In an article for Catholic Online, Sonja Corbitt acknowledges that, "We know to watch for particular signs, and the signs of the times are not good." She then asks "Could Antichrist be iminent?" while citing the words of Our Lord, "No man knows the day or hour." But after acknowledging Our Lord's warning, she writes: "Uprising after uprising in the Middle East; sexual and intellectual scandal in the Church; earthquakes in Chile and Haiti; tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan; and financial collapse in almost every market: given the startling increase in the frequency of global crises - political, religious, financial, natural - one is tempted to begin looking for Antichrist and despair for the future.
The pervading anxiety and fear is exacerbated by non-Catholic proliferation of end times fiction and even some Catholics who erroneously promote the imminent arrival of the Antichrist and the Second Coming. This idea has distinct emotional appeal in our troubled times, since one way or another, it would all end soon, and possibly without our having to "do" anything.
Although the prospect relieves us of our sense of personal responsibility to become or remain involved in an immoral world which despises a Christian moral message, according to the historic Tradition of the Church and the direction of her leadership, it would be a tragic error for several reasons. First, the Antichrist is not here, or even just around the corner..."
But not everyone shares Ms. Corbitt's view. For example, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi has warned that the Antichrist is already among us. And the late (great) Archbishop Fulton John Sheen said, shortly before he died, that, "We are living in the days of the Apocalypse - the last days of our era...The two great forces of the Mystical Body of Christ and the Mystical Body of Antichrist are beginning to draw up the battle lines for the catastrophic contest."
With all due respect for Ms. Corbitt, she's no Fulton Sheen. And never will be. While the idea that Antichrist is imminent may have emotional appeal for some who wish to evade "personal responsibility to become or remain involved in an immoral world which despises a Christian moral message," it may also be said that there is emotional appeal for others in believing that the Antichrist is not near. For, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us:
"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." (675).
The idea that such a persecution may be close at hand is disturbing. But the answer is not to be found by sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that "all is well." The message that Antichrist is near need not fill us with dread or despair. For again the Catechism explains that, "The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world." (677).
Does that sound like a message of despair? Or could it just be that Sonja Corbitt's faith in the Lord Jesus is not very strong? The Church assures us that God's victory over the final unleashing of evil will result in a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness is at home. How is this a message of despair? We have a courageous example given to us in Sacred Scripture as to how to face persecution even unto death. And this from a mother and her seven sons. See here.
Read this passage from Maccabees and ask yourself, "Did these people of faith despair?" Or did they believe in the Lord's promises?
At any rate, getting back to Ms. Corbitt's assertion that the Antichrist is not near, let's hear from Father Charles Arminjon in his book "The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life":
"It is undeniable that all governments at the present time are at work accomplishing this abominable operation of apostasy, and that they are striving to banish Jesus Christ from the school, the army, and from the very abode of justice! Are not His Cross and His adorable name blasphemed and held up as a symbol of ignorance and fanaticism? Has not the Church been outlawed and excluded from the councils of governments and deliberative assemblies? Are not all the laws that are formulated marked with the seal of odious intolerance toward her, and have they any other purpose than to diminish her authority and influence? Blasphemy is raised to the level of a privilege and a right. Parallel with the destruction of Christianity, we see the reappearance of paganism, in the form of base materialism, marked by the exaltation of all that flatters the senses, and the glorification of the basest and most brutish instincts; a paganism that pervades industry, the arts, and literature, and predominates in all public institutions. Christianity is declared to be the enemy, and at the same time, materialism is presented to the aspirations of peoples as the moving force of progress, and the god of the future. Now, if the extremes of evil do not meet with a prompt and vigorous response, if the defection continues on its course, it may be predicted that this war on God must inevitably end in total, consummated apostasy. It is but a small step from the cult of the state - that is, the utilitarian spirit and the worship of the god-state which is the religion of our time, to the worship of the individual man. We have almost reached that point...and, proceeding from these facts and observations, we must conclude that the hypothesis of the proximity of the Antichrist's coming is more probable than the hypothesis that considers his coming as remote." (pp. 71-72).
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
"..otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it.."
The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you once lived, nor shall you do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; do not conform to their customs. My decrees you shall carry out, and my statutes you shall take care to follow. I, the Lord, am your God. Keep, then, my statutes and decrees, for the man who carries them out will find life through them. I am the Lord. "None of you shall approach a close relative to have sexual intercourse with her. I am the Lord. You shall not disgrace your father by having intercourse with your mother. Besides, since she is your own mother, you shall not have intercourse with her. You shall not have intercourse with your father's wife, for that would be a disgrace to your father. You shall not have intercourse with your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in your own household or born elsewhere. You shall not have intercourse with your son's daughter or with your daughter's daughter, for that would be a disgrace to your own family. You shall not have intercourse with the daughter whom your father's wife bore to him, since she, too, is your sister. You shall not have intercourse with your father's sister, since she is your father's relative. You shall not have intercourse with your mother's sister, since she is your mother's relative. You shall not disgrace your father's brother by being intimate with his wife, since she, too, is your aunt. You shall not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, and therefore you shall not disgrace her. You shall not have intercourse with your brother's wife, for that would be a disgrace to your brother. You shall not have intercourse with a woman and also with her daughter, nor shall you marry and have intercourse with her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; this would be shameful, because they are related to her. While your wife is still living you shall not marry her sister as her rival; for thus you would disgrace your first wife. "You shall not approach a woman to have intercourse with her while she is unclean from menstruation. You shall not have carnal relations with your neighbor's wife, defiling yourself with her. You shall not offer any of your offspring to be immolated to Molech, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination. You shall not have carnal relations with an animal, defiling yourself with it; nor shall a woman set herself in front of an animal to mate with it; such things are abhorrent.
"Do not defile yourselves by any of these things by which the nations whom I am driving out of your way have defiled themselves. Because their land has become defiled, I am punishing it for its wickedness, by making it vomit out its inhabitants. You, however, whether natives or resident aliens, must keep my statutes and decrees forbidding all such abominations by which the previous inhabitants defiled the land; otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it, just as it vomited out the nations before you. Everyone who does any of these abominations shall be cut off from among his people. Heed my charge, then, not to defile yourselves by observing the abominable customs that have been observed before you. I, the Lord, am your God." (Leviticus 18: 1-30).
And now floods.
"Do not defile yourselves by any of these things by which the nations whom I am driving out of your way have defiled themselves. Because their land has become defiled, I am punishing it for its wickedness, by making it vomit out its inhabitants. You, however, whether natives or resident aliens, must keep my statutes and decrees forbidding all such abominations by which the previous inhabitants defiled the land; otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it, just as it vomited out the nations before you. Everyone who does any of these abominations shall be cut off from among his people. Heed my charge, then, not to defile yourselves by observing the abominable customs that have been observed before you. I, the Lord, am your God." (Leviticus 18: 1-30).
And now floods.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sentinel & Enterprise Editor: "We run a wide variety of columnists who are all over the political spectrum.."
Bernard Goldberg, in his book "Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite," notes how, "Quite simply, when it comes to gay issues, once again ideological journalism routinely fails the public - tilting the news of highly complex issues mainly to one side almost as a matter of course. Once again, as with stories involving race or gender, narrow-interest pressure groups both inside and outside the newsroom are accorded special deference and respect. And yes, once again it is liberal sympathizers, in this case straight ones, who help enforce the code, branding those who dissent from the approved liberal position as morally flawed..." And, referring to those who oppose homosexuality because of their religious convictions, Goldberg writes, "I don't think someone is a homophobe just because he or she thinks that way - or, for that matter, honestly disagrees with some of the other items on the gay agenda. More to the point, as it pertains to journalism, I think those people deserve a full, fair, and equal hearing. The fact is, the gay agenda demands a fundamental shift in the way we've thought about sex and morals for a very, very long time. It literally seeks to wipe away several thousand years of social and religious tradition. So it would be crazy for us not to have a free and open debate about its consequences. Yet what we most often see instead in the media is the sort of name-calling that wouldn't be tolerated on a playground. Even traditionalist religious leaders and respected conservative social commentators regularly get called bigots for doing nothing more than upholding the tenets of their faith." (Arrogance, pp. 167, 168-169).
In this past Sunday's Sentinel & Enterprise, Bonnie Toomey categorized religious believers as being "stuck in the 20th century." The implication being that those who adhere to the tenets of their faith tradition are somehow backward and "behind the times." In addition, Ms. Toomey implied that it is this "backward thinking" which is responsible for "the many ugly stories involving harassment, mistreatment and even homicide."
I answered Ms. Toomey's asinine article in my last post. What is most interesting is that a reader of this Blog contacted the editor of the Sentinel & Enterprise - Mr. Charles St. Amand - to address her concerns regarding Ms. Toomey's article and he responded by asserting that the newspaper runs "a wide variety of columnists who are all over the political spectrum - left, right and center" and that he welcomes "letters and guest columns from..readers and community leaders on all topics." This comes as a complete surprise to me. For I have submitted guest columns and op-ed pieces in the past dealing with the issue of homosexuality and same-sex "marriage" and these have never seen the light of day. Years ago, another Sentinel editor - Ann Connery Frantz - would routinely mock my views as she informed me that the paper would not be publishing them.
Does such an attitude represent a "full, fair and equal hearing"? A fellow Catholic Blogger has written about the Worcester Telegram & Gazette's bias with regard to the issue of homosexuality. See here.
Journalistic integrity or radical homosexual agenda? You decide.
Related reading here
In this past Sunday's Sentinel & Enterprise, Bonnie Toomey categorized religious believers as being "stuck in the 20th century." The implication being that those who adhere to the tenets of their faith tradition are somehow backward and "behind the times." In addition, Ms. Toomey implied that it is this "backward thinking" which is responsible for "the many ugly stories involving harassment, mistreatment and even homicide."
I answered Ms. Toomey's asinine article in my last post. What is most interesting is that a reader of this Blog contacted the editor of the Sentinel & Enterprise - Mr. Charles St. Amand - to address her concerns regarding Ms. Toomey's article and he responded by asserting that the newspaper runs "a wide variety of columnists who are all over the political spectrum - left, right and center" and that he welcomes "letters and guest columns from..readers and community leaders on all topics." This comes as a complete surprise to me. For I have submitted guest columns and op-ed pieces in the past dealing with the issue of homosexuality and same-sex "marriage" and these have never seen the light of day. Years ago, another Sentinel editor - Ann Connery Frantz - would routinely mock my views as she informed me that the paper would not be publishing them.
Does such an attitude represent a "full, fair and equal hearing"? A fellow Catholic Blogger has written about the Worcester Telegram & Gazette's bias with regard to the issue of homosexuality. See here.
Journalistic integrity or radical homosexual agenda? You decide.
Related reading here
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Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Sentinel & Enterprise publishes homosexual agitprop from Bonnie J. Toomey
It's Easter Sunday. Catholics and other Christians are celebrating the Resurrection of their Savior. And on this sacred day, when Christ's disciples remember the historic event of His reuniting His human body and soul which had been separated by His death on the Cross, the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise has decided to publish homosexual agitprop in the form of an article written by Bonnie J. Toomey and entitled "Why should pink have us seeing red?"
Responding to the controversy which erupted when the president of Abercrombie & Fitch, Jenna Lyons, painted her five year old son's toenails pink, Ms. Toomey writes, "...pink is a beautiful color, and I think it looks great on a guy. It doesn't mean anything. But why do we get so uncomfortable when it comes to boys and pink? Traditions, religions and a patriarchal society have put pink where they want it, not necessarily where it rightfully belongs. My sons wore their sister's costumes and dresses many times..But did it change their gender?...And what if it did? Nature is not nurture, and no matter how hard you try, you can't hold back nature..."
But this is to suggest that homosexuality is genetic, dominant and irreversible. If this were true, then no one would be responsible for deviant sexual acts. The fact remains, however, that psychological therapy has proven to be very successful in diminishing, and in many cases even eliminating, same-sex attraction. Personal testimonies from former homosexuals who were healed from the psychopathology may be found here and here.
