Vol 10 Issue 6 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
February 11, 2017 ~ Our Lady of Lourdes, opn!
1. Is the Chair of Peter Vacant? An Argument for Sedevacantism
2. Septuagesima Sunday
3. Seven Holy Servite Founders
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
As the Church changes to purple to express the entrance into the penitential season that begins with Ash Wednesday, ceasing to say the Alleluia and on Sundays and ferias suppressing the Gloria. The slowly introduce the penitential season, the organ is still allowed to be played and flowers are on the altar; these, too, will disappear once Ash Wednesday arrives.
Catholics have been able to celebrate this Christmas that the anti-Catholic democrats did not gain the Rainbow House and it has now been re-established as the White House. But it must be remembered that this world is not the City of God, rather the world is under the dominion of the Prince of this world (cf. John 12:3, 14:30 and 16:11). Saint Paul words it thus: Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief. . . (Eph. 2:2). In such circumstances, Catholics must understand If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you(John 15:19). As the Angelus (Los Angeles Archdiocese sponsored blog) calls traditional Roman Catholics: Alt-right wackos. This in repeating an article in Crux of February 9, 2017 (https://cruxnow.com/analysis/
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Is the Chair of Peter Vacant?
An Argument for Sedevacantism
by Rev. Courtney Edward Krier
1. What is the Catholic Church?
The Catholic Church is:
Catechism of the Council of Trent:
. . . in ordinary Scripture-phrase, the word was afterwards used to designate the Christian commonwealth only, and the assemblies of the faithful; that is of those who were called by faith to the light of truth, and the knowledge of God; who, forsaking the darkness of ignorance and error, worship the living and true God in piety and holiness, and serve him from their whole hearts. In a word, “the Church,” says S. Augustine, “consists of the faithful dispersed throughout the world.” [S. Aug. in Ps. cxlix. 1.]
Catholic Encyclopedia:
The Church is the society of those who accept redemption, of those whom Christ “has chosen out of the world” (John 15:19). Thus it is the Church alone which He “hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Of the members of the Church, the Apostle can say that “God hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love” (Colossians 1:13). St. Augustine terms the Church “mundus salvatus” — the redeemed world — and speaking of the enmity borne towards the Church by those who reject her, says: “The world of perdition hates the world of salvation” (Tractate 80 on the Gospel of John, no. 2). To the Church Christ has given the means of grace He merited by His life and death. She communicates them to her members; and those who are outside her fold she bids to enter that they too may participate in them. By these means of grace — the light of revealed truth, the sacraments, the perpetual renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary — the Church carries on the work of sanctifying the elect. Through their instrumentality each individual soul is perfected, and conformed to the likeness of the Son of God. (Joyce, G. (1908). The Church. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.)
Leo XIII (Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896): . . . it is the body of Christ endowed with supernatural life.
And Pope Pius XII (Mystici Corporis Christi, June 29, 1943):
If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ – which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church [cf. Vat. Council, Const. de Eccl., cap. 1] – we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression “the Mystical Body of Christ” – an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fathers.(Par. 13)
The Church was founded by Christ for the salvation of its members.
Gregory the Great (Bk 5, letter 18):
Certainly Peter, the first of the apostles, himself a member of the holy and universal Church, Paul, Andrew, John,— what were they but heads of particular communities? And yet all were members under one Head. And (to bind all together in a short girth of speech) the saints before the law, the saints under the law, the saints under grace, all these making up the Lord’s Body, were constituted as members of the Church, and not one of them has wished himself to be called universal.
Again, Leo XIII:
And, since it was necessary that His divine mission should be perpetuated to the end of time, He took to Himself Disciples, trained by himself, and made them partakers of His own authority. And, when He had invoked upon them from Heaven the Spirit of Truth, He bade them go through the whole world and faithfully preach to all nations, what He had taught and what He had commanded, so that by the profession of His doctrine, and the observance of His laws, the human race might attain to holiness on earth and neverending happiness in Heaven. In this wise, and on this principle, the Church was begotten. If we consider the chief end of His Church and the proximate efficient causes of salvation, it is undoubtedly spiritual; but in regard to those who constitute it, and to the things which lead to these spiritual gifts, it is external and necessarily visible. The Apostles received a mission to teach by visible and audible signs, and they discharged their mission only by words and acts which certainly appealed to the senses. So that their voices falling upon the ears of those who heard them begot faith in souls – “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the words of Christ” (Rom. x., 17). And faith itself – that is assent given to the first and supreme truth – though residing essentially in the intellect, must be manifested by outward profession – “For with the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. x., 10). In the same way in man, nothing is more internal than heavenly grace which begets sanctity, but the ordinary and chief means of obtaining grace are external: that is to say, the sacraments which are administered by men specially chosen for that purpose, by means of certain ordinances.
Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles and their successors to the end of time to teach and rule the nations. He ordered the nations to accept their teaching and obey their authority. But his correlation of rights and duties in the Christian commonwealth not only could not have been made permanent, but could not even have been initiated except through the senses, which are of all things the messengers and interpreters.
For this reason the Church is so often called in Holy Writ a body, and even the body of Christ – “Now you are the body of Christ” (I Cor. 12:, 27) – and precisely because it is a body is the Church visible: and because it is the body of Christ is it living and energizing, because by the infusion of His power Christ guards and sustains it, just as the vine gives nourishment and renders fruitful the branches united to it. And as in animals the vital principle is unseen and invisible, and is evidenced and manifested by the movements and action of the members, so the principle of supernatural life in the Church is clearly shown in that which is done by it. (Satis Cognitum)
The Church was instituted by Christ for the sole reason of the salvation of mankind. Salvation means the forgiveness of sin and the possession of eternal life. The Church was not given any other reason (mission):
All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matt. 28:18-20)
And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. . . But they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed. (Mark 16:15-16, 20)
Therefore Paul gives this admonition: Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence,) with fear and trembling work out your salvation.(Philip. 2:12) To the Ephesians: That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. Eph. 5:27
And Leo XIII, in the Encyclical cited, teaches:
. . . This becomes even more evident when the purpose of the Divine Founder is considered. For what did Christ, the Lord, ask? What did He wish in regard to the Church founded, or about to be founded? This: to transmit to it the same mission and the same mandate which He had received from the Father, that they should be perpetuated. This He clearly resolved to do: this He actually did. “As the Father hath sent me, I also send you” (John 20:, 21). “As thou hast sent Me into the world I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:, 18).
But the mission of Christ is to save that which had perished: that is to say, not some nations or peoples, but the whole human race, without distinction of time or place. “The Son of Man came that the world might be saved by Him” (John iii., 17). “For there is no other name under Heaven given to men whereby we must be saved” (Acts iv., 12). The Church, therefore, is bound to communicate without stint to all men, and to transmit through all ages, the salvation effected by Jesus Christ, and the blessings flowing there from. . . . (Satis Cognitum, par. 4)
The members of the Church are:
To the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place of theirs and ours. (1 Cor. 1:2) And, again For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink. For the body also is not one member, but many. (1 Cor. 12:12-14)
Gregory the Great (Bk 5, letter 18): And (to bind all together in a short girth of speech) the saints before the law, the saints under the law, the saints under grace, all these making up the Lord’s Body, were constituted as members of the Church . . . .
Pope Pius XII (Mystici Corporis Christi, June 29, 1943):
Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. “For in one spirit” says the Apostle, “were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free.”[ I Cor., XII, 13.] As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. [Cf. Eph., IV, 5.] And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered—so the Lord commands—as a heathen and a publican. [Cf. Matth., XVIII, 17] It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit. (Par. 22)
And, in Humani Generis (August 12, 1950), Pius XII again stated:
Some say they are not bound by the doctrine, explained in Our Encyclical Letter of a few years ago, and based on the sources of revelation, which teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing. (Mystici Corporis)Some reduce to a meaningless formula the necessity of belonging to the true Church in order to gain eternal salvation. Others finally belittle the reasonable character of the credibility of Christian faith. (Par. 27)
St. Robert Bellarmine’s well-known definition:
The Church is a union of men who are united by the profession of the same Christian faith, and by participation in the same Sacraments under the direction of their lawful pastors, especially of the one representative of Christ on earth, the Pope of Rome (De eccl. mil. 2; cf. Balt. Cat., q. 136).
Monsignor G. Van Noort, in his Dogmatic Theology, (Volume II, Christ’s Church, 1957; cf. also Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, part II, chapt. 5, §19)
We call members of the Church only those who unqualifiedly belong to the visible Church. Three facts are required for this: (a) that a person have received the sacrament of baptism; (b) that he be not separated from the profession of the faith of the Church; (c) that he be not separated from union with its hierarchy. These three factors, however, should not receive the same evaluation. Baptism alone is the cause which incorporates a man into the Church; the other two factors are conditions which must be fulfilled if baptism is not to be frustrated in its effect. Baptism, by Christ’s own ordinance, always ingrafts a man into the body of the Church unless its efficacy be impeded; and union with the Church, once it has been caused by baptism, perseveres uninterruptedly so long as it be not severed by either of the separations mentioned above.
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