Issue 133 of The Fatima Crusader, published in the Autum of 2024, is titled “Communism: An Error of Russia.” The twenty plus articles demonstrate that Communism has invaded every facet of society in every part of the world. Lamentably, this diabolical ideology has even infected the membership of the Church Militant.^[1] As you read the articles in The Fatima Crusader, you will clearly see how every aspect of Catholic life[2] has been influenced by Communism: doctrine, liturgy, morals, pastoral practice, etc.

Whole books have been written showing how various errors of Russia have become commonplace in our parishes (though they may not use that specific term). Yet, I will simply highlight two examples as object lessons (one in this article and the second in another).

Four Points of Comparison

Fr. Daniel Couture authored an article titled “Communism and the New Mass” for the 133^rd issue of The Fatima Crusader. He explains how the New Mass contains Communist ideas, using four simple points of comparison.

[1] The Rejection (Downplaying) of Authority

[2] The Placement of Man (Instead of God) at the Center

[3] Making the People Believe They Possess ALL the Power

[4] Each Promoted by a System of Lies

Father explains that these four points are but a clear start and that more could be said on the subject of shared elements between Communism and the New Mass. Picking up on that thread, I offer the following observations.

Theocentric vs. Anthropocentric

Years ago, I was having lunch with a friend. He was a cradle Catholic who grew up in the 50s and 60s. He attended the New Mass and knew I attended the Traditional Mass. He did not understand why it was so important to me. So he asked me to simplify it as much as possible: “What really is the difference?” I scribbled on a napkin.

I told him: “Everything in the Traditional Mass is centered on God. Everything in the New Mass is focused on man.” His eyes opened wide in that “a ha!” moment and he nodded. Now he understood.

Communism holds that God does not exist. Thus, they claim that religion is an opiate for the masses. To be “unshackled,” people must then stop thinking about an eternal reward / punishment in a non-existent afterlife. Instead, they must focus on the world before them here and now. Man is the measure of all things. Improving the material situation of the community at large is posited as the highest goal.

This mentality, which underpinned Communism, was popular throughout the middle of the 20^th Century. It was the ‘conventional wisdom of the age’ (zeitgeist). Therefore, it should not surprise us that it influenced the creators of the New Mass.

The Traditional Mass is centered on God, in all its aspects: prayers, gestures, sacred language, priest and people facing God. It is theocentric. The New Mass, however, was given an anthropocentric turn. The focus is on man, on the community, on doing something and getting ‘involved.’ This reflects the Communist’s aversion to the supernatural in favor of a man-made paradise on earth.

Countless prayers were correspondingly changed. A systematic effort was made to reduce references to the Four Last Things, intercession by the saints, prayer for the souls in Purgatory, the need to mortify oneself and do penance, supernatural merit, and of course, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Only about 17% of the proper[3] prayers were preserved.

Communistic Tendencies

Instead of contemplative silence, reverence and sacrality – in which the human soul meets God – the New Mass has been filled with banners, slogans, and cheap music. The banality is intentional because the New Mass is intentionally designed to blend in with the commonality of everyday life. No need to focus on the supernatural since earthly realities are what really matter. How many of us have been at Masses which strike us more like political rallies intent on exciting emotions to “rally the crowds.” Yes, the Mass has even been politicized, for Communism politicizes everything.

Communism claims an equality among all comrades, and the New Mass blurs the distinction between priest and laity. The hierarchy of priest, deacon, subdeacon, altar servers and laity – which reflects God’s order and is expressed beautifully in the traditional Mass – was obliterated. The Communion rails were removed and now everyone can enter the sanctuary. Marble altars for a supernatural sacrifice were destroyed for a natural common meal and community celebration at a table. Where is the sacred?

Destruction of Beauty

Communists intentionally make everything ugly: architecture, music, and art. Why? Because beauty elevates the soul to God. Have you ever stepped into a quiet, dark and cavernous church, leaving the heat, sunlight, commerce, traffic, noise, hustle and bustle of the secular world? The old church smells of incense, candles are lit at various shrines  along the perimeter of the church, wood might creak beneath your quiet footfalls, and you see images of saints and angels all around you. In such moments, it is nearly impossible for the human soul not to think of God and to begin the ascent towards heavenly realities.

