The
Election of Barack Obama
and Divine Providence
From John Vennari
November 5, 2008
We wish to thank all those who took part in
the nine-day Rosary Novena prior to the US Presidential election.
Despite our prayers, the nation chose the party of abortion, of “gay” marriage and of death.
At Fatima, when little Lucia asked Our
Lady if Francisco will go to heaven, Our Lady said, “Yes, but he must say many
rosaries.”
Our Lady did not say “one Rosary” or
“a couple of Rosaries”, but “many Rosaries.”
Though we all offered this Rosary
novena -- and countless other prayers and sacrifices -- to keep the most radical, most pro-death candidate in American history
from becoming president, it seems that there were not enough prayers, not
enough good people working to overcome the immeasurable evil that now blankets
our nation. There was no call for a nationwide Rosary campaign from our
nations’ bishops, which most certainly would have made the difference.
Most of the US bishops did
not call for a crusade of prayer, nor did they mobilize the people under their
charge in any effective manner. Rather, if they did anything, it seems most bishops
simply signed a joint statement, or published a pro-life/election article in
their diocesan papers – publications that
since Vatican II have grown so weak, uninspiring, and sometimes heretical, that
many Catholics stop reading them years ago. (There were some worthy exceptions,
such as Bishop Curtis of Nebraska
who had a strong pro-life message read at every Mass on the Sunday prior to the
election.)
There
is another issue that must be faced calmly and without emotion. This
Election shows in broad strokes the utter failure of the Second Vatican Council.
The promise of the entire modernist push at Vatican II was to introduce change
to make the Church more "relevant" to modern man. So our leaders
abandoned the age-old magisterial teaching on the Social Kingship of Christ
in favor of a weak dialogue with the world. They told governments of Catholic
countries to remove any reference to a "Catholic State" from their
constitutions. Our leaders forsook the doctrine
on the Church as the one and only ark of salvation to favor a modernist ecumenism
always condemned by the perennial teaching of the centuries.
In the name of
Vatican II, modern Church leaders undermined doctrine, abandoned discipline,
caused confusion among the faithful, promoted perverted sex-education
(and shouted down Catholic parents who objected to sex-ed in Catholic schools),
refused to reign in heretical priests and religious, and refused to discipline
pro-abortion politicians.
The
net effect of Vatican II's modernization is a weak, effeminate, scandal-ridden
and disoriented Church that, as this election proves, has become utterly
irrelevant to the thought-process of not only the average American,
but of the average American Catholic. Even the most basic issues
of the natural moral law, such as abortion and homosexuality, cannot be upheld by
vast numbers of Catholics who lined up to vote for the pro-abortion Senator from Illinois.
Let us pray
that our Church leaders take this massive defeat as a wake-up call. May they
soon return to the doctrinal and mortal stability of Blessed Pope Pius IX, Leo
XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict V, Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII. Rhetorical promises
of a "new springtime" and a "civilization of love" will
no longer suffice.
As
for our own poor efforts in leading up to this election, we know that Heaven heard our
prayers, and that graces have been won. No prayer is ever wasted. The good our
prayers and our
novenas have done for ourselves, for souls, and for the good of the nation will
only be known in eternity. Let us cling to our Rosaries, as we may now find we
need Our Blessed Mother -- Conqueror of all Heresies -- more than ever. Our Lady of Fatima said, "Only
I can help you."
As the nation and the world head
into an uncertain and frightening period it is also a good time for us to renew
the resolve to abandon ourselves to Divine Providence. It is God alone who
knows the future and Who will lead us through whatever the future brings.
Father Garrigou Lagrange, a theologian and master of the Spiritual Life, gives
us four principles on abandonment to Divine Providence.
Abandonment to Divine Providence
By Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Why
should we abandon ourselves to Divine Providence? The answer of every Christian will be that the reason lies in
the wisdom and goodness of Providence.
This is very true; nevertheless, if we are to have a proper understanding of
the subject, if we are to avoid the error of the Quietists in renouncing more
or less the virtue of hope and the struggle necessary for salvation, if we are
to avoid also the other extreme of disquiet, precipitation, and a feverish,
fruitless agitation, it is expedient for us to lay down four principles already
somewhat accessible to natural reason and clearly set forth in revelation as
found in Scripture. These principles underlying the true doctrine of
self-abandonment also bring out the motive inspiring it.
