A prophet of the end of times. VI

Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani
 

A prophet of the end of times

By Father Juan Carlos Ceriani

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

Part VI and Conclusion

The preceding text implies a whole spirituality. Nothing better than to express it poetically as did Father Leonardo Castellani in his poem No hago nada (I do nothing), published in Los Papeles de Benjainín Benavides, page 399, and in El Libro de las Oraciones, page 385:

Heart, stand there firm and without budging
to the iniquitous oppresion and effrontery
although I am crazed, I my art do posses
for anger often turns into injured patience
Fighting unarmed but for my saddened heart
against the worst of evils that there are
I fight and bleed but do not hit the dust
I do not much, but more than I can do.
A hardened sentry
I do not let suspect that I am wounded,
nor do I let them know that I'm afraid,
injured and frozen, hold the flag erect
and the inhospitable foxhole not desert.
Although I know that death has overcome me
I´m still on foot and, facing her, keep upright
transmitting the SOS signal of the fight
to some reinforcements that will never come
but a moment too late, if they do at all
and that dead on my feet is how they'll find me...
The other half 'll be done over my grave
by some other poor wretch after I am dead.
Heart, your half 's already been completed!

D) Two combats,.. Two tactics

As a synthesis of our reflection on all of these texts, it is only left for us to say that it is more evident every time that the counterrevolutionary struggle comprises two combats which are to be conducted at two different times: a conservation combat of resistance and a combat to re-establish the Kingdom of Christ the King.

In the first place, we must combat to hold the last bastions that still remain. It is necessary, by all means, to keep our Seminaries, our Novitiates, our Priories, our Chapels, our Mass Centers, our Retreats and Retreat Houses, our Catholic Families, our Schools and Associations, our Publications...

Over these innumerable conservation commitments, the combat for the re-establishement of the Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ will be waged.

These two struggles have their times and will have, at some moment, the same combatants. It is very important not to confuse both combats; it is necessary to distinguish them, because they have different objectives, and for the same reason, they have different tactics.

Very often, the erroneous behaviors of the traditionalist chiefs and soldiers are due to an incomprehension that exists with respect to these two combats and their objectives. That is to say, it is thought very often that there is only one combat and the objectives of the conservation battle are confused with the ends of the subsequent struggle; the part that corresponds to men is mixed with the actions that have to be done by Christ the King and his Most Holy Mother. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance to consider the tactics of these two superimposed confrontations.

How should the defensive, conservation combat be fought? Before all, it is necessary to make two clarifications: this battle points to secondary objectives only, and no extraordinary divine assistance is given to it.

Additionally, this battle possesses peculiarities which depend on its historical roots and impose three limits on the combatants, which should be respected:

1) The mission of the counterrevolutionary forces is not one of rupture, but of resistance, to conserve the remains. The spontaneous tendency of our ranks is toward restoration, but the battle we should wage is not a scuffle of rupture, of assault. The means at our disposal are not supplied to try to break the siege. Our mission is to watch, conserving the remains which will perish. If we were to attempt the rupture, we would get the tactic wrong.

2) The counterrevolutionary forces are humanly impotent. The battle of conservation is carried out by a minority, vigorous and courageous certainly, but humanly impotent. The revolutionary forces are impregnable. The enemy has built up a close siege which, though artificial, is imposed in an absolute way. The counterrevolutionary forces are incessantly neutralized, mutilated and annihilated.

3) The counterrevolutionary forces are constrained by means of the revolutionary «legality» which, additionally, will be more rigorous every day, reducing our means of defense more every time. The counterrevolutionaries are conscious of defending God's rights against the power of the Beast. It is from that source that they extract their zeal and their confidence. But they too easily imagine that this position of principle gives them a juridical preeminence over the secular State. It is now too late to demand recognition of the rights of the Church from the secular State, to pretend the recognition of Jesus Christ's rights from the apostate State, to expect recognition of the rights of God from the godless State. In the combat we carry out, we are constrained to the means of revolutionary «legality»
The ulterior battle, the one which will have as an objective to tear off the power from the Beast and restore it to Christ the King, will be a personal act of God. Nevertheless, the Divine Teacher expects that the small number take part by means of prayer and penitence, to remove the obstacle which opposes the Divine action, and to a certain extent, to unleash it.

The situation is such, that we take part in a conservation combat and in a preparatory combat by means of prayer at the same time. It is necessary to be men of action to assume the custody of the remnants, and to be men of prayer to take part in the battle of supplication.

These two attitudes are difficult to reconcile; this explains the divergencies in the appreciation of priorities. What should be privileged, action or prayer? This problem, of the cohabitation of the man of action and the man of prayer is resolved, knowing that there is time for prayer that must precede action, and a time for action that should follow prayer. Moreover, we have to be very active in contemplation and very contemplative in action; to stay and at the same time leave, leave and at the same time stay.

While we combat keeping our posts of resistance, by prayer and penitence we shall obtain the divine decision of doing mercy, we will advance the triumph of the immaculate Heart of Mary and the definitive re-establishment of the Kingdom of Christ the King.

Conclusion

We want to conclude this work with the ending words of the quoted text of Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre:

There would be two congresses, the universal political one which will rule the world and the congress of religions which would go in aid of this world government . We run the risk of seeing these two events coming. It is necessary to prepare ourselves. But then, facing these things, what ought we do?

In his Encyclical on Freemasonry, Pope Leo XIII said: They want to destroy the Christian institutions from end to end. That is their objective. Well, they are accomplishing it.

We have to rebuild them. Facing this destruction we have to rise. We have to re-construct the Social Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ in this Christian world about to disappear.

You will say: «But Monsignor, it is the fight of David against Goliath» Yes, I know, but David came out the victor. How did he gain such victory? With a small rock he went to look for in the torrent. What is the rock we have? Jesus Christ our Lord.

We will say like our Vendeean ancestors, who shed their blood for their faith: «We have no other honor than the honor of Jesus Christ, we have not more than one fear in this world, and it is that of offending Jesus Christ» This is what they sung when they marched to their death in defense of their God.

We will also sing with ardor, with all our heart «We have not but one love, and this is Jesus Christ our Lord, and we have not more than one fear, which is that of offending Him»

A prophet of the end of times. V

Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani

  

A prophet of the end of times

By Father Juan Carlos Ceriani

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

Part V

C) The strategy outlined by Father Castellani

We cannot follow the Utopia of the «Civilization of Love». We cannot make illusions about a supposed temporary re-establishment of «Medieval Christendom»... What is it that we ought to do?