In the revolutionary wake of the New Mass, our churches were gutted and whitewashed. The iconoclasts of old couldn’t have done it better. Following the communistic trend, our churches became ugly (author Michael Rose called them ‘ugly as sin’).  I’ve even seen some churches intentionally designed to look like factories. It is not coincidental that Communists consider this an ideal and strive to fashion many of their buildings in that image.

Promotion of Both Follows an Eerily Similar Trajectory

With the pretext of ‘updating’ the Mass for modern man, making it more in conformity with the ‘spirit of Vatican II’, a radical new Mass was fabricated by men.[4] With the pretext of ‘updating’ economies and the means of production for industrialized man, making them more in conformity with the revolutionary ideals of “fraternity, equality and liberty,” Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels fabricated a radical new ideology.

This point cannot be sufficiently emphasized. Never before in the history of the Church had such an experiment been attempted. Marx and Engels likewise laid the groundwork for a social and political experiment which had never before been attempted.

The modernist liturgists argued that modern man has evolved, almost as if he had a new kind of human nature, and therefore the liturgy had to evolve in order to be relevant and speak to modern man. All that was old should be abandoned in favor of the new.

In a similar vein, Marx and Engels believed they had uncovered the key to human history. They theorized that their [false] principles of natural philosophy proved man was inexorably evolving towards a classless, stateless and moneyless society. This certain and predetermined “destiny” favoring the modern ‘proletariat’ man would make the old ‘bourgeois’ man obsolete. Marx wanted every existing (old) institution to be destroyed to make way for the new communistic utopia.

Modern liturgists justified their work by claiming that the New Mass was returning to the ideal practice of the original Christians (as if those Christians were perfect and no one had benefitted from hundreds of years of lived Christendom). Marx  claimed his Communist principles would lead men back to an ideal time before the concept of private property had existed, and then all things would be shared in common without envy or greed (as if men would no longer be subject to sin).  

To respect “man’s dignity,” the modernist liturgist argued every man should be actively involved in the liturgy. Yet this activism was exterior and physical, not interior and spiritual. Marx denied man even had a spirit and therefore all man’s activity could only be material. He [falsely] predicted that in his new order of society, the dignity of every worker would be respected. Each man would fully participate in the means of production and the resulting goods. A liturgical parallel is the belief that the lay faithful, not just the priest, are needed for the New Mass and that exterior activism leads to receiving more graces.

The New Mass was forcibly thrust upon the people. Discussion was not permitted. Many were coerced into following along with the ruse of obedience and the fear of retaliation. Many faithful, including priests and nuns, left the Catholic Church. All vestiges of the ancient liturgy were destroyed. Centuries-old marble altars were destroyed and replaced with wooden tables. Communion rails were smashed. Statues disappeared.  Priests and religious who opposed the New Order of Mass were systematically purged. A dreadful spiritual kind of violence was inflicted upon innumerable souls.

Likewise, the Communists ushered in and maintained their revolution with intense violence. Those who might disagree were silenced or eliminated. Most followed along out of terror. There was a mass exodus of refugees fleeing from the tyranny. Violence ruled the day. All vestiges of the past culture were eradicated.  Beautiful buildings were demolished. Statues honoring the past were destroyed. Industries were crippled. Farmlands were destroyed and food supplies dwindled. Those who opposed the new order of Communism were systematically purged.

The parallels to how Communism and the New Mass were each promoted are striking and frighteningly similar.

Turn to Our Lady

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is at the very heart and life of the Church. If it has been influenced by Communism, then so too will all the other facets of life in the Church.[5]

Our Lady came at Fatima to warn us about the errors of Russia – Communism foremost among them – invading the Church, leading to a great apostasy, and dragging countless souls to hell. 

Yet She provided the solution and gave us a promise full of hope. Let us cease offending God. Pray the Rosary every day. Pray for Russia’s consecration and consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Always wear the Brown Scapular faithfully. Offer prayer and sacrifice, penance and reparation. And practice the First Saturday devotion every month. In the end, Her Immaculate Heart will triumph!

