Sammy Yatim: Requiescat in pace

I am disgusted to be a citizen of Toronto and Ontario. Following on the heals of the brutal beating of an 87 year old man by the police in London, Ontario is the murder of an 18 year old distraught man on a streetcar in Toronto. I was going to vent my spleen here over the fascistic Toronto Police, these cowards who during the G20 stood by whilst black-hooded thugs burned public property and caused destruction to private property only to round up and detain without justification innocent bystanders and law-abiding protesters. I was writing that I was going to but I can't do nearly as well as Barona!

But I will say this, the Premier of this province needs to call an immediate public enquiry into the antics and training of these imbeciles and Chief Blair and the Chief of the London Police and these brutal bullies need to be held to account.

Here is the link to the full story and the graphic video of this poor boy's murder at the hands of a police service that has long forgotten its motto, "To Serve and Protect."

On this now, they cannot hide.

As for Sammy Yatin; may he find peace in the arms of the LORD from whatever mental pain he suffered; may his shedding of blood and suffering at the hands of evil men who had no hearts, be his purgatory and may the merciful Father who desires none of his children to be lost bring Sammy to his bosom through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the redeeming blood of Christ through his Church.

Rest in peace, my little Syrian brother.

Now to Barona at Toronto Catholic Witness:

"The murder of Sammy is a question of human rights. This is a human issue, it is a pro-life issue. The killing of Sammy was and will remain an issue of being pro-life."

Obama and Putin: two very different world views

Two must reads from:


RAYMOND IBRAHIM, a Middle East and Islam specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. A widely published author, best known for The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007), he guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, briefs governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam and the worsening plight of Egypt's Christian Copts. Among other media, he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, CBN, and NPR.

Obama’s Proxy War on Mideast Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim on June 30, 2013 in Islam, Muslim Persecution of Christians

PJ Media

With the recent decision to arm the opposition fighting Syrian President Assad, the United States has effectively declared a proxy war on Syria’s indigenous Christians—a proxy war that was earlier waged on Christians in other Mideast nations, resulting in the abuse, death, and/or mass exodus of Christians.

Obama bows before the Saudi king, in whose country Christianity — including churches, Bibles, and crosses — is totally banned.

Ironically (if not absurdly) this proxy war on Christians is being presented to the American people as a war to safeguard the “human rights” and “freedoms” of the Syrian people.  Left unsaid by the Obama administration is the egregiously inhuman behavior these jihadis visit upon moderate Syrians in general Christians in particular, from bombed churches to kidnapped (and often beheaded) Christians.  Days ago they massacred an entire Christian village.

Full report here:

On The Wrong Side of History

by Raymond Ibrahim on July 28, 2013 in Islam, Muslim Persecution of Christians

As Obama pivots in the wind, a new moral leadership rises to defend the powerless

By Ralph H. Sidway

In perhaps the most significant reversal of political and global alignment since the overthrow of Christian Russia by the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Barack Hussein Obama has transformed the United States of America from a Christian-centric, Western democratic republic, into an Islamist-enabling oligarchy drowning in Soviet-style scandals, casting a long, dark shadow across hundreds of millions of innocent victims the world over.

Other outlets are ably covering the Obama administration’s numerous domestic scandals (Benghazi, IRS, NSA, etc.), but the unifying theme seems to be government control over every aspect of life, with rapid erosion of personal and religious liberty.

Full report here: 

Fruitcake in July

As Father Z said, "Really Excellencies, really?"

Do you really think this is going to get people back in Church?

Feel good, emotionalism?

These "youth" are not children, 18-39, give me a blessed break. In earlier generations they went to war and died for their countries, they married and had children, they worked farms or studied in universities and became leaders. Why do we keep them where they are in this puerile state? We wonder why they can't become men and women and leaders. When I was 21, I opened a business and at 24 I had eleven employees working for me and sold that successful pizzeria that is still in business today. I became a Management Consultant and later a political adviser at the federal and provincial levels in Canada and Ontario and then a lobbyist, I had a child and raised him as a single father to be a successful, independent man and all this before I was 39! But today, our 18-39's are "young adults" and we pander to them as if the world owes them something, whilst they live in mom and dad's basement and getting their laundry done and their free meals whilst they while the time on an iPad or Playstation 3.

Grow up old men and lead by example instead of being lead like lambs to the slaughter.

Tell us, Excellencies, will you follow the Son of Perdition as willingly when he emerges on the scene, very soon perhaps?

As for me, I'll be the man in the picture not giving the salute; care to join me?

"Come rack, come rope!"

Dang, there I go again, being a mad-rad-trad.

What's the answer, Catholic Answers?

In follow-up to my various comments about those ill-advised Catholics well-known and not so well-known on radio, print media and blogs who have been using slurs against Catholics of a more traditional inclination, I am glad to see this from Christopher A. Ferrara of The Remnant.  I will say it again, those who are using the slur "rad-trad" or "mad-trad" or other such epithets are not doing the work of Christ and the Church but of those who are opposed. As long as they keep beating that snare drum of hate and mockery, it will be met here and challenged. Stop doing it, whether your Coffin or Shea or Staples or the self-published expert who will not be named, lest I give him any hits; you're all barking up the wrong tree. Preach the truth and fight the cause of the Church and stop this uncharitable, spiteful and hateful commentary against your fellow Catholics, particularly those who choose to worship within the Society of St. Pius X; as well of course of us who desire the restoration "of all things in Christ." The fact is that Staples is wrong, liturgy matters, the Reform of the Reform matters, the Traditional Latin Mass matters; Why? Because it is from this that it all flows. We must worship God in truth and beauty and reverence and dignity. It's as if you've allowed yourself to become some of Lenin's "useful idiots" and you are doing the Devil's work without even realising it. Yes, Freemasons in the Church Patrick, are an issue. Read your papal history. Modernism and Neo-Catholics are the same. This is not name-calling but very real words to describe the situation that prevails today. 

"In the midst of the post-conciliar neo-Modernist invasion of the Church, why did an organization that calls itself Catholic Answers devote two hours of expensive radio time on May 31 to a live talk show attacking, not Modernism, but “radical traditionalists”?  Why did the hosts of this show, Tim Staples and Patrick Coffin, dwell on a few Catholic adherents of the Society of Saint Pius X who (allegedly) lost their faith, while ignoring the “silent apostasy” that plagues the entire Western world—and this a half-century after the Council that was supposed to have made the faith more accessible to the masses? Why have Staples and Coffin planned another two hours of traditionalist bashing on August 12?  And why has Catholic Answers devoted not one minute of its live radio show to the grave threat a resurgent Modernism poses to the souls of Catholics, who continue to apostatize by the millions under its influence? The answer to these questions, in a word, is this: neo-Catholicism, a kind of well-mannered second cousin to Modernism. Inveterate Remnant readers will know what I mean by the term, but for newcomers to this controversy a bit of background is in order."

(...)

"Let us strain charity to the limit and allow that Coffin and Staples may have good intentions. Objectively speaking, however they ought to be ashamed of their demagogic grandstanding at the expense of fellow Catholics. Catholic Answers ought to terminate their campaign of calumniating “radical traditionalists” and “Mad-Trads,” who are merely victims of the ecclesial crisis, and direct its attention to the mass apostasy that afflicts the Church today, for which traditionalists bear no responsibility. Catholic Answers should begin that task of reparation with the two-hour show Coffin and Staples plan for August 12."

(...)

Finally, I know that there are people at Catholic Answers who find the antics of Coffin and Staples appalling and dearly wish that apostolate would embrace the cause of Tradition instead of what Michael Matt has called “cool Catholicism.” Our Nicodemus friends at Catholic Answers know that it is only the timeless Faith, and the ancient liturgy of apostolic origin that instantiates it, which can lead souls aright with absolute surety, not the time-bound novelties of the post-conciliar epoch, which were passé from the moment they first appeared. When the neo-Catholic establishment abandons its defense of novelty and joins traditionalists in seeking to recover what has been lost in the reigning diabolical confusion, the day of the Church’s emergence from the post-conciliar crisis will be near at hand. Until then, as Coffin and Staples have demonstrated, neo-Catholicism will remain a major impediment—perhaps the major impediment—to the immense task of restoring our devastated vineyard."

Read the whole essay here.

WYD2013 Rio: Liturgical abuse off to a good start

Well, this didn't take long.

Keep leading them astray, Father and treating them like idiots, because this will restore the Church right?

Not!

See the Pinoy Catholic for the rest of the story.

Rape and atrocities on a young Christian in Qusair

2013-07-02

ASIA/SYRIA - Rape and atrocities on a young Christian in Qusair

send print  PDF

Qusair (Agenzia Fides) - Mariam was a 15-year-old Christian from Qusair, a city of the governorate in Homs, 35 km south of the capital. The city, which had become a stronghold of the Syrian rebels, was reconquered by the troops of the regular army at the beginning of June. Mariam’s story - sent to Fides thanks to the report of two Catholic priests - is a sign of the brutality of the conflict and the extreme vulnerability of religious minorities. Mariam's family was in town when militants linked to the jihadist group "Jabhat al-Nusra" conquered and occupied it.
While her family was able to escape, Mariam was taken and forced into an Islamic marriage.
Fides sources point out that, through social networks, the fatwa was widespread in Syria produced by Yasir al-Ajlawni - A Salafi sheikh of Jordanian origin, resident in Damascus - who declared lawful, for opponents of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, rape committed against "any non-Sunni Syrian woman." According to the fatwa to capture and rape Alawi or Christian women is not contrary to the precepts of Islam.
The commander of the battalion "Jabhat al-Nusra" in Qusair took Mariam, married and raped her. Then he repudiated her. The next day the young woman was forced to marry another Islamic militant. He also raped her and then repudiated her. The same trend was repeated for 15 days, and Mariam was raped by 15 different men. This psychologically destabilized her and made her insane. Mariam, became mentally unstable and was eventually killed.
"These atrocities are not told by any International Commission" say to Fides two Greek-Catholic priests, Fr. Issam and Fr. Elias who have just returned to town. The two are collecting the cry's and complaints of many families. "Who will do something to protect civilians, the most vulnerable?" they ask. As reported to Fides, the two have just celebrated a Mass to consecrate again the Catholic church of St. Elias in Qusair.
The church was ransacked and desecrated by the guerrillas, and had become a logistic and residential base for rebel groups. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 02/07/2013)

Stop the name-calling of our Catholic brethren!

The persistent use of "rad-trad" or "mad-trad" or even by a prelate referring to them as those "holy Catholics" flies in the face of what our beloved Benedict tried to do and in the face of "oecumenism."  Those who persist in this are not doing the work of the Lord but are buying into a narrative that is divisive and destructive and is from the Father of Lies. As I wrote previously, there is an incredible amount of hostility to the one-half of one-per-cent of Catholics who attend the traditional liturgy in general and the chapels of the SSPX in particular.  Here, courtesy of Rorate is a statement from the Diocese of Richmond in Virginia where the Society is building their new seminary. The link includes an misinformed statement previously made and corrected; here is the link to Richmond Catholic, where this appears.

Diocesan statement regarding article on the Society of St. Pius X

A recent article in the Catholic Virginian on the Society of St. Pius X and the seminary it is constructing in Buckingham County contained inaccuracies.

The article correctly stated that the society was founded in 1970 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary is one of several seminaries operated by the society. The society is not in regular communion with the Holy See (or the Bishop of Richmond).

These points need to be clarified:
◾The seminary is currently located in Winona, Minnesota and is relocating to Buckingham County. Mass is not regularly offered at the Buckingham location at present.
◾Our former Holy Father, Benedict XVI, never personally declared that doctrinal differences stand in the way of regularizing the canonical status of the society; nonetheless, the regularization has yet to take place.
◾ The Masses offered by priests of the society are valid. Other Sacraments celebrated in the chapels of the society are considered valid, with the exception of Penance and Matrimony, which are, at best, doubtfully valid.
◾ It is not clear that the society is in schism, and it is not properly called a “sect.” In recent years the Holy See has recognized the society’s expressed desire for regular communion with the Roman Pontiff and the Church he shepherds, and the Holy See’s dialogue with the society since 2009 demonstrates the Church’s commitment to unity.

