Bishops of Kazakhstan Issue stunning correction of Pope Francis' approval of heresy

From Gloria TV:

Pope Francis’ approval of the pastoral norms of the Buenos Aires Bishops has caused a considerable and increasing confusion among the faithful and the clergy, write three Kazakhstan Bishops.

They are Astana Archbishop Tomash Peta, Karaganda Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga and Astana Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Their statement is dated December 31, 2017.

It sees the pastoral norms as a means of spreading the “plague of divorce” even in the life of the Church. Legitimating a second liaison “represents a substantial alteration of the two thousand-year-old” sacramental discipline and doctrine of the Church.

The bishops quote from the Church Fathers up to recent popes who unanimous agree that a second liaison is never legitimate.

They conclude, “It is not licit to justify, approve, or legitimize either directly or indirectly divorce and a non-conjugal stable sexual relationship through the sacramental discipline of the admission of so-called ‘divorced and remarried’ to Holy Communion, in this case a discipline alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith.”

Profession of the immutable truths
about sacramental marriage

After the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation "Amoris laetitia" (2016) various bishops issued at local, regional, and national levels applicable norms regarding the sacramental discipline of those faithful, called "divorced and remarried," who having still a living spouse to whom they are united with a valid sacramental matrimonial bond, have nevertheless begun a stable cohabitation more uxorio with a person who is not their legitimate spouse.

The aforementioned rules provide inter alia that in individual cases the persons, called "divorced and remarried," may receive the sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion, while continuing to live habitually and intentionally more uxorio with a person who is not their legitimate spouse. These pastoral norms have received approval from various hierarchical authorities. Some of these norms have received approval even from the supreme authority of the Church.

The spread of these ecclesiastically approved pastoral norms has caused a considerable and ever increasing confusion among the faithful and the clergy, a confusion that touches the central manifestations of the life of the Church, such as sacramental marriage with the family, the domestic church, and the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist.

According to the doctrine of the Church, only the sacramental matrimonial bond constitutes a domestic church (see Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 11). The admission of so-called "divorced and remarried" faithful to Holy Communion, which is the highest expression of the unity of Christ the Spouse with His Church, means in practice a way of approving or legitimizing divorce, and in this meaning a kind of introduction of divorce in the life of the Church.

The mentioned pastoral norms are revealed in practice and in time as a means of spreading the "plague of divorce" (an expression used by the Second Vatican Council, see Gaudium et spes, 47). It is a matter of spreading the "plague of divorce" even in the life of the Church, when the Church, instead, because of her unconditional fidelity to the doctrine of Christ, should be a bulwark and an unmistakable sign of contradiction against the plague of divorce which is every day more rampant in civil society.

Unequivocally and without admitting any exception Our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ solemnly reaffirmed God's will regarding the absolute prohibition of divorce. An approval or legitimation of the violation of the sacredness of the marriage bond, even indirectly through the mentioned new sacramental discipline, seriously contradicts God's express will and His commandment. This practice therefore represents a substantial alteration of the two thousand-year-old sacramental discipline of the Church. Furthermore, a substantially altered discipline will eventually lead to an alteration in the corresponding doctrine.

The constant Magisterium of the Church, beginning with the teachings of the Apostles and of all the Supreme Pontiffs, has preserved and faithfully transmitted both in the doctrine (in theory) and in the sacramental discipline (in practice) in an unequivocal way, without any shadow of doubt and always in the same sense and in the same meaning (eodem sensu eademque sententia), the crystalline teaching of Christ concerning the indissolubility of marriage.

Because of its Divinely established nature, the discipline of the sacraments must never contradict the revealed word of God and the faith of the Church in the absolute indissolubility of a ratified and consummated marriage. "The sacraments not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called "sacraments of faith." (Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 59). "Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1125).

The Catholic faith by its nature excludes a formal contradiction between the faith professed on the one hand and the life and practice of the sacraments on the other. In this sense we can also understand the following affirmation of the Magisterium: "This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age." (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 43) and "Accordingly, the concrete pedagogy of the Church must always remain linked with her doctrine and never be separated from it" (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 33).

In view of the vital importance that the doctrine and discipline of marriage and the Eucharist constitute, the Church is obliged to speak with the same voice. The pastoral norms regarding the indissolubility of marriage must not, therefore, be contradicted between one diocese and another, between one country and another. Since the time of the Apostles, the Church has observed this principle as St. Irenaeus of Lyons testifies: "The Church, though spread throughout the world to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the Apostles and their disciples, preserves this preaching and this faith with care and, as if she inhabits a single house, believes in the same identical way, as if she had only one soul and only one heart, and preaches the truth of the faith, teaches it and transmits it in a unanimous voice, as if she had only one mouth"(Adversus haereses, I, 10, 2). Saint Thomas Aquinas transmits to us the same perennial principle of the life of the Church: "There is one and the same faith of the ancients and the moderns, otherwise there would not be one and the same Church" (Questiones Disputatae de Veritate, q. 14, a. 12c).

The following warning from Pope John Paul II remains current and valid: "The confusion, created in the conscience of many faithful by the differences of opinions and teachings in theology, in preaching, in catechesis, in spiritual direction, about serious and delicate questions of Christian morals, ends up by diminishing the true sense of sin almost to the point of eliminating it" (Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitenia, 18).

The meaning of the following statements of the Magisterium of the Church is fully applicable to the doctrine and sacramental discipline concerning the indissolubility of a ratified and consummated marriage:

• "For the Church of Christ, watchful guardian that she is, and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, never changes anything, never diminishes anything, never adds anything to them; but with all diligence she treats the ancient doctrines faithfully and wisely, which the faith of the Fathers has transmitted. She strives to investigate and explain them in such a way that the ancient dogmas of heavenly doctrine will be made evident and clear, but will retain their full, integral, and proper nature, and will grow only within their own genus — that is, within the same dogma, in the same sense and the same meaning” (Pius IX, Dogmatic Bull Ineffabilis Deus)

• "With regard to the very substance of truth, the Church has before God and men the sacred duty to announce it, to teach it without any attenuation, as Christ revealed it, and there is no condition of time that can reduce the rigor of this obligation. It binds in conscience every priest who is entrusted with the care of teaching, admonishing, and guiding the faithful "(Pius XII, Discourse to parish priests and Lenten preachers, March 23, 1949).

