The Feast of Stephen and Father Stephen Auad, the Pastor of the Maronites

Church of Christ the King

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, before Etobicoke itself, was eventually amalgamated into Toronto. Etobicoke means, "where the alders grow" in the language of the Mississauga, the native people of the area, now also the name of the City west of Toronto and only a few blocks from Christ the King parish. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Long Branch was a summer resort area for the wealthy of Toronto, only 8 miles away. They would come for the cool lake breeze on a ferry and it would later become a residential and industrial community with companies such as Chrysler, Pittsburgh Paints, Castrol, Gabriel Automotive and Neptune Meters all now gone, many to Mexico with the jobs along with them. Long Branch was a prosperous and pleasant community and it was to this little village that would come the Pastor of the Maronites, Father Stephen Auad.

As with all immigrants at the time from Mount Lebanon, including my four grandparents to Canada from Lebanon, 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, my ancestors, against the 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, the French came to the rescue of the Christians at the urging of the Pope and the Ottoman's enjoyed fomenting the strife. It included the then, Massacre of Aleppo when over 5000 died as Mohammedans rose up against the Christians of Aleppo. It seems all too familiar.

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 (World War I before it became necessary to label it as the First). 

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 realised for another thirty years and after another great war due to the mischief and machinations of King Faisal. 

[If you note a theme here about foreign domination by Islamists, Arabs, Europe, specifically Britain and now, the rest of us in the "West" in Christian Syria and Lebanon which has served to destroy these lands and kill thousands, you would not be mistaken, but let's get back to the subject at hand. ... ]

Remarkably, this Mass at the Cathedral was reported on September 6, 1920 in the old Toronto World; and that the "Pastor of the Maronites in Toronto" assisted at the Mass. 

Yet, despite Father Auad being termed in the secular press, the "Pastor of the Maronites" there was no Maronite Church in Toronto so Lebanese immigrants followed the Latin Rite and assimilated into it. That all changed in 1980 when then Emmett Cardinal Carter assisted the new Lebanese immigrants fleeing war and the latest Islamic persecution and Israeli war, with the purchase of the former Anglican Church of the Epiphany on Queen Street in Parkdale, now Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church. 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. Given the more recent strife, we also see Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Coptic Catholic and Orthodox churches being built. 

While studying in Rome, Father Auad was able to celebrate in both the Latin and Maronite Rites and was what would be termed, "bi-ritual." He would, of course, learn Italian which would prove helpful. Catholic Toronto was Irish and these first Catholics in Toronto suffered many indignities in what was known as the Ulster of North America and 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 and the former became Our Lady of Mount Carmel and was assigned to the Italians as their first parish) with the Maronite Lebanese Father Auad as their pastor, because he could speak Italian. It still stands today serving Chinese Roman Catholics. 

Professor John Zucchi of McGill University who specialises 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." 

Old St. Patrick's - Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church 

You see, the Italians were villagers and more accustomed to active involvement of the laity in the parish, even then. The Irish were different; they had to escape persecution to forests and cliffs to find a rock to hear Mass. Their history was different of course being persecuted on their own soil so it was a different situation and they never questioned the priest or made demands. Given the prevailing climate in Toronto as so well told by Bear at The Spirit's Sword, 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.  Bear also writes in the combox, after the second posting of this story in 2014, that Father Auad was also known as a "healer." Do visit the link above for his take on the persecution of the Catholic Irish, it was a hard go for them. Toronto was not a nice place and the stories are similar to those told of the gangs of New  York.

The Italians were bolder and had their own customs and devotions. 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 in its story, "Paganized Christianity” 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.” 

James Cardinal McGuigan

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.

There were two other villages between Long Branch and Toronto, all now amalgamated. The Town of New Toronto and the parish of St. Teresa established in 1924 where Vox was baptised in the presence of his Scotsman Freemason godfather; of course, none of us knew it until he died and he left me his Shriner Fezz, which I've since gotten suitable disposed of. The other was the Town of Mimico, which means, “the place of pigeons” and St. Leo the Great Parish, established a few years earlier. Many children of those first Lebanese settled in Mimico and a few in New Toronto, but none, interestingly enough, in Long Branch.

