Catholic Voice 12th April 2020 Issue 288

CatholicVoice Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat

Date: 12 April 2020

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Fear No Evil

lead processions

In The Valley Of

against plagues

Death

- page 2

- page 5

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d

Issue 288

Benedictine Monks

Only

The Good Shepherd How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song - page 8

The Irish Bishops should restore the sacraments to the Faithful - page 18

Bishop Schneider - Church Response to Coronavirus - page 13

Keep up to date with CatholicVoice news and articles via The Lumen Fidei Website www.lumenfidei.ie

2 FAITH MATTERS

Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

Monks of Norcia counter pandemic with processions, traditional prayers against pestilence Martin Bürger

Hidden away in the hills of central Italy, the Benedictine monks of Norcia are countering the coronavirus pandemic with prayers against pestilence and daily processions.

“In the afternoon, we process through the property with relics of the True Cross, praying for liberation from ‘plagues, famines and wars,’ as did the ancients, who knew these tribulations often arise together,” wrote Father Benedict Nivakoff OSB, the prior of the community famous for its beer and its Gregorian chant.

“Every morning, during the solemn high Conventual Mass, we have added prayers against pestilence,” the monk explained.

The monastery is located just outside the town of Norcia. When praying the Divine Office and celebrating Mass, the monks follow the Church’s traditional liturgy.

The prayers against pestilence, as found in the Votive Mass for the

Deliverance from Death in Time of Pestilence, point out that God does not will “the death of the sinner but that he should repent.” The Collect asks God to welcome with pardon “Thy people’s return to Thee: and so long as they are faithful in Thy service, do Thou in Thy clemency withdraw the scourge of Thy wrath.”

The Secret, which is the prayer before singing the Preface, implores God to accept the sacrifice of the Mass offered by the priest, in order for it to “release us from sin and deliver us from all ruin and destruction.”

“Graciously hear us, O God our Savior: deliver Thy people from the terrors of Thy wrath, and assure them of that safety which is the gift of Thy mercy,” asks the final prayer, known as Postcommunion.

According to Fr. Benedict, “Our region of Umbria’s population is geographically dispersed, so the cases of coronavirus around us are fewer than in the far north.”

However, the monks are aware that the situation might change quickly.

Given that people in Italy are now largely confined to their own homes, he continued, hiddenness from the world “takes on an almost sacramental symbolism during this extraordinary crisis.”

The monks are welcoming the hiddenness of the Mass as an invitation to rediscover the mystery “of the Mass’s unseen efficacy,” which has been forgotten in modern times. “We must rely on an invisible medicine for our ultimate salvation in the face of this invisible threat.”

“For centuries,” Fr. Benedict wrote, “it was not possible to see up-close the mysteries of the altar. In certain periods, curtains were drawn at the most important moments of the Mass. Still today, the solemn prayers of consecration are said in the lowest of tones – a whisper – as the drama of the liturgy unfolds.”

The monks of Norcia are no strangers to tragedy. Monastic life in Norcia, the birthplace of Saints

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice

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4 FAITH MATTERS

Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

Benedict and Scholastica, began again only in 2000.

Until 2016, when a severe earthquake hit Norcia, the monks were living in the centre of the town, celebrating Mass and praying the Divine Office in the basilica of San Benedetto. Due to the destruction, the monks relocated to a former Capuchin monastery, which had been damaged by a prior earthquake, just outside of the town.

In 2019, after breaking ground and beginning to raise the walls, the community added a motto to the monastery’s crest: Nova Facio Omnia. “Taken from the Book of the Apocalypse,” the monks explained on their website, “it describes the New Jerusalem in all its splendor and underlines what Christ does for all who cooperate with His plan: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’”

“We should be willing to learn the lessons God wants to teach us,” Fr. Benedict encouraged Catholics.

“A great temptation is to demand that God return what we have lost.

In the field of tragedy, God sows seeds of new life. We all must water

A statue of St Benedict overlooks the ruins of Basilica San Benedetto in Norcia.

them with our prayers (both seen and unseen), our sacrifices and, perhaps, even our lives. But death does not have the last word.”

Conservative writer Rod Dreher said the Norcia Benedictines “know how to remain steady in catastrophe. We have so much to learn from them.”

“As Dom Benedict said, we are all now having to hide from the world, in our domestic cloisters, for the sake of saving lives. We

can’t become too comfortable with that – I mean, we can never allow ourselves to believe that online church is anything but the barest facsimile of real church,” commented the author of the 2017 bestseller The Benedict Option.

“I strongly endorse Dom Benedict’s exhortation for us to meditate on what God is trying to teach us with this period of hiddenness. What does it mean to discover – or to rediscover – mystery?”

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12th April 2020 Catholic Voice

FAITH MATTERS 5

Fear No Evil In the Valley Of Death Fr Conor McDonough O.P.

When was the last time anxiety was so dominant globally as it is during this epidemic? The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, perhaps?

And before that, the Second World War? Everybody is worried: about their own health, the health of older relatives, their jobs, their businesses, the cancellation of important events, the safety of medical staff, the wellbeing of the most vulnerable.

To this long list of anxieties Catholics can add another: anxiety over separation from the sacraments. In order to halt the spread of the virus, the Catholic hierarchy, in a spirit of good citizenship (see 1 Pet 2:1317), has followed the directives of public health officials, and in most dioceses gone slightly further by actually suspending public participation in the Mass, and curtailing greatly the availability of the sacrament of reconciliation.

The Absence of the Sacraments Some have used this as an occasion to quibble or complain, but most are simply suffering this great spiritual loss in silence. And it is a loss.

God willed to save and sanctify us through the sacraments, to bear spiritual fruit in our lives by means of these physical realities because we humans are by nature both physical and spiritual. When we’re deprived of the sacraments, we’re deprived of the physical, tangible, visible assurance of God’s saving grace, and this comes precisely at a time when we feel most in need of that assurance.

The current crisis also prevents us from physically gathering together, and this too is a great loss. Think of how Our Lord gathered groups around him, calling them away

from their daily occupations to spend time in his presence: ‘Come away with me to a lonely place, and rest a while’ (Mk 6:31). After his Ascension the followers of Jesus continued to gather (see Acts 2:44-47), remembering that he promised to be with them always (Mt 28:20), especially when they gathered in his name (Mt 18:20). Since then, Christians have continued to assemble, above

all for the Eucharist, even at times of persecution, and especially during times of suffering. Again, the gathering of his people is a work of God that fits our physical and spiritual nature. This is the fundamental reason it’s so painful for Catholics not to be able to attend Mass at this difficult time.

But there’s a false conclusion that I’ve heard some people

6 FAITH MATTERS reaching: that the people of God are necessarily deprived of grace because they cannot receive the sacraments. This is not true, and it’s important to understand why.

The Abundant Grace of God Think about what the sacraments are for. They’re not just rites of passage or comforting rituals. They do something. Baptism frees you from sin and makes you a member of the Body of Christ. Communion strengthens and deepens this loving union with Christ, so that more and more we live, not on our own, but ‘in Christ’, together with all the members of his Body. And, if we remove ourselves from this union by our sins, the sacrament of Reconciliation restores us to the freedom and joy of being a living member of the Body.

