December 2017
Anchored in Bethlehem
THE EDITOR
So here we are again, moored in the safe harbour of Bethlehem; a tranquil port of blessed respite. Out there, meanwhile, a tidal wave of depravity is convulsing entire nations devoid of any mooring beyond the Self.
In the not too distant future, this radical autonomy of atomised Western peoples is set to deliver demographic victory to Islam. But until that fateful day, suicidal Self will remain the primary parasite within the leaven of Self-less Christian culture. Embodied in the Nativity, regression from that civilising familial force has been gathering momentum ever since contraception-and-abortion-on-demand established abnormality-as-normality; evil-as-good (— Diabolic Self).
With that satanic inversion now de rigueur, the atheistic free-for-all that passes for 'modernity' has accelerated its hellish descent, aided and abetted by might-is-right legalism — through which subjective man-made laws supplant objective laws written into nature by God.
Though currently bloodless, this legal persecution by the social-engineering State — legislating for socio-sexual deviance and against conscientious objection — will morph into acquisition and retention of power through the barrel of a gun.
The iron logic of the materialistic thought and process is inevitable. As the implacable imposition of unreality revs up, it will trigger explosive tipping points all over. The electoral reaction of recent times, against arrogant ruling elites in thrall to corporate-sodomitic globalism (— Venal & Venereal Self), is just a foretaste of clashes to come. For, as author William Murchison simply explains:
A society without behavioural norms based on natural-law understandings of justice and virtue risks perpetual conflict. To act without so much as a by-your-leave from anyone is to commit idiocy: Do things thus, and sooner or later you collide with others acting on the same principle. Who wins in such a case? The one with more firepower wins: often firepower in the literal, rat-a-tat-tat-tat sense.
"The reconstruction of norms and standards is the great unfulfilled task of our time," Murchison concludes.
Of course. But how to go about it?
Before the maniacal, positive-law onslaught of the Selfers, appeals to the natural law, encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, have proven insufficient to sustain reference points of acceptable behaviour and wise governance in the long term.
This failure speaks to what we know: that the first priority of reconstruction of "norms and standards" must be rooted in transcendent truths — about God and man — or they will regress once more to whatever the coercive State defines as 'normal' and 'standard'; to include hybrid (Frankenstein) 'families,' and sexual deviancy of every destructive kind.
'Reconstruction' is mission impossible, therefore, unless it is measured directly and unapologetically, against the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His supernatural Gospel: as perfectly preserved and passed on by His Teaching Church [Matt. 28:19] courtesy of the Holy Spirit [Jn 16:3].
Any attempt to re-instill moral benchmarks in Western life without evangelisation of that Divine Benchmark are destined for a rapid relapse to might-is-right square one.
Faced with materialistic minds inured to the supernatural, this appeal to transcendence is viewed as a non-starter by those fearful of introducing a spiritual element to discussions. Natural law arguments alone, they insist, can achieve a restoration of behavioural norms agreeable to all parties. But again: oblivious to Cardinal DiNardo's recent reminder that "civility begins in the womb," the pseudo-enlightened West has regressed to its war on the womb in inverse proportion to its loss of spiritual values.
The impasse frames our present tragedy: since this faithless approach is now promoted, as never before in the history of the Church, by a social gospel-pontiff schooled in naturalism of Teilhardian/Masonic/Marxist hue.
A textbook Pascendi Modernist who speaks out of both sides of his mouth, his deconstruction of the miracles of Christ alone tells us all we need to know about his signal lack of supernatural Catholic faith. Hence his repeated, and altogether shocking distaste for seeking out converts.
Reprinted herein, Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy's dutiful Pauline rebuke/correction of Pope Francis underlines that, barring divine intervention, there is zero chance that such a man will restore orthodoxy and the primacy of the supernatural to Catholic teaching and life. Yet without that essential first step of putting God's household in order, there can be no restoration of the common spiritual values required for enduring civil behaviour, concord and governance within and across nations.
