“…this missal is hereafter to be followed
absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty,
judgment or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used… Nor are superiors,
administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of
whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as
enjoined by Us. … Accordingly, no one
whatsoever is permitted to infringe or rashly contravene this notice of Our
permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, direction, will,
decree and prohibition. Should any
person venture to do so, let him understand he will incur the wrath of Almighty
God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”
Pope
St. Pius V, Papal Bull, QUO PRIMUM,
Tridentine
Codification of the traditional Roman Rite of the Mass.
Septuagesima Sunday
February 17, 2019
In
order to understand fully the meaning of the text of today’s Mass we must study
it in connection with the lessons of the Breviary, since in the Church’s mind,
the Mass and the Divine Office form one whole.
The lessons and responses in the night office are taken this week from
the book of Genesis. In them is related
the story of the creation of the world and of man, of our first parents’ fall
and the promise of a Redeemer, followed by the murder of Abel and a record of
the generations from Adam to Noe.
“In
the beginning,” we read, “God created heaven and earth and upon the earth He
made man…and He placed him in a garden of paradise to be mindful of it and tend
it” (Third and fourth responses at Matins).
All
this is a figure. Here is St. Gregory’s
exposition. “The kingdom of heaven is
compared to the proprietor who hires laborers to work in his vineyard. Who can be more justly represented as head of
a household than our Creator who governs all creatures by His Providence and
who, just as a master has servants in his house, has his elect in this world
from the just Abel to the last of His chosen, destined to be born as the very
end of time? The vineyard which He owns
is His Church, while the laborers in this vineyard are all those who with a
true faith have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing
good. By those who came at the first, as
well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are meant the ancient people of
the Hebrews, who from the beginning of the world, striving in the person of
their saints to serve God with a right faith ceased not, as it were, to work in
cultivation of the vineyard. But at the
eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words, “Why
stand ye here all the day idle?” (Third Nocturn). Thus all are called to work in the Lord’s
vineyard, by sanctifying themselves and their neighbor in glorifying God, since
sanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him
alone.
Adam
failed in his task and God told him: “Because thou hast eaten of the tree,
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed is the earth in
thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy
life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee…out of which thou wast taken.”
“Being
exiled from Eden,” says St. Augustine, “the first man involved all his descendants
in the penalty of death and reprobation, being corrupted in the person of him
from whom they sprung. The whole mass of
condemned humanity was therefore, plunged in misery, enslaved and cast headlong
from one evil to another: (Second Nocturn). “The sorrows of death surrounded me,” says the
Introit, and as a matter of fact, it is in the basilica of St.
Lawrence-without- the-walls close to the cemetery at Rome that the “Station”
for this Sunday is made. The Collect
adds that we are “Justly afflicted for our sins.” In the Epistle, the Christian life is
represented by St. Paul as an arena where a man must take pains and strive to
carry off the prize, while the Gospel bears witness that the reward of eternal life
is only given to those who work in God’s vineyard, where work is hard and
painful since the entrance of sin. “O
God,” prays the Church, “grant to thy
people who are called by the name of vines and harvests, that they may root out
all thorns and briars, and bring forth good fruit in abundance” (Prayer on Holy
Saturday after 8th prophecy).
“In
His wisdom,” says St. Gregory, “almighty God preferred rather to bring good out
of evil than never allow evil to occur.”
For God took pity on men and promised them a Second Adam, who restoring
the order disturbed by the first, would allow them to regain heaven to which
Adam had lost all right, when expelled from Eden, which was “the shadow of a
better life” (Fourth Lesson). Thou, O
Lord, art our helper in time of tribulation” (Gradual); “with Thee there is
merciful forgiveness” (Tract). “Make Thy
face to shine upon Thy servant and save in Thy mercy” (Communion). Show Thy face, O Lord, and we shall be
saved,” the Church cries similarly in the season of Advent, when calling upon
her Lord. The truth is that God, “who
has wonderfully created man, has more wonderfully redeemed him” (Prayer on Holy
Saturday after 1st prophecy), for “the creation of the world in the
beginning was not a more excellent thing than the immolation of Christ our
Passover at the end of time: (Prayer on Holy Saturday after 9th
prophecy).
This
Mass when studied in the light of Adam’s fall prepares our mind for beginning
the season of Septuagesima, and understanding the sublime character of the
Paschal mystery for which this season prepares our hearts.
In
response to the call of the Master, who comes to seek us even in the depths
wherein we are plunged, through our first parents’ sin (Tract), let us go and
work in the Lord’s vineyard, or enter the arena and take up with courage the
struggle which will intensify during Lent.
INTROIT:
Ps. 17. The groans of death surrounded
me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me: and in my affliction I called upon the
Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple.
Ps. I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: the
Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. Glory be, etc. The groans of death, etc.
COLLECT:
O Lord, we beseech Thee, graciously hear the prayers of Thy
people, that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins, may be mercifully
delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy name. Through our Lord, etc.
From all perils of soul and body defend us, O Lord, we
beseech Thee, and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious ever Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of Thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul,
and all the Saints, graciously grant us safety and peace, that all adversities
and errors being overcome, Thy Church may serve Thee in security and
freedom. Through our Lord, etc.
Mercifully hear the prayer of Thy Church, we beseech Thee,
O Lord, that all adversities and errors being overcome, we may serve Thee in
security and freedom. Through our Lord,
etc.
EPISTLE: 1 Cor. 9, 24-27; 10, 1-5.
Brethren, Know you not that they
that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that
you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself
from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but
we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so
fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into
subjection: lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become
a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were
all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were
baptized, in the cloud and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food,
and drank the same spiritual drink: (that they drank of the spiritual rock that
followed them: and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well
pleased.
EXPLANATION
Having exhorted us to penance in the Introit of the Mass, the Church desires to
indicate to us, by reading this epistle, the effort we should make to reach the
kingdom of heaven by the narrow path (Matt. VII. 13.) of penance and
mortification. This St. Paul illustrates by three different examples. By the
example of those who in a race run to one point, or in a prize-fight practice
and prepare themselves for the victor's reward by the strongest exercise, and
by the strictest abstinence from everything that might weaken the physical
powers. If to win a laurel-crown that passes away, these will subject
themselves to the severest trials and deprivations, how much more should we,
for the sake of the heavenly crown of eternal happiness, abstain from those
improper desires, by which the soul is weakened, and practice those holy
virtues, such as prayer, love of God and our neighbor, patience, to which the
crown is promised! Next, by his own example, bringing himself before them as
one running a race, and fighting for an eternal crown, but not as one running
blindly not knowing whither, or fighting as one who strikes not his antagonist,
but the air; on the contrary, with his eyes firmly fixed on the eternal crown,
certain to be his who lives by the precepts of the gospel, who chastises his
spirit and his body as a valiant champion, with a strong hand, that is, by
severest mortification, by fasting and prayer. If St. Paul, notwithstanding the
extraordinary graces which he received, thought it necessary to chastise his
body that he might not be cast away, how does the sinner expect to be saved,
living an effeminate and luxurious life without penance and mortification? St. Paul's
third example is that of the Jews who all perished on their journey to the
Promised Land, even though God had granted them so many graces; He shielded
them from their enemies by a cloud which served as a light to them at night,
and a cooling shade by day; He divided the waters of the sea, thus preparing
for them a dry passage; He caused manna to fall from heaven to be their food,
and water to gush from the rock for their drink. These temporal benefits which
God bestowed upon the Jews in the wilderness had a spiritual meaning; the cloud
and the sea was a figure of baptism which enlightens the soul, tames the
concupiscence of the flesh, and purifies from sin; the manna was a type of the
most holy Sacrament of the Altar, the soul's true bread from heaven; the water
from the rock, the blood flowing from Christ's wound in the side; and yet with
all these temporal benefits which God bestowed upon them, and with all the
spiritual graces they were to receive by faith from the coming Redeemer, of the
six hundred thousand men who left Egypt only two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the
Promised Land. Why? Because they were fickle, murmured so, often against God,
and desired the pleasures of the flesh. How much, then, have we need to fear
lest we be excluded from the true, happy land, Heaven, if we do not
continuously struggle for it, by penance and mortification!
ASPIRATION
Assist me, O Jesus, with Thy grace that, following St. Paul's example, I may be
anxious, by the constant pious practice of virtue and prayer, to arrive at
perfection and to enter heaven.
GRADUAL:
Ps.
9. Thou art a helper in due
time in tribulation: let them trust in Thee, who know Thee: for Thou dost not
forsake them that seek Thee, O Lord. For
the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: the patience of the poor shall
not perish forever: arise, O Lord, let not man prevail.
TRACT:
Ps. 129. From the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord:
Lord, hear my voice. Let Thine ears be
attentive to the prayer of Thy servant. If
Thou shalt observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall abide it? For with Thee is propitiation, and because of
Thy law I have waited for Thee, O Lord.
GOSPEL: Matt. 20, 1-16.
At that
time Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: The kingdom of God is like to a
householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers in his vineyard.
And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his
vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the
market place idle, and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I
will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went
out about the sixth and ninth hour: and did in like manner. But about the
eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why
stand you here all the day idle? The say to him: Because no man hath hired us.
He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the
lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the laborers and pay them their
hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come
that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when
the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also
received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master
of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made
them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he
answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree
with me for a penny? Take what is thine and go thy way: I will also give to
this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is
thine eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first
last. For many are called, but few chosen.
In this parable, what is
to be understood by the householder, the vineyard, laborers, and the penny?
The householder represents God,
who in different ages of the world, in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
and finally, in the days of Christ and the apostles, has sought to call men as
workmen into His vineyard, the true Church, that they might labor there
industriously, and receive the penny of eternal glory.
How and when does God call
people?
By inward inspiration, by
preachers, confessors, spiritual books, and conversations, etc., in flourishing
youth and in advanced age, which periods of life may be understood by the
different hours of the day.
What is meant by working
in the vineyard?
It means laboring, fighting,
suffering for God and His honor, for our own and the salvation of others. As in
a vineyard we spade, dig, root out weeds, cut off all that is useless and
noxious, manure, plant, and bind up, so in the spiritual vineyard of our soul
we must, by frequent meditation on death and hell, by examination of conscience
dig up the evil inclinations by their roots, and by true repentance eradicate
the weeds of vice, and by mortification, especially by prayer and fasting cut
away concupiscence; by the recollection of our sins we must humble ourselves,
and amend our life; in place of the bad habits we must plant the opposite
virtues and bind our unsteady will to the trellis of the fear of God and of His
judgment, that we may continue firm.
How is a vice or bad habit
to be rooted up?
A great hatred of sin must be
aroused; a fervent desire of destroying sin must be produced in our hearts; the
grace of God must be implored without which nothing can be accomplished. It is
useful also to read some spiritual book which speaks against the vice. The
Sacraments of Penance and of holy Communion should often be received, and some
saint who in life had committed the same sin, and afterwards by the grace of
God conquered it, should be honored, as Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine who
each had the habit of impurity, but with the help of God resisted and destroyed
it in themselves; there should be fasting, alms-deeds, or other good works,
performed for the same object, and it is of great importance, even necessary,
that the conscience should be carefully examined in this regard.
Who are standing idle in
the market place?
In the market-place, that is the
world, they are standing idle who, however much business they attend to, do not
work for God and for their own salvation; for the only necessary employment is
the service of God and the working out of our salvation. There are three ways
of being idle: doing nothing whatever; doing evil; doing other things than the
duties of our position in life and its office require, or if this work is done
without a good intention, or not from the love of God. This threefold idleness
deprives us of our salvation, as the servant loses his wages if he works not at
all, or not according to the will of his master. We are all servants of God,
and none of us can say with the laborers in the Vineyard that no man has
employed us; for God, when He created us, hired us at great wages, and we must
serve Him always as He cares for us at all times; and if, in the gospel, the
householder reproaches the workmen, whom no man had hired, for their idleness,
what will God one day say to those Christians whom He has placed to work in His
Vineyard, the Church, if they have remained idle?
Why do the last comers
receive as much as those who worked all day?
Because God rewards not the time
or length of the work, but the industry and diligence with which it has been
performed. It may indeed happen, that many a one who has served God but for a
short time, excels in merits another who has lived long but has not labored as
diligently (Wis. 4, 8-13).
What is signified by the
murmurs of the first workmen when the wages were paid?
As the Jews were the first who
were called by God, Christ intended to show that the Gentiles, who were called
last, should one day receive the heavenly reward, and that the Jews have no
reason to murmur because God acted not unjustly in fulfilling His promises to
them, and at the same time calling others to the eternal reward. In heaven
envy, malevolence and murmuring will find no place. On the contrary, the saints
who have long served God wonder at His goodness in converting sinners and those
who have served Him but a short time, for these also there will be the same
penny, that is, the vision, the enjoyment, and possession of God and His
kingdom. Only in the heavenly glory there will be a difference because the
divine lips have assured us that each one shall be rewarded according to his
works. The murmurs of the workmen and the answer of the householder serve to
teach us, that we should not murmur against the merciful proceedings of God
towards our neighbor, nor envy him; for envy and jealousy are abominable,
devilish vices, hated by God. By the envy of the, devil, death came into the
world (Wis. 2, 24). The envious therefore, imitate Lucifer, but they hurt only
themselves, because they are consumed by their envy. "Envy," says St.
Basil "is an institution of the serpent, an invention of the devils, an
obstacle to piety, a road to hell, the depriver of the heavenly kingdom."
What is meant by: The
first shall be last, and the last shall be first?
This again is properly to be
understood of the Jews; for they were the first called, but will be the last in
order, as in time, because they responded not to Christ's invitation, received
not His doctrine, and will enter the Church only at the end of the world;
while, on the contrary, the Gentiles who were not called until after the Jews,
will be the first in number as in merit, because the greater part responded and
are still responding to the call. Christ, indeed, called all the Jews, but few
of them answered, therefore few were chosen. Would that this might not. also
come true with regard to Christians whom God has also called, and whom He
wishes to save (I Tim. 2, 4). Alas! very few live in accordance with their
vocation of working in the vineyard of the Lord, and, consequently, do not
receive the penny of eternal bliss.
PRAYER O
most benign God, who, out of pure grace, without any merit of ours, hast called
us, Thy unworthy servants, to the true faith, into the vineyard of the holy
Catholic Church, and dost require us to work in it for the sanctification of
our souls, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may never be idle but be found
always faithful workmen, and that that which in past years we have failed to
do, we may make up for in future by greater zeal and persevering industry, and,
the work being done, may receive the promised reward in heaven, through Jesus
Christ, Thy Son our, Lord. Amen.
OFFERTORY:
Ps. 91.
It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to Thy name, O Most
High.
SECRET:
Having received, O Lord, our offerings and prayers, we
beseech Thee, cleanse us by Thy heavenly mysteries, and mercifully hear
us. Through our Lord, etc.
Hear us, O God, our salvation, that through the power
of this sacrament Thou mayest defend us from all enemies of soul and body and
bestow upon us grace here and glory hereafter.
Through our Lord. etc.
Protect us, O Lord, who celebrate Thy mysteries, that
holding fast to divine things, we may serve Thee with body and soul. Through our Lord, etc.
COMMUNION:
Ps. 30. Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant, and
save me in Thy mercy: let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon
Thee.
POSTCOMMUNION:
May Thy faithful, O God, be
strengthened by Thy gifts, that receiving the same they may long after them,
and seeking may receive them without end.
Through our Lord, etc.
May the offering of this divine
sacrament cleanse and protect us, O Lord, we beseech Thee; and by the intercession of the blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul
and all the Saints, may it purify us from all sin and free us from all adversity. Through our Lord, etc.
We beseech Thee, O Lord, our God, that Thou permit
not those to whom Thou hast given a participation of divine things to be
subjected to human dangers. Through our
Lord, etc.
During the period from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the liturgy
speaks no more of our greatness but contemplates the misery of fallen
humanity-the fatal consequences of original sin and actual sin-and the
sacrifice that God asked from the faithful Melchisedech, symbol of the
sacrifice that Jesus brings for the whole of humanity… In this period we also
prepare for the fasting and penance of the Season of Lent.
Rev. Sylvester P. Juergens, S.M.
Take what is thine and go thy way: I will also give
to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is
thine eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first
last. For many are called, but few chosen.
PROPER OF THE
SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 17th:
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17
|
Sun
|
Septuagesima Sunday
|
sd
|
V
|
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Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM; Rosary of
Reparation 8:30 AM; Mass for Mission members
|
|
18
|
Mon
|
St. Simeon, BpM
St. Marie
Bernard Soubirous
|
sp
|
R
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
|
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19
|
Tue
|
Ferial Day
|
|
V
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
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|
20
|
Wed
|
Ferial Day
|
|
V
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
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|
21
|
Thu
|
Ferial Day
|
|
V
|
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Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
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22
|
Fri
|
St. Peter's Chair at Antioch
St. Paul,
Ap
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dm
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W
|
A
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Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass; Holy
Hour of Reparation with Benediction
|
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23
|
Sat
|
St. Peter Damian, BpCD
Vigil of
St. Matthias, Ap (Anticipated)
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d
|
W
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions 8:30 AM; Holy Hour of
Reparation with Rosary and Benediction
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24
|
Sun
|
Sexagesima Sunday
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sd
|
V
|
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Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions 8:00AM; Rosary of
Reparation 8:30; Mass for Mission members
|
The Month of February
is dedicated to the Holy Family
“That they might know that by what
things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented.”
Wisdom 11:17
“I will send forth famine into the land, not a famine of bread . . . but
of hearing the word of the Lord, . . . they shall go about seeking the word of
the Lord and shall not find it.”
Amos 8:11
Faithfully
do what God expects of you each moment, and leave the rest up to Him.
I
assure you that living in this manner will bring you great peace.
St. Jane Francis de Chantal
Invincible ignorance is a punishment for sin.
St. Thomas Aquinas (De Infid. q. x., art. 1.)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The duration of the world
itself, according to the ancient Christian tradition, is divided into seven
ages. The human race must pass through
seven ages before the dawning of the day of eternal life. The first age included the time from the
creation of Adam to Noah; the second begins with Noah and the renovation of the
earth by the deluge, and ends with the vocation of Abraham; the third opens
with this first formation of God’s chosen people, and continues as far as
Moses, through whom God gave the Law; the fourth consists of the period between
Moses and David, in whom the house of Juda received the kingly power; the fifth
formed of the years which passed between David’s reign and the captivity of
Babylon, inclusively; the sixth dates from the return of the Jews to Jerusalem,
and takes us on as far as the birth of our Saviour. Then, finally, comes the seventh age; it
starts with the rising of this merciful Redeemer, the Sun of justice, and is to
continue till the dread coming of the Judge of the living and the dead. These are the seven great divisions of time;
after which, eternity… After the Septuagesima of mourning, we shall have the
bright Easter with its seven weeks of gladness, foreshadowing the happiness and
bliss of heaven.
Dom Gueranger, The
Liturgical Year, The Mystery of Septuagesima
From all this it is
evident that the Christian, who would spend Septuagesima according to the
spirit of the Church, must make war upon that false security, that
self-satisfaction, which are so common to effeminate and tepid souls, and
produce spiritual barrenness. It is well
for them, if these delusions do not insensibly lead them to the absolute loss
of the true Christian spirit. He that
thinks himself dispensed from that continual watchfulness, which is so strongly
inculcated by our divine Master, is already in the enemy’s power. He that feels no need of combat and of
struggle in order to persevere and make progress in virtue should fear that he
is not even on the road to that kingdom of God, which is only to be won by violence. He that forgets the sins which God’s mercy
has forgiven him, should fear lest he be the victim of a dangerous delusion.
Dom Gueranger, The
Liturgical Year, Septuagesima Sunday
In our time more than ever before, the greatest asset of those disposed
toward evil is the cowardice and weakness of good men, and all the vigor of
Satan’s reign is due to the easy going weakness of Catholics. Oh! If I might ask the Divine Redeemer, as
the Prophet Zachary did in spirit: “What are those wounds in the midst of Thy
hands” (Zach. 13:6)? The answer would not be doubtful: “… With these I was
wounded in the house of them that loved Me” (Zach. 13:6). I was wounded by My friends, who did nothing
to defend Me, and who, on every occasion, made themselves the accomplices of My
adversaries. And this reproach can be
leveled at the weak and timid Catholics of all countries.
St. Pius X, December 13, 1908, the beatification of St. Joan of Arc
There is no fault
committed by another man of which we ourselves are not capable if we were
placed in the same circumstances and surrounded by the same evil examples from
the time of our youth.
St. Augustine
My daughter, I see more Pharisees among Christians than there were
around Pilate.
St. Margaret of Cortona
And don’t tell me you don’t wish to fight, for the
moment you tell me that, you are already fighting. Nor that you don’t know which side to join;
for while you are saying that, you have already joined a side. Nor that you wish to remain neutral; for while
you are thinking to be so, you are so no longer. Nor that you want to be indifferent; for I
will laugh at you, because on pronouncing that word you have already chosen
your party. Don’t tire yourself seeking
a place of security against the chances of war, for you tire yourself in vain;
that war is extended as far as space and prolonged through all time. In eternity alone… can you find rest, because
there alone there is no combat. But do
not imagine, however, that the gates of eternity shall be opened for you,
unless you first show the wounds you bear.
Those gates are only opened for those who gloriously fought here the
battles of the Lord Crucified!
Juan Donoso Cortés, Marqués de Valdegamas, 1809-1853,
Spanish author, diplomat, and worthy descendent of the great conquistador,
Hernando Cortes.
Let us place humility above all things. It is the hidden treasure
buried in the field, to acquire which we ought to sell all we possess (Matt.
13, 44). It is the pearl of great price, to obtain which we should sell all we
have (Matt. 13, 45). Do not let us call
these sins against humility scruples, but let us regard them as real sins,
worthy of confession and of amendment. May God guard us from too easy a
conscience in respect to that true humility which is commanded us in the
Gospel. We should then indeed be taking the broad way mentioned by the Holy
Ghost, which though it seems the right and straight road nevertheless leads
direct to perdition: "There is a way that seemeth to a man right, and the
ends thereof lead to death" (Prov. 16, 25).
Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, Humility of Heart
If all the swords in England were pointed against my head, your threats
would not move me. I am ready to die for
my Lord that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.
St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury
Fight, therefore, with
great determination. Do not let the weakness of your nature be an excuse. If
your strength fails you, ask more from God. He will not refuse your request. Consider
this------if the fury of your enemies is great, and their numbers overwhelming,
the love which God holds for you is infinitely greater. The Angel who protects
you and the Saints who intercede for you are more numerous… All He asks of you
is that you defend yourself courageously, and that, despite any wounds you may
receive, you never lay down your arms or leave the battleground.
You must not shirk your
duty. This war is unavoidable, and you must either fight or die. The obstinacy
of your enemies is so fierce that peace and arbitration with them is utterly
impossible.
Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The
Spiritual Combat
Liberalism is a heresy
in the doctrinal order, because heresy is the formal and obstinate denial of
all Christian dogmas in general. It repudiates dogma altogether and substitutes
opinion, whether that opinion be doctrinal or the negation of doctrine.
Consequently it denies every doctrine in particular. If we were to examine in
detail all the doctrines or dogmas which, within the range of Liberalism, have
been denied, we would find every Christian dogma in one way or the other
rejected-----from
the dogma of the Incarnation to that of Infallibility…. We may then say of
Liberalism: in the order of ideas it is absolute error; in the order of facts
it is absolute disorder. It is therefore, in both cases a very grievous and
deadly sin, for sin is rebellion against God in thought or in deed, the
enthronement of the creature in the place of the Creator.
Don Felix Sarda Y
Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin
From any sin, however slight, committed with full
knowledge, may God deliver us, especially since we are sinning against so great
a Sovereign and realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me a sin committed of malice
aforethought : it is as though one were to say : ‘Lord, although this
displeases You, I shall do it. I know
that You see it and I know that You would not have me do it; but, though I
understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire than Your
will.’
St. Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection
The Sine Qua Non of ‘Theology of the Body’?
Natural Family Planning - the conflating of primary
and secondary ends!
The truth is that matrimony, as an
institution of nature, in virtue of the Creator’s will, has not as a primary
and intimate end the personal perfection of the married couple but the
procreation and upbringing of a new life. The other ends, inasmuch as they
are intended by nature, are not equally primary, much less superior to
the primary end, but are essentially subordinated to it…. We Ourselves drew up
a declaration on the order of those ends, pointing out what the very
internal structure of the natural disposition reveals. We showed what has been
handed down by Christian tradition, what the Supreme Pontiffs have repeatedly
taught, and what was then in due measure promulgated by the Code of Canon Law.
Not long afterwards, to correct
opposing opinions, the Holy See, by a public decree, proclaimed that it could
not admit the opinion of some recent authors who denied that the primary end of
marriage is the procreation and education of the offspring, or teach that the
secondary ends are not essentially subordinated to the primary end, but are on
an equal footing and independent of it.
Pope Pius XII
Liberalism is
the belief that any part of God's creation is not subject to His to domain.
Fr. Denis
Fahey
The truths Jesus
taught are so important and essential that, to know them or not, to believe
them or not, is a matter of life or of death.
His doctrine is not optional; rather, it is so essential that we cannot
attain eternal life without it. “Who
believeth in Him… may have life everlasting… but he that doth not believe is
already judged : because he believeth not in the Name of the only-begotten Son
of God” (Jn 3, 16-18). Compared to the
truths taught by Jesus, all others are insufficient. Because the doctrine of Jesus is absolutely
indispensable. He proved its truth by miracles in order to help our weak faith
to adhere to it…. Jesus is the only Teacher who can guarantee with miracles the
truth of His doctrine.
Rev. Gabriel of St.
Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy
Considered from a pastoral aspect, one must say
that the ecumenism of the last decades that it leads Catholics to a “silent
apostasy” and that it dissuades non-Catholics from entering into the unique ark
of salvation. One must reprobate, as Vatican Council I has said, “the impiety
of those who close to men the gates of the Kingdom of heaven”. Under the guise
of searching for unity, this ecumenism disperses the flock; it does not carry
the mark of Christ, but that of the divider par excellence, the devil.
FROM ECUMENISM TO
SILENT APOSTASY
The Church of Christ, animated by the same Divine Spirit of truth which
inspired this holy Apostle, has at all times regulated her conduct according to
the model set before her in his words and example,” . . . contend earnestly for
the Faith once delivered to the Saints" (Jude, 1: 3); her continual care
is “ . . . to keep that which is committed to thy trust" pure and
undefiled, "avoiding all profane novelties of words . . ." (1 Tim. 6:
20); that the sacred words of God, " . . . I have put in thy mouth, shall
not depart out of thy mouth . . . from henceforth and for ever" (Isa. 59:
21). She therefore knows not what it is to temporize in religion, in order to
please men, not to adulterate the Gospel of Christ to humor them; she declares
the sacred truths revealed by Jesus Christ in their original simplicity,
without seeking to adorn them with the persuasive words of human wisdom, much
less to disguise them in a garb not their own.
Bishop George Hay of Scotland [1729-1811], The Sincere Christian
- Did you receive, in the grotto of Lourdes, or after then, any revelations
related to the future and fate of France? Did not the Blessed Virgin deliver
any warning for France, any threats?
- No
- The Prussians are at our gates; does that not cause you any fear?
- No.
- There is thus nothing to fear?
- I only fear bad Catholics.
- You do not fear anything else?
- No, nothing else.
St. Bernadette Soubirous,
1870, Questioned regarding the Prussian invasion of France
So run that ye may obtain, i.e., obtain the crown of glory and the
Prize of victory. The allusion is to those that ran in the public games for a
crown as the prize, with which they were crowned when victorious. Cf. notes to
Rev. iii. 2. ‘The word so denotes the rectitude, the diligence, the swiftness,
and the perseverance especially required in order to win the prize. The course
of Christ was marked by these qualities, that course which all ought to put
before themselves for imitation. S. Bernard (Ep. 254) says: “The Creator
himself of man and of the world, did He, while He dwelt here below with men,
stand still? Nay, as the scripture testifies, ‘He went about doing good and
healing all.’ He went through the world not unfruitfully, carelessly, lazily,
or with laggard step, but so as it was written of him, ‘He rejoiced as a giant
to run his course.’ No one catches the runner but he that runs equally fast;
and what avails it to stretch out after Christ if you do not lay hold of Him?
Therefore is it that Paul said, ‘so run that ye may obtain.’ There, O
Christian, set the goal of your course and your journeying where Christ placed
his. ‘He was made obedient unto death.’ However long you may have run, you will
not obtain the price if you do not persevere even unto death. The prize is
Christ.” He then goes on to point out that, in the race of virtue, not to run,
to stand still, is to fail and go back. “But if while He runs you stand still,
you come no nearer to Christ, nay, you recede from Him, and should fear for
yourself what David said, ‘Lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish.’
Therefore, if to go forward is to run, when you cease to go forward you cease
to run: when you are not running you begin to go back. Hence we may plainly see
that not to wish to go forward is nothing but to go back. Jacob saw a ladder,
and on the ladder angels, where none was sitting down, none standing still, but
all seemed to be either ascending or descending, that we might be plainly given
to understand that in this mortal course no mean is to be found between going
forward and going back, but that in the same way as our bodies are known to be
continuously either increasing or decreasing, so must our spirit he always
either going forward or going back.” And
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
Rev. Cornelius a Lapide, Commentary on First Corinthians 9:2
The children of the Church have a right to feel a
special interest in every solemnity that is kept in memory of St. Peter. The father’s feast is a feast for the whole
family; for to him it owes its very life.
If there be but one fold, it is because there is but one Shepherd. Let us, then, honour Peter’s divine
prerogative, to which Christianity owes its preservation; and let us often
reflect upon the obligations we are under to the apostolic see. On the feast of the chair at Rome, we saw how
faith is taught, and maintained, and propagated by the mother-Church, which has
inherited the promises made to Peter.
Today, let us consider the apostolic see as the sole source of the
legitimate power, whereby mankind is ruled and governed in all that concerns
eternal salvation.
Dom Gunrunner, The Liturgical Year, St. Peter’s
Chair at Antioch
Crosses are a symbol that hurts Jewish feelings… They
did not have to take them off, just hide them.
I’ve never encountered a Christian who has refused including the Pope.
Rabbi Shamble
Rabinovitch, his comment after barring fourteen Austrian Catholic bishops from
visiting the “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem because they refused to remove the
crucifixes they were wearing.
IN THE CHURCH
THERE ARE GOOD AND BAD, PREDESTINATE AND REPROBATE
Was not that the true Church
which St. Paul called the pillar and ground of truth and the house of the
living God (1 Tim. 3, 15)? Certainly;---- for to be a pillar of truth cannot
appertain to an erring and straying Church. Now the Apostle witnesses of this
true Church, the house of God, that there are in it vessels unto honour and
unto dishonour (2 Tim. 2, 20), that is, good and bad.
Is not that Church against which the
gates of Hell shall not prevail (Matt. 16, 18) the true Church? Nevertheless
there are therein men who have to be loosed from their sins, and others whose
sins have to be retained, as Our Lord shows us in the promise and the power He
gave to St. Peter in this matter. Those whose sins are retained----are they not
wicked and reprobate? Indeed, the reprobate are precisely those whose sins are
retained, and by the elect we ordinarily mean those whose sins are pardoned.
Now, that those whose sins St. Peter had power to forgive or to retain were in
the Church is evident; for them that are outside the Church only God will judge
(1 Cor. 5, 13). Those therefore of whom St. Peter was to judge were not outside
the Church but within, though amongst them there were some reprobate.
And does not Our Lord teach us that
when we are offended by some one of our brethren, after having reprehended and
corrected him twice, in two different fashions, we should take him to the
Church? Tell the Church; and if he will not hear the Church let him be to thee
as the heathen and the publican (Matt. 17, 17). Here one cannot escape---the
consequence is inevitable. There is question of one of our brethren who is
neither heathen nor publican, but under the discipline and correction of the
Church, and consequently member of the Church, and yet there is no inconsistency
in his being reprobate, perverse, and obstinate. Not only then do the good
belong to the true Church, but the wicked also, until such time as they are
cast out from it, unless one would say that the Church to which Our Lord sends
us is an erring, sinful, and antichristian Church. This would be too open a
blasphemy.
St. Francis de Sales, The
Catholic Controversy, In Defense of the Faith
SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY
PRESENCE
OF GOD ‑
O Lord, I come to You with a keen desire to learn how to respond to Your invitations.
MEDITATION:
1. The time of Septuagesima is somewhat like a prelude
to Lent, the traditional time for spiritual reform. That is why the liturgy
presents us today with a program which we must put into effect in order to
bring about within ourselves a new, serious conversion, so that we may rise again
with Christ at Easter. The Collect of today's Mass, while reminding us that we
are sinners, invites us to sentiments of profound humility, "to the end
that we, who are justly afflicted because of our sins, may through Thy mercy, be
freed from them." The first step toward conversion always consists in humbly
recognizing that we need to be converted. The lukewarm must become fervent, the
fervent must reach perfection, the perfect must attain heroic virtue. Who can
say that he does not need to advance in virtue and in sanctity? Each new step
effects a new conversion to God, conversio ad Deum. In the Epistle (I Cor. 9, 24‑27; 10,
1‑5), St. Paul urges us to
undertake this ceaseless spiritual labor. To reach sanctity and heavenly glory
we must never tire of running and striving, as those who run in the stadium
struggle and exert themselves "to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible
one. I, therefore, so run... not as one beating the air," says the
Apostle, "but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection!" This is
the first point in the program: a generous struggle to overcome ourselves, to conquer
evil and achieve goodness; denial of self by humility; denial of the body by
physical mortification. Only those who struggle and exert themselves will win
the prize. Therefore let us also run in such a way as to obtain the reward.
2. The Gospel (Mt. 20, 1‑16) gives
us the second part of the program for this liturgical season: not to remain
idle, but to labor assiduously in the Lord's vineyard. The first vine to be
cultivated is our own soul. God comes to meet us with His grace, but He does not
will to sanctify us without our cooperation. On this Sunday the great invitation
to sanctity is repeated to every soul. God in His love seeks out His scattered,
idle children and gently reprimands them, "Why stand you here idle?" St.
Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi says that "God calls us at various times, because
creatures differ in state. In this variety we see God's greatness and
benignity, which never fail to call us by means of His divine inspirations, in
no matter what stage or situation we may be." Blessed are those who, ever
since their youth, have always heard and followed the divine invitation! But
each hour is God's hour; and He passes by and calls us, even to the very last
hour. What a consolation, and at the same time what an incentive to respond at
last to the Lord's appeal: "Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not
your hearts!" (Ps 94, 8).
