Bishop Mitchell Rozanski wants to pay respect to an excommunicated heretic and the tragedy of his heretical movement...

Over at RadTrad Thomist we read:

"Lest we forget the other anniversary we have this month --- soon after the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun performed by the Mother of God in front of 70,000 people at precisely the exact time as announced in order to confirm the people who believed in their Catholic Faith and to prove to the unbelievers that her messages and secrets which she gave to the three children were true --- the second anniversary is that of October 31, 2017 which will be the 500th anniversary of the "nailing of the 95 theses to the church doors at Wittenberg Cathedral" by Fr. Martin Luther.

The reason that we have put up a picture of Luther's toilet, fairly recently discovered in Wittenberg, is because of Luther's own statements that he came up with his 95 theses while suffering from chronic constipation. It is also while resting on the facilities that he was enlightened by his revolutionary theological idea of "faith without works" according to which you cannot do anything to contribute to your own salvation, in fact, to strive for holiness is itself a grave sin..."

For an adequate understanding of the so-called "Reformation" and the excommunicated heretic Martin Luther, See here.

Why was Martin Luther excommunicated by the Catholic Church?  Here are fifty reasons from The National Catholic Register.  See here.

And now a question.  Why is Bishop Mitchell Rozanski commemorating the "Reformation" and why is Saint Mary's Parish in Orange, Massachusetts promoting this event?  See here.

As Henri Daniel-Rops explains: "Protestantism marks a complete break in the history of Christendom, the most grievous and most tragic there has ever been.."

And Bishop Rozanski wants to pay respect to this tragedy?

com·mem·o·rate
kəˈmeməˌrāt/
verb
recall and show respect for (someone or something).


I'm beginning to understand more and more why Bishop Rozanski and Saint Mary's Parish have blocked me from being able to comment on their respective Facebook pages.  They don't want their distorted views to be questioned or challenged.

Some prefer living in a bubble where they can all the more easily maintain their fantasy world.

"Gay Marriage" and the frenzy of hate

John Zmirak writes, "The expected Supreme Court decision imposing on 50 states an entirely new understanding of marriage, and the frenzy of hatred that gay activists have stoked against Indiana for trying to shelter religious believers from crippling lawsuits should wake us to a cold and stark reality: The age of tolerance in America is vanishing before your eyes. The question is how Christians and other people of faith and good will are going to respond.

Let’s break this down in stark and simple terms: Not only were gay activists willing to overturn an act of Congress (the Defense of Marriage Act) on spurious grounds; they also wish to force their libertine idea of marriage onto voters in each of the 50 states, voiding dozens of laws on an issue that has always rested with the states.

Not satisfied with that, these activists want the full force of the regulatory state to compel every single American to affirm and accept the delusion of same-sex “marriage,” under the same civil and criminal penalties that now forbid discrimination by race. A famous case was a 70-year-old Christian florist who declined to decorate a gay wedding, and was crushed by a successful lawsuit and the full force of the ACLU’s legal team. She was one of the Brave New Law’s first victims. She will be far from the last.

These activists use the power of city governments (as in San Francisco) to try to intimidate isolated Catholic schools into abandoning Christian teaching on sexual ethics. Such zealots corrupt the academic authorities who grant accreditation in order to financially cripple schools such as Gordon College that maintain Christian “morals” clauses as part of their hiring policies.

Those who defend the reality of marriage, including even unbelievers who defend freedom of religion and association, are not simply wrong — they are “bigots” and “haters” who deserve to be fined, boycotted and bankrupted; to lose their jobs like Brendan Eich, the ex-CEO of Mozilla, and face financial ruin — as Elton John hopes to break Dolce & Gabbana, and as Apple CEO Tim Cook hopes to break the entire State of Indiana. Politicians are joining in, with the Connecticut governor, and Seattle and San Francisco mayors, banning official travel to Indiana.

As Austin Ruse points out, states such as Indiana are not giving Christians a pass to broadly discriminate against gays. Such religious freedom laws “deal with the very narrow question of whether vendors can be forced by the state to participate in religious ceremonies that violate their own religious consciences.”

Given the fanatical response to a modest bill virtually identical to a federal law upheld by courts and bills on the books in twenty other states, how long before the call comes out for the “bigots” to be imprisoned? The First Amendment won’t protect us, if leaders like Hillary Clinton have their way; in public statements she followed President Obama in replacing the Constitution’s “free exercise” with “freedom of worship.”

The implicit message shouldn’t be missed: Say what you want in church for an hour every Sunday, but the rest of the week belongs to us. Your homophobic beliefs deserve no more protection than the religious use of peyote."

Readers of this Blog know that I have been warning about the totalitarian nature of the homosexual hate movement for more than 20 years.

