Category Archives: Catholicism

Pope Francis and Libertarianism

no-pope-bergoglio Don't Tread on Me

The purported pope of the Catholic Church recently attacked “libertarianism.” As a number of theologians have ably shown, Jorge Bergoglio, a.k.a Pope Francis, cannot be a legitimate pope since he was neither ordained as a priest or consecrated as a bishop in the traditional Catholic rite of Holy Orders. And, since he is not a bishop, he cannot be “bishop of Rome” – a prerequisite for being the head of the universal Church.

While “technically” he is not the pope, Bergoglio is a notorious heretic who has said a mind-boggling number of heresies, engaged in the most scandalous of actions, and has attempted to change doctrine and Church teaching. He is not the pope since a heretic is necessarily outside the Church and, thus, cannot hold ecclesiastical office, especially that of supreme pontiff.

If Bergoglio’s “invalidity” is not damnable enough, “Pope Francis” is a neo-Marxist who has repeatedly called for the redistribution of wealth, promoted mass migration, and has denigrated capitalism, accusing it of impoverishing the poor.

Naturally, with such a dossier, Bergoglio would be hostile to the concept of libertarianism. And, as a skillful demagogue, he has deliberately mischaracterized the subject.

In a message to a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Bergoglio harshly stated: “I cannot fail to speak of the grave risks associated with the invasion of the positions of libertarian individualism at high strata of culture and in school and university education.”*

If Bergoglio thinks that higher education is infected with “libertarian individualism,” he is more delusional than he has been given credit for! Academia has long been a bastion of collectivist thought. Libertarianism and, for that matter, conservative ideas have little voice in higher education. Moreover, Western culture is dominated by the ideals of social democracy, a philosophy that is anathema to libertarianism and also to real Catholicism, not the kind that is preached by imposters such as “Pope Francis!”

It is probably deliberate that Bergoglio uses the word “invasion” in his description as he subtly mocks his audience. The only invasion that has happened is not a takeover of academia by free-markets zealots, but by the millions of “asylum seekers” that have been thrust upon European soil which has been encouraged and orchestrated by the likes of multiculturalists such as Jorge Bergoglio.

“[T]he libertarian individual denies the value of the common good,” Bergoglio continues, “because on the one hand he supposes that the very idea of ‘common’ means the constriction of at least some individuals, and on the other hand that the notion of ‘good’ deprives freedom of its essence.”

Of course, to arch collectivists like “Pope Francis,” the common good always trumps individual rights. While he does not explicitly say it, the “common good” means for the good of the state, and for those who place their own self interest or that of their family before the state’s interest, they are to be ostracized or worse.

Libertarianism to Bergoglio is an “antisocial radicalization of individualism” that “leads to the conclusion that everyone has the right to extend himself as far as his abilities allow him even at the cost of the exclusion and marginalization of the more vulnerable majority.” By living “independently of others” a person can attain freedom.

Once again, as he had done throughout his “papacy” Bergoglio demonstrates that he is an economic ignoramus who does not grasp a basic tenet of social relationships.

Libertarians are proponents of the market economy and markets are the result of the division of labor, specialization, and exchange. Society, in part, is the amalgamation of numerous markets and advanced societies are ones with a highly developed division of labor. Overwhelming empirical evidence has shown that such societies are not only richer, but are more culturally advanced than self- sufficient societies (autarky) where individuals produce everything for themselves.

In such an order, an individual produces or provides services which he does best. Since he does not produce everything himself, he, therefore, depends and needs to interact with others in exchange of goods he does not produce. In the market economy, very few live “independently of others” as Bergoglio stupidly believes, but must rely and depend on their fellow man. Even entrepreneurs, who Bergoglio implicitly condemns in the above passage, have to rely on consumers to patronize their products and services or they will quickly go out of business.

Bergoglio, of course, does not understand that there are many shades of libertarianism running a wide spectrum of social, political and economic thought. If there is a common theme among libertarians, it is opposition to the modern state and the welfare/warfare system upon which it rests. The modern state will not tolerate any competition for the minds, hearts, and souls of men.

