Freemasons And The Conciliar Church
John Kenneth Weiskittel
When Mexico and the Vatican agreed to establish diplomatic ties last fall, the story made news throughout the world. Such interest is not surprising, given the history of strained relations between the two. While Mexico has a rich Roman Catholic heritage, it also, incredibly, has suffered a succession of anti-Catholic, Masonic, communistic governments since the government of Benito Juarez in 1855 enacted harsh laws against the Church. The low point came in the 1920s with a bloody persecution of Catholics, who made a brave attempt to cast off their oppressors. Even until recently civil law banned priests from wearing clerical garb on the street Today, Mexico remains a Masonic, anti-Catholic state.
Hence, for a period of a century, there was no exchange of diplomats between the Holy See and the Mexican government It hardly needs to be mentioned that the Vatican of 1992 bears only a superficial resemblance to that of 1892. Who, comprehending the dimensions of the Conciliar “Catholic” Church’s apostasy, can be surprised at this recent betrayal? It is, after all, merely “par for the course.” Yet there is much more here than meets the surface.
Mary Ball Martinez, a traditionally oriented Conciliar author (From Rome Urgently and The Undermining of the Catholic Church) based in Mexico, issued a press release before her lecture tour in California late last year. The disclosures found there are quite revealing about Masonic reaction in Mexico to the new diplomatic ties, to the Second Vatican Council, and to the Conciliar Church in general. The source of these revelations is Processo, one of that nation’s leading political journals, which published an interview with Carlos Vazquez Rangel, Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Masons of Mexico.
In his interview, Vazquez makes some startling claims. He told Processo, as Martinez recounts, that “the new Ambassador to the Holy See, Enrique Olivares Santana, [is] a fellow lodge member, a ‘militant of honor’ in the Scottish Rite and ‘the most distinguished Mason of recent years.’ Former Governor of the State of Aguascalientes and former Secretary of the Interior, Olivares heads the Political Action Committee of the ruling party, the FRI.” Vazquez expresses fear that the ambassador may encounter “reactionaries” in Rome, but adds that he will also find Masons there, since “within the eight city blocks that make up the Vatican State no fewer than four Scottish Rite lodges are functioning…Many of the highest Vatican officials are Masons and in certain countries where the Church is not allowed to operate, it is the lodges that carry on Vatican affairs, clandestinely.”
Further, he declares, at Vatican II a Mexican bishop (and closet Mason), Sergio Mendez Arceo, urged “revocation of the Bull of Pope Clement V [sic; it was Pope Clement XII who issued the condemnation in 1738 — JKW] which forbade Catholics to join Masonry under pain of excommunication.” Moreover, states Vazquez, this appeal of Mendez ultimately succeeded (the 1983 “revised” Code of Canon Law of John Paul II pretends to remove the penalty of excommunication).
During research for this study, a few books on the Council were consulted to establish Mendez’ role there. None discuss alleged Lodge membership, or allude to the appeal mentioned by Vazquez. But Father Ralph Wiltgen’s The Rhine Flows into the Tiber (Augustine Publishing Co., 1978) notes a remark fully in line with Masonic thinking: during the second session Mendez argued against the use of “Mother of God” as a title for the Blessed Virgin Mary. (See p. 240)
But the unthinkable of Vazquez’ statements is to come, for he declares: “On the same day in Paris the profane (Mason jargon for “non-Mason”) Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) and the profane Giovanni Montini (Paul VI) were initiated into the august mysteries of the Brotherhood. Thus it was that much that was achieved at the Council was based on Masonic principles.” [italics added]
Four Scottish Rite lodges (the most openly anti-Catholic branch) in the Vatican? Officials of the Holy See belonging to the Masons? Freemasonry and the Conciliar Church collaborating? A Masonic bishop at Vatican II? And two claimants to the papal throne becoming Masons? How much of this is credible?
To answer these questions, as far as they can be answered (certitude of Lodge membership by John XXIII and! or Paul VI requires hard evidence), certain avenues of inquiry can be followed. The claims must be consistent with and corroborated by: 1) what other Masons say about Vatican II and its aftermath; 2) proof of a Masonic plan to infiltrate the Church, and any success it has had; 3) pro-Masonic reaction by Conciliarists; and 4) demonstration that Council “reforms” further Masonic ends. All of this, regrettably, can be substantiated.