Ms. Toomey insists though that, "homosexuality is determined by innate characteristics that contribute to sexual orientation and that cannot be changed through medical or psychiatric treatment." That would indeed come as news to those who have recovered from the psychopathology. But Ms. Toomey wouldn't be interested in their testimonies. For these would produce a crack in her wall of conviction. And Ms. Toomey is not interested in truth. The fact remains, homosexuality is not innate. In fact, Dr. Francis S. Collins, one of the world's leading scientists who works on the cutting edge of DNA, has said that, "Homosexuality is not hardwired..." and "..there is an inescapable component of heritability to many human behavioral traits. For virtually none of them is heredity ever close to predictive." See here.
It is unfortunate that homosexual propagandists like Bonnie Toomey continue to ignore the hard science about homosexuality. Dutch psychologist Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg, Ph.D., a specialist on homosexuality (unlike Ms. Toomey who has no expertise in this area), says that the claim that homosexuality is normal is one of those statements that are "so foolish that only intellectuals could believe them." It is like saying that anorexia nervosa is healthy. See here. Dr. Aardweg notes that, "The term neurotic describes such relationships well. It suggests the ego-centeredness of the relationship; the attention-seeking instead of loving...Neurotic, in short, suggests all kinds of dramas and childish conflicts as well as the basic disinterestedness in the partner, notwithstanding the shallow pretensions of 'love.' Nowhere is there more self-deception in the homosexual than in his representation of himself as a lover. One partner is important to the other only insofar as he satisfies that other's needs. Real, unselfish love for a desired partner would, in fact, end up destroying homosexual 'love'!" (Dr. Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg, The Battle for Normality, Ignatius Press, 1997, pp. 62-63).
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 1 in 5 sexually active homosexual and bisexual men in America are HIV-positive but that 44% of them don't know it. See here. The health risks associated with the homosexual lifestyle are well documented (see here), but propagandists for the lifestyle - like Ms. Toomey - do not seem to be very concerned about these health risks. For their goal is to convert others to the homosexal ideology through a planned psychological attack in the form of homosexual propaganda.
In her zeal to promote the sodomite cause, Ms. Toomey engages in one falsehood after another. She writes, "It's time we accept the fact that as much as 10 percent of the population..is homosexual." But the ten percent myth, which has been based upon research done by the now totally discredited Alfred Kinsey, has been refuted time and again.
For Ms. Toomey, propagandist for the sodomite culture, "Homosexuality..is not wrong." And she is entitled to her beliefs. As idiotic as they are. I'm sure she actually believes the lifestyle is healthy as well. But those of us who are Christian, Jew and Muslim are entitled to our beliefs as well. Those of us who are authentically Catholic, as opposed to being Catholic in name only, accept the teaching of the Church's Magisterium, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (2357).
And we do not appreciate a second-rate columnist with absolutely no background in theology or the science of DNA telling us that we are backward simply because we do not buy into her radical homosexual agitprop which insists that homosexuality is innate or hardwired.
That the Sentinel & Enterprise would publish such nonsense on Easter Sunday is shameful. The publication has embarassed itself once again.
Responding to the controversy which erupted when the president of Abercrombie & Fitch, Jenna Lyons, painted her five year old son's toenails pink, Ms. Toomey writes, "...pink is a beautiful color, and I think it looks great on a guy. It doesn't mean anything. But why do we get so uncomfortable when it comes to boys and pink? Traditions, religions and a patriarchal society have put pink where they want it, not necessarily where it rightfully belongs. My sons wore their sister's costumes and dresses many times..But did it change their gender?...And what if it did? Nature is not nurture, and no matter how hard you try, you can't hold back nature..."
But this is to suggest that homosexuality is genetic, dominant and irreversible. If this were true, then no one would be responsible for deviant sexual acts. The fact remains, however, that psychological therapy has proven to be very successful in diminishing, and in many cases even eliminating, same-sex attraction. Personal testimonies from former homosexuals who were healed from the psychopathology may be found here and here.
Ms. Toomey insists though that, "homosexuality is determined by innate characteristics that contribute to sexual orientation and that cannot be changed through medical or psychiatric treatment." That would indeed come as news to those who have recovered from the psychopathology. But Ms. Toomey wouldn't be interested in their testimonies. For these would produce a crack in her wall of conviction. And Ms. Toomey is not interested in truth. The fact remains, homosexuality is not innate. In fact, Dr. Francis S. Collins, one of the world's leading scientists who works on the cutting edge of DNA, has said that, "Homosexuality is not hardwired..." and "..there is an inescapable component of heritability to many human behavioral traits. For virtually none of them is heredity ever close to predictive." See here.
It is unfortunate that homosexual propagandists like Bonnie Toomey continue to ignore the hard science about homosexuality. Dutch psychologist Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg, Ph.D., a specialist on homosexuality (unlike Ms. Toomey who has no expertise in this area), says that the claim that homosexuality is normal is one of those statements that are "so foolish that only intellectuals could believe them." It is like saying that anorexia nervosa is healthy. See here. Dr. Aardweg notes that, "The term neurotic describes such relationships well. It suggests the ego-centeredness of the relationship; the attention-seeking instead of loving...Neurotic, in short, suggests all kinds of dramas and childish conflicts as well as the basic disinterestedness in the partner, notwithstanding the shallow pretensions of 'love.' Nowhere is there more self-deception in the homosexual than in his representation of himself as a lover. One partner is important to the other only insofar as he satisfies that other's needs. Real, unselfish love for a desired partner would, in fact, end up destroying homosexual 'love'!" (Dr. Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg, The Battle for Normality, Ignatius Press, 1997, pp. 62-63).
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 1 in 5 sexually active homosexual and bisexual men in America are HIV-positive but that 44% of them don't know it. See here. The health risks associated with the homosexual lifestyle are well documented (see here), but propagandists for the lifestyle - like Ms. Toomey - do not seem to be very concerned about these health risks. For their goal is to convert others to the homosexal ideology through a planned psychological attack in the form of homosexual propaganda.
In her zeal to promote the sodomite cause, Ms. Toomey engages in one falsehood after another. She writes, "It's time we accept the fact that as much as 10 percent of the population..is homosexual." But the ten percent myth, which has been based upon research done by the now totally discredited Alfred Kinsey, has been refuted time and again.
For Ms. Toomey, propagandist for the sodomite culture, "Homosexuality..is not wrong." And she is entitled to her beliefs. As idiotic as they are. I'm sure she actually believes the lifestyle is healthy as well. But those of us who are Christian, Jew and Muslim are entitled to our beliefs as well. Those of us who are authentically Catholic, as opposed to being Catholic in name only, accept the teaching of the Church's Magisterium, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (2357).
And we do not appreciate a second-rate columnist with absolutely no background in theology or the science of DNA telling us that we are backward simply because we do not buy into her radical homosexual agitprop which insists that homosexuality is innate or hardwired.
That the Sentinel & Enterprise would publish such nonsense on Easter Sunday is shameful. The publication has embarassed itself once again.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The earth is a giant graveyard but we have hope because one of these graves is empty
The earth is a giant graveyard. But we have hope because one of these graves is empty. Christ Jesus came to save us from sin and its consequence: death (Romans 6: 23). And as Dr. Peter Kreeft once said, "The Resurrection also sharply distinguishes Jesus from all the other religious founders. The bones of Abraham and Muhammad and Buddha and Confucius and Lao-tzu and Zoroaster are still here on earth. Jesus' tomb is empty. The existential consequences of the resurrection are incomparable. It is the concrete, factual, empirical proof that: life has hope and meaning; 'love is stronger than death'; goodness and power are ultimately allies, not enemies; life wins in the end; God has touched us right where we are and has defeated our last enemy; we are not cosmic orphans, as our modern secular worldview would make us.."
In his poem entitled "The Convert," Gilbert Keith Chesterton so eloquently presents this truth:
After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white,
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite
But softly, as men smile about the dead.
The sages have a hundred maps to give
That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,
They rattle reason out through many a sieve
That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:
And all these things are less than dust to me
Because my name is Lazarus and I live.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:5). And it never will. Not even that supreme darkness and deception which is fast-approaching (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675). Our sad broken world is dying. Heaven and earth will pass away. But not the word of the Living God.
In his poem entitled "The Convert," Gilbert Keith Chesterton so eloquently presents this truth:
After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white,
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite
But softly, as men smile about the dead.
The sages have a hundred maps to give
That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,
They rattle reason out through many a sieve
That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:
And all these things are less than dust to me
Because my name is Lazarus and I live.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:5). And it never will. Not even that supreme darkness and deception which is fast-approaching (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675). Our sad broken world is dying. Heaven and earth will pass away. But not the word of the Living God.
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Friday, April 22, 2011
"Will we be inspired by Sparta or Calvary? By Valhalla or Gethsemane?"
On April 6, 1941, Bishop Fulton John Sheen gave a sermon on his radio show "The Catholic Hour" in which he reminded listeners that, "The basic spirit of the modern world for the last century has been a determination to escape the Cross." He told his audience as well that, "There is no such thing as living without a cross. We are free only to choose between crosses." And then he asked them: "Will it be the Cross of Christ which redeems us from our sins, or will it be the double cross, the swastika, the hammer and sickle, the fasces"?Bishop Sheen believed, as I do, that America is at a crossroads. In his own words, "We in America are now faced with the threat of that double cross...Our choice is not: Will we or will we not have more discipline, more respect for law, more order, more sacrifice; but, where will we get it? Will we get it from without, or from within, Will it be inspired by Sparta or Calvary? By Valhalla or Gethsemane? By militarism or religion? By the double cross or the Cross? By Caesar or by God? That is the choice facing America today.
The hour of false freedom is past. No longer can we have education without discipline, family life without sacrifice, individual existence without moral responsibility, economics and politics without subservience to the common good. We are now only free to say whence it shall come. We will have a sword. Shall it be only the sword that thrusts outward to cut off the ears of our enemies, or the sword that pierces inward to cut out our own selfish pride"?
Thus far, America has chosen the double cross. Fleeing from the Cross of Christ and the supernatural kingdom established by the Son of God; one of sacrifice and sanctity, America has chosen to pursue a terrestrial kingdom of pleasure and power founded upon a distorted idea of what constitutes liberty or freedom. But this city of man, which has certainly achieved astounding advancements in various spheres while increasing the affluence of some, has also contributed to a climate where men are regarded as mere machines whose only value is to be found in what they produce or consume. This in turn destroys the individual’s sense of personal dignity and responsibility.Americans, in their tragic desire to flee from the Cross of Christ, have rushed to embrace this distorted notion of "freedom" and have forgotten that, as created beings, they only possess contingent rights. That is to say, rights which are accorded by Almighty God. Consequently, in their zeal to promote the fallacious idea that the basis of public morality should be whatever the majority of citizens are prepared to accept, they have also forgotten that man does not possess, and never will possess, the right to perform or engage in any act which is displeasing to God.
And where has this flight from the Cross of Christ led us up to this point? Was Bishop Sheen being an alarmist? In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, taken from his Commencement Address at Harvard University entitled "A World Split Apart": "Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the abyss of human decadence, such as, for example, the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, motion pictures full of pornography, crime and horror. This is considered to be part of freedom, and theoretically counterbalanced by the young peoples’ right not to look or not to accept. Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil."
Getting back to Bishop Sheen. What did he mean when he said that, "Our choice is not: Will we or will we not have more discipline, more respect for law, more order, more sacrifice; but, where will we get it"? I believe Pope Benedict XVI was providing us with a hint toward an answer when he spoke of the "dictatorship of relativism." Americans who have gleefully embraced the tenets of liberalism have not learned the lesson the concentration camp and the gulag. These unfortunate souls refuse to acknowledge that atheistic ideology (and make no mistake, the current idea of "freedom" which has taken root in America is itself rooted in atheistic ideology) always, and without exception, gives birth to sheer violence. This is the lesson of atheistic humanism. A lesson which the majority of Americans would rather not think about.
Who would deny that Bishop Sheen’s warning, issued some 70 years ago, was highly prophetic? America, and the West in general, is at a crossroads. We have before us two crosses: The Cross of Christ and the double cross (which may also be referred to today as the "dictatorship of relativism"). Which will we choose in the end? Will we continue on our present course or change direction and finally come to embrace the Cross of Christ? Will we embrace Christ and His kingdom of sacrifice and sanctity or continue to rush headlong into the idolatry of unbridled hedonism while declaring ourselves, albeit tacitly, to be God?
