Episode 119 debuts on March 14, at 8:00 PM Eastern. Rebroadcasts will take place according to the Crusade Channel programming schedule (note: all times listed are Central time). My topic is The Marks of the True Church. This is Part 1 of the discussion with my guest, Mr. Erick Ybarra.
- The Four Marks of Christ’s Church — by James Kent Stone at catholicism.org
- The Marks of the Church — at fisheaters.com
- I believe in the Holy, Catholic Church: An Explanation of the Ninth Article of the Apostles Creed — by Saint Antonio Maria Claret, at catholicism.org
- Explanation of the Ninth Article of the Creed in the Catechism of the Council of Trent — at catholicapologetics.info
“Reconquest” is a militant, engaging, and informative Catholic radio program featuring interviews with interesting guests as well as commentary by your host. It is a radio-journalistic extension of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center.
Each weekly, one-hour episode of Reconquest will debut RIGHT HERE on Wednesday night at 8:00 PM Eastern (7:00 PM Central). It will then be rebroadcast according to the Crusade Channel programming schedule (note: all times listed are Central time).
This was a very helpful and informative program.
However, I have to say that while listening I felt a disconnect to the truths about the church conveyed. This “disconnect” is not something that may be intended to speak about in your presentations, but I think it is clearly in the minds of many of your listeners when hearing about the four marks of the Church.
As one example of many, I have heard priests tell us that some bishops have never been validly consecrated or at least there is sufficient reason to doubt the validity of the consecration. Many priests of today are said to never have been validly ordained or at least there is sufficient reason to doubt the ordination. So even though you said the state of soul of the minister of the sacrament, we know that the sanctity or validity of the sacrament is not affected by that condition. Yet it does seem that it would not be possible to receive a valid sacrament from a minister who was never validly ordained.
When I hear about the four marks of the church, I think I must honestly speak up and say that I cannot see those four marks in the Church today. I know the Church still exists but each day I am confronted with absurd pronouncements and policies from cardinals and the pope and I am forced to just ignore what I am confronted with and not attend mass and services where all these absurdities are taken for granted and accepted.
All around me I see different factions and an ostensible absence of unity in the Church. There are liberal Catholics and there are conservative Catholics. There are Traditional Catholics and there are Novus Ordo Catholics. There are sedevacantists and there are “opinionists.” Some religious orders declare themselves as sedevacantists and some do not but both are not “in communion with Rome.”
Then there are many Catholics of all factions who openly question whether the pope is Catholic.
Father Paul Kramer states …
“when a “pope” will officially teach explicit and clear heresy flatly contradicting the infallibly defined dogma of the Catholic faith, then you will know that he is the false pope prophecied in many Church approved prophecies and Marian apparitions.”
Father Paul Kramer further states…
“”Pope” Francis in Evangelii Gaudium n. 247: “We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked”. This text is an explicit profession of heresy, directly opposed to the solemn dogmatic definition of Pope Eugenius III and the Ecumenical Council of Florence, and the doctrine taught by the supreme magisterium of Pope Benedict XIV in Ex Quo Primum, set forth repeatedly and explicitly citing the definition of Florence, to wit, that the Mosaic covenant has been “revoked” and “abrogated”.
http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/paul-kramer-rejects-francis.htm#at_pco=smlre-1.0&at_si=574c5eda44b51c13&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=4
There are many areas of Church teaching that are debated from Fatima message relevance for today to validity of canonizations. Practicing Catholics are said to have the right and the duty to discuss some of these issues and some we’re told we must accept because the matter is “defined doctrine.”
Some say the problem started with Vatican II council and is the heresy of modernism. Others place the problem’s beginning later than that. Some say “recognize and resist” and others say we must decide and cut from the “novus ordo.” Others just appear dumbfounded and perplexed with each new day’s news of actions and statements emanating from the highest level of Church hierarchy and ask ‘what are we to make of this.’ And many of these factions have not only split with “Rome” but appear to have deep differences among themselves.
I pray that your discussions of the four marks of the Church will help me to see more clearly the Church today that seems increasingly difficult to see.
The sedevacantist thesis — upon which depends all these musings about invalid sacraments — is untenable. Please see:
http://catholicism.org/modern-popes.html
http://catholicism.org/true-or-false-pope-the-complete-interview-on-youtube.html
http://catholicism.org/sedevacantism-and-schism.html
God bless and Mary keep you.
Thank you for your reply.
As an aside, I do not declare myself to be a sedevacantist though I have listened to and read much from Bishop Donald Sanborn and Father Cekada. I also have listened to many broadcasts of Father William Jenkins of the Saint Pius V order, an order that is not sedevacantist but also has doubts about their being a current Pope and is not “in communion with Rome” if I understand that term correctly.
I read part of your first referenced article, Modern Popes, up to Part III Elections.
I perceived a vagueness related to the definition of “visible” or “visibility”.
I have never found a clear definition of what is meant by the attribute as the visible Church. But I realize in your current broadcasts you are not specifically covering this issue.
In the beginning of the article is this from astor Aeternus , the First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, promulgated at Vatican I .
“He made Peter a perpetual principle of this two fold unity and a visible foundation, that on his strength an everlasting temple might be erected and on the firmness of his faith a Church might arise whose pinnacle was to reach into heaven.”
I understand that to mean that visibility is primarily related to or defined as the original visible or public founding of the church..
But then you introduce the term “perpetual visibility” and tell us what that is “tied to.”
It would not be my wish or intention to debate these matters here but I read enough of that first referenced article to know that I saw many straw man – like arguments.
What I did want to do was state the disconnect that I experienced when listening to your recent program, and I was curious to know if other listeners had that same perception. Apparently not, as there are no comments from others understanding what I was conveying.
Pingback: RECONQUEST, w/ Brother Andre Marie – Interview on the “Marks of the Church’ (Part 1) – A Classical Defense of Traditional Christianity
Pingback: Episode 120: The Marks of the True Church. Guest: Erick Ybarra, Part 2 | RECONQUEST, with Brother André Marie
Pingback: Reconquest Archives, Episodes 111-120 | RECONQUEST, with Brother André Marie