Whoopi Goldberg: "I know it wasn't rape-rape.."

Speaking of film director Roman Polanski's crime against 13 year old Samantha Gailey a little more than 30 years ago, Whoopi Goldberg has said, "I know it wasn't rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don't believe it was rape-rape."

One can always rely upon Ms. Goldberg to provide intelligent commentary on world events. Meanwhile, back on planet earth, David Wells, a former district attorney on the case, was quoted as having said, "This pedophile raped a 13 year-old girl. It's still an outrageous offense." Transcripts detail just how outrageous.

What does the Catechism of the Catholic Church teach about rape? It says that, "Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children..." (2356).

And Ms. Goldberg wants us to believe what exactly? That somehow statutory rape is not really "rape-rape"? That it is not really an "intrinsically evil act"?

Is this really the message that Ms. Goldberg wants to send to others? Does she really want to downplay the seriousness of child rape? This is the same woman who levelled unfair accusations against Pope John Paul II while adding that the Holy Father "infuriates" her. See here.

Pope John Paul II was preparing the Church for Calvary...

In his book "Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way," Pope John Paul II was really calling upon the Church to ready itself for Calvary. He wrote, "Beginning with Abraham, the faith of each of his sons represents a constant leaving behind of what is cherished, familiar, and personal, in order to open up to the unknown, trusting in the truth we share and the common future we all have in God. We are all invited to turn toward the God who, in Jesus Christ, opened Himself to us, 'breaking down the dividing wall of enmity' (Eph. 2:14) in order to draw us to Himself through the Cross. In Jesus Christ we see: fidelity to the Father's call, an open heart for everyone He meets, a constant journeying that provides 'nowhere to lay his head' (cf. Matt. 8:20), and finally the Cross, through which to attain the victoryof the Ressurrection. This is Christ - who goes forward boldly, allowing nothing to stand in his way until all is accomplished, 'until He ascends to His Father and our Father' (cf. John 20:17), the One Who is 'the same yesterday, today, and for ever' (cf. Heb. 13:8).

Faith in Him, then, is a ceaseless opening up to God's ceaseless overtures into our world, it is our movement towards God, Who for His part leads people towards one another....When 'His hour' had come, Jesus said to those who were with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, to Peter, James, and John, His closest disciples: 'Rise, let us be on our way' (cf. Mark 14:42). Not only He must 'be on his way' to fulfill His Father's will: they, too, must go with Him....Even if these words indicate a time of trial, great effort, and a painful cross, we must not allow ourselves to give way to fear. They are also words of peace and joy, the fruit of faith. On another occasion, to the same three disciples, Jesus said: 'Rise, and do not be afraid!' (Matt 17:7). God's love does not impose burdens upon us that we cannot carry, nor make demands of us that we cannot fulfill. For whatever He asks of us, He provides the help that is needed." (pp. 214-215).

Why was our beloved Holy Father writing these words at this present time in our history? To prepare the Church for Calvary. Our Lady told Father Gobbi that, "The hour of Calvary has arrived for the Church, called to offer herself in holocaust and to be immolated on the cross of her bloody martyrdom...The hour of Calvary has arrived for you, my beloved ones, because you have now entered into the conclusive time of the great tribulation. As Mother, I am leading you each day to the fulfillment of your priestly immolation." (Message 519).

We read in 675 of the Catechism: "Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth." And in 677: "The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Ressurrection.."

This is the reality which we Christians must prepare for through prayer.

Photo above is of Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. It was the final shot which killed him and sent him to the Lord Jesus. I am blessed to have a relic containing a piece of his coffin which I obtained from the late Ann Ball, a Catholic author who worked promoting his cause.

The World is Going to Change...

For years I have been warning that the world as we know it is going to change. I have quoted extensively from Catholic prophecy to this end. Mark Mallett has written an interesting post entitled "The World is Going to Change" which may be found at his Blog. He warns, as I have repeatedly, that many even in the Church cannot read the signs of the times because they have been desensitized. He writes:


"The spirit of the world, which is rightly called the spirit of antichrist, is so thick and pervasive, that many even in the Church do not see it. We have collectively been numbed not only to the reality of what is unfolding around us, but we "devout Christians" do not realize how far we have fallen. Jesus’ words come to mind:

I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Rev 2:4-5)

What is the love we had at first? It was a burning zeal for souls. This thirst for souls is what led our Savior to the Cross, it is what drove St. Paul across land and sea, St. Ignatius to the lions, St. Francis to the poor, St. Faustina to her knees. The heartbeat of the Christian should be the heartbeat of the Savior: a desire to save souls from the fires of hell. When we have lost this desire, we have lost our heartbeat, and Christians, the Church, will seem as nearly dead.

It is in this climate, in fact, that an angel from God now warns you and I: the Church has been handed over for her purification, and the instrument of this purification will be a world order that controls. How? Through a spirit of fear. For the opposite of love is fear. Love is free, it gives, it believes, it trusts. Fear chains the mind, it clutches freedom, it doubts, it refuses absolutes, and trusts no one. Thus, the environment, the economy, plague and war will become the catalysts of this purification, that is, the seals of Revelation. They are becoming the means by which mankind will be controlled, whether the crises are real or man-made."

This chastisement which is coming upon the world has been fashioned by human hands. It is Our Lady who has said so repeatedly.

Polish priest Father Marek Gancarczyk fined for comparing abortion to Holocaust and for saying that abortion is killing

"It is in accordance with their dignity as persons - that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility - that all men should be at once impelled by nature and also bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth, once it is known, and to order their whole lives in accord with the demands of truth." (Vatican II, Dignitatis Humanae, No. 2).

If abortion is not the killing of a child, what is it?

We are currently experiencing a retreat from truth in preparation for the Reign of Antichrist. It was Jane Le Royer (d. 1798), who said:

"My Father, God has manifested to me the malice of Satan, and the perverse and diabolical intentions of his emissaries (secret societies) against the Holy Church of Jesus Christ. At the command of their master these wicked men have traversed the earth like furies, with the intention of preparing the way and the place for Anti-Christ whose reign is approaching. Through the corrupted breath of this proud spirit they have poisoned the minds of men. Like persons infected with pestilence, they have reciprocally communicated the evil to each other, and the contagion has become general. What convulsions! what scandals! The thick vapours which I have seen rising from the earth, and obscuring the light of the sun, are the false maxims of irreligion and of license (falsely called liberty), which in part originated in France, and in part came to us from abroad. These have succeeded in confounding all sound principles, and in spreading everywhere such darkness as to obscure the light both of faith and of reason. The storm began in France, which shall be the first theatre of its ravages, after having been its forge."

Obama School Czar: His thoughts on God, the Catholic Church and religious conservatives

In his Encyclical Letter Dominum et Vivificantem, No. 38, Pope John Paul II says, "The analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates that, through the influence of the 'father of lies,'* throughout the history of humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the point of hating him: 'Love of self to the point of contempt for God,' as Saint Augustine puts it. Man will be inclined to see in God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the atheistic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the radical 'alienation' of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man, and exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and historico-sociological practice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his 'death.' An absurdity, both in concept and expression! But the ideology of the 'death of God' is more a threat to man, as the Second Vatican Council indicates when it analyzes the question of the 'independence of earthly affairs' and writes: 'For without the Creator the creature would disappear...when God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible.' The ideology of the 'death of God' easily demonstrates in its effects that on the 'theoretical and practical' levels it is the ideology of the 'death of man.'" (Citing Gaudium et Spes, No. 36).