Saint Maroun

Coming back from Holy Communion and walking past another window, I was astounded at what I had seen or perhaps more because I had never noticed them before. 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." As mentioned, there were many Lebanese that settled in these parts but not one of them spoke of Father Auad that I can ever recall from my childhood and none of them attended Christ the King Parish. They were a different generation. They had just married and in their twenties were having babies; they worked, had businesses, bought houses and worshipped at the place they knew, their local parish. They didn't know that only a few short blocks away from their homes was a little bit of their cultural and family history. Here was a little parish, built by a priest who came from the same lands as their parents, who may have known them or blessed them as little children and here were the windows to the greatest of Lebanon’s Holy One’s and the Mother of our Redeemer whose birth we celebrate.



Our Lady of Mount Lebanon

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.

Surely now the young Lebanese of this community would seek out their old friend, Father Auad from the streets of McCaul, Queen, Bond, York, Simcoe, D'Arcy, and so on but alas, it was not to be; for at Midnight Mass on December 25, 1944, Father Stephan Auad suffered a stroke while preaching the homily. The next day, December 26, 1944, seventy-two years ago today and on that very same 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. 

Thank you Father Auad for what you did so long-ago for those early Catholic villagers in Long Branch and for the windows serving as a memorial to our Maronite heritage.

Father Stephen Auad, 1884 -1944

 Requiescat in pace

A blessed Christmas to you all

To all who pass this way,  - may the WORD MADE FLESH in Bethlehem pour out his grace upon you. May He let His face shine upon you in all your comings and goings. May you be blest with courage and strength and may He keep you always in His love. May His gracious and blessed Mother Mary, console you, St. Joseph guide you and St. Michael the Archangel protect you.

A blessed Christmas to you all and thank you for all of your prayers and kindness.

Fox and Vox

Laetabundus -- the forgotten Christmas Sequence

In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, there are four Sequences which in the Third Missal, precede the Alleluia, prior to that, they followed it as in the Extraordinary Form, they were "in sequence." However, in a Mass in the Ordinary Form, in a "Gregorian" manner with Gradual and Alleluia, it follows with the Sequence. With the Responsorial Psalm, it precedes the Gospel Acclamation as it is not truly in the manner of the Gregorian Alleluias. More ridiculous Novus Ordoisms. Two of these are mandatory, Victimae Paschalis of Easter and Veni, Sancte Spiritus of Pentecost, two are, sadly, optional; these are Lauda, Sion Salvatorem of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi and Stabat Mater on Our Lady of Sorrows, but not to the common tune that is sung as a hymn. In the Extraordinary Form they are not optional and there is one additional, Dies Irae in the Requiem Mass and funeral liturgy and it survives in the new Liturgy of the Hours for All Souls Day, which in the new Ordinariate Missal, returns to the Requiem Mass.

What is little known though is that prior to the Council of Trent, there was a Christmas Sequence known as Laetabundus. The Concilium created by Pope Pius V after Trent did not include it in our current traditional Roman Missal as it was not "Roman." They were extremely cautious about Sequences because there were so many in use in different Rites and on many Sundays and Feasts.

While this Sequence cannot be sung in the Mass, it can be done within it as a "hymn" or prior. 

Courtesy of Music Sacra is the text newly set in the Gregorian. I've included below the English translation and the video of the Laetabundus extremely well sung and with perfection by Cantori Gregoriani of Italy. Enjoy this beautiful piece of a liturgical past. 

Faithful people,

Sweeten all your song with gladness.

Alleluia.

Matchless maiden

Bringeth forth the Prince of princes:

O! the marvel.

Virgin compasseth a man,

Yea, the angel of the plan:

Star the Dayspring.

Day that sunset shall not close,

Star that light on all bestows,

Ever cloudless.

As the star, light crystalline,

Mary hath a Son divine

In her likeness.

Star that shining grows not dim,

Nor his Mother, bearing him,

Less a maiden.