Several additional points should be made when discussing the Society of St. Pius X:
◾ It is necessary to distinguish between the priests, brothers, and sisters of the society, on the one hand; and the lay faithful who attend Mass at society chapels, on the other hand. The former are clearly in an irregular status. In regard to the lay faithful who attend Mass at society chapels, there has never been a statement by the Holy See that these people are in schism. In fact, the Holy See acts toward them as it does toward all the Catholic lay faithful.
◾ It’s also necessary to distinguish between acts that are invalid and those that are illicit. Acts are illicit when they go against the Church’s law. Still, acts that are canonically illicit may be valid, and, in the case of the society, the ministerial acts of their priests may be illicit and still be considered valid by the Church.
◾ Finally, a comment should be made regarding the Sunday Mass obligation of Catholics. The faithful do not properly fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation in chapels of the society, as the celebration of the Eucharist presupposes not only communion with the Lord, but also communion with the Church He founded, and the hierarchy who govern the Church by Divine mandate.

The Church’s unity is best served when the whole truth is communicated. We regret the errors in the article. Let us pray for restoration of the unity of all Christians in Christ, and that the Society of St. Pius X will be reconciled with ecclesiastical authority.

Real or imagined?

For your Friday penance. 

Dear Father Pastor,

I was reading that when Pope Francis was Archbishop of Buenos Aires he approved a Eucharistic miracle which had occurred in his diocese. What do think, Father; isn't this wonderful that our new Holy Father has such love for the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist? Doesn't this just fill you with joy, Father Pastor?

My dear child,

This really in not the Church's teaching on real presence.  In fact, since around the 12th. century with the Beregarius controversy, this kind of a crass realism was rejected out-rightly.  The Church has never really defined what real presence means, all it asserts is that Christ is truly present in the form of bread and wine which is changed at an ontological level, not at a literal physical level.  The Church also states that Christ is truly present in the Scriptures proclaimed (again, not at a physical level) in the office of the priest (again not at a physical level other than  that by our baptism and our communion we become the living presence of Christ), and equally important, as the community assembled.  for the first 1000 years, the corpus verum or real presence meant the assembled people of God, and the Eucharist was the corpus mysterium or the mystical body of Christ.  through a lot of medieval worldviews, this got changed.  the Church has been actively trying to restore this more balanced understanding of the real presence.  this was expounded very well in the Vatican 2 documents, subsequent documents, and even as recently as the new Roman Missal, thus the practice of everyone remaining standing as the real body of Christ until everyone has come to the table not just to receive the Eucharist which too narrow a scope, but to be the Eucharist. As St. Augustine said in the 5th century, we already are the Eucharist the living presence of Christ coming to manifest that reality and to continue to become more fully the living real presence.  As St. Augustine also said on the nature of the Eucharist, we say amen to what we are, the living real presence.  Such documents, though enticing and seemingly congruent with our theology in truth are not and undermine the very nature and purpose and essence of who we are called to be.  It objectifies the Eucharist which was never meant to be objectified as tomorrow evening's celebration reminds us that the real presence of the Eucharist is made manifest in washing of the feet.

Father Pastor.

