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A corporal work of mercy.
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Wednesday 13 May 2015

It is late and Russia's errors are upon us

Ninety-eight years ago today in a field known as the Cova da Iria belonging to the Santos family of Fatima in Portugal an event happened of such profundity that its occurrence is still felt and yet, disregarded - the apparition of the Virginal Mother of God, Our Lady of Fatima. Over the course of the next six months, she would appear again to the three shepherd children culminating in the public witness by 70,000 people of miraculous cures and celestial events.

Just over twenty years later, the "Lady" appeared again to the last remaining child, then a Religious Sister. At that time in 1939, the Lady came to ask for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart so that Russia would be converted lest its "errors" be spread throughout the world and to prevent the "annihilation" of many nations. 

Was the visionary, Sister Lucia, delusional?

She was certainly not delusional on May 13, 1917 or for the months after that. Some will argue that this is "private revelation" and I don't have to believe it because it is no in the catechism. Fine, don't. Yet, the Church has a feast day in honour of Our Lady of Fatima, there are shrines and churches and schools named after her; so clearly, something happened at Fatima.

In 1942 and again in 1952, Pope Pius XII attempted this "consecration." It was not done in the manner instructed [specifically Russia and Russia only and with all the bishops of the world united with the Pope.] It was attempted again twice by St. John Paul II but again, not in the form required.

So, was Sister Lucia delusional? 

The answer must be "no." If she were delusional, then why did two Popes attempt the consecration? She must have been right or they would not have done so and those who say that the consecration has never been done must be right because nowhere in history can you find that it has occurred with the specific mention of "Russia!"

Is it too late as it was in France when the King failed to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart until it was too late for France, or is it just late? 

Is the Russia of 1939 still the Russia of today? What of its errors and what of the annihilation of nations?

When we join Fatima with Our Lady of Akita we see an ominous time that could be nuclear catastrophe leading to the "annihilation of nations." This very day, talks continue to prevent or permit an nuclear Iran and Saudi Arabia may have used a tactical battlefield nuclear weapon in Yemen. 

But is there something more about Russia's errors and what were they? We are living in a time when it is "late," for Russia's errors have spread and nations have been annihilated. We need to look beyond the obvious political and economic errors of "Russia" which are clearly communism. That Russia, the Soviet Union, no longer exists in a sense, de jure, though some will argue that there are those their that desire its de facto return. Does this mean that it is "too late" that the Consecration should not still occur? What were Russia's evils?  

Communism is Godless, it is political atheism. It removes God and in His place, it exalts Man embodied in the State. It denies the image of God in Man and instead puts forward Rights of Man as if it itself were a god. Communism is Freemasonry and its errors have spread throughout the world. In the West - in Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia and elsewhere, communism has spread and infected our culture. Those communists of today know that there economic theory was a shame and a failure, that is obvious - they lost the battle, but they picked up another one and today they have achieved nearly final victory. Rampant secularism, corporate fascism, globalism, environmentalism, homosexualism, abortion are all the errors which stemmed from Russia and communism. Now we see more and more every day, the persecution of Christians and specifically, Catholics at the hands of the masonic-globalist-fascist monster with its roots in Russia where not even owners of pizzerias or flower-shops are safe. 

More than political-economic

We have seen only nuclear war and the physical annihilation of nations as a possibility. The Bishop of Utrecht and Primate of Holland recently announced that one-thousand churches would soon close. Has Holland been annihilated as a nation? Belgium is another where abortion and euthanasia are practiced as a science and combined with low birth-rates are not so slowly ceding their nations to Islamism. The rest of Europe is not far behind. "Nations will be annihilated" by Russia's errors of atheism, secularism and the exaltation of Man. In North America, we are only behind Europe and moving quickly to join her in this self-destruction. 

I propose that we have been missing a more critical element of Our Lady's message at Fatima and after 1939 that while not removing the political and economic element is something even greater and more damning - the corruption of the Catholic Church by Russia. This corruption has lead to the inability of Catholics, and therefore nations, to engage the culture of death and secularism that is leading us to destruction. 

Was Our Lady, in speaking of the spread of Russia's errors speaking of the Catholic Church? 