I have been warning for years that just prior to the Man of Sin revealing himself to the world, there would be a tremendous push for societal acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex "marriage."  Back in 2009, I warned that: "President Obama wants all Americans to accept and embrace homosexuality....And this really shouldn't surprise us. Those who abandon Divine Revelation and the Natural Law will no longer seek God and His precepts and Commandments but will instead pursue their own lusts and fantasies. Such people will create and adore their own gods which are almost always a mythical projection of their own vices. They attribute a religious dimension to these vices to 'baptize' them, to justify them in their own darkened minds*.


It was Saint Cyprian of Carthage, writing against the Greco-Roman pagan world and its vices, who said: 'That Jupiter of theirs is not more supreme in dominion than in vice, inflamed with earthly love in the midst of his own thunders...now breaking forth by the help of birds to violate the purity of boys. And now put the question: Can he who looks upon such things be healthy-minded or modest? Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion.' (Letters 1:8).

In a series of letters written from 1969-1970, Sister Lucia [of the Fatima apparition] wrote: 'It is indeed sad that so many people let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave that is sweeping the world, and that they are blinded to the point of being incapable of seeing error! Their principal fault is they have abandoned prayer; in this way they have become estranged from God, and without God everything fails. The devil is very cunning and looks for our weak points in order to attack us. If we are not diligent and careful to obtain strength from God, we shall fall, for our age is very wicked and we are weak. Only the strength of God can keep us on our feet.'

There is a retreat from truth. Those of us who refuse to abandon our Christian faith must be demonized. We must be placed in a ghetto. Isolated. Portrayed as 'backward' and 'archaic.' And eventually placed in internment camps or simply eliminated altogether should we refuse to accept the New Order."


* Have I been wrong so far?  President Obama has attempted to use the Scriptures to justify his decision.  Speaker Pelosi asserts that her Catholic Faith "compels" her to support sodomy.

Benjamin Wiker notes that, "Making [homosexuality] monogamous does not make it any better, any more than a man promising to have sex with only one child would make it any less a reprehensible act of pedophilia."  Why then the push for "gay marriage"?  Because, as Wiker explains, this desire makes sense to "a materialist still nagged by subliminal, vestigial Christian moral habits" or the Christian "who has sold nearly everything in his universe to the materialist."  Or, as I've put it so many times before here at La Salette Journey, the Christian who has lost his faith but who hasn't steeled himself or herself to admit of this. 

Wiker wisely asserts that, "The notion of sanctifying homosexual unions by demanding that they be monogamous will soon enough go the way of limiting abortions to the first trimester.  Furthermore, the push for pedophilia is now the 'extreme' which will push homosexuality out of the spotlight of public debate and into full normality.  That pedophilia is even being debated, rather than simply rejected as unimaginably vile, means that it is likely the next item of sexual liberation due for normalization." ( Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D, Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists, p. 312).

During the Reign of Antichrist, which is almost upon us, every sin, every vile act will be celebrated with abandon.  And every Commandment of God, every principle of morality will not only be laughed to scorn but will be outlawed.

Homosexual Hate Movement: The Final Stage

Ten years ago, I posted the following here at La Salette Journey:

Those who are promoting the homosexual agenda are using time-proven tactics which have been employed by secular humanists for some time now. In the words of Ralph Martin, "First, a plea is issued for a dominantly Christian society to 'tolerate' what appears to be a deviant behavior. Then pressure is applied to place the deviant behavior on an equal footing with traditional Christian values. Secular humanists argue that a pluralist society cannot do otherwise. They then try to make the deviant behavior seem normal and behavior governed by Christian values seem abnormal - a threat to a pluralist society. The last step is often to use the legal system to protect immorality and to undermine what Christians have always considered righteous behavior." (A Crisis of Truth, pp. 101-102).

Professor James Hitchcock, in his excellent work entitled "Catholicism and Modernity" (New York:Seabury Press, 1979, p. 86), explains the role of the media in this entire process:

"The media's alleged commitment to 'pluralism' is at base a kind of hoax. The banner of pluralism is raised in order to win toleration for new ideas as yet unacceptable to the majority. Once toleration has been achieved, public opinion is systematically manipulated first to enforce a status of equality between the old and the new, then to assert the superiority of the new over the old. A final stage is often the total discrediting, even sometimes the banning, of what had previously been orthodox."

And increasingly, we are witnessing episodes which serve to highlight the fact that we have entered this final stage.  See here for example.

The homosexual movement is essentially totalitarian.  There is no point in denying this.  See here.

This hate movement seeks to impose its ideology on all.  And it will employ any means, including physical violence, to attain its evil agenda.  See here.

