Clarification of Certain Truths
of our Catholic Faith

Although we received a number of favorable responses to our Press Releases, it has become very clear that a certain number of Catholics have never learned the fundamental truths of the Catholic Faith. This is not hard to understand, considering the terrible state the Catholic school system has undergone in the past 40 years. And here are some of the results:

"I am puzzled and confused. Our Mother is the Mother to all people regardless of religion. Why the protest? Please enlighten me." ...Violet

"I disagree with your press release. It sounds like a wonderful idea to introduce Our Lady of Fatima to the world." ...Seamus

"I don’t think that the Virgin Mary is telling you to ‘boycott’ this kind of building." ... Henri

In true love for our neighbors, in Christian charity, we are obligated to explain to them why they must change their thinking if they are going to save their own souls.

by Father Nicholas Gruner, S.T.L., S.T.D. (Cand.)

       It is true that God wills the salvation of all men and therefore, God wills everyone to become Catholic, because outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation.

       Certainly, we pray every day for the conversion of all non-Catholics to be Catholics and the conversion of all Catholics in the state of mortal sin to repent of their sins and have them forgiven in the Sacrament of Holy Confession.

       We also pray for the conversion of all Catholics who are in the state of grace to become better Catholics by overcoming their faults and their sins and their semi-deliberate faults so that they become holier. And for those who are holy, for them to become very holy.

       So, certainly, we pray for the conversion of all, including ourselves.

Prayers of the Church

       Regarding people of other religions, particularly pagans, Jews, heretics and schismatics, we agree with and pray the prayers of the Church at Mass on Good Friday for their conversion.

       (1) The Church teaches us to pray for all Protestants and Orthodox persons as follows:

       "Let us pray for heretics and schismatics: that Our Lord God would be pleased to rescue them from all their errors; and recall them to our Holy Mother the Catholic and Apostolic Church."

       (2) The Church teaches us to pray for the Jews as follows:

       "Let us pray for the unfaithful Jews: that our God and Lord would remove the veil from their hearts: that they also may acknowledge Our Lord Jesus Christ."

       (3) The Church also teaches us to pray for all pagans, including Hindus and Buddhists:

       "Let us pray for the pagans; that Almighty God would remove iniquity from their hearts; that, putting aside their idols, they may be converted to the true and living God, and His only Son, Jesus Christ, Our God and Lord."

What Does This Mean?

       To clarify, we certainly do want non-Catholics to know the full Message of Fatima. We certainly do want them to come to know Our Lady of Fatima and be devoted to Her.

       We have spent more than 25 years bringing this message and devotion to Our Lady of Fatima to all peoples, of all religions, everywhere.

       I have personally brought a number of non-Catholics over the years to Fatima so that they would be touched by the special maternal presence of Our Lady that many Catholics and non-Catholics feel when they go there.

       We are not protesting about non-Catholics as individuals of whatever religion, from paying homage to God and Our Lady at the Fatima sanctuary.

       We are protesting the plan to bring members of false religions to a holy Catholic Sanctuary for the purpose of conducting non-Catholic "religious" ceremonies, including pagan rituals to their false gods.

       I emphasize, we are not against non-Catholic individuals respectfully visiting the shrine and respectfully observing the devotional services of the Catholic Church.

       Nor are we against them joining in to the extent that they feel comfortable doing, and to the extent that the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion allows them to do so.

       For example, they can attend Mass, but they cannot go to Communion without being Catholic. They should adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at Mass and at Benediction even if they are not Catholic.

       However, at very least, they must be respectful and not disturbing the others present when they go to these Catholic services.

       In my own experience, all the non-Catholics that were brought there by myself or by others that I have ever seen, have conducted themselves in a respectful and non-disturbing manner.

       We are not protesting about non-Catholics going as individuals to the shrine. We are objecting to the rector or anyone else inviting non-Catholic religions to conduct their non-Catholic, and even worse, their pagan worship services of false gods on Catholic Shrine grounds.

       That is an Abomination of Desolation which Christ warns us against in Sacred Scripture:

       "When, therefore, you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, he that readeth, let him understand." (Mt. 24:15)

Danger of Hell Fire

       It is a mortal sin against the First Commandment to participate in worship services to false gods.

       Mortal sin kills the life of grace in your soul. If you die unrepentant, and without forgiveness of God from your mortal sin, you will go straight to hell for all eternity.

       Mortal sin is the worst evil you could possibly suffer in this life. It is only each person, by his/her free will, who commits mortal sin. It is much easier to commit a mortal sin than most people realize.