Until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Church recognized that the modern state was not only its enemy, but the enemy of mankind. In this respect, the Church had common ground with the libertarian and conservative movements of the 20^th century.

The Second Vatican Council and the “reforms” which came in its wake produced an environment that has led to the likes of cretins like Jorge Bergoglio who has not only repeatedly blasphemed the Divine Founder of the institution in which he supposedly heads, but regularly spews out all sorts of discredited neo-Marxist nonsense.

While “Pope Francis” condemns libertarianism, the solution to the financial, political, and many of the social problems which confront the Western world will only be solved by “libertarian means” – a gold/silver monetary standard, political decentralization/secession, de-militarization/non-intervention, free trade, and the application of private property rights to the migration crisis.

For the good of mankind, not only should Jorge Bergoglio be ignored as supreme Roman pontiff, but he should likewise be ignored when speaking on any and all public policy matters.

*Thomas D. Williams. “Pope Warns Against ‘Invasion’ of Libertarianism.” Breitbart. 28 April 2017. http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/04/28/pope-francis-warns-against-invasion-of-libertarianism/

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

https://antoniusaquinas.com

Pope Francis is at it Again

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pope-trump

As if there are not enough sufficient reasons for right thinking individuals to want a Donald Trump Presidency, one of the biggest is that it would be a direct and quite necessary rebuke and humiliation of the purported head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis.

Bergoglio has once again injected his neo-Marxist self into areas where he has no right to interfere. Of course, this has never stopped this cretin from doing so before, especially when it comes to liberalistic causes such as climate change. Whatever happened to popes that preached the Gospel, spoke of the saints, or expounded on doctrine?

In a speech given at the Vatican on November 5, Bergoglio spoke of not giving into those politicians who talk of building walls, but those who work to build bridges. He condemned “physical and social walls” that “close in some and exclude others” and added: “mercy is the best antidote against fear” while it “is much more effective than walls, than barbed wire fences, than alarms and arms, and it is free. It is a gift of God.”*

That the timing of Bergoglio’s remarks – on the eve of the Presidential election – criticizing those who actually seek to get a handle on unwanted and country-wrecking mass immigration is not surprising, but it is particularly revolting coming from a person who heads an organization that has done virtually nothing to end its own great Sex & Embezzlement Scandals. This is a “Church” which has protected, hid, and actually promoted known perverts and rapist of children and young adults while its leader has the unmitigated gall to lecture American voters about not electing someone who will try and prevent the country from descending into multicultural disintegration!

What is surprising is that Bergogolio is again seeking to influence American politics on the heels of credible revelations that emerged from the investigation of Anthony “pervert” Weiner’s laptop of a child pedophile ring inside the Clinton Crime Family and their sleazy and demented associates and friends. If Bergoglio had any political acumen he would have kept his big and nauseating mouth shut since now the Church’s own abominable, criminal actions with children and the Clintons’ will be linked in voters’ minds. One can only hope so!

Bergoglio was elected, in part, to clean up the sex scandals and the financial improprieties which surround the Vatican Bank. Instead of fixing the criminality and expunging the perverts, rapists, and embezzlers, Bergoglio has instead become one of the world’s leading social justice warriors. Furthermore, he has been an unabashed opponent of the market economy constantly speaking of income disparity and the supposed exploitation of the poor which takes place under capitalism.

While Bergoglio has shown himself to be an ignoramus on subjects such as immigration, global warming, and economics, he is apparently quite deficient in his knowledge of the glorious history of his own institution. Such a lack of knowledge is probably intentional since the Church’s rich past does not coincide with its new ecumenism, which was hatched during the tragic years of the Vatican II Anti-council, 1962-65.