After the rise of communist Russia and the persecution of the Church, the Pope sent bishops clandestinely to Russia to ordain priests. Stalin was outraged and increased the persecution. More though than that, he determined that he had to destroy the Church, yet; he knew that he could not in an all out war. 

The order went out around to communist cells throughout the world and particularly in the West to infiltrate the Church and destroy Her from within by destroying the faith of the people. We have the testimony to the United States Senate of Bella Dodd as well as her own book attesting to it. She personally planted over one-thousand men into the Catholic priesthood between 1930 and 1945. Stalin gave us the communist and atheist priests and they rose up the ranks to Vocation Directors, Seminary Rectors, Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals and they gave us more just like them and worse, they brought in the sodomites who would destroy lives and souls and the very fabric of the Church in scandal and shame.

They gave us Liberation Theology which has poisoned the Church in the Americas, even the African-American protestant churches have bought into this Marxist lie and heresy. We have the admittance that Liberation Theology was a KGB plot (as if we did not know that already) and we have a Pope who his rehabilitating the relationship of its founder. The Church with Paul VI's ostpolitik sold out the lives of Cardinals Mindzenty and Slipyj and will soon do the same with the real Catholics in China. The Second Vatican Council was taken over by modernists and heretics who laid "time-bombs" in the Documents that are rotting the Church from within with false-ecumenism, an inter-religious dialogue that refuses to preach Christ, a protestantised liturgy that fails to worship the Triune God in the fullness and therefore is deficient in grace and dissent tolerated where what was once true is no longer true and what was false is now treated as truth.

Russia's evils and errors are upon us and we are living it because of our sinfulness and lack of faith. The "great apostasy" is here. Islam is being used to confound us because of our lack of obedience to God who will not be mocked. In the same way that ancient Israel committed fornication and was chastised by God we are now reaping what our reward for committing fornication with the world - a world filled with the errors of Russia.

It is late, but it is not too late.



Tuesday 12 May 2015

Was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre right?

Quaeritur: I don't publish all comments; but why does any defense of this man and result in such vehement insults?

Well, well, well. How is it possible that it has taken over 50 years to come discover this little ditty from Rorate Caeli blog.

Gaudium et Spes 24: 'Quapropter dilectio Dei et proximi primum et maximum mandatum est.'

For non-Latinists, this claim (it is a complete sentence in the conciliar document) can be translated as follows: 'For love of God and of neighbour is the first and greatest commandment'. No Latin is needed to realise that this is a flat contradiction of the teaching of Christ. There is a deliberate allusion in Gaudium et Spes 24 to the wording of the divine teaching it is contradicting, as can be seen from looking at the Vulgate text of that teaching:

Matthew 22:35-39: "Et interrogavit eum unus ex eis legis doctor, temptans eum; 'Magister, quod est mandatum magnum in lege? Ait illi Iesus: 'diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et in tota anima tua, et in tota mente tua. Hoc est maximum et primum mandatum. Secundum autem simile est huic: diliges proximum tuum, sicut teipsum.'"

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre said:
"All the dogmatic councils have given us the exact expression of Tradition, the exact expression of what the Apostles taught. Tradition is irreformable. One can never change the decrees of the Council of Trent, because they are infallible, written and published by an official act of the Church, unlike those of Vatican II, which pronouncements are not infallible because the popes did not wish to commit their infallibility.  Therefore nobody can say to you, "You are clinging to the past, you have stayed with the Council of Trent." For the Council of Trent is not the past. Tradition is clothed with a timeless character, adapted to all times and all places." 
He later made famous the phrase, "Timebombs" when referring to the Councils documents.

Perhaps the Archbishop was not so wrong in his assessment of the situation. That statement in Gaudium et Spes clearly and unequivocally contradicts Sacred Scripture.  I admit to missing it, clearly; millions of others with great degrees and letters after their names and much more qualified than I, missed it too.

Or did they?

Monday 11 May 2015

Msgr. Vincent Foy - Champion for Life

It is hard to believe that it is almost a year. June 7 of 2014 was the Vigil of Pentecost and a glorious Mass was held in Toronto with yours truly having the honour to organise and direct the Schola and Choir. The Mass was filmed for a production by Dunne Media and the date has been announced for the airing of the documentary on EWTN.

