God’s Will: Something to submit to, unite to, and trust in

Posted on November 20, 2019June 20, 2020 by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: Below is an article by one of the Catholic Candle Team, which is the fourth in a series of reflections related to humility. Here are the first three in this series:

➢ https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/god-is-the-sculptor-of-souls.html

➢ https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/gods-school-of-sanctity-humility-hunting-a-source-of-great-delight-for-the-soul.html

➢ https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/our-nothingness.html

Sweet submission to God’s Will leads to

Uniformity with It and complete trust in God

Objective Truth Series – reflections article #4

Who doesn’t feel the need to be safe? When there is a calamity of nature or some kind of disaster, we seek protection and to survive, and so it is with our souls. God made us this way. We do ever forget our need of Him and His wonderful Providence, yet God’s draws the soul and teaches it, little by little. He shows the entire need we have of Him, until finally, the soul is convinced, and has no doubt of its need. A little child knows for sure that he needs his Dad and Mom. The child delights even to see Mom or Dad return home and runs to embrace his parent. Oh, to please his parents is such sweetness! He understands his proper place as the subordinate to his parents. He knows his ignorance, sees what his parents have done and still do for him, and thus sees his debt and what he owes to his parents. Thus, he has such gratitude, and this all builds such loving willingness to please.

Furthermore, a child feels so safe to be in the arms of his parent, he doesn’t care if it’s hot and humid, he just wants to remain there. With such knowledge and confidence in his parents, a child also learns to have a like knowledge of God and a trustful surrender to God. Our Lord alludes to this when He says: “Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” St. Matthew, 18:3. With this trustful surrender comes such an all-embracing peace of soul that one does not doubt that God is in charge and planning what He wills to do for His friends. St. Paul reminds us of our need to submit to God and to see ourselves as little children, when he teaches: “For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named.” Ephesians, 3:14-15.

God’s Providence continually cares for and assists His friend – the soul of His adopted child. How wonderful to ponder on this objective truth that we are really adopted children of God! Now let us sincerely pray to live our true role in God’s eternal plan and lovingly trust Our Heavenly Father! Then our hearts would perhaps spill over in the following words:

To see my needs is to count without number,

I am in Thy hands, O Lord, like a child in slumber,

How can I help, grateful to be?

When I see how thou carest for me?

My biggest need of all, is that I see,

My longing to say, that I love thee,

And I give Thee, a thankful embrace,

And I thankfully fall, before Thy Face.

I thankfully rest, once safely in Thy arms,

And I’m so overwhelmed, with Thy charms,

And with Thy wonderful care,

How could I ever wish or dare.

To run away from Thee,

Now knowing Thou wouldst ne’r abandon me?

Thou hast given me, complete desire to ev’r see,

That I am lost, if I run away from Thee.

But now my heart is filled,

To ever do, what Thou hast willed,

Thy Will is my heart’s desire,

My only safety, my only fire.

Oh, for Thy Will, I ever burn,

Oh, for Thy Will, my heart will e’er yearn,

Without Thy help, where can I be?

I need Thee, there is nothing in me.

Oh, sweet submission and surrender,

I unite my will with God, so tender,

I am cared for by Him, Whom I trust,

Into His Hands, my heart I thrust.

Where rest, peace, and safety I find,

To serve, and love Him with a child-like mind,

On this true view of things so sweet,

There my happiness— my joy complete!

Pope Francis teaches that all general principles are relative and adjustable

Posted on November 20, 2019June 20, 2020 by Catholic Candle

The Catholic Church has many unchangeable, general principles which do not contain exceptions. For example, divorced and (so-called) “re-married” Catholics are forbidden from receiving Holy Communion.

Pope Francis falsely teaches that all the Catholic Church’s general principles must be adapted to local circumstances and cultures. Here are his words:

[C]ultures are in fact quite diverse, and every general principle … needs to be inculturated[1], if it is to be respected and applied.

Quoted from Pope Francis’s apostolic constitution, Episcopalis Communio, Sept 15, 2018, §7 (ellipse is in the original; emphasis added).

[1] Inculturation is: “the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture”. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Inculturation

The “new”, liberal SSPX portrays a family which fits with the world and the conciliar church

Posted on November 20, 2019June 20, 2020 by Catholic Candle

When a person wears a wedding ring, it tells people that he/she is married. The absence of a wedding ring tells people that the person is not married.

In the August-September 2019 Regina Coeli Report, the “new” SSPX’s theme was the family (the “domestic church”). The cover photo is of a smiling family and neither parent has a wedding ring.[1]

In this same photo, the family has two children – the maximum number approved by the world.

In this photo, the boy is dressed in pink – an approved color for boys and men in our corrupt, upside-down world. Promoting pink for boys and men feminizes them, contributes to the destruction of the fathers’ leadership, and promotes to the very gender confusion so rampant today.

[1] Here is the website where this commercial photo is offered to the public: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-family-park-having-good-time-1449821645?src=wrgEBGA5n8CLyzj_atU5TQ-1-33

Here are more pictures of the same couple, some of which show the parents’ ringless fingers from other angles: https://www.shutterstock.com/g/shalunts?searchterm=adult

Gaining Plenary Indulgences

Posted on November 20, 2019June 20, 2020 by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: Sedevacantism is wrong and is schism. Catholic Candle is not sedevacantist. On the contrary, we published a series of articles showing that sedevacantism is false (and also showing that former Pope Benedict is not still the pope). Read the articles here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/against-sedevacantism.html

A reader would be mistaken to believe that the article below gives any support to sedevacantism. The article simply shows that we must be careful to not cooperate with (or pray for the success of) the evil intentions of a pope or any other superior.

Gaining Plenary Indulgences

In our Times of Great Apostasy

We need all of the help we can get to save our souls. One help available to Catholics is obtaining plenary indulgences (i.e., complete remission of all temporal punishment due for sins). But to obtain plenary indulgences, we usually must pray for the intentions of the pope. How can we do that, without compromise, when the pope has many bad intentions?

The pope’s official intentions are often evil

The Vatican publishes the monthly prayer intentions of Pope Francis and many of them are evil and they often promote political correctness. For example, Pope Francis uses his monthly prayer intentions to promote his Politically-Correct climate-alarmism, which is a basis for his promotion of a one-world government to regulate the ecology of the world and of the oceans in particular.[1]

To ensure that his climate-alarmism stays in the news, Pope Francis published this politically-correct, ecological prayer intention for September 2019:

The Protection of the Oceans

That politicians, scientists, and economists work together to protect the world’s seas and oceans.[2]

Pope Francis uses his prayer intentions to promote many other evils of the conciliar church. For example, Pope Francis published this ecumenical prayer intention promoting inter-religious dialogue, as his November 2019 prayer intention:

Dialogue and Reconciliation in the Near East

That a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Near East, where diverse religious communities share their lives together.[3]

However, despite Pope Francis’s own bad intentions, there are some good intentions which are always included in the intentions of the pope. Here is how The Raccolta[4] explains this:

PRAYER ACCORDING TO THE POPE’S INTENTION

The Pope’s intention always includes the following objects:

i. The progress of the Faith and triumph of the Church.

ii. Peace and union among Christian Princes and Rulers.

iii. The conversion of sinners.

iv. The uprooting of heresy.[5]

God wants us to pray for these Traditional Catholic intentions of the pope, but of course, not pray for any evil intentions.

We suggest that you make your intent explicit – for yourself and for others – by stating that you are praying for the Traditional intentions of the pope, thereby reminding yourself and others that you reject his evil and radical intentions.[6]

Further, Traditional Catholics are not sedevacantists. Thus, we suggest you remind yourself and others of this fact by praying “for the Traditional intentions of Pope Francis” by name, rather than merely for the “intentions of the pope”.

Finally, we suggest you refer to the purpose of those prayers for the pope: “for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement for obtaining a plenary indulgence”.

Conclusion of this section

To gain plenary indulgences during these times of Great Apostasy, we suggest you pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be:

for the Traditional intentions of Pope Francis, for the purpose of gaining a plenary indulgence.

How can we gain a plenary indulgence without access to uncompromising priests and sacraments?

