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The Great Apostasy, not the Great Façade:

A critique of the book The Great Façade and a commentary on the Vatican II apostasy

- by Bro. Peter Dimond, O.S.B. -

Sections in this Article:

- Introduction

- The Great Facade

- The Outrageous Teaching on the Jews

- The Outrageous Teaching on the Schismatics

- The Outrageous Teaching on the Church of Christ

- The “Neo-Catholic”

- Vatican II Contains No Error?

- The New Mass is Valid?

- Clever Euphemisms and Playing Dumb

- Never Identifying a Heresy

- Perverting Catholic Teaching on the Requirement for Heresy

- The Result of their Argumentation: A Defected Church

- Denying Outside the Church there is no salvation

- Catholic Doctrine Not Involved?

- The Novelties are not Magisterial

- A Few Glaring Omissions

- Selective Judgments

- Giving Them A Heresy

- Conclusion

Introduction

In the summer of 2002, the American Bishops in union with Antipope John Paul II issued a statement which declared that Jews should not be converted to Jesus Christ. In 1999, the Vatican and Antipope John Paul II agreed with the Lutherans that man is justified by faith alone and that the Council of Trent does not apply. Over the past 25 years, the Vatican, Antipope John Paul II and his bishops have repeatedly declared that the Eastern “Orthodox” (i.e., the Eastern Schismatics) should not be converted to the Catholic Church. The same bishops consistently teach that the Church of Jesus Christ is not the same thing as the Catholic Church; and every bishop in union with Antipope John Paul II denies the dogma outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. The head of this Vatican II “Church” – the head of this Body of Apostasy – prays with the Jews for the coming of the Messiah, praises Martin Luther as a great spiritual leader and implores St. John the Baptist to protect Islam (a non-Christian religion).

To those of good will the meaning of all of this is easy to see: blatant apostasy, a new religion, an utter denial of the Gospel, unabashed and notorious heresy, a denial of the entire Catholic Faith. To others, however, it isn’t even heresy at all. It is just a “façade,” just a verbal “virus” of “novelties,” none of which involves the formal denial of an article of divine and Catholic faith and none of which makes those who hold and defend these things heretics.

And with that I come to the book I am about to discuss. In 2002, a book was published entitled The Great Façade by Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara. The book has been called by its supporters “the Swiss Army Knife of Roman Catholic Traditionalism.” It has been lauded to no end by popular “traditional” journals and publications, and it has influenced the way in which many people view and react to the Vatican II apostasy and Antipope John Paul II.

In this article, I will critique the false resistance which this book defends and the heretical ideas which it promotes, a false resistance and heretical ideas that have been adopted, supported and promulgated by publications such as The Remnant, Catholic Family News and those who think as they do.

The Great Façade

The Great Façade is a 400 plus page book detailing what it calls “Vatican II and the Regime of Novelty in the Roman Catholic Church.” In other words, the book discusses in great detail some of the things that I described in the opening paragraph of this article, things which concern the apostasy of Antipope John Paul II and the Vatican II Church. But, as we will show, The Great Façade doesn’t label this defection from the faith by Antipope John Paul II and his bishops as apostasy or even as heresy, even though their book provides overwhelming proof that neither Antipope John Paul II nor his bishops are remotely Catholic, but are total apostates from the faith.

The Outrageous Teaching on the Jews

Before I begin to discuss the particulars of The Great Façade, I must make an important point. As Catholics know, the heart of the Gospel involves the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is the foundation of Christianity (along with the dogma of the Trinity), and is the subject of much of the four Gospels, especially St. John’s Gospel. Here are just a few passages from St. John’s Gospel concerning this primary dogma of the Catholic religion, the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ for salvation.

John 3:18: “… he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

John 3:36: “He that believeth in the Son hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

John 8:23-24: “And he said to them [the Jews]: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin.”

John 10:1, 9: “Amen, Amen, I say to you: he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber… I am the door.”

John 14:6: “Jesus saith to them: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.”

John 15:6: “If anyone abideth not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.”

John 15:8-9: “And when he [the Paraclete] is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin indeed: because they have not believed in me.”

John 18:37: “For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth: every one who is of the truth, heareth my voice.”

