自発教令の言葉遣いの激しさは、この指示が遅すぎたことを示唆しています。典礼の伝統を守る界隈は、確かにこの数十年で劇的に変化しています。トリエント・ミサには、子供の頃の典礼を懐かしむ人だけではなく、典礼を新たに発見し、その魅力に取りつかれた人たちが参加するようになりました。典礼は彼らの情熱であり、その詳細を知っています。彼らの中には司祭の召命を持つ者も多くいます。これらの若者は、伝統的な司祭修道会が維持している神学校に通うだけではありません。彼らの多くは通常の司祭訓練を受けていますが、それにもかかわらず、聖伝の典礼を知ることによってこそ、自分の召命が強化されると確信しています。抑圧されていたカトリックの伝統に対する好奇心は、多くの人がこの聖伝を時代遅れで不健全なものとみなしていたにもかかわらず、高まっています。オルダス・ハクスリーは『素晴らしい新しい世界(Brave New World)』の中で、歴史観を持たない近代エリートの青年が、前近代文化の溢れんばかりの豊かさを発見し、それに魅了されることで、この種の驚きを示しています。
自由主義と共産主義という偽りのイデオロギーは崩壊します。すでに巨大な政治的、社会的、経済的災害に見舞われ、今日では新世界秩序(new world order)という狂気のプロジェクトの中で亡霊のように一体となり、同盟しています。これらの国家の災いに関する教皇の預言的な言葉は、両者が同じコインの裏表であるという観察によって裏付けられています。つまり、平等を装った不平等のコイン、富の公正な分配という名目で人々を貧困化させるというコイン、多くの人々に大きな好機を約束しながら少数の人々を豊かにするというコインです。
close their eyes to the problem, for which they are also responsible?
Concerns about a ventilated document “against” the Tridentine Mass (see my blog June 12, 2021) have come true, and the blow has been no less severe because it was foreseen, many tendentious generalizations in the documents hurt more than expected the hearts of many good people, who never gave the slightest cause to be suspected of not accepting the liturgical reform of the Council, much less not accepting the Council “Tout court”. Moreover they remain active members in their parishes. It came as a bitter surprise to me personally that the “widespread” consultation did not reach me, a cardinal and once a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. During the years 2007-2009, moreover, I was bishop of Hong Kong and therefore responsible for the implementation of “Summorum Pontificum”, and until now, a well-known supporter of the group. Not having known either the questionnaire or the responses to the questionnaire, I cannot judge, but only suspect that there was much misunderstanding (or perhaps even manipulation) in the process. As I read the two documents I note (1) an incredible ease (or tendentiousness) in linking the desire to use the vetus ritus to the non-acceptance of the ritus novus and (2) in associating the non-acceptance of the liturgical reform (which often concerns mainly the way in which it was carried out with its many serious abuses) with a total and profound rejection of the Council itself (as matter of fact for those who reject the Council the diversity of the rite of the Mass is only a small corollary, so much so that the concession regarding the rite did not reverse the schism). The Vatican authorities should ask themselves (and perhaps even make a thorough investigation) why the second phenomenon has persisted and perhaps (recently) even worsened. The problem is not “which rite do people prefer?” but is “why don’t they go to Mass anymore?” Certain surveys show that half of the Christian population in Europe no longer believes in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, no longer believes in eternal life! Certainly we do not blame all this on the liturgical reform, but we just want to say that the problem is much deeper, we cannot evade the question: “Has not the formation of faith been lacking?” “Has not the great work of the Council been wasted?” Isn’t the root of evil that attitude of believing that everything can now be changed? Is it not that attitude of believing that this Council erases all previous ones and that the Tridentine Council is like the dirt accumulated on the “last judgement” of the Sistine Chapel (as a “liturgist” in our diocese put it)? The Document obviously sees not only irregularities in the execution of Summorum Pontificum, but considers the very existence of a parallel rite to be an evil. Don’t paragraphs § 5 and § 6 of Art 3, Art 4 and 5 clearly wish for the death of the groups? But, even in that case, can’t the anti-Ratzinger gentlemen of the Vatican be patient to allow the Tridentine Mass to die only after the death of Benedict XVI instead of inflicting such humiliation on the venerable Pope Emeritus?
