Listed in the back of the missal for feastdays in some places is the Feast of St. Emygdius which is kept on August 9th. Back in 1903, the Archbishop of San Francisco ordered Masses to be said in his honor.
The Monks of Ramsgate in their 1921 "Book of Saints" write:
Said to have been a native of Germany who, converted to Christianity and coming to Rome, was consecrated Bishop by Pope Saint Marcellus and sent as a missionary to Ascoli in the Marches of Ancuona, where he was put to death under Diocletian (A.D. 303 or 304). His relics are in great veneration, and many miracles have been wrought at his tomb.
Raised a pagan, Emygdius converted to Christianity some time near the end of the third century. He then travelled to Rome, where he tirelessly worked to convert other pagans. Emygdius willingly risked his own safety to promote his faith. He once stormed a temple and destroyed a statue of Aesculapius, the Roman god of healing. This act angered many Romans, who clamoured for retribution. Although some records say Emygdius turned to Pope Marcellus for protection, it is now believed that Emygdius probably received help from Marcellus’s predecessor named Marcellinus.
The Pope ordained Emygdius, made him a bishop, and then sent him to Ascoli Piceno, a region just northeast of Rome. Once again, Emygdius eagerly spread the Word of God and converted many. But in 304, the bishop was swept up in the persecution of Christians carried out by Emperor Diocletian, who ordered Emgydius and several of his companions to be beheaded.
Emygdius became particularly venerated in Italy. He was said to offer protection against earthquakes, and Catholics in other areas prone to quakes also turned to him for protection. In 1863, the Vatican approved a request from Catholics in California to name Emygdius the patron saint of what is now the Los Angeles diocese. Several statues of the saint still stand in California, and several parishes bear his name.
Collect:
O God, who didst adorn blessed Emigdius, Thy martyr and pontiff, with victory over idols and the glory of miracles: mercifully grant, through his intercession, that we may deserve to defeat the guile of evil spirits, and to shrine forth with virtues. Through our Lord...
Source: Taken from the "Proper Masses for the United States" on Page 1604 of the Father Lasance "New Roman Missal" published by the Christian Book Club of America in 1993. This is a reprint of the 1945 Fr. Lasance Missal.
The Feast of St. John Vianney has moved around in the 20th century. Before 1955, it was kept on August 9 before moving to August 8th in the 1962 Missal and then being swapped with St. Dominic on August 4th in the Novus Ordo.
In the Angelus Press Missal on page 1346, the Mass said for his feastday indicates it is simply the Mass Os justi of a Confessor with only a proper collect. Nothing special. But in the back of the missal on page 1675 in the section for Masses said "in some places and congregations" (pro aliquibus locis) there is a special Mass for St. John Vianney. While using the special collect already mentioned, it lists a completely unique set of propers.
After a few years of searching, I determined the source of these special propers, which are not mentioned in the missal's notes like most other pro aliquibus locis propers.
I sincerely hope more places use these beautiful propers in honor of the patron saint of parish priests, the great St. John Vianney. May he intercede for all of the wayward, persecuted, tempted, and suffering priests today.
Our obligation is to do God's will and not our own. We must remember this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any meaning on our lips. How unreasonable it is to pray that God's will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world! Instead, we struggle and resist like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord's presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity. And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will! Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we should rather serve the devil here than reign with Christ?
The world hates Christians, so why give your love to it instead of following Christ, who loves you and has redeemed you? John is most urgent in his epistle when he tells us not to love the world by yielding to sensual desires. Never give your love to the world, he warns, or to anything in it. A man cannot love the Father and love the world at the same time. All that the world offers is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and earthly ambition. The world and its allurements will pass away, but the man who has done the will of God shall live forever.
Our part, my dear brothers, is to be single-minded, firm in faith, and steadfast in courage, ready for God's will, whatever it may be. Banish the fear of death and think of the eternal life that follows. That will show people that we really live our faith.
We ought never to forget, beloved, that we have renounced the world. We are living here now as aliens and only for a time. When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it. What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible? Well, we look upon paradise as our country, and a great crowd of our loved ones awaits us there, a countless throng of parents, brothers, and children longs for us to join them. Assured though they are of their own salvation, they are still concerned about ours. What joy both for them and for us to see one another and embrace! O the delight of that heavenly kingdom where there is no fear of death! O the supreme and endless bliss of everlasting life!
