We are days away from the centennial anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima's last apparition to the three children. On that day, the Miracle of the Sun occurred. Rather than focus on that miracle, we must address the message of Our Lady of Fatima. By and large, it has been disobeyed and the result has been nothing less than catastrophic. She asked that the Pope, in union with the bishops, consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Verbal tap-dancing and spin-meistering aside, that has not been done.
I post now a video of a talk given by Father Michael Rodriguez a few days ago. He speaks on the topics of Fatima, Pope Francis, the Dubia and the Filial Correction. It is an hour long but worth every minute. Please watch it in its entirety. Towards the end he recommends some actions. To that list I might have added the wearing of the Brown Scapular and First Saturday devotions: (Mass, Confession, Rosary, visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
Michael Sean Winters of the Not-So Catholic Reporter offered two articles yesterday that I think are supposed to have Good-Friday-related themes. The first is entitled Wuerl's Cross. On the Cardinal's behalf, he whines and snivels about the well-deserved reactions that the Cardinal has received owing to his despicable treatment of Father Marcel Guarnizo. I remind one and all (even some canon lawyers) that Father Guarnizo acted correctly when he tried to prevent Barbara Johnson from incurring the guilt of the mortal sin of sacrilegious Holy Communion. Winters calls that "Taliban Catholicism". Faithful Catholics call that Catholicism - plain and simple.
His strange conception of the Cross is even more evident from another post of his from yesterday entitled Good Friday. In it he states that "HIV/AIDS was the Calvary of the gay community", as he describes how AIDS decimated the work force of a Dupont Circle cafe (word to the wise - don't dine in Dupont Circle). I'll be the last to doubt that AIDS is a horrific disease wrecking havoc upon its victims and their grieving families. However, it is NOT analogous to the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Let's be real - the bulk of AIDS cases come about through gay sexual relationships - always sinful. If an alcoholic were to die from cirrhosis of the liver, would anyone have trouble linking that disease to his/her drinking? Of course not - so let's drop the politically-correct blinders when it comes to gay folks falling prey to AIDS, who are reaping a tragic but very preventable consequence of sinful behavior. What we commemorated yesterday was the sinless Son of God offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins (including gay behavior).
It is when one suffers unjustly for doing good that we liken that suffering to that which Jesus endured (and even that suffering pales to the Crucifixion). Such is the case with Father Guarnizo (yes George Neumayer and the rest of us "Taliban Catholics" have it right). It is also the case with Father Michael Rodriguez, Father Gerhard Swierzek and many others who've been punished precisely because they are faithful.
For those who either:
Think that a post during Triduum should be more "spiritual" or
Think that I should stop bringing up Father Guarnizo's situation
There are other blogs offering excellent meditations on Easter; I'd suggest you read them. However, there is a danger in letting our consciousness about Father Guarnizo's situation just fade - a danger to us as well as to him. To my fellow St John Neumann parishioners, will we allow ourselves to be so shallow, will we allow our memories to be so little, that we won't recall the harm, the injustice that occurred in front of our faces just last month? If so, what kind of people are we? Will we be the ten disciples who cowed, or will we be the Marys, the Johns, the Magdalenes who at least stood by His Cross? Of course we can and must continue to raise our voices as well as our prayers for him and for all unjustly-treated priests.
While they pray and petition Bishop Armando Ochoa for the reinstatement of Father Michael Rodriguez as pastor of San Juan Bautista Church, faithful Catholics in the Diocese of El Paso are working to counteract heretical teachings emanating from the Tepeyak Institute and its classes that lay teachers, etc are required to take in order to serve in various parish capacities. As you watch the Vortex below, you'll hear how the attendees heard that "God is feminine", the hosts for the Eucharist should be made of indiginous foods. Listen to the second person; what caused him to walk out of the class was when the teacher said "Mass is just for fellowship." Now listen carefuly to the third person, Ms. Celeste Herget. She relates how she was told that after death there is a "second chance", constituting a denial of the particular judgment. Now from where did that clap-trap come? It seems that it came from Bishop Ochoa himself - yes read this article penned by His Excellency! We "go into overtime at the transition of death"? This is a new one on me!
