Australia and New Zealand
Interview with Fr. Fullerton
History of the Church in Australia
William Bernard Ullathorne
Kiwi Catholicism
March - April 2021

May the glory of the Lord endure for ever: the
Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh upon
the earth, and maketh it tremble: he toucheth
the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to
the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my
God while I have my being. Let my speech be
acceptable to him: but I will take delight in the
Lord. Let sinners be consumed out of the earth,
and the unjust, so that they be no more: O my
soul, bless thou the Lord.—Ps. 103:31-35
Aoraki-Mt Cook, New Zealand’s tallest mountain.

Letter
from the
Publisher
Dear Reader,
It was a good surprise for me to see that The Angelus is dedicating much of this issue to the
field of apostolate which fell onto me for eight happy years. It is also my pleasure to contribute
to it with a short interview printed alongside other prominent articles. The down under continent of Oceania—sometimes called Australasia as it comprises New Zealand too—is as vast as
our United States, and yet, it is also vastly unknown to us.
The discovery of these lands came rather late among the world powers, mostly the Dutch,
French, and English, who were vying to take over the Virgin Islands. Cooke, who finally settled
Australia for the British Empire, unfortunately turned it into a penal colony.
The high contingent of Catholics on the island was composed largely of Irish prisoners of
common crimes, but it gradually included educated political prisoners as well as honest men
guilty of the “crime of theft” fueled by starvation. What is certain is that the desperate situation of dislodged Catholics gave rise to wonders of zeal from clergymen who finally fixed the
faith of many Australians under the Papal flag. The New Zealand situation, if less ignoble, was
still an ordeal for Catholic churchmen eager to preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the
known world. The visible fruits of our traditional mission outposts, manned by priests and laymen, are proof of the invaluable work done by the pioneer missionaries.
Given the historical mixture of political and racial divides, it is no wonder that these largely
inhospitable lands became the battlefield of great struggles for power and for souls. As you
read the following excerpts and confront them with our present liberal anti-social bias, you
will discover great men who have dedicated their life for the civil and religious ideals, like
Ullathorne, Mannix, and Santamaria.
Despite the persecution against the early settlers, our own country cannot boast of
having started as a “penal colony,” replete with ruffians and outlawed individuals. It has had
its share of anti-Catholic bias and overt or covert persecution since its inception. Perhaps the
past century of Australian and New Zealand examples of prudence and zeal will inspire us to
better meet the next incoming attacks against the family and religion.
Fr. John Fullerton
Publisher

March - April 2021
Volume XLIV, Number 2
Publisher
Fr. John Fullerton
Editor-in-Chief
Mr. James Vogel
Managing Editor
Fr. Dominique Bourmaud
Assistant Editor
Mr. Gabriel Sanchez
Associate Editor
Miss Esther Jermann
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Mr. Ben Bielinski
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(Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
Mr. Simon Townshend
Director of Operations
Mr. Brent Klaske

		
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Contents
Letter from the Publisher

4

Theme: Australia and New Zealand
– Interview with Fr. Fullerton
– History of the Catholic Church in Australia
– William Bernard Ullathorne
– “Daniel the Great”: Remembering Daniel Mannix, Archbishop
of Melbourne
– Worth a Thousand Words
– Kiwi Catholicism: Interview with Fr. Ian Andrew Palko

6
10
18
22
29
32

Spirituality
– Meditations on St. John’s Gospel
– The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The Canon—Part Three
– Tough Environments Breed Militant Catholics:
Protestant Secularist Australia and “Bob” Santamaria
– Life in the Prison of Our Soul

37
41
48
54

Christian Culture
– The Trimmin’s on the Rosary
– The Irrelevant Church
– Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor
– Questions and Answers

56
62
67
71

“Instaurare omnia in Christo”

The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published bi-monthly
under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary, Queen of Angels.
Publication office is located at
PO Box 217, St. Marys, KS 66536.
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Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, MO.
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©2021 BY ANGELUS PRESS. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

Catechism
– Complex Questions & Simple Answers
– Catholic Society vs. the Liberal Dis-Society
– The Last Word

76
80
87

Theme Australia and New Zealand

Interview
with Fr.
Fullerton
By Angelus Press

Would you present yourself, Father?
My name is John Fullerton, presently District
Superior of the United States. I just spent 8 years
as District Superior of Australia after having
been District Superior in the US from 2002 to
2008 and then four years as Headmaster of St.
Mary’s Academy and College in St. Marys, KS.
Did you learn valuable lessons in the US
as District Superior?
For me, this position was a sink-or-swim
situation. My first priestly assignment in 1996
was in Michigan, where I acted as prior and
started the boys’ school, which gave me the
valuable experience of running schools. Then, I
was thrown into the District Superior position.
My previous training as an Air Force officer
helped somewhat for working with people and
6

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organizing. In any case, these six years gave me
the chance to learn many lessons, especially how
to work with large groups of people as well as
watch over priests.
How different was the leadership of the
Australian District?
In Australia, the main duty of the District
Superior is also to watch over priests, and
through the priests in turn to care for the people.
Obviously, the workload is in smaller scale
in Australia. We have presently 20 priests in
the District which includes New Zealand. The
number of the faithful is just under 4,000. When
you consider that St. Mary’s is a parish of 4,000 …
it covers basically for the entire population of the
Australian District.

How different is Australia as country,
geography and culture?
In Australia, most people live on the coastline
since the center of the continent, the outback, is
just hot and dry. Most congregate in the coastal
cities and these are where our large centers are,
including our two high schools, and, by and large,
our families have moved to these schools.
Would you mind to articulate the main
properties you own in the country?
Sydney was the first priory opened around the
year 1982 by Frs. Hogan and Laisney, and it has
been ever since the headquarters for the District
house. The priests at the beginning had to travel
regularly to Melbourne and Brisbane. Next came
the Hampton priory, a suburb of Melbourne, then
Brisbane and lastly Perth. School-wise, our first
established school was Rockdale, in Sydney,
which has always been a small grade school for
students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
When the Tynong school near Melbourne opened,
many Sydneyites moved there. The Brisbane high
school was the last to open. And in New Zealand,

which is also part of the Australian District,
technically called Australasia, the SSPX has a
priory and high school in Wanganui in the North
island. This only priory services the major cities
of Auckland and Wellington as well as a few more
missions.
What about the people themselves?
People come from the most varied
nationalities. It reminds me very much of the US.
By and large, they are very open. In the Sydney
parish, for instance, we host many Samoans who
came to Botany Bay via New Zealand. We have
also many Lebanese, Filipinos, and the other
older European ethnicities, like Irish, Italians,
and English.
Is there an Irish streak about the Catholic
Church in Australia?
Certainly. People from Ireland come with a
one-year visa to work, and we occasionally see
them coming to our parishes. Irish priests were
the first to care for the Catholics sent there. Most
provinces were a penal colony, except South
7

Theme Australia and New Zealand
Australia, which boasted of not being so: you
did not need a record to get there! I was told that
convicts were also sent there from the US.
Could you describe the origins of the
traditional movement in Australia?
Like in the US and Canada, after the Council, a
number of priests resisted the changes of Vatican
II. We need to mention prominently the work of
Fr. Cummins, a New Zealander Redemptorist
who, like Fr. Normandin in Quebec, traveled
through both countries. He ended up in Perth and
gave his church to the SSPX. Then you have more
sedentary priests, like Fr. Fox, who ministered
to the faithful of Sydney, who were one of the
resilient groups which gathered to do whatever
they could to keep the faith and the Mass of all
times. Msgr. Hodgson was also there for a while.
Keep in mind also that the first Society Sister
ever was Sr. Mary Michael from Sydney, and the
first priestly Australian vocation was Fr. Gerald
Hogan, ordained in 1977.
What about the apostolate in the islands?
The priests do travel to French-speaking
New Caledonia and to English-speaking Fiji six
times a year. For Fiji, much of the expenses are
covered by the Australian District, and whatever
donations the faithful can provide is by way of
food. The priests also tend to Vanuatu twice a
year, and more specifically, the little island in the
North of the archipelago called Rotuma, but it
takes three planes and two boats to reach it. The
conditions of life there are very primitive. I spent
two weeks there. At that time the airport runway
was grass, and if there had been heavy rain the
plane could not land. Also, because it was grass,
the plane could have so much fuel when it landed,
and it could not take off without having to refuel,
but the fuel was brought from another island by
boat. When I visited, I had to stay there for two
weeks because the boat had not come to deliver
fuel. Living there is very simple. You’re fed like
a king with lobster, coconut milk, wild chicken
caught in their snares, and wild pigs which they
raise. They also have fertile gardens, with all
kinds of vegetables, especially taro roots and
tropical trees for fruit. I ate huge chestnuts on
open fire, which were delightful. They offered
8

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also a strange fruit, called breadfruit, which they
used as dessert accompanied with coconut juice.
What did you think of the religious
situation there?
We are talking about a small island which is 10
miles long by two miles wide with a population
of 2,000 people. In the Rotuma island itself, you
see only the grandparents and children. This
is because the parents and those out of school
are out working either in Fiji, New Zealand, or
Australia, and send some of their money back to
the island to their family. There is no industry
there, except drying out coconut oil to make
diesel from the oil. There were two Catholic
churches built by the Marist priests and, today,
they have no priest ministering to them. We asked
permission to use one of these churches, but the
bishop is against us.
What was the welcoming party like when
you first set foot down under?
Well, no sooner had I been there than the
priests from New Zealand who finally had
rejoined the Australian District called me and
said: “Welcome to the District! By the way, our
church in Auckland has burned down and we had
no fire insurance.” That was not the welcoming
party I had expected!
Did you encounter different obstacles to
the development of tradition? Perhaps, the
smaller group and a sense of isolation?
I can say that we had no spare priests, and that
obliged me to be going on a regular mission just
about every weekend, since Sydney had to cover
four missions in the area. By and large, we’ve had
the same problems with teenagers caught up in
modern media and technology, which is pulling
them away from both their family and the faith. It
makes it harder for families to keep a strong faith
when all this is conspiring against them. The
parents cave in, and before long, leave the school
and, later on, the parish.
How is the school situation in Australia
and New Zealand?
In Australia, the schools are funded by the
government. This is financially a great benefit,

and so far, we have not had to compromise
with our faith and teaching. The downside
is that teachers need diplomas to teach, and
this includes Sisters and Priests. Right now, in
Australia, you have to have a master’s degree
which takes two years after the bachelor’s
degree. The last priest who went through this
program was American-born Fr. Palko, and the
government gave him time to get his studies
down while teaching. This is why we are working
with the seminary to allow the Australian
seminarians to have online courses for credits for
their bachelor’s degree. Two thirds of our priests
are engaged in school.

trying to keep their churches open, including
Bishop Fisher of Sydney, although he denied
communion on the tongue. And so many people
came to us. Around Easter, there were a few
weeks when people could have no Mass. But
if the faithful could not go to the priests for
Mass, our priests were able to drive for eight
hours and visit the faithful: with confessions
and communions, and this has certainly opened
the eyes of many people who have been steady
faithful since then.
As to the last word, I can truly say that I
enjoyed my time in Australia, and I even became
an Australian citizen. But, needless to say, it is
good to be back home.

What is the relation of the District priests
with the seminary?
The relationship is very good. Besides
Australia and New Zealand, the seminary hosts
vocations from Asia, Africa, the Philippines and
South Korea. During the long summer months,
that is, between December and March, when
they cannot return home, the seminarians are
welcomed to one of the parishes and get some
exposure to families who later may welcome
them to stay. Some go to a mission like Singleton
where the priest stays at the rectory for his
own vacation and offers daily Mass to the
seminarians. Priories are also open for them to
stay. This past summer, two Chinese seminarians
went home after their first year but could not
make it back due to the COVID crisis. Their
parents were rather opposed to their vocation.
Is the time of ordinations like the rallying
point of traditionalism in Australia?
Yes, indeed. The priests have their meeting
at the seminary in mid-December just before
ordinations, which means that most of them
stay for ordinations. Since Fr. Scott’s time, who
inaugurated the priestly ordinations with the
six-year seminary, the ordinations are really the
meeting of tradition, a small version of what our
ordinations at Winona were a few years ago in the
US.
Any last impression or last word?
I left during the COVID crisis, but many people
came to us, even though the local bishops were
9

Theme Australia and New Zealand

History of
the Catholic
Church in
Australia
By Fr. Shane Johnson, SSPX

Background
Rumors of a great southern land have existed
since ancient times. Even Greek and Roman
writers hint of it. Marco Polo, that famous
traveler from watery Venice, came back to
Europe from China with tales that the Chinese
Imperial fleet had sighted such a land mass at the
bottom of the Asian Continent.
On December 8th, 1605, the Spanish explorer
De Quiros set out into the world with the
mandate of king and pope to extend God’s
kingdom on earth with a voyage of discovery in
the southern seas. On Pentecost Sunday 1606,
he saw what he believed to be the fabled Great
Southern Land. Though he did not land there,
he named it “Tierra Austral de Espiritu Santo.”
The first historian of Australian Catholicism,
Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran, accepted what
10

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he believed to be a just translation: “Australia of
the Holy Ghost.” This early Spanish designation
was remembered by the British navigator Captain
Matthew Flinders and by his exertions the name
Australia gradually replaced the Dutch name of
New Holland, which they had given to the whole
Continent based on their discoveries on the West
Coast.
Captain James Cook, on his scientific voyage
of 1770, sighted Australia on April 19th. He landed
in what was to be called Botany Bay (due to the
beauty and variety of its plant life) on the 28th.
His report to the Admiralty made the point that
this place was suitable for colonization.
Many years passed and the initial interest by
the Imperial Government was forgotten amidst
the turmoil of wars and domestic strife.
The American Revolution and the subsequent

Declaration of Independence from Great
Britain meant that England no longer had
a penal colony to which to send her many
criminals. Botany Bay [Sydney] replaced
British America as a penal colony and place
of deportation.
In January 1788 ten ships under the
command of Captain Arthur Phillip arrived
in Botany Bay. They found it not so pleasant
as Cook had described and sought another
place to establish the Colony. They found
to the north a vast and deep harbor, which
could easily receive a thousand ships.
This they called Port Jackson. The new
settlement, which began on January 26, 1788
with the unfurling of the Union Jack with all
available military display, was called Sydney,
named for Viscount Sydney, the Secretary
of the Royal Admiralty, under whose orders
Captain, now Governor Phillip, toiled.

The Australian Experiment
Had Begun
One thousand and thirty souls, of whom 696
were convicts, were the foundation of British
Australia. It is estimated that one in ten of all

convicts were Catholic, half of them born in
Ireland. So the first Australian Catholics were lay
people. There were no priests among the First
Fleeters because Lord Sydney had refused the
request of two priests who offered to travel with
the convicts and minister to the Catholics among
them.
But subsequent Catholic convicts, at least
the ones who boarded the ships in Cork, were
somewhat spiritually prepared for their

The Founding of Australia by Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N., Sydney Cove, Jan. 26, 1788—Artist: Algernon Talmage.
11

Theme Australia and New Zealand

plight. The Cork clergy heard the confessions
of those being transported and provided them
with Rosary beads and prayerbooks. The Naval
Surgeon Peter Cunningham, who made five trips
to Sydney with convict ships, wrote that the only
real signs of religion he saw among the convicts
were the Catholics “counting their beads and
fervently crossing themselves and repeating
their prayers from the book.” Even years later
when Mass and sacerdotal ministrations were
freely available, Australian Catholics were much
attached to their Rosaries and prayerbooks, used
not just at home but also when hearing Mass.
So the Australian Church began as a lay
Church—not that the Catholics did not desire a
priest. As early as 1792, five Catholics—Thomas
Tynan, a marine settler, Mary MacDonald, a
marine settler’s wife, and three emancipated
convicts, Simon Burne, Joseph Morley, and John
Brown, petitioned Governor Phillip to ask the
Home Government to send out a priest. They
wrote in their petition “Nothing else could induce
us ever to depart from His Majesty’s colony here
unless the idea of going into eternity without the
assistance of a Catholick priest.” Their request
was not successful. But the desire and longing of
these early Catholics for a priest was a constant.
It may have been a lay Church, but it was not an
anti-clerical one.
It was many years before a priest reached
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these shores and even then it was not as a priest
he came, but as a convict. This is Irishman Father
James Harold’s story:
Fr. Harold, ordained in 1774, was a parish
priest in the archdiocese of Dublin. By all
accounts he was indefatigable in the performance
of the sacred duties of his ministry.
In the summer months of 1798, there was a
rebellion against the British Government in many
parts of Ireland. Fr. Harold did not take part in
this uprising. Indeed on the Sunday preceding
the outbreak of the rebellion, he preached
two impressive sermons in which he urged
forbearance and peace and that his flock should
shun all discord and disorder.
But because he later rebuked certain persons
whose cruelty and barbarity to the ordinary
people caught up in the troubles was interpreted
as a challenge to the Authority, a military order
was issued for his arrest. A Protestant friend hid
him for a time but when he ventured out to say
Mass for his flock he was arrested at the Altar.
The arresting officer upon request allowed him to
complete the Holy Sacrifice.
Fr. Harold spent several months in jail. The
terrible conditions included filthy living spaces
and cruel treatment. A Father Barry also in that
jail for reasons of sedition died before he could be
transported. Without further trial Father James

