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UN Issues Rare Condemnation As Zelensky Moves To Evict More Monks, Seize Churches |
Posted by: Stone - 03-27-2023, 01:35 PM - Forum: Global News
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UN Issues Rare Condemnation As Zelensky Moves To Evict More Monks, Seize Churches
Holy Dormition Kyivo-Pechersk Lavra, otherwise known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv, Ukraine soc.org.au
ZH | MAR 27, 2023
The United Nation's human rights watchdog has voiced alarm over the Zelensky government's targeting of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in a report published on Friday. The UOC, which still maintains communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, has seen its priests and monks expelled from some churches and monasteries of late, after the Ukrainian government has sought to bolster a rival nationalist church, also through controversial legislation.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in the new report that it is "concerned that the State’s activities targeting the UOC could be discriminatory." The UN report pointed to "vague legal terminology and the absence of sufficient justification" in proposed anti-UOC legislation being pushed forward by the Zelensky administration.
In January monks of the ancient Kiev-Caves Lavra were ousted from a main cathedral church in favor of the nationalist state-backed "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" (UOC).
And now there's a standoff between Orthodox Christians and police over the future of fate of the 11th century Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The monks say they'll stay at their monastery and home for "as long as physically possible". The monastery said "There is no legal foundation" state's expulsion order, and many thousands of supporters have stood side-by-side with the monks over days.
According to a description in the Associated Press:
Quote:The courtyards of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra have been busy with more than just the usual worshippers, going to and from its churches in the sprawling monastic complex that is Ukraine’s most revered Orthodox site.
Also busy Friday were people in civilian clothes, loading cars with plasma televisions, furniture and other items from the buildings — helping the resident monks remove belongings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, or UOC, before a threatened government eviction on March 29.
There also were police officers checking the cars to make sure no one was removing items that belong to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra preserve, which oversees the complex.
Recent footage has shown church services led by the monks with thousands of Ukrainian supporters present. Zelensky officials have accused the monks of being sympathetic to Moscow.
The AP details further, "The site is owned by the government, and the agency overseeing the property notified the UOC earlier this month that as of March 29, it was terminating the lease allowing the free use of religious buildings on the property." Additionally, "The government claims that the monks violated their lease by making alterations to the historic site and other technical infractions."
The new UN human rights report is likely to be a boost to the monks' cause, but it could be too little too late in terms of international support. Ukraine's foreign ministry rejected the UN's conclusions and lashed out, with ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko saying:
Quote:"In a recent report on human rights in Ukraine, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR – ed.] noted that searches in the buildings of the UOC MP could be of a ‘discriminatory nature.’
Ukraine is a democratic state, in which freedom of religion is guaranteed. At the same time, freedom is not the same as the right to be engaged in activities that undermine national security.
We call on OHCHR to refrain from unbalanced political assessments and base its reports on facts."
Considered one of the most important holy sites in broader Ukrainian Orthodoxy, the monastery could be emptied of its monks by police-ordered eviction on Wednesday as the deadline for them to leave looms.
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Bp. William Durandus (c. 1230 - 1296): On Passiontide |
Posted by: Stone - 03-27-2023, 09:05 AM - Forum: Lent
- No Replies
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William Durandus (c. 1230 – 1 November 1296) - On Passiontide
The Harrowing of Hell, depicted in an early 16th-century illuminated manuscript of the history of the Passion in French, known as the Vaux Passional.
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.
NLM | March 26, 2023
The first of the following excerpts from William Durandus’ [i]Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 6.60.3-4 and 7-9, is based on St Augustine’s division of sacred history into four periods: before the giving of the law to Moses; under the law; under grace, i.e. from the Incarnation to the end of the world; and then finally, in peace, after the Lord’s Second Coming.[/i]
The reasons for which the Lord’s Passion is remembered for two weeks before Easter are these: first, because He himself suffered for two peoples, at the hands of two peoples; second, because through those two weeks, we express the two Testaments, the Old, which foretold that the Lord would suffer, and the New, which showed Him suffering; third, because in the two ages of this world, that is, before the Law and under the Law, that same passion was foretold; fourth, so that these two weeks may recall to our memory the murmuring of those who before the law and under the law were in hell (i.e., the Limbo of the Fathers, whose murmuring expresses their longing for Christ), until the time of grace, which is signified in the third week, that is the week of Easter. For from this day, on which “Glory be to the Father...” is omitted, there are two weeks until Easter. But then there is the third week, in which all the glorification that was omitted is restored, for in the third time, which is under grace, all the benefits which our fathers in the Church awaited are rendered to them.
Now for this reason, “Glory be to the Father...” is omitted, since that verse pertains to the praise of the Trinity, which was dishonored in the Lord’s Passion... for it is clear that Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, was dishonored. But in the Resurrection, “Glory be to the Father...” is resumed, because through the Resurrection He was glorified with the glory of immortality. ...
(The partial omission of the doxology in Passiontide represents the events leading up to the Lord’s passion, principally, the plotting against Him, while the total omission represents the Passion itself.)
And we should note that it is not said in the introits and responsories, which are about the Passion, and in “Come, let us exult unto the Lord” (the invitatory psalm of the Divine Office), but not in the psalms or hymns, because the psalms symbolize working; but (thus far), they persecuted Him only in their tongues (i.e., in word, but not yet in deed), discussing His murder, and He himself did not cease to do good works. It is therefore not completely omitted... since it was not immediately after the council which they held concerning His murder that the Lamb was handed over to the hands of the wicked.
But in the three days before Easter, it is omitted completely, since then especially was the Trinity dishonored. ...
Now the Introit because from the Lord’s prayer in the Passion, “Judge me, o God, and discern my cause,” etc., For in this He instructs us in prayer. There follows, “Send forth Thy light” etc., for he that sees the rewards is made strong in the fight; “and Thy truth”, for he that sees good things, is easily led unto the eternal dwelling places. And it is of the fourth tone because of the form of the Cross, or because of the four things that are asked for, namely, judgement, discretion, liberation and strength.
Now the Epistle (Hebr. 9, 11-15), “Christ, being a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle” ... shows the efficacy of Christ’s Passion. For through His passion, we are led unto the eternal dwelling places, of which we must be mindful.
... But the Postcommunion is “This is (My) Body” etc., and the priest intones it, to show that the Great Priest changed the old sacrifice into the new; and it is in the eighth tone, because that sacrifice is the true one which will be perfected in Paradise, when we will rise (i.e. on the eighth day) ...
“This is (My) Body, which shall be given up for you: this is the cup of the new covenant in My Blood, says the Lord; do this, as often as you receive it, in remembrance of Me.” (1 Cor. 11, 24-25)
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Sacred Triduum Schedule 2023 |
Posted by: Stone - 03-26-2023, 06:52 AM - Forum: Event Schedule
- No Replies
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Holy Week - Sacred Triduum
April 6th - 8th, 2023
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3...%3DApi&f=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.9mFRaOEIQ6TlZ4LUsabw5QHaDi%26pid%3DApi&f=1)
✠ ✠ ✠ Holy Thursday ✠ ✠ ✠
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginal...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Feb%2F1a%2F23%2Feb1a23d243379e93cfc53c1254dfe2c3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Confessions / Rosary - 2:15 PM
High Mass / Procession - 3:00 PM
Conference on the Passion - 6:00 PM
Holy Hour Reparation - 6:45 PM - 7:45 PM
Adoration till Midnight
✠ ✠ ✠ Good Friday ✠ ✠ ✠
Confessions / Rosary - 9:45 AM
Mass of the Pre-Sanctified - 10:30 AM
Stations of the Cross - 1:00 PM
Conference on the Passion - 1:45 PM
Sorrowful Mother Devotions - 2:30 PM
✠ ✠ ✠ Holy Saturday ✠ ✠ ✠
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F1...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F1f%2Fe3%2Ff2%2F1fe3f232eb9a5a75832c80dc70a55b9c--stock-art-holy-mary.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Easter Vigil Ceremonies / Mass - 10:00 AM
Blessing of Easter Baskets - Immediately Following
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Archbishop Lefebvre 1979: How Our Lady Will Be Our Guide & Model |
Posted by: Stone - 03-25-2023, 07:06 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (2)
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The Angelus - September 1979
The Sermon of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin, 15 August 1979
Saint Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, during the Angelus Pilgrimage
My dear brethren,
When I came to Saint Mary's College for the first time two years ago, I was amazed and stupefied by the magnificence of the chapel, of the chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. And when those who were showing me around this magnificent chapel told me that it was a shrine venerated throughout America, and particularly in this area, I thought at once that, if God permitted us to have this property, and especially this chapel, we would make of it a center of pilgrimage, a center of devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary for all America. People would come from the North, from the South, from the East, from the West, to this center which lies in the geographical center of America, so as to manifest their devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and to discover at her feet the line of conduct to follow in this terrible period that the Church is passing through today.