• "The Church does not historicize, does not relativize to the metamorphoses of profane culture the nature of the Church that is always equal and faithful to itself, as Christ wanted it and authentic tradition perfected it" (Paul VI, Homily from October 28, 1965).

• "Now it is an outstanding manifestation of charity toward souls to omit nothing from the saving doctrine of Christ" (Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae Vitae, 29).

• "Any conjugal difficulties are resolved without ever falsifying and compromising the truth" (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 33).

• "The Church is in no way the author or the arbiter of this norm [of the Divine moral law]. In obedience to the truth which is Christ, whose image is reflected in the nature and dignity of the human person, the Church interprets the moral norm and proposes it to all people of good will, without concealing its demands of radicalness and perfection" (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 33).

• “The other principle is that of truth and consistency, whereby the Church does not agree to call good evil and evil good. Basing herself on these two complementary principles, the church can only invite her children who find themselves in these painful situations to approach the divine mercy by other ways, not however through the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist until such time as they have attained the required dispositions” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 34).

• "The Church's firmness in defending the universal and unchanging moral norms is not demeaning at all. Its only purpose is to serve man's true freedom. Because there can be no freedom apart from or in opposition to the truth"(John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, 96).

• “When it is a matter of the moral norms prohibiting intrinsic evil, there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone. It makes no difference whether one is the master of the world or the "poorest of the poor" on the face of the earth. Before the demands of morality we are all absolutely equal" (emphasis in original) (John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, 96).

• "The obligation of reiterating this impossibility of admission to the Eucharist is required for genuine pastoral care and for an authentic concern for the well-being of these faithful and of the whole Church, as it indicates the conditions necessary for the fullness of that conversion to which all are always invited by the Lord“ (Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Declaration on the admissibility to the Holy Communion of the divorced and remarried, 24 June 2000, n. 5).

As Catholic bishops, who - according to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council - must defend the unity of faith and the common discipline of the Church, and take care that the light of the full truth should arise for all men (see Lumen Gentium, 23 ) we are forced in conscience to profess in the face of the current rampant confusion the unchanging truth and the equally immutable sacramental discipline regarding the indissolubility of marriage according to the bimillennial and unaltered teaching of the Magisterium of the Church. In this spirit we reiterate:

• Sexual relationships between people who are not in the bond to one another of a valid marriage - which occurs in the case of the so-called "divorced and remarried" - are always contrary to God's will and constitute a grave offense against God.

• No circumstance or finality, not even a possible imputability or diminished guilt, can make such sexual relations a positive moral reality and pleasing to God. The same applies to the other negative precepts of the Ten Commandments of God. Since “there exist acts which, per se and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong by reason of their object" (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 17).

• The Church does not possess the infallible charism of judging the internal state of grace of a member of the faithful (see Council of Trent, session 24, chapter 1). The non-admission to Holy Communion of the so-called "divorced and remarried" does not therefore mean a judgment on their state of grace before God, but a judgment on the visible, public, and objective character of their situation. Because of the visible nature of the sacraments and of the Church herself, the reception of the sacraments necessarily depends on the corresponding visible and objective situation of the faithful.

• It is not morally licit to engage in sexual relations with a person who is not one’s legitimate spouse supposedly to avoid another sin. Since the Word of God teaches us, it is not lawful "to do evil so that good may come" (Romans 3, 8).

• The admission of such persons to Holy Communion may be permitted only when they with the help of God's grace and a patient and individual pastoral accompaniment make a sincere intention to cease from now on the habit of such sexual relations and to avoid scandal. It is in this way that true discernment and authentic pastoral accompaniment were always expressed in the Church.

• People who have habitual non-marital sexual relations violate their indissoluble sacramental nuptial bond with their life style in relation to their legitimate spouse. For this reason they are not able to participate "in Spirit and in Truth" (see John 4, 23) at the Eucharistic wedding supper of Christ, also taking into account the words of the rite of Holy Communion: "Blessed are the guests at the wedding supper of the Lamb!" (Revelation 19, 9).

• The fulfillment of God's will, revealed in His Ten Commandments and in His explicit and absolute prohibition of divorce, constitutes the true spiritual good of the people here on earth and will lead them to the true joy of love in the salvation of eternal life.

Being bishops in the pastoral office those, who promote the Catholic and Apostolic faith ("cultores catholicae et apostolicae fidei", see Missale Romanum, Canon Romanus), we are aware of this grave responsibility and our duty before the faithful who await from us a public and unequivocal profession of the truth and the immutable discipline of the Church regarding the indissolubility of marriage. For this reason we are not allowed to be silent.

We affirm therefore in the spirit of St. John the Baptist, of St. John Fisher, of St. Thomas More, of Blessed Laura Vicuña and of numerous known and unknown confessors and martyrs of the indissolubility of marriage:

It is not licit (non licet) to justify, approve, or legitimize either directly or indirectly divorce and a non-conjugal stable sexual relationship through the sacramental discipline of the admission of so-called "divorced and remarried" to Holy Communion, in this case a discipline alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith.

By making this public profession before our conscience and before God who will judge us, we are sincerely convinced that we have provided a service of charity in truth to the Church of our day and to the Supreme Pontiff, Successor of Saint Peter and Vicar of Christ on earth .

31 December 2017, the Feast of the Holy Family, in the year of the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.

+ Tomash Peta, Archbishop Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana

+ Jan Pawel Lenga, Archbishop-Bishop of Karaganda

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

On Mary's perpetual virginity

From the combox.

