Today we begin our three-day trilogy of paying tribute to three dedicated Traditional Catholic lay writers who have embraced the cause of Tradition and made a difference in the conversion of countless souls. The first up is Solange Strong Hertz, a prolific writer who was one of the first to recognize the aberrations of Vatican II.
Now in her 70's, we have learned that only recently she has suffered a severe stroke and first and foremost we ask for your prayers to sustain her in this heavy cross she has been asked to embrace for whatever time God has chosen until He calls her home. So many of our stalwart and valiant pioneers are being taken from our midst for they have completed their missions - those like Fr. Oswald Baker and Fr. Paul Wickens whom we honored Monday and Tuesday respectfully.
We are limited for we have searched to glean as much information as possible on Mrs. Hertz but have not been as successful as we had hoped. It does make it difficult to pay tribute to someone who we do not have that much information on. Therefore, if anyone would have any tidbits or vignettes on her, then we can add it to this tribute in the future. What follows are bits and pieces we have been able to gather.
Well before Vatican II, Solange Hertz was a regular contributor to several major Catholic periodicals and her work was honored by the Catholic Literary Foundation. Of course, as many have discovered - apologists Gerry Matatics and Bob Sungenis being excellent recent examples - once you can document your proofs and expose the charlatans, those who disagree or afraid of being found out will do all in their power to discredit and, if they are more afraid of man than God, they will deny the opportunity to continue writing for their publications. That happened with Solange when the old Triumph magazine changed editorial policy in complying with the politically correct.
And speaking of politics, that is what Solange studied and critiqued with a knowledge that surpassed most others. Always she held to the Truths and Traditions of Holy Mother Church and this is reflected in all of her works which include well known books such as The Star-Spangled Heresy: Americanism, Apostasy in America, Utopia: Nowhere, Now Here!, The Battle for Amerindia.
In the promo blurb for The Battle for Amerindia it states that there is definitely a "strong anti-Catholic bias" which has lived and fomented for centuries. "She delves into this question more thoroughly perhaps than any other modern author has done. She takes us back 500 years to time long before America was colonized."
In the latter book, she provided proof that there is a deep prejudice against the Roman Catholic Faith and the role Holy Mother Church played, not only throughout human history, but in the cultural and philosophical establishment of western civilization as well. She shows how it was the Mother of God's intention that the New World be won for her Divine Son Jesus Christ at a time when the Old World was apostasizing from the Faith with the Reformation, followed by the Enlightenment, the American and French Revolutions, and the Revolutions of the 19th and 20th Century in Russia, Spain and Mexico as well as other areas of the world. In each of these monarchies the tenets of Catholicism were compromised and secular ideas and ideals given prominence. This has spelled, as we can see today, the downfall of nations and the definite destruction of souls. Nowhere is this more evident than here in the United States.
In the early seventies she fascinated and prodded hearts with her series on feminine spirituality with the following articles in the regular editions of the old Triumph: "Among Women" (April '72), "The Woman and Her Home: 1. The Home as Divine Mystery" (May '72), "The Woman and her Home: 2. The Housewife's Vocation According to Saint Paul" (June '72), "The Crack in the Board" (July '72), "Thoughts on the Working Mother: Housewife as Martyr" (October '72), "Walls, Roof and Door: The Home as Sanctuary" (January '73), "A Millstone from Above: The Housewife as Guerrilla" (April '73), and "D'abord, The Home: Mama's Manifesto" (July '73). After that she parted ways with the monthly Triumph magazine over Vatican II and began writing the Big Rock Papers "published privately" from 1973 to well into the late eighties.
