In preparation for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The rich man who feasted in the Gospel parable (Lk 16: 19-31), after being condemned to hell for not having helped the poor man Lazarus, asks Abraham to warn his five brothers about the torments to which he was subjected, in order to prevent them from falling into the same sin. Abraham answers him: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead” (Lk 16:31).

Over the course of history, Our Lady has intervened as a loving Mother to warn us of the punishments that weigh upon the world because of its sins, in order to invite mankind to conversion and penance, and to fill her children with innumerable graces. Wherever the Word of God seems to be forgotten, there the voice of Mary Most Holy is heard, now to announce a particular devotion, now to ask for sacrifices and prayers to escape pestilences and scourges. In Quito, La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima, Rome, Akita, Civitavecchia, and in a thousand other places, the Mediatrix of all Graces has admonished us, recalling humanity, misled into rebellion against the Divine Law, to true repentance and the recitation of the Holy Rosary. Although the various times and circumstances of her apparitions change, She who deigns to show herself to us poor mortals is always the same, ever Merciful, ever our Advocate.

At Fatima the Lady who appeared to the shepherd children asked the Pope, in union with all the Bishops, to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart: this appeal remains unheeded to this day, despite the disasters which the world would have to face if it did not heed the requests of the Most Holy Virgin. The militant atheism of Communism has spread everywhere, and the Church is persecuted by ruthless and cruel enemies, while she is also infested by corrupt clerics given over to vice. And yet, despite the recognition of the supernatural origin of the apparitions and the evidence of the calamities which afflict mankind, the Hierarchy refuses to obey the Blessed Mother. “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead,” Abraham says to the rich man in the parable. Is it possible that they do not even know how to listen to the voice of the Mother of God, who is also Our Mother? What oppresses their hearts, what obscures their minds to such an extent that they are deaf and blind, while the world sinks into the abyss and so many souls are damned?

In obedience to the Universal Lordship of Christ the King, we also accept venerating Mary Most Holy as our Queen. And when we address our Father with the words, “Thy will be done,” we know that this will coincides perfectly with the will of our Mother, the model of obedience and humility who merited to be chosen from the beginning of time to generate the King of Kings in her virginal womb. Every desire of the Mother of God is an order for us: it does not even need to be thought of as a command, because our response and our desire is – and must be – to please her and give her proof of our fidelity. And this is eminently true for the Sacred Ministers, who in the Sacrament of Holy Orders bear upon themselves the priestly anointing of the High Priest Jesus Christ: in each priest, Mary Most Holy sees Her Son, who mystically renews his own sacrifice upon the altar through their hands.

It causes pain therefore – a hollow and tearing pain – to see the indifference of so many consecrated souls and of so many bishops – too many – towards the Blessed Virgin Mary. It pains and tears the heart to hear Bergoglio himself speak with such a total lack of respect for Our Lady, and to learn that after he drastically reduced the papal liurgical celebrations for last Easter, he has now sought to take advantage of COVID to cancel part of the liturgical celebrations for Holy Christmas and to cancel the tradition by which each year on December 8 the Pope goes to Piazza di Spagna in Rome to venerate the monument of the Immaculate Virgin that was erected there in 1857. Thus another piece of Rome is thrown away, another pound of flesh that the cynical merchant claims from the life of the Roman people as proof of their fidelity to the health dictatorship.

The Church of Catholics, the Church that loves those who honor themselves with the name of Christian, is the Church that does not retreat before civil authority, thereby making herself an accomplice and courtesan of it, but rather the Church that endures persecution with courage and a supernatural gaze, knowing that it is better to die amidst the most atrocious torments than to offend the Most Blessed Virgin and Her Divine Son. She is the Church that does not remain silent when the tyrant defies the Majesty of God, afflicts her subjects, and betrays the justice and authority that legitimizes it. She is the Church that does not yield in the face of blackmail nor allow herself to be seduced by power or money. She is the Church that ascends Calvary, as the Mystical Body of Christ, in order to complete in her own members the sufferings of the Redeemer and to rise again triumphantly with Him. She is the Church who assists the weak and the oppressed with mercy and charity, while she stands fearless and terrible in the face of the arrogant and the proud. When the Pope of this Church used to speak, the flock of Christ heard the consoling voice of the Shepherd, in a long series of popes who were unanimous and in agreement in the profession of the one Faith.

Conversely, the so-called “church” of Bergoglio does not hesitate to close churches, arrogating to itself the wicked right to deny God public worship and to deprive the faithful of the grace of the Sacraments through a wretched connivance with civil power. This “church” humiliates the Most Holy Trinity, lowering it to the level of idols and demons with sacrilegious rituals of a neo-pagan religion. It snatches the crown and scepter away from Christ the King in the name of Masonic Globalism; it offends the Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix in order not to annoy the heretics, Her enemies. It betrays the duty of preaching the Gospel in the name of dialogue and tolerance. It silences and adulterates Sacred Scripture and the Commandments of God in order to please the spirit of the world. It tampers with the sublime and inviolable words of the Prayer which the Lord Himself taught us. It profanes the holiness of the Priesthood, cancelling the spirit of penance and mortification in clergy and religious and abandoning them to the seductions of the devil. It denies two thousand years of history, despising the glories of Christianity and the wise intervention of Divine Providence in earthly affairs. It zealously follows fashions and idelogies rather then molding souls to follow Christ. It makes itself a slave of the Prince of this world in order to preserve its prestige and power. It preaches the blasphemous cult of man and refuses the sovereign rights of God. And when Bergoglio speaks, the faithful are almost always scandalized and disoriented, because his words are the exact opposite of what they expect to hear from the Vicar of Christ. He asks for obedience to his own authority even as he uses it to destroy the Papacy and the Church, contradicting all of his Predecessors, none excluded.

We have the promise of Mary Most Holy: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Let us bow before that heart, which beats with the most pure Charity, so that the flame of that holy love may reflect on each one of us, so that the flame which burns in it may illuminate our minds and make them capable of grasping the signs of the times. And if our Shepherds are silent out of fear or complicity, the multitude of lay people and good souls have the opportunity to compensate for their betrayal and expiate their sins, invoking the Mercy of God who “has come to the help of his servant, Israel, remembering his mercy” (Lk 1:54).

Today the high priests of this modern Sanhedrin outrage Our Lord and His Most Holy Mother, complacent servants of the globalist élite who want to establish the kingdom of Satan; tomorrow they will retreat before the victory of the Virgo Potens, who will restore the Holy Church and will give peace and harmony to society, thanks to the prayers and sacrifices of so many of her humble and unknown children.

May this be our vow for the upcoming Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with which to honor Our Lady and Queen.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

1 December 2020
Feria III infra Hebdomadam I Adventus
Sancti Edmundi Campion, presbyteri et martyris

The original Italian version of this text can be read HERE.