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| Desecration of the Tombs of the Kings of France by the Revolutionists |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-21-2021, 12:18 PM - Forum: Resources Online
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The Revolutionary Exhumations at St-Denis, 1793
In July 1793, heralding the first anniversary of the French Republic that ousted the Bourbon monarchy, the new government issued a decree that shocked Europe and haunts France still. To punish the vanity of the deposed “tyrants” and to cleanse the nation of their memory, the National Convention ordered the destruction of the ancient royal tombs, most of which were in the basilica of St-Denis, near Paris—for centuries France’s royal necropolis, deconsecrated in 1793 and its Benedictine monks disbanded. Operations proceeded in two stages to coincide with programs that symbolically consolidated the new republic. For the Festival of Reunion on August 10 that marked its birth, the coffins of the oldest dynasties in the upper church of St.-Denis were emptied, lead removed for recasting, and the remains moved to a trench by the demolished Valois Chapel. The Bourbon crypt was opened as a prelude to Marie-Antoinette’s execution on October 16 (Louis was beheaded the prior January 21) and the remains (including hearts and entrails) dumped in a new trench. The bodies of the preceding Valois dynasty followed into a third trench, along with any corpses still left. The transfer dismembered most cadavers before the quicklime deposited on top could corrode them. In 1817, when the restored Bourbon monarchy returned the remains to the basilica, all that survived intact were the lower portions of three corpses. The fragments of about one hundred and fifty-eight once-sacred bodies fit into two large ossuaries in the crypt.
Their funerary monuments in the upper church were also symbolically executed. Metal monuments were melted down for arms and marbles removed until the Bourbons returned them to St-Denis twenty years later, greatly damaged and altered.
Taking to an extreme what many cultures consider heinous sacrilege, the legislated destruction of the royal burials—for many inseparable from the spontaneous Revolutionary vandalism throughout France—was an especially “obscene” campaign for millennial antinomianism, as historian Bruce Lincoln calls it, an attack on prevailing taboos, as part of the overthrow of the old order, to assert symbolic and psychological dominance. Artist-archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir, present at the exhumations while assembling the marbles for transfer to Paris, instead couched the campaign in religious terms. Profanation of the royal tombs, he asserted, fulfilled Jeremiah’s warning (Jer. 7:29-34; 8:1-5) that God would annihilate an entire race and scatter its buried ancestors if it deviated from divine mandate.
I pursue the Judeo-Christian idiom that Lenoir used to highlight features of the infamous profanation of St-Denis that relate to the sensory culture of religion. Desecrating the dead consecrated by Catholic rites and burial is, after all, violently somatic for both perpetrator and victim. Detailed reports and memoirs of the exhumations present elements that recall the lived/felt dimensions of belief proposed by historian David Morgan: a confrontation between charged bodies, living and dead, in a charged setting and moment, that deploys sensory perception for moral judgment, leading to public acts (performance) that were alternately reverential and sacrilegious. Throughout, the encounter intertwines not only contemporary religion and politics but also religious traditions with contemporary intellectual debate.
Unlike the royal executions that triggered many popular prints and three-dimensional souvenirs, the exhumations at St-Denis appear in few images known to have circulated publicly at the time, a circumstance that belies the importance of the event. Though the aims and means of the project suggest the imperial Roman rite of Damnatio memoriae (erasure of specific dead emperors from public memory by destroying their remains, effigies, and public inscriptions), France’s National Convention intended to eradicate all royals in a project given an ambitious Christian name, the Last Judgment of kings.
Conducted under the scrutiny of officials and a mixed crowd ranging from Jacobins to St-Denis’s former monks, the exhumations took an unusual, possibly unscripted form. Corpses were removed from carved sarcophagi in the upper church or draped coffins in the crypt and examined for their state of preservation. Those of the ancient dynasties were reportedly mostly ash; certain later kings were relatively well preserved; most others were badly decomposed despite embalming. The Bourbons were among the worst. The putrefied bodies of some emitted a malodorous black vapor that sickened workers before it was checked with vinegar and burned saltpeter.
At face value, such findings dismiss these once-revered corpses as predictable evidence of the dangerous effect of the dead on the living, an argument that radically changed French urban burial practices from Christian forms to classical models in the eighteenth century. Symbolically, however, these exhumation chronicles of 1793 register moral judgment. Though the founding races turned to dust as nature decreed, the later putrid specimens suggested the moral taint of succeeding monarchs. An ancient reading of somatic evidence participated in the judgment. Whatever their politics, those present at the exhumations had been conditioned, like many since antiquity, to associate physical corruption with sin even among the living, especially where smells were involved. A pleasingly fragrant individual signaled moral purity; a corpse without the normal stench or decay connoted extraordinary virtue and divine favor. Formalized as the Christian doctrine of the odor of sanctity, the moral interpretation of corrupt and incorruptible flesh contributed to eighteenth-century social attitudes as disparate as sexual choice and racial discrimination.
Deep in the central Bourbon crypt, the revelations of the first coffin to be opened, that of the dynasty’s progenitor King Henri IV (1553-1610), caused a sensation: eerily torchlit, the corpse and shroud proved stunningly well preserved. To record the “miracle,” a cast of Henri’s face was taken. The resulting plaster (Fig. 1) provided an exceptionally vivid, palpable simulacrum of his face for a nation that had seen only the mediated images of him disseminated during his lifetime and beyond. Rendering the lush beard and mustache, the firm bone structure and skin, and delicate eyelashes and eyebrows of an arrestingly vigorous man, the mask offered a special authenticity as Henri’s durable twin, and projected a forceful presence in gritty plaster.
Henri’s mummy, as such intact corpses were then called, was then propped in its coffin in the crypt ambulatory for the weekend, then prominently displayed in the choir at the foot of sanctuary steps before its removal to the trench.
Only one exhumed corpse was spared: that of Louis XIV’s eminent maréchal-général (supreme commander), Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne (1611-1675), France’s greatest general before Napoleon. His coffin, in a small crypt below his monument in the St. Eustache chapel of the upper church, was opened just before the Bourbon crypt as a special case, reportedly because workers wanted to see a grand homme (exemplary citizen worthy of the nation’s gratitude). Despite his noble blood and royal service, Turenne was the ideal Revolutionary commander, even during the polarized climate of 1793, for his unprepossessing humanity, deep bond to his soldiers, and love of France. Witnesses were awed when his body emerged intact and odorless. Lenoir executed a drawing of Turenne’s mummy among several of the exhumed corpses (including Henri’s) that he claimed were produced “from nature” in situ. This drawing is nonetheless openly idealized. The shrouded body is placed on an engraved slab, floating at a distance from us in blank space, rendered in profile but with the head turned slightly towards the viewer. Revealed from the waist up, this mummy is only slightly gaunt, bearing none of the gruesome traces of the fatal cannonball shot to the abdomen, the embalming, or subsequent degradation. The swelling torso evokes a neoclassical heroic nude. The floating corpse is not given the strong chiaroscuro of a torchlit crypt, but is instead evenly, softly lit. The image suggests an icon with a certain sacrality, rather than neutral, intimate reportage or macabre sensationalism.
The timing of Turenne’s exhumation undoubtedly affected its impact. It was the first of the October campaign and yielded the first of the two “miraculous” mummies in close succession. In the volatile, emotional atmosphere, Turenne’s corpse seemed animated by the virtues for which he was cherished. Lenoir claimed everyone believed they saw the grand homme stir with patriotic fervor, despite the traces of fatal injury and disfigurement after death omitted from his drawing.
The witnesses’ confrontation with the mummies of Turenne and Henri IV merged thought, emotion, and the senses. The encounter also triggered extraordinarily varied actions that suggest how powerful the historic dead, in this special existential state, seemed to those present. Predictably, pieces were taken. Crowds pressed close to Turenne, displayed in a chestnut box in a small sacristy, encouraged by a guard who offered to pull teeth for a price. The prominent journalist and member of the National Convention, Camille Desmoulins, took Turenne’s right little finger. Whether such acts were considered reverent or sacrilegious depended on the chronicler. Responses to Henri’s exhibited mummy were especially varied. Lenoir claimed, “I had the pleasure of touching these venerable remains . . . I took his hands with a certain respect that I could not resist, as true a Republican as I am.” He also noted a soldier who embraced the corpse and cut a lock of the still-soft red beard as a mustache to become the modern militant Henri destined for victory over France’s newest enemies. Others turned violent. One woman allegedly approached the displayed corpse and, cursing it as a royal, struck a blow that sent it crashing to the floor. Recently, forensic scientists and scholars identified a mummified head in private hands as Henri’s, removed before his transfer to the trench—a sensational announcement that caused intense debate and has been challenged through study of the DNA.
However spontaneous, the crowd’s actions in 1793 seem to have drawn upon disparate forms of behavior: empirical scrutiny, religious reverence, violent hostility to power rendered present and vulnerable. What effect did this heterogenous audience have upon those who performed? There was no one community, ritual, or predictable emotion to shape this event.
The corpses of St-Denis bore complex semiotic charges surrounding France, past and present. Whether mere ash or intact corpses, this somatic material made political abstractions (a social order, ideology, or power) palpable. Even the most desultory remains stood witness to successive moments of France’s history. The intact bodies—especially those of Henri and Turenne—most fully incarnated that history at especially critical points. These special dead made the remote past believable and present, in the literal sense of the word, fully there and available to the senses.
The pursuit of sensory proof at St-Denis in 1793 simultaneously invokes the antithesis of faith in Christianity, skepticism (personified, as scholars often point out, by Doubting Thomas), and a defining principle of eighteenth-century sensualism or sensibility. The latter refers to the radical rethinking of perception throughout Europe spurred by seventeenth-century English philosopher John Locke and continued through the eighteenth century and beyond. The new approach rejected the prevailing view of a purely optical, rational process to argue the central perceptual role of the fuller, engaged body. The premise affected a wide range of disciplines and essential issues—even the very definition of humanity. For the most prominent among its Enlightenment advocates in eighteenth-century France (notably Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the pastoralist poets), the body, seeking information from the allied senses guided by unerringly accurate touch, provided the crucial agent for creative exchange between the phenomenal world and the inquiring, emotionally responsive mind. The anti-Cartesian motto of this camp (“I feel, therefore I exist”), popularized in France by pastoralist Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre in the twelfth of his Studies of Nature of 1784, demanded that the passionate, fully embodied “I” be “there.” Direct, even intimate experience of the physical world was essential for the sensitive human to produce meaning. For participants in the exhumations at St-Denis, such processes constituted a loaded dialogue with the national past, in a charged setting (the ancient royal necropolis), at a flashpoint in French history. The order to destroy the somatic roots of a compromised France proved elastic enough, before unexpected revelations, to permit those present to engage with and recruit historical traits for the new order.
Less poetically evocative than ashes or a single femur, the mummies of Turenne and Henri conjured stories in the beholders’ imagination through vision (visible resemblances that matched inherited texts and images) and touch (palpated anatomies that proved an actuality like their own); their moral worth had also been tested through smell. To judge by the reported responses of witnesses, the mummies’ high degree of preservation, ancient sign of supernatural power and divine grace, suggested that historical France was still vital, linking the beholder and beheld from different existential planes: death and life, past and present. That perceived life within the preserved bodies of Henri IV and Turenne was double-edged, for some a force to destroy, for others to deploy. The two mummies made compellingly present exceptional individuals who forged the national past, suspended in an extraordinary physical state before emotional witnesses who could touch, smell, embrace, punch, and remove parts of them to possess, if not to be magically transformed into modern greats.