The early Church realised, however, that some people, even before they were able to be baptised, lived lives that showed them to be true Christians, truly one with Christ.

Think of those martyred before they were baptised, for example.

The Fathers of the Church began to speak of a ‘Baptism of blood’, or a ‘Baptism by desire’. The very desire to be united with Christ in

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Baptism was understood to bring about in these people the effects normally brought about by actual reception of Baptism.

Later theologians and authoritative teachers explained that the same could be true for the Eucharist and Confession.

‘Spiritual Communion’ What is the Eucharist for? Christ’s parting gift to the Church was the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which he is substantially present to us, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine. But the aim of this gift is that our whole life should be a life of spiritual communion with Christ.

When we’re living the life of grace, all our good deeds, all our prayers, all our acts of faith, hope, and love, are ‘spiritual communions’ with the Body of Christ.

This fact has led Christians, when deprived of the Eucharist, or when unable to receive at Mass for whatever reason, to focus their desire for the Presence of Christ in a particularly intense way. There are prayers, usually with the title, ‘Act of Spiritual Communion’, which help people to do just this.

The most obvious time to make a spiritual communion is when we’re watching the Mass on TV or online, or listening to it on the radio, since the readings and prayers of the Mass are all geared towards communion.

But we shouldn’t forget that every moment of the Christian life ought to be lived in union with Jesus. The same Jesus we receive in communion is present to us, although in a different mode, whenever we open the door of our hearts to welcome him.

Act of Perfect Contrition Likewise with confession. True reconciliation with God after serious sin – the normal effect of

12th April 2020

the sacrament of Reconciliation – is possible also even when the sacrament cannot be celebrated.

If I’m aware of serious sins, but I can’t go to confession, I should simply take some time to examine my conscience fully, maybe read a passage of Scripture about God’s mercy (Psalm 136 is a great one: ‘his mercy endures forever’), and make a good act of contrition (made ‘perfect’ by the motive of filial love of God, rather than servile fear of punishment). If we do this while intending to go to confession at the next available opportunity, the Church teaches that we are, at that moment, fully reconciled to God, and need not feel burdened by any of our sins.

In summary, the giving of grace is God’s business, and while he delights in giving grace unfailingly through the sacraments, he delights also in giving grace apart from their actual reception. It is possible to receive the grace of Baptism, or of Communion, or of Reconciliation in advance of the actual reception of the sacrament. Not being able to receive the sacraments does not amount to being cut off from God. Prayer In fact, although we cannot gather and celebrate the sacraments, this time is a wonderful opportunity for us to grow in prayer, and to follow Jesus in a more intensely personal way. Some of us are overwhelmed by our work, but those of us who have increased free time should make the most of it by spending good chunks of time in meditation and in the reading of Scripture. It’s there that we will meet Christ, and, if we let him, he will show to us new aspects of his beauty, precisely the beauty we need to get us through these strange and challenging times.

Works of Charity Apart from prayer, of course,

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice there’s work! God’s grace may not be visibly presented to us, in the sacraments, but his invisible grace nevertheless becomes visible when, filled with his divine life, we go on to perform visible, concrete works of charity. There is no shortage of opportunities: phone calls to the lonely; sending a text message to a stressed out friend; posting inspiring messages on social media; shopping trips for the elderly; dog walking; even organising a game of bingo, as they did in the Irishtown flats! The possibilities are endless, and if we are truly children of the God who is love, we’ll find ways to contribute. A quick read of Matthew 28 will stir us to action if we’re feeling lazy!

Christian Hope Whatever good works we decide to carry out at this time, we’ll be co-operating with people of

goodwill, our friends and family members who do not necessarily share our Christian faith. But there is something in our faith which marks us out from other people of goodwill, something unique which seasons all our words and actions: we know that death and disease been defeated. We read the same news reports as everyone else, but we don’t allow ourselves to be fascinated by the statistics of death. We’re not materialists: they think that, ultimately, death and decay will be victorious. Because we know the Lord Jesus, we know that’s not true. ‘O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?’ (1 Cor 15:55).

This means that, even when there is much cause for grief and fear, we continue to sing God’s praises.

It’s not that we’re insensitive to the suffering around us. We weep

FAITH MATTERS 7 with those who weep, just as Our Lord Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, but we know that tears are temporary because God is faithful and Christ is risen. ‘At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn’ (Ps 30:5).

Even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are not afraid, because we know someone else walked there before us, someone whose every footstep shook that valley’s foundations, trampling on disease, defeating death, and opening up for us the way to life eternal.

It’s up to us, then, to keep our eyes on the risen Christ, to know his victory, and above all at this time of despair and anxiety, to manifest to the world and to each other, in our prayer, words, and deeds, our invincible hope.

8 LITURGY Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

How Can We Sing The Lord’s Song In A Strange Land Mary Kearns

With the exile of the chosen people to Babylon it seemed the practice of their Faith had come to an end. King Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem in the year 586 BC, destroying the temple and deporting most of the citizens to Babylon. No more sacrifices were possible on alien soil and the family of the covenant appeared to be extinguished. The chosen people were exiled in a strange land where they were disoriented and surely must have thought God had deserted them.

What had happened to the promises that God made to Abraham?

For different reasons, Ireland is now a strange land. While our buildings are still standing, they are devoid of a worshipping community. The sacraments are no longer publicly available and it is impossible to know how long this strangeness will last. No-one alive remembers St. Patrick’s Day not being celebrated; what is worse, we are unable to participate publicly in Holy Week ceremonies and the great solemnity of Easter We are doing the best we can and are grateful for the means of watching the holy sacrifice of Mass streamed live. As well as this, we can follow the liturgical year and be part of the universal Church by reciting the Liturgy of the Hours, formerly the Divine Office every day. In this way, the Lord’s song can still be sung although we are in a strange land just as the Jews learned to recite and sing their sacred scripture.

The Liturgy of the Hours is made up of psalms, scripture readings and intercessions, with the greatest space being given to the psalms.

The psalms are sacred poems or songs designed for worship; they remind us of our Jewish roots as this was how Our Blessed Lord prayed in his day. The Book of Psalms was the prayerbook of Jesus. From the

Gospels we know of his familiarity with scripture. On the cross Jesus prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” which is a quotation from Psalm 22 and Jesus also prayed, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” from Psalm 31. In his time, the Jews had set times for morning and evening prayer which was always scriptural.

This is the origin of our own Liturgy of the Hours.

Many laypeople are not conversant with the psalms; this might be because in the past, our spiritual needs outside of Mass were always fulfilled by pious practices. Those who attend particular devotions and novenas, who turn out in great numbers to get blessed with a saint’s relic or who gather to recite the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, evidently find that their need for communal prayer is satisfied this way. While these devotions are to be commended and have always formed a part of Catholic experience, they are nevertheless not the official Prayer of the Church.

What then is so special about the Liturgy of the Hours? We can perhaps answer that question by

reading Sacrosanctum Concilium or one of the many volumes that have been written on the subject over the years since the Divine Office was revised and translated into the vernacular. It is possible however to understand the importance of praying with the Church by a few observations.