As we see above, it is a good thing to pray for the pope’s Traditional intentions in order to obtain a plenary indulgence. But how can we gain a plenary indulgence without access to uncompromising priests and sacraments?

Should uncompromising Traditional Catholics “bother” praying for the Traditional intentions of the pope to obtain a plenary indulgence, when, in our times of Great Apostasy, there is little or no opportunity to fulfill the other usual conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence, viz., going to confession and receiving Holy Communion?

The answer is “yes”!

God has not abandoned His children! Although He has – for now – willed to take away most of the Sacraments from most uncompromising Traditional Catholics, in God’s ineffable Providence, this is for our good. We know infallibly that “all things work together unto the good, for those who love God.”[7]

So, when God takes away most sacraments, He gives us other means and gives those means greater efficacy. So, e.g., God greatly increased the power of the Holy Rosary during our times.[8]

God understands that we cannot do the impossible, nor does He expect us to do it. He does not expect, or want us to receive the Sacraments or go to Mass when it is not available without compromise. Compromise Masses and Sacraments don’t help us and they offend Him![9]

Thus, because we know that the current unavailability of the Sacraments works for our good, if we love God, our inability to fulfill those conditions for a plenary indulgence also works for our good and does not harm us. God will provide!

One way that God is able to provide for us is to give us a plenary indulgence when we piously and diligently fulfill the conditions for a plenary indulgence as closely as we can.[10] God can treat this as if it were literal compliance with the usual conditions for obtaining a plenary indulgence. Thus,

➢ When confession is not available without compromise, then God expects us to make an Act of Contrition as perfectly as we can.

➢ When we cannot receive Holy Communion without compromise, He expects us to make as fervent a Spiritual Communion as we can.

Along with fulfilling these conditions as closely as we can, we also pray “for the Traditional intentions of Pope Francis”.

Conclusion to the entire article

Let us have a strong heart and complete confidence in God. Let us always have complete confidence that God is providing perfectly for us.

Let us continue to fulfill the conditions for obtaining plenary indulgences to the extent that we are able, knowing that God provides for us.

[1] Here are Pope Francis’s words, citing and quoting (former) Pope Benedict XVI and (supposed) “saint” Pope John XXIII:

¶174. Let us also mention the system of governance of the oceans. International and regional conventions do exist, but fragmentation and the lack of strict mechanisms of regulation, control, and penalization end up undermining these efforts. The growing problem of marine waste and the protection of the open seas represent particular challenges. What is needed, in effect, is an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of so-called “global commons”.

¶175. The same mindset which stands in the way of making radical decisions to reverse the trend of global warming also stands in the way of achieving the goal of eliminating poverty. A more responsible overall approach is needed to deal with both problems: the reduction of pollution and the development of poorer countries and regions. The twenty-first century, while maintaining systems of governance inherited from the past, is witnessing a weakening of the power of nation states, chiefly because the economic and financial sectors, being transnational, tend to prevail over the political. Given this situation, it is essential to devise stronger and more efficiently organized international institutions, with functionaries who are appointed fairly by agreement among national governments, and empowered to impose sanctions. As Benedict XVI has affirmed in continuity with the social teaching of the Church: “To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security, and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago”.

Laudato Si, ¶¶ 174-5 (emphasis added).

[2] http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/the-popes-monthly-intention.cfm

[3] http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/the-popes-monthly-intention.cfm

[4] A raccolta is a book which collects prayers and other acts of piety, for which specific indulgences were granted by the pre-conciliar popes.

[5] The Raccolta, translated by Ambrose St. John, Benzinger Bros., New York, 1910 edition, quoted from the preface, page xiii (emphasis added).

[6] Pope Francis’s conciliar intentions reflect and promote conciliar novelties. These new doctrines are so foreign to Catholicism that St. Thomas Aquinas defines heretics as follows: A heretic is someone who devises or follows false or new opinions. Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q.11, a.1 Sed contra (emphasis added). Notice St. Thomas does not say “false and new opinions”. The newness of a doctrine is already sufficient reason to reject it.

[7] Romans, 8:28.

[8] Sister Lucy, seer at Fatima, revealed to Fr. Fuentes:

God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. … Prayer and sacrifice are the two means to save the world. As for the Holy Rosary, Father, in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary. This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is – be it temporal or above all spiritual ….

Words of Sister Lucy seer at Fatima, from her December 26, 1957 interview by Fr. Augustin Fuentes, vice-postulator of the cause of beatification for Francisco and Jacinta. (Emphasis added.) This interview can be found at: http://radtradthomist.chojnowski.me/2019/03/is-this-interview-that-caused-her.html

[9] Read these articles showing that compromise masses and sacraments offend God and do not give grace:

· https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/new-mass-never-grace.html

· https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/williamson-least-contaminated-mass.html

· https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/williamson-contradicts-archbishop-lefebvre.html

[10] Just as God bountifully gives graces to us without expecting the impossible, likewise the Catholic Church bountifully grants indulgences without expecting the impossible. For this reason, Pope Pius IX granted:

to all the faithful who are habitually prevented by chronic illness or permanent physical inability of any kind, from leaving their dwellings – excepting those who live in religious communities – the privilege of gaining each and all of the plenary indulgences already granted, or which may be hereafter granted by the Sovereign Pontiffs; provided that, being truly penitent and having confessed their sins and fulfilled the other conditions prescribed, they perform faithfully, in place of receiving Holy Communion, some pious work enjoined by their confessors.

Quoted from The New Raccolta, published in 1898 by order of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII, Peter F. Cunningham & Son, Philadelphia, English edition ©1900, quoted from the section On Holy Indulgences, pp.21-22.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Co-Redemptrix of the World

Posted on November 2, 2019July 2, 2021 by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: The article below pertains to another scandalous error of Pope Francis. However, a reader would be mistaken if he assumed that Pope Francis’s grave error somehow means that he is not the pope.

Sedevacantism is wrong and is (material or formal) schism. Catholic Candle is not sedevacantist. On the contrary, we published a series of articles showing that sedevacantism is false (and also showing that former Pope Benedict is not still the pope). Read the articles here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/against-sedevacantism.html

Here is what St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, teaches concerning the need to recognize and respect the authority of a superior – such as the pope – even when he is very bad:

Even should the life of any superior be so notoriously wicked as to admit of no excuse or dissimulation, nevertheless, for God’s sake, Who is the source of all power, we are bound to honor such a one, not on account of his personal merits, which are non-existent, but because of the divine ordination and the dignity of his office.[1]

However, even while recognizing the pope’s authority and our duty to obey him when we are able, we know we must resist the evil he says and does. Read more about this principle here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/against-sedevacantism.html#section-7

Defending the pre-Vatican II teaching against Pope Francis’s Scoffing

What the title “Co-Redemptrix” means

God caused the universe to be the best possible one for His own greater honor and glory.[2] “The Lord hath made all things for Himself”. Proverbs, 16:4. No other motive would be worthy of Him.

God could have caused the universe to be different than it is. Two ways God could have caused the universe to be different, is not to redeem man after his fall, or not to use the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in redeeming man. However, God did redeem man and did use the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary because God does all things in the best possible way.[3]

One way God used the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to have God the Son become Man through her Divine maternity. Another way God chose to use the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to employ her as an integral part of His redemption of mankind, as Co-Redemptrix.

Here is how Dom Guéranger explained this truth in The Liturgical Year:

Our Lady’s co-operation in the redemption of the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence. Neither the Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher idea of Mary’s exaltation than the title of co-redemptress. Her dolors were not necessary for the redemption of the world, but, in the counsels of God, they were inseparable from it. They belong to the integrity of the divine plan.[4]

Again, God could have redeemed man in a different way, without the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But He chose the best way for His own glory and this way involved using her unique and integral help.

The Feminine Suffix of the word “Redemptress” (and of the word “Redemptrix”)

The Divine Law and the Natural Law[5] require that men and women have different roles in our life on earth.[6] The differences between the sexes are naturally (and traditionally) manifest in countless visible ways, e.g., in clothing, as Sacred Scripture commands:

A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel, neither shall a man use woman’s apparel: for he that doth these things is abominable before God.

Deuteronomy, 22:5.

God and Nature require these distinctions in dress not only for modesty’s sake but also because such exterior manifestations reinforce these truths in our thoughts, help us to live them, and to oppose the errors and corruptions of the world around us.