The response to the discovery of the intact Turenne and Henri in 1793 easily recalls the Christian cult of saints and martyrs found miraculously preserved when exhumed. Their similarities, however, are limited. The remains at St-Denis were not channels to the divine. These preserved dead derived their primary power and/or culpability from their direct hand in shaping France when alive. The protagonists in the exhumations of 1793 indeed judged, as diverse individuals with diverse responses, some reverential, some antagonistic, all seeking proof, power, and a role vis-à-vis the historical personage before them. All but Turenne were condemned to the obliterating trench.
Turenne’s exhumed mummy was instead displayed for eight months at St-Denis, then again in Paris (at the Museum of Natural History) before prestigious reburial, first in Lenoir’s honorific Elysian Gardens within his Museum of French Monuments. In 1800, the new First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had the corpse moved, in an elaborate public translation, to its present location in the main floor of Louis XIV’s Church of the Dome of the Invalides, then republican France’s Temple of Mars. The First Consul ordered the coffin buried in front of Turenne’s original monument, transferred shortly before to the Invalides from Lenoir’s Museum of French Monuments, where the republicans had deposited it after removing it from St-Denis in the 1790s. The placement of the monument and body in the prestigious public space of the Invalides made them, as never before, the ritual focus of a major religious site. There, this potent corpse presided over the militant Revolutionary French as their revered father within the architectural embodiment of France’s renewed military glory.
https://mavcor.yale.edu/conversations/es...denis-1793
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| Chastisements |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-21-2021, 12:06 PM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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St. Edward: “The extreme corruption and wickedness of the English nation has provoked the just anger of God. When malice shall have reached the fullness of its measure, God will, in his wrath, send to the English people wicked spirits, who will punish and afflict them with great severity, by separating the green tree from its parent stem the length of three furlongs. But at last this same tree, through the compassionate mercy of God, and without any national assistance, shall return to its original root, reflourish, and bear abundant fruit.”
Trappistine Nun of Notre Dame des Gardes: “Chastisement will come when a very large number of bad books have been spread.”
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| Historic Rosary Cathedral vandalized, doors set on fire |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-21-2021, 08:37 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Historic Rosary Cathedral vandalized, doors set on fire overnight
ABC News | Jan. 18, 2021
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Officials are investigating a case of arson and vandalism from early Monday morning at Rosary Cathedral in Toledo.
Toledo Fire crews were called out to the church in the 2500 block of Collingwood at 2:22 a.m. The first crews on the scene reported no sign of fire evident. Upon further investigation, crews found the large wooden entry doors had been damaged by a flash fire that had extinguished itself before they arrived. There was no other damage.
There was also graffiti visible on the exterior walls around the door, saying “Jesus is Black” and “Black Jesus.”
According to Toledo Police, they believe the suspect in the cathedral fire, Christopher Harris, 27, was involved in a standoff later Monday evening that ended with him being shot and killed, and a Toledo Police officer killed.
The Diocese of Toledo released a statement later Monday morning on the arson and vandalism, saying in part, “We are alarmed and heartsick by what occurred at the mother church of the Diocese of Toledo, a sacred building, a house of worship and an historical, architectural and spiritual treasure.”
Quote:In the early hours of Monday morning a neighbor alerted the police and fire departments of vandalism which took the form of graffiti on the walls and doors and igniting the church doors on fire at the main entrance on Collingwood Boulevard of Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral. We are alarmed and heartsick by what occurred at the mother church of the Diocese of Toledo, a sacred building, a house of worship and an historical, architectural and spiritual treasure.
We are very grateful for the vigilance of our neighbors and the rapid response of our first responders, and that no one was injured.
As the damage to the Cathedral is assessed, there is an ongoing investigation to determine whether the acts were religious, racial or ethnic in nature and we will continue to cooperate with authorities. If you have any information, please contact the Toledo Police Department. Together with all Catholics, Christians and people of faith we denounce any such acts of vandalism.
Bishop Daniel Thomas expresses his thanks to all the members of the community for their concern and support and requests ongoing prayers for protection, healing and forgiveness.
Diocese of Toledo
Investigators determined the fire was intentionally set, with a total loss estimate at $5,100.
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| "Re-education Camps" and "Deprogramming" for Trump Voters |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-21-2021, 08:11 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Tucker warns Dems want ‘re-education camps,’ ‘de-programming’ for Trump voters
‘It is war they're planning: a 9/11 commission, blanket censorship, mass arrests, deprogramming. These are not subtle indicators; these are fire alarms.’
January 20, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Instead of celebrating their political victories, prominent Democrats are “plotting revenge” against Trump supporters and comparing them to terrorists, Tucker Carlson warned during his show yesterday evening.
“They're not celebrating. That's the remarkable thing. No one in the Democratic party seems happy tonight. They're angrier than ever. Instead of taking victory laps, they are plotting revenge against the people they just beat. They're thinking of new ways to injure and humiliate and degrade their political opponents, make it impossible for them to work, again throw them in jail, destroy their lives,” Carlson said.
“The leaders of the Democratic party have now decided that 74 million Trump voters weren't just wrong or misguided. No, the threat they pose is graver and more serious than that more dangerous. These 74 million Trump voters are in fact terrorists.”
Tucker pointed out that General Stanley McChrystal, who he wryly referred to as “the strategic genius who can take credit, if you can call it that, for running the longest losing war in American history,” outright compared Trump supporters to terrorists he saw in Iraq.
“Yesterday, McChrystal took a break from collecting fat corporate directors fees to note that based on his extensive experience mismanaging America's foreign policy, Trump voters look an awful lot like terrorists,” Carlson said.
“I did see a similar dynamic in the evolution of Al Qaeda in Iraq, where a whole generation of angry Arab youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back to a time, to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence. This is now happening in America,” McChrystal was quoted as saying.
Tucker then highlighted a statement by Andy McCabe, “The former high-level FBI official who was canned for lying and corruption,” comparing Trump supporters who believe the election was rigged to ISIS terrorists.
“When we looked at those Americans who traveled to Syria for the purpose of joining the Islamic State when you put all of those faces and names down in one place, you had doctors, lawyers… Some people are very vulnerable to and drawn into that core lie of any extremist movement, and that is exactly what we’re seeing now with these — this particular group of Trump supporters. They have invested, on an emotional and spiritual level, in this grievance that the election was stolen from them and they seem to be completely manipulated by that propaganda,” McCabe had said.
Carlson went on to play a reel of no less than seven people, including Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and former FBI director James Comey, calling for a “9-11 style commission” to inquire what exactly happened and who was involved in the breaching of the Capitol.
Tucker went on to address how prominent Democrats would like to “handle” such “insurrectionists.”
“So what do you do with insurrectionists like that?” How do you handle them? Simple force doesn't always work. These are hard cases. You need to re-educate people like that, possibly in camps. Re-education camps, if you will. You must de-program them for the safety of the rest of us,” quipped Carlson.
“Thankfully Sandy [Alexandria] Cortez has been thinking about this for quite some time, indeed, since she was a child growing up in leafy Westchester County. Some little girls played with dolls, but Sandy Cortez put her barbies in a secure enclosure and re-educated them because they were thinking bad things, forbidden things, so Sandy Cortez knows exactly what to do now.”
Carlson proceeded to play a clip of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez calling for “de-radicalization programs.”
“We had a program addressing white supremacists,” the far-left socialist Democrat said. “We had programs, federal programs, that went towards funding organizations like these that de-radicalized people and President Trump pulled the plug on federal funding for some of these programs. And so one thing that we know is that we have to get that funding right back up and we probably need to double, triple, quadruple or increase funding for these de-radicalization programs.”
“So you listen to that and all of this and you realize the totalitarian instinct is always the same, only the names, the dictators change. First you strip people of their right to speak out loud honestly. Then you prevent them from defending themselves and their families, and then, because you now can, force them at gunpoint to read your catechism, to accept your orthodoxy,” Carlson commented.
“You wonder if Sandy Cortez plans to make Trump voters sign written statements affirming they have been deprogrammed. Of course. That's always part of the process. The scary thing is that's where we're heading. Sandy Cortez and her friends are no longer a fringe element within the Democratic party,” he continued.
“There are still reasonable people within the Democratic party. There are people who have a stake in this country, people who don't want to destroy it. Now is the time for those people to step up forcefully and call off the war their party is planning on millions of fellow Americans.”
“And it is war they're planning: a 9/11 commission, blanket censorship, mass arrests, deprogramming. These are not subtle indicators; these are fire alarms,” Carlson continued.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) called Democrats “sore winners.”
“They know their agenda is massively unpopular. The American people don't want to open our borders or defund our police,” Cotton told Carlson.
He continued, “And they know that politics and government is the one place where those 74 million Americans have something like an equal voice. Democrats and liberals, as you say, control our media, they control business, increasingly they control Big Tech, they control education. Politics and government is the one place where conservatives can have their voice heard, so what the Democrats want to do is use their narrow and probably fleeting majority to try to silence all opposition.”
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| Pope Francis extends his ‘cordial good wishes’ to pro-abortion President Biden |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-21-2021, 08:04 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis extends his ‘cordial good wishes’ to pro-abortion President Biden
At no point did the Pope call upon Biden to show concern for the hundreds of thousands of preborn babies who are killed by abortion each year in America.
ROME, January 20, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis extended his “cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers” to incoming pro-abortion U.S. President Joe Biden, a man who claims to be Catholic while backing pro-abortion, anti-family, and pro-LGBT policies.
The Pope in his message prayed that Biden’s decisions “will be guided by a concern for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom, together with unfailing respect for the rights and dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those who have no voice.”
At no point did the Pope call upon Biden to show concern for the hundreds of thousands of preborn babies who are killed by abortion each year in America.
The Pope’s message (read full message below) comes after the Vatican ordered the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) to hold back a statement that was to have been released this morning that called attention to Biden’s pledge to pursue policies that would advance “moral evils” in the areas of “abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.”
Sources in the Vatican told The Pillar that the statement was, in the words of The Pillar, “spiked after intervention from the Vatican Secretariat of State, hours before it was due to be released.”
That statement is, however, now available on the USCCB website, although it is not listed among the regular news articles.
The “Statement on the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden” was penned by conference president Archbishop José Gomez. Noting that Biden is the country’s “first president in 60 years to profess the Catholic faith,” Gomez pointed out that the incoming president’s agenda does not square with Catholic teaching.
“So, I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences,” he wrote.
Gomez stressed in the statement that abortion will remain the “preeminent priority” for American bishops during the Biden administration.
“For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the ‘preeminent priority.’ Preeminent does not mean ‘only.’ We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion,” he wrote.
According to The Pillar, sources familiar with the situation said there was, in the words of The Pillar, “concern in the Vatican that a statement from Gomez seen as critical of the Biden administration might seem to force the pope’s hand in his own dealings with the Biden.”
While Pope Francis has been a vocal critic of former U.S. President Donald Trump and his policies (see for example here, here, and here), he appears to have a more accommodating relationship with Biden, a man who claims to be Catholic while supporting unrestricted abortion.
Biden related last month how he and the Pope had talked on the phone after the November 3 presidential election and how the Holy Father had extended “blessings and congratulations.” In a short press statement released on the Biden-Harris transition website, Biden “thanked His Holiness for extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation for His Holiness’ leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world.”
Last month, the Pope included in a tweet the words “build back better,” a phrase that is central to Joe Biden’s plan to remake America in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
***
Honorable Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, DC
“On the occasion of your inauguration as the forty-sixth President of the United States of America, I extend cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office. Under your leadership, may the American people continue to draw strength from the lofty political, ethical and religious values that have inspired the nation since its founding. At a time when the grave crises facing our human family call for farsighted and united responses, I pray that your decisions will be guided by a concern for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom, together with unfailing respect for the rights and dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those who have no voice. I likewise ask God, the source of all wisdom and truth, to guide your efforts to foster understanding, reconciliation and peace within the United States and among the nations of the world in order to advance the universal common good. With these sentiments, I willingly invoke upon you and your family and the beloved American people an abundance of blessings.”