Firstly, the Church praying the official prayer traditionally known as the Divine Office, is the voice of the Bride addressing the Bridegroom, Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ. This voice is the daily prayer of the Church united across the world at particular times of the day.

The second reason the Liturgy of the Hours is of importance is that in praying it, the laity can reach the level of “full, conscious, active participation” desired by the Council. This is brought about by means of responses, acclamations, alternating psalmody and intercessions and by the sharing of the readings. When this is done in a communal setting, it is always preferable to private prayer.

Thirdly, our understanding of the liturgy of the Mass is deepened by

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice our understanding of the Liturgy of the Hours which in common with Mass, has readings from both Testaments. The Old throws light on the New and the New is its fulfillment as the Mass is the sacrifice of the new law, the new and eternal covenant. The reading of scripture in the liturgy of the Mass and in the Divine Office, is of the greatest significance because it is offered by the Church universal, the Bride of Christ, and not just by an individual.

In this way, throughout the liturgical year, the entire paschal mystery unfolds. The Church’s official prayer begins during the Advent weeks by preparing for the birth of the Saviour. It continues through his death and resurrection, through the Lord’s ascension into heaven, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and it looks for and expects, the return of the Lord in glory. The Prayer of the Church helps to root us in the entirety of the central mystery of salvation. It is about the paschal mystery of Christ but is permeated by the presence of the Holy Trinity. We are reminded of this by reciting the “Glory be to the Father” at the end of each psalm and canticle.

Jesus is the divine Bridegroom who listens to the voice of his Bride, the Church.

I receive the prayer of My Church expressed in the age-old psalmody, already so familiar and so dear to My soul, and unite the prayer of the Church to My own ceaseless pleading before the Father in the heavenly sanctuary. It is this that confers upon the psalmody of My Church such impetratory power, such vehemence, such a resonance in the sanctuary of heaven. (In Sinu Jesu. p.253) Through daily repetition of sacred scripture, we are conversant with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Here is present the same One who not alone walked our earth, who died and rose again but who as the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is one with the Father and

the Holy Spirit. This is the Person we speak of in the Invitatory, the first psalm of Morning Prayer: “let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us, for he is our God, and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand.”

During the seventy years of captivity, the Jews grew spiritually in their relationship with God. They learned to place all their trust in him believing that one day they would return home. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel understood this time as period for purging the people of their tendency to combine worship of idols with the worship

LITURGY 9

of the one true God. Exile was a time of penance for them and as a consequence, their allegiance to God flourished as never before.

The present times pose a serious challenge for us when we are exiled from places of worship. Like the ancient chosen people we too can learn to place our trust in God and not in the world of materialism, consumerism and entertainment, the modern equivalent of false gods.

For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearns@gmail.com Mobile: 087 7794687

10 CATHOLIC ACTION

Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

Here’s How To Obtain Last Rites For A Hospitalised COVID-19 Patient

This article is published anonymously to protect the identities of the parties involved and so that it may be shared as widely as possible. - Life Site News desire to receive Last Rites from a Catholic priest. My [mother] believes that her spiritual life is more important than her physical life.

Following the direction of my pastor, I am documenting our family’s successful struggle overcoming a hospital’s refusal to allow my mother, a confirmed COVID-19 patient, to receive Last Rites from a priest. My pastor felt it was important to share this story in case there are other Catholics in this position who may benefit from the path we have taken.

The following is a blueprint of what worked in our case.

On March 29, 2020, my 78-yearold lifelong Catholic mother received Last Rites from a priest as a confirmed COVID-19 patient at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a semi-rural hospital run by a private regional health system in Georgia.

For two days, our immediate family repeated my mother’s request for Last Rites to hospital staff with no success. On day three, after consultation with an attorney who helped us with our wording and strategy, we made the request again with more firmness and clarity.

The nurse would not touch the phone for safety’s sake but allowed my father to place my call on the speaker so that I could ask my question.

At the time this request for Last Rites was made, my father was allowed to be in the ICU area, though isolated away from my mother. While I was on the phone with him, he asked to speak to the nurse supervisor. He then told her that his son on the phone had a question for her.

The careful and calm wording of the request was as follows: “My name is [name]. I am the son of [patient name]. Our family is appreciative of the wonderful medical care and attention that you are showing to my [mother]. My [mother] is a devout Catholic and she has clearly expressed to me her

This request for Last Rites has been made numerous times to hospital staff, each time being denied. This refusal by the hospital has caused my [mother] and our family extreme emotional distress in what could be [her] final hours. Our family has identified a priest who is willing to administer Last Rites if the hospital would permit him direct physical access to my [mother] and provide him with any necessary personal protective equipment.

Our family has been in contact with our attorney and we feel that this request for accommodation is reasonable. If needed, our family, along with our attorney, is willing to hold an emergency meeting with hospital staff to work out any reasonable accommodations or logistics which would help the hospital maintain a safe environment for all concerned.”

The nurse supervisor acknowledged that she heard my request. She volunteered that she agreed that the spiritual life is more important than the physical life. She wasn’t able to answer our request on the spot.

However, she agreed to escalate our request up through the hospital’s medical and administrative leadership. In the span of about one hour, our request was approved by an executive committee of the hospital system.

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice First Things: The first and most important lesson of this story is that if you are reading this and you are free to do so, you need to make a plan to GO TO CONFESSION IMMEDIATELY. You also need to continue to go to Confession regularly (St. Francis deSales recommends weekly) and remain in a state of grace. If you are admitted into a hospital for any other reason, such as a car accident, getting Last Rites may be easier. But for suspected COVID-19 patients, the hospital safety rules will be a different matter entirely. Do not take it for granted that this legal blueprint will work as well in your case.

Find a priest: If you or a family member have been admitted to a hospital and you are wanting Last Rites, you need to spring into action and build a plan that involves finding a priest who is willing to enter into the hospital room of a confirmed COVID-19 patient.

I called five priests before I found one who was willing. You need to be upfront with the priest and tell him the full truth. Ask him, “If the hospital agrees to admit you and provide you full protective gear, would you be willing to enter the room of a confirmed COVID-19 patient and administer Last Rites under these conditions?”

If the hospital approves your request, and you do not already have the priest lined up, you may lose precious time. I recommend seeking out the more traditionally minded priests. If diocesan priests are not willing or not allowed, try priests of religious orders. Consider calling the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) priests in your area. Their faculties to hear Confessions come directly from the Pope and not through the local bishop. If you find a willing priest, you might consider

following up with a financial or spiritual offering according to your means.

Find an attorney: You may consider finding an attorney to advise you through the process.

The time period you are operating in may not allow for formal demand letters or lawsuits, but the hospital knowing that you are engaged with an attorney may get their attention that you are serious about your family member’s rights being upheld.

Our attorney mentioned that using the term “extreme emotional

CATHOLIC ACTION 11 distress” should place them on notice that a lawsuit could be forthcoming if the rights of the patient are not respected.

Remain calm: Try not to become threatening or angry. Keep in mind that these people are doing wonderful life-saving work and their denials are likely coming from a concern for safety and probably not spite. Show your appreciation.