Another important way in which the natural distinction between the sexes is (and should be) manifest in everyday life, is in grammatical differences in our speech, which reinforce this distinction between the sexes. For example, we use feminine pronouns for women and girls and male pronouns for men and boys. Likewise, in a wholesome society, parents don’t give their children unisex names or (even worse) names of the other gender. Parents give feminine names to girls and masculine names to boys.

The destruction of these wholesome customs is perverse and corrupts society. The enemies of Our Lord have advanced far in trying to destroy these good practices. Minimizing the outward signs which show the differences in gender leads to blurring the distinction between the sexes. Gender-blurring is designed to minimize our understanding of the differences between the sexes. The eventual goal is to promote gender confusion (a lunacy we see today). This whole corrupting process has its roots in the centuries-old apostasy from the Catholic Faith.[7]

Among many other wholesome grammatical distinctions between the sexes, is using sex-specific endings to indicate the gender of a person who has a certain role. For example, a man who delivers food to the tables in a restaurant is called a “waiter” and a woman who does this is called a “waitress”. This “-tress” ending feminizes the word. There are countless words with such feminized endings, e.g., empress and shepherdess.

A similar Latinized feminine ending to words is “-trix” (instead of “-tress”). Thus:

➢ a female executor of a person’s will is called an “executrix”.[8]

➢ likewise, Our Lady is called the “Mediatrix of all Graces”.

Because we make these wholesome grammatical distinctions between the sexes, a female redeemer is called a “redemptrix” or a “redemptress”. Thus, the Blessed Virgin Mary is called the “Co-Redemptrix” because she co-redeems man with her Son.

Comparison of Our Lady’s titles, “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of all Graces”

To better understand the Blessed Virgin Mary’s title “Co-Redemptrix”, let us compare it to her title “Mediatrix of all Graces”. These two titles correspond to her two unique roles helping her Son, in meriting and distributing all Graces.

Her title “Co-Redemptrix” refers to her unique role (and privilege) assisting her Son in His Redemption of the world, through which she assisted Him in meriting forgiveness and grace for sinners, in a fitting way (as explained below). By contrast, her title “Mediatrix of all Graces” refers to her unique role (and privilege) assisting her Son in distributing all those Graces to sinners.

Our Lady’s assistance to her Son in the works of redemption and salvation is analogous to a nurse playing a uniquely important role in both helping a physician prepare a lifesaving medicine and also distribute the medicine for him to his patients. Our Lady uniquely aided her Son although she is not Divine and although she herself depends on her Son, just as the nurse is not a physician but can be a unique aid in his work.

Pre-Vatican II teaching that Mary is Co-Redemptrix of the world

Pope St. Pius X

Pope St. Pius X taught that, in the work of redemption, the Blessed Virgin Mary merited in a way of fittingness, what her Son merited strictly speaking. Here are St. Pius X’s words:

We are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace – a power which belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary surpasses all in holiness and union with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption, she merits for us “de congruo,” [i.e., according to fittingness] in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us “de condigno,” [i.e., according to strict deserving] .…[9]

Also, St. Pius X’s Holy Office (viz., his guardian of the Catholic Faith) approved the orthodoxy of a prayer praising Our Lady as “Co-Redemptrix”. Here is a portion of this prayer:

I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever Virgin, conceived without stain of sin, Co-Redemptrix of the human race.[10]

Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV taught that the Blessed Virgin Mary redeemed the world, along with Christ. Here are his words:

As the Blessed Virgin Mary does not seem to participate in the public life of Jesus Christ, and then, suddenly appears at the stations of his cross, she is not there without divine intention. She suffers with her suffering and dying Son, almost as if she would have died herself. For the salvation of mankind, she gave up her rights as the mother of her Son and, in a sense, offered Christ’s sacrifice to God the Father as far as she was permitted to do. Therefore, one can justly say that she together with Christ has redeemed the human race.[11]

Pope Pius XI

Pope Pius XI called the Blessed Mother the Co-Redemptrix. Here are his words:

By necessity, the Redeemer could not but associate [non poteva, per necessità di cose, non associare] his Mother in His work. For this reason, we invoke her under the title of Co-Redemptrix. She gave us the Savior, she accompanied Him in the work of Redemption as far as the Cross itself, sharing with Him the sorrows and the agony and in the death in which Jesus consummated the Redemption of mankind.[12]

Honoring Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix, in the devotional life of the Church

Before Vatican II, not only did the popes teach that Our Lady is Co-Redemptrix, but she was also honored under this title in Catholic devotion. For example, Dom Guéranger quotes and promotes a 600-year-old liturgical sequence and hymn, praising Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix. Here is this sequence:

Come, sovereign Lady,

Mary, do thou visit us,

illumine our sickly souls,

by the example of thy

duties performed in life.

Come, Co-Redemptrix of the world,

take away the filth of sin,

by visiting thy people,

remove their peril of chastisement.

Come, Queen of nations,

extinguish the flames of the guilty,

rectify whatsoever is wrong,

give us to live innocently.

Come, and visit the sick,

Mary, fortify the strong with

the vigor of thy holy impetuosity,

so that brave courage droop not.

Come, thou Star, O thou

Light of the ocean waves,

shed thy ray of peace upon us,

let the heart of John exult with

joy before the Lord.[13]

Similarly, traditional devotional books contemplate Mary’s role as Co-Redemptrix.[14]

Pope Francis scoffs at Our Lady’s title and privilege of being Co-Redemptrix

On December 12, 2019, the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis scoffed at Our Lady’s title and her privilege of being “Co-Redemptrix”. Here are his words, as quoted in a news report:

“She never wanted for herself something that was of her son,” Francis said. “She never introduced herself as co-redemptrix. No. Disciple,” he said, meaning that Mary saw herself as a disciple of Jesus.

Mary, the pope insisted, “never stole[15] for herself anything that was of her son,” …

“When they come to us with the story of declaring her this or making that dogma, let’s not get lost in foolishness [in Spanish, tonteras],” he said.[16]

Pope Francis then showed his contempt not only for Our Lady’s title and privilege of being Co-Redemptrix, but also his contempt for all of her titles which show her unique glory and which show how Our Lord has honored His Mother through the Church. Here are Pope Francis’s words of contempt for all of her glorious titles:

“Mary woman, Mary mother, without any other essential title,” Francis insisted.[17]

Pope Francis’s words are merely part of Vatican II’s and the conciliar church’s blasphemous minimization of the Glorious Mother of God

Pope Francis’s words (above) are among the countless conciliar attempts to “pull down” Our Lady from her unique, exalted position, and to put her on the level of everyone else. According to him, she is merely “woman” and “mother”.

In his scandalous minimizing of Our Lady’s glory, Pope Francis reflects the teaching of Vatican II. For example, Lumen Gentium says the Blessed Virgin Mary is only one of many examples of persons cooperating with Our Lord.[18]

In his words (above), Pope Francis merely follows Vatican II’s warning not to “exaggerate” devotion to our Heavenly Mother.[19] Here is Vatican II’s admonition:

[The council] exhorts theologians and preachers of the divine word to abstain zealously both from all gross exaggerations as well as from petty narrow-mindedness in considering the singular dignity of the Mother of God.

Lumen Gentium §67 (emphasis added).

Conclusion

One of the hallmarks of the conciliar revolution is its continual efforts to minimize the Glorious Mother of God.

One of the ways we must be counter-revolutionary is by devoting ourselves to her and honoring her at every opportunity, including as Co-Redemptrix!

Let us continually pray to her and for Pope Francis!

[1] Quoted from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Third Sermon for Advent, entitled: On the Three Advents of the Lord and the Seven Pillars which we ought to erect within us.

[2] Here is how St. Thomas explains this truth:

[E]ach and every creature exists for the perfection of the entire universe. Furthermore, the entire universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end, inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine goodness, to the glory of God.

Summa, Ia, Q.65., a2, respondeo.

