Illuminati Catholic –
there is no such thing
Illuminati
and Freemasonry Exposed: WATCH OUR DVDS ONLINE FOR FREE
Please click here to see our new
website: www.vaticancatholic.com
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.