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Advent 2024

WE MUST CHOOSE SIDES

Dear Faithful,

The great Fr. Gomer de Pauw warned in his talks as early as 1967: “We must choose to be either Roman Catholics or Conciliar Catholics, but we cannot be both!”

Archbishop Lefebvre announced the same necessity to choose in his magnificent Doctrinal Declaration of 1974: “We cleave, with all our heart and with all our soul, to Catholic Rome, the guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary for the maintenance of that Faith, and to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth.

 “On the other hand we refuse and have always refused to follow the Rome of  the  neo-Protestant trend clearly manifested throughout Vatican Council II and, later, in all the reforms born of it.” 

Opposing Liberal Catholicism on the battlefield of Truth, the great Spanish Catholic writer of the 19th Century, Juan Donoso Cortes, scripted these prophetic words in: Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism, (chapter III, in 1879):

“There is no man whatsoever, whether he recognizes it or not, who is not enlisted in this furious combat;  there is no one who does not take an active part in the responsibility of defeat or victory. All are equally engaged in this combat;  the galley slave in his chains, and the king upon his throne, the poor and the rich, the healthy and the sick, the wise and the ignorant, the captive and the free, the old and the young, the civilized and the savage.

“Every word that is pronounced is either inspired by the world or by God, and necessarily proclaims, implicitly or explicitly, but always clearly, the glory of the one or the triumph of the other. In this singular warfare we all fight through forced enlistment; here the system of substitutes or volunteers finds no place. Nor is there any exception for old age. Here, no attention is paid to him who says, ‘I am the son of a poor widow’; nor to the mother of a paralytic, nor to the wife of a cripple. In this warfare all men, born of woman, are soldiers!

“And don’t tell me: ‘I don’t want to fight’; for the moment you tell me that, you are already fighting;  nor say: ‘I don’t know which side to join,’ for while you are saying that you have already joined a side;  nor say: ‘I wish to remain neutral’;  for if you wish to be so, you are so, no longer;  nor say: ‘I want to be indifferent’;  for by these very words you clearly show which side you are on.

“Don’t tire yourself in seeking a place of security from the dangers of this war, for you tire yourself in vain. This war extends throughout space, and will last to the end of time. Only in eternity, the home of the just, can you find rest, because there alone is the combat over. Do not imagine, however, that the gates of eternity shall be opened for you, unless you first show the wounds you earned;  those gates are only opened for those who bravely fought the battles of the Lord here, and, like the Lord, carried the cross and were crucified!”   

What powerful words of Donoso Cortes! It is true, Our Divine Lord willed to place all of us in these times when we have no choice but to fight. To fight for Him is the greatest honor. Neutrality is not an option! Compromise is not an option! “Hermeneutics of continuity” is not an option! Accepting Vatican II is not an option! Accepting the New Mass, even as “legitimately promulgated,” is not an option! Accepting any compromise with Vatican II and Novus Ordo sacraments, as expressed in the Doctrinal Declaration of April 15, 2012 of Bp. Fellay, is not an option! The Six Conditions for an Agreement with Modernist Rome is not an option! Accepting to be silenced in return for the “favors” of jurisdiction for confessions and marriages is not an option! Accepting excusing fallacies that the “New Mass can nourish your faith,” or “The New Mass gives grace,” or “The New Mass miracles cannot be questioned,” are not options! Fence-sitting is not an option!

“Either we choose what the Popes have taught for centuries and we therefore choose the Church;  or we choose what was said by the Council.  But we can not choose both simultaneously, since they are contradictory!”  (Abp. Marcel Lefebvre).

Let us never fail to see what an inexpressible honor and grace it is to combat for Christ the King. The battle lines must not be confused and smeared, as Liberals always connive to do. We have received Catholic Tradition from the 20 Councils of the Church, the Ancient Magisterium, from the great Popes of Tradition, from Abp. Lefebvre and priests faithful to Tradition. We are vowed to the riding. We are vowed to the fighting!

O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, keep us faithful! Keep us from ever wavering in the Faith! Keep us from battle fatigue! Keep us attached to thy Crucified Son by thy Rosary and Scapular and always to live and breath in the burning love of thy Immaculate Heart! Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation!

In Christ the King,

Fr. David Hewko