We have treated this subject before and we definitively showed that the official Catholic Church has ended since the ENTIRE Visible hierarchy has defected from the faith!
As shown in our article here, the any person who
subscribe to Vatican II council is a heretic and any person claiming be a
clergy and believes that Francis. Or any of his five predecessors is pope and
his religion Catholic is a heretic and not a catholic.
We also showed that given the fact that 90 percent
of those claiming to be catholic priests or bishops today are indeed laymen
since their priesthood is invalid and their bishopric is also invalid.
But where then is the Catholic Church? The Church
founded by Christ? Which the gates of hell will not prevail against?
This is precisely the question asked by those who
are shocked to discover that indeed, the false religion at the Vatican and
which occupies catholic parishes and Dioceses worldwide is not the Catholic
Church!
They want to know what to do to practice the
Catholic faith when the official Church is in eclipse!
So you have been reading our web site, you have been
praying and thinking, and you are inclined to believe that we are probably
right in our assessment of the situation with regard to the Novus Ordo Sect and
the Catholic Church, the usurpation by the Modernists, the changes in doctrine,
worship, and discipline, and the papal pretenders. Naturally, there is now a
burning question on your mind: “Now what? What do we do now? Where do we go
from here? How can I be a Catholic today, and where is the Church? How is this
going to be resolved?!”
These are very good questions. Some of them can be
answered more easily than others. Let’s first recap what we know, and then
proceed from there.
What we know
We know all of the following to be true, either from
Divine Revelation and/or Catholic teaching, or from reason, or from deductive
reasoning applied to empirical facts:
We know that God desires us to be saved and that He
will grant sufficient grace to all who sincerely desire their salvation.
We know that holding fast to the Catholic
Faith — possessing the virtue of Faith — is an absolutely
essential condition for salvation. Nothing can substitute for it.
We know that it is impossible for the Catholic Church
to defect.
We know that it is impossible for the Catholic
Church to cease to exist.
We know that whatever is not incompatible with
the promises and guarantees of Christ with regard to the Church, is possible,
even though it may seem extremely unlikely to us, or we find it terribly
distressing or very difficult to accept. (Be sure to see Fr.
Edmund O’Reilly’s commentary on this.)
We know that it is necessary for salvation for every
Catholic to be subject to the Roman Pontiff (see Denz. 469). If
the identity of the Roman Pontiff is not known, the will to be
subject to the Roman Pontiff suffices, for the essence of subjection lies in
the will; likewise if there is no Pope reigning.
We know that it is impossible for the Catholic
Church to change her teaching substantially. While doctrine can
develop (in order to become more explicit), dogma cannot; and while
teaching can be further clarified, any clarification can never contradict what
was taught before.
Anything contradictory would not be a development or a
clarification but a corruption of that teaching (see Denz. 1800).
We know that the Novus Ordo Sect differs
substantially in her teachings, her laws, and her liturgy from the Catholic
Church of Pope Pius XII and his predecessors.
We therefore know that the Novus Ordo Sect
(a.k.a. “Vatican II Church or Novus Ordo religion”, the institution of which John XXIII, Paul VI,
John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis have been the leaders so
far) is not the same institution as the Catholic Church of Pope Pius XII and
his predecessors.
We know that a teaching that was true at one point
in the past cannot be false now.
We know that our situation today has been foreknown by God from all eternity and is passively willed by Him at this very moment. It is part of the Divine Plan, not a negation of it.
We know that no matter how heavy our crosses, God
does not abandon us but offers to sanctify us through them, providing all that
is necessary to enable us to do His will at all times.
We know that the way to Heaven is the narrow,
difficult, sorrowful road, not the comfortable, feel-good, easy path (cf. Mt
7:13-14; Lk 13:23-24).
We know that towards the end of the world, there
will be a spiritual deception so great that even the elect would be deceived if
God did not prevent it (see Mt 24:24); St. Paul calls this the “operation
of error” (2 Thess 2:8-11).
We know that even though all seemed hopeless,
humanly speaking, when Christ gave up His spirit at the Cross on Calvary,
nevertheless God found a way to make this terrifying blasphemy, this greatest
of human crimes, this Deicide, into the most exceptional and most abundant
source of blessing and grace for this world, and to allow our Blessed Lord’s
apparent defeat to be His Eternal Victory.