If we continue to choose the latter, then we should remember the words of Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., "When man becomes God, history testifies that then millions of men become imprisoned slaves, terrified automatons and murdered corpses. Society, in the words of Gabriel Marcel, becomes a ‘termite colony.’" (The Gods of Atheism, p. 463).
The hour of false freedom is past. No longer can we have education without discipline, family life without sacrifice, individual existence without moral responsibility, economics and politics without subservience to the common good. We are now only free to say whence it shall come. We will have a sword. Shall it be only the sword that thrusts outward to cut off the ears of our enemies, or the sword that pierces inward to cut out our own selfish pride"?
Thus far, America has chosen the double cross. Fleeing from the Cross of Christ and the supernatural kingdom established by the Son of God; one of sacrifice and sanctity, America has chosen to pursue a terrestrial kingdom of pleasure and power founded upon a distorted idea of what constitutes liberty or freedom. But this city of man, which has certainly achieved astounding advancements in various spheres while increasing the affluence of some, has also contributed to a climate where men are regarded as mere machines whose only value is to be found in what they produce or consume. This in turn destroys the individual’s sense of personal dignity and responsibility.Americans, in their tragic desire to flee from the Cross of Christ, have rushed to embrace this distorted notion of "freedom" and have forgotten that, as created beings, they only possess contingent rights. That is to say, rights which are accorded by Almighty God. Consequently, in their zeal to promote the fallacious idea that the basis of public morality should be whatever the majority of citizens are prepared to accept, they have also forgotten that man does not possess, and never will possess, the right to perform or engage in any act which is displeasing to God.
And where has this flight from the Cross of Christ led us up to this point? Was Bishop Sheen being an alarmist? In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, taken from his Commencement Address at Harvard University entitled "A World Split Apart": "Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the abyss of human decadence, such as, for example, the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, motion pictures full of pornography, crime and horror. This is considered to be part of freedom, and theoretically counterbalanced by the young peoples’ right not to look or not to accept. Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil."
Getting back to Bishop Sheen. What did he mean when he said that, "Our choice is not: Will we or will we not have more discipline, more respect for law, more order, more sacrifice; but, where will we get it"? I believe Pope Benedict XVI was providing us with a hint toward an answer when he spoke of the "dictatorship of relativism." Americans who have gleefully embraced the tenets of liberalism have not learned the lesson the concentration camp and the gulag. These unfortunate souls refuse to acknowledge that atheistic ideology (and make no mistake, the current idea of "freedom" which has taken root in America is itself rooted in atheistic ideology) always, and without exception, gives birth to sheer violence. This is the lesson of atheistic humanism. A lesson which the majority of Americans would rather not think about.
Who would deny that Bishop Sheen’s warning, issued some 70 years ago, was highly prophetic? America, and the West in general, is at a crossroads. We have before us two crosses: The Cross of Christ and the double cross (which may also be referred to today as the "dictatorship of relativism"). Which will we choose in the end? Will we continue on our present course or change direction and finally come to embrace the Cross of Christ? Will we embrace Christ and His kingdom of sacrifice and sanctity or continue to rush headlong into the idolatry of unbridled hedonism while declaring ourselves, albeit tacitly, to be God?
If we continue to choose the latter, then we should remember the words of Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., "When man becomes God, history testifies that then millions of men become imprisoned slaves, terrified automatons and murdered corpses. Society, in the words of Gabriel Marcel, becomes a ‘termite colony.’" (The Gods of Atheism, p. 463).
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
"I shall be pleased to break the pride of the wicked.."
Christ, in a vision to the stigmatist Martha Robin, said: "I play with the plans of men. My right hand prepares miracles and My Name shall be glorified in all the world. I shall be pleased to break the pride of the wicked much more when the world will be most hostile to all that is supernatural. And much more admirable and extraordinary will be the event that will come out of our encounter. In place of the throne of the Beast two glorious thrones will arise, one of My Sacred Heart and the other of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Then it will be understood that neither human power nor demons nor the genius of industry will end the conflict, but that will end only when reparation has been consummated. Be courageous! The Kingdom of God is near. It will begin with something that will come so suddenly as to be entirely unexpected."
Twenty warning signs that you need to prepare and store food:
1. According to the World Bank, 44 million people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices.
2. The world is losing topsoil at an astounding rate. The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced. The U.S. is losing topsoil faster than during the dustbowl of the 1930s.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/The-lowdown-on-topsoil-It-s-disappearing-1262214.php#ixzz1JbvY764x
The primary causes are deforestation, overexploitation for fuel wood, overgrazing, agricultural activities and industrialization.
3. Due to U.S. ethanol subsidies, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is now used for fuel. This is causing an increase in the price of corn.
4. Due to a lack of water, some countries in the Middle East find themselves forced to almost totally rely on other nations for basic food staples. For example, it is being projected that there will be no more wheat production in Saudi Arabia by the year 2012.
5. Water tables all over the globe are being depleted at an alarming rate due to “overpumping”. According to the World Bank, there are 130 million people in China and 175 million people in India that are being fed with grain grown with water that is being pumped out of aquifers faster than it can be replaced. So what happens once all of that water is gone?
6. In the United States, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn “America’s Breadbasket” back into the “Dust Bowl”.
7. Diseases such as UG99 wheat rust are wiping out increasingly large segments of the world food supply.
8. The tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan have rendered vast agricultural areas in that nation unusable. In fact, there are many that believe that a significant portion of northern Japan will be considered unusable for agriculture for the foreseeable future. Many are now convinced that the Japanese economy, the third largest economy in the world, is likely to totally collapse as a result of the damage to their economy.
9. The price of oil may be the biggest factor on this list. The way that we produce and transport our food is very heavily dependent on oil. When you have skyrocketing oil prices, It forces the retail cost of our foods to rise.
10. At some point the world could experience a very serious fertilizer shortage. According to scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, the world is not going to have enough phosphorous to meet agricultural demand in just 30 to 40 years.
11. Food inflation is already devastating many economies around the globe. For example, India is dealing with an annual food inflation rate of 18 percent.
12. According to the United Nations, the global price of food reached a new all-time high in February.
13. According to the World Bank, the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months.
14. The commodity price of wheat has approximately doubled since last summer.
15. The commodity price of corn has also about doubled since last summer.
16. The commodity price of soybeans is up about 50% since last June.
17. The commodity price of orange juice has doubled since 2009.
18. There are about 3 billion people around the globe that live on the equivalent of 2 dollars a day or less and the world was already on the verge of economic disaster before this year even began.
19. So far in 2011 revolutions have swept across the Middle East, the United States has gotten involved in the civil war in Libya. Europe is on the verge of a financial meltdown and the U.S. dollar is losing value.
20. There have been persistent rumors of shortages at some of the biggest suppliers of emergency food in the United States. Mountain House the largest supplier of freeze dried and dehydrated food in the United States is not accepting orders for the next couple of months.
See full article here.
Our Lady told Fr. Stephano 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. The 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."
Related reading: U.S. farmers fear return of Dust Bowl.
Then it will be understood that neither human power nor demons nor the genius of industry will end the conflict, but that will end only when reparation has been consummated. Be courageous! The Kingdom of God is near. It will begin with something that will come so suddenly as to be entirely unexpected."
Twenty warning signs that you need to prepare and store food:
1. According to the World Bank, 44 million people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices.
2. The world is losing topsoil at an astounding rate. The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced. The U.S. is losing topsoil faster than during the dustbowl of the 1930s.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/The-lowdown-on-topsoil-It-s-disappearing-1262214.php#ixzz1JbvY764x
The primary causes are deforestation, overexploitation for fuel wood, overgrazing, agricultural activities and industrialization.
3. Due to U.S. ethanol subsidies, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is now used for fuel. This is causing an increase in the price of corn.
4. Due to a lack of water, some countries in the Middle East find themselves forced to almost totally rely on other nations for basic food staples. For example, it is being projected that there will be no more wheat production in Saudi Arabia by the year 2012.
5. Water tables all over the globe are being depleted at an alarming rate due to “overpumping”. According to the World Bank, there are 130 million people in China and 175 million people in India that are being fed with grain grown with water that is being pumped out of aquifers faster than it can be replaced. So what happens once all of that water is gone?
6. In the United States, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn “America’s Breadbasket” back into the “Dust Bowl”.
7. Diseases such as UG99 wheat rust are wiping out increasingly large segments of the world food supply.
8. The tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan have rendered vast agricultural areas in that nation unusable. In fact, there are many that believe that a significant portion of northern Japan will be considered unusable for agriculture for the foreseeable future. Many are now convinced that the Japanese economy, the third largest economy in the world, is likely to totally collapse as a result of the damage to their economy.
9. The price of oil may be the biggest factor on this list. The way that we produce and transport our food is very heavily dependent on oil. When you have skyrocketing oil prices, It forces the retail cost of our foods to rise.
10. At some point the world could experience a very serious fertilizer shortage. According to scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, the world is not going to have enough phosphorous to meet agricultural demand in just 30 to 40 years.
11. Food inflation is already devastating many economies around the globe. For example, India is dealing with an annual food inflation rate of 18 percent.
12. According to the United Nations, the global price of food reached a new all-time high in February.
13. According to the World Bank, the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months.
14. The commodity price of wheat has approximately doubled since last summer.
15. The commodity price of corn has also about doubled since last summer.
16. The commodity price of soybeans is up about 50% since last June.
17. The commodity price of orange juice has doubled since 2009.
18. There are about 3 billion people around the globe that live on the equivalent of 2 dollars a day or less and the world was already on the verge of economic disaster before this year even began.
19. So far in 2011 revolutions have swept across the Middle East, the United States has gotten involved in the civil war in Libya. Europe is on the verge of a financial meltdown and the U.S. dollar is losing value.
20. There have been persistent rumors of shortages at some of the biggest suppliers of emergency food in the United States. Mountain House the largest supplier of freeze dried and dehydrated food in the United States is not accepting orders for the next couple of months.
See full article here.
Our Lady told Fr. Stephano 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. The 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."
Related reading: U.S. farmers fear return of Dust Bowl.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel: Two lawyers on a mission to attack the Catholic Church
German lawyers Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel are at it again. These two anti-Catholic bigots have tried to outlaw the Bible in the past, asserting that God's Word contains messages of racism and brutality which could harm the souls of children. See here. Now they are charging Pope Benedict XVI with crimes against humanity and are asking people to support their demonic cause, a cause being advanced by the British Church of Satan. See here.
The very website Pope Accountability - which may be found here - is registered to Mr. Sailer. Both Sailer and Hetzel are members of the "Universal Life" cult which is vehemently opposed to the Catholic Church and her teaching. In fact, the cult says (at its website): "We believe that you have the right to worship your God without intolerance or antiquated religious dogma." This hatred of dogma is spreading like a cancer even through certain segments of the Catholic Church as I detailed here and here.
In one Blog post, the Universal Life cult (which heavily promotes women priests and "gay marriage") asks, "Why should we believe that the pope is divinely inspired by God just because the pope claims to have succeeded by heavenly guidance down a line started by Jesus Christ, and why should we believe that the sixty-six canonical books are divinely inspired just because ministers say so, or just because the books themselves say so? Bias in favor of oneself is not exactly objective evidence." (See here).
It's easy to see what is driving the hatred toward Pope Benedict XVI: hatred for dogma and a Secular Humanist agenda which has embraced homosexual agitprop.
The very website Pope Accountability - which may be found here - is registered to Mr. Sailer. Both Sailer and Hetzel are members of the "Universal Life" cult which is vehemently opposed to the Catholic Church and her teaching. In fact, the cult says (at its website): "We believe that you have the right to worship your God without intolerance or antiquated religious dogma." This hatred of dogma is spreading like a cancer even through certain segments of the Catholic Church as I detailed here and here.
In one Blog post, the Universal Life cult (which heavily promotes women priests and "gay marriage") asks, "Why should we believe that the pope is divinely inspired by God just because the pope claims to have succeeded by heavenly guidance down a line started by Jesus Christ, and why should we believe that the sixty-six canonical books are divinely inspired just because ministers say so, or just because the books themselves say so? Bias in favor of oneself is not exactly objective evidence." (See here).
