The Scandal of Assisi III: "The Church is shaken to its very foundations"

This Thursday the Vatican will again participate in the infamous and sacrilegeous gathering in Assisi.  This is the third time in the past 25 years when the Holy Father has fallen to pressures from Modernists to pray on the same level as pagans, infidels, and those who deny and persecute our Lord and Christians.

This event must be condemned for four reasons:

• Because it offends God in His first commandment.
• Because it denies the unity of the Church and Her mission of saving souls.
• Because it can only lead the faithful into confusion and indifferentism.
• Because it deceives the unfortunate unfaithful and members of other religions.

Referring to the 1986 meeting in Assisi, Archbishop Lefebvre remarked:

It is demonic. It is an insult to our Lord Jesus Christ. Who will they pray to? What god will they pray to for peace? What peace can they ask for if they are not praying to the only true God? They will not be praying to our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews do not want him, the Muslims and Buddhists do not want Him neither. Lots of Protestants do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. What god will they pray to? God was made flesh and came and lived amongst us to save us. We have no right to pray to anyone else. If we put Jesus Christ aside, we are not praying to the true God. It is an indescribably impious act against our Lord Jesus Christ. (Spiritual Conferences, 117B, Jan. 28)

His Excellency Archbishop Lefebvre later said, "He who now sits upon the Throne of Peter mocks publicly the first article of the Creed and the first Commandment of the Decalogue. The scandal given to Catholic souls cannot be measured. The Church is shaken to its very foundations."

This Thursday Assisi III commences and with it all SSPX priorities throughout the world will be saying a Mass of reparation on that day.  All matters will be Votive Masses for the Propagation of the Faith: Missa 'Deus Misereatur.'  Many Saturday Masses at SSPX chapels will also be said with the intention of making reparation to God for such a sacrilege.

As I have posted about many times, there is no salvation outside of the Church.  There is only one name under Heaven by which men can be saved and that is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4:12).  So, please join me in saying rosaries in reparation for this most diabolical action initiated by the modernists.  Pray that our Holy Father will not pray with the pagans and infidels but preach and seek their salvation.

If you are unfamiliar with the Assisi issues, please see the SSPX page with several articles, links, and a video on the topic.  I conclude with the inspired words of Pope Pius XI in MORTALIUM ANIMOS:

10. So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for 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, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly."[20] The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills."[21] For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one,[22] compacted and fitly joined together,[23] it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head.[24]   Pope +Pius XI

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"By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them" — Bishop Williamson Sermon, July 1988

There is an essential Catholic message in this sermon. And it needs to be heard.

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Are the Jews Responsible for Christ's Death?: The Four Causes of Christ's Death

It is a highly controversial claim that the Jews should be treated as if they were responsible for the death of our Divine Lord.  But are objections to this notion mere political in nature with an origin in religious indifferentism or must a Catholic honestly admit that no one race is to be held responsible?

The first overarching issue is to determine what we mean by "responsible."  How can one group say that the Jews are responsible for Christ's death and the other group says that the Jews are not responsible.  The difference is precisely a lack of continuity in terminology.

What we must first consider is the philosophical notion that has been part of Catholic theology for over 1,000 years - the four causes.  Aristotle was the first philosopher to identify all four kinds of causes which Aquinas would later incorporate in his Summa. Each cause is a different kind of answer to the question "why?

So, assume I am holding up a picture of the statue of David for you to admire.  I ask the question, "Why is this a statue?"  To answer this question, Aristotle can give four different answers: (1) This is a statue because it is made of marble; (2) because it is in the shape of David; (3) because Michelangelo sculpted it; (4) because Michelangelo wanted to depict the figure of David in marble (because he needed the money, perhaps). An account of each kind of cause is important for a full and accurate account of whatever a person is explaining.

Now let us return to the question, "Are the Jews responsible for the death of our Lord?"  Let's rephrase that to "Are the Jews a cause of the death of Christ?"

Let's first consider the material cause of Christ's death.  The material cause of a thing is the matter - physical matter - causing it to be.  For our Divine Lord's death, it was the nails and the Cross which caused His ultimate Death.

Yet, what of the final cause of Christ's death?  The final cause is the end (i.e. telos) for which something is done.  We know from Sacred Scripture that our Divine Redeemer willing gave up His life on the Cross for the salvation of mankind.  In this sense, many people will rightfully say that all sinners - thus all mankind aside from the Redeemer Himself and the Blessed Virgin Mary - are the cause of our Lord's death.  After all, since our Lord died in order to save us, we are the cause of Christ's death.

This is where many people who say that the Jews are not to be held responsible stop in their argument.  But, let us go further and consider the efficient cause of Christ's death.  The efficient cause of a thing is “the source of the primary principle of change or stability,” e.g., the man who gives advice, the father (of the child) (source).  For our Divine Lord, it was the cruelty and infidelity of the Jewish people that forced Pilate to condemn Him to die.  It was their hardness of heart that brought about our Lord's death and they were the agents who beat our Lord, drove the nails into His hands, and ultimately crucified Him.

Thus, it is correct to say that the Jews are responsible for the death of Christ - if one means that they are the efficient cause of Christ's death.  Let us be specific in our discussions - especially about matters involving philosophy since precise language is so necessary to understand a situation completely.  And let us not shy away from the truth - while not politically "correct" - that the Jews in one sense are to be held responsible.

Let us conclude with a segment of His Excellency Bishop Williamson's Eleison Comments for this week on this very topic:

Firstly, the killing of Jesus was truly “deicide”, i.e. the killing of God, because Jesus was the one of the three divine Persons who in addition to his divine nature had taken a human nature. What was killed on the Cross ? Only the human nature. But who was killed on the Cross in his human nature ? None other than the second divine Person, i.e. God. So God was killed, deicide was committed.

Secondly, Jesus died on the Cross to save all of us sinful human beings from our sins, and in this sense all men were and are the purpose of his death. But only the Jews (leaders and people) were the prime agents of the deicide because it is obvious from the Gospels that the Gentile most involved, Pontius Pilate, would never have condemned Jesus to death had not the Jewish leaders roused the Jewish people to clamour for his crucifixion (Mt. XXVII, 20). Certainly the learned leaders were more guilty than the unlearned people, says St Thomas Aquinas (Summa III, 47, 5), but they all cried together for Jesus’ blood to come down upon them and their children (Mt. XXVII, 25).

Thirdly, at least Pope Leo XIII considered there to be a real solidarity between the Jews clamouring then for Jesus to be killed and the collectivity of Jews of modern times. Did he not in his Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus have the entire Church, from the end of the 19th century onwards, pray to God that he turn his “eyes of mercy towards the children of that race, once God’s chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Saviour; may it now descend upon them a laver (i.e. washing) of redemption and life” ?

But Leo XIII is by no means alone in observing such a continuity amongst Jews down the centuries. Do they themselves not lay claim today to the land of Palestine on the grounds that it is theirs by right from the God of the Old Testament ? Has there ever been a race-people-nation on the face of the earth more proudly self-identifying as identical down the ages ? Originally raised by God to cradle the Messiah, alas, when he came they refused, collectively, to recognize him. Collectively also, meaning there are always noble exceptions, they have remained faithful to that rejection, so that they changed their religion from that of Abraham and Moses and the Old Testament to that of Anas, Caiphas and the Talmud. Tragically, their very messianic training by God drives them to go on rejecting the one whom they hold to be a false messiah. Until they convert at the end of the world, as the Church has always taught they will do (cf. Rom. XI, 26-27), they seem bound to choose to go on acting, collectively, as enemies of the true Messiah.

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