Harold was shipped on board the Minerva bound
for Botany Bay. One of his traveling companions
was a certain Reverend Fulton, a Protestant
minister also accused of rebellion. They arrived
in Port Jackson on January the 11th. The convict
priest set foot in Sydney two days later, the 13th
of January. The year was 1800. The Colony was
12 years old and Fr. Harold was to remain in
Australia for ten years.
The aforementioned Reverend Mr. Fulton was
on arrival, despite his convict status, allowed to
publicly exercise his Protestant ministry. The
Catholic convicts hoped Fr. Harold would be
granted the same indulgence. But their requests
for the consolations of religion to be granted
them through Fr. Harold were refused.
Every Sunday all marines and convicts
marched to and attended the Anglican Service.
In the early days under Governor Phillip, a first
refusal resulted in 25 lashes on Monday morning.
A second refusal to this enforced attendance
received 50 lashes. And a third non-compliance
caused the miscreant to be transported to a
worse and harsher penal settlement.
Governor MacQuarie first came to Sydney
in 1810 and issued regulations for compulsory
attendance of all government servants and
convicts. In 1814 he softened the punishment
somewhat to a reprimand for the first offense and
an hour in the stock for any further refusals to
attend the Church of England Divine Service.
MacQuarie was a “man of the Enlightenment”
and a convinced liberal of the 18th century, so
eventually he disapproved his earlier directives.
But even then, many Magistrates continued
to sentence Catholic servants or convicts to
punishment when they declined to attend the
Protestant Service.
Let us return to Fr. James Harold. The refusal
to allow him to exercise his priesthood must have
come as a great sorrow to him, because in letters
to his nephew, a Dominican in Lisbon, Fr. James
attested that he saw the hand of Providence in his
transportation to Botany Bay. Though innocent
of any crime, he not only forgave his persecutors,
but also hoped that his presence in Sydney would
provide the Catholics, free and convict, with
God’s graces.
A few months after his arrival rumors started

to spread that the Irish convicts were planning
an uprising. In fact this conspiracy was never
proven, and it is likely that the whisperings of the
fancied plot were started by officers, who sought
thereby to enhance their own prestige and heap
obloquy on the Catholic convicts. Fr. Harold was
accused of knowing of the supposed rebellion. He
denied any knowledge of the matter. His denial
was construed as a refusal to name the plotters.
He was put under arrest.
Soon Fr. Harold and other accused men
were transferred to the penal settlement in
Toongabbie, a location far from Sydney. While
there, he was forced not only to witness but to
take an active part in the barbaric scene of a
lashing.
A certain Maurice Fitzgerald was sentenced
to 300 lashes whilst tied to a tree. Fr. Harold was
forced to hold his hands over those of the poor
convict. And so throughout the lashing, which
was executed with great cruelty, Fr. Harold
received on his person the blood and skin which
was flayed from Fitzgerald.
Not long after this event, many men including
our priest were again transferred, this time to the
notorious Norfolk Island.
Norfolk Island is located more than 1,400
kilometers east of the Australian mainland.
It served as a penal settlement for the worst
criminals from 1788 until it was abandoned in
February 1814.
Political prisoners, like Fr. Harold, were
housed alongside truly terrible men of the lowest
morals and vicious behavior. One contemporary
witness says of it: “a barbarous island, the
dwelling place of devils in the human shape,
who were the refuse of Botany Bay, the doublydamned.” The head jailer, one Robert Jones
(also known as Bob Buckley) was a violent
robber who, with his father and brothers, had
committed many crimes. He betrayed his family
for a financial reward and they were hanged. He
came as a convict to Sydney and managed to
have himself appointed to be superintendent of
Norfolk penal colony. Under such a man one can
imagine the shocking treatment inflicted on the
convicts.
But Fr. Harold had some consolations while on
Norfolk. The Lieutenant-Governor allowed him
13

Theme Australia and New Zealand

Port Arthur, Tasmania, one of the 11 penal sites constituting the Australian Convict Sites.

to open a little school for the few children of the
officers and staff. Sadly his increasing bad health
forced him to end this pleasant occupation. For
several months Fr. James was very ill and spent
a long time in the hospital. In a letter to a relative
he attributed this illness to the harsh conditions
under which he lived. After leaving hospital he
was allowed to live with a Government employee
named John Drummond. Fr. Harold in the
aforementioned letter describes this man as “a
poor, honest, industrious, moral man (a great
rarity in this island).”
But the most consoling experience was, for a
time, the presence of Fr. Peter O’Neil. Fr. O’Neil
was also a convict. We tell his story a little later.
For Fr. James Harold, a fellow priest was on the
spiritual side a marvelous grace. But even on the
natural plane came help as Fr. O’Neil had some
money with him and was able to help Father
James with some of the necessities of life.
After the departure of Fr. O’Neil, Fr. Harold
was himself, in 1807, transferred again. This time
to the penal settlement on the Derwent River
14

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in Van Diemen’s Land (since 1856 now called
Tasmania).
He only stayed a short time on the Derwent
and returned to Sydney in 1808.
Throughout his time in the colony Fr. Harold
persisted in asking for permission to minister
to his fellow religionists, but always the request
was denied. Although there is no documentary
evidence that he administered any Sacraments
let alone offered Holy Mass, it is hard to imagine
a priest not doing what he could to assist souls,
especially the dying. The Australian Dictionary
of Biography claims he did exercise a private
ministry in Parramatta during 1808.
Fr. James Harold was now in his mid-sixties
and was suffering from very bad health, a man
broken both in body and mind from all the harsh
treatment and deprivations.
In June 1810, the government, wearied of his
presence and relentless pleas to perform priestly
duties granted him leave to quit the Colony,
which he did so in July on board the Concorde.
After spending two years in the United States, he

returned to Ireland before the close of 1813.
Fr. James Harold died on the 15th of August,
the Feast of the Assumption of our Lady into
Heaven, 1830 at the age of 85 years. He was
laid to rest in Old Richmond Cemetery, Dublin.
Requiescat in pace.

The Reverend James Dixon
The second convict priest was Fr. James
Dixon. He was accused of involvement in the
uprising of 1798 by way of commanding a
company of rebels. In fact, this meek and gentle
man had no involvement with the rebellion, and
his accusers, if they had any honesty, at best
had confused him with a secular namesake.
Some members of his family were indeed rebels,
and this may have encouraged some to tar Fr.
Dixon with the same brush. In any event he was
completely innocent of all charges made against
him.
Despite some attempts by both ecclesiastical
and civil authorities to come to his defense, Fr.
Dixon was tried at Waterford, found guilty and
sentenced to death, which was commuted to

transportation to Botany Bay. He arrived in Port
Jackson on the transport ship Friendship on
January 18th, 1800.
The government in London had received
many petitions asking that Catholics in Sydney
should be given spiritual help by ministers of
their own religion. The Colonial Office bowed to
these requests and directed that the Catholics
in the colony should be allowed access to the
ministrations of a priest. The Governor chose Fr.
Dixon and granted him partial emancipation and
appointed him to this work. The Governor even
determined to grant a salary of 60 pounds to Fr.
Dixon.
There were to be three “Mass Centers”—in
Sydney, Parramatta, and Hawkesbury. A rotation
of three weeks was initiated, but only residents
could attend any one place. Other restrictions
prevailed, but at least the poor believers could
finally assist at the Holy Sacrifice.
A tin Chalice and Paten were made. A damask
curtain was transformed into vestments. The first
Mass was celebrated in Sydney on May 15th, 1803,
followed the next Sunday by one in Parramatta
and on May 29th at Hawkesbury. Marriages and
Baptisms were also celebrated.

Stained glass window commemorating Fr. James Dixon celebrating the first Mass in Australia [May 15, 1803], in the
kitchen of a cottage. A lookout stands guard at the door.
15

Theme Australia and New Zealand
The Holy See, being made aware of this
development, by a special decree appointed Fr.
Dixon as Prefect Apostolic of New Holland. This
was the first ecclesiastical appointment for the
Australian Church and therefore Father James,
the quiet and mild priest from County Wexford,
was its first Hierarch.
The Governor in March of 1804 wrote a report
extolling the good effect on the Irish convicts at
having access to a priest.
Sadly, wicked men, out of hatred for the
Church of God, soon circulated rumors that
the Masses were being used to plot sedition. Fr.
Dixon was accused of fomenting this plot or at
least knowing of it, perhaps through Confession.
He denied all knowledge. Thirty men were
flogged and the poor priest was required to touch
the bleeding backs of the victims.
Permission for Mass was revoked and by
the end of 1804 all in the Colony were forced to
attend the Protestant Service under pain of the
lash or transportation to a penal settlement.
Evidence of Baptisms and Marriages show
that Fr. James continued to exercise his ministry
privately and no doubt with great caution, but the
public face of Catholicism faded from view.
Fr. James Dixon eventually secured a
permission to return to Ireland, which he did
in 1808 and continued working in the Diocese
of Ferns until his death in 1840 at the age of 82.
Requiescat in pace.

The Reverend Peter O’Neil
The third and final convict priest to arrive in
Sydney was Fr. Peter O’Neil. He was the parish
priest of Ballymacode in County Cork at the time
of his arrest. Governor King described him as “a
Catholic priest of most notorious seditious and
rebellious principles.” Nothing could be further
from the truth.
Fr. O’Neil landed in Australia on the 21st of
February, 1801 and was almost immediately
transferred to Norfolk Island, where he
befriended Fr. James Harold and gave some
comfort to that lonely man. Fr. Harold was to
spend 10 years in the Colony, Father Dixon eight
years and Father O’Neil only two years.
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This priest was a great scholar. He was fluent
in several languages including Irish (Gaelic
or Celtic). He was also a popular speaker and
zealous parish priest. He was an energetic builder
of churches. He was a friend to the poor, whom
he supported often from his own pocket. A man
of humor and gentlemanly bearing, he was liked
and respected by all who knew him. And yet he
became a convict.
Like Fathers Harold and Dixon, he was falsely
accused of sedition in the Uprising of 1798. In this
case it was even worse, as Fr. O’Neil was blamed
of conspiracy in the murder of a Government
informer who had posed as a rebel.
Without trial, Fr. O’Neil received 275 lashes
administered by six soldiers. A second flogging
was stopped by a British official shocked by the
lawlessness of the action against the priest. The
jailers by threats and promises tried to bully him
into a false confession, but he refused to perjure
himself.
He was placed on a transport ship and it
set sail for Sydney before an order from Lord
Cornwallis, Viceroy of Ireland, arrived ordering
him removed from the ship.
On board ship, Fr. O’Neil helped quell a mutiny
for which the captain and officers were grateful
and thereafter treated him with kindness. The
Captain allowed him to say Mass in Rio de
Janeiro and secure Holy Oils for what he hoped
would be his missionary activity in Sydney.
Whilst on board ship, Fr. Peter led the Rosary and
other devotions. The captain maintained that the
recitation of the Rosary by the Catholics saved
the ship in a terrible storm.
Meanwhile back in Ireland the Lord-Lieutenant
of Ireland, Lord Harwick, after having received
a representation for Fr. O’Neil’s release on
the ground of his innocence and the unlawful
procedures against him, ordered him freed. This
decree finally reached the Colony and he was able
to return to Ireland a free man.
Fr. O’Neil, a man of culture and erudition, took
the Government to task over his brutal treatment
and denial of justice. He wrote a treatise entitled
“The Humble Remonstrance,” which described
in great detail all that had happened to him.
There was a public backlash and protest as a
result of the revelations contained therein. The

The foundation stone for the first St. Mary’s in
Sydney was laid on October 29, 1821 by Governor
Macquarie. It was a simple cruciform stone
structure in the Gothic style. On June 29, 1865, the
church caught fire and was destroyed.
The present St. Mary’s Cathedral was built between
1866 and 1928. The spires were added in 2000.

Government in response acknowledged the
lack of trial and lashes he received but tried
to minimize the outrage against him with an
appeal to the extraordinary circumstances of an
insurgency.
Fr. Peter O’Neil, a tall and athletic man, served
in the Lord’s vineyard for many more years after
his return to Ireland. He collapsed on the way
to the altar on June 29, 1846 and having been
fortified by the last sacraments, died the next day
at the age of 88 years. Requiescat in pace.

Conclusion

of the Colonial Office he was soon returned to
Britain but not before he administered many
Sacraments and offered Holy Mass. This priest
of whom Cardinal Moran says, “was remarkable
for his piety and devotedness, with a deep love of
the people and a zeal for them,” before his forced
departure left the Blessed Sacrament in the home
of a pious man in Sydney quite near where the
famous Sydney Harbour Bridge now stands.
In May of 1820, Fathers Philip Conolly and
John Joseph Therry arrived in Sydney. They were
authorized by both Church and State to minister
to the Catholics of the Colony and a new chapter
began in the history of the Catholic Church in the
Southern Land of the Holy Spirit.

The next priest to arrive in the Colony was
Fr. Jeremiah Francis Flynn on November 14th,
1817. He was not a convict but came of his own
accord to serve the Catholics who were without
a priest. As he came without the permission
17

Theme Australia and New Zealand

William
Bernard
Ullathorne
By Frank Carleton

In February, 1833 there arrived in Sydney
aboard the Sir Thomas Munro an English
Benedictine monk of very youthful appearance.
A lady fellow passenger described him with
contemporary English Protestant prejudice as “a
nice man but a bit of a Jesuit withal,” an oblique
compliment to his subtlety in conversation and
behavior. A Benedictine priest, he was Yorkshireborn William Bernard Ullathorne, who came
as the Vicar General of the English Benedictine
Vicar Apostolic at Mauritius. His vast area of
episcopal responsibility encompassed the remote
British penal colony in New Holland. He brought
with him “a select library of about five hundred
volumes. Although chiefly ecclesiastical, I added
some of the choicest classics in all the languages
of which I knew anything.” This extraordinary
cleric, who ended his career as an archbishop
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in 1889, wrote his autobiography in 1867 not
too long after the events it chronicled. He
revised the work in the last years of his life. The
autobiography was written “not for publication
but for record” though the author was “pretty
sure it would get out after my time.” The first
edition of 1891 was piously expurgated by a
nun, resulting in some distortion of the author’s
narrative. The original content was transcribed
and restored from the first manuscript by the
Anglo-Irish Catholic convert Sir Shane Leslie
who published it in 1941 with the melodramatic,
but apt, title, From Cabin-boy to archbishop.
Unfortunately that edition is replete with errors:
typographical issues, misspellings, missed words
and the loss of whole sentences.
The latest 1995 edition conflates the contents
of both the author’s manuscripts and includes

explanatory chapter endnotes. It also has a more
logical arrangement of chapters. The front cover
illustration is the episcopal portrait of Ullathorne
complete with tiny armorial which hangs in
the monastic refectory of Downside Abbey.
Regrettably the edition lacks an index for quick
reference to persons, places and events.
After his schooling, which was cut short in
a family of ten children, and some time in the
family business in Scarborough, Ullathorne
was apprenticed before the mast for four years
and sailed as far as Russia. In 1823 he entered
the Benedictine school at Downside Priory in
Somerset headed by John Bede Polding, O.S.B.
(1794-1877). The following year, he sought to
become a Benedictine monk with Polding as
his novice master and was ordained to the
priesthood in 1831.
Ullathorne’s long ecclesiastical career, which
covered most of the nineteenth century, was to
include England, the penal colony of New South
Wales, Rome, Ireland, the erection of a Catholic
hierarchy in Australia in 1842, subsequently
as priest in charge at Coventry and one of the
last English Vicars Apostolic who played a vital
role in Rome in the restoration of the English
hierarchy in 1850. Finally, he was an English
diocesan bishop who attended the first Vatican
Council. Of Catholic recusant stock, he became
the close friend of two famous Anglican converts,
Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of
Westminster, and John Henry Cardinal Newman.
Both revered him.
Manning he once rebuked in his archaic
Yorkshire accent: “My dear sir, allow me to say
that I taught the catechism with the mitre on me
‘ed when you were an ‘eretic.” This exemplified
John Henry Newman’s tribute to his Catholic
diocesan bishop in his Apologia pro vita sua of
1864, in which he comprehensively rebutted the
Rev. Charles Kingsley’s calumny of dishonesty
laid upon the Catholic priesthood in Newman’s
person:
“Did I wish to point out a straightforward
Englishman, I should instance the Bishop, who
has, to our great benefit for many years presided
over [the diocese].”
In penal New South Wales, the newly arrived
Benedictine Vicar General promptly brought

The Devil is a jackass: being the dying words of the
autobiographer William Bernard Ullathorne 1806-1889.
Ed. by Leo Madigan. [Stratton on the Fosse, Bath: Downside
Abbey Publications, 1995].

order to the local Catholic community and its
few priests. The zealous but haphazard pioneer
missioner, Fr. John Joseph Therry (1790-1864),
was inclined to be patronizing but quickly
submitted to his authority. By July 1833 the
Legislative Council made grants for four new
Catholic chaplains, the completion of three
unfinished churches begun by Fr. Therry, and a
large monetary grant per year for schools and
teachers. Ullathorne’s relations with the liberal
Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, were mutually
cordial and cooperative. By Christmas, the large
St. Mary’s Chapel Sydney in Sydney, subsequently
the first cathedral, was in use. By the next year
Ullathorne had visited the Hunter River and
Bathurst and Norfolk Island, the harsh penal
location for recalcitrant convicts. On Norfolk
Island, at this first visit of a Catholic priest, it fell
to him to announce to condemned men those who
had been reprieved and those who were to be
executed. He was allowed five days to prepare
19

Theme Australia and New Zealand
for death the three Catholics and four others
who sought him among the latter. In conjunction
with the Catholic Commissioner of the Courts of
Requests, Roger Therry (1800-1874), Ullathorne
strongly urged the appointment of a bishop
resident in Sydney to resolve local dissensions.
In 1834, this proved to be Ullathorne’s revered
Downside novice-master, John Bede Polding.
The bishop’s 1835 arrival in the Sydney penal
colony began a vigorous local Catholic mission.
Ullathorne served both Windsor and Parramatta,
over 15 miles from Sydney, but rode there twice
a week to transact the bishop’s business with the
colonial government.
In 1837 his bishop sent Ullathorne to Europe
for more priests, schoolteachers, and funds.
During his two-year absence abroad, the
energetic Vicar General could recruit only
one priest in England before being summoned
to Rome. There, even though he was still
conspicuously young, Ullathorne prepared a
report for Propaganda Fide which earned him the
warm approval of Gregory XVI and a doctorate in
divinity. He also obtained a rescript authorizing
the establishment of a Benedictine monastery in
Sydney at the first St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Returning to England, he persuaded the
Colonial Office to allow passage money for ten
schoolteachers recruited from all parts of the
British Isles. With a ready pen he published
a substantial pamphlet in 1837, The Catholic
Mission in Australasia, that quickly ran to
six editions. 80,000 copies were distributed in
French, German, Dutch, and Italian. Assisted by
an Irish priest recruited in Liverpool, Ullathorne
recruited in Ireland another seven Irish priests,
two ecclesiastical students, and five Sisters of
Charity, who were the first nuns to ever arrive in
Australia. While in Ireland he wrote a pamphlet
for subsequent publication in Dublin and
Birmingham, The Horrors of Transportation
briefly unfolded to the people. In Dublin he
acquired a great rarity: a dozen quarto volumes
dating from 1519 to 1545 which “consisted of
most of Martin Luther’s publications, the original
editions, tracts, pamphlets and sermons without
any of those expurgations of his abusive language
and obscenities which were effected in the
collected editions of his works.” Today these
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volumes survive in the rare books collections of
the Veech Library, Catholic Institute of Sydney at
Strathfield.
Over two days in February 1838, Ullathorne
gave evidence to the Molesworth parliamentary
committee on convict transportation, which
he explained had utterly failed as a means
of reformation and was remarkable for its
brutality, evident in its ready recourse to the
lash. It reinforced the depravity of the worst and
depraved the young and less criminal. In the
above pamphlet he had averred, “We have taken a
vast portion of God’s earth and made it a cesspool… we have poured down scum upon scum,
and dregs upon dregs, of the offscourings of
mankind…” His oral evidence to the committee
was a particular ordeal for the young priest, lest
his testimony inadvertently breach the seal of the
confessional.
He returned to Sydney with three priests, four
students, and five nuns, having by now added
fifteen priests in total to the mission. Again at
Parramatta, he now had five Sisters of Charity to
assist him in the Orphan School and the Female
Factory where hitherto he had described the
general characteristics of the female convict as
“immodesty, drunkenness and the most horrible
language.” But the Sisters of Charity achieved a
startlingly comprehensive moral reformation of
these previously refractory women.
Otherwise, the Vicar General became the
target of all those who cynically favored the
continuance of convict transportation as a
prolific source of cheap labor and those who were
dismayed to find Catholicism was now a power
in the colony. For months he was subjected to
almost daily abuse in the press in the unmerited
role of “the Very Reverend the Agitator-General
of New South Wales.” But Ullathorne was
content that his undeserved public notoriety
shielded the popular Bishop Polding from public
criticism. The bishop “was much in the gaols
and in the other penal establishments. He was
more frequently and longer in the Confessional
than many of his priests.” The sharp reduction
in criminal convictions amongst Catholic and
converted convicts by reason of zealous pastoral
initiatives was widely noted.
Nonetheless, by 1839, Ullathorne had decided

to leave the colony. His failure to recruit English
priests in 1837-1838, his success in recruiting
Irish priests, and his warm friendships with
several Irish prelates convinced him that his
bishop’s dream of a Benedictine mission could
not succeed. New South Wales must be an
ecclesiastical colony of Ireland which had priests
to spare.
1840, his last year in Australia, was his most
active. The bishop gave Ullathorne charge of
an infant seminary in Sydney and the whole
administration of the diocese. Seminary
teaching, public lecturing on Catholicism, and
diocesan administration fully occupied him
while his intrepid missionary bishop traveled
far and wide founding a dozen new churches
and schools. Ullathorne’s May visit to Adelaide
proved fruitless given the hostility to Catholicism
of the Protestant political establishment in that
“paradise of dissent.” In August, for the laying
of the foundation stone of St. Patrick’s Church,
he organized a procession in Sydney to show
Governor Gipps the numerical strength and unity
of the Catholic body and to protest the governor’s
education proposals. By a persuasively prudent
public speech, Ullathorne discouraged the mainly
Irish Catholic flock from giving the occasion a
nationalist character with banners and emblems
likely to provoke a public affray.
In November, he accompanied his bishop in
sailing for Europe via New Zealand to ensure
that further sees were erected in Australia
and that he should occupy none of them. Four
times he refused the mitre during his Australian
association and a fifth time when the see of
Perth was established in 1845. He wrote, “I
had seen enough of bishops thoroughly to
compassionate but not to envy them.” Yet he
was the key figure behind the establishment of
a Catholic hierarchy in Australia by Papal Brief
of April 5, 1842, with Polding as first Archbishop
of Sydney. No Catholic hierarchy had previously
been established in the British Empire since the
sixteenth century. The first Bishop of Hobart,
Robert Willson (1794-1866) later remarked to
Ullathorne in England, “I had not been in Sydney
two days before I saw through the whole of what
you must have gone through; and I only wonder
that it did not kill you.”

