Dear TIA,

In an article on the La Salette secret by Solang Hertz in the Remnant of 1996, it is stated that there was a decree by the Holy Office on Dec 21, 1915 wherein the faithful were forbidden to write commentaries or interpretations on the Secret.

Is this still in effect? Must a decree like this be renewed? What exactly does this decree forbid?

     Thank you.

     B.P.


TIA responds:

Dear B.P.,

1. Allow us to provide some information to our readers who are not familiar with Our Lady of La Salette.

Our Lady appeared in France to two shepherd children, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat, near La Salette (France) in 1846. She warned the children of evils threatening the Catholic Church and entrusted to each a secret, instructing Melanie to publish hers in 1858.

After five years of careful examination of the facts surrounding the apparitions, the Church authorized the cult of Our Lady of La Salette in 1851, and a Basilica was built at the site where the revelation took place.

Many ups and downs followed, and the secret entrusted to Melanie was finally published in 1879 with an imprimatur by Bishop Zola of Lecce, Italy. It speaks of the period from 1846 on until the era of the manifestation of the Antichrist along with the coming of Elias and Enoch. It also affirms that Rome would lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.

Notwithstanding its approval and publication by the Church, very soon opposition set in, and ardent efforts were made to quash the good effects of that secret. Why did such hostility to Melanie's secret arise? More likely, the liberals who had infiltrated the Church with bad ideas and customs felt that the secret exposed them and their goals. These were the ones who were interested in stopping the dissemination of the La Salette message. How did they make their way up into the Holy Office, we don't know. But in 1915, it published the decree forbidding comment on it.

According to Mrs. Hertz in her book Meta-Politics, Melanie told her director in 1903: "Souls who are God's friends can guess the secret's meaning without help, and the others won't want to because it applies to them too closely." And if this were clear at the turn of the century, Mrs. Hertz notes, it is even clearer now for those with eyes to see.

2. Now, we turn more directly to your question on whether the prohibition to comment on La Salette is still in force. To our knowledge and without being experts on the topic, the Vatican decree silencing commentaries on the La Salette secret is still in effect. We may have the text, read it, pass it on to friends, but not comment publicly or write commentaries on it.

This is why Solange Hertz only publishes the secret of Melanie, and leaves the conclusions to be drawn by the faithful.

3. As was mentioned, there are two secrets - one written by Maximin, another written by Melanie. You may read translations of both of them into English along with credible explanations by Mr. Ronald Conte here and here. We believe his translations are accurate, but we did not have the leisure to check them with the French originals.

On these texts, our policy is the same as that of Mrs. Hertz. We make the secrets available, but do not enter into commentaries.

We hope this is of some help.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

Dear TIA,

I was so impressed with a communication from a "Mr and Mrs GK", home-schooling parents of seven children regarding suitable history books for Catholic children. They were requesting books that show the best form of government to be monarchical. Such truly Catholic books are difficult to find but I would like to suggest a few points which might be helpful.

If we look around at the chaos in the world today, we can safely say that democracy has failed. I believe the fatal flaw in democracy is the fact that it treats all men as equals. In this world we are patently obviously not, although we will all finally be judged equally by Almighty God. God created a hierarchy in both the animal and human world. We are each one of us unique, with our own level of intelligence, physical power, creativity etc.

In democracy the voting power of the Prince is the same as that of the pauper. The voting power of the father of seven children, who has responsibility for his wife and children, pays his taxes and is experienced in the ways of the world, is the same as the 18-year-old schoolboy with little or no experience of life. This is patently a foolish system and is open to abuse.

For example, in Austria recently, they gave the vote to 16-year-old children. Democracy is the gateway through which Communism, Socialism, Liberalism and feminism have marched into our lives. They have brought their associated errors with them, namely state control, state interference, abortion, atheism, contraception, sex education in schools, "gay marriage" and many more, with which we are all too familiar. The destructive influence of social welfare is also a product of democracy. This system encourages laziness and sloth, irresponsibility and indeed in some cases (unmarried "mothers") downright immorality.

If we would like a clear comparison of the merits of the monarchical system and the democratic system, we need only look at the history of France before the revolution of 1789 - and then in the 19th century. This latter century was one of bloodshed, anarchy, Communism, feminism, persecution of the Church and every type of immorality.

God hates disobedience. He punished the angels who rebelled in the most severe fashion. Saint Paul instructed slaves to obey their masters and consider their masters to be in the place of God. What greater proof that Almighty God did not ordain equality in this world.

We are taught by the Catholic Church to do our duty according to "our station in life." In this world God has also punished disobedience. In Russia the punishment for the revolution was Communism. God requires order in society and the periods of greatest order in the history of the world have been when wise and just Monarchs have been in power ruling their kingdoms in conjunction with a strong Catholic clerical influence. There can be little doubt that this will be the form of government when the Kingdom of God finally comes.

God Bless Mr and Mrs GK and their children who are so fortunate to have such good Catholic parents.

     Yours sincerely

     C.P., Ireland

Dr. TIA,

Thanks for Dr. Horvat's article "How to Address Priests and Religious." I did an internet search to figure out how to address a letter to a Carmelite monk and found your article helpful. It appears a good amount of work went into it.

I also wanted to share a curious tidbit (of which you may already be aware). I attend an Eastern Catholic church, and it appears that the ancient custom there is to generally call clergy by their first names, such as "Father John," or "Father Deacon Timothy," and even in fact "Bishop Basil." This being such because the first name is the Catholic baptismal name, and the last name is only of fleshly lineage.

Not that I'm making any point about Western customs, I just thought you might find that interesting.

     Regards and thanks again,

     M.W.G.

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