Tradcast Express
Tradcast Express, it's Saturday, December 28th, 2019.
It's amazing how many people out there try to defend the traditional Catholic faith
by disregarding and contradicting the traditional Catholic faith.
Case in point, the Hermits of Westray, Scotland.
Earlier this year, I think it was around May,
they published a declaration on their website, The Trumpeteer,
in which they formally severed their communion with Francis.
Not, mind you, while pointing out that he cannot be the Pope of the Catholic Church
and therefore they're withdrawing their communion with him,
but rather while still fully accepting him as a legitimate Pope.
Among the things they wrote in that declaration, entitled with great grief, is the following.
Quote,
The bride has become the harlot of old.
Tragically, the head of the church on earth, Pope Francis, by his utterances, his behavior,
his teaching and his actions, has shown himself to be indeed a great heretic.
We who are watchmen for the church, who must speak from the watchtower of truth,
have no option but to withdraw our obedience from Pope Francis
and sever communion with the Holy See.
We do this.
With great fear and trepidation, but we cannot take part in the Pope's sin.
This is not an act of schism, nor is it an act of defiance.
It is an act of real prudence.
For no one in their right mind would stay in a burning building,
nor would they silently go down with a sinking ship.
The Holy Roman Church over the last 60 years is being transformed inexorably
into the false church prophesied by Blessed Anna Kempel,
Catherine Emmerich.
The church's structures and her teachings have been infected by heresy and wrongdoing,
and those who are of the church of Christ must come out of the false church,
just as the early Christians were miraculously called out of Jerusalem
before it was destroyed in A.D. 70.
Truly, these are desperate times which require desperate measures.
We have most reluctantly had to take such a drastic stand,
because the successors of the apostles, namely the bishops,
faced with the horror of an apostate pope,
have failed to defend the gates of the church,
as the hordes of hell ransack so much of the city of God."
Now, assuming for a minute that Francis were a true pope,
and his modernist sect were the Catholic Church,
then what these hermits just said in that declaration is a formal act of schism.
And in any case, it is loathsome,
for it claims that the Catholic Church can defect,
that it can be prudent to withdraw from communion with the Roman pontiff,
when that is the very definition of schism,
and it claims that the Bride of Christ has become a prostitute.
That is blasphemy.
In his encyclical Mortalium Animus,
which you would think the supposed defenders of traditional Catholicism are familiar with,
Pope Pius XI wrote,
quote,
During the lapse of centuries,
the mystical spouse of Christ has never been contaminated,
nor can she ever in the future be contaminated.
Unquote.
And then the pope quotes St. Cyprian as follows,
quote,
The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her spouse.
She is incorrupt and modest.
She knows but one dwelling.
She guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely,
and modestly.
Unquote.
That's Mortalium Animus, paragraph number 10.
In the very next paragraph, the same Pope Pius XI writes,
quote,
Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ,
no man can be or remain who does not accept,
recognize, and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors.
Unquote.
So much for recognize and resist.
The true teaching is recognize and obey.
In 1908, in his apostolic letter Tuum Illud,
Pope St. Pius X had taught, quote,
What is of highest importance to the safeguarding of Catholic truth
is to follow and obey the successor of St. Peter with the greatest faith.
Unquote.
And of course, we all know the dogmatic declaration by Pope Boniface VIII
in the Bull Unam Sanctam,
in the year 1302.
Quote,
Well, in any case, the reason I'm bringing up this declaration now
is that just a few days ago, on Christmas Eve, December 24th,
the hermits received a formal decree of excommunication
from the Novus Ordo bishop,
in whose diocese,
they reside,
Mr. Brian McGee.
And now, apparently, the hermits are aghast.
Well, duh.
What were they thinking?
Of course they're going to be excommunicated
by the man they think is their legitimate bishop
if they declare straight up that they're withdrawing from communion
with the man they all acknowledge to be the vicar of Christ.
Why should this be surprising?
And why are they upset?
They themselves had already declared
that their...
They're out of communion with the entity
their bishop is in communion with,
so obviously they've also withdrawn
from communion with their bishop.
So the bishop,
well, he's a layman, of course,
but he's officially their bishop,
is simply ratifying from his end
that they have indeed separated themselves
from what both sides believe to be
the Catholic communion.
In a response to the decree of excommunication,
the hermits write to Mr. McGee,
quote,
that you should have sent it so close to Christmas
shows a heartlessness that does you no credit.
Unquote.
That is absurd.
They themselves had already declared
that they have no communion
with what they believe to be the Holy See.
And so they're the ones who cut themselves off.
That was back in May,
or maybe it was April.
And the Novus Ordo bishop waited until late December
to issue a decree of excommunication.
If anything,
you could say that was pretty...
pretty lenient.