God bless Monsignor Vincent Foy will is in his 100th year of life and 76th of priesthood!

He still confounds many and good for him!

I hear Salt + Light will be purchasing the Canadian rights (not!)


EWTN documentary premiere
EWTNThe television premiere of the 1/2 hour documentary “Msgr. Vincent Foy, Champion for Life” will air on Eternal Word Television Network on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 (my 76th Ordination Anniversary) at 6:30pm ET and in a repeat broadcast on August 14, 2015 (my 100th birthday) at 6:30pm. Thanks to EWTN, Dunne Media and all who helped with this production.

Archbishop Daniel Bohan - what are you thinking?

Bishop Bohan signing a "covenant" with Anglican laypeople
There are times that it is nearly impossible to believe the absolute evil and distortion of the Truth promulgated by some Shepherds. Now, it is Bishop Daniel Bohan, the Archbishop of Regina. This in-depth article by Pete Baklinski at LifeSiteNews must be read and shared.

Aside from the obvious about the event allowed by this bishop to take place was his absolute refusal to answer the legitimate questions on the matter by LifeSiteNews stating "journalistic incompetence and inability to accurately report events."


You can read the facts as reported at LifeSiteNews.

What a pathetic scandal; yet, they will call us "extremists" and "right-wing Catholics" and "Taliban Catholics" while they continue to distort the faith and scandalize the faithful. Yet, they

Coincidentally, Voris' video today speaks to the broader issue of the homosexualist mafia and the coming persecution. It is posted at the bottom of the article.


Catholic archbishop hosts gay activists at cathedral to help set transgender student policy

REGINA, Saskatchewan, May 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic archbishop of Regina, Saskatchewan, Daniel Bohan, welcomed gay activists to his Cathedral hall in March to guide about 75 Catholic teachers in creating a policy on care for “transgender” students.
The event, which the archbishop attended and said he was “pleased” about after the fact, was keynoted by a Catholic priest who tells LifeSiteNews that he disagrees with Church teaching that humans are created male and female.
Panelists at the March 20 event on the “pastoral care for transgendered students” included LGBTQ activists and a trans couple consisting of a biological man and woman who now both look like and claim to be women. The keynote speaker at the event taking place in Holy Rosary Cathedral Hall was Redemptorist Catholic ethicist Fr. Mark Miller.
(...)


The archbishop replied through spokesperson Yanko: “Two years ago Life Site News [sic] was refused a second permission to attend the CCCB Plenary Meeting as an journalist observer. This was because of its lack of journalistic competence and inability to accurately report events. It is therefore not my desire to give an interview to them.”

Sunday 10 May 2015

Where is your outrage? When will Moslems stand up and rid this from within?

Was this poor Yazidi child murdered. We do not know, the image was found on the phone of a dead Islamist monster.

If she was not murdered, anyone who would pose a child in this way is an evil monster deserving of a firing squad.

There is much blood on the hands of western leaders. I am proud that my Prime Minister, Stephen Harper sees things differently and that our brave Royal Canadian Air Force men are there.

When will Muslims stand up and put an end to this crime against humanity and God.


muslims decapitate baby

Saturday 9 May 2015

Kneel before man? Not according to St. Peter, the Apostle and first Pope!

The First Reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, this Sunday, in the Ordinary Form of the Mass begins with this from the Acts of the Apostles:
"When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, paid him homage. Peter, however, raised him up, saying, “Get up. I myself am also a human being.”
A week ago, Jorge Bergoglio, Pope and Bishop or Rome said this:
"How I wish, he said, that Christians could kneel in veneration when a poor person enters the church."
Here we are, only days after the Pope said what he did, that we are confronted with the obvious from Holy Scripture and the Sacred Liturgy.

How do we square this circle?

Can 2 + 2 really = 5?

Friday 8 May 2015

Toronto's Catholic Register - Slam down to Michael Coren

Let us give credit where credit is due. 

Toronto's Catholic Register has published a column by Dorothy Cummings McLean on the Michael Coren saga. She sums up well the problem of living a double-life by worshipping as an Anglican whilst dissenting on the truths of the Faith and taking money for it. Let us be clear, Coren boasted on his own Twitter and Facebook that he was in fact, already gone and had the Anglican Diocese not published that picture of him outside of St. James' Cathedral in Toronto, he might still be doing engaging in a business taking money from Roman Catholics.