We now complete the strategy outlined by the prophet of the end of times.

Let's see what he said in March 1954; the first thing he does is present us the reality of the facts.

“It is unpleasant to be a prophet of doom; being a prophet of joy is a lot more profitable, and I pray to God that He make me a bad prophet of doom. But the destruction of tradition in the West is something that is right ahead of us, and to close our eyes in the face of it is like closing our eyes while walking in the street. To open our eyes may be a remedy at any rate, because of that which says that «the first medicine is to know the disease» (...) Humankind advances towards the resolution of the great drama of History, a drama which has one protagonist and many antagonists (...) The current world situation, which is called the «contemporary crisis», is one of progressive destruction of Western tradition and of a defense thereof”. (San Agustín y Nosotros, pages 91, 93 and 94).

He then describes the strategies of the contenders:
“The Catholic Church, which is traditionalist par excellence, does nothing new since the Council of Trent: it restricts itself to defend what exists:  «confirma cetera, quae moritura erant»; but the successive ruptures, of religious tradition (Luther), of philosophical tradition (Descartes), of political tradition (Rousseau), and consequently of social tradition and even of artistic tradition, are produced from different sectors and with different motives. A house is a house: the burglars who break into it may come from different places, but those who defend it respond from the center.” (San Agustín y Nosotros, pages 91, 93 and 94).

And we reach the culminating point of the question posed:
“What can we do, if all this depends on a series of successive destructions, and forms part of a greater destruction which advances? «Keep the things that have remained, which are perishable» commands Jesus Christ to the Angel of the Church of Sardis, the fifth Church of the Apocalypse; which means «abide by tradition», which is what the Catholic Church has done since the Council of Trent. But the greek text expresses it somewhat differently and more forcefully «strengthen that which has remained, which shall perish anyway» (San Agustín y nosotros, page 106).

And he forestalls the objection put forward by human weakness and by the timorous, too earthly posture:

“Bur this is inhuman; we are commanded to fight for something which will perish, to fight without hope of victory. This is impossible for the man who stands on the ethical plane, whose sign is the fight for victory; but not for the man who stands on the religious plane, who fights for God, and knows that God's victory is assured and that he has been born to be used, perhaps to be defeated, but what does it matter? We have been born to be used! By whom? Not by the State, but by the Father who is in heaven! «Because you know you will never get there, that is why you are great,» a poet said, who, by the way, never put himself in such a plane; he never was great.” (San Agustín y nosotros, page 106).

He ends pointing to the strategy wished by God:
“We have to fight to the last redoubt for all the good things which have remained, disregarding whether those things will all be «integrated anew in Christ», as Saint Pius X used to say, by our own efforts or by the irresistible force of the Second Coming of Christ. «Truth is eternal, and will prevail, whether I make it prevail or not». That is why we should oppose the law of divorce, we should oppose the new slavery and the social war, and we should oppose the idealist philosophy, and this without knowing if we will gain victory or not. «God does not ask us to triumph. God asks us not to be defeated.» The Church is eternal! say the Christian Democrats. The Church is eternal in the sense that Jesus Christ spoke: but the external organization of the Church, let's say the Vatican, is not eternal, that organization has been broken and reformed many times. And the Church will be broken at the end of the world. What is eternal is man's soul united to God...United to God to be utilized” (San Agustín y Nosotros, pages 106-107).

Let us highlight in the quoted text that, according to Father Castellani, the «Omnia instaurare in Christo» not necessarily has to be accomplished by our own strength and before the Parousia, but that all things can be integrated anew in Christ by the irresistible force of His Second Coming.

There is plenty to discuss and to reflect upon for philosophers and theologians. But, if you have much to comment on Father Castellani, please reflect on what he has written.

For all of this, on our part, to be more in conformity with revelation and with the reality of the circumstances, we embrace the teachings of Father Castellani. We add these precious indications to what was quoted above:

1a) Abide by the essential message of Christianity.

“My friends, as long as there remains something to be saved; calmly, peacefully, prudently, firmly, imploring the divine light, we have to do as much as possible to save it. When nothing remains to be saved, we will still have to save our souls (,,,) It is quite possible that, under the pressure of the plagues which are befalling the world, and of this new falsification of Catholicism to which I alluded above, the makeup of Western Christianity will keep on crumbling down in a form such that, very soon, there will be very little or nothing for the true Christian to do in the public sphere. Now our bounden duty is to abide by the essential message of Christianity: flee from the world, believe in Christ, do all the good we can, detach ourselves from temporal things, keep away from the false prophets, keep death in mind. In a word, bear witness to the truth with our lives, and yearn for Christ's return. In the midst of this tumult, we have to work out our salvation carefully (...) The first Christians did not dream of reforming the judicial system of the Roman Empire but, with all their strength, of being capable of facing the beasts; and, in contemplating with horror, in Emperor Nero, the monstrous power of the devil over man.”  (A Modo de Prólogo. Decíamos Ayer, pages 31-32).

2a) A constructive pessimism:

«It is necessary to toil as though the world would last forever, but it is necessary to keep in mind that the world will not last forever». This attitude, apparently contradictory or impossible, has always been the guiding principle of religious spirits in all the great crises in history. The two terms seem to be irreconcilable, and they would be so if it were not for the mysterious catalyst which is the faith. But, the pragmatic value of the apocalyptic attitude can be perceived even outside of the faith, by a talented positivist, for example. That is why we have not hesitated to publish, and that, with no little effort or risks, in the middle of the uncertainty and pain of this time, an essay on the Apocalypse, which the superficiality of someone will, without doubt, characterize as «pessimist». It is constructive pessimism.” (Visión Religiosa de la Crisis Actual. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve? Page 284).

There is much for a philosopher to chew in this phrase of the Angel: “The time is over”. The end of God's creation is atemporal, although Time moves towards that end. The terminus and the end of the world do not coincide in all aspects; as it is known that a movement may reach its terminus without reaching its end; it simply can fail as so many other great human undertakings have failed, beginning with the Tower of Babel and ending with the Society of Nations.

The terminus of History will be a catastrophe, but the divine objective of History will be attained in a metahistory, which will not be a new creation but a transposition, since “new heavens and new earth” means all things renewed in accordance with their pristine divine pattern.