The great tree of Lebanon

Hyssop's lowliness puts on

In our valley;

And the Word of God Most High

Self-imprisoned doth lie

In our body.

So Isaias sang of old,

So the Synagogue doth hold,

But the sunrise finds her cold

Hard and blinded.

Of her own she will not mark,

Let her to the gentiles hark;

For the Sybil's verses dark

Tell of these things.

Make haste, O luckless one,

Give ear to the saints bygone:

Why perish utterly,

O race undone?

He whom thy seers foretell

Born is in Israel:

Mary's little Son, O mark him well.

Alleluia.

Père Vincent Feroldi of France and the Bishop Conference - just more of Mahomet's useful idiots!

Will there be a France in twenty years? Will there be any Catholics left? Well, if there are, they will all be worshipping the One, True God according to the traditional Roman liturgy - the only part of the Church that is growing is in the traditional communities, including the SSPX. Of course, they will be battling the false religion of Mahomet for what is left of the dying French culture. Either that, or France will go hard on its bloody reign of terror and revolutionary past and ban all religion, including Islam. and come down in force as Fascists on everyone in order to protect "The Republic." The Freemasons are responsible for this curse upon the Eldest Daughter of the Church.

However, when the history of this era is written, the blame will fall squarely on the leaders of the Catholic Church in France, the cardinals, bishops and priests who have betrayed Her and Her children.

Here we have a report from the Catholic Church in France web page of their Conference of Bishops. 

It seems that some heresiarch priest named Vincent Feroli thinks Catholic should join with Mohammedans and celebrate old Moe's birth along with the WORD MADE FLESH.

Truly, these men are malefactors.

From Catholicculture.org:

December 23, 2015

For the first time since 1558, Mawlid—the Muslim celebration of Muhammad’s birth—will fall this year on December 24 and 25.

Christians and Muslims “should give thanks to God, each in his own tradition, for the good news that is the birth of Jesus or Muhammad,” Father Vincent Feroldi wrote on the French episcopate’s website.

Cautioning against “syncretism in comparing Jesus and Muhammad,” the priest, who directs the National Service for Relations with Muslims, said that it is a fitting time for Christians and Muslims to meet in “fraternity and amity” and in “mutual respect and recognition.”

It is also an apt time for Christians “to discover the place given to Jesus and Mary in the Qur’an,” he added.

- See more at: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=27024#sthash.mTvb96EK.dpuf




http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/actualites/412417-mawlid-et-noel-celebres-le-meme-jour-en-2015/

Mawlid et Noël célébrés le même jour en 2015

Publié le 21 décembre 2015

 

 

 

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En 2015, la célébration de la naissance de Jésus, le Verbe fait chair, coïncide avec celle du Prophète Mohammed. Le Mawlid aura lieu le 24 décembre pour la totalité du monde arabe et le 25 décembre pour le reste de la planète. Eclairage du Père Vincent Feroldi, Directeur du Service National pour les Relations avec les Musulmans (SNRM) avant l’émission Islam, sur France 2, le 27 décembre.

Depuis plusieurs jours, les médias algériens et marocains en parlent. L’émission Islam de France 2 du 27 décembre 2015 (8h45-9h15) en fera son thème. Des diocèses (Metz, Angers, Lille…) se sont mobilisés autour de l’événement. Chrétiens et musulmans s’en réjouissent en Belgique, en France, au Maghreb…

Cette année, la célébration de la naissance de Jésus, le Verbe fait chair, coïncide avec celle du Prophète Mohammed. Le Mawlid aura lieu le 24 décembre pour la totalité du monde arabe et le 25 décembre pour le reste de la planète. Cette fête permet aux musulmans d’exprimer leur reconnaissance au Prophète, de se rappeler ses vertus, de prier et de vivre un heureux temps familial.

Communautés chrétienne et musulmanes auront ainsi le cœur en fête. Elles rendront grâce à Dieu, chacune dans sa tradition, pour cette bonne nouvelle qu’est la naissance de Jésus ou de Mohammed, naissances qui vont être source d’une rencontre entre des hommes et femmes croyants et Celui qui Source de vie, source de la Vie.

