The Great Facade: The Regime of Novelty in the Catholic Church from Vatican II to the Francis Revolution (Second Edition) 2nd Edition by Christopher Ferrara (PDF)

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In this second edition of The Great Façade, co-author Christopher A. Ferrara brings the original work up to date with six new chapters addressing what Bishop Athanasius Schneider has called “the fourth great crisis” in the history of the Catholic Church. The additional chapters chronicle the attempts at ecclesial restoration by Benedict XVI and the “Francis revolution” following Benedict’s mysterious resignation–including Francis’s tumultuous Synod on the Family and his radical reform of the process for determining matrimonial nullity, leading to what some call “Catholic divorce” and a threat of schism on the magnitude of the Lutheran revolt of the 16th century. This new look at the 50 years following the Second Vatican Council is sure to provoke discussion and debate among Catholics concerned about the state of their Church.”There is no doubt in my mind that The Great Façade has been prophetic in the broader scriptural sense of the term. Its authors saw that Catholicism was under obvious assault, that the consequences of its rout would be dreadful, and that their failure to take up arms against a sea of enemies would be a punishable dereliction of duty. Those new to the crisis in the Church as well as old soldiers seeking to recharge intellectual batteries can make use of the book’s succinct outline of the modernist positions in matters of faith and morality that so swiftly rode to dominance on the back of the Second Vatican Council.”–JOHN RAO, author of Black Legends and the Light of the World”One of the most important books of the post-conciliar era, The Great Façade has earned the right to share the top shelf with such masterworks as the trilogy of Michael Davies, Romano Amerio’s Iota Unum and von Hildebrand’s The Devastated Vineyard. As the original publisher of this magnum opus, I am delighted that Angelico Press has brought out a new edition in which Mr. Ferrara provides six additional chapters documenting the rapid advances of ‘the regime of novelty’ following what he calls The Benedictine Respite. With its almost literally up-to-the-minute analysis of ‘the Francis Revolution,’ this work is now more important than ever.”–MICHAEL MATT, Editor, The Remnant”The second edition of The Great Facade tells the story of the crumbling veneer obscuring the glorious Catholic Church, updated to the very eve of its publication. This book is a necessity for anyone who senses the failure of the attempts of neo-Catholics to cover over the cracks in this crumbling edifice of post-conciliar innovation. As always, Chris Ferrara narrates his case against the viruses of novelty and their neo-Catholic apologists with painstaking documentation and a lively and witty style.”–BRIAN M. MCCALL, author of To Build the City of God”God is the Most Real Being. In contrast, the note of today’s Church often seems unreality–happy talk, avoiding issues, one-sided rhetoric masking self-contradiction and dubious projects. For a while it seemed that repeated disaster might be bringing back a certain sobriety, but no such luck. In such a setting, The Great Facade is more necessary than ever as a spirited brief against the fantasies of recent decades, and an appeal to Catholics and the Church to return to what they have been, in order to become what they most truly are.”–JAMES KALB, author of Against Inclusiveness”This long awaited second edition documents the ‘regime of novelty’ up to the present moment. It contains the most comprehensive analysis of Pope Francis’s tumultuous pontificate to date.”–JOHN VENNARI, Editor, Catholic Family News”[S]uperb–best analysis of the present, parlous state of the Church I have read…. A marvel of clear, careful argument, and utterly persuasive.”–JEFFREY RUBIN, convert and former editor of The Conservative Book Club

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I’d give this book ten stars if I could. It is a thick tome, but not a single word is wasted. The authors are both erudite in their topic, and capable of clearly and forcefully explaining it. For those of us who didn’t have the advantage of having lived before the travesty that was Vatican II, the book clarified the vagueness and confusion that permeates the Church to this day. Thank you, Drs. Ferrara and Woods for sharing what you have learned (and for updating the book since the arrival of Pope Francis on the scene). God bless you both.

