The Holy Face ‘Face-off’ with Communism

Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Moa [Paradox of the Day/www.paradoxoftheday.com]

Communism Is the Deadliest Ideology

To borrow from Dr.Paul Kengor’s book title on the subject, communism is “the killingest idea ever.”[1] Indeed, no other ideology is as deadly, slaughtering an estimated, nearly one hundred million people to date. Victims span Russia, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Afghanistan. The ideology’s ‘accomplishments’ of human annihilation outnumber those of Nazi fascism by a factor of ten. This is not to mention the “wretched poverty, rank repression, and sheer violence” of communism.[2] The facts portray a regime that epitomizes death and devastation.

Communism: Anti-Human, Anti-Family, and Anti-God

But communism does not just kill people or make their lives miserable. Its ideology is anti-human, anti-family, and anti-God.  It strikes at the very image of God in man, corroding human dignity by destroying freedom and individual rights, undermining the nuclear family, and stamping out religion— most expressly, Catholicism. In fact, there were twice as many martyrs in the twentieth century as there were in the previous nineteen centuries of Christian history combined, the great majority of these having given their lives for Christ at the hands of communist regimes.[3] Communism is the enemy of humanity—and Christianity.

Brothers in Christ Versus Comrades in the Antichrist

One could argue that the Church is to Christ as communism is to the Antichrist. Venerable Fulton Sheen stated in the 1940’s, “The conflict of the future is between an absolute who is the God-Man and an absolute which is man-god; between the God who became Man and the man who makes himself god; between brothers in Christ and comrades in the [A]nti[c]hrist.”[4] Communism, as premier anti-God-Man-and-pro-man-god ‘dogma,’ is the ultimate nemesis of the Holy Face of Christ, which is the emblem of both the God-Man and Godhead Itself.[5] As such, communism is the logical face of the Antichrist. In the Holy Face Devotion, God requests that the “brothers of Christ” participate in an explicit, modern means to counter the death and dark of the “comrades in the Antichrist,” restoring life and light to the masses,[6] reviving the Face of Christ in man. God chooses that modern man play a role in the Holy Face ‘face off’ with communism, engaging him in the spiritual warfare of the age.

But Is Modern Socialism Really So Bad?

One might contend, however, that this is surely taking the matter too far. While few today would think destroying lives or the killing of innocent people or the stamping out of the nuclear family and religion is a good way to bring about ‘utopia for the masses,’ the notion of an idealistic existence in which all have a share in a ‘workers’ paradise’ is surely worth salvaging. After all, the first Christians lived in such a way, sharing equally among all members. Is not modern socialism an effort toward such perfect social justice? Though both the Soviets and Nazis referred to themselves as “socialists,” is not the twenty-first century idea of socialism a far cry from these (and quite distinct from communism per se)? Sadly, the facts suggest not. At best, even moderate socialism is the proverbial camel’s nose in the tent, where the body of communism follows close behind.

Voluntary Versus Forced Charity

To begin, there is a categorical difference between giving charitably to others voluntarily, as in the case of the early Christians, and being mandated to do so by a totalitarian regime, or ‘even’ by a twenty-first century, socialist notion of forced redistribution.

Christian charity is the antithesis of socialism. We gain merit when we take what [is] ours and offer it, out of compassion, to someone in need. There is absolutely no merit in advocating that government redistribute what it acquires through taxes, confiscation, or collectivization (which are the only ways government can acquire wealth).[7]

Ironically, in socialism, individual charity goes against the very idea of government providing for all basic needs, or collective social action, and is therefore viewed as an impediment to the cause. Charity becomes ‘anti-social.’ From God’s perspective, however, the stripping of true charity from man’s social framework is robbing his life of meaning.[8]

Catholicism and Socialism Are Mutually Exclusive

In fact, Catholics are forbidden to be members of even the more moderate forms of socialism, as Pope Pius XI states in his Quadragesimo Anno.[9] Pope Saint John XXIII also held that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate socialism.[10] Popes Leo XIII, Saint Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XII, Saint Paul VI, Saint John Paul II, and Benedict XVI all unequivocally condemned socialism for a variety of irreconcilable offenses to Catholic doctrine, adamant that no one can be both a good Catholic and a true socialist.

