Mission? Impossible!
Just What the Doctor Ordered (or, Why The Catholic Controversy by St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church, Can Cure What Ails the Traditionalist Movement -- and Many Other Spiritual Ills As Well)
Dear Friend:
In conjunction with St. Francis de Sales's feast day on January 29, TAN Books showcased its recent re-issue of The Catholic Controversy, the famous work of apologetics by this great 16th & 17th century Doctor of the Church. The book has been completely re-designed in a larger, more attractive format with a new cover, improved binding and paper, and re-typeset in a larger, modern font. Containing 320 pages, it sells for $16.95.
The re-issue of this classic prompted me to sit down and read the entire work from cover to cover. (Although I'd read much of the work over a quarter of a century ago prior to my conversion to Catholicism, I don't recall if I had ever completed it.)
As I now began to re-read it I was continually and powerfully struck by the book's relevance to our current crisis. For The Catholic Controversy not only successfully refutes Protestantism (the book's original objective), it also refutes both the counterfeit Catholicism of Vatican II (on "the left") as well as much of the post-Vatican II traditionalist movement (on "the right").
I will elaborate on this assertion, and provide several examples from the book, in an essay I will post here sometime in March. But right now I want to get this book into your hands as soon as possible so that you can be pondering and praying over it during Lent.
No one can read St. Francis de Sales's masterpiece and not see that the traditionalist movement's unauthorized production of priests and bishops -- for the SSPX, SSPV, CMRI, and smaller groups, not to mention numberless "unaffiliated" independent clergy -- is flatly opposed to the Church's constant teaching (admirably explained in this book) on the necessity of clergy possessing a mission (either ordinary or extraordinary) from Our Lord Jesus Christ.
If clergy lack such a canonical mission from the Church, Catholics are commanded (the authoritative author, Doctor de Sales, reminds his readers) to shun these would-be shepherds as usurpers and interlopers.
(And if you think that the priests of today's traditionalist movement can claim an "extraordinary mission," any more than could the unauthorized ministers the good Doctor takes to task in this book, you need to read what St. Francis, citing Sacred Scripture itself, requires as proof of such an extraordinary mission.)
I've caught much flak -- and lost most of my supporters and gained many hostile enemies -- for coming to these conclusions some years ago, after having spent twenty years in traditionalist circles. But this isn't the relatively trifling matter of "Gerry Matatics's opinion" (which in itself is of course a mere nothing), but rather has to do with the Church's long-standing teaching, ably explained by one of her authorized Doctors.
I believe this to be such a crucial lesson for Catholic traditionalists, and such an eye-opening (and unsettling) revelation for the vast majority of them, that I think the wide reading of this book could have an explosive impact upon, and mark a decisive turning point for, the traditional Catholic movement.
To that end I've added the book to my online store (www.gerrymatatics.org/shop) and have several copies now in stock. I feel so strongly that every Catholic should read this book for himself or herself that, although it normally sells for $16.95, I am willing to send you a FREE copy, if you will do yourself (or your family and friends) one small (additional) favor.
Responding in an authentically Catholic manner to the current crisis first requires a coherent grasp of what that crisis is. This in turn depends upon an honest, open-minded look at the revolutionary changes brought about by Vatican II.
Our 6-CD set entitled "Counterfeit Catholicism vs. Consistent Catholicism: Why Vatican II, the New Mass and Sacraments, and Benedict XVI Are Not What They Claim to Be" (now in its second, revised and expanded edition) carefully explains why Our Lord Jesus Christ founded His Church to be His mystical Body, through which He could continue His three-fold ministry of teaching (because Christ is prophet), sanctifying (because Christ is priest), and governing His people (because Christ is King).
To bring about our salvation, and to be identifiable as Christ's true Church down through the ages, this Body must always necessarily and faithfully teach the same doctrines, offer the same holy sacrifice and sacraments, and conform to the same divine laws -- and in fact must do so spotlessly (not in the behavior of all her members, of course, but in her official doctrines, worship, and laws), as Pope Pius XII taught in paragraph 66 of his 1943 encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ).
This 6-CD set then systematically lays out the evidence that -- by divine decree and permission, and in fulfillment of both Biblical and authentic extra-biblical prophecy -- the infrastructure of the Catholic Church experienced a "palace coup" at the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, by the collaborative machinations of the Church's historic enemies: Judaizers, Freemasons, and Communists.
