Where is the mercy?

This blogger has friends that worship at the Toronto chapel of the Society of St. Pius X. I have a conflicted view of the fact that they do, but I can clearly understand it. One one hand, they attend their in a comfortable way, they do not participate in the life of the greater Archdiocese nor do they fight it out in the trenches; it would be a lot easier with them in the fight directly with those of us engaging the crisis daily. On the other hand, who am I to judge? The scandal and sorrow that they have endured on the part of priests or previous Ordinaries not sympathetic to the cause is legion. (I do not include Cardinal Collins in this as he has generally been supportive of the Toronto Traditional Mass Society's goals and the needs of the faithful. though clearly the FSSP issue is still a hard point), 

It is also repugnant that certain puerile people label them and others as madtrads or radtrads or trads-behaving-badly. It is insulting, degrading, juvenile, schizophrenic and unbecoming of any Catholic who purports to love the Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Holy Sacrifice at the Mass and His Church. 

It is regrettable that under our dear Pope Benedict XVI, a complete reconciliation could not be realised and I long for the day in God's good time and may I live to see it, that a perfect communion is established.

Full disclosure: I have worshipped at the Toronto chapel in the past and sang in the Schola there whilst between other chant engagements. I have never gone to the Sacrament of Confession there for obvious reasons but the Mass if valid and holy.

What these two bishops, in Italy and Argentina have done, by threatening the lay faithful with excommunication when the Church has already stated that they are not excommunicated is the height of episcopal arrogance and hypocrisy. These are our brother and sisters. These are Catholic faithful living the faith as the parents of these bishops did!

There is much talk of mercy these days. Mercy for sodomites, mercy for those paying the price for murder, mercy for adulterers. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy.

Well? Where is the mercy for these 99?

INTERNATIONAL UNA VOCE FEDERATION

MEDIA RELEASE – IMMEDIATE – 4 November 2014

International Una Voce Federation: threatened SSPX excommunications may be illegal

LONDON 4 November 2014 – The International Una Voce Federation which seeks to promote the traditions, particularly the liturgical traditions, of the Roman Catholic Church, within the official structures of the Church, today questioned the legality of a “notification” dated 14 October 2014 of the Roman See of Albano, Italy, claiming to ex-communicate those who receive the sacraments from, or attend religious services of, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).

The Federation questions the legality of a notification in similar terms of Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in Argentina, issued on 3 November 2014.

The Federation, which is a lay movement independent of any priestly or religious community, believes that preservation of doctrine, law and justice, as well as good pastoral practice, within the Church, is important.

The Federation believes that these “notifications” tend to imply that anyone who has ever attended services of the SSPX is not welcome in parish churches in these dioceses.

This view is clearly in direct contrast with the emphasis of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, upon mercy and forgiveness, as well as the “openness of heart” requested by Pope Benedict XVI as a prelude to a healing of divisions “in the heart of the Church”.

The Bishop of Albano is the Rt Rev Marcello Semeraro, media spokesman of the Italian Bishops’ conference and secretary of the Papal inner Council of 9 advisers.

The Federation is asking the Holy See to advise that these notifications are defective and to require them to be modified so as to comply with the law of the Church and the decisions of the Holy See.

BACKGROUND

On 14 October 2014, the Chancery of the Diocese of Albano issued a notification to parish priests claiming that anyone who attends SSPX services, even, apparently, children, thereby “break communion with the Catholic Church” and can only be re-admitted to the Church after “an adequate personal path of reconciliation”. The notification reads:

“The Catholic faithful cannot participate at Mass, neither request and/or receive sacraments from or in the Society. Acting otherwise would mean to break communion with the Catholic Church.

Therefore, any Catholic faithful who requests and receives sacraments in the Society of Saint Pius X, will place himself de facto in the condition of no longer being in communion with the Catholic Church. A readmission to the Catholic Church must be preceded by an adequate personal path of reconciliation, according to the ecclesiastical discipline established by the Bishop.”

Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in Argentina, in a letter to his diocese dated 3 November 2014, states:

“It is not licit for the Catholic faithful to take part in the celebration of Mass in these conditions, neither to request nor to receive sacraments from the priests of the aforementioned "Society of Saint Pius X", including in private places turned into places of worship, without excluding, in case of obstinacy, also the ferendae sententiae penalties that may apply, according to the ecclesial spirit and that of protection of the faithful.

In the case of the rupture of ecclesiastical communion by the above-mentioned founded motives, in order to be later readmitted to the Catholic Church, a personal path of reconciliation (and eventually of removal of the canonical censure) will be required, according to the discipline advised by the Holy See and the [diocese's] own, established by the diocesan bishop.”

CANONICAL BRIEF

The attitude of the Holy See has always been that lay faithful who receive the sacraments from priests of the SSPX are not excommunicated. Examples are as follows.

In 1991 Bishop Joseph Ferrario of Honolulu declared six lay Catholics excommunicated on grounds of schism for having procured the services of an SSPX bishop to administer confirmation. These appealed to the Holy See which, through Cardinal Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declared the decree invalid because their action, though considered blameworthy, did not constitute schism.

On 5 September 2005, the Holy See, through the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, affirmed that “the faithful who attend the masses of the aforesaid Fraternity are not excommunicate, and the priests who celebrate them are not, either—the latter are, in fact, suspended.” (Protocol n.55/2005, signed by the then Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Mgr Camille Perl).