It was the Catholic Church which organized the military forces on a number of occasions to fight and defend Europe from invading Muslims hordes. Inspired by real popes, the Church rallied the Continent’s often indifferent and self absorbed political leadership to take up their crosses and liberate the Holy Land from the Muslim yoke. Any talk of allowing Muslims to infiltrate European lands would be rightly countered with cries of treason and punishment in blood.

Such facts are no longer spoken of by Bergoglio or his Vatican II predecessors who have made every effort to encourage mass migration. The historical record cannot be denied; it, therefore, must be ignored.

The election of Donald Trump will hopefully not only be the end of the Clinton Crime Family, but it will put a brake on destructive mass immigration while inspiring anti-immigration forces throughout Europe. Moreover, a Trump victory will put in his place the self righteous “pope” who, through the office which he unworthily occupies, is just as dangerous to the future of what is left of Western civilization as a Hillary Clinton Presidency.

*Michael O’Loughlin, “Days Before U.S. Election, Pope Francis Warns Against Politics of Fear.” America. 5 November 2016.

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

https://antoniusaquinas.com/

“Pope Francis:” Traitor to Western Civilization

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no-pope-bergoglio

There has been no greater advocate of mass Muslim migration into Europe than the purported head of the Catholic Church, “Pope Francis.” At a recent conference, he urged that “asylum seekers” be accepted, “through the acts of mercy that promote their integration into the European context and beyond.”*

Jorge Bergoglio is the “purported pope” of the Catholic Church because, as certain theologians have argued, he was neither validly ordained as a priest or consecrated as a bishop in the traditional Catholic rites of Holy Orders. Since a pope must first be a bishop, in particular the bishop of Rome, Bergoglio cannot, therefore, be pope.

He is not a Catholic pope, but head of a new “Conciliar Church” which was concocted at the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), actually an “Anti-council,” and in the tumultuous years that followed, which witnessed fundamental changes in doctrine and the Sacraments, most damaging the promulgation of the New Mass by Paul VI-Montini. The New Church also did away with its traditional view on evangelization and conversions and adopted the previously condemned heresy of “syncretism,” which contends that “we all worship the same god,” and that “one religion is as good as another.” This idea pervades post-Vatican II Catholicism and is what Francis bases most of his justification for the mass migration onto lands which once made up Christendom.

While Bergoglio cannot be pope on technical grounds, he is also disqualified for his blasphemies and heretical actions, words, and teachings, all of which have flowed at a breathtaking pace. From the infamous, “who am I to judge,” about sodomites, to his alteration of two millennium of teaching on divorce and remarriage, to such whoppers as “God does not exist,” Bergoglio has placed himself “outside of the Church” and thus cannot hold ecclesiastical office and certainly not that of supreme pontiff.

Despite the overwhelming theological and empirical evidence that the Chair of St. Peter is vacant (sede vacante) and its restoration will take place in its Founder’s good time, for the vast majority of Catholics and the world at large, Jorge Bergoglio is pope and his actions have consequences. And, since his promotion and support of mass Muslim migration is leading to not only the destruction of what is left of Western Civilization and the species which largely created that civilization – white, gentile, heterosexual men – Bergoglio and the organization which he represents, must be stopped. If Pope Francis and his New World Order cohorts are not countered, whites, and the cultures which they built, will vanish.

The Catholic Church is an integral part of Western Civilization even if Bergoglio and the pack of cultural Marxists prelates which surround him will not admit it. It was the Church that preserved the heritage of Antiquity from the barbarian invasions during and after the fall of the Roman Empire. Without the actions of the monks and other clerics, many of the classical works would have been lost forever, leaving future generations bereft of the wisdom and treasures of the Ancients. It was the Church that was the indispensable part in the formulation of the greatest civilization known to mankind, Christendom. Moreover, it was the Catholic Church, largely through the Papacy, that inspired the Crusades, which for a glorious time drove out the Muslims from the Holy Land and returned it to its rightful possessors.

