Banned Near Boston: Why You Won't Be Seeing Me at the St. Benedict Center Conference
Ever since my conversion to Catholicism, by God's grace, on Easter of 1986, I have studied and struggled to adequately account for the prevailing heterodoxy -- if not outright apostasy -- of the post-Vatican II establishment.
For nearly two decades I resisted the rather troubling results of my researches. But, as all readers of these words presumably know by now, early last year I finally came to some decidedly unpopular but unavoidable conclusions regarding the un-Catholic nature of the Vatican II “Church,” due to its novel doctrines in the areas of ecclesiology, ecumenism, Church-state relations, and religious liberty (all condemned previously by the Church's Magisterium); its tampered-with (and in some cases clearly invalid) sacraments and worship; and, in its new code of canon law and other legislation, the permission for and promotion of actions previously condemned as sinful, sacrilegious, and contrary to divine law.
The doctrine of the Church's indefectibility, based on Our Lord's promise that "the gates of hell will never prevail against Her" (Matthew 16:18) and other statements found in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the constant teaching of the Magisterium, guarantees that Holy Mother Church -- Christ's one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church -- not only will merely survive in bare existence -- that is, not only that She will never cease to be -- but also that She will never cease to be essentially what She is, that She will never therefore teach Her children heresy, offer Her children doubtful sacraments or impious worship, or legislate for Her children iniquitous laws. When we see a "Church" doing those very things, therefore, we know that we are not looking at Christ's Church (however much it might hold of the Church's former "real estate," as happened to the Church in England as a result of the English "Reformation"); we are instead looking at a clever counterfeit, the Great Whore of Babylon that St. John in his Apocalypse contrasts with the Lamb's immaculate Bride -- the latter the True Church, the former a false one.
I came to see that the brilliantly executed global takeoever (not just regional, as in the aforementioned English Reformation) of the infrastructures of the Church by her long-standing enemies over the last fifty years was simply the God-ordained fulfillment, not only of the prophecies of Sacred Scripture, not only of Our Lady of LaSalette's words in 1846 ("In the last days Rome itself will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist ... The Church will be in eclipse"), but also of the program of infiltration, subversion, and, finally, imitation of the True Church, outlined in the Freemasonic document of the same century known as the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita, enabled by the abundantly chronicled collaboration of the men sitting in the See of Peter since Pius XII's death in 1958 with the Church's historic enemies in the camps of Freemasonry, Communism, and Talmudic Judaism.
This mutinous undertaking was also revealed by God to the Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich in her visions of a "counterfeit church" that would be set up in Rome. It was revealed as well to Leo XIII in his famous vision in 1888, and referred to by him in a startling passage in the original, longer version of the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel which the pope penned on September 25, 1888 after his vision, a prayer which he ordered to be recited after every Mass (an order the Novus Ordo Church conspicuously disobeys). Not surprisingly, that very passage in Leo XIII's original prayer -- "In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominble impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered" -- was subsequently suppressed by Freemasons within the Church hierarchy, and omitted from the truncated, expurgated versions of the prayer found in later editions of the Raccolta. It was revealed to St. Nicholas of Flue, to St. Francis of Assisi, to the stigmatist Blessed Marie-Julie Jahenny, and, I am convinced, by Our Lady of Fatima in the authentic Third Secret, which has yet to be revealed (as opposed to the bogus "secret" published in 2000 by a bogus church).
This program, though inspired by our ancient Enemy the Serpent, has been nevertheless permitted by God in His all-encompassing Providence in order to bring about the great apostasy, the supreme trial, the near total loss of the True Faith predicted by Sacred Scripture for the last days (Daniel 11, Matthew 24, Luke 18:8, 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 Timothy 4:1, Apocalypse of St. John).
As a result of my coming to these convictions I was of course no longer considered suitable as a speaker and vendor at (among other places) the St. Benedict Center of NH’s conference held each summer in
My exclusion from the SBC lineup of speakers was initially both an occasion of sadness and a sacrifice for me. I had enjoyed speaking at this annual conference over the last ten or so years, and had grown fond of many of the people who congregate there, just as I am fond of the staff and the religious of the SBC of NH – indeed, of all the various Saint Benedict Centers, all of whom have shown me, over the years, great charity, heartwarming hospitality and genuine friendship. Their historic and valiant defense of the defined dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus (“Outside the Church No Salvation”) and of the Church’s solemn magisterial teaching on the absolute necessity of the sacrament of water baptism (e.g., Council of Trent, Canons 2 and 5 on the Sacrament of Baptism) have helped me to understand, and inspired me to likewise champion, these crucial dogmas so widely denied in our day.
