THE CATHOLIC TRADITION NEWSLETTER
A weekly presentation of News, Information, Readings and Commentary for traditional Roman Catholics and Catholic Families remaining faithful to the teaching Magisterium as held by all faithful Catholics through the centuries.
Vol 19 Issue 34 Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
August 22, 2026
Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
False Councils: Vatican II
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Saint Philip Benizi
Family and Marriage
Articles and notices
Question of Jurisdiction
Dear Reader:
As true Roman Catholics one of the stresses on our Catholic lives is that of living a virtuous life. Virtue, though, is not a Catholic possession, used only by Catholics—but one that extends to all peoples since everyone can recognize the good qualities of humanity as distinguished by bad and even outright evil qualities of humanity—known as vice and immorality. Now, as everyone can possess good morals that are cultivated into virtues, so also can one be possessed of immorality that has developed into vice. One is not naturally born virtuous or vicious. Rather one chooses to be virtuous and practice the choices that makes one virtuous; or, on the other hand, one refuses to be virtuous and chooses the vice by the choice of immorality. Certainly the environment plays a role, but not a deciding role. The environment can only be to one’s advantage or disadvantage, making it easier or harder but not impossible.
You ought not accept the deception of today’s society that exonerates one from culpability based upon environment—that in fact denies freewill and choice. It flows from an erroneous philosophy based on evolution that rejects the individual as being completely free in one’s choice and places determinism into one’s choice: it was already determined for you and you could not but do what you did. The unfortunate aspect is that this same determinism is actually a tenet of the Mohammedan religion under a different name and why the Mohammedans have supported this philosophy prevalent in progressivism, though not stemming from Mohammedanism but from the rejection of God by most Americans as God being God. It is why judges who are members of this Mohammedan religion in the United States and Europe can release criminals just as easily as progressives—even though these criminals would be hung or decapitated if they did the same criminal act in their former Mohammedan country—because the judge there, too, would claim it was determined—not admitting it was a choice that could have been otherwise. If you questioned them, they would say: that if Allah did not want this criminal hung or decapitated, Allah would have prevented it. In fact, what they are actually doing is making themselves Allah just as the atheist and evolutionist makes himself or herself god, freely choosing but yet at the same time denying one is choosing.
What I am saying is that you are the one who chooses to be moral and virtuous and you should not convince yourself you cannot be virtuous. Why? Because it is even a natural virtue that is attainable by all through choice and practice—like playing the piano.
Still, we know as Catholics, that it becomes supernatural virtue when you are in the state of sanctifying grace and living the virtue for your sanctification knowing that God will assist you in living the virtue. This applies to all the virtues. Is it harder for some? Yes! But for that one in which it is harder there is all the more merit, all the more glory and all the more of one’s moral character that becomes all the more stronger (virtuous).
As always, enjoy the readings provided for your benefit. — The Editor
-----------------------
False Councils
Gaudium et Spes
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
[The following is a continuation of the reading of the Vatican II document. A reminder, many Vatican II apologists claim we have not read the documents and why I present it to counter their accusation.]
7. A change in attitudes and in human structures frequently calls accepted values into question, especially among young people, who have grown impatient on more than one occasion, and indeed become rebels in their distress. Aware of their own influence in the life of society, they want a part in it sooner. This frequently causes parents and educators to experience greater difficulties day by day in discharging their tasks. The institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as handed down from previous generations do not always seem to be well adapted to the contemporary state of affairs; hence arises an upheaval in the manner and even the norms of behavior.
Finally, these new conditions have their impact on religion. On the one hand a more critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical view of the world and from the superstitions which still circulate purifies it and exacts day by day a more personal and explicit adherence to faith. As a result many persons are achieving a more vivid sense of God. On the other hand, growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken.
8. This development coming so rapidly and often in a disorderly fashion, combined with keener awareness itself of the inequalities in the world beget or intensify contradictions and imbalances.
Within the individual person there develops rather frequently an imbalance between an intellect which is modern in practical matters and a theoretical system of thought which can neither master the sum total of its ideas, nor arrange them adequately into a synthesis. Likewise an imbalance arises between a concern for practicality and efficiency, and the demands of moral conscience; also very often between the conditions of collective existence and the requisites of personal thought, and even of contemplation. At length there develops an imbalance between specialized human activity and a comprehensive view of reality.