And already I was promising Father Bolduc that I would come for the feast of August 15, to meet all those who would desire to come pray at the feet of the Most Blessed Virgin, and to encourage them to preserve the Catholic faith in union with the Virgin Mary. But by the decision of Providence, the chapel caught fire. This was a great trial for us. It was indeed a disaster. Our hearts were in anguish. But since God had decided thus, we still thought that we should maintain this date for the pilgrimage, and that, since it had become necessary, we would reconstruct the chapel.
And what we did just a little while ago—the blessing of the cornerstone—is proof that you are determined to rebuild the chapel for the glory of the Most Blessed Virgin. I am convinced that all of you will help to make of this shrine a shrine as beautiful, if not more beautiful, than that which was there before. And I am happy to see that you have come—despite the destruction, you have come from all parts of America. I also thank the priests who are present, and especially Msgr. Donahue, who has come from Los Angeles, to celebrate with us this Feast of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
In a few words I would like to show you how much the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in this painful crisis that the Church is going through, should be our guide and our model. With her we are certain not to go astray. We shall look to her, we shall ask her what she did during the course of her life, what she has to teach us, and we shall see that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us just what the Church has taught us ever since, in the course of twenty centuries.
The first element that concerns the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and that announces her, is found in the protogospel, in Genesis, where already Mary is presented as a queen going forth to battle, as the queen of hosts, queen of armies who gathers about herself all the forces of God, all the graces of God, and this to fight. To fight whom? To fight what? To fight the devil!
It is God Himself who announces this to the devil: "I shall place between thee—the devil, Satan—and the Virgin Mary an enmity." So the Virgin has an enemy. And not only an enmity between the Virgin Mary and Satan, but an enmity between the progeny of Satan and the progeny of Mary; between the world, between everything represented by those who are the children of Satan, but those who struggle against God, who detest God, and the Son of Mary, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all those who will be the children of the Virgin Mary.
There are then, by the will of God, two armies in the world: an army of the children of the Virgin Mary, and an army of the children of Satan. And between them, God has placed an enmity, an enmity that will last until the end of time, until the end of the world. Consequently, the Virgin Mary, already, before being born, promised by God, draws us into a combat, into her combat, into the combat that will lead her to victory. A combat, however, which, alas, will often be waged in painful, in difficult, and in trying periods. But if we follow the Virgin Mary we are sure with her to achieve victory.
This victory that the Virgin Mary desires is a victory against Satan and, consequently, against sin. The Virgin Mary is the symbol of those who do not want to sin, who do not want to disobey God. This is the battle that the Virgin Mary is going to wage through the ages. So it is a great lesson that God gives us in announcing the birth of His Mother, in announcing that we shall have a Mother, a heavenly Mother, a Mother who will do battle. So we shall do battle with her and we must do battle against the common enemy who is Satan, and all those who with Satan are against God.
Perhaps you have observed nowadays in modern ecclesiastical literature that they no longer want to talk about the enemies of the Church, they no longer want to talk about the enemies of God, the enemies of Our Lord Jesus Christ. They would like these enemies to become brothers. Instead of combatting sin in them, the sin that removes them from God, by loving them, by seeking to convert them, it now seems that those who believe in the Virgin Mary, that the children of the Virgin Mary and those who are not children of the Virgin Mary, are all brothers.
Well, this is not true. We must strive to bring them to become children of Mary, but we cannot recognize them as children of God if they are not children of Mary.
The second lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us, when she was visited by the Angel Gabriel, is her faith. The first act noted for us in the Gospel on the occasion of the Annunciation is the faith of Mary. And her cousin Elizabeth congratulates her: "Beata quae credidisti: blessed art thou who hast believed." Yes, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary believed. She believed in whom, in what? She believed that the Son who was to be born of her was the Son of God; she believed in the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ; she believed in the Divinity of her divine Son.
This is the great lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us. Henceforth, she lives only for the Reign of her Son, for the glory of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the greatest humility—she says herself that she was chosen because of her humility.
Saint Elizabeth did not hesitate to praise her precisely for this: "Blessed art thou, O Mary, because thou hast believed." This should also be our own first conviction: We must believe; we must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We must believe all our Credo, the whole faith that the Most Blessed Virgin had transmitted, that the Most Blessed Virgin manifested to the Apostles and that the Apostles transmitted. We must keep this faith intact. Let us ask the Virgin Mary to have faith like hers—to have faith as deep, as firm, as courageous as that of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
The third event in the life of the Virgin Mary that shows us how we should behave is what took place at the wedding feast of Cana. You remember that they ran out of wine during the wedding feast of Cana. The servants came to tell Mary that there was no more wine. And what did Mary tell the servants? "Do all that He tells you; do all that my divine Son tells you." This is the Gospel of Mary. All is summarized in this phrase: "Do what Jesus tells you."
Mary addresses these words to us as well, not only to the servants of Cana. At the very beginning of the period of evangelization of Our Lord, the Most Blessed Virgin is already speaking to us, is already speaking to those who will be the disciples of Our Lord. And when we appeal to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to ask her what we should do in the difficult circumstances of our lives, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will answer us just as she answered the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: "Do all that He tells you. Do the will of Our Lord. Observe the commandments of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If you do the will of Our Lord, if you do the will of my divine Son, then you will be saved. Then your soul, which is perhaps like water, will be changed into wine, a generous wine. Your soul will be filled with the grace of the Lord. Your soul will be filled with all that is necessary for you to fulfill the commandments of God. This is the third lesson that our heavenly Mother gives us.
The fourth lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us is her presence on Calvary. Her presence on Calvary, where she is not the priest who offers the sacrifice—the priest who offers the sacrifice is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself—but the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is there, present. The Apostles are absent; only Saint John is with her.
By this presence on Calvary, the Virgin Mary shows us the importance of the Sacrifice of Calvary, and, consequently, the importance of the Sacrifice of the Mass. She is the Mother of priests. She is the Mother of all the faithful. And by this presence, standing before her divine Son, who is covered with blood, whose blood was poured forth for our sins, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary shows Him to us, and says to us, "See the love He has for you: my divine Son has given all His blood, this blood that I myself gave Him in my womb, this blood that is now all over His body. His heart is open. His head is pierced with thorns. His hands are pierced; His feet pierced—all that by love for you." And this will continue until the end of time through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Thus the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us the great mystery of the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, realized in the Sacrifice of Calvary, in the Sacrifice of the Mass, and in the Eucharist. For the Sacrifice of the Mass also gives us the Eucharist; this Flesh and Blood of the Victim that we must eat and drink to obtain eternal life. It is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who said so; "If you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have eternal life." So Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished this unimaginable, the incredible miracle of really giving us His body and His blood to eat and drink. This is what the great love of Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished, and this is the lesson that the Virgin Mary gives us by her presence at the feet of her divine Son on Calvary.
Finally, the last lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us is that of her presence in the midst of the Apostles the day of Pentecost. It is through her that the graces will be given to the Apostles and that the Holy Ghost will descend upon the Apostles. The Church teaches us so. The Apostles were sanctified on that day by the Holy Ghost through the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, through the mediation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
She no longer needed to receive the Holy Ghost. She was filled with the Holy Ghost. The Angel Gabriel had told her so: "Thou art filled with the Holy Ghost." She no longer needed to receive Him. But if she was present, it is because she wanted to communicate the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, and because Our Lord wanted Him to be communicated to them through her—to them and, consequently, to the Church. There she truly became the Mother of the Church, because it was she who by her mediation gave the Holy Ghost to the Apostles.
