On this very day, in 2003, our now sainted Pope John Paul II wrote:
Forgetfulness of God led to the abandonment of man. It is therefore “no wonder that in this context a vast field has opened for the unrestrained development of nihilism in philosophy, of relativism in values and morality, and of pragmatism – and even a cynical hedonism – in daily life.”
We are witnessing the emergence of a new culture, largely influenced by the mass media, whose content and character are often in conflict with the Gospel and the dignity of the human person. This culture is also marked by an widespread and growing religious agnosticism, connected to a more profound moral and legal relativism rooted in confusion regarding the truth about man as the basis of the inalienable rights of all human beings. At times the signs of a weakening of hope are evident in disturbing forms of what might be called a “culture of death".
The evil that is the "gay pride parade" is indeed a manifestation of this cynical hedonism, a culture of death.
Spiritual support and fellowship for Catholic men and women with same-sex attractions. www.CourageRC.org Chapter: Newman Centre Contact: newmancourage@yahoo.ca Chapter: Toronto, Ontario Contact: Fr. Kevin Belgrave Phone: (416) 928-5094 Email: couragetoronto@yahoo.ca
Today is the feast day of the great early Church father, St. Irenaeus of Lyon. Our saint heard the Faith being taught by St. Polycarp, who, in turn was a disciple of St. John the Apostle. Irenaeus was a lover of doctrine and truth. Let us always cling to this! God is Love, yes. But God is also Truth. There can be no true love, without knowing God, His truth and Jesus Christ.
"Christ,who was called theSon of Godbefore the ages, was manifested in the fullness oftime, in order that He might cleanse us through His blood, who were under the power ofsin, presenting us as pure sons to His Father, if we yield ourselves obediently to the chastisement of theSpirit. And in the end oftimeHe shall come to do away with allevil, and to reconcile all things, in order that there may be an end of all impurities".
The poor, tragic homosexuals are claiming that they "love". Let us ask: what is "love"? "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). God is. Here, we have the basic Mosaic proclamation of God - [I am , who am. God is Being]. St. John develops this: God is Love; Being is Love. Not was, not will : but IS.
The primary, simple, eternal act of God is Love. This then, is the secret inner life of the Holy Trinity. Man, created in God' s image and likeness is called to imitate this love: primarily through caritas. Sacred Scripture mentions "faith, hope, and love [caritas], and the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). Why? Because without love, one cannot have faith, nor hope. And love is a gift of the Holy Spirit. True love, and by extension, true faith and hope cannot be found outside the Catholic Church. "Charity cannot be possessed except in the unity of the Church" (St. Augustine Sermo 265, 9, 11 (PL 38, 1223)). Why is this? Because Jesus Christ is Charity; and the Church is His Mystical Body; hence, to possess charity, one must belong to Christ's Body.
Further, love is in the Will. It is an act of the Will: it is NOT emotion. Emotion may be an effect, but never the cause of true love. True love, then, being in conformity with the Holy Ghost can only be for the perfection of the person, for his final end (which is Heaven). The greatest love between persons is then a spiritual love which unites souls. We catch a picture of this unity when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It was an outpouring of God's love. Therefore, true love between persons is always primarily focused on God; and then the giving of oneself for the good of the other person, which is his or her final destiny in Heaven.
From this, we can begin to gather the perversity of what is claimed to be "love" by persons who self-identify with same-sex attractions. In fact, what they claim as "love" is in reality hatred, it is destructive: of the other, and of themselves. Let us pray for these poor, deluded souls, in need of conversion (as we all are) to the liberating truth about Our Blessed Lord. May His Blood that He shed for them, be poured out upon them as a balm of repentance and conversion. I say therefore, to each and every homosexual: may the peace of Christ be with you.
It is worth recalling to mind those famous words of our late Holy Father, recently raised to the Altar as a saint.
