by Reverend Father Richard Williamson

Sermon preached 8 November 1986,
at Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary Chapel, Ridgefield, Connecticut

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

TODAY'S GOSPEL is, as they say, "great." It is quite short in the Gospel, but it is very picturesque…the storm and the little boat with the fishermen. We can imagine Peter and Andrew—expert fishermen—and James and John. And, they fancy themselves. They do not really yet know who Jesus is. A little while later in the Gospel they will realize Who He is, but they are still learning. So, for the moment, He is a great Rabbi, a marvelous Teacher, but He does not know much about fishing or about the lake. So, they say, "Master, sleep here. Lie down here for you are tired. Lie down in the bow, Master: prop yourself up. Leave us to look after the fishing." They like Him as company; they love Him already. But He does not know much about boats so they put Him in the bow while they go ahead with the "serious" business of getting the nets to begin fishing.

So, out they go into the middle of the lake and they are preparing to fish…busy about the boat. Suddenly, some dark clouds appear from behind one of the hills and Peter and Andrew look. The lake is still calm, but it begins to get a bit ruffled. And Peter and Andrew, who know the lake, are apprehensive. They are experts. They have been fishing on the lake since they were small. They know what the lake is about. So they begin to get back to land. The storm continues to get up. Suddenly, the storm is upon them; the wind is beating down; the waves are beginning to whip up. There is no time to get back to land. They have to pull down the sail and get it out of the way. Peter is at the rudder, steering into the wind, of course. But the storm is upon them; it's too strong for them. Water is beginning to slosh into the boat and there is nothing they can do about it. The sky is getting blacker and blacker; the wind is howling stronger and stronger. Finally, they are in despair; they don't know what to do. The boat is getting heavier and heavier in the water…they are up to their ankles…they are up to their knees in water. Peter can wait no longer. He hands over the tiller to Andrew and rushes up to the bow of the boat: "Master, wake up! Wake up! We are sinking! We are perishing!"

Jesus has been calmly sleeping all this time, quietly sleeping. He gets up (and this is a moment on which we must exercise our imagination): He stands up, "Oh, why are you fearful? What are you worried about? Oh, you of little faith! So you have got a problem after all? You need Me after all? You need Me after all? So you are going to resort to the poor Rabbi who does not know much about fishing?" Sure enough, He stands up in the front of the little boat. And He gestures, stretching out His arms in front of Him, and gives an order to the wind and to the waves: "Stop! Be quiet!" He tells the waves: "Lie down." And this great tidal wave which had them all shivering with fright and clinging to the side of the boat suddenly drops down. And the wind from a howling drops to a whisper and a murmur. Peace returns and the sky clears. "Who is this Man that even the sea obeys Him?…"

He is God, of course; we know that. But the storm is still very much in the Church. The bark of Peter is a boat, and the bark of Peter is filling with water. And the water is up to our ankles…it is a long way beyond our ankles! The water is up to our knees and the bark of Peter is filling faster and faster. The bark of Peter is sinking if it continues on its present course.

Here, for example, I have an article from a local newspaper with a story headline: "Celebration of the Seder Holds Familiar Moments for Christians,"—a Jewish celebration…by Catholics. Do Catholics know their Faith? Do they know who the Jews were? Of course, the Jews were our ancestors in the faith but the true relationship between Catholicism and Judaism is, that Judaism, which was the true religion in its days in the Old Testament is completely out-dated and replaced by Catholicism. The only true "Judaism"—the only true religion—is today Catholicism, of which scripture itself says that Judaism was simply the shadow, a type of what was to come, to the point where Catholic theologians will say that any practicing by Catholics today—or practicing by anybody today—of the Jewish religion, is mortal sin. It is mortal sin because the whole of Jewish religion said, in everything it did and everything it was, that the Messias is still to come. The Jewish religion wholly, in all its ceremonies, rites and symbolism, pointed forward to the coming of the Messias. The coming of the Messias was to be the fulfillment of the Jewish religion. To practice that same religion today is tantamount to saying that the Messias has not come! If you practice a religion which says, "He is still to come," what you are saying is, "He is still to come." If you are saying, "He is still to come," you are saying, "He has not come," and that is exactly what the Judaists says—"He has not come. Jesus Christ was not the Messias. All the more, He was not God." In other words, the practice of any part of the Jewish religion today is a denial of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is heresy and blasphemy! Of course, a little Jewish child of three, four, five years old does not know that; he can practice it in all good faith. But, every single Jewish rabbi knows perfectly well. And most Jewish adults will have plenty of opportunity in their life to suspect that their religion is false. Since the death of Our Lord on the Cross, it is as false as a three-dollar bill.

