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the Athanasian
A publication of Traditional Catholics of America t Editor: Fr. Francis E. Fenton, STL t Volume VI, No. 8 t December 1, 1985
€he World's ne Evil: Gin
Fy. Francis E. Fenton
S ome 35 years ago Pope Piux XII made the observa-
tion that a great tragedy of his day was that the
world had lost its sense of venial sin. A great tragedy
indeed, that man was no longer sensitive to or even per-
haps conscious of his less serious violations of the moral
law of God. But the moral climate that prevailed in that
era to which Pope Pius XI was referring was of high
quality compared to that of our present time. Today
multitudes of people have lost their sense of all sin,
mortal as well as venial. And that is not merely “a great
tragedy” but it may well be the supreme tragedy of our
day.
But why is this so extreme a misfortune, the loss on the
part of countless individuals of their sense of sin? Be-
cause sin is the ultimate evil and, in the final analysis,
the only real evil because it alone offends God and has
eternal consequences. This is God’s world and, if we are
to play our proper part in it, then we must humbly ac-
knowledge His supreme dominion over us and live our
lives in accordance with His will. if we do not, if we
ignore Him and flout His moral law, if we live as though
He did not exist and as though there were no Heaven or
hell, if, in a word, God is a more or less nonentity for us
and if man is the measure of all things—then it is the
height of foolishness on our part to expect that the
Almighty will not one day demand retribution for our
defiance of Him. God is all-merciful, yes, but He is like-
wise all-just and, while it is beyond our finite minds
fully to reconcile these two concepts, we seriously err in
concentrating on God’s infinite mercy to the virtual ex-
clusion of His perfect justice, and vice versa.
God created all men for Heaven and Christ died for the
salvation of all. Almighty God condemns no one to
hell. No one is eternally lost unless it be through his
own unrepented grave fault. Such is the teaching of the
Roman Catholic Church. As Saint Augustine put it,
“God made us without us but He will not save us with-
out us.”
Since the doctrine of the Church on sin is found in de-
tail in any advanced traditional catechism, there is no
need to present that material here. However, a few
points might well be noted:
1, Every Roman Catholic has the obligation to
know his religion and that includes the subject
of sin. Regrettably, some do not. One example
would be the conditions necessary for the com-
mission of mortal sin. Because mortal sin is a
serious offense against God or a grave violation
of the law of God, it is essential that we know
what those conditions are. There are, objective-
ly speaking, enough mortal sins without our
creating our own through ignorance of the
moral teaching of the Church. And yet, how
many there are who, because they are not right-
ly informed, think this or that is a grave sin
when, in fact, the Church says otherwise—or
they suppose a particular matter is a venial or
less serious sin which, given the three condi-
tions for such, is actually a mortal sin. While we
are obliged to follow the dictates of our
conscience, we have a prior obligation to form a
correct conscience, that is, one in harmony
with the moral doctrine of the Church. If a
person does not know that doctrine, then his
conscience will be a distorted or erroneous one
in its moral judgments. Every Roman Catholic,
then, has the serious duty to form and to havea
correct conscience on moral matters.
2. While venial sin is a less serious offense
against God, it is an offense against God, an ‘
infraction of His law, a violation of His will. If a
person, while concerned about avoiding mortal
sin, commits venial sins habitually and with
abandon, that individual will eventually fall
into mortal sin. If one completely disregards less
serious offenses against God in his daily life, his
sense or consciousness of the nature of sin is
gradually dulled so that, little by little, he is ever
more disposed to rationalize and compromise
with grave sin. Nor can a person advance in
virtue nor make any real progress in the spiri-
tual life who does not have a vivid awareness of
the immorality of venial sin which is, after all,
the second greatest evil in the world. Surely
there is not a saint in Heaven who took venial
sin lightly throughout his earthly sojourn. And
we are all called to be saints, are we not? In fact,
no one is welcomed in Heaven unless and until
he becomes one.
3. Sin is an entirely personal and subjective
thing in the sense that only an individual can
commit or be guilty of it. True enough; numer-
ous matters, apart from any personal involve-
ment, are called sins, that is, objectively sinful.
