This video from Taylor Marshall confirms many of my suspicions regarding the way that too many prelates have treated the Traditional Latin Mass. Incidentally, I've always held the Second Eucharistic Prayer in less than high regard. I've always known that many priests - particularly older and/or liberal priests - use it because of its hurried brevity. Younger priests are more apt to choose one of the others, including the first Eucharistic prayer, which is the traditional Roman canon.
During this year-long pandemic, I've not had to miss one Mass. However, had it not been for the priests offering the Traditional Latin Mass, I would have been deprived of the Mass. For obvious reasons I cannot go into that detail on this blog. Suffice it to say that it has only been the priests committed to the Traditional Mass that understood the importance of providing that Sacrament to the faithful Catholics.
The Code of Canon Law details why and how the Sacrament of Confession is to be administered by a Catholic priest. The link is to Book IV, Part 1, Title IV, dealing solely with that sacrament, Please note that Chapter III, Canon 991 specifically states that "every member of the Christian faithful is free to confess sins to a legitimately approved confessor of his or her choice, even to one of another rite".
That said, by what chutzpah did the Church of the Precious Blood of Monmouth Beach NJ attempt to restrict the Sacrament only to those who've received the Covid vaccine? Think of the logic, or lack thereof. In order to have one's sins forgiven at that parish, the penitent would have had to commit another sin by receiving one of the morally-tainted vaccines. This is the announcement as it appeared earlier on the parish website. Note that this is an archived page for they amended the requirement in an even more bizarre fashion.
Here is the announcement as it exists at the time of this writing. I can only imagine that they removed their previous draconian requirement because they drew some rightly-deserved rebukes. But the parish priests only manifested their vaccine-enslavement in another way that violates yet another canon law. On that first link, Chapter I, Canon 964 section 2 states "The conference of bishops is to establish norms regarding the confessional; it is to take care, however, that there are always confessionals with a fixed grate between the penitent and the confessor in an open place so that the faithful who wish to can use them freely." In other words, the penitent has the right to anonymous confession, no if ands or buts.
Now I for one find it rather interesting that the parish is mandating that there be no barrier between the priest and the non-vaccinated penitent. Why, one might think that if the priest were truly fearful of contagion, that he might want a barrier between them to block all those dastardly, deadly microbes that must ooze forth from every non-vaccinated person these days! Sarcasm aside, we know the motive - to shame and punish those who will not sully themselves with vaccines derived by the usage of the bodies of murdered children.
Here we have the contact page for this parish. All of us should contact this parish and advise them that their misdeeds, unless rectified, will not go unpunished in the next life. If they persist in their punishment of the non-vaccinated people, parishioners should punish them in this life too by withholding their donations.
The lock-down, mask-up tyranny continues to be foisted upon Catholics who are trying to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion. Before I continue, let me clarify a point. The tyranny of which I speak is being inflicted by conniving bishops and their crony pastors. Quite a few governmental officials have lifted restrictions on the churches, but they continue to be imposed by these same faithless bishops who are showing themselves to be lackeys of the atheistic new world order.
I wrote last week on this matter, pointing out that in Texas, the restrictions on church attendance and mask-wearing were lifted by Governor Abbott. I also pointed out that the bishops continue the strangulation of Sacramental life, with the happy exception of Bishop Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler. News comes to us now of quite a sinister twist in the Texas bishops' smackdown of faithful Catholic life.
Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas is one parish that retains the draconian restrictions, at the behest of Bishop Edward Burns of the Diocese of Dallas; you can see the mandate right on the home page. A few days ago, Deirdre Hairston, a pregnant woman sitting in the back of the church was arrested by local police. She did not wear a mask; remember, she's pregnant. They were called by the pastor, Father Milton Ryan, and they proceeded to remove her while Mass was still in progress. At least she was able to receive Holy Communion. Taylor Marshall interviewed her, and played the video of the encounter that she was able to obtain.
Before you watch the video, I must point out some errors in what the two of them engaged. They all stem from a regrettable tendency of Catholics to conflate civil law with canon law. At canon law, Father Ryan was completely, 100% wrong in denying Mrs. Hairston the right to attend Mass. Compounding his canonical crime is that he had her forever banned from stepping onto Church property. At canon law he had no right to do that. Unfortunately at civil law, he did. They observed that Bishop Burns is the legal owner of the parish grounds. Marshall and Hairston mentioned that, but then assumed that Burns himself had to request her removal. Not so. Most bishops do delegate that authority and responsibility to the local pastors. Moreover, the police, by virtue of being enforcers of civil law, could not consider canon law; the latter is simply out of their area of competence. I fail to see what good it did to criticize their calling the church a "business". Well, maybe "establishment" might have been better, but they were unable to enforce civil law using the standards of canon law. We Catholics have simply got to stop assuming that our civil servants can take church law into account when enforcing civil law; we accomplish nothing by this sloppy thinking.
