Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Best Dressed Man of 2013


The new evangelism of discrediting Catholic teaching and insulting those who love, teach and live by it to win the admiration and praise of the worldly is hitting paydirt for the Pope.

It turns out that wearing shoes with holes in them is in vogue in the circles of the hoi polloi.

If only the 2000 years of Popes and martyrs practiced the humility of doing and saying things to win praise.

I wonder how many honorable titles he will put under his belt before he stops withholding and undermining Church teaching.

I wonder too if Christ could have changed His fate had he only ridiculed John the Baptist as a judgmental sourpuss with an obsession for small minded rules.





Monday, December 30, 2013

CDF clarifies that bishops will not be minipopes



Interesting comments.

TTC New Year's Special



Joan Chittister trousers are in a twist - emancipation proclamation for women of their counterfeit church is at the crossroad

First, the question of the role of women in church and society is not one of the 39 areas of concern listed in the questionnaire the Vatican sent to the world's bishops in October seeking wide Catholic response to questions about family life. So how really important are the roles and rights of woman-as-woman seen in shaping even the family? Really.

Second, the pope's recent statement on women to a meeting of the Women's Section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome concentrated almost entirely on women's maternity, which occupies -- at best -- about 20 years of a woman's life. Most modern women, demographic data indicates, live at least another 35 to 40 years after the youngest child leaves home. And after that? What is her role then? Is maternity her only value, her perpetual definition? What does she do now with her personal talents, her insights, her gifts that, they tell us, are given for the sake of the world?

And how does the world make up for the loss of such experience, intelligence and wisdom of the other half of the human race if women are not expected, not welcomed to its shaping?

But without the input of women, humanity sees with only one eye, hears with one ear and thinks with only one half of the human mind.

The same clerical, patriarchal types who have been doing it for the last 2,000 years when church fathers first said that women "have the malice of both dragons and asps," among other things....

Or when Thomas Aquinas called women "misbegotten males." Not the gold standard of the human race, apparently.

And medieval theologians declared that women were by nature subservient, secondary in the order of creation, more emotional than rational...

ope Francis has won the heart of the world by being humble, simple and pastoral -- the warm and caring face of the church, a man like Jesus who is a man of the poor.

But clearly, no one can say they are for the poor as Jesus was and do nothing, nothing, nothing for the equality of women. To address classism does not begin to resolve the problems that come with sexism.

Yet when the membership of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious commit themselves again -- as they have so often in the past -- to do for women what must be done for the sake of the Gospel, and the good of the church, it's called "radical feminism" and they are investigated for heresy...

Otherwise, when death comes, we may all be there to see it.

Stick a fork in her. She's done.

And, it's a double header.

Rockin' Prayer

"My soul fell prostrate before thee, my dull deformed soul, unclean and infected with many vices and passions. But thou, my Savior, didst open to me thy heart in such a fashion that I seemed to see within it, and thou didst invite me and bid me to drink the waters of salvation from that fountain. Great at that moment was my desire that streams of faith, hope and charity might flow from it into my soul. I thirsted after poverty, chastity and obedience, and I begged to be clothed and adorned by thee. After I had thus dared to approach thy Heart, all full of sweetness, and to slake my thirst therein, thou didst promise me a robe woven of peace, love and perseverance, with which to cover my naked soul. Having this garment of grace and gladness about me, I grew confident again that I should lack for nothing, and that all things would turn out for thy glory." St. Peter Cantius of his mystical vision in 1549

Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Jesuits stack the Confessional with lay shrinks in Linz



They've been severed from the power of the Sacraments because the truth is not in them, what would be left but to call in the shrinks.

I wonder if we will hear the sound of crickets from Pope Francis until the entire Catholic population of Germany and Austria is completely severed from the Body of Christ by the schismatics.


Being Schooled by Mark Shea Readers



I learned some very interesting concepts from Mark Shea readers yesterday that I thought I'd pass on to TTC readers.

Boy, they really have the pins for Voris.

One gentleman was honking his horn for his holy crusades against Michael for organizing a week long event of prayer, evangelization, Sacred Scripture and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass during Lent, and having the nerve to call it a "retreat".

Leading a holy crusade against a man who organized an event where Catholics prayed and ate from a midnight buffet during Lent is his contribution to Christ's Church.

And here we were thinking chivalry is all but dead in Catholic men.

I asked a few questions to try to get a handle on why they were indignant and the fur started to fly. I was told women ought not to be 'splaining theology or the needs of the community to men - a woman's role is making men coffee.

Somewhere there is a mandatum which dictates that Catholics can't eat from buffets during Lent because (they claim) the Catechism requires Catholics only eat one meal a day for all 40 days during Lent and eating from a buffet is one of the seven deadly sins - gluttony.

You read that right. The Catechism says we can only have one meal a day during the entire 40 days of Lent and eating said meal from a buffet is the sin of gluttony.

As far as I know it says neither.

Anyone know the number in the Catechism on prohibitions of buffets?

I'd like to see this for myself. Building doctrines on a sin of presumption isn't gelling for me.

That's not all. The Sheabots said Catholics who spend $1000 a week for room and board is bourgeois. (Really? I can hardly live at home on that.)

I mentioned I've been in the same room with Mark Shea at an event to hear an evangelist at a swanky hotel that cost several hundred dollars a plate. He was dressed in a tuxedo, his wife was wearing a lovely evening dress. When you include their hotel bill and plane fare to get to the hotel, it had to cost a couple of grand for a five hour evening and one meal.

They asked me if the event was called a 'retreat'. They explained it isn't bourgeois to spend a couple of grand to hear an evangelist and eat one meal in a swanky hotel so long as it isn't called a retreat.

Follow their logic so far? There's more.

They were all worked up because the retreat was on a boat that sails on the ocean.

I first explained that they might have a beef if Voris was holding the retreat at a casino, but it is perfectly acceptable to hold a retreat on a boat. I also made reference to the many retreat homes owned by religious priests, nuns that are oceanfront properties.

They explained that priests and nuns owning multimillion dollar properties on the ocean and holding retreats there is okay. Oceanfront homes are permanent fixtures. I presumed that to mean we cant pray in moving objects.

Should we stop praying the Rosary in the car until we get a hold of the encyclical?

Several of them grew frustrated with me, said I was a piece of work and stormed off. I don't know why. Can't a gal ask questions?

One of them came back later to demand I tell him where Mark has promulgated error. I mentioned the controversy over his heresy of universal salvation and empty hell.