From Mortal Enemy To Bosom Buddy?
Grand Commander Vazquez boasts that “much that was achieved at the Council was based on Masonic principles.” If true, the Lodge has carried out a coup of major proportions. The tenets of the Catholic Church and Freemasonry are diametrically opposed: the Church teaches She is the true Faith, but Masonry argues that all religions are equally valid (indifferentism, universal salvation or universalism); the Church teaches all are required to accept the one true Faith, while Masonry promotes “freedom of conscience” (religious liberty); the Church teaches She alone, by divine commission, has authority to teach on matters of morals, yet Masonry counters that morality is a personal matter… etc.
Through many decades the Lodge has declared an abiding hatred of the Church and all things Catholic. And it has just as often been condemned by Popes in the strongest possible language: Pope Pius IX called it the “Synagogue of Satan,” and Pope Pius XI stated, “Masonry is our mortal enemy.” (Cited, Monsignor E. Jouin, Papacy and Freemasonry, Christian Book Club of America, no date, pp. 17 and 31)
Defenders of Vatican II must explain more than Vazquez’ comments. So great was the positive response to the “reforms” by the Lodge (and by other foes of Catholicism: Jews, Protestants, and Communists), even before the Council closed, that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was justified in his lament: “The statements are many, the traditional enemies of the Church are rejoiced to see eminent members of the Church abounding in the ideas which they [that is, the Church’s enemies — JKW] have always upheld.” (V.S.M. Fraser, trans., A Bishop Speaks, Scottish Una Voce, no date, pp. 36-37) And Masonry was as vocal as any in its praise.
“The sense of universalism that is rampant in Rome these days is very close to our purpose of existence,” wrote Yves Marsaudon, State Minister of the French Supreme Council, Scottish Rite Masons; “thus, we are unable to ignore the Second Vatican Council and its consequences… With all our hearts we support the ‘Revolution of John XXIII’…” (Cited, Dr. Rama Coomaraswamy, The Destruction of Christian Tradition, Perennial Books, 1981, p. 179) Not content to extol the triumph of religious liberty and indifferentism professed at the Council, he takes perverse delight in rubbing the noses of traditional Catholics in them, with a reminder of their origin: “Catholics, especially conservatives, should not forget that all roads lead to God [sic — JKW]. They should abide by this brave idea of freedom of conscience which, and here one may truly speak of revolution, starting from our Masonic Lodges, has spread magnificently above the doctrine of Saint Peter.” (Cited, Lefebvre, p. 182) Things would soon get “better”: “Born in our Masonic Lodges, freedom of expression has now spread over the dome of Saint Peter’s… This is the Revolution of Paul VI. It is clear that Paul VI, not content merely to follow the policy of his predecessor (John XXIII), does in fact go much further… .“ (Cited, Coomaraswamy, p. 179) Most disturbing about these quotes is their source: the head of the French Scottish Rite, as openly militant an anti-Catholic body as is to be found anywhere on earth.