Taking over the Coventry parish in England,
Ullathorne published his Australian colonial
sermons. He assisted the foundation of the
Dominican English Congregation of St.
Catherine of Siena, thereby further enhancing
his understanding of the spirituality of women
religious. In 1846 he was appointed Vicar
Apostolic of the Western District as Bishop
of Hetalonia in partibus infidelium but was
transferred to the Central District in 1848.
Both in public and amongst the English Vicars
Apostolic at Rome and in England, Ullathorne
played a vital role in the complex restoration
of the English Hierarchy in 1850, adeptly using
his prior Australian experience on behalf of
his English brother bishops. That experience
also informed his career as first Bishop of
Birmingham in dealings with the old English
Catholics, the Irish, and the Anglican converts,
the three elements of renascent Catholicism in
England.
After 1867 he had over twenty years of life
still in prospect in total. He concluded his
reminiscences, “uncertain whether at a future
period I may resume or continue them or not.”
Beyond the work’s chronological scope was
the redoubtable Bishop Ullathorne’s vigorous
defense of convents against bigoted proposed
legislation for their official inspection. Appalled
and disgusted by the ignorant notion that
convents were houses of tyranny involving forced
incarceration of women he published A Plea for
the Rights and Liberties of Religious Women
with Reference to the Bill Proposed by Mr.
Lacy in 1851. Also beyond the autobiography’s
chronological scope was his attendance at the
first Vatican Council. At his retirement, aged 83,
Pope Leo XIII accorded him the honorary title of
Archbishop of Cabasa.
The introduction to the 1995 edition by its
editor relates his last visit after he resigned his
see on August 18th, 1887, to Cardinal Newman,
who asked his bishop’s blessing. This was given
with great astonishment. Newman, no stranger
to public controversy, explained, “I have been
indoors all my life, whilst you have battled for the
Church in the world.”
Ipse dixit!

21

Theme Australia and New Zealand

“Daniel
the Great”
Remembering Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of
Melbourne, May 6, 1917 - November 6, 1963

By Desmond J. McDonnell

Born in 1864 and ordained in 1890, Fr. Daniel
Mannix was the Rector of Ireland’s premier
seminary at Maynooth when in 1912 at the
insistence of the British government, his famous
oratorical gifts caused him to be exiled from
Ireland.
He had been heavily involved in upholding
the Catholic cause in Ireland’s troubles at the
time. For example, in 1903 he was visited at
Maynooth by Edward VII, and in 1911 by George
V. In 1914 Parliament in London had passed
a bill for Ireland’s eventual independence.
Bitterest opposition to this was led by Ireland’s
Protestants (“Orangemen”) who eventually
succeeded in keeping Ireland’s northernmost six
counties under English rule. These counties are
known in the south as the “Black North.” It has
been credibly argued with plenty of evidence that
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England went to war in France in 1914 in order
to prevent or avoid this looming loss of Ireland.
Ireland thereafter slid down towards the civil
war which erupted in Dublin at Easter in 1916
and which only ended with Irish independence in
1923.
St. Pius X’s Rome sent Mannix (made a
monsignor in 1906) to Australia, naming him on
July 1st, 1912 as Coadjutor (assistant archbishop
with right of succession) to the Archbishop of
Melbourne. At Adelaide he disembarked to come
overland by train to arrive at Melbourne in time
for the Easter of 1913. While he had been daunted
at first by Adelaide’s heat, he was encouraged
by his enthusiastic reception as a “world-class
theologian and educationist” at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in Melbourne on Easter Sunday.
This soon made him speak of his hopes to be a

good Australian. In 1917, with the death of his
predecessor on 6 May, Dr. Mannix succeeded as
Archbishop of Melbourne.
Throughout World War I (1914 - 1918) he earned
empire-wide press infamy by vigorously applying
his already famous oratorical gifts to leading all
opposition to the national referendum to legalize
conscription for military service in the war—
which he called a “sordid trade war”—in Europe
and the Middle East.
Australia’s 1901 Constitution allowed
military conscription only for the defense of
the Australian homeland. Conscription for
military service elsewhere could be legal
only if permitted by a majority “yes” vote in a
nationwide referendum. In two national votes
in 1916 and 1917 the “yes” vote was narrowly
defeated. In the national and British Empire

press, Archbishop Mannix had been routinely
painted as a traitor. In response, he was the focal
point for Melbourne’s famous St. Patrick’s Day
Procession of 1920, when over 20,000 Catholic
Australian returned soldiers marched past his
open car and behind 14 Australian Catholic
Victoria Cross heroes riding on white horses.
To assure his own spiritual life and health, Dr.
Mannix daily passed some five hours in prayer
and meditation before the Blessed Sacrament,
with an extra hour or two added when he was on
annual holidays. For the sacrament of Penance
he simply joined the ordinary confessional line
each week, like any other ordinary penitent, at
St. Francis’ church. In central Melbourne since
1841, this St. Francis’ is the city’s first and oldest
Catholic church. People always came in great
numbers to enjoy his great speeches and wit.

23

Theme Australia and New Zealand
Archbishop Mannix’s one worldly dread was that
he might be given a cardinal’s hat, which would
oblige him to travel often to Rome. Thus he often
set out to annoy the Papal Nuncio. On one famous
occasion, the Nuncio was trying to say how
much he enjoyed Australia’s sunshine. Trying to
remember this last word, he took up Dr. Mannix’s
whispered offer of the word “moonshine.” Great
was the Nuncio’s umbrage as the whole audience
erupted in laughter.
In the 1920s Dr. Mannix made a few last trips
abroad: notably in 1920 when he was infamously
barred by the British navy from visiting his
mother in Ireland; in the Holy Year of 1925 he led
a pilgrimage to Rome, Lourdes and Ireland;
in 1926 he attended the Chicago Eucharistic
Congress. Thereafter Melbourne was very much
his home. For the Victorian Centenary in 1934 his
National Eucharistic Congress was the greatest
of all his mass demonstrations: here a procession
of 80,000 people passed to Benediction before,
reportedly, half a million watchers.
He thought hatred of Catholics by Protestants
to be an inevitable by-product of their babel
of doctrines. He never entered their churches;
he offered only courtesy, but never any
fraternization. In 1916 he had defended Lutheran
churches from wartime closure, but Luther
himself was “a distasteful subject...impossible to
quote in decent surroundings.”

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He was popularly regarded as one of the four
most clever men in the world. His fruits were
abounding: over his fifty years, his diocesan
faithful increased from 150,000 to 600,000;
churches 160 to 300; 10 new male and 14 female
religious orders were introduced; these staffed 10
seminaries, 7 new hospitals, 3 orphanages, etc.
During World War II (1939 - 1945) he rescued
the world-famous Vienna Boys Choir from
wartime internment (i.e., imprisonment). He thus
acquired their choral services in St. Patrick’s
Cathedral. In 1943 he personally befriended
the famous 1890s “Heidelberg school” leading
artist Arthur Streeton who had defended him
from a newspaper bigot attack. He helped win
Streeton’s conversion to the Catholic faith.
Archbishop Mannix was one of the only six who
attended Streeton’s funeral near his home in the
Dandenong Hills later that year.
His greatest interest was in the educational
and spiritual advancement of his Catholic people
(then 25% of the population). He routinely opened
churches, institutions, convents, libraries,
schools, etc. To create work during the 1930s
Depression, he had the spires of his St. Patrick’s
Cathedral magnificently completed. This work
was finished in 1939. He patronized the famous
American architect Walter Burley Griffin (the
designer of Canberra as the national capital) to
design his Newman College which he had opened
at Melbourne University. He also routinely invited
religious orders to establish in his archdiocese,
for example, the Trappist Monastery at
Tarrawarra in 1954.
In the realm of national politics, Archbishop
Mannix was never one to be intimidated into
hiding in the ranks of any local National Bishops’
Conference. Only after his time did this postVatican II episcopal disease called “collegiality”
arise to scourge the Church’s once robust and
responsible episcopal leadership. Thanks to this
“collegiality” each “ordinary” was ever invited
and enabled to view his NBC “as a rabbit views
a briar patch,” i.e., as somewhere to hide from
his leadership responsibilities while everywhere
the Church has been crumbling into ruins. The
post-Vatican II Church chaos of chronic National
Episcopal Conferences producing reams of
unreadable (i.e., unread) documents mercifully

arrived too late to trouble Archbishop Daniel
Mannix.
Not that he was ever afraid to involve
the Church in his strongly anti-Communist
national politics. From the late 1930s onwards,
Archbishop Mannix staunchly backed the work
of one Mr. B. A. Santamaria (1915-1998) who
organized a “movement” to combat the spread of
Communist power and controls over the national
and state trade unions.
In the mid-1950s, Mr. Santamaria’s “movement”
caused the Communist-influenced Australian
Labour Party to be split into pro- and antiCommunist factions. Their opponents, the
Conservatives’ “Liberal” Party of Mr. Menzies
then enjoyed a “Golden Age” of unbroken rule
from 1949 to 1972.
After 1963, when Melbourne’s Mannix-led
“Golden Age” had ended, only one bishop,
Bernard Stewart of Sandhurst, remained as
the only strongly anti-Communist Australian
Catholic bishop. In the 1970s this Bishop Stewart
added to his cathedral the spires which today
gloriously tower from his cathedral over Bendigo.
Indeed they remain today the focus for an annual

Christ the King pilgrimage to Bendigo from
Ballarat.
Archbishop Mannix’s ambitions for his
archdiocese were vast, as for example was his
seminary in the suburb of Waverly. Sadly this, his
last establishment undertaking, was overtaken
by the horrors which overwhelmed the Church
after 1962.
From his hilltop episcopal palace
of Raheen over the river in the suburb of Kew,
Archbishop Mannix walked every morning
through the riverside parks and inner suburbs
to his office near St. Patrick’s Cathedral behind
Parliament house. His tall, lean, black-clad figure
was a familiar morning sight to motorists...and
a target for beggars. For these, when he was
about to set off on his daily morning walk to
the Cathedral, he routinely received from his
housekeeper a handful of two-shilling silver
coins.
Thanks to Archbishop Mannix and his
God-granted longevity and clarity of mind, his
archdiocese was largely sheltered from the
spiritual rot of Modernism ever spreading over
the rest of the Church during his fifty years.
He routinely bought up old mansions for
convents and religious orders and for use as
retreat centers. All in his Archdiocese were
invited to take an annual retreat, usually a
weekend, in one of these retreat centers. In his
time, many of his laity took up this invitation.
Archbishop Mannix had worked very well
indeed. After 1963 no other archdiocese in the
world gave the “new” Vatican more trouble with
anti-Modernist and anti-chaos complaints than
what had been Dr. Mannix’s Archdiocese of
Melbourne.
For even as late as in 1963 Melbourne still had
as Archbishop one who, fifty years previously,
had been named to his post and for his work by a
papal saint: Pope St. Pius X himself!

25

“The Incarnation is summed up in this, that
the whole Son, that is, His manhood as well
as His divinity, was permitted by the Father’s
gracious favor to continue in the unity of the
Father’s nature, and retained not only the
powers of the divine nature, but also that
nature’s self. For the object to be gained was
that man might become God.”—St. Hilary
St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney.

Theme Australia and New Zealand

Worth a
Thousand
Words
By Marcus Nyssen

“Benny, that’s Dad!” I exclaimed, pointing at a
photograph of first communicants in an old photo
album of our little group of Traditional Catholics
in New Zealand. Turning the pages, I found an
image of a slightly older version of my father,
with quite a bit more hair, sitting next to Fr. Juan
Carlos Iscara. We had a good chuckle.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but
many words were missing from this story. Two
pictures separated by twenty years. Only the
words of someone who lived through the times
in these photos could make this connection.
That weekend, it was my chance to ask dad to
pass on to me what he remembered. I wanted the
tradition these pictures could only suggest. It was
time to pester dad with lots of questions. Whether
my questions were frustrating or not, I did learn
that, in hindsight, he was not thrilled about his
28

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1980s hairstyle.
I and my five siblings are the fourth generation
of Traditional Catholics in Whanganui. In 1976,
when Fr. Augustine Cummins, C.Ss.R, made his
way from Australia to New Zealand to offer the
Traditional Mass, Oma and Opa attended, along
with Oma’s parents. (“Grandma” and “Grandpa”
for us of Dutch descent). Little did Fr. Cummins
know, but this first Mass in Whanganui would
lead to one of the largest “parishes” in the
diocese. The seed for the parish of St. Anthony’s
was planted.
Ninety-three years before that visit and
about 44 miles up the Whanganui River, Mother
Mary Joseph Aubert of the Sisters of St. Joseph
established an orphanage among the tribe of the
Ngati Hau Maori iwi.
They had asked for a priest and missionaries.

The Protestants who had tried to make converts
there were not pleased, and moved downstream.
The small village was named Hiruharama (a
transliteration of Jerusalem). Before coming
to New Zealand, Suzanne Aubert, as she was
known, declined an arranged marriage, on the
advice of St. John Marie Vianney, for a religious
life. A story circulates that the Curé of Ars told
the soon-to-be Sr. Mary Joseph that she would
establish a thriving congregation, but it would
sadly not last very long after her. Despite this
prophecy of doom, goes the tale, at the end of a
river the Faith would be kept. Our River City sits
at the end of that same Whanganui River.
Whether the tale is a true story or not, we can
only guess, but as one of the priests who has
taught my class says, “If it’s not true, it’s still
a very good story.” Mother Aubert’s cause for
canonization is presently open.
Fr. Cummins did not visit Whanganui weekly.
Today, we are privileged to have three daily
Masses, but back then, my family was blessed
to have Mass every three months! Mass was in
a converted garage near the Huber family’s

29

Theme Australia and New Zealand
house. The “Mass-shed,” Dad called it. There the
handful of families in Whanganui prayed before
the Blessed Sacrament when there was no priest.
News of the “Hot Summer” in France, only
reached “down under” towards the end of 1976,
when translations of Archbishop Lefebvre’s
sermon in Lille, France circulated among the
faithful in New Zealand. Seeing the missionary
Catholic spirit was still alive, several families
sought out the Traditional Mass and moved to
Whanganui. Several life-sized statues, salvaged
from the South Island’s West Coast, came with
them and get regular visitors in St. Anthony’s
Church to this day. The news of a bishop who
kept the Traditional Faith, prompted a young man
from Whanganui to pursue a vocation with this
“rebel” Archbishop. The future Fr. James Peek
headed for Ecône, first as a religious brother, but
then to become a seminarian.
Dad did not have to attend Mass in a shed for
very long. In 1981, a house was donated. With
some work from several men, including Opa,
it became our first proper chapel. Armed with
a more fitting place for the Mass, the faithful
petitioned Archbishop Lefebvre for a priest
for New Zealand. They had sent a man to the
seminary; perhaps they could now reap the fruits.
The Archbishop assured a priest as soon as one
was available, but one was not then available.
It was in 1983 that, for a short time, the
growing parish of Whanganui was blessed with
the arrival of Fr. Lawrence Smith, S.M., who
said Mass regularly for 60 or so people, despite,
or perhaps because of, the conflict between the
Archbishop and Rome. When news came that
Msgr. Lefebvre had accepted the invitation to
visit for Confirmations in November 1983, it was
the miraculous answer to many prayers. So in
1985, Whanganui saw the first fruits of its efforts:
the ordination of Fr. Peek. Five years later, a
second Kiwi would be ordained for the Society,
Fr. Anthony Wingerden.
Prayers were yet again answered when, in 1986
the priest Msgr. Lefebvre had promised arrived.
The St. Edmund Campion Chapel became a
priory, with the Australian Fr. Stephen Abdoo
installed as prior, hands still wet with the Holy
Oil. Fr. Abdoo shared the priory with Fr. Smith,
who left in 1987, and was replaced by Fr. Ruben
30