This is where the theology got really interesting.

They explained that because Balthasar was nominated for a red hat by Pope John Paul II, his heresy then became Church teaching. Otherwise, Pope John Paul II is a heretic. They had news for me they said - Church teaching evolves.

Yeah? Well, until it evolves into the Catechism, everything every episcopal luminary says actually isn't Church teaching.

Balthasar was a Jesuit. What a rotten vine that order has become. A gift that keeps on giving.

And they wonder why faithful Catholics are up in arms that Pope Francis dismantling of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate instead of the Jesuits?

From Scripture:

And I saw a great white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up their dead that were in them; and they were judged every one according to their works. And hell and death were cast into the pool of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire.

From the Catechism:

1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, -- or immediate and everlasting damnation.

1034 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616

1035 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

Further - Pope Benedict never taught contrary to Christ's Church relative to the day of final judgment when souls are sent to hell.

Pope Benedict XVI: "Jesus came to tell us that he wants us all in heaven and that hell, of which so little is said in our time, exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his love.

To apply this concept properly - one has to separate immortal souls from the living and the dead.

For immortal souls who are no longer among the living, the day of judgment according to his works was immediate upon their moment of death and for those who closed their hearts to His love, they have been sentenced to everlasting damnation in hell.

Consequently, it is not empty and it never will be empty.

For immortal souls among the living, we do hope and pray for the conversion of hardened hearts and deeply desire they will spend their eternity in paradise. But, we do not sew seeds of confusion about the choices one has to make to obtain that reward as that is counterproductive to the end we desire.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Killing of the Innocents



Modern Lamentation.

Trouble in Obama marriage?



I guess the National Enquirer is alleging the witch has moved out of the bedroom?

Good grief...nothing is private!

The public antics at Mandela's funeral were strange. Obama flirting with the attractive Thorning-Schmidt, Michelle's sourpuss and making him switch his seat like one does to two siblings who are acting up.

Charity dictates prayer for this family. Given their contribution to the slaughter of innocents and Christians all over the world, my heart just isn't into it.

I'll get there, but 'tis more like penance than charity for this practicing Catholic.

Friday, December 27, 2013

The torment of St. Anthony



Excellent historical information on our great St. Anthony.

Every so often this great Saint makes his presence known in my life. He is a gentle saint and consequently I was never sure how he could stand being around me...until I read the story of his great battles.

A wimp he isn't.

More thoughts on Thom Peters' Post



Some great observations by Janet Baker has in her reply to Thom Peter's objections to Catholics expressing concerns about the Pope's confusing statements.

...especially to Thom's question below.

"If Pope Francis sees dissenting Catholics living more active lives of charity, showing more passion in their desire to fix the problems of the world, and being more vocal in the great debates of our time, what happens then?"

I'm trying to understand this concept.

Pope Francis is aware that people who dissent from Church teaching are people who are selfishly enticing and baiting others into committing offenses against God that rob them of their salvation.

Was Thom trying to suggest it is possible that the Pope is so theologically shallow that in spite of this, he could perceive public statements about wanting to fix the problems of the world as living more active lives of charity?

Does this hanging question imply Pope Francis would reconstruct the deposit of faith upon the same old crackpot attempt at charity tried by Judas 2000 years ago?

What happens then?

I think I can answer that one.

Then, charitably...we announce he is daft. We step up the campaign to keep Catholics on the ship. Instruct them on how to ride out the storm. Remind them that while we are obliged to accept what is written into a Catechism under his watch - we ought not to to participate in the behavior ourselves, and anything contradictory which he expresses outside of the Catechism is anathema.


Come on Thom!!!! The possibility that the Pope is this shallow is way below zero.

There is one thing everyone can take to the bank:

The Catholics who have the spinal fortitude to express what every well-educated, well-formed and catechized Catholic knows or should know about the circus in Rome for the last eight months have zero interest in competing in a popularity contest for the Pope's affections. We don't give a rat's patoot whether he likes us or he doesn't like us. Our focus - every scintilla of our energy and being - is on the salvation of souls.

If he's going to spend the rest of his pontificate making a mockery out of our religion and undermining the moral compasses of our children, it's going to get ugly.

Also - check out this post-Is this the Martini Pope?

..and Fr. Ray Blake's post on the disconcerting situation in Rome.

If these people weren't running every chancery in the United States we wouldn't be so concerned. But they are and they have robbed two generations of Catholics of their religion. Those of us who somehow made it through are done with it. Completely done. Over and out done. Restructuring the Inheritance of Christ after it will result in quite a donnybrook in the public square.

That's what happens then!

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Apprehensive attitude towards the Pope?


First the good news - Thomas Peters health has improved enough to be back at the keyboard.
Continued prayers for his recovery!

He's authored a piece that conveys a few things to me.

1. Urban legends about what inspires faithful Catholics to speak the truth - even when our Holy Father is the recipient of the message - live on.

2. There is still a death grip on clericalism.

The Holy Father informed us of his trajectory through his apostolic exhortation, followed by the actions of replacing Cardinal Burke with Cardinal Wuerl to advise him on what priests in the United States have the spiritual substance and attributes to be a bishop.

Now, numerous faithful Catholics who in charity had been giving Pope Francis' imprudent statements the benefit of the doubt, have publicly calibrated what Cdl. Wuerl's appointment will mean on the ground relative to the catechesis of tools for salvation.

Because it doesn't paint a pretty picture, evangelists who take their role seriously need and want to be most cautious about how to proceed in the public square.

Last week, Thomas threw out the bone that perhaps Cardinal Wuerl would have a better grip on spiritual substance and attributes here in the USA because Cardinal Burke has been tending to affairs with the Romans. (A little navigation tip. To reach the destination of the aforementioned suggestion, one must tie oneself to one's seat to sail beyond his caricature of John Allen as "sober-minded".)

Reactions to that suggestion were not as positive as Thomas had hoped.

Some of the comments and reactions to my post earlier this week on Pope Francis’s decision not to renew Cardinal Burke’s membership on the Congregation for Bishops revealed a disturbing trend to me, namely, the extent to which many Catholics have adopted an apprehensive attitude about the current pontiff.


First of all, I think we're beyond the apprehension stage. We were apprehensive during the eight months of commentary undermining and insulting the 2000 years of the Deposit of Faith and those who love and evangelize It.

Though Pope Francis has issued numerous clarifications, he then went ahead and contradicted said clarifications with an apostolic exhortation which ratified the trajectory of his original statements.