As for the family, discord results from population, economic and social pressures, or from difficulties which arise between succeeding generations, or from new social relationships between men and women.
Differences crop up too between races and between various kinds of social orders; between wealthy nations and those which are less influential or are needy; finally, between international institutions born of the popular desire for peace, and the ambition to propagate one's own ideology, as well as collective greeds existing in nations or other groups.
What results is mutual distrust, enmities, conflicts and hardships. Of such is man at once the cause and the victim.
9. Meanwhile the conviction grows not only that humanity can and should increasingly consolidate its control over creation, but even more, that it devolves on humanity to establish a political, social and economic order which will growingly serve man and help individuals as well as groups to affirm and develop the dignity proper to them.
As a result many persons are quite aggressively demanding those benefits of which with vivid awareness they judge themselves to be deprived either through injustice or unequal distribution. Nations on the road to progress, like those recently made independent, desire to participate in the goods of modern civilization, not only in the political field but also economically, and to play their part freely on the world scene. Still they continually fall behind while very often their economic and other dependence on wealthier nations advances more rapidly.
People hounded by hunger call upon those better off. Where they have not yet won it, women claim for themselves an equity with men before the law and in fact. Laborers and farmers seek not only to provide for the necessities of life, but to develop the gifts of their personality by their labors and indeed to take part in regulating economic, social, political and cultural life. Now, for the first time in human history all people are convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and actually can be extended to everyone.
Still, beneath all these demands lies a deeper and more widespread longing: persons and societies thirst for a full and free life worthy of man; one in which they can subject to their own welfare all that the modern world can offer them so abundantly. In addition, nations try harder every day to bring about a kind of universal community.
Since all these things are so, the modern world shows itself at once powerful and weak, capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before it lies the path to freedom or to slavery, to progress or retreat, to brotherhood or hatred. Moreover, man is becoming aware that it is his responsibility to guide aright the forces which he has unleashed and which can enslave him or minister to him. That is why he is putting questions to himself.
10. The truth is that the imbalances under which the modern world labors are linked with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the heart of man. For in man himself many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on the one hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways; on the other he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions he is constantly forced to choose among them and renounce some. Indeed, as a weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to do what he would. Hence he suffers from internal divisions, and from these flow so many and such great discords in society. No doubt many whose lives are infected with a practical materialism are blinded against any sharp insight into this kind of dramatic situation; or else, weighed down by unhappiness they are prevented from giving the matter any thought. Thinking they have found serenity in an interpretation of reality everywhere proposed these days, many look forward to a genuine and total emancipation of humanity wrought solely by human effort; they are convinced that the future rule of man over the earth will satisfy every desire of his heart. Nor are there lacking men who despair of any meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who think that human existence is devoid of any inherent significance and strive to confer a total meaning on it by their own ingenuity alone.
Nevertheless, in the face of the modern development of the world, the number constantly swells of the people who raise the most basic questions or recognize them with a new sharpness: what is man? What is this sense of sorrow, of evil, of death, which continues to exist despite so much progress? What purpose have these victories purchased at so high a cost? What can man offer to society, what can he expect from it? What follows this earthly life?
The Church firmly believes that Christ, who died and was raised up for all, can through His Spirit offer man the light and the strength to measure up to his supreme destiny. Nor has any other name under the heaven been given to man by which it is fitting for him to be saved. She likewise holds that in her most benign Lord and Master can be found the key, the focal point and the goal of man, as well as of all human history. The Church also maintains that beneath all changes there are many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, Who is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever. Hence under the light of Christ, the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of every creature, the council wishes to speak to all men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding the solution to the outstanding problems of our time.
Comment
The presentation above perhaps was meant to be a piece of pure humanism. It is difficult to fathom that a Church that was founded to save man from his sins would encourage man to remain in them and that same Church would help man to continue in his path of darkness instead of showing him the light of faith which alone can bring him out of darkness. Christ is now no longer a Redeemer, saving man from sin in this document, but a social Reformer saving man from poverty and war.
