On The Life of Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp.

By Fr. J. Aherne, C.S.Sp

Address given by Fr. J. Aherne, C.S.Sp., to the members and friends of Regina Publications in the Oratory, Ely House, Dublin 2.

One Hundred and six years ago Fr. Denis Fahey C.S.Sp. first saw the light of day in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. On that very first day of his life, July 3rd, 1883, he was also enlightened by Christ, the Light of the world, for he was baptised into the Mystical Body of Christ in the parish church of Knockavilla, in the diocese of Cashel. A plaque to the memory of this great servant of Christ is shortly to be erected in that church. He died 71 years later on January 21, 1954, having spent his life in the service of Christ the King.

He was born into a truly devout Irish Catholic family and into a local environment in Golden, Co. Tipperary, saturated with the values of the true faith. In his childhood he would have heard many a tale of the sufferings of his ancestors for their Catholic faith in the not so distant past. The days of the famine and of evictions, which sent so many of our people emigrating across the Atlantic to a new land of hope, were not forgotten by the Irish. It was in this land of Golden that Fr. Fahey grew up, and it was to this land that he loved to return in later life for spiritual refreshment. The example of his parents was his first and most important school of the faith. When he attended the local national school he learned the basic truths of that faith. Guided by the Holy Spirit of Truth, Denis Fahey entered the Holy Ghost Congregation which developed him in his formative years. Sent to study in Rome, his high intelligence blossomed, but more importantly, his faith in the Catholic Church; the Body of Christ, deepened. His study of history viewed from the standpoint of the faith, 'which casts a new light on everything,' showed him the true meaning of the world and of mankind's place in it.

Fr. Fahey saw clearly the implications of man's creation by God. Every individual person and every society of men is subject to the Creator. God knows how He made man to function. Through Christ Jesus the Son of God and of Mary, He tells us how man is to live so as to attain the high destiny of becoming God's own sons. This He does through the only church Christ established; the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which He placed under Peter, the first pope. Only by living as God made him to live as an individual or as a member of society, can man attain peace and happiness on earth and eternal happiness in heaven. Our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, came, as He Himself said 'to bear witness to the truth.' He warned His followers that as men hated Him so would they hate those who stood for God and for the true welfare of mankind. Fr. Fahey spent his life following the Master in bearing witness to the eternal truths and he too was hated and persecuted.

That 'the prophet is not without honour except in his own country' was very true of Fr. Fahey. He foresaw Satan's attacks on the Church and wrote trenchantly against him. So, 'the father of lies' attacked and vilified him. In his studies and research Fr. Denis had amply documented the agents, witting and unwitting, of Satan in his attack on the rights of Christ the King. Among them the most effective were the Freemasons and International Financiers; largely ethnic Jews whose philosophy of life was Naturalism or the total denial of the supernatural. Quoting the writings of Cardinal Pie of Poitiers, Fr. Fahey had written: "Naturalism denies the very existence of revelation. It follows that the inevitable law and the obstinate passion of Naturalism is to dethrone Our Lord Jesus Christ and to drive Him from the world. This will be the task of Anti-Christ and it is Satan's supreme ambition. Naturalism strives with all its might to exclude Our Lord Jesus Christ from the minds of men as well as from the daily lives and habits of people, in order to set up the reign of reason or of nature." (The Kingship of Christ and Organised Naturalism. Pg. 3)

Two nations for whom Fr. Denis had a deep love were his own nation and the nation that gave birth to the Messiah, the Jewish nation. Loving Christ and His mother as he did, Fr. Fahey was deeply hurt by the calumny that he was anti-semitic in any way. He loved the people of Christ so much that he worked might and main to prevent them from harming themselves by the opposition of some of them to their eternal destiny. He knew that the welfare of mankind lies in the acceptance of the Kingship of Christ over states and nations as well as over individual lives. Fr. Fahey, by exposing and opposing the evil of naturalism, was the great benefactor of our time. "The world must conform to Our Divine Lord, not He to it" was his motto. This when we come to think of it, is only common sense.