A Hellish, Far Cry from Utopia

The early Christians emphasized shared work as well as shared benefit. St. Paul clearly states that “if any man will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Evidently, however, it has not ‘worked’ that all should work and share equally under a socialist regime. One has only to look at recent examples in countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Their attempts at a workers’ paradise are terrifyingly dismal.

Communism deprives individuals of their inalienable rights. It is totalitarian, atheistic ideology pursued for the stated purpose of ushering in a classless utopia—a better, even perfect, world. This utopian promise has gone unfulfilled in every country that has attempted communism in any form. No ideology has so constantly, so abjectly, so horridly, so reliably failed to meet its central stated objective—instead achieving the precise opposite of an earthly utopia. From Stalin’s Russia to Pol Pot’s Cambodia to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, communism has ushered in not the promised workers’ paradise but the closest thing the world has known to hell on earth.[11]

Besides being ungodly, socialist communism achieves the very inverse of its stated goal. For an ideology that believes the ends justify the means, the Marxists’ “means” appear the dismal “end” for the masses victimized by the regime—a hellish, far cry from utopia.

Jacobins’ Reign of Terror as Inspiration

This was arguably first the case with the French Revolution, “which showed for the first time that a [modern] powerful state could be used as a tremendous anti-Christianity machine.”[12] Like all forms of modernist-nihilist-rationalist thought, the communist ideology had its roots in the Enlightenment.[13] Its big debut, however, dates to the first totalitarians of the Jacobins who used the French Revolution as a jumping point to the Reign of Terror. This 1790’s ‘reign’ used the infamous guillotine to decapitate thousands of dissidents of the ‘democratic’ revolution. Among these were hundreds of Catholic priests and nuns who had refused to take the schismatic oath of allegiance to the revolutionary government. The Carmelite Massacre of 1792 was just one scene in an intensification of the persecution of the Catholic Church by the then, new French government.

Robespierre, the brain behind the tactics of terror for the good of the ‘republic of virtue,’ was in the end himself put to the guillotine when “members of the assembly turned against their master, out of fear of being next on his list.”[14] Despite Robespierre’s own methods turning in on himself (a phenomenon not uncommon in the realm of liberal thought), he and the Jacobins were admired by Lenin.

Marx & Engels Provide the How-to Guide

An apostatized Christian, Lenin, as the leader of the Bolsheviks, overthrew the Russian Republic in 1917. He then instituted his own Red Terror during the 1918 Russian Civil War. Lenin in turn was admired by Trotsky, his minister of foreign affairs. Both desired to turn Russia into a Terror-like, repression and murderous machine for the machinations of their cause. Marx, already an unabashed author of demonic prose and poetry,[15] was there with the perfect “how-to” guide. The Communist Manifesto was written by Marx and Engels in 1848, which served as a blueprint for Marxism-Leninism in Russia, Maoism in China, and twenty-first-century socialism in Chavez’s Venezuela.[16]

The Holy Face ‘Face-off’ with Communism Begins

It was also in 1848 that Sister Marie de Saint Pierre, a young French Carmelite nun who had received revelations calling for the institution of the Church-approved Holy Face Devotion, died. A main thrust of this Work of Reparation is to use as spiritual combat, prayers of the devotion as an exorcism of sorts against communism. Christ calls for the offering of His wounded Face, along with the cross and other instruments of His Passion, to the Father in reparation for the modern, unparalleled iniquity[17] of communism.  As revealed in the revelations given to Sister Saint Pierre, communism epitomizes sins most offensive to God, those forbidden by the first three commandments concerning proper fear of the Lord. Therein, denial of God, blasphemy, and the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days are prohibited.