(To be continued)
----------------------
THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY
LUKE xvii. 11-19
At that time: As Jesus was going to Jerusalem, he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain town, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off and lifted up their voice, saying: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Whom when he saw, he said: Go, shew yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before his feet, giving thanks. And this was a Samaritan. And Jesus, answering, said: Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger. And he said to him: Arise, go thy way; for thy faith hath made thee whole.
ST AUGUSTINE, BISHOP AND DOCTOR
Thankfulness in Prosperity
For in his lifetime his soul will be blessed; and he will praise thee when thou shalt do well to him (Ps. xlviii. 19).
In his lifetime his soul will be blessed. Let your Charity reflect on these words: In his lifetime his soul will be blessed. As long as he lived he did well for himself. This all men say, but they speak falsely. It is blessing that comes from the desire of the one blessing, not from Truth Itself. For what is it you are saying? Because he ate and drank, because he did what he wished, and because he feasted splendidly every day, he therefore did well for himself But I say he did badly for himself. It is not I who say this, but Christ. He did evil to himself. For Dives, when he feasted sumptuously every day (Lk. xvi. 19), thought he did well for himself. But when he began to burn in hell, then what he thought good was found to be evil. For what he had eaten among the living, he digested in hell. I speak here of evildoing, brethren, on which he was wont to feast.
He ate rich banquets with the mouth of his body; with the mouth of his heart he ate injustice. What he ate among the living with the mouth of his heart; it was this he digested in hell amid torments. He had indeed eaten well in time; he digested unhappily in eternity. Do we then eat evil-doing? Someone will say: what is he saying? Do we eat evil? It is not I who say this; listen to the Scriptures: As a sour grape is an affliction to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is evil doing to them that indulge in it (Prov. x. 26, Sept.). For he who has eaten iniquity that is, he who has freely indulged in evil-doing, is unable to eat justice. For justice is bread. What bread? I am the living bread which came down from heaven (Jn. vi. 51). He is Himself the Bread of our heart. Just as he who eats sour grapes with the month of his body, has his teeth set on edge and is unable to eat bread; and must continue to praise what he sees, while unable to eat it; so he who indulges in iniquity, and eats sin in his heart, begins to be unable to eat bread; he praises the word of God, but does not do it.
Why is it he does not do it? Because when he begins to do it, he labours; just as we when we have eaten sour grapes feel our teeth labouring when we try to eat bread. But what do they do whose teeth are on edge? They restrain themselves for a time from sour grapes, till their teeth become firm, and then apply themselves to the bread. So also do we praise justice. But if we would eat justice, let us restrain ourselves from evil doing; and there will be born in our heart, not alone the delight of praising justice, but also the power to eat it. For if the Christian says: 'God knows that my delight is in this, but I am unable to fulfil it'; his teeth are weakened, because he has long eaten of iniquity. Is justice therefore also eaten? If it were not eaten, the Lord would not have said: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice (Mt. v. 6). Therefore since in his lifetime his soul will be blessed: in life it shall be blessed, but in death it shall be tormented.
He will praise thee, when thou shalt do well to him. Apply your minds to this and be fed. Keep it close within your hearts. Eat, reflect upon such persons; and be not such as they are. Beware of these words: He will praise thee, when thou shalt do well to him. How many are the Christians, brethren, who give thanks to God when they gain something! This is the meaning of: he will praise thee, when thou shalt do well to him. He will praise Thee, and he will say: Thou art truly my God. He has delivered me from prison; I will praise Him. Wealth comes his way; he praises God. He receives an inheritance; he praises God. He suffers loss; he curses Him. What kind of son are you, who when the Father corrects you, He then becomes hateful to you? Would he have corrected you, unless you had displeased Him? Or had you so displeased Him that He hated you, would He have corrected you? Then give thanks to your Corrector, that you may receive an inheritance from God Who corrects you. For when you are being corrected, you are being taught. And He corrects you often; for great is that which you are to receive. For if you weigh your correction against what you are to receive, you will find that being corrected is as nothing. The Apostle Paul says this: For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh far us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. But when? While we look not, he says, at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (II Cor. iv. 17, 18). And again: The sufferings of this time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us (Rom. viii. 18).