Pope Francis
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| Attach Great Importance to Your Scapular |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-20-2021, 09:01 PM - Forum: Our Lady
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ATTACH GREAT IMPORTANCE TO YOUR SCAPULAR
IT IS AN ASSURANCE OF SALVATION
“WHOSOEVER DIES CLOTHED IN THIS (SCAPULAR) SHALL NOT SUFFER ETERNAL FIRE.”
This is Mary’s Promise
Made July 16th, 1251
To Saint Simon Stock
Your SCAPULAR, then should take on deep meaning for you. It is a rich present brought down from Heaven by
OUR LADY HERSELF
“Wear it devoutly and perseveringly,” she says so each soul, “it is my garment. To be clothed in it means you are continually thinking of me,
and I in turn, am always thinking of you and helping you to secure eternal life.”
St. Alphonsus says:
“Just as men take pride in having others wear their livery, so the most holy Mary is pleased when her servants wear her scapular as a mark that they have dedicated themselves to her service, and are members of the Family of the Mother of God.”
True Devotion to Mary
CONSISTS IN THREE THINGS
Veneration – Confidence – Love
Without saying to Mary that we venerate her, love her and trust her, we tell her these things every moment of the day, by simply wearing the scapular.
THE SCAPULAR then is a Prayer
Our Lord taught us to say “Our Father.” Mary taught us the value of the scapular. When we use it as a prayer, Our Lady draws us to the Sacred Heart of her Divine Son.
It is well, therefore, to hold the scapular in the hand, while addressing Our Lady. A Prayer uttered thus while holding the mystical scapular is as perfect as a prayer can be.
It is especially in TIME OF TEMPTATION that we need the powerful intercession of God’s Mother. The evil spirit is utterly powerless when a scapular-wearer,
besides his silent devotion, faces temptation calling upon Mary.
“If Thou hadst recommended Thyself to me, Thou wouldst
Not have run into such danger,” was Our Lady’s gentle
Reproach to Blessed Alan.
THE SCAPULAR MEDAL
Many Catholics may not know that it is the wish of our Holy Father, the Pope, that the Scapular Medal should not be worn in place of the CLOTH SCAPULAR
without sufficiebnt reason. Mary cannot be pleased with any one who substitutes the medal out of vanity, or fear to make open profession of religion. Such persons
run the risk of not receiving the Promise. The medal has never been noted for any of the miraculous preservations attributed to the BROWN CLOTH SCAPULAR.
Because you love Mary’s Scapular
VENERATE IT OFTEN
Pope Benedict XV granted an indulgence of 500 days each time the scapular is kissed. MARY’S MOTHERHOOD is not limited to Catholics, it is extended to ALL MEN.
Many miracles of conversion have been wrought in favor of good non-Catholics who have been induced to practice the scapular devotion.
“I wanted to know if Mary really and truly interested Herself in me. And in the Scapular she has give me the most tangible assurance. I have only to open my eyes.
She has attached Her protection to this scapular: “Whosoever dies clothed in this, shall not suffer eternal fire.” - Blessed Claude de la Colombiere
[i]Imprimatur :[/i]
[i]Thomas M. O.Leary, D.D.[/i]
[i]Bishop of Springfield[/i]
[i]July 16th, 1941[/i]
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| First Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima: May 13th, 1917 |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-20-2021, 08:57 PM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (4)
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First Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima: May 13th, 1917
Sister Lucia's Memoirs
(From the book "Fatima in Lucia's own words")
Lucia, in a letter to the Bishop:
Your Excellency,
In obedience to the order which Your Excellency gave me in your letter of July 26th, 1941, that I should think over and note down anything else I could remember about Jacinta, I have given thought to the matter and decided that, as God was speaking to me through you, the moment has arrived to reply to two questions which have often been sent to me, but which I have put off answering until now.
What is the Secret?
It seems to me that I can reveal it, since I already have permission from heaven to do so. God's representatives on earth have authorized me to do this several times and in various letters, one of which, I believe, is in your keeping. This advises me to write to the Holy Father, suggesting, among other things, that I should reveal the secret. . .
THE VISION OF HELL
Well, the secret is made up of three distinct parts, two of which I am now going to reveal.
The first part is the vision of Hell.
Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.
This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.
We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly:
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
LASTING IMPRESSION OF JACINTA
Your Excellency, as I already told you in the notes I sent to you after reading the book about Jacinta, some of the things revealed in the secret made a very strong impression on her. This was indeed the case. The vision of hell filled her with horror to such a degree, that every penance and mortification was as nothing in her eyes, if it could only prevent souls from going there.
Well, I am now going to answer the second question, one which has come to me from various quarters.
How is it that Jacinta, small as she was, let herself be possessed by such a spirit of mortification and penance, and understood it so well?
I think the reason is this: firstly, God willed to bestow on her a special grace, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and secondly, it was because she had looked upon hell, and had seen the ruin of souls who fall therein.
Some people, even the most devout, refuse to speak to children about hell, in case it would frighten them. Yet God did not hesitate to show hell to three children, one of whom was only six years old, knowing well that they would be horrified to the point of, I would almost dare to say, withering away with fear.
Jacinta often sat thoughtfully on the ground or on a rock, and exclaimed:
"Oh, Hell! Hell! How sorry I am for the souls who go to hell! And the people down there, burning alive, like wood in the fire! Then, shuddering, she knelt down with her hands joined, and recited the prayer that Our Lady had taught us:
"O my Jesus! Forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need."
LUCIA LOOKS BACK
Now, Your Excellency, another thought comes to my mind. I have sometimes been asked if, in any of the Apparitions, Our Lady pointed out to us which kind of sins offend God most. They say that Jacinta, when in Lisbon, mentioned sins of the flesh. She had often questioned me on this matter, and I think now, that when in Lisbon, perhaps it occurred to her to put the question to Our Lady herself, and that this was the answer she received.