Obviously Mary had relations with her husband Joseph once the period of purification of 40 days after the birth of her firstborn, the Savior Jesus Christ, was over. "And didn’t know her until she had given birth to her firstborn son. And he named him Jesus"; Matthew 1:25 Stan on Look upon the face of the Sister Lucia "the Heretic" Caram. To her, the Blessed Virgin Mary, wasn't!

Sorry, Stan, you're stating heresy.

You see, here is the thing. You are to preoccupied with sex to imagine that it is possible to love a celibate and chaste life. It reveals your own issues. What you also fail to grasp, is what is explained about the language of the Bible as discussed below. Further, you do not recall the words of St. John about all the libraries of the world could not hold all the books if everything was written down. What we know about the Angel's visit to Joseph is what we are told but what we don't know is what else he was told that was not recorded. I happen to believe that he was told much more so that he knew fully what his role and responsibility to the Christ Child and His Mother were. Joseph knew that the Womb of Mary was the Ark of the New Covenant. He knew that it was the true Holy of Holies. As in the Temple, he could not enter into the Holy of Holies. Nor did he enter or put his seed into that which was Mary's. We also recall the words of God to Moses in the Burning Bush, "take off your sandals for you walk on holy ground."

Simple.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-case-for-marys-perpetual-virginity

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/01/09/on-the-perpetual-virginity-of-mary-a-response-to-peter-leithart/

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/biblical-evidence-for-the-perpetual-virginity-of-mary

God bless all of you, my dear readers and friends

I've not much time to post, I leave on a two-hour drive in a few minutes to chant the Mass for the Octave Day of Christmas or what we once called, the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord. How ironic it is in the NewChurch desire to have all things ecumenical and inter-religious that the very Jewishness of the Lord Jesus is downplayed and substituted with rather banal Talmudic table blessings inserted in the Holy Sacrifice masquerading as an Offertory.

 

Perhaps we shall post soon on the ridiculousness of the Feast of Holy Family being transferred to yesterday.

That being said, I must dash. A blessed day to you and God bless you for 2018

Satire becomes reality

I first came across this humorous satire in 2010, I posted it on Facebook and it came up this morning in the memory feed. It was sent to me by a Catholic friend. When I asked him years earlier about his conversion and what he converted from, his response was, "Communism!'

How odd that given the babbling "homilies" of Father Bergoglio this Christmas we should find this and the realization that all these headlines could actually serve as papal homilies.

Feast of St. Stephen and the death of his namesake, Father Stephen Auad

The Martyrdom of St. Stephen

In the southwest corner of Toronto is the old Village of Long Branch and the Parish of Christ the King. Toronto, originally known as York, is essentially a city of towns and villages amalgamated over the years into one city. Long Branch was a village in its own right until 1967, when it was amalgamated into Etobicoke, meaning “where the alders grow,” which was eventually amalgamated into Toronto.

Parish of Christ the King and Shrine of St.Anthony of Padua 

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Long Branch was a summer resort area for the wealthy of Toronto, eight miles away, they would come on a ferry for the cool lake breeze. With cheap available land and the Canadian National Railway, it would later become an industrial community with companies such as Chrysler, Pittsburgh Paints, Castrol Oil right beside the church, Gabriel Automotive and Neptune Meters, all of which are now gone along with the good jobs and many of them, to Mexico. Long Branch had become a prosperous and pleasant community and it was to this little village that the Pastor of the Maronites, Father Stephen Auad, would come.

French postcard of Maronite militia, c. 1860

As with all immigrants at the time from Mount Lebanon, including my four grandparents to Canada, life in the old country was hard. My grandparents, along with Father Auad, were born just after the then latest wave of Islamic persecution. It was known as the Mount Lebanon Civil War or the Civil War of Syria, as Lebanon was officially part of the Greater Syria Province of the detestable Ottoman Empire. It began as an uprising by the Maronite Christians of Mt. Lebanon against their Druze overlords and culminated in a massacre of Christians at Damascus. Nearly 400 Christians villages and 500 churches were destroyed in a battle by Islamists which eventually spread even to the south of Lebanon. The British backed the Druze for economic reasons and political reasons, the French came to the rescue of the Christians at the urging of the Pope and the Ottoman's took advantage and fomented the strife. It included the Massacre of Aleppo, yes, that Aleppo, when over 5000 died as Mohammedans rose up against its Christians. It seems all too familiar now, no doubt and they may live quietly as your neighbour but as in Mosul, it was the Mohammedan neighbours that pointed out to the ISIS butchers where the Christians lived.

A year after my father was born in 1919 and only a few short blocks from the tenement on York Street where the Toronto Stock Exchange now stands, a Maronite Qurbono, literally "Offering" or Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated at St. Michael's Cathedral by the Rt. Rev. Shakralla Khoury. Khoury was the Maronite Eparch, or Bishop of Tyre and delegate from Mount Lebanon to the Paris Peace Conference following The Great War. The Qurbono was in Thanksgiving to God for the "virtual independence of Lebanon” from the defeated and vanquished Ottomans -- an independence that would not be totally realized for another thirty years due to the mischief and machinations of King Faisal.

Remarkably, the Qurbono, or Mass, at the Cathedral was reported on September 6, 1920, in the old Toronto World; and the earlier referred to "Pastor of the Maronites in Toronto," assisted at the Divine Liturgy.

Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church, Toronto

Sadly for the Lebanese of Toronto and in spite of Father Auad being termed in the secular press the "Pastor of the Maronites" there was no Maronite Church in Toronto. The closest was in Buffalo with the result of most Lebanese, my family included, becoming assimilated into the Latin Rite. 

In 1980, Toronto Archbishop Emmett Cardinal Carter assisted the new Lebanese immigrants with the purchase of the former Anglican Church of the Epiphany on Queen Street in Parkdale, now Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church and the Maronites finally had their home. Pope John Paul II had just established the Eparchy of St. Maron in Canada (Montreal). There is now a second Maronite Church in the region with St. Charbel's in Mississauga and given the more recent strife and suffering of Middle Eastern Christians, we also see Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Coptic Catholic and Orthodox churches being built throughout the greater Toronto region.

