St Athanasius and True Resistance
By: Eric Gajewski
There are a lot of opinions
out there in regards to the Council itself, what the Popes have taught and the various
camps which have settled into each position. For us (the Resistance) the Second Vatican Council was very much the pastoral implementation of the Novus Ordo Religion which came under the
guise of “update”. For us there are
material heresies in the documents themselves (as Archbishop Lefebvre/ Fr.
Hesse taught) of which the VII Popes have reiterated. Thence, where heresy is, no matter if it is
decreed by just authority or not a Catholic cannot be. We have precedence in Church history from the
Arian Crisis which supports the Resistance position (They have the buildings we
have the Faith) We recognize the local bishop has jurisdiction but does that
Bishop follow the Catholic Faith? In
general the answer is no. On the surface
level it seems simplistic but it does get complex as many individuals (clergy
and laity alike) are waking up to this reality.
The Modernists hide behind the word Catholic as Pope St. Pius
warned. The Church teaches it is
dangerous and not permissible to be where the Faith is not (even if they are
lawful owners of the buildings; otherwise St. Athanasius would have been wrong).
In regards to “separation: Yes we
must keep separate from these buildings until the buildings are restored (generally/objectively
speaking). This does not mean we are separate
from the Church. No more than St.
Athanasius was not separate from the Church.
We do believe the Second Vatican Council was very much a robber council
like the synod of Pistoia. It will be made null and void in the future not re-clarified.
We also believe that the VII Popes will receive a similar sentence as Pope
Honorius (excommunication). We suffer
along with the Church but cannot partake in things the Church teaches us we
cannot partake in (which binds us, the Novus Ordo does not bind us).
Furthermore, when studying the early Fathers and the esteemed theologians we
see that they teach of an apostasy or revolt (this is Vatican II) AND a driving
away of the Vicar of Christ (soon Benedict XVI will flee Rome) thus causing the
Church to go underground. We can argue from our perspective the Church is largely
underground due to VII already. The notion that the Church will always be
large does not correspond to what the Church Fathers nor do the esteemed
theologians (even Popes like Pius XII) teach in this area. If the Resistance is in
error (under the pretense that we are dealing with heresy/New Religion) than
St. Athanasius would have been in error when he stated “they have the buildings
we have the Faith”. In laymen’s terms it
means the Church would have ultimately condemned St. Athanasius for “separating”
himself from the “Church” (which it did not).
When the dust settles we believe what we say will come to pass even as
St. Athanasius said in his times (mind you he did not have the authority over
the church to “bind the church” during his crisis even as Archbishop Lefebvre
recognized he didn’t). The problem is there
are so many views on what is heresy what is not. I close in this area by saying Pope Paul the 6th
himself said the Second Vatican Council was a reflection of the cult of
man. Catholics cannot partake in this
New Religion being called Catholic which is this cult of man. Vatican II/New Mass needs “to go” lest the
wrath of God continue on.
Another problem we are facing no one
is addressing is this. Since the word
Catholic has been misused since the Council we are facing a situation wherein
one day a fraud otherwise known as the False Prophet will arrive onto the scene
claiming to be over the “Christian Churches”.
That means those calling themselves Catholic too! He will not want to be called Pope and yet it
seems he will be universally recognized as the “head”. There will be a new 5 stage initiation to the
New Age Religion which will start in Rome.
There is no way any Catholic can recognize him as a true Pope and yet it
seems the majority will follow him! Thus the
Church will be driven underground even Benedict XVI implies this in his memoirs (that the Church will grow very small and have to start over).
Archbishop Lefebvre on the visibility of the Church:
http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/06/resistance-lefebvre-visibility-of-church.html
St. Athanasius (keep in mind the Arians called themselves Catholics in his time the same as the VII modernists call themselves Catholic):
"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the
fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time
you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but
you have the Apostolic Faith. They
can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain
outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us
consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith,
obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps
the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when
the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place
there in a holy way ...
"You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within
the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith
which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable
jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They
are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one,
ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that
God will give us our churches back some day.
"Thus, the more
violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate
themselves from the Church. They
claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are
expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics
faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the
true Church of Jesus Christ."
Other Patristic Testimony To The Abysmal State of the Church
at the Time Of The Arian Heresy
A.D. 360: Saint Gregory Nazianzen says about this date: "Surely
the pastors have done foolishly; for excepting a very few, who either on
account of their insignificance were passed over, or who by reason of their
virtue resisted, and who were to be left as a seed and root for the springing
up again and revival of Israel (the Church. ed.) by the influence
of the Spirit, all temporized, only differing from each other in this,
that some succumbed earlier, and others later; some were foremost champions
and leaders in the impiety, and others joined the second rank of the battle,
being overcome by fear, or by interests, or by flattery, or, what was the
most excusable, by their own ignorance.
Cappodocia: Saint Basil says about the year 372: "Religious people
keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things
are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in the Faith avoid the places
of worship as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude, with
groans and tears to the Lord in Heaven." Four years after he writes:
"Matters have come to this pass: the people have left their houses
of prayer, and assembled in the deserts, – a pitiable sight; women and
children, old men, and men otherwise infirm, wretchedly faring in the open
air, amid most profuse rains and snowstorms and winds and frosts of winter;
and again in summer under a scorching sun. To this they submit, because
they will have no part of the wicked Arian leaven." Again: "Only
one offense is now vigorously punished an accurate observance of our
fathers' traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries
and transported into deserts."
In our time when impious novelties, liberalism and modernism are ravishing
the Church under the pretext of "aggiornamento" (update!),
and infidelity to Catholic Tradition is the order of the day, the above
statements cannot help but strike the reader as a parallel of our time.
As it was then so it is today.
Today we see the loss of faith among many Catholics occasioned by compromises
in the Faith, both great and small, which have touched on the very essence
of our Faith. Recent surveys and polls show that only 15% of Catholics
believe that they have to accept all of the Church's teachings.
The majority of Church leaders have succumbed to the "spirit of
the age", new doctrines and faithful Catholics now suffer at the hands of those
who should be their protectors.
The Catholic Church survived the Arian crisis, and so it will survive
the present one. For our part, it is our duty to remain faithful to the
unchangeable teaching and Sacred Tradition of our Holy Catholic Church,
and to not compromise our Faith in any way with the present trend of liberalism
and modernism sweeping the Catholic Church worldwide.
If the Arian crisis proves anything, if this historical lesson of the
fourth century teaches us anything in the twentieth century it is this:
Falsehood cannot become truth no matter how many accept it but rather the
truth of doctrinal teaching is to be judged by its conformity to Tradition
and not by the number or even the authority of those teaching it. It shows
to us that a pope can err as a private teacher and so much more the bishops.
Another point the Arian crisis brings out is that Catholics true to the
traditional faith had to worship outside the official Churches, their
parish churches and even to avoid them as schools of impiety. It proves
that Catholics may even have to suffer false denunciation and excommunication
for their beliefs as St. Athanasius suffered: today as always we must pray
for the Church, the clergy and especially the bishops and our Holy Father
the Pope. Only the good Lord knows how long this crisis will last but Our
Blessed Mother has given us hope in Her prophecy at Fatima. "In the
end my Immaculate Heart will triumph and there will be peace in the world".