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).