On December 10, 2015, the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews published a 10,000 word treatment on Nostra Aetate (the Second Vatican Council document on the Church’s relation to non-Christians) essentially stating that the Jews are off-limits with respect to the Church’s evangelizing efforts. (Video commentary HERE.)
Their reasoning?
According to the document, the salvation of the Jews isn’t in jeopardy simply because they reject Jesus Christ:
From the Christian confession that there can be only one path to salvation, however, it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.
This blatant denial of Him who said, “He who rejects me rejects Him who sent me” should spark outrage on the part of every single solitary person who dares lay claim to the name “Christian.”
It is clear, however, that this document has created something of a dilemma for the neo-conservative “hermeneutic-of-continuity” crowd (e.g., EWTN, National Catholic Register, and ChurchMilitant.tv to name just a few).
While this latest bit of apostasy out of Rome is presumably as plain and (one hopes) as offensive to them as anyone, they just can’t bring themselves to address this document for what it really is; namely, an official statement on the true meaning of Nostra Aetate.
You see, to do so would require departing, first and foremost, from their comfort zones.
It’s one thing to acknowledge that the Church in our day is in crisis thanks to an abundance of faithless prelates (even if one stops short of identifying the “humble” prelate in white as one of the worst offenders); it’s quite another to admit that the Almighty Council lies at the very heart of the problem.
Addressing that reality head-on not only endangers one’s psychological comfort, but also (as I know all-too-well) one’s financial comfort too.
Now, some in the neo-conservative camp would likely deny the inextricable link between the Commission’s recent document and the content of Nostra Aetate, but that position is simply untenable.
In its opening commentary, the document reminds readers that the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews was established by Paul VI specifically for the purpose of undertaking “the practical implementation of Nostra Aetate;” clearly, with the suggestion being that this present treatment is simply an exercise of that very mandate.
Others will perhaps attempt to separate the two by pointing out that the Commission plainly said that “the text is not a magisterial document or doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The fact of the matter is, however, the same can be said of Nostra Aetate itself as it also suffers from a total lack of doctrinal weight. In fact, none of the conciliar decrees are binding upon the faithful as such.
In spite of its nonbinding nature, who can deny that Nostra Aetate has become the de facto “position paper” of the post-conciliar popes with respect to their treatment of the Jews; even to the exclusion of all that preceded it?
In any case, this latest screed from the Pontifical Commission doesn’t claim to be anything other than a direct fruit therefrom.
In other words, as I’ve said in this space before: IT’S THE COUNCIL, STUPID!
This reality has left the dyed-in-the-wool neo-conservative commentator with just two options; either defend the document, or ignore it.
Jimmy Akin of National Catholic Register, for example, produced yet another one of his tortured lists of “things to know and share” wherein he cheery picked from among the more palatable portions of the text, while splitting linguistic hairs on some of the others.
But hey, at least he tried to grab the bull by the horns.
The same cannot be said for our pal Michael Voris over at Church Impotent. Apparently his … ahem … Executive Producer … has decided that this topic comes too close to challenging the Council; something Michael used to do without trepidation before he decided to put sacred cows before sacred tradition.
Likewise has EWTN failed to even mentioned this travesty.
This, of course, may come as little surprise, but what many perhaps fail to recognize is the degree to which the lack of a response in this case (and most certainly others) represents sheer hypocrisy.
Some readers may recall the 2002 document jointly produced by the USCCB Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (under the leadership of Cardinal William Keeler) and the National Council of Synagogues entitled, “Reflections on Covenant and Mission.”
Among other highly controversial things, that document stated:
A deepening Catholic appreciation of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, together with a recognition of a divinely-given mission to Jews to witness to God’s faithful love, lead to the conclusion that campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church.
The publication of this document, the contents of which are being echoed in the one just issued by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, elicited such widespread and severe backlash among Catholic prelates and theologians that the USCCB deleted it from its website within (as I recall) just a matter of days.
Among those outlets that published responses that came down rather hard on the apostasy contained in “Reflections” was none other than EWTN.
Writing for the Catholic media giant, Fr. John Paul Echert said:
From what I have read of the document, parts of it strike me as contrary to divine revelation, and I predict that it will not be approved by the Vatican, or perhaps the bishops themselves. As I understand it, this draft was put together by a committee, and it does not have approval by the body of bishops. It is an embarrassment, lacks any teaching authority, and serves to reveal the thinking of some people who hold powerful positions in the national conference. If a document such as this gains approval, as it currently stands, I will seriously consider the prospect that we are moving into one of the signs of the end times, namely, apostasy.
