On the Death of Rodney Stark, "Defender of History Against Centuries of anti-Catholic Lies"

The sociologist of religion Rodney Stark became one of the strongest and most unconventional defenders of the Church, and thus of the history of the West, against a large number of anti-Catholic falsifications of history that were deliberately disseminated.

The American sociologist of religion and outstanding apologist for the role of the Catholic Church in Western history passed away a month ago, shortly after his 88th birthday. On this occasion, we publish an interview with him that he granted to the Italian monthly Tempi in 2016 for the publication of his book "Bearing False Witness" ("Bearing False Witness "), the accusation of "non-Catholics" against the "illustrious fanatics," who pass off certain lies about the Church as history. Here is the post from 2016:

This is how Rodney Stark defended the Church against historical falsification

Paradoxically, the man who is perhaps the most effective living apologist for the role of the Roman Church in Western history is not even a Catholic. On the contrary, as he himself explains in his most recent book, he “grew up in the splendor of the Reformation” and “like all Lutherans” was “enlightened about the perversion of Catholics” every Sunday in the service. If Rodney Stark chose to write Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History, it was not out of a partisan impulse to fly a flag defend that was never his.

"I wrote this book to defend history."

The Crusades in a New Light

The sociologist of religion and professor at Baylor University, a Baptist university in Texas, where he directs the Department of Religious Studies, is the author of dozens of titles that are successful in many countries around the world [only a few of which have been translated into German: Der Sieg des Abendlandes. Christianity and Capitalist Freedom and God's Warriors. The Crusades in a New Light ], is highly praised and dedicated to the "neglected history" that shows how it was despised Christianity that brought about the liberty, progress, and prosperity of our civilization. In Bearing False Witness' he has collected the ten 'anti-Catholic myths' that he has encountered most frequently in the course of his countless studies. Ten lies and false accusations which, according to Stark, "had and have too far-reaching consequences in popular thought to be left to isolated refutation."

• --Anti-Semitism, theologically motivated by the charge of deicide;
• 
  
• --the existence of "enlightened" gospels hushed up and falsified by narrow-minded clergy;
• 
  
• --the extermination of the pagans after the Christian "conquest" of Rome;
• 
  
• --the "dark ages" of the Middle Ages, finally broken through by the rational revolution of the Enlightenment;
• 
  
• --the Crusades as the first bloody act of European colonialism;
• 
  
• --the crimes of the Spanish Inquisition and the witch hunts;
• 
  
• --the case of Galileo as proof of the Church's anti-science;
• the justification of slavery;
• 
  
• --the support of dictatorships against democracy;
• 
  
• --the social and civilized superiority of the Protestant Reformation.

By naming names and quoting dozens of times, Stark in the book dissects in turn what he calls "illustrious fanatics" and fellow scholars who, rather than behaving as such, "eagerly" embraced anti-Catholic shenanigans, being "so convinced of the depravity and stupidity of the Roman Catholic Church that they need seek no further confirmation," let alone evidence, although some of them must have recognized that so many of these stories came "out of nowhere." 

See e.g., there is the legend that Christopher Columbus discovered America while trying to prove by seafaring that the earth is round and not flat, as the Spanish cardinals who opposed his project supposedly “still” believed. A pure fairy tale invented in 1828 by writer Washington Irving, best known for inventing the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow. Nonetheless, it "remained in textbooks and popular culture for decades, even after scientists uncovered its fraudulent origins" (in Austria and West Germany it could still be heard in schools in 2009).

The Pope who is no longer supposed to be Catholic

The animosity of the “illustrious fanatics” towards the Church, according to Stark, goes back a long way.

“The Reformation and the religious wars that followed produced bitter hatreds and false accusations that have persisted through the centuries. Too much of this remains in the collective memory of Protestant countries. In contrast, I am not aware of any comparable vicious anti-Protestant myths in Catholic countries. 

And if in ancient Rome, according to E. Mary Smallwood's thesis taken up in the book, the alleged "exclusivity" of Jews and Christians led to unpopularity and persecution, in past centuries "the antagonism of polytheism to monotheism, which anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity has been replaced by a secular antagonism against all religions, which contain traditional teachings and a claim to truth". Hence the demand that the Pope should stop being Catholic in every respect.

According to Stark, "Voltaire and his colleagues invented the Dark Ages in order to proclaim that they were ridding civilization of religious backwardness."

 

In reality, however, there never was an obscurantist Middle Ages. On the contrary:

“The most important key to the rise of Western civilization has been the devotion of so many brilliant minds to the pursuit of knowledge. Not after illumination. Not after enlightenment. Not for wisdom. For knowledge!”

The Victory of the Occident

For Stark, it makes perfect sense that many of these "brilliant minds" were medieval Christians, because, "Christianity is a theological religion (founded in thinking about God) that is not concerned solely with the scientific endeavors to explain the world agrees but also gave birth to science: Science did not develop elsewhere because religions, which viewed the universe as an impenetrable mystery, made any scientific endeavor seem absurd". However, over time, Voltaire's and Enlightenment views were "converted by some intellectuals who rejected all religions and by many others who mistakenly believed."

There's a reason why "even popular encyclopedias today acknowledge that the Dark Ages were a myth." This means that, at least in the case of this myth, historical science has triumphed over ideology. It happens all the time, but no one notices. In order to debunk the ten anti-Catholic falsifications of history, Stark draws on the "prevailing opinions among qualified experts". It is a pity that these "only ever write for each other and do not make an effort to share their knowledge with the general public", while conversely, the "illustrious fanatics" continue to enjoy amazing credibility, at least in the media. Even if their dishonest theses have already been refuted and they themselves have admitted their hostility to the Church. This is the case reconstructed in the book by John Cornwell, the famous author of "Hitler's Pope " (German edition: " Pius XII - The Pope who has been silent "), a milestone in propaganda against Pius XII, which has been refuted many times and yet has been reprinted by the press or used in other texts, all errors included. The fact is, bitterly, that "the press always likes scandals and bad news."

And: “The media is really biased towards religion”.

If it is true that the "illustrious fanatics" are fomenting an "'informed' anti-Catholicism" that enjoys undeserved media coverage, then how can truth triumph in the clash of ideas? Stark has no doubts:

"Why should I trust 'my' experts more than those with anti-Catholic views? Quite simply: because my opinion is based on the consensus of authoritative and qualified historians, whom I quote carefully, while the anti-Catholic nonsense has no qualified advocates."

Stark's books are very well received by experts and find an exceptionally positive response among readers. Obviously, they will not find their way into the mainstream. This would require a rethink. He wants to contribute to this rethinking with his books.

It certainly requires courage to defend the theses of “Bearing False Witness”. In the very first chapter, the author endeavors to refute the notion that "the persecution of the Jews was justified for centuries in the name of God." A prejudice so ingrained in the collective imagination that even Catholics hardly seem to question it. The Baylor University professoron the other hand, on the basis of historical documents and non-preconceived "papist" positions, states that he found long ago that in reality "Christians who blamed the Jews for the crucifixion also tended to accept secular forms of anti-Semitism,’ from which it follows that hatred of Jews is by no means a Catholic ‘invention’. On the contrary, according to Stark, "what I learned later, in a next step, was the broad extent to which the Church had protected the Jews from violence".

Views like Obama's will be discredited

Even when it comes to current events, Stark has little trouble defying the mainstream. In his book, he writes that the first armed offensives by Catholic civilization (not the Church) against other religions and heresies took place in the 11th century when Christian supremacy was threatened by the spread of Islam. However, it is wrong to conclude that something similar is happening in the West today. 

“The 'Clash of Civilizations' is not the rotten fruit of our 'Islamophobia'. I don't believe that the Christian West is about to become intolerant. Rather, I believe that the non-Christian West is becoming intolerant.”

Also included in the book is a polemical reference to Barack Obama, who in 2015 helped propagate the anti-Catholic reading of the Crusades (Stark's main theme) by declaring that not all religious violence in history has come from Islam and that Christians also "have done terrible deeds in the name of Christ." Stark's comment is dry:

"If terrorism continues, and it will, views like Obama's will be discredited: I am sure we will see a resurgence of support for Christian action."

 And what does Stark, who is not Catholic, not Baptist and no longer Lutheran, believe in?

"I lost my Lutheran faith when I was in my twenties and remained a non-believer until my sixties, but was never an atheist until, after years of writing about religion, I concluded that Christianity was the most plausible explanation for it life offers.”

Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image : Youtube (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Loris Zanatta: "Pope Francis is a typical representative of Latin American populism"

Loris Zanatta: "It is not an insult to call Pope Francis a populist"

(Buenos Aires) On 1 August, Clarin, the largest Argentine daily newspaper, published an editorial by Ricardo Roa, criticizing the "alarming silence" of Pope Francis to the state crisis in Venezuela. It was quoted by Loris Zanatta, professor of Latin American history at the University of Bologna. An interview was published in the current August issue of the Argentine economic magazine, Fortuna, with Zanatta about "the phenomenon of populism in Latin America and especially in Argentina." The historian was asked for a brief statement about various personalities - among them Pope Francis:

Fortuna: Pope Francis?

Title of "Fortuna" with reference to the Zanatta interview

Zanatta: It is no insult to say that he is a typical representative of Latin populism. His idea is that there is a people that is above the political agreements and the constitutional people and is the guardian of historical legitimacy: the people of God. No pope has so often used the word people. Pope Francis does not distinguish economic liberalism from political liberalism. He often uses the word pluralism against the market, which, he says, homogenizes the world, destroys cultures and peoples. His idea of ​​pluralism is that of peoples and cultures, which are generally not pluralistic. His point of view is that of Latin Catholicism: the poor are the protectors of the Catholic virtues. They are the true people. The others are not, even if they win elections.

The evidence of the Peronian expert Zanatta reflects the Latin aspect in the pontificate of Pope Francis, but they do not explain - if they are correct - why Francis does not seem to pay attention to the peoples and cultures of Europe by his demand for unrestricted immigration. The philosopher and former Italian senate president Marcello Pera, a friend of Benedict XVI, accused Francis of promoting mass immigration out of "hate against the West".

The monthly magazine Fortuna appears by the publisher Perfil and has nothing to do with the media publisher of the daily Clarin.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Fortuna (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Pope Benedict Was Elected on April 19th, 2005

Edit: he was elected on the fourth ballot with the required majority.

Battle of Milvian Bridge

Edit: in 312 on October 28th, the Emperor Constantine defeated the forces of Maxentius at the Battle of Milivian Bridge.  His victory was not only decisive in a political sense, but in a religious dimension as well since Constantine attributed his victory the divine intervention, more specifically, the intervention of Christ.  This victory and Constantine's own conversion and personal intervention in later passing the Edict of Toleration, led to the triumph of Christianity over pagan Rome.

The Holiness of the Liturgy and The Provisions of Pope Sixtus I

(Rome) The always valid ban on lay people getting too close to the holy things  and  touching the chalice and the sacred vessels, was officially enshrined in the earliest Christian times by the holy Pope Sixtus I (c. 115-125). The commemoration of this Pontiff is committed by the Church in the old and the new liturgical calendar on 3 April.  His Latin first name alludes to the number six. Sixtus was the sixth successor of the Apostle Peter and the seventh Vicar of Christ on earth. The son of a Roman priest and shepherd was elected by the clergy of Rome on 115  to the bishop.

The need to explicitly codify the prohibition resulted from  attempts by the unworthy to approach  holy things, which are exclusively reserved for the priests of God. The sacredness of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass resulted in the Latin Church, as in the apostolic Eastern Church, to largely obscure services from the sight of outsiders, but also of the faithful. Non-baptized persons were not allowed to enter the houses of worship during the Holy Mass. The Sacrifice of the Mass took place in the West behind a curtain and takes place in the East today behind the iconostasis for the protection of the Holy.

Penetration of the Laity in the Presbytery

It was not until the revolution of the zealots of the liturgical reform, which came after the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent liturgical abuses,  meant that the laity invaded to the restricted area of the presbyterium   during the Holy Mass,  the Sanctum Sanctorum, which - as the name presbyter = Priest - expresses, is reserved to the celebrant and the altar servants. In many places the laity are instructed to hand out Holy Communion, so that they take not only the Holy vessels, but also the consecrated Hosts in the hand.

At the time of Pope Sixtus I the emperor Hadrian (117-138) ruled, an original philosopher on the throne, a lover of Greek culture and art. Although heathen, he declined the persecution of Christians. To one of his proconsuls in Africa, he wrote: "If someone brings charges and can prove that the Christians who commit offenses against the laws are guilty, leave, then punish them for their crimes. By Hercules, yet  if someone is just looking for a mere pretext to punish them, then you have to decide depending on the severity and punish them instead."

