NOVUS ORDO SERVICE: A PROTESTANTIZED LITURGY OF THE COUNTER-CHURCH

INTRODUCTION

It is my contention that the Second Vatican Council(1962-65) was a robber council, hijacked by the worst enemies of the Church—Communists, Freemasons and Protestants—using modernist clerics as a front. It inaugurated the general apostasy at the topmost echelons of ecclesiastical power. The new mass, or novus ordo, or people’s mass or mass of Paul V1 as it is variously called is the liturgical expression of this spirit of rebellion. Within the Catholic Church in the 1960s. It is NOT the Catholic Mass but a half-Catholic and half-Protestant service designed to lead unsuspecting Catholics into the ecumenical new world order. In this paper, I intend to prove that the novus ordo mass is the triumph of the religion of Martin Luther—the German arch-heretic who inaugurated Protestantism in the 16^th century.

1.1                                                                 MARTIN LUTHER

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483 and died on February 18, 1546. He had a difficult childhood. His father, John Luther, was a homicide who fled with his family to escape justice. His father was given to high bouts of anger. At one time he beat Martin so much that the boy became a fugitive. His mother was not better. She, ‘in her inflexible rigor flogged him, until the blood flowed, on account of a worthless little nut.’(See Patrick F. O’Hare. The Facts About Luther. Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books, 1987, P.41) He also attended a school where his teachers were very severe in their punishments. He himself relates having been beaten 15 times in succession during the course of one morning. This severity, he said, shattered his nervous system for life. On account of poverty he was obliged to sing in the streets and collect alms. Eventually he joined the Augustinian Order but remained subject to fits of despair and melancholy. He admits becoming a Religious out of despair, not out of religious fervour and love of God, nor out of a desire for perfection.

To worsen his case, Luther never had a spiritual director to whom he could open up his conscience and get good counsel. Not that there was a lack of spiritual directors. The problem was that Luther did not even trust God, talk less of a fellow human. He saw in himself nothing but sin, and in God nothing but anger and revenge. He was a victim of extreme scrupulousness. When he entered Religious life his father who knew his son’s temperament rebuked him saying: ’God grant it may not prove a delusion and a diabolical spectre’(Ibid. P.43). In later life these words of his father worried Luther.

Before he broke with the Church, Luther’s spiritual life suffered a diminution. He began to go for days and weeks without praying his breviary. He celebrated Mass without devotion. He grew indifferent to good works and failed to keep monastic discipline. Hear his own words:

From misplaced reliance on my righteousness, my heart became full of distrust, doubt, fear, hatred and blasphemy of God. I was such an enemy of Christ that whenever I saw an image or a picture of Him hanging on His Cross, I loathed the sight and I shut my eyes and felt that I would rather have seen the devil. My spirit was completely broken and I was always in a state of melancholy; for, do what I would, my ‘righteousness’ and my ‘good works’ brought me no help or consolation. (Ibid. P.51)

His former pupil, Oldecop, declares of him: ‘He never learnt to live at peace, and being disputatious, he was always desirous of coming off victor in differences of opinion and liked to stir up strife...by nature proud and audacious.’ (Ibid. Pp.58-59)

1.2                                                  LUTHER’S REBELLION

In 1517 Pope Leo X granted indulgences to all who would contribute to the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica and sent the Dominican priest, Fr. John Tetzel, to preach it. It is necessary to state here that Fr. Tetzel was a faithful Dominican, an exemplary priest and a Catholic theologian. Three things are to be considered in every mortal sin: 1. Its guilt. 2. Its eternal punishment. 3. Its temporal punishment. The first two are forgiven by the sacraments of baptism and penance as ordinary channels of pardon. The third is expiated by our sufferings and penances, or by remission or commutation through an indulgence.

Luther denied this essential teaching of the Church as well as other things. Fr. Tetzel’s preaching on indulgences only provided an occasion of open rebellion to an already rebellious mind. Another point to bear in mind is that Martin Luther, whom his old pupil, Oldecop had already defined as ‘by nature proud and audacious,’ would still have rebelled against the Church if no indulgence had been promulgated or if Fr. Tetzel had never been born.

Luther published his rejection of Catholic teaching in 95 statements. These propositions were studied by theologians and their conclusions submitted to Pope Leo X. In 1520 the Pope issued his ‘Exsurge Domine’ in which he condemned in 41 propositions the errors of Luther. He was invited to recant and return to the Church but he refused, referring to those who condemned his propositions as ‘buffoons and earthworms.’ He publicly burnt the papal bull, ‘Exsurge Domine,’ in addition to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic theologians on December 10, 1520. From then on he usurped the authority of the Catholic Church, dispensed himself from his priestly and monastic vows, dispensed the gullible nun, Katherine von Bora from her vows and married her, and dispensed Phillip of Heese to commit bigamy in exchange for protection of Protestantism. Luther rejected ecclesiastical hierarchy, devotion to Our Blessed Mother and the saints, freewill, the place of good works in our salvation, the necessity of penance and sacrifice, and Tradition(teachings of the Church not specifically mentioned in scripture). He rejected the deutero-canonical books of the bible which the Church had approved as inspired since the Council of Carthage in 397, and made nasty comments about the books of Job, Esther and Ecclesiastes. In the New Testament he rejected the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letter of St. James and the Apocalypse of St. John.