While studying in Rome, Father Auad was able to offer the Holy Sacrifice e in both the Latin and Maronite Rites. He would learn Italian which would prove helpful to his future in Canada. The Church in Toronto was an Irish Church and these first Catholics in Toronto suffered many indignities in what was known as the Ulster of North America. The Church here was hardly prepared for the next waves of immigrants, particularly the demanding Italians.

The old parish of St. Patrick's, built in 1867 the year of Canada's Confederation, had a new church built behind it on McCaul Street with the former becoming Our Lady of Mount Carmel and assigned to the Italians as their first parish. Because he could speak Italian, the Maronite Lebanese Father Auad became their pastor. It still stands today serving Chinese Roman Catholics, the Italians having long since moved on from that community. It didn't seem to go to well. Professor John Zucchi of McGill University who specializes in immigration history wrote in 1983 that:

"In the late 1920's the Parish Committee of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish filed a complaint in Italian with the archbishop regarding their pastor, Father Stephen Auad."

These Italians were villagers and more accustomed to a more active involvement of the laity in the parish than Toronto Catholics were accustomed to. The Irish were different; they had to escape persecution to forests and cliffs to find a rock to hear Mass. They were quiet in their Masses. Their history was different of course being persecuted on their own soil by the British, it was a different situation and they never questioned the priest or made demands. Given the prevailing climate in Toronto one can understand the Irish mentality. Their ancestors were persecuted in Ireland by the English and Scots and they came to York - later Toronto, and got it good here too in what was an English and Scottish protestant paradise dominated by Anglican, Presbyterians and Methodists.

The Italians were bolder and had their own customs and devotions and made demands unknown by the locals then. Father Auad had clearly adopted the prevailing official Irish culture of liturgical minimalism and flying below the radar for the reasons noted above and this conflicted with the Italians under his care. Professor Zucchi continued; 

"The committee was highly critical of Auad; he was too busy to hear confession; it was difficult to find him in the rectory or in the church; he rarely visited school children; his masses were too short, etc."

It wasn't only the local Italians that criticised the poor beleaguered priest unbelievably, even American Evangelical Pentecostals chimed in.  It was August 5, 1933 at Springfield in the state of Missouri and the Pentecostal Evangel displayed its bigotry and ignorance writing:

“The  following item  taken  from  the Toronto  press  will  show  how  it  is  possible for Christianity to catch the diseases of  the  old pagan religions:  "What  has become  an annual  public religious  function in Toronto will take  place tomorrow, when Rev. Father  Stephen Auad, pastor of  Mount  Carmel Church (notice that they left "Our Lady" out of the title!)  St. Patrick Street,  will bless  motor  cars and  other conveyances  after  the  11  o'clock  Mass. The vehicles will thus be placed under the patronage of St. Christopher,' patron saint of travelers. The time is coming when Christianity will be purged of all alien additions. Matt.13:41.”

It was now 1938 and Father Stephen Auad approached Archbishop James Charles McGuigan, later to be English-speaking Canada's first Cardinal, about building a shrine to St. Anthony of Padua in that old summer resort village of Long Branch now becoming an industrial centre. Finances being what they were at the time, just after the Great Depression and with Canada entering the Second World War, the Archbishop declined the request. Disappointed in the Archbishop's decision Father Auad went home and there he brooded about the situation obviously not happy and still fighting with the Italians until his housekeeper, one Mrs. Maggie Jobin, encouraged him to go back and ask again, but this time, more firmly.

So, he did and did so to the point of pounding on the desk of the future Cardinal. Astonished at the boldness, the good Archbishop, originally from Prince Edward Island, is reported to have laughed until tears flowed down his cheeks and then said, "If you feel so strongly about the church, go ahead, but keep it your responsibility" and on August 4, 1938, Father Auad was appointed the parish priest of the Village of Long Branch and directed to build a church.

Attending one weeknight Mass at Christ the King a few years ago, I noticed a window long overlooked. It seemed an odd Saint in a window here, St. Antony of the Desert. I started to look closer. In addition to St. Anthony of the Desert there was St. Maroun, the great mystic, monk and missionary to the people of Mount Lebanon and Syria who died in 410 A.D.  It is from him that the Maronites are named. The next window was Mar Youhana Maroun, or as we would say in English, St. John Maron who died in 707 A.D., the first Patriarch of the Maronite Church. Then a little further along, there she was, Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon whom the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East declared in 1908 to be "Queen of Lebanon." Knowing that the people of Long Branch would not know these Saints, each one has a little banner with their name under their image and quotes from scripture about "Libanus." Here was a little parish, built by a priest who came from the land named so often in the Psalms, who procured these windows to the greatest of Lebanon’s Holy Ones including the Mother of our Redeemer whose birth we celebrate.

Father Auad had a great personal devotion to St. Anthony of Padua and wanted this new parish at Long Branch to be named the Shrine of St. Anthony. Given that there was already a large church on Bloor Street dedicated to this much-loved Saint, the Archbishop did not agree. It was named Christ the King and a small grotto was built to house an Altar. “Shrine of St. Anthony” remains today engraved in the terrazzo flooring just below the plaque in memory of Father Auad. The first Mass offered there was celebrated by Father Auad on September 17, 1939, and on Sunday, May 26, 1940, the church was blessed by Archbishop McGuigan.



At Midnight Mass on December 25, 1944 and whilst delivering his sermon, Father Stephan Auad suffered a stroke. The next day, December 26, 1944, on the very Feast of St. Stephen, his name-saint, Father Stephen Auad went on to his eternal reward and a little bit of Lebanese history in Long Branch lay hidden.

On this anniversary of his death, may this little Christmas story serve as a tribute to this early and long forgotten priest of the first hundred years of the Church in Toronto. 

