Hilaire Belloc, Red Flags, and Those Catholic Bones

Something Hilaire Belloc wrote about the great heresies brings to mind "Red Flags" - a topic I've not written about for quite some time, but which is addressed at length in my books on Catholic home education (the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guides).

Originally, the "Red Flag List" was intended to assist Catholic homeschooling parents, who buy their curriculum at conferences or via "educational catalogs." However, "Red Flags" in books, television shows, movies, etc. (as in ad nauseum) abound for Catholics everywhere and in every state of life (single, married, young parent or grandparent, priest or nun). Now, unless we live on a desert island, we must be on guard against "the spirit of the world" which is much worse than "The Blob" (in the old "B" movie), a dangerous and seeping entity that literally consumed everything in its path.

At any rate, the primary reason for constructing the "Red Flag List" was a simple but important one: Dangerous novelties (in the form of books) were quickly becoming the "fashion" in Catholic home education, and the alarm had to be sounded.

The main problem began oh-so-innocently, of course, and for a variety of reasons. It started with allegedly "Christian" books that were, in fact, of heretical origin. Much could be said, and has been, on tolerating a few such sources within the home study curriculum (under certain circumstances), so that issue won't be discussed again in this article.

As time passes, the "novelties" become even worse with "fashionable" resources that present themselves as Catholic, are even "hailed" as Catholic (though they are chock-full of subtle phrases or ambiguous terminology), and are then found in Catholic catalogs (for homeschoolers or of general interest to all Catholics).

The problem continues with "catholicizing" heretical books and implementing new or "resurrected" educational methods (Dewey comes to mind, but there are many other educational 'reformers' to avoid). Too, many people still refuse to believe that educational method is simply the means of bringing a philosophy to life.

It is only because we tolerate such errors that such "novelties" are still with us and grow even stronger as they are thus passed onto the next generation. The basic formula to error, which must be recognized in order to avoid its use (especially in Catholic education), might be expressed this way:

"Novelties" + "Fashions-in-contemporary-thought" = "Errors" (Heresies)

A "Red Flag" is (and always has been) the Catholic instinct alerting us that something we've read or heard or are urged to do is not quite right. We may not yet be able to explain the uneasiness, but it is - to paraphrase Hilaire Belloc - something we know in our Christian bones.

Feelings, of course, cannot be trusted, since they are not the same as the Catholic instinct, that sensei fide that makes us wonder about the why's and wherefore's to the questions arising in our minds. Sensei fide keeps nudging at us to pay attention with our reason, illuminated by Divine Revelation. That "sense of the Faith" is what is meant by a "Red Flag"...and when the instinct is particularly strong, the Red Flag is waving!

As for Hilaire Belloc (and to conclude this purposely brief post), ponder - if you will - this observation from none other than the famous Catholic historian and apologist himself:

"Now against the great heresies, when they acquire the driving power of being the new and fashionable thing, there arises a reaction within the Christian and Catholic mind, which reaction gradually turns the current backward, gets rid of the poison and re-establishes Christian civilization. Such reactions begin, I repeat, obscurely. It is the plain man who gets uncomfortable and says to himself, 'This may be the fashion of the moment,
but I don't like it.' It is the mass of Christian men who feel in their bones that there is something wrong, though they have difficulty in explaining it. The reaction is usually slow and muddled and for a long time not successful. But in the long run with internal heresy it has always succeeded; just as the native health of the human body succeeds in getting
rid of some internal infection."

-Hilaire Belloc, The Great Heresies

The One Thing Necessary

July 13 marks an important date in salvation history. It is the date when, in 1917, Our Lady addressed essential matters of Divine Revelation in a way never before known in the Church’s chronicles. With the third stage of the Great Revolt against God already commencing,[1] the Virgin Mary came to Fatima to remind each person throughout the world of the one thing necessary: the salvation of our individual souls through devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

Fatima: The Promises and the Prophecies
“In the whole cycle of the apparitions, that of July 13 is unquestionably the most important,” wrote Fatima historian Frère Michel. “It is the central apparition which the two previous ones prepared for and the three subsequent ones were to confirm.” [2]

As a battalion within the Church Militant advances the Rosary Crusade for the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, we cannot forget the details from whence issues our cause. As we pray, study, and act in this Crusade of authentic Catholic Action, we must remain focused on this central July apparition at Fatima because, as Frère Michel observed, “The history and the content of this extraordinary message is unprecedented in all the history of the Church...”[3]

Our Lady chose the third apparition in July - the month in which the Church especially honors the Most Precious Blood of Jesus shed for our redemption - to disclose four matters of import: 1) a three-fold promise for October, including a miracle which, when fulfilled, occurred in three stages, 2) the prophecies of the Great Secret, comprised of three distinct parts, 3) a prayer of sacrifice, with three pleas to Jesus, and 4) an addition after each Rosary decade, a prayer of three entreaties to Our Savior.

The Three-fold Promise: “In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.”[4] The Lady made this promise a mere moment before revealing the Great Secret.

