Distributism for Dorothy Quotes

“Outside the Church of Christ there is no salvation. Vatican II, for all its legion flaws, did not deny this. Nothing in the 1962-1965 Council condemns the Catholic who adheres to the teachings of Pope Leo III and the 1215 statement of the Fourth Lateran Council, "There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside of which no one at all is saved." At the end of the twentieth century, the Church did not forbid belief in what she believed at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when she infallibly taught through Pope Boniface VII's Bull, Unam Sanctam, "We declare, say, define, and pronounce that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the Sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety, and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remains within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church." No more did Vatican II warn the faithful against those earlier Vicars of Christ in this dogmatic teaching than they themselves departed from the very first Vicar of Christ, Pope St. Peter, who insisted that Jesus Christ is "the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner; neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other Name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." (page 408).”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy

“Man must worship or go mad. There is a peril in this part of our nature in that false worship leads to madness as well. Man without the divine falls lower than the beasts. His heart will be of stone. His mind will become a desert. His world will increasingly be a place filled with despair at the prospect that there is nothing but the world, nothing beyond the world, nothing better than the world, nothing for which the world was made, nothing but nothing. Men who believe in nothing, that is, men who place their trust in anything other than the true God, will countenance consuming other men (for instance, in the medicines derived from fetal tissues), killing their own children (in the name of mercy, convenience, or scientific "progress") or enslaving men in the industry of manufacturing death (birth control pills, nuclear weapons, and hospitals with euthanasia policies come to mind). Civilization depends on the true Faith in the true God. Absent that truth, barbarianism will rain terror on the weak, the enemy, the friend, the family, the self. (page 400)”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy

“There is no obligation for the faithful of the Church or citizens of a state to obey anything that is not consonant with the traditions handed down by the will of God. Subjects need not justify disobeying novelties, rather it is the innovators who must demonstrate that they are not introducing contradictions to tradition, either secular or ecclesial. It is not necessary for something to be innovation to be foreign to tradition and alien to the revealed Word and will of God. One would have an extraordinarily difficult time explaining how anything describable as an "innovation", "novelty", or "change" can be consonant with immemorial, unchanging, divine Truth.

Obedience binds only to tradition in scripture, doctrine, and practice. If the faithful are presented with teachings, examples, or documents that do not reflect fidelity to God through the unchanging patrimony of the Church then they are free to ignore the innovations. This holds whether the context of the innovations is in man's secular relations or within the workings of Holy Mother Church. Those who are so gifted may be obligated to present questions for clarification to those in authority. Any who are confused should not suffer any qualms about doing what the Church has always done, in all places, by all the faithful, of all times. What has always saved, will always save. Doubts arise only when deviations are offered in the place of definitions. When the shifting sands of time encroach, the faithful are always safe in planting their feet firmly on the solid rock of the timeless Faith. (page 398)”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy

“A "right" to false worship is as nonsensical as asserting a "right" to theft. In the moral law, freedom and license are distinct. In the usage of English, "may" and "can" are distinct. In conscience, grace received and grace refused are distinct. No one is "free" to reject God anymore than one is "free" to commit grand theft auto - ask souls in hell or prisoners in the penitentiary if their acts manifest freedom. The power to do is not the same as permission to do - Satan rebelled in fact and, by definition, in disobedience; he did not assert his freedom, but reduced his freedom to nothing. The citizen committing a crime, the soul committing a sin, the angels committing rebellion, forfeit their freedom. (page 396)”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy

“There are explicit statements from various quarters of the magisterium, up to and including Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, asserting the rights of the secular to remain secular, of the Jews to remain Jews, of the protestants to remain protestants, and the schismatics eastern churches to remain in schism. How is it, then, that a Catholic faithful to immemorial Catholic tradition is to be taken to task for remaining Catholic? Talmudic Judaism, masonic secularism, and heterodox Christianity need not change at all, but Catholics must change all?!? This is not merely unfair, this is absurd! Beyond its absurdity lies an utter unnecessity: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and so is His Body, the Catholic Church! None who clings to Christ needs to repent his beliefs, to apologize for his beliefs, or to change his beliefs. The obedience demanded of the Catholic is permanent, therefore, the Church to which he offers his obedience must be permanent in her teaching, in her practices, and in her rituals! (page 366)”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy

“Wisdom was once the virtue of holding one's tongue until knowing something true and truly worth saying. Modern wisdom, such as it is, is the presumption to declare one's ignorance a universal phenomena. Not universal in the sense that one humbly admits to fundamental ignorance in need of knowing; but one proclaims one's ignorance as indicative of an ontological reality in man, indeed the universe. It is a laughable pride. Someone admitting his own ignorance should not have the cheek to presume he is equipped to judge another's knowledge. It would be folly to allow him to speak. It would be a greater folly to agree with him. Such is the folly of our time.”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy

“Apologists for modernity and capitalism within the Catholic Church insist that capitalism is compatible with defined dogmas declared by the magisterium, with the tenets of natural law, and with the incontrovertible truths expressed in the divine positive law. Catholics such as this writer are insulted with the epithets of "socialists" or "unpatriotic" or "ignorant" for failing to see the good brought by modern democracy, for calling into question the nature of the supposed freedoms granted by governments elected through popular sovereignty without reference to Christ the King and His Vicar the Pope, and for insisting on a return to an understanding of human life predicated on the essential nature of human family and divine worship to the happiness of man on earth and his beatitude in Heaven. This writer is waiting for an explanation of how the separation of the state from the Church has lent support to the absolute sanctity of life from conception to natural death. He desires to see proof that democratically elected governments and their citizens are committed to prohibiting divorce and the destruction of the family as mandated by God when He physically walked the earth two thousand years ago . . . If indeed there is a difference on the moral plane between capitalist consumption of goods and communist redistribution of goods, it is high time that man be given evidence of the existence of this singular truth which heretofore has been an amazingly well kept secret. Other than the fact that both communists and capitalists seek to produce as many material things as possible with the capitalists having far more success thereat, none has convincingly demonstrated that aught else separates the two systems in their impact on the understanding of the sanctity of human life, the controls placed on the conduct of human life, and the ultimate end of human life. (pages 171-172)”
― Fr. Lawrence Smith, Distributism for Dorothy