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Gentili as coadjutor.
Fr. Abdoo was a zealous priest. Soon after
his arrival he penned an open letter to the New
Zealand bishops, calling them out for the loss of
Faith and calling them back to Tradition. This
cri de cœur tragically became Fr. Abdoo’s Last
Testament. Returning North from a pastoral
trip, scheduled to say Mass in a small converted
garage in Tawa near Wellington, a driver lost
control heading Southbound and went through
the barricade and dropped onto the lower lanes
upon the car of Fr. Abdoo. Two miles from the
place he was to offer the Mass, the Society saw
the first death of one of its priests ordained by the
Archbishop. He had died like every priest would
want: doing his duty for souls. Even so, the grief
was immense. To this day a cross stands on the
roadside near where he gave his soul back to
God, and every year we boys at the school have
the opportunity to serve a Requiem Mass offered
for his soul on the anniversary of his death.
Thrown into the role unexpectedly, Fr. Gentili
became the new prior and was joined by the
recently­ordained Fr. Juan Carlos Iscara. Both
were together in the Argentinian Seminary. Dad
remembered it was not just a common fatherland
they shared, but also a common love of CocaCola, which became a priory staple. Fr. Iscara’s
stay was short, but included a boys’ camp at
Ruakawa Falls, from whence comes the second
photo of dad. When Fr. Iscara left for Australia, a
young Fr. Shane Johnson took his place.
St. Edmund Campion chapel became crowded,
but the old 1924-built Gonville parish church,
on the top of a large black-sand dune, had
come up for sale. Used on Sundays as a church,
the building was actually a large hall for St.
Anthony’s School, which had been merged with
another school and shuttered. A plan was made:
three months to raise a deposit. The diocese was
not keen to sell to the SSPX, so Fr. Gentili made
a promise to St. Anthony: an annual procession
in honour of St. Anthony on the Sunday closest
to his feast day, if the SSPX would obtain the
church. Not knowing this promise, a Traditional
Catholic approached the diocese, purchased the
building without trouble, and it was then offered
to the Society. The old parish church of Gonville,
where many of the faithful lived, was once again

their church. The procession goes on every year,
and even the COVID restrictions failed to stop it
in 2020. It only had to be shifted a week later, so
restrictions could lapse.
The next challenge was a school. Families
agreed on this necessity, and so a plan was
created for a primary school. A handful of
men, working for free on weekends and after
work produced three classrooms. In June 1994,
after the annual St. Anthony’s procession, Fr.
François Laisney (then District Superior, now
prior) opened and blessed the school. Fourteen
students and three teachers (two of whom still
are teaching) started the 1995 school year.
In 1997, a Dominican from a teaching order in
Dunedin, hearing of Tradition, visited the priory
and school. After spending some time in Post
Falls, Sr. Mary Micaela returned to Whanganui,
intent on beginning a secondary school. St.
Dominic’s College was inaugurated in 2000, and
two years later, novices came to Sr. Micaela
to begin a Traditional branch of the Dunedin
teaching sisters. The sisters now number nearly
two dozen, with a convent and girls’ boarding
school built in 2006, when my memories begin in
very foggy form.
We boys have classrooms across the campus as
part of St. Augustine’s College, and are taught by
several dedicated lay teachers and three priests.
A generous donor, Dr. June Barclay, left nearly $1
million in her will to help the boys’ college, so in
2016, the classrooms and offices opened, under
Fr. Andrew Cranshaw, another Kiwi vocation,
where I and my brother Benedict are two of
nearly 150 students in the various schools who
attend daily classes. The Cambridge International
curriculum is difficult but rewarding, and some of
our students have won national awards, including
a Top of the World award for Classics just this
past year.
The years have seen many priests pass
through, each contributing their own part to
the tradition and story. Several have been my
teachers, confessors, and added their own little
bit to my formation, as they have to many other
young men. So have men like my father—who
seemed happier than I imagined to be peppered
with questions—contributed to the story, and
now passed it along. Thinking back over the

story of Whanganui and of Tradition, the hand
of Providence is clearly seen in the Faith holding
on at the end of a river. That that Faith has been
handed to me, and now I can be a part of passing
it along, along with this story, in whatever way
Providence has planned for me.
Perhaps one day, forty or so years in the future,
another young man will point me out in a photo
book, propose questions, and I will be able to
pass on to him my thousand words.

31

Theme Australia and New Zealand

Kiwi
Catholicism
Interview with Fr. Ian Andrew Palko, SSPX

By Angelus Press

Aotearoa, or the “land of the long white cloud” as the Maori natives call the New Zealand archipelago,
has been home to priests of the Society of Saint Pius X since 1986. Presently, it has one priory, a primary
and secondary school, three weekly Mass centers, and four other chapels served less frequently by
three SSPX priests, with the help of two SSPX brothers. The Dominican Sisters of Whanganui assist
the Society with the girls’ education. Recently, The Angelus had the opportunity to interview one of the
American priests stationed at St. Anthony’s Priory in Whanganui, New Zealand, Fr. Ian Andrew Palko.
Father, could you introduce yourself to
our readers?
Tena koutou, katoa (Greetings to all of you).
It would be my pleasure. In priestly years, I am
still one of the young priests. I was ordained
in 2017 by Msgr. Fellay at St. Thomas Aquinas
Seminary in Virginia. Nine in total, we were the
first priests ordained there. I reported to my first
assignment at St. Anthony’s Priory in Whanganui,
New Zealand on August 22, 2017, so it is nearing
four years here, long enough to need to apply for
32

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residence in order to stay.
What about your background?
I was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the eldest
of two children. My father is Catholic. My mother
is not. Our religious practice was sporadic
growing up, but my parents did teach us real
natural virtue. Growing up in the modern Church,
fairly lukewarm, it was at Georgetown University
that I encountered the Traditional Mass. With
friends I attended my first Latin Mass, a Solemn

Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
I was hooked. It was not long before I thought of a
vocation, but it would be a while before I actually
headed to the seminary.
So you were a later vocation?
It is hard to accept that moniker, given that
a confrere in Whanganui, Fr. Michael Johnson,
was ordained at age 60. I will take “later than it
needed to be” for myself. I entered the seminary
at age 29. Before going to the seminary after
years contemplating and then neglecting God’s
call, I finished a Chemical Engineering degree at
the University of Kansas in 2004. St. Mary’s or St.
Vincent’s in Kansas City were where I went for
Sunday Masses. After three years as an engineer
at a brewery, three teaching at St. Vincent’s
Academy, and one year doing both, I entered the
seminary in Winona in 2010. Seven years later, I
coordinated the packing and moving of all of our
books and belongings from Winona to Dillwyn,
and then the superiors wanted me to do more
packing and moving, this time half way around
the world. They must have seen my talents for
packing boxes!
How did you find out about your
assignment to New Zealand?
Our first year in Dillwyn, seminarians were
doing a lot of odd jobs. I was often in the kitchen.

Making bread for a meal, the Rector, Fr. Yves
le Roux—a spiritual father I wish many other
priests will learn from—approached me. “You
will need to send an e-mail to Fr. Fullerton,” he
said. Knowing Fr. Fullerton was the superior
of Australia at the time, I knew that I would be
assigned to the District of Australia. I thought it
might be a school, given my teaching background.
I did not even know that New Zealand was part of
the district, but a week before ordination I found
out it would be Whanganui, New Zealand. I began
the visa application just before the ordinations
retreat.
What were your impressions of
Whanganui, New Zealand, and the apostolate
there on arriving?
After an overnight in Auckland, I flew on a
small 30-seat plane to Whanganui. Already,
it felt quite small compared with the U.S. The
Whanganui airport terminal was not much larger
than a small school gym, but exiting the plane I
was greeted by two priests, some brothers and
nuns and by a fairly sizable contingent of parents
and students (who were on a short holiday from
school). They sang and I think most of the people
in the airport were not really sure what was
happening. I was badly jetlagged so I was almost
not sure either. It was a very warm welcome—
very common in New Zealand, and memorable.

St. Anthony’s Church and School, with St.
Augustine’s Boys’ College at the bottom,
and St. Dominic’s Convent and Girls’
School at the far back left.
33

Theme Australia and New Zealand
I settled in quickly with the help of Fr. Robert
MacPherson, whom I was to replace. He left for
Holy Cross Seminary in Australia a bit more than
a month later.
It was a running start, however. Fr. Johnson
was back in the U.S. on holiday, so I would need
to cover his classes for a month beginning the
next week. That first weekend, I was to cover his
circuit in Wellington. Fr. MacPherson gave me
his car (a stick shift) and directions. One small
problem: we drive on the left here, steering wheel
on the right, and I was to drive myself. Let us just
say that regarding the pious belief that a priest
gets a second guardian angel at ordination, I am a
believer. The drive was stunningly beautiful, but
incredibly terrifying.
What does your apostolate consist of at
present?
I am the pastor of Immaculate Heart of
Mary Church in Auckland, the country’s largest
city. Each weekend I either fly the one hour,
or drive the winding roads north six hours.
They have Mass on Friday evening through
Monday morning, then I return to Whanganui to
teach. From Auckland, I also visit two smaller
chapels on Sundays. One is two hours north in
Whangarei. The other is 90 minutes south in
Hamilton. In these three chapels are about 200
souls.
In Whanganui, I serve as Dean of St.
Augustine’s Boys’ College. This is the boys’
academy of St. Dominic’s College. Here and in
Australia “college” means “high school.” Schools
after high school are “university.” As Dean I am
responsible for the formation of the boys, both
naturally and supernaturally—a sometimes
benevolent disciplinarian and chaplain. In my
years here, I have taught, at various times, the
Religion classes for grades 7-12, Philosophy,
Mathematics, Chemistry, Apologetics, and
Church History. The prior, Fr. François Laisney,
has also put me in charge of the St. Stephen’s
Guild, the Bosco Cadets (our boys’ scouting
program), and the Children of Mary. It is a very
full schedule.
The apostolate also comes with demands that
I never thought would be needed. For instance,
New Zealand requires even private school
34

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teachers to be registered. That requires a degree
in education. So, in 2019 I went back to full-time
university for a Graduate Diploma in Secondary
Education. That was on top of a full load of
teaching, and the priestly apostolate.
What is New Zealand Catholicism like and
the religious environment there?
New Zealand is a very young country; younger
than the United States. This is why a building
that is 100 years old here is considered “historic”
and protected. We ran into this problem building
the chapel in Auckland. Around 1900 someone
lived on the property, and so we had to hire an
archaeologist to sift through the dirt we moved to
find what amounted to actual rubbish.
The first Catholic missionaries, under Msgr.
Pompallier, did not arrive until the late 1830s.
While many of the native Maori did take to
Catholicism, there was also the Protestant
Church Missionary Society, which won some
converts. Certain places were very Catholic,
like Auckland, Wellington, Taranaki and the
South Island’s West Coast, but the Faith never
really took any massive hold outside of those
areas. It disintegrated quickly during the mid20th century even before the Council and was
never a major force in the country. The Catholic
Church never had much political clout after Msgr.
Pompallier. He managed to get the Maori to insist
on protection for the Christian religion by the
government in the Treaty of Waitangi at the very
last minute.
The lack of Catholic development, though, is
evidenced by our churches. Few of our churches
would fit more than 200 people. Most are built
of wood. Small wooden chapels are quaint, but
suggest a Catholic environment not very welldeveloped. There are some gems, especially in
the South Island, but even our cathedrals look
like small U.S. parish churches. We are still a
mission here, and the churches announce this.
Truly grand churches can be counted on one
hand, many are in disrepair, or destroyed by
earthquakes and never rebuilt.
The country is naturally very beautiful and
so speaks of God through this beauty. We can
see two volcanos from Whanganui on a clear
day, but it is very hard to show young men a

[Top left] The boys of St. Anthony’s School, Whanganui, present Fr. Louis Bockholtz with a farewell gift in a traditional Maori ceremony. [Top right, and center] Christ the King Procession at St. Anthony’s. [Bottom left] Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Auckland.
35

Theme Australia and New Zealand
grand cathedral that speaks of God, as we could
in the U.S. or Europe: to show them what the
Faith has built. Their experience of Catholicism
is very “parochial.” If our churches seem like
afterthoughts, dwarfed by worldly structures, it
is easy to think of the Faith as an afterthought. I
have always hoped for a regular school trip every
few years to Rome or something similar as a
remedy to this.
New Zealand does not seem like
“missionary territory.” What do you mean a
“mission,” then?
Canonically we are in missionary territory, as
was much of the U.S. West a hundred years ago.
The bishops here report, not to the Congregation
for Bishops, but to what the Church used to call
“the Propaganda,” the Roman Congregation that
dealt with missionaries.
That said, we are a “mission” here, perhaps not
in the same sense that most Americans think of
when they hear “the missions.” I always had the
impression that “the missions” were poor places
where life was quite rough. Indeed, there are
such places, some of our priests here visit such
places like Vanuatu. New Zealand, though, is not
one of these. Visitors from the U.S. would find
the country very similar to home as regards the
standard of living.
In Whanganui the school and priory is much
like a parish. Most families live within a mile
or two of the church and school. Students walk
to school. We have around 500-600 faithful in a
small city of 40,000. Leave these confines and it
becomes much more a “mission” in the conditions
for teaching the Faith, rather than the natural
living conditions.
And what are those conditions?
There is an incredible apathy towards religion
in New Zealand. Over half of Kiwis profess no
religion at all, not even paganism. Consider, too,
that many lax or non-practicing “Christians” or
“Catholics” will tick the box, because grandma
was Catholic. To claim “no religion” is bold. The
real number who disregard religion is much
more than 50%. We priests are working in a very
naturalistic environment, and this has a huge
impact on our work and faithful.
36

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There is not a militant atheism here, as you
might find in Russia or the former Soviet Bloc, but
a “militant” apathy. Your average Kiwi will smile
at the priest, may praise our social work, but have
zero interest in religion or anything spiritual. He
does not hate religion. He simply does not care.
Speaking to those outside of our small circles, it
really feels like a post-Christian realm.
Do such conditions make for many
converts?
We do have converts. Most, however, do not
come from Protestantism, but rather from no
religious practice. This past Christmas, I had the
privilege of baptizing a 27-year old man, but he
came from a purely non-religious background.
These converts are easier to catechize, since they
do not start with heretical ideas, and often are
zealous once they see the Truth. The hurdle is
getting the areligious person to think about the
possibility of things supernatural. In Whanganui
we have had a few converts. The situation was
the same: no previous religion in most cases.
Since you teach at a boys’ school, do you
see that attitude affecting the youth?
Absolutely. Despite our effort to protect
ourselves from the atheistic, nihilistic, pagan,
hedonistic, individualistic influences the world
shoves at us, we do live in the world. If one is
around a campfire, he will absorb the smell
of smoke. So do we all absorb the worldly
influence, even when making an effort to avoid
it. We all become desensitized to these evils,
or tolerate them to a degree, if not actually
accept them. That is especially true of the moreimpressionable youth. Particularly among young
men, even our good boys, their mind does not
easily turn to higher things, or the abstract, but
the base material things in front of them.
Our best boys are devout young men, generous,
virtuous, but ask a question about God, and often
the answer comes back too focused on the human
or the natural, rather than the supernatural.
That is a general problem with the youth
in the West, raised in a very materialistic and
naturalistic society, but even more so where the
environment is one of apathy to religion and the
supernatural. A lackadaisical approach to the

Faith, especially among the men, results. Add to
this the influence of modern media, computers,
video games, streaming services, and all of the
mess that comes with that—it is a huge battle to
produce generous souls. We are making inroads,
but very slowly, and the “No worries” or “She’ll
be right” mentality common here makes for very
pleasant people, but very phlegmatic reactions to
our efforts.
That does not mean that there are not some
impressive and virtuous young men in our
schools and good families. Some young men and
families truly impress me. I am very hopeful
that we will have some vocations coming out
of our school soon, but we also have some
very sad cases. Forming Catholic youth in this
environment is a gargantuan task.
On vocations, do you have many vocations
from the school?
We have yet to have a vocation from the boys’
school, though I think that will change in the next
few years. The priests before me planted some
good seeds. A poor substitute for St. Paul, I do get
to try to water what these Apollos have planted,
which is a great grace, and terrifying. I can count
at least six young men in our school who have
at least mentioned thoughts of a vocation, and
at least three at times speaking quite seriously
about it. It really touches a priestly heart to see
these seeds germinate. Let us hope God gives
the increase and these young men do not make
God wait. The next 2-5 years will, I think, be very
fruitful.
New Zealand can claim five priests as members
of the SSPX. Our chapel in Auckland would have
a deacon at Holy Cross now but for the pandemic
and no access for the bishops. We have had a few
from our mission chapels go to the seminary, but
not many from Whanganui.
Our young men have two SSPX brothers to
give an example of religious life, but I have
always thought the Kiwi temperament would be
naturally drawn to a Benedictine lifestyle of work
and prayer. Drive outside of the towns and the
towering hills full of sheep and cattle cry out for
a monastery. I long for the chance for our boys to
see how a monastery works one day, because I
think this would attract many young men who do

not see themselves as priests.
Our girls’ school has produced several religious
vocations, and I know of a few young ladies
considering joining a religious congregation as
well. We have SSPX Sisters, Dominicans, and
even one young lady who joined the Little Sisters
of St. John the Baptist in Lourdes.
What will the New Zealand apostolate
look like in the next few years?
Right now, with the three SSPX priests, and
Fr. Albert Kallio, O.P. as the temporary chaplain
for the Dominicans we are stretched thin. Three
Masses for each of us is normal most Sundays
and Holy Days. Occasionally, we must binate on
First Fridays so the missions have Mass. Until we
have extra hands the apostolate cannot expand
much. As in many places, COVID has increased
our numbers. Whanganui was 450 on Sundays
last year. We often are over 500 this year. When
restricted to 100 people per Mass, we had to have
six Masses in Whanganui.
Perhaps once the situation calms a bit and
travel to New Zealand opens, we will be able
to get an extra priest. Then we could look
at expanding the apostolate a bit, but more
importantly, there is need to further develop our
present apostolates and deepen the work. I am
working on a young adult group like in St. Marys,
more spiritual than social (though still social).
With Fr. Laisney’s permission, I plan to work
on a similar men’s group to help these fathers
find truly Christian friends. We may firstly start
by social gatherings with the priests to attract
good men, but then slowly shift towards a more
spiritually-minded group. Both for the men and
youth, work in vein of Canon Timon-David’s work
in France will pay dividends, and many souls for
many years to come will be sanctified.