Well, Your Excellency, it seems to me that I have now made known the first part of the secret.
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
The second part refers to the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
As I have already written in the second account, Our Lady told me on June 13th, 1917, that she would never forsake me, and that her Immaculate Heart would be my refuge and the way that would lead me to God. As she spoke these words, she opened her hands, and from them streamed a light that penetrated to our inmost hearts. I think that, on that day, the main purpose of this light was to infuse within us a special knowledge and love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, just as on the other two occasions it was intended to do, as it seems to me, with regard to God and the mystery of the most Holy Trinity.
From that day onwards, our hearts were filled with a more ardent love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From time to time, Jacinta said to me: "The Lady said that her Immaculate heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. Don't you love that? Her Heart is so good! How I love It!"
As I explained earlier, Our Lady told us, in the July secret, that God wished to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart; and that to prevent a future war, she would come to ask for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, and for the Communion of Reparation of the First Saturdays. From then on, whenever we spoke of this among ourselves, Jacinta said: "I am so grieved to be unable to receive Communion in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary!"
I have also mentioned already how Jacinta chose from the litany of ejaculations which Father Cruz suggested to us, this one: "Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation!" After saying it, she used to add sometimes, with the simplicity that was natural to her: "I so love the Immaculate Heart of Mary! It is the heart of our dear Mother in heaven!
Don't you love saying many times over: 'Sweet heart of Mary, Immaculate Heart of Mary'? I love it so much, so very much."
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| February 25th - St. Tarasius |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-20-2021, 03:06 PM - Forum: February
- Replies (1)
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Saint Tarasius
Patriarch of Constantinople
(750-806)
Tarasius was born at Constantinople in the middle of the eighth century, of a noble family. His mother, Eucratia, brought him up in the practice of the most eminent virtues. By his talents and virtue he gained the esteem of all, and was raised to the greatest honors of the empire, made first a Consul and afterwards first Secretary of State to the Emperor Constantine IV and the Empress Irene, his mother. In the midst of the court and in its highest honors, he led a life like that of a religious.
Tarasius was chosen, by the unanimous consent of the court, clergy and people to succeed to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Saint Tarasius declared that he could not in conscience accept the government of a see which had been cut off from the Catholic communion — which had occurred through the fault of his predecessor, who afterwards recognized his error in approving a group of dissidents — except on condition that a general Council be convoked to settle the dispute concerning holy images, which was dividing the Church at that time. This being agreed to, he was solemnly declared Patriarch, and consecrated soon afterwards, on Christmas Day.
The Council was opened on the 1st of August, 786, in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople; but, being disturbed by the violences of the Iconoclasts, it adjourned, to meet again the following year in the Church of Saint Sophia at Nicea. The Council declared the positive thought of the Church in relation to the matter under debate, which was whether or not holy pictures and images should be allowed a relative honor. Afterwards synodal letters were sent to all the churches, and in particular to the Pope, who approved the council.
The life of the holy Patriarch Tarasius was a model of perfection for his clergy and people. His table contained barely the necessaries of life; he allowed himself very little time for sleep, rising the first and retiring last in his spiritual family. Reading and prayer filled all his leisure hours.
After the Emperor repudiated his legitimate wife and, with the collaboration of a servile priest, married a servant whom he had crowned as Empress in her place, he used all his efforts to gain the Patriarch of Constantinople over to his desires. Saint Tarasius resolutely refused to countenance the iniquity, even when imprisoned by the irritated monarch. Soon afterwards, the emperor lost his empire and his life, having spurned the reproaches of Saint Tarasius. The holy man gave up his soul to God in peace after governing his church for twenty-two years in great purity of life, on the 25th of February, 806.
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| February 24th - St. Matthias, Apostle, and Blessed Robert of Arbrissel |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-20-2021, 03:04 PM - Forum: February
- Replies (1)
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Saint Matthias
Apostle
(† 63)
After our Blessed Lord's Ascension His disciples came together, with Mary His mother and the eleven Apostles, in an upper room at Jerusalem. The little company numbered no more than one hundred and twenty souls. They were waiting for the promised coming of the Holy Ghost, and they persevered in prayer. Meanwhile there was a solemn act to be performed on the part of the Church, which could not be postponed. The place of the fallen Judas had to be filled, that the number of the Apostles might be complete. Saint Peter, therefore, as Vicar of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. What the Holy Ghost had spoken by the mouth of David concerning Judas, he said, must be fulfilled. Of him it had been written, His bishopric let another take. A choice, therefore, was needed of one among those who had been their companions from the beginning, who could bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus.
Two were named of equal merit, Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias. After praying to God, who knows the hearts of all men, to show which of these He had chosen, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was thereby numbered with the Apostles. It is recorded of the Saint, wonderfully elected to so high a vocation, that he was remarkable for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus that he made his election sure.
He preached in Judea where he was persecuted by both Jews and Gentiles, and died by stoning, a victim of their pursuits, in the year 63. His body was taken to Rome by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, some 250 years later. A church there bears his name.
Blessed Robert of Arbrissel
Abbot
(1045-1117)
Blessed Robert, one of the principal historical figures of his time and one of the most astonishing Saints of the Church, was born at Arbrissel, now Arbressec, a short distance from Rennes, in about 1045. He studied in Paris, sustained in his poverty by the assistance of charitable benefactors, and became there a celebrated doctor in the sacred sciences. His remarkable gifts were everywhere appreciated. It is supposed that he was ordained a priest in Paris, before the bishop of his native diocese of Rennes recalled him in 1085 to assist him in reforming his flock.
There in Brittany, as archpriest, Robert devoted himself to the healing of feuds, the suppression of simony, lay investiture, clerical concubinage and irregular marriages. He was compelled, by the hostility his reforming zeal had caused, to leave the diocese when his bishop died in 1093.