So the Most Blessed Virgin teaches us to love the Church, to love the Holy Ghost—the Holy Ghost, who is given to us by all the Sacraments instituted by Our Lord, and especially by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by the Eucharist. This is what the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us.
Therefore, we must be attached to the Church, and it is because we are attached to the Church that we defend our holy Mother the Church. The Roman Catholic Church is our mother. And it is because we are the devoted sons of the Church, because we love the Church, because we love Rome, because we love all those who truly represent the Holy Catholic Church, that we defend our faith, that we defend what the Virgin Mary has given us.
We do not want them to change our Church. We want no other Church. We want the Roman Catholic Church, that which the Most Blessed Virgin Mary communicated to the Apostles in the Holy Ghost. This is the Church that we want. This is the Church that we love—the Church of the Mother of Jesus, the Church of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. This is the Church that we want. This is the Church that we venerate, the Church to which we wish forever to remain subject. So we beg those who have posts of authority in the Church not to change our Church, to remain faithful to the Church of Mary, to remain faithful to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, to all the lessons that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary has given us.
And I beg you, my dear brethren, to be the leaven—the leaven of the Catholic Church, of this love for the Catholic Church, in all your regions, in all your families, in all your homes. Remain children of Mary, Pray to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Meditate on the lessons that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives you. Then you will be true Catholics. You cannot be children of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in a full and holy manner, without being the best children of the Catholic Church. This is what reassures us that we are indeed true sons of the Catholic Church.
So I am convinced that when you return home you will be true representatives of the Catholic Church, and that you will co all you can so that she continues, despite the difficulties, despite the trials, despite the contradictions. We must all pray together today for you to be witnesses. Just as the Apostles received the Holy Ghost through the Virgin Mary, and went forth to give witness to the Gospel throughout the world, so you also must be the witnesses of the Virgin Mary, of the Holy Ghost that you have received through her, and give witness to your faith in God, of your faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, of your love for the Church, wherever you may be. This is what God desires.
You are the Church! You are the Church! You are the Catholic Church! So let us remain in this Church of the Virgin Mary. Let us confide in her. Let us confide to her our families, especially our children, who so need the help of the Virgin Mary to remain in the true Catholic faith.
I congratulate you with all my heart for preserving this faith. I also congratulate you with all my heart to see that you have so many children. We observe that half of the assembly here is composed of persons less than twenty years old. This is a sign, a sign of your fidelity to the Catholic Church, a sign of your fidelity to the commandments of God. I congratulate you, and I am sure that God's blessings are upon you.
I hope that next year, or perhaps in two years, I do not know, if, of course, God gives me life, that I shall be able again, with you to say Mass, no longer here, but to say it in our beautiful basilica, which will be rebuilt, by the grace of God. And we shall be able to sing the praises of the Virgin Mary, as we are doing today, but perhaps with still greater beauty and a still greater number of pilgrims.
May God bless you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.[/b]
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Archbishop Lefebvre 1979: To Be the Leaven of the Catholic Church |
Posted by: Stone - 03-25-2023, 07:05 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
- No Replies
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The Angelus - September 1979
The Sermon of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin, 15 August 1979
Saint Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, during the Angelus Pilgrimage
My dear brethren,
When I came to Saint Mary's College for the first time two years ago, I was amazed and stupefied by the magnificence of the chapel, of the chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. And when those who were showing me around this magnificent chapel told me that it was a shrine venerated throughout America, and particularly in this area, I thought at once that, if God permitted us to have this property, and especially this chapel, we would make of it a center of pilgrimage, a center of devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary for all America. People would come from the North, from the South, from the East, from the West, to this center which lies in the geographical center of America, so as to manifest their devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and to discover at her feet the line of conduct to follow in this terrible period that the Church is passing through today.
And already I was promising Father Bolduc that I would come for the feast of August 15, to meet all those who would desire to come pray at the feet of the Most Blessed Virgin, and to encourage them to preserve the Catholic faith in union with the Virgin Mary. But by the decision of Providence, the chapel caught fire. This was a great trial for us. It was indeed a disaster. Our hearts were in anguish. But since God had decided thus, we still thought that we should maintain this date for the pilgrimage, and that, since it had become necessary, we would reconstruct the chapel.
And what we did just a little while ago—the blessing of the cornerstone—is proof that you are determined to rebuild the chapel for the glory of the Most Blessed Virgin. I am convinced that all of you will help to make of this shrine a shrine as beautiful, if not more beautiful, than that which was there before. And I am happy to see that you have come—despite the destruction, you have come from all parts of America. I also thank the priests who are present, and especially Msgr. Donahue, who has come from Los Angeles, to celebrate with us this Feast of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
In a few words I would like to show you how much the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in this painful crisis that the Church is going through, should be our guide and our model. With her we are certain not to go astray. We shall look to her, we shall ask her what she did during the course of her life, what she has to teach us, and we shall see that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us just what the Church has taught us ever since, in the course of twenty centuries.
The first element that concerns the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and that announces her, is found in the protogospel, in Genesis, where already Mary is presented as a queen going forth to battle, as the queen of hosts, queen of armies who gathers about herself all the forces of God, all the graces of God, and this to fight. To fight whom? To fight what? To fight the devil!
It is God Himself who announces this to the devil: "I shall place between thee—the devil, Satan—and the Virgin Mary an enmity." So the Virgin has an enemy. And not only an enmity between the Virgin Mary and Satan, but an enmity between the progeny of Satan and the progeny of Mary; between the world, between everything represented by those who are the children of Satan, but those who struggle against God, who detest God, and the Son of Mary, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all those who will be the children of the Virgin Mary.
There are then, by the will of God, two armies in the world: an army of the children of the Virgin Mary, and an army of the children of Satan. And between them, God has placed an enmity, an enmity that will last until the end of time, until the end of the world. Consequently, the Virgin Mary, already, before being born, promised by God, draws us into a combat, into her combat, into the combat that will lead her to victory. A combat, however, which, alas, will often be waged in painful, in difficult, and in trying periods. But if we follow the Virgin Mary we are sure with her to achieve victory.
This victory that the Virgin Mary desires is a victory against Satan and, consequently, against sin. The Virgin Mary is the symbol of those who do not want to sin, who do not want to disobey God. This is the battle that the Virgin Mary is going to wage through the ages. So it is a great lesson that God gives us in announcing the birth of His Mother, in announcing that we shall have a Mother, a heavenly Mother, a Mother who will do battle. So we shall do battle with her and we must do battle against the common enemy who is Satan, and all those who with Satan are against God.
Perhaps you have observed nowadays in modern ecclesiastical literature that they no longer want to talk about the enemies of the Church, they no longer want to talk about the enemies of God, the enemies of Our Lord Jesus Christ. They would like these enemies to become brothers. Instead of combatting sin in them, the sin that removes them from God, by loving them, by seeking to convert them, it now seems that those who believe in the Virgin Mary, that the children of the Virgin Mary and those who are not children of the Virgin Mary, are all brothers.
Well, this is not true. We must strive to bring them to become children of Mary, but we cannot recognize them as children of God if they are not children of Mary.
The second lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us, when she was visited by the Angel Gabriel, is her faith. The first act noted for us in the Gospel on the occasion of the Annunciation is the faith of Mary. And her cousin Elizabeth congratulates her: "Beata quae credidisti: blessed art thou who hast believed." Yes, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary believed. She believed in whom, in what? She believed that the Son who was to be born of her was the Son of God; she believed in the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ; she believed in the Divinity of her divine Son.
This is the great lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us. Henceforth, she lives only for the Reign of her Son, for the glory of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the greatest humility—she says herself that she was chosen because of her humility.
Saint Elizabeth did not hesitate to praise her precisely for this: "Blessed art thou, O Mary, because thou hast believed." This should also be our own first conviction: We must believe; we must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We must believe all our Credo, the whole faith that the Most Blessed Virgin had transmitted, that the Most Blessed Virgin manifested to the Apostles and that the Apostles transmitted. We must keep this faith intact. Let us ask the Virgin Mary to have faith like hers—to have faith as deep, as firm, as courageous as that of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
The third event in the life of the Virgin Mary that shows us how we should behave is what took place at the wedding feast of Cana. You remember that they ran out of wine during the wedding feast of Cana. The servants came to tell Mary that there was no more wine. And what did Mary tell the servants? "Do all that He tells you; do all that my divine Son tells you." This is the Gospel of Mary. All is summarized in this phrase: "Do what Jesus tells you."