37

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Spirituality

Meditations
on St. John’s
Gospel
Chapter Five

By Pater Inutilis

St. John, as we know, is very much interested
in presenting us the “Life” that is Christ, that by
accepting Him, and thus by believing in Him, we
may ourselves have “life.” This will be true even of
corporal life, the sin of the world having been taken
away, and so also its consequences, including death;
but it is all the more true of spiritual life. There is
the question of both in this chapter.
St. Thomas remarks that it is the custom of this
Gospel to always attach the teaching of Christ to
some sensible sign related to the teaching, and
“thus to make known things invisible from things
visible.” Our Lord’s present teachings on life,
therefore, follow His miracle of repairing life by
healing one sick and unable to walk now for 38
years. This takes place in Jerusalem by the pool
of Bethsaida—an ancient “Lourdes” where an

angel of God from time to time moved the waters
and healed him who first went into them. (A most
fitting gospel for the feast of St. Raphael, the Healer
of God). There must have been quite a throng
always gathered around the pool, indeed “a great
multitude.” Jesus approaches one who could not get
himself into the water and says: “Arise, take up thy
bed, and walk.” What strikes us is Jesus’ goodness
and power—and humility too, for the man does not
know that it is Jesus and He had quietly gone aside
from the multitude. This He did, for these miracles
are for His teaching, but the crowds risk being
carried away by their enthusiasm, as will shortly
be evident. But what struck the Jews was that this
miracle took place on the Sabbath. By “Jews,” St.
John commonly means Pharisees, scribes, priests;
and the others, his compatriots, who did not
become disciples of Our Lord.
39

Spirituality
The Jews are fettered and blinded by the letter
of the Law, missing completely its spirit. This
is a tragedy: “The letter killeth, but the spirit
quickeneth,” which Christ tries again and again
to avert. This He did by often working miracles
on the Sabbath and then explaining Himself. A
miracle is a divine work, hardly what we would
call an unnecessary servile work! It is God who is
at work—and the one who performs it is doing so
with God’s power and favor: “My Father worketh
until now; and I work.” He had already tried
explaining that “positive law” suffers exceptions
for a greater good or out of necessity; indeed,
even his accusers so acted for their profit, and,
performing these miracles in His own name, surely
they should conclude divine power is His—“the Son
of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Our Lord will
defend this miracle on the same grounds again in
John 7:21-23. Their attack here in John 5, though,
is no longer strictly just against a miracle having
been worked on the Sabbath, but against Our
Lord having told the one healed to take up his bed
and walk. Now this is “servile work,” but positive
law yields before a greater good: the miracle is
magnified by one so infirm now able not only to
walk but also to carry burdens; and an occasion
is provided for Our Lord’s teaching on His divinity
and “Life.” Therefore, “My Father worketh until
now’’ refers rather to God’s daily preservation
and governing of the world; “and I work” means
Jesus is claiming equal power in giving, preserving
and restoring life. This, at least, the Jews did not
misunderstand: they “sought the more to kill Him,”
because He did not only break the sabbath, but also
said God was His Father, making Himself equal to
God. Advisedly Jesus said: “My Father,” for He is
Son in a unique sense.
God is One. This the Jews knew from God.
How now to teach that He is also Three? Our Lord
will indeed instruct as to His divinity, but he will
also emphasize that He has all from the Father;
and He will too use metaphorical language more
accommodated to His hearers. The Son is from
the Father, but does all the Father does, and as He
does. So, as the Father has life in Himself, so does
the Son; as the Father gives life, so does the Son;
as all honor the Father, so must they the Son. The
Son “seeing” the Father, or the Father “showing”
40

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March - April 2021

the Son, or the Son “hearing,” means that the Son
is the “Word,” the “Image” of God. The Arians could
not understand this and saw in John 5:19 only a
profession of inferiority of the Son with respect
to the Father. But “the Son cannot do anything of
Himself” because He is one God with the Father
and Both do all divine works in creation. “What He
seeth the Father doing” is metaphorical: as the Son
is from the Father in “being,” so is He in “doing”—
but to be generated of the Father and be His only
begotten Son in no way denotes inferiority where
they have the same divine nature. “What things
soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like
manner.” The Father acts as a God; so does the Son.
They will indeed be co-principle of all Their works,
even unto the spiration of the Holy Ghost, of which
a manifestation is His being sent by Each.
Judgment, though, following the resurrection on
the last day, will be the work of God incarnate and
this ‘’because He is the Son of man”; for, to see God
in Himself would be the beatific vision, or heaven,
from which some will be excluded.
Christ has been giving testimony of Himself—
insufficient to stand up in court according to His
hearers—though superabundantly sufficient for
those who accept His divinity. For the Jews’ sake,
Our Lord brings forth further testimonies: even
that of St. John Baptist, but especially that of the
Father, and this by the miracles Jesus works and by
the Scriptures that speak of Him. The Jews reject
the testimony of the scriptures and even the most
evident one of miracles in their presence. Such
blindness comes from hardheartedness—“I know
you, that you have not the love of God in you.” It is
inexcusable, and the cause of their condemnation.
For our own part, may we want to know and
love our God, and to receive the life He wants to
give us. One thing we can do is heed Our Lord’s
exhortation to “Search the Scriptures” because,
yes, they do speak of Him. We are more blessed
here than the Jews of old, for we also have the
New Testament, the full light that is Christ, and
not just foreshadowings. We have in particular the
testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved whose
testimony is true; rightly may we think to have in
these writings “life everlasting.” May the “Spirit of
truth” teach us all truth and bring to our minds,
too, whatsoever the Son of God has said to us.

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develop reliance on God, this small text will be a profound aid.
“Consent to forget the world, the universe, and yourself. If you hesitate to lose your life in him and
for him, go no further. As much as it is possible for you, in exact obedience and perfect charity,
you must avoid four things which are major obstacles to interior silence, and which render habitual
contemplation impossible: interior noise, interior discussions, obsession, and worries about yourself. This being done, you will have passed through the doors of silence.”

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“Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom
to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you,
and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.”—St. Thomas Aquinas
42

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March - April 2021

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

The Canon
Part Three

By Fr. Christopher Danel

In this article we continue an examination of the Canon of the Mass, presenting the work of Msgr.
Nicholas Gihr in his fundamental liturgical commentary The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically,
Liturgically, and Ascetically Explained. Msgr. Gihr was a priest of Freiburg in Breisgau whose work of
liturgical research took place during the time frame spanning the pontificates of Popes Pius IX to Pius
XI, including that of Pope Saint Pius X. The early years of his work were contemporaneous with the last
years in the work of Dom Prosper Guéranger. (The English translation of his study appeared in 1902; the
original is: Gihr, Nikolaus. Messopfer dogmatisch, liturgisch und aszetisch erklärt. Herder: Freiburg im
Breisgau, 1877.)

Communicantes
The first prayer of the Canon consists of
three parts: the Te igitur, the Memento of the
living, and the Communicantes. This article will
consider the third of these parts, namely, the
Communicantes.
Communicantes et memoriam venerantes:
thus begins the formula. These words, as a

continuation of the preceding part of the Canon
and its supplement, stand in the closest relation
to the preceding words: Those present offer up to
Thee, O Lord, this Sacrifice of praise and pay
their vows unto Thee, and this not as persons
separated from the unity of the mystical body
of Christ, but as belonging to the Communion
of Saints (Communicantes), and who fulfill
43

Spirituality
this communion towards the inhabitants of
heaven by venerating their memory (memoriam
venerantes). By name they are mentioned: the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the twelve Apostles and
twelve Martyrs; finally, all the Saints.
All the redeemed constitute together the
kingdom of Jesus Christ, among all these
citizens, whether they have already happily
reached the term, or are still combating on earth,
or making atonement in the place of purification,
there is a living communication, a reciprocal
interchange; good deeds and sufferings, merits
and satisfactions, in short, all the fruits of grace
are common property from which each draws
and to which each contributes. It is precisely at
the celebration of Mass that we are reminded
of the happiness and dignity of belonging to so
glorious a community, that is, that we are “fellowcitizens with the saints and domestics of God”
(Eph. 2:19).

The Blessed Virgin Mary
‘’First of all” (in primis) and, therefore, more
than all, we honor the memory of the “glorious
ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Lord
Jesus Christ.” As always, so also in this instance
Mary is rightly named in the first place; she is
Queen not merely of the Apostles and Martyrs,
but of all the Saints. Her name is not mentioned
simply, but with honorable qualifications that
proclaim her grandeur, power and dignity.
Let us here yet briefly notice her connection
with the bloody and unbloody Sacrifice of Christ.
The Victim of the Cross and of the Altar was
given to us through the Virgin Mother Mary;
He is “the fruit of her most noble body” by the
overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. The God-Man
is “born unto us and given to us from Mary. She
“stood by the Cross of Jesus,” and while her
maternal tears were mingled with His blood
and the sword of sorrow pierced her soul, she
offered her Crucified Son for the redemption and
salvation of the world. Her name, therefore, is
inseparable from the Sacrifice of Christ.

44

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The Apostles
Next, the twelve Apostles are named in
the Canon. The Apostles are those chosen
messengers to whom the Lord imparted full
powers as teachers, bishops and pastors, that, as
His representatives, they might continue the work
of the redemption.
St. Peter, who is inseparably combined with
St. Paul in the liturgy, is named first. Jesus
Christ made him the foundation of His Church
and invested him with the office and dignity of
primate over the universal Church. As the visible
representative of Christ and as chief pastor,
he was with supreme power to feed and guide
the lambs and sheep, the entire flock of Christ.
Hence in the Gospel Peter takes preeminence
over the other Apostles. He stands forth in bold
relief as the man of truth, transformed by grace,
a monumental figure, an exalted prototype, as it
were, of the Papacy and of the Church herself,
as from the days of Peter till now she passes on
through the world and through the centuries.
St. Paul, abounding in labors and sufferings
for the Gospel, is the ideal missionary Apostle.
He made five great apostolic journeys by water
and land. They occupied more than twenty
years of his life; during that time St. Paul passed
through about thirty different countries and
islands, established and consolidated Catholic
communities in more than forty cities. By word
and writing, by sermons and epistles, St. Paul
brought everywhere the name of Jesus, that is,
truth and grace, light and life, the doctrine and
salvation of Christ to the children of Israel as
well as to heathen nations and rulers.
St. Andrew was the first to recognize the
Messiah through St. John the Baptist. His
arduous and successful missionary labors were
first exercised in Scythia; he, at last, went to
the city of Patrae in Achaia, where he suffered
a heroic martyrdom on November 30 in the year
62. The Apostle made a solemn profession of the
Sacrifice of the Cross and of the Altar; whereupon
he was condemned to die fastened to the Cross
composed of two beams diagonally crossing
each other. He remained on the Cross two days
and a night, making of it a pulpit, whence he
announced Christ crucified. Finally, a bright light
encompassed him, and the Cross became for him

the ladder to heaven.
St. James the Greater was a brother of St.
John, both being sons of Zebedee. Peter, John,
and James were distinguished and privileged
by the Lord above the other Apostles. St. James
preached in Judea and Samaria; then he hastened
to distant Spain. He was later put to death by the
sword in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa only nine
or ten years after the death of Christ. His holy
remains were at an early date carried to Spain,
and there they rest even now at Santiago de
Compostela.
St. John was honored by Our Lord on account
of his innocence and virginity, with His closest
friendship and intimacy. In that blessed hour,
when Jesus by the institution of the Eucharist
gave to His own the greatest proof of His love,
John was permitted to repose on the breast, on
the Sacred Heart of Jesus, thence drawing light
and love in abundance. Then when dying on the
Cross, the Lord bequeathed and delivered over
to His favorite disciple what to Him was most
dear and precious, namely, His holy Mother. St.
John first exercised his apostolate in Palestine;
later on, he exercised a powerful influence on the
Church of Asia Minor, until he there died and was
buried at a very advanced age. But is the glory of
martyrdom wanting to St. John? By no means.
Under the emperor Domitian he was dragged
to Rome, and there thrown into a cauldron of
boiling oil; but by a miracle he came forth from
it purer, fresher and more vigorous than before.
He was then banished by the same tyrant to the
island of Patmos. St. John is not only an Apostle,
martyr and evangelist, he is also a prophet.
St. Thomas, called the Twin, was slow to
believe in the resurrection of the Lord; but he
afterwards proved himself a fervent advocate
and propagator of the faith among the Parthians
in the East; on his way thither he is said to have
baptized the three Magi. He penetrated as far as
India, where, by the command of the king, he was
killed by a stroke of the lance, or, according to
another account, stoned and clubbed to death.
St. James the Less, being a relative of the Lord,
is called His brother. With Sts. Peter and John
he is designated by St. Paul as a “Pillar” of the
Church. He was raised by St. Peter to be the first
Bishop of Jerusalem. Because of his courageous

confession of the divinity of Christ, he was
thrown down from the battlements of the Temple;
he was still able to rise to his knees, but the mob
fell upon him with stones, and he was given the
death-blow with a club.
St. Philip was the fourth of the fishermen
of Bethsaida in Galilee called by the Savior to
the Apostolate. He exercised his apostolate in
Phrygia, and died in Hierapolis on a cross, stoned
to death by the enraged populace.
St. Bartholomew was led to the Lord by Philip.
He preached in Arabia Felix, in India and in
Greater Armenia, where at Albanopolis he was
flayed alive and decapitated. Relics of his holy
body are preserved under the high altar of the
Church of St. Bartholomew, in the isle of the
Tiber, at Rome.
St. Matthew is both Apostle and Evangelist. He
was a publican when the Lord called him. Arabia
and Ethiopia are specially mentioned as the field
of his zeal. According to some authors he was
burned alive, according to others he was killed
with a spear.
St. Simon, the Zealot, is in the veneration of
the Church connected with St. Jude Thaddeus,
who was a brother of St. James the Less. Both
consumed and sacrificed their lives by their
labors in Mesopotamia and Persia, where Simon
was cut in two with a sword and Jude was shot to
death with arrows.

The Martyrs
Martyrdom of blood is the characteristic trait
of the saints of the first four centuries; therefore,
twelve martyrs of these ancient times are now
mentioned in the Canon. Among them are five
Popes, a bishop, a deacon and five laymen. Even
at a very early period these saints were held in
universal and high esteem in Rome. This explains
their insertion in the Canon.
First, five Popes are mentioned. St. Linus
was the first successor of St. Peter in the See
of Rome and, therefore, the second Pope. He
was converted to Christianity by St. Peter. St.
Cletus succeeded St. Linus. He adorned the
tomb of St. Peter, who had ordained him a
priest. St. Clement is reckoned among the
45

Spirituality
Apostolic Fathers; he sat in the chair of Peter
from 88 to 97. He was praised by St. Paul, and
according to the testimony of ancient writers,
St. Clement was endowed with all the qualities
of mind and heart that were requisite for the
highest ecclesiastical dignities. In the fourth
place comes the name of St. Xystus (the Greek
form of Sixtus). During the first three centuries
there were two Popes of this name. The memory
of Sixtus II has been especially celebrated in
the Church; the Catacombs prove this by many
pictures, inscriptions and prayers. St. Cornelius
distinguished himself in all the grades of the
Church including the papacy, and eventually died
a martyr.
After the Popes in the Canon come a Bishop
and a Deacon. St. Cyprian was from Carthage.
From the very beginning of his conversion
he was adorned with brilliant virtues and
uncommon graces. He combated for the unity
and discipline of the Church against heretics
and schismatics, animated all to cheerful
endurance of martyrdom, and consumed himself
in the ardor of Christian charity. His life, rich in
blessings, was terminated by the glorious death
of a martyr in the public square of Carthage. St.
Lawrence was a native of Spain but was brought
up and educated in Rome. Sixtus II ordained
him deacon and made him the first of the seven
deacons of the Roman Church. St. Lawrence was
scourged, struck with leaden balls, stretched on
the rack, and burned with red hot metallic plates.
Afterward he was laid on a burning gridiron,
upon which his martyrdom was consummated.
Finally, in the Canon five laymen are
commemorated. St. Chrysogonus converted many
heathens in Rome and, after long imprisonment,
was sent to Aquilea where he was beheaded. Sts.
John and Paul were brothers. As distinguished
Romans, they were entrusted with high positions
of honor at the court. The apostate Emperor
Julian had them decapitated in their own home in
362. Sts. Cosmas and Damian were also brothers,
descended from a distinguished race in Arabia.
They practiced medicine in Roman territory pro
bono. Their virtues and their acts of benevolence
gained for the Christian religion many adherents.
After enduring many torments, they were
decapitated in Cilicia.
46

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March - April 2021

Conclusion
In the Roman Canon only martyrs are
named before and after the Consecration; this
distinction is justly due to them. They have
merited it by the bloody sacrifice of their life; they
appear as the ripest and most glorious fruit of the
Sacrifice of Christ. They resembled the Savior not
in life merely, but also in death. For Christ they
lived, for Him they died; in return for the Sacrifice
of His love, they offered the sacrifice of the world
and of themselves amid untold torments and
sufferings. The virtues of fortitude and patience,
of faith and of love which they practiced in a
heroic degree shone resplendent in them.

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“No one can have God for his Father,
who has not the Church for his
mother.”— St. Cyprian of Carthage

Spirituality

Tough
Environments
Breed Militant
Catholics
Protestant Secularist Australia and “Bob” Santamaria
By John Rao, D.Phil. Oxon.