In the strict theological meaning of the term,
however, sin involves the mind and the will and
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so an individual is guilty of sin only when, in
some fashion, he knowingly and_ willingly
offends God or violates His moral law. One
cannot commit a sin by accident. Nor can a
person be guilty of sin after the fact, that is, a
person is not held accountable before God for
sin if, at the time of its occurrence, that person
was in total good faith and completely unaware
of any immorality. There is, of course, no such
thing as society being guilty of sin. Just as lifeless
guns don’t kill people but rather people kill
people; so also abstract society doesn’t commit
sin but rather people commit sin.
Because, then, it is a serious offense against God, be-
cause it is a grave violation of the law of God, because it
destroys the life of divine grace in the soul, because a
person who dies in unrepented mortal sin is destined to
suffer for all eternity both the loss of the Beatific Vision
of God (Heaven) and the indescribable torment of hell—
for such reasons mortal sin is the greatest evil in the
world,
Suffering is one of the consequences of original sin.
Because the desire to be happy is a part of human na-
ture, because no one in his right mind seeks unhappi-
ness for its own sake, suffering of one kind or another—
that is, the absence of happiness—is described as evil
and is so considered by the generality of mankind. Yet
suffering, although it may become an occasion of evil or
sin (resentment, despair, self-pity, etc.) is not in itself an
evil. Ifit were, would Christ have preached the necessity
of suffering for those who would be followers of Him?
Would He have endured the excruciating agony of
Calvary if suffering were evil? Did not the saints and
martyrs seek pain and trials and tribulations and, in
fact, actually rejoice in their sufferings? Holy Scripture
tells us that the disciples rejoiced “that they were ac-
counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of
Jesus.” (Acts 5, 41)
Suffering, then, of whatever kind and however intense
and prolonged it may be, is not, in or of itself, an evil.
On the contrary, if one has a supernatural, truly Chris-
tian, Christ-like attitude toward it, suffering is a positive
good for by it we atone for sin, we merit divine grace, we
please God. In a word, it is one’s attitude towards suffer-
ing that makes all the difference. If we look upon it and
react to it from the perspective of the spiritual and the
supernatural and the eternal, suffering is a blessing. If we
view it as an evil (to be avoided, if possible; otherwise, to
be reluctantly, perhaps resentfully, endured), then it is a
curse.
“God made us to know Him, to love Him and to serve
Him in this world and thereby to be happy with Him
forever in Heaven.” In that one sentence from the
Baltimore Catechism there is stated the entire purpose
of life. From this it follows that moral evil or sin is the
only real evil in the world for sin alone is offensive to
God and sin alone can prevent us from attaining the end
for which God created us: the eternal and perfect happi-
ness of Heaven where “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what
things God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (I
Cor. 2, 9)
(“…the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be com-
pared with the glory to come…” —Rom 8, 18; “But if you
partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when His
glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceed-
ing joy.”—I Pet. 4, 13)
A STRANGE SITUATION
The conspiracy of Freemasonry poses a danger to
Church and State every bit as grave as does the conspir-
acy of Communism, the difference being that the threat
of Masonry is a subtle and less visible one. While it is
certainly true that multitudes of the American people,
even at this late date, still do not know the satanic na-
ture of Communism, yet far, far more of them are ignor-
ant of the equally satanic nature and influence and goals
of Masonry. Nor is there, to my knowledge, any tra-
ditional or conservative Catholic publication on the
American scene today putting out the articles exposing
Masonry that are being printed in the pages of The
Athanasian.
“The USA, Past and Present–Christian or Masonic?”, the
most recent of these articles, appeared as a supplement
to the previous issue (October 15, 1985) of The Athan-
asian. While | was well aware for many years that Ma-
sonry was an evil of massive proportions, much of the
material in the article to which I refer was a revelation
and an education to me. Surely, I took for granted, once
our newsletter subscribers read this piece, they will—tra-
ditional Roman Catholics and patriotic Americans that
they are—they will be anxious to get the supplement as
widely circulated as possible and will therefore order as
many copies from our TCA as they reasonably can.
And we, in turn, will do our part to achieve a wide dis-
tribution of the article by making it available as cheaply
as our funds permit. In fact, we will do so at less than it
cost us to produce it. And this we have done.
Well, thus far the response to the supplement in terms of
bulk orders for extra copies has hardly been a stampede.
As of this writing (November 13, 1985), some four weeks
have passed since the article first appeared. During that
period, of the 850 newsletter subscribers who received the
supplement with the October 15 issue of The Athanasian,
a total of 30 subscribers have ordered additional copies.
Isn’t that pathetic? A less than 4 percent response.
