could move. As we should not believe in dreams, I paid little attention to this one, but the Religious obliged me to do so in spite of myself. From that moment she gave me no rest, and said to me incessantly, ‘Pray to God for me; offer to Him your sufferings united to those of Jesus Christ, to alleviate mine; and give me all you shall do until the first Friday in May, when you will please communicate for me.’ This I did, with permission of my superior.

“Meanwhile the pain which this suffering soul caused me increased to such a degree that I could find neither comfort nor repose. Obedience obliged me to seek a little rest upon my bed; but scarcely had I retired when she seemed to approach me, saying, ‘You recline at your ease upon your bed; look at the one upon which I lie, and where I endure intolerable sufferings.’ I saw that bed, and the very thought of it makes me shudder. The top and bottom was of sharp flaming points which pierced the flesh. She told me then that this was on account of her sloth and negligence in the observance of the rules. ‘My heart is torn,’ she continued, ‘and causes me the most terrible sufferings for my thoughts of disapproval and criticism of my superiors. My tongue is devoured by vermin, and, as it were, torn from my mouth continually, for the words I spoke against charity and my little regard for the rule of silence. Ah! would that all souls consecrated to God could see me in these torments. If I could show them what is prepared for those who live negligently in their vocation, their zeal and fervor would be entirely renewed, and they would avoid those faults which now cause me to suffer so much.’

“At this sight I melted into tears. ‘Alas!’ said she, ‘one day passed by the whole community in exact observance would heal my parched mouth; another passed in the practice of holy charity would cure my tongue; and a third passed without any murmuring or disapproval of superiors would heal my bruised heart; but no one thinks to relieve me.’

“After I had offered the Communion which she had asked of me, she said that her dreadful torments were much diminished, but she had still to remain a long time in

Purgatory, condemned to suffer the pains due to those souls that have been tepid in the service of God. As for myself,” adds Blessed Margaret Mary, “I found that I was freed from my sufferings, which I had been told would not diminish until the soul herself should be relieved.” (Languet, Vie de la B. Marguerite).

In that famous apparition where Blessed Margaret Mary saw the deceased Religious suffering intensely for her tepidity, the poor soul, after having related in detail the torments which she endured, concluded with these words: “Alas! one hour of exactitude in silence would cure my parched mouth; another passed in the practice of charity would heal my tongue; another passed without murmuring or disapprobation of the actions of the Superior would cure my tortured heart.”

By this we see that the soul asked not for works of supererogation, but only the application of those to which the Religious are obliged.

Third Story

Monseigneur Languet, Bishop of Soissons, makes the same remark with reference to a circumstance which he relates in the Life of Blessed Margaret Alacoque. Madame Billet, wife of the doctor of the house – that is to say, of the convent of Paray – where the blessed sister resided, had Just died. The soul of the deceased appeared to the servant of God, asking her prayers, and charging her to warn her husband of two secret affairs that concerned his salvation. The holy sister gave an account of what had taken place to her Superior, Mother Greffier. The Superior ridiculed the vision, and the one who related it to her; she imposed silence upon Margaret, forbidding her to say or do anything regarding what had been asked of her. “The humble Religious obeyed with simplicity; and with the same simplicity she related to Mother Greffier the second solicitation which she received from the deceased some days later; but the Superior treated this with the same contempt. However, the following night she herself was aroused by such a horrible noise in her room that she thought she would die from fright. She called the sisters, and when assistance came, she was on the point of swooning away. When she somewhat recovered, she reproached herself with incredulity, and no longer delayed to acquaint the doctor with what had been revealed to Sister Margaret.

“The doctor recognized the warning as coming from God, and profited by it. As for Mother Greffier, she learned by experience that if distrust is ordinarily the wisest policy, it is sometimes wrong to carry it too far, especially when the glory of God and the good of our neighbor is concerned.”

Fourth Story

Among the revelations of Our Lord to Margaret Mary on the subject of Purgatory there is one which shows how particularly severe are the punishments inflicted for faults against Charity. “One day,” relates Monseigneur Languet, “Our Lord showed His servant a number of souls deprived of the assistance of the Blessed Virgin and the saints, and even of the visits of their angel guardians; this was,” said her Divine Master, “in punishment for their want of union with their superiors, and certain misunderstandings. Many of those souls were destined to remain for a great length of time in horrible flames. The blessed sister recognized also many souls who had lived in religion, and who, on account of their lack of union and charity with their brethren, were deprived of their suffrages and received no alleviations.”

If it is true that God punishes thus severely those that have failed in Charity, He will be infinitely merciful towards those who have practiced this virtue so dear to His Heart. But before all things. He says to us by the mouth of His Apostle, Saint Peter, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves, for charity covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8).

Let us hear Monseigneur Languet again in the Life of Margaret Mary. It is Mother Grefiber, he says, who, in the memoir she wrote after the death of the blessed sister, attests the following fact. “I cannot omit the cause of certain particular circumstances which manifest the truth of a revelation made on this occasion to the servant of God. The father of one of the novices was the cause of it. This gentleman had died some time previous, and had been recommended to the prayers of the community. The charity of Sister Margaret, then Mistress of Novices, urged her to pray more especially for him.

