Regarding the Great Apostasy &

Not Putting the Mass Before the Faith

 

A NOTE TO THE READER:

 

The times we live in are a part of the ‘Great Apostasy’ --- that is, the era foretold in Sacred Scripture & by various saints, etc., wherein all men, or nearly all men, would lose the Catholic Faith. This rejection of Catholicity even extends to ‘the top’. Viz., those men people unthinkingly or wrongly presume to be popes. Indeed, if it didn’t go to ‘the top’, then how could such an apostasy succeed in the first place? The nature of a shepherd is to protect the sheep from danger. Apostasy --- denial & loss of the Catholic Religion --- is the worst danger of all, murdering souls who die in this terrible state. Ergo, for things to get as bad as they have today, then somebody in charge must have been asleep on the job… and the men everyone thinks are popes must instead be ‘antipopes’ (fake or illegitimate popes) and, in fact, no true Catholics at all.

 

Yet why else do I put the term ‘the top’ in apostrophes? Because, despite popular Catholic opinion in the past few centuries (and contrary to the opposite prevailing opinion amongst Catholics prior to these more recent centuries), real popes can forsake Catholicism, and a man who is a real pope then ceases to be a real pope as soon as that betrayal of Catholicism is made indisputably public. To wit, no man of at least the age of reason can be in the Catholic Church unless he first professes the Catholic Religion whole & entire, receiving a valid baptism. Furthermore, no Catholic with the adequate use of reason --- whether layman, deacon, priest, bishop, cardinal or pope --- can remain in the Catholic Church unless he continues to profess the Catholic Faith whole & entire, after receiving a valid baptism. Should he fail to do this, publicly espousing heresy, then he is thrown out of the Church. This is something that happens automatically, as demanded by Canon Law. There is no need for an ‘official’ declaration to make it tangible or certain, and it applies from top to bottom of the Church’s membership. A man with adequate mind must be capable of understanding & professing Catholic dogmas in order to enter membership; consequently, any Catholic of adequate mind is entirely capable of understanding when & where a fellow Catholic has rejected the Church’s holy dogmas. All that is required is sufficient & reliable testimony that public heresy from a Catholic has occurred. Nor does recognition of this public heresy entail jurisdictional judgment. Rather, it involves factual judgment, something that all men must make every day of their lives. In the case of a pope who publicly manifests heresy, it is the Church Herself Who judges him jurisdictionally, not the individual member, automatically excommunicating him via the applicable Canon Law. Individual members of this Church merely recognize this publicly ascertainable fact, and thus that the automatic excommunication has transpired.

 

For how can someone visibly cut off from the Catholic Body of Jesus Christ remain the ‘head’ of which he is no longer a visible member? How can you be a leader of that to which you’re no longer attached? It’s like saying your own head could be visibly lopped off, lying on the ground, and still direct & control the functioning of your visible body! Such a notion is ridiculous, defying God-given reality and simple good sense. A leader in the hierarchy might hide his heresy, thereby appearing to be Catholic. In this case, he retains his office in the Church since there is yet no visible manifestation of his invisible heresy. Once his heresy is publicly revealed, however --- and hence visible --- then he can no longer function in any way tandem with a Visible Body that he is visibly disconnected from. Furthermore, for as long as the heresy is invisible, he does not immediately threaten the Faith of anyone in the Catholic Body of Jesus Christ. Once his heresy is manifest and therefore visible, though, his heresy threatens everyone who comes in contact with him. This is why excommunications for public heresy must be automatic and do not require ‘official’ declarations prior to them taking effect… even if the one involved was a pope. Because the only thing Heaven guarantees for popes is that, for as long as they are popes, then they cannot, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, teach error from the Throne of St. Peter when invoking their supreme authority in officially teaching the Church concerning Faith or Morals. At other times they are entirely capable, as is any member of the Church, of falling publicly prey to the profession of heresy. And, having fallen prey, they cannot, by virtue of automatic excommunication, papally teach their heresies to real Catholics, murdering their souls.