Mary addresses these words to us as well, not only to the servants of Cana. At the very beginning of the period of evangelization of Our Lord, the Most Blessed Virgin is already speaking to us, is already speaking to those who will be the disciples of Our Lord. And when we appeal to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to ask her what we should do in the difficult circumstances of our lives, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will answer us just as she answered the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: "Do all that He tells you. Do the will of Our Lord. Observe the commandments of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If you do the will of Our Lord, if you do the will of my divine Son, then you will be saved. Then your soul, which is perhaps like water, will be changed into wine, a generous wine. Your soul will be filled with the grace of the Lord. Your soul will be filled with all that is necessary for you to fulfill the commandments of God. This is the third lesson that our heavenly Mother gives us.
The fourth lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us is her presence on Calvary. Her presence on Calvary, where she is not the priest who offers the sacrifice—the priest who offers the sacrifice is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself—but the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is there, present. The Apostles are absent; only Saint John is with her.
By this presence on Calvary, the Virgin Mary shows us the importance of the Sacrifice of Calvary, and, consequently, the importance of the Sacrifice of the Mass. She is the Mother of priests. She is the Mother of all the faithful. And by this presence, standing before her divine Son, who is covered with blood, whose blood was poured forth for our sins, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary shows Him to us, and says to us, "See the love He has for you: my divine Son has given all His blood, this blood that I myself gave Him in my womb, this blood that is now all over His body. His heart is open. His head is pierced with thorns. His hands are pierced; His feet pierced—all that by love for you." And this will continue until the end of time through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Thus the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us the great mystery of the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, realized in the Sacrifice of Calvary, in the Sacrifice of the Mass, and in the Eucharist. For the Sacrifice of the Mass also gives us the Eucharist; this Flesh and Blood of the Victim that we must eat and drink to obtain eternal life. It is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who said so; "If you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have eternal life." So Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished this unimaginable, the incredible miracle of really giving us His body and His blood to eat and drink. This is what the great love of Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished, and this is the lesson that the Virgin Mary gives us by her presence at the feet of her divine Son on Calvary.
Finally, the last lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us is that of her presence in the midst of the Apostles the day of Pentecost. It is through her that the graces will be given to the Apostles and that the Holy Ghost will descend upon the Apostles. The Church teaches us so. The Apostles were sanctified on that day by the Holy Ghost through the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, through the mediation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
She no longer needed to receive the Holy Ghost. She was filled with the Holy Ghost. The Angel Gabriel had told her so: "Thou art filled with the Holy Ghost." She no longer needed to receive Him. But if she was present, it is because she wanted to communicate the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, and because Our Lord wanted Him to be communicated to them through her—to them and, consequently, to the Church. There she truly became the Mother of the Church, because it was she who by her mediation gave the Holy Ghost to the Apostles.
So the Most Blessed Virgin teaches us to love the Church, to love the Holy Ghost—the Holy Ghost, who is given to us by all the Sacraments instituted by Our Lord, and especially by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by the Eucharist. This is what the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us.
Therefore, we must be attached to the Church, and it is because we are attached to the Church that we defend our holy Mother the Church. The Roman Catholic Church is our mother. And it is because we are the devoted sons of the Church, because we love the Church, because we love Rome, because we love all those who truly represent the Holy Catholic Church, that we defend our faith, that we defend what the Virgin Mary has given us.
We do not want them to change our Church. We want no other Church. We want the Roman Catholic Church, that which the Most Blessed Virgin Mary communicated to the Apostles in the Holy Ghost. This is the Church that we want. This is the Church that we love—the Church of the Mother of Jesus, the Church of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. This is the Church that we want. This is the Church that we venerate, the Church to which we wish forever to remain subject. So we beg those who have posts of authority in the Church not to change our Church, to remain faithful to the Church of Mary, to remain faithful to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, to all the lessons that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary has given us.
And I beg you, my dear brethren, to be the leaven—the leaven of the Catholic Church, of this love for the Catholic Church, in all your regions, in all your families, in all your homes. Remain children of Mary, Pray to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Meditate on the lessons that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives you. Then you will be true Catholics. You cannot be children of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in a full and holy manner, without being the best children of the Catholic Church. This is what reassures us that we are indeed true sons of the Catholic Church.
So I am convinced that when you return home you will be true representatives of the Catholic Church, and that you will co all you can so that she continues, despite the difficulties, despite the trials, despite the contradictions. We must all pray together today for you to be witnesses. Just as the Apostles received the Holy Ghost through the Virgin Mary, and went forth to give witness to the Gospel throughout the world, so you also must be the witnesses of the Virgin Mary, of the Holy Ghost that you have received through her, and give witness to your faith in God, of your faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, of your love for the Church, wherever you may be. This is what God desires.
You are the Church! You are the Church! You are the Catholic Church! So let us remain in this Church of the Virgin Mary. Let us confide in her. Let us confide to her our families, especially our children, who so need the help of the Virgin Mary to remain in the true Catholic faith.
I congratulate you with all my heart for preserving this faith. I also congratulate you with all my heart to see that you have so many children. We observe that half of the assembly here is composed of persons less than twenty years old. This is a sign, a sign of your fidelity to the Catholic Church, a sign of your fidelity to the commandments of God. I congratulate you, and I am sure that God's blessings are upon you.
I hope that next year, or perhaps in two years, I do not know, if, of course, God gives me life, that I shall be able again, with you to say Mass, no longer here, but to say it in our beautiful basilica, which will be rebuilt, by the grace of God. And we shall be able to sing the praises of the Virgin Mary, as we are doing today, but perhaps with still greater beauty and a still greater number of pilgrims.
May God bless you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.[/b]
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Local Chinese authorities order parents at school to sign pledge renouncing their faith |
Posted by: Stone - 03-24-2023, 06:13 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Local Chinese authorities order parents at school to sign pledge renouncing their faith
CNA | Mar 23, 2023
In another crackdown on religious freedom, local authorities in an eastern Chinese city ordered parents of kindergarteners to sign a pledge that affirms they are not religious.
Guardians of children at schools in Wenzhou, a city in the Zhejiang province, were asked to sign a “pledge form of commitment for family not to hold a religious belief,” according to the human rights group China Aid.
The pledge states that the parents affirm they “do not hold a religious belief, do not participate in any religious activities, and do not propagate and disseminate religion in any locations.” It also makes them affirm “exemplary observance of the [Chinese Communist] Party discipline and the country’s laws and regulations [and to] never join any Falun Gong and other cult organizations.”
Falun Gong, a religious movement founded in China in the 1990s, is openly critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
The order came from Chinese Communist Party officials in the Longwan district of the city of Wenzhou, according to ChinaAid. The nonprofit is a Christian human-rights organization that received the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy for its commitment to religious freedom in China in 2019.
The district is home to about 750,000, people. Christians represent about 10% of the city’s population and have grown in number over the past decade. This is much higher than the national average, which is less than 1% Christian.
One preschool teacher anonymously said the local authorities had never gone this far before, ChinaAid reported.
“In the past, the higher-level education department made it compulsory for kindergartens not to be superstitious and not to participate in cult organizations but did not mandate kindergarten children’s families not to believe in religion or participate in any religious activities,” the teacher said.
The Chinese constitution states that citizens “enjoy freedom of religious belief” but limits religious practices to “normal religious activities,” according to the U.S. Department of State. The Chinese government recognizes five religions, which it calls “patriotic religious associations”: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism. However, the city and the nation as a whole have repeatedly been accused of violating the rights of those who practice these religions as well.
In Wenzhou, Christians have faced persecution in several ways. The city https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...vices.html from attending religious services and engaging in religious activities in 2017. The following year, the city forbade teachers, hospital workers, and other city employees from holding religious beliefs.
