Boston Globe Coverage of Cardinal O'Malley's Circus in Ireland

The Boston Globe has a few articles today on the Catholic Church in Ireland and the fix-it circus Cardinal O'Malley has brought into town.

The first article is coverage of people who have wandered from the Divinity of Christ to trump 2000 years worth of the intellect of the Holy Spirit with their own so they can pursue their own agendas.

Here's how one woman, who calls herself a 'liturgist' (what the heck is that??)describes it:

“The sexual abuse crisis has been the catalyst for a much deeper question that was emerging anyway — it’s the whole question of faith, of what it means to be a Christian. Do we believe all of what we profess?’’ said Mary Connolly, a liturgist for the Archdiocese of Tuam, which includes Westport, and a parishioner at St. Mary’s Church. “It’s kind of an awakening of a post-modern society. . . . We all have a choice now.’’

There sure is a sucker born every minute, isn't there.

The story also features a gentleman who was living with his girlfriend and left the Church when the conditions to enter the Sacrament of Marriage were explained to him.

What makes people so obstinate about the rules about Sacraments?

People flock to information about how to keep their body healthy with exercise. They can't get enough on the topic of eating healthy. Some people even approach a conversation about the (pagan) power of a crystal or magnetic bracelet with an open mind.

I'm all for stretching the muscles of your body and doing things to feel fit. But did you ever notice that studios who sell 'yoga' offer it as more than a muscular tune up? When you talk to people who swear by it, the'll tell you that it's a journey to the center of yourself as a fix for your turbulent animus.

This one is a no brainer for me. If my animus is turbulent, I'm usually the person I'm trying to get away from so the last place I want to go is a journey to the center of me. :)

You can go to an exercise class as a skeptic and participate in what the class is doing without listening to the directions or putting any effort it. You can even show up at class and reject the instructions, do it your own way and hurt yourself.

I once met a woman who came to weight watcher meetings each week who would sit down and tell anyone nearby who would listen that it was balderdash. She said she had found the key to successful weight loss - eating anything you wanted whenever you wanted it.

Thanks for the tip lady, but anytime I march my fanny to Weight Watchers, eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, it is how the weight went on, not off.

Seriously, I'm not making this up. The woman said when your mentality is depriving yourself of french fries and chocolate, you'll wind up feeling deprived and then overeating.

Sadly, the scale went up every week for her and she eventually stopped coming. I don't think it panned out because I saw her six months later and she looked like she gained 50 pounds.

My point is, people know that their animus is fed by a combination of of body, intellect/mind and spirit and all of these things hunger to be fed. A general rule of thumb to keep in mind - if you want something, you better have the tools for a discernment process in place before you go ahead and take it.

When you enter into a battle with your body, mind or spirit, it all depends on your objectives.

Are you there to learn how to recognize your impulsive unhealthy desires, how to not give in to them and learn new healthy habits?

If you're not going to resist sloth, avarice and gluttony, why bother putting any energy into signing up for a gym and going to weight watchers, right? Save your money for when you have conviction of the heart.

The Catholic Church is the institution Christ left us to provide the tools to keep our animus in tip top shape. The Sacraments draw upon the power of Sacramental Grace contained in Them. We enter those Sacraments with the intention to draw upon the power. It's food for our mind and spirit.

There's a moment in Christ's ministry that teaches about the power of Sacramental Grace in the Sacraments. Walking in a crowd, He suddenly asked 'who' was touching Him. The Apostles, astounded, asked what He was talking about because He had been surrounded by people who were touching Him all day. Christ explained that He felt the power drain from Him, knew that somebody believed, approached with that belief and the purpose of her reaching out and touching Him was to draw the power to heal. In fact, she hadn't even touched Him, she touched the fringe on His cloak. By her faith, she was healed but many who touched Him in that day drew no such benefit.