Pope Francis: We need you to thunder against this demonic movement

Michael F. Haverluck, writing for OneNewsNow, notes that, "Women and men in the city of Cleveland will soon be charged with $1,000 criminal fines for voicing a problem or discomfort about a person of the opposite sex using their restrooms. This also goes for businesses that express customers’ uneasiness over a person of the opposite sex visiting the inappropriate (or non-traditional) restroom. Cleveland schools must abide by the ordinance.

Cleveland’s recently proposed and reviewed “transgender-inclusion bathroom and locker room ordinance” is not the first of its kind, as Houston and numerous other cities have also visited or enforced measures that award local residents the special right to use whatever facility they choose, regardless of their natural gender.

City officials behind the new law argue that those opposed to the ordinance need to wake up and adjust to the so-called going trend of society.

As key sponsors of the “public accommodations” section of the legislation affecting private businesses, Councilmen Matt Zone and Joe Cimperman stress that the new law was created to grant transgender people the choice to visit any restroom they choose to cater to whatever whim they have — regarding their gender identity issues.

"This is common sense legislation, and it's long overdue," Zone asserted, noting that the ordinance does not mandate businesses to provide separate restroom or locker room facilities or signs warning unsuspecting visitors. "We're in the 21st century, and it would allow Clevelanders to feel comfortable in their own environment and to use facilities that they're most comfortable with."

Family Research Council (FRC), a pro-family Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization is perplexed by Zone’s blanket statement that Clevelanders in general need to feel “comfortable” by allowing them to enter any restroom they choose, pointing out that transgenders constitute a miniscule fraction of city dwellers.

“Exactly which Clevelanders is he talking about?” FRC asks. “The 99 percent of locals who would have to forfeit their personal safety and First Amendment rights to comply? Or the less than 1 percent of sexually confused people who are dictating ‘morality’ to the rest?”

Nonetheless, many city officials are on board with the councilmen’s mindset, believing dissenters to be archaic and irrational.

“We have to get out of the mindset that someone is going into the bathroom to attack,” a city leader retorted when responding to fears expressed by Clevelanders who voiced concerns about the ordinance opening the door for sexual predators of all types throughout the city.

Another argument used by city leaders advocating the new law is that dozens of other cities have enacted similar controversial ordinances, alleging that pedophiles, voyeurs and other sexual predators have rarely abused the laws.

Public outrage and concern

Under the transgender ordinance, many are shocked to learn that any person or business restricting restrooms to one gender will be issued a $1,000 criminal fine. One author put it another way:

"So if a woman is alone in a business and sees some guy follow her into the restroom — and you know this will start to happen — and she screams and makes a huge fuss to draw attention to the male invading her privacy, SHE is the one who will get slapped with a $1000 fine?" a concerned author voiced over the problematic law. "How about a privacy-respecting business owner who listens to his or her female customers? Or the grandmas who stand at the door of the public pools — with pitchforks, perhaps — to keep pedophiles out of the showers with their eight-year-old granddaughters?"

FRC emphasizes how serious the proposed ordinance is and reminds women, parents and children alike that their rights as Ohioans would be violated by the controversial law. Other conservative watchdog groups defending Judeo-Christian values agree, stressing that the main issue at hand is the well-being and protection of vulnerable citizens — particularly women and children.

“All can agree that the safety of children and women must always come first,” the Cincinnati, Ohio-based organization Citizens for Community Values said in a statement. “This proposed ordinance outrageously neglects the safety and physical and emotional health of women and children and opens up real possibilities of predators and incidents of rape, assault, public exposure and other sexual abuse.”

On the other hand, promoters of the ordinance, including Alana Jochum of the pro-LGBT group, Equality Ohio, tries to put tensions at ease by insisting that anyone entering a restroom with the malice intent to harass or harm an occupant would still be liable for obstructing the law. She insists that Cleveland’s transgender restroom law would merely give transgenders the right to pick and choose the restroom that makes them feel the safest. However, no mention was given as to what would make straight women and children feel the safest.

"A transwoman who is forced to enter a male restroom is subject to a much greater safety risk than if she uses the restroom she most identifies with," Jochum said in defense of the ordinance.

The debate goes on …

The first of a number of meetings over the issue kicked off this month. They are held by the Cleveland City Council, which continues to push the ordinance that would make every public restroom and shower — including those found in private businesses and schools — to be freely accessible by all men and women citywide.

The transgender restroom and locker room ordinance discussed at the city’s Workforce and Community Benefits Committee meeting is just one in a bundle of ordinances under review that are being proposed to “update” Cleveland’s current anti-discrimination laws, which now seek to embrace the transgender community by handing them special rights."