I am linking now to the web page of Holy Trinity Church - their "contact us" page, to be precise. Therein you will find phone numbers, email addresses, etc to which I urge every one of us to direct our polite but very firm protests. Those of you in the Dallas area should consider whether or not this diocese is worthy of your financial support; clearly that goes double for parishioners of Holy Trinity. Sometimes money, or lack thereof, is the only language these people understand. Here's the Dallas diocese's contact page.
Another important note - I and many others don't post these things to get hits on our blogs and sites. As we try to assist Holy Mother Church, we seek to: 1) inform you of the perils that really do exist and 2) to motivate and assist you in taking concrete action in setting these matters aright. All of us - including you - are the Church Militant. We have a solemn duty to slough off indifference and take action. Prayer is vital, of course, but by itself is an inadequate response. Ora et labora.
If we recall the meetings that the pope had before Laudato Si was inflicted upon us, we will recall that he is all on board with the UN's Sustainable Development goals. The pope lends a facade of moral credibility to these Masonic goals. With President Trump gone, the progressives - and that includes the pope - have a more clear path towards the implementation of these goals. All this and more was just discussed on this evening's Anchor Team broadcast by the Lepanto Institute.
In this video, Father Ripperger ties together many current events/disasters of the past year, showing how many of them, including the bishops' abysmal response to the Covid situation, have been orchestrated by diabolical spirits. Of course he also delves into our need to remain in a state of grace - made harder by the deprivation of Sacraments.
Last Sunday, Laetare Sunday, the priest at Mass gave a homily regarding the link between the Eucharist and the priesthood. He recalled to our memories that Our Lord instituted both the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders on the first Holy Thursday. The Holy Thursday mass commemorates both those realities. That is why it is an abomination that women have their feet washed along with men during the Novus Ordo version of that Mass, but I digress. Father went on to point out that the Church would cease to exist without these two Sacraments.
Whether or not Father intended to shed some additional light upon the current state of sacramental life in the Churches throughout the world, I don't know, but he did. The shutdowns as inflicted upon the Catholic Churches are an attempt to strangle the Church to death and to choke off a necessary avenue of grace for our world that is obviously in dire straits. I think it could very well be a deliberated goal on the part of some corrupt clergy, but it clearly is of the devils. There are, of course, the clergy who really have no faith in God nor belief in the spiritual realm, so they play right into the hands of the other masterminds.
The immediate dissembling and capitulation of our bishops in the face of immoral and unconstitutional intrusion by civic officials is nothing short of sinful. Indeed, in many cases, the bishops outdid the government in choking off the sacraments, and the graces that would flow from them. Now that some of the local governments are backing off the restrictions, some bishops are moving to retain them. The situation in Texas comes to mind. Governor Abbott has done away with most restrictions, but that state's bishops, with the exception of Bishop Strickland, are keeping the sacraments from their flocks.
We now have a situation in which the world is spiritually and physically dying for lack of Masses being offered and other Sacraments being conferred. It is up to us, the laity, to insist that Sacramental life be restored immediately, with our without the permission of increasingly rogue states. No more can we just suffer this situation in silence. If ever there was a time when "offering up" was simply a sanctimonious excuse for cowardice, now is that time.
For starters, please find below a petition that can be downloaded and mailed to your local bishop. When you send it in, sign your name. If you'd rather not spend the postage, you will be pleased to realize that many of the dioceses are having their annual appeals about now. Many of those campaigns include the distribution of postage-paid envelopes in which you can send donations. Well, use it for something more profitable to your diocese. Put your letter therein and send it. Please send them no money until they open both the Churches and the Sacraments.
Last weekend when I walked into the grocery store, I saw green bagels. For a moment, I thought they had gone bad and wondered how the management could have let them be put on display. Then I looked around and saw balloons with shamrocks on them and realized that the bagels had simply been dyed a sickening green in light of March 17. I almost said that they were dyed green to honor St Patrick's day, but I realized that honoring the patron saint of Ireland and the Faith for which he labored was most likely the last thing on their minds.
A few years back I published this post, lamenting the trivialization of St Patrick and his feast day. Please read it. Now for an account of Catholics truly honoring St. Patrick.
I am happy to relay this story to you from LifeSiteNews, regarding the street activism of Catholics in Ireland who are protesting that country's ridiculous shutdowns. We know that in recent years, Ireland as a nation has abandoned the One True Faith. These Catholics will speak for the Faith on March 17 as they protest both the lockdowns and the government's embrace of baby-slaughter.