The evils that Fr. Fahey foresaw are fast becoming realities in every country. The trend is to have Christ conform to the world. Christ's revelation is replaced by private judgment where everyone decides for himself or herself what is right or wrong. Satan's original temptation to the human race, "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" is still his fundamental temptation. Paganisation of every country is spreading apace—not least here in Ireland, one of the last bastions of Christianity. The first success of Satan and his minions in this country was in getting the Irish people to reject the Mystical Body of Christ, the Catholic Church, from its place in the Irish Constitution. That place was merely arithmetical. The Constitution noted that there were more Catholics in Ireland than any other religion. Democratically, therefore, the Church of the majority held the first place, while recognition and justice were scrupulously given to other religions. To get rid of the Catholic Church was more important than to be democratic, so it was denied that the Church was the church of the majority, whose rights were trampled on. A head cannot function without a body. Christ is now the Body less Head. He Himself said that He is the True Vine. Branches cut off from Him wither and are only fit for burning.

The words of Christ are being fulfilled in our land, where Satan uses all his stratagems against the Church. After the Second Vatican Council Satan succeeded in twisting the meanings of texts. He got accepted a false ecumenism that all religions are equal and none of them very important. This heresy of Religious Indifferentism is central to Satan's plan. The Church of Christ is put on the same level as man-made religions. This is not surprising when Christ the God-Man is Himself equated to Ghandi, Luther King, and other good men, but who are only men. Worldwide, Satan has gotten accepted a catechetical method totally lacking in those clear truths which Denis Fahey learned in his schooldays and which children must know if they are to live as God intended. Surveys show that many children are not taught the existence of hell, are not taught the Commandments, are not taught the basic prayers of the Church, and are not even taught that Christ established only one Church to show mankind how to serve and worship God and so gain heaven. In the field of sexual morality, the directives of the Masonic Lodge, Alta Vendita, would seem to be operative here. These directives recognised that a direct attack on the Church would fail, so the tactic adopted was to spread vice everywhere. Today there is no attempt to stop the spread of pornography, of evil films, video shows, and books. There have been television shows on the BBC, and available in this country, which seemingly set out to corrupt children by showing them how to perform sinful actions.

Although the use of contraceptives violates God's law, it is now given legal validity in Ireland, as in most other countries. Recently a proposal was made by our Minister for Health to supply contraceptives to everyone who wishes to have them. The prime objective of this, would be to facilitate the abandonment of the faith, since one cannot carry these evil means around and still claim to be able to go to the sacraments. Consequently, grace will be lacking and the drift from God accelerated. Satan is so sure of his conquest of Ireland that he has now launched a Secularist Crusade. Secularism is defined in Webster's International Dictionary as the theory that ethical standards and conduct should be determined exclusively by reference to the present life and social well-being. It is a view of life based on the premise that religion and consideration of God and the Future life should be ignored or excluded. As can be seen by looking at the definition of Naturalism given by Cardinal Pie this is a blatant attempt to deprive the Irish people of their faith in Christ Our Lord. In the passage quoted from Fr. Fahey's book, the Cardinal ends by saying, "Wherever the breath of Naturalism has passed, the very source of Christian life has dried up." The present attempts to introduce divorce, abortion, and sodomy into our country prove that the poison is taking effect.

This is the age-old conflict of Light versus Darkness; of Good versus Evil, of Christianity versus Paganism. Fr. Fahey foresaw this and fought all his life to repel the attack on Christ and his Church. This is what he tried by his writing to forewarn us against, and through us to forewarn the world. Alas, he has been ignored, calumniated and condemned—accepted by the few who have followed him in faith, Fr. Denis once said in a lecture to the Holy Ghost students at Kimmage Manor Scholasticate, commenting on some scurrilous attack on him in the media, "I have said what I shall be glad to have said at Judgment". This fearless champion of the rights of God told us, as students, that if any enemy came looking for him, to bring him up to his room. He feared no one, for true love casts out fear. Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp. was one of the great Irishmen of our age, and his fame is even now spreading throughout the world. Not alone in his native land is there a demand for his books from those who understand the Church's teaching but from places such as Australia, Uruguay, Jordan, France, Mexico, South Africa, Hong Kong, India, Canada, and the United States of America. In God's own good time his greatness will be acclaimed in Ireland and throughout the world, and the prophet will not be without honour in his own or any country. Let us strive to support the work being done to make his teaching ever more widely known.