⭐Ferrara has done a great service to The Church and anyone with ears to hear in giving us a line upon line, fact on fact, papal document on papal document substantiation for the many fallacies of the Vat2 so called pastoral council and he aptly compares its undertaking to a virus that feeds on a host, in this case, the Vat2 principles of “dialogue:, “ecumenism”, and “collegiality” that are attempting to destroy the Church of God. We learn also how Pope Paul VI when a bishop and secretary for Pope Pius XII betrayed to the communists the clandestine priests hidden in Russia to serve God’s church and they were rounded up like dogs, tortured, and murdered, how the Vat2 was hi jacked by liberalists and one in particular who out of order grabbed a microphone and began the destruction we now witness on the day it was to be instituted, how JP2 consistently and systematically undermined tradition. We now see he was canonized by the the lovely Pope Francis who continues the flow of confusion for the faithful. Edmund Grant’s review of Ferrara’s work validates the neo catholic and liberalist mindset that Ferrara exposes and also nicely shows to what great extent forces went to try and destroy the message of Fr, Nicholas Gruner….every Catholic should read “World Enslavement or Peace….It’s up to the Pope by Gruner if you can find a copy. Get a cope of Ferrara’s The Secret as well…it exposes the deceits of more malignant tumors of truth and justice. God bless Christopher Ferrara who has been most faithful to the ‘Light of Christ’ that his name carries !!! Ferrara’s work helps the faith-minded protect that faith by being aware of the foolish decisions from on high that undermine long standing apostolic tradition, papal encyclicals, and honorable Magisterium’s of the past and focusing on Jesus and the father and the Holy Spirit and Blessed Mother over all the “novelties” in on high decision making undermining faith.