(continued on page 8)
THE ATHANASIAN
DECEMBER 1, 1985
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America’s @rigin Manifests Unmistakable Catholic Presence
Jill Wiesner
M ost Americans, accepting the arrival of the May-
flower in 1620 as the opening chapter in our na-
tional history, assume that ours was a Protestant nation
from its beginning. But our history began long before the
first Pilgrim set foot on Plymouth Rock. Though most
history books promote the Protestant version, the land it-
self bears witness to the true history of America. The
names borne by rivers, mountains, lakes and cities in
every state of the Union are a continual reminder of
America’s beginning, a beginning that bears the marks of
a distinctly Catholic presence. The historian, John
Gilmary Shea, writes:
The entrance of the Catholic Church was not the
erratic work of a few. It was part of her work be-
gun at the fiery Pentecost, carried on from age to
age with unswerving course, while all human in-
stitutions were changing and modifying around
her.
In 1492, Columbus planted the standard of Spain on
American soil and the territory he claimed became a part
of the Catholic See of Seville. To this day, in the
Cathedral of Seville in Spain is preserved the chalice made
from the first gold brought from America by Columbus.
The three nations who laid claim to most of our territory
differed greatly from one another. Spain, under the system
begun by Philip Il, controlled every aspect of colonial gov-
ernment. Churches, convents, universities and schools
were funded entirely by the king. France, on the other
hand, had little participation in the Catholic missions and
colonies which depended instead on the help of private
citizens. In England, the Church was proscribed in the six-
teenth century, and priests came to America only under
the greatest difficulties.
Yet through these varied sources was woven the continu-
ous thread of the Catholic Faith, exercising its holy influ-
ence everywhere. Catholic explorers and missionary
priests dedicated the lands they found to God, imploring
the protection of the angels and the saints. The first name
given to United States territory was that of Pascua Florida
(Easter), clairned by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. In 1565,
the settlement dedicated to and named for Saint
Augustine was founded, the first and oldest city in the
United States. The Franciscan Fathers, sent out from St.
Augustine, invoked the protection of the saints over
Florida’s rivers and islands, as well as the missions they
founded. Today, the St. John’s and St. Mary’s Rivers still
bear their original names, as do St. George and Santa
Rosa Islands. The names of a number of Florida cities also
remind Americans of the missions established by priests
who faced brutal torture, enslavement and murder at
the hands of those they came to convert, as well as slow
death by malaria on land and imprisonment or death at
the hands of French Calvinist pirates by sea.
Though the British eventually took Florida from Spain
and proscribed the Catholic Faith, renaming many of
the settlements, a glance at a map of that state gives
proof of our American Catholic heritage.
In 1581, from the See of Mexico, two young Francis-
cans, Father Francis Lopez and Father John de Santa
Maria, traveled north to the country of the Pueblo
Indians, naming it New Mexico. On January 25, 1605,
possession of the New Mexico territory was taken in the
name of the King of Spain and, in honor of the Roman
Catholic feast observed on that day, the Conversion of
Saint Paul was chosen as the patronal feast of New
Mexico. Soon after, Santa Fe (Holy Faith) was founded
and became the seat of Spanish power.
To Florida, the priests had brought lemons and oranges
from Spain. To New Mexico, the missionaries intro-
duced horses, cattle and sheep, and showed the Indians
how to raise and care for them. They also improved the
machinery for weaving and spinning and aided cultiva-
tion by introducing acequias or irrigating trenches. In
addition, the young were taught to read and write.
The conversion was so general that, as the Fathers went
through the towns, they were greeted on all sides by
“Praised be Jesus Christ” or “Praised be the Most Holy
Sacrament.” For over two hundred years, the Francis-
can habit was the only recognized garb of the Catholic
priesthood in New Mexico.
The missionaries also ventured among the Asinais or
Cenis, called Texas by the Spaniards because, as the
natives met the whites, they cried “Texas, Texas!”,
meaning “We are friends!”, but which the Castilians
thought was their tribal name. Thus, their territory be-
came the State of Texas.
When the Spaniards reached Texas in January of 1689,
they found among the Asinais “a little chapel of boughs
with an altar on which a crucifix and a rosary were hon-
orably kept.” The Indians were so friendly that the
Spanish authorities soon planned missions for the terri-
tory. These Indians were the remnant of those con-
verted by the French missionaries accompanying La
Salle on his ill-faced expedition to the Gulf of Mexico
THE ATHANASIAN
DECEMBER 1, 1985
Page 4
(called Bahia del Espiritu Santo by the Spaniards).
