Caritas Newsletter
April 1, 1998
by Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap.
Lent, A Sacred Season
We see that the world has gone mad over self-gratification which spills over in sin and misery even in this life. It also points to a future existence in hell for that general public. We want neither hell nor misery in this life.The world is bogged down in the sins of the flesh, leading to promiscuity, unwise marriages, divorce, homosexuality and the like. Stealing becomes a way of life for those who must have a fix with dope when they are out of money. Single parent families become the order of the day.
Irresponsibility from generation to generation brings on the ugly welfare state. I learned from a mathematics professor in Los Angeles that sixty percent of his students flunked the course in the state school. When he taught in a Christian school, only one out of a whole class would flunk.
The loving discipline of the Church makes good citizens on earth and saints for heaven. Here is how Our Lord expressed the discipline He imposes upon us. In Matthew 11, 30 He says:
- ?For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.?
Self-Denial
The Christian life entails self-denial, and yet that self-denial performed with the help of God, keeps us in the order of right reason. In that there is holy purity, marriage without divorce, sensible drinking without getting drunk, absolutely no use of dope and so forth. There we see the truth of Our Lord?s words; ?For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.?
Works of Penance
The works of penance are- prayer,
- fasting and
- almsgiving.
What we note in scripture is that holy men of old were persons who gave alms. They helped the poor, for the poor are wards of God, and helping them is as helping God Himself in those poor. Any time we help our fellowmen in any way for the love of God, while in the state of sanctifying grace, we set ourselves up to be rewarded with a supernatural reward in heaven. God accepts those acts of charity just as if we did them to Himself -- how wonderful!
Even little children should be taught to give up, during Lent, such
things as candy, sweet drinks, treats and the like. They can be taught
to eat their cereal without sweetening and so forth. Unless the parents
are mortified themselves, they will find it hard to train their children
in mortification. Children can be taught not to touch a novel all during
Lent, and then it may be that they will never or hardly ever waste their
time on such useless and generally mind-weakening reading. Let us
try to make this Lent the best one we ever lived. We will know and
experience the truth of Our Lord?s words, ?For my yoke is sweet and my
burden light.?
Observations on the Rite of Baptism
We are taught in the catechism that for a valid sacrament we must have:- the proper matter,
- the proper form
- the proper intention
I feel sure that all of you have heard about the way the Church always treated Anglican Orders. In a formal document, Pope Leo XIII declared Anglican Orders invalid - not because of improper matter or because of improper form or even because of improper intention of the minister. He condemned Anglican Orders because the rite used did not sufficiently express the Catholic intention to make a valid Catholic priest. He had to admit that they ordained men to be priests, but he said that the word ?priest? was neutered of its true meaning; it was emptied of the Catholic theology of the word. Hence, that was the point of condemnation.
Once again, Anglican Orders were condemned to be invalid not because of lack of matter (although that may have also been present), not because of form (although that may have been present) and not because of the intention of the minister (although that may have been present), but because of the defective rite. Let us put it this way. If the rite is defective, even if all the other elements are one hundred percent present, the sacrament is still invalid. We have seen the sign on the road: ROAD CLOSED -- BRIDGE OUT. Then we know for sure that we cannot sneak through, no matter how we try. The same is true when the rite of a sacrament is no good.
There are two things that can ruin a sacramental rite. The contrary
intention of the one(s) who wrote the rite and/or the very wording of the
rite itself.
PROOF of Invalid Baptism - from Novus Ordo Ritual
I shall start out with a classical example where the makers of the rite, independent of any words in the rite, neutered the sacrament of baptism for the Novus Ordo. I have before me the following book: The Rites of the Catholic Church, as Revised by Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and Published by Authority of Pope Paul VI. English translation prepared by The International Commission on English in the Liturgy, PUEBLO PUBLISHING CO, New York Their imprimatur is dated July 14, 1976.From pages 3 to 12, the heading of each page is: Christian Initiation. From pages 13 to 182 is written: Christian Initiation of Adults. From pages 183 to 284 is written: Baptism for Children. Would any one of you who reads this believe that the rite of ?Baptism for Children? is meant to give more reality than was given to the adults? Note well, both of those headings (for adults and children) were introduced by ?Christian Initiation.? My dear friends and enemies: both adults and children according to the authors of this Novus Ordo rite receive no more than initiation. Pope Leo XIII would say in this case: ?Baptism for Children? is emptied of its true Catholic meaning. Although the word baptism is used, in this case, it really means initiation.
We shall look at the matter and form of the adult baptism as seen on page 147, Number 356 of the Novus Ordo ritual:
- ?The celebrant takes baptismal water from the font and
pours it three times on the bowed head of the candidate, baptizing him
in the name of the Trinity: N., I baptize you in the name of the Father,
he pours the water a first time, and of the Son, he pours the water a second
time, and of the Holy Spirit, he pours the water a third time.?
For the baptism of children I want to bring out two things. The intention of the rite is doubtful/invalid by reason of the titles on the pages of the introduction and the rite for adults, as pointed out above.