There is the glorious band of apostles, there, the exultant assembly of prophets, there, the innumerable host of martyrs, crowned for their glorious victory in combat and in death. There, in triumph, are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence. There the merciful are rewarded, those who fulfilled the demands of justice by providing for the poor. In obedience to the Lord's command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure.
My dear brothers, let all our longing be to join them as soon as we may. May God see our desire, may Christ see this resolve that springs from faith, for he will give the rewards of his love more abundantly to those who have longed for him more fervently.
While it is the Feast of St. Cajetan, today is also the Commemoration of St. Donatus, the bishop of Arezzo in Tuscany, who was arrested and beheaded during the rule of Julian the Apostate in 362 AD. May he intercede for us who remember and recall his life today.
Butler's Lives of the Saints:
"Being illustrious for sanctity and miracles, as Saint Gregory the Great assures us, he was apprehended by Quadratianus, the Augustalis, or imperial prefect of Tuscany, in the reign of Julian the Apostate. Refusing to adore the idols, he suffered many torments with invincible constancy, and at length finished his martyrdom by the sword in 361. His relics are enshrined in the cathedral of Arezzo. At the same time and place Saint Hilarinus, a monk, received the like crown, being beaten to death with clubs. His relics were afterwards translated to Ostia. See the Martyrologies."
Collect:
O God, You are the glory of all Your priests. May we sensibly feel the help of Your martyr bishop Donatus whose feast we celebrate today. through our Lord . . .
In front of St. Cecilia's Cathedral in Omaha is a copy of the divine law
This past month American Catholics - and all of those fighting for the rights for the lives of the unborn - were dealt another setback from the Supreme Court with some of the alleged Catholic justices ruling in a way that will only allow more innocent lives to be murdered before they can be baptized. Justice Clarence Thomas, the most arguably faithful Catholic on the bench, wrote in his dissent to the decision: “Today a majority of the Court perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction.” He was joined by the recent Trump-appointed justices, though neither went as far as Justice Thomas in calling for an undoing of the legalization of abortion.
The decision leading to the striking down of a Louisiana law that would have led to fewer abortions reveals a key point that is often forgotten. We can not rely on secular institutions to do what can be done only by the Church. Our efforts as Catholics must be directed at converting souls, hearts, and minds to the Traditional Catholic Faith. Only then will life be protected. Secular laws enacted by governments that are not founded on Catholic principles will never do what evangelization alone can do. Secular laws are not a replacement for divine law. We must make abortion unthinkable in America not primarily by passing legal restrictions (although these are certainly good and meritorious since they help prevent the weak and pressured from murdering their children). Our focus must instead be anchored in Catholic doctrine.
By helping form another generation of true Traditional Catholics we can make abortion unthinkable. Abortion is a two-fold murder - first, it destroys sanctifying grace in the mother's soul who murders the child. It also destroys any grace in those who perform or help foster, encourage, fund, or support the murder of human life in any way. But it even more tragically sentences the child (a truly human life with an immortal soul) to an eternity away from God. Baptism is necessary for salvation. These aborted babies are not baptized. We are not aware of any way how aborted children can go to Heaven. While we trust in God's mercy that they will spend an eternity in Limbo away from the fires of Hell, they will ultimately never see the face of God in Heaven since they were deprived of Baptism.
This reality, which is hardly taught even by Catholic priests anymore who fear offending people, must be proclaimed even more loudly. How many souls have been deprived of Heaven because of secular governments divorced from God's laws and founded on the false principle of man's rights? The United States was founded on the notion that the government derives its ability to govern from the consent of the people - directly contrary to the Lord and His Church which affirms that all authority comes from God (cf. Romans 13:1) and governments traditionally obtained the ability to govern by divine right, leading to the consecration and coronation of the monarch.
The failures of America and the world as a whole including formerly Catholic nations like Ireland, Spain, and Italy to prevent divorce, artificial contraception, and abortion all stem from the rapid onset of modernism which continues to obscure the truths of life, government, and God. The errors of French Revolution the Enlightenment continue to pollute our minds, our schools, our institutions, and even our seminaries and priests.