It is undeniable that the Catholic Faith (which Bergoglio is supposedly its chief representative) inspired numerous European sovereigns, most notably Queen Isabella, to take up arms against the Mohammedans. It was her faith which drove the heroic queen to free the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim yoke, which then allowed her to finance Christopher Columbus on his epic, world-changing voyage.

Yet, Bergoglio and his fellow heretical Churchmen assiduously avoid any reminiscing of such facts and instead are deliberately encouraging Muslim migration into the lands that Europeans spilled blood and sacrificed treasures to defend – Queen Isabella must be turning over in her grave!

If Western Civilization is to be salvaged, those who seek its destruction must be removed from their positions of authority and influence. Whether through political means, armed revolt, or de-legitimization, those who hold such power must be toppled. Exposing “Pope Francis” for what he is, or is not, will go a long way in that most vital and necessary task.

*http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/09/17/pope_francis_%E2%80%98each_migrant_has_a_name,_a_face,_and_a_story%E2%80%99/1258801#

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

https://antoniusaquinas.com/

“Pope” Francis and the Disintegration of Europe

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Pope's Wall

A Massive Wall Surrounds Francis-Bergoglio’s Vatican City-State

Despite being rebuked and humiliated by the Republican presidential front runner over his inflammatory statements about U.S. illegal immigration policies, Newpope Francis of the Vatican II sect has continued to opine about the migration crisis.

In an address to a Newcatholic French group, Bergoglio admitted the obvious: “We can speak today of [an] Arab invasion. It is a social fact.” Yet, despite the horrific consequences of this fact, mostly orchestrated by New World Order groups and organizations of which his church is a part, Newpope amazingly contends that this will eventually be a positive thing for Europeans: “How many invasions has Europe experienced in the course of its history! But it’s always been able to overcome them and move forward, finding itself complimented and improved by the cultural exchange they brought about.”*

Europe “complimented and improved”?! Right. Tell that to the thousands of women who have been raped, assaulted, and terrorized by mostly Muslim fanatics, or look at the widespread destruction of private property that these trespassers have wrought, and worse, the cultural transformation that this deliberately created crisis has produced.

Bergoglio furthered these idiotic statements with some multicultural speak: “the only continent [Europe] that can bring some unity to the world.” And that Europe must fulfill its “universal role” and “rediscover its cultural roots.”**

If Bergoglio really wants Europeans to “rediscover” their “cultural roots,” they will find that ever since the emergence of Mohammedanism, its fanatical adherents have repeatedly attempted to overrun and conquer the Continent and subject its peoples to the crazed religious and political dictates of its possessed “prophet.”

At one time, Europe fulfilled its “universal role” by engaging in a series of military actions (the Holy Crusades) which were mostly inspired by true popes (which Bergoglio and his Vatican II predecessors are certainly not) to expunge the infidel from the sacred places where the Founder of Christianity lived, preached, was crucified, and gloriously rose from the dead. These authentic successors of St. Peter, in particular Urban II and Innocent III, understood the threat that Mohammedanism posed to their flocks both spiritually and culturally.

The failure of Christendom to ultimately defeat Islam and drive it out of the former lands of the Roman Empire was not the fault of the popes, but that of the secular powers who increasingly sought their own aggrandizement. If the European principalities had heeded the popes’ calls and driven the Muslims back to their tribal homeland, history would have had a happier outcome.

Bergoglio, if he cared to look, would find that Europe’s “universal role” included the justification of “holy war,” in the use of violence against Islam, not only during the Crusades, but in the re-conquest of Spain, and in the defense of its homeland from numerous Muslim assaults. Moreover, the idea of Muslims living side-by-side with Europeans or being able to create their own autonomous communities would have rightly been considered societal genocide.

No authentic pope would be engaged in “dialogue,” common prayer meetings, or other ecumenical interchanges with Muslims as Bergoglio and his Vatican II predecessors have repeatedly and blasphemously done over the years. Any pre-Vatican II pope, theologian, bishop, priest, or, for that matter, astute layman would properly consider such actions abominable and would recommend as punishment a rendezvous with some of the scum that abounds at the bottom of the Tiber for its transgressors!