It was my intent to leave this man to his own self; however, given my criticism of the Catholic Register previously, I certainly owe them a bouquet when they do something right.

Professional Catholics must be professional and Catholic

BY  
  • May 7, 2015
According to the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Catholic Register columnist Michael Coren was received into the Anglican Communion on April 19. Despite Coren’s fame as an apologist for the Roman Catholic faith, his break with Rome went almost unnoticed. The news was made public by a tweet congratulating Coren on his reception. This disappeared from Twitter, although not before a sharp-eyed reader took a screenshot and posted it to a blog.
Initial reactions to his conversion included shock, sorrow, doubt, scorn, satire, exhortations to pray and emails to Roman Catholic organizations. In Coren’s words, preserved on yet another blog: “Some right-wing Catholics finally realized I’d been an Anglican for a year and spent last 24 hrs telling everybody.”
Imagine being called “right-wing” by Michael Coren. But I digress.
Read the rest of it at the Catholic Register.

Finn and Danneels - Why the contradiction?

Hilary White of LifeSiteNews gives a brilliant assessment of the situation showing the juxtaposition of justice, or lack thereof in the Church under Francis.

It is important reading. 

Hilary provides the facts of the mistreatment of Bishop Finn revealing in it also, true humility of himself, as opposed to the false humility we see elsewhere contrasted with the intent of lawbreaking and arrogance of a Belgian Cardinal in the good books of Jorge Bergoglio, the Bishop or Rome. She draws in the circumstances of other bishops in Italy and Central America with something in common to Bishop Finn. 

The article closes with a quote from John Allen of Crux;

"A good chunk of the Church may conclude that if the pope sees them as the enemy, there's no good reason they shouldn't see him the same way."

And that my friends, is what it is coming down to.

Bishop Finn and Cardinal Danneels: two different responses to abuse ‘cover-ups’

ROME, May 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For some time, observers have expected the final outcome for Bishop Robert Finn, former head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, who was ordered by Vatican officials to tender his resignation last month. The predictable sides have lined up: either condemning and saying, ‘It’s about time,’ or defending him. With all the noise made, it may be difficult for most readers to tease out the truth, but an examination of the facts of the Finn case and that of another high-profile prelate may be enlightening.

If Finn, why not the many, and much worse, others?

With Finn’s 2012 conviction of the misdemeanor offence of “failure to report” a priest caught with images of children on his computer, some of which were judged to be pornographic, it has been expected by supporters and enemies alike that the bishop would be asked by Rome to step down. But while the mainstream secular and liberal Catholic press are triumphing, some very pertinent questions are being left unanswered, primary among which is, if Finn, why not others? All the others…all the many, many others?
Read the rest at LifeSiteNews.


Wednesday 6 May 2015

No Toronto Catholic Register. No L'Osservatore Romano, IT IS NOT BLASPHEMY to mock Mahomet! HE IS NOT GOD!

Toronto's Catholic Register is parrotting this story from RNS referring to a front-page article at L'Osservatore Romano calling the cartoons of Mohomet "blasphemous."

mohammed-dendermonde-1This is quite incredible really.

One can blaspheme God.

One cannot blaspheme a man.

If Mahomet ever really existed can be debated. If he did, he was a warlord; a murderer, a child-molester and a Jew-hating Christ denier -- and antichrist.

He was no prophet.

I'm not suggesting that we should engage in mocking anyone; but I won't call the mocking of a man, blasphemy because it is not.

Shame on those Catholics who would use such a word reserved for Him who is truly One in Three Persons.

Shame on the Catholic Register and its Editors to use such a headline.

Do these people have any theological or historical or religious education? Are they just plain stupid or do they really believe the lies they are trying to sell as truth?

More of Mahomet's useful idiots they are.