The abomination, the profanation of holy and chaste wedlock by this horrible and diabolical caricature of true love, is " an ideology of evil". It was inevitable that this horror would become "law". Since the Fall, concupiscence of the flesh has always existed. Since the French Revolution a false sense of liberty opened the floodgates to divorce, which led to the glorification of infidelity. Soon, fornication joined adultery as "progressive" lifestyles. Once the Pill (the unholy separation of love and life) became accepted, the way open was to kill the unborn in the womb. During this times, sexual license exploded (as predicted by Paul VI in Humanae Vitae) and unnatural sexual acts began to be heard of more and more. The decision by the US |Supreme Court to declare (in effect) that two and two do not make four, is merely a de facto recognition of a society gone mad with impure lust. America, let us recall is heavily addicted to pornography, adultery and fornication are rife, and birth control pills are consumed like candies by lustful, debauched women pandering to lustful and lecherous men.
What is needed now is a great push for purity. For Catholics to begin believing and living pure lives. May Catholic women discard their immodest clothing; why dress in a manner that would make a prostitute from a few years back blush? May Catholic men seriously take up lives of sober purity, rejecting these impure and lustful women.
Saint John the Baptist is above all a model of faith. Following the example of the great Prophet Elijah, in order to listen more attentively to the word of the one Lord of his life, he leaves everything and withdraws to the desert, from which he would issue the resounding call to prepare the way of the Lord (cf. Mt 3:3 and parallels).
He is a model of humility, because to those who saw in him not only a Prophet, but the Messiah himself, he replied: "Who do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie" (Acts 13:25).
He is a model of uprightness and courage in defending the truth, for which he was prepared to pay in his person, even to the point of imprisonment and death.
"I will tell you brutally. The Church has betrayed John Paul II. Not the Church as the Bride of Christ, not the Church of our Creed, because John Paul II was an expression, an authentic voice of the Church; but it is the pastoral practice that has betrayed John Paul II.
Archbishop Henryk Hoser
Archbishop Gądecki
Archbishops Stanisław GądeckiandHenryk Hoser, have beenselectedas representing the Polish Bishops Episcopal Conference, along with Bishop Jan Watroba.
Readers will know that Archbishop Gądecki distinguished himself (along with a number of other eminent churchmen) indenouncing and exposingthe vile and evil attempts by "innovators" to change Church praxis, and hence doctrine (via the back door) on divorce and remarriage. The Archbishop rigorously exposed the innovators as enemies of Our Lord, His Church, and betrayers of Pope John Paul II.
Archbishop Hoser
Archbishop Henryk Hoser, in fact, provided a detailed analysisof the treachery of churchmen over the years in their betrayal of Pope John Paul II and (e.g.) Familiaris consortio. It is therefore edifying that following this powerful public witness to fidelity to the truth, the Polish Bishops selected his Grace.
Though, the Catholic Faith is still far stronger in Poland than here in North America, or western Europe, Poland is experiencing a deep spiritual crisis. Please pray for Poland; she is at a crossroads. The culture of death is deeply entrenched, with Poland having one of the lowest birthrates in the world. I have been informed by a Czech woman - who has been involved in the pro-life movement for well over two decades - that Polish women seek access to abortion regularly in the Czech Republic (on top of copious use of contraceptives). Pray that Poland does not follow on the evil path of once Catholic Ireland.
The defense of human life is the centre of any true ecology
Our Holy Father has written powerfully in his encyclical, Laudato si, against a false anthropocentrism, or even an equally false biocentrism. The protection of the environment starts with protecting man: the truth about him, his creation as a child of God. Each person needs to be welcomed and loved. Our Holy Father denounced the scourge of abortion with these words:
120. Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away”.[97]
123. The culture of relativism is the same disorder which drives one person to take advantage of another, to treat others as mere objects, imposing forced labour on them or enslaving them to pay their debts. The same kind of thinking leads to the sexual exploitation of children and abandonment of the elderly who no longer serve our interests. It is also the mindset of those who say: Let us allow the invisible forces of the market to regulate the economy, and consider their impact on society and nature as collateral damage. In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species? Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted?
Michael Kelly has written an excellent analysis for the National Catholic Register of the collapse of the Catholic faith in the face of a massive media propaganda effort. Ireland is a land where 84% of the population identifies as Catholic yet it is also the place where a referendum overturning traditional Catholic teaching on marriage passed by an overwhelming majority. The answer is cultural Catholicism, a phenomenon wherein the essentials of the faith are systematically removed like sucking the contents of an egg until all that is left is a hollow shell.