What do we read in the paper here? Here is a picture of a sweet little girl, probably a little Catholic girl, of three years old, chewing on a matzo. Now, quoting from the newspaper, "Yes, at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in the diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a cantor was the only Jewish participant in the ceremony." Presumably nearly all the rest of them were Catholics practicing this Jewish ceremony. Because, presumably, their Novus Ordo Mass has no longer any interest for them. They need another "circus"—another novelty. They have gone through so many novelties already, they need another one. And so, now, they are on to practicing the Jewish religion in the Catholic Church, the Seder, which is the Passover Meal. The Passover was a magnificent gift of God, namely, the saving of the Jewish people from Egypt. But, it was only a figure! It was a tiny thing compared with that which it was pointing forward to—the saving of each of us from the floods and waves of sin and the pulling of our souls out of the land of sin into the promised land of grace! That is what Egypt really meant; that is what the Old Testament really meant. The Old Testament is simply a forecasting, a foreshadowing of the New Testament. And now, the privileged children of the New Testament, the Catholics, are going back to the practices of the Old Testament? They are crazy! Again, the sweet little Catholic child of three, oh, she is sweet and innocent, obviously. But the Catholic priests that practice this and the Catholic bishop of this diocese…! Listen in particular to this:

"Christians, ideally, should take part in a Seder in a Jewish home or at least under Jewish auspices to maintain its integrity as a sacred feast of Judaism." In other words, the Catholics are not even to Catholicize the Judaists' practice. Continuing, "As we expect the Jewish community to respect our tradition, we should respect the Jewish tradition." We Catholics should respect that which Our Lord died upon the Cross to replace and to make obsolete? We Catholics should treat as still living and active that which was brought to an end by Our Lord's death upon the Cross? We are emptying out the Cross!…That's exactly what these Catholics are doing! They are emptying out the Cross. They are making the Cross of no significance and of no importance. Their mentality is that the Jews are just as good as us Catholics and, as we expect them to respect our tradition, so must we respect theirs. It is madness! It is apostasy! It is heresy! It is blasphemy! It is very, very grave sin! And, at the very least, the bishop and priests should know that! Again reading, " 'Christians,' he said, 'have their own annual memorial of the events of Jesus' dying and rising and the two traditions should not be mixed. The integrity of the Jewish tradition should be protected.' Rabbi Leon agrees with the bishop. As Inter-Religious Affairs Director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in New York, Rabbi Leon sees the growing interest in the Seder as healthy so long as its integrity as a Jewish ritual is respected." Notice that all mention of the words of Jesus Christ and His being the Messias must be absolutely left out. "Rabbi Leon said he became concerned a few years ago when he noticed that some Catholic churches were adapting the Passover story, called the Haggadah, to include Christian prayers and references to Christ as the Messias. The rabbi complained to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said that the Catholic bishops responded by asking him to develop a suitable Haggadah in collaboration with a Catholic priest, Reverend Gabe Hoch of Chicago. The result was a booklet, The Passover Celebration: A Haggadah for the Seder, which Rabbi Leon said has sold over 100,000 copies and is in its fifth printing. Reverend Hoch says, 'We do not come to the Seder as to a history lesson or to a re-staging of the Last Supper of Jesus. We come to the Seder just as it is celebrated by Jews.' "