What therefore do you suffer? But, you say, you are suffering all the time. I agree. Suppose that from the moment of your birth, through all the years of your life till extreme age, and until you died, you suffered what Job suffered; what he suffered for a few days, another may suffer from infancy. What you suffer passes, comes to an end; what you are to receive, shall never end. I would not have you weigh your suffering against your reward. But weigh, if you can, the things of time against eternity.
He will praise thee, when thou shalt do well to him. Brethren: Do not be like such persons. Understand that it is for this we are saying these things, it is for this we forewarn you, it is for this we treat of these things, it is for this we sweat and toil: Be not guilty of such things. Your daily tasks are a trial to you. Sometimes in your dealings you hear the Truth, and you blaspheme, you speak evil against the Church. Why? Because you are good Christians? If that be so, I'll join the Donatists. I'll become a pagan. Why then? Because you have bitten bread, and your teeth pain you. When you first saw this same bread, you used to praise it. You began to eat it, and your teeth hurt you: that is, when you began to hear the word of God, you were full of praise of it. But when you were told, do this, you speak evil of it.
You must not think or speak like this. Say this: This is good bread, but I am unable to eat it. Now, if you see it with your eyes, you praise it; but when you begin to put your teeth in it, you say: This is bad bread, and what sort of a man made it? And so it is you praise God, when God does well by you. And therefore you lie, when you sing: I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall be always in my mouth (Ps. xxxiii. 2). The song of your lips comes to an end in your heart. In the Church you sang: I will bless the Lord at all times. What do you mean by, at all times? If I make a profit at all times, He will be praised at all times. If now and then there is loss, He will not be blessed, He will be cursed. Certainly you bless the Lord at all times, and no doubt His praise is always in your mouth? But it will be the kind of blessing and praise just now described: He will praise thee, when thou shalt do well to him.
Turning then to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, let us, from a pure heart, and as far as our littleness can, offer Him fullest, overflowing thanks; with our whole soul beseeching His singular mildness, that in His good pleasure He will deign to hear our prayers, and by His power drive what is evil from our thoughts and actions, that He may increase our faith, guide our minds, grant us His holy inspirations and lead us to His own blessedness through Jesus Christ His Son. Amen.
--------------------------
23: ST PHILIP BENIZI (A.D. 1285)
THIS principal ornament and propagator of the religious order of the Servites in Italy was of the noble families of Benizi and Frescobaldi in Florence, and a native of that city. He was born on August 15, in the year 1233, which is said by some to be the very feast of the Assumption on which the seven Founders of the Servites had their first vision of our Lady. His parents had been long married but childless, and Philip was a child of prayer. At the age of thirteen he was sent to Paris to apply himself to the study of medicine, and Galen, though a heathen, was a strong spur to him in raising his heart from the contemplation of nature to the worship and praise of its Author. From Paris he removed to Padua, where he took the degree of doctor in medicine and philosophy at the age of nineteen. After his return to Florence he took some time to deliberate with himself what course to steer. For a year he practised his profession, spending his leisure time in the study of sacred Scripture and the fathers and in prayer for guidance, especially before a certain crucifix in the abbey-church at Fiesole and before a picture of the Annunciation in the Servite chapel at Carfaggio, just outside the walls of Florence.