[3] Here is St. Thomas’ fuller explanation of this truth:

It is the part of the best agent to produce an effect which is best in its entirety; but this does not mean that He makes every part of the whole the best absolutely, but in proportion to the whole; in the case of an animal, for instance, its goodness would be taken away if every part of it had the dignity of an eye. Thus, therefore, God also made the universe to be best as a whole, according to the mode of a creature; whereas He did not make each single creature best, but one better than another. And therefore, we find it said of each creature, “God saw the light, that it was good” (Genesis, 1:4); and in like manner, each one of the rest. But of all together it is said, “God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good” (Genesis, 1:31).

Summa, Ia, Q.47, a.2, ad 1 (emphasis added).

[4] The Liturgical Year, by Dom Guéranger, volume 14, (also called volume 5 for the Time After Pentecost) New York, Benziger Bros., 1910, p. 212 (emphasis added).

[5] The Natural Law is what we know we must do by the light of the natural reason God gave us. One example of the Natural Law is that we must never tell a lie. We naturally know this because we know that the purpose of speech is to convey the truth and so we naturally know that telling a lie is abusing the purpose of speech.

Here is how St. Thomas explains what the Natural Law is:

[L]aw, being a rule and measure, can be in a person in two ways: in one way, as in him that rules and measures; in another way, as in that which is ruled and measured, since a thing is ruled and measured, in so far as it partakes of the rule or measure. Wherefore, since all things subject to Divine providence are ruled and measured by the eternal law, as was stated above [in Summa, Ia IIae, Q.91, a.1]; it is evident that all things partake somewhat of the eternal law, in so far as, namely, from its being imprinted on them, they derive their respective inclinations to their proper acts and ends.

Now among all others, the rational creature is subject to Divine providence in the most excellent way, in so far as it partakes of a share of providence, by being provident both for itself and for others. Wherefore it has a share of the Eternal Reason, whereby it has a natural inclination to its proper act and end: and this participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law. Hence the Psalmist after saying (Psalm 4:6): “Offer up the sacrifice of justice,” as though someone asked what the works of justice are, adds: “Many say, Who showeth us good things?” in answer to which question he says: “The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us”: thus implying that the light of natural reason, whereby we discern what is good and what is evil, which is the function of the natural law, is nothing else than an imprint on us of the Divine light. It is therefore evident that the natural law is nothing else than the rational creature’s participation of the eternal law.

Summa, Ia IIae, Q.91, a.2, respondeo (emphasis added).

[6] To learn more about the natural and Catholic principles on this issue, read these articles:

Ø https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/the-role-that-god-gave-to-woman-and-the-great-work-of-her-life.html

Ø https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/book-review-ungodly-rage-the-hidden-face-of-catholic-feminism.html

Ø https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/feminism-is-anarchy-in-the-family.html

[7] For further analysis of this issue, read the article The Direct Road from Apostasy to Gender Confusion, published in the December 2019 Catholic Candle.

[8] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/executrix

[9] Ad diem illum laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Pope St. Pius X, February 2, 1904, §14 (emphasis added; bracketed words added for clarity).

[10] January 22, 1914 decree of the Holy Office, taken from The Raccolta, Benziger Bros., 1957, pp. 228-229. This prayer was indulgenced by the Vatican office of indulgences, which is part of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, on Dec. 4, 1934.

[11] Pope Benedict XV, Apostolic Letter Inter soldalica, March 22, 1918 (emphasis added), cited and quoted in The Church Teaches, John F. Clarkson, S.J., et al. (translators), Herder & Co., St. Louis, © 1955, pp. 210-211.

[12] Pope Pius XI, Allocution to Pilgrims from Vicenza, Italy (a city west of Venice), November 30, 1933 (quoted in L’Osservatore Romano, December 1, 1933, p. 1; emphasis added.)

[13] The Liturgical Year, by Dom Guéranger, volume 12, (also called volume 3 for the Time After Pentecost) James Duffy, Dublin, 1890, pp. 523-524 (emphasis added).

[14] For example, this title is used in a meditation given in Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year, By Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, TAN Books, Rockford, contained in the meditation for February Second – The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[15] Pope Francis insultingly suggests that the way Our Lady would receive a title or an honor is by “stealing” it from her Son. On the contrary, her Divine Son is the One who Wills that these honors be given to her. For example, in 1929, Our Lady of Fatima revealed God’s Will that she be honored through Russia being consecrated to her Immaculate Heart and that Russia would be saved by this means. Here are her words to Sister Lucy of Fatima:

The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.…

The Whole Truth About Fatima, Frére Michel de la Sainte Trinité, translator John Collorafi, vol. II, Immaculate Heart Publications, Buffalo, NY, © 1989 for English translation, p.464 (emphasis added).

[16] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/12/pope-calls-idea-of-declaring-mary-co-redemptrix-foolishness/ (Bracketed words are in the original).

[17] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/12/pope-calls-idea-of-declaring-mary-co-redemptrix-foolishness/

[18] The council says Our Lady is one of many [“manifold”] ways of cooperating with her Son just like ministers and laymen have various ways of cooperating with Christ’s priesthood. Here are the council’s words concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the section of Lumen Gentium pertaining to her:

[T]he Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix . This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator.

For no creature could ever be counted as equal with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer. Just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by the ministers and by the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is really communicated in different ways to His creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.

Lumen Gentium, §62 (emphasis added).

[19] This pulling down of the Blessed Virgin Mary is like the conciliar church minimizing Our Lord Jesus Christ. For example, he is called a “superstar” in a blasphemous (so-called) “rock opera”.

To take only one more example of gross disrespect for Our Lord, the conciliar church has named many (of the relatively few) churches built after Vatican II, with the blasphemous title Christ the Servant Church. (Do an internet search for the websites of the many conciliar churches given that name.)

Faithful Catholics honor the greatness of Our Lord’s Divinity and His Kingship, as well as the unique and sublime role of the holy Mother of God. By contrast, the revolutionaries emphasize Our Lady being a “normal” woman and her Son being a servant.

Let’s “Walk A Mile” In Our Lord’s Sandals To Better Understand How He Is Suffering, And How To Comfort Him

Posted on November 2, 2019June 20, 2020 by Catholic Candle

To “walk a mile” in Our Lord’s sandals, we will witness how He has suffered for over 50 years because of the crisis which the Second Vatican Council caused in His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church.

It is something like a member of your family who has lost the Faith and is now plotting against you as a Traditionalist. For the past 50-plus years Our Lord has been put through His Passion all over again, due to the evil and destructive changes of Vatican II. We will also witness how Church leadership turned against Him to implement these evil heresies. Some of these leaders are anti-Catholic Masons.

To again drive the nails in Our Lord’s hands and feet, Rome is making “saints” of these traitorous conciliar popes.

For a time, there was an archbishop and a society giving comfort to Our Lord by upholding Tradition and resisting the changes. But with the death of Archbishop Lefebvre and with the current leadership in the Society that succumbed to Modernist pressure and Liberalism, all that changed.

This weak leadership is currently willing to compromise principles and lead their followers into the conciliar church and out of the Catholic Church. They do this by making the misguided effort to be recognized by (and subject to) Rome, the seat of the anti-Christ. Much the same as the Society of St. Peter and other religious societies that made a deal with Rome.

Today, the only comfort for Our Lord is the very small remnant of uncompromising Traditional Catholics, who must stand firm, come what may, in order to comfort Our Lord.

This conciliar church is not merely a liberal way of thinking. It is a human organization (which deceptively uses the name “Catholic”).

Listed below are some of the VC II evil, destructive, anti-Catholic heresies put in place by the conciliar church. Consider each one as a painful lash of the whip, as Christ is again scourged at the pillar.