It's easy to see what is driving the hatred toward Pope Benedict XVI: hatred for dogma and a Secular Humanist agenda which has embraced homosexual agitprop.
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Monday, April 18, 2011
Electrician may be fired for displaying a small palm cross in the window of his company van
Although Colin Atkinson's company supports "gay pride" events and "diversity days," apparently his miniscule cross is just too much for them to bear. See here. It was Jeanne Le Royer (d. 1798), also known as Sister Mary of the Nativity, who prophesied that, "Many precursors, false prophets, and members of infernal secret societies, worshippers of Satan, shall impugn the most sacred dogmas and doctrines of our holy religion, shall persecute the faithful, shall commit abominable actions; but the real and extreme abomination and desolation shall more fully be accomplished during the reign of Antichrist, which shall last about three years and a half. Woe, woe, woe to the last century which is descending! What tribulations precede its commencements. Out of this mighty voice I recognized that these woeful tribulations will make their appearance in the age before the judgment...When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish.."
Back in December of 2009, little Jalen Cromwell of Taunton, Massachusetts, was forced to undergo psychological evaluations for drawing a stick figure of the crucified Jesus. See here.
While Colin Atkinson's palm cross is viewed as "insensitive," Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" which depicts a Crucifix submerged in a glass of Serrano’s own urine mixed with cow’s blood, is considered a "work of art" and received $15,000 from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts. Serrano's supporters have argued that the "Piss Christ" represents an issue of artistic freedom and freedom of speech. And what about Colin Atkinson's freedom of speech?
Breaking news here.
Back in December of 2009, little Jalen Cromwell of Taunton, Massachusetts, was forced to undergo psychological evaluations for drawing a stick figure of the crucified Jesus. See here.
While Colin Atkinson's palm cross is viewed as "insensitive," Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" which depicts a Crucifix submerged in a glass of Serrano’s own urine mixed with cow’s blood, is considered a "work of art" and received $15,000 from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts. Serrano's supporters have argued that the "Piss Christ" represents an issue of artistic freedom and freedom of speech. And what about Colin Atkinson's freedom of speech?
Breaking news here.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
"...But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
According to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, only 2 percent of Catholic women, even those who regularly attend Holy Mass, rely on natural family planning. Some 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used contraceptive methods condemned by the Church. See here. This is a moral disaster. And it is a disaster which has largely been brought about by the failure of Roman Catholic priests to preach the Word of God as interpreted by the Church's Magisterium.
Contraception is gravely sinful because it contradicts the divinely intended purpose of marital intercourse, which is to foster procreative love. Many priests do not preach the Church's teaching on contraception because they believe this grave moral issue is open to change. But Pope Pius XI has answered these dissidents once and for all:
"Openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition, some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine on this question....The Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the marital union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of divine Ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin." (Casti Conubii, December 31, 1930).
By "grave sin," Pius XI is referring to mortal sin. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, "Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him." (CCC, 1855). And further, "To choose deliberately - that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death." (CCC, 1874).
Our Lady told Father Gobbi that many priests have become mute dogs. They are silent when they should be upholding the faith and striving to save souls. And because of this, a strong judgment is coming upon them. Don Bosco was given a prophecy for our time:
"Now Heaven's voice is addressed to the Shepherd of shepherds. You are now in conference with your advisors. The enemy of the good does not stand idle one moment. He studies and practices all his arts against you. He will sow discord among your consultors; he will raise up enemies amongst my children. The powers of the world will belch forth fire, and they would that the words be suffocated in the throats of the custodians of my law. That will not happen, they will do no harm but to themselves. You must hurry. If you cannot untie the knots, cut them. If you find yourself hard pressed, do not give up but continue until the head of the hydra of error is cut off. This stroke will make the world and Hell beneath it tremble, but the world will be safe and all the good will rejoice. Keep your consultors always with you, even if only two. Wherever you go, continue and bring to an end the work entrusted to you. The days fly by, your years will reach the destined number; but the great Queen will ever be your help, as in times past, so in the future She will always be the exceeding great fortress of the Church.
Ah, but you, Italy, land of blessings! Who has steeped you in desolation! Blame not your enemies, but rather your friends. Can you not hear your children asking for the bread of faith and finding only those who smash it to pieces? What shall I do? I shall strike the shepherds, I shall disperse the flock, until those sitting on the throne of Moses search for good pastures and the flock listens attentively and is fed.
Of the flock and over the shepherds My hand will weigh heavy. Famine, pestilence, and war will be such that mothers will have to cry on account of the blood of their sons and of their martyrs dead in a hostile country.
And to you, Rome, what will happen! Ungrateful Rome, effeminate Rome, proud Rome! You have reached such a height that you search no further. You admire nothing else in your Sovereign except luxury, forgetting that you and your glory stands upon Golgotha. Now he is old, defenseless, and despoiled; and yet at his word, the word of one who was in bondage, the whole world trembles.
Rome! To you I will come four times.
The first time, I shall strike your lands and the inhabitants thereof.
The second time, I shall bring the massacre and the slaughter even to your very walls. And will you not yet open your eyes?
I shall come a third time and I shall beat down to the ground your defenses and the defenders, and at the command of the Father, the reign of terror, of dreadful fear, and of desolation shall enter into your city.
But My wise men have now fled and My law is even now trampled underfoot. Therefore I will make a fourth visit. Woe to you if My law shall still be considered as empty words. There will be deceit and falsehood among both the learned and the ignorant. Your blood and that of your children will wash away your stains upon God's law. War, pestilence and famine are the rods to scourge men's pride and wickedness. O wealthy men, where is your glory now, your estates, your palaces? They are the rubble on the highways and byways.
And your priests, why have you not run to "cry between the vestibule and the Altar," begging God to end these scourges? Why have you not, with the shield of faith, gone upon the housetops, into the homes, along the highways and byways, into every accessible corner to carry the seed of My word? Know you that this is the terrible two-edged sword that cuts down My enemies and breaks the Anger of God and of men?"
In our own time, the germ ideas of a one-world religion are already being sowed. And this false humanitarian religion will burst into poisonous flower when enough hearts have grown cold and have abandoned the true religion. As Jane Le Royer explained in prophecy: "When the time of the Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known." That false religion is even now falling into place. A false religion where sin will be celebrated.
Related reading here.
Contraception is gravely sinful because it contradicts the divinely intended purpose of marital intercourse, which is to foster procreative love. Many priests do not preach the Church's teaching on contraception because they believe this grave moral issue is open to change. But Pope Pius XI has answered these dissidents once and for all:
"Openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition, some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine on this question....The Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the marital union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of divine Ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin." (Casti Conubii, December 31, 1930).
By "grave sin," Pius XI is referring to mortal sin. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, "Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him." (CCC, 1855). And further, "To choose deliberately - that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death." (CCC, 1874).
Our Lady told Father Gobbi that many priests have become mute dogs. They are silent when they should be upholding the faith and striving to save souls. And because of this, a strong judgment is coming upon them. Don Bosco was given a prophecy for our time:
"Now Heaven's voice is addressed to the Shepherd of shepherds. You are now in conference with your advisors. The enemy of the good does not stand idle one moment. He studies and practices all his arts against you. He will sow discord among your consultors; he will raise up enemies amongst my children. The powers of the world will belch forth fire, and they would that the words be suffocated in the throats of the custodians of my law. That will not happen, they will do no harm but to themselves. You must hurry. If you cannot untie the knots, cut them. If you find yourself hard pressed, do not give up but continue until the head of the hydra of error is cut off. This stroke will make the world and Hell beneath it tremble, but the world will be safe and all the good will rejoice. Keep your consultors always with you, even if only two. Wherever you go, continue and bring to an end the work entrusted to you. The days fly by, your years will reach the destined number; but the great Queen will ever be your help, as in times past, so in the future She will always be the exceeding great fortress of the Church.
Ah, but you, Italy, land of blessings! Who has steeped you in desolation! Blame not your enemies, but rather your friends. Can you not hear your children asking for the bread of faith and finding only those who smash it to pieces? What shall I do? I shall strike the shepherds, I shall disperse the flock, until those sitting on the throne of Moses search for good pastures and the flock listens attentively and is fed.
Of the flock and over the shepherds My hand will weigh heavy. Famine, pestilence, and war will be such that mothers will have to cry on account of the blood of their sons and of their martyrs dead in a hostile country.
And to you, Rome, what will happen! Ungrateful Rome, effeminate Rome, proud Rome! You have reached such a height that you search no further. You admire nothing else in your Sovereign except luxury, forgetting that you and your glory stands upon Golgotha. Now he is old, defenseless, and despoiled; and yet at his word, the word of one who was in bondage, the whole world trembles.
Rome! To you I will come four times.
The first time, I shall strike your lands and the inhabitants thereof.
The second time, I shall bring the massacre and the slaughter even to your very walls. And will you not yet open your eyes?
I shall come a third time and I shall beat down to the ground your defenses and the defenders, and at the command of the Father, the reign of terror, of dreadful fear, and of desolation shall enter into your city.
But My wise men have now fled and My law is even now trampled underfoot. Therefore I will make a fourth visit. Woe to you if My law shall still be considered as empty words. There will be deceit and falsehood among both the learned and the ignorant. Your blood and that of your children will wash away your stains upon God's law. War, pestilence and famine are the rods to scourge men's pride and wickedness. O wealthy men, where is your glory now, your estates, your palaces? They are the rubble on the highways and byways.
And your priests, why have you not run to "cry between the vestibule and the Altar," begging God to end these scourges? Why have you not, with the shield of faith, gone upon the housetops, into the homes, along the highways and byways, into every accessible corner to carry the seed of My word? Know you that this is the terrible two-edged sword that cuts down My enemies and breaks the Anger of God and of men?"
In our own time, the germ ideas of a one-world religion are already being sowed. And this false humanitarian religion will burst into poisonous flower when enough hearts have grown cold and have abandoned the true religion. As Jane Le Royer explained in prophecy: "When the time of the Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known." That false religion is even now falling into place. A false religion where sin will be celebrated.
Related reading here.
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Saturday, April 16, 2011
Shall we embrace excuses or the Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude?
In an essay entitled One Solitary Life which was adapted from a sermon by Dr. James Allan Francis, we are reminded about certain aspects of Jesus' life:
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13). These words are engraved on a bracelet which I wear. Do we really believe this? Or do we let others define who we are?
Issue the battle cry! Let's take back our cities!
Those who walk in the Spirit know no fear. What are we waiting for? The Lord Jesus waits. He grows tired of our excuses:
I’m not holy enough:
Is 6:1-9; Lk 5:1-11
I’m afraid I will fail:
Ex 14:10-31; Lk 15
I’ve made mistakes and I’m a sinner:
Jn 21:15-23; Mt 9:9-13; Lk 7:36-50
I’m too young:
1 Sam 3:1-18; Jer 1:4-10; Lk 1:26-38
I’m not talented enough:
1 Sam 17:32-51; Lk 1:26-38
I want to have a family:
Gn 12:1-3; Mt 12:46-50; Mk 10:28-30
I’m afraid of making a permanent commitment:
Ruth 1:15-17; Mt 28:16-20
I’m afraid of public speaking:
Ex 4:10-17; Jer 1:4-10
I’m not smart enough:
2 Cor 4:7-18; Ex 4:10-17
I’m afraid of being alone:
Ex 3:4-22; Lk 1:28-38
I want to be happy:
Ps 37:4; Mt 5:1-12; Jn 10:10; Mk 10:28-31
I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. There are no obstacles we can't overcome in His holy name. Even while others attempt to label us and dismiss us as useless, as having no worth. I knew a young man with developmental disabilities whose father told him he was "worthless." He was told by his father that the best thing for him would be a bullet in the head. When he asked me one day if he was worthless, I reminded him of his many gifts: his sense of humor, his ability to love others, his ability to pray to God and a litany of other gifts. And I assured him that he is not "worthless."
We live in a sad, broken world. There are many people who are heavily burdened with sin who are hurting. And because they are hurting, they want to hurt others. If you could read some of the comments which have been left at this Blog you would cringe. Sad time. Hurting time. And we pray for such people.
But we cannot let others define who we are. We are children of God who have access to the Holy Spirit's Gifts just by asking for them.
The Son of God loves us. What does that suggest about those who hate us?