In addition to the vineyard of our soul, we must
also consider the vineyard of the Church, where so many souls are waiting to be
won to Christ. No one can consider himself dispensed from thinking of the welfare
of others. However lowly our place in the Mystical Body of Christ, we are all
members of it; consequently, each one of us must work for the welfare of the
others. It is possible for everyone to carry on an efficacious apostolate by
example, prayer, and sacrifice. If, up to now, we have done but little, let us
listen today to the words of Jesus: "Go you also into My vineyard." Let
us go and embrace generously the work which the Lord offers us; let us consider
nothing too difficult when there is question of winning souls.
COLLOQUY:
Bless, O Lord, this new liturgical season which
opens today. By penetrating its spirit may I be disposed, with Your aid, for a
serious reform of my spiritual life. Grant me sincere humility, that I may know my
misery and see myself as I am in Your eyes, free from those false lights which
arise from self‑love, deceiving me and leading me to think I am better
than I am. If I wish to consider my wretchedness at Your feet, it is by no
means in order to become discouraged: "In my trouble I call upon You, my God,
and from Your holy temple, You hear my prayer .... You are my strength, O Lord,
my support, my refuge, my Redeemer. You are my help in time of trouble. He who
knows You, hopes in You, for You do not abandon the one who seeks You. From the
depths of the abyss, I cry to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. If You will
mark our iniquities, O Lord, who can stand it? But with You there is mercy, and
by reason of Your law, I trust in You, O Lord!" (Mass of the day).
Infuse into me, O Jesus, new strength to take
up more eagerly the course which will lead me to win the incorruptible crown of
sanctity. "And since nature opposes what is good, I promise to declare a merciless
war against myself. My weapons for the battle will be prayer, the practice of
the presence of God, and silence. But, O my Love, You know that I am not
skilled in handling these arms. Nevertheless, I will arm myself with sovereign
confidence in You, with patience, humility, conformity to Your divine will, and
supreme diligence. But where shall I find the aid I need to fight against so
many enemies in such a continual battle? Ah! I know! You, my God, proclaim
Yourself my Captain, and raising the standard of Your Cross, You lovingly say,
`Come, follow Me; do not fear'" (T.M. Sp).
O my Lord, I will no longer resist Your invitation.
May today sound for me the decisive hour of a response filled with generosity
and perseverance. You call me. Here I am. I come to Your vineyard, O Lord, but
if You are not with me to sustain me in my work, I shall accomplish nothing. O
You who invite me, help me to do what You ask of me.
Everything undertaken in defense of the faith of the Church in times
past, and everything done to spread it by missionaries, even including
martyrdom, is now regarded as a fault for which the Church must accuse herself
and beg forgiveness... The Roman authorities are turning their backs on their
predecessors, breaking with the Catholic Church and putting themselves at the
service of the destroyers of Christendom and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ.... From year to year the current acts of John Paul II and the national
episcopates demonstrate that radical change in the concept of the faith, the
Church, the priesthood, the world, and of salvation through grace. The culmination of the break with the former
magisterium of the Church occurred at Assisi after the visit to the Synagogue.
The public sin against the unicity of God, against the Word Incarnate and His
Church makes one shudder with horror: John Paul II encouraging false religions
to pray to their false gods - a scandal beyond measure and precedent!... We are
forced to admit that this liberal modernist religion of modern conciliar Rome
is distancing itself more and more from us who profess the Catholic faith of
the popes who condemned this false religion.
We therefore regard as null whatever has been inspired by this spirit of
denial - all the post-conciliar reforms and acts of Rome carried out in such
impiety.
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre & Bishop Castro de Mayer, December 2,
1985
The most evident mark of God’s anger, and the most terrible castigation
He can inflict on the world, is manifest when He permits His people to fall
into the hands of a clergy who are more in name than in deed, priests who
practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection
of devoted shepherds. They abandon the
things of God to devote themselves to the things of the world, and instead of
their saintly call to holiness, they spend their time in profane and worldly
pursuits. When God permits such things
it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is
visiting His dreadful wrath upon them.
St. John Eudes
St.
Peter Damian, Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, author of “The Book of Gomorrah”
·
“Tell us, you unmanly and effeminate man, what
do you seek in another male that you do not find in yourself?”
·
“For
God’s sake, why do you damnable sodomites pursue the heights of ecclesiastical
dignity with such fiery ambition?”
·
“By what
right or by what law can one bind or loose the other when he is constrained by
the bonds of evil deeds common to them both?”
·
“Who can
expect the flock to prosper when its shepherd has sunk so deep into the bowels
of the devil?
·
“Who, by
his lust, will consign a son whom he spiritually begotten for God to slavery
under the iron law of Satanic tyranny?”
·
“This
utterly diseased queen of Sodom renders him who obeys the laws of her tyranny
infamous to men and odious to God.”
·
“Without
fail, [the vice of sodomy] brings death to the body and destruction to the
soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the
Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the
devil, the stimulator of lust.”
·
”[The
vice of sodomy] leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind . .
. It opens up Hell and closes the gates of Paradise.”
·
”[The
vice of sodomy] is this vice that violates temperance, slays modesty, strangles
chastity, and slaughters virginity.”
·
[The vice
of sodomy] defiles all things, sullies all things, pollutes all things.”
·
“Who will
make a mistress of a cleric, or a woman of a man?”
·
“It is
not sinners, but the wicked who should despair; it is not the magnitude of
one’s crime, but contempt of God that dashes one’s hopes.”
Make of
everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for
the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of
sinners.
Angel of
Fatima to the three children
St. Jerome relates in a letter to Eustochium how, at the time when he
was beginning to lead the monastic life near Antioch, he was led by a very
great grace to the assiduous reading of the Scriptures. The elegance of profane
writers still pleased him greatly; by preference he read the works of Cicero,
Virgil, and Plautus. Then he received the following grace: during sleep he
beheld himself, as it were, transported before the tribunal of God, who asked
him severely who he was. "I am a Christian," Jerome replied.
"You lie," said the sovereign Judge. "You are a Ciceronian; for
where your treasure is, there is your heart also." And the order was given
to scourge him. "Upon awakening," writes St. Jerome, "I felt,
indeed, that this had been more than a dream, that it was a reality, since I
bore on my shoulders the marks of the stripes I had received. Since that time I
have read the Sacred Scriptures with greater ardor than I formerly read profane
books." This experience explains St. Jerome's statement to Eustochium in
another letter: "Let sleep surprise you only reading; fall asleep only on
Sacred Scripture."
Rev. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Ages of the Interior
Life
"A
Dark Cloud of Fog Instead of a Head"
I saw a strange
church being built against every rule.... No angels were supervising the
building operations. In that church,
nothing came from high above... There was only division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation,
following the latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox church of Rome,
which seems of the same kind... I saw
all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions. There was something proud, presumptuous, and
violent about it, and they seemed to be very successful. I did not see a single Angel or a single saint
helping in the work. But far away in the
background, I saw a laughing figure which said: 'Do build it as solid as you
can; we will pull it to the ground'.... Among the strangest things that I saw,
were long processions of bishops. Their thoughts and utterances were made known
to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion
were shown by external deformities. A few had only a body, with a dark cloud of
fog instead of a head. Others had only a head, their bodies and hearts were
like thick vapors. Some were lame; others were paralytics; others were asleep
or staggering.
Blessed
Anna-Katarina Emmerick, Yves Dupont, Catholic
Prophecy
But though we, or
an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached
to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one
preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be
anathema.
St. Paul, Letter
to the Galatians, 1:8-9
Their "problems" will
be our "problems."
“Here
are the problems gay couples kids will face”
The conclusions of a University of
Texas study, which show that children raised by same-sex couples are less
healthy and more inclined towards suicide and betrayal, have triggered a heated
debate
Vatican Insider: MARCO TOSATTI, Rome, 1/11/2013
One of these two new
studies is by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas. His study
used a methodology that was innovative both in quantitative and
qualitative terms. It based its results on a larger sample on a national level
and most importantly, it took into consideration the testimonies of (by now
grown up) children that were raised by same-sex couples.
From the data
presented which caused the greatest stir, it emerged that 12% of children
brought up by same-sex couples contemplate suicide (against 5% of children with
heterosexual parents), they are more inclined to be unfaithful (40% against
13%), they are unemployed more often (28% against 8%) and they are more likely
to visit a psychotherapist (19% against 8%). They are also more often under
social service surveillance compared to peers who are raised by heterosexual
couples. In 40% of cases they will catch a sexually transmitted disease at some
point (against 8% of peers raised by heterosexual couples) and they are
generally less healthy, poorer and more likely to smoke and commit criminal
offences.
When
we pray, "Thy Will Be Done"-
And so I wish you to understand with Whom you deal, so to speak. Remember what it is the good Jesus offers to
the Father for you and what you give Him when you ask that His will be done in
you, for the two are but one thing. Do
not be afraid that it is His will to give you riches, pleasures, and honors, or
any other worldly advantage. He loves
you too much for that. He values your
gift to Him so highly and is so eager to repay you generously that He gives you
His kingdom, even in this life. Would
you like to see how He treats those who sincerely make this petition? Then ask His glorious Son, Who offered this
same prayer to Him in the Garden. With
firm resolution and with His whole will, He prayed that the Father's will be
done. Behold how the Father accomplished
it. He delivered Him to labors and
sufferings, to maltreatment and persecution until, finally, the Son ended His
life on the Cross. You see here, my daughters, what He gave to Him Whom He most
loved. From this we learn His will.
St. Teresa, Way of Perfection
Having confidence in you, O Mother of God, I shall be saved;
being under your protection, I shall fear nothing;
With your help I shall give battle to my enemies and put them to flight;
for devotion to you is an arm of salvation.
St. Peter Damian
It is said that on one occasion Pope St. Pius X asked a group of cardinals:
“What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?” “Build catholic schools,” said one. “No,”
said the pope. “More churches,” said
another. “Still no.” “Speed up the
recruiting of priests,” said still another.
“No, no,” said the pope. “The
most necessary thing of all at this time is for every parish to possess a group
of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and
truly apostolic.”
Rev. Charles Hugo Doyle, Guidance in Spiritual Direction
“And if Satan
also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?”
“Mutual
respect… Freedom to practice one’s religion… Freedom to follow one’s conscience
without suffering ostracism or persecution,” is extended to every error but, has
and will never be extended by the Novus Ordo hypocrites toward Catholic
tradition and truth.
Ever since the
Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has placed special emphasis on the
importance of dialogue and cooperation with the followers of other religions.
In order to be fruitful, this requires reciprocity on the part of all partners
in dialogue and the followers of other religions. I am thinking in particular
of situations in some parts of the world, where cooperation and dialogue
between religions calls for mutual respect, the freedom to practise one’s
religion and to engage in acts of public worship, and the freedom to follow
one’s conscience without suffering ostracism or persecution, even after
conversion from one religion to another. Once such a respect and openness has
been established, peoples of all religions will work together effectively for
peace and mutual understanding, and so give a convincing witness before the
world.
Pope Benedict XVI, St. Mary’s University College, London, September 17,
2010
What
was soon to be called, "The Spirit of Vatican II" - the corruption of
faith and worship
Religion must be renovated. That
is the persuasion of all those who, today, are still dealing with religion,
whether they be outside of its concrete expression: a faith, and observance, a
community, or be within a religious profession or discussion. It all depends on what one intends for
renovation.
Pope Paul VI, August 12, 1964
Hermeneutics
of Continuity/Discontinuity
Pope
Francis Believes:
In the call to be evangelisers, all the Churches and Ecclesial
Communities discover a privileged setting for closer cooperation. For this to
be effective, we need to stop being self-enclosed, exclusive, and bent on
imposing a uniformity based on merely human calculations. Our shared commitment
to proclaiming the Gospel enables us to overcome proselytism and competition in
all their forms. All of us are at the service of the one Gospel.
In this moment of prayer for unity, I would also like to remember our
martyrs, the martyrs of today. They are witnesses to Jesus Christ, and they are
persecuted and killed because they are Christians. Those who persecute them
make no distinction between the religious communities to which they belong.
They are Christians and for that they are persecuted. This, brothers and
sisters, is the ecumenism of blood.
Mindful of this testimony given by our martyrs today, and with this
joyful certainty, I offer a cordial and fraternal greeting to His Eminence
Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch, His
Grace David Moxon, the personal representative in Rome of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and all the representatives of the various Churches and Ecclesial
Communions gathered here to celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of Saint
Paul.
Pope Francis to ecumenical gathering
The
Catholic Infallibly Teaches:
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" (Matthew 25:41), 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, Cantate Domino (1441)
Since
Proselytism is Out of the Question, for Pope Francis the “Common Good” and the
“Best Solution for Everyone” does not include their salvation!
Dialogue is not negotiating in order to try and get one’s piece of the
cake. Dialogue is to seek the common good, for everyone; it is to discuss
together and think of the best solutions for everyone.
Pope Francis, defining "dialogue" to the Italian Episcopal
Conference (CEI)
Purgation
Now with Merit, or Purgatory Later Without
When I look to God, I see no gate to Paradise, and yet he who wishes to
enter there does so, because God is all mercy.
God stands before us with open arms to receive us into His glory. But well I see the divine essence to be of
such purity, far greater than can be imagined, that the soul in which there is
even the least note of imperfection would rather cast itself into a thousand
Hells than find itself thus stained in the presence of the Divine Majesty. Therefore the soul, understanding that
Purgatory had been ordained to take away those stains, casts itself therein,
and seems to itself to have found great mercy in that it can rid itself there
of the impediment that is the stain of sin.
No tongue can tell nor explain, no mind understand, the grievousness of
Purgatory. But although I see that there
is in Purgatory as much pain as in Hell, I yet see the soul that has the least
stain of imperfection accepting Purgatory as though it were a mercy, as I have
said, and holding its pains of no account as compared with the least stain that
hinders a soul in its love. I seem to
see that the pain that souls in Purgatory endure because of that in them which
displeases God (that is, what they have willfully done against His great
goodness) is greater than any other pain they feel in Purgatory. And this is because they see the truth and
the grievousness of the hindrance that prevents them from drawing near to God,
since they are in grace.
St. Catherine of Genoa, Purgation
and Purgatory
Irate
with Pope Francis? Worry about it if you are not!
Only the person who becomes irate without reason, sins. Whoever becomes
irate for a just reason is not guilty. Because, if ire were lacking, the
science of God would not progress, judgments would not be sound, and crimes
would not be repressed. Further, the person who does not become irate when he
has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many
vices: it fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all
the good, to do wrong. St. John
Chrysostom, Homily
Ire may be understood in two ways. In one way, as a simple movement of
the will that inflicts punishment not through passion, but by virtue of a
judgment of the reason: and in this case, without a doubt, lack of ire is a
sin. This is how Chrysostom understands ire when he says: “Ire, when it has a
cause, is not ire but judgment. For properly speaking, ire is a movement of
passion. And when a man is irate with just cause, his ire does not derive from
passion. Rather, it is an act of judgment, not of ire.”
In another way, ire can be understood as a movement of the sensitive
appetite agitated by passion with bodily excitation. This movement is a
necessary sequel in man to the previous movement of his will, since the lower
appetite naturally follows the movement of the higher appetite unless some
obstacle prevents it. Hence the movement of ire in the sensitive appetite
cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will is altogether
lacking or weak. Consequently, the lack of the passion of ire is also a vice,
as it is the lack of movement in the will to punish according to the judgment
of reason.
St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae
Pope
Francis has denied his faith and the duty of his office. Dialogue, whose
purpose is to end at opinion, without Proselytism cannot dissolve the essential
difference between heretics and Catholics. Ultimately, that essential
difference will result, as Father Abraham said, "And besides all this,
between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass
from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither."
Luke
16:26
Question from a young girl: Eighty
percent of locals do not belong to any Christian denomination. Should I
convince these friends, who are good and happy people, of my faith?
Pope Francis Reply: It's not licit
to convince someone of your faith. Proselytism is the strongest venom against
the path of ecumenism. The Apostle Paul tells us that, by virtue of our
baptism, we all form the one Body of Christ. The different members, in fact,
are one body. This is why we belong to each other and when one suffers, all
suffer, when one rejoices, all rejoice. Let us continue with confidence on our
ecumenical journey, because we know that, beyond the many open questions that
still separate us, we are already united. What unites us is much more than what
divides us.
Pope Francis, October 13, 2016, to a group of Lutherans in Rome
Virtue cannot grow in the company of vice. If the one is to flourish,
the other must perish. Clear away, then, what is superfluous and vicious, and
that which is wholesome and virtuous will at once spring up. Whatever you
withhold from your lusts will turn to the profit and advantage of your
spiritual life. Therefore let us take heed to cut down by a diligent self-examination
the noxious growth of, faults, vices, and defects, if we wish to see the
flowers of every virtue bloom forth in the garden of our souls.
St. Bernard
Super
Bowl metaphysics: This is about as good as it gets for a modern Jesuit
formation!
Great sporting events like today’s Super Bowl are highly symbolic,
showing that it is possible to build a culture of encounter and a world of
peace. May this year’s Super Bowl be a sign of peace, friendship and solidarity
to the world.
Pope Francis, addressing the Super Bowl audience
FOR NOTHING
DEFILED CAN ENTER HEAVEN. APOCOLYPSE 21:27
What the Novus
Ordites have to look forward to!
