Report on "Holy Smoke Parish" (how social media is sending your children to hell)

"Holy Smoke", muttered the youthful modernist priest, Fr. Aidan McNutty to himself as he finished reading the report on the "spiritual growth" of - you guessed it - Holy Smoke Parish. "Archbishop Weakling will be very pleased", thought the cleric as he sealed the document and handed it to the FedEx man to send it to the Chancery.

Later that morning:

Avante-garde theologian and disciple of ex-priest, Matthew Fox, Archbishop Rupert Weakling arose from his personal Steinway concert grand in his chancery office; a "cultured" man, the prelate had just finished playing an exquisite interpretation of John Cage's 4'33. Weakling, turning on his gramaphone, seated himself and leant back in his imported oak armchair (in truth akin to a throne) to listen to Sir Harrison Birtwhistle's Panic.

A knock on the door alerted the Archbishop to the delivery of the FedEx package..."bloody hell", the fiendish prelate growled. "Come in" he shouted...


Later that evening: 

"Outstanding Aidan, simply outstanding, spoke Archbishop Rupert Weakling; "Aidan, this has got to be the best report submitted so far this year. Think of it: on the surface a "conservative" parish - they even use Latin. This is really an amazing accomplishment. How do you do it"? "Well, I get a lot of guidance from Ms. Ann Thrope. Her master classes at the "Lesbo Power Centre of  Spirituality" focused the attention on the families most involved with the parish.... she also ensured that great attention was paid to the local parochial school. It was essential - superficially - to be very doctrinally spot-on, and full of devout and pious teachers. Her advice has produced results beyond our wildest imagination. She placed particular attention in her lectures to us on the use of social media: get the kids on it; hook them...Placebook is just a great place for these young losers to be". McNutty was beside himself with excitement and pride.

"Your work certainly has been excellent Rupert. Look at this" - the Archbishop thumbed rudely through the document: "Not just sensuality, eroticism, and crass vulgarity - but homosexuality and  the occult!. We have everything here. Impressive, most impressive! You deserve an award; I think I'm going to make you a Monsignor for all your efforts".

"And look at these photos from Placebook!", continued the ever helpful McNutty. "Mmmmm",  moaned the evil Archbishop with glee. Weakling flicked through a huge pile of downloads related to various large, regular Sunday-going families. 

"Oooh my word", laughed the Archbishop. "What is it?", questioned Aidan. "Well, look at this photo", replied his master. Rupert sniggered as the Archbishop showed him a photo taken by a Catholic school girl with the words "&^%*%@)" beautifully embroidered on a French damask curtain. "And to think, my boy, that this girl is the daughter of one of our local so-called lay 'theologians'!". The Archbishop laughed uproariously perusing the dossier with relish. Finished, he placed the contents inside a folder marked "Hell Bound", and then (you guessed it again) bound the dossier with a pink, silk ribbon.

"Let's have a drink Aidan", lisped the vile Weakling. McNutty opened the Archbishop's lavish drinks cupboard and poured out two large glasses of Armagnac. "Success"! - the two men toasted.

"By the way, Rupert, the girl was a star at the private, parochial school" offered McNutty. "Ann was insistent that to get the results we wanted, the teachers would have to really increase the amount of texts on spiritual combat, along with lengthy orthodox religious classes; and to augment all that with a minimum of solid half-hour recitation of various prayers". 

"She certainly knew what she was doing", replied Weakling. "I should think so Rupert, answered Aidan. "Ann has studied in detail the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, but she uses the works in a Luciferian manner; reversing the advice, whilst pushing externals. Another of her tricks is over-emphasizing one aspect to the detriment of another." "Amazing woman, replied the prelate, taken aback with Ms. Ann Thrope's evil genius, "simply amazing". "She'd teach in my seminary, if it wasn't empty", chortled Weakland, as he refilled the glasses. 