On 27 September 2002, quoted and reaffirmed on 18 January 2003, the Holy See, through the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, stated that “In the strict sense you may fulfil your Sunday obligation by attending a mass celebrated by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X.” (Letters signed by Mgr Camille Perl).

“To break communion with the Catholic Church”, i.e. excommunication, can only be incurred where there is both an “external violation of a law or precept” and it is “gravely imputable by reason of malice or culpability” (canon 1321) and only if the proper penalty is excommunication.

Excommunication is not the proper penalty for “participating at mass” or “requesting or receiving the Sacraments” from SSPX priests or in SSPX-administered places of worship. Thus:

It is accordingly not correct that excommunication is thereby incurred.

In any event, those under the age of sixteen cannot incur a penalty (canon 1323.1); this would apply to those under this age who received baptism or confirmation.

Even when basing a canonical argument on the assumption that the SSPX has no canonical status in the Church and that its priests are suspended, following ordination without dimissorial letters, it does not follow that to seek the sacraments at their hands is an illegal act on the part of the lay faithful.

To say otherwise also conflicts with the provision in canon law (canon 1335) for the suspension of any prohibition of the celebration of the Sacraments or sacramental, or the exercise of a power of governance, when one of the faithful requests it for “any just reason”.

Furthermore, the notifications appear to challenge the Decree of the Congregation of Bishops dated 21 January 2009 lifting the excommunications of the SSPX bishops and instead seem to wish to re-impose those excommunications, within each diocese, contrary to this decree of a Congregation of the Holy See.

Moreover, it would be incongruous for the legislator to lift the excommunication of the bishops while imposing or maintaining it on the lay faithful to whom they minister.

CONCLUSION

The Federation is thus obliged to question the notifications since they appear to undermine papal legislation and canon law.

** ends **

The International Una Voce Federation is a lay movement, initially founded in Zurich in 1967.

The International Una Voce Federation aims to foster the cultural heritage of the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church upon which so much of European culture, music, art, literature and architecture has been built and nourished. Beginning with the retention of the Jewish Temple worship which, under Christian tutelage, developed into plainchant, sacred music became the basis of all later classical and choral music. Similar developments took place in art, architecture, literature and all the arts, in which the Christian tradition built upon the ancient Classical world and upon the Hebrew traditions that it inherited.

The Federation’s principal aims are to ensure that the traditional Roman rite of the Church is maintained in the Church as one of the forms of liturgical celebration, and to safeguard and promote the use of Latin, Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony and all the sacred, artistic, literary and musical traditions of the Roman Church in all their beauty and integrity.

A General Assembly of the Federation is convened every two years in Rome and elections are held for the Council and Presidency.

The Federation is recognized by the Holy See, its views are received with courtesy and respect by the relevant Roman Congregations, and its representatives are received by them in the same manner.

Its first President, Dr Eric Vermehren de Saventhem, was a German anti-Nazi diplomat who, together with his wife, born Countess von Plettenberg, from a well-known anti-Nazi Catholic family, escaped via the Embassy in Istanbul to Britain. Other Presidents have included the author Michael Davies from Britain.

Over the years the Federation has made various successful interventions. It was instrumental in persuading Pope John Paul II in 1986 to convoke a special Commission of Cardinals which resulted in the issue of the decree Ecclesia Dei Adflicta in 1988 and also played a part in persuading Pope Benedict XVI to issue the motu proprio decree Summorum Pontificum in 2007.

Mr James Bogle

The Athanasius Interview

Here, in its entirety, is the Polonia Christiana interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider using their translation. 

Such intelligence. Such clarity. Such pastoral care. Another Joseph Ratzinger in discourse and thought; intellectual but clear, complex and simple at the same time. He holds nothing back and says it in a way that the common man or woman can clearly see the truth. 

May the LORD bless abundantly this beautiful bishop.

Against Pharisees

Data publikacji: 2014-11-05 07:00

Data aktualizacji: 2014-11-04 11:22:00

Bp Atanazy Schneider w Poznaniu. Fot. Piotr Łysakowski

The Church and the world do urgently need intrepid and candid witnesses of the whole truth of the commandment and of the will of God, of the whole truth of Christ’s words on marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and Scribes, those bishops and cardinals who throw grains of incense to the neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and concubinage, will not convince anyone to either believe in Christ or to be ready to offer their lives for Christ - said + Athanasius Schneider Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan in interview with Izabella Parowicz. 

Here, in its entirety, is the interview conducted by C

Your Excellency, what is Your Excellency’s opinion about the Synod? What is its message to families?

During the Synod there had been moments of obvious manipulation on the part of some clerics who held key positions in the editorial and governing structure of the Synod. The interim report (Relatio post disceptationem) was clearly a prefabricated text with no reference to the actual statements of the Synod fathers. In the sections on homosexuality, sexuality and “divorced and remarried” with their admittance to the sacraments the text represents a radical neo-pagan ideology. This is the first time in Church history that such a heterodox text was actually published as a document of an official meeting of Catholic bishops under the guidance of a pope, even though the text only had a preliminary character. Thanks be to God and to the prayers of the faithful all over the world that a consistent number of Synod fathers resolutely rejected such an agenda; this agenda reflects the corrupt and pagan main stream morality of our time, which is being imposed globally by means of political pressure and through the almost all-powerful official mass media, which are loyal to the principles of the world gender ideology party. Such a synod document, even if only preliminary, is a real shame and an indication to the extent the spirit of the anti-Christian world has already penetrated such important levels of the life of the Church. This document will remain for the future generations and for the historians a black mark which has stained the honour of the Apostolic See. Fortunately the Message of the Synod Fathers is a real Catholic document which outlines the Divine truth on family without being silent about the deeper roots of the problems, i.e. about the reality of sin. It gives real courage and consolation to Catholic families. Some quotations: “We think of the burden imposed by life in the suffering that can arise with a child with special needs, with grave illness, in deterioration of old age, or in the death of a loved one. We admire the fidelity of so many families who endure these trials with courage, faith, and love. They see them not as a burden inflicted on them, but as something in which they themselves give, seeing the suffering Christ in the weakness of the flesh. … Conjugal love, which is unique and indissoluble, endures despite many difficulties. It is one of the most beautiful of all miracles and the most common. This love spreads through fertility and generativity, which involves not only the procreation of children but also the gift of divine life in baptism, their catechesis, and their education. … The presence of the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you”.