Seal of Christian Liturgical Tradition

Pope Sixtus  put particular emphasis on the faithful preservation and development of the cultus. He summed up the current practice together with provisions that were to be a seal for the Christian liturgical tradition. It was also a big concern for him that all the Christian communities themselves remained in contact, because, as it seems it  had already come to pass during his pontificate,  because  the exact date of the Easter celebrations became the first disagreement between East and West.

 Christian tradition also owes Sixtus I for the hymn of the Trisagion,  which was dedicated of the divine Trinity triple Sanctus. The expression of Greek Trisagion hagios (holy) and treis (three) means the thrice-holy God. Already in the Old Testament we find this definition of the Holy Trinity. The thrice Holy Prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament corresponds to the naming of the three divine persons in the New Covenant as saying: Holy is God the Father, God is holy son, holy God is the Holy Spirit. In order to acquire this knowledge independently, you had to be able to read and know well the Scriptures  and thus belong to the circle of educated people. To make this praise of the Trinity accessible to all believers, Pope Sixtus introduced the thrice praise into worship in the Holy Mass just before the Consecration and Transubstantiation.

Trisagion, the Thrice Holy in the Old and New Testaments

All apostolic churches regardless of rite know this Trisagion, the angels singing, which Isaiah heard, when he had his vision of heaven. The well after him, it was described by St. John the Apostle and Evangelist in the Apocalypse (4:8).

Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875), the famous Benedictine Abbot of Solesmes said: "What do the angels sing?Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth . They celebrate the holiness of God. But how do they celebrate? In a perfect way: they use the superlative, in which they call three times that God is really holy. (...) But why did they turn to God three times with the determination of holiness? Because holiness is the most important of divine perfection: God in his essence is holy. "

"God is as Strong as Holy and as Sacred as Strong"

The Trisagion we also find in the Te Deum : " Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth "(Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts). The hosts in the service of the Almighty have nothing to fear, as all wars, tests and hurdles running by their God have ended in triumph. Dom Guéranger wrote: "God is holy and strong, as strong as holy and as sacred as strong."

This Roman Pope whose holiness is sung in Catholic Christendom to this day, died not as a martyr, although he is occasionally. His grave is awaiting the resurrection of the body, is not near the grave of St. Peter in the Vatican, but in the Cathedral of St. Paul in Alatri in Rome, where he is revered as a patron saint.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Alatri / Lazio

Trans: vekron99@hotmail.com

Kath.net...

AMGD

Anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956

Edit: from 23 October until 10 November 1956 the brave Hungarian people stood up to the Soviet Union.

1567 September 30th and 29th: Protestants Massacre Catholics in the Michelade

Edit: Like any other Revolutionary movement, Protestantism took up the sword to obtain its illegitimate supremacy wherever it came to power.  It is not remembered, conveniently, outside of France especially in discussions about St. Bartholomew's Day for which it served as a justification.

The Michelade is the name given to the massacre of 80-90 Catholics, including 24 Catholic priests and monks, by Protestant butchers in Nîmes and Languedoc on Michaelmas (29th and 30th of September) 1567, following their failure to abduct the king and queen mother in the so-called, Surprise of Meaux the previous day and in retaliation for the suppression of their Huguenot beliefs.  The name is taken after the feast on which the massacre occurred, after the Archangels.

The September 29, 1567 is the Feast of the Michelade, where a fair was held on the day of the Saint-Michel in Nîmes . Passing near the city, a Protestant merchant of vegetables was insulted by some soldiers and vegetables his trampled. This incident lead to a crowd of protestant peasants and soldiers training companies. Insults and threats were exchanged and turned this crowd into a riot.

The First Consul Guy Rochette, a Catholic, tried in vain to pacify the mob, and was forced to take refuge with Bishop Bernard Elbene. The vicar general and twenty of monks or clerics , were incarcerated. On September 30, 1567, they were kidnapped, killed and thrown into a well in the courtyard of the palace . Men working three centuries later,found the bodies that were piled up at the bottom of the well.

The Rioters also looted Catholic churches in the city, and attempted to demolish the tower of the cathedral by undermining its base. The First Consul stopped this. The Bishop escaped and went overnight at Tarascon , with a Protestant soldier, Jacques Coussinal.