The Vatican signed a deal with the Chinese Communist Party in 2018, but much of the deal has remained secret. The deal was meant to unify the underground Catholic Church with the more public Catholic Church in China by allowing the Chinese Communist Party to play a larger role in the appointment of bishops. This ultimately led to crackdowns on Catholics in the underground churches, which https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/14177/c...d-in-china in priests, bishops, and even cardinals being detained or arrested.
One of the fiercest critics of the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on Catholics is Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was arrested for helping operate the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund to help Hong Kong citizens who protested the Chinese Communist Party. In a https://www.wionews.com/world/exclusive-...zen-344918 with WION, Zen said the Vatican’s deal with China only emboldened the Chinese Communist Party to crack down harder.
“We have only the moral strength to resist peacefully against the persecution,” Zen said. “It’s [important] for us to keep our faith, not to surrender our faith; we can even sacrifice the sacraments — when you are arrested you cannot keep the sacraments but your faith is in your hearts to help you but you cannot deny your faith.”
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The Fed Proposes A 4th Function Of Money: Means Of Social Control |
Posted by: Stone - 03-23-2023, 07:26 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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The Fed Proposes A 4th Function Of Money: Means Of Social Control
ZH | MAR 23, 2023
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com
A Federal Reserve white paper has come up with a new function for money. Let's tune in...
Docket No. OP - 1670
Please consider Docket No. OP - 1670 on Interbank Settlement of Faster Payments.
Quote:The Federal Reserve Board announced that the Federal Reserve Banks will develop a new round-the-clock real-time payment and settlement service, called the FedNow Service, to support faster payments in the United States.
This is a direct response to the threat posed by digital currencies and blockchain. According to one Fed official, "Last summer, the U.S. Treasury recommended that 'the Federal Reserve move quickly to facilitate a faster retail payments system, such as through the development of a real-time settlement service, that would also allow for more efficient and ubiquitous access to innovative payment capabilities."' We believe this effort requires a proof-of-authority quantum computing based blockchain system.
As we noted in our paper "Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and the Future of Monetary Policy," confidential, not-for-distribution research sent to select members of the House Financial Services Committee, it is critical to understand that bitcoin was created in direct response to the failure of global regulators to protect the public in the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Thus, the ethical and monetary functionality of cryptocurrency is superior to that of paper money. Eventually, cryptocurrency is going to dominate.
As also noted in our paper, "The main economic attributes of a technically effective currency rests on three functions: as a unit of account, a store of value and as a medium of exchange."
But there is a fourth function of money: as a means of social control. The centralized monopoly over the functions of money held by sovereign governments and central banks has generated great income and wealth imbalances. Concerns about a lack of central bank performance with respect to financial inclusion, income inequality, economic system stability and the tendency of central banks to intermediate on behalf of large financial institutions supported the creation of cryptocurrency"
As we noted in a second paper "Is FedCoin Feasible?" another confidential, not-for-distribution research paper sent to select members of the House Financial Services Committee, we suggest the Board focus on using an enhanced Bitcoin blockchain to "support depository institutions' provision of end-to-end faster payment services and would provide infrastructure to promote ubiquitous, safe, and efficient faster payments in the United States."
Confidential Not for Publication
The Fed is sending "confidential, not-for-distribution research" to select members of the House Financial Services Committee espousing money as a means of social control.
The confidential Fed research express concerns over income inequality and fears of Bitcoin.
The link above was published in October of 2019, but it just came my way today.
The rest is confidential, sent no doubt to select Marxists on the House Financial Services Committee who want to address income inequality by income redistribution.
What we don't know is how much further progress has been made towards income redistribution and social control. Nor do we know what other ideas regarding money are hidden in the papers.
Seriously, [...]?!
Fed Policy: It's Not Fractional Reserve Banking, It's ZERO Reserve Banking
Meanwhile, please note Fed Policy: It's Not Fractional Reserve Banking, It's ZERO Reserve Banking
There's nothing like a Fed-sponsored bank crisis coupled with zero reserves on deposits to help aid the goals of using money as a means of social control.
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Uganda Criminalizes LGBTQ stuff |
Posted by: SAguide - 03-22-2023, 07:34 PM - Forum: Global News
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Uganda passes a law making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ
Homosexuality is illegal in more than 30 of Africa's 55 nations
"Our creator God is happy (about) what is happening ... I support the bill to protect the future
of our children," lawmaker David Bahati said during debate on the bill.
KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda's parliament passed a law on Tuesday making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target gay Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence.
More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to rights group Human Rights Watch.
Supporters of the new law say it is needed to punish a broader array of LGBTQ activities, which they say threaten traditional values in the conservative and religious East African nation.
In addition to same-sex intercourse, the law bans promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.
Violations under the law draw severe penalties, including death for so-called aggravated homosexuality and life in prison for gay sex. Aggravated homosexuality involves gay sex with people under the age of 18 or when the perpetrator is HIV positive, among other categories, according to the law.
"Our creator God is happy (about) what is happening ... I support the bill to protect the future of our children," lawmaker David Bahati said during debate on the bill.
"This is about the sovereignty of our nation, nobody should blackmail us, nobody should intimidate us."
The legislation will be sent to President Yoweri Museveni to be signed into law.
Frank Mugisha, a prominent Ugandan LGBTQ activist denounced the legislation as draconian.
"This law is very extreme and draconian ... it criminalises being an LGBTQ person, but also they are trying to erase the entire existence of any LGBTQ Ugandan," he said.
Museveni has not commented on the current proposal but he has long opposed LGBTQ rights and signed an anti-LGBTQ law in 2013 that Western countries condemned before a domestic court struck it down on procedural grounds.
In recent weeks, Uganda authorities have cracked down on LGBTQ people after religious leaders and politicians alleged students were being recruited into homosexuality in schools.
This month, authorities arrested a secondary school teacher in the eastern district of Jinja over accusations of "grooming of young girls into unnatural sex practices".
She was subsequently charged with gross indecency and is in prison awaiting trial.
The police said on Monday they had arrested six people accused of running a network that was "actively involved in the grooming of young boys into acts of sodomy".
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Ross, Hereward Holland and Josie Kao)
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Austrian bishop could face legal complaints for placing pig heart ‘lenten cloth’ |
Posted by: Stone - 03-22-2023, 07:36 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Why are the faithful leading the charge against what the blasphemy this bishop is committing? Why aren't his superiors ordering the removal of such horrible things from a consecrated church?
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Austrian bishop could face legal complaints after placing pig heart ‘lenten cloth’ in Catholic church
Bishop Hermann Glettler of the Diocese of Innsbruck installed the so-called 'lenten cloth' in the 18th century Innsbrucker Spitalskirche.
Tue Mar 21, 2023
INNSBRUCK, Austria (LifeSiteNews) — An Austrian bishop will remove from one of his churches a highly controversial “lenten cloth” that has caused outrage amongst faithful Catholics.
The cloth shows a pig heart half covered by a condom, and Austrian Catholics might file a criminal complaint against their bishop for “disparagement of religious teachings.”
Bishop Hermann Glettler of the Diocese of Innsbruck installed the so-called “lenten cloth” in the 18th century “Innsbrucker Spitalskirche”(i.e. hospital church). He previously defended it as an “attempt to create a dialogue with contemporary art” and stressed that the image is “of course” not a depiction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
However, the anger of faithful Catholics was seemingly too much for the prelate, leading Glettler to announce on Tuesday that he will “take down the work of art before Holy Week” as “a sign of reconciliation,” the local newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung reported.
The Bishop of Innsbruck is under pressure by his critics. In fact, he is facing legal charges on two accounts. Firstly, faithful Catholics are thinking about filing a criminal complaint against Gletter for “disparagement of religious teachings,” according to kath.net. Secondly, local politician Gerald Depaoli announced that he will file a legal complaint against Glettler because the bishop made public the email addresses of all his critics in his response email. This means that Glettler may have violated the Austrian Data Protection Regulation.
A few days earlier, Glettler had lashed out at the conservative Catholic news site kath.net, which covered the story and criticized the Austrian bishop. He claimed that “this platform is manipulative and hateful in its reporting.” The bishop furthermore alleged that he received “very much positive feedback” for the “artwork.” He did not providing any proof of this, however.
This was not the first time that Glettler displayed a heterodox “artwork” in one of his churches. Last year, the bishop installed a giant photograph of a half-naked pro-LGBT activist in a Catholic Church in Innsbruck. In 2019, the bishop allowed a “Jesus clock” made from an upside-down corpus with broken arms to be installed in a church.