The
first of these principles is that everything which comes to pass has
been foreseen by God from all eternity, and has been willed or at least
permitted by Him.
Nothing
comes to pass either in the material or in the spiritual world, but God has
foreseen it from all eternity; because with Him there is no passing from
ignorance to knowledge as with us, and He has nothing to learn from events as
they occur. Not only has God foreseen everything that is happening now or will
happen in the future, but whatever reality and goodness there is in these
things He has willed; and whatever evil or moral disorder is in them, He has
merely permitted. Holy Scripture is explicit on this point, and, as the
Councils have declared, no room is left for doubt in the matter.
The
second principle is that nothing can be willed or permitted by God that
does not contribute to the end He purposed in creating, which is the
manifestation of His goodness and infinite perfections, and the glory of the
God-man Jesus Christ, His only Son. As
In
addition to these two principles, there is a third, which
These
first three principles may therefore be summed up in this way; Nothing comes to
pass but God has foreseen it, willed it or at least permitted it. He wills
nothing, permits nothing, unless for the manifestation of His goodness and
infinite perfections, for the glory of His Son, and the welfare of those that
love Him. In view of these three principles, it is evident that our trust in
In
view of Quietism, however, this last sentence obliges us to lay down a fourth
principle no less certain than the principles that have preceded. The principle
is, that obviously self-abandonment does not dispense us from doing
everything in our power to fulfill God's will as made known in the
Commandments and counsels, and in the events of life; but so long as we have
the sincere desire to carry out His will thus made known from day to day, we
can and indeed we must abandon ourselves for the rest to the Divine Will of
good pleasure, no matter how mysterious it may be, and thus avoid a useless
disquiet and mere agitation.
This
fourth principle is expressed in equivalent terms by the Council of Trent
(Sess. VI, cap. 13), when it declares that we must all have firm hope in God's
assistance and put our trust in Him, being careful at the same time to keep His
commandments. As the well-known proverb has it: “Do what you ought, come what
may.”
All
theologians explain what is meant by the Divine Will as expressed:
expressed, that is, in the Commandments, in the spirit underlying the counsels,
and in the events of life. They add that, while conforming ourselves to His
expressed will, we must abandon ourselves to His Divine Will of good pleasure,
however mysterious it may be, for we are certain beforehand that in its
holiness it wills nothing, permits nothing, unless for a good purpose.
We
must take special note here of these words in the Gospel of St. Luke “He that
is faithful in that which is 1east is faithfu1 also in that which is greater.”
(16: 10). If every day we do what we can to be faithful to God in the ordinary
routine of life, we may be confident that He will give us grace to remain faithful
in whatever extremity we may find ourselves through His permission; and if we
have to suffer for Him, He will give us the grace to die a heroic death rather
than be ashamed of Him and betray Him.
These
are the principles underlying the doctrine of trusting self-abandonment.
Accepted as they are by all theologians, they express what is of Christian
faith in this matter. The golden mean is thus above and between the two errors
mentioned at the beginning of this section. By constant fidelity to duty, we
avoid the false and idle repose of the. Quietist, and on the other hand by a
trustful self-abandonment we are saved from a useless disquiet and a fruitless
agitation. Self abandonment would be sloth did it not presuppose this daily
fidelity, which indeed is a sort of springboard from which we may safely launch
ourselves into the unknown. Daily fidelity to the Divine Will as expressed
gives us a sort of right to abandon ourselves completely to the Divine Will of
of good pleasure as yet not made known to us.
A
faithful soul will often recall to mind these words of our Lord: “My meat is to
do the will of Him that sent me”(John 4: 34). The soul finds its
constant nourishment in the divine will as expressed, abandoning itself to the Divine
Will as yet not made known, much as a swimmer supports himself on the
passing wave and surrenders himself to the oncoming wave, to that ocean that
might engulf him but that actually sustains him. So the soul must strike out
toward the open sea, into the infinite ocean of being, says St. John
Damascence, borne up by the Divine Will as made known there and then and
abandoning itself to that divine will upon which all successive moments of the
future depend. The future is with God, future events are in His hands. If the
merchants to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren had passed by one hour
sooner, he would not have gone into
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