Antipope John Paul II and Thomas Droleskey pray for the eternal rest of the deceased non-Catholic heretic and schismatic Ronald Reagan

Heresy of the Week, Week of 6/11/04
By Bro. Michael Dimond and Bro. Peter Dimond
For more see: Heresies of the Week Relating to the Salvation Dogma

Worldnews.com, June 6, 2004: “Pope John Paul II paid tribute Sunday to former President Ronald Reagan, recalling his efforts to bring down communism that ‘changed the lives of millions of people,’ a Vatican spokesman said. On the second-day of a 32-hour pilgrimage to Switzerland, John Paul learned of Reagan's death with ‘sadness’ and immediately prayed for the ‘eternal rest of his soul,’ said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.” (AP Writer Victoria Simpson, Bern, Switzerland)

Comment:  Ronald Reagan was not a Catholic, but a Protestant heretic and schismatic. It is a dogma of the Catholic Faith that those who die as non-Catholics go to hell.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives… and that nobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.” (Denz. 714)

It is also a dogma of the Catholic Faith that those who are not subject to the Roman Pontiff cannot be saved.

Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, Nov. 18, 1302, ex cathedra: “With Faith urging us we are forced to believe and to hold the one, holy, Catholic Church and that, apostolic, and we firmly believe and simply confess this Church outside of which there is no salvation nor remission of sin… Furthermore, we declare, say, define, and proclaim to every human creature that they by absolute necessity for salvation are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Denz. 468-469)

But Antipope John Paul II prays for the “eternal rest” of this man who was not a Catholic, but a heretic and a schismatic who was not subject to the Roman Pontiff.  This is a total rejection of the Catholic Faith.  So much for the fact that Reagan was a heretic and a schismatic, who rejected the Papacy, the Immaculate Conception, the binding nature of the Council of Trent, etc., etc., etc.  All of this means nothing, according to Antipope John Paul II, and none of it has to be accepted for salvation.  This act shows again that Antipope John Paul II is an apostate. 

The fact is that Catholics cannot pray for those who die as non-Catholics, since those who do die as non-Catholics are lost eternally without any doubt.  If there is no evidence that a person converted before his death to the Catholic Faith, then he is considered to have died as he lived and cannot have Masses or prayers offered for him, even if there is a slim chance that such a person converted to the Catholic Faith before death. 

Canon 2200.2, 1917 Code: “Positing an external violation of the law, malice in the external forum is presumed until the contrary is proven.”

In other words, a non-Catholic heretic is presumed to have not converted and to have died a heretic unless the contrary is proven.  This is why it is wrong to pray for Ronald Reagan or to have Masses offered for him. (By the way, this canon also shows again how wrong it is to presume that a manifest heretic like Antipope John Paul II is just an erring Catholic or a “material heretic.”)

If you can pray for Ronald Reagan, when there is no evidence of his conversion to the Catholic Faith, then one can have prayers and Masses offered for anyone, including Judas, Martin Luther and Adolph Hitler.  But that would be a sin against the Faith.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Suppl. Q. 71, A. 5: “Gregory says (Moral xxxiv. 19): There is the same reason for not praying then (namely after the judgment day) for men condemned to everlasting fire, as there is now for not praying for the devil and has angels who are sentenced to eternal punishment, and for this reason the saints do not pray for dead unbelieving and wicked men, because, forsooth, knowing them to be already condemned to eternal punishment, they shrink from pleading for them by the merit of their prayers before they are summoned to the presence of the Judge.”

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Suppl. Q. 71, A. 5: “Further, the text (iv. Sent. D. 45) quotes the words of Augustine (De Verb. Apost. Serm. Xxxii): ‘If a man depart this life without the faith that worketh by charity and its sacraments, in vain do his friends have recourse to such acts of kindness[prayers and suffrages for him].’  Now all the damned come under that head.  Therefore suffrages profit them not.”

But the denial of the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation is so widespread today that we not only have apostates like Antipope John Paul II praying for Reagan – without any mention of the fact that Reagan rejected the Catholic Faith and without any mention of the dogma of submission to the Roman Pontiff, which is all thrown out the window as totally meaningless – but we now have so-called “traditional” Catholics saying that Catholics must pray for the non-Catholic Reagan!