This dogma is, of course, reiterated by countless statements from Popes and councils and 2000 years of Catholic Tradition. To say that one who wishes to be saved can be saved without believing in Jesus Christ is heresy of the worst kind.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Sess. 8, Nov. 22, 1439, ex cathedra: “Sixthly, we offer to the envoys that compendious rule of the faith composed by most blessed Athanasius, which is as follows:

“Whoever wishes to be saved, needs above all to hold the Catholic faith; unless each one preserves this whole and inviolate, he will without a doubt perish in eternity.– But the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in unity... Therefore let him who wishes to be saved, think thus concerning the Trinity.

“But it is necessary for eternal salvation that he faithfully believe also in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ...the Son of God is God and man...– This is the Catholic faith; unless each one believes this faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.”

So, with that essential truth of the Catholic faith reiterated, I return to the book by Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara: The Great Façade. A significant portion of their book discusses this issue – the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ for salvation – vis-à-vis the position of the Vatican II Church and Antipope John Paul II on this topic.

It is a fact that Antipope John Paul II has declared that the Old Covenant is still valid for the Jews (and therefore that they can be saved without believing in Christ).

Antipope John Paul II, Address to Jews in West Germany, Nov. 17. 1980: “The first dimension of this dialogue, that is, the meeting between the people of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God, and that of the New Covenant, is at the same time within our Church…”

This heresy is reiterated in Antipope John Paul II’s New Catechism, a catechism which Antipope John Paul II promulgated by his “apostolic authority,” which is to say that if Antipope John Paul II were the valid Pope, his new Catechism (and the following heresy on the Old Covenant) were promulgated from the Chair of Peter.

Antipope John Paul II, New Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 121:“… for the Old Covenant has never been revoked…”

Antipope John Paul II has, furthermore, confirmed his heresy on the Jews by his deeds on many occasions. He has been to the Jewish Synagogue where he prayed with them for the coming of the Messiah. Most recently, on Feb. 13, 2003, Antipope John Paul II met with the new chief Rabbi of Rome, and congratulated him for his office!

Antipope John Paul II, Address to Chief Rabbi in Rome, Feb. 13, 2003: “Esteemed Chief Rabbi of Rome, Dear Brothers in the faith of Abraham, I am glad to meet you, esteemed Dr. Riccardo Di Segni, after your election as Chief Rabbi of Rome, and I cordially greet you and the representatives who have accompanied you. I renew my congratulations to you for the important office which has been entrusted to you, and on this important occasion, I would like to recall with deep esteem your illustrious predecessor, Prof. Elio Toaff.” (L’Osservatore Romano, Feb. 19, 2003 issue, p. 6.)

To congratulate the Christ-denying Rabbi for his ascension to the Office of Chief Rabbi involves denying the dogma outside the Church there is no salvation; 2) denying the necessity of believing in Jesus Christ for salvation; and 3) denying the dogma that the Old Covenant has been revoked and cannot be observed without sin.

In The Great Facade, Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara show how “Cardinal” Walter Kasper, following Antipope John Paul II’s example and speaking as head of the Vatican Commission on relations with the Jews, has also stated that the Jews’ covenant with God is still valid, and thus the Jews have no need for conversion to Christ in order to be saved.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, quoted in The Great Façade, p. 46: “… the old theory of substitution [that is, the theory of the New Covenant substituting for the Old] is gone since the Second Vatican Council… Therefore, the Church believes that Judaism, i.e., the faithful response of the Jewish people to God’s irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises.”

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 203: “In fact, Cardinal Kasper… has repudiated the conversion of the Jews as explicitly as he has repudiated the return of Protestant dissidents to the one true Church…[Kasper says]: ’Judaism… is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises… Thus mission, in this strict sense, cannot be used with regard to the Jews, who believe in the true and one God. Therefore… there does not exist any Catholic missionary organization for the Jews…”

The facts contained in The Great Façade further demonstrate that the apostate Walter Kasper is merely enunciating the common belief of the Vatican II bishops. As stated already, in 2002 the American Bishops released a document on the Jews which bluntly asserted that “campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church” because the Jews’ covenant with God is still valid and salvific for them. And this document of the American Bishops cited Antipope John Paul II to confirm its teaching. The authors of The Great Facade also show how “Cardinal” Francis George, the “Archbishop” of Chicago (who is actually considered a conservative among the Novus Ordo Bishops) holds the same thing:

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 206: “Thus Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, admired as a conservative by neo-Catholics, could write in his diocesan newspaper that ‘the Church has also sinned against the Jewish people, first of all, in teaching that God’s covenant with Israel is no longer valid for them…’”

The Great Façade also points out that the Vatican has actually released a document on the Jews which teaches that the Jews’ wait for the Messiah is still valid!