In other words, the Seder is celebrated as a denial that the Messias has come. We Catholics are intending to celebrate the Seder, as do the Jews, as denying the divinity of Jesus Christ! It could not be more clear! " 'We come to the Seder just as it is celebrated by Jews. To do so is to acknowledge common Biblical roots.' " These Biblical roots are not common. We Catholics have our biblical roots in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…yes! But do not think that these modern Jews have their roots in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our Lord, Himself, in the New Testament, says so: "You say that you have Moses for your father?" He asks the Pharisees, "In no way," says Our Lord. "Moses is not your father. You deny Moses by the way you are behaving—the way you are behaving towards Me." Those Pharisees are not the children of Moses and these modern Jews are not the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or, they are not the children of the Old Testament. They repudiate the Old Testament. Their "sacred scripture" in these synagogues is not the Old Testament. Their "sacred scripture" is the Talmud, which is a blasphemous and sacrilegious composition of horrors against Jesus and Mary, and against the Catholic religion and the Catholic Church. That's the religion followed by these Jews. They must be laughing up their sleeves when these Catholic bishops and Catholic priests come to beg them to show them how to practice the Seder! It is an incredible betrayal! And it is going on in the Bridgeport, Connecticut diocese. It is going on all over. And, of course, the problem is, it is coming from the very top of the Church.

How can the poor bishop of the diocese see straight when, if he tried to see straight or tried to act straight, he would immediately be put out because Rome would come down upon him like a ton of bricks. I call him "poor" insofar as he is not getting the support he needs to do what is right. But, the least he can do is resign. Any decent priest or bishop caught in a position like this, called upon to deny Our Lord Jesus Christ, to practice a religion denying Our Lord Jesus Christ, the very least he could do is resign. And, if they then want to come after him with machine guns and a concentration camp, that's all "in the contract." It is simply martyrdom. It has taken place in all the communist countries…why should it not take place in countries like here, well on their way to communism? The storm in the Church is graver and graver. We are not just sloshing up to our ankles in water, we are sloshing up to our knees and, soon, to our waists, in water. And, we were exactly like the apostles in the boat. Back in 1917, the Blessed Mother of God appeared at Fatima to tell us how to save the Church, what to do with the Church, what to do for and with the faith in this twentieth century of ours—this accursed twentieth century of ours! It is accursed because it is so Godless. But, it is not God that is abandoning us, no way! It is we who are abandoning God…we men! We think we know better! We have our twentieth century with our 747's, our 757's…we know all about fishing…Our Lord with His antiquated Church of His down the centuries…this Catholic Church really needs a bit of "up-dating." Our Lord was grand for the nineteen peasant centuries, but our twentieth century…we really know a bit better and we can really teach Our dear Lord a lesson. We love Him dearly, but He needs to be taught a lesson. So, we tell Our Lord, "Go to sleep in the bow of the boat and let us get on with saving Your Church. We'll save Your Church for You." And, Our Lord goes to sleep. And, He sleeps calmly…and He waits…and He is waiting, Our Divine Lord. He is waiting for us to come to Him, "Lord, help! Wake up! The ship is sinking! The ship is sinking!" Catholics are going—laity, priests, bishops, and pope, are going off their heads…with the best of intentions? God knows. But, "The way to hell is paved with good intentions," says the proverb. As far as the Catholic Faith is going, all of these people—these Catholics—are going off their heads. The poor pope, we do not despise him; we do not scorn him. Sentimentally, we are very attached to him. He is a dear Pole; he photographs very well; he is charismatic; he is very charming. Sentimentally, we are very attached to him, and there's no reason we should not be. But sentiments are not what matters. What does the Catholic Faith say? The Catholic Faith says that he is leading this respect of Judaism and respect of all these false religions.

In Assisi, on Monday, October 27, there was a group of Jews present at the Congress of Religions, the International Prayer Meeting at Assisi. And, as some of you may have seen in the papers, these Jews got together and prayed on the site of a synagogue which was destroyed in Assisi back in the fourteenth century, when Christians were Christians and Catholics were Catholics, and had the good sense to destroy the public buildings of the public practice of false religions! In a Catholic country, where Catholics have the means, power, and number to do so, for the honor of God, Catholics will destroy the public buildings of all false religions. Does that sound shocking to you? It's because you and I do not think like Catholics. It is because you and I have had tens and tens and hundreds of years of this nonsense of religious toleration—religious liberty—fed into us—spoon-fed into us, crammed into us. Religious liberty is a false ideal. Religious liberty is a direct insult to the Lord God of Hosts. Our Lord did not die upon the Cross in order to say, "Practice whatever religion you like. Here I am dying in agony, but I do not mind if you do not practice the Catholic religion." That is not Our Lord! Jesus is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Lord God of Hosts—holy, holy, holy—and a jealous God, as He told us. He is too good to tolerate our worshipping false devils and taking ourselves to hell. And so, in a sane age, the synagogues were destroyed. Now, you have the pope inviting the Jews to Assisi and approving of their meeting on a site of a former synagogue, undoubtedly to pick up again where they left off.