The Miracle, as Frère Michel notes, “would guarantee the divine origin of the secret, as well as the fulfillment of this prophetic secret. Thus the great miracle of October 13 was closely associated, by the Blessed Virgin Herself, not only with the whole of Her message, but especially with the prophetic text of July 13.”[5]

The Sacrifice Prayer with three intentions: The Lady, who from the beginning of the apparitions displayed consistent concern for sinners, said: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”[6] In this brief offering, we recognize three points: A prayer addressed to Jesus which speaks of love for Him, offers sacrifice for the souls of others, and makes an act of reparation for sins.

The First Part of the Great Secret: In speaking those last words, Our Lady opened Her hands…from which “rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire,” Sr. Lucia wrote. “Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellant likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent, like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady…”[7]

Unexpectedly, the very first part of the Great Secret, given to three young children, was a momentary but soul-searing glimpse of hell. Terrifying as it was, the Vision of Hell was truly one of Heaven’s last recourses of mercy to a world already steeped in sin. This frightening vision further transformed the increasingly holy interior lives of the three Fatima children, who would valiantly fulfill their roles as faithful witnesses and selfless victims of reparation. The children’s unswerving fidelity to the Lady and the entire Message of Fatima, and their great sacrifices for the sake of others, testify to the reality of eternal hell - a reality which Heaven saw fit to reveal to them in the First Part of the Great Secret.

The Second Part of the Great Secret: “If What I Say to You is Done…” Our Lady then gave the Second Secret, “You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them [poor sinners], God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.”

“The war [WWI] is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light,[8] know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.”

“To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.”

“In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace [era of peace, in another translation] will be granted to the world.”[9]

The Third Secret begins with the words, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.”[10] While at least a part of the Third Secret Vision is now known, the Virgin’s Message relating to it remains yet concealed. Pope Benedict XVI, however, knows the words Our Lady spoke in the “Third Secret” of Fatima, for he read them when he was known as Cardinal Ratzinger.

In an article written last October on the Great Miracle of the Sun, it was noted, “In 1984, after admitting he [Cardinal Ratzinger] had read the Third Secret, he was asked why it was still not released. His response revealed that the Third Secret possesses the following “six themes” (mysteriously correlating with the same number of times Our Lady appeared at Fatima): 1) It is in accord with Divine Revelation, 2) It demands a radical call to conversion and penance, 3) It refers to the absolute importance of history, 4) It alerts the Church and the world to the dangers threatening the faith, the life of the Christian and therefore the world, 5) It is integral to the importance of the last times, and 6) Although it could be mistaken for sensationalism, it is nevertheless a religious prophesy corresponding to Scripture and confirmed by many other Marian apparitions.” [11]

“Might these six themes of the Third Secret direct our attention to one or more of the ‘six signs’[12] of the last times, given by Christ Himself? They, too, fall within the realm of ‘the absolute importance of history,’ for ‘salvation history’ centers on two things: The Incarnation of Christ, when Our Lord came to offer Redemption and Mercy, and His Second Coming, when He will come as Just Judge.”[13]

The Rosary Decade Prayer, with three intentions: To return to the sequence of events during the July apparition, it was at some point after revealing to the children the Third Secret - either after its Message or Vision - that Our Lady said, “When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those with the greatest need of Thy Mercy.”[14]

Of the latter part of this prayer – “especially those with the greatest need of Thy Mercy” - Sr. Lucia would years later humbly explain “that Our Lady was referring to the souls in the greatest danger of damnation.” [15]

In October, the Lady kept all three of Her promises. With her first sentence, She revealed two of three things She wanted, as well as Her title: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in My honor, for I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day.” [16]

Those unadorned words verify the Virgin’s statement in June that Her Immaculate Heart leads us to God - for every Catholic chapel contains the Hidden Presence of Jesus. By praying the Rosary every day, we cultivate the practice of prayer and meditation on the lives of Christ and His Virgin Mother, we gain all 15 promises Our Lady gave to those faithful to Her Rosary, we grow further confident in Jesus and Mary, and we may gain a daily plenary indulgence (under the proper conditions).

The final desire of Our Lady of the Rosary - given just before opening Her hands to initiate the Great Miracle of the Sun – was made known in the form of a most solemn and grieved command: “People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too much offended.”[17]

A Mystical Doctrine
“Fatima is indeed a mystical doctrine or, so to speak, a devotion completely centered on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the consecration and reparation due it. It is also the fully traditional conception of religion and theology, completely oriented toward the last ends without any compromise with the world, or the idle dreams of Christian progressivism…it is a politics of Christendom which invites the Church to stand up resolutely to the gravest peril of the hour…” [18]

The whole Message of Fatima, including the Great Secret and the Great Miracle of the Sun, plumbs oceanic depths of the Faith which this brief essay must merely outline:

• The Lady’s gentle but insistent command to the Pope to consecrate Russia, in union with the world’s bishops, to Her Immaculate Heart is intended to save the Church’s human element, convert sinners, and remind the Vicar of the dignity, the authority, and the duties of his high office. As reigning Steward of the Catholic City, the Pope’s role, which safeguards the Deposit of Faith, is intended for the salvation of souls.

