On the topic of Islam - Review: Fr . Jacques Emily
The events that occurred in the US on Monday, September 11th shocked the world both by their sheer violence as well as by the cool and calculated determination with which the emblems of "invincible American power" had been hit. It is not our intention to propose a political analysis of these events since it has already been done by more qualified and authorized persons. It is our duty rather as Catholics to analyze these events in the light of our Faith and to draw conclusions for our Catholic life. Indeed, if the 11th of September is an open declaration of war against the western world, it is obvious that all of us should be concerned by what will happen in the near future and we must prepare ourselves for this new situation. Actually, an event such as the one on September llth was not a random event. It simply marks a new step in the escalation of a war by the Islamic world to conquer the western countries. These attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon manifest the striking opposition which exists between two civilizations, two cultures, two different worlds - the Islamic one and the one we will call simply Judeo-Christian Democracy (although we know these terms to be so alien to one another). Many have refused to admit this opposition, others have simply ignored it, and a large number have never understood its inherent intensity. After September 11th it is no longer possible to be oblivious to the reality.
It is important for us Catholics to understand the implications of this war since, for various reasons, the actual political and religious stakes are being deliberately concealed by our leaders. Indeed, the leader of the interfaith dialogue in the US, Bishop Todd Brown [of Orange, CA—Ed], just signed a joint declaration with Moslem religious leaders which states, "We believe that the One God has called us to be men of peace. There is nothing which is Christian or Moslem, that could justify the terrorist actions." At the same time and in the same vein the European bishops strongly condemned this unprecedented attack on the American people saying, "There is no justification for violence and destruction; there is no theological foundation for terrorism—not in the Christian, Jewish, or Moslem faiths." Mr. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain, conducts exactly the same discourse and declares with apparent learned assurance that, "...such acts of infamy and cruelty are wholly contrary to the Islamic faith."
Since we are inclined to want to believe that these leaders are sufficiently educated and cultured to know the true nature of Islam, we are obliged, unfortunately, to say that they are simply and boldly lying. They are deceiving themselves and trying to deceive others either to position themselves to fit the "politically correct" agenda or because they fear the consequences of denouncing the true enemy by whom, through irresponsible and short-sighted immigration and foreign policies, westerners have effectively surrounded themselves. When the coward fears the battle, he says to his enemy, "We are friends." The enemy answers, "Yes, we are; that is why, if you do not want me to continue to destroy your cities and your countries, you just have to surrender!" Whatever may be the reasons that motivate our political and religious leaders to vindicate Islam of its capacity for terrorism, they are simply continuing to lie and to refuse to address the true source of the problem. Islamicization of our western countries will continue to spread until the Blessed Virgin Mary intercedes to save what remains of Catholic civilization.
Allow me to present a few quotations from the Koran [alternate spelling, "Qur'an," which is the religious charter of Islam from which the Moslems draw all their moral and political tenets. All quotations are taken from The Holy Koran, translation and commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Amana Corp., MD (1983)-Ed.]. These quotes should suffice to convince us of the real threat that Islam represents for the Catholic Church and civilization. Let us first quote Mr. Patrick Sookhdeo, Director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, speaking of the extremist, violent nature of Islam:
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); But if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful (Sura 9:5).
The note that accompanies this particular verse in the respected translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali states:
When war becomes inevitable, it must be prosecuted with vigor. According to the English phrase, you cannot fight with kid gloves. The fighting may take the form of slaughter, or capture, or siege, or ambush and other strategems. But even then there is room for repentance and amendment on the part of the guilty party, and if that takes place, our duty is forgiveness and the establishment of peace.
The Daily Telegraph (Sept. 17, 2001) reported:
The World Trade Centre attack cannot be dismissed as merely the work of a small group of extremists. The Moslems celebrating the tragedy in America are doubtless recalling the words of the Koran, urging Muslims to "fight a mighty nation, fight them until they embrace Islam."...
Ultimately, the aim of Islam is the Islamicization of the world as God revealed it to His Prophet:
It is He Who has sent His Apostle with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion: and enough is God for a Witness (Sura 48:2
.
God sends His believers for the conquest of the world in His name. It is the Holy War, the well-known Islamic jihad, that commands to "fight them until they embrace Islam."
They [the enemy—Ed] shall have a curse on them: wherever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy).
(Such was) the practice (approved) of God among those who live aforetime: No change wilt thou find in the practice (approved) of God (Sura 33:61,62).
O ye who believe! Fight the Unbelievers who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you: and know that God is with those who fear Him (Sura 9:123).
God hath purchased of the Believers their persons and their goods: for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His Cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in Truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur'an: and who is more faithful to his Covenant than God? Then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme (Sura 9:111).
Finally, let us quote these verses of the Koran which will give us much to ponder following the events of September 11, and for those to come:
And how many populations we destroyed, which exulted in their life (of ease and plenty)! Now those habitations of theirs, after them, are deserted - all but a (miserable) few! And We are their heirs!
Now was thy Lord the one to destroy a population until He had sent to its Centre an Apostle, rehearsing to them our signs [i.e., verses-Ed.]; nor are We going to destroy a population except when its members practice iniquity (Sura 28:58,59).
And the Unbelievers said to their apostles: "Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or ye shall return to our religion." But their Lord inspired (this Message) to them; "Verily We shall cause the wrong-doers to perish!
"And verily We shall cause you to abide in the land, and succeed them. This for such as fear the Time when they shall stand before My tribunal - such as fear the Punishment denounced" (Sura 14:13,14).
Having explained in a previous note how infidels are illogical and argue in circles, Abdullah Yusuf Ali publishes the following commentary on the Sura 14:13 printed above:
The arguments in a circle were explained in the last note. But Infidelity looks upon argument as an amusement.
Its chief weapon is physical force. As its only belief is in materialism, it thinks that threats of force will put down the righteous. It offers the choice between exile and violence against conformity to its own standards of evil, which it thinks to be good. But Faith is not to be cowed by Force. Its source of strength is God, and it receives the assurance that violence will perish ultimately by violence, and that Faith and Good must stand and be established. In fact the good must inherit the earth and the evil ones be blotted out.
Regarding Sura 14:14 (above), Ali says:
"Fear" means here [in Sura 14: 14-Ed.] to "have present before their minds something which should cause them fear, so that they should shape their conduct in order to avoid the ill consequences of wickedness."