1. False doctrines (e.g., the teachings of Vatican II);

2. False and sacrilegious worship (e.g., the new mass, with the words of Consecration changed, as if Our Lord didn’t know better and second-guessed Himself);

3. Places for sacrileges (viz., the conciliar churches that were stolen from the Catholic Church;

4. False priesthood (the new concept of priesthood; doubtfully valid ordinations;

5. False laws (e.g., the bad 1983 Code of Canon Law);

6. False catechisms (e.g., the conciliar church catechism, called the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”);

7. False bibles (e.g., those replacing the Douay Rheims Bible);

8. The new politically-correct “Decalogue” (i.e., the new “Ten Commandments”) promoted by “saint” Pope John Paul II);

9. The new politically-correct “beatitudes” promoted by Pope Francis;

10. The new rosary (the so-called “luminous mysteries”);

11. New (supposed) “saints” (e.g., so-called “saint” Pope John Paul II), and the new canonization process;

12. The new (supposed) “sacraments” with conciliar names and formulae;

13. The new (supposed) “miracles” and “apparitions”;

14. The hierarchy, who serve in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy and also in the (anti-Catholic) conciliar church’s hierarchy;

15. The Amazonian Synod pushing for female priests and against priestly celibacy;

16. Corrupt Catholic religious organizations; and

17. All-but-eliminating religious clothing, thereby effectively making priests and sisters a part of the world.

This conciliar church is a different (and false) religion. It uses the power structures of the Catholic Church for its own ends, punishing (including excommunicating) those who resist this (false) conciliar church. Again, the conciliar church is a human organization, not just a mindset.

It is easy to understand how greatly Our Lord is suffering all over again in His

Passion because of the traitorous, conciliar Church leaders implementing anti-Catholic changes in the human element of the Church that He died to establish. Just consider all the souls lost – and will be lost – until Russia is consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We were told by the leaders of Vatican II that changes must be made – first: in order to be a part of the world, and second: in order to remain relevant in an ever-changing world. These changes have resulted in the destruction of the human element in the Catholic Church.

Christ loves mankind very much to be so exceedingly patient (i.e., giving us time to repent), and for not striking a quick final blow to end this blasphemy.

The above list of heresies promoted by the conciliar church dictates a question that only the New (liberal) SSPX leadership can answer: Why – Why – would any responsible leader want to negotiate a deal with Rome that would subject its followers and clergy to the jurisdiction of the conciliar church?

So, uncompromising Traditional Catholics must continue to comfort Our Lord with

steadfast loyalty to Catholic Tradition and to Christ the King.

November 2019 PDF Issue

Posted on November 1, 2019August 5, 2020 by Catholic Candle

2020-7 Catholic Candle Download

Posted on November 1, 2019August 6, 2020 by Catholic Candle

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

No man appears in safety before the public eye unless he first relishes obscurity. No man is safe in speaking unless he loves to be silent. No man rules safely unless he is willing to be ruled. No man commands safely unless he has learned well how to obey. No man rejoices safely unless he has within him the testimony of a good conscience.

The Imitation of Christ, Book I, Chapter 20.

September 2019

Posted on September 24, 2019February 24, 2023 by Catholic Candle

In Case You Missed It …

The “new”, liberal SSPX portrays

a family which fits with the world and the conciliar church

When a person wears a wedding ring, it tells people that he/she is married. The absence of a wedding ring tells people that the person is not married.

In this same photo, the family has two children – the maximum number approved by the world.

[1] Here is the website where this commercial photo is offered to the public: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-family-park-having-good-time-1449821645?src=wrgEBGA5n8CLyzj_atU5TQ-1-33

Here are more pictures of the same couple, some of which show the parents’ ringless fingers from other angles: https://www.shutterstock.com/g/shalunts?searchterm=adult

God Wills the Natural Inequalities between Different Peoples

Posted on September 22, 2019September 22, 2025 by Catholic Candle

Difference is the basis for the order in things. If there were no differences between things, there could be no order between them. The very idea of order includes within it the concept of priority and of posteriority, and hence, of difference and inequality. In fact, that very separateness, i.e., the distinctions among things, is the principle of all order.¹

God makes creatures unequal.

God made difference and inequality in all creatures. As Ecclesiasticus teaches:

Why does one day excel another, and one light another, and one year another year…? By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished.

Chapter 33, verses 7-8.

Therefore, just as God’s Wisdom is the cause of His making all creatures, so His Wisdom is the cause of Him making creatures unequal.² By making some creatures inferior to other creatures, the whole of creation is more perfect than it otherwise would be.³

Inequality between individual persons

All men are equal in some ways. For example, they are equal before the law, so that their rights as citizens are the same despite differences between them such as in height, in wealth, etc.

However, God made persons unequal in many ways and intends this inequality. God made persons unequal in eyesight, mental acuity, natural prudence, athletic ability, beauty, musical talent, health, height, and in many other ways. God intends these inequalities.

All mankind is bound together with duties to help those individuals who are more in need of help because of these natural inequalities. So, a person who can see, can guide a blind man across the street, a taller person might reach something on a high shelf to help a shorter person.

Among all other inequalities between persons, some persons are naturally less prudent than some other persons. These less prudent persons need to be helped and protected for their own good, including protecting them from their own imprudence. There are many examples of this. For example, for their own good, civil laws prohibit persons from making contracts which include interest charges greater than a statutory maximum interest rate.⁴ These laws and many other laws, are ways that society protects those persons against their own imprudence, because they are less able to protect themselves.

Differences between men in society

As explained above, the very idea of order includes within it the concept of priority and of posteriority, and hence, of difference. In fact, that very separateness, i.e., the distinctions among people, is the principle of all social, political, economic, military and religious order, since difference is a principle of order. For example, in a proper military order, an army cannot have all generals or all privates. The army cannot have all equipment operators or all cooks. Etc.

St. Paul emphasizes that God made men unequal and made them to have different roles, strengths and weaknesses. Here are St. Paul’s words:

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. If the foot should say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him. And if they all were one member, where would be the body? But now there are many members indeed, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand: I need not thy help; nor again the head to the feet: I have no need of you. Yea, much more those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary. And such as we think to be the less honorable members of the body, about these we put more abundant honor; and those that are our uncomely parts, have more abundant comeliness. But our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, giving to that which wanted the more abundant honor, that there might be no schism in the body; but the members might be mutually careful one for another. And if one member suffer anything, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Corinthians, 12:12-27 (emphasis added).

As St. Paul shows us, God did not make every man to play whatever role that man chooses. Some men are made more honorable members of society, some, less. Some men are made the “eyes” of the collective group and some are made the “feet”. Id.

St. Paul emphasizes that these differences between men give rise to the obligation that “the members might be mutually careful one for another”. Id.

God intends differences and inequalities between groups as well as between individuals.

Just as God intends the countless inequalities between individuals, He also fully intends the inequalities between different groups/peoples/ethnicities/tribes. To take a few of countless examples:

one people is better at a sport such as basketball, than any other peoples;

one people is more emotional, with a high-strung temperament, while another ethnic group is more calm, staid and reason-oriented;

one people is more creative in the fine arts, than some other peoples;

one people more apt to the sciences than some other peoples; and

one people is more capable in leadership in society than some other peoples.

God intends all these natural differences, both the strengths and the weaknesses.

Pope Leo XIII assures us that “there will ever be differences and inequalities of condition in the State. Society cannot exist or be conceived of without them.” Rerum Novarum, §34.

These differences between one people and another, are differences between the members of society on a larger scale. St. Paul teaches us that these differences oblige “the members [to be] mutually careful one for another”. 1 Corinthians, 12:25.

All peoples and groups are bound together with duties in justice and charity. Some peoples are more capable of leading and other peoples need more guidance, more protection and need to be led because of these natural inequalities that God Wills.

These inequalities include that some peoples are naturally less prudent and don’t guide themselves and others as well as other peoples do. Such peoples need to be helped and protected for their own good. A striking example of this need occurred in Colombia, after the Masonic revolution in the early 1800s:

The liberal revolutionary governments wanted to decrease the authority of the Catholic Church and to enact land “reforms”, including the abolition of the somewhat-feudal system governing the lives of the Indians (who comprised about one-third of the population).

The previous (Spanish) government had protected these Indians (like Medieval serfs were protected) by restricting their ability to freely sell the plots of land which they possessed and farmed. In the name of freedom and the free market, the new liberal government allowed the Indians to sell their little plots of land. Rich, unscrupulous men quickly induced most of the Indians to (naïvely and shortsightedly) sell their little plots, thus ruining the small amount of independence the Indians had enjoyed. Within a few years, the ownership of the Indians’ lands was concentrated in the hands of a few rich and powerful families. The Indians became landless tenants. The land which had been cultivated by the Indians was then mostly used for grazing cattle.

In light of the natural inequalities between peoples, and because the men of society are bound together in justice and charity, persons and peoples more capable of leading have a duty to guide and protect those who are less capable.

