….five smooth stones….
(1 Sam. 17:40)
A Paper on Modern Trends
and How to Deal with them.
Written and Published by
Frits Albers, Ph. B.
On behalf of
The Australian Marian Academy of the Immaculate Conception
A “Call for Mary” Publication
PO Box 129
WINCHELSEA
Victoria 3241
Australia
July 1998
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Forewords and Introductions
SECTION I
Moses and the Inerrancy of Scripture as the Word of God
SECTION II
The Mystique of Vatican II
and the Unbroken Tradition in the Catholic Church
SECTION III
Fatima and the Discipline of the Mind
SECTION IV
The Communion of Saints and Catholic Resourcefulness
SECTION V
Modernists’ Meanest Mischief
Epilogue
Foreword to the First Edition.
"I saw a strange church being built against every rule. No Angels were supervising the building operations. In that church nothing came from high above. Everything was done mechanically. Every-thing was being done according to human reason. I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines and opinions in it. There was something proud, presumptuous AND COERCIVE about it all and they seemed to be very successful.
I did not see a single Angel nor a single Saint helping in the work. Then I saw that everything that pertained to Protestantism was to be spread everywhere and was gradually gaining the upperhand. The Catholic religion fell into complete decadence. In those days Faith will fall very low and it will be preserved in some places only, in a few cottages and in a few families which God has protected from disasters and wars.
I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. They were building a great, strange, extravagant church. Everyone was to be admitted in order to be united and to have equal rights: evangelicals, Catholics, sects of every description. Such was to be the new church, but God had other designs".
ANNA KATHARINA EMMERICH 1824.
(From 'Life of Anna Catharina. Emmerich', by Rev. K. E. Schmoeger, with Ecclesiastical Approbation, 1867, 1868. On the command of Pope Pius IX, this book was translated into Italian.)
Introduction to the First Edition.
In my efforts to expose to fellow Catholics the true meanings and intentions contained in the writings of the late Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J. (+ 1955), I have shown beyond any reasonable doubt the wisdom of the Church in issuing Her Monita and Warnings against the works of this man. As time goes on it is becoming increasingly more obvious, that his erroneous assumptions of Catho-licism and of Science are being used for the false interpretations of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council; that they are underlying the notorious Dutch 'catechism' and the shady catechetical hand-outs based on it; and that they permeate the dubious seminary courses, weekend retreats, encounters and lectures designed for the direct deception of countless numbers of Catholics and of children. I am careful to note that Teilhard's absurdities are not part of the fabric of all training programs mentioned here, but most certainly of the great variety of the shady and dubious ones, those strongly recommended by our Modernists.
If this deception is successful on a grand scale, and if Catholics the world over are exchanging the priceless possession of their Catholic Faith for this teilhardian perversion, then the looming bulk of the “One-World ‘church of darkness”’, against which the great Saint Pope Pius X wrote, and the characteristics of which he clearly foretold, is in the process of becoming the ugly reality he foresaw. No Catholic can remain lethargic and apathetic in the face of it, because every Catholic should know, that the fatal results of the loss of Catholic Faith are permanent. In the economy of God's redemptive grace, the immense gift of Catholic Faith is only offered and accepted once. This means that the ordinary means of grace: the 7 Sacraments of the Church, prayer, penance and good works, are sufficient to keep and nurture the Faith; but that extraordinary means of salvation, i.e. miracles of Grace, are necessary to restore this priceless possession to those who were unfortunate enough to give it up in exchange for some other persuasion. (Cfr. Hebr.10:26-31). And so for the ever alert Catholic, and especially the Catholic Priest, the whole struggle has largely become one of prevention. To come to the aid of those, who are in the process of going over to the wrong interpretation of Catholicism and of Vatican II.
There is a vast difference between "giving up one's Faith'' and "giving up the practice of one's Faith". In the latter case the Faith is no longer operative through good works, but still dormant in the soul; in the former case, Catholics become apostates. It is well known that, in his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul refers to the time prior to Antichrist, 'the son of perdition', as the era of the great apostasy, in which many Catholics would lose their Catholic Faith to a perversion of the Faith. Is what we see happening around us, the fulfillment of this prophecy? It seems highly significant that Pope St. Pius X warned us that already in his day he saw clearly at work in every country the great apostasy prior to the establishment of the One-World ‘church of darkness’. Since in God's design there are no coincidences, we may take it, then, that Pope St. Pius X at least reminded us of the forecast made by St. Paul in order that we should do something about it. Since the words of the Apostle are readily available, I will only quote here once again the words of the saintly Pope:
"This organisation (i.e. the SILLON, composed of well-meaning social Catholics in France) which formerly afforded such promising expec-tations, has been harnessed in its course by the modern enemies of the Church, and is now no more than a miserable affluent, feeding THE GREAT MOVEMENT OF APOSTASY, being organised in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church, which shall have neither dogmas nor hierarchy neither discipline of the mind nor curb for the passions, and which, under the pretext of freedom and human dignity, would bring back to the world ‑ if such a church could ever be established - the reign of legalised cunning and brute force and of the oppression of the weak and of all those who toil and suffer".