Glettler is known for his heterodoxy. He has publicly called for “blessings” for same-sex couples and condoned an active homosexual lifestyle. He furthermore said in 2020 that the Church’s doctrine that women cannot be ordained as priests is an “inequality” that is “difficult to justify.” In 2019, he hosted seminars for divorced and “remarried” couples living in adultery in which he allowed the couples to receive Holy Communion and a “celebration of reconciliation and of blessing.”
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Catholic church in France vandalized with satanic messages, nearly set on fire |
Posted by: Stone - 03-22-2023, 07:29 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Catholic church in France vandalized with satanic messages, nearly set on fire
In mid-March, Sacred Heart Church in Bordeaux was desecrated by vandals who marked the church’s doors and walls with satanic and communist phrases and symbols.
Church of the Sacred Heart, Bordeaux
Olivier432/WikiCommons
Mar 21, 2023
BORDEAUX, France (LifeSiteNews)— Another Catholic church in France was vandalized this month.
In mid-March, Sacred Heart Church in Bordeaux was desecrated by vandals who marked the church’s doors and walls with satanic and communist phrases and symbols. A fire was lit in the church’s courtyard, but it was extinguished before causing damage to the building.
“During the night of March 12 to 13, the door and some of the walls of the facade of the Church of the Sacred Heart were defaced with graffiti,” said the Archdiocese of Bordeaux’s head of communications, Constance Pluviaud, in a statement. “A trash fire in front of the church was extinguished by firefighters called to the scene. This fire did not damage the church.”
Pluviaud revealed that the archdiocese had filed a complaint about the damages by Sunday evening, March 12 and described the curia’s feelings.
“The diocese shares the emotion of the Catholic faithful and the inhabitants shocked by this act,” she said.
According to local news sources, on the evening of March 12, locals saw a crowd of young people, many of them in disguises, gathered in front of the church, drinking and listening to music. Pictures of the damage show messages such as “Lucifer is right,” “Devil, take me with you,” “Thank you, Satan,” and “The neighbors hate the Church” scrawled on the church.
The prefect, or state representative, of New Aquitaine, a region in the southwest of France, condemned the attack in a tweet on March 13, saying an investigation was underway.
“The Church of the Sacred Heart of #Bordeaux was targeted last night by hate tags and acts of vandalism,” tweeted the prefect, Étienne Guyot, following the attack.
Guyot denounced the act of vandalism as “intolerable,” saying that “an investigation has been opened so that the perpetrators can be identified and brought to justice.”
Sacred Heart Church was commissioned in 1837 by the archbishop of the time, Cardinal Ferdinand-François-Auguste Donnet. It was built by Jean-Jules Mondet, an architect credited with other neo-Romanesque and neo-Gothic churches in France.
Sadly, this is not the only church to suffer recent vandalism. Over the last few years, France has become a hotbed for anti-Christian sentiment, with attacks on Catholics and Catholic churches alike becoming the norm. LifeSiteNews has reported that in 2018 alone, France’s Ministry of the Interior documented 1,063 anti-Christian acts. These numbers have only increased since then, with reports showing that there was a 70% increase in anti-Catholic hate crimes from 2019 to 2020.
In October 2020, LifeSite reported that three Catholics were killed in an attack on Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Nice, France by an Islamic terrorist. They also reported that a similar attack occurred in Nice in April 2022, when a 31-year-old national stabbed a priest and nun multiple times shortly before the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass at the church of Saint Pierre d’Arène.
In 2021, France saw an onslaught of attacks, with numerous acts of terrorism perpetrated against Catholic churches across the country. A report put out by the French Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) details many of these attacks, one of which included an attack on the Holy Eucharist.
As mentioned in the report, one such attack occurred on the night of November 21, when the Church of St. Joseph in Cannes in the diocese of Nice was broken into by vandals who took the Eucharist from the tabernacle and desecrated it. St. Jean-Baptiste Church in Ambert, diocese of Clermont-Ferrand, was attacked multiple times by vandals who attempted twice to set the church on fire, once on the feast of All Saints, and then again on December 5.
According to the SSPX, the most violent of the attacks occurred against St. Anne d’Arvor Church in Lorient last year, where terrorists destroyed three large plaster statues of Our Lady, St. Therese, and St. Joan of Arc, as well as the Church’s nativity scene, only three days before Christmas and in broad daylight.
Only days before, the Church of St. Roch in Paris was vandalized with anti-Catholic graffiti.
While rampant in France, the targeting of Catholic churches has not been limited to Europe, but has been happening also in the Americas, with LifeSiteNews reporting last week that since the spring of 2020, at least 301 Catholic churches in the United States have been vandalized.
RELATED: Over 300 Catholic churches hit with destructive acts of vandalism since spring 2020: report
Most recently, on March 8, various churches across Latin America were vandalized by pro-abortion activists to mark the worldwide observance of International Women’s Day. As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, rioters in Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and Mexico, as well as other countries, broke windows, attacked police and civilians, and covered walls with anti-life graffiti and slogans in support of their so-called “right” to abortion access.
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The pope and the US auxiliaries |
Posted by: Stone - 03-21-2023, 09:03 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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The pope and the US auxiliaries
Where has Pope Francis appointed auxiliary bishops in the US?
Credit: Shutterstock
The Pillar | March 20, 2023
When historians assess the impact of a pope’s leadership on the life of the Church, they often review his public image and speeches, his engagement with political leaders, and the internal policies he promulgated, upheld, or modified.
It would be easy to miss the impact of a pope’s episcopal appointments — but folly to ignore them.
As any pope does, Pope Francis has shaped and directed the Church through his episcopal appointments — moves which will help chose his successor, and set direction in the Church even beyond the tenure of his pontificate.
To date, Pope Francis has appointed a majority of the voting age cardinals who will select the next pope. And closer to home, much of the American episcopate now bears a Pope Francis stamp. This is particularly true of auxiliary bishops.
According to data from CARA - the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate - there were 78 active auxiliary bishops in the US during 2022. Seventy-two auxiliary bishops have been consecrated since the election of Pope Francis, though 11 of those 72 have since gone on to be consecrated diocesan bishops.
This means that more than 75% of current auxiliary bishops were consecrated during Pope Francis’s papacy, as compared to just more than 60% of diocesan bishops.
Where has he appointed them?
The Pillar takes a look.
What is an auxiliary bishop?
The function of auxiliary bishop dates back in the Church to the 1500s, though its definition and scope has changed over the centuries.
An auxiliary bishop is consecrated to serve as a deputy to a diocesan bishop or archbishop, because of some situation in which a diocese would benefit from more than one bishop in the area. The auxiliary is generally appointed as vicar general or to another senior leadership position in his diocese.
Customarily, auxiliary bishops are consecrated as bishops of a “titular see,” that is a diocese which no longer exists. (Historically, many of these titular sees are ones which ceased to exist as historically Christian areas of North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe were subjected to Muslim conquest during the Middle ages.)
Auxiliaries by the numbers
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 2013 saw the fewest new auxiliary bishops consecrated in the US, with just two.
Bishop Robert Coyle’s appointment as an auxiliary bishop was announced on February 11th, the same day which Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, effective at the end of the month. Bishop Coyle was consecrated a bishop on April 25th, 2013, thus putting his consecration within Pope Francis’s pontificate.
The first US auxiliary bishop selected during Pope Francis’s papacy to be consecrated was Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who was appointed an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis on October 11 and consecrated December 9, 2013.
2017 marked the year with the most auxiliaries consecrated, with 14 bishops consecrated to serve in nine different dioceses.
Covid did not initially slow the consecration of new bishops, with five auxiliaries who had been appointed prior to shutdowns being consecrated in June and July of 2020 and four more who were appointed later in the year being consecrated in the fall.
But whether due to the pandemic or other reasons, 2021 was the lightest full year for auxiliary consecrations, with only two new auxiliary bishops in the U.S.
2023 is already shaping up to be at least average, with three new auxiliary bishops consecrated to date and two more who have been appointed but have not yet been consecrated.
Naturally, the dioceses which have received the most auxiliaries in the last 10 years have been among the larger dioceses in the U.S.