       To suggest that Catholics can lend their Catholic Shrine to false religions for them to conduct their false worship services to false gods is a grave scandal, misleading millions of souls.

       This scandal could lead them to committing the mortal sin of idolatry.

Millions Misled

       This proposal, this trial balloon launched by Msgr. Guerra to suggest that our Catholic Shrine at Fatima invite the practitioners of pagan religions to bring their idols to Fatima and worship them there at Our Lady’s Shrine may mislead millions of people.

       If this is allowed to happen, then the faithful may be led by the scandalous example of the blind Pharisees who are in the clergy, whether at the Fatima Shrine or at the Vatican, who are suggesting by their words or their silence or their connivance that it is perfectly alright to lend out a Catholic sanctuary, a Catholic church, a Catholic place of worship, for the purpose of non-Catholic religious services.

No One Can Plead Ignorance

       Now that you have been warned, you cannot plead ignorance before God.

       If you don’t think that we have sufficiently demonstrated the truth of what we say, then you are obliged, before God, to find out the truth of the matter.

       Do not, for the sake of your own salvation, take new theories, new heresies, or old, that contradict the unbroken teaching of the saints and of the popes and of the doctors of the Church for the last 2000 years.

       We are living in a time of apostasy and, therefore, you must hold on to what the Church has always taught and not fall into the sins of the age by believing that somehow the truth changes.

       If it was true 2000 years ago that idolatry, that is the worship of false gods, is a mortal sin, and it is a fact, then it is still true today. God has not changed. God will not allow someone who is baptized to revert back to the worship of false gods without there being a punishment.

       The First Commandment is:

       "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods in My sight. Thou shalt not adore them, and thou shalt not serve them. For I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God ..." (Deut. 5:6,7,9) (see also Ex. 20:2,3,5.)

       With the terrible changes made in the teaching of religion in many Catholic schools in the last 40 years, many people do not have sound Catholic teaching about their faith. So I present here what the saints and the Church have always taught, from The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke:

***

Idolatry or the Worship of False Gods

       Every human creature feels himself to be dependent upon one supreme Being, and therefore is conscious of an inward impulse to adore that supreme Being. He who does not adore the true God will adore a creature. This is idolatry. He who does not worship God in the manner which He has revealed and which the Church prescribes, will ere long come to worship Him after a debased and foolish fashion. This is the false worship of God.

       [1] Idolatry is the worship of a creature which is regarded as a deity; e.g., the sun, fire, animals, images, etc.

       Idolatry is frequently met with in the history of the Jews; witness the worship of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii.), on the adoration of the statue Nabuchodonosor set up (Dan. iii.). Remember the soldiers who fought under Judas Machabeus, and who fell in battle because they had idols concealed under their coats. Judas had prayers and sacrifices offered for the men who were thus punished. In the time of persecution some of the early Christians were guilty of idolatry, because from fear of the torture awaiting them, they offered incense upon the altars of the pagan gods. And at the French Revolution the people of France fell into the sin of idolatry when a woman, personating the Goddess of Reason, was adored in the house of God.

To this day the heathen worship idols.

       The heathen changed the glory of the Creator into the glory of creatures (Rom. i. 23). In Asia, where the heavenly bodies shine with greater brilliance than in northern lands, the people looked upon the sun, the moon, the circle of stars as gods, and also fire, the source of light, the wind and the great waters (Wisd. xiii. 2). The Egyptians mostly worshipped animals which were either useful or hurtful, such as the cat, the hawk, the crocodile, and especially Apis, a black bull with a white scar on its forehead and other peculiar marks, which was kept in their temple. The Romans and Greeks again worshipped statues and images of the pagan gods. And as the heathen had fallen away from the true God, as a punishment He permitted them, through the practice of idolatry, to degrade themselves by the most hideous vices (Rom. i. 28). They represented their divinities as vicious themselves, and the patrons of vice in others; by indulging in the vice of which any particular god was the protector, they thought to do him honor. This worship of false gods was nothing less than the service of devils (1 Cor. x. 20), for the devil was the animating spirit of idolatry; he dwelt in the idols and oftentimes spoke through them. David says: "The gods of the Gentiles are devils" (Ps. xcv. 5). How thankful we ought to be to Almighty God for the blessings of the Gospel. It is to show our gratitude for this benefit that we stand while the Gospel is read during Mass.