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, pp. 206-207: “In late 2001, the Pontifical Biblical Commission released a book entitled The Jewish People and the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible that confirmed the radical (but non-Magisterial) drift of Rome’s position vis-à-vis the Jews. The book argues that the Jews’ continued wait for the Messiah is validated and justified by the Old Testament. ‘The expectancy of the Messiah was justified in the Old Testament,’ papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls explained, ‘and if the Old Testament keeps its value, then it keeps that as a value, too. It says you cannot just say all the Jews are wrong and we are right.’ Asked by reporters whether his statements might be taken to suggest that the Messiah may not in fact have come, Navarro-Valls replied, ‘It means it would be wrong for a Catholic to wait for the Messiah, but not for a Jew.’ The latest position of the Vatican apparatus (not to be confused with the Church’s constant Magisterium) is, in essence, that the Jews are perfectly entitled to live as if Christ had never come.”

So, to summarize, even the authors of The Great Façade, Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, are forced to admit that the present position of the Vatican is that “the Jews are perfectly entitled to live as if Christ had never come.” Is the Vatican’s position heresy? Of course it is heresy! Any Catholic knows that it is a denial of the entire Gospel; it is UTTER APOSTASY! To say it is not heresy is heresy, as proven by the scriptural and dogmatic passages already cited. But what do Woods and Ferrara say about the Vatican’s position that “the Jews are perfectly entitled to live as if Christ had never come”? What do they say about the Vatican’s abominable denial of the core message of the Christian faith and the Gospel (that all who wish to be saved [including the Jews] must believe in Christ for salvation)? Do the authors of The Great Façade think that this is heresy? Unbelievably, the authors of the The Great Façade say no! On page 57 of their book, the authors comment on a series of post-Vatican II novelties which they documented on pages 42-57, one of which was Kasper’s teaching that the Old Covenant is valid and salvific for the Jews (quoted already). And here is what they say about these novelties, including Kasper’s abominable and heretical statement on the Jews which is quoted on page 46 of their book!

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 57: “Now, for someone who is willing to overlook crucial distinctions and leap to unwarranted conclusions about the present crisis, it would be easy to say, with the sedevacantists, that all of these novelties and apparent contradictions of past teaching are ‘heresy,’… But a careful examination of these novelties and apparent contradictions, one by one, shows that none of them involves the formal denial of an article of divine and Catholic faith… Not even John Paul II’s recent statement ‘May St. John the Baptist protect Islam’ is heresy, properly speaking, since the Pope’s public expression of a wish that a false religion receive divine protection, while certainly scandalous and even stupefying, does not translate into a direct denial of any article of divine and Catholic faith.”

This is outrageous, utterly heretical and actually blasphemous. The authors of The Great Façade are telling us that it is not heresy or a formal denial of an article of divine and Catholic faith to assert that: 1) the Old Covenant is still valid and 2) Jews can be saved without believing in Christ – as if these ideas were not repudiations of articles of faith! This is complete nonsense.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino,1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives...”

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino, 1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic Law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time (the promulgation of the Gospel) observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors.”

One can easily see that Kasper’s “novelty” (which is also held by Antipope John Paul II and the Vatican) is a formal denial of the above articles of divine and Catholic faith, exactly the opposite of what Ferrara and Woods say. In fact, it is a formal denial of three articles of divine and Catholic faith, not to mention the entire Gospel, as shown already. It is a denial of the solemnly defined dogma that 1) the Old Covenant is no longer valid (Pope Eugene IV, ex cathedra); 2) whoever wishes to be saved must believe in the Incarnation for salvation (Athanasian Creed, ex cathedra); and 3) Jews cannot be saved without entering the Catholic Church (Pope Eugene IV, “Cantate Domino,” ex cathedra).

Thus, one can see how the position advanced by The Great Façade, which is being lauded and promoted by so-called “traditional Catholic” publications, such as The Remnant and Catholic Family News, is a terrible denial of the faith and is actually heretical. The position advanced by the authors of The Great Façade (and promoted by Catholic Family News and The Remnant) is actually an abomination; for it asserts that to deny the necessity of Jesus Christ for salvation is not to formally deny any article of the faith!