Still, most faithful Catholics have been waiting for the actions which inform us what food he wants placed on the table of every parish and home.

He has given America his leader for that crusade.

Pope Francis selected a spineless bishop who operates a chancery that persecutes faithful priests and teaches Church laws can or should be ignored and disobeyed at our own will.

We all know how the witness that Church law can be disobeyed at will plays out. If the bishop can select what laws to obey and disobey, each one of us can also select which laws we choose to obey and disobey.

Whether he intended to or he didn't, Pope Francis has repeatedly conveyed that the laws and teachings of the Church are small-minded rules of sourpusses and under his watch the the road to salvation will be the abandonment of teaching right judgment and distinctions between sin and virtue for the new church of social service and being giddy.

We have reached the point wherein Pope Francis isn't just saying these things. He is now taking the actions that signal he is carrying out his plan. He is selecting Cardinals who have carried them out in their See.

Each one of us who have suffered the ill effects of this counterfeit church knows what this means for the abilities of priests to teach the substance in the Catechism, and teach obedience to the Catechism and Church law in our schools, parishes and in our own homes. And, we know what it means for the salvation of the masses of uncatechized.

Thomas seems to take the position that faithful Catholics who are laying out the ramifications and consequences of this foolish circus we have watched for eight months is some kind of a cynical game:

Sure, I get it, it’s fun to be a cynic. It’s cool to be the one always predicting the next bad thing that’s going to happen...So I can understand why some orthodox Catholics may be enjoying the novelty of being a papal skeptic.

I beg to differ with this gross understatement and caricature.

Orthodox Catholics (I'm not sure I like that characterizations as it implies faithfulness to doctrines is among a smorgasbord of sects and practices within the Catholic religion - all of which lead to salvation) have an immutable oath of unity to Christ's Church, led by the Roman Pontiff, written on our soul.

We are acutely aware that many of Christ's elect who have suffered through this undisciplined and counterfeit church have lost touch with that immutable oath.

We have painfully watched the Pope undermine our teachings and sacred traditions which offer the highest unblemished gifts, surrender and respect to Christ and have prayerfully and thoughtfully navigated these waters so as not to scandalize those suffering from despair.

How this situation could ever be caricatured as fun or enjoyable is beyond me.

I have repeatedly stated that I believe Pope Francis when he tells us he is a faithful son of Christ's Church. I am confident in this conviction. Sadly, faithfulness to Church teaching does not preserve one from making foolish statements and decisions. My greatest duty to Christ is to ensure I do and say whatever I must to keep the flock within my home from falling into the pit.

There is no circumstance wherein this girl will leave the Church Christ gave me for the salvation of my soul. I have every confidence that even if Pope Francis formally restructures to validate the tribunals of persecutors within, I will find refuge and ride it out. I have every intention of pointing those within my home (and readers here) to that refuge.

I don't know if Pope Francis will take it that far but the evidence of record would lead any prudent and rational person to project the possibility of a rotten edifice being constructed in the farcical nightmare blossoming before us. I am sorry to say it. It pains me to say it.

At the end of the day, I believe that Peters sees it himself:

The more I read about Pope Francis, the more I am convinced that the soul of this papacy is up for grabs.


I am also firmly convicted that it is a duty of our Baptism to inform our loving and beloved Holy Father that we will not subject ourselves or our children to the false church within for a nanosecond longer. Most of us have fled and already found refuge and he is making those refuges fodder for the apostates who have control of power within our Chanceries because of weak bishops like Cardinal Wuerl.

Further, I don't see Pope Francis as one who wishes to hold onto the cult of clericalism enabling this pathetic situation.

ADDENDUM

It is duly noted that when Joseph Bottum suggested the deposit of faith was an obstacle to joy and evangelism, he was tarred, feathered, taken to the shed and blackballed

The cult that has protected men who put on liturgical robes, take position under our Crucifix and say the exact same thing has contributed to 40 years of grand larceny of our religion.

Perhaps Pope Francis suffers from the delusion that there are enough Catholics in the cult to continue the crusades. If he didn't know eight months ago, he certainly should check the pedigree of those who are alerting him to the reality check: Those days are gone for good and they are never coming back. Ever.



Tuesday, December 24, 2013

O Magnum Mysterium








O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Quo Vadis Pope Francis?



This one says it all.

Then again, in a document of this length one would also expect to find a good deal of what has made this Pope so beloved by the worldwide mass media: radical-sounding bombshells about how wrong the Church is and how much Francis must do to make it right, in all humility. That too is there—in spades...

A word about EG’s forthright condemnation of abortion (EG 213). While quite admirable as far as it goes, Francis immediately undermines it by indulging his crowd-pleasing penchant for reckless and unfounded accusations against the Church: “On the other hand, it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations?” (EG 214).

Perhaps Francis should speak for himself. No one has done more to assist women tempted by abortion than the members of the worldwide Catholic pro-life movement....

The media love EG for another reason: it leaves no wiggle room for the indefatigable explainers of What The Pope Really Meant To Say, Or What He Would Have Said If He Had Said What He Meant Rather Than What He Said, Which Was Misinterpreted And Taken Out Of Context....

Instead of leaving his prejudices behind in Buenos Aires along with his Pinocchio Mass....

Francis’s “dream Church” involves nothing less than a deconstruction of the papacy in favor of a synodal model governed—God help us!—by the national bishops’ conferences:

… I am conscious of the need to promote a sound “decentralization”…. Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of others, I too must think about a conversion of the papacy [to]… help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization…. We have made little progress in this regard. The papacy and the central structures of the universal Church also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion….

[A] juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated. Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach. (EG 16, 32)

Please take the time to read in its entirety.

This sums up the phenomenon perfectly:

As the always brilliantly witty Hilary White has observed: “[O]ne of the reasons the libs love this pope so much is that he enjoys insulting the same people they do, namely the Catholics who believe everything the Church teaches—and has ever taught—and try to live by it.” In EG Francis perversely heaps still more vitriol on his loyal subjects, thus belying his public persona as the merciful, non-judgmental father the Church has been longing for...

Tellingly, Francis has nothing to say about the plague of neo-modernism that has spread throughout the Church since the Council, undermining Church teaching, making a mockery of the liturgy, and animating radical dissent in every nation. Rather, he continues to condemn as cold and faithless ideologues traditional Catholics who, in the midst of the ruins, have taken refuge in the few edifices still standing after fifty years of a “renewal” even he admits has never happened. This is unheard-of behavior for a Pope. And Francis behaves this way knowing full well that the various traditional societies and orders are practically the only places where the Church is experiencing robust health.


tried to put the best face on Francis’s seemingly endless torrent of crowd-pleasing utterances. But this circus has gone far enough.
..