It denies reason and these natural inequalities between peoples, to insist that a society’s or an organization’s leaders would be subject to “quotas” and include a “sampling” of “everybody”, i.e., representatives from each different group or people. This is as foolish as insisting that a basketball team must fulfill “quotas” and have members who “represent” every people in proportion to every part of the public.

God’s intent that there be inequality in society includes His intent that there be economic inequality (viz., rich and poor).

The revolutionaries in society stir up discontent by complaining there is an “income gap” between the rich and the poor, or that this income “gap” is increasing. However, an inequality in economic conditions is a natural reflection of other inequalities between men. God Wills these inequalities.

Quoting earlier Doctors of the Church, St. Thomas explains that God Wills wealth inequality for both the rich and the poor, so that the rich might acquire the virtue of liberality and so that the poor might acquire the virtue of patience. Here are his words:

The temporal goods which God grants us, are ours as to the ownership, but as to the use of them, they belong not to us alone but also to such others as we are able to succor out of what we have over and above our needs. Hence Basil says [*Hom. super Luc. xii, 18]: “If you acknowledge them,” viz., your temporal goods, “as coming from God, is He unjust because He apportions them unequally? Why are you rich while another is poor, unless it be that you may have the merit of a good stewardship, and he the reward of patience? It is the hungry man’s bread that you withhold, the naked man’s cloak that you have stored away, the shoe of the barefoot that you have left to rot, the money of the needy that you have buried underground: and so you injure as many as you might help.” Ambrose expresses himself in the same way.⁵

The Socialists seek to abolish private property, pretending that men are equal and that private property destroys this supposed equality. Here is how Pope Leo XIII explains this truth:

Socialists proclaim the right of property to be a human invention repugnant to the natural equality of man ….⁶

The Catholic Church, however, recognizes that all men are unequal and their differences in wealth proceeds from their many natural inequalities. Here is how Pope Leo XIII explains this truth:

[T]he Church, much more properly and practically, recognizes inequality among men, who are naturally different in strength of body and of mind; also, in the possession of goods, and it orders that right of property and of ownership, which proceeds from nature itself ….⁷

Pope St. Pius X condemned the false idea that:

every inequality of condition is an injustice, or at least, a diminution of justice. Here we have a principle that conflicts sharply with the nature of things, a principle conducive to jealousy, injustice, and subversive to any social order.⁸

Conclusion

God made creatures different and unequal. God made all men different and unequal to each other. God made the peoples and groups of society different and unequal. God intends that we help each other in our deficiencies and not that we try to impose a false equality and quota system so that all roles in society would be composed from “every group”.

1 Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, teaches this important point, quoting Aristotle:

As the Philosopher says (Metaph. v, text. 16), the terms “before” and “after” are used in reference to some principle. Now order implies that certain things are, in some way, before or after. Hence wherever there is a principle, there must needs be also order of some kind.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.26, a.1 respondeo.

2 Here is St. Thomas Aquinas’ fuller explanation of this truth:

[I]t must be said that as the wisdom of God is the cause of the distinction of things, so the same wisdom is the cause of their inequality. This may be explained as follows. A twofold distinction is found in things; one is a formal distinction as regards things differing specifically; the other is a material distinction as regards things differing numerically only. And as the matter is on account of the form, material distinction exists for the sake of the formal distinction. Hence, we see that in incorruptible things there is only one individual of each species, forasmuch as the species is sufficiently preserved in the one; whereas in things generated and corruptible there are many individuals of one species for the preservation of the species. Whence it appears that formal distinction is of greater consequence than material. Now, formal distinction always requires inequality, because as the Philosopher says (Metaph. viii, 10), the forms of things are like numbers in which species vary by addition or subtraction of unity. Hence in natural things species seem to be arranged in degrees; as the mixed things are more perfect than the elements, and plants than minerals, and animals than plants, and men than other animals; and in each of these, one species is more perfect than others. Therefore, as the divine wisdom is the cause of the distinction of things for the sake of the perfection of the universe, so it is the cause of inequality. For the universe would not be perfect if only one grade of goodness were found in things.

Summa, Ia, Q.47, a.2 respondeo (emphasis added).

Here is St. Thomas Aquinas’ fuller explanation of this truth:

It is part of the best agent to produce an effect which is best in its entirety; but this does not mean that He makes every part of the whole the best absolutely, but in proportion to the whole; in the case of an animal, for instance, its goodness would be taken away if every part of it had the dignity of an eye. Thus, therefore, God also made the universe to be best as a whole, according to the mode of a creature; whereas He did not make each single creature best, but one better than another. And therefore, we find it said of each creature, “God saw the light, that it was good” (Genesis 1:4); and in like manner of each one of the rest. But of all together it is said, “God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Summa, Ia, Q.47, a.2, ad 1.

4 Here, for example, is a prohibition of excessive interest, taken from New York’s civil code of law:

4. Except as otherwise provided by law, interest shall not be charged, taken or received on any loan or forbearance at a rate exceeding such rate of interest as may be authorized by law at the time the loan or forbearance is made, whether or not the loan or forbearance is made pursuant to a prior contract or commitment providing for a greater rate of interest, provided, however, that no change in the rate of interest prescribed in section fourteen-a of the banking law shall affect (a) the validity of a loan or forbearance made before the date such rate becomes effective, or (b) the enforceability of such loan or forbearance in accordance with its terms, except that if any loan or forbearance provides for an increase in the rate of interest during the term of such loan or forbearance, the increased rate shall not exceed such rate of interest as may have been authorized by law at the time such loan or forbearance was made.

Quoted from the 2012 New York Consolidated Laws, General Obligations, Article 5 – CREATION, DEFINITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS

Title 5 – (5-501 – 5-531) INTEREST AND USURY; BROKERAGE ON LOANS

5-501 – Rate of interest; usury forbidden.

5 Summa, IIa IIae, Q.32, a.5, ad 2.

Encyclical, Quod Apostolici muneris, Dec. 28, 1878, Denz. 1851. Here is the longer quote from Pope Leo XIII:

But also, Catholic wisdom most skillfully provides for public and domestic tranquility, supported by the precepts of divine law, through what it holds and teaches concerning the right of ownership and the distribution of goods which have been obtained for the necessities and uses of life. For when Socialists proclaim the right of property to be a human invention repugnant to the natural equality of man, and, seeking to establish a community of goods, think that poverty is by no means to be endured with equanimity; and that the possessions and rights of the rich can be violated with impunity, the Church, much more properly and practically, recognizes inequality among men, who are naturally different in strength of body and of mind; also in the possession of goods, and it orders that right of property and of ownership, which proceeds from nature itself, be for everyone intact and inviolate; for it knows that theft and raping have been forbidden by God, the author and vindicator of every right, in such a way that one may not even look attentively upon (i.e., covet) the property of another, and “that thieves and robbers, no less than adulterers and idolators are excluded from the kingdom of heaven” [cf. 1 Cor. 6:9f.].

Encyclical, Quod Apostolici muneris, Dec. 28, 1878, Denz. 1851.

8 Here is the longer quote from Pope St. Pius X, condemning the ideas of a liberal and modernist group called the Sillon:

Teaching such doctrines, and applying them to its internal organization, the Sillon, therefore, sows erroneous and fatal notions on authority, liberty and obedience, among your Catholic youth. The same is true of justice and equality; the Sillon says that it is striving to establish an era of equality which, by that very fact, would be also an era of greater justice. Thus, to the Sillon, every inequality of condition is an injustice, or at least, a diminution of justice. Here we have a principle that conflicts sharply with the nature of things, a principle conducive to jealously, injustice, and subversive to any social order. Thus, [according to the claims of the Sillon] Democracy alone will bring about the reign of perfect justice! Is this not an insult to other forms of government which are thereby debased to the level of sterile makeshifts?

Quoted from the encyclical sometimes called, On the Sillon and sometimes called Our Apostolic Mandate.

Posted on September 22, 2019September 22, 2025 by Catholic Candle

God Wills the Natural Inequalities between Different Persons and between Different Peoples

God makes creatures unequal.

God made difference and inequality in all creatures. As Ecclesiasticus teaches:

Why does one day excel another, and one light another, and one year another year…? By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished.