愛する兄弟たちよ、ミサ聖祭とは、私たちの主イエズス・キリストの君臨を宣言すること以外の何ものでもありません。私たちの主は一体何によって君臨したのでしょうか?Regnavit a ligno Deus! 主は、十字架の木によって君臨しました。十字架の木によってこそ、主は悪魔に打ち勝ち、罪に打ち勝ちました。
では、この公会議で何が起こったのでしょうか?私たちの目の前で起こった教会の変化のまさに道具であった人たちの本を読めば、簡単に知ることができます。例えば、マルソドン(Marsaudon)の書いた『或るフリーメーソン会員が見たエキュメニズム』(L'oecuménisme vu par un franc-maçon)を読んでみてください。1969年に書かれたドゥー県(Doubs)の上院議員プレロ(Prélot)氏の著書『リベラル・カトリック(Le Catholicisme libéral)』を読んでみてください。リベラルなカトリック信者である彼は、その著書の最初のページで、この変化の起源は公会議にあると言うでしょう。
リベラルなカトリック信者は、一世紀半の間、何を求めていたのでしょうか。教会と革命を結婚させること、教会と倒錯を一致させること、教会と、反社会勢力とを結びつけること、つまり、社会とすべての社会、家族社会、市民社会、宗教社会を破壊する勢力と教会との融合です。教会のこの結婚・融合は、第二バチカン公会議に刻まれています。「現代世界憲章」(Gaudium et Spes)の草案を見るとそこにはこうあります。「教会の原理を現代人の概念と融合させなければならない」と。これはどういうことでしょうか?それは、教会、カトリック教会、私たちの主イエズス・キリストの教会に、この教会とは反対の原理を、教会を損傷し常に教会に反してきた原理を受け入れさせなければならないということです。
先ほど、皆さまは「グロリア」を歌いました。Tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe - 御身のみが唯一の主、御身こそが唯一のいと高き御者、イエズス・キリストよ」と。私たちはそれをミサでは歌い、教会の外に出るとすぐに「いや、私たちの主イエズス・キリストはもはy私たちを統治すべきではない」というのでしょうか? もしそうなら、私たちは非論理的に生きています。私たちはカトリックなのでしょうかそうではないのでしょうか?私たちは、キリスト者なのでしょうか、それともそうではないのでしょうか?
私たちが望んでいるのは、私たちの主イエズス・キリストの統治です。私たちは、主イエズス・キリストが天主である、と信仰を告白します。だからこそ、聖ピオ五世のミサと言われる聖伝のミサも欲します。なぜなら、このミサは私たちの主イエズス・キリストの王権を宣言するものだからです。新しいミサは、もはや位階的ではなく民主主義敵です。会衆のほうが司祭よりも場所を占めているからです。したがって、私たちの主イエズス・キリストの王権を確認する真のミサではなくなっています。私たちの主イエズス・キリストはどのようにして王になったのでしょうか?主は十字架によって御自分の王権を確立されました。"Regnavit a ligno Deus." イエズス・キリストは、十字架の木によって統治されたのです。主は十字架によって、罪に打ち勝ち、悪魔に勝ち、死に勝ったのです。これは、私たちの主イエズス・キリストの3つの素晴らしい勝利です。
Since today we are going to participate to the March for Life in Tokyo, I will talk on the issue of abortion. I am not a doctor, so I will not speak about it on the medical point of view. All of you here present are already fully convinced of the evil of abortion, so I will not try to prove to you that abortion is bad. As a priest, I will speak about abortion as a sin and about the spiritual consequences of abortion.
1. Abortion is a sin
Abortion is the destruction of a human foetus in the womb of his mother. Abortion is a sin. Why? We call it a “sin” to break voluntarily and knowingly the law of God.
When we say the law of God, it does not only mean the 10 Commandments. It also includes the natural order which God has set up in the world. It is the natural order set up by God that the conjugal union of a man and a woman lead to the procreation of a human embryo. Then it is the natural order that this human embryo grow during about 9 months in the womb of his mother and be born. It is the natural order that the newly born baby be nurtured, protected and educated by his parents.
If we consider that the embryo or foetus is already a human being, then abortion breaks the 5th Commandment of God: Thou shalt not kill. An embryo or foetus is obviously an innocent person; to kill him is therefore to kill an innocent; so abortion is obviously an unjust murder.
But even if we don’t consider the embryo or foetus as a human being yet, abortion is the voluntary interruption of the natural order set up by God for the propagation of mankind. Therefore, abortion is a sinful disorder. Same for contraception which contradicts the natural order of procreation; and the abandonment of one’s baby which contradicts the natural order of education.
2. Immediate spiritual effects of abortion
Committing an abortion has dramatic psychological effects on the mother who aborts. Such action is so contrary to woman’s nature that the women who abort get seriously affected for the remaining of their lives. Even after many years, often these poor mothers still feel acutely the remorse of killing their own babies. It would be interesting to develop this aspect of abortion, but I will not do it today.
Committing an abortion has also dramatic social effects. It is equivalent to a slow suicide of a nation. Abortion brings along in the society a death culture leading to the nation to its auto-destruction. It is another interesting aspect of abortion, but today I will not speak about it.
Committing an abortion has also dramatic spiritual effects. I will speak about them.
