Social Media has become a Death Trap for the Christian Life!

The world is a nasty place, and only getting nastier. It is a selfish place. Full, sadly, of selfish people, myself included. We are simply infected with the cancer that surrounds us. It takes a tremendous effort to cleanse oneself from the dirt, the poison, the filth, that we breath everyday, nearly on an hourly basis. Far, far too many of us Christians are nasty, selfish people, who outside of popping into church on a Sunday, have very little to show that we actually believe and live the Gospel. 

Social media provides immediacy, anonymity, and yet detachment between interlocutors (hence communication is really "virtual" rather than real) has become, generally speaking, a very destructive and dehumanizing tool. I too have abused social media. Like many of you, I too have felt, and can feel its seductive pull, to "get involved", to "make a stand", to "speak out" etc! 

This is a grave danger that must be avoided by the Christian. I must strive to minimize my usage of it, and to periodically review and clean up - spiritually and physically - my social media. Most people (such as perhaps you dear reader) are not too interested in my opinion/s. And they are probably just as much not interested in yours. My social media footprint is very, very small (just over 16,000 followers on Twitter, which is nothing) and as such, I am deluded if I believe that I am an "influencer" (so goes the new catchphrase). And even if I were, the dangers would only be that much more magnified. 

As such, the way I can "influence" is to strive to live my life as a Christian. That means, living an upright moral life, living in the moment, and living as a Christian witness to those with whom I live, and with whom I interact with. This is where God placed me, this is where I will live out my salvation or damnation. I am certainly not going to be saved by being active on social media. To the contrary, social media, usually (though not always) is a crack in the wall to sin. The sins of sloth, anger, hate, slander, ridicule, and pride are there for the picking. It really is not too difficult to enter a life of sin using social media. The greatest deception of all, is that one can walk this path into darkness believing that one is defending Christ and His Church. How tragic. 

I find it bizarre to use the word "social", as given in most instances there is no direct person to person contact. Contact is, at best, undertaken in a hidden manner, electronically obscured and transmitted. True social contact is made face to face; it is, so to speak incarnational. Our Lord did not come hidden, He came in the Flesh and revealed Himself to us. 

Sloth is one of the easiest of sins that social media offers. Five minutes a day, 10, 30? Maybe an hour or two, perhaps three...? Just how much time do Catholics spend on the interminable Twitter or Facebook? The question then arises: if people devote (e.g.) 30 minutes on social media, just how much time do they devote in prayer? Perhaps a two or three to one ratio? This would still be giving God short thrift. Is God only worth three times more than looking for gossip or scandal and eagerly re-tweeting it? If we want to defend the Church, the best place is in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

What have we become, when we no longer "have time" go to daily Mass, or visit the Blessed Sacrament, but we can engage in "daily" social media? Just who is first in our lives? What about our families? What about our friends? What about those who are suffering, those who are alone, abandoned? St. James called them the "widows" and the "orphans". Do we have time for them? Or, do we have only time (or too much time) for impersonal and detached social media activity? Let us ask ourselves these very serious questions. 

The Sacred Scriptures are absolute on a fundamental error that has swept social media: one cannot do evil that good may come of it (Roman 3:8). Spiritual writers and directors are as firm: from the desert Fathers, through the Carmelites, to modern writers (such as Dom Chautard). 

We live in an evil world and many of us feel frustrated about this evil. It is not easy to confront evil without hatred and anger. But it must be done. That is why we must increase our prayer life and also live the Christian life. The Apostles certainly confronted evil, but do you notice one outstanding thing? They were able to do this only because they lived - firstly - lives of prayer. Our Lord warned us, "without me you can do nothing". (John 15:5). 

St. James provides us with great advice - indeed a litmus test - on how we should be living our lives, if we wish to be saved: 

Only you must be honest with yourselves; you are to live by the word, not content merely to listen to it.  

One who listens to the word without living by it is like a man who sees, in a mirror, the face he was born with;  he looks at himself, and away he goes, never giving another thought to the man he saw there.  