President Obama's School Czar has embraced this "death of God" ideology. This is all the more chilling since, as Fr. Vincent Miceli reminds us, "When the atheist, against the vast evidence of the world in which God's 'visible attributes are clearly seen,' decides against possessing the knowledge of God, he simultaneously arrogates to himself the mission of persuading others to embrace his atheism. The mysterious psychological explanation of this drive to win converts to atheism is that this drive is but the passionate dimension of the atheist's decision against God. His denial of God is simultaneously his assertion of himself as being above God. His rejection of God is his projection of himself into the place formerly held by God." (The Gods of Atheism, p. 461).

The consequences of this "death of God" ideology? Fr. Miceli: "Whoever strikes against God strikes down himself. The atheist denying God degrades himself. The atheist exalting himself above God sinks below the level of animate and inanimate beings. Liberation from God is enslavement in creatures. Absolute humanism is the sure road to absolute despotism. Denial of God as truth begets the imprisonment of man in the self-imposed darkness of his own myths. Flight from total dependence on God guarantees for man the utter loss of his freedom in a brutal enslavement either to sheer anarchy or to the tyrant who must eventually arise to impose upon the chaos of limitless human liberty the artificial, inhuman order of the concentration camp." (The Gods of Atheism, p. 461).

The way is being prepared for this tyrant, whom we know from Sacred Scripture as the Man of Sin, the Antichrist. And still, many pastors remain silent. Many Christians are still asleep, oblivious to the dangers ahead.

* John 8:44

School children being taught to praise Obama

In his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II reminded us that:

"Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It requires that the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the "subjectivity" of society through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility. Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and sceptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life. Those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends. It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.


Nor does the Church close her eyes to the danger of fanaticism or fundamentalism among those who, in the name of an ideology which purports to be scientific or religious, claim the right to impose on others their own concept of what is true and good. Christian truth is not of this kind. Since it is not an ideology, the Christian faith does not presume to imprison changing socio-political realities in a rigid schema, and it recognizes that human life is realized in history in conditions that are diverse and imperfect. Furthermore, in constantly reaffirming the transcendent dignity of the person, the Church's method is always that of respect for freedom.


But freedom attains its full development only by accepting the truth. In a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation and man is exposed to the violence of passion and to manipulation, both open and hidden. The Christian upholds freedom and serves it, constantly offering to others the truth which he has known (cf. Jn 8:31-32), in accordance with the missionary nature of his vocation. While paying heed to every fragment of truth which he encounters in the life experience and in the culture of individuals and of nations, he will not fail to affirm in dialogue with others all that his faith and the correct use of reason have enabled him to understand." (No. 46).


The English psychiatrist William Sargent explained that, "It is not the mentally ill but ordinary normal people who are most susceptible to 'brainwashing.'" And in her book The Nazis and the Occult, Dusty Sklar notes how, "Hitler's early speeches were so mesmerizing that even people who were repelled by his ideas felt themselves being swept along. The playwright Eugene Ionesco mentions in his autobiography that he received the inspiration for Rhinoceros when he felt himself pulled into the Nazi orbit at a mass rally and had to struggle to keep from developing 'rhinoceritis.' We 'catch' ideas, too, because we want to be like others, particularly when we want not to be our despised selves. If we're satisfied, we don't need to conform, but if we're not, we imitate people whom we admire for having greater judgment, taste, or good fortune than we do....Through conformity, the person who feels inferior is in no danger of being exposed. He's indistinguishable from the others. No one can single him out and examine his unique being. Conformity, in turn, sets him up to be further canceled out as an individual, to have no life apart from his collective purpose. This gives a movement tremendous power over the individual. Even intelligent people are not immune from the desire to conform. Heinrich Hildebrandt, a schoolteacher who was anxious to hide his liberal past, joined the Nazi party, and to his own disgust, found himself 'proud to be wearing the insignia. It showed I belonged, and the pleasure of belonging, so soon after feeling excluded, isolated, is very great...I belonged to the new nobility..'" (The Nazis and the Occult, pp. 157, 158).


The desire to conform and not to be perceived as being "different" or "countercultural," can be a very powerful force. Many Catholics (and other Christians) voted for President Barack Obama knowing full well that he supports abortion through all nine months of pregnancy right up to so-called partial-birth abortion - which is actually infanticide - as well as his support for Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR) and the radical homosexual agenda.

Now we are witnessing initial attempts to indoctrinate children into being an obedient mass. We are on the verge of totalitarianism.

Mary Alexander: Does she even understand what calumny is?

A friend of mine forwarded a Blog post link from last June and written by a woman named Mary Alexander who authors a Blog entitled "Against all Heresies." In this bizarre post, Ms. Alexander writes (in part): "Hi Anonymous and Brett (aka Paul Anthony Melanson)..Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake...Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that calumniate you...Keep the comments coming. I'm just building up treasure in heaven. Cheers, Mary." (Full Blog post with comment here).

Now, I am not "Brett." But I suspect there is a motive for Ms. Alexander's false accusation. You see, Ms. Alexander has defended the late Father Leonard Feeney. And I am, of course, on record as opposing Father Feeney's interpretation of the dogma "Outside the Church there is no salvation." This wouldn't be the first time Ms. Alexander has demonstrated some sort of problem with me or an animosity. In the comments section of a previous post here at La Salette Journey, Ms. Alexander left a comment implying that the Church's 1980 Instruction on Euthanasia was somehow "out-of-date." She was immediately corrected by others who reminded her that the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites this document as authoritative (see here).

And this wouldn't be the first time that Ms. Alexander has engaged in uncharitable rhetoric. In her Blog post defending Father Leonard Feeney, whose interpretation of the dogma "Outside the Church there is no salvation" was condemned by Pope Pius XII, she had some rather unkind words for the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a very-well respected priest who was loyal to the Church and her teaching. Ms. Alexander referred to this heroic priest and solid-Catholic thinker as being simple-minded and naive (see here).

I submit that Ms. Alexander would benefit from visiting this link to read up on calumny. This excellent entry says (in part): "..the calumniator is bound to adequate reparation for the injury perpetrated by the blackening of another's good name. He is obliged to retract his false statements."

Ms. Alexander is right about one thing though. We all need to pray for those who calumniate us. I will get right on that.

Related reading here.

Obama to push for new economic world order

"There is a warning and somber lesson to be learned from the carnage exacted by the modern Moloch state, whether that takes place in the jungle of Jonestown or in the abortion mills of Western cities. The warning is that established forms of Christian religions have lost their hold on and power to attract most people - especially the educated middle class and even the masses of the poor. Why is this so? Because such religions have secularized the Christian message. They teach in favor of the Christ of Karl Marx instead of the Christ of the Gospels. Even so-called Christian universities no longer teach a love of truth nor the skill in attaining, defending and sharing it. They are teaching the American, Molochian gospel of power and wealth. In the consequent metaphysical and spiritual darkness these universities have so diluted revealed truth that their graduates enter the professional world either as bemused agnostics, enraged atheists or 'chicken Catholics.' These malformed Catholics, when they are not attacking and misrepresenting the faith, are unable and unwilling to speak up in its defense, much less suffer and die for it. So too have the Churches adjusted and distorted the original deposit of the faith, the process being rationalized, of course, by the desire to clarify and update the Christian message. But the end product is always the same, a teaching conformed to the spirit of the world which prefers Jesus to be a revolutionary leader, a social reformer. A world, too, which wants God's Church to be a kingdom of this earth, tailoring everlasting truths to the exigencies of man's temporal convenience." (Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, S.J., The Antichrist, p. 250).


Our Lady told Father Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests:

"These are the times when the followers of him who opposes himself to Christ are being signed with his mark on the forehead and the hand.

The mark on the forehead and on the hand is an expression of a total dependency on the part of those who are designated by this sign. The sign indicates him who is an enemy of Christ, that is to say, the sign of the Antichrist. And his mark, which is stamped, signifies the complete belonging of the person thus marked to the army of him who is opposed to Christ and who fights against His divine and royal dominion.

The mark is imprinted on the forehead and on the hand. The forehead indicates the intellect, because the mind is the seat of the human reason. The hand expresses human activity, because it is with his hands that man acts and works. Nevertheless it is the person who is marked with the mark of the Antichrist in his intellect and in his will.

He who allows himself to be signed with the mark on his forehead is led to accept the doctrine of the denial of God, of the rejection of His law, and of atheism which, in these times, is more and more diffused and advertised. And thus he is driven to follow the ideologies in mode today and to make use of himself as a propagator of all the errors.

He who allows himself to be signed with the mark on his hand is obliged to act in an autonomous manner and independently of God, ordering his own activities to the quest of a purely material and terrestrial good. Thus he withdraws his action from the design of the Father, who wants to illumine it and sustain it by His divine Providence; from the love of the Son who makes human toil a precious means for one's own redemption and sanctification; from the power of the Spirit who acts everywhere to interiorly renew every creature.

He who is signed with the mark on his hand works for himself alone, to accumulate material goods, to make money his god and he becomes a victim of materialism. He who is signed with the mark on his hand works solely for the gratification of his own senses, for the quest of well-being and pleasure, for the granting of full satisfaction to all his passions, especially that of impurity, and he becomes a victim of hedonism.

He who is signed with the mark on his hand makes of his own self the center of all his actions, looks upon others as objects to be used and to be exploited for his own advantage and he becomes a victim of unbridled egoism and of lovelessness." (September 8, 1989, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary).

We are now witnessing this unbridled egoism and lovelessness across every segment of our society. Even within the Church, many priests and laity have succumbed to a hedonism which is only interested in the quest for pleasure and which genuflects before the world and its master Satan.

The faithful remnant finds itself being relegated to the margins of society as the new humanitarian religion of Antichrist extends its reach. Churches continue to empty even as sports stadiums are filled to overflowing. Witness the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Texas which cost 1.12 billion dollars.

Everything is falling into place. People are being marked with either the sign of the Cross or the mark of the Beast. Enter the Man of Sin.

The duty of fostering vocations...

Vatican II's Decree on Priestly Training (Optatam Totius) says that, "The duty of fostering vocations pertains to the whole Christian community, which should exercise it above all by a fully Christian life...All priests especially are to manifest an apostolic zeal in fostering vocations and are to attract the interest of youths to the priesthood by their own life lived in a humble and industrious manner and in a happy spirit as well as by mutual priestly charity and fraternal sharing of labor. Bishops...are to encourage their flock to promote vocations and should be concerned with coordinating all forces in a united effort to this end. As fathers, moreover, they must assist without stint those whom they have judged to be called to the Lord's work." (No. 2).

Unfortunately, this duty is not taken seriously by many within the Church. In fact, many vocations have been sabotaged by dissident priests and religious anxious to exclude those who are deemed "too rigid" or too "pre-Vatican II." Recall Michael S. Rose's book "Goodbye, Good Men." Such was my experience with the La Salette Missionaries. Because of my orthodoxy, I was never even seriously considered as a candidate. In fact, when I expressed concerns over La Salette priests promoting the ordination of women to the ministerial priesthood during a vocation retreat, a La Salette Provincial accused me of "evil." I still have all my correspondence with several La Salette priests, one of whom actually had the grace and kindness to apologize to me for the way the La Salette community treated me.

Because I accept everything which is taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and because I defend the teaching authority of the Church's Magisterium, I am treated with nothing but contempt in my own diocese. I am not even permitted to participate in the life of my parish. And I am not alone. As Archbishop Elden Curtis explained in an article entitled "Crisis in Vocations? What Crisis?":


"There is much media hype these days about the present and projected shortage of priests and its effect on the sacramental life of the Church. It is time to pay close attention to the dioceses and religious communities reporting increasing numbers of candidates. There have to be reasons for these increases that bear objective analysis from which some conclusions can be drawn.
I personally think the vocation "crisis" in this country is more artificial and contrived than many people realize. When dioceses and religious communities are unambiguous about ordained priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these calls; when there is strong support for vocations, and a minimum of dissent about the male celibate priesthood and religious life loyal to the magisterium; when bishop, priests, Religious and lay people are united in vocation ministry—then there are documented increases in the numbers of candidates who respond to the call.

It seems to me that the vocation "crisis" is precipitated and continued by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the Pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines the ministries.

I am personally aware of certain vocation directors, vocation teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who do not support the possibility of ordaining women or who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the Rosary.

When there is a determined effort to discourage orthodox candidates from priesthood and religious life, then the vocation shortage which results is caused not by a lack of vocations but by deliberate attitudes and policies that deter certain viable candidates.

And the same people who precipitate a decline in vocations by their negative actions call for the ordination of married men and women to replace the vocations they have discouraged. They have a death wish for ordained priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines them. They undermine the vocation ministry they are supposed to champion." (Full article here).

It is incredible to me that while Senator Edward Kennedy's life was celebrated during a very public funeral - even though he publically dissented from the Church's teaching regarding the sanctity of life - I am treated with nothing but contempt by those who would exclude me because of my fidelity to the Church's teaching. The Senator was referred to as "Our brother and friend." I cannot even participate in the life of my parish. I am held in so much contempt that when I contacted my Diocese to inquire about the priesthood, I received no response whatsoever.

Maybe if I promoted the killing of the unborn or women's ordination, I too would be welcomed as "brother and friend." That's not going to happen though. For what does it profit a man....you know the rest.

UN Shock Report: Swine flue could kill millions; pandemic could result in anarchy

"I have wanted you here, to tell you that you must now all enter right away into the safe refuge of my Immaculate Heart. Just as Noah, in the name of the Lord, called into the ark those who were to be saved from the flood, so now must you, my littlest child, in the name of your heavenly Mother, call into the refuge of my Immaculate Heart those who must be protected, defended and saved from the great trial which has now come for the Church and for all humanity...My Church will be shaken by the violent wind of apostasy and unbelief, as he who sets himself against Christ will enter into its interior, thus bringing to fulfillment the horrible abomination which has been prophesied to you in Holy Scripture. Humanity will know the bloody hour of its chastisement: it will be stricken with the scourge of epidemics, of hunger and of fire; much blood will be spilt upon your roads; war will spread everywhere, bringing down upon the world incommensurable devastation...You, my poor children, must all bear the weight of great sufferings and of unspeakable sorrows, so that the great miracle of divine justice and mercy may be manifest to all...From this place, where I appeared as the Woman Clothed with the sun, to be your light in these dark years of the great tribulation, I bless you all in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." (Our Lady to Fr. Stephano Gobbi, Fatima, Portugal, March 15, 1993).