Though it seemed different at the
time, the Cross of Calvary was not the result of God’s plans being contradicted
or impeded but of them being fulfilled and carried out.
Three Indispensable Elements: Faith, Hope, Charity
First, no matter how terrifying the times we live
in, no matter how difficult the situation, we must at all times and above all
keep our Catholic Faith. There is no question that the Faith as taught and
believed until 1958 (when Pope Pius XII died) is true. For if it was true then,
it must still be true now, since the truth cannot change.
Hence we cannot go
wrong by clinging to the Faith as it was taught in the Church’s catechisms and
magisterial documents before the entire crisis came to be. It is important,
then, that we educate ourselves in the True Faith, that we understand how it
differs from that of the Novus Ordo Sect, and that we know how to refute the
errors of the secular world and the Modernist Vatican II Church in Rome.
Second, we must not lose sight of the fact that God
is in control and has not abandoned us.
We must firmly hope in His grace and
His assistance, in His Providence and His will for us to be saved.
Since He loves us and died for us so that we could attain to everlasting bliss
in Heaven, He will also give to our souls what we need in order to arrive at a
blessed destiny. We must cultivate this hope, which, like Faith and charity, is
a theological virtue and absolutely indispensable for salvation.
Third, we must take great care to live a holy life.
We must practice virtue and shun vice.
We must remain in the state of
sanctifying grace and increase in it; or, if we are not in this state, we must
eagerly seek to return to it (through sacramental confession or, if this
possibility is lacking, through perfect contrition). Above all we must pray,
and we ought to utilize all of the Church’s helps and advice in living a life
pleasing to God, in accordance with our state of life. And of course, an
essential part of all prayer, all charity, all virtue, all desire for holiness,
is contrition, or supernatural sorrow for sin.
To facilitate our perseverance, Holy Mother Church
has given us acts of Faith, hope, charity, and contrition, which you can pray
at any time, and should pray fervently at least once every day. You can find
these prayers at this link.
Holy Mass, Confession, and the other Sacraments
A particular difficulty that results from the
terrible exile into which Almighty God has seen fit to place us for our
purification and sanctification, is the near-total absence of normal parish
life, which Catholics in most countries have been very much accustomed to. In
fact, in most parts of the Western world, it is a given that a Catholic parish
exists not far from anywhere, though we must remember that in Church history it
did not always use to be this way.
Numerous parish churches within a short distance
of one’s location is not a Catholic’s right but a privilege, and the times
we live in today simply no longer afford that luxury in most cases, as
virtually all Catholic churches have been taken over by the Modernists,
regardless of whether they offer a “Latin Mass” there or not — the
Faith they preach and hold fast to is not the Faith of the Catholic Church, but
the Modernist distortion thereof, which emanates from the Vatican II Sect
in Rome.
However, even though almost all churches that carry
the label “Catholic” today belong to the Modernist Sect, there are still
(or should we say, again) some churches owned and operated by real
Catholics, clergy and laity that profess the true, unadulterated Catholic Faith
of the ages, that do not adhere, whether in word or in action, to the
false papal claimants since 1958 and that do not profess communion
with the Vatican II Church. It behooves all who desire to be genuine,
traditional Catholics to find such parish churches and missions and see if any
of them are in their part of the world, in their region, perhaps even in their
neighborhood.
Because there is no (known) Pope in our day, and all
the local diocesan clergy have defected to the Modernist Sect, it is often
difficult to determine whether a particular church that claims to offer the
Traditional Latin Mass is in fact an acceptable parish to attend, i.e. one that
has validly-ordained clergy who profess the true Catholic Faith, and that does
not suffer from any serious problems that would make attendance either dangerous
or imprudent.
In choosing a good parish, we offer the following
general guidelines:
The parish (i.e. clergy & laity) must profess
and teach the true Catholic Faith, that is, the Catholic Faith as known,
taught, and believed until the death of Pope Pius XII on Oct. 9, 1958.
The clerics at the parish must possess valid
Catholic orders, that is, they must have valid ordinations that can be traced
back to a Catholic bishop consecrated under Pope Pius XII or any of his
predecessors. Any cleric whose ordination was conferred in the Novus
Ordo rite of the False “Pope” Paul VI (instituted in 1968), or who was
ordained by a bishop whose orders were conferred in the 1968 Novus Ordo rite,
must be considered invalid.