But Vazquez and Marsaudon are not the only Masons to praise Vatican II. Jacques Mitterand, former Grand Master of the French Grand Orient, after comparing the “reactionary” Pope Pius XII with the “progressive” John XXIII and Paul VI, writes with open appreciation of the new post-Conciliar mentality:
Something has changed in the Church. The replies set down by the Pope [sic; Paul VI — JKW] to such burning questions as the celibacy of the clergy and birth control are fiercely contested within the Church. Some bishops, some priests and members of the laity have questioned the word of the Sovereign Pontiff himself. In the eyes of the freemason [he] who disputes dogma is already a freemason without his apron. (Cited, Lefebvre, p. 182) [italics added]
These “positive” results of Vatican II are also hailed across the Atlantic by Henry Clausen, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite Masons, Southern Jurisdiction, USA:
Many of our friends who are members of that sect [Catholic — JKW] reject as foreign to America the medieval fulminations against our Fraternity, realize how very much we have in common [sic], accept the standards of American democracy, recognize we have.., a new and permanent form of relationship between religion and government, and call their church leaders to stop attacks upon Masonry and upon Masonic ceremonies. They hope for winds of freedom that may create in America a friendly, tolerant atmosphere… which Masons seek as men of good will [sic — although Freemasons in the lower degrees may be of good will, is the same true for those in the higher degrees — like Clausen himself who engage in such rituals as stabbing a skull adorned with a papal tiara?]. (Clausen’s Commentaries on Morals & Dogma, The Supreme Council, 1976, second edition, p. 190)
These quotations are striking, as they come from French and/or Scottish Rite lodges, which have always loathed the Church. It says much if these writers can find nothing but admiration for the Council and its “reforms.” Apologists for Vatican II will say Masons cannot be trusted in their statements on Church matters, but let them ponder the following remarks by France’s Grand Master on Pope Leo XIII’s antimasonic encyclical, Humanum Genus (1884): “What a terrible text this encyclical contains… One is overwhelmed by its vehement tone, the violent epithets, the audacity of the accusations, the perfidy of the appeals to secular repression… (Cited, Leon de Poncins, trans. Timothy Tindal- Robertson, Freemasonry & the Vatican, Christian Book Club of America, 1968, p. 33) Did he, too, not really mean what he said? Of course not — but why, then, should the rest be doubted? With the Council, Masonry’s ill will appears to vanish, replaced with praise. The impossible has happened. Should not every Catholic be asking: How could such a transformation take place — where mortal enemies seem to become “bosom buddies”?
The Plot Against The Church
Some Modernist defenders of Vatican II argue that its “reforms” represent a much- needed “updating” in the Church. Others, similarly, contend that “change was in the air,” and the Council Fathers did well to “breathe it in” when they did. Conciliar critics, however, are apt to write off Vatican II as an example of how prelates can allow themselves to get sucked in by prevailing liberal opinions.
There is some truth in the last view. Assuredly, these false opinions did enter the Council, but from whence? Vatican II was not conducted in a vacuum; they had to come from somewhere. But from men of the cloth? The startling answer, though perfectly logical, is: Yes, from some of the very men sworn to defend the Church! While not all, or even most, of those attending Vatican II were conspirators, those who were succeeded in infusing error into its decrees.
The Church fathers had been warned. Prior to the Council’s opening, copies of a book totaling nearly 700 pages, titled The Plot Against the Church, were distributed to every bishop. The author, identified by the pen name Maurice Pinay, was a courageous Mexican priest, Father Joaquin Saenz y Arriaga (with others). In the first (Italian) edition is a passage that seems almost prophetic:
The most infamous conspiracy is at work against the Church. Her enemies are working to destroy the most holy traditions and thus to introduce dangerous and evil-intended reforms… They manifest a hypocritical zeal to moderni[z]e the Church and to adapt it to the present-day situation; but in reality they conceal the secret intention of opening the gates to Communism, to hasten the collapse of the free world and to prepare the future destruction of Christianity. All this is intended to be put into effect at the coming Vatican Council. We have proofs of how everything is being planned in secret agreement with the leading forces of Communism, of world Freemasonry and of the secret power directing them. (St. Anthony Press, 1967, p. 15)
The dire warnings went unheeded by the prelates, and have largely been realized. The gates to Communism have been opened; the free world is collapsing; the further destruction of Christianity is daily being accomplished. And the Conciliar Church has played a part in all of this. Father Arriaga was clearly aware of something that most Catholics did not know. How did he know? As he never claimed revelation, his insight must have come from an in-depth study of the subject. The same can be done here, if on a smaller scale.
