Still it gnawed at me that I couldn't meet the daily deadline, something I have been doing religiously over the past several years. But it was also during this time of rest and restlessness that we mutually reached some decisions that will have wide-ranging results for The DAILY CATHOLIC and our ministry.

    I realized that that age is creeping up and I can no longer burn the candle at both ends. I also realize I cannot do this mission alone. Either I continue as the webmaster and editor and churn out an issue each day with all kinds of features, or I cut back on those duties in favor of writing more. In weighing the pros and cons of each, we realized the latter carries more merit with God in these difficult times when we need to provide the truths daily. We have been providing plenty of form and substance, but often times at the sake of long hours that took time away from the family, imprisoned - if you will - this editor in a cell of deadlines that have taken its toll physically. When one sits at the computer for twelve hours or more a day, especially with a pinched nerve, well, you get the picture.

    Add to this the mounting costs and the fact we cannot afford a webmaster or editor to take over the majority of duties right now without outside help of other experts who can help immediately and you can see our dilemna. We have to sacrifice something in order to maintain our own sanity and balance in our life and the life of our family. In researching what readers want most are the commentaries by our columnists. That is where we can be unique and reach more. While the graphics are attractive and add to a magazine-like format that is pleasing to the eye and grabs attention, we have decided for the time being to provide more content and less o what we have been carrying Continuing with Friday's theme, allow me to put into a stream of consciousness format, that, what is today considered by many as historical fiction fabricated by an out-moded Church with ulterior motives, was once historical fact! What was once and always our duty as Roman Catholics to convey the truths of our Faith to others - to convert through proselytizing the Gospel of Jesus Christ - is today considered coercion and harmful to the unity of mankind and to the unceasing goal of globalization! Tell me the difference between that and the suppression of the free will in Russia or China, where one is told what one must practice and do what everyone else does or else! Truth be told, I don't see a difference!

    Is it any different in the United States today? Yes, we have a democracy in name, but have you noticed how we are being legislated to death, literally? Believe me, if you are not politically correct, you're on the outside and ostracized. The sodomy and culture of death agendas are gaining fast. You see, it is not politically correct to stand up and be counted for God's laws today, to defend in all stages of life the dignity of man whom He made in His image and likeness. And, sadly, our beloved Church has been a party to this malaise because she has not stood her ground against the erosion of values and morals, seeking instead to allow the flow of modernism to sweep her up in a sense of guilt for "errors" of the past. Say what? We have to be so careful to realize that yes, man has sinned in the name of the Church in the past - no one is without sin. But the interpretations of the "confessions" has been given a different spin by so many who have translated "sins of the past" as errors that prove the Church was wrong.

    I refuse to go along with the new thinking. It is a warped vision of our proud heritage; a heritage that continues to pay a premium of sacrifice for the treasure the world could not and cannot offer, a heritage that winds through the dust-covered footsteps of the Apostles that were commissioned by Christ to preach the Gospel to all in all generations unto the consummation of the world.

    Our Faith is a heritage that was strengthened in the sacred catacombs and 'rewarded' on the blood-soaked colosseum floor that became the fertile soil for the seeds of Christianity that sprouted up and expanded from the rocky terrain of the hermit caves in northern Africa to the visible churches built after Constantine's edict. Was this a bad tree that would produce no fruit?

    On the contrary. It is a sturdy tree, planted by the Son of God providing a heritage that would withstand the split of the East and West under the emperor Julian the Apostate and the perilous time that Pope Leo the Great stood his ground against Attila the Hun at the gates of Rome. Was not holy Mother Church and Christendom saved for a reason?

    It is a heritage that fended off the empty heresies of Arianism and Pelagianism, taking its toll on so many bishops, but gave us - for the ages - Saint Augustine whose writings helped sustain the Church through the fall of Jerusalem during the rising scourge of the crescent moon and helped the hierarchy withstand the iconoclasts led by the Greek Emperor Leo the Isaurian. Were not defense of the truths necessary and right?

    It is a heritage that nourished the monastic beginnings of Saint Benedict which helped sew the seeds for the rise of Christianity in western Europe and the origins of the Holy Roman Empire with Pippin and his son Charlemagne that produced the proselytizing of eastern Europe - Poland and Russia and other Slavic nations. By their fruits will you not know them?

    It is a heritage that survived the times of the antipopes and the crisis with the Eastern Church in which the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, Filioque and the Primacy of Peter were called into question and refused by Michael Cerularius which directly caused the Great Schism between East and West in 1054. Are we now to admit nearly a millennium later that Pope Saint Leo IX's excommunication of the anti-Latin Greek patriarch was wrong?

