This weekend's second collection is for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. As it has been amply demonstrated time and again that monies donated in this collection will serve only to undermine the Faith, we urge you to boycott this collection! Not one penny of Catholic money towards communism, pro-abortion groups, gay and transgender activism, etc. There are plenty of truly worthy charities where your donations will be properly utilized.
Please spread the word!
The Vatican seems to be awash in conferences these days. We've known about the gabfest at which renowned theological geniuses Chelsea Clinton and Steve Perry spoke, but another happened too. This one is so much under wraps that when I google the name of it "Today And Tomorrow: Imaging Theology", with or without the name of John Paul II Pontifical Institute on Theology (sponsoring group), nothing comes up.
The Anchor Team, in tonight's episode, did an expose of it. This is the first that I heard of it, but it sounds like it is quite the snake in the grass. No wonder the Vatican goons kept it under wraps. The title of this blog post might have been a more realistic title for that gabfest.
Two troubling events happened this past week. First, on May 6, President Biden addressed a gathering that commemorated the National Day of Prayer. Usually, when we speak of prayer, we speak of approaching Our Lord. Therefore, we'd hope that any address given during that gathering would touch upon that aspect of prayer. That didn't happen. For the first time in US history, a US president gave a talk at the National Day of Prayer without so much as mentioning God once. The internet was ablaze with this news. Below I will post Franklin Graham's reaction to that travesty.
Two days later in Alberta Canada, Pastor Artur Pawlowski, with Dawid Pawloski, was arrested while on the road from a church service that he had just conducted. His high crime and misdemeanor? "Inciting" people to attend a church service. Yes, the thugs used the word "inciting". He already had to deal with police barging into his church during services. I have the video of that altercation below.
A fair amount of outrage (not enough, in my humble opinion) has been generated by these two acts of official disregard for God. Yet the Catholic prelates of both countries (United States and Canada) have uttered nary a peep regarding these two matters. Whatever happened to bishops acting like bishops, to standing up for Our Lord against de facto tyrants? Your Excellencies, we await your answers. Meanwhile, we will salute these two Protestant pastors (Graham and Pawlowski) who act more Catholic than you.
Yes, the bishops are trying to fenagle some way to allow prominent pro-abortion Catholics to receive Holy Communion - politicians such as President Biden and Nancy Pelosi, for example. Archbishop Gomez advised the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that they (US bishops) were planning to discuss the matter.
These days, however, the CDF is headed by a Jesuit - Cardinal Luis Ladaria, to be specific. He wrote back, stating that it would be "misleading" to present abortion and euthanasia as "the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest level of accountability on the part of Catholics". Once again, by this current crowd infesting the Vatican, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is being slapped in the face as his clear directive "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles" is being directly contradicted. In that, Benedict states that abortion and euthanasia are always grave sins, while in the third section, he states that those who differ on matters such as capital punishment can still consider themselves eligible to receive Holy Communion. On those matters there may (and often are) legitimate difference of opinions - not so with abortion and euthanasia.
Ladaria suggests that unless the bishops are unanimous on their stance, these matters could be causes of "discord rather than unity". Well, yes, dissent on matters of inherent evils and the absolute requirement to obey Canon 915 are problems, but not because they make visible the lack of obedience of Our Lord by some bishops. Where evil exists, not only will there be disunite, but in these situations, disunity is necessary. As a wise saying goes, "it's better to be divided over the truth than united in a lie".
So what does Ladaria suggest? Why, dialogue, of course! Lots and lots of dialogue! These poor little bumpkin politicians just need a good sit-down! Of course that's nonsense! These pro-aborts are running the country (and I daresay the Vatican). They know very well what the Church teaches - they simply could not care less!
The America article paraphrases Ladaria with the phrase "don't rush the debate". Truth be told, there is no debate. One either obeys the teaching of the Church that have been handed down through the centuries, in this case as encapsulated in Canon 915, or they put themselves in disobedience. This is a battle that is heating up, and I will post more on this later.
It is no secret to any Catholic with at least one functioning eyeball that young Catholics are rediscovering traditional Catholicism, the patrimony that the now-aging hippies tried to trash. Funny thing, though. When something truly is of Divine origin, it simply won't stay under wrap.
Father Reese is not alone in bewailing the demise of the clown-rock-hippy-clappy masses. A few days ago, we saw in US Catholic an article entitled "Parish Differences Pont To Divisions In The Church" by Peter Feuerherd. I wonder if he is related to the late Joseph Feuerherd of the Not-At-All Catholic Reporter? That certainly would explain some of his progressive bent. Anyway, the thrust of his screed is that the mean old rad-trads (never mind that many of them are young people) are making others feel bad and driving them away from the Church. Truth be told, those others probably never had actual faith in Our Lord and love for His Church, for if they did, the presence of differing people would never cause them to leave. We didn't leave the Church when the hippy Jesuits were in ascendency. I think they are looking for an excuse to undermine those who are living the true faith and to excuse their own disdain for the Mass.
Speaking of Not-At-All Catholic Reporter, we have Michael Sean Winters chiming in with his "Catholics Behaving Badly" nonsense. In this installment he belittles Father David Nix, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Michael Warsaw, and Sohrab Ahmari. My! It gives us bloggers something to which to aspire - to be listed by Winters as "Catholics behaving badly"!