Some time back, Deacon Keith Fournier, in an article for Catholic Online, explained that, "The 'Gender Identity Movement' is dangerous. It is a part of a broader Cultural Revolution which substitutes an entirely different view of the dignity of the human person, human freedom, human flourishing, human sexuality, marriage and the family and the moral basis of a free society than that which formed Western Civilization."

Indeed Pope Benedict XVI, in a Christmas Address given in 2008, denounced the contemporary notion that gender is a malleable definition and said, "The Church speaks of the human being as man and woman, and asks that this order is respected."

Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., has noted that, "It has been a special scar on the worst pagan cultures and the worst idolatrous religions that they openly attacked the gender identities of the sexes.  They celebrated sexual indulgence, sexual experimentation, sexual symbols, fertility rites, temple prostitution, seasonal sex orgies, sexual abuse and enslavement of young women, girls and boys....But sex is not an accidental characteristic of man and woman.  A human person without sex is a monstrous abstraction.  Sex entails the very identity of each person; sex plunges to the deepest mystery of each person.  Hence the sexes and the vocations pertaining thereto are not interchangeable.  Each person is called to serve God and his fellowman, accepting gladly the sex with which one is endowed and the vocation attached to that sex." (The Antichrist, P. 231).

In the comments section of one post at this Blog, Mr. Michael Cole noted how, "Homosexuals, lesbians and transsexuals are often afflicted by evil spirits. Gender confusion is often a sign of demonic possession. Fr. Malachi Martin recounts the story of a possessed transsexual in his bestselling book 'Hostage to the Devil.' In the chapter titled 'The Virgin and the Girl-Fixer,' he writes, 'At one moment, Father Gerald, the exorcist, was bending over the possessed, Richard/Rita, who had sunk his teeth into his own instep. In the next instant, the glaze in Richard/Rita's eyes broke, melting into a lurid gleam of mockery. Greenish. The teeth loosened their grip on the instep. The mouth opened, baring gums and throat, the tongue protruded, quivering on a stream of gray foam bubbles. The whole face was furrowed in irregular lines, as Richard/Rita broke into peals of laughter. Great buffeting gusts of mocking, jeering, Schadenfreude laughter. Laugter pouring from a belly of amused scorn and contemptuous hate.'"

How quickly we forget this.  Gender confusion represents something more than a cultural revolution.  It is often the result of demonic possession.  The more a culture rejects the Living God and His Commandments, the more it sinks into an abyss of depravity.

We need Pope Francis to cry out against this encroaching evil.  We do not need to hear, "Who am I to judge?" We need a Shepherd who thunders the truth that, "We should obey God rather than men."

Is that too much to ask?

Archbishop assaulted by topless "gay" activists

Another example of homosexual hate, this time perpetrated against a Catholic Archbishop.  See here.

Already, so many - including many Christians -  have been seduced by the religious deception which is presented as the "new religion," the religion of the Age of Aquarius. Those who wish to destroy the Church and to prepare the way for the Man of Sin know full well that external persecution only strengthens the Church. Therefore, they strive to bring down the Church through internal betrayal and infidelity.


As I've said before, "The new humanitarian religion, which is anti-supernatural, must absorb Christianity as it prepares for the entrance of the Man of Sin. Catholics who maintain a devotion to the Holy Eucharist and Our Lady [and authentic devotion to Our Lady presupposes total obedience to the Church's Magisterium] must first be ostracized and later eliminated as incompatible with the New Order."

"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 many 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.

It was Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand who warned that,"..a much worse consequence of the idol of learning is the killing of common sense, which is being undertaken on a widespread scale in grammar schools, high schools, and colleges. One forgets the great source of wisdom which lies in our immediate contact with being, and how pernicious it is to replace the resulting world view, with instruction which draws its nourishment from doubtful psychological and sociological theories, and false, flat philosophies. Every immediate, true experience in which the voice of being speaks to a person, is much more interesting than the questionable theories he has adopted concerning the world and life. Thus it is that a simple, unlettered man, when he speaks about the world and his life, is much wiser, much truer, and more genuine than all the half-educated people who simply repeat the stupid theories expounded by their professors. The statement of a simple person may be clumsily expressed; it may be incomplete, and even contain errors. But it will always have a kernel of truth, always the freshness of a genuine contact with reality, and be free from the arrogant presumption of establishing a valid theory in the sense of looking 'behind the scenes' of reality, and being able to 'explain' everything. The dangerous error of the cult of teaching and learning reaches its climax in the ambition to improve, modify, or even replace natural, immediate, organic contact with the world and life, by an artificial contact based on so-called 'scientific' theories." (The Devastated Vineyard, pp. 85-86).

We are commanded, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever." (2 Timothy 2: 15-17)

The diabolical disorientation Sister Lucia of Fatima spoke of is growing day by day.  In my next post, I will be examining the writings of an anti-Catholic bigot who is attempting to paint the Fatima apparition as a demonic deception.