There is only one supreme law and that is not the United States Constitution. It is not a document of the United States, the United Nations, or the EU. It is also not the Code of Canon Law. It is not a document published by the Vatican. The Supreme Law of the Church is the Salvation of Souls. And that law is what must be the cornerstone of all efforts or else they will fail. As King David reminds us, all our efforts if not based on the Lord's true law and true Church will fail: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it" (Psalms 126:1).
All Catholics must work for the salvation of souls with an ardent and generous spirit. This is not optional. This commitment must underscore our day to day lives. We must be missionaries to our families, our friends, and everyone we meet. Everyone must know that we are Catholics. And our efforts at converting others by our example, our charity, and our unwavering commitment to the Faith will be our tools to make abortion unthinkable. And in addition to this, let us support Catholic pro-life work which understands that we are above all fighting for the salvation of souls, not just for earthly lives.
On July 29th, the Feast of St. Martha, the Church traditionally commemorates the martyrs Ss. Felix II, Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrice. Pope St. Felix II was martyred in Tuscany, Italy, in the fourth century. The brothers Simplicius and Faustinus and their sister, Beatrice, gave their lives for Christ at Rome in 303 AD.
Liturgica Latina writes:
"The holy Pontiff Felix III is a Pope of the fourth century. He was martyred in Tuscany in the time of the Arians (A.D. 365). He is sometimes referred to as Pope Felix II - there was a Pope Felix II in the earlier part of the fourth century, who is usually regarded as an antipope, and this causes confusion in enumeration.
"Simplicius and Faustinus, denounced as Christians to the persecutors, were put to death at Rome under Diocletian A.D. 304. Beatrice, their sister, was arrested and strangled in prison. Leo II placed the relics of these three martyrs in a church at Rome dedicated in their names."
The Book of Saints from 1921 by the Monks of Ramsgate state:
"Saint Felix, Archdeacon of Rome, was elected Pope A.D. 355, when Pope Liberius was sent into exile by the Arian Emperor Constantius, but on the return of Liberius, after two years of exile, he at once resigned the Pontificate of which in all probability he had been merely the Administrator. The Roman Martyrology records his martyrdom at Cervetro (Caerae) in Tuscany, probably about A.D. 360; but it is the opinion of some authors that he lived on for several years in retirement and died a peaceful death. The Church also commemorates the Finding of the Body of Saint Felix with those of other Martyrs. It is especially to be noted that from the outset he has always been regarded as a Saint, and there are no real grounds for setting him aside as a mere Anti-Pope."
Regarding Ss. Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrice commemorated today, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 states:
"Martyrs at Rome during the Diocletian persecution (302 or 303). The brothers Simplicius and Faustinus were cruelly tortured on account of their Christian faith, beaten with clubs, and finally beheaded; their bodies were thrown into the Tiber. According to another version of the legend a stone was tied to them and they were drowned. Their sister Beatrice had the bodies drawn out of the water and buried. Then for seven months she lived with a pious matron named Lucina, and with her aid Beatrice succoured the persecuted Christians by day and night. Finally she was discovered and arrested. Her accuser was her neighbor Lucretius who desired to obtain possession of her lands. She courageously asserted before the judge that she would never sacrifice to demons, because she was a Christian. As punishment, she was strangled in prison. Her friend Lucina buried her by her brothers in the cemetery ad Ursum Pileatum on the road to Porto. Soon after this Divine punishment overtook the accuser Lucretius. When Lucretius at a feast was making merry over the folly of the martyrs, an infant who had been brought to the entertainment by his mother, cried out, “Thou hast committed murder and hast taken unjust possession of land. Thou art a slave of the devil”. And the devil at once took possession of him and tortured him three hours and drew him down into the bottomless pit. The terror of those present was so great that they became Christians. This is the story of the legend. Trustworthy Acts concerning the history of the two brothers and sister are no longer in existence. Pope Leo II (682-683) translated their relics to a church which he had built at Rome in honour of St. Paul. Later the greater part of the relics of the martyrs were taken to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore."