    It is a heritage of the holy wars - the Crusades - formed to recover the Holy City and restore Christianity as the Apostles had established, and preached by saints like Saint Bernard of Clairvaux through these perilous times where thousands upon thousands willingly gave their lives for over two centuries in bloody battles where the fallen believed with all their heart and soul in God's Justice and Mercy with the objective first and foremost to conquer for the crucified Christ under His sign - the cross. Some had ulterior motives, using these campaigns to fill their own coffers, to pillage and plunder, and yes rape. They received their just due. The vast majority, however, were committed to the cause and carried out the command of the radical gospel of the New Covenant, led by men like Richard the Lionhearted and King Louis IX - also a great saint. Were their efforts, their martrydoms at the hands of the infidels in vain?

    It is a heritage that struggled through the tenuous times of Barbarossa and men like St. Thomas a Becket murdered in the cathedral to the confusing times of the errors of the Albigenses and Waldenses and the many clashes over investiture in a struggle to establish spiritual and temporal power. Are we to believe temporal power has more credence?

    It is a heritage that proudly and humbly fostered the growth of missionaries throughout Europe and beyond through the fiats of holy men like Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Dominic that would produce Doctors of the Absolute Truth in Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure and a cadre of other great saints dedicated to the cause. Were their efforts wasted?

    It is a heritage that survived the schisms and turmoil caused by the Avignon Exile and the Black Death through God's permitting will and, through His ordaining will, provided the gentle saints who coaxed the Popes back to Rome and produced many Catholics who helped so many during these plague-ridden times. through the errors of Huss and Wickliffe and through the struggle between Papal Primacy and the Concilior power at Basel, Ferrara, and then Florence in which the Keeper of the Keys emerged victorious. Are we to think Vatican II reversed that?

    It is a heritage that witnessed the explosion of a new medium which would revolutionize mankind via a simple invention by the genius of Gutenberg that would usher a wave of independent thinkers and give rise to more dissension as more became 'enlightened' and worldly. This included prelates and Popes, who, over time, allowed morals and disciplines to be relaxed by their own wayward ways. This set an example not to be emulated. Yet it played right into the evil one's hands, spawning indignation and revolt from men like Zwingli, John Calvin, Martin Luther, etc. that gravely wounded holy Mother Church from within and without causing wholesale defection and confusion. During the century when Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross sought relentlessly to reform the Carmelites, the Church itself experienced her own dark night of the soul as open rebellion and persecution of Catholics by Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth and the Emperor Charles V caused great sorrow, bitterness and defections. In the fact that today Vatican II has adopted all Luther called for and more, are we then to conclude that Luther et al were right?

    It is a proud heritage that, rather than crumbling when the Rock of Peter was so vulnerable, built a visible shell of the Faith - a lasting masterful masterpiece touched by God with the likes of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bernini - and from the ashes rose a bigger, more solid Church on Vatican Hill. She was reinforced by a company called the Society of Jesus, the vaunted Swiss Guard, and the counter-reformation, which was brought to reality through the landmark Council of Trent that redirected Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church on the right path, solidified by the conversion of millions in the New World with a lot of help from above in the form of the Mother of God's apparition at Guadalupe. Are we to believe Trent was a mistake, only for those times? Are we to believe Our Lady never appeared in Mexico? That it was mere superstition promulgated by the Spanish?

    It is a heritage that saw the fruition of the sacraments when all reverence was restored to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar by the holy Pontiff who enacted all of the Tridentine reforms - Pope Saint Pius V who asserted as doctrine the Latin Mass be set in stone for all ages in his undeniable Papal Bull Quo Primum on July 13, 1570. It was also this giant among Supreme Pontiffs who had the hope, faith and love to call all Catholics to arms with the weapon of the Holy Rosary to fend off certain defeat at Lepanto and save all of Christendom from the Turkish threat. Are we truly to believe "in perpetuity" meant only for those times?

    It is a heritage that suffered through the martyrdoms of countless missionaries by savages in the far east and the New World of America who would not or could not receive the truths of Christ Jesus Crucified and Risen - men like Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Isaac Jogues and countless other priests, religious and Catholic lay men and women who gladly gave their life, standing up for the truth, never compromising their Faith, dying for Him Who died for us that we may have life everlasting, no matter what generation we hail from.

    It was a heritage that sought to direct all in the truths through the misunderstood times of the Inquisition and the rise of orders that dedicated their charisms to the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy all for the honor and glory of God while in the very heart of Catholic France the devil gave birth to the insidious enlightenment era in which rose from the embers of hell the Order of Freemasons and atheist philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Diderot and other enemies of the Church. These same foes sought to silence the influential Jesuits and were successful because Rome was weakened by intimidation and politics. Are we to believe good works do not merit grace?