Approaching the Catholic Church and asking for the Sacrament of Marriage while making clear you intend to exclude Sacramental Grace, the Church can not go along with it. You are entering the Sacrament without understanding what it is, building the foundation of your marriage upon sand. No sound (or sane) priest would go along with it.

Sure, every diocese is filled to the rafters with priests who will do it. But those who do are in the priesthood for something other than the salvation of the souls. Going in and out of their parishes will poison your intellect and spirit and you - or the children you subject them to - will at some point wind up on the highway to hell. For some of us, thankfully, the parishes gone to the dogs just got too screwy to be a by-product of God's.

There was a time to stay in a parish like that to be a witness for the authentic Church but the internal schism has far too much momentum now. The time for that has passed.

"We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the antichurch, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God's Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously." - Venerable Pope John Paul II

The second article focuses on Cardinal O'Malley's mission to retrieve the estranged.

Ironically, Cardinal O'Malley believes the way to retrieve the estranged is to build the foundation with people who reject the teachings of the Church. He has never hired nor appointed anyone whose credentials were faithful to the teachings of the Church. All of his hires and appointees either overtly rejected Church teaching in the public square, have spent decades in a role that opposes Church teaching or have spent their careers silent on the teachings of the Church. (There are employees whom he inherited that are faithful, but I'm speaking about Cardinal O'Malley's appointees).


The results of this model Cardinal O'Malley selected to guide his flock in Boston has Mass attendance under his regime plummeting from 376,383 in 2000 to 286,951, according to last year's count.

This model of church bars the attendees from Sacramental Grace. Non believers do not impart knowledge about the fringe of Christ's cloak because they are not in possession of the faith. They do not have, and therefore do not teach, the tools that lead the faithful to approach the Sacraments with belief to draw upon the power of Sacramental Grace and the Divinity of the Body and Blood of Christ. The deprivation of Grace ultimately leaves the flock open to being lured into some hell hole. The pews thin out accordingly.

I am moved to tears that my Ireland has this circus to look forward to as their future. I'm none too happy we'll be treated to puff pieces from the Boston Globe about it. I guess all we can do is make sure the truth is available and public and pray that people will find their way to it, as we did.

This week, Fr. Rutler's homily is the light in the darkness. God Bless Fr. Rutler and those like him who are serving Christ's Church faithfully and courageously.

FROM THE PASTOR

April 10, 2011

by Fr. George W. Rutler

The raising of Lazarus was the last straw for those who refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. When Christ healed the man born blind, attempts to pretend it had not happened failed, and the last recourse was to claim it was a sinful act, violating the Sabbath laws. At first, the refusal to rejoice in these great signs seems as remarkable as the signs themselves, but it is typical of a cramped view of the world, by which close-minded people deny reality. When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, “many believed in Him,” but others rushed to the Pharisees, who feared that the Romans would react violently. The miracle was evident, but the desire for social and political control took precedence. This miracle was the efficient cause for the start of the Passion.

Thus, we see the flaw in the adage that “seeing is believing.” It is possible for human pride to refuse to believe what it sees. Of course, one must guard against illusions that trick human vision, but there is a willfulness in obtuse people that rejects palpable evidence. Having received the report about Lazarus, the Pharisees reacted like Sergeant Frank Drebin, the character in the “Naked Gun” film series: “Nothing to see here! Please disperse.”

That kind of vaunting of ideology over truth would focus on the sins and failings of Christians to be Christians, rather than acknowledge the saints and miracles of Christ in history. Recently, after much investigation by medical experts, Bishop Emmanuel Delmas of Angers, France confirmed the extraordinary healing of Serge François in 2002. This 56-year-old man with a paralyzed leg was instantly cured at Lourdes and walked 975 miles to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in thanksgiving. This received little publicity because it was outside the secular media’s ability to account for such a sign.