Link to French wiki... H/t: Francisco de Marooned

King Richard III Should be Reinterred According to the Roman Rite

Edit: He was Catholic after all. One correspondent writes about the possible discovery of the remains of King Richard III who fell defending his crown at Bosworth field.

We are also told by a reader that perhaps it could even be said in the Sarum Rite by his Lordship Bishop Conti.

I hope they'd do the decent thing, and let the Catholic church handle the remains. And Richard III I think has been treated unfairly by propagandists. I think the hatred mostly comes from a few powerful men who didn't want him to carry out what he had begun to set as a pattern: a preference for the poor, and growth of trade.

Here's the article from the Telegraph:

So Richard III’s body has (possibly) been found, and while he had scoliosis (a curvature of the spine), “the skeleton was not a hunchback". In your face, Tudor propaganda machine!

Well, perhaps it's him, and it's exciting news. The last Plantagenet still rather fascinates the public; the last English king to die in battle, he was one of Shakespeare’s greatest monsters – but there have always been questions about how bad he actually was. On the one hand he was cast by the Tudors as being a usurper, but, worse still, the killer of his two young nephews. (It is striking how, even in eras when violence was widespread, the murder of children still holds a particular horror. In the story of the last days of the Third Reich, as shown in Downfall and The Bunker, the Goebbels’ murders of their six children are still the most shocking scenes.)

But no one has ever successfully identified the bodies of the Princes in the Tower and many believe that Henry VII killed them. Certainly Henry and his son had no qualms about bumping off various relatives, the finale to a century and a half of fratricidal strife, although they tended to be adults. And Henry Tudor certainly gave the impression of believing young Edward and Richard to be dead.

Link to Telegraph...

Christendom College Founder Dr. Warren H. Carroll Dies at 79

July 18, 2011
Warren H. Carroll, Founding and First President of Christendom College and Chairman of its History Department for its first twenty-five years, died on Sunday, July 17. Aged 79, he received last rites prior to his death in his home. Carroll was in a weakened condition having suffered several strokes in the last several years and was recovering from pneumonia. Cardiopulmonary failure was the official cause of death.

A native of Maine, Carroll was asumma cum laude history graduate of Bates College, achieved an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, and attended law school in 1962-64. Between 1955 and 1961 he served two years with the U.S. Army Signal Corps, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and worked as an assistant command historian for the Second Air Force, Strategic Air Command. In 1967-70 he was a member of the California State Senate staff, and in 1970-72 worked as a staff member for the U.S. Congress.

A convert to Catholicism, Carroll saw what was wrong in modern education a long time before he saw what was right about Christianity. He maintained that the people teaching in the university did not care whether truth existed or not, and it didn’t matter to them. But to him, it mattered a great deal.  In 1968, precisely when “everyone” was leaving, Carroll converted to the Catholic Church under the influence of his wife, Anne

Link to Christendom website...

French Historian Blames John Paul II for Current Crisis

France.  The Council Blessed John Paul II let important tasks slip and his successor "to pay the price for this incompetence".  French historian Philiippe Levillain (71) said this in an interview with the Catholic news 'La Croix'.  Levillain named as examples, the abuse-hoax, the Legionaries of Christ and the reconciliation of the Society of St. Pius X.

Link ...

Mel Gibson's Upcoming "Berserker" and "Maccabees" Will be Catholic Films

Saint Olaf II, Martyr

Edit: There's an old platitude that to know history is to be Catholic, and so Mel Gibson is taking on two historical projects guaranteed to treat Christian themes.

On the one hand, you're bound to see the heroic resistance of the Christians as the terrible Vikings come down and destroy their world.  Perhaps we will hear of the brave resistance of Alfred the Great and how he magnanimously introduced the Vikings he conquered into his household?

Perhaps he'll tell the story of the conversion of St. Olaf who went down fighting gloriously at the Battle of Skittelstad on July 29th 1030 and accomplished more as a martyred Saint, than a great but merely heroic epitome of valor, to win over his battle hearty people to the true religion of peace.

Our speculations aside, it's clear that the Viking film is going to be made, it's going to be called "Berserker" [Literally, bare shirt fighter].  He looks determined to make it.