    It was a heritage that struggled greatly through the revolutions in America and France, which saw the full emergence of illuminism and the masonic mission masked as democracy and veneration of the Goddess of Reason which preached power to the people. This in turn resulted in the overthrow of regimes as well as the imprisonment of Pope Pius VI by Napoleon Bonaparte and his successor Pius VII's humiliation in crowning the little emperor.

    It was a heritage that welcomed the beginning of the Age of Marian Apparitions at Rue de Bac, then La Salette and Lourdes during the steady papacy of Blessed Pope Pius IX whose pontificate remains the longest since Peter and who tried to stave off the growing modernism making inroads globally. While at the same time she encouraged the growth of the Church in North America and the establishment of a solid network of trusted parochial schools that ushered great hope as Pope Leo XIII ushered in the 20th century, urging all to cling to the vestiges of truth and dignity which was fast eroding as another holy Pontiff Pope Saint Pius X tried to stave the impending doom of World War I by making the Holy Eucharist available to more Catholics on a regular basis, arming children with this great shield of Faith. Again, are we to believe the Catholic school system, abandoned after Vatican II, was not fruitful and productive? Do we not realize the fruits began drying up when religious and clerics abandoned their missions and lay teachers usurped the role of the nuns who had molded strong Catholic leaders?

    It is a heritage that witnessed the devastation of Europe and the rise of the Bolshevists in Russia to the seething swastika in a humiliated Germany which rose quickly to cast its dark and forboding shadow across Europe once again with World War II, virtually imprisoning another holy Sovereign Pontiff Pope Pius XII who, though seemingly helpless to stop the insanity, never gave up hope by secretly doing all in his power to preserve the Faith behind enemy lines, in his beloved Italy, and reaching out to give silent refuge to so many not of the true Faith - in particular the Jews.

    It is a heritage that the last Traditional Pope clung to in staving off the masonic mission of socialism worldwide. Whether in the guise of nazism, communism, liberation theology or free thinking progressivism, Pius knew he had to curb it as best he could for he foresaw the inevitability of a coming Roman Curia greatly infiltrated by men of the highest degree of masonry. These 'plants' would rise to great prominence within the Church during the transition of a holy, but idealist Pope from Venice - Blessed Pope John XXIII, who sought to reach out to offer love to all and hoping for all to follow suit by calling a Council to better touch a world out of touch with the truths. But the truths were muffled as the masonic mission took advantage of the good Pope's short pontificate and the elevation of another who was not unfamiliar with all the inner workings of the Lodge. Why was the world not informed of John's last dying demand? "Stop the Council! Stop the Council!"

    It is a heritage that since has been wandering aimlessly in the arid regions of confusion and relativism and wondering harmfully in a desert of confusion and lack of identity for the mother tongue has been denied. Latin was stripped from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and with it, all semblance of reverence and holiness. With a reform of the curia by Pope Paul VI and his empowerment of the destructors of the Church Cardinal Annibale Bugnini and Cardinal Jean Villot, confirmed masons of the highest degree, the stage was set for a clever manipulation of the truths. Did we not understand Paul VI's words on his death bed when he admitted "satan is now in the sanctuary!"? Was this a confession and warning or the man from Milan's last breath of triumph?

    It is a heritage that today has witnessed the bastardized accomplishments of satan's legions. They have succeeded in lessening the uniqueness of being Catholic. This has resulted in the mission of adhering to the principles and absolutes of the one true Faith being greatly compromised by diluted doctrine, by experimental liturgies, by doublespeak, by contradictions, by lack of conviction and dedication on the part of many in the clergy and bishoprics. This has produced an alarming lack of fruits as so much that was built up and established has been eroded and those faithful to the absolutes set down in Divine Revelation are retreating back to the catacombs in order to regroup and preserve the Faith that has survived the onslaughts of satan through 20 centuries. Can you see, can you document any fundamental and visible fruits of Vatican II?

    Jesus answers that question in Matthew 7: 15-23 and therein should give you undeniable truth that there are no fruits from Vatican II, that it was an experiment that should be purged once and forever and return, as the Council of Trent did, to the absolutes of our Faith. We must say of and to all those trying to squeeze the last drop out of Vatican II what Our Lord says, "Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity!".