David Quinn, director of the pro-marriage Iona Institute and de
factor leader of the referendum “No” campaign, believes the Church does
need a “reality check.”
“The reality check is that the Church has done almost no catechesis
in the area of marriage for years and years. It has done lots of
pastoral counseling, but it has not taught on a systematic basis what
marriage is and why it is so important to society and why it can only be
between a man and a woman by its very nature,” Quinn told the Register.
He believes this failure of catechesis “is why many Catholics were
bowled over when the referendum came, especially as they have been
subjected by the media to such relentless propaganda in favor of gay
marriage for years.”
In other words, Ireland's cultural ascendancy in the middle ages was the result of books and education. Ireland was an exporter of learning to the rest of Europe. Lazy clerics keeping their flock dumb and obedient has left Irish Catholics woefully ignorant of the essentials of their faith. When a far more effective propaganda machine comes along is it any wonder they collapse in the face of it? The Catholic Church in Ireland did not succumb because of some dastardly attack by the forces of secularism. The attack was inevitable. It succumbed because they had nothing but sticks and stones to defend against tanks. Catechetics is critical if we are to weather the coming storm.
Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For
our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against
principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this
darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.
If you insist on putting on the paper armor of entrenched custom, social milieu and culture you are likely to be in trouble.
The first step for a just relationship with the surrounding world is precisely the recognition, on the part of human beings, of our condition as creatures: humans are not God, but are his image. We should therefore strive to become more attentive to the presence of God all around us. In all of creation and, especially in human beings, there is a kind of epiphany of God. “Those who can recognize in the cosmos the reflections of the Creator’s invisible face, tend to have greater love for creatures” (Benedict XVI, Homily for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, 1 Jan. 2010).
Men and women will be capable of respecting creation, to the extent in which they have a full appreciation of life; otherwise they will be inclined to condemn themselves and their surroundings, to respect neither the environment they live in nor creation. Thus, the first ecology that is in need of defence is “human ecology” (cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate, n. 51). It is also important to say that without clearly defending human life, from conception until natural death; without defending the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman; without truly defending those who are excluded and marginalized from society, without forgetting in this context those that have lost everything, victims of natural disasters, we could never speak of an authentic defence of the environment.
Entrance to Vanier Centre for Women, Milton, Ontario
Dear friends,
Once again I ask you to join us in prayer for the dear women who are incarcerated in the Vanier Centre for Women. As most readers will know, my dear sister in Christ, Mary Wagner, still remains behind bars for incarnating the love of Christ for unborn babies. But not only does Mary dwell behind bars, but women who are utterly unknown - to us. But they are most intimately known by Our Blessed Saviour, who died a horrible death for each and every one of them. If He could permit Himself to be mocked, scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified for each of these sisters: can we we not at least offer a Rosary for them?
I ask you to join us in prayer for our dear sisters. We Catholics should seriously reconsider what we are doing for the lost, the deprived, the forgotten, so that we may bring them His love...
The U.S. Association of Catholic Priests is an association of, according to their website, Catholic priests in "good standing". Recently, the USACP released the results of its questionnaire and submission to the Holy See. The following screenshots shows how far departed the results are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, from the High Priest, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Readers may draw their own conclusions. How much this survey really represents all American priests is another issue. However, this survey does seem to reflect a certain clique of powerful clerics who wish to force the Church at the upcoming Synod into a moral crisis. They will not succeed. Please pray for your priests that they remain faithful servants of Our Lord.
It's easier than you might think. In days gone by people sinned rather profusely but for the most part these sins tended to be private affairs conducted in secret. Even those sins requiring the cooperation of another tended to be carried out behind closed doors. Some sins which had to be performed in public were often shrouded in ritual and mystique designed to obscure its true nature. Who would ever guess that a lavish banquet honoring some public figure was in reality a cover for a multitude of sins not the least of which was gluttony?