On the contrary,
Augustine says (Ep. ad Casulan. xxxvi):
“The customs of God’s people and the institutions of our ancestors are to be
considered as laws. And those who throw contempt on the customs of the Church
ought to be punished as those who disobey the law of God.”
St. Thomas, quoting St. Augustine
Traditional
Catholic Faithful - ‘Rebels without a Pause’
Another
vindictive sermon by Pope Francis in which he again maligns those Catholics who
know “Absolute Truth” who are faithful to dogmatic truth and necessary
ecclesiastical traditions as “idolaters,” committing the sin of “divination,”
and “obstinate rebels”! The charges again are gratuitously offered without
evidence which is, by definition, the sin of calumny. Whatever spirit possesses
Francis cannot be from God!
Pope Francis:
obstinate Christians are rebels and idolaters
Vatican Radio | Homilies | January 16, 2015
Christians who say “it’s always been done
that way,” and stop there have hearts closed to the surprises of the Holy
Spirit. They are idolaters and rebels will never arrive at the fullness of the
truth. That was the message of Pope Francis at Mass on Monday morning at the
chapel in the Casa Santa Marta.
In the first reading, Saul was rejected by
God as King of Israel because he disobeyed, preferring to listen to the people
rather than the will of God. The people, after a victory in battle, wanted to
offer a sacrifice of the best animals to God, because, he said, “it’s always
been done that way.” But God, this time, did not want that. The prophet Samuel
rebuked Saul: “Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in
obedience to the command of the Lord?” Jesus teaches us the same thing in the
Gospel, the Pope explained. When the doctors of the law criticized Him because
His disciples did not fast “as had always been done,” Jesus responded with
these examples from daily life: “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an
old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the
tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise,
the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
“What does this mean? That He changes the
law? No! That the law is at the service of man, who is at the service of God –
and so man ought to have an open heart. ‘It’s always been done this way’ is a
closed heart, and Jesus tells us, ‘I will send you the Holy Spirit and He will
lead you into the fullness of truth.’ If you have a heart closed to the newness
of the Spirit, you will never reach the full truth. And your Christian life
will be a half-and-half life, a patched life, mended with new things, but on a
structure that is not open to the voice of the Lord—a closed heart, so that you
are not able to change the wineskins.”
This, the Pope emphasized, was the sin of
Saul, for which he was rejected by God. “It is the sin of so many Christians
who cling to what has always been done and who do not change the wineskins. And
they end up with half a life, [a life that is] patched, mended, meaningless.”
The sin, he said, “is a closed heart,” that “does not hear the voice of the
Lord, that is not open to the newness of the Lord, to the Spirit that always
surprises us.” This rebellion, says Samuel, is “the sin of divination,” and
obstinacy is the sin of idolatry:
“Christians who obstinately maintain ‘it’s always been done this way,'
this is the path, this is the street—they sin: the sin of divination. It’s as
if they went about by guessing: ‘What has been said and what doesn’t change is
what’s important; what I hear—from myself and my closed heart—more than the
Word of the Lord.’ Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is
obstinate sins! The sin of idolatry. ‘And what is the way, Father?’ Open the
heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God.”
Pope Francis noted that in Jesus’ time,
good Israelites were in the habit of fasting. “But there is another reality,”
he said. “There is the Holy Spirit who leads us into the full truth. And for
this reason he needs an open heart, a heart that will not stubbornly remain in
the sin of idolatry of oneself,” imagining that my own opinion is more
important than the surprise of the Holy Spirit.
“This is the message the Church gives us
today. This is what Jesus says so forcefully: ‘New wine in new wineskins.’
Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the surprises of God.
May the Lord grant us the grace of an open heart, of a heart open to the voice
of the Spirit, which knows how to discern what should not change, because it is
fundamental, from what should change in order to be able to receive the newness
of the Spirit.”
Remember in your charity the following pray requests:
Please remember our expectant mother: Vanessa LoStrocco, Kelly Boyle, and Andrea Ebert,
The spiritual welfare of Br. Paul Mary, MICM,
For Kay
Levitt, who is ill,
Fr. John
Murphy,
for his spiritual and physical welfare, and Fr. Joseph Collins,
Charles
Muldowney, who is terminally ill,
Luis Rafael
Zelaya,
for his conversion,
For the health of Kim Cochran, the daughter-in-law of Joseph and Brenda
Cochran, the wife of their son Joshua,
Louie
Verrecchio,
Catholic apologist, who has a health problem,
John
Minidis, Jr. family, for help in their spiritual
trial,
John and Joann DeMarco, for their health and
spiritual welfare,
Regina
(Manidis) Miller, her spiritual welfare and health,
Melissa
Elena Levitt, her health and conversion, and welfare of her children,
For the spiritual and temporal welfare of Irwin Kwiat,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for Elvira Donahy, who is recovering from a stroke,
Kimberly
Ann,
the daughter of John and Joann DeMarco, for her health and spiritual welfare,
Mufide
Rende,
a traditional Catholic from India has asked our prayers for her welfare,
Mary and
Bill Glatz,
the welfare of their family,
Barbara
Harmon,
who is gravely ill, and still cares for her
ailing parents,
For the health and welfare of Kolinsky and Sorace families,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for the health and
spiritual welfare of Brian Abramowitz,
Thomas
Schiltz family, in grateful appreciation for their contribution to the beauty of our
chapel,
Welfare of Bishop
Richard Williamson, for strength and courage in the greater battles to
come,
Angelina
Montesano family & Helen Snyder, for their health and spiritual welfare,
Michael J.
Brigg & his family, who have helped with the needs of the Mission,
The conversion of David Keithley and the welfare of the Nathaniel Miller family,
are the petitions of Gene Peters,
For the conversion of Ben & Tina Boettcher family, Karin Fraessdorf, Eckhard Ebert,
and Fahnauer family,
Fr. Waters requests our prayers for Br. Rene, SSPX who has been ill,
and for Fr. Thomas Blute,
For the health and welfare of Kathryn Lederhos, the aunt of David Drew,
For the welfare of Fr. Paul DaDamio and Fr. William T. Welsh,
The Drew’s ask our prayers for the welfare of Joe & Tracy Sentmanat family, Keith
& Robert Drew, Christy Koziol & her children, Fred Nesbit and Michael
Nesbit families, and Gene Peters Family,
the John Manidis Jr. Family, the Sal Messinio Family, Michael Proctor Family,
Ryan Boyle grandmother, Jane Boyle, who is failing health,
Ebert’s request our prayers for the Andreas & Jenna Ortner Family,
Joyce Paglia has asked prayers for George Richard Moore Sr. & his
children, and her brother, George
Panell,
For the welfare of Anthony & Joyce Paglia, who are responsible for the
beautiful statuary in our chapel,
Philip Thees asks our prayers for his family, for McLaughlin Family, the
conversion of Bruce Heller, &, the welfare and conversion of Dan & Polly Weand, the
conversion of Sophia Herman,
Tony Rosky, the welfare Nancy Erdeck, the wife of
the late Deacon Erdeck, and
the health of his brother, Thomas
Thees, John Calasanctis, Tony Rosky, Anthony, and Stephanie Mest.
Pray for the
Repose of the Souls:
Kay Levitt, friend of Claudia Drew, who died January 17,
Nancy Balenasse, wife of Anthony, married 73 years, died December 22,
Alfred de Prospero, the brother of Fr. Nicholas de Prospero, died November
29,
Adeline Nardi, died November 13,
Janet Gardner, died March 2017, and Carl Ropeter who died in 2017, Stephen Cagorski, died 2014, John Bogda, died who
2017,
Rev. Paul Petko, who helped with our Mission in the past, died October
21,
Auxiliadora de Gomez, died July 4, the Godmother and aunt of Claudia Drew,
and her husband, Eduardo Gomez Lopez,
February 28,
Lawrence Hartzer, died June 11,
Sandra Peters, the wife of Gene Peters, who died June 10 receiving
the sacraments and wearing our Lady’s scapular,
Rev. Francis Slupski, a priest who kept the Catholic faith and its
immemorial traditions, died May 14,
John and Marlin Manidis, died July 2017,
Joseph and Constance Brown, died 2017,
Martha Mochan, the sister of Philip Thees, died April 8,
George Kirsch, our good friend and supporter of this Mission, died
February 15,
Elena Popadenic, for the blessed repose of her soul,
For
Fr. Paul J. Theisz, died
October 17, is the petition of Fr. Waters,
Fr. Mecurio Fregapane, died Jan 17, was not a traditional priest but always
charitable,
Fr. Casimir Peterson, a priest who often offered the Mass in our chapel and
provided us with sound advice, died December 4,
Fr. Constantine Bellasarius, a faithful and always charitable Eastern Rite Catholic
Melkite priest, who left the Roman rite, died November 27,
Christian Villegas, a motor vehicle accident, his brother, Michael,
requests our prayers,
John Vennari, the former editor of Catholic Family News, and for
his family’s welfare,
Mary Butler, the aunt of Fr. Samuel Waters, died October 17,
Joseph DeMarco, the nephew of John DeMarco, died October 3,
John Fergale, died
September 25 after receiving the traditional sacramental rites of the Church
wearing the brown scapular,
John Gabor, the brother of Donna Marbach, died September 9,
Fr. Eugene Dougherty, a faithful priest, fittingly died on the Nativity of
the BVM after receiving the traditional Catholic sacraments,
Phyllis Schlafly, died September 5,
Helen Mackewicz, died August 14,
Mark A. Wonderlin, who died August 2,
Fr. Carl Cebollero, a faithful priest to tradition who was a friend of
Fr. Waters and Fr. DeMaio,
Jessica Cortes, a young mother of ten who died June 12,
Frances Toriello, a life-long Catholic faithful to tradition, died
June3, the feast of the Sacred Heart, and her husband Dan, died in 1985,
John McLaughlin, a friend of the Drew’s, died May 22,
Angela Montesano, who died April 30, and her husband, Salvatore, who died in July 3, 2013,
Charles
Schultz, died April 5, left behind nine children and many grandchildren, all
traditional Catholics,
Esperanza
Lopez de Callejas, the aunt of Claudia Drew, died March 15,
Fr.
Edgardo Suelo, a faithful priest defending our traditions who was working with Fr.
Francois Chazal in the Philippines, died February 19,
Conde
McGinley,
a long time laborer for the traditional faith, died February 12, at 96 years,
The Drew family requests your prayers for Ida
Fernandez and Rita Kelley, parishioners at St. Jude,
Fr. Stephen Somerville, a traditional priest who repented from his work with
the Novus Ordo English translation, died December 12,
Fr. Arturo DeMaio, a priest that helped this Mission with the
sacraments and his invaluable advice, died December 2,
J. Paul Carswell, died October 15, 2015,
Solange Hertz, a great defender of our Catholic faith, died October
3, the First Saturday of the month,
Paula Haigh, died October 21, a great defender of our Catholic
faith in philosophy and natural science,
Gabriella Whalin, the mother of Gabriella Schiltz, who died August 25,
Mary Catherine Sick, 14 year old from a large traditional Catholic
family, died August 25,
Fr. Paul Trinchard, a traditional Catholic priest, died August 25,
Stephen J. Melnick, Jr., died on August 21, a long-time faithful traditional
Catholic husband and father, from Philadelphia,
Patricia Estrada, died July 29, her son Alex petitions our prayers for
her soul,
Fr. Nicholas Gruner, a devoted priest & faithful defender of Blessed
Virgin Mary and her Fatima message, died April 29,
Sarah E. Shindle, the grandmother of Richard Shindle, died April 26,
Madeline Vennari, the mother of John Vennari, died December 19,
Salvador Baca Callejas, the uncle of Claudia Drew, died December 13,
Robert Gomez, who died in a motor vehicle accident November 29,
Catherine Dunn, died September 15,
Anthony Fraser, the son of Hamish Fraser, died August 28,
Jeannette Rhoad, the grandmother of Devin Rhoad, who died August 24,
John Thees, the uncle of Philip Thees, died August 9,
Sarah Harkins, 32 year-old mother of four children, died July 28,
Anita Lopez, the aunt of Claudia Drew,
Fr. Kenneth Walker, a young traditional priest of the FSSP who was
murdered in Phoenix June 11,
Fr.
Waters petitions our prayers for Gilberte
Violette, the mother of Fr. Violette, who died May 6,
Pete
Hays petitions our prayers for his brothers, Michael, died May 9, and James, died October 20, his sister, Rebecca, died
March17, and his mother, Lorraine
Hayes who died May 4,
Philip Marbach, the father of Paul Marbach who was the coordinator
at St. Jude in Philadelphia, died April 21,
Richard Slaughtery, the elderly sacristan for the SSPX chapel in Kansas
City, died April 13,
Bernedette Marie Evans nee Toriello, the daughter of Daniel Toriello , died March 31, a
faithful Catholic who suffered many years with MS,
Natalie Cagorski, died march 23,
Anita Lopez de Lacayo, the aunt of Claudia Drew, who died March 21,
Mario Palmaro, Catholic lawyer, bioethicist and professor, apologist,
died March 9, welfare of his widow and children,
Daniel Boyle, the uncle of Ryan Boyle, died March 4,
Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died on January 25,
Arthur Harmon, died January 18,
Fr.
Waters petitions our prayers for the soul of Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died January 17,
Joseph Proctor, died January 10,
Susan Scott, a devote traditional Catholic who made the vestments
for our Infant of Prague statue, died January 8,
Brother Leonard Mary, M.I.C.M., (Fred
Farrell), an early supporter and
friend of Fr. Leonard Feeney, died November 23,
John Fergale, requests our prayers for his sister Connie, who died
December 19,
Jim Capaldi, died December 15,
Brinton Creager, the son of Elizabeth Carpenter, died December
10,
Christopher Lussos, age 27, the father of one child with an expecting
wife, died November 15,
Jarett Ebeyer, 16 year old who died in his sleep, November 17, at
the request of the Kolinsky’s,
Catherine Nienaber, the mother of nine children, the youngest three
years of age, killed in MVA after Mass, 10-29,
Nancy Aldera, the sister of Frances Toriello, died October 11,
2013 at 105 years of age,
Mary Rita Schiltz, the mother of Thomas Schiltz, who died August 27,
William H. (Teddy) Kennedy, Catholic author of Lucifer’s Lodge, died August 14,
age 49, cause of death unknown,
Alfred Mercier, the father of David Mercier, who died August 12,
The
Robert Kolinsky asks our prayers for his friend, George Curilla, who died August 23,
John Cuono, who had attended Mass at our Mission in the past,
died August 11,
Raymond Peterson, died July 28, and Paul Peterson, died February 19, the brothers of Fr. Casimir
Peterson,
Margaret Brillhart, who died July 20,
Msgr. Joseph J. McDonnell, a priest from the diocese of Des Moines, who died
June 8,
Patrick Henry Omlor, who wrote Questioning
The Validity of the Masses using the New, All English Canon, and for a
series of newsletters which were published as The Robber Church, died May 2,
the feast of St Athanasius,
Bishop Joseph McFadden, died unexpectedly May 2,
Timothy Foley, the brother-in-law of Michelle Marbach Folley, who
died in April,
William Sanders, the uncle of Don Rhoad, who died April 2,
Gene
Peters ask our prayers for the repose of the soul of Mark Polaschek, who died March 22,
Cecelia Thees, died February 24,
Elizabeth Marie Gerads, a
nineteen year old, the oldest of twelve children, who died February 6,
Michael Schwartz, the co-author with Fr. Enrique Rueda of “Gays, Aids,
and You,” died February 3,
Stanley W. Moore, passed away in December 16, and Gerard (Jerry) R.
Pitman, who died January 19, who attended this Mission in the past,
Louis Fragale, who died December 25,
Fr. Luigi Villa, Th.D. author of Vatican II About Face! detailing the heresies
of Vatican II, died November 18 at the age of 95,
Rev. Michael Jarecki, a faithful traditional Catholic priest who died
October 22,and Rev. Hector Bolduc, who died September 10,
Jennie Salaneck, died September 19 at 95 years of age, a devout and
faithful Catholic all her life,
Dorothy Sabo, who died September 26,
Cynthia (Cindy) Montesano Reinhert, the mother of nine children, four who are still at
home, died August 19,
Regina Spahalsky, who died June 24, and for the soul of Francis
Lester, her son,
Julia Atkinson, who died April 30,
Antonio P. Garcia, who died January 6, 2012 and the welfare of his
teenage children, Andriana and Quentin,
Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who died February 27,
Fr. Timothy A. Hopkins, of the National Shrine of St. Philomena, in Miami,
November 2,
Frank Smith, who died February 7, and the welfare of his wife,
Delores,
Eduardo Cepeda, who died January 26,
Larry Young, the 47 year old father of twelve who died December
10 and the welfare of his wife Katherine and their family,
Sister Mary Bernadette, M.I.C.M., a founding member of the Slaves of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, died December 16,
Joeseph Elias, who died on September 28,
William, the brother of Fr. Waters, who died September 7,
Donald Tonelli, died August 1,
Rev. Fr. Gregory Hesse, of Austria, a great defender of Catholic Truth, died
January 25, 2006,
Emma Colasanti, who died May 29,
Mary Dullesse, who died April 12, a Catholic convert who died
wearing our Lady’s scapular,
Ruth Jantsch, the grandmother of Andre Ebert, who died April 7,
Derrick and Denise Palengat, his godparents,
Philip D. Barr, died March 5, and the welfare of his family,
Judith Irene Kenealy, the mother of Joyce Paglia, who died February 23,
and her son, George Richard Moore, who died May 14,
For
Joe Sobran who died September
30,
Fr. Hector Bolduc, a great and faithful priest, died, September 10,
2012,
John
Vennari asks our prayers for Dr.