The Lodge’s driving spirit is found on an inscription of the Masonic Grand Orient and Supreme Council of France: “The fight taking place between Catholicism and Freemasonry is a fight to the very death, ceaseless and merciless.” (Cited, Jouin, p. 3) In 1895 the lodges boldly aver: “We, the Freemasons, must achieve the final demolition of Catholicism.” (Cited, Gustave Combes, Father Augustine Stock, O.S.B., trans., Revival of Paganism, B. Herder, 1950, pp. 223-224) And the 1904 Masonic International Congress at Brussels declares: “The fight against the papacy is a social necessity and constitutes the constant duty of Freemasonry.” (Cited, Jouin, p. 4) [typeface changed — JKW]
The first public declaration of war originated with the Vatican, in the form of Pope Clement XlI’s 1738 encyclical, In Eminente (as a response to the undeclared war against Christ the Lodge had already launched). Pope Clement’s condemnation, and all other pronouncements from Rome, apply to lodges the world over, as they constitute one body, and are equally anathematized. Pope Pius IX wrote in Etsi Multa (1873): “[It is not alone the Masonic body in Europe that is referred to but also the Masonic associations in America and in whatever part of the world they may be.” (Cited, Father Edward Cahill, Freemasonry & the Anti-Christian Movement, M. H. Gill & Son, 1949, third impression, p. 126) On April 20, 1949 (significantly, sixty-five years to the day that Pope Leo XIII published Humanum Genus), Pope Pius XlI’s Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office
issued this reply to a question by the Italian bishops: “Since nothing has happened to cause any change in the decisions of the Holy See on this question, the provisions of Canon Law remain in full force for every kind of Masonry whatsoever.” (Cited, Paul Fisher, Their God is the Devil, American Research Foundation, 1991, p. 54) [italics added] Canon 2335 of the 1917 (real) Code threatens a severe excommunication (absolution reserved to the Holy See) to Catholics joining “the sect of Freemasons” or similar groups; no distinction is made as to whether the lodge is in Rome, Bonn, Paris, London, New York, or Timbuktu. It is a universal ban. Nothing has changed, save the perception of gullible “Catholics.” For anyone disagreeing, an offer is made: Produce even one record from the pre-Council Vatican that by name excludes Anglo-American Masonry from censure, and it will be printed here. This is a “safe bet,” since no such document exists!
The War Within The War
As the Catholic Church is the universal body bringing the Gospel to humanity, Masonry is the body striving to deprive souls and societies of Christ So great is the danger that, in an 1892 letter to the Italian people, Pope Leo XIII warned Catholics they must avoid Masonry, ox “remain separated from Christian communion and lose their soul now and for eternity.” (Cited, Fisher, p. 58) [his italics] Ten years later, he declared: “Freemasonry is the permanent personification of the Revolution [that is, the French Revolution — JKW], … whose sole raison d’etre [reason for being—JKW] consists in waging war against God and His Church.” (Cited, Poncins, p. 45)
The Lodge has been so formidable a combatant for two reasons. First, it is not merely a heresy, but a diabolical complex of heresies, which has succeeded in drawing together the anti-Catholic forces in the world to fight as one against Christ and His Church. (Unfortunately, many secular Catholic rulers — and not a few bishops and priests — have aided this goal by ignoring the Popes’ repeated pleas to root out the Masonic pest from their lands.) Second, consistent with its secrecy, Masonry has not been satisfied with open, bloody attacks against the Church and the Christian social order but, with infernal cunning, has plotted to penetrate the Church and undo her from within by having her unwittingly follow (on orders from clerical infiltrators or their dupes) its anti-Christian agenda.
Much proof is available to show this plot — it is traceable to before the 1789 revolution in France. Space limitations prevent full presentation here, but interested readers will find nearly fifty pages of evidence in “The Bugnini File,” printed in the March-April 1993 issue of Catholic Restoration. [Available online as a PDF at www.novusordowatch.org/ bugnini.pdf] Around 1908 Masonry declared: “The goal is no longer the destruction of the Church but rather to make use of it by infiltrating it.” (Cited, Michael Davies, Pope John’s Council, Vol. 2: Liturgical Revolution, Angelus Press, 1977, p. 165) A century before (1806), a devout “papist” priest, Abbe Augustin Barruel, driver from France during the revolution, approached Pope Pius VII with some startling finds based on contact with a former Italian Mason. His Holiness, seeing a need to warn the faithful, ordered an analysis to be published. A part of it reads: “On our Italian soil, they [the Masons — JKW] had already recruited as members more than 800 ecclesiastics, both secular and regular, among whom were many parsons, professors, prelates, and some bishops and cardinals…” .“ (Cited, Arriaga, p. 394) [italics added]
This massive infiltration took place over a century before Pope Saint Pius X bemoaned, in his antimodernist encyclical Pascendi, how “many… [in] the ranks of the priesthood itself,… [are] thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church,” and over a century-and-a-half before the Vatican II revolution! In 1819 the Alta Vendita —the ruling body of Masonic lodges in Europe— issued an internal report, the Permanent Instruction, which outlined the means to be used in their subversive designs. The existence of it was only brought to light after the sect’s offices were raided by the Pontifical Government, and, then, in 1846 published by the authorization of Pope Pius IX.
