Caritas Newsletter
May 1, 1997
by Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap.
Internet Visitors
From the responses we get from our www.truecatholic.us website, I realize that this newsletter is accessed by an ever-growing audience. I marvel at the various responses. Some express a total agreement with my letters, and others are diabolically contentious. When truth is given to the general public, all that kind welcoming as well as the contentiousness is to be expected.To both ends of the above spectrum I have this to say. You betray your own constitution. Put a potato and an egg into a kettle of hot water; the potato gets soft, and the egg gets hard. Put a candle and mud out into the sun; the candle gets soft, and the mud gets hard. Let us end this observation with a little humor. Two grubby old bums went to the back door of a restaurant and asked for a hand-out. The cook curtly turned them away. In a short time the waitress called through the passage window, "Two hard boiled eggs." Then the same cook snorted back, "Kick them out. That is what I did with them when they were at the back door."
Our Lord Jesus Christ, had all kinds of kindness for one and all, except for the proud and haughty. He labeled the Scribes and Pharisees as being a brood of vipers, whitened sepulchers filled with dead men's bones. For the humble and sincere He had infinite patience and kindness. I purpose to have the words and works of Our Lord in all my dealing with all of you wherever you may be in the spectrum of good or evil. I serve the arrogant to bring them to conversion, and I serve the upright to bring them to an ever-greater possession of the truth. In short, the truth will make you free or as mad as a wet hen.
The Essence of Happiness
During my twenty-one years as a missionary in pagan Japan where only eight tenths of one percent of the people are (or were) Catholics, I came upon a pagan definition of happiness. Japanese men figured that heaven would be: having an American home with a Japanese wife who cooked like a Chinaman. He liked the perfection of the American home; he liked the docility of the Japanese wife and he liked the cooking of the Chinese woman. All these benefits are natural elements.By the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity we know that we are destined for supernatural happiness both in this life and in the life to come in heaven. St. Augustine who started his life in pride and impurity (even fathering an illegitimate son), after his conversion said, "Oh God, You made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
There are two knowledges of God. We can come to the knowledge of God in a natural way through the use of our natural human reason. We draw that conclusion from the fact that all created things must have a first cause (an uncaused cause or eternal cause). That knowledge is a far cry from the knowledge that those have who are free from mortal sin and in the state of sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is the embryo of the beatific vision, the face to face vision of God in heaven.
Faith, Hope & Charity - The Theological Virtues
Outside the Church (the one that Christ founded) there is no salvation. That one Church is the Catholic Church, which was headed by St. Peter and his legitimate successors down through the centuries. The above statement is true because Christ said that those who refused to believe are damned. Those without the theological virtue of faith are also without the theological virtues of hope and charity (the Latin for charity being Caritas).Let us consider the functions of faith, hope and charity, in a well-known example. When a satellite or space ship is shot up in space it is driven from the ground by let us say two engines plus some of its own power. When the payload (satellite or space ship) reaches its orbit it sheds the booster rockets and flies alone. From that time it is said to be in orbit.
Faith and hope plus charity drive us into a heavenly (supernatural) orbit. Once life on this earth is over charity sheds faith and hope, and goes on alone forever. Why? One who sees God face to face has a clear vision of God, so the unclear vision coming from faith is no longer needed. Likewise, hope has no place or function to perform once one has the beatific vision of God in heaven.
I shall quote from the book entitled "The Holy Ghost And And His Work In Souls," by Father Edward Leen, 1940. On page 293 he quotes from a Venerable Liberman as follows:
- "The soul, in order to receive the divine into
itself and to fulfill God's will, must keep itself united with God. This
is done by Faith, Hope and Charity. Here it is not a question of transient
or occasional acts of these virtues, but of a life of Faith inspired by
Hope and Charity. In this world the soul tends (that is, ought to tend),
unceasingly, towards God and adheres to Him, by the habitual application
of the theological virtues in all its conduct, even to the details of that
conduct. If God has made us for the purpose of being united with Himself,
it follows, that every act, in which this union with God is not exercised
or aimed at, is a lost act and useless. It is only in aiming at this union,
in and through its actions, that the soul finds its happiness, for it can
be happy only when it is practicing in line with the purpose for which
it has been created. (Ven. Liberman, C.S.Sp.: Ecrits, Spirituales, p. 12."