The above noted quotations are sufficient to show that Islam cannot be considered a pacifist religion. This is a mistake made by Catholics of the Western nations resulting from their naivety and a mind-set molded by pervasive influences to think in a politically correct manner. The actual leaders of the Islamic countries do not leave us any doubt as to how to interpret these verses of the Koran. Mr. Alija Izetbegovic, the current President of Bosnia, published the following Islamic Declaration [The Declaration was actually a letter addressed to Moslem elites from Sarajevo in 1970. It explained to them the long-term goal of establishing a unified Islamic community that is to extend from Morocco to Indonesia and from tropical Africa to central Asia (Fideliter, Sept-Oct, 2001, p.7}.-Ed.]:
...[T]here is an incompatibility between Islam and the non-Islamic systems; there is no peace nor coexistence between the Islamic faith and the social and political insti­tutions which are non-Islamic....The Islamic renewal can­not begin without the religious revolution, but it cannot go ahead and succeed without the political revolution. Our way does not begin with the conquest of the political power, but with the conquest of the people....Thus, we must be, first of all, preachers and then soldiers....The Islamic movement must and can take power as soon as it will be naturally and numerically strong enough not only to destroy the existing power, but also to build the new Islamic power (quoted from The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 17, 2001).
Upon reading the above passage, the inevitable question remains - How can any religious or political leader, after such a declaration and an honest consideration of these quotations from the Koran, dare to proclaim "there is nothing in Islam which can justify these actions," when the propagation of Islam, through subversion and violence, remains the ultimate objective in all their efforts? The specialists in Islam acknowledge the expansionist propensity and blatant aggression with which Islam has proceeded to engulf the West since the time of its foundation to the present day. History itself provides testimony for this assertion. The leaders of the Western nations are so blinded by the rhetoric of their own democratic principles that they refuse to identify the enemies of the people for whom they were elected to govern. This blindness and cowardice on the part of the leaders leave wide open the way for Islam, which, in turn, takes advantage of this weakness to make (through terrorism, for example) a revolution to overthrow the West. It is, then, just one step in a premeditated revolutionary process, a part of which the world witnessed on September 11, and yet, the Western nations do not appear to see or, at least, do not want to see.
A few years ago, Fr. Vincent Serralda, a French priest who lived for 50 years in North Africa and who can be considered to be an expert on the Islamic World, prepared a study to analyze the Koran and to warn French families of the danger of Islam. He wrote in the preface of his book the following:
Islam is always at war, even when it tries smiling. His war is the extinction of Christianity. That is what a careful reading of the Koran revealed to me It is this combat to death that I am proposing to unveil to the French families who have not yet suffered the Moslem hostility and who cannot suspect the pretension of their Imams for a world imperialism (Le Combat de Mahomet).
What then, can we do to save the Church, to save what remains of Catholic civilization, from such a peril? Humanly speaking, the battle appears to have been lost. It is obvious that a war in Afghanistan will not solve the problem since Islam has spread worldwide and has been welcomed in all the Western countries in the name of Judeo-Christian Democracy. The democratic system is so absurd that in the name of the principles it acquired through the French Revolution the democratic countries grant to their enemies protection and liberty to establish and to develop within their own nations. Ironically, what kind of hospitality would these same democratic leaders receive if they would attempt to institute a Western democracy within an Islamic country, for instance Saudi Arabia or North Sudan, and build there, according to their religion, a Catholic church, a protestant temple, or a synagogue? We clearly know that this inane hospitality of our present Western world would certainly not be reciprocated.
Oh the madness of modern democratic man. He is now imprisoned, blinded, and shackled by the system that he invented in 1789 - a system "to make him free!" To free himself from the sweet yoke of God, man replaced the rights of God with the so-called "rights of man" and he is now the chained slave ensnared by his proud and deceptive motto-"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Islam has exploited to the fullest extent the nonsense and weakness of this system and like a worm has devoured the fruit from the inside. In fact, it is very convenient for Islam that the political and the religious leaders in the democratic nations practically dissociate Islam itself from these acts of terrorism. The day approaches when, powerful enough, Islam will assume control within the various western nations through any means conducive to its thirst for conquest. Until that dreadful time, it continues its clandestine conquest unimpeded.
Interestingly enough, even the literature of the Sikhs contains references to forewarn the sleeping democratic countries: "...they aim to make France an Islamic Republic by the year 2015, and Britain by 2025, through conversions, immigration and high Moslem birthrates" (Identity magazine).
They have the boldness to publicly announce their intention and our leaders remain complacent. They have completely lost any sense of honor and patriotism. They even work to vindicate Islam!
Western civilization, caught between a dying democracy and a vigorous Islam, appears to be condemned to imminent death. Islam, like a cancer growing faster and more efficiently on a weak and sick body, develops and grows on the ruins of democracy and weakened Catholicism. Democracy and Catholicism, having nothing left to oppose Islam, like the fatally wounded man imploring the mercy of his torturer, try in desperation to avoid the death blow by offering him dialogue. It is pitiful, but it is the discourse we hear everywhere: "Let us fight against terrorism. Islam has nothing to do with it, and thus, let us dialogue with Islam for peace in the world!" The discourse of the Pope, the recent visit of President Bush to the Islamic Center of America, the declaration of Mr. Henry Kissinger, the joint declaration of the Christian-Islamic Committee - they are all uniting their voices in this foolish concert, the purpose of which serves only to give a good, but nonetheless false, conscience to those who join this tiresome chorus.
My dear faithful, let us not become discouraged and more than ever, have confidence in the might of Our Queen of Heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the efficacy of her powerful weapon, the holy rosary. If humanly speaking the situation for the Church and the remnants of a Christian Civilization appear to be desperate, we know that our hope and our strength cannot rely on human power but only on a divine protection. "The gates of hell will not prevail" and "in the end her Immaculate Heart will triumph." Our combat for the reign of Christ the King in our society is the only true and just Cause and this Cause will lead us infallibly to victory.
On the other hand, the so-called war of the western democratic nations against terrorism is a futile and false battle because it only considers the consequences of the problem and not the cause of it. For it to be an effective war, the center and cause of the problem must be attacked. While the West may address to some extent an aspect of the problem, it leaves, in the name and for the sake of Democracy, the source of the problem untouched. They are hitting the nail, but not on the head. Hence Islam methodically perseveres with its Holy War to render western civilization impotent, to subject it, and annihilate it for the triumph of its false god.