Committing an abortion is a serious sin. Why? Because the object of such action is serious: it is about human life, the physical and the eternal human life. The poor child who is aborted is deprived unfairly of his physical life because he is killed. And he is unfairly deprived of his eternal life because he is given no chance to know God, to love and serve Him and to share His eternal life. Abortion is a mortal sin. The person guilty of an abortion becomes guilty of a serious crime before God and will be punished forever in hell after death, unless he repents sincerely before death.
The Catholic Church considers this sin of abortion to be so serious and so heinous, that She strikes by an automatic excommunication all the people who participate actively in an abortion. An automatic excommunication means to be expelled from the Church and from the participation in all her spiritual goods, immediately, as soon as the abortion is done. All the people who participate actively in an abortion mean: the mother of the baby, the doctor doing the abortion, the nurses assisting him, all the people who advice, help, pressure in any manner for the abortion to be done: for example the parents, the husband, the boyfriend, the employer…
3. Remote spiritual effects of abortion
Abortion is not only a mortal sin. It is also one of the sins which cry to God for vengeance. What does it mean? We call “sins which cry to God for vengeance” some sins of which iniquity is so great and so manifest that they provoke God to punish them with the most severe chastisements (Catechism of St Pius X).
These sins are 4, according to what Holy Ghost has indicated in the Bible.
a) The first one is wilful murder. In the book of Genesis, after Cain had killed his brother Abel, God told Cain: “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth” (Gen 4;10). And Cain was cursed by God in such a way he became a fugitive upon the earth for the remainder of his life.
b) The second one is sodomy. In the Book of Genesis, God told Abraham: “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous” (Gen 18;20). And the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha were burnt down with all their inhabitants by a heavenly fire.
c) The third one is the oppression of the poor. The Hebrews were enslaved and mistreated in Egypt by Pharaoh. God told Moses: “The children of Israel groaning, cried out because of the works, and their cry went up unto God from the works” (Ex 2; 23). And God struck Egypt with the 10 plagues.
d) The fourth one is defrauding workers of their just wages. St James said in his epistle: “Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth” (Jac 5;4). In the Bible, we read the story of Nabal, the husband of Abigail, who denied to David and his men their just wages. He was struck by a heart attack (1 Sam 25).
Abortion is a wilful murder. It is a sin which cries to God for vengeance. It is a sin which attracts the most severe chastisement of God upon the people and the societies who commit it. The chastisement is upon the people who participate in the abortion. But when a country legalizes abortion, then God’s chastisement is upon the whole country and its inhabitants. In the Bible, God commanded to the Hebrews to kill all the Canaanites: men, women, children, and to occupy their land. Why such terrible punishment upon the Canaanites? God condemned explicitly their cult to the idol Moloch. This cult consisted in offering and burning babies and children alive. Heinous crimes for which God condemned the Canaanites to a total destruction.
The nations which legalize abortion attract upon themselves the worst chastisements of God.
4. Strategy of the devil in developing abortion and homosexuality
Now, I would like to attract your attention on a particular point. We said that the sins which cry to God for vengeance attract the most severe chastisement of God upon people. It is therefore highly profitable for Lucifer to do whatever he can to increase such sins. The history of mankind is dominated by the fight between Christ and Lucifer. Mankind is the battlefield. Out of hatred for God, Lucifer wants the destruction of humans because they bear the image of God. Out of hatred for Christ, Lucifer wants the destruction and the eternal damnation of humans because Christ died on the Cross for their salvation.
Remember the story of Balaam in the Bible. The Hebrews were about to conquer the promised land. The pagan king Balac was looking for a means to destroy them. He called the wizard Balaam to curse the Hebrews. Balaam could not do it because God did not allow him to do so. However, Balaam gave to king Balac a most pernicious advice leading to the destruction of the Hebrews. Balaam told the king to send the most beautiful women to the Hebrews with the mission to seduce them and to make them participate in the cult of Beelphegor, idol of obscenity. The Hebrews committing such sins would then attract upon themselves the punishments of God (Nbre 31;16). And it is what happened.
Would Lucifer be less clever than Balaam? By pushing men to commit the sins which cry to God for vengeance, Lucifer provokes God to chastise them with the most severe chastisement.
I would like to bring your attention to 2 points. The first point is that if you check the official figures of abortion in Japan, you will notice that the highest numbers of abortions were recorded during the years right before Vatican II Council. More than 1 million abortions were officially committed every year. The question is: would it be a close connection between the high number of abortions committed in these years in the world and the disaster of Vatican II Council? In others words: was the number of abortions so high in the world, that the punishment of God would fall upon mankind under the form of the disastrous Vatican II Council and its consequences?