Dr. Thomas Drolesky, June 6, 2004: “The fortieth President of the United States of America, Ronald Wilson Reagan, has died at the age of ninety-three years in California after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the last ten years. As is the case with any other individual, we have the obligation to pray for the repose of his immortal soul. The Catholic Faith teaches us to pray for the dead, never presuming the state of a person's soul until and unless the Church declares a particular person to be a saint and is thus in Heaven as part of the Church Triumphant. Although many will rush to canonize the late Mr. Reagan, we know that we have the duty both in charity and in justice to pray for his soul--and to pray for the conversion of his family members to the Catholic Faith before they die... For the present moment, though, I want to offer a few words about the nature of President Reagan's death. Although it is possible that some Catholic priest was permitted by his widow, Mrs. Nancy Reagan, to administer the Sacrament of Extreme Unction to him before he died, it is probably the case that Mr. Reagan, who was baptized a Catholic but brought up a Presbyterian by his mother, Nelle, died without the sacraments. This is always a tragedy. The only sure path to a happy and holy death is receive the Sacrament of Extreme Unction and to receive Holy Communion as a final viaticum before death. It is sad when anyone dies without such benefits. Mind you, judgment alone belongs to God, which is why we offer our prayers for the repose of a dead person's soul. No prayer is ever wasted. It is thus important to have Masses said for the repose of the soul of a baptized Catholic, Ronald Wilson Reagan. It is nevertheless sad that Mr. Reagan did not practice the Faith of his baptism and might have died without the benefit of the sacraments.”

This is completely wrong and actually outrageous, but not really surprising coming from this writer who is popular in the heretical publications, The Remnant and Catholic Family News.   The Church judges the external forum (i.e., what is seen), as stated above, which means that if a baptized heretic gave no evidence of conversion to the Catholic Faith in the external forum then he is presumed to have died unfaithfully departed and cannot be prayed for.

And all who die as unbaptized persons, including pagans, infidels and Jews, also cannot be prayed for, as they are dying outside the Catholic Church.  As quoted in “The You Can’t Judge Heresy” section of my new book on Outside the Church There is Absolutely No Salvation (p. 149), the great St. Francis Xavier shows how a Catholic must affirm that all those who die outside the Church are definitely lost, as he does in regard to a pagan privateer who died on a ship on which he was traveling.

St. Francis Xavier, Nov. 5, 1549: “The corsair who commanded our vessel died here at Cagoxima.  He did his work for us, on the whole, as we wished… He himself chose to die in his own superstitions; he did not even leave us the power of rewarding him by that kindness which we can after death do to other friends who die in the profession of the Christian faith, in commending their souls to God, since the poor fellow by his own hand cast his soul into hell, where there is no redemption.” (The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier by Henry James Coleridge, S.J.Originally published:London: Burns and Oates, 1874 Second Reprint, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 2004, Vol. 2, p. 281.)

But Antipope John Paul II not only prays for baptized, non-Catholic heretics like Reagan, but also for pagan Hindu idolaters such as Mahatma Gandhi.  Antipope John Paul II prayed at Gandhi’s tomb (while taking off his shoes out of respect for this infidel), and allegedly said: “May Gandhi live forever!”

But getting back to Reagan, not surprisingly, EWTN, the television network run by the apostate Mother Angelica, also mentioned on its show The World Over that John Paul II prayed for the eternal rest of Reagan’s soul.  I wonder how many of the “Catholics” watching EWTN had a problem with this?  I wonder how many of them said, “wait a second, what about the necessity to be a Catholic?”  How many of them said, “didn’t the fact that Reagan rejected the Catholic Faith and the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff mean anything in regard to his salvation?”  But these things aren’t even considered as the apostate host Raymond Arroyo nonchalantly mentions that John Paul II prayed for the “eternal rest” of the schismatic and heretic Reagan.  The necessity to be Catholic for salvation isn’t even considered, because Arroyo and his “Catholic” audience are simply following the apostate religion of their leader, Antipope John Paul II, who teaches them that the Catholic Faith is totally unnecessary for attaining salvation.

For more see: Heresies of the Week Relating to the Salvation Dogma