On a natural level, the fate of democratic nations is inevitable. These nations, having betrayed in 1789 their Catholic heritage, will pay under the Islamic yoke for their perversities and revolt against the One True God. Let us not forget the still very relevant warning of Our Lady at Fatima, "Wars are God's chastisement for sin." Who would deny that the western nations have to pay for their iniquitous laws of abortion, divorce, contraception, homosexuality and their licentiousness and immoral behavior against Christian modesty? This immorality which is now spread everywhere like a pestilence by sex education in the schools, by television, movies, books, magazines, immoral dress, etc., is leading so many souls to hell. Alas, we know that this corruption has been propagated by the enemies of the Catholic Church to de-Christianize our countries and to annihilate Christian civilization all under the banner of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."
We are witnessing two forces radically opposed to each other: on one side, Democracy, which under the banner of the UN and the Charter for the Rights of Man works to establish a One World Government and to provide people with a corrupt and luxurious materialistic paradise on earth; on the other side, Islam, which under the banner of the Koran, works to establish a One World Islamic government and to provide its believers with the same kind of paradise, but as an idyllic one in the new garden of Eden in the next life:
God hath promised to Believers, men and women, Gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein, and beautiful mansions in Gardens of everlasting bliss. But the greatest bliss is the Good Pleasure of God: that is the supreme felicity (Sura 9:72).
A confrontation is inevitable and dialogue will not prevent it. It is only the conversion of both parties to the true God and to His Catholic Church which will save the world from disaster.
In order that this conversion occur [and it will occur when Russia is consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary—Ed.], this blatant revolt against God and His Christ will have to be eradicated from the surface of the earth. Unfortunately, a lot of blood will be shed as the Blessed Virgin Mary warned us:
France, Italy, Spain and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their homes (Our Lady at La Salette, France, 1846).
Are the events of September 11th marking a signal for the beginning of civil wars in the Western nations of which Our Lady speaks? God knows. But what we do know is that this persecution by Islam has been raging for years in the Third World to the complete indifference of the Western nations. The following is a list of the slaughters perpetuated in the name of Islam. It is not exhaustive but it is sufficiently alarming and speaks for itself:
Egypt. 1999: At Al-Kosseh police arrest all the Christians after the murder of a Moslem. They were dragged outside the town, beaten and tortured with electricity, the women and girls were raped and finally several men were crucified (Nouvelles Chrétiennes, No. 46).
Nigeria, 1999: Shari'a [Islamic law as the constitution of the country—Ed.] was proclaimed in June in the State of Zamfara. Five hundred Christians were killed within one month. The governors granted three days to the Christians to demolish all the churches. Stoning of people and amputation of hands were manifold. Christians were burned alive in their houses. In Kaduna alone, Moslems killed between 400-1000 Christians. Those Moslems in the south, where they are in the minority, practice terrorism: on the eve of Christmas, four churches were burned and 1000-2000 Christians slaughtered (Êglise dans le Monde [the review of Fr. Wehrenfried's organization, "Aid to the Church in Need"], No. 106).
Senegal, 1999: Interdiction against the building of Christian schools; the transformation of churches into mosques (Êglise dans le Monde, No. 106).
Indonesia. 2000: In Ambon [north of Timor, across the Banda Sea, on the island of Seram—Ed.], 800 Christians were killed and more than 20 churches destroyed. In Jabok, government troops massacred 22 faithful refugees in a church. Four hundred and seventy thousand refugees have been obliged to flee from the Moslem militia to the area of Ujung Pandang on the island of Sulawesi in the Indonesia Archipelago. The village of Wasi, one of the last Christian villages on the islands of Maluku [a.k.a. the Molucca Islands—Ed.], was completely burned. At Christ­mas, in Jakarta [the capital and largest city in Indonesia on the island of Jawa with 87% Moslem population—Ed.] and its suburbs, 18 bomb attacks on churches killed 14 peo­ple and wounded 119 (Action Familiale et Scolaire, No. 148; Êglise dans le Monde, No. 106).
Saudi Arabia. 2000: Ten Christians, including five children, were imprisoned for meeting in a private place to pray (Nouvelles Chrétiennes, Jan. 26, 2000).
Sudan, 2000: With an estimated 2 million deaths, the civil war in Sudan is by far the bloodiest in Africa's recent history. In spite of repeated condemnations by other nations and human rights groups, the Islamic government in Khartoum shows no sign of lessening its brutal conduct. The Arab-dominated Islamic government in the north of Sudan has declared a jihad against the South which is heavily populated by animists and Christians. In one day, 122 women and children were deported to the North, all the men having been killed and their villages razed to the ground. Yei, the most important city in the South was bombed—14 dead and 50 wounded. A Christian school was bombed; 20 children and their teachers were killed (Êglise dans le Monde, No. 110; Bulletin Saint Cyrille d'Alexandrie, No. 12).
Philippine Islands, 2000: The Moslem group Abu Sayaf abducted 22 children and 8 Christian adults. The body of a Catholic priest, Fr. Gallardo, was found with evidence of having been tortured. Twenty-one Christians were kid­napped by the MILF, an Islamic terrorist group, led to a mosque, tortured and killed. Fear of Moslem guerrillas has compelled a community of Carmelite nuns living since 1981 in Marawi, southern Philippines, to abandon their convent. Already in 1986, some of them had been kid­napped by Moslems (ZENIT [official news bulletin of the Vatican]).
Algeria, 1996-2001: Police arrested 16 young people for possessing Bibles and other Christian documents. Proselytism by Christians is considered a crime in predominantly Moslem Algeria. Moslems who convert to another religion risk a death sentence. In May 1996, an armed Islamic group murdered seven Trappist monks at the monastery in Thibirine. The following August the same group used a bomb to kill Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran (ZENIT).
If we are horrified by this worldwide Islamic persecution against mainline Christianity, we should be even more scandalized by the fact that for years, our Western nations did absolutely nothing to protect its victims from slaughter. As a logical consequence, the list has now been extended to include the US. What sensible person would believe, considering the texts of the Koran and the list of the world Islamicization quoted above, that Islam will stop its Holy War because a few bombs will be dropped in the mountains of Afghanistan? On the contrary, we must fear that the spiral of evil will escalate, that the sects of Islam will coalesce and mobilize, and that our list of horrors will continue to grow. The Western political leaders are perfectly aware of the inevitable issue of this process, otherwise they would not put all their police and armies on maximum alert. Still, we wage a war effort that will not hit the heart of the problem. Honestly, it is really difficult to imagine more cowardice, more blindness and more hypocrisy in so many people and all at the same time! Such are the fruits of liberal democracy!
Facing such a desperate situation, what can we do for the Catholic Church and the civilization of which only she can be true Mistress? Both appear to be defenseless victims waiting for the lion (democratic West) and the tiger (Islam) to devour them?