Postscript:

Late evening (May 6) I watched an interview with Franklin Graham. He spoke the same line as Bill Donahue previously. As Christians, we should not be provoking anyone to anger. This is not to excuse in any way the attempted attack in Garland, the perpetrators got what they deserved and have been judged by God for their action and their false religion. However, what of the picture above? It is from a church in Belgium and shows the pulpit held up by an angel with his feed on Mahomet and his book of lies. Is that any different from the cartoons? Should we now erase this history? Mahomet was what he was. Yet at the same time, should we go out of our way to provoke people when we know their response will be violent as we have insulted them? Perhaps we should. What the event in Garland did is to show America that jihadists are within and at the same time, two of them were eliminated. Perhaps we need to see this in broader terms than personal or religious insult. We are in a war for our very existence. However, we will not win this war unless we call upon the Lord our God to defend us and to do that, we need to return to Him. Graham and Donahue are right. On an individual basis, it is wrong for me or you to go up to a Muslim and insult them. The question of speaking the truth of what is a curse upon the world and the cause of millions of deaths in this century and tens to hundreds of millions since its inception in the seventh century is something quite different. 


http://www.catholicregister.org/faith/faith-news/item/20191-muhammad-cartoons-blasphemous-vatican-paper-says

Muhammad cartoons 'blasphemous,' Vatican paper says

BY  ROSIE SCAMMELL, RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
  • May 6, 2015
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican’s semi-official newspaper blasted a series of cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as “blasphemous” but also condemned the “mad and bloodthirsty” extremists who opened fire at a Texas exhibit of the cartoons.
The front-page article in L’Osservatore Romano likened the exhibit in Garland, Texas, to pouring “gasoline on the fire” of religious sensitivities and was critical of its sponsors, the American Freedom Defense Initiative and professional provocateur Pamela Geller.
Police on May 3 shot and killed two gunmen who opened fire outside the exhibit that was designed to provoke Muslim sensitivities; the so-called Islamic State has since claimed responsibility for the attack that injured a security guard, and promised more to come.
The newspaper said the Texas event “resembles only remotely the initiatives of Charlie Hebdo,” referring to the French satirical weekly whose office was attacked by Islamist extremists in January. Twelve people were gunned down at the Paris premises by the Islamist militants, who targeted magazine staff for publishing similar cartoons.
After the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Pope Francis condemned the idea of killing “in God’s name” but warned that “you cannot provoke, you cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
While L’Osservatore Romano said the Texas exhibition could be compared to Charlie Hebdo “for its provocative intention, almost a desire to throw gasoline on the fire,” the Vatican newspaper reserved a stronger condemnation for those behind the attacks.
Garland was “certainly not Paris,” while the anticipated “participation of some ultra-conservative European politicians” was also noted. The Vatican newspaper went on to urge respect, which it described as “the necessary attitude to approach the religious experience of another.”
L’Osservatore Romano is largely autonomous from the Vatican but rarely publishes anything that does not have the tacit approval of Vatican officials.

Welcome to the 1970's!

Tantumblogo has some special things to add.

Tuesday 5 May 2015

If this were only a comedy routine, I would laugh, alas; it is not!

Never before have Popes given "daily homilies." This practice by the current occupant of the Chair of Peter belittles his teaching role. He has reduced the universal papacy to the mutterings of an incoherent pastor bordering on lunacy

He said today:
When St. Paul is persecuted, despite a thousand tribulations, he remains firm in his faith and encourages others to hope in the Lord. Pope Francis was inspired by the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, in the First Reading, to dwell on these three points: tribulations, trust and peace – saying that to enter the Kingdom of God, one must "go through dark times, difficult times." The Christian bears tribulations with courage However, he warned, "this is not a sadomasochistic attitude", rather, it is "the Christian struggle" against the prince of this world who tries to tear us away "from the word of Jesus, from faith, from hope." "To endure the tribulations" is a phrase, the Pope pointed out, that the Apostle Paul uses frequently:
Does he have any fledgling idea what the word "sadomasochism" actually means. I searched for a theological understanding but it does not appear in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
From Psychology Today: "Sadomasochism can be defined as the giving or receiving of pleasure, often sexual, from the infliction or reception of pain or humiliation. It can feature as an enhancement to sexual pleasure, or, in some cases, as a substitute or sine qua non. The infliction of pain is used to incite sexual pleasure, while the simulation of violence can serve to form and express attachment. Indeed, sadomasochistic activities are often initiated at the request of, and for the benefit of, the masochist, who often directs activities through subtle emotional cues."
From Merriam-Webster: "Sexual behavior that involves getting pleasure from causing or feeling pain."
The Free Dictionary Online: "The combination of sadism and masochism, in particular the deriving of pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse."
Oh Benedict, why did you desert us?