At this time the Servites, or Order of the Servants of Mary, had been established fourteen years, having been founded by seven gentlemen of Florence as described under their feast on February 12. At their principal house on Monte Senario, six miles from Florence, they lived in little cells, something like the hermits of Camaldoli, possessing nothing but in common, and professing obedience to St Buonfiglio Monaldi. The austerities which they practised were great, and they lived mostly on alms. On the Thursday in Easter Week 1254, Philip was in prayer at Fiesole when the figure on the crucifix seemed to say to him, “Go to the high hill where the servants of my mother are living, and you will be doing the will of my Father”. Pondering these words deeply Philip went to the chapel at Carfaggio to assist at Mass, and was strongly affected with the words of the Holy Ghost to the deacon Philip, which were read in the epistle of that day, "Go near and join thyself to this chariot". His name being Philip he applied to himself these words as an invitation to put himself under the care of the Blessed Virgin in that order, and he seemed to himself, in a dream or vision, to be in a vast wilderness (representing the world) full of precipices, snares and serpents, so that he did not see how it was possible to escape so many dangers. Whilst he was thus in dread he thought he beheld our Lady approaching him in a chariot. Persuaded that God called him to this order as to a place of refuge, Philip went to Monte Senario and was admitted by St Buonfiglio to the habit as a lay-brother: "I wish", he said, " to be the servant of the Servants of Mary." In consideration of the circumstances in which he had joined the order he retained his baptismal name in religion. He was made gardener and questor for alms, and put to work at every kind of hard country labour; the saint cheerfully applied himself to it in a spirit of penance and accompanied his work with constant recollection and prayer, living in a little cave behind the church. Philip was sent in 1258 to the Servite house at Siena and on the way there he undesignedly displayed his abilities in a discourse on certain controverted points, in the presence of two Dominicans and others, to the astonishment of those that heard him, and especially of his companion, Brother Victor. The matter was reported to the prior general, who examined St Philip closely and then had him promoted to holy orders, though nothing but an absolute command could extort his consent.
All Philip's hopes of living out his life in quiet and obscurity, serving God and his brethren as a lay-brother, were now at an end. In 1262 he went to the Siena monastery as novice-master and to be one of the four vicars to assist the prior general; soon after he became himself colleague of the prior general. In 1267 a chapter of the whole order was held at Carfaggio; at this chapter St Manettus resigned the generalship and, in spite of his protests, St Philip Benizi was unanimously elected in his stead. During his first year of office he made a general visitation of the provinces of northern Italy, which at the time were torn and distracted by the strife of Guelf and Ghibelline. It was on this tour that his first miracle was reported of him, very similar to one attributed to St Dominic and other saints: owing to the troubles the Servites of Arezzo were unable to get food and were on the verge of starvation; when they assembled for supper there was nothing to eat until, when St Philip had exhorted them to have faith and had prayed before our Lady's image, a knock was heard at the monastery door and two large baskets of good bread were found on the steps. He codified the rules and constitutions of the Servite order and this work was confirmed by the general chapter held at Pistoia in 1268; he would on the same occasion have asked leave to give up his office. But he was so warmly dissuaded by his colleague, Brother Lottaringo, that he resigned himself to holding it so long as his brethren should wish, which proved to be for the rest of his life.
Upon the death of Pope Clement IV it was rumoured that Cardinal Ottobuoni, protector of the Servites, had proposed St Philip to succeed him, and that the suggestion was well received. When word of this came to Philip's ears he ran away and hid himself in a cave among the mountains near Radicofani, where he was looked after for three months by Brother Victor until he deemed the danger past. During this retreat St Philip rejoiced in an opportunity of giving himself up to contemplation; he lived on vegetables and drank at a spring, since esteemed miraculous and called St Philip's Bath. He returned from the desert glowing with zeal to kindle in the hearts of Christians the fire of divine love, and soon set out on a visitation of his order in France and Germany. In 1274 he was summoned by Bd Gregory X to be present at the second general council of Lyons. At it he made a profound impression and the gift of tongues was attributed to him, but his reputation did not serve to obtain for the Servites that formal papal approbation for which St Philip worked continually.
The saint announced the word of God wherever he came and had an extraordinary talent in converting sinners and in reconciling those that were at variance. Italy was still horribly divided by discords and hereditary factions. Holy men often sought to apply remedies to these quarrels, which had a happy effect upon some; but in many these discords, like a wound ill-cured, broke out again with worse symptoms than ever. Papal Guelfs and imperial Ghibellines were the worst offenders, and in 1279 Pope Nicholas III gave special faculties to Cardinal Latino to deal with them. He invoked the help of St Philip Benizi, who wonderfully pacified the factions when they were ready to tear each other to pieces at Pistoia and other places. He succeeded at length also at Forli, where the seditious insulted and beat him; but his patience at length disarmed their fury. Peregrine Laziosi, who was their ringleader and had himself struck the saint, was so moved by his meekness that he threw himself at his feet and begged his pardon. Being become a model penitent Peregrine was received by Philip into the order of Servites at Siena in 1283, and was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726. St Philip attracted a number of notably good men to himself. Among them were this St Peregrine and Bd John of Frankfort; Bd Joachim Piccolomini, who met Philip at Siena; Bd Andrew Dotti, a soldier, and Bd Jerome, both of Borgo San Sepolcro; Bd Bonaventure of Pistoia, converted by a sermon of the saint from a life of violence and crime; Bd Ubald, whose quarrelling had turned Florence upside down; and Bd Francis Patrizi. In 1284 St Alexis Falconieri put his niece St Juliana under the direction of St Philip, and from his advice to her sprang the third order regular of the Servants of Mary. He was also responsible for sending the first Servite missionaries to the East, where some penetrated to Tartary and there gave their blood for Christ. Throughout his eighteen years of generalship of his order Philip had as his official colleague Lottaringo Stufa, whom he had known and loved from boyhood. They remained the closest friends and the utmost confidence subsisted between them; their long association was an ideal partnership.