Just as the Providence and the action ― even miraculous ― of God's free will accompany the History of man's free will, the same way in its resolution and end, both agents will participate, and that is why the End of the World will be twofold. Humankind will commit suicide but God will resurrect it; not making it over again, but transposing it to the plane of the eternal. (...,)

The attitude of Christianity is not Pessimism, much less the goody Optimism of illuministic philosophy, the notorious “indefinite Progress”. Christian Prophecy gives us a position which is above those two simplistic extremes, into which fall all “those that do not have the seal of God on their foreheads“. The world runs toward an intra-historical catastrophe which conditions an extra-historical triumph; that is, a transposition of the life of the world into an afterworld; and of Time into a Supertime; in which our new lives will not be annihilated and then created again, but ― as it fits God, all transfigured in their entirety, without losing even one of their elements. (El Apocalipsis de San Juan, pages 124-126).

3a) Christ will return

Religious spirits, like good doctors, smell death, but they go on medicating. It is the paradoxical attitude of faith. The faith assures Christians that this eon, this cycle of creation has its end, which will be preceded by a tremendous agony followed by a splendid reconstruction, or, in religious terms, «Christ comes back one day to put his enemies as a footstool for his feet and to take effective possession of the Kingdom of Heaven transferred to earth...» That is how the text says, I am not responsible for this enormity (...) Due to a paradox of profound psychology, this pessimist literature has sustained the constructive optimism of Christianity.  (Visión Religiosa de la Crisis Actual. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, page 285).

Also here, we call the reader's attention so that, what our author understands by «splendid reconstruction» be not read too hastily.

4a) All this and much more has been foreseen

When the immense vicissitudes of the drama of History, which are above man and his meager rationalism, reach a point which exceeds his power of medication and even his power of understanding ― as is the case in our days ― only the believer possesses the lucky charm to keep calm and go on working (...)  When it seems that the world's foundations yield and the entire structure gets all messed up ― as it happened, for instance, in the fourteenth century ― then the wise man reads the Apokalypse and says: «All this and much more has been foreseen. Attention!  But, after this, comes the final victory. The world has to die. Although it has been cured of many infirmities, this illness will be the last. But the soul of the world, as that of man, is not a mortal thing» (...) The consideration of the religious vision of the current crisis is one of the most powerful engines (even the first engine) of the political and economic movement. If a man has no idea of where he is going, he does not move; or if he goes on moving, a moment comes when the movement ceases to be human and it turns into a convulsion. (Visión Religiosa de la Crisis Actual. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, page 286).

5a) The true aim

The union of nations into great groups, first, and then under a single World Empire (powerful dream and the great movement of today's world) cannot be accomplished but with Christ or against Christ. What only God can do (and He will do at the end, as we believe, in accordance with what has been promised), the modern world feverishly tries to construct without God, abominating the old arrangement of unity which was called Christendom and oppressing fiercely even human nature, with the intended suppression of the family and of the fatherlands. But we will defend these natural parcellings, these primal nuclei of humanity to the end, with the aim, not to gain victory, but not to be defeated. That is, knowing that if we are defeated in this struggle, that will be our major triumph, because if the world ends, then Christ told the truth. And then the ending is a guarantee of resurrection. (Visión Religiosa de la Crisis Actual. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, pág. 289-290).

(To be continued)

A prophet of the end of times. IV

Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani

  

A prophet of the end of times

By Father Juan Carlos Ceriani

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

Part IV

But the preceding does not fully satisfy those Catholics who are more knowledgeable or more committed, especially because around us other projects waver and other alternatives are presented. Among them, two stand out: the creation of the so-called «Civilization of Love» and the expectation of a re-flourishing of Medieval Christendom.

a)The «Civilization of Love»

For the “irreducible idealists who have their own social doctrine and their own philosophical and religious principles to reorganize society under a new plan”, the destruction of the old framework of unity which was known as Christendom amounts to little or nothing. “Their dream consists of changing the natural and traditional foundations of Society and of promising a future city built on different principles” and they propose to us the creation of a «Civilization of Love».

This is how Paul VI, on more than one occasion (for instance December 25, 1975, during the closing of the Holy Year, as well as in his “Teachings to the People of God” pointed to the  «Civilization of Love» as “the end to which all efforts in the social and cultural realm should be directed, as well as in the economic and political one”

On his part, John Paul II, in his Address to the Youth at the Esseneto Stadium in Agrigento on May 19, 1993, said:

“We are here to make this great project of the civilization of love a reality, initial but objective. This is the civilization of Jesus, this is the civilization of the Church, this is the true Christian civilization.”

This Utopia has not been a matter forgotten or put aside. On September 10, 2000, the meeting called the Millenial Summit came to a close; it had gathered more than 150 heads of state and of government at the Crystal Palace in New York and had become the largest gathering of top rulers in history, Cardinal Sodano, then Vatican´s Secretary of State, as the bearer of the words of John Paul II, said in his intervention on Friday the 8th:

“The Holy See fervently wishes that, at the dawn of the third millenium, the UN contributes, for the sake of humanity, to the creation of a new civilization, the one which has been called the civilization of love”.

And John Paul II began his message to the World Day of Peace of January 1, 2001, titled “Dialogue among cultures for a civilization of love and peace”, in this significant manner:

“At the beginning of a new millenium, the hope that relations among men be ever more inspired on the ideal of a truly universal fraternity becomes more enlivened. Without sharing this ideal, peace cannot be ensured in a stable manner. Many indications make one think that this conviction is emerging with greater force in humankind's conscience. The value of fraternity is proclaimed by the great «charters» of human rights; it has been made manifest concretely by great international institutions, particularly by the United Nations Organization; and it is required, now more than ever, by the globalization process which unites in an ever-growing way, the destinies of the economy, of the culture, and of society. The same reflection, of believers in the various religions, tends to underline how the relationship with the one God, common Father of all men, favors the feeling and the living as brothers.” (1)

To express then later:

“The dialogue among cultures, theme of the present Message for the World Peace Day, rises like an intrinsic demand of the very nature of man and of culture (...) The dialogue leads to recognizing the richness of diversity and disposes the spirits to reciprocal acceptance, from the perspective of an authentic collaboration, which responds to the primal vocation to the unity of all the human family. As such, a dialogue is an eminent instrument to materialize the civilization of love and of peace, which my venerated predecessor, Pope Paul VI, pointed to as the ideal on which the cultural, social, political, and economic life in our time ought to be inspired.” (10)

