Our Crusade is two-fold: the propagation and defense of Catholic dogma — especially extra ecclesiam nulla salus — and the conversion of America to the one, true Church. Our congregation consists of First Order Brothers, Second Order Sisters, and Third Order members dedicated to furthering these goals. First and Second Order members, religious brothers and sisters, work out their salvation by living the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience under a rule and living a common life of prayer, work, and study. Third Order members, mostly lay people not bound by vows, are joined to the congregation by simple promises. Members of all three Orders live the total Consecration to Jesus through Mary according to the spirituality of St. Louis Marie de Montfort.
Our methods are threefold: personal sanctification, education, and works of the apostolate.
For Religious members, personal sanctification comes by way of our prayer life, our Marian Total Consecration, and living the vows and virtues of the religious life. Our Third Order members also live the Marian Total Consecration, and are joined to the congregation by simple promises.
Our educational work takes place in several ways. One is the Saint Augustine Institute, a program of continuing Catholic education which has the goal of forming apostles to work for the conversion of America. Another is the running of primary and secondary schools (such as Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Richmond, New Hampshire). We believe very strongly that one must be a reservoir before he can be an aqueduct. For this reason, we promote continuing study of the Faith as one way to spread it.
As religious, the works of our apostolate include the publishing of books, pamphlets, and our quarterly journal, From the Housetops. We reach out to the "man on the street" with our publications by distributing them door-to-door in an effort to spread the faith. Another very important aspect of our apostolate is the work of fostering Catholic community life. At St. Benedict Center in Richmond, our religious brothers and sisters work with Third Order members and other faithful to build and maintain a thriving Catholic culture. The community provides both an atmosphere conducive to wholesome family life and a hub of missionary activity to convert this nation.
For the record, this is the dogmatic basis of our urgency to convert America:
- "There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved." (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
- "We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
- "The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church." (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
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