Bergoglio and most of the Newchurch hierarchy’s support for free migration and open borders and their condemnation of those who have opposed such lunacy clearly demonstrates that the Vatican II sect is part and parcel of the New World Order which seeks the eradication of sovereignty and the extinction or at least subjugation of European peoples to the global elites.

Not only is this cretin wantonly overturning two thousand years of traditional Christian teaching on morality, but he is openly encouraging the destruction of those societies which that morality ultimately helped to build.

Despite the skillfully and deceitfully crafted persona as “Mr. Humble” and his white pontifical attire, “Pope” Francis and the sect that he heads are a clear and present danger to what remains of Western civilization and must be opposed and removed from power.

*Tom Wyke, “The Pope says ‘It is a Social fact’ that Europe is seeing an ‘Arab Invasion’ and it’s a Good Thing.” Daily Mail.com. 4 March 2016

**Ibid.

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

Holy Week and the Decline of the West

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hp_holy_week_07

At one time, Holy Week – Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday – was recognized and commemorated by the Western world as a solemn period where earthly matters were put aside and focus was directed to history’s most seminal event.

Most businesses were closed or had reduced hours especially during the Sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Entertainment and leisurely activities were curtailed while schools and universities’ “spring breaks” coincided with Holy Week as mankind contemplated, as best as it could, the momentous events which took place in a small backwater outpost of the mighty, and at the time, unknowing, Roman Empire.

Tragically, for the human race those days are a thing of the discredited past. Sports are played, most work throughout the week, financial affairs are routinely conducted, while Easter Sunday is not seen as a celebration of the Resurrection, but of egg hunts. In politics, it can be safely assumed that there will be no let up in the seemingly interminable U.S. presidential campaign during this week which, of all places, is in the most need of spiritual reflection.

The triumph of secular humanism is almost complete.

Such disregard and ingratitude for what took place two millennium ago does not bode well for mankind’s future, especially in those lands and among those peoples which once revered these sacred days. The ominous eternal consequences of such indifference was warned about by the Divine Savior as recounted in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father, who is in heaven.”

While most do not realize it, the grave economic, political, and social problems which the West faces are ultimately the result of the indifference toward God with the neglect of Holy Week as a prime example. None of the current abominations such as abortion and “gay” marriage could have ever been possible had human societies been dedicated toward Christ.

Such disregard will not go unpunished. Could the continuing economic malaise and possible financial collapse, the burgeoning police states and the mostly Muslim invasion of what was once Christendom be heavenly retribution for man’s lackadaisical attitude toward his God?

It is amazing that none among the current crop of presidential contenders have recognized this obvious fact. Their ignorance, and the blindness of those that are currently in power, will mean that none of the issues being debated and discussed will be solved. The problems that the West faces today cannot be resolved as a matter of the right policy, but are at their core spiritual. Redress of these issues will not come about through the ballot box or reform.

The forces that seek the West’s destruction must be fought on the spiritual plane. They have long understood this, which is why they have tried to and largely succeeded in removing religion from society, allowing it only on Sundays – and if trends continue even this will no longer be tolerated. Those who seek to preserve the fruits of Western civilization must realize that it is a religious contest.

The disastrous consequences of mankind ruling itself is on display for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. The cultural depravity that abounds in contemporary life is stunning and has gone on so long and has been conducted with such intensity that most are now desensitized to it. Creating jobs, halting mass immigration, appointing “conservative” judges will do little to overthrow the cultural Marxism that permeates society.

Until the Divine Entity for which Holy Week is centered on is once again placed at the summit of Western life, the chances of resolving its various crisis are nil.

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas – A Commemoration

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220px-Saint_thomas_d_aquin

March 7th is the traditional feast day of one of the most important thinkers of Western Civilization, the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-1275). Despite being referred to early in life as a “Dumb Ox,” St. Thomas would, nevertheless, profoundly shape the development of Western theology and philosophy.