Appeal to their charity and pity. This request may ruffle some feathers.

Be prepared for some blowback.

In my case, the priest was allowed in, but I was denied, and I have

12 CATHOLIC ACTION been unable to see my own mother.

This was hard for me to accept, but I would gladly make this trade any day of the week.

Find prayer warriors: We are Catholics and Catholics should have prayer groups. Reach out to them all and ask people to pray for this cause. Reach out to homeschool communities, pro-life communities, and parish communities. We had four Carmelite monasteries and hundreds of individual Catholics who were praying for this one

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intention of my mother receiving Last Rites.

Trust in God’s Providence: Regardless of whether you are successful, do not be discouraged.

We do not know the state of a person’s soul or the extent of God’s mercy. We may not know how long it has been since their last Confession, or if they had a good Confession. Do what you can, and then pray.

Tell your loved one to offer his suffering to Christ in reparation for

12th April 2020

his sins and the sins of the world.

This suffering will be redemptive.

In addition to the remission of sin, one of the graces that comes with anointing with oil is the quieting of fear, and the illumination of the soul with pious and holy joy, enabling us to await with cheerfulness the coming of the Lord.

These Last Rites are worth every bit of your effort.

Please pray for my mother who at this hour is fighting for her life.

Cross of Christ Save me.

Zeal of your Home Consume me.

The Cross Wins, The Cross Reigns, The Cross Governs, Through the sign Of the Cross Save me, Lord, From this Plague.

God, my God, Drive the Plague Away from me, From this Place, And save me.

In your hands, Lord, I place my Spirit, My Heart, and my Body.

God was before Heaven and Earth And He can therefore Save me From this Plague.

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice

CATHOLIC CHURCH 13

Excerpts from an Interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider on the Coronavirus Diane Montagna

Diane Montagna (DM): Your Excellency, what is your general impression of the way the Church is handling the coronavirus epidemic? + Athanasius Schneider (+AS): My general impression is that the prevailing majority of bishops reacted precipitously and out of panic in prohibiting all public Masses and — what is even more incomprehensible — in closing churches. Such bishops reacted more like civil bureaucrats than shepherds. In focusing too exclusively on all the hygienic protective measures, they have lost a supernatural vision and have abandoned the primacy of the eternal good of souls.

DM: The diocese of Rome swiftly suspended all public Masses to comply with government directives. Bishops around the world have taken similar action.

The Polish Bishops, on the other hand, have called for more Masses to be celebrated so that the congregation is smaller. What is your view on the decision to suspend public Masses to prevent the spread of the coronavirus? (+AS): As long as supermarkets are open and accessible and as long as people have access to public transportation, one cannot see a plausible reason for banning people from assisting at Holy Mass in a church. One could guarantee in churches the same and even better hygienic protective measures.

For example, before each Mass one could disinfect the pews and

doors, and everyone who enters the church could disinfect their hands. Other similar measures could also be taken. One could limit the number of participants and increase the frequency of Mass celebration. We have an inspiring example of a supernatural vision in times of epidemic in Tanzania’s President John Magufuli. President Magufuli, who is a practicing Catholic, said on Sunday, March 22, 2020 (Laetare Sunday), at the Cathedral of St. Paul, in the Tanzanian capital of Dodoma: “I insist to you, my fellow Christians and even Muslims: do not be afraid, do not stop gathering together to glorify God and praise Him. That is why, as a government, we didn’t close down churches or mosques. Instead, they should be always open for the people to seek refuge to God. Churches are places where people can seek true healing, because there the True God resides. Do not to be afraid of praising and seeking God’s face in church.”

Referring to the Eucharist, President Magufuli also spoke these encouraging words: “The coronavirus cannot survive in the Eucharistic body of Christ; it will soon be burnt away. That is exactly why I did not panic while receiving Holy Communion, because I knew that with Jesus in the Eucharist, I am safe. This is the time for building our faith in God.” DM: Do you think it is responsible for a priest to celebrate a private

Mass with a few lay faithful present, while taking necessary health precautions? (+AS): It is responsible, and also meritorious and would be an authentic pastoral act, provided of course that the priest takes the necessary health precautions.

DM: Priests are in a difficult position in this situation. Some good priests are being criticized for obeying the directives of their bishop to suspend public

14 CATHOLIC CHURCH Catholic Voice Masses (while they continue to celebrate a private Mass). Others are looking for creative ways to hear confessions while seeking to safeguard people’s health. What advice would you give to priests on living out their vocation in these times? (+AS): Priests must recall that they are first and foremost shepherds of immortal souls. They are to imitate Christ, who said: “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me.” (John 10:11-14) If a priest observes in a reasonable manner all the necessary health precautions and uses discretion, he has not to obey the directives of his bishop or the government to suspend Mass for the faithful. Such directives are a pure human law; however, the supreme law in the Church is the salvation of souls.

Priests in such a situation have to be extremely creative in order to provide for the faithful, even

12th April 2020

for a small group, the celebration of Holy Mass and the reception of the sacraments. Such was the pastoral behavior of all confessor and martyr priests in the time of persecution.

DM: Is defiance of authority, particularly ecclesial authority, by priests ever legitimate (e.g. if a priest is told not to go and visit the sick and dying)? (+AS): If a priest is prohibited by an ecclesial authority from going to visit the sick and dying, he cannot obey. Such a prohibition is an abuse of power. Christ did not give a bishop the power to forbid visiting the sick and dying. A true priest will do everything he can to visit a dying person. Many priests have done so even when it meant putting their lives in danger, either in the case of a persecution or in the case of an epidemic. We have plenty of examples of such priests in the history of the Church. St. Charles Borromeo, for instance, gave Holy Communion with his own hands on the tongue of dying persons, who were infected with the plague. In our own day, we have the moving and edifying example of priests, especially from the region of Bergamo in northern Italy, who were infected and died because they cared for dying coronavirus patients. A 72-year-old priest with coronavirus died a few days ago in Italy, after giving up the ventilator, which he needed to survive, and allowed it to be given to a younger patient. Not to go and visit the sick and dying is the behavior more of a hireling than a good shepherd.

DM: Your early years were spent in the Soviet underground church.

What insight or perspective would you like to share with the lay faithful who are not able to attend Mass, and in some cases, cannot even spend time before the blessed Sacrament because all the churches in their diocese have been closed?

(+AS): I would encourage the faithful to make frequent acts of spiritual communion. They could read and contemplate the daily Mass readings and the entire order of Mass. They could send their holy Guardian Angel to adore Jesus Christ in the tabernacle on their behalf. They could unite themselves spiritually with all Christians who are in prison for the sake of their faith, with all Christians who are ill and bedridden, with all dying Christians who are deprived of the sacraments. God will fill this time of a temporal deprivation of the Holy Mass and the Blessed Sacrament with many graces.

DM: The Vatican recently announced Easter liturgies will be celebrated without the faithful present. It later specified that it is studying “ways of implementation and participation that respect security measures put in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus.”

What is your view on this decision?