Marxism Rebels Against God

Though the Russian Revolution had not taken place and the Manifesto had not yet been written, the term communism was already used in the early 1840’s to denote any of a variety of socialists, liberals, or nihilists, “assuming different names at different epochs to suit the caprice of the moment.”[18] Sister Saint Pierre writes, “God has … commanded me to cross swords with the [c]ommunists, who … [are] the sworn enemies of the Church, and of [H]is Christ.”[19] Like Satan, Marxism rebels against God “by creating a new world in which God is destroyed and man is elevated.”[20] Suiting the caprice of the twenty-first century ‘moment,’ adherents of modern relativism, in which each man decides for himself ‘his’ own truth and morality, are proverbial frogs in a pot of slow-boiling Marxist ideology, protagonists of the man-god, antagonists of the God-Man.

“The Arms of My Enemies Inflict Death, but Mine Restore Life”

Regarding these and all “by any other name” Marxists, Our Lord instructed Sister Saint Pierre:

To combat them, I give you the arms of my Passion, my Cross, of which they are the enemies, as also all the other instruments of my sufferings…. The arms of my enemies inflict death, but mine restore life…. It is the Communists who have dragged me from my tabernacles, profaned and despoiled my sanctuaries, and have even dared to raise their hands against the anointed of the Lord, but their designs shall be frustrated.[21]

While the revelations given to Sister Saint Pierre could not have in her understanding referred to then, future communist regimes of Russia and China, for example, it is clear that the seeds of those revolutions were already in place, going back at least to the Jacobins and their Reign of Terror—and pertaining to the thought which fueled the Reign, to the period of ‘Enlightenment.’[22]

Combating Communism in Marian Apparitions

If there could be any doubt that Our Lord wished to engage the faithful in (also) combating the communism and socialism of today, there is ample, ongoing reiteration of this desire in modern Marian Apparitions. In perhaps the most well-known, that of Fatima’s third secret in which Our Lady requests the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation of the First Saturdays, Our lady explains that if these requests are heeded:

Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.[23]

Our Lady also indicated the continued grave danger of communist thought, whether expressly or pertaining to the effects of such, in her apparitions at LaSalette, Akita, Betania, Kibeho, San Nicolas, and Quito* among others. Our Lady is very explicit in her warnings against such dangerous ideology and the need for all to pray and make sacrifices in spiritual combat toward defeating it.

Mary’s Essential Role in the ‘Face-off’ with Communism

The rosary will always be a primary weapon endorsed by Heaven to defeat all evil, but as Pope Saint John Paul II states, to recite the Rosary is to contemplate with Mary the Face of Christ.[24] How appropriate, then, that Our Lady’s explicit role in the ‘face-off’ with communism was instituted in the revelations surrounding the Holy Face Devotion. Therein, Sister St. Pierre relates:

This Work of Reparation is so necessary … and fraught with so much glory for God, that [H]e desires [H]is Holy Mother to have the honor of giving it to this kingdom, as a new pledge of mercy. Let us then have recourse to the most Blessed Virgin who is the treasurer of the graces of God.[25]

Elsewhere Our Lord relates that the Sacred Heart and the Heart of His Mother[26] should never be separated.[27] Moreover, to praise and bless the Name of the Father, with the wounded Face of Christ as object of adoration in so doing, is to honor his Sacred Heart and the holy Heart of His Mother.[28] In fact, Sister St. Pierre requests that all who would engage in the Reparation to the Holy Face salute the Holy Virgin as “Our Lady of the Holy Name of God.”[29] Further relating to Mary’s role of intercession in the Work of Reparation, the Holy Face Chaplet, which is a most efficacious tool of spiritual combat revealed to Sister Saint Pierre for the defeat of communism, includes seven Glory-Be’s in honor of the Seven Last Words of Our Lord, as well as the Seven Sorrows of Mary.  