Raphael Waters who died August 26,
Stanley Bodalsky, the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June 25,
Mary Isabel Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and friend of the Drew’s, who
died June 6th,
Rev. John Campion, who offered the traditional Mass for us every first
Friday until forbidden to do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,
Joseph Montagne, who died
May 5,
For
Margaret Vagedes, the aunt of
Charles Zepeda, who died January 6,
Fr. James Francis Wather, died November 7, 2006, author of The Great Sacrilege and Who
Shall Ascend?, a great defender of dogma and liturgical purity,
Fr. Enrique Rueda, who died December 14, 2009, to whom our Mission is
indebted,
Fr.
Peterson asks to remember, Leonard
Edward Peterson, his cousin, Wanda,
Angelica Franquelli, and the six priests ordained with him.
Philip
Thees petitions our prayers for Beverly
Romanick, Deacon Michael Erdeck, Henry J. Phillips, Grace Prestano, Connie
DiMaggio, Elizabeth Thorhas, Elizabeth Thees, Theresa Feraker, Hellen Pestrock,
and James & Rose Gomata, and Kathleen
Heinbach,
Fr. Didier Bonneterre, the author of The Liturgical Movement, and Fr. John
Peek, both were traditional priests,
Brother Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary in Richmond, NH, who died September 5,
Rodolfo Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew, who died May 24,
Rev. Francis Clifford, a devout and humble traditional priest, who died on
March 7, priest, who died on March 7,
Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonya Kolinsky.
"Only take heed to
yourself and guard your soul diligently" (Deut 4:9)
“It is a sin to
believe there is salvation outside the Catholic Church!”
Blessed
Pope Pius IX
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Transplants far outnumber official donors. Prisoners of conscience
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Wall Street Journal | Benedict Rogers | Feb. 5, 2019
China stands accused of a gruesome trade in
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Even so, the evidence supports a damning verdict.
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transplants. […….]
At
last Pope Francis and this Mission have found common ground where we are in
complete agreement: Francis says his
heretical "document did not go one millimeter beyond the Second Vatican
Council" and it was done "in the spirit of Vatican II."
Papal
theologian never saw final draft of controversial doc with Muslims, contrary to
Pope’s claims
LifeSiteNews | ROME | February 7, 2019 — Informed sources have
confirmed that the papal theologian, Dominican Father Wojciech 
Giertych, was
consulted but did not see the final draft of the
controversial “Document on
Human Fraternity” that Pope Francis signed this week with a Grand
Imam.
The news, reported by the National Catholic Register
on Wednesday, runs contrary to Pope Francis’s claim that the papal
theologian “officially” read and “approved” the document, which even some
within the Vatican are calling “heretical.”
The Pope came under
fire early this week for signing the “Document on Human Fraternity for World
Peace and Living Together” with Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar Mosque, during
an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 4.
The document incited controversy among Christians for
asserting that “the pluralism and the diversity of religions” are “willed
by God in His wisdom” – a statement many believe contravenes the Catholic
Faith.
While some have sought to downplay the controversial
passage, saying it must be read in context, one Dominican has argued that “in
its obvious sense [the statement] is false, and in fact heretical.” A respected
Catholic historian has also said it “overturns” the Gospel.”
Who approved it?
During an in-flight press
conference on his return from Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis sought to allay concerns over
the document, telling reporters: “I want to say one thing
and repeat it clearly: from the Catholic point of view, the document did not go
one millimeter beyond the Second Vatican Council. It’s even cited there several
times. Nothing. The document was done in the spirit of Vatican II.”
The Pope continued: “Before taking the decision” to
finalize the document, “I had some theologians read it, and
also officially the Theologian of the Papal Household, who is a
Dominican with the beautiful Dominican tradition — not to go on a witch hunt
but to see where the right thing is. And he approved it.”
The current Theologian of the
Papal Household, Father Wojciech Giertych, O.P., was appointed by
Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. The post, which has been held by Dominicans
since the Middle Ages, is tasked with providing advice to the Pope on
theological issues, as well as checking papal texts for theological clarity.
In light of news that Fr. Giertych never saw the final
draft, several questions arise: Who are the other “theologians” who read and
counselled the Pope the document? Was the papal theologian’s advice
heeded, and if so, to what extent? And if he did not see and approve the final
draft, who did?
On his return from Abu Dhabi, Pope
Francis said the document
“was prepared with much reflection and prayer,” adding that “both the Grand
Imam with his team, and me with mine, prayed a lot in order to make this
document.” He added that it took almost a year to write. “It needed to
ripen, to remain somewhat confidential,” he said, “so as not to give birth to
the child before the proper time.”
Pope Francis told
reporters that “if someone feels bad” about the document, he
“understand[s].”
“It’s not an everyday thing, and it’s not a step
backwards. It’s a step forward that comes from 50 years ago, from the Council
that must unfold and develop. Historians say that it takes 100 years for a
Council to take root in the Church. We’re halfway there.”
The Pope said he can also understand how the
“Document on Human Fraternity” might seem shocking to some. “It happened to me,
too,” he said. “I read a sentence, and I said to myself: This sentence is a
little … I don’t know if it’s sure. Instead, it was a phrase from the Council!
It surprised me, too.”
This is not the first time Pope Francis has argued that
an apparently “new” (and what some consider heterodox) teaching is actually a
“development of doctrine.”
When he changed the Catechism of
the Catholic Church on the death penalty (n. 2267), Francis said the
new wording “expresses the progress of the doctrine of the most recent pontiffs
as well as the change in the conscience of the Christian people, which rejects
a penalty that seriously harms human dignity.”
And when Amoris Laetitia was presented at the Vatican, its
new teaching on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics was
described as an “organic development” in the spirit of Blessed John Henry
Newman.
Responding to the Pope’s in-flight remarks on his return
from Abu Dhabi, an anonymous Dominican told LifeSite: “With respect, the Pope
needs to remember that his duty is not to conform only to the
teaching of Vatican II, but also to that of all the councils.”
“Moreover,” the theologian added, “nothing in Vatican II
states that non-Catholic religions are willed by God, so when Pope Francis
tells us that nothing in his Document on Fraternity goes beyond
Vatican II, he is telling us something that is not true.”
The First Expulsion from the Temple
I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed:
she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. Genesis 3:15
Vatican II and
the Leap of Faith Facing the Hermeneutics of Continuity
1. ON CATHOLIC UNITY
Vatican II pastoral opinion:
And
we now ask: What does it mean to restore the unity of all Christians?... This
unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without
the possibility of ever being lost (Unitatis Redintegratio) the Church
in fact has not totally disappeared from the world. On the other hand, this
unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is,
to deny and to reject one’s own faith history. Absolutely not!
Pope Benedict XVI,
addressing Protestants at World Youth Day, August 19, 2005
Catholic Doctrine:
… the union of Christians can only be
promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of
those who are separated from it…
Pope
Pius XI, Mortalium Animos
2. ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Vatican II pastoral opinion:
The
Council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation
in the very dignity of the human person... This right to religious freedom is
to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed. Thus it
is to become a civil right.
Declaration
on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae
Catholic Doctrine:
And from this wholly false idea of social organization they do not fear to
foster that erroneous opinion, especially fatal to the Catholic Church
and the salvation of souls, called by our predecessor, Gregory XVI, insanity,
namely that the liberty of conscience and worship is the proper right of every
man, and should be proclaimed by law in every correctly established society...
Each and every doctrine individually mentioned in this letter, by Our Apostolic
authority We reject, proscribe and condemn; and We wish and command that
they be considered as absolutely rejected by all the sons of the Church.
Pope
Pius IX, Quanta Cura
3. ON SALVATION
Vatican II pastoral opinion:
The
separated churches and communities as such, though we believe they suffer from
the defects already mentioned, have been by no means deprived of significance
and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not
refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy
from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church.
Decree
on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio
Catholic Doctrine:
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...
Pope
Eugene IV, Council
of Florence
4. ON ACCOMODATION OF CATHOLIC TRUTH TO
THE WORLD
Vatican II pastoral opinion:
May the faithful,
therefore, live in very close union with the men of their time. Let them strive
to understand perfectly their way of thinking and feeling as expressed in their
culture. Let them blend modern science and its theories and the understanding
of the most recent discoveries with Christian morality and doctrine.... Thus
their religious practice and morality can keep pace with their scientific
knowledge and with an ever - advancing technology...
Decree on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes
Catholic Doctrine:
The Roman pontiff can and must reconcile himself with human progress,
with liberalism and with modern and human culture. – condemned.
Blessed Pope Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors
5. ON RELATIONS WITH FALSE RELIGIONS
Vatican II pastoral opinion:
Upon the Moslems, too, the Church looks with
esteem...They adore the one God...though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God
they revere Him as a prophet.... In addition they await the day of judgment
when God will give each man his due.... and give worship to God especially through
prayer, almsgiving and fasting.
Decree on the Relation
of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate
Catholic Doctrine:
...that false
opinion which considers all religions more or less good and praiseworthy... Not
only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in
distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little, turn
aside to naturalism and atheism...from which it clearly follows that one who
supports those who hold on these theories and attempt to realize them, is
altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion.
Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos
Bugnini
himself, then secretary to the Congregation of Divine Worship, was not spared.
He was a systematic person who programmed the liturgical reform and
courageously pushed its implementation against all opposition. I remember that in one of his visits to the
Pontifical Liturgical Institute he declared, “I am the liturgical reform!” In
more ways than one his self-assessment was correct. The postconciliar reform
would not have progressed with giant steps had it not been for his dauntless
spirit and tenacity.
Fr. Anscar
Chupungco OSB, former president of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome,
from his book, What, Then, Is Liturgy? Musings and Memoir
True piety admits no other rule than that whatsoever things
have been faithfully received from our fathers the same are to be faithfully
consigned to our children; and that it is our duty, not to lead religion whither
we would, but rather to follow religion whither it leads. (Ch. 6)……..
Such is the insanity of some men, such the impiety of their blinded
understanding, such, finally, their lust after error, that they will not be
content with the rule of faith delivered once and for all from antiquity, but
must daily seek after something new, and even newer still, and are always
longing to add something to religion, or to change it, or to subtract from it!
(Ch. 21)
St. Vincent of Lérins’s Commonitory
Matters have come to this pass: the people have left their houses of
prayer, and now assemble in the deserts – a pitiable sight; women and children,
old men, and men otherwise infirm, wretchedly faring in the open air, amid the
most profuse rains and snow-storms and winds and frosts of winter; and again in
summer under a scorching sun. To all this they submit, because they will
have no part in the wicked Arian leaven.
St. Basil the Great, Letter 242
An
“Astonishing… Extraordinary…. Innovation” and yet, “the same”! - Paul VI
This change has something astonishing about it, something
extraordinary. This is because the Mass is regarded as the traditional and
untouchable expression of our religious worship and the authenticity of our
faith. We ask ourselves, how could such a change be made? What effect will it
have on those who attend Holy Mass? Answers will be given to these questions,
and to others like them, arising from this innovation…….
It is not an arbitrary act. It is not a transitory or optional
experiment. It is not some dilettante’s improvisation. It is a law. It has been
thought out by authoritative experts of sacred Liturgy; it has been discussed
and meditated upon for a long time. We shall do well to accept it with joyful
interest and put it into practice punctually, unanimously and carefully.
This reform puts an end to uncertainties, to discussions, to arbitrary
abuses. It calls us back to that uniformity of rites and feeling proper to the
Catholic Church, the heir and continuation of that first Christian community,
which was all “one single heart and a single soul” (Acts 4:32). The choral
character of the Church’s prayer is one of the strengths of her unity and her
catholicity. The change about to be made must not break up that choral
character or disturb it. It ought to confirm it and make it resound with a new
spirit, the spirit of her youth. …..
The Mass of the new rite is and remains the same Mass we have always
had. If anything, its sameness has been brought out more clearly in some respects
(sic)….. So do not let us talk about “the new Mass.” Let us rather speak of the
"new epoch" in the Church's life.
Paul VI, general audience, Nov 19, 1969, Introducing the Bugnini Missal
of 1969
“This
novelty is no small thing… we are becoming like profane intruders in the
literary preserve of sacred utterance!” - Paul VI
We ask you to turn your minds once more to the liturgical innovation of
the new rite of the Mass…..
This change will affect the ceremonies of the Mass. We shall become
aware, perhaps with some feeling of annoyance, that the ceremonies at the altar
are no longer being carried out with the same words and gestures to which we
were accustomed—perhaps so much accustomed that we no longer took any notice of
them. This change also touches the faithful. It is intended to interest each
one of those present, to draw them out of their customary personal devotions or
their usual torpor.
We must prepare for this many-sided inconvenience. It is the kind of
upset caused by every novelty that breaks in on our habits. We shall notice
that pious persons are disturbed most, because they have their own respectable
way of hearing Mass, and they will feel shaken out of their usual thoughts and
obliged to follow those of others. Even priests may feel some annoyance in this
respect.
So what is to be done on this special and historical occasion? First of
all, we must prepare ourselves. This novelty is no small thing. We should not
let ourselves be surprised by the nature, or even the nuisance, of its exterior
forms…..
We are parting with the speech of the Christian centuries; we are
becoming like profane intruders in the literary preserve of sacred utterance.
We will lose a great part of that stupendous and incomparable artistic and
spiritual thing, the Gregorian chant.
We have reason indeed for regret, reason almost for bewilderment. What
can we put in the place of that language of the angels? We are giving up
something of priceless worth. But why? What is more precious than these
loftiest of our Church's values?
The answer will seem banal, prosaic…..
Paul VI, general audience, Nov 26, 1969, Introducing the Bugnini Missal
of 1969
Francis
the CEO of the HomoLobby endorses public sex-education that is “objective,
without ideological colonization” as an answer to the epidemic rate of unwed
teen pregnancies in Central America.
Jesus Christ replies, "It were better for him that a millstone were
hanged around his neck, and he were cast into the sea."
The Pope: “Sex
is a gift, we must talk about it also in schools”
Francis’ words
on the flight back from his trip to Panama: “We need an objective education,
without ideologies”
Scopri Top News | DOMENICO AGASSO JR | January 29, 2019
ABOARD THE PANAMA-ROME FLIGHT
Sex
is not a “monster” to escape from. It must not be a taboo. On the contrary, it
is “a gift from God”. And we need “sex education” in schools. But there is
more: it should not be “too rigid and closed”. In this way one can understand
its true value. These would not be unusual words, if it weren’t a Pope to
pronounce them. On the plane that took him back to Rome from Panama, where he
was in recent days for World Youth Day, Francis talked, among other things,
also about sex education.
And
of youth and sex the Pontiff reasoned during the traditional press conference
on the papal flight, responding to an American journalist who informed him of a
“problem common throughout Central America, including Panama and much of Latin
America: early pregnancies”. In Panama alone there were “ten thousand last
year”. The question is: “Detractors of the Catholic Church blame the Church for
opposing sex education in schools. What is the Pope’s opinion?”.
Francis
kept it cool, and with a serious and concentrated tone he started to express
his opinion on this issue. Never in his words will there be a position taken in
defense of his “fort”. Nor predictable prudent formulations for such a delicate
theme. That of Pope Francis is a Christian and concrete and human discourse.
They were innovative words, without wanting to undermine Catholic tradition and
teaching, as we would ultimately expect from Pope Francis.
He
said: “Sex education must be given in schools”. Specifying and underlining that
above all “sex is a gift from God”. And “it’s not a monster”. It is God’s gift
“to love”. Then – fully aware he added - that some people use it to earn money
or exploit is another problem”, yet it does not affect the innate purity of the
gift. Bergoglio substantiates his thesis - for many unexpected: we must offer
“sexual education” at school that is “objective, without ideological
colonization”. He is probably referring to the theories of gender, he has often
denounced as invasive dynamics, along with movements that can “destroy, making
everything the same”, without the ability to “tolerate differences”. Then he
adds and explains: “Because if sexual education is given in schools soaked in
ideological colonization, you destroy the person”. At the same time, sex
understood “as a gift from God must” be “taught” not with “rigidity”, or with
mental and ideological closure. By creating taboos, precisely. The Pope
specifies that “to educated, from the Latin “educere”. (to lead, to draw out,
ed.), is to bring out the best of the person and accompany him/her along the
way”. The Bishop of Rome warns: “The problem is the system”. He warns against
the risks that “those responsible for education, both at the national and local
levels, as well as in each school unit, may encounter”: in particular, the type
of “teachers” chosen for this task, and the “textbooks” that are adopted for
children and young people.
“I
- the Pope confides - have seen all sorts of them”, including some
inappropriate, “dirty”, he defines them. Because also and above all in this
area “there are things that make people mature and others that do harm”. What
matters to the Pope is that the schools open the doors to a true and proper
sexual education, to be transmitted first of all to the youngest. On the
contrary, the ideal would be to “start at home, with the parents”. But “it’s
not always possible because of the many family situations that can be
complicated”. Or because often fathers and mothers “do not know how to deal
with the subject”. Therefore, the school can and must “make up” for this, take
responsibility. “Otherwise - the Pope fears – it will remain a void that will
be filled by any potentially dangerous ideology”.
