Off With Its Head

Never have the Five First Saturdays of reparation been more necessary.

We do not love, and therefore we are not angry when we should be, and therefore we are not zealous for the honor of God, and therefore we let pass or even condone enormous blasphemies that would have made our forefathers die of horror. That is why we are seeing more and more images of the Blessed Mother being smashed and ruined, and more and more sacrilegious images of her being produced. Was there ever anything more calculated to draw down her Son’s wrath? What red-blooded son is not stung to fury at the sight of his mother being mocked and abused? And Our Lord is the best Son that there ever was to His Mother. What might a loving son do to those who stand around watching and do not intervene when they could and should?

Mary Immaculate is increasingly being co-opted by degenerates. To pictures of her festooned with elephant dung and other similar indignities, we can add a T-shirt showing her draped in a pride flag, captioned “Proud Mary,” and a mockery of the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa showing Jesus and Mary with queer rainbow halos. She who was conceived without sin is being used to promote sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance.

But she is the object of vile attacks by other enemies of God as well. Exhibit A: two Austrian feminist “artists,” one the designer, the other the sculptor, whose “art” is as stupid and shallow as it is transgressive, and who, up to now, appear to have labored in well-deserved obscurity (for which reason I will not mention their names). Among the “works” of the designer are naked photos of herself covered in dirt from her grandfather’s grave. (She seems to like to appear in a state of undress before cameras.) The two harridans produced a crudely-sculpted, half-naked statue of Our Lady seated on a rock with legs spread, giving birth with a pained expression on her face, thus combining heresy and blasphemy. The thing was so filthy, I do not want to link to an image of it. I could happily have gone the whole rest of my life without seeing it. Even the liberal rag, National Catholic Reporter, did not want to show a full-frontal of it in all of its disgustingness, but from an angle that at least hid some features. Yet it was set up on display in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Linz, the very house of God and gate of heaven, while those responsible ignored the complaints of the faithful who resented the insult to the Blessed Mother and the desecration of the cathedral of her patronage.

I describe the abomination in the past tense because, I am happy to report, an unidentified Catholic went in and, not having enough time to do more, struck the head off the statue so that it would at least no longer depict the Blessed Mother. TE DEUM LAUDAMUS! Although the identity of this virile Catholic is unknown, he has made his motivation known, namely, to vindicate the honor of the Mother of God. It is good that the motivation behind this act has been made explicit, so that there will be no confusion for the enemies of God to capitalize on. Predictably, the ire of the authorities is directed at this guy who did the right thing, and not at the degenerates responsible for the obscene display that they knew would offend God and the faithful. The priest who acts as diocesan vicar for education, art and culture, and who ought to be grateful to the man who helped make reparation for his complicity in this horrible display, declared: "We were aware that we were also provoking debate with this installation. If we have hurt people's religious feelings, we are sorry, but I strongly condemn this violent act of destruction, the refusal to engage in dialog and the attack on the freedom of art.” Said the slag who designed the sculpture: "Most portraits of the Virgin Mary were made by men and have therefore often served patriarchal interests," while, in her “artwork,” "Mary gets her body back."

The enemies of God grow bolder and bolder, and blasphemous and sacrilegious displays like this are on the rise, precisely because Christian wrath is all but non-existent. Whereas, on the contrary, blasphemers ought to fear to ventilate their bile, lest some Christian catch them at it and mete out a well-deserved punishment. So said St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, in so many words (emphasis added):

But since our discourse has now turned to the subject of blasphemy, I desire to ask one favor of you all, in return for this my address, and speaking with you; which is, that you will correct on my behalf the blasphemers of this city. And should you hear any one in the public thoroughfare, or in the midst of the forum, blaspheming God; go up to him and rebuke him; and should it be necessary to inflict blows, spare not to do so. Smite him on the face; strike his mouth; sanctify your hand with the blow, and if any should accuse you, and drag you to the place of justice, follow them there; and when the judge on the bench calls you to account, say boldly that the man blasphemed the King of angels! For if it be necessary to punish those who blaspheme an earthly king, much more so those who insult God. It is a common crime, a public injury; and it is lawful for every one who is willing, to bring forward an accusation. Let the Jews and Greeks learn, that the Christians are the saviours of the city; that they are its guardians, its patrons, and its teachers. Let the dissolute and the perverse also learn this; that they must fear the servants of God too; that if at any time they are inclined to utter such a thing, they may look round every way at each other, and tremble even at their own shadows, anxious lest perchance a Christian, having heard what they said, should spring upon them and sharply chastise them.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I feel like the world is a better place for this act of “vandalism,” which isn’t vandalism at all, but a sanctification of the hand that struck the blow. The real vandalism was setting up this monstrosity, which was fit to occupy no square inch of space anywhere on earth, in the very Mariensdom. Similarly, when Alexander Tschugguel cleared out a bunch of filthy pachamama idols and tossed them into the Tiber in 2019, that wasn’t criminal mischief; the criminal mischief was rather the setting up and venerating of them in churches in the first place. I for one was electrified when I saw the video of it, and I think greater good came of it than what people might realize. Possibly some idiot pastors here and there, taken with the romance of Ancient Jungle Rites, set up pachamamas in their parishes; but be sure that if Tschugguel had not done what he did, we would have seen an explosion of the damn things in churches all over the world. I have no doubt that the highly publicized pushback in Rome, and the reaction of the faithful, made a lot of traitors to the faith think twice about following Rome’s lead. More: I think the idol worship in the heart of the Catholic Church at the Amazon Synod, with the obvious approval of the Successor of Peter, was the proximate cause of what was unleashed just months later in the covid tyranny. But I am prepared to bet that, as bad as it got, it was mitigated on account of Tschugguel’s act of reparation. We need to keep the acts of reparation coming. Never has it been more necessary for as many people as possible to make the Five First Saturdays. There is a ton of trash still to take out.

If I were introduced to the “vandal” was who stepped in and took out the trash at the Mariensdom, I’d shake his hand. It was an entirely fitting response to a great evil. My only regrets are that (a) the thing couldn’t have been burned, and (b) this time the “vandalism” wasn’t videotaped. I would love to have seen it. But God saw it, and all those who are with Him in heaven saw it. May He reward it.