Monday 4 May 2015

Our Catholic hearts are in turmoil

How hard it is for any of us as Catholics to criticise the Pope. I know that when I do my Catholic heart bothers me. 

I have been disturbed by Pope Jorge Bergoglio from that evening he came out on the loggia with his "good evening." The next day, he celebrated his first Mass and did not genuflect after the Elevations and does not to this day. He refused to bless the assembled media because he respected their "consciences." Well, what about the Catholics there or those who might have benefited from this grace? A few days later, he more than genuflected by grovelling on the floor to wash the feet of non-Catholics on Holy Thursday when these should have been priests. If he wishes to wash the feet of the poor in a humble manner do it without cameras on any of the 364 other nights of the year, but not that night.

It has only gotten worse. The insults, the confusion, the literally idiotic statements. He has invited a man to pray in the Vatican whose "religion" was founded by a murderous, pervert and antichrist. We are now told to kneel in veneration of the poor while he still does not genuflect at Mass at the Consecration! Last week, pro-abortion and population controllers were at the Vatican at an environmental conference. Today, he met with some silly woman in clerics from Sweden who needs a therapist as she thinks she's a bishop as Jenner thinks he's a woman. Frankly Bruce Jenner has more potential to become a bishop than this Swede. There is the persecution of the FFI and so much more.

My friend Aged Parent of The Eye-Witnesss blog has a post that resonates:
The current Pope has, let us face obvious facts, left the Church in a state of disarray, not to say blind panic.  From one day to the next we hear messages from his garrulous lips that are either mildly orthodox, of dubious orthodoxy and/or outright rubbish.  No one seems to know if he has the intellectual capacity for his exalted position or if he just likes to talk, to say anything that enters his head, without much forethought.  He cannot be pinned down.  His words and actions are so "all-over-the-place" that no one can form a definitive judgment.  I most certainly can't.  He keeps everyone on tenterhooks or, worse, in a state of real fear for the Church.  Dignity does not seem to be a concept he is too familiar with, so when an ordinary Catholic sees him putting on a clown nose they cringe with embarrassment for the Church, and for him.  These are not the actions of a grave or earnest man. 
Imagine, Catholics who are so distressed over the occupant of the Chair of Peter that we are forced to write in this manner in alarm for what we are facing. 

And Asia Bibi still suffers on death row.

Pope meets with leader of schismatic and heretical ecclesial community from Sweden - Is she coming home?

Dear Pope Francis,

We understand the Lord Jesus met with sinners - tax collectors, prostitutes, pagans of all kinds. He called them to repentance and unity with Him. This is true mercy.

This woman in a clerical collar is neither a priest, nor is she a bishop let alone an archbishop. She is leading an organisation that is schismatic and heretical. She herself is a baptised Christian dissenting from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

When you met with her today, did you call her to repentance and to come home to the Catholic faith, or would that have been proselytising? 

Would Our Lord be acting out of sync with the current attitude in Rome?

Are we leaving Christian unity, a return to the Church under Peter, to a far off time in the future? Is it some esoteric utopian vision? It will never happen unless the Pope and Bishops preach it and teach it and if that is proselytising then so be it.

Just askin'

Vox


Pope Francis welcomes head of Lutheran Church of Sweden


Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala Antje Jackelén who met with Pope Francis on Monday - RV
04/05/2015 13:21

