This Blog supports Vox Cantoris contra Michael Coren

The writer, Michael Coren, has seen fit to attack this evening on his TV show, The Arena, the well-known Catholic blog, Vox Cantoris.

The attack is scurrilous and disgraceful. I encourage all readers to read Vox's open letter to Coren regarding dissent on Catholic teachings pertaining to homosexuality. To accuse Vox of being a "hater" is absolutely false, scandalous.

Vox wrote, regarding Coren: 

It is one thing to have a private opinion and dissent on the truth, it is quite another to make it public and at the same time continue to attest to be Catholic. Your latest column directly contradicts the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You have determined that you have a right to publicly dissent and I have a right, as do others in your parish, to call you out with fraternal correction...

...Michael, your friends care about you and regret that you have taken such a public position over the last few months that is distorting the Church's teaching. People are keeping you and your family in prayer.

Be well my friend,

Vox

No hate, only Christian love, only fraternal correction. Vox's Open Letter to Michael Coren

Michael Coren is wrong on homosexuality: it is sin..."plain and simple..."

Michael Coren has again published an article that is long on feelings, but short on reason regarding the sinfulness of homosexual acts. This should come as no surprise, as it  is symptomatic of his previous emotive reactions, for example, with Cardinal Ambrozic.  Vox Cantoris has published a highly relevant analysis.

In his recent book, "Mercy", Walter Cardinal Kasper has some excellent words on the problem of "pseudomercy" which is a detachment of mercy from truth, leading to ambivalence, misunderstanding and eventual perversion of mercy into a '"fabric softener" for the Christian ethos' (p. 145).  

Following the Pauline tradition, the Cardinal notes that mercy and love join together in fraternal correction of the wayward, and such correction is known as "spiritual mercy". Mercy indeed can be painful - just as surgery may be - but such mercy is to help and heal. Persons who indulge in homosexual activity need the help and healing that only Christ can afford them through repentance and confession. 

The teaching of the Church in the Catechism on the intrinsically disordered and sinful nature of homosexual acts may indeed be considered by those who have same-sex attraction as painful, but, the Church proclaims this truth to provide help and healing to the person so inclined. To dismiss the Church's teachings, to claim that one of the four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance is not a "particularly important subject", is absurd. 

In claiming that "love" triumphs over "judgment" Coren has committed a grave misunderstanding of love and mercy: we cannot ignore God's commandments; in doing so we undercut and abrogate His law, try to detach mercy from truthfulness. Authentic love and mercy will always express the truth (yes, with pastoral tact), and therefore draw the person towards Christ (c.f. Kasper, pp. 147-148). False love leads to sentimentality, relativism, corrupts society opening it to license, a false conception of liberty and freedom, and opens the gateway to covert or eventual overt totalitarianism.

Coren, who expresses many a strong opinion on education, inadvertently indicts so-called "private" neo-Pelagian Catholic education (be it at Mary, Mother of God or De La Salle College), that, seemingly was unable to teach and inspire his children with enough Christian truth to reject the monstrous falsity of "gay marriage" (an "ideology of evil" c.f. Pope John Paul II).

When it suits him, Coren is prepared to speak of "sin". And he indicts himself; about the disgraced Scottish Keith Cardinal O'Brien homosexual acts, Coren writes: "It’s about sin, folks, sin. Plain and simple, black and white. Those who want to flood the argument with grey are not looking for nuance, but anxious to drown the truth". 

Yes, It is sin indeed. The question still remains: why is Coren trying to "drown the truth"? Why is it "sin" for Cardinal O'Brien, but not for others? 

From Coren's most recent article: 

...I can no longer hide behind comfortable banalities, have realized that love triumphs judgment, and know that the conversation between Christians and gays has to transform...

...I am not prepared to throw around ugly terms like “sin” and “disordered” as if they were clumsy cudgels, or marginalize people and groups who often lead more moral lives than I do. I am sick and tired of defining the word of God by a single and not even particularly important subject...

Coren's full article can be read here. 

EMANUEL JACQUES: Requiescat in pace

In 1977, Emanuel Jacques, was murdered after suffering many hours of homosexual rape in Toronto. May his soul rest in peace. Please, during this time  - on this dark and wicked weekend - reflect on the death of this innocent child, done to death by evil, perverted men. 

Emanuel Jacques, pray for us

Cardinal Collins interview on marriage, divorce and contraception

An excellent interview by the Word on Fire website with H.E. Thomas Cardinal Collins: 


Brandon Vogt: Much of the current discussion about divorce, remarriage, and communion is clouded by confusion. What does the Church actually teach on these issues and why? 

Cardinal Thomas Collins: The Catholic Church simply teaches what Jesus teaches: marriage is an unbreakable covenant between a man and a woman, faithful in love and open to the gift of life. Divorce and remarriage is not allowed when it is a matter of a valid, sacramental, and consummated marriage.