Holy Face Chaplet as a Most Efficacious Weapon

The Chaplet of the Holy Face is recommended by Cardinal Burke and has seen a resurgence in popularity in very recent years. The most often repeated verse in the chaplet, said thirty-three times in honor of the five senses of Our Lord, as reparative homage for all the suffering which Our Lord has endured in His Face through each of these senses, is: “Arise, O Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered, and let all that hate Thee flee from before Thy face!”[30] Saint Athanasius relates that the devils upon being asked what verse in the Scriptures they feared the most, replied the aforementioned and that it always compelled them to take flight. The chaplet ends with the invocation, “O God, our Protector, look upon us, and cast Thine eyes upon the Face of Thy Christ.”[31]

“The Birth of the Most Beautiful Work That Has Yet Appeared on the Face of the Earth”

The Archconfraternity of the Holy Face, approved immediately for the whole world via Papal Brief of Pope Leo XIII in 1884, was revealed, when requested by Our Lord to Sister Saint Pierre, as preferred by Him to all other Associations established in the Church. He likened the others to the common wine used at the wedding of Cana and the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face to the “miraculous wine served at the end.”[32] Our Lord also told Sister St. Pierre that the initiation of the Holy Face Devotion, to be offered through the Sacred Heart and as an extension of Christ’s Redemption, is “the birth of the most beautiful work that has yet appeared on the face of the earth.”[33] Christ further relates the Reparative Work as “His greatest consolation” and “the only means of appeasing the Father.”[34]

“You Will Become a Terror to Hell”

 Our Lord forewarned Sister Saint Pierre that “Satan will make use of every means in his power to annihilate this work from the very outset.”[35] Indeed, it seems he has, for very few have known about or practiced the reparative work in recent decades. Yet, Our Lord also told Sister Saint Pierre, “the most Holy Name of God will triumph, and the angels will gain the victory.” Christ further disclosed:

Lucifer willingly abandoned to his subordinates the charge of the other troops of sinners, as for instance, the lewd, the intemperate, the avaricious, but the blasphemers, he kept as his favorite flock…. St. Michael and the holy angels will protect you; with my cross which I give you for your shepherd’s crook, you will become a terror to [h]ell.[36]

Undeniably, all are called to become “terrors to hell” by means of this great Work of Reparation, for God has chosen man to take part in this celestial combat and has so armed him with His singular weaponry. Sister Saint Pierre marveled: “How excellent is this work! How sublime! What immense benefits are reserved for the defenders of the Holy Name of God!”[37] Mankind is to share in the work of St. Michael and his warrior angels—and will likewise in their victory.^[38]

“Woe to Those Who Do Not Make Reparation”

God is pleading with us, warning us, demanding of us, to engage in the spiritual significance of our times: to ‘face-off’ with communism in all its manifestations. Given the unparalleled iniquity of the era,[39] God implores modern man to do his part toward the salvation of the masses, the restoration of peace to the nations, and the renewal of orthodoxy to the Faith. Ours is a cosmic battle in which all must choose sides, for God gives the sobering admonition, “Woe to those who do not make reparation!”[40]

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May God arise and let His enemies be scattered and let all those who hate Him flee before His Face!

May the thrice Holy Name of God overthrow all their plans!

May the Holy Name of the Living God split them up by disagreements!

May the terrible Name of the God of Eternity stamp out all their godlessness!

Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Holy Face of Jesus, covered with blood, sweat, dust and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of communists, blasphemers, and for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day of Sunday.[41]

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[1] Paul Kengor, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism: The Killingest Idea Ever (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2017), 9-13.

[2] Ibid.

[3] George Weigel, The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times (San Francisco: Ignatutius, 2018), 47.

[4] Fulton Sheen, “Signs of Our Times,”on “Light Your Lamps” broadcast, January 26, 1947. Referenced in: Athanasius Schneider, Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age (Brooklyn: Angelico, 2019), 107.

[5] Sister Mary St. Peter, Life of Sister Mary St. Peter, ed. M. L’Abbe Janvier (France, 1884), 243.

[6] Ibid., 320, 324.

[7] Michael P. Orsi. “US priest: Socialism is antithetical to the Gospel.” Life Site News (August 11, 2020), https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/us-priest-socialism-is-antithetical-to-the-gospel (accessed August 12, 2020).

[8] Ibid.

[9] Rev. Hugo C. Koehler, Capital and Labor: An Analysis of and Commentary on the Encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII and Pius XI (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 1939), 28-29. “[Pius XI Encyclical states,] ’Whether Socialism be considered as a doctrine, or as a historical fact, or as a movement, if it really remain Socialism, it cannot be brought into harmony with the dogmas of the Catholic Church…. The reason being that it conceives human society in a way utterly alien to Christian truth.’ Christianity always upholds the basic dignity of human personality and its fundamental rights. Material goods, necessary as they are, are not an end in themselves, but a means to that higher end of man, the super-natural union of man with God here and hereafter. A system that … subordinates the individual to the State cannot have the support of the Church.”