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer: A courageous example for all

My friends, this is my idea of a courageous Roman Catholic priest. An alter Christus. And there are others like him. A man in every sense of the word. Please pray every day for Fr. Euteneuer and to the Lord Jesus Christ, that our Church may be blessed with many more like him.


Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, in his Spirit & Life e-letter, responds to Fr. Rosica:


No Deal, Fr. Rosica

Fr. Thomas Rosica, director of the Salt and Light Catholic Television Network in Canada, recently wrote a shameless condemnation of pro-life people who objected to the August 28th Canonization in Boston, more commonly known as the funeral of Senator Edward Kennedy. Fr. Rosica had a problem with good Catholics being scandalized by the public funeral of a man who lived his life utterly rejecting the Church's core principles. There was absolutely no recognition of the heroism of the thousands of faithful Catholics who have stood on the front lines of this battle for many decades or of the marvelous contribution that we have made to saving babies and witnessing to the Truth of Christ. Unfortunately, Father's criticism simply feeds the flames of anti-life sentiment against pro-lifers and ultimately against the sanctity of human life.

Now, the first of his many ironies was that, in condemning pro-lifers, Father was attempting to convince his readers not to condemn anyone. He reads the Scripture passage, "judge not lest ye be judged" with a bit of jaundice. He called pro-lifers all kinds of names that could have come right out of Planned Parenthood's verbiage for us, and he even insinuated in a subsequent interview that, of all people, EWTN's Raymond Arroyo was somehow part of this "uncharitable" problem in the Church because Raymond spoke out forcefully against the Kennedy scandal. Then he attacked the best pro-life news organization in the business, LifeSiteNews, saying that they were doing "the work of the devil" in shining the spotlight on this travesty. If this is the Gospel model of non-judgmentalism, I am reading the Good Book wrong.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Luther pastor who was killed in the Nazi Holocaust, called this kind of sell-out "cheap grace" because it costs the pious churchman absolutely nothing to say it. In fact it must apparently feel real good because so many of them indulge in it. Let these churchmen try disciplining "Catholic" dissenters who scandalize Christ's faithful, and they would see the value of their grace increase in proportion to their suffering at the hands of these renegades.

Worst of all is that people with this strange ethic of non-judgmentalism apply a standard of mercy to public Catholic reprobates that is never applied to the aborted children who will not get a funeral or graveside service offered by prelates reading pious sentiments from a very strange gospel book. What Fr. Rosica's denunciations have thus highlighted for us is the extent to which the "judge not lest ye be judged" ethic reigns in ecclesiastical circles, and for that reason our Church is in trouble. Those who come out of a non-judgmentalism Gospel ethic, lay and cleric alike, will have nothing to offer our suffering souls in the darkness that is even now hovering over our Church like a black shroud*. The pagan world is already coming after all that we hold dear and sacred, and if the murder of pro-lifer James Pouillon last week is any indication, they will soon be doing so with a vehemence that we have not experienced in our land since the days of the North American Martyrs.

To the ethic of hypocritical diatribes that defame pro-lifers, I can only say, "No deal, Father Rosica." Anyone who will use "non-judgmentalism" against faithful Catholics needs to wake up and smell the gunpowder on Jim Pouillon's pro-life t-shirt. The Church stands with all men and women of good will against the increasingly pagan and violent culture that militates against us and our values. Those who use this ethic to keep the Church totally unprepared for battle need more than a re-reading of Scripture. They need a good kick in the back end and a refresher course on Catholic bravery which St. Paul tells us makes us "strong, loving and wise." (2 Tim 1:7-8)

Sincerely,


Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer
President
Human Life International
4 Family Life Lane -- Front Royal, VA 22630 U.S.A.
Phone: (540) 635-7884 Fax: (540) 622-6247
E-mail: hli@hli.org Website: http://www.hli.org/


* See my post on judging here.

Related reading here and here.

Our Lady of La Salette

"One day Our Lady of La Salette will lead the world."

-Holy Curé of Ars, St. Jean-Baptiste Marie Vianney






Catechism of the Catholic Church:


THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION

1422 "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."

I. WHAT IS THIS SACRAMENT CALLED?

1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.

It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.

1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a "confession" - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.

It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent "pardon and peace."

It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who lives by God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go; first be reconciled to your brother."

II. WHY A SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION AFTER BAPTISM?

1425 "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." One must appreciate the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has "put on Christ." But the apostle John also says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." And the Lord himself taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses," linking our forgiveness of one another's offenses to the forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.

1426 Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.


Our Lady of La Salette, Reconciler of Sinners, pray for us.

Prayer to Our Lady of La Salette:

Remember, dear Lady of La Salette, true Mother of Sorrows, the tears which thou didst shed for me on Calvary; be mindful also of the unceasing care which thou dost exercise to shield me from the justice of God; and consider whether thou canst now abandon thy child, for whom thou hast done so much. Inspired by this consoling thought, I come to cast myself at thy feet, in spite of my infidelity and ingratitude. Reject not my prayer, O Virgin of reconciliation, convert me, obtain for me the grace to love Jesus Christ above all things and to console thee too by living a holy life, in order that one day I may be able to see thee in Heaven. Amen.

Signs....

Dr. Gert Hamer: "the objectors (death chip opposers are traitors) are not going to be put into normal prisons but in especially prepared concentration camps* of which hundreds have been prepared all over the country."

Related reading here.

* Read here and here.

Pray and watch

A meditation by Fr. James E. Sullivan

In two previous posts, which may be found here and here, I've examined harmless religion (which is so popular today) and the false notion that all anger is something unholy or sinful. The problem with this line of thinking is that it it attributes sin to Jesus Who cleansed the Temple. And that is nothing short of blasphemy.


In the wonderful Catholic classic entitled "My Meditation on the Gospel," published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, Rev. James E. Sullivan provides us with the following meditation on Christian Fortitude:


"After a few days' stay at Capharnaum, Jesus and Mary and the first five Apostles made the journey to Jerusalem for the Passover. When they entered the Temple, they heard its usual peace broken by a great uproar. Men were shouting and bargaining, oxen and sheep were bleating. Jesus stiffened, His Father's house made into a market place! A fierce, set look came over His features. His hands seized some cords and tied them into a whip. His eyes never left the scene before Him. He walked forward then, arms outstretched. 'Take these things away!' He cried out. His voice was strong, yet trembling with anger. An uneasy fear came over the crowd, as His eyes burned into theirs. They hurried away their oxen and sheep, those in back urging on those in front. The money-changers alone held their ground. Jesus seized the end of their tables and sent them flying end over end. They became panic-stricken then. They grasped what coins they could and ran. Jesus stood alone in the courtyard. Peace settled again over the Temple.