Just imagine if the authors of The Great Façade were in a debate with a fundamentalist Protestant and the Protestant said to them,

“Your bishops and the Vatican don’t even believe that the Jews should believe in Jesus. They aren’t even Christians. Your bishops whom you follow and with whom you are in communion (and whom you call ‘Your Excellency’ ) are not even Christian.”

And just imagine the authors of The Great Façade responding,

“Yes, it is true that the Catholic Bishops believe that Jews don’t need to believe in Jesus, but the bishops haven’t formally rejected the faith.”

The Protestant would laugh right in their faces and say, “then your false faith is truly not Christian, as it doesn’t even require you to believe that Jesus is necessary for salvation! You Catholics are truly Christ-deniers, just as I believed all along.”

Or what is perhaps more illustrative of the significance of this issue, imagine someone before the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ and trying to explain to Him:

“Lord, the Vatican said that Jews did not need to believe in You and I told everyone that the Vatican wasn’t repudiating the Faith.”

Perhaps only with this in mind can some people see that the assertion of the authors of The Great Façade – that it is not a formal repudiation of any article of divine and Catholic faith to hold that Jews don’t need to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation – is actually an abomination. It is heresy and it is a blasphemy against Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of all men (including the Jews), the author and finisher of our faith.

The Outrageous Teaching on the Schismatics

On page 45 of The Great Façade, the authors detail how the Vatican has also stated that conversion of the Eastern Schismatics (who reject the Papacy) is “outdated ecclesiology.” This means that the Vatican has stated that it is an “outdated” idea to try to convert non-Catholics. Our video Why Antipope John Paul II Cannot Be the Pope proves this point in greater detail, quoting from numerous speeches made by Antipope John Paul II himself, wherein he repeatedly states that unity with the schismatics is not achieved by converting them. In his outrageous Directory for the Application of the Principles and Norms of Ecumenism (#125), Antipope John Paul II encourages interfaith worship with these Eastern Schismatics and states that “any suggestion of proselytism [trying to convert them] should be avoided.”

So it is a fact (proven below) that Antipope John Paul II and his false Church reject the dogma of the Catholic faith: that Christian unity with the Schismatics is only achieved by their conversion to Catholicism.

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (#10), Jan. 6, 1928:

“… the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it.”

Antipope John Paul II, Homily, Jan. 25, 1993:

“The way to achieve Christian unity, in fact,’ says the document of the Pontifical Commission for Russia, ‘IS NOT PROSELYTISM [trying to convert them] but fraternal dialogue...”

It is therefore a fact that Antipope John Paul II teaches that the faith of Rome (the Catholic faith) is not to be held by non-Catholics (thereby formally repudiating the necessity of belief in the Papacy for salvation and the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation); therefore, he cannot be looked upon as holding the true Catholic Faith.

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 13), June 29, 1896:

“You are not to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be held.”

Those who assert, in the face of these facts, that Antipope John Paul II is to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith (in other words, that he is their Catholic Pope) are denying this teaching of the Catholic Church and they are asserting that one can be a Catholic while rejecting the necessity of belief in the Papacy (a solemnly defined dogma).

In fact, in his encyclical on Sts. Cyril and Methodius (#27), Antipope John Paul II again indicated that Eastern Schismatics should not be converted to the Catholic Church. He stated that unity with the Schismatics quote ‘is neither absorption nor fusion,’ which means not by conversion. This section of his encyclical was even referenced by the Vatican’s Balamand Statement with the Eastern Schismatics to prove that the Schismatics do not need to be converted!

Additionally, on October 12, 2002, Antipope John Paul II and the Schismatic Patriarch of Romania jointly denounced trying to convert each other. They stated: “Our aim and our ardent desire is full communion, which is not absorption…” In his address on the same day, Antipope John Paul II told the schismatic Patriarch: “The goal is… to reach a unity which implies neither absorption nor fusion…” Need I say more? In the same address to the Schismatic Patriarch of Romania, Antipope John Paul II made this incredible statement:

“For her part, the Catholic Church recognizes the mission which the Orthodox Churches are called to carry out in the countries where they have been rooted for centuries. She desires nothing else than to help this mission…”

But what do Woods and Ferrara have to say about this incredible heresy of Antipope John Paul II and the Vatican II Church? They discuss the issue on page 45 of their book.