Dans cette unité de date rarissime, beaucoup veulent y voir un signe de Dieu, en ces temps difficiles où la paix annoncée par les anges, la nuit de Noël, est malmenée par la folie des hommes.

Mawlid et Noël 2015 : Fêtons ce qui nous unit sans ignorer ce qui nous différencie

C’est en effet la première fois depuis 457 années que ces fêtes de Mawlid – ou Mouloud – et de Noël seront célébrées au même moment. Il faut en effet remonter à l’année 1558 pour trouver une configuration comparable (c’était le 12 Rabiaa Al-Awal de l’an 966 de l’Hégire), alors qu’en 1852, le Mawlid coïncidait avec le 25 (c’était l’an 1269 de l’Hégire).

Pour tous, il ne s’agit pas de verser dans un quelconque syncrétisme, en comparant Jésus et Mohammed. Nous sommes conscients de ce qui nous unit et de ce qui nous différencie. Mais cette simultanéité des fêtes est une très belle opportunité de rencontres et d’échanges. Elle offre la possibilité de se dire que nous sommes heureux d’être ensemble, croyants, dans une même attitude spirituelle et humaine où, d’une part, nous nous tournons vers Dieu dans la prière et, d’autre part, nous vivons des temps de fraternité et d’amitié, en famille et avec nos proches voisins et amis.

Heureux sommes-nous donc de pouvoir nous accueillir mutuellement entre chrétiens et musulmans en cette période de Noël !

Heureux sommes-nous de pouvoir exprimer en cette fin d’année, par la parole, par un vœu, par des gâteaux offerts, le respect et la reconnaissance mutuels des deux traditions religieuses.

Heureux sommes-nous de pouvoir donner à nos contemporains un signal majeur sur le « vivre ensemble » en cette époque où, au nom de la religion et de Dieu, certains prêchent la haine ou commettent des attentats.

Profitons aussi de ce moment, pour nous chrétiens, de découvrir la place donnée à Jésus et Marie dans le Coran ! Une sourate entière – la sourate 19 Maryam – est dédiée à la Vierge Marie. Nous y lisons au verset 16 : « Mentionne dans le Livre (le Coran), Marie, quand elle se retira de sa famille dans un lieu vers l’Orient ». Et le verset 21 parle de son fils : « Nous ferons de lui un signe pour les gens, et une miséricorde de notre part. C’est une affaire déjà décidée ».

Oui ! En 2015, Jésus le Sauveur est bien signe, grâce et miséricorde pour tous les hommes ! Il est le Prince de la Paix !

Père Vincent Feroldi

Directeur du Service National pour les Relations avec les Musulmans (SNRM)

Jorge Bergoglio, why are you using Protestant Heretical terminology to describe the Catholic Church?

Allow me to refer to two paragraphs from a post one below which will explain the reason that in this title, I have called the Bishop of Rome by his name, Jorge Bergoglio:

I once asked an erudite religious superior and author about Paul VI, the greatest disaster on the Church in 500 years only eclipsed by Francis, how was it possible that a Pope could issue Humanae Vitae and the Credo of the People of God and then do so much other damage to the Faith which in every other aspect of his Papacy is clear and unequivocal? He replied that "Humanae Vitae and the Credo were issued by Paul VI, the rest was Giovanni Montini." How interesting that these Modernists waited until Father Luigi Villa died before announcing the "Beatification" of Paul VI. Perhaps, they knew he was right and would have rained on their parade.

I think that this is a good comparison to what we are experiencing now and a good explanation of what I intend when I refer to Pope Francis as Jorge Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome. When he is in communion with his predecessors and the Magisterium of two-thousand years, then he is Pope Francis, When he is not, then he is Jorge Bergoglio.

Presumably, you've heard him say the Latin phrase, as he did a month ago in Milan and just yesterday before the Curia, "ecclesia semper reformanda" - the church is always to be reformed.