Despite his efforts to make a film about the scirptural story of Maccabees , there are many who look in askance at the effort.  They view it cynically as an attempt to coddle Jewish sensibilities in the wake of his "tirade".  In reality, Maccabees is a Catholic story which should cause modern Jews, and not a few Catholics,  to reconsider what they believe.  It is a story of how God used a small band of Jews to liberate Palestine in one of the most amazing upsets in history.

Don't look for it in a protestant Bible, unless it says "apocrypha" included.  Also, it's not really Apocrypha, it's part of the Biblical Canon and the reservations of a few biblical scholars and Protestants should not stop you from meditating on how it points to Catholic teachings like purgatory.

"2 Maccabees 12:46: "Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from sin."


If you're a Catholic, you should expect to see a lot of Catholic references in both films.  Mel's trying to make up for his failings by doing good works, like helping Whitney Houston with her addictions, which earned him some admiration and gratitude from the family who invited him to her funeral in Newark, New Jersey.

Whatever he decides to do with these complimentary and beautiful subjects, they will be two things:  great stories,  Catholic stories.

The following is an interview and it was well done:

Los Angeles Times] Reserved and reflective, Mel Gibson came to the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood to celebrate the legacy of his “Mad Max” films but, of course, the 56-year-old star’s recent career calamities were the silent passenger that accompanied him during the trip down memory lane.
Thirty-three years have passed since ”Mad Max” exploded on the scene with a high concept and a low budget (about $400,000) and began the minting of an international movie star. Sitting in the dark with the time-capsule moment, Gibson found it hard to recognize his 21-year-old self up on the screen. “I thought,” he said, “it was one of my kids.”
Above, you can watch the full video from the American Cinematheque event where I interviewed Gibson about the career-launching franchise and you’ll hear that the conversation veered off at times to his filmmaking future, the TMZ era and the emotional wear and tear of recent seasons. There was also a lot of applause — and two standing ovations — from the sell-out crowd. And, for that, the two-time Oscar winner seemed truly thankful.

Watch video, here....

A Prophetic Voice at the Vatican Council: Bishop Giovanni Battista Peruzzo

Edit: the following is an excerpt taken from the Protocols of the Second Vatican Council. It is taken from Roberto de Mattei's new book on the Vatican Council, Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta (The Second Vatican Council: a story which has never been told.). It has met with some controversy, and is not presently available in English.

Wikipedia of Bishop Peruzzo

From the Protocols of the Council

I am the last [who  speaks], but I am old, the eldest in your midst, and perhaps I have understood little; so try to see things my way, if some of my  expressions are distasteful to you.  I have heard many observations and proposals against the sacred tradition of the precious use of the latin language in the Sacred Liturgy and many words have been cause for anxiety and concern.  I would like to shortly contribute something where my remarks will not rest on theological, but on a historical basis.  The anti-Liturgical movement is not so telling because of its origins.   It is more significance importance to be concerned with the noteworthiness of the origins of families, institutions, circumstances and instruction: who is the father, who is the mother and who is the leader.  If the source [of origin] as the beginning is done well, they will easily remain healthy over time.  If the source was contaminated, it will be difficult to clean.  While I draw on these principles, I would like to look the origin of the anti-Liturgical Movement in the eye.

Their fathers, their leaders, this movement was begun at the end of the 15th and as the 16th century began.

The first anti-Liturgists were the humanists, true and real pagans in Italy, better-minded in France and the Nordic countries, led by Erasmus, but all wavering in Faith.   Among them were many of our brothers who joined the contest and later left the Catholic Church.  From them the Jansenists arose, in Italy the participants in the Synod of Pistoia and finally the Modernists: this is the society, who are in many ways comparable.

On the other side is found not a single sainted Bishop who was a promoter of this movement.  From St. Charles Borromeo to Saint Anthony Mary Claret, to St. Francis de Sales to St. Alfons, old as new, all held fast onto the Latin Tradition.  These facts must raise concern about these proposals for novelty.   One quickly leaves the "old way", which is safe; but the new ideas, what voids might we encounter and fall into!

 Erasmus wrote the forward to his Gospel of St. Mathew as follows:  "It seems incongruous and ridiculous that the that the common people and women murmur the Psalms and the Sunday prayers like parrots in a constant repetition, while they do not understand their significance."