Judging at length by the decay of his health that the end of his life drew near, St Philip set out in 1285 to visit the newly-elected Pope Honorius IV at Perugia, and at Florence convened a general chapter at which he announced his approaching departure and handed over the government to Father Lottaringo. " Love one another! Love one another! Love one another!" he adjured the friars, and so left them. He went to the smallest and poorest house of the order, at Todi, where he was enthusiastically received by the citizens, and when he could escape from them he went straight to the altar of our Lady, and falling prostrate on the ground prayed with great fervour, "This is the place of my rest for ever". He made a moving sermon on the glory of the blessed on the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God, but at three o'clock in the afternoon of that day was taken seriously ill. He sent for the community, and again spoke of brotherly love: "Love one another, reverence one another, and bear with one another." Seven days later the end came; he called for his "book", by which word he meant his crucifix, and devoutly contemplating it, calmly died at the hour of the evening Angelus. St Philip Benizi was canonized in 1671, and his feast was extended to the whole Western church in 1694. —(Butler’s Lives of the Saints)
---------------------------
Marriage Guidance
A Study of the Problems of the Married and of those Contemplating Marriage
(1948)
By Edwin F. Healy
SECTION III
The Duties of Parents in
Regard to Their Offspring
CHAPTER XIX
Order in the Home
Domestic order is necessary if children's characters are to be formed as they should be. Moreover, a well-regulated home life is a good preparation for the later years of the child when he must abide by so many civil laws and customs. It is important, therefore, that the activities of the household be carefully planned and supervised. Parents should lay down a few sensible rules which concern the domestic order and the proper training of the children—for example, the care of their rooms, the time for rising—and their exact observance of instructions concerning such matters should be insisted upon. The need for this is great, especially today in our own country, where home life is notoriously unstable and lax. The home has lost its true meaning for a great many of our nation's children because their parents have not the proper attitude toward family life. Father and mother are away frequently, and they allow their sons and daughters to go out and return home with no restrictions. As a consequence of this lack of domestic order the children grow up without ever knowing the nature of wholesome family life.
PUNCTUALITY AT MEALS. Children should be made to appear at all meals at the times specified, and their parents should set them a good example by their own punctuality. To permit the children to come late for their meals without a good reason tends to cultivate in them slovenly habits. Even though the mother for her part is perfectly willing to suffer the inconvenience of serving meals at all hours, she should nevertheless refuse to prepare food at unscheduled times and should punish late-comers. Not to act thus will prove detrimental to the children's character development.
EXAMPLE. Sidney Magner came home at two o'clock in the afternoon. "What kept you?" his mother asked. "Lunch is all over." "I was playing tennis," explained Sidney. "We went to 9-7. I couldn't break off in the middle of the set." "Well," his mother grumbled, "you won't get any lunch. I'll just give you a sandwich and a glass of milk."
COMMENT. If Sidney had been warned about coming late for meals and if his present excuse is judged to be insufficient, he should be made to prepare his own meal. Mrs. Magner should not compromise by getting the sandwich and milk for him.