May Father Stephen Auad be rejoicing on this day with St. Stephen in the presence of the LORD whom he loved and served.  

Rev. Stephen Auad

Christmas greetings to all

To all of you, a Blessed and

 Merry Christmas.

Paul VI to be canonised a Saint? Oh come on now, you knew this was going to happen.

They waited. 

They waited until Father Luigi Villa died before announcing his beatification.

https://archive.org/stream/PaulVIBeautifiedByFatherLuigiVilla_201606/Paul%20VI%20beautified%20by%20Father%20Luigi%20Villa_djvu.txt

The man who presided over the destructive implementation of the Second Vatican Council from which I cannot honestly say that one good thing has come, is about to be canonised as a Saint. If you can list one thing good from Vatican II, please list it in the combox.

When this destroyer of the Church was beatified over an alleged miracle that a baby was born without amniotic fluid, I stated then that it was a fraud. Yes, it is "miraculous" that a baby can be born without amniotic fluid, but it is hardly a "MIRACLE" on an individual basis. It is not something which cannot be medically or scientifically explained.

Look it up.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=baby+surviving+without+amniotic+fluid&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA754CA754&oq=baby+surviving+no+amniot&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.6300j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

This filthy Berogolian regime will stop at nothing to make a mockery of the Church, Her mission, and Her Saints. 

It started under John Paul II with the "make a saint" machine and it continues. They have now opened the cause for Albino Luciani, whom they state was not murdered. Perhaps out of all the Vatican II Pope "Saints" he may be the only one.

So, we are to believe that every Pope since 1958 has become a Saint? No Pius XII? No Leo XIII?

This boil on the Seat of Peter can declare Giovanni Montini Santa Clause, it won't make it so.

What a fraud.

Pope Paul VI set for sainthood, miracle identified

Medical doctors and Vatican theologians have given the green light. The newspaper of the diocese of Brescia: what better opportunity than the October 2018 synod?

Pope Paul VI

Pubblicato il 21/12/2017

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI

VATICAN CITY

Pope Paul VI, beatified in 2014 by Pope Francis, a step towards sanctification.  

In a special issue entitled “It will be the year of Paul VI Saint”, the weekly magazine of the diocese of Brescia, La voce del popolo, writes that on 13 December, theologians of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope Montini, after a first free go-ahead had been given by the medical consultation of the Vatican Congregation itself. At this point it is necessary that the cardinals of the Congregation and, finally, the Pope express themselves on the same miracle.  

The miracle regards the birth of a girl from Verona called Amanda, who in 2014 had survived for months despite the fact the placenta was broken.  

Pope Francis beatified his predecessor on 19 October 2014, concluding the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family.  

“Rumors are so insistent and the next steps so fast to take, that everything indicates 2018 as Blessed Paul VI’s canonization year”, writes the diocesan newspaper of Brescia. The last official stage took place last December 13 in the theological commission. The miracle attributed to the intercession of John Baptist Montini about the healing of a fetus in prenatal age in 2014 was approved. The expectant mother native from Verona, at risk of miscarriage, a few days after the beatification of Montini in Brescia, went to the Sanctuary “delle Grazie”, to pray to the newly beatified Pope.  

Subsequently, a child in good health was born. After the doctors and theologians’ recognition, there are still a few more steps to be taken: the passage in the commission of cardinals, the final approval of the Pope and that of the Consistory with the official announcement and the definition of the date. But at this point, it is more than a hope. The month of October could be the right one. From 3 to 28 October in Rome, the 15th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on young people will be celebrated and will gather in the Vatican prelates from all over the world. What better opportunity to canonize in front of such a large portion of the College of Bishops, the other pontiff, after Saint John XXIII of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council? It will most likely take place on one of the first three Sundays of October, even if the most accredited date today seems to be the 21. Indeed, sooner or later, in 2018 Paul VI will be Saint! We praise the Lord to Whom we entrust the year that will come”. 

Bergoglio "Cardinal" Maradiaga on the money take!

Update:
In fairness to Don Maradiaga, here is his denial.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-maradiaga-responds-to-allegations-of-corruption-48097#.Wj1fAHe-Gws.twitter


Oscar "Cardinal" Maradiaga, one of Bergoglio's fiercest supporters who once called Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke a "poor man" saying his thoughts "don't merit further comment" and again said, that Cardinal Burke was a "disappointed man, in that he wanted power and lost it" is now in for his own major disappointment and on the verge of lusting that power he has so relished and lusted after.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2017/05/one-will-see-cardinals-opposing-cardinals-an-example-and-a-request/

The pompous, arrogant thug masquerading as a Cardinal is Chairman of Bishop of Rome Bergoglio's "Council of Cardinals" and has been receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars/euros from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa. Maradiaga, who preaches about the poor and downtrodden has proven to be just one more corrupt, hypocritical and heretical henchmen of the Bergoglio mafia.

The filth and rot of this papacy are being exposed. Bergoglio brought this on himself, it is only a matter of time until he is trapped in his own web of deceit and corruption.

God will not be mocked.

And we His people will not sit idly by any longer with these filthy rats on board the ship.

http://espresso.repubblica.it/inchieste/2017/12/21/news/35-thousand-euros-a-month-for-the-cardinal-the-new-scandal-that-shakes-the-vatican-1.316341

http://espresso.repubblica.it/inchieste/2017/12/21/news/35-thousand-euros-a-month-for-the-cardinal-the-new-scandal-that-shakes-the-vatican-1.316341?refresh_ce

The Homosexualist Archdiocese of Milwaukee continues on

The former Archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland, was an active sodomite. He was outed on Good Morning America by his "lover" and stole church funds to pay him off.

Last Sunday, an arrogant, prideful man  who is a "priest" of Our Lord Jesus Christ came out as "gay" during the Sunday Mass. He debased the Holy Sacrifice with his own narcissistic, prideful, debauched evil arrogance and pride.