Further on in their response to the decree,
the hermits, of course,
point out that they are defiant as ever
and retract nothing of what they said
in their original declaration.
In fact,
they berate their bishop
for not denouncing Francis
for his heresies and stuff.
And of course,
they're entirely right in doing that.
But the point is that they cannot hold
that Francis teaches heresy and apostasy
in his magisterium
and still be the pope.
Nor can they hold that the Catholic Church
has defiance,
as they obviously are saying,
nor can they withdraw from submission
to the person they still hold
as the legitimate vicar of Christ on earth.
They cannot do any of that
without themselves denying
the traditional Catholic faith
that they, quite rightly,
accuse Francis of denying.
And so it's ironic to an absurd degree
that in their reply,
they accuse Francis
of being a great betrayer of the faith
when they themselves,
are betraying it.
They're just betraying it
with regard to different dogmas
than Francis.
But if you're a heretic,
you're a heretic and not a Catholic.
It doesn't matter,
as far as that goes,
whether you're a heretic
for denying the papacy
or the Immaculate Conception
or the indissolubility of marriage.
The Hermits' last sentence
in their response
to the decree of excommunication reads,
quote,
There is nothing more to say
and so we declare your excommunication
as utterly worthless
and totally null and void.
Unquote.
Funny, that's the same people
who typically accuse
Sedevacanists of private judgment.
And here they are,
possessing no authority whatsoever,
presuming to declare
their bishop's decree of excommunication
to be null and void.
Yeah, well, I think pretty much
all heretics consider
their own excommunications
to be worthless.
And although it's true
that it's possible
for a bishop to declare
an excommunication unjustly,
in which case it is of no effect,
nevertheless, in this case,
the excommunication isn't unjust,
if we suppose for a moment
that McGee were the lawful bishop
with the power to excommunicate.
And even if it were unjust,
the Hermits have no power
to declare it void.
Furthermore,
and this is where it pays,
once again,
to be actually somewhat familiar
with the traditional Catholic faith
when claims are made,
to be defending and upholding,
Pope Clement XI condemned
the teaching of the Jansenist
Pascal Quesnel
that an unjust excommunication
need not be feared.
Listen to this.
Quote,
The fear of an unjust excommunication
should never hinder us
from fulfilling our duty.
Never are we separated
from the Church,
even when by the wickedness of men
we seem to be expelled from it
as long as we are attached to God
to Jesus Christ
and to the Church herself
by charity.
Unquote.
That is condemned
by Clement XI.
And another one.
Quote,
To suffer in peace
an excommunication
and an unjust anathema
rather than betray truth
is to imitate St. Paul,
far be it from rebelling
against authority
or of destroying unity.
Unquote.
Again,
this too was condemned
by Pope Clement XI
on September 8th, 1713
in the Apostolic Constitution
Unigenitus.
You can look that up for yourselves
in Denzinger numbers 1441 and 42.
Now let me finish
by quoting you
some beautiful passages
from the encyclical letter
Quartus Supra
of Pope Pius IX.
It is unfortunately
much too little known
among traditionalists
and yet it is
of the greatest importance
and highly relevant
to what we're discussing here.
The document reads
like it was written
specifically
to counter and condemn
the Society of St. Pius X
and other recognize
and resist proponents.
Here are some excerpts.
Quote,
It has always been
the custom of heretics
and schismatics
to call themselves Catholics
and to proclaim
their many excellences
in order to lead peoples
and princes into error.
For any man
to be able to prove
his Catholic faith
and affirm that he is
truly a Catholic
he must be able
to convince
the Apostolic See of this
for this See is predominant
and with it
the faithful of the whole Church
should agree.
And the man who abandons
the See of Peter
can only be falsely confident
that he is in the Church.
Whoever the Roman pontiff
judges to be a schismatic
for his faith
for not expressly admitting
and reverencing his power
must stop calling himself Catholic.
But if one should be afraid
even of an unjust condemnation
by one's bishop
what must be said
of those men
who have been condemned
for rebelling against their bishop
and this Apostolic See
and tearing to pieces
as they are now doing
by a new schism
the seamless garment of Christ
which is the Church.
The Catholic Church
has always regarded
as schismatic
those who obstinately oppose
the lawful prelice of the Church
and in particular
the chief shepherd of all.
Unquote.
Again, that was
Pope Pius IX
Encyclical Quartus Supra
of 1873.
Go to papalincyclicals.net
and read the whole thing
and ask yourself
why you were told
about this encyclical
by a Sedevacantist
and not by a Catholic.
Not by your favorite
recognize-and-resist pundit.
Diabolical disorientation.
Ah, that must be the reason.
Tradcast Express
is a production of
Novos Ordo Watch.
Check us out at
tradcast.org
and if you like what we're doing
please consider making
a tax-deductible contribution
at
novosordowatch.org
slash donate.