The Apostolate works under the patronage of Our Lady of Victory who united a divided Christendom to repel the Muhammadan invasion at Lepanto in 1571. May our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of our Lady of Victory, bring about the liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother Church against her enemies, for God’s greater glory and the salvation of souls, amen.
Truth and charity
This forms the basis of what this apostolate strives to achieve by the grace of God. The Blessed Apostle states the following in the letter to the Ephesians:
[Christ] gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors: For the perfecting of the saints, for the word of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ: That henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive. But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in him who is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in charity (Eph. iv. 11-16).
In this passage we see obvious application to our own age, in which the faithful are “tossed to and fro” by “every wind of doctrine” which has its origin in “cunning craftiness” of the “wickedness of men.” Our age is one dominated by such deceit, from the newspeak of secular media, to the unfortunate state of the Euro-American Church in which “bishops reject the Catholic tradition as a whole and seek to bring about a kind of new, modern ‘Catholicity.’”[1]
The Blessed Apostle gives the antidote to this chaos: ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ (literally “truthing in charity”) and the goal of this action: “to grow up in him who is the head, even Christ.” Explaining this passage, St. Thomas says that truth and charity are the form (foundation) of all good works.[2]
Truth is a virtue in which a man “owes another a manifestation of the truth.”[3] Charity to our brother is willing his good for the sake of God.[4] If you have truth but no charity, you will end up in sin by loving the truth in your intellect but failing to practice it with your will. St. Thomas points out, for instance, that fraternal correction is an act of charity unless it is known beforehand that the action will make someone worse.[5] We see this type of thing among “Traditionalist” Catholics who hold strenuously to Catholic faith and morals, but express themselves with rancor and bitterness, not charity.[6]
On the other side, Conservative Catholics are often unwilling to ask reasonable questions about the state of the Magisterium and look more deeply into the crisis in the Church. The reasonable Traditionalist critique of Vatican II and the post-conciliar Magisterium is often dismissed outright, which prevents a genuine search for truth to try to untangle the chaos of the this crisis.[7] Conservative and Traditionalists Catholics can work together in this crisis to learn truth and charity, and fight against the evil afflicting the Church.
May God grant that this apostolate will give Him greater glory, and contribute to the salvation of souls.
About T. S. Flanders
Founder of Meaning of Catholic and chief editor of Our Lady of Victory Press. I have been various forms of Protestant, Messianic Jew, and an Eastern Orthodox Christian. I came into communion with Rome in 2013. I have a degree in Classical Languages from Grand Valley State University and have done graduate work with the Catholic University of Ukraine. I live in the midwest with my wife and four children.
[6]One of the foremost traditionalist priests, Fr. Chad Ripperger, comments often on the lack of charity among self-identified “traditionalists”
[7]It seems that the Traditionalist critiques have been dismissed, from what I can tell. This is due to the fact that there is only one scholarly work to my knowledge that addresses Traditionalism. On the other side, one can easily find many dozens of scholarly Traditionalist books.