It is easier to distract people by calling attention to ecclesiastical gossip and controversies than to admit the spiritual combat that engages the world. Consider the recent massacre of 1,000 people by Muslims in the Ivory Coast town of Duékoué. Few press agencies mentioned that the victims were Catholics seeking sanctuary in the Salesian mission of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus. William Blake wrote: “This life’s dim windows of the soul / Distorts the heavens from pole to pole / And leads you to believe a lie / When you see with, not through, the eye.”

Humility is truth, and opens the eyes to what human pride would keep in darkness. Moral vision interprets the signs of the times, and man is accountable for how he understands. As He headed for the cross, Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (John 9:41).

Cloud of Witnesses by Fr. George Rutler

A few weeks back, I finished reading Fr. Rutler's Cloud of Witnesses, Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive. An extraordinary witness of our Faith himself, Fr. Rutler has had the opportunity to know, work with and love many powerful warriors in Christendom. The book is a collection of brief testimonies of people who left precious gifts as they touched his life - from housekeepers and groundskeepers to some of the most efficacious witnesses we have all known in our lifetime (John Paul II, Cardinal Cooke, Mother Teresa, Fr. Walter Ciszek, Cardinal Dulles, etc.)

We've all come to know (and love) Fr. Rutler for the masterful way he can deliver a homily that equips us with righteousness or make us say "ouch" (this week's below). The book gives us a tiny glimpse of this bright, articulate convert in a more personal way, where he observes the peccadilloes of our human nature with humor and wisdom that somehow never distracts from the bounty and talents of the people he comes across.

Here's a little from the description of Fr. Stanley Jaki, whom my readers and friends may enjoy..

More than ruffling feathers, he plucked them and he could turn callow undergraduates to melted butter when they used non sequiturs.

Fr. Jaki was the bane of editors, writing brilliantly in English but with thoughts within thoughts and ramblings asides that he refused, with the ferocity of a Hungarian hussar to have retooled.

Moving right along...

Fr. Jaki and Fr. Rutler collaborated on a book together.  On the final edit, Fr. Jaki asked permission to add a "small footnote" to one of Fr. Rutler's paragraphs:

Upon publication, I found myself calling Kant a rank amateur in science and recommending Fr. Jaki's translation of Kant's "shockingly incompetent" cosmogony.  It was by far my most erudite footnote, though I had not written it.  

In another story, he refers to another person as an "enemy of cigarettes" and tells of a story where somebody pulled out a cigarette in the presence of this individual and was promptly treated to having it torn up and snuffed into his hand.   How Fr. Rutler handled the incident is not revealed but the grace (and humor) in which he spiritually governs the complexities of human nature is perfectly clear.

The collection of brief stories is great book for the beach or commuter rail.   At the price of ten dollars, the valuable lessons learned about the missionaries of Christendom, the faith and ourselves, it is one heck of a bargain.

You can pick it up at Scepter Publishers here. 


Here's this week's message from Fr. Rutler:

FROM THE PASTOR

July 4, 2010

by Fr. George W. Rutler

Jesus did not appoint the brothers James and John apostles in spite of their temper but because of it. These "Bonaerges" (Sons of Thunder) had wanted to bring fire down on the rude Samaritans. Jesus knew that such anger, if harnessed, could become "righteous." There is a difference between using temper and losing temper, as there is between oil for energy and the Gulf oil spill. Anger rightly used and not lost becomes strength. James became the first apostle to offer his life serenely for the Lord, and John in his maturity wrote, "Little children love one another.”

The risen Christ converted St. Paul’s destructive wrath on the Damascus road. Later, the Apostle would warn the Galatians that their uncontrolled temper is a “work of the flesh.” St. Jerome’s letters to St. Augustine show how hard it was for him to control his tongue and pen, and the sun often went down upon the wrath of the Irish missionary Columba. No saint, naturally placid or aggressive, replaced anger with the opposite extreme of timidity. “God has not given us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).