Fascinating Interview with Archbishop Gänswein




His position is...it's all a big misunderstanding and the air will be let out of the festive balloons of those who teach and preach rejection of Church teaching.

Ahhhhhhhhh-huh.

I think I see where it's going.

Inconsistency will straighten all the crooked paths being laid before the uncatechized.

How does that strategy work?

If children rebel against civil and religious laws, some cool cat in town announces morality and sanctity of life as small-minded rules of Mr and Mrs Whiner, and teaches all not to bother making judgments relative to distinctions between sin and virtue.

After undermining the truth and every lucid parent in town, resetting the moral compass of the uncatechized, the epidemic of teenage pregnancies, abortions, VD and HIV, alcoholism, drug use, wreaking havoc and division in families - you'll be named man of the year in Podunk. Then YOU proclaim the Church and their parents were right all along.

That will fix the division, family strife, ruined relationships and diabolical disorientation you foisted upon the whole town.

Is there an ounce of common sense left in Rome?

I wonder how the pontifical bait and switch is going to work.

Do you think the Pope will stand in the public square and say it's now time for long-faced, sourpussed, querulous and disillusioned pessimists to abandon their obsession about immigration and poverty?

Oh wait...would that be wrong?




Pope Francis effect upon catechesis from the Washington Post


Admittedly, I have not followed the Duck Dynasty controversy, but the excerpts I did read indicate the man was asked a question about his moral beliefs and responded that the culture is on the slippery slope of instituting a human written moral code of sexual attractions that contradicts Divine laws and subject to that principal, anyone's sexual attractions can take refuge in that code.

After all, who are we to make judgments about polygamists if they are seeking the Lord in good faith? And so on.

As many concerned Catholics have expressed, the silly statements from the Pope are damaging to catechists, parents, grandparents and Catholics who are intimately aware that the mission of the Deposit of Faith is to teach the substance that gives every person right judgment about their actions as they relate to the salvation of their soul.

Each of us has to make a judgment about our sexual attractions before we act upon them, even if we go to Church every Sunday, or every day for that matter.

Making judgments about our sexual attractions is a critical tool for the salvation of our own souls.

The damage the Pope has done plays itself out in today's article written by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post.

Dionne has fired up his crack pipe with the Pope's irresponsible statements and unveiled the fruit of Pope Francis:

Yet when even the pope wonders aloud as to whether it's appropriate for him to judge, you begin to see the difficulty of deciding what "true Christians" ought to believe. This raises the question of whether the religiously based principles are merely cultural artifacts that we bend to our own immediate purposes...

The answer lies in embracing a humility about how imperfectly human beings understand the divine, which is quite different from rejecting God or faith. This humility defines the chasm between a living religious tradition and a dead traditionalism. We need to admit how tempted we are to deify whatever commitments we have at a given moment. And those of us who are Christian need to acknowledge that over the history of the faith, there have been occasions when "a supposedly changeless truth has changed," as the great church historian and theologian Jaroslav Pelikan put it.


The disordered picture the Pope is giving is crystal clear.

I'll talk more about how this plays out in catechesis in our parishes and schools - and more importantly in the family some time after Christmas.

I don't actually give a flying fig that he was voted person of the year in Time magazine.

What I care about is what he is saying and doing in the public square that gives my children and future grandchildren the understanding of their faith - how to live it, what practices and judgments they must make upon their own actions, how to evangelize others.

Thus far, this Pope is a disaster to that end.

The Pope has set catechesis apart from the Deposit of Faith. Those who attempt to state moral code written by God Himself are now subject to losing their job based upon the Pope's caricature of our beliefs. He has made those who attempt to teach and preach subject to hatred and malice - in some countries said malice will cost them not just their livelihood but their very lives.

He is pitting children against their parents.

That's not even the bad news.

The bad news is, the man of the year shtick is robbing souls of their salvation.





Sunday, December 22, 2013

Did the Mother of God feel cheated?



I see where he was going with this one, but still...

The kind of thinking Pope Francis ascribes to Mary is internal dialogue with God where she expresses her doubt about the execution of His plan.

Certainly this would be consistent with human saints. But Mary was not just a human saint. She is the haindmaden of Our Lord and as such, was formed with all of the tools necessary to navigate beyond human emotions.

Mary was human and certainly felt emotions.

She felt sorrow and joy.

But an expression to God about lies and feeling cheated is the fruit of selfish desires and the emotion of anger directed towards God.

This contradicts her Divinely gifted nature as it is a low-level transgression against the First Commandment.

There is a hierarchy of transgressions against each Commandment.

For instance, take the Fifth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill.

Let's a few levels in the order of their seriousness:

1. Stealing a person's joy and well-being with rage.
2. Killing a person's physical body.
3. Slaying a person's soul with heresy and apostasy.

There may be other transgressions in between but each manifests itself in thoughts and behaviors that are transgressions.

Visiting the First Commandment:

You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a graven image,
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth;
you shall not bow down to them or serve them;
for I the LORD your God am a jealous God

For the Mother of God to be visited by an Angel and mystically carry the Son of God in her womb - and at any point in her life to return to God to complain that she is being cheated, in the mystical world is the fruit of sin which places oneself before God. It is low-hanging fruit on the hierarchy of transgressions against that particular commandment but it is on the ladder - which IMO - makes it impossible for the Blessed Mother to have thought or discussed intimately with God.

The attributes of the Mother of God were controlled with intimate communication between the mind, soul and intellect of her Spouse, the Holy Spirit.

Unlike every other human saint, this intimate union prevented her from having such thoughts and emotions.

Theologically and quite literally, she is the handmaiden of the Holy Spirit. At all times, in all places and in all situations, carries out His Will. Her soul magnifies the Holy Spirit.

There is a lot of learn from Pope Francis.

Me thinks theology is not going to be one of them.



My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid;
for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because he that is mighty,
hath done great things to me;
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is from generation unto generations,
to them that fear him.
He hath shewed might in his arm:
he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat,
and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath received Israel his servant,
being mindful of his mercy:
As he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his seed for ever.



John 19:11



Our friend Janet at Restore DC Catholicism has a great post on the use of rose colored glasses in the Catholic Church.

