Yesterday afternoon, after a magnificent celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass for the Feast of Christ the King, I left St. Alphonsus Church in Baltimore with competing emotions.
On the one hand, I felt exceedingly grateful for the gratuitous gift of God’s grace that brought me to that place after having instilled in me, through no merit of my own, a love and a hunger for authentic Catholic tradition.
On the other hand, I couldn’t help but be disturbed, and very deeply so, by the realization that when an unfortunate sermon is delivered amid the timeless beauty of the Mass of Ages, it is a very dangerous thing indeed.
You see, in such a setting as this, doctrinal errors can quite easily be mistaken for solid Catholic nourishment by the unsuspecting faithful there present; even when, in truth, they are but post-conciliar poison in disguise. In other words, when the deceptive smoke of Satan commingles with the incense at a Traditional Latin Mass, it can be intoxicating to the point of causing one to lose his or her sensus Catholicus without even knowing it.
Such was the case, I’m afraid, at St. Alphonsus yesterday.
To be clear, I have no doubt that our pastor meant well, but I also have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that his treatment of Christ’s Kingship as given in his sermon was a direct contradiction of the immutable doctrine of the Catholic Church; in particular, as it is taught with great clarity in the Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, On the Feast of Christ the King.
Specifically, the central theme of the sermon was that the Kingship of Christ amounts to nothing more than a kind of sovereignty over the individual soul, with Father even going so far as to repeat more than once that the Kingdom of Christ is not here on earth.
More than one person with whom I spoke after Mass yesterday expressed how much they were moved by Father’s preaching; in other words, they were deceived unawares.
With this in mind, below please find my presentation given at Catholic Identity Conference 2014 – The Mission of the Church vis-à-vis the Kingship of Christ as Illuminated in Quas Primas.
It runs about 53 minutes, and while much of it may be “preaching to the choir” for many readers, I’ve no doubt that the doctrine expressed therein will be news to others.
It’s real value may be in providing readers with a resource that can be shared with family and friends who will most likely stand in need of deprogramming after they attend their Novus Ordo parish Mass for the protestantized version of this otherwise magnificent Feast.
I have the CDs of that conference, Louie, and your talk was just terrific. I learned a great deal – thank you for all the homework you did in preparation.
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I can’t urge this strongly enough to those who read here: get as many encyclicals as you can afford – Angelus Press has lots – read them and you will be filled with wonders – Truth, beautiful language, Hope, and the sense that The Catholic Faith is worth fighting for.
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What can I say to Louie? BRAVO!
I had the most supernatural experience yesterday while attending a TLM in a most unlikely American city. It was salve to my soul after the pain of the synod. The elderly priest who gave the sermon, who I had heretofore thought a real Francis booster, gave an absolute fire and brimstone sermon on the absolute necessity that Christ be proclaimed the King of every society on Earth. He started by giving a little background on the establishment of the feast in 1925, saying Catholics had always believed in the Kingship of Christ, but that Pius XI felt secularism and relativism were especially odious at the time, so established the feast, lest any Catholic fall victim to the spirit of the age. And then he boomed, if you thought things were bad in 1925, look at where we are today and listed all the evils enshrined by society, most especially abortion and sodomy! The message was that Jesus’ words in Scripture and the Decalogue must rule the public sphere. It was forthright, passionate and powerful. Over 45 minutes he developed the theme hammering away that Jesus is the Way, The Truth and the Light of every soul on earth and until we understand that and make Christ the King publicly in our laws, many will go to hell. He openly scoffed at all the Catholics who since the 60s don’t believe in hell. He hit it out of the park, God Bless Him.
“Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.” This is the belief of the New Order church. Christ will not be with His Church until the end of the world at the Second Coming. This is why the N.O. “church” does not celebrate the Feast of Christ the King until the end of the Liturgical year. This is absolute heresy, plain and simple. Christ is ever present in the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lord is present in the Holy Eucharist. “Behold I am with you all days even to the end of the world.” This explains why the N.O. “church” is devoid of Christ. This is why the belief in the Real Presence by clergy and laity alike is almost non-existent. I look forward to listening to your presentation at the Catholic Identity Conference. I have no doubt that your words will be enlightening and inspiring. God bless you.