- "The three theological virtues of Faith, Hope
and Charity hold pride of place among the virtues divinely given. Their
existence is explicitly mentioned in Sacred Scripture. 'And now there remain
faith, hope and charity - these three: but the greatest of these is charity.'
These are the words of St. Paul. The Council of Trent is no less explicit.
It teaches that in the act of justification, man receives at the same time
as (sic) pardon of his sins, the virtues of faith hope and charity, through
Jesus Christ of Whom he becomes a member. (Conc. Trid. Ses. VI., Chap.
VII).
Sanctifying Grace
Our Lord Jesus Christ loved to explain His teaching by parables. We jump from the examples He gives to grand supernatural truths. Let me venture another example. Consider the statement: "I in Thee and Thou in me." St. Paul tells us that we are temples of God, and God dwells in us. This is true only of those who are in God's Church and also are in the state of sanctifying grace. All the rest are out of the ballpark.In the parable of the man at the wedding feast without the wedding garment we observe two things. This man was in body in the religious community, but he was without the wedding garment, which is the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace. The master had him thrown out (out of the ballpark, so to say), and outside, where there is the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping shows that there is heat in hell, and gnashing of teeth shows that there is cold in hell. All that misery is outside of the banquet hall.
Consider God in Himself. He cannot love with a love of friendship anything but Himself. For as creatures we must be divinized by the gift of sanctifying grace, and with the help of actual grace, we must do works that have a divine quality. Then and only then can God love us within Himself. We have in ourselves a supernatural quality and, we have in our actions a supernatural quality. We and our actions are devinized -- what a mystery of faith!
The Beatific Vision
An example will bring your minds a bit closer to that wonderful reality (where it exists). Let us consider God as a great and powerful magnet. We are just a simple steel bolt without magnetism. When the bolt is pressed against the big magnet it becomes as a magnet in a small way, and it interacts with the big magnet. It sort of becomes one with the big magnet. That is how we are to live with God during our life on earth, and after death, that embryo type of life will become the full blown beatific vision - for which we were created.Outside the Church There is No Salvation
Once again, only those who obey God and thus do what is necessary for salvation will have sanctifying grace. Remember this, all men and every government on earth must be subject to the Catholic Church, whether they like it or not, for outside that Church (actually or in true desire) nobody has sanctifying grace, and nobody gets to heaven.Bogus "Catholic" Church on the Internet
From the periodical CATHOLIC, Instauratio Press, P.O. Box 36, Yarra Junction, Vic. 3797 Australia, April 1997, I learned that the Vatican II Sect under John Paul II has launched itself on the world wide Internet, effective on Easter Sunday. The internet address is http://www.vatican.va/. The article goes as follows:- "It (the Vatican website) is due to offer more
than 1,200 Church documents and Papal speeches. Three computers - Raphael,
Michael and Gabriel - will power the system.
"According to Reuter's news agency, in the next year, the Vatican's website will be expanded to include most of the documents of past Papacies, as well as interactive images of many of the treasures of the Vatican Museums and from the Vatican's Archives there will be sound bites from Vatican Radio."
Bill Clinton's GOALS 2000
Here I quote from a flier, the words of Chester M. Pierce, MD Psychiatrist, in his address at the 1972 Childhood International Education Seminar. Hang on to your hats, and beware of swallowing your cud. Here it comes:- "Every child in America entering school at the
age of 5 is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances
to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents,
toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of
this nation as a separate entity. It's up to you as teachers to make all
these sick children well - by creating the international child of the future."
Charles M. Pierce, MD
The Annulments Fiasco
The Antigo Journal, April 17, 1997, quoting the Catholic (Novus Ordo) Almanac, hung out some of the Vatican II dirty laundry. The reporter says:- "Henry VIII had to create his own church when
he couldn't get his first marriage revoked by the Roman Catholics, and
annulments remained almost unheard of for the next four-and-a-half centuries.
Not anymore!"
