FCC: Building a Police State?

"The most common characteristic of all police states is intimidation by surveillance. Citizens know they are being watched and overheard. Their mail is being examined. Their homes can be invaded."

                                            - Vance Packard, American journalist, social critic and author

Daily Caller is reporting that the FCC appears to be building an "enemy list."  The site reports: "The Federal Communications Commission is planning a broad probe of  political speech across media platforms, an unprecedented move that raises serious First Amendment concerns.

The FCC’s proposed “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” which is set to begin a field test in a single market with an eye toward a comprehensive study in 2014, would collect a remarkably wide range of information on demographics, point of view, topic selection, management style and other factors in news organizations both in and out of the FCC’s traditional purview.
The airwaves regulator would also subject news producers in all media to invasive questioning about their work and content."  See more here.


Father Charles Arminjon, in his book entitled 'The End of the Present World," explains that, "..the Antichrist will be lord of the world" and that, "It is abundantly clear that the effect of all the events of the present time is to prepare the social setting in which the dominance of the man of sin will be exercised...any careful observer [this would rule out the vast majority today] of the events of the present time cannot escape the conviction that everything is being done to bring about a social environment where the man of sin, by combining in his person all the depravity and every false doctrine of his age, will be produced spontaneously and effortlessly, like the parasitical tapeworm that breeds naturally in gangrenous flesh and organs.."

Men, crippled by their atheistic humanism, are today forging their own net of despotism which will be encompassed by the walls of new concentration camps. Already citizens find themselves being monitored by a surveillance society which is merely a preparation for the fish-tank men will find themselves within when the Man of Sin assumes power. "Man," Father Vincent Miceli, S.J., explains, in attempting to be both an atheist and his own God, "has only succeeded in establishing an inhuman humanism, a political and religiously perverted atheism which violently forces him..into total bondage to the father of lies and the unnatural perversions that lead to nihilism. Idol-perverted through the worship of itself, atheistic humanism practices the licentious liturgy of feeding its Man-God on man-god victims, a sort of divine-human cannibalism. The adventure of atheism is seen, in the last analysis, to be that unfathomable iniquity which attacks the very roots of reality, divorcing things, persons, societies from God and organizing them into a militant Kingdom of hate that ceaselessly and sacrilegiously assaults the sanctity of God and the dignity of men."

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once commented on the way that oppression can subtly arise in our midst: "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

Readers of this Blog know that I have been warning of the encroaching darkness for some time. Some have dismissed my warnings as "alarmist." Many Americans have been desensitized to the darkness and have come to accept new values without even realizing it. Such people believe that we still live in a democracy. But we do not.

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.

A democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism. Prophetic words indeed. It's twilight. Darkness is falling. Will we pray and work to turn back the darkness? Or will we give into it?

 

 

Related Reading: NSA has spied on the Vatican.

The Schaum family: Victims of the emerging Moloch State...

Recently, a district court sentenced parents of nine to pay a fine of 700 Euro each for their violation of the compulsory school attendance for all children in Germany. The public prosecution department demanded six months in prison for the married couple due to their repeated offense. An appeal was rejected in October.

 

The father, Thomas Schaum, 51, explains the reason for his third conviction: he did not want to give his children in the hands of strangers. He also criticised the sexual education that children received in schools. Three of the nine children of the Schaums are in school age. The married couple has already homeschooled the older children that are now between 17 and 25 years old. All of them have attended the last year of school and finished with excellent grades. Child protection services have confirmed that the family is not endangering the childrens’ well-being.

 

Just this month, an appeal launched by the parents was rejected and the fine of 700 Euro each was upheld.  See here.

At its website, under the section entitled "When do Kids Start Becoming Curious About Sex," the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asserts that infants and toddlers are curious about their own bodies and states that, "Children are human beings and therefore sexual beings.." See here. And this at a time when psychologists are pushing to decriminalize pedophilia.

This is the essence of the new anti-Christian sex education in preparation for the Moloch State. As George Kendall explains in Witness for the Truth, this sex education "radically separates sex from the very idea of the covenanted love of man and woman. Sex becomes merely a self-centered appetite to be satisfied and not a gift of self to another. As a result, what this kind of education produces is the lonely, autonomous individual. This is the ultimate in alienation. The autonomous individual is alienated even from his own body, which becomes to him only a thing, too - a thing to be used as a means to his autonomous pleasure. The end result is depersonalization which, if it lasts into eternity without being healed, means eternal loss. Few have put it as eloquently as Randy Engel did: 'Is it any wonder that the state must wage war against the family? For the state requires not individuals who dream, and think, and pray, but rather what has come to be called 'the mass man' - rootless, unaffirmed, a reactor - a mere reed blowing in the wind - a thing to be manipulated, to be used, to be disposed of, but never, never, to be loved, for the giant has no heart. And since the modern state has no heart, that which men previously have done out of love, must now be done out of fear, and hatred, and brute force.' So clearly, centemporary sex education, 'Catholic' or otherwise, is a profound attack on human dignity and on the human person.." (Witness for the Truth, pp. 399-400. citing Randy Engel "The Family Under Siege," Wanderer, March 6, 1980).

And now I would add, satanic. The United States, like the other Termite Nations of the West, is fast-becoming a Moloch State which claims total jurisdiction over man. It is becoming (and some of us would argue has already become) a demon-state which rejects God's Commandments and His plan for the human family. This demon-state (and make no mistake about it, our leaders increasingly have recourse to demons) denies that there is any transcendent, higher-than-human voice or authority that cares for man. R.J. Rushdoony explains that:

"The Moloch State simply represents the supreme effort of man to command the future, to predestine the world, and to be as God. Lesser efforts, divination, spirit-questing, magic and witchcraft are equally anathema to God. All represent efforts to have the future on other than God's terms, to have a future apart from and in defiance of God. They are assertions that the world is not of God but of brute factuality, and that man can somehow master the world and the future by going directly to the raw materials thereof."

Enter the Man of Sin.

The satanic vandalism against Our Lady's image in Bordeaux France....

On the night of October 13th, a statue of our lady was destroyed in Bordeaux, France. The statue had been attached in about three meters height to a corner of an apartment building at Rue Neuve. A strong indicator that this was a hate-motivated crime is the fact that the head of the statue could not be found.  And then there is the date:  October 13th, the anniversary date on which Our Lady of Fatima appeared for the last time to the three children.

Our culture - and this includes large segments of the Church - has succumbed to satanic pride. As the sexual abuse crisis explodes throughout the Church, as errors cripple the Mystical Body of Christ, as the Culture of Sodomy continues to metastasize like a cancer, officials in the Church hold committee meetings and form panels and conduct studies. All in the vain hope of solving these problems themselves. Pride.

What then is the solution? It is right before our eyes. But it is so simple the proud of this world are not capable of seeing it:

Satan,
proud-winged!
Bold and brazen,
Crushed by
Simple
Sandalled Maiden!


It was Saint Louis de Montfort who explained that, "Mary must become as terrible as an army in battle array to the devil and his followers, especially in these latter times. For Satan, knowing that he has little time - even less now than ever - to destroy souls, intensifies his efforts and his onslaughts every day. He will not hesitate to stir up savage persecutions and set treacherous snares for Mary's faithful servants and children whom he finds more difficult to overcome than others.

It is chiefly in reference to these last wicked persecutions of the devil, daily increasing until the advent of the reign of anti- Christ, that we should understand that first and well-known prophecy and curse of God uttered against the serpent in the garden of paradise. It is opportune to explain it here for the glory of the Blessed Virgin, the salvation of her children and the confusion of the devil. "I will place enmities between you and the woman, between your race and her race; she will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her heel" (Gen. 3:15).

God has established only one enmity - but it is an irreconcilable one - which will last and even go on increasing to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers of Lucifer.
Thus the most fearful enemy that God has set up against the devil is Mary, his holy Mother. From the time of the earthly paradise, although she existed then only in his mind, he gave her such a hatred for his accursed enemy, such ingenuity in exposing the wickedness of the ancient serpent and such power to defeat, overthrow and crush this proud rebel, that Satan fears her not only more than angels and men but in a certain sense more than God himself. This does not mean that the anger, hatred and power of God are not infinitely greater than the Blessed Virgin's, since her attributes are limited. It simply means that Satan, being so proud, suffers infinitely more in being vanquished and punished by a lowly and humble servant of God, for her humility humiliates him more than the power of God. Moreover, God has given Mary such great power over the evil spirits that, as they have often been forced unwillingly to admit through the lips of possessed persons, they fear one of her pleadings for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats more than all their other torments.

What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility. What Eve ruined and lost by disobedience Mary saved by obedience. By obeying the serpent, Eve ruined her children as well as herself and delivered them up to him. Mary by her perfect fidelity to God saved her children with herself and consecrated them to his divine majesty.