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13). These words are engraved on a bracelet which I wear. Do we really believe this? Or do we let others define who we are?
Issue the battle cry! Let's take back our cities!
Those who walk in the Spirit know no fear. What are we waiting for? The Lord Jesus waits. He grows tired of our excuses:
I’m not holy enough:
Is 6:1-9; Lk 5:1-11
I’m afraid I will fail:
Ex 14:10-31; Lk 15
I’ve made mistakes and I’m a sinner:
Jn 21:15-23; Mt 9:9-13; Lk 7:36-50
I’m too young:
1 Sam 3:1-18; Jer 1:4-10; Lk 1:26-38
I’m not talented enough:
1 Sam 17:32-51; Lk 1:26-38
I want to have a family:
Gn 12:1-3; Mt 12:46-50; Mk 10:28-30
I’m afraid of making a permanent commitment:
Ruth 1:15-17; Mt 28:16-20
I’m afraid of public speaking:
Ex 4:10-17; Jer 1:4-10
I’m not smart enough:
2 Cor 4:7-18; Ex 4:10-17
I’m afraid of being alone:
Ex 3:4-22; Lk 1:28-38
I want to be happy:
Ps 37:4; Mt 5:1-12; Jn 10:10; Mk 10:28-31
I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. There are no obstacles we can't overcome in His holy name. Even while others attempt to label us and dismiss us as useless, as having no worth. I knew a young man with developmental disabilities whose father told him he was "worthless." He was told by his father that the best thing for him would be a bullet in the head. When he asked me one day if he was worthless, I reminded him of his many gifts: his sense of humor, his ability to love others, his ability to pray to God and a litany of other gifts. And I assured him that he is not "worthless."
We live in a sad, broken world. There are many people who are heavily burdened with sin who are hurting. And because they are hurting, they want to hurt others. If you could read some of the comments which have been left at this Blog you would cringe. Sad time. Hurting time. And we pray for such people.
But we cannot let others define who we are. We are children of God who have access to the Holy Spirit's Gifts just by asking for them.
The Son of God loves us. What does that suggest about those who hate us?
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Apostasy Spreads: German Catholics abandoning the Church in droves
In a message dated Novermber 21, 2006, Father Albert Roux, National Director of the Marian Movement of Priests, said that: "As of now, the great apostasy is indeed upon us and the entire world is in the grips of the spirit of the Antichrist. There are disorders and evils on all levels: natural, religious, social and political. The laws of God have been violated by the legalization of abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research using human embryos, same-sex marriage, etc. The earth has been shaken by natural disasters. The Church has been in crisis because of the clergy scandal. The markets are volatile. Humanity has made gods of money, power, prestige and pornography. We are living in times worse than those of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are indeed a depraved humanity. The evil one and his minions think they have secured the victory. But God is allowing all of this to occur because he is still offering his mercy to those who are far away. He sends us his Mother to beg her children to return to the Lord of our salvation. Even amidst all the evils we are experiencing in our country and throughout the world, I remind you of what Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi in 1973, on the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. The following is taken from message #29, “The Triumph of My Immaculate Heart.” In fact at the very moment when Satan will be enthroned as lord of the world and will think himself now the sure victor, I myself will snatch the prey from his hands. In a trice he will find himself empty-handed, and in the end the victory will be exclusively my Son’s and mine. This will be the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the world. (#29g, December 19, 1973)."
On June 11, 1988, Our Lady told Father Gobbi, "Satan, my Adversary, with snares and by means of his subtle seduction, has succeeded in spreading errors everywhere, under the form of new and more updated interpretations of the truth, and he has led many to choose with full knowledge - and to live in - sin, in the deceiving conviction that this is no longer an evil, and even that it is a value and a good. The times of the general confusion and of the greatest agitation of spirits has come. Confusion has entered into the souls and the lives of many of my children. This great apostasy is spreading more and more, even through the interior of the Catholic Church. Errors are being taught and spread about, while the fundamental truths of the faith, which the authentic Magisterium of the Church has always taught and energetically defended against any heretical deviation whatsoever, are being denied with impunity....In these times, in the Catholic Church, there will remain a little remnant who will be faithful to Christ, to the Gospel, and to its entire truth. The little remnant will form a little flock, all guarded in the depths of my Immaculate Heart. This little flock will be made up of those bishops, priests, religious and faithful who will remain strongly united to the Pope, all gathered together in the cenacle of my Immaculate Heart, in an act of unceasing prayer, of continual immolation, of total offering to prepare the painful way for the second and glorious coming of my Son Jesus..."
The Sons of Hell, the Children of Belial as St. Louis de Montfort refers to them, are spreading their errors everywhere. The confusion of our own time has become general. And this too was prophesied by the great Jesuit priest Father Nectou, who said that before the triumph of the Church, "The confusion will be so general that mankind will not be able to aright, as if God had entirely withheld His providence from mankind, and during the worst crisis the best thing that can be done will be to remain where God has placed us, and persevere in fervent prayer."
Signs are multiplying everywhere. In Germany, Catholics are abandoning the Church in droves. And in Ireland, the Church is in grave crisis.
And still there are many who refuse to admit that we are living in the times of the Great Apostasy foretold by Saint Paul. For such people, it is more comforting to live in denial and to pretend that we are living through a "new springtime for the Church." Indeed, the Church will have a new springtime one day. But not before she passes through Calvary. We read in the Catechism: "The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.." (677).
Sister Lucia (of the Fatima apparitions) confided to Father Augustine Fuentes that the Mother of God made her understand that "we are in the last times of the world." Can anyone really dispute this now?
On June 11, 1988, Our Lady told Father Gobbi, "Satan, my Adversary, with snares and by means of his subtle seduction, has succeeded in spreading errors everywhere, under the form of new and more updated interpretations of the truth, and he has led many to choose with full knowledge - and to live in - sin, in the deceiving conviction that this is no longer an evil, and even that it is a value and a good. The times of the general confusion and of the greatest agitation of spirits has come. Confusion has entered into the souls and the lives of many of my children. This great apostasy is spreading more and more, even through the interior of the Catholic Church. Errors are being taught and spread about, while the fundamental truths of the faith, which the authentic Magisterium of the Church has always taught and energetically defended against any heretical deviation whatsoever, are being denied with impunity....In these times, in the Catholic Church, there will remain a little remnant who will be faithful to Christ, to the Gospel, and to its entire truth. The little remnant will form a little flock, all guarded in the depths of my Immaculate Heart. This little flock will be made up of those bishops, priests, religious and faithful who will remain strongly united to the Pope, all gathered together in the cenacle of my Immaculate Heart, in an act of unceasing prayer, of continual immolation, of total offering to prepare the painful way for the second and glorious coming of my Son Jesus..."
The Sons of Hell, the Children of Belial as St. Louis de Montfort refers to them, are spreading their errors everywhere. The confusion of our own time has become general. And this too was prophesied by the great Jesuit priest Father Nectou, who said that before the triumph of the Church, "The confusion will be so general that mankind will not be able to aright, as if God had entirely withheld His providence from mankind, and during the worst crisis the best thing that can be done will be to remain where God has placed us, and persevere in fervent prayer."
Signs are multiplying everywhere. In Germany, Catholics are abandoning the Church in droves. And in Ireland, the Church is in grave crisis.
And still there are many who refuse to admit that we are living in the times of the Great Apostasy foretold by Saint Paul. For such people, it is more comforting to live in denial and to pretend that we are living through a "new springtime for the Church." Indeed, the Church will have a new springtime one day. But not before she passes through Calvary. We read in the Catechism: "The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.." (677).
Sister Lucia (of the Fatima apparitions) confided to Father Augustine Fuentes that the Mother of God made her understand that "we are in the last times of the world." Can anyone really dispute this now?
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Carlo Climati: Moral relativism paves way for Satanism
Carlo Climati, Press Director of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome told the Catholic News Agency (CNA) that a society dominated by moral relativism "fosters the spread of Satanism" and that Satanism, in turn, "destroys those universal values that are written in the hearts of each human being" and creates "a society that is turned on its head, in which good becomes evil and evil becomes good." (See here).
In his book Communism and the Conscience of the West, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen warned that, "He [Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the Mystical Body of Christ...Then will be verified a paradox - the very objections with which men in the last century rejected the Church will be the reasons why they will now accept the counterchurch." (pp. 24-25).
Those of us who haven't lost our faith and who battle it out in the trenches know full well that all is not well. "Erit enim tempus, cum sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt, sed ad sua desideria coacervabunt sibi magistros, prurientes auribus. Et a veritate quidem auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur." (2 Timothy 4: 3-4).
And that time is now. New Age philosophies are spreading throughout the Church. Homosexuality and lesbianism are celebrated. Even in some Catholic parishes. Intoxicated with their own knowledge and learning, those who have succumbed to friendship with the world tell us that we must leave behind the "old complexes" and reject 'backward thinking' so that we may evolve into more "civilized" beings who may then build an earthly paradise. These misguided souls are not interested in knowledge for the sake of truth, but for power and possession.
A society that is turned on its head. A society in which good becomes evil and evil becomes good. Have we not already arrived at such a society? Abortion, the killing of innocents, is extolled as a good. Homosexuality, a sin which cries to Heaven for vengeance, is called "gay," merely an "alternative lifestyle." Catholics who stand with the Magisterium are deemed to be harmful to the community while those who dissent from Church teaching are praised and given top posts within the Church.
The words of Isaiah condemn our sin-sick society:
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem!" (Isaiah 5: 20, 21).
Related reading here.
In his book Communism and the Conscience of the West, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen warned that, "He [Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the Mystical Body of Christ...Then will be verified a paradox - the very objections with which men in the last century rejected the Church will be the reasons why they will now accept the counterchurch." (pp. 24-25).
Those of us who haven't lost our faith and who battle it out in the trenches know full well that all is not well. "Erit enim tempus, cum sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt, sed ad sua desideria coacervabunt sibi magistros, prurientes auribus. Et a veritate quidem auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur." (2 Timothy 4: 3-4).
And that time is now. New Age philosophies are spreading throughout the Church. Homosexuality and lesbianism are celebrated. Even in some Catholic parishes. Intoxicated with their own knowledge and learning, those who have succumbed to friendship with the world tell us that we must leave behind the "old complexes" and reject 'backward thinking' so that we may evolve into more "civilized" beings who may then build an earthly paradise. These misguided souls are not interested in knowledge for the sake of truth, but for power and possession.
A society that is turned on its head. A society in which good becomes evil and evil becomes good. Have we not already arrived at such a society? Abortion, the killing of innocents, is extolled as a good. Homosexuality, a sin which cries to Heaven for vengeance, is called "gay," merely an "alternative lifestyle." Catholics who stand with the Magisterium are deemed to be harmful to the community while those who dissent from Church teaching are praised and given top posts within the Church.
The words of Isaiah condemn our sin-sick society:
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem!" (Isaiah 5: 20, 21).
Related reading here.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Diabolical disorientation: World Youth Day catechism suggests endorsement of "contraceptive methods"
On June 7, 1980, Pope John Paul II addressed a group of Indonesian Bishops. The Holy Father stressed that, "In the question of the Church's teaching on the regulation of birth we are called to profess in union with the whole Church the exigent but uplifting teaching recorded in the Encyclical Humanae vitae, which my Predecessor Paul VI put forth 'by virtue of the mandate entrusted to us by Christ' (AAS 60, 1968, p.485). Particularly in this regard we must be conscious of the fact that God's wisdom supercedes human calculation and His grace is powerful in people's lives." "Contraception is to be judged objectively so illicit," said the Pope, "that it can never, for any reason be justified."
And in his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio, on the role of the family in the modern world, Pope John Paul II said that, "When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as 'arbiters' of the Divine plan and they 'manipulate' and degrade human sexuality - and with it themselves and their married partner - by altering its value of 'total' self-giving. Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality" (n.32).
On May 30, 1983, Pope John Paul II addressed the participants in the first Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Among other things he discussed the need for pastoral action to be faithful to Humanae vitae and Familiaris consortio: "It is absolutely necessary that the pastoral action of Christian communities be totally faithful to the teachings of the Encyclical Humanae vitae and the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio. It would be a grave error to set up pastoral requirements in opposition to doctrinal teaching, since the very first service that the Church must perform for people is to tell them the truth of which she is neither the author nor the master." (Osservatore Romano, June 6, 1983).