In denying freewill Luther described man as a horse who is always at the mercy of the rider. The rider could be God or Satan. Man is a beast of burden, subject to inexorable predestination. Hear his own words:

It is written on the hearts of men that there is no freedom of the will...all takes place in accordance with inexorable necessity...It is either God or the devil that rules; man has no freedom of choice and is absolutely devoid of responsibility for his acts. Having lost freewill, man cannot observe the precepts of the Decalogue; he cannot master his passions; he must sin as long as he lives...As God pushes him, then he does something not through freewill, but by the power of God; and when the devil pushes him, then he does something not through freewill but by the power of Satan who takes possession of him. When the devil takes possession of some man or leaves him, it is only by that arbitrary will by which God wills that a certain number shall be damned and a certain number shall be saved. Then the conclusion is simply this: that those who are to be saved are to be saved without any regard to their good works and that they will be saved; that there is nothing in heaven or earth that can keep them from being saved. Why, then, should they undertake to do anything themselves? It matters not to them; they will be saved anyway, whatever they do. And, as for those unfortunate ones who are left behind and are to be damned, how idle for them to kick against the arbitrary decree! They must perish anyway, and as they must perish, they ought to say to themselves: ‘Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’(Ibid. Pp.269-270)

Are you surprised? Hold your breath until you read what this apostate taught about the Holy Mass.

2.0                                      LUTHER’S TEACHINGS ON THE MASS

In the first place Luther did not accept the Catholic teaching on the priesthood as a sacrament conferring an indelible character on the recipient, and making him essentially different from the lay person. He said the Catholic priesthood is a creation of Satan, and insisted that everybody is a priest. According to him:

The first wall built by the Romanists is the distinction between the clergy and the laity. It is pure invention...a piece of deceit and hypocrisy that the pope or bishop anoints, confers the tonsure, ordains, consecrates, and prescribes garb different from that of the laity...Whoever comes out of the water of baptism can boast that he is already a consecrated priest, bishop and pope.(T.C. Tappert, ed. Selected Writings of Martin Luther. Vol.1, P.263-265)

Having rejected the Catholic teaching on the priesthood Luther consequently rejected priestly celibacy. So he married. He called on his followers to join hands with him to overthrow the Mass, saying:

When the Mass is overthrown, I think that we will see the overthrow of the papacy! Because it is on the Mass, as on a rock, that the papacy rests, with its monasteries, its bishops, its colleges, its altars, its ministries, its doctrine...All of these will collapse when that sacrilegious and abominable Mass collapses. (Quoted by D. Raffard de Brienne. Lecture et Tradition, No. 101 of May/June 1983, P.4)

Thus Luther rejected the sacrificing priesthood, the sacrifice of the Mass and the doctrine of Transubstantiation. In line with his diabolically-inspired beliefs, he reformed the Catholic Mass to create a new liturgy for the use of his deluded congregation. The following are some of the changes he effected in his new mass or novus ordo, and how his successors who were admitted to have a say in the renovation of Catholic liturgy after Vatican 11 succeeded in admitting them into mainstream Catholic worship. The following comparism will prove the point already made again and again, that the novus ordo mass, or the mass of Vatican 11, also called the mass of Paul V1 is the Mass of the heresiarch, Martin luther.