My Lord, how I admire You in ths scene! We are so liable to think that being a Christian means being a weakling and a 'mouse'! How wonderful to see that distorted notion so firmly dispelled by the example of Your magnificent courage! Your Father's house was being desecrated; there was reason for the fighting - so You fought! You didn't care what they thought or what they would say. His glory was primary! Nor did it matter to You that You were alone against them all. Your courage was so great and Your cause so just that the entire crowd fled before You.

Dear Master, it is so easy for me to get confused on this important point. I'm so liable to think that Your command 'to turn the other cheek' means to take any insult and never fight back! And so I become afraid to fight - or if I do fight, I feel very badly, as though somehow I had let You down. Teach me the real meaning of Your words. Turning the other cheek means being willing to forgive and forget when the injustice is over. It does not mean giving into the injustice, or being a weakling. Give me Your courage then, Lord, to fight for justice and fairness. Give me the backbone to say what I know is right, even though others oppose me. Courage, Lord! Magnificent courage like Yours!" (pp. 125-127).

As faithful Catholics, we have not only a right but a duty to oppose dissent from the Church's teaching. The Lord Jesus has not called us to be weaklings but to defend His Church and its teachings. Do you think it any coincidence that the men closest to Jesus were men of great zeal? Cowardice is not a virtue. We cannot allow cotton-candy Catholics to instill us with feelings of guilt for standing against dissent and with the Church's Magisterium. If such confused souls lack the courage to fight against error and falsehood, that's their problem. Not ours.

Former President Jimmy Carter attempting to silence dissent from Obama's socialist policies

In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Now, former President Jimmy Carter, the same man who referred to Barack Obama as a "Black Boy" (see video here) is asserting that the overwhelming portion of opposition to President Obama's socialistic policies is racist in origin (see here).

A convenient way to silence debate and political dissent. Paint the opposition as racist even when there is no evidence of racism. Never mind that ordinary decent Americans, many of whom voted for Barack Obama, are concerned about their future and the future of their children. No, according to former President Carter, most of those who have been expressing their concerns over the direction this country is heading in are racist. This response from Rush Limbaugh is most relevant.

In the Spirit of Father Feeney?

"He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God's commands." - Pope Pius XII, Vatican Radio broadcast to the people of France, June 1943.

"Mark well, we call Abraham our Patriarch, our ancestor. Anti-Semitism is irreconcilable with this lofty thought...Anti-Semitism is inadmissible; spiritually we are all Semites." - Pope Pius XI to Belgian Pilgrims, September 6, 1938.


"As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.

Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith -are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.

The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.

As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading. Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle. In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).

Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.

Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows." - Nostra Aetate, No. 4 of the Second Vatican Council.


Related reading here.

Why would Father Richard P. McBrien refer to Eucharistic Adoration as a "needless devotion"?

In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI says that:


"With the Synod Assembly...I heartily recommend to the Church's pastors and to the People of God the practice of eucharistic adoration, both individually and in community. Great benefit would ensue from a suitable catechesis explaining the importance of this act of worship, which enables the faithful to experience the liturgical celebration more fully and more fruitfully. Wherever possible, it would be appropriate, especially in densely populated areas, to set aside specific churches or oratories for perpetual adoration. I also recommend that, in their catechetical training, and especially in their preparation for First Holy Communion, children be taught the meaning and the beauty of spending time with Jesus, and helped to cultivate a sense of awe before his presence in the Eucharist.

Here I would like to express appreciation and support for all those Institutes of Consecrated Life whose members dedicate a significant amount of time to eucharistic adoration. In this way they give us an example of lives shaped by the Lord's real presence. I would also like to encourage those associations of the faithful and confraternities specifically devoted to eucharistic adoration; they serve as a leaven of contemplation for the whole Church and a summons to individuals and communities to place Christ at the centre of their lives.

Forms of eucharistic devotion

The personal relationship which the individual believer establishes with Jesus present in the Eucharist constantly points beyond itself to the whole communion of the Church and nourishes a fuller sense of membership in the Body of Christ. For this reason, besides encouraging individual believers to make time for personal prayer before the Sacrament of the Altar, I feel obliged to urge parishes and other church groups to set aside times for collective adoration." (Nos 67, 68).

St. Louis de Montfort, in his Love of Eternal Wisdom, explains that, "Eternal Wisdom, on the one hand, wished to prove his love for man by dying in his place in order to save him, but on the other hand, he could not bear the thought of leaving him. So he devised a marvelous way of dying and living at the same time, and of abiding with man until the end of time. So, in order fully to satisfy his love, he instituted the sacrament of Holy Eucharist and went to the extent of changing and overturning nature itself. He does not conceal himself under a sparkling diamond or some other precious stone, because he does not want to abide with man in an ostentatious manner. But he hides himself under the appearance of a small piece of bread - man's ordinary nourishment - so that when received he might enter the heart of man and there take his delight....How ungrateful and insensitive we would be if we were not moved by the earnest desires of Eternal Wisdom, his eagerness to seek out and the proofs he gives us of his friendship! How cruel we would be, what punishment would we not deserve even in this world, if, instead of listening to him,we turn a deaf ear; if, instead of seeking him, we flee from him; if, instead of loving him, we spurn and offend him! The Holy Spirit tells us, 'Those who neglected to acquire Wisdom not only inherited ignorance of what is good, but they actually left in the world a memorial of their folly in that their sins could not go unnoticed' (Wis 10: 8). Those who during their lifetime do not strive to acquire Wisdom suffer a triple misfortune. They fall (a) into ignorance and blindness, (b) into folly. (c) into sin and scandal. But how unhappy they will be at the hour of death when, despite themselves, they hear Wisdom reproach them, 'I called you and you did not answer. All the day long I held out my hands to you and you spurned me. Sitting at your door, I waited for you but you did not come to me. Now it is my turn to deride you. No longer do I have ears to hear you weeping, eyes to see your tears, a heart to be moved by your sobs, or hands to help you.'" (No. 72).

One Roman Catholic priest who spurns Wisdom in the Most Holy Eucharist is Fr. Richard P. McBrien. In an essay which may be found here, Fr. McBrien writes, "Notwithstanding Pope Benedict XVI's personal endorsements of eucharistic adoration and the sporadic restoration of the practice in the archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere, it is difficult to speak favorably about the devotion today. Now that most Catholics are literate and even well-educated...there is little or no need for extraneous eucharistic devotions...Eucharistic adoration, perpetual or not, is a doctrinal, theological, and spiritual step backward, not forward."

Such a statement only serves to highlight the immaturity of this confused priest. It was Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand who explained that, "It is a characteristic symptom of immaturity to feel oneself more mature and independent than men of previous times, to forget what one owes the past, and, in a kind of adolescent self-assertion, to refuse any assistance. One need only recall Dostoyevsky's masterly description of the puberty crisis - Kolya Krassotkin in The Brothers Karamazov, Hypolit in The Idiot, the hero of The Adolescent - to grasp the special immaturity of the man who is convinced of his superior maturity, who thinks that in him humanity has in a unique way come of age, who is dominated by one preoccupation - to show his independence. His ludicrous smallness is manifest as he looks down on everything passed on through tradition, even the most timeless values." (Trojan Horse in the City of God, pp. 143-144).