Mind you, really big sins requiring the collusion of many sinners have always been with us. This is why men invented politics. That need not concern us here for politics is not generally regarded as a heresy, merely a proximate occasion of sin. Our concern here is rather to examine how those private and furtive sinful acts may be transformed into a heresy.
Bedding another person's spouse is adultery and it is one of those sins usually committed in private. However, if a third person is involved performing the role of matchmaker then the private sin becomes the basis for a profitable business. Transforming the sin into a heresy gives the sinner a whole new air of respectability. What was once a sordid little affair conducted in private for the adulterer becomes for the adulterist a progressive challenge to the boundaries of stolid morality. This has many advantages. The adulterist gains an air of quasi respectability that would otherwise be denied by anyone with common sense. Even their opponents gain in the transaction. Where once sin had to be countered by preaching, good counsel and good example, a heresy opens new vistas.
Let's face it... confronting a close relative who is contemplating their second marriage is a painful process. You risk alienating the relative and dividing the family. However if that single relative can be morphed into an entire social group, however ephemeral, confronting them becomes easier. It is no longer personal and painful. This can have unfortunate consequences. By objectifying and demonizing your relative you push them away from the family and towards identifying with some ephemeral social group of adulterists. Mind you, they will likely come up with a snazzier name for it by that time affording you endless opportunities for arguing over the name. This should distract you from the pain of realizing that you have just lost a brother.
You should begin to realize why it is necessary to jail Mary Wagner. So long as people can be kept to arguing whether it is pro choice or pro life or whatever then everyone is safe. So long as it is a political issue involving advocacy groups on either side then no one need worry. However, one woman walking into a clinic to talk to another woman about the decision she is making is about as dangerous as you can get. The government understands this and acts accordingly.
We need to follow her example and begin to deal with people personally. The Church exists as a refuge for sinners. It is where they learn slowly, step by step, to wean themselves of their attachment to sin and grow closer to God. Every time we push a sinner away from the Church we strengthen the enemy. We need to stop treating our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, as members of some heretical group and approach them as persons.
When the sin involved is one that we ourselves might commit if tempted, then it is easier to show compassion towards a sinner. We understand their motives and temptations. What of sin we do not understand or which provokes a feeling of revulsion in us? This is the easiest to transform into a heresy. In our conceit we imagine that God shares our emotional reactions and the sin that provokes such revulsion in us is far worse than the one we ourselves have committed which gave us such pleasure. In short, we consider our own sins to be moral failings that require repentance but others' sins, especially ones we don't like, are irredeemable moral depravity and evidence of some conspiracy. We are sinners but they are heretics.
Really? The grand conceit of this is that we imagine that God will put up with us but not them.
Our Holy Father has spoken out - once again - denouncing gender ideology and its destructive influence against marriage and society.
The sacrament of marriage is one of the Latin American people’s most important treasures, the Pope says, and it must be defended. He urges them to emphasize family pastoral ministry in order to counter "serious social problems" such as "the difficult economic situation, migration, domestic violence" and "unemployment, drug trafficking and corruption."
No to gender ideology, protecting the complementarity between men and women
The complementarity between a man and a woman is being questioned by the so-called gender ideology in the name of a freer and more just society, the Pope observes. In fact, he warns, the differences between men and women are not a question of “opposition or subordination but rather of communion and generation… always in the image and likeness of God." Without mutual giving- he adds - neither can have an in-depth understanding of the other.
And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I
am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.
The ascendancy of Constantine and the promulgation of the Edict of Milan no doubt brought much needed relief to a beleaguered Church plagued by centuries of intermittent persecutions. Unfortunately it also brought with it a degree of interference on the part of imperial and political interests in the affairs of the Church. If the emperor declared himself a Christian then it would be politically expedient to curry the favor of Christians. This once illegal faith began to attract converts in greater numbers, many of whose motives were suspect.
The struggle of how to enshrine in law that which was once done for love of God and one's neighbor has occupied the Church ever since. This is the essence of the culture wars. With the coercive power of Imperial Rome on their side Christians were tempted as never before. The temptation is to use political power and the coercive power of the state as a replacement for evangelization. The focus of evangelization is always outward. It looks to the other because we want to share the good news of Jesus out of love of our neighbor. Culture wars see things in terms of ally and enemy. Because it is focused on ourselves we tend to see the other, not as a neighbor but as a threat. It can lead to a withdrawal from society and isolation in our conservative enclaves. It is easy to forget that our opponents are our neighbor and we are obliged to love them and proclaim the kingdom even while we may enter into political struggles with them.