Bearing all of this in mind, why would a World Youth Day catechism suggest that "contraceptive methods" are acceptable? Sister Lucia (of the Fatima apparitions) provides us with an answer, "the Virgin knew that these times of diabolical disorientation were to come..Let people say the Rosary every day. Our Lady stated that repeatedly in all her apparitions, as if to fortify us against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not allow ourselves to be deceived by false doctrines...Unfortunately, the great majority of people are ignorant in religious matters and allow themselves to be led in any direction. Hence, the great responsibility of one who has the task of leading them....A diabolical disorientation is invading the world, deceiving souls! It must be resisted." When questioned on the content of the Third Secret of Fatima, Sister Lucia replied, "It's in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse, read them." She also confided to Father Fuentes that the Mother of God made her understand that "we are in the last times of the world."
In many parts of the world, this diabolical disorientation has so darkened minds that they are no longer capable of hearing the truth. For such confused souls, the mind of Christ - as made known through His Church's Magisterium - is just too much to bear. Do I exaggerate? On May 17, 2003, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, delivered an address at Georgetown University in which he said that:
"In many parts of the world, the family is under siege. It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce."
A certain segment of the audience was so upset with the reference to homosexuality that they walked out. A professor of theology stomped off the stage in anger. Later on, a letter protesting the Cardinal's remarks (which reflected the Church's authoritative teaching in these areas) was signed by nearly 70 faculty members.
There is diabolical disorientation. The demon is influencing many minds. The battle is primarily in the mind. The Father of Lies knows that lust destroys peace of mind and causes spiritual blindness. In his treatise on morals, Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, referring to impurity, says that through this vice, "more souls plunge into Hell, and I do not hesitate to say that all reprobates are condemned because of it, or at least not without it."
What then is the goal of the World Youth Day catechism?
And in his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio, on the role of the family in the modern world, Pope John Paul II said that, "When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as 'arbiters' of the Divine plan and they 'manipulate' and degrade human sexuality - and with it themselves and their married partner - by altering its value of 'total' self-giving. Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality" (n.32).
On May 30, 1983, Pope John Paul II addressed the participants in the first Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Among other things he discussed the need for pastoral action to be faithful to Humanae vitae and Familiaris consortio: "It is absolutely necessary that the pastoral action of Christian communities be totally faithful to the teachings of the Encyclical Humanae vitae and the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio. It would be a grave error to set up pastoral requirements in opposition to doctrinal teaching, since the very first service that the Church must perform for people is to tell them the truth of which she is neither the author nor the master." (Osservatore Romano, June 6, 1983).
Bearing all of this in mind, why would a World Youth Day catechism suggest that "contraceptive methods" are acceptable? Sister Lucia (of the Fatima apparitions) provides us with an answer, "the Virgin knew that these times of diabolical disorientation were to come..Let people say the Rosary every day. Our Lady stated that repeatedly in all her apparitions, as if to fortify us against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not allow ourselves to be deceived by false doctrines...Unfortunately, the great majority of people are ignorant in religious matters and allow themselves to be led in any direction. Hence, the great responsibility of one who has the task of leading them....A diabolical disorientation is invading the world, deceiving souls! It must be resisted." When questioned on the content of the Third Secret of Fatima, Sister Lucia replied, "It's in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse, read them." She also confided to Father Fuentes that the Mother of God made her understand that "we are in the last times of the world."
In many parts of the world, this diabolical disorientation has so darkened minds that they are no longer capable of hearing the truth. For such confused souls, the mind of Christ - as made known through His Church's Magisterium - is just too much to bear. Do I exaggerate? On May 17, 2003, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, delivered an address at Georgetown University in which he said that:
"In many parts of the world, the family is under siege. It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce."
A certain segment of the audience was so upset with the reference to homosexuality that they walked out. A professor of theology stomped off the stage in anger. Later on, a letter protesting the Cardinal's remarks (which reflected the Church's authoritative teaching in these areas) was signed by nearly 70 faculty members.
There is diabolical disorientation. The demon is influencing many minds. The battle is primarily in the mind. The Father of Lies knows that lust destroys peace of mind and causes spiritual blindness. In his treatise on morals, Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, referring to impurity, says that through this vice, "more souls plunge into Hell, and I do not hesitate to say that all reprobates are condemned because of it, or at least not without it."
What then is the goal of the World Youth Day catechism?
Monday, April 11, 2011
George Soros and INET in New Hampshire: A Plan of Action for the United States
Brother Nathanael Kapner, writing for Novakeo.com, explains that George Soros, "..a proponent of the 'hard left,' has also been funneling money into the Democratic Party and to its candidates with the intent on building a slate of Senators and Representatives with socialist leanings. 'George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party,' said Republican National Committee spokeswoman, Christine Iverson, 'and he who pays the piper calls the tune.'
Through his Open Society Institute, Soros has contributed to left wing socialist groups such as, Human Rights Watch, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, The New American Foundation, ACORN, MoveOn, and his own, Center For American Progress, of which, Obama recently appointed its senior fellow, Todd Stern, as his ‘Climate Czar.’ Stern, a Zionist Jew, is the chief architect of the socialist-inspired Climate Change Bill, just passed by Congress.
George Soros now has a superhighway to Change – ‘Socialist Change.’ We are already beginning to see the largest growth in government in the history of America. Hell-bent on destroying the American dollar and installing a global currency, Soros has got his bought-and-paid-for White House stooge now installing his socialist agenda."
Which is why Soros and the Institute for New Economic Thinking (Soros is its founding sponsor) are meeting at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire. The Socialist plan to destroy America was actually described in a 1934 Chicago Tribune cartoon. Take note of the sign in the lower left-hand corner of this cartoon. It reads (in part): "spend, spend, spend..under the guise of recovery."
Does this sound familar?
At his Blog, Mark Mallett writes, "world bodies such, as the International Monetary Fund...are increasingly warning that America’s foundations are beginning to crumble under its enormous debt. I have written before that Revolution is coming. But it will only come when the social order has been sufficiently destabilized, and then, the opportunity for a new political order is possible. That destabilization is coming hard and fast, it seems, as unemployment and poverty in the U.S. rises and the possibility for social chaos, such as we see breaking out in other third world countries, becomes less remote. Far from a speculation, several popes have been warning for decades that such a revolution has been the intention all along of secret societies working parallel to governments...With the collapse of the United States, the door will be open for a new super-power—or super-world government—to assert a mode of governance that does not place the intrinsic freedom and dignity of the human person at its center, but instead profitability, efficiency, ecology, the environment, and technology as its primary goal."
He then cites Pope Benedict XVI who has said that: "...without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family… If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves." (Caritas in Veritate, No. 51).
Everything is falling into place. A world currency for a world government which will welcome the Man of Sin with open arms. In his Life of Christ (Image Books, 1977, p. 10), Archbishop Fulton John Sheen wrote, "We do know that at the end of time, when the great conflict between the forces of good and evil takes place, Satan will appear without the Cross, as the Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer to become the final temptation of mankind."
Indeed, Paul Henri-Spaak, who served as Belgian Prime Minister and gained international prominence in 1945 when he was elected chairman of the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, had called for such a "Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer": "We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass in which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he God or the Devil, we will receive him."*
* John 5:43.
Related reading here.
Through his Open Society Institute, Soros has contributed to left wing socialist groups such as, Human Rights Watch, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, The New American Foundation, ACORN, MoveOn, and his own, Center For American Progress, of which, Obama recently appointed its senior fellow, Todd Stern, as his ‘Climate Czar.’ Stern, a Zionist Jew, is the chief architect of the socialist-inspired Climate Change Bill, just passed by Congress.
George Soros now has a superhighway to Change – ‘Socialist Change.’ We are already beginning to see the largest growth in government in the history of America. Hell-bent on destroying the American dollar and installing a global currency, Soros has got his bought-and-paid-for White House stooge now installing his socialist agenda."
Which is why Soros and the Institute for New Economic Thinking (Soros is its founding sponsor) are meeting at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire. The Socialist plan to destroy America was actually described in a 1934 Chicago Tribune cartoon. Take note of the sign in the lower left-hand corner of this cartoon. It reads (in part): "spend, spend, spend..under the guise of recovery."
Does this sound familar?
At his Blog, Mark Mallett writes, "world bodies such, as the International Monetary Fund...are increasingly warning that America’s foundations are beginning to crumble under its enormous debt. I have written before that Revolution is coming. But it will only come when the social order has been sufficiently destabilized, and then, the opportunity for a new political order is possible. That destabilization is coming hard and fast, it seems, as unemployment and poverty in the U.S. rises and the possibility for social chaos, such as we see breaking out in other third world countries, becomes less remote. Far from a speculation, several popes have been warning for decades that such a revolution has been the intention all along of secret societies working parallel to governments...With the collapse of the United States, the door will be open for a new super-power—or super-world government—to assert a mode of governance that does not place the intrinsic freedom and dignity of the human person at its center, but instead profitability, efficiency, ecology, the environment, and technology as its primary goal."
He then cites Pope Benedict XVI who has said that: "...without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family… If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves." (Caritas in Veritate, No. 51).
Everything is falling into place. A world currency for a world government which will welcome the Man of Sin with open arms. In his Life of Christ (Image Books, 1977, p. 10), Archbishop Fulton John Sheen wrote, "We do know that at the end of time, when the great conflict between the forces of good and evil takes place, Satan will appear without the Cross, as the Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer to become the final temptation of mankind."
Indeed, Paul Henri-Spaak, who served as Belgian Prime Minister and gained international prominence in 1945 when he was elected chairman of the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, had called for such a "Great Philanthropist and Social Reformer": "We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass in which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he God or the Devil, we will receive him."*
* John 5:43.
Related reading here.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
George Soros: "America should be replaced by a world government with a global economy under UN rule."
“And out of the sea, in my vision, a beast came up to land, with ten horns and seven heads, and on each of its ten horns a royal diadem; and the names it bore on its heads were names of blasphemy. This beast which I saw was like a leopard, but it had bear's feet and a lion's mouth. To it the dragon gave the strength that was his, and great dominion.” (Rev. 13:12).
On June 3, 1989, Our Lady told Father Stefano Gobbi: “Beloved sons, today you are gathered in cenacles of prayer to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of your heavenly Mother. From every part of the world I have called you to consecrate yourselves to my Immaculate Heart, and you have responded with filial love and generosity. I have now formed for myself my army, with those children who have accepted my request and have listened to my voice.
The time has come when my Immaculate Heart must be glorified by the Church and by all humanity because, in these times of the apostasy, of the purification and of the great tribulation, my Immaculate Heart is the only refuge and the way which leads you to the God of salvation and of peace. Above all, my Immaculate Heart becomes today the sign of my sure victory, in the great struggle which is being fought out between the followers of the huge Red Dragon and the followers of the Woman Clothed with the Sun.
In this terrible struggle, there comes up from the sea, to the aid of the Dragon, a beast like a leopard. If the Red Dragon is Marxist atheism, the black beast is Freemasonry. The Dragon manifests himself in the force of his power; the black beast on the other hand acts in the shadow, keeps out of sight and hides himself in such a way as to enter in everywhere. He has the claws of a bear and the mouth of a lion, because he works everywhere with cunning and with the means of social communication, that is to say, through propaganda. The seven heads indicate the various Masonic lodges, which act everywhere in a subtle and dangerous way.
This black beast has ten horns and, on the horns, ten crowns, which are signs of dominion and royalty. Masonry rules and governs throughout the whole world by means of the ten horns. The horn, in the biblical world, has always been an instrument of amplification, a way of making one's voice better heard, a strong means of communication.
For this reason, God communicated his will to his people by means of ten horns which made his law known: the ten commandments. The one who accepts them and observes them walks in life along the road of the divine will, of joy and of peace. The one who does the will of the Father accepts the word of his Son and shares in the redemption accomplished by Him. Jesus gives to souls the very divine life, through grace, that He won for us through his sacrifice carried out on Calvary.
The grace of the redemption is communicated by means of the seven sacraments. With grace there becomes implanted in the soul the seeds of supernatural life which are the virtues. Among these, the most important are the three theological and the four cardinal virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance. In the divine sun of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, these virtues germinate, grow, becomes more and more developed and thus lead the soul along the luminous way of love and of sanctity.