As the liberal hysteria grows, I'm sure we can expect more snit-fits to be published.
Actually, during Eastertide, we pray the Regina Caeli at noon in lieu of the Angelus, but you get the drift. Anyway, today the pope mangled a sermon on the vine and branches narrative that is found in John 15:1-8. While he correctly noted that we, the branches, depend entirely on Jesus for life, he plopped a stinker when he stated that Jesus likewise needs us - because the trunk would be bare or some other sort of nonsense.
He completely mischaracterized the Divinity of Jesus. Jesus, being the Second Person of the Trinity, is God no less than God the Father is God. God does not need anyone or anything. He is all sufficient in Himself. He lacks nothing, thus can need nothing.
It's a pity that we need to always be on the alert for tiny little heretical zingers interspersed with the pope's words, but it is what it is. If nothing else, it teaches us to listen and to think about what is going into both our eyes and ears, to filter out the chafe and keep the good.
I got hold of the Spring 2021 issue of Concordia, a magazine put out by the Xaverian Brothers. On page 5 is the article that you see on the right-hand side of this post. It's also on line at their website. The article calls to memory Tyler Clementi, a young college student who committed suicide after he was outed as a gay man.
One might glean from that admission that the Xaverians do not believe that homosexual acts are gravely sinful, as they actually are. One might also glean that impression from the lauds that they heap upon the Tyler Clemente Foundation. One can scroll through the banners of their front page to see that this outfit exists not only to address bullying but to cram the gay agenda down our throats. There is a "birthday celebration" honoring George Takei, Tipper Gore and others. These must be the bishops that the Xaverian article mentioned; almost all of them dissent from Church teaching on several matters.
The Xaverians are yet another men's order that is actually greasing the skids to hell for any of the unsuspecting people it purports to serve. Let this humble post be the start of their exposition.
For over 25 years I have been in front of abortuaries with other good Catholics, praying and trying to dissuade women from destroying their own children. We have found that more and more of these women are subjecting themselves to medical abortions versus surgical abortions. That is, they are ingesting various chemical compounds in attempts to cause the deaths and expulsions of their children. These compounds, though varied, are collectively called abortifacients.
Over these past decades we have found ourselves baffled by the lack of support that we have received from the official structures of the church. Yes, individual priests have been very helpful as they too have come out to the mills. But by and large, they are few and far between, and these priests often suffer at the hands of their bishops and fellow clergy on account of their witnesses to life.
For a long time, we've simply chalked up the bishops' tepid support to us as clerical cowardice, stemming from their fears of having governmental grants reduced and eliminated or from receiving bad media attention. With all the scandals coming to light recently, I now fear the reasons for the bishops' lack of pro-life conviction is far more sinister than I thought 25 years ago.
Comes now the news from Gloria.TV that the Vatican held investments in companies that are largely geared towards the production of abortifacients. That is, they derive financial profit from each and every death wrought by these demonic concoctions. We Catholics have spent many hours trying to dissuade women from taking these poisons. Do we now know yet another reason why the hierarchy in many cases acts to undermine our efforts?
The gloria link informs us that this scandal was discovered by Libero Milone in 2016 during an audit of the Vatican's books. He reported it to senior Vatican officials and only then were the shares sold. However, Milone was subsequently fired. Aren't we surprised? For his sake I hope he is in hiding. His firing causes me to think that the Vatican plans to resume what is most likely a lucrative investment.
If nothing else, we have yet another reason (among many) to curtail any donations to the weekly collection basket, or online donation arrangement. Approximately 12% of your donations will be funneled to your diocese, and they in turn will pay over a portion of that to the Vatican, where it too can be used to capitalize baby slaughter, along with the contraception and socialism of which we are already aware.
He presented his conclusions (such as they are) in the Catholic Standard. After stating the obvious fact that participation and membership has declined in the past generation, he quickly states that the pandemic has exacerbated the decline. We all know that isn't exactly correct. The bishops' craven reactions to the pandemic have caused that. When the bishops literally barred their flocks from Church buildings and deprived them of the Sacraments for fear of temporal illness, they betrayed their own lack of supernatural faith and devotion to their mission of saving souls from hell and helping them towards heaven.
Notice how he tried to discredit those of us who decry the abuses that escalated in the wake of Vatican II. He neglected (maybe on purpose) to mention that the decline in the Church, hence the saving of souls, predated the pandemic. The deterioration of Catholic life accelerated after Vatican II:
Some think that Padre Pio had some knowledge of the third secret of Fatima. In the video below, Taylor Marshall discusses that, along with the prophesy of a false church being set up in the Vatican, with tentacles in many of the world's dioceses. The pandemic (such as it is) has at least brought the false church out into the open. When bishops - not civil government - spiritually starve their flocks, what else do you call it? This bishop is still stating that babies shouldn't be baptized; he's not the first. Some have denied Confession to their flocks. Oh, it's temporary, you say? During this "temporary" period, souls could be damned to hell for want of the sacraments, and these bishops will be held to account.