The Jews themselves absolutely need Catholic Catholics! The Jews, like the Protestants, attempt to pull the Catholics down. But when they succeed in pulling the Catholics down, the whole of society collapses. There's nothing left. When the Catholics do not take a stand on abortion, no one else will. The poor Protestants are waiting, needing, the Catholic lead, and they cannot do without it. These are false religions and the more they hate us Catholics, the more they need us Catholic Catholics. The more they corrupt and pervert our Catholicism the more they are, nevertheless, absolutely dependent upon our Catholic Catholicism! The Roman emperor, himself, needed these little girls, these martyrs, these saints—St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Lucy, and the others. They needed these little girls to stand up to them and tell them they were doing wrong. They did not think they needed them, but they did. And, you and I, with the gifts of God, with the gift of the Catholic Faith that you and I have received, you and I have got to stand up to this crazy world in the name of God—not for ourselves, nor because we despise our fellow man. Sentimentally, we love our fellow men. But we do not love their errors which are in the process of taking millions and millions of souls to hell, or are in imminent danger and risk of taking so many souls to hell.

What is the answer? I was just saying that back in 1917 when this world was flinging itself into this craziness, this diabolical craziness of communism, the Mother of God gave us the answer. Our Lady of Fatima gave us the answer: The practice of the devotion to her Immaculate Heart and the consecration of Russia—not just the world—of Russia, to her Immaculate Heart. That is what she asked for. In 1942, Pius XII consecrated the world to her Immaculate Heart. That is not what she asked for. However political and prudent Pius XII may have been, he did not do what the Mother of God asked for and the trouble continued. The result of that war (1939-45) was the great advance of communism. That is the one real result of the Second World War, the stupendous strides taken by Communism…Russia's grip over the whole of eastern Europe and ever since then, of course. Recently, Nicaragua came into her grip. Next, it will be Mexico and then, it is this country.

We are up to our waist, soon, in water. And, the boat is sinking. Now, not just the boat of the Church, everything, collapsing and sinking. And, do we still think we know best?

The main problem is inside the Church—make no mistake—and at the very summit of the Church. 1960—just before the Vatican Council—was the year that Sister Lucy said was the latest date for the revealing of the Third Secret of Fatima. Pope Pius XII did not read the Third Secret of Fatima. He did not want to read it. John XXIII read it, probably in 1959. And he kept it quiet, put it back in the drawer. He did not want it to get out because that Secret undoubtedly tells of a great crisis of faith in the Church. But, "the fishermen" thought they knew better. "Lord, just kindly stay in the drawer, will You? Leave us to save Your Church for You because we know better." And of course the storm is just getting worse and worse. The crazy falsifying of Catholicism which came in with the Second Vatican Council has been producing, for the last twenty years, its poison fruits which get worse and worse. But it seems by the dispositions of today's churchmen that they will have to be up to their necks—or even up to their nostrils—in water! They will have to be drowning inside the boat before they will come back to the Mother of God with her Secret!

Let us reveal the Secret. Let us carry out the consecration of Russia, as she asked for. "It will be done," says Our Lord. "It will be done, but very late…but, it will be late."

It is getting late now as Communism continues to stride ahead—a religious, primarily a religious problem, not just a political problem. The Communists are not in politics; the Communists are in religion! They are driving against God. Communism is an anti-religion before it is politics. It is simply the political means to carry out this anti-religious program, above all an anti-Christian program. It is the program of the Anti-Christ. Communism is one of the greatest instruments of the Anti-Christ; that is what it is. And that is why Catholic priests may and should talk about Communism.