As a result of this spiritual coup d'etat, a new, false doctrine of the Church was set forth in the sixteen documents of Vatican II. And heresies formerly (and formally) condemned by the Catholic Church (such as ecumenism and religious liberty) were now, astoundingly, praised and promoted.
The game plan was to bring about a camouflaged migration of the personnel constituting the Church's hierarchy into a new, counterfeit church masquerading as the same Catholic Church. As many of the assembled bishops of the world as signed these documents thus formally subscribed to heresy, thereby putting themselves out of the Church and automatically forfeiting the offices they formerly held in the Church. (See, for example, canon 188.4 in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, available from our online store.)
These men thus tragically ceased to be bishops of Christ's one true Church, and returned to their respective dioceses now as the bishops of a new church, much as England's Catholic bishops in the 16th-century English "Reformation" became en masse the bishops of the newly protestantized Church of England, while falsely claiming a continuity of faith and office which they in fact had fatally compromised. (The one shining exception was the aged, saintly John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who staunchly refused to change his views and was as a result summarily executed as a martyr for the Catholic Faith.)
From Vatican II's new doctrine of the Church there logically and inevitably followed a new Mass and sacraments, a new catechism, and a new code of canon law (corresponding respectively to the priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions of the church) -- each of them as false and dangerous as the false and dangerous premise they flowed from.
But rather than provide any further details here, I will simply refer you to the information on the 6-CD set, which comes in a handsome, high-quality, durable yet compact 2-ring vinyl album that sells for only $40. That's less than $7 for each information-rich 75-minute CD.
If you have not yet heard this set, I urge you to order it and listen to it now, this Lent. If you've already done so, please consider acquiring a second set to loan out and circulate among your friends and family, while there's still time to reach them.
And what about St. Francis de Sales's The Catholic Controversy, with which I began this letter? Well, as an extra incentive, if you will order a set of "Counterfeit Catholicism" before this coming Monday midnight (March 5), I will include a copy of St. Francis de Sales's vital 320-page book, which normally sells for $16.95, absolutely FREE!
To take advantage of this limited-time offer, please place your order in one of these three ways:
1) The simplest way is to go straight to our secure online store at www.gerrymatatics.org/shop and order a set of "Counterfeit Catholicism," paying with MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or PayPal, or check or money order. Your order will be shipped out as soon as your payment is received. (You needn't select from the store the Catholic Controversy book or indicate that you wish a free copy: everyone purchasing the "Counterfeit Catholicism" 6-CD set by the deadline will automatically receive a free copy of the book as well.)
2) Prefer not to shop online? Then call me at (570) 969-1724 and leave on my voicemail your MasterCard, Visa, or Discover Card's 16-digit number, expiration date, 3-digit security code from the back of the card, your name as it appears on the card, and the card's billing address. If you wish your order shipped to an address different than your card's billing address, please supply that as well, of course. And please leave a phone number where I can reach you if any part of your message is unclear or unintentionally incomplete.
3) A third option: Mail a check or money order, in the amount of $45 ($40 for the 6-CD set plus $5 for Priority Mail shipping for the CD album plus the book) payable to "Biblical Foundations International" to: Gerry Matatics, PO Box 569, Dunmore PA 18512 USA. Just make sure your envelope is postmarked no later than midnight, Monday, March 5!
Remember, this is an extremely limited-time offer: you MUST place this order no later than midnight, Monday, March 5, to qualify. After March 5 the book The Catholic Controversy will of course be available from our online store for $16.95 (as it is now, should you wish to simply purchase it outright instead of receiving it as a free bonus for ordering the 6-CD set). But it will no longer be free.
Please place your order TODAY to reserve your free copy of St. Francis de Sales's magnificent masterpiece, The Catholic Controversy, with its amazing applicability to, not only the falsity of Protestantism and the "counterfeit Catholicism" of the Novus Ordo establishment, but as well to the illegitimacy of much of the traditionalist Catholic scene.
May Almighty God grant you and your loved ones a spiritually enlightening and fruitful Lent.
Yours in Christ our mighty King and Mary our Immaculate Queen,
Gerry Matatics