Whereas one who gazes into that perfect law, which is the law of freedom, and dwells on the sight of it, does not forget its message; he finds something to do, and does it, and his doing of it wins him a blessing. 

If anyone deludes himself by thinking he is serving God, when he has not learned to control his tongue, the service he gives is vain.  

If he is to offer service pure and unblemished in the sight of God, who is our Father, he must take care of orphans and widows in their need, and keep himself untainted by the world.

James 1: 22-27

In laudable move, the SSPX calls for reparation and fasting in wake of the Great Pan-Amazonian Synod

Yesterday, SSPX Superior General Fr. Davide Pagilarani issued the following letter to Catholics worldwide:

It is to be commended. Finally, an appropriate response from a priestly order. It is an outstanding letter.

No wonder the Catholic faithful are flocking to the SSPX in this time of crisis, as opposed to the FSSP or the Institute.

Will you join me on November 9th and November 10th as I - and several others - undertake this much-needed action?

May the SSPX continue to be the bastion of orthodoxy in our day and age.

Catholic Education is Dead: How a Militant Teacher's Union Wages War against the Catholic Faith and Children

OECTA and its promotion of "LGBT" propaganda

Catholic education in Canada is a disaster. For well OVER two decades in Ontario, the militant Union, the Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association (OECTA), has promoted dissent and outright heretical positions. In the past, the Hierarchy was able, and did discipline and even dismiss teachers who were openly and knowingly flaunting Faith and Morals. However, by the late 1980s dissent had become much more organized and entrenched. Dissenter and "religion" teacher Joanna Manning (who eventually left the Church) had a confrontation with the late Cardinal Ambrozic that began in 1987 and lasted until 1994. 

Manning raged against the Church in these words: 

Sexual harassment, put-downs of women, jock networks of boys, lack of female role models for girls and other inequalities exist in all school systems. In the Catholic system they are reinforced and legitimized by attitudes like Ambrozic's which are fostered within the institutional Catholic church."

There you have it! The late Cardinal accused of "reinforcing" and "legitimizing" sexual harassment! Perhaps contemporary OECTA members can explain that to the teenage boys who are being sexually abused and even raped by their female pedophile teachers? 

But let us continue the tale of the attack on Cardinal Ambrozic. The Cardinal, working with the then Metropolitan Separate School Board (MSSB) managed to silence and removed the dissenting woman, who, incidentally, would eventually join the Church of England, to then join up with neo-pagans. But OECTA counter-attacked and defeated the Cardinal in the courts. Manning was reinstated (with the proviso that she not teach "religion"). With their victory, OECTA effectively assumed complete control of "Catholic" education in Ontario. 

In more recent years, when OECTA's leadership  announced that it intended to enter and officially participate in the notorious "gay pride" parade in Toronto, Cardinal Collins issued a statement that the "...OECTA leadership have an inadequate and mistaken understanding of their faith...it seems to be going completely against what we believe in many ways". OECTA marched anyway, with the support of a number of dissident Catholic School Boards. The Cardinal's ineffectual statement fell flat, and OECTA emerged triumphant. "Catholic" education was firmly under their control. It remains so to this very day. 

OECTA propaganda in favour of the "LGBT" agenda

Since Cardinals Ambrozic and Collins' humiliating defeat at the hands of OECTA, the aggression, the militancy, the vile imposition of evil on innocent children has only increased. Boards are passing pro-"LGBT" position papers, enforcing their "LGBT" decisions in classrooms. Staff are being spied on, and anti-Christian edicts are being enforced. The most obvious recent example is the glorification of the new fad of "transgenderism". 

OECTA "transgender" propaganda

Let us not be deluded. Even at the private level, Catholic education is a farce. Witness the scandalous "Broom Handle Sodomy Trial" trial (concluded just the other day), with three boys pleading guilty from the once venerable St. Michael's College to (so it was reported in the media when the outrage first broke last year) gang-raping a fellow student with a broom handle. So much for Christian morals and living. One can only wonder what types of homes these degenerate boys come from. 

Or, let us consider the ever constant flow of sexual assaults and rapes committed on school children. It is interesting to note how many of these sexual assaults are committed by hyper-sexualized women on teenage boys. So much for "male privilege" that OECTA keeps on complaining about, in their never-ending promotion of feminism. However, OECTA, heavily dominated by bitter angry females issued the following from a 145 page "Equity Report":

When all is said and done, the Old Boys Network is more than statistics of race or gen­der: it is about who partakes in the culture of power in the system. The inner circle of influence has often depended on shared social activities as much as academic influence. Golf, fishing, jock talk, athletics: the "Cathletics" culture of the traditional all-male Catholic school which repli­cates the hold of white male power in the Catho­lic Church fosters an automatic assumption of being included with the 'good guys'. Many male administrators at MSSB are graduates of the private, elitist all-male schools that were typical of Catholic secondary education in Ontario be­fore full funding, and that model has a strong influence on the type of school culture they will try to create. Not all men fit this model: gay men, men who are not into athletics, for instance, find themselves on the outer fringes along with women and visible minorities of both genders. (Toronto Secondary Unit (1997) Equity Report (p. 62)

OECTA promoting the ideology of "feminism" 

A few news items regarding teachers (from OECTA and others) may be reviewed, here, here, here, here, here, and here. A special thanks to the blog, "Jonah in the Heart of Ninevah" is called for. We are all indebted for the constant watchfulness of "Jonah" regarding sexual predators in what should be the teaching vocation.  

Convicted pedophile and former OECTA member, Christina Albini

Nor can we forget the innumerable times that pro-homosexual activists at OECTA march in the evil "Gay Pride Parades", where teachers, adorned in the colours of "gay liberation",  holding aloft and waving OECTA rainbow-coloured flags, march alongside naked homosexuals, drag queens, and other perverts.

These same teachers will then report to class the next day and claim they are teaching Catholic Faith and Morals. A cursory gland through the Catechism of the Catholic Church exposes the contradiction between attending a parade that not only excuses grave sin, but glories in it.

OECTA members/supporters attending a "Gay Pride" march in Toronto

Where does this all leave us? Simply put, it means the de facto decimation of the Catholic Church. For if the next generation is paganized by its teachers, (with the seeming full assistance of paganized parents) where and how will the Faith by handed on? 

Look for things to get much, much worse. More to follow. Stay tuned to this blog. 

My Lord and My God

24

 

There was one of the twelve, Thomas, who is also called Didymus, who was not with them when Jesus came.

25

 

And when the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord, he said to them, Until I have seen the mark of the nails on his hands, until I have put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, you will never make me believe.

26

 

So, eight days afterwards, once more the disciples were within, and Thomas was with them; and the doors were locked. Jesus came and stood there in their midst; Peace be upon you, he said.

27

 

Then he said to Thomas, Let me have thy finger; see, here are my hands. Let me have thy hand; put it into my side. Cease thy doubting, and believe.

28

 

Thomas answered, Thou art my Lord and my God.

Crisis decides to publish slander against Fr. Pagliarani, SSPX Superior

Crisis Magazine, care to explain this one?

A bit of sunlight appeared to slip between the two leaders last month, however, when SSPX/News published an interview with Fr. Pagliarani. The first question referred to the upcoming Amazon Synod; instead of answering the question, he brought up the Second Vatican Council, saying that it “itself was only possible because it was the result of a decadence that affected the Church in the years before its opening.” Then, when asked about Francis’s controversial encyclical Amoris Laetitia, he again brought up Vatican II. Amoris, he says, is “one of the results that, sooner or later, was to occur as a result of the principles laid down by the Council.” He also compared Amoris to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, saying that, “humanly speaking, the damage is irreparable.” 

This is a far cry from Bishop Fellay’s diplomatic tone and nuanced understanding of the ongoing crisis of Catholic tradition. Clearly, Fellay wasn’t reluctant to call out the Vatican—and even the Pope by name—when he thought it was in grave error. The “filial correction” he signed in 2017 (nine months before his ouster) dealt largely with the ambiguities and perceived errors in Amoris Laetitia. But Fr. Pagliarani’s preoccupation with the Second Vatican Council and his excoriation of Francis is beyond anything that passed from Archbishop Lefebvre’s own lips. One almost expects him to claim that original sin itself is a product of Vatican II. 

The difference between the two men, it seems to me, is this: Bishop Fellay sees the Society as a vanguard of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. He wants to share that charism with the rest of the Church, which is why he pursued rapprochement so vigorously. Meanwhile, Fr. Pagliarani seems to agree with the Resistance that the charism of truth is now outside of Rome and kept alive by the SSPX itself. These interviews give the appearance that Fellay sees the Society as being out of communion with the Church, whereas Pagliarani sees the Church as being out of communion with the Society.

This is slander. A retraction might be in order.

Read more at: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/sspx-back-to-the-bad-old-days

An Open Letter to Canada's Bishops: Why did you help re-elect Justin Trudeau?

Bishops of Canada,

We write to you, the morning after the 2019 Election with a few questions:


Where were you when a brother bishop gave the Holy Eucharist to Justin Trudeau at a Solemn Mass in Ottawa?

 Where were you, when Justin Trudeau advocated un-Christian moral positions as a Member of Parliament?

Where were you when he considered severing Canada as a nation, to protect the crime of abortion?

Where were you when he came out as Liberal Party Leader and banned pro-life candidates?

Where were you when he was running on an openly, militantly, pro-abortion, pro-LGBT and pro-marijuana agenda platform in 2015?

Where were you when he was pushing euthanasia?

Where were you when he rammed euthanasia through Parliament?

Where were you when he was marching in "Gay Pride Parades"?

Where were you when he promised the homosexuals that he would lower the age of consent for anal "sex" to sixteen?

Where were you when he announced a $650, 000,000 abortion funding program?

Where were you when Trudeau's hand-chosen atheist Governor General mocked religion?

Where were you when he rammed pro-marijuana legislation through Parliament?

Where were you - when time and again - over the years in his townhall meetings he would keep pushing the abortion and LGBT agenda?

Where were you when he came out during the 2019 election campaign to say that abortion was a "good"?

Where were you during the 2019 election campaign to call for the end of abortion, euthanasia and legal drugs?

Where were you when he promoted and pushed the latest horror of the LGBT agenda: transexualism?

Where were you when he was pushing the "LGBT" agenda on the international stage?


There are assuredly many more other examples of your inaction and silence, but we have made our point.

We pray for your conversion, that you repent of your spiritual and moral crimes. We pray you will obtain the courage to resign from your Sees, which you have profaned with your inaction, even collusion with Trudeau. 

We respect your Offices as Bishops, but, rest assuredly, we do not respect you as men. In fact, we see you as men who have betrayed your Offices of feeding the Sheep, of being watchmen against evil. 

Sincerely, The Witness Blog 

Justin Trudeau is an EVIL man: Catholics how do YOU intend to Vote tomorrow on Election Day?

Justin Trudeau is an EVIL man. He has imposed much EVIL on Canadians over the past four years.

Trudeau managed two "successes" during the past four years. Firstly, there is the "legalization" of  the killing of the disabled and the elderly (for now), in what is euphemistically called "euthanasia". Secondly, there is the legalization of marijuana. As to abortion: it continues unabated, up to, and including the moment of birth. In fact, Trudeau has increased his pro-abortion rhetoric, to the point of publicly declaring that he personally accepts it as a good. 


 

You as a Catholic will be voting tomorrow. Just how are you going to vote? 

Catholics should be aware that the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party of Canada, the Green Party of Canada, and the Bloc Quebecois all officially support abortion, and forbid any pro-life candidates to stand for election. So much for democracy, so much for freedom. 

That means there is only the Conservative Party of Canada and the People's Party of Canada left. 

Both of these parties have serious defects. On the one hand, though "personally" opposed to abortion, Andrew Scheer has promised to block any attempt to bring in legislation to limit abortion. Maxime Bernier, though "pro-abortion" and has stated that he will not block any attempt to bring in legislation to limit abortion, and has been recently questioning the morality of late-term abortion. 

Further, both parties have taken a pro-"LGBT" stand. The Conservatives are being more and more influenced by the powerful "LGBTory"group. I predict that there will be another "Reform"/"Canadian Alliance" rebellion within this Party, as it is obvious that the Tories have been taken over by powerful elitist and financial forces from the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Axis. If Trudeau wins on Monday night, look for a rebellion sooner than later, with its genesis in western Canada. 

All this means that unfortunately, quite a number of you will be disenfranchised, especially those of you living Ontario and eastwards. Many, of not most of you will face the reality that ALL the candidates in your Riding will be pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-drugs etc. Here, the biblical principle applies: "no man can do evil that good may come of it". Canadians living in western Canada, still have a number of outstanding pro-life and pro-family candidates. Get out and vote!

For those of us in eastern Canada, many times we will have no choice of a candidate, as all will be seriously morally compromised. However,  you may yet be able to vote, not so much as to elect someone, but as a "protest" (e.g. Toronto will be swept by the Liberals, with the possibility of a few Ridings going NDP). In such cases, the morally compromised candidate has no chance of being elected, and your vote is a protest against Justin Trudeau and his evil Regime. 

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR SUCH EVIL PEOPLE TO BE ELECTED? Why would Canadians, time and again, vote for politicians whose stated aim is to promote abortion, "same-sex marriage", and other grave evils? Let us be honest, the population itself is evil and decadent. The population votes for those they approve. 

Toronto, demographically is 32% Catholic (2015 Statistics Canada), yet the vast majority of them will vote pro-abortion. It is estimated by Ipsos that 77% of Canadians are pro-abortion; with 53% supporting partial-birth infanticide. This is where we are morally. 

The Catholic Church, and ESPECIALLY her HIERARCHY and PRIESTS must take the PRIMARY  BLAME for this moral collapse. They have been silent for decades. They were silent, and even enablers in the 1960s and so on to this day. Have you not noticed the absolute silence from the churchmen this election? 

When was the last time you heard a priest say you cannot vote for a pro-abortion candidate?

When was the last time your heard a priest even say that abortion was murder and a mortal sin? 

When was the last time you heard a bishop say these things?

When was the last time you heard a bishop denounce a politician for grave evils and then take action against this politician? 

So don't tell me these bishops and priests are pro-life because they are not. 

Dear Catholics friends (and indeed visiting voters who have yet to come to Our Lord) please prayerfully consider your vote. Know that God will see for whom you cast your vote. You (and I) will have to answer for whom we voted for on Judgement Day. 

One thing I know: Justin Trudeau is an EVIL, vicious man. A man inclined towards narcissistic tyranny, a man imbued with an anti-Christian and anti-democratic (properly understood) spirit. 

He is a liar, a deceiver, a fraud, an imposter. 

He is a hate-filled fascist. 

Vote dear friends, so that we are rid of this wretched man come Tuesday morning, October 22nd. 

Video emerges of Justin Trudeau planning to use "hate" and "intolerance" as part of his Election Campaign from seven months ago

Justin Trudeau at the OECTA March AGM, where he revealed the election will be about smearing political opponents as "haters" 

The recent cries of alleged "hate", "intolerance", "divisiveness" etc., that Justin Trudeau and his media sycophants have been pushing during the election campaign was actually planned a long time ago. This is all part of a long-term strategy to sling mud and falsehoods on political opponents to steal an election through lies and deception. 

In March of this year, at the AGM of the Ontario Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA), Trudeau (before an adoring audience of militant, hard-left activists masquerading as "Catholic teachers") outlined how name-calling and the smearing of others would be at the core of the Liberal Election platform. 

So here we are, seven months later, and with seeming perfect timing, Trudeau and his allies in the shameless, monolithic media (CBC, CTV, and Global) all begin a strident cry of "hate" and "intolerance". Truly disgusting.

There are no coincidences in politics, just carefully laid plans. However, even the best plan can go awry. Videos uploaded to the internet can backfire. 

Watch this video and see this dangerous, divisive narcissist in action. 

Readers may wonder how is it possible for "Catholic" teachers to applaud and support such an open enemy of Christian morality? That disturbing question will be dealt with in another post. 

How the Catholic Church in Canada has enabled Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau did not come out as a militant supporter of the "LGBT" agenda last week. He did not come out as a rabid abortion advocate yesterday. Justin Trudeau did not come out as a strident euthanasia supporter this morning. He did not come out as promoter of transvestites a minute ago. 

No, Trudeau openly, aggressively, advocated for all these evils as an MP, as Liberal Leader and as Prime Minister. In other words, for years. 

Yet these moral crimes did not seemingly incommode clerics in any way. 

Who can forget this scandalous Tweet?

Or these blasphemous words written by Rosica in The Globe and Mail (since scrubbed from the internet): 

"...we are taught where to find God...we can find Him in the bold, courageous leadership of a young Prime Minister..."

Trudeau may have been the darling of the rich and powerful clerical establishment, but his demonic agenda was fully grasped by Catholics.


The Vox at the blog, Vox Cantoris accurately described Trudeau in this manner back in March of 2016: 

Justin Trudeau is a pathetic man. He is an egoist and an arrogant despicable cretin who has betrayed his baptism...

Dear friends, pray that this wicked man be cast out from Office on October 21st. 

Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian Readers

Psalm 137

(Of David.)

1

 

My heart’s thanks, Lord, for listening to the prayer I uttered; angels for my witnesses,✻ I will sing of thy praise.

2

 

I bow down in worship towards thy sanctuary, praising thy name for thy mercy and faithfulness; thy own honour and thy pledged word thou hast vindicated for all the world to see.

3

 

To thee I appealed, and thou didst listen to me, didst fill my heart with courage.

4

 

All the kings of the earth, Lord, will praise thee now; were not thy promises made in their hearing?

5

 

Their song shall be of the Lord’s doings, how great is his renown,

6

 

the Lord, who is so high above us, yet looks with favour on the humble, looks on the proud too, but from far off.

7

 

Though affliction surround my path, thou dost preserve me; it is thy power that confronts my enemies’ malice, thy right hand that rescues me.

8

 

My purposes the Lord will yet speed; thy mercy, Lord, endures for ever, and wilt thou abandon us, the creatures of thy own hands?

The faithful cry to God during the Great Pan-Amazonian Synod

1

 

(A song. A psalm. Of the sons of Core. To the choir-master. Melody: Mahalat. For singing. A maskil. Of Heman the Ezrahite.)

2

 

Lord God, day and night I cry bitterly to thee;

3

 

let my prayer reach thy pre-sence, give audience to my entreaty,

4

 

for indeed my heart is full of trouble. My life sinks ever closer to the grave;

5

 

I count as one of those who go down into the abyss, like one powerless.

6

 

As well lie among the dead, men laid low in the grave, men thou rememberest no longer, cast away, now, from thy protecting hand.

7

 

Such is the place where thou hast laid me, in a deep pit where the dark waters swirl;

8

 

heavily thy anger weighs down on me, and thou dost overwhelm me with its full flood.

9

 

Thou hast estranged all my acquaintance from me, so that they treat me as a thing accursed; I lie in a prison whence there is no escape,

10

 

my eyes grow dim with tears. On thee I call, to thee stretch out my hands, each day that passes.

11

 

Not for the dead thy wonderful power is shewn; not for pale shadows to return and give thee thanks.

12

 

There in the grave, how shall they recount thy mercies; how shall they tell of thy faithfulness, now that life is gone?

13

 

How can there be talk of thy marvels in a world of darkness, of thy favour in a land where all is forgotten?

14

 

To prayer, Lord, fall I lustily; it shall reach thee, while there is yet time.

15

 

Why dost thou reject my plea, Lord, and turn thy face away from me?

16

 

Ever since youth, misery and mortal sickness have been my lot; wearily I have borne thy visitations;

17

 

I am overwhelmed with thy anger, dismayed by thy threats,

18

 

that still cut me off like a flood, all at once surrounding me.

19

 

Friends and neighbours gone, a world of shadows is all my company.

Do 'really good kids' sodomize another with a broom?

Readers of TCW may remember Barona's report this past November of seven students at St. Mike's College School here in Toronto arrested after a video surfaced of them sodomizing another student with a broom.

Well, we finally have an update on the case, courtesy of CBC News. However, there is one item I would like to draw your attention to.

Rachel Lichtman is representing one of the teens accused of the broom-sodomizing. When asked about the characters of the teens who were arrested, Lichtman said, "They're really good kids. They made mistakes, and they're taking responsibility for those mistakes."

Come again?

"They're really good kids."

Do "really good kids" pull down another boy's pants, and proceed to shove a broom handle up his anus on more than one occasion?

Do "really good kids" hold the same boy down and proceed to rip at his clothing, to the point where they rip apart his underwear?

Do "really good kids" laugh and jeer as this is going on?

Do "really good kids" film this?

No. "Really good kids" might accidentally put a baseball through a neighbour's window. "Really good kids" might do anything but assault another boy, anally rape him with a broom handle, and generally humiliate him in front of other boys. Those are not "really good kids." Those are children with malice in them, for that is exactly what sexual assault involves. Malice.

Malice that they proceeded to take out on an innocent boy. In a school which purportedly teaches its students "goodness, discipline and knowledge." Well, the first two were clearly not in any supply in that locker room. It makes me wonder what that school actually teaches.

Ms. Lichtman, you might want to consider your choice of words in the future, for they offend not only members of the general public, but also the victim who is so often forgotten in cases as these.

October 11th: Feast of the Maternity of the Mother of God

 

This feast commemorates the dignity of the Mary as Mother of God (Theotokos), the title of Mary ratified by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. The feast was first granted to the dioceses of Portugal and to Brasil and Algeria in 1751. In 1752 it was granted to the province of Venice, in 1778 to the kingdom of Naples and in 1807 to Tuscany.

Eighth Lesson from the Roman Breviary

Marvel at both these things, and choose whether to marvel most at the sublime condescension of the Son, or at the sublime dignity of Mary. Either is amazing, either marvellous. That God should obey this woman, is a lowliness without parallel; that this woman should rule over God, an exaltation without match. In praise of virgins, and of virgins only, is it sung that “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Apocalypse xiv. 4). Of what praise then think you that she must be worthy who even leads the Lamb. “O man, learn to obey. O earth, learn to submit. O dust, learn to keep down. It is of your Maker that the Evangelist said: ‘And He was subject to them.’ Blush, O proud ashes! God humbles Himself; and you exalt yourself? God is subject to men; and will you, by striving to rule over men, set yourself before your Maker?

O happy Mary, lowly and virgin; and wondrous virginity, which motherhood destroyed not, but exalted; and wondrous lowliness, which the fruitful virginity took not away, but ennobled; and wondrous motherhood, which was both virgin and lowly. Which of them is not wondrous? which of them is not unexampled, and which of them does not stand alone? The wonder would be if you were not puzzled at which to wonder most — motherhood in a virgin, or virginity in a mother; a motherhood so exalted, or lowliness in such exaltation. But indeed more marvellous than any one of these things is the combination of them all, and without all comparison, it is more excellent and more blessed to have received them all, than to have received any one of them alone. What wonder is it that God, of Whom we see and read, that “He is wonderful in His holy places” (Psalm lxvii. 36), should have shown Himself wonderful in His Mother? O you that be married, honour this incorruption in corruptible flesh; O, holy maidens, gaze in wonder at motherhood in a maid; O, all mankind, take pattern by the lowliness of the Mother of God.

O God, who willed that your Word should take flesh at the message of an angel in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant to us, we beseech you, that we who believe her to be indeed the Mother of God may be aided by her intercession with you. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

 From In Lumine Fidei.

Where is the indignation?

Last week, a rather disturbing "tree-planting ceremony" was observed in the Vatican Gardens.

There is no need for me to reiterate what happened. I will let Vox Cantoris supply the reader with the stark details. Vox is more to the point, anyway.

My concern here is captured in the title of this post: Where is the indignation?

It's certainly not lacking in the Catholic lay Faithful. I have already mentioned Vox, but Stefanie Nicholas, Steve Skojec, Laurence England and others have expressed their indignation at the event. Mahound's Paradise has authored a rather piercing commentary on the "incident." All of this, I should add, is righteous indignation, as it must be.

This righteous indignation is also not lacking in some parish priests. Father John Stone Melnick comes to mind. My own local priest has also admitted he has serious concerns about the business to me personally.

Rather, I am asking the question of Princes of the Church - be they Cardinal or Bishop.

Where is your indignation? Where on Earth is it?

Look, I understand it is a bad time for you all, those of you who aren't minions of the man in the papal chair. I know there are some who are rolling their eyes at everything Pope Bergoglio is doing, turning the head aside and focusing on salvaging what little remains of the Faith in their dioceses.

I understand that. The faithful would be without a shepherd if you stood up forcefully against the man in the papal chair.

But is solemn silence really the way to go about it? I mean, not even a reminder that we are to follow the 1st commandment?

We lay faithful are just a touch tired of the resilient silence. A peep from you once in a while would be nice.

Just so we know we're not alone in this fight.

An Offer of Reparation for the Offences done to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Yesterday, as described by Vox Cantoris and others, it appears that Pope Bergoglio denied that Jesus was God, as given in an interview with the atheist Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari.

Scalfari is notorious for not taking any notes during his interviews with the man in the papal chair. As with the incident last year that the Pope denied Hell, he is accused of making things up in this incident. Yet Scalfari does not seem to bother with coming clean in light of such accusations, and nor does the Pope. He did not do so last year, and it seems as though this will not happen again. I also note that this is a repeat incident. If the last incident was so disastrous, why are we seeing it happen again? These are serious questions we must ask ourselves.

Thus, I am inclined to believe the journalist over the Vicar. I believe an atheist over a Christian. It is truly a sad state of affairs.

There is much I could ask the Pope in light of such a serious accusation. Many have already done so. He has been asked to either affirm his belief in Jesus as God or call Scalfari out for putting words in his mouth. He has been asked to publicly prostrate himself before the Blessed Sacrament, recite the Nicene Creed and the Te Deum; whip himself and wear a hair shirt as part of his public penance.

Much has been asked of the man in the papal chair. But - and I wonder how many would agree with me on this - I am disinclined to believe he would listen to these requests. His track record proves he's not too serious on assuaging the concerns of the faithful.

Thus, charity demands we do something for the man instead of asking those things of him he will not do. No, his sin is not our own sin, but we faithful have to live with the reality of having a man in charge whose belief in the basic tenets of the Faith is questionable.

So, Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio, this act of reparation for the offences done to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ is for you, for your offences, offences that have caused great scandal and confusion to your flock. The flock assigned to you by virtue of your office as Pope. May you one day repent of your deeds.

O sweet Jesus, Whose overflowing charity for me is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Your altar (in Your presence) eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Your loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow You, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the vows of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Your Law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against You; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holidays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against You and Your Saints.

We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Your Vicar on earth and Your priest are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Your Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which You have founded.

Would, O divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Your divine honor, the satisfaction You once made to Your eternal Father on the cross and which You continue to renews daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Your grace, for all neglect of Your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past.

Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending You and to bring as many as possible to follow You.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to You, so that we may one day come to that happy home, where You with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, world without end. Amen.

Are you marked safe from the Schismatic Repaganization of Rome?

For our readers who are not users of Facebook, the platform has a "marked safe" feature, which is used to inform others whether or not you are safe from serious incidents, and is based on the city you indicate you are living in.

Hence the following image currently being circulated on social media.

 

So, dear readers - are you marked safe from the Schismatic Repaganization of Rome?

Let us know in the comments.