In 1974 she published her book The Thought of His Heart and Sin Revisited in 1975 with The Strange Spirit of '76 in the Bicentennial Year to bring attention to what she was hammering home: America was not founded on Catholic principles, but on Luciferian, Masonic origins. She illustrated this in her books The Occult Franklin in 1983 and Star Spangled Heresy: Americanism in 1993, writing "Catholics who mistake the United States for God's America may furthermore easily fall into the heresy formally defined by Pope Leo XIII as Americanism." She was, of course, referring to Leo XIII's encyclical "Testem Benevolentiae" issued in 1899. When one wonders why the bishops of today are such whimps and spineless yellow-livered souls, we need only to trace the origins in America for Solange identified the trendsetter in compromises as Bishop John Carroll, the first bishop of Baltimore who, along with his brother Daniel and cousin Charles Carroll who signed the Declaration of Independence, sold out Catholicism for they "collaborated with the masonic framers of the Constitution." She also noted that Charles was the "only Catholic to sign the Declaration, whose language a true son of the Church would have held under the deepest suspicion." She even identified why the rattlesnake was used in the flag "Live free or die" which was designed by Benjamin Franklin himself; for she documented the Green Dragon Tavern as the lodge of the Boston founding fathers where the origins of the American Revolution were Masonic and Satanic. As we have seen just in the last 40 years the corruption within the government mirrors the very same corruption in the conciliar church for one must apply Christ's truth-test laid out in Matthew 7: 15-20 to realize there are no good fruits. There cannot be because the Son of God said so.
No subject is off limits with Mrs. Hertz for she has spoken out, though unpopularly in many circles as to the real intent of the Civil War and how the South was more Catholic in numbers and in ideal. Interesting that Southern sympathizers in the North were by and large almost always Catholic. She pointed out that "the Confederate flag, the beloved 'Stars and Bars,' forms a cross, an emblem glaringly absent from all official U.S. iconography." When we see how hated the rebel flag is today and how the pc police are trying to banish it totally even against the resistance of proud Southerners, we can see the anti-Catholic bias insidiously played out. This is all the more evident with the ACLU's involvement in trying to wipe out God from the face of every public place in America.
Another unpopular subject was the Jewish Kabala which Solange was not afraid to not only tackle, but to expose. That takes guts being relatively close to the Beltway in Leesburg, Virginia. But in several books and articles she cited valuable sources and proof of the Zionist intent and the secret forces of Freemasonry and how, in fifth columnist fashion, they had so insidiously infiltrated the bastions of Holy Mother Church and grown in strength within. Is it all a wild conspiracy theory as so many contend? Definitely not for the Blessed Mother of God affirmed at La Salette the truths of what Mrs. Hertz has uncovered. The Messages of La Salette and later Fatima warned us of what was to come for the fulfillment of her Divine Son's words in Matthew 24: 15, the "abomination of desolation" now stands in the holy places. There is a crisis and Solange Strong Hertz has done all in her power to identify the offenders and return balance, sensibility and Catholic principle beginning with Catholic spirituality and belief so souls will be saved, but many go with the rapids and are sucked up in its powerful undercurrent. Like a roaring river, they flail and cry out, but they have no lifeboat because they did not prepare. Solange provides the tools for safety. It is up to the faithful to use them.
And speaking of rivers, the river flowing into the Tiber may not just be the Rhine, but "the lucrative waters of the Potomac are now flowing freely into the Tiber." That is Solange's take on what has happened between Americanism and Vaticanism. One who influenced her greatly was that noted British writer, historian and philosopher Hillaire Belloc who predicted the very clash of civilization which is underway now and has been for the past half century. He identified in his book The Great Heresies the eventual battle between Catholicism and Islam and indeed that deadly skirmish is being played out in the European Theater, with an extended run in America though few realized that fact until 9-11. That is another story which Solange Hertz has delved into for never has she been one to shy away from a confrontation when she knows she's right. Such was her assertive position for the Death Penalty against John Paul II and his vacuous Vatican advisors. When they tried to attack and discredit her position as being a dissident and unloyal, the noted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia came to her assistance, lambasting Rome for holding to unCatholic positions.
Over the years, her Big Rock Papers served as the basic material for her books in the nineties such as Recanting Galileo in '92, Star Spangled Heresy in '93, Utopia: Nowhere - Now Here and Beyond Politics: A Meta-Historical View, both in '95. Around the early nineties Walter Matt asked her to write for his Traditional publication The Remnant where to this day she still contributes articles.
Over the years she has written and published many books and articles on the New Age, the New World Order, Modern 'un-Godly' Science, Luciferianism, Zionism, Freemasonry and the 'spirit of Vatican II.' Besides The Remnant she has written for publications abroad such as Apropos, Christian Order and Action Familiale et Scholaire to name a few. As has been acknowledged, she is "universally regarded as one of traditional Catholicism's foremost contemporary writers."
