Fr. Campbell, "An Uncertain Sound"
In
early Advent, when we should be free to concentrate on preparing for
the holy Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, we find it necessary to do
damage control. It must be done if we expect to have a future in which
to be free to offer fitting worship to our Divine Savior.
During
his return to Rome from his visit to Africa, Francis Bergoglio,
pretender to the papal throne, spoke to reporters on the plane about
“religious fundamentalism”, which, he says, exists in all religions. In
the Catholic Church he says there are many fundamentalists, by which he
means those who hold to the traditional teachings of the True Catholic
Church, commonly known as “Traditionalists”. We are the Catholic
equivalent of the ISIS terrorists. We must be stopped. The following
quotation comes from the Catholic News Service, Monday, Nov 30, 2015:
“When
asked a question about religious fundamentalism, in the light of the
attacks by ISIS terrorists on Paris, the Pope responded by saying that
‘we are all God’s children, we all have the same Father… we need to live
peacefully alongside one another, develop friendships.’
He
then went on to discuss fundamentalism within the Church.
‘Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions,’ said the
Pontiff. ‘We Catholics have some, many, who believe they possess the
absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with
disinformation, and doing evil. They do evil… Religious fundamentalism
must be combatted… ‘religious fundamentalism isn’t religion, it’s
idolatry,’ said Francis, adding that ideas and false certainties take
the place of faith, love of God and love of others” (Catholic News Service, Monday, 30 Nov 2015).
Well, we must insist that of course we have the absolute truth! Is our Religion only relatively true? Perhaps his
religion is relatively true, but mine is absolutely true. We do not
have “false certainties,” we have the certainty of faith. Francis prayed
with the Muslims in an African mosque, because he thinks the religion
of Islam is relatively true too. Well, if all religions are relatively
true, that would mean, of course, that they were all relatively false as
well.
If
I thought our Holy Catholic Religion was only “relatively true” I would
lay aside my vestments right now, and walk out of the church. But no,
we have the absolute truth, revealed to us by God, who IS
Absolute Truth. Our religion is a revealed religion. Its truth does not
depend on human judgment, but on the truth of God Himself, whose
revealed Word is absolutely true. We are obliged to believe in the
Absolute Truth that Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God the Father, has
revealed to us. Furthermore, Jesus promised to send forth from the
Father the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost:
“But
when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will teach you all the truth.
For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he will hear
he will speak, and the things that are to come he will declare to you.
He will glorify me, because he will receive of what is mine and declare
it to you” (Jn.16:13,14).
Now Francis thinks that if we believe that our religion is absolutely true, we despise those of other religions, “dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil”. Oh, he says,
“religious fundamentalism isn’t religion, it’s idolatry,” and that,
“ideas and false certainties take the place of faith, love of God and
love of others.”
Well,
this brings those who follow Francis face to face with a terrible
dilemma. Either they believe in the Absolute Truth of the Holy Catholic
Religion, which means “dirtying
the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil”, or they
start believing that the Catholic Religion is only “relatively true”, so
they can have “faith, love of God and love of others”.
But
this is a false dilemma. Perhaps poor Francis was deprived of proper
religious instruction as a child. Perhaps he never learned his prayers,
such as the Act of Faith:
“O
my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I believe that your divine Son became man
and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the
dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church
teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be
deceived.”
We
do not hate those who belong to the other religions. On the contrary,
we love them enough to be honest with them and tell them the truth, that
in order to save their souls they must be baptized and belong to the
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Ark of Salvation.
But
if we were liars, we would tell them all to stay where they are, and
not bother about Baptism. This is what Francis tells them. It’s OK, he
says, because we all worship the same God. So he will pray with the
Muslims in their mosques, but he will not preach the Gospel to them, or
encourage them to be baptized. Is an insult to try to help them save
their souls? St. Paul says, “If
the trumpet give forth an uncertain sound, who will prepare for
battle?” (1Cor.14:8). Francis gives forth “an uncertain sound”, and no
one climbs aboard the Ark.
Francis
is out there preaching about climate change, while the European Union,
with Germany in the lead, is about to go over the moral cliff by making
legal all kinds of grossly immoral perversions, including pedophilia.
Will Francis repeat his famous words, “Who am I to judge?” When Noah
heard from God about the Great Flood, he could have gone on a Bergoglio
style speaking tour about climate change, but the Flood would have come
anyway, and no one would have been saved.
Let us hear from a true Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII (Sapientiae Christianae, Jan. 10, 1890):
“We
have fallen upon times when a violent and well-nigh daily battle is
being fought about matters of highest moment, a battle in which it is
hard not to be sometimes deceived, not to go astray and, for many, not
to lose heart. It behooves us, venerable brethren, to warn, instruct,
and exhort each of the faithful with an earnestness befitting the
occasion: that none may abandon the way of truth.”