Collect:
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that as Christian people rejoice in being able to celebrate the temporal solemnity of Thy martyrs Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrice, so they may also rejoice thereat in life eternal and receive the fruit of the sacrifice which they offer.
St. Innocent I, a native of Albano, Italy, reigned from 401 to 417. This energetic Pope is known for his zealous welfare for the entire Church. His decrees became law in Spain, Gaul and Italy. He demanded that the Eastern Bishops re-install St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, who had been unjustly deposed. He censured the Bishop of Jerusalem for his negligence. He ratified the condemnation of the Pelagian Bishops of Africa who denied the need of grace for salvation.
Pope Innocent I was a contemporary of St. Jerome, who urged Christians to keep the faith of Pope Innocent and to "receive no other doctrine, however wise and attractive it may appear."
In 410, during his pontificate, Rome was ravaged by the barbarians of Alaric. He took the responsibility of rebuilding the city and showed great charity in helping the victims. Pope St. Innocent died in 417 AD.
Collect:
Defend us, O Lord, through the blessed martyrdom of Your saints Nazarius, Celsus, Victor, and Innocent, and may their merits support us in our weakness. Through our Lord . . .
It is good to hear of more priests offering blessings of vehicles on a Sunday near the feastday of St. Christopher, which falls on July 25th. St. Christopher is known as the “patron saint of travelers” and his intercession is frequently invoked when traveling by car. You may also always ask a priest to bless your vehicle at any time of the year.
The Traditional Rite of Blessing of an Automobile or Other Vehicle
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: May He also be with you.
Let us pray.
Lord God, be well disposed to our prayers, and bless + this vehicle with your holy hand. Appoint your holy angels as an escort over it, who will always shield its passengers and keep them safe from accidents. And as once by your deacon, Philip, you bestowed faith and grace upon the Ethiopian seated in his carriage and reading Holy Writ, so also now show the way of salvation to your servants, in order that, strengthened by your grace and ever intent upon good works, they may attain, after all the successes and failures of this life, the certain happiness of everlasting life; through Christ our Lord. All: Amen.
Sometimes I hear people ask the question of whether they can or should attend the Novus Ordo if the Tridentine Mass is not accessible locally. The closest Mass may be more than an hour's drive away. Or someone may be on vacation and there is no Tridentine Mass in the local area - or even in the country. What should someone do? Should they attend the Novus Ordo instead, even though they often attend the Tridentine Mass? Alternatively, I have heard some people ask whether it would be better to attend Eucharistic Adoration instead of the Novus Ordo Mass during the week.
After having attended the Tridentine Mass exclusively now for 10 years, and after having left the Novus Ordo seminary after two years in it, I do not hesitate to say that no one is bound to attend (or should attend) the Novus Ordo.
Why such a dramatic view that the Novus Ordo should never be attended? The Novus Ordo is unfortunately impregnated with the very spirit of Protestantism. It is harmful to the Faith, even when exterior acts of reverence are inserted into it.
I'd like to briefly outline why I would encourage every Catholic to leave the Novus Ordo behind and cease attending it, promoting it, or donating to it.
1. The Novus Ordo Prayers are Protestant at the Core
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre famously remarked, "The Novus Ordo Missae, even when said with piety and respect for the liturgical rules, ...is impregnated with the spirit of Protestantism. It bears within it a poison harmful to the faith." Simply put, every Novus Ordo is harmful to one's faith. Even though it is possible for God to work good out of evil and lead to the Truth even those in false religions or heretical denominations, this does not make the Novus Ordo as praiseworthy, as honoring, or as fitting for God. Rather, the defects in the Novus Ordo are not merely external but intrinsic in the very prayers created for the New Rite of Mass.
The Holy Mass is the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The purpose of Mass is to be present at the Sacrifice of Christ that is made present again through the priesthood of Jesus Christ. We worship God at Mass in the manner which He has established for His worship. We are present at Calvary. Rather than merely remembering the life and death of Christ, we are present at it and partake of its eternal fruits which flow to us from the altar and during the Canon when the priest stands in the place of Christ and offers the Eternal Victim on the Altar to God. We can further receive grace by partaking of the Holy Eucharist if we are Catholics in the state of grace. This view of the Mass as a propitiatory Sacrifice has been lost in the Novus Ordo and replaced by notions of community, where the priest is a presider, and many Catholics falsely view receiving Holy Communion as the purpose of going to Mass, rather than being present at the august sacrifice of the Eternal Victim.