The parish cannot profess communion with the Novus
Ordo Church or acknowledge the Novus Ordo leaders as Catholic Popes (currently
Francis, and formerly Benedict XVI, John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI, and
John XXIII), whether officially recognized by them (“indult” parishes) or not
(Society of St. Pius X and various “independent” chapels that acknowledge
the Novus Ordo Sect to be the Catholic Church and its leaders as legitimate
Catholic Popes but refuse submission to them).
The parish should be free from major problems. We
are all members of a fallen race; we are sinners. It is natural for problems,
difficulties, disagreements, and tensions to occur in parish life. In normal
times, the diocesan bishop would resolve such problems authoritatively, but in
our times, there are no diocesan bishops left, so such problems cannot easily
be resolved. What to do? First, distinguish: Is the problem minor or major?
Can
it be tolerated or not? If it can be tolerated, then tolerate it. In our
imperfect world, there will always be disagreements on various things, and we
just have to accept that. If, on the other hand, there is a major problem that
cannot reasonably be tolerated, stay away from the parish. To determine this,
just use common sense: If you don’t like how Mr. So-and-So plays the organ, or
how long Father’s sermons are, that’s obviously a minor problem — deal
with it. If, on the other hand, you find out that the priest had no real
seminary training or that he breaks the seal of confession, that’s obviously
something you cannot tolerate. (These are just examples.) Again, keep in mind
that since there is no functioning hierarchy in your diocese, which is the way
such problems would have been taken care of in the past, you must resolve these
things for yourself.
So then, the big question is: Where is the nearest
church for you? Where can you go to Mass? Where can you go to confession? Where
can you get spiritual direction? While we do not wish to endorse (or not
endorse) any particular parish, we would nevertheless like to give some general
guidance and suggest you use the following directory of sedevacantist
Masses:
The contents of these directories are explained well
at the links above. Look for a Mass location that is close to you, and keep in
mind that you may have to go across state or country lines for your nearest
Mass. The editors of this directory try hard to ensure that all of the Masses
listed are sedevacantist, that is, as far as they know, the clergy who offer them
profess the true Catholic Faith, are validly ordained, and do not profess
communion with any false papal claimant or the Vatican II Sect. However,
sometimes mistakes may creep in, so if you are unsure, please contact us and we
will try to advise you.
What if there is no Mass or priest near you?
Depending on where you live, it is quite possible
that there is no priest and no Mass/church in your region, or that it is not
possible for you, for some reason or another, to travel to the nearest such
location. Do not panic! Remember that God does not demand the impossible of
you. If you cannot go to Mass, you cannot go. The obligation to
assist at Mass on Sundays and Holy days automatically ceases if it is
physically or morally impossible for you to go. Besides, please consider the
following helpful points:
“You only miss Mass if you have a Mass to miss.” If
there is no Mass within 1 hour of travel time near you that meets the specified
conditions above, you do not sin by not going to Mass. (That said, remember
that even though it would not be sinful, you would still be doing your soul a
great disservice if you habitually skipped Mass for this reason even though you
could reasonably go — for example, if your drive to the nearest Mass were 1.5
hours and you just didn’t want to go.)
If your nearest Mass is a great distance away, say,
a 3 hours’ drive, and therefore you cannot go on a weekly basis, consider going
perhaps once a month, or as often as you reasonably can. It is better you go
infrequently to a real Catholic church than not at all, or than going to
a “Latin Mass” parish affiliated with the Novus Ordo Church instead,
simply because it is much closer and you would like to attend every week.
Be willing to suffer for our Lord. Christ Jesus
suffered so much for us, shall we not suffer for Him? The most pleasing
suffering you can give to God is not the suffering you choose for yourself, but
the suffering He chooses for you, if you accept and endure it willingly and lovingly,
for His sake. This suffering can include not having frequent or convenient
access to the sacraments. We must remember that if we are willing to compromise
with regard to the Faith for the sake of filling an emotional need, then it is
not God we love but ourselves. Then we love not Him but our feelings. Think of
all the martyrs endured rather than compromise the Faith! You must accept God’s
will for you in your life.