Those groups of people who had been expecting a change in the Church’s teaching with regard to the moral issues (e.g. allowing divorced and remarried people to receive Holy Communion or granting any form of approval for homosexual unions) were probably disappointed by the content of the final Relatio. Isn’t there, however, a danger that questioning and discussing issues that are fundamental for the Church’s teaching may itself open doors for serious abuses and for similar attempts to revise this teaching in the future?

In fact a Divine commandment, in our case the sixth commandment, the absolute indissolubility of the sacramental marriage, a Divinely established rule, means those in a state of grave sin cannot be admitted to Holy Communion. This is taught by Saint Paul in his letter inspired by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 11, 27-30, this cannot be put to the vote, just as the Divinity of Christ would never be put to a vote. A person who still has the indissoluble sacramental marriage bond and who in spite of this lives in a stable marital cohabitation with another person, by Divine law cannot be admitted to Holy Communion. To do so would be a public statement by the Church nefariously legitimizing a denial of the indissolubility of the Christian marriage and at the same time repealing the sixth commandment of God: “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. No human institution not even the Pope or an Ecumenical Council has the authority and the competency to invalidate even in the slightest or indirect manner one of the ten Divine commandments or the Divine words of Christ: “What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate (Math 19:6)”. Regardless of this lucid truth which was taught constantly and unchangingly - because unchangeable - through all the ages by the Magisterium of the Church up to our days as for instance in “Familiaris consortio” of Saint John Paul II, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and by Pope Benedict XVI, the issue of the admissibility to Holy Communion of the so called “divorced and remarried” has been put to the vote in the Synod. This fact is in itself grievous and represents an attitude of clerical arrogance towards the Divine truth of the Word of God. The attempt to put the Divine truth and the Divine Word to a vote is unworthy of those who as representatives of the Magisterium have to hand over zealously as good and faithful rules (cf. Math 24, 45) the Divine deposit. By admitting the “divorced and remarried” to Holy Communion those bishops establish a new tradition on their own volition and transgressing thereby the commandment of God, as Christ once rebuked the Pharisees and Scribes (cf. Math 15: 3). And what is still aggravating, is the fact that such bishops try to legitimize their infidelity to Christ’s word by means of arguments such as “pastoral need”, “mercy”, “openness to the Holy Spirit”. Moreover they have no fear and no scruples to pervert in a Gnostic manner the real meaning of these words labeling at the same time those who oppose them and defend the immutable Divine commandment and the true non-human tradition as rigid, scrupulous or traditionalist. During the great Arian crisis in the IV century the defenders of the Divinity of the Son of God were labeled “intransigent” and “traditionalist” as well. Saint Athanasius was even excommunicated by Pope Liberius and the Pope justified this with the argument that Athanasius was not in communion with the Oriental bishops who were mostly heretics or semi-heretics. Saint Basil the Great stated in that situation the following: “Only one sin is nowadays severely punished: the attentive observance of the traditions of our Fathers. For that reason the good ones are thrown out of their places and brought to the desert” (Ep. 243).

In fact the bishops who support Holy Communion for “divorced remarried” are the new Pharisees and Scribes because they neglect the commandment of God, contributing to the fact that out of the body and of the heart of the “divorced remarried” continue to “proceed adulteries” (Math 15: 19), because they want an exteriorly “clean” solution and to appear “clean” as well in the eyes of those who have power (the social media, public opinion). However when they eventually appear at the tribunal of Christ, they will surely hear to their dismay these words of Christ: “Why are you declaring my statutes and taking my covenant in your mouth? Seeing you hate instruction, and cast my words behind you, … when you have been partaker with adulterers” (Ps 50 (49): 16-18).

The final Relatio of the Synod also unfortunately contains the paragraph with the vote on the issue of Holy Communion for “divorced remarried”. Even though it has not achieved the required two third of the votes, there remains nevertheless the worrying and astonishing fact that the absolute majority of the present bishops voted in favor of Holy Communion for the “divorced and remarried”,  a sad reflection on the spiritual quality of the catholic episcopacy in our days. It is moreover sad, that this paragraph which hasn’t got the required approval of the qualitative majority, remains nevertheless in the final text of the Relatio and will be sent to all dioceses for further discussion. It will surely only increase the doctrinal confusion among the priests and the faithful, being in the air, that Divine commandments and Divine words of Christ and those of the apostle Paul are put at the disposal of human decision making groups. One Cardinal who openly and strongly supported the issue of Holy Communion for “divorced and remarried” and even the shameful statements on homosexual “couples” in the preliminary Relatio, was dissatisfied with the final Relatio, and declared impudently: “The glass is half-full”, and analogously he said that one has to work that next year at the Synod it will be full. We must believe firmly that God will dissipate the plans of dishonesty, infidelity and betrayal. Christ holds infallibly the rudder of the boat of His Church in midst of such a big storm. We believe and trust in the very ruler of the Church, in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth.

We are currently experiencing a culmination of aggression against the family; this aggression is accompanied by a tremendous confusion in the area of science about human and human identity. Unfortunately, there are certain members of Church hierarchy who, while discussing these matters, express opinions that contradict the teaching of Our Lord. How should we talk with those people who become victims of this confusion in order to strengthen their faith and to help them towards salvation?

In this extraordinarily difficult time Christ is purifying our Catholic faith so that through this trial the Church will shine brighter and be really light and salt for the insipid neo-pagan world thanks to the fidelity and the pure and simple faith firstly of the faithful, of the little ones in the Church, of the “ecclesia docta” (the learning church), which in our days will strengthen the “ecclesia docens” (the teaching Church, i.e. the Magisterium), in a similar way as it was in the great crisis of the faith in the IV century as Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman stated: “This is a very remarkable fact: but there is a moral in it. Perhaps it was permitted, in order to impress upon the Church at that very time passing out of her state of persecution the great evangelical lesson, that, not the wise and powerful, but the obscure, the unlearned, and the weak constitute her real strength. It was mainly by the faithful people that Paganism was overthrown; it was by the faithful people, under the lead of Athanasius and the Egyptian bishops, and in some places supported by their Bishops or priests, that the worst of heresies was withstood and stamped out of the sacred territory. … In that time of immense confusion the divine dogma of our Lord's divinity was proclaimed, enforced, maintained, and (humanly speaking) preserved, far more by the "Ecclesia docta" than by the "Ecclesia docens;" that the body of the Episcopate was unfaithful to its commission, while the body of the laity was faithful to its baptism; that at one time the pope, at other times a patriarchal, metropolitan, or other great see, at other times general councils, said what they should not have said, or did what obscured and compromised revealed truth; while, on the other hand, it was the Christian people, who, under Providence, were the ecclesiastical strength of Athanasius, Hilary, Eusebius of Vercellæ, and other great solitary confessors, who would have failed without them” (Arians of the Fourth Century, pp. 446, 466).

We have to encourage ordinary Catholics to be faithful to the Catechism they have learned, to be faithful to the clear words of Christ in the Gospel, to be faithful to the faith their fathers and forefathers handed over to them. We have to organize circles of studies and conferences about the perennial teaching of the Church on the issue of marriage and chastity, inviting especially young people and married couples. We have to show the very beauty of a life in chastity, the very beauty of the Christian marriage and family, the great value of the Cross and of the sacrifice in our lives. We have to present ever more the examples of the Saints and of exemplary persons who demonstrated that in spite of the fact that they suffered the same temptations of the flesh, the same hostility and derision of the pagan world, they nevertheless with the grace of Christ led a happy life in chastity, in a Christian marriage and in family. The faith, the pure and integral Catholic and Apostolic faith will overcome the world (cf. 1 John 5: 4).

We have to found and promote youth groups of pure hearts, family groups, groups of Catholic spouses, who will be committed to the fidelity of their marriage vows. We have to organize groups which will help morally and materially broken families, single mothers, groups who will assist with prayer and with good counsel separated couples, groups and persons who will help “divorced and remarried” people to start a process of serious conversion, i.e. recognizing with humility their sinful situation and abandoning with the grace of God the sins which violate the commandment of God and the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage. We have to create groups who will carefully help persons with homosexual tendencies to enter the path of Christian conversion, the happy and beautiful path of a chaste life and to offer them eventually in a discrete manner a psychological cure. We have to show and preach to our contemporaries in the neo-pagan world the liberating Good News of the teaching of Christ: that the commandment of God, and even the sixth commandment is wise, is beauty: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps 19(18): 7-8).

During the Synod, Archbishop Gądecki from Poznań and some other distinguished prelates were publicly expressing their disagreement with the fact that the results of the discussions departed from the perennial teaching of the Church. Is there a hope that, amid this confusion, there will be an awakening of members of clergy and those faithful who were so far unaware of the fact that, in the very Church’s bosom, there are people who undermine the teaching of Our Lord?

It is certainly an honor for Polish Catholicism that the President of the Catholic episcopate, His Excellency Archbishop Gądecki, defended with clarity and courage the truth of Christ about marriage and human sexuality, thus revealing himself to be a true spiritual son of Saint John Paul II. Cardinal George Pell characterized the liberal sexual agenda and the alleged merciful and pastoral support of Holy Communion for “divorced remarried” during the Synod very aptly, saying that this is only the tip of the iceberg and a kind of a Trojan horse in the Church.

That in the very bosom of the Church, there are people who undermine the teaching of Our Lord became an obvious fact and one for the whole world to see thanks to the internet and the work of some Catholic journalists who were not indifferent to what was happening to the Catholic faith which they consider to be the treasure of Christ. I was pleased to see that some Catholic journalists and internet bloggers behaved as good soldiers of Christ and drew attention to this clerical agenda of undermining the perennial teaching of Our Lord. Cardinals, bishops, priests, Catholic families, Catholic young people have to say to themselves: I refuse to conform to the neo-pagan spirit of this world, even when this spirit is spread by some bishops and cardinals; I will not accept their fallacious and perverse use of holy Divine mercy and of “new Pentecost”; I refuse to throw grains of incense before the statue of the idol of the gender ideology, before the idol of second marriages, of concubinage, even if my bishop would do so, I will not do so; with the grace of God I will choose to suffer rather than betray the whole truth of Christ on human sexuality and on marriage.

The witnesses will convince the world, not the teachers, said Blessed Paul VI in “Evangelii nuntiandi”. The Church and the world do urgently need intrepid and candid witnesses of the whole truth of the commandment and of the will of God, of the whole truth of Christ’s words on marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and Scribes, those bishops and cardinals who throw grains of incense to the neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and concubinage, will not convince anyone to either believe in Christ or to be ready to offer their lives for Christ. Indeed “veritas Domini manet in aeternum” (Ps 116: the truth of the Lord remains forever) and “Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebr 13: 8) and “the truth will set you free” (John 8: 32). This last phrase was one of the favorite biblical phrases of Saint John Paul II, the pope of the family.  We can add: the revealed and unchangeably transmitted Divine truth about human sexuality and marriage will bring true freedom to the souls inside and outside the Church. In midst of the crisis of the Church and the bad moral and doctrinal example of some bishops of his time Saint Augustine comforted the simple faithful with these words: “Whatsoever we bishops may be, you are safe, who have God for your Father and His Church for your mother“ (Contra litteras Petiliani III, 9, 10).

+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan.

This interview was published in the latest issue of “Polonia Christiana” magazine.

Rotting Fish in the Rhine and Tiber

There is an old saying, "the fish rots from the head down.

Hilary White at LifeSiteNews reports on a Die Zeit interview with Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German Bishops' Conference.  

How many more excuses are we going to hear when the truth is staring right at us?

Fierce wind blowing from Kazakhstan

Hats off to Toronto Catholic Witness and for daily scouring of the Polish press. This is not something which you will read in the Catholic Register or Tablet.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan has called the recent Synod on the Family a "manipulation." with a "prefabricated text" containing a "radical neo-pagan ideology." He accuses Rome for the first time in Church history of publishing a "heterodox text" at "an official meeting of Catholic bishops under the guidance of a pope" notwithstanding that the original text was only an interim report. He accuses those behind it of displaying "an attitude of clerical arrogance" and of being neo "pharisees and scribes."

He goes on to talk about this being a "purification" and gives credit to Catholic journalists and bloggers for being "good soldiers of Christ."

Please visit Toronto Catholic Witness for a more complete summary of the translation where you can find an link to the original Polish and their complete translation. 

Baloney from Bologna

More about what is going terribly wrong in Rome.

Ecumenism Rewritten by Enzo Bianchi and Alberto Melloni

The leaders of the “school of Bologna” have a very ambitious new project in the works: a history of the movement for Christian unity aimed at a thorough reform of the Catholic Church, starting with the dismantling of the papacy in its current form. They believe they have an ally in Pope Francis

by Sandro Magister

ROME, November 3, 2014 – At the end of October, Pope Francis received a delegation of Old Catholic bishops of the Union of Utrecht.

Numerically this is a very small group, but it is the bearer of a model of Church that pleases not a few progressive Catholics. It recognizes a primacy of honor for the pope, but it does not accept that he is infallible or has jurisdiction over the bishops. It has its bishops elected by a synod composed of clergy and laity. At Mass it gives Eucharistic communion to all, as long as they are baptized in one of the various Christian confessions. It administers collective absolution of sins. It allows second marriages for the divorced.

Church Modernists fiddle whilst Christians burn - literally!

While the likes of Kasper, Rosica, Forte and others continue in their desire to grant Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried with no annulment and to active sodomites, Christians lose their lives for no other reason than that they are Christians.

These repugnant clerics who would not know the "scent of the people" have refused to go the "periphery" to find where their filthy first-world problems mean nothing as the Times of India reports: 

Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan for allegedly desecrating the Quran

LAHORE: In a gruesome incident, a Christian couple was on Tuesday thrashed and burned alive by a group of angry Muslims in Pakistan's Punjab province for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

The horrific crime was reported from the villages of Kot Radha Kishan of Kasur district, some 50 kilometres from here.

A large number of police personnel were deployed in the villages to provide security to the minority community.

Emaneul Sarfraz, a relative of the deceased couple, said that his cousins, Shahzad Masih, 35, and his wife Shamah, 31, had been working in the kiln of Muhammad Yousuf Gujjar for sometime near Chak (village) 59.

"The couple along with their four children wanted to leave the kiln as Yousuf was not paying their remuneration. He demanded Rs 5,00,000 from them, if they wanted to quit.

"Two days ago, after an exchange of words Yousuf locked the couple along with their children in a room," Emaneul said.

He further said that an announcement was made today from two mosques of Chak 59 that Shahzad Masih and his wife had committed blasphemy by burning the pages of Quran.

"A large number of Muslims led by area clerics reached the kiln and dragged the couple out of the room after breaking into it.

They first tortured them and then threw them in the kiln.

No one from the crowd listened to the couple, who were pleading that they were innocent as Yousuf had levelled false allegation of blasphemy against them to settle money dispute," Emanuel said adding, "Thank God they did not burn the couple's children".

He alleged that police from the nearby post had reached there on time but did not intervene seeing the charged mob.

"We have taken some 50 people into custody in connection with the killings and raids were underway to arrest more including the kiln owner," Jawad Qamar, police chief of Kasur district, said.

Qamar also denied the incident had taken place in police presence.

Human Liberation Commission Pakistan chairman Aslam Sahotra said he visited the district headquarters hospital in Kasur and saw the remains of couple.

"It was all ashes and some bones of the couple which is left to bury," he said.

Eternal rest O Lord, grant to all the faithful departed. May they rest in peace.

Clerical "swindlers"

There must be no let up in the next year of opposition to the sodomite mafia operating within the Catholic Church. Make no mistake about it; Cardinal Kasper, Archbishop Forte, Thomas Rosica, CSB, and the rest of their ilk will not cease in trying to undermine Catholic doctrine and faith. Those who undermined the true problems of the family at the Synod from Hell were initially trying to push Holy Communion for the adulterous, those divorced and remarried without a decree of nullity. They played their filthy hands -- it was also about sodomy and it was about sacrilege.

The Pope himself must defend the truth against these that do the work of the evil one, whom he speaks about frequently.

Toronto Catholic Witness has provided us with the clarity of Cardinal Muller in the Polish press and that of the Croatian Bishops, something totally lacking from most or our Shepherds in Canada.

Here, courtesy of Rorate Caeli Blog is a column by Juan Manuel de Prada of Spain:

UN LÍO SINODAL - A SYNODAL MESS

Juan Manuel de Prada

ABC

October 25, 2014

Considering that all persons, as God's creatures, have valuable gifts and qualities, what is the reason for this special mention of homosexuals?

It was asked of Catholics that we make a mess [lío], but at the moment all that they got was getting us caught up in the mess; and some joker could even add (and he would not be wrong) that they have made la picha un lío ["a big mess"]. In the relatio of the synod on the family, among other great pearls, there are sophistries and nonsense of this level: "Homosexual persons have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community." In order to uncover the nonsensical and at the same time sophistical nature of this affirmation, it is enough to replace "homosexual" with "fat", "black", "blond", "dedicated to the cultivation of mushrooms," or "with gastric ulcer"; any title or expression, that is, that complements the noun "persons" is good enough, from which it follows that any person can have (to give as well as to receive!) gifts and qualities that are very useful for the Christian community; and in particular for its bishops, who in the past had the eyesight of eagles (as its etymology implies), but who now seem to be as blind as moles, or who are maybe sending the pathetic winks of an old harlot in the direction of political correctness. This, in the language of Revelation, is called fornication with the kings of the earth [cf. Rv 17]; in the language of the Gospel, to render unto Caesar what is God's; and, in clear vernacular, to honor the world.

Considering that all persons, as God's creatures, have valuable gifts and qualities, what is the reason for this special mention of homosexuals? Is it implied that, by the sole fact of their being so, they are more gifted and qualified than the rest of mortals? Is it intended to affirm that, by being a homosexual, a person is freed from being envious, proud, vulgar, boring, an idiot, or completely stupid? Such a nonsensical and sophistic wording, so mellifluous and corrupt, reveals only a foolish eagerness, as that of a little puppy wagging its tail, to praise servilely the mindset of our age, to burn incense to Caesar; and, additionally, it dodges, in a very soft and pusillanimous way, the call to conversion of Christ -- who undoubtedly saw extremely valuable gifts and qualities in the adulterous woman, to whom he said nonetheless: "Sin no more."

But there certainly are homosexuals filled with gifts and qualities! Through the pen of some of them, the Holy Spirit speaks, and it would be good that the bishops, instead of reading kasperite monstrosities, dedicated themselves to read these illustrious homosexuals, in order to free themselves from their degrading slavery to political correction. Pier Paolo Pasolini, for example, in his Scritti Corsari [Corsair Writings], turns against the cynics and the moderates who have tried to adulterate the radical sense of the famous evangelical line, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's": "Because what Christ wanted to say could not be, in any way whatsoever, 'please them both, don't look for trouble, conciliate the practical aspects of social life with your religious life, try to swim and keep your clothes on while being in peace with both, etc.' " These bishops in the Synod could also read that sublime passage of the De Profundis in which Oscar Wilde, regretful for his sins, affirms: "Of course the sinner must repent. But why? Simply because otherwise he would be unable to realise what he had done. The moment of repentance is the moment of initiation. More than that: it is the means by which one alters one’s past. The Greeks thought that impossible. They often say in their Gnomic aphorisms, ‘Even the Gods cannot alter the past.’ Christ showed that the commonest sinner could do it, that it was the one thing he could do."

Pasolini and Wilde: two homosexuals filled with the divine gift of saying undeniable truths. Some swindlers wearing skullcaps could learn from them.

Ontario Residents! Petition on Government's Sex-ed Curriculum from PAFE

Two years ago, the Ontario Government attempted to bring in a new educational curriculum which would have also included Catholic schools on sex-education. This curriculum would have been mandatory as early as Grade 1. It would include blatant sexual language and practices to children far to young to understand and presented with no moral guidance that relations are reserved for married couples and that there are consequences to certain behaviours. I will not discuss here the details, it would simply not be appropriate, however, here is their first attempt under the former "catholic" Premier. The current Premier is a lesbian.

Remember friends, elections have consequences. Remember this if you are in America this coming week and my fellow Canadians next October.

If you are an Ontario resident, please sign this petition at PAFE, Parents Are First Educators!

Here is their statement:

TORONTO, November 1, 2014  -

Just days after the conclusion of the 2014 school board elections, the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government announced that a new “sexual health” program will be implemented in Ontario schools in less than a year, but with no input from parents, no input from the elected school boards, and no input from Ontarians at large.

The President of Parents as First Educators (PAFE), Teresa Pierre, PhD, expressed concern: “We can only assume that the Wynne Liberals are deliberately trying to limit the extent of public input because they want to silence their critics – ordinary Ontario parents who wish to have a say in what and how and when their children are introduced to sensitive material,” said Dr. Pierre.

In its circular published in the last week of October, the Ministry of Education revealed that the new sex-ed curriculum will be fully “implemented” in September 2015, and will be developed and “fact-checked” by “third-party academic experts”. The only non-experts who will be consulted for input will be one hand-picked individual parent representative from each of Ontario’s elementary schools, to the exclusion of every other parent.

Dr. Pierre also expressed concern that the Wynne Liberal plan for a radical new sex-ed plan would make no effort to accommodate various cultural and religious sensitivities in the province. For example, in the case of the Catholic school boards, the news will provoke concerns that the Liberal government is once again determined to override the constitutionally guaranteed right of Catholic parents and school boards to maintain Catholic teaching in their schools.

“This is exactly what happened when the McGuinty Liberals forced the establishment of ‘gay-straight alliance’ clubs into Catholic schools in 2012,” said Dr. Pierre. 

Updates to the sexual curriculum have been dogged with controversy since they were last proposed back in 2010 when Kathleen Wynne was Education Minister under then-Premier Dalton McGuinty.  Parents objected to the young ages at which graphic content and morally contentious topics were being introduced.

“Now, it seems, the Wynne Liberals are determined to re-introduce similar measures, but with as little fanfare as possible,” said Dr. Pierre. “By waiting to release the announcement until just after the school board trustee elections concluded, the province is doing an end run around school trustees too.”  

    We urge concerned residents of Ontario to sign our online petition against the proposed changes! 

All Souls Sunday - A Conflicted "Commemoration"

As you no doubt know, November 2 is the date on which falls the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed -- or All Souls. This is the Church Suffering in Purgatory. Yes, there is a purgatory and yes, those in purgatory will one day enter the beatific vision of Heaven; one might describe it as the Mudroom of Heaven. We are saved by Christ and His blood atonement and we are "washed in the blood of the Lamb" and notwithstanding those that say "we have a reasonable hope that there is nobody, or very few, in Hell" this is simply not true. There is a Heaven and a Hell and for those of us who through God's mercy and His grace, merit heaven, there is place of purification, of purgation. This is what the Church has taught, it is part of our Sacred Tradition and it is found in Sacred Scripture and to say otherwise is error and heresy.

According to the traditional calendar last revised in 1962 with the Missal of St. John XXIII, the Commemoration is transferred to November 3. Note that this is a "Commemoration" it is not a First Class or Second Class Feast as in the Johannine Missal nor is it a Solemnity, Feast, Memorial or Optional Memorial as in the Pauline Missal, -- the Missal of Bl. Paul VI of 1969. In fact, it has "no assigned rank" -- more about this absurdity later.

Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

Why is the Commemoration transferred off of the Sunday to November 3 according to the traditional calendar? 

First, it is a Requiem Mass, a Mass of Rest for the all the faithful departed, it is very close to enactment of a funeral and we don't do funerals on Sunday! The liturgical chants are that of a Requiem Funeral Mass as are most of the prayers though there are variances in these and the Readings as no body is present and it is for "all the faithful departed." The basic liturgical norms, however, apply -- black vestments, no Gloria or Credo, the Dies Irae sequence, the catafalque prayers with some minor modification from the funeral. The fact that it is a Commemoration which by its nature cannot outrank the Lord's Day a complete irony. Funerals are not permitted on a Sunday, nor are black vestments and the Gloria and Credo are always sung when the vestments are not violet. 

Simple, eh? Sunday is Sunday and we have our Requiem on Monday.

Distortion 

Then came along Annibale Bugnini and the liturgical destructionists who put before the recent Blessed Pope a series of conflicted and destructive documents. As has been told, Bugnini would go to him and say "Holy Father, the Concilium has decided this" and he would agree. Then some from the Concilium would come to him and say "Why did you agree to this" and he would reply, "Because Bugnini said you wanted it!" What a mess the poor man had on his hands, not unlike today. He was manipulated and deceived and for reasons known only to him and the Lord, he could not or would not take control of it. He "wept" over the loss of the Octave of Pentecost and most of us have been weeping ever since. 

Now, after that little diatribe, back to the matter at hand. 

Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite

The absurdity in the Pauline Calendar is that a "Commemoration" which according to the Canadian Ordo calendar has "no assigned rank" actually outranks a Solemnity which is what every Sunday happens to be! When another Solemnity falls on a Sunday, -- Epiphany, Ascension and Corpus Christi being ridiculously transferred off their proper date of January 6 and 40 days after the Resurrection and Thursday, or as we have seen this year, Candlemas and Holy Cross as well as Sts. Peter and Paul, the Birth of St. John the Baptist, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Saints, these Solemnities are celebrated on Sunday rather than the normal Sunday Propers (readings and prayers). These Solemnities (mostly old Holy Days of Obligation somewhere) took precedence in both the old and new over the Sunday texts and sequential day. In the Extraordinary Form it includes Immaculate Conception when on a Sunday as in 2013 which is actually a Solemnity transferred off of Sunday in the current calendar as it was last year as we can't replace an Advent Sunday in the new. 

There, are you confused yet?

How then is it possible for a Commemoration of "no assigned rank" to ever displace a Solemnity of any kind, let alone a Feast a Memorial or an Optional Memorial! 

Want more?
A priest in both Forms is permitted to say three Masses of All Souls, each with its own readings and propers, (the antiphons/psalms are consistent in the EF, varied in the OF, because we can). How does this affect a Sunday? If the parish has three Masses, does he do one of each? What if it has only one? Does he add two?

Worse!

How do you have a Sunday which is a Solemnity outside of Advent or Lent without a Gloria or Credo? It is not part of the Commemoration of All Souls. 

Well, not in Canada. In its usual tentanda via, the Canadian Ordo specifies a Gloria and Credo even though the Universal Ordo does not, it is silent. Actually, I think the Canadian bishops are right on this. How can you have a Sunday outside of Advent and Lent without a Gloria and Credo? It simply points out more the absurdity of All Souls on a Sunday.

What of the vestments?

We have a green Sunday in Ordinary Time, that is usually a Solemnity and now is a Commemoration, Though it is Sunday and it is absurd to wear black! The Canadian Ordo normally states for All Souls, White, Violet or Black vestments; this year, black is left out -- I can't believe I am admitting this, they are right -- black vestments are not a Sunday colour, in fact, it is the absence of all colour.

So, what of violet, or purple? Well, it is penitential and some choose to wear it on All Souls, though I would say it is worse than wearing white because All Souls is not about our penance as in Advent or Lent or Vigils (as in the EF) but it is about the suffering souls, black is obvious. Since 1965 though, white has been the overwhelmingly predominant colour for funerals and it is the norm generally now throughout, though black is always the norm the EF. 

So what colour to wear then on Sunday, white or purple?

Far be it from me to advise any priest but it would seem to me that if one is singing the Gloria and Credo then one is not wearing violet!

A further note, the Requiem can still exists in the OF but you have to open the chant books to find it. A funeral could have the proper antiphons, Requiem aeternam, Requiem, Absolve, the mournful Offertory Domine Jesu, and the Lux aeterna. The Dies Irae was summoned off to the Liturgy of the Hours but one could chant it as prelude or communion "hymn". This could also be the case for this Sunday - absurd.

Irony

The reforms were so determined to trim all additions to the calendar and all things that took away, in their minds, from Sunday. Even in the Ordo a few years ago when Assumption fell on Sunday we were cautioned not to make too much of Mary, as it is the Lord's Day. Yet, here we have a simple Mass of Commemoration that actually displaces the Sunday! It is absurd, no? Well, let us ask why or at least try to determine, their rationale. It will be argued that it is suitable to do this on Sunday because Sunday is the Lord's Day, the Day of the Resurrection. While the funeral Mass is properly referred to now as the Mass of Christian Burial, many priests and liturgical nazis refer to it as the "Mass of the Resurrection" which is of course, Easter Sunday's proper liturgical name. White is the colour because there is no Hell, or if there is, nobody really goes there and there really is no purgatory. "Good old Uncle Buck, he's now playing golf on the heavenly green, just like he did every Sunday instead of being at Mass." Recently we've been told as well, that people don't need to "convert" and we are not to "proselytise" and people should be true to all of their other religions. We can see now why this confusion which Michael Voris speaks about was so rampant at the Synod and even stems from the top. Those Cardinals, bishops and priests were formed in this heretical and protestant ethic that invaded the seminaries of the 1940's onward. They did away with black because it made us think of death. They got rid of the Dies Irae because it was scary and not pleasant. 

They changed our beliefs without changing doctrine and they did it through pastoral means, through a change in the liturgy and then an abuse of it to be even more pastoral. Sound familiar? Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi!

Annibale Bugnini said that it would take two generations to rid the Church of the traditional liturgy. He was right, but something happened. Along came two men that would ensure that that situation would never happen. One was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (and this writer firmly believes that one day, it may be a century from now, this holy man will be exonerated and raised to the Altars notwithstanding what in the fullness of time, I believe will be considered, holy disobedience. The second happened on the 7th day of July in 2007 with Benedict XVI gloriously reigning and that was the promulgation into law of his motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum!

What do we do?

It is clear to me that those who put this together must also have struggled with this. They must have recognised that Sunday must take precedence which is why there is a Gloria nad Credo called for; so we sing or recite the Gloria and Credo, we try to do sing the Propers, at least at Holy Communion and if we are selecting hymns, let them be appropriate to what we are doing. CanticaNova is a great place to begin. If we do anything, we follow the norms and in Canada that means we follow what the Ordo states. If we do not, then we are guilty of doing what the liturgical destructionists have long done. We follow the rules and we seek a better way out of this and that is coming, notwithstanding, and it begins below.

Saturday is All Saints Day. At 11:00 I will chant the Mass for the Feast in the Extraordinary Form (see below) and then at 5:00, I will chant an Ordinary Form Mass of the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed and sing the Gloria and Creed. I will be psychologically conflicted but I'll get over it and will offer it up for the Holy Souls. On Sunday, I can return to sanity after a two-hour drive two dioceses away to sing the XXI Sunday after Pentecost and mercifully on Monday, November 3; a proper Requiem Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.

Someday, a Pope will fix this mess.

In the meantime, we carry on and we seek out the truth and beauty of that which came before even whilst we labour in the vineyard where we have been placed.

Hey, how did I get here?

What's that, dear chap? You say that you shouldn't have fetched up in hell because some Cardinal told you it was ok to start off considering the good things about your life, despite your living in a state of mortal sin, as, that way, you would eventually move towards conversion...?

Read the rest at Mulier Fortis.

Brilliant.