The Archdiocese of New York, which in terms of Catholic population is the second largest in the U.S., has seen the most auxiliaries consecrated during Pope Francis’s papacy, with a total of seven.
The Archdiocese of Chicago, which has the third largest Catholic population in the U.S., came in second, with five auxiliaries consecrated.
San Bernardino, with 1.37 million Catholics, is the diocese with the largest Catholic population which does not have any active auxiliary bishops. San Bernardino's last auxiliary bishop retired in 2015 at the age of 75.
Like San Bernardino, the Dioceses of Fort Worth and Sacramento have no auxiliaries, and more than one million Catholics.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles – the largest U.S. diocese by population – has only two auxiliaries to assist Archbishop Jose Gomez in ministering to 4 million Catholics.
Auxiliary bishop Edward Clark retired in 2022 upon reaching the age of 75, and auxiliary bishop David O’Connell was murdered earlier this year.
If you're looking for the most unusual piece of trivia about recent U.S. auxiliary bishops, here it is: There is one U.S. auxiliary who is an archbishop.
Archbishop Paul Russell was appointed in May 2022 an auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Detroit. But Russell's title dates back to his service as apostolic nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan: In 2016, Russell was made the titular archbishop of Novi, a titular see which was located in Dalmatia.
While Russell is the only archbishop auxiliary in the U.S., he is not presently in ministry – the auxiliary archbishop stepped back from public ministry in August 2022, when he was accused of sexually abusing a minor in 1989 and 1990, when he was a priest of Boston.
The archbishop has denied the allegation.
Editor's note: This analysis was updated after publication to reflect some omissions from our data set, including the 11 auxiliary bishops consecrated since 2013 who have since gone on to become diocesan ordinaries. Our analysis initially made use of a list of new episcopal ordinations compiled by GCatholic.org, but because bishops were listed by their current titles, we missed those who had since become diocesan bishops. We have now expanded the analysis based on the transcription of episcopal appointments from the Vatican’s daily Bulletino hosted by Catholic-Hierarchy.org We regret the initial omission.
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St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for the Fourth Week of Lent |
Posted by: Stone - 03-20-2023, 05:40 AM - Forum: Lent
- Replies (6)
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It is a terrible subject for our consideration that God does nothing but threaten sinners with a bad death. I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock. It is true that in whatever hour the sinner is converted, God has promised to pardon him, but God has not said that in death the sinner shall be converted. On the contrary, He has often declared that the sinner shall die in his sins. You shall die in your sins.
I.
It is a terrible subject for our consideration that God does nothing but threaten sinners with an unhappy death: Then they shall call upon me, and I will not hear. (Prov. i. 28). Will God hear his cry when distress shall come upon him? (Job xxvii. 9). I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock. (Prov. i. 26). God laughs when He will not show mercy. Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide; the day of destruction is at hand. (Deut. xxxii. 35). In many other places God threatens the same; and yet sinners live on in peace, as secure as if God had certainly promised them Paradise. It is true, that in whatever hour the sinner is converted, God has promised to pardon him; but He has not said that in death the sinner shall be converted; on the contrary, He has often declared that he who lives in sin shall die in sin: You shall die in your sins. (John viii. 21). He has said that he who seeks Him at the hour of death shall not find Him: You shall seek me and shall not find me. (John vii. 34). We must, then, seek God when He can be found: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. (Is. lv. 6). Yes; because a time will come when He will not be found. Poor sinners! Poor blind ones, who wait to be converted till the hour of death, when there will be no more time for conversion. "The wicked," says Oleaster, "will not learn to do good till there is no more time for doing it." God wishes to save all, but He punishes the obstinate.
If perchance some unhappy sinner were to be seized with apoplexy, and deprived of his senses, what compassion would it not excite in all to see him dying without the Sacraments, and without a sign of repentance! And what joy would everyone experience if he came to himself again, begged for absolution, and made acts of contrition! But is he not mad, who, having time to do this, continues in sin, or returns to sin, and runs the risk of being surprised by death, when he perhaps may, or perhaps may not, repent? It is terrible to see a man die suddenly; and yet how many voluntarily incur the peril of dying thus, and of dying in sin!
Ah, my God, who would have had so much patience with me as Thou hast had! If Thy goodness were not infinite, I should despair of pardon. But I have to deal with a God Who died to obtain my pardon and my salvation. Thou commandest me to hope, and I will hope. If my sins alarm and condemn me, Thy merits and Thy promises give me courage. Thou hast promised Thy grace to whoever returns to Thee: Return ye and live. (Ezech. xviii. 32). Thou hast promised to embrace whoever turns to Thee: Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you. (Zach. i. 3). Thou hast said Thou canst not despise an humble and contrite heart. (Ps. 1.). Behold me, Lord; I come again to Thee; I turn to Thee; I acknowledge that I deserve a thousand hells; and I repent of having offended Thee. I firmly promise never again to offend Thee, and always to love Thee.
II.
Weight and balance are judgments of the Lord. (Prov. xvi. 11). We keep no account of the graces God bestows on us; but the Lord keeps an account of them and measures them; and when He sees them despised up to a certain point, He leaves the sinner in his sin, and in this state permits him to die. Miserable indeed is he who defers his repentance till death. "The repentance demanded of the sick is also itself sickly," says St. Augustine. St. Jerome says, "that out of a hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin till their death, scarcely one merits indulgence from God in death." St. Vincent Ferrer says, "that it would be a greater miracle if habitual evil-livers had a good end, than to raise the dead to life." What sorrow, what repentance, can he conceive at the hour of death, who until then has loved sin? Bellarmine relates that having gone to assist a certain dying person, and having exhorted him to make an act of contrition, he replied that he did not know what contrition was. Bellarmine endeavoured to explain it to him; but the sick man said: "Father, I do not understand you; I am not capable of these things." And thus he died, "leaving clear signs of his damnation," as is recorded in the writings of Bellarmine. The just punishment of the sinner, says St. Augustine, will be, that having forgot God in his lifetime, he shall forget himself in death: "He is most justly struck, who having forgotten God in his lifetime, dies forgetful of himself." Be not deceived, says the Apostle, God is not mocked: for what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall he reap corruption. (Gal. vi. 7). It would be mocking God to live despising His laws, and then to receive a reward and eternal glory; but God is not mocked. That which we sow in this life we shall reap in the next. He who sows forbidden pleasures of the flesh shall reap nothing but corruption, misery, and eternal death.
Dear Christian, that which is said for others is said likewise for you. Tell me, if you were now at the point of death, given over by your physicians, all your senses failing, and in your last agony, would you not then pray fervently to God to grant you another month, another week, to settle the affairs of your conscience? God gives you now this time. Return Him thanks, quickly repair the evil you have done, and take every means to restore yourself to a state of grace, and be so found when death comes; for then there will be no more time to remedy the past.
Ah, my God, do not permit me to live any longer ungrateful for so much goodness. Eternal Father, through the merits of the obedience of Jesus Christ, Who died to obey Thee, grant that I may obey Thy will until death. I love Thee, O my Sovereign Good; and through the love that I bear Thee, I will obey Thee in all things. Give me holy perseverance; give me Thy love, and I ask nothing more of Thee. Mary, my Mother, intercede for me.
Spritual Reading
HEROES AND HEROINES OF THE FAITH
ST. ADALBERT, BISHOP OF PRAGUE (April 23)
St. Adalbert was born in Bohemia, of noble parentage, about the middle of the tenth century. His father, a Slavonian, sent him to study at Magdeburg, under the care of the Archbishop Adalbert,* who placed him in a school, under the direction of a holy monk named Odericus, where the pupils, by serious attention to their studies and most exemplary morals, edified one another.
*This prelate, charmed with the happy disposition of his pupil, conceived for him the tenderness of a father, and gave him his name in admitting him to the Sacrament of Confirmation. Young Adalbert was a child of the Blessed Virgin. While yet an infant, he was attacked by an illness that reduced him to the last extremity. His parents then carried him to the church and placed him on the the Altar of the Blessed Virgin and promised to consecrate him to the service of God if he should recover his health. Their prayers were heard.--Ed.
