Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Protestant Reformation
Chapter 9 of the Apocalypse opens with Saint John’s terrifying vision:
“And the fifth Angel sounded the trumpet; and I saw a star fall from Heaven upon
the earth, and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the
bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit ascended as the smoke of a great
furnace; and the sun was darkened, and the air with the smoke of the pit: And
from the smoke of the pit, there came out locusts upon the earth, and power was
given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” (Apoc: 9:1-3).
For over 500 years, many Devout Catholic Scriptural commentators have seen this vision as a prediction of Luther and his Protestant revolt. The whole description of the locusts fits down to the last detail the kings and princes who established by force the heresy of the 16th Century.
In his book, The Book of Destiny, Rev. Fr. Herman Bernard Kramer explains that:
"When Luther propounded his heretical and immoral doctrine, the sky became as it
were obscured by smoke. It spread very rapidly over some regions of the earth,
and it brought forth princes and kings who were eager to despoil the Church of
her possessions. They compelled the people of their domains and in the
territories robbed from the Church to accept the doctrines of Luther. The
proponents of Protestantism made false translations of the Bible and misled the
people into their errors by apparently proving from the ‘Bible’ (their own
translations) the correctness of their doctrines. It was all deceit, lying and
hypocrisy. Bad and weak, lax and lukewarm, indifferent and non-practicing
Catholics and those who had neglected to get thorough instruction were thus
misled; and these, seeing the Catholic Church now through this smoke of error
from the abyss and beholding a distorted caricature of the true Church, began
both to fear and hate her."
Luther, did everything to instill hatred of the [Catholic] Church into the hearts of his followers. This was done through terrorism! Lutheranism was imposed upon the people by the power of the sword and by lying, deceit and hypocrisy. They left the altars in the churches and had apostate priests use vestments and external trappings of the Catholic Church to mislead the people. Back then, it was a felony to remain Catholic.
The Haydock Commentary of the Douay Rheims contains a similar explanation of Apocalypse 9:2:
“Luther and his followers propagated and de-fended their new doctrines with such
heat and violence as to occasion everywhere seditions and insurrections which
they seemed to glory in. Luther openly boasted of it. ‘You complain,’ said he,
‘that by our gospel the world is become more tumultuous; I answer, God be
thanked for it; these things I would have so to be, and woe to me if such things
were not’.”
This is what the Protestant revolt was, the tearing away of millions of souls from the one true Church of Christ, and probable consignment of millions to eternal hellfire.
This is the true legacy of Protestantism, the shattering of the Social Kingship of Christ (which we celebrated last week). Because, Protestantism rejects the entire notion of a visible Church established by Christ to teach, govern, sanctify and offer worship to the Father in His name. For the Protestant, there is no visible Church, there is only the lone Protestant and his Bible. There is no external ecclesiastical authority that the Protestant must obey for salvation. If the individual Protestant disagrees with his minister’s interpretation of Scripture, he is free to adopt one of his own, and even start his own sect (many evangelical churches started of like this).
Saint Teresa of Avila called Lutheranism "that wretched sect," and established her first Carmelite foundation of nuns at Avila to help “cure this terrible evil” by bringing “some comfort to our Lord.”
“Thus,” said Saint Teresa, “being all of us employed in interceding for the champions of the Church and the preachers and theologians who defend her, we might, to our utmost, aid this Lord of mine Who is attacked with such cruelty ...”
But who cares what Saint Teresa thinks. For ecumenical, modernist Catholics, dancing on the graves of the saints is a necessary ritual of their new religion.
Here are parting words from Pope Leo X, in his papal bull, 'Exsurge Domine':
"Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who
are filled with foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for
foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have
trod..."
The Sleepless Eye has more on Luther's life and the events that led up to the Reformation.
St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!
Labels: Eucmenism, Protestants, Reformation
St. Teresa, ora pro nobis
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