She was presented the "St. Catherine of Siena" Award by Matt at one of the Annual Remnant Banquets honoring her work and contribution to the Resistance. In receiving her prestigious award, she acknowledged that "Watching the rise of a global world government which takes its authority not from Heaven above, but from man below. Its first visible manifestation was the United States of America, the first human government autonomously under no God, but only by the authority of 'We the people' Having by now legalized divorce, sodomy, abortion and the cannibalism of human embryos, it appears that these same 'People' are disposed to submit to authority even lower than hell itself." That became manifest when Paul VI himself abdicated any authority by bowing to the UN and abandoning the symbolic tiara. Solange was on top of that and has always based her arguments on the infrangible Catechism of Trent which has been usurped by a watered-down relativist tome released by John Paul II and largely formulated by Joseph Ratzinger - now Benedict XVI - that has only created more confusion amongst the shepherdless sheep, She also addressed these things in 2000 when she was one of the featured speakers at the "Spirit of Chartres'" Third Annual Catholic Restoration Conference in Phoenix where she spoke on "The Three Plagues of the Great Apostasy." She has also provided excellent insight while writing reviews of Catholic books that have had an impact on the Traditional Catholic movement.
She also has been a target of hate by those trying to discredit her, for she has endeavored to be, as Christ directed, a "Sign of Contradiction." But those attacking have failed greatly and, in fact, gained her more converts through her no-nonsense writing and facts. In 2002 the Novus Ordo self-righteous Crisis Magazine published an ill-formed, uninformed and caustic piece by Sandra Meisel entitled "Swinging at Windmills." The Resistance rose up as one and fired volley after volley back and Meisel hasn't made a peep since with her tail still dragging between her legs. It is also of interest to note that shortly after that article surfaced, the editor of that very publication Deal Hudson was publicly disgraced not by Traditional Catholics, but by his push for power in the political arena in which he admitted to illicit sexual affair. He was forced to resign and Crisis has been reeling ever since. Truly, "by their fruits you shall know them" (Matthew 7: 20).
Relativism was the major contention in her book Beyond Politics: A Meta-Historical View. This was pointed out in a book review published on Tradition In Action website by Friday's honoree Dr. Marian Therese Horvat. In her review, Marian wrote "She [Mrs. Hertz] understands Meta-History as highly consistent and with an absolute meaning. It is History seen from its highest causes, which means from the perspective of God. What matters is God's plan for man and society in both the religious and temporal spheres. The deeds of man are to be analyzed in view of this. Marian wrote about the guiding principle of Hertz' writings when she pointed out, "To what extent does it represent the fidelity to Catholic teaching? Or does it, on the other hand, break with the continuitity expressed by the upright variety of customs and institutions in the history of a people?" Solange Hertz always emphasized that compromise leads to concession which leads to surrender which leads to bondage. History has proven this maxim everytime. Hertz successfully showed that through the American and French Revolutions the Catholic monarchies were doomed because they had abandoned the Social Reign of the Kingship of Jesus Christ. The conclusion, as one who has followed in Solange's philosophical footsteps Dr. Thomas A. Droleskey, has said: there will be chaos until the Social Reign of Christ the King is reestablished. That is the goal of Traditional Catholics and we have our marching orders not just from Christ, His Apostles, Saints, Doctors and Popes, but the contemporary crusaders like Solange Strong Hertz.
Therefore, so that others may know of her many contributions and tireless dedication to the cause of True Catholicism, The Daily Catholic proudly proclaims that today, Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - the Feast of another valiant woman for Christ - Saint Angela Merici who founded the Ursulines - be declared Solange Hertz Day throughout all of Christendom and we hereby present the Tower of Trent Trophy to her and add her name and feats of Faith to the Tower of Trent Hall of Honor as one of America's leading ladies of the Resistance.
2005 Recipients of the Tower of Trent:
For charter members honored in our inaugural presentation of the Tower of Trent in 2004, see Charter Recipients of the Tower of Trent Trophy
