Tolerance is for external conduct...

"For generations now, we have denied the food of revealed truth to our
children; and we have permitted the moral polluters to dump their garbage
into our culture with abandon. Why then, are we surprised that ours
has become a stunted and sick society?" - Patrick J. Buchanan



In his book "Apologetics: A Philosophic Defense and Explanation of the Catholic Religion," Monsignor Paul J. Glenn, Ph.D, S.T.D., writes, "Let Catholic apologists..not surrender the cause of Christ...by a milk-and-water philosophy of tolerance. Tolerance is for external conduct; it is not for the mind; the mind cannot tolerate error for an instant." (p. 278). And this because error and truth are not "equally good." In other words, we must always strive to tolerate people [including those who disagree with us; and our worst enemies], but we cannot tolerate error. Differing opinions are not equally valid.

And in his important work "The New Tower of Babel," Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand explains that, "Although the dethronement of truth manifests itself in the most drastic and radical way in Nazism and Bolshevism, unfortunately many symptoms of this spiritual disease are also to be found in democratic countries. For example, in discussions we sometimes hear the following argument: 'Why should your opinion be more valid than mine? We are equal and have the same rights. It is undemocratic to pretend that your opinion is preferable.' This attitude is extremely significant because it reveals the complete absence of the notion of truth, the tacit elimination of truth as the determining norm for the value of an opinion....The immanent theme of every opinion is truth; the only thing that matters here is whether or not it is in conformity with reality..This brings us to another slogan disclosing the dethronement of truth. It is the often repeated statement 'It is true for me, but it may not be true for you.' The truth of a proposition is essentially objective; a truth which as such would be valid for one person only is a contradiction in terms. A proposition is true or false, but it can never be true for one person and false for another. The statement that a certain action is morally good may be true or false; but if it is true, it can never be false for any other person.." (pp. 56-58).

Some might be tempted to believe that the rejection of error and falsehood [ and here, again, we are speaking of ideas not persons] is something "negative" and even cult-like. But such is simply not the case. Again, Dr. Hildebrand explains: "Perhaps never before has there been as much intellectual fraud as there is today. In the mass media - and even in discussions on university campuses - this intellectual fraud appears chiefly as the manipulation of slogans designed to bluff the hearer or reader, and prevent him from thinking clearly. For a typical example, let us consider how the terms positive and negative are now most often used to discredit the refutation of pernicious errors and to give credit to the most shallow speculations. The intellectual swindlers who play such an important role in public discussions will often denominate as 'positive' propositions and attitudes they favor. They thereby seek to forestall questions of truth and value by enveloping their prejudices in a vague suggestion of 'creativity,' 'originality,' 'openness,' 'unaggressiveness.' This is the device of the cuttlefish. The moment one tries to grasp it, it emits a murky substance to confuse and deceive.

In reality, the popular slogan usages of positive and negative is a distortion of the genuine meanings of the terms. In proper usage they can refer to existence and nonexistence or to value and disvalue. They can refer to desirability and undesirability, or to answers to questions and demands, or to results of tests and inquiries. But when these terms are applied to attitudes of mind or to theses - by way of suggesting an evaluation - an intellectual fraud is committed; for they are then being used to evoke vague associations that distract from the question that alone matters - namely: Is this attitude objectively called for? Or: Is this thesis true?...It is the nature of truth to exclude every contradiction of itself. Thus, the rejection of errors and falsehoods can never be separated from the affirmation of truth. The one implies the other...

To give the impression that affirmations are 'positive' and denials 'negative' is to misrepresent completely the nature of judgments and propositions. This abuse of the language transforms the terms positive and negative into deceptive slogans and thus amounts to an intellectual swindle..." (The Charitable Anathema, pp. 45-47).

When others falsely accuse you of seeing only "black and white" because you accept the authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ as made known through His Church's Magisterium, remind them that you aren't dealing with "black and white" but right and wrong. Remind them that while we must respect persons, still "..the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.." (Dei Verbum, No. 10 of the Second Vatican Council).

If we insist that 2 + 2 = 4, this does not make us cult-like or "negative." If we respect the demands of truth while still respecting the person who disagrees with us, we are not cult-like. We are being faithful to Christ and His Church.

The solution to all our problems is with us.....but we are not paying attention

It's not economic stimulus we need. It's a faith stimulus.


I wish I were the little key
That locks Love's captive in
And who lets Him out to go and free
A stricken heart from sin.


I wish I were the little bell
That tinkles for the Host,
When God comes down each day to dwell
With hearts He loves the most.


I wish I were the chalice fair
That holds the Blood of Love
When every flash lights holy prayer
Upon its way above.


I wish I were the little flower
So near the Host's sweet face,
Or like the light that half an hour
Burns on the shrine of grace.


I wish I were the altar, where,
As on His Mother's Breast,
Christ nestles, like a child , fore'er
In Eucharistic rest.


But oh, my God, I wish the most
That my poor heart may be
A home all holy for each Host
That comes in love to me.

How do we obtain this faith stimulus? The answer here: Matthew 7: 7.

An answer so simple that minds which are focused too much on material goods and the wonders of technology cannot see it.

Lake Wobegon Days or Woebegone Days?

"In the end, it goes against common sense to require a mother to bear a child she does not want.." - Garrison Keillor


Garrison Keillor, well-known for his Prairie Home Companion series and his book Lake Wobegon Days, will be appearing as the keynote speaker at the annual convention of the National Catholic Education Association.

Mr. Keillor is pro-abortion and supports same-sex "marriage." It looks like woebegone days have come to the NCEA.





"Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?" (Mt 19:16)

"The question which the rich young man puts to Jesus of Nazareth is one which rises from the depths of his heart. It is an essential and unavoidable question for the life of every man, for it is about the moral good which must be done, and about eternal life. The young man senses that there is a connection between moral good and the fulfilment of his own destiny. He is a devout Israelite, raised as it were in the shadow of the Law of the Lord. If he asks Jesus this question, we can presume that it is not because he is ignorant of the answer contained in the Law. It is more likely that the attractiveness of the person of Jesus had prompted within him new questions about moral good. He feels the need to draw near to the One who had begun his preaching with this new and decisive proclamation: "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mk 1:15).