After teaching theology for a time in Angers, in 1095 he became a hermit near Laval with several others, two of whom later founded monasteries, as he himself did in 1096, at the site where they were then dwelling in the forest of Craon near Roe. The reputation of the solitaries had attracted many to visit them, and the piety, kindness, eloquence and strong personality of Robert in particular drew many followers; it is said that the forest of Craon became the dwelling-place of a multitude of anchorites, as once the deserts of Egypt were.
Blessed Robert was summoned by Pope Urban II to go to Angers to preach for the dedication of a church; the Pope sent him out from there as apostolic missionary, on a preaching tour of the various provinces. He left his abbacy in the region of Roe and taught abandonment of the world and evangelical poverty all over western France.
His gifts of grace and nature attracted crowds and effected countless conversions. His disciples were of all ages and conditions, including lepers; even whole families followed him everywhere. Thus was founded his famous monastery of Fontevrault, not far from Cannes, to lodge these flocks of determined followers of the Gospel. The men dwelt in a separate region from the women; each group had its chapel, and the lepers their quarters apart. Charity, silence, modesty and meekness characterized these establishments, which were sustained by the products of the earth and the alms offered by the neighboring populations.
Until the death of the holy patriarch in 1117, he continued to preach everywhere in western France. The enemy of souls could not remain indifferent to all of this Christian sanctity. Persecuted by certain heretics and others during his life, Blessed Robert was accused of exaggeration and calumniated after his death, but the accusatory writings were eventually declared to be forgeries. A calumniatory letter, attributed falsely to an abbot of western France, who had in other situations shown a vindictive spirit, was definitely proved not to be from his hand, but written by the heretic Roscelin and containing pure fabrications.
Blessed Robert is remembered for his ideal of perfect poverty, both exterior and interior, according to the words of Our Lord, His first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit. He was buried at Fontevrault, as he had desired to be, but his remains were later transferred to a house of the Order, restored in 1806 after the revolution, at Chemillé in the diocese of Angers.
The first biography of Blessed Robert was written by Baudri, Archbishop of Dol in Brittany, his intimate friend, at the request of Venerable Petronilla of Chemillé, widow, and first Abbess of this immense and celebrated monastery, who was named by Blessed Robert to replace him at his death as Superior General of the Order of Fontevrault. The feast of Venerable Petronilla (†1149) was celebrated by the Order of Fontevrault on April 24th. The Bollandists remark: Her existence was marked by many contradictions, but she had the courage to pass beyond the judgment of human beings and to walk without deviating on the path to heaven.
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| February 23rd - St. Peter Damian |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-20-2021, 03:01 PM - Forum: February
- Replies (1)
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Saint Peter Damian
Cardinal Bishop
(988-1072)
Saint Peter Damian, born in 988, lost both his parents at an early age. His eldest brother, to whose hands he was left, treated him so cruelly that another brother, a priest, moved by his piteous state, sent him to the University of Parma, where he acquired great distinction. His studies were sanctified by vigils, fasts, and prayers, until at last, thinking that all this was only serving God halfway, he resolved to leave the world. He joined the monks of Fonte Avellano, then in the greatest repute, and by his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior.
Saint Peter was called upon for the most delicate and difficult missions, among others the reform of ecclesiastical communities, which his zeal accomplished. Seven Popes in succession made him their constant adviser, and he was finally created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He withstood Henry IV of Germany, and labored in defense of Pope Alexander II against an antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek pardon. He was charged, as papal legate, with the repression of simony and correction of scandals; again, was commissioned to settle discords amongst various bishops; and finally, in 1072, to adjust the affairs of the Church at Ravenna. He had never paid attention to his health, which was at best fragile, and after enduring violent onslaughts of fever during the night, would rise to hear confessions, preach, or sing solemn Masses, always ready to sacrifice his well-being and life for the salvation of the souls entrusted to him.
After succeeding in this final mission as he ordinarily did, on his journey back to Ostia he was laid low by fever; he died at Faenza in a monastery of his Order, on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks chanted Matins around him.
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| Vatican orders US bishops to hold back statement condemning Biden’s plan to pursue ‘evil’ policies |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-20-2021, 01:44 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
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Vatican orders US bishops to hold back statement condemning Biden’s plan to pursue ‘evil’ policies
The statement pointed out Biden's pledge to pursue anti-life and anti-family policies that would advance 'moral evils' in the areas of 'abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.'
![[Image: Gomez2_810_500_75_s_c1.JPG]](https://assets.lifesitenews.com/images/made/images/remote/https_www.lifesitenews.com/images/local/Gomez2_810_500_75_s_c1.JPG) Archbishop Jose Gomez
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 20, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican ordered the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) to hold back a statement on incoming President Joe Biden that called attention to his pledge to pursue anti-life and anti-family policies that would advance “moral evils” in the areas of “abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.”
The statement was to be released today, Wednesday, at 9 AM. Bishops were informed by USCCB officials, however, that the statement remained embargoed, reported The Pillar.
“Sources in the Vatican Secretariat of State, others close to the U.S. bishops’ conference, and sources among the U.S. bishops have confirmed to The Pillar that the statement was spiked after intervention from the Vatican Secretariat of State, hours before it was due to be released,” The Pillar reported. Cardinal Pietro Parolin is the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
The “Statement on the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden” was penned by conference president Archbishop José Gomez. It was already released by some dioceses, including the Diocese of Tucson (which subsequently deleted the statement).
Noting that Biden is the country’s “first president in 60 years to profess the Catholic faith,” Gomez pointed out that the incoming president’s agenda does not square with Catholic teaching.
“So, I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences,” he wrote.
Gomez stressed that abortion will remain the “preeminent priority” for American bishops during the Biden administration.
“For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the ‘preeminent priority.’ Preeminent does not mean ‘only.’ We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion,” he wrote.
“Abortion is a direct attack on life that also wounds the woman and undermines the family. It is not only a private matter, it raises troubling and fundamental questions of fraternity, solidarity, and inclusion in the human community. It is also a matter of social justice. We cannot ignore the reality that abortion rates are much higher among the poor and minorities, and that the procedure is regularly used to eliminate children who would be born with disabilities,” Gomez added.
