God will send two punishments..

Ricardo Saludo writes:



"With this year’s centenary of Our Lady of Fatima’s apparitions in 1917, many devotees fear Apocalyptic end times are approaching. Many fret over the Third Secret of Fatima, published in 2000 despite the Blessed Virgin’s instructions to disclose it in 1960, as conveyed by visionary Sister Lucia Dos Santos.

As in the first two Secrets – touching on hell and World War II – the Third spoke of chastisements for man’s disregard of God and transgressions against His law.

Wrote the late Fatima expert Fr. Malachi Martin: “Lucia’s single page written formulation of the ‘Third Secret’ covers three main topics. A Physical Chastisement of the nations, involving catastrophes, man-made or natural, on land, on water and in the atmosphere of the globe. A Spiritual Chastisement, far more frightening and distressing – especially for Roman Catholics – than physical hardship, since it would consist of the disappearance of religious belief, a period of widespread unfaith in many countries.”

One vision spoke of the Pope with companions climbing a hill over dead people, being slain by bullets and arrows. Speaking about the Third Secret in 1980, Pope Saint John Paul II said that divine punishments could no longer be stopped, though praying the Rosary could mitigate them.


The following year, on the anniversary of the first Fatima apparition on May 13, John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square, a failed assassination attempt seen as possibly fulfilling Sister Lucia’s vision.

Those who closely followed the life of the shepherd girl-turned-visionary nun, who died at 97 in 2005, may be most worried about the warning she received from Jesus Christ Himself. At a monastery in Rianjo, Spain, in 1931, He told her in a vision: “Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command, they will follow him into misfortune.”

The Lord was believed to be referring to the Catholic hierarchy’s failure then to execute the instruction delivered by Our Lady of Fatima, for the Pope in communion with all other bishops to consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, for the nation’s conversion and world peace.

“If not, Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, fomenting wars and persecution of the Church,” said Sister Lucia of Mary’s warning in 1917, the year before the Christian monarchy became the communist Soviet Union and spread atheism and totalitarianism worldwide.

The Vatican contends that St. John Paul II fulfilled the instruction in 1984, when he consecrated all nations to the Immaculate Heart. Several years later, the Soviet empire dissolved, and the communists lost power in Russia.

Today, its authoritarian government is strengthening the Russian Orthodox faith, restoring church property seized by government under communism, and building places of worship using state funds.

It’s not over till it’s over
So should the Fatima warnings no longer bother us. Not so fast.


Addressing half a million pilgrims in Fatima on May 13, 2010, then-Pope Benedict XVI cautioned: “Whoever thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is over, is deceived.” Both he and Sister Lucia have said that the Third Secret speaks about the end times, and reflects the prophecies in the Bible."

And from Michael Brown we have this

Blessed Taigi was praised by Pope Benedict XV in her beatification on May 20, 1920 as being an exemplary wife and mother amid poor and trying circumstances. She was frequently in ecstasy, worked miracles of healing, read hearts, foretold deaths, and saw visions on the coming of future events. She foretold the first two world wars of this century. Eighteen years after her death, her body remained fresh and in a state of perfect preservation as if it had been just buried the day before. The following is her prophecy on the three days of darkness:

"God will send two punishments: one will be in the form of wars, revolutions and other evils; it shall originate on earth. The other will be sent from Heaven. There shall come over the whole earth an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights. Nothing can be seen, and the air will be laden with pestilence which will claim mainly, but not only, the enemies of religion. It will be impossible to use any man-made lighting during this darkness, except blessed candles. He, who out of curiosity, opens his window to look out, or leaves his home, will fall dead on the spot. During these three days, people should remain in their homes, pray the Rosary and beg God for mercy." "All the enemies of the Church, whether known or unknown, will perish over the whole earth during that universal darkness, with the exception of a few whom God will soon convert. The air shall be infected by demons who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms.""Religion shall be persecuted, and priests massacred. Churches shall be closed, but only for a short time. The Holy Father shall be obliged to leave Rome."