“Some days later the novice went to recommend him to her prayers. ‘My daughter,’ said her holy mistress, ‘be perfectly tranquil; your father is rather in a condition to pray for us.

Ask your mother what was the most generous action your father performed before his death; this action has obtained for him from God a favorable judgment.’

“The action to which she alluded was unknown to the novice; no one in Paray knew the circumstance of a death which had happened so far away from that town. The novice did not see her mother until long afterwards, on the day of her profession. She then asked what was that generous Christian action which her father had performed before dying. ‘When the Holy Viaticum was brought to him,’ replied her mother, ‘the butcher joined those who accompanied the Blessed Sacrament, and placed himself in a corner of the room. The sick, on perceiving him, called him by his name, told him to approach, and, pressing his hand with a humility uncommon in persons of his rank, asked pardon for some hard words which he had addressed to him from time to time, and desired that all present should be witness of the reparation which he made.’ Sister Margaret had learned from God alone what had taken place, and the novice knew by that the consoling truth of what she had told her concerning her father’s happy state in the other life.”

Let us add that God, by this revelation, has shown us once more how Charity covereth a multitude of sins, and will cause us to find Mercy in the day of Justice.

Blessed Margaret Mary received from our Divine Lord another communication relative to Charity. He showed her the soul of a deceased person who had to undergo but a light chastisement, and He told her that among all the good works which this person had performed in the world, He had taken into special consideration certain humiliations to which she had submitted in the world, because she had suffered them in the spirit of charity, not only without murmuring, but even without speaking of them. Our Lord added, that, in recompense. He had given her a mild and favorable judgment.

What Membership in the Church Absolutely Requires

Pope Leo XIII declared in Satis Cognitum:

St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. “No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic” (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).

Pro-LGBTQ Bishop John Stowe of the Lexington Diocese of Kentucky is part of the Vatican 2 hierarchy as a whole and is fully supported by Francis. He is “one in faith” with the Vatican 2 church. This same church is united to President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi who both support the LGBTQ lifestyle and abortion on demand. Membership in the Vatican 2 religion includes radical apostates such as these. Oneness in faith has no real meaning in the Vatican 2 church.

Where’s the unity of faith as defined by the Catholic Church? The Mark of Oneness as the Catholic Church teaches doesn’t exist with the Vatican 2 religion in any sense of the definition. 

Why would membership in the Church be required of men to be saved, if the Catholic Faith isn’t required to be a member?

The entire argument hinges on whether faith is required at all. This is why sedevacantism exists, because we believe it to be absolutely necessary.

Membership and profession of faith can’t be separated. The Vatican 2 profession of faith just means saying “I’m Catholic, Francis is pope, and I only go to mass under Francis’ ordinaries.” It most certainly doesn’t mean that you must believe what the Catholic Church teaches.

Most Vatican 2 Catholics in the US believe in same-sex unions and accept artificial contraception. They reject dogmas knowing they are dogmas, which means they don’t believe in the teaching authority of the Church. This includes some of the hierarchy and they admit as much. The so-called conservative/orthodox hierarchy of the same religion recognizes these heretics as heretics while remaining part of the hierarchy. Yet, Vatican 2 apologists will say that all on both sides of the theological fence profess the Catholic Faith anyway. According to them, professing each and every Catholic doctrine at least implicitly is not necessary for Catholic membership.

The nature of the Catholic Church as a society demands unity in the profession of the same doctrine as presented by Christ, the Apostles, and the teaching office of the Church.

It ultimately means that we publicly declare the belief that all the doctrines, disciplines, laws, and liturgies of the Catholic Church are holy and true. This is what makes the Church One as it is Holy. Anything else is not a profession of the Catholic Faith. [1]

The Vatican 2 hierarchy as a whole does not even profess the necessity of believing in Natural Law. Belief in anything is regarded as professing the faith sufficiently as long as you claim to be Catholic and Francis is pope.

In other words, the Vatican 2 religion is preaching another gospel. There’s no way around it.

If anyone whosoever, even an angel from heaven were to tell us to be union with the Vatican 2 hierarchy, let him be anathema, because it’s another gospel. [2]

Vatican 2 apologists will quote the opinions of theologians as dogmas but reject the teaching of popes such as Pope Leo XIII’s teaching on Catholic unity. The rationalization of Vatican 2 apologists is on another level of cognitive dissonance. They will attack sedevacantism with a vengeance and ignore the gigantic absence of unity of faith as defined as the first mark and article of Catholic Faith within their false religion.

Footnotes:

[1] “What unity of faith does and does not mean.

The essential unity of faith definitely requires that everyone hold each and every doctrine clearly and distinctly presented for belief by the Church’s teaching office; and that everyone hold these truths explicitly or at least implicitly, i.e., by acknowledging the authority of the Church which teaches them.” (Van Noort page 128 Christ’s Church) Van Noort – Christ’s Church : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

[2] “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If anyone preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema (Gal. 1:8-9).”