The current Archbishop Listecki in backing this man and has proven to be a homosexualist himself right out of the school of Weakland. He is the purveyor of a disgraceful scandal. A filthy rotten wolf.

No man with any attraction to men should ever be ordained to the priesthood. Celibacy is not enough. One cannot be chaste and identify as "gay."

Take note: It is conclusive that every boy sexually raped by priests were raped by priests who were sodomites. Just like this pervert above. People of Milwaukee, how dare you give this enemy of Christ a standing ovation. Shame on you.

Voris is right. God will fix this and it is not going to be nice.

https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vortex-no-end-to-it?mc_cid=e1acc2eb22&mc_eid=435addc094

And all of these filthy bastards will burn in Hell lest they repent of the damage they have done to souls.

Ding Dong! Everybody's High for Francismas

And don't forget your Bergoglian Francismastree ornament.

Still at a special price of $6.66.

Oh look, Bergoglio's "great Italian" friend rejoices at the beginning of Italy's march towards euthanasia

No need to write a blog post.

The photos of Bergoglio's "great Italian" says it all.

Can the Argentian boil on the Seat of Peter really be this stupid? 

http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2017/12/21/pope-francis-euthanasia-and-the-exegesis-of-la-civilta-cattolica/

Or is he just evil?

UPDATE:

The Pope's words on the topic were necessary, wrote Corrado Augias in La Repubblica, “to overthrow the last resistance of some Catholics and--probably--to convince at least a group of them to give their consent to [the pro-euthanasia law].”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-credited-with-helping-euthanasia-law-pass-in-italy

Archdiocese of Bombay states that Pope Francis has opened "communion to divorced and remarried Catholics."

The little-known homosexualist Cardinal Archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Gracias, has authorized a poster stating that Pope Francis has opened the door to "communion to divorced and remarried Catholics," -- those living and committing adultery. What can you expect from a homosexualist such as Gracias?

Veni, Veni Emmanuel

Not your grandmother's Nativity Set - heck, it's not even Donald Trump's!

Even the White House has more dignity and class and respect that the cocaine snorting, child-porn sodomite mafioso perverts in Vatican City, all under the watchful eye of the Pope of Mercy.

Oh, look, its the corporal works of mercy all taking precedence over the Nativity of the WORD MADE FLESH, lost somewhere in that menagerie of artistic arrogance.

When you look at this, where is the eye drawn? Who or what is the most significant figure?

Those rigid Three Wise Guys passing by that naked buff man with the six pack abs to worship God come to earth.

Any man with a body like that isn't hungry and isn't incapable of work. Now, if he were beaten and dirty and old and broken the point might have been made.

The point is not made. Instead, it is a god to the homosexual perverts in the Vatican. What a disgusting and revolting situation we are in.

Shame on Bergoglio. May he get a big lump of high sulphur coal in his stocking.

You fundamentalist Catholic you. You "deny the incarnation"

There are many opinions about what is in the mind of the Bishop of Rome. The nearly innumerable insults and inane comments make one wonder; is he stupid? is he deranged? is he suffering from some kind of dementia? In yet another slap to faithful Catholics recorded in Corriere Della Serra, Marco Tosatti is reporting on his blog the following words of Jesuitical wisdom emanating from the mouth and mind of Jorge Mario Bergoglio:

And we Catholics have the honor "to have fundamentalists among the baptized ... Fundamentalism denies the story, the person. Christian fundamentalism and deny the incarnation. "

The whole article from Tosatti is below with a computer translation. If anyone can find the original article in Corriere Della Serra, please do leave a link in the combox.

Marco Tosatti

http://www.marcotosatti.com/2017/12/15/romana-vulneratus-curia-papa-fondamentalismo-che-cosa-scriveva-luciani-ai-gesuiti-nunc-pro-tunc/

Roman Curia Vulneratus (RVC for friends and enemies) was very impressed by the scoop on Civiltà Cattolica by father Armando Spadaro, the Director, and one of several media spin doctor of the reigning Pontiff. And that is the interview with the Jesuits that the Jesuit Pontiff had in recent trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. There has been talk of fundamentalism. .. and this is on Jesuits today after the letter of RVC we have some little thing to say. Rather: to remember ... But behold RVC:

"Excuse me dr. TAM, but like a true pain in the ass, would like to ask you a RVC tiny intervention to comment on the interview to the courier today. Can't help it, it's getting a little exhibitionist media, envy Antonio Spadaro and then I seem jealous of big shot. Please be merciful.

The Pope says a Spadaro (Corriere della Sera, December 14, p 33): "look, fundamentalism they are everywhere. And we Catholics have the honor "to have fundamentalists among the baptized ... Fundamentalism denies the story, the person. Christian fundamentalism and deny the incarnation. "Wow, that statement misleading! and that sophisticated language used the Holy Father does not seem to him, this is not a language understandable to the poor and the marginalized, this is a Gospel talk too hard.

The field hospital what will understand? Maybe he wanted to address the "neo-referential Pelagians and Promethean purposes" for diffidarli? (diffardarli -- to caution???) But diffidarli to do that? To deny the incarnation? But who, with ambiguous language, confuses rather the incarnation was his teacher Karl Rahner when he decided to rethink the incarnation in new forms, from those used by St. Augustine and from schools, to make it more believable. And to do that he had to assume, instead of an unchanging God, a God, a God becoming, where mutable dialectically incarnation is just implementation of human reality premise of human nature (cf. Karl Rahner – Basic Course on faith, 1990). And more recently, who calls into question indirectly the incarnation, was its theological Adviser Walter Kasper, which brings out (in his "masterpiece": Jesus Christ-1974) all doubts about the credibility of the Gospels, on Biblical Theology Mary's virginal conception on the resurrection of Christ, the Ascension, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the value of the confession, etc. makes me suspect, considering that anyone who questions dogma and doctrine (Incarnation included), are precisely the people closest to the Pope, which the powerful Antonio Spadaro this time may have had these people aim to punish. If not, you may be dismissed from La Civiltà Cattolica and appointed Director of Christian family (in receivership), with a commitment to relaunching it in 12 months with the collaboration of Luxuria and Vendola ".

