Ten Days of Davies: Against the Sedevacantists

Michael Davies was indeed a Traditionalist, but you always knew that he stood firmly with Holy HERE
Mother Church.  One of my favorite works from him was a small book entitled “I Am With You Always”, which is an apologia for the Church against the sedevacantists.  The following is related within that book which I do encourage you to pick up for your own use

The Duty of a Catholic 

The Doctrine of indefectibility does not protect us from harm done by weakness, poor judgement, or lack of liturgical sensibility on the part of a Pope. In the present crisis we can see that the Holy Ghost has done sufficient to prevent the Church from failing in her divine constitution, an no more. This should both comfort and strengthen the faith of traditional Catholics, and inspire them to play their full part as members of the Mystical Body  to restore that Body to sound health again. The first requirement to achieve this must be to obtain as many celebrations of the traditional Mass as possible. The number of such celebrations is increasing daily. The second is to work respectfully, as Mgr Gamber expresses it, for the eventual restoration of the 1962 Missal as “the primary liturgical form for the celebration of Mass”. Dietrich von Hildebrand described by Pope Pius XII as the twenthieth century doctor of the Church, reminds us that: 

"The faithful are not obliged to regard all ordinances as good and desirable. They can regret them and pray that they be taken back; indeed, they can work, with all due respect for the Pope, for their elimination."

The fact that the Latin Missal of Pope Paul VI can not be described as bad, evil, or intrinsically evil does nto mean that we must consider it an acceptable substitute for the traditional Missal. The devastating critique of the 1970 Latin Missal sent to Pope Paul by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci makes this quite clear. In their covering letter they explain to the Pope that:

"The Novus Ordo Missae – considering the new elements susceptible of widely differing evaluations, which appear to be implied or taken for granted – represents as a whole and in detail, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass which was formulated by Session XXII of the Council of Trent, which by fixing definitively the “canons” of the rite, erected an insurmountable barrier against any heresy which might attack the integrity of the Mystery."

Msgr. Klaus Gamber could envisage only one realistic solution to the present crisis in the liturgy:

"In the final analysis, this means that in the future the traditional rite of Mass must be retained in the Roman Catholic Churc… as the primary liturgical form for the celebration of Mass. It must become once more the norm of our faith and the symbol of Catholic unity throughout the world, a rock of stability in a period of upheaval and never-ending change. "

Will such a day ever come? Who can say? It may well be that we are even now in the last days. What we can be certain of is that it is our duty to work for this restoration however faint our chances of success may appear at present. In the days of the Arian persecution, when St. Athanasius was a hunted fugitive, excommunicated by the Pope, who would have imagined that the day was drawing near when true Catholics who had been forced to worship outside thaie parish churches would be able to return to them in triumph? We must pray for a pope such as Paul IV, St. Pius V or St. Pius X, who will not shrink from taking the measures needed to restore orthodoxy whatever the consequences. It would indeed be preferable to have a Chrch reduced to a fraction of its present size, but composed of true Catholics, rather than a Church composed of hundreds of millions of Catholics, a large proportion of whom have no right to the name. Cardinal Newman wrote: 

"May God Arise and shake terribly the earth (though it be an awful prayer), rather than the double-minded should lie hid among us, and souls be lost by present ease … Let Him winnow us, till the chaff be clean removed:  though, in thus invoking Him, we know not what we ask, and feeling the end in itself to be good, yet cannot worthily estimate the fearfulness of the chastisement which we so freely speak about."

However lamentable the state of the Church at present, however terrible the trials and tribulations we may have to face – Our Lady of Fatima warned us of them – we must under all circumstances remain in the barque of Peter which is the one Ark of Salvation. Pope Leo XIII warned us in Satis Cognitum:

"The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same forever: those who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ the Lord. Leaving the path of salvation they enter on the path of perdition."

Since its Davies on Sedes why not laugh about antipope Michael

+JMJ+