So please watch the Vortex - but scroll to the section underneath it, for I do have some observations about how this situation and Father Pavone's situation, are being portrayed in some Catholic blogs! Click here if you cannot see embedded video.
First I'll say this right now. While I could be incorrect, I think that Father Pavone is being railroaded. Mark Crutcher's video set forth some issue quite nicely. It is interesting to see some patterns in other Catholic blogs. Some of them are piling on Father Pavone, calling him "prideful", "disobedient", and on and on. Yet on these same blogs I can find no sign of concern or even interest regarding the situation in El Paso. I find that to be - rather illuminating, to say the least!
Today's Vortex focuses on the persecution of Father Michael Rodriguez for speaking up for the truth of marriage. His bishop, more concerned with the church's tax-exempt status (or so he says) removed him from his parish and sent him 200 miles away. This blog has mentioned the situation earlier.
Michael Voris has been devoting his Vortex series to the question of why gays are being allowed to promote their lifestyle in Church-owned venues. I'll post his latest video at the end, but let me say that I think that Voris might be understating the problem. Not only are gays being given a free pass in too many churches, but we have received word that two priests who have had the God-given courage to proclaim the truth of that destructive lifestyle have been thrown under the bus by their respective bishops.
The case that was all over the Catholic pro-life news services last week involved Father Michael Rodreguez, former pastor of San Juan Bautista Catholic Church in the Diocese of El Paso, Texas. He published a four-part series in the El Paso Times that correctly set forth the Church's teaching regarding homosexualty. This LifeSite News article links to each of the four columns. Please note that these links are to pictures of the actual newspaper columns. I read them and suggest you do so as well. Notice that Father took great pains to distinguish between the person and the sin; he did so several times. By the way - I said "former pastor" because the bishop reassigned him to another church. The newspaper article doesn't name the church - how odd! And this is not the first time that Bishop Ochoa has thrown Father Rodriguez under the bus - recall this incident!
Harsh though that is, the treatment meted out to an elderly Canadian priest who preached the truth is outright draconian. Again from LifeSite News we read of the plight of Father Donat Gionet of the Diocese of Bathurst in New Brunswick. This priest spoke truth about the gay lifestyle, abortion and cohabitation in a homily last month. While the local chancery admitted that Father proclaimed the truth, they claimed he lacked "the proper pastoral sensitivity". So in their own display of sensitivity, they suspended the faculties of this 85-year old priest who has spent all his life in priestly service to God and the Church! An important aside - when you hear some cowardly bishop or chancery blather on about being "pastoral" and/or "sensitive", understand that those are thinly-disguised code-words for cowardice and/or boot-licking for money/favors, etc.
These two incidents, coupled with what happened to Father Pavone, sure makes me think that an ominous pattern of behavior is being made manifest in some chanceries. Where will it strike next?
Now here's the Vortex clip. Click here if you can't see embedded video.
On August 4th, I reported about a priest, Father Rodriguez of El Paso Texas who wrote clearly about a Catholic's duty to oppose abortion. Someone commented that he hoped his bishop wouldn't try to "silence" him. Sadly and outrageously, this is precisely what is now happening to Father.
Bishop Armando Ochoa of El Paso has rebuked him publicly. Read the bishop's column in the El Paso Times. I'll pick apart the bishop's column just a little, because it is chock-full of moral equivalancy. One plumb example is, "When we talk about abortion and homosexuality, we are talking about human beings dealing with all kinds of concerns and unresolved challenges." When His Excellency "talks about human beings", is he thinking, even for one split second, about the tiniest of human beings whose overwhelming concern is whether they'll be allowed to draw the breath of life or be violently ripped to shreds in their mothers' wombs as they're aborted? I suspect not, to be frank.