It is very important that Catholics resist a defeatist mentality, since, as we said above, in the end we are going to win this battle. We might have to give our life for it, but what is life compared to the reward to come, as St. Paul says. If Moslems are able to sacrifice their lives hoping to get a paradise of carnal pleasures, how much more should Catholics be ready to sacrifice their lives to surely obtain the paradise of eternal and infinite spiritual joys!
That is why, in this gigantic war that Lucifer wages against everything bearing the name of Christ, I urge you, once more, to take up with faith, courage, and strength the weapons of the spiritual combat. The spiritual combat is the first and strongest way to really repel the evil forces. This is not the first battle that the Catholic Church has waged against the enemies of God and Jesus Christ, and in each battle the Catholic Church has won resounding victories when Her ministers and faithful fervently took the spiritual weapons of prayer and penance.
The story of Judith in the Sacred Scriptures is quite informative and a relevant example for our time. I strongly encourage you to read and to meditate on this wonderful story, which shows how God delivered His people from a situation no less desperate than the one in which we find ourselves. God responded to the prayers and penance of the priests and people, sending Judith (an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary) to cut off the head of Holofernes (an image of the devil). Her Immaculate Heart will triumph. She will crush the head of the serpent.
And all the people cried to the Lord with great earnestness, and they humbled their souls in fasting and prayers, both they and their wives.
And the priests put on haircloths, and caused the little children to prostrate before the temple of the Lord, and the altar of the Lord they covered with haircloth.
And they cried to the Lord the God of Israel with one accord, that their children might not be made a prey, and their wives carried off, and their cities destroyed, and their holy things profaned, and that they might not be made a reproach to the Gentiles.
Then Eliachim the high priest of the Lord went about all Israel and spoke to them,
Saying: Know ye that the Lord will hear your prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fasting and prayers in the sight of the Lord.
Remember Moses the servant of the Lord, who over­came Amalec that trusted in his own strength, and in his power, and in his army, and in his shields, and in his char­iots, and his horsemen, not by fighting with the sword, but by holy prayers (Judith 4:7-12).
What a similarity between the situation of the Israelites and ours today, and what a consoling promise from God through his high priest Eliachim. To the same causes, the same effects. I assure you that the victory will be ours, if, like the obedient Israelites, we have recourse to prayer and penance. God will then send us the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Judith of the New Testament, who, by her prayers and her intercession, will deliver us from the infernal enemy. Our Lady is as powerful as an army arrayed in battle and she will lead the combat for us against all the enemies of the Catholic Church.
Let us not forget that when Europe was threatened by the Islamic invasions the popes organized Rosary Crusades, urging the faithful to have recourse to Mary. When the people began to pray the Rosary to plead for mercy through Our Lady, Europe was saved and Islam invariably defeated by the intercession of Mary. She, to whom nothing can be denied, is so willing to deliver our petitions to the foot of the Divine Throne when we do as she asks: "pray the daily Rosary" and "penance, penance, penance"!
In 1571, Pope St. Pius V organized a great rosary crusade throughout all of Christendom. The graces obtained through this Rosary Crusade enabled the famous victory of the battle of Lepanto against the Turks. This great victory, attributed to the intercession of Our Lady, is commemorated on the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary, October 7. It is because of this victory against Islam that Pope St. Pius V gave to Our Lady the glorious title of "Our Lady of Victory" and added to the Litany of Our Lady the invocation to her as "Help of Christians."
A century later, the Turks threatened again to invade Europe. This time it was Pope Innocent XI who organized another great rosary crusade. The victory of Vienna was the fruit of this rosary crusade. We celebrate it on the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, September 12.
Again, a century later, Islam was pounding on the doors of Europe. In 1717, Pope Clement XI, faithful to the example of his predecessors, organized another great rosary crusade for all Catholics by which yet another great victory over Islam was obtained. In gratitude to the Blessed Virgin Mary the pope decided to extend the feast of October 7th to the Universal Church and to change its name to "The Feast of the Holy Rosary" so mankind would be reminded that it was thanks to this powerful prayer that victory was won.
The commemoration of these victories of Mary through her holy rosary enables the Church to teach her faithful each and every year an important lesson on the power of the rosary in the history of the Church, and encourages us to follow the example of our fathers in the Faith. With the peril of Islam more imminent than ever, we must follow the example of these great popes to preach and to spread the rosary with all our strength. The rosary has proven to win battles in the past. It is as powerful as ever and it will win the present battle if only we want to make the effort "to say it well," as St. Francis of Sales says. I ask you all to make a special effort to pray your daily rosary as Our Lady asks with so much insistence. This apostolate is of crucial importance.
My dear friends, let us realize that the times are serious and the situation of the world and of the Church is tragic. We must fall to our knees and beg God and the Immaculate Heart of Mary to protect and to save us. "If my requests are heard," says Our Lady at Fatima, "Russia will convert and we will have peace." Let us heed these requests of Our Lady who desires peace and the salvation of souls. She wants us to convert. She wants us to change our life, to practice virtue, to go regularly to confession (promises of the five First Saturdays) and, of course, she wants us to pray the daily rosary. This is the crusade to which we are all called and to which Archbishop Lefebvre called priests and faithful for the reconquest of Catholic civilization. This is our Holy War for the Reign of Christ the King and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We Catholics have the monopoly in this Holy War, but how much different are our weapons from those of our enemies, and how much more different are the fruits and the results of our combat! "Give me an army which prays the rosary," says Pope St. Pius X, "and I will conquer the world." Let us form this army in whatever country we may be from. Please be sure to join in praying the rosary when it is recited before the beginning of the Holy Mass in our churches and Mass centers to manifest your commitment of bringing down upon the Church and the world the blessings which will come from it. Pope Leo XIII confirmed the strength of the rosary prayed in public when he said:
Public prayers are much more excellent and more efficacious than private ones, so ecclesiastical writers have given to the Rosary Sodality the title of "the army of prayer, enrolled by St. Dominic, under the banner of the Mother of God."
Above all, it is in each of our families that we want to implant the holy custom of daily praying the rosary.
It is not by force, nor by arms, nor by any human power, but only by the divine assistance, obtained through the prayer of the rosary, that the Church, strong like David with his sling, will be able to stand up without trembling against the infernal enemy.