Cardinal Francis George: LGBT Movement could morph into Ku Klux Klan

CathNewsUSA is reporting that "Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, this week told a Chicago news station that he agreed with a local Roman Catholic church’s objections to the city’s recently-adjusted Gay Pride Parade route passing by its doors and warned that the parade could 'morph into the Ku Klux Klan.'


George made the comment Sunday on Fox Chicago when asked about Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s complaints that the parade passing by its Belmont Avenue location would force the church to cancel its morning mass. The church recently launched a petition urging the city to force parade organizers to adjust their plans.

'I go with the pastor,' George told Fox. 'He’s telling us that he won’t be able to have services on Sunday if that’s the case. You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.'"  (See here).

Readers of this Blog know that I have already drawn comparisons between the LGBT Movement and the Ku Klux Klan.  In a post from April of 2010, I wrote: "Historian John Higham once described anti-Catholicism as 'the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.' Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. characterized prejudice against Catholics as 'the deepest bias in the history of the American people.' And conservative commentator Peter Viereck has said that 'Catholic baiting is the anti-Semitism of the liberals.'


But nowhere is this 'paranoiac agitation' and hate-filled prejudice against Catholics more deeply ingrained than in today's Homosexual Hate Movement. There are parallels between this hate movement and the Ku Klux Klan at the early part of the twentieth-century. When the Klan enjoyed a resurgence in the 1920s, anti-Catholic rhetoric intensified to such a degree that it led to violence against Catholics and the burning down of a Catholic Church. Just two weeks after the Church of the Little Flower was erected in 1925, the Klan burned a cross in front of the church. Later the church would burn down in a fire.

Today, hate-filled rhetoric is being levelled against the Catholic Church by rabidly anti-Catholic extremists and this extreme rhetoric has led to open violence against Catholics and Catholic churches (not to mention Protestant and Mormon churches)....One radical anti-Catholic activist has compared the Holy Father to a vampire who is nothing but a bigot (See here). One of his associates (a professor of Sociology) has written that, 'The Pope and the Vatican, modern day Pharisees, and their minions, have caused untold suffering to countless numbers of people, and no decent person, no Christian, no LGBT person, has any business giving credibility to that institution by his/her presence and money.' (See here). Of course, this bright light offers no evidence to support his wild and irresponsible claims against the Church. But then how can we expect such an individual to be concerned with facts in the face of such blanket condemnations of a Church comprised of more than 1 billion people? The classic definition of prejudice: 'Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion.'

The LGBT Movement is very much like the Klan.  It has shown that it will resort to intimidation and violence to get its way.

Is the LGBT Movement interested in dialogue?  You discern.

Rainbow Sash Movement: Is it dialogue they want or merely surrender to their agenda?

In my last post, I noted how retired Lutheran Bishop Herbert W. Chilstrom has called on the Roman Catholic Bishops of Minnesota to jettison Catholic teaching in the name of "charity" and "dialogue" and to surrender to the radical homosexual agenda and its demands for same-sex "marriage." 

In his Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam Suam, Pope Paul VI told us that, "The Church must enter into dialogue with the world in which it lives. It has something to say, a message to give, a communication to make." (No. 65). The Holy Father goes on to say that, "Dialogue, therefore, is a recognized method of the apostolate. It is a way of making spiritual contact. It should however have the following characteristics:

1) Clarity before all else; the dialogue demands that what is said should be intelligible. We can think of it as a kind of thought transfusion. It is an invitation to the exercise and development of the highest spiritual and mental powers a man possesses. This fact alone would suffice to make such dialogue rank among the greatest manifestations of human activity and culture. In order to satisfy this first requirement, all of us who feel the spur of the apostolate should examine closely the kind of speech we use. Is it easy to understand? Can it be grasped by ordinary people? Is it current idiom?

2) Our dialogue must be accompanied by that meekness which Christ bade us learn from Himself: "Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart." It would indeed be a disgrace if our dialogue were marked by arrogance, the use of bared words or offensive bitterness. What gives it its authority is the fact that it affirms the truth, shares with others the gifts of charity, is itself an example of virtue, avoids peremptory language, makes no demands. It is peaceful, has no use for extreme methods, is patient under contradiction and inclines towards generosity.

3) Confidence is also necessary; confidence not only in the power of one's own words, but also in the good will of both parties to the dialogue. Hence dialogue promotes intimacy and friendship on both sides. It unites them in a mutual adherence to the Good, and thus excludes all self-seeking.

