Companion File to:
PAGES SELECTED FROM THE LIFE OF ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH,
by the Very Reverend Carl E. Schmöger, C.Ss.R.,
Volume 2.
THE QUOTE FROM ANNE-CATHERINE EMMERICK:
A RETRACTION AND EXPLANATION
An astute reader called to my attention that the quote from Anne-Catherine Emmerick, which has appeared for many months on VADEMECUM, was in fact "patched together" from several different parts of her book. This is dishonest scholarship in the extreme, but VADEMECUM made the error in good faith, relying upon a secondary source which turned out to be unreliable. I invite you to read D.R.'s comments in their entirety, and please disregard any conclusions you may have drawn from the quote as it appeared on VADEMECUM up to now. VADEMECUM deeply regrets the error.
From D.R. 11/11/00:
I'm writing this email to you in order to correct an error on your Website (which I enjoy and have bookmarked). It concerns the following quote:
"I saw again the new and odd-looking Church which they were trying to build. There was nothing holy about it... People were kneading bread in the crypt below... but it would not rise, nor did they receive the body of Our Lord, but only bread. Those who were in error, through no fault of their own, and who piously and ardently longed for the Body of Jesus were spiritually consoled, but not by their communion. Then, my Guide [Jesus] said: 'THIS IS BABEL.' [The Mass in many languages]. " recorded in The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich by Rev. Carl E. Schmoeger, C.SS.R
This quote as it appears above is not taken from the two-volume book The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich by Father Schmoger; rather, it is taken from Yves Dupont's book Catholic Prophecy, the Coming Chastisement, and it is extremely misleading. I am very familiar with both books and have been for decades.
When I first read the above quote in Dupont's book, I was concerned since it implies that the New Mass is invalid. It wasn't until several years later, when I purchased The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, that I realized that Dupont was not being entirely honest. Dupont was a Traditionalist and, like me, he did not like the New Mass. However, in what seems to be an effort to cast doubt on the validity of that Mass, he took several quotes from Father Schmoger's book, put them together,
and then added the words that you have in brackets, "the Mass in many languages," to insinuate that the New Mass is invalid. In fact, if you read the book, you will see that the opposite conclusion should be drawn, as I will demonstrate to you. (Let me say again that I am not an advocate for the New Mass. I attend Melkite Liturgies and Tridentine Masses. On the validity of the New Mass, since it was promulgated by a Pope and is said by the present one, I assume it to be valid. In any event, I'm not competent to make a judgment one way or the other. I'll leave that to higher authorities.)
Now let me show you the error regarding the quote you have on your Website. It is actually taken from four separate parts of volume 2 of The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, and not a single part has anything to do with the Mass. I will go through each part and give you the context of the quote, starting with the first part.
Part 1. "I saw again the new and odd-looking Church which they were trying to build. There was nothing holy about it... " Please excuse my incompetence because I have just lost the place in the book where this quote comes from, but suffice it to say that it is not found anywhere near the parts which follow in the quote after the first ellipsis, if you read Sr. Emmerich's visions, you will note that she often speaks of a counterfeit church being built in Rome alongside the Catholic Church. This counterfeit church is helped by clerics and others. Of course, we are witnessing this in our day.
Part 2. "People were kneading bread in the crypt below... but it would not rise, nor did they receive the body of Our Lord, but only bread. Those who were in error, through no fault of their own, and who piously and ardently longed for the Body of Jesus were spiritually consoled, but not by their communion. "
This part is extremely misleading to the reader and is utterly falsified. The first sentence includes an ellipsis and then has a comma followed by the word "nor" and gives the reader the impression that it is one sentence with some parts missing, represented by the ellipsis.
This is untrue. The quote is taken from two vastly differing parts of the book and are spliced together as if they are speaking of the same thing when they are not. The first part of the quote up to the word "rise" is taken from page 283 of The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, and the second part, starting with the word "nor," is taken from page 85 of that book. The first part has nothing whatsoever to do with the Blessed Sacrament, and the second part, starting with the word "nor," is speaking of PROTESTANT churches. I'll quote from the book.
Starting on page 282, Catherine Emmerich's words (September 12, 1820)- are recorded as the following: "I saw a fantastic odd-looking church being built." She speaks of this odd pseudo church throughout her visions. She describes it in some detail, and then on page 283 one reads the following: "I saw that many of the instruments in the new church, such as spears and darts, were meant to be used against the living Church. Everyone dragged in something different: clubs, rods, pumps, cudgels, puppets, mirrors, trumpets, horns, bellows - all sorts of things. In the cave below (the sacristy) some people kneaded bread, but nothing came of it; it would not rise." (Note: That's part of your quote here.) "The men in the little mantles brought wood to the steps of the pulpit to make a fire. They puffed and blew and laboured hard, but the fire would not burn. All they produced was smoke and fumes. Then they broke a hole in the roof and ran up a pipe, but the smoke
would not rise, and the whole place became black and suffocating. Some blew the horns so violently that the tears streamed from their eyes. All in this church belonged to the earth, returned to the earth. All was dead, the work of human skill, a church of the latest style, a church of man's invention like the new heterodox church in Rome."