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 45: “The preconciliar Popes taught that the schismatic Orthodox must return to the Catholic Church, but the Balamand Statement, whose teaching is commended by the Pope in Ut Unum Sint 60, states that thanks to ‘radically altered perspectives and thus attitudes’ engendered by Vatican II, the Catholic Church will train new priests ‘to pave the way for future relations between the two Churches, passing beyond the outdated ecclesiology of return to the Catholic Church.’”

So here Ferrara and Woods provide further proof for what I stated above: that according to Antipope John Paul II and the Vatican’s Balamand Statement, the Catholic faith is completely meaningless: those heretics and schismatics (such as the Orthodox) who reject the Papacy and the last 13 universal Councils of the Catholic Church should not be converted to the Catholic faith; for this is an “outdated” and abandoned idea. “Archbishop” Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, John Paul II’s Apostolic Administrator for Russia, summed up the position of the Vatican II Church on this point quite well.

“The Second Vatican Council has declared that the Orthodox Church is our Sister Church and has the same means for salvation. So there is no reason to have a policy of proselytism.” (quoted in The Devil’s Final Battle, pp. 91-92)

So, what do Woods and Ferrara conclude about this abominable heresy, which bluntly denies the necessity of the Papacy and the dogma outside the Church there is no salvation? We quoted their words already on this point, but we will quote them again.

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 57: “But a careful examination of these novelties and apparent contradictions, one by one, shows that none of them involves the formal denial of an article of divine and Catholic faith… Not even John Paul II’s recent statement ‘May St. John the Baptist protect Islam’ is heresy…”

This again is outrageous and heretical. According to the authors of The Great Façade, to hold that we should not try to convert the Eastern Schismatics (and therefore to deny the necessity of believing in the Papacy for salvation and the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation) is not a formal denial of any article of divine and Catholic faith! And this book is lauded by those who think that they are resisting the apostasy?

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 13), June 29, 1896:

“You are not to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be held.”

The authors and supporters of The Great Façade need to meditate on this teaching of the Catholic Church, for they are telling us just the opposite. They are telling us that: You (the Vatican II bishops and Antipope John Paul II) are to be looked upon as holding the Catholic faith (you have not formally repudiated any article of it) even though you teach that the faith of Rome is not to be held.

It is also interesting to consider what Pope Pius IX declared about the “Old Catholics,” a heretical sect that believes in all the teachings of the Catholic Church except the First Vatican Council and its definition of Papal Infallibility.

Pope Pius IX, Graves ac diuturnae (#'s 1-4), March 23, 1875: "… the new heretics who call themselves 'Old Catholics'... these schismatics and heretics... their wicked sect... these sons of darkness... their wicked faction… this deplorable sect… This sect overthrows the foundations of the Catholic religion, shamelessly rejects the dogmatic definitions of the Ecumenical Vatican Council, and devotes itself to the ruin of souls in so many ways. We have decreed and declared in Our letter of 21 November 1873 that those unfortunate men who belong to, adhere to, and support that sect should be considered as schismatics and separated from communion with the Church."

Pope Pius IX solemnly declared that Catholics must regard those as schismatics and separated from the Church who belong to, adhere to and support the sect of the “Old Catholics.” And he says this despite the fact that he also says this:

Pope Pius IX, Graves ac diuturnae (# 2): “They [the ‘Old Catholics’] repeatedly state openly that they do not in the least reject the Catholic Church and its visible head but rather that they are zealous for the purity of Catholic doctrine… But in fact they refuse to acknowledge all the divine prerogatives of the vicar of Christ on earth and do not submit to His supreme Magisterium.”

This proves that we must consider as schismatics and heretics individuals who reject Catholic dogma, even though those individuals claim to be Catholic and have not been specifically excommunicated by name. And this of course applies precisely to Antipope John Paul II and his bishops. But by making the assertions that they do, the authors of The Great Façade deny the dogmas of the necessity of the Papacy and outside the Church there is no salvation; for the authors are indicating that Antipope John Paul II and his bishops can deny these dogmas without teaching heresy, thereby negating (in reality) that outside the Church there is no salvation and the Papacy are dogmas that cannot be denied under pain of heresy. It is equivalent to indicating that those who belong to, adhere to and support the sect of the “Old Catholics” are not to be considered as schismatics, but Catholics.

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 41: “As already noted, there can be no heresy without the obstinate denial of some article of divine and Catholic faith, and this cannot be found in any of the pronouncements of the conciliar Popes…”

This proves what I stated above. I would like to close this section on Antipope John Paul II and the Vatican II sect’s outrageous teaching on the schismatics with some additional Catholic Magisterial teaching on the subject of converting the Eastern Schismatics to the Catholic faith.