"Oh, look at these", tittered Aidan, handing the Archbishop a number of bizarre, kinky photos bordering on porn. "And look at this one Rupert", said the young cleric, handing his superior a high quality printout. "Let me see", said Weakling. The Archbishop adjusted the light on his desk to better ogle the occult inspired visuals presented to him. Roaring with laughter, Weakling lit a Havana and lent back in his chair, puffing frantically.

"Things are going well Aidan, very, very well. To think that we have had such success with good families. This bodes very well for the future. Aidan, do you realize this means we are right on target in decimating the local archdiocese?  In a few years I'll be retired on a huge index-linked pension relishing these victories (and changing into a sneering and ghoulish sounding voice the Archbishop continued);  "and I don't "%^$%$#&*&%#@" - to quote our "little" Catholic school girl - what happens financially. As long as I have money, and the church torpedos: that is all I care about. Souls, souls, it's about destroying souls". 

The Archbishop arose and carefully placed the dossier in his wall safe. Spinning the dial, he sniggered evilly and with a puff of smoke, disappeared from the room. Aidan, glancing at himself in the Archbishop's full-length mirror murmured, "how dare I be so beautiful", before quietly lying down on Rupert's couch to reflect on the deep, dark, sinister plans of his lord and master.... as well as to meditate on the macabre and evil world that once innocent Catholic children had been dragged inexorably into...

Later, well after Midnight:

"Living after midnight, rockin' till the dawn..." blared Fr. McNutty's stereo, as the Judas priest listened - you guessed it again! - to his Judas Priest albums...


.....to be continued 

"Through some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God" ~ Pope Paul VI

"All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done in just judgment, because we have disobeyed Your Commandments... "

Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council 

"See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil...." 

COMMUNISTS BEHIND SLANDER AND ASSASSINATION PLOT AGAINST POPE PIUS XII

Venerable Pius XII the "greatest man of our time" 

This coming October 9th, the Church and the world will commemorate the 55th anniversary of the death of the great and holy Pope Pius XII. Slowly, gradually, the world is coming to realize (irrespective of incoherent propaganda generated by assorted dyspeptic enemies of the Church) the great truth that Pius XII actually saved about 800,000 Jewish lives. We hope that Pope Francis will proceed post hast with the canonization of this holy man. The Church rejoices that brave Jewish voices have joined the chorus singing praise for this man; even against subtle and at times not so subtle persecution. The reality is, that Pope Pius was the greatest benefactor of the Jewish nation in the face of unspeakable horror. 

Despite the nonsense about Pius being “Hitler’s pope” – which the new book “Disinformation” proves beyond all doubt was the result of a massive Soviet disinformation campaign – in reality Pius was greatly admired, with Winston Churchill calling him “the greatest man of our time” and Albert Einstein writing, “Only the Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I felt a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty.” Even the chief rabbi of Rome and his wife, Israel and Emma Zolli, converted to Catholicism, with Zolli adopting the Christian name Eugenio, to honor the man who, according to him, had done so much to protect the Jews during the war: Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli.

To read more. 

A Vaccination is not a Condom!

To the best of my knowledge the magisterium has never made a pronouncement regarding HPV vaccinations. What the Church teaches is that premarital and extramarital sex is wrong. It also teaches that contraception is wrong. But vaccinations?? There are a host of consequences from engaging in sexual intercourse. Some methods of protecting against those consequences are morally wrong and distributing them to teenage girls would be repugnant. Handing out condoms or birth control pills in the schools would definitely go against the Church's teaching. One does not use a condom if one intends to remain abstinent... the connection is immediate and obvious. A vaccine, however, has as it's primary purpose disease prevention. The efficacy of the vaccine, its potential side effects and its appropriateness for that particular population are all valid questions but dragging the magisterium into it is just irresponsible.

There is an ongoing controversy over the use of vaccines. It ranges from the rather simplistic notion that inoculating someone against smallpox is somehow interfering in God's plan to the use of forbidden technologies. Some vaccines are derived from tissue cultures obtained from aborted fetuses and the Church has specifically condemned these. Unless you can demonstrate that the HPV vaccination is derived from technology the Church has specifically forbidden you pretty much have to make the argument on its own merit.