I am a fan of the use of rose colored glasses in the initial stages of what could be a misunderstanding - so long as we are talking about having them on when we speak the truth to the misunderstood.

Speaking the truth to the misunderstood is an important duty of the Baptized. It respectfully allows the misunderstood to understand how what he or she has said and done impacts Christ and other souls negatively.

I don't subscribe to the delusion that kooks who don't want that duty to be carried out are the folks wearing rose colored glasses. Those folks are bullies who work to prevent the misunderstood from hearing the impact of his or her actions.

Consequently, the thuggery of Patheos crowd, and those affiliated with the National Catholic Register who have the misfortune liething with the dogs does not rise to the level of the innocence and good will of legitimate owners of rose-colored glasses.

Janet's post cites a piece written by our friend and freedom fighter for unborn children, Judie Brown.

Judie is a mentor and hero to many of us. When I need to publicly temper my response to something, she is my go-to girl. Her experience and wisdom is an incredible asset to those of us who want nothing to do with the power struggles that manifest themselves theologically and politically.

To those of us who just want the best possible outcome for the salvation of souls and lives of unborn children, those of us consciously and carefully making decisions about what to say and do and when to execute plans, those who will lay it all down for Christ, come what may, Judie is an invaluable resource.

Though she doesn't wear them very often, Judie is a legitimate owner of rose colored glasses. I don't own a pair of my own but instinctively know when I need to borrow a pair. She is one of my suppliers.

Her good will hangs in there a lot longer than mine does.

A lot longer.

Way longer.

In most cases, when seeking her advice - I take it, irrespective of my own thoughts. In the times I have sought her wise counsel over the course of the last ten years, I can count on one hand the number of times I have prayerfully considered it and felt Christ urging me to proceed.

This is one of them.

I very much understand and affirm Judie's caution in listening for and to the Holy Spirit in this predicament.

The combination of Pope Francis undisciplined tongue and the misunderstandings of the uncatechized are major contributing forces to the vortex.

Christ's Church is in the Hands of the Holy Spirit who uses every means possible to save souls. It's His game plan. We don't know what He knows. No matter what is said and done, the refuge is in His Church and Sanctuaries. Come what may. There isn't a dime's worth of difference between the sedevacanists and the dogs. Stay away from both. Find a faithful priest and stay put.

But let us face it. It seems to me the writing is now on the wall for the Pope's game plan. It is the silencing of catechesis and the promotion of weak men and advocates of disobedience.

Upon observance, he seems to be ushering in the era of the great humanitarian. The Church without catechesis or a cross.

This game plan has long been in play in Boston.

Of recent vintage, Cardinal O'Malley advanced this counterfeit mission by holding a meeting with lawmakers here in Massachusetts. The Cardinal had fallen out of favor with political lawmwkers. The Cardinal held a breakfast for lawmakers to ask them to once again find him in their favor and open up dialogue. Lawmakers reported the Cardinal told them they need not worry about any resistance to laws that demoralize and kill people as they will in the future restrict their work to that of the great humanitarian.


Cardinal O'Malley is a good man who loves Our Lord. But his ideas have left Boston a disaster zone. A Cardinal who wishes himself to be a powerful political lobbying force with a promise he will not interfere or resist demoralization and murder - is a chief adviser to the Pope.

I'll talk about how Cardinal O'Malley's game plan - God bless him - has affected Catechesis here in Boston at a later time - but I've seen the show and it isn't good. A well meaning and faithful Cardinal with a plan that robs us all of the tools of salvation to be held in high esteem by the worldly.

If this is in keeping with the Mystical Body of Christ following Christ's actions during His Incarnation - I can't find it in Scripture.

We have to be very, very careful about how we proceed. This is not the time for hysteria.


The Pope understands that the magnificence of women lies in their knowledge of physical and spiritual needs necessary for their salvation - or even just to bring comfort to the afflicted and challenged. He gets it and believe he will deliver those goods. The silence of catechesis is a dog and he must be told the ramifications. That is actually how the role of women executes itself.

It is of critical importance that Our Holy Father be told the knowledge women possess about how this plan plays out within the family.

n.b.

The idea in Judie's post that Cardinal Wuerl has better attributes for selecting future bishops for America than Cardinal Burke doesn't gel for me. At all. She's pulled those rose colored glasses out of the closet!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Rorate posts letter from the Sisters of the Immaculate



Ouch.

Roundup of Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate




Pat Archibold's comments HERE.

Rorate's deep dive.

As we are up to our necks with 40 years of scandalous conduct of apostate priests and bishops, this is what Pope Francis chooses to spend time, energy and resources of discipline.

Remember his advice that Catholics should "go out and make a mess"?

He sure is getting the job done.

Again, I believe Pope Francis to be a faithful and loving servant.

What we have on our hands is a fool.

A fooline, as my Irish grandmother used to call the phenomenon.

A fooline, even an innocent one, rolls out the red carpet for the devil with his niavete.

We've all played the fool and been fooled. Fools are the most effective tools in the devil's arsenal.

He can twist innocence, love, trust, hope, good will, good faith efforts into a pretzel of poo.









Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Wuerl Wind



George Neumayr has joined the chorus of faithful Catholics who have had enough of the Pope Francis show.

And here is a video from the Remnant that highlights the hypocrisy of coming down with a ton of bricks against the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate while apostate orders whose corruption is undisciplined.

I concur.

But the video derails when it go on to say that the Pope's trajectory demonstrates how wise SSPX and LeFevrites are to reject the proposal to take an oath of fidelity and swallowing the authority to bind Church teaching relative to the changes of VII. etc., dadata da.

The criticism is valid, but the conclusions and cure...completely off of the reservation. Christ's Church is where the Chair of Peter binds Church teaching. That is where it has always been and always will be. Come what may.


In 1948, Bishop Sheen wrote about the spirit of he antichrist that would manifest itself in the culture and political and theological structures. It's a good read.

The counterfeit church - the ape of the Church has been operating in our parishes, schools, chanceries, seminaries and apostolates for a couple of decades. The antichrist is a great apostasy. Some people and things will have a bad case and others, minor.

Keep alert and awake, least you find yourself following the lost souls in SSPX and sedevacanists. They're heading for the cliff.

My advice is to stay away from them.

If you feel a pull, increase your reception of the Sacrament of Confession and Eucharist to tie yourself to Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. There madness is going be outside the Church and inside - all the way up to the Vatican and down into the pews.