God has established not just one enmity but "enmities", and not only between Mary and Satan but between her race and his race. That is, God has put enmities, antipathies and hatreds between the true children and servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love and no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world, - for they are all one and the same - have always persecuted and will persecute more than ever in the future those who belong to the Blessed Virgin, just as Cain of old persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob. These are the types of the wicked and of the just. But the humble Mary will always triumph over Satan, the proud one, and so great will be her victory that she will crush his head, the very seat of his pride. She will unmask his serpent's cunning and expose his wicked plots. She will scatter to the winds his devilish plans and to the end of time will keep her faithful servants safe from his cruel claws.

But Mary's power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is, for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him. In the eyes of the world they will be little and poor and, like the heel, lowly in the eyes of all, down-trodden and crushed as is the heel by the other parts of the body. But in compensation for this they will be rich in God's graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary. They will be great and exalted before God in holiness. They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be supported by divine assistance that, in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ." (True Devotion to Mary, 50-54).

Pope John XXIII looked forward to a New Pentecost and Pope John Paul II spoke of a new Civilization of Love. And we shall have these. Even if they do not occur in the manner most people expect. In many places a cleansing, a purification is needed in individual temples before the Holy Spirit will enter with His Bride. We read in the Gospel of Matthew how, "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, 'It is written: My house shall be a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves.'" (21: 12, 13).

And what is our soul but His temple? Have we made His house a house of prayer? Or have we succumbed to lust, materialism and pride and made His house a den of thieves who have no place there? We have to become Marian. We have to become Mary-like before Christ is reborn again in our modern world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

There will indeed be a New Pentecost in the hearts of men and a Civilization of Love which will endure forever. But only after the Church has been purified through Calvary:


"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. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675).

Satan's goal is to make a physical and spiritual wreckage of all God's creation. To accomplish this, he enlists men through the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. And isn't this what we've witnessed even in the Church? Priests - ministers of the Living God - who have become so arrogant, so puffed up with pride, that they came to view even innocent children as objects to be used for their own sexual gratification and a laity which has also [for the most part] lost the sense of sin and no longer feels a need to confess and live a truly sacramental life.

Pride has brought the Church to her present state. We must become more Mary-like. We don't need more committee meetings, panels, studies, seminars and countless "experts" - men and women with a string of letters after their names but lacking wisdom - to bring us back to sanity. They are not up to the task. If a blind man lead another blind man, both end up in a ditch.

We need holy men and women who are on fire for the Lord Jesus and who recognize their poverty, their smallness. What we need is children of Mary - the same children (despised by this proud world) whom Saint Louis de Montfort says, "..will become, in Mary's powerful hands, like sharp arrows, with which she will transfix her enemies." (True Devotion, No. 56), It is such prayer-warriors who "..will be like thunder-clouds flying through the air at the slightest breath of the Holy Spirit. Attached to nothing, surprised at nothing, troubled at nothing, they will shower down the rain of God's word and of eternal life. They will thunder against sin, they will storm against the world, they will strike down the devil and his followers and for life and for death, they will pierce through and through with the two-edged sword of God's word all those against whom they are sent by almighty God." (True Devotion, No. 57).

This isn't a time for hand-wringing. Neither is it a time to look to so-called "experts," intellectual frauds who rely on their own intelligence. Fools. Now is the time to have recourse to Mary. The victory has been promised to the simple sandalled maiden. This is something the proud cannot understand or accept. Our Lady will crush the Devil's head - the seat of his intellect - and she will accomplish this without an academic degree or countless meetings. She will accomplish what the proud cannot. And she will do this through her children, her heel, those little souls consecrated to her.

The Devil fears Mary.  Each time the words "Hail Mary" are prayed reverently, all of Hell trembles.  The Evil One knows his time is very short now.  And so his persecution is becoming ever-more physical.

 

The Coming Food Stamp Riots and Our Lady's warning to Father Stefano Gobbi

Michael Snyder writes, "It may not happen this month, or even this year, but food stamp riots are coming to America.  In fact, we got a small preview of the coming food stamp riots this past weekend when a "temporary system failure" caused food stamp cards to stop working in 17 U.S. states.  Within hours, there were "mini-riots" at Wal-Marts and other retailers that rely heavily on food stamp users.  So what would happen if food stamp benefits were cut off or reduced for an extended period of time?  As you will see below, if Congress had not pushed through a "deal", the USDA would have started cutting off food stamp benefits on November 1st.  Considering the fact that 47 million Americans are on food stamps and more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government, that could have sparked massive rioting.  So the good news is that the coming food stamp riots will probably not happen in November.  The bad news is that the "deal" in Congress only delays the political fighting until after Christmas.  In just a few months we will be dealing with a potential "government shutdown" and a debt ceiling deadline once again.

Most Americans have no idea what almost just happened.  According to Reuters, the state of North Carolina had already cut off some welfare benefits for the month of November...

North Carolina has become the first state to cut off welfare benefits to poor residents in the wake of the partial federal government shutdown, ordering a halt to processing November applications until a deal is reached to end the federal standstill.
More than 20,000 people - most of them children - receive monthly benefits aimed at helping them buy food and other basic supplies through North Carolina's welfare program, called Work First, which is fully funded by the federal government. Recipients must reapply each month.

And as Mac Slavo recently detailed, the USDA was already planning to cut off food stamp assistance to millions of Americans on November 1st...

We say next month because the USDA, which oversees the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), has just issued an order to SNAP agency directors calling for their respective States to implement an emergency contingency program because of government funding issues. In a letter obtained by the Crossroads Urban Center food pantry, the USDA is directing state agencies to, “delay their November issuance files and delay transmission to State Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) vendors until further notice.”
What this means is that should Congress fail to increase the debt ceiling this week, come November there will literally be millions of people in the United States who will have exactly zero dollars transferred to their EBT cards.
What will happen to the nearly 50 million people who depend on these benefits to survive?

In fact, there have been quite a few news reports that have confirmed this...

In Utah, Fox News 13 in Salt Lake City reported that a local provider recently received a letter from the USDA sticking to the November 1 cut-off date.
“This is going to create a huge hardship for the people we serve here in our food pantry,” Bill Tibbits, Associate Director at Crossroads Urban Center, told Fox News 13.
“What this means [is] if there’s not a deal, if Congress doesn’t reach a deal to get federal government back up and running, in Utah about 100,000 families won’t get food stamp benefit,” added Tibbits.
The USDA letter says in part, “in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are directing states to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to state electronic benefit transfer vendors until further notice.”

So what would have happened if tens of millions of Americans suddenly had their food stamp benefits cut off without warning?
Well, what happened last weekend can give us a few clues.  Just check out what happened at one Wal-Mart in Mississippi...

Customers staged a disturbance then walked out of a Mississippi Walmart store with groceries that hadn’t been paid for Saturday night after a computer glitch left them unable to use their food stamp cards.
People in 17 states found themselves unable to buy groceries with their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a temporary system failure.
Shortly after the mini-riot, managers decided to temporarily close the store, citing customer safety.

Due to this technical glitch, many parents were left wondering how they were going to feed their families.  If this is the kind of anger that is unleashed over a single failed trip to the grocery store, what would we see if this kind of thing went on for an extended period of time?
At some Wal-Mart stores down in Louisiana, EBT cards were not showing any limits on Saturday night, and within two hours many store shelves in the grocery section were completely cleared of merchandise...

Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.
The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.
Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, "It was worse than any black Friday" that he's ever seen.

Sadly, this was only a very small preview of the massive food stamp riots that are eventually coming to America.  I like how Mike Adams explained what we are likely to see in the future...

Why does any of this matter? Because this is exactly the same way these people will behave when the federal government goes into default and nearly 50 million EBT cards stop working nationwide.
Fifty million. Consider that for a moment. Most of those 50 million people live in high-density cities. Many are proud owners of Obama phones, Obama food stamps, Obama unemployment checks and Obama subsidized housing. They have absolutely no clue that the government upon which they wholly depend to put food on the table is teetering on the verge of permanent collapse. (Seriously, they cannot conceive of the idea of government "running out of money" because they do not understand where money comes from.) Because of this distorted belief, they do not prepare for any future events other than more Obama handouts. Their entire "preparedness" plan is to vote for Democrats, because that's who they know will give them the most handouts. And they will always win the popular vote, too, because any politician promising to restore responsible fiscal spending to the government by cutting programs will be viciously accused of being "mean" or involved in "hating poor people." So the government handouts will only ratchet higher and higher, ensnaring more and more people, until the entire system is unsustainable and collapses under its own weight.
When that system of dependence fails, those who depend on it will panic in mere hours. As proof of this, consider the fact that this mass looting of Wal-Mart stores happened in less than three hours after the Saturday EBT card glitch struck. Police had to be called in to prevent the situation from getting completely out of control, and it was offline for only part of one day.
Now imagine what will happen when EBT cards go offline for 24, 48 or even 72 hours. And imagine it happening in every U.S. city simultaneously.

Of course not all Americans would go wild when food stamp benefits are cut off.
Other Americans express their desperation in other ways.  According to Bloomberg, an increasing number of people are starting to sell hair, breast milk and their own eggs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet..."  See the rest of his article here.

 "Before the war breaks out again, food will be scarce and expensive. There will be little work for the workers, and fathers will hear their children crying for food. There will be earthquakes and signs in the sun. Toward the end, darkness will cover the earth.

 The Ecstatic of Tours, (19th century) prophesied that, "When everyone believes that peace is assured, when everyone least expects it, the great happening will begin. Revolution will break out in Italy almost at the same time as in France. For some time the Church will be without a Pope." 

Our Lady told Fr. StefThe great trial has arrived for your country. How many times, as a concerned and sorrowing mother, have I endeavored to urge my children to follow the path of conversion and of return to the Lord. I have not been listened to. You have continued to walk along the way of rejection of God, and of His law of love. Sins of impurity have become ever more widespread, and immorality has spread like a sea which has submerged all things. Homosexuality, a sin of impurity which is against nature, has been justified; recourse to the means of preventing life have become commonplace, while abortions - these killings of innocent children, that cry for vengeance before the face of God - have spread and are performed in every part of your homeland.The moment of divine justice and of great mercy has now arrived.


You will know the hour of weakness and of poverty; the hour of suffering and defeat; the purifying hour of the great chastisement. The great trial has arrived for your Church. How great is your responsibility, O Pastors of the Holy Church of God! You continue along the path of division from the Pope and of the rejection of his Magisterium; indeed, in a hidden way, there is in preparation a true schism which could soon become open and proclaimed...And then, there will remain only a small faithful remnant, over which I will keep watch in the garden of my Immaculate Heart.

The great trial has arrived for all humanity. The chastisement, predicted by me at Fatima and contained in that part of the secret which has not yet been revealed, is about to take place. The great moment of divine justice and of mercy has come upon the world."

ano Gobbi on November 15, 1990, at Malvern Pennsylvania: "I announce to you that the hour of the great trial is on the point of arriving.

This prophecy is now being fulfilled. And no economic "bailout" will save the day. Only prayer and penance, mortification and a sacramental life. But these are not considered "fashionable" today. And so our sin-soaked society, which is morally, spiritually and intellectually bankrupt, looks for secular answers to what is essentially a spiritual problem.

Heartfelt prayers to Our Lady will never go unanswered

My parents were educated at Saint Cecilia's School in Leominster.  So when I heard that the bodily remains of a St. Cecilia's boy, Norman Dufresne, killed during the Korean War, were finally being returned to Leominster, I gave thanks to Our Lady for her maternal intercession.  You see, Norman's mother (often in tears waiting by the window for her boy to come home) and his father both prayed the Rosary every day for their son's return home.

Of course, his soul had already returned home some 63 years ago.

Norman and his parents have been reunited somewhere in the sunlit hills of Heaven.

No prayer to the Virgin is ever unanswered.  Even if they are not answered when we expect or in the manner we expect.  I prayed for my father to return home when he was in the intensive care unit at Saint Vincent's Hospital.  And so he did.  On September 19, 2000, on the anniversary of Our Lady of La Salette, the Mother of God, came to my father's hospital room to take her child home.

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

Priests today (like the rest of us) need to sincerely examine their own spiritual poverty...

Father Stephen Gemme, the Pastor of Saint Bernadette Parish in Northborough, Massachusetts [Diocese of Worcester], has resigned after being accused of stealing some $230,000 to maintain his gambling addiction.  Father Gemme resigned last Thursday and the matter has been referred to the District Attorney's Office.  See here: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/northboro-pastor-stephen-gemme-accussed-embezzling-230k-gambling-addiction

As Father Roger Landry noted in The National Catholic Register, "Diocesan priests do not take a vow of poverty, but commit themselves to a simple lifestyle. In many places, this principle is given lip service, as members of the clergy drive fancy cars, frequent the finest restaurants and live in exquisite digs. Cardinal Bergoglio’s example of living in a small apartment rather than an episcopal palace, taking public transportation rather than a car with a driver and cooking for himself cannot help but lead priests to a sincere examination about the sincerity of their own spiritual poverty." See here: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-francis-and-the-reform-of-the-priesthood

Jesus disciples are called to carry their cross and follow Him (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23). Above all, Christians are called to love as Jesus does (Jn 13: 34-35). But the cross is not popular with those who are advancing the "new religion" which will serve the New Order. The cross has never been popular with those who belong to the company of the world or the Devil. Today, countless young people (and old) have given themselves over to promiscuous sexual unions. In the mad pursuit of wealth, power, fame, and various hedonistic pleasures (euphemistically referred to as "choice" or "alternative lifestyles"), many poor souls have given themselves over to the Devil. Many who call themselves "Christian" are really living pagan lives. And their "pastors," often living disordered lives themselves, say nothing. Many of these have succumbed to materialism and hedonism. and find themselves unable to condemn sins which they have embraced.


This is, of course, nothing new. But the sexual degeneration in so-called Christian nations today is the most abominable in history. So much so that a young girl in the Ukraine is reported to have been told by Our Lady that: "The present times are worse than at the time of Noah. Then the world was scourged by a deluge of water: now the world is going to be scourge by a deluge of fire." (First apparition to Anna at Seredne, December 20, 1954). St. Louis de Montfort explains that:

"'My dear brothers and sisters, there are two companies that appear before you each day: the followers of Christ and the followers of the world.

Our dear Saviour's company is on the right, climbing up a narrow road, made all the narrower by the world's immorality. Our Master leads the way, barefooted, crowned with thorns, covered with blood, and laden with a heavy cross. Those who follow him, though most valiant, are only a handful, either because his quiet voice is not heard amid the tumult of the world, or because people lack the courage to follow him in his poverty, sufferings, humiliations and other crosses which his servants must carry all the days of their life.

On the left hand is the company of the world or of the devil. This is far more numerous, more imposing and more illustrious, at least in appearance. Most of the fashionable people run to join it, all crowded together, although the road is wide and is continually being made wider than ever by the crowds that pour along it like a torrent. It is strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver.

On the right, the little groups which follow Jesus speak about sorrow and penance, prayer and indifference to worldly things. They continually encourage one another saying, "Now is the time to suffer and to mourn, to pray and do penance, to live in retirement and poverty, to humble and mortify ourselves; for those who do not possess the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of the cross, do not belong to him. Those who belong to Christ have crucified all self-indulgent passions and desires. We must be true images of Christ or be eternally lost."

"Have confidence," they say to each other. If God is on our side, within us and before us, who can be against us? He who is within us is stronger than the one who is in the world. The servant is not greater than his master. This slight and temporary distress we suffer will bring us a tremendous and everlasting glory. The number of those who will be saved is not as great as some people imagine. It is only the brave and the daring who take heaven by storm, where only those are crowned who strive to live according to the law of the Gospel and not according to the maxims of the world. Let us fight with all our strength, let us run with all speed, that we may attain our goal and win the crown.

Such are some of the heavenly counsels with which the Friends of the Cross inspire each other.

Those who follow the world, on the contrary, urge each other to continue in their evil ways without scruple, calling to one another day after day, "Let us eat and drink, sing and dance, and enjoy ourselves. God is good; he has not made us to damn us. He does not forbid us to amuse ourselves. We shall not be damned for so little. We are not to be scrupulous. 'No, you will not die'."

Dear brothers and sisters, remember that our loving Saviour has his eyes on you at this moment, and he says to each one of you individually, "See how almost everyone deserts me on the royal road of the Cross. Pagans in their blindness ridicule my Cross as foolishness; obstinate Jews are repelled by it as by an object of horror; heretics pull it down and break it to pieces as something contemptible.

"Even my own people - and I say this with tears in my eyes and grief in my heart - my own children whom I have brought up and instructed in my ways, my members whom I have quickened with my own Spirit, have turned their backs on me and forsaken me by becoming enemies of my Cross. 'Will you also go away?' Will you also desert me by running away from my Cross like the worldlings, who thus become so many antichrists? Will you also follow the world; despise the poverty of my Cross in order to seek after wealth; shun the sufferings of my Cross to look for enjoyment; avoid the humiliations of my Cross in order to chase after the honours of the world? 'There are many who pretend they are friends of mine and protest that they love me, but in their hearts they hate me. I have many friends of my table, but very few of my Cross.' (Imit. II, 11, 1)."

At this loving appeal of Jesus, let us rise above our human nature; let us not be seduced by our senses, as Eve was; but keep our eyes fixed on Jesus crucified, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection (Heb 12.2). Let us keep ourselves apart from the evil practices of the world; let us show our love for Jesus in the best way, that is, through all kinds of crosses. Reflect well on these remarkable words of our Saviour, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt 16.24; Lk 9.23)." (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross, 7-12).

Are we truly friends of the Cross and therefore friends of Christ? Or is ours a counterfeit love?

Hostility toward the Holy Mass: Preparation for the Reign of Antichrist

World Net Daily is reporting:


In what has been described as “an astonishing attack on religious freedom,” Catholics at a Navy base were banned from attending worship services because of the partial shutdown of the federal government.

In response, the Thomas More Law Center announced it has filed a lawsuit over the orders at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia. The legal team said a Catholic priest who serves the community on the military base “has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest.” Without explanation, however, Protestant services continued.

 

“This is an astonishing attack on religious freedom by the federal government and the latest affront toward the military since the beginning of the shutdown,” said a report by the Thomas More Law Center. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of Father Ray Leonard, a Catholic priest contracted to serve as base chaplain, and Fred Naylor, one of Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with more than 22 years of service.

Leonard, a civilian serving on a contract basis, had served Tibetan populations in China for years.
“I was disallowed from performing public religious services due to the lack of religious freedom in China,” he said in an affidavit. “I never imagined that when I returned home to the United States, that I would be forbidden from practicing my religious beliefs as I am called to do and would be forbidden from helping and serving my faith community.”

Ten days ago, Leonard was ordered to stop performing all of his duties as the base’s Catholic chaplain, even as a volunteer. He was also told that he could be arrested if he violated the order. The approximately 300 Catholic families, including Naylor’s, served by Leonard at Kings Bay have been unable to attend Mass on base since the beginning of the shutdown, the legal team said.

“Additionally, Fr. Leonard was locked out of his on-base office and the chapel. Fr. Leonard was also denied access to the Holy Eucharist and other articles of his Catholic faith. The order has caused the cancellation of daily and weekend Mass, confession, marriage preparation classes and baptisms as well as prevented Fr. Leonard from providing the spiritual guidance he was called by his faith to provide.”

The legal team said the submarine base is in a remote location. It consists of roughly 16,000 acres, with 4,000 acres comprised of protected wetlands. There are approximately 10,000 total people on the base.

While there is a Catholic church located in St. Mary’s, some 16 miles away, “many of the parishioners both live and work on base and do not own a car and cannot otherwise access transportation,” the report said.

Defendants in the lawsuit are the Department of Defense, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Department of the Navy and the Secretary of the Department of the Navy, Ray Mabus.
For active duty service members, on-base religious services are very important due to limited transportation and minimal time off. Additionally, as service members tend to have high rates of divorce, depression and suicide, the need for readily available spiritual encouragement and guidance is critical, the legal team explained.

The Pay Our Military Act, which was enacted before the beginning of the government shutdown, provides funding for employees whose responsibilities contribute to the morale and well-being of the military. The government has been criticized for interpreting the act to not include military death benefits. Now, the Thomas More Center said, in yet another bizarre interpretation of the act, some chaplains are not considered covered by these provisions, leaving Catholic members of some military facilities without spiritual guidance.

On December 31, 1992, Our Lady told Father Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests:

"I have announced to you many times that the end of the times and the coming of Jesus in glory is very near. Now, I want to help you understand the signs described in the Holy Scriptures, which indicate that His glorious return is now close.

These signs are clearly indicated in the Gospels, in the letters of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and they are becoming a reality during these years.

-The first sign is the spread of errors, which lead to the loss of faith and to apostasy.

These errors are being propagated by false teachers, by renowned theologians who are no longer teaching the truths of the Gospel, but pernicious heresies based on errors and human reasonings. It is because of the teachings of these errors that the true faith is being lost and that the great apostasy is spreading everywhere.

'See that no one deceives you. For many will attempt to deceive many people. False prophets will come and will deceive very many.' (Mt 24:4-5)

'The day of the Lord will not come unless the great apostasy comes first.' (2 Thes 2:3).
'There will be false teachers among you. These will seek to introduce disastrous heresies and will even set themselves against the Master who ransomed them. Many will listen to them and will follow their licentious ways. Through their offense the Christian faith will be reviled. In their greed, they will exploit you with fabrications.' (2 Pt 2:1-3)

-The second sign is the outbreak of wars and fratricidal struggles, which lead to the prevalence of violence and hatred and a general slackening off of charity, while natural catastrophes, like epidemics, famines, floods and earthquakes (see here), become more and more frequent.

'When you hear the report of wars, close at hand or far away, see that you are not alarmed; for these things must happen. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many places. All this will be only the beginning of greater sufferings to come. Evildoing will be so widespread that the love of many will grow cold. But God will save those who persevere until the end.' (Mt 24:6-8, 12-13)

-The third sign is the bloody persecution of those who remain faithful to Jesus and to His Gospel and who stand fast in the true faith. Throughout this all, the Gospel will be preached in every part of the world.
Think, beloved children, of the great persecutions to which the Church is being subjected; think of the apostolic zeal of the recent popes, above all my Pope, John-Paul II, as he brings to all the nations of the earth the announcement of the Gospel.

'They will hand you over to persecution and they will kill you. You will be hated by all because of me. And then many will abandon the faith; they will betray and hate one another. Meanwhile, the message of the kingdom of God will be preached in all the world; all nations must hear it. And then the end will come.' (Mt 24:9-10, 14)

-The fourth sign is the horrible sacrilege, perpetrated by him who sets himself against Christ, that is, the Antichrist. He will enter into the holy temple of God and will sit on his throne, and have himself adored as God.

'This one will oppose and exalt himself against everything that men adore and call God. The lawless one will come by the power of Satan, with all the force of false miracles and pretended wonders. He will make use of every kind of wicked deception, in order to work harm.' (2 Thes 2:4,9)


'One day, you will see in the holy place he who commits the horrible sacrilege. The prophet Daniel spoke of this. Let the reader seek to understand.' (Mt 24:15)

The Holy Mass is the daily sacrifice, the pure oblation which is offered to the Lord everywhere, from the rising of the sun to its going down.
The sacrifice of the Mass renews that which was accomplished by Jesus on Calvary. By accepting the protestant doctrine, people will hold that the Mass is not a sacrifice but only a sacred meal, that is to say, a remembrance of that which Jesus did at His last supper. And thus, the celebration of Holy Mass will be suppressed. In this abolition of the daily sacrifice consists the horrible sacrilege accomplished by the Antichrist.

[Saint Alphonsus Ligouri: "The devil has always managed to get rid of the Mass by means of the heretics making them the precursors of the Antichrist who, above all else, will manage to abolish, and in fact will succeed in abolishing as a punishment for the sins of men, the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, precisely as Daniel predicted] -The fifth sign consists in extraordinary phenomena, which occur in the skies.

'The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky; and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.' (Mt 24:29)

The miracle of the sun, which took place at Fatima during my last apparition, is intended to point out to you that you are now entering into the times when these events will take place, events which will prepare for the return of Jesus in glory."

(The miracle of the sun is also reported to have been witnessed many times at Medjugorje and Conyers, and elsewhere.)

'And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. All the tribes of the earth will mourn, and men will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven, with great power and splendor.' (Mt 24:30)

(The sign of the Son of Man has always been the Cross; Garabandal: 'a permanent sign'; Brother David Lopez: 'We will see in the sky one great red cross'; Fr. Anthony J. Paone, in 'My Daily Bread,' published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood: 'The sign of the cross will appear in the sky.')

My beloved ones and children consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, I have wanted to teach you about these signs, which Jesus has pointed out to you in His Gospel, in order to prepare you for the end of the times, because they are about to take place in your days. " (To the Priests: Our Lady's Beloved Sons, pp. 750-753).

It is true that we don't know "the day or the hour." However, Our Lord tells us "Learn a lesson from the fig tree: when its branches become tender and sprout the first leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things taking place, know that your liberation is near." (Matthew 24:32-33).

Let's learn the lesson of the fig tree as Jesus commands. Let's read the signs of the times while it is still day. Many have a veil over their eyes and cannot read these signs. We must pray and work to remove that veil.

Those who can still see, who still are able to read the signs of the times, will no doubt recall the hostility which Barack Obama demonstrated toward Our Lord at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall.  See here.

Welcomed by the Diocese of Worcester, Dr. Thomas Groome, a heretic, wants to reduce gender-based pronouns for Jesus

Although Pope John Paul II proclaimed the definitive nature of the Church's doctrine on the male-only ministerial priesthood in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) and said that the issue was not to be discussed any longer, Dr. Thomas Groome, in his 1995 book Language for a Catholic Church (revised edition)  that, "..the continued exclusion of women from ordained ministry in the Catholic Church is seen by fair-minded scholars as without theological or biblical warrant" (p. 31).