The aim of Masonry: blaspheming God
The task of the black beast, namely of Masonry, is that of fighting, in a subtle way, but tenaciously, to obstruct souls from traveling along this way, pointed out by the Father and the Son and lighted up by the gifts of the Spirit. In fact if the Red Dragon works to bring all humanity to do without God, to the denial of God, and therefore spreads the error of atheism, the aim of Masonry is not to deny God, but to blaspheme Him. The beast opens his mouth to utter blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his dwelling place, and against all those who dwell in heaven. The greatest blasphemy is that of denying the worship due to God alone by giving it to creatures and to Satan himself. This is why in these times, behind the perverse action of Freemasonry, there are being spread everywhere black masses and the satanic cult. Moreover Masonic acts, by every means, to prevent souls from being saved and thus it endeavors to bring to nothing the redemption accomplished by Christ.
If the Lord has communicated his law with the ten commandments, Freemasonry spreads everywhere, through the power of its ten horns, a law which is completely opposed to that of God.
To the commandment of the Lord: “You shall not have any other God but me,” it builds other false idols, before which many today prostrate themselves in adoration.
To the commandment : “You shall not take the name of God in vain,” it sets itself up in opposition by blaspheming God and his Christ, in many subtle and diabolical ways, even to reducing his Name indecorously to the level of a brand-name of an object of sale and of producing sacrilegious films concerning his life and his divine Person.
To the commandment: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day,” it transforms the Sunday into a weekend, into a day of sports, of competitions and of entertainments.
To the commandment: “Honor your father and your mother,” it opposes a new model of family based on cohabitation, even between homosexuals.
To the commandment: “You shall not commit impure acts,” it justifies, exalts and propagates every form of impurity, even to the justification of acts against nature.
To the commandment: “You shall not kill,” it has succeeded in making abortion legal everywhere, in making euthanasia acceptable, and in causing respect due to the value of human life to all but disappear.
To the commandment: “You shall not steal,” it works to the end that theft, violence, kidnapping and robbery spread more and more.
To the commandment: “You shall not bear false witness,” it acts in such a way that the law of deceit, lying and duplicity becomes more and more propagated.
To the commandment: “You shall not covet the goods and the wife of another,” it works to corrupt in the depths of the conscience, betraying the mind and the heart of man.
In this way souls become driven along the perverse and wicked road of disobedience to the laws of the Lord, become submerged in sin and are thus prevented from receiving the gift of grace and of the life of God.
To the seven theological and cardinal virtues, which are the fruit of living in the grace of God, Freemasonry counters with the diffusion of the seven capital vices, which are the fruit of living habitually in the state of sin. To faith it opposes pride; to hope, lust; to charity, avarice; to prudence, anger; to fortitude, sloth; to justice, envy; to temperance, gluttony.
Whoever becomes a victim of the seven capital vices is gradually led to take away the worship that is due to God alone, in order to give it to false divinities, who are the very personification of all these vices. And in this consists the greatest and most horrible blasphemy. This is why on every head of the beats there is written a blasphemous name. Each Masonic lodge has the task of making a different divinity adored.
The first head bears the blasphemous name of pride, which opposes itself to the virtue of faith, and leads one to offer worship to the god of human reason and haughtiness, of technology and progress.
The second head bears the blasphemous name of lust, which opposes itself to the virtue of hope, and brings one to offer worship to the god of sexuality and of impurity.
The third head bears the blasphemous name of avarice, which opposes itself to the virtue of charity, and spreads everywhere the worship of the god of money.
The fourth head bears the blasphemous name of anger, which opposes itself to the virtue of prudence, and leads one to offer worship to the god of discord and division.
The fifth head bears the blasphemous name of sloth, which opposes itself to the virtue of fortitude, and disseminates the worship of the idol of fear of public opinion and of exploitation.
The sixth head bears the blasphemous name of envy, which opposes itself to the virtue of justice, and leads one to offer worship to the idol of violence and of war.
The seventh head beats the blasphemous name of gluttony, which opposes itself to the virtue of temperance, and leads one to offer worship to the so highly extolled idol of hedonism, of materialism and of pleasure.
The task of the Masonic lodges is that of working today, with great astuteness, to bring humanity everywhere to disdain the holy law of God, to work in open opposition to the ten commandments, and to take away the worship due to God alone in order to offer it to certain false idols which become extolled and adored by an ever increasing number of people: reason ,flesh, money, discord, domination, violence, pleasure. Thus souls are precipitated into the dark slavery of evil, of vice and of sin and, at the moment of death and of the judgment of God, into the pool of eternal fire which is hell.
Now you understand how, in these times, against the terrible and insidious attack of the black beast, namely of Masonry, my Immaculate Heart becomes your refuge and the sure road which brings you to God. In my Immaculate Heart there is delineated the tactic made use of by your heavenly Mother, to fight back against and to defeat the subtle plot made use of by the black beast.
For this reason I am training all my children to observe the ten commandments of God; to live the Gospel to the letter; to make frequent use of the sacraments, especially those of penance and eucharistic communion, as necessary helps in order to remain in the grace of God; to practice the virtues vigorously; to walk away along the path of goodness, of love, of purity and of holiness.
Thus I am making use of you, my little children who have consecrated yourselves to me, to unmask all these subtle snares which the black beast sets for you and to make futile in the end the great attack which Masonry has launched today against Christ and his Church. And in the end, especially in his greatest defeat, there will appear in all its splendor, the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the world.”
In a previous post, I noted how Father J. Bryan Hehir of the Boston Archdiocese has associated himself with leftist radical Jim Wallis and his organization Sojourners (which has been financed by Nazi collaborator George Soros) and which promotes the New Age Globalist Earth Charter which seeks to replace the Ten Commandments and dismantle the Roman Catholic Church.
On June 3, 1989, Our Lady told Father Stefano Gobbi: “Beloved sons, today you are gathered in cenacles of prayer to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of your heavenly Mother. From every part of the world I have called you to consecrate yourselves to my Immaculate Heart, and you have responded with filial love and generosity. I have now formed for myself my army, with those children who have accepted my request and have listened to my voice.
The time has come when my Immaculate Heart must be glorified by the Church and by all humanity because, in these times of the apostasy, of the purification and of the great tribulation, my Immaculate Heart is the only refuge and the way which leads you to the God of salvation and of peace. Above all, my Immaculate Heart becomes today the sign of my sure victory, in the great struggle which is being fought out between the followers of the huge Red Dragon and the followers of the Woman Clothed with the Sun.
In this terrible struggle, there comes up from the sea, to the aid of the Dragon, a beast like a leopard. If the Red Dragon is Marxist atheism, the black beast is Freemasonry. The Dragon manifests himself in the force of his power; the black beast on the other hand acts in the shadow, keeps out of sight and hides himself in such a way as to enter in everywhere. He has the claws of a bear and the mouth of a lion, because he works everywhere with cunning and with the means of social communication, that is to say, through propaganda. The seven heads indicate the various Masonic lodges, which act everywhere in a subtle and dangerous way.
This black beast has ten horns and, on the horns, ten crowns, which are signs of dominion and royalty. Masonry rules and governs throughout the whole world by means of the ten horns. The horn, in the biblical world, has always been an instrument of amplification, a way of making one's voice better heard, a strong means of communication.
For this reason, God communicated his will to his people by means of ten horns which made his law known: the ten commandments. The one who accepts them and observes them walks in life along the road of the divine will, of joy and of peace. The one who does the will of the Father accepts the word of his Son and shares in the redemption accomplished by Him. Jesus gives to souls the very divine life, through grace, that He won for us through his sacrifice carried out on Calvary.
The grace of the redemption is communicated by means of the seven sacraments. With grace there becomes implanted in the soul the seeds of supernatural life which are the virtues. Among these, the most important are the three theological and the four cardinal virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance. In the divine sun of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, these virtues germinate, grow, becomes more and more developed and thus lead the soul along the luminous way of love and of sanctity.
The aim of Masonry: blaspheming God
The task of the black beast, namely of Masonry, is that of fighting, in a subtle way, but tenaciously, to obstruct souls from traveling along this way, pointed out by the Father and the Son and lighted up by the gifts of the Spirit. In fact if the Red Dragon works to bring all humanity to do without God, to the denial of God, and therefore spreads the error of atheism, the aim of Masonry is not to deny God, but to blaspheme Him. The beast opens his mouth to utter blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his dwelling place, and against all those who dwell in heaven. The greatest blasphemy is that of denying the worship due to God alone by giving it to creatures and to Satan himself. This is why in these times, behind the perverse action of Freemasonry, there are being spread everywhere black masses and the satanic cult. Moreover Masonic acts, by every means, to prevent souls from being saved and thus it endeavors to bring to nothing the redemption accomplished by Christ.
If the Lord has communicated his law with the ten commandments, Freemasonry spreads everywhere, through the power of its ten horns, a law which is completely opposed to that of God.
To the commandment of the Lord: “You shall not have any other God but me,” it builds other false idols, before which many today prostrate themselves in adoration.
To the commandment : “You shall not take the name of God in vain,” it sets itself up in opposition by blaspheming God and his Christ, in many subtle and diabolical ways, even to reducing his Name indecorously to the level of a brand-name of an object of sale and of producing sacrilegious films concerning his life and his divine Person.
To the commandment: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day,” it transforms the Sunday into a weekend, into a day of sports, of competitions and of entertainments.
To the commandment: “Honor your father and your mother,” it opposes a new model of family based on cohabitation, even between homosexuals.
To the commandment: “You shall not commit impure acts,” it justifies, exalts and propagates every form of impurity, even to the justification of acts against nature.
To the commandment: “You shall not kill,” it has succeeded in making abortion legal everywhere, in making euthanasia acceptable, and in causing respect due to the value of human life to all but disappear.
To the commandment: “You shall not steal,” it works to the end that theft, violence, kidnapping and robbery spread more and more.
To the commandment: “You shall not bear false witness,” it acts in such a way that the law of deceit, lying and duplicity becomes more and more propagated.
To the commandment: “You shall not covet the goods and the wife of another,” it works to corrupt in the depths of the conscience, betraying the mind and the heart of man.
In this way souls become driven along the perverse and wicked road of disobedience to the laws of the Lord, become submerged in sin and are thus prevented from receiving the gift of grace and of the life of God.
To the seven theological and cardinal virtues, which are the fruit of living in the grace of God, Freemasonry counters with the diffusion of the seven capital vices, which are the fruit of living habitually in the state of sin. To faith it opposes pride; to hope, lust; to charity, avarice; to prudence, anger; to fortitude, sloth; to justice, envy; to temperance, gluttony.
Whoever becomes a victim of the seven capital vices is gradually led to take away the worship that is due to God alone, in order to give it to false divinities, who are the very personification of all these vices. And in this consists the greatest and most horrible blasphemy. This is why on every head of the beats there is written a blasphemous name. Each Masonic lodge has the task of making a different divinity adored.
The first head bears the blasphemous name of pride, which opposes itself to the virtue of faith, and leads one to offer worship to the god of human reason and haughtiness, of technology and progress.
The second head bears the blasphemous name of lust, which opposes itself to the virtue of hope, and brings one to offer worship to the god of sexuality and of impurity.
The third head bears the blasphemous name of avarice, which opposes itself to the virtue of charity, and spreads everywhere the worship of the god of money.
The fourth head bears the blasphemous name of anger, which opposes itself to the virtue of prudence, and leads one to offer worship to the god of discord and division.
The fifth head bears the blasphemous name of sloth, which opposes itself to the virtue of fortitude, and disseminates the worship of the idol of fear of public opinion and of exploitation.
The sixth head bears the blasphemous name of envy, which opposes itself to the virtue of justice, and leads one to offer worship to the idol of violence and of war.
The seventh head beats the blasphemous name of gluttony, which opposes itself to the virtue of temperance, and leads one to offer worship to the so highly extolled idol of hedonism, of materialism and of pleasure.