4) Finally, the prudence of a teacher who is most careful to make allowances for the psychological and moral circumstances of his hearer, particularly if he is a child, unprepared, suspicious or hostile. The person who speaks is always at pains to learn the sensitivities of his audience, and if reason demands it, he adapts himself and the manner of his presentation to the susceptibilities and the degree of intelligence of his hearers....In a dialogue conducted with this kind of foresight, truth is wedded to charity and understanding to love." (Nos. 81, 82).

As faithful Catholics, we must recognize and embrace these characteristics of authentic dialogue, even when our partners in dialogue refuse to accept these principles. For we will often encounter those who have succumbed to relativism or who do not possess a love of objective truth. For such people, the purpose of dialogue is not to attain truth but rather to achieve personal victory and to triumph at any cost.  For example, Joe Murray, Executive Director of the Rainbow Sash Movement in the United States, after hurling a litany of angry and calumnious accusations against Archbishop Timothy Dolan in particular and the Catholic Church in general, challenges the Archbishop to an open debate.  See here.

The Rainbow Sash Movement declares, "We recognize that our Executive Director’s call for such a public debate will most certainly be met with arrogance, and even dismissal. However, such a refusal will only focus the spotlight on a Catholic Archbishop who lacks the courage to stand up for what he claims to believe in and meet in a public setting for a debate on Gay Marriage. It is time to replace the feeding frenzy of homophobia with a mature exchange of ideas in the Church."


As Dr. Montague Brown explains in his wonderful book "The One-Minute Philosopher" (Sophia Institute Books): "An argument (emotional, not rational) is a disorderly confrontation based on an unwillingness to learn from one another. Desire for victory takes precedence over love of truth, with the result that agreement becomes impossible....in an argument, I simply want my position to be the right one and you to agree with me. I am, indeed, looking for agreement, but on my terms, not in terms of objective truth." (p. 33). An authentic dialogue (which such people are not really interested in) is, "..an orderly confrontation based on a mutual willingness to learn from one another. It involves the presentation of evidence by each party and then a good-faith attempt of the participants in the discussion to come to agreement...In a discussion [or dialogue], I do not primarily want to disagree: I want to know the truth.." (The One-Minute Philosopher, p. 32).

But herein lies the problem.  The radical homosexual activists of the "Rainbow Sash Movement" are not interested in objective truth or authentic dialogue.  They will not - they cannot - come to the table with good will.  And this because they care not for truth.  Only for "power" as they incorrectly perceive power.

The Rainbow Sash Movement is part of the broader Homosexual Hate Movement and has engaged in calumny against Pope Benedict XVI, accusing the Holy Father of having "a Nazi past."  At one point last year, this hate group announced its plans to violate federal law and to show contempt for the celebration of the Holy Mass across the United States on Pentecost Sunday by disrupting the Mass.  See here.

Exchanging the Truth of God for a Lie: Evidence of Demonic Possession

Deacon Keith Fournier, in an article for Catholic Online, writes: "The 'Gender Identity Movement' is dangerous. It is a part of a broader Cultural Revolution which substitutes an entirely different view of the dignity of the human person, human freedom, human flourishing, human sexuality, marriage and the family and the moral basis of a free society than that which formed Western Civilization."  See here.

Indeed Pope Benedict XVI, in a Christmas Address given in 2008, denounced the contemporary notion that gender is a malleable definition and said, "The Church speaks of the human being as man and woman, and asks that this order is respected."


Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., has noted that, "It has been a special scar on the worst pagan cultures and the worst idolatrous religions that they openly attacked the gender identities of the sexes.  They celebrated sexual indulgence, sexual experimentation, sexual symbols, fertility rites, temple prostitution, seasonal sex orgies, sexual abuse and enslavement of young women, girls and boys....But sex is not an accidental characteristic of man and woman.  A human person without sex is a monstrous abstraction.  Sex entails the very identity of each person; sex plunges to the deepest mystery of each person.  Hence the sexes and the vocations pertaining thereto are not interchangeable.  Each person is called to serve God and his fellowman, accepting gladly the sex with which one is endowed and the vocation attached to that sex." (The Antichrist, P. 231).

In the comments section of a previous post, Mr. Michael Cole noted how, "Homosexuals, lesbians and transsexuals are often afflicted by evil spirits. Gender confusion is often a sign of demonic possession. Fr. Malachi Martin recounts the story of a possessed transsexual in his bestselling book 'Hostage to the Devil.' In the chapter titled 'The Virgin and the Girl-Fixer,' he writes, 'At one moment, Father Gerald, the exorcist, was bending over the possessed, Richard/Rita, who had sunk his teeth into his own instep. In the next instant, the glaze in Richard/Rita's eyes broke, melting into a lurid gleam of mockery. Greenish. The teeth loosened their grip on the instep. The mouth opened, baring gums and throat, the tongue protruded, quivering on a stream of gray foam bubbles. The whole face was furrowed in irregular lines, as Richard/Rita broke into peals of laughter. Great buffeting gusts of mocking, jeering, Schadenfreude laughter. Laugter pouring from a belly of amused scorn and contemptuous hate.'"