The Quiet Revolution in Quebec, the wave of secularization engulfing Europe and the
Irish collapse recently point to the demise of a post Christian culture
that retained many of the outward aspects of a Christian heritage but had lost the faith at it's centre. Perhaps it is time to finally let go of our attachment to it and finally admit that we have lost the culture wars.
I am not for a moment suggesting capitulation or compromise but we must stop expecting people to behave like Christians when they do not know Jesus Christ. Preserving Christian morality and ethics devoid of faith in Jesus Christ will not lead to conversions. However real conversion to a lively faith in Jesus Christ will lead to a renewal of morals. Evangelization must precede cultural change. Our current situation is far closer to that of the early Christians in Imperial Rome than any of us would like to admit. Like them we are faced with an overwhelmingly hostile culture whose morals and ethics are at odds with the faith. They remained faithful even onto death. We, on the other hand, have forgotten how to be counter cultural.
At this time, the culture wars have little to do with evangelization. Perhaps they never did. What we are struggling with right now is the ability to exist without legal and social penalties. While this poses problems we are still not in fear for our lives as many are in other parts of the world. Our relative lack of political power provides us with an opportunity to confront a hostile culture in the same way the early Christians confronted Imperial Rome. Are we up to the challenge?
Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, avail you; it is rather a
temptation to us. The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in
number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. Tertullian
A group of people who likely couldn't care less what Fr. Eberhard Schokenhoff says. Nor, I dare say, have they read the blogs and comment boxes of folks typing their opinions from the safety of their apartments and basements. These people risk everything for their faith. We in North America risk nothing. You wonder why the faith is flourishing in the third world and dying in our own back yards? These people confront a persecution that wields real swords. We largely content ourselves with setting up straw men and delight in knocking them down. We occupy ourselves with issues and politics and ignore the weightier matters of proclaiming the kingdom and the salvation of souls.
You want to know a real bit of irony in all this? These men are members of the Coptic Church which dissented from the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Yes, they are technically schismatic and monophysites. Do you somehow imagine that Our Lord will not welcome these martyrs, who died with His name on their lips, into the kingdom with open arms? How do you suppose he will greet you and I?
Anybody remember the churches of Asia Minor mentioned in the book of Revelation? I would be hard pressed to name the entire list. They are gone and forgotten. It might not be a bad idea to read Revelation to find out just what might cause a church to disappear.
Fr. Eberhard Schockenhoff, a professor of moral theology at the University of Frieburg reflects the warped mindset that is infecting so much of the Church in Germany. He hopes that at the upcoming Synod there will be changes in the "approach to the divorced in new unions", as well as a "respectful and accepting approach to persons who live in same-sex partnerships. "If it came to some sort of official recognition of these matters at the Synod, it would be good. But if it does not happen, the basics will not change, they will continue as before".
On the comments by Cardinal Parolin that the Irish referendum represents a "defeat for humanity", Schockenhoff disagreed:" one has to say, that people with homosexual feelings have a right to their type of life, and the fact that as all people are sexual beings - to be accepted. This is their way of life".
"The Church's position, to not discriminate against them as people, but alerts them that their behaviour is intrinsically disordered, is not a convincing position. This position is seen as a hidden discrimination and does not reflect the complete social justice teaching of the church".
Much as I enjoy reading about all sorts of people behaving badly and the Poles busily denouncing the whole lot of them, occasionally I feel a need to talk about folks not behaving badly... in fact behaving in a most edifying manner.
Today I celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi at a neighboring parish. I usually go to a neighboring parish because the procession at home does not even exit the building. Can't blame the pastor much though. He's older than me and I'm not sure how far he could carry a monstrance in procession. The neighbors stage a procession along a 1km route of which one quarter is along a major thoroughfare. It passes in sight of a mosque, then through a residential neighborhood and finally back to the church. The line of march was so long that when the front turned a corner, the rear hadn't turned the previous corner.