But there is more than immaturity here. Having spurned Wisdom, the "intellectual elite" who proclaim that "man has come of age" have retreated from the truth. They are antichrists preparing the way for the Antichrist, the Son of Perdition who hates the Lord Jesus and desires to lead all men to rejection of Eternal Wisdom, to rejection of God's Love.

A question for Dianne Williamson...

Back in June, Worcester Telegram & Gazette columnist Dianne Williamson assured us that the murder of late-term abortionist Dr. George Tiller was, "nothing short of far right-wing terrorism" (see here). I responded to this load of bovine scatology here. Now, a pro-life activist has been shot multiple times and killed in front of Michigan's Owosso High School (see article here).

Of course, this begs the question: Does the murder of this pro-life activist constitute far left-wing terrorism?

I look forward to a response from Ms. Williamson. Especially since she is such an expert on domestic terrorism and lunacy. Hopefully we will hear from her soon.

A harmless religion which offends no one....

It was John Henry Cardinal Newman who wrote, "What is Satan's device in this day?...He has taken the brighter side of the Gospel - its tidings of comfort, its precepts of love; all darker, deeper views of man's condition and prospects being comparitively forgotten. This is the religion natural to a civilized age, and well has Satan dressed and completed it into an idol of the Truth...Religion is pleasant and easy; benevolence is the chief virtue; intolerance, bigotry, excess of zeal, are the first of sins." (Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. 1, sermon 24).

Dr. von Hildebrand notes how, "burning zeal for the truth, for God, for Christ and His holy Church, is looked on as fanatical, intolerant, and incompatible with charity. Of this burning holy zeal, which every true Christian necessarily possesses, Newman says: 'Now I fear we lack altogether....firmness, manliness, godly severity. We are ever-tender in dealing with sin and sinners. We are deficient in the jealous custody of the revealed Truths which Christ has left us. We allow men to speak against the Church, its ordinances, or its teaching, without remonstrating with them. We do not separate from heretics, nay, we object to the word as if uncharitable....' In the saints we find..union of burning zeal and triumphant love of neighbor - one has only to think of the Apostles, of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, or of St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, St. Francis de Sales, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, and countless others....But today we find a twofold evil: harmlessness and loss of holy fear, as well as loss of burning zeal for supernatural things..."

We congratulate ourselves on how "civilized" we've become. How tolerant. But we forget that lukewarness is the Devil in disguise. Do we hate sin and error? If not, then we do not really love God. Our love of God is a sham, a counterfeit, a fraud. It is not without reason that God will say to the lukewarm: "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3: 16).

Which will we embrace: a harmless religion which makes no demands (a natural religion which prepares the way for the Man of Sin) or a supernatural faith which unites burning zeal for truth with love of neighbor? Do we even understand what charity consists of? If not, we should reflect very carefully on 1822 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Natural religion, harmless religion, is the religion of Antichrist. This is the seduction of our time: we are overwhelmed by a culture which exhorts us to be "reasonable." To be "tolerant." But, as Pope Benedict XVI writes (in his book Jesus of Nazareth): "If we had to choose today, would Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, the son of the Father, have a chance? Do we really know Jesus at all? Do we understand him? Do we not perhaps have to make an effort, today as always, to get to know him all over again? The tempter is not so crude as to suggest to us directly that we should worship the devil. He merely suggests that we opt for the reasonable decision, that we choose to give priority to a planned and thoroughly organized world, where God may have his place as a private concern but must not interfere in our essential purposes..." (p. 41).

"Be reasonable," our culture says: "Don't rock the boat, what do you care if a woman wants to have an abortion? After all, that's her affair. You should stop being so fanatical and intolerant. You believe life is sacred? Good, but keep your beliefs in your Church." And: "Why shouldn't people of the same sex be married? Stop denying them their civil rights. You are being judgmental. After all, God is love."

The Pope has said it. The Devil merely suggests that we opt for the reasonable decision. But we do so at the price of apostasy.

Bishop Rene Henry Gracida denounces the scandal of the Kennedy funeral...

"..Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2285).

Bishop Gracida is to be commended for courageously speaking the truth.

Be sure to keep His Excellency in your prayers.

Related reading here.

UN wants to replace dollar with a global currency

Our Lady to Josyp Terelya* (September 18, 1992):


"I have come because there are terrible events that will befall a godless humanity that does not want to receive my Son. Josyp, my son, the time is at hand. So many events of greater or lesser magnitude have already affected many nations. But there is an event coming that will shake the entire world. A great war, the greatest that has ever been until now is iminent. So many will not survive it; only those who accept Christ the King and obey God's Commandments. I am telling you this so that devout Christians might be able to obtain the knowledge that will enable them to defend themselves. All this has been written in the Holy Book in the Gospel of Christ. Everywhere the servants of the Antichrist, the sons of Satan, will come proclaiming peace and quiet, but Satan is preparing a great war, such as has never been seen until now. His power is invisible, and this power will drive people to arm themselves....It is Satan himself who speaks through the false prophet of the Organization of the United Nations using the corpse of the Organization of United Nations to deceive mankind...The devil knows well that his time is short, the time to prepare for the great battle and his purpose is to destroy all mankind rather than seeing all men serve God. This is the age-old despair of the devil, for he knows that he can never win against God. Satan knows that he cannot win his duel with God, the Almighty and All-Merciful One. This is why for some time I have been speaking across the globe about the iminent coming of God's kingdom under Christ, that this kingdom is the hope of the world. This is why the devil is in such a frenzy to drag all the nations of the world into a great war, in order that he might destroy God's creation. This is why the Organization of the United Nations was established through the agency of the devil, that through this diabolic exchange he might change Gods kingdom into a kingdom of darkness. The devil is now using the Organization of the United Nations to deceive and to blind the nations before God's truth, to keep people from placing their trust in the kingdom of God, which alone is the hope of the world."

Be assured, a global currency is merely the first step in destroying the sovereignty of nations: "Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb's but spoke like a dragon. It wielded all the authority of the first beast in its sight and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. It performed great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of everyone. It deceived the inhabitants of the earth with the signs it was allowed to perform in the sight of the first beast, telling them to make an image for the beast who had been wounded by the sword and revived. It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast's image, so that the beast's image could speak and (could) have anyone who did not worship it put to death. It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads, so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast's name or the number that stood for its name. Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six." (Revelation 13: 11-18).

* Famed Catholic mystic from the Ukraine who met with Pope John Paul II more than 30 times. Terelya's warning to America here.

The Culture of Death spreads throughout New Hampshire...

The Culture of Death continues to spread throughout New Hampshire. The following announcement relative to the Catholic Medical Center/Darthmouth-Hitchcock affiliation is from New Hampshire Right to Life:


SAVE CMC AGAIN !

Our Catholic Hospital is in grave danger!
The so-called “Affiliation” with Dartmouth Hitchcock WILL change healthcare in Manchester FOREVER!
The assurances from CMC Officials are empty Promises!
Their own Documents tell the REAL STORY!


THIS MERGER IS A BETRAYAL !
CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE WILL BE GONE!
ABORTIONS ARE ALREADY HAPPENING!
THE ETHICAL DIRECTIVES HAVE BEEN SUBVERTED!