The cure for both sinful anger and sinful timidity is the virtue of courage. St. John Chrysostom wrote to Timotheus: "For if the wrath of God were a passion, one might well despair of being unable to quench the flame which he had kindled by so many evil doings; but since the Divine nature is passionless, even if He punishes, even if He takes vengeance, He does this not with wrath, but with tender care, and much loving-kindness; wherefore it behooves us to be of much good courage, and to trust in the power of repentance.”

Timidity disguised as charity can do more harm than anger, and the conceit that evil will melt away by ignoring it would be like Captain Smith on the Titanic saying, "Iceberg? What iceberg?" St. Augustine said, "God does not need my lie." St. John Fisher, speaking as the only one of his country's bishops who was a true shepherd, lamented: "The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it." Exactly four hundred years later, Churchill would say, "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

St. Alphonsus Liguori was not timid when he counseled: "Even when correcting faults, superiors should be kind." But his kindness was in fact the engine of his zeal to "admonish sinners," which is the first of the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy. Conversely, St. Leo confronting Attila the Hun, St. Joan of Arc trying to make a man of her pathetic king, and Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko staring down the Communists, were not foolhardy in their assertiveness. Their strength came not from Anger Management Therapy but from Christ whose very wrath is merciful.

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Allelluia, Allelluia

FROM THE PASTOR
April 11, 2010
by Fr. George W. Rutler

The joy of Easter is more than happiness, since happiness is a feeling while joy is a fact. Happiness comes from impressions, while joy comes from comprehension. Happiness with what is bad quickly turns to sadness.  Joy is being happy with what is good.  As only God is good (Luke 18:19), endless joy comes from encounter with Him who is eternal:  "So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you” (John 16:22).

     The nineteenth-century Oxford philosopher, Richard Whately, said, "Happiness in no laughing matter."  We might laugh at that, until we realize that he spoke of that blessed happiness toward which all human activity tends, but which needs knowledge of truth to become the "fullness of joy" that Jesus promised (John 15:11).  When the Risen Christ appeared, no one laughed. The witnesses were "afraid yet filled with joy” (Matt. 28:8). It was too joyful to be a laughing matter. This is why the Church's most joyful liturgies are "solemn" and to reduce worship of the Risen Christ to a merely human party would be like turning the Heavenly City into a suburb.

     Because Easter is direct contact with things eternal, we have to work at understanding its joy, and at first it may not seem "joyful" at all. It is easier to relate to the happiness of Christmas and the sorrow of Good Friday, since all of us were born and will die. But only when they are perceived as marking the birth and death of the Son of God, do these occasions become joyful.  The Resurrection permits no sentimentalizing, unless it is turned into a festival of spring and vague immortality, but that evaporates quickly, and even the flowers and birds do not pay tribute south of the equator.

     Jesus told Peter: “What I am doing you do not understand now; but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7). Just before his own crucifixion, around the year 64 when Rome was in flames, Peter described the Risen Christ “in whom also now, though you see Him not, you believe; and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified” (1 Peter 1:8).

     This Holy Week our parish attracted the largest throngs I can remember, people often standing outside on Park Avenue unable to get in.  In part, I think it was a response to the unprofessional and even hysterical calumnies of some journalists against St. Peter's successor, Benedict XVI. Mostly it was a response to Christ among us. The Pope said on Easter: "Joy cannot be commanded. It can only be given. The risen Lord gives us joy: true life. We are already held forever in the love of the One to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given.”

Fr. Rutler: He is Not Here

The Homily at Fr. Neuhaus' First Year Anniversary Mass

He could speak heart to heart, and we are here a year later in consequence of that. Becoming a Catholic was for him not a matter of burning the bridge behind him, Rather, it was a walk across the bridge on which he was first set in baptism. This is not to say that such a walk is without cost, for the bridge that any man of conviction crosses is a toll bridge. Grace is free but not cheap, and we know what it cost our Lord to give it to us. The Eucharist as the “source and summit” of true devotion became the font and height of each day Father Neuhaus lived. This priestly vision only sharpened his prophetic voice. Among his benefactions to Catholic life in a troubled time was the way he lived a maxim of Thomas a Kempis in The Imitation of Christ: “For the word of God is the light of the soul, and the sacrament the bread of life. These also may be called the two tables set on one side and on the other, in the storehouse of the holy Church.”