(Vatican Radio) Catholic-Lutheran dialogue was under the spotlight in the Vatican on Monday as Pope Francis met with the head of the Church of Sweden and Archbishop of Uppsala Antje Jackelén. Originally from Germany, Archbishop Jackelén is Sweden’s first foreign-born archbishop since the 12th century and the first female head of the Church there. Philippa Hitchen reports….
Listen:
The importance of actively promoting Christian unity, the impact of the forthcoming joint commemoration of the Reformation and the need to work together on behalf of the poor and marginalized. Those were among the key themes that Pope Francis focused on in his words to Archbishop Jackelén, noting that the Vatican II document, 'Unitatis Redintegratio', half a century ago, invites all Catholics to read the signs of the times and overcome the divisions that cause scandal and hinder the preaching of the Gospel.
While there is still much work to be done, the Pope said he hoped the 2017 commemoration of the Reformation and the recent joint document ‘From Conflict to Communion’ may encourage Lutherans and Catholics to take further steps towards full unity of sacramental life and ecclesial ministry.
In particular Pope Francis spoke of the need for a common commitment of Christians towards those who are most in need, building on the shared witness of our persecuted brothers and sisters. Key contemporary questions of the dignity of human life, family and sexuality must not be ignored, he said, out of fear of endangering the ecumenical consensus that’s already been achieved.
Finally the Pope added his personal thanks to the Lutheran Church in Sweden for its welcome of so many South American migrants who fled from the dictatorships on that continent during past decades. 

Saturday 2 May 2015

Michael Coren is something else

Michael Coren has given an interview with the National Post. I am posting it because of certain points he has made, otherwise I would just leave him to himself.

Before I highlight the points let us be clear.

Four years ago, this man wrote a book Why Catholics Are Right. He made money from groups and then betrayed those same people and groups. He comments now in public that he was worshipping as an "anglican " for a year and he still took their money. He says he cannot be a "hypocrite," well, he has been something else. He has taken the money of the Interim, Catholic Insight, the Catholic Register, Legatus, the Toronto Traditional Mass Society, Una Voce Hamilton and dozens of others whilst not believing what he was saying.

Michael Coren, you made your choice. Go and worship God in a false church founded upon adultery and murder.

"An obsession on contraception and on life that Jesus never mentioned" said he.

I feel sorry for you and I feel sorry for you wife.


May you find your way home. Quietly and humbly.

"Right-wing Catholic bloggers" made your departure from the Church an issue.

Now, I am done with you.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/religion/i-felt-a-hypocrite-author-michael-coren-on-why-he-left-the-catholic-church-for-anglicanism?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter



Q: Some people see you as a Catholic champion against an amoral, secular world. How have they reacted?

A: It’s brought out the worst in the Catholic right. If you look at some of the comments, there’s a little tinge of anti-Semitism there (Coren’s father was Jewish), a lot of very sectarian hatred. The Catholic right is very frightened and very aggressive right now, because they have a pope who they no longer think is one of theirs, and so they’re feeling very defensive.

Vox: What is this "Catholic right" Coren speaks about? He no doubt means people such as me. He has referred to this blog as a "right-wing blog" and and "extreme" one at that on the now defunct SUN News and in the National Post. What does "right wing Catholic" mean? One who accepts the teaching of the Church? I have seen no anti-Semitism in any comments. The rest of his commentary is ignorant, pedantic and juvenile.

Q: Even as Pope Francis is welcomed with unprecedented vigour by the popular culture?

A: That’s one of the main reasons they can’t stand it. They don’t want to be accepted.

Vox: "Can't stand it?" What? that the Pope is admired by the UN enviro-fascist movement? That NARAL has used his careless words to their advantage? That homosexualists have also used his words to beat the Truth of the faith? If the world loves the Pope something is indeed wrong. So, I'll give Coren this, but he fails in what he is not saying.

Q: You left the Catholic Church for three years in the 1990s, worshiping in various evangelical and Anglican churches. Why did you leave?

A: Not really for particularly good reasons. I had written a piece about (the late) Cardinal (Aloysius) Ambrozic for Toronto Life, and that’s a very long story, and I still don’t really think I did anything wrong, but it was a very difficult time. I was being sort of personally attacked by the Cardinal and his people. I quoted him saying things that were not very Christ-like, I suppose. He had called someone a name. He was a very harsh man. … I just thought I needed a closer relationship with Christ at that time. I just wanted something simpler, a relationship rather than a religion.

Vox: Speak well of the dead, Michael. You did not know Cardinal Ambrozic or what his own issues may have been. You did not seem to understand the problems that this woman whom he called "that bitch" now a former Anglican/, then Catholic Nun, then married Catholic woman, then divorced Catholic woman and now a lesbian Anglican priestess caused. Really Michael, I've heard you say worse over coffee in your living room! You said much that day and on numerous phone calls to me over a few years; I'll keep all of that to myself.

