Blasphemy at the Olympics

 As noted here

"A drag queen-led parody of the Last Supper featured during Friday’s opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics has sparked a wave of incensed reactions and denunciations.

In a statement released Saturday, the French Bishops’ Conference criticized the 'scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore.'

'We thank the members of other religious denominations who have expressed their solidarity. This morning, we think of all Christians on all continents who have been hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes,' the French bishops said."

Of course, many priests and Bishops will remain silent as will a certain segment of the laity. For these have succumbed to the notion that anger (even when it is just) is something bad.

Emotional Deformation

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

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

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

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

Just Wrath

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

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

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

In these wicked times, we need such leadership. 

Writing to the Ephesians,  my namesake exhorted us to, "be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4: 26)

Bearing this in mind, make your voice heard by contacting the IOC. See here.

And pray the Holy Rosary and offer your Holy Mass in reparation and to ask good Saint Michael to crush this evil.

_______________________________________

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

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

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

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

On Just Anger here

Update

The face of fanaticism

 

As shown here, a liberal supporter of Joe Biden explains why she believes Donald Trump is "dangerous" as she sports a Communist tattoo on her arm and wields a weapon - a pistol crossbow - at a political rally. When asked why she is carrying a weapon to a political rally she explains that she doesn't feel safe in that crowd. She neglects to explain why, if she feels so threatened,  she didn't just remain at home.

When asked about the assassination attempt against Trump, this unhappy soul declares that she's sorry the attempt failed because Donald Trump is "dangerous."

In his work of critical importance entitled "Man Against Mass Society," the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel writes, "..the fanatic never sees himself as a fanatic; it is only the non-fanatic who can recognize him as a fanatic; so that when this judgment, or this accusation, is made, the fanatic can always say that he is misunderstood and slandered...Fanaticism is essentially opinion pushed to paroxysm; with everything that the notion of opinion may imply of blinded ignorance as to its own nature....whatever ends the fanatic is aiming at or thinks he is aiming at, even if he wishes to gather men together, he can only in fact separate them; but as his own interests cannot lie in effecting this separation, he is led, as we have seen, to wish to wipe his opponents out. And when he is thinking of these opponents, he takes care to form the most degrading images of them possible - they are 'lubricious vipers' or 'hyenas and jackals with typewriters' - and the ones that reduce them to most grossly material terms. In fact, he no longer thinks of these opponents except as material obstacles to be overturned or smashed down. Having abandoned the behaviour of a thinking being, he has lost even the feeblest notion of what a thinking being, outside himself, could be. It is understandable therefore that he should make every effort to deny in advance the rights and qualifications of those whom he wishes to eliminate; and that he should regard all means to this end as fair. We are back here again at the techniques of degradation. It cannot be asserted too strongly or repeated too often that those the Nazis made use of in their camps - techniques for degrading their victims in their own eyes, for making mud and filth of them - and those which Soviet propagandists use to discredit their adversaries, are not essentially different though we should, in fairness, add that sadism, properly so called, is not to be found in the Russian camps." (pp. 135-136, 149).

Marcel explains that, "In fact, the greatest merit of the critical spirit is that it tends to cure fanaticism, and it is logical enough that in our own fanatical times the critical spirit should tend to disappear, should no longer even be paid lip service as a value."

I'm glad I wasn't at this same political rally. Witnessing my Ultra Maga shirt, this woman may have felt inclined to deliver an arrow into my chest to smash down my "dangerous" views.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, heal our troubled nation.

Our Lady of Fatima and President Trump

 Do you not see the hand of Our Lady saving President Trump from assassination? The date of the assassination attempt is most significant.  July 13th.

It was on July 13, 1917, that Our Lady told the Fatima seers to come each month and exhorted them to, “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.”

Pray your Rosary every day.

Pardon Prayer

The Angel of Peace gave this prayer to the children at Fatima during his first visit. The prayer is "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee. Amen".

Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima

This prayer asks Our Lady of Fatima to protect the human family and bring peace, freedom, truth, justice, and hope. The prayer includes the lines, "Take under your motherly protection the whole human family, which with affectionate love we entrust to you, O Mother. May there dawn for everyone the time of peace and freedom, the time of truth, of justice and of hope".

Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima for Peace

This prayer asks Our Lady of Fatima to grant grace, strength, and guidance to the members of the Fatima crusade. The prayer also asks Our Lady of Fatima to inspire people to spread devotion to the rosary.

Bishops condemn political violence

In a statement issued in the wake of the attack, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, said, “Together with my brother bishops, we condemn political violence, and we offer our prayers for President Trump, and those who were killed or injured. We also pray for our country and for an end to political violence, which is never a solution to political disagreements.”

Archbishop Broglio invited “all people of goodwill to join us in praying for peace in our country,” and invoked the prayers of Mary, Mother of God and Patroness of the Americas.

Lying and homicide are marks of the Devil. See

here.

RNC Commentary here

The violent rhetoric of the left

 

Joe Biden on 7.8.2024: "We’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye."

He got his wish.

Prayers for President Trump. Prayers for America.

Assassination attempt on President Trump

 https://www.youtube.com/live/Rr63RgGN-Yo?si=F7yt2sR0l0pJUZv2

This represents a most serious prayer need and only serves to show that it's the radical left that resorts to violence.  The same people who agitate for abortion on demand.

Biden got his wish. See here

The Biden DHS: Country's greatest terrorism threat comes from Trump supporters

 CV News reports:

"Internal documents from the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the country’s 'Domestic Terrorism threat' mostly comes from Trump supporters. 

The files also singled out people in the military and religious people as possible 'terrorism' threats.

The documents were released Friday by America First Legal, a conservative legal group founded by former Trump administration official Stephen Miller.

The group noted it obtained the 'internal files from the ‘Homeland Intelligence Experts Group’ via litigation with former Trump administration Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell 'against the Biden DHS.'

America First Legal wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Friday: 'The Brennan-Clapper intel group discussed how ‘most of the domestic terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president.’

'There is a political backdrop to all of this,' the document alleged. 'It is not like you want a political advantage, but people have attacked the government and its institutions for the last six years.'

John Brennan served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Obama administration while James Clapper served as the DNI for most of Obama’s presidency. 

Both were reported to be members of the DHS advisory committee that produced the documents."

The Biden Department of Homeland Security  id engaging in what the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel labelled the "techniques of degradation."

In his work of critical importance entitled "Man Against Mass Society," Marcel explains, "I understand by 'techniques of degradation' a whole body of methods deliberately put into operation in order to attack and destroy in human persons belonging to some definite class or other their self-respect, and in order to transform them little by little into mere human waste products, conscious of themselves as such, and in the end forced to despair of themselves, not merely at an intellectual level, but in the very depths of their souls.." (p. 42).

Through the fanatical employment of such techniques, radical leftists hope to smash down their opponents, to categorize them as mentally ill or as hate-filled "bigots" who cling to "worn out arguments" based upon an "archaic morality" which is rooted in Divine Revelation and Natural Law, as superstitious and backward people who need to be re-educated in order to fit into the new Culture of Lies. Such people are "domestic terrorists" who pose a direct threat to the corrupt New Order.

Marcel writes, "Having abandoned the behaviour of a thinking being, he [the fanatic of any stripe who seeks to impose rather than propose] has lost even the feeblest notion of what a thinking being, outside himself, could be. It is understandable therefore that he should make every effort to deny in advance the rights and qualifications of those whom he wishes to eliminate; and that he should regard all means to this end as fair. We are back here again at the techniques of degradation.." (p. 149).

For the Biden DHS, folks such as those pictured above are "domestic terrorists" and a threat to America.