In this same work, Groome posited that it would be "helpful to reduce reliance on gender-based pronouns" when referring to Jesus in order "to emphasise his humanity rather than his maleness" (pp. 26-27). In this passage, Dr. Groome is opposing what he views (from his myopic standpoint) as a flaw in the Church's teaching that the ordained priest must be a man in order to sacramentally represent Christ in terms of his spousal relationship to the Church, which is that of Bridegroom to Bride.

And as I noted here, Dr. Groome is being welcomed by the Diocese of Worcester as a speaker on the subject of evangelization.  Meanwhile, I cannot even apply for the Diocesan priesthood (my requests are ignored) and Mr. Robert Spencer was prohibited from speaking at the Catholic Men's Conference.  See here.  Apparently one is only really welcome in the Worcester Diocese if they are willing to prostitute their faith.

Why is it that a woman cannot symbolically represent Christ the Bridegroom?

The reason is that "God became man" and took on human nature in the masculine mode. The Word reveals itself in the flesh of Christ Jesus as the "only Son of the Father" (John 1:14, 18, 41, 49), who by virtue of giving His flesh for the life of the world (John 6:51) is the Bridegroom of the Bride (John 3:29), namely, the Church.

In John's Gospel, the line of communication is clearly set up as follows: Jesus Christ (1:18), being the incarnate Word (1:1, 14) is the only-begotten Son of the Father (1:14) and the Bridegroom of the Church (3:29; Rev. 19:7; 21:2; - see also: Mt. 9:15; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:21-32).

The masculinity of Jesus is part of the Logos' self-expression in the flesh and forms the basis for the original relation of Christ to the Church and for His sacramental union with her as His Body and His Bride.
Through the natural symbolism of the sexes, God communicates the reality of His free, historical, and corporeal presence in the world. By assuming humanity in the mode of masculinity, the Logos communicates Himself in His dealings with the new People of God in that fundamental personal relationship that has its foundation in masculinity. Thus, the Dogmatic Constitution the Church of Vatican II can say: "Christ loves the Church as his bride, having been established as the model of a man loving his wife as his own body (Eph. 5:25-28); the Church, in her turn, is subject to her head (Eph. 5: 23-24), 'Because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' (Col. 3:29)." (Lumen Gentium, No. 7).

Now, the priest takes the part of Christ, lending Him his voice and gestures. St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, expresses this concept with precision: "The priest enacts the image of Christ, in whose person and by whose power he pronounces the words of consecration" (Summa Theologica, III, q. 83, a.1, ad 3-um).

Therefore, the priest is truly a "sign" in the sacramental sense of the word. This is why St. Bonaventure says: "The person ordained is a sign of Christ the mediator" - "persona quae ordinatur significat Christum mediatorem." It is a principle of sacramental theology that "sacramental signs represent what they signify by a natural resemblance" (In IV Sent., Dist. 25, q. 2, a.2, q.1, ad 4-um: signa sacramentalia ex naturali similitudine repraesentent.).

In other words, there is a need for that "natural resemblance" between Christ and the person who is His sign. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Since a sacrament is a sign, what is done in the sacrament requires not only the reality but also a sign of the reality" (Ibid. In corp. quaestiunculae: Quia cum sacramentum sit signum, in eis quae in sacramento aguntur requiritur non solum res, sed significatio rei.).
And as the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states quite clearly in its document "On the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood": "It would not accord with 'natural resemblance,' with that obvious 'meaningfulness,' if the memorial of the Supper were to be carried out by a woman; for it is not just the recitation involving the gestures and words of Christ, but an action, and the sign is efficacious because Christ is present in the minister who consecrates the Eucharist, as is taught by the Second Vatican Council, following the Encyclical Mediator Dei."

Because of a secularized understanding of reality, not to mention a reductive and functionalist view of man, there are some who still think that it is their job to demand the application of societal standards and values within the Church such as democratic procedures, equal opportunities for advancement in all capacities and offices etc. For such people, the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which has been instituted by Christ Jesus Himself - Who is incapable of error or of deceiving or being deceived - is little more than a Baroque, or antiquarian form of appointment to a position of leadership, like that of a bank president, party chief or television station manager. These people view the priesthood in terms of self-fulfillment and "power" rather than from the sacramental point of view.

Does Father Krzysztof Korcz really believe in the Fatima message or is he all show?

In a previous post, I Noted how Peggy Patenaude, a radical feminist who often conducts retreats at the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, Massachusetts, will be a guest speaker at this year's "Gather Us In" Conference sponsored by the Diocese of Worcester's "Commission for Women," itself a dissenting organization.

In her newsletter, Ms. Patenaude said that: "In January, I had the privilege of facilitating my first retreat for five gay couples. It turned out to be an affirming experience for all. I was very moved by the warmth, goodness, depth and genuineness of these ten women. The fact that they were so receptive and appreciative confirmed for me the need for such programs in a world that is not always kind to minorities....

It was gratifying to see how much the participants enjoyed and benefited from the weekend. The retreat exceeded my expectations. 'It gave us the opportunity to take time out to focus on us and our relationship which means so much to us,' commented one woman. Another added, 'The retreat was very helpful. It helped my partner and me to communicate better.' The gratitude of all ten women for the supportive and respectful atmosphere was obvious. As one retreatant said, 'We are just people in love…like any other couple.' I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to have assisted them in keeping their love alive. See here.

So I was not entirely surprised to learn that Father Krzysztof Korcz, "pastor" of Our Lady Immaculate parish in Athol, had decided to promote the "Gather Us In" conference in his parish bulletin.  I am not surprised because Fr. Korcz is anything but a child of Mary, even if he goes through the motions of promoting the Fatima message for appearances sake.   

St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort, in his classic work True Devotion to Mary, advises us that, the person who wishes to be led by this spirit of Mary:

p. 259 1) Should renounce his own spirit, his own views and his own will before doing anything, for example, before making meditation, celebrating or attending Mass, before Communion. For the darkness of our own spirit and the evil tendencies of our own will and actions, good as they may seem to us, would hinder the holy spirit of Mary were we to follow them.

2) We should give ourselves up to the spirit of Mary to be moved and directed as she wishes. We should place and leave ourselves in her virginal hands, like a tool in the hands of a craftsman or a lute in the hands of a good musician. We should cast ourselves into her like a stone thrown into the sea. This is done easily and quickly by a mere thought, a slight movement of the will or just a few words as, "I renounce myself and give myself to you, my dear Mother." And even if we do not experience any emotional fervour in this spiritual encounter it is none the less real. It is just as if a person with equal sincerity were to say - which God forbid! - "I give myself to the devil." Even though this were said without feeling any emotion, he would no less really belong to the devil.

3) From time to time during an action and after it, we should renew this same act of offering and of union. The more we do so, the quicker we shall grow in holiness and the sooner we shall reach union with Christ, which necessarily follows upon union with Mary, since the spirit of Mary is the spirit of Jesus.

With Mary

p. 260. We must do everything with Mary, that is to say, in all our actions we must look upon Mary, although a simple human being, as the perfect model of every virtue and perfection, fashioned by the Holy Spirit for us to imitate, as far as our limited capacity allows. In every action then we should consider how Mary performed it or how she would perform it if she were in our place. For this reason, we must examine and meditate on the great virtues she practised during her life, especially:

1) Her lively faith, by which she believed the angel's word without the least hesitation, and believed faithfully and constantly even to the foot of the Cross on Calvary.

2) Her deep humility, which made her prefer seclusion, maintain silence, submit to every eventuality and put herself in the last place.

3) Her truly divine purity, which never had and never will have its equal on this side of heaven.

And so on for her other virtues.

Remember what I told you before, that Mary is the great, unique mould of God, designed to make living images of God at little expense and in a short time. Anyone who finds this mould and casts himself into it, is soon transformed into our Lord because it is the true likeness of him.

In Mary

p. 261. We must do everything in Mary. To understand this we must realise that the Blessed Virgin is the true earthly paradise of the new Adam and that the ancient paradise was only a symbol of her. There are in this earthly paradise untold riches, beauties, rarities and delights, which the new Adam, Jesus Christ, has left there. It is in this paradise that he "took his delights" for nine months, worked his wonders and displayed his riches with the magnificence of God himself. This most holy place consists of only virgin and immaculate soil from which the new Adam was formed with neither spot nor stain by the operation of the Holy Spirit who dwells there. In this earthly paradise grows the real Tree of Life which bore our Lord, the fruit of Life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which bore the Light of the world.

In this divine place there are trees planted by the hand of God and watered by his divine unction which have borne and continue to bear fruit that is pleasing to him. There are flower-beds studded with a variety of beautiful flowers of virtue, diffusing a fragrance which delights even the angels. Here there are meadows verdant with hope, impregnable towers of fortitude, enchanting mansions of confidence and many other delights.

Only the Holy Spirit can teach us the truths that these material objects symbolise. In this place the air is perfectly pure. There is no night but only the brilliant day of the sacred humanity, the resplendent, spotless sun of the Divinity, the blazing furnace of love, melting all the base metal thrown into it and changing it into gold. There the river of humility gushes forth from the soil, divides into four branches and irrigates the whole of this enchanted place. These branches are the four cardinal virtues.