• The Virgin Mother of God also wishes the Vicar of Christ to universally promulgate the Five First Saturdays of Reparation for the blasphemies made against Her Most Amiable Heart. With her specific requests to the Pope, Our Lady desires that the Vicar of Her Divine Son’s Church recalls his solemn obligation to preserve the Faith, whole and intact, in “restoring all things in Christ.”[19] As Steward, he is guardian of the Church. As such, it is the Pope’s honor and duty to obey the Queen of the Catholic City, just as He must obey the King, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

• The Virgin’s insistence that the bishops must join the Holy Father in the Collegial Consecration reminds the princes of the Church that their offices, while elevated, remain subordinate to the Holy Father; they, too, must obey his lawful commands. With the Pope – whose responsibility is even greater than theirs - they are accountable to God for the souls placed under their care.

• Finally, the Blessed Mother stated succinctly, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart” – a devotion to the Mediatrix of all Graces, the final recourse to save “poor sinners” from hell. Decades have passed since the Virgin Mary uttered those words, and still we do not see this devotion universally practiced, much less promulgated by the Church’s pastors.

While we cannot be certain which will come first – the Collegial Consecration of Russia or the worldwide devotion to Our Lady’s Heart - we do know that we should follow Our Lady’s other five requests, addressed to each and every one of us, from the Pope in Rome to the least of God’s little ones.

The five things for which the Lady of the Rosary asked of us are as straightforward as they are profound. Intended to sanctify us and keep us on the path of ongoing conversion (the secret of the interior life), these five practices must be well-memorized, shared with others and, above all, practiced. They are as follows: the daily Rosary, faithful accomplishment of daily duty (as Catholics and also in our states in life), sacrifice for the conversion of sinners, the wearing of the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, and our devotion to the Five First Saturdays of Reparation.

In heeding these five requests of the Mother of God, we shall deepen devotion to the Immaculate Heart in our own lives and that of our families, hopefully make further steps in the three conversions of the interior life, assist God (Who usually acts through people) in the conversion of our fellow sinners, and attain salvation.

The “Business” of Salvation
In its entirety, then, the Fatima Message is given for the sake of all who must battle for their souls in the most dangerous of times – the age of the great apostasy. The Message, Miracle and Secret rest on a central theme of salvation in three parts. First is the salvation of souls; second is the salvation of the nations and of Christendom, the peace of the world; and third is the preservation of the Catholic Faith and the salvation of the Church.[20]

“Truly, it is the greatest of errors to neglect the business of eternal salvation,” said St. Eucherius, a truth upon which St. Alphonsus de Liguori further elaborated by saying “it is an error that exceeds all others, for to lose the soul is a mistake without a remedy.”[21]

“One thing is necessary,” wrote St. Alphonsus as he emphatically quoted the Gospel of St. Luke, “the salvation of our souls…For this God has placed us here: not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire by our good works the eternal kingdom that is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation.”[22]

“Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge, and the path that leads you to God.” [23](Our Lady of Fatima)

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Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). "The One Thing Necessary" was published in CFN's July 2009 issue. All Rights Reserved World-wide by the author.

Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic, is the author of “The Age of Mary” Study Guides, a series of “digitally delivered” Catholic unit studies for homeschooled teens - as well as adults or anyone who wishes to grow closer “to Jesus through Mary.” Her other works include the upcoming digital Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II). Mrs. Bartold was the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family Magnificat! Magazine
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Notes
[1] Marianna Bartold, “Fatima’s Miracle of the Sun: The Meaning of the Great Sign,” Catholic Family News, Oct. 2008.
[2] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: Science and the Facts, Vol. I [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989]: pp. 185-186.
[3] Ibid., p. 187.
[4] Ibid, p.181.
[5] Ibid., p.187.
[6] Sister Mary Lucia of the Immaculate Heart, Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words: Sister Lucia’s Memoirs [Fatima, Portugal: Postulation Centre, 1976]: p. 165
[7] Ibid., p. 167.
[8] “This was the aurora borealis on the night of January 25-26, 1938, which was unusual, and always regarded by Lucia as the God-given sign which had been promised.” Cited in Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words by editor Fr. Louis Kondor, SVD: p. 190.
[9] Sister Mary Lucia, loc. cit.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Bartold, loc. cit.
[12] Lk. 21: 10-11, Mt 7: 7, 11, 14. The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version. [Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1899 edition photographically reproduced].
[13] Bartold, loc. cit.
[14] Sister Mary Lucia, loc. cit., pp. 167-168
[15] Frère Michel, op. cit., footnote 29: p. 212.
[16] Sister Mary Lucia, op. cit., p. 172.
[17] Frère Michel, op. cit., p. 291.
[18] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: The Secret and the Church, Vol. II [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989]: p. 770. [Emphasis in the original]
[19] Ephes. 1:10
[20] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, op. cit., pp. 9-10.
[21] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Way of Salvation and Perfection [Brooklyn, NY: Redemptorist Fathers, 1926]: p. 254.
[22] Ibid., p. 42.
[23] Sr. Mary Lucia, op. cit., p. 163.