Chapter 33, verses 7-8.

Inequality between individual persons

All men are equal in some ways. For example, they are equal before the law, so that their rights as citizens are the same despite differences between them such as in height, in wealth, etc.

Differences between men in society

St. Paul emphasizes that God made men unequal and made them to have different roles, strengths and weaknesses. Here are St. Paul’s words:

1 Corinthians, 12:12-27 (emphasis added).

St. Paul emphasizes that these differences between men give rise to the obligation that “the members might be mutually careful one for another”. Id.

God intends differences and inequalities between groups as well as between individuals.

Just as God intends the countless inequalities between individuals, He also fully intends the inequalities between different groups/peoples/ethnicities/tribes. To take a few of countless examples:

one people is better at a sport such as basketball, than any other peoples;

one people is more emotional, with a high-strung temperament, while another ethnic group is more calm, staid and reason-oriented;

one people is more creative in the fine arts, than some other peoples;

one people more apt to the sciences than some other peoples; and

one people is more capable in leadership in society than some other peoples.

God intends all these natural differences, both the strengths and the weaknesses.

Pope Leo XIII assures us that “there will ever be differences and inequalities of condition in the State. Society cannot exist or be conceived of without them.” Rerum Novarum, §34.

God’s intent that there be inequality in society includes His intent that there be economic inequality (viz., rich and poor).

The Socialists seek to abolish private property, pretending that men are equal and that private property destroys this supposed equality. Here is how Pope Leo XIII explains this truth:

Socialists proclaim the right of property to be a human invention repugnant to the natural equality of man ….⁶

The Catholic Church, however, recognizes that all men are unequal and their differences in wealth proceeds from their many natural inequalities. Here is how Pope Leo XIII explains this truth:

Pope St. Pius X condemned the false idea that:

Conclusion

1 Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, teaches this important point, quoting Aristotle:

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.26, a.1 respondeo.

2 Here is St. Thomas Aquinas’ fuller explanation of this truth:

Summa, Ia, Q.47, a.2 respondeo (emphasis added).

Here is St. Thomas Aquinas’ fuller explanation of this truth:

Summa, Ia, Q.47, a.2, ad 1.

4 Here, for example, is a prohibition of excessive interest, taken from New York’s civil code of law:

Quoted from the 2012 New York Consolidated Laws, General Obligations, Article 5 – CREATION, DEFINITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS

Title 5 – (5-501 – 5-531) INTEREST AND USURY; BROKERAGE ON LOANS

5-501 – Rate of interest; usury forbidden.

5 Summa, IIa IIae, Q.32, a.5, ad 2.

Encyclical, Quod Apostolici muneris, Dec. 28, 1878, Denz. 1851. Here is the longer quote from Pope Leo XIII:

Encyclical, Quod Apostolici muneris, Dec. 28, 1878, Denz. 1851.

8 Here is the longer quote from Pope St. Pius X, condemning the ideas of a liberal and modernist group called the Sillon:

Quoted from the encyclical sometimes called, On the Sillon and sometimes called Our Apostolic Mandate.

The Crisis in the Church Affects Members in Different Ways

Posted on September 7, 2019January 7, 2022 by Catholic Candle

First: There are the low-information Catholics who accept and obey any changes as good and worthwhile. They fail to realize their perceived faith is meaningless, with little or no value for what counts in their hope of salvation. It is based on the

feeling that you pray or go to Mass only if you really want to. (If it’s “meaningful”.) They also have a misguided understanding of obedience.

Second: Members who go-along-to-get-along. They are willing to compromise their principles and their faith, as well as to accept a liberal pastor in order to obtain the Sacraments and the Mass, no matter what the cost. Their plan is to avoid conflict, overlook gradualism, and to be highly thought of. They don’t want to give up friendships or family ties. They refuse to believe their compromises will greatly weaken their faith. They (mistakenly) believe God will understand. They take comfort in numbers for there are a great many with them on the wide, smooth path to perdition that they travel. They fail to do any research on the crisis for fear they will find they are wrong and therefore must re-think the direction they are headed.

Third: Members who are uncompromising and are devastated by the very disastrous changes caused by Vatican II and post-VC II additional and even more harmful changes. These members realize just how destructive the changes have been to a point that it seems there is no longer a recognizable Catholic Church. The conciliar hierarchy has taken the lead in seeking to destroy all worthwhile Catholic attributes and religious communities. It seems that the Catholic Church has evolved into an anti-Catholic Conciliar church. They have also eliminated the traditional Catholic Sacraments and the Tridentine Mass, founded by Christ, and replaced them with the conciliar (anti-Catholic) “sacraments” and the Novus Ordo “Mass”, which fail to give grace. It’s easy to see that the Masons’ Vatican II plan is working.

Our Blessed Mother at Fatima stated that there would be a time when we will have only her Immaculate Heart and the Rosary. It’s surely beginning to look like today is the time she was referring to. We in the true Resistance know how hard it already is to find an uncompromising Catholic priest or parish, and I can assure you it will be almost impossible to find them in the future.

It is hard to believe that, in the human element of the Church, the traditional uncompromising Catholic Faith could fall so fast and so far in such a relatively short time. Actually, it is understandable when we consider that the Conciliar church “sacraments” and “mass” fail to give grace. I attribute that to little concern regarding the manifest liberal gradualism that has been promoted by the human element in Rome and local dioceses. This liberalism started with John XXIII, the weak pope responsible for calling VC II. It also proves God will not take away one’s free will, even if it is against His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church.

The conciliar corruption spread beyond the visible Catholic Church. It has also adversely affected Culture throughout the world, education, Catholic influence, music, entertainment, the family, health, etc., etc. Yes, every aspect of life. And that’s all to be expected, considering the strong Masonic influence in Vatican II, and the implementation of their plan that followed.

Don’t despair. God is still in charge, with the correction coming in His own good time. Meanwhile, we in the real Resistance must pray every day for the consecration of Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, and to stand strong and uncompromising for Christ the King. I’m sure we will receive extra graces to help us to remain confident and to succeed.

New doctrines are not Catholic. They are heresy.

Posted on August 4, 2019August 5, 2020 by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: Sedevacantism is wrong and Catholic Candle is not sedevacantist. In fact, we published a nine-part series setting out the errors of sedevacantism (and also why it is wrong to believe that former Pope Benedict XVI continues to be pope).

A reader would be mistaken to believe that the article below gives any support to sedevacantism. This article simply shows that Vatican II’s teachings, because they are new, cannot be Catholic and must be rejected. In this way, Vatican II’s teachings are like any other erroneous teachings of a pope or bishops. See, e.g., Pope John XXII’s denial (in the 14th century) of a doctrine that the Church has always taught infallibly (although this denial did not prevent him from being pope).

The First Vatican Council infallibly teaches that new teachings are not the proper subject matter for the guidance of the Holy Ghost:

For the Holy Ghost was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or Deposit of Faith transmitted by the Apostles.

Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, Sess. 4, ch.4, #6 (emphasis added).

The Council of Trent Catechism teaches:

[The Catholic Church’s] doctrines are neither novel nor of recent origin, but were delivered, of old, by the Apostles, and disseminated throughout the world. Hence, no one can, for a moment, doubt that the impious opinions which heresy invents, opposed, as they are, to the doctrines taught by the Church from the days of the Apostles to the present time, are very different from the faith of the true Church.

Council of Trent Catechism, under Creed: Apostolicity (emphasis added).

New doctrines are so foreign to Catholicism that St. Thomas Aquinas defines heretics as follows: A heretic is someone who devises or follows false or new opinions. Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q.11, a.1 Sed contra (emphasis added). Notice St. Thomas does not say “false and new opinions”. The newness of a doctrine is already sufficient reason to reject it.

The Second Council of Nicea, in 787 AD, condemned doctrinal innovators and rejected all innovations, with these words:

[W]e declare that we defend free from any innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us. â€¦ Therefore, all those who â€¦ devise innovations or who spurn anything entrusted to the Church â€¦, we order that they be suspended if they are bishops or clerics, and excommunicated if they are monks or lay people.

Emphasis added.