There is a story which has the attribute of being true, of two colleges in a university of Father Neuhaus’s native Canada. They were of opposite theological opinion , built facing each other. In the chapel of one was inscribed words of the Resurrection angel at the empty tomb, “He is not here.” One day some seminarians, from the more Sacramentally ordered school, placed next to the inscription a sign reading: “He is across the street.”

Father Neuhaus was more aware of the full demands of charity, and did nothing like that, but he said in persuasive syntax tactful enough to win friends as deftly as he won debates, that Christ really is there. We must always remember the unfathomable patience and handsome pathos with which our Risen Lord spoke to those men on the Emmaus Road: “Oh how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!” There it was: correction without condescension, an appeal to the mind in the light of glory passing all understanding, and a zeal for souls that could beguile pedestrians to paradise. The one we last saw a year ago was yoked to that enchantment and daily he stood in the public square asking on behalf of his Lord who in a marvelous agony of grace had asked Philip, “Have I been so long with you and do you still not know me?” Father Neuhaus has bequeathed that public square to all of you who now can do in your own ways what he did in his singular way.

Ein feste burg ist unser Gott. Richard John Neuhaus sang those words before he learned Tantum Ergo. The author was a redactor of King David with his harp (Psalm 18:2): “The Lord is my rock and fortress and my deliverer.” The verses go on: “The body they may kill. God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever.” The words are far more ancient than the hymn. St. John had seen it all with his own eyes in his Revelation (11: 7,11): for he says: “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the Beast that ascendeth out of the Bottomless Pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. . . . And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.”

Bishop Tobin Excommunicates Patrick Kennedy

Kennedy reveals he's been excommunicated

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.

"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion.

Let us pray others follow Bishop Tobin's courageous leadership.

This has been a long period where the teachings of the Catholic Church have been he-said-she-said in the public square. Various people who hold the tenets of the Church in contempt, yet claim authority to teach It, have erected a golden calf and named it "Catholicism". Far too many souls are being seduced.

Being complacent (or craven) is not an option.

We have a small window of opportunity to enlighten the intellect of Catholics in Congress and the House about the gravity of imposing immoral and inept medical care and how it will affect salvation. Losing the ability to tell right from wrong is caused by being emboldened in our sins and gives the devil the opportunity to use us as tools.

This is the subterfuge of the spiritual world we cannot see, the Holy Spirit uses people as tools and the devil uses people as tools:

The world is filled with information. Education brings us to a fork in the road where we act upon free will. One road is living a life of surrender to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, fed by God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Catholic Church. The other road is the chaos of following our own desires.

In subterfuge of this spiritual world people rise to call others to migration.

Anytime Christ's Church holds the Light up for all to see and follow, the spiritual battle for souls will provoke the spiritual force opposing the Light to use their tools call souls back to the darkness.

The culture is entrenched and the message of the Prodigal Son will be twisted. To be effective, the message from Apostolic successors has got to be swift, powerful and unified.

Kennedy could appeal the decision to officials in the Vatican, but the hierarchy of the Catholic church is unlikely to overturn a bishop, said Michael Sean Winters, a church observer and author of "Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats."

"It's really bad theology," said Winters, who opposes abortion. "You're turning the altar rail into a battle field, a political battlefield no less, and it does a disservice to the Eucharist."

How is throwing the Eucharist into a cesspool a disservice?

Unworthy reception of the Eucharist not only does a disservice to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord - it does a disservice to the soul who receives unworthily because it entrenches them in their sins. Further, it does a disservice to all those watching the circus of a public servant who dissents from the Church because they believe the actions of receiving is the equivalent of Communion with the Catholic Church.