People today need to turn to Christ once again in order to receive from him the answer to their questions about what is good and what is evil. Christ is the Teacher, the Risen One who has life in himself and who is always present in his Church and in the world. It is he who opens up to the faithful the book of the Scriptures and, by fully revealing the Father's will, teaches the truth about moral action." (Veritatis Splendor, No. 8).

Obama administration to welcome representatives of the Secular Coalition for America

The Secular Coalition for America describes itself as "a national lobby representing the interests of atheists, humanists, agnostics, freethinkers and other nontheistic Americans." Secular Humanism has most of the characteristics of a religion. The Secular Humanist places man at the center of things. In the Humanist Manifesto II, which was released in 1973, humanists called for a new faith: "...traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to love and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them is an unproved and outmoded faith. Salvationism, based on mere affirmation, still appears as harmful, diverting people with false hopes of heaven hereafter. Responsible minds look to other means for survival." (Humanist Manifesto II, The Humanist; September/October 1973, p. 4).

Many today seek to build a godless world which is man-centered. When he makes himself known, the Man of Sin will incarnate this spirit. As Romano Guardini noted in his book The Lord, "...The ultimate aim of all aims will be to prove that existence wihtout Christ is possible - nay rather, that Christ is the enemy of existence, which can be fully realized only when all Christian values have been destroyed.." (p. 513).

Jeanne Le Royer, a mystic, once said that, "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."

The stage is set. On September 18, 1988, Our Lady told Father Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests: "..there will come to completion that fullness of time beginning with La Salette* all the way to my most recent and present apparitions; the purification will come its culmination; there will come to completion the time of the great tribulation, foretold in Holy Scripture, before the Second Coming of Christ; the mystery of iniquity, prepared for by the ever-increasing spread of apostasy, will become manifest; all the secrets which I have revealed to some of my children will come to pass and all the events which have been foretold will take place."

* Hence the title of this Blog.

A daily consecration from the Little Flower

A morning prayer written by St. Therese of Lisieux

O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.

O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity.

Amen.

Man's primary vocation: Sainthood.

Father Geoff Farrow engages in dishonesty

In a Blog post entitled "Bishops take 'strong exception' to marriage ruling," Father Geoff Farrow writes, "In 1975, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Church's watchdog for orthodoxy) produced a document entitled 'Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics.' In this document, they made the most remarkable statement. They stated that there are 'homosexuals who are such because of some kind of innate instinct.' Of course, that statement was made under Pope Paul VI, both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have/are backpedaling furiously on that statement. But since the 'Church' (pope/bishops) can never admit a mistake, they simply ignore 'inconvenient' statements or, 'reinterpret' them away."

In the Declaration Fr. Farrow refers to (Persona Humana), this is what the CDF had to say: "A distinction is drawn, and it seems with some reason, between homosexuals whose tendency comes from a false education, from a lack of normal sexual development, from habit, from bad example, or from other similar causes, and is transitory or at least not incurable; and homosexuals who are definitively such because of some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable." (No. 8).

In 1986, the same CDF - responding to those within the Church and without who twisted this paragraph to promote the homosexual agenda - had this to say in its Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons: "In the discussion which followed the publication of the Declaration [Persona Humana)..an overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral, or even good. Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder." (No. 3).

The CDF continued: "It has been argued that the homosexual orientation in certain cases is not the result of deliberate choice; and so the homosexual person would then have no choice but to behave in a homosexual fashion. Lacking freedom, such a person, even if engaged in homosexual activity, would not be culpable.

Here, the Church's wise moral tradition is necessary since it warns against generalizations in judging individual cases. In fact, circumstances may exist, or may have existed in the past, which would reduce or remove the culpability of the individual in a given instance; or other circumstances may increase it. What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable. What is essential is that the fundamental liberty which characterizes the human person and gives him his dignity be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well. As in every conversion from evil, the abandonment of homosexual activity will require a profound collaboration of the individual with God's liberating grace." (No. 11).

If there has been any "reinterpretation" of the Church's teaching, it has been done by dissident "Catholics" such as Fr. Geoff Farrow who have their own agenda. But Fr. Farrow has not been given the mission to instruct the faithful in "all that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith" (Dei Verbum, No. 8). That mission has been entrusted exclusively to the divinely instituted pastoral magisterium of the Bishops in union with and under the headship of the Holy Father, Peter's successor and Christ's vicar.

If that is too much for Fr. Farrow to bear, perhaps he would be more at home in the Episcopal church? While he's pondering on this, perhaps Father might care to reflect carefully on the wording used in Persona Humana, No. 8. An instinct is properly defined as "The innate aspect of behavior that is unlearned, complex, and normally adaptive." Adaptive means changeable.

Attempts to demonstrate that the homosexual orientation or inclination is biologically determined or somehow innate and immutable have failed. See here.

"It is not the mentally ill but ordinary people who are the most susceptible..."

"So this is what we’ve come to in America: religious objections to homosexuality, rooted in the Bible, natural law and the teachings of most religions, is nothing more than a pernicious phobia. Not too long ago, such objections simply constituted common sense. Looks like we need a college course, “Common Sense 101." - The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.


The English psychiatrist William Sargant observes that: "It is not the mentally ill but ordinary people who are most susceptible to 'brainwashing,' 'conversion,' 'possession,' 'the crisis'....and who...fall readily under the spell of the demagogue or the revivalist, the witch-doctor or the pop group..." Dr. Sargant explains that once the proselyte has been broken down and sensitized, his thinking and feelings can be manipulated and delusions implanted. Propaganda may be used to break people down by telling them that their old values and sentiments "are childish."