Given the strict prohibition of mass gatherings by the Italian governmental authorities, one can understand that the Pope cannot celebrate the liturgies of Holy Week with the attendance of a large number of faithful.

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice (+AS): I think that the Holy Week liturgies could be celebrated by the Pope with all dignity and without abridgements, for instance in the Sistine Chapel (as was the custom of popes before the Second Vatican Council), with the participation of the clergy (cardinals, priests) and a selected group of faithful, to whom hygienic protective measures are previously applied. One cannot see the logic in prohibiting the lighting of the fire, the blessing of the water and of baptizing at the Easter Vigil, as if these actions would spread a virus. A quasi-pathological fear has overcome common reason and a supernatural vision.

DM: Your Excellency, what is the Church’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic revealing about the state of the Church and particularly of the hierarchy? (+AS): It is revealing the loss of supernatural vision. In recent decades, many members of the Church’s hierarchy have been immersed predominantly in secular, inner-worldly and temporal affairs and have thus become blind to supernatural and eternal realities.

Their eyes have been filled with the dust of earthly occupations, as St. Gregory the Great once said (see Regula pastoralis II, 7).

Their reaction in handling the coronavirus epidemic has revealed that they give more importance to the mortal body than to the immortal soul of men, forgetting the words of our Lord: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the

whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). The same bishops who now try to protect (sometimes with disproportionate measures) the bodies of their faithful from contamination with a material virus, tranquilly allowed the poison virus of heretical teachings and practices to spread among their flock.

DM: Cardinal Vincent Nichols recently said that we will have a new hunger for the Eucharist after the coronavirus epidemic is passed? Do you agree? (+AS): I hope that these words will prove to be true among many Catholics. It is a common human experience that the prolonged deprivation of an important reality inflames the hearts of people with a longing for it. This applies, of course, to those who really believe and love the Eucharist. Such an experience also helps one to reflect more deeply upon the meaning and value of the Holy Eucharist.

Perhaps those Catholics who were so accustomed to the Holy of Holies that they came to consider it as something ordinary and common will experience a spiritual conversion and understand and treat the Holy Eucharist henceforth as extraordinary and sublime.

DM: On Sunday, March 15, Pope Francis went to pray before the image of the Salus Populo Romani at Santa Maria Maggiore and before the Miraculous Crucifix housed

CATHOLIC CHURCH 15 in the church of San Marcelo al Corso. Do you think it is important that bishops and cardinals carry out similar acts of public prayer for an end to the coronavirus? (+AS): The example of Pope Francis may encourage many bishops to similar acts of public witness of faith and prayer, and to concrete signs of penance that implore God to end the epidemic.

One could recommend that bishops and priests regularly traverse their cities, towns and villages with the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance, accompanied by a small number of clerics or faithful (one, two or three), depending on the government regulations. Such processions with the Eucharistic Lord will convey to the faithful and to citizens the consolation and joy that they are not alone in time of tribulation, that the Lord is truly with them, that the Church is a mother who has neither forgotten nor abandoned her children. A worldwide chain of monstrances carrying the Eucharistic Lord through the streets of this world could be launched. Such miniEucharistic processions, even if carried out only by a bishop or a priest alone, will implore graces of physical and spiritual healing and conversion.

Published with permission of Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

Full interview is available on the Remnant Newspaper website.

16 FAMILY MATTERS

Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

“We are devastated and feel alone in this world with no one to help us” Anne O Hare

John and Tessa Donoughue, from Saintfield, Co Down, with their twelve children.

One of the largest families in Northern Ireland have received news that they are to be evicted from their home amid the worst public health crisis to hit the UK and Ireland in living memory.

John and Tessa Donoughue, from Saintfield, Co Down, who recently welcomed their twelfth child Molly into the world on New Years Day, say they are devastated their landlord has told them they must leave their home by June.

The family, who are already making-do living in a threebedroom bungalow, are upset they have to move house again.

The Donoghues say they have moved ten times in the last 12 years as the Housing Executive struggles to find a property big enough for them all.

While new measures came into force in England and Wales to stop landlords from evicting tenants for three months – a measure announced by the Communities Minister in Northern Ireland, stopped short of introducing a similar move.

With the world virtually in lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic John (43), says society is growing evermore intolerant of large families like his.

Amid the panic buying phenomena of recent weeks he describes that during a regular shopping trip to his local shop, an assistant told him he wasn’t allowed to purchase as many packs of nappies as he had taken from the shelves.

“While this may seem like a particularly funny incident to

many, I can assure you its just one of many scenes which my wife and I encounter each day,” he said.

“We have three children in nappies so you can imagine how many nappies we go through.

“Before panic buying became a normality, our average weekly shopping trolly looked liked something from supermarket sweep.”

Just being together these days may seem like the Donoghues are contravening new emergency legislation as their big family could be considered a mass gathering.

In the midst of her anxiety, Tessa (35), cradles a contented and smiling Molly who is fast asleep in her mothers arms clearly oblivious to the fuss.

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice Tessa laughs at the idea of policing social distancing in their home.

She added: “Saying good night in our household sounds more like a classroom roll call. Our eldest daughter, is also called Tessa. She is 15 and is a great help to me.

“Then there is Bobby, (14), John (9), Savannah (8), Joseph (7), Sinead (6), Shannon (5), Ronnie (4), Reggie, (3), Tommy (2), Clarice (1) and little Molly whose four-months old.

Tessa says she can’t wait to hear the cry of another new born baby and hold it in her arms and that’s what drives the couple to become one of the largest families in Northern Ireland.

Tessa says the family have nowhere else to go and it is evident that the constant cycle of having to uproot the children time and time again is having an impact on both her and the children’s emotional well being.

She said: “We have approached a local MLA to see if he can help us and as yet we are still waiting on him to do something.

“I am desperate to find our ‘forever home’ – a house big enough for us all with room for the children to run around outside.

In a recent GoFundMe page Tessa set up to help raise money to buy a home for them all, she said: “Our landlord gave us notice to move because he is selling the house.

“We are devastated and feel alone in this world with no one to help us.”

A local SDLP MLA, Colin McGrath responded to the family’s crisis for this article. He said: “It is essential that people know that regardless of the make-up of their family that should they require assistance, the state will offer what support it can. This support should

FAMILY MATTERS 17 not be restrictive, prohibitive or bureaucratic.”

His statement added: “We are in the midst of a crisis with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

When this crisis has passed and is but a memory, it will fall upon each of us to be a part of picking up the pieces of the past and rebuilding.

“We have the opportunity - in fact it will be the responsibility of all to create a better society for all our children.”

The statement ended with the irony: “This is something none of us can shirk. Let us continue that noble endeavour of creating communities where all are valued, afforded their dignity, and offered a place to call home.”

The Donoghue family have applied to the BBC1 programme, DIY SOS – Big Build, for help to build their own ‘forever’ home.

Prayer in Times of Plagues and Epidemics Almighty God, who forgive the sins of your people and heal all their faults, you who call the Lord our healer and sent your beloved Son to bear our sickness, look upon us who stand humbly before You. We pray to You in this time of plague and need, remember Your love and kindness that You have always shown to Your people in times of tribulation. Just as You graciously looked upon Aaron’s atonement and stopped the plague that broke out, just as You accepted David’s sacrifice and commanded the destroying angel to withdraw his hand, accept also today our prayer and sacrifice and show us mercy.