Marie-Julie Jahenny - Nineteenth Century:

"The crisis will come on all of a sudden and the Chastisement will be worldwide."
The Ecstatic of Tours - Nineteenth Century"Before the war breaks out again, food will be scarce and expensive. There will be little work for the workers, and fathers will hear their children crying for food. There will be earthquakes and signs in the sun. Toward the end, darkness will cover the earth. When everyone believes that peace is assured, when everyone least expects it, the great happening will begin. Revolution will break out in Italy almost at the same time as in France. For some time the Church will be without a Pope."

Sr. Mary of Jesus Crucified - Nineteenth Century:

"All states will be shaken by war and civil conflict. During a darkness lasting three days the people given to evil ways will perish so that only one-fourth of mankind will survive."


Sr. Elena Aiello (20th Century - 1954)

Our Lord: "The world is flooded by a deluge of corruption. The governments of the people have arisen as demons in human flesh and even though they speak of peace, they prepare for war with devastating weapons that can annihilate whole peoples and nations."

"So ungrateful have they become towards My Sacred Heart and abusing My graces they have converted the world into a scene of crimes. Innumerable scandals carry souls to their ruin, especially the souls of the youth. They have given themselves, without restraint, to the pleasure s of the world which have degenerated into perversions."*

"The bad example of the parents produces, within the families, scandals and infidelities, instead of the practices of virtue and of prayer. The home, source of faith and holiness is stained and destroyed."

"The willfulness of men does not change and they stubbornly continue in their sins. The punishments and afflictions God sends to make them become reasonable, are severe, but men are enraged as if they were wounded beasts, and harden their hearts against the grace of God."
"The world no longer merits pardon, but deserves fire, destruction and death. There must be much penance and prayers by the faithful to mitigate the deserved chastisement which is no detained by the intervention of My dear Mother, who is Mother of all men. Near at hand is the scourge that will cleanse the earth of evil! Divine Justice clamors for satisfaction for the many offenses and evils which cover the earth. No more can be tolerated. Obstinate men, hardened in their faults, do not turn to God."

"The people do not subject themselves to the Church and despise the priests because there are so many among them who are the cause of scandals."

Our Lady:

"Satan goes furiously through this disordered world, and soon will show all his might. But, because of my Immaculate Heart, the triumph of Light will not delay in its triumph over the power of darkness, and the world, finally, will have tranquility and peace." Good Friday ---1961
"My daughter, Rome will not be saved, because the Italian rulers have forsaken the Divine Light and because only a few people really love the Church. But the day is not far off when all the wicked shall perish, under the tremendous blows of Divine Justice."

"Listen well to what I have to tell you and announce it to everyone. My heart is saddened by the many afflictions which threaten the world. The justice of our Heavenly Father is gravely offended."

"Men continue to live willfully in their sins. The wrath of God is near at hand. The world will be visited by great misfortunes, by bloody revolutions, by terrible hurricanes and floods of rivers and seas."

"Raise your voice until the priests of God heed My messages and advise men that the time is near and if they do not convert and return to God through prayers and sacrifices, the world will be involved in a new war. The dictators of the world, infernal creatures, will destroy the churches, profane the Holy Eucharist and destroy the most cherished and holy things. In that new pitiless war, much that men have constructed will be destroyed."

"Clouds with lightening rays of fire and a tempest of fire will pass over the whole earth and the punishment will be the most terrible ever known in the history of mankind. It will last 70 hours. The wicked will be crushed and eliminated. Many will be lost because they stubbornly remained in their sins. The hours of darkness are near ... some nations will be purified while others will disappear entirely."

"I am bending over the world and detain the justice of God, otherwise, these things would have already happened. Prayer and sacrifices are needed. Men must return to God and to My Immaculate Heart, Mediatrix for men, then, at least, part of the world will be saved."

"Speak out loudly. Propagate these words everywhere as a true echo of My voice. Make known because it will help to save many souls and impede much destruction of the Church and world."

