I Am With You Always: The Divine Constitution and Indefectibility of the Catholic Church

Michael Davies has long been one of the world's foremost traditional Catholic authors, writing the Apologia Pro marcel Lefebvre series, the Liturgical Revolution series, and numerous articles dedicated to the advancement of traditional (read: historically authentic) Catholicism published in The Remnant and the Angelus and many other quality journals.However, with this book, he flatly rejects the "sede vacante" thesis (to the effect that the current and recent Vatican leadership have not served as true Popes in the strictly Petrine sense of what it means to be a Roman Catholic Pope), and on that basis attempts to sustain the claim that the new ("Novus Ordo") Mass promulgated in 1969 by Paul VI must somehow be within the pale of what is acceptible for Catholics.For myself, I find it stimulating and thought-provoking to read works to which I take exception, or disagree with. For Michael Davies does bring out a fascinating distinction between the "objective" evidence against the Novus Ordo on the one side, and the "a priori" evidence seemingly in favor. This truly throws down the gauntlet for traditional writers to begin seeking cracks in the "a priori" evidence rather than merely continuing to pile up yet more and more "objective" evidences.Examples: "Objective" evidences against the Novus Ordo would be such things as its similarity to the services devised by Martin Luther, Thomas Cramner, and John Calvin, etc., certain themes uniting each of the doctrines systematically excluded from the new rite that were all present in the old, formal Papal decrees against the abberational worship of the Protestants, the absence of saints formed by the new, the contempt for the new rite expressed by such modern saints as Padre Pio, the necessity of adding ridiculous and even blasphemous "abuses" in order to "jazz it up" and make it entertaining to audiences, etc. The one "a priori" piece of evidence amounts to the following chain of reasoning: Paul VI was a legitimate Pope of the Catholic Church. Paul VI imposed the new rite on all the Church, following all lawful procedures for promulgating anything. A Pope cannot thus promulgate anything contrary or offensive to Catholic Faith, or invalid from a sacramental point of view. Ergo, the new rite MUST (somehow) be valid and lawful and acceptible for Catholics, no matter how gravely inferior to the authentic Catholic rite (that practiced almost universally prior to Vatican II) one is intellectually and moraly bound to condede that it is.It is a fascinating and stark paradox, brilliantly presented, but never really resolved as he does his best to muddle through with some half-baked compromise between the conflicting realities.Definately worth reading as a concise and readible expression of the fundamental conflict that brings agony to all true Catholics around the world, but don't look to Michael Davies or this book for answers; he has none to give.

This brief book is really a defense of both papal infallibility and the indefectibility of the Church against the challenges posed to these claims by certain members of the traditionalist movement within Catholicism. Our Lord, Jesus Christ made the promise to Saint Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16.18)" which thereby guranteed the indefectibility of the church. The author Michael Davies takes a look at some of the difficulties arising out of the Second Vatican Council and the Novus Ordo Mass. In particular, it is shown that the church must remain visible and hierarchical contrary to the claims of many who call themselves sedevacantists. Davies considers the case of an heretical pope, that would be a pope who is notoriously heretical in denying publically a de fide pronouncement, and he argues that other than a single decree from a council that such a pope had thereby forfeited the papacy no deposition could be made of him. Davies considers historical cases of popes who were condemned (Pope Honorius I) for allowing heresy to proliferate, popes who taught problematical doctrines (Pope John XXII), the case of the Arian heresy in which Saint Athanasius was excommunicated but continued to defend the true faith, and the case of the Great Schism as examples, but he notes that despite these instances the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra was maintained. Davies also turns his attention to the new mass of Pope Paul VI. Davies argues that the Tridentine mass must be preserved, but that the new mass is indeed valid. These arguments by Davies are important in refuting certain sedevacantists. This book provides an important contribution to the traditionalist movement within Catholicism and the continued defense of the Christian faith.

Some people excuse the difficult era the Church is in right now ever since Vatican II by saying that the last true Pope was His Holiness Pius XII, and that therefore the Second Vatican Council was not a true council. In this book, Michael Davies challenges this view and demonstrates that Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II have all been valid Popes, and we must submit to the current Pontiff (JP II). A Traditionalist critic of the new rite of the Mass, Davies knows where the Sedevacantists are coming from, yet shows where they are wrong. A great treasure to have.