Pray for our fellow Catholics in Ireland, that this protest be instrumental in turning that country around. Moreover, let us take opportunities to speak the truth in our own communities.
Most people know that Governor Abbott of Texas has done away with the draconian restrictions in his state, including those laid upon places of worship. One would think that decent bishops down there would be rejoicing at the prospect of once again resuming normalcy in their dioceses and would be making provisions to restore unfettered administration of the Sacraments to their congregations. It would appear that most of them aren't decent. Only one of them, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, is restoring normal Catholic life in his diocese. All the others are still continuing to curtail the administration of Sacraments to their congregations, even though they are no longer under governmental compunction to do so.
The same scenario now plays itself out in Maryland. Governor Hogan has relaxed many of the restrictions here. Houses of worship are being permitted to admit greater numbers in their buildings for worship and Sacraments. However, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has announced that they will maintain the same draconian restrictions; again, they do this of their own volition. As for the Archdiocese of Washington, I am aware that both Montgomery and Prince George's counties will still maintain their strangleholds on public gatherings, but I don't know about Charles and Calvert counties. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Cardinal Gregory still denied the sacraments to the faithful, for he beat both the MD and DC governments to the punch in shuttering the churches.
Below I'm posting a podcast of Michael Hichborn's that was just broadcast. In it was discussed the situation at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. All private Masses have been halted in the main part of the Church and the Traditional Latin Mass has been all but banned from that locale. I believe there is an effort underway to deprive the faithful of authentic Masses and other sacraments. In doing so, the perpetrators seek to dry up channels of grace needed for souls and civilizations to survive in this world. We knew persecution was imminent, but how could we ever have dreamed that the persecution would come primarily through errant bishops and yes, an errant pope, who are playing the wolves in shepherds' clothing? Those who try to curtail access to the Sacraments out of fear of a germ are either completely destitute of Catholic faith and/or actually conniving to remove sacramental grace from our lives and the world.
In regards to his recent trip to Iraq, Pope Francis was dismissive of those who said that in this trip, he flirted with heresy. Well, truth be told, he's been making a career of flirting with heresy; this trip is not unique in that dismal respect. Moreover, when the description of the purpose of religion (as he stated) given before muslim leaders doesn't even mention the word "God" but focuses on temporal matters, we can say that he's moved beyond flirtation.
On his return trip from Iraq to the Vatican, the pope gave an interview. Like many of his previous plane interviews, it's a humdinger. Catholic News Agency published the full text. Read the heretical nonsense in his own words. He calls the Muslim leader Al-Sistani "a man of God". What "god"? He certainly doesn't worship the One True God as Catholics do. Even he would admit that the Muslims worship a different being than do we Catholics. It's worthwhile to consider the saint for whom the pope took his name. St Francis visited the Muslims with the clear intent to convert them from their ways and have them come into the Church. He wasn't successful, but neither did he call "a man of god" the leader who had martyered five Franciscans before Francis' arrival.
He then coined a new term "next-door saints", whom he defined as "men and women who live their faith, whatever it may be, with coherence". So the Muslim suicide bombers are "next door saints"? Whatever else they are, they are people who live their murderous creeds. As we know, saints are those who have attained heaven, with some being put before us as examples of dedication to Our Lord and to His Church. One is not a saint who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as True God.
This jaunt was gob-smacked full of religious indifferentism plus a total focus on this secular world to the exclusion of the spiritual realm. Nowhere in that interview did I see mention of Jesus Christ and His commands to lead peoples to conversion for their eternal salvation. Not a peep was said about that.
Another reason to avoid donating to your dioceses is that a portion of that will go to the Vatican to finance gabfests such as this Iraqi session. Not another penny to them.
I refer to a specific incident that happened at a Mass in Montgomery County MD today, in the Archdiocesee of Washington. I am an eye witness. After Mass I was unable to locate the individual.
If you wish to address this matter through Church channels, I'd be happy to stand as your witness. If that is the case, please post a comment with the detais of today's incident, what you were wearing (so I can verify your account) and your contact information. Your comment will not be published. We can proceed from there. I truly hope you will consider it seriously. Failure to seek redress will only embolden errant priests to do the same, and worse, to others.
If other readers know of any resources to pursue such matters (such as canon lawyers), please list these in a comment box below. Thank you.
Let me preface this by saying that I regularly peruse the Catholic Standard, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington. In the February 18th issue of the Standard, the supposed "Financial Report to the People of the Archdiocese of Washington, Fiscal Year 2019-2020". I scoured that report, with my CPA eyes, and found in it no hint of the items that will be mentioned in this post. So much for transparency.