I originally heard of this through our Knights of Columbus council which covers three parishes. I marched with the local SSVP thinking I would at least get to meet some new people. Besides, I have never been part of the ostrich plume and satin cape crowd which acts as an honor guard at these things. At the halfway point we stopped for prayers and benediction in a local park. I'd like to post pictures here but I was too busy praying. Here's one of Pope Francis instead.
I have to admire a parish that holds a real Corpus Christi procession these days. It seems to be catching on a bit because the parish to the south initiated one for the first time this year. I find this to be a most edifying practice that gets an entire parish together and lets the neighborhood know there are Catholics in their midst. How was Corpus Christi at your parish??
Yours is a long spiritual tradition of devotion to our Lady. Mary can truly say of Ireland what we have just heard in the first reading: "So I took root in an honoured people" (Sir 24 :12).
Pope John Paul II, September 30, 1979, Knock
At Knock, in 1979, Our Lady's servant, Pope John Paul II on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady, pronounced a sermon and Consecration that should cause great consternation. Firstly, the Holy Father outlined the great blessings poured out upon the Irish nation by God, since the arrival of St. Patrick. Secondly, the Pope called upon the hierarchy and faithful to take up their Christina heritage anew; and thirdly, the Holy Father entrusted or consecrated Ireland to Our Lady.
Yet, today, 35 years later we see that Ireland has lurched along a path of infidelity that has led to open rebellion and apostasy. Do consecrations not work? Did Our Lady not hear and act? Yes, She did. But She also expects us to respond, She will (like Her Son), not force Herself upon us. The Blessed Mother will not force Herself on the Irish Nation, if the Irish do not want Her. It is sadly evident, that, the vast majority of Irishmen and women do not wish to place themselves under Her protection. They were ashamed of Her: Her humility, Her purity, Her teachings ("do whatever he tells you" Jn 2:5).... and therefore being rejected, they insulted and rejected Her Son.
One can say, because of this rejection of the Mother of God, the Irish have been handed over to the forces of darkness to be scourged like Israel of old for infidelity "But my people did not heed my voice, and Israel would not obey, so I left them in their stubbornness of heart, to follow their own designs" (Ps. 81).
The Irish, stubbornly wished to continue in their lifestyles that more and more took on the appearance of a modern day incarnation of the obscene frivolities of the Court of Herod, rather than the serene purity of the Holy Family. Divorce, indecency, impurity, fornication, adultery, so-called birth control were all embraced. It was inevitable that having separated the procreative centrality of holy wedlock, that unnatural vice would follow. Thus, the Irish began returning to the vice of their ancestors prior to the arrival of St. Patrick. Throughout these troubles - the real troubles - the Irish hierarchy was mainly silent, or acted in collusion with the destroyers of the real interests of the Irish. Contraception was introduced into Ireland with the resultant abandonment of the Sacraments. Grace was seriously lacking. And so it went from one evil to the next. With silence or collusion by churchmen.
The referendum merely reflected the debasement of the Irish mind. Ireland is now mission territory. For their cowardice, their treachery, their refusal to preach in season and out of season - the Irish hierarchy should resign. In his last book, "Memory and Identity", the late, now sainted Pope denounced same-sex "marriage" as "grave violation of God's law" and an "ideology of evil". Not one word of this from the bishops.
Indeed, we had the most recent outburst of treachery from Archbishop Eamon Martin that the far more gentle words of Cardinal Burke were unacceptable. When will this Irish episcopal mercenary resign or be removed from Office? He is staining with his treacherous presence the office of his holy predecessors. These cowards have not even apologized before God for their failure.