    The rich heritage of our Faith is still very much alive in what we were handed down (traditio) over 20 centuries in the Latin liturgy where the truths remain unchanged, where there is no experimentation, no doubts. And, we have no doubt she will continue to survive despite the obstacles. She will emerge from this current crisis stronger. But she will emerge beaten and battered with a great loss of numbers as the cycle will begin again to build the Church back up in the truths and doctrines handed down by the Apostles, Fathers of the Church and saints who would concede nothing to the world.

    And yet we seem to be conceding so much today. I write this today with great sadness in my heart, for Friday in the shadow of the great Parthenon, the Acropolis, and the pagan temples of Greece the man we consider the Vicar of Christ has publicly stated - in harmony with the Archbishop of Greece - that jointly Catholic and Orthodox are entreated to turn away from Our Lord's command in Mark 16: 15-16, "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned."

    You must be asking, has the editor lost his marbles? No, but we have to wonder if the Bishop of Rome has. We are not being disrespectful in any way, but ask in all sincerity why Pope John Paul II referred to himself as merely the 'Bishop of Rome' in diminishing the Primacy of Peter before the Greeks? We have carefully prayed and pondered on what he said, and we quote: "We condemn all recourse to violence, proselytism and fanaticism in the name of religion." While Catholics everywhere agree there is no rationalization to violence or fanaticism by violence or force, to include the word "proselytism" - which means to convert - is a redflag that should send a shiver through every fibre of every loyal and concerned Catholic's body, if not heart, which must be hurting so, if not broken with the Holy Father's recent actions that seem to recant what Jesus asks for!

    While the joint statement is flowery in exemplifying what the Apostle Paul preached, nowhere does it mention Paul's fate...or should we say 'reward' for refusing to compromise. Paul did not 'sell-out' but steadfastly lived the Gospel which led to the ultimate sacrifice - his life. Today life is referred to so often in humanistic terms that mean nothing if the soul is not fed. The soul today is being compromised in the name of "solidarity," "the whole Christian world," the "globalization of brotherhood" in Christ. These are terms carefully couched in a humanistic concept that, though on the surface don't seem to change the meaning, over time and consistent indoctrination of the new way - ie. Vatican II-speak - the Church of the 21st Century little by little is distancing itself more and more from what the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church has always taught. For the love of Jesus Christ, let us hope it is not intentional. For, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 22-23, in his first epistle, "If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema."

    I ask you to consider Paul's words to the people of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1: 17-25, that salvation is not by wisdom of words "For the doctrine of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but to those who are saved, that is , to us, it is the power of God." He addressed all when he said, "For the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks look for 'wisdom'; but we, for our part, preach a crucified Christ - to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1: 22-25). Now read the joint statement at Pope and Patriarch speak as one and tell us if the crucified Christ is mentioned. Read it carefully and you'll see the 'wisdom' that the Greeks look for and cajoled the Pope into agreeing to, you'll see the 'signs' the Jews demand as evidence last year in Jerusalem and their relentless attacks on Pius XII.

    Finally, I ask you to carefully discern Paul's words to the Galatians 1: 8-10: "But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a gospel to you other than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema! As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I should not be a servant of Christ."

    Is His Holiness seeking to apease men everywhere by his statement to the Greeks and the course he has chosen in ecumenism? That is something each has to consider. For us, we are greatly troubled at the course of events over the past several months which do not bode well for the Church and this venture into Greece has revealed more of what, through the grace of the Holy Spirit and much prayer, we have feared more and more. We greatly fear what could transpire at the Consistory later this month and with the Sovereign Pontiff willing to compromise his primacy before the Greeks, imagine what could happen when intimidated by the men in red who, through this Pope's own hand, have increased the ranks of progressivism. We are in those times foretold. We are still wandering in the desert and every day we are coming more to the realization that it is very possible the man who has been leading us could be leading us in the wrong direction. How can you know for sure?

    The first and foremost way is through prayer - the 'power of God;' the second is to know your Faith. We entreat all loyal and concerned Catholics to read all the documents carefully - first Sacred Scripture - then the documents of Trent and Vatican I and compare them with Vatican II. The two former were dogmatic councils that decreed doctrine and inherited the infallible nature due them; the latter was a pastoral council only where no new doctrine was decreed because there is no new doctrine. Yet Vatican II, through the clever manipulation of the masonic mission - which we will delve more into tomorrow - has cleverly and deliberately changed doctrine ever so subtly that today we have embraced all that Luther called for and more. Ask yourselves if this is the Church of absolutes that Roman Catholicism has always taught up until 1965. If not, why? These are questions we must ask for the sake of preserving the True Faith founded by Christ. The absolutes of our Faith demand it!