HPV vaccinations go against ‘wishes of the Magistarium,’

The Culture of death and mental illness: Miriam Carey gunned down by Washington police

I cannot fail to briefly comment on the shooting of the mentally-ill young woman, Miriam Carey by Washington police. The key event to this being a manifestation of the culture of death was the eventual killing of  this woman in cold blood. Her car was immobilized and surrounded. There are innumerable ways of capturing a person thus surrounded. The killing of mentally-ill people seems to have become an unofficial past-time for police. Will NO ONE stand up for these people's right to life? 

But the worst was yet to come. The US Congress cheered this outcome. But what else could be expected? Media reporting on the event has, in general been typically misleading. 

NY Times article trashes Pope Benedict: Fr. Rosica thinks it is "great"

The New York Times has published another strange innuendo riddled attack on the papacy of Pope Francis' revered predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. A few quotes suffice to demonstrate the perversity of the writer's thinking. 

"Francis has substituted a reluctance to accept papal office — a reluctance that led the cardinals to opt for Mr. Ratzinger, the German cardinal who became Benedict XVI, in 2005...The new pope promises new takes on homosexuality...Italians, whom the pope regards as neighbors, are dumbfounded. Resigned to watching high-ranking clerics play down the excesses of Silvio Berlusconi — a dreadful role model but an obsequious ally — they are astonished to see the pope distance himself from politics. They are used to the pro-business mentality of popular ecclesiastical movements like Comunione e Liberazione, and they struggle to believe that Francis honestly prefers good works to good dividends...parishes are quick to welcome a pope who thrills believers and inspires respect in nonbelievers.

Francis likes people at least as much as Benedict XVI liked books. The German pope gave Catholics an unremitting theology lesson. The Argentine gives them reassurance and understanding. All you need is love. Don’t be surprised if Francis starts quoting John Lennon.

The article is of no importance: it is insipid and exquisitely stupid. The real question is why would a Catholic priest latch onto it as something to laud?. 

The real question becomes: why is Fr. Thomas Rosica promoting it on his Twitter account? It is misleading, disingenuous, childish, and - most importantly - denigrating and insulting to the papacy of the much loved Pope Benedict. 

Pope Francis: The Church is in "very grave danger"

“We are in very grave danger. We are in danger of worldliness.” 

Pope Francis

You won't be reading this in the headline news, you won't be seeing this splashed across various Twitter accounts, you won't see this even in your local diocesan newspaper, and you won't see much of it on Catholic blogs. The silence is already deafening. Our Twitter feed carries the full report from Rome.

A cursory scan of the web this morning, showed that only The Guardian had any news to the keywords: "Pope Francis Assisi worldliness". and they too, to no ones surprise twisted the papal words to mean that he was concerned with material means and ends. Simply, the Pope's words do not fit the narrative.

We are indeed in very grave danger. The spirit of the world pervades everywhere. And it also pervades into Catholic family life, the parishes, the schools leaving decimation in its path. Allow me the liberty to give you an example. Have you ever reviewed the Facebook pages of parishioners? I have. My motivation certainly did not prepare me for what I found. I have been shocked. So-called conservative parishes offer for the future of the Church, young women, who, it could could best be described as displaying themselves like cheap tarts. Is this the "new" religion and its bitter fruit that a number of churchmen have spoken and written about over the past few years? 

Obviously, these parishes have failed in imparting doctrine to these young people. They are not so much as "conservative", as they have conserved very little or nothing; rather, it seems that the results have been more akin to  liturgical fetishism -  de facto supplanting union with God with theatre (c.f. John of the Cross, The Ascent to Mount Carmel). This is not denying that liturgy needs to be reverent! it is saying that the primary objective of attending the liturgy is union with God. The fruit of the liturgy will be the type of life a Catholic leads after Mass. Lest I be considered too harsh, I readily admit that one hour exposure to Mass and a sermon will not usually have much influence upon a person, especially a young person, if their parents and schools have been seduced by worldiness (including private, parochial "Catholic" ones). 