St. Thomas was instrumental for the reintroduction of Aristotle into Western thought and synthesized Greco-Roman natural law constructs with Christian Revelation to produce the mighty system which became known as “Thomism.” The eminent saint’s importance in this regard cannot be understated as the late Murray Rothbard so aptly describes: “For in reviving and building on Aristotle, St. Thomas introduced and established in the Christian world a philosophy of natural law, a philosophy, in which human reason is able to master the basic truths of the universe. In the hands of Aquinas as in Aristotle, philosophy, with reason as its instrument of knowledge, became once again the queen of the sciences.”*

A prolific and multidimensional writer, St. Thomas’ best-known work was the Summa Theologiae which has been called by one commentator “the fullest exposition of theological teaching ever given to the world.”** He was also an accomplished poet whose hymns such as Lauda Sion and the Adoro Te Devote are some of the most sublime in all of Christian tradition. Legend has it that Pope Urban IV commissioned the Angelic Doctor and St. Bonaventure to compose hymns for the Feast of Corpus Christi. St. Bonaventure, after hearing St. Thomas’ compositions, was so overwhelmed with their splendor that he promptly burned his own.

Sainthood, however, requires more than a brilliant mind and facile pen, and by all accounts St. Thomas led a holy and virtuous life and despite his intellectual prowess remained the humblest of men. Near the conclusion of his life, he received a private revelation which changed him to such a degree that he could no longer engage in scholarly endeavors. He reportedly said, “The end of my labors is come. All that I have written appears to me as so much straw, after the things that have been revealed to me. I hope in the mercy of God that the end of my life may soon follow the end of my labors.***

A characteristic of nearly all seminal thinkers is that history would have been considerably different if they had not lived. This is undeniable in the case of St. Thomas. One of his 20th-century biographers, G.K. Chesterton, summarized the saint’s role in Western intellectual development in this manner: “. . . St. Thomas was one of the great liberators of the human intellect. . . . [He] was a very great man who reconciled religion with reason, who expanded it toward experimental science, who insisted that the senses were the windows of the soul and that reason had a divine right to feed upon fact, and that it was the business of the faith to digest the strong meat of the toughest and most practical of pagan philosophies.”****

Saint, confessor, theologian, philosopher, mystic, poet, the Angelic Doctor’s works were the summit of the often and wrongly maligned Medieval Era and until St. Thomas is returned to his exalted status, Western Civilization will continue its tragic decline.

*Murray N. Rothbard, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume 1 (Brookfield, VT.: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 1995), p. 57.

**Herbart J. Thurston and Donald Attwater, eds., Butler’s Lives of the Saints, rev. edition (Allen, Texas: Christian Classics, 1996), vol. 1, p. 512.

***Dominican Saints of the Rosary Series, St. Thomas Aquinas: Universal Doctor of the Church (Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books and Publishers, inc., 1995), p. 30.

****G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas (New York: image books Doubleday, 1956), pp. 32-33.

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

“Never Did Man Speak Like This Man”

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Rops II

This frank response came from the agents sent by the Pharisees to entrap the Divine Savior and turn Him over to the Jewish authorities after His preaching and scathing criticism of them. The incident took place during the Feast of the Tabernacles as St. John describes: “And some of them would have apprehended him: but no man put hand upon him.” [ch.7, vs. 44]

The befuddled henchmen were later confronted by their treacherous bosses for not carrying forth their plan and impatiently asked: “Why have you not brought him?” Empty handed and obviously perplexed themselves for their failure they responded, “Never did man speak like this man.” The incensed Pharisees countered: “Are you also seduced?”

This episode demonstrates, although more subtly than the miracles performed, Christ’s Divinity. No personality or figure of history has ever shown such a command in speech or in debate than the Divine Savior. Christ was never “bested” or refuted in any exchange and, more often than not, left His adversaries either stymied or speechless. The flawless rebukes of the Pharisees were often made not to simple inquiries, but were given to premeditated questions deliberately designed to elicit a contradictory response. Yet, every act of chicanery was effortlessly thwarted and turned to His advantage.