CHANGES MADE BY MARTIN LUTHER	CHANGES MADE IN THE NEW MASS
1.Luther rejected the words, ‘sacrifice of propitiation or expiation’ in defining the Mass. For him, Mass is a sacrifice of praise, of thanksgiving, but NOT an expiatory sacrifice which recreates the sacrifice of Calvary and applies its merits. For him, Mass is only a memorial of the last supper. The English heretic and imitator of Luther, and the brain behind the change of religion in England, Thomas Cranmer in his new Book of Common Prayer of 1549 called it ‘Lord’s supper or Mass.’	Paul V1 General Instruction to the Novus Ordo Mass avoids calling the Mass a propitiatory sacrifice. It skilfully avoided using traditional terminology in defining the Mass and , like Thomas Cranmer, calls it, ‘Mass or Lord’s supper.’
2.He replaced altars with tables, suppressed the altar- stone and put one altar cloth instead of three.	Novus Ordo has done the same
3.Suppression of the distinction between the priest and the laity. According to him, ‘all of us alike are priests, and we all have the same authority in regard to the word and the sacraments.’(Quoted by Michael Davies. The Order of Melchizedek. Devon: Augustine Publishing, 1979, P.7) Thus he opened up to the laity functions formerly reserved to the laity.	Novus Ordo has also blurred the distinction between the ordained priest and the laity. Thus lay people now perform communion services on the novus ordo table, do the readings, distribute communion or give the same to themselves, and use the sanctuary as a stage for entertainment.
4.Accordingly, Luther’s and Cranmer’s ordination rites deleted every reference to the fact the newly ordained receives special power to offer the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass to Almighty God for the living and the dead. According to the Anglican, Canon E.E. Escourt: ‘That all the faithful are priests, and can offer spiritual sacrifices to God, and that there is no other priesthood or sacrifice instituted by Christ in the Church; and that the office of ministers in the Church is to preach and dispense sacraments, not to offer sacrifice... that in such ordination, the charge given to those admitted to the ministry ought not to be to sacrifice for the living and the dead, but to teach the gospel and administer the sacraments.’(Ibid.P.9-10)	In 1968 Paul V1 introduced a new rite of ordination in which every reference to the fact that the newly ordained is given the power to offer propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass to Almighty God for the living and the dead were carefully deleted. The new rite of ordination uses terminology acceptable to Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer and the mainline Protestants.
5.Abolition of prayers at the foot of the altar(Psalm 42) since it has reference to ‘altar.’ Luther hated the word ‘altar’ since it refers to a place where sacrifice is offered.	The New Mass did the same.
6.Abolished the old division of the Mass into Mass of Catechumens and Mass of the Faithful. He changed it into Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist. Then he placed greater emphasis on the homily. According to him: ‘The cult was formerly meant to render homage to God; henceforth it shall be directed to man in order to console and enlighten him. Whereas the sacrifice formerly held pride of place, henceforth the most important will be the sermon.’(Quoted by Leon Christiani. Du Lutheranisme auprotestantisme. Paris: 1910, P.312)	The Novus Ordo did the same.
7.Suppressed confession to the saints in the Confiteor.	Did the same
8.Suppressed the two prayers said by the priest as he ascends the altat: ‘Aufer a nobis,’ and ‘Oramus Te.’	Did the same
9.  Luther abolished the offertory prayers since they unequivocally express the expiatory and propitiatory aims of the sacrifice.	Novus Ordo did the same. In their place we were given ambiguous formulars which claim that the bread will become ‘our bread of life’ and the wine will become ‘our spiritual drink.’ These are non-commital statements acceptable to Protestants. For Thomas Cranmer,Christ’s presence was only spiritual: ‘For figuratively He is in the bread and wine, and spiritually He is in them that worthily eat and drink the bread and the wine, but really, carnally, and corporally He is in heaven.’(Quoted by Michael Davies. Cranmer’s Godly Order. Devon: Augustine Publishing, 1976)
10.Abolition of a major part of the canon and retention of only the essential passages that emphasise the Mass as a narrative of the last supper. To emphasise this he added: ‘Which will be given up for you’ and deleted ‘Mysterium fidei’ and ‘pro multis.’	Novus Ordo has done the same, turning the Eucharistic prayer into a memorial of the last supper. The words of consecration are recited in the context of a narrative of a past event which we are simply commemorating. This is not Catholic teaching. It is Protestant and has been borrowed from the arch-heretic, Luther.
11. In addition to suppressing the altar-stone and using a single altar cloth, Luther also introduced Mass facing the people, the large host remaining on the paten rather than on the corporal, introduction of ordinary bread, and use of sacred vessels of less noble substance. According to Luther, food is served on a plate but a sacrifice is offered on a corporal. There fore he left the host on the paten since Mass for him is only a common meal, a fraternal sharing, a memorial of the Lord’s supper, not a sacrifice.	Novus Ordo did the same.
12. Luther denied transubstantiation and the Real Presence. So he introduced communion under both kinds, taken in the hand, standing, lay distributors, all aimed at emphasizing the denial of dogma.	Novus Ordo has done the same. Today many Catholics have lost their faith since the new Mass. In the words of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: ‘All of these changes which comprise the new liturgy of the Mass are truly of perilous consequence, especially for younger priests. Not having been nourished with the doctrines of the Sacrifice, of the Real Presence, of Transubstantiation, these no longer have any significance for young priests who, as a result, soon lose the intention to perform what the Church performs. Consequently, they no longer celebrate valid Masses.’(Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Luther’s Reforms and the Modern Mass. Florida: CTC Books, 1993,P.16)
13. Luther launched the saying of Mass in vernacular.	The Novus Ordo did the same.
14. After communion he and Cranmer removed the prayers recited during the ablutions: ‘Quod ore sumpsimus’ and ‘Corpus Tuum.’	Novus Ordo did the same.
15. Luther also removed the ‘Placeat tibi’ in which the priest thanks God for the sacrifice just offered, before giving the final blessing.	Also abolished.
16. Luther’s services end with a blessing and omit the Last Gospel.	The Novus Ordo did the same.

2.1                           PRO—LUTHERANISM OF FALSE SHEPHERDS

Vatican 11 even went further than Luther. We have witnessed the abandonment of the clerical/religious dress, widespread marriages of priests and religious, concubinage, unnatural lust, suppression of the distinction between priests and laity, sharing of liturgical functions, abolition of Tonsure of seminarians and the Minor Orders(Porter, Exorcist, Lector and Acolyte), and the sub-diaconate, creation of a married diaconate, the acceptance of Protestant ministers into the Church without requiring them to formally abjure their errors etc. All these goes to prove that the Novus Ordo service is NOT the Roman Catholic Mass, canonized by Pope St. Pius V in 1570.