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ENDNOTES:

[1] It could be incorrect to say, in an unqualified manner, that “the Church has been infected with diabolical ideology.” This is because the Church is the Immaculate Bride of Christ, perfect and stainless. She is preserved so by the Holy Ghost. This truth is an infallible dogma and reveals a spiritual reality.

Hence, for greater precision, I use the term “Church Militant” to denote the membership of the Church who presently live on the earth. The Church Triumphant (saints in Heaven) and the Church Suffering (souls in Purgatory) no longer sin and can no longer be deceived by any diabolical error.

[2] Pope Pius X exposed the heresy of Modernism as diffusing poison in the Church, leaving no part of Catholic truth untouched, none that it does not strive to corrupt (see Pascendi, No. 3). Modernism is a perversion of the Catholic Faith. It feigns to have faith but, in reality, leads to atheism because it attacks the Faith at its root and deepest fibers. Communism, a militant atheism, is in fact a secular counterpart to Modernism.  Both Modernism and Communism are built upon the heresy of Naturalism and were forged in the milieu of the so-called “enlightenment,” which exalts fallible human reason over the infallible revelation of God.

[3] The Mass consists of Common Prayers and Proper Prayers. Common Prayers are so called because they are common to all Masses and do not change. The Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Roman Canon, and Pater Noster are all examples of Common Prayers. The Proper Prayers are proper to the season and feast. They vary according to what is being commemorated. The Proper Prayers include the Introit, Collect, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, Secret, Communion and Post Communion prayers. Every Sunday, for example, has its own set of unique proper prayers.

[4] For example: In his Memoirs (published in 2014), Fr. Louis Bouyer explains how he and others were charged with composing prayers for the New Mass under a tight deadline. He recalled “the terrace of the bistro in the Trastevere [a neighborhood near the Vatican] where we had to work carefully at our allotted drudgery.” As a basis for the Eucharistic Prayer (No. 2), they used a text allegedly used by Hippolytus in the 3^rd Century to replace the Roman Canon (the most sacred prayer in the Mass). Yet Hippolytus was at one time an anti-pope and held positions contrary to the True Faith. Worse, some liturgical scholars have argued that this prayer was not from Hippolytus but originated with gnostic heretics. This prayer is now attributed to an unknown author whom scholars have called “Pseudo-Hippolytus.” I imagine the truth of the matter is obscured by the veil of ancient history. Yet this very discrepancy serves to highlight how fraught with danger is the notion that we can simply return to ‘ancient texts’ we have uncovered from early centuries.

[5] I presented the thesis of this article at a conference. In the Q&A which followed, instead of addressing the content of the talk, an inquirer asserted “the New Mass is valid.” That is another subject entirely and not one which I propose to address here. I do not speak here of sacramental validity (a precise theological concept) but rather the influence of Communism and its false ideology upon the formation and promotion of the New Mass.

Moreover, when speaking of Holy Mass, we do well to focus on much more than just “validity.”

We should be concerned with offering God our very best. Recall that Cain and Abel both offered God [valid] sacrifice. Abel offered his best whereas Cain did not. God found Abel’s sacrifice worthy and right (dignum et iustum) but Cain’s was rejected.

We should be concerned with drawing forth as much grace as possible for ourselves and others from each Mass. As sinners with weak wills and distracted minds, we need as many aids as possible to help us stay focused on the transcendent supernatural realities taking place before as at Mass. These are perceived by faith, not human sense. So many more of these aids exist in the Traditional Mass than in the New Mass.

As parents, we also need to hand on the Faith to our children. Holy Mother Church concerns herself with this for all of us. In comparison to the Traditional Mass, the New Mass falls far short in presenting the Catholic Faith in all its truth, goodness and beauty.

Years ago, I gave a talk on how the “validity” of a Mass cannot be the sole determining factor, nor should it even be a principal factor we lay people consider in attending Mass. (It should be a given that the Masses offered in our parish churches are always valid. If this is not the case, then it reflects the depths of a terrible crisis.) You can view that talk, “The Traditional Latin Mass: A Refuge in A Time of Crisis,” at our website.

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Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.