Keep this disease away from us, allow those affected to be healed, protect those who have been preserved from it so far by Your goodness, and do not let the plague spread any further. Amen.

18 SACRAMENTAL LIFE Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

The Irish Bishops Should Restore the Sacraments to the Faithful John Lacken Please can I ask you to pause for just a moment to offer up a ‘Hail Mary’ for our Irish Bishops in these extraordinary times in which we are living. In Ireland most of our Churches are closed, and most of the faithful cannot receive Holy Communion. In many places, the sacrament of confession has also been suspended and priests are being denied entry to hospitals and nursing homes and cannot administer the ‘last rites’ to dying parishioners. There are a few faithful priests who are still prepared to make sure that Catholics can receive Holy Communion and the sacrament of Confession, but they do this without the practical support of their bishops.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, in a recent interview with Life Site journalist Diane Montagna, said that he believes that, “the prevailing majority of bishops reacted precipitously and out of panic in prohibiting all public Masses and — what is even more incomprehensible — in closing churches.

The reaction of Catholics varies from those who are angry, to those who are baffled, to those who are not really bothered by the temporary absence of the sacraments. What Catholics need to realise is that God is always in control of what happens in this world of ours. Nothing happens by chance and nothing happens without God permitting it. This is not to say that the coronavirus was leashed upon the world by God, but that God permits this plague for His own good purposes.

As St Claude de la Columbiere reminds us in his treatise on Divine Providence.

“It is one of the most firmly established and most consoling of the truths that have been revealed to us that (apart from sin) nothing happens to us in life unless God wills it so. Wealth and poverty alike come from Him. If we fall ill, God is the cause of our illness; if we get well, our recovery is due to God. We owe our lives entirely to Him, and when death comes to put an end to life, His will be the hand that deals the blow.

But should we attribute it to God when we are unjustly persecuted?

Yes, He is the only person you can charge with the wrong you suffer.

He is not the cause of the sin the person commits by ill-treating you, but He is the cause of the suffering

that person inflicts on you while sinning. God did not inspire your enemy with the will to harm you, but He gave him the power to do so.

If you receive a wound, do not doubt but that it is God Himself who has wounded you. If all living creatures were to league themselves against you, unless the Creator wished it and joined with them and gave them the strength and means to carry out their purpose, they would never succeed.

You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above, the Saviour of the world said to Pilate.

We can say the same to demons and men, to the brute beasts and to whatever exists. You would not be able to disturb me or harm me as you do unless God had ordered it so. You are sent by Him, you are given the power by Him to tempt

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice me and to make me suffer. You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above.

If from time to time we meditated seriously on this truth of our faith it would be enough to stifle all complaint in whatever loss or misfortune we suffer.

What I have the Lord gave me, it has been taken away by Him. It is not a lawsuit or a thief that has ruined you or a certain person that has slandered you; if your child dies it is not by accident or wrong treatment, but because God, to whom all belongs, has not wished you to keep it longer.”

He tells us “It is then a truth of our faith that God is responsible for all the happenings we complain of in the world and, furthermore, we cannot doubt that all the misfortunes God sends us have a very useful purpose. We cannot doubt it without imputing to God a lack of judgment in deciding what is advantageous for us.” St Claude reminds us to thank God for everything that His providence permits.

I would say that not many Catholics have thought to thank God for permitting the coronavirus because so many are not properly catechised and have lost the supernatural outlook on life. The coronavirus pandemic will end as soon as God see that His purpose in permitting it has been fulfilled.

In pondering on these things I imagined in my mind a conversation between Jesus and the Irish bishops which goes something like this Jesus: Bishop, Bishop, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: But one thing is necessary, My Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Those Catholics who desire to receive Me in Holy Communion at Holy Mass are seeking the better part.

Jesus: Bishop, lovest thou me more than these?

Bishop: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

Jesus: Feed my lambs.

Jesus: Bishop lovest thou me?

Bishop: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

Jesus: Feed my lambs.

Jesus: Bishop, lovest thou me?

Bishop (grieved): Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee.

Jesus: Feed my sheep.

Jesus: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.” (John 6:51-52) Jesus: “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.

As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that

SACRAMENTAL LIFE 19 eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.” (John 6:54-59) In Ireland we can go out to get bread & milk, we can go out to get beer and wine, we can go out to get petrol, a young pregnant woman may also go for an abortion, we can go to the pharmacy to get medicine for our bodies, but thanks to the actions of our Bishops, the faithful cannot go to get medicine for their souls, we have been prevented from receiving Jesus Christ truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist, we have been prevented from receiving absolution for our sins in the sacrament of confession?

If people can get these other material needs despite government restrictions, then there is no practical reason why the sacraments cannot be administered to the faithful.

Are supermarkets somehow more hygienic and virus resistant that a Catholic Church? Catholics should not allow a secular ruler to decide what is essential for us.

For Catholic families, receiving the sacraments is more important than receiving ordinary food, or clothing, or drink.

20 SACRAMENTAL LIFE Catholic Voice Jesus: Bishop, lovest thou me more than these?

The question that needs to be asked of the Irish Bishops is “why are the faithful Catholics of Ireland being deprived of the bread of life at a time when it is most important that Jesus’ lambs, who have been entrusted to the bishops to feed, receive this supernatural food?

Faithful Catholics should ask their respective bishops to make provision for the Catholics of their diocese to be able to receive the essential sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion.

This can be done whilst complying with the rational restrictions necessary to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Holy Communion does not have to be received at Holy Mass if this would cause a problem with numbers. I am sure

that many faithful Catholics would be more than willing to help to make sure that the necessary health measures are carried out.

If supermarkets, post-offices, petrol stations, and other retail outlets are able to ensure the safety of their customers, then I am sure that we Catholics can manage similar measures for Catholic Churches.

Recall what the pre-amble to the Irish Constitution says.

“In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,” Is the closure of Churches and the preventing of the faithful from receiving the Most Holy Trinity in the Eucharist really an action that refers to our final end?

12th April 2020 Please contact your bishop and respectfully ask them to begin making plans for the restoration of the sacraments to faithful Catholics. Make sure that you offer your services to help bring about this great consolation.

“Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Who answered and said: It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:1-4) May God bless you

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice

MORAL CULPABILITY 21

The Chinese Regime and its Moral Culpability for COVID-19

Statement by Cardinal Charles Bo -Archbishop of Yangon Myanmar Last Friday Pope Francis stood facing an empty St Peter’s Square, speaking to millions around the world watching through broadcasts and online. The square was empty but everywhere hearts are full not only of fear and grief, but also of love. In his beautiful Urbi et Orbi homily, he reminded us that the coronavirus pandemic has united our common humanity. “We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together,” he said.

No corner of the world is untouched by this pandemic, no life unaffected. According to the World Health Organisation, nearly a million people have been infected so far, and over 40,000 have died. By the time this is over the global death toll is expected to be millions.

International voices are raising against the the negligent attitude showed by China, especially its despotic Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by its strong man XI. The London Telegraph (29 March 2020) said the local Health Minister accused China of hiding the true scale of coronavirus. With shock it reported the reopening of the ‘wet’ markets which were identified as the cause of the spread of the virus. James Kraska, an esteemed Law professor, writing in the latest issue of War on Rocks says, China is legally responsible for COVID 19 and claims could be made in trillions. (War on the Rocks, 23 March 2020).

Cardinal Charles Bo -Archbishop of Yangon Myanmar An epidemiological model at the University of Southampton found that had China acted responsibly just one, two or three weeks more quickly, the number affected by virus would have been cut by 66per cent, 86 per cent and 95 per cent respectively. Its failure has unleashed a global contagion killing thousands.

In my own country, Myanmar, we are extremely vulnerable.

Bordering China, where COVID-19 first began, we are a poor nation, without the health and social care resources that more developed nations have.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar are displaced by conflict, living in camps in the country or on our borders without adequate sanitation, medicines or care. In such over-crowded camps the “social distancing” measures implemented by many countries are impossible to apply.

The healthcare systems in the most advanced countries in the world are overwhelmed, so imagine the dangers in a poor and conflictridden country like Myanmar.

As we survey the damage done to lives around the world, we must ask who is responsible? Of course criticisms can be made of authorities everywhere. Many governments are accused of failing to prepare when they first saw the coronavirus emerge in Wuhan.

But there is one government that has primary responsibility, as a result of what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime in Beijing. Let me be clear - it is the CCP that has been responsible, not the people of China, and no one should respond to this crisis with racial hatred towards the Chinese. Indeed, the Chinese people were the first victims of this virus and have long been the primary victims of their repressive regime. They deserve our sympathy, our solidarity and our support. But it is the repression, the lies and the corruption of the CCP that are responsible.

When the virus first emerged, the authorities in China suppressed

22 MORAL CULPABILITY Catholic Voice the news. Instead of protecting the public and supporting doctors, the CCP silenced the whistleblowers.

Worse than that, doctors who tried to raise the alarm - like Dr Li Wenliang in Wuhan Central Hospital who issued a warning to fellow medics on 30 December - were ordered by the police to “stop making false comments”. Dr Li, a 34 year-old ophthalmologist, was told he would be investigated for “spreading rumours” and was forced by the police to sign a confession. He later died after contracting coronavirus.

Young citizen journalists who tried to report on the virus then disappeared. Li Zehua, Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin are among those believed to have been arrested simply for telling the truth.

Legal scholar Xu Zhiyong has also been detained after publishing an open letter criticizing the Chinese regime’s response.

Once the truth became known, the CCP rejected initial offers of help.

The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention was ignored by Beijing for over a month, and even the World Health Organisation, although it collaborates closely with the Chinese regime, was initially sidelined.

On top of all this, there is deep concern that the Chinese regime’s official statistics significantly downplay the scale of infection within China. At the same time, the CCP has now accused the United States army of causing the pandemic. Lies and propaganda have put millions of lives around the world in danger.

The CCP’s conduct is symptomatic of its increasingly repressive nature. In recent years we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of expression in China.

Lawyers, bloggers, dissidents and civil society activists have been rounded up and have disappeared.

In particular, the regime has launched a campaign against religion, resulting in the destruction of thousands of churches and crosses and the incarceration of at least one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps. An independent tribunal in London, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who prosecuted Slobodan Milosevic, accuses the CCP of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. And Hong Kong - once one of Asia’s most open cities - has seen its freedoms, human rights and the rule of law dramatically eroded.

Through its inhumane and irresponsible handling of the coronavirus the CCP has proven what many previously thought: that it is a threat to the world.

China as a country is a great and ancient civilization that has contributed so much to the world throughout history, but this regime is responsible, through its criminal negligence and repression, for the pandemic sweeping through our streets today.

The Chinese regime led by the all powerful XI and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) - not its people - owes us all an apology, and compensation for the destruction it has caused. At a minimum it should write off the debts of other countries, to cover the cost of Covid-19. For the sake of our common humanity, we must not be afraid to hold this regime to account. Christians believe, in the words of the Apostle, Paul, that “the truth will set you free.”

Truth and freedom are the twin pillars on which all of our nations must build surer and stronger foundations.

12th April 2020

Christ’s compassion for the multitude was twofold. Because they were hungry, He miraculously fed the five thousand. Because their souls suffered, sheep without a shepherd, He was moved with pity.

Every true priest has the same heart-tearing pity as he flies over a great city such as Paris, New York or London. Down below he sees with Christ’s eyes millions of souls

unfed by the Eucharist, unhealed by penance, living in houses built on sand because they know not the Rock.

He sees in them what Our Lord saw when He looked at the multitudesdanger of eternal loss! Here are countless acres ripe for harvesting, but how few the laborers to gather!

As wheat does not oppose the sickle, so the masses will not oppose us. One wonders if we do not underestimate the possibility of conversions. The failure may simply be in our defective preparation and approach. The unbelievers will not go to hear philosophers, but they will go to hear saints. Priests who work in the slums amid the outcasts report that they rarely meet with an insult.

Like the wheat, the masses will bend only before a certain kind of harvester. Not finding us as we should be, they turn their backs on us. But when they encounter a priest whose life expresses the message he brings, they are ready to be harvested.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen The Priest is not his own

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice

CHURCH HISTORY 23

VATICAN II - Medicine of Mercy Or Greatest Calamity?

Patrick Pullicino

VATICAN II: Medicine of Mercy or Greatest Calamity?

Patrick Pullicino Last year, Fr Vaughn Treco a parish priest in Minneapolis was excommunicated for blaming the current church crisis on mistakes made by the Popes of the Vatican Council. This incident does bring to the fore again questions about this Council that took place between 1962 and 1965. Even at the close of the Council there were large differences of opinions about it. Did it become the “Medicine of Mercy” as proposed by Pope John

XXIII at the opening of the Council or “one of the greatest calamities in the history of the Church” as the Brazilian Catholic academic Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira stated in 1977?

The academic historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Rome, Roberto Di Mattei, recently published “The Second Vatican Council, An Unwritten Story.”

Di Mattei writes in journalistic style about the events before, during and after the Council. He has researched not only the official

documents but importantly also, the private meetings and motivations of the main voting groups in the Council.

False Ecumenism The picture he puts together is not one of God’s Holy Church prayerfully deliberating. Di Mattei shows that the stated theme of “aggiornamento” (“bringing up to date”) chosen by Pope John XXIII, was allowed to evolve into a preset agenda that did not reflect the recommendations (“vota”) of the bishops but instead championed ecumenism. The success of the

24 CHURCH HISTORY Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

Vatican City - An Empty St Peter’s Square

Vatican Secretariat set up to deal with ecumenism was assured by a structure that allowed influence over multiple council areas and also by strong support for its director from the highest level.

Minority Liberal Group A minority group of liberal bishops was backed to pursue certain key issues - such as religious freedom.

A declaration supporting religious freedom was made, despite clear arguments against doing this in the Church’s Magisterium.