       Three-quarters of the human race are still plunged in pagan darkness. They are still heathens. They are to be found principally in Africa, India, China and Japan. Every year the Holy Father sends out more missionaries to the heathen. Catholics ought to support these missionaries by their prayers and their alms. The Association for the Propagation of the Faith, and of the Holy Childhood of Jesus, have been instituted for this object.

       [2] Another form of idolatry is when a human being gives up his whole self to a creature.

       It would be absurd to call a man an idolater because he offers to a false god a few grains of incense which he ought to offer to the true God, and not to apply the same term to one who devotes his whole life to the world instead of to God. The avaricious are preeminently idolaters (Eph. v. 5), for they consecrate their every thought, their every exertion, they sacrifice their health, their life to Mammon, to the pursuit of this world’s goods. "Covetousness is the service of idols" (Col. iii. 5).

       All who are engrossed in material interests are guilty of idolatry, especially the avaricious, the proud, the intemperate, the unchaste.

       Whatever a man desires and adores, that is his god. The god of the avaricious is gold (Osee viii. 4); the god of the proud is honor, the god of the glutton is his belly (Phil. iii. 19); the god of the unchaste his own lusts (1 Cor. vi. 15). The greed of gain, the pride of life, sensual pleasures, are worshipped by the worldling. Parents are also guilty of idolatry, if they cherish an inordinate affection for their children (Wis. xiv. 15).

       [3] The service of idols is high treason against the majesty of God, and the most heinous of sins.

       St. Thomas Aquinas declares the worship of idols to be the greatest of all sins. Among the Jews it was punishable by death (Exod. xxii. 20). On one occasion no less than twenty-three thousand Jews were put to death by God’s command for this transgression (Exod. xxxii. 28). He who worships idols incurs the curse of God (Deut. xxvii. 15). Think of the lamentable condition of the heathen; some of them become so degraded through idolatry that they have sunk into the vice of cannibalism.

       The Apostle says idolaters, adulterers, the covetous, drunkards, and others, shall not possess the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. vi. 10).

***

We Must Truly Love Our Neighbor

       Of course we are supposed to love sinners because God made them. They are creatures of God with an eternal destiny and Christ died on the Cross to save their souls. We love them because Christ loves them and we must love them. He commands us to love them.

       But to love someone truly means to will, to want the good for that loved one.

       If I love a pagan then I must will the good for him but if I do not show him the way to save his soul, or worse, still, I encourage him to stay in his paganism where he is certain to go to hell if he dies in that state, then I cannot be said to truly love him.

       Rather I am his enemy because I am sending him to hell by my silence, connivance or encouragement to him to stay in his paganism.

       We may not always have the opportunity to explain to all non-Catholics that they are on the road to hell but we at least must pray for them.

       We cannot encourage them by our words or by our gestures that their remaining in their religion is perfectly good for them.

       To do such a thing is cruelty to them. Unless someone else corrects them, they may well die in their sins because someone encouraged them to remain pagans.

       Therefore, it is those who encourage the non-Catholic to remain a non-Catholic, who tell the non-Catholic they can save their soul by their false religions, who hate their neighbor by their lying words and conduct.

Fatima Shrine Officials’ Scandal

       It is even worse for the Fatima Shrine officials to propose that non-Catholic religions pay homage to their false gods at the Catholic Shrine.

       This is encouraging the pagans and members of other false religions to stay in their errors and go to hell.

       This is also a scandal to the Catholics who do not know any better and thereby may encourage them to go to false religious services and participate in them, thinking it perfectly acceptable.

       The scandal is enormous and it must be denounced.

We Must Speak Up Now!

       We know that we need not, must not, cannot wait until someone else raises their voice in protest.

       We need to denounce it as vehemently, vigorously and vociferously as possible and as often as necessary until people wake up and rouse themselves to reject completely and utterly such apostate ideas. We must protect ourselves from persons who propose such apostasy among us.

       It is certain, we must love the sinner by praying for his conversion. But it is also certain that we must hate the sin, truly hate the sin as Scripture says, "You have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore God your God has anointed you above your fellows." (Ps. 44:8)

       This passage of Sacred Scripture, first of all, applies to Jesus Christ Himself but must also apply to every follower of Christ.

       We must love justice, the justice of God. And we must hate what God finds abhorrent, what God tells us is evil.

       May God have mercy on the souls of the blind, and leaders of the blind. We must pray, sacrifice, act and speak out more than ever before, before they lead our own loved ones, our own neighbors, and millions more souls into the pit of hell for all eternity.

Return to
Table of Contents