The false shepherds of the Vatican 11 counter-Church have not only adopted heretical teachings of apostates, but have also gone out of their way to praise and rehabilitate them. Prayers asking God for the conversion and return of heretics and schismatics to the true Catholic faith has been suppressed. Efforts targeting Protestants and Greek and Russian Orthodox for conversion is officially discouraged. The false prophets of the Vatican 11 counter-Church, notably Paul V1, John Paul 11 and Benedict XV1 teach that Protestants are Christians, have elements of salvation in their communities and can be saved outside the Catholic Church. In a 1992 Instruction on the Implementation of Ecumenism approved by John Paul 11, Catholics are asked to rejoice in the grace of God in Protestants, to pray with Protestants, to use the same churches and lend Catholic Churches to Protestants for their functions. They are also encouraged to remove the Blessed Sacrament from such churches so as not to offend Protestants! Joint translations of the bible by Protestant and Catholic scholars is encouraged. Seminary formators are reminded to teach ecumenism in the seminaries and to allow Protestant scholars to teach in Catholic seminaries. Dialogue and ecumenical convergence has replaced conversion of heretics and schismatics. In his encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam(Aug.6, 1964) Paul V1 defined the new orientation of the Vatican 11 counter-church as follows: ‘The church must enter into a dialogue with the world in which she lives. The church becomes word; the church becomes message; the church becomes conversation.’

On the occasion of his visit to Frankfurt, Germany, John Paul 11 said: ‘Today I come to you about the spiritual heritage of Martin Luther; I come as a pilgrim.’ On December 11, 1983 celebrations to mark the 500 anniversary of Luther’s birth was held by Lutherans. John Paul 11 went to a Lutheran church in Rome and participated actively in their service. Bear in mind that in Catholic teaching it is a grave sin against the faith to participate actively in the prayers of non-Catholics. But John Paul 11 had no qualms about this because he neither held nor preached the integral Catholic faith. While inside the church of heretics, John Paul participated in the recitation of a prayer composed by Luther. And this was not all. He sent a message of congratulations to Lutherans through Cardinal Willebrands, President of the Congregation for Christian Unity. In this message...(hold your breath)... John Paul 11 called Martin Luther a ‘religious genius.’ Luther, a ‘religious genius’? This same Luther who called the Catholic Mass an abomination, and said it is erroneous and impious to offer or apply the merits of the Mass for sins, the reparation of sins or for the dead. This same Luther who made the following comments about the Catholic hierarchy:

Whoever shall assist and lend his personal influence, means and reputation that the episcopate be destroyed and the rule of bishops exterminated, is a beloved son of God, a true Christian, an observer of God’s commandments and wars against the ordinance of the devil.’(Patrick O’Hare. Op.Cit. P.218)

How can this Martin Luther be a ‘religious genius’? This same Luther who by his own works and teachings was a malicious falsifier of God’s truth, a blasphemer, a libertine, a revolutionist, a hater of religious vows, a disgrace to the clerical calling, an enemy of domestic felicity, the father of divorce, the advocate of polygamy and the propagator of immorality and open licentiousness. According to Luther:

They are fools who attempt to overcome temptations by fasting, prayer and chastisement. For such temptations and immoral attacks are easily overcome when there are plenty of maidens and women.(Op.Cit. P.316)

But do not be surprised. John Paul 11 praised Luther because he was suffering from diabolical disorientation. He was blinded by the evil spirit of Vatican 11. This evil spirit of Vatican 11 can possess even the best persons and prevent them from seeing the truth. Those who continue to patronize the new mass, inspired as it is by the spirit of Martin Luther which is no other than the spirit of Satan, will also suffer this same spiritual blindness. They will lose their Catholic faith as many have already done, and become Protestants of the worst kind. This is because the corruption of the bet is the worst. The novus ordo is no Catholic Mass at all. It is a service created, favoured and sponsored by freemasons, aimed at preparing Catholics to accept the new world order ruled by the antichrist. In this new world order nothing is sacred, immutable, permanent. In it truth and morality change. In this new world order everything is open to innovation. The powers of darkness rejoice and are literally giving one another pats on the back because of the new mass. Today many novus ordo Catholics have been accustomed, because of the new mass and other changes imposed since Vatican 11 to accept that nothing is stable. Everything is subject to change: Scripture, Tradition, Dogma, Morality and so on. That Martin Luther, a man used by the devil to lead away many souls from the true faith and set them on the path of hell can receive praises from the highest places in the Church, and his programme for the demolition of the Church baptised and accepted by infiltrators masquerading as churchmen should be an eye-opener that there is really fire on the mountain. All is not well. It is the time of darkness. You must run for your dear  life. Luther has been praised by other churchmen even before John Paul so the rot has gone deep. Fr. Yves Congar was a French Dominican who invented the term, ‘living tradition.’ This is a coded language used by the Gnostics of the conciliar church such as Paul V1, John Paul 11 and Benedict XV1 to imply that nothing is permanent; everything is subject to change. Paul V1 for instance said: ‘One must break with the habitual attachment to what one used to designate as the unchangeable tradition of the Church.’ Fr. Congar was a theological expert at Vatican 11 and generously advised many of the bishops on the path of doom they eventually followed. Hear what he said of Martin Luther:

Luther is one of the greatest religious geniuses of all history. I would place him on the same plane as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, or Pascal. In a certain sense, he is even greater.(Cf. Le Monde, of March 29, 1975)

These comments of Fr. Congar and his contributions towards erecting the counter-church of Vatican 11 proves that he is a good Gnostic; an enlightened ‘Catholic’ of the twentieth century. And for this John Paul 11 rewarded him by making him a Cardinal!