He finally closed his message with a call to the youth:

“I wish to conclude this Message of Peace with a special invitation to you, young people of the entire world, who are the future of humankind and the living blocks with which to build the civilization of love (...) Dear youths of any language or culture, an arduous and passionate task awaits you: to be men and women capable of solidarity, of peace and of the love of life, with respect for everyone. Become artificers of a new humanity in which brothers and sisters, members all of the same family, will finally be able to leave in peace.” (22)

He who has read the works of Felicité Robert de Lamennais, founder of Catholic Liberalism, and of Jacques Maritain, creator of the idea of the Christian inspiration of modern civilization, will recognize in them the bases of this New Christendom proposed by the Second Vatican Council, the mentors of which have been Maurice Blondel, Henri de Lubac, Marie Dominique Chenu, Yves Congat, Hans Urs von Balthasar, to whom both Paul VI and John Paul II are indebted.

In the Lammennaisian-Maritainian thinking, it is necessary to accept, under penalty of “historical suicide”, the forward march of humankind; and since modern civilization walks on the line of the Revolution, it is necessary to accept the path of the Revolution, which is the road of Progress.

Once the necessarily progressive character of history has been accepted, it is necessary to agree that the modern world, with its naturalism, liberalism, and communism, would be more human than the Medieval Catholic City, and which, consequently, the new Catholic City, the Montinian-Wojtylian «Civilization of Love», should not renounce to these three plagues of the Anti-Christian revolution.

b) A reflourishing of Christendom?

There is no shortage of those who, among the alternatives or possibilities of the end of times, expect a re-flourishing of the Medieval Christendom.

Throughout the length and breadth of his fictionalized commentary on the Apocalypse, Father Castellani already warned us about the illusion of that period of triumph of the Church.

To learn about his thinking regarding this supposed re-establishment of Christendom we have to read carefully pages 15, 29-30, 38, 85, 135-136, 139-140, 159-160, 227-228, 287-288, 292-296, 307-309, 312, 387-389, 393, 398, 415. of Los Papeles de Benjamín Benavides.

Summarizing his teaching, we extract these paragraphs, which we do no always quote verbatim.

“The modern world was born under a sign of mortal illness. The world thought it was coming out from an agony but its magnificent rebirth was nothing but a fever. It had a mortal wound. It was given orders to confirm, strengthen matters which, at any rate, were agonizing. The Church centralizes itself resolutely, as an army on the defense which draws back upon itself” (page 160)

“The age of Sardis is over! We are not in it now, expecting the triumph of the Church and the restoration of Christendom to arrive with the Church of Philadelphia. The Counter-Reformation ended with the French Revolution. The Revolution was a capital event that changed the face of history; in this, its admirers are not mistaken. Don't they put it in history textbooks as a new era, the «hegira» of the new times, what they call contemporary history? With the Revolution, the Roman Empire, which patristic tradition puts as Saint Paul's mysterious Katejon, the Obstacle for the Anti-Christ, formally ends." (page 161)

“There will be no «New Christendom»: neither the one of Solovyov's and his disciples, Berdiaev and Rozanov, nor the one of Maritain, nor that of Pemán, nor that of Father Lombardi and don Sturzo. Those are the vain illusions of a world which is afraid to die, The Roman Empire is the last of the great empires, after which the Anti-Christ will follow” (page 296)

“However, Christendom will not disappear. It will be profaned. The visible Church will not remain intact: inside her will be a sanctuary and an atrium. There will be faithful, clergy, religious, doctors, prophets who will be trampled upon, who will yield to the pressure, which will take the sign of the Beast”

“Christendom will be taken advantage of: the rubble of European public law, the materials of cultural tradition, the political and juridical mechanisms and instruments, will be taken advantage of in the continuation of the new Babel, the great impious world confederation” (page 294)

Father Castellani, however, was not unaware of the existence of a different opinion, contrary to this interpretation: that of those who believe that a re-flourishing of the Church will take place and a new Christendom will emerge. In the same work quoted above he presented it as follows:

“There will be, in-between the Anti-Christ and the Great War, an entire period of peace and prosperity of the Church, as it has never been seen before, in which the Gospel will be preached all around the world and the Jewish people will convert. It will be the time of the Angelic Pope and of the Great King, of the medieval visions; innumerable private prophecies have announced it; a kind of brief golden age of the Church in between two furious tempests; a passing restoration (of one lifetime's duration) of the Christian Monarchy in Europe, which corresponds to the stretch between the finis and the initia dolorum of our Lord, that is, what we could call the Nondum Statim period. "(pages. 29-30 and 38. For the latin quotes, see Saint Matthew, XXIV: 6-8 and Saint Luke, XXI: 9, "This, in effect, has to happen, but it is still not the end... All this is the beginning of the sorrows").

“Blessed Holzhauser predicts an immense but brief triumph of the Church, lasting a man's lifetime, in which the forces of Satan will be shrunk and reduced, but not eliminated, and in which the pressure from both sides will be formidable. A tense, palpitating, noisy, exasperated period, in the rhithm of human history: a truce but not a peace.” (page 140).

And despite this, he confirmed his opinion on the subject:

“You can resort to that if you are too scared of the end of the world. But I fear that such hope might be a temporary Millennialism, a human escape from the fearful prediction: because the puerperal pains, once they begin, are no more interrupted by any long period of well-being”

“It is a bad Millennialism that which expects Christ's Kingdom on Earth before Christ's coming, and obtained by temporal means, and consisting of a splendor of the Church, also temporal” (page 287)

“Nowadays, very many Catholics, including writers, including preachers, including wise men dream of a kind of temporary triumph of the Church, neighboring our times and preceding the Parousia. And is this something other than an advanced Millennialism?” (page 387)

And in his commentary to the Apocalypse he ratifies his thought:

“It is the same carnal dream of the Jews, which made them deceive themselves with respect to Christ. These are the Millenialists upside down. They deny staunchly the meta-historical Millennium after the Parousia and place instead a millennium which is not in Holy Scripture, by work of the historical forces alone; in other words, an infra-historical solution of History, the same way as do the impious progressivists; which is tantamount to negating the supernatural intervention of God in History.” (El Apokalipsis de San Juan, page. 297).