In 1690, the first mission in Texas was established by the
Franciscan Father Casanas. Smallpox swept through
Texas in 1691 and the victims were cared for by the
Franciscans in the missions. On February 5, their
Superior died from the disease. Hidalgo County bears
the name of his successor, Father Francis Hidalgo.
The town of Nacogdoches was begun around 1720 by
Spaniards who gathered around the local garrison. In
Nacogdoches is a spring of pure water which was named
the “Fountain of Father Margil.” The descendents of the
original Spanish settlers assert that the spring is a result
of the prayers of that holy priest during a season when
all the springs had gone dry.
Guadalupe City received its name from Our Lady of
Guadalupe mission whose Superior was Father Margil.
On March 5, 1731, the mission of “La Purisima Concep-
cion” (Immaculate Conception) was founded among the
Asinai. Today, it is the town of Concepcion.
In 1759, the Bishop of Guadalajara issued an edict
making December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guada-
lupe, a holy day of obligation. Pope Benedict XIV, at the
petition of the Archbishop of Mexico and the Bishop of
Michoacan, made the Blessed Virgin Mary, under that
title, Patroness of all the provinces of Mexico. Included
in those provinces were the southwestern states of our
nation. Today, of course, Our Lady of Guadalupe is
Patroness of the Americas.
Many of the Spanish Fathers lost their lives to hardship,
disease and hostile Indian attacks (the Apaches were the
most vicious, so much so that fewer missions were
established in their stronghold—Arizona—than in any
of our other southwestern states). But the tenacity of the
missionaries was rewarded. New missions were founded
and countless souls won to the Faith. Today, the towns
of San Cristobal, San Ildefonso, San Felipe, Santo
Domingo, San Augustine and San Antonio are among
those which grew up around the missions in New
Mexico and Texas. The city of San Francisco de
Albuquerque, though its name has been shortened,
stands as a reminder of the Seraphic Saint and those of
his order who brought the one true Faith to our land. In
Colorado, the town of Santa Maria, the counties of San
Juan and San Miguel, and the Sangre de Cristo Moun-
tain Range bear witness to their presence there. In Cali-
fornia, Father Serra’s chain of missions is remembered
through the cities which still bear their names.
As the Spanish Fathers left evidence of their mission in
America’s West, the French missionaries were doing the
same in the North. Though many of the names they
gave our rivers and lakes were changed by the British,
the land still bears unmistakable evidence of their
heroic efforts. In New York, Father Carheil, miracu-
lously cured of an incurable nervous disorder after visits
to the Shrines of Lady of Foye and Saint Anne de
Beaupre, dispersed so many medals of Saint Anne that
some of these medals are still unearthed from time to
time in the soil of that state.
In spite of subsequent British domination, New York
still has rivers, cities and counties dedicated to the
saints and Our Lord. Examples are St. Johnsville, the
St. Lawrence River and St. Regis Falls.
In Michigan, a county is named for Father Peter Francis
Xavier de Charlevoix, S.J., the eighteenth-century his-
torian of New France. Another county bears the name
of Father James Marquette, S.J., as do a town and the
– tiver which flows near his original burial site. St. Ignace
and Sault Sainte Marie still have the names of the Jesuit
missions founded there.
In Wisconsin, La Pointe was named La Pointe du Saint
Esprit (Holy Spirit) by Father Claude Allouez as he
erected his bark chapel and opened a mission among
the Ottawas, Sacs, Foxes and Illinois. Father Allouez
and Father Andre established a mission at the Rapides
de Peres (today called De Pere) for the tribes on Green
Bay. Names of the Jesuit missions and missionaries are
still found throughout the State of Wisconsin. Examples
are La Crosse, St. Croix Falls, Marytown and Allouez.
Though the greed and jealousy of some government
officials in Spain, the cruel suppression of the French
Jesuits, and the takeover by English Protestants all
hampered efforts toward the conversion of America, the
seeds were planted. The Catholic priests were the “first
to thread the great arteries of the continent, to plod
over the Indian trails, to study the grandeur, the vege-
table and mineral wealth of the land, to learn and per-
petuate in scientific form the unwritten languages of our
countless Indian tribes, to discharge unflinchingly the
ministry of the altar and the Word, and to die, as a full
hundred did, by savage hands, while heroically dis-
charging their duty.”