Such propaganda is already being employed, and quite effectively, by the mainstream media and even by those within the Catholic Church who want to convince the populace that the homosexual "lifestyle" is acceptable and even a positive good. This is preparation for the new humanitarian religion and the Man of Sin. Last year, President Obama asserted that those who oppose homosexuality are clinging to worn out arguments. As I noted in a previous post, The Catholic Free Press, the official newspaper for the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, has bought into this homosexual agitprop.

But Pope John Paul II has warned us that, "...'the dominion granted to man by the Creator is not an absolute power, nor can one speak of a freedom to use and misuse, or to dispose of things as one pleases. The limitation imposed from the beginning by the Creator himself and expressed symbolically by the prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the tree (cf. Gen 2: 16-17) shows clearly enough that, when it comes to the natural world, we are subject not only to biological laws but also to moral ones, which cannot be violated with impunity.'" (Evangelium Vitae, No. 42, citing Sollicitudo Rei Socialis).

Related reading:

Obama's homosexual agenda here and here.

The Diocese of Worcester and New Age Relativism here.

When Choice Becomes God....

In his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II warned that, "It is at the heart of the moral conscience that the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, with all its various and deadly consequences for life, is taking place. It is a question, above all, of the individual conscience, as it stands before God in its singleness and uniqueness. But it is also a question, in a certain sense, of the 'moral conscience' of society: in a way it too is responsible, not only because it tolerates or fosters behaviour contrary to life, but also because it encourages the 'culture of death', creating and consolidating actual 'structures of sin' which go against life. The moral conscience, both individual and social, is today subjected, also as a result of the penetrating influence of the media, to an extremely serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and evil, precisely in relation to the fundamental right to life. A large part of contemporary society looks sadly like that humanity which Paul describes in his Letter to the Romans. It is composed 'of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth' (1:18): having denied God and believing that they can build the earthly city without him, 'they became futile in their thinking' so that 'their senseless minds were darkened' (1:21); 'claiming to be wise, they became fools' (1:22), carrying out works deserving of death, and 'they not only do them but approve those who practise them' (1:32). When conscience, this bright lamp of the soul (cf. Mt 6:22-23), calls 'evil good and good evil' (Is 5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest moral blindness." (No. 24).

When choice becomes god, when humanism becomes absolute, we are on the sure road to absolute despotism. A humanism without God will never humanize man. It will only succeed in driving man into the abyss of madness as he strives to wreck the world and civilization in a spirit of blasphemous joy out of satanic hatred for the Living God. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was convinced, and so am I, that when man denies God, he does not believe in nothing but instead will believe in anything and, as a fanatic, will wreck this world out of hatred for the God which he denies:

"There are men who will ruin themselves and ruin their civilization if they may ruin also this old fantastic tale. This is the last and most astounding fact about this faith; that its enemies will use any weapon against it, the sword that cuts their own fingers, and the firebrands that burn their own homes...He [the atheist fanatic] sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon some one who never lived at all." (Orthodoxy, pp. 238-239).

The choice is ours: a world where atheistic humanism is the official religion and men are enslaved in total bondage to the father of lies (John 8: 44) and the unnatural perversions which accompany this bondage or a world which embraces an authentic humanism, a community of love which "seeks the integral good of man" (Deus Caritas Est, No. 19) which is grounded in the Love of God.

The Catholic Free Press buys into homosexual agitprop

The word "homophobia" is employed by homosexual activists as a semantic weapon in the cultural war. Arthur Evans, co-founder of Gay Activist Alliance (GAA), explains how the homosexual movement came up with the word homophobia to characterize their opposition:

"By good fortune, George Weinberg, a straight psychologist who had long been a friend of our community, regularly attended GAA meetings. Watching with fascination our zap and the media responses, he came up with the word we had been struggling for - 'homophobia,' meaning the irrational fear of loving someone of the same sex....The invention of the word 'homophobia' is an example of how theory can be rooted in practice. The word didn't come from an arm-chair academic viewing the movement at a distance....Instead, it came from personal interactions among active, thinking people who acknowledged a shared value: the transformation of society for the better." (Arthur Evans, "The Logic of Homophobia," see here).

George Weinberg thereby classified moral opposition to homosexuality as a phobia: "I would never consider a patient healthy unless he had overcome his prejudice against homosexuality." (Quoted in Jack Nichols, "George Weinberg, Ph.D - Badpuppy's February Interview," see here).

For the homosexual activist, moral opposition to homosexuality is a "phobia." Even a mental illness. The use of the word "homophobia" as a semantic weapon is now being employed by The Catholic Free Press, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts. In an article entitled "How are we doing in this life" (February 19th edition of the newspaper), Diane Boover writes, "...racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia all show our tendency as human beings to diminish the other for reasons each individual deems justifiable."

There you have it. Those of us who are morally opposed to homosexuality are "homophobes" who are attempting to "diminish the other." Small wonder that when I wrote Bishop Robert McManus recently and expressed my interest in the Diocesan priesthood, I received no response. Apparently I am a "homophobe." And so are those at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In an Instruction entitled "Some Considerations Concerning The Response To Legislative Proposals On The Non-Discrimination Of Homosexual Persons," issued on July 22, 1992, the CDF had this to say: "'Sexual orientation' does not constitute a quality comparable to race, ethnic background, etc. in respect to non-discrimination. Unlike these, homosexual orientation is an objective disorder and evokes moral concern." (No. 10).

And again: "Including 'homosexual orientation' among the considerations on the basis of which it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead to regarding homosexuality as a positive source of human rights, for example, in respect to so-called affirmative action or preferential treatment in hiring practices. This is all the more deleterious since there is no right to homosexuality which therefore should not form the basis for judicial claims. The passage from the recognition of homosexuality as a factor on which basis it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead, if not automatically, to the legislative protection and promotion of homosexuality. A person's homosexuality would be invoked in opposition to alleged discrimination, and thus the exercise of rights would be defended precisely via the affirmation of the homosexual condition instead of in terms of a violation of basic human rights." (No. 13).