An explanation of this vision is that what Sister Emmerich is describing is Freemasonry ("the men in the little mantles"). Freemasons wear mantles (or aprons), and they are at work to destroy the true Church. However, the phrase about the bread being kneaded has nothing whatsoever to do with the Blessed Sacrament. It most probably refers to plans or ideas which "would not rise" and are therefore evil.
Going back to the quote: "People were kneading bread in the crypt below... but it would not rise, nor did they receive the body of Our Lord, but only bread. Those who were in error, through no fault of their own, and who piously and ardently longed for the Body of Jesus were spiritually consoled, but not by their communion. "
The part starting with the word "nor" is found on page 85, nearly 200 pages PRIOR to the first part of the quote. Here it is in pertinent part: "I saw several churches or, rather, meeting-houses surmounted by weather-cocks, THE CONGREGATIONS DISUNITED FROM THE CHURCH, running here and there like beggars hurrying to places where bread is distributed, HAVING NO CONNECTION WITH EITHER THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT OR THE CHURCH
SUFFERING. THEY WERE NOT IN A REGULARLY FOUNDED LIVING CHURCH, one with the Church Militant, Suffering, and Triumphant. NOR DID THEY RECEIVE THE BODY OF THE LORD, BUT ONLY BREAD. THEY WHO WERE IN ERROR THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN AND WHO PIOUSLY AND ARDENTLY LONGED FOR THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST WERE SPIRITUALLY CONSOLED, BUT NOT BY THEIR COMMUNION. They who habitually communicated without this ardent love received nothing, but a child of the Church receives an immense increase of strength."
Hopefully, you can now see how terribly misleading the material quoted on your website is. Sister Emmerich here is clearly talking about PROTESTANT churches, and the quotes Dupont spliced together to question the validity of the New Mass have nothing whatever to do with the subject matter.
Now for the last part. Here's the quote: "Then, my Guide [Jesus] said; 'THIS IS BABEL.' [The Mass in many languages]." This, too, is false. The quoted material has nothing whatsoever to do with the Mass in many languages, which apparently is Dupont's addition to the text and is not found in Sister Emmerich's book. As any Catholic should know, the Mass has ALWAYS been offered in many languages because the Church has always had many rites, many of which use the vernacular. These rites are as traditional, if not more so, than the Tridentine Mass. I have been to the Holy and Divine Liturgy prayed in Aramaic, Arabic, Slavonic, English, Ukrainian, and Greek. It is absolutely NOT "Babel." Dupont was a little narrow in his outlook, considering only the Latin Rite of the Church. Anyway, the words "this is Babel" refer not to the Mass but to the situation occurring in the country of Spain. It is found on page 132 of the book. (Notice how far apart these selective and pasted-together quotes are: pages 85, 283, and 132.) Here's the "Babel" section. After speaking about the country of Portugal on page 131, Sister Emmerich says: "This country" (Note: Portugal) "was pretty tranquil compared
with that of Saint Ignatius, which I now entered and found in frightful misery. Darkness lay over the whole land where reposes the treasure of the saint's graces and merits. I was at the central point" (Note: I guess she means Madrid) "and I recognized the place where long before I had had a vision of people cast into a fiery furnace around which their enemies were gathered, but they who had kindled the flames were themselves consumed by them. I saw unheard-of abominations spreading over the land, AND MY GUIDE SAID TO ME: THIS IS BABEL. I saw throughout the whole country a chain of secret societies with influences at work like those of Babel. They were connected with the building of a tower by a web fine as that of a spider, which extended up through all ages. Its highest blossom was the diabolical woman Semiramis. I saw all going to ruin, sacred things destroyed, impiety and heresy flowing in. A CIVIL WAR WAS BREWING and a destructive internal crisis was at hand. "
As you can see, the quote "And my guide said to me: 'this is Babel'" from Sister Emmerich's visions and which occurs only once in the entire book has nothing whatever to do with the Mass. She was speaking about Freemasonry (note the reference to Semiramis) working to bring about the downfall of Catholic Spain, and she was highly accurate. Slightly less than a century after her visions, Spain went through a brutal civil war in which thousands were martyred, and churches, convents, and monasteries were pillaged, statues and Catholic graves desecrated, et cetera.
I hope you can see... that the quote contained in your website is not correct and needs to be eradicated. Or better yet, you should keep it there, along with an explanation of the truth of the matter. Many people may have been inadvertently misled. I'm not insinuating that you did it intentionally because I know you didn't put the quotes together like that; Yves Dupont did in his book. God bless.
Thank you so much for this valuable information. As I have noted before, whenever I read something that seems particularly apropos, I quote it as I find it. I had no reason whatsoever to believe that this was not a substantially accurate quote from the life of Anne-Catherine Emmerick. I regret the error (made in entirely good faith) and I shall delete this quote immediately along with creating a link to your comments.
This will serve as an appeal to all VADEMECUM readers to disregard this quote entirely.
http://www.thelatinmass.com/emmerick.htm 5/01/01[Emphasis added by F. John Loughnan]