Transfer
of faithful Catholics to the jurisdictional control of Communists is well
underway by Francis the Destroyer. The
Communist Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is now the official
"Catholic Church" in China and its bishops never made any profession
of faith or renunciation of heresy.
Shantou’s two
bishops celebrate the “handover” together
The 88 year
old “emeritus” Pietro Zhuang, on his way to retirement, publicly manifests his
unity with the former excommunicated Joseph Huang, the new ordinary bishop of
the diocese. A sign of reconciliation stronger than any “political” reading of
the Chinese ecclesial affairs
Scopri Top News | GIANNI VALENTE | rome | January 23, 2019
The
Holy See’s much desired reconciliation between Chinese Catholic communities is
now tangible in the diocese of Shantou. In that ecclesiastical circumscription,
two bishops - the first until recently not-recognized by the government, and
the other with a past as “illegitimate” bishop, who has even been
excommunicated by the Holy See - participated in a public ceremony in a church
for the first time. Another step towards making decades of lacerating ecclesial
conflicts sink into oblivion.
The
protagonists of the event are 88-year-old Pietro Zhuang Jianjian and
52-year-old Giuseppe Huang Bingzhang. The first was ordained bishop of Shantou
in 2006 outside the procedures imposed by government religious policy. The
second, instead, in 2011 had accepted to be ordained bishop of the same diocese
without the consent of the Pope. For this reason, right after his ordination,
the Holy See had explicitly invoked the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae, which automatically
affects bishops ordained in an illegitimate manner.
During
the last phase of the negotiations that on 22 September last led to the
agreement between the Holy See and Beijing on the procedures for the
appointment of Chinese Catholic bishops, the Vatican negotiators, on behalf of
the Pope, had asked Bishop Zhuang to leave, at the age of 87, the leadership of
his diocese, in view of entrusting it to the younger Giuseppe Huang Bingzhang
(who in the meantime had expressed his repentance for having accepted to be
ordained without pontifical mandate). [....]
COMMENT:
Jesus
said Himself at the Last Supper, "This is the chalice of My Blood, of the
New and Eternal Testament." He had previously said to the Jews, "You
shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in
your sin. (John 8:24) and, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be
saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned." (Mark 16:16)
St.
Peter preaching to the Jews after the first Pentecost declared to them: "Therefore let all the house of
Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same
Jesus, whom you have crucified. Now when they had heard these things, they had
compunction in their heart, and said to Peter, and to the rest of the apostles:
What shall we do, men and brethren? But Peter said to them: Do penance, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
to you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, whomsoever the Lord
our God shall call. And with very many other words did he testify and exhort
them, saying: Save yourselves from this perverse generation. They therefore that
received his word, were baptized; and there were added in that day about three
thousand souls." (Acts 2: 36-41)
The Old Testament
is over and done and this was done by God and manifested to all in the
destruction of Temple in 72 AD. The Old
Testament religion is dead and gone.
There is no priesthood, no temple, no sacrifice for all these were types
of the New Testament to come established in the Blood of Jesus Christ, the
eternal High Priest. The Jewish religion
today is Talmudism. Their present day
Messiah is Zionism and this Messiah can only lead them to the same end as all
their previous false Messiahs have invariably done.
What is worse
about these "dialogues" is that they presupposes that Catholics are
responsible for the historical cases of Jewish persecution. It never address what the Jews did to provoke
these persecutions. Jews today support
abortion, divorce, pornography, sex education, homosexuality, homosexual
"marriage," gender ideology, modern psychology, Hollywood
entertainment, usury, Zionism that is a racially base theology, unjust wars in
the Middle-East, etc. It is these types
of acts that are historically responsible for engendering Jewish
persecution.
Jewish
"dialogue" has no interest in hearing about Jesus Christ. They are only interested that the Catholic
Church legitimize the salvific validity of the Old Testament, take
responsibility of historical Jewish persecutions, and declare the legitimacy of
Zionism as their new Messiah. All of
this is impossible for any faithful Catholic.
The failure to preach Jesus Christ to the Jews as St. Peter did is a
grave sin against charity.
Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI and German Rabbinical Exponents quietly engage in unofficial
discussions
Behind the
Scenes Vatican Meetings on the Theology of Jewish-Christian Relations
Vatican Insider | Lisa Palmieri-Billig | 1-29-2019
It
has often been noted by those engaged in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue that the
most precious outcome of the conciliation process begun after the promulgation in
1965 of the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, 4 has been the
enduring personal friendships between members and representatives of the two
faiths and the consequent increase in mutual understanding and breakdown of
historically determined preconceptions. In other words, the building of mutual
trust and familiarity with the other’s beliefs and traditions, is greatly
boosted by the personal encounter. [....]
Earlier
this month there was a quiet, behind-the-scenes visit to the Vatican’s
Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Jews by a group of five
German speaking rabbis led by Vienna’s Chief Rabbi Arie Folger, which
culminated in a personal meeting and talk with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
[.....] The venture was the result of the Pope Emeritus’ provocative personal
reflections on Catholic-Jewish relations published by the German Catholic
review “Communio” last June. [.....]
The
points under discussion seemed to require further clarification and so a
personal encounter was arranged at the Pontifical Commission for Rabbi Folger
and 4 other rabbis from Germany. [....]
“There
were words of both gratitude and friendship”, said Rabbi Folger of both
meetings, “as well as profound discussions and even some disagreements, but
most importantly a commitment was made to continue talking to and with one
another, especially when we disagree.”
Cardinal
Koch, said Folger, stressed that there had clearly been no intention of
creating a setback in Christian-Jewish relations. Folger explained that he
understood that each faith community had “its own understanding of the proper
path to salvation, and just as we cannot be expected to confirm Christian
theology, so too we cannot expect the church to confirm Jewish theology. However, while our
interlocutors deny the legitimacy of “Supersessionism” or “Replacement
Theology” (which posits that Christianity is the New Israel and that the
Covenant with Jews has been abrogated because of Jewish refusal to recognize
Christ), and dispute the existence of such theology in mainstream Catholic
teaching, they fail to emphasize that it has long been and still is prevalent
among many of the faithful of Catholicism and Protestantism, and that it has
produced hatred, contempt, and been at the cause of real suffering, including very
bloody massacres throughout nineteen hundred years of enmity. We hold that the
Lord’s covenant with the Jewish people has not only never been abrogated by
Him, nor “superseded”, but as a Divine Covenant, cannot be abrogated by man,
either.
“Benedict posits that
Substitution Theology is ‘bad theology’ from a Catholic perspective, and has
also explicitly confirmed that Catholics are not called to missionize Jews, for
which we are grateful. In our conversations, they also explicitly recognized
that Supersessionism - despite being a wrong theology - was once widespread
among Catholics. What we respectfully requested of our interlocutors was that
they publish and underline this last point”.
Both the Pope Emeritus and
Cardinal Koch expressed a desire for further theological dialogue specifying
that the aim is better mutual understanding, not persuasion. The German rabbis
replied that while there was more willingness to engage in theological dialogue
today than in the past, it is nonetheless limited. Orthodox Jews see no reason
to engage in Christological discussion, “specifically proscribed by our revered
Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik.”
Among the new issues that might
be considered for discussion, according to Rabbi Folger, “there is now a
readiness on both sides to meet and hold a theological discussion regarding the
’Return to Zion’ and the establishment of the State of Israel, while obviously
maintaining safeguards against the meddling of one faith community into another
faith community’s beliefs. We meet as brothers, i.e. as equals, respecting our
unbridgeable differences while highlighting our commonalities.”
“The
Church already acknowledges that the State of Israel has religious significance
for Jews and that Jews have a right to self determination. However, in response
to some statements made by the Pope Emeritus in his essay, we stressed that it
is not reasonable to seek a theological interpretation for the destruction of
the Second Temple of Jerusalem and the subsequent dispersion of the Jewish
people which created the Diaspora, while simultaneously maintaining that the
Return to Zion and the establishment of the State of Israel is a purely secular
matter.”
The
five German rabbis also met with Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni for
consultation before the Vatican meetings, but he did not join them since they
were conducted exclusively in the German language (“making for easier
communication”, as Rabbi Folger has noted).
Why
is John Henry Cardinal Newman regarded by Modernists as their Spiritual Father?
– Because he was! So why do
“Conservative Catholics” admire Newman?
Because he explained how dogma can be discarded.
“Dr. Newman is the most dangerous man in England. And you will see that
he will make use of the laity against your Grace. You must not be afraid of
him. It will require much prudence, but you must be firm, as the Holy father
sill places his confidence in you; but if you yield and do not fight the battle
of the Holy See against the detestable spirit growing up in England, he will begin
to regret Cardinal Wiseman, who knew how to keep the laity in order.”
Msgr. George Talbot, Papal Chamberlain, Letter to Cardinal Henry Edward
Manning, after Pope Pius IX suppressed a plan for Dr. John Henry Newman going
to Oxford to establish an inter-faith oratory.
An English Catholicism, of which Newman is the highest type, is the old
Anglican, patristic, literary, Oxford tone transplanted into the Church... In
one word, it is a worldly Catholicism, and it will have the worldly on its side,
and will deceive many.
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, on Dr. John Henry Cardinal Newman
Another influential writer during the last century was Lord Acton (Sir
John Dalberg), who was famous for his critical historicism and also renowned
for his friendship with (Rev. Johann von) Dollinger (a Munich priest and
professor at the University, excommunicated for rejecting the dogma of papal
infallibility). Acton was almost excommunicated, as Dollinger was, but managed
to maintain the appearance of orthodoxy and remain in the Church. As liberal as
Lord Acton was, and although he sided with Newman in fighting the dogma of
Infallibility, he came to the same conclusion as (Cardianl Henry Edward)
Manning regarding Newman’s heterodox position. In a letter written by Acton a
few weeks before Manning’s death, after mentioning the ‘personal aversion to
Manning’ displayed by Newman he said, “Many will wonder how anybody who saw
much of him (Newman) could remain a Catholic — assuming that Newman really was
one.” Acton, although an ally of Newman in editing the liberal journal The
Rambler, was not baffled by Newman’s prosaic tact. Acton went much further than
Manning in his strictures on his old ally. He described Newman as “a sophist,
the manipulator and not the servant of truth.” When men of diametrically
opposed beliefs, as Acton and Manning, agree in their judgment of another man
whom they so well knew, the assumption that they are not both in error is not
unreasonable.
John Edward Courtenay Bodley, On Cardinal John Henry Newman
The American Novus Ordo Church
has lost every cultural battle since Vatican II to defend the moral order. Why? They "know neither Jesus Christ
& the Catholic Faith nor the enemy that seeks to destroy it."
If you know the enemy
and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for
every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"Those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven
disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful
souls."
Pope Francis the Vanishing, quoted by Eugenio Scalfari in a private
interview
ON
THE FEWNESS OF THOSE WHO FIND SALVATION
Only a few will be saved; only few will go to Heaven. The greater part of mankind will be lost
forever.
St. John Neumann
There are a select few who are saved.
St. Thomas Aquinas
The number of the Elect is so small - so small - that, were we to know
how small it is, we would faint away with grief. One here and there, scattered up and down the
world!
St. Louis Marie de Montfort
I tremble when I see how many souls are lost these days. They fall into Hell like leaves from the
trees at the approach of winter.
St. John Mary Vianney
So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few
are saved!
St. Philip Neri
How narrow is the gate and how strait the way that leads to life, and
few there are who find it.
Jesus Christ, Mt. 7, 13-14
"For
there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall shew signs
and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect." Mark 13:22
Apparently,
They Think We are Fools, By Christopher A. Ferrara
Beware of
“moral theologians” in pastel blue...
As Pope Francis continues his long
tirade against the imaginary Catholic Pharisees who defend the Church’s
teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and the integrally related
Eucharistic discipline, he and his collaborators are busily engineering
neo-Pharisaical escape hatches from the negative precepts of the divine and
natural law emanating from the Sixth Commandment.
Determined to quell any Catholic
opposition to his moral subversion, Francis has slapped the label Authentic
Magisterium® on his outrageous opinion that in “complex circumstances” wherein
it is not “feasible” to live as brother and sister, two people who are not
married can be admitted to Holy Communion without ceasing extra-marital sexual
relations so long as they engage in an ill-defined “process of
discernment.” As Father Brian Harrison has so trenchantly observed, this
means that people embroiled in adultery can receive Holy Communion while they
“discern” that they should not be receiving Holy Communion because they are
embroiled in adultery.
Do they think we are fools?
Then there is the endlessly
double-talking Cardinal Müller. In a recent interview concerning Rocco
Buttiglione’s verbal contortions aimed at demonstrating that the administration
of Holy Communion to public adulterers is consistent with the Church’s
bi-millennial prohibition of precisely that, Müller proposed this preposterous
“solution” to a “problem” that does not exist:
It is possible that the penitent may be convinced in
conscience, and with good reasons, of the invalidity of the first marriage even
though they cannot offer canonical proof. In this case the marriage valid
before God would be the second one and the pastor could grant the sacrament,
certainly with the appropriate precautions as not to scandalize the community
of the faithful and not to weaken the conviction of marriage indissolubility.
The Cardinal knows this is moral
and canonical nonsense. No Catholic, whether or not he consults a priest, can
declare for himself that his marriage in the Church was invalid, especially
when—indeed because—he lacks canonical proof of invalidity. Moreover,
absent an annulment granted by the competent Church tribunal, a purported
“second marriage” can only be an invalid civil ceremony and thus a thinly
disguised form of continuous public adultery. Cardinal Burke, whom Francis
sacked as head of the Church’s highest tribunal because he was a major
impediment to the conspiracy culminating in Amoris Laetitia (AL), has observed
the obvious in this regard:
Such cases do not exist. No priest has the authority to
declare a marriage null in the internal forum. Marriage is a public state in
the Church, and the judgment regarding an accusation of nullity of marriage
must be made in accord with the long practice of the Church. If a college of
judges in a matrimonial tribunal is not able to arrive at moral certitude
regarding the nullity of a marriage after a careful and thorough examination of
the petition of nullity, how can an individual priest be capable of making such
a judgment having to do with the eternal salvation of the soul in question?
The only case in which a priest could admit a person living
in an irregular matrimonial union to receive the Sacraments of Penance and Holy
Eucharist is the case of a couple who agree to live “as brother and sister”,
that is to respect the marriage to which they are bound by not living in a
marital way with another person. Even then, the priest would have to insist
that the couple living in continence receive the Sacraments in a place in which
they are not well known, lest other faithful be led to believe that persons
living in an irregular matrimonial union may receive the Sacraments.
Does Cardinal Müller think we are
fools? Some of us apparently are, or at least are willing to serve as
knowing dupes by defending neo-Pharisaical sophistry that would produce “a
discipline alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith.”
Apparently, they think they can
fool us in the next phase of the program of moral subversion that this
incredible Pope seriously expects us to believe is an imperative of “mercy”:
the justification of contraception in “complex cases” to which “discernment”
must be applied. Consider the recent declaration by one of Francis' new
appointments to the Pontifical Academy for Life, whose entire membership he
sacked and whose constitution he ordered rewritten to neutralize it. In a lecture
at the Gregorian, one Father Maurizio Chiodi, a “moral theologian” of the
post-Vatican II variety, proposed that “an artificial method for the regulation
of births could be recognized as an act of responsibility that is carried out,
not in order to radically reject the gift of a child, but because in those
situations responsibility calls the couple and the family to other forms of
welcome and hospitality.”
That is, Francis’ man at the
reconstituted Pontifical Academy declares openly that there is a duty to
contracept! Chiodi’s sole “authority” for this lie from the pit of hell
is nothing more than Chapter 8 of AL, the only document of its kind in the
entire history of the Church. AL will doubtless be providing cover for a whole
new line of Authentic Magisterium® products, all of which will be utter fakes,
including some form of “pastoral integration” of homosexual unions.
Evidently, they do think we are
fools or willing to play the fool in exchange for the benefits of respectable
conformity in the midst of an unparalleled debacle for the Church. (Consider
the example of Catholic Answers, which “defends the Faith” while refusing to
recognize that it is under ferocious attack from the very vertices of the
Church. Silence at best is the price it must pay for remaining in good standing
with the pro-homosexual bishop Francis has installed in San Diego.)
But we are not fools. And God will
not be mocked. Francis and all his designs will ultimately come to
nothing. Meanwhile, ours is but to keep the Faith and protest before God
and man the blows now raining down against the Church, even when they come from
a wayward Roman Pontiff at her summit. Indeed, especially then.
Worth
Repeating: The SCHISM is already HERE!
COMMENT: This book in the article below
provides an interpretation of Chapter 8 of Amoria
Laetitia. It is addressed to bishops
with a “merciful heart” and offers an interpretation that is consistent with
the interpretation approved in the private letter sent by Pope Francis to the
bishops of Argentina as well as with the interpretation of Cardinal Schornborn
who Pope Francis has publically identified as its ‘official interpretor.’ These bishops say that the proper
understanding and application is that any Catholic living in public adultery
based upon their own private judgment in the internal forum can declare
themselves worthy to receive Holy Communion and absolution in the sacrament of
Penance and therefore cannot be denied these sacraments. It is given semi-official approval by its
publication in L’Osservatore Romano.