When the Bishop neglected to answer my letter was he diminishing me? Or is it considered "acceptable" to discriminate against orthodox heterosexual men who feel called to the ministerial priesthood?

Related reading here.

The Worcester Commission for Women: Promoting New Age Relativism

"..if truth is objective, if we live in a world we did not create and cannot change merely by thinking, if the world is not really a dream of our own, then the most destructive belief we could possibly believe would be the denial of this primary fact. It would be like closing your eyes while driving, or blissfully ignoring the doctor's warnings." - C.S. Lewis, "The Poison of Subjectivism" in Christian Reflections.


The coming of Antichrist will be preceded by a general apostasy, the loss of faith of most Christians: "Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God." (2 Thess 3-4.) This is necessary because if people were faithful to their Christian beliefs, they would never submit to the lies of the Antichrist. The work of the enemies of God to undermine the faith is clear for everyone to see today.

Saint Paul wrote in his First Epistle to Timothy (4:1-2): "Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences." And in 2 Tim 3:1-5: "But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power."


The basic credo of the New Age Movement, which looks to usher in a New World Order, is that a person creates their own reality according to what feels right for them. For example, a person may choose to be homosexual, bisexual, monogamous or polygamous and it's "okay" as long as it's "right for me." A person may choose whether or not to have an abortion. And so on. Of course, this is nonsense. For, as Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand reminds us, "The truth of a proposition is essentially objective; a truth which as such would be valid for one person only is a contradiction in terms. A proposition is true or false, but it can never be true for one person and false for another." (The New Tower of Babel: Modern Man's Flight from God, pp. 57-58).


This New Age relativism is promoted by the Worcester Commission for Women. In a Blog post which may be found here, the Commission has published a prayer by New Age advocate Joyce Rupp. Ms. Rupp writes, "We will make choices and decisions in 2010 of how we create our reality." She prays that we will all "..let go of aversion and avoidance of the unwanted" so that we will, "welcome people and events disturbing [our] comfort zone."


In a previous post, I noted how Sister Joyce Rupp, a self-proclaimed spiritual midwife who feels that she resonates with mystical islamic sufism, has extolled New-Ageism as valuable and claims to have stretched herself "beyond the safe world of heterosexuality" while attending a "gathering of lesbians." And this certainly explains what she means when she prays that we "let go of aversion and avoidance of the unwanted." In an interview with US Catholic (April 2000), Sister Joyce Rupp said that, "In many ways, New Age has become the new enemy. That's unfortunate because some things about New Age are valuable...I think some Church people are envious about New Age, because it does draw people toward spiritual growth."

And this is an advisory group for the Bishop of Worcester? What are they advising him?

Related reading here and here.

Johnette Benkovic on Joyce Rupp.

Deliverance prayer and the Church

Father Jeffrey Steffon, in his book entitled "Satanism: Is It Real?", reminds us that, "Deliverance prayer is one of the oldest traditions of the Catholic Church. In the Our Father we pray, 'Deliver us from evil.' That prayer is a prayer for deliverance. Christians are able to pray for deliverance from evil spirits because Jesus gave them that power. In Luke 10 Jesus commissioned the seventy disciples to spread the kingdom of God. In this action Jesus gave them authority over demonic spirits. The seventy, upon their return to Jesus, exclaimed, 'Even the demons are subject to us in your name!'

Though Jesus gave His followers such power, it is up to individual Christians to use it...Deliverance prayer is not exorcism. There are two forms of exorcism: solemn and private. Solemn exorcism is a liturgical rite and public action of the Catholic Church. Solemn exorcism is performed only by an official delegate of the Bishop. Private exorcism is not a public, liturgical rite. The terms private (or simple) exorcism and deliverance refer to the same action. This style of prayer is used to curb the influence of Satan in the lives of Christians. Whereas in solemn exorcism only the delegate of the Bishop may perform the exorcism, any Christian can say the deliverance prayer.

Deliverance prayer is said in the name of the person of Jesus. Solemn exorcism is prayed in the name of Jesus and the whole Catholic Church. It would seem logical that a priest, by the power of the sacrament of Holy Orders, has a greater commission than the laity to pray the deliverance prayer. This is not always the case, however, because this prayer is a charism. God can give charisms to whomever He chooses..." (pp. 174-175).

Because I believe in the efficacy of deliverance prayer, I recently contacted Father Thien Nguyen of Immaculate Conception Parish in Fitchburg. I received no response. This is really a shame. Not because my feelings were hurt at receiving no response. My ego isn't that large. I'm just not that important. But because deliverance prayer is just too important and, in my humble opinion, very much needed in Fitchburg right now.

So why the lack of response? I really don't know. Perhaps because I am on some sort of diocesan black-list for speaking the hard truths no one wants to hear - constructive criticism isn't welcome by some who consider themselves as being always above reproach and beyond any questioning or fraternal correction. This even though Pope John Paul II said that there is room for constructive criticism in the Church. Fraternal correction isn't welcome by all.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responding to certain questionable activities, published a statement which said (in part):

..the Bishops are requested to watch that, even in cases where a true diabolical possession is excluded, those who lack the proper permission do not supervise or direct the assemblies in which prayers are used to obtain a releasing, in the course of which the devils are disturbed and their identities sought. However, the declaration of these norms by no means should keep the faithful from praying to be delivered from evil, as Jesus taught. Moreover, the Bishops will be able to use any given opportunity to recall what the tradition of the Church teaches about the role played by the sacraments and the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Angels, and of the Saints in the spiritual struggle of Christians against evil spirits."

What are we waiting for then?

Fitchburg betrays the common good

In his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II reminded us that:

"Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It requires that the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the 'subjectivity' of society through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility. Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and sceptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life. Those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends. It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism."

JayG is reporting that "The City Solicitor and majority of the City Council were very hostile towards pro-lifers." Is this a matter for the Alliance Defense Fund? or Jay Sekulow and The American Center for Law and Justice?