⭐Christopher A. Ferrara and Thomas Woods Jr. wrote in the Preface to the Second Edition (2015) of this 2002 book, “Thirteen years have passed since this book first appeared. In that brief span of time the Church has witnesses a series of momentous events… the death of John Paul II, the election of the former Cardinal Ratzinger as Benedict XVI, Benedict’s astonishing and seemingly inexplicable abdication of the papacy, and the election of … Pope Francis. These events have been accompanied by a series of disciplinary and liturgical developments… which have vindicated the position this book defended: that a recovery of the Church’s preconciliar liturgy, discipline and doctrinal firmness ‘is no nostalgic dream, but an inevitable provision of God’s providence, for the current abysmal state of the Church’s liturgy, preaching and general discipline cannot possibly serve as the foundation for her mission in the future.’” (Pg. 9)They continue, “the Church has gone from a Pope who… as Cardinal Ratzinger, admonished that ‘[t]he authority of the Pope is not unlimited; it is at the service of Sacred Tradition’… to a Pope who dreams of ‘a missionary impulse capable of TRANSFORMING EVERYTHING, so that the Church’s customs… can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.’ … The new chapters are essentially a traditionalist’s assessment of the pontificates of Benedict and Francis… Let the reader forewarned: the view of Francis’s pontificate presented here is thoroughly negative… There is, however, one piece of the mosaic that stands out in stark relief as the exception… Francis’s apparent solicitude for the Society of Saint Pius X, the traditionalist society still falsely accused of ‘schism’ by liberal and ‘conservative’ Catholics alike… Francis’s surprising move in favor of the Society in 2015… [is] providing one reason for the note of hope on which these new chapters conclude.” (Pg 10-11)They wrote in the original Introduction, “That the period following the Second Vatican Council has been a debacle for the Catholic Church is now beyond serious dispute. The widespread infiltration of the Catholic clergy by homosexuals over the past forty years, and the systematic attempts by bishops to conceal thousands of criminal acts by sexually deviant priests (not to mention the once-unthinkable emergence of a ‘gay culture’ in the Catholic priesthood), are but the further symptoms of an ecclesial disease that is raging out of control after being left untreated for decades… the post-conciliar infection of the Catholic Church by liberalism was self-induced… the Church’s own leaders, including the conciliar Popes, have imposed what can only be called a REGIME OF NOVELTY upon the Church since Vatican II. The effect of that regime … has been largely to strip the Church of her natural defenses against infiltration and corruption… In reaction to this regime of novelty, there has emerged … a movement known as Roman Catholic traditionalism, which seeks a restoration of the elements of traditional Catholic teaching and praxis that have been suppressed under the new regime. This book is both a defense of that movement and a call for Catholics to join it.” (Pg. 13)Ferrara explains, “This book began as a series of essays written… for ‘The Wanderer’ … [which] had begun to serialize a pamphlet … entitled ‘Traditionalists, Tradition and Private Judgment’… The Wanderer was … induced to publish the Pamphlet by the appearance of a tract entitled ‘We Resist You to the Face’… Unfortunately, the title of the tract was exploited by demagogues in the ‘conservative’ Catholic camp, who cried ‘schism’…” (Pg. 14)He continues, “the controversy has usually been described as a split between ‘conservative’ and ‘traditionalist’ Catholics… we believe that the term ‘conservative’ invites confusion among casual readers, for whom it carries a positive connotation, while attaching a venerable designation to people whose actions… merit no such honor. Publisher Neil McCaffney introduced the term ‘right-wing liberal’… [for one who] is orthodox on doctrine… [But] he considers all else to be negotiable… The only real ESSENTIAL of the Catholic faith, according to him, are moral and doctrinal propositions… However, too great a depreciation of so-called ‘nonessentials’ fails to reckon with the role played by practices which … are in fact necessary to the transmission … of what is ‘essential’ to Catholicism… Likewise… the liturgy … is the principal means by which the Faith has been taught to generations … of Catholics at Sunday Mass… we have employed the term ‘neo-Catholic’ to refer to Catholic personalities in the mold of the Pamphlet’s author.” (Pg. 16-17, 19)He clarifies, “a traditionalist is … a Catholic who continues to worship as Catholics had always worshipped and to believe as Catholics had always believed until approximately 1965… the neo-Catholic idea is nothing less than a form of progressive or liberal Catholicism.” (Pg. 23, 26) He adds, “The neo-Catholic will maintain that every single one of the postconciliar novelties—including such things as altar girls—must be accepted … as legitimate ‘developments’ of Catholic Tradition… The one and only test that neo-Catholics recognize for the legitimacy of these ‘developments’ is that they were approved by the conciliar Popes… the neo-Catholic has broken with Tradition… in her worship … but also of novel orientations, attitudes and liberal tendencies never before seen in Catholics…” (Pg. 28-29) He summarizes, “traditionalists are convinced that the correct answer … is a total restoration of the … traditions that were abandoned … for the sake of the postconciliar experiment in reform… These, then, are the parties—traditionalist and neo-Catholic—and this is the controversy between them… The final outcome … may well determine the direction of the Roman Catholic Church in the Third Millennium.” (Pg. 33)After observing that some neo-Catholics suggest that “we should assume that breathtaking innovations are merely ‘developments’ of settled doctrine,” he notes that “the sedevacantists … pounce upon such lame arguments… ‘See… a change in Church teaching is admitted! But since the Church cannot change her teaching, those who have changed it, including the Pope, cannot be members of the Church!’ In rebutting the sedevacantists, we must offer a more sensible explanation for the ‘phenomenon of John Paul II’ and the postconciliar developments as a whole than: ‘Fear not, all these breathtaking innovations are traditional.’” (Pg. 42)He suggests, “Satan understands… that the Magisterium can never officially teach error. But what if the human members of the Church could be induced to embrace NON-doctrines and NON-teachings that cause confusion and division over the meaning of the actual doctrines of the Magisterium? We are convinced that this is what has happened in the postconciliar Church: Verbal ‘viruses’ have invaded the Mystical Body, disguising themselves as Catholic doctrines…” (Pg. 60)He asserts, “It is safe to say, using Cardinal Ottaviani as a benchmark, that in the current college of cardinals, appointed almost entirely by John Paul II, there is not a single TRUE conservative. Cardinal Alfons Stickler is the lone exception, though he lost his right to vote in the conclave when he turned 80—the casualty of yet another senseless postconciliar innovation.” (Pg. 101)They note, “While we have no wish to delve into the details of the exploding homosexual priest scandal … we would like to hear the neo-Catholic excuse for why the same Vatican apparatus that ‘watches attentively’ over traditionalist orders… has done virtually nothing about the mountain of … reports it has received … about sexual predators…” (Pg. 103)They argue, “if Fr. Richard McBrien had quoted favorably from Teilhard de Chardin… held a special meeting with female altar servers, and even publicly KISSED THE KORAN, in neo-Catholic eyes this would no doubt constitute still further evidence of the man’s… dissent. But when the Pope did these very things, the neo-Catholic response was an embarrassed silence. It is heartbreaking to have to speak publicly against some of the practical judgments of the Pope, but… Public correction is the only mechanism available to the concerned Catholic today…” (Pg. 126)Of the interreligious prayer meetings at Assisi in 2002, they comment, “[It] staggers the Catholic mind… Yet, true to form, the neo-Catholic press organs reported the event as if it were a triumph for the Catholic faith—while carefully avoiding … words that would give scandal to any Catholic who has not been spiritually lobotomized by the postconciliar changes in the Church.” (Pg. 168) They suggest, “The novelties and innovations of the postconciliar years … are not irreversible. They constitute a prudential program that… we have the right and duty to oppose… The Catholic Church … is truly the last, best hope of earth. Only the Church… can sustain us in holiness in a world in which impurity and vice are aggressively … present.” (Pg. 175)They point out, “[John Paul II] is the only Pope to enter a synagogue in 2,000 years—in tribute, not to preach conversion to Christ… John Paul II and his Vatican collaborators have referred to the Jews as ‘our elder brothers’… and pronouncing the Old Covenant ‘irrevocable,’ without placing any qualification on these affirmations… Not once … has His Holiness even suggested… that the mission of the Church to make disciples of all nations extends to the Jews.” (Pg. 275) They wonder, “the Assisi event itself brought modern-day pantheists and polytheists into close proximity with the Vicar of Christ and into the Vatican itself. What possible claim of ‘invincible ignorance’ of the true religion can exist for these people, who … have access to computer technology that puts the Gospel and the entire teaching of the Catholic church at their fingertips[?]” (Pg. 285)They conclude (in the original ending of the book), “in the papal office alone rests the power to cause or to cure a crisis throughout the Church. Our Pope [JPII] is a man of mystery and contradiction. The same Pope who ended all further debate on women’s ordination also gave us the scandal of altar girls… The Pope who beatified Pius IX… also beatified John XXIII… The Pope who has said that Revelation does not tell us that any human souls at all will be in hell, has also preached at Fatima that many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray… for them…” (Pg. 304)In Part IV of the book, they observe, “‘Summorum Pontificum’ signaled a dramatic shift in the program of seemingly endless liturgical innovation … that had inflicted the Church since the New Mass was introduced… [The document is] revealing The Great Façade for what it is: a collection of ephemeral novelties that had concealed but could not destroy the Church’s liturgical patrimony.” (Pg. 310)They assert, “given [Pope] Francis’s spate of amazing claims concerning the spiritual lot of atheists, Protestants and non-Christians, why would anyone in the world feel the least necessity to be baptized and join the Catholic Church?… That ‘interreligious dialogue’ is at war with evangelism should be obvious from the utter failure of postconciliar Churchmen…. even to hint faintly those outside the Church are in danger of damnation.” (Pg. 394)Of Francis’s statement about Filipinos living in poverty [‘some think … that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits. No. Responsible parenthood!’], they note, “the neo-Catholic bloggers … argu[ed] that the Pope was merely generalizing about Catholic teaching… ‘Rabbitgate’ may have been as much a turning point in the Bergoglian pontificate as Watergate was for Richard Nixon…” (Pg. 456-457)They conclude, “Pope Francis is the first pope … to receive universal acclaim from the powers that be… At the same time, Francis presides over the most advanced state of doctrinal and disciplinary erosion in Church history, The correlation is impossible to overlook. And the reason for it must be stated clearly… ‘[God] had allowed a bunch of compromising cardinals to elect one of the most dreadful popes in history.’” (Pg. 523)This is a massively detailed book, that will be “must reading” for ‘Traditionalists,’ and for some ‘conservatives’—while others will simply shake their heads in dismissal.