[10] Gustavo Solimeo. “What the Popes Really Say About Socialism.” Tradition, Family, Property Student Action (April 8, 2010), https://tfpstudentaction.org/blog/what-the-popes-really-say-about-socialism (accessed August 19, 2020).

[11] Paul Kengor, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism: The Killingest Idea Ever (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2017), 10.

[12] David Carlin, “Since the Reformation,” The Catholic Thing (August 7, 2020), https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/08/07/sine-the-reformation (accessed August 17, 2020).

[13] Diane Moczar, The Church Under Attack: Five Hundred Years That Split the Church and Scattered the Flock (Manchester: Sophia Institute Press, 2013), 92.

[14] Ibid., 96.

[15] Anne Hendershott. “A Disturbing Guide to the Devilish Karl Marx.” The Catholic World Report (August 17, 2020), https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/08/17/a-disturbing-guide-to-the-devilish-karl-marx (accessed August 17, 2020).

[16] Paul Kengor, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism: The Killingest Idea Ever (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2017, 23.

[17] Sister Mary St. Peter, Life of Sister Mary St. Peter, ed. M. L’Abbe Janvier (France, 1884), 123, 159.

[18] Ibid., 318.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Anne Hendershott. “A Disturbing Guide to the Devilish Karl Marx.” The Catholic World Report (August 17, 2020), https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/08/17/a-disturbing-guide-to-the-devilish-karl-marx (accessed August 17, 2020).

[21]Sister Mary St. Peter, Life of Sister Mary St. Peter, ed. M. L’Abbe Janvier (France, 1884), 321.

[22] The theology of the Reformation led to the philosophical thought of the Enlightenment, wherein reason was considered the primary source of knowledge. The Reformation substituted “faith alone” and the “Bible alone” for the authority of the Church and its tradition. The freethinking ideology of the French Revolution took anti-Church concepts a step further, substituting, in effect, a new faith, the ‘autonomy’ of reason for the authority of Church dogma and Christian society. Having separated morals from faith, the autonomy of reason led to a steady decline in morals and a contempt for the authority of the Church.

* Quito, Ecuador took place approximately 400 years ago, so well before the revelations given to Sister St. Pierre. However, the messages of the apparition were hidden until recent times and the sisters of Ecuador were asked to make reparation for our current times.

[23] “The Third Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima—July 13, 1917, America Needs Fatima (July 13, 2020), https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/ANF-Articles/the-third-apparition-of-our-lady-of-fatima-july-13-197 (accessed July 13, 2020).

[24] John Paul II, “Rosarium Virginis Mariae,” Apostolic Letters, 2002, http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2002/documents (accessed August 25, 2020).

[25] Sister Mary St. Peter, Life of Sister Mary St. Peter, ed. M. L’Abbe Janvier (France, 1884), 327.

[26] Mary’s Heart is not yet referred to as the “Immaculate Heart” in the Revelations since that doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was not declared until 1854.

[27] Sister Mary St. Peter, Life of Sister Mary St. Peter, ed. M. L’Abbe Janvier (France, 1884), 119.

[28] Ibid., 130.

[29] Ibid., 333.

[30] Psalm 67.

[31] Abbe Janvier, Manual of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face (Tours: Oratory of the Holy Face, 1887), 232-235.

[32] Sister Mary St. Peter, Life of Sister Mary St. Peter, ed. M. L’Abbe Janvier (France, 1884), 329-330.

[33] Ibid., 311.

[34] Ibid., 256, 290.

[35] Ibid., 154, 181.

[36] Ibid., 257.

[37] Ibid., 330-31.

[38] Ibid., 155.

[39] Ibid., 123.

[40] Ibid., 161.

[41] Ibid., 323. Prayers of Sister St. Pierre to spiritually combat the enemies of Christ.

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