YOU CAN HELP:



COME STAND UP FOR CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE!
COME AND STOP THE TAKE OVER BY DARTMOUTH!
BE THERE ... BE SEEN ... BE HEARD:

William B. Cashin Senior Center
115 Douglas Street Manchester!
SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
7:30 PM SHARP!

DON’T LET CMC OFFICIALS SELL US OUT!


PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING CMC WEBPAGE
TO LEAVE COMMENTS AND CONCERNS FOR THEM.

http://www.ahealthiertomorrow.org/comments.html

Our culture is gradually leaving the twilight. The Man of Sin is about to reveal himself. Our Lady told Father Gobbi on May 13, 1994, that: "...the message which I have given you at Fatima and against which my Adversary has thrown himself in fury, but which will now appear in all its extraordinary importance for the Church and for all humanity. It is an apocalyptic message. It has regard to the end of times. It announces and prepares for the return of my Son Jesus in glory - Upon this humanity which has again become pagan, enveloped in the coldness of the denial of God and of rebellion against his Law of love, corrupted by sin and evil, and over whom Satan reigns as a sure victor, I am causing the rays of love and of light from my Immaculate Heart to come down. They shed light for you upon the way along which you must travel, to return to God along the road of conversion, of prayer and of penance. Thus my Immaculate Heart becomes today the sure means of salvation for all this humanity..."

Those who reject the Lord Jesus and His Law of love are gradually succumbing to spiritual and moral blindness. Even many of those whose vocation is to speak the truth of the Gospel have become mute. Where is the outrage at sin? Where is the thunder of truth? Thanks be to God, we can still hear the entire truth from Peter's successor. But many other shepherds have chosen to genuflect to the culture.

Watch and pray. That your faith may not be shaken. Consecrate yourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Visit my sister's blog [Our Lady's Tears, the link to which may be found on the sidebar of this Blog] and take refuge in the Immaculata. Listen to the Holy Father. Do not let his voice be drowned out by the pagan culture or the wolves which have slipped into the sheepfold.

Related reading here.

This Religious Sister is a real find....Meet Sister Marianne Lorraine Trouve'

"The consecrated life, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, 'constitutes a closer imitation and an abiding re-enactment in the Church' of the way of life which Jesus, the supreme Consecrated One and missionary of the Father for the sake of his Kingdom, embraced and proposed to his disciples (cf. Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-20; Lk 5:10-11; Jn 15:16). In the light of Jesus' consecration, we can see in the initiative of the Father, the source of all holiness, the ultimate origin of the consecrated life. Jesus is the One whom "God anointed ... with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38), the One 'whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world' (Jn 10:36). Accepting his consecration by the Father, the Son in turn consecrates himself to the Father for the sake of humanity (cf. Jn 17:19). His life of virginity, obedience and poverty expresses his complete filial acceptance of the Father's plan (cf. Jn 10:30; 14:11). His perfect offering confers an aspect of consecration upon all the events of his earthly existence.

Jesus is the exemplar of obedience, who came down from heaven not to do his own will but the will of the One who sent him (cf. Jn 6:38; Heb 10:5, 7). He places his way of living and acting in the hands of the Father (cf. Lk 2:49). In filial obedience, he assumes the condition of a servant: he 'emptied himself, taking the form of a servant ... and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross' (Phil 2:7-8). In this attitude of submissiveness to the Father, Christ lives his life as a virgin, even while affirming and defending the dignity and sanctity of married life. He thus reveals the sublime excellence and mysterious spiritual fruitfulness of virginity. His full acceptance of the Father's plan is also seen in his detachment from earthly goods: 'though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich' (2 Cor 8:9). The depth of his poverty is revealed in the perfect offering of all that is his to the Father. The consecrated life truly constitutes a living memorial of Jesus' way of living and acting as the Incarnate Word in relation to the Father and in relation to the brethren. It is a living tradition of the Saviour's life and message." (Pope John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, No. 22).

I discovered Sister's Blog after coming across her comment left at Cardinal O'Malley's Blog relative to Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral. I plan on visiting her Blog often.

"He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins.."

In my previous post, I noted how it is possible to "be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4: 26), something which Cardinal Sean O'Malley obviously does not understand. And he is not alone. Writing for Touchstone Magazine, Dr. Leon J. Podles explains that, "..many Christians have a false understanding of the nature and role of anger. It is seen as something negative, something that a Christian should not feel.

In the sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church, those who dealt with the bishops have consistently remarked that the bishops never expressed outrage or righteous anger, even at the most horrendous cases of abuse and sacrilege. Bishops seem to think that anger at sin is un-Christian. Gilbert Kilman, a child psychiatrist, commented, 'What amazes me is the lack of outrage the church feels when its good work is being harmed. So, if there is anything the church needs to know, it needs to know how to be outraged.'

Mark Serrano confronted Bishop Frank Rodimer, asking why he had let his priest-friend Peter Osinski sleep with boys at Rodimer’s beach house while Rodimer was in the next bedroom: 'Where is your moral indignation?' Rodimer’s answer was, 'Then I don’t get it. What do you want?' What Serrano wanted Rodimer to do was to behave like a man with a heart, a heart that is outraged by evil. But Rodimer couldn’t; his inability to feel outrage was a quality that had helped make him a bishop. He would never get into fights, never rock the boat, never 'divide' but only 'unify.' Rodimer could not understand why he should feel deep anger at evil, at the violation of the innocent, at the oppression of the weak.

Emotional Deformation

The emotions that are now suppressed are hatred and anger. Christians think that they ought not to feel these emotions, that it is un-Christian to feel them. They secretly suspect that Jesus was being un-Christian in his attitude to the scribes and Pharisees when he was angry at them, that he was un-Christian when he drove the moneychangers out of the temple or declared that millstones (not vacations in treatment centers) were the way to treat child abusers.

Conrad Baars noticed this emotional deformation in the clergy in the mid-twentieth century. He recognized that there had been distortions in 'traditional' Catholic spirituality. It had become too focused upon individual acts rather than on growth in virtue; it had emphasized sheer naked strength of will. In forgetting that growth in virtue was the goal of the Christian’s moral life, it forgot that the emotions, all emotions, including anger and hate, are part of human nature and must be integrated into a virtuous life.

Baars had been imprisoned by the Nazis. He knew iniquity firsthand and that there was something wrong with those who did not hate it:

A little reflection will make it clear that there is a big difference between the person who knows solely that something is evil and ought to be opposed, and the one who in addition also feels hate for that evil, is angry that it is corrupting or harming his fellow-men, and feels aroused to combat it courageously and vigorously.

Just Wrath

Wrath is a necessary and positive part of human nature: 'Wrath is the strength to attack the repugnant; the power of anger is actually the power of resistance in the soul,' wrote Josef Pieper. The lack of wrath against injustice, he continued, is a deficiency: 'One who does good with passion is more praiseworthy than one who is ‘not entirely’ afire for the good, even to the forces of the sensual realm.'

Aquinas, too, says that 'lack of the passion of anger is also a vice' because a man who truly and forcefully rejects evil will be angry at it. The lack of anger makes the movement of the will against evil 'lacking or weak.' He quotes John Chrysostom: 'He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but the good to do wrong'..." (Full article here).