Adalbert, having remained nine years in this school, made considerable progress in human sciences, but still more in the Science of the Saints; for whatever time was allowed for recreation, he spent in holy prayer, in relieving the poor, and visiting the sick. Having made a copious collection of books, consisting chiefly of the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, he returned to Bohemia, and entered the ecclesiastical state at Prague. Diethmar, Bishop of that city, was greatly enamoured of his virtue, and ordained him subdeacon. About this time Bishop Diethmar died.
An assembly was held to propose a successor, at which the prince of Bohemia and other grandees were present, and, by unanimous consent, Adalbert was chosen. Not-withstanding all his reluctance, and his pleas of unworthiness and youth, he was obliged to accept the onerous charge; and the election having met the approval of the emperor, our Saint received the episcopal consecration at the hands of Villegisus, Archbishop of Mayence. He immediately proceeded to Prague, to take possession of his See, and was received amid the acclamations of the people. In assuming the government of his Church, his extraordinary piety became manifest; for on all Festivals he distributed alms, and supported twelve poor persons continually. He slept upon the bare floor, or upon sackcloth, and passed a considerable part of the night in prayer. His continual preaching, and frequent visits to the sick and those in prison, manifested how totally he was devoted to the glory of God and the welfare of his flock.
But they treated his admonitions with an obstinacy surpassing the enthusiasm with which they had at first hailed his arrival; and Adalbert accordingly resolved to leave them, having first consulted, and obtained permission from Pope John XV. His first intention was to make a pilgrimage on foot to the Holy Land; but on his arrival at Monte Cassino, the Abbot and some of the monks induced him to remain with them for some time, until it became known who he was; whereupon the holy bishop proceeded to Rome, and by the advice of the Pope, received the religious habit in the monastery of St. Alexis, in the year 900. Here he lived in tranquillity for three years and a half, until the Duke of Bohemia, moved by the wretched state of the Church at Prague, induced the Pope to send him back.
Upon his return, the most ample promises of obedience were made, but never fulfilled. So the Saint again abandoned his rebellious flock, and went to preach the Gospel to the idolaters of Hungary. His success, here, was not proportionate to his zeal; and the Bohemians continuing as obstinate as ever, he again returned to his monastery at Rome.
He was obliged by the Pope to repair a second time to Prague. The Saint set out in obedience to this command; but being informed that his ungrateful flock had shown their implacable hatred of him by murdering his brothers, he requested the Duke of Poland to ascertain whether they were willing to receive him. The Bohemians replied: "Adalbert is a Saint and we are sinners; so it is impossible to expect that we can live quietly together." The Saint took this as a sufficient exoneration from the solicitude of the Church, and went to undertake the conversion of the pagans who were then in Prussia.
After he had suffered many hardships on this mission, the idolaters one day assembled in great numbers, and demanded of him why he had entered their country. The Saint replied that he had come for their salvation, and exhorted them to abandon the worship of idols, and to adore the true God. But the barbarians were displeased at his words, and Siggo, the priest of the idols, ran him through the breast with his lance, whereupon the others rushed upon him also, while the Saint, raising his hands to Heaven, prayed to the Lord for their conversion. The inhuman wretches placed his head upon a pole, and bore it away amid shouts of exultation. His Martyrdom took place on the 23rd April, of the year 997, and the Lord honoured him by many subsequent miracles.
Evening Meditation
REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
I.
Behold, here we are at the Crucifixion, at that last torture, which brought death to Jesus Christ; here we are at Calvary, converted into a theatre for the display of Divine love, where a God departs this life in an ocean of sufferings: And when they had come to the place which is called Calvary, they crucified him there. (Luke xxiii. 33). The Lord having, with great difficulty, at length reached the top of the Mount alive, they violently, and for the third time, tear His clothes off Him, sticking as they did, to the sores upon His wounded Flesh, and they throw Him down upon the Cross. The Divine Lamb stretches Himself out upon that bed of torment; He reaches forth to the executioners His hands and His feet to be nailed; and raising His eyes to Heaven, He offers up to His Eternal Father the great sacrifice of His life for the salvation of men. After the nailing of one of His hands, the nerves shrunk, so that they had need of main force and ropes, as was revealed to St. Bridget, to draw the other hand and the feet up to the places where they were to be nailed; and this occasioned so great a tension of the nerves and veins that they broke asunder with a violent convulsion: "They drew my hands and my feet with a rope to the places of the nails, so that the nerves and veins were stretched out to the full and broke asunder"; insomuch that all His bones might have been numbered, as David had already predicted: They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones. (Ps. xxi. 17, 18). Ah, my Jesus, by what power was it that Thy hands and Thy feet were nailed to this wood, but by the love Thou didst bear to men! Thou, by the pain of Thy pierced hands, wert willing to pay the penalty due to all the sins of touch that men have committed; and, by the pain of Thy feet, Thou wert willing to pay for all the steps by which we have gone our way to offend Thee. O my crucified Love, with these pierced hands give me Thy benediction! Oh, nail this ungrateful heart of mine to Thy feet, that so I may no more depart from Thee, and that this will of mine, which has so often rebelled against Thee, may remain ever steadily fixed in Thy holy love. Grant that nothing but Thy love, and the desire of pleasing Thee, may move me. Although I behold Thee suspended upon this gibbet, I believe Thee to be the Lord of the world, the true Son of God, and the Saviour of mankind. For pity's sake, O my Jesus, never abandon me again at any period of my life; and more especially at the hour of my death, in those last agonies and struggles with hell, do Thou assist me, and strengthen me to die in Thy love. I love Thee, my crucified Love, I love Thee with all my heart.
II.
St. Augustine says there is no death more bitter than that of the Cross: "Among all the different kinds of death, there was none worse." Because, as St. Thomas observes, those who are crucified have their hands and their feet pierced through, parts which, being entirely composed of nerves, muscles, and veins, are the most sensitive to pain--and the very weight of the body itself which is suspended from them, causes the pain to be continuous and ever-increasing in its intensity up to the moment of death. But the pains of Jesus were far beyond all other pains; for, as the angelic Doctor says, the body of Jesus Christ, being perfectly constituted, was more quick and sensitive to pain-- that Body which was fashioned for Him by the Holy Spirit, expressly with a view to His suffering as He foretold, and as the Apostle testifies: A body thou hast fitted to me. (Heb. x. 5). Moreover, St. Thomas says that Jesus Christ took upon Himself an amount of suffering so great, as to be sufficient to satisfy for the temporal punishment merited by the sins of all mankind. Tiepoli tells us that, in the Crucifixion, there were dealt twenty-eight strokes of the hammer upon His hands and thirty-six upon His feet.
O my soul, behold thy Lord, behold thy Life, hanging upon that tree: And thy life shall be, as it were, hanging before thee. (Deut. xxviii. 66). Behold how, upon that gibbet of pain, fastened by those cruel nails, He finds no place of rest. Now He leans His weight upon His hands, now upon His feet; but on what part soever He leans, the anguish increases. He turns His afflicted Head, now on one side, now on the other: if He lets it fall towards His breast, the hands, by the additional weight, are rent the more; if He lowers it towards His shoulders, the shoulders are pierced with thorns; if He leans it back upon the Cross, the thorns enter the more deeply into the Head. Ah, my Jesus, what a death of bitterness is this that Thou art enduring! O my crucified Redeemer, I adore Thee on this throne of ignominy and pain. Upon this Cross I read it written that Thou art a King: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. But apart from this title of scorn, what is the evidence that Thou dost give of being a King? Ah, these hands transfixed with nails, this Head pierced with thorns, this throne of sorrow, this lacerated Flesh, make me well know that Thou art King, but a King of love! With humility, then, and tenderness do I draw near to kiss Thy sacred feet, transfixed for love of me; I clasp in my arms this Cross, on which Thou, being made a victim of love, was willing to offer Thyself in sacrifice for me to the Divine justice: being made obedient unto death, the death of the cross. O blessed obedience which obtained for us the pardon of our sins! And what would have become of me, O my Saviour, hadst Thou not paid the penalty for me? I thank Thee, O my Love, and by the merits of this sublime obedience do I pray Thee to grant me the grace of obedience in every thing to the Divine will. All that I desire Paradise for is that I may love Thee for ever with all my strength.
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