As Archbishop Lefebvre noted in Chapter 4 of the Open Letter to Confused Catholics, the changes to the Mass in the offertory, the sermon, the canon, and elsewhere mimic the changes sought by Martin Luther! They are in their very core protestant, especially for instance in the newly created prayers of the Offertory which bear no similarity to the Offertory in the Tridentine Mass.
Of course, while any validly ordained priest may consecrate bread and wine using the words of consecration, even while omitting the rest of the Mass (which is done at times in cases of necessity for instance by priests who are imprisoned and can only smuggle in a small piece of bread and a small amount of wine), this is not the same as promoting and saying protestantized prayers. I do not hold the Novus Ordo lacking merely because it does not have as many beautiful prayers. I hold it as protestantized because the prayers which are a part of it were written with the intention of appealing to protestants.
Jean Guitton, an intimate friend of Paul VI wrote: “The intention of Pope Paul VI with regard to what is commonly called the [New] Mass, was to reform the Catholic liturgy in such a way that it should almost coincide with the Protestant liturgy. There was with Pope Paul VI an ecumenical intention to remove, or, at least to correct, or, at least to relax, what was too Catholic in the traditional sense in the Mass and, I repeat, to get the Catholic Mass closer to the Calvinist Mass.” And we know that the Calvinists - and any protestants for that matter - do not have a valid rite of Mass and do not confect the Holy Eucharist.
2. The Novus Ordo was Formed Under the Error of Archeologism
Those who encourage or at least tolerate the Novus Ordo often do so by saying that Paul VI sought for the Church to merely return to a more ancient manner of saying the Mass. This view is actually the error of Archeologism as Fr. Peter Scott explains:
"Pius XII inveighs against the error of those who would want to use the pretence of antiquity to bring
about changes in the Church’s prayers and ceremonies: “It is neither wise nor laudable to reduce
everything to antiquity by every possible device” (§ 62), for “ancient usage must not be esteemed
more suitable and proper, either in its own right or in its significance for later times and new
situations, on the simple ground that it carries the savor and aroma of antiquity” (§61). This is the
error of Archeologism, namely that because something is older it is necessarily better, and it denies
that the development of liturgical rites over the centuries owes its “inspiration to the Holy Spirit,
Who assists the Church in every age”. (Ib.)
"This error of those who try to justify liturgical revolution by ancient practices is clearly condemned
by the Pope: “The temerity and daring of those who introduce novel liturgical practices, or call for
the revival of obsolete rites out of harmony with prevailing laws and rubrics, deserve severe
reproof” (§ 59). Here are some of the examples of archeologism listed by the Pope:
Replacement of Latin by the vernacular in the august Eucharistic Sacrifice
Transferral of feast days to Sundays
Deletion from the liturgy of some texts of the Old Testament
Replacement of the altar by a table – “one would be straying from the straight path were he
to wish the altar restored to its primitive table-form” (§ 62)
Excluding black as a liturgical color
Eliminating the use of sacred statues and images
Crucifixes not showing Christ’s suffering (Risen Christ)
"It is interesting to note that twenty years later every single one of these examples of abuses
condemned by Pope Pius XII had been incorporated into the New Mass, always under the pretence
that it is returning to old things. Other examples Pius XII did not mention are the procession for the
presentation of the gifts and the Kiss of peace for the laity, the abolition of the prayers at the foot of
the altar, the elimination of “mystery of faith” from the words of consecration, the elimination of
the Roman Canon (although it is the truly oldest part of the Mass), many feast of saints, the Last
Gospel and the prayers after Mass."