Assist at Holy Mass “virtually” — through
the internet or by watching a video or DVD of the Mass; see links below
under “Practical Tips”. Though not a substitute for assisting at Holy Mass
physically, there are nevertheless real graces and benefits to be obtained
from “virtual assistance” at Mass, as explained here.
Realize you are not alone: Get in touch with other
real Catholics on the internet, and you will find out that there are others who
are thinking and searching like you, perhaps even right in your hometown. See
below under “Practical Tips” for links to various web sites where you can
get to know other like-minded Catholics, who can help you with advice, best
practices, encouragement, support, getting in contact with a priest, etc.
If you have enough people in your area who are
interested in forming a parish, you can start a new mission and request that a
priest visit you from time to time. Don’t forget to pray! All things
are possible with God! Begin with prayer, and be patient.
Practical Tips: Talk with other Catholic on the Internet
Join: Faithful Catholics
Te Deum Forum
Devote Time, Nourish and Learn the faith
Devote Time, Nourish and Learn the faith
Subscribe to Catholic newspapers and magazines, such
as the following:
Sodalitium (Italian,
French, Spanish, some English)
Assist at Holy Mass virtually:
Live
Webstreaming of Holy Mass every Sunday at
11:00 am ET (St. Jude Shrine in Houston, TX)
If password is required to access the stream, use this: jude75
If password is required to access the stream, use this: jude75
Live
Webstreaming of Holy Mass every Sunday at
7:30 am, 9:00 am, 11:30 am, and 5:45 pm ET (St. Gertrude in Cincinnati, OH)
Low Mass of
the Immaculate Conception – Online Video
The Tridentine Latin Mass –
DVD with Mass booklet
The Holy
Mass Explained (instructional
only — “Mass” in this video is not valid)
The Traditional Rosary – DVD
Watch, listen to, and download traditional Catholic
sermons, lectures, and conferences
Understand what has happened to the Catholic Church:
Educate yourself!
Learn the True Catholic Faith from approved
catechisms:
The
Roman Catechism (16th century) – also available in print here
My Catholic
Faith (20th century) – also available in print here
The
Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (19th century) – also available in
print here
The
Catechism Explained (20th century) – also available in print here
Read the Writings of Fr. Francis
E. Fenton, traditional Catholic pioneer
Utilize authentic Catholic Resources: Holy Scripture, Canon
Law, Magisterial Documents, etc.
We had been warned: The
Popes warned against the Masonic Plots against the Church
How to answer the objection that Sedevacantists are
so “divided”: When the Shepherd is Struck
Why only Sedevacantism means that the
Gates of Hell have Not Prevailed
How to respond to the objection that we
“don’t have the authority” to say Francis isn’t Pope
Be consoled and edified by various Catholic
prophecies predicting our times, such as these:
Other prophecies found on our Catholic Quotes page here
Traditional
Catholic Conference & Debate on the Sede Vacante Thesis (2002) with
John Daly, John Lane, and Gerry Matatics
The History
of Christendom presented by Bp. Donald Sanborn — explains, step by
step, how we got from the glorious Middle Ages, via the Renaissance,
Reformation, and French Revolution to our distressing situation today, and
what’s ahead
Further Book Suggestions in our virtual book store (purchases
benefit Novus Ordo Watch)
Learn Catholic Prayers & Devotions
The
Divine Office (Roman Breviary)
Another
Divine Office site (choose only rubrics from before 1960)
Universal Prayer for All Things Necessary for Salvation (by
Pope Clement XI)
The Future Restoration of the Church
Now that we have shared some important practical
advice on how to spiritually survive the terrible spiritual wasteland we have
been in since 1958, the question that remains to be answered still is when and
especially how this situation will come to an end and the Church be
fully restored to her former glory.
It would be presumptuous of anyone to claim to know
the answer to this. At the same time, there are a few things we can say with
certainty, and there are other things we may legitimately speculate about and
hope for:
Believe firmly that God can and will put
an end to the Novus Ordo Sect and restore the Catholic Church; if it pleases
Him to withhold from us knowledge of the ‘when’ and the ‘how’, may
His will be done. We are not entitled to know or understand everything.