Father Brian O'Toole and the lack of the passion of anger

In a past post, I noted how it is possible to "be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4: 26), something which Father Brian O'Toole, "pastor" of the failing Sacred Heart Parish in Gardner, apparently does not understand. And he is not alone.

Writing for Touchstone Magazine, Dr. Leon J. Podles explains that, "..many Christians have a false understanding of the nature and role of anger. It is seen as something negative, something that a Christian should not feel.

In the sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church, those who dealt with the bishops have consistently remarked that the bishops never expressed outrage or righteous anger, even at the most horrendous cases of abuse and sacrilege. Bishops seem to think that anger at sin is un-Christian. Gilbert Kilman, a child psychiatrist, commented, 'What amazes me is the lack of outrage the church feels when its good work is being harmed. So, if there is anything the church needs to know, it needs to know how to be outraged.'

Mark Serrano confronted Bishop Frank Rodimer, asking why he had let his priest-friend Peter Osinski sleep with boys at Rodimer’s beach house while Rodimer was in the next bedroom: 'Where is your moral indignation?' Rodimer’s answer was, 'Then I don’t get it. What do you want?' What Serrano wanted Rodimer to do was to behave like a man with a heart, a heart that is outraged by evil. But Rodimer couldn’t; his inability to feel outrage was a quality that had helped make him a bishop. He would never get into fights, never rock the boat, never 'divide' but only 'unify.' Rodimer could not understand why he should feel deep anger at evil, at the violation of the innocent, at the oppression of the weak.

Emotional Deformation

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

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

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

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

Just Wrath

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

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

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

One shepherd [and he is that in every sense of the word] who possesses such a mature faith is The Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewitz, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. His Excellency has been quoted as having said, "No words that are printable, or even conceivable, are adequate to express my outrage, fury, and depression upon learning that anyone, much less a priest, would sexually molest any children. Such a thing is an unspeakable abomination. Upon hearing such things, I must confess that I am tempted to look for my shotgun and baseball bat, much sooner that I am tempted to give any consideration to a possible 'sickness' in a perpetrator. Molestation victims and their families are certainly entitled to anger. Sometimes their excessive anger and demands, while often becoming unacceptable and unreasonable, are still understandable to me."

How much more just anger should a shepherd demonstrate against those who would spiritually molest faithful Catholics.

At his homily delivered at the 10:30 AM Mass at Sacred Heart Parish today, Father Brian O'Toole said that Jesus "lost it," and drove out the money changers who "weren't really doing anything wrong." This even though Our Lord rebuked them for making His Father's House a "Den of Thieves."

Father O'Toole, as with many of his effeminate contemporaries who have succumbed to the Cult of Softness, doesn't understand this Gospel passage because he lacks the passion of anger.

And that is a vice.

The gravity of liturgical abuse and the Diocese of Worcester

Many Catholics today, priests and laity as well as consecrated religious, possess a lust for innovation which they use to assault the stability of sacred rites.  Referring to these liturgical terrorists who seek to violently replace divine forms with their own reckless innovations, John Henry Cardinal Newman warned that, "No one can really respect religion and insult its forms.  Granted that forms are not immediately from God, still long use has made them divine to us; for the spirit of religion has so penetrated and quickened them, that to destroy them is, in respect to the multitude of men, to unsettle and dislodge the religious principle itself.  In most minds usage has so identified them with the notion of religion, that one cannot be extirpated without the other.  Their faith will not bear transplanting...Precious doctrines are strung like jewels upon slender threads." (John Henry Cardinal Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. II, Christian Classics Inc, pp. 75-76).

Those who are bent on making their own unauthorized changes to the liturgy often fail to appreciate how such an endeavor can constitute grave sin.  I know this because some have accused me of making a mountain out of a molehill for my opposition to various liturgical abuses.  Dr. Germain Grisez explains: "There are many reasons why it is wrong for priests intentionally to make unauthorized liturgical changes.  Two are especially important.  First, such changes sometimes embody or imply deviations from Catholic faith; even when they do not, they often omit (see here for example) or obscure something of the liturgy's expression of faith.  Thus, the Church teaches: 'The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she prays.  Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition' (cf. DV 8).  For this reason no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community.  Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy.' (CCC, 1124-1125).