How quickly we forget this.  Gender confusion represents something more than a cultural revolution.  It is often the result of demonic possession.  The more a culture rejects the Living God and His Commandments, the more it sinks into an abyss of depravity.

Perez Hilton on Rick Santorum...

I don't know why a Washington think-tank hasn't snatched up celebrity gossip suckhound Perez Hilton.  The man is obviously a wordsmith as well as an intellectual.  Responding to Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who questioned President Obama's pro-abortion stance saying, "The question is, and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer, is that human life a person under the Constitution?..And Barack Obama says no.  Well if that human life is not a person then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say 'now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people," Mr. Hilton writes, "Dear Rick Santorum...This sucks.  Wow.  Just wow.  What makes him think that anything about what he says is okay?"  See here.

Obviously Senator Santorum has hit a nerve in the liberal anti-life community, a community which claims to be interested in civil rights while denying the civil rights of the unborn.  It was Lisa Graas, a former lobbyist for Kentucky Right to Life, who framed this issue so eloquently:

"...it’s clear that had the Dred Scott decision been allowed to stand, our world would be a far different place right now and there would be no black candidate serving in elected office anywhere in this nation, let alone running for president. Indeed, Senator Barack Obama, who claims it was the Civil Rights movement of the sixties that is responsible for his being conceived, may never have been born. How ironic, then, that Mr. Obama is such a staunch supporter of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that did the same thing to children in the womb that Dred Scott did to people of African descent – stripped them of 'personhood' status under the law."

As Dr. Germain Grisez has said, "Abortion and its legalization are great evils.  They differ in some ways from the mass murders carried out under Stalin, Hitler, and others, but also in some ways are comparable to those crimes and in other ways even worse; because of the greater numbers being killed, their total innocence and defenselessness, the essential role played by those primarily responsible for nurturing the victims, the widespread support of this slaughter by both rulers and people in so-called liberal democratic nations, and the complicity in the killings of so many religious leaders, educators, people trained in law, health care professionals, people in the mass media, and so on..Everyone who recognizes the evils of abortion and its legalization should do something to oppose them."

Yes indeed.  Mr. Hilton has a firm grasp of this issue.  And I date supermodels on the weekend.


Related reading: Stubborness and stupidity.

Rainbow Sash Movement embraces contempt for the Church

As I explained in a previous post, "Pope Saint Pius X, in his 1910 Catechism, teaches us that sodomy ranks second in gravity to voluntary homicide, among the sins that 'cry out to God for vengeance.' According to this Catechism, these sins 'are said to cry out to God because the Holy Spirit says so and because their iniquity is so grave and manifest that it provokes God to punish with more severe chastisements.'

The Catechism of the Catholic Church published by the Vatican in 1994 teaches clearly that homosexuality is contrary to nature and that homosexual acts are among the 'sins gravely contrary to chastity.' (CCC, 2396). This Catechism teaches that homosexual acts are 'intrinsically disordered,' 'contrary to the natural law,' and that 'under no circumstances can they be approved.' (CCC, 2357)....Now while it is true that everything must be done to help sinners, this cannot include helping them to sin or to remain in sin. Because of human frailty, every sinner deserves both pity and compassion. However, vice and sin must be excluded from this compassion. This because sin can never be the proper object of compassion. (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a.1, ad 1).

It is a false compassion which supplies the sinner with the means to remain attached to sin. Such 'compassion' provides an assistance (whether material or moral) which actually enables the sinner to remain firmly attached to his evil ways. By contrast, true compassion leads the sinner away from vice and back to virtue. As Thomas Aquinas explains:

"We love sinners out of charity, not so as to will what they will, or to rejoice in what gives them joy, but so as to make them will what we will, and rejoice in what rejoices us. Hence it is written: 'They shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 25, a.6, ad 4, citing Jeremiah 15:19).

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that the sentiment of compassion only becomes a virtue when it is guided by reason, since "it is essential to human virtue that the movements of the soul should be regulated by reason." (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, c.3). Without such regulation, compassion is merely a passion. A false compassion is a compassion not regulated and tempered by reason and is, therefore, a potentially dangerous inclination. This because it is subject to favoring not only that which is good but also that which is evil (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a.1, ad 3).

An authentic compassion always stems from charity. True compassion is an effect of charity (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a.3, ad 3). But it must be remembered that the object of this virtue is God, whose love extends to His creatures. (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 25, a.3). Therefore, the virtue of compassion seeks to bring God to the one who suffers so that he may thereby participate in the infinite love of God. As St. Augustine explains:

"'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Now, you love yourself suitably when you love God better than yourself. What, then, you aim at in yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may love God with a perfect affection." (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, which may be found here.