The spiritually mature Christian understands that not all anger is unjust. That there is such a thing as just or righteous anger. Such a Christian strives to control anger through prayer and by considering the example of Christ. Let's all pray for those in leadership positions in the Church. That they may come to a mature faith which is able to discern between just and unjust anger.

One shepherd [and he is that in every sense of the word] who possesses such a mature faith is The Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewitz, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. His Excellency has been quoted as having said, "No words that are printable, or even conceivable, are adequate to express my outrage, fury, and depression upon learning that anyone, much less a priest, would sexually molest any children. Such a thing is an unspeakable abomination. Upon hearing such things, I must confess that I am tempted to look for my shotgun and baseball bat, much sooner that I am tempted to give any consideration to a possible 'sickness' in a perpetrator. Molestation victims and their families are certainly entitled to anger. Sometimes their excessive anger and demands, while often becoming unacceptable and unreasonable, are still understandable to me." Read full statement here.

How much more just anger should a shepherd demonstrate against those who would spiritually molest faithful Catholics.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley: Unity over truth?

"It is as much a crime to disturb the peace when truth prevails as it is a crime to keep the peace when truth is violated. There is therefore a time in which peace is justified and another time when it is not justifiable. For it is written that there is a time for peace and a time for war and it is the law of truth that distinguishes the two. But at no time is there a time for truth and a time for error, for it is written that God's truth shall abide forever. That is why Christ has said that He has come to bring peace and at the same time He has come to bring the sword. But He does not say that He has come to bring both the truth and the falsehood." - Blaise Pascal.




In an article entitled "O'Malley defends role at Kennedy rites," The Boston Globe says that the Cardinal has refused to join the ranks of those Bishops "who would deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.." In other words, he has refused to act in accordance with Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law which states clearly, "Those who are excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion." And this represents a direct challenge to the teaching authority of the Magisterium which tells us (in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1395) that "The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church."

Dismissing the concerns of those who view Senator Edward Kennedy's Catholic funeral (which was televised and therefore very public) as a source of scandal, the Cardinal was quoted as having said that, "If any cause is motivated by judgment, anger or vindictiveness it will be doomed to marginalization." But doesn't this represent a judgment aimed at those who oppose genuflecting before the Culture of Death and who viewed the Senator's funeral as a source of scandal? In other words, isn't His Eminence guilty of the very fault he would attribute to others?

And what of anger? Is anger always evil or unholy? His Eminence should know better. Our age has succumbed to a cult of softness. It is fashionable to believe that any display of anger is due to a lack of charity or to some psychological problem. This cult of softness has, in turn, contributed much to an effeminate Christianity which is incapable of opposing the evils of our present epoch.

It is forgotten that sometimes anger is the proper response to value. In the words of Fr. Bede Jarrett, O.P., "Not only may I sin by being angry when I should not, but I may sin by not being angry when I should be. If my reason tells me that it is right to be angry, then I disobey God when I refuse to give place to wrath; for, as the New Testament teaches, it is possible to "be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26). Our Lord Himself, when need arose, roped together a bundle of cords and drove from the Temple those who trafficked in the House of Prayer, and down the front steps He flung the tables of the money-changers. Perhaps for most of us, the fault is not that we are too angry, but that we are not angry enough. Think of the evils that are in the world, that are known to all, admitted to exist by public press and on public platform. Would they have survived thus far, had folk all shown the indignant anger of Christ? Hypocrisy, cant, and the whole blatant injustice that stalks naked and unashamed in national life - may not our own weakness and silence have helped to render impotent all efforts to reduce these terrible things?....I have got to make myself realize that anger is itself neither evil nor good, and that it can be either. Hence I must pledge myself to see how far I allow anger to rule me when it should not, and how far I overrule it when I should give it a free hand." (Classic Catholic Meditations, p. 168, Sophia Institute Press).

All too many Catholics refuse to give vent to a righteous anger which opposes the myriad evils of our time. Has the Cardinal's way worked? Senator Kennedy wrote a letter to our Holy Father in which he sought to justify his pro-abortion stance. His Eminence has forgotten a truth expressed by my dear friend Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand (whom Pope Pius XII referred to as the "20th century Doctor of the Church"): "St. Paul says there always will be heresies and he adds that God permits them to test the faithful. The disunity that is based on the incompatibility of truth and falsehood cannot and should not be avoided...To deplore disunity as such, instead of deploring heresies, instead of condemning these and calling them by their name, implies first of all that one would keep unity even at the cost of truth. But, of course, true unity presupposes unity in truth. Error, falsehood, can never be the basis for true unity. That holy, supernatural unity of which our Lord speaks in the priestly prayer ut unum sint - that all may be one - can come to pass only in the profession of divine truth, in the membership of the Mystical Body of Christ. It is a unity which includes some but, by the same token, excludes others. As Father Werenfried van Straaten [the Bacon priest, my note] reminds us, 'Jesus' prayer that all may be one'...may not be separated from His other words: 'I say unto you that whoever does not enter by the door of the sheepfold is a thief and a robber...I am the door!' The same principle is expressed in the first encyclical of Pope Pius XI: Pax Christi in regno Christi, the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ. Even on the natural level, unity that is not grounded in truth is either a very silly or a very dangerous thing. That shallow comradeship so typical of modern society, for example, in which we approach everyone regardless of his relation to God in a spirit of 'tolerance' - the spirit incarnated in the words of Frederick II of Prussia: 'Let everyone attain beatitude in his own fashion' - that is a foolish pseudo-unity lacking any common principle to truly unite men. Such 'togetherness,' however, can be worse than foolish; it can be a sinister force when it is based not on a lack of principle, but on a common error - on an idol. The togetherness found in Nazism or in Communism is an amazing thing. Devotion to the common idol goes so far that the devotees are ready to die for it. So many young Germans gave their lives in the war while screaming, 'Heil Hitler!' They had given themselves in unity, to the devil." (The Charitable Anathema, pp. 3-4).

I have nothing but love and respect for His Eminence. But it would appear that he does not deplore error and falsehood as much as he deplores disunity. This is a great tragedy and more than likely the result of a lack of the Holy Spirit's gift of Fortitude. Something His Eminence should pray for. But he should refrain from casting aspersions at those of us who understand that authentic unity is based in truth. His Eminence may believe that Catholics who are firm in faith are guilty of "attitudes and practices" which do "irreparable damage to the communion of the Church." But faithful Catholics know that it is a false irenicism which really damages the communion of the Church.

Dissent in the Church leads to polarization and destroys peace within the Church. Faithful Catholics who refuse to accept a dissenting view must resist it for the sake of restoring an authentic peace, a peace which Pope John XXIII taught: "is not completely untroubled and serene; it is active, not calm and motionless. In short, this is a peace that is ever at war. It wars with every sort of error, including that which falsely wears the face of truth; it struggles against the enticements of vice, against those enemies of the soul, of whatever description, who can weaken, blemish, or destroy our innocence or Catholic faith." (Ad Petri cathedram, AAS 51 (1959) 517, PE, 263.93).

Dear Cardinal O'Malley please meditate carefully on these words from St. Paul, my patron saint, "Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ." (Galatians 1: 10).

Your Eminence, ask yourself the very same question.

You are in my prayers.

Related reading here.