“Everything in Australia is trying to kill you.”
That was the ominous title of a video I once
watched that outlined in chilling detail all of
the shabby ways that native animals, insects,
and flora, from the familiar kangaroo down to
organisms totally unknown to me beforehand,
were out to ruin human life “down under.”
Little did I suspect at the time that these lifethreatening organisms would come to include
the government of the State of Victoria, whose
anti-COVID measures seem designed to liquidate
the entire social nature of mankind. And little
did I imagine that that State harbored a number
of elements deadly to Catholic life in particular,
from long before the irrational, degrading, and
politically manipulated Reign of Terror raging
there today. But tough environments seem to
stimulate the emergence of brave men ready to
50

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March - April 2021

take the steps necessary to deal with them. And
no one battled against the difficult anti-Catholic
problems in Australia in a more persistent and
influential manner than Bartolomeo Agostino
Santamaria (1915-1998).
Born of Sicilian immigrants living in
Melbourne, the capital and largest city of Victoria
State, “Bob”—as Santamaria was always known
to friend and foe alike—experienced all the antiCatholic prejudice that Anglo-Saxon, Protestant,
and secularist-Freemasonic Victoria could toss at
him. He fought against these prejudices not just
privately, but, much more importantly, publically,
because of their dire effects in the socio-political
and economic realms, becoming one of the model
Catholic militants of the twentieth century.
What made Bob so exemplary was his clear
awareness that effective “transformation of

all things in Christ” had to be founded on two
fundamental pillars: on the one hand, a total
loyalty to sound Catholic doctrine which could
never be sacrificed for “success,” but did indeed
have to be applied—always with risks—to the
change and confusion of a “practical” daily
life lived by flawed, sinful men, who did not
necessarily act rationally and consistently; and,
on the other, upon the cooperation of a militant
laity committed to Catholic Action with a militant
teaching clergy that guided it theologically and
encouraged its daily activist battle with the foe.
Bob’s brilliant career was to unfold precisely
because the model cleric ready to make this
second pillar of effective Catholic Action a
reality was ready to launch it: Daniel Mannix
(1864-1963), Archbishop of Melbourne from 1917
until his death in 1963. Mannix, a prelate who
understood—in the immortal words of an old
friend of mine—that the job of a bishop was “to
bish,” something that he often did with a great
big stick, nevertheless paired powerful episcopal
leadership with the deepest respect for the
unique role of the laity and the wide autonomy in
many questions of practical socio-political action
that this required.
Santamaria came to Mannix’s attention
in 1937, when Bob was only 22 years old,
due to the impact that the young man made
in a famous public debate with prominent
Leftists on the Spanish Civil War. Already
well grounded in Catholic Social Doctrine,
and particularly interested in the ideas of the
English Distributists, he fervently promoted the
need for believers to build an economic system
that rejected the materialism and injustices of
both unrestricted Capitalism and Marxist or
Marxist-Leninist Socialism. A member of the
recently founded Campion Society and editor of
an Australian review, The Catholic Worker, at
least partly influenced by that of Dorothy Day in
New York, Bob still presumed that his main work
would be a career in law.
Mannix changed his plans dramatically. He
enticed Santamaria into becoming one of two
members of the new National Secretariate of
Catholic Action, which began its work in 1938.
It must be said that in making this choice the
archbishop thereby also demonstrated his

Santamaria with a painting of Bishop Mannix.

freedom from another prejudice that plagued
men and women like Bob: the general disdain of
his fellow Irish-Australian Catholics for believers
of Italian background. Having won him over to
full time militancy, Mannix’s protégé was made
responsible for preparing almost all of the Annual
Social Justice statements of the Australian
Episcopacy between 1941 and 1956.
Bob’s foundation of the National Catholic
Rural Movement in 1939, designed to promote
small farm ownership, was certainly dictated by
both intellectual and practical concerns, very
much reflecting contemporary Distributist ideas.
Nevertheless, nothing illustrates his insistence
upon that joint commitment to sound doctrine
and the reality of the need to make risky choices
in implementing its vision under confused daily
realities constituting the first fundamental pillar
of effective lay action than the creation of the
Catholic Social Studies Movement in 1941.
Catholic Social Doctrine clearly rejected
both the atomistic, individualist materialism of
classical liberal capitalist thought, as well as
51

Spirituality
the collectivist materialism of Marxist Socialism
most effectively represented after the First World
War by Marxist-Leninist Communism. Some
Catholics, due to a primary fear of the latter,
inclined towards supporting the Australian
Liberal Party, which was anti-Communist but not
on the same wavelength as the Church regarding
the problems of capitalist society. A large number
of working class believers, suffering from
economic injustices, saw greater hope coming
from the Labour Party, which was, however, quite
subject to anti-Catholic and outright Communist
influences. Unfortunately, given the general lack
of intellectual formation regarding Catholic
Social Doctrine, both Liberal and Labour leaning
believers tended bit by bit to gravitate towards
the unacceptable teachings prevalent in both
parties.
“The Movement” was to a large degree a
machine for overcoming practical obstacles
to the achievement of integral Catholic goals
in economic life through a specific targeting
of the working classes and the Labour Party
they supported. It pursued its aim through the
“Groupers”—“Movement” members who became
part of “Industrial Groups” which fought to
rid trade unions of Communist domination
and guide them down a Catholic direction. So
successful was the work of the Groupers that the
trade unions, all but of two of which were under
Communist control in 1949, where almost entirely
in Catholic-influenced hands by 1952.
Although we have seen that the Labour Party,
which was under the leadership of Herbert Vere
Evatt (1894-1965) from 1951 onwards, was no
friend of Catholics, support of the trade unions
was central to its political life, and Grouper
effectiveness led it openly to seek Santamaria’s
support for the General Election of 1954. When
it lost that election, and control over Victoria as
well, remaining out of power over the central
government of Australia down to 1972, Evatt
openly and violently blamed Santamaria and the
Catholics for the defeat.
Any possible leadership opening to the
Groupers was now closed, and the Labour
Party suffered what was called “The Split,” with
Catholics expelled from its ranks and forming
their own Democratic Labour Party under
52

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March - April 2021

Santamaria’s influence to carry on fighting
for the cause. So pathologically outraged was
Evatt over the consequent inability of Labour to
regain power over the central government that
Santamaria and his pursuit of Catholic influence
over Australian political life became for him
public enemy number one.
Although Bob moved forward with his work
through the Democratic Labour Party, trouble
was brewing for his profound understanding of
Catholic Action and Catholic Social Doctrine.
This was not due to competition from those
Catholics, with powerful clerical backing in New
South Wales, who supported cooperation with
the Liberal Party. It was rather a direct result
of the revolution in the Church brought about
by Vatican Council and its aftermath. For that
revolution overturned the two pillars upon which
Santamaria had built his work—accepting the
risks of practical action only if in union with
sound doctrine, and guiding a militant laity
that could count upon the support of a vibrant
teaching clergy respectful of that laity’s distinctly
active role in promoting the Christian mission.
What went wrong?
In supposedly “liberating” the realm of the
“practical” from the supernatural guidance of
doctrinal truth, all that the “spirit of Vatican
II” achieved was to allow for exactly what
anti-Liberal, anti-Pluralist Catholics since the
nineteenth century had predicted would happen:
1) the giving of carte blanche to the strongest
worldly passions successfully to proclaim their
right to dominate Church life, unguided and
uncorrected by supernatural truth and grace;
and, 2) the creation of a craven episcopacy
eager to give its blessing to whatever “worked”
according to the standards of willful fallen men,
thereby wreaking havoc with the entire project
of a corrective “transformation of all things in
Christ.” To make matters worse, just as this evil
was unfolding, Bob’s protector and soul mate,
Archbishop Mannix, went to his eternal reward.
One victim of the revolution was the
Democratic Labour Party, which now suffered
internal divisions of its own and ceased to
function. Still, Bob soldiered on for many,
many years to come, working more and more in
ways that avoided the emasculating control of

Santamaria was honored with a State Funeral in St.
Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne—concelebrated by 13
archbishops and bishops, and 160 priests.

real Catholic Action coming from an arrogant
episcopacy that ironically was in practice an
increasingly puppet-like servant of the goals
of powerful but morally corrupt lay forces. He
fought on by means of organizations like the
National Civic Council and the Australian Family
Association, as well as through his writing and
a long-lived television commentary called “Point
of View.” Moreover, his Thomas More Centre and
its literary voice, AD2000, gave support to the
causes of the growing Traditionalist Movement,
which alone was seriously defending the kind of
Catholic Action he had approved of all of his life.
One man deeply influenced by Santamaria

is George Cardinal Pell (b. 1941). Bob died in
March of 1998 during Pell’s tenure as Archbishop
of Melbourne (1996-2001), and it was he who
delivered a panegyric at the Funeral Mass.
Calling attention to the great opposition and
outright hatreds that Bob had aroused, along
with his inevitably risky and not necessarily
successful battles for control of the social sphere,
Pell praised Santamaria most for having made
it clear that the battle of Catholicism with the
world, the flesh, and the devil was a deadly
serious one:
“We are told that the sure mark of the
false prophet is that all people speak well of
him. In death, as in life, Bob Santamaria has
triumphantly escaped such a fate . . . . Thanks
to Bob Santamaria much more of this struggle
is now in the open, with the issues available to
public scrutiny. This represents progress. He
could not remove or much deflect the mighty
forces damaging faith and morals in the Western
world, but he has managed to alert an increasing
number of us to the folly of embracing the forces
seeking our destruction.”
Tough environments breed militant Catholics
who pass the torch on to others inspired by
them. Cardinal Pell himself now knows the
price one must be prepared to pay for following
in Bob’s footsteps. For the forces against
which Santamaria fought in Victoria State and
elsewhere have struck at him as well. But he
knows from Bob that this was to be expected
not just in Australia, but all across the globe.
Because in our time especially, it seems that not
just “down under,” but everywhere “everything is
trying to kill Catholics.”

53

“And we have learned that those only are
deified who have lived near to God in holiness
and virtue; and we believe that those who live
wickedly and do not repent are punished in
everlasting fire.”—St. Justin Martyr

Spirituality

Life in the
Prison of
Our Soul
By a Benedictine Monk

The beginnings of Australia were associated
with prisoners, whether justly or unjustly
imprisoned, to colonize the continent. Perhaps
the human soul may be compared to those
prisoners. To be justly condemned to prison
affords the criminal a time of reflection in order
to possibly correct himself and sometimes even
to sanctify himself. It is a different challenge to
be unjustly condemned to prison. The soul must
live supernaturally in order to survive, but to
be sanctified in prison, the soul must practice
heroic virtue. There are many holy men and
women including canonized saints that give us
the example of heroic virtue in prison. From the
saints of the early Church, unjustly imprisoned
and martyred by the Roman emperors, to the
many holy men and women of modern times
persecuted by the Communist regimes, we see
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the examples of how God can sanctify men’s
souls in spite of the darkness of injustice and
imprisonment.
Perhaps the most striking example of this
would be the imprisonment of St. John of the
Cross by his own religious brothers. Cain killed
his brother Abel out of jealousy; for the same
reason the religious brothers of St. John kept
him under lock and key. It was perhaps in these
conditions that St. John of the Cross experienced
his closest contact with God. The soul journeying
through this dark night of trial and tribulation
can receive great light from God Himself and
quickly progress in the ways of sanctity. These
tribulations can be some of the most important
moments of the spiritual life. There are two
ways of dealing with the spiritual storms of life.
One way is to be discouraged and overwhelmed

by the evil of the storm which will eventually
lead to despair and damnation. The other way
is to refuse to surrender to the forces of evil,
courageously facing the onslaught of the enemy,
knowing that we can be overwhelmed, but that
God is never overcome. Victory depends upon
union with God, confiding in his love for the soul.
During the liturgical year, Our Lord teaches
that darkness gives way to the
light of God. During the time of
Advent, the soul is compared
to one seated in darkness,
covered with the shadow of
death. During Passiontide Our
Lord often speaks of the hour
of darkness. These passing
moments of darkness never
obstructed the will of God, nor
did they overcome the power of
Redemption found in the death
of Christ. In the Gospel of St.
John, we are told that the light
shines in the darkness and the
darkness received it not, but
that to all those who receive this
light, God gives them the power
of becoming a child of God.
When the night is the darkest is
when the first rays of the dawn
begin to appear. Night is totally
transformed by the light of day.
Every human soul has to battle either with
the darkness of sin or the purifying darkness
of humiliation. This darkness of malice is
produced by original and personal sins. Vices,
a wounded nature, and the reluctance to resist
temptation bring darkness into the soul. With this
indifference towards God a prison wall is built
within the soul. The soul chooses to live behind
the self-made walls of anger, hatred, bitterness,
impurity and jealousy. Who would deny that
addiction to alcohol, drugs, pornography and
debauchery are not crueler than the most
ferocious maximum-security prison wall? This
darkness, whether it be the just consequence
of a sinful life or the humiliation of an unjust
persecution, can only be dissipated by Our Lord,
but both can be moments of great progress for
the soul. Divine light is received only by the way

we choose to live our lives.
Guerric of Igny, a Cistercian of the 12th
century, speaking of the Incarnation of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, invites the soul to receive this light:
“Arise, you who sit in darkness; look at the
light which has risen up in the darkness but is
not mastered by the darkness. Draw near to
Him and be enlightened, in His light you shall

see light; and it will be said to you: You were
once in darkness, but now you are light in the
Lord. O look upon the eternal Light which has
tempered itself to your gaze, so that He who
dwells in inaccessible light affords access even to
weak and bleary eyes. See the Light in a lamp of
earthenware, the Sun in a cloud, God in man, the
Splendor of glory and brightness of eternal Light
in the clay vessel of your flesh.”
A little phrase in the Rule of St. Benedict cries
out in the wasteland of those seated in darkness
covered in the shadow of death, imprisoned
within sadness of heart. In spite of great
confusion and the temptation of discouragement
he simply encourages: “Never despair of God’s
mercy.” This light of hope frees the soul from the
darkness of its prison.

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Christian Culture

The
Trimmin’s on
the Rosary
By Msgr. Patrick Joseph Hartigan

Monsignor Patrick Joseph Hartigan wrote poetry under the pseudonym of John O’Brien and became
one of the legendary icons of Australian Pioneering literature.
Ah, the memories that find me now my hair is turning gray,
Drifting in like painted butterflies from paddocks far away;
Dripping dainty wings in fancy—and the pictures, fading fast,
Stand again in rose and purple in the album of the past.
There’s the old slab dwelling dreaming by the wistful, watchful trees,
Where the coolabahs are listening to the stories of the breeze;
There’s a homely welcome beaming from its big, bright friendly eyes,
With The Sugarloaf behind it blackened in against the skies;
There’s the same dear happy circle round the boree’s cheery blaze
With a little Irish mother telling tales of other days.
She had one sweet, holy custom which I never can forget,
And a gentle benediction crowns her memory for it yet;

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Portrait of Msgr. Hartigan

I can see that little mother still and hear her as she pleads,
“Now it’s getting on to bed-time; all you childer get your beads.”
There were no steel-bound conventions in that old slab dwelling free;
Only this—each night she lined us up to say the Rosary;
E’en the stranger there, who stayed the night upon his journey, knew
He must join the little circle, ay, and take his decade too.
I believe she darkly plotted, when a sinner hove in sight
Who was known to say no prayer at all, to make him stay the night.
Then we’d softly gather round her, and we’d speak in accents low,
And pray like Sainted Dominic so many years ago;
And the little Irish mother’s face was radiant, for she knew
That “where two or three are gathered” He is gathered with them too.
O’er the paters and the aves how her reverent head would bend!
How she’d kiss the cross devoutly when she counted to the end!
And the visitor would rise at once, and brush his knees—and then
He’d look very, very foolish as he took the boards again.
She had other prayers to keep him. They were long, long prayers in truth;
And we used to call them “Trimmin’s” in my disrespectful youth.
She would pray for kith and kin, and all the friends she’d ever known,
Yes, and everyone of us could boast a “trimmin’” all his own.
She would pray for all our little needs, and every shade of care
That might darken o’er The Sugarloaf, she’d meet it with a prayer.
She would pray for this one’s “sore complaint,” or that one’s “hurted hand,”
Or that someone else might make a deal and get “that bit of land”;
Or that Dad might sell the cattle well, and seasons good might rule,
So that little John, the weakly one, might go away to school.
There were trimmin’s, too, that came and went; but ne’er she closed without
Adding one for something special “none of you must speak about.”
Gentle was that little mother, and her wit would sparkle free,
But she’d murder him who looked around while at the Rosary:
And if perchance you lost your beads, disaster waited you,
For the only one she’d pardon was “himself”—because she knew
He was hopeless, and ’twas sinful what excuses he’d invent,
So she let him have his fingers, and he cracked them as he went,
And, bedad, he wasn’t certain if he’d counted five or ten,
Yet he’d face the crisis bravely, and would start around again;
But she tallied all the decades, and she’d block him on the spot,
With a “Glory, Daddah, Glory!” and he’d “Glory” like a shot.
She would portion out the decades to the company at large;
But when she reached the trimmin’s she would put herself in charge;

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Christian Culture
And it oft was cause for wonder how she never once forgot,
But could keep them in their order till she went right through the lot.
For that little Irish mother’s prayers embraced the country wide;
If a neighbour met with trouble, or was taken ill, or died,
We could count upon a trimmin’—till, in fact, it got that way
That the Rosary was but trimmin’s to the trimmin’s we would say.
Then “himself” would start keownrawning—for the public good, we thought—
“Sure you’ll have us here till mornin’. Yerra, cut them trimmin’s short!”
But she’d take him very gently, till he softened by degrees—
“Well, then, let us get it over. Come now, all hands to their knees.”
So the little Irish mother kept her trimmin’s to the last,
Every growing as the shadows o’er the old selection passed;
And she lit our drab existence with her simple faith and love,
And I know the angels lingered near to bear her prayers above,
For her children trod the path she trod, nor did they later spurn
To impress her wholesome maxims on their children in their turn.
Ay, and every “sore complaint” came right, and every “hurted hand”;
And we made a deal from time to time, and got “that bit of land”;
And Dad did sell the cattle well; and little John, her pride,
Was he who said the Mass in black the morning that she died;
So her gentle spirit triumphed—for ’twas this, without a doubt,
Was the very special trimmin’ that she kept so dark about.

***
But the years have crowded past us, and the fledglings all have flown,
And the nest beneath The Sugarloaf no longer is their own;
For a hand has written “finis” and the book is closed for good—
Here’s a stately red-tiled mansion where the old slab dwelling stood;
There the stranger has her “evenings,” and the formal supper’s spread,
But I wonder has she “trimmin’s” now, or is the Rosary said?
Ah, those little Irish mothers passing from us one by one!
Who will write the noble story of the good that they have done?
All their children may be scattered, and their fortunes windwards hurled,
But the Trimmin’s on the Rosary will bless them round the world.

Notes:
*

bedad = an Irish exclamation, a euphemism for “By God.”

*

keownrawning = grumbling, grousing, complaining.

*

yerra = or arrah is an exclamation meaning take care, look out, look you.

The 15 Decades of the Holy Rosary

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“Believe that the Son of God, the Eternal
Word, who was begotten of the Father
before all time and without body, was
in these latter days for your sake made
also Son of Man, born of the Virgin Mary
ineffably and stainlessly (for nothing
can be stained where God is), and by
which salvation comes, in His own
Person at once perfect Man and perfect
God, for the sake of the entire sufferer,
that He may bestow salvation on your
whole being, having destroyed the whole
condemnation of your sins: impassible in
His Godhead, passible in that which He
assumed; as much Man for your sake as
you are made God for His.”—St. Gregory
Nazienzen

Christian Culture

The
Irrelevant
Church
By Christopher Fleming

Up until Vatican II, the Catholic Church was
called the Ark of Salvation in reference to Noah’s
ark and the deluge. Just as the eight people on
the ark survived the divine chastisement in
Noah’s time, only those who on Judgment Day
are found in the true Church founded by Our
Lord Jesus Christ will be saved from the wrath
of God. Saint Cyprian, echoing St. Peter’s first
epistle, speaks of the deluge as “the world’s
baptism” which washed the world of sin and
offered a new beginning. In The City of God, St.
Augustine makes a very interesting observation:
the measurements Noah received from God to
build the ark correspond to those of a human
body, whose length is usually six times its width.
According to this saint, the ark is a figure of the
Body of Christ, the Catholic Church, outside of
which there is no salvation.
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Since the Church has modernized itself
and embraced the world, Catholics no longer
tend to speak like this; it is too selective and
discriminatory. Now, instead, the emphasis is on
accepting all, whether or not they have the faith,
in a sort of universal fraternity based on little
more than “good vibes.” It does not help either
that nowadays hardly anyone believes in the
story of the deluge. The modern Catholics have
learned to read Scripture in a strictly allegorical
way, turning away from 1,900 years of traditional
exegesis, the Magisterium of all the Fathers of
the Church, and what Catholics have always held
true. If the story of Noah is purely allegorical and
has no historical basis, why compare the Catholic
Church with the ark?
What the Modernists oppose is not so much
the objection that the event never took place, as

much as the idea of the divine wrath. A Modernist
cannot stand the concept of a God Who is capable
of punishing humanity for its sins. This false
mercy demands that God forgive everything—
with or without the sinner’s repentance; in other
words, God has become a grandfatherly figure
who allows everything. The Fear of the Lord, one
of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, has disappeared
from the spirituality of the Modernist realm. This
is why the authenticity of the deluge is discarded,
as well as the destruction of Sodom, now that the
sin to which that accursed city gave its name is
fashionable.
It is a dogma of the faith that outside the
Church there is no salvation, or as it was
said of old, Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The
Athanasian Creed stated, “Whosoever will be
saved, before all things it is necessary that he
hold the Catholic Faith.”
The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 affirmed,
“There is indeed one universal church of the
faithful, outside of which nobody at all is saved.”

