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"Even the Devil came to Ars. Indeed, he had a reason. By the mouth of a possessed woman, he exclaimed one day to the Curé, “How thou makest me suffer! If there were three men on earth like thyself, my kingdom would be destroyed.” Father Vianney was outwitting the proud devil by saving so many souls. The kingdom of Heaven seemed to be growing faster than the kingdom of Hell. Frustrated, the devil would roar like a bull, growl like a bear, or snarl like a dog in an effort to intimidate the Curé. With a fearful voice he would cry out: “Vianney! Vianney! Potato eater! Ah, thou art not yet dead! I shall get thee, all right.”

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Papal Bull: Horrendum illud scelus ( August 30, 1568):

Quite opportunely the Fifth Lateran Council [1512-1517] issued this decree: "Let any member of the clergy caught in that vice against nature, given that the wrath of God falls over the sons of perfidy, be removed from the clerical order or forced to do penance in a monastery" (chap. 4, X, V, 31).

So that the contagion of such a grave offense may not advance with greater audacity by taking advantage of impunity, which is the greatest incitement to sin, and so as to more severely punish the clerics who are guilty of this nefarious crime and who are not frightened by the death of their souls, we determine that they should be handed over to the severity of the secular authority, which enforces civil law.

Therefore, wishing to pursue with greater rigor than we have exerted since the beginning of our pontificate, we establish that any priest or member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into this abyss."

Effigy of Sainte Louise de Marillac at Rue du Bac, Paris France

" The Son of God took a human body in the womb of the Blessed Virgin in a state of innocence more perfect than that of the first man. This action was sufficient to satisfy divine justice for the disobedience of our first parents and to reveal to us the truth of the plan of God expressed in the words, “My delight is to be with the children of men.”

   Nevertheless, this did not satisfy His great love for us. He desired an inseparable union of divine nature with human nature. He accomplished this after the Incarnation by the admirable institution of the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in which the fullness of the divinity dwells continually in the Second Person of the most Blessed Trinity. This union is a means for uniting the Creator to His creature. However, all do not participate in this mystery because free will enables man to bring about his own damnation by following his evil inclinations and the temptations of the devil, or to earn his salvation by grace which applies to him the merits of the Son of God.

  We have reason to believe that the assurance which Our Lord gave us that He would always be with us was designed to sanctify souls by means of this continual, albeit invisible, presence and by the application of the merits of His actions to those of His creatures. Our Lord does this either by asking pardon of His Father so as to wash away the sins which we have committed in opposition to the virtues which He Himself practiced, or by rendering the virtuous deeds which men accomplish by the power of His grace pleasing to God by uniting them to His meritorious actions. It seemed to me that it is in this way that the holy humanity of Our Lord is continually present to us. He is among us by the application of His merits and by the sanctification of souls. His presence is like air without which the soul is lifeless. It is thus that I see the Redemption of men in the Incarnation and their sanctification by means of this union of man with God in the person of His Son and by this continual presence, whereby His merits are applied to each soul joined to the personal union of a God to man. All of nature is thereby honored since it causes God to see His image in all mankind, if it has not been disfigured by the refusal of the application of the merits of His Son which sin alone can effect.

  This thought came to me after a long period during which I prayed for a great love for the humanity of Our Lord as a means for moving me to practice His virtues especially gentleness, humility, forbearance and love of my neighbor in order to overcome the sins which I so often commit against them."

Source: Spiritual writings of Louise de Marillac : correspondence and thoughts

"At Castelnuovo, where there was a family gathering and great rejoicing, his mother said to him, what he calls "these memorable words": You are a priest. In saying Mass henceforward you are then nearest to Jesus Christ. Remember, however, that to begin to say Mass means to begin to suffer. You will not realize it at once, but little by little you will see that your mother has told you the truth. I am confident that every day you will pray for me, whether I am living or dead: that is enough for me. Henceforward, think only of the salvation of souls, and don't be troubled in mind about me."

Source:  R.F. O'Connor Venerable Don Bosco The American Catholic Quarterly Review ..., Volume 46 1921

"Pope Pius X is convinced that on the character of the clergy mainly depend the present welfare and the future hopes of religion. He is convinced that in modern times the Church needs ministers of more than ordinary virtue, men who are ever ready to spend themselves for Christ and to suffer hard things for His sake. Hence he observes with alarm the growth of a worldly spirit in some of the clergy - disregard for mental prayer, indifference to spiritual reading, neglect of self-examination - and he foretells with sorrow what will be the bitter fruits of such worldliness. Sacred duties will be callously performed, the light of the faith will be darkened, dangerous novelties will be preferred to sound doctrine, human wisdom will be substituted for the Word of God, and pride and contumacy will take the place of the humility and meekness of Christ."

Source: The Priest of Today, His Ideals and His duties, by Thomas O'Donnell C.M. 1910

"St. Thomas Aquinas thus defines man's duties towards God: "Man is bound to render homage to God for these four reasons: because of God's supreme Majesty, of blessings received, of sins committed, of benefits hoped for." When dying on the Cross, Christ rendered this fourfold homage to His Eternal Father. This homage, being the homage of God to God, is of infinite value, but man's homage, the homage of limited, sinful man, is by itself insufficient to render to God what is due to Him. Man's only hope of making his homage acceptable to God, is in the merits of the Cross, and so of Holy Mass; it is in the union of his homage to the homage of the God-Man to the Eternal Father. A Christian is by baptism a member of the Church, but the Church is the Spouse of Jesus, the Royal Prince: Regina Formosissima Christo jugata Principi.

Christ and His Church always act together. Whatever is done by the Church, it is Christ who does it; whatever Christ does in the faithful, He does through the instrumentality of His Church. Christ is one with the Church by bearing her sins; the Church is one with Christ by bearing His Cross. Everything in the Church points to the Altar, to the Sacrifice of the Mass. Holy Mass is the great action of the Church, and through Holy Mass, man is able to pay his fourfold duty to God, to pay full homage to God. These duties, defined by St. Thomas, are summed up in these four words: "Adoration, Thanksgiving, Propitiation, Supplication." These are also four ends as well as the four fruits of Mass."

Source: Report of the Nineteenth Eucharistic Congress, Held at Westminster, London  from 9th to 13th September 1908

"It is not man who causes the things lying on the altar to become the Body and Blood of Christ; but that Christ who was crucified for us. The priest stands performing his office, and pronouncing the words; but the power and grace are the power and grace of God. He says, this is my body, and these words effects the change of the things offered."

Source:The United States Catholic Magazine and Monthly Review, Volume 3. Homely de Prodi. Judae. St. John Chrysostom

"Kneeling indicates and promotes the adoration necessary before receiving the Eucharistic Christ. From this perspective, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger assured that: "Communion only reaches its true depth when it is supported and surrounded by adoration."

Source: The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2000), p. 90

"Who shall resist Anti-Christ when he comes if we show such patience towards the vices and crimes of his precursors? By such leniency, we encourage kings to become tyrants and tempt them to withdraw every privilege and all jurisdiction from the Churches." St. Thomas Becket

Traditional Roman Rite, Sacred Heart Downtown Raleigh (Former Cathedral)

It is "Contrary to reason and to sound liturgical theology to assert that a form of the Roman Rite celebrated uninterruptedly for some 15 centuries is no longer a valid form of the Roman Rite" Cardinal Raymond Burke