Pope Benedict XIV, Allatae Sunt, July 26, 1755:

“First, the missionary who is attempting with God’s help to bring back Greek and eastern schismatics to unity should devote all his effort to the single-objective of delivering them from doctrines at variance with the Catholic faith.”

Pope Benedict XIV, Allatae Sunt, July 26, 1755:

“For the only work entrusted to the missionary is that of recalling the Oriental to the Catholic faith…”

The Outrageous Teaching on the Church of Christ

In their chapter on the Vatican document Dominus Iesus (the chapter is called “An Ambiguous Answer to Heresy”), the authors of The Great Facade provide overwhelming proof that the Vatican holds that the Church of Christ is larger than the Catholic Church. The quotation from Cardinal Ratzinger – the chief theologian in the Vatican II Church! – suffices to establish the point:

Cardinal Ratzinger, quoted in The Great Façade, p. 356: “Thus the Council Fathers meant to say that the being of the Church as such is a broader entity than the Roman Catholic Church.”

So, do the authors of The Great Façade think that it is heresy to say that the Church of Christ is a larger entity than the Roman Catholic Church?

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 240: “While the vast conciliar and postconciliar program of innovation tends materially to oppose the perennial teaching of the Church in a number of areas, it does not involve any formal contradiction of an article of divine and Catholic faith.”

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 42: “But none of these apparent contradictions involves the formal repudiation of any article of divine and Catholic faith, even if it can be shown that the new teachings tend materially to oppose Catholic tradition.”

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 216: “We can anticipate the objection that these novelties do not, in themselves, amount to a formal contradiction of prior dogmatic teaching, which is certainly true…”

This is an abomination!

The “Neo-Catholic”

Besides what has been mentioned already, much of The Great Façade discusses what is called the “Neo-Catholic.” From my reading of the book, the authors describe the “Neo-Catholic” as one who accepts or defends the “novelties” of the Vatican II sect, such as those incredible heresies discussed already.

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 250: “… what we call neo-Catholicism is essentially a defense of novelty…”

In addition, the “Neo-Catholic” is one who accepts or defends false ecumenism (i.e., the Vatican II sect’s practice of praying with and respecting non-Christian religions of Satan). The “Neo-Catholic” is one who basically accepts, defends or attempts to justify, in one way or another, the entire Vatican II program of heresy and apostasy. The “Neo-Catholic” is someone who may defend kissing the Koran; he may agree with the Joint Declaration with the Lutherans on Justification which repudiates the Council of Trent and teaches Justification by faith alone; the “Neo-Catholic” may defend the idea that Jews don’t need to convert to Jesus Christ for salvation; and he may agree with the Vatican that the Schismatic Orthodox should not believe in the Papacy.

So, what do the authors of The Great Façade have to say about these heretics, schismatics and apostates whom they call “Neo-Catholics”?

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 303: “We stress once again that none of this is to suggest that the neo-Catholic is not a true Catholic. Rather, we mean to say that he is a true Catholic…”

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 25: “That the neo-Catholics have accommodated themselves to the postconciliar revolution does not entitle us to question their orthodoxy or personal piety – any more than neo-Catholics are entitled to question (as they so often do) the Catholic bona fides of traditionalists …”

It “does not entitle us to question their orthodoxy” – “any more than neo-Catholics are entitled to question the Catholic bona fides of traditionalists”! This means that, according to the authors of The Great Façade, the “Neo-Catholic” and the “traditionalist” are on the same level as far as Catholic orthodoxy goes. They are both true Catholics and to question the orthodoxy of the “Neo-Catholic” would be equivalent to questioning the Catholic bona fides of traditionalists! Needless to say, such an assertion is a denial of the Catholic faith. And it should be obvious that such a statement is a denial of the faith, for the reasons already discussed in this article; for the Vatican II apostasy – which the “Neo-Catholics” accept and defend – involves the repudiation of the most basic dogmas in Catholicism: such as the necessity of the Papacy for salvation; the necessity of belief in Our Lord; and outside the Church there is no salvation. In fact, as one person writing in the June 15, 2003 edition of The Remnant (whose press also published The Great Façade) noted:

“Messrs. Ferrara and Woods go out of their way to assure their readers that they consider ‘neo-Catholics’ to be fellow Catholics, members of the same Church to which they (the authors) belong, and adherents of the same faith to which they subscribe.”