Priests truly have a grave duty to avoid scandal, even the slightest hint of scandal; Facebook, with its myriad of "friends" can easily open a priest up to being linked with an unsavory, unrepentant character. Woe to priests who do not preach the Gospel with power; woe to priests who sit in ignorance and inaction when confronted with such new dangers seducing our people, especially our young people. Though we at Toronto Catholic Witness have just opened a Facebook page, I am carefully considering closing, or at least becoming inactive on this extremely sinister mode of social communication. I have seen far greater evil, than good on Facebook. 

The worldly spirit is "a cancer of society, and the cancer of the revelation of God and the enemy of Jesus" Pope Francis

The effect of this worldliness upon the Body of Christ is horrendous. Worldly Catholics are but cancer cells: at times self-mutilating, at times infecting.... and this worldliness is more than individual, it is also institutional. And it became institutional, because it was individual. You will note - especially Toronto readers - the worldliness of the Pastoral Plan. Yes, there is a bit thrown towards the "new evangelization" etc., but a real true return to repentance, to doctrine, to a change in life; a  building up of community, where (e.g.) the elderly will be loved, cared for, and revered, and not looked upon in a sick, macabre manner as a cash cow, to supplement the grotesque $ 195,000,000 million dollar cash garb that is planned. 

"The worldly spirit kills; it kills people, it kills the Church" Pope Francis

Friends, there is no future for a local church, if there are are no young Catholic people. And from what I am seeing, there are very, very few Catholic women who are truly marriageable. We have to come to grips with the reality that the Church in North America and Europe is dying, and dying fast. We have to come to the realization that our parishes are rotten, corrupt and the bitter fruit of the "new" religion. This religion is not Catholic. It is a counterfeit Catholicism, just as an egg with the yoke removed is a counterfeit egg - the life source has been removed - and there is nothing left. 

This monstrous worldliness manifests itself in a special way in a lack of the sense of sin; it is a Church that is embracing the world, the flesh and the devil. It follows the path laid out by satan: non serviam. Our youth are behaving trashily because they no longer know what sin is, our bishops and priests are failing the Church because they have become lukewarm and compromising; perhaps even blind, or denying the sin that is surrounding them. 

Speaking about my own diocese, I foresee a massive implosion over the next 25 years here in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Yes, there presently is a lot of bricks and mortar, a lot of silly noise being made (but of no substance); every sign points to the Archdiocese of Toronto collapsing. One does not build a church on the world, the flesh and the devil.  One builds a church on Christ crucified. 

Pope Francis: Homily at the Solemn Mass at Assisi

I give you thanks, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25).
Peace and all good to each and every one of you! With this Franciscan greeting I thank you for being here, in this Square so full of history and faith, to pray together.
Today, I too have come, like countless other pilgrims, to give thanks to the Father for all that he wished to reveal to one of the “little ones” mentioned in today’s Gospel: Francis, the son of a wealthy merchant of Assisi. His encounter with Jesus led him to strip himself of an easy and carefree life in order to espouse “Lady Poverty” and to live as a true son of our heavenly Father. This decision of Saint Francis was a radical way of imitating Christ: he clothed himself anew, putting on Christ, who, though he was rich, became poor in order to make us rich by his poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). In all of Francis’ life, love for the poor and the imitation of Christ in his poverty were inseparably united, like the two sides of a coin.
What does Saint Francis’s witness tell us today? What does he have to say to us, not merely with words – that is easy enough – but by his life?
1. His first and most essential witness is this: that being a Christian means having a living relationship with the person of Jesus; it means putting on Christ, being conformed to him.
Where did Francis’s journey to Christ begin? It began with the gaze of the crucified Jesus. With letting Jesus look at us at the very moment that he gives his life for us and draws us to himself. Francis experienced this in a special way in the Church of San Damiano, as he prayed before the cross which I too will have an opportunity to venerate. On that cross, Jesus is depicted not as dead, but alive! Blood is flowing from his wounded hands, feet and side, but that blood speaks of life. Jesus’ eyes are not closed but open, wide open: he looks at us in a way that touches our hearts. The cross does not speak to us about defeat and failure; paradoxically, it speaks to us about a death which is life, a death which gives life, for it speaks to us of love, the love of God incarnate, a love which does not die, but triumphs over evil and death. When we let the crucified Jesus gaze upon us, we are re-created, we become “a new creation”. Everything else starts with this: the experience of transforming grace, the experience of being loved for no merits of our own, in spite of our being sinners. That is why Saint Francis could say with Saint Paul: “Far be it for me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).
We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Teach us to remain before the cross, to let the crucified Christ gaze upon us, to let ourselves be forgiven, and recreated by his love.
2. In today’s Gospel we heard these words: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:28-29).
This is the second witness that Francis gives us: that everyone who follows Christ receives true peace, the peace that Christ alone can give, a peace which the world cannot give. Many people, when they think of Saint Francis, think of peace; very few people however go deeper. What is the peace which Francis received, experienced and lived, and which he passes on to us? It is the peace of Christ, which is born of the greatest love of all, the love of the cross. It is the peace which the Risen Jesus gave to his disciples when he stood in their midst and said: “Peace be with you!”, and in saying this, he showed them his wounded hands and his pierced side (cf. Jn 20:19-20).
Franciscan peace is not something saccharine. Hardly! That is not the real Saint Francis! Nor is it a kind of pantheistic harmony with forces of the cosmos… That is not Franciscan either; it is a notion some people have invented! The peace of Saint Francis is the peace of Christ, and it is found by those who “take up” their “yoke”, namely, Christ’s commandment: Love one another as I have loved you (cf. Jn 13:34; 15:12). This yoke cannot be borne with arrogance, presumption or pride, but only with meekness and humbleness of heart.
We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Teach us to be “instruments of peace”, of that peace which has its source in God, the peace which Jesus has brought us. francis
3. “Praised may you be, Most High, All-powerful God, good Lord… by all your creatures (FF, 1820). This is the beginning of Saint Francis’s Canticle. Love for all creation, for its harmony. Saint Francis of Assisi bears witness to the need to respect all that God has created, and that men and women are called to safeguard and protect, but above all he bears witness to respect and love for every human being. God created the world to be a place where harmony and peace can flourish. Harmony and peace! Francis was a man of harmony and peace. From this City of Peace, I repeat with all the strength and the meekness of love: Let us respect creation, let us not be instruments of destruction! Let us respect each human being. May there be an end to armed conflicts which cover the earth with blood; may the clash of arms be silenced; and everywhere may hatred yield to love, injury to pardon, and discord to unity. Let us listen to the cry of all those who are weeping, who are suffering and who are dying because of violence, terrorism or war, in the Holy Land, so dear to Saint Francis, in Syria, throughout the Middle East and everywhere in the world.
We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Obtain for us God’s gift of harmony and peace in this our world!
Finally, I cannot forget the fact that today Italy celebrates Saint Francis as her patron saint. The traditional offering of oil for the votive lamp, which this year is given by the Region of Umbria, is an expression of this. Let us pray for Italy, that everyone will always work for the common good, and look more to what unites us, rather than what divides us.
I make my own the prayer of Saint Francis for Assisi, for Italy and for the world: “I pray to you, Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies: Do not look upon our ingratitude, but always keep in mind the surpassing goodness which you have shown to this City. Grant that it may always be the home of men and women who know you in truth and who glorify your most holy and glorious name, now and for all ages. Amen.” (The Mirror of Perfection, 124: FF, 1824).