Q: What brought you back?

A: It was really the pull of the Eucharist. It really was that. That is a centrepiece of worship for me.

Q: It is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. The same sacrament is given elsewhere.

A: That’s why I’m now in the Anglican Church.

Vox: Really Michael? There is no Eucharist in the Anglican communion unless it is from a priest ordained through an Old Catholic line and then, it is illicit. You are receiving a piece of bread and you know it. 

Q: You say you could no longer worship with integrity as a Catholic. Why not?


A: I could not remain in a church that effectively excluded gay people. That’s only one of the reasons, but for someone who had taken the Catholic position on same-sex marriage for so long, I’d never been comfortable with that even though I suppose I was regarded as being a stalwart in that position. But I’d moved on, and I felt a hypocrite. I felt a hypocrite being part of a church that described homosexual relations as being disordered and sinful. I just couldn’t be part of it anymore. I could not do that. I couldn’t look people in the eye and make the argument that is still so central to the Catholic Church, that same-sex attraction is acceptable but to act on it is sinful. I felt that the circle of love had to be broadened, not reduced.

Vox: Michael Coren, you are wrong and you have publicly misrepresented the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church does not exclude "gay people." You know this as you have had a Brother Knight (until you left our Council) on your program. You know him from the parish. You know well that he was never mocked and always welcomed. 

Michael, you may not want to be a hypocrite but you are something else.

Thursday 30 April 2015

Father Nicholas Gruner, Requiescat in pace

When the curtain is raised upon the darkness of this age and the light sines forth it will be because of the faithfulness and labouring in the vineyard of priests such as this man.

O LORD, have mercy on the soul your priestly servant Nicholas. Forgive him for his failings and reward him for the mercy he showed to his flock. O Mother of Priests, Mary of Fatima, intercede for this priest, your son, before your Son.

It is almost as if the LORD has preserved him from what is to fall upon us.

Rest in peace Father Gruner.


Thank you for what you have done. May you rest in the peace of Christ.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Kneel before a man or you defy the god of surprises!

In the interests of "dialogue, dialogue, dialogue," and the new commandment revealed on the Mount of Casa St. Marta that "Thou shalt dialogue" lest one disobey God, I wish to ask Jorge Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome and Pope a question.

Holy Father, it's hard enough to get people to kneel before the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament at Holy Communion. Do you really think it is better that we "kneel in veneration when a poor person enters the church?"

Really, you just can't make this stuff up. Can you just pinch me now and tell me that since March 2013 I've been sleeping and this is all just a nightmare. Fox, wake me up!


Maybe I drank some mate before bed. What's in that stuff anyway?


(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis said on Tuesday that poverty is the great teaching Jesus gave us and we can find his face among the poor and needy. Stressing that the poor are not a burden but a resource, he said he wished that both the city of Rome and the local Church community could be more attentive, caring and considerate towards those in need and that Christians could knee before a poor person. The Pope’s words came during a video message which was broadcast at a charity theatre performance organised by Caritas Roma. 
“If it were not for you” was the title of the fund-raising performance at Rome’s Brancaccio theatre where the cast were not professional actors but instead the poor and needy who are being sheltered at Caritas hostels in the capital. The performers explored the theme of love that included unhappy love stories, the love they bear for their children and parents, for life and for God. 
In his video message Pope Francis told the performers that they will be conveying a precious teaching not just on the theme of love, but also on our need for each other, on solidarity and how amidst all the difficulties we can discover God’s love for us. 
Poverty, he said, is the great teaching that Jesus gave us and he assured the performers that they are never a burden for us. Instead they represent a resource without which our attempts to discover the face of Jesus would be in vain. 
He concluded his address by saying how much he wished that the city of Rome could shine with the light of its compassion and its welcome for those who are suffering, who are fleeing from war and death,  and respond with a smile to all those who have lost hope. Pope Francis said he wished for the same on the part of the Church community in Rome so that it may be more attentive, caring and considerate towards the poor and vulnerable and recognize in them the face of our Lord. How I wish, he said, that Christians could kneel in veneration when a poor person enters the church.