Have you heard this term before? Do you know from whence it originates?

I didn't, at least not until a few minutes ago as I read the comment box at Southern Orders. 

It seems that this is a Protestant, heretical term used quite often by that infamous Catholic heretic, Hans Kung.

Why is Jorge Bergoglio quoting Protestant theologians and heretical Catholics in describing the Church? What exactly is this man's ecclesiology? -- because from what this simple man can determine, it is not Catholic? Which Cardinal or Bishop will call out Jorge Bergoglio on the use of this phrase or is it up to fundamentalist laity and seminarians that bite?

Hey, Jorge; you want "dialogue" well, let's say that you and I jaw-jaw a little. what do you say?  Now, when you can act like a Pope, then I will humbly call you and submit to you as Pope Francis. but when you talk like a Protestant, then you're just old George.

To think, how far we've drifted in three years from that great address ten years ago on the hermeneutic of continuity, makes one want to weep. 

God help us.

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/semper-reformanda/

http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/today/reformed/ 

Appeal for financial sponsorship for Seminarian

Friends, with two donations this morning of $3,200.00 we are nearing our goal of $10,000 but still short by $3675

Could you spare $10, $20 or $50 or $100 to help us fund this man's seminary education for the rest of this year?

The end of the year is coming and your tax receipt is waiting. Thank you and God bless you. Vox

A few months ago, the readers of this blog raised over $8000.00 to build a house for a Deacon's impoverished parents in India. He will be ordained to the priesthood on December 30 for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India. 

I am writing this post with another appeal for a Abbé Joseph Heppelle, a seminarian from the Archdiocese of Toronto studying at the Seminary of St. Philip Neri in Gricigliano, Tuscany, Italy. This is the main seminary of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. 

I've know Abbé Heppelle for a number of years and his family. He is the eldest of eight home-schooled musically-gifted children. He is now an Acolyte and will, God-willing, be ordained to the Subdiaconate next spring.

I am reprinting below an appeal from the Toronto Traditional Mass Society - UNA VOCE TORONTO. If you are able to send financial support, there is an online charity called CanadaHelps that will receive the donation and provide you with a Canadian charitable tax receipt. 

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/support-for-seminarian-jh-at-icrss-seminary-in-gri/

You can also donate directly by mailing a donation to:

Toronto Traditional Mass Society-Una Voce Toronto

3701 Lakeshore Boulevard West

STATION LONG BRANCH

P.O. Box 48577

Toronto, Ontario M8W 4Y6

A tax-receipt will be issued in that case by the Society.

Thank you for your consideration.

Seminarian Fundraising Campaign for Abbé Joseph Heppelle

The Toronto Traditional Mass Society - Una Voce Toronto is established to promote the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, (the Traditional Catholic Latin Mass) and Gregorian chant in the Archdiocese of Toronto.

Abbé Joseph Heppelle is the eldest of eight from a home-schooled family here in the Archdiocese. He grew up serving and singing the chant for the Traditional Roman Liturgy. He is studying for the Catholic priesthood at the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest Seminary of St. Philip Neri in Gricigliano, Italy. Abbé Heppelle is now an Acolyte and will, God-willing, be ordained to the Subdiaconate in the spring of 2016.

This is the third year now that we have assisted in fundraising for Abbé Heppelle. Seminary cost is expensive as you can imagine and challenging in that all his classes are in French and Italian.

Please give consideration to donating for this young-man's education as he prepares to serve Jesus Christ, Sovereign Priest and His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and the community of faithful which belong to Her.

Donations through CanadaHelps are tax-deductible and you will be receipted directly by them. For a small fee, they send the funds on to us (saving us the paperwork) and we will send 100% of the funds to Abbé Heppelle. 

You may visit our web page at www.unavocetoronto.com or write us directly at unavocetoronto@gmail.com to arrange a donation directly to the Toronto Traditional Mass Society with 100% sent to him with a tax-receipt provided directly by us.