The University of Paris condemned this opinion, the simply and justifiably appears as Godless, and promotive of new falsities: one reads in Duplessy.  This condemnation which appears to us as exaggerated, turns out to be really prophetic. All of those, who are of one or another type favoring the reduction of the Latin language, brought to the Liturgy, in the past as today,  the same grounds:  so the people might better understand and come to a stronger faith and greater love of God.

In the Augsburg Confession there was nothing more proposed than that the songs of the people would be  in the common language during the celebration of Mass. But what happened?  The general introduction of the people's language in the Mass was the first act of separation from our Holy Mother the Church.  This harsh statement is not mine, but was that of Abbot Dom Guéranger who is truly the father of the Liturgical Renewal.  So here are his words:

"The separation of the liturgical language for some unexplained motive, which we do not know, has almost always done well in obtaining a dispensation from the Pope, to the schism and the complete separation of the Catholic Church."  

He demonstrates this assertion also, as one can glean this in the 3rd Volume of his "Institutions Liturgique". These words, these facts must make us proceed in this matter very carefully.

I will briefly mention a third evident reason: the loyalty of the bishops, more than any other, have always proved to be to the Holy Father.  Since about five centuries the Popes have steadfastly defended Latin in the Sacred Liturgy against the requests, recommendations and threats.  In more recent times, from Leo XIII. to the reigning Holy Father, they have pronounced on the necessity of the Latin language in the Sacred Liturgy  in various Apostolic Letters.

Bretheren, are these instructions merely suggestions, or do they include an order? Opposing points of discussion are allowed;  actually it will show me right, if  you are content to be silent and in obedient subjugation to the Holy Father.  We all desire that today's men become better Christians. Are we all bent on reaching this goal?  History teaches us in fact that the sanctity of souls is bound with the Liturgy, but it requires that  it, especially our holiness, our strength of faith, heroism of apostolate, prayerfulness, intellect, penitence and also outward devotion would lead people to God.  Please look beyond my vanity and pray for me too!

The Address of Mons. Giovanni Battista Peruzzo, Bishop of Agrigento, a 29 October 1962, quoted from Acta Synodalia sacrosancti Concilii Oecumenici Vatican II: Roberto de Mattei: The Second Vatican Council. A hitherto unwritten story. Ecclesiastical Umschau Edition, p. 278 ff  

[Roberto De Mattei holds to that Peruzzo was ridiculed for this talk by the "progressives" in the auditorium.]

Translated from Elsa's Nacht[b]revier...

A German Longing for Sects is Nothing New

A Catholic Confessor-Bishop prepared the old liberals of yesterday an abrupt, but well-earned end.

By Alexander Bauer

[Kreuz.net] Already 200 years ago -- during the so-called Enlightenment -- starstruck, fashionable German Archbishops were infatuated with schism from the Catholic Church.

At a meeting in Bad Ems -- in the modern state of Rheinland-Pfalz -- the Archbishops of Germany declared their indedependence and pastoral authority from the Pope's in 1786.

They insisted in the principle, that every German Bishop with jurisdiction receives his power from God just as the Pope receives his. For this reason, they would not accept Papal regulations for their diocese.

The Archdiocese put the Pope under pressure, to accept the conclusions of the "Emser Punktation". Otherwise they resolved to put their interests with the general German national council.

Indeed, the rpelats broke then with their plans. Really, it was not appealing to other Church respresentatives to fall further into provincialism.


Now The Old Liberal Horn Grumbles

In the year 1818 a robber-synod of a dozen priests from the Westerwald attempt to establish a "liberal Church Constitution" in the Diocese of Limburg.

The Papal Curia were to be kept out of all legal and liturgical matters.

A Diocesan Synod was to ratify these decisions in future.

The provincial pastor even pushed for the abolition "of the standing priestly celibacy because he found himself unqualified for such a difficult and unreasonable."

Such schismatic tendencies were even spread to episcopal circles in the first half of the 19th Century in German speaking areas.


Crushing Defeat

At the same time the movements of the traditionalists and loyalists -- "Ultramontane" -- Catholics ever stronger.

In the year 1842 the Holy Father sent the Ultramontane Confessor-Bishop Peter Josef Blum (+1884) in position.

Under his forty year long, holy leadership, the Diocese found the Catholic Faith and became once again true to the Holy See.


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