As Fr. Convertino of St. Anthony's Shrine has memorialized, priests living a life of misleading their flocks have no problem with scuffles at the Altar. They do it all the time when people want to receive by mouth without touching the Blessed Sacrament or on their knees.

At the end of the day, those putting on the circus in the public square for the last 40 years have not plowed out and migrated the people towards the path of salvation. The world has descended. It's time for new leadership. The leadership of the last forty years is inching us towards the destruction of the empires this culture has built.

The Mercy of God will not permit a culture where so many of His souls are led to trudging the road to hell. The Old Testament is filled with empires that were wiped out by the Hand of God. God loved us so much that He sent His Only Son. The New Testament is filled with Christ's teachings, explanations and the sacrifice it cost Him to leave us a Church with Apostles designed to form our consciences and set us on the right road.

If you find yourself on the road with Patrick Kennedy and a culture that opposes the teachings of the Church, some soul searching on the identity of the spiritual subterfuge beckoning you is definitely order.

He declined to say when or how Tobin told him not to take the sacrament. And he declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop's injunction.

God help him. Like it or lump it, Patrick Kennedy is experiencing the prodigal son, the father who would not let the son on the wrong path destroy the consciences in the rest of his household. Tough love to oust your flesh and blood but the reality is, there comes a point in time when somebody can undermine and poison the Truth in a household and the head of that household must take action to protect others.

The duty of a Shepherd of the Catholic Church to protect their children physically is minutia in the grand scheme of things. If they remove those who harm a body and leave those who harm the souls, their own salvation is at risk. The path to hell is paved with the skulls of shepherds who permitted a counterfeit church in the name of Catholicism to be erected and mislead.

I'm edified and hopeful at the new signs that the USCCB is going to guard and protect the Name Catholic from being hijacked. The excommunication of Patrick Kennedy is the first step on our road to recovering our heritage for our children.

Fr. Rutler's magnificent column this week hits this right between the eyes:

FROM THE PASTOR
November 22, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

Our Lord predicted that “… the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” (Mark 13:24) In every generation, there will be efforts to block Christ (the sun) and muffle the voice of his Church (the moon).

Cardinal Consalvi reminded Napoleon that even weak bishops for nineteen centuries had not been able to block the voice of Christ. A century and a half later, when the Vichy government claimed Catholic credentials but promoted genocide, Pierre Laval blustered: “Nobody and nothing can sway me from my determination to rid France of foreign Jews. Cardinals and bishops have intervened, but everyone is a master of his own trade. They handle religion. I handle government.” Three years later, Laval was executed, and in 1981 a chief object of Laval’s threats, Cardinal Gerlier, was posthumously declared “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.

In 1980, Cardinal Madieros of Boston wrote: “Those who make abortion possible by law cannot separate themselves from the guilt which accompanies this horrendous crime and deadly sin.” Shortly afterward, the Cardinal visited my college in Rome. He recounted how Senator Edward Kennedy told him: “You do your business, and I’ll do mine.” The next year, Cardinal Madieros died unexpectedly in heart surgery at the age of 67.

On November 12, the Bishop of Providence, Thomas J. Tobin, responded to a public comment of Congress-man Patrick Kennedy who had said: “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” The bishop asked, “What does it mean to be a Catholic?” He quoted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “It would be a mistake to confuse the proper autonomy exercised by Catholics in political life with the claim of a principle that prescinds from the moral and social teaching of the Church.” The bishop gave a checklist for being a Catholic that applies to each of us: “Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?”

In 1947 Cardinal Ritter of St. Louis threatened to excommunicate any of his flock who tried to stop the racial integration of Catholic schools, and in 1962 Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans did in fact excommunicate a judge and two other Catholics for opposing desegregation. The media hailed them as prophets. But when newer bishops in the mold of Benedict XVI refuse to play courtier to decadent dynasties, voices older than Laval, and as old as Pilate, whine with a tone of lèse majesté: “Mind your own business.”