Louie writes: “the central theme of the sermon was that the Kingship of Christ amounts to nothing more than a kind of sovereignty over the individual soul”.
It seems a reasonable inference that if Christ is the door to salvation (cf. John 10:9), and civil society is established for the common good, then “the banishment of confessional Christianity, i.e., the clear and precise notion of Christianity, from teaching and education, from the organization of social and political life, spells spiritual spoliation and degradation” (Pope Pius XI, Mit Brennender Sorge, #29).
We got a sermon on liberty and a Martin Luther Quote, don’t ask me just what it was, I didn’t listen.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
Rev 19:16
Yes. And your quote above is often stated as “the mystery of faith” in that sort of sing-songy thing in the NO . The mystery of faith is part of the words said at the consecration – now there’s a mystery for ya.
Dear my2cents,
you mean to tell us that the exact phrase, “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again,” has no place in Catholic tradition nor in Scripture? Is not this phrase a reference to the eschatological prophecy made by Our Lord in Mark 13:26 and Luke 21:27? Or was Christ as the High Prophet here simply referring to the Fall of Jerusalem and the Temple?
(I’ve always felt queasy singing this over the decades in the NO mass and feeling as though it were cognate to the masonic inspired liturgy of Beneath the Planet of the Apes— this is a confession, not a joke.)
Happy day for me, my first ever latin mass of all ages and it was the feast of Christ the King! Missionary priest came to my tiny N. ON. Can. town and I thought I had died. Post election here in Canada, he gave a wonderful sermon on Our Lord s rights and our duties to Him. I walked home on a cold wet windy day and felt a fire of love and gratitude in me such as never before. Now I truly know the men who created the N.O. were evil minions of satan. How can I ever stand to go to regular insipid, boring N.O. mass after the heavenly feast that is the TLM. So SO sad for Our Heavenly King and His Holy Mother, they deserve so much better.
This bad sermon dilemma is exactly why the SSPX warns us of diocesan TLMs.
I attended a TLM in Indianapolis last year. This priest clearly recycled his New Order sermon, complete with jokes and secular references to the hip TV shows he watches.
I don’t need CSI updates. I need spiritual direction.
The contradictions and mingling of truth and error are part and parcel of the counterfeit institution that is more than happy to parade a stolen Catholic beauty to sell lies, and the ultimate ugliness of satan’s rule; and it is this rule which every attendee is submitting to.
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Meanwhile the Catholic Church continues, though in ‘domestic’ proportions: http://sggresources.org/
“…how can I ever stand to go to boring, insipid N.O. mass…”
mmm
Oh yes!
I know why!
To receive Our Blessed Lord…Body ,Blood,Soul and Divinity !!!
Never boring and insipid to receive your Creator
Dear Ever mindful,
In order for a Sacrament to be valid, there must be proper Intent, Matter and Form.
This article explains further:
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/f060_Intention.htm
I am not replying to you to suggest that the N.O. Mass you attend is not valid.
This information is a reminder to all of us to be alert and vigilant when attending Mass. Unfortunately, the rubrics (or lack thereof) in the Novus Ordo Mass leaves much room for novelty and “creativity” by the celebrant/presider.
The Traditional Latin Mass (Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) is celebrated following very strict rubrics leaving no room for innovation.
Proper Intent, Matter and Form applies to all the sacraments in order to be valid.
That’s wonderful. Oh, to have a true pastor to guide and nurture one’s soul! What a rare and priceless gift. Lord, protect and preserve him in the Faith.
But tragic if one loses the Faith along the way.
Yes, tmarie, Our Lord deserves better than to be handed out like cookies at a party.
