Marcus Flavinius has posted a series of quotes from Evelyn Waugh’s biography of the English Catholic martyr, Edmond Campion. Marcus adds his commentary of the selected quotes, juxtaposing the persecution of Catholicism in 16th century England with the modern persecution of Catholics. It makes for fascinating reading, but the quote from Waugh that most affected me was the following:
In this confused and ill-documented decade, the Catholics, left without effective leadership, appear to have been dealing with the problem of conformity, each in his own way. It was one which varied greatly in different parts of the country. Some refused the oath and went into exile; some paid the penalties of the law. Some, who were popular or locally powerful, avoided, year after year, taking the oath at all; some took the oath and meant nothing by it. That generation was inured to change; sooner or later the tide would turn in their favour again; a Protestant coup, such as was spoken of, to enthrone the Earl of Huntingdon might inflame a national rising and restore the old religion; the Queen might die and be succeeded by Mary Stuart; she might marry a Catholic; she might declare for Catholicism herself. In any case, things were not likely to last on their present unreasonable basis.
But the tide never did turn in their favour. The act of taking an oath and meaning nothing by it, in this case the oath against one’s Catholic faith, had the very real effect of undermining the efforts of those Catholics attempting to stand firm against the protestant tyranny. We saw a similar event play out during the Covid scam; the act of wearing the mask or adhering to other unjust mandates no matter your private intentions simply reinforced the government’s position.
I would not want to find myself standing before God in heaven and attempting to justify why I took an oath against my faith when I didn’t really mean it. An oath is an oath, and an action is an action. The early Church martyrs refused every attempt to. make them renounce their faith. They were told to just say the words and all would be fine, or to just place an offering at a false god and their lives would be spared, but they refused and were martyred and today we remember them.
And yet 1500 years later in England, Catholics simply shrugged their shoulders and took an oath against their faith and rationalised this with the excuse that they didn’t really mean it. They betrayed their own faith, they betrayed their fellow Catholics who were trying to resist, and they betrayed God.
Today we suffer a similar but worse persecution. At least in England during the protestant persecution Catholics could be sure of who was persecuting them and where the lines were drawn. But today Catholics are persecuted from within the Church by those claiming to be of the Church. So we suffer the double ignominy of being persecuted for holding to our faith while at the same time being gaslighted as if it were we that were being unfaithful to our Lord’s Church.
But the quote in Marcus’ piece by St. Athanasius gives me strength. Speaking during the time of the Arian heresy, the great saint had this to say about being locked out of their physical churches.
May God console you!… What causes sorrow… is the fact that others have violently seized the churches, while you find yourselves on the outside during this time. It is a fact that they hold the see, but you possess the apostolic faith. They may occupy our churches, but they stand outside the true faith. You remain outside the places of worship, yet the faith dwells within you. Let us consider: which is more important, the place or the faith? The true faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in this struggle—the one who holds the see or the one who upholds the faith? True, buildings are good when the apostolic faith is preached within them; they are holy if everything taking place there is holy… You are the blessed ones—you who remain within the Church through your faith, holding fast to the foundations as they have come down to you from apostolic tradition; and if some wretched person jealously seeks to shake that faith on various occasions, they do not succeed. It is they who have cut themselves off from it during the current crisis. No one will ever prevail against your faith, beloved brothers, and we believe that God will one day restore our churches to us. The more the violent seek to occupy places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim to represent the Church, but in reality, they are the ones being cast out of it and led astray. Even if Catholics faithful to tradition are reduced to a mere handful, they are the true Church of Jesus Christ.
They have the buildings, the trappings and the vestments. But we have the faith. That cannot be taken from us unless we give in to just one of their demands. This is the main reason why I am a sedevacantist. I reject all of Vatican II in its entirety because when I stand before God I want to be able to say that even though I am a worthless sinner, at least I managed to never consciously take some action or oath that would have seen me reject God.
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