262. The Holy Spirit speaking through the Fathers of the Church, also calls our Lady the Eastern Gate, through which the High Priest, Jesus Christ, enters and goes out into the world. Through this gate he entered the world the first time and through this same gate he will come the second time.

The Holy Spirit also calls her the Sanctuary of the Divinity, the Resting-Place of the Holy Spirit, the Throne of God, the City of God, the Altar of God, the Temple of God, the World of God. All these titles and expressions of praise are very real when related to the different wonders the Almighty worked in her and the graces which he bestowed on her. What wealth and what glory! What a joy and a privilege for us to enter and dwell in Mary, in whom almighty God has set up the throne of his supreme glory!

p. 263. But how difficult it is for us to have the freedom, the ability and the light to enter such an exalted and holy place. This place is guarded not by a cherub, like the first earthly paradise, but by the Holy Spirit himself who has become its absolute Master. Referring to her, he says: "You are an enclosed garden, my sister, my bride, an enclosed garden and a sealed fountain." Mary is enclosed. Mary is sealed. The unfortunate children of Adam and Eve driven from the earthly paradise, can enter this new paradise only by a special grace of the Holy Spirit which they have to merit.

264. When we have obtained this remarkable grace by our fidelity, we should be delighted to remain in Mary. We should rest there peacefully, rely on her confidently, hide ourselves there with safety, and abandon ourselves unconditionally to her, so that within her virginal bosom:

1) We may be nourished with the milk of her grace and her motherly compassion.
2) We may be delivered from all anxiety, fear and scruples.
3) We may be safeguarded from all our enemies, the devil, the world and sin which have never gained admittance there. That is why our Lady says that those who work in her will not sin, that is, those who dwell spiritually in our Lady will never commit serious sin.

4) We may be formed in our Lord and our Lord formed in us, because her womb is, as the early Fathers call it, the house of the divine secrets where Jesus and all the elect have been conceived. "This one and that one were born in her."

For Mary

265. Finally, we must do everything for Mary. Since we have given ourselves completely to her service, it is only right that we should do everything for her as if we were her personal servant and slave. This does not mean that we take her for the ultimate end of our service for Jesus alone is our ultimate end. But we take Mary for our proximate end, our mysterious intermediary and the easiest way of reaching him.

Like every good servant and slave we must not remain idle, but, relying on her protection, we should undertake and carry out great things for our noble Queen. We must defend her privileges when they are questioned and uphold her good name when it is under attack. We must attract everyone, if possible, to her service and to this true and sound devotion. We must speak up and denounce those who distort devotion to her by outraging her Son, and at the same time we must apply ourselves to spreading this true devotion. As a reward for these little services, we should expect nothing in return save the honour of belonging to such a lovable Queen and the joy of being united through her to Jesus, her Son, by a bond that is indissoluble in time and in eternity. Glory to Jesus in Mary! Glory to Mary in Jesus! Glory to God alone!"


A true child of Mary does not engage in dissent from Church teaching or in the promotion of dissenting individuals and organizations.  The Commission for Women is a vehicle for such dissent.  See here, here and here for example.  And also here.

If Father Korcz wants to encourage true devotion to Mary and an authentic marian spirit of prayer and obedience at Our Lady Immaculate parish, he will first have to set the example by actually living such

an authentic devotion.

The Worcester Diocese welcomes a heretic....

 

An anonymous reader left the following at my last post:

On October 27 at 6 p.m., Dr. Thomas Groome will present “Passing on the Gift of Faith” at St. Rose of Lima Church, 244 W. Main Street (Rt. 20), Northboro. It will be preceded by Mass at 5 p.m. for all who would like to attend. This presentation, part of the parish’s Year of Faith efforts, will discuss how we can pass on our faith to children and other adults in challenging times. Professor Groome is chair of the Dept. of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College. All are welcome.


The following is taken from the Gospa Missions website:

The False Theology of Dr. Thomas Groome

Laicized priest, Boston College professor of theology and director of the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry and author of many books used in Catholic education

Introduction:

The purpose of this document is to present Dr. Groome’s views on a not insignificant number of topics that he has disseminated, in print or in lectures or in broadcast interviews, which are in serious conflict with the teachings of the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. It is by no means intended to be an exhaustive analysis of Groome’s dissent from the Doctrines of the Catholic Church as many additional examples can be found in his writings, interviews and lectures. But the examples included are more than sufficient to establish the fact that Dr. Groome’s theology is dangerously opposed to the consistent teaching of Catholic Scripture, the Holy Fathers and Doctors, Pope John Paul II and the loyal Magisterium of the Church.

The format of the document is to present a Dr. Groome’s views, in his own words, on a doctrine of the Catholic church followed by the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church through her Magisterium. I pray that all who read this document will subject Dr. Groome’s theology to a critical and discriminating analysis and will view them with the same “hermeneutic of suspicion” employed by him in his efforts to rewrite sacred scripture and to despoil Catholic Tradition.

Groome’s Position On the teaching authority of the Pope and the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church:

Groome argues that “Throughout his ministry, Jesus called together ‘an inclusive discipleship of equals’ to participate in his mission and to carry it on after him.” [Thomas Groome, Sharing Faith, A Comprehensive Approach to Religious Education & Pastoral Ministry, Harper, San Francisco, 1991, p. 301] op. cit. p. 444]

Expanding on this theme Groome insists that the Church “should be an egalitarian [i.e. Democratic] community.” [Ibid. p. 444]

In this same ‘the Church should be a democracy’ vein Groome insists, “If we remember that the Church is the whole community of the Body of Christ, including all baptized Christians and not just its leaders, then we recognize that the Church’s ‘teaching authority’ cannot be limited to the institutional Magisterium.” [Emphasis added]. [Thomas Groome, Educating For Life, op. cit. p. 241.]

(N.B: the Catholic Church defines “all Christians” as those who are validly baptized into the various Protestants sects as well as those validly baptized into the Catholic Church. In reading Groome it appears that his definition of “Christian” is anyone who is baptized into any persuasion, whether the baptism is judged valid or invalid by the Catholic Church).

· Vatican II emphatically rejected erroneous statements of this sort when it proclaimed: “But the task of giving an authentic interpretation to the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.” [Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, n. 25.]

Groome publicly chastised Pope John Paul II for the Holy Father’s teaching in his apostolic letter Ad Tuendam Fidem, whose stated purpose was “to protect the faith of the Catholic Church against errors from certain members of the Christian faithful, especially from among those dedicated to the various disciplines of sacred theology.” Groome attacked the letter calling it “a pretentious attempt by the present pope to stifle conversation and dialogue.” Groome lamented, “I read the blessed thing and without being too melodramatic, I was on the verge of tears. It is a very sad day.” [Thomas H. Groome, The Boston Globe, July 2, 1998.]

Totally misrepresenting the true definition of the Papal Magisterium Groome proclaims “In mainstream Catholic understanding of papal magisterium, however, the pope, as bishop of Rome, must teach in consultation and collegiality with the bishops of the world and represent the consensus faith of the whole Church, in fidelity to Scripture and Tradition.”[Emphasis added] [Thomas Groome, Educating for Life, Thomas More, Texas, 1998, p. 240]

· Vatican I definitively taught “ … that it is a divinely revealed dogma that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ‘ex cathedra’, i.e., when exercising his office as pastor and teacher of all Christians he defines, by his supreme apostolic authority, a doctrine of faith or morals which must be held by the universal Church, enjoys, through the divine assistance, that infallibility promised to him in blessed Peter and with which the divine Redeemer wanted His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals; and therefore that the definitions of the same Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves and not from the consent of the Church. If anyone should presume to contradict this definition of ours … anathema - sit." [Emphasis added] [Vatican I Pastor Aeturnus, Chapter IV].

· Vatican II emphatically affirmed that “The Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, namely, and as pastor of the entire Church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.” [Emphasis added] [Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, n. 22; cf. Christus Dominus, n. 2]

· Speaking in regard to the supreme teaching authority of the Pope, Lumen Gentium added: “And therefore, his definitions [the Pope’s], of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly styled irreformable … and therefore they need no approval of others, nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment.” [Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, n. 25]

· Dei Verbum, the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation teaches that Sacred Scripture must be viewed within the context of the Church’s Faith and that we cannot interpret Sacred Scripture such that it invalidates accepted Church teachings. The second principle that must be observed is that we cannot interpret Tradition that comes to us from the apostles in a manner that contradicts what the Magisterium has already ruled definitively to be the doctrine of the Church: “ … since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was written, no less serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out. The living tradition of the whole Church must be taken into account along with the harmony which exists between elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes to work according to these rules toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture, so that through preparatory study the judgment of the Church may mature. For all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God. [Emphasis added]. [Dei Verbum, n.12]
 

It is obvious that Dr. Groome’s theology in this area is seriously at odds with the teaching of Holy Mother Church and in some cases borders on the heretical. His pernicious attempt to destroy the firmly rooted Doctrine of the teaching responsibility and authority of the Pope and the Magisterium, which dates back to the 1^st century, must, in and of itself, disqualify him as a responsible teacher of, or lecturer on, the Catholic Faith.