Pope Pius IX stated, “It is again necessary
to mention and censure a very grave error
entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is
possible to arrive at eternal salvation although
living in error and alienated from the true faith
and Catholic unity.”
Pope Pius XI also wrote in Mortalium Animos,
1928, “The Catholic Church is alone in keeping
the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this
the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any
man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it,
he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation.”
Religious indifferentism, the idea that all
religions are equally worthy, is a heresy that has
been officially condemned by the Church several
times. Furthermore, it is an error that brings
about disastrous consequences, because far from
promoting peace in the world, it provokes the
wrath of God. Cardinal Mercier stated clearly,
“To place the religion of Divine origin on par with
religions invented by men is the blasphemy that
calls forth God’s chastisements on society,

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Christian Culture

much more than the individual sins of men.”
The problem with Modernism, for which
there is no solution, is that once Holy Scripture
has been de-valued, the moral imperatives
relativized, and the Catholic Church reduced to a
mere option among others, the Catholic religion
becomes totally irrelevant. Why would those in
Africa or Asia (to speak of the less-evangelized
continents), want to convert to the Catholic Faith,
if there is no compelling need? It is always a
difficult choice to abandon your parents’ religion
to receive Baptism. In many cases it is very
traumatic for the neophyte because his family
members reject him. And if we are talking about
a Muslim converting to Catholicism, true heroism
is required since he faces a death sentence, as is
stipulated in the “religion of peace.”
No one in his right mind would be willing
to convert to Catholicism unless there is a
compelling reason. It is not enough to say—
although for sure it must be said—that the
Catholic religion is the only true religion, because
some people may not care. Nobody wants to
inflict pain on their family members and cause
needless suffering. A Hindu could very well say
to a missionary, “The Catholic Faith could be
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true, but leave me alone with my idols; I am very
happy the way I am.” What could the missionary
reply? If he follows the new pastoral directives
of the current Catholic hierarchy, there is no
good answer; if the man is happy in his idolatry,
his religious liberty must be respected, because
in the new Church everybody has the right to
profess the faith they choose. The conciliatory
attitude of the Modernist Church refuses to
tell the world the only thing it really needs to
hear: to save your soul you must be part of the
Catholic Church. That was the message of the
great missionaries of the past, starting with St.
Paul, because it is the message of Our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, Who said, “Go ye into the whole
world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved:
but he that believeth not shall be condemned”
(Mk. 16:15-16).
When St. Francis Xavier preached the Gospel
to the infidels, he encouraged them to be baptized
because their salvation depended on it. The Asian
pagans that heard the Spanish saint preach did
not remain unmoved: either they fell on their
knees begging for the baptism for the remission
of their sins, or they rejected the preaching so

strongly that they wanted to see the missionary
dead. Faced with the truth, there is no room for
middle ground. The same thing happened with
Our Lord Jesus Christ; some souls converted and
reformed their lives completely, whereas others
rejected His words and plotted His death.
Today, everyone preaches about the goodness
of God and how much He loves everybody;
the result is general boredom. The sermons
are riddled with trivialities, not to mention
the sprinkle of heresy here and there. Few pay
attention past the 10-minute mark, because once
it has been said that God is very good and that
He forgives sinners many times over, the faithful
are bored to death. No conflicting or disagreeable
subjects are allowed. There can be no mention
of individual sin (mention of societal sins, on
the contrary, is allowed in abundance, because
nobody is responsible for them), and no mention
of the final judgment or Hell. This sickly-sweet
message conveys a false sense of security,
precisely the opposite of what is needed to stir up
the consciences of the faithful.
These types of sleep-inducing sermons are
totally opposed to the mission of the Church. Our
Lord Jesus Christ did not found the Church to

feed the poor, to teach reading and writing to the
children, nor to take care of the sick—however
good and praiseworthy these things are. Nor
did He found His Church to enter into dialogue
with false religions. It would be expedient for
the bishops to keep in mind this truth: the main
mission of the Church is the salvation of souls.
Souls are not saved with complacency and selfsatisfaction, but with calls to conversion. The
model of all missionaries ought to be Our Lord
Jesus Christ, Who said, “Repent and believe in
the Gospel” (Mk. 1:15).
Preaching for the purpose of the salvation of
souls must confront the reality of sin. It is a waste
of time to talk over and over about how good
we are, as if a physician refused to mention the
illness for the sake of a “positive attitude.” Today
there is no mention, or perhaps a very superficial
mention, of sin, so as to not scare anybody away.
As a result, those who listen to the Modernists
never reach the conclusion that they have a
problem. And if their sinfulness does not bother
them, if they do not hunger for God, why would
they need the Church? The Modernists have
managed to make themselves totally irrelevant.

67

“I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and
demonstrate every manner of piety, so
long as it costs them nothing, yet would
not part with a penny to help those in
distress.”—St. Basil the Great

Thou Shalt
Not Bear
False Witness
Against Thy Neighbor

By the Sisters of the Society St. Pius X. Translated by Maria Trummer.

“Mommy, Luke pushed me!” “Teacher, Vianney
is copying me!” “Mommy, Joan took my book!”
How should we respond to such proclamations?
Is it necessary that we encourage them by
our endorsement or by using this newfound
information? Is the proclaimer moved by a sense
of justice, by a desire for which all that is good
and true should triumph? Or is it not selfishness
and self-love inspiring such remarks?
Unfortunately, the latter is most often the
case. If we were to complete the aforementioned
tattletales, we would hear: “Luke didn’t push me
on purpose but, I am not ready to forgive this
slight involuntary lack of respect.” “Vianney is
copying me, and simply since he is not nice, I am
going to have him punished.” “Joan took my book
because I was selfish and didn’t want to lend it to
her.”

Therefore, we can dryly receive the teller by
saying “I don’t listen to tattletales.” The child will
understand that it is not correct to say such a
thing and, subsequently, the commentary would
be cut short. Nevertheless, these tattletales still
occur on a daily basis. Thus it is imperative to
stop and take the time to make the child morally
aware of his actions.
For example, as the receiver, one can reply,
“You’ve just told me that Cecilia cheated in
the game. Cheated? Really? What did she do?”
By asking more questions and digging deeper,
the mother finds out that Cecilia hadn’t really
cheated: “Only a little because she blew on the
dice in order for a six to appear that would allow
her horse to advance…”
“But that’s not cheating, you know that! So
actually, you are accusing Cecilia for having
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Christian Culture
cheated and it’s not true. Saying things that aren’t
true, do you know what that’s called?”
“A lie…”
“So then, you need to realize that you have lied.
By chance, is it not because Cecilia is currently
winning the game?”
“Yes, mommy…”
“And, maybe you were a little jealous of her
and thus sought to get back at her?”
“A little bit…”
“Well then, this is the type of lie we call
calumny. Calumny is telling a lie about someone
in order to cause him harm; for example, to
punish him. This is sinful.” And with an air of
severity, the mother concludes: “I don’t ever want
to hear you say such things again.” Then, in a
softer tone, she’ll add: “How about you run along
and resume the game with Cecilia, don’t forget
to be in good spirits and be charitable toward
your sister.”
Here is another story.
Alice returns home all worked up. “Mommy,
Marie no longer has her pink pen because Anne
stole it from her. All the girls are sure it was Anne
since she loves pink pens!” “Here we go again,”
sighs Mom. Now a story of theft at school…and
what if it’s true? Although remaining prudent, she
simply replies “I don’t like hearing tattletales.”
However, she will make an inquiry with her
teacher. The nun knows the students in her
class well and can quickly clarify the situation.
“Marie has certainly lost her pen somewhere, it
would not be the first time she has misplaced
her belongings. As for Anne, she is a little girl
going through a growth spurt, rather clumsy, and
thus not well-liked by her classmates. But she is
not a thief. I am concerned that Alice might need
a lesson on respecting the reputation of others.”
That very night, the mom summons Alice:
“Yesterday, you told me that Anne had stolen
Marie’s pen. Did you see her do it?”
“No Mommy, but Anne really likes pink pens.”
“That is not a reason to accuse her! You also
like pink pens, but that does not mean you’re
going to steal them. You accused Anne of being
a thief without cause. Do you know what this is
called?”
“No, Mommy.”

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“It’s a rash judgment that should not be made.
Now, all the girls at school are saying that Anne
is a thief. Would you like it if everyone was saying
that you were a thief, even though it’s not true?”
“I am not a thief!”
“Well, don’t you see, Anne isn’t either. You
behaved poorly toward her. Tomorrow, you
are going to make things better with Anne by
affirming that she, in fact, is not a thief and will
then proceed to say that you will play with her at
recess.”
The eighth commandment forbids us from
revealing any evil committed by another without
just cause. However, there are four instances
where a child not only can, but must tell when
he has witnessed another sinning. These
circumstances are not considered “useless”
when made known because they allow for adults
to quickly put an end to the grave scandal in
question. They are blasphemy, cruelty, sabotage,
and impurity.
For example, when Alan returns home from
boarding school, he says, “Mom, I’m rather
disgusted by what Louis did. He found a way to
keep his cell phone at school and then proceeded
to privately look at certain sites at night with
the other boys in the dormitory. To say the least,
the sites were rather lewd…” Some questions
assure the mother of the severity of what took
place. “Alan, you did the right thing by talking
to me because it is very serious and considered
a scandal. This means that it incites others to
sin as well. Now that you’ve spoken to me about
this and fulfilled your duty, I would like you to
forget about it and not talk about the situation
with others. And remember, avoid bad classmates
like the plague.” Henceforth, Alan’s Mom has the
unpleasant duty of going to the school, in the
absence of her child. She must put forward the
information given her to the school director, and
only him, then let him handle the problem.
The tongue is a small part of our body but it
can light a huge fire! In the epistle of Saint John,
we read “If a man does not sin in word, he is
perfect.” It is this perfection that we want and
strive toward for our children.

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Christian Culture

By Fr. Juan Carlos Iscara, SSPX

What is the virtue of piety?
The word piety can be used in many different
senses: a) as a synonym of devotion, religiosity,
dedication to the things of the worship of God;
and so we speak of pious or devout people; b) as
equivalent to compassion or mercy; and so we
say: “Lord, have mercy on us”; c) to designate a
special virtue derived from justice, the virtue of
piety; and d) referring to one of the seven gifts of
the Holy Spirit, the gift of piety.
As a special virtue, derived from justice, it can
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be defined as a supernatural habit that inclines us
to pay our parents, our country and all those who
are related to them the honor and service due (IIII, q. 101, art. 3).
St. Thomas succinctly explains it (II-II, q. 101,
art.1): “Man becomes a debtor to other men
in various ways, according to their various
excellence and the various benefits received from
them. On both counts God holds first place, for
He is supremely excellent, and is for us the first
principle of being and government. On the second
place, the principles of our being and government

are our parents and our country, that have given
us birth and nourishment. Consequently man
is debtor chiefly to his parents and his country,
after God. Wherefore just as it belongs to religion
to give worship to God, so does it belong to piety,
in the second place, to give worship to one’s
parents and one’s country. The worship due to
our parents includes the worship given to all
our kindred, since our kinsfolk are those who
descend from the same parents, according to the
Philosopher (Ethic. viii, 12). The worship given
to our country includes homage to all our fellowcitizens and to all the friends of our country.
Therefore piety extends chiefly to these.”
By extension, those who form the same
spiritual family in a religious order, call
themselves brothers and sisters and whose
founder is called the religious father. They too
deserve the same honor and service.
Piety differs from virtues connected to it. The
first of these is charity, which unites the entire
human race with God, whereas piety unites only
those belonging to the same trunk or common
family line. Next comes legal justice, that is to
say the obedience which subjects owe to the
law. This justice refers to the fatherland seen as
the common good pursued by all citizens. On
the other hand, piety refers to the fatherland as
the origin of one’s own existence. And because
the fatherland always preserves this second
aspect in relation to us, it must be concluded
that man, even if he has acquired citizenship in
another country, is always obliged to preserve
piety towards his original country, while he is no
longer obliged to the duties proceeding from legal
justice, since he has ceased to be a subject of the
government of his country.
Since piety is a special virtue, it must be
concluded that the sins committed against it
are also special sins, which must be expressly
declared in confession. Thus, hitting or
mistreating the father or mother is a special sin
against piety that is different and much more
serious than hitting a strange man. Something
similar must be said of the sins that are
committed against the homeland as such and
against relatives or blood relatives.
Two sins oppose piety towards our own
family, one by excess and the other by defect.

Exaggerated love for relatives is opposed by
excess to piety (II-II, q. 101, art. 4), which would
lead to leaving unfulfilled duties higher than
those owed to them (e.g., whoever renounces
to follow his religious or priestly vocation for
the sole reason of not upsetting his family). By
defect, it is impiety, the neglect of the duties of
honor, reverence, economic or spiritual help, etc.,
when one is able to fulfill them.
Exaggerated nationalism, despising in words
or deeds all other nations, is opposed by excess
to piety for our own country. By defect, it is
the so-called cosmopolitanism of men without
a country, whose watchword is the old pagan
adage, Ubi bene, ibi patria, “Where I am well,
comfortable, there is my country.”

What is exactly the obligation
imposed by the second
precept of the Church?
Popular catechisms usually enunciate this
precept as “to confess at least once a year
or earlier if there is danger of death or if one
has to receive Communion.” The 1917 Code of
Canon Law is more detailed in its prescriptions.
“All members of the faithful of either sex after
attaining the years of discretion, that is, the use
of reason, are bound faithfully to confess all their
sins at least once a year” (Canon 906).
This precept binds only those who have
mortal sins on their conscience, since there is no
obligation to confess venial sins.
It obliges all those who have reached the use
of reason—that is, it binds children as soon as
they are capable of committing mortal sin, even if
they have not reached the age of seven, and they
are not excused because they have not made their
first Communion. If they have made their first
Communion, children are bound by both this
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Christian Culture
precept and that of annual Communion, even if
they have not attained the age of seven years.
Anyone who makes a sacrilegious or
voluntarily invalid confession does not comply
with it the precept of confessing his sins.
Canon law does not specify when the space
of one year begins. It is generally understood to
mean the common designation of a year from
January to December. Some authors hold that
it means from Easter to Easter; others within
a year after the commission of a mortal sin.
Practically, the people who go to confession
and Holy Communion during the time set for
the Easter duty fulfill both obligations of annual
confession and Easter Communion.
In danger of death, it is obligatory if there is
consciousness of mortal sin, on two counts. First,
because of the obligation that every Christian has
to do everything he can to save his soul. Now, he
who, being able to confess, does not want to do
so, cannot obtain forgiveness of his sins, even if
he does an act of contrition, which in this case
is purely illusory, since contrition only has value
in relation to the Sacrament of Penance that the
sinner proposes to receive. Secondly, confession
is mandatory on account of the precept of
receiving the viaticum, which is seriously
binding and which cannot be received without
prior confession of mortal sins. If the person can
make it to confession, a simple act of contrition is
not sufficient.
The confession before Communion is not
mandatory if one is not aware of mortal sin. But if
there is consciousness of serious sin, by express
prohibition of the Church (Canon 856), the
simple act of contrition is not enough, however
intense it may be, unless two circumstances are
combined—urgent need and lack of confessor.
This case could occur, for example, when a
person, already at the communion rail and unable
to leave without attracting the attention of others,
suddenly remembers that he has a mortal sin, or
if a priest, having to celebrate Holy Mass so that
the faithful may fulfill the precept, does not have
another priest to hear his confession. In these
cases, an act of perfect contrition could be made
before communion or celebration, but always
with the obligation to confess later.

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Are there any circumstances
in which the Sacraments
of the Church could be
administered to non-Catholics?
Canon 731 §2 clearly states that “It is forbidden
that the Sacraments of the Church be ministered
to heretics and schismatics, even if they ask for
them and are in good faith, unless beforehand,
rejecting their errors, they are reconciled with
the Church.”
All canonists and moralists agree that those
who are heretics or schismatics and know that
they are wrong, cannot be given the Sacraments
of the Church unless they renounce their errors
and are reconciled with the Church. Numerous
decrees of the Holy Office put this point beyond
controversy.
Controversy turns about those (baptized)
Christians who are separated from the Church
in good faith. It is evident that the Church
cannot, as a rule, allow the administration of the
Sacraments to non-Catholics. This would deny
her very principles. The Sacraments are offered
to those who are willing to live as the Church
teaches.
Regarding those non-Catholics who are in good
health the prohibition to give the Sacraments
is absolute. But if they are in danger of death it
seems there may be an exception.
The Holy Office, July 20, 1898, permitted the
administration of the Sacraments to heretics and
schismatics provided that they were in good faith
and had given at least a probable sign of that good
faith, and provided that all scandal were avoided.
If they are unconscious, the Holy Office
declared, May 26, 1916, that conditional
absolution and Extreme Unction may be given if
one can judge from the circumstances that the
schismatic has at least implicitly rejected his

errors; scandal to Catholics present should be
prevented by the declaration of the priest that
the Church supposes that the person in his last
moments of consciousness desired to return to
the unity of the faith.
It must be stated, however, that it is very
questionable whether the administration of the
Sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction (the
two Sacraments about which there is question
in the case of non-Catholics in danger of death)
does avail anything in many cases. The principal
difficulty centers on the intention necessary for
the valid reception of the Sacraments.
Regarding Protestants, as they do not believe
in the Sacraments, especially of Penance and
Extreme Unction, their case is not one of a mere
lack of faith. They positively reject the Catholic
teaching. How, even when coupled with a general
sorrow for their sins, a general will and intention
to do all that God requires of them is a sufficient
intention to receive these Sacraments is difficult
to understand since the very foundation of such
an intention is lacking. It is supposed that they
would wish to receive the Sacraments if they

knew that they were Sacraments, and if they
knew that God wanted them to receive them. As
actually they do not know or do not believe, it is
difficult to understand how they can have a will
or intention concerning something which they
do not know or believe. There does not seem
to be possible even an implied intention. Hence
the decrees of the Holy Office required at least a
probable sign of good faith and thus, at least from
the circumstances, implicit rejection of errors.