Those of us who have been able to hang onto sanctifying grace are intimately familiar with the antichrist's game and the players.

Sadly, the stink of it is all over the Pope Francis show.

I continue to believe he is a faithful servant of Christ and I continue to pray for him. But the spirit of his show isn't new to us. The great humanitarian leading a church without the Cross.

From Bishop Sheen:


The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himsel as "I am Who am," and the Devil as "I am who am not."

Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first "red." Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as "the Prince of this world," whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge [hello mark shea], and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect--and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect. How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?

The pre-Communist Russian belief is that he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. . . .

. . . The third temptation in which Satan asked Christ to adore him and all the kingdoms of the world would be His, will become the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion--one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God's.

In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . .

. . . But the twentieth century will join the counterchurch because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra from Moscow on the subject of economics and politics, and as chief shepherd of world communism.




Monday, December 16, 2013

Sissies on the See



What do you make of this appointment today?

Another fox in the hen house.

Definitely getting weirder.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Every time I see headlines that Pope Francis gave an interview...


Before I read a word of it, I say out loud...Oh no..Here we go again!

He corrects the misunderstanding that he admires or promotes marxism and states women should be valued but not clericalized.

Looking forward to the cacophony..

By the way, not to be a stickler for details....but...

There were no doubt nazis who were good people. They got sucked into a vortex of the empirical tyranny of the government that gives out free stuff with one hand and murders with the other.

The fact that they were good people makes their complicit and explicit involvement in mass murder all the more difficult to stomach.

One cannot overlook the fact that the political philosophy of marxism involves imprisoning, persecuting and murdering the weak and oppressed.

Let us have the decency to speak the truth: Those same marxists who are good people trivialize violent oppression and murder.

Nuttin good 'bout dat.

Fr. Z's take HERE.



Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, credits the Second Vatican Council’s liturgy reform with stemming the tide of the de-Christianization of the West.



Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, credits the Second Vatican Council’s liturgy reform with stemming the tide of the de-Christianization of the West.

Anyone have a clue what this man is using to evidence the tide of de-Christianization was stemmed by the fruitful practices of Vatican II?

The pews were overflowing prior to Vatican II and they are empty now.
The culture of death was outlawed prior to Vatican II.
Tyrants who mass murder of hundreds of thousands of people were not heroes of the pagan culture.
Men and women were striving to be virtuous.
Christians were free.

I don't subscribe to theories that any change in the Sacred Rite of our Liturgy had anything to do with the rising power of the devil.

The vernacular of the Mass doesn't change the outcome: Christ's Holy Sacrifice happens before our eyes and we consume His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. I'll go so far as to say that the worst of the worst disrespectful antics in the Novus Ordo, and even themes ascribed to the Holy Sacrifice to Offer Christ for the purpose of communicants taking pride in their sins of adultery - do nothing to degrade the Properties in the Eucharist that have the power to triumph over every personal temptation and sin and cultural evil.

But the tide of de-Christianization is directly related to changes brought to the West by the hijacking of Vatican II to introduce disobedience to Church teaching as virtue. The lack of courage and discipline by the Holy See to stem that tide is directly related to the outcome of millions of souls who lost their salvation.

In light of this outcome, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller's statement is beyond ludicrous.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Franciscans of the Immaculate - Update


Seems there is a lot of commotion about the Vatican's coup of Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Admittedly, I have not intimately followed recent events on this story.

I did in the beginning. In light of the Pope's statements about practicing and faithful Catholics in love with the doctrines and Sacred Liturgy that are weird, I dug into the substance to see if I could find sedevacanists.

When it became clear to me the order indeed had an infestation of sedevacanists, I checked out.

The story has grown legs (again) over the last week, so I checked back in.

Wading through the emotional stuff to look for substance, I found the source of concern: The Franciscans of the Immaculate have been asked to take an oath the Sacramental validity of the Novus Ordo.

And the burden of that would be what?

It is valid.

There are a few places and times when it is not - Paulist Center and other places that are using invalid matter, not saying the Canon - but Pope Paul VI had the power to bind the Novus Ordo Missae as valid and so valid it is.


The heresy of saying it isn't valid is about the power to bind.

If you reject the pontifical power to bind you're as guilty of heresy as "women's ordination" groups.

It's the same doctrinal flaw.

It's valid. Say it and move on.

The Novus Ordo is valid. The teaching of heresies, demoralization and amoralization, sophomoric, lame and clown antics distract those who see and pray the mystical journey from the Praetorium through His Execution and Resurrection and a Canonical right to refuge exists. Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The Novus Ordo is valid. Here's a copy of bulletins announcing liturgies themed for clapping fornication, priests bringing sorcerers so you can talk to your dead relatives, homilies, pamphlets, programs and catechetical resources filled with apostacy, archdiocescan contracts outsourcing abortion for profit. Here's a copy of America Magazine.

You know what Pope Francis has done and said about the operating schism within?

Nothing.

You know what oaths he's asked the operating schismatics to take about the Sacred Doctrines of Our Church?

Bupkis.

Rather, Pope Francis has conveyed that he can't make judgments about these theologically disordered individuals. When one refuses to make judgments, one is not accountable to take actions to discipline them or ask them to take oaths.

But Pope Francis has made judgments about Catholics practicing and evangelizing doctrines that guide prohibitions against immorality and killing people. He's caricatured them as sourpusses who are obsessed with small-minded rules.

See where faithful Catholics are going with this?

The fact that you are standing here on behalf of the Pope asking faithful Catholics who have fled the undisciplined and operating internal schism for the refuge on Motu Proprio Sommorum Pontificum to take an oath of fidelity - rather than asking those operating the internal schism - adds to the fuel to the speculation that Pope Francis is about to dismantle the structure and power of the Roman Catholic Church, formalize and memorialize the counterfeit church and schism that has passive-aggressively been empowered through their lack of discipline and action and hand it over to the dogs.

The Novus Ordo is valid. Here's another copy Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum for His Holiness. Please inform him that the days when we sit in the pews of the operating schism and counterfeit church under his or any other Pope's watch are over. Gonzo.

This is a case wherein His Holiness is all mixed up about that judgmental policy he has going on. He has our support and prayers but we are not as stupid as we look.

The Novus Ordo is valid.

Any more questions?

If that is all I shall wish you adieu.

Good day to you sir.



Check mate.

I don't mean to suggest that the active oppression of those in the Chanceries or at the Vatican doesn't exist. We know that it does and it is a real threat.