The second point I would like to mention is this one. The number of abortions in the world tends to decrease. For example, we see it in the official figures of abortion in Japan. This decrease means that there are lesser and lesser sins which cry to God for vengeance. This is certainly not a good thing for Lucifer. But also, we see an incredibly powerful propaganda in the world in favour of homosexuality. More and more countries legalize such perversion. Even children in schools are exposed intentionally to such perversion. Such development of homosexuality may let us think that Lucifer wants to compensate the decreasing number of abortions with an increasing number of sins of sodomy, so that God’s chastisement would continue to fall upon mankind.
Conclusion:
To conclude this talk, let us ask ourselves the question: what can we do against abortion? As to abortion itself, we must denounce the iniquity of the law permitting abortion. We must counteract the pro-abortion propaganda with all the means at our disposal. We can counteract it publicly for example by participating to the March for Life, writing articles against abortion; we can also counteract the pro-abortion propaganda individually by turning women away from abortion if the occasion arises.
As to the spiritual effects of abortion, especially the chastisements which abortions attract upon our countries, we must do our best to neutralize them. How? St Paul wrote to the Colossians that God the Father “has delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His Blood, the remission of sins” (Col 1;13.14). The remedy against the spiritual consequences of abortion is the offering of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. So, during the March for Life, let us not forget, in our prayers, to offer again and again the Precious Blood of Jesus to the Holy Trinity in reparation for all the abortions committed in the world and in Japan especially.
i. St. Joseph, pure spouse of most holy Mary, the trouble and anguish of thy heart were great, when, being in sore perplexity, thou wast minded to put away thy stainless spouse: but this joy was inexpressible when the archangel revealed to thee the high mystery of the Incarnation. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, we pray thee comfort our souls now and in their last pains with the consolation of a well-spent life, and a holy death like unto thine own, with Jesus and Mary at our side. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
ii. St. Joseph, Blessed Patriarch, chosen to the office of Father of the Word made Man, the pain was keen that thou didst feel when thou didst see the Infant Jesus born in abject poverty; but thy pain was changed into heavenly joy when thou didst hear the harmony of angel-choirs, and behold the glory of that night when Jesus was born. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, we pray thee obtain for us, that, when the journey of our life is ended, we too may pass to that blessed land where we shall hear the angel-chants, and rejoice in the bright light of heavenly glory. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
iii. St. Joseph, who wast ever most obedient in executing the law of God, thy heart was pierced with pain when the Precious Blood of the Infant Saviour was shed at His Circumcision; but with the Name of Jesus new life and heavenly joy returned to thee. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, obtain for us, that, being freed in our life from every vice, we too may cheerfully die, with the sweet Name of Jesus in our hearts and on our lips. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
iv. St. Joseph, faithful Saint, who wast admitted to take part in the redemption of man; the prophecy of Simeon foretelling the sufferings of Jesus and Mary caused thee a pang like that of death; but at the same time his prediction of the salvation and glorious resurrection of innumerable souls filled thee with a blessed joy. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, help us with thy prayers to be of the number of those who, by the merits of Jesus and his Virgin Mother, shall be partakers of the resurrection to glory. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
v. St. Joseph, watchful Guardian, friend of the Incarnate Son of God, truly thou didst greatly toil to nurture and to serve the Son of the Most High, especially in the flight thou madest with Him unto Egypt; yet didst thou rejoice to have God Himself always with thee, and to see the overthrow of the idols of Egypt. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, obtain for us grace to keep far out of the reach of the enemy of our souls, by quitting all dangerous occasions, that so no idol of earthly affection may any longer occupy a place in our hearts, but that, being entirely devoted to the service of Jesus and Mary, we may live and die for them alone. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
vi. St. Joseph, angel on earth, who didst so wonder to see the King of heaven obedient to thy bidding, the consolation thou hadst at His return was disturbed by the fear of Archelaus, but nevertheless, being reassured by the angel, thou didst go back and dwell happily at Nazareth, in the company of Jesus and of Mary. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, obtain for us, that, having our hearts freed from idle fears, we may enjoy the peace of a tranquil conscience, dwelling safely with Jesus and Mary, and dying at last between them. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
vii. St. Joseph, example of all holy living, when, though without blame, thou didst lose Jesus, the Holy Child, thou didst search for Him for three long days in great sorrow, until with joy unspeakable thou didst find him, who was as thy life to thee, amidst the doctors in this Temple. By this thy sorrow and thy joy, we pray thee with our whole heart so to interpose always in our behalf, that we may never lose Jesus by mortal sin; and if (which God avert) we are at any time so wretched as to do so, that we pray thee to aid us to seek Him with such ceaseless sorrow until we find Him, particularly in the hour of our death, that we may pass from this life to enjoy Him for ever in heaven, there to sing with thee His divine mercies without end. Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
Ant. Jesus Himself was about thirty years old, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph.
V. Pray for us, holy Joseph. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray. O God, who in Thine ineffable providence didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Joseph to be the husband of Thy most holy Mother; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may have him for our intercessor in heaven, whom on earth we venerate as our holy protector. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.