It is especially in the home that we wish to see the wide­spread recitation of the rosary, for we will seek in vain to consolidate the crumbling bases of civil society if domestic society, the principle and foundation of the human community, does not rest on the laws of the Gospel. To attain such a difficult end, we affirm that there is no more fitting means than the recitation of the family rosary (Pope Pius XII, 1951).
http://www.sspx.ca/Angelus/2001_December/On_the_topic_of_Islam.htm
The events that occurred in the US on Monday, September 11th shocked the world both by their sheer violence as well as by the cool and calculated determination with which the emblems of "invincible American power" had been hit. It is not our intention to propose a political analysis of these events since it has already been done by more qualified and authorized persons. It is our duty rather as Catholics to analyze these events in the light of our Faith and to draw conclusions for our Catholic life. Indeed, if the 11th of September is an open declaration of war against the western world, it is obvious that all of us should be concerned by what will happen in the near future and we must prepare ourselves for this new situation. Actually, an event such as the one on September llth was not a random event. It simply marks a new step in the escalation of a war by the Islamic world to conquer the western countries. These attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon manifest the striking opposition which exists between two civilizations, two cultures, two different worlds - the Islamic one and the one we will call simply Judeo-Christian Democracy (although we know these terms to be so alien to one another). Many have refused to admit this opposition, others have simply ignored it, and a large number have never understood its inherent intensity. After September 11th it is no longer possible to be oblivious to the reality.
It is important for us Catholics to understand the implications of this war since, for various reasons, the actual political and religious stakes are being deliberately concealed by our leaders. Indeed, the leader of the interfaith dialogue in the US, Bishop Todd Brown [of Orange, CA—Ed], just signed a joint declaration with Moslem religious leaders which states, "We believe that the One God has called us to be men of peace. There is nothing which is Christian or Moslem, that could justify the terrorist actions." At the same time and in the same vein the European bishops strongly condemned this unprecedented attack on the American people saying, "There is no justification for violence and destruction; there is no theological foundation for terrorism—not in the Christian, Jewish, or Moslem faiths." Mr. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain, conducts exactly the same discourse and declares with apparent learned assurance that, "...such acts of infamy and cruelty are wholly contrary to the Islamic faith."
Since we are inclined to want to believe that these leaders are sufficiently educated and cultured to know the true nature of Islam, we are obliged, unfortunately, to say that they are simply and boldly lying. They are deceiving themselves and trying to deceive others either to position themselves to fit the "politically correct" agenda or because they fear the consequences of denouncing the true enemy by whom, through irresponsible and short-sighted immigration and foreign policies, westerners have effectively surrounded themselves. When the coward fears the battle, he says to his enemy, "We are friends." The enemy answers, "Yes, we are; that is why, if you do not want me to continue to destroy your cities and your countries, you just have to surrender!" Whatever may be the reasons that motivate our political and religious leaders to vindicate Islam of its capacity for terrorism, they are simply continuing to lie and to refuse to address the true source of the problem. Islamicization of our western countries will continue to spread until the Blessed Virgin Mary intercedes to save what remains of Catholic civilization.
Allow me to present a few quotations from the Koran [alternate spelling, "Qur'an," which is the religious charter of Islam from which the Moslems draw all their moral and political tenets. All quotations are taken from The Holy Koran, translation and commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Amana Corp., MD (1983)-Ed.]. These quotes should suffice to convince us of the real threat that Islam represents for the Catholic Church and civilization. Let us first quote Mr. Patrick Sookhdeo, Director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, speaking of the extremist, violent nature of Islam:
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); But if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful (Sura 9:5).
The note that accompanies this particular verse in the respected translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali states:
When war becomes inevitable, it must be prosecuted with vigor. According to the English phrase, you cannot fight with kid gloves. The fighting may take the form of slaughter, or capture, or siege, or ambush and other strategems. But even then there is room for repentance and amendment on the part of the guilty party, and if that takes place, our duty is forgiveness and the establishment of peace.
The Daily Telegraph (Sept. 17, 2001) reported:
The World Trade Centre attack cannot be dismissed as merely the work of a small group of extremists. The Moslems celebrating the tragedy in America are doubtless recalling the words of the Koran, urging Muslims to "fight a mighty nation, fight them until they embrace Islam."...
Ultimately, the aim of Islam is the Islamicization of the world as God revealed it to His Prophet:
It is He Who has sent His Apostle with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion: and enough is God for a Witness (Sura 48:2
God sends His believers for the conquest of the world in His name. It is the Holy War, the well-known Islamic jihad, that commands to "fight them until they embrace Islam."
They [the enemy—Ed] shall have a curse on them: wherever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy).
(Such was) the practice (approved) of God among those who live aforetime: No change wilt thou find in the practice (approved) of God (Sura 33:61,62).
O ye who believe! Fight the Unbelievers who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you: and know that God is with those who fear Him (Sura 9:123).
God hath purchased of the Believers their persons and their goods: for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His Cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in Truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur'an: and who is more faithful to his Covenant than God? Then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme (Sura 9:111).
Finally, let us quote these verses of the Koran which will give us much to ponder following the events of September 11, and for those to come:
And how many populations we destroyed, which exulted in their life (of ease and plenty)! Now those habitations of theirs, after them, are deserted - all but a (miserable) few! And We are their heirs!
Now was thy Lord the one to destroy a population until He had sent to its Centre an Apostle, rehearsing to them our signs [i.e., verses-Ed.]; nor are We going to destroy a population except when its members practice iniquity (Sura 28:58,59).
And the Unbelievers said to their apostles: "Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or ye shall return to our religion." But their Lord inspired (this Message) to them; "Verily We shall cause the wrong-doers to perish!
"And verily We shall cause you to abide in the land, and succeed them. This for such as fear the Time when they shall stand before My tribunal - such as fear the Punishment denounced" (Sura 14:13,14).
Having explained in a previous note how infidels are illogical and argue in circles, Abdullah Yusuf Ali publishes the following commentary on the Sura 14:13 printed above:
The arguments in a circle were explained in the last note. But Infidelity looks upon argument as an amusement.
Its chief weapon is physical force. As its only belief is in materialism, it thinks that threats of force will put down the righteous. It offers the choice between exile and violence against conformity to its own standards of evil, which it thinks to be good. But Faith is not to be cowed by Force. Its source of strength is God, and it receives the assurance that violence will perish ultimately by violence, and that Faith and Good must stand and be established. In fact the good must inherit the earth and the evil ones be blotted out.
Regarding Sura 14:14 (above), Ali says:
"Fear" means here [in Sura 14: 14-Ed.] to "have present before their minds something which should cause them fear, so that they should shape their conduct in order to avoid the ill consequences of wickedness."