On the spiritual plane, I wrote the following letter to Father Thien Nguyen and received absolutely no response whatsoever:


February 6, 2010


Rev. Thien X. Nguyen
Immaculate Conception
59 Walnut Street
Fitchburg, Ma 01420


Re: Proposed Planned Parenthood Office In Fitchburg


Dear Fr. Thien,


The purpose of this letter is to inquire as to whether or not you would be interested in leading a prayer-procession across Fitchburg to both the proposed site for a Planned Parenthood Office as well as City Hall. It is my idea that all three mysteries of the Holy Rosary could be prayed and holy water and blessed salt could be used to cast away this evil which threatens the fair city of Fitchburg.

I believe now is the time for robust spiritual action. We Christians need to pray and fast as never before since some demons are cast out only by this means (Mark 9:29). The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, No. 2, states that the Vatican Council “…gazes upon that world which is the theater of man’s history, and carries the marks of his energies, his tragedies, and his triumphs; that world which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker’s love, fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ. He was crucified and rose again to break the stranglehold of personified Evil, so that this world might be fashioned anew according to God’s design and reach its fulfillment.”

Planned Parenthood’s arrival in Fitchburg would constitute yet another stranglehold of evil. But our hope is in the Crucified One who shatters such strongholds and liberates us. Now is the time for us to invoke His Holy Name and to pray for deliverance. Sacred Scripture (e.g., Daniel 10) testifies to the truth that evil can infect not only people but cities, countries and entire regions. Fitchburg has been infected by evil. And while pro-life demonstrations and letters to the editor of the local newspaper can be very useful, still, as Jesus taught so clearly, some demons are only driven out through prayer and fasting.

I believe our Catholic community can, and will, triumph over this evil through such means. Fr. Thien, will you lead such a procession and deliverance prayer? Perhaps other area Churches could participate? Please let me know if you are willing and I will do everything I can to coordinate such an endeavor.

I am, Yours in Christ,


Paul Anthony Melanson

And so, the spiritual battle continues.

Related reading here, here and here. Also here and here.

A question arises in my mind: The federal government plans to spend 55.5 million to extend the Fitchburg commuter rail line and build a new station. See here. Is it possible that the Obama administration has used these stimulus monies to influence the City Council in its decision regarding the proposed Planned Parenthood office? Lifenews has reported that Obama has given the Planned Parenthood abortion business unfettered access to the White House. See here. This would certainly explain (if it were true) the City Council's perceived hostility toward pro-lifers. It might also explain other inconsistencies in this whole sordid affair.

The truth....but only in small doses

The history of the Church testifies to the truth that men have a natural inclination to divide Christ's Deposit of Faith and to choose only what they want to believe. For those who are Catholic in more than name (a much smaller group than most realize), all questions of faith or morals are answered in a Deposit of Faith (Depositum Fidei) which has been revealed by God and entrusted to a Custodian (the Church's Magisterium) established by God Himself which has been endowed with infallible protection against any change or error.

But for the Catholic in name only, the reason for belief is private judgment rather than the infallible teaching authority established by God. The issue, ultimately, is who speaks for the Church? Who has the authority to speak in the name of Christ and to settle disputes which may arise within the Mystical Body of Christ? Vatican II, in its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, No. 10, teaches authoritatively that: "...the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the Word of God but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit; it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed."

If one is to be faithful to Christ and His Church, one cannot assert that what the Magisterium teaches is false and that the faithful are free to reject this teaching and substitute it with their own opinions or those of theologians. But this is precisely what dissent entails. The dissident looks upon the moral teachings of the Magisterium as mere legalistic rules instead of seeing them for what they really are: beautiful truths intended to enable the People of God to live the Christ Life.

Dissent represents an act of violence directed against Christ's faithful. Pope John Paul II drove this point home in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor (No. 113) when he said, "Dissent, in the form of carefully orchestrated protests and polemics carried on in the media, is opposed to ecclesial communion and to a correct understanding of the hierarchical constitution of the People of God." Dissent represents an act of violence because it violates "the right of the faithful to receive Catholic doctrine in its purity and integrity.." (VS, 113).

If one is to remain faithful to Christ and His Church, one can expect to encounter opposition even within the Church. There are many who can only tolerate the truth in small doses. We may find ourselves very unpopular because we insist upon accepting everything in the Deposit of Faith and because we defend the same. We may find ourselves in a minority. Even alone. But the majority is not always right. A lynch mob is a majority. As Father Joseph Esper reminds us:

"We can also suffer unpopularity because of our honest efforts to serve God and oppose wickedness. This was the experience of the great fourth-century defender of the Faith St. Athanasius. He almost singlehandedly preserved the Church from the heresy of Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. Because many bishops and important laypeople (including some emperors) favored Arianism, Athanasius frequently found himself under attack and was exiled for many of his forty-six years as a bishop." (Saintly Solutions to Life's Common Problems," p. 333).

Athanasius found himself pretty much alone. He wa greatly outnumbered. He was opposed by the "important" people. But they were wrong. And he was right. Nothing will ever change that.

Are we prepared to be saints? If so, we must be prepared to stand "alone." Of course, we are not really alone. When God is with us, who can be against us? Being popular is over-rated. The crowd chose Barabbas. Did they choose wisely?