In 2009, the USCCB, still cognizant of the damage that had been done, even went so far as to issue a clarification (which is pathetic in its own right) entitled, “A Note on Ambiguities Contained in ‘Reflections on Covenant and Mission.’”
The entire affair was a colossal (and well-deserved) embarrassment for Cardinal Keeler.
Well, guess what?
Reflections on Covenant and Mission is once more available on the USCCB website!
So, what changed?
It’s certainly not the truth; rather, the men in charge in Rome have simply taken the propositions put forth by the Council yet another decade further toward their logical conclusion; outright apostasy. In conciliar hindsight, in other words, Cardinal Keeler was guilty of nothing more offensive than being ahead of his time!
Fr. Echert was at least partially correct in predicting that the Vatican wouldn’t approve a text so “contrary to divine revelation” as Reflections on Covenant and Mission.
What he, and perhaps none of us, could have imagined, however, is that a Pontifical Commission would issue a likewise reprehensible document of its very own some thirteen years later.
In conclusion, this entire episode, in spite of the great harm that it is causing (about which I will have more to say soon), also serves to confirm what St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Romans:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good… (cf Romans 8:28)
In the present case, the good coming from this latest denial of Jesus Christ emanating from Rome lies in the degree to which it is exposing those who present themselves as defenders of the Faith; when in truth their labors are more properly ordered toward defending their own particular franchise.
Well researched, Louie. It is all here.
2017 is just around the corner. It is all becoming more clear.
Woe to us all. May we each cooperate with His Divine Will and persevere.
Jacinta, Francisco, Lucia, pray for us.
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Our hope is in what you have noted here:
“And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good…” (cf Romans 8:28)
Our Lady of Good Success and Mother Marianna de Jesus Torres, pray for us.
“And Mathathias cried out
in the city with a loud voice, saying:
Every one that has zeal for the law,
and maintains the testament,
let him follow me”.
(From the First Book of Maccabees 2,27).
————
“Let all those worthy priests
who are to be found throughout the world,
those still in the fight
and those who have withdrawn
to deserts and secluded places,
let them, I say, come and join us.
With the cross as our standard,
let us form a strongly disciplined army
drawn up in lines of battle.
Let us make a concerted attack
on the enemies of God
who have already sounded the alarm”.
(St. Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort, FP 29)
Two interesting points in referenced article:
1)Saint Paul says that the Old Covenant is obsolete but he does not say that it has been revoked.
2)The Jewish people’s walk of suffering is not unlike that of Jesus
Elias Friedman, President of the Association of Hebrew Catholics, has a proposal worthy of much reflection, that the Jewish people have walked a journey like that of their Messiah, and in so doing may soon come to understand who he is. Here is an excerpt:
“As he walked slowly across the stage of history, the Jew took on an uncanny resemblance to Jesus: beaten, spat upon, mocked, derided, bleeding from his judicial scourging, crowned with the thorns of incomprehension, bearing his cross on the way to Galgotha. Jewry ran the gauntlet of the nations…The Jewish Diaspora [Jews living outside of Israel] within Christian Europe … is one long Via Dolorosa [Passion of Christ].”
Mystically speaking, Jewry as a whole was nailed to the cross and died under Hitler. “We all died in Auschwitz” cried out that great soul A. J. Heschel, in the name of all the Jews of his time. On the third day, three years after the conclusion of hostilities in 1945, Jewry rose from the dead; the State of Israel was proclaimed … The purpose of this similarity of destiny is obvious. The people of the Messiah had to be molded into the image of their Messiah, in order to learn who the true Messiah was … about whom we read in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah … And now, as in the last days of the ancient world, we [Christian Judaism] are perhaps invited to save [the apostatized] Europe from shipwreck”.
(JEWISH IDENTITY, Elias Friedman, O.C.D, pg. 68-70)
http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/replacement_theology.php
Likening modern Jews and the belligerent modern state of Israel to the figure Christ is to turn Christian typology on its head. It’s perverted.
Catholics must be warned about modern Judaizers the way St. Paul did at the council of Jerusalem when he rebuked St. Peter.
The “Jews” who currently inhabit the state of Israel have no relation in any way to those who inhabited that land back when Christ walked the earth.
1)Saint Paul says that the Old Covenant is obsolete but he does not say that it has been revoked. – In fact St. Paul was quite clear that the jews could only be saved in the New Covenant, they had been broken off and had to be grafted back in. The law, meaning the old covenant Mosaic law, could not and will not save them.