This is exactly what is worrying me. I haven’t heard any sermons standing up against the synod agenda. One of our TLM priests even waxed poetic about con-celebrating with Francis on his visit and in his homily employed the language of “encounter.” I was so mortified I couldn’t take communion. But I looked around me at so many decades plus “trads” and didn’t see many outward signs of distress. My concern becomes when do the homilies corrupt the young? When does the local SSPX mission become the better option…and only once a month? I really don’t know what to do and I don’t think anyone else does either. It’s all so surreal. At this particular Mass I had this sinking feeling that nearly everyone will go along with whatever happens. I thought, so this is how it was in Henry VIII’s England…
Dear Ever Mindful, forgive me if I sounded insulting towards the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, my point was that finally experiencing the Mass of All Ages, I see what an insult the N.O. must be to Him. Every Sunday see kids running around screaming and Father joking about. Women dressed as men or worse, old liberals taking Communion in hand, no pause to say thank you to Jesus, just sauntering down the aisle chewing, smiling, waving to friends, young people never use holy water at the entrance, no kneeling or genuflections before they enter church proper, everybody talking and laughing and milling about as if they were at a house party. So hard to pray, adore, reflect, concentrate. The TLM was different-everybody knew why they were there ad it was not to socialize and hangout.
This novus ordo priest was trained according to modernistic Vatican II principles. One cannot expect real catholic orthodoxy during his homily.
Not what I said. I may have been unclear.
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In the Catholic Mass at the consecration of the wine into Our Lord’s Blood, the priest says: “For this is the Chalice of My Blood, of the new and everlasting testament, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH, which for you and for many shall be shed unto the remission of sins.”
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In the new-church mass the priest says “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.” The crowd responds “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again”
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So my point is that what is said in the NO mass is NOT correct.
It has always been true that a Mass, and the Consecration, are valid if the priest uses the proper matter, says the prayers as they are written for him, and intends to do what the Church says he is doing.
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However, and it’s a big HOWEVER, if what surrounds this ‘validity’ is a MESS with all kinds of abuses and scandal, boring and insipid are not the words I would use.
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EM, I would ask you to put yourself in Our Lord’s place. Is He pleased to see the MESS of abuses and scandals, even if there are folks like you who receive Him in Communion?
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This is like saying women dressed like sluts going to Holy Communion is fine because hey, Jesus is just glad to see them.
This is a perfect example of “it’s not just about the Traditional Mass.” There is a whole lot more to Catholic life, including proper formation for priests, all the Sacraments in the Traditional rite, instruction for First Communion and First Confession, marriage prep etc.
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You have to have it all. My personal advice? Attend the SSPX on the Sunday’s they are available to you, and the other so-called Traditional Mass when you have to. And block your ears and say LALALALALA during the sermon!
Barbara, I could not agree with you more. There are times when I am “forced” to attend NO masses (family events, weddings, funerals etc.) . During those “masses”, I inwardly pray that the host is NOT truly consecrated so that Our Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity are not desecrated, scandalized and profaned by the “mess”, as you properly refer to it. Of course, I never receive Holy Communion at a NO mass because I can’t know for certain that the sacrament is valid. Would a mother give her children nourishing food on a dirty plate? Why would a priest allow the Holy Eucharist to be administered by Eucharistic Ministers whose hands have not be consecrated to the Lord? Doesn’t he know that the awesome Sacrament of Holy Orders reserves this privilege only for validly ordained priests? What are they thinking?????
Dear tmarie,
Thank you…I do understand ,as on travels I have seen things as you describe, whereas the 7:30 am and 7:30 pm Massess I can assist at 3-4 times per week usually have 10-20 devout attenders, who understand reverence and silence, and the 08:00 Sunday early Mass includes a few gurgling babies, and vocal two year olds,with ample chance for quiet contemplation after Mass
The weekly Eucharistic Adoration overlapping with Confession after Saturday 10:00 am Mass is again a chance to sit at His feet…
I have great respect and admiration for the intelligence and zeal of those who comment regularly here, and remember them in my prayers at Sunday Mass…
I read, I study, I pray, and find great consolation from the Little Flower…” I went on studying, and, what is more important, I went on growing in the love of God.”
St Therese of Lisieux
Does no one else find it scandalous that the blogger besmirches a Priests reputation without even providing us a text of what exactly offended him from the sermon in question? I have friends who personally know this Priest that are horrified and irate over this blog. Perhaps that was the intention in order to drive up web traffic. There are better avenues than calumny to do so.
Yes, Barbara. The issue is not the minimum necessary for consecration to take place, but what is not at minimum offensive to God and a danger to souls. Not only has the Faith been lost but also reason which has been systematically drummed out of people by the evil in our corrupted education system, Media, Government and Church hierarchy.