What is found there is a battle plan for victory by the Lodge over the Catholic Church — “the final destruction of Catholicism, and even of the Christian idea.” (Cited, Cahill, p. 101) The methods to achieve the goal include: infiltrators securing a “beachhead” in the Church; smear campaigns by them against any of the faithful — especially clergy — known to oppose Masonry; corruption of priests by the infiltrators, which leads to corruption of the laity; and a commitment to stay as long as needed “to lay the Church in the tomb.” (See Cahill, pp. 101, 103; and Monsignor George F. Dillon, D.D., Grand Orient Masonry Unmasked, Briton, 1965 ed., pp. 89-90, 93-94) The key to success was seen as the ability of their agents to pretend piety and orthodoxy, where none existed. This would win the trust of Catholics, even their high esteem! This misplaced admiration, it taught, would be the beginning of the end of the Catholic Church because:
That reputation will open the way for our doctrines to pass to the bosoms of the young clergy. In a few years the young clergy will have.., invaded all the functions. They will form the council of the Sovereign. They will be called upon to choose the Pontiff who will reign; and that Pontiff, like the greater part of his contemporaries, will be necessarily imbued with… humanitarian principles which we are about to put into circulation. (Cited, Dillon, p. 94)
This infiltration was to last for fifty or a hundred years or more, as long as needed to create a new “Catholic Church” — one made in Masonry’s vile image.
The Lodge’s “Catholic” Friends
Leon Poncins, in the book cited, adds a subtitle, A Struggle for Recognition, highlighting that “[t]here is at present in Catholic circles a constant, subtle and determined campaign in favour of Freemasonry,” (p.7) He elaborates:
Its avowed object is to obtain from the Vatican, and from the Council while it was in session, the revision or, better still, the annulment of the various condemnations pronounced by the Popes upon Freemasonry since 1738… (Ibid.)
This campaign began at least as early as the 1920s, when a “German Jesuit, Father Gruber, an expert on Masonic matters, made contact with three highly placed Masons… .“ (Ibid.) While a first name is not given, the priest was likely Father Hermann Gruber, S.J., an Austrian scholar, who contributed articles on Masonic subjects to The Catholic Encyclopedia. These studies, though generally accurate, include highly suspect observations. His article on the Illuminati dismisses (“in view of our present knowledge”) works linking it to the French Revolution (by such men as Abbe Barruel, and John Robison, author of Proofs of a Conspiracy) as being “often erroneous” and “extremely improbable.” (Vol. XII, 1913 edition, pp. 662-663) But Father Cahill, a careful researcher, does not hesitate to noting a connection. And French Freemasons never tire in proclaiming Lodge involvement in the revolt. So how could a contributor to a standard Catholic reference work make such a claim? No answer here, but since then there has been a growing effort encouraging the Church to favor Masonry.