May God bless you and thank you

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/support-for-seminarian-jh-at-icrss-seminary-in-gri/

These men will dialogue straight into Hell

A few weeks ago, the Vatican issued a non-magisterial document on our relationship with the Jewish people in commemoration of the Second Vatican Council's document Nostra Aetate. It was a disgrace to the Church and its mission to "go into the world" and convert it. 

It is a betrayal of the Jewish people and the Truth and it is, as I wrote then, I believe it to be fundamentally, anti-Semitic.

Jews must come to Jesus Christ to be saved. He is their Messiah every much as He is ours. He came as the WORD MADE FLESH on Christmas 2,015 or so years ago depending on the calendric accuracy. Yet, we have under the current Bishop of Rome, Jorge Bergoglio, a renunciation of the mission to convert the Jews, that they are already saved under the Old Covenant.

There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. No Protestants. No Jews. No Muslims, No Hindus. No Buddhists. No Mormans. No Jehovah's Witnesses. No animists, no atheists, no pagans. None will get to Heaven. All will go to Hell for all eternity and no puerile little videos by James Martin, EssJay will change that. 

Now, can these Protestants, Jews and Muslims and others be saved by God? That is up to Him. God is not bound by His Sacraments, we are. If one of these is saved, it is not because of their false religion, it is in spite of it and because of the grace that flows from the Catholic Church and Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We cannot know who these are, who are saved or if in fact they will be. We can only give them to God in his Divine Mercy and the rest is up to Him.

How sad then with Jews for Jesus and Christianity Today seem to understand this more than our own Catholic leaders.They continue to report on the disgraceful document from Rome. Catholics have either ignored it or forgotten about it quickly enough.

When one puts into a search engine "Pope Francis dialogue" it is amazing how many times he has used that word. There is a blog called "Shaping the future with "dialogue" where they endorse the Vatican's latest.

They will dialogue themselves straight into Hell for this betrayal. It is a disgrace that a Catholic Pope betray the Church's mission with so much disregard for the Truth. We, as Catholics, must call him out and the bishops and cardinals who have put this document together. They are wrong. It is not breaking communion with the Church to state this. It is they who have broken communion with us. 

I once asked an erudite religious superior and author about Paul VI, the greatest disaster on the Church in 500 years only eclipsed by Francis, how was it possible that a Pope could issue Humanae Vitae and the Credo of the People of God and then do so much other damage to the Faith which in every other aspect of his Papacy is clear and unequivocal? He replied that "Humanae Vitae and the Credo were issued by Paul VI, the rest was Giovanni Montini." How interesting that these Modernists waited until Father Luigi Villa died before announcing the "Beatification" of Paul VI. Perhaps, they knew he was right and would have rained on their parade.

I think that this is a good comparison to what we are experiencing now and a good explanation of what I intend when I refer to Pope Francis as Jorge Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome. When he is in communion with his predecessors and the Magisterium of two-thousand years, then he is Pope Francis, When he allows documents such as the one discussed here which is a  profound betrayal and an embarrassment, a Modernist, Masonic diabolical betrayal, then he is Jorge Bergoglio.

On this document about Jews, just as the nonsense that he can bind us to believe junk-science at worst and scientific theory at best, I dissent. The Old Covenant to the Jews no longer applies. it is fulfilled in the New and in Christ. Jorge Bergoglio is wrong; and so are the Jews.

Ever-virgin Mary's "yes" was the beginning of our salvation

Today's Second Reading from the Office of Readings, more traditionally known as Matins, is a lesson for all Protestants and those Catholics who downplay, or disdain in the case of some, the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in our salvation. When one reads this sermon by St. Bernard one can readily see that our Salvation by Our Lord Jesus Christ was totally dependant on her yes. True, if she said no, God would have found someone else but it may have not happened even to now. I recall in the Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich's writings that she asked her angel why it took so long for the Father to send His Son, the Messiah. She was told that it took 4000 years for a man and wife, Sts. Joachim and Anna, to be holy enough to bear Mary - the Immaculate Conception, who was conceived as all of us would have been had there been no Fall of our first parents, also something noted by Blessed Anne in her book, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