- "While only 338 marriages were annulled in the
United States in 1968, 54,463 of them were declared void in 1994, according
to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church."
Friend or foe, let me tell you that the above aberration is only the tip of the iceberg. In 1974, when the errors of Vatican II were fast taking a foothold, I was sent to an updating course for older priests where we were told that we did not have to go to the authorities for the annulments. All we had to do was to convince the divorced and remarried couples that they lost the bond of marriage when they lost their love of each other. The teachers and students (all older priests) knew jolly well that I did not agree with their "new theology."
I shall put the whole aberration of annulments in the perspectives of the leaders in the theology of the Novus Ordo:
- "An essential element of marriage is love. When
the element of love breaks down the bond of marriage breaks down. Hence
an annulment is in order." Novus
Ordo Teaching
Volunteerism
A few days ago our "intellectual genius," William Clinton, made a "new program" called volunteerism. He wants the American citizens to give their time in the service of the poor. He made the blastoff in a poor area where the buildings are boarded up, and the whole area is in shambles. His leadership in this kind of volunteerism is as original as inventing the wheel. His efforts because of their false premise are doomed to failure.In the natural order, men just will not perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The sole foundation for true brotherly love is the love of God. They, who ignore God and even hate Him, as seen in their violation of His laws, have no foundation on which to conduct works of charity. William Clinton is the sole man (in the end) why partial birth/abortions are still legal in the USA. Tell me if a man who wants the death of thousands of innocent infants, really wants to help the poor! No way! The only reason he works for volunteerism is to make some points before a gullible public.
While we are at it, let us deal with the topic of volunteerism. This newsletter is a product of volunteerism. Nobody even asks me to give you this letter, and still I give it to you. Yes, it is published in hardcopy in addition to the Internet copy. From boyhood I volunteered my life honoring God in the service of men. With nobody around, I compose, type, spell correct, and review this newsletter. Then I have the temporary copy proof read. I incorporate the corrections, print the original, copy the hundreds of copies plus doing organizing, stuffing and mailing. No one is ever charged a fee. Freely my work is supported by grateful recipients.
Volunteerism Outside the Catholic Church
Outside the Catholic Church there is no, or very little, mercy. Think of the hospitals in your area. Likely they still have Saints names: St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital and so forth. They were started and run by volunteers in the form of dedicated and loving Sisters. The monks, over the centuries, cared for the poor, and when bastard King Henry VIII stole and gave the monasteries to his buddies, that charity ended, and the poor were out on the streets. You older citizens can witness what happened to volunteerism after bogus Council Vatican II came into existence. Those apostate women, libber Sisters, gave their hospital to the men who run the horrendous banking system, and immediately the crucifixes came down, and the spiritual and corporal works of mercy came to a screeching halt. When one goes to those "new order" hospitals the first question is, how much money do you have, and what insurance do you have. You know the rest!True volunteerism is nonexistent outside the Catholic Church, and remember, the John Paul II "Catholic" Church is not the Catholic Church handed down to us by the true successors of St. Peter.
Sociology - the Religion of Destruction
I have an article by Erica Carle, from the WISCONSIN REPORT, proving that "Sociology" is not a secular science but a religion, the worst of all religions.Auguste Comte (1798-1857), the founder of sociology, referred to Humanity as a goddess or as the Great Being. Here after I shall quote Comte's diabolical words:
- "Towards Humanity, who is for us the only true
God Being, we, the conscious elements of whom she is composed, shall henceforth
direct every aspect of our life, individual or collective. Our thoughts
will be devoted to the knowledge of Humanity, our affections to her love,
our actions to her service.
"Sociology replaces theology: Sociology is once for all substituted for Theology as the basis for the religious government of mankind.
"Positivism becomes, in the true sense of the
word, a Religion; one more real and more complete than any other, and therefore
destined to replace all imperfect and provisional systems resting on the
primitive basis of theology . Sincere believers in Christianity will soon
cease to interfere with the management of a world where they profess themselves
to be pilgrims and strangers. The new Supreme Being is no less jealous
than the old, and will not accept the servants of two masters."
from the words of Auguste Comte
(1798-1857), the founder of sociology