The Pillar noted that the statement “had been debated hotly late into Tuesday evening, but multiple sources say it was the intervention of the Vatican that led to its delay.”
Quote:Sources close to the USCCB say that several American bishops had raised concerns about the statement’s release, deeming it unduly critical of the incoming administration.
Three sources close to the bishops’ conference said that objections to the statement’s release came from Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, among other unnamed bishops.
Gomez wrote that rather than impose further expansions of abortion and contraception, as Biden has promised, he is “hopeful that the new President and his administration will work with the Church and others of good will.”
“My hope is that we can begin a dialogue to address the complicated cultural and economic factors that are driving abortion and discouraging families. My hope, too, is that we can work together to finally put in place a coherent family policy in this country, one that acknowledges the crucial importance of strong marriages and parenting to the well-being of children and the stability of communities. If the President, with full respect for the Church’s religious freedom, were to engage in this conversation, it would go a long way toward restoring the civil balance and healing our country’s needs,” he wrote.
***
Full statement, as published (and subsequently deleted) on the Diocese of Tucson’s website.
January 22, 2021
Statement on the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as 46th President of the United States of America
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
My prayers are with our new President and his family today.
I am praying that God grant him wisdom and courage to lead this great nation and that God help him to meet the tests of these times, to heal the wounds caused by this pandemic, to ease our intense political and cultural divisions, and to bring people together with renewed dedication to America’s founding purposes, to be one nation under God committed to liberty and equality for all.
Catholic bishops are not partisan players in our nation’s politics. We are pastors responsible for the souls of millions of Americans and we are advocates for the needs of all our neighbors. In every community across the country, Catholic parishes, schools, hospitals, and ministries form an essential culture of compassion and care, serving women, children, and the elderly, the poor and sick, the imprisoned, the migrant, and the marginalized, no matter what their race or religion.
When we speak on issues in American public life, we try to guide consciences, and we offer principles. These principles are rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the social teachings of his Church. Jesus Christ revealed God’s plan of love for creation and revealed the truth about the human person, who is created in God’s image, endowed with God-given dignity, rights and responsibilities, and called to a transcendent destiny.
Based on these truths, which are reflected in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, the bishops and Catholic faithful carry out Christ’s commandment to love God and love our neighbors by working for an America that protects human dignity, expands equality and opportunities for every person, and is open-hearted towards the suffering and weak.
For many years now, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has tried to help Catholics and others of good will in their reflections on political issues through a publication we call Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. The most recent edition addresses a wide range of concerns. Among them: abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, immigration, racism, poverty, care for the environment, criminal justice reform, economic development, and international peace.
On these and other issues, our duty to love and our moral principles lead us to prudential judgments and positions that do not align neatly with the political categories of left or right or the platforms of our two major political parties. We work with every President and every Congress. On some issues we find ourselves more on the side of Democrats, while on others we find ourselves standing with Republicans. Our priorities are never partisan. We are Catholics first, seeking only to follow Jesus Christ faithfully and to advance his vision for human fraternity and community.
I look forward to working with President Biden and his administration, and the new Congress. As with every administration, there will be areas where we agree and work closely together and areas where we will have principled disagreement and strong opposition.
Working with President Biden will be unique, however, as he is our first president in 60 years to profess the Catholic faith. In a time of growing and aggressive secularism in American culture, when religious believers face many challenges, it will be refreshing to engage with a President who clearly understands, in a deep and personal way, the importance of religious faith and institutions. Mr. Biden’s piety and personal story, his moving witness to how his faith has brought him solace in times of darkness and tragedy, his longstanding commitment to the Gospel’s priority for the poor — all of this I find hopeful and inspiring.
At the same time, as pastors, the nation’s bishops are given the duty of proclaiming the Gospel in all its truth and power, in season and out of season, even when that teaching is inconvenient or when the Gospel’s truths run contrary to the directions of the wider society and culture. So, I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences.
Our commitments on issues of human sexuality and the family, as with our commitments in every other area — such as abolishing the death penalty or seeking a health care system and economy that truly serves the human person — are guided by Christ’s great commandment to love and to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable.
For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the “preeminent priority.” Preeminent does not mean “only.” We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion.
Abortion is a direct attack on life that also wounds the woman and undermines the family. It is not only a private matter, it raises troubling and fundamental questions of fraternity, solidarity, and inclusion in the human community. It is also a matter of social justice. We cannot ignore the reality that abortion rates are much higher among the poor and minorities, and that the procedure is regularly used to eliminate children who would be born with disabilities.
Rather than impose further expansions of abortion and contraception, as he has promised, I am hopeful that the new President and his administration will work with the Church and others of good will. My hope is that we can begin a dialogue to address the complicated cultural and economic factors that are driving abortion and discouraging families. My hope, too, is that we can work together to finally put in place a coherent family policy in this country, one that acknowledges the crucial importance of strong marriages and parenting to the well-being of children and the stability of communities. If the President, with full respect for the Church’s religious freedom, were to engage in this conversation, it would go a long way toward restoring the civil balance and healing our country’s needs.
President Biden’s call for national healing and unity is welcome on all levels. It is urgently needed as we confront the trauma in our country caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the social isolation that has only worsened the intense and long-simmering divisions among our fellow citizens.
As believers, we understand that healing is a gift that we can only receive from the hand of God. We know, too, that real reconciliation requires patient listening to those who disagree with us and a willingness to forgive and move beyond desires for reprisal. Christian love calls us to love our enemies and bless those who oppose us, and to treat others with the same compassion that we want for ourselves.
We are all under the watchful eye of God, who alone knows and can judge the intentions of our hearts. I pray that God will give our new President, and all of us, the grace to seek the common good with all sincerity.
I entrust all our hopes and anxieties in this new moment to the tender heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ and the patroness of this exceptional nation. May she guide us in the ways of peace and obtain for us wisdom and the grace of a true patriotism and love of country.
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