As can be seen by the consistent nature of the names
given to the land by the missionaries, the presence of
the Catholic Church upon the American scene was a
very visible one long before this nation formally came
into being. Catholic Americans have a noble and
heroic history. May the glorious example set for us by
our predecessors in the Faith be an inspiration to us in
our efforts to bring our fellow Americans to the one
true Church and to make America a Catholic nation! It
was at the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1846
. Continued on page 8
THE ATHANASIAN
DECEMBER 1, 1985
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Catholic Self-Knowledge
John Kenneth Weiskittel
K now thyself. So read the inscription of the
Delphic Oracle in ancient Greece. Similar ad-
monitions can be found in every age and culture. Like
other sound advice, this goes unheeded far too often or
is implemented imperfectly. Over five hundred years be-
fore the birth of Christ, the Greek philosopher Thales
observed: “The most difficult thing in life is to know
yourself.” And according to a German proverb, “Man
recognizes his faults as dimly as an owl staring into a
mirror.”
People today ought to have a better approximation of
themselves, one might suppose, because of the self
absorption so prevalent throughout society. This is,
after all, the “me” generation. We read of the promises of
various groups—from aerobics classes to pop psychology
seminars to fringe religions—promises of “self-fulfill-
ment,” “self-improvement,” “self-realization” and “self-
actualization.” Bookstores are stocked with publications
like Self magazine and with best-sellers having such titles
as I’m OK—You’re OK, Looking Out for Number One,
The Psychology of Self-Esteem and I Ain’t Much, Baby—
But I’m All I’ve Got. Psychology Today has carried such ad-
vertising as:
ILOVE ME. Lam not conceited. I’m just a good
friend to myself. And I like to do whatever
makes me feel good…
…We live by a certain philosophy: We try to
make our dreams come true today, instead of
waiting for tomorrow. But before you can do
good things for yourself, you have to know
yourself… You need self-knowledge before you
can have self-satisfaction. Think about it.
Yet the “self-knowledge” extolled here is that of secular
humanism; it is what New York university Associate
Professor Paul Vitz calls selfism in his book, Psychology as
Religion: The Cult of Self- Worship.
For Catholics, however, self-knowledge is something
more—not only more than the ill-disguised hedonism of
much that passes as self-help in our time, but more than
the noble, genuine aspirations of seekers of truth, past
and present, as well. For Catholic self-knowledge takes
into account the natural and the supernatural: we are
seen as creatures, yes, but creatures with souls; creatures
made in the image of God, but tarnished with sin; crea-
tures who are saved from our sins by a Redeemer, but
saved with the understanding that we must flee from
those sins. True, most of us learned this growing up, but
how deeply does it penetrate our day-to-day lives? It is
one thing to recognize a fact and quite another to use it
in practice. This self-knowledge is nothing if it is not
applied.
Self-knowledge-—-The Road To Sanctity
Are there any among us who have not at one time or
another asked themselves, “Why am I not a saint?”
Why, indeed! We who have the True Mass and the
other valid sacraments; who have dedicated and self-
sacrificing priests to instruct us by morally and doc-
trinally sound sermons; who have, in a word, the
Roman Catholic Faith intact and unadulterated. While
ours is the obligation, by word and example, to bear the
light of Christ in our communities, far too often we
cover this light with a bushel or, at least, obscure it
through a less than fervent commitment. (Observe with
what great zeal this generation pursues the things of this
world; how much more zealous ought we to be for the
things that are God’s!)
Part of the answer as to why we are not saints lies in our
inability to examine our souls with the keen detach-
ment of the saints, and then to take action on the
symptoms of sin we find there. Another element is our
tendency to excuse our sins rather than to face up to
them as would the saints. Still another is the habit of
trying to overcome our sins by our own strength—the
saints turn to God. Added together, the difference
amounts to the saint’s self-knowledge and our relative
lack of this trait. :
The great Spanish Carmelite reformer, Saint Teresa of
Avila, emphasizes this virtue in her Interior Castle (the
title refers to the soul), when she writes:
It is no small pity, and should cause us no little
shame that, through our own fault, we do not
understand ourselves or know who we are.