I can never repay the debt I owe to the various Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary – especially to the late Mother Theresa and all the Sisters of St. Anne’s House in Still River, Massachusetts, for their many kindnesses; to Brother Thomas Augustine and the other brothers and sisters at Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel and School; to the intrepid St. Benedict sisters of Vienna, Ohio; to Brother Charles Coulombe and company from “St. Benedict Center West” in California; and, not least, to Brother André Marie, Brother Francis, Doug Bersaw, and the other religious and staff at the St. Benedict Center of NH, as well as to the many apostolates, both clerical (such as Fr. Abbott Gabriel and the other priests and brothers at St. Benedict Abbey) and lay (I think, for example, of Vin Lewis’s ARM, Adam Miller’s Tower of David Ministry, and especially the annual St. Joseph's Mid-west Catholic Forum, provided each year at great cost by the hard-working and self-effacing Michael Chabot) that are “spin-offs,” in a sense, of one of the above centers. I considered it my privilege to have known, and counted as friends, all of these people for a number of years.
Of course, I am both saddened and puzzled that, so far, none of these people has, to my knowledge, yet come to these conclusions, at least publicly -- though of course many other Catholics have over the last fifty years.
Although no longer a part of the speakers’ lineup at the annual SBC Fitchburg conference, I nevertheless (or rather, therefore) decided – since I was already going to be speaking in various cities in New England around the same time as this year's SBC conference (August 18-20) – to insert an interlocutory interlude into my itinerary. I therefore registered myself (along with one of my children) as a paying guest at the conference, hoping, during breaks and over meals throughout the three days of the conference, to engage the speakers and other attendees in some conversations regarding the true nature of the current crisis in the Church. I hoped to converse on these matters just as all the other guests do, and as is surely every guest's right. That I was attending the conference for this very reason had been publicly posted on my website for quite some time.
Brother André Marie, the prior of the
Needless to say, this deeply disappointed not only me but others who had looked forward to having an open-minded, honest discussion of these issues with me at the conference. Brother André’s ban also constituted a major upheaval in my plans in an already extremely-complicated New England trip, and has necessitated some hasty and cumbersome adjustments and additions to my speaking and traveling schedule in order to efficiently utilize the free time that I now unexpectedly found on my hands – time that I had planned on spending at a conference that I was no longer to be allowed to attend.
The changes are as follows. After speaking (as previously planned) in Fitchburg MA on Thursday night, August 17 (the night before the SBC conference begins), since I will not be allowed to stay for the conference, I will instead be retracing my steps back to, and past, Portsmouth NH (where I will have just spoken on Wednesday evening, August 16), to speak in Portland, Maine on Friday night, August 18.
In order to accommodate those who had hoped to speak with me at the SBC conference, I will then drive back to Massachusetts and on Saturday afternoon, August 19, from 1:30 to 5:30 pm, at the Holiday Inn, 500 Lincoln St, in Worcester, Massachusetts (exit 20 off I-290 onto Lincoln St; the hotel is ½ mile on the left), I will give a special FREE two-part talk (1:30- 3:30 pm) substantiating from Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium – all of which are infallible rules of faith for the faithful Catholic – my position on the New Mass & sacraments, Vatican II, and on the recent occupants of the See of Peter (John XXIII through Benedict XVI).
This will be followed by a two-hour Q & A and discussion session in which everyone who cares to come will have abundant opportunity to ask all their questions, voice their objections, carefully weigh all the arguments and counter-arguments, and come to soundly Catholic conclusions regarding the nature of the current crisis. I’m hoping that this can serve as a model for how concerned Catholics can come together to honestly, open-mindedly, and charitably discuss these vexing issues, all in a spirit of true submission to the perennial teachings of the Church.
Attendees and speakers from the SBC conference are warmly welcome to come to this FREE seminar. The 1:30 pm start time and 5:30 dismissal time, and the proximity to the SBC conference in Fitchburg (only 20 or so minutes away), should make it convenient for any SBC conference attendees who wished to discuss such matters with me to leave Fitchburg after their 12:15 lunch, arrive in time for my seminar’s beginning at 1:30 pm, and after we end at 5:30 pm get back to Fitchburg in time for their scheduled 6 pm dinner. Obviously other people will be at this
Please check back at the "Where's Gerry?" section of this website tomorrow for full details (including exact addresses and directions) about these newly-added speaking engagements. My existing talks in
Though I deeply regret the
My only prayer for all of us is that I, they, and all professing Catholics will always courageously seek the truth – however unsettling, unpopular, and inconvenient might be some of the conclusions about the current crisis to which that truth may lead us. For, always and everywhere, it is the Truth that saves and sets us free – the pure, unadulterated truth of the traditional Catholic Faith, a Truth which offers no harbor or haven to error in the slightest degree.
To draw back from the logical conclusions of our Faith when those conclusions are painful, perplexing, or politically incorrect is an abdication of our intellectual integrity. And to enter instead into a truce with a compromised Catholicism – however close, however cunning a counterfeit of the authentic article – will only serve to perpetuate the tragic confusion of our times, and to lead countless souls to hell in the bargain, as St. Paul so strongly warns us in 2 Thessalonians 2.
May God grant us all a still deeper devotion to His truth and a still greater courage to follow it, whatever the cost – even out into the desert with St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of
In the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts,
Gerry Matatics
26 July 2006
St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary