Francis: Fulfilling the prophecy of Mother Anne of Jesus...

Our Lady told Mother Anne of Jesus (at Quito, Ecuador) that, "..the Church will go through a dark night for lack of a Prelate and Father to watch over it with love, gentleness, strength and prudence, and numbers of priests will lose the spirit of God, thus placing their souls in great danger...Satan will take control of this earth through the fault of faithless men who, like a black cloud, will darken the clear sky of the republic consecrated to the Most Sacred Heart of my divine Son.  This republic, having allowed entry to all the vices, will have to undergo all sorts of chastisements: plagues, famine, war, apostasy, and the loss of souls without number.."

The Church is now going through that dark night for lack of a Prelate and Father to watch over it with love.  Rather than love, a False Shepherd and Prophet offers only hatred and vitriolic rhetoric, accusing the faithful remnant of espousing an "ecumenism of hatred."

Another prophecy fulfilled in our own time.  See here.

Saint Mary's Church in Orange, Massachusetts: Prayers for man accused of sexual assault, nothing for alleged victim, a minor

From The Greenfield Recorder:

"MANCHESTER, N.H. — Officials are investigating the death of an inmate from Orange, who was being held on multiple charges of sex crimes against a juvenile.

Keith Sullivan, 38, was pronounced dead at 4:21 p.m. Wednesday after he was transported from the Hillsborough County House of Corrections to Elliot Hospital in Manchester. He was unresponsive during the ambulance ride to the hospital, the Associated Press reported.

Sullivan had been arrested in Nashua, N.H., last month after a lengthy investigation by the Nashua Police Department into claims by a juvenile that Sullivan had molested him.

According to a statement by the Nashua Police Department, detectives received information in January that Sullivan had sexually assaulted the juvenile, who was known to Sullivan.."

The following is from Saint Mary's Parish in Orange, Massachusetts.  Several weeks ago, there was a call for prayer for Mr. Sullivan.  But no such prayer request for the alleged victim of Mr. Sullivan.

Francis, your legalism is showing...

My last Facebook post:

Dr. Germain Grisez, in a talk entitled "Legalism, Moral Truth and Pastoral Practice" given at a 1990 symposium held in Philadelphia, had this to say:

"Theologians and pastors [pay attention here Francis] who dissent from received Catholic teaching think they are rejecting legalism because they set aside what they think are mere rules in favor of what they feel are more reasonable standards. Their views are thoroughly imbued with legalism, however. For dissenters think of valid moral norms as rules formulated to protect relevant values. Some even make their legalism explicit by denying that there is any necessary connection between moral goodness (which they restrict to the transcendental level of a love with no specific content) and right action (which they isolate at the categorical level of inner-worldly behavior). But whether their legalism is explicit or not, all the dissenters hold that specific moral norms admit exceptions whenever, all things considered, making an exception seems the best - or least bad - thing to do. Most dissenters also think that specific moral norms that were valid in times past can be inappropriate today, and so they regard the Church's contested moral teachings as outdated rules that the Church should change."


Dr. Grisez reminded his listeners at the Philadelphia symposium that, "During the twentieth century, pastoral treatment of repetitious sins through weakness - especially masturbation, homosexual behavior, premarital sex play and contraception within marriage - grew increasingly mild. Pastors correctly recognized that weakness and immaturity can lessen such sins’ malice. Thinking legalistically, they did not pay enough attention to the sins’ inherent badness and harmfulness, and they developed the idea that people can freely choose to do something that they regard as a grave matter without committing a mortal sin. This idea presupposes that in making choices people are not responsible precisely for choosing what they choose. That presupposition makes sense within a legalistic framework, because lawgivers can take into account mitigating factors and limit legal culpability. But it makes no sense for morality correctly understood, because moral responsibility in itself is not something attached to moral acts but simply is moral agents’ self-determination in making free choices. Repetitious sinners through weakness also were handicapped by their own legalism. Not seeing the inherent badness of their sins, they felt that they were only violating inscrutable rules. When temptation grew strong, they had little motive to resist, especially because they could easily go to confession and have the violation fixed. Beginning on Saturday they were holy; by Friday they were again sinners. This cyclic sanctity robbed many people’s lives of Christian dynamism and contributed to the dry rot in the Church that became manifest in the 1960s, when the waves of sexual permissiveness battered her."

Dr. Grisez then went on to explain that, "Pastors free of legalism will teach the faithful how sin makes moral requirements seem to be alien impositions, help them see through this illusion, and encourage them to look forward to and experience the freedom of God’s children, who rejoice in the fruit of the Spirit and no longer experience the constraint of law.."

Obama administration accused of illegally using using US funds to promote abortion in Kenya

400,000 in US funds was funneled to the International Development Law Organization.  At its website, the IDLO says that it "uses a variety of programs to reach its objectives.  These programs are fully consistent with the 2005 UN Summit and the Millenium Development Declaration.  We read in No. 58 of this document, pp. 16-17:


Gender equality and empowerment of women


58. We remain convinced that progress for women is progress for all. We reaffirm

that the full and effective implementation of the goals and objectives of the Beijing

Declaration and Platform for Action22 and the outcome of the twenty-third special

session of the General Assembly is an essential contribution to achieving the

internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the

Millennium Declaration, and we resolve to promote gender equality and eliminate

pervasive gender discrimination by:

(a) Eliminating gender inequalities in primary and secondary education by

the earliest possible date and at all educational levels by 2015;

(b) Guaranteeing the free and equal right of women to own and inherit

property and ensuring secure tenure of property and housing by women;

_______________

21 World Health Assembly resolution 58.3.

22 Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations

publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II.

A/RES/60/1


(c) Ensuring equal access to reproductive health;

(d) Promoting women’s equal access to labour markets, sustainable

employment and adequate labour protection;

(e) Ensuring equal access of women to productive assets and resources,

including land, credit and technology;

(f) Eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against women and

the girl child, including by ending impunity and by ensuring the protection of

civilians, in particular women and the girl child, during and after armed conflicts in

accordance with the obligations of States under international humanitarian law and

international human rights law;

(g) Promoting increased representation of women in Government decision making

bodies, including through ensuring their equal opportunity to participate

fully in the political process.

59. We recognize the importance of gender mainstreaming as a tool for achieving

gender equality. To that end, we undertake to actively promote the mainstreaming of

a gender perspective in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of

policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres, and further

undertake to strengthen the capabilities of the United Nations system in the area of

gender.
 
Empowerment of women is tied to "equal access to reproductive health."  And by "access to reproductive health," of course, is meant access to abortion.  The problem is that the allocation of US funds to lobby for abortion in other countries is illegal.  The Siljander amendment, an annually renewed law which prohibits US foreign assistance funds from being used to lobby for or against abortion (Source: FY 2006 Appropriations Act, Title II, "Child Survival and Health Programs Fund" and/or Title V, Section 518), was ignored by the Obama administration.

Father James Scahill accuses the Holy Father of being untruthful...

More hypocrisy from the liberal corner of the Catholic Church.




Fr. James Scahill, pastor of Saint Michael's Parish in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, used his pulpit yesterday to call upon Pope Benedict XVI to step down. Father Scahill accused the Holy Father of not being truthful but failed to back up his wild accusations with anything of substance. In other words, Father Scahill is merely regurgitating what he's heard from the liberal media or other anti-Catholic sources.





Interestingly, Father Scahill has received the "priest of integrity" award from the radical dissent group "Voice of the Faithful" - VOTF, an organization which has been referred to by many Bishops as "anti-Catholic." See here. One is known by the company one keeps. But enough of Father Scahill's fantasy. His groundless accusations are a matter for the Catholic League to address.

But I am reminded of a pro-life prophet I defended some two years ago at this Blog. Remember Deacon Tom McDonnell from the Diocese of Buffalo, New York who was criticized by his own Bishop, Edward Kmiec, and many throughout the Catholic media (mostly those in liberal circles) - but sadly also Deal Hudson - for having the courage to correct the errors of U.S. Representative Brian Higgins (for his pro-abortion positions) from the pulpit? Bishop Kmiec issued a statement saying that, "The pulpit is not the appropriate place for confronting a member of the congregation..." I refuted this silly notion here.

Why are the Catholic media not saying the same thing now? If the pulpit is "not the appropriate place" for confronting a Culture of Death politician, should it be used to attack the Vicar of Christ with false accusations?

Anyone?

Related reading here.

Washington Post: Pope did not impede defrocking of priest.