The task of the Masonic lodges is that of working today, with great astuteness, to bring humanity everywhere to disdain the holy law of God, to work in open opposition to the ten commandments, and to take away the worship due to God alone in order to offer it to certain false idols which become extolled and adored by an ever increasing number of people: reason ,flesh, money, discord, domination, violence, pleasure. Thus souls are precipitated into the dark slavery of evil, of vice and of sin and, at the moment of death and of the judgment of God, into the pool of eternal fire which is hell.
Now you understand how, in these times, against the terrible and insidious attack of the black beast, namely of Masonry, my Immaculate Heart becomes your refuge and the sure road which brings you to God. In my Immaculate Heart there is delineated the tactic made use of by your heavenly Mother, to fight back against and to defeat the subtle plot made use of by the black beast.
For this reason I am training all my children to observe the ten commandments of God; to live the Gospel to the letter; to make frequent use of the sacraments, especially those of penance and eucharistic communion, as necessary helps in order to remain in the grace of God; to practice the virtues vigorously; to walk away along the path of goodness, of love, of purity and of holiness.
Thus I am making use of you, my little children who have consecrated yourselves to me, to unmask all these subtle snares which the black beast sets for you and to make futile in the end the great attack which Masonry has launched today against Christ and his Church. And in the end, especially in his greatest defeat, there will appear in all its splendor, the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the world.”
In a previous post, I noted how Father J. Bryan Hehir of the Boston Archdiocese has associated himself with leftist radical Jim Wallis and his organization Sojourners (which has been financed by Nazi collaborator George Soros) and which promotes the New Age Globalist Earth Charter which seeks to replace the Ten Commandments and dismantle the Roman Catholic Church.
Friday, April 08, 2011
New Hampshire Tea Party agrees with Representative Andrew Manuse
It turns out that the New Hampshire Tea Party agrees with Representative Andrew Manuse: religion should be private, marginal and irrelevant. It has its place in churches but should remain there. At its website, the New Hampshire Tea Party states, "Some of us think that churches are supposed to be a connection to God and His moral authority for those who choose to be guided by this factor, and thus they should stick to the things of God which are the Ten Commandments..." (See here).
In other words, Christians should leave their beliefs in church where they belong. But, as I said here, "The Gospel has political implications for those who follow Christ and who have a role to play in the political process." As Christians, we believe that the responsibilities of citizenship constitute a very important part of our personal vocation. Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council says, "May all Christians be aware of their special and personal vocation in the political community. This vocation requires that they offer a shining example of devotion to duty and of service in promoting the common good, so that they also show by their deeds how authority can be harmonized with freedom, personal initiative with the interrelationships and bonds of the whole social body, and appropriate unity with beneficial diversity." (No. 75).
Those of us who are Christian are not second-class citizens. But it would appear that the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition views us as such. We're permitted to be part of the political process as long as we do not let our Christian faith inform or shape our political values.
There has been a whole lot of anti-Catholicism erupting throughout the Granite State as of late. We might just have the smoking gun here.
In other words, Christians should leave their beliefs in church where they belong. But, as I said here, "The Gospel has political implications for those who follow Christ and who have a role to play in the political process." As Christians, we believe that the responsibilities of citizenship constitute a very important part of our personal vocation. Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council says, "May all Christians be aware of their special and personal vocation in the political community. This vocation requires that they offer a shining example of devotion to duty and of service in promoting the common good, so that they also show by their deeds how authority can be harmonized with freedom, personal initiative with the interrelationships and bonds of the whole social body, and appropriate unity with beneficial diversity." (No. 75).
Those of us who are Christian are not second-class citizens. But it would appear that the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition views us as such. We're permitted to be part of the political process as long as we do not let our Christian faith inform or shape our political values.
There has been a whole lot of anti-Catholicism erupting throughout the Granite State as of late. We might just have the smoking gun here.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Catholic sexual abuse numbers in perspective: Are you paying attention New Hampshire?
As I said in a post last April, "The 2002 John Jay report tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse were considered by their dioceses to have been substantiated. Most of these were incidences of homosexual misconduct - somewhere between 80-90 percent of all cases. Dr. Thomas Plante of Stanford University and Santa Clara University has said that, "available research suggests that approximately 2 to 5% of priests have had a sexual experience with a minor" which "is lower than the general adult male population that is best estimated to be closer to 8%."
In her report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education entitled "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature," Charol Shakeshaft explains that, "This analysis indicates that 9.6 percent of all students in grades 8 to 11 report contact and/or noncontact educator sexual misconduct that was unwanted." (p. 25). And then Ms. Shakeshaft puts this percentage in a proper perspective:
"To get a sense of the extent of the number of students who have been targets of educator sexual misconduct, I applied the percent of students who report experiencing educator sexual misconduct to the population of all K-12 students. Based on the assumption that the AAUW surveys accurately represent the experiences of all K-12 students, more than 4.5 million students are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. Possible limitations of the study would all suggest that the findings reported here under-estimate educator sexual misconduct in schools." (p. 26).
Full Shakeshaft report may be found here."
According to the same John Jay Report, between the years 1950 and 2002 (a period of 52 years), the total number of substantiated abuse cases across the entire United States was 4,570.
That number again: 4,570. Now, according to the New Hampshire Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, in a 2006 report which may be found here, "Of the 14,000 children assessed (how many are not assessed?) for suspected child abuse each year in New Hampshire, only about 1,000..are found to have been abused or neglected...with physical and sexual abuse each claiming about 21% of victims...some victims are abused in multiple ways." (p. 25).
Let's do some math shall we? In the sparsely populated state of New Hampshire (the population of Boston, Massachusetts and its suburbs is greater than that of the entire Granite State), there are approximately 200 children who suffer sexual abuse every year. If we took this number and multiplied it by 52 years (the period of time covered by the John Jay Report on the Catholic Church - and bear in mind that study covered the entire United States), we would get a number of 10,400 children in New Hampshire having suffered sexual abuse.
Approximately 10,400 children over a period of 52 years. The same period of time for which the John Jay Report said there were 4,570 cases of substantiated abuse in the Catholic Church across the entire United States.
There's something else I find interesting. Notice the wording in the report of the New Hampshire Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence: "Of the..children assessed for suspected child abuse each year in New Hampshire, only about 1,000...are found to have been abused or neglected."
Only? When it comes to bashing the entire Church for the sins and crimes of a small minority of priests, do we not often hear "even one case is too many"? And I would wholeheartedly agree with such a statement. Even one case is too many.
Why then does this report seem to downplay the incidence of sexual abuse across New Hampshire?
In her report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education entitled "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature," Charol Shakeshaft explains that, "This analysis indicates that 9.6 percent of all students in grades 8 to 11 report contact and/or noncontact educator sexual misconduct that was unwanted." (p. 25). And then Ms. Shakeshaft puts this percentage in a proper perspective:
"To get a sense of the extent of the number of students who have been targets of educator sexual misconduct, I applied the percent of students who report experiencing educator sexual misconduct to the population of all K-12 students. Based on the assumption that the AAUW surveys accurately represent the experiences of all K-12 students, more than 4.5 million students are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. Possible limitations of the study would all suggest that the findings reported here under-estimate educator sexual misconduct in schools." (p. 26).
Full Shakeshaft report may be found here."
According to the same John Jay Report, between the years 1950 and 2002 (a period of 52 years), the total number of substantiated abuse cases across the entire United States was 4,570.
That number again: 4,570. Now, according to the New Hampshire Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, in a 2006 report which may be found here, "Of the 14,000 children assessed (how many are not assessed?) for suspected child abuse each year in New Hampshire, only about 1,000..are found to have been abused or neglected...with physical and sexual abuse each claiming about 21% of victims...some victims are abused in multiple ways." (p. 25).
Let's do some math shall we? In the sparsely populated state of New Hampshire (the population of Boston, Massachusetts and its suburbs is greater than that of the entire Granite State), there are approximately 200 children who suffer sexual abuse every year. If we took this number and multiplied it by 52 years (the period of time covered by the John Jay Report on the Catholic Church - and bear in mind that study covered the entire United States), we would get a number of 10,400 children in New Hampshire having suffered sexual abuse.
Approximately 10,400 children over a period of 52 years. The same period of time for which the John Jay Report said there were 4,570 cases of substantiated abuse in the Catholic Church across the entire United States.
There's something else I find interesting. Notice the wording in the report of the New Hampshire Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence: "Of the..children assessed for suspected child abuse each year in New Hampshire, only about 1,000...are found to have been abused or neglected."
Only? When it comes to bashing the entire Church for the sins and crimes of a small minority of priests, do we not often hear "even one case is too many"? And I would wholeheartedly agree with such a statement. Even one case is too many.
Why then does this report seem to downplay the incidence of sexual abuse across New Hampshire?
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
A pile of Manuse: Republican Representative Andrew Manuse accuses Bishop John McCormack of breaking the law
Vatican II teaches clearly that Catholics have certain responsibilities with regard to political matters: "In loyalty to their country and in faithful fulfillment of their civic obligations, Catholics should feel themselves obliged to promote the true common good. Thus, they should make the weight of their opinion felt, in order that civil authority may act with justice, and legislation may conform to moral precepts and the common good" (AA 14; cf. LG 36, GS 43, 75).
This teaching applies to Bishops as well of course. As Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted explains, "Bishops and priests are not to participate in the public administration of the government. Nonetheless, they do have the right, and sometimes an obligation, to speak out on political, social, or cultural matters impacting the Church or the common good. In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est (28), Pope Benedict XVI states: 'It is not the Church's responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest.' The Holy Father goes on to write (ibid): 'The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to awaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper.'" (See here).
The First Amendment to the Constitution says absolutely nothing about keeping religion out of government. As Archbishop Charles Chaput has said, "Separating Church and state does not mean separating faith and political issues. Real pluralism requires a healthy conflict of ideas. In fact, the best way to kill a democracy is for people to remove their religious and moral convictions from their political decision-making. If people really believe something, they’ll always act on it as a matter of conscience. Otherwise they’re just lying to themselves. So the idea of forcing religion out of public policy debates is not only unwise, it’s anti-democratic." See here.
But there are some who insist that religious expression should be private, marginal and ultimately irrelevant. For such people, religion is okay "in its place" but should be sanitized from the public square. One such individual is Republican State Representative and Tea Party leader Andrew Manuse. This intellectual giant, angry because Bishop John McCormack spoke at a Statehouse rally last week criticizing a state budget proposal, has said that, "There is already a federal provision that prohibits a church leader from engaging in the political process if the church has a tax-exempt status. What Bishop McCormack did was in effect breaking that law. If he wants to engage in the process, he can step down as Bishop or have his church pay taxes.." (See here).
If this is the best the GOP has to offer New Hampshire, small wonder that the party has been floundering as of late. What is it exactly that drives such animus against religious belief and Catholicism in particular? See here.
This teaching applies to Bishops as well of course. As Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted explains, "Bishops and priests are not to participate in the public administration of the government. Nonetheless, they do have the right, and sometimes an obligation, to speak out on political, social, or cultural matters impacting the Church or the common good. In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est (28), Pope Benedict XVI states: 'It is not the Church's responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest.' The Holy Father goes on to write (ibid): 'The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to awaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper.'" (See here).
The First Amendment to the Constitution says absolutely nothing about keeping religion out of government. As Archbishop Charles Chaput has said, "Separating Church and state does not mean separating faith and political issues. Real pluralism requires a healthy conflict of ideas. In fact, the best way to kill a democracy is for people to remove their religious and moral convictions from their political decision-making. If people really believe something, they’ll always act on it as a matter of conscience. Otherwise they’re just lying to themselves. So the idea of forcing religion out of public policy debates is not only unwise, it’s anti-democratic." See here.
But there are some who insist that religious expression should be private, marginal and ultimately irrelevant. For such people, religion is okay "in its place" but should be sanitized from the public square. One such individual is Republican State Representative and Tea Party leader Andrew Manuse. This intellectual giant, angry because Bishop John McCormack spoke at a Statehouse rally last week criticizing a state budget proposal, has said that, "There is already a federal provision that prohibits a church leader from engaging in the political process if the church has a tax-exempt status. What Bishop McCormack did was in effect breaking that law. If he wants to engage in the process, he can step down as Bishop or have his church pay taxes.." (See here).
If this is the best the GOP has to offer New Hampshire, small wonder that the party has been floundering as of late. What is it exactly that drives such animus against religious belief and Catholicism in particular? See here.
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