Even if we claim that Paul VI imposed the Novus Ordo under good intentions, they are still nevertheless imbued with archeologism. And this is not just "bad." It is heretical as Fr. Scott further explains:
"Pius XII further explains that this“exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism”(§64) is not new,but derives from the illegal Council of Pistoia, condemned by Pope Pius VI in 1794. Due protestant influence this false council wanted to promote a return to the simplicity of the earlyChurch, despising later developments. Its principle is found in the first proposition, which Pius VIcondemned as heretical: “In these latter times there has been spread a general obscuring of the more important truths pertaining to religion, which are the basis of faith and of the moral teachings of Jesus Christ”(Db 1501). This is precisely the reasoning of the modernists, when they want to do away with devotions to the Sacred Heart, to the Blessed Virgin, to the Blessed Sacrament, to the saints. Yet it is condemned as heretical."
3. The Novus Ordo's Fruits are Manifestly Rotten
We do know from first-hand experience, the fruits that have followed Vatican II, the New Mass, Communion in the Hand, and the near elimination of fasting and abstinence. Christ, Himself said, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them" (Matthew 7:15-16). What are these fruits? These are the fruits as shown by the Old Evangelization Website:
Turning again to the words of Archbishop Lefebvre, who saw firsthand the effect of the Novus Ordo on the African continent and how it eroded the successful work that Catholic missionaries had done there, he writes:
"Furthermore it can be said without any exaggeration whatsoever, that the majority of Masses celebrated without altar stones, with common vessels, leavened bread, with the introduction of profane words into the very body of the Canon, etc., are sacrilegious, and they prevent faith by diminishing it. The desacralization is such that these Masses can come to lose their supernatural character, “the mystery of faith,” and become no more than acts of natural religion.
"Your perplexity takes perhaps the following form: may I assist at a sacrilegious Mass which is nevertheless valid, in the absence of any other, in order to satisfy my Sunday obligation? The answer is simple: these Masses cannot be the object of an obligation; we must moreover apply to them the rules of moral theology and canon law as regards the participation or the attendance at an action which endan- gers the faith or may be sacrilegious."
Conclusion
For those who are unable to attend a Tridentine Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, it is better to pray the Rosary, sanctify the day by abstaining from servile works, read the prayers of the Missal, listen to good sermons, perform works of charity, and even to watch a live stream of the Mass.
I do not hold any animosity toward those who do go to the Novus Ordo through mere ignorance. The truth is that the vast majority of Catholics do not know of the Tridentine Mass or at least do not view it as important. They do not see the errors in the New Church and have likely been told to avoid the Latin Mass or at least the SSPX or groups more traditional than them. These people may even view the FSSP for instance as traditional enough and posit them as an ideal, claiming falsely that the SSPX is schismatic (which it is not).
The changes to the Catholic Church in the past fifty years have been disastrous and that is in a significant part due to the imposition of the Novus Ordo. As I mentioned in my article 20 Immediate Actions to End the Protestantization of the Catholic Church, the Restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass - the Mass of All Times - in all Latin Rite parishes and the abolition of the 1969 Rite of Mass known as the Novus Ordo is necessary.
Having read several articles in liberal publications on the need to abolish the priesthood, I have realized that most people in our world fail to understand what the priesthood is. The Catholic priesthood is not a social club. It is not a civic organization. It is not a noble charitable work. It is not a committee or a group overseeing the Church that could be switched out. On the contrary, the Catholic priesthood is an institution which God Himself founded as necessary for our salvation, and as such, no one other than God may abolish it.
Why is the Catholic Priesthood Necessary?
The Catechism of St. Pius X explains: “The Catholic Priesthood is necessary in the Church, because without it the faithful would be deprived of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and of the greater part of the sacraments; they would have no one to instruct them in the faith; and they would be as sheep without a shepherd, a prey to wolves; in short, the Church, such as Christ instituted it, would no longer exist.”
Without the priesthood, we would have no ability to have our sins absolved after Baptism. If the priesthood were to die out, there would be no Holy Eucharist or Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The perfect oblation that is offered on the altar every single day throughout the world in satisfaction for sins (cf. Malachi 1:11) would die out. Confirmation would no longer occur. There would be no teaching authority to guide the Church. Last Rites would never be imparted again to the dying.
And if no bishops remained on earth, holy orders would end. The priesthood would end. We truly would be a flock without a shepherd and the wolves would devour us. Only the Sacrament of Baptism and Holy Matrimony would be able to continue. All the other Sacraments which require a validly ordained priest would cease.