Initial responses from pro-Masonic “Catholics” were cautious in expressing the matter, but a message was sent to their allies in the Lodge. One of the most celebrated victories of the secret societies was the 1789 revolution in France, where the insurgents’ rallying cry was “Liberty, equality, fraternity.” It was as much anti-Catholic as antiroyal, and condemned as such by Rome. A “Catholic” defender of Vatican II lists among its accomplishments:
This liberation of Catholic thought… enables the Church to take up the banner of the French Revolution, which made the rounds of the secular world before coming to rest in Catholicism, whence it originated [sic — JKW]. Liberty, equality, fraternity: this glorious motto was the quintessence of Vatican II… (Henri Fesquet, Bernard Murchland, trans., The Drama of Vatican II, Random House, 1967, p. 815)
With the Council came the bonding of once-Catholics and Masons. Fisher (cited above), a traditionally oriented, antimasonic Conciliarist, notes that the Knights of Columbus and Masons now operate “a mutual working relationship,” and:
By 1968, Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston, John Cardinal Cody of Chicago, Bishop Leo A. Pursley of Fort Wayne – South Bend, and Bishop Robert Joyce of Burlington (VT) were speaking at Masonic assemblies, and America magazine began a full court press for a revision of Church law which banned membership by Catholics in the International Secret Fraternity. (p. 55)
In 1973 a Chicago Lawyers Shrine Club luncheon featured Notre Dame’s Father John A. O’Brien as speaker. He addressed the assembled Masons in these words:
As a Roman Catholic, a research professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, and a priest for more than half a century, I want to pay a long overdue tribute to the Freemasons for the distinguished contribution which they have made to the civic, commercial, scientific, cultural and spiritual life of our nation… If that rich and many- faceted contribution were withdrawn, our nation would be impoverished indeed.
[M]any of my closest and dearest friends have been Masons, and I count their friendship as a pearl beyond all price. (Cited, Henry Clausen, Clausen’s Commentaries on Morals & Dogma, Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, 1976 edition, p. 55)
These disgraceful and sacrilegious remarks show how a pro-Masonic presence was hidden for decades before Vatican II and how the Council gave a green light for this kind of open friendliness with Masonry. Two points are particularly alarming: a priest speaking of 1) a Masonic contribution to the spiritual life of our country; and 2) Masons being “many of my closest and dearest friends” (he dares call these friendships “a pearl beyond all price,” which impiously distorts Christ’s words regarding the Kingdom of Heaven! (Saint Matthew 13:44-46) And he who quotes this, Henry Clausen, was head of Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, the most open and avidly anti-Catholic of all Masons in America.
Clausen says “a start… has been made right in the Vatican.” (p. 191) He cites John “Cardinal” Willebrands’ (for the Conciliar Secretariat for Christian Unity) speech at DeMolay’s (a Masonic boys group) fiftieth anniversary celebration, held at the Vatican. The address is singular in its suppression of Catholic truth, praise of a Masonic body, and defense of indifferentism. After welcoming them, he quotes Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:5, and Saint Mark 12:29), “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” He praises DeMolay’s “noble work,” which is based on these commandments, and expresses “gratitude and joy that [its] membership… includes Catholics and Protestants and Jews in a great cooperation for the benefit of humanity.” (Cited, pp. 191-192) [italics added] Willebrands’ address is likely the first time that Masons were praised by a spokesman of the Holy See. There is no indication Paul VI ever condemned this false pronouncement. However vile was O’Brien’s speech, it was not from someone in direct service to the Vatican. It is instructive that Willebrands’ first biblical quote — “the Lord is one” —can be accepted by Jews, Moslems, and other nonbelieving Masons who deny the divine Sonship of Christ And he favorably mentions Catholic membership in a group quite capable of destroying their faith.
A Wakeup Call For Catholics
When documents incriminating him as a Freemason surfaced in 1975, the career of “Archbishop” Annibale Bugnini, mastermind of the Novus Ordo Missae (aka the new “Mass”), took a nosedive. Paul VI removed him as head of the Conciliar Congregation for Divine Worship, and sent him to Iran (not that Moslems, according to Conciliar doctrine, need to be converted, since, it claims, they are already pleasing to “Allah,” and even saved through the Islamic faith).
Eventually, over one hundred prelates were accused of having Masonic ties. Shocking; alarming; astounding. But plausible in light of Abbe Barruel’s and other historical proofs.