(From: "OUR APOSTOLIC MANDATE”, 1910).
In any discussion on this creeping evil with its global ramifications, two things must stand out clearly and distinctly:-
- the supernatural, infused, divine light of Catholic Faith is absolutely necessary for the diagnosis and the prevention of this movement and its ultimate results, even for a full natural understanding of its causes, ramifications, conse-quences and ultimate defeat; and
- in that same Light we must grasp once again the full reality of our free will: that God will not act unless through us, His Church and Our Lord’s Mystical Body; and that our share and our glory in His victory will be proportional to our share in the struggle and the sacrifices.
For a great variety of reasons, many good Catholics have become overawed and even paralysed in the presence of the brashness and audacity of Modernism and Teilhardism, and have all but given in completely to the ruthless force with which their adherents assert to be universally accepted, and accepted as invincible. Altogether too many Catholic officials in positions of trust and power have cowered before the bearers of these evils in silent timidity, hoping that the night-mare will go away by itself, if they persist long enough in their ludicrous pretence that Modernism and its consequent loss of Catholic Faith is not there, or is no longer evil.
Understandably, this has caused havoc and confusion down the line amongst ordinary layfolk and Priests. Had not the same St. Pope Pius X stated in another encyclical, when referring to the Modernists, that
"AUDACITY is their chief characteristic "?
And is it not true to say, that we see this audacity become more open and more brazen every day?
"One of their shock-troopers stepped out from the ranks of the Philistines; his name was Goliath, from Gath. He was six cubits and one span tall. On his head was a bronze helmet and he wore a breast-plate of scale armour; the breastplate weighed five thousand shekels of bronze. He had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin across his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron.
"He took his stand in front of the ranks of Israel and shouted: "'Why come out and range yourselves for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not the slaves of Saul? Choose a man and let him come down to me....' When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and terrified....
"David said to Saul: 'Let no one lose heart on his account. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine'. But Saul answered David: 'You cannot go and fight the Philistine; you are only a boy and he has been a warrior from his youth'. David said to Saul: 'Your servant used to look after the sheep for his father, and whenever a lion or a bear came out and took a sheep from the flock, I used to follow him up and strike him down and rescue it from its mouth. If he turned on me I seized him by the hair at his jaw and struck him down and killed him. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them for he has dared to insult the armies of the living God. Yahweh who rescued me from the claws of lion and bear', David said, 'will rescue me from the power of this Philistine'. Then Saul said to David: 'Go, and Yahweh be with you' .
"Saul made David put on his own armour, but not being used to these things, David found he could not walk. 'I cannot walk with these', he said to Saul, 'I am not used to them'. So they took them of again.
"He took his staff in his hand, picked five smooth stones from the river bed, put them in his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand he went to meet the Philistine. and the Philistine looked at David and what he saw filled him with scorn. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And David said to the Philistine:- 'You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of the armies of Israel that you have dared to insult. Today Yahweh will deliver you into my hand and I shall kill you. I will cut off your head and this very day I will give your dead body and the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all His Assembly (Church) may know that it is not by sword or spear that Yahweh gives the victory, for Yahweh is Lord of the battle and He will deliver you into our power'.
"No sooner had the Philistine started forward to confront David than David left the line of battle and ran to meet the Philistine. Putting his hand in his bag, he took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone penetrated his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. Then David ran and standing over the Philistine, seized the man's sword and drew it from the scabbard. and with this he killed him, cutting off his head.
"The Philistines saw that their champion was dead and took to flight...."
(1 Sam. 17: 4 - 52).
In this story David had only one enemy to overcome, and in the hands of a trained, young shepherd like David, each of his five stones was deadly, and each one of them, if selected, would have killed the braggart.
In Christ's own words the purpose of His coming was not to abolish the Old Covenant, but to complete it, bringing it to perfection. The story of David and Goliath will not be complete until it has served as a model and inspiration for the defeat of all God's enemies. God has many adversaries, and the five stones of David are a prefiguration of the Five Sacred Wounds of Our Blessed Saviour, with which He overcame the Enemy. In these Five Wounds the story of David came to perfection, 'and His whole Assembly knows that it is not by sword or spear that God gives victory'. But in His Divine Wisdom and Goodness Christ left still very much to do for us, and so, although perfected, the story is not quite complete: we have to make up for what was still left undone in the Passion of Christ. (Cfr. Col. 1:24).
In this paper in the current series on Modernism and the defeat of the teilhar-dian 'Church of Darkness', I intend to put before the reader Five Modern Trends which, when tackled by any trained soldier for Christ and His Church, can lead to victory over one Goliath or another in the Enemy’s strategy, and, when taken together, will contain more than enough to lead intrepid Catholics to the rout of the seemingly awesome and overwhelming One-World Church, and to the rescue of the victims from its grip. Or, as David put it, 'from the mouths of lions and bears', to the greater Glory of God!
Frits Albers, Ph.B.
APRIL, 1977.