(to be continued)

A prophet of the end of times. III

Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani

A prophet of the end of times

By Father Juan Carlos Ceriani

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

Part III

A Pope and a Bishop of Tradition

A) Saint Pius X

How not to reflect on the words of Saint Pius X in condemning the Le Sillon Utopia? Let us leave this unwholesome atmosphere and, as a breath of fresh air, read the most salient paragraphs of so magnificent an Encyclical,

They proclaim to be irreducible idealists; who have their own social doctrine and philosophical and religious principles, appropriate to reorganize Society under a new plan, who have formed a special conception of human dignity, of liberty, of justice, of fraternity, and who, so as to justify their social dreams, resort to the Gospel, interpreted in their own way, and, which is even graver, to a disfigured and diminished Christ (...) Their dream consists of changing the natural and traditional foundations of Society and promise a future city built on other principles which they dare to declare more fruitful, more beneficial than those on which the current Christian society rests. No ― necessary it is to for us to remember forcefully in these days of social and intellectual anarchy in which everybody sits as doctor or legislator ―,  the city will not be built in a manner different from the one in which God built it, society will not be erected if the Church does not put the foundations and directs the tasks; no, civilization is not about to be invented nor is the «new» city to be built on the clouds. It has existed and still exists, it is the Christian civilization, it is the Catholic «city».

It is nothing other than establishing it and restoring it unceasingly on its natural and divine foundations against the attacks, ever renewed, of the unwholesome Utopia, of the rebelliousness and of the impiety: Omnia instaurare in Christo (...)  Le sillon has a noble concern about human dignity. But it understands this dignity in the manner of certain philosophers, which the Church is far from being able to praise (...) But stranger yet, at the same time terrifying and afflicting, are the audacity and the levity of men who, calling themselves Catholic, dream of refounding society in the said conditions and establish on earth, on top of the Catholic Church, the «kingdom of justice and love», with laborers coming from everywhere and from all religions or without religion, with or without beliefs, on condition that they forget what separates them, to wit, their religious and philosophical convictions, and that they put in common what unites them, that is, a generous idealism and strengths obtained from wherever they can (...) It scares to see the new apostles obstinate in doing something better with a vague idealism and civic virtues. What will they produce? What will come out of such collaboration? A purely verbalist and chimeric construction, where the words of liberty, justice, fraternity, and love, of equality and exaltation of man, will glitter, scrambled and in a seducing confusion, all of this founded on a badly understood human dignity, a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, fruitful for the less utopian agitators of the masses.” (Encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique).

B) Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre

On the occasion of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of his priestly ordination, on November 19, 1989, His Excellency Monsignor Marcel Lefevbre delivered a famous sermon. The final part of his dissertation was devoted to an analysis of the events which then shook the world, particularly Europe:

“I will tell you now some words about the international situation. I believe we must reflect and draw a conclusion on the events we currently experience, which are quite apocalyptic. Some surprising things are those movements that we do not always understand well, those extraordinary things that happen behind and now through the iron curtain. We must not forget, on the occasion of these events the provisions that have been taken by the masonic sects and which had been published by Pope Pius IX. They allude to a world government and Rome's submission to the masonic ideals; this over one hundred years ago. We must neither forget the Most Holy Virgin Mary's prophesies. She has warned us: If Russia does not convert, if the world does not convert, if it does not pray and make penance, communism will invade the world. What does this mean? We know quite well that the objective of the masonic sects is the creation of a world government with the masonic ideals, i.e. the human rights of equality, fraternity, and liberty, understood in an anti-Christian sense, against our Lord. These ideals would be defended by a world government which would establish a type of socialism for use in all countries and, following, a congress of religions which would extend to all of them, including the Catholic religion, and which would be at the service of the world government, in the same way, that the Russian Orthodox are at the service of the Soviet government. There would be two congresses, a universal political one which would lead the world and the congress of religions which would go to the aid of this world government and which evidently would be salaried by this government.

What ought we to do?

We have already read them, but we will repeat some phrases so that they get etched in our intelligence and that they move our will,

On the one hand, Saint Pius X:

• tells us that “the city will not be built in a manner different from the one God built it” and that “society will not be built if the Church does not set the foundations and directs the tasks”
• warns us that “civilization is not about to be invented nor is the new «city» to be built on the clouds”;
• reminds us that such «civitas Dei» “has existed and still exists; it is the Christian civilization, the Catholic «city»;
• marks the only real way of the «Omnia instaurare in Christo»: “It is nothing other than establishing it and restoring it unceasingly on its natural and divine foundations against the attacks, ever renewed, of the unwholesome Utopia, of the rebelliousness, and of the impiety".

On the other hand, the “Utopians” and/or “rebels” and/or impious who gestated, gave birth and made the Vatican II conciliar ideas grow, proclaim solemnly that:

• For certain believers, a life in accordance with the faith would not be possible but with a return to this ancient order. This attitude does not contribute a solution compatible with the Christian message or the genius of Europe;
• In the debate on religious liberty in Saint Peter's Basilica was present what we call the end of the Middle Ages and even more, of the Constantinian era”;
• “The conciliar texts Gaudium et Spes, Dignitatis Humanae, and Nostra Aetate play the role of a counter-Syllabus to the extent that they represent an attempt of an official reconciliation of the Church with the world as it has become after 1789”

Reaching this point, the question arises spontaneously: What ought we to do?

That is how Father Castellani titled a religious essay published in 1951 as a part of his book "Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?" And he responded:

For a Christian, the answer is very simple: one has to save his soul (...) Concretely, do all the good one can do in his surroundings, at a short distance, what is at hand, without encumbering oneself with great plans,with great undertakings with great projects, with great revolutions” (pages 212-213).