It seems that the crisis in the Church is of such a
nature and has reached such proportions now that it is beyond all human
repair — in other words, it seems that there is nothing we can
do to set things aright, such as a papal election, for various reasons which
are outside the scope of this post to explore. The point is that it will
probably take a miraculous, supernatural intervention by Almighty God to
restore Holy Mother Church, just as it took miraculous, supernatural divine
intervention at various points in salvation history for God’s designs to be
accomplished.
Though things may seem hopeless at times, Almighty
God, who created the heavens and the earth from nothing, who parted the Red
Sea, who granted David the victory over Goliath, who can turn stones into
children of Abraham (see Lk 3:8), who converted water into wine, who fed 5,000
people with a few fragments of bread and a few fish, who raised Lazarus from
the dead, and who worked the miracle of His own Resurrection, will certainly
have a way to restore His Church fully and gloriously in the sight of all, when
the appointed time comes.
God does not require us to know how He
will accomplish the restoration of the Church; He does, however, require us to
have Faith and to persevere until the end.
We must certainly pray that God will
restore the Church soon, else we cannot complain that it has not yet happened.
We encourage you to pray the Holy Rosary especially for the intention that God
would once again grant us a true Pope. To do this, you can join the global “Pray for a Pope” Rosary
network.
There is a theological thesis known
as “Sedeprivationism”, sometimes referred to as the “Material/Formal
Theory”, or the “Cassiciacum Thesis”, which provides a way to solve the
conundrum of how we could have a true Pope again. The theory has its strong and
its weak points. People who are interested in it may read an explanation of it here but should keep in mind that
it is not a doctrine of the Faith. We do not know if it is true, and
people can legitimately agree or disagree with it.
The thesis was first
developed by the Dominican theologian Bp.
Guerard des Lauriers.
It is possible that there has been and
currently is a true Pope in hiding, one who can trace his lineage back to Pope
Pius XII. Perhaps the situation will be resolved by this Pope emerging and
proving his legitimacy. There is a prophecy to this effect.
Do not spend too much time trying to figure things
out — it can lead to pride, vain curiosity, dangerous ideas, and a
misplaced reliance on self rather than on God. In general, we are well-advised
to seek after virtue rather than knowledge. Certainly we may suppose that
living a holy prayerful life and seeking to be pleasing to God, cannot but
hasten the day of Restoration.
Do not be overly concerned with matters pertaining
to the end of the world, wars, calamities, and so forth. Our Blessed Lord told
us not to be troubled by these things (see Mt 24:6) — shall we
doubt or contradict Him? Besides, whenever God chooses to end our life
here on earth, it will be the end of the world for us. Be spiritually
prepared, therefore.
Stay away from any sort of unapproved alleged
revelation, apparition, locution, etc. No matter how true it might seem,
there is no surer way to be misled than to attach yourself to messages not
approved by Holy Mother Church and to place your trust in them rather
than in God and in the Faith. Our Lord warned us precisely against
false “signs and wonders”, which would be so great as to “deceive, if
possible, even the elect” (Mt 24:23-25).
Remember that Sedevacantism, the position that there
has been no (known) true Pope of the Catholic Church since the death of Pius
XII in 1958, and that the current Vatican establishment is not the Catholic Church,
is entirely safe theologically. By adhering to it, you cannot be
led into heresy, nor into schism, if you are faithful to Catholic teaching.
Even supposing, for the sake of argument, that the position were false, where
would be the danger? What could you be accused of?
The worst that could be said
of you is that you were wrong about who the Pope was. You believed, in good
faith, that there was no Pope when in fact there was one — but at least
you acted consistently and in accordance with Catholic teaching, to the best of
your ability and in peace with your conscience. You could be accused of having
made a sincere mistake, nothing more; a mistake regarding the
identity of the true Pope, as many others
did before in Church history, and quite innocently. This is the worst that
could be said. You could not be accused of adhering to or spreading
false doctrine (heresy), nor of refusing to be subject to the man you
acknowledged to be the Pope (schism).
We hope all the foregoing explanations,
considerations, suggestions, and links have been of help to you. If you still
have questions, please contact us here.
In short, the answer to the question “Now
What?” is simply: “Now be a Catholic!”
Presented by Malachy Mary Igwilo, on the feast Day of St. Didacus, 13th November 2016
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