In other words, without a Vicar of Christ who believes and, therefore, comprehends his fatherly role and responsibility after the fashion of St. Joseph — the Foster-Father of Jesus and benchmark of a true and Holy Father — not only has the family of the Church lost the protection and guidance it needs and craves, but all men of good will who once looked to the man in white for that same paternal goodness, care and direction, are also bereft.
We are speaking here of papal paternity of the concrete family of man knitted together by the faith, hope and charity of grace-filled families, as divinely intended and signified by the Nativity.
We do not mean the Masonic ape of that God-given reality: namely, the amorphous "brotherhood of man" forever touted as the fraternal glue of a globalist utopia. Clearly, the Luciferian autonomy proposed by the Lodge renders it incapable of realising that perennial boast; of uniting nations under its spurious liberté, egalité, and fraternité. The lurid proof is all about us. At the close of the 300th anniversary year of Freemasonry, we do well to reflect on the ever more illiberal, unequal and fratricidal world this self-professed arch-enemy of Catholicism has fomented throughout its history. The wholesale corruption of Western secular and ecclesial life so graphically plotted in the Alta Vendita, its notorious 19th century blueprint, is now a veritable tsunami of degradation set to wipe out every good, wholesome, sane, and Godly thing.
Indeed, now that the Alta Vendita's ultimate goal has been realised — viz., an arch-liberal pontiff marching boldly under its secular banner, while purporting to march beneath the banner of the Apostolic keys — the moral and doctrinal authority of the petrine office itself is threatened with irreparable damage. As a member of the Belgian parliament gloated this year after the Brothers of Charity waved away Rome's objection to their provision of euthanasia to their psychiatric patients: "the paternalism of the shepherd [has] been replaced by individual self-determination” He was not exaggerating. "For us," proclaimed the lay chairman of the Brothers' board, "the inviolability of life is not absolute" (— Magisterial Self; fratricidal incivility triumphant!)
Before this perfect storm within and without, the Divine template — the Holy Family — re-anchors us in reality; and peace.
To the astonishment of his disciples, Jesus stilled the wild sea with a single command. Yet even more impressive was His placid entry into the brutal world of sinful men. Eschewing bejewelled garments and all the pomp and ceremony that were His due, the Prince of Peace proclaimed His victory over the prince of this world in all vulnerability and silence; wrapped in swaddling on a throne of straw.
Ever since, the silent lessons of purity, simplicity, obedience and humility taught by the Holy Child and personified by Mary and Joseph, have reproached the world, the flesh and the devil; exposing every false religion and idol that negates these requisite virtues of a just and happy life. Which is precisely why discarding them has produced the cult of Self: the norm-less culture of incoherence and endless conflict.
We draw strength and confidence from the civilising effect of God's familial foundation of just and happy societies. And we know that His sacramental plan for marriage and family life, presented at Bethlehem, will triumph in the end.
Nonetheless, we are acutely aware of our unique predicament: that, unlike the Holy Child, we find ourselves not only vulnerable but momentarily orphaned.
The current papacy has disfigured the divine template provided for all functional families. Instead of the paternal love and headship exemplified by St. Joseph, we suffer the reign of a spiritual father so dysfunctional and dangerous that between 40 and 70 cardinals "are very concerned" and "want a change," according to reliable Vatican sources tapped by journalist Edward Pentin. The problem, he says, is that "they are simply petrified about speaking out."
Far from edifying evidence of a Holy Father, this ecclesiastical chokehold bespeaks the cold dead hand of the Father of Lies!
Since the cardinals are paralysed with fear, we must beseech Jesus to release His Church from this devilish grip: either by the miraculous conversion of Jorge Bergoglio, or his immediate demise and replacement by a brave Father-Protector Pope in the image and likeness of St. Joseph.
For only then will we see a resurgence of the filial respect, confidence, obedience and love that God's faithful children yearn to give the Holy Father of the Universal Church; just as the Holy Child deigned to love and obey the greatest of all Saints as the father of His Domestic Church.