Would it not be a sign of great ignorance, my
daughters, if a person were asked who he was,
and could not say, and had no idea who his
father or his mother was, or from what country
he came? Though that is great stupidity, our
own is incomparably greater if we make no
attempt to discover what we are, and only know
that we are living in these bodies, and have a
vague idea, because we have heard it and be-
cause our Faith tells us so, that we possess souls.
As to what good qualities there may be in our
souls, or Who dwells within them, or how pre-
cious they are—those are things which we sel-
THE ATHANASIAN
DECEMBER 1, 1985
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dom consider and so we trouble little about
carefully preserving the soul’s beauty. All our
interest is centered in the rough setting of the
diamond, and in the outer wall of the castle—
that is to say, in these bodies of ours.
When we consider that these words were primarily
directed to cloistered nuns of sixteenth-century
Catholic Spain, then how much more significant are
they when addressed to Catholics living in a post-
Christian world.
Consider that Saint Teresa says it is “through our own
fault” that we lack knowledge of ourselves. In this
context she is referring to how such culpable ignorance
not only prevents us from making spiritual progress but
is also the cause of sin. When the pious Pharisee Nico-
demus came to learn from Christ, he was told by Our
Lord that “men loved darkness rather than the light; for
their works were evil. For every one that doth evil
hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his
works may not be reproved.” John 3:19-20) This light,
of course, is Christ, and Saint John writes: “But as many
as received him, he gave them the power to be made the
sons of God, to them that believe in his name.” John
1:12) So, sinners don’t want to know what it is God re-
quires of them; they don’t want to make that radical
confrontation with themselves that leads to holiness;
they don’t want to discard the corrupt self and put on
the new man who, says Saint Paul, “is renewed unto
knowledge, according to the image of him that created
him.” (Col. 3:10)
True Catholic self-knowledge, then, involves the desire
and commitment to change our lives in conformity to
God, and thus to save our souls. It is not something we
are to do by halves. The God-man has set the standard
for us to follow and He expects us to do just that: “Be
you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is
perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)
Taking A Spiritual Inventory
During their earthly lives the saints were honest about
their shortcomings. “For the good which I will, I do
not,” confesses Saint Paul, “but the evil which I will not,
that I do.” (Rom. 7:19) The Scriptures and lives of the
saints offer many examples of this trait. When a Samari-
tan city would not receive Christ, His Apostles James
and John suggested to Him that perhaps they should call
down fire from heaven to destroy the thankless place,
but He rebuked them, saying, “You know not of what
spirit you are. The Son of man came not to destroy
souls, but to save.” (Luke 9:55-56) James and John took
His rebuke to heart, learned from it and gloriously re-
fashioned their lives. Saint Peter thought he knew him-
self when he assured Our Lord that he would never
deny Him, only to do so a few short hours later—but he
went on to reign steadfastly as our first pope, even unto
martyrdom. Saint Teresa, of all people, was addicted to
romantic novels, but overcame this to write spiritual
classics. Saint Francis of Assisi as a youth had a pen-
chant for vain amusements but, heeding the call of
Christ within him, renounced it for a life of mortifica-
tion. Saint Therese of Lisieux in her autobiography,
The Story of a Soul, admitted that as a teen, “I made
myself almost unbearable by being far too sensitive and
nothing that was said to me seemed to help me over-
come this tiresome fault.” But after entering the con-
vent she had mastered herself to the extent that she
handled even harsh treatment from the prioress with
unshakable control. Indeed, the saints won crowns of
glory precisely because they were all excellent students
of self.
Since we seek the same rewards, we too must take the
same measures. Do we? To be sure, we live in difficult
times. With the current state of the Church, few of us
are fortunate enough to have the sacraments available
on a weekly basis; parish life, which ought to be more
tightly-knit than ever, is relatively weak; and retreats
and spiritual conferences are infrequent. Still, this
doesn’t excuse us from our duties. Many saints excelled
although they had far greater hardships than any of us
are likely to face. So it all falls back on us. If we are ever
to know ourselves as we should, we must first determine
to know the will of God in our lives and strive to follow
that will no matter what. Father Albert J. Nimeth,
O.E.M., in his book, There is More to Life than Living It,
observes:
God does not expect us to act without under-
standing. He wants us to use our intelligence to
know His law. He as much as says: “I gave you
an intellect. Use it. Study the heavens, and they
will tell you of My beauty. Study your origin,
and your intellect will tell you that you owe
your existence to Me. Study yourself, and you
will find My moral law written all over your
body and soul.”