Did you even bother to read the post prior to replying, pprex?
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It would seem not, so please allow me to save you from having to exert the effort to search for what you mistakenly believe is missing:
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Specifically, the central theme of the sermon was that the Kingship of Christ amounts to nothing more than a kind of sovereignty over the individual soul, with Father even going so far as to repeat more than once that the Kingdom of Christ is not here on earth.
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Unfortunately, while this is a common error in our day, it simply is not true.
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This post has nothing whatsoever to do with subjective judgement of the priest, much less the emotions of those who know him personally, but rather is it about the immutable doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning the Kingship of Christ, which, whether you or anyone else likes the fact that I pointed it out or not, was contradicted by what was preached.
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The truth of the matter is clear and not up for debate. The Kingdom of Christ is indeed here, and His dominion is not confined to the individual soul.
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It sounds as if you would do well to read Quas Primas, and if upon doing so the immutable doctrine conveyed therein makes you irate, I suggest that you take it up with Christ.
I have listened to Louie’s presentation at the Catholic Identity Conference and I highly recommend it to all who have not as yet taken advantage of its availability on this blog. It will help all of us to understand why the Social Kingship of Christ is for all of us here and now and forever. What is wrong with the world is that this teaching has been abandoned as too idealistic to achieve. The alternative of looking to man to solve our problems isn’t working too well, is it?
The point of your article was clear, Mr. V. …..and completely Catholic.
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Ppprex also made clear your point here:
“the deceptive smoke of Satan commingles with the incense at a Traditional Latin Mass, it can be intoxicating to the point of causing one to lose his or her sensus Catholicus without even knowing it.”
It would have been a true blessing if he hadn’t offered up to God the name of a heresiarch, thereby making sacrifice of the Mass unacceptable to God (this all resting on the asumption that he really is a priest of the Roman Rite with a sacerdotal nature). The indult is illicit according to Church teachings because of the necessity of Catholicity. The Mass in communion with the Conciliar anti-popes and largely lay ‘preisthood’ is a sugar-pill in place of real medicine. A stirring sermon is a rare thing, but, these days, the Blood of Christ is far more rare.
The Novus Ordo proclaims no ‘mystery of faith’ as part of its so-called consecration. Montini thought this displacement added to the mystery of transubstantiation, meanwhile his protestant and rabbinical experts applauded.
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Also, the Christ that the Novus Ordo proclaims belongs to the purview of Luther and Calvin and Roncalii etc. Not of His Bride.
St Therese would not touch the Novus Ordo with a barge poll. She would know in an instant that Our Lord is absent. Nonetheless, her sanctity is like the sun, it shines on everyone.
Pax in Maria. A few comments here as a reply to “ppprex”…
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A definition of calumny: a false accusation of an offense or a malicious
misrepresentation of someone’s words or actions
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How, may I ask, is Mr. Verricchio guilty of this crime, that you accuse him of here, if what Mr. Verricchio posits is in fact not false, nor a misrepresentation?
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The quote here is:
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“To be clear, I have no doubt that our pastor meant well, but I also have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that his treatment of Christ’s Kingship as given in his sermon was a direct contradiction of the immutable doctrine of the Catholic Church; in particular, as it is taught with great clarity in the Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, On the Feast of Christ the King.
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“Specifically, the central theme of the sermon was that the Kingship of Christ amounts to nothing more than a kind of sovereignty over the individual soul, with Father even going so far as to repeat more than once that the Kingdom of Christ is not here on earth.”
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Question for your friends — do they deny this to be a fair claim? Yes or no?
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This blog post’s contents may be inconvenient or undesirable or challenging for yourself and your friends, but unless there is any evidence that the claims presented in this blog post are indeed false, it seems an apology to Mr. Verricchio is in order, along with a future commitment not to shoot inconvenient messengers.
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As for your friends who I am sure are also well intentioned folks, personally knowing the priest concerned counts for little here. Being irate over this blog, likewise, except that anger can indeed be problematic in the pursuit of fair, objective and rational discourse.