And the results of Vatican II and the new “mass” provide strong circumstantial evidence of a coup. These effects (citing three examples from a long list) include:
• Rampant desecration of once-Catholic churches in the name of “reform” (the trashing of altars, chalices, statues, and other ecclesial furnishings, deemed to have little or no value in the new religion). For the conspirators, two benefits are obtained in these acts of officially sanctioned vandalism. First, malign satisfaction in witnessing such destruction of holy objects, not, in most cases, by anti-Catholic hooligans, but by those seeking to “update” their churches in line with Vatican II. Second, and most crucial, a profound lessening of respect for Church traditions, enabling the Masonic sect to more easily transform Catholics into Conciliarists.
• Rejection of the Gospel for a “social gospel.” Removal of the Tridentine Mass was the decisive step, since it was deemed the greatest barrier to revolutionizing the minds of the faithful — hence, the imposition of the Novus Ordo Missae. During the late nineteenth century a plan was put forth by the apostate priest, Abbe Roca, who had been excommunicated for involvement with occult and secret societies. He writes: “I feel divine worship, as regulated by the liturgy, ceremonies, rites, and rulings of the Roman Church, will suffer a transformation soon, at an ecumenical council. It will return the Church to the venerable simplicity of the apostolic golden age, and will harmonize it with the new stage of modem conscience and civilization.” (Cited, Arriaga, p. 194) [italics added] Marked similarities are found in the pronouncements of the Council and Bugnini. Vatican II, in its constitution on liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, calls for “a general restoration of the liturgy” (a veiled attack on the Mass of Saint Pius V), as certain aspects of the Mass “not only may but ought to be changed with the passing of time,” and that the “reformed” rites must have “a noble simplicity” about them. (Walter M. Abbot, S.J., general editor, The Documents of Vatican II, American Press, 1966, pp. 146, 149) [italics added] For his part, Bugnini, writing in his memoirs, defends the changes as: “Rediscovery of the spirit… and the effort to make the rites speak the language of our time so that men and women may understand the language of the rites, which is both mysterious and sacred.” (Matthew J. O’Connell, translator, The Reform of the Liturgy: 1948-1975, Liturgical Press, 1990, p. 45) The “social gospel,” first advanced over two hundred years ago by Adam Weishaupt, leader of the Illuminati, is now popular in the Conciliar sect as a way of promoting “welfare state” socialism, and to form bridges to feminism, occultism, “gay rights” activism, the Masonic New World Order, etc. Its most extreme form, “liberation theology,” teaches the error of “Catholic Marxism.” Much of this is openly pushed by Modernist Rome, while the rest is tolerated there. All of this makes perfect sense, however, when it is recalled that this pseudo-Catholic Church has for its basis the Masonic teachings of religious liberty, humanism (man replacing God as the center of existence), and indifferentism (all religious, moral, social, and political systems held to be of more or less equal merit).
• Disregard for authentic Catholic teachings on such issues as divorce, birth control, abortion, and homosexuality by many in the Conciliar Church, and a rash of morally depraved — adulterous, homosexual, even child-molesting — priests (and “priests”).
A key plank of the Alta Vendita’s Permanent Instruction is most relevant here: “Make men’s hearts vicious and corrupt, and you will no longer have Catholics. Draw away the priests from the altars, and from the practice of virtue. Strive to fill their time with other matters… it is the corruption of the masses we have undertaken — the corruption of the people through the clergy, and the clergy by us — the corruption which ought one day to enable us to lay the Church in the tomb.” (Cited, Cahill, p. 103)
This article has scratched the surface of a topic long overlooked. Through internal subversion, enemies of the Church have invaded her, falsely occupying her episcopal sees (including the Holy See), and refashioning the greater portion of her former members into a mutant breed of Conciliar “Catholics.” While the conspirators are small in number, the havoc they have unloosed upon Christendom is enormous, adversely affecting the spiritual lives of millions, and even the lives of the nations. It is a situation that must end — and will end — because the ultimate victory of the Roman Catholic Church is a fact assured by Christ in Scripture (“I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” — Saint Matthew 28:20), and by His Blessed Mother at Fatima (“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”). But, humanly speaking, it will only happen when the Church Militant — now a remnant of traditional Catholics — makes its voice heard. God calls us to rise in clear and defiant opposition to this insidious invasion of His Church. The new Babylonian Captivity has gone on for far too long; now, with God’s grace, it is time to break the shackles.