Dr. Grisez continues, "..in the Eucharist, a priest acts in the person of Christ, who joins humankind to the Father; but in making unauthorized changes, a priest obscures Jesus' action, focuses attention on himself, and becomes an obstacle to the relationship between God and His People that priests are ordained to serve...Priests are agents ordained to deliver God's gifts to His People.  If they deliver some substitute for what Jesus has entrusted to them, they interpose themselves between - and defraud - both God and His People...

There are five additional reasons why unauthorized changes should not be made in the liturgy.  First, the liturgy is the worship of the Church as a body, and those who are ordained act as Church officials in performing liturgical roles.  So, insofar as a priest makes unauthorized changes, he misrepresents as the Church's what is in fact only his or some limited group's.  Even if this misrepresentation deceives no one and is intended for some good end, it is at odds with the reverence necessary for true worship.  Second, this essential irreverence and the obvious arbitrariness of intentional unauthorized changes strongly suggest that the Eucharist is not sacred, and this suggestion tends to undermine not only faith in Jesus' bodily presence in the consecrated elements, but faith that the Eucharist is Jesus' sacrifice made present for the faithful to share in.  Third, a priest who makes intentional, unauthorized changes acts with deplorable clericalism by imposing his personal preferences on the laity and violating the rights of those who quite reasonably wish only to participate in the Church's worship.  Fourth, intentionally making unauthorized changes sets a bad example of serious disobedience to the Church's norms, and this bad example is likely to encourage some people to think and do as they please not only in liturgical and canonical matters, but in matters of faith and morals.  Fifth...unauthorized liturgical changes often become a needless, divisive issue for the faithful, thus impeding the charity that the Eucharist should express and foster."

Still think that liturgical abuse is a small matter of little significance?  If so, this reflects on your own immaturity and not the objective truth that liturgical abuse constitutes grave matter.  How grave?  Again, Dr. Grisez:

"The reasons why priests should not make unauthorized liturgical changes also make it clear..that a priest's intentionally doing so is of itself matter of grave sin.  Of course, many changes are in themselves very minor, and a few perhaps even are real improvements.  But though this kind of sin admits  parvity, such small changes also are scandalous, not only because they give the faithful a bad example of disobedience but because they contribute to a clerical culture in which liturgical abuse is widely tolerated and sometimes even expected, so that some are encouraged to engage in far graver abuses.  Now, even a sin venial in itself becomes grave scandal when one foresees that it is likely to lead others to commit grave sin; thus, the element of scandal makes grave matter of even minor liturgical abuses likely to encourage more serious abuses by other priests.  Due to widespread confusion and negligence of some bishops, many priests undoubtedly lack sufficient reflection regarding this sin."

Serious matter this.  But how many priests within our own Diocese of Worcester routinely make unauthorized liturgical changes and think nothing of it?  Only recently I had to address the fact that several area priests were omitting the Creed from the liturgy.  At one parish where I often attend Holy Mass, a woman who serves as an Office Manager for the parish called me an idiot and indicated that if I don't care for the liturgical abuses, I should stay away.

But is this really the answer?  Insulting Catholics who want to participate in a faithful liturgy? 

Liturgical abuse is most serious.  But thus far, Bishop Robert McManus has not dealt in any meaningful way with this ongoing problem.  Read Michael Poulin's comment at my post dealing with our new Pope Francis.

German magazine Titanic attacks Pope Benedict XVI

The German magazine Titanic, founded in 1979 by former contributors and editors of Pardon, a satirical monthly, after they had a series of conflicts with their publisher, is mocking Pope Benedict XVI and holding the Holy Father up to contempt by depicting him as a senile and incontinent person.  See here.