A prophet of the end of times. II

Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani

A prophet of the end of times

By Father Juan Carlos Ceriani

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

Part II

Prophetic Conjectures

Once the question has been posed, based on History and on the prophecies of the Apocalypse, he draws his own conclusions on the future of the Church and of Christianity.

a) Christianity will be trampled on
The Church created European Christendom on the foundation of the Roman Order. Faith irradiated little by little and went about penetrating its surroundings, family, customs, laws, politics. All of this is being cracked and contaminated; when not in a purely apostatic manner, as in Russia, someday it will be «trampled by the gentiles» of the new paganism. That is the temple's atrium. The sanctuary will remain, that is, the pure and obscure faith, sorrowful and oppressed, the temple measured by the prophet with the «reed-like rod», which is the sorrowful hope in the Second Coming, the reed they gave to the Ecce Homo and the iron scepter that his Father gave Him to shatter them to pieces. (Los Papeles de Benjamín Benavides, page 294)

b) The Church will yield in its external framework:
The enormous pressure of the unbelieving masses and of the governments, either Machiavellian or else hostile, will weigh horribly on everything that keeps itself faithful; the Church will yield in its external structure, and the faithful «will have to take refuge» flying «in the desert» of the faith. Only very few, those who have purchased “drops for the eyes and pure refined gold» with the renunciation to everything earthly, will maintain their faith immaculate (...) Those few «will not be able to buy or sell», or to circulate or address the masses through the great publicity media, fallen in the hands of the political power; and, later on, of the Anti-Christ: that is why they will be few. Situations calling for heroism, especially of super-human heroism, are for the few; and if those days were not to be abbreviated, not even one would remain. But the Church is not to be built, it has already been built, an immense cathedral of stone and clay, with a light inside. It will not disappear as though it had been made of smoke, the walls will remain, at least the rubble, and on the altars, gilt and honored with the bones of the martyrs, the Son of Perdition, the Unjust will one day seat himself, whose operation will be all of Satan´s power, for the perdition of those who did not hold fast to the truth and consented with the iniquity. (Los papeles de Benjamín Benavides, pages 292-293).

c) That was written in 1947; ten years later he will anticipate that, if the world is to die soon, liberal democratism will be nefariously reinforced by a religion impregnated with the Anti-Christ.

Liberal democratism, in which we have been born, can be considered a heresy, but also, luckily, a kind of carnival or buffoonery; with that, you can avoid weeping too much, although it is also not licit for you to laugh too much. It is now among us in its last stage of development and a kind of malignant joy is the thinker's temptation, who sees all his predictions fulfilled, and sees unravel in an almost automatic order all of the forewarnings of ancient prophets and wise men who, beginning with Aristotle, saw it coming and watched how it ended... the same way as it is ending among us. In itself, it should perish if humanity should go on living, but the possibility is not to be excluded that democratism will go on existing and even that it be reinforced nefariously if humanity should perish soon in conformity with Christian dogma. But that will not but be backed by religion, being brought to light the religious ferment that it in itself encloses, and which strictly makes it a Christian heresy, the last heresy perhaps, maybe pregnant with the Anti-Christ. (Una religión y una moral de repuesto. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, page 278).

d) In the meantime, to those that do not want to see, to those who see but do not love truth enough, to light Catholics, a replacement religion is supplied.

The spectacle that our country presents, seen spiritually makes one cry. Liberalism has provided the poor people ― not all, but those who do not love truth enough ― a replacement religion and morality, substitutes for the real ones; a vain simulation of the things, sometimes wrapped in sacred words. What it is to see so many poor devils making of a party an Absolute and placing their salvation in a name which is not Christ´s ― even when sometimes the name of Christ is also there, as an ornament or as a bait! They get full of empty words, they vomit bombastic formulas, they become passionate for Utopian ideals, straighten the nation or the world with four puerile judgments, swallow the lies of the press as dogma or as facts; and discuss, fight, denigrate and hate each other in vain, for matters more banal than smoke... An artificial life, discordant with reality, devours their life (Una religión y una moral de repuesto. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, pages 278-279).

e) The replacement religion and morality which in 1957 could be misinterpreted only as an eagerness directed to what is temporal, burst in afterward with the overbearing force of the strictly religious; to the point that the classical option between the two masters in the Gospel, the two loves and two cities of Saint Augustine, the two standards of Saint Ignatius, presented itself clearly in the alternative of Revolution or Tradition.

We should not delude ourselves: in the world today there are not but two parties. The one, which can be called the Revolution, tends with gigantic force to the destruction of all the ancient and inherited order, to raise over its ruins a new paradisiacal world and, a tower that reaches the sky; and, by the way, it does not lack magical formulas, decisions, and schemes for that future construction; it has all the plans, which are among the most delicious in the world. The other, which can be called Tradition, tends to follow the admonition of the Apocalypse: «keep all the things you have received, even if they are human and perishable things» (Una religión y una moral de repuesto. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, page 282).

What is the characteristic of our times if not an immense movement to destroy the Western tradition from the root and a heroic decision to conserve it and revive it? (San Agustín y nosotros, page 10).

The Conciliar Church opts for the revolution

The Conciliar Church, the one which manifested itself and grabbed the powers of the Catholic Church during the last Council «tends with gigantic force to the destruction of all the ancient and inherited order». It is not our intention to extend ourselves to demonstrate these affirmations. There are numerous books devoted to the topic. It will suffice us to present some examples.

Before the closing of Vatican Council II, the then mere priest Joseph Ratzinger, advisory peritus to the cardinal of Cologne, expressed in his book “Results and Perspectives in the Conciliar Church” assertions such as the following: “Time will come in which the debate over religious liberty will be counted among the most relevant events of a Council, which, by the way, offers such an abundance of important events which makes it difficult to establish a scale of values. In this debate what we call the end of the Middle Ages, even more, of the Constantinian era, was present in Saint Peter's Cathedral. Few things of the last fifty years have inflicted such enormous damage to the Church as the staunch persistence in positions proper of a State Church, left behind in the course of history. (...) That resorting to the State on the part of the Church since Constantine, with its culmination in the Middle Ages and in the absolutist Spain of the incipient Modern Age constitutes for the Church in today's world one of the most burdensome mortgages, is a fact from which anybody capable of thinking historically can no longer deny. (...) It is clear that the opposers of the text, in negating not the freedom of conscience but the freedom of religion were fighting for a world which is crumbling down, whereas the other party fought hard to open a way which leads to the future” (Resultados y Perspectivas en la Iglesia Conciliar, Ediciones Paulinas, Buenos Aires, August 1965, pages 41-45).