2.2.                                                       CONCLUSION

Do you still doubt me?

                                                                                    Rev. Fr. Gregory Chukwudi Obih.   

                                                                                                Jan.13, 2010   

DEFENDING THE FAITH

DEFENDING THE FAITH 1 fr.Gregory Chukwudi Obih

Thursday, December 4, 2008 3:33 PM

Dear     friends,
Peace be with you. The Society of St. Pius X was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Born in 1905 in France, Lefebvre was ordained a priest in 1929. Wishing to serve God as a Missionary he decided to join the Holy Ghost Fathers, CSSP, shortly after ordination. In 1932 he was sent to Gabon as a Missionary, where his elder brother, Fr. Rene was already working. He spent 13 years in Gabon. Recalled to France in 1944 he served briefly as a seminary professor before being consecrated a Bishop. He was appointed papal delegate to French-speaking Africa (equivalent to a Nuncio) and became Archbishop of Dakar. He was appointed Assistant to the Pontifical Throne and Member of the Preparatory Commission for Vatican 11 by Pope John XX111.This was composed of about 70 Cardinals, Archbishops, bishops, Superiors of Religious Orders and other leading theologians. In 1962 he was elected Superior-General of the Holy Ghost Congregation. At Vatican 11 the liberal but powerful minority rejected the traditional Schema already prepared by Archbishop Lefebvre, Cardinal Ottaviani and other members of the Preparatory Commission for Vatican 11. Lefebvre became an outspoken critic of the liberal tendencies of the Council. He personally intervened at various times during the deliberations to oppose errors challenging perennial Catholic doctrines, especially the errors of Ecumenism, Inter-Religious dialogue, religious liberty, Collegiality etc.
But the Popes of the day, John XX111 and Paul V1 supported the liberal agenda which insisted that the Church must change. The Traditionalist bloc led by Lefebvre was defeated.
After the Council Religious Orders and Congregations began to change their Constitutions in order to adapt to the new ecclesiology of Vatican 11. This usually involved the relaxation of old rules in the name of a misguided freedom. At this time a Capuchin Superior visited Padre Pio to inform him that the Capuchins are meeting in a Chapter to review the Constitutions. Padre Pio was horrified at the idea and showed his mistrust of such changes. When the Holy Ghost Fathers met in 1968 to do the same, Lefebvre refused to accept such Vatican 11 inspired changes and was obliged to resign as Superior General. At this time he was 63 years old. Everything in the Church began to change in the name of the Council and thanks to the ambiguous documents of the    Council.
To……. be……. Continued...

DEFENDING THE FAITH 2 Fr. Gregory Chukwudi Obih

Sunday, December 7, 2008 4:56 PM

In 1968 the Novus Ordo Mass was ready to be imposed on the Church. It was a new ecumenical liturgy designed to please the Protestants by watering down Catholic beliefs. Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, a suspected Freemason, with six Protestant pastors as collaborators had produced this new Mass. A group of Roman theologians led by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre studied the new mass in the light of Roman Catholic Tradition. The result of their study is A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE NOVUS ORDO MASS which was signed and submitted to Pope Paul V1 by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci. This study made it clear that the new mass represents 'a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as formulated in Session XX11 of the Council of Trent' which, in fixing the 'canons' provided an 'insurmountable barrier to any heresy against the integrity of the Mystery.' It favours heresy and leads to Protestantism. Despite their warnings the new form of mass was imposed on the Church in 1969.

The effects of the new orientation, masterminded at the Second Vatican Council was particularly devastating for the Catholic priesthood and Seminaries. The heresy of Modernism (the synthesis of all heresies)previously condemned by Pope St. Pius X in Pascendi Domenici Gregis of 1907 gained ascendancy in the mainstream Catholic Church. Many priests became disoriented and lost their priestly identity in the aftermath. Between the end of the Council and 1977, a staggering 30,000 priests left the priesthood-the greatest exodus from the priesthood since the beginning of christianity.
While Archbishop Lefebvre was retired and living in Rome, a group of European seminarians met him, asking for his help to continue their formation and be ordained as true Catholic priests. He saw this request for help as a sign from God to help save the situation. So he founded the Society of St. Pius X and an International Seminary in Econe, Switzerland, with ecclesiastical approval, in 1970. Its main aim is to continue to form Catholic priests in the traditional manner based on the philosophy and theology of St Thomas Aquinas.
When the liberals, now in control of the hierarchy, discovered that Lefebvre was rocking the boat of Vatican 11, they ganged up against him and the persecution began. Why? Because he refused to compromise on matters of faith. He refused to celebrate the new mass, the vehicle for spreading the apostasy. He refused to be a participant in what Paul V1 himself had called 'the auto demolition of the Church' which began at Vatican 11. He refused to have anything to do with the 'smoke of Satan' which Paul V1 said had 'entered into the Church' since the Council ended. The reason for his courageous stand is summarised in his 1974 DECLARATION which follows:

We hold fast, with all our heart and with all our soul, to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic faith and of the traditions necessary to preserve this faith, to Eternal Rome, Mistress of wisdom and truth.

We refuse, on the other hand, and have always refused to follow the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it.