In 1546, a Spanish duke, having entered the Jesuits,
wrote several small works based on conferences given by
the priest who had drawn him into the Order, Blessed
Peter Faber. One of these, of particular interest to the
topic at hand, is entitled An Exercise on the Knowledge of
Ourselves, which is comprised of daily meditations pre-
faced by a line of Scripture for each day, and begun by a
confession of our own insufficiency and a humble peti-
tion for divine grace. A short summary of these medita-
tions is given in Father Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints:
For the heads (that is, topics) of meditation on
Monday, he proposes that we are originally
nothing; having received from God a noble
THE ATHANASIAN
DECEMBER 1, 1985
Page 7
being, but by sin have fallen from our dignity;
He stamped upon us his own image, but this we
have disfigured; He further desires to bestow
Himself upon us; yet we fly from Him, etc. On
Tuesday, he suggests our weakness and univer-
sal poverty. On Wednesday, how we have
abused and depraved all our faculties, blinded
our understanding, depraved our will, etc. On
Thursday, how we have defiled and perverted
all our senses. On Friday, how ungrateful we
have been to all God’s mercies and graces, es-
pecially that of our redemption. On Saturday,
how often we have deserved to be abandoned by
God, and plunged into hell. On Sunday, on
God’s benefits, and our base return. He begins
every consideration with what God is to us;
then proceeds to what we have been towards
God, that the two-fold knowledge of God and
ourselves may be improved, and keep pace with
one another.
Safe to say, this isn’t the sort of subject matter, with its
clarion call for frank self-assessment, around which
typical Conciliar sermons are composed. The Conciliar
Church priest would likely accuse the duke of exhibiting
the traits of “medievalism” such as belief in hell, and
encouraging a “negative” view of self and a “morbid”
fear of God. But the author, Saint Francis Borgia (the
Spanish duke), in the same work, puts such distortions
to rest when he writes: “As he who goes to the fire,
grows warm, so he who by prayer and pious affections
applies his heart continually to the flame of divine love,
will feel it kindled in him. Go then, devout soul; stir up
thy affections, and raise them to God; thou art invited
to that happy employment which is the uninterrupted
function of the holy seraphim, that is, to love without
intermission.”
What Catholic self-knowledge really amounts to is
finding ourselves again. In the Sacraments of Baptism
and Confirmation, our souls receive an indelible seal or
character by which God gives us, according to Donald
Attwater’s Catholic Dictionary, “a spiritual or super-
natural power to receive or produce something sacred.”
Sins cast shadows upon the heart, obscuring this, and so
in self-examination we cast light in order to see again
the saving work that the Almighty has wrought upon
our souls. Since we are not satisfied with being “Sunday
Catholics” who use chameleon-like “protective color-
ing” to avoid being recognized as Catholics at work or
school, shopping, etc., such self-examination will be
helpful in securing for us the strength and fortitude we
need to be counted as soldiers of Christ. For unless, by
our words, our actions, our comportment, we are willing
to be clearly identifiable as Catholics, then we must ac-
cept the fact that something is lacking in our degree of
self-knowledge and be prepared to make the needed
correction in ourselves.
Self-knowledge And Catholic Action
“The less a monk thinks about converting the world
and the more he thinks about converting himself, the
more likely the world is to be converted.” Well, we
aren’t monks, but these words of Bishop Hedley, a great
Benedictine, surely can be seen to have application
here, since they serve to remind us that our foremost
concern is with the salvation of our souls and that only
from this may we pursue the sanctification of others.
A modern error that developed from the turning away
from this sound principle is theological Americanism,
condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. (We say “is”
rather than “was” because, like its counterpart in dog-
matic theology, Modernism, it has never been eradi-
cated, but lives on in new guise.) The exponents of this
heresy—called the “phantom heresy” by Liberals who
in truth are its key practitioners today—taught that ac-
tive, natural virtues are to be held superior to passive,
supernatural ones. It is consistent with what Cardinal
Merillod called the “heresy of good works.” Pope Piux
XII once expressed concern over those who “have
become so engulfed in the vortex of external activity
that they neglect their chief duty, their own sanctifi-
cation.” Yet Americanism (the term, as used here, is not
to be confused with genuine patriotism) has become the
guiding force behind Conciliar “Catholicism.” How else
do we explain the “activist” priests, the religious
reduced to the status of glorified social workers, the loss
of vocations, etc.? Sound Catholic teaching is unmis-
takably clear about this: Catholic action and the
interior life are inseparable. (All those interested should
obtain Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard’s The Soul of the
Apostolate, a book that covers the theme so well that
Pope Saint Pius X had it for bedside reading.)