The authors of The Great Façade believe that those who accept and defend a non-Catholic, heretical and apostate Vatican II religion are their fellow Catholics, members of the same Church to which they belong, and adherents of the same faith to which they subscribe. What more proof is necessary to show that the resistance offered by The Great Façade, The Remnant, etc. is a false resistance of union with non-Catholics (“the Neo-Catholics”) and a non-Catholic sect (the Vatican II sect of Antipope John Paul II), which repudiates the conversion of non-Catholics and denies Our Lord and the Papacy?

Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermon 129:

“Wherefore, since outside the Catholic Church there is nothing perfect, nothing undefiled… we are in no way likened with those who are divided from the unity of the Body of Christ; we are joined in no communion.”

The Pointlessness of the False Resistance

If the Vatican II reforms are not heresy, and if Antipope John Paul II and the Vatican II bishops are Catholics, and if the “Neo-Catholic,” who accepts and defends these “reforms,” is a true Catholic, then what is the point of being a so-called “traditional Catholic,” according to the authors of The Great Façade? What is the point of the many articles criticizing the “Neo-Catholics” in publications such as The Remnant? The authors of The Great Façade not only tell us that the “Neo-Catholic” is a true Catholic, but they presume that most of these “Neo-Catholic” non-Catholics are in good faith!

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 26: “But what happens when the Popes, for the first time ever, venture novelties that effectively abolish a number of those traditions? Neo-Catholicism is one attempt to answer that question – an answer we presume has, in most cases, been arrived at in good faith…”

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, p. 235: “This is not to say that neo-Catholics as a group are subjectively complicit in the advances of the postconciliar revolution. Most neo-Catholics have accepted all the changes in good faith…”

In fact, writing in the June 30, 2003 edition of The Remnant, Thomas Woods comments on a man named John Pacheco, a “Neo-Catholic” who brings forward “a ceaseless supply of excuses and contrived explanations” for the Vatican II apostasy. And what does Mr. Woods have to say about this “Neo-Catholic” defender of apostasy, John Pacheco?

Thomas Woods, “Defending the Indefensible,” The Remnant, June 30, 2003, p. 20: “John Pacheco is a man of good will; of that I am not in doubt…”

It is ironic that Mr. Woods has no doubt that an obstinate defender of heresy and apostasy is of good will, while the Catholic Church teaches that such persons – without any doubt – will perish forever unless they get the Catholic faith.

Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos (# 13), Aug. 15, 1832: “They should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that ‘those who are not with Christ are against Him,’ (Lk. 11:23) and that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore, without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate” (Athanasian Creed).

In their book, the authors of The Great Façade also made sure to declare that they had no intention of questioning the Catholic fidelity of the apostate nun, Mother Angelica.

Thomas Woods and Christopher Ferrara, The Great Façade, pp. 254-255 (footnote): “Thus, there is no intention here to question the Catholic fidelity of Mother Angelica or anyone else, but simply to discuss the implications of objective words and deeds of persons who participate in what we call the neo-Catholic system in the postconciliar Church.”

Mother Angelica’s Network EWTN is the leading broadcaster of Antipope John Paul II’s apostate message in the world today. It actively promotes and defends his inter-religious gatherings with Satan’s false religions of the world. The notorious apostate Mother Angelica even referred to non-Christian religions as “great religions” in a prayer that she prayed on EWTN. In one program with the apostate priest Fr. Benedict Groeschel, who pointed out that after “Cardinal” John O’Connor’s death, the Jews held a religious service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Mother Angelica said “that’s awesome!” Mother Angelica’s EWTN is also an adamant defender of the heresies of the Second Vatican Council, even carrying a program on Vatican II called “Council of Faith.” EWTN also carries and actively promotes a show called The Journey Home, a show which features converts to Vatican II Church of Antipope John Paul II. While the program not infrequently contains some very interesting and valuable information, almost every “convert” that The Journey Home features indicates in the discussion that members of the Protestant religion from which he or she just converted are going to heaven too. This proves that EWTN, in addition to the converts to the Vatican II sect, and even their “apologists” trying to convert others to the Vatican II sect, all deny the dogma outside the Church there is no salvation in radical and blunt fashion, just like Antipope John Paul II and his bishops.