From Pope John Paul II:
Mother, in this shrine you gather the People of God of all Ireland and constantly point out to them Christ in the Eucharist and in the Church. At this solemn moment we listen with particular attention to your words : "Do whatever my Son tells you". And we wish to respond to your words with all our heart. We wish to do what your Son tells us, what he commands us, for he has the words of eternal life. We wish to carry out and fulfil all that comes from him, all that is contained in the Good News, as our forefathers did for many centuries. Their fidelity to Christ and to his Church, and their heroic attachment to the Apostolic See, have in a way stamped on all of us an indelible mark that we all share. Their fidelity has, over the centuries, borne fruit in Christian heroism and in a virtuous tradition of living in accordance with God's law, especially in accordance with the holiest commandment of the Gospel—the commandment of love. We have received this splendid heritage from their hands at the beginning of a new age, as we approach the close of the second millennium since the Son of God was born of you, our alma Mater, and we intend to carry this heritage into the future with the same fidelity with which our forefathers bore witness to it....
...We entrust to your motherly care the land of Ireland, where you have been and are so much loved. Help this land to stay true to you and your Son always. May prosperity never cause Irish men and women to forget God or abandon their faith. Keep them faithful in prosperity to the faith they would not surrender in poverty and persecution.
The Polish Bishops conference will be meeting in Warsaw for a plenary meeting on June 9th and 10th. The topic of marriage will be included on the agenda. This blog will report on the continued bishops opposition to the innovators promotion of Holy Communion for adulterers, as well as on those who advocate for individuals who indulge without repentance in deviant sexual acts.
The Polish bishops, along with the African bishops have been one of the strongest voices in upholding the unchangeable doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage and the impossibility of giving Holy Communion to someone who is living an adulterous lifestyle.
Be assured that the Polish bishops will mightily and absolutely oppose any effort to overturn Familiaris Consortio of St. Pope John Paul II. The innovators - the adulterist and homosexualist parities - sinister cardinals, bishops and priests (organized in a worldwide cabal loyal to satan) may advocate pandering and excusing grave sin (e.g. claiming that "intrinsically disordered", when referring to evil homosexual acts in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is to be considered "offensive", as sodenotedby Fr. Thomas Rosica recently in January, 2015). This blog, and the now preeminent Catholic blog in Canada, Vox Cantoris, will expose and denounce any and all evil attempts to overthrow the teachings of Our Blessed Saviour.
I was peacefully watching The Saint on TV last night when Barona called me to let me know Michael Coren was being interviewed on the TVO series Agenda. I have had little interest in Coren since his days on CTS and his recent activities have all the appeal of a train wreck. However some things struck me in his interview and the panel discussion on social conservatism that followed. In Coren's segment the challenge for me was to identify the line of reasoning used to justify same sex marriage.
No doubt there are some same sex couples who demonstrate love and compassion towards each other and that is often used as a justification. Benedict XVI made a similar observation when he stated that a man using a condom to prevent the transmission of disease in a sexual act with another man was demonstrating a degree of care towards the other. This was blown up in the media as a justification of condoms among other things but it was no such thing. The flaw is that no serious Catholic would advocate evil that good might come of it. Benedict XVI was merely pointing out that God might bring good out of evil. The rest of us have no such ability.
Coren, amongst others, seems to consistently fall into this error of pronouncing the end good and failing to acknowledge that the means involved acts that are characterized by the catechism as "intrinsically disordered". The end does not justify the means. This line of reasoning was also apparent in the panel discussion that followed on social conservatism.
The new sex education curriculum and the opposition to it was discussed. Once I got past my initial irritation at people of faith being characterized as "blind followers" I began to look at the common thread in all of this. Again this notion that the end justifies the means reared it's ugly head. No one mentioned the fact that parents, who are the first educators of their children, have been left completely out of the picture. This is completely wrong. We have assigned a cadre of professionals and bureaucrats to raise our children and largely supplant parents.
The panel's discussion of the effect of immigration made this completely obvious. The consensus was that while first generation immigrants would be socially conservative, their children and grandchildren would gradually become more liberal. Well, of course! Once you run them through the state managed social indoctrination which is our school system what would you expect?
The end does not justify the means and you may not advocate evil that good may come of it. A school system is seriously flawed if it displaces parents from their rightful place as first educators. It is wrong even if the cadre of professionals are teaching social conservatism and chastity. Similarly, a relationship is seriously flawed if it is based upon acts that are objectively wrong in themselves.
Thank Barona for this little piece... he told me to watch the show. As for The Saint, you can find him on the MeTV website.