Litany of Saint Anthony

Litany of Saint Anthony
(For Private Use)

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary,
St. Anthony of Padua,
St. Anthony, glory of the Friars Minor,
St. Anthony, ark of the testament,
St. Anthony, sanctuary of heavenly wisdom,
St. Anthony, destroyer of worldly vanity,
St. Anthony, conqueror of impurity,
St. Anthony, example of humility,
St. Anthony, lover of the Cross,
St. Anthony, martyr of desire,
St. Anthony, generator of charity,
St. Anthony, zealous for justice,
St. Anthony, terror of infidels,
St. Anthony, model of perfection,
St. Anthony, consoler of the afflicted,
St. Anthony, restorer of lost things,
St. Anthony, defender of innocence,
St. Anthony, liberator of prisoners,
St. Anthony, guide of pilgrims,
St. Anthony, restorer of health.
St. Anthony, performer of miracles,
St. Anthony, restorer of speech to the mute,
St. Anthony, restorer of hearing to the deaf,
St. Anthonyx restorer of sight to the blind,
St. Anthony, disperser of devils,
St. Anthony, reviver of the dead.
St. Anthony, tamer of tyrants,
From the snares of the devil, St. Anthony deliver us.
From thunder, lightning and storms, St. Anthony deliver us.
From all evil of body and soul, St. Anthony deliver us.
Through your intercession, St. Anthony protect us.
Throughout the course of life, St. Anthony protect us.


Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.


V. St. Anthony, pray for us. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray

O my God, may the pious commemoration of St. Anthony, your Confessor and Proctor, give joy to your Church, that she may ever be strengthened with your spiritual assistance and merit to attain everlasting joy. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

St. Anthony: Hammer of the heretics, pray for us.

"...temptations that can slowly yet effectively turn us away from God and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.."

In his recently released Pastoral Letter on the Sacrament of Penance, which may be found here, Bishop Robert J. McManus writes, "It is well-known that in the last forty years, there has been a precipitous decline in the number of Catholics who regularly receive the Sacrament of Penance. A recent survey of American Catholics revealed some startling and sobering statistics. One statistic that was particularly unsettling was that 45% of Catholics who attend Mass weekly never receive the Sacrament of Penance. The reasons for the virtual disappearance from the lives of the majority of Catholics of the regular practice of going to confession are, no doubt, varied. Yet, an explanation of this disconcerting pastoral situation has to include to a significant degree a loss of the sense of sin among among contemporary Catholics..." What the Bishop neglects to mention is that this "disconcerting pastoral situation" is largely the result of theologians and pastors who succumbed to legalism.

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

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


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

Dr. Grisez then went on to explain that, "Pastors free of legalism will teach the faithful how sin makes moral requirements seem to be alien impositions, help them see through this illusion, and encourage them to look forward to and experience the freedom of God’s children, who rejoice in the fruit of the Spirit and no longer experience the constraint of law..They will explain that while one sometimes must choose contrary to positive laws and cannot always meet their requirements, one always can choose in truth and abide in love. They will acknowledge the paradox of freedom - that we seem unable to resist freely choosing to sin - the paradox that Saint Paul neatly formulates: ‘I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate’ (Romans 7:15). But they also will proclaim the liberating power of grace, and help the faithful learn by experience that when one comes to understand the inherent evil of sin and intrinsic beauty of goodness, enjoys the support of a community of faith whose members bear one another’s burdens, begs God for His help, and confidently expects it, then the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead raises him from his sins, and he discovers that with the Spirit’s grace one can consistently resist sin and choose life."

I fully support Bishop McManus. And I firmly believe that his Pastoral Letter is a step in the right direction. But His Excellency would do well to examine the pastoral problem of pastors who have embraced legalism and who view valid moral norms as mere rules which may be jettisoned when they become "inconvenient."

Meditation: Luke 12: 48.

Related reading: Father Robert Bruso of Saint Anthony's Parish in Fitchburg and false compassion.

When conscience is so broken that we no longer see what we should see.

And they adored the beast...

“And they adored the beast, saying, who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?” (Revelation 13:4).

As Rev. P. Huchede explains in his book History of Antichrist, “All vile parasites of fortune, astonished at the rapidity with which Antichrist achieves his conquests and also at the unlimited sway of his power, deceived by his prodigies, will prostrate themselves before him and adore him as their god. As soon as he believes himself master of the bodies and souls of all peoples, he will decree and proclaim his divinity and establish a new religion. According to the Apostle, he will lift himself up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God showing himself as if he were God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). He will command all peoples to place his statue in the public places to be worshipped, the image of the beast whose wound was healed (Revelation 13: 13-15)…..Then he shall think himself able to change times and laws – religious, political, and sacred – by which the world had been governed up to his advent (Daniel 7: 25)…None but adorers of this new god can enjoy the possession of riches or honors. This god shall increase their glory and shall give them power over many and shall divide the land for nothing (Revelation 13: 7)….Those who will refuse to obey his impious orders shall be the object of a terrible and universal persecution….No language can give an adequate idea of the atrocity and effects of this frightful persecution. “I beheld and lo that horn made war against the saints, and prevailed over them” (Daniel 7: 21). The beast shall make war against the saints and shall overcome them and kill them (Revelation 11: 7). And he “shall crush the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7: 25). And he will put to death all those who will not adore the image of the beast (Revelation 13: 15). Then the truth shall be oppressed. The Church shall see her children apostatize in vast numbers, and in the agony of her heart-rending grief, she will cry out in the words of her divine spouse, ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Mark 15: 34). Then by order of the tyrant the continual sacrifice shall be abolished (Daniel 9: 27). The holy sacrifice of the Mass shall no longer be offered up publicly on the altars. The Church shall be devastated; the sacred vessels desecrated; the priests shall be scattered and separated from their flocks and put to death….The Church has taken up her abode in the catacombs.” (History of Antichrist, pp. 23-26, Tan Books).

In order for the new religion of humanitarianism to succeed, all dissenting voices will have to be either converted, silenced or removed. The Reign of Antichrist, which will be presented as an age of “love and harmony” will have to be brutally violent in order to achieve world unity. There are already many voices which have called or are calling for such a “global purge” or “cleansing action.” Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, in the July-August 1995 edition of Foreign Affairs, said that, “We are not going to achieve a new world order without paying for it in blood as well as in words and money.” Likewise, David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative at the United Nations, has said, “Lucifer comes to give us the final Luciferic initiation…that many people now and in the days ahead, will be facing – for it is an initiation into the New Age…No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian initiation.” Benjamin Crème, another prominent New Age “prophet,” on page 128 of “Maitreya’s mission,” insists that those who refuse to join in this World Initiation will find themselves in the minority and will have to “withdraw from this life.” Creme exhorts his followers to, “Be not afraid, therefore, when the ‘men of cloth’ raise their voices against the Great Lord, naming Him anti-Christ and arch-deceiver, for they know little of the laws which underlie their faiths and act and speak from ignorance and fear.” (April, 1997).