To date RVC. But coincidentally, these days, where we talk about the Pope Luciani, whose cause of beatification was started, I was reminded about the message that Papa Luciani had prepared for the Jesuits and which was published posthumously (30 would be made public if ttembre 1978). I looked it up on the Vatican website that hosts the few interventions of Albino Luciani, but I did not find it. Cannot, alas, to say if there ever was, or if a providential hand did disappear over the past four years. As it seems to have happened to the document of the then Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Kolvenbach, who strongly advised against making Bishop Bergoglio for notes human features and behaviour. It certainly is impressive reading these lines now. It was not coincidental that the society of Jesus was Commissioner after not long from Saint John Paul II. 

We offer you a few sentences of that message.

The Pope recalled that the company was "Established primarily for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the profit of souls in Christian life and doctrine" (Formula of the Institute). For this purpose, spiritual and supernatural all subordinated every other activity, which must be exercised in a manner suitable for a religious and priestly. You know well and justly worry of major economic and social problems afflicting humanity today and a lot of connection they have with the Christian life. But, in the solution of these problems, its always distinguish the duties of religious priests than those proper to the laity. Priests must inspire and animate the laity to perform their duties, but should not substitute for them, neglecting their own specific task in the work of evangelization. For this work of evangelization, St. Ignatius demands by his sons a soda purchased through a long and careful preparation, doctrine ".

Pope Luciani recalled that the company was known for "calls to present in preaching and spiritual direction, teaching and publishing books and magazines, a solid and safe, fully in line with the teaching of the Church, for which the initials of the society constituted a guarantee for the Christian people and deserved the special trust of the episcopate. Try to keep this commendable feature; don't let Jesuit teachings and publications have to cause confusion and disorientation among the faithful; Remember that the mission entrusted to you by the Vicar of Christ is to announce, but suitable for today's mentality, but in its integrity and purity, the Christian message, which is contained in the deposit of revelation, whose authentic interpreter is the Magisterium of the Church ".

"This of course means that the institutes and faculties, where young Jesuits are formed, both equally taught a doctrine solid and secure, in accordance with the directives contained in Conciliar decrees and in subsequent documents of the Holy See regarding the doctrinal formation of candidates to the priesthood. And this is all the more necessary since your schools are open to numerous seminarians, religious and lay people, who are attending for the firmness and security of doctrine which they hope to tap into it. "

And finally recommended: "don't let secularizing tendencies penetrate and disrupt your communities, dispel that environment of recollection and prayer in which the Apostle is restored, and introduce attitudes and behaviors with secular, which does not befit a religious. The world does not mean assimilation to dutiful Apostolic contact world; nay, demands that the differentiation which safeguards the identity of Apostle so that he really is the salt of the Earth and yeast to ferment the mass ".
Just a photograph of the Jesuits today, bar none, right?

World's leading Pro-Life leaders accuse Bergoglio and Catholic leaders of being unfaithful to doctrine

PLEDGE OF FIDELITY

FAITHFUL TO TRUE DOCTRINE, NOT TO ERRING PASTORS

https://www.fidelitypledge.com/

Pledge of fidelity to the authentic teaching of the Church by pro-life and pro-family leaders

SUPPORT THE PLEDGE

The number of innocent children killed by abortion during the last century is greater than that of all the human beings who have died in all the wars in recorded history. The last fifty years have witnessed a continual escalation in attacks on the structure of the family as designed and willed by God, which provides the best environment for human flourishing, and, especially, for the education and formation of children. Divorce, contraception, acceptance of homosexual acts and unions, and the spread of “gender ideology” have all done immeasurable damage to the family, and its most vulnerable members.

Over the last fifty years the pro-life and pro-family movement has grown in both size and scope in order to confront these grave evils, which threaten both the temporal and eternal good of mankind. Our movement comprises men and women of good will from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. We are brought together in our defence of the family, and of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters, through obedience to the natural law, which is written on all our hearts (cf. Rm 2:15). However, throughout this last half century the pro-life and pro-family movement has relied in a particular way on the immutable teaching of the Catholic Church, which affirms the moral law with the greatest clarity.

It is therefore with great sorrow that during recent years we have witnessed doctrinal and moral clarity, on issues relating to the protection of human life and the family, increasingly being replaced by ambiguity, and even by doctrines directly contrary to the teaching of Christ and the precepts of the natural law.

A Filial Appeal, delivered to Pope Francis in September 2015, was signed by around 900,000 people from all over the world and a “Declaration of fidelity to the unchangeable teaching of the Church on matrimony” was presented in 2016. On 19 September 2016 four cardinals submitted five dubia to Pope Francis, and to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, asking for the clarification of certain points of doctrine in the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. In June 2017, the cardinals made public their request for an audience, which had been presented to the Pope by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra on 25 April 2017, but which, like the dubia, had received no response. On 23 September 2017 a Correctio filialis de haeresibus propagatis was issued by 62 Catholic theologians and academics “on account of the propagation of heresies effected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions” of Pope Francis. By 4 November 2017, 250 theologians, priests, professors and scholars of all nationalities had pledged their support to the Correctio. The disorder within the Church is increasing, as witnessed by a letter recently sent to Pope Francis by a prominent theologian, which, the author stated, was prompted by “turmoil within the Church today, a chaos and an uncertainty that I felt Pope Francis had himself caused.” 1

As Catholic pro-life and pro-family leaders, we are obliged to highlight numerous additional statements and actions, which have had a particularly damaging impact on our work for the protection of unborn children and the family in recent years. Representative examples include:

• statements and actions which contradict the Church’s teaching on the intrinsic evil of contraceptive acts;
• statements and actions which contradict the Church’s teaching on the nature of marriage and the intrinsic evil of sexual acts outside the union of marriage;
• the approval of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which effectively call for member states to achieve universal access to abortion, contraception and sex education by 2030;
• the approach adopted towards sex education, particularly in chapter 7 of Amoris Laetitia and in The Meeting Point programme produced by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

As leaders within the pro-life and pro-family movement or leaders of lay movements concerned with the defence and diffusion of Catholic moral and social teaching, we have witnessed first-hand the harm and confusion caused by such teaching and actions. In order to fulfil our responsibilities to those whom we have pledged to protect, in particular, unborn children and those made especially vulnerable by the breakdown of the family, we must provide clarity on our position on these issues. We must also provide leadership to those within our movement who look to us for guidance and advice.