Groome’s position On Papal succession and the Supremacy of the Successor of Peter:

In a not too subtle effort to disparage the doctrine of papal succession and, therefore the right of the popes, including Pope John Paul II, to teach in the name of Jesus, Groome declares, “The traditional Catholic assertion that there is a direct historical line of succession between the present Pope and Peter,presumed to be the first bishop of Rome, must also be nuanced [i.e. “questioned”].” [Emphasis added] [Thomas Groome, Sharing Faith, op. cit. p. 314.]

Groome continues, “in light of New Testament scholarship, we cannot presume a line of direct succession between pope and Peter...the function of bishop as we might recognize it today did not begin until the second century.” [Ibid. p. 314.]

Groome concludes: “In light of this, ‘the supposition that, when Peter did come to Rome (presumably in the 60’s), he took over and became the first bishop represents a retrojection of later church order’.” [Ibid.]

· The Catholic Church has unambiguously and consistently taught and declared that: “It is by the institution of Christ the Lord, that is, by divine right, that blessed Peter has endless successors in his primacy over the whole Church.” [Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, Denz. 3056.]

· “… the Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter in the same primacy.” (i.e. Rome). [Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, Denz. 3058].

· Pope John Paul II has declared that this definition of papal succession“…binds the primacy of Peter and his successor to the See of Rome, which cannot be replaced by any other see.” [Pope John Paul II, The Bishop of Rome Is Peter’s Successor, General Audience, January 27, 1993].

· Vatican I solemnly teaches: “If, then, any one shall say that it is not by the institution of Christ the Lord, or by divine right, that Blessed Peter should have a perpetual line of successors in the primacy over the UniversalChurch; or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of Blessed Peter in this primacy - anathema sit.”[Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, Denz. 3058.]

The doctrines of Papal supremacy and the infallible teaching authority of the Pope did not, of course, originate with the 1^st and 2^nd Vatican Councils. From the following citations it is abundantly clear that from the very first days of the Church it was Peter to whom the faithful, including the apostles, looked for leadership and it was the Pope, the Successor of Peter, to whom all faithful Christians turned for the definitive interpretation of Christ’s teachings. The Truth that all Christians must, as articles of faith, believe.

· Pope St.Leo the Great taught the doctrines of Papal succession and the supremacy of the Pope as head of the Apostolic See in the 5^thcentury, by which time it was already a “longstanding custom”: “The Lord . . . wanted His gifts to flow into the entire body from Peter himself, as if from the head, in such a way that anyone who had dared to separate himself from the solidarity of Peter would realize that he was himself no longer a sharer in the divine mystery . . The Apostolic See . . has on countless occasions been reported to in consultation by bishops . . . And through the appeal of various cases to this see, decisions already made have been either revoked or confirmed, as dictated by longstanding custom” [Emphasis added] [Pope St. Leo the Great (r. 440-461) in Letter to the Bishops of Vienne, July, 445 A.D., 10:1-2; in Jurgens, William A., ed. and tr., The Faith of the Early Fathers [FEF], 3 volumes, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1970, vol. 3, 269]

· The Council of Lyons II (1274) affirmed that: … it is the teaching authority of the Church itself that determines what is orthodox (including the position of supremacy of the papacy) when it declared: “Also this same holy Roman Church holds the highest and complete primacy and spiritual power over the universal Catholic Church which she truly and humbly recognizes herself to have received with fullness of power from the Lord Himself in Blessed Peter, the chief or head of the Apostles whose successor is the Roman Pontiff. And just as to defend the truth of Faith she is held before all other things, so if any questions shall arise regarding faith they ought to be defined by her judgment . . . in all cases looking forward to an ecclesiastical examination, recourse can be had to her judgment, and all churches are subject to her; their prelates give obedience and reverence to her”. [Henry Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma; translated by Roy J. Deferrari, from the 13th edition of Enchiridion Symbolorum, 1955, Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, section 466, p. 185]

· From the Council of Florence (1438-1445), in its Decree for the Greeks, Laetentur coeli, July 6, 1439 we learn that: “We likewise define that the holy Apostolic See, and the Roman Pontiff, hold the primacy throughout the entire world; and that the Roman Pontiff himself is the successor of blessed Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and the true vicar of Christ, and that he is the head of the entire Church, and the father and teacher of all Christians; and that full power was given to him in blessed Peter by our Lord Jesus Christ, to feed, rule, and govern the universal Church; just as is contained in the acts of the ecumenical Councils and in the sacred canons”. [Ibid., section 694, p. 220]

On the ordained Ministry, the Eucharist and the Apostolic Succession:

In Sharing Faith, Dr. Groome supports the notion that Jesus did not commission the apostles at the last supper. “… the many specific ministries in the New Testament church

seems to have emerged from the existential situations and needs of the first Christian communities. Some people were needed to preside at worship others to preach, to teach, … , to minister to people in need, and so on” [Emphasis added]. Groome concludes with the observation that “ … the communities began to designate people to fulfill functions of service … in the name of the church. They did not understand the commissioning to confer a sacral status [on those commissioned]. Designation called one to a function of service but not apart from the rest of the community. [Emphasis added] [ Thomas Groome, Sharing Faith, op. cit. p. 309]

Groome includes the sacral function of presiding at worship with all the other non-sacral functions, which certainly could have been conferred on a person by the community itself or even merely assumed by a person without any investiture, formal or informal, by the community thereby strongly inferring that the sacral ordination of priests was accomplished in the same manner. This is a classic example of Groome’s uncanny ability to interject a seemingly innocuous word or phrase to plant the seed of a heretical view. Employing the “hermeneutic of suspicion”, the cornerstone of his teaching philosophy, to first cast doubt on and then to totally deny, a well established, Traditional teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. One must admit that, unfortunately, he is marvelously skillful at his craft.

Groome often attempts to validate his arguments by citing opinions proposed by well know dissident theologians. In Sharing Faith Groome eagerly embraces an assertion by the well known revisionist theologian Fr. Raymond E. Brown on the ministerial priesthood, which Groome claims is “now generally accepted”; in which Brown proclaims; “In spite of the long tradition of this view, contemporary scholars find no basis for such an interpretation. In other words, Jesus did not ordain the apostles at this final supper to be ‘priests,’ giving them thereby the power to celebrate the eucharist (sic).” [Emphasis added] [ Thomas Groome, Sharing Faith, op. cit. p. 314, 512n. 27.]

Groome’s repudiation of the Church’s teaching on the origin of the ministerial priesthood becomes manifestly evident as he expounds on Brown’s hypothesis. “ Brown is proposing, and his thesis now seems generally accepted, that the first Christians did not see the confecting of the Eucharist as a personal and ontological power invested in one person who rendered Eucharist for the community. Instead, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, the ‘sacramental powers’ resided in the whole community, ……, the community chose certain people to preside at divine worship for the sake of ‘holy order’. Usually … this designation fell to the community leader, not because of a sacral power, but by HER or his function of leadership[Emphasis added].

[Thomas Groome, Sharing Faith, op. cit. p. 310.]

Elsewhere, in his attempt to discredit the church’s consistent teaching on the Hierarchical structure of Holy Orders, Groome claims that “the function of bishop as we might recognize it today did not begin until the second century.” [Sharing Faith, op. cit. p. 314]

Again quoting Raymond Brown, Groome concurs with Brown’s denial of the church’s teaching on Apostolic succession: “There is simply no compelling evidence for the classic thesis that…there was a chain of ordination passing the power of presiding at the Eucharist from the Twelve to missionary apostles to presbyter-bishops. How one got the right to preside and whether it endured beyond a single instance we do not know.” [Emphasis added] [Sharing Faith, op. cit. p. 310]

Commenting on what Groome defines as the “Tridentine perspective” on the “ministry”, which emphasized the division of the Ordained Ministry into bishop, priest and deacon, Groome declares: “New Testament evidence suggests…the Tridentine perception of ministry is much more the product of history and of the socio-cultural contexts in which the church found herself than of any blueprint to be found in the New Testament communities.” [Ibid. p. 311-12.]

Groome concludes that “the notion that presiding at Eucharist is an exclusively priestly function did not become widespread until the beginning of the third century. The association of priesthood with Eucharist emerged as later Christians began to allegorize sacrifices of the Hebrew covenant, which were offered by priests. As Christianity became separated from Judaism and thus from Jewish priesthood, Eucharist was perceived as replacing the sacrifices no longer offered in the now destroyed temple, and thus requiring the sacerdotal function of the priest.” [Emphasis added].[Ibid.]