2)The Jewish people’s walk of suffering is not unlike that of Jesus – This is false and blasphemous. Those who had JESUS crucified and their heirs walk with the devil, not JESUS.
Elias Friedman, President of the Association of Hebrew Catholics, has a proposal worthy of much reflection, that the Jewish people have walked a journey like that of their Messiah, and in so doing may soon come to understand who he is. Here is an excerpt:
“As he walked slowly across the stage of history, the Jew took on an uncanny resemblance to Jesus: beaten, spat upon, mocked, derided, bleeding from his judicial scourging, crowned with the thorns of incomprehension, bearing his cross on the way to Galgotha. Jewry ran the gauntlet of the nations…The Jewish Diaspora [Jews living outside of Israel] within Christian Europe … is one long Via Dolorosa [Passion of Christ].”
Mystically speaking, Jewry as a whole was nailed to the cross and died under Hitler. “We all died in Auschwitz” cried out that great soul A. J. Heschel, in the name of all the Jews of his time. On the third day, three years after the conclusion of hostilities in 1945, Jewry rose from the dead; the State of Israel was proclaimed … The purpose of this similarity of destiny is obvious. The people of the Messiah had to be molded into the image of their Messiah, in order to learn who the true Messiah was … about whom we read in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah … And now, as in the last days of the ancient world, we [Christian Judaism] are perhaps invited to save [the apostatized] Europe from shipwreck”.
(JEWISH IDENTITY, Elias Friedman, O.C.D, pg. 68-70)
This is nothing other than jewish propaganda. As a group they portray themselves as victims when in reality they are usually the victimizers, at least at the elite level. With their anti-CHRIST machinations they made themselves the scourge of nations. Whether it was through masonry, control of financial institutions , communism, etc they have been at war with Christianity and CHRIST since they had JESUS crucified. Up until Vatican II, they were opposed by Popes who warned against their perfidy, though always making it clear that they had to be dealt with in a Christian manner, but not naively. They were not “mystically nailed to the cross” to die under Hitler. This is just more blasphemy. The “six million jews exterminated by the Nazi’s” claim is a hoax (only a fraction of the claimed six million died and not by any non existent policy of “extermination”), used by the jews to ,again, portray themselves as victims, derail criticism of their anti – CHRIST behavior and gain support for their satanic, jewish supremacist state of Israel. They were no more following THE MESSIAH in World War II than they did before or have since, however many innocent jews may have died then. To compare the jew’s experience to THE LORD’S passion and death is pure blasphemy. The jews as a whole remain at war with CHRIST whether in the talmudic religious form or the jewish supremacist secular form. Pray, of course, for their conversion, JESUS died for them also, but have no illusions.
Pope Saint Pius X would agree with you, Alarico.
On January 26, 1904, Theodor Herzl (a Jew) had an audience with Pope Pius X in the Vatican to seek his support for the Zionist effort to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
Among other comments of his, Pope Saint Pius X said:
“We cannot give approval to this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized Our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”
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Read the whole story for yourself here:
http://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/1253-herzl1904
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A true Catholic (aka Catholic) must have this mindset.
Yes, Frank.
The intention of Emperor Julian, the apostate, was to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem and resurrect the blood-stained sacrifices of the abolished Levitical priesthood in order to discredit Christ and his prophecy concerning the Temple.
If we believe that the Levitical priesthood replaced and succeeded the priesthood prior to the incident of the Golden Calf, as ordained by Moses himself, why do the modernists downplay the incident at Calvary, an incident infinitely greater than that of the Golden Calf, by obfuscating the reality that the Catholic priesthood entirely and absolutely succeeded the Levitical one?
Pope Pius X was entirely correct in stating that the Jews should not take Jerusalem. Evangelical so-called Christians are wrong in supporting the Jewish takeover of Jerusalem.
“…..the reality that the Catholic priesthood entirely and absolutely succeeded the Levitical one ….”
—— has even been confirmed (unintentionally) by the Talmud with the “miracle of the red thread.”
——-
http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-miracle-of-red-thread-talmud.html
Now subject scripture to Church interpretation. You are blazing protestant EM.
Three things before the end of the world, taught the Fathers of Trent: that the Gospel be preached to the ends of the earth; that there be a great apostasy; and the Advent of Antichrist. The first two are done and dusted, though were still prophetic in the days of Trent. VII, its Novus Ordo and evil heresiarchs and all who commune with, support and pay homage to them belong to the Great Apostasy. If you adhere to the Novus Ordo it is likely you will be a willing advocate of Antichrist.