In the New Order, a Police State will employ the use of various technologies to keep the citizenry in line. In the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski, “The Technocratic Age is slowly designing an every day more controlled society. The society will be dominated by an elite of persons free from traditional values who will have no doubt in fulfilling their objectives by means of purged techniques with which they will influence the behavior of people and will control and watch society in all details…it will become possible to exert a practically permanent watch on each citizen of the world.” Mr. Brzezinski is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations who has attended meetings of the Bilderberg Group.

Related reading: Obama primed to create New World Order

Rex 84 Orders and FEMA Camp locations

Concern for national security or something else entirely?

More this week.

"Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs...

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees." (Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg, "Rule by fear or rule by law?", San Francisco Chronicle).

Father Robert Bruso of Saint Anthony's Parish in Fitchburg and false compassion

"Behind the metaphysic of murder lies the metaphysic of hatred of the created order." - Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, The Taproot of Violence.


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.

Father Robert Bruso of Saint Anthony Parish in Fitchburg, Massacusetts, was among many area Catholics who signed a May 14, 2004 statement which read: "On May 17th the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will begin issuing civil marriage licenses to same sex couples. This has provoked considerable controversy. Many in our state are opposed and many are in favor. As members of the Catholic community and people of faith, we are reminded of the pastoral message the United States bishops issued to parents of homosexual children, "always our children," and recall the guidance they offered with reference to a previous Vatican document:

'Respect for the God-given dignity of all persons means the recognition of human rights and responsibilities. The teachings of the church make it clear that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against them.' (cf. the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 1986, No. 10).

But, as this article makes clear, the controversial document "Always Our Children" was issued on October 1, 1997, without following the bishops' normal review procedures. It was subsequently revised in June 1998 after a firestorm of criticism erupted over its theological flaws, including its advice to parents to adopt a 'wait and see' approach toward adolescent children suspected of experimenting with homosexual behavior. The admonition has since been eliminated from the document, amidst other modifications made following protests by Father John Harvey, founder of Courage, a Catholic group that helps people struggling with homosexuality live chastely, and other concerned Catholics."

The theologically-flawed document was co-authored by Father James Schexnayder, the founder of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, a radical organization* which has been unapologetic in its support of the homosexual "lifestyle" and same-sex "marriage."

Among the others who signed the statement with Father Bruso were Father Richard Lewandowski (who was removed from any and all pastoral duties), Deacon Ben Nogueira of the Newman Center at Fitchburg State College and Professor James Nickoloff of Holy Cross College, a former Jesuit priest who has admitted that he is personally engaged in homosexuality and is "married" to another man.


In a very real way, the entrance of Planned Parenthood into Fitchburg was prepared by Christians who had already rebelled against Catholic truth. In his essay entitled "The Taproot of Violence," Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, S.J., writes, "What is the taproot, which is causing such growth in the delirium for violence, which is rampant today? It is the attack against God. It is hatred of the truth. Behind the metaphysic of murder lies the metaphysic of hatred of the created order. "I refuse to accept this order of things. I will not serve, therefore I am." Refusal to serve God was the cry under which Satan brought violence and rebellion among the angels as they stood trial in the vestibule of heaven. Christ told his apostles: 'I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.' Elsewhere, we read: 'Satan and his wicked demons were drawn down by infernal ropes into the depths of hell.' Christ himself testified that this 'father of lies was a murderer from the beginning,' thus making the connection between hatred of the truth and the lust for violence. He warned the Pharisees that men who reject God's plan for their salvation will imitate Satan's deeds."

Long before Planned Parenthood announced its plans to open an office in Fitchburg, the seeds of rebellion were already being sown. And now they are bearing fruit. Father Bruso has been quoted as having said, "President Obama's book is called The Audacity of Hope." Abortion is the abandonment of hope. When a person chooses abortion they are saying they don't have hope for the future, not for their child or for themselves." And I couldn't agree more. But if hope has been abandoned, it is only the logical consequence of having first rebelled from the truth.




* In a special report for The Wanderer, the full text of which may be found here, a veteran reporter covered a 2005 NACDLGM conference which was held at the San Jose Hilton in California. This reporter writes, "For the most part, participants were unashamedly 'out and proud,' with some priests freely admitting their homosexuality and attendees railing against upcoming seminary visits and the impending approval by Pope Benedict XVI of a document banning homosexuals from the priesthood. One participant was overheard by this reporter calling the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, 'a big queen'...Copies of OutNow, a Bay Area homosexual news magazine containing advertisements for bathhouses and XXX 'gay' videos were free for the taking at the registration table..."

Homosexual Agenda: Proposed congressional legislation called "a sexual revolutionary's dream."

In his Encyclical Letter Humanum Genus (on Freemasonry), Pope Leo XIII warned that: "Wickedly, also, but at the same time quite consistently, do those act who do away with the expectation of the joys of heaven, and bring down all happiness to the level of mortality, and, as it were, sink it in the earth. Of what We have said the following fact, astonishing not so much in itself as in its open expression, may serve as a confirmation. For, since generally no one is accustomed to obey crafty and clever men so submissively as those whose soul is weakened and broken down by the domination of the passions, there have been in the sect of the Freemasons some who have plainly determined and proposed that, artfully and of set purpose, the multitude should be satiated with a boundless license of vice, as, when this had been done, it would easily come under their power and authority for any acts of daring.