Pope St. Pius X describes modernists in terms of their break with tradition and their embrace of novel doctrines:

[T]hey pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true meaning of religion; in introducing a new system in which they are seen to be under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at all of finding some solid foundation of truth, but despising the Holy and Apostolic Traditions.

Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Â¶13, quoting from the encyclical Singulari nos of Pope Gregory XVI, June 25, 1834 (emphasis added).

Summary

It is clear that the Holy Ghost is not promised as a guide for the teaching of new doctrines. Further, the Catholic Church has always taught that Her doctrines are not new. Rather, the Catholic Church condemns new doctrines and considers them heresy.

As Admitted by the Conciliar Revolutionaries, Vatican II’s Teachings Are New, Which shows that Those Teachings are False.

Having seen above that the Catholic Church rejects new doctrines and certainly does not teach them infallibly, we next look at whether Vatican II’s teachings are new. If they are, then they cannot be infallible and must be rejected. Below, we set forth the testimony of the hierarchy that the teachings of Vatican II are new. (This is merely one “level” of proof among many, showing that we must reject the teachings of Vatican II.)

The testimony of Pope John Paul II:

[W]hat constitutes the substantial “novelty” of the Second Vatican Council, in line with the legislative tradition of the Church, especially in regard to ecclesiology, constitutes likewise the “novelty” of the new Code [of canon law].

Among the elements which characterize the true and genuine image of the Church, we should emphasize especially the following: the doctrine in which the Church is presented as the People of God (cf. Lumen Gentium, no. 2), and authority as a service (cf. ibid., no. 3); the doctrine in which the Church is seen as a “communion”, and which, therefore, determines the relations which should exist between the particular Churches and the universal Church, and between collegiality and the primacy; the doctrine, moreover, according to which all the members of the People of God, in the way suited to each of them, participate in the threefold office of Christ: priestly, prophetic and kingly. With this teaching there is also linked that which concerns the duties and rights of the faithful, and particularly of the laity; and finally, the Church’s commitment to ecumenism. â€¦

[T]he Second Vatican Council has â€¦ elements both old and new, and the new consists precisely in the elements which we have enumerated â€¦.

Pope John Paul II, Sacrae Disciplinae Leges, January 25, 1983 (emphasis added).

As quoted above, Pope John Paul II specifically identified key doctrines of Vatican II as novelties. Among the chief novel teachings of Vatican II (and which are contained in the 1983 code of canon law), he lists: the Church, the universal sacrament of salvation [meaning everyone goes to heaven] is shown to be the People of God and its hierarchical constitution to be founded on the College of Bishops together with its head. Pope John Paul II, Sacrae Disciplinae Leges, January 25, 1983.

We have other warnings that the conciliar doctrines are novelties, (for which the Holy Ghost was not promised). Pope John Paul II admitted the council’s novelties in these words:

Indeed, the extent and depth of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council call for a renewed commitment to deeper study in order to reveal clearly the Council’s continuity with Tradition, especially in points of doctrine which, perhaps because they are new, have not yet been well understood by some sections of the Church.

Ecclesia Dei, (1988), Â¶5b.

The pope is calling for deeper study because 23 years after the council, he acknowledges that Vatican II’s continuity with Sacred Tradition is still not shown (nor can it be)!

The testimony of Pope Benedict XVI:

In the first year of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI said:

[W]ith the Second Vatican Council, the time came when broad new thinking was required.

December 22, 2005 Christmas address (emphasis added).

Before he became pope, Cardinal Ratzinger taught:

If it is desirable to offer a diagnosis of the text [of the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, we might say that (in conjunction with the texts on religious liberty and world religions) it is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of countersyllabus. … Let us be content to say that the text serves as a countersyllabus and, as such, represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789 [by the Masonic French Revolution].

Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology, translator, Sr. Mary Frances McCarthy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press 1987), pp. 381-382; French edition: Les Principes de la Theologie Catholique – Esquisse et Materiaux, Paris: Tequi, 1982, pp. 426-427 (emphasis added; bracketed words added; parenthetical words are in the original).

Note: Obviously, whatever is the opposite (that is, the “countersyllabus”) of the Catholic Church’s prior teaching, must be a novel teaching which the Church did not previously teach. Yet this is how Pope Benedict XVI described some of the main teachings of Vatican II! Thus, clearly, Vatican II’s teachings contain novelties (which are therefore false).

The testimony of Pope Paul VI:

The new position adopted by the Church with regard to the realities of this earth is henceforth well known by everyone …. [T]he Church agrees to recognize the new principle to be put into practice …. [T]he Church agrees to recognize the world as â€˜self-sufficient’; she does not seek to make the world an instrument for her religious ends ….

August 24, 1969 Declaration of Pope Paul VI, L’Osservatore Romano; (emphasis added).

Further, Pope Paul VI also referred to the “newness” of the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council, in a general audience on January 12, 1966.

Statements Made by other Members of the Hierarchy

Other members of the hierarchy have also made clear statements concerning the novelty and rupture of the teachings of Vatican II.

Near the close of the council, Cardinal Congar stated:

What is new in this teaching [regarding religious liberty] in relation to the doctrine of Leo XIII and even of Pius XII, although the movement was already beginning to make itself felt, is the determination of the basis peculiar to this liberty, which is sought not in the objective truth of moral or religious good, but in the ontological quality of the human person.

Congar, in the Bulletin Etudes et Documents of June 15, 1965, as quoted in I Accuse the Council, Archbishop Lefebvre, p. 27, Angelus Press, 2009 (emphasis added; bracketed words added).

Yves Cardinal Congar was made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in recognition for Cardinal Congar’s lifelong dedication to the conciliar revolution. Cardinal Congar likened Vatican II to the triumph of the communists in Russia, calling Vatican II the “October Revolution” in the Church. Yves Congar, The Council Day by Day: Second Session p. 215, (1964).

By this parallel, Cardinal Congar is telling us that Vatican II was an overthrow of the established order in the Catholic Church. Note that, by making this particular comparison, Cardinal Congar saw fit to compare Vatican II to the triumph of the anti-God communists in Russia!

Cardinal Suenens compared Vatican II to a different anti-God revolution. He made the same parallel as Cardinal Ratzinger did (quoted above), comparing Vatican II to the anti-God, Masonic French Revolution, saying that Vatican II was the “1789” in the Church. Quoted in the Catechism of the Crisis in the Church, Pt., 5, by Fr. M. Gaudron, SSPX.

In all three of the cardinals’ comparisons of Vatican II with a communist or Masonic revolution, it is clear that they are stating that Vatican II’s teaching is revolutionary, and thus it is new and false.

Conclusion Regarding the Non-Infallibility (and Falsity) of Vatican II’s Teachings based on their Newness (Novelty)

We have seen that the Holy Ghost is not promised for the teaching of new doctrines. Further, the Catholic Church has always taught that Her doctrines are not new and cannot change. Rather, the Catholic Church condemns new doctrines and considers them heresy.

We have also seen that Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI (as well as some cardinals), have all stated that Vatican II’s doctrines are new. Therefore, Vatican II’s teachings cannot be infallible (and further, they must be rejected because they are new and heretical).

July 2019

Posted on July 23, 2019February 24, 2023 by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle

We share resources here to help you grow in the Catholic Faith and defend it against schism and heresy.

Author: Catholic Candle

God’s Will: Something to submit to, unite to, and trust in

Pope Francis teaches that all general principles are relative and adjustable

The “new”, liberal SSPX portrays a family which fits with the world and the conciliar church

Gaining Plenary Indulgences

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Co-Redemptrix of the World

Let’s “Walk A Mile” In Our Lord’s Sandals To Better Understand How He Is Suffering, And How To Comfort Him

November 2019 PDF Issue

September 2019

God Wills the Natural Inequalities between Different Peoples

The Crisis in the Church Affects Members in Different Ways

New doctrines are not Catholic. They are heresy.

Summary

As Admitted by the Conciliar Revolutionaries, Vatican II’s Teachings Are New, Which shows that Those Teachings are False.

The testimony of Pope John Paul II:

The testimony of Pope Benedict XVI:

The testimony of Pope Paul VI:

Statements Made by other Members of the Hierarchy

Conclusion Regarding the Non-Infallibility (and Falsity) of Vatican II’s Teachings based on their Newness (Novelty)

July 2019