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http://mhtseminary.libsyn.com/sermon-fifty-years-of-vatican-ii-by-bp-sanborn
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The Protestant worship of Rabbinicalism finds two avenues – the worship of the secular nation of Israel, or the worship of their Arabic ‘enemies’ (they both have the same source). They are the same coin with two sides. One thing no Protestant does, is acknowledge the indefectability of the Roman Catholic Church – her divine nature and her purity in doctrine and practice, however many bad priests or bad popes have passed through the gate. Those bad popes never broke the restraint of the Holy Ghost. The Novus Ordo heresiarchs and their institution are not the Bride of Christ. They have already officially and universally contradicted divine revelation. That they would do so in the case of Rabbinicalism yet again, is expected.
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The same heresiarch kisses the Talmud, the Koran and the Protestant ‘bible’, either in public act or in words and teaching. Heresiarchs are no longer shocking. The defense of them as Catholic is disgusting.
http://youtu.be/ZJ6hYG6xOqc
Neo Catholics, are they really Catholics?
Bless you Salvemur,
I was merely linking to an article written by a Hebrew Catholic (was Jewish…now Catholic) to try to understand a converts perspective on the subject matter…perhaps I did not choose the best samples from his article, and they don’t make much sense in isolation , without reading the whole article…
For a season, I shall take the counsel of St Joseph……..
Engineer Fritz Sander testifying on March 7 1946.
Quoted from the interrogation transcripts by Prof. Gerald Fleming from the University of Surrey, in an NYT article, July 18 1993:
“I decided to design and build a crematorium with a higher capacity. I completed this project of a new crematorium in November 1942–a crematorium for mass incineration, and I submitted this project to a State Patent Commission in Berlin.
This “Krema” was to be built on the conveyor belt principle. That is to say, the corpses must be brought to the incineration furnaces without interruption. When the corpses are pushed into the furnaces, they fall onto a grate, and then slide into the furnace and are incinerated. The corpses serve at the same time as fuel for heating of the furnaces. This patent could not yet be approved by the Main Patent Office in Berlin, because of its classification (as a state secret).
Q. Although you knew about the mass liquidation of innocent human beings in crematoriums, you devoted yourself to designing and creating higher capacity incineration furnaces for crematoriums – and on your own initiative.
A. I was a German engineer and key member of the Topf works and I saw it as my duty to apply my specialist knowledge in this way to help Germany win the war, just as an aircraft construction engineer builds airplanes in wartime, which are also connected with the destruction of human beings.”
I suppose engineers like Mr Sander just built the crematoriums on their own initiative with their own money for no reason whatsoever Frank? My research says it was no hoax.
Michael F Poulin
In 1942 (SS officer) Kurt Gerstein was appointed head of the Technical Disinfection Department of the Waffen SS, responsible for improving the efficiency of the gas chambers.
On August 21-22, 1942, on his way back to Germany from Poland, he travelled by train and encountered the Secretary to the Swedish Legation in Berlin, Baron Göran von Otter.
Less than an hour from Warsaw, the train stopped in open country. “We both got down to get a breath of air,” von Otter later recalled. “There were beads of sweat on his forehead. There were tears in his eyes. And his voice was hoarse when he said at once: I saw something awful yesterday – can I come and see you at the Legation?” Von Otter suggested that they talk on the train. Gerstein agreed. “Is it the Jews?” von Otter asked. “Yes, it is,” Gerstein replied. “I saw more than ten thousand die today.”
In a feverish conversation lasting hours, Gerstein poured out the whole story, crying and smoking incessantly. He related all he had just seen to the Swedish diplomat and begged him to tell the Swedish government about the atrocities in the camps. He desperately urged von Otter to make it known to the Allies and the outside world.
Von Otter later described the encounter: “It was hard to get Gerstein to keep his voice down. We stood there together, all night, some six hours or maybe eight. And again and again, Gerstein kept on recalling what he had seen. He sobbed and hid his face in his hands. From the very beginning as Gerstein described the atrocities, weeping and broken hearted, I had no doubt as to the sincerity of his humanitarian intentions.”
Awesome legwork.
Yes, Cardinal Keeler was a visionary indeed, of the worst kind.
Lord have mercy on you, EM. If the comments you post are an accurate reflection of your place regards the faith, you are a disciple of Bergoglio.
PS. Here’s some real charity:
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https://lxoa.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/pennycatechismchanges.pdf
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http://www.novusordowatch.org/michael-davies-evaluation.pdf
PS. as regards your ‘bless you’…it simply rings creepy.