The above noted quotations are sufficient to show that Islam cannot be considered a pacifist religion. This is a mistake made by Catholics of the Western nations resulting from their naivety and a mind-set molded by pervasive influences to think in a politically correct manner. The actual leaders of the Islamic countries do not leave us any doubt as to how to interpret these verses of the Koran. Mr. Alija Izetbegovic, the current President of Bosnia, published the following Islamic Declaration [The Declaration was actually a letter addressed to Moslem elites from Sarajevo in 1970. It explained to them the long-term goal of establishing a unified Islamic community that is to extend from Morocco to Indonesia and from tropical Africa to central Asia (Fideliter, Sept-Oct, 2001, p.7}.-Ed.]:
...[T]here is an incompatibility between Islam and the non-Islamic systems; there is no peace nor coexistence between the Islamic faith and the social and political insti­tutions which are non-Islamic....The Islamic renewal can­not begin without the religious revolution, but it cannot go ahead and succeed without the political revolution. Our way does not begin with the conquest of the political power, but with the conquest of the people....Thus, we must be, first of all, preachers and then soldiers....The Islamic movement must and can take power as soon as it will be naturally and numerically strong enough not only to destroy the existing power, but also to build the new Islamic power (quoted from The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 17, 2001).
Upon reading the above passage, the inevitable question remains - How can any religious or political leader, after such a declaration and an honest consideration of these quotations from the Koran, dare to proclaim "there is nothing in Islam which can justify these actions," when the propagation of Islam, through subversion and violence, remains the ultimate objective in all their efforts? The specialists in Islam acknowledge the expansionist propensity and blatant aggression with which Islam has proceeded to engulf the West since the time of its foundation to the present day. History itself provides testimony for this assertion. The leaders of the Western nations are so blinded by the rhetoric of their own democratic principles that they refuse to identify the enemies of the people for whom they were elected to govern. This blindness and cowardice on the part of the leaders leave wide open the way for Islam, which, in turn, takes advantage of this weakness to make (through terrorism, for example) a revolution to overthrow the West. It is, then, just one step in a premeditated revolutionary process, a part of which the world witnessed on September 11, and yet, the Western nations do not appear to see or, at least, do not want to see.
A few years ago, Fr. Vincent Serralda, a French priest who lived for 50 years in North Africa and who can be considered to be an expert on the Islamic World, prepared a study to analyze the Koran and to warn French families of the danger of Islam. He wrote in the preface of his book the following:
Islam is always at war, even when it tries smiling. His war is the extinction of Christianity. That is what a careful reading of the Koran revealed to me It is this combat to death that I am proposing to unveil to the French families who have not yet suffered the Moslem hostility and who cannot suspect the pretension of their Imams for a world imperialism (Le Combat de Mahomet).
What then, can we do to save the Church, to save what remains of Catholic civilization, from such a peril? Humanly speaking, the battle appears to have been lost. It is obvious that a war in Afghanistan will not solve the problem since Islam has spread worldwide and has been welcomed in all the Western countries in the name of Judeo-Christian Democracy. The democratic system is so absurd that in the name of the principles it acquired through the French Revolution the democratic countries grant to their enemies protection and liberty to establish and to develop within their own nations. Ironically, what kind of hospitality would these same democratic leaders receive if they would attempt to institute a Western democracy within an Islamic country, for instance Saudi Arabia or North Sudan, and build there, according to their religion, a Catholic church, a protestant temple, or a synagogue? We clearly know that this inane hospitality of our present Western world would certainly not be reciprocated.
Oh the madness of modern democratic man. He is now imprisoned, blinded, and shackled by the system that he invented in 1789 - a system "to make him free!" To free himself from the sweet yoke of God, man replaced the rights of God with the so-called "rights of man" and he is now the chained slave ensnared by his proud and deceptive motto-"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Islam has exploited to the fullest extent the nonsense and weakness of this system and like a worm has devoured the fruit from the inside. In fact, it is very convenient for Islam that the political and the religious leaders in the democratic nations practically dissociate Islam itself from these acts of terrorism. The day approaches when, powerful enough, Islam will assume control within the various western nations through any means conducive to its thirst for conquest. Until that dreadful time, it continues its clandestine conquest unimpeded.
Interestingly enough, even the literature of the Sikhs contains references to forewarn the sleeping democratic countries: "...they aim to make France an Islamic Republic by the year 2015, and Britain by 2025, through conversions, immigration and high Moslem birthrates" (Identity magazine).
They have the boldness to publicly announce their intention and our leaders remain complacent. They have completely lost any sense of honor and patriotism. They even work to vindicate Islam!
Western civilization, caught between a dying democracy and a vigorous Islam, appears to be condemned to imminent death. Islam, like a cancer growing faster and more efficiently on a weak and sick body, develops and grows on the ruins of democracy and weakened Catholicism. Democracy and Catholicism, having nothing left to oppose Islam, like the fatally wounded man imploring the mercy of his torturer, try in desperation to avoid the death blow by offering him dialogue. It is pitiful, but it is the discourse we hear everywhere: "Let us fight against terrorism. Islam has nothing to do with it, and thus, let us dialogue with Islam for peace in the world!" The discourse of the Pope, the recent visit of President Bush to the Islamic Center of America, the declaration of Mr. Henry Kissinger, the joint declaration of the Christian-Islamic Committee - they are all uniting their voices in this foolish concert, the purpose of which serves only to give a good, but nonetheless false, conscience to those who join this tiresome chorus.
My dear faithful, let us not become discouraged and more than ever, have confidence in the might of Our Queen of Heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the efficacy of her powerful weapon, the holy rosary. If humanly speaking the situation for the Church and the remnants of a Christian Civilization appear to be desperate, we know that our hope and our strength cannot rely on human power but only on a divine protection. "The gates of hell will not prevail" and "in the end her Immaculate Heart will triumph." Our combat for the reign of Christ the King in our society is the only true and just Cause and this Cause will lead us infallibly to victory.
On the other hand, the so-called war of the western democratic nations against terrorism is a futile and false battle because it only considers the consequences of the problem and not the cause of it. For it to be an effective war, the center and cause of the problem must be attacked. While the West may address to some extent an aspect of the problem, it leaves, in the name and for the sake of Democracy, the source of the problem untouched. They are hitting the nail, but not on the head. Hence Islam methodically perseveres with its Holy War to render western civilization impotent, to subject it, and annihilate it for the triumph of its false god.
On a natural level, the fate of democratic nations is inevitable. These nations, having betrayed in 1789 their Catholic heritage, will pay under the Islamic yoke for their perversities and revolt against the One True God. Let us not forget the still very relevant warning of Our Lady at Fatima, "Wars are God's chastisement for sin." Who would deny that the western nations have to pay for their iniquitous laws of abortion, divorce, contraception, homosexuality and their licentiousness and immoral behavior against Christian modesty? This immorality which is now spread everywhere like a pestilence by sex education in the schools, by television, movies, books, magazines, immoral dress, etc., is leading so many souls to hell. Alas, we know that this corruption has been propagated by the enemies of the Catholic Church to de-Christianize our countries and to annihilate Christian civilization all under the banner of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."