Motu Proprio in this diocese (and perhaps most) is indeed obfuscated and obstructed by the underhanded apostates in power at the Chancery.

But hitching the wagons to sedevacanists does serious harm to the cause of freedom from the reprobates operating the schismatic counterfeit within.

Moreover, the situation in this diocese has them over the barrel. Too many parishes, not enough priests. Operation Egg on Face is in full swing. We have snitches planted everywhere. They can do nothing in the darkness. Every attempt at persecution of faithful Catholics is disclosed in the public square. The corrupt have limited efficacy to retaliate.

The Franciscans of the Immaculate don't want to say the Novus Ordo is valid?

There's something else going down. IMHO.



Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Evil never has the last word.



Jesus, we trust in You.

Every so often, especially during these past few years, a situation arises that puts me to the test of between getting sucked into a vortex or disciplining myself to always choose the good - no matter what the circumstances.

Mindless and undisciplined reactions to painful events pulls us towards the evil.

If I didn't know intimacy with the Eucharist, I'd be a goner.

Pastoral Planning Notes: "It's Not Rocket Science" said Fr. Paul Soper


Fr. Paul Soper, Director of Pastoral Planning has an article in this week's Pilot unveiling the new evangelization plan for the Archdiocese of Boston.

It isn't rocket science, says he.

They have it all figured out.

"The change in velocity of a rocket is equal to the exhaust velocity of the propellant times the natural logarithm of the total initial mass of the rocket divided by its final mass after the propellant has been expelled...

In the Archdiocese of Boston on any given weekend, about 250,00 people attend Mass. Let's assume 80 percent of them carry cell phones - that's 20,000...40% of cell phone users use those phones to access social media sites like facebook. So, each weekend, some 80,000 people attending Mass are able to post on facebook."

If I understand this correctly, the space cadets want us to pull out our phones during our Sacred Sacraments and post about it on facebook.

"...what would happen? Sixteen million times, people would see *I* am at Mass at..." Our Lady of the Tweeters. Then, he says, "the person who has made the post now beings to adopt the identity of an evangelizer".

"The New Evangelization is not a parlor trick, or some clever strategy that keeps us from needing to really witness face to face...we have tools that are becoming broadly available the very moment we are being broadly called to engage in evangelization. I do not think we should ignore the significance of this."

Heavens no. We should not ignore the significance of the very moment our souls are unifying with the Divinity of Christ.

Now that phones have been invented - these are marketing moment.

Get it?

When you're in the Confessional, fuggetabout focusing on the Sacrament, the Act of Contrition and absolution. Get out your phone, take a selfie and post it to facebook.

When you're loved one is receiving the Sacrament of Viaticum (Last Rites of the Church)-take out your cell phone, "check in" on facebook and tweet about it.

This isn't rocket science, says Fr. Soper. Pull out your smart phone.

Is this guy serious?

Does he know the 200,000 of us left going to Mass are going there for an intimate physical union with our Beloved?

Does he know what we are doing there with the stolen moments of time from the slavery of keeping a roof over our heads and our families fed?

Is he even remotely aware of the magnitude of these sacred moments?

The entering of contemplative prayer with the angels and saints present and adoring Christ?

He wants us to cease and desist, pull out our phones and run a three ring circus?

In case it isn't obvious, I am beside myself.


The idiocy of this plan doesn't bother me.

It is the exploitation of Divinity of Christ that is beneath contempt.

It is duly noted that they don't suggest that the Cardinals, bishops and priests should or will pull out their cell phones when they get into the Sanctuary.

The lunacy of such a suggestion has to be crystal clear to them.


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The 'far right' "war" on Pope Francis. ( a.k.a. The histrionics of political bigots)


This story from the Washington Post is like something you'd read in tabloid trash magazines in the supermarket whose front page story features Steve Tyler's breast size.

Let's take a walk through what Jonathan Capehart caricatures as 'stunning leaps of logic and rhetoric', shall we?

Like Obama, Francis is unable to see the problems that are really endangering his people. Like Obama he mistakes the faithful for the enemy, the enemy for his friend, condescension for respect, socialism for justice and capitalism for tyranny.

Seems like a pretty accurate summary to me.

It's a little exaggerated but generally speaking, he's out of touch with the reign of terror and consequences of the unfettered tyranny of unfaithful priests and bishops.

The money is the last thing on our minds. We're concerned about the obstacles unfaithful tyrants are creating to salvation.

Shaw’s astonishing post shows that not even the pope is off limits to the fury of the far right.

The far right. There isn't any such thing.

In religion, there are people who align themselves with the Catechism and the people who reject it. They think the Pope's alliance is with the latter.

Give me a break.

I often wonder how these people conduct themselves in their relationships with people they love and care about. When their loved ones express a need or explain a mistake, it's a declaration of war to them?

God knows we've all had people like that in our lives.

They're such a drag.



Sunday, December 8, 2013

Sources say Pope Francis to issue clarification to distance himself from Liberation Theology



Story here.


It does not go unnoticed that when the Holy Father hears feedback and realizes his words contributed towards the trajectory of the slavery of communism or sin, he issues a clarification.

A humble shepherd witnessing to what a bishop does when he's made a mistake.

Perhaps he should open up a new Dicastry commissioned for the clarification of his booboos.

I'm thinking they could start with clarifying Pope Francis Book of Insults!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A few more excellent articles on Popepallooza.



The poor misunderstood Pope.

But most of the e-mails the archbishop received were from catechists, priests, and laymen who felt confused or disillusioned by the interview: “A priest said the Pope ‘has implicitly accused brother priests who are serious about moral issues of being small minded,’ and that ‘[if you’re a priest,] being morally serious is now likely to get you publicly cast as a problem.’

They're not going to treat the slave better than they treated the Master.

The good news is, I don't think the bureaucrats in the Chancery could possibly get any more corrupt.

This is an eloquent synopsis:

Let’s be honest: Francis is no poet. His ambiguity lends no richness. It creates confusion, especially when he follows this up by saying, “The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules.” This line about “small-minded rules” opens up treacherous territory: He doesn’t define which rules are small-minded. Perhaps he means the Church’s teachings on sexual morality. Who knows?

Here's another worthy read:

Pope Francis, the Catholic Obama.

This is a loving, affectionate and faithful Pope but I firmly believe we have to have an open dialogue in the public square about the Tom Foolery.




Sourpusses



I enjoyed this straight-forward story from John Henry on Evangelii Gaudium..

