FIDELIS MILES MILITIS: O’ Council, where is thy infallibility?

THE FAITHFUL KNIGHT

I am a convert to the One, True Faith. I am also what is called a Traditional Roman Catholic (or prior to 1965, just a regular, every day Catholic). But contrary to what you may have been taught, I, like most Traditionalists, am not a sedevacantist. I am loyal to the Magisterium and to the Holy Father; I believe that the Second Vatican Council was a true Church council and that the Novus Ordo Missae (Mass of Paul VI) can confect a true Eucharist when the rubrics are followed by a properly ordained Catholic priest. However, I believe that the massive destruction over the past fifty-one years has NOT been due to a misinterpretation of the Council’s documents, but is due to the documents themselves. I also believe that the Novus Ordo is grossly inferior to the Traditional Latin Mass (the True Mass, "the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven"), is Protestant in its orientation, and is grievously harmful to the Faith.

I support all Traditional Latin Mass orders (non-Sedevacantists), to include the SSPX, FSSP, ICKSP, and all diocesan priests who struggle to celebrate the True Mass under often terrible conditions.

Lastly, I hope all Roman Catholics who believe, as Holy Mother Church has taught these past 2,000 years, that there is Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, take up the Cross & the Sword, and claim the title of “Faithful Knight.”

--I believe that Christ founded One Church, and that there is NO salvation outside Her.

--I believe that Irish monks saved Western civilization.

--I believe that the Crusades were a good thing.

--I believe that Islam is still the greatest threat to Western civilization.

--I will never apologize for the Catholic Church and Her mandate by Christ to spread the Gospel.

--I believe that at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Luther won.

--I believe that homosexuality has devastated the Catholic priesthood.

--I believe that many Novus Ordo bishops are direct successors to only one Apostle, Judas Iscariot.

--I believe that Dante was correct: The floor of Hell is littered with the skulls of bishops.

--I believe the "Reform of the Reform" is a toothless dog.

--I believe that Communion in the hand, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, removal of the altar rails, and removal of our tabernacles from the altar of sacrifice, has destroyed Catholic belief in the Real Presence.

--I believe that Traditional Catholics are at war with Roman-Protestants for the very soul of Holy Mother Church....and We will win!

--I believe that Russia has not been consecrated to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart by any Pope, and that parts of the Third Secret are still hidden by Rome.

--I believe that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre will be raised to the altar as a Saint.

--I believe that if it were not for the Society of St. Pius X, Tradition would have died long ago.

--I believe that the Society of St. Pius X is the Marine Corps of Catholicism.

--I believe that the term "in full communion" is a sham. After all, per Rome, heretics like Cardinal Mahony and sodomites like Archbishop Weakland are "in full communion."

--I believe that the Republican Party is no different from the Democrat Party...and that they deserve each other.

--I believe that the U.S. Military produces the finest young men and women on the face of the earth.

--I believe that America has done more good for others around the world than any nation in history.

--I believe that our current Commander in Chief is a Marxist.

--I believe in the 2nd Amendment, just as the Fathers of our Nation did.

--I believe that the Death Penalty is a good thing.

--I believe in restoring all things in Christ.

Monday, December 30, 2013

O’ Council, where is thy infallibility?

“That an ecumenical council which satisfies the conditions above stated [convoked by the pope, presided over by him or his legate, the decrees of which receive the pope’s approbation] is an organ of infallibility will not be denied by anyone who admits that the Church is endowed with infallible doctrinal authority.”

This according to the Catholic Encyclopedia’s entry on Infallibility; the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia that is.

So, what does this say about the doctrinal weight of the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, an ecumenical council that met each of the conditions thus mentioned?

Absolutely nothing, and it is precisely for this reason that it is so instructive.

You see, John XXIII’s idea of employing an ecumenical council, this most profound and solemn expression of the infallible magisterium, when nary a doctrinal crisis beset the Church, for purposes strictly pastoral, deliberately devoid of any intent whatsoever to either define doctrine or condemn error, is in itself a novelty that in a healthier ecclesial age could not but reflect poorly upon his cause.

What then is one to make of Pope John’s stewardship of the authority vested in the Petrine Office?

Analogies fail, but imagine choosing a battering ram to pass through a door that you claim to have no intention of destroying, and this when the key is right in your pocket. Not only would such a decision be entirely illogical, it would be a violation of the nature of the instrument chosen.

The nature of the battering ram is to gain entry by way of destruction; likewise, the nature of the ecumenical council is to teach infallibly by way of ruling, definition and condemnation. Based on John XXIII’s stated purposes, surely he could have employed any number of other readily available instruments that more closely fit the pastoral intent of the Council such as it was proposed.

For instance, he could have queried the bishops of the world for suggestions as to what topics might be addressed (as he did), disposed of the bishops’ more traditional concerns (as ultimately took place in the Council sessions), taken up the progressive cause (as did the majority of the Council Fathers moving forward), and simply promulgated an Apostolic Exhortation similar in stature to the one Pope Francis just gifted to the Church.

But no; Pope John XXIII, and likewise his successor, chose instead to leverage the force, or better stated, the illusion of the force, of an ecumenical council wherein novelties, ambiguities and outright falsehoods that have absolutely no standing whatsoever within the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine could pose as solemn teaching.
This, my friends, was either a well-conceived plot hatched in minds diabolical, or the ignorant machinations of Pontiffs so utterly incompetent as to be truly mad. What it is not is heroic virtue.
In any event, what we now have before us in the conciliar decrees is a nearly 200,000 word exposition (in the English translation) wherein authentic Catholic doctrine (the majority of the text) is commingled with propositions that would have been condemned outright less than a decade earlier.

So, what shall we do now?

Well, if you’re a modernist hell bent on constructing the church-of-man, or an ill-formed and under-nourished Catholic who just doesn’t know any better, the answer is obvious:

Canonize the pope who lit the match to God’s House, fast track the cause of the successor who doused it with gasoline, treat the entire regrettable disaster as if it fell to earth like rain from Heaven, and await the coming of a new springtime.