How many innocent young minds have read or heard these words of Dr. Groome pronounced by a teacher of religious education who is a disciple of Groome and have, to the destruction of their faith and possibly the loss of their immortal souls, concluded that the Eucharist has no more significance than the burnt offerings of the Old Testament priests? In stark contrast to the stated beliefs of Dr. Groome, the Catholic Church has definitively, emphatically and consistently taught:

· “It has always been the conviction of the Church of God …that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change in the whole substance of the bread into the whole substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood.” [Council of Trent, (DS 1642), cf. CCC, 1376]

· “ …. the Eucharist “is the principal and central raison d'être of the sacrament of priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist”. Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae(24 February 1980), 2: AAS 72 (1980), 115.]

· The Council of Trent affirmed the Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist and ministerial priesthood with the following words; “Sacrifice and priesthood are by the ordinance of God so united that both have existed in every law. Since therefore in the New Testament the Catholic Church has received from the institution of Christ the holy, visible sacrifice of the Eucharist, it must also be confessed that there is in that Church a new, visible and external priesthood, into which the old has been translated. That this was instituted by the same Lord our Savior, and that to the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood was given the power of consecrating, offering and administering His body and blood … is shown by the Sacred Scriptures and has always been taught by the tradition of the Catholic Church. [Emphasis [Council of Trent, Session 23, Chapter 1]

· Pope John Paul II in his 2003 encyclical on the Eucharist cautions: “At times one encounters an extremely reductive understanding of the Eucharistic mystery. Stripped of its sacrificial meaning, it is celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet. Furthermore, the necessity of the ministerial priesthood, grounded in apostolic succession, is at times obscured and the sacramental nature of the Eucharist is reduced to its mere effectiveness as a form of proclamation”. [Emphasis added]. [ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA n.10]

· “The Eucharist too has its foundation in the Apostles … because it was entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles and has been handed down to us by them and by their successors. It is in continuity with the practice of the Apostles, in obedience to the Lord's command, that the Church has celebrated the Eucharist down the centuries” ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA n.10]

· Vatican Council II teaches that it is the ordained priest who: “acting in the person of Christ, brings about the Eucharistic Sacrifice and offers it to God in the name of all the people”. [Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 10.]

· “the Eucharist … is a gift which radically transcends the power of the assembly and is … essential for validly linking the Eucharistic consecration to the sacrifice of the Cross and to the Last Supper. The assembly gathered together for the celebration of the Eucharist … absolutely requires the presence of an ordained priest as its president. … the community is by itself incapable of providing an ordained minister. This minister is a gift which the assembly receives through episcopal succession going back to the Apostles. It is the Bishop who, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, makes a new presbyter by conferring upon him the power to consecrate the Eucharist.”[Emphasis added] [ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA n.29]

· “ …. the Eucharistic mystery cannot be celebrated in any community except by an ordained priest, as the Fourth Lateran Council expressly taught”. [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Sacerdotium Ministeriale (6 August 1983), III.4: AAS 75 (1983), 1006]

· The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love. In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; ‘thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament’." [CCC. n. 1337]

· The Council of Trent declared: “If anyone shall say that in the Catholic Church there is not instituted a hierarchy by divine ordinance, which consists of bishops, priests and ministers [i.e. Deacons] - anathema sit.” [Council of Trent, Canons on the Sacrament of Order, Denz. 1776.]

· Pope Pius VI emphatically proclaimed that it is “heretical” to assert: “the power of the ministry and of ecclesial rule comes to the pastors from the community of the faithful.” [Pope Pius VI, Const. Auctorem Fidei, August 28, 1794, Denz. 1502]

· St. Paul in his farewell discourse to the presbyters of Miletus admonishes: “Now be solicitous for yourselves and for the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as bishops to pasture the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood” [Acts 20:28].

· Cardinal Ratzinger notes how Acts 20:28 illustrates “ … that the Holy Spirit places men in this office [i.e. the ordained ministry]: it is not a delegation on the part of the community…but the gift of the Lord, who gives personally what only he can give.” [Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Called to Communion, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996, p. 122.]

· St. Paul, himself, left us testimony regarding the bestowal of the ordained ministry effected through the sacramental rite of “laying on of hands”, which transmits the special gift of the Holy Spirit, in his letters to Timothy: “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands" (2 Tim 1:6), and "If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task" (1Tim 3:1).[64] To Titus he said: “This is why I left you in Crete, that you amend what was defective, and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you,” adding that “a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless…he must hold fast to the sure doctrine and also refute those who contradict it.” [Emphasis added] (Titus 1:5-9).

On the Ordination of Women Priests:

Dr. Groome has consistently and emphatically publicly proclaimed his unwavering commitment to the cause of the ordination of women.

As early as 1982, Groome accused the Church of using“false” reasons to justify excluding women from the ordained priesthood. He insisted that women must be admitted to the ministries of“deacon, priest, bishop and pontiff” in order to establish “a Church of mutuality and inclusiveness. [Thomas Groome, Signs of Hope, PACE 12, Direction A, St. Mary’s Press. Winona 1982, pp. 4,6]
 

Groome asserts that the Church’s doctrine regarding the reservation of the ordained priesthood to men alone “is the result of a patriarchal mind-set and culture and is not of Christian faith.” [Thomas Groome, Sharing Faith: A Comprehensive Approach to Religious Education &Pastoral Ministry, Harper, San Francisco, 1991, p. 328.]

Groome castigates the Church with his accusation that: “the injustice of excluding women from priesthood debilitates the church’s sacramentality in the world … it is a countersign to God’s reign." [Ibid.]

Groome alleges that the position of the Church is “ … doing spiritual and moral harm to society.” [Ibid. p. 518.n.114.]

In his program of study for use of inclusive language in the Church, Groome declares that: “the continued exclusion of women from ordained ministry in the Catholic Church is seen by fair-minded scholars as without theological or biblical warrant.” [Thomas Groome, Language for a ‘Catholic’ Church: A Program of Study (revised and updated edition), Sheed&Ward, Kansas City 1995, p. 31]

Dr. Groome is often a featured speaker at Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) affairs where he consistently seizes on the VOTF mantra that the Catholic Church must be restructured along democratic lines in order that: “…we reconstruct the Catholic priesthood” to facilitate the ordination of“ women as priests and bishops.” [Thomas Groome, Boston Globe, May 19, 2002]

In an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 Dr. Groome made his position on priestly celibacy and the ordination of women to the priesthood perfectly clear by proclaiming: “The present church's legislation requires celibacy, and many of the bishops and the present pope would see that as close to being divinely inspired. That wouldn't be my sentiment at all. I think it's a human regulation that we should dispense with. It should be optional. I would have a similar sentiment on the ordination of women.” [Emphasis added]. [Thomas Groome, Boston Globe, June 26, 2003].

Here again, Dr. Groome skillfully employs the tactic of equating two issues, that of priestly celibacy and the ordination of woman, as being doctrinally equivalent when in fact they are not and cannot be treated as such. Although the Church, for very good reasons, requires and is committed to maintaining mandatory clerical celibacy in the Latin Rite, it does so in its capacity as administrator over God’s Church in which role it demands obedience from its priests. However, the Church’s doctrine on the male-only ministerial priesthood is instituted by Christ and therefore is not within the Church’s power to change. That fact is conveniently glossed over by Dr. Groome.

· “The Catholic Church has never felt that priestly or episcopal ordination can be validly conferred on women. A few heretical sects in the first centuries, especially Gnostic ones, entrusted the exercise of the priestly ministry to women: This innovation was immediately noted and condemned by the Fathers, who considered it as unacceptable in the Church”. [Inter Insigniores Declaration of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the question of admission of women to the ministerial priesthood, 1976.]

· “It should not be supposed that the issue of women’s orders is novel: it dates back to the Montanist heresy of the second and third centuries, and since then has surfaced intermittently in association with comparably gnostic and anti-historical interpretations of Christianity.” [Fr. Donald Keefe, S.J., Covenantal Theology: The Eucharistic Order of History, Presidio Press, Novato, California, 1996, p. 42]

· In 1994, Pope John Paul II published the apostolic letter In Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, stating the Church’s position on conferring priestly ordination on women. The Holy Father proclaims that this teaching is founded on the example of Christ, as recorded in the Gospels and on the universal Tradition of the Church. Therefore the Holy Father declared: “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” [Emphasis added]. [Pope John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, n. 4 ; cf. nn. 1, 2]


Source document may be found here.

As I said in a previous post, the Worcester Diocese has succumbed over the years to the tragic tendency to place unity above the truth. The company man who is willing to "go along" with sin and error "for the sake of friendship" is most welcome in this distorted notion of "community." But the man who puts the truth first is pushed to the margins and ostracized.