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75

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Catechism

Part Six: Prof. Felix Otten, O.P. and C.F. Pauwels, O.P.

Editor’s Note: This article continues the series of straightforward responses to frequently-encountered questions and objections
concerning the Catholic Faith. The questions and answers are adapted from Professor Felix Otten, O.P. and C.F. Pauwels, O.P.’s
The Most Frequently Encountered Difficulties, published originally in Dutch in 1939.

Catholics believe that the Bible is
God’s word. If this were true, there
could be no error or inaccuracy in
the Bible. How, then, is it possible
that many of the statements of
the Bible contradict the results of
science?
Not only Catholics but also believing
Protestants and Orthodox regard Holy
Scripture as God’s word, written under God’s
supernatural inspiration. From this they draw
the conclusion that everything that is written

in the Holy Scriptures is infallibly true, because
under the inspiration of the true God no error
can be written down. On the other hand, they
also understand the Bible as a gift from God.
Therefore, Catholics deny from the outset that
revelation could conflict with the data and
results of real science. The Bible can of course
deviate from unfinished and imperfect science,
from sham knowledge such as preliminary
assumptions, premature conclusions, and
unproven claims.
However, in order to be able to judge whether
there really is a difference between the teachings
of Holy Scripture and the results of science,
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Catechism
one must of course first be sure that one knows
the true meaning of the Bible and the correct
meaning of it. And for that, one must first know
what the sacred writer intended to say.
The writers who compiled the Holy Scriptures
under the inspiration of God were not dead
but living instruments of God; they knew that
and what they wrote, and they wrote for a
purpose. And so the Holy Scriptures are only
infallibly true in the sense in which the authors
intended to speak.
A simple example, of course, is when they
use imagery and mention God’s eyes and hands.
They do not mean to teach that God has eyes and
hands in a literal sense; and so that expression
is infallibly true only in the way that imagery
is true. Nowadays, it is claimed that people
have found scientific and historical errors and
inaccuracies in Holy Scripture. For example,
some claim the Bible is mistaken about the origin
of the world in six days. So the question is: what
was the intention of the sacred writers regarding
science and history? After all, only then can we
decide what they wanted to learn about it.
Now we cannot explain here in a few words
how we can find out the correct intention of the
sacred writers on this matter. That question is
quite complicated and entire books have been
written about it. We can say that the Bible is a
religious book written for a religious and not
for a scientific purpose. And if we then read in
Holy Scripture, for example, that certain animal
species are classified among the ruminant
animals, or if we find there mentioned how many
thousands of soldiers a king of Assyria goes
to war with, we can safely say that the writers
conform to then-current beliefs in citing those
particulars. They did not wish to lead the readers’
attention through secondary matters. And if they
do not intend to teach anything about nature
or about the past, then they are not speaking
infallible truth about it.
This attention to the intentions of the sacred
writers is the general principle by which, in most
cases, the question of apparent contradictions
between Scripture and science can be
resolved. Incidentally, one must of course study
each case individually. Scripture and science in
most cases can be reconciled.
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Catholics also accept Tradition in
addition to the Bible. Does this not
conflict with the Book of Revelation,
which says, “If any man add anything
to this book, God will add to him
the plagues which are written in this
book?”
The reason why Catholics adopt Holy Tradition
in addition to Holy Scripture is this: they do not
believe that all the truths revealed to us by God
are recorded in the Bible. Then there must be
another means by which we can know revelation,
another source from which we can draw. That is
then Holy Tradition.
The Holy Scriptures are not at all in the
nature of a book that wants to convey all truths
completely. This is most evident in the New
Testament. The Apostle Paul only writes his
letters in response to difficulties that arose in the
churches he founded. He does not give a complete
treatise anywhere. None of the Evangelists wrote
a full life of Christ.
And the facts prove the opposite. Some truths
of faith, also accepted by Protestants, are not
mentioned in the Bible. Nowhere does the Holy
Scriptures speak, for example, about observing
Sunday as the day of the Lord instead of the
Sabbath. Nothing is said anywhere about the
baptism of small children, and so forth. And so
Catholics assume that not all revealed truths
were written under God’s inspiration, but that
some were communicated orally and only later
recorded in uninspired ecclesiastical literature.
The quoted text does not argue at all against
the existence of Holy Tradition. John seeks
the conscious words at the end of the Book of
Revelation to testify that this prophecy was to be
communicated unchanged to the seven churches
of Asia. He forbids adding anything to be added
to it, as if it were part of his writings. And in the
next verse he also forbids omitting anything from
the Book of Revelation. So his words refer only to
his own book. Therefore, he also threatens with
the plagues recorded in that book.

The Bible is God’s word, and nothing
may be added to it. Yet Catholics
have done so: the Catholic Bible
contains several books which
are missing from the Protestant
editions. And so the Catholics equate
apocryphal books with God’s word.
The fact is, a Catholic edition of the Bible
says more than a Protestant one. In the latter,
several books, which are to be found in the
former, are completely missing, e.g., the Book of
Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Sirach. And from
other books, e.g., Daniel and Esther, important
fragments are missing.
Now there is only one inspiration of God and
one Holy Scripture; and they cannot differ for
Catholics and Protestants. However, since God
did not give us the complete Bible all at once,
complete in one tome, there may be disagreement
as to whether a particular book is “canonical,”
that is, should be on the canon or list of inspired
books, and so must be included in the Bible.
And we are dealing with that disagreement here.
The books about which that disagreement
exists were indeed written under God’s
inspiration, but in the early centuries (and as
far as the Old Testament books are concerned,
also among the Jews) some questioned this
inspiration. However, the greater majority of
Christians did not hesitate to include those books
until the reformers rejected them. In view of that
disagreement in the early centuries, Catholics
call these books “deuterocanonical”; but that
name means nothing with respect to them being
inspired.
The Protestants call these books “apocryphal”
or unreal. That does not mean that they deny
those books any value. The Synod of Dordt
prescribed that they should be included as an
appendix in the Bible. Catholics also speak of
apocryphal books, but by that they meant quite
different ones which are also rejected by the
Protestants such as the so-called Gospel of Peter.

79

Theological Studies

Catholic
Society vs.
the Liberal
Dis-Society
By A. Laroche

These past few years, various sociologists have
considered the condition of our society and they all
agree that it has shattered. The title of a book by
Jérôme Fourquet, a political analyst and director of
the Opinion department for the IFOP,1 is eloquent:
The French Archipelago, The Birth of a Multiple and
Divided Nation.2 France has become an archipelago,
that is to say, a series of islands, a collection of
juxtaposed communities that no longer have much
of anything in common with each, or even much of
anything to say to each other because they do not
have any idea of a common good.
Dominique Schnapper gave the same analysis in
Providential Democracy, An Essay on Contemporary
Equality,3 pointing out that the Providence State
had fabricated a society that no longer has anything
social about it. In other words, sovereign individualism and communitarianism place each man on

80

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his own island or in his own bubble, but there is no
longer a common good that transcends particular
interests and can create a bond—other than an
economic bond—between individuals. And yet we
are political animals, made to live in society, to have
social bonds—and not only commercial bonds; we
need to share common values, a common good,
and that is precisely what it disappearing.
Dominique Schnapper’s writings follow in the
footsteps of another sociologist, Marcel Gauchet,
who analyzed in depth what he called the “departure from the religious.” In fact, this departure from
the religious is more of a secularization, a deChristianization and sometimes even a return to a
form of paganism. Dominique Schnapper said that
in the face of this secularization, there had been attempts to replace the common good; they no longer
used religion, but they tried to deify the republican

idea, to erect a revolutionary idol. . . . It is interesting
to see that these substitute transcendencies are
anything but transcendent, and in the end these
idols were broken. D. Schnapper, who can hardly
be taxed with traditionalism, herself admitted that
these attempted substitutions no longer work. It is
no longer possible to build a society with the idols
venerated by the “black hussars” of the Republic,
Jules Ferry’s lay schoolteachers whose purpose
was to weaken the authority of the parish priests
over credulous minds.
A Sociological Observation
Jérôme Fourquet’s book is not without interest;
it is not a defense, but rather a sociological study
intended to be neutral. The author does not choose
sides, he simply comments, describes, presents the
facts. His only question is when France became an
“archipelago,” a “multiple and divided nation.” And
he observes that it was when the “Catholic matrix”
disappeared; from then on, everything started to
fall apart. That was when the Muslim community,
the Jewish community, the Catholic community, the
homosexual community, the organic community,
the vegan community all appeared. . . . But they
ignore each other.
Jérôme Fourquet bases his reflections on those
of another author who considers more specifically
the religious phenomenon, Guillaume Cuchet, in
his book How Our World Ceased to Be Christian, 4
published by Seuil editions in 2018. His question
is precisely at what moment there was a vertiginous drop in religious practice, a sharp decrease in
vocations, and a decadence in religious instruction.
Guillaume Cuchet observes that this all came about
around 1962-1965, during the Council. He does not
conclude there is a causal link, but he does admit
that the two facts seem quite close.
This sheds an interesting light on Jérôme
Fourquet’s question about France becoming an
archipelago, for Guillaume Cuchet writes that with
the Council, people saw “a sort of given freedom.”
And it is true that ever since the sixties, there is no
longer any talk of the Last Ends or Confession, and
no one says that attending Sunday Mass is mandatory under pain of sin. And if we wish to establish
a connection—if not a causal link—between the
Council and the present state of de-Christianization, Conciliar religious freedom is an element that

cannot be overlooked.
In theory, this religious freedom sought to redefine the relations between Church and State along
the lines of a lay model, with the State no longer
obliged to confess any faith; but Guillaume Cuchet
suggests that Catholics applied this religious freedom first of all to themselves. And the consequences they drew from it were the freedom to believe
whatever they want and to practice whenever they
want.
In parallel with these studies on the de-Christianization and destruction of the social bond, Yann
Raison du Cleuziou’s book A Catholic CounterRevolution: The Origins of the Protest for All5 seeks
to highlight a reaction. The author sees this reaction
in those he calls “observing Christians,” conservative conciliar Christians in the broad sense. They
can be recognized by a certain distrust for the
catechism taught in parishes which leads them to
review their catechism at home, and by a distrustful
attitude towards schools, even subsidized schools,
leading them to prefer non-subsidized schools.
These sociological analyses offer no explanation.
They simply describe what has happened. But let
us now consider whether philosophy can offer an
answer not to the question “how” but to the question “why?”
A Philosophical Cause?
Inspired by Paul Valéry who spoke crudely of a
“termite mound,” the realist philosopher Marcel de
Corte speaks of a “dis-society” rather than of an
“archipelago.” The term is stronger and more precise than the sociologistic paraphrase, “no longer a
society.”
In his work entitled On Dis-Society, 6 Marcel
de Corte says that man is not, as Jean-Jacques
Rousseau claimed, a perfect and solitary being,
singular and sovereign; man is not an autonomous
being. We live as we are born, and we are born dependent on our parents, dependent on our neighbor; we cannot live alone. We are social beings by
nature, political animals, which means that the political institution is not a social contract and that we
do not forego our freedom in order to live together:
we are bound by nature to live together.
When it comes down to it, this means that life in
society is not an insult to our dignity, it is in keeping with our nature. It is not something that goes

81

Theological Studies
against our freedom. It may go against our whims,
absolutely! It may go against our freedom disordered by original sin, indeed! But life in society is in
itself in keeping with our nature.
This may seem like a truism, but it is a reality that
is denied today. Our broken society is based on an
individualism in which each person refuses a common good that would oblige him to sacrifice his particular interests. When there is no more transcendency, when no one preaches about the afterlife
anymore because Heaven is more or less on earth,
men are no longer able to consent to a sacrifice in
view of a superior good. When the Catholic matrix
disappears, every man is left to himself.
Marcel de Corte says we need to return to what
is real—to this social reality—and put things back in
their proper place. The present disorder is that the
economy has taken over; we even speak of political
economy. How do we judge a politician? Based on
his capacity to increase our spending power. What
is the indicator that the French are in good spirits?
Their ability to consume.
This does not mean the economy should be
disregarded, but that politics and politicians need
to be put back in their proper place. Politicians
are there to watch over the common good and the
common good is not a juxtaposition of all these essentially economic particular goods. The economy
does have a role, but it is a secondary role and
belongs more to the private domain. It is there to
ensure material well-being. Today, according to
Marcel de Corte, economy and politics are completely upside-down.
Solzhenitsyn made exactly the same remark
when he discovered the United States where he
gave his famous Harvard Address in 1978. He denounced this freedom he did not want, liberal freedom: “I refer to the prevailing Western view of the
world which was first born during the Renaissance
and found its political expression from the period of
the Enlightenment. It became the basis for government and social science and could be defined as rationalistic humanism or humanistic autonomy: the
proclaimed and enforced autonomy of man from
any higher force above him. It could also be called
anthropocentricity, with man seen as the center of
everything that exists.”
He went on to show the close connection between autonomy and economism: “This human82

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March - April 2021

istic way of thinking, which had imposed on us its
guidance, did not admit the existence of intrinsic
evil in man (a consequence of original sin) nor did it
see any higher task than the attainment of happiness on earth. It based modern Western civilization on the dangerous trend to worship man and
his material needs. Everything beyond physical
well-being and accumulation of material goods, all
other human requirements and characteristics of a
subtler and higher nature, were left outside the area
of attention of state and social systems, as if human
life did not have any superior sense.”
“Everything beyond,” which the Catholic matrix kept in mind: the life of grace and eternal life
that are the heart of Christianity and for which
Solzhenitsyn’s nostalgia is palpable.
The illustrious Russian dissident also speaks
of “a total liberation from the moral heritage of
Christian centuries with their great reserves of
mercy and sacrifice. State systems were becoming
increasingly and totally materialistic. The West ended up by truly enforcing human rights, sometimes
even excessively, but man’s sense of responsibility
to God and society grew dimmer and dimmer. In
the past decades, the legalistically selfish aspect
of Western approach and thinking has reached its
final dimension and the world wound up in a harsh
spiritual crisis and a political impasse.” The connection is very interesting: a political impasse and
a spiritual crisis. It is not just any connection; one is
the cause and the other the effect. There is no way
out of the political dead end—archipelago or dissociety—if we do not work to resolve the spiritual
crisis.
Instaurare Omnia in Christo
How to proceed practically speaking? Marcel
de Corte says we need to put the economy back
in its proper place, reaffirm our profoundly social
nature and stop considering the constraints life in
society imposes upon us as unjust. If we wish to
go further and truly strive to resolve the spiritual
crisis, Thomistic philosophy teaches that the very
first thing to be done is to put the spiritual realm
back in its proper place, and therefore keep one
very important thing in mind: stat crux. This remark
will doubtless surprise those who think politics only
play out in ballot boxes and grocery carts.
Marcel de Corte regrets that we do not have this

profoundly Christian idea of the Cross that stands
still “while the whole world revolves.” It is a transcendent, immobile spiritual reality that does not
change or evolve. By its very nature, a lighthouse is
anything but mobile. Because we have an evolutionistic idea according to which everything changes
and disappears in the end, we are no longer capable
today of conceiving an inalterable sovereign good or
a common good above strictly particular interests.
We are fascinated by the changes on the surface
of things, in the froth of everyday life. We no longer
see the profound substance. We urgently need to
return to what is real, both on the natural and on the
supernatural level.
This return is a conversion, a metanoia. Marcel de
Corte quotes the Carthusian motto. We will let one
of them explain how to accomplish this return to
“the only necessary thing” that would make it possible to put the many secondary things in their proper
place (cf. Lk. 10:42) and the search for the Kingdom
of God and His justice that will allow us to receive
“everything else over and above” (cf. Mt. 6:33)—everything else: political, economic, cultural. . . .
This Carthusian addresses the one and triune God as follows, “You did not wish to keep for
yourself that communication that unites all Three
of You in the one and infinite bosom: You pour it
out upon us. It is ‘the water that springs up into life
everlasting’ (Jn. 4:14). It forms ‘the rivers that flow
in the spiritual entrails of the souls who receive the
Holy Spirit and resonate with the breath of Love’
(Jn. 7:38-39). It beats against the closed doors
of the souls who refuse it, it sometimes breaks
these doors with its movement that overcomes all
resistance. Sometimes it waits a long time before
flooding all the powers; it creeps in imperceptibly
through the mountains, the hills, the hard rocks;
it can scarcely be seen; the bushes cover its silent
movement. And yet it moves forward if it can, it
makes a bed for itself, narrow and contested at
first, then larger and larger, full to the brim. What
a strange mystery I seek to penetrate with these
analogies! A reality more true, as close as myself,
more intimate in me that the realities to which I
compare it, but I am scarcely aware of it because
I have slipped into the sensitive realm and it is a
spiritual reality, and yet I perceive it more and more
when I follow it with the eyes of my soul sharpened
by a desire that is already love and that only the love

infinitely present in me was able to arouse.”7
That is the lofty and profound reality that gives
meaning to men’s lives and without which their actions are but disordered agitation, vain and sterile.
In this kingdom of grace is accomplished in its
proper place, that is to say, “over and above,” the
political, economic and cultural work of civilization.
If we are not yet convinced, we need only recall that
civilization is not technical progress—or iPhones or
fast trains, but rather, as Baudelaire put it, “the decrease in the traces of original sin.” Any abdication
in this realm can only strengthen the dis-society or
archipelago, but everything that is accomplished
against the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life (cf. Jn.
2:16) contributes to building Catholic society—often
modestly, but always effectively.

1

IFOP = The Institut français d’opinion publique is an international
polling and market research firm

2

L’Archipel français, naissance d’une nation multiple et divisée,
Seuil 2019.

2

La Démocratie providentielle. Essai sur l’égalité
contemporaine, Gallimard, “NRF Essais,” 2002.

3

Comment notre monde a cessé d’être chrétien.

4

Une contre-révolution catholique. Aux origins de La manif pour
tous, Seuil, 2019.,

5

De la dissociété, Rémi Perrin, 2002.

6

Dom Augustin Guillerand, Silence Cartusien, Regard d’âme.

83

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The
Last
Word
Dear Reader,
In a land far to the north, the druids and witch-doctors were nervous. The prophets
had foretold the coming of a foreigner bringing a strange religion:
“Pole-headed shall come from over the sea,
His staff crook-headed, his garment hole-headed,
His servants shall sit in the east of his house,
And they shall say amen amen.”
Little did they know! “Crook-headed” indeed…a crozier! “Garment hole-headed”…a
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worldliness of Roman Britain. “And he watched over me before I knew him…and consoled
me as a father would his son,” he later wrote in his Confession. He found God. He escaped, never to go back, he thought…
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sons and the daughters of the chieftains are to be seen as monks and virgins of Christ.”
The Island of Saints and Scholars! Cradle of the re-Christianized Europe…until the
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And the heretical English conquered the world for earthly glory—even as far as the
ends of the earth. And wherever the English went, they were followed by the sons of
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Fr. David Sherry

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