Foreword to the present Second Edition
“I saw ….that the whole world had marvelled and ran after the Beast. They prostrated themselves in front of the Beast saying: ‘Who can compare with the Beast? How could anybody defeat him?’”
[Rev. 13:3-4]
Shades of yet another Goliath, a modern braggart, to be brought down by his David: contemporary intrepid Catholics.
Introduction to the present Second Edition.
The problem is not: how will we cope under Antichrist, but: how will Anti-christ cope with us! For, ever since the first persecution, every me is a ME!
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting ME?”
[Acts 9:4]
If ever anyone on earth had a problem, it is that ‘beast’ with the number of a man.
So, as was the case with the 1st edition, we have once again gathered together everything that is needed to warrant a reprint of this little book.
Even more than twenty years ago we are aware that we have with us a monstrous ‘church’, that is, an enforced ‘religious movement’ which as a towering cumulous cloud, hangs motionless over the world of our times, variously referred to as ‘The Church of Darkness’ or ‘The One-World Church’, or the World Council of Churches. A ‘church’ from which not many who enter it will ever come out alive to enter into eternal glory. For, at one stage on earth, to enter this ‘church’ one must wear the mark of the beast.
But what is the good of a ‘church’ without ‘worship’? For that we go to the same chapter of his book of the Apocalypse where St. John spoke about the ‘beast’ and its mark. For in that chapter 13 St. John refers to a second beast, “which has two horns like the Lamb, but speaks like the dragon. This second beast was servant to the first beast, and extended its authority everywhere, making the world and its people worship the first beast”. Here there is talk about ‘worship’, but a ‘worship’ just as false as the ‘church’ is in which it will take place. For it is the ‘worship’ of a beast who is a man. Thus, next to Antichrist’s political and economic movements, will there be a ‘highpriest’ who is going to take care that the world’s religious movements other than the Catholic Church will appear to look like Christ but proclaim the gospel of Satan, filling the “One-World ‘Church of Darkness’” with people for the adoration of Antichrist himself.
And finally we will see on this scene the Davids of God at work during this whole terrible period, intrepid Catholics, who, as the Church Militant, will, in their thousands, penetrate the colossal, worldwide humbug, rescue the captives and bring the whole façade crashing to the ground. The skilful use of their mental and spiritual armament is not aimed at people as St. Paul says:
For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. [Eph. 6:12].
That is, against the whole might of Antichrist which has infiltrated the City of God with its errors and confusion, its blasphemies and filthy practices.
Since the first presentation of this paper, Easter 1977, the gap between commonsense and nonsense in modern living whereby nonsense was kept at bay is all but gone. The stark outline of good and evil for the protection of good no longer exists, while the dividing line between madness and sanity is just a blur.
Meanwhile our poor old world is sinking further and further in darkness. The prophecy of Pope St. Pius X made in 1910 has been fulfilled to the letter: a great movement of apostasy has occurred, which was characterised by no discipline of the mind and no curb on the passions, resulting in a ‘religion’ and a ‘church’ without hierarchy or dogma, and which has unleashed over the world a reign of legalised cunning and brute force, of the oppression of the weak and of all those who toil and suffer. Many striking details could be incorporated in this new update as examples of this chaotic state of affairs. But to become one more addition to the chorus of lament about the engulfing breakdown and misery was not the purpose of the original paper. The ingredients of this universal collapse of human life on the face of the earth are now visible everywhere. They are in no need of spelling out. Yet, even in the face of this universal collapse, our young men and women must continue to believe in Truth and beauty. They must not exchange their commonsense for nonsense as so many of their contemporaries have done and are still doing. They must not mistake evil for good, or embrace the modern madness as yet another form of ‘sanity’. And above all: they must remain at their post without a grain of doubt, as placed there by God. The original paper was meant to give some of these insights to Catholic minds in need of reassurance in the adroit handling of the spiritual weapons of God against the powers of darkness.
Let us try keep this second edition in the same orientation…..
The sub-title of this paper speaks of ‘modern trends’. In the preparation for a take-over by Antichrist in the midst of which we find ourselves, it will not come as a surprise that many of these ‘trends’ have for their objective an assault on Catholic Faith. One of them is the impairment of Catholic Faith in the inerrancy of the written word of God, Sacred Scripture. This is dealt with in Section I. Another trend is to weaken Catholic Faith in the inerrancy of Catholic Tradition, the way Catholic Faith has been passed on over the last 2000 years. This is being discus- sed in Section II. Section III deals with the modern assault from all quarters on “the discipline of the mind”, that necessary substratum for a strong and sound Catholic Faith, whereas the subject of Section IV is the loss of Catholic Faith in the Dogma of the Communion of Saints with the direct result of the curtailing of Catholic resourcefulness. And Section V deals with one of the meanest mischiefs found in the Modernists’ arsenal: their hatred for Catholic individuality.
The ‘common denominator’ of all these trends is evolution.
Frits Albers, Ph.B
P,O. Box 129
WINCHELSEA.
Victoria 3241.
JULY 1998.