The Lord Jesus Christ Instituted the Catholic Priesthood
When did our Lord institute Holy Orders? The Catechism of St. Pius X again explains: “Jesus Christ instituted the Sacerdotal Order at the Last Supper when He conferred on the Apostles and their successors the power of consecrating the Blessed Eucharist. Then on the day of His resurrection He conferred on them the power of remitting and retaining sin, thus constituting them the first Priests of the New Law in all the fullness of their power.”
At the Last Supper, Our Savior's words, “Take and eat, this is My body... take and drink this is My blood” (Matthew 26:26-28) truly transformed the bread and wine into His Body and Blood. In yet another act of humility, Christ gave Himself to us through this Sacrament — the Holy Eucharist. The apostles alone were given this power which they have passed down through apostolic succession.
Our priests today have this same power to stand at the altar on account of their ordination. Our same priests have the power to forgive sins (cf. John 20:21-23) and baptize (cf. Matthew 28:19) as well as to bless and preach by virtue of this unbroken chain back to the Last Supper. A priest is necessary for our salvation and even a priest needs a priest for his own salvation since priests also must go to Confession. Without the priesthood, our religion would essentially end.
The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail Against the Priesthood
Yet we must not despair of such a future day. Continuing on, the Catechism of St. Pius X assures us that despite all the threats that will assail the priesthood, the sad day when the priesthood is abolished will never occur: “In spite of the war that hell wages against it, the Catholic Priesthood will last until the end of time, because Jesus Christ has promised that the powers of hell shall never prevail against His Church.”
In fact, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter’s April 2017 Newsletter stated that praying for vocations is not optional. It is required of us:
The Lord Jesus commands that we foster vocations, "Ask the master of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest" (Mt 9:38). Praying for priestly vocations is not optional. This might be a revelation for many a good Catholic. Praying for priestly vocations is not a matter of spiritual taste or preference. Rather, praying for priestly vocations manifests our shared responsibility in obtaining from God the many "other Christs" - the priests needed chiefly for offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and for reconciling penitents, but also for evangelizing, for instructing converts, and for performing the countless works of education, culture, and charity granted by God to the world through His holy priesthood.
Why Does Satan Attack the Priesthood Then?
A study of Catholic Doctrine illustrates both by reasoning and through miracles that the Catholic Church alone is God’s established religion. God, in His goodness and generosity, showers us with proofs of the accuracy of the Catholic Church’s doctrines. And this too is why satan is not attacking Lutherans, or Baptists, or Muslims. He is attacking the Catholic priesthood. He is infiltrating our seminaries and leading men ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ to betray their office and sexual assault children – an absolute diabolical and unspeakable blasphemy. And satan does this because in the Catholic Church is the truth. Why would he waste his time on attacking those souls who are already under his rule?
The sexual abuse crisis, which has caused so many to distrust the Church, illustrates just how much we must pray for our priests and bishops. Satan continues to work for the overthrow of the Church and writers like Marie Carre in "AA-1025" describe the infiltration of seminaries and the priesthood by communists and atheists who sought to bring it down from within. But they will not succeed. Despite their efforts to scandalize the faithful and to lead souls astray, God will continue to help steer Holy Mother Church and give us good priests who will labor for the good of souls. Those priests – often the traditional Catholic priests who sacrifice so much to offer the Latin Mass – are the true priests. Let us pray for them and for more vocations. And let us pray for all those who have left the Church due to satan’s attacks. May they be reconciled soon and come back to the Sacrament of Confession, made possible because of the priesthood.
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Matthew is a Third Order Dominican from Chicago and an expert on Catholicism, with an emphasis on Traditional Fasting. He has written for "A Catholic Life" since 2005. Matthew is a Certified Catechist and is a speaker available to address your next parish or Catholic conference gathering. Matthew spends his leisure time traveling, teaching, writing, and enjoying Catholic culture. He is also a writer for "Catholic Family News" and "The Fatima Center." Please contact Matthew directly regarding advertising requests for A Catholic Life or in regard to speaking engagements.