All these reforms, indeed, have contributed and are still contributing to the destruction of the Church, to the ruin of the priesthood, to the abolition of the Sacrifice of the Mass and of the sacraments, to the disappearance of religious life, to a naturalist and Teilhardian teaching in universities, seminaries and catechectics; a teaching derived from Liberalism and Protestantism, many times condemned by the solemn Magisterium of the Church.

No authority, not even the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic faith, so clearly expressed and professed by the Church’s Magisterium for nineteen    centuries.

“But though we,” says St. Paul, “or an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” (Gal. 1:8).

Is it not this that the Holy Father is repeating to us today?  And if we can discern a certain contradiction in his words and deeds, as well as in those of the dicasteries, well we choose what was always taught and we turn a deaf ear to the novelties destroying the Church.

It is impossible to modify profoundly the lex orandi without modifying the lex credendi. To the Novus Ordo Missae correspond a new catechism, a new priesthood, new seminaries, a charismatic Pentecostal Church —all things opposed to orthodoxy and the perennial teaching          of         the       Church.

This Reformation, born of Liberalism and Modernism, is poisoned through and through; it derives from heresy and ends in heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretical. It is therefore impossible for any conscientious and faithful Catholic to espouse this Reformation or to submit to it in any way whatsoever.

The only attitude of faithfulness to the Church and Catholic doctrine, in view of our salvation, is a categorical refusal to accept this Reformation.

That is why, without any spirit of rebellion, bitterness or resentment, we pursue our work of forming priests, with the timeless Magisterium as our guide. We are persuaded that we can render no greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff and to posterity.

That is why we hold fast to all that has been believed and practiced in the faith, morals, liturgy, teaching of the catechism, formation of the priest and institution of the Church, by the Church of all time; to all these things as codified in those books which saw the day before the Modernist influence of the Council. This we shall do until such time that the true light of Tradition dissipates the darkness obscuring the sky of Eternal Rome.

By doing this, with the grace of God and the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that of St. Joseph and St. Pius X, we are assured of remaining faithful to the Roman Catholic Church and to all the successors of Peter, and of being the fideles dispensatores mysteriorum Domini Nostri Jesu Christi in Spiritu Sancto.  Amen.
TO…….BE…… CONTINUED..

     DEFENDING THE FAITH 3 Fr. Gregory Chukwudi Obih

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 5:41 PM

From:

Dear     Friends,
It is dishonest to hope for a good outcome without actually working for it. Again a saint said: What I pray for O God, give me the grace to work for. From its inception traditional Catholics, especially in Europe, North and South America supported Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX which he founded. They discovered for themselves that the faith was being changed. In their parishes they were assaulted with a Protestantised liturgy, a new age clergy who told them what they WANTED to hear not what they NEEDED to hear, the phenomenon of altar girls, communion in the hand, disappearance of reverence at Catholic rites, lay people distributing communion, a Mass that was theologically deficient, the toleration of immoral dressing, inculturation masses, masses celebrated with invalid matter, loss of respect for the sanctuary, eucharistic dancers, a new Pentecosto-Charismatic spirituality, new age teachings such as: Everybody is going to heaven! Protestants are no longer heretics! We worship the same god with Moslems, what unites us is greater than what divides us! Let us take care of the environment and build a new earthly paradise with everybody! The faithful saw that their Vatican 11 trained priests no longer preached about hell, original sin, the pains of purgatory, the need for penance, fasting, sacrifice, mortification, First Friday and First Saturday devotions, the need to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Our Lady of Fatima requested, Extra Ecclesia nulla salus, modesty, devotion to St Michael and the Holy Angels and Saints, pilgrimages of reparation, etc. Knowing that Sr. Lucia of Fatima had already described these unbelievable events as the 'diabolical disorientation of the upper hierarchy' the faithful began to defend themselves. With the support of the SSPX and some good priests who stood against the reforms at the risk of displeasure from their Superiors, the faithful began to gather for the Traditional Latin Mass, other
sacraments and true Catholic teaching wherever they could. Masses were celebrated in car parks, hotels, private homes, primary and secondary school halls, town halls, basements etc. Catholic faithful gave generous moral and financial support to the Society. New churches were built. The Society expanded to various parts of the world. Five additional Seminaries were opened in the United States, Germany, Argentina, France and Australia. Oblate Sisters of St. Pius X was formed, and Brothers of the SSPX as well as the Sisters of SPX. Thousands of faithful flocked to the Society's chapels to receive true Catholic doctrine, receive true Catholic sacraments and worship God as their ancestors in the faith had done for 2000 years.
The new Modernist leaders of the Vatican 11 Church were alarmed at this success, because they are diehard men who are determined that their regime of novelty imposed on the Church continues, despite its numerous bad fruits. A high-ranking prelate was sent to Archbishop Lefebvre to tell him that if he could celebrate the new mass even once, reconciliation could be achieved with Rome. Like Mathathias of old, the father of the Maccabees, he refused. And what do you think happened? They illegally suppressed the SSPX seminary of Econe, withdrew the canonical recognition of the Society, and got Paul V1 to suspend Archbishop Lefebvre in 1976.
TO…… BE…… CONTINUED...