We are witnessing two forces radically opposed to each other: on one side, Democracy, which under the banner of the UN and the Charter for the Rights of Man works to establish a One World Government and to provide people with a corrupt and luxurious materialistic paradise on earth; on the other side, Islam, which under the banner of the Koran, works to establish a One World Islamic government and to provide its believers with the same kind of paradise, but as an idyllic one in the new garden of Eden in the next life:
God hath promised to Believers, men and women, Gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein, and beautiful mansions in Gardens of everlasting bliss. But the greatest bliss is the Good Pleasure of God: that is the supreme felicity (Sura 9:72).
A confrontation is inevitable and dialogue will not prevent it. It is only the conversion of both parties to the true God and to His Catholic Church which will save the world from disaster.
In order that this conversion occur [and it will occur when Russia is consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary—Ed.], this blatant revolt against God and His Christ will have to be eradicated from the surface of the earth. Unfortunately, a lot of blood will be shed as the Blessed Virgin Mary warned us:
France, Italy, Spain and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their homes (Our Lady at La Salette, France, 1846).
Are the events of September 11th marking a signal for the beginning of civil wars in the Western nations of which Our Lady speaks? God knows. But what we do know is that this persecution by Islam has been raging for years in the Third World to the complete indifference of the Western nations. The following is a list of the slaughters perpetuated in the name of Islam. It is not exhaustive but it is sufficiently alarming and speaks for itself:
Egypt. 1999: At Al-Kosseh police arrest all the Christians after the murder of a Moslem. They were dragged outside the town, beaten and tortured with electricity, the women and girls were raped and finally several men were crucified (Nouvelles Chrétiennes, No. 46).
Nigeria, 1999: Shari'a [Islamic law as the constitution of the country—Ed.] was proclaimed in June in the State of Zamfara. Five hundred Christians were killed within one month. The governors granted three days to the Christians to demolish all the churches. Stoning of people and amputation of hands were manifold. Christians were burned alive in their houses. In Kaduna alone, Moslems killed between 400-1000 Christians. Those Moslems in the south, where they are in the minority, practice terrorism: on the eve of Christmas, four churches were burned and 1000-2000 Christians slaughtered (Êglise dans le Monde [the review of Fr. Wehrenfried's organization, "Aid to the Church in Need"], No. 106).
Senegal, 1999: Interdiction against the building of Christian schools; the transformation of churches into mosques (Êglise dans le Monde, No. 106).
Indonesia. 2000: In Ambon [north of Timor, across the Banda Sea, on the island of Seram—Ed.], 800 Christians were killed and more than 20 churches destroyed. In Jabok, government troops massacred 22 faithful refugees in a church. Four hundred and seventy thousand refugees have been obliged to flee from the Moslem militia to the area of Ujung Pandang on the island of Sulawesi in the Indonesia Archipelago. The village of Wasi, one of the last Christian villages on the islands of Maluku [a.k.a. the Molucca Islands—Ed.], was completely burned. At Christ­mas, in Jakarta [the capital and largest city in Indonesia on the island of Jawa with 87% Moslem population—Ed.] and its suburbs, 18 bomb attacks on churches killed 14 peo­ple and wounded 119 (Action Familiale et Scolaire, No. 148; Êglise dans le Monde, No. 106).
Saudi Arabia. 2000: Ten Christians, including five children, were imprisoned for meeting in a private place to pray (Nouvelles Chrétiennes, Jan. 26, 2000).
Sudan, 2000: With an estimated 2 million deaths, the civil war in Sudan is by far the bloodiest in Africa's recent history. In spite of repeated condemnations by other nations and human rights groups, the Islamic government in Khartoum shows no sign of lessening its brutal conduct. The Arab-dominated Islamic government in the north of Sudan has declared a jihad against the South which is heavily populated by animists and Christians. In one day, 122 women and children were deported to the North, all the men having been killed and their villages razed to the ground. Yei, the most important city in the South was bombed—14 dead and 50 wounded. A Christian school was bombed; 20 children and their teachers were killed (Êglise dans le Monde, No. 110; Bulletin Saint Cyrille d'Alexandrie, No. 12).
Philippine Islands, 2000: The Moslem group Abu Sayaf abducted 22 children and 8 Christian adults. The body of a Catholic priest, Fr. Gallardo, was found with evidence of having been tortured. Twenty-one Christians were kid­napped by the MILF, an Islamic terrorist group, led to a mosque, tortured and killed. Fear of Moslem guerrillas has compelled a community of Carmelite nuns living since 1981 in Marawi, southern Philippines, to abandon their convent. Already in 1986, some of them had been kid­napped by Moslems (ZENIT [official news bulletin of the Vatican]).
Algeria, 1996-2001: Police arrested 16 young people for possessing Bibles and other Christian documents. Proselytism by Christians is considered a crime in predominantly Moslem Algeria. Moslems who convert to another religion risk a death sentence. In May 1996, an armed Islamic group murdered seven Trappist monks at the monastery in Thibirine. The following August the same group used a bomb to kill Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran (ZENIT).
If we are horrified by this worldwide Islamic persecution against mainline Christianity, we should be even more scandalized by the fact that for years, our Western nations did absolutely nothing to protect its victims from slaughter. As a logical consequence, the list has now been extended to include the US. What sensible person would believe, considering the texts of the Koran and the list of the world Islamicization quoted above, that Islam will stop its Holy War because a few bombs will be dropped in the mountains of Afghanistan? On the contrary, we must fear that the spiral of evil will escalate, that the sects of Islam will coalesce and mobilize, and that our list of horrors will continue to grow. The Western political leaders are perfectly aware of the inevitable issue of this process, otherwise they would not put all their police and armies on maximum alert. Still, we wage a war effort that will not hit the heart of the problem. Honestly, it is really difficult to imagine more cowardice, more blindness and more hypocrisy in so many people and all at the same time! Such are the fruits of liberal democracy!
Facing such a desperate situation, what can we do for the Catholic Church and the civilization of which only she can be true Mistress? Both appear to be defenseless victims waiting for the lion (democratic West) and the tiger (Islam) to devour them?