⭐Very informative about the various aspects of the Traditionalist view and the more liberal view of the Catholic Church since Vat II. Excellent research, footnotes are extensive and detailed. Well written and up to date with the addition of the final chapters, Part IV, chapters 15++.

⭐I bought this for a friend in Nairobi, and there’s already a 4-long waiting list of people hoping to read it next. You can’t get a better recommendation than that!

⭐A stunningly concise (albeit slightly repetitive) rebuttal of the ridiculous novelties instituted by Vatican II. From the bizarre (Pope John Paul II praising Voodoo worship in an ecumneical ceremony) to the scandalous (the destruction of the ancient liturgy), this book explains just how low the Catholic Church has sunk since Vatican II.

⭐A very good book filled with useful and enlightening information.

⭐Very thought provoking and informative. The authors set out the traditionalist case in clear and cogent way. The neo Catholic Church, is laid bare.

⭐I’m not a trad but I found this book hugely useful to understand their view on the post-conciliar period. It is persuasively argued and very clear, although with few concessions to critics. The liturgical sections and treatment of Sacrosanctum Concilium are worth the price of admission alone.That said, I wonder whether the authors’ argument would be stronger if they were more generous in admitting the flaws of pre-VII Catholicism that were seen to be in need of correction. Perhaps this is best left to another book, which I’d gladly buy.As a convert, it’s hard to see back through the council to what existed before. Traditionalists may be best-placed to take us back through the mist to show the church it’s pre-conciliar glory, but (to mix metaphors) I’d like to see the warts too…

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