God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty, by the natural light of reason from created things. 
(De fide) - (believe it or be damned) 

Evolution destroys the very possibility of faith and eternal salvation, for it denies the very existence of the extramundane God.  If perchance an evolutionist says he believes in God he speaks a lie, because divine faith presumes the stepping stone of human reason at work. Hence, the only way that atheistic communism can come into being and function is to work in the vacuum of a stalled intellect. 

There are two distinct knowledges of God.  One is natural, as explained above, and the other is supernatural.  One can never have the supernatural knowledge of God without first having the natural knowledge of God.  Hence, those methods of knowledge unite in one function, namely, divine faith.  The addition of the infused virtue of faith to the natural knowledge of God gives you a person with divine faith.  You cannot move from scratch (without preambula fidei) all the way up to divine faith. 

Here we drop the crack-pot notion of faith, much in existence in the Novus Ordo false religion.  They go just nuts over the euphoria they call “the experience of faith.”  They get a high, so to say, from some sing-song hymn (no matter how idiotic it may be) that they have in their “Christian community.”  They go ecstatic over a preacher’s joke and proceed to shout and clap.  All that is part and parcel of the “experience of faith.” They do not have to believe anything; just feel good in their religious experience. 

Natural knowledge (natural faith if we may call it that) exists in every naturally functioning human being.  When that person accepts God’s offer of the virtue of divine faith he then moves into a new area of knowledge, namely, knowledge of supernatural reality.  He is able to give his assent to truths that are entirely above and beyond all possible natural knowledge. 

Divine faith, of course, does not function in a vacuum.  It must rest on things that are known naturally. In a natural way (by his ears) Adam heard God’s promise of a Redeemer.  God spoke through the prophets for thousands of years.  Finally, the promised Redeemer came, fulfilling in His words and actions all that was foretold of Him. 

The natural knowledge of the Redeemer is a matter of history, found both in the natural records of history and above all in the revealed word of God, scripture and tradition.  People can learn those truths by the natural powers of their human intellect, and still they will not be able to admit that Christ is God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  They can learn the facts of the Last Supper (followed by the first Mass), and still they cannot believe in the Eucharist.  Two people can learn the catechism side by side, and when it is over one will say, “I believe that the Eucharist IS Jesus.”  The other one will say, “I can never believe that fairy tale.”  The first one accepted the infused virtue of divine faith, while the second one refused it. From that time on those two persons live in two different worlds.  The one without divine faith lives merely with natural truths.  However, the one with divine faith thinks and lives the total Catholic life.  He gets baptized; he believes all the truths (from heaven to hell and all between) that God reveals to man through His Church.  Finally, he submits himself to the Roman Pontiff, thus putting himself into a society that is in the early stages of heaven itself, that is, in a dark manner. 

We shall make a statement that should be obvious because of its simplicity.  A person without divine faith can move up the scale of life by accepting the virtue of divine faith.  Likewise, a person with the virtue of divine faith can lose it and slide down into the merely natural order.  Bible only quoters will say “Where is that in the Bible?” 

It is in the parable of the great supper where guests who were brought there from the highways and byways. There was one there who came without the wedding garment.  That great supper was only for those who had the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity (sanctifying grace).  The man without the wedding garment was the one without sanctifying grace.  Before going on it is necessary to explain a mystery of salvation.  At the moment of death those going into the banquet of heaven must have divine faith, divine hope and divine charity.  Once they are in heaven faith melts away in seeing God face to face, and hope melts away by possessing God forever.  Charity alone remains. 

The man without the fully illumined faith, hope and charity is the man without the wedding garment.  He cannot stay at the feast, but he is bound hands and feet, and he thrown outside where there is “the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”  Every single person who is not in the supernatural order in this world is already outside of the banquet hall where there will be for them,after death, “the weeping and gnashing of teeth.” At the same time those Catholics who unloaded their divine virtue of charity by even a single mortal sin will be forced out of the banquet of heaven into hell with the damned herd of unbelievers.  It is revealed that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” 

Those who have divine faith can lose their divine faith, and that can happen in various ways.  When one mortal sin is committed divine charity is lost, but hope and faith may still remain in a weakened (somewhat damaged) condition.  If one remains in mortal sin for any length of time they generally lose their hope and then faith.  In that depraved condition they find it almost impossible to return to God.  One really drops his divine faith by sinning against faith, that is, by unbelief.  A Catholic who, for example, in his pride says, “I just cannot believe that the all-good God will keep hell running without end!”  He is then a heretic, in mortal sin, and without divine faith, without divine hope and without divine charity. 

The loss of faith can come gradually.  There are people in the Novus Ordo Protestant religion who fifty years ago adored Our Lord in the Eucharist at Our Masses.  They knew We were ordained, and they still do, but they can no longer believe that the Eucharist IS Our Lord under the appearances of Bread and Wine.  That was observed at the jubilee Mass of the fiftieth anniversary of Our ordination to the holy priesthood.  Our ordination ceremonies to the holy priesthood made the preambula fidei  (stepping-stones) to knowing that Our consecration effected transubstantiation.  The Church assures the faithful that those preambula fidei are in every priest and bishop that it approves to function as priest and bishop in the whole world.  When Holy Orders are given and used outside the Church, as for example the Thuc and Lefebvre ordinations, those who use those priests and bishops continually bicker about the validity and licitness of those Orders.  Only the Pope can calm those fears by a studied and responsible decision, prayerfully made with the assistance of the infused virtue of prudence and the gift of the Holy Ghost of counsel. 

There are other preambula fidei that must be addressed at this time.  They are the preambula fidei which are the stepping stones of the papal election which made Us the Pope.  First of all, there are no Cardinals on earth who have their creation from Pope Pius XII, the last true Pope before Our election.  Hence, those stepping stones were eliminated.  Then natural law comes into play.  The Catholics have the obligation to proceed with the election of the Pope, and right order is to be observed.  It is not the purpose of this short treatise to prove that the process used in the papal election was fool proof.  All that We point out is that proper diligence was observed in looking for Catholics, namely, nearly three full years of internet exposure.  Then the Catholics that the conclave committee recognized as Catholics were asked if they would vote for the Pope.  For one reason or another some refused to cooperate, and that is natural.  Then those who cooperated were provided with a secret code number for voting.  The votes were taken by speakerphone by three conclave men.  The results were given to Us officially, and We accepted.  A signed paper to that effect is now a signed historical document.  Those facts are preambula fidei for Our position as Pope.  Those with faith do accept those “stepping stones” to form their acceptance of Us as Pope.  Those without faith can never accept Us as Pope, for they cannot rise above the natural “stepping stones” to the supernatural reality. 

What seems to be the problem with some who should be with Us is revealed in the Apocalypse 13. 7.  “And it was given unto him (the devil) to make war with the saints (the Catholics) and to overcome them.”  Their fate is in the next verse, verse eight.  “And all that dwell upon the earth adored him (the beast, powered by Satan), whose names are not written in the book of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the world.”  We judge it rash to presume that ones name is written in the book of life if he is not “subject to the Roman Pontiff” when he exists.  Where invincible ignorance plus true charity exist in this case, is known to God alone. 

Those not in the Church have another problem, Apocalypse 12, 6: “And the woman (the Church) fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her, a thousand two hundred sixty days.”  Those without their name in the book of life (in the Church and in sanctifying grace) have no promise to be with the woman (Church) in the wilderness. We close with Apoc. 13, 9 “If any man have an ear, let him hear.” 

   Given February 15, 1999 
 
   Pius, pp. XIII 
 

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