Now in the Novus Ordo which may nothing
more than a memorial meal as initially defined by Pope Paul VI, perhaps giving
the Novus Ordo communion wafer to a person in objective mortal sin is not a
real problem. But what is certainly a
grave sin it that these persons can expect to be absolved by a confessor in the
sacrament of Penance without confessing or repentance of mortal sin. Pope Francis and his CDF puppet, Cardinal
Muller, will not be answering the Dubia in any official capacity. This does not represent a change in the
Church’s teaching. It represents the
active effort of a Francis and his minions to destroy the Catholic doctrine and
morality. As we announced during the
synod, the schism has long been present.
It is more evident each passing day and every Catholic will have to pick
sides. God cannot let an open attack
upon the sacrament of marriage go unpunished. Their hypocrisy is oozing from every
pore. Imagine if a Catholic with
“humility, discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere
search for God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it”
arrives at traditional Catholicism, what kind of response can be expect from
the local bishop and Rome? If you want
to know read our OPEN LETTERS!
If, as a result of the process of discernment, undertaken with
“humility, discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere
search for God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it”
(Amoris Laetitia 300), a separated or divorced person who is living in a new
relationship manages, with an informed and enlightened conscience, to
acknowledge and believe that he or she are at peace with God, he or she cannot
be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the
Eucharist (see AL, notes 336 and 351).
Bishops Charles J Scicluna and Mario Grech, Guide for the Interpretation of Chapter 8 of Amoris
Laetitia: An Invitatiion to the Bishops of Merciful Hearts. This received semi-official approbation by
being featured in the publication, L’Osservatore Romano, 1-2017
DOGMA IS THE PROXIMATE RULE OF FAITH; DOGMA is revealed
doctrine formally defined by the Church. The pope is the necessary but
insufficient means by which DOGMA is declared.
Hence, the distinction is made betewen
the Remote and the Proximate Rule of Faith.
The remote Rule of Faith is the Objective Deposit, [Scripture and
Tradition], It contains revealed truths which - for some reason or other - were
forgotten, obscure, or not sufficiently understood. Hence, they were broght into discussion, or
denied without injury to the Faith until they became clear or werer defined by
the Church. The Proximate Rule of Faith
is the teaching of the Church sufficiently proposed and manifestly promulgated
to the Faithful, [DOGMA]. If this
Proximate Rule of Faith proclaims anything as belonging to the Remote Rule
of Faith, it can no longer be challenged
without shipwreck of the Faith. For
unity of faith is whole and entire only while there is no dissent with the
Proximate Rule of Faith. On this point
Gregory of Valentia declares: "The Church has from darkness brought to
light wth her infallible authority some doctrines which, through human negligence
or malice or perversity of mind, remained concealed. And mayhap there are some still hidden in the
Church."
Msgr. George Agius, D.D., J.C.D.,
Tradition and the Church
Dogmas
“are to give light, not to receive light from human reason”!
I answer: The obligation
to believe what God says is a natural duty, it is a natural law, dictated by
the common sense of reason which the Creator has deposited in every human soul.
The Church only enforces this law, which existed before she herself existed,
because from all eternity it was a truth that the creature is bound to believe
the word of the Creator. If the Church allows no denial, no doubt, no
alteration or misconstruction of any of her dogmas, it is because the veracity
of the Son of God, who has revealed these truths, is attacked when any of His
doctrines are denied or doubted. These dogmas are so many fixed stars in the
firmament of holy Church. They cannot be reached by the perversity and
frivolity of man. He may close his eyes against them and deny their existence;
he may misrepresent them and look at them through glasses stained the color of
every prejudice; but he cannot do away with them altogether, nor change in any
way their natural brightness and brilliancy. Like the stars that deck the vault
of heaven, they are to give light, not to receive light from human reason. They
are the word of God, and what God says is truth, that cannot be made untruth.
The mind that receives truth is enlightened thereby; the mind that denies or
misrepresents it is darkened and corrupted.
Besides, every dogma of
faith is to the Catholic cultivated mind not only a new increase of knowledge,
but also an incontrovertible principle from which it is able to draw
conclusions and derive other truths. They present an endless field for
investigation so that the beloved Apostle St. John could write at the end of
his Gospel, without fear of exaggeration: “But there are also many other things
which Jesus did: which if they were written every one, the world itself, I
think, world not be able to contain the books that should be written.”
The Catholic Church, by
enforcing firm belief in her dogmas—which are not her inventions, but were
given by Jesus Christ—places them as a bar before the human mind to prevent it
from going astray and to attach it to the truth; but it does not prevent the
mind from exercising its functions when it has secured the treasure of divine
truth, and a “scribe thus instructed in the kingdom of heaven is truly like a
man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things
and old.” …. They are new because newly enacted, declared, defined; they are
old because they contain no new revelation or any assumption of power never
granted by Christ, but simply old truths under new forms, the old power
exercised under new circumstances.
Rev. Joseph Prachensky, S.J., The
Church of the Parables and True Spouse of the Suffering Savior
The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in
which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary,
to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is,
whether temporal, or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of
us, of our families, of the families of the world or of religious communities,
or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary.
There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot
resolve by the prayer of the Rosary! With the Holy Rosary we will save
ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console our Lord and obtain the
salvation of many souls.
Sr. Lucy of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes
The decadence which exists in
the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of
prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended
recitation of the Rosary with such insistence, and since the Rosary is, after the
Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving faith in souls, the
devil has unchained his struggle against it . . . The Rosary is the most
powerful weapon for defending ourselves on the field of battle.
Sr. Lucy of Fatima to Dom Umberto Pasqual
Where is the New Theology
leading us to? It is taking us in a straight line right back to modernism by
way of whims, errors and heresy.
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P
Pope
Francis, CEO of the HomoLobby, taking care of his own!
Pope Francis’s
commitment to sex abuse reform is nonexistent. Here’s proof
CatholicCulture.org | January 14, 2019– Early this month, the
Vatican acknowledged that an Argentine bishop working at the Vatican faces
sex-abuse charges. The story drew little attention from American media outlets,
and understandably so: just one more in a long line of complaints against
clerics, in this case involving a bishop whose name (Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta)
was unfamiliar to readers in the US. But reporters who look at the story just a
bit more carefully recognize it as a blockbuster: a potentially fatal blow to
the reputation of Pope Francis as a reformer.
The facts, in brief: Zanchetta was
appointed Bishop of Oran by Pope Francis in July 2013. He had served under the
future Pontiff on the staff of the Argentine bishops' conference, and was one
of the new Pope's first episcopal appointments. He abruptly resigned, however,
just four years later, leaving the city without warning, at the age of just 53.
At the time Bishop Zanchetta cited health reasons for his departure. Today
Vatican officials say that he stepped down because of administrative problems;
he had developed a rocky relationship with the priests of his diocese. After a
few months without assignment (during which he showed no signs of ill health),
Pope Francis gave him an important post at the Vatican, at the Administration
of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), the agency that handles the
Vatican's investments and its enormous real-estate holdings.
Late
in December – in fact, on Christmas Day – the Argentine newspaper El
Tribuno revealed that Bishop Zanchetta had been accused by
seminarians of sexual abuse. The Vatican insists that these charges were lodged
only recently, and had nothing to do with his resignation from the Oran
diocese. El Tribuno disagrees, saying that
the charges date back to 2015 and were the reason for his removal. Readers can
decide for themselves which claim seems more credible.
Now
why is this bishop's story so important?
John
Allen of Crux took the first step in explaining the significance of the
Zanchetta case, noting that it is embarrassing to Pope Francis for two reasons.
First, just as the Vatican is preparing for a February meeting on sexual abuse,
here is another case in which the Pontiff himself has apparently protected –
indeed promoted – a prelate with a questionable background. Second, the
particular job that Zanchetta was given in Rome, with APSA, put the Argentine
bishop into an office that is at the very center of debates about financial accountability.
How serious could the Pope be about financial reforms, if he arranged a soft
landing for a troubled bishop as the second-ranking official at an agency that
has been criticized for making sweetheart deals, arranging no-bid contracts,
undervaluing assets, and resisting independent audits?
Sandro
Magister, the veteran Vatican-watcher for L'Espresso, took
the analysis a few steps further. If Zanchetta had been persuaded to resign
because of his administrative deficiencies, he asked, why was he given an
administrative job at APSA? And why was he placed in an agency handling
financial affairs, when the accounts of the Oran diocese were reportedly in a
shambles? What was he doing at APSA, in a
post ("assessor") that had not existed before his appointment?
Magister
also probed into the seminarians' abuse charges, questioning whether Pope
Francis had been aware of those complaints in 2017 when the bishop resigned,
and had chosen to ignore them – just as, a few years earlier, he had dismissed charges
against the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros; just as, according to Archbishop
Vigano, he ignored complaints about then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Even
without the Vigano testimony, however, and even without the precedent of Bishop
Barros, it is undeniably true that in this case, Pope Francis appointed a
bishop with a problematical past to a very sensitive position. That fact would
be shocking enough, if it were an unprecedented move by the Pope. But it is
not.
Along
with APSA, the Vatican institution most central to any bid for financial reform
is the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank.
In 2013, Pope Francis appointed Msgr. Battista Ricca as prelate of the IOR.
Years earlier, Msgr. Ricca had reportedly brought a boyfriend along with him to
a posting as a Vatican diplomat. Questioned about the prelate's past, Pope
Francis offered his famous rhetorical question: "Who am I to judge?"
Msgr. Ricca remains at his post at the IOR.
Both
Bishop Zanchetta and Msgr. Ricca have been charged with abusing their offices
and with sexual misconduct. Yet Pope Francis has found jobs for them at the
Vatican – and not just any jobs, but jobs in which they are responsible for
detecting misconduct by other Church officials.
Let
me put it plainly: Both were obvious potential targets for blackmail. And they
were put in positions where they might have ample opportunity to blackmail
others.
The
Zanchetta case demonstrates that Pope Francis continues to protect his friends
and allies, regardless of his professed commitment to accountability. This one
case illustrates how, since Francis was elected, the Vatican has actually
moved backward on two crucial fronts: the fight against
sexual abuse and the quest for financial transparency. In this pontificate, the
cause of reform is dead, unless the reform begins with the Pontiff himself.
COMMENT: The
most prevalent form of child abuse is sending your children to be
psychologicaly corrupted by public, and now more often than not, parochial
schooling. Home schooling is a great
blessing for its intellectual enrichment that is well documented, but that is
not nearly as important as the blessings obtained in psychological development
and socialization skills. It is the duty
of every parent to protect their children from these demonic perversions that
seek the destruction of the soul. There
is no price to pay that is too high.
Gendercide - By Dr. G.C. Dilsaver
Adapted from his new book: Celebrating God-Given Gender: Masculinity
& Femininity per Nature & Grace
January 10, 2019
“APA’s new Guidelines for
Psychological Practice With Boys and Men strive to recognize and address these
problems in boys and men while remaining sensitive to the field’s androcentric
past. Thirteen years in the making, they draw on more than 40 years of research
showing that traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful and that
socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage that echoes both
inwardly and outwardly.”
American Psychological Association, January 2019, Vol 50, No. 1
The most demonic war in the history of the
world is now being waged. It is nothing less than a ubiquitous war of terror,
but this terrorism is being spearheaded not by the ancient Islamic archenemy of
Christendom but by the very Western nations that were the birthplaces and
defenders of the Holy Faith itself. This post-Christian era of terrorism is
first and foremost a terror against the family and, as such, a terror against
gender and marriage. This war of terror’s weapons are truly those of mass
destruction, for they are weapons of the mass-media and a pervasive and
perverse political correctness enforced by totalitarian political, judicial,
economic, and social policies.
Destroy the meaning of gender and you
destroy the meaningfulness of marriage, for gender is what makes marriage
possible. Destroy the meaningfulness of marriage and you destroy the sacrosanct
integrity of the family, for it is marriage that both animates and binds the
family. Destroy the sacrosanct integrity of the family and you destroy a just,
righteous, and sound sociopolitical order, for the sociopolitical order is both
made up of the family and properly ordered to the facilitation of the family.
Thus marriage and family’s given prerequisite—its first principle—is God-given
gender. No wonder in these days of “gender confusion” the condition of
marriage, the family, society, and the ecclesial community is in such advanced
decay.
The most effective way to destroy the
family is to destroy gender distinctions, that is, to promulgate gendercide.
Not only does the rejection of gender deal a death blow to marriage and family,
which is the basic cell of society and the Church, but it entails the rejection
of the most elementary and essential demarcation of the human person as an
incarnate being made in God’s image. Rejecting the realities of gender is the
final result of rejecting man’s contingent and dependent nature, thus it is the
result of rejecting and rebelling against both God and His natural law.
The gendercidal agenda that is being
advanced today in the post and now anti-Christic West is no accident. Yes, the
perverse popular culture enables the total State, which in turn controls the
kowtowing corporations, mind-numbing mass-media, and politically-correct
educational (read indoctrination) institutions; all of which combine in an
orchestrated death-blow against the family. But be certain, the conductor of
this hellish campaign is no other than the Evil One himself. Believe in this conspiracy,
for it is no theory. Utilizing scientific technology, mass-media thought
control, and governmental coercion, the demonically orchestrated campaign
against gender, against womanhood and motherhood, against manhood and
fatherhood, against the sacrosanct family is furiously accelerating. And make
no mistake, it is the State’s perverse moral magisterium – the mental health
system of psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, et al.–that continue to
spear head this ideological assault on gender and the family.
On the Recent
School Killings
The Aztecs and
the Carthaginians sacrificed babies. The Romans discarded them. Our
contemporaries kill them in the womb. Chesterton said that the killing of
babies is a sign of the presence of the devil. Public schools are the most
obvious place where American society has completely excluded God. We should not
be surprised if this leaves room for the devil.
Furthermore, the people who run our public schools belong to organizations
that primarily support candidates for public office who believe that the
government should finance the unrestricted killing of unborn babies. It is as
if they have put out the welcome mat for the devil on the steps of the public
schools.
Charles G. Mills,
The Massacre Was Not at the Rod and Gun Club
January is Dedicated to the Holy Name of
Jesus
WHAT
DOES THE NAME OF JESUS MEAN?
The
name Jesus comes from the Greek Iesous which was derived from the Aramaic,
Yeshu. It means “Yaweh is salvation.” The name was not unique, even in biblical
times, and today it is common in Arabic-speaking East and in Spanish-speaking
countries. From apostolic times the name has been treated with the greatest
respect, as honor is due the name which represents Our Lord, himself.
The
Holy Name of Jesus is, first of all, an all-powerful prayer. Our Lord Himself
solemnly promises that whatever we ask the Father in His Name we shall receive.
God never fails to keep His word.
When,
therefore, we say, “Jesus,” let us ask God for all we need with absolute
confidence of being heard. For this reason, the Church ends her prayer
with the words, “through Jesus Christ,” which gives the prayer a new and Divine
efficacy.
But
the Holy Name is something still greater.
Each
time we say, “Jesus,” we give God infinite joy and glory, for we offer Him all
the infinite merits of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. St. Paul
tells us that Jesus merited the Name Jesus by His Passion and Death.
Each
time we say “Jesus,” let us clearly wish to offer God all the Masses being said
all over the world for all our intentions. We thus share in these thousands of
Masses.
Each
time we say “Jesus,” we gain indulgences for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, thus
relieving and liberating very many of these holy souls from their awful pains.
Thus they may be our best friends and pray for us-----they cannot pray for
themselves, however.
Each
time we say “Jesus,” it is an act of perfect love, for we offer to God the
infinite love of Jesus.
The
Holy Name of Jesus saves us from innumerable evils and delivers us especially
from the power of the devil, who is constantly seeking to do us harm.
The
Holy Name of Jesus gradually fills our souls with a peace and joy we never had
before.
Act of Reparation to the Holy Name of
Jesus
This Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is associated with the
Feast of the Circumcision, for it is when a child was circumcised that he
received a name and was accepted as a son of Abraham and a full member of his
family. So honored is His Holy Name that
devout Catholics bow their heads (men removing their hats) at the sound of
“Jesus” both inside and outside of the liturgy. To protect the sacredness and
honor due the Holy Name, when hearing the Name of the Lord taken in vain, it is
right to pray, “Sit nomen Dómini benedíctum!” (“Blessed be the Name of the
Lord”), to which the reply, if overheard, is “Ex hoc nunc, et usque in
sæculum!” (“from this time forth for evermore!”).
The Holy Name
of Jesus gives us strength that our sufferings become light and easy to bear.
And just as this one Church cannot err in faith or morals, since it is
guided by the Holy Ghost; so, on the contrary, all other societies arrogating
to themselves the name of church, must necessarily, be guided by the
spirit of the devil, be sunk in the most pernicious errors, both doctrinal and
moral.
Catechism of the Council of Trent
Tell Novus Ordo “Saint” JP II the
“Great” – if he indeed made it to Purgatory - to turn out the lights and lock the
place up when he is the last to leave.
John Paul II was a pope
under whose reign we had the most horrific scandal in the Church’s 2000-year
history. Thousands of children were
molested by priests and bishops he ordained.
By the end of his pontificate, lawsuits were bankrupting Catholic
Churches all over the world; and between one third and one half of the clergy
(sources available upon request) were admittedly homosexual, with a significant
percentage being pederasts whom the pope didn’t even admit existed when he was
told of their crimes, much less did anything to stop them, even when stark
evidence was brought before him, as in the case of Legionnaires leader Marciel
Maciel. At the same time he hid other
clerics from prosecution, as in the case of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.