In our modern, paganistic world, the authority of the Holy Father is often challenged, openly defied and even rejected.  The early Christians understood Peter's divinely appointed role.  They understood that the Lord Jesus appointed Peter to be the guardian and teacher of the Church.  They loved him, honored him and obeyed him.

It is the vocation of the Holy Father to proclaim the truth even though it may result in virulent attacks and contempt rather than respect.  But it must be understood that disobedience and insults against Christ's Vicar are, in reality, attacks against the loving Heart of Christ.

What do you suppose will be the reward for those who insult and attack the loving and Sacred Heart of Christ?  Every attack against the Vicar of Christ represents an attack on Jesus Christ which begs for chastisement.

And so let's pray:

Lord Jesus, shelter our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, under the protection of Your Sacred Heart.  Be his light, his strength and his consolation.

V.  Let us pray for our Pontiff

R.  The Lord presreve and give him life, and make him to be blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Amen.

The dangers of hypersensitivity

Recently, I left a comment at a Blog authored by a very fine Catholic which was intended only as an observation. My comment was immediately perceived as a "criticism" even though there was absolutely nothing critical in the comment or its tone. This is unfortunate. For while it is good to be sensitive, hypersensitivity can damage our relationship with others. The following article from Alice von Hildebrand on hypersensitivity is excellent and, I believe, worth meditating on this Lent.

Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand on hypersensitivity

There are people who are highly sensitive. In dealing with them one must always be on the lookout for fear of offending them. They are likely to interpret negatively every word one says. A big problem can develop out of the most innocuous remark. One cannot change the temperament with which one is born, but one can either freely choose to become the slave of one's temperament or learn to guide it in such a fashion that this sensitivity-which is a gift-is used for love and not put at the service of self-centeredness. There are plenty of "feelings" (such as moods) that arise in us spontaneously that should not be taken seriously.

There are "right" feelings (such as contrition, love, compassion), and these feelings should be sanctioned by our will; and there are wrong feelings (such as envy, anger, revenge), and these feelings should be "disavowed" and rejected by our will. There is no doubt that hypersensitivity-a disproportionate response to daily events-is a great source of suffering.

There are persons who groan from morning to night under the weight of imaginary offenses. But man has been given reason, and he ought to distinguish between real offenses (which should be forgiven) and imaginary ones, which should be "dashed to pieces on the Rock that is Christ". Great sensitivity is a precious gift, but the meaning of this gift is to be other-centered; its caricature is to be self-centered. We all prefer sensitive persons to those who seem to have a bovine temperament. Nothing disturbs the latter because they are too thick-skinned to feel anything. But sensitivity is to be purified. This is beautifully exemplified in the life of St. Therese of Lisieux. From the time that she was four, when she lost her mother, until she was thirteen, Therese was so hypersensitive that she broke into tears for no reason at all. In her autobiography, she calls these nine years "the sorrowful years", even though she was leading a life that, to many of us, would seem ideal, surrounded by a saintly father, to whom she was bound by the most tender affection, by loving sisters, living in security and peace. Yet in her autobiography she refers to those years as being "sorrowful", whereas from the time she entered the Carmel, where she chose a life of suffering and crucifixion, she enjoyed a deep peace despite the constant trials a Carmelite confronts. Her sensitivity had not decreased; it had been purified. By eliminating illegitimate sufferings, she gained the strength for carrying her daily cross in peace and joy. Therese had prayed for years that God might grant her the grace of putting her sensitivity at his service, and God granted her request after midnight Mass shortly before she turned thirteen.

Hypersensitivity becomes an illegitimate source of suffering when it is self-centered; as we saw, a sensitive heart is given to us to feel for others, and to love them more deeply and more tenderly. But since original sin, it tends to degenerate into a maudlin self-centeredness that not is only disastrous but also causes great pain for the sensitive person. However, thanks to prayer and grace, the Christian is given the means of purifying his sensitivity, so that his heart will resemble more and more the Heart of the God-Man, the Sacred Heart, "fornax ardens caritatis". "

Amen Alice my friend.