When Jesus was preaching in Galilee, divorce and remarriage was accepted in society. The law of Moses allowed for it (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). The teaching of Jesus that divorce and remarriage is not allowed was revolutionary. It was even an indication of his claim to divinity, for only God has the authority to over-rule the law of Moses. Jesus went back to creation itself for the foundation of the unbreakable bond of marriage between a man and a woman: "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Matthew 19: 1-12). In light of current controversies, it is also helpful to note that Jesus also asserts plainly something that until recently was obvious to everyone: marriage is between a man and a woman. 


.... the full interview may be read here. 

Feast of the Sacred Heart and the growth of the Traditional Latin Mass in Toronto

This Friday, June 27th, 2014, will be the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Three Archdiocesan churches are offering the liturgy according to the more ancient usage of the Roman Liturgy (the usus antiquior, or, as many known it the "Extraordinary Form of the Roman Liturgy"). 

This follows on the extremely successful Solemn High Mass in the presence of H.E. Thomas Cardinal Collins for the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the ordination to the sacred priesthood of the Very Reverend Monsignor Vincent Foy. 

The Toronto Traditional Mass Society-Una Voce Toronto was approached late last year to organize this sacred liturgy. Many, many, countless hours of hard work and preparation were put in - especially by Mr. David Domet, Choirmaster, and Mr. Joseph DeCaria, Master of Ceremonies. To these two gentlemen, we particularly extend our gratitude. 

Further information for the upcoming liturgies is available at the website of the Toronto Traditional Mass Society- Una Voce Toronto. 

                           Toronto Oratory Church of the Holy Family

1372 King Street West, Toronto
Read Mass -- 11:30 A.M.

St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Church, Scarborough

2210 Lawrence Avenue East, Scarborough
Solemn Mass -- 7:00 P.M.  

St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Mississauga

5440 Durie Street
Solemn Mass -- 7:30 P.M.

Fascists ban Christian conference in Nanaimo, BC

"The Fascist State is a will to power and to government"

Mussolini

A Conference that included the gentle and innocuous Desmond Tutu was banned in Nanaimo, B.C. by City politicians. The reason: "divisiveness, homophobia, or other expressions of hate..." I have written before about the advance of fascism; it is gaining ground with incredible speed. It is spreading all over Canada, the US, and the EU - alleged bastions of anti-fascism. Fascism is here. 

"Fascism, in short, is not only the giver of laws and the founder of institutions, but the educator and promoter of spiritual life. It wants to remake, not the forms of human life, but its content, man, character, faith... The Fascist State, the highest and most powerful form of personality, is a force, but a spiritual force, which takes over all the forms of the moral and intellectual life of man. . . . It is the form, the inner standard and the discipline of the whole person; it saturates the will as well as the intelligence... the Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism, is totalitarian, and the Fascist State - a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values - interprets, develops, and potentates the whole life of a people...  (The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932, Mussolini) 

On Monday, May 5, in a last minute addition to the agenda of Nanaimo’s Committee of the Whole (Council-COW) meeting, Councillor Pattje put forward a motion which instructed the Management of the VICC (Atlific) not to take, or presumably at this late date to revoke, a booking for the “Beyond You” Leadercast, sponsored by the Nanaimo Daily News and Coastal Communities....

Councillor Pattje’s motion:
It was moved and seconded that the City of Nanaimo advise the VICC that as owners of the facility, any events that are associated with organizations or people that promote or have a history of divisiveness, homophobia, or other expressions of hate...

 The link is available here. 

Updated: June 24th. 

The Third Way: the Catholic Church and homosexuality

Pray and fast in reparation for "World Pride" Toronto

Alan Yoshioka asks us to approach those who suffer from same-sex attraction in the only manner befitting a Catholic: charity, clarity and chastity. Please visit Alan's excellent website for further information.

As Alan notes, at the core are three prayer intentions:

Charity: We repent of any ways in which persons with SSA or gender identity conflicts have been the object of unjust discrimination, including violent malice in speech or in action, and have been abandoned, rejected, or denied unconditional love. We affirm that there is a place in the Church for persons with SSA and gender identity conflicts, who are included in the universal call to holiness.

Clarity: We repent of any distortions of Church teaching as properly expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2357 to 2359. We affirm that same-sex acts cannot be approved under any circumstances; that same-sex inclinations are objectively disordered, a sign of concupiscence and not in and of themselves sinful; and that persons, regardless of their inclinations and acts, are made in the image of God, have intrinsic dignity, and are to be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.

Chastity: We repent of any sins against God’s plan for male and female complementarity and the gift of human life, including, but not limited to immodesty, masturbation, artificial birth control and artificial reproductive technologies, abortion, pornography, sexual abuse, adultery, fornication, polygamy, prostitution, no-fault divorce, and same-sex acts. We affirm the unitive and procreative meanings of authentic married love; and the treasure of holy celibacy as lived by single persons, religious, and priests.

The fascist spirit is alive and well in Canada, as the Church is marginalized and silenced

The title is not meant as incendiary or polemical. It is meant as reality. The  latest manifestation of abuse of power is the already fascistic Liberal party decreeing  that even incumbent MPs must renounce their conscience, and fall in line with the warped ideology of abortion. Usually this type of propaganda is masked under "separation of church and state".  In reality it is the gagging of the Church to preach the Gospel. Hence, war to the death with the Catholic Church is inevitable. Consider the following from official National Socialist propaganda contra the Church. It is a lesson for us as to how fascistic we have become as a regimented society; now being strait-jacketed into a semi-official state policy on personal morality.

Nazism well understood the danger the Church posed. It combatted the Church with a vengeance; unfortunately, Catholics in Germany were too weak and disorganized to block the gang of criminals who took over that country. Will we replay the tragedy? Will we be softened up to be killed off? How strong do you think the Church in Canada is to rebuff the warped, fascistic ideology of  the "World Pride" event taking place? Remember, silence will mean a further advance for this "despicable heathenism" (c.f. Bishop Gloffner below). Silence is not an option; certainly not for the martyr. 

Are we Catholics, Christians... men and women of good will now slipping into the unfortunate position of Jews in 1930s Germany? Think about it. 

As long as the Roman Catholic Church stays within its boundaries, as long as it deals with the religious lives and experiences of its faithful, and as long as it does not interfere in the areas of politics, economics and culture, those areas that the National Socialist government reserves entirely to itself in the interests of the whole of the people, each church and religious group in Germany can conduct its activities unhindered and free of outside influence.

In his bishop’s letter issued shortly before 30 January 1933, Johannes Maria Gföllner, Bishop of Linz, said it clearly:

“The nation is not the highest power, nor may the state be idolized; The highest power for each nation is and remains religion.” (that is, the Catholic Church)...

 According to the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, these people are more important than all scientific knowledge, so they cry bloody murder about the National Socialist state whose wise genetic policies and careful, justified elimination of incurable defectives are working to make the German people once again into a healthy, strong, youthful people....

Closely related to the agitation against the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Ill Offspring is political Catholicism’s battle against the powerful discoveries in the area of racial science. Bishop Gföllner is even clever enough to declare that the National Socialist standpoint is completely irreconcilable with Christianity, calling it a return to despicable heathenism...

Every German-thinking people’s comrade must resist the arrogant attempts of such people to oppose the state and National Socialist principles. When, for example, an itinerant Catholic preacher stands behind the pulpit and preaches to Catholic Germans that he prefers a Negro, a mulatto of pure soul, to a sinful Aryan, when he says that the Semitic race must be esteemed because Christ the man is of Semitic ancestry, when he calls on his hearers to fight for Rome and to be dissatisfied, then even the most faithful Catholic can only shake his head about such backwardness, narrow-mindedness, and ignorance, and leave such an apostle of agitation and hatred to himself...

We have no intention of allowing hysterical cowl-wearers, foreign to the people and the world, to risk even one word that goes beyond the realm of religion... 

How Wars End

The way wars end has changed remarkably in my lifetime. Who can forget Alfred Eisenstad's iconic photo capturing the joyous atmosphere of VE Day. There was literally celebrations in the streets. Moreover, there was a return to life... witness the post war baby boom. The war came to a conclusive end with the surrender of Germany and the complete collapse of the Nazi regime. There were stories to be told and the post war years saw a spate of war movies. 

However the next wars were far more ambiguous and their endings far less conclusive. The Korean war was the first of the cold war conflicts and its ending was a negotiated armistice after the war came to a stalemate. There was no clear and overwhelming victory. The country remains divided to this day and while the independence of South Korea was maintained, the conflict remains simmering today with occasional outbreaks of hostilities. The war itself has a rather mixed image in the minds of many, perhaps thanks to the television series M.A.S.H. which portrayed both the heroic and seamy sides of war.

Vietnam was my war and the reason I am in this country in the first place. For the first time people could watch the war in the comfort of their own living rooms and many did not like what they saw. It was not a universally popular war, spawning an antiwar movement that was vocal and persistent. Nixon's policy of Vietnamization gradually reduced US involvement and saw the return of many troops. Nixon had managed to get the cooperation of South Vietnam in the peace negotiations by implying that the US would resume bombing if there were any violations.

US Evacuation of Saigon

On January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accord was signed, supposedly ending the war. In June of that year Congress passed legislation prohibiting further military involvement in Vietnam without prior approval. The conflict changed but was hardly ended because both sides routinely violated the accord. The Americans maintained military advisors and embassy staff in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. In reality Congress ended the war because without the withdrawal of funds and congressional support the US could easily have been drawn into further precipitous action.

So far the Iraq war has followed the pattern of Vietnam with some very interesting twists. The US was very clearly warned about embarking on a unilateral invasion of Iraq. Pope John Paul II had this to say to President Bush during an audience with him in January 2003.

And what are we to say of the threat of a war which could strike the people of Iraq, the land of the Prophets, a people already sorely tried by more than twelve years of embargo? War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations. As the Charter of the United Nations Organization and international law itself remind us, war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions, without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations.

In the April 2003 issue of 30 Days, Cardinal Ratzinger said

First of all it was clear from the very beginning that proportion between the possible positive consequences and the sure negative effect of the conflict was not guaranteed. On the contrary, it seems clear that the negative consequences will be greater than anything positive that might be obtained. Without considering then that we must begin asking ourselves whether as things stand, with new weapons that cause destruction that goes well beyond the groups involved in the fight, it is still licit to allow that a “just war” might exist.      Cardinal Ratzinger, 30 Days

The war began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion by US troops. In December 2011 the US completed its withdrawal of troops and turned the war over to Iraqi authorities. Today Iraq faces complete collapse and civil war while President Obama contemplates sending up to 300 troops back to Iraq in a training and advisory capacity and embassy security. Is any of this starting to look familiar?

The US has learned some lessons from previous wars but not the most important ones. We will never again be able to watch our soldiers die on the evening news but they will still die. At least we can see the aftermath of the war because the US has little control over news reports from Iraq these days.

This too shall pass into the public consciousness the way the Vietnam war has. I can still return to my home town and read the names of the people I went to high school with on the war memorial at the back of the church. Meanwhile I am treated to the unspeakable perversion of seeing the war they died in portrayed in games that I can play on my computer.

Pope Francis picks England to win 2014 World Cup

Reports suggest that Pope Francis, an avid football fan, has picked England to win the 2014 World Cup Tournament.  Dominic Cardinal Vobiscum, Prefect to the Pontifical Council for Football (PCF), has informed a source close to Toronto Catholic Witness, that the Holy Father promised the Queen that he would drink the bottle of Scotch that she give on her visit to the Holy See upon England's victory. 

Canada Day Parade

D-Day, June 6, 1944: The 70th Anniversary

Seventy years ago, this very day, the Allies stormed ashore upon the Normandy Beaches... may we never forget their incredible sacrifice.

Address of H.M. King George VI on D-Day, 6 June 1944

Four years ago our Nation and Empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy with our backs to the wall. Tested as never before in our history, in God's Providence we survived that test.

The spirit of the people, resolute, dedicated, burnt like a bright flame lit surely from those unseen fires which nothing can quench.

Once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage, more than endurance. We need the revival of spirit, the new unconquerable resolve.

After nearly five years of toil and suffering we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour.

We and our allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honour may be the foundation of the life of men in every land.

That we may be worthily matched with these new summons of destiny I desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication.

We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God will do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God. And we dare to believe that God has used our Nation and Empire as an instrument for fulfilling His high purpose.

I hope that throughout the present crisis of the liberation of Europe there may be offered us earnest, continuous and widespread prayer.

We, who remain in this land, can most effectively enter into the suffering of subjugated Europe by prayer. Whereby we can fortify determination of our sailors, soldiers and airmen who go forth to set the captives free.

The Queen joins with me in sending you this message. She well understands the anxieties and cares of our womenfolk at this time. And she knows that many of them will find, as she does herself, fresh strength and comfort in such waiting upon God.

She feels that many women will be glad in this way to keep vigil with their men as they man the ships, storm the beaches and fill the skies.

At this historic moment surely not one of us is too busy, too young, or too old to play a part in a nationwide, a worldwide vigil of prayer as the great Crusade sets forth.

If from every place of worship, from home and factory, from men and women of all ages and many races and occupations, our intercessions rise, then, please God, both now and in the future not remote, the predictions of an ancient song may be fulfilled: "The Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will give His people the blessing of peace."

This Saturday, June 7th - Solemn High Mass on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Ordination of Msgr. Vincent Foy

Once again a reminder that two days from now a great blessing will come upon the Archdiocese of Toronto: the most solemn event, in the presence of His Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Collins of the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of the Most Rev. Msgr. Vincent Foy.  This blog takes the name of "Witness", to continue the work of the lay organization, "Witness", which had the great honour of Msgr. Foy as Chaplain. Monfort, intimately involved with "Witness" is a close friend of the Monsignor. As such, it is with special joy that we await this glorious event. We encourage all Catholics to make this a most prayerful day. 

A beautiful recollection of some aspects of Msgr. Foy's long and rich priestly life can be read at Vox Cantoris.