 DEFENDING THE FAITH 4 Fr. Gregory Chukwudi Obih

Thursday, December 11, 2008 4:50 PM

 Dear Friends,

Pope Paul V1 who already lamented that the 'smoke of Satan has entered into the Church' following Vatican 11 and added that 'perhaps we have been too imprudent' was nevertheless influenced by his advisers to take a tough stand against Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who was standing for the traditional Catholic faith. In 1977 the same pope said: 'What strikes me when I think of the Catholic world, is that within Catholicism, there seems to predominate a non-Catholic way of thinking, and it can happen that this non-Catholic way of thought within Catholicism will tomorrow become the stronger. But it will NEVER represent the thought of the Church. It is necessary that a small flock persists, no matter how small it might be.'(Quoted by Jean Guitton in THE SECRET PAUL V1.) Like the Jewish high priest Caiphas who condemned Christ yet made a true prophesy in his capacity as high priest, so too Paul V1, the man who introduced the new mass and signed all the ambiguous documents of Vatican 11 also made a true prophesy.
Despite the suspension the Society continued to grow and expand. Eventually negotiations was resumed with Rome. But this negotiations broke down in 1988 because Rome was not
prepared to allow the Society a free hand to retain and hand over the old faith to future generations. The new Modernist ecclesiology had so permeated the Roman authorities that
allowing an obscure group of traditionalists to keep insisting on the old Mass, the old theology, the old Catechisms and Canon law, the old morality etc was unthinkable. They wanted the Society to compromise on matters that affect our faith as Catholics and this was
unacceptable. Thus in 1988 Archbishop Lefebvre, assisted by Bishop Castro de Mayer ordained 4 bishops in the traditional rite to continue Catholic Tradition. These bishops were not
given any jurisdiction because Archbishop Lefebvre did not wish to create a schism. Their role was simply to ordain new candidates for the priesthood in the Society's seminaries, to confer the sacrament of Confirmation and to promote Roman Catholic Tradition. However, Pope John Paul 11 in his Ecclesia Dei Adflicta of the same year excommunicated Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop De Mayer and the 4 bishops. This was because the ordinations proceeded without papal mandate. But the ordinations were an act of necessity. The faith was in crisis and as an Archbishop of the Catholic Church Lefebvre felt obliged to act, even without the pope's
permission. The salvation of souls is the highest law in the Church. The reforms of Vatican 11 inaugurated a widespread loss of faith foreseen by Our Lady of Fatima in her Third Secret which was read by Cardinal Luigi Ciappi, papal theologian to three popes. According to him: 'In the
Third Secret, it is mentioned, among other things, that the apostasy in the Church, will begin from the top’.  When the Archbishop forthrightly rejected Rome's unacceptable conditions in 1988 some priests and seminarians left him and accepted those conditions. They became
constituted into the Fraternity of St. Peter: FSSP. They accepted not to criticize the reforms of Vatican 11, to invite Novus Ordo bishops to ordain their seminarians (and you can guess what they will preach during their homilies at such ordinations!), accepted the validity of the new mass
and gave freedom for any of their priests to celebrate the new mass as well as the old. Thus they gave up the combat for the integral Catholic faith in deference to a largely Modernist hierarchy.
In July 2007 Benedict XV1 finally vindicated the position of Archbishop Lefebvre on the Old Mass. In his Summorum Pontificum, he declared that the Traditional Latin Mass has NEVER been banned and that all priests are FREE to celebrate it. This universal indult had already been given by Pope St. Pius V in 1570 in his bull, Quo Primum, and NEVER abrogated, but Catholics were misled by the hierarchy after 1969 into believing that it had been abrogated.

Today the Society has about 500 priests and 200 seminarians working in about 50 countries. We pray for the pope and the local bishop at every Mass. The Society has requested for the lifting of the decree of excommunication to be followed by doctrinal discussions with Rome. The Society's presence in Africa was recently constituted into a District by the Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay. The District headquarters is in South Africa.

I therefore urge you to explain to your family and friends the position of the Society in the Church today. Support the Society's effort to promote the authentic Catholic faith in Nigeria, Ghana and the rest of Africa. Do not be discouraged by the fact that the Archbishop was excommunicated. The best canonical minds in the Church have already agreed that the Archbishop did nothing to merit excommunication. In practice the so-called excommunication is a dead letter, just as the previous claim that the Old Mass was banned was a myth. We simply want Rome to officially declare to the whole Church that the SSPX is not in fact excommunicated. But can one oppose the pope when the pope deviates from the faith even at the risk of being excommunicated? I will attempt to answer this question in the concluding part of this mail. TO BE CONTINUED…