LATE HOURS. How late in the evening may children be permitted to remain out of the house? The answer to this question is of course that the child should come home at a reasonable hour. The interpretation of the phrase "reasonable hour" is not easy, for it depends to a great extent on many circumstances. Parents can in general be guided in their interpretation of this time by what trustworthy, conservative persons of that section of the country deem fitting. Much depends on the customs of the particular locality and upon the age of the child. A boy or girl of fifteen should not
be permitted the liberty of a young person of twenty. It should always be remembered that keeping late hours often means the loss of much-needed sleep, and that this practice may consequently prove not a little detrimental to the young person's health.
In practice, enforcing regulations about the hour at which the children are to return home after the party or dance often proves a vexing problem to parents. If all the other fathers and mothers allow their children to remain out until one or two o'clock in the morning, it is difficult for one father or mother to insist on their young boy's or girl's return home at twelve o'clock. In union, however, there is strength. What a mother might find too hard to enforce if she stood alone, she will do without difficulty if acting in unison with others. The best way, then, to meet the problem of the children's returning home at a respectable hour is to organize the parents. Let all agree upon a definite time limit, and let them resolve to enforce this rule strictly. In this way none of the children of the group can point to the other fathers or mothers as up-to-date and gifted with understanding, and at the same time brand their own parents as old-fashioned and altogether unreasonable.
EXAMPLE. Bertha Wilson, fourteen years of age, was met at the door by her mother. "Do you realize, young lady, that it is one o'clock in the morning?" Mrs. Wilson angrily asked. "Where have you been till this hour?" "We went to the nine-o'clock movie and then we stopped at a restaurant to get a snack," Bertha explained. "I don't think one o'clock is very late."
COMMENT. Mrs. Wilson should not permit her fourteen-year-old daughter to go to the late performance. Moreover, she should specify at what hour she wishes Bertha to return and should insist that she be home at that time.
----------------------------
The Roman Catholic Church Today
And
The Question of Jurisdiction
Epikeia
Ludwig Ott, in his work, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, writes:
The powers bestowed on the Apostles have descended to the bishops. (De fide.)
The Council of Trent teaches that: "the bishops who succeeded in the place of the Apostles belong by excellence to the hierarchical order, and are appointed by the Holy Ghost to rule the Church of God" (D 960). The Vatican Council teaches: Just as He (Christ) sent the Apostles whom He had elected for Himself from the world, as He Himself was sent by the Father (John 20, 21), so He wishes that there should be pastors and teachers in His Church to the end of time" (D 1821). These pastors and teachers are the bishops, the successors of the Apostles (D 1828; episcopi, qui positi a Spiritu Sancto in Apostolorum locum successerunt).
The perpetuation of the hierarchical powers follows necessarily on the indefectibility of the Church desired by Christ (see Par. 12). The promise of His aid given to the Apostles "even to the consummation of the world" (Mt. 28, 20) presupposes that the apostolic office is perpetuated in the successors of the Apostles. The Apostles, following the will of Christ, handed over their powers to others, for example, St. Paul to Timothy and Titus. Cf. 2 Tim. 4, 2-5; Tit. 2, 1 (teaching power); 1 Tim. 5, 19-21; Tit. 2, 15 (pastoral power); 1 Tim. 5, 22; Tit. 1, 5 (sacerdotal power). In the position of the two disciples of the Apostles, the monarchical episcopate, into which apostolic office finally evolves, appears clearly for the first time. The "angels" of the seven communities in Asia Minor (Apoc. 2-3) are, according to the traditional interpretation, which, however, has been contradicted, monarchic bishops.
The disciple of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, narrates concerning the perpetuation of the hierarchical powers by the Apostles: "In countries and towns they preached and appointed their neophytes after they have proved these in spirit, as bishops and deacons of the future faithful " (Cor. 42, 4). "Our Apostles through the Lord Jesus Christ, knew that disputes would arise about the episcopal office. For this reason, as they had received exact knowledge of this in advance, they appointed the above named, and subsequently gave directions that when these should fall asleep, other tried men should take over their duties" (Cor. 44, 1-2). At the beginning of the second century, St. Ignatius of Antioch attests that at the head of the Asia Minor communities, also even "in the farthest countries " (Eph. 3, 2), there stands in each a single (monarchic) bishop, in whose hand the whole religious and disciplinarian conduct of the community lies.