Opponents to this declaration were quietly removed from the relevant commission. A total expunging of criticism of communism from Vatican II was enforced because of the fear it would damage ecumenism.

For the sake of the Church it is important that this unwritten story is more widely known. Many people see the Church as being currently in crisis with a continual haemorrhaging of regular mass

goers, priestly and religious order vocations and with ongoing abuse and sex scandals. The book left me with emptiness and sadness that my Church had been manipulated in this way and a feeling that what was holy had been sullied.

It seems that the organisers of Vatican II were so convinced that ecumenism was central to the future of the Church that they pushed this and other principles even though these were not in keeping with prior Church teaching.

The Communist Threat The main issue highlighted that runs through the book and the chief criticism of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, was the issue of Communism: the biggest threat to the Church and to the world at that time. The topic was excluded from discussion at the start of the council, despite it being accepted by delegates as the most serious issue with 378 bishops requesting the Council deal with it. Later in

the Council, 454 bishops again appealed for it to be included but it was again kept out by decision from the highest levels. Oliveira says that the silence on Communism “had left the wolves run free.”

If we think that the subsequent defeat of Communism in the 1980s now makes criticism of the Vatican II refusal to discuss it redundant, Di Mattei, in his latest book (Love for the Papacy), shows that although the name may have gone, the ideologies that underlay Communism have now been allowed free rein in Western society, particularly in Europe.

Religious Freedom Ecumenism brings with it the right to religious freedom. Religious Freedom brings secularism (the separation of the state from religion) as the state can no longer be guided by any particular religious truth.

Complete secularisation of society was the tool that Communism wanted, to remove the very roots of

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice religion from society. The sexual revolution with contraception in the sixties was the catalyst that brought the moral and then cultural relativism that is prevalent today.

This alienates individuals from the constraints of religion and leads to the denial of spiritual reality and of any stable and permanent element in society. Europe has embraced the errors of Communism and Vatican II facilitated this.

The ostensible reason for excluding Communism from the Council deliberations was not to offend the Russians, as a promise had been made by the Vatican to the Soviet government not to condemn Communism. This was the condition that the Kremlin demanded in order to permit observers from the schismatic patriarchate of Moscow to attend the Council and whose presence the organisers of the Council felt was essential for the cause of Ecumenism.

The One True Church of Christ Pius XI had said about ecumenism “the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it.” It is interesting to see Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider recently re-emphasized this in their “Declaration of Truths”, one of which stated: “Ecumenism intends that non-Catholics enter the Catholic Church”.

The Magisterium of the Church therefore was largely bypassed in this as well as in other key areas in Vatican II in order to ensure that preset goals were attained. There is now an increasing groundswell of Catholic faithful that sees that the only way forward out of the present Church crisis is to reconnect with the teachings and the liturgy of the Church from before Vatican II.

CATHOLIC FAITH 25

The Faith and Industrial Capitalism An Excerpt from Hillaire Belloc Industrial Capitalism is a manifest evil. It cries out against our sense of justice, its products offend our sense of beauty, the society based on it is not only vile but increasingly unstable. It came into existence through Calvinism, which was the vital principle informing all the revolt against the Faith at the origin of modern times. Yet there is no specific principle in Industrial Capitalism which can be doctrinally condemned. No Catholic can deny the rights of property, or of free contract. No Catholic can join the efforts made to be rid of the evils of Industrial Capitalism by way of civil war or tyranny. Least of all can any Catholic have anything to do with the inhuman system called “Communism.” The remedy for the evils of Industrial Capitalism will not be found in any Socialistic action or theory developed under the very same false philosophy as produced Industrial Capitalism. We know that the remedy would be worse than the disease. The disease will never be remedied until the mind of society has been changed by conversion to the Faith.

If there is one mark more striking than another about the Catholic Church, it is its intellectual freedom.

The moment a Catholic goes outside and lives with people not under the influence of the Church he finds himself in an atmosphere of intellectual convention which to a man of Catholic habit is stifling. Perhaps I ought to call it “intellectual faith” rather than “intellectual convention,” for the simplicity and tenacity with which intellectual doctrines are taken for granted outside the Catholic Church much more resembles the simpler and more childlike forms of faith than a social convention.

People outside the Catholic atmosphere seem to take as a matter of course the intellectual fashion of their time; and never, within my experience, at least, go to first principles and ask themselves why they accept that fashion. One comes across this tiresome petrifying of the intellect in all directions. In the acceptance of majorities, for example; in the swallowing whole of official history; in the blind acquiescence in the right of the State to take control of education; in the bland repetition of newspaper science and newspaper politics. An excellent instance is the attitude towards miracles. Mention an historical miracle, and the man unfamiliar with Catholic truth denies it at once: without consideration of the evidence.

26 DEVOTIONS Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE SACRED HEART

To Thee, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Thee I devote and offer up my life,

thoughts, words, actions, pains, and sufferings. May the least part of my being be no longer employed save only in loving, serving, honouring and glorifying Thee. Therefore, O Most Sacred Heart, be Thou the sole object of my love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Bountiful Heart, my justification at the throne of God, and screen me from His anger, which I have so justly merited. In Thee I place all my confidence, and, convinced as I am of my own weakness, I rely entirely on Thy bounty. Destroy in me all that is displeasing and offensive to Thy pure eye. Imprint Thyself like a divine seal upon my heart so that I may ever remember my obligation never to be separated from Thee. May my name also, I beseech Thee by Thy tender bounty, be written in Thee, O Book of Life, and may I ever be a victim consecrated to Thy glory, ever burning with Thy pure love, and entirely penetrated with it for all eternity. In this I place all my happiness, this is all my desire: to live and die in no other quality but that of Thy devoted servant. Amen.

(St. Margaret Mary)

ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.

I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.

ADVERT 27

12th April 2020 Catholic Voice

STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH DURING THIS CRISIS of for yourself . a friend

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They sought the Praise and Glory of God, and not the praise of men.

is a series of reflections on topical issues concerning the Catholic Church and the practice of the faith ranging from ‘Faith and Culture’, to ‘GLBT – New thinking’, to ‘Purgatory and Remembrance’. Fr Hahesy’s style is conversational and he weaves through the various topics all the while pointing to the soul’s need for God. “The daily prayers at the end of this book, will ensure the salvation of our soul and a happier life here. Please believe me. It does not seem much to ask for such a great reward. To know and love God is the ultimate good whether people know this or not, accept it or not.”

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28 PETITION Catholic Voice

12th April 2020

Most Holy Trinity, please consecrate the entire Catholic priesthood to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Most Holy Trinity, please consecrate all persons and organisations involved in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Most Holy Trinity, please ensure that there is 24/7 exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar (validly consecrated Host only) in Knock Shrine Apparition Chapel, with immediate effect, in supplication for a swift ending to the Covid-19 pandemic.

O Mary conceived without sin, protect your broken children and crush the head of Satan.

Thank You. EC Published by:Catholic Voice Newspapers, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, County Kildare. Tel 059-8627268 ROI / 00535-59-8627268 Publisher: Anthony Murphy.

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