MICHAEL F POULIN
Order yourself a copy of SYNAGOGUE RISING by hugh akins and inform yourself with some hard facts and truths about the talmudic lies of recent history. Heres a interview with hugh akins himself
http://youtu.be/wMBxy2F5QtI
Ask, seek, knock. “My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.”
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http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/for-fear-of-the-jews.htm
Louie, I’m glad you mentioned Father Echert. In the past, I was a frequent visitor to EWTN Q&A. Some of the responses were “off the wall”. However, it was always refreshing to read the advice of Father Echert whose responses were always orthodox, Traditional and very Catholic. He is still listed as one of the “experts”, but I don’t think he is taking an active role in this capacity. I wonder why??
Also, it is good to note that Edith Stein, Jewish philosopher, who was canonized by the Catholic Church (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), knowing the Nazis would find her, offered all of her sufferings for the conversion of the Jews. I guess the modern church would say “WHY??”.
John
Most trads dont bother attacking zionism as they should…..they are appalled at what is going on with the Church but they are afraid to point out what the true underlying reason is. Hugh Akins, who has a big problem with the current state of the SSPX btw (thanks for your link), is a true voice of Catholic reason.
With that said, I still believe that he is way off base in acknowledging a man who he condemns, bergoglio, as a true pope. I dont get that way of thinking anymore, but I wont denigrate those who still adhere to it…..4 years ago I would have thought the idea of sedevacantism entirely nuts myself.
If the changes in even the penny catechism are dismissimible, like the changes in the service, the ‘sacraments’, the translation of scripture, the dismissal of Apostolicity in ordination, the universal ‘authenticity’ of Christ’s one enduring voice … then subscribe to club nuts or club SR… satan rules…in the minds and hearts of every protestant, novus ordite, pagan, rabbinite, imamite, r&rite…it really really really does not matter…until you confront Christ in judgement…when it will be all that matters…but how ridiculously Catholic to think so eschatologically ‘now’.
Bergoglio and Newchurch religion–who or what you believe in doesn’t really matter!
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/01/pope-francis-ecumenism-over-all-else.html#more
You better do some more research. No gas chambers have ever been proven to have existed nor any delivery devices for the gas. Not one autopsy has ever shown any deaths from gas poisoning; tests done at alleged extermination camps, by Fred Leuchter, an expert on execution devices, at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Lublin found no significant traces of cyanide, which would have been impossible if gassings had occurred. (The testing was later repeated by the Polish government to disprove Leuchter’s findings, but arrived at similar results; the alleged gas chambers designs were so faulty (they were not hermetically sealed, no equipment exists that would have aired out the rooms from the gas, no exhaust stacks, nothing to prevent the condensation of gas in the rooms) that they couldn’t have been used for this alleged purpose.
If the gassing of six million jews had really occurred, as alleged, it would have taken 68 years to accomplish; camps such as Auschwitz, for example, were small.
The nazi’s also kept records in great detail, even records of shrubbery ! Yet not a single pre-war plan or war plan has ever been found concerning the mass extermination of jews. Highly unlikely if there was going to be such a project undertaken.
“Eye witness accounts” and various “testimony” can’t stand up to the hard facts and lack of “holocaust” evidence.
john6, you are absolutely right. Hugh Akins book “Synagogue Rising” is excellent and eye opening I recommend it highly.
EM, indeed is a NO through and through unfortunately.
Midway upon the journey of our life,
I found myself within a forest dark,
for the straightforward pathway had been lost
Dante Alighieri
I wasn’t there and so I have no voice.
However, my neighbor was and does.
He was one of the “Devils in Baggy Pants” and at the age of 92 and 3 wars later, he would stand in the face of anyone denying what he knows he saw, he heard and he smelled. Stand in their face, shake his finger and make you listen.
He emotionally told me of liberating a concentration camp, of the corpses and the STENCH. How the smell would get into their clothing and they had to burn their own clothes when returning to the rear. How they rounded up the German civilians and forced them to march, forced them to come face to face with the wickedness of their nation. Forced them to look at what they had done.
And they wept.
I do not defend Jews’ denying of Christ. But denying atrocities serves no one.
Pray for the conversion of the Jews, no matter what Francis says.
And please pray for an old man, having served in 3 wars as an Infantryman and survived…yet doesn’t believe in miracles. Or salvation. Pray for him, please.
It is clear that the “NewChurch” frogs no longer need boiling. They are done. Their shepherds have abandoned the sheep and the Chief Shepherd has joined the wolves. PF could do a Hindu Dance on the main altar at St Peters and raise not a whimper from Satan’s sycophants from the neo catholic media.