For this reason, we wish to make clear our unchanging adherence to the fundamental moral positions outlined below:

• there exist certain acts which are intrinsically evil and which it is always forbidden to commit;
• the direct killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral; consequently, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are intrinsically evil acts;
• marriage is the exclusive and indissoluble union of one man and one woman; all sexual acts outside of marriage, including in all forms of non-marital union, are intrinsically evil and gravely injurious to individuals and to society;
• adultery is a grave sin, and those who live in adultery cannot be admitted to the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion, until such time as they repent and amend their lives;
• parents are the primary educators of their children, and the provision of sex education must be undertaken by parents or, in certain circumstances, “in educational centres chosen and controlled by them”;
• the separation of the procreative and unitive ends of the sexual act by contraceptive methods is intrinsically evil and has devastating consequences for the family, for society and for the Church;
• methods of artificial reproduction are gravely immoral as they separate procreation from the sexual act and, in the great majority of cases, lead directly to the destruction of human life in its earliest stages;
• there are only two sexes, male and female, each of which possesses the complementary characteristics and differences that are proper to them;
• homosexual acts are intrinsically evil, and no form of union between persons of the same sex can be approved in any way.

As Catholic pro-life and pro-family leaders we must remain faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has entrusted the deposit of faith to his Church. We “are obliged to yield to God the revealer full submission of intellect and will by faith.” We fully assent to all those things “which are contained in the word of God as found in Scripture and Tradition, and which are proposed by the Church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or in her ordinary and universal magisterium.” 

We pledge our full obedience to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the legitimate exercise of its authority. However, nothing will ever persuade us, or compel us, to abandon or contradict any article of the Catholic faith or any truth definitively established. If there is any conflict between the words and acts of any member of the hierarchy, even the pope, and the doctrine that the Church has always taught, we will remain faithful to the perennial teaching of the Church. If we were to depart from the Catholic faith, we would depart from Jesus Christ, to Whom we wish to be united for all eternity.

We, the undersigned, pledge that we will continue to teach and propagate the above moral principles, and every other authentic teaching of the Catholic Church, and will never, for any reason, depart from them.

12th December 2017

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

SIGNATORIES

Bernard Antony

President of Chrétienté-Solidarité (France)

Dame Colleen Bayer, DSG

Founding Director of Family Life International NZ (New Zealand)

Judie Brown

President of American Life League (United States)

Patrick Buckley

Director of European Life Network (Ireland)

Georges Buscemi

President of Campagne Quebec Vie (Canada)

Giorgio Celsi

President of Associazione “Ora et Labora in Difesa della Vita” (Italy)

Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea, MD

Ioan Barbus Foundation (Romania)

Greg Clovis

Director of Family Life International UK (United Kingdom)

Rev. Linus F. Clovis

Spiritual Director of Family Life International St Lucia (St Lucia)

Virginia Coda Nunziante

President of Associazione Famiglia Domani (Italy)

Modesto Fernandez

President of Droit de Naître (France)

Richard P. Fitzgibbons, M.D.

Director of the Institute for Marital Healing (United States)

Mathias von Gersdorff

Director of Aktion Kinder in Gefahr (Germany)

Corrado Gnerre

National Director of Il Cammino dei Tre Sentieri (Italy)

Doug Grane

Chief Executive of Serviam (United States)

Michael Hichborn

President of the Lepanto Institute (United States)

Jason Jones

Founder of I am Whole Life

Founder of Movie to Movement (United States)

John Lacken

Founder of Legio Sanctae Familiae

Secretary of the Lumen Fidei Institute (Ireland)

François Legrier

President of Mouvement Catholique des Familles (France)

Vittorio Lodolo D’Oria

President of Famiglie Numerose Cattoliche (Italy)

Samuele Maniscalco

Director of Generazione Voglio Vivere (Italy)

Christine de Marcellus Vollmer

President of Asociacion Provida de Venezuela (PROVIVE)

President of Alianza Latinoamericana para la Familia (ALAFA)

President of Alive to the World, Education in Integrity (Venezuela)

Roberto de Mattei

President of Fondazione Lepanto (Italy)

Jean-Pierre Maugendre

President of Renaissance Catholique (France)

Thomas McKenna

President of Catholic Action for Faith and Family (United States)

Anthony Murphy

Director of Catholic Voice (Ireland)

Marisa Orecchia

President of Federvita Piemonte (Italy)

Philippe Piloquet

President of SOS Tout-petits (France)

Philippe Schepens M.D.

Secretary-General of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life (Belgium)

John Smeaton

Chief Executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (United Kingdom)

Molly Smith

President of Bringing America Back to Life

Executive Director of Cleveland Right to Life (United States)

Guillaume de Thieulloy

Director of Le Salon Beige (France)

Yves Tillard

President of Action Familiale et Scolaire (France)

Dr. Thomas Ward

President of the National Association of Catholic Families (United Kingdom)

John-Henry Westen

Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of LifeSiteNews (Canada)

Mercedes Arzú Wilson

Founder and President of Family of the Americas Foundation (Nicaragua)

Diego Zoia

Director of SOS Ragazzi (Italy)