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One may question whether it was necessary for Mr. Verricchio to air the particulars concerned in the exact way and forum that he did, however what a priest says from a pulpit at a public offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is already then … in the public domain.
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As such, the “scandal”, if any, would appear lay with the most unfortunate errors espoused in public by this particular priest in relation to the rather serious subject of the Social Kingship of our Blessed Lord. This, whatever the good intentions that this priest in question may have.
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Life is tough sometimes. I shall pray for all concerned, and also pray that we don’t go shooting good and faithful messengers. There are already too few remaining in this messed up world….
Very interesting distinction and well worth pondering. Thank you.
Relegating the realm of Christ’s Kingdom only to matters of the individual soul and not to temporal powers and principalities is like denying the incarnation…inter alia. (I trust this is one herein example of a doctrinal error contained in that sermon.)
Salvemur: I hate it when sedevcantists rain on my parade. The man is a valid priest who prayed for our valid, yet evil-doing Pope. Get over it. Thank you.
The sad part of this is that the parishioners were not able to pick up on the heterodox portions of this priest’s sermon. As always, it’s not enough to be well intentioned. One has to KNOW THE FAITH. If one is doubtful there are literally dozens of books out there which can make up for a lack of solid Catholic education.
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Heck, when I came back to the Church after 30 years away all I saw was a completely foreign Church. But thanks to The Good God I was pointed to some good books, some good videos, and a good parish.
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Don’t just swallow whatever you hear from the pulpit. We will be held accountable for the brains God gave us: what is the good we have achieved by using them?
Yes, and would God mock us in that way? Would He hold up an expectation that we could never reach? Of course not. Our Lord Jesus told us to come to Him when we found our burdens heavy, and He would make them light. The very first tiny baby step towards holiness is met with an absolute flood of graces. God is so good to us – if only we would reach out to Him, Our Loving Father.
Last week I came across Louie’s talk online from the conference, which was excellent might I add! Forgive me if someone already mentioned this (I have not had a chance to read through all the posts here), but the prayer of the Our Father disputes this notion that Christ is not to have Kingship on earth. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on on earth as it is in Heaven.” These words are quite clear from Our Lord Himself.
In one of his books, Archbishop Lefebvre confessed that his used to think that the separation of Church and State was a good thing. However, he humbly admitted that he was corrected of this error of thought early on in his seminarian education.
As Louie said, the priest most likely had good intentions (and unaware of the Church teaching), but this error is very harmful indeed to the Reign of Christ the King. It is really no wonder that even well-intended Catholics do not openly defend the rights of Christ and His teaching any longer. To restore all things in Christ has no double meaning. St. Pope Pius X, pray for us!!
Well said. Immaculata, ora pro nobis.
Hi Louie:
Thank you for your talk on Christ the King. I was at the conference (2014) last year and I listened intently about “the Reign of Christ the King.” I am so very thankful for your talk as it was the first time I had ever heard someone speak about it. Of course my father taught us about Christ as the King when I was little, but I never heard once (I’m 48) in all my years in Catholic schools and Catholic college, that Christ must declared King by Rulers of state. This talk was so enlightening and has helped me in my journey to understand what has happened to the Church. Over the past two years (ever since “who I am to judge”) I have research, read, prayed, attend Conferences to help me understand. Thanks to you, Fr. Gruner, Chris Ferrara, Michael Matt and John Vennari, I began attending the Traditional Mass. As my journey continued, my family attended only the diocesan Traditional Mass. The Mass was truly reverent and beautiful, but I was stuck by the lack of cohesiveness of the parishioners. No one one really knew each other, even the priests. Again, the priests seem very reverent and observant and good, but as time went on, I wondered why these priests were not addressing the crisis in their sermons. With all the confusion, what I needed most was clarity! Sadly, I was left wanting and confused. But through the Grace of Our Lady, I have found our home at the Society of St. Pius X. My children now attend an SSPX school and we have found a good shepherd who speaks with clarity and “he knows our name.” A good shepherd knows his sheep and seeks them out. Thank you, Louie, for your testament and your commitment to the faith. After two years of seeking, I came to the conclusion that SSPX is the Church and it holds all the Truths of the Catholic Faith.