“If anyone feels offended by my words, I would respond that I speak them with affection and with the best of intentions, quite apart from any personal interest or political ideology.”

I can live with this.

It sure beats Terry Donilon's strategic communications plan for criticism. By a long shot.

If circumstances of an episcopal administration forces faithful Catholics to step forward and say the Cardinal Archbishop can't outsource abortions - a no-brainer - slandering them in the public square is replete with personal interest and political ideology.

And this...is right up my alley:

But Pope Francis instead emphasizes the spiritual needs of the poor. “I want to say, with regret, that the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care,” he writes. “The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith.”

“Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care....own notions against them when it comes to abortion. Speaking of “unborn children,” he says, “Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative.” He adds: “It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.”


If he had ended the exhortation here, we'd all give a full salute.

A word to the wise: When you runs out of mojo...put the pen down.


A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.”

Right back atcha.

If you're inspecting, analyzing and classifying Catholics who say no to heresy, count the prayers of a Rosary to notify you of a spiritual bouquet, are offended by the observation that you genuflect and kneel at the feet of a pagan woman but will not do so at Transubstantiation - that would be you, sir.

And...this is hilarious:

One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, ‘sourpusses’,” he writes



I like that he talks like a normal person.

But, as JHW points out, what ever happened to "who am I to judge?"

The Pope is starting to reveal the judgments of his heart.

What is troubling about this tapestry is, it is giving the impression he is clueless about the identity of the sourpusses.

You want to see a querulous and disillusioned sourpusses?

Check out the pessimism of priests and lay people teaching heresy to children when parents circle back and ask them to correct their errors and undo the damage they have done to their moral compass.

If it's defeatism you're looking for, when those lay people and priests tell the parents to go scratch their backsides with a broken bottle, follow those same parents on the journey to the local Chancery to ask the Bishop's henchmen unravel the damage done to their children's moral compass.


In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the concrete needs of the present time.

If I didn't know any better, I'd wonder if he was implying we should fuggetabout the Church's mission of teaching our children the distinction between what pleases and offends God, sin and sanctifying grace.

Is he suggesting unfaithful priests and friends with benefits liturgies are what has a real impact on the concrete needs of the present time?

I think not, but something's cooking.

JHW suggests the possibility it's the sedevacanists.

I'm totally with him on that one. But the thing is, sedevacanists are the fruit of the very same priests the Pope claims he doesn't want to make judgments about.

It's fair to say that faithful Catholics are not returning to sodom and gommorah catechetical programs and liturgies at our lady of the matress.

Some of the victims sadly jumped off the cliff to sedevacanism.

The rest of us drive past our local parish and have settled into the pews of a faithful priest - who by the by - are being persecuted by the sourpusses in the local Chancery.

It is probably a good idea to get a handle on what's gone down because we are expecting you to make judgments about these sourpusses, set up a system that can take the appropriate disciplinary actions and execute a pastoral plan to spiritually care for the wayward priests.

Discrediting Catholics who are in love with our doctrines and our Sacred Liturgy is regrettable.




Wednesday, December 4, 2013

When you give alms, notify the press.



Oh wait!

:)

Truth be told, it was a little tough to swallow. After a few days of holding my nose, I actually think I'm liking it!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Blessed Advent

To you and yours. You will be in my prayers during Advent.

A brave warrior is very ill. He has given up hope, feels he will return to Our Lord before Christmas. His family is still praying for a miracle. His daughter is pregnant and will be delivering mid-December. She very much wants her father to see the face of his grandchild and be present for the Baptism which they are doing privately at his home.

If you would be so kind as to keep their petitions on your prayers and seek Christ's patience in calling our brother's return, I would be most grateful.

I wanted to link to the Pope's homily on Thursday on Christian persecution and the end times. He certainly seems to be indicating these times are upon us and though the reign of the pagans is not yet in full bloom, what's happening in the Middle East will come upon our doorstep.

I would urge you to read the entire article, but I'll cut to the chase:

Pope Francis called the persecution of Christians – with great violence in places like Egypt, Syria, and Pakistan – a forecast for the whole world. "Christians who suffer times of persecution, times forbidding worship," form a prophetic sign for "what will happen to everyone.

Frankly, I the Blessed Mother's warning at Fatima where the Pope is executed and we all follow him up that mountain has yet to play out. I think an attempt was made by the devil with Pope John Paul II, but Our Lady interceded. In mercy, we were granted more time to gather souls.

When the election of our Pope took place in March, and the doors swung open, I felt something in my gut. My soul. We all did.

It was so profound, I couldn't put my finger on the pulse of it, and I still can't.

One thing did immediately strike me. As I was trying to figure out who he was, trying to get a read on his shtick from his face, I said to myself "What kind of a rig does he have on? He is all in white. What is going on here? Wait...Oh[bleep],it's a Pope all in white".

The more I watch and listen, the more of a sinking feeling I get in my soul that we are all going down baby.

I got the similar feeling in my gut when I saw him holding onto the St. Peter's relics. Here we go. It's all going down.

What is striking to me, as no doubt it is to you too, is the madness. The antics arising from the diabolical disorientation. Sometimes from people whom I have observed or known to be immersing themselves in Sanctifying Grace and have always been sound.

I always thought myself to be on guard, watching, so that I make sure I recognize temptation and get myself out of my way, call upon the Grace of God in response to it.

As the devil is unchained and the effects of sin are manifesting, I suddenly realize how undisciplined I am.

Perhaps the devil is getting more clever or as I master one situation he is starting another fire simultaneously, but I am surprised by the rising number of situations wherein I find numerous people (including myself!) have already been dragged into a vortex of temptation and sin.

It is ever so subtle and then it hits me right between the eyes. It's all I can do to constantly petition Christ to get me out of the pickle without sinning myself and if possible, to obstruct others from being sucked into the vortex.

No doubt you are experiencing the same.

In many places, Christ's Body has left Gethsemene and has been seized. In some places already Crucified.

America has elected the architect and financier as its president. I don't have a lot of optimism that the reign will end. Perhaps he will seize the country by ending term limits. Maybe another tool will take his place to carry out the rest of the plan. Whatever happens, it's going to get ugly.

Before Jesus comes, the pope explained, "it will be an abomination, it will be desolation and abomination" in the temple. "It will be like the triumph of the prince of this world: the defeat of God.

Worship until the end,” the Pope concluded, “with confidence and fidelity: this is the grace we must ask for this week.

We'll need the grace all right. We'll be needing a good dose of courage too.