Critical circumstances in the Church place an increased
burden on us the laity to defend her and to see that her
saving message is heard above the din of the world.
Regular readers will recall that on more than one occa-
sion in these pages they have been reminded of their ob-
ligation to support the Church (traditional Cathol-
icism, that is). She needs our help now more than ever,
through prayers, apostolic activities within the parish
and in the community, and financial aid. Traditional
Catholics of America is one of the precious few groups
formed for the sole purpose of preserving and pro-
moting our Catholic Faith. It does so without the bene-
fit of the multimillion-dollar budgets of the televangel-
ists. It has, humanly speaking, only the generosity of its
followers~-vou and I—to see that it continues to fight
the good fight.
And make no mistake, the question of self-knowledge
comes very much into play. Let us search ourselves and
ask what contributions of whatever kind we've made for
the Church. Chances are, many will be forced to admit
THE ATHANASIAN
DECEMBER 1, 1985
Page 8
shortcomings and hopefully will realize a duty to greater
responsibility. Others can point to many concrete
examples of Catholic action. But whatever the case, let
none be deceived into believing that they’ve done
“enough” and that now it’s “someone else’s turn.” The
saints, our models, were saints because they spent their
lives for Christ; they gave their all for Him and, when
called upon, gladly gave it again. We cannot expect a
crown from Him with any less an effort.
As a starting point for a greater spiritual life in the
coming year, let us reflect on Saint Augustine’s prayer of
self-surrender:
Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know Thee.
Let me desire nothing save only Thee. Let me
hate myself and love Thee. Let me humble my-
self and-exalt Thee. Let me do everything for the
sake of Thee. Let me think nothing except Thee.
Let me die to myself and live in Thee. Let me
accept whatever happens as from Thee. Let me
foresake self and follow Thee, and ever desire to
follow Thee. Let me fly from myself and take
refuge in Thee, that | may deserve to be de
fended by Thee. Let me fear for myself, let me
fear Thee, and let me be among those who are
chosen by Thee. Let me distrust myself and con-
fide in Thee. Let me will always to obey for Thy
sake. Let me cling to nothing save only Thee,
and let me be poor because of Thee. Look upon
me that I may love Thee. Call me that I may see
Thee, and eternally enjoy Thee. Amen. (500
days indulgence.) ¢
“America’s Origin…”? Continued from page 4
that the Blessed Virgin Mary was chosen as the Patron-
ess of the United States under the title of her Immacu-
late Conception. Through our devotion to her, the
Mother of God, may our efforts meet with success by the
grace of God!
“Strange Situation” continued from page 2
So what can I say? It would appear as though the con-
spiracy of Freemasonry has little to fear by way of any
significant exposure from the traditional Roman Catho-
lic Church (the prime target of Masonry). Apparently,
too, the highly commendable fervor and zeal and dedi-
cation which characterize many traditional Roman
Catholics in the fight against Communism do not carry
over to the fight against the equally treacherous enemy
of Freemasonry. Such is the conclusion I am inclined to
draw from the meager results to date of our efforts to
expose the Masonic evil. And surely the question must
have arisen in the minds of a number of those who have
read the excellent articles on the subject which have ap-
peared in The Athanasian: How come this horrendous
evil of Freemasonry is not even mentioned—let alone
unmasked and exposed—in the various publications
which are devoted to informing and alerting their rea-
dership on the dangers which threaten our nation? Why
the cover-up of Masonry? Is not this “a strange
situation” indeed?
We will continue our efforts to get the truth about Free-
masonry to as many as we can. At least we will be able
honestly to say that we tried our best. Repeated below
are the prices for bulk orders of the supplement.
— Fr. F. Fenton
3 copies for $2.00 (minimum order)
25 copies for $15.00
50 copies for $25.00
(Payment must accompany order)
Please order from:
Traditional Catholics of America
P.O. Box 38335, Colorado Springs, CO 80937
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Athanasian. Details were given in the previous issue
(October 15, 1985).
Pray
the Rosary
Baily
Telephone: (303) 636-1575
the TCA.
THE ATHANASIAN
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