It looks as though we are going to have to practically drown before we will turn to Jesus and His Mother and ask them for the solution. And our Mother has given us the solution—the Third Secret—which tells us what the truth really is and then the means for the churchmen to do their duty—that "the Fisherman of Peter" do his duty, which is to carry out this consecration in union with all the bishops of the world, including the poor bishop of the Bridgeport Diocese. (Would the Bishop of Bridgeport do it today? Maybe it will take terrorists and the subversives machine-gunning his house down in Bridgeport before he will do it.) Probably, things have to get much worse yet before these poor churchmen come to their senses and do what Our Lord says and wake up to the means laid down by Our Lord to calm the storm.

But, it will happen, says Our Lord; it will happen, but late. And then, of course, when Our Lord moves…when the fishermen at last turn to Our Lord and to His Mother…of course, Our Lord will stand up and, of course, the whole storm will just lie down in front of Our Lord like a little dog—like an obedient little dog, tucking in his paws in front—and the whole storm will die down.

But the fishermen will have to learn their lesson. It is rough in the meantime. Let us pray. Let us pray for the poor "Fisherman of Peter." And let us pray for the great churchman who is telling us the truth, Archbishop Lefebvre. Sentimentally, the things he says grate. We do not like what he says; we think sentimentally, that he seems to be disrespecting the pope. It seems to us that he is not honoring the pope's good intentions. It seems to us that he is divisive. Sentimentally, it means all kinds of things. But according to the Faith, it is clear that the pope, who approves of what happened in Assisi, which was a kind of inter-religious circus according to the descriptions of the newspapers, is casting terrible discredit upon the Catholic name, causing terrible scandal to millions of Catholic souls. And so, Archbishop Lefebvre is standing up to Peter, and telling him to do his duty, and reminding him of what his duty is, just like Paul had to tell St. Peter to do his duty. In the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians when St. Peter was, believe it or not, "judaizing"—getting too close to the Jews—and risking the corruption of Catholics because of it, Paul, a very, very devout Jew, but a Catholic Jew, had to stand up to Peter and tell him what was what. And Peter had the humility to do what Paul told him. Archbishop Lefebvre has to stand up and tell the pope what he is doing right and what he is doing wrong! And you and I will be wise to pray for Archbishop Lefebvre. God, if His gifts are not appreciated, takes them away. Archbishop Lefebvre is a stupendous gift to our poor, bewildered, confused and Godless twentieth century. But you and I must appreciate that gift. God has already worked a miracle to give him the health and stamina that he has had over the last several years. In a few weeks, he will be 81 years old. And yet he is still traveling, defending the Faith. His mind is perfectly clear. They keep trying to say that he is senile, whatever…his various enemies keep saying he is senile…nothing of the kind! This is a stupendous gift of God. If you and I appreciate the gifts of God, God will give us more of them. If we do not appreciate them God could take them away—even the Archbishop.

Let us pray for the Archbishop and see, understand with our faith, what he is doing, and let us stand square behind him. Notice that the Archbishop is not disrespectful to the Pope. He is speaking to him like a son speaks to a gravely erring father. A son is not obliged to do everything that his father does, especially when his father is going crazy. As a good son he will tell his father what he is doing wrong and try to urge him to do what is right—exactly the behavior of Archbishop Lefebvre! Do not be shocked by the strong and firm and respectful letters of Archbishop Lefebvre which are coming out now. They are in the defense of the Faith. Archbishop Lefebvre is an absolute hero and champion of the Catholic Faith such as there have been few in the history of the Church.

There is the answer. Let us pray for Archbishop Lefebvre. Let us pray for the Pope like we would pray for Peter while the boat is filling with water, "Peter, go and wake up Jesus. Peter, go and do what Mary told you to do. You want water turned into wine; you want the storm turned into calm…do what my Son tells you. Do what Jesus tells you. Go and do what Mary told you: reveal the Third Secret of Fatima, admit that you have made a mistake. Vatican II is a colossal error. You are absolutely on the wrong path. Admit it! Reveal the Secret! Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Jesus' Mother!"

There is where the salvation of the Church lies. And of course, of course, of course, the Catholic Church will be saved. It will survive this crisis even if this crisis gets fifty times worse yet. The Catholic Church cannot possibly perish!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Amen.