Ridicule the Radical

A theologian from Australia makes comments on CNS about why people might not attend the Traditional Latin Mass and suddenly everyone is gleefully saying "see, I told you; you're the problem; you are why I won't go." In fairness, the CNS interview was clearly edited and may not have been an accurate reflection of her views, particularly given the recent liturgical conference and her presence there; however, people are using her comments for their own agenda. A radio show on catholic issues talks about those "radical traditionalists" whomever they may be and then they charge there critics as being "uncharitable." They say how nasty those people are and the perception is to "stay away" from the Latin Mass because of them. A prelate speaks at a Theology-on-Tap and refers to some as "those pure Catholics" in a derogatory manner bereft of the clarity as to who they are and why such a term be used. Some well known bloggers of national exposure and other self-published pretenders and catholic media pundits use phrases such as rad-trads or mad-trads in a manner that would make Saul Alinsky smile from his eternity, if he could. Perhaps they do it innocently, perhaps knowingly; if it is the former it shows how they have been so subliminally influenced by the rotting culture; if it is the latter, then they are at least committing an act against charity; something of course that they are the first to cry out against.

These examples are just a few of those being used to bash some Catholics over the head with the radical rule-book writer's preferred method - ridicule. It's even happened in addresses to seminary rectors where the keynote speaker chose to demonise the seminarians of today and their desire, or should I say in his own words, "affectation" for liturgical excellence and theological orthodoxy. They like to say that it is Catholics who follow the Church's tradition who do it the most harm, that these "pure Catholics" whomever they may be, are the problem in the Church. 

Balderdash!

If you don't attend Mass it's your fault. If you don't embrace the liturgical patrimony of the Church that's your business and if you don't attend because you think some people dress funny or have too many kids or seem to devout or sometimes complain about the state of the Church, then that is your problem, not theirs. It is your soul and your lack of joy, not theirs that is the problem. It is your responsibility, not theirs. 

Frankly, there is precious little, if anything that any one individual or group of "trads" can do that would make the reception of the Latin Mass by some any worse. The truth is, it is hated - the Mass that is in its traditional form. Those in chanceries and seminaries and elsewhere who shun the traditional liturgy and theology don't do it because of something that a blogger writes or how someone dresses for Mass or whether or not an opinion is given on a matter of liturgy. Those "holy Catholics," whomever they may be, belong to the same Catholic Church, but who are they? Are they Catholics who prefer the Extraordinary of the Ordinary Form in diocesan churches? Are they Catholics who desire the Ordinary Form in Latin or Gregorian chant ad orientem, the actual first standard according to the GIRM? Are they those who prefer, as is their right, to receive Holy Communion on the tongue or kneeling and are ridiculed for it? Are they our Catholic brothers and sisters who attend chapels of the Society of the St. Pius X? Are they people who believe that the Seat of Peter is vacant? Are these not all baptised Catholics and spiritual children of the bishop and your brothers and sisters?  

There is division in the Church, there has been for decades, centuries, even two millenia; this is no surprise. Dealing with the here and now at least, it is obvious how acute it has become. It shows something greater though, this attack over the last few months on people who might prefer traditional liturgy and theology; it shows how much that the traditional liturgy and theology of the Catholic faith is hated. Yes, hated.

Taking Toronto as just one example; on a typical Sunday, no more than 500 - 600 people attend the traditional Latin Mass and that includes those who attend at the SSPX chapel.  In the Dioceses of Hamilton, London and St. Catharines, perhaps another 200-300 at the most and taking Ottawa and any others into account in the Province of Ontario, maybe 1000 Catholics on Sunday attend the traditional liturgy. One thousand out of 4,000,000 of whom only about 18% actually go to Mass. 

One thousand little people, plus or minus a few hundred.

Really.

One would have to ask then, why all this ridicule; what do they fear?

Perhaps it is this report by Michael Voris and the upcoming "real" decline of Catholics in the United States of America; Canada is no different; Europe is already there. Perhaps they know already what Voris knows and that has all of them so worked up. The actuarial tables and demographics don't lie. 

They have traded the church of truth for the church of nice and exchanged a sacrifice for a meal, worship for community, the truth for a lie. 

As time goes on the lines are going to intersect; there are already more priests ordained in France in traditional orders from diocesan seminaries. In twenty years or less, the Mass in France will be the traditional liturgy. The FSSP grows throughout America. Seminarians across North America are learning the Usus Antiquior by themselves. 

Indeed, these Catholic Alinskyites have seen the future and they hate what they see.

We see it too and we are filled with joy.

Maranatha!