On page 234 of the above noted Novus Ordo ritual we read:
- ?Celebrant: Is it your will that N. should be
baptized in the faith of the Church, which we have all professed with you?
Parents and godparents: It is.
?He (the celebrant) baptizes the child, saying: N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, He immerses the child or pours water upon it. and of the Son, He immerses the child or pours water upon it a second time. and of the Holy Spirit. He immerses the child or pours water upon it a third time.?
Let us discuss the point that I have used against the validity of this procedure in my document on ?The Vatican II Rite of Baptism - for Children - Is it valid??
The questioning as just stated above is: ?Is it your will that N. should
be baptized in the faith of the Church, which we have all professed
with you?? The italics show a modification of the word baptized.
Let me explain this.
Doubtful or Invalid Baptism
If you stop at a fruit stand where they have all the fruit boxes with mixed fruit (pears, peaches and apples) you get just that when you buy one. If you say I want a fruit box with only apples, that modifies the word ?fruit? which was (pears, peaches and apples), and so the pears and peaches are now missing. In the Catholic rite the question is like the original fruit parcel: ?Do you wish to be baptized?? There are no modifications to ?baptized?, so what Catholic theology tells us, is in baptism; you get all of it. With a sacrament you get it all, or you get nothing. The Novus Ordo baptism for children gives, at best, a doubtful baptism, and at worst, an invalid baptism. Since I left the Novus Ordo in 1976, the above has been my judgment and my decision; hence, there are no doubtful or invalid baptisms in the flock that God assigned to me to bring into the Catholic Church. I repeated each and every Novus Ordo baptism conditionally -- as one and all will testify. When the new and true Pope appears on the scene it will be up to him to pronounce officially on this all-important matter. If per chance, my judgment was in error, I did no more than give a conditional baptism, so I did not place an unconditional sacrament of baptism on a valid baptism. My knowledge of the above facts forced me to act as I did for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.There are times when there is a very narrow gray line between a certainly
valid baptism and a doubtfully valid baptism in the case of Protestants.
In no way or form am I involved in the heresy that says ?heretics cannot
administer valid sacraments.? Here is my faith. Heretics have the
power to administer valid sacraments - any person on earth for baptism
? and valid bishops for Holy Orders - period. If a sacrament becomes
invalid, is it because of one of the above mentioned defects; (1) in the
matter (2) in the form (3) in the intention and (4) in the rite itself
(as understood and declared by Pope Leo XIII in his judgment of the Anglican
Orders)?
Protestants Do Not have Infant Baptism
If Protestants, as a policy do not have infant baptism, that is a source for doubting their proper intention. It indicates that they give baptism merely as a rite of initiation as the Novus Ordo now proclaims, as seen above. Why? If they can look on their child going though death without doing all they can to have it baptized, they show that intent. They even say, ?Wait to baptize them until they can determine if they want to be a Protestant or not.? That is the same as saying, ?Wait to put them into the Boy Scouts until they determine they really want to be a Boy Scout.?
Clear the Reasonable Doubt
We must never use probabilism in regard to performing or accepting any sacrament. If there is the least reasonable doubt, one may not let it go until the doubt is cleared away.You may say God would never let anyone give an invalid sacrament. I know that He will never permit invalid Orders to get into His Church so that the Sacrament of Orders ceases to exist. Just look what happened to a papal election. God permitted all the Cardinals to elect a non-Pope when they elected John XXIII. Had the Cardinals acted responsibly, they would not have brought the Novus Ordo misery into this world.
A valid baptism is most important. If one?s baptism is invalid,
he never ever validly receives any other sacrament. He gets forgiveness
from mortal sin only through the act of perfect contrition. God will help
him in that if that is all he has to work with because of his invalid baptism.
A Catholic with an invalid baptism (sacramentally) is no different than
any other pagan in the world.
Example of Novus Ordo Error on Baptism
I have before me an original parish bulletin from HOLY ROSARY CATHOLIC COMMUNITY, August 17, 1986, Medford, Wisconsin 54451. Before bogus Council Vatican II, that place was rightly called a Catholic Church. Among other things the priest, Father Den (so signed - nice and mod) said:- ?The Church (world-wide and local) [I
am glad he added these words for you to see.] in its view of God
sees Baptism as being certainly important -- but it does not perceive Baptism
as being totally essential for a baby?s salvation, as understood at one
time. ?Limbo? was never an officially defined truth in the Church.
Original sin is not looked at in the same way it used to be -- God also
loves the un-baptized very, very much.?
God's Love for Baptized and Un-Baptized
God surely loves all creatures, un-baptized ones also, but only as natural beings. He does not see Himself in un-baptized babies in the form of sanctifying grace, so there is no reason to say that He ?also loves the un-baptized very, very much.? Father Den is a false prophet bamboozling a gullible public. The Catholics that I serve hold the above bulletin in their packets of documents which I freely distribute - year in and year out.It is a sin against the Holy Ghost to refuse to accept the known truth, and those who commit that sin are given over to believing lies.
Knowing what I know about the Novus Ordo baptisms, I have from the very
beginning (1976) given conditional baptism to all those who joined me in
the Catholic Faith.