The Rainbow Sash Movement, part of the broader Homosexual Hate Movement, has failed to understand this teaching. Which is why the organization has accused the Catholic Church of advancing a "Theology of Contempt." See here. This charge is particularly ironic since the Rainbow Sash Movement (in the same article) calumniates Pope Benedict XVI, accusing the Holy Father of having "a Nazi past" and the organization has announced its plans to violate federal law and to show contempt for the celebration of the Holy Mass across the United States on Pentecost Sunday. Contempt (or deliberate hatred), as the Catechism teaches: "..is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm.."(2303). And what is calumny but a remark which is contrary to the truth which harms the reputation of another and which gives occasion for false judgments concerning that person (CCC, 2477).

If anyone has shown contempt it is the Rainbow Sash Movement. Sadly, the misguided souls who comprise this disturbing movement intend to show the Catholic Church more contempt on Pentecost Sunday. And in so doing, they will be demonstrating their contempt for Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Greater Fitchburg for Life

There is a new Pro-Life Blog covering the ongoing moral crisis which has descended upon the city of Fitchburg. The Blog is called Greater Fitchburg for Life and may be found here. These good people who are fighting for life "feel a need to proclaim it and bear witness to it in all its marvelous newness since it is one with Jesus himself who makes all things new and conquers the 'oldness' which comes from sin and leads to death." (Evangelium Vitae, No. 80, citing St. Irenaeus and St. Aquinas).

This is an ongoing spiritual battle. It would be a grave error to believe that this battle may be won by human action alone (as important as such action is). It will only be won through prayer and fasting. This because some demons are only driven out in this manner.

Won't you offer your prayers - and especially at Holy Mass and while praying the Holy Rosary - for the success of the Pro-Life movement in Fitchburg. Together with the help of God's grace, Fitchburg can (and will) be made new.

Read this and reflect upon the fact that Mayor Lisa Wong wants Planned Parenthood in Fitchburg.

The pro-life movement is waiting for a leader?

According to a conservative magazine, in an article which may be found here, the pro-life movement is "trapped" and "waiting for a leader." As I explained in a previous Blog post, abortion will only be defeated through prayer and fasting. We already have a leader as pro-lifers: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work" (1 John 3: 8). Anyone who believes that an ordinary man would be able to lead the pro-life movement to victory over the culture of death is a fool.

The evil which weighs down upon the human race (and abortion is part of that evil) is a force so powerful that we are unable to successfully overcome it without grace, without God's help. Evil in the world has a satanic origin: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6: 12). Do we suppose that St. Paul was joking? Or that he was unstable and preaching nonsense? Since the greatest of the Apostles speaks the truth as given to him by the Holy Spirit, why do we think for one moment that an ordinary man can lead those of us in the pro-life movement (or in the Church in general) to victory? Enough nonsense! Let's instead put our faith, hope and trust in Him Who teaches with an authority so great that He even gives orders to the evil spirits and they obey Him (Mark 1: 26-28).

I have grappled with the Evil One and the evil spirits many times. Some years ago, while attending a Bible study at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish in Gardner, Massachusetts, I encountered a group of people who were denigrating devotion to Our Lady and attempting to introduce strange ideas about our Mother to the others present for the study. Over several weeks, I refuted their ideas using the Magisterial teaching of the Church and quoting most extensively from the Popes and various Doctors of the Church. But they only hardened. When I took the matter to prayer (and fasting) - praying many rosaries and invoking Our Lady to drive the evil out and to restore fidelity to Church teaching at this Bible study, a curious thing happened. When I returned the next week, the woman who had been serving as the "leader" of this small group arrived wearing dark sunglasses (the Bible study took place in the evening) and sat across from me with a stare which was nothing short of menacing. She said nothing. However, as I prayerfully defended the Church's teaching once more, the light fixture above the table where we all sat began to flicker on and off. Eventually it went out altogether. I continued to pray as the group disbanded.

The next week I was told that the pastor had spoken to those who had been attacking devotion to Our Lady (in a Church dedicated to her!) and that they had agreed not to do so in the future. Additionally, several of these agreed to no longer visit a local fundamentalist church where they had obtained their ideas. Prayer and fasting!

In the shortest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, there are thirteen references to a personified Satan or to casting out demons. Among these are four exorcisms worked by Jesus. Let's recall how Jesus became angry when His disciples were unable to free the epileptic demoniac and rebuked them for their failure: "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?" (Mark 9: 19).

May we not find ourselves similarly rebuked for being without faith!