This was the pope who
allowed the Vatican Bank’s corruption that started under Paul VI to continue
with little or no reform; and who protected its chief perpetrator, Bishop Paul
Marcinkus, from prosecution. He did nothing
to investigate the suspected murder of John Paul I, the very pope who made it
known in the first days of his reign that he was going to clean up the
financial misdealings of his curia. This
was the pope who took 250 million dollars of the Vatican’s money and gave it to
Solidarity in Poland, thereby making the Church a political institution instead
of a spiritual one. By the same token he
condemned Liberation theology because if its tendency to get involved in politics.
This was the pope who
went to the hut of an African witch doctor in 1985 and afterward wrote, “the
prayer meeting in the sanctuary at Lake Togo was particularly striking. There I prayed for the first time with
animists.” In December 1984 he sent a
Vatican representative to the laying of the foundation of the largest mosque in
Europe. In September 1989 he wrote to
Muslim leaders and said: “In the name of the same God we adore,” without any
qualifications whatsoever. In May 1999
he kissed the Koran in a public ceremony; and in 2000 asked John the Baptist
“to protect Islam.” In February 1986 he
received the red dust of the Hindu religion on his forehead in honor of the
goddess Shiva. In March 1986 in New
Delhi he stated that “collaboration between all religions is necessary for the
good of mankind... as Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, and Christians, we unite to
proclaim the truth about man.”
This was the pope who
invited all the world’s non-Christian and pagan religions to pray for world
peace at Assisi in 1986 and Assisi in 2002 (with five additional Assisi-like
gatherings in the 1990s in various countries) and never once in those 16 years
did he preach the Gospel to them about conversion to Christ for salvation. Instead he sent them all back to their
countries encouraging them to continue to pray to their false gods, the very
opposite that St. Paul did in Acts 17.
He paid no attention to any of his high-placed clerical advisors who
told him these acts were abominations.
This was the pope who,
against two millennia of Catholic tradition, told husbands to be mutually
submissive to women; dispensed with head coverings for women; and allowed women
and girls to be communion ministers, altar girls, and directors of chanceries,
thereby increasing the feminization of the Church amidst an already feminized
clergy who were by this time at least a third homosexual, while another
significant portion were receiving paternity suits.
This was the pope who
profusely apologized for the ecclesiastical policies of previous popes; who had
his Vatican envoy sign the 1998 Lutheran/Catholic Joint declaration which, in
direct contradiction to the Council of Trent, said “man is justified by faith
alone.” This was the pope who told the
Lutherans they had a “profound religiousness and spiritual heritage” and that Martin
Luther was driven by a “burning passion of the question of eternal salvation,”
and who told the Lutheran bishops that Rome’s excommunication of Luther had
expired, and that “There is a need for a new evaluation of the questions raised
by Luther and his teaching.” This was
the pope who implied or taught universal salvation and that hell may not be
applicable to any human being. This was
the pope who at the very beginning of his pontificate in the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis used the word “church”
150 times but never once mentioned the word “Catholic.” This was the pope who continually sided with
liberals like Karl Rahner, Urs von Balthasar and Raymond Brown but who would
hardly give an ear to those, such as Archbishop Lefebvre, who wanted to preserve
the tradition and who decried the anti-Catholic innovations being foisted on
the Catholic populace. (Fortunately,
Pope Benedict XVI saw John Paul II’s mistake and reversed the decision against
Lefebvre). This was the pope who was
criticized by his own admirers for failing to discipline wayward clerics, both
in their doctrinal aberrations and moral laxity (Charles Curran, Edward
Schillebeeckx, Hans Kung, et al).
Ironically, the only cleric that was excommunicated was Lefebvre, yet he
was one of the most doctrinally sound and morally upright clerics the Church
had ever known.
This was the pope who in
1981, contrary to tradition, implied or taught that the Jewish Old Covenant is
not revoked and that Jews have a special relationship with God, as does Paragraph
121 of his papally-signed 1994 Catechism.
He continued to propagate confusing and doctrinally fallacious teaching
about the Jews and Judaism through his cardinals who taught that the Jews did
not need to convert to Christianity to be saved since they have their own
covenant with God (Kasper, Keeler, Willebrands, George, Ratzinger, et al). This was the first pope in history to visit
Israel and who then placed himself under Judaism by praying at the Jerusalem’s
Wailing Wall. This was the pope who, for
the first time in the history of the papacy, visited and prayed in Jewish
synagogues - the religion that denies more than any other that Jesus Christ is
God.
Last but not least, this
was the pope who changed the Church’s criterion for sainthood, which now allows
him and all his fellow 20th century popes to be easily canonized in the face of
the fact that there have been only three popes canonized since 1294 (Pius X, d.
1914; Pius V, d. 1572; Celestine V, d. 1294).
As such, the very popes who lived and reigned during the Church’s worst
corruptions and scandals are now being exonerated and place in heaven.
Robert Sungenis, Ph.D., Letter to Editor, Culture Wars Magazine
COMMENT: He forgot to mention
that it was JP II who left Bishop Zanic and, then Bishop Peric, former
ordinaries of Medjugorge, who had condemned the false apparitions as the work
of the devil, hanging in the wind by his silence on the matter. More than 20 million Catholics have made the
pilgrimage the “shrine” and helped spread the doctrinal errors worldwide.
Very pleasing to Me, dearest daughter, is the willing desire to bear
every pain and fatigue, even unto death, for the salvation of souls, for the
more the soul endures, the more she shows that she loves Me; loving Me she
comes to know more of My truth, and the more she knows, the more pain and
intolerable grief she feels at the offenses committed against Me. You asked Me
to sustain you, and to punish the faults of others in you, and you did not
remark that you were really asking for love, light, and knowledge of the truth,
since I have already told you that, by the increase of love, grows grief and
pain, wherefore he that grows in love grows in grief. Therefore, I say to you all, that you should
ask, and it will be given you, for I deny nothing to him who asks of Me in
truth. Consider that the love of divine charity is so closely joined in the
soul with perfect patience, that neither can leave the soul without the other.
For this reason (if the soul elect to love Me) she should elect to endure pains
for Me in whatever mode or circumstance I may send them to her. Patience cannot
be proved in any other way than by suffering, and patience is united with love
as has been said. Therefore bear yourselves with manly courage, for, unless you
do so, you will not prove yourselves to be spouses of My Truth, and faithful
children, nor of the company of those who relish the taste of My honor, and the
salvation of souls.
Our Lord to St. Catherine of
Siena, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of
Siena
The “Miracle
of the Red Thread”- The Talmud Confirms the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross
by Giuseppe Nardi, posted on Eponymous Flower Blog
Talmud
and Zohar report that the Jewish high priest offered animal sacrifices only
once a year, on Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement,” entering the Holy of Holies
of the Temple (see also Heb 9: 6-7). He asked for forgiveness for
the sins of the Jews, who were once called Israelites. The Zohar is the
most important font of Kabbalah, a Jewish secret doctrine. Both scriptures
mention “the miracle of the red thread.”
The Zohar is included
in the commentary to Vayikra, as the Book of Leviticus or Third Book of Moses
in Hebrew reads:
“On this day, all sins will be forgiven [...] the
impurities of the souls and bodies [...] all of them, on that day [...] God
forgives Israel and freed it from all sins. On this day, the priest prays
for himself, his house, the priests, and for all and for the sanctuary
for forgiveness [...] they would know whether the priest had
success by the red thread. “(Vayikra, 3).
If
the thread discolored to white from red, there was rejoicing among all the
people. If it remained red, there was general dejection, because it was
the sign that the sacrifice of the High Priest and his prayers were not heard
by God. The priests and people knew that God had not forgiven the sins.
The
emergence of the Zohar is now dated by the research in the 13th century and its
authorship is attributed to Mosche de León. It is not Orthodox
Judaism, that affirms Shimon ben Jochais, a Talmudic Rabbi of the 2nd
century AD. The prophet Isaiah alluded to this “thread”, without expressly
describing it. That was for the Jews not even necessary. They knew
how to interpret the words:
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool “(Isaiah
1:18).
For 40 years the miracle ceased
The
Talmud reports that this great miracle of divine confirmation of the acceptance
of the priestly sacrifice and therefore the forgiveness of sins, had already
ceased for forty years before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
“Originally they fastened the thread at the gate of the
outer [temple] Court. Were it white, the people rejoiced, when it was not
know they were troubled. [...] For forty years before the destruction of
the Temple the red thread was no longer white, but remained red.”(Babylonian
Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 31b). The same is reported in the Jerusalem Talmud
(yYom 6,3,43c).
The
Talmud is the central font of Judaism after the denial and execution of
Christ. The quoted passage is goes back to the time of the Pharisee Rabbi
Gamaliel II, who died in the year 114 AD. Gamaliel was responsible for the
final expulsion of the Jewish Christians from the synagogue and cursing
them as heretics.
The
temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans under the high command of Titus,
the son of Emperor Vespasian, who himself was later emperor. The “miracle
of the red thread” therefore, had no longer occurred since the year 30
AD. This is exactly the time when Jesus was crucified at Calvary. The
New Testament, which was written by Jews who saw Christ and followed him,
teaches that the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ replaced the animal
sacrifices of the Old Covenant. The old temple had lost its meaning and
the animal sacrifice their effectiveness. In place of the old covenant, a
new covenant was entered.
All virtuous deeds, inasmuch as they are referred to God, are
professions of the faith whereby we come to know that God requires these works
of us, and rewards us for them: and in this way they can be the cause of
martyrdom. For this reason the Church celebrates the martyrdom of Blessed John
the Baptist, who suffered death, not for refusing to deny the faith, but for
reproving adultery.
St. Thomas, Summa,
II-II, Q. 124 art. 5
I think the Sacred Heart asks three things of you: First, that you love
Him with a love of preference, which will enable you to overcome your
repugnances, and trample on your human respect, which says: “What will they say
If I do so-and-so?” All such thoughts must be despised when there is question
of pleasing this Divine Heart. Then you must look down upon, judge, and condemn
no one but yourself. By doing this you will practise humility and charity, and
will avoid the judgment and condemnation of your Judge. Thirdly, Our Lord
desires to be the one Object of your affections; you must delight in no other,
so that you may be worthy for Him to take delight in you. Model your heart on
the virtues of Jesus. If you only knew how you sadden Him when you fail in
charity or humility, or when you neglect the inspirations He gives you to
withdraw from dissipation and thoughts of self- love. All this prevents Him
from giving you His abundant graces. I think I have said all this to you
before, but I want to remind you of it again, for it seems to me that He does
not ask anything new of you just now, but that you will please Him very much if
you are faithful to these practices He has given you. Try then, to correspond
with His love. Give Him all yours by an exact fidelity to all our holy
observances, banishing all vain curiosity, and all surprise and discouragement
at difficulties. Keep your soul in peace without complaining of anything,
trying to find your delight in self-abnegation. If you love, nothing will seem
difficult to you.
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Letter
COMMENT: In 2005 the Dover
after attention from the natinoal media, PA electorate removed the School Board
members that permitted Intelligent Design to be considered as a possible
explanation for the natural order found in the material universe. Scientists,
while affirming that the natural order in the universe must necessarily be the
result of mechanical chance, “listened with a vast radio telescopic network for
signals (from outer space) that resembled coded intelligence and were not
merely random” for evidence of intelligent life in the universe. If these scientists affirm that the DNA code
of biological life, which is clearly goal directed, is “merely random” and not
a sign of “intelligence” how can they be open to recognize any sign of
intelligible communication!? Is this WSJ article evidence that there are no
signs of intelligence life in the Dover, PA electorate?
Science Increasingly Makes
the Case for God
The odds of life existing on another planet grow
ever longer. Intelligent design, anyone?
Eric Metaxas: Dec. 25, 2014
In 1966 Time
magazine ran a cover story asking: Is God Dead? Many have accepted the cultural
narrative that he’s obsolete—that as science progresses, there is less need for
a “God” to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God’s
death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for his
existence comes from a surprising place—science itself.
Here’s the
story: The same year Time featured the now-famous headline, the astronomer Carl
Sagan announced that there were two important criteria for a planet to support
life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star.
Given the roughly octillion—1 followed by 27 zeros—planets in the universe,
there should have been about septillion—1 followed by 24 zeros—planets capable
of supporting life.
With such
spectacular odds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a large,
expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the
1960s, was sure to turn up something soon. Scientists listened with a vast
radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were
not merely random. But as years passed, the silence from the rest of the
universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search
continues with private funds. As of 2014, researches have discovered precisely
bubkis—0 followed by nothing.
What happened?
As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far
more factors necessary for life than Sagan supposed. His two parameters grew to
10 and then 20 and then 50, and so the number of potentially life-supporting
planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and
kept on plummeting.
Even SETI
proponents acknowledged the problem. Peter Schenkel wrote in a 2006 piece for
Skeptical Inquirer magazine: “In light of new findings and insights, it seems
appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest . . . . We should quietly admit
that the early estimates . . . may no longer be tenable.”
As factors
continued to be discovered, the number of possible planets hit zero, and kept
going. In other words, the odds turned against any planet in the universe
supporting life, including this one. Probability said that even we shouldn’t be
here.
Today there are
more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every
single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart.
Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away
asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. The odds against
life in the universe are simply astonishing.
Yet here we are,
not only existing, but talking about existing. What can account for it? Can
every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident? At what point
is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random
forces? Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions
require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just
happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?
There’s more.
The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared
with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all. For example,
astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental
forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “strong” and “weak” nuclear
forces—were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang.
Alter any one value and the universe could not exist. For instance, if the
ratio between the nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been
off by the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction—by even one part in
100,000,000,000,000,000—then no stars could have ever formed at all. Feel free
to gulp.
Multiply that
single parameter by all the other necessary conditions, and the odds against
the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that
it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and
having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?
Fred Hoyle, the
astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly
shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense
interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with
the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology…. The numbers one calculates
from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost
beyond question.”
Theoretical
physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming”
and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about
our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in
credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”
The greatest
miracle of all time, without any close seconds, is the universe. It is the
miracle of all miracles, one that ineluctably points with the combined
brightness of every star to something—or Someone—beyond itself.
Mr. Metaxas
is the author, most recently, of “Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and
How They Can Change Your Life” (Dutton Adult, 2014).
Is Pope
Francis a member of the Church that he governs?
From this
definition it can be easily gathered what men belong to the Church and what men
do not. For there are three parts of this definition: the profession of the
true Faith, the communion of the Sacraments, and the subjection to the
legitimate Pastor, the Roman Pontiff.
By reason of the first part are excluded all infidels, as much those who have
never been in the Church, like the Jews, Turks and Pagans; as those who have
been and have fallen away, like heretics and apostates.
By reason of the second, are excluded catechumens and excommunicates, because
the former are not to be admitted to the communion of the sacraments, the
latter have been cut off from it.
By reason of the third, are excluded schismatics, who have faith and the
sacraments, but are not subject to the lawful pastor, and therefore they
profess the Faith outside, and receive the Sacraments outside. However, all
others are included, even if they be reprobate, sinful and wicked.
St. Robert
Bellarmine
“Don’t get me wrong Sisters. I am sure your hearts are in the right
place. OK, but you know, somebody has
got to lift the scab, the festering scab that is the Vatican.”
Jerry Fletcher, Conspiracy Theory, addressing two nuns in the back of his cab
Queers Always Hang Together
“Sodomy Is a Gift from God…. Those
who oppose sodomy should be debarred from church seminaries.”
Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., Pope
Francis’ appointee to the Pontifical Council of Justice
Pope Francis the Hypocrite Converting to Atheism?
Pope Francis rails against ‘hypocritical Christians’: ‘Better to live
as an atheist’
OnePeterFive | Bree A. Dail | January 2,
2019
VATICAN CITY, January 2, 2019 – Pope
Francis addressed a crowd of faithful with some jarring remarks during his
first Wednesday Audience of 2019. Speaking in the Paul VI Audience Hall, this
morning, the pope focused on two reoccurring themes of his pontificate:
hypocritical Christians and the “revolutionary” nature of the Gospel.
“How many times do we see the
scandal of those people who go to church and stay there all day or go every day
and then live hating others or talking badly about people? This is a scandal –
it is better not to go to church: better to live as an atheist,” the pope
admonished.
Reading
from his prepared statements, the pope continued, “The Christian is not one who commits himself to be
better than others: he knows that he is a sinner like everyone else.”
According
to the Italian media outlet La Repubblica, reporting from the audience hall,
the pope continued to read from his prepared texts, “where there is Gospel, there is revolution: the
Gospel does not leave us quiet, it pushes us: it is revolutionary.”
Pointing to the Our Father, he would conclude that St Matthew placed Jesus’
prayer “at the center of the mountain’s discourse[.] … Blessed are the poor,
the meek, the merciful, the humble people of heart: It is the revolution of the
Gospel.”
The Roman pontiff’s use of the
term “revolution” harkens to a recent LifeSite exclusive with Chilean author
José Antonio Ureta on his book, Pope Francis’s Paradigm Shift: Continuity or
Rupture in the Mission of the Church? In his full interview (found here, interview in
Spanish), Mr. Ureta would explain the concerning trend of some in the Vatican –
to include Pope Francis – to label attempts at change in the Church as
“revolutions” or “paradigm shifts.” Such terms have found their place in the
theological narratives of Pope Francis and his close advisers.
To
note, Pope Francis’s prepared statements, today, are the first since news shook
the international press of the joint resignation of Vatican spokesman Greg
Burke, and his deputy, Paloma García Ovejero, over the New Year.