It is very important that Catholics resist a defeatist mentality, since, as we said above, in the end we are going to win this battle. We might have to give our life for it, but what is life compared to the reward to come, as St. Paul says. If Moslems are able to sacrifice their lives hoping to get a paradise of carnal pleasures, how much more should Catholics be ready to sacrifice their lives to surely obtain the paradise of eternal and infinite spiritual joys!
That is why, in this gigantic war that Lucifer wages against everything bearing the name of Christ, I urge you, once more, to take up with faith, courage, and strength the weapons of the spiritual combat. The spiritual combat is the first and strongest way to really repel the evil forces. This is not the first battle that the Catholic Church has waged against the enemies of God and Jesus Christ, and in each battle the Catholic Church has won resounding victories when Her ministers and faithful fervently took the spiritual weapons of prayer and penance.
The story of Judith in the Sacred Scriptures is quite informative and a relevant example for our time. I strongly encourage you to read and to meditate on this wonderful story, which shows how God delivered His people from a situation no less desperate than the one in which we find ourselves. God responded to the prayers and penance of the priests and people, sending Judith (an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary) to cut off the head of Holofernes (an image of the devil). Her Immaculate Heart will triumph. She will crush the head of the serpent.
And all the people cried to the Lord with great earnestness, and they humbled their souls in fasting and prayers, both they and their wives.
And the priests put on haircloths, and caused the little children to prostrate before the temple of the Lord, and the altar of the Lord they covered with haircloth.
And they cried to the Lord the God of Israel with one accord, that their children might not be made a prey, and their wives carried off, and their cities destroyed, and their holy things profaned, and that they might not be made a reproach to the Gentiles.
Then Eliachim the high priest of the Lord went about all Israel and spoke to them,
Saying: Know ye that the Lord will hear your prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fasting and prayers in the sight of the Lord.
Remember Moses the servant of the Lord, who over­came Amalec that trusted in his own strength, and in his power, and in his army, and in his shields, and in his char­iots, and his horsemen, not by fighting with the sword, but by holy prayers (Judith 4:7-12).
What a similarity between the situation of the Israelites and ours today, and what a consoling promise from God through his high priest Eliachim. To the same causes, the same effects. I assure you that the victory will be ours, if, like the obedient Israelites, we have recourse to prayer and penance. God will then send us the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Judith of the New Testament, who, by her prayers and her intercession, will deliver us from the infernal enemy. Our Lady is as powerful as an army arrayed in battle and she will lead the combat for us against all the enemies of the Catholic Church.
Let us not forget that when Europe was threatened by the Islamic invasions the popes organized Rosary Crusades, urging the faithful to have recourse to Mary. When the people began to pray the Rosary to plead for mercy through Our Lady, Europe was saved and Islam invariably defeated by the intercession of Mary. She, to whom nothing can be denied, is so willing to deliver our petitions to the foot of the Divine Throne when we do as she asks: "pray the daily Rosary" and "penance, penance, penance"!
In 1571, Pope St. Pius V organized a great rosary crusade throughout all of Christendom. The graces obtained through this Rosary Crusade enabled the famous victory of the battle of Lepanto against the Turks. This great victory, attributed to the intercession of Our Lady, is commemorated on the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary, October 7. It is because of this victory against Islam that Pope St. Pius V gave to Our Lady the glorious title of "Our Lady of Victory" and added to the Litany of Our Lady the invocation to her as "Help of Christians."
A century later, the Turks threatened again to invade Europe. This time it was Pope Innocent XI who organized another great rosary crusade. The victory of Vienna was the fruit of this rosary crusade. We celebrate it on the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, September 12.
Again, a century later, Islam was pounding on the doors of Europe. In 1717, Pope Clement XI, faithful to the example of his predecessors, organized another great rosary crusade for all Catholics by which yet another great victory over Islam was obtained. In gratitude to the Blessed Virgin Mary the pope decided to extend the feast of October 7th to the Universal Church and to change its name to "The Feast of the Holy Rosary" so mankind would be reminded that it was thanks to this powerful prayer that victory was won.
The commemoration of these victories of Mary through her holy rosary enables the Church to teach her faithful each and every year an important lesson on the power of the rosary in the history of the Church, and encourages us to follow the example of our fathers in the Faith. With the peril of Islam more imminent than ever, we must follow the example of these great popes to preach and to spread the rosary with all our strength. The rosary has proven to win battles in the past. It is as powerful as ever and it will win the present battle if only we want to make the effort "to say it well," as St. Francis of Sales says. I ask you all to make a special effort to pray your daily rosary as Our Lady asks with so much insistence. This apostolate is of crucial importance.
My dear friends, let us realize that the times are serious and the situation of the world and of the Church is tragic. We must fall to our knees and beg God and the Immaculate Heart of Mary to protect and to save us. "If my requests are heard," says Our Lady at Fatima, "Russia will convert and we will have peace." Let us heed these requests of Our Lady who desires peace and the salvation of souls. She wants us to convert. She wants us to change our life, to practice virtue, to go regularly to confession (promises of the five First Saturdays) and, of course, she wants us to pray the daily rosary. This is the crusade to which we are all called and to which Archbishop Lefebvre called priests and faithful for the reconquest of Catholic civilization. This is our Holy War for the Reign of Christ the King and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We Catholics have the monopoly in this Holy War, but how much different are our weapons from those of our enemies, and how much more different are the fruits and the results of our combat! "Give me an army which prays the rosary," says Pope St. Pius X, "and I will conquer the world." Let us form this army in whatever country we may be from. Please be sure to join in praying the rosary when it is recited before the beginning of the Holy Mass in our churches and Mass centers to manifest your commitment of bringing down upon the Church and the world the blessings which will come from it. Pope Leo XIII confirmed the strength of the rosary prayed in public when he said:
Public prayers are much more excellent and more efficacious than private ones, so ecclesiastical writers have given to the Rosary Sodality the title of "the army of prayer, enrolled by St. Dominic, under the banner of the Mother of God."
Above all, it is in each of our families that we want to implant the holy custom of daily praying the rosary.
It is not by force, nor by arms, nor by any human power, but only by the divine assistance, obtained through the prayer of the rosary, that the Church, strong like David with his sling, will be able to stand up without trembling against the infernal enemy.
It is especially in the home that we wish to see the wide­spread recitation of the rosary, for we will seek in vain to consolidate the crumbling bases of civil society if domestic society, the principle and foundation of the human community, does not rest on the laws of the Gospel. To attain such a difficult end, we affirm that there is no more fitting means than the recitation of the family rosary (Pope Pius XII, 1951).
http://www.sspx.ca/Angelus/2001_December/On_the_topic_of_Islam.htm
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