They embraced each other with holy joy, and each told the other their good tidings. They were in a state of ecstasy and enveloped in a cloud of light. I saw this light issuing from a great host of angels, who were carrying the appearance of a high shining tower and hovering above the heads of Anna and Joachim. The form of this tower was the same as I see in pictures, from the litany of the Blessed Virgin, of the Tower of David, the Tower of Ivory, and so forth. I saw that this tower seemed to disappear between Anna and Joachim, who were enveloped in a glory of brightness. I understood that, as a result of the grace here given, the conception of Mary was as pure as all conceptions would have been but for the Fall. I had at the same time an indescribable vision. The heavens opened above them, and I saw the joy of the Holy Trinity and of the angels, and their participation in the mysterious blessing here bestowed on Mary's parents. Anna and Joachim returned, praising God, to the exit under the Golden Gate; …

It was explained to me here that the Blessed Virgin was begotten by her parents in holy obedience and complete purity of heart, and that thereafter they lived together in continence in the greatest devoutness and fear of God. I was at the same time clearly instructed how immeasurably the holiness of children was encouraged by the purity, chastity, and continence of their parents and by their resistance to all unclean temptations; and how continence after conception preserves the fruit of the womb from many sinful impulses. In general, I was given an overflowing abundance of knowledge about the roots of deformity and sin.

Let us thank the Blessed Mother, for her, "be it done unto me according to thy word."

The whole world awaits Mary's reply     

You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us. 

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.         

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.   

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.   

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.

Responsory       

Virgin Mary, receive the word of the Lord brought to you by the angel: You will conceive and bear a son, both God and man. You will be called, Blessed among all women.

You will indeed bear a son, yet suffer no loss of virginity; you will be with child, yet remain a mother ever undefiled. You will be called, Blessed among all women.

Bishop Sorondo says Pope Bergoglio can bind Catholics under sin to believe junk science and globalist manipulations

These men are stupid or they think we are? Bishop Sorondo; pictured here with the globalist-masonic UN Secretary General and the Pope, say that the Pope has the authority to bind us to believe junk science at worst and theory at best but he cannot. How dare he equate this manipulation of globalists with magisterial teaching with abortion? What kind of fool is he to raise to a level unheard before of the infallibility of a pope as declared at the First Vatican Council. 

When challenged the Papal friend and advisor said:

"When the Pope has assumed this, it is Magisterium of the Church whether you like it or not -- it is the Magisterium of the Church just as abortion is a grievous sin - equal (it is the same)... it is Magisterium of the Church... whether you like it or not."

No, it isn't it.


Sorondo is a liar. He is either a manipulative deceptive, heresiarch or his is just incredibly stupid. Either way, he is wrong and so are all of those who believe what he does including the Pope himself should this be, in fact, what he thinks. 

Besides, who are you all to judge?

Evil clowns. Moronic men. Idiots these churchmen are.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-bishop-popes-view-on-global-warming-is-as-authoritative-as-the-cond

Vatican bishop: Pope’s view on global warming is as authoritative as the condemnation of abortion

 Abortion , Catholic , Climate Change , Laudato Si’ , Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo , Pope Francis

ROME, December 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A heated exchange regarding global warming and magisterial teaching between a top Vatican official and various other presenters ended a December 3 Acton Institute conference in Rome.  Argentinean Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, a close advisor to Pope Francis and the Chancellor of both the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences stressed that the pope’s declarations on the gravity of global warming as expressed in the encyclical Laudato Si’ are magisterial teaching equivalent to the teaching that abortion is sinful.

Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the founder of Ignatius Press who obtained his doctorate in theology under Joseph Ratzinger prior to his elevation to the pontificate, told LifeSiteNews, “Neither the pope nor Bishop Sorondo can speak on a matter of science with any binding authority, so to use the word ‘magisterium’ in both cases is equivocal at best, and ignorant in any case.” Fr. Fessio added, “To equate a papal position on abortion with a position on global warming is worse than wrong; it is an embarrassment for the Church.”