Ratzinger, twenty years later, Cardinal heading the Roman Congregation, in his book “The Principles of Catholic Theology” confirms his thinking on this surprising event; speaking about the Declaration Gaudium et Spes, he says: “If an overall diagnosis of the text is sought, it can be said that it is (along with the texts on religious liberty and on world's religions) a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of contra-Syllabus (...) It suffices that we satisfy ourselves with proving that the text plays the role of a counter-Syllabus, to the extent that it represents an attempt for the official reconciliation of the Church with the world as it has become after 1789 (...) Hardly anyone today will deny that the Spanish and Italian concordats strove to preserve too much of a conception of the world that long time ago has no longer corresponded to the real circumstances.(...) Likewise, almost nobody can deny that this antiquated attachment to the relations between Church and State corresponded similar anachronisms in the domination of education (,,,) The duty, then is not the suppression of the Council but the uncovering of the real Council and the deepening of its true will. This implies that there cannot be a return to the Syllabus, which could have been the first yank in the confrontation with nascent liberalism and marxism but it cannot be the last word.” (Los Principios de la Teología Católica, Téqui, Paris,1985, págs. 426-437).

There may be some who say that Cardinal Ratzinger is not a sufficiently authorized voice. Let us, then, resort to Pope John Paul II himself and consider only two paragraphs in his address to the European Parliament on Tuesday, October 11, 1988. This pontifical dissertation has capital importance, not only because of the circumstances in which it was delivered but also because it was considered by European parliamentarians as the best political address of John Paul II pontificate.

The first quote we want to highlight departs from what the Church's magisterium taught about the «old order founded on the religious faith», basis of the doctrine of the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ, clearly expressed in encyclicals Quanta Cura, Immortale Dei, Sapientiae Christianae and Quas Primas: “For some, civil and political liberty, in its time conquered by the overthrow of the old order founded on the religious faith, is conceived still united to marginalization, that is, to the suppression of religion, in which an alienation system is tended to be seen. For some believers, on the contrary, a life in conformity with the faith would not be possible except by a return to this old order, besides frequently idealized. These two antagonistic attitudes do not contribute a solution which is compatible with the Christian message and the genius of Europe.”

The second text is a worthy ending to the most important political speech of John Paul II: Ecologism, Fraternity, and Humanism ... all under the sign of Deism. Definitely, a soulless and Christless Europe. Here is the Vatican II version of Quas Primas: “In concluding, I would like to recall three fields in which it seems to me that integrated Europe, open to the East of the continent, generous toward the other hemisphere, would have to return to a role of a lighthouse to world civilization: first, reconcile man with creation, caring to preserve the integrity of nature, its flora and fauna, its air and waters, its subtle equilibria, its limited resources, its beauty which worships the glory of its Creator. Then, reconciling men with their equals, the ones accepting the others among Europeans of diverse cultural traditions or schools of thought, being welcoming to the foreigner and the refugee, opening up to the spiritual richness of the peoples of other continents. Finally, reconciling man with himself: yes, strive to reconstruct an integrated and thorough vision of man and the world, against the cultures of mistrust and of dehumanization, a vision in which science, technical capacity, and art do not exclude but claim the faith in God” (L'Osservatore Romano", edición semanal castellana, 27/ 11 / 1988).

(to be continued)

A prophet of the end of times. I

Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani

A prophet of the end of times

By Father Juan Carlos Ceriani

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

Part I

In this year 2001, the twentieth anniversary of the death of Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani, we publish this reflection based on his teaching, with two intentions: give homage to this prophet of the end of times and provide misguided modern man the light of the true Catholic Tradition and of the genuine interpretation of the Prophecies.

The history of the last forty years still keeps mysterious secrets, as it also reveals astonishing facts. An analysis of the current situation in the light of the magisterium of Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani helps us greatly to understand these events and to conjecture about those enigmas.

It is for that reason that we consider the current situation and its ending under the light of the teachings of this prophet of the end of times. His books and articles are what guide us and make us discover the apocalyptic paths which lead to the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Christianity will be profaned

Deluded by the lies of theologians, philosophers, politicians, and economists, modern man seeks a light to guide him. And he will not be able to find it but in the Catholic Tradition and in the prophecies.

The Apocalypse of Saint John, the last of the books making up Sacred Scripture, is a prophecy of the Parousia or the Second Coming of Christ, with everything that announces it and prepares for it.

Jesus Christ must come back soon. And as His return gets nearer, clearer become the prophecies which indicate to us that the Parousia will take place at the climax of the most horrendous religious struggle that the centuries have ever witnessed, at the very apex of the great apostasy and in the most terrible tribulation since the time of the Deluge.

Well, then, also with respect to the interpretation of this prophecy modern man is being misguided by the pseudo-prophets and the bad doctors. And precisely in this pivotal question, Reverend Father Leonardo Castellani stands out as Doctor and Prophet in the midst of the tangled mess of those “brilliant, skillful, and perverse sophists; trumpeters of the Anti- Christ, at the service of the great tide of the century, of the sick times; vainly hopeful worshippers of paradise in this earth to be achieved by man's strength alone” as he defined it himself.

In his commentary on the Apocalypse of Saint John, he admonishes us: “The function of «prophecy» — prophecy in an ample sense, men are capable of speculating on the future —  is necessary for a nation, as much or more than the function of the Priest or the function of the Monarch. If you cast prophecy overboard, you will necessarily fall into a pseudo-prophecy. There is, nowadays, an abundant and very fashionable false apocalyptic literature, which some critics say it «is the literature of the new age» (...) It refers to the so-called science fiction. Another branch of the apocalyptic literature is what we call «nightmare literature». The third branch is made up of the utopian essays about the future, which are plentiful. All of this is prophecy, I mean pseudo-prophecy; sometimes prophets of the Anti-Christ. I don't want to elaborate on this kind of visions which lead the reader to terror or dismay, or else — and these are the least — to euphoric illusions about the future. Most of them are ludicrous, and the demolition of common sense is not the lesser of the evil influence that they irradiate since some of them are almost demented. They set an absurdity as their basis.” (pages 297-298)

So as not to be repetitive in citing quotes or to deviate the reader's attention, we provide an advanced list of the author's works which we will use; quotes we emphasize in italics and remit to the page numbers in the respective publications.