 

As soon as I can, I shall make this all clearer in the section of the website entitled The Great Apostasy. In the meantime, this is a brief introduction to a subject that is absolutely critical to comprehend nowadays. The following letter was in response to someone anonymous asking what parish I belonged to. Without getting too lengthy, I told him exactly what he needed to know. You, too, dear reader, can learn what you need to know at the present time for being & remaining a good Catholic by reading this long introduction and the shorter text of the letter itself. I have changed nothing since its transmission; it is precisely as I wrote it. Let it be understood, then, my dear soul: you cannot be a real Catholic and knowingly join yourself religiously with those who pretend to be Catholic but are not. Their Masses are forbidden, their Sacraments a blasphemy. It is breaking the first three of the Ten Commandments to knowingly receive from the hands of a heretical priest the Holy Eucharist, or to receive with parishioners who you know are professing heretics --- and who you know that the priest, even if he himself is not professing the same heresies, knows are such, allowing them to receive in spite of their being heretics. If you are a real Catholic then don’t ever do this. And if you have been doing this, then stop it immediately, begging God’s forgiveness with severe penance offered in sorrow for your horrible sin! It is far, far, far better to stay home alone or with your fellow Catholics, reading through the prayers of the Mass or reciting various Catholic prayers together, than it is to pretend to please God by religiously associating with His enemies & thus spitting in His Face. He will bless the former while punishing strictly the latter. Should you need help in knowing how to obey the first three of the Ten Commandments without access to a priest, then please go to the Contact & Donations section to find out how to reach me. I will gladly do everything I am able to assist you in saving your immortal soul.

 

+ + +   Letter of 31 August 2008   + + +

 

My Dear ‘Fervent Taurus’-

 

Thank you for looking at The Epistemologic Works website. I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to return your email. As I note in the Contact & Donations section, I’ve a large family & many other obligations in addition to my religious tasks. Too, I’ve recently had to work outside the home in order to supplement our income, leaving me precious little time to engage in my duties as a Catholic missioner.

 

As to what parish I attend in the Salem area:

 

No parish since there are no lawful priests or bishops in the region. To be Catholic, one must publicly profess all of the common & unchanging dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church, the most foundational of which is the teaching of ‘no Salvation outside the Catholic Faith’. I have not yet found a single clergyman upholding this dogma in the sense that the Infallible Magisterium has always upheld it for over 1900 years. Invariably, the clergymen whom I encounter interpret this doctrine heretically (thereby breaking the first three of the Ten Commandments and automatically excommunicating themselves from the Church via Her Canon Law) and fail to teach or obey many other dogmas & practices, too, which are of critical importance to being truly Catholic. Ergo, participation in their Masses would condone or tolerate these heresies, which is a violation both of Divine & Ecclesial Law. Hence, I cannot attend.

 

Should this scandalize you, then realize that Japanese Catholics maintained their Catholic Faith for some two hundred years without any priests available at all during great & lengthy persecution. Moreover --- and even more applicable to our terrible times --- French Catholics during the Revolution of the 1790s endured for some ten years without priests, due to them either going to their earthly deaths for remaining loyal to the Faith or else going to their spiritual deaths for apostatizing in favor of Freemasonic principles. That is to say, priests were practically nowhere to be found in France for over a decade because they either became martyrs for the True Faith or else abandoned the True Faith to cooperate with the Masonic Revolution. Whichever, real Catholics had to make a choice --- do I attend Mass with a priest presiding who I know does not uphold the Catholic Religion whole & entire, thereby condemning my soul by breaking God’s Law, or do I save my soul by bearing my cross of celestial famine for as long as Heaven requires me to?

 

This is the choice all persons who dare to call themselves Catholic must face today during the Great Apostasy when nearly no one is truly Catholic. It entails determining what you really love… the respect of God or the respect of men? Please read For Those Who Consider Yourselves Catholic in the First Things First section if you haven’t already. In the meantime, I pray for the conversion, sanctification & ultimate salvation of your precious & immortal soul within the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic & Apostolic Body of Jesus Christ. Sincerely yours in the love of Christ’s Cross & Mary’s Immaculate Heart for those who wander astray,

 

                                                                                        -Paul Doughton

 

+ + +

 

Pilate’s query met:

www.TheEpistemologicWorks.com

 

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© 2008 by Paul Doughton.

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