Father, no doubt, is rejoicing today.

Come on shepherds, stand up and fight.

***ADDENDUM

I'm passing along a suggestion a friend just sent me that I'm certainly going to follow and I hope you also consider:

Today's Mass & Communion is for this Bishop! God Bless Him & may he live a long long life!

Cover his back and lift him up.

All Saints Day and All Souls Day - November 1st and November 2nd

Some good intercessory prayer days in the next few days. All Saint's Day and All Souls Day.

ON ALL SAINTS DAY, Catholics honor and pray for the intercession of canonized saints and celebrate the communion of saints--all the baptized in heaven, purgatory, and on earth. On All Souls Day, Catholics pray for those souls in purgatory, that they may be hurried along the path to heaven.

Canonized saints are believed to be already in full communion with God. In other words, the church confirms that these souls have made it to heaven. The souls we pray for on All Souls Day are not in heaven yet, but being "purified."

Some wisdom and info from Fr. Rutler.

FROM THE PASTOR
November 1, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

The expression "a living saint" can be misleading. Certainly, we have encountered people in our own lives who fit that description, as best as we can judge. The Holy Church makes the final decision about saints. We celebrate them especially on All Saints' Day, and on All Souls' Day, we pray for our loved ones who are drawing more closely into the aura of holiness. The saints on the calendar are only the tip of the iceberg, and most of the saints who have ever existed are known to God alone. Perhaps churches should have a shrine to "The Unknown Saint" quite as we have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. All Saints' Day is rather like that.

My point, though, is that there is no such thing as a dead saint. There are saints alive now, and there are saints who have physically died, but all are alive in Christ and they are "busy" in heaven, to use a temporal metaphor. Some saints capture the popular imagination more in one generation than in another. For instance, St. Simon Stylites was admired in Syria in the fifth century for spending most of his life seated on top of a pillar. That is not a useful model for our day, although some may still remember Flagpole Kelly, and not long ago thousands of New Yorkers went to watch a man spend a week on top of a column up the street in Bryant Park.

Millions are drawn to Padre Pio, and some are compelled by an unmeasured fascination with his miraculous spiritual gifts, which were blessings indeed, rather than emulating his heroic humility and discipline. There remains an astonishing cult of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She was almost the reverse of St. Pio: totally unknown in her earthly lifetime, and accomplishing nothing conspicuous to her contemporaries. She would have remained such had not her spiritual writings been discovered and published. Perhaps she fascinates precisely because in just barely 24 years on earth, she did the most ordinary things with most extraordinary joy. Whenever her relics are taken on pilgrimage to foreign lands (not to mention the one that was taken on a space shuttle), hundreds of thousands pour out to pray by them. This happened most recently in England, where the media were confounded by the huge crowds.

Concurrent with that phenomenon, there were astonishing developments in long-moribund Christian life there, not least of which was the announcement of the first papal state visit to Britain and the expected beatification of John Henry Newman, who predicted a "Second Spring" of Faith in England. Then came news of an Apostolic Constitution, which will provide a unique canonical structure to welcome those desiring union with the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI, who well deserves the title "The Pope of Unity," has shown the power of the intercessions of the saints.

All kinds of things happening through spiritual intercessions to our Saints that we're unable to see. Our ability to petition them is a magnificent gift.

People of other faiths will sometimes as why we would ever need to petition a Saint when we can go directly to God. The answer is straightfoward. God sometimes needs to be persuaded. The power of persuasion is a meme many times throughout the New and Old Testament. Abraham petitioned God to save Soddam and Gommorah if there were 50 righteous people there...which eventually drizzled down to ten when there were not even 50. Mary persuaded Jesus at the Wedding Feast of Cana.


Christ Himself said if we had a mustard seeds worth of faith, we could move a mountain. The Communion of Saints is a living body. It helps to round up help to persuade the Lord.