Likewise, in His discourses with the Disciples, or when preaching to the crowd, there was never any hint of confusion or ambiguity. The fact that the crowd tried to make Him a King certainly attests to His inspirational power and persuasiveness.

One of the last century’s leading Catholic historians, H. Daniel-Rops (1901-1965) knighted by Pope Pius XII, described this neglected aspect of the Divine Savior’s personality in his unsurpassed biography, Jesus and His Times. Unfortunately, Daniel-Rops succumbed to certain aspects of Modernism which surfaced in the later volumes of his magnificent Church history series, however, Jesus and His Times contains no such failings and remains a masterpiece.

Few authors have capsulized the essence of Christ’s personality and temperament as Daniel-Rops:

Anyone who is willing to examine without prejudice
the figure of Christ in the Gospels will find not a
disassociated or chaotic personality but one which
is extremely solid and coherent, built up on
unshakeable foundations. [p. 293]

Unlike the current Newpope who deliberately portrays himself as “Mr. Humble,” there is not a hint of such hypocrisy in Christ’s character:

There is no self-dramatization in his personality;
never once does he play to the gallery. . . .
Nothing could be further from the personality
of Jesusthan the suspicion of imposture. . . . [Ibid.]

The woman caught in adultery, the rendering unto Caesar, the lecturing of the temple priests as a teenager, to cite just a few examples, all point to a supernatural quality never before witnessed, as Daniel-Rops explains:

The personality of Jesus is not only manifestly sincere,
it is unshakeable you cannot doubt that here is a master
of the event. He is never deflected from what he wishes
to do either by the applause of crowds or by checks and
opposition. If he adapts himself to circumstances and
submits to affronts without protest, it is biding his own
good time. He never capitulates and never hesitates
or weakens before the machinations of His enemies. [p. 294]

Unlike the milk toast figure that Newchurch seeks to portray of the meek and all-forgiving Christ, Daniel-Rops, as all good historians do, provides a balanced picture of his subject one who displays a holy vengeance especially when it pertains to the worship of His Father:

He could be angry, too, a holy and righteous
anger which burst forth when the zeal for God
which devoured him was baulked by the follies
and the willful incomprehension of men. . . .
When Jesus attacks the money changers in the
Temple, when he turns His savage eloquence
against the scribes and Pharisees, when he taunts
Herod’s spies, “Go and tell that fox, ‘ this is a
man with blood in his veins not the conventional
shadow of a pallid seminarian. [p. 295]

After Daniel-Rops’ superb description of Christ’s personality, one shutters to think what the Divine reaction will be for those who have replaced His doctrine and Sacraments with those of the Novus Ordo. While pacifists love to quote the beatitude “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” they conveniently forgot the Savior’s direct words as recorded by St. Matthew: “Do not think that I am come to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.”

With the holy season of Lent at hand, many of the Scriptural passages where these remarkable exchanges took place are once again at the forefront as the titanic struggle between the Incarnate Word and the forces aligned against Him come to their climax. And, these exchanges were argued against the most formidable adversaries, masters at their craft who were able to convince a Roman governor, against his better judgment, to allow the crucifixion of Innocence itself.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes attempted to verbally undermine the Divine Savior often times through sophistry, yet each time the Master confounds them which only further deepens their hatred of Him. Instead of believing the words spoken to them in the most authoritarian and unassailable manner, they dastardly plot His execution.

While the many miracles performed and His glorious Resurrection are undeniable signs of His Divinity, Christ’s words, and the manner and context in which He delivered them are also indisputable signs of the Divine. Daniel-Rops is one of the few scholars that has pointed to this often overlooked aspect.

Jesus and His Times is replete with such analysis all of which makes the work an excellent read especially during the Lenten season.

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas