Pope Francis rebukes Father Thomas Rosica - Holy Family is indeed, "regular"

A satirical reflection on the absurd.

In a stunning rebuke of pronouncement of the President of the Internet, Father Thomas J. Rosica, that the Holy Family was "irregular." said in association with the Synod on the Family and at the same time that the "irregularity" of families was being discussed; Pope Francis today at his audience contradicted the earlier reports by the Vatican's English-language spokesman and Executive Director of Canada's Pepper + Darkness Our Catholic Channel of No Hope, has pronounced that the Holy Family was indeed, "regular."

Catholic faithful around the world are deeply grateful to the Holy Father for this statement that does not insult or degrade the faithful but provides salve to the wounds of the smelly sheep in the periphery with clarity and charity.

The Pope is losing and slipping on banana peels

Reading the honesty written in this blog post by a 34 year-old mother of three one at Faith in Our Families, one can feel her struggle.

What it shows is this; Jorge Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome and Pope is losing devoted Catholics. His homily yesterday which I commented on in the post below this is a reminder of what he said in his apostolic exhortation Evangelium Gaudium.

94. This worldliness can be fuelled in two deeply interrelated ways. One is the attraction of gnosticism, a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings. The other is the self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past. A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really concerned about Jesus Christ or others. These are manifestations of an anthropocentric immanentism. It is impossible to think that a genuine evangelizing thrust could emerge from these adulterated forms of Christianity.

What the writer at Faith in Our Fathers has so clearly articulated is that the people that are the worldly and self-absorbed; the clericalist and pharisees are his friends, his patrons, they are not my friends, they are his. They are as she has listed the Kaspers and Cormac O'Connor's of this world and I would add the Lombardis and Rosicas and others that have surrounded this Pope since his election in March of 2013. 

And then there is this from yesterday's homily:

“Even our life can become like that, even our life. And sometimes, I confess something to you, when I have seen a Christian, a Christian of that kind, with a weak heart, not firm, not fixed on the rock—Jesus – and with such rigidness on the outside, I ask the Lord: ‘But Lord, throw a banana peel in front of them, so that they will take a good fall, and feel shame that they are sinners, and so encounter You, [and realize] that You are the Saviour. Many times a sin will make us feel shame, and make us encounter the Lord, Who pardons us, as the sick who were there and went to the Lord for healing.”

Who speaks like this?  

It is time for the Pope to state clearly what it is he wants and to stop talking in gibberish and confusion. He wants to call the faithful names and insult us; we have every right to question him as to his intent.

Satan has entered St. Peter's Basilica

How could this travesty been permitted?

This liturgical sham in the sanctuary of St. Peter's Basilica? How could they betray everything Pope Benedict XVI had done to restore sacred liturgy? How could they even think that this is an appropriate way to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This music is evil, it's beat and rhythm is secular and from the pits of Hell, 

It is a scandal upon the Holy Mass.

Who is responsible for this scandal, this absurdity, this travesty?  

As a Catholic, I can only hang my head in shame and pray for you conversion. 

May St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church open their eyes, before they are closed by heaven.

May God forgive them for this.

Because I cannot.

Father Tom Rosica - The Essenes and faithful Catholics "a sealed fortress"

Thomas Rosica, CSB, is the English-language spokesman for the Holy See's communication office and Executive Producer of Salt + Light. He spoke recently to KTO, the Catholic television operation in France and in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio.

Never missing an opportunity to slam Catholics faithful to tradition and Tradition, Rosica did it again using the ancient Essenes as a comparison.

Here are some excerpts from his speech delivered in French and translated here with the help of Google Translate:

"Let me share some of my first Bible scholar training at the Biblicum of Rome and the Bible School in Jerusalem. On the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in the south of Israel, is the site of the Essene establishment where, in 1947, a young Bedouin discovered the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. Manuscripts that retired to a cave that day and the following days would become the greatest treasure ever found. The Essenes, an ascetic Jewish sect of the Second Temple period, were a rather fanatical group who lived from 200 BC to 75 AD. They had consciously chosen to settle in a readily accessible location. Their group of priests and laymen lived a communal life of strict dedication to God. They called their leader the "Teacher of Righteousness" and regarded him as the only real elected in Israel, the only true to the Covenant. The Essenes were convinced that religious leaders and the people of Jerusalem had gone astray and became unfaithful to God. That is why these pious Jews fled to Qumran to refocus and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The writings of the Essenes reveal the climate of messianic fanaticism among the Jews of the time and make us discover the nature of the Essene community, lifestyle and beliefs as well as many details of the Second Temple, rituals and worship. These documents clearly describe an aspect of the religious world in which Jesus came to live."

I confess that I am not biblical scholar. According to my letters from Tom Rosica, I have no right to comment on anything Catholic or liturgical because I am neither “a trained liturgist nor a bishop." So, with that disclaimer, let me say this from my limited knowledge. 

The Essenes were the essence of Judaism. They were awaiting the Messiah and they indeed believed as Rosica said "that the religious leaders and the people of Jerusalem had gone astray and become unfaithful to God." They were "pious Jews" meaning they were seeking holiness and the desire to be closer to God. There was "messianic fanaticism" because they believed that the time of Messiah's coming was literally, at hand as it indeed was. On the above, he is correct.

What Rosica does not tell his audience is that many in the Church throughout history believed that St. John the Baptist was one of them.  The Jewish Encyclopedia itself states: 

“John the Baptist seems to have belonged to the Essenes, but in appealing to sinners to be regenerated by baptism, he inaugurated a new movement, which led to the rise of Christianity. The silence of the New Testament about the Essenes is perhaps the best proof that they furnished the new sect with its main elements. The similarity in many respects between Christianity and Essenism is striking.”

The Jewish Encyclopedia refers to the silence about them for one reason and it is what I have always thought about the Essenes from reading of them, they were the first Catholics!

The interchange between John the Baptist and the powers of Jerusalem which we will hear about at Mass this Gaudete Sunday shows the disdain that they had for him. We know from his preaching what St. John thought of the religious and political leadership. The Essenes, as John were actively waiting the Messiah and John proclaimed him to the “Lamb of God” and that he must “decrease” so Christ could “increase.” Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich in her Dolorous Passions (private revelation) often referred to the amount of time that Jesus spent with the Essenes and that he found a refuge there.  Can there be any doubt as to why?

Rosica continues:

“Qumran offers the Church a paradigm on its way to deal with the world, information, media and communications. There are people in the Church today who have felt a little what the leaders of the Essene community felt: they see themselves as the only true elect in the Church, as the last faithful. In their view, the only way to deal with the world is to flee, to build a community in places as inaccessible as the edges of the Dead Sea ... to erect a sealed fortress that pushes the outside world; it is to preach to the small group of elected officials and people who pose no problems. Experience has taught me that the method of Qumran is not the way to deal with today's world! Instead of avoiding the confusion and ambiguity of our age, to seek refuge in nostalgia for a past that is now buried in the heart of God, we need some of us to remain in the city, in this in the fray to offer the world a strong message of the Gospel, the Church's teaching, a ray of hope and a dose of badly needed joy. And we must do it simultaneously on different media platforms!”

Perhaps we should get rid of monasteries then or home-schooling? Given the state of the world today or in the first century who could blame the Essenes or anyone today for wanting to build a wall of protection around their families or themselves? Not everyone is capable of going out to the "peripheries." For some, the periphery is in their family.

I've heard this "nostalgia" canard before. When the fledgling "Oratory" at Ottawa where I learned the chant for the first time was slandered by the late Archbishop Plourde in the Ottawa Citizen stating, "Those that long for Gregorian chant suffer from nostalgia neurosis." More lies from those who never acquainted themselves with either Sacrosanctam Concilium or Summorum Pontificum.

Yes, there are many Catholics who feel as the Essenes did. I would not be so bold as to say that “I” am truly of the elect and nobody else is. In fact, other than to say that we seem a little “remnant” holding to the faith of our fathers which is biblical, I know of no faithful Catholic prideful enough to say that they are the “only true elect.” Did Our Blessed Lord not call the Jewish leadership "whitewashed sepulchres" and did not John the Baptist call them a "brood of vipers." Perhaps the Essenes knew something that Father forgets. There is a reason that they cut themselves off. Is there a parallel today? Indeed there is.

Who then, is Rosica speaking about? 

Given that he is in France, he probably has the Society of St. Pius X in mind along with other Ecclesia Dei orders and congregations.  The reality in France is that the Church in her eldest daughter is imploding. The only growth is in the referred to Orders and in the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon where the faith is taught without fear and the liturgy is taught properly in both Forms in the seminary. In less than twenty years in France, there will be more priests celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite than the Ordinary Form. How is that for a stark reality? The future of the Church in France more than anywhere else is traditional Catholicism!

It is nothing new for Rosica to attack those faithful Catholics in particular who associate themselves with these orders or the traditional liturgy.

Rosica continues that:

“Jesus has not established his base of operations on the shores of the Dead Sea, but in the cosmopolitan center that was Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In this small fishing village strategically located in the extension of the Via Maris, he could deal with all kinds of people, including tax collectors and a Roman centurion. He was really at home in Capernaum, not in Jerusalem or the Dead Sea. Even though Jesus was clearly not a politician, he had a keen sense of politics and rarely refused an invitation to dinner. Jesus attended the unclean, the sick and the dying sinners and those who lived in the margins of society. It binds to the sinners and the poor of his time - without approving of their behavior, but to offer them an alternative lifestyle. It teaches us that "being with people", it also happens to heal, restore, renew and reconcile broken humanity.”

Yes, Our Lord ate with sinners and tax collectors and he called them to repentance. Let us be clear, "without approving of their behaviour" as Rosica says, but let us be clear, those who manipulated the Synodal process and now try to say that it did not happen are now speaking with clarity. All of the tools to call back sinners are already here. There does not need to be a Synod to tell priests and bishops to go out to the peripheries. 

“Jesus asked his disciples to go to the periphery, to the ends of the earth, and not only where they felt comfortable. Jesus always spoke a language that people understand, and he used the media that people had access. He was the communicator par excellence. His incarnation was great communication between God and humanity. The challenge he noted is ours today. To be effective, use traditional media and new media, either as users or as communicators. The best way to use the media is to testify in the truth of the message we want to convey. The strength of our message and our work lies in the authenticity and transparency with which they are presented. Catholic television today must resist the temptation to run to an extreme in times of crisis. You risk becoming fundamentalist, clinging to a doctrine and a life form so severe that a person is locked up, like a secret garden or behind the walls of a fortress, so that it does are only those who are inside that can hear speech. There is also the temptation to run to the other extreme and adapt so well to the ways of the world and the values that the teaching and the truth of the Gospel entrusted to us are thereby diluted and distorted.”

The Essenes not only went out to the "periphery" they were the periphery!  

We must always "testify to the truth" but to state that "clinging to doctrine and a life form so severe that a person is locked up” is nonsensical. Truth is Jesus Christ. You cannot have truth without doctrine! Who else speaks in this manner? We can ask the question, is Rosica parroting Pope Francis or is Pope Francis parroting Rosica? Perhaps this speech is helping us get a little closer to the nub of the issue, eh?  With the ground being established for the next Synod in October, we can see where we are going and it is not good and we shall address this matter in the future post. The stage is now being set.

These men are out to marginalise faithful Catholics. They have as their strategist none other than Saul Alinsky himself and Rosica’s statements prove it by the identifying and discrediting those whom he sees as the opponents to his ideology. These men are Modernists and they are hell-bent on changing doctrine through stealth – by the change of practice under the guise that which is considered pastoral. Modernism is the "synthesis of all heresies" as St. Pius X wrote in Pascendi.  

For proof that the change of doctrine occurs through practice one need look no further than the belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. They moved the tabernacle to a side wall or another room and off the apex of the apse or reredos because the faithful would be confused between the dynamic and static presence. They made us stand and forced us to receive Him in our hands. They gave lay people in whatever state they are in the right to distribute Holy Communion. Ask yourself, did they change the doctrine? Not officially, but what is the state of this belief now? Do not forget the Latin phase, Lex orandi, lex credendi -- the law of prayer is the law of belief.

They refuse to rule out that they will not change the teaching on Holy Communion for people who are adulterists and homosexualists and living in unchaste relationships. Why? Why are they so afraid to say there will be no change on the reception of Holy Communion?

 What this is about is a further desecration of the Holy Eucharist and a fundamental heretical protestantisation of the Catholic Church and they are caught up in false humility, false evangelisation and false faith. They act is if they have lost the faith, if they ever truly understood it.

Tom Rosica condemns the Essenes for wanting to escape the world and for calling evil, evil. He compares faithful Catholic to them for the same thing.

In a recent interview, Bishop Athanasius Schneider said, "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.2:43.)

So what are we to think about those who call good evil and evil good?

"Team Bergoglio" - Fact or Fiction?

Frankly, I don't trust any of these Cardinals to have obeyed the law.

The result of the reality of March 2013 are quite obvious to anyone with eyes to see and ears to here.

However you interpret that is for you to interpret it.

Whatever it is, it isn't good.

Vox.

The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope

  

As many as 30 Cardinals implicated in Vote-Cavassing Scandal

December 9, 2014:  Now, in the midst of the scandalous affair of “Team Bergoglio”, when the Catholic world is aghast at not only the allegations made by Dr. Austen Ivereigh in his new book, The Great Reformer, but also at the inconsistencies in and contradictions of the denials of his allegations, which denials have issued from the most authoritative sources: the official spokeswoman for Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor and the Pope’s spokesman, Fr. Frederico Lombardi, S. J., it will be most useful to scrutinize the testimony given by Dr. Ivereigh in his book.

Read all of it here.

Rosica lectures: What really happened at the Synod

The Windsor Star has a fascination with Father Tom Rosica. Their first foray together was whilst Father was still a Deacon in Amherstburg, Ontario at the Parish of St. John the Baptist. Perusing that old article reveals much about this man and his heterodox Catholicism, contradicting even then the clear teaching on the Holy Eucharist. He criticized his local bishop and promoted a disordered ecumenism then and even recently with Anglicans in Toronto. It may come as a surprise to Father Rosica, but Pope Benedict XVI was the true ecumenist with Anglicanorum Coetibus. If Tom Rosica wants to present on Salt + Light anything to do with Anglicans in Canada and ecumenism it should be to preach to them that the door is open and the place for Anglicans who want the truth and who find themselves within the dying and heretical Anglican Church is in the Ordinariate. Instead, Rosica chooses to continue with the same error, the same useless "sharing" of his days at Amherstburg.


Last year, in November 2013 Rosica gave an interview to the same newspaper where he opined that the Church was entering a "radical" period, he in fact applauded it. He later spoke on this theme as part of the Christian Culture Series.

In November of this year, Father Tom Rosica appeared again at that same conference and gave a dissertation on the recent Synod on the Family. He again was interviewed by the same newspaper.

Let us remember the attempt by many to manipulate the synod in favour of an adulterist and homosexualist agenda undermining two millennia of Catholic teaching coming itself from Our Blessed Lord and the Holy Spirit.

Rosica tells the reporter that the recent Synod was perhaps the "most discussed in history," a short history I might add since it is a post Vatican II phenomena. Rosica indicates this in particular because of the impact it is "having on the world." 

The greatest problem in the world right now is Christian persecution and the beheadings and kidnapping of innocents by Islamist fascists. The Synod has had no impact on the world. Ninety nine point nine percent of people couldn't care less; others are simply trying to survive today. Even most Catholics did not know it happened but might have heard something about changing teaching. However, the changing of doctrine through pastoral stealth will have a deleterious affect on an already decaying and suffering world. As goes the Church, so goes the world.

"Having been the spokesperson (spokesman perhaps?) for the synod on the inside, this will be the first major public lecture in Canada to tell people what really happened at the synod, the implications for the Church and what is the process, the journey that we are on right now" said Rosica.

Priests and bishops conspired to distort Catholic teaching for their own ends, for their own visions. The Church and this Synod were infiltrated by modernists, heretics, adulterists and homosexuals with an agenda to change the doctrine of the Church through stealth, by changing pastoral practice. I do not believe that this was part of Father Rosica's revelation to the people of Windsor.

"Groups have it" I assume he means the final report to the bishops conferences, "and it is a really good rallying point to focus on important issues."

So what are these "important issues?"  

Are they the high rate of divorce and the abandonment of children by their fathers resulting from an incorrect understanding of Catholic matrimony because you and the bishops did not properly catechise? Is it perhaps the burdensome tax systems and urban expenses that cause mothers to leave the home to assist in the support of the family? Is it perhaps the homosexualist agenda of the corruption of our education system to take our children even further from our faith? Is it rampant contraception violating the sanctity of marriage or the use of abortion by Catholics? Is the problem in the Church really Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried or that we have no respect for individuals suffering from same-sex attraction? How about the affect of pornography upon the family?

Once again, Rosica's style is to issue little phrases and snippets of truth without explaining the reality and actuality of that truth. He goes on to say that "I feel that deep down something has to change here." 

I could care less about what this priest "feels." I care about doctrine and faith and what Our Lord expects of us and His Church. It is not about what Tom Rosica "feels" or anyone "feels." It is not up to him, it is not about what he feels!

"There should be a real dialogue, and that dialogue, that exchange was present in the early church, " says Roscia. Here we see again from that first article as a Deacon, he returns to that concept of "sharing." Where has the Church not had dialogue?: He speaks as if we've only now emerged from some dark age. What exactly is this dialogue that seems lacking? If Father Rosica or anyone else wants a synodal and democratic church then join the Church of England. How about a Romanuorum Coetibus from the Archlayman of Canterbury?

"A lot of people who were on the fringes have said, wow, there might be a place for me."..."I'm divorced and remarried and I felt disenfranchised and all of a sudden there's a place for me. Or somebody who's struggling with homosexuality and they realise that they have a certain dignity and value. The church is not saying anything goes by any means, it's saying every single person has an inherent dignity and value which cannot be underestimated."

This is poppycock!

Again, it is about "feelings." When did the Church "disenfranchise" anyone? People "disenfranchise themselves.

I was divorced, I was never "disenfranchised" for it. I followed Church teaching and when I failed, I had a remedy. I sought a decree of nullity and was granted it. I am now married to a beautiful and supportive Catholic woman. (As an aside, let me add something for my detractor who continues to express gossip and calumny in writing to others now even that my blogging means that I am "neglecting" my wife. I'm not good enough for his slander, he now belittles himself by going after my marriage and my wife. Well, her message to Barkin up the Wrong Tree is "if this is neglect, bring it on!")

Where is the lack of dignity for those suffering from same-sex attraction?

Has our good priest heard of Courage or what they thought of Archbishop Forte and his homosexualist shenanigans?

I have a friend who was a serious gay activist for many years. He came home to the Church and I was honoured to have been a lector at his marriage to a Catholic woman! He was always treated with dignity and respect by everyone in what some would consider to be an "extremely" orthodox Catholic community where both Forms of the Roman Rite are celebrated. I may be wrong but certainly, I know of nobody who ever chastised him or insulted him because of his former ways. As the Psalmist wrote, "my sins are always before me" and in reality, "who am I too judge?" as I have so many of my own of which I am not proud. This lie that the Church hates homosexuals must be put to rest. If a person truly repents and endevors to live a Christian life, even falls but gets back up through the sacraments, that is what we all strive for. This is not new, it is what the Church has always taught. For Rosica to suggest otherwise is a fallacy and an attempt at manipulation of the facts and is evident of the machinations in Rome.

At the conference, Rosica said "You may have heard or read that this Synod has been about changing the teaching of the Church on marriage family life or sexual morality. This is not true! It was about pastoral care that we try to offer to each other..."

It was exactly about changing the teaching through stealth by changing pastoral practice. 

How did belief in the Real Presence change? By changing the practice with communion in the hand and standing. How did belief in the Mass as a sacrifice change? By changing the practice so that it resembles a communion meal and is a commemoration of the Last Supper.

If you wish to read the rest of Father's address, it is posted at Salt + Light.

As I've written previously, those of us that see through what was happening at the Synod, through the manipulation and the spin, even from highly-placed clerics are not going to let this go unchallenged. Every article they write, every speech they give that we can find will be responded to publicly.

We are in a fight for the truth, there will be no let up from those who will seek to change doctrine and teaching through pastoral manipulations and there will be no let up from those of us who believe what our Lord taught and the Holy Spirit has revealed.

Our Lady of Wisdom, pray for us.

Ave Virgo Gloriosa!

  v

   

  A sermon by St. Anselm

O Virgin, by whose blessing all nature is blessed!

     Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendour by men who believe in God.

     The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

     Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.

     Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.

     To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

     God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Saviour of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.

     Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.

I Saw Santa Punching Arius

You'll need to turn the volume of the Wikiplayer off at the top left to enjoy this little treat...

Vox's well-laden Christmas Fruitcake

Here we are in the First Week of Advent. No Christmas decorations up yet, we'll leave that for after the Fourth Sunday but it is time to begin some of the preparations. I love Christmas, always have; and I love fruitcake. Is that weird or something? What is it about fruitcake that prompts so much derision? I think I know, lousy, dry, overly sweet fruitcake mass-produced and bought in a grocery store.

Now, what about making your own? It's not that hard and this recipe is one which I've used and modified here and there. Note that except for orange peel, there is no candied fruit with all that added liquid invert sugar. As a tip, when making Christmas Pudding or mincemeat that requires candied fruit, soak it in water from the kettle for a few minutes to melt off the gooey syrup and sugar. Just use the brown sugar of your recipe to sweeten it and not all that chemical stuff.

One word of caution. Do not cover the pot while it's cooking. I did the first year and the alcohol escaped all at once with the steam. Yes, I lost part of my eyebrows!

So, here it is, enjoy.

1 cup chopped dried apricots                                

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped dried pineapple                  

1 cup chopped pitted prunes

1 cup yellow raisins                                    

1 cup Thompson raisins

½ cup candied orange peel                                   

½ cup chopped dried figs

1 cup spring water

½ cup dark rum                                                     

½ cup brandy

½ cup port                                                               

½ cup Cointreau

1/2 cup filtered water

1 teaspoon bitters                                                   

1- 3 inch cinnamon stick

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon                            

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg                      

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1½ cups Demerara sugar                          

¼ teaspoon salt      

1 cup softened, unsalted butter               

4 large eggs, beaten

1½ cups self-rising flour                                       

1-teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine fruit in a large pot.  Stir in rum brandy, port, Cointreau, water and bitters.   Add cinnamon stick, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and salt.  Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.  Remove the fruit mixture to a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let sit for five days tossing it once a day. 

Prepare cake pans.  This is a large amount of cake and will fill 4 loaf pans or 2 – 8-inch square pans.  Butter pans and line with parchment paper. 

Preheat oven to 275. F.  Beat together butter and sugar until well mixed.  Gradually beat in eggs a little at a time, adding some of the flour if the mixture starts to curdle. 

Stir in the remaining flour.  Add fruit mixture with liquid to flour and egg mixture.  You may want to use your hands.  Spoon into prepared pans and smooth the surface.  Loosely cover top with a double layer of parchment paper.  Bake for about 2 hours for small [pans and up to 3 hours for large ones.  Test with a toothpick.  It should come out clean although the cake will be quite moist in center. 

Cool pans on rack.  Un-mould and wrap with foil.  Do not cut for at least three days.

John Michael Talbot: Ignorant, liturgical heretic!

For nearly thirty years I have followed my vocation in liturgy and church music. Over those years, I have been part of a few excellent choirs. This included the Toronto Oratory Choir where we sang the propers and polyphony for the Latin Mass in the Ordinary Form (Missal of Paul VI), and the use of Latin and proper English liturgical music in the sung English Mass according to the same Missal as well as Sunday Vespers in a combination of Latin and English, chant, hymnody and polyphony. I sang with Canada's leading male-vocal ensemble for three seasons, The Victoria Scholars, though secular, singing sacred music. I've lead small scholas and little choirs for the traditional liturgy. I served as the Schola Master and Cantor for the glorious 19 months when we had the FSSP in Toronto and have sung the EF almost every Sunday for a decade. Weekly, for seven years, I have sung Saturday night in the OF and as well as Sundays in the EF and I will continue to do so with God's help until I can do it no longer. Suffice to say that I know a thing or two about liturgy and church music. 

John Michael Talbot and his ilk have destroyed church music and continue to do so. "Better music at Mass means a closer encounter with Christ" says Talbot. I agree, but not on what he says next. "Catholics are notoriously known for having the worst music anywhere" he adds, along with his disrespect of the corrected translation on the Nicene Creed and the word "consubstantial."  On both of these John Michael Talbot and this writer are going to differ sharply and drastically. His arrogance is astounding.  However, I will agree on one thing, church music is bad because of John Michael Talbot and others like him.

Read this again, according to this aging hippie and lay leader of a religious commune, we have the "worst music anywhere." 

Really John Michael? 

Listen to the music playing on this blog for Advent. Go search on the Internet for something by Palestrina or Tallis or a simple Gregorian chant, the proper music for the Church even in the Novus Ordo Missae according to the Second Vatican Council! Then after doing that, come back to the combox here and tell me that Catholics have the "worst music anywhere." That is nothing more than a self-serving lie. Strong words John? Well, maybe it is the first time in your career that someone had the courage to state publicly that you have done enormous damage to Catholic liturgical praxis. Yours is an opinion formed out of self-interest. You have no liturgical credentials, no training, no scholarship. I doubt that you've even read or understood Sacrosanctam Concilium. How much money do you make from all these Catholic parishes buying your music and bringing you in for these talks? Seems pretty lucrative if you ask me.

You, John Michael Talbot are a liturgical heretic.

There is no singing this music by congregations. There is no "active participation." Talbot is a singer-songwriter born out of another era. If you want his music fine, play it in the church hall, or around the campfire, buy it, put more money in his pocket; knock yourself out with it; but it does not belong in the Holy Mass! 

Talbot is a convert from Methodism. It is too bad that he did not immerse himself in liturgy of the faith he came to. 

Instead he made it all about himself because it is all about him and not Him. When the history is written on what went wrong in the Church's liturgy, they'll be a whole chapter on this ageing hippie.

And all the talk about Our Lord Jesus Christ is not going to fix that John.

Five Traditional Latin Masses in Toronto for the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Laudetur Jesus Christus!

Yes, that is really what you see. Five Masses in Toronto for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

An open letter to Pope Francis - our sister Asia's blood will cry out from the ground

Most Holy Father, Francis, Bishop of Rome.

I write to you publicly here as a scandalised Catholic. 

Yesterday, you entered into the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and you prayed alongside a Mufti. While I cannot know your prayer or what was in your heart. you have created a scandal by bowing your head and praying silently inside a hall of a religion that denies the Most Holy Trinity, denies the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, denies His all-atoning Sacrifice and denies His bodily resurrection. 

Later, you attended the Hagia Sophia, the ancient Cathedral of Byzantium which was stolen by the Mohammedans, desecrated and now sits as a museum. While there, the Muslim call to prayer rang out -- prayer to a false god.

Is there any coincidence that after you invited and prayed with an Imam in the Vatican, all hell broke loose in the ancient land of Chaldea, Ur and Babylon where we have seen people beheaded, children cut in half and churches burned.

Our sister, Asia Bibi still languishes in a jail in Pakistan. She is sentenced to death. 

Holy Father, you need to speak out. You need to speak out publicly to the Government of Pakistan and to the Islamic world to free our sister Asia, to free the 200 girls in Nigeria and to stop the violence against Christians and all peoples.

No more Holy Father; no more bowing to those who worship a false god.

You must defend the faith.

You must defend our sister Asia. You must use the full weight of the Holy See's diplomacy to rescue our sister Asia. If the Pakistani Government refuses your diplomatic overtures then you must go public and proclaim for the world to hear that our sister must be set free.

To do less, will cause her blood to scream out from the ground for vengeance and her blood will be on all of those who sat by while this crime is committed.

May your eyes be opened.

Sincerely,

Vox Cantoris

Pakistan/Aleteia (Aleteia.org/ar) – Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who has received the death penalty for being accused of blasphemy made an appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice in her country to change her sentence. Her sentence is considered “unfair” and excessive in light of the insufficient evidence and weakness of the testimonies against her.

On the 16th of October, the Supreme Court in Lahore rejected the appeal that Bibi’s attorney submitted to overturn her imminent death sentence. According to the Italian news agency, ANSA, Bibi’s husband wrote a letter to the Pakistani president, Mamnoon Hussain, asking him to pardon her and allow her to leave the country and go to a neutral country like France.

The most significant charge against Aisa Bibi is that she is Christian; for which she has been languishing in prison for five years. According to the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, she sent a letter on the 27th of October to Pope Francis asking him to pray on her behalf and to aid her on a spiritual level.

From her prison cell in Multan, Asia Bibi has become a symbol of the struggle for religious freedom in the world. The mother of five children who was sentenced to hang in late October told Pope Francis, “I know that you are praying for me with all your heart. I am hopeful that thanks to your prayers I might be free one day. I sincerely thank you in the name of God Almighty that you are close to me.”

What is Asia Bibi’s crime?

Asia Bibi, who is 50 years old, has received the death penalty for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet Mohammad. The Supreme Court of Pakistan last October 16th confirmed the earlier ruling in 2010 that she receive the death sentence for blasphemy. Bibi’s lawyer, Sardar Mushtaq told journalists that there were no more options remaining except to use the time that she has left to help remove this bitter cup from her.

Asia Bibi was arrested after a group of Muslim women from her town informed a cleric that she had made offensive comments about the Prophet after an argument over trivial matters.

Anti-blasphemy laws are being used against enemies

Human rights advocates on a global level have demanded that the law pertaining to blasphemy in Pakistan be changed. It is worth noting that this law was issued by the military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1980.

Human rights experts have criticized the existence of laws that condemn those who speak negatively about the Quran or the Prophet Mohammad to prison for life or are given the death penalty. They state that these laws are being used to achieve personal gain in disputes with enemies or those with whom they have a problem.

This article was originally published in Aleteia’s Arabic edition. It was translated by Donald Puhlman.

No pope should ever visit a mosque, period!

No pope should ever kiss another religion's "holy" book because there is no other Holy Book other than the Bible. While we cannot know what was in his mind when he did it or if he even thought about the implications, that photo to this day would have potentially aided the now non-existent "Devil's Advocate" to stop or slow the canonisation of John Paul II.

No pope should ever visit a mosque. Benedict XVI did this in his visit to Istanbul, once known as Constantinople. While in the Blue Mosque, he stood holding his pectoral cross, He did not bow his head, nor did he pray in contemplation. He could be seen moving his lips, perhaps invoking the Lord's Prayer or a blessing to convert the Mohammedans, one can only hope.

No pope should ever pray in a mosque with head bowed and eyes closed as Pope Francis did. By doing this, one is creating scandal and affirming heresy. Islam has been called the "worst Christian heresy" and has been condemned by many Saints. While modernists suggest that they "profess" the God of Abraham, at best they have a distorted and false view of the Triune God and at worst they worship the ancient god of the moon (hence the crescent) which was the norm throughout Arabia.

Did I write, "no pope should ever visit a mosque?

There would be an exception as was pointed out by a reader on Twitter. He could visit a mosque to proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He could do the same in a Synagogue as St. Stephen did in the Temple of Jerusalem. He could visit a Hindu temple, no doubt as St. Thomas the Apostle did in India two thousand years ago.

However, that is the problem.

This Pope and all others since Vatican II have all visited mosques and synagogues and not proclaimed Christ and we all suffer for that today, especially the Moslems and Jews and Hindus and all others who do not hear from our Popes that there is no salvation outside the Church and no other Name on which we can be saved.

On other note, when we go to greet our host in his house can we dress for the occasion?

Too much chant?

At Southern Orders, Father Alan MacDonald muses about the amount of chant in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. I left a comment there which I reprint below.

The fundamental problem is the 1967 document, Musicam Sacram. This document, in its desire to remove the strictness of the Read, Sung and Solemn Masses, put forward the practice of "progressive solemnity." Sing what you can without regard to the previous structure. It encouraged that the whole Mass be sung but sanctioned that one could sing what one could manage.

The second problem and perhaps the worst of it was the permission to actually substitute the Sung Proper (Introit, Offertory and Communion) with a hymn.

Up to that point (and remember, this was not the manufactured (quoting Pope Emeritus Benedict) liturgy of Paul VI but the slimmed down "tridentine" rite; the Proper had to be said (in a Read Mass) or sung (chanted melismatically or in psalm tone or in polyphony). That wretched document and that one paragraph is where we can point to for the destruction of the chant and the propers.

It also admonished choirs who sang all the Propers without the people. The people have no business singing the Propers, that is the domain of the choir/schola; the people's part was the Ordinary.

Until we get over this idea that the people must sing everything we can never restore these liturgical sung texts.

In the EF Masses which I lead and conduct on a typical Sunday, the people sing the following:

Processional Hymn in English

Sprinkling Rite

Kyrie

Gloria

Credo

Agnus

Sanctus

Marian Antiphon

Recessional Hymn

Until that is revoked and the Propers (said or sung) in the Ordinary Form with the restored Offertory chant (now only permitted if sung) are mandated, we will not see a restoration of the sacred liturgy.

On a further note, it is incumbent upon every layman or laywoman working in the Extraordinary Form to follow the rubrics and norms and to humble themselves to them. If you are not able to man up to that then stop doing it. We don't need the errors of those who destroyed the liturgy in from 1964 to 1967 and then again in 1969 to creep in to the venerable rite. If you can't do the rite, right, then don't do it at all!

http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_instr_19670305_musicam-sacram_en.html

Roberto de Mattei: "You must defend the Faith received in baptism against heresy..."

Over at Toronto Catholic Witness, Barona has translated from Polish this article.

BREAKING NEWS: Report from Warsaw on the Conference, "The Synodal Earthquake", featuring Roberto de Mattei: "you must defend the Faith received in baptism against heresy...the synod....a ceasefire..."

The compass and guide for us simple faithful should always be the sensus fidei. One must defend the faith received in baptism against heresy, both in theory and in practice. We also have an obligation to deepen our faith " appealed Professor Roberto de Mattei during the Warsaw conference, "The Synodal earthquake" 

The following is a translation of a report on the Conference,"The Synodal Earthquake", November, 25th at the University of Warsaw. Special guest presenter was the renowned Italian historian, Professor Roberto de Mattei. 

Read all of it at Toronto Catholic Witness.