"Nobody is supposed to do anything which concerns the Church without the Bishop. Only that Eucharist is regarded as valid and legal, that is consummated under the Bishop or by one authorised by him. There, where Jesus is, the Catholic Church is. It is not permitted to baptize without the Bishop, or to hold the agape. But whatever he finds good, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done is certain and lawful. . . . He that honours the Bishop is honoured by God; he that does anything without consulting the Bishop, serves the devil" (Smyrn. 8, 1-2; 9, 1). In every community, side by side with and under the Bishop there are the presbyters and the deacons as further holders of office.
According to St. Justin the Martyr, the "overseer of the brethren," that is, the Bishop, celebrates the liturgy (Apol. I 65, 67). St. Irenaeus finds in the uninterrupted succession of the bishops from the Apostles down, the most certain guarantee for the assurance of the unfalsified handing-down of the Christian teaching: " We can enumerate the bishops installed by the Apostles and their successors from their times down to our own " (Adv. haer. III, 3, 1). However, as it would take him too far afield to enumerate the apostolic succession of all the Churches, he limits himself to "the greatest and oldest and best-known Church, which was founded and built at Rome by the two famous Apostles, Peter and Paul." He gives the oldest calendar of bishops of the Roman Church, beginning with the "blessed Apostles" down to St. Eleutherus, the twelfth successor of the Apostles (ibid. III 3, 3). Cf. St. Polycarp. St. Irenaeus narrates (ibid. III 3, 1) that he was appointed Bishop of Smyrna " by the Apostles " — according to Tertullian (De praesc. 32) by St. John. Tertullian, like St. Irenaeus, bases the truth of the Catholic teaching on the apostolic succession of the Bishops (De praesc. 32). (279-280)
Understood as such, a validly ordained bishop has received the office to teach, sanctify and govern the Church as long as it is not in opposition to the Church, that is, against the will of Christ and His vicar on earth, the pope. The bishop does not need to be given jurisdiction directly by a pope to fulfill his office. This is found in the next consideration—supplied jurisdiction.
Before covering supplied jurisdiction, one must understand that priests do not have apostolic succession, but they assist the bishop, who delegates to them jurisdiction. A bishop is sent by Christ (normally directly through His visible representative, the pope); a priest is sent by his bishop. If the bishop is not sent by Christ through His Church, the priests under him do not have jurisdiction. If the bishop is sent by the Church, priests receive delegated jurisdiction. A priest not given the delegated jurisdiction has no jurisdiction except that supplied in extremis mortis, when death is imminent and no authorized priest is available.
(To be continued)
----------------------------
Notices:
Fr Krier will be in Pahrump, NV on September 10. He will be in Eureka, NV, September 17.
Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church is in the process of constructing a church hall, classrooms, library and residence in its efforts to provide for the parish and to have a place for research in traditional Roman Catholicism as well as a meeting place for those interested in both the perennial teachings and the movements to continue the Roman Catholic Church after the apostasy of the Conciliar Church. We hope you will support us in this effort as a center for spreading the Catholic Faith worldwide. We will still need to borrow $155,000 without your further assistance. Since the Church is located in the heart of Sin City (Las Vegas), it is a metaphor that the Church continues through her faithful bishops, priests, and laity in this sinful world that rejects the saving grace of salvation. Thank you for your prayers and asking for your continuance of prayer to bring this project to completion—the block walls are now going upwards.
Meanwhile, we want to thank all those who have so generously heeded this appeal and all who have supported our apostolate through the years.
-------------------------
The topics of Faith and will correspond to the Roman Catholic Faith in Tradition and the Magisterium. The News will be of interest. The commentaries are for the reader to ponder and consider. The e-mail address will be for you to provide thought for consideration. The donations will be to support the continuation of this undertaking.
While the Newsletter is free of charge it is not free of cost. Please consider supporting St Joseph’s Catholic Church with a tax - deductible donation by clicking the secure link: Donate or Zelle: 702-596-5041
Or if you prefer send a check to
Catholic Tradition Newsletter
c/o St Joseph’s Catholic Church
131 N. 9th St
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Visit us on the Worldwide Web: http://stjosephlv.org
e-mail news and comments to: tcatholicn@yahoo.com
To unsubscribe, please type, “unsubscribe”‚ in the subject line.