• HACIA LA HISPANIDAD, Cabildo, Buenos Aires, April 23, 1944. We quote as it was published in Las Canciones de Militis, 3d edition, Buenos Aires, Biblioteca Dictio, 1977, page 175.
• EL DERECHO DE GENTES, Cabildo, Buenos Aires, August 11, 1944. We quote as it was published in Decíamos ayer, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudestada, 1968, page 141.
• SUPER - ESTADO, Cabildo, Buenos Aires, September 7, 1944. We quote as it was published in  Decíamos ayer, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudestada, 1968, page 167.
• A MODO DE PROLOGO, February 24, 1945, Decíamos ayer, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudestada, 1968, page 17.
• VISIÓN RELIGIOSA DE LA CRISIS ACTUAL, Dinámica Social, Buenos Aires, September-October de 1951. We quote as it was published.
• In Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, 2a edition, Buenos Aires, Editorial Dictio, 1976, page 284.
• UNA RELIGIÓN Y UNA MORAL DE REPUESTO, Dinámica Social, Buenos Aires, November-Dicember, 1957. We quote as it was published in Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, 2a edition, Buenos Aires, Biblioteca Dictio, 1976, page 278.
• LOS PAPELES DE BENJAMÍN BENAVIDES, written in 1947. We use the 3d edition, Buenos Aires, Biblioteca Dictio, 1978.
• EL APOKALIPSIS DE SAN JUAN, written in 1963. We use the 4th edition, Buenos Aires, Biblioteca Dictio, 1977. Quotes from this work are few because its thorough reading and reflective study are indispensable and irreplaceable.
• SAN AGUSTÍN Y NOSOTROS, marzo de 1954, Ediciones Jauja, Mendoza, abril de 2000.

The State of the Question

We are at the end of the Counterreform: a historic period is being closed, a period essentially determined by the dissolution of European Christianity due to that great religious, political and social convulsion called the Reformation, or better said Protestantism. After this, a still more terrible conflict will open, the emergence of the last heresy which Belloc describes at the end of his classic book, or God will lead His Church temporarily to a peaceful haven and a great universal triumph as He has done other times (...) The current division of the world is, at bottom not only political but rather religious (Hacia la Hispanidad. Las Canciones de Militis, pages 176-177).

In effect, with admirable clairvoyance, in two articles published in Cabildo in April and August 1944, our author described precisely not only the exact situation in which Christianity was but also the two only possible outcomes:

Two new ideas have made their way through the illusory or rigged foliage of liberal pacifism, and they having been formulated as goals of the coming age, nobody will be able to stop them, nor the possibility is seen of how to avoid the option between them. On the one part, the Judeo-Masonic Super State which would complete the economic superstructure of international capitalism, politically and militarily. On the other part, the free but total alliances among groups of nations having a spiritual affinity, as it was in Medieval Christendom, or in the always dreamed Catholic Empire partially carried out by Spain in America, as it had been before by Charlemagne or Charles the Fifth. (El derecho de gentes. Decíamos ayer, page 143).

But at the same time, he forewarned us about the danger of that Judeo-Masonic Super State being presented as a third alternative, masqued by the figure of a New Christendom or Ecumenic Restoration, resulting from a falsified Christianity. 

The European Federation project is simply the shadow of the Roman Empire, which Europe is powerless to forget, with the dream of Christ's Kingdom, which Europe needs in order to live,  which has been whisked away and falsified, and is being parasitized by these cunning freemasons and delirious protestants. Except that, when Europe dreams of a Federation, it dreams of a natural thing which has existed before; but when the Yankee preaches to us the Super State, it hatches something which is anti-natural and which has never existed. Nor will it ever exist, as we believe. It is nowadays, however, an idea in motion, a sign of the times. In reality, now, after two terrible world wars it has gotten nearer; and all seems to indicate that it will not be stopped and that, sooner or later it will be carried out, with Christ or against Christ. It is one of the ideals of the modern world (...) The severity and cruelty of modern total wars make the World grieve for a substitute for ancient Christianity, kind of natural and religious federation of Medieval Europe, definitely broken by the so-called Reformation (...) But this new Christianity, which is being foisted upon us in the name of Protestant goddess Democracy, has all the appearance of a Counter-Christendom; that is, it looks like its Mother, the pseudo-Reformation.  (Super - Estado. Decíamos ayer, pages 167-170).

In the present age it will not be the Church, by means of a triumph of the spirit of the Gospel, but Satan, by means of a triumph of the spirit of apostasy, which has to achieve a total pacification (though perverse, apparent and brief) and a Kingdom which will comprise all nations, since the messianic Kingdom of Christ shall be preceded by the apostate kingdom of the Anti-Christ. The great apostasy seems to be taking shape in the world because the impulsions of the heresy have at last acquired a cosmic mass.   (A modo de Prólogo. Decíamos ayer, page 27).

The Superman is about to be born, along with the Superfederation of all nations of Earth into a single one, and the total palingenesis of the visible Universe, by work of Modern Science. This idea or image or myth is in the scene, and one stumbles with it everywhere, in an implicit or an explicit form, pure or applied, in the form of an argument or of a spectacle, with the most sublime or most idiotic variations. Indeed, this image of the Unity, i.e. of the UN or UNESCO, has now a religious value. It even has its great religious theoretician, and its theologian or prophet: Father Teilhard de Chardin (...) The focal point of its speculation is none other than the triumphant unification of the Universe, in which direction, according to him, nations run infallibly under the formidable attraction of a “Universal Christ” which immanently absorbs the Universe towards him, because it is incarnated in him since its creation and is its own vital elan (...) Teilhard is certain that the great merger of peoples into one nation and of the natural coming of the Ecumenic Restoration. The religious enthusiasm, patheticness and impetus with which Teilhard de Chardin animates this essential synthesis of all modern, and even ancient, heterodoxies is something very noticeable. It is sickening to read him; but it illustrates, at least a theologian, greatly. (Visión religiosa de la crisis actual. Cristo, ¿vuelve o no vuelve?, pages 288-289).

The World wants to be united, but the World cannot unite itself but only around a false religion. Either, nations draw back on themselves in hostile nationalisms (nationalist positions that have been superseded) or else they unite nefariously with the bond of a new religion, a falsified Christianity, which will naturally hate the authentic one to death. Only religion can create supranational bonds. (Los papeles de Benjamín Benavides, page 292).

Let us keep in mind that the most recent of these texts dates from 1951. What illumination to see the beginning of the current apostasy and how much courage to raise such warnings in 1941 or 1947, the peak of the apogee of Pius XII's pontificate!


(to be continued)