What refers to domestic life in the teaching of the naturalists is almost all contained in the following declarations: that marriage belongs to the genus of commercial contracts, which can rightly be revoked by the will of those who made them, and that the civil rulers of the State have power over the matrimonial bond; that in the education of youth nothing is to be taught in the matter of religion as of certain and fixed opinion; and each one must be left at liberty to follow, when he comes of age, whatever he may prefer. To these things the Freemasons fully assent; and not only assent, but have long endeavoured to make them into a law and institution. For in many countries, and those nominally Catholic, it is enacted that no marriages shall be considered lawful except those contracted by the civil rite; in other places the law permits divorce; and in others every effort is used to make it lawful as soon as may be. Thus, the time is quickly coming when marriages will be turned into another kind of contract-that is into changeable and uncertain unions which fancy may join together, and which the same when changed may disunite.

Taking over the education of youth

With the greatest unanimity the sect of the Freemasons also endeavours to take to itself the education of youth. They think that they can easily mold to their opinions that soft and pliant age, and bend it whither they will; and that nothing can be more fitted than this to enable them to bring up the youth of the State after their own plan. Therefore, in the education and instruction of children they allow no share, either of teaching or of discipline, to the ministers of the Church; and in many places they have procured that the education of youth shall be exclusively in the hands of laymen, and that nothing which treats of the most important and most holy duties of men to God shall be introduced into the instructions on morals.

What, therefore, sect of the Freemasons is, and what course it pursues, appears sufficiently from the summary We have briefly given. Their chief dogmas are so greatly and manifestly at variance with reason that nothing can be more perverse. To wish to destroy the religion and the Church which God Himself has established, and whose perpetuity He insures by His protection, and to bring back after a lapse of eighteen centuries the manners and customs of the pagans, is signal folly and audacious impiety. Neither is it less horrible nor more tolerable that they should repudiate the benefits which Jesus Christ so mercifully obtained, not only for individuals, but also for the family and for civil society, benefits which, even according to the judgment and testimony of enemies of Christianity, are very great. In this insane and wicked endeavor we may almost see the implacable hatred and spirit of revenge with which Satan himself is inflamed against Jesus Christ.

So also the studious endeavour of the Freemasons to destroy the chief foundations of justice and honesty, and to co-operate with those who would wish, as if they were mere animals, to do what they please, tends only to the ignominious and disgraceful ruin of the human race. The evil, too, is increased by the dangers which threaten both domestic and civil society. As We have elsewhere shown, in marriage, according to the belief of almost every nation, there is something sacred and religious; and the law of God has determined that marriages shall not be dissolved. If they are deprived of their sacred character, and made dissoluble, trouble and confusion in the family will be the result, the wife being deprived of her dignity and the children left without protection as to their interests and well being.

To have in public matters no care for religion, and in the arrangement and administration of civil affairs to have no more regard for God than if He did not exist, is a rashness unknown to the very pagans; for in their heart and soul the notion of a divinity and the need of public religion were so firmly fixed that they would have thought it easier to have city without foundation than a city without God. Human society, indeed for which by nature we are formed, has been constituted by God the Author of nature; and from Him, as from their principle and source, flow in all their strength and permanence the countless benefits with which society abounds. As we are each of us admonished by the very voice of nature to worship God in piety and holiness, as the Giver unto us of life and of all that is good therein, so also and for the same reason, nations and States are bound to worship Him; and therefore it is clear that those who would absolve society from all religious duty act not only unjustly but also with ignorance and folly."

Most people today have become so desensitized that they are incapable of seeing just how far this masonic agenda has advanced. The movement to eradicate Christianity is accelerating. Masonry, if it is to prepare the way for the Man of Sin, must concentrate its attacks on the one institution which stands in its way: the Holy Roman Catholic Church. After more than two thousand years of Christian history, the charge levelled against Christians by the pagan historian Tacitus is being revived: The Christians are the enemies of the human race. (Annals, XV, 44).

The new humanitarian religion of Antichrist must institute its own cult, ministers and temples which will be filled with its own faithful who have replaced the hope for Heaven with the idols of humanity, fertility, maternity and virility as surely as the Greco-Romans worshiped the statues of Venus and Apollo. Already we are witnessing an increasing hatred for the Crucifix*. As Romano Guardini warned so long ago: "One day the Antichrist will come: a human being who introduces an order of things in which rebellion against God will attain its ultimate power. He will be filled with enlightenment and strength. The ultimate aim of all aims will be to prove that existence witout Christ is possible - nay rather, that Christ is the enemy of existence, which can be fully realized only when all Christian values have been destroyed. His arguments will be so impressive, supported by means of such tremendous power - violent and diplomatic, material and intellectual - that to reject them will result in almost insurmountable scandal, and everyone whose eyes are not opened by grace will be lost. Then it will be clear what the Christian essence really is: that which stems not from the world, but from the heart of God; victory of grace over the world; redemption of the world, for her true essence is not to be found in herself, but in God, from whom she has received it. When God becomes all in all, the world will finally burst into flower."

* See here and here.

Erit enim tempus.

Mayor Lisa Wong and the three "R"s in Fitchburg

In a previous post, I noted how Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong would like to see Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts open an office at Burbank Hospital. No doubt Ms. Wong believes that a Planned Parenthood clinic would play a vital role in her "revitalization" program for the city.





Mayor Wong's moral compass is in such disarray that while she is deeply concerned about excess trash filling our landfills (saying in one interview that "It seems like everything is being thrown away" - see here), she appears to be totally unconcerned about innocent babies being slaughtered in the womb and thrown away. While recycling is vital for Ms. Wong, preserving the lives of the unborn is not. It was Winifred Egan who said, "What an irony that a society confronted with plastic bags filled with the remains of aborted babies should be more concerned about the problem of recycling the plastic."





The fact that cold, uncaring politicians like Lisa Wong have succumbed to such madness is no reason for the rest of us to follow suit. For Fitchburg's mayor, "The three "R"s in Fitchburg are the Rail, River and the Road.." But she left out an "R" - for Reality.





Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Related reading: On conscience.