I congratulate the staff and writers of The Pillar, for I believe they broke this news (correct me if I'm wrong). LifeSiteNews also commented about this, and I link also to their piece for embedded in that is a link to the official audited reports of the Archdiocese. Readers of the Standard might want to compare this and the Standard's report side by side. I noticed that the financial report, while printed in the Standard, was not on the Standard's website. Frankly I find that odd and I think it only serves to cast further doubt on this notion of archdiocesan transparency.
Even as one examines the official auditors' report, one really has to look for mention of this $2 million to Cardinal Wuerl. It's in the "Net Asset" section of the Statements of Financial Position. The subheading is "Net assets without donor restrictions"; bear this in mind, for it will be very telling later. The number is $55.9 million, and it refers to the Notes of the Financial Statement - note m, to be precise.
So slog through the Financial Statement notes and you will find a list of items that sum to the $55.9 million. Sure enough, we see "Continuing ministry activities for Archbishop Emeritus". He received over $2 million this year and $1.4 million last year. Is this sort of disbursement supposed to be an annual occurrence? One could reasonably assume in the positive. Taylor Marshall pointed out some interesting math behind it. $2 million per year is equivalent to about $167k per month. Breaking that down further, that is approximately $5k every day! What kind of "continuing ministry activities" require $5k every day?
Pillar and several others have posed these types of questions to the DC chancery. These inquiries prompted Cardinal Gregory to publicize this statement. Please notice that he says that "donations" to the Wuerl fund "were made by persons who want to cover Cardinal Wuerl's expenses.." Therefore these "donations" are, by definition, donor-restricted. Two paragraphs up, we saw that the official financial statements calls these donations "assets without donor restrictions"! I regret that this statement of Cardinal Gregory's has all the smell of a damage-control alibi.
I noticed some other interesting things in note m. There is a "reserve for future legal costs" of $3 million. Pray tell, what necessitates such a huge reserve? Priestly formation, on the other hand, seems to rate only a relatively minor sum of $1 million; is that indicative of the low priority that the archdiocese places on the spiritual wellbeing of DC-area Catholics?
Some brain-storm questions I will now list.
Why does there exist the disparity between Gregory's flim-flam excuse and the language used on the audited financial report?
What is the ultimate source of funds for the $3.4 million that has been shelled out on Cardinal Wuerl's behalf over the past two years?
What is the usage of these funds? Is it strictly cash for him or are vendors being paid on Wuerl's behalf?
Assuming that the $2 million comes from general donations (such as in-pew collections) as suggested by the Statements of Financial positions, wouldn't more worthwhile expenditures be "priestly formation" (that only received $1 million) or going towards the funding of the retirement liability?
Is Cardinal Wuerl truly the only beneficiary of this fund? Unanswered remains the question of who/what is paying the living expenses of Theodore McCarrick.
What we see here are yet more reasons why not to give one red penny to the Archdiocese of Washington.
In a facebook post, Father James Martin touts the dribblings of a feminist heretic who refers to God in the feminine. Please note that in his commentary, Martin also refers to God as a female, thus overtly participating in the heresy and sacrilege.
Preaching for the Second Sunday of Lent, Vickey McBride reflects on everything that changed last Lent and offers a...
Please also notice how she says "you don't have to be good", in direct contradiction to Our Lord's admonition to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect". That is found in Matthew 5:48. By the way, Our Lord used the word "Father", not some androgynous gobblygoop. This woman McBride holds a number of position, including Director of Campus Ministry at St Martin de Porres High School in Cleveland Ohio. She is leading many young impressionable people astray. Pray for their protection and her repentance because "if anyone causes these little ones - those who believe in me - to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:6
Here is yet another. Father Martin is being none too discreet about things now, is he? Why is he getting bolder and more overt about his disregard for God and how He calls Himself? Usually these progressives wax pompous about respecting people's "chosen pronouns". Doesn't God Almighty deserve at least that token of respect?
Dear friends: Here is an invitation to what looks like a wonderful lecture by Sister Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ,...
Meanwhile, Pope Francis is trying to scare us about the climate-change hoax. Borrowing nonsense from Al Gore and Barack Obama, he "warns" of a "great flood" due to "global warming". Ironically, he does this while casting doubt on the historical accuracy of the flood report as found in Genesis. However, also in Genesis is God's promise never to again destroy the world by means of a flood. So is the pope saying that God could renege on His word?
These progressives are being more blatant about their contempt for the Faith because they think they can be. However, they also serve to make plain their absolute lack of spiritual, intellectual and moral credibility. Nothing they say can be taken at face value, for they are false teachers, wolves in shepherds' clothing indeed.