DEFENDING      THE  FAITH        5 Fr. Gregory Chukwudi Obih

                                                                        Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 11:04 PM PM
Dear     Friends,
Can one defend the Catholic faith even against the Pope, at the risk of being excommunicated by him? Yes. Can one be holier than the pope? Of course. Can one be more Catholic than the pope? Certainly. Sometimes some ask: Are you more Catholic than the pope? Yes you can. We have had good and bad popes. During the Arian heresy in the fourth century St Athanasius of Alexandria was excommunicated by Pope Liberius for defending the true faith on the divinity of Christ. No one could intimidate St Athanasius who was sent on exile for about four times. But Pope Liberius was intimidated by the Emperor into excommunicating St Athanasius and signing a
semi-Arian profession of faith. Today Athanasius is a saint and Pope liberius is not.
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches the positive duty to rebuke and correct even the Pope when there is danger to the Faith, but not to declare his authority to have been forfeited. In the Summa Theologica, under the question "Whether a man is bound to correct his prelate," St. Thomas concludes as follows: "It must be observed, however, that if the Faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly; Hence Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith .. . . "(Peter had scandalized potential converts and threatened the mission of the Church by appearing to follow Mosaic dietary laws and refusing to eat with Gentiles.) St. Thomas here observes that the public rebuke of a prelate "would seem to savor of presumptuous pride; but there is no presumption in thinking oneself better in some respect, because, in this life, no man is without some fault. We
must also remember that when a man reproves his prelate charitably, it does not
follow that he thinks himself any better, but merely that he offers his help to one who, 'being in the higher position among you, is therefore in greater danger,' as Augustine observes in his Rule
quoted  above."       
 Implicit in Saint Thomas's teaching, however, is that the Pope who commits "scandal concerning the faith" remains the Pope, though he may be rebuked and corrected, as was John XXII.
This same Catholic principle is summarized by the great Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine,       who wrote in his work De Romano Pontifice:

 ‘Just as it is licit to resist the Pontiff that aggresses the body, it is also licit to resist the one who aggresses souls or who disturbs civil order, or, above all, who attempts to destroy the Church. I say that it is licit to resist him by not doing what he orders and by preventing his will from being
executed; it is not licit, however, to judge, punish or depose him, since these acts are proper to a superior.’

The renowned Sixteenth Century theologian Francisco Suarez, called a pious and eminent theologian (eximius et pius) by Pope Paul V explained the principle of resistance to a wayward Pope     thus:

'And in this second way the Pope could be schismatic, if he were unwilling to be in normal union with the whole body of the Church, as would occur if he attempted to excommunicate the whole
Church, or, as both Cajetan and Torquemada observe, if he wished to overturn the rites of the Church based on Apostolic Tradition . . . If [the Pope] . . . gives an order contrary to right customs, he should not be obeyed; if he attempts to do something manifestly opposed to
justice and the common good, it will be lawful to resist him . . . '

It is remarkable that in the 16th Century an esteemed theologian would matter-of-factly discuss the possibility that the Pope could be guilty of schismatic acts his own subjects would be forced to
resist.
 
The mind of the Church on this point was expressed at the level of the papal Magisterium by Pope Paul IV in his Bull Cum Ex Apostolatus Offido (1559). Gravely concerned that, in the midst of the Protestant rebellion, a future Pope might succumb to a Protestant heresy, Paul IV
declared that ‘the Roman Pontiff, who is the representative upon earth of our God and
Lord Jesus Christ, who holds the fullness of power over peoples and kingdoms, who may judge all and be judged by none in this world, may nonetheless be contradicted if he be found to have deviated       from     the        Faith.’
 

This is a remarkable statement for two reasons: First, it confirms the constant teaching of the Church that no one may judge the First See, even when confronted with alleged papal deviations from the Faith. Second, it nevertheless admits the possibility that a Pope might deviate from the Faith while remaining Pope. Pope Leo X111 teaches in Libertas Praestantissimum:
'The moment a command is contrary to reason, to eternal life, to the authority of God, then it is lawful to disobey, man that is, so as to obey God.' In the words of Cardinal Henry Newman of England, 'If a Catholic is convinced that the command of a Superior, including the pope, is displeasing to God, then he is bound NOT to obey.'

The foregoing are the reasons followed by traditional Catholics in the light of the deviations introduced since Vatican 11 and supported by popes, bishops and priests since then. They have abandoned Catholic tradition in favour of ecumenical fraternity, religious liberty and collegial
equality. According to Fr. Joseph de Sainte-Marie, OCD, an outstanding theologian who taught in Rome in the 1970s and 80s and an expert on Fatima who worked closely with John Paul 11: 'In our day, and it is one of the most obvious signs of the extraordinarily abnormal character of the
current state of the Church, it is very often the case that acts of the Holy See demand of us PRUDENCE AND DISCERNMENT.'

 There you have it. An insider within the corridors of post-Vatican 11 Rome warns us that we need prudence and discernment now regarding acts of the Holy See! This is the position of the Society of St. Pius X and that of our founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. When the crisis in the
Church is over, the Church will definitely thank him for resisting the concilliar popes, as she thanked St Athanasius many years after his death. This is because falsehood will NEVER triumph over         truth      in          the        Catholic            Church.

Dear friends, I therefore encourage you to persevere in defending the true faith against innovators. Pray for the SSPX, our Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, our District Superior, Fr Marc Vernoy and all the priests of the Society. Run away from the Modernists and their bastardized liturgy, else you will be infected with their poison, annoy God, and endanger your eternal salvation.  Let us work together to ensure that the light of the true faith rises
again in our countries. Have a blessed Christmas and may God bless you.

 Fr Gregory Chukwudi Obih.


     

ADDENDUM

On the